Good evening, everybody. I was sitting here
thinking about some things while my brother was praying
just a minute ago. He said, asked the Lord to be
with his brother. And that's what I say when he's
in Kingsport. Lord, help our brother. That's
my father. I'm his son. And in Christ, we're
brothers. And I was thinking about each
one of you. If you really stop and think
about what the Lord has done for us, it is amazing. And it is close. And we really
do only get to see each other about once a year we come here. But the Lord has united us in
Christ. And we're going to be together
forever in one family. And this congregation, you know,
when you first start preaching, the Scripture gets a hold of
you, who is sufficient for these things. But after you do it a
little while, you start to realize, I'm definitely not. I'm not. And our prayer and our hope is
that the Lord would, in spite of us, bless us, send His Spirit
to us, and bless us, and I beg this of Him. The reason is because
what I want to say to you is, I love you. I deeply, dearly
love you. This congregation means so much
to me for so many reasons. This congregation has been so
loving and kind and supportive of Kingsport and everything that
we've had the opportunity to do there. And I just from the
bottom of my heart and all of the brethren there, we say thank
you and we love you. I had so many brethren say, tell
them we said hello. And anyway, I love you. May the Lord bless us. Turn with
me if you would to Psalm 122. Psalm 122 verse 1 says, I was
glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the
Lord. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. You know, at some
point, And we all know this is so. At some point, the Lord changed
our want to. He changed our want to. Everybody
does exactly what they want to do. Everybody does. I am right now doing what I want
to do. And at some point, God changed
what makes us glad. There are things in this life
that used to make me glad, and they don't make me glad anymore.
There are things that used to make me sad, and they don't make
me sad anymore. At some point, and I don't even
know what point it was, but at some point, the Lord changed
our want to. A lot of times people start coming
to the house of the Lord. They start going to church as
children. People have children and they
believe they need to bring them to the service. And it's absolute
torture. It's absolute torture. You sit there dying and squirming
and I'm sure you've all heard that story. It's been told so
many times of that little boy who was in in the church service
one Sunday morning, and he saw a plaque on the wall with all
those names on it. And he asked his mother, what
are all those names? And she whispered to him, those
are the men who died in the service. And he said, which one? Morning
or evening? If I have to sit through another
one of these, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. We remember
what that was like. If God does not lay hold on a
sinner, that child is going to become
a teenager, and that teenager is going to become a young adult,
and that young adult is going to become an aged adult, and
he will never change his tune. Never. If God does not reach
way down in love and in mercy, if He does not lay hold on the
heart of a sinner and squeeze the heart of that sinner, He'll
never change His tone. Why on this earth would you want
to waste your precious time in the house of the Lord? Why would
you want to do that? This life is so short, there's
not much time. Why would you want to spend it
there? But David said right here, and every soul that God lays
hold of says, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go
into the house of the Lord. David said, God has changed my
want to. He changed my want to. David
did not just say, I went when they said unto me, let's go to
the house of the Lord. I went. He didn't just say, I knew I
needed to. He didn't say, I was too afraid
not to. He said, I was glad. I was glad. I was so glad. I needed it so badly. I was craving it. I was missing
it. And when somebody finally said
to me, let's go to the house of the Lord, I said, that is
exactly what I need. That is exactly what I need. Look with me if you would at
the Song of Solomon, chapter 3. Song of Solomon chapter 3 verse
1 says, By night on my bed I sought Him
whom my soul loveth. I sought Him, but I found Him
not. I will rise now and go about
the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek
Him whom my soul loveth. I sought Him, but I found Him
not. The watchmen that go about the
city found me, to whom I said, Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed
from them, But I found Him whom my soul loveth. I held Him and
would not let Him go." I was so glad. I was so glad. Do you know what produces that
kind of gladness and desire in a heart? The answer is an absolute
distaste and hatred for sin. in absolute hatred for sin. Look with me if you would at
Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 verse 19 says, For the earnest expectation of
the creature..." And the word creature right there translates
creation, earth. "...the earnest expectation of
the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. For the creation was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected
the same in hope, Because the creation itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only
they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption to know the redemption of our body." We have redemption
through the precious blood of Him whom my soul loveth. We have absolute redemption. Redemption means reinstatement. We have a completely paid debt,
paid in full. God is satisfied. It is finished. Isn't that right?
Sin is gone. Isn't that right? Jeremiah said
that the iniquity of his people would be salt and there shall
be none. It's over. It's gone. If we're
in Christ, we have redemption. But as of this moment right now,
This exact moment, we do not physically know the experience
of that redemption. We don't physically know it.
