Psalm 132. In studying this psalm together
the last time, we saw that this psalm is not necessarily talking
about David, but rather David's Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. This first verse says, Lord remember
David and all his afflictions. I'll tell you, truly, David was
a man afflicted. He was a man afflicted, and he
had many troubles. But this is talking about David's
Lord. What good would it be for the
Lord to remember David's afflictions for us? But rather, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We cry out to God saying, Lord,
remember Christ. and his affliction. That's our
way. That is the way by which we approach
unto God in prayer and supplication through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this morning we ask the
Lord, remember Christ. Lord, remember that we are but
dust, and remember that Christ is our access. Christ is by whom
we are accepted. And so as we go through this
psalm, you see that David here is speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 10, it says, For thy servant
David's sake, turn not away the face of thine anointed. For David's sake, we ask the
Lord to come even this morning and teach us. for Christ's sake,
for Christ's sake. Now my text will be found this
morning in verse 13. For the Lord hath chosen Zion,
he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever, here
will I dwell, for I have desired it. Mount Zion. Mount Zion in Scripture is a
very prominent place, has a very prominent place in Scripture,
in the Word of God, because this is the city that God chose to
manifest His presence. In this city of Zion is where
God chose that His people should have their place. But before
Zion became this city of David, before Zion, Jerusalem became
the city of Israel. It was inhabited by the Canaanites. It was just another Canaanite
city. There was nothing special about
Zion itself. It was just as all the other
Canaanite cities, heathen cities. And before the Lord revealed
His choice of Zion, it was nothing greater than the rest. Then after
the Lord had anointed King David, over his people. He sent David
to that city of Zion and David conquered that city. He conquered
that city and it was there he ruled and there he established
the worship of God in that holy mountain, that place. And it
was there that Solomon, David's son, built the temple of the
Lord and that's where the worship of God was, in Zion. It was in Zion. And it was there
in that city for one reason only. Our text. For the Lord hath chosen
Zion. There was no other reason. There
was no other reason for the worship of God to be in that city. Except
God chose it. God chose that city above all
other cities. God chose that mountain above
every other mountain. to place His Word, to place His
name, and the only place in the world. At that time, the only
place in the world where men could meet with God was in that
mountain. The only place where sin could
be atoned was in that mountain, Mount Zion. And we know that Zion Zion in
the scripture is a picture of God's church, God's church, of
God's people. Now consider, consider what we
were before the Lord revealed himself to us. Consider that
we were just like Zion inhabited by the heathen. We were the heathen
of Zion. We were by nature just as utterly
depraved and without hope as all other of Adam's race. There was no difference between
us and anyone else. Men desire to make distinctions,
don't they? Man by nature desires to set
themselves above others by certain distinctions, either by race
or by creed or by law. They desire to have something
about themselves that sets them apart from all others. Some men
believe they are entitled to certain privileges based on their
race, or because of their poverty, or because of their wealth, or
because of their education, or some means they set themselves
apart. This is what we are by nature.
We always try to find something about ourselves that makes us
better than someone else. This is not good. This is evil. This is evil. to set ourselves apart by any
measure or any standard because God sees us as we really are. Before God, these distinctions
that we make of ourselves are meaningless. Before God. For God is no respecter of persons. Isn't that something? I'll tell
you what, we are respecters of persons. By nature we are respecters
of persons. But God is no respecter of persons. In other words, God will judge
every one of us by the same strict and holy standard of righteousness. God will judge every man based
on his own standard. Be ye holy, even as I am holy. There's the standard. There's
the standard. And regardless of who men are,
or what they think they are, the Word of God is very clear
that every man is born with the same depraved, sinful, dead nature. The Scriptures are a great leveler
of men. There's no distinction. Every
one of us are born dead. Born dead. The natural man is
born spiritually dead. That means his mind is corrupt. The scripture says that the carnal
mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law
of God. Neither indeed can be. Neither
indeed can be. How proud and arrogant are men
to say that they are capable of obeying the law of God when
God clearly tells them they're not. When experience clearly
tells them they are not. And yet they defy that. Well
that's just natural. That's just natural. Man by nature
is born spiritually dead, his mind is corrupt, and his heart
is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Therefore,
all men by nature can do nothing, can do nothing to be accepted
of God. Nothing. There is nothing you
or I can do to please God. Nothing. Is that not the most
helpless state? Dead. Dead. David confesses this. He says,
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. David was not saying that his
mother had him out of wedlock. David is saying that he was born
of the same descendant of his father, Adam. We were born all conceived in sin because of Adam,
our father. David reveals the truth of all
of our birth, that we were the sons of Adam and we all fell
into spiritual depravity because of his sin. Therefore, we are all born with
hearts set in defiance against God and His Christ. This is who we are. Now, I'll tell you, we may cover
it up better than other people, but this is truly who we are
by nature. This is what we are. Now, man can do and can and do
worship God, a God. Man by nature is very religious. Because man is depraved, that
does not deny him of being religious or even moral. Men can and do
worship a God, they can and do worship a Christ, but one of
their own making. One of their own making. Men
by nature worship a God and Christ that is subject to their will.
