Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold him, born the king of angels. Oh, come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation. Oh, sing, all ye citizens of heaven above. God, all glory in the highest. Oh, come let us adore him. O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

♪ Hey Lord, we greet thee ♪
♪ Born this happy morning ♪
♪ Jesus, to thee be all glory evermore ♪
now in flesh appearing.

Oh, come let us adore him. Oh, come let us adore him. Oh, come let us adore him. Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore him. Christ the Lord.

It's good to be with you this morning. We'll begin the message, we'll go to God in prayer again. I ask your prayers for me. I ask that you would give lip unto our Father concerning the message this morning. God would give me the liberty and unction of His Spirit to feed you with His Word.

What I mean by that is just to cast it at a venture. I have no idea how this is going to affect you or if it'll have any effect at all or if it'll bounce off your heart. I don't have a clue. That's not my business. It is the work of the Spirit. We need Him to make the Word effectual. We have no power. There's no power in the preacher. And listen to this, there's no power in the hearer. You can want to understand this. But you need the Spirit as much as I do. And we need the Spirit to teach us.

And how do you know if the Spirit's teaching you? Listen, He's going to reveal Christ. He's not going to reveal Himself. The Spirit does not set anyone to His worship, but to the worship of Christ. Jesus said that. He said, He will testify of Me. Now, if you want to know if the Spirit's teaching you, Is He testifying of you? Or is He testifying of Himself? It's not the Spirit. The Spirit testifies of Christ, magnifies Christ. And that's what we desire to do this morning, to exalt Him. I should just sing, adore Him. Is there not reason to adore Him? We have every reason.

He's not a babe in a manger anymore. He came, he lived, he died, he rose again from the dead, and he's seated on the right hand of the majesty on high, doing all things after the counsel of his own will. And that will is for one purpose, to save his people from their sin. That's it. That's his will. All of this other stuff is moving to that purpose. Why? Because the salvation of His people magnifies the glory of His grace. That's what it does. When God saves a sinner, all it does is magnify the glory of His grace. It doesn't magnify the sinner. It magnifies the glory of His grace.

This is what we desire to do this morning. It's what I long to do. and find myself having no ability to do it. So pray that God give me the liberty for you. And pray that God open your heart to hear it. Pray for the sick. Pray for those who are suffering. Sicknesses seem like a chain loop inside houses. It just seems to rotate. We've all been victim of it. So there are several still in our congregation who are suffering from this. So pray that God deliver them from this illness and restore them to us again. I miss them. I miss seeing them. And I'm thankful that we have the opportunity to preach the gospel online where people can hear it even if they're not able. I know some people use it as an excuse to just stay home. It's easier to sit in your bathrobe and watch television than it is to get up and come, but they had that same argument against print, you know, when they had the printing press. They said, well, people are just gonna be lazy if you give them a printed piece of paper. So, but God uses those and God uses this, and I'm thankful for it.

Pray. Pray for Zoe. She's suffering some sickness, so pray for her. Thank you, baby. Let's go to God in prayer.

our gracious Heavenly Father. We bow ourselves before you. We come with our inability. We come empty. We come with no merit, No works, no glory in ourselves. We come confessing our sin and need. We need your grace this morning, we need your power, we need your spirit. I beg you to give me the liberty and unction of your spirit this morning for the glory and praise of thy name to preach the word, to be faithful to the text. Then apply it, I pray, Father, to the hearts of your people for their joy, for their comfort, and for the salvation of the lost. It is your word. Father, please do with it as you please. Help us to praise thee, magnify thy name for the great work that you have done in Christ, our Savior. Even now, cleanse us of our sins and unrighteousness. We know this, that everyone in Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation to us. I pray, Father, that you would open the word, deliver it, and feed your people. We lift up the sick, the troubled, the downcast. In body and spirit, in mind, we pray that you would lift them up and heal them, comfort them with the message of your grace and power. Father, we do plead these things in the name of Jesus and for His sake. Amen.

