We're gonna look at Psalm 87 tonight. Again, this is part two of that psalm. And I will probably focus most of our attention in verses four and following, but let's read through the entire Psalm.

It says in verse one of Psalm 87, his foundation is in the holy mountains. And if you recall from last time, the foundation that God is talking about here is the foundation of his church. The next verse said, the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Zion was a physical location in the land of Israel. And on the mountains of Zion was built the city of Jerusalem. And so Zion and Jerusalem are really just the same, two names for the same location. And it refers to God's dwelling place among his people, the place that he chose. And he says here, the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God."

So last time, the first point that we made in this was that the Lord has a people, and the people of God are a city, a city that the Lord himself dwells in. They are citizens of this city. It's not a physical location, although they are physically bound to this earth in the time state of their lives, but this city is a spiritual city. When we say a spiritual city, we don't mean that it's not real. We don't mean that it's less than reality. In fact, being spiritual is more than the reality that we know in our present life, because the things we know now are temporary and they're passing away. But this city is an eternal city. This city is made up of people. The walls of this city are salvation. The foundation of this city is Christ. And so you can see that in this first three verses of this psalm, it's talking about the glorious city that God has built upon the Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and our Savior.

And we can look at some verses about that in a minute, but I just wanted to give you that review. that the first three verses here and the entire psalm is talking about the church, talking about the church called Zion. And in Hebrews chapter 12, as we looked at last time, we looked at this psalm. Zion is that mountain we've come to, not Sinai, but Zion. It's a city of God. It's a city which is called the Church of God. It's the place where heavenly Jerusalem is and is obviously that place, that city where all of God's people have always looked to, not a physical place, a desire for a physical place on earth, but a spiritual place with God in Christ in heaven.

Okay, the next verse in verse 4 says, I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me. Behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia. This man was born there. Several nations are mentioned here. All of these nations were hostile towards God, toward his people. Rahab refers to Egypt. Babylon, as you remember, was the place where King Nebuchadnezzar held Israel or Judah as captives for 70 years, according to God's appointment. And then Babylon was overcome by the Persians, the Medes and the Persians. And then it was at that time, shortly after the book of Daniel, that Cyrus, king of Persia, I believe, ordered the people who were left after the destruction of Babylon, if they wanted to return to Jerusalem, they could go there and they could rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. It's no wonder, it's not coincidental, that Cyrus was inclined to give that decree to those who were left after the captivity, that they could go back and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And it really has to do with this psalm, in fact. that period that was, you can read about this in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah and Zechariah, for example, and I believe Haggai, but these things are important and so we'll make mention of those in a minute here.

And then in verse five it says, and of Zion it shall be said, this and that man was born in her, and the highest himself shall establish her." So God himself is the highest, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one spoken of here, and God the Father. It's sometimes difficult to determine whether it is speaking primarily of God as our Father, or of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior that's being spoken of here. But we know that in Matthew 16, verse 18, the Lord Jesus said, he would build his church, and we know that the church of God is his body, and so in many ways we can see that this is speaking of Christ, and yet Christ himself is also the subject of this psalm, as the one who is the head of his people.

So in verse five again, of Zion it shall be said, this and that man was born in her, the highest himself shall establish her. You can see that those who are citizens of Zion are born there. They were formerly part of these hostile countries, Babylon, Egypt, and the Philistines, Tyre and Ethiopia, and yet now they're born in Zion, which means they had to be born again. and they had to be born of God. That's the only way you can become a citizen of Zion is to be born of God. And that's what this is saying, this man and that man was born in her.

And then in verse six, it says, the Lord shall count. He's going to take a census when he write up the people that this man was born there, Selah. It's often the case, and you can see this in the beginning of Genesis, that when God does something, He looks at his own work and he approves of it. And he tells us that he approves of his own work. And so you can see that here in this verse, the Lord is counting. He's counting the members of his city. He's counting those citizens that were born there.

