complete dependence upon the
Lord for all needed help this morning. Wish to direct your
very prayerful attention to Psalm 132. This morning our text is
found in verses 13 and 14. Psalm 132 verses 13 and 14. for the Lord hath chosen Zion
he hath desired it for his habitation this is my rest forever here
will I dwell for I have desired it for the Lord hath chosen Zion
he hath desired it for his habitation this is my rest forever Here
will I dwell, for I have desired it. The definition of a revival,
a word that is used and banded about a lot, but perhaps little
understood, is an unusual outpouring of the Holy Spirit. in a particular place. And thus, we might well ask ourselves,
where are we? You see, the history of the Christian
Church is something which is beyond the explanation of scholars,
academic or historical, or of any other. Why? Because
we can see since the days of the Apostles that the Lord has,
we only have to read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, an unbroken link, a continuation of the assembling of God's people
for His worship. We have to remember, we've all
come to chapel this morning. What's our primary consideration? What do
we come here for? Well, firstly and foremost, we
assemble for the glory of God. And secondly, that we may profit by the Word
preached. But it is always firstly for
the glory of God. I wish in the time that we have
this Lord's Day, both morning and evening, to consider what
is, without a doubt, a much neglected doctrine in and amongst our churches. And that is the doctrine of Zion,
the doctrine of the Church. And let's be clear, we must firstly
put our text into the context, that's our usual practice If
we fail to do this, we may be guilty of handling the Word of
God deceitfully. What do we find? Well, Psalm
132, we can see the title. Remember the titles are inspired. A Song of Degrees, or a Song of
Ascent. And we would date this particular
Psalm in and around the time of the consecration of the Temple
by Solomon. We have to remember, where do
we find this particular event? Well, in the second book of Chronicles,
in chapter 6, we see that well-known prayer, the well-known event of the consecration of
the Temple. But in the previous chapter,
that is chapter 5, we read the final movements of the Ark. We have to remember that these
songs of degrees, these songs of ascent, would be sung in and
of the children of Israel offering their worship unto the Lord as
they carried the Ark. And we read in chapter 5 verse
10, there was nothing in the ark save two tables which Moses
put therein at Horeb when the Lord made a covenant with the
children of Israel when they came out of Zion. Why? Well there was to be that fixed
abode, there was to be that fixed place where the children of Israel
could come and could worship. Now, this is very important. What do we mean by Zion? Well,
in the immediate context, Mount Zion was only a few hundred
yards away from Mount Moriah. These mountains were found In
a similar place, those of you who have an interest in archaeology
or geography can find them. Roughly speaking, they can be
located even to this day. But we have to remember that these things were not an
end in themselves. We have those today who are called
Zionists. and let's be right, let's be
plain. That is a Jewish political movement. It has nothing to do
with Christianity, and it has nothing to do with our text this
morning. What we're here speaking of,
as the scripture speaks continually, both Old and New Testament, is
of a spiritual and an experiential application. What did the Ark signify? What
did the Ark signify? Well it spoke of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. He's the substance of the Ark.
I know there's some today who are busy attempting to find the
location of the Ark. And of course the Rastafarian
would believe it's found in Ethiopia and so on and many other offerings of thoughts have been
set forth, but really, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Because that was not the point.
The Ark itself was never the object. It was what it signified. And thus, we come to the point
where the Temple was to be consecrated by Solomon. And remember, These
journeyings were not easy. These were not easy. Great hardship. You know we can often be guilty
of thinking of these events in Western terms. These are of course journeys that were made in very
difficult conditions, in very hot weather. Certainly at times
in the Middle East, certainly very severe weather and severe
winds would be found. but they ventured on they ventured
on and we would notice this you know we live in a day and an
age today where we're always been told we should forget about
the past and that we're living in very
different days to before and so on and so forth and we shouldn't
think about things That's a view that's usually set up by our
enemies who wish to modernize and change things. Most of you know me very well.
