Alright, if you take your Bibles
now and turn with me to Psalm 125. I'm going to Psalm 125. I've entitled this message, The
Hope of Ascending Saints. The confidence or the hope of
ascending saints. The Scripture here begins with
this title, of degrees, a song of degrees. They that trust in
the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but
abideth forever. Now this, the first thing I want
to deal with is ascending saints. This is another song of ascent.
This was a title given to these songs as they, the people of
Jerusalem were commanded, the people of Israel were commanded
to go up to the temple Three times a year. And as they went
up to the temple, these are the songs that they sang as they
ascended to worship God. Now all who are believers in
Jesus Christ, is it not our heart this morning to ascend into the
presence of our God and worship Him? to serve Him, to honor Him,
to glorify Him. It is our longing desire. And we ask for the very presence
of our Savior as we ascend. We long and need to have His
ear to our requests. We long to have His heart engaged
toward us. We long for His tender hand to wipe away
our tears. We long for His strong hand to
deliver us from our troubles. The illustration of this was
Esther. You remember Esther. In that
book, this man Haman was given the authority of the king to
destroy the nation of Israel. And she was asked of Mordecai
to go up and beseech the king for the people of Israel. This
was an urgent matter. A very troubling matter. The
destruction of Israel was at hand. And she confessed this. She was scared. She was troubled.
Because there was a law. There was a law that said no
one that was not summoned, anyone that was not summoned before
the king would die unless the king yielded his scepter. In Esther 4 it says, one that
is not called there is one law to put him to death except the
king should yield the golden scepter. And she says this, I've
not been called. And so then on the third day,
what a wonderful thing that is, on the third day, Christ rose
again from the third day, right? He rose again on the third day.
On the third day, listen what this said, on the third day Esther
put on her royal apparel and stood on the inner court of the
king's house against the king's house and the king sat upon his
royal throne over against the gate of the house. And it was
so, when the king saw Esther standing in the court, that she
obtained favor. And the king held out his golden
scepter and Esther drew near and touched the end of the scepter. Let this testify of how that
believers, we come to God in prayer. When we ascend up to
God in prayer, We ascend up to seek to lay our burdens, like
Esther. We lay our burdens before the
King. We seek His ear. We seek His
hand. We seek His power. We need Him. And I'll tell you this, if any
man ascend before God in his own merits, he will not be accepted. Today, if you ascend before God
in your own works, by your own goodness, you will not be accepted. But see, we dare not come that
way. Believers in Christ, we dare
not come that way. We come like Esther, dressed
in royal apparel. We come dressed in the righteousness
of Christ. We come being washed by the blood
of the Son of God. And we ascend before His throne
to make our request known. And you see the heart of Christ
in the heart of this king. When he saw his wife, she obtained
immediate favor. Even so it is, when believers
come before the presence of Christ, they immediately obtain favor. Immediately obtain favor. We always obtain the favor of
Christ. He will always yield the golden
scepter to you. And so as we ascend to worship
this morning, We are here given a word of confidence in our text. We're given a word of trust. They that trust in the Lord.
These who are ascending, they ascend by faith. David said in
Psalm 37, Trust the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell
in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself
in the Lord, listen, and He shall give thee the desires of thine
heart." What is our desire? Our desire is to ascend and worship
Him. And as we ascend, He swears,
I will give you the desire of your heart. I will give you the
desire of your heart. Our desire is to worship Christ,
to serve Christ. But I'll tell you this, even
as you and I ascend this morning, We are often molested by evil
thoughts. We are often troubled by our
sin. We are often cast down with fear. We sing that hymn so often prone
to wonder. Lord, I feel it. Even as I sin,
I wonder. I stray. Our love is so cold. We doubt that He will even hear
our prayers. We cry like David often, Oh Lord,
how long will you forget me? How long will you forget me forever? I tell you, there's nothing more
grievous as when God hides His face from the believer. Is there
anything more grievous when God hides His face from you? When
you cannot feel His presence, when you cannot know If you are
accepted, are you fearful? Are you troubled? As you ascend right now, are
you troubled? Are you doubtful that he will hear you? Are you
doubtful he will accept your weak praise? Is your heart so cold? in your
love toward Him, then I want you to see then this song of
degrees, this song of ascension, so that we can set our hearts
toward Him. And I pray that this by His grace,
that His love would melt and warm your heart. I pray that. I pray that His love would melt
and warm my heart as I ascend. by the fire of His grace and
His love, His salvation, His promises. This is why Scripture
is given. This is why we come, isn't it?
