Bibles this morning to Psalm
122. Psalm 122. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand
within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city
that is compact together. Whether the tribes go up, the
tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks
unto the name of the Lord. For there are said thrones of
judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love
thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions'
sake, I will now say, peace be within thee. Because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. There's little doubt
that David was a human author of this psalm. I said the human
author because we know that the author of the scripture is God
the Holy Spirit, but he used men, and David was the man that
God used to write this psalm. I want you to notice that in
it he speaks of the house of the Lord. He mentions the house
of the Lord twice, and he mentions it as being in Jerusalem, where
the tribes go up unto the testimony. Now, the Ark of the Lord is referred
to as the Ark of the Testimony in Exodus chapter 25, when the
instructions were given to Moses concerning the tabernacle and
its furniture. So the tribes go up unto the
Ark of the Lord, that is the Ark of the Testimony. The two
tables that were written by the finger of God, given to Moses,
they were placed in that Ark of the Covenant. And it also
is called the two tables of testimony. I just wanted to point that out
to us this morning, that the psalmist speaks of the house
of the Lord, of it as being in Jerusalem. where the tribes go
up unto the testimony, that is, where the Ark of the Lord was. When David became king, when
he was anointed over the 12 tribes of Israel, the Ark of the Covenant
was in a place called Kirjath-Jerom. And if you turn over to Psalm
132, David tells us in this psalm, he makes a sort of unusual statement
about the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Testimony, as
being in the field, or in the fields of the woods. This is
when he became king, when he was crowned anointed king over
all of Israel. Notice in verse, well let's read
from verse 1 down to verse 6. Lord, remember David and all
his afflictions. How he swore unto the Lord, and
vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Surely I will not come
into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed. I will
not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids. Now
notice this, until I find out a place for the Lord, and habitation
for the mighty God of Jacob. What's he talking about? He's
speaking about the Ark of the Covenant. And he makes a vow
that he would not give sleep to himself. He would not go up
into his house until, first of all, he had found a place for
the Lord, for the Ark of the Testimony. And then notice in
verse 6, he says, Lo, we heard of it at Ephrata. We found it
in the fields of the woods. And William Plummer in his commentary
on the Book of Psalms says, in the field of the woods is a poetic
phrase for this place called Kirjath Jarim. That's where it
was when David brought it to Jerusalem. Now, the tabernacle
was still in Bethel. But the Ark of the Covenant had
been taken captive by the Philistines. And then you know the story of
how it was brought back into the land on that cart being pulled
by those two cows. They left their calves and they
made a straight way back to Israel. That's how the Philistines knew
it was God who had brought destruction upon them and their God. Now,
David pitched a tent. If you want to see this, turn
back to 1 Chronicles chapter 15. 1 Chronicles chapter 15 and verse
1. And David made him houses in
the city of David, that is Jerusalem, and prepared a place for the
ark of God, and pitched for it a tent. Look in the next chapter,
1 Chronicles 16, verse 1. So they brought the ark of God
and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for
it, and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before it. So I'm just pointing out to us
this morning that when David penned this psalm, And when he
said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house
of the Lord, he was speaking about the tent that he had pitched,
the tent in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed. Now my message this morning has
three parts. First, I want us to think about
the house of the Lord as a type as a picture of the church, of
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It would be a mistake
if we fail to understand as we read this psalm that both the
house of the Lord and Jerusalem are spoken of in the word of
God as types, as types of the church of our Savior. Now here
are three comparisons. When we think about the house
of the Lord, pictured, which pictured the church. First of
all, houses have both a builder and a foundation. Houses have
both a builder and foundation. A house, it doesn't just spring
up out of the ground, does it? Every house has a builder and
has some kind of foundation. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ has Himself as the builder and the foundation. He said in
Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18, upon this rock I will build
my church. And the rock upon which the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ is built is Christ Himself. And when he
said, I will build my church, we know that he built his church,
first of all, by coming into this world and living a life
perfectly obeying God's law and then suffering at the hands of
God's offended justice. I will build my church. He built
the foundation. He laid the foundation. He himself
coming into this world and living as that substitute and giving
himself as that sacrifice to pay for the sins of the people
that God had given him. Now he builds his church by the
preaching of the gospel. He calls men to preach the gospel. And he anoints men to preach
the gospel. The Apostle Paul, the great missionary
God used him to be, made him to be. You know, he told the
church at Corinth, when he had gone there and preached the gospel
and then left, wrote back to them, he said, other foundation
can no man lay. In other words, I have laid the
foundation. How did Paul lay the foundation?
