It thrills my soul to watch and
hear you all enjoy each other's fellowship. It's a blessing.
We'll have time for that again after the service. We stayed
together for lunch. If you didn't know about lunch,
please plan to stay and enjoy that time with us. There's a little article in your
bulletin that I made reference to. how the Lord called us out
22 years ago. There's a movement in religion
that is called church planting. And generally, it's a few people
that want to be big fish in a little pond. And so they decide, well,
we're going to start a new church. And that was the farthest thing
from our mind when the Lord called us out. We had no interest in
starting a new church. We had no interest in leaving
where we were. But the Lord made clear to us
the gospel and put us in a place where we
had no choice but to gather together. And so from the very beginning,
it was the Lord And it's the Lord that's kept us and it's
the Lord that will finish the work that he began. How thankful I am that so many
of our young adults now were babies when we started and now
they're having babies and what a blessing. Much emphasis is given to verse
25 in Ephesians chapter 5. And a lot of debates and arguments
in legalistic religion have to do with the role of the man and
the woman and the husband and wife. And the meaning of this
passage is completely missed. Completely missed. Husbands, yes, love your wives,
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he
might sanctify, make holy, and cleanse it with the washing of
water by his word. Why do we spend so much time
in God's word here? Because it's the means by which
the Lord sanctifies, sets apart His church and His people, that
He might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. That's what the Lord's doing.
He's calling out His elect. He's sanctifying them by His
Word. And He's presenting them back
to Himself without spot, without blemish, perfect in his sight. For so ought men to love their
wives even as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever hated his own
flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church. The church is called the body
of Christ. And the Lord is saying, just
like Just like your head loves your body, so the head of the
church loves his body and cherishes it. For we are members of his
body and of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall
a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto
his wife and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. but I speak concerning Christ
and His Church. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. One church, one body, one Lord,
one baptism, one gospel. We are the body of Christ and
He loveth it and cherishes it. I'm so thankful, thankful for
you, thankful for our Lord calling us out and keeping us and continuing
to be merciful to us. Tom's gonna come lead us in the
hymn on the back of your bulletin. Would you stand please? Thy works not mine, O Christ,
speak gladness to this heart. They tell me all the work is
done, they bid my fear depart. Thy cross, not mine, O Christ,
has borne the awful load of sins that no one else could bear but
our incarnate God. Thy death, not mine, O Christ,
has paid the ransom due. Ten thousand, thousand deaths
like mine would often been too few. Thy righteousness, O Christ,
alone can cover me. No righteousness can satisfy,
save that which is of Thee. Please be seated. Good morning. Our core call to
worship will be found in Psalm 111. Psalm 111. Praise ye Lord. I will praise
the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright
and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of them that have pleasure in them. And this is
what we come to celebrate here and we come to praise the Lord
because his works, his wonderful works, especially his works of
salvation in us. His work is honorable and glorious
and his righteousness endures forever. He has made His wonderful
works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. Aren't you glad that He is gracious,
full of compassion? That's what we need the most,
don't we? We need His grace and we need His compassion. He has
given meat unto them that fear Him. He will ever be mindful
of His covenant. That's what we need for him to
be mindful of his covenant, because he's the covenant keeper. This
covenant is between Christ and the Father. He has shown his
people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage
of the heathen. The works of his hands are verity
and judgment. All his commandments are sure. They stand fast. and forever
and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption
unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
for forever. Holy and reverend is his name. Fear the Lord. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have
all day that Do His commandments. His praise endure forever. Father God, we come before you
the only way that we can, and it's by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by his righteousness, by his sacrifice, we come to you in
Christ to give you thanks, to give you praise. Thank you for
all these years that you have shown us the gospel, Father,
that you have shown us Christ. Christ is what we need, Father.
We pray, Father, that you keep us another 22 years, Father.