Man by nature worship a Christ and God that is subject to their
will. Men can and do worship a Christ who makes a sacrifice
for all men to make salvation possible so long as they get
to have their part in it, so long as they get to add to it.
They won't mind worshiping a Christ like that. But man cannot. Man cannot worship a true Christ
by nature. This is who we are by nature,
and had God not quickened us from the dead, what would have
been the difference between us and anyone else? As you go about your day, and
you look around, and you see that there are few. There are
few. It seems in our day who believe
the gospel of God's grace, who believe the sovereign Lord God. What makes you different? Who
maketh thee to differ from another? What hast thou thou hast not
received? And if you've received it by grace, why then don't you
act like it? Grace. The Spirit of God quickens us. He makes the difference. Believer
in Christ, there was no difference between us and the rest of fallen
humanity. We are sinners, dead, depraved,
and fully unable to save ourselves but God, the blessed conjunction,
but God who is rich in mercy. For His great love wherewith
He loved us and gave Himself for us. He loved us. He saved
us by His grace. Even when we were dead in sins,
He loved us. Herein is the difference between
Zion and all others. The Lord chose Zion. That's it. There's no distinction in us
that made the difference. It's not because we had some
knowledge that somebody else didn't. We all were born just
as wickedly corrupt and deceived as everyone else. Now you may
have been born under the sound of the gospel, but I tell you
this, you were not born until God gave you life. You did not
believe on Christ until God gave you faith. And only then could
you ever know that you were His chosen. You were His chosen. The Word of God declares to us
that He has set His love on us from eternity. That His love
has put us in Christ and made us acceptable before the foundation
of the world. Now how could you know that?
We're not smart enough. We're not smart enough to know
that. How could we know that? My brother was telling me, he
was witnessing to his family, and he said, I am one of the
elect of God. I am. Well, I know him. He's not that smart. How do we
know it? Because God revealed Christ to
us. Because God came down and gave
us life. Because God gave us life, it
was then we were capable to understand that our God in great love chose
us from before the foundation of the world according to His
sovereign mercy. According to His great love,
wherewith He loved us. This was all done from eternity. In 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and
verse 9, you know this, Who hath saved us, God saved us, and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest. I didn't know it until it was
made manifest. And that was already done. God
had already loved me. God had already chose me. He
already put me in Christ. And Christ had already come.
I had not known all this until He revealed it. Until He
manifest Christ. And just as David came as the
anointed king over Israel, even so has the anointed king come
and conquered Zion. Now Zion was the chosen place.
It wasn't any different than the rest. And yet God sent His
King out to conquer it. To establish the worship of God. Even so has Jesus Christ fulfilled
the type and shadow of David. He has come and conquered Zion. Conquered Zion. He has come and
established the worship of God. over in Psalm chapter 2, God
had promised that His King would come. In Psalm chapter 2, I like this,
Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
Isn't that something that people, I'll tell you what, they're mad
at this. They don't like this. They don't like this gospel of
election. They don't like this gospel of
God's grace saving whom He will and leaving the rest to die under
hell. They don't like that. It's a vain thing for them to
imagine anything against that. It's vain. The kings of the earth
have set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against
the Lord and against His anointed, just like we did. Just like we
did. They said, like we did by nature,
let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have
them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet, even
though you've done this, even though you spit out these hatings
against God, yet I'm still going to do this. I, yet have I set
my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I have. The Lord God had
purposed that Jesus Christ be His King, and that His King rule,
that His King reign. the Lord hath decreed that Christ
sit on the throne of his church and now I tell you this is the
gospel message that the Lord Jesus Christ who was to come
has come he's come God promised he would come and he has come
he promised he would conquer Zion and I tell you he has conquered
Zion he has he's conquered he's accomplished salvation Friends,
we preach a successful Savior. I preach a successful Savior.
