Feet upon the manna which he
gives them when they pray. Savior, if of Zion's city I through
grace a member am, Let the world deride or pity, I will glory
in thy name. Fainting is the world's least
pleasure, All his boasted pomp and show, Solid joys and lasting
treasure, None but Zion's children know. Okay, good singing, good
hymns. All right, go back to Psalm 48
and let's read verses 12 and 13 again. These will make up the title of the message. Principal Park, verses 12 and
14. King David, who wrote this, tells
us to walk about Zion, walk around Zion, go around about her, and
tell or count the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that you
may tell it to the generations following. We're going to take
tonight a walk about Zion. I started to entitle this a tour
of the Holy Land. I'm not trying to be clever,
but that's what this will be. Zion. Much said about Zion in
the scriptures, especially the Psalms. Zion is the name of that
flat top mountain upon which Jerusalem was built. Mount Zion
the whole city of Jerusalem is built upon that flat top mountain
called Mount Zion. But it's especially referring
to the place where Solomon's temple stood right in the middle
right in the center of Mount Zion. Now the first mention of
this name Zion, ironically or well, providentially, I mentioned
this Sunday morning that there were some inhabitants called
Jebusites. Jerusalem, that's what the name
Jerusalem comes from, Jebu, Jebu. And these original inhabitants
of Jerusalem were called Jebusites. And over in 2 Samuel 5, you don't
have to turn, but they were in Jerusalem dwelling there. And
God told David to go up and take that city, claim it. And David
went there and stood outside the walls, and that's when those
people said, he can't come in here. That's that story that
very story that I mentioned Sunday. You remember the people, the
Jebusites said, David can't come in here. And the next verse says,
nevertheless, David took it, the stronghold of Zion, that
mountain, the stronghold. He took it, which is the city
of David. And I thought that was interesting,
providential. But as with everything in God's
Word, Zion is a picture, a spiritual picture. Jerusalem, if you'll
read for yourself in Revelation 19 and other places, talks about
the city of Jerusalem coming down from heaven. It's a spiritual
place. Zion has always been a picture
of the church. We're just talking about the
church the city of God people of God Zion represents the church
of God the temple of God the place where God dwells this is
where God dwells with his people God doesn't dwell in buildings
made with hands. but he dwells in his people,
in the midst of his people. Now, it may be interesting to
go over there and take a tour of the so-called Holy Land. I
didn't think it ever said that in Scripture, but it does. In
Zechariah, it calls Jerusalem the Holy Land. It's the only
time. And it may be interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing it, but
it would not do you any spiritual good. It wouldn't do you any
spiritual good. The dirt over there is just like
the dirt here. There's nothing holy and sacred
about it. Nothing. Nothing. It's just dirt. It would
do you no spiritual good. Besides, you don't have to travel
all that way to take a tour of the Holy Land. We're going to
do it tonight. It'll save you a lot of money, too. Walk around
Zion. That's what this is about. I
want you to look at Zion. But first, we're going to begin
where David began and where everything began. Verse 1. Great is the
Lord. This is how he ends this up.
He ends this by talking about this God. Oh, what God? This God is our God. What God?
Verse 1. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God. in the mountain of his
holiness, Mount Zion. Great is the Lord. Now this is,
and greatly to be praised, this is chiefly why we come here.
This is why we come here, not to see the city, but to see the Lord of that place.
We come to church not to see the church, not to see his people,
although we're glad when we see them. David said, they that fear
thee will be glad when they see me. David said, I'm a companion
of those that fear thee. That's who God's people, that's
who their companions are, God's people, their family. But we don't come here to see
one another per se. We come here to see the Lord
of this place. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in
the city. Like Sheba. You know the story of Sheba,
who went to see Solomon. And it says when she got there,
she was taken up with the place. She saw the city, she saw Jerusalem,
she saw the temple, she saw the table that Solomon spread, and
she saw the food that was on the table, and she saw the servants,
and she saw all of that. But when she saw Solomon, when
she saw him ascend, it said, go up to his throne. That's when
it said there was no more spirit left. That's when she bowed. That's when she knew she was
in the presence of someone much greater than her. And she went
away from that place not talking about the temple, but rather
talking about the wisdom of Solomon. And so that's why we come here.
