Good evening, let's begin our
evening service by standing and singing 272, the solid rock,
272. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely
face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood, When all around my soul gives
way, He that is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. I would like to read Psalm 124.
Psalm 124. A song of degrees of David. If
it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel
say, if it had not been for the Lord who was on our side when
men rose up against us, Then they had swallowed us up quick,
when their wrath was kindled against us. Then the waters had
overwhelmed us, and the stream had gone over our soul. Then
the proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord
who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped
as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. And the snare is
broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the
Lord who made heaven and earth. Our Heavenly Merciful Father,
we thank you for allowing us, Lord, to assemble together from
week to week. And once again, this evening,
Lord, has allowed us to come together to hear the unsearchable
riches of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our only hope. Father,
we thank you for allowing this place that we can come here and
giving us the financial wherewithal and all that is necessary that
we can gather together as a local assembly. It is a great, great
blessing. And Father, will you continue
to provide for us into the unknown future? Everything is perfectly
in your hands. And Father, remember Brother
Eric. We thank you for him and be with him, Lord, especially
this evening, where once again, he hopes to stand before us to
preach your holy word. And Father, give him, Lord, the
unction of your spirit. Give him liberty, Lord. You know
exactly what he stands in need of each time he stands before
us. Lord, allow him to proclaim the only comfort and rest for
our souls. And Father, remember us also
as we hope to sit and listen. Give us, Lord, ears to hear and
an appetite. And Lord, that we may not be
distracted. But Lord, will you increase our faith this evening
and give us rest for our souls. And Lord, we also think of those
that gather with us normally and that struggle so often with
health difficulties and other troubles. Father, you know perfectly
what they struggle with. And Lord, will you give them
comfort, which only you can give, comfort for their souls and help
for their bodies. And Lord, also give us the awareness
that we may also reach out and help where it is needed. Father,
will you continue to gather with us and remember our loved ones? Often they are on our minds,
Lord, and we know that with you all things are possible. But
Lord, if it would be in your good pleasure and divine purpose,
will you call them out of nature's darkness into your marvelous
light? Give them, Lord, a hunger and an appetite for that glorious
gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, if it would please
you to add to this local assembly, will you also provide opportunity
for us that we may declare your goodness and your grace and your
grace that you have poured out to sinners. Father, remember
us in mercy this evening. For Jesus' sake alone. Amen. Let's turn to 186, The Church's
One Foundation, 186. The Church's One Foundation is Jesus
Christ, their Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven He came and sought
her to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought
her, and for her life He died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth, Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. And to one hope she presses with
every grace endued. Littoral and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious her
longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious shall
be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three in one, And mystics we communion with those whose
rest is one. Oh, happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with thee. Thank you. Take your Bibles to Isaiah chapter
60. That's where our text is tonight. Isaiah 60, looking at verses
8 through 14. When our Lord was challenged
by the Jews, And they asked him for a sign.
They asked him for a sign, wanting to know by what authority he
shamed them publicly, as they rightfully deserved, because
they were making the house of God into a place of merchandise. And the Lord told them, destroy
this temple, and in three days, I'll raise it up. Every time the ruined kingdoms of this world
challenge our Lord, He proves them that He is just and right,
that He shames them because they are ignorant and in darkness
and unwise in the things that they do. And they think that
they can come against God and defeat the Lord and His Christ,
And he shows that every time he has the victory, every time. And so tonight we see that our
risen Lord, our Lord who went to the grave for us. He went
to the cross, gave his life, shed his blood, went into the
tomb and rose again and ascended up to the right hand of the throne
of God in heaven. now ruling and reigning, so it
is that this text, our text tonight here in Isaiah 60, shows us the
building up of our Lord's kingdom. the construction, the assembling,
the gathering in of all His redeemed people, assembling those blocks
that He has called, those precious ones that He loves and gave His
life for. And so I've titled this message,
Filling the Kingdom with Precious Things. You that believe Him
are those precious things. You're precious to the Lord.
He loved you enough to come and take upon Him the humbling of
this flesh and dwelt among us and gave His life for us. And so you're precious to Him.
