Psalm 84. I titled the message
this evening, The Importance of Public Worship. I know that my life, wholly and
completely, as the pastor here, revolves around our public worship. And I wish that I could express
to us all how truly important public worship is. Our private
reading of God's Word. And our prayer and meditation
are very important, but not as important as public worship.
Private worship can never replace public worship. And I want to
give you a few reasons why I say that. Number one, because Christ
is present in public worship. He promised where two or three
are gathered together in his name, there he'd be in the midst
of the evening. He didn't promise that about
private worship. Remember Revelation chapter one,
the Apostle John saw the Lord in the midst of the seven candlesticks,
which he tells us represent the churches. Christ is in the midst
of his church, the public worship. Secondly, public worship is so
important because the Savior is confessed before men publicly. We attend the public worship
service. We're publicly confessing before our children, before our
families, before our brethren. I need to worship the Lord. I
need to be here to hear from the Lord. Thirdly, public worship
is important because it's the most like heaven. It's the most
like heaven you ever get here on earth. In heaven, the whole
church will be gathered together at once. And what will they be
doing? Worshipping the Lord. Everybody
wants to talk about mansions in heaven. Nobody's worshiping
privately mansions in heaven. They're gathered together publicly
around the throne, seen worthy as the lamb. Fourthly, public
worship makes us well taught and is the best prevention there
is for apostasy. You know, when a person forsakes
public worship for long periods of time, apostasy, denying the
gospel, denying Christ, is sure to follow. And then fifthly,
Sheep are fed in public worship. Sheep are not privately fed in
individual little pens. They're fed together in the green
pastures. And that's what the public worship
service is, is for the feeding of the sheep. Charles Spurgeon
called this Psalm 84, the Pearl of Psalms. He said it's the most
sweet of the Psalms of peace. Well, I'll tell you where that
peace is found. It's through the preaching of
Christ's crucifixion. And when David here talks about
the tabernacles, what he's talking about is the places of public
worship. So I want us to look at this
psalm and see why these places of public worship are so important
to us. First, public worship is important
because the souls of God's people are fed through public worship. Verse one, how amiable are thy
tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God." That word amiable means loved. Davis
says, I love the house of the Lord because that's where my
soul is fed. He said, my soul longeth for
the living God. He said, my soul faints for the
courts of the Lord. Sounds like a hunger man, doesn't
it? His body, just like a physical body, longing, crying out for
food. I'm fainting with hunger. That's
what he's saying spiritually. The word long that he uses here
means pale. Every once in a while, Jan will
look at me and she says, you look pale. Want me to get you
something to eat? Want me to get you something to drink? When
somebody looks pale, you need something to eat. David says
spiritually, I'm pale. I need something to eat. And
the word fainted he uses means to expire. He's I'm about to
die of hunger. My soul needs to be fed in the
courts of the Lord. So David's saying, I need to
hear the gospel. I've got to have it. Our bodies
tell us when we need food, don't they? Your body has a good way
of telling you, I'm hungry, I need food. And when that happens,
our bodies are fed food. Our bodies are fed through the
mouth. Well, the believer's soul will tell us that we need to
be fed too. And our soul longs for Christ. And I tell you how
our souls are fed. It's through the ear. By hearing
of Christ, by hearing the gospel preached. Nothing will satisfy
the believer's hunger like hearing of Christ, the bread of life.
Nothing will satisfy the believer's thirst, his soul thirst, like
hearing of Christ, the water of life. Christ is preached in
a place of public worship. The meal's been prepared. Come
and eat. Look at Psalm 107. If you come
and eat, your soul will be satisfied. Satisfied with good things. Psalm
107 verse 9. For he satisfieth the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. He satisfies the
longing soul. He fills that hungry soul with
the goodness of the gospel. And that's why David said, I
love thy tabernacles. You know, the tabernacle in the
wilderness was not a beautiful building at all. And that was
on purpose by God's design. It was not from the outside to
look like a beautiful building at all. The beauty of the tabernacle
is found on the inside. It's just like this building.
