Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 102, the psalm that
we read, Psalm 102 and verse 16. When the Lord shall build
up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. Psalm 102 and verse 16. This psalm is speaking and pointing
to Gospel days. When we read of Zion, we read
of the Church of God, and we can tell from the context here
in verse 15, just before our text. So the heathen shall fear
the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth, thy glory. And then after our text, he will
regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer.
This shall be written for the generation to come and the people
which shall be created shall praise the Lord. In verse 13
we have the clear prophecy, Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon
Zion, and mercy upon the church, for the time to favour her, yea,
the set time, is come. and it's pointing to that time
that our Lord and Saviour should come unto this earth, and that
glory of salvation be made known, and that the Church of God should
so clearly be shown, not just amongst the Jews, the Church
that was in the wilderness, that drank of that spiritual rock
that followed them, and that rock was Christ, but The church
of God throughout all the earth, the one church, that set time,
we think, of that which was done when our Lord came to this earth. We have the prophecies that as
the waters cover the sea, so shall the knowledge of the Lord
and the glory of the Lord cover the face of the earth. It was
given in Habakkuk. It was given when the children
of Israel had rebelled against the Lord, would not go into the
promised land and were driven back into the wilderness for
another 38 years. The Lord pronounced that this
would be so. And of course, solemnly in the
gospel time, The Jews rejected our Lord, and the apostles they
turned away from the Jews and blessed the Gentiles, and the
Gentiles were blessed. But the promise still remains
that when the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, then
shall there also be the returning of the Jews. And if the casting
away of them be the building up of the Gentiles, what shall
the gathering and bringing them back in again, grafting them
back in to that vine be but life? from the dead. And so these days
they look to those times that there shall be the whole earth
filled with His glory. You have it in Psalm 72 as well. And blessed be His glorious name
forever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen
and amen. The prayers of David the son
of Jesse are ended. And so, with the text that we
have before us, we have a prophecy of the Lord building up Zion. And I draw your attention to
the certainties of our text in the language of it. It doesn't
say, if the Lord shall build up Zion. He says, when. When the Lord shall build up
Zion. and we have two shalls here not
that when the Lord might build up Zion He shall build up Zion
and not that He might appear but He shall appear in His glory
the certainties of the word here and the gospel is gospel certainties
we proclaim not a yea and nay gospel but a certain all the
promises of God are in Him yea And in Him, Amen. And when we
think of the Old Testament promises of the coming of our Lord, and
He came, and the time at Calvary was interspersed again and again
in those accounts that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And as a
New Testament church, in preaching the Gospel, we preach that which
has already been filled. We can look through the Old Testament
and see all of that fulfilled. There's great assurance to the
Church of God and for the ministers of the Gospel to preach that
which has already had the seal to it, and already an empty tomb,
and the Lord's ascension up into heaven. work that our Lord did
and accomplished and brought on then the gospel day in which
we are in now. But the word of our text is not
just speaking as to that time when the Lord should come, but
it is a word that is for the Church of God. All the days of
the gospel And we know that when the Lord is building up His church,
He says, upon this rock I shall build my church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. And that rock is Christ.