That's why God's people come here, because great is the Lord. What's his name? You remember
our study in Exodus? Jehovah. Anytime you see the
word, the name Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital
D, that's the name Jehovah. which means the eternal one,
the self-existent one. Do you remember that study of
Jehovah? When we first looked at that, when God said, I'm known
by you by the name of Jehovah, the eternal one, the self-existent
one, needing no one, needing nothing, all complete in himself. Do you remember that? Great is
Jehovah. This is our God. This God is
our Lord, our God, great in his person. That's what we come to
do here. Admire his person. Great in his
person, holy, just, sovereign, and on and on, omniscient, all-knowing,
omnipotent, omnipresent. Great in his power, in his works,
creation. David wrote psalm after psalm
about God's power, particularly Psalm 19. It says, The heavens
declare his glory, the firmament showeth his handiwork. The works
of the Lord are great to be to be praised of all them that know
him. Great is the Lord in his works of creation, but the greatest
work of all is called so great a salvation. It took a great
God to do this great salvation. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised, and therefore that's what we do in the city,
in Mount Zion, in the church. That's why we come here. If you
come here for any other reason, you'll go away without having
profit if you come here to see the Lord of this place. You come to hear from him and
can be blessed by him to be taught by him to receive from him you
go away. That's why we come and that's
what we do God said he speak of such to worship him. So great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, that is, Zion, in the
mountain of his holiness. Beautiful, verse 2, for situation. The joy of the whole earth, that
is, people from every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue came
to Jerusalem. That's where they came. They
still do. They still do, but he's not there.
He's risen. He's not over there, but he's
here. and wherever God's people are meeting in his name. The
beautiful situation is Mount Zion sides of the north. That is, it's above the earth. The world is a city of the great
king. It's a beautiful place. The situation in which it stands
or which is built. I wish I could show you a picture,
an actual picture of the original. Jerusalem doesn't even resemble
when it was first built, but it was supposed to be the most
beautiful city on the earth. It was built on a plateau, Mount
Zion, a flat top mountain, and on either side of it were, all
sides of this mountain were valleys, the Valley of Kidron, the Valley
of other valleys, all around it. And when you were up on top
of this mountain, you could see all around it was a beautiful
situation. A beautiful plate, not unlike
pizza barter. Some of us went up there, didn't
we? And we were standing up there, that was a beautiful situation.
That's what, it's not unlike that at all, it's like that.
You see from Mount Zion you can clearly see Up from this lofty
pedestal, you can clearly see those heavens which declare His
glory and affirm what the show of His hand is like. There's
not a believer in here that didn't stand on top of that mountain
and think of God's creation. Huh? That's what you thought,
Earl. The heaven, you can clearly see
His glory, His handiwork, and from up here you can clearly
see, like Psalm 24 says, the whole earth is the Lord's, the
fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. It'd
be good for all of us to take a plane ride someday. When you
see things from a so-called bird's-eye view, when you see things from
up high. You see them for what they are.
Little or nothing. Just like ants scurrying around.
And you get up amidst the clouds, which the scripture said are
the dust of his feet. And you look down on this. You
know, you look down on the things of the earth from up there, and
they all look so insignificant. And so small, don't they? The
finest home, you can't distinguish it from the others. They all
look the same. The finest city, on and on it
goes. They all look the same. Well,
you can't, you know, you can't see things clearly until you
get on top of Mount Zion. You know that? You can't see
things clearly until you get, until God puts you on top of
Mount Zion. So he puts you in your church and puts you in your
right mind, gives you eyes to see and a mind to understand,
a heart to receive. You can't see things clearly.