Alright, Psalm 48. Psalm 48. The title of this message, The Situation, Experience, and Comfort of Zion. It's a mouthful. I know. I tried to limit it, but I just figured I'd give you the points. Those are going to be the points. The situation, the experience, and the comfort of Zion.

Now, looking back, I've preached this message, I know a lot. I think this is obviously one of my favorite psalms to preach, because I didn't realize how often I like to preach it. But as we look at this psalm this morning, The psalmist begins where we should all begin, magnifying the greatness of our God. He just blurts it out, ìGreat is the Lord, and greatly to be praisedÖî Notice this, where? Now God should be praised everywhere, but where is He praised? He is praised simply in one place, in the city of our God. in the mountains of 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. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. The city of God. This is where God is praised. This is where God is magnified.

Now the city of God in this text no doubt has a physical meaning. I knew this, that God blessed the nation of Israel. He blessed the city of Jerusalem. He blessed Mount Zion because that's where God dwelt. Those were to whom God gave the covenant promises, but we know this according to Romans 9, that Israel is not physical. Israel was like the sacrifices. Israel was like the temple and the tabernacle. They were all a type of Christ. But the city of our God is a type of His church, His people. You that believe this morning, listen, the city of Zion is you. You are His chosen people. The nation was only a typical type, a picture of something greater, something spiritual. You that are believers in Christ, you are the city of the living God. And listen, we offer great praise to God because of this. First of all, our situation. Look what he says, beautiful for situation. You that believe regardless of your present circumstance, regardless of how you feel and what people think and how the world turns out. It doesn't matter. This has no bearing on this. You that believe in Christ, listen to this, you have a beautiful situation.

The word situation means elevation. Jerusalem, especially Zion, was an elevated position. It was a high position. It was a mountain. And listen to what God says, elevated is your position. Now what is your position? It's elevated because you are in Christ. You that believe, listen, God put you in Him, before the foundation of the world. But of God, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, but of God are you in Christ Jesus. This morning, are you in Christ Jesus? Who put you there? God did. God put you there. When Christ came and lived and died, listen to me, you were in Him. What a beautiful situation. When He obtained righteousness, listen, you obtained righteousness. When He died under the justice of God, listen, you died. And when He rose again from the dead, listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 2, that we are risen with Him. We are risen with Him. We are in Him. How much higher can you get? being in Christ. Isn't your situation beautiful? Isn't it glorious? You can't get any higher than this.

Notice this, he says, in the mountains of holiness. Oh, what a beautiful picture this is. Mount Zion is covered by mountains surrounding it. It was a naturally defensed position. It was high, And around it were mountains even higher. When we get to this, there was only one way in it. No other way in it. One way. But the mountains were a defense. This is what God says. Beautiful is your situation because you are surrounded by the holiness of God. What does that mean? I'm surrounded by the holiness of God? This means this, when Christ obtained your righteousness, and by grace, through faith, you have believed in Him, listen, His righteousness is yours. Scripture says in Revelation that they were robed in fine linen, clean, and white. which is the righteousness of the saints. Paul says it very clearly that Jesus obtained the righteousness of God by His faith and then gave it to you. It's yours. Is there any better situation than to be robed in the mountains of His holiness?

Man, I don't feel like that, do you? What in the world does your feelings have to do with this situation? I don't feel like I'm in Christ. I don't feel elevated. Matter of fact, I feel the opposite. Again, God's not entering in your thoughts and speculations into this. The beauty of Zion is because God elevated it. God put you in Christ. And Christ is your righteousness. Beautiful for situation.