You're precious to Him. And He fills His kingdom with
you that are precious to Him. So when I read these verses tonight
in verses 8 through 14, when I was reading this, I see a kingdom,
a glorious kingdom that shall never end. It shall never fail. It shall never come to ruin.
It's glorious. It's wonderful. It's beautiful
because it's our Lord's. Turn over to Revelation chapter
20. Go to Revelation chapter 20.
And I'm going to read a verse, verse 4, and the reason why I'm reading
this verse is because it's a beautiful picture
here of the children of God who are made more than conquerors
in the Lord Jesus Christ, overcoming their enemies by the Lord Jesus
Christ. It says there, Revelation 20
verse 4, And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them. And judgment
was given unto them, and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded
for the witness of Jesus. And for the word of God, in which
had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands,
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." The
picture here is of righteous souls being gathered unto the
Lord and reigning with Him, dwelling with Him, living with Him forevermore. Because they have eternal life
by their Lord and Savior. Now, the Scriptures also speak
of another kingdom, a fallen kingdom, an evil kingdom. It's passing away. because it's
already been defeated by our Lord, the One who is Lord of
Lords and King of Kings, and they that are with Him are called
and chosen and faithful. This fallen kingdom, this defeated
kingdom, is plundered by the Lord. He takes out from that
kingdom that which is precious to Him, that which He purchased
with His own blood, made righteous. He makes them righteous, and
they're precious in His sight, and so they flow out of the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of light. Turn over to Revelation
18, and we'll see that. Revelation 18, and we'll look
at verses 10 through 14. Picking up in verse 10, we'll
drop in from the perspective of those who interacted willingly
and traded with this fallen and wicked kingdom. Says verse 10,
they were standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying,
Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one
hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth
shall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise
any more. the merchandise of gold, and
silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen,
and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thine wood, and all manner
vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood,
and of brass, and iron, and marble. and cinnamon, and odors, and
ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour,
and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and
slaves, and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul
lusted after are departed from thee. And all things which were
dainty and goodly are departed from thee. And thou shalt find
them no more at all. so that all that was goodly,
all that was precious, was taken out, removed from this whore
of a kingdom at her destruction and defeat, which came suddenly
upon her. Suddenly upon her. Now, let me
show you at a high level why I was thinking of these verses
and open with these in regards to our text tonight. Turn back
to Isaiah 60. In Isaiah 60, picking up in verse
8, we see here a flock of souls pictured as birds streaming to
the light of our Lord's glorious kingdom. It says, Who are these
that fly as a cloud and as the doves to their windows? And then
we see in the next verse words that define commerce and enterprise
of lawful trade of goods and commodities within that kingdom. It says, verse 9, surely the
isles shall wait for me. and the ships of Tarshish, or
the ships upon the sea, that's what that word means there, the
ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver
and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God,
and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And then we see that there's
skilled labor that's defined here, who knows how to put those
precious commodities to good use and to make greater profit
with the use of them. Verse 10, and the sons of strangers
shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto
thee. For in my wrath I smote thee,
but in my favor have I had mercy on thee. so that these wall builders,
they consist of skilled laborers, carpenters, and stone workers,
and brick layers, and artisans, all employing their trades in
this kingdom. And we see that this kingdom
is booming. It's growing, it's increasing,
and it's always open for business. Verse 11, Therefore thy gates
shall be opened continually, they shall not be shut day nor
night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles,
and that their kings may be brought. And then finally, verse 13, it
speaks of precious trees of wood and fruit being brought in, the
final touches, if you will, to adorn the kingdom of our Lord. It says there, verse 13, the
glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee. the fir tree, the pine
tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary,
and I will make the place of my feet glorious. This, brethren, is the kingdom
of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And these are descriptions
here picturing our glorious salvation, the raising up our Lord's temple,
the building of His church, Him gathering together precious things
to adorn His glorious kingdom that speaks of the glories of
His name. And then there's the contrary
effect. As His kingdom is built up and
raised up and increased and He receives all the glory, well
there's another kingdom. the kingdoms of the earth, those
that are fallen, those that oppose the reign and the rule of Christ,
they'll be brought to ruin and they'll be emptied out of their
precious things and gathered in the kingdom of our Savior.