So that we might ascend into His presence. Now, I want to
see this psalm, and there are four divisions of this psalm
that are readily seen. In verses 1 and 2 we have the
hope of our acceptance. What is your confidence as you
ascend this morning and seek to worship God? What is your
confidence that He will accept you? What is it? On what grounds
do you have to come before God and be accepted? This psalm reveals
they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion. This is our confidence that as
Mount Zion is not moved, neither is His saints removed from His
presence. Now then, the second thing is
the promise of God which is found in verse 3. It says, For the
rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous,
lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. And
then you have the fourth division is the prayer of the saints.
O LORD, to them that be good. And then lastly, you have a warning
to those who turn aside, those who are lost. Let's see this,
and I don't know if I'll get through it, but we'll try. First
of all, the hope of our acceptance. He said, They that trust in the
LORD shall be as Mount Zion. Now the only hope of our acceptance
is given to a very specific group of people. They that trust the
Lord. This whole psalm is written to
they who trust in the Lord. Now first of all I want you to
see that there is no work required of the worshippers. There is
no merit required in the worshippers. The promise of God's grace and
love of Christ's blood and righteousness. That we never come by the works
of our flesh, by any feeling of the heart or any religious
zeal done by the worshiper. Now the whole grounds of false
religion is human merit. All false religion For your acceptance
with God requires you to do something. In the false church, they require
penance. You've got to do penance. If
you've done something evil, if you want to be accepted of God,
well then from now on you have to start doing good. No. There's no prerequisite for
the worshippers except this. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. We see the
Word of God is clear that none shall be accepted by their works.
Therefore, Paul said, because all men have sinned, because
we of all are unrighteous, none seeks after God, we're all together
become unprofitable. He says, therefore, By the deeds
of the law, by your obedience, no one shall be justified in
the sight of God. No one is going to be accepted
by their works. No one. I don't care how moral they are. Their morality is so mixed with
sin that God cannot and will not accept their morality. But behold the sweetness of this
psalm, and the plainness of God's speech as to how we are to ascend,
how we are to approach unto God without fear of death. He said,
They that trust in the Lord cannot be removed. Look at that. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion. And what's so special about Mount
Zion? Listen. Which cannot be removed,
but abideth forever. They that trust in the Lord is
going to be like Mount Zion that cannot be removed. You see, then
the only hope of confidence of being accepted is trusting Christ. Trusting in Christ. I'll tell
you this, we in ourselves cannot be accepted simply because we
have sinned. We have sinned. We all have fallen
short of the glory of God. We've all missed the mark. How
did this come about? It came about by a representative
man. We all sinned in a representative
man. When Adam sinned, when your father
and my father sinned, we all fell in him. Now see if this is not plain.
Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered in the world. How sin
entered in the world? Devil. Sin didn't enter in this world
by the devil. He's the father of it. But it didn't enter into
this world by sin. By one man. By Adam, sin entered
in the world. And what was the result? Death
by sin. He died spiritually that very
moment he sinned. Judgment fell on him immediately. And he died. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men. For all have sinned. When He
sinned, you sinned. I don't like that. Does it matter?
Does it matter what you like and what you don't like? He represented
you no matter what you think or feel. He represented all of
us. When He died, you died. That's
why you were born dead in trespasses and sin. You were born in sin. And not only is that the cause
of the ruin, but what about your own sin? You can't put it all on Adam.
What about your sin? The Scripture says your iniquities
have separated you from God. Not only the sin of Adam, but
the sin of your own so then how can we be reconciled to God how
can we be accepted listen only by the righteousness
and offering of another representative that same text in Romans 5 verse
19 says this for by one man's disobedience many were made sinners
now how would you made a sinner Were you made a sinner first
by your sin or by His? Scripture says you were made
a sinner by Him. You were made a sinner. For by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners. So how can we be
made righteous? So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. The Word of God teaches that
God surely has chosen an elect people. I like how people try
to say there is no such thing as the election. And yet the
scriptures are so plain that you would have to just cut it
out of text. You'd have to cut the text out. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places according as He had chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. You have to just
tear that out. God surely has an elect people.
