Psalm 27. There's nothing else
in this world quite like preaching the Gospel. Everything all week pretty much
leads up to this hour. This building stands because
of this hour. I do all that I do all week.
Pretty much everything for the sake of this hour. And yet I get up here and I'm
not sure I can say what I have to say this morning. I depend
utterly upon the blessing of God for you to get anything from
what's said. We do everything we know to do
to prepare for this hour. But without God's grace and blessing,
it'll be a waste of time. I'm honest with you about that.
It'll be an absolute waste of time. Because, you see, I'm not
here to talk to you this morning about things of this world, however
important they might be or seem. I'm here to talk to you about
the beauty of the Lord. And how do I do that? How do
I do that? How do I speak of the beauty
of God unless somehow He's gracious to us and meets with us. And
like He did those disciples that day when it says, He opened their
understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. I
know what God says about His beauty. It's revealed in word
in this book that we all have. But unless He does something
for us, we're not going to get it. We're not going to get it. David said, one thing have I
desired of the Lord. He talked about his foes here
in the first few verses of this book. I've tried many times to
try to imagine what it would have been like to have been King
David. You and I get up in the mornings,
and we all have different routines. Some of us, you know, we'll go
brush our teeth first thing, or take a shower, or get a cup
of coffee. King David got up every morning
and strapped his sword on and prepared for battle most
of the days of his life. And when he wasn't engaged in
a legitimate battle of some kind with a declared enemy, he was
fleeing for his life. He feared He had so much. We talk about in our day and
age, we're just so busy. The things of God have taken
a back seat. You think King David was busy?
That's not a good excuse, my friends. We've got so much to
do. It's so hard to be faithful to
the worship or to do anything beyond that because we've got
so much to do. King David had quite a bit on
his plate, but he said And I believe he was honest when he said, one
thing have I desired. One thing. And that will I seek after. And
you will too. Whatever it is you desire, you'll
seek after it every day. Whatever it is. Whatever your
treasure is, that's where your heart's going to be. And your
heart's going to turn there when you wake up in the morning. And
it's going to be looking there when you go to bed at night,
whatever that is, whatever your desire is. You're going to seek
after it. And he said, I desire it of the
Lord. God's got to give it to me. Whatever this is, any blessing,
all good and perfect gifts come down from Him. God's going to
have to grant me. He's going to have to will it
and bestow it. But I'm going to seek after it.
I'm going to make it my business to find out if God will give
it to me. You see that? I pray for that kind of heart,
for that kind of undivided, dedicated. Somebody said, no man will ever
succeed at anything until he commits himself to one thing. David said, one thing have I
desired. I envy that. I covet that. by God's grace. And he said, I'm going to look
for it. I'm going to seek after it. I'm going to pursue it. But I might dwell in the house
of the Lord. The house of the Lord. What is the house of the Lord that David wanted to dwell there?
Is it the church building? Was it the temple that they had
built back then? or whatever tabernacle, the place
of worship where they met. The temple hadn't been built.
But the tabernacle? Was it the place of worship?
Some structure made of wood and stone? Well, this is the Lord's
house in a sense. It's dedicated to His worship.
We meet here in His name. It stands for one purpose, and
that's to proclaim the name of the Lord and to worship Him.
But when Solomon David's son aspired to build the temple,
the glorious, beautiful temple. Here's what he said about that
in 2 Chronicles 2. But who is able to build him
a house, seeing the heaven of heavens
cannot contain him? Who am I then that I should build
him a house? You see the The heart that that
comes out of? To build God a house? Listen to the language here.
Who am I then that I should build Him a house, save only to burn
sacrifice before Him? He's saying this is God's house,
this huge, majestic, beautiful, glorious, shining temple. But
it's His house only in this sense. That's where we worship Him.
God doesn't live there. That's where we burn sacrifice.
That's how they worshiped back then. They burned sacrifice.
They brought animal sacrifices and shed blood before the Lord.
