Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 175 in the hardbacked hymnal. And
let's all stand together. 175. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout
and sing, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail. Standing on the promises
of God, Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord, Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall, Listing every moment to the Spirit's call, Resting in
my Savior as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God. standing on the promises of God
my Savior standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God
please be seated no place else I want to stand
what a firm stand the Lord gives us That rock is sure and steadfast. It won't move. Lord gives us
the grace to. Rest all our hope in Christ,
so safe place to be. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 88 Psalm 88? Thank you all for your prayers.
For me this past weekend had. Good meeting and in. Crossville
and. enjoyed a wedding with Seth and
Kaylee. Kaylee's father is a pastor of
a Southern Baptist Church and that's where the wedding was.
And there was well over 100, maybe 150 of the members of that
church that were there for that wedding. And we were able to
preach the gospel, so you never know. Never know what the Lord
might be pleased to do. Psalm 88, have your Bibles open? I know you all were blessed here
Sunday. I got a chance to listen to Robert and Caleb's message
and so very thankful for these two men. I listened to him on the plane
coming home Sunday night, so. Was very much of blessing. Psalm
88 verse one. As we've seen time and time again,
these Psalms have to be understood first and foremost as the prayers
of Christ. And here our Lord is praying
to his father from the cross. And he says, Oh Lord God of my
salvation, I have cried day and night before thee. Let my prayer
come before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry, for my soul
is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. And when the spirit of God enables
us to see that this is how the Lord Jesus Christ talked to his
father on behalf of his church, and the Lord makes us to see
our sin, at least in part, then this becomes our prayer. We're
troubled in our soul. Lord, if you don't take away
my sin, I will go down into the grave, but there'll be no recovery.
I am counted with them to go down into the pit. I am as a
man that hath no strength. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. Not we had little strength. We
had no strength. No strength whatsoever. Lord,
I can't save myself. Free among the dead, like the
slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more,
and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the
lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath layeth hard
upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. The full
fury of the wrath of God was poured out on Christ as our sin
bearer on Calvary's cross. And he's crying out to God, asking
him to deliver him. Thou has put away my acquaintances
far from me. Thou has made me an abomination
unto them. I am shut up. I cannot come forth. He bore our sins and suffered
and died all by Himself. Mine eye mourneth by reason of
affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon
Thee. I have stretched out my hands
unto Thee. Wilt Thou show wonders to the
dead? Shall the dead rise and praise Thee? Selah. Shall thy
loving kindness be declared in the grave of thy faithfulness
and destruction? Lord, in order for you to be
glorified, what's the Lord saying is in order for you to be glorified,
you're gonna have to raise me from the dead. There's no glory
in the grave. Shall thy wonders be known in
the dark and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
But unto thee have I cried, O Lord, And in the morning shall my prayer. I looked up that word prevent. We don't use that word in that,
in the sense that it's used here, but it means to come before,
to come before. And so what the Lord saying is
in the morning, shall my prayer come before thee. The Lord Jesus
Christ was confident that the father was going to hear his
prayers. And what did he pray? Father, I pray for them, which
thou has given me out of the world. I pray not for the world. Pray not for the world. Peter,
be of good cheer. I prayed for you. Lord, why cast
that thou off my soul? Why hide us thou thy face from
me? I am afflicted and ready to die
from my youth up. You know, we just don't have
any idea how true that is of us, do we? I was thinking the other day
that, you know, preaching as a dying man, preaching to dying
men, but what if we really knew that we were all gonna die tomorrow?
I mean, we knew that. What a different, we say that.
But the truth is, the moment we're born, we begin to die.
We just do, that's life. I'm afflicted and ready to die
from my youth up. The Lord Jesus Christ knew that
every moment of his life, While I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me.
Thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily
like water. They can pass me about together. Lover and friend hast thou put
far from me and my acquaintances into darkness. Now, our text
tonight is going to come from the Psalm before this. And the
Psalm before this is about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Psalm we just read is about his death. Lacey has asked to be baptized,
and I wasn't surprised. I've had such encouraging conversations
with her about the gospel. And so Sunday, that's the reason
the baptistery's out. We're going to observe baptism. Sunday for Lacey and for Tia,
Tia Jensen from Sarasota. She's been wanting to be baptized
for some time and just trying to work out a time when her son
could be here. So Tia is going to be baptized
Sunday and her son Bobby will be here with her. I think most
of you heard Sunday about Digna. She's been diagnosed with cancer.
They said she's probably had it for quite some time. It's
slow-growing. It is in her lungs and in her
liver and in one of her kidneys. And the only symptom that she's
having is lower back pain from the one kidney that has the cancer
in it and some blood that she's passing. So she doesn't want
to do anything. They said that she probably,
if they don't do anything, it could you know, it'd be probably
a year. So it's not gonna be something
quick. And if she gets in too much pain, they can remove the
one kidney that has a cancer in it. She don't wanna do that,
but if she has to, that's one option that she has. So I know
she'd love to hear from you. So let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
We come before thy throne of grace looking in faith to our
sin bearer, our advocate, thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. who bore in His body upon that
tree all the sins of all of Thy people and suffered the full
fury of Thy wrath, even as we've prayed here in Thy Word." Lord,
we ask that You would Be pleased this hour as we read thy word
and as we speak of you and as we look in faith to you, we pray
that you'd be pleased to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ face in
the light of the gospel in our hearts and cause us to find our
hope and all our comfort in him. Thank you for the testimony of
baptism. We pray for Lacey and Tia. And
for anyone else, Lord, that you may be dealing with about professing. Faith publicly. Lord, we ask
that you would cause these. These believers to have good
hope and comfort and assurance in Christ and that you would
add to your church them that should be saved and Lord that
you would grow us together in your grace. We pray for our sister
Dignan. Thank you for father and ask
that your hand of comfort and strength and healing and direction
would be upon her and. Lord, thank you for the testimony
of her hope in Christ and for the desire that you put in her
heart to. To to depart and to be with you. Teach us how to be an encouragement
to her and to one another. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Number 19 from the spiral hymn
book, number 19. Let's all stand together again. Sovereign ruler, Lord of all,
prostrate at your feet I fall. You are holy, wise, and just. I'm a creature of the dust. All things move at your command,
governed by your mighty hand. Heaven, earth, and hell I see,
Fulfill all your wise decree. Dares a man resist his Lord,
Stand against the sovereign God? I will bow before your throne,
Seeking grace in Christ your Son. ? Through his blood and
righteousness ? ? Lord I plead with you for grace ? ? If you
will you can I know ? ? Grace and mercy to me show ? ? Will
you Lord my soul forgive ? ? Grant this sinner grace to live ? I've
no other hope but this, Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. Oh, for mercy now I plead. Grant me, Lord, the grace I need. Turn, oh, turn to me and say,
all your sins are washed away. In my son, your debt is paid. He for you, the ransom made. Please be seated. We open your Bibles with me to
Psalm 87, Psalm 87. This Psalm is about the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God who was made flesh. Sent of the Father to be God's
perfect man. And, uh, speaks of his birth
here in our, in our text. I, um, was thinking in preparing
for this, that the religious world loves to say, Jesus is
the reason for the season when it comes to Christmas time. And
they think they're being spiritual and being clever, but what they
don't know is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the reason for everything. Everything. He created all things,
they were made by Him and for Him. everything in time and in eternity
is for the Lord Jesus Christ. God made this world in order
to glorify himself in his son and everything is about him.
Psalm 115 verse 1, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us. It's not
about you and me. It's about him. It's about him. You know, we get the old The
old writers got it right when they wrote those catechism questions,
at least the first one they got right. What is man's chief end? To glorify God and enjoy him
forever. That's his purpose, that's your
purpose, that's my purpose. To know God, to glorify him,
this is life eternal. So he controls the armies of heaven.