We pray that Christ might be magnified evermore. We pray for
your Holy Spirit to be with us this morning, for both the speaker,
Brother Greg, and us, may we both be full of the Holy Spirit,
so when we may see A little more of the glory of Christ. That's
what we need. That's what we want is to see
Christ father We pray this for all the churches that preach
the gospel this morning as well father In jesus name we ask this
of you amen Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 23 from your gospel hymnal, the spiral
hymnal, gospel hymns hymnal. Number 23, Pass Me Not. Pass me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might in truth condemn
me, let your mercy fall on me. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. ? Pass me not, O blessed Savior
? ? Let me hear your gracious call ? ? I'm a guilty, helpless
sinner ? ? Savior, at your feet I fall ? ? Love of God so everlasting
? ? Blood of Christ so rich and free ? Grace of God so strong
and saving, magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O mighty
Spirit, you can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of saving, and make me live. Love of God so everlasting. Blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving. Magnify them all in me. Pass me not a poor lost Reach down with your hand of
mercy, saving others, Lord, save me. Love of God so everlasting,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Please be seated. you open your Bibles with me
to Psalm 48. Psalm 48. The Lord uses many
similitudes to illustrate His church. We just saw that His
church is the body of Christ from Ephesians chapter 5. couple
of Sundays to go from Psalm 45 we saw that the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the bride of Christ and her beauty that
he put upon her and how much he loves her. The church is likened
unto the house of God and the house of prayer. Here in Psalm
48 the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is called
the City of God. The City of God. And this city
has permanent residents and I so want to be a resident of this
city. I don't want to be a visitor.
I don't want to be a tourist coming through and just
checking things out. And I want you to have hope in
being a part of the city of God, because in the end, in the end,
there's only one city that's going to be, that's going to
survive. When God brings destruction to
this world, the new Jerusalem, that heavenly Jerusalem, the
city of God, is going to come down from heaven. And that's
the only city that's going to survive the wrath of God's judgment. In the same way that the fire
of God's wrath fell on Sodom and Gomorrah, in the same way
that we just studied how the wrath of God fell on Jerusalem,
so God's wrath will destroy every city in this world. Now cities
have distinguishing marks about them and if you travel about
you identify a city by certain things that might be in that
city. You go to a city like Rome and
you think of the Colosseum. Or you go to Sydney and you think
of the Opera House. Or you go to Orlando, you think
of the mouse. You know, every city has a distinguishing
mark. And yet, if you travel from city
to city, you find apart from those distinguishing marks, they're
all the same. They really are. One city is
the same as the next city. There's one city that's unique
from every other city. There's one city whose residents
don't come and go. They are permanent residents.
And there's one city that has characteristics about it that
are different from every other city in this world. And those
characteristics are given to us in our text this morning. The city of God is also called
the city of David. It's also called Jerusalem, the
city of peace, where God has made peace with his people through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, to have peace with God, to
have my sins forgiven, to have acceptance with God. It's only
gonna happen in this city. This city was built by God. From
its foundation it was built by God. In Zechariah chapter 4,
Zerubbabel is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ and it says the
hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this city. And those same hands will finish
it. He will build this city and complete
its destruction. And when the last of his citizens
are brought into this city, then this city is going to be caught
up together with the Lord in the air. It is in this city that
his children are born. It is in this city that he is
worshiped. It is in this city that the king
is bowed to. and acknowledged as the owner
of this city. You remember when the Queen of
Sheba had heard about the wisdom of Solomon, she came to check
it out and after she saw the wealth, the prosperity, and the
wisdom of Solomon. Solomon being a type of Christ,
she said, half the story was not told to me. Your wisdom and
your prosperity exceedeth, exceedeth what people have to say about
you. And that's the way it is. When
we are brought into the city of God. We are like
the Queen of Sheba. We see this. This city is greater
than we could ever imagine. It's not like any other city.
