Alright brethren, Psalm 48. Now, if I had to sum up this
psalm, we just sang a mighty fortress
is our God. And if I had to sum this psalm
up, here it is right here. The whole psalm really sounds like it was written from
this psalm. But especially verse 3. Listen to this. Though this
world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will
not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through
us. That's what this psalm is about.
It's about the church and about how God has willed for the truth
to triumph through His church. Now, read Psalm 48 verse 12 and
13 with me. He says, walk about Zion, walk
about Zion, go round about her, tell the towers thereof, Mark
ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that you may tell
it to the generation following." Now brethren, I've walked round
about Mount Zion. I have seen her palaces. I've seen her towers and I've
seen her bulwarks. I've preached from one side of
this country to the other, from north to south, east and west,
and a few countries around the world. I've walked around Mount
Zion. I've seen her palaces. And I've seen she has strong
towers and mighty bulwarks to protect her. And I'm here to
tell you and to tell this generation about our great God and what
He has done, what He is doing, and what He shall do. Look back
in verse 1 now. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His
holiness. Beautiful for situation, the
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
the city of the great King. Now our God is great. Our God is great. We've seen
and we've experienced just how great God is in our salvation. That's where He's great. He's
great in salvation. And Christ is the greatest and
there's none in the church great but Christ. Scripture says, the
God of peace brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that
great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Christ is our great High Priest. He's our great Savior. His mercy is great unto the ends
of the heavens, and His truth unto the clouds. And His name
shall be great unto the ends of the earth. And indeed, He's
greatly to be praised in His city. He's saying this is what
His city is raised up for. This is what His city is established
for, to greatly praise our great King, our great God. This is
what He's called His citizens together for, is to praise Him. and to exalt Him in all the earth.
Each one He saves gives Him all the glory. Those He calls, those
He saves, and the citizens of this city give Him all the glory,
all the honor, all the praise for every aspect of our salvation. Our testimony is not unto us,
not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name be glory. For Thy mercy
and Thy truth say, But where is this city of our God? Where
is this mount of His holiness? What's He talking about? Turn
with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Just hold your place there in
Psalm 48 and go to Hebrews 12. The city of our God is not an
earthly city. Well, it is and it isn't. The city of God is His church.
It's heavenly Jerusalem. It's heavenly Mount Zion. Now
some of the citizens are here in the earth. And some of the
citizens are already in heaven. Hebrews 12 verse 22. He says,
but ye, that's talking to you and me who are yet in this earth
right now. Ye are come. You are come to
Mount Zion. You've come to this mount of
His holiness unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.
and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made
perfect. Some of us are here right now
in this earth. We've come to this mount. Others
are already perfected and are in that heavenly city above. But this is His church in heaven
and in earth. But we've all come to God who
is the judge of all. And we've come, verse 24, to
Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. and to the blood of
sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See
that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape
not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
Psalm 48, 2 says Christ's church is beautiful for situation. You
ever wonder what that means? Beautiful for situation. That's
what he's describing his church as. The city of God, this heavenly
Mount Zion, beautiful for situation. That word situation means elevated
and lifted up. The church, every elect child
of God, every redeemed child redeemed by Christ's blood, is
beautiful because we've been exalted and lifted up in Christ
Jesus our King, and all His perfections have been made our perfections.
All His righteousness has been made our righteousness, and all
His holiness our holiness, and He's all our beauty. In Ephesians
2.6 it said, He hath raised us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is the whole city. The whole city was raised up
in Christ. All His people. And we sat down
with Christ in heavenly places that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. How is He going to show that
exceeding kindness? How is He going to spread this
word about Christ our King and take it forth into all the world?
Back there in Psalm 48, verse 2, it says, Not only is this
city beautiful because it's been elevated in Christ our King,
but it's the joy of the whole earth. It's the joy of the whole
earth. It's the joy of His people scattered
throughout the whole earth. Throughout the whole world. Because
Christ has raised us up on this earth. Why are we the joy of
the whole earth? Because Christ has raised us
up to preach His name. He's raised us up to preach Him.
And so everybody He saves, this gospel brings them great joy.