And no surprise, he's going to count them and he's going to write up the people that they were all born in Zion. None are citizens of Zion unless they're born of God. All who are born of God are citizens of this city. And this is, again, speaking of the Church of God, the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. It's the Church which Christ loved and gave himself to have for himself. God the Father gave his people to Christ in eternity. and he pledged himself as their surety to bring them to God out of sin and to bring them not only out of sin but to make them holy in every way before himself and present them to himself as his bride.

And then in verse 7 it says, as well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there. So singers and players are those who carry the songs and the hymns they sing, and they play these instruments, and they shall be there in Zion, all my springs are in thee." Now it could be thee, meaning Zion as a church, but whether it means Zion as the church here in the word thee, or if it means the Lord Jesus Christ, it has to ultimately refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what we're going to look at. We're going to look at these things as we go through this psalm now.

And I want you to see again, the outline here is God is building a glorious city. God is building a glorious city. That's the first point here. He's the one who laid the foundation of it. He's the one who brought the members of it into it by a spiritual birth. And if you were to, we won't look at all these verses, but I'll just mention them in passing because I know that many of them are familiar to you.

Remember in 1 Corinthians chapter three and verse 16, it says of the church, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of the Holy Spirit. And also in Ephesians 5 it talks about the church being the body of Christ as a wife and a husband are one. So the church, all of God's people are one. They're in union with, a spiritual union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 6 verse 17 it says, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. That's in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 17. So we can see from these things that the people of God collectively as a congregation are called the temple. It's a temple of God. It's a temple of Christ. Christ dwells in them. He dwells in his people as individual members.

He says in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians that our members, even of our body, are the members of Christ. And he speaks in that same chapter, in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, as Christ dwelling in his people. and he purchased them, they're his, they belong to him. And you can read, that's common language throughout scripture, that God's people belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, they belong to God the Father.

In John chapter 17 verses 9 and 10, If you read that, you can see that those that were given to Christ are also the people of the Father. There's no difference between them. Everyone who belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, and only those who belong to the Son are those that belong to the Father. And so you can see here that it refers to the Lord's people as His people. He has put His name on them.

And by putting His name on them, it shows that He has obligated Himself in His honor, in His person, in His name, in His glory, to do for them according to His will and promises. And these are His will and promises in Christ to save them. and he shall without fail perform all that he has pledged himself to do for them. And this is called a covenant, a covenant in which God has joined them to himself in an agreement from eternity to give them all the promised blessings that he has given to his son.

And in that sense, God made Christ the covenant. Christ is called that covenant. So all these things speak of that close relationship that God's people have to God himself as Father and Son and the Holy Spirit. There's a union between us as believers and the Lord Jesus Christ. A union in spirit, a union in election, a union in his suretyship engagements for us so that Christ stood for us from eternity

Excuse me just a minute here. And the Lord Jesus stood for us in that covenant from eternity as our surety and our redeemer, as our covenant head, and in all things he fulfilled to God what he required in order to have these people for himself. And this is amazing. We could spend the rest of our time on earth talking about how this people own their God's people, owned in love, a bond of love that God obligated himself to them from eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is beyond our ability to comprehend, really, but it's phenomenal to find these words in scripture, that God himself reveals this mysterious a bond between his people. It's a bond of love, a bond that is inseparable. No one can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And it's a bond that was formed by God from eternity when he pledged himself to us in covenant and Christ obligated himself for us as our surety, the head of this covenant and of his people. And just as a husband is the head of the wife, so Christ is the head of the church. And just as a husband provides for his wife, protects her, loves her, gives himself in his labors and in every way to her, so much more infinitely more the Lord Jesus Christ as the one that marriage was designed to depict his relationship to his people. He gave himself for them because he loved them. And this is the story of the gospel. This is amazing grace.

All right, so let's go back through this psalm now and let's talk about some of these things here. The first thing I want to point out, and it's going to seem like we're just diving into some of these things in some detail, but without exhausting our time tenfold here to get through these things, I don't know of a better way of doing this. I tried to give you some of the outline last time, but this time I want to dive into verse 3.