Look at verses 12 and then 14 with me. For the nation and kingdom
that will not serve these shall perish, yea, those nations shall
be utterly wasted. The sons also of them that afflicted
thee shall come bending unto thee, bending their knee, and
all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles
of thy feet, and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the
Zion of the Holy One of Israel. So I had you look at Revelation
20 verse 4 and I'll read that again. It says, John says, I
saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto
them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the
witness of Jesus and for the word of God. which had not worshipped
the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark
upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned
with Christ a thousand years." Now I realize that there's many
who only see this verse as some future persecution for the church,
but if that's all that we see, we miss a beautiful picture here
of every child of God, what every child of God partakes of in her
Lord when she's born again and comes under the headship of the
Lord Jesus Christ, being born again of His Spirit, being awakened,
being raised again from the dead, and being taken out of being
a willful ignorant slave of this fallen kingdom and brought into
his kingdom, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the Son of God,
so that by our Lord we die to the law, we die to this kingdom,
to this body of death, that we might live unto our God and the
Lord Jesus Christ by faith. living and feeding upon our King,
our Savior, the Bread of Heaven. And so the first words of our
text here, let's go through these verses now again. And what I
want you to notice here first is how that it captures the unanimity
of the body of Christ, how that we are unanimous. We are of one
mind in our Lord. And we go to our Lord together,
flying unto his light and his glory. It says, verse 8, who
are these that fly as a cloud and as the doves to their windows? These are the children of God
being called, being summoned from afar off, and they've seen
the light. ensign of God, the banner of
God, the beacon of our Lord, lifting up the Son of God who
is calling his people, gathering his people to himself. Our Lord said, and I, if I be
lifted up, will draw all men unto me. Our Lord gathers together
his people as birds being drawn to a beautiful sight. as a fish
that sees the shining lure on the fish hook that's glimmering,
attracting it to it, to grab it, to take it out of the waters.
And so it is that our Lord is beautiful to our living souls
who now see His glory. and see our need of Him and the
preciousness of our Savior, the preciousness of His blood. They fly as if on the wings of
eagles. What are the wings of eagles
spoken of by Isaiah 40 verse 31? What are these wings of eagles?
It's the doctrine of Christ upon which we take flight, upon which
we know our God and hear what He has done for us We come to
understand that I'm the sinner. I'm dead. I have nothing to give
to my God, but in grace, in mercy, in love, He came for me and laid
down His life for me and delivered me by obtaining for me justification,
forgiveness with God, and now gives me life and makes me a
partaker, a member of the beloved family of God. And these souls
are seen how? They're seen as a cloud, as a
cloud. That means that the individual
parts, the sum of them make up that which can be seen, a cloud.
By the physical world, they can see that together, we that love
each other, are one. We are the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
4. Ephesians chapter 4. Paul writing to the Ephesian
church to encourage them, reminds them of what we have in Christ,
that we are the Lord's people. He says verse 3, That we are
to endeavor to keep the unity, right? To come together as a
cloud, as one. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. To bear long with one
another, to be tender hearted toward one another, to forgive
one another, and to bear up one another and help one another.