It's the city of God. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 48. Great is the Lord. All beyond anything that we can
comprehend. God of this city is great. He is seated on the highest throne
in all the universe. He rules and reigns uncontested,
sovereign over all the cities of the world and over all the
angels of heaven and all the inhabitants of this earth. Great
is our God. and greatly to be praised. He's to be praised for his greatness
and for his goodness towards his city. In the city of our
God, in the mountain of his holiness. Now one of the distinguishing
marks of this city is that only here in this city do we have
any understanding at all of the holiness of God. His holiness
is not spoken of and not exalted anywhere else but in the city
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is declared as being holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
His glory. When the inhabitants of this
city see something of His holiness, The conclusion that they come
to is, I am not anything like He is in any way. He's other than me in every way. The Lord Jesus Christ is holy. He's high and lifted up. And He is the standard by which
God judges the world. All other cities are going to
be judged by the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why we've got to be in union with Christ. We've got to have
His righteousness. If we're going to have any acceptance
before God, we're going to have 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. He is holy. The mountain of His holiness
is seen in this city. Let all the other cities of this
world and all the other inhabitants of this world pretend to be holier
than thou. The inhabitants of this city
acknowledge Him as the only one that's holy. And the only hope
of them having any holiness is to be found in Him. They have
none of their own. The only conclusion that the
inhabitants of this city can come to is that they are sinners
in the sight of this holy God, completely dependent upon Him
for their holiness. Beautiful, look at verse 2, beautiful
for situation. Now that, a better translation
of that would be beautiful because of its situation, or because
of its elevation, or because of its height, or because of
its position. This city sits high above all
the other cities. In the scriptures, anytime someone
traveled from anywhere to Jerusalem, whether they were coming from
the north or the west or the east or the south, it's always
mentioned in the scriptures that they went up to Jerusalem. They
went up to Jerusalem. What a lofty city this is. Only from this city can we get
a perspective. Getting to the top of the mountain
gives you a perspective on things, doesn't it? The inhabitants of
this city, when they see the greatness of the king of this
city, when they see something of his holiness, they have a
perspective, they have a point of view, they have a lofty position
whereby they're able to make judgments on the rest of the
world. their world, their circumstances. Sometimes getting to the top
of the mountain is a challenge, but once you're there, once you're
there, it's worth it, isn't it? Sometimes getting to the city
on Sunday morning is a challenge. Some of you have driven from
a long way to be here. It's difficult. But if God's
merciful to give us a view from the top of the mountain, we'll
see not only the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ from that
mountain peak, we'll be able to see the Kidron Valley that
the Lord Jesus Christ went through. We'll be able to see the Mount
of Olives. We'll be able to see Mount Calvary over to the east
from the top of that mountain. Beautiful for its situation.
beautiful for its height, beautiful for its position. We can see
from this city something of the holiness of our God. We can see
something of the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ and what
he accomplished. And we can see, we can see our
circumstances, our circumstances in light of the loftiness of
this city. Look at the rest of verse two.
These are the characteristics of the city of God. This is God's
city. This is not man's city. It's
the only city that's going to survive in the end. This is the
city that you and I must, must be citizens of. Don't risk being
a visitor. Don't risk being a tourist. Don't risk just sitting on the
sidelines and observing what's going on in this city. Ask God
to make you a part of this city. Beautiful for its loftiness. The joy of the whole earth. This is God
speaking. Listen to me careful about this.
The only reason why this world is here is because of this city. It's the only reason. When the
last of God's elect is brought in by God's grace to this city,
that's the end. That's the end. No other city
has any relevance whatsoever. God says the cities of this world
and the inhabitants of this world are a drop in the bucket to Him. They are but a speck of dust
on the balance scale. They are of no significance.
The only thing that matters is this city, the city of God. And the only reason that this
world exists is to provide for the city of God. And when God's
finished with the city of God and He's ready to take city of
God home, when the trump of God sounds and the dead in Christ
are raised and those of us which are alive are caught up together
with Him in the air, this city is the only reason. You remember
when Abraham was told of God to go to Sodom and bring Lot
out. And Abraham didn't want it. God
said, I'm going to rain fire from heaven. I'm going to destroy
Sodom. And Abraham said, but Lord, if I could just speak. If there are 50 faithful men