Let's start with verse 3 here. It says, Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Now, if you read Revelation chapter 21, it uses these words in Revelation 21 and verses 10 and 11. It says, He carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain. That sounds like Zion, doesn't it? And he showed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem." Here again we're seeing that God is describing something as a city, Jerusalem, and a mountain. Obviously that was Zion. But he carries the apostle John in spirit away to this, and he says, Holy Jerusalem was descending out of heaven from God. So this is a holy Jerusalem and it's in heaven. And now it's descending out of heaven from God. And notice in the next phrase it says, having the glory of God. That's beyond, again, that's beyond our ability to comprehend. What is the glory of God? Well, the glory of God is all of God's perfections in his own character and nature. And he reveals himself. And when he does, we see his glory.

Remember Moses prayed, show me your glory in Exodus 33 and God did that. He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and he passed by, he put his hand over Moses while he was in the cleft of the rock and he passed by and Moses saw, as it says there, that his back parts And the Lord declared his name, which is his glory, in Exodus 34, he says, the Lord, the Lord God, and he describes himself there as gracious, merciful, forgiving iniquity and sin and transgression, and will by no means clear the guilty. And so God's mercy and grace are set before Moses, and that is his glory. His glory is that he's just, and yet he's the justifier of the ungodly. This is phenomenal. And it's all because of Christ.

So the point I want to make here in verse three tonight is the glorious things spoken of this city. The glorious things spoken of this city are the glories of God. So that the glory of the city is the glory of her head is the glories of Christ. She in herself would have no glory, but the glory that she has, the beauty of this city, the holy glory, the holy beauty that Zion and Jerusalem have, which are the people of God, is the glory, the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why she's glorious. His beauty is her beauty. His glory is her glory because they're joined together and she is in him. And in this city, Christ is in her. So He dwells in His people. He dwells among His people. He dwells with His people. And they have this intimate communion that's an everlasting communion. And this is all the blessing that God has given His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's beyond our really appreciation.

In Psalm 45, it says this, that the king's daughter, the king's daughter, she's spoken of as both his wife, his bride, his sister, and daughter in scripture. And so it says in Psalm 45, it says in verse 13, the king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold, the finest gold, finest gold. And so you can see here that. That this God is depicting, he's describing the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ when he sees his people, you see. He's describing the glory and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ when he looks upon his people.

And not only that, but the Lord Jesus himself says, for example, in Song of Solomon, chapter 4, verse 7, he says, of the church, of God's people, he says, I see no spot in thee. Thou art all together, let me read that to you in Song of Solomon, so that I get the words just right here. And it's a small book, so give me a chance to turn to it. Song of Solomon, chapter four. I think I just passed it. Verse seven of chapter four, Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee.

Now I want you to, we read those things sometimes and we do relish in them, but there's so much that we should think about. This is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking in this hymn, in this song. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of his people, the church, the bride, in this song. And what does he say of his people? Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He can't lie, can he? He doesn't stretch the truth. He doesn't compromise the truth. Whatever he says is true, eternally true. And he's holy. So if he says, there's no spot in thee, if he says to his people, you are all fair, my love, Is he not seeing something? Is he deliberately trying not to see something, even though it's there, because it's offensive, so I'm not going to look at that? Is that the way he does it? You're really ugly, but I'm going to call you beautiful anyway. Is that the way he says it? No. No.

Why does the Lord Jesus Christ here say to his people, you are all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Well, the reason is because his people are all glorious and fair to him, and therefore to God, and therefore this is the truth, therefore it's a holy declaration of their state, of what he sees, the Lord himself sees in his people, no spot. Now, that should give us the greatest comfort, shouldn't it? that the Lord Jesus who cannot lie and is holy sees his people as holy and fair and no spot in them. And I just want to point that out, because when God says here that the church, the city is all glorious, having the glory of God, it's not hyperbole. It's it's not going beyond what is true. It's true. God made it so.

God, it says in Colossians chapter one, he has made us meet. fit, suitable, qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light. In other words, he's made as heirs of God. And God doesn't have any unholy children. He doesn't have any children with any blemish. I mean, there are no children with blemishes. All of his children are without spot, without sin.