And he controls all the inhabitants of the earth. And no man can
stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And he does
it all for his own glory, for his own glory. And his greatest
glory is our greatest good. That's how we find hope and direction
and purpose is in the glory of God. And so here the Lord tells
us this man, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God man,
the one man who's mediator between God and man, the only man who
was able to touch God and not be destroyed and touch man and
not be defiled. This man was born here. He was born here. God raised
up Abraham. and promised him that of his
seed, of his seed would come the Messiah. Not seeds, but seed,
speaking of Christ. And so everything from the very
beginning, the fall was for the purpose of glorifying God. The,
the, the Lord, the Lord made it clear to Adam and Eve that
the, the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.
And when Cain was born, she called him Cain because Cain means possession. And what she thought was she
had received of the Lord, the fulfillment of that promise.
We just pre we just saying, standing on the promises and what a precious
place to stand. Eve thought that. that God had
answered that promise in the birth of the first man that was
born into the world, not knowing that her firstborn son would
become a murderer, that he wasn't the Christ, he wasn't the man. But here we find in Psalm 87,
look with me. We, we looked at this Wednesday
night, week ago. Uh, his foundation is in the
Holy mountains. The church is the Holy mountains
and the foundation is that one and only foundation, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the, the rock that the builders have rejected has
become the head of the corner. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
upon this rock, this rock, I'm going to build my church. The
gates of hell shall not be able to prevail against it. The Lord
loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
And these are, Zion's the church, the mountains is the church.
And God is saying he loves the gates of Zion. Now we know what
those gates are, there's 12 of them. There's 12 of them, three
to the north, three to the south, three to the east, three to the
west, all of one pearl. One pearl, the pearl of great
price, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only hope of coming into
the presence of God is in him, in him. Glorious things are spoken
of thee, O city of God. God is glorified through his
church. Everything that the Lord, everything
that's happening in this world is for the purpose of God saving
his people, bringing glory to himself. And when he calls his
last sheep, his last sheep into the city of God, then the end
will come. There'll be no more purpose for
this world. I will make mention of Rahab
and Babylon to them that know me. Behold, Philistia and Tyre
with Ethiopia. Now these are all pagan cities
and they're scattered all about. And this is the spiritual place
that God's brought us from. He's brought us from Egypt and
Ethiopia and Tyre and Sidon and we're pagans by nature. And the Lord brings us into the
city of God and he says to us, this man, this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the God-man was born there, was born there. And the Lord kept The Old Testament
church, Israel together for 2000 years began with Abraham up until
the time of Christ for the purpose of bringing the Lord Jesus Christ
into the world. That was the purpose of Israel
in the Old Testament. And as soon as their purpose
was accomplished, as soon as their purpose was ended, the
Lord left them. They left him. They had that
one generation to hear the gospel. And in 70 AD, Israel, as a nation,
no longer existed before God. Now the church, and the Lord's
saying, this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, was born there. Now think
about that. God was born? Why did God have
to be born? Why did God have to be born?
How could the one who is life be born into this world? How could it be? We know that
he came by a woman and that her conception, he didn't come like
the natural birth that you and I have. Uh, we, we, we can identify
with David when David said, uh, uh, in sin, did my mother conceived
me? The Lord Jesus Christ couldn't say that it was the spirit of
God that caused Mary to, to, to have this child in her womb.
And now the Lord saying life, life was born. the ancient of days, the one
who is without father, without mother, and without descent. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men. Normally we think of light coming
and light causing life, but the scripture says in him was life.
In him was life. He is life. And that life is
the light of men. In order for us to know God,
in order for us to know anything about ourselves, in order for
us to have any understanding as to what this is all about,
we have to have life. And life now is born. It's born. Why was the Lord Jesus Christ
born? Because you were born. Because I was born. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
do perfectly everything that you and I have done sinfully.
We were born in sin. He was born perfect, sinless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
seven. Hebrews chapter seven. It's the title of this message.