We are so burdened and overwhelmed and overtaken by sin, aren't
we? It's a blanket that just lays
over us. And we don't physically know
and experience the redemption that we have in Christ. And until
we physically have it, not only will the creation continue to
groan, volcanoes are going to continue to erupt. and the earth
is going to continue to quake, and animals are going to continue
to attack animals, and humans are going to attack humans, and
it's going to continue. Sin is just going to grow, and
it's going to consume everything. Wickedness, hatred, it's just
going to keep on going, and keep on growing, and it's going to
absolutely consume everything here. And not only will the creation
groan, until God comes back and physically
redeems us, but all of God's saints groan with it. And the reason is because, right
here in Romans 8 verse 16 says, The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together
with Him." God's Spirit bears witness to our spirit of some
things that are to come. Every now and then we get a slight
glimpse of what is about to come. Eternity is around the corner. Redemption is around the corner. This flesh tries to do everything
it can do to stop complete and total glorious redemption from
taking place. You know, we want to stop death. But the fact of the matter is,
for a child of God, God's Spirit has borne witness to that Spirit
in that child of things to come. We've been given a foretaste
of what's to come in the heart. All of God's people are given
a foretaste of the glory that's to come in Christ. Look with
me if you would at 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 13 says, Nevertheless, we according to
His promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. According to His promise, The
promise of the God who cannot lie. He cannot lie. He said, I make all things new. He has made new heavens and a
brand new earth. There's this one. Could you imagine
standing on a brand new earth? One wherein dwelleth righteousness. Only righteousness. And what
that means is Christ lives there. Christ, our righteousness. Christ, the righteousness of
God, lives on that new earth with His people. There is no
sin there. There is no groaning there. None
whatsoever. Absolute, holy, perfection, peace. It's only day, night, day. There's
no night there. We, according to His promise,
are looking for it. We are waiting on it. We are
thinking about it. I think about it all the time.
I'm very thankful to be here on this earth. I have no problem
with that. I'd love to be here as long as He'd have me to be
here and do whatever He'd have me to do. But I think about it. And we talk about it. And we look forward to it. We
are constantly reminding. This sin, you get so bogged down. You get out in this world and
it just slows you down and bogs you down. You just start digging
a trench in the sin of this world. And then you run into another
believer and you start talking about the things that are to
come. There's a new heaven, there's a new earth, one wherein dwells
righteousness. And we remind each other of this
and it brings such a moment of absolute sweet relief from the
misery. of this earth and this life. It's pain, it's sickness, it's
sadness. And for just a moment, the Spirit
bears witness with our spirit of what God has prepared for
them that He has caused to love Him. And it just brings up, just
a pep in that step. One moment of just sweet relief. And the amazing thing is we, this
earth that we're having such a distaste for right
now, we used to love it, didn't we? We used to love it. I mean love it. God has given
us a new taste. That's what He's done. He's put
a new taste in our mouth. He has changed our taste buds. I told this recently to the brethren
in Kingsport, and I don't have any idea why I think this is
a factor, but my grandmother is French, and that probably
has no bearing on anything. As far as I know, almost everybody
in our family tree starts drinking coffee at birth. Or a lot of them anyway. Maybe
it's just me, I don't know. I don't ever remember not drinking
coffee. It starts out as milk, with that
much coffee in it, and the ratio changes quickly. But, you know,
I was a kid and you get up and get a cup of coffee. Well, when I first started doing
that, I used to put milk and sugar in it. And I'd get a tablespoon
and I'd pile it up as high, you couldn't get one more grain of
sugar on that. And if nobody was looking, I'd
do two plus some. And it was so syrupy, sickeningly
sweet. It was awful. But I loved it. I couldn't get enough of it.
