Alright, brethren, Psalm 122
begins here and he says, 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. When we think about the house
of the Lord, we think about the city of God. There's two ways
that we should think about this. Number one, Wherever the Lord
in this earth has gathered his people together and assembled
his people, where Christ has done the assembling, where Christ
has provided the preacher, and where Christ has provided the
message, and where Christ is blessing the heart in each of
his people, that's the house of the Lord. and the city of
God is his church, his assembly where he has assembled his people. The other way we should look
at this is we're on our way to the house of God in heaven, to
heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly city, to heavenly Mount Zion.
That's where God's people will be brought by the Lord and we
will abide forever. When our Lord said, in my father's
house are many mansions. Mansions might be an unfortunate
translation because you think of a mansion, you know, and that's
not what it means. It means in one house, one house
with many dwelling places where his people, it means his people,
they're in his house. There's a place for His people
in His house in glory. When this earthly tabernacle
is dissolved, I have a house in the heavens not made with
hands, a house our Lord provided for us that is a dwelling place
where we're going to be with our Lord, with our Redeemer,
like our Redeemer forever. So these two ways we look at
the The house where He's assembled His people, His people make up
the house, living stones built up, where He's assembled and
He's preaching the gospel, Christ said He's there. He's there. I don't want to be the one preaching
the gospel to you. I want Christ to be the one speaking
to you in your heart. But we're on our way to that
heavenly abode, to that heavenly city. So as we sojourn through
this world on our way to the heavenly, we're glad. He's made us glad to go to the
Lord's house here below and hear about him and hear about what
he's done and hear about what he's going to do in bringing
us to that heavenly house. We're glad we come to this city
now looking to that city to come. Glad to go to the Lord's house.
That's our subject. Glad to go to the Lord's house.
Now, first of all, it's the Lord that's given us a heart to make
us glad to go to His house. We didn't have that heart before.
You know what a privilege it is that you want to come here? What makes you want to come here?
What makes you glad to come and hear of the Lord? What makes you glad to go? He
said there in verse 1, I was glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord. Before the Lord called
us, we were not glad to go. Before the Lord called us, we
were just like every sinner that comes into this world. The last
thing I wanted to do was go to the Lord's house and hear Christ
exalted and hear that I was a sinner. I didn't want to hear that. I
didn't want to go. I wasn't glad to go. And as so
with all those that God's made glad, we weren't like that to
begin with. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him, utter
foolishness to him, neither can he know them. Not only that he
doesn't want to know them, he can't because they're spiritually
discerned. That tells us, brethren, we didn't
make ourselves glad. We didn't give ourselves this
heart. We did nothing to make ourselves
glad to go to His house. You know why we're glad to come
here? You know how we were made glad and why we were made glad?
Because everybody that God the Father chose, by His grace, Christ
Jesus the Lord justified us from all our sin. And therefore, for
that reason, the Spirit of God revealed Christ in our hearts. and made us glad to come to His
house and hear Christ exalted. Now we receive not the Spirit
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God." That's what
we come to hear, isn't it? The things freely given to us
of God. Everything about salvation is
freely given. Everything. God chose us freely. We didn't choose Him. He chose
His people freely. And everything we have is by
His grace, by His free and sovereign grace, free justification. free
redemption, free regeneration, free preservation, and one day
free glorification. Everything A to Z is free to
those God saves. That means we don't earn it.
We didn't deserve it. We don't earn it. We didn't merit
it by any works we did. It's all free. Salvation is the
free gift of God. What did He say? The wages of
sin is death. If a man perishes in sin, he
earns it like a wage. But if you saved, the gift of
God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. That's right. We were like everybody else in
this world, but the Lord blessed His people. He said, blessed
are your eyes for they see, and blessed are your ears for they
hear. He blessed us, brethren. Listen to this from Psalm...