This man was born there. And in the next verse, the scripture
says, this man and that man was born there. So just as the Lord
Jesus Christ was born in Zion in Israel, so the New Testament
believers are born again through the ministry of the gospel in
the church. No one else has the gospel but
the church. The city of God's the only one that has the gospel.
And there's no, there's no salvation apart from, apart from hearing
the gospel for by grace. So you say through faith that
not of yourself, it's a gift of God where faith comes in that
faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. Look
at, look at Hebrews chapter seven. Verse 1, for this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham
returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation
king of righteousness, and after that king of Salem, or peace.
So, now Melchizedek, who met Abraham. Abraham paid tithes,
you remember, to Melchizedek. Melchizedek is a pre-incarnate
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called the King
of Righteousness. He's called the King of Peace. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have a righteousness outside
of ourselves in Him before God. Without father, without mother,
without descent, no pedigree, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth
a priest continually. Now consider, consider how great
this man." Notice the word was is in italics. just leave it
out. Consider how great this man,
you want to put a verb in there, put is, is because he is, he
is life. Without father, without mother,
the Lord Jesus Christ had to be born. Go back with me to our
text. This is all about the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Isaiah Isaiah said he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. Why did the Lord Jesus, you see
the Lord Jesus Christ grew up in a dry and thirsty land because
he had to live that life just like he had to be born our birth.
He had to live our life. He had to die our death. He had
to raise our resurrection. That's why we say, you don't
hear believers talking about the Lord Jesus Christ being the
most important thing in their life. That's not the way we talk. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
life. His birth is my birth. His life
is my life. His death is my death. His resurrection
is my resurrection. His ascension, we all the blessings
of God, the scripture says, are in the heavenlies in Christ right
now. We have an advocate with the
Father. We're there in Him. Outside of Christ, I have no
life. This man was born there. Where? He's born in the church. He's born in Israel. Prior to the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ, all of God's blessings were through Israel. There were
no blessings that God gave outside of Israel. Now I know that the
fundamentalists, and many Americans for that matter, like to think
that our relationship with Israel is the way to get God's blessings
on us because the Lord said, I'll bless them that bless thee
to Abraham and I'll curse them that curse thee. But that's not
the blessing or the curses. I mean, I'm glad to have an ally
in the Middle East that's on our side, but we're not supporting
Israel in order to get the blessings of God. The blessings of God
are coming through his church. He shall grow up before him as
a tender plant. This man. Was born there. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 87. And verse 5 and of Zion it shall be said. This and
that man. Was born in her. Old Testament Israel is the Old
Testament Church, and her whole purpose for existence was to
bring the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world. This
man was born there. He was born according to prophecy. He was born in fulfillment of
prophecy. And when those angels spoke to those humble shepherds
on that night when our Lord entered into this world, What did they
say? Unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. Unto you is born. Christ came
into this world to save sinners. And without his birth, there
could be no life. Without his life, there could
be no death. Without his death, there could be no resurrection.
There could be no salvation. So this man was born there. And notice in verse five, this
and that man, except the Lord Jesus Christ
told Nicodemus, except you'd be born again, you shall not
see the kingdom of God. This fact of the new birth is
a work of grace where God causes his children to depend upon Christ
for their life. It's what faith is. Faith is
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for my life. My life before God. The hope of all my salvation.
Accomplished in this man that was born there. This man that
lived there. This man that died there. He is my life and he is all my
hope. There's no salvation outside
of Christ. No salvation. And you're not
gonna hear about Christ except in the city of God. You're not gonna hear about Christ. You hear about religion, you
hear about morality, you hear about laws and works and rules
and regulations and traditions, but to hear about this man? This man, the God man? The one
who bore the sins of his people on his body in order to satisfy
all of God's justice? The one who is all our righteousness
before God? They don't talk about that man.
So the Lord's telling us just as clearly as we see him dying
in Psalm 88, we see him coming into the world in Psalm 87, and
we see that the only hope that we have for life is the life
became the light of men. Born of a woman, born under the
law, God required a man who was able to keep God's holy law. He required that. He demanded
that. You and I have never been able to keep any part of God's
law. Not to God's satisfaction. We may have kept it in a way
that impresses other men, and we ought to. We love God's law.