Well, my tastes have changed. I drink it black now. And if
somebody mixes up my cup and accidentally puts some sugar
in it, just a little bit of sugar in it, I hate it. I absolutely hate it. I abhor
it. It is awful to me. It repulses
me. What once I used to crave, now
I abhor. I hate it. I hate it. That's how it is for every child
of God concerning his own sin. His flesh still loves it. But God has created a new man
in there, and God's Spirit bears witness to that new Spirit, that
He's the Child of God, and He hates it. He absolutely hates
it. What once He used to crave, now
He abhors it. And everywhere He turns here
in this world, spoonfuls of sin are just being dumped into His
cup. He's dumping His own spoonfuls into His cup. The world is dumping
spoonfuls into His cup. And the only relief He can get
from it is running to Jesus Christ. Honestly, that is the only relief
that there is from it. running to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a place where He
said He has chosen to put His name there. Do you know why we
all got in our cars and drove here? As opposed to just sitting
at home alone. We're God's people just as much
at home as we are here. But we all come together to this
place, because he said, there's a place where I've chosen to
put my name there, and when two or three gather together in my
name for the purpose of worshipping me, he said, I'm in the midst of
you. What that means is, the one whom my soul loveth is here. I mean here. I cannot explain
it, but I believe it with all of my heart. He's in the midst
of us. And that's why every single child
of God, when one child of God says to another child of God,
let's go to the house of the Lord. That's why every child
of God says, that makes me so glad. I'm so glad relief is in
there. Whatever it is we're going through,
we're always going through something, aren't we? As soon as one thing
is over, here comes the next one. I got a letter from Brother
Dale Simpson one time. I'm sure you all know Brother
Dale Simpson. And his letter said, we are enjoying our Calm between the storms, that's
what he said. We're right now enjoying our
calm between the storms. And we all know what he means
by that. It's one right after the next, but I'll tell you this,
to a child of God who truly needs it, there is relief inside this
house. Remembrance, that child says,
remembrance of my redemption is inside that house. We get
so caught up with the world, our minds are so caught up with
everything, and then all of a sudden we come in here and everybody
is focused on our Redeemer. We truly, if we truly, come together
to honor and glorify and magnify Him, thank Him for the blood
He shed to cover our sins. Can you imagine how gracious
grace really is? Why would He do that? I don't
know. But the only thing I do know
is it pleased Him to do so. It was the joy set before Him. But when we come together around
our Redeemer, around His blood, around that sacrifice, glorying
in Him, thanking Him, We are gathered with the One our soul
loves. Gathered with Him. Look with
me if you would back at Psalm 122. Verse 1 says, I was glad when
they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Charles
Spurgeon said about this verse, he said, the word was not go,
but let us go." He said, there is double joy in that. He said, I'm glad they wanted
to go. I'm so glad, it did my heart
so much good to know that they wanted to go. It's such an encouragement,
isn't it? Such an encouragement to know
that the other children want to go. But he said, then I'm
glad that they asked me and I wanted to go. He said, I'm so glad I
wanted to go. Thank God I wanted to go. Aren't you so glad for that? If God left us alone, we would
not go. I'm so thankful for that, Lord.
Thank you for laying hold on me. We all know the importance
of coming to the house of the Lord, don't we? It's so important. So important, the hearing of
the gospel, hearing it preached for our soul's sake, our comfort's
sake, our encouragement's sake. But, you know, this occurred
to me, and I believe this is so true. I'll tell you something
that I didn't really think of and I would say a lot of us don't.
We have no idea how important it is, our coming is for the
hearing of the gospel and the soul's good and the comfort and
the encouragement of our brethren. It is so encouraging when one
believer sees another believer walk through the door. I get
so encouraged. We have our services, and you
know, it doesn't matter if they're every time faithful, or they
work shift work and we see them every now and then, or whatever
the deal is, whoever it is, I'm so encouraged to see them walk
through the door. You wanted to come too? We all give God
the glory for it, don't we? But what an encouragement. What
an absolute encouragement. to be there for my brethren's
sake." Do you remember that time that Elijah, he was so depressed,
he kept asking the Lord to kill him. Just so depressed. He said,
Lord, I'm all alone. Nobody else cares. Nobody else
fears. Nobody else bows. He said, no,
you're not. He said, I have 7,000 reserved in your city that have
not bowed the knee to Baal. How encouraging do you think
that was for Elijah? What do you think that did to
him when he heard that? He was ready to give up. Lord,
I'm done preaching. Kill me, please. And the Lord
said, not yet. There are 7,000 that have not bowed the knee
to Baal. You think that made him ready to run with the gospel
again? Start preaching this glorious,
glorious God? I bet you he started running,
screaming as loud as he could to everybody he came in contact
with. And that's what we do, isn't
it? That's what we do. Spurgeon said the same thing
about David right here. He said, he may have been sad
before, but this happy suggestion cheered him up. It pricked his
ears at the very mention of his father's house. He said, how
good it is for brothers and sisters to call each other and say, let's
go home to our father's house. He said, that's so good. What
an encouragement. I was so glad when they said
unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Now, I promise,
I don't believe, I'm a long preacher. Verse 1 is the main message. So when you see me go to verse
2, don't get scared. But quickly, verse 2 says, Our
feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." He said, you want to talk about
encouragement and comfort? Our feet, our feet are going
to stand within the gates of this beautiful city of God. In Psalm 23 verse 6 says, Psalm 23, verse 6, it says, "...surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." He's not talking
about this house that we're all in right now. Over in Psalm 27, he said in
verse 4, One thing have I desired of the
Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." He's talking about the
place where God dwells. The place where God dwells. The place where the saints of
God can sit and behold the beauty of the One that their soul loves. Zechariah 1 calls it the house
of mercies. The house where every saint will
eternally live. I mean eternally live who has
received mercy from God. Our Lord Himself called it My
Father's house. He said, I'm going back to prepare
a place for you in my Father's house. And David said, our feet
are going to stand in that house. Our feet. These feet. These feet are going to stand
in that house. Job said, I know that with these
eyes shall I see the Lord. I'm going to see the one that
my soul loves with these eyes." David said, with these feet.