Let's look at Psalm 65. Look here. Blessed are your eyes
for they see and your ears for they hear. How did you get this
blessing? Look at Psalm 65, verse 4. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee,
that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." That's how
we were made glad. God chose us and He caused us
to approach to Him. And He planted us in His house. We're planted in His house forever,
born again into His house, into the household of God, and planted,
planted. He said, those that be planted
in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish. They're going
to flourish, even to old age they're going to flourish by
the blessing of God. It's by God's power, it's by
His grace that He gave us a new heart. That's why we long to
gather to hear His Word. Look at Psalm 84. Here's the
heart of God's people, right here, Psalm 84, verse 2. Let's read verse 1. How amiable
are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth ye even
fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God." He said in that next verse, he said,
I'm envious of the sparrow. You picture David, he's thinking
about a sparrow that's just come and built a nest in the temple,
in the eve somewhere in the temple. He said, I'm jealous of the sparrow
that has a nest in the house of the Lord. Look at verse 10. Here's why. For a day in thy
courts is better than a thousand. A day in thy house is better than
a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. It's only by God's grace that
we have that heart. You know, when you think about
it, brethren, what is it that makes you really want to come
hear the gospel? We don't do that of ourselves. It's just
like every other, if you work a good work, and a truly good
work is done through faith in Christ, and it's a work done
for His honor and His glory alone, not for ours, what makes you
do that? The power and grace of God. Same
thing with coming to His house. What made you today, after a
long day, some of you worked hard today, and after a long
day, even sometimes when you're tired, when you're sick, when
you don't feel the best, what makes you say, I'm going to go
to the Lord's house? That's the Lord's doing. That's
the power and grace of God. Don't take that for granted,
brethren. It's a privilege, a privilege God's given us to come to hear
the gospel of our Redeemer. It's because He's given you an
understanding. Listen to this, Solomon said in Proverbs 14.6,
he said, A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not. A scorner
is an unregenerate man. He scorns the gospel and he's
seeking wisdom, but he's seeking wisdom in the wrong place and
he finds it not. But listen, but knowledge is
easy unto him that hath understanding. Where'd you get that understanding?
We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding. Christ came and gave us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true and we're in Him that's
true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. I'll tell you what makes you
glad to go to the Lord's house. And this is so. We've experienced,
you've experienced the power of God, Christ Jesus, the power
of God, through the preaching of the gospel. And when you've
experienced that power through the preaching of the gospel,
that's when you know how needful the preaching of the word is.
That's when it becomes more needful to you than the bread you have
on your everyday table. That's what Job said. The preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us who are saved, it is the power of God. It's through the message
of Christ in Him crucified that God quickens your heart and one
day you found yourself believing God and repenting from every
work you thought was good and everything you thought committed
you to God. That was the power of God, the Lord Jesus working
in you through the preaching of the Word. And when you've
experienced that, you're going to experience it again because
as the Word is being preached, You come in troubled, you come
in, you have problems, you're cumbered about by this world,
and you hear the gospel preached, and the Lord speaks into your
heart and turns you to Him, and you experience that power of
His again, and you know it's the Lord speaking to you. It's
just you and Him. There's nobody else, just you
and Him. And having experienced that, He said it pleased God
to save through the foolishness of preaching. That doesn't just
mean when He first calls you, that means from the day He calls
you to the end, He's saving us through the preaching of the
gospel. The preaching of the cross is the preaching that gives
Christ all the glory in every aspect of salvation. Not every
preaching is preaching of the gospel. There's a lot of vain
preaching, a lot of useless, worthless preaching. Preaching
of Christ and Him crucified is preaching that gives Christ all
the glory. It's not just that God the Father
chose whom He would, it's that He chose us in Christ. That is
where He blessed us with all spiritual blessings, is in Christ,
in heavenly places before the world was made. Our Lord Jesus
came forth and by His one offering and by Him bearing our sin and
our curse and what we deserve before the justice of God, we're
made the righteousness of God, not in you and not in me, in
Christ. Everything's in Christ. Made
the righteousness of God in Him. We've been called to faith. Where? Called to faith in Christ. You
lay hold of Christ. Our little faith is just trusting
His faithfulness, His fidelity. We're trusting Him to do all
the saving. The Gospel is the message that all our sins are
forgiven. Where? In Christ is no sin. If you're in Christ, you have
no sin. In Christ is no sin. He has cast
our sins into the depths of the sea. He's put them away as far
as the east is from the west. That's what everybody crashed
out for now. We're preserved. We saw in this
psalm before, God gives that promise at the end of Psalm 121,
and He says, "...the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil,
He shall preserve thy soul, the Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore."