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. He is the foundation. Paul preached
Christ, preached Him in His person, who He is, in His work, what
He did, where He is. even today at the right hand
of God. I laid the foundation, Paul writing
back to this church said, and other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, which is Christ. That's what he wrote. And then he warned, he said,
let every man be careful how he builds upon this foundation. The foundation is Christ. And
we are to build upon this foundation. And he said we're to use gold,
silver, and precious stones. Some people, he said, try to
use wood, hay, and stubble, and one day it's all going to be
burned up. It's not going to pass through
the fire. But where do we find the gold
and the silver and the precious stones with which to build the
church? We find it here in the word of
God. If you look back to Psalm chapter 19, you know this whole
psalm is a psalm concerning the Word of God. Psalm chapter 19, verse 9, he says, well verse
8, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. You know,
there's probably no other book that this could be said about.
That everything that is written is pure. That everything that
is written is for the enlightening of the spiritual eye of the soul. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. And we know the fear of the Lord.
is speaking about that reverence of God, that wisdom of God. The
fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether. Underline that in your mind at
least, the judgments of the Lord. Whatever God does, we don't have
to understand it. And there's a whole lot that
we experience we don't understand. There's a whole lot we see that
I don't understand. But I do know this, as this verse
tells us, that the judgments of the Lord are right, are true
and righteous. Whatever God does, it's true
and it's righteous. Whatever. I don't care what it
is. I just don't understand that.
I don't understand how a holy, a good God could allow this to
happen. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. I just can't understand that.
Why there would be this, that, or the other. We don't have to
understand it. But we do believe, we do know
that whatsoever the Lord doeth. It's right and it's true and
it's pure. It's holy because He's holy. And then notice that next verse.
More to be desired, speaking of the Word of God. What I'm
saying is, Paul cautioned, now preachers, you build upon this
foundation and you use gold and silver and precious stones. Where
is that to be found? It's to be found in the word
of God. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. The foundation is Christ, his
person and his work. And the gold and the silver and
the precious stones used in this building are found in the word
of God. It amazes me even now when I
hear from time to time people tell me of attending so-called
Christian churches, so-called places of worship where they
sometimes do not even open the Word of God. Sometimes the preacher
might speak a word, a verse or two out of the Word of God, but
basically The word of God is neglected. Reminds me of what
we read about during the times of the kings of Israel. When
the law of the Lord was lost, it was lost. And where was it
found? It was found in the temple. The
rubble, when they cleaned out the temple, cleaned out all the
rubble and all that stuff that had been brought in, no doubt
to make The service is more appealing to the flesh. When they cleaned
all of that out, during the days of King Josiah, they found the
law of the Lord. And when that word was read in
his presence, he recognized that his nation, Judah, had greatly
sinned against God. The word of God. How precious
is the word of God. More precious than gold. that we read in the Word of God
concerning God's absolute sovereignty. We've got to know who God is.
If we're going to worship the true God, we've got to know who
He is. God is not some God who is trying
his dead-level best to do something. No, God is absolutely sovereign. He's working all things after
the counsel of His own will. His purpose is being accomplished
day by day, hour by hour. Make no mistake about it. And
these truths are necessary, first of all, to humble us. By nature,
we're also proud. We're also self-sufficient. We
can do it ourselves. But when we learn the truth about
who God is, it helps to teach us who we are. and how dependent
we are upon him. He's not dependent upon us. He
doesn't need you. He doesn't need me. You know that saying, the only
hands he has are your hands and the only feet he has are your
bunch of bologna. God's not dependent upon my hands. He's not dependent upon your
feet. He's God Almighty. And this truth
is revealed in the Word of God and it helps to humble us and
cause us to see who we are in the light of who He is. And not
only that, but God choosing a people. We read that scripture in John
chapter 6. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. The foundation
is Christ. The foundation of the church
is Christ and the truth upon this foundation. He said, I will
build my church. We need to hear of his precious
blood with which his sheep have been redeemed and his faithfulness
in bringing each and every one home safely to glory. Don't you love that parable where
the Lord gave the parable of the man who had a hundred sheep
and one was lost? And he went out and he searched
and he searched until he found that one lost sheep. Put it on
his shoulders and brought him all the way home. I think I can
still remember reading Charles Spurgeon saying, if the Lord
brought that sheep all the way one foot outside the gate and
set it down and said, now you make it on your own, the sheep
wouldn't make it. No, he's a complete savior. And these truths, and then a
house not only has a builder and a foundation, but a house
has windows. The windows let light in for
seeing. And we have two ordinances in
the church. We have baptism and we have the
Lord's Supper. And I don't refer to them as
sacraments, you know, some places they do, but that word sacrament
conveys the idea of conveying grace. And let me tell you something,
a person could be baptized, put under the water, every day of
their life and live to be a hundred and still die and go to hell.
