He'll be joined in heart and
hope to meet again. That's a dear hymn to you, isn't
it? You know the story behind that.
It's a blessed story. A man named John Fawcett He wrote
that he was pastor of a small congregation of believers in
the outskirts of London, England, some country village. And a large
congregation called him, asked him to come and be their pastor,
a very large congregation. He was pastor of this very small
group. And he agreed to come. And the day that they were leaving,
this was back in horse and buggy days, and they had packed all
the wagon with all of their earthly belongings, and they were leaving,
and the whole church came out to see them off, to bid them
goodbye. And everyone was weeping, and
his wife was weeping. And just before he started to
go, he said, unpack the wagons. We're not
going." And he went in and wrote down this hymn. Blessed be the
tide that binds. He didn't go. He stayed there
until the day he died. Psalm 84. As said, Brother Terry
Worthing read this and it's such a blessing to me. I hope it will
be to you tonight as we look at it. But if you want a blessing,
And many of you, if not most, know this. If you want a blessing,
read the Psalms. If you need for the Lord to speak
to you, read the Psalms. Just keep reading until you find
one that touches you. Something will. David, man after
God's own heart, a man after my heart. I can relate to him
in so many of the Psalms. Better yet, come to the house
of the Lord where we'll look at the psalm together. It's better
that way. It's better when we all look at it together. It's
better when a man stands up to give the meaning of the psalm.
That's the way the Lord has designed it. Because Psalm 133 says, As
the dew that descended upon Mount Zion, there the Lord hath commanded
The Lord is commanding His blessing in Mount Zion, the church. That's where He's commanding.
He has promised to be there. So if you know He's going to
be there, and you come in His name, you can be assured of His
blessing. Blessed, verse 4, is the text
and title of this message. Blessed are they that dwell in
thy house. You remember David said, one
thing have I desired of the Lord. Have you ever desired one thing
and set your heart and your mind and your flesh on it? Everybody
in here has. And you won't give up until you
get it, will you? Well, David said, our Lord said, one thing
is needful. And Mary had chosen that good
part, the city of His feet. He said it will never be taken.
She got what she wanted, and it was never taken from her.
David said, one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that's what
I'm going after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life. I don't want to fall away. I
don't want to apostatize. I don't want to leave. I want
to be right here. And then when it's all said and done, I want
to be in with His people forever, beholding the beauty of the Lord.
How about you? If that's your desire, it's a
God-given desire, He won't take it from you. And He'll grant
you your desire. Think of it that way. Verse 1
says, How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. How lovely,
amiable. How lovely are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts. Preacher, I thought the tabernacle
was one. It is. God's tabernacle. You remember
looking at that? There's a place that God had
chosen to put his name there. That represents Christ. That
represents the temple of God, which represents Christ. It represents
the church. But the churches are everywhere. God's little tabernacles are
everywhere. Our Lord met in synagogues and
various villages. He's not left himself without
a witness today. Here and there. Everywhere. Little
tabernacles. How amiable. How lovely. How
lovely. The church of God's choice. God's people. His lovely church. How well loved. I'm not talking
about buildings. I'm not talking about buildings. Brother Worth and the people
there have a building much less than we have, a meter. But it's
sufficient. It's just a place to keep the
rain off your head, you know. A place to be in the dry, a little
cool, a little air conditioning. A little too much, some of you
say, but better than not enough. A little place to meet, to keep
the weather off of us so we can worship our God in relative comfort.
But the church is talking about people. The assembly of the saints,
the people of God. How lovely. How well loved. How well loved God's people are,
the churches everywhere. Some of you have visited the
various churches. Those of you who haven't, I urge
you. I urge you. Take your vacations. Take your time. Take time off
and go there. You'll be blessed. There's conferences,
there's over 14 Bible conferences every week. You know that? Fourteen. We need to go there. People come
to see us. Are you blessed by them coming to visit us? Well,
you go. Be a blessing. You be a blessing. It's always
a blessing. They're brothers and sisters.