And here's something else I want to say about that, too. In Psalm 45, he says, I just read this a minute ago, I gotta go back on my notes, he says, thou art all glorious within. All glorious within. Not only is Christ's righteousness our clothing, but the spirit of Christ is in us. So that the righteousness of Christ is fulfilled in us because Christ himself, because of his blood and because of his righteousness, that justifies us in the presence of God, And it's real, it's substantial. Our sin has been removed and his obedience is ours because we're in him. But not only do we have that in Christ, but Christ himself is in us. So that we're all glorious, or as he says here in Psalm 45, 13, the king's daughter is all glorious within. So this is something to consider.

Now, when you get to heaven, we imagine, or we don't imagine, but we know this is true. When we're in heaven, we're not going to have any sin, are we? But what about now? What about now? Well, the believer here, according to scripture, is all glorious within. That means we have this nature that's born of God. God himself dwells in us. It's called the seed. His seed dwells in us. And we have no sin in the new nature, because that new nature is Christ in us. And this is the hope of glory, because that is the Spirit of God dwelling in us, so that when our body dies, our body will be raised up again. It belongs to Him. It won't be lost. He won't lose any glory. He won't lose any points, if you will, because our body dies. It's exactly, precisely according to His covenant. of grace to bring that body that's sinful to death and raise us up with Christ to be made like His glorious and spiritual body. But His spirit dwells in us now in order for that to take place. And you can read about that in Romans 8 9-11. And in other places, like Philippians 3, verse 21.

So, the point is, Christ sees his people as they truly are, because he made them that way. They're in him, and his obedience and his blood has performed all for them, and God receives them as his son, because that's the way they are. And he's put his spirit in them, and when they get to glory, when you go to heaven, you'll have the same new nature there as you have now. There won't be a need to update your nature, the spiritual nature, because it's a holy nature. It's created, as it says in Ephesians 424, in righteousness and true holiness. So these things are really fantastic, aren't they? if I could use that kind of a word.

So that's the first thing I want to point out about verse 3. But then in verse 4 he says, I will make mention of these different places, Egypt, which is called Rahab in verse 4, Babylon, the Philistines or Philistia, Tyre, which was a notorious port city, a seafaring place, and Ethiopia. Ethiopia, remember the Ethiopian that God sent Philip to preach the gospel from Isaiah 53. He was reading there, the Ethiopian was reading, but didn't understand it. And Philip went there by the Spirit of God and unfolded that chapter to him that it spoke of Christ.

But you can see in the example of the Ethiopian, why did the Ethiopian go all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem? Because there was no gospel in Ethiopia. You see, God had to send the gospel of Christ to these places. God had to preach the gospel to them, to the ends of the earth. That's why Jesus sent his apostles in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20. He sent them out in order to do that very thing, to preach the glorious gospel of Christ. And as a result of that, God birthed his people. He called them. And 2 Timothy 1.9, it says, he has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

So all these things are fantastic that God would have us as his own before the world began, and yet there was a time when we heard the gospel and the Spirit of God blessed that word to us and spoke life. He shined the light of the glorious gospel of Christ into the darkness of our unregenerated spiritually dead hearts, and he gave us life. Christ then came to dwell in us, never to leave us. He's always with us, shall never leave us.

Now, when someone's born, and this is something that I didn't think about, but when I was back in Arkansas, David Edmondson told me this. He had just heard it from David Pledger, and I latched onto it, and I thought, I need to tell you all about this wonderful thing here.

I have a number of children, as you know, and I have 12 grandchildren at present. They often send us a picture of the ultrasound imaging that they get when they go to the doctor for their prenatal checkups. And so in those images, you can see the unborn infant in the womb of the mother. It's pretty hard to make it out. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those images. But if you can make it out, if the doctor will say, well, here's the head and here's the body and so on, pretty soon you can see the parts, the members of the baby's body.

And you know what's amazing is that, and this is what David Pleasure told David Edmondson, who didn't told me about it, but an embryo in the womb, do you know, it has all of its parts, even when they're a little tiny, about the size of a peanut. They've got their heads there, their ears are there, their nose are there, their eyes are there. They got their hands. They're not like a tadpole with a tail and all this other stuff. They're a baby. They have all their parts.