I have no desire to modernize or change anything in the Church
of God. We have, in the English language,
the best Bible. We have, I believe, the best
hymn book and we have the best practices which are found in
scripture. Notice here the prayer that's
offered. Lord remember David and all his
afflictions. How he sware unto the Lord and
vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Surely I will not come
into the tabernacle of my house nor go up into my bed. I will
not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until
I find out a place for the Lord, and habitation for the mighty
God of Jacob." There was that desire, that heart desire, you
see, to worship the Lord. And indeed, can we not say that
there's no greater privilege on the Lord's day than to be
found in His house. singing his praises, and hearing
his word preached. If the Lord's Day is not our
favourite day of the week, we are in a poor state. A poor state. Why? Because of the words of
our text. For the Lord hath chosen Zion. And for those who may still be
somewhat cynical, For those who may be in doubt, for those who
may think that there is a future for an ethnic Israel, these thoughts
are put to death, are they not? When we read in the epistle to
the Hebrews, we read the 12th chapter and we see the fulfillment
of these things. I'll read from at verse 21, and
so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear
and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and an innumerable company of angels. This, Zion, spoken of,
is spiritual. It always has been. It always
has been. It's spiritual. And thus, we
can see here, the Lord hath chosen Zion. Now, we see a wonderful implication
within our text. Because here we read of the work
of the Lord. You say, whose church is this? Whose church is this? This morning
I was reading in an old street Baptist periodical of a man who was not born in our churches,
he knew of nothing much outside the Church of England and the
Methodists originally and he was speaking of how the Lord
led him He said, and I went to hear a Mr Branch, who was what
we might call a half-and-half preacher. Free grace on one hand and free
will on the other. He said, but I couldn't hear
him. I couldn't hear him. He said, so I had to go to seek better things. and thus he was desirous to have
a gospel that was pure and thus he was led to one of
the chapels in Brighton which is now closed I believe but he said the Lord hath chosen
Zion the Lord will have a people for
his praise And this is the important matter. Do we not even here, at Portsmouth
Chapel, find ourselves preserved by a miracle? Here in 2018. In fact, many people would scarcely
believe that such considered old-fashioned things take place.
Somebody once said to me, how can a thing like that exist in
the 21st century? It's God's ordered way. It's
God's ordered way. But in the past, can we not look
back and say that we've been preserved? We were bombed by
the Nazis in the Second World War. Our chapel was destroyed. we've been brought to very few
in the past. There have been those who have
made shipwreck of the faith and left us. Even in our time there
were those that went out from us because they were not of us.
No doubt if they were with us they would have continued with
us. But we're still here. Why? Well it's only in the Lord's
love and mercy. And it's only because there are
those who wish to seek out the very same truths. You see here, do we not come
as an assembly of saints? For the Lord hath chosen Zion,
he hath desired it for his habitation. What does that mean? We're not
to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. as the manner
of some is. You see, we can't survive on
our own. In fact, of course, the rendering
of the word Church, the word Ecclesia in the New Testament,
is an occasion I'm afraid our Dutch friends have got it right
the word congregation is the correct one and we do not come
as individuals we come as a congregation and thus the Lord desires that
his people meet together and thus from time to time we will
meet those who profess religion when you ask them where they
worship they'll say to you I don't need to worship I don't need
to go to chapel. I can worship the Lord anywhere.
Well, as we've said before, if we won't worship the Lord in
His house, we won't worship Him anywhere else. The primary function of our worship is to glorify
the Lord and His Word and that we may profit You see we cannot
sit, can we, under error. We cannot sit under error. He
has desired it for his habitation. And here we would make this doctrinal
point. Again, weakly observed, I'm afraid
to say today, in our chapels. But only through the preaching
of the gospel does the Lord call his people by his grace. Now, there are those who deny
such a position. Of course, the Primitive Baptists
have a group amongst them which almost believe that you can live
and die as a heathen in the desert, never hear the Word of God and
be a Christian. No! Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God." If you and I are called by grace
this morning, it is only through the fruits of the preaching of
the Gospel. We're not saying we have to be
in chapel at the very moment. But, are we not affected by what
we hear? If the Lord has chosen Zion to
be His habitation, we will desire to be here. We will desire to be here. And
thus we cannot expect the Lord to favour us in our souls. Outside of Zion. I remember when the chapel I
was a member of closed and before coming here in the
September of the same year it was a very barren time yes there
were those places I went to worship but it was barren there wasn't the discriminating
ministry There was not that feast of fat things. There
was not that sound speech which cannot be condemned. And thus,
we couldn't unite with the people. We couldn't unite with them.