We ought to live in a way that's honorable to the Lord. But God's
looking at his law as the lawgiver, and he's looking at the heart.
Scripture says man looks at the outward appearance, God looks
at the heart. And no man in his heart has ever been able to satisfy
the demands of God's holy law, except this man. This man that
was born there kept the law of God perfectly. And when he went
to Calvary's cross, he was bearing the sins of his people, not sins
that he had committed, Yet he owns them as his own and suffers
the shame and the judgment of God's wrath in order to put them
away. This man had to be born there. And this man and that man has
to be born under the sound of the gospel. James put it like
this, of his own will. God's sovereign in salvation.
I'll have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and whom I will harden.
God is sovereign in salvation. Of his own will begat he us. That means he birthed us. This
man and that man was born there. That's the only place where God's
birthing. God births his children through the womb of his bride.
And he birthed Christ through the womb of his bride. Israel
was God's bride. It was his bride. And he birthed Christ into the
world through the womb of Israel. And now Israel is the new Israel,
the new Jerusalem. He had to grow up in favor with
God and man. And he, oh, he was in favor with
God. The two times that God audibly
speaks from heaven to the disciples, what does he say? He says the
same thing both times. At the baptism and at the Mount
of Transfiguration, what did God say audibly? This is my beloved
son, in him I am well pleased. I'm satisfied with him. Hear
ye him. Listen to him, follow him. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
four. Let's think about Israel. Galatians chapter four. Verse four, but when the fullness
of time was come. Now that's what, that's the same
thing that Paul said when it pleased God, when it pleased
God in the fullness of time, who separated me from my mother's
womb, he's the one that caused me to be born. When it pleased
God, he revealed Christ in me. It's always on God's timetable,
isn't it? And our death will be on his timetable as well.
It is appointed. It is appointed unto man once
to die. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. You see, when
you and I were under the law, the law was our condemner. The
law was our judge. The law can't, all the law can
say to me and you is guilty. And outside of Christ, we're
under the law. And one of the things that every
religion of the world has in common is that they're all under
the law. Now, they have a different view
as to which laws are important. You know, they've got their laws
in a list and some say, well, this law is important. Others
say that law is important. But, but all men are under the
law. He came to redeem them, to purchase them that were under
the law that he might, that, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth his spirit of his son into your hearts, crying
Abba father. We don't, we don't come to the
father, uh, looking to, to satisfy the law. We come to him crying
Abba father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Through Christ. Turn over just a few pages to
Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. Verse 12, saying, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will
I sing praises unto thee. This man and that man was born
there. Why? Because the Lord in the
midst of his church sings praises unto thee. You're not gonna find
out about God anywhere else. The politicians can't tell you
about God. The educators can't tell you about God. The philosophers
can't tell you about God. The religious men who have their
own idols can't tell you about God. The Lord Jesus Christ was
born in the church and he continues to birth his children in the
church. And again I will put my trust
in him and again behold I and the children which God hath given
me for as much then as as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood he also himself Likewise took part of the same that through
death he might destroy him that had power of the death that is
the devil. So just because, why was Christ born? Because we're
flesh and blood. He had to become flesh and blood.
He had to do perfectly everything that we do sinfully. and deliver them, verse 15, who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. In the midst of the church, I
will sing Galatians chapter three. This is the verse I wanted you
to see concerning Israel. Remember when God told Abraham,
told him in Genesis chapter 15, remember when the sacrifices
were divided and the smoking furnace and the fiery furnace
and the smoking went between the sacrifices and the Lord confirmed
his oath with Abraham and then he repeats it in chapter 18 when
he tells Abraham, he says, your descendants will be like the
sand of the seashore and be like the stars of the sky. I heard
a man He was priding himself on thinking that he was a literalist.
