I really had a reason for wanting
to sing that hymn. I knew we didn't really know
it. But if you'll turn back there, I want you to look at that first
verse. 666. Jesus, where'er thy people
meet. And not only turn there, but
turn back also to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter 5. Now, we read in our reading in
Acts 7, where Stephen refers back to something that we read
in Exodus 3. And that is where God speaks
to Moses out of that burning bush and tells him, that the
ground whereon he stands is holy ground." And I'll go ahead and
read also here in Joshua 5, beginning in verse 13, where it says, "...and
it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted
up his eyes and looked, And behold, there stood a man over against
him, with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto
him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay." I like the
way that answer comes. Are you for us or are you for
them?" He said, no. But as the captain of the host
of the Lord, am I now come? And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my
Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
hosts said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so."
You're standing on holy ground. This hymn says, Jesus, where'er
thy people meet, there they behold thy mercy seat, where'er they
seek thee, thou art found, and every place is hallowed ground."
Recently, a lady, a dear lady, bless her heart, told me about making a trip to
the Holy Land. She suggested to me that I really
needed to go to the Holy Land. You see, men refer to that piece
of land where on dwells the earthly nation Israel, and that surrounding
area as the holy land. And not only that, but they also
have lots of places and lots of buildings and lots of shrines
and things of that nature that they call holy places. But what constitutes a holy place? What is holy ground? Well, in light of what we find
in this book, I have to conclude this one thing. And that is, a place is holy
only if God is there. Not was there, but is there. As a matter of fact, wherever
he was and lives, that place becomes virtually, according
to him, Ichabod. That means the glory of God has
departed. And that is never determined
by what one individual says, preacher or person, But that
is only determined by the reality of this. Has God really departed
this place? Is God really in this place? And especially as we see here
in our two illustrations with Joshua and also with Moses, God
as He is in Christ. Who is that speaking out of that
burning bush? But the angel of the Lord, the
messenger of the Lord Jehovah, Christ. Who is this captain of
the Lord's host that Joshua falls down before and worships? He is the pre-incarnate Christ. And not only that, but we have
also in that tabernacle that God established, that was in
the very midst of it a place that was called The holy place. The holy of holies. Why was that place any different
from any other place in that desert? Well, God, when He gave
instruction to Moses to create it, to set it up, He said this,
"...and there I will meet with you, and I will commune with
thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims
which are upon the ark of the Testimony." So that's a holy
place because God said, I'll meet there. I'll meet with my
people there. And then also in that earthly
temple, that God instructed Solomon to raise up for the worship of
God, in that place there was also the holy place. And this is the description of
it. In 2 Chronicles it says, "...and
the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and the censers
were pure gold, and the entry of the house, the inner doors
thereof, for the most holy place, and the doors of the house of
the temple were of gold." There was a holy place in that temple. And then when you think about
it, according to what we read in this book, we know that heaven
right now is a holy place and holy ground for this reason. The psalmist said, the Lord is
in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold His eyelids try
the children of men." It's a holy place. Not just simply some fantasy
or some myth, but an actual place, and it's holy because God is
there. But what is the spiritual picture
in all these things? Why does God record these things
in this book for us? What do they typify and picture? And what is the benefit of our
studying them and finding out, if God will enable us, what they
mean? They show that the only way that
God can meet a sinner in mercy and in grace is in that which
was pictured in this holy place. The only way. That is, God could
speak to that sinful man Moses, And God could speak to that sinful
man Joshua, and God could speak to that people of Israel and
be spoken to them only in what's represented here. And the only
way that God can forgive our sins, and the only way that He
can commune with us, and the only way that He can receive
us into His presence, the only way that anyone ever truly worships
Him on this earth is in a God-appointed, God provided sacrifice. In other words, once a year,
in that holy place of the tabernacle and temple, that high priest
would go in to that holy place with a sacrifice of blood representing
the people and come before God. Sprinkle that blood on the mercy
seat. That's the only way. That was the center of their
worship. That was the picture of God's
grace and mercy to sinners. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world and began His public ministry, the One
who was to be His forerunner, the One who was to announce the
