Psalm 48. I believe I have something enjoyable
tonight. Every time that I think I have
a favorite scripture, I turn the page. and find something equally as
glorious. And that's what this is. This
is equally as glorious to whatever we think is glorious in the scripture.
This is equally as glorious. I asked our brother to read Psalm
87 for our scripture reading because it talked about the gates
of Zion. It said, glorious things are
spoken of thee, O city of God. That's what he read. Glorious
things are spoken of thee. That's what we're gonna look
at tonight. The beautiful city of God. The beautiful city of
God. Zion is her name. Look here at verse one, Psalm
48, verse one, it says, Great is the Lord. Let's start right
there. That's a good place to start.
Great is the Lord. Greatness belongs to one. We're going to look at, you know,
heaven, eternity, the city of God, New Jerusalem, Zion. It starts right here. Greatness
belongs to one. You want to talk about the mindset
of the City of God. That's it. Greatness belongs
to one and only one. Only one. That's what every soul
there is going to say. That's what every soul there
is going to feel, believe, promote, Greatness belongs to one, only
one, the Lord. Great is He, great is He. Greatness belongs to nothing
else and no one else, only to the Lord. Verse one says, great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised, worthy to be praised. I love the definition of the
word greatly. When it says greatly to be praised,
I love the definition of that word. It means exceedingly much. Exceedingly much, not just much,
but exceedingly much. When we were in Lexington, Kentucky
at the conference here recently, I told them the illustration
of when Isabella was about three years old, something like that,
and old enough to where she realized, it dawned on her that she could
start serving herself at the dinner table. And we would sit
down and she'd grab a spoon in a bowl, you know, and pull out
a glob of food this big. And we were constantly saying,
hold on, hold on, that's too much. Put that back. Put it down. It's too much. You got too much.
She'd grab something else, you know. Wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, that's too much. And that went on for a while.
And finally, one time we sat down and she held her plate up
next to something and we were serving her and she said, I want
too much. That's how much I want, I want
too much. Well, that's how it is when it
comes to praising our God. He's worthy of exceedingly much,
not just much. but exceedingly much. Verse one
says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. In the city of
our God, in the mountain of his holiness, this city of our God
is sitting on a mountain. That means it's sitting on a
rock. And that rock is Christ. That mountain of God's holiness
is Christ. Christ Himself. It is founded
on Christ Himself. The Law sat on Mount Sinai. The Law was founded on Mount
Sinai. Zion was founded on Mount Calvary. The doing, the dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The beautiful city of God. That's what it's called. The
beautiful city of God. I can't imagine what that city
is going to look like. I think Kingsport is pretty beautiful.
I think it has beautiful areas and there are other places in
the world, but I can't imagine what it's going to look like.
The beautiful city of God standing on the rock that is higher than
her. The mountain of God's holiness.
The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. What a beautiful and glorious
thing that is. What a glorious thought that
is. Verse one says, great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness, beautiful
for situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion. On the sides of the north, the
city of the great king. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. This beautiful place, it's situated
so beautifully. It's the joy of the whole earth.
It's the only joy on earth that there is. David said, I would have fainted
I just could not do this. Do what, David? Life on this
earth. I couldn't do this unless it were that I might behold
the Lord's glory in the land of the living. I would have fainted
unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living. If I didn't have hope of a glorious city
to come, It's the city of the great king,
verse two says. Jesus Christ himself. Not only
is Zion the city of God's people, it's the very city of God himself. Jesus Christ, the great king. God lives there. God actually
lives there. Right now, we think of God being
in some very far away place. We know that where two or three
are gathered, He's among us. We know that He lives within
His people. But when we think of God, we think of Him in a
very far away place, in a place that's not on this earth or anywhere
near this planet at all. Not just not in the same city,
not in the same country, not anywhere near this planet. Well, in Zion, in the eternal
city of Zion, God lives in the same place as his people. Verse two, beautiful for situation,
the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the
north, the city of the great king. God is known in her palaces
for a refuge. It's a refuge for God's people.