This building's not much to look at, is it? But by God's grace,
the beauty is the message is preached. By God's grace, the
gospel is preached here. And that makes this place beautiful
to the hungry soul. This is where the gospel is preached,
where your soul can be fed, hearing Christ, how there's forgiveness
of sin, how there's life in him. All right, number two, public
worship is important because public worship is the place where
the defenseless find rest. Verse three. Yea, the sparrow
hath found a house, and a swallow a nest for herself, where she
may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King
and my God." Now, is anything more insignificant than a sparrow,
a swallow or a sparrow? Our Lord said, are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing? I mean, they're almost worthless,
aren't they? But you know what else the Lord
said? Two sparrows, soul for father, think they're worthless,
but your father knows every time one of them falls to the ground.
The Lord knows and he cares about his insignificant people who
in this world, the world thinks they're insignificant. And those
insignificant defenseless people, they can't find any rest out
there in the world. You know where they find rest? In Christ. Where Christ is preached. David
said, the sparrow, she finds a nest for herself and her chicks,
not just in the tabernacle, but a specific place in the tabernacle,
in the altar. That bird goes and makes, how
bold is that? For the bird to fly right up
to the altar and make her nest in the altar. See, God's people
don't find rest in this building, be in this physical place. We
find rest in Christ, our altar. We have an altar. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is the sacrifice and He's
where the sacrifice for sin was offered. And those defenseless,
weak, insignificant people find rest and peace for our souls.
He made peace for us by the blood of His cross. God's insignificant
people find rest in the Lord of hosts. He's my God and my
King. I looked at that and I thought,
isn't that something? Somebody as small and insignificant
as we are can find rest in someone as vast as the Almighty God and
call Him my God and my King. How amazing is it that someone
like Him would think on somebody like us. The only place you find
that out is in the gospel. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but he loved us. Here's how you know God thinks
on his people, and he loves them, and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. You know, last spring, a mama
bird built her nest. Some of you might remember it
in the wreath that was on the front door. And I, she flew,
I was coming in one day, and she just flew out and about hit
me in the face, and I thought, what was that? And I looked,
and I saw this little old nest, these little eggs in there. And
the next, I thought, I'll probably need to do some of that. Well,
the next week I came, she flew out and about hit me again. I
looked in, those chicks had hatched. They were so little, and they
were just there with their mouth open. I could not bring myself to get
rid of that nest and kill those birds. I just could not do it.
I thought something so small, something so insignificant, something
that seems like an irritant, ought to be able to find rest
in the house of God, shouldn't it? I do. I do. Oh, God, do that for me. Give me a place of rest. The place where the gospel is
preached is a place of peace for us. and for our children,
for our chicks. You know, we all want everything
in this world for our children. You want them to have peace of
heart? The only way they can have peace
of heart is by knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Then bring them
to the place where the gospel is preached as often as you possibly
can. This is where God's people have
peace. Thirdly, the place of public worship is so important
because blessed people dwell there. Verse four, blessed are
they that dwell in thy house. They will be still praising thee.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee and whose heart are
the ways of thee. Who is this blessed person Dave
is talking about? It's the person who dwells in
God's house. who stays there and never leaves,
never leaves the place where the gospel is preached. The blessed
person is the person whose strength is in the Lord. The blessed person
is not the person who's strong enough to make his own way to
heaven. That's not the blessed person
at all. The blessed person is the person who has no strength
at all of his own, no spiritual strength whatsoever. And he rests
entirely in Christ. Jan and I just drove out to Arkansas
and back, and I thought, boy, how I'd like just to be able
to fly like Superman, just jump or something, get all the way
there, just like this is so long. No human being is strong enough
to jump from here to there. But if you just sit and rest
in a car or a plane, you can go there and back with no effort
whatsoever. That's what I'm saying. Just
rest in Christ. Just rest in Him. That's the
blessed person. Quit trying to keep the law.
Just rest in Christ. He already kept it for His people.