There's no conveying of grace in the water. They could take
the Lord's table, eat bread and drink wine every day for all
of their lives and die and go to hell. There's no grace in
that. It's not a sacrament. It's an
ordinance and like a window. that lets light in that we may
see. So the church has these two ordinances
and not only do we hear, do we hear the gospel, but when someone
is baptized we see, we have a picture of the death and the burial and
the resurrection of our Savior. And when we Observe the Lord's
table, we have the bread here, we have the wine here, and what
does that show us other than the death of Jesus Christ? His sacrificial death in the
stead and in the place of his people. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. And yes, baptism is important
in its place. The Lord's Supper is important
in its place. But if it's put in the place
of Christ, it's out of place. It's out of place. And number
three, a house has a door, doesn't it? Gotta have a door. Thank
God, Jesus Christ, he's the door. He said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall go in and out and find pasture. I wonder what that means,
shall go in and out. I understand the part of going
in, but what about going out? I'll tell you what that means.
When a person enters the door, he goes out of that old life. There's repentance, right? There's
a turning from our sinful way. We go out of that wicked way
of living in darkness, and we go in, in the door, into Christ,
into the light. Now, the second part of the message
I want us to think about what the Psalm tells us takes place
in the house of the Lord. Notice, if you still have your
Bibles, open to Psalm 122, what takes place in the house of the
Lord. The first thing we read is the
tribes go up, verse 4. Whether the tribes go up. Do
you notice the word tribes, that's plural. It was not just the tribe. Not just the tribe of Judah,
not just the tribe of Benjamin, but it was all 12 of the tribes
go up. Now, three times in the year,
the males were commanded to go up, and this speaks to us of
public worship. You know, there's private worship.
There's worship in your closet. When you go into your closet
and you shut the door and you speak to your Heavenly Father,
that's very, very important. Private worship. Maybe you don't
go into your closet, maybe you're in your car. However, you're
alone with God. And then there's family worship,
and that's very important. And blessed are those children
who are raised in a home where there's family worship. when
they come together around the word of God and pray. But there's
public worship, public worship, when the tribes go up, when we
come together to worship the Lord, and it's also important. And the writer of Hebrews, he
exhorted and said, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. We need each other. We need public
worship. We need, yes, private worship,
family worship, but we need public worship. And we hurt ourselves
when we neglect public worship. When we neglect the services
of God, we just hurt ourselves. We need. And that's what the
psalmist said. The tribes go up. They have a
desire to go up. Now, the second thing we see,
the tribes go up unto the testimony of Israel. Well, I've already
said that the testimony of Israel, the Ark of the Covenant, was
a type of Christ. When we come together, we come
together to worship Christ. We want to hear of Him. Speak
to us of Him. We come together to worship Christ. He's the focus of every message
that I bring. With God's help, no matter what
part of the scripture I may be preaching from, but Christ, you
may be sure of this, Christ is going to be the focus of the
message. And any message that does not
have Christ at its heart is a message that probably should never have
been preached. He's the focus. We come together, the tribes
go up, and we go up unto the testimony of the Lord. We recognize
that there is no true worship apart from depending upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in His name. Brother Fred prayed before the
offering just a few minutes ago, and he made mention of the fact
we have one way to speak unto God, and that is through Christ,
through the Mediator. Yes, we pray in His name, we
sing, And we praise God and we recognize if our praise is to
be accepted by God, it must be offered through Jesus Christ. The sacrifices of our praise. Everything must center upon Him. We come to hear about Him. He's the center of everything
that we do in public worship. It is the preaching of Christ
that God uses. Listen, now this is very important. The preaching of Christ, we call
the gospel, is important. First of all, this is what God
uses in calling his sheep. This is what he uses to God.
