Good morning. I love that hymn. If you'll take that hymnal you
just had and open it back up to that same passage, I'd like
to ask you to do something for me. I was singing this hymn in the
car on the way here this morning, and there's a couple of words
I'd like to change in this hymn. Our God is a God of purpose.
The religious world talks about the plan of salvation as if there's
a plan A and a plan B. God, our God, doesn't plan anything.
He purposed everything. He's infinite, He's eternal,
and He is immutable. And He is a God of purpose. When
He purposed to save His people, He saved them. And all things
work together for good for them that are called according to
his purpose. So if you'll notice in the second
stanza that reads, the God of truth must punish sin, but in
his love, he, scratch out those next three words, formed a plan,
and right in these three words, sent a man. The God of truth must punish
sin, but in his love, he sent a man. the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, satisfied the demands of God's law, put away the sins
of his people. If you have another hymnal by
you, you might want to pick it up and do the same with that
one. That'll make it better next time we sing that hymn. All right, we're going to be looking
at Psalm 122 this morning, if you'd like to open your Bibles
with me. to that passage, what a blessing it's been to preach from and to look at
and to rejoice in the Psalms. I've titled this message, Glad
to be Glad. Glad to be Glad. The Psalm begins
with, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house
of the Lord If you're glad to be here, I mean truly glad to
be here, that's a work of grace. The natural man's not gonna be
glad to come into the house of God and to listen to the preaching
of Christ. That's a work of grace in the
heart of God's people. And so, the child of God says,
you know what? I'm glad he made me glad. Because
had he not, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be here. Let's pray
together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that you in your glorious purpose, Providence has brought us here
to this place. We're thankful that you've made
us glad to be here. that you've put into our hearts
a desire to know you and to worship you and to rejoice in Christ,
to hear your word, to rest in your promises and in the person
of thy dear son, who finished the work of redemption all by
himself on Calvary's cross. What great joy, what great gladness
we have. Lord, we pray that you would
increase The gladness of our hearts. We pray that you would
increase our faith. We pray Lord that you would remind
us once again of the finished work of Christ and putting away
our sin. Pray Lord that you would net
our hearts together in the love of Christ and that you would
cause our times together to be. To be more glorious and more
honorable to you and. And more helpful to us. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. When the scripture says in Psalm
130 that God makes his people willing in the day of his power,
he makes them willing to believe on Christ, he makes them willing
to to believe all that he has said. He makes them willing to
come. They don't come kicking and screaming. When the Lord
changes their hearts, when he regenerates them, he gives them
a new heart and he gives them a desire for Christ. And that
willingness extends beyond just a willingness to to believe and
a willingness to come. It extends to the degree of gladness. We rejoice. That's what this
word glad means. It means to rejoice. It means
to be happy. It means to delight in that work
of grace. It doesn't mean that, well, the
Lord has just somehow forced us to be willing. He has put
it in our hearts to be happy over the things that he's done
for us. And so David in this psalm says, I was glad, I was
delighted, I was so thankful when they said unto me, let us
go into the house of the Lord. I've made this statement on several
occasions and I don't know if we have any young children here
right now that might take advantage of this, but with their parents,
but I've said, you don't wanna come, don't come, don't come. This is a place where the Lord
makes us glad to come. We're not here to shame people
for not coming. We're not here to try to manipulate
people or promise them some sort of reward if they do come. We
don't come out of obligation. We don't come out of duty. We
don't come in order to try to establish a righteousness before
God. That's not why we're here. We're here because the Lord has
moved in our hearts and made us glad to enter into the house
of God to worship Him, to worship Him in spirit and in truth. We're thankful that the Lord
has been pleased to meet with us. He said, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. When John saw the churches in
Asia Minor in the first chapters of Revelation, he saw the Lord
Jesus Christ walking among the candlesticks. This is where he's
pleased to manifest his grace and his glory. This is the place
where he speaks to our hearts by his word through the preaching
of the gospel. And that makes us glad. We're
glad to be here. We're not looking for reward.