And He has loved those people from before the foundation of
the world. And listen, even before sin entered, God made those people
accepted. Remember, our whole subject right
now is being accepted. How shall we ascend and be accepted? Only the elect of God are made
accepted in Christ. God put them in Christ and made
Christ to be their representative. That's the only way they could
be accepted. But none of these elect could
have ever merited their acceptance, merited their place, therefore
God purposed that His Son should be their mediator, that His Son
should be their high priest, and offer the gift and sacrifices
to God, making us accept. Go to Hebrews chapter 9. I think
Hebrews chapter 9 and chapter 10 are just some of the best
passages of Scripture that you can find. Look at verse 12. He's talking about the law. He
says, that law can't save you. None of those things in the law
were ever intended to save you. He said this, neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered into
the holy place. And when Christ offered Himself
before God, when Christ was crucified, and the justice of God fell on
Him, when He had finished the work, He said, It's finished. Now what was finished? What did
He do? What did He get by this death? Look what it says, Having obtained
eternal redemption for us. He got it. He got it. God sent him to get it, and he
got it. You know the difference between
a false Christ and the true? Victory. That's right, victory. Any Christ that just made it
possible, that Christ is worthless. He made it possible to save you,
but He didn't actually save you. What good is that to you? It's
no help. My scripture says He obtained
eternal redemption for us, for His people. He obtained it. Verse 24, For
Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which
are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God for us. Nor yet should he offer himself
often, as the high priest entered into the holy place once a year
with the blood of others. For then he must have sacrificed
since the foundation of the world, but now once, At the end of the
world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. What did He do? He put away our
sin by the sacrifice of Himself once. Once He did it. And as it is appointed to men
once to die and after this to judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for Him
She shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Look
at chapter 10 and verse 12. It says those priests, they offer
those sacrifices continually. How often does false religion
continually ask you to offer sacrifices? Well, you need to
offer this sacrifice. You need to do this. You need
to offer another sacrifice. You're not sacrificing enough. My hope is not in my sacrifice.
My acceptance is not in my sacrifice. My acceptance is in this, but
this man. It's not a cooperative effort,
is it? It's not this man and me. No,
it's this man, all by himself. In heaven, Christ has honored
Himself. All the saints are now worshiping
Christ forever. Why? This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, sat down at the right hand of God. Henceforth,
he's expecting something out of this. You know, when you pay for something,
don't you expect to receive it? You better. Christ paid for something. You know what He's expecting?
He's expecting His enemies be put down at His feet. "...made His footstool, for by
one offering He hath perfected forever Them that are sanctified. Listen, the only perfect acceptable
sacrifice was the blood of Christ. The only perfect righteousness
is the righteousness of Christ. And those are two things that
God demands of worshippers. But He doesn't demand it of us.
He's already provided it in Christ. To which God said this, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. So we have the
election of grace. God put us in Christ and made
us acceptable in Christ. We have the redemption of Christ
that accomplished that salvation. But that's not all, is it? Election without the work of
Christ, there's no salvation. Now listen. The work of Christ without application,
there is no salvation. You can know all there is to
know about election and redemption, but if it's not been applied,
you have no grounds to stand before God. Application, the
applying of this blood in righteousness, Paul says in In 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 it says, We are bound always to give thanks 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. The Spirit must come and give
you life, the Spirit must come and save His elect. Why? God chose them. Christ redeemed
them. The Spirit must come and save
them. That is His work. That's why
He told Nicodemus, you must be born again. Now He wasn't giving
Nicodemus something to do. He was telling him what's going
to take place. He said, you must. All time and eternity was moving
everything so that you must be born again. You must. Have you been born again? We're
talking about being accepted of God. Ascending before God. Have you been born of the spirit?
Were you ever so blind? that you could not see the Gospel
of Christ. For you're so blind to see Jesus,
not to see Jesus is the only remedy for your soul. I like
old Mephibosheth, don't you? That son of Jonathan, that son
of Saul. You remember David when he became
king, he had a right to kill all of Saul's sons. so that they would never usurp
His authority. And there was old Mephibosheth.
He was lame on his feet. He couldn't run. And David sent
down to fetch Him. Even so, we, being dead in sins,
could not flee. We could not come. If David called
Mephibosheth, how would he get there? If he didn't go down and
fetch him. Isn't that true of you? God says,
Christ said, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest. Trust in the Lord. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And what did
you find? You found you couldn't believe. You found you couldn't
come. Listen, if you're ever in that
place, that's a good place to be. Because those are the only
people God fetches. That's the only one He comes
for. It's those that can't. Those that have no hope, no life. Those are the ones He comes to
save. He came down to fetch Mephibosheth. He comes to fetch us. And what
did He do? He didn't destroy Mephibosheth.
God didn't come to destroy us. He came to save us. He didn't
come to kill Mephibosheth. He came to save him. Make him
sit at his son's table. Isn't that what He would do for
you? You who believe? How are you going to sit at the
son's table? Listen to this. Trust in the Lord. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. that all your salvation and all
your standing before God are based on His merits and not yours. And you, though lame on your
feet, will sit with the sons of God. Faith in Christ alone is the
only evidence of my election. The only evidence of my redemption
is faith in Christ. So as we ascend this morning,
listen to the text. They that trust in the Lord.