And as soon as David Edmondson told me that, I thought, oh, I see. You see, because in Psalm 139, he says this, let me see if I can find it. He says in Psalm 139, verse 16, thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy book in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

So he's saying that God had all of our parts, all of the unborn child in the womb was already fashioned, numbered, written. And if you understand this now, of the people of God as being born of God, and you understand chapters like Isaiah 54, which described the wife or the bride of Christ as the wife who was barren, but now she's bearing all these children as a result of Isaiah 53, which is Christ's substitutionary work.

What you see then is that God is telling his people that the church as the body of Christ, even before they're born, all of them are known to God and they're written. And where are they written? Well, they're written in God's book. The Lamb's Book of Life.

And what is that? What is that? This is something else I was thinking about on that trip. What is the Lamb's Book of Life? What does it mean to be written in the Lamb's Book of Life? It means to be written in Christ, doesn't it? It means to be chosen in Him and predestinated to the adoption of children. as Ephesians 1 says. So here what we see is that we have this eternal union with Christ in God's purpose, which is again eternal, His predestinating purpose, that by Jesus Christ we would be brought forth. He birthed His people by His Spirit because Christ died for them.

When Jesus spoke in John 7 about the Spirit of God, he says the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. And so he's referring to the fact that in order for us to receive the Spirit of God in the new birth, Christ had to die for us.

Again, this is what is saying here in verse four and five, that the people in this city are born of God. They're born of God because Christ died for them. And the Spirit of God is the one who performs that work. That's an operation of God himself. Then it's an operation of life-giving resurrection, an operation of creation. He says he created us in Christ Jesus, a new creature in Christ Jesus. We were God's workmanship. And we were created in Christ Jesus according to God's will to perform those good works which God before ordained for us to walk in.

And this is fantastic what he's talking about here. This is true of every believer. Every believer fits this description. They're all born of God. They were all known by God in all their parts. Every one of them and every part of every one of them are all known to God in His purpose to save them and glorify Himself in that city, that congregation, that heavenly nation, that holy nation, that royal priesthood, that temple of God which is made up of individual living stones.

The people of God are all living stones formed and fitted by God as Colossians 1. says, made meat to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And as priests, they have access to God. They come to God through the sacrifice of Christ, and they offer to God spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God in Jesus Christ, or by Jesus Christ, as 1 Peter 2, verses 5 through 9 talk about.

All right, so that's the first thing I wanted to mention here, is that the church is this way. Now, there's another thing I wanted to say, and I mentioned this in passing just a minute ago, is that when Cyrus told the people, according to God's purpose, as he mentions in Isaiah 46 and other places, Cyrus the king, who was a heathen king, he told the people who were left of that captivity in Babylon, if they wanted to go back and rebuild Jerusalem, they could do that. And all of that recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah and those prophecies refers to the actual spiritual building of the church. And I want to mention that because there was actually a sermon that touched on this while we were back in Arkansas and it brought it to my remembrance with respect to Psalm 87.

Remember those men who went back and they had these enemies in that endeavor when they were there to build the wall of Jerusalem? They had those different enemies. And those enemies came against them. Now, who were those that were building this wall that were sent back by Cyrus? Well, they were those who had been in captivity in Babylon. Why were they in captivity in Babylon? Well, they were in captivity to the Babylonians and to the king of Babylon because of their sin. God was chastening, correcting them because of their idolatry. So they had been serving idols. God corrected them and then now returning to Jerusalem to rebuild that wall. What does the wall of Jerusalem signify? Well, it signifies the salvation in Christ. In Isaiah, chapter 26, it says, Jerusalem's walls are salvation. And so when God wants to bring his people into the city, to make them by his spirit members of that city in their own, the time state of their own life, not from eternity, which he did in Christ by decree and by his predestinating grace, but he actually accomplished it in time, in the time state of their life when he preached the gospel to them.

How does this happen? How did they hear the gospel? Well, they heard it through preaching. And what did that preaching do when they heard it by the power of the Holy Spirit? It produced faith in them. It produced life in them. Jesus said, the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, they are life.

