Psalm 134. This short psalm here,
I gave this message a title, A
Mutual Benediction. A Mutual Benediction. This song here is titled, in
the very top there, A Song of Degrees. A Song of Degrees. Now, this psalm is the last of
these Songs of Degrees. Now, I won't spend much time
explaining what this means, but I thought I'd give you a little
bit of what I've studied. Nobody really quite knows. And
when you come down to it, this is where they've come. It's a
speculation from every side. But most men agree that this
was something that was instituted as David brought up the Ark of
the Covenant from Obed-Edom. He had brought that Ark up and
he had written these songs, these songs of degrees or songs of
ascent And so as they came closer and closer to the place where
they would put the Ark of the Covenant, they were singing these
songs. And some men think that these
were the songs that were sung as the people of Israel traveled
from their homes in large groups. They traveled three times a year
back to Jerusalem. And as they ascended up, as they
came up to Jerusalem, These 15 songs of degrees, as they got
closer, they just kept singing and singing until they got to
the temple. And this song of degree was the
last of these songs. In other words, this is when
the feast was over and everybody was ready to go home. This was
the last of the songs of degrees. Now this song was the last one
sung upon their departure in the evening time after the last
sacrifice had been offered. The sky had turned dark and the
only thing visible was the smoke of the sacrifice that had been
offered. The sky was darkening The guards
were set in their place, and the priests were set at their
post, ready to do the bidding and worship of God. And as the
people, the singers, prepared to leave the house of the Lord,
they sang this song to the priests and to the guards of the temple.
They sang, Behold, bless ye the Lord, all you servants of the
Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
and bless the Lord." As they prepared to leave the house of
the Lord, they turned back, as it were, to the guards and priests
of the temple who had just taken their post to protect the sacred
word and instruments of God, and these psalmists They turn,
and they sing this song, and you can see that it echoes into
the ears of God's servants as they leave the house of God.
The priests were about preparing for the next day's worship. The
priests would trim the candlesticks. They were to prepare the bread
and the meal offering. Therefore, the priest would have
bathed themselves and put on their priestly robes. And after
this, the voice of the singers echoed the sweet song through
the windows of the temple, and it filled the ears and hearts
of those who watched the temple by night. They say, Behold! This word is a word of exclamation. It is a word to catch your attention. Behold! You that stand in the
worship of God by night, stop and consider this. Bless the
Lord as you prepare for the next day's worship. Bless the Lord
as you go about your labors in the temple. Consider the work
that you're about to do, that it not be mechanical. Don't you
think that was a temptation for the priests and for the guards
of the temple, for them to just go through the motions? And so
they turn and they sing this song to them so it would affect
their hearts. So that they would say, bless
the Lord in your worship. Bless the Lord in your work. Don't make this just a duty.
Not a mere duty to men, but rather it should be done with a heart
to serve God. They sing out to the guards of
the temple, Bless the Lord, whose sacred text and sacred vessels
you protect. You priests, bless the Lord as
you are called to defend this temple with your very life. How many were the enemies of
God? Jerusalem was surrounded by enemies. The temple was full
of treasure. I mean, you can't imagine what
treasures lay in the temple of God. They were surrounded by enemies
and it was their solemn duty to be vigilant, to stand fast
and guard the temple and its contents. They were to stand
their post while all of Jerusalem enjoyed the slumber of their
beds. These priests and these guards
of the temple, they were to stand their post, be vigilant in their
service while everybody else was asleep.