We're not looking to establish a righteousness. A lot of people
come to church for a lot of different reasons. We don't come out of
just purity. I mean, there's good habits to
have in life, but that habit is not the reason that we're
coming. We're coming because the Lord has made us to have
a need. And in giving us that need, he
meets that need. When we gather together and we
open his word, and the Spirit of God is pleased to speak, he
meets the need that he's created. Isn't that glorious? You know,
everything God commands and requires of us, he provides. He says,
husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and
gave himself for it, and then he puts into the hearts of his
men to love their wives and to sacrifice for them. We look to him to enable us to
do everything that he's required of us. And we look to the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ to have perfected that work. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go. into the house of the Lord. I
wanna ask the simple question and we're just gonna go verse
by verse through these nine verses. Why are we glad to be here? Why
are we glad to be here? And the first answer I've already,
the first reason I've already answered, because the Lord has
made us so. He's given us a need and a desire
to be here and to rejoice in his work of redemption to hear
his word and to be brought into spiritual worship to his presence. He's promised to open the windows
of heaven and come down and meet with us. And he said, I inhabit
the praises of my people. So that's the first reason. The
second reason is because this is the house of God. It's God's
house, not the building, not the building. But the people
and the message and what goes on here and the spiritual worship
and the promise of God's presence makes this to be his house. When
we built this place, we tried to make it as simple and unimpressive
as we could so that there would be no distractions from the building
itself. We don't look to those things,
we don't have statues and crosses and stained glass windows and
those sort of things because the building is not the house
of God. Listen to what Stephen said in
Acts chapter 7 and he was quoting from the Psalms when he said,
the most high dwelleth not in the temples made with hands.
Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will
you build for me? So it's not the heavens cannot
contain him. The stars, the scripture says,
are not pure in his sight. It's not building a brick and
mortar that makes this to be the house of God. It's what happens
here and wherever we meet and whatever building or whatever
house becomes the house of God. And what a delight it is for
the Lord to invite us. to bring us to his home. We love
going to the homes of friends and fellowshipping with them
and having a meal with them. That's a pleasant experience
for friends who love each other to gather together with family
and enjoy that time. And the Lord has said unto us,
come, come. The spirit and the bride say,
come. And he causes us to be here.
This is the house of God because of what happens here. You remember
when the Lord cleansed the temple because they had turned the house
of prayer into a den of thieves. And that's the case in most religious
gathering places. I call them religious clubhouses. They're not churches. They're
merchandising men's souls. They're selling the gospel for
profit. They're saying, if you will do
this, then God will do that. And they're lying to people and
manipulating people. And they're lying on God. But
this is a house of prayer. The Lord had indignation against
what they had done. And He hasn't changed. His indignation
is the same now as it was then. His attitude toward merchandising
men's souls, selling the gifts of grace for profit is still
as offensive to God as it's ever been. It's offensive to us too,
isn't it? This is a place where we come and we join our hearts
together. in prayer. We've already had
a public prayer that I led a few minutes ago. We prayed when we
sang that hymn. And the scripture says that we're
to pray without ceasing. I'm praying right now while I'm
speaking to you. I'm praying and I hope that you're
praying. I hope that you're having a spirit of prayer asking the
Lord to speak to your heart and to give you ears to hear. You
see, this is a house of prayer. We never cease praying, don't
we? Do we? We acknowledge, when we come
to this place, we acknowledge our dependence upon him. And
that's all prayer is. That's what prayer is. It's to plead for his mercy and
for his grace and to acknowledge our inability to do anything
for ourselves. So it's the house of God because
it's a house of prayer. It's the house of God because
of the gospel being preached. This is the only place in the
world Not this particular place, but the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is the reason why the world exists, is the only
place in the world where the gospel's being preached, where
Christ is being lifted up, where men can find hope for their souls
and forgiveness for their sins. It's the only place. There's
no other place in the world like it. So we're glad when they said
unto us, let us go into the house of the Lord, because the Lord's
made us glad to come to that place where we can, where we
can pray together, where we can listen together, where we can
fellowship with one another. The early believers continued
in the apostles doctrine and in prayer and in fellowship and
in the breaking of bread. That's what the scripture says.
