Let's turn to Psalm 27 this morning. Just for just for a little, a
little time, I want to be brief and just leave you some thoughts
for the road. Psalm 27, I'll just read the
first part of it. And really just look at verse
four mainly. The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is my salvation. Not a denominational creed, not
a set of doctrines, however precious and right they are. The Lord
is my salvation. He's my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid when
the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to
eat up my flesh? And they would have. They're
greater than me, aren't they? I'm overwhelmed. But they stumbled
and fell because of his grace. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. In what? The Lord
is my light. and he's my salvation. And one
thing I have desired of him, it really kind of boils down
to that, don't we? We ask a lot of things, we pray for a lot
of things, there's many things on our heart to bring before
the Lord, burdens and make your requests known unto him, but
it all boils down to one thing, doesn't it? One thing have I
desired of the Lord, I'm gonna seek after it. Whatever your desire is that's
what you're gonna be pursuing Whatever that is where your treasure
is that's where your heart will be And here it is that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord All the days of my life And there's two reasons I want
to do that I Want to see his beauty I've seen some of his beauty
this weekend. And I want to inquire in his
temple. What does that have to do with?
I want to see it even more. I want to see his beauty and
I want to find out even more how beautiful he is. What is the house of the Lord?
I want to live in his house. Wherever the Lord lives that's
where I want to be What is his house? David said he had just
one desire that he might dwell there It's not the church building. We know that I've got no problem
with somebody saying though This is the Lord's house because this
is where we come to worship him. He built it didn't he? This is
his place in that sense. I know that It has but one purpose. I pray that to proclaim the name
of the Lord here. But when King Solomon aspired
to build the temple, the great temple, he said in 2 Chronicles
2.6, who is able to build God a house? Seeing the heaven of heavens,
the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him. Who am I
then that I should build him a house save only to burn sacrifice
before him. You see, that was the way he
was worshiped then. Animals were sacrificed. The blood was shed.
That's the way he was worshiped. And so we've built him a house.
But this house has one purpose, to worship him. It's not his
house in any other sense, save only that we're going to worship
him here in the gospel of his precious son and his shed blood.
And so this is the Lord's house. But the thing here, this house,
whatever it is in this psalm, it has to do with security. It
has to do with a hiding place, a place of refuge, because look
at the next verse. In verse five, I want to dwell
in his house and behold his beauty. For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me in his pavilion. It's gonna be a hiding place
for me in the secret of his tabernacle Shall he hide me and here's a
clue as to what it is. He's gonna set me up upon a rock
The Lord said to Moses there's a place by me There's a place
by me And I'm gonna set your feet on the rock And I'm gonna
hide you in the cleft of that rock And I'm gonna cover you
there with my hand God's house is Christ The place of refuge
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to hide us from trouble.
What's our trouble? Well, we're sinners and God's
holy. That's big trouble. That's a
big problem. Psalm 32 5 listen to this i'd
have you and you're welcome to turn to these but as i said i
want to be i know i know everybody's tired and i know the flesh is
weak mine more than yours but but if you'd love to turn there
psalm 32 5 i acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity
have i not hid i said i will confess my transgressions unto
the lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah, there's
controversy over what that means. I believe it means just stop
and think about that for a minute. That's worth thinking about,
isn't it? I cried to him and he forgave me. He forgave me. For this shall everyone that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. What
are we praying for? The forgiveness of sin, what
he just said. for this, for that, for him forgiving our sin. In a time, in a time when thou
mayest be found, surely in the floods of great waters, they
shall not come nigh unto him. Why not? Because you're my hiding
place. Thou art my hiding place thou
shalt preserve me from trouble What's this house of safety that
he's talking about in Psalm 27 the place of refuge? He's gonna
hide me there Thou art my hiding place You are He's my salvation
my light my hiding place And you're gonna compass me about
with songs of salvation I Psalm 62 7 in God is my salvation and
my glory the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God so we
dwell in him the rock the Lord Jesus Christ not just a building
a person and David said he would desire this one thing for two
purposes to behold and and to inquire. Now, there are things
that we behold when we dwell in Him, when we dwell in Christ. And this, as I said, this is
the Lord's house in a sense, but Christ is the one in whom
we dwell. You remember when Paul said to
be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord? Have
you ever looked up that word present? You know what it means? At home. The Lord is our home. To be with him is to be home.