Quit trying to keep yourself. Quit trying to keep yourself
safe. Quit trying to keep yourself on a straight and narrow. Quit
trying to get yourself to glory. Just trust Christ. He's already
there. And if you believe Him, you are
too. You're already there, seated
with Him in heavenly places. Just rest in Him. And David said,
this blessed person is still praising Thee. I looked at that
and thought, what does that mean? And I think I know what David
meant, but I did see two meanings here. The first is this. The
blessed person is the person who's still, who's quiet, whose
body is not moving, whose mouth is not constantly moving, arguing
and questioning God's word. But they're still. Still. Just believe God and be still.
That's the blessed person. They believe God from the heart.
They're praising God from the heart. And that blessed person
is still. They're still there year after
year after year. They're still there. Praising
God from the heart until they die. They're still there. And I tell you why they're still.
It's because God's ways are in their heart. They've got a new
nature. God's given them a new heart,
a new nature, and it'll never leave him. They're still going
to be there praising God. That's the blessed person. And
you think, well, I can praise God while I'm driving down the
road. I can praise God while I'm out taking a walk. I can
praise God while I'm out fishing. Maybe. But not like while the
gospel is being preached, you can't. That's the blessed person
who's there still hearing the gospel preached and rejoicing
in Christ our Savior. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Public worship is important because
that's where God comforts the hearts of His people. Verse 6,
who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well. The rain
also filleth the pools. Now the valley of Baca is the
valley of tears. And very often God's people travel
through this valley of tears. Seems like seldom we get out
of the valley, do we? And the pools in that valley,
they're never dry, they're always filled. They're filled with the
tears of God's suffering people. This life is just a veil of tears
we pass through, isn't it? And that ought to be expected.
Well, I'll not be surprised. Our Lord told us in the world,
you shall have tribulation. You're passing through this world.
You shall have tribulation. You're going to go through this
valley of Baca. My goodness, is there any comfort
for God's people to be found here? God promised us trouble,
trial, tribulation. He promised us tears and sorrow,
Is there any comfort for me here? Yes, there is. Because right
when our Lord said, in the world you shall have tribulation, he
said next, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. I've
overcome it. Our comfort is hearing about
him who's overcome the world. And God's people are comforted
in the preaching of the gospel. public worship. I've seen it
time and time and time again. It doesn't change the circumstances
now, but it comforts the hearts of God's people. Last Sunday
morning, I preached to a congregation that's suffering. They're suffering
heartbreak. They're suffering sorrow. They're
so sad. The day before, we buried the
pastor's wife. And that pastor and his family
are heartbroken. They're just so sad. And that congregation is broken
hearted. They're so worried about their
pastor. They just want him to be taken care of. They're worried
about themselves. His dear wife did so much for
them in that ministry. Now they believe God. They believe
God. They're not questioning God's
sovereignty or God's will. They believe God. but they're
still broken hearted. Both are true. And they just
don't know. How's it going to go from here? I mean, Kathy did so much for
us. Who's going to fill this void? What's going to happen
to us? There's some broken hearted. I got to preach. I watched. I watched the faces. I watched
my dear friend, Pastor Darden. I watched his face. And as Christ
was preached, you know what I saw? So peace. Peace. They found comfort
in hearing of Christ the Savior one more time. Just tell me one
more time. He saved sinners. Tell me one
more time how He shed His blood to put my sin away. Salvation
is not in me sinning less. It's in His blood that blots
out all my sins. Here I am so broken hearted.
I feel so unfaithful. I feel like my faith is so weak.
Tell me one more time. Salvation is in His faithfulness,
not mine. That He is faithful, that promise. Tell me one more time. That's
where peace is found. Now the sorrow is still there
because the reason for the sorrow is still there. But God's people
have peace of heart when Christ is preached. Because at least
for a little while, you know what we think about? We think
about the glory of the Redeemer, not sorrow, the mess that I'm
in. That's right. They felt encouraged to go back
out in the world again. They went out comforting one
another with these words. Now, I'm back here. Let me tell
you what's going on right now in Arkansas. They're wearing
down. And by next Sunday, they're going
to be comforted again. Verse 7, that's what verse 7
tells us. They go from strength to strength.
They go from company to company, from one place of strength to
another place of strength. Every one of them in Zion appeared
before God. See, this is what we all do.