Jesus Christ the King came in His glory. He rode triumphantly,
victoriously. Everything He did and everything
He said and everything that He had accomplished was perfect. There was nothing He did that
was outside of the will and purpose of God. He did it all. I tell
you, He came to do what we couldn't do. You and I couldn't establish
the law. The law is good. This week I
was thinking about the law. When you think about the law,
the flesh immediately pops up and thinks, bad, bad. No, the
law is not bad. You are bad. The law is good. There's nothing wrong with that
law. It's just weak through your flesh. But I tell you the good
news is the law is established. The law has been established
by Jesus Christ's obedience. He obeyed the law perfectly,
completely, absolutely. He established the righteousness
of God for us. Because God had chosen His people
and chosen Christ to be their representative. And I tell you
who are believers in Christ, God is not willing to impute
your sins to you. He was never willing to impute
your sins to you. Ever. He was never willing to
do that. He was always willing to impute
to you the righteousness of Christ. But what about our sins? The Lord was not willing to impute
your sins to you. He was willing to impute the
righteousness of Christ to you, but He was also willing to impute
our sins to His Son. God's justice must have been
satisfied. God will not save you apart from
justice being satisfied. See then the wisdom of God, how
that God can be just and save an ungodly sinner such as ourselves. The only way is through the substitutionary
death of Christ, the shedding of the blood of the righteous
Son of God. God pictured this over and over
for us in the atonements, in the sacrifices, in the shedding
of innocent blood. He pictured how His Son would
come and how His Son would have the sins of His people imputed
unto them and He would own them. He would bear the guilt of their
sins on the tree. And God in His vengeance poured
out his wrath on his son God's justice by his holy son was satisfied
the reproach the scripture said the reproach of them that reproach
thee hath fallen on me The Lord Jesus Christ, God imputed our
sins to Him, and now the everlasting righteousness of God being established,
and the sins and transgressions and iniquity of the people being
blotted out, Jesus Christ being risen from the dead, sits on
the right hand of God, executing His covenant. You, most of you,
I imagine you have a will, right? You've written out your last
will and testament. Now that will is not good until
you're dead. It just sits there. But as soon
as you're dead, that will comes into effect. But what control have you on
that will? Once you're dead, what control?
You have no control. But I tell you, the Lord Jesus
Christ had a will. His will is to save His people
from their sins. And He died. That will is in
effect. That will is powerful. And He
has risen from the dead to make sure His will is accomplished. He sits on the throne now in
glory, sending His Spirit into this world to conquer dead sinners. That's what He's doing. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is a conqueror. He has conquered Zion, and I
tell you, He is setting up His temple in the hearts of His people
through the preaching of His gospel. Friends, your pastor is nothing
better than a man. But I tell you, this Word is
much better than your pastor. This Word is powerful. This Word
saves sinners. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. Because of you? No. Because of
Him. Because of Him. If He wills you
to be saved, there is nothing in heaven and earth or in hell
that'll stop him from saving you nothing not even me not even me and I was so opposed
to him saving me and yet he did it in spite of
me he did it for his own glory I tell you he said I have chosen
Zion He hath desired it for His habitation. Oh, think of this. We just sang that song, O Worship
the King, and it says, Who's canopy's space? Who fills all in all? And His
desire is to inhabit that little frame that you have. You call
a body. If he hadn't said he desired
to dwell in you, I wouldn't believe it. But he said, I have desired it
for inhabitation. Is that not amazing? God said,
I've purposed to dwell in you. You who believe. Know you not
that you are not your own. You have been bought with a price. Now, does that make you happy
or angry? That depends. If you got something
you think God wants, you're going to be mad. makes me happy. I've been bought. I'm not my own. He's conquered
me. He's my king and I am his slave. I simply will, I simply live
to do his will. If you've ever been conquered,
you understand what I'm saying. If not, you're still shaking
your fist saying, I will not have you to rule over me. Have you been conquered? If you've
been conquered, you are his habitation. And you belong to him. There's so much more. So much more, but I'll close
here. I pray that the Lord blesses to your hearts.