You know, the kingdom of God is much bigger than our little
four walls. If we want the furtherance of
God's kingdom, we ourselves need to do something to build it up. Go out and be a blessing. You'll be blessed and you need
to be a blessing. You remember the prayer of J.B.
as we preached on that in 1 Chronicles 4. He said he was more honorable
than his brethren. You know what he prayed for?
Enlarge my coasts. Meaning, broaden my horizons. Not the world, but let me say
that there's many more people than just me and mine, us and
us four no more. Kingdom of God. Our Lord came
to this despicable place called planet earth. Didn't He? And He went everywhere. He went
in every village and city and town preaching the gospel. Shouldn't we do the same? Shouldn't
we do it? Kingdom of God. Notice he says, O Lord of hosts.
Do you know how often he's called that in the Scripture? I don't
know. I didn't count it. But a lot
of times. O Lord of hosts. Don't look at
your phone or whatever. But a lot of times. O Lord of
hosts. Why is he called Lord of hosts?
That goes with what I just said. He's the Lord of hosts. The Lord made the host of heaven.
How many stars are there? Can you count them? Why did He
make so many stars? He got pleasure out of it. To
show the magnitude of His creation. Something of it. Stars. He has
a number, but you and I can't number them. He says He has a
people as the stars of the sky. As the sand. To show the largeness
of His heart. The magnitude of His kingdom.
The Lord of hosts. In other words, He took great
pleasure in all those stars, and He takes great pleasure in
saving many people. He takes great pleasure in a
host of people. There's going to be a host of
people gathered about Him someday. A host of people. This is where you're missing
it if you don't go to some of these meetings, where it's more
than the usual small gathering of the church. And by the way,
you remember when our Lord divided the 5,000 in the Sermon on the
Mount into groups of 50? You remember that? That's by
design. That wasn't for convenience. It was by design. That's virgin,
I think, is right when he said that's prophetic. At the Lord,
he, the Virgin said, after I'm, after Metropolitan disintegrates,
and it did after he was gone. He said, I believe the church
where truth is preached is going to be groups of 50 or less. And you tell me if it's not Saturday.
Because the truth is always in the minority. Little groups here
and there. But the Lord delights in the
hosts. The host of his people all around
him, a large family. I wasn't in a large family. It's
large by today's standards, four. So there's six of us all together.
And that was so enjoyable. So enjoyable. Some of you had
a whole slew of them. Brother Henry had eight or nine. And a big family is enjoyable. And
our Lord, like Barnard said, Loved his son so much, he decided,
he purposed to have a whole bunch of people just like him. Think
of all the saints in the Old Testament. Think of all the saints.
We're going to be with them all. All the saints in the New Testament.
And someone who has nothing to do with their brethren everywhere
else and only their immediate family. That's bad. He calls him, O Lord of hosts,
several times. My soul, verse 2, he says, longeth,
yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my
flesh cryeth out for the living God. David says, I long for. I long for. Have you ever had
a longing for something or someone? Longing. You just hope and wait
for it and you want it so bad you think about it. My soul,
my inner being, my true being, longeth for the courts of the
Lord. The courts of the Lord. He said,
my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. He said, my soul and my heart and my flesh,
my soul and my heart flesh. He said, I even faint. He even
fainted for the courts of the Lord. Have you ever been so tired
and weary and exhausted and hungry and thirsty and feel that you
felt faint? Have you ever worked so hard
that you just felt faint and you thought, I've got to get
to the house and I've got to lie down, I've got to get something
to drink, I've got to get something to eat, I've got to rest. Have
you ever felt that way about God's David did. He said, I long for
more than my necessary food. He said, my soul grows so weary
of sin and the world that I feel faint. Unless I can meet with
God's people and hear God's Word preached to me, I'm going to
faint. Oh, now. Lord, give us this yearning. Give us this soul. Heart and
flesh, you know, there's no confidence in the flesh. There should be
no... Flesh is fickle, that means it's liable to change. Don't
trust your flesh, but brethren, it's involved quite often. You
know, we have flesh, and there are times when we are sad, and
your whole person, your soul, your mind, your heart, and your
flesh is just affected by it. And so it is with the... Have
you ever heard the gospel with your soul? It blessed your soul
and blessed your heart? And you wanted to express it
with your flesh? We're not charismatic. We don't
get Pentecostal. God's not worshipped with men's
hands. But I'll tell you what, every now and then, every now
and then He'd do us good. Every now and then He'd do us
good to just not be so in Him. and worship God with our mind,
body, soul, and strength. My soul, my heart, my flesh cryeth
out for the living God. Lord, save me. I'm not talking
about hearing a sermon. I'm talking about calling on
God. I'm talking about calling on the Lord. Lord, save me. Lord,
keep me. Lord, help me. Lord, speak to
me. Lord, I don't want to go from
this place to a good sermon. Oh, Lord, speak to me. That's
what it means to cry out for the living God, that the Lord
would speak to you. This is how He speaks. And if
you'll ask Him, He will. The Lord speaks to so-and-so.