in Sodom, would you spare the city? And the Lord said, yeah,
I'll spare it. And Abraham stuttered for a moment. He said, what about
45? And God said, I'll spare it for
45. And Abraham kept going, kept going. What about 40? What about 35? What about 30?
Where are you going to draw the line, Lord? What about 10? And the Lord said,
if you can find 10 faithful men in Sodom, I'll spare Sodom for
10. And Abraham went to Sodom, lot
and his two daughters, the only ones they brought out. And he
lingered. He lingered. Scripture says Lot
lingered in Sodom. He didn't want to leave. But
the Lord brought him out. And as soon as Lot was brought
out of Sodom, what happened? Sodom was destroyed. It was destroyed. That's the picture. You see,
Lot was the church. Righteous Lot had to be brought
out of the city before the city could be destroyed. And so it
is with this world when God's elect are brought out. This city
is the joy. Look what he says. Look what
he says in verse 48, verse two of Psalm 48. Beautiful for its
loftiness, for its situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion. On the sides of the north, the
city of the great king. Now you can look at a map in
the back of your Bible and you'll see that on the north side of
Jerusalem is where the temple was. That's where the tabernacle
was. And what the Lord is telling
us is the joy of this city is not its inhabitant. What was
that tabernacle a picture of? Everything about that tabernacle
was a picture of Christ. And David's writing before Solomon
builds the temple, so there's a tabernacle there now that's
made of badger skin, which pictures the humanity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's got one door going into
it, which pictures the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation.
It's got a holies of holies in it, or the Ark of the Covenant. That golden, overlaid box of
Shittemwood, picturing the humanity, the deity, and the humanity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And on top of that box is the
mercy seat of pure gold, where Aaron was to go in once a year,
and he was to put the blood of the lamb that was without spot. And God said, here, here, I will
meet with you. And inside the box was the tablets
of stone, and the Aaron's rod, and the Ophir of Manor, representing
the Lord Jesus Christ as the prophet, and the priest, and
the king of this city. And what does David say? on the
north side, the city of the great king. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ
sitting upon His throne, reigning over this city. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. God still meets with His people
at the mercy seat where the blood of the Lamb is spilt. There's
no coming to God without blood. We look Wednesday night of that
story in 2 Samuel chapter 6 where David is bringing the Ark of
the Covenant back to Jerusalem and he made the mistake of putting
the Ark on a cart. Where did he get that idea from?
Well, the Philistines had done it before and so David was just
following what he saw the Philistines do. And you remember this is
the story where Uzzah put up his hand to settle the Ark because
it was about to fall off the cart. And God slew Uzzah right
there on the spot. Why? Because he put his filthy
hands on the ark. And God will do the same today
for me and you. If we put our works to the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will die. We will die. And the scripture says that David
feared God that day. And he didn't know what to do.
David said, how am I going to get the ark back to Jerusalem?
And so he went back to the law and he began to read what God
required for the transport into the ark and realized it wasn't
to be put on a cart. It was to be put through, the
staves were to be put through the rings and the ark was to
be carried on the shoulders of men. The same thing's true today.
The ark of God, the gospel of God's free grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ is to be carried by the shoulders of men. And then what did David do? You
read the story, it's pretty amazing. David was in Gath at the time
and he was taking the ark to Jerusalem which is 20 miles away. And David realized that the only
way we're going to avoid the wrath of God is through the shedding
of blood. And so the scripture says that
David and his men every six steps Every 18 feet they stopped the
possession and they slaughtered an oxen. They slaughtered a fatling,
the scripture says, every six steps. David wasn't going to
take a step with that ark towards Jerusalem unless he was stepping
in blood. And for 20 miles there was a trail of blood from Gath
to Jerusalem. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. There's no worship of God without
the shedding of blood. All those blood, all those bulls
and goats that were slaughtered in the Old Testament never took
away sin. But the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ... See, here's the church. It's
the only place this blood is shed. It's not shed anywhere
else. In The city of God is where the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is spilt. And God says, without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. When
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. God requires a blood sacrifice
and it's not your blood or my blood. It has to be perfect blood.
It has to be sinless blood. It has to be a spotless lamb.