Where are we preserved? Jude said, preserved in Christ
Jesus. in Christ and by Christ. You
see, there's only going to be one that gets the glory in the
preaching of the truth where the gospel is going forth in
truth. What makes God's people glad to go here is they're going
to hear Christ exalted. Because there's only going to
be one exalted when we get to the heavenly house and we get
to that heavenly city. The only one that's going to
get the glory is Christ. Nobody else. They that are after the
flesh, they mind the things of the flesh. There's churches all
over this world where people go in and you know what they're
glad to go hear? Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. That's what they're glad to hear.
And that's what it is, a bunch of dung. You come here to hear,
mind the things of the spirit, to hear what God's done in saving
us from ourselves. You see, I'm trying to magnify
the Lord for giving us this gladness of heart. I'm trying to magnify
the Lord for giving us the desire to assemble and even for stirring
our hearts and making and drawing us and making us assemble. I've
heard people, they like to talk about a church being blessed
because there's a whole lot of people. You can have a whole
lot of people in a whole lot of trouble. It doesn't mean the
Lord's blessed it. I'd far rather have a handful
that the Lord's blessed in their heart and given peace in their
heart. They want to worship Christ and
do it together in peace and harmony because that's who the Lord's
blessed. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee,
the psalmist said. Let us such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. May the Lord enter
into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him and bless His name. Why? Because it's all
of Him. Salvation is all of the Lord.
Now let's learn from these songs of degrees right here. Here's
a good lesson from these songs of degrees. We saw back there
in Psalm 120. It begins, and he said, woe is me. He said,
in my distress, I cried to the Lord. He heard me. He said, woe
is me. I dwell in Mesech. I dwell in the tents of Kedar."
You see, you've been in the world and you're surrounded by unregenerate,
ungodly folks and your sinful flesh, your old man becomes stronger
and your inner man's weaker and you're distressed. And it comes
time to go to the Lord's house and you don't feel like going
sometime. Then Psalm 121, He said, what's he going to do?
I lift up mine eyes to the hills from which cometh my help. and
looks to the Lord, and the Lord stirs his heart, and he begins
to see the Lord, and hear the Lord's promises, and what the
Lord has done, and how does Psalm 123 says, I was glad when they
said, let us go into the house of the Lord. Do you see that?
That's where it's time to go to the services, especially on
a midweek, and we're distressed, and we're crying, old man is
strong and new man is weak. And we lift up our eyes to the
Lord, and the Lord blesses you in the heart, and when it gets
finished, you say, I was glad when they said, let's go to the
house of the Lord. That's so in every trouble we have, brethren.
He's working that same thing. I've never, there's been times
when I was, you know, didn't just, didn't feel like I could
go, and I didn't go to the house of the Lord, and I've regretted
not going. I have never gone to the house
of the Lord and regretted it. Not a time. Not a time. Here's the second thing. We marvel
that the Lord's given us the good hope that one day we're
going to stand in His heavenly house, in His heavenly city. We have that hope. Look here
in verse 2. Our feet shall stand within thy
gates, O Jerusalem. I picture these children of Israel,
you know, these are Psalms they sang as they're on their way
to Jerusalem. They go up there three times in a year and they're
on their way there. And they began this song and
said, I was glad when they said unto me, let's go to the house
of the Lord. And as they began to think about getting to go
to the house of the Lord. And that's how it is for the
believer. I don't have to go, I get to
go. Big difference. And as they thought about it,
it's like they're marveling here. They're saying, our feet shall
stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. And that's so for you and me,
brethren. We have this good hope by God's grace that not only
are we getting to come into His house now and hear His gospel
preached, we shall stand in the gates of heavenly Jerusalem one
day. Our feet, our feet shall stand
within thy gates, O Jerusalem." Where did we get this hope? 2
Thessalonians 2.16 said, Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and
God, even our Father, hath loved us and hath given us everlasting
consolation and good hope through grace. He said in Hebrews 6.19,
This hope's an anchor of the soul. It's an anchor of the soul. It's the anchor of the inner
man. It's sure and steadfast, both sure and steadfast. Where does it enter? Where does
your hope enter? It enters within the veil. You lift your eyes
to Christ at God's right hand and your hope is right there.
It's Him. Our great high priest, our great
Melchizedek who's finished the work, who's ever living to make
intercession for us. He's our hope. It's an anchor. You've heard this illustration.