And so we see then that when these people of captivity who had formerly been idolaters went back to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, it was depicting how God would build his church through the gospel through these people. And so God sends his messengers with the gospel to preach it, and that's the way God births people into this city. And you can see the Old Testament history then unfolds before us, a physical depiction of the spiritual activity where Christ is building his church through the gospel being preached.

And in Zechariah 3, David Pledger brought a message from Zechariah 3 about Joshua the high priest who had stood before the Lord and Satan accused him, stood to oppose him. And God spoke to Satan and said, the Lord rebuketh you, Satan. The Lord rebuketh thee, who has, and I'll read that to you so that you get it from Zechariah chapter three.

Let me read that. Because this is all connected, isn't it? It's all connected with God's, the citizens of this city. being born of God and how God does this, but in Zechariah chapter 3 he says, He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.

So now, Zechariah, the history here is the rebuilding of this, the wall of Jerusalem. And so these people were sent back to do this, and what happens is Satan opposes that work. How does he oppose it? Well, he stands to he stands to accuse them and slander them before the Lord himself. And no doubt there was a good ground for him to do that. Their sin, their idolatry. Why did you bring these people? How could you how could you call them your people? Look, they're so sinful.

But the Lord rebuked Satan. Does that remind you of Colossians 1 verse 12 and 13 where it says that God our Father has translated us out from under the dominion of darkness, which is Satan, into the dominion, the rule and reign of the son of his love, his dear son? And so here, God the Father, the Lord himself is rebuking Satan. Who else has authority to say, this one, this one, and that one are now in the kingdom of my dear son, but God himself.

It was He who put us under the rule of this wickedness because of our sin, and now He brings us out because of the righteousness, the blood and righteousness of Christ. So the first thing you see here that God does for His people as they're building this wall, as they're rebuilding Jerusalem, is He rebukes Satan for them. Because this is the way God would discourage the work. This is the way Satan would try to stand up. The gates of hell are opposing Christ, building his church. And what happens? The Lord says, the gates of hell will not prevail. They will not prevail against me. I will build my church. And the way he does it here is the Lord rebukes Satan. Stand down. Stand down. You have nothing to say against my people. And then he says here, In Zechariah, hasn't the Lord, even the Lord that has chosen Jerusalem, he rebuked thee? So we can see here that God not only rebuked them, but he tells us, tells his people, I've chosen you. I've chosen you. The Lord who chose us rebuked Satan for us. And this is Jerusalem, this is his people. There's a bran plucked out of the fire. So here again, we can see God's work. He plucked his people right out of the fire. Didn't he? He plucked them.

David Pledger gave the illustration of a chicken being plucked. Plucking, plucking it. And he plucked them. He also gave an illustration of a chicken calling its little chicks when it saw danger with a pluck. and the little chickens would run to its mother and hide. That's the pluck, the call of the Spirit of God.

And then he goes on, he says, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, take away the filthy garments from him. That's the removal of our sin. All the things we were accused of, take it away. Unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee by the blood of Jesus, and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment, the righteousness of Christ. And I said, let them set a fair mitre upon his head, a royal priesthood. You see this? This is the same thing we read throughout all of scripture here. God bringing his people to build his city through the preaching of the gospel by the spirit of God, applying it to us according to God's eternal counsel and predestinating purpose to glorify himself in the salvation of sinners, his chosen people. to the rebuke of Satan, to the humiliation of Satan because of the stoop of his son in humility to bear their sins and to take away their filthy garments and to stand up against their foes and against his foes for them.

And then he says to them, with all that's done for them, thou art all fair, my love, I see no spot in thee. It's true, it's true. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God who justifies. And who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died.

All right, back in Psalm 87 then. I wanted to bring that out to you. Now, how is it that Christ builds his church? What was required for him to do that? Well, in John chapter 12, John chapter 12, the Gospel of John, Jesus answered those who said the Greeks, Philip and Andrew, had told him that these Greeks were coming. They wanted to see Jesus. Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come. The hour has come. And what he was referring to is the hour when he would, as the head of the church, build the church, and the way he would do it would result in the Greeks coming to see Jesus. But in order for them to see him, in order for them to come, he had to do something first. It says in John chapter 12, verse 23, Jesus answered them, Philip and Andrew, saying, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. This is his glory, what he's about to refer to here. Verily, verily, I say to you, except a corn of wheat, fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit."