He is the foundation stone, and it is the church of God that
is built up on Him. And so we read then in our text,
when the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His
glory. I want to look then with the
Lord's help, thinking of these Gospel days, firstly of the times
when the Lord built up His church, and then secondly, the Lord's
glory that is spoken of here that He shall appear in, and
then thirdly, the Lord's appearing in His glory is when the Church
is built up. But firstly, I want to notice
the times when the Lord builds up His Church. We may say this, that the Lord
in these Gospel days is always building up His Church. We have the account when the
gospel was first preached and set forth and in the days of
Pentecost when Peter preached the word. that there were there
three thousand that the Lord added unto the church in Acts
chapter 2 and verse 41. Then they that gladly received
his word as Peter set forth our Lord Jesus Christ and testified
that it was him whom they had crucified that was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God They were
convicted under that, pricked in their hearts. They said to
them, Men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto
them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. the promises unto you and to
your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call." We're told there were many other
words he did testify and exhort, and those that gladly received
his word, they were baptized, and we read that there were added
that same day unto them about three thousand souls. A building up in the church of
God immediately followed the preaching, the lifting up of
a crucified and risen again Saviour, pointed out to them by the preaching
of Peter, and that was the result. And at the end of that chapter
we read, and the Lord added to the Church daily, such as should
be saved." And that, dear friends, is still going on. We might not
see it much in our corner and in our town, but we know that
throughout the whole world, in every nation, kindred and tongue,
day by day, there are those that are being added to His Church,
those who are being called by His grace, convicted of their
sin, and brought to know and love and trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ for their soul's salvation. Trophies of grace. To the times
the Lord builds up His church, He is doing that in these Gospel
days, and may we remember that the Lord is not slack concerning
His promise. The promise is, unto you and
your children, even as many as the Lord your God shall call. And his promise still is, lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And we
need to remember that. But secondly, he builds up his
church when it has departed from the doctrines of the gospel. When it has declined, it has
gone away. from the doctrines of grace,
the doctrines of Christ alone, when there is a turning away
from our first love and turning again to the world, the church
becoming worldly, and we've only got to look at the typical church,
Israel, who had seen so many wonders, who'd seen so much of
the glory of the Lord, the Red Sea, at Jordan, in the conquest
of Canaan, all the signs before that in Egypt, and yet how soon
they learned the way of the heathen, how soon they departed from the
Lord, how soon they made idols, and very quickly a generation
rose up that knew not the Lord and departed from Him. But the
Lord revived that church, He revived His Israel, gave them
judges and gave them kings and those that were used by Him,
to bring the people back again to the true worship of the living
God. And the Church of God at this
day is most sad when we find churches where once the truth
was set forth, once was strong in the doctrines of the Reformation,
and the doctrines of by faith alone, in Christ alone, those
have turned away, followed the practices of the world, done
away with the reverence of the Lord in His sanctuary, God is
greatly to be feared, in the assembly of the saints to be
had in reverence of all them that are about Him, and worst
of all turned away from Christ alone, other things taking the
place of a precious Saviour lifted up. other so-called devices. You know the apostle Paul, he
feared lest he should make the gospel of none effect by even
eloquence of words, let alone introducing other things that
are pleasing unto the flesh. That which the people of God
are to feed upon is the word of God. My flesh is meat indeed,
my blood is drink indeed. Man shall not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And
you can be sure, when man do not want the word of God any
more, and when they turn away from the word of the gospel,
and the word of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, then it
is not for the good and strength of the church of God, but for
its detriment. What a solemn case that that
is. Many years ago, in Australia
had some dear brethren that were worshipping in a particular church
and it got worse and worse and they said one to another, if
we go next Lord's Day and they don't open the Bible, yes that's
right, that's what they said, then we will know we must go
and worship somewhere else. And after many other things had
been said the next Lord's Day, many different stories and things
attended to, they said, there's not time to read the Word of
God today, we shall do it another time. And the service closed
without the Word of God being opened. They knew what they had
to do. You think, how can a church get
so far from the Lord and so far from the Word? But it does. And
we have the letters in the Revelation to the seven churches of Asia,
only two of them commended without any reproof. But the rest of
them, five of them, there were those things that they were reproved
for, things that they let into the church, errors. Those that
were in the church that were teaching false things, even those
that were in the church that even held false things. that
weren't teaching them, they were still, the church was reproved
for allowing such those to have that influence as leaven amongst
them in the church. Those that had followed, wicked
Jezebel, those that had left their first love and gone cold
and insipid, we're told that in the last days, because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And so the church
has those times, like Israel did, of decline, of departure,
of going away. But there are times when the
Lord again visits a local church, visits an area, visits the whole
church as was in the time of the Reformation, and revives
it, raises up men, that shall proclaim the truth, and his spirit
mighty in reviving, as this land, as other lands have known. And we look for those reviving
times, to revive his church, and to keep his church alive.