Because we love one another in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because
there's one body. There's only one body. It's not
fractured. It's not to be divided or separated. There's one body and one spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above
all and through all and in you all. And so these birds are seen
as a cloud. So many that it takes on the
form of a cloud, which is seen publicly. And that body comes
as doves, which speaks to and typifies our new birth, being
born of the spirit of God, Isn't that how the Spirit was described
when it descended as a dove and lighted upon the Lord Jesus Christ
in His baptism? Well, you and I are born of that
Spirit, born of the Spirit of Christ, who takes of the things
of our Lord, His seed, and we are born again, delivered from
the corrupt seed of Adam, and born again of the incorruptible
seed, the everlasting seed, as new men and women in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we're one in Him. And so
these born of the Spirit, they're severed. Severed from their inheritance
in Adam. Right? Just as we saw in Revelation
20 verse 4, they were beheaded. for the witness of Christ, for
Christ's sake. So it is that every one of us
have been beheaded, as it were, severed from the head of Adam. He's not our head anymore. We're
not under Adam. We're delivered from Adam. We're
under the headship of Christ. We're His people. We're His children. We're in His body. We are His
body. We are the Lord's and we've been
delivered from the vain, dead, carnal hopes of this dead, dying
world which is passing away. It's already been defeated and
we're being called to and filling up kingdom of our God, and so
we fly out of darkness and we come to the light of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. As it says in Isaiah 60 verse
3, it says, And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and
kings to the brightness of thy rising. The rising, the raising
up. First we see that is Christ.
Christ who was raised again. Christ who was resurrected from
the dead. And we're drawn to His light, to His beauty, to
His being raised up again. And so Christ's glory is the
windows of heaven. That's how we know our God and
how we see our God. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ
who reveals our God to us. It says, it describes him in
Song of Solomon 2, verse 9, he looketh forth at the windows,
showing himself through the lattice. And so it is that we see the
face of our Savior, we see the beauties of our Savior, so that
we long for him and look for him to appear for us. In John 8, 12, he said, To the
Jews around him he said, I am the light of the world, and he
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. Christ is that light to whom
we are drawn. He is the windows into heaven. He is the one how we see and
know our God, how we're delivered from ignorance and darkness and
delivered from prison, that we might be free and set at liberty
to know and to worship our God with understanding and knowledge
of what He's done for us. Now turn over to Romans 8. Romans
8. And we'll pick up in verse 33.
Here, Paul, by the Spirit, is speaking
first of the silencing of our enemy. Our enemy is silenced. And he asks, verse 33, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can bring a charge against
us? God has already declared us what we are, made in Christ
righteous. We're righteous in Christ, by
Christ's blood. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. As I understand, historically,
in the time when there were kings and queens and castles, if you
were a citizen of that kingdom and you were summoned to the
court of the king and queen, and you had to give an answer
for some crime that was brought against you, and there would
be the king and the queen and the guards, of course, and there
would be others there, those members of the court, lords and
princesses and princes and dukes and duchesses and people with
titles. And if you were charged with
a crime and no one would speak for you, you would bear the punishment
of that crime meted out for you by the king. But if someone there
spoke for you, and bore witness for you, who had the ear of the
king and had some part as a court member of the king's court, you
might go free and be delivered, be pardoned for that crime and
be trusted to be released from prison or released from bearing
the penalty of that crime. Well, we have an Advocate with
the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so any charge brought against
you, who's sitting there at the right hand of the throne of God
but the Lord Jesus Christ? And He speaks for you, for whom
His blood purchased and washed clean of every crime, every sin,
every fault, so that you are pardoned by the Lord. and delivered
from the penalty of death and ruin, so that there's no charge. Who can condemn you? Christ died. He died for you that now love
him and believe him. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? or even persecution,
which takes the head of a believer, all that does is just immediately
we'll find our soul in the presence of Christ. We'll be there with
him immediately. What can separate you? Nothing
can separate you from the love of Christ. As it's written, for
thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Those are
all things which have some authority or rule in this present life. Nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the battle, brethren,
has already been fought. and has already been won by your
Lord and your Savior. And in him, you are more than
conquerors. You are brought out of this fallen
kingdom, delivered from it by Christ, because you're his precious,
precious things. You're the house of the strong
man, the devil, who has authority and power over the inhabitants
of this earth, over the children of disobedience, the children
of wrath, of which we were all once partakers. but have been
delivered by Christ, our Savior has defeated him. And he now
goes into the house and takes from the strong man whatsoever
he pleases to take out of it. So that Mark 3, 27, our Lord
said, no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods,
except he will first bind the strong man, and then he will
spoil his house. And that's exactly what Christ
did. He came. and defeated the devil, putting
him to an open shame publicly when he was crucified there on
the cross. There he crushed the head of
the serpent. And he defeated the strong man,
bound him up, so that he now takes whatever he pleases from
his house, from his kingdom, all things which are precious
to the Lord, made precious by his blood. So who are these that
fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? These are vessels. which Christ carries out of their
bondage and brings them into His Kingdom of Light. Hebrews
12 1 and 2 says, Wherefore seeing, we also. are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight
of the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. look to your Lord
and Savior. This victory all comes forth
resulting from the death of our Savior and what he accomplishes
the raising up of a spiritual economy if you will of heaven-wrought
resources which are invested in the kingdom of God. And all
is gathered in creating and building and raising up that glorious
temple of the Lord. Him taking the blocks that He
will, the stones that He will, and He gathers us together as
a precious building that speaks to the glory of our Lord, the
majesty of our God. So Isaiah 60 verse 9 says, Surely
the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first.