When our Lord arose, He said, touch me. Touch my scars. You touch the very body that
put away your sin. This is the same body you watched
them hang on that tree three days ago. It is I myself. Isn't that what He said? It is
I myself. It is going to be you yourself. When our Lord ascended from the
Mount of Olives back to the house of the Lord, the angel said,
this same Jesus is going to come again just like you've seen Him
go. Same one. When He comes back, sometimes I love to think of
the reality of these things. The scripture
talks about the angels in heaven rejoicing every time a sinner
repents. Every time God opens a sinner's
eyes, and gives him a new mind, a changed mind on who God is,
and who He is, and what salvation is, and what Christ actually
accomplished on the cross. Every time a sinner repents,
all of the angels of glory erupt with joy. And I think about when
our Lord comes back, when He actually comes back. Look with
me if you would at Matthew 24. Matthew 24, verse 29. It says, "...immediately after
the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and
then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven." And
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn." And the reason
is because they did not bow the knee to Christ, and He didn't
have mercy on them. And they will mourn at that appearing. And they shall see the Son of
Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and
He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and
they shall gather together His elect from the four winds from
one end of heaven to the other." There's a scripture that says
those angels are an innumerable company. You just can't count
them. When He comes back, He's coming
with an innumerable company of angels. Can you see our Lord
when He returns? with these innumerable company
of angels. And He's going to send, we just
read, He's going to send His angels out, and they are going
to gather together His elect from the four corners of the
earth. Can you envision how glorious
that will be? All of a sudden, the trump shall
resound, and every eye shall see Him. Two are going to be
standing in a field. Two are going to be grinding
at the mill. Isn't that right? And God's angels are going to
come up to His elect and say, let's go to the house of the
Lord. How glorious. And all of God's
saints immediately are going to be caught up into the air
with Him. I think about Peter whenever
he was in prison and God sent an angel to him and shook him.
and set him free, and they went out the first ward and the second
ward, and the iron gates opened, and all of a sudden, Peter's
just standing in the street, looking around. The angel disappeared,
and he said, I think God just delivered me. Well, it's going
to be in the blink of an eye. These feet and these eyes I was reading something just
yesterday, talking about when Elijah went into glory. One of
the commentators said, his body and soul, him. And in the blink of an eye, they
were going to be standing, boom. I think God just delivered us. And I was so glad when they said
unto me, let's go to the house of the Lord. He didn't leave
me. He did not leave me. Thinking
about our eternal house is what will make us glad to come to
our temporary house. So, so glad. I'll close with
this. Back in our text. Psalm 122. Verse 1, I was glad when they
said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet
shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built
as a city that is compact together, fitly framed together, perfectly
built on Christ, the whole city. Verse 4, "...whether the tribes
go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel,
to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." And that's why
we're here tonight. We are not here to learn how
we can earn a spot in that house. Christ earned the spot for us. Christ paid for our place. And we're just here to give thanks
for it. We're just here to give thanks for it. Verse 5 says,
For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the
house of David. Our sin was judged in Christ,
therefore the Lord has judged us to be righteous. Isn't that
amazing? We're going to go stand before
the thrones of judgment, and in absolute judgment, God Almighty
is going to say, righteous, in the blood of Christ, righteous.
Verse 6, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper
that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and
prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions
sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee. I love how he said,
Peace be in Jerusalem, peace be within your walls, and peace
be within you. Verse 9, Because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. Because of Christ. Because of the house that He
built. You know, except the Lord build the house, they labor in
vain that build it. Isn't that right? Because of
our Lord. Because of Christ. Because of
what He's done. Because of what He did for us.
Because He died to give us that place. and because He shared
all of His inheritance with us. You know, that's His house. That's
His house. Every single thing God His Father
has given to Him, He's given it to us. David said, because
of Christ, I'll seek the good of His people, and I'll seek
peace. Don't we want peace? Don't we
want peace? This world is so full of warring
and fighting, and it's all because of sin. But God's people, for
Christ's sake, want peace. And David said, for Christ's
sake, I'll seek peace. Because He made peace, I'll seek
it. I'll seek it. That's all the
reason we need. Because He made it, I'll seek
it. May peace truly be in this place. May peace be in this place. For
Christ's sake, if Christ is here, may peace be here. May Christ
be here. I pray the Lord will bless His
Word.