And that's what this is. This is what I desire to be at
home. And the reason for it, I want to behold his beauty.
You can't behold his beauty unless you're in him. Where are you
going to see the goodness of God, Moses? You're going to have
to be standing on the rock and hiding in the rock and have God's
very hand upon you to protect you. And from there, you'll see
all of God's goodness pass by. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
behold and inquire we see some things and we come to inquire
don't we we come to inquire we come to the Lord to ask he said
you don't have what you need because you don't ask for it
you ever think about that verse you need anything today If you
dwell in him and he in you, there's not but one reason if you don't
have something that you need. He said, ask me, ask me. That old leper asked, didn't
he? He said, Lord, if you will, I know you can, I know you can,
but I've come to find out if you will, if you will. And then there's one more word
in the context that we need to look at. Both beholding and inquiring
are contained in this word seek. Seek. Look at verses four again
and verse eight. One thing of have I desired of
the Lord and that will I seek after. And then he said in verse
eight, when you said seek my face, when God said seek my face,
when God says let there be light, there's light. And when he says
to your heart, effectually, seek my face, you know what you're
going to say? Lord, I'm going to seek your face. That's what
he said. That face, Lord, will I seek.
Lord, you turn me, and I'll turn. You say seek me, and that's what
I'm fixing to do. Seek, behold, inquire. It's all about him, isn't it?
We're seeking him, we're beholding him, we're inquiring of him. Lord, will you bless me? I love
the way you said that while I go. Lord, would you, would you, would
you? Would you bless us? Would you
meet with us? I believe it was Gabe when you prayed. Would you
come and be with us lest we meet in vain? Would you do that? Let's
inquire of him. I've never seen anybody in the
scripture Or in my experience such as that is best we can tell
that ever asked the Lord honestly That he didn't give it He gives you a heart to see he
gave you the thirst he said I'll fill you I'll fill you Now everybody
in this room this morning is either seeking the Lord or you're
not And you better be honest with yourself about it now. It's
too important to kid yourself over, to deceive yourself about
it. And this word is not the way
we sometimes think of it. We play hide and seek, you know.
We're looking for something that's lost. This is not like, this
thing isn't done in a corner. The Lord's not hard to find in
that sense. The word's in your mouth, he
said. The word of the gospel that we preach. It's not under
the, It's not that kind of seeking. I seek at my house quite a bit
for the remote control to the television. It's never where
I think it is. I'm always seeking. That's not
what this is. This is a lot more urgent than that. The same word
seek here is translated begging in Psalm 3725, begging. That's what we're talking about.
That's the seeking we're talking about. And the Lord said in Jeremiah
29, 13, you shall seek me and find me when you shall search
for me with all of your heart. That's the kind of seeking we're
talking about now. It's a begging seeking. It's
a seeking that which we must have, got to have him. Let me
go, Lord, I can't. I will not. Until you bless me. That's that's this seeking here
to seek the Lord is not to search for something that's that's misplaced
or hiding or or to solve some kind of puzzle. You know, some
some people say there's like a hidden code in the scripture. If you take the seventh word
of every seventh chapter or something, it has some mysterious message
in it. Gospel is not that complicated.