Be watchful, strengthen the things that remain, for I have not found
thy works right before God. Oh, may the Lord be pleased to
build up his church in that way when it becomes so far removed
from the Lord, but may he keep us from departing and keep us
close to him. But thirdly, he builds up his
church when it has become numerically low. In Elijah's day, Elijah
felt that he was the only one left The Lord had wonderfully
appeared for him, helped him, answered his prayers on Mount
Carmel. The fire had come from heaven,
the altar had been burnt up and all that was on it, a beautiful
time of the wrath of God falling upon our Lord Jesus Christ. No,
it didn't fall upon all of those false prophets of Ahab. It didn't
fall upon the Israelites that had followed after Baal. But
it fell upon the altar and the sacrifice. And then the people,
when they saw it, they were made willing to get rid of those false
prophets and to deal with their errors and to turn unto the Lord
again. Elijah had been greatly used
in this way. And yet when Jezebel says that
she's going to take away his life, how he's so dismayed. and how he'd rather die. He lies
under the juniper tree, requests that he might die. The angel
comes and strengthens him and gives him food. And he goes 40
days into the wilderness to Horeb. And there the Lord is pleased
to tell him, he's reserved 7,000 in Israel that have not bowed
the knee unto Baal. You're not the only one left,
Elijah. But you know, we do feel sometimes
how low Zion is, how low the church is, whether it is in the
land or whether it is in our denomination, our group of churches
or our own local church. And we look that the Lord would
build us up again and strengthen us again. And so it is numerically
as well. that the Lord adds and builds
up even local churches and the gatherings of His people. And
so we read then in our text, when the Lord shall build up
Zion, He shall appear in His glory. When He builds up His
church, as He does day by day, or when he restores his church,
when she's departed from him and gone into error and false
doctrine, or when she numerically has got very, very low, he shall
build it up in this way. He shall build it up by appearing
in his glory. What is the glory of the Lord? Is that that I desire to look
at in our second point. the Lord's glory. I want to look
at this basing my remarks on four passages of scripture. The first is that of the transfiguration
of our Lord on the mount, that which the disciples that they
witnessed, referring to Luke chapter 9, Verse 31 to 36 And we have our Lord bringing
Peter and John and James up into a mountain to pray. As he prayed, the fashion of
his countenance was altered, his raiment was white and glistening.
Behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and
Elias, who appeared in glory and spake of his decease, which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem. There is the first thing I bring
before you of the Lord appearing in His glory, what He should
accomplish at Jerusalem, and it was to be in His decease. Those two disciples that the
Lord met with on the Emmaus road, so downcast, so dejected and
sorrowful, they had seen His decease, but at that point they
hadn't seen and didn't realise what He had accomplished. And
our Lord drew near, and He said to them, Ought not Christ to
have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? His glory, the crown, the crown
of salvation, was to be that work that was done at Calvary,
that no man could do, the only time and the only place where
the sins of all the Church of God were laid upon Him and were
put away, there at Calvary. That is what He accomplished
there, and that crown of glory as the Saviour and of accomplishing
salvation rested upon Him there. He conquered though He fell.
