Psalm 132. Lord, and that's capital L-O-R-D,
the only one true self-existing God, that's who is being called
upon in this psalm. Lord, remember Christ. Remember Christ. You know, most believe that Solomon
wrote this psalm. If you'll remember, David repaired
all the materials for the house of God to be built, the temple.
And Solomon, David's son, built the house. David was not allowed,
he was a man of war, and so he was not allowed to do it. It's
interesting, Jason read in Titus, and he gave the credentials of
a pastor, of the Lord's servant. He's not to be a striker, he's
not to be an abuser. You know, David was a man of
war. He went to war several times. Solomon, David's son, peace was
given to him. He's a son of peace, like the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and he built a house. And so they say, most say that
Solomon wrote this, but this has reference to the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is a Messianic psalm. Now
we know the Lord remembers his servants, we know that. He remembers
his children in their afflictions. You know, God is not unrighteous
to forget our afflictions that we suffer for Christ's sake.
He's not unrighteous to forget that. It says in the scriptures,
that God remembered Noah and the flood was assuaged, it dried
up. It says God remembered Noah.
It says God remembered Abraham and he delivered Lot. God remembers
his servants and all of you who believe are his servants. You
are the servants of Christ. You serve him where he has put
you. You serve him in the body where he has placed you in the
body. That's where you serve him. And he's not unrighteous to forget
our afflictions. But when we look at this and
he