All right, turn with me, if you
would, back to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. I would like for us to look at
this entire Psalm tonight, but I would like for us to dwell
mainly on verse 4. which says one thing have I desired
of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty
of the Lord. and to inquire in His temple. I'd like for us to really consider
the beauty of the Lord. The beauty of the Lord, that's
the title of this message, The Beauty of the Lord. Now, let's begin reading together
in verse one. It says, The Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. Everything that is light to me. David said, that's what the Lord
is to me. The sun is my sun. The S O N is my S U N. My light. My warmth. My health. My happiness. My joy. He said, the Lord is
my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? He
said, the Lord is the strength of my life. He's my light. He's my salvation. He is the
strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? David said,
the Lord is my all. The Lord is my all. We can say
the same thing with Him, can't we? The Lord is my all. He is my all in all. He's my all in all. All I have,
all I need, He's my strength. He's my safety. He's my courage. He's my life. He's my life. David said, he's
my life. And we say the same thing. You
say the same thing. He's my life. He's my all. Verse two says, when the wicked,
even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh,
they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me in this, will I be confident? David said, no matter
what happens in my life here on this earth, those things really
did happen to David. War was always upon him. So much fear around him. But David said, no matter what
happens in my life here on this earth, he said, I have this to
hold on to. And he said, this is all that
matters. Verse four, one thing. One thing. And we can enter into
this. We can so enter into this as
everything in this world crumbles. We lay hold of something in this
world and it crumbles. And as everything disappoints
and as everything decays and as everything is changing and
we can get a hold of this. David said in verse four, one
thing. Have I desired of the Lord, that
will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to
inquire in His temple." David said, no matter what happens
here on this earth, There's an end to it. And that's not a morbid
thing. That's a glorious thing. That's
a happy thing. That's the prize. That's the
goal. That's the aim. No matter what happens here on
this earth, there's an end to it. And David said that glorious
end is me leaving this sinful depraved, wicked, heartbreaking
world to go dwell in the house of my
Lord forever. He said that end is my one desire. That's my one desire, my one
true, ultimate, eternal desire. And that's all of God's people's
desire. When we lose a loved one here
on this earth, who belongs to the Lord and believes on Christ
and confesses Him to be their all. It's sad for us down here,
but we're all going to be reunited together in Him, with Him. And all of God's people can say,
when you get to the ultimate heart of the matter, if you want
to get down to that final thing, that one thing, this is it. This
is my one true desire. This is what I want. This is
what I want by God's grace. As David said, this is what I
will seek after. That's what we're doing right
now. He said, I want to dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my eternal life to behold
the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. David said, this is what I want. I just want to see him and hear
him. That's what I want. I want to see him and I want
to hear him. He said, that will be glory. Be glory for me. That song says when all my labors
and trials are or over and I am safe on that beautiful shore
safe. Just to be near the dear Lord
I adore, will through the ages be glory for me. When by the
gift of His infinite grace, I am accorded in heaven a place, just
to be there and to look on His face, will through the ages be
glory for me. Friends will be there I have
loved long ago. Joy like a river around me will
flow, yet just a smile from my Savior I know will through the
ages be glory for me. Oh, that will be glory for me,
glory for me, glory for me. When by His grace I shall look
on His face, that will be glory, be glory for me. Verse 4, David
said, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek
after. that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of
the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Now, the apostle Paul
told the Corinthians that eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard,
neither hath entered into the heart of man. What glory will
be like? We right now can try to imagine
what it's going to be like to look at our Lord, to look at
the Lord Jesus Christ. We can try to imagine how beautiful
He will be, but whatever we imagine will not even come close to comparing
to the beauty that He actually is. Whatever we can envision
in our minds, it won't even come close to comparing to the beauty,
what it's gonna be like to actually look at Him. And the reason is
because eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath
entered into the heart of man, the imagination of man. What
it will be like and what He will look like. But even though that's the case,
let's try to enter into what the scripture has to say about
His beauty. Let's see if the Lord will let
us enter in to whatever ability he has given us to in his word,
what it is about him that makes him so beautiful to his people. Before we get into this, let's
first acknowledge that he is not beautiful to all of mankind. For man, by nature, Isaiah 53
says, there is no beauty that the natural man, the natural
flesh, should desire him. When he came into this world,
he made himself to have no form nor comeliness. And does that not make him absolutely
beautiful to us? That he would do that for us? as our substitute for our sake. This is what He did. He laid
His beauty aside. He laid His reputation aside. He laid His glory aside. And in order to live for us,
as us, He took upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh. This right here,
this flesh is not beautiful to God. It's not. And our Lord, for our sake, to
live as us, He took upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh,
and He allowed Himself to be despised and rejected of men. When they looked at Him, That's
how they were towards Him. They despised Him. They rejected
Him. He allowed Himself to be a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He allowed Himself to come in
a way where men would hide their faces from Him. Despise Him. Esteem Him not. Now why did He do that for us?