They must be about the business of worship and praise to God. Now, we know this. We know this,
that it was truly God who protected the temple. We know that. We
know that it was God who protected His worship. It was God who protected
His men, His priests in that temple. And I'll tell you, when
God lifted His presence, they destroyed that temple. When God
left that temple, they destroyed it. I believe the way that they
did this, they pretty much starved them out of that temple. I mean,
they just starved them to death. The Romans, when they surrounded
and besieged it, they burned it up, starved them, shut them
in. When God left, He destroyed that temple. So we know this,
it was God that kept that temple safe. Yet, listen, He chose to
use these men. He chose to use these men, to
set them on the walls of His holy place. We know this, the
psalmist said, except the Lord keep the city. Except the Lord
keep the city. Watchmen, they watch in vain. Even so, believers listen, the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are set. We are set to be keepers of the
treasure of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we're here
for. So this song that is singing,
these singers were singing to the priests and to the guards
of the temple, but listen, he is singing to us. Stop. Consider. Bless the Lord, you
that stand by night. in the temple, in the house of
God. Believers in Christ, we are the
church of the living God. Our foundation is not laid of
men, but of God, which is Jesus Christ, our Lord. He alone is
pictured by the temple, and all of the worship of God under those
types and pictures, those figures were concerning Him. Such as
the Passover, the great day of atonement, the feast days, the
morning and evening sacrifice. We know this, that all of that
temple worship pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this pictured to us that
Jesus Christ would come and offer Himself to God for the sins of
His people. And that by His death, God's
justice was satisfied forever. This is the foundation of our
worship, is it not? Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
This is it. This is the foundation of the
church. The pillar and ground of the
truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the foundation. That in Christ, God's justice
is forever satisfied. And we know that Jesus who was
prophesied to come, Jesus who was told, foretold in these types
and pictures, we know this. He has come. He has come. And He has accomplished all that
the Scripture had prophesied. What did the Scripture prophesy?
He shall not fail nor be discouraged. I love that Scripture. That's
one of my favorites. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He, the Servant
of God, was to come, He would not fail in His work to save
His people from their sins. That's why His name was Jesus.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. This is the pillar and ground
of the truth. This is the foundation of the
church. which is Jesus Christ. And our Savior who came and died
for our sins has been raised again for our justification.
Raised from the dead, accomplished our righteousness, and ascended
to the throne of God. And by this, by this we know
that those types and shadows and pictures were done away with.
We know this, that we are no longer under the law, but under
grace. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. This is the
pillar and ground of the truth, the foundation of the church
of God. And listen, He has sent His Holy
Spirit into the world to call His sheep to life and faith. That's the purpose He has for
His church. This is the purpose. He is going
to call His elect to life. He is going to call His people
to believe His gospel. But how is He going to do it?
By what means did God choose to call His people? Through the
preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. All sinners hear. I'm going to
tell you something that's more valuable than any treasure you
could possibly imagine. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the treasure of the gospel. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I like this. One preacher said this. He said,
what we as preachers do is we go into the treasure house of
God. God's Word. And we scoop in and dig out these
diamonds and rubies and treasures. And what do we do? We lay them
out there for you. We display them. That's what
preaching is. We take from the treasure of
God and we display them for you. What about this diamond? Election. Isn't that a precious diamond?
Isn't that? Oh, what about the ruby of redemption? Oh, the blood of Christ. It's a precious treasure. And
all we do is we take the treasure and we lay it out there. If I
were to have a big bag of treasure and just dig it out and lay it
on the table, and you come by and you just admire it. That's
what preaching is. Preaching is just displaying
what God has in the storehouse of His treasure. The gospel of
Jesus Christ is the treasure. And we lay it out there. But I tell you, before we lay
out the diamonds and rubies, what do we have to lay out first?
When you go to a jeweler, what's the first thing he lays down?