And for that reason, you and I who are citizens, who are the
city of God, we're the joy of the whole earth. He's elevated
us to preach His gospel, lifted us up to preach His gospel so
that in the hearts of His people who rejoice because we sent Him
the gospel, we're the joy of the whole earth because of the
message we preach. the message we preach. Now the
reason Christ's church is the joy of His people throughout
the whole world is because Christ has lifted us up, His church,
to bear witness of Him through the preaching of the gospel.
That's what this psalm is telling us. That's what this psalm is
telling us. And though the world is filled
with devils, we won't fear because God has purposed, it's His will
that His truth triumph through us. Now first, I want to show
you tonight our refuge. And then secondly, our rejoicing. And then thirdly, our resolve. And everything begins with this
first point, our refuge. Our refuge. Verse 3, God is known
in her palaces for a refuge. Now the palaces of God's city
are Christ's local churches. Those are the palaces of this
city. Christ has made each of us who He's called by His grace,
who He's redeemed by His blood, He's made us kings under God.
And he calls his church, this is how God regards you and I,
in his local church. He regards us as kings in his
palaces. That's how much he's elevated
his church in this earth. We're not regarded by the rest
of this world. We're not noticed by the rest
of this world. But to God, this is his palace. And those that have been being
made kings by Christ's blood, you're kings in His palaces.
Now, Christ has not planted every local church in this world. Most
churches in this world, local churches in this world are not
palaces. Most of them are dens of thieves. Most of them are
planted by false prophets. But the way you know that and
the way you can tell that is What does a man preach? Does
he preach his word or does he preach God's word? When you look
at what he preaches, you look at the word and you see, is what
he's saying in this word, is that what the word says? Not
just isolated text, but the whole word. Is that what this word
says? God said, I didn't send the false
prophet. I didn't send them. He said in
Jeremiah, I'm against them that prophesy a false dream, saith
the Lord. They do tell them and cause my
people to err by their lies and by their likeness. Isn't there
so much likeness in this world's church? It's just they make jokes
and it's just a big light free for all, just a party. And he
says, yet I sent them not nor commanded them, therefore they
shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord." So not
all the churches are palaces. We're not talking about every
local church here. But Christ's palaces, His true local churches
made up of His people are planted by Christ and not by men. This next is 1517. This is what
we're seeing in the tabernacle. He says, thou shalt bring them
in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the
place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in
the sanctuary, the holy place, O Lord, which thy hands have
established. That's his local church. That's
his church in heaven. It's where he dwells. It's the
church he's planted. It's the church he's established.
And therefore, because he's the one who planted the church, and
he's the one who plants each of his people individually, God
is known in her palaces for a refuge. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. In the palaces of this city,
God is known for a refuge. Now by nature, every sinner is
ignorant of who God is and we can't know God by our searching
and in and of ourselves. And no other man can make us
know God. It doesn't matter who the man is. But God graciously
sends his preachers and through this word, He regenerates and
calls His people and He makes us to know that Christ is our
refuge. Look over at 1 Corinthians 1.
Paul said, verse 17, he said, Christ sent
me not to baptize. He didn't send me to try to make
proselytes. He sent me to preach the gospel.
But if anybody believes it or not, he sent me to preach the
gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should
be made a none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But to us which are saved, it's
the power of God. Look at verse 22. For the Jews,
the wheel worker requires a sign. He wants to see some great work
of law. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
They want to have their ears tickled. But we preach Christ's
crucify unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called. Here's why Christ is a refuge
in these palaces He's established. Because unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. That's why God our Savior, Jesus
Christ, is known, and that's why He's known for refuge in
the palaces of Jerusalem, in His local churches. Now, He says
there He's known for a refuge, and He's our only refuge. Now,
in the days of Israel, you know about the cities of refuge. God
made these cities of refuge So if someone had committed murder,
they committed manslaughter, then the executioner was going
to come after them because they were guilty. The law was coming
after them. The law was going to kill them
because they're guilty. But God provided cities of refuge. No matter where you were, no
matter where you were in Israel, there was a city of refuge near.