And we do, too. You didn't come here this morning
without a sacrifice, did you? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Lamb. You've got no business coming before God without blood,
without a mediator, without a priest. You didn't do that, I know, surely,
this morning. It's save only. We build this
house, this house, and we call it the house of the Lord only
because this is where we worship Him. The heaven of heavens can't
contain our God. So we know that He dwelleth not
in houses made with hands. That's not where David wanted
to live. And wherever this house is, it
has to do with security. It has to do with being hidden
from trouble. Look at verse 5. For in the time of trouble, I
want to live in his house. Why? For in the time of trouble,
he'll hide me there in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. What are you hiding from, David?
The wrath of God? My sin? And the punishment that's
due unto my sin? That's our spiritual enemies.
Sin, self, Satan. God hides us in the tabernacle. Spiritually speaking, our trouble
is very simple, isn't it? David said, in the day of trouble,
God will hide me. What's your trouble? Spiritually
speaking, it's simply this, that we're sinners. That's your problem. That's your problem. You think
you have other problems. You really just have one, and
I do too. Just one. We're sinners. Turn to Psalm
32. Psalm 32 in verse 5. Listen to what David wrote here.
Psalm 32 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity
have I not hid. I recommend that. Be honest before
God. If you just play in church this
morning, be honest before God. Don't try to hide from God. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this
shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when
thou mayest be found. David said everybody that knows
anything about God will pray for this. What? The forgiveness
of sins. That's what he just said. I confessed
my sin for you and you forgave me. And everybody that knows
anything about what God said about me and who He is and how
God deals with sin will pray for forgiveness. Surely in the
floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto Him. that
man, that godly man that prays for forgiveness. Why not? You're
my hiding place. You see what David's talking
about there? He'll hide me. That's where sins are put away,
in that hiding place. We hide from the wrath of God
under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.
Thou shalt compass me about with songs. deliverance. Deliverance from what? That whole
passage is about my sin and God's forgiveness for sin. Deliverance. Psalm 62 7, he said this, in
God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge. My hiding place. My hiding place
is in God. So we dwell in God. He said,
I want to dwell in God's house, where God lives, where God said,
I'll meet with you. I'll meet with you. Not just
in a building with a cross on it. David said he would desire this
one thing for two reasons. Look at verse four again. I've
desired this one thing of the Lord to dwell in his house. Why?
To behold and to inquire. Think about those two things
for a minute. They're really just one. There are things that we behold,
aren't there? There is that beauty of the Lord
that we've seen. Some of you wouldn't be here
this morning if you hadn't seen it, seen what David said, I want
to behold the beauty of the Lord. But we're still inquiring about
it too, aren't we? You see, it has to do with His
beauty. We behold what He's revealed. We behold what we can by His
grace. And even in that which we behold,
we still inquire. We look into, we learn of that
very beauty that we behold. Then there's one more word we
need to look at in this context before we begin the heart of
the message here. One more word. Both beholding
and inquiring are contained in this one word. Seek. Seek. Look at verse 4 again. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, and I'm going to seek after it. I'm going to pursue it. I
desire it enough that it's going to be the ambition of my life
to obtain it. And then look at verse 8, When
thou saidst, Seek ye my face. We seek the Lord. He commands
us to do that. Seek ye my face. And what did
David's heart say? What does the natural heart say?
Know God for me. The fool hath said in his heart,
Know God. I don't need God. But David said,
My heart. The new heart. The heart that
God gives. It says this, Thy face, O Lord,
will I seek. By Your grace, I'm going to seek Your face. Now, everyone here
is either seeking the Lord or not. There's no halfway in between. It's either one thing or everything else. Do you understand
that? I know it looks like there's
an in-between. Because there's some that seem interested, some. But it's a heart matter. The
outside, what we see, doesn't make much difference, does it?
In the heart, it's either one thing or it's everything else.
And by nature, it's everything else. We're not going to seek
the Lord by nature. And by His grace, He causes us
to approach unto Him. And we do. God's people seek
Him. This word is not what we sometimes
think of as seeking. You know, we play a game called
hide and seek. And sometimes I lose things that
I have to look for. I lose the remote control. I
say I lose it. I'll go ahead and take the blame
for it. But it's usually not me. And I have to seek it. And there's nothing harder to
find than a remote control. But that's not a... That's not
what this is. It's not like I'm seeking the
Lord. Some people say that there's a hidden code in the Scriptures.