We couldn't unite with them. He's desired Zion for his habitation. And thus, this is the truth. We will give up everything, everything,
and I mean everything, for God's cause. And to be found in a place
where the truth is found. Nowhere outside of Zion are we
promised this favour, are we promised this blessing. what else must we say about this? he's desired it I will abundantly bless sorry
this is my rest forever here will I dwell for I have desired
this is my rest forever do we not see this unbroken link? It's an unbroken link. You see
the New Testament worship which we observe today is but a continuation, a fuller light
as it were, of that which we see in the Old Testament. What was the practice of the
Old Testament? Well here we can see there were
those offerings those songs of ascent unto the
Lord these songs of degrees which we're reading from so they were
singing they were singing and we notice that the singing both Old and New Testament was
of an original composition not exclusively but on occasions. The difference being, of course,
the Old Testament worship which we find and which we're reading
of here was accompanied maybe by a harp or some other stringed
instrument. However, in the New Testament
we have no scriptural warrant whatsoever for musical accompaniment. We simply have an instrument
to keep the people in line. But what else did we find? We
find the reading of the law. The reading of the law, the reading
of the Old Testament Scriptures, the books of Moses, which they
would have had. And thus you will notice that
whenever I take a service, I always choose a portion or
more than one portion that is what you might call substantial.
So I find it very strange to hear of these fundamentalist
churches who say they stand on the word and then read three
verses. The only part of our worship
that is infallible is the reading of the Holy Scriptures and nothing
else. Why? Because our prayers are not infallible. Our singing is not infallible. I know there are those who believe
in exclusive psalmody, but as soon as you put the Psalms into
meter, you inevitably have a change. So we reject that doctrinal position.
Our preaching is certainly not infallible. I trust we preach
real things. I trust we preach with that sound
speech that cannot be condemned. And that we're doctrinally accurate,
but it's not infallible. Certainly not infallible. But
the Word of God is. The Word of God is. And thus,
the reading of God's Word must take up a fair proportion of
the service. And then of course we have prayer,
don't we? We have prayer. And thus we have
the prayer meeting. Now, those of whom are doubters of
such things. We read, of course, in the Acts
of the Apostles that they continued steadfastly
in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, that is the preaching,
which we find ourselves in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And thus we find the ordinances
of Zion which, if the Lord will, we'll consider this evening. But the Lord has set these things
down as to how he must be worshipped. And thus, modern innovations
are but extra-curricular in addition to scripture and must be rejected. But the strange thing is, I don't
know why anybody wants anything else. I don't. I do not understand why people
want anything else. Because here we find rest. Rest. I love the words of the
hymn writer. When he says, How sweet to leave
the world a while. and seek the presence of the
Lord. Dear Saviour, on Thy people smile
and come according to Thy Word. From busy scenes we now retreat
that we may here converse with Thee. Our Lord behold us at Thy
feet. Let this the gate of heaven be. And thus do we not have to find
Zion a rest. arrest. And today, just by word
of application, more than ever, you know those of us that deal
with the general public, and those of us that have to have
secular jobs and have to deal with society, we would observe
that people have more problems with life than ever, don't they?
We have more conveniences. We have more of those things
which make our lives easier by technology. But in another way, we find people
bow down under the pressures of modern life. And we're not
exempt from them. Yes, arrest, arrest. Mr. Philpott put it this way
when someone was inquiring about their secular work and how much
time it took them. He said these things should occupy
all our minds but not our hearts. And thus do we not find ourselves
having to prepare our hearts when we come into Zion. that priming of the pump, as
it were, in reading and in prayer, that hope and that expectancy
that the Lord might meet with us. We're all prone to distraction. None of us are exempt from that.
But you see here we find Zion at rest. somebody used to say to me after
a good sermon and he'd look round and he'd see the empty seats
he'd say the people don't know what they're missing but you see every man's gone
in his own way hasn't he doing that which is right within his
own eyes rest we see the empty pews this morning and no doubt there's others on
Shearer Road They think they're clever and think they're doing
the right thing. They wouldn't want to come to
the Strict Baptist Chapel with its quaint worship. But is there
any satisfaction there? Is there any rest there? I dare
say and we know that there isn't. There isn't. This is my rest forever. In other words, the Lord always
puts his people into Zion. Now, we must observe this. There are those, we always meet
those, who go on endlessly about the Universal Church, and of
course that is true. That the real Church is invisible. We don't know who the Lord's
people are. by the eye. But, if the Lord has put his people
into the church, there is that understanding the Apostles doctrine
and fellowship as it's known. There is that converse and there
is that uniting one with another. those that feared the Lord often
speak one to another and there are some people and every time you speak to them
whether it be on the phone or in person you come away and you
are left feeling encouraged and I mean in the right way Because there is that exercise
unto faith. There is that concern to be right.