And you could run into that city of refuge. There was roads that
went to it and they constantly kept those roads clear so you
wouldn't stumble trying to get to it. You could run into this
refuge as fast as you could. They kept signs up to point the
way so that you knew where the city of refuge is. And anywhere you were, that refuge
was near and you could flee into that refuge and the law wouldn't
touch you. You would be in a refuge. You
would be safe. As long as you stayed in that
refuge, you were safe. Brethren, Christ is that refuge.
He's the one pictured in the cities of refuge. We have broken the law. We have
committed murder. We've murdered the Son of God
Himself in our hearts. But God graciously for His people
has provided a refuge. And no matter where you are,
Christ is near to all who are made willing to flee into this
refuge. He's near. Believe on Him. Flee into Christ the refuge by
believing on Him. And He will save you. No one
can touch you. Christ is our refuge from sin. He's the one who delivers us
from the bondage of our own sin nature and won't ever let it
have dominion over us again. He saves us from our sin. He
put away the sin of His people. He's our refuge from the law.
The curse of the law. The curse of the law is we're
guilty. And the law says, condemn Him. The law says, I must have Him. I must execute Him. But Christ
came and He's redeemed us from that curse because He took the
place of His people and was made a curse in our place. And He's the refuge from all
our enemies as we go through this life and as we are on our
way to that great heavenly city. He's our refuge as we go through
this life. And He's saving us from all our
enemies and we know He's going to save us from all our enemies
because Scripture says He even saves us from our last enemy
which is what we know to be the greatest one we know of. And
that's death. The sting of death is sin and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now to illustrate
how great a refuge Christ is, to show us just how safe and
secure we are in Christ, God used the attacks of kings that
came up against Jerusalem. He says here in verse 4, For
lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. Throughout
the history of Jerusalem, you have various kings that came
up against Jerusalem. They were going to attack it.
To them it didn't look like it was very fortified and they could
take it with ease. You had the Philistines came
up against David during his day. You had the Ethiopians in the
time of Asa. They surrounded it. We read all
about that in 2 Chronicles. You have the Moabites and the
Ammonites in the time of Jehoshaphat. You have Sennacherib in the times
of Hezekiah. But in each of these cases they
came up and they surrounded Jerusalem and to the natural eye it looked
like Jerusalem was going to die. It looked like they were They
were goners. But Jerusalem's a picture of
Christ's church, the city of God. And Christ is showing us through
those kings that He's our refuge. So what became of them? When
they would come up there and they would surround Jerusalem,
what happened to every single one of them in history? What
happened to them? Look at verse 5. They saw, and so they marveled. Oh, they saw it. They saw it.
They were just foaming at the mouth to attack Jerusalem. And they marveled at how it just
looked like they could just walk in there and attack it. But look
at this. They were troubled and hasted
away. Fear took hold upon them there,
and pain, as of a woman, entravailed. Back in April 15th on a Sunday,
April 15th, 2001, we'd gone to church that morning and we got
back and we walked down to the pond and we worked our Labrador
retriever in the pond. And we came back and we're sitting
around the house visiting with our brother, our friend, Ken. And all of a sudden, everything
changed in an instant. Linda went into labor with him.
and everything changed. These enemies came and they saw
Jerusalem and they marveled. They thought it was going to
be easy pickings. And all of a sudden, a change
came upon them. A change came in their very heart
and in their very mind. All of a sudden, they became
troubled and they became afraid and they turned And these kings
and all this host of armies they had ran away. They ran away. And Israel didn't have to do
a thing. In fact, God brought Jerusalem so to the point where
there was nothing they could do. And they just sat and looked
and couldn't understand. And they saw and they marveled
at what took place. Brethren, Christ is not only
our refuge, but He can turn the hearts of our enemies with a
look and make them fear us and make them flee. And He'll do
it without you even lifting a finger, without me even lifting a finger.
Don't fear man. Christ is our refuge. He's a
very present help in trouble. And He's all-powerful to protect
us. Look at the next word, verse 7. Thou breakest the ships of
Tarshish with an east wind. This is the season when the east
wind blows. This is the season when hurricanes
come. And you see what it does to boats and mighty ships, and
it just tosses them. Brethren, Christ is in control
of the hurricane. He's in control of the hurricane.