Messiah, when He first saw Him, He said, Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world." He could have said, Behold the King. Some already have. He could have
announced Him in a multitude of other different titles and
names, and all of them have been true. But when he comes and begins
that public ministry, he is recognized in the glory of his character
as the Redeemer and Savior of his people in the only way they
can be saved. He's the Lamb of God. And in that holy place, as we
read, was this ark of the testimony And on the top of that box, overlaid
with gold, was that lid that was particularly called the mercy
seat. And it was by its very name,
by that name, mercy seat, a propitiatory, that is the place where the propitiatory
sacrifice is offered. that which will turn away the
wrath of God, that which will restore the sinners who are represented
there to the favor of God, that which will turn away His wrath
and remove their guilt in the matter of their sins. That's
what that was. And that's the only ground upon
which God could accept them, forgive them, look upon them
in favor, bless them, all these things. And it was there that
that high priest would take the blood of that sacrifice God ordained
and appointed and provided, and he would walk in and sprinkle
that blood, I think it was seven times, on that lid of gold. Why blood? Why always blood? When you read this book from
cover to cover, it is always about blood. God established
that in the very beginning. He said, you'll not eat or drink
the blood of a creature, especially a man, because the life is in
the blood. The life. is in the blood. So, the blood shed, the blood
sprinkled, represented a life that was poured out, and in the
case of Christ, the only one that God could accept was His
sinless life. Perfection. You see, God said,
for it to be accepted, all your offerings, they have to be perfect
to be accepted. He'll not accept a penny in payment
for a dollar. He'll not accept imperfection
in payment to perfection. It has to be perfect to be accepted. And here is the perfect blood
of this sinless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, offered
in a picture. Because the soul that sins, you
ever sinned? The soul that sins, God said,
shall surely die. You got no place for restoration
by what you do? There's no means, there's no
rule, there's no way of undoing what has been done. There's no
ability in you and I to redo or to do better any of these
things. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. The wages of our sin, he said,
is death. And so the only way that we could
ever be accepted by God is through this sinless, perfect sacrifice
through and by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what would
have happened if Christ, as God manifests in the flesh, If He
had come into this life and been born and lived and walked as
the perfect example for us, if He had gone on and taught exactly
the very truth of God in every way, if He had done all the miracles
and all the good and then ascended back into glory, what would have
happened to us? We'd all die in our sins. Because
it takes more than just a good example, or a better environment,
or a strengthening of our flesh. It takes more than that. Sin
is done. The law can do nothing but curse
us, and it has. But it says, he was made a curse
for his people. Why? Because cursed is every
one that hangeth on a tree. And so Paul, when he writes to
the Colossians, he says in the first chapter concerning Christ,
he says, having made peace, how can you go in that holy place?
How can you stand in the presence of God? I remember riding along
when I was a boy, and you'd see a sign every once in a while
that says, make peace with God. And I'd hear people talking about,
oh, so-and-so lived a rough life, but we're glad he made his peace
with God before he died. No, he didn't. Because you and
I can't make peace. We don't have anything to offer
God. We don't have anything that will
satisfy His offended justice, His broken law. We're guilty
in every sense. He says the whole world is guilty
before Him, in ourselves. So what is Christ, who was pictured
in that holy place in every way, His cross, death, what was He
doing? Well, Paul says, "...and having
made peace through the blood of His cross." This isn't something
that we do, it's something that He did. It's not something that
we can do, it's something that only He could do. And He made
peace by the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself. That holy place represented the
only way that a sinner could ever have peace with God, and
the only way that God could be a God of peace to them. Christ
made peace by the blood of His cross. As a matter of fact, in
Hebrews, He says it this way, and for by one offering, not
by your offerings or my offering, but by one offering, that is,
the offering of his own body on that tree, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." You can't
even worship God. We could sing perfectly, and
I think sometimes the Lord deals with me, He just lets me mess
up because I want everything to go really nice, I want everything
to sound good, I want it to be biblical, I want us to honor
God, I want everything right. But every time invariably I'll
mess up in some way. Why? He says, because we have
this treasure, this treasure of the gospel, we have it in
earthen vessels. We're nothing but clay pots so
that the glory might go to God and not of us. This is all about
Christ. This is all about His cross.