And so what is David? What is, what is David saying
now? He says, on the sides of the north, the city of the great
God. He's looking to that tabernacle,
and He's looking to that holies of holies, and He's looking to
that shed blood. We finally got the ark back to
Jerusalem. And this is the place where our
God is known in her palaces for a refuge. If you and I would spend as much
effort getting to a refuge as we spend trying to fix our problems. Oh, what better off we would
be. What better off. Our first reaction whenever there's
trouble is to try to fix it, isn't it? And we spend so much
time and oftentimes we just make it worse, don't we? Oh, in the city of God it's its
inhabitants, its citizens, flee to Christ for their refuge. Flee to Him. After having fled
to Him, if there's something you ought to be doing, He'll
show you. He'll show you. But flee to Him first. You know,
we make fleeing to Him something we do after we've done everything
else, isn't it? God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. The Lord said the battle's not
yours, it's the Lord's. It's the Lord's. You know, we
talk about fight or flight. If we could flight more often
than we fight, we'd be doing a lot better off, wouldn't we? Oh, we need to flee to Christ
as our refuge. Don't try and negotiate with
the Avenger of Blood. Don't try to figure out how you
can explain to him how it was an accident that you killed his
brother. Just get to the City of Refuge.
Get inside that city and don't come out. Rest in Christ. The Avenger of Blood can't touch
you in there. But isn't that what we do? We negotiate with
the law. And we try to convince that we
really didn't mean it. What does God say happens in
this city? God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Do you know Him as your refuge? They saw it. I'm sorry, verse
4. Verse 4, the world is threatened
by the city of God. And I see that, you see that
in your family, You tell people what you believe and they hate
you for it, won't they? They will. Why? Because they're
threatened. If what you're saying is true,
then that means I'm not saved. And they'll even tell you, are
you saying that I'm not saved? I didn't say that. I just told
you what the gospel was. And look what the Lord says,
for they saw it. I'm sorry, verse four. For lo,
the kings were assembled. They passed by together. They
saw it, so they marveled and were troubled and hasted away. The kings of the earth, the men
of this world, when they come into the city of God, they hasten
away. Fear took hold upon them. There,
and pain as of a woman in travail, and God says, thou breakest the
ships of Tarsus with an east wind." God's not threatened by
their accusations or by their threats. They're afraid and as
they ought to be. But rather than hastening away,
they need to be coming to the city. As we have heard So have we seen
in the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God, God will
establish it forever. There's a couple of things in
this verse that happens in the city of God. Hearing always comes
before seeing. Notice in the first part of the,
as we have heard, so have we seen. Blind Bartimaeus, what did he,
what happened first? Did he see or did he hear? He
heard, didn't he? He was blind. He couldn't see
a thing, but he heard and he responded to what he heard. And
in responding to what he heard, God gave him sight to see. What
did the Lord say to Nicodemus? Nicodemus, you can't see the
kingdom of God. You cannot perceive of it. You
cannot understand it unless you're born of the spirit. and the Spirit
of God uses His Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the Word of God and so every child of God, every
person in this city will say, I heard and then I saw. Isn't
that what Job said? Job said, I had heard of thee
by the hearing of mine ear But now mine eyes have seen thee,
and I repent in dust and ashes. I heard some things about God,
but now I've heard. And now that I've heard, my eyes
have been opened. And the Lord oft over and over
again says to his people, he said, let him who has ears to
hear hear what the Spirit hath to say unto the churches. And
what does the Spirit say? The Spirit and the bride say,
come. We have heard and so have we
seen. We didn't hear one thing and
see something else. We saw exactly what we heard. What the Lord showed me in truth
was exactly consistent with what He declared in His Word. If you've
seen something that's inconsistent with what God said, it doesn't
work like that, does it? We have heard And so have we
seen. We've seen exactly what God said. In the city of the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God, God will establish it forever. Forever. Now every local assembly, I do not know of a local assembly
anywhere in the world that is older than two or three generations. I don't know of one. Maybe there
is. Maybe there is one. My point is that every local
assembly eventually compromises the gospel, God-right Ichabod
over its door which translated means the glory of the Lord has
departed and that church ends up becoming just another religious
clubhouse like every other church and The thought of that happening
here It grips my heart with terror
and I just said Lord don't let it happen in my lifetime Don't
let it happen to my children's lifetime my grandchildren's lifetime. I know it's going to happen eventually.
It's going to happen. So the local assemblies will
eventually fall away. But the church, the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the true... You see, when a local assembly
forsakes the gospel, God's people leave. God's people leave. And that's what the Lord is saying
here. He says God will establish it forever. What we see in Mark chapter 13,
that if they say unto you, here's the Christ or there's the Christ,
believe it not for if it were possible, even the elect would
be deceived. The elect can't be deceived. The Lord's going to establish
that invisible church. This is a visible church right
here. But there's an invisible church. There's a universal church. There's all of God's elect of
every generation. And God says, I'm going to establish
that church. And I'm not going to lose one.