A black backdrop. You see, you can't see these
diamonds very clearly unless you have this black backdrop. And that is depravity, isn't
it? Oh, that's dark. Oh, that's dark. God's Word says
that every imagination of the thought of the heart of man is
only evil continually. Man's heart is not only wicked,
but wickedness itself. Man's heart is a fountain of
iniquity, and out of it flows only evil, and that continually. Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I tell you,
man don't even know his own heart. I thought about this the other
day. You know, I'm around, I know my wife, I know her. I know her
probably better than anybody here. But you know who I'm around
more than her? Me. And you know who I know the
least about? Me. I just don't know, I don't
know the depravity of my own nature as I should. The heart
is deceitful and desperately wicked. How am I going to know
about this depravity? Except God tell me. Except God
expound it to me. Except God expose me. And you
won't know it. You won't know it. God tells
us the mind of man is only evil. Without any good in it. Without
any intermission of evil. But continually evil from birth
to death. Paul says, in me, that is in
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Therefore man is both unwilling
and incapable of ever pleasing God or being accepted of God,
even because God is absolutely and perfectly holy. Two ends
of the spectrum, isn't it? Infinitely holy and righteous
and absolutely and completely evil. That's you and me, evil. God is absolutely holy and high. Scripture says that his eyes
are of pure eyes than to behold iniquity The scripture says that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all Friends God is
nothing like us. He is good righteous Just and
listen to me. He will by no means clear the
guilty. I Did you hear that? God will by
no means clear the guilty. In other words, justice of God
must be satisfied. How can then any man be saved? How can God be holy and clear
us who are truly guilty? The answer to this question is
the greatest treasure known to man. The scripture calls it the
pearl of great price. The pearl of great price. And
this is it. Here's the dark backdrop. You're
wicked! God is holy! But here's the treasure. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. Of whom I am chief. He came to save the guilty. This
is the treasure. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is why the Apostle said
to the church in Corinth, he said, I determine not to know
anything among you save what? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Him crucified. He told those
Galatians, he said, God forbid that I should glory, that I should
boast, that I should brag, except in one thing, the cross of Jesus
Christ. That's it. And listen, the church of God, the church of God is given this
gospel. And it must be preached. Because preaching is the means. The preaching of this gospel
is the means that God has chosen to save his people. He has purposed to save His elect
through the means of preaching the gospel. And listen, He has
given this treasure, this treasure of the gospel, to who? To us. Who are the guardians of this
treasure? The church. God's preachers. Especially. I'll show you this. Go over to
1 Timothy. I want you to see that these guards I'm talking
about in this text, in this song, I want you to see that it's us. Go to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 11. The Apostle says, according to
the glorious gospel of the blessed God, listen, which was committed
to my trust. That word committed. It means
sacred trust. This gospel was committed to
the Apostle Paul in a sacred trust. that he should preach
this gospel to the Gentiles. Now go to 1 Timothy chapter 6
and verse 20. Now he's talking to this preacher
that he has ordained, that God has sent, and Paul said, ordained
him to the ministry here, and he says, Keep that which is committed
to thy trust. To thy trust. Avoid, avoiding
profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely
so-called which some professing have erred concerning the faith."
What is this that he is committed with? It is the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It is the gospel that Paul preached
was committed to Timothy. And I tell you, it's committed
to every preacher of the gospel. It is a sacred trust that we
do what? Avoid vain babblings. We're not here to talk about
anything else. We're here to tell you only of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is it. This is our message. Christ and Him crucified. Now
go to 2 Timothy chapter 1. And look at verse 13. He tells
Timothy, "...hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast
heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, that
good thing which was committed unto thee, keep." by the Holy
Ghost which dwelleth in us." Do you see that? This is committed
to us. The gospel of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. It's committed to our trust. And this gospel that all of the
elect people of God are by nature sinners, yet herein is hope. even by our
gospel. That God has chosen to save a
people, to save some by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. This gospel is committed to us,
to our charge. He tells Paul, Timothy later,
he said, I charge you. I charge you, preach the Word. Be instant, in season, out of
season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering. You see, I must preach the Word.
Is that not clear enough that this is what my duty is? This
is my charge. This is what God has given me
to do. To preach the Word. When it's popular and when it's
not. That doesn't matter if there's hundreds or there's two. It doesn't
matter. Preach the Word. That's what
we're here for. We have nothing else. That's
our mission. And this is what the psalmists are singing. They're saying to you who stand
and watch, you who are in the worship of God, this is what
you should do. You should bless the Lord. Isn't
that what preaching does? Is not preaching blessing the
Lord, worshiping the Lord, exalting Jesus Christ? That's what preaching
does. It exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, why? We are to continue. This is for our encouragement.
Jesus came into the world as a man so as to represent all
those that the Father gave Him. Whereas Adam was our federal
head of all of his race, even so Jesus Christ is the federal
head of all that the Father hath chosen. This is our gospel. It's
a representative gospel. It's a covenant gospel. It's a gospel of grace, not of
works. The Apostle Paul said this, he
said, Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Where we said, in Adam we all
died. Even so, he later says, in Christ
all are made alive. All who? All of the elect of
God. All of those redeemed by Christ.