And so that's what we do here. We continue to do those things
that the church has always done from the very beginning. We don't
confuse why we're here with forms of entertainment that might appeal
to the flesh. We speak to the souls of men
and to the hearts of men, and we tell sinners about the Savior
who put away their sins by the sacrifice of Himself. We tell
them that their warfare is accomplished. Yes, you and I raised our fist
in rebellion against God when our father Adam sinned. And there's a sin nature in every
one of us that continues to do that. And yet the Lord says that
when in that day, in that day, they will beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning forks. In other words,
they'll take the instruments of war and turn them in to the
instruments of plowing a field, planting seed, and harvesting
a crop. That's the work of grace that
the Lord does in our hearts, and so we're glad. Yes, Lord,
there was a time when I raised my sword, I spoke blasphemy against
God. That's what the, That's what
the tongue is pictured as in the scriptures. It's pictured
as a sword and the Lord's going to come the day of judgment with
a tongue like a flaming sword. And men say, I will draw my sword
against God. And that's what they do when
they speak blasphemy against God. And I'm not talking about
just using cursing language. I'm talking about the religious
language that men use, that deny Christ his glory and salvation
and take to themselves some credit for what they've done to save
themselves. That's using the tongue. That's using the tongue
as a sword. And God says, I'm gonna turn
their tongue, their sword into a plowshare. They're not gonna
be, they're gonna be planting the seed now. They're gonna be
scattering the seed. And I'm gonna make sure that
that seed falls on good ground and it's going to bear fruit,
fruit. And the Lord has not left us
to wonder what that fruit is. It's the fruit of the spirit.
Galatians chapter five is clear about that. When the gospel goes
out, the fruit of the spirit is the evidence of that gospel.
What is the fruit of the spirit? It's love, it's love. That's
the meat of the gospel and that's the fruit of the spirit. It's
love for Christ. It's love for his word. You see,
we're not coming because we have to come or because we're trying
to earn favor with God or because we're obligated to come. We come
because we love being here. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. I was glad. Why? Because God has done a work
of grace in my heart and he's caused me to love him and love
his word. Spiritual worship. The Lord told
that woman at the well, when she was wondering where worship
should take place, You know, she said to the Lord, she said,
well, we know that you being a Jew, your father said that
we should worship in Jerusalem. And our fathers say that she
was a Samaritan, that we should worship here on Mount Gerizim.
What do you say? And the Lord said, the day has
come. It's here right now. When the
father seeketh after them who will worship him in spirit and
in truth. in spirit and in truth, in the
power of the spirit of God, from the heart, from the spirit, and
according to the truth of his word. It doesn't matter where
you worship, wherever the spirit of God is, wherever the gospel
being preached, wherever God's people are gathered together,
that's the house of God. And this is the place where the Lord,
that little well, with that woman, and those disciples showed up,
and the Lord said, oh, I have meat to eat that you know not
of. And they didn't know what was going on, but they were in
that very house of God right there. When Jacob was at Bethel,
Bethel means the house of God. And there he was by himself,
but God had come down. God had met with him there in
that place. You remember he made a pillow
out of a rock? I always had problems with that.
You know, Jacob, why don't you just gather up some branches
or something, but lay on a rock? I mean, what works? I want the
softest pillow I can. Isn't your like a soft pillow?
I mean, can you imagine using a rock? But the gospel picture
is pictured in that, isn't it? He was resting on Christ. That rock of ages, the rock on
which the church is built, that's where he was resting. And that
place became the house of God. And he was glad to be there,
glad to be there. Look at, we're answering this
question, why are believers glad? Why are they glad? Number one,
the work of grace in the heart done by the Spirit of God. Number
two, they're in the house of God where the things of God are
being dealt with. There's no place else in the
world that they're going to find that. And number three, the confidence,
the assurance the stability that the gospel gives. If we don't
leave this place, if you're a child of God and you don't leave this
place with assurance of your salvation, then something's not
right. Either I have not told the truth
or you're not in the right place. I don't know. Don't you love
leaving church knowing that you're saved? That's the way the preaching
of the gospel ought to be. It ought to be. And look at verse
two. Our feet shall stand within thy gates. Oh, the stability. of the gospel, of the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Being reminded that salvation's
of the Lord. The reason we doubt our salvation
is because we're not looking to Christ, we're looking to ourselves.