He uses the hurricane to break the ship. And He's all-powerful
and at His disposal is everything in this world. And He uses anything
He's pleased to use. And He's using it to protect
His church, His people. So, knowing this, brethren, that
He's our refuge on that foundation, He's our rejoicing. Look at verse
8. As we have heard So have we seen
in the city, in His church, the city of the Lord of Hosts, in
the city of our God, God will establish it forever. He will
establish it forever. As we've heard the gospel of
Christ preached, We've heard this preached. We've heard it
preached. We've heard the word of what
Christ is going to do. And as we've heard it preached,
so we've seen Him do it. We've seen Him do it. We've seen
it by faith and we've seen it by experience that God has established
His church forever and He is establishing His churches forever. You look at what He's done for
us right here, brethren. We've had kings come in here,
we've had kings surround us, we've had kings that came and
all of a sudden in an instant they were troubled and their
hearts were turned and they went away. They hasted away. Was that
a bad thing? No, it was a good thing. It's
always a good thing. Anybody who comes up against
his church brethren, he's going to protect it. He's going to
protect it and he's the one establishing it. We started out just a little
bitty band of people and the Lord, look what he's done. He's
provided, he's brought us to where we are right here and he's
not lost one of his people and he won't. He will not. Look what He's done for you personally
that know Him. You've heard of all these things
He does and you've seen it. You've experienced it. This is
the city of the Lord of hosts. This is the city of our God. You, you are the city of our
God. You who know Him. You who believe
Him. You who have been called by His grace and redeemed by
His blood. You're the city of God. He's going to establish
us. He's not going to lose one of
His people. We're established in His love. Look at verse 9.
We've thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. God's in the midst of His temple.
And we're His temple. And He first loved His people
even when we didn't love Him. He didn't set His affections
on us because we loved Him. He didn't love us because we
could do something for Him. He loved us when we hated Him
and didn't love Him at all. And He loves His people in Christ.
And because those things are so, God's love for His elect
never ends. His love saves His people. Listen
to this. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Now listen. Again, I will build
thee, and thou shalt be built. That's what he said. I've loved
you everlastingly. Therefore, with lovingkindness
I've drawn you. I shall build you and you'll
be built. Nobody is going to tear you down.
And so our rejoicing and our praise, knowing this, our rejoicing
and our praise throughout the earth is His great name and His
righteousness. Look there in verse 10. According
to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth.
Thy right hand is full of righteousness. In Christ crucified, He's the
right hand of God. In Christ crucified, we behold
God's very name glorified. Everything God is, we see in
Christ Jesus. Every perfection God is, Christ
glorified it. And in Christ we behold the righteousness
of God manifest. We see there how God is just. He wouldn't just save His people
without honoring His law. He sent His Son. He made His
Son sin. He made His Son a curse. And
He poured out judgment on His Son and wouldn't spare Him. He's
just. He did what was right. He saved
His people in a way that's right. And He's our justifier in the
process. And so the glory of His name
and the glory of His righteousness guarantees us that He's going
to establish us forever. Let me give you some scripture,
Isaiah 48, 11. For mine own sake, even for mine
own sake will I do it. For how should my name be polluted? I will not give my glory to another.
God's not going to let His name be polluted. And that would happen
if one member of this city was ever destroyed. His name would
be polluted. He would lose more from it than
you and I would. So from the rising of the sun,
even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great
among the Gentiles, and in every place incense, prayer, and praise
shall be offered unto my name, and pure offerings. For my name
shall be great among the heathens, saith the Lord of Hosts. And
therefore, wherever His people are, throughout the earth, wherever
we are throughout the earth, look at it, look at what it says
there. It says, according to thy name, O God, so is thy praise
unto the ends of the earth. Wherever His people are in the
ends of the earth, wherever His gospel is preached, where His
people are, our rejoicing and our praise is His name and His
righteousness. Look at verse 11. Let Mount Zion
rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy
judgments. You look at Calvary, brethren,
and you see, did God redeem us with judgment? Did He redeem
us in a way that was righteous? Did He? That's why Christ came. He did it in a way that was righteous.