This is all about His blood and His righteousness. I want you
to turn over to Luke chapter 18. Because in Luke chapter 18,
there is a man, actually there is two men, and they are both
come into the temple for the purpose of worshiping God. Look over in Luke 18 at verse
9. It says that the Lord Jesus spake
this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they
were righteous, and despised others." They trusted. He knew
that they did, like every other fallen son and daughter of Adam,
if left to themselves. They trusted in themselves that
they were righteous. When we trust in ourselves that
we're righteous, we're just like all these Pharisees, we kind
of look down at others. It says, "...and they despised
others." Now listen, "...two men went up into the temple to
pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican." Just an
old ordinary bowel man, maybe a tax collector, something like
that. It says, they went up to the temple to pray. They went
up to worship God, supposedly. And it says, the one a Pharisee
and the other a Republican. And the Pharisee, this religious
man, outwardly moral and in the eyes of man impeccably clean,
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank
Thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. I'm just glad that I'm not like
other men. But now I want you to listen.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much
as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner." He didn't feel worthy, being
the sinner that he was, even to lift up his eyes toward heaven. He's so convicted of what he
is in himself that he smites himself on the breast, hating
the very flesh that so consumes him, hating all his sin, and
crying out to God, God be merciful. You know what that means? Go
home and search out in a concordance somewhere or a Greek concordance
or something like that. And what you'll find out is that
this man is saying, God, be propitious toward me, the sinner. God, have mercy on me. on the
basis of the only way you can have mercy on sinners. God be
at peace with me on the only basis that you can be at peace
with sinners and them with you. And that is through that sacrifice,
that Messiah, that Christ that you've appointed and who's come
into this world. Now you listen. This isn't me
pronouncing what I think is my opinion concerning these men.
This is what Christ said. He said, I tell you, this man,
He went down to his house justified, that is, declared righteous,
accepted by God on the basis upon which he sought to be accepted,
that he sought to be righteous before God, which was through
that propitiatory sacrifice that God has provided. He said that
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." He said, God, have mercy upon me. On that one way, that one basis,
that one ground that you established before the world began, that
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that Lamb that
was pictured in the blood whereupon you met and forgave sinners,
there in that holy place and on that holy ground. And so our
Lord, through the Apostle John, writes in 1 John 9 and 10, He
says this, same thought, "...in this was manifested the love
of God toward us." We think things like this, well, the Lord gave
me a good family, He's blessed me, He must love me. The Lord
has given me long life, or good health, what all these things,
He must love me. But the truth is, there will
be a multitude of people who have possessed these things,
and more who will perish." He said in this, was manifested
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. And herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son the propitiation for our sins. He's the one that all
these figures, and all these sacrifices, and all these priests,
and all this blood, He's the one that they all pointed to
as the one way wherein God has demonstrated His saving, redeeming
love to His people. That's the holy ground. But,
is there on earth, right now, in our day, a holy place? Yes, there is. And for the same reason. Turn over to the Gospel of Matthew,
Matthew chapter 18. Because the Lord, in the midst
of determining all these things as to how we're to deal with
all the situations that might arise in the church, He sets
forth a clear, unchanging principle. And that is in verse 20. He says,
"...for where two or three," are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them." Whatever he's describing here,
you can count on it. That's holy ground. He says,
where two or three are gathered in my name, there I'll be in
the midst also. Now, what does he mean, first
of all, by, in my name? Literally, it's something like
this, into my name, or with love to me, or in union with me, or
acting for my glory, or by my authority, my authority. The word church in the New Testament,
is that Greek word, ekklesia. You know what it means? It doesn't
mean a building. Oh, we got a beautiful church.