We're looking to the law, we're looking to our sin, we're looking
to our whatever. And David said in Psalm 73, he
said, my foot had almost slipped When I considered the prosperity
of the wicked, when I looked at the pleasures of sin and the
way of the world, I felt my feet slipping until I went into the
house of the Lord and then I knew their end. That's our experience,
isn't it? We live in a slippery world and
we've been slipping and sliding all week and we come to this
place and we've got a firm place to stand. a firm place. David said, our feet shall stand. Some Greek philosopher from millennium
past made this statement. He said, the only constant in
life is change. And that's true, isn't it? The
only constant in this world, as far as the philosophy of man
is concerned, is change. Economy's changing, you're changing,
I'm changing, our children are changing, political views change, morality
changes, everything's changing. What stability? Where can we
plant our feet and know that that's not going to change? And
here's what the only one who can take this name upon himself,
the immutable one, said, I am the Lord and I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. What he established in the covenant
of grace before time ever began cannot change. He's not a God
of plans, He's a God of purpose. And everything He does is on
purpose. And the reason we're glad to
be here is because it's the only place, it's the only place in
the whole world where we can plant our feet on a rock of ages
and know that He doesn't change. His purpose doesn't change, His
work of redemption doesn't change, I'm never changing. I'm constantly
looking and not looking and taking my eyes off, but he's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. And he's the only one that we
can say that about. The only one. He's the only one
that mutates not. He is immutable. Rocks are changing. You know, the Lord likens himself
to a rock because we look at a rock, we think, well, that's
pretty stable. That rock is moving. Yeah, the
molecules on that rock are moving and that rock is forever changing
and in time, give it enough time and it'll deteriorate, it'll
change its shape and its form. The Lord changes not, not one
molecule, not one atom of him changes. And so David said, I
was glad when they said, let us go into the house of the Lord,
because this is where I hear about a God who changes not. A God that I can trust, a God
that I can rest my immortal soul on, a God that I can believe
in with all of my heart. A God who purposed the salvation
of his people. And what he accomplished on Calvary's
cross cannot be changed. When our God bowed his mighty
head on Calvary's cross and said it is finished, that was the
unchangeable work of redemption accomplished by our God. And
we can say our warfare's accomplished. Our
sin and iniquity has been put away. It's been purged. and all the changing that takes
place in my life, all the fickleness, all the inconsistencies of my
own heart and of this world, I've got a place where my feet
can stand within the gate. Within the gate, I can stand. You know, the religions, the
false gospel is a gospel that's ever-changing. You know, God doesn't know what's
gonna happen He makes an offer of salvation to man and he's
in the heavens wringing his hands, hoping that men will let him
have his way. Won't you invite Jesus into your
heart? Isn't that the message we hear
out in the world? Won't you let Jesus be Lord of
your life? He wants to be, but bless his heart, he just can't
get it done because you're in the driver's seat, you're in
control. What comfort is there in that?
You think I'm in control? No. I'm as unstable as water. That's
what the scripture says. We're as unstable as water. I
don't want to be in control of that. I don't want to be in control
of anything. I mean, we constantly are trying,
aren't we? But then we come to the house
of God and we're reminded he's in control. My God is sovereign. My God is immutable. My God is
a God of purpose who has accomplished my salvation all by himself and
I can rest there. Oh, what my feet shall stand
within the gates. You remember that new Jerusalem
that comes down in the book of Revelation has 12 gates, three
facing north, three facing south, three facing east, three facing
west. And the gates are all of one
pearl. It's what scripture says. I don't
know what that means. I mean, I know what it means.
I can't imagine it, picture it. Christ is the pearl of great
price. He's the pearl of great price, and he's the gate into
the sheepfold. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man can come to the Father except by me. So when
we stand within the gates, we're standing on the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Peter said, thou art the
Christ, the son of the living God, the Lord said, upon this
rock, what you just professed, Peter, I'm gonna build my church.
And the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail against it.