You think this world is, well, you can't see it for what it
is until you get up on top of this lofty mountain. Does that
make sense? It's a beautiful situation. And
you who have been put in this place, you've been put in a good
situation. David said in Psalm 84, my favorite
Psalm, How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord. That's the time when
David was on the run and he couldn't worship in the temple in Jerusalem. And he envied the birds that
were sitting up in the rafters watching the people. He envied the birds. He said
the birds found a place, a nest for their young habitation. I'd
like to be a bird. And he went on to say, I'd just
rather be a doorkeeper. in the house of God and dwell
in the tents. Isn't this a good situation? Good situation. Beautiful. Beautiful
place to be. Beautiful people. City of the
great king. Mount Zion. I've got to go. God
is known in her palaces for a refuge. God is known in every house.
Every person who dwells in this place knows this God. Yes, sir. They know He is God. They know
He reigns. He's known by them all. He's loved by them all.
And all of them, He is their refuge. God is our refuge. They all run to Him. They all
hope in Him. They all resort to Him. They
all confide in Him. They all trust in Him. And they
all live, move, and have their being in Him. He's known by all
the inhabitants thereof as their refuge. They dare not trust or
look to or run to or confide in anyone or anything else. Now
verses four through seven talk about how the enemies of the of Mount Zion, the enemies of
God, would approach this city and try to take it. Let's just
read down through there. Below, the kings were assembled,
and lots of them assembled themselves together and tried to destroy
it. They passed by together. They saw it. They marveled at
it, but they were troubled, something troubled them. They hasted away.
They left. Fear took hold upon them there,
and pain as of a woman in travail. And he went on to say even the
ships from the shore, from the ocean, from the sea, were blown
away. Blown away. And he said, we've
heard this, verse 8, we've heard about it, we've read about it,
and we've seen it in the city of the Lord of Hosts, the city
of our God, that God will establish it forever, Mount Zion. And he
says, he uses the word Sela, that means, whenever you see
the word Sela, it means stop and think about this. Now, it
would do well for us to stop and dwell a while and look into
church history. It would all do well. If you ever read any church history,
you'd get a great blessing out of it. Because what you will
see, more than anything else, What will stand out is God's
sovereign hand, God's protection of his people, that no matter
what and who came against him, he held it in the palm of his
hand. We would do well to study, and
I urge you to do so, to read some church history, book of
Acts, maybe that's what we ought to study, but we would see how
greatly persecuted God's people have always been in every generation. starting with Abel, right? Starting with Abel, the blood
of Abel, and all of his martyrs and all of his church down through
the years. The church has been persecuted and hated by everyone. And our Lord said that, that
it would happen to all of his people. He said, Don't marvel,
brethren, if the world hate you. You shall be hated of all men
for my name's sake, my glory's sake, my person's sake. And true believers, the true
church, has always been outnumbered. Always been outnumbered. And
the world at large, in general, vastly outnumbered the church,
God's people. You take Noah and his family,
for instance. I told you that estimates have
it that there were as many as from seven to eleven billion
people on the earth. But eight souls. Got on a boat. Got on a ship. Don't you know how persecuted
they were? 120 years persecuted. And things
haven't changed. Truth is still in the minority.
God's people are still in the minority. But here's the thing
about it. No matter who, what, when, nothing that is formed
against her shall prosper. Now, literally, God uses that
little place called Jerusalem as a symbol of his power. It's a symbol of his church,
because it's always been, as I said, as we said, in the minority. But literally, God has used Jerusalem
as a symbol of his power, because over there in the Middle East
is a little place. Look at it on a map. Look how small it is. Right in
the heart. of that Middle East, that little
bitty, you have to look real hard to find it, don't you? And
in that place, God put a building on top of a mountain and told
the whole world, I have at it. And even today, Sam, even today,
the whole Arab world around wants nothing more than to level it.