That's not the church. Ekklesia means a called-out assembly. That's why Christ said, I'll
build my church. Made up of living stones. This called out assembly, he
says, where two or three are gathered in my name, we see that
God's presence and holy ground is not dependent on large numbers. We've got to have so many thousands. We've got to have so many people. We've got to have such big buildings
and all these things. You see, men go by this rule. And their rule is, the more that
is in number, the more evidence it is that God is in the midst. I heard a man, a very irreligious
man, I heard him in a restaurant, the other week, and he was talking
about somebody that he spoke of as having gotten religion. And he says, now he thinks he's
right about everything. And he said, just think about
it. He said, here's a million people over here that think this
way, and now he comes along and he thinks the opposite way, and
he thinks all them people are wrong. His whole principle was
that the greater the number, the more likelihood that it's
right. That is contrary to this whole
book. Many are called, but few are
chosen. The whole antediluvian human
race, with the exception of eight souls, perished under God's judgment,
the flood. You see, these who are the people
of God, they are those who assemble. That's why the Apostle says,
forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as some
have done and are doing. He said, but even the more as
the day approaches. Why? Because you'll need it more. You'll need it personally more
as you go on in this life. You'll need it personally more
as the day of death approaches. You'll need it personally more
as the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus approaches closer
and closer. You see, the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ assembles. They're a called-out assembly.
They're a body. But now listen. He says, it isn't
that this gathering of men on their own makes it holy ground,
it says they're gathered. You see that? Where two or three
are gathered, not where two or three just gather. There are
a lot of people in this world, they got a notion that if they
build a building or rent a storefront building or something, get them
a preacher and they'll just start having services, God's guaranteed
He'll meet with them. That's not what it says. These
people are gathered. They're the gathered lost sheep,
you remember? They're the gathered people that
have been scattered to the four winds of the earth. They've been
gathered by the Spirit of God who's the great assembler of
the church. That's why I don't like the term
church planting. I don't really have a lot against
those who use that term, but church planting, you just think
about that. We don't plant churches, we sow seed. We preach the gospel. The Lord is the builder of the
church, and He says upon this foundational truth, which is
He Himself, He'll build His church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against Him. He's going to gather all His
sheep. The Holy Spirit is the gatherer of the church. He's
the assembler of God's people. They always have some kind of
ad in Saturday's paper a lot of times. They'll say, be sure
to attend the church of your choice. There's just one true
church and it's God's choice. Do we understand that? In Genesis
49, it speaks in that blessing that Jacob gave to Judah. He said that the lawgiver, royal
persons, would not depart from Judah's knees, from between his
knees, which was in his posterity, till Shiloh come." Do you know
what Shiloh means? Peace. That's a reference to
Christ. That's a reference to the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know what the next words
are? And to Him shall the gathering of the people be. We don't gather
around a particular isolated doctrine. We don't gather around
a particular way of carrying on services. We don't gather
around a particular denominator. We gather around Christ. Because
he said, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
by my authority, by my gathering, there I'll be in the midst. My
friend, that's holy ground. It may be in an old schoolhouse. It may be out in a building that
was converted to a house that was converted to a meeting place.
It may be, and most likely will be, places obscure and outwardly
unfavorable as far as natural man thinks. But the thing that
makes it holy is His presence. That's Emmanuel's land. God. with us. And if we didn't have
anything else to show the deity of Christ, that would be sufficient.