These gates. These gates. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
two. 1 Peter chapter two. We can stand in these gates. Look at verse, look at verse five of 1 Peter
chapter two. You are lively stones And we don't think of a stone
as being alive, but the Lord's calling us stones, living stones. He changed Peter's name to a
rock. And, uh, and each one of his
children are building stones in the house of God. Look at,
look what he says in verse five, you are living stones. built
up a spiritual house. Here's the house of God. Like
I said, it's not the building. I was glad when they said unto
us, let us go into the house of the Lord. The house of the
Lord is spiritual. It's spiritual. It's when the
Spirit of God meets with the people of God and the Word of
God's preached and the Son of God is lifted up, it's a spiritual
house. You are lively stones built up
into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The only thing
that's acceptable to God is that which comes by Jesus Christ. It doesn't come by Him, it's
not acceptable to God. That's why when we pray, we pray in
Jesus' name, Lord. We're pleading his blood and
his righteousness and his merit. And Lord, do it for his namesake. Don't do it because of the sincerity
of my heart or because of my works or my deeds. Wherefore,
it is also contained in the scripture, verse six, behold, God speaking,
Isaiah 28, behold, I lay in Zion. Zion is the church. This is the
house of God. I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone,
elect. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
chosen one, his elect one. Precious, that word means priceless. Pearl of great price. And he
that believeth on him shall not be confounded. You see, if the
Lord gives you faith to believe on Christ, then your feet stand
within the gate and you're not moved. You're not confounded.
You're not going to listen to a gospel message that puts it
off on you to do something in order to earn favor with God.
You're not going to do it. No, that's a slippery place. My feet are fixed. This is why
I'm glad to come into the house of God, because I'm not being
told that my salvation is somehow dependent upon something I do.
I can't trust that. I'm being reminded that the Lord
Jesus Christ is that gate of pearl, that pearl of great price
and that gate into the heavens and that he's accomplished, that
he's gone before me as my forerunner, He's presented himself before
the Father on our behalf. Righteousness is established.
The law has been accomplished. Justice has been met. What more
sure, we have a sure hope. Where are you gonna get that
in the world? Where are you gonna get that in yourself? This is
why we're glad to come into the house of God, isn't it? It's
the only place where my feet can find a firm standing, a firm
footing, only place. Everything else is just uncertain. Look at verse seven. Unto you
therefore which believe, he is precious. but unto them which
be disobedient. And that word is the word unbelieve,
who don't believe. They don't believe God. They
don't believe the gospel. The stone which the builders
disallowed, the same as made the head of the corner. They
took that stone and they said, no, we're not gonna have that.
Why? Because that stone robs me of my righteousness. That
stone puts me in the dirt. That stone gets all the glory
and all the preeminence and I'm not going to have that. So I'm
going to reject that stone. And God takes the stone that
the builders rejected and makes that stone the head of the corner.
Builds the whole church on that stone. And he builds them with
living stones. Look at verse eight. And a stone
of stumbling, a rock of offense, even to them, which stumble at
the word being disobedient, whereunto they were also appointed. They
were appointed unto this. Vessels fitted for destruction.
Yes, that's what the scriptures are teaching us. You see, we,
we try to support everything we say with the word of God,
don't we? And God's people just, amen, that's what I believe. How can I, and we were talking
before the service, one of the ways you know you have faith
is that you can't not believe God. You can't look at what God says
and said, well, yeah, but you can't do it. You bow to everything
that God says. You say amen to every word of
God. You say, how much of the Bible
do you have to believe in order to be a believer? Every word
of it. Every word of it. And when God
makes you to be a believer, you just believe. And you're glad
that you believe. You're glad that you're glad.
You're glad to be in the house of God where the word of God
is lifted up and you just rejoice in what the Lord has done. But you, verse nine, are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people,
that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's why we
come, that's why we're glad to be here. This is a place where
we join our hearts and voices in lifting up Christ and giving
him all the praise and all the glory for the work of redemption
for all things, for all things. Verse 10, which in times past
were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. It was a time
when I wasn't glad to be in the house of God. I remember listening
to the gospel by Henry Mahan two or three years before the
Lord was pleased to give me years to hear the gospel. I fell asleep. Wasn't interested in it. It was
no, it was no, no delight to my soul. You were not a people, but now
you are a people. You are a people. And believe
God, be given faith to trust Christ. Can you say with David,
I was glad. I am glad. When they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. It's the only place
of stability. Our feet shall stand within thy
gates, O Jerusalem. Let's take a break. Thank you.