And if you take every tenth letter of every fifth word or some nonsense
like that or some other combination that you can come up with, that's
not seeking the Lord. There's a secret code. And if
we can just decipher it... And by the way, they'll sell
you a book now to help you decipher it. And if you can just do that,
you'll have the blessing of God. Somebody came up with and cashed
in recently, a couple years ago, on this thing of praying the
prayer of Jabez. You remember that? Just made
millions of dollars off of that. This prayer of the Bible, it's
the secret to success. If you pray this prayer before
God, God will bless you with prosperity. That's not seeking
the Lord. That's seeking mammon. That's
seeking money, prosperity in this life. Christ said you can't
seek God and mammon. You've got to seek one or the
other. And what is that if it's not seeking mammon? And so, I wanted to point that
out. Seeking the Lord is not that.
Do you know when God is found? How
you'll find God and when? When He wants to be found. Listen
to it in the Scripture. Proverbs 1. Here's what He says
to the wicked, to those that refuse His gospel, refuse His
Christ, refuse His way of salvation. And that's all of us by nature
without His grace. Proverbs 1.28, He said, Then
shall they call upon Me, but I won't answer them. And they'll
seek Me early then. You know why? Because they want
to go to heaven when they die. When you're on your deathbed,
oh, we're seeking the Lord. Sin for the priests, you know.
I'm going to die. but they shall not find me."
They shall not find me. In Luke 10.21, the Lord Jesus
Christ rejoiced in spirit. What would make the Son of God
happy? Rejoice. Ah, what makes you that
way? Here's what He did. He rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that you've hid these things from the wise and the
prudent and revealed them unto babies." The things of God are
hidden until He gets ready to reveal them. No man knoweth the
Father save the Son, neither knoweth any man the Son save
the Father, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Will,
wants to, desires to reveal Him. And nobody else. Nobody else. If you seek the Lord with all
your heart, you'll find Him. Did you know that? If you seek
Him with all your heart, you will find the Lord. He's not
hiding Himself from people that seek Him. Don't misunderstand
and think that. But I'll tell you this, when
you do find Him, It won't be because you were smarter or more
prudent than the one sitting next to you that doesn't find
Him. That won't be why. You won't differentiate yourself
from everybody else. God will have to make the difference.
He'll have to make the difference. It'll be because, as the Lord
Jesus said, it seemed good in your sight. Now let's think about
this for a little while this morning. David said, I have one
desire of the Lord. And you know, David said in Psalm
37, 4, delight thyself also in the Lord. David's delight, his
desire was to live in God's house, to dwell with God, to dwell in
Christ, and to stay there. To dwell means remain, to abide,
to stay. And that was his delight. And
he said there in Psalm 37, 4, Delight thyself also in the Lord,
and he'll give you the desires of your heart. What is the desire
of your heart? David said, I just have one.
I just got one. To dwell with him, to seek his
face, and to behold his beauty, and to inquire regarding his
beauty in his house. Do you behold the beauty of the
Lord? Do you know it's a beauty that
most can't see and never will see? Isaiah said, for he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant. Speaking of the Lord Jesus,
and as a root out of a dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. There's nothing beautiful to
the natural eye in the Lord Jesus Christ. This world sees no beauty in
him. That one thief hanging next to him saw nothing beautiful
in him. He mocked him, reviled him, cursed
him with his last breaths. But the other one saw the beauty
of the Lord. Let me give you three thoughts
this morning on this. The beauty of the Lord. 1 Chronicles
16, 29. Turn there and read this one
verse. 1 Chronicles 16, 29. What is the beauty of the Lord?
I know what the Scripture says about it. And I pray for God's
grace to reveal it to us. To reveal His glory to us. 1
Chronicles 16, 29. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Bring an offering and come before
him. There that is again. Don't come
before him without an offering. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Holiness. I never feel satisfied speaking
about the holiness of God with anything that I say except just
by reading what the scripture says about it. How do you describe
or comprehend the holiness of God. There's no question about
this that God's chief attribute is His holiness. We speak of
the attributes of God. God is sovereign. God is love. God is mercy. God is justice. God's chief attribute
is His holiness. The angels, when they saw him,
they cried, Holy, holy, holy. His book is the holy word of
God. His temple is the holy temple.