It's a place of safety. and comfort and rest for God's
people. Why? Because God is there. God is there. God is literally, physically
right there. I would love to say that if the
Lord our God was sitting in this room with us, there would be
nothing we would worry about. But the reason I won't say that
is because this flesh is so sinful, we would do the same thing the
apostles did. But once this sin is removed, all of our faith,
all of our hope, all of our trust will be in that man. I will have nothing to fear.
Thou art with me. God is literally, physically
right there. Verse 4 says, For lo, the kings,
lowercase k, The kings were assembled, they
passed by together, they saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled and hasted
away. The prophet Jeremiah said, is
it nothing to all you that pass by? Is it nothing? The enemies of our God, the enemies
of the great king, they have no desire for the things of God,
none whatsoever. No desire for the city of God
other than to see it destroyed. They rage against it. They rage against him. Look with
me at Psalm 2. Psalm 2 verse 1 says, why do
the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings
of the earth, those who see themselves as being mighty and rulers of
this earth, they set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed saying, Let us break
their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them
in derision. He'll make a mockery out of them.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the
Lord hath said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. He that sits
in the heavens will laugh He's the only one that will be standing
at the end. He's the only one. And I love
knowing that. I love knowing that that God
right there is our God. Look with me at Psalm 46. Psalm
46 verse one. God is our strength, God is our
refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will
not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains
be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the
swelling thereof, there is a river The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the
Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her, and that right early. I love this. I love this so much. Verse six, the heathen raged. And that's what I see out in
the world. A bunch of heathens raging. The heathens, the heathen
raged. The kingdoms were moved. He uttered
his voice. The earth melted. That's how
it's going to go. The Lord of host is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth. He maketh
wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow
and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. What that means is He wins. That's what it means. He wins. Verse 10 says, Be still and know
that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Amen and amen. That's a good
psalm. Now look back at Psalm 48, verse
6. Fear took hold upon them there,
and pain as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish
with an east wind. The battle was his, the victory
was his, the security is ours. Now listen to verses 8 to 14
as being our first moments in the city. There's going to
come a point when it's going to be our turn
to step into the city. And all of a sudden, here we
are down here trudging through. All of a sudden, we will be not. All of a sudden, we'll just be
not. Not here. Our life on earth is done. Our struggle with sin is done. Our salvation is secure in the
blood of Christ at his appointed time. He comes for us and he
carries us home. All right, and these are our
first moments in glory. First moments of being in the
eternal city, our home. Look at verse eight. As we have
heard, so have we seen. That's exactly what we're going
to say the moment we get there. As we heard with our ears and believed with our hearts,
with our own eyes, we're now seeing it. Eye hadn't seen, ear
hadn't heard, heart hadn't believed. But as it was said, as it was
told to us, here it is, we see it. Verse eight, as we have heard,
so have we seen in the city of the Lord, the city of the Lord
of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. What was promised, this is what
it is. I've asked you this before, but
I'm gonna ask it to you again. Do you ever have shameful, shameful
moments, lacking in faith, where you say, is all of this real? You ever have those moments?
You ever have those shameful, shameful moments where you say,
wait a minute, man dies. You know, Job asked this question.
Okay, hold on, man dies. Is there really something after
life on this earth? Or does he just die like a plant
or an animal? All of this real, I'm telling,
God is telling all of us in that moment, we're going to say, there
it is. Just like he said it would be.