He did that which was foretold in all of the Old Testament sacrifices,
and He fulfilled them. And as a means, in a way, as
Peter said to the Jews, that ye have fulfilled these scriptures
in crucifying Him, but God raised Him from the dead. But our Lord
said, No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down in myself. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. And so there on the Mount of
Transfiguration, what Moses, what Elias is speaking of, is
of his glory and what he shall accomplish at Calvary. And this is the glory of the
Lord. It is no wonder the Apostle Paul, he says to the Corinthians,
I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. He lifts up His glory. I, if
I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me. It is the glory that was given
Him of His Father to redeem His dear people, to suffer in their
place, to put away their sin by sacrifice of himself, and
to rise again for their justification, to provide for them in his holy,
obedient life a robe to be imputed to believers, so that they should
not only be saved from hell and saved from their sins, but saved
to heaven, and appear in heaven as clothed in Christ's righteousness,
and not their own. May we always hear in the Church
of God of what the Lord has accomplished, not what might have been accomplished,
what may have been, but was accomplished at Calvary. He shall save His
people from their sins. He shall be offered up. He shall
fulfil the Scriptures. He came and He fulfilled that
which His Father gave Him to do. He cries from the cross,
it is finished. And that work of redemption,
that price is paid, the debt is paid. There at the Mount of
Transfiguration, this is what Moses, this is what Elias would
point to. They'd point to the glory of
our Lord. But there's another thing there
as well, on the Mount of Transfiguration, and that was that there was the
voice out of the cloud, this is my beloved Son, hear Him,
hear Him, the voice of the Father, the glory that was given Him
of the Father, to give that witness from heaven, that this is my
beloved Son. What a glory to have set forth
that God has set upon the Lord Jesus Christ this seal, this
witness, this crown. He is lifted up and extolled
not just by poor sinners, not just by the ministers of the
gospel, but the Father from heaven. the glory of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and of truth. And there's another
thing here as well of His glory, and that is that when the voice
was passed, then Jesus was found alone, or in another account
it is, they saw no man, but Jesus only. The Apostle speaks of the glory
of the law, the glory of the first covenant, but that is done
away by reason of the glory that excelleth, which is the gospel. And so we have Moses representing
the law, no more seen. We have Elijah representing the
prophets. The Lord is the fulfilment of
prophecy. He is the one that should come
and has come. And so now we see no man, but
Jesus only. He is taken up in a similar way
by the Apostle in the Hebrews. We see not yet all things put
under him, that's under man, but we see Jesus, that we see
Jesus. In the pulpit at Badal Street
we have engraved so the minister can see it. The congregation
can't, but hopefully they hear the effect of it. Sir, we would
see Jesus. I was thinking of the account
in Scotland, I believe, where a young minister came and he
wasn't preaching Jesus. And the dear friends there, they
left him a note. Sir, we would see Jesus. And
so he took the points and he preached and he preached Jesus. Then they left him another note.
Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. And so
on the Mount of Transfiguration, we have that glory that was accomplished
at Jerusalem. We have the glory of the witness
of the Father from heaven, and we have the glory of Our Lord
exceeding over the glory of Moses and of the prophets. How the
scribes and the Pharisees, they said, Moses, we know this man,
we know not who he is. Why, says the man that has been
born blind, here is a marvellous thing. He know not from whence
he is, and yet hath he over mine eyes. If he were not of God,
he could do nothing. The glory of the Lord. the greater
glory, the glory that excelleth in the gospel, in what is accomplished
at Jerusalem. With the second passage I draw
your attention to is that of the prayer of our Lord in John
17 and verse 24. There our Lord prays, Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. Now our text says when the Lord
shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory and Our Lord had said, Is needful
thou to go away? If I go not away, the Holy Spirit
shall not come unto you. I will pray the Father, he will
give you another Comforter, which shall abide with you for ever. And the Lord's ascension into
glory was very, very important. He should be as a lamb that had
been slain. He is appearing in the presence
of God for us as our mediator, our intercessor, for us in heaven,
and that glory he has in heaven, that office he has in heaven,
and that is the secret of all the blessing upon the church,
what voice is that which speaks for thee in heaven's high court
for good? I will pray the Father, tarry
at Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high, the
Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, And we've already considered
the blessing that followed there, the souls that were saved under