The truth of God is not that hard to see in his word. Proverbs 128 you know when the
Lord is found You know when he'll be found
when he wants to be If he wants you to find him he'll
give you the heart to seek him and you'll find him listen to
Proverbs 128 then shall they call upon me, but I will not
answer I They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. There's
going to be some people seeking. It's not going to find him. Luke 10 21 in that hour, Jesus
rejoiced in spirit and said, I think the old father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou has hid these things from the
wise and prudent and has revealed them under babes. Even so father,
why does to some seek and find and others don't? For so it seemed
good in thy sight. Seemed good in thy sight. If
you seek the Lord with all your heart, you'll find him. You'll find him. If you seek
him, you know when the time is to seek him? Right now. Right
now. You see, if you go back and read
the context of that passage I just read where he said, you're going
to seek me, not going to find me, you're going to find out there's
a time element there. There's a time when he'll be
found. in a time when he will not. But I'll tell you this,
if you seek him and find him, it won't be because you're smarter
or more diligent or more earnest or more spiritual than somebody
else. It'll be because it seemed good in his sight. Now let's
think about this for just a little while this evening. David said,
I have one desire of the Lord, one desire, one thing that I
need. There's a lot of things we want.
But really believer if you're if you're a believer in the lord
jesus christ, you know this there's just one thing you need Just
one thing David said I just have one psalm
37 4 says delight thyself also in the lord And he shall give
thee the desires of thine heart Think about what that says delight
thyself in the Lord in other words the Lord is the desire
of your heart And he'll give you the desire of your heart
If your desire is him To behold his beauty to inquire more and
more into his beauty that you may behold even more That desire
will be granted That's what he said there in the beatitude if
you hunger and thirst after me you're gonna be filled If you
don't desire this If you don't desire this one thing that David
did Then if you have everything that you do desire, you'll have
nothing nothing Do do you behold the beauty of the Lord Isaiah 53 to he shall grow up
before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground
He hath no form nor comeliness And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. You don't desire him by
nature. This world doesn't desire him.
This world sees no beauty in him. He was crucified between
two thieves, and one of them mocked him, and cursed him, and
ridiculed him. And the other one said, there's
the king. He beheld the king and his beauty,
didn't he? And said Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom
Let's let's look at three things this morning on this the beauty
Beholding the beauty of the Lord and the first one is in first
chronicles 16 29 Just one verse here first chronicles
16 and First Chronicles 16 29 give unto
the Lord the glory Due unto his name Bring an offering and come
before him In other words worship him in Christ in the in the shed
blood in the only way God can be approached by the blood of
an innocent victim and Bring an offering and come before him
and worship the lord in the beauty of holiness The lord is beautiful
in his holiness And I can never feel satisfied and I got a feeling
bruce is the same way I can never feel satisfied Talking about
the holiness of god We just have to look at what the scripture
said, just the scripture language alone. I can't even expound upon
it. I can't really talk about it.
But there's no question that God's chief attribute is his
holiness. A lot of people say love, of
course. But God's love is a holy love. And I'll tell you this, I don't
know whether he loves you or not. I may feel confident that
he does, but I can't tell you whether he will deal with you
in love or not, but he'll deal with you in holiness, one way
or the other. Whatever he does with you will
be right. But I know what the scripture says, and I pray the
Lord will teach us from his word. His holiness has something to
do with sinlessness. Christ is the lamb without blemish
and without spot. There was no guile found in his
mouth. He did always those things that
pleased the Father. Listen to Colossians 121. And
you that were at one time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy. And listen to the words that
go along with that. Holy. Unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight In other words, he's gonna present you in himself
That's a description of him and us in him and those accompanying
words. Give us an idea of what holiness
is now, holy Unblameable sinless who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies who
is he that condemneth and It is a person. It's Christ that
died. Unreprovable, unchargeable. He presents us in himself and
then holy means apart We see that in some of the ways that
God describes himself listen to first Samuel 2 2 there is
none Holy as the Lord the word hole is if you look up the actual
definition of it in the original Hebrew it means apartness apartness
separate And let me read the rest of there's none. Holy is
the Lord for there is none beside thee and There's nobody like
him. He's incomparable. To whom will
you like it? The Lord. Neither is there any
rock like our God. God's holiness also, I know this,
has to do with his worthiness of reverence and awe. Listen
to Psalm 119. He sent redemption unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is his name
Psalm 89 7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of
the saints and to be had in reverence of all them That are about him.