There is that concern to be God-honouring. And is not that an essential
within our worship? To be God-honouring. You see,
that has to be the emphasis of our services. And you know we
see this time after time after time. Our emphasis is what matters. Because as soon as it shifts
from being about God honouring worship to something else. And usually it's getting people
in. We're finished. We're finished. Because we go
from being a God-centred, God-honouring congregation to a man-centred,
man-pleasing congregation. And our business is not to please
men. It is to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, as
He has directed, as He has dictated, as He has said, we must. This is my rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. Now, of course, we cannot ignore
the prophetical part to this text and when I
say prophetical I'm alluding to what we find there in Hebrews
12 in respect to the innumerable company of angels. There is the
church on earth, the church militant and there is the church in heaven,
the church triumphant. Where does the Lord dwell now? He is in heaven at the right
hand of the Father. Remember it's that same dear
body that is glorified as the hymn writer says and there are
those of course who would attempt to tear it from the hymn book,
a man there is a real man with wounds still gaping wide in which
rich streams of blood once ran in hands and feet and side this
same dear man in heaven now reigns that suffered for our sake. And thus, the Lord is bringing
all things in order. He calls His people by His grace,
His chosen Zion. There's no mention here of man
choosing at all. It's always the Lord and what
He will do. He will have a people for His
praise. This is my rest forever. Is there not joy in heaven over
one sinner that repenteth? Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. This psalm is a messianic psalm. The consecration of the temple.
What did the temple represent? Again, the same as the Ark, the
temple represented the Lord Jesus himself. for thy servant David's sake,
turn not away the face of thine anointed." When we read of the
anointed in the Psalms, very often it's speaking of Christ
and here it's no different. A Messianic Psalm, yes, but you
know I'm of the school that believes every Psalm is a Messianic Psalm. There's always something there
of Christ. And you see again, Is that not
the business of the Gospel Church? You know, people... I find this
very difficult. People always talk about Gospel
services. Gospel services. And they try and separate out
the morning service from the evening. In the morning, the
idea is we lecture people. And then in the evening, we try
and force them to make professions. But that's not what we read of
in Scripture, is it? The Lord, beginning at Moses, expounded
unto them the things concerning himself." Every service is a
gospel service, through the exposition of the Scriptures. And the preaching
must be, it must be, central in its theme, and centric within
its content. The person and the work of Christ
Himself. And thus, this is what we find
in Zion. This is what we find in Zion.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to magnify and to illuminate
the person of Christ. The Spirit speaks not of Himself,
but speaks of Christ. And thus, do we not seek to see Him? Do we not seek to meet Him? You know we need far more than
to just go through the motions and have a service. Far more than that. You know
down the generations I think that's what's happened. so long as the doors are opened so long as we conduct something,
somebody will always be there to preach, somebody will always
be there to read a sermon somebody will always be there to make things, make sure that
things keep ticking along as it were but we need more than
that we need more than that and we need more than the bricks
and mortar, we're speaking of the consecration of the temple and we know that the Lord was
only to be found in that place but today in this New Testament
age the church is not the building or the sanctuary as men call
it But it's found where the people dwell. And that's the difference. And again, a great weakness within
our churches. People think the Lord dwells
in the bricks. No. That's the view of the Roman
Catholic Church. This is a convenient place for
us to meet. And we're thankful for it. And
we're thankful that it's maintained. but it doesn't matter whether
it's here in central Portsmouth or anywhere else in the city. The congregation of saints, where
two or three gather together in my name, there will I be in
the midst. Do we not plead these things,
O that the Lord may work, that the Lord may Even in our day,
even in our generation, and even here, undertake for us and add
those numbers ordained unto eternal life. For the Lord hath chosen
Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest
forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it. The Lord will
continue with these things this evening, but I'll leave it there
for now. Amen.