Not a single one is going to fall away. Look at verse nine. We have thought
of thy loving kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple."
David said, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, my feet had almost
slipped until I came in to the house of God and then I understood
their end. I understood their end. And here
the Lord says, my people, when they come into the temple of
God, they, their thoughts will be on grace, grace. That's what the word loving kindness
means. Everything God does. He begins
with grace. He continues with grace and he
ends with grace. It's all of grace. The Lord calls
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, gives you eyes
to see and ears to hear. It'll be by his free and sovereign
grace. The Lord keeps us. It'll be by
his grace. If he presents us faultless before
the throne of God, it'll be by his grace. And their thoughts
are on his loving kindness. According to thy name, O God,
So as thy praise unto the ends of the earth, thy right hand
is full of righteousness. What is his name? Jehovah Sidkenu. We sing that hymn here. What
is that? The Lord our righteousness. He's all our righteousness. The
only hope that we have to stand in the presence of a holy God
is to know him by his name. His name. They'll call Him Jesus, but they
have no understanding of His name. You shall call His name
Jesus. Why? For He shall save His people. That's what His name means. And
His nature and His person and His character is consistent with
His name. And so according to Thy name,
O God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right
hand is full of righteousness What did God call? What did Abraham
call the Lord Jesus Christ there when he went up to Mount Moriah
to sacrifice his son Isaac? He called him Jehovah Jireh. God will provide. When Isaac
asked him, Father, here's the fire and here's the wood, where's
the sacrifice for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, God will provide
himself. a sacrifice. And that's exactly
what he's done. He's provided himself a sacrifice. He is the Holy One of Israel. His name is called Alpha, the
beginning, and Omega, the end. And he's worshipped according
to the truth of his name. He's called a friend of sinners. How is it that he eats with sinners
and publicans? Oh, he hasn't changed? He hasn't
changed. He's the same. And he's called
Emmanuel, God with us, so that where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Oh, don't
despise the day of small things. He is the son of David. He is
the son of God, and he's worshiped according to His name. According to thy name, O God,
so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right hand
is full of righteousness." The Lord Jesus Christ is likened
in the scripture to the right hand of God. He is God's right
hand man and there's no salvation apart from Him. Apart from Him
suffering the wrath of God, in order to satisfy God's divine
justice and put away the sins of God's people. There's no salvation
apart from his shed blood on that mercy seat. There's no salvation
apart from mercy. Apart from him presented himself
to the father. What did he say? To Mary at the
tomb, he said, Mary, I must go to my father. Tell the disciples,
tell the disciples, I go to my God and to their God. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
ascended back up into glory, He presented Himself as our advocate
before the Father. There's no salvation outside
of Christ. And yet in most places, the Lord Jesus Christ is barely,
barely referenced. And if He is talked about, He's
lied about. He's lied about. Verse 11, let Mount Zion rejoice,
let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments,
because of thy judgments. In the city of God is the only
place you're going to hear about God's judgments. In most places they're going
to tell you, you know what, God loves you, He's got a wonderful
plan for your life and He's going to overlook what you've done
and And he'll forgive you. And Christ made an offering,
and if you'll just do your part, then you can make what he did
work for you. That's not judgment. The judgment
of God is seen in that God Almighty saw the travail of his soul and
was satisfied. The full wrath of God was expiated. That means it was quenched. It
was put out. It was satisfied at Calvary's
cross. When God plunged the sword of
His justice into the heart of His own Son and shed His precious
blood, He said it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. By His stripes we are healed. Justice, divine justice, putting
away all the sins of all of God's people of every generation all
by himself. That's justice. And what does
David say? Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the
daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. God judged Christ to be made
sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Outside of Christ, God judges
all of us guilty. I love verse 12 and 13. Look
at this. Some of you, one of the reasons why we have
conferences, and we're going to have one real soon, is so
that you can hear from other men that are preaching the same
message that I'm preaching and the other men in our congregation
preach. And so that you can fellowship with other believers. And I know
many of you, and I wish more of you would listen to other
gospel preachers. You'd be encouraged to hear the
same gospel message preached by other men. And that's what
he's saying here. Walk about Zion. Walk about Zion. Don't just stay in your own little
cocoon. Walk about Zion and go round
about her and tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks. Now the towers and the bulwarks
are the proclamations of the gospel. And the Lord's telling
us, telling his children, he said, yeah, this is the city
of God, but the city of God is not confined to this building.