How were God's people born into this kingdom? How was the gospel given to them so that the Spirit of God effectually called them and they were brought in and put as stones, living stones, made meat to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints? How did this happen?

Christ died. He died for them. He died for them in order to bring them forth as fruit. But until he died, they couldn't they couldn't be born. They couldn't come. They couldn't be put into the city. He had to die for them. And so you can read John 12 and see this. And this is the glory of Christ, what he accomplished in his death, glorified God and saved his people. What an amazing things these things are.

Now, I want to go on and get to so that we get to the end here. I want to go to verse seven here. verse seven of Psalm 87. He says, I'll read verse six, the Lord shall count when he righteth up the people that this man was born there, Selah. He says in verse seven, as well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there, all my springs are in thee.

Now, I thought a long time about this from these words, as well the singers as the players on instruments. Let's just take that phrase first. It's talking about people, isn't it? Singers, players on instruments. And why are they singing? Why are they playing these instruments? because of gladness, because of joy, because of the thanksgiving that realms up in praise to God in worship of Christ for this glorious city that they've been made a part of by spiritual birth. You see, this is the bubbling up according to the will of God. This is the bubbling up of the response of his grace in the hearts of his people.

And when I first read this, I was thinking about some segment of the people in this city being designated as singers. I always thought, wouldn't it be nice if in glory the Lord would give me the ability to actually sing. It's frustrating when you're on earth and you can't sing well. But when we get to heaven, you know, even There are several hymns that we sing that refer to this. One of them is, There is a Fountain, or another one is, Jesus Paid it All, or Rock of Ages. It always refers to a future time when I'll be finally able, without sin, to sing according to what my heart's desire is to give praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But as I looked at this, I don't think it's talking about a segment of people within the city. as either singers or players. I think it's referring to every believer. Every believer, if you can believe this, has been made to sing in their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they're singers and they're players on instruments. They use the by the gift of God's grace. They've been made to realize the great things that God has done for them. And they're glad the glad tidings have become gladness to them. Christ's joy has made them full of joy. And this is what the scriptures talk about. They've been given the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, and so on.

In John chapter 14, or no, John chapter 15, actually, he says this. I want to read this to you. He says in John 15, Verse 11, these things have I spoken to you, talking about how that God the Father would send His Spirit, Christ would give them His own Spirit, and they would be enabled to understand the things of Christ and to preach the gospel. They would be given this grace to bear fruit to Him in believing Him. and preaching the gospel and loving one another, all these things that make up what John 15 is talking about. But he says in verse 11, these things have I spoken to you. Notice that my joy, my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.

Now, we know that our experience of joy is up and down and lesser, greater, various times. But we do also know this, that when God gives us faith, when we hear the gospel, either for the first time or for the thousandth time, whatever it is, through the course of our life, there's joy, isn't there? And that joy is because of what God has done for us in Christ.

Faith, he says in Romans 15, verse 13, joy and peace in believing. Believing Christ, looking to Christ, is when we feel or when we sense that feeling of joy and gladness. The gospel itself is true whether or not our faith is strong or weak. We're standing on the thickness of Christ's work, not on the thin varying experience of our own faith mixed with unbelief and all of the conflicting things that go on in our minds and in our motives and in our works.

But this joy of Christ is stable. It's his joy. We're happy, never so happy as when we understand that Christ himself is joying, is rejoicing over his people. He rejoices over them because he has saved them. He has made them holy and without blame before him in love. He's performed the work his father gave him to do. He has purchased them and now has them. And he presents them to himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Ephesians chapter five, verse twenty five through twenty seven.

So that's the joy. That's the joy. And that joy, that gladness from the glad tidings of the gospel, peace on earth and glory to God in the highest, peace on earth on whom and men with whom his favor rests. Remember the angels saying at Christ's birth to the shepherds.