Who's ascending? They that trust in the Lord. Who's accepted? They that trust
in the Lord. Listen. Without faith you cannot ascend
unto God. Matter of fact, if you will not
believe on Christ, it is to spit on the sacrifice of the Son of
God. is to count the blood of the Son of God as a common thing. Isn't this what men do when they
will not believe? What about this when men add
something to the work of Christ? What are they saying about the
work of Christ? They're saying, well, Jesus did it all and the
rest is up to you. What are they saying? It's not
sufficient. They're saying Christ's work
is not sufficient. They try to add anything. Paul
said, if you add anything, Christ shall not profit you anything.
You add anything to His work. But true sinners have nothing
to add. True sinners have nothing to
offer. Therefore, as we trust the Lord,
we totally rely upon Jesus Christ. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct thy path. Do you trust Christ? Do you trust Him fully? And so then, what is the confidence
of those who trust Him? Listen to this. Read your text
again. Go back. Read your text. They
that trust Him shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed,
but abideth Forever, here is the word of the immutable God
that cannot lie and cannot change. All who trust in the Lord cannot
and will not be removed from His presence. Now just as Zion, consider Zion,
now this was, Zion is a place, alright? It is a place, it's
a mountain, it's on top of a mountain. And all the way around Zion is
surrounded by mountains, on all sides, so that no man could ever
remove it from its place. Now listen, men have been removed
from Zion, haven't they? There are people that lived there
before the nation of Israel, and those people, they were moved.
The nation of Israel occupied Zion, and then they were moved. Temple was built on it, buildings
were built there, places, houses, dwelling places, all gone. But you know what remains? The
mountain itself. You cannot remove Zion from its
place. Zion cannot be destroyed. Even so it is with they that
trust in the Lord, they shall be as Zion, the Zion of God. We are His people, we are His
church, we are His temple, and we shall not be removed from
Christ. Paul said, I am persuaded that
neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Nothing can
remove Zion. That's what God is displaying
here. You that trust in the Lord. Listen. You were chosen of God. You were redeemed of Christ.
You were called by the Spirit. And there is nothing in heaven
or in earth that shall remove you from His presence. So as
I ascend unto God, I have confidence. have confidence this is the word
of God they that trust in the Lord shall not be removed shall
not be removed now listen this flesh is moved this flesh is often moved We may stumble, we fall, we sin,
we fail, we are rebuked, we are chastened of the Lord. We may
be poor, we may be sick, we may be weak, we may suffer pain and
sorrows and afflictions. We may be tossed about, we may
be fearful, we may have doubts, we may have unbelief. But what
does that have to do with you being removed from Christ? Nothing. You see, believer, it doesn't
matter what you do or how you feel. This flesh is often troubled. But what is my confidence? Is
it in the flesh? Is it in providence? If everything's going well, does
that mean I'm accepted of God? Can you tell by good or evil
providence if you're accepted? No. Do you trust in Christ? Then listen, you shall not be
removed. You shall not be removed. God
may remove his presence in that we cannot feel it. I'll tell you, this is a majority
of the believer's life. I believe that's so. a majority
of the believer's life, we may not feel His presence. Why? Because then we'll begin to trust
that feeling instead of trusting Christ. And if we trust in a
feeling, that's something we touch, that's something we can
tangibly hold on to. That's not faith. God demands
you trust. God demands you believe. And
trust is something you may not see or feel. God may remove His
presence for a while, but I'm thankful He doesn't remove it
all continually. I like that in Song of Solomon.
He says, I see Him through a lattice. You know, a lattice is like this. You see Him and you don't. You
see Him and you don't. That's how we see Him. But listen to this. You should be of great comfort
if you trust in the Lord, for He will never leave you. And
that's what's most important. He will never leave you. Because you are in Christ. We
are one with the Son of God. We have been chosen. We have
been redeemed. We have been experimentally called. So Jesus said unto us,
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. They
trust Me. Isn't that right, sheep? You
know who they trust? They trust the shepherd. They
don't trust anybody else. That's why they follow Him, because
they trust Him. You follow Christ, why? Because
you trust Him. I lay My soul on Him, and Him
alone. I hope. I'm following Him. And listen to what He says to
them. He says, I give unto them eternal life. And they shall
never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. He said in John 6, verse 37,
all that the Father giveth Me, what are they going to do? They're
going to trust in me. They're going to come to me. And when
they do, I won't cast them out. I won't cast them out. The Father
chose them. I won't cast them out. I redeemed them. I called
them. I'm not going to cast them out.