Listen to this, the joy of the whole earth. Do you realize that God has set his church to be the joy of the whole earth? Now how is that possible? I don't know, people stand around me for a little while, they realize that I'm not all too jovial. I can be pretty melancholy. Why is it that the church is so the joy of the whole earth? Because we have the word of God. We have the gospel. Isn't this what the angels declared at his birth? Glad tidings of great joy! For unto you this day in the city of David is born a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." We have the joy of the whole earth right here. This is the joy. If there's any joy in the world, it has to be the gospel. And God has given the light of the gospel in His church. Sadly, the only ones that rejoice in it are God's people. Is this not a joy, the gospel of Christ? Is it not a joy? I find the joys of earth to leave a bitter taste. They last for a minute. I ate some cheesecake last night, not supposed to. I tell you what, it did not last as long as I wanted it to. I haven't had any sweets like that in a long time, and man, I just wanted it to last, and it just didn't. So I had to get another bite. It was not a joy. Now it's bitterness, because now I've got to deal with the repercussions of all that sugar. So things on earth like that, they're just not lasting. There's no lasting joy here.

Where's the joy? The joy is in Christ. Joy is in Him. We have the Gospel, which is the joy of the whole earth. I like what our Lord says, you are the light of the world. He didn't say you're going to be someday. Someday you'll be the light of the world. No, you are. Why? Because I'm the light of the world, He said. We are the joy of the whole earth.

Look at this. on the sides of the north in the city of the great king, on the sides of the north. There was only one way. This tells us there's only one way into Zion. There's only one way in and out on the sides of the north. Oh, you that believe in Christ, don't you know that that's true of anyone who ever comes into this kingdom, whoever comes into this city of God, into the church of God, that there's only one way in? Jesus said, I am the way. There is no other way. Jesus said, if you come another way, you are a thief and a robber. There's only one way. You realize that the church was called for a long time before they were called Christians, they were called people of the way because they were stubborn. They wouldn't bow to anybody else's way. We are people of the way, there is only one way. There ain't no other way. You come to God by your works, that's not the way. You come to God by your deeds, that's not the way. There's only one way. You come by Jesus Christ or you don't come at all. He said, no man cometh unto the Father. I love the Lord because he's very clear and plain No man comes to the father but by me No other way When you read that there's no other way into this kingdom, there's no other way into this city And notice what he says the city of the great king you ain't gonna come to this city unless you bow to the king

Our Lord Jesus Christ is King Religion tells you to make Jesus your Lord. What a foolish notion. As though you can make Him something. No, God beat you to it. Jesus is Lord. He is King. And we come bowing ourselves to the King. I think a beautiful picture, that's Mephibosheth, don't you? There's Mephibosheth, he's over in Lodibar. House of no bread, that's what that means. He was lame on his feet. Couldn't come if you called him. Had no strength in himself. He was a man under divine sentence of death. David said, Go fetch him. Those soldiers came to that poor man in that poor broken down house and there he was laying on the floor in his filth and the soldiers pick him up and drag him down there to David and cast him at David's feet. David just said one word, Behold thy servant. What could he do? Where could he go? Isn't this how he brought you? I know it's how he brought me. He fetched me and cast me at the feet of my king and I had no right. No right to anything but death. David said to Mephibosheth, because of the covenant that I made with your father, Jonathan, you're gonna sit at my table the rest of your life. Everybody that comes to the king of this city, we come empty. And how do you come? You come with nothing but one thing you have. Only thing you have that you can bring to God is your sin, your guilt, that's it, that's all you got. This is how we come. We come to the king, the king of this great city, and we bow ourselves before him.

Notice what he is. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. You that have come to this city, to Mount Zion, to the city of the great God, great king, He's a refuge. You who believe He, listen to this, He is a refuge. Your good works are not a refuge. You that believe, I know it is your desire to do good works, but they're not a defense, are they? I remember Hezekiah, I think it was, he put up these defense cities around Jerusalem and he thought, well now I'm safe. You know what God did with all those defense cities? He burned them. What does God do with all your defense cities? He burns them. All your good works, all your good deeds lay in ashes. Why? They're no defense. Why? Because Christ is my refuge.