the preaching of the Word by the power of the Holy Spirit
when Christ was lifted up and Christ was set forth. And so
the Lord then prays that it might be that His dear disciples might
be with Him, that they might see His glory. When we are brought
to heaven, we shall see his glory. But we have that set before us
in this portion here and in the scriptures. We are set before
us the glory of the Lord in heaven, the opening of the gates, the
king of glory coming in and he's sitting at the right hand of
the father. You know, when Joseph the type
of Christ, when Joseph sent his brethren back to his father,
he said, you should tell him of all my glory in Egypt. He is next unto Pharaoh, he's
speaking peace to all his seed, like Mordecai was next unto the
king, speaking peace to all his seed. Joseph's presence next
to Pharaoh ensured that his brethren had the best of the land, were
looked after, preserved and blessed. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
in that position of glory in heaven above as the forerunner,
as the first begotten from the dead. He is there for his people
and his glory is to be shown in the church as to where he
is now. We do not worship a dead Christ. We do not even just worship a
risen saviour, but a risen and ascended and exalted saviour,
high above all principality and powers, above all things, to
the highest glory. This is the glory of the Lord. Then thirdly, I direct you to
Peter's second epistle and chapter one. Peter here refers to the time
that we spoke of when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration
and in verse 17 he speaks, that's 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 17 of
how that he received, that is our Lord received from God the
Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him
from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased and he testifies this is the voice which came
from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. But then he says in verse 19
we have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you do
well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place until the day dawn, until the day star arise in your hearts. And he's pointing to the Scriptures
of truth, the more sure word of prophecy, and it is through
the word of God that the glory of the Lord is revealed. We spoke
the solemn condition of a church that we're not opening and we're
not reading the Word of God. But the Word of God is that which
reveals the glory of God, that which is inspired by the Holy
Spirit of God. Yes, human, penman, but every
Word of God is pure. And our Lord, referring to those
Old Testament scriptures on the way to Emmaus, in all the Scriptures,
the things concerning Himself, and it is Christ in all the Scriptures,
the written and incarnate Word in all things, the same. And
we're not to take from it or to add from it. It is sufficient,
and it sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why for us in
the ministry, we are commanded to preach the Word, and we preach
the Word of God, we preach the incarnate Word, our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ, as ministers of the Gospel, of the New Testament, written in His blood. And so the Apostle, he sets forth
the glory of God in these Scriptures, in the Word of God. But lastly,
I bring your attention back into the Old Testament to Exodus and
chapter 33. In Exodus chapter 33 and in verse
18, we have Moses asking this of the Lord. He said, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. What did the
Lord show him? What did the Lord tell him? It
tells us what the glory is of the Lord. And when the Lord builds
up Zion, this shall appear. And there's three things in the
answer that our Lord gave. He said in verse 19, I will make
all my goodness pass before thee. That's the first thing. the Lord's
goodness to pass before thee." The greatest goodness is that
he should give his self as a sacrifice, a ransom, that he should give
the Holy Spirit to send forth that message with power. The
Lord's goodness is in grace, in the blessings to the Church
of God. The Lord's goodness is in all
things, in providence and in grace. The Lord is good to all,
his tender mercies are over all his works. The Lord has said,
as the good shepherd, when he puts forth his sheep, he goeth
before them. He goes before them in the way. I am the way, the truth and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And it is that goodness of the
Lord that He makes to pass before His dear people. Don't ever despise
it when the Lord shows His glory even in the minutest circumstance
that's ordered by His almighty hand. Was it not so in the book
of Esther? Do not we see the goodness of
the Lord going before them? Even with rebellious Israel through
the wilderness, did not His goodness give them the manna, the water
out of the rock, the passage through the Red Sea, and Jordan,
and deliverance from their enemies? Does not David say in Psalm 23
at the end, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever? The glory of the Lord is to make
His goodness pass before a people. So they see it. So they behold
it. They see His work. They say,
this is the Lord's work and it is marvellous in their eyes.
Or they say with Laban, Bethuel, they say, the thing proceedeth
from the Lord. This is the Lord's goodness and
kindness. The Lord is good. He's a good
God. But then we have the second thing.