to bring thy sons from far. Those who had been slaves in
the souls of men in that wicked kingdom have been redeemed, purchased
by the blood of Christ, and are now set free. There's silver
and there's gold with them. You know, when you look at every
time Israel was delivered from their captivity, whether it's
Egypt or Babylon, it always describes them as going out with gold and
silver. If you look at, what is it, Psalm
105. Yeah, Psalm 105, verse 37. I'll read 37, 38, He brought
them forth also with silver and gold. And there was not one feeble
person among their tribes. Egypt was clad when they departed,
for the fear of them fell upon them. So out of Egypt, they went
out with silver and gold. And then over in Ezra, which
speaks to Israel coming out of Babylon, It says in verse six,
and all they that were about them strengthened, in one verse
six, they strengthened their hands with vessels of silver,
with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things
beside all that was willingly offered. And then it speaks of
Cyrus the king, so showing that we were delivered from the captivity,
and every time we brought out precious things, precious things. And so spiritually, that's a
picture of when the captives are set free, they go forth.
They're precious things. They're carrying precious things,
things that are used in the kingdom, having precious gifts brought
in us by the Spirit, gifts such as faith, hope, and love. which is exercised in the kingdom
of our Lord. These are the things which are
built up, gold and silver and precious stones, not wood, hay
and stubble, which is burned up. But this is what's built
upon the foundation, which is Jesus Christ. And unto the name
of the Lord thy God and to the Holy One of Israel, because he
hath glorified thee. All right, Isaiah 60 verse 10.
And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls. Isaiah, I
forget where it is in Isaiah, but it describes, I think it
might be in Isaiah 26, but it describes that salvation is become
thy walls. So that it doesn't matter where
you are in the world. you that are citizens of Christ's
kingdom, you are within the walls of salvation. Though one be here,
and another be a hundred miles that way, and another be a thousand
miles over there, they're all contained within the walls of
salvation. Salvation is the walls of our
Savior. And so the sons of strangers
shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto
thee. For in my wrath I smote thee,
but in my favor have I had mercy on thee. So that we see there
a picture of this kingdom's creation was founded upon the death and
resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed. We are healed. Our Savior gave
his life. He bore our punishment. He took our place as our substitute
to obtain eternal life for us. And so now, by his death and
resurrection, his kingdom is being filled up with precious
things. Verse 11, Isaiah 60, 11. Therefore
thy gates shall be open continually. Open continually? Yeah, there's
no enemy. The enemy's been defeated. There's
no reason to shut the gates. They'll never be closed. They
shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee
the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. So that Christ's death, your
Lord's death, has opened the fountain, the fountain filled
with his precious blood, that those who are plunged into that
fountain, who are brought to that fountain, and are plunged
beneath it by the power and grace and glory of our God. They are
washed of their sins and delivered, justified by our God, set free
by His grace. And today is that day of grace. Those doors have not closed.