And he said, in heaven, there's gonna be exactly the same number
of people as there are grains of sand on the seashore. That's
not what that scripture teaches. It teaches there are gonna be
innumerable. You're not gonna be able to count
them. There's gonna be so many. But here in Galatians chapter
three, the Lord the Lord tells Abraham in Genesis 15 and in
Genesis 18 that he's going to bless Abraham and he's going
to bless those nations that bless Abraham and he's going to curse
those nations that curse Abraham and in Genesis chapter 3 at verse
16 now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. And in
case you missed that, he said, not unto seeds as of many, but
as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So the seed of the
woman in the garden is the same as the seed of Abraham, and it's
singular. And it's a reference to the Lord
Jesus Christ. All the blessings of God are
in him. This man was born there. What's our hope to be found in
him, to be found in him, not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness, which is by the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born of a woman
in the likeness of sinful flesh, born under the law to redeem
them that were cursed by the law. the seed of Abraham. It's not national Israel. That's not where the blessing
of God is. Blessing of God is not over there in the Middle
East for those who support. You know, you've seen these advertisements
on TV where they show the diaspora, the Jews that are scattered upon
all the earth, and they're trying to bring them all back to Israel.
And Israel's, I mean, they're bringing in Jews from all over
the world. And they think that this is the
fulfillment of prophecy. That has nothing to do with it.
Nothing whatsoever to do with it. The blessings of God are in Christ. In Christ. He's the man that
was born there. In Micah chapter 5, the prophecy
is that he will be born in Bethlehem. And he was grew up in Nazareth.
The Pharisees said, what good thing to come out of Nazareth?
We, there are no, no prophecy of the Messiah coming out of
Nazareth. They didn't know he'd been born in Bethlehem, which
was the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy that that's where he
was going to be born. And the God sent him there. He's born in fulfillment of all
the promises of God. And when we look at the lineage
of Mary in the book of Luke and the lineage of Joseph in the
book of Matthew, both Mary and Joseph were of the tribe of Judah
and of the house of David. But their descendants, Mary and
Joseph's descendants, divided the last descendant that they
had in common was Zerubbabel. Now, Termomeda, we've been looking
at Zechariah. This is important because this
is the covenant promise. This is God fulfilling his purpose. Zechariah chapter four. Zerubbabel was the last descendant
that Mary and Joseph had in common. What's the significance of that?
Well, it's the fulfillment of God's promise. Look at verse
nine of Zechariah chapter four. The hands of Zerubbabel laid
the foundation of this house. What do we read in Psalm 87?
His foundation is found there. This man was born there. The
hands of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel's a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Zerubbabel's name translated
means born in Babylon. Born in Babylon. So we read the
Lord Jesus Christ was born in Israel, but God's calling it
Babylon. He laid the foundation of his
house and his hands also shall finish it. And thou shalt know
that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. The one who laid
the foundation of the house is going to finish the foundation
of the house. And that's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
And God brought those two together and Christ came into the world
in fulfillment of all those promises. And the Lord told us in Isaiah
chapter 9, a child shall be born unto you. A child shall be born
unto you and a son shall be given. Now notice the child is born
and the son is given. And his name, his name shall
be called what? Wonderful. Now in our Bibles
it says wonderful counselor, but it's wonderful. Full of wonder. We use that word wonderful pretty
loosely, don't we? But when it relates to the Lord
Jesus Christ, he's beyond our understanding. He's he's. He's
too wonderful to comprehend. Counselor. The mighty God. Prince of Peace. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the fulfillment of God's
promise. Psalm 72 the Lord makes it clear
that that kings will come and bring gifts unto him at his birth.
It's exactly what happened. Kings came from the east and
brought gifts to the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Go back with me to Psalm 87.
And of Zion, verse five, it shall be said, this and that man was
born in her. and the highest himself, that's
God the Father, shall establish her, shall establish her. The only thing that's going to
survive this world is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. She's
been established. God's gonna keep her. And not
one of his sheep's gonna be lost. Look what he says in the next
verse, the Lord shall count. Now that word is reckon. He's
going to count them up. He's going to, he's going to
fulfill his prophecy. He's going to, he's going to
count his sheep. He knows every one of them by
name, their names. Look at, look at the rest of
this verse. He shall count them when he write it up the people. You see, every single one of
God's elect were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the
foundation of the world. He knows them by name. He was
born in this world in their stead. He lived in this world in their
stead. He died in this world in their
stead. He was raised in their stead.