I know his holiness has something to do with that Isaiah saw the
Lord high and lifted up and those those cherubims and They covered
their face, and they covered their feet, and they flew, and
they cried, holy, holy, holy. Have you beheld the Lord's beauty
in His holiness? I'm still inquiring about that,
how about you? And then secondly, turn to Isaiah
33. Isaiah 33 verse 10 I Now will I rise saith the Lord
now will I be exalted now will I lift up myself? And now we're
thinking remember about his beauty Is he beautiful to you? He said
I'm gonna be exalted John said he must increase And
I must decrease You shall conceive chaff, verse
11. You shall bring forth stubble.
Your breath as fire shall devour you. And the people shall be
as the burnings of lime. As thorns cut up shall they be
burned in the fire. Hear ye that are far off what
I have done, and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The
sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness hath surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously and
speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that
shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his
ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing
evil, he shall dwell on high. His place of defense shall be
the munition of rocks, bread shall be given him, his water
shall be sure, and that I shall see the king in his beauty. Have you seen
the king in his beauty? God is beautiful
in his sovereignty, is he not? He's beautiful. Nothing is more
despicable to the natural man than a reigning Christ. You realize
that, don't you? It was in that very glorious
character as king that he was mocked at Calvary, wasn't it?
They put the crown of thorns on his head and the purple robe,
put a reed in his hand, took it out of his hand and smote
him with it and said, hail the king, you know, mocking him in
that very character. Hail the king of the Jews. In
Matthew 26, 64, it says the Lord Jesus said to his enemies, hereafter,
you shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of
power. You're gonna see me exalted. You're gonna see me on the throne,
ruling and reigning over all for the good of my people. And
in verse 67, in that context, it says, then did they spit on
him. They spit in his face and buffeted
him. They hit him in the face with
their fists. Why? Because he says, I'm gonna
be on the throne. Next time you see me, You're going to see me on the
right hand of God. That's what we think about the idea of Christ
on the throne by nature. Oh, but that's until he gives
us eyes to see the king and his beauty. Are you glad this morning
that God is on the throne? Do you know what that means? Some people say, oh, well, that
makes man a puppet. Well, I'll tell you this. If
that makes me a puppet, I'm the happiest puppet you ever saw.
I want to be his puppet, don't you? Don't we pray, Lord, direct
my steps. I don't want to walk where I
want to go. You direct me. You guide me. You lead me. You
control every aspect of my life. Don't let me go. Are you glad
he's on the throne when you see him there, sovereign over all
the universe? The scripture says, not a pair
of dice is rolled. except he determines what number
comes up. Is that okay with you? Are you glad that he controls
every germ that swarms this earth? I'm glad, aren't you? Are you glad that when the lot
is cast in the lap that the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord,
or do you want good luck? Would you rather have good luck?
Are you glad that eternal life Eternal life is the free sovereign
gift of him that doeth all things well You better be glad it ain't
up to me Today I might have you all you
know in pretty good shape tomorrow. I may send you all to him But
the Lord is rich in mercy He's rich in mercy. He delights to
show mercy You make me mad you're in trouble if I'm on the throne The Lord knew what we were when
he saved us and he's not gonna let us go now Do you pray to the Lord to save
those that you love You know why you do that Because if He
wants to save them, He'll save them. That's why. I want to teach
them. I want to raise my children in
His fear and admonition. But I know this, if they're going
to be saved, God's going to have to save them. And He's going
to do it because He wants to, not because of anything in them.