And listen, the law was no help, he said. The law is no help. The law only exposes our guilt. It magnifies our guilt. Therefore,
when sin abounded, Sin abounded in us, didn't it? But thank God,
grace did much more abound. We were sinners lost and without
hope, and yet grace came to us. God came to us and called us
from the dead and gave us life. So then, now are the elect of
God scattered abroad. You know what? I don't know where
the elect are, do you? I know you're here. If you're
a believer in Jesus Christ, you are the elect of God. But where
else are they? You know? I don't know. I don't
know who they are. I've seen some come in and claim
to be the elect of God, and they're gone. I don't know where they've
went. They've left. John said they went out from us because
they were not of us. If they were of us, they would have no
doubt continued with us. So I don't know where they are
or who they are. But that's not my business, is it? What's my
business? What's my charge? My charge? Preach the gospel. That's it.
That's it. Preach the gospel. Bless the
Lord. That's what the word of the song
comes to my ear. Behold, bless the Lord, you that
stand in his temple by night. Bless the Lord. Preach his gospel. And you know what? I know this.
I don't know where the elect are, but I know this. God will
save them. God will save them. The Holy Spirit will come to
them and give them life and faith. Remember what Jesus said, The
wind bloweth where it listeth. You can hear the sound of it,
but you can't tell where it's coming and where it's going.
So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Everyone is born
again. The Spirit of God is sovereign
in this. Whether He'll give you life or
He won't, I don't know. But that's not my charge. My
charge is not to give you life. My charge is to preach the Word.
My charge is to tell you of Christ. Preach the gospel. And He gives
life to whomsoever He will. But it's also clear to me by
what means He'll do it. Through the preaching of the
gospel. Go to Romans chapter 10. I think
this is one of Clear's passages, and we'll see in Corinthians
as well, but Romans chapter 10. Oh, this is beautiful. Verse 13, for whosoever Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. What a wonderful message that
is That's wonderful. I whosoever Believe and you'll
be saved believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Well, how they shall
they call on him and whom they have not believed Well, you're
never gonna call on Jesus Christ. You don't believe on Jesus Christ.
Are you I? Well, how should you believe on Jesus Christ if you've
never heard of Jesus Christ? I'll tell you what, there's a
lot of people out there that's heard the name of Jesus Christ, but
have never heard of Jesus Christ. If you want to know one thing that
separates the true Christ from every false Christ, it's one
word, success. Success. You know what makes my Christ
eminently better than anyone else? He's successful. He actually saved His people
from their sins. And you know what He's going
to do? He's going to save His people from their sins. And not
one of them, He says, my Savior says, not one of them shall be
lost. This is the will of Him that
sent me. That of all which the Father had given me, I should
lose what? Nothing, but I will raise them
up at the last day." No question there. No debating there. Success. And yet, he said, how
shall they believe on him in whom they have not heard and
listened? How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall
they preach except they be sent as it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah said, who hath believed our report?
Well, I say that a lot. Man, I preach, but I don't, there's
not many believe my report. So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. 2 Thessalonians 2, we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Listen, through sanctification
of the Spirit, there's the wind of the Spirit calling His people
in, giving them life and faith. Through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto you were called by
our gospel. Is that not clear? That this
is the purpose of preaching, of preachers. This is the purpose
of the church. To preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. To bless the Lord. God chose His people. Christ
redeemed them. The Spirit calls them. He was
successful and He shall save His people. This is our message. and the Holy Ghost will sanctify
them and call them, and they will believe, and they will be
called by our gospel." Isn't this your own personal experience,
believer? Is this not how you believed
through the preaching? Someone came to you and preached
the gospel to you. You weren't sitting at home looking at your
Bible reading and going, I know that's how people think
today. They say, well, I don't need no preacher. Man, I could
learn this myself. No, you can't. No, you can't. Man, you must be awful arrogant.
No, I'm nothing. I know that. Go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. I'm going to tell you why. that preaching is necessary.