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. By the which will, Paul says
in Hebrews chapter 10. By the which will we are sanctified.
His will was to save us, and this is the Father's will, that
of all He hath given me, I should lose nothing. That's a good question. How many will Christ lose? What person did Christ die for
that He will lose? He said, I will lose nothing.
But raise Him up again at the last day. This is my God. This
is my hope of being accepted with God, because salvation is
the work of God alone. I'm the beneficiary of it. I'm
the object of the work, but I did nothing in the work. It is a work of God alone. Therefore, I shall not be removed, listen,
forever. How long is that? It's eternal. I shall never be
removed. And what God has sworn to do,
who then will stop Him from doing Who? Who shall match omnipotence,
unfold the grasp of thy right hand, and pluck the sinner thence?
Who? Who dares? God says, I've spoken it, I'll
bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will do it. I will do it. What will God do? He will never
allow anything to separate us from Christ. You shall be as
Mount Zion. Now listen, this is also His
promise to those that trust Him. They are in perpetual, constant
protection. Look at your text again. They
that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot
be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth,
even forever. Divine protection. You that trust the Lord, why
do you still trust the Lord? You ask yourself that, how is
it that I still believe in Christ? Why have you not went back? Remember
those disciples that came to Christ? There were actually thousands
of these disciples. They followed Christ across the
sea. They saw His miracle and they followed Him across the
sea and wanted to make Him king. And He preached the gospel to them
in John 6. And the scripture says, and His disciples walked
no more with Him. They said, this is a hard saying.
What do they say about election? It's a hard saying. What do they
say about sovereign grace? It's a hard saying. And they
walked no more with Him. Why are you still here? Will
you go away also? Will you? Will you leave? Why do you still trust me? Why? Or who shall we go to? There is no other hope but you.
You have the words of eternal life. We are sure that Thou art
the Son of the living God. Why do you still hold that when
everybody else is gone? Have you ever looked around and
saw how many people have left the faith? Why is it they leave? I never had faith to begin with.
It's just pretend. Why are you still here? Listen,
I'll tell you why. Because you are in constant perpetual
protection. Listen to what Peter said in
1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5. You who are kept by the power of God through faith. Who keeps that
faith? I like that in Pilgrim's Progress.
Remember the devil's on one side, there's a fire, and the devil's
on one side of the wall and he's pouring water on it. And that
fire never goes out. Matter of fact, the more water
he pours on it, the higher the flames. He just can't understand
it. What's happening? On the other
side of the wall is the Spirit of God pouring oil. What do you
do when you get, you ever throw water on grease? See what happens,
hot grease? Fire intensifies. You see, you
are kept by the Spirit of God. That's why you still believe.
You are as, he says, I am as a wall of fire round about Jerusalem. This makes me think of all of
our troubles, all of our trials. If God is a wall of fire round
about us, why are we troubled? Why are we vexed? Well, because God allows it. Every trouble that you and I
face is decreed by God. every difficulty. Surely if it would not glorify
Him or benefit you, the wall of fire would consume it before
it got to you. But God allows these things.
But know this, they cannot remove you from Christ. In fact, whatever
comes in is only meant to benefit you. It's only meant to benefit
you. Behold, Christ is thy keeper,
He is thy protector. And see then that all the happiness
of the believer is God's will. All that happens to the believer
is God's will, which seems to appear contrary to His love and
grace. It may cause us grief and sorrow.
We may be even called to die. But none of this can hurt you. Listen to what God said. I know
the thoughts that I think toward you. I tell you this, sometimes
we don't know the thoughts of God, but listen, He knows His
own thoughts. He said, I know my thoughts toward you, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then
shall you call upon Me, and you shall go and pray unto Me, and
I will hearken to you. Don't you see the cause of your
trials and troubles then? is not to destroy you, but to
draw you, to keep you. And so then as we experience
troubles and trials and griefs, sorrows and afflictions and pains,
what is my hope that God will hear me when I ascend? What is
my hope? It's Christ. God will hear me because of Christ. That's all. And the only reason I'm doubting
my acceptance is because I am not looking at Christ. I'm looking for something in
me. There's no comfort in that. There's
no peace there. There's peace in this, they that
ascend They that trust in the Lord shall not ever be removed
from His presence. Matter of fact, He is a wall
of mountains around about His people, and He protects them. How long? Forever. What about...? It doesn't matter.
Forever. I know I didn't get to the other
three things, but I hope this will comfort you. Hope this will
give you peace. And listen, if you have not trust
Him, why have you not trust Him? We're the liars. He alone is
the truth. Trust Him and you shall never
be removed. Always accept.