He doesn't use falsehood. He doesn't use error. He uses
the gospel, the truth. And let me tell you this, it's
the gospel that he uses in building up those who are saved. It's not preaching law do's and
don'ts and all of that. It's preaching Christ. That's
what builds us up, hearing of Him. He's the one who gives us
the desire to serve Him, to do what we should do. And notice
that third, it says the tribes go up to give thanks unto the
name of the Lord. All true worship includes the
giving of thanks. We give thanks unto the name
of the Lord, that is, for who he is. I thank God for babies,
too, don't you? I really do. It's a sad day in
a church when you never hear a baby cry, when you don't have
a need for a nursery. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. We
give thanks unto the Lord, and we've got a lot to give thanks
for. We really do. We thank God, recognizing that
every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes
down to us from the Father of lights, in whom is no variableness
nor shadow of turning. And then fourth, the tribes,
it says they go up, they go up to the testimony of the Lord,
they go up to give thanks unto the name of the Lord, and the
tribes, they pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I've already said
at the beginning of the message, both the house of the Lord and
Jerusalem serve as pictures and types of the church. To pray
for the peace of Jerusalem, we're praying for the peace, not for
that city over there in Palestine. I spoke with a man the other
day that's from Palestine, and he told me everything's fine
over there, you know. He'd just come back from there.
It doesn't look fine to me. But the peace of Jerusalem that
we pray for is a church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We recognize how very good, how
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity and in
peace. And you notice that peace and
prosperity, they go together. And I'm not talking about physical
prosperity, I'm talking about spiritual prosperity, where there's
peace, where there's union, where there's discord among brethren. You don't look for much prosperity
there, but where there's peace. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We put our feet to our prayers.
If we're praying for the peace of our church and of the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will be careful not to be
guilty of backbiting and gossiping and criticizing and finding fault. It's so easy to find fault with
other people, isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it? It's really
easy. Aren't you glad that that our
Father, our Heavenly Father, is patient and long-suffering
with us. And if He's patient and long-suffering
with us, so should we be with one another. Pray for the peace
of Jerusalem. Now here's the third, the last
part of the message. I want us to think about what
David said that made him glad. Notice how the psalm begins.
I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house
of the Lord. You know, that tells us a good
deal about David. It does. It tells us a good deal
about David. I'm sure that there's many people,
if they had to put this in words, they would say, I was mad. I was mad when they said unto
me, let us go unto the house of the Lord. Who do they think
they are? Who do they think I am? You know,
I was mad. No, David said, I was glad when
they said unto me. Some, if they were honest, they
would have to say, I was tired. I was tired of hearing. Let us
go unto the house of the Lord. That's all they talk about. Every
time I see them, they invite me, they ask me, let's go into
the house of the Lord. No, but David said, I was glad. It says a lot about David. Remember,
he's king. He's the king. There's three
things I see here. First of all, I was glad. I was glad that there is the
house of the Lord to which I might go. That's something that every
one of us this morning should be thankful for, that we have
a place here where we can come and worship the Lord together.
I was, I'm glad that there is a place, there is a house of
the Lord to which I might go. Can you imagine at the time that
David wrote this, all the nations, all the nations, and there was
one nation that had the house of the Lord. Number two, I was
glad, I was glad that there are those who care enough about me
to ask me to go unto the house of the Lord. They care enough
about me. They recognize That it's good
to hear the gospel. It's good to go where Christ
is lifted up. And I was glad. I was glad that
there are those who care enough about me to invite me. Let's go. Let's go to the house
of the Lord. Some of you children, young people
I should say, you get tired of your parents. I know that Sunday
we're going to church. Yeah. You don't always like to
hear that, do you? You like to stay in bed and sleep
in or something like that. Be thankful, be grateful that
you have someone that cares enough about you, parents, to take you
and bring you to the house of the Lord. And number three, I
was glad, I was glad that I will, this is David speaking now, that
I will one day dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's what
he said in Psalm 23, isn't it? Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell. Where, David? In the house of
the Lord forever. Praise God. We're going to sing
a hymn before we're dismissed, number 224. Let's just sing two
verses.