Refuge from what? What are we defended from? Listen to me. you're defended from the justice of God. Don't you realize that God saves you from Himself? He saves you from His wrath, from His justice, by putting you in the refuge. There's so many illustrations of that in Scripture, aren't there? The Passover lamp. What an illustration that is. The creed was that the firstborn was to die. God had made a way, one way. Take the blood of the lamb and kill it and put it on the doorpost. And then what was the firstborn to do? Get in. And God said, when I see the blood, He didn't say nothing at all about the firstborn in the house. It had nothing to do with him. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Refuge.

Noah and the ark, what a beautiful picture that is, isn't it? Noah didn't escape the flood. He was in it! But what saved him? The ark. You that are in Christ, listen to me. He is your refuge. Is this not a beautiful situation? You were chosen, put into Christ, given His holiness, You were given His Word, you came by the only way, you bowed before the King, you believed on Him, and He is your refuge. What does anything else have to do with it? What does it matter? What happens? Your situation is beautiful regardless of what happens. Providence has nothing to do with this. Dark providences, difficulties, trials, afflictions, we're going to see they have a purpose. But their purpose is never to separate you from these beautiful things.

Now then, let's go to the second point here. I want you to see the foes, the enemies. Look at verse 4 here. The enemies. He said, For lo, the kings were assembled They passed by together. They saw it, they were marveled, they were troubled, they hastened away, and fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of a woman in travail.

Behold, Christ is our refuge. He is a refuge against the wrath of God, but He's also a refuge against our enemies. You that believe in Christ, you have many, enemies. You have many foes.

What I like about this text here is it shows you the confederacy of everyone who is against Christ. Now, it says kings were assembled and they passed by together. Now listen, our enemies may have different viewpoints, they may have different theologies, they may have different ways of looking at the world, but I'll tell you this, the thing that unites them is their hatred for Christ. I mean, I don't care what their differences are. They can have a myriad of differences and hate one another, but I guarantee you in this, they will put aside their differences in their hatred of Christ and His gospel. They'll put it aside.

Jews and the Romans. Consider that. The Jews hated the Gentiles. They despised them. And I'll tell you this, the Romans had no love for the Jews at all. But I'll tell you this, when it came to putting Christ to death, they put aside their differences. They gathered together. And so Zion is surrounded by enemies. Remember, natural Zion was surrounded by enemies. It says of Jehoshaphat, when the days of Jehoshaphat, they were surrounded by Moab and Ammon and Seir and in David's day they were surrounded by the Philistines and in Hezekiah's day they were surrounded by the Assyrians. They were always surrounded. They were always surrounded.

So are you. You're always surrounded by your enemies. Satan, the world, false religion, anti-Christian governments, wicked men, moral self-righteous men, They all hate the Lord and His gospel and His church, and they assemble themselves together. What the Lord here is teaching you, because of your situation, because of your situation, listen to this, the battle does not belong to you. It doesn't. It didn't belong to David, it didn't belong to Jehoshaphat, it didn't belong to Hezekiah, and it doesn't belong to us. The defeat of our enemies is not within our power. The battle belongs to the Lord. Just as He destroyed the armies that surrounded national Israel, we have this promise that God will always destroy the enemies of His church.

And notice what they've done. They pass by. They come to this city. And they look at it. They look at its fortifications. They look at the mountains of its holiness. They look at its glory. They don't want in it. They want to destroy it. Notice they saw it. What did they do? What's the first thing that our enemies do? When they see this, they marvel. They marvel. Remember when Paul went to Mars Hill, and they had all those statues of those gods, and they found a statue, said to the unknown God, Paul said, let me tell you about Him. I'm going to tell you about a God you have no idea who He is. You see, there's really only one, and it's Him. He's created everything. And then Paul started talking about Christ and the resurrection. And you know what they did? They had never heard anything like that before. And so what do they do? They marvel.