You that are sinners, you that have no hope in your own righteousness,
Today is the day of grace. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Flee to Him. He receives all who come to Him
seeking for mercy. And He pardons the sinner who
asks Him for mercy and grace for Christ's sake. This is the
covenant of grace which His blood has established for us. Let sinners
be saved and forgiven with their God. Isaiah 60 verse 13, the
glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine
tree, and the box together. These are all precious trees,
fruit bearing trees, wood trees that are used in the production
of precious things, of beautiful objects useful in the kingdom
of God. There's tall and mighty cedars
from Lebanon. There's beautiful smelling trees.
filled with the savory, sweet smell of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's evergreen trees described
here, speaking of those who love Christ, whose profession never
withers. Their leaf never falls off in
deadness. They continue to profess and
to believe the Lord Jesus Christ and stay upon Him. These are
brought into the Kingdom of our God. Why? He tells us to beautify
the place of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet
glorious. You know, these rooms in which
we meet in churches, they're not sanctuaries. They're a meeting
place. But you that believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are His sanctuary. You are His temple. He's gathered
you together, and He dwells in your midst. And He's brought
you in as trees of His planting, rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ. ever bearing fruit, ever remaining
green in Him. And so that you are His adorning,
His adornment of His sanctuary where He dwells. And He says
that He's brought you in to beautify the place. He's pleased with
those whom He loves, those whom He's shed His blood for, those
whom He's given life and brought into His kingdom. He loves you. He's well pleased with all that
he's gathered and brought in to his kingdom. And so what a
glorious kingdom our Savior is and how wonderful is his kingdom,
how glorious is his kingdom. And so he conquered our enemies
and he destroyed their hopes and brought them to ruin. bringing
their kingdom to nothingness because all that was precious.
All the precious souls have been taken out of it and brought into
the kingdom of Christ. He cannot fail. He cannot fail. And so we see that Our Savior
calls us, as Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14, but we are bound
to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, Paul said
to the Philippians 2, 9 through 11, wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. And so, Our Lord, having conquered
the kingdoms of this world, having conquered our enemy, now fills
his kingdom with you that are precious to him. Praise the Lord. Give thanks to his name because
he's a wonderful, gracious, glorious King, glorious Savior. And he's
your husband, you that believe him. He's your faithful husband
in our head. I pray the Lord fill your heart
with love for Him, and joy for Him, and love for one another,
because you're all the Lord's, you're His people. Amen. All
right, brethren, let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your grace and mercy. Lord, we thank
you for all that you have done for us in obtaining our eternal
redemption by your own blood, by your death, your burial, and
your resurrection. And Lord, you did not fail. And
as you rose, so your people rose with you. And you are now calling
us out, assembling, gathering your people together as birds
in such great number that it seems as a cloud which is seen
by the eye. physical cloud of oneness, in
union with their Lord, in union with one another, in the bond
of peace. Lord, we thank you for this.
We praise you for your wisdom, your might, your power in growing
and establishing your kingdom. And Lord, we look for your coming,
for that day when you shall return to claim that which is yours.
Lord, again we pray for our brethren who are sick and could not be
with us tonight. We ask that you would help them
Lord, comfort them, give them peace in Christ to know that
even now we are yours and nothing, nothing can separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Lord that you would
help them and help us to help them and minister to them to
be able to be with us as often as possible and Lord we do pray
that you would continue to call out your people out of darkness
in this area and in the area surrounding your churches because
we know that that Lord you do all things in wisdom and you
have a purpose in everything that you do which brings glory
to your name and we are thankful for that. We pray that you bless
us this night and you would lay these words up to our heart and
fill us with hope and joy and love in our Lord and Savior.
It's in his name we pray and give thanks, amen. I like that you sang the church's
one foundation. That was a good one leading up
to the message. So let's see what you got now.
Yeah, I know it's good. We'll sing another one of your
favorites here. 300. 300 more secure is no one ever. More secure is no one ever Than
the loved ones of the Savior, Not yon star on high abiding,
Nor the burdened homeless hiding, But His own doth tend and nourish,
In His holy courts they flourish, Like a Father kind He spares
them, In His loving arms He bears them. Neither life nor death
can ever from the Lord his children sever. For his love and deep
compassion comforts them in tribulation. Little flock to joy then yield
thee, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. Rest secure with this defender
at his will, oh surrender what he takes or what he gives us
shows the father's love so precious we may trust his purpose holy
tis his children's welfare solely