Not because of anything in them. Do you want God to save your
children? Now, don't despise the means. Don't dare despise
the means. I don't know if God will be merciful
to your children or not. But if he is merciful to your
children, I know how he'll do it. It pleased him by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I'd bring him to hear
the gospel if I were you. Oh, my God. Do you think he can save them if
he wants to? And then the third thing, Exodus 33, 19. And again,
you're certainly welcome to turn there. Exodus 33, 19. I just want to remind you of
a very familiar passage of scripture and show you how it applies to
what our Psalm is speaking of. Exodus 33, 19. You remember the
context here? Moses beseeched God, show me
your glory. Show me your glory. And God said,
I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna do what you want me to. I'm gonna
do that for you. And he said in verse 19 of Exodus
33, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will
proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. And here's what
it is. I'm gonna be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. What's that got to do with Psalm
27? If you look up the original definition of the Hebrew word
for goodness in that verse right there I'll make all my goodness
pass before you you know what you'll find there the word beauty I'm gonna show you how beautiful
I am Has he ever done that for you
I'm gonna show you how beautiful I am and you know what he showed
him how he can be God and yet have mercy on sinners. He showed
him his son. He showed him the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the glory of God, the express image of his glory.
God is beautiful in his mercy and grace towards sinners. When
God passed before Moses in this place, what did that look like?
What does God's beauty look like? What does his grace look like?
What does his mercy look like? I'll tell you this it's bloody It's bloody isn't it Ephesians 1 6 to the praise of
the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of his grace. I don't know exactly
what it looked like that day when Moses saw all of the goodness
of God pass before him. I think it kind of looked like
that right there. The riches of God's grace and his forgiveness
of sinners through the redemption that is in the precious blood
of Jesus Christ. There is the glory of God. Paul
said, you want to see his glory? It shines in the face of his
son. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in my black, wicked, vile heart. And when he did, he gave
me light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And you
know where I saw it? In the face of Jesus Christ.
Oh, the most beautiful thing that a sinner will ever see is
the precious Lamb of God hanging on a bloody cross for my sin, for my sin, for your
sin. They ripped out his beard and
his face bled. They pressed that crown of thorns
upon his head and blood poured down his face. They whipped him
with the cat-o'-nine-tails, and it was bloody. They pounded nails
into his hands and his feet, and blood spurted out of them.
And they thrust a spear into his side, and the rest of his
blood poured out onto this earth. And throughout this whole scene,
The words that God spoke to Moses that day were defined. I will
have mercy. Talk about beautiful. If you ever see the Lord in his
beauty. You'll say with David, this is
my one desire. This is my one desire. That I might dwell. that I might
abide, that I might inhabit, that I might remain right here.
This one thing that David desired is the one thing that the rich
young ruler lacked. The Lord said, you lack one thing.
You know what it was? The same one thing. And Christ told Martha, one thing
is needful. And you know what it was? The
same thing. That one thing that David said,
that's my desire. I want to be where he is. Where
was Mary? She chose that one thing. And
he said, it'll never be taken away from her. Where is she?
Sitting at his feet, hearing his word. David said, that's
where I want to be too. Paul had seen the beauty of the
Lord. You know how I know that? Paul had seen him in his beauty,
in the beauty of his redemptive glory. You know how I know that?
Because he said, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss,
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them
but dumb, that I might win Christ. Have you seen him like that?
I pray that the Lord will reveal himself to us in his beauty,
in his redemptive beauty. If you ever see the king in his
redemptive beauty, what was it that Thomas saw that day when
he said to his friends, unless I see the print of the nails
in his hand, I will not believe. And the Lord of Glory, the door
being shut, came right in and said to Thomas, reach hither
thy finger and behold my side. You know what he saw? He saw
the beauty of the Lord in his redemptive character. And if
you ever do, you'll say just what he said, my Lord and my
God. My God. I want to just read you. Amazing that you quoted something
brother Jack said a while ago because I have a something that
Jack Shanks wrote my pastor for 20 some odd years That's been
a blessing in my heart ever since he wrote it He said the more
we look at Christ on the cross The more we will mourn for sin He who was pierced is your God
your maker your benefactor and your best friend. Look at the
cross until all that is on the cross is in your heart. May God bless us with a sight
of the king and his beauty and give us the desire to just camp
right there. That's where I want to live,
right there. to the glory of his holy name.