1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse
17, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel,
not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made
of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, Preaching is foolishness to who? God's word said to them that
perish. But unto us. How beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. But unto
us, which are saved. It is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise or bring to nothing The understanding
of the prudent. Where's the wise? Where's the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Listen, here's the reason
why preaching is necessary. It pleased God. Now, I won't go any further than
that. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them, that belief. What more authority do
you need? See, I'm not preaching because
I called myself. I was talking to a pastor just
yesterday, and I told him I would never sit under my own ministry. I had, when Scott was doing the
radio, I had to edit some of those and I can't listen to me. I just can't do it. I didn't call myself. God called me for this one purpose, to bless his people. to exalt His Son. And there's no more unworthy
man to do this than me. I know that, yet God called me
to it. And so as I hear that psalm,
bless the Lord, you that stand in the night in the house of
the Lord. I hear this, preach Christ. Preach Christ. Preach Christ. That's it. I'm not here to fix problems.
I'm not here to counsel. I'm here to point, and I point
you to Christ. When I heard the gospel, I heard
it from a man, God's man, and God used it and he saved me. And that's the experience of
every one of God's people. Therefore, the singers cry unto
us, to the church of God, you servants,
of the Lord, charged with the keeping of the treasure in earthen
vessels. Bless the Lord. Believers, our
God has called us and fitted us each for our service. Mine
is preaching the gospel. But I tell you this, each one
of us is called to a service in this church, in the body. Each one of you are. We are each called to service.
Are you not the servants of God? You're a believer in Christ,
you are. You've been bought. You've been bought. That's not
a popular message, is it? You are slaves to Christ. Now, that puts a smile on my
face. I don't know about you. That just makes me happy. But
that just sounds bad to the world. We've been bought with a price.
And what are we called to do? Well, I'm called to preach, but
what are you called to do? Same thing. Bless the Lord. Preach
the word. Declare the gospel. to exalt
and lift up and praise and extol and worship and honor the triune
God that saved you. Praise Him. Behold, you servants
of Jesus Christ, or preachers of the gospel, members of His
body, we are the pillar and ground of the truth, we are the guardians
of the truth, and must never slumber in our watchfulness and
prayer. We must exalt the Lord and never
compromise his gospel. And listen, we should do this
not out of mere duty. Should we not have a heart for
it? Believers, we are living in such
a dark time. If you see this, that he's saying,
bless the Lord, you servants who stand by night. Is this not
what we're in? Ever since the Lord left, it's
been night. We're living in a dark time where
men hate our gospel. Even because they hate our Lord.
We live in an age where men believe in another Christ, another gospel. The age of free will works religion,
false religion. Therefore, let us keep the candle
trim and burning bright, not by debate, not by trickery, not
by contention, but by boldly, plainly, and clearly declaring
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. Is that not
what I do when I preach? I just declare it to you. I've
had people at times come in here and not like it, and they come
to the door and they want to debate and argue. I don't want
to debate with them. I'm not here to debate without
controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. This is not a controversy. This
is not a debate. I'm here to just tell you. That's
why we don't have little group sessions and opinion sessions.
I'm not here to just give you my opinion. I'm here to tell
you what God says. Therefore, we keep this by declaring
the gospel. This is what it is to bless the
Lord, to preach the word. And is it not just reasonable? The apostle says, I beseech you,
I beg you, by the mercies of God, because of God's mercies,
that you present your bodies. He's not talking about your spirits.
Everybody wants to be spiritual. He's talking about bodies. He's
talking about your earthly body. You present your body, a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is just reasonable
for you to do. That's just reasonable service,
isn't it? Seeing what Christ has done, is it not reasonable
for us to just give ourselves to the service of God? It's just
reasonable. So then let us do whatever God
has given us to do for the furtherance of the gospel. For the praise and glory of his
name, do whatsoever thy hand findeth to do. Do it with all
your might, as unto the Lord. I know many of God's saints desire
to do great things. I did. When I started preaching,
I wanted to preach to thousands. I wanted to preach to hundreds.