We go from strength to strength. From one place of strength to
another place of strength. Well, where is it we get our
strength? Where Christ is preached, isn't it? We go from one place
where Christ is preached to the next one. Every believer travels
through a barren, barren wilderness. And the Lord brings us to an
oasis in the middle of that desert, a place where Christ is praised.
And we find comfort and strength for our souls and say, all right,
now I can go on. And off we charge out into the
desert. And it seems like we just barely got enough life left
in us to make it to the next oasis. We've got that water of life.
We've got an abundance of rest and everything that grows in
an oasis. And we find comfort for our hearts.
We find strength to go on. And we go back out in the desert.
Seems like we've just got barely enough life to make it to the
next oasis. We've got to be refreshed again.
And so it goes. And so it goes. Until God calls
us home. And you can rest assured, none
of God's people are going to die out there in the wilderness
between those two oases. Every last one of them will appear
before God. He's going to bring every last
one of them safe to Him. God's people, they need to hear
the gospel preached over and over and over again. The mark
of a believer, a mark of a believer anyway is this, that you just
can't get tired of hearing the same old story. Tell me the old,
old story. Tell me again. The mark of a
believer is, even though I've heard this message before, I
find strength and comfort for my soul in hearing this Christ
again. That's the mark of a believer.
I know I just heard it Sunday. I know Wednesday is just three
days away, but I need to hear it again. I know I just heard
Wednesday, I need to hear it again on Sunday. I mean, Jan
fixed me dinner tonight. Honey, guess what? In the morning
I'm going to be hungry. I need it again. That's going
from strength to strength. One place of strength to another. It's the believer's life just
racing from one oasis to the next. From one place of strength
to the next. Alright, here's the fifth thing.
Public worship is so important because that's where God hears
prayer. Verse 8, O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Now
we know that God always hears the prayers of His people, don't
we? And we're told in Scripture,
pray at all times. Pray without ceasing. Go through
your life praying. You don't even have to move your
mouth. You can do whatever you do, whatever it is. For a job,
you're at school, you can just, thank you Lord. Thank you, Lord.
Lord, keep me. Lord, help me. Lord, look on
me. Believers pray just like the
flesh breathes. It's an automatic response, isn't
it? But there's something special
about public prayer. Now there is. Public prayer is
a difficult thing to do. I'm thankful for the men here
that God's gifted who are able to lead us in prayer. You know, I don't want to embarrass
Eric, but he read back there in the study tonight. My heart's
so blessed. I'm so, oh, this is, I'm prepared
to worship. And public prayer is a very important
part of worship. You know, we read the scripture
and then we pray. Don't ever think that we're doing
this just because, well, this is what we do. This is the form
of worship. And we go to ABC and D and then
we go home. That's not it at all. We can't worship without
prayer. It can't be done. Unless the
Lord gives us a spirit of worship, we cannot worship. Go to the
Lord, pray, and ask Him to give it, don't you reckon? No man
can preach without prayer. Then pray and ask the Lord to
enable His preacher to preach in the power of the Spirit. We
can't hear without prayer. Then pray. Ask God to give a
hearing. Here, He's the one who gives
it, isn't He? Then let's ask Him to give it to me. And I tell
you what, we can't worship the Lord without thanking Him and
praising Him. You do that in prayer, don't
you? Look at Acts chapter 16. I'll show you a perfect example
I'm talking about. Acts chapter 16. Verse 13. And on the Sabbath, we went out
of the city by Riverside where prayer was want to be made. And
we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
Now that makes it sound like here there was no pastor or elder
to preach there. A group of women met to pray.
And you know the Lord answered their prayer. He answered their
prayer. There's a woman named Lydia.