And we speak of the love of God. God is love. There's no question
about that. And some would say that love
is his chief attribute, but it's not. I don't know whether God
loves you or not. I know whether he loved Esau
or not. I know whether he loved Mary
and Martha and Lazarus, because he says whether he did or not
in the Word of God. I know whether he loved Jacob
or not. I don't know whether he loves you or not. And I don't
know whether he'll deal with you in a loving way. But I know
this, he'll deal with you in holiness. Whatever he does with
you will be right. I guarantee you that. His holiness, I know this, it
has to do with sinlessness. We're unholy because we're sinners. Christ is the lamb without blemish
and without spot. And his robe, those robes that
the saints were arrayed with there in the book of Revelation,
the righteousness of Christ. And it was white raiment, white,
spotless, sinless. There was no gow found in his
mouth. Our mouths have a lot of guile in them. He did always those things that
pleased the Father. That's holiness. I know that.
I know that. Colossians 121, it says, And
you that were at one time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you... Listen to these three words together
now. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in His sight. I know holiness has something
to do with that. In other words, He's going to present you in
Himself. Because He's the only one that can be described that
way. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable. So I know holiness has something
to do with that. With sinlessness, spotless perfection. Always those things that please
God. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, the Holy
Son of God." Now know this, the word holy means apart. It means
apart, separate from everyone and everything else. First Samuel
2.2 says this about God. There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside Thee. There is no rival. God asked
this question in Isaiah. To whom will you liken me? That's holiness. Can you get
a grip on that? A part. To whom will you liken God? How
can you compare Him with anyone? There is none beside thee, neither
is there any rock like our God. The Scripture says there is no
one like Him, a just God and a Savior. How are you going to
compare Him in that to anyone else? And then I know this, God's
holiness has to do with His worthiness to be reverenced. To be reverenced. Psalm 119 says this, He sent
redemption unto His people. He hath commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is His name. You see, they're holy and reverent. His holiness has to do with His
worthiness to be reverenced, to be worshipped with reverence
and awe. There's not a whole lot of that
in religion today, is there? Psalm 89.7, God is greatly to
be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence
Of all them that are about him, he is to be had in reverence.
Why? Because he's holy. He's holy. I'm not a reverend. And neither
is any other man. Especially those that falsely
take that title to themselves. Reverend. Are you kidding me?
We don't reverence any man. Especially a true preacher would
never, never allow that. Holy and reverend is His name.
Alone! Alone! There's none beside Thee. And then secondly, the Lord is beautiful
in His holiness. Now, have you beheld the Lord's
beauty in holiness? A little bit. But I'm inquiring
about that, aren't you? You see what David said, to behold
and to inquire. That's what I'm doing this morning.
That's what I did when I looked into this. I inquired into the
beauty of His holiness so I could say something about it and pray
that He would bless it to our hearts. And then secondly, turn
to Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33. Verse 10. Now will I rise, saith
the Lord. Now will I be exalted. Now will
I lift up myself. You shall conceive chaff. You
shall bring forth stubble. Your breath as fire shall devour
you. and the people shall be as the
burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the
fire. Hear ye that are far off what I have done, and ye that
are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall
dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously and
speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that
shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that
stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes
from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high. His place of defense
shall be the munitions of rocks. Bread shall be given him. His
waters shall be sure. And look at this, not I shall
see the king in his beauty, and they shall behold the land that
is very, very far off. And then look at verse 22, for
the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is
our king. He will save us. You'll behold
the king in his beauty. God is beautiful in his sovereignty
as the king. If you ever see Him as the King,
if you quit looking at Him as the little babe in the manger,
or the one that's trying to do things, or the little namby-pamby
Jesus of religion, that's just running around seeing who He
can help, you know, who He can bless. If you ever see Him on
the throne as the King, you'll see the beauty of the Lord. Have
you beheld the King and His beauty? Nothing is more despicable to
natural man than a reigning Christ. It was in his glorious character
as king that he was mocked at Calvary. You remember that. They put that reed in his hands,
a mock scepter. The crown of thorns was pressed
down upon his brow, and they bowed before him mockingly and
said, Hail, King of the Jews. It was as king that he was rejected,
particularly. In Matthew 26 and verse 64, the
Lord Jesus Christ said to His enemies, they were questioning
Him and trying to trip Him up in His speech, trying to discount
Him. And they were mocking Him. This
was at His trial after He had been arrested at Gethsemane.