And I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Jehovah,
the God of salvation in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father
sent the Son. The Father gave the people to
the Son to redeem. The Son redeemed them. The Holy
Spirit sends that witness into their hearts and is the author
of the new birth and new creation. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. That is the glory of the Lord. Moses says, show me thy glory. The Lord says, I will proclaim
the name of the Lord. And we have in Philippians, that
he hath given him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Every knee. This is the name. The father
loves to hear his children plead, and all such pleading he approves,
and blesses them indeed. there's none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved the reason the name was
given is given us in Matthew his name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins and this name has in it the glory
of God named by God given by God given to the church of God
unto you which believe, he is precious. They saw no man but
Jesus only, a name in the Old Testament that was veiled and
hidden in the Godhead, but is revealed in the Gospel, waiting
for that time, for the show is showing unto Israel, showing
to his dear people, this is he, Jesus of Nazareth, despised at
first by Saul of Tarsus, but then he preached nothing but
that name and he loved that name and he called upon that name
and that name was everything to him that's the second way that his
glory was shown to Moses I will proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee, and lastly the sovereign grace of God, and will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. The glory of the Lord is not
being a slave to Satan when Satan comes in as a tempter, if thou
be the son of man, do the son of God, do this and do that.
It is not for man to say, well, instead of supplicating the throne
of grace, I'm going to demand and I'm going to dictate. Your
time is already, way ready, but my time not yet. The glory of
the Lord is to show mercy, and is to be gracious, but it is
sovereignly given. And so we find in the New Testament
church, when the word was preached by the apostles themselves, that
some believed the word spoken and some believed not. And we
are told the reason, as many as were ordained unto eternal
life believed, no more, no less, the glory of the Lord. is in
His Sovereign sending His Word. My Word shall not return unto
me void, it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it.
It is not just sprinkled and just by chance that some gather
it up and some believe and some believe not. The irresistible
grace of God ensures that the arrows of the Lord find their
mark The Word finds it, Mark, the Word of conviction and the
Word of consolation, the Word of the Gospel, the Word of the
Lord. Cast thy bread upon the waters,
thou shalt find it after many days. And that blessed Word,
it shall never miss it, Mark, but find his elect, find out
his dear people, and they shall be called, they shall come. They
shall be blessed, and that is the glory of the Lord, that he
knoweth them. You know, this is what is set
forth in Ephesians. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. Where would the church be? Where
would the redeemed be if the Lord did not know them, did not
know where they were? did not know all about them.
Or Nathanael was brought to know the Lord knew about him. Zacchaeus
was brought to know the Lord knew about him and where he was.
The woman of Samaria was brought to know that he was a man that
knew and told all things that ever she did. Was not this the
Christ? How sovereign is the Lord, how
gracious. He must needs go through Samaria
because he knew where that one was. And this is his glory. Moses, he asked to be shown the
glory of the Lord. And so he was shown it. The goodness
of the Lord to pass before him. The name of the Lord proclaimed
before him. and the Lord's gracious, sovereign
mercy set forth before him. And so in these scriptures we
see something of the glory of the Lord. Want to notice then
in the third place that the Lord's appearing in his glory is when
the church is built up. What a thing to realize. What
a thing to realize. May this be a word to us in the
ministry. May it be a word to each in the
Church of God. You know, when the Church gets
low, how easy it is for man to say, well, we are going to devise
ways to build it up. We need to make it more attractive
and we need to do this or that. and bring men and women in, all
for evangelism, for proclaiming the word of the Lord and to being
light, salt, in the place where we are, a solemn thing. If our
neighbours at the last day could say, you knew the gospel, you
knew the way of salvation, you never ever mentioned it, you
never ever hinted it at us, you never mentioned it in our town,
may that never be said of us that we have kept under a bushel
and not let the light of the Word of God shine. But what a
warning to us in the ministry that we do not go to man's devised
ways of building up the Church of God. Our text is very clear. It is God that builds up, Zion
not man. And when the Lord shall build
up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. And if we want the church
built up, then it is our part to show forth His glory, to preach
His glory, to set it forth, to lift up a precious Christ, and
to keep doing that, because that is the Lord's way, and that is
the way that He shall honour. A false fire will do no good.