Does your heart and soul ever... Do you actually cry out when
you're in private for somebody else? Lord, please speak to that
person. I do it for you and your children
all the time. All the time. Every day, somebody,
Lord, please speak to her. Please. I'm begging. Don't let the world get a hold
of her. Or the world has a hold of her. Lord, please take hold
of her. Please. We're talking to God
here. Brother John, when he went to
Spring Lake, he said, I'm not coming down here to hold church
services. Come down here to preach the
gospel. Get this Word out that the Lord might save some souls. He just might do that if we cried
out like David did for the living God. Verse 3, he said, "...the
sparrow hath found a nest for herself, where she may lay her
young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God." It was a tabernacle then. It
was not the temple when David was dead. It was a tabernacle.
And it was set up a couple of different places where Samuel
lived. It was set up there. Apparently
the birds flew in and out of it like they do your barns or
wherever. And the Lord let them build houses. The Lord didn't tell them, clean
out those bird nests. He said, let them, let them.
If the people won't come, let the birds come. Let them in there. And he talked about a sparrow.
The Lord talked about sparrows Himself, didn't He? He said a
sparrow is sold for a farthing. Two sparrows are sold for a farthing.
That's a half a penny. In other words, that's the most
worthless bird. We would say they're a dime a
dozen. Who needs them? Well, God said,
Let them build their house right there in my house. Let them bring
their young in safety. They'll be cared for. They'll
be protected. What a lesson that is to us.
Our Lord said to His people, you're worth more than many.
Swallow. You got barn swallows, don't
you? About all they're good for is eating mosquitoes, but that's
a good thing. It really is. You know, it's just an insignificant
bird, but the Lord uses them as an example of how merciful
and gracious. He feeds the pharaohs. How much
more you, O ye of little faith. And he tells us, David was in
exile at this time. David was banished. His son Absalom, you know, was
running from him. And he longed for He couldn't attend the worship
service. He couldn't hear the Word preached and be with the
people. And he longed for it. Ever been
away? He longed for it. And he said, I envy the birds
in the rafters. I'd like to just be a bird in
the rafters. We have birds that nest all over
our house. Apparently, they've got the word
out. That house will let you build a nest anywhere. At one
particular place on our front porch, where I think five or
six generations of robins have been built, it might be the same
robin. Keep robbing. We love robins. And they keep
building right there. Trust us, evidently. We talk
to them. wouldn't dream of taking their
nest down. If a bird is that wise, how much
more should we do? She's found a nest for her young.
A place to lay her young. This is a good place for your
young. Good place. A nest for your young. As I said,
there's one thing needful. There's one thing our young people
need. One thing, they need to know the Lord. If they know the
Lord, everything else will be taken care of. And it doesn't
matter what they are in this life. It doesn't matter. If they
know the Lord, they have life. I didn't say that. Jesus Christ
did. I'm not against it. We said this
last time that we don't have big programs all of this stuff
that modern religion has, and people ask us, what do you do
for your young people? We do the one thing. The church
has one purpose. Our Lord said it. It's a house
of prayer. It's a house of worship. It's a house of His Word is preached. That's it. I'm not against fun. I like to have fun. But when you think of fun, what
do you think of? Games. You're not playing games. You're
not playing games yet. It's not about entertainment
or having fun. You know what the scripture says? Scripture
says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Can
you be serious and yet enjoyable? Can you have fun or enjoy something
and yet it be very sobering? Yeah. And it's not something
you can explain. Only experience it. Serve the
Lord with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Only
God's true people understand that. But bring your young. Bring
your young. Raise your young unto the sound
of the truth. Brethren, tell me if you can
find anything in all of this Bible that even remotely resembles
modern religion, what they're doing today. Can you find anything
that even remotely resembles what they're doing in religion
today? If you can, we'll do it like that. But it's not. We're
going to worship the Lord. We're going to conduct these
services. We're going to do things in this building like they did
it in the New Testament church. That's what we're going to do.