So here we're seeing that every believer, every believer has the Spirit of Christ. Every believer, therefore, has this joy. And every believer, therefore, is a singer and a player on instruments in this city. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 19 tells us to do this now, and this is what we do do in our heart, even though we may be ill-equipped to do it physically.

He says, speaking to yourselves, that's members of the body of Christ speaking to one another, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. The Song of Solomon, for example, is a spiritual song, isn't it? It's about Christ expressing his love to his people that passes knowledge. And they're expressing their love to Christ because of his love for them. Have you seen him who my soul loveth? He says in Song of Solomon 3, verse 3.

But here he says, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. He doesn't say if you are able, he says do this. And Colossians 3, 16 says the same thing. You can read that. In fact, let me turn there and read it, because it is slightly different.

Colossians 3, verse 16. He says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That's the gospel, isn't it? In all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. You see, that's where it comes from. That's where this gladness comes from.

In Psalm 87, verse 7 goes on, it says, As well the singers and the players on instruments shall be there. All my springs are in thee. All of my springs are in thee. Now, springs is the word here that's also translated in other places as a fountain. In Psalm 114, I just want to refer you to this in Psalm 114 before we close here. See if I can get this in. In Psalm 114, he says this. See if I can read the verse to you. It says in verse eight, verse seven, tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, which turned, notice, which turned the rock. into a standing water, the flint, into a fountain, same word as springs, a fountain of waters.

Well, you know what that refers to in the Old Testament. It refers to when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and they had no water, and God told Moses first to speak to the rock, and then to smite the rock, and Moses hit the rock twice, and so God prevented him from going into the land of Canaan.

But 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 and 4 explains that that rock in the wilderness was Christ, the rock which followed them. In other words, Christ who was smitten under the wrath of God, the curse of the law that came upon him. Because of that curse coming upon him, water came to all of his people.

And in the wilderness, it was a desert. The last place you would expect water to come from is a desert. And the last place in the desert where you would expect water to come from is a rock. And yet that's exactly what happened. And it was enough water then to feed over a million people, all the nation of Israel. And it fed them. You can imagine how thirsty they were. and how they probably thought, this water may run out, so I'm going to drink as much as I can. And then they found out that it was still there when they went to the next place. There's the same water coming out of that same rock. And so they continued to drink from it.

It was enough water to quench the thirst of a desert people, people who were dying of thirst and so thirsty that they had to have this water and they couldn't produce it themselves. And yet God brought it out of the least expected place, the rock, as God brought from Christ in his human nature, the place we least expected it, and eternal salvation.

It seemed good to God to make the captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings. We never expected that. But this is the revelation of the gospel. And because Christ died, guess what happens? The Spirit of God comes to us and gives us what? The testimony of Christ. Always telling us about what he did. Reminding us of it. Quenching our thirst, the thirst of our souls, so that we not only drink, but we continuously drink. And we drink to satisfaction as a thirsty person in the desert who has nothing. And it comes out of the Lord Jesus Christ, smitten for us.

And this is what he says here in this Psalm 87. All my springs are in thee. Everything that God has for his people is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gives it. It's given to him to give to us, his people. And he loves his people. And we're supposed to understand that though we cannot produce one drop of the water of life, we're to ask him for it. And he told the woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaks to you and asks you to give him a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus. He's everything to us. by your will, by your provision. He's done everything to bring us to God. And our acceptance and our sin cleansing and our righteousness, our clothing, our beauty, everything is only found in Him. But because it is found in Him, it's found in perfection and completion. Nothing can be added to it, nothing else is needed, nothing else is wanted, and to seek anything but the Lord Jesus is to perish of thirst in the wilderness of our own sinful selves and in this world.

Help us, Lord, as we sojourn through this world that we would seek and find and take and drink of Christ. and we would find our life in him. Thank you for giving him for us and giving him to us in this way. Help us, Lord, to be those who are as singers with his gladness in our heart because of the joy of the Lord Jesus made ours. And help us to find his joy, his joy over our salvation and over us to be full-joyed in our own hearts by your grace. In his name we pray, amen.