He promises here that He will be with these small isolated
groups that He gathers together His people, and the only way
that He could do that is to be omnipresent, and the only way
He could be omnipresent is to be God. Holy Grail. How can we know that we're gathered
by the Holy Spirit? He is the assembler of the church. He is the One who brings forth
this effectual call whereby His people are brought to Christ
and whereby they are brought to assemble to worship and glorify
Christ and to be with the people of Christ. He is the One that
establishes in a place amidst the people this holy ground. How do we know that we are gathered
by the Spirit of God? Well, we are not emphasizing
the The marriage amendment, I can tell you that this morning. What
determines whether or not a people are gathered by the Spirit of
God? Well, is the true gospel of the grace of God in Christ
crucified preached? What's the emphasis? Is it how
many who had a birthday today or last week? If you had a birthday,
happy birthday, but that's not it. Is it so we can recognize
simply those who are sick or those who need prayer and things
like that? That's wonderful. That's not
what we gather around. Is Christ alone continually and
clearly set forth as the only Savior The only propitiation,
the only righteousness, the only sacrifice, the only way to God,
the only truth, the only life. Are men and women told what they're
to do? How they're to live? Or are they
told about the one whose life? You can't read this book without
finding out how believers are to live. Every chapter has something
about what we're to be and to do as the Lord's people, but
it's always in the context of the gospel. We're to be these
people and we're to do these things, not in order to gain
the favor of God, but because He's already freely and lovingly
given to us these things. How do we know? Because this
is what our Lord said. He said, when He, the Spirit
of Truth, is come, He said, I've got to go away. It's expedient
for you if I go away. But if I go away, I'll not leave
you comfortless, I'll send a comforter to you, the Spirit of Truth. When He, the Spirit of truth,
has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak
of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak,
and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify For he
shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you all things that
the Father hath of mine. Therefore said I, that he shall
take of mine, and show it unto you." That's my best time. That's my most wonderful time,
where Paul says that God has given us this spirit of revelation. He's given us this gospel that's
good news and glad tidings that we might know the things that
are freely given unto us of God. He said the natural man doesn't
want to hear that, but the Lord's people do. The Lord's people
want to hear about Christ. In that tabernacle, When Moses
got it set up, and of holies that holy ground in the midst
of it was established, it says that the glory of God filled
the place. When Solomon was finished with
the building of the temple, everybody had to get out of the temple
because the Shekinah glory of that place, God's manifest presence,
like a cloud fill that place. But He manifest His presence
around Christ in this redemptive character as a Lamb, a sacrifice,
a bloodshed that God had provided, provided for Himself first, that
He might be satisfied in the matter of His justice and the
Savior of His people. Peter said, brethren, you know
that all these things, they never saved us. That our fathers with
tabernacle and temple, they never saved us. We're not redeemed
by those corruptible things, not by that blood, nor by those
silver and gold coins that were used to picture it, but we're
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot." God is in that place, however lowly
it might be. And among that people, no matter
how poor and how considered the offscouring of this earth they
might be, when He gathers them together around the gospel that
gives Him all the glory, that exalts His Son, our Savior, as
central and chief among all things, and where His people recognize
that they can only come before God, only be accepted by God,
only be forgiven by God, only be blessed by God. only have
eternal life from God through and by Christ and Him crucified. My friends, that's holy ground.
That's the only holy ground there is on this earth, because that's
where God dwells, in the midst of His people. Let them have
their high towers and cathedrals and all the religious paraphernalia
of religion. But let me worship God. Let me
sing about Christ. Let me lift up my heart and pray
to Him who is God our Savior. Let me approach Him in Christ. And if He makes us to know His
presence, and He bears witness to the truth of His gospel, if
He gets all the glory to Himself, Christ will fulfill that promise. He has fulfilled it, if that
happens. Brothers and sisters, that's
holy ground. That's the holy ground, this
side of the eternal holy ground, which is in the presence of God,
in heaven, worlds without end. Father, we pray this morning
that we might be found among those who worship You in spirit
and in truth. Those who have no confidence
in any outward fleshly thing, but those who rejoice in the
Lord Jesus Christ and His cross death. We thank you for your
mercy in this place. We thank you for your darling
Son, for His having loved us and given Himself for us. All
that is in Him is truly the holy ground. And when you meet with
us, bless us through your gospel, we know that He's in our midst.
May all honor and glory at all times and in all things be to
you alone. For we ask it and we pray in
Christ's name. Amen.