She's a businesswoman. She is traveling through town
that that very Sabbath and she was She was looking for a place
to worship, and she found this place where prayer was wont to
be made. Verse 14. And a certain woman
named Lydia, the seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which
worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, and she
attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when
she was baptized in her household, she besought us, saying, If you
judge me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and
abide there. And she constrained us. These
women just gathered together to pray. And the Lord answered
their prayer. He saved this woman. He opened
her heart and saved her. Last Wednesday evening, Todd
and Lynn Kniper were in a car wreck on the way to the midweek
service. They're okay, but they were not
able to get to the service on time. They had to clear up whatever
paperwork they had to clear up, get the car towed or whatever
they had to do. They couldn't make it to the service. So one
of the men took the service. Didn't know he was gonna do it
before he got there. Just got a call from Todd, said, we're
in this wreck, we're gonna make it, told him, you take the service.
And so he did. He got up, he told everybody
what happened, he said, this is what we're gonna do. We're
gonna read God's word. And he read God's, he just didn't
make a comment, just read God's word. And led that congregation
to God in prayer. Song leader got up, let him sing
two songs, this man got up, And he read the scripture again.
So let's read God's word. He read it again. And he prayed
again, led the congregation to the Lord in prayer. And everybody
was dismissed. Janet was there. She told me
this story. And she said, you know, that was not what I expected
when I came that night. She said, but I worshipped. I
worshipped. Through prayer and reading God's
word, God answers the prayers of his people in public worship.
6. Public worship is important because
God's people are protected through preaching. Verse 9, back in our
text, Psalm 84, Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the
face of thine anointed. You may remember my opening comments,
I mentioned this matter of apostasy. An apostasy is when a person
claims to believe Christ. They claim to believe the gospel.
But then they eventually turn away from it and they leave it. They always leave it for something
that's opposed to God's free and sovereign grace. And you
know the thought of that scares every believer to death. Does
that scare you? That's a sign of life. Only a
dead person is not scared of that. And we're scared because
I know that's just exactly what I'll do if God let me do it.
I know that. Now, apostasy starts in someone's
heart before, but I can tell you the first sign of it outwardly
is when a person quits attending public worship. It always leads to apostasy. And public worship will protect
our heart from the error of false religion. You know the best defense
against error? The truth. Preaching Christ. will protect our hearts from
idols. And the truth will protect us
at all times, whether you're hot or you're cold. Look at the
beginning of verse 11. For the Lord God is a son and
a shield. David asked the Lord, he said,
this is what you are, but be this for us, be a shield for
your people. Be a shield to give us shade
from the heat of the day. Be a shield to give us shade
when the battle is the hottest. And Lord, you're the sun. Make
your face shine upon your people and warm us in the cold darkness
of this world. Shade us from the heat and be
the sun to shine upon us and warm us. Make your face shine
upon us. For the only place God's face
is going to shine upon The only way we're going to see the glory
of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. He's preached publicly. All right, here's the seventh
thing. Public worship is important because
God blesses his people in public worship. Verse 10. For a day
in thy courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Now the blessing Everybody in
religion wants to be blessed, and I'm certainly all for that. But what do we mean by blessing?
You know, by blessing, they mean give me lots of money, give me
a bigger house, a nicer car, bigger promotion, a better job,
you know, whatever. Those things are all going to
perish with the using. The blessing is seeing Christ. The blessing is seeing His glory. The blessing is hearing Him speak
from His heart to our heart through the Word. David says, I'd rather
be a doorkeeper. Now that doorkeeper doesn't mean,
like every time I read this verse, you know, I think Ron Meadows.
Everybody here thinks Ron Meadows. But this doesn't exactly mean
the job that Ron does for us, opening the door, greeting everybody.
It means the person who sits on the threshold. It means the
lowest servant taking the lowest place, just barely inside the
house on the threshold. If I'm just barely in the house,
just on the threshold, I get a glimpse of Christ. If
I'm just on the threshold, I just hear word from Him. Oh, that's
the blessing. That's the blessing that I want.
David says to have that lowest spot in the house, just to be
barely there on the threshold, I just get a glimpse of Christ.