And our children are going to have one thing done here, provided
to them. And that's the Word of God. The
Word of God. Verses 4, Blessed are they that
dwell in thy house. dwell, as I quoted David in Psalm
27. Oh, I want to dwell in the house
of the Lord. Dwell, that means to live there,
to stay there, doesn't it? To abide there, to settle down
there, doesn't it? To abide in Him, in His house
of worship with His people, now and forever. Dwell in my house,
he says, they will be still. Praise the name. I think that's
the way it's supposed to be read. Or they will be still, praise
the name. You'll always find them there, and they'll be still
praising that. That's what the next line says. It says, Blessed
is the man whose strength is in Thee, and whose heart is in
the ways of them. It's verse 7. All of them appear
before God. They dwell in God's house. Do
you remember Anna the prophetess in Luke chapter 2? Do you remember
her? She was a widow for 84 years. 84 years. We have some winners in here
and nobody knows how difficult that is except the winner. No,
you can't enter into that until you become one, right? 84 years. Seven years from she was married
seven years and then she was a winner for 84. It's a tough
trial, isn't it? You know what she did? She was
in the temple every day. for 84 years. That's what it
says in Luke chapter 2. She was at the temple for 84
years. Fasting, praying, talking to
anybody and everybody about the gospel. She wasn't preaching.
No. She was telling everybody. Do
you know what happened? Do you know what happened? She's
about 90-some years old. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
the flesh. And she saw him. Like Simeon. He was there too. He was there
a long time. He was waiting on the consolation of Israel. She
saw him. He said, now I can die. I've
seen thy salvation. Jesus Christ. Blessed are they
that dwell in thy house. The opposite is true. Cursed are those who don't. They'll be still. Praise indeed. Remember Isaiah 30? Their strength
is to sit still. Oh, what a hustling, bustling
world we live in. Oh, what a rat race we live in.
What a chaotic, seemingly chaotic... It looks chaotic, but our Lord
is in control. Right? It's not chaotic. Not
happenstance, it's under his direction still. Though the world
seems all so strong, our God is the ruler yet, over good and
evil. Yes, sir. Nothing happens but
what he directs. But it seems chaotic, doesn't
it? Where do you get some peace?
Not on the news, but under the good news. You come, hear his
word, sit, dwell. Come to His house where His people
are. Be still and know that I am the
Lord. Do you remember that? 2 Chronicles 20. I didn't preach
it here. Preach it down there. 2 Chronicles
20 where a man stood up. One man preached one message.
A young man preached one message to all of Israel. And he said,
this is it. You don't need to fight. Be still. The battle is not yours but the
Lord's. Now be still. It's the only thing that will
still our soul. Be still, my soul. The Lord is on thy side. Let God be for you. Be still. You'll praise Him. Think about
it. See you in a few minutes. Blessed
is the man whose strength is in thee, and whose heart are
the ways of them that dwell in thy house. Blessed is that man
whose strength is in him. Brethren, I have no strength
in my flesh. I have no strength. Strength
of mind, strength of heart, strength of flesh, do you? This gospel
is not for the strongest or the weak. God doesn't help those
who help themselves. That's not the Bible. God helps
those who can't help themselves. But those who He helps, He is
their strength. And blessed is that man or woman
whose strength is in Him. Because you can do all things
through Christ. Without Him, you can do nothing.