That tells you and me everything God's going to do for you and
me who He saved is going to be right. Every other thing, every
lesser thing He does for us shall be right. Whatever comes to pass
in our life, it will be what's right and what's needful. And
so He's our praise and our rejoicing and we can be glad in Him. Now
lastly, knowing all this is the case, knowing He's our refuge,
we'll never be harmed in Christ and because Christ is our refuge.
Knowing He's our rejoicing and our praise because of His judgments
and how He saved us in righteousness for His great namesake. Knowing
this, here's our resolve. Our resolve is to bear witness
of Him to our generation, knowing He shall provide all our days. Look here in verse 12. Walk about
Zion. Go round about her. Tell the
towers thereof. Mark you well her bulwarks. Consider
her palaces, that you may tell it to the generation following.
Believer, each local church we know. Every local church we know,
this one included, has been fully provided for and protected by
Christ. Is that not so? Everyone you
know of. Number one, Christ is our strong
tower. He is our bulwark never ceasing.
Number two, He has provided His preachers, which are called in
Scripture, towers. They're towers, they're set by
Christ. He told Jeremiah, I've set thee for a tower and for
a fortress among my people that thou mayest know and try their
way. Now you know, you look at Jeremiah,
who said, he said, I'm young and I don't know anything, I
can't go and preach. And he said, who was his strength? Christ was his strength. That's
why he was a fortress. That's why he was a high tower,
because Christ was his strength. And then, so Christ is our strong
tower and our bulwark. His preachers are set for a strong
tower by Christ. We've got the Scriptures here,
which in the Scripture, they're compared to that armory that
David had. An armory is where you've got
weapons and where you've got armor. And this Scripture is
where we get the armor for this warfare. It's where we get our
spiritual weapons that we use in this warfare. He's provided
us this strong tower and this bulwark. And not only that, we
have the ordinances. They're called in Scriptures
a tower and bulwarks because in baptism and in the Lord's
table, we're constantly reminded. If it's not enough that we hear
the gospel preached week in and week out, we have visual remembrances
to help us remember Christ in His broken body and shed blood.
These are towers and bulwarks that he's provided to protect
his church. He says, you walk about and look.
Wherever his name is set up, wherever he's planted his church,
he's providing fully for his people. Fully. And why does he tell us? He says
there, mark well. Mark these things well. You mark
it down. You look and you notice and you mark well these things
in my city, in my church. Why? Why? That you may tell it
to the generation following. You go tell what Christ has done. Let us send forth the gospel
far and wide from this pulpit in every way God will provide
for us. In every way. We've got a lot
of great means right now. We ought to look for other means
to send it out. We need to go forth together
wherever we go. We're like a bunch of Just a
whole bunch of eyewitnesses that he's just spreading out into
the world every day throughout the week to where we can tell
somebody about what he's done. And if you can't bear witness
of him, you don't feel comfortable talking about it, just tell him
to come here. Come hear the gospel. Come hear
the gospel. But the main thing he's saying
to us here is, don't fear man. Don't fear man. That's what keeps
us keeping our mouths shut. And that's sanctifying man. That's
raising man up and glorifying man. He says, don't do that.
Seeing what God's done for us, seeing how He's provided for
His city, He says, you go forth and you bear witness of Him.
You tell what He's done. When it says here, consider the
palaces, if you look in the margin, it says, raise up the palaces.
And he's telling us, now you see that I'm providing everything,
I'm providing all the towers and all the bulwarks, now you
do whatever is necessary to help raise up these palaces so that
the next generation will be told about what he's done. You see
this? This is our purpose. Nothing
else is our purpose. It's not our purpose to live
in a big house. That's not our purpose. You know,
if we really were all doing what he's telling us here, you know
what we'd all do? We'd all try to live in the smallest, least
expensive house we could, drive the least expensive cars we could,
be totally out of debt so that everything we earn in our jobs,
everything we do, we can give it to send Christ's gospel forward. Because the sooner he calls out
the last one, we're going home. And he says, and do it knowing
this, brethren, verse 14. He says, here's the reason. For
this God is our God forever and ever. And He will be our guide
even unto death. We don't have to worry about
a thing. Amen.