An anchor, if it's going to work for a boat and keep it sure and
steadfast, it's not going to work while it's in the boat,
is it? It's got to be thrown out of the boat. That's where
the anchor is going to be sure and steadfast, outside of the
vessel. Our hope is not in something
within us. It's not in us and in something
we do. Our hope enters in right there
where Christ is seated at God's right hand. He's our hope. He's
our hope, our forerunner. He's already entered in there.
A forerunner, somebody goes before the others that are following.
And if he's already gone to the cross, he went through justice
and we went through justice in him. It's satisfied. He went
into the grave, we already died in him. That's why he said you'll
never die. He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Your body's going there, but
not for long, but your spirit's going to be with the Lord immediately.
Why? Because he's a forerunner, and
he already entered into the veil, and entered into glory, and we
entered in with him, and we're going there. That's our hope. By his person and his finished
work, our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. You know,
he tells us over in Hebrews right now, we've come to Mount Sinai.
We haven't come to a mountain that may be touched. We haven't
come to an earthly mountain. We haven't come to Mount Sinai.
We have not come to the law. Those preaching will take you
to Mount Calvary and they'll preach Christ to you. And when
men have made a profession of faith, then they take them right
back to Mount Sinai and start preaching the law to them. We
ain't come to that mountain. We've come to Mount Sinai. We've
come to where Christ is seated, finished. He's seated because
the work's finished. We've come to Him. And we've
come to that heavenly city and He's drawing us there every day. And that's where we're going
to end up. Look over at 1 Peter 1. Here's our hope. 1 Peter 1. One day our feet shall
stand in heavenly Jerusalem. Now you think about that and
you just let that, you want to ruminate on something, you ruminate
on that. You marinate on that. That one
day you're going to stand in heavenly Jerusalem. And here's
our hope. Here's why we have it. 1 Peter
1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. That's why we have this hope. You see, there's nothing in that
of us, brethren. It's all of Christ. It's all
because Christ is arisen and entered in. And He rose and entered
in because He accomplished redemption. He accomplished justifying His
people. He accomplished making His people righteous. He accomplished
purging our sins. That's why God is well pleased
with Him. He honored the Father to the
highest and saved all His people. Alright, thirdly, let's go back
to our text. We're going to be together. God's
people, this is how you know who God's people are. They're
going to be together all the way to the end. All the way to
the end. Some come, some go. God's people
are going to be together. I'm not talking about that you
necessarily have to be in this congregation, but you're going
to be somewhere with God's people worshiping the Lord under the
truth of the gospel. And that's so of all God's house.
We're going Why is it? Because He's compacted us together. Look here, verse 3, Jerusalem's
built as a city that is compact together. Earthly Jerusalem was
adorned and built so that it was a compacted city with Christ's
local church. And I'm not just talking about,
when we talk about the church, we're not talking about the visible
church. You know, you can have a house full of folks in the
visible, that you can see, But we're talking about God's elect,
redeemed by Christ's blood, born of His Spirit, and united by
one faith and one hope and one Lord. That's the church. And
He's compacted us together. Look here at Ephesians 4, verse
16. I want you to see this. Ephesians
4, verse 16. He does this through the gospel. Verse 15 tells us Christ is the
head of the body, the church. Verse 16 says, from whom the
whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplies. That word compacted means cemented
together, inseparable. Inseparable in Christ, with Christ,
by Christ. That's so with all those in whom
he abides. And every joint means each member
of the body. He's supplying, he's so united
us together that we need each other. That's what he's saying.
Just like your various members of your body, they all need,
all your members need the other members. And He's supplying through
every one of His people according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part. That's according to Christ working
effectually in the measure of grace He gives to each one. Christ maketh increase of the
body unto the edifying of itself in love. You see, it's Him. It's
from the head. He compacts us together. Fitly
frames us together. He compacts us and adorns us
Together, look at verse 4, Psalm 122, 4. Whether the tribes go up, the
tribes of the Lord. You know, there was a lot more
nations and a lot more families in the earth besides Israel. But God showed, He gave Israel
His oracles, and He gave the 12 tribes His oracles. And even
among them, not everybody was a true elect. But what does that
show you? God's grace is particular, it's
distinguishing grace. He has an elect people who is
His family, and He draws that family to Him. And what do we
go up to here? Why are we going to the house
of the Lord? Unto the testimony of Israel. To give thanks unto the name
of the Lord. What is the testimony of Israel?