And He said, Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting
on the right hand of power. You don't see that now. You can
spit on Me now, but you're going to see Me sitting on the throne
of heaven. And it says in verse 67, then
did they spit in his face and buffeted him. That word then
is significant. It was when he declared his sovereignty
that they despised him. He said, why do you stone me?
For what good work do you stone me? He said, they said, it's
not for a good work. It's because you said you're
God. They will not have a Christ sitting on a throne. And you
won't either until you see the King in His beauty by His grace. By His grace. They buffeted Him. That word means to make a fist
and strike. That's what we think about the
idea of Christ on the throne. Right there. Until, that is, we get a glimpse we get a glimpse of the King
and His beauty. Are you glad that Christ is on
the throne? Are you? Honestly? When you see
Him there, is He beautiful to you in that character? Are you
glad that He controls every germ that swarms around this earth? Are you glad that when the lot
is cast in the lap, That the Scripture says in Proverbs that
the lot is cast in the lap, the dice are rolled, but the whole
disposing thereof is of the Lord. Every time somebody rolls a seven
instead of a nine, it's because God willed it. Are you happy
about that? Everything that... Not a bird
falls without your heavenly Father. He controls everything. Everything. Everything. Are you happy about
that? Are you glad that eternal life is the free sovereign gift
of Christ. Are you? Or you just hope your
children will exercise their free will and decide to love
the Lord Jesus? What would you prefer? When you
pray, do you pray that God will save those that you love? Well,
let me ask you this. Is He able to do it? Can He do
it? If not, then why are you praying
to Him? You should be trying to talk
them into something if it's up to them. Even those who deny the sovereignty
of God pray to a sovereign God, don't they? God, save, save,
save my children, save my loved ones. The king in his beauty, when
you see him in that character, is he beautiful to you? with
the crown of glory on his head. And then thirdly, Exodus 33,
19. Don't turn there. We've got just
a few minutes. Listen to me. Moses said to God now, this is
a monumental event now. This is something worth hearing
and worth talking about. This is a man, a sinner, saying
to God Almighty, show me your glory. Are you interested in
that? Show me your glory, God." Will God do that? He said, I
will. I will. You can't see my face
and live. No man hath seen God in any time.
The only begotten of the Father hath revealed him. But here's
what I'll do. I'll show you my glory. And he
said in verse 19 of Exodus 33, I'll make all my goodness pass
before you. And if you look up that word
goodness in the original language, you'll find our word there in
the definition. Beauty. I'll show you my beauty. And
here it is. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. God is beautiful in His mercy
and grace towards sinners in Christ Jesus. Have you seen that
beauty? What does the beauty of God look
like? What does grace look like? What
does mercy look like? I'll tell you this, it's bloody. It's bloody. Ephesians 1.6, to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Listen to the heavenly language
here. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath
made us accepted in the Beloved. That's not the sinner accepting
Jesus as his personal Savior. That's God Almighty saying of
a sinner, I accept you. I receive you. I will bless you. I will have mercy on you. I will
have grace on you. He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved, in whom we have redemption. How? Through His blood. The beauty
of God. In His greatest glory. The glory of God in saving sinners,
in redeeming sinners through the blood and righteousness of
His Son, that's the greatest glory that God has ever revealed
concerning Himself. This is my glory, Moses. I'll
have mercy. I'll have mercy. How's He going
to do it? We have redemption through His
blood. Through His blood. What does grace look like? We have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His
grace. God said to Moses, here's my
glory, I'll be gracious. And how is He gracious to sinners? In whom we have redemption through
His blood according to the riches of His grace. What does grace
look like? The most beautiful thing that
human eye has ever seen is the precious Lamb of God hanging
upon a bloody cross for my sin. For my sin. Have you seen Him
in His redemptive beauty? For my sin now. Not just for
sins. For my sin. If you ever see that
You'll say like David, I don't want to see anything else. I
just want to behold him from now on and to inquire even deeper
into his beauty. If you ever hanging on a bloody
cross, they ripped the beard out of
our Lord's face, tore it out. And there was blood. They pressed
a crown of thorns down upon his brow, upon his head, and it pierced,
and blood dripped down his face. And they whipped his back with
what they call a cat-of-nine-tails, a whip with nine strands that
they tied pieces of rock and glass in so that they could rip
open the back of the one being punished, and blood poured out. When they did that, they pounded
iron nails into his hands and feet and blood spurted out. Blood,
human blood. Then they thrust a spear into
his side and the rest of his blood spilled out onto the ground. And throughout that whole scene,
The words that God spoke to Moses thousands of years before were
defined, I will have mercy. I will have mercy. You talk about beautiful now.