You know, when I preach the gospel to those outside of the church that don't really, never heard it before, and I speak of things like the election of grace. You know, God chose a very simple concept. God chose a people before the foundation of the world. And God had purpose to save them. Gave them to Christ. Christ came and He saved them. The Spirit of God will come only to them and give them life and faith and He'll keep them and they'll all be saved. Is that complicated? No? But when men hear it, they never heard anything like that before and they begin to marvel. They begin to think, man, that's something that's new. I ain't heard of election. I ain't heard of predestination. I ain't heard of these things and they begin to marvel. Marvel.

You see, our gospel differs greatly from the false gospel declared in this world. In this, we don't debate it. We declare it. I don't have time for debate. I just don't. I think it's the most foolish thing in the world to sit and try to debate somebody. Somebody tells me, I don't believe there's a God. You know what, what are you going to do with that? He's just not even honest with himself. Why would you sit and debate? I don't. You know what I'm sent to do is to declare the gospel. I declare the gospel of God's sovereignty.

Our gospel is spoken with authority because it's not the word of man, it's the word of God. And what does it matter about your opinion about it? It doesn't. We preach the Gospel of God's Word. And when Jesus preached, you know what they did? His enemies? He said they were astonished at His doctrine. Why? He taught as one having authority. So we who preach His Gospel, we preach as we have authority. You know what my authority is? It's not me. I never base my authority on me. It's the Word. The Word of God is the authority. So if we preach this Word, men will marvel at it.

But the more they hear it, they don't love it. Look what happens. They're troubled. They're troubled by it. Why? Because when we preach God as He is revealed in Scripture, it exposes that their God is not God. When we tell them that Christ is all our salvation, they begin to see that works religion is false. And what does that do? It troubles them. It troubles them. Notice what they do. They're troubled. And what do they do? They go away. They go away.

You know, the gods, gods of men, they never change attributes, they only change names. I don't know if you ever noticed this about the false gods of, you know, the Greeks and the Romans. And if you ever looked at those, their attributes were the same. They just changed names. Now, today's religion, they use the word Jehovah, and they use the word Jesus, but when you compare them to scripture, their attributes are more like Baal and Nebo and Dagon more than they are the God of the Bible. You know what separates the true God from every false God? Isn't it sovereignty? You take a little false god and you carve him out of wood and you put him over there and he'll stay there as long as you don't move him. And if he's got to move, you've got to go get him and move him. Now listen, if your god is dependent upon your will or your works or the power of man, he's not God. He's not God. When people hear that, they're gone. They don't want to hear that. They haste away.

Notice the end of our enemies. Here it is, fear took hold upon them and pain as of a woman in travail. In other words, God will destroy everyone outside of Christ. Listen to me, if you're not inside Christ, if you don't believe on Christ, fear one day will take hold on you. God said in Isaiah 28, He said they have made a refuge of lies, a refuge of lies. But He said this, I have disannulled their covenant with death and the overflowing scourge shall pass over them day and night And this will be the worm that doesn't die. The bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself out, and the covering too narrow. In the day they die, so does their religion. In the day they die, the lies are really exposed. I think of that rich man that woke up in hell. Scripture says, and he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.

Friends, we should not fear our enemies. We should not fear our enemies, nor should we envy them. This is something believers have to deal with, isn't it? Envy of the wicked? And their lives seem to be so smooth. They seem to be everything. I mean, they they just seem to get more and more and while the righteous suffer. You know, one thing about the wicked is they don't have any any trouble like we do about our conscience, about a sin. They don't have any of those troubles.

You know, Asaph in Psalm 73, he said that's what was his downfall. He said, I envy the wicked. Until what? I saw their end. Oh, you that have elevated, you have a beautiful situation. What in the world would you envy those who oppose the gospel? Why would you envy them? May God keep us from such things.

And notice then the experience of God's people here in verse 7. Look at this in verse 7. So we see our situation, we see our enemies. Now look at our experience here. It says, Thou breakest the ships of Tarsus with an east wind. This has reference to the chastisement of God. This has reference to the chastisement of God.