Why did He come in that way? Why did He truly come in that
way? He did it so that He could bear
our griefs and carry our sorrows. That's why He did it. He did
it so that He could be stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
That's why He did it. He did it so that He could be
wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He did it so that the chastisement
of our peace could be on Him. He did it so that with His stripes
we could be healed. Now honestly, entering into that,
does that not make Him absolutely beautiful to us? Just in the
fact that He would do that for us, does that not make Him so
beautiful to us? He may be common to the world
and He is, He is common to this world, but to the redeemed child
of God, He is altogether lovely. All together lovely. To a soul
that's outside of Christ, that soul may see nothing in Him that
causes that soul to desire Him. Just like all who passed by that
tabernacle out in the wilderness. Back in the Old Testament, there
was a tabernacle where God met with man. And to everybody who just passed
by, all it was was a brown badger skin tent. That's all it was.
But on the inside was the glory of God. On the inside was the
mercy of God and the grace of God. And to a soul who is in
Christ, to a soul outside of Christ, they may see Him to be
just so common. But to a soul that is in Christ,
to a soul that has seen the glory of God in Christ, to a soul that has seen the mercy
of God in Christ, and the grace of God in Christ. To that soul,
Christ is the most beautiful thing that soul has ever seen.
He really is. Now let me show you a few scriptures
that tell us what makes Him so beautiful to us. All right, the
first one is a page over, Psalm 29. Psalm 29, verse 2, it says, Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The first thing that makes Christ
so beautiful to His people is His holiness. His holiness makes
Him beautiful to us. Holiness means He must do right. He must do what's right. The fact that He must do right,
His absolute justice, His absolute justice, His absolute judgment,
His absolute purity, His holiness. Those seraphims, and one of these
days we're going to hear it with our own two ears. Those seraphims
continually cry, holy, holy, holy. Our God is holy. He's pure. He's right. He's just. He's holy. That makes Him beautiful
to His people. So beautiful. The moment that
we see him, when that day comes, whether he returns and gathers
us all to himself or whether he takes us to be with him before
he returns. Either way, when that day comes,
the moment that we see him, The moment that we behold Him
for the first time, this is what our eyes will physically behold. The moment our eyes lay eyes
on Him, this is what we will physically behold. Absolute holiness. We will see holiness. We've heard about holiness. We
see it in the written word. We believe it by faith. But in
that moment, when we see Christ, we are going to see the holiness
of God Almighty. We're going to visually behold
holiness in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's going
to be beautiful. We need to get ready. It's going
to be beautiful. Turn with me now over to Psalm
50. Psalm 50 verse 1 says, The mighty
God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the
rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the
perfection of beauty, God hath shined. His perfection is beautiful. It is beautiful. That's His righteousness. His perfect works. Everything that He does is perfect. Don't you love knowing that?
Aren't you so relieved to know that? Doesn't it bring so much
comfort in this life? And even though there's no peace,
they're trying to cry, peace, peace, but there's no peace.
Doesn't it bring so much peace into your heart knowing that
everything that He does is perfect? It's perfect. That's what makes
Him so beautiful to His people. Knowing that He will not and
cannot do anything wrong. Will not and cannot. Knowing
that He only does all things well. That's all He does. That's
all He does. That perfection makes Him absolutely
beautiful to us. When we see Him, when we lay
eyes on Him, this is what we're going to see. Perfection. Our eyes are going to behold
Him and we're going to view Him up and down. We're going to take
Him in and we're going to know we are looking at perfection. Absolute perfection. It's beautiful.