And if I can just do it for a day, that's better than a thousand
days in the best seat somewhere else where Christ is not. If
just a glimpse of Christ from the threshold, just a glimpse,
if that thrills our soul, what must it be like to get up close
to Him? to see Him face to face, to grow
in grace and knowledge of Him. If it's a blessing to see Christ
through a glass darkly, how much greater blessing is it going
to be if He'd let me see Him more clearly? Well, you know
how we're going to see Him more clearly? You know how we're going
to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ? By hearing Christ
preached in public worship. That's where God blesses His
people with a glimpse of Christ. This is where God blesses His
people by allowing His Word to speak to our hearts. Verse 12,
David says, O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth
in Thee. The person who's blessed is the
person who's been given faith to trust Christ, to believe Him. Well, I want to be that blessed
person, don't you? How do you become this blessed person that
trusts Christ? by hearing Christ preached. Faith cometh by what? Hearing. And hearing by the Word
of God. Now, when we talk about preaching, I'm not just talking
about any preaching. I'm talking about preaching the Word. Preaching
the Word. There was a woman visiting where
I preached out in Arkansas last week. She came up to me and she
grabbed hold of my arms and she said, that was good preaching. She said, I don't have any good
preaching where I'm at. And I said, well, I'm sorry to
hear that. I feel bad. I don't know what I should have
said. It just took me by surprise. I thought she went there all
the time. I didn't know. But I thought, well, honey, go someplace
where you can find good preaching that preaches the word. Faith
cometh by hearing. You're not going to be blessed
someplace they're not preaching. Faith cometh by hearing. All
right, last. Public worship is so important.
Because this is where God gives grace and glory. Verse 11. For the Lord God is a sun and
shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly. God gives grace and glory. He
gives grace. Through the preaching of Christ,
He's the fountain of all grace. We can't talk about grace without
preaching Christ, can we? He's the fountain of it all.
He's the reason for it all. Listen now, this is a sure promise
of God. God will give grace and glory. He'll withhold no good. That
word thing there has been added by the translator. He'll withhold
no good. He will withhold no good from
His people. He will give them grace. He'll
give them saving grace. He'll give them calling grace.
He'll give them regenerating grace and keeping grace. He will
send trials. but He'll give grace for every
trial. It's going to be a long journey. He'll give grace for
every step. Every single step, He'll give
grace. You know how I know that? Because
salvation from beginning to end is all of grace. He will give
grace to His people. And since God is gracious, He
will withhold no good from them. Everything that's good, He'll
give Try to wrap your mind around
that. God gives glory to his people
through the preaching of the gospel. He reveals his saving
glory. He reveals his greatest glory
in showing sovereign mercy to sinners one way, in preaching
Christ. And in that gospel, he tells
them about their end. If you believe Christ, you have
a glorious end. He tells them about the glory
that's reserved for them in heaven. You've got glory reserved for
you with Christ. An inheritance that cannot be
lost. He tells us about it through the preaching of the gospel.
Now be still. Don't leave it. Don't leave it.
Be still. Be still there praising God. And you know that's true for
every... This promise is to every believer. It's wrong, but this is what
we think. I think, well, David is right. David, the man of God's
own heart, the sweet psalmist of Israel, David wrote this. I can see God making this promise
to Moses. He's a friend of God. I can see
this, this, this promise being made to Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob, Paul and Peter and James and John. I can see that. But
this promise is to every Even the one sitting out there on
the threshold. Grace and glory. Grace and glory in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That poor believer sitting out
there on the threshold. With a heart and souls longing
for a glimpse of Christ. Not just going to get a glimpse.
they're going to get grace. Oh, how amiable. Let's bow together
in prayer. Father, we pray that you bless
your word. Bless your word to your glory.
Bless your word to the hearts of your people. Father, how can we thank you
for in your grace, mercy, that you've given us here a tabernacle,
a place where we can come hear the gospel week after week after
week. Father, how we thank you. Oh,
our God, I beg you that you would forgive us if we'd ever take
this glorious privilege for granted. But Father, give us hearts that
burn after you, that burn after your gospel, that would protect
this place There's a place where sinners can come here of the
Savior. Where we can come, where our
children, our grandchildren, where our friends and neighbors,
where people in this community. Father, make this a place where
your word goes forth in power, where your people can come and
find refreshing, find salvation, find food and rest and comfort
and water. Father, bless us for Christ's
sake. It's in His glorious name we pray and give thanks.