Because the saints of God are still prone to wander, we in our sin and our envy of the lost often seek a confederacy. We seek a confederacy. This is what happened Look at 2nd Chronicles. Look at 2nd Chronicles. This is what the scripture has reference to here. In 2nd Chronicles, talking about Jehoshaphat, look at chapter 20. 2nd Chronicles, chapter 20. Jehoshaphat did this many times. And I'm telling you, we're prone to this. We're prone to seek peace with the enemies of God.

chapter 20, and look at verse 35. It says, And after this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly, and he joined himself to make ships to goad Tarshish. And they made the ships, and Ezion Geber, And Eliezer, the son of Dovah, of Marsha, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahasia, the Lord hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, but they were not able to go to Tarsus.

See, this has reference to a chastening hand of God upon Jehoshaphat. For what? He confederated with the enemies of God. Now Jehoshaphat, he had every good intention. Now remember, the nations of Israel and Judah were divided. And his heart was that all of the people of the north would come back and worship God. Now that was his heart. He was very sincere in this. And he did this more than once. He said he schemed. He schemed that. He said, well let me just do this. If I just give them a little bit, I give the king of Israel just a little bit and I say look I love you and I want you to come down here I want you to worship with us every time they used him every time they abused him and you know what the only reason he ever lived because God kept him

how often are we tempted to confederate with the false religions of this world. To get along. Just to get along. Family. Friends. We want them to come and hear the gospel, and so what do we do? We give them a little bit. We consent a little bit to their religion. You see, believers are not to consent to the false religion of this world in the least. Why? Because when we do, we give their gospel credit. We give it some benefits. And when we do this, God promises that he will chasten his children. That's exactly what he did to Joseph

Everything Jehoshaphat tried to do, God destroyed. Paul said in Hebrews chapter 12, For whom the Lord loveth, he does what? He chastens. This is the experience of everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are often prone to sin. We are prone to confederate with our enemies. And the Lord promises this. He will chasten those He loves. And scourgeth every son he receiveth.

Listen, if you endure chastisement, see this is the evidence of one who is a believer. He will endure chastisement. How? By looking to Christ. He will endure chastisement. God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?

Yet you've got people who don't ever experience any chastisement. What did Paul say about that? He said, then you are not sons but bastards. God chastens us. This is our experience. Because we still have this body of flesh, because we still are prone to sin, God swears this, I'll chasten you.

But this is the joy of chastisement that is never for our destruction. You know, Joseph God didn't do it to destroy him. God did it to save him. I want you to listen very carefully to what Robert Hawker says. I wrote this down. It's very good. He said, Learn my soul in the midst of all the precious things. The covenant of God's love and mercy Learn what corruptions still remain in the old nature. O precious Jesus, do I not know, do I not feel the daily workings of a corrupt nature? And though Thou hast wrought out, Thou blessed finisher of salvation, a complete deliverance for me in Thy blood and righteousness, as if to keep me daily, hourly sensible of Thy work of grace, I daily need to be kept from falling back in it again."

Isn't this the reason God allows us to see, He exposes our weaknesses and our sins so that we might see more of our need of Him? Is that your experience? That's mine. I'm constantly in struggle against the flesh and I am constantly aware daily, hourly aware of my need of Christ. I know I need Him more now than I did yesterday. Why? Because He constantly exposes these things and He chastens me by them.

But where does he chase him? He chases me into his arms. You got little kids, when you're chasing them, where do you want them to go? Come to you. That's what our Father does in our experience. He broke these ships so that Jehoshaphat should come to Him. You know what Jehoshaphat did? Ran right to his Father. That's our experience.

grace he crosses our fair designs we schemes he burns our gourds and lays us low so that we should find all our confidence in him in him and notice this look at verse 9 he said we have I'm sorry Verse 8, As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord, a host in the city of our God, God will establish it forever.