Walk about Zion. Mark the bulwarks. Listen and
you'll be encouraged and you'll be more convinced that the message
that you're hearing is true. Consider her palaces. That's
where each one of God's people live. fellowship around the gospel
of God's grace with one another. Consider her palaces that ye
may tell it to the generations following." You see, the more convinced you
become that this message is true, the more compassionate you will
be in telling others. And it will begin with your children. With your children. Parents,
I'll say again what I said a week or two ago. The three most important
things that you can do with your children is have them under the
sound of the gospel. Teach them to respect authority
and make them take responsibility for their actions. And I'm so
thankful that we have parents here that do that. And we've
got the third, 22 years, we're on the third generation now.
In 22 years, the third generation, our children's children are beginning
to listen to the gospel. Why? Because we've marked the
bullocks. We've considered the message. We've listened and we've become
convinced that this is the city of God. And we've told our children,
look, tell it to the generation following. For this God is our
God forever and ever. The Lord has bound us to himself. Remember in Acts chapter 17,
when Paul went to Athens and he spent a few days walking around
the city before he went to the Areopagus and spoke to the philosophers,
the Greek philosophers there. And when he spoke to them, he
said, I've been walking around your city and I've noticed that
you all are very religious, very religious. Now, in the King James,
I think the word is superstitious, but that's what religion is.
It's just superstition. So I perceive that you're very
superstitious. But I've also noticed that you
have an idol over here that has an inscription on it. And the
inscription says, to the unknown God. You're covering all your
bases. you know that's article 13 just in case you know you
miss something else you got you got a you got a message over
here you got you got an idol that you don't know who he is
that's the God I'm going to preach to you because the God you don't know
is the one and only true God and all of these other idols
you've got are are just that they're just idols what are we
saying to our children in the city of God Well, this God is
our God and will be forever and ever. He will guide us even unto
death, even unto death. By God's grace, we're not going
anywhere. We've cast our whole lot into
this. Paul said, I'm persuaded that
He's able to keep that which I've committed unto Him. I've
got all my eggs in one basket. That's what he's saying. Do you
have all your eggs in one basket? Are you thinking, well, you know,
I'll have Jesus and I've got this and I've got that and I've
got my works and I've got my understanding and I've got this? No. What do the inhabitants of this
city say? Not the visitors. You won't hear
the visitors say this. You won't hear the tourists say
this. But those whose names are written in the annals of this
city, what do they say? Our God, He is our God and will
be forever and ever even unto death. Even unto death. Oh, aren't you thankful for the
city of God? the city of God. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're so very thankful that you have built a city here, you've
laid the foundation. We trust that as the ruble laid
the foundation of that house, that you will finish what you've
started. And Lord, we confess to you our
complete dependence upon you to keep us from falling and to
present us faultless before thy throne. And we say without apology,
you are our God forever and ever. Even unto death. Keep this city
alive, Lord, for your glory. And for our eternal good. We
ask it in Christ name. Amen. The top 185 let's stand together
185. Yeah. ? Glorious things of thee are spoken
? ? Zion, city of our God ? ? He whose word cannot be broken ?
? Formed thee for his own abode ? ? On the rock of ages founded
? What can shade thy sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou mayest smile at all thy foes. See the streams of living
waters Springing from eternal love Well supply thy sons and
daughters And all fear of want remove Who can faint while such
a river ever flows their thirst to assuage. Grace which like
the Lord, the giver, never fails from age to age. Round each habitation hovering,
see the cloud and fire appear. For a glory and a covering, showing
that the Lord is near, glorious things of Thee are spoken. Zion, city of our God, He whose
word cannot be broken, Formed thee for His own abode. th th