The word testimony means witness. Christ is Israel. Pre-eminently
Christ is Israel. He is the one who as a prince
had power with God and has prevailed. And the testimony is of Him. It's God's testimony. It's God's
witness of His Son. That's what we come to hear in
the Gospel. Let me show you that. You be
turning over to 1 John 5. You remember whenever at the
Lord's baptism, the Lord God spoke from heaven
and He said, this is my beloved Son whom I'm well pleased. on
the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter wanted to, there's Moses
and Elias and our Lord transfigured in glory, and Peter saw that,
he wanted to build a tabernacle to Moses, to the law, and he
wanted to build one to Elias, the prophet, and one to the Lord. And the Lord spoke, and He said,
A voice out of the clouds said, ìThis is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him?î And they hit their
face, and when they looked back up, Scripture said, ìThey saw
no man save Jesus only.î Godís bearing testimony. When the Gospelís
going forth, itís the testimony of Christ our Israel to His chosen
Israel. He told the Pharisees, ìYou search
the Scriptures, for in them you think you have life. And they
are they which testify of Me. And it wonít come to Me that
you might have life.î Look here now, hereís where I want you
to see it. How do we come to have this? If you believe the
Gospel, itís because you have the testimony of God in you.
You have the witness of God in you, Christ being revealed in
you. Look here, verse 7, 1 John 5, 7. There are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, that's Christ, and
the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three
that bear witness in the earth, the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit
of God, and the water, that's the Gospel, that's the Word,
and the blood, that's Christ crucified. These are the three
witnesses in the earth, the Spirit of God preached through the Word,
and it's all concerning the blood of Christ. Now watch. And these
three agree in one. And if we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness
of God, which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth
on the Son of God, He hath the witness in Himself. He's got
the testimony in Himself. He that believeth not God hath
made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record. He didn't believe
the testimony, the witness of God. that God gave of His Son. You see that? The record, the
testimony, is that which God gave of His Son. And this is
the record. Now, here it is. Here's the testimony.
This is what we come to hear. This is what we come to hear
preached every time, the testimony of Israel. God hath given to
us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the
Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
That right there is God's record. That's His testimony. If you
have Christ, it's because God bore witness in your heart, made
you believe on Him, and if you have Him through faith, believing
on Him, you have life. That's the record. That's the
record. Not because, and there's nothing
in that you did. And there's nothing you can do
to undo it. Isn't that good news? That's what we come to hear.
We gather to hear God's testimony. And he says there in Psalm 122,
we gather to hear the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto
the name of the Lord. There's nobody else to thank.
He did it all. So we give Him all the thanks,
all the praise, all the glory. And here's what He's working
through this gospel. You see there in verse 5, there are set
thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. We're
coming here, when you're coming here, what did He say in Hebrews? You're coming to the judge. You're
coming to the throne when you come here the gospel preached.
Now listen, why does it say thrones plural? Well, because there's
plural local assemblies that are gathered, and that's one
reason. And His throne's being declared there. But also because
God the Father's on His throne, Christ the Son's on the same
throne, the Spirit of God's on the throne. They're three in
one. And what is he doing on this
throne of judgment as the gospel is going forth? Isaiah 42, 4,
remember he said, he shall not fail till he has set judgment
in the earth and therefore his elect among the Gentiles shall
wait for his gospel. They'll wait on him, they'll
believe him. Through the message of Christ and crucified, here's
what he's doing. He's making us see, God's bearing
his testimony of Christ, he's making us see that on Calvary's
cross, the just judge on the throne of judgment, the sovereign
judge on the throne of judgment established and settled judgment
for everyone of his elect when Christ's cry is finished. And
as that message goes forth, He establishes judgment in your
heart. He establishes discernment in your heart through the Spirit
of God so that He makes you willing in the day of His power to believe
it so. To believe it so. You behold
Christ and you see God is just in Christ. He poured out, he
didn't spare, he didn't pass by one sin of one elect child.
He poured out justice on every sin, every chosen child of God
when he poured it out on Christ in our place. And you see by
that, that God's the justifier. This is what true judgment sees.