We have not only heard of this beautiful situation, we have not only heard of God's destruction of our enemies, we have not only felt the chastisement of God, we've not only heard it, we've experienced it. Everyone that is born of God not only knows these things, but these things are real. I know this, that Christ is more real than you are. His salvation means more to me than anything. Why? I've not only heard it, I've seen it.

Are we not witnesses? You that believe, are you not witnesses? And what are we witnesses of? We're witnesses of this, that God will do it. God will establish it forever. What's your hope? Your hope is in the promises of God, aren't they? The Word of God? The Word of God. There's where my promises lie, not in what my situation is, but in the Word of God. And God swears, I'll finish it. What I've decreed, what Christ has accomplished, what the Spirit has begun, He will finish it. I've not only heard that, that's my experience. You've been born, you're born again by the power and grace of God. This is our experience of grace.

And now lastly, notice the comfort. Look at verse 11. I'm sorry. Verse 9, it said, We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. What does the chastening hand of God do? It causes you to think on the lovingkindness of God. To think on his mercies. We have thought on thy lovingkindness. Where? In the midst of thy temple. Which is a picture of who? Christ. This is the comfort of God's people, is that we think on His loving kindness. He has loved us with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness has He drawn us.

According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. Is it not comforting that Christ is all your righteousness and He's full? When something's full, can you add anything to it? It just spills out the top, don't even, can't even add to it. It's full. And so in Christ, my righteousness is full. Is this not a comfort to you? Yes.

Let Mount Zion rejoice in the daughters of Judah. Be glad because of thy judgments. Why is that? I think I preached a message on God's judgments one time and I thought, well, how could somebody rejoice in judgments? Because of this. Because God is just, He cannot demand twice payment. Is that not a glorious thing to think about? Because Christ has paid for all your sins, God will never charge you. Aren't you glad for God's judgments? I'm glad! It makes me glad to know that Christ has died for all my sins.

Walk about Zion, go round about her, tell the towers thereof, Mark you the bulwarks and consider it pauses. What is that? Study the Word. Read it. That's what He said. Go about, look at this beautiful situation that you're in. Look at this glorious situation. You're so elevated. The holiness of God surrounds you. Christ is all your righteousness, all your redemption, all your justification, all your sanctification. Your enemies can't get in. There's only one way in, you know that. They can't get in. Though God chastens you, He only does it to draw you. Though He exposes your sin, He just does it. in order to show his great compassion and forgiveness. Mark these things. Why? And then tell the next generation. That's what we got. Tell the next generation of what? Of your situation. Tell them what he did with your enemies. Tell them what he does with your sin and his loving kindness and his great tender mercies. Tell them. Tell the next generation.

For God is our God. For this God is our God, not any other God, this God. Do you want any other God? I want this God. I don't want any other God. I want this one. This God is our God. You know why He's my God? Because God said He's my God. God said, I will be your God. Well, that settles it. He's my God. How long? Forever. And until then, he'll guide you until the grave. It's not a good situation. And you gotta, I don't know, I'm a, I guess I'm a complainer. I seem to have a lot to complain about, but I tell you this, if I think about it, I got a lot more to rejoice in. God is my God. That's my situation. Where? In Christ. I'm safe. I don't feel safe. In Christ I'm holy. I don't feel holy. What does that have to do with it? Believe and trust in Christ and you are saved. Completely, absolutely secure. I hope God will comfort you with this.

Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. My Father, dismiss us with your own blessings and mercies and grace. I pray for mercies upon the lost, upon the dead, that you would give life. I pray you'd comfort your people in the midst of their affliction, in the midst of their sorrows and their griefs and their pains. Show them safety that we have in Christ. Magnify Him in the eyes and hearts of His people. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.

Welcome. I love you. Oh, we're eating. So in case anybody didn't know. We're eating together. Great work, Eugene.