He said, I've written their names down. Not one of them is going
to be lost. And I've counted them. Now that
word count is the same word for reckon. It's also the same word
for impute. It's a it's a. It's a legal term. It's God saying I I know I've
I've reckoned my righteousness to them. I've imputed my righteousness
to them. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord says I I've I've settled this issue. and all because this
man in the fullness of time was born there. And because he was
born there, that man's gonna be born there. Every one of God's
people are gonna be birthed into the family of God through the
womb of his church, his bride. The Lord shall count when he
rideth up the people that this man was born there. Three times
in this song speaks of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
because he was born there, they're going to be born there. Every
one of them. Selah. As well, the singers as
the players on instruments shall be there. We offer up our songs of praise,
the sacrifice of our lips, the calves of our lips, the scripture
calls it. That's our sacrifices. Why? Because this man was born there.
And because that man was born there. Because God birthed me
there, gave me ears to hear. When the Lord said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, except you'd be born of the water and of the spirit,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said,
how can I be born again? I'm a grown man. How can I go
back into my mother's womb? And what did the Lord say? Nicodemus,
that which is of the spirit is spirit. It's the spirit that
giveth life. We're not talking about a fleshly
birth, we're talking about a spiritual birth. It's the Spirit of God
that gives it. The flesh prophet is nothing.
The Spirit gives life, and the Spirit's like the wind. He's
sovereign in salvation. And what do those who are birthed
by the Spirit of God say? Oh Lord, don't stop blowing my
way, or keep me. or deliver me, cause me to be
born, save me, save me, enable me to hang all the hopes of my
salvation on that man that was born in Zion, that the songs
of my heart might come out of true gratitude, as I'm enabled
by your spirit to cry, Abba, Father, Abba, Father. The last part of verse seven,
all my springs, all my springs. What'd the Lord say to that woman
at the well? If you knew who it was that said unto thee, give
me to drink, you'd ask of him and he'd give you living water.
You wouldn't have to keep coming back to this well for your satisfaction. I would give you living water
that would spring forth out of your belly unto eternal life. Now he says, all the springs
of God, all the hopes of salvation, all the peace of God, all the
forgiveness of sin, all the ability to cry, Abba Father, All the
hopes of rest and comfort are in that spring. That fountain
that flows clear as crystal from the throne of God and from the
lamb that we see in the book of Revelation drink. Now, how
does this, how does this whole story end? How's the whole story
end? If any man thirst, come drink
freely. drink freely from the fountain
of life. All my springs, all the truths of salvation, all
the truths about God, all the truths about ourselves, all the
truths about Christ and how it is that he's pleased to save
sinners are in thee. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that the Lord Jesus Christ Was made. A man. That as a man he satisfied all
that. We are unable to do. Lord, we. We pray that you would. Cause us to be. Birthed again
and again and again. Cause the life of Christ to be
new and fresh to us as you enable us in thy word. To look upon
him. For it's in his name we ask it. Amen. 33 let's stand together
number 33. ? Behold I come, our Savior said
? The Savior promised long ? I come to do thy will, O God ? And thus
our hope was born Behold, the Virgin has conceived and born
a Son of flesh. His name is called Emmanuel. God dwells in human flesh. The angels left their high abode
to see this mystery The great almighty sovereign God, a babe
of feeble clay Mortals beheld His lovely face, the Father's
only Son. How full of truth, how full of
grace, Christ came to save His own. His spotless life of righteousness
and sin-atoning death fulfilled His Father's holy will and satisfied
His wrath. Our glad Hosannas, Prince of
Peace, Your glory shall proclaim. Enthroned in Heaven as our King,
We love to praise your name.