A false building up will not save souls, except the Lord build
the house. They labour in vain that build
it. Yes, they may have an edifice that looks like it, but it won't
be it, and it won't be any good for souls. And so with here,
it is a real caution to us in a day of small things that the
Lord Jesus Christ is to be exalted and lifted up and praised and
honoured and the Word of God set forth as we seek to do this
evening and it is in this when the Lord shall build up Zion
He shall appear in His glory and so when we preach the Word
we've got another expectation here we preach the Word but how
we need the Holy Spirit to come and bless that Word and where
the Spirit blesses that Word, and to the hearers, and to all
that hear that Word, when the light of the Gospel shines in
their hearts, and He appears in His glory, they see His glory. You know, bless the Lord if you
come into assembly, and you come and hear the Word preached, and
you see Christ, He is revealed, He is shown in His glory. You
might say, I'm walking in this text. I'm in this what the Lord
has said. This is a token for good in Zion. This is an expectation He'll
build up Zion because He's appearing in His glory. The people see
His glory. They see Christ. They desire
to see Him. And when they see Him, it profoundly
affects them and it draws them to Him. and draws them away from
the world. The world does not want Christ.
Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Blessed be God. The Church of God does not want
the world either. They desire Christ. Let us go unto Him without the
camp, bearing His reproach. When the Lord appears in the
Church, that is when it is built up. That is when souls are delivered
out of Satan's grip. That is when they are separated
from the world. That is when they are brought
to live close to the Lord, and in the fear of the Lord. It is
when the Lord's glory is seen, that no flesh might glory in
His presence. John Baptist, so greatly used,
and pointing out the Lord, yet he says, I must decrease. He must increase. His glory must
be seen. Do not we want it? That we don't
want our hearers to go home and say, what a wonderful preacher
that was. But to go home and to say, what
a wonderful Christ, what a blessed gospel, what a blessed message
there was. Someone asked, what was the preacher?
I'm not sure. I saw no man but Christ only. And may it be that we preach
Him so that you lose sight of us and you see no man but Jesus
only. The Lord is the glory of the
Church of God. He is everything. He is in the
midst of it. Unto Him shall the gathering
of the people be. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. This
is the truth. expectation of the Church of
God. May we be like Elijah praying,
may we be like the servant going looking and he sees a cloud like
a man's hand. What would that be in our day?
The Lord's glory starts to be seen. Men, women, children speak
of His glory, speak of what they've seen, what they've heard of the
Lord. How many times do we go from
the Lord's house, and from hearing the word of the Lord, and nothing
to say about the Lord, nothing to be said about what we've heard.
Now the two disciples, on the way to Emmaus, they went back
to Jerusalem straight away, even though it was days far spent.
And they told what was done in the way, and how He was made
known unto them in breaking of bread. They had plenty to say.
Those that saw the Lord when He rose from the dead had plenty
to say. I know it's a mercy if we have
plenty to say of what we have seen of the glory of the Lord. Oh, our tongues will be speaking
of Him all day long. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, not of just the gossip of the day,
oh God forbid, but of the Lord that He might be. what we speak
of and meditate upon, and that is the manner and food of our
souls, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son
of Man, ye have no life in you. Why are we long to see the church
built up, to see it close to the Lord, not a worldly carnal
church, but living close to the Lord, a church built up and built
up numerically, built up in times like this, of times of affliction,
and in the valley of the shadow of death. And when the Lord's
hand is in the earth, our expectation, it is time for the Lord to work. But if the Lord works, and when
the Lord works, because He will work, as in our text, it will
be in this way, that He shall appear in His glory. May we watch for it, dear friends,
May we take up with the prayer of Moses, Lord, show me thy glory,
me, personally, that I might see it. Don't pass by and bless
another, but show it to me, reveal it to me, reveal thyself to me,
that he might be no more as a root out of dry ground, but the altogether
lovely. He might again be the first beloved,
the all in all to my soul. and then it shall be at last,
past that valley, past death itself, and to see the Lord as
He is, then shall we be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is, a most blessed prospect before the people of God. May
we have those glimpses of His glory here, an assurance that
we shall, in heaven, see it without a veil between, May the Lord
add his blessing. Amen.