So beautiful. Turn with me over to Psalm 96. Psalm 96 verse 6, it says, honor
and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. His worship in his sanctuary,
his worship is beautiful to God's people. His worship is so beautiful. Religion may have the big buildings,
and they may have the big money, and they may have the flash,
and they may have the flair, and all that stuff, but nothing
is more beautiful to a child of God. Nothing. Nothing is more
beautiful to a child of God than a simple house where Christ is
exalted and man is abased. Nothing is more beautiful. Nothing
is more beautiful than gathering together with the people who
have been given like precious faith from the Spirit of God
in a heart that absolutely reverences and bows the knee to Christ the
King. Nothing is more beautiful than
that. Nothing. To God's people, His worship
is absolutely beautiful. That's what we're going to do
for all eternity. We're going to worship. We're going to worship
without the limitations of this sinful flesh, sinful minds and
sinful hearts and sinful bodies. All that will be removed in the
fullness of the gift of His Spirit. We're going to worship and it's
going to be beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Turn with
me over to Psalm 149. Psalm 149 verse 1 says, Praise
ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song
and His praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice
in Him that made Him. Let the children of Zion be joyful
in their King. Let them praise His name in the
dance Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
Verse four says, for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with
salvation. He will beautify the meek with
salvation for God's people. His salvation is beautiful. It's beautiful. In Exodus 33,
Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. Show me your beauty, show
me your goodness. And this is what the Lord said.
He said, I'll be merciful. I'll show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. I'll hide you in the rock. and I'll spare your eternal soul."
God's people hear that and they cry, that is beautiful. That
is beautiful. That's glory. That is glory. That's what glory with Christ
will be. Holiness. Perfection. Righteousness. Worship. Salvation. And it's going to
be beautiful. Now go with me back to Psalm
27. Verse 4 says, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will
I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to
inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock."
David said, he is going to hide me in himself. That's his pavilion. That's the secret of his tabernacle. It's the person of himself. David said, he is going to set
me up on Himself. He's my rock. Verse 6 says, And
now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about
me. He's my head. He's our head. We are His body and He is our
head. And all of God's people say,
Thank God, they don't want to be lifted up. They want Him to
be lifted up. They say, don't lift up my rot
and my decay and my ashes. Lift up His beauty. Lift up His
glory. Lift up His worthiness. Verse
6 says, And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies
round about me. Therefore will I offer in his
tabernacle sacrifices of joy. Because he made the sacrifice
of blood to redeem me from all of my sin, I'll make the sacrifices
of joy in thanksgiving. He went on to say, I will sing,
yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Verse seven, he said,
hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice and have mercy also
upon me and answer me. When thou saidst, seek ye my
face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek.
I love that. In verse seven, he said, I'm
crying, please hear me. Please hear me when I cry, please. And then in verse eight, he said,
I know that the only reason I'm crying is because you told me
to. Please hear me. And then he said, I know you're
the one who told me to cry. Verse 8, when thou saidst, seek ye
my face, that's when my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord,
will I seek. And he does the same thing in
verses 9 and 10. In verse 9, he says, please don't
leave me. Please don't forsake me. And
then in verse 10, he says, I know you'll never leave me and never
forsake me. Verse 9, he said, hide not thy
face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." In verse 10, he said, when my
father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me
up. He'll be there. He won't leave
me. He won't forsake me. Now that's
us, isn't it? Sometimes we have such moments
of doubt and fear, but then God's Holy Spirit through His Word
brings faith and trust back into the heart. And once again, we're
resting in Him. Just so torn all to pieces and
then resting in Him. Verse 11, David said, teach me
thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine
enemies. Teach me thy way. and lead me
in a plain straight path because of everything that's going on
around me. Verse 12, he said, deliver me not over unto the
will of mine enemies for false witnesses are risen up against
me and such as breathe out cruelty. And then in verse 13, he said,
I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. That word goodness right there
means beauty. That's what it means, beauty.
He said, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the beauty
of the Lord. If I didn't believe I was going
to see the beauty of the Lord in the land of the living, I
would have fainted. And then this is the conclusion of the
whole matter that David came to. This is what David says to
his own heart. This is what God's word says
to our heart. This right here is our encouragement.
It's our comfort. And it's our promise from God.
Verse 14. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. and He shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." There are four parts to that
commandment. Part number one, wait on the
Lord. Whatever it is we're going through,
no matter what happens in this life, wait on the Lord. Number two, be of good courage. Be of good courage. Number three, He shall strengthen
thine heart. He's going to strengthen your
heart. So wait, I say, on the Lord. Wait and keep waiting. If Christ is our light, and I
believe I'm talking to some people on the other side of this camera
who Christ is their light. If Christ is our light, We will
behold His beauty. We will. Here and there, we will. If God the Father has made Christ
to be all of our desire, the one thing that we desire,
then He will give us the desire of our hearts. He most certainly
will. David said in verse 4, he said,
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His
temple. And then he comforted himself
in verse 14 by saying, Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord."
That's such good encouragement for God's people, such good encouragement
for us. Pray the Lord will make it a
blessing to us. I'll dismiss us with a word of prayer.