I wanted to see hundreds come to Christ. Man, when I started
preaching, when I first started, I was on fire. I wanted everybody
to come. And you know what happened? God
gave me a little group. And I tell you, my heart was
so discouraged, I stuck out my lip, I pouted. Now tell me if
any of this sounds familiar, because that's what we all do.
We want to do great things for God, but when he gives us something
small, we just kind of, huh, no, I want something bigger.
I want something, what are we doing that for, self? Doing it to exalt ourselves. Some men say they want to do
great things for God, but they won't even do the least things. How about just being in the worship
service? Is that not simple? That's just simple. But yet you
don't realize how vital it is. It's vital for the person sitting
next to you. It's vital for the preacher's
encouragement. It's vital to testify to them
outside where God is praised. Isn't that what you're testifying
right now by sitting here? Aren't you testifying? This is
where Christ is. This is where His gospel is preached.
This is where sinners are saved. This is God's church. Every time
you walk in the door, it's what you're testifying of. Don't you
see that that's your part? That's your service? And it's
not complicated, is it? Well, I want to do something
bigger. I just didn't enough. How about just being faithful
with that and then maybe God will give you something more. In Luke, he said this, he that
is faithful in that which is least is also faithful in much. And he that is unjust in least
is unjust in much. If you're not faithful to do
the least things, what makes you think you'll be able to do
the greatest? Now then, I'm almost finished.
Look at the second verse. See, I didn't even get to the
second verse hardly. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
and bless the Lord. Now what he's here saying is
don't let your hands be slack. When those priests and those
guards were in the temple, don't you think they were tempted to
be slack? Nobody was around. They were by themselves. It was
a lonely work. I'll tell you, serving Christ
is a lonely work. They were tempted to slumber. Are you not tempted to slumber?
Are you not tempted to be not watchful and preserve this gospel
treasure? Yes! We all are. This is why we must be encouraged
by the gospel to lift up your hands to the work. Put your hands
to the plow and don't look back! Whatever God has given you in
the church, do that with all your heart as unto the Lord.
Not for salvation, but because of it. Because of Christ. Because you love Him. Because
you serve Him. Because of His great love wherewith
He hath loved us and gave Himself for us, we should gladly worship
and serve Him. We should gladly be putting our
hands to this work. Let not your hands be slack.
in the work, but as you work, bless the Lord in it. You think about your job, whatever
it is, whatever you do, you should see that it's only
for one purpose. to praise God. Is there any other
reason why we're here? Is there any other reason the
church still remains except to exalt God and further His gospel? That's what we're here for. And
now then, verse 3, he says this. Look at this. In verse 3, there's
kind of a reversal now. It says, the Lord that made heaven
and earth bless thee out of Zion. In other words, now then, the
priests are turning and singing back to the congregation. The
priests and the guards, this is what they say, the Lord of
heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion. It's a reversal. The heart of the people of God
for the preachers of the gospel is this, bless the Lord. Isn't
that your prayer for me? I hope it is. I pray that that's
your prayer for me, that I would, you would always pray that I
preach the gospel to you, preach Christ to you. I have one, you
know, I'm like the guy in the band that hits the cowbell. I've
got one instrument, and I'm going to play it. That's all I've got
is one sound, and I'm just going to hit it over and over and over
again. You should pray for that. You
should pray I never get off to another instrument, that I should
preach Christ and Him crucified all the time. That should be
your song to me. And my song to you is, bless
the Lord, bless you. You see, I'm not going to be
able to bless you. I can't bless you. I have no
power to bless you. Therefore, I say, may the Lord
God bless you. And where is He going to bless
you? Out of Zion. What was in Zion? Wasn't that
the mercy seat? Wasn't that where the offering
was made? Where is all the spiritual blessings? They come from Christ. They come
from Christ. And I know this, if you're ever
blessed by any message that I ever preach, it must be that God blessed
you. That's it. So I say to you, may the Lord
bless you. He's the only one that can do
it. And the only place he'll do it is in Jesus Christ. What a mutual benediction. song of the church to the preachers
and the preacher's song to the church. Same message, isn't it? Bless the Lord. Exalt Christ. I pray that God give you such
grace to go and exalt Christ. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.