If that's not beautiful to you, then this is not your desire.
David's one thing is not your one thing. But if it is, if you
ever see the beauty of his redemptive grace and mercy in Christ, Not
much else will be beautiful to you after that. I'm not just
saying that to sound religious. What else is there that really
holds our attention or we could describe as beautiful? If you see the Lord in His beauty,
you'll say with David, this is my one desire, that I might dwell,
abide, inhabit, remain right there. This one thing that David
desired is the one thing that the rich young ruler lacked.
He said to the Lord, I've kept all the law from my youth up,
and Christ said there's one thing you lack, and it's this one thing
right here. The Lord Jesus Christ told Martha,
you're cumbered about with many things, And they were good things. They were desirable things. She
was fixing supper for the Lord and her guests. That'd be good
to have supper, wouldn't it? But we don't need it. One thing is needful. And Mary
hath chosen it. Don't miss the language there.
Christ said she chose it. David said, I've desired it.
By the grace of God, I'm going to seek after it. And Mary did
too. And the Lord said it'll never be taken away from her.
Are you in on that? Honestly now. Honestly. One thing. I know this. I know the Apostle Paul had seen
the Lord in his beauty. That one thing that David desired,
Paul had desired it and the Lord had granted it to him. You know
how I know? Because he said this, Yea, doubtless, And I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord." You talk about one thing now. Everything else is
loss. I just want to know Him. I want
to know Him and be found in Him. Paul had seen Him in His beauty.
And he said, I've suffered for Him. For whom? I have suffered
the loss of all things. And I'm not whining," he said.
I count them, but dumb. I hadn't lost anything. Why, Paul? That I may win Christ. That's what we're talking about
this morning. Right there. Right there. Can you see it?
Have I wasted my time this week? Or has the Lord blessed it? Can
you see what I'm talking about? And can you be honest before
God? If you ever see the king in his
redemptive beauty, you'll say, with Thomas. The disciples had
met together and the Lord came and met with them. And Thomas
wasn't there. And then they met again in that
upper room. And they said to Thomas, we've
seen the Lord. We've seen Him. He's alive. He
lives. He did what He said He would
do. He said, I lay my life down and I have power to take it up
again. And he did. He did. We've seen him, Thomas.
And Thomas said, except I see the prints of the nails in his
hands, I will not believe. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the room, the door being shut. Thomas had shut the door too,
hadn't he, in a spiritual sense. I will not believe. The door
shut. But the Lord Jesus Christ has a way of getting in even
when the door is shut. He'll get in if he wants to. And he said, Thomas, he held
out his hands, said, Thomas, come here. Come hither and put
your finger in the holes in my hands and thrust your hand into
my side. And don't be faithless anymore,
but believing. And Thomas looked at his hands
and looked at his side, and he saw something there that most
people will never see. And he said this, My Lord and
my God, have you seen the king and his beauty? If you do, if
you have or you do, by God's grace, you'll be like David. There's not much else I care
to see. One thing have I desired. Let's bow in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your word.
And whether we measure up or not,
Lord, your word is true. Undeniable. I pray, Lord, that you'd enable
us to be honest before you this morning. And we pray for this heart that
David had. that caused him to be able to
say with honesty, one thing have I desired, and I will pursue
that, to dwell with the Lord Jesus Christ, to dwell in him,
to know him, to behold his glorious beauty and to inquire even further
into who he is and what he did for sinners. Grant us this prayer. Give us the desire, Lord, and
then grant it. We know that you shall if you
give it. We pray for it in Christ's precious name. Amen.