But with Him, by Him, looking to Him, calling upon Him, all
things through Him. He's our strength. He gets all
the glory that way. in whose heart are the ways of
his people who, passing verse 6, passing through the valley
of Baca, make it a well. The rain filleth the pool. Valley
of Baca. Valley of Baca was a dry and
thirsty land, kind of a barren land, a wilderness that people
did not want to go through. It was a long trek through that
valley of often called the Valley of Tears because there was so
much suffering, so much hardship going through that. Well, he
said God's people passing through this dry and thirsty land, this
valley of this vale of tears, make it well. Make it well. How? How do you make it well? They find a source of mercy.
in the misery, they find some joy in the midst of sorrow. How?
What well? How did He make this dry and
thirsty land, this wilderness, with all these troubles and trials,
this veil of tears? How can you find any solace or
any source of comfort in the... Come to the well. You've got
a constant well. Didn't our Lord say, Come unto
Me, all you demon-thirsts. Come unto Me. Didn't He? When's
that? Anytime. He said, out of your
belly. The flow of rivers are really
wide. What do you think? Be like a camel. Be like a camel. While you're here, soak it up,
soak it up. You're going to need it later. When you go out on
a valentine. Make it a well. The rain will
fill the pool. Word comes down, His doctrine
drops its dew. Do you remember that? My doctrine
shall drop its dew. The rain upon the mountain. That's
Christ. He shall come down like the rain
and not return void. Verse 7, they go from strength
to strength. Strength to strength. You come
in here to renew your strength, don't you? You come in here.
Their strength is to sit still. In returning in rest shall you
be saved. In quietness and confidence shall
you be saved. Oh, and he said some would not.
They would not for their own strength. But some do by His
grace. Some come in here and gather
strength, renew their strength. It's not ours, it's Him. We renew
our confidence in Him, our trust in Him. Why? Because we're going
to need it for the next few days. They go from strength to strength.
You see that? Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
That's why we come here. Don't come to church. We come to our God. Oh, Lord
God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, oh God, unto Jacob.
Really? Rather than you want a blessing
after this, maybe we'll look at Psalm 85 next Wednesday night. Read that. Psalm 85. Go home
and read that. But it starts out by saying what
the Lord has done, and it ends up by saying what the Lord shall
do. You need to read it. It talks about mercy and truth,
righteousness and peace. Great, great psalm. What the
Lord has done, what the Lord shall do. Nothing but promises. Oh, Lord, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold,
verse 9, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. What's that? Who is his anointed? The word Christ means anointed
one. O God, look upon Christ on my
behalf. O Lord God of hosts, O God our
shield, look upon the face of thine anointed, and I also believe
He means, look at my face. Don't you get tired of being
in such poverty of spirit, such a lack of heart and soul worship,
and so full of guilt and shame all the time that you're hanging
your head down all the time. Wouldn't you like to really worship
the Lord in heart, mind, soul, and strength so much so that
you can lift up your head? and call upon the Lord and say,
look at me, I'm looking at you. Our Lord lifted up his eyes and
said, Father, glorify thy Son. We're so full of shame, so full
of guilt, so full of the world that we hang our hands all the
time. I really believe what David's saying. Look at my face, I'm
pleading with you. The Lord will hear a man like
that. He'll look upon him in mercy. Look at this. Is this
you? A day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. Why does it stop there? This
is why I like the King James Bible. This is why I like it. It just stops there. Better than
a thousand. A thousand what? Anything. He doesn't name anything. He says it's better than a thousand. Name something. There's lots
of things I enjoy. I enjoy things. I enjoy the things
in this life as much or more than anybody. I have a lot of
things. Too many things. But there's one thing that I
enjoy more than anything. Can you say that? I often wish I was not the one
standing here doing this. Feeding. But I feed off of this
too. Often I'm able to enjoy it even
while I'm feeding. Not always. But I'd rather be sitting out
there with you, snuggled up, cuddled up, you know, letting
somebody feed me, but this is my job. But this is better than anything.
Better than anything. Let me give you an example of
what I was just saying, and I'll close. In a minute. Brother Worthen's daughter-in-law,
Kim, she, like we do, invited some people to come to the meeting.