As he said, that's exactly how it is. This is exactly what it
will be forever. And it's exceedingly much more
than we could have ever imagined. Verse nine, he said, we have
thought of thy loving kindness. Oh God, in the midst of that
temple, we gathered in your temple, in your house. And we thought
about your loving kindness. We thought on these things. Now we see it. Now we see him. We thought on the lamb slain. We've thought on the love and
kindness of God towards sinners through the Lamb slain. We thought on seeing Him in the
midst of the throne, in the midst of the temple. We envisioned
that. Now we see Him as He is in all of His glory. Verse 10, according to thy name,
O God, So is that praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right
hand is full of righteousness. According to your name, what's
his name? Savior. Call his name Savior. Call his name Jesus. He'll save
his people from their sin. According to your name, you are
worthy to be praised. Lord, I praised you when I just
envisioned the Lamb slain. I praised you when I saw you
through a glass darkly. Oh, I'm praising you now. You're worthy to be praised now. You're the Savior. Thy right
hand, which is Christ himself, is full of righteousness. You're
so full of righteousness. Can you imagine what it's going
to be like to see righteousness? If you want to see sin, look
at me. If you're curious what sin looks like, just look at
me. Everywhere we look right now
on this earth. All we see is sin and the effects
of sin That's what everything is in that day in that city everywhere
that we look we will see righteousness And the effects of righteousness
and that's all we'll ever see Verse 11 says let Mount Zion
rejoice in Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy
judgments. Lord, your judgments according
to the law, your judgments according to righteousness and holiness,
your judgments on sin and death and hell for the sake of your
people, your judgments on the cross. through the cross, by the cross,
in the cross, because of the cross. It's because of those judgments
that we get to be here. It's because of your holy judgments
that we get to be here. Verse 12 says, walk about Zion. and go round about her, tell
the towers thereof. Won't that be enjoyable? Go ahead, go ahead, walk around. That will be glory for me. Friends
will be there I have loved long ago. You know, they'll welcome
us in. Go ahead, walk around. Look around. Verse 12, walk about Zion and
go round about her, tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well
her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that you
may tell it to the generation following. Look at the towers,
look at the walls. What will we see? Turn over to Isaiah 26. Isaiah
26. Verse 1. In that day shall this song be
sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation
will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Walk around, look at
all the walls. Look at all the bulwarks. What
do we see? Salvation. Salvation. I see salvation. Everywhere I look, I just see
salvation. Verse 2, Open ye the gates that
the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in. Righteous
in Christ, keeping the truth only in Christ. Verse 3, Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee,
because he trusted in Thee. I had a conversation after the
message this morning with a brother and we were talking about the
fact that if our minds can be stayed on Jehovah, if our minds
can be fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ, everything's okay. Everything's okay. Thou will keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee.
Verse four, trust ye in the Lord forever for in the Lord Jehovah
is everlasting strength. It's nothing but perfect peace
in that city because everywhere you look is salvation and strength.
That's all you see. Turn over to Isaiah 60. Isaiah 60 verse 14. The sons also of them that afflicted
thee shall come bending unto thee. They're going to bow. And
all they that despise thee shall bow themselves down at the soles
of thy feet, and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the
Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken
and hated so that no man went through thee, I will make thee
an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt
also suck the milk of the Gentiles and shalt suck the breast of
kings and shalt know that I, the Lord, am thy savior and thy
redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. For brass will I bring gold,
and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones
iron. I will also make thy officers
peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard
in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders, but thou
shalt call thy walls salvation. and thy gates, praise. The sun shall no more be thy
light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto
thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and
thy God thy glory. The sun shall no more go down,
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be
thine everlasting light, and the days of thy morning shall
be ended. Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planning, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand,
and a small one a strong nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in
his time. How glorious is that? Go back
to Psalm 48. Verse 11, it says, let Mount
Zion rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be
glad because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion and go round
about her. Tell the towers thereof, mark
ye well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces that you
may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our
God forever and ever. He will be our God even unto
death. He will be our God even unto
death. When will that be? When will
death come to the citizens of that city? Never. Never. They all died in Christ once,
never to die again. Never again. So you know what
that means? That means this God will be our God forever. Period. Death is not a possibility,
so the end of His reign is not a possibility. The end of His
reign over us, that will never come. That cannot ever come. This God, the God, is our God
forever. Let all the city rejoice. Amen.