God's, he justified it. So he's just and the justifier,
and he's just to give us mercy. And that's true of our brethren.
We see we're justified and so are our brethren. That's what
you hear when you hear the gospel preached. And He sets that power
up in your heart, and He rules in spirit in your heart, and
you see Him ruling everything in providence, doing everything
justly and righteously in this earth. And so you know what that
does? The result of that is peace in your heart. Look over at Isaiah
32.16. Don't you see this? Isaiah 32.16. This is what He does through
the Gospel. This is why we come up to His
house. Look here, Isaiah 32.16. He said, then, he's talking about
when Christ had come and established judgment, he said, then judgment
shall dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the
fruitful field and the work of righteousness shall be peace
and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in
a peaceable habitation in sure dwellings in quiet resting places. That's the effect of hearing
Christ and Him crucified, the thrones of God declared, how
God in judgment poured it out on Christ, how Christ justified
us and declared God just, how He's risen to His throne of judgment,
how He established judgment in our heart through power, how
He's ruling everything in this world to bring His people under
the sound of the gospel to fulfill His eternal purpose, so that
everything that's happening to God's people is for our good. And he settles this, when you
experience that power, then you have peace with God because you
know there's nothing out of order. Everything's fulfilling his purpose
and he's doing it. He's working it. And so you can
trust Him, you can trust one another to Him. It's peace. He
gives you a peaceable habitation, a peaceable dwelling place, a
sure, quiet, resting place in Christ and in His house where
His gospel is preached. That's the work of the Lord.
That's why nothing's more important, beneficial in the life of a believer
than assembling in here and the gospel preached. Nothing. Nothing. God's saints, if they're going
to move somewhere, they don't look for a job and then once
they find them a good job, try to say, well, now let me see
if there's a place I can worship there. No. When God's people
get ready to move somewhere, they look and see, is there a
church there that preaches the gospel in truth? I'll find me
a job. If I have to settle for a lesser
job, I'll settle for it if I can have the gospel. But I'm not
moving someplace for a big paying job where there's no gospel.
I've got to have it. I've got to have it. That's how
it's going to keep us giving Him all the praise and all the
glory. Let me read this. Go to Hebrews 10. I've gone longer
than I intended. Hebrews 10. Look here. We're
going to end with this. Hebrews 10.23. Hearing all this and seeing what
a privilege it is to come into the Lord's house and how He's
been gracious to make you glad to go to His house, knowing one
day we're going to stand in heavenly Jerusalem in that heavenly house.
Verse 23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering, for He's faithful that promised. And let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and to good works. What's the
chief way you're going to provoke your brethren to love and to
good works? What's the chief way you do it?
Look at the next word. Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner some is. but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
You know, when you don't come here, and I'm not trying to put
you on a guilt trip, but when I've studied and labored to preach
to you, if you're not here, it hurts me because I got something
for you that the Lord's given me. But when you are here, it
is encouraging to me. And that's so, you just by assembling
together, you encourage your brethren. How would you feel
if you showed up here one night and you was the only one that
showed up? Everybody said, well, it's just me, they won't miss
me. And everybody said that, and you was the only one that
showed up. I'd be so discouraged. But by coming together, just
by coming together, you provoke to love and to good works, just
being together. Don't forsake the assembling
of yourselves together. We need this gospel, brethren. It's life. So lastly in our psalm, he said,
pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for them that they shall
prosper that love thee. He said, peace be within thy
walls and prosperity within thy palaces. And I'll tell you why
he's going to keep peace in his church. This last verse, verse
8, you hear Christ our intercessor praying right here. He said,
for my brethren and companions' sake, I will now say, peace be
within thee, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek
thy good. You remember what happened that
day when that storm was raging that night, and they were afraid,
and Christ said, peace be still. What happened? She was like glass. Christ, from
his throne in glory, He prays for the peace of His people,
and He is that peace. And we have it, because He says,
peace be within thy walls. And you're going to have peace.
You're going to have peace. That's how powerful our Redeemer
is. We're not worshipping a little pygmy, helpless, little want-to,
can't-do-nothing Jesus. We're worshipping the God of
glory, on the throne of judgment, working righteousness, and He
is the righteousness. I pray he bless us with peace.
Brother Greg. Number three.