And they did. Someone she worked with. A young
couple. The son. Nice looking young couple. Very nice people. And that came
Sunday morning. Boy, I had such mixed emotions.
when new people come. My first thoughts are they're
not going to like what they're going to hear. Because this is
nothing like they hear in religion today. Because a natural man
doesn't receive the things of God. And religion is so different
from that. Modern religion is so different
from the truth that when people hear this they think it's strange. And I think they're not going
to like this. My dad used to say, don't preach like that.
Preach like people are foolish to not believe this. And don't be negative. I don't
want to be negative. And then my thought is, if they don't
believe this, if they reject the truth, it would have been
better to not have heard it. Because what you reject will
hurt you. You're responsible for it. And
then I think, I'm not sufficient to do this. What would you preach if you
knew somebody, somebody you had never heard the truth before?
What would you preach to them? What would you say to them? Do
you feel sufficient to that task? They might hear you for the first
time, it might be the only time. Would you like that responsibility?
And I thought this, I thought, here's this woman, she wants
so badly for these people to hear the truth. You know what
I thought? I thought, I wish my dad was preaching right now. But he wasn't. His time's over.
I am. Lord, give me strength. And you
ask them in her name. Those are many thoughts that
are going through my head. Many thoughts. David was the
king. David was a prophet, as it were. He said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God. I don't have to do anything. David came and heard preaching
himself. He didn't do the preaching. He was a songwriter, singer,
but Nathan preached to David, didn't
he? He said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. Is that
a honorable position in the church, doorkeeper? That's what your
husband did. Stood right back there. Greeted
everybody that came in the door. Before and after. With a big
old smile on his face. Didn't he? My, my. Happy? David said, I'd
rather be a doorkeeper in the house of And the house of my
God, and the dwell in the tents of the wicked. What's that? He
calls them tents. Because they're temporary. It
doesn't matter how big the place is. It's coming down in a tent.
The Lord, verse 11, is the Son. The Lord God is the Son. Do you
love the Son? I love the Son. S-U-N. I love
to go out and work in it. I love it. It's a source of heat,
light, warmth, life, isn't it? No coincidence, God's Son is
the Son of Righteousness, healing in His wing. He's the Son, the
Lord God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, healing in His wing,
and a shield. Shield from the Son. Our God
is a consuming fire. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
one in whom we hide. The Lord will give grace and
glory. Oh my, how we need grace. He's
the God of all grace and glory. He said, I will that they be
with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Lord, I
want to be with you in glory. He will. Ask, He'll give you.
He'll give you a place. No good thing is, in italics,
it was added, no good will He withhold from them that walk
uprightly. Things can be bad for us. Too much of things. That no good, nothing of real
value or goodness will he withhold from them that walk upright.
What's that? Walk with the Lord, like Enoch,
like Noah. The paths of righteousness. Walk
by faith, looking to Christ. O Lord of hosts, blessed. How blessed is the man or the
woman or the young person that trusteth in Stand with me. Our Lord and our God, O Lord
God of hosts, how we thank You, thank You, thank You for Psalm
84. Lord, we ask that You would cause
our hearts, our souls, our flesh to cry out for Thee, the living
God. that you would set our affection
on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God,
and not on things of the earth. For the things that are seen
are temporal. The things that are unseen are eternal. O Lord,
set our hearts and minds upon eternal things, not perishing
things. The things of this world, they
often get hold of us, Lord, and we beg your forgiveness. They
ask that you not let us be idolaters as some, but that you would,
the things of God, show them to us. Keep us coming here. Lord,
let us dwell here. Your people, cause us to dwell
in Thy house with Thy people. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him. This wonderful life more abundant. We need it. We need Christ. Wherever
He's found, Lord, let us be. Let us be a blessing to others.
Let us be a blessing to your church. Let us be a witness,
a testimony to the dying world. Lord, bless the means You've
given us. Give us wisdom. Give us understanding. Tell us
what to do. Tell us how to get the Word out.
Make it effectual. Open the ears to hear the Word. Bring in lost souls to hear the
truth we pray. Give us all a burden for Your
Word, Lord. Let us be salt and light in this In this perishing
world, we pray. We ask all these things for Thy
glory and honor. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Amen. Bye.