They can't do it. They can't. Do it. No weapon. But what if terrorists get an
atomic bomb? Try it. It'll be a dud. No weapon. Now, you understand
where I'm coming from here. That place is not God's temple. It always represented God's true
church, true temple, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. is temple
in him, we live and move, in him we dwell. He's the tabernacle
of God who dwells among us. But like I said, God to show
forth his power, cleared off that little hilltop, put a building
up there and said, try to knock it off. And Mount Zion, city of the living
God, there it stands. Verse 9 and 10, he says, we thought
of thy lovingkindness. Oh God. In the midst of the temple
loving kindness we like this word don't we do that loving
kind. The Old Testament the word for
grace. That's the word for great it's
a good good definition of great loving. Whoever you love. You can't. Give you that's kind of to give. Whoever you love we thought of
your loving that's why we come to think on his loving kindness
in the midst of the temple verse ten according to that name oh
God so is that praise unto the ends of the earth Thy right hand
is full of righteousness. According to thy name, so is
your praise." Those that know his name put their trust in him,
Psalm 9, 10, 16. According to his name, so is
his praise. There's a lot of people drawn
near with their lips. A lot of people call him Lord. They don't
believe he's Lord. But we praise him as Lord. We call him Lord.
Great is the Lord. The name Lord means sovereign.
And buddy, that's what it means. And that's why we worship him.
That's who this God is, our God. They may call him Lord, but he's
only Lord because they make him Lord, or let him be Lord when
he wants to be Lord, or when they want him to be. That's not
our God. We saw that Sunday, didn't we?
How that old Was David, was David Nabal's king only when Nabal
let him be king? Nabal found out too late, didn't
he? He found out too late that David
was his king all along. And it would have been his salvation
for him to bow to him right then and there. Not acceptance, that's
blasphemy. A king doesn't need a peasant's
acceptance. Would you please let me be here?
He wouldn't be much of a king if he's begging peasants to accept
him, would he? Oh, no. According to his name,
so is his praise. Lord Jesus. Now, we love that name. We don't call
the Lord of glory by his first name, though. I don't think people
know him that use that name flippantly like they do familiarly. They
call him by his first name. They don't call the President
of the United States that. They never called a king, ever
called a king that was much of a king by his first name. Now
some may ignorantly have called him that. But once they get to
know who he is, they call him Sir, Lord, Jesus. But now, according to his name,
so is his praise. When we say Jesus, we mean Jesus.
We praise the name of Jesus because this is what it means, Savior.
He didn't try to save anybody. He didn't come down here to make
an attempt to save anybody. His name is Jesus, and that's
why He came, and that's what He did. According to His name,
so is His praise. In the temple, in Zion, people
out there are using that name carelessly, not us. We'll use
it and praise Him. Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, that
means Messiah, the only one who can get us out of this mess.
Messiah, the woman seed, the brazen serpent, Messiah, the
Redeemer, the Mediator, the Intercessor, the Covenant Head, Messiah, Christ. According to His name, so is
His praise. His right hand is full of righteousness,
full to give it to whoever needs it. It's full. Anybody need it?
Anybody need it? All you got to do is ask. Can't
work, can't earn an ounce of it. You get all of it. Read on. Verse 11 says, Let Mount
Zion rejoice. Can you rejoice over all you've
heard thus far? Let the daughters of Judah be
glad. Are you glad? Oh, in this glad
hour, that's what makes us glad. Everything we've heard thus far
about our great God, about his Christ, makes us glad. Let us be glad. Don't be sad,
be glad. God's people ought to be the
happiest, really. It's a paradox, really. They're the saddest,
yet the happiest. They're the weakest, but the
strongest. They're the loneliest, but they're never alone. And on and on, they're down to
earth. The Lord judges his people, meaning
he deals with all his people, everything about them, everything
about you the Lord deals with. you're in his hands. He makes
judgments, that is, dealings. He takes care of everything about
you. I'll tell you how much he takes
care of you. Every hair on your head is numbered. Now, if your hair is so important, I mean, if the numbers of the
hair on your head is, God sees to that. What do we got to worry about?
I mean, think about that. If he's got, you'd think, what
does it matter how much hair you have on your head? Well,
you've never been bald if you don't know the answer to that
question. But apparently, it's according to God's order. Now,
if he sees to those things, what about greater things than that,
huh? Your eternal soul, the provisions
for this life and so forth. Be glad because of his judgments.
That's what that means. He's dealing with everything.
He's taking care of everything. He judges people unrighteously. Now here, verse 12, now let's
take a walk. Let's walk around this city.
I'm not trying to be clever here at all. This jumped out at me. David said, walk about Zion. Go on, take a walk. Walk about
Zion. Take a little walk. And what
we're going to do as we walk around this city is not only
behold its beauty, but this we're going to see, and this is what
we're going to see most of all. For our peace and for our comfort,
we're going to see that this place is absolutely a fortress. A fortress. I mean, it's impregnable. And that's what we're going to
see. For your comfort, you're going
to see how that God protects this place. All right, let's
take a little walk. Verse 12 says, walk about Zion,
go around the banner, go all the way around her, and he says,
now tell the towers thereof. Can you see David walking around
the city? He's got a tour group. That's
what he's done here, isn't it? He says, look, count the towers. tell that what that may be. Scripture
says God he might tell the stars that is he counts. He says just
look at those towers. Look at those towers. Now a tower these towers around
Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a walled city was
a walled city. That's what bulwark is a wall.
But it was a walled city with towers set around in the wall. And what these towers were, were
huge stone structures. Have you ever seen in any of
these big places, if you go over to China, the Great Wall of China,
what you'll see in various places in those walls is huge towers.
Those things are massive, big, square towers, broader at the
base and getting narrower. Huge stone structures built on
the rock. They build those big towers on
the rock. They're built from the rock.
Those towers are always built from the rock. of rock, of stone,
on the rock. And those big towers, if you
look at them, as I said, they're impregnable. That is, I mean,
nobody can tear them down. They're fortresses, they're immovable,
and they're high and lofty. Those towers go way above the
city. They're high and lofty habitations
that overlook the whole He said, count them. There's
three, and I want you to behold them. Three. Representing our
triune God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Surrounding His people. Who's
going to get near us? Who's going to come by us? There
they are. There they stand. God is our refuge, David wrote,
our fortress, our salvation, our high tower. Our high tower. I told you about when I used
to work on the railroad, used to make a run from Russell,
Kentucky to Columbus, Ohio all the time. That was our average
or our everyday run, 113 miles. And I knew every cross tie by
name after a while. At any rate, when we get into
the yard at Columbus, Ohio, there was a place that rose above the
whole yard. And it was called the High Tower.
That's what we called it, High Tower. And we'd have to get permission
from the High Tower. to come into that place. We'd
have to get permission to move that train. They'd tell us to
stop. They'd tell us to go. They'd tell us to stop. They'd
tell us to come in. They'd tell us to get off. They'd tell us
to get off from the high tower. That rings a bell. So many times
asking the high tower for permission. But everything we receive from
our hand, every good and perfect gift comes from our high time. Is that a good illustration?
I don't know if it is or not. But everything we receive, we receive
from above. We have to ask permission to
come into this place. We have to ask permission.
He tells us to go. He tells us to come. And we come.
Turn to Isaiah 26 with us. Isaiah 26. I looked up at least
a dozen scriptures concerning these towers. And I had to choose
one, just one. I wanted to read them all. Isaiah 26, I can count several
more towers. He said count, count them all. There's three at least. There's
12 around the city. You count 12 towers? Watch towers. A tower is also a place where
men sat up in these towers to watch. Watch for the enemy. Watch over the people. Watchtower. Watchmen. Who was it that said
that? Habaka. Watchmen. One of the
night. He's up in that tower. I used
to live out in the country. I mean really out in the country.
By myself in a little A-frame cabin in the woods. And up on
top of the mountain Well, if you look up on top of a grassy
hill, way up on top of the mountain, you'll see one of these watchtowers. Somebody was asking me the other
day, what is that? That's where men used to sit in those towers
all day and all night and watch for fires. It's a fire lookout. Well, it was one of those where
I lived and I wasn't supposed to. I used to like to always
go up and sit in that tower, that watchtower. Oh, you could
see everywhere. You could see danger approaching.
Watchmen, what a night. There are many watchmen in the
city. Watchmen. And those twelve apostles, there's
twelve of them. The prophets. And God has raised
up many more. Watchmen. Look at, did I say
twenty-six? Well, let's just read it. I meant
sixty-two. Look at this. In that day shall this song be
sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. God will
appoint for walls and bulwarks. These high towers is what I wanted
to read. Over in Isaiah 62, it says, verse 6, it says, I set
watchmen upon the walls. Watchmen up in these towers,
which shall never hold their peace day or night. They warn,
they prove, they rebuke, they instruct. Those that make mention
of the Lord, they don't keep silent. Never. Until the Lord
comes. Until the Lord comes. And then that's when they're
going to cry, here he comes. He's coming. He's here. Go back to
the text. But these watchtowers, I can
count a lot of them. Can you? Watchtowers. Sixty-six of them at least. OK. All right, he says, you count
on the towers there. Look at those towers. Aren't
they marvelous? And he says in verse 13, Mark, you wail her
bulwarks. Mark, you wail, if you have a
marginal reference, what does it say? He says, set your heart
to it. That is, take this to heart,
take heart. In other words, take heart, fearful
believer, take courage, fearful believer. I want you to look
at those walls. Look at those walls around this
city. Now, this is a fact. They did some archaeological.
The walls that are over there now are not the original wall,
but they did some excavation. Is that it? And down, and they
went down, and they found some of the original wall, and you
have thick, 14 feet thick. 14 feet thick. No errors will come through. The description of the new Jerusalem
describes the walls that I forget how high they were something
like a hundred and forty five feet. How high were they? Do
you remember? A hundred and... I forget how
high they were. And nobody could climb over them.
In other words, this place is surrounded by these huge, fortress-like
walls set for our defense. And there in Isaiah 26, I got
my references in the wrong places. In Isaiah 26, he said that. That's
what he said. These walls, God has set salvation
for walls and bulwarks. That's what the word bulwark
is, a wall. These walls are our salvation. This is a symbol of our salvation,
these walls, our defense. And says, though, to keep you
in perfect peace if you if you if you dwell there. If you mark
well. Now you tell me, people, those
of you who dwell in Zion. Tell me. How has the Lord protected you
up to this point? Hmm? How has he surrounded you? How has he encompassed you about
it? How has he? You say, well, Joe was a righteous man. So are you. You're in Christ.
It said Satan wanted to get at Joe, but Satan. Now I catch a
smile at Satan's rage, Martin Luther. Satan said, I can't get
to him. He wanted to get out of jail.
He said, I can't get to him. You put a wall around him. I
can't touch him. You say the word and I'll touch him. I'll
get to him. God doesn't have to do this for
nothing. Now, even though he touched his body and all his
worldly goods, he can't touch him. See, salvation's up here. His soul is in God's hands. If God said that well, don't
touch His person. You can't have Him. You might have everything,
take everything away from Him, but you can't have Him. He's
mine. We're encompassed about with
salvation, edged about, a walled city. That's what Zion is. Verse
13 in our text says, mark it well. Take it to heart. Take
it to heart. Consider her palaces. I've got
to quit. Consider her palaces. In this
city are many dwelling places. Now, if it weren't so, we'd be
toast. That's right, many. The Lord
who counts the stars. Listen to this for your comfort.
The Lord who can count the stars, who knows them all by name. He
says, in my Father's house are many. mansions. How high can you count? You'll
have to stop eventually, won't you, John? When God says many, that's many. Well, you reckon there's room
for... I reckon there's many. Many. Palaces in the Father's
house are many palaces, as in any beautiful city, and many
beautiful dwellings. I wish we had time to consider
how all of these palaces that go into some of these palaces,
how they represent different aspects of our Lord's character,
the palace called beautiful. John Bunyan has messages on this. His books are that thick. Read
them. The palace is called beautiful.
The palace is called goodness. Go in that place. Consider, look
around that place a while. Just behold everything, the goodness
of the Lord. Go in the palace called mercy.
Go back through your life and look at God's mercy. The palace called truth. The
palace called justice. The palace called love. The palace
called mercy, grace. The palace called kindness. forbearance,
and on and on. All these aspects of Christ's
beautiful character, but these also represent the inhabitants
of that city. Each one is a tabernacle made
by God. You, you're the temple of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And each one It's a glorious
place built by God. Let's just consider just a moment,
OK? Just a few. Would you like to
talk to Abraham? Anybody? Would you like to sit down and talk to
Abraham? What an incredible man. That's just one. Joseph, anybody? Would you like to talk to Joseph
Jennings? Oh, I'd love to talk to you.
David. You'd like to sit down with David.
Just hear him sing. Would you like to hear David? Gabriel, would you like to hear
David lay on his heart and sing Psalm 51? Or sing Psalm 24? Wouldn't you like to hear that?
Wonderful man. I mean, a wonderful man. He's
God's man. What about Paul? What about Mary? What about Lydia? What about Ellen? Linda? There's places up there with
this name, these names. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
palaces, tabernacle temples. God made them that way. He built them that way. He made
them that way. He says, you mark it well. Consider her palace.
Consider these people. Consider the Lord. Consider his
people. Consider them well. Take it to
heart. You won't be there, but you might tell it to the generations
to come. Tell our children. Tell it to our children. Keep
telling it. Vicki, where is she? She's in the nursery. Keep telling
it. Hey, Vicki! Deborah, keep telling it. The
same thing, until someday God gives them eyes to see, ears
to hear, ears to hear. Behold the beauty of the Lord,
to inquire into his temple. Mandy, keep telling them. Keep
telling them. Keep telling them. Tell the generation. Because this God, this God, not another, but this
God is our God. Except the Lord built the house
by labor and vain. This God who built this, who
builds us up, this most holy thing, is our God for how long? Forever and ever. And I love,
don't you love where it says God will rejoice over his people,
that God will dwell with them there. Forever and ever, he'll
be our guide. I told you he's judging everything
about it. He's our guide, even unto death,
guiding us. People don't want to be a puppet,
do they? People that hate God's sovereignty, that's what they
argue. You make man out to be a puppet. Do you want God holding
on to you or what? Do you want God to let go of
you? Call it a puppet if you will. If I'm cut off from him, I'll
fall. Just like a puppet. If I'm not
drawn with cords, Words of love. Words of a man. I'm cut off for
a moment. I'm left to myself for a moment.
Ask David. Ask Peter. Ask them all. I'll
be God's puppet. How about you? It says the steps
of a good man are ordered by the Lord. He'll be our guide. Don't go there. Don't go there.
And whenever he lets us go, we're good. If we wander, it's far
good to show us that if left to ourselves, that if he doesn't
guide us, we'll fall. But he's our guide, even unto
death. And I like this thought. He'll guide us through that.
He'll guide us through that. Because the Lord, the Hebrew
says, he came and was partaker of flesh and blood that the children,
who all their lifetime were subject to fear, fear of death, And he
might deliver them. And the disciples were so worried
when the Lord told them he was going to die. They were so worried
that they'd never see him again. He said, don't worry. And he
went to the grave and came out of the grave and said, don't
worry. I went in there. You don't need
to fear that, because you're going to walk out just like I
did. You're going to walk in through the veil into the other
side. Would you like to go in the Holy of Holies? You just
got to go through the veil. The veil of tears, the shadow
of death, into the Holy of Holies. And God is right there. No sorrow. Stand with me. Stand with me. Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God. He whose word cannot be broken
formed thee for his own. On the Rock of Ages, on the Rock
of Ages founded, what can shake our sure repose? With salvation,
with salvation's walls surrounded, thou canst smile at all thy foes. You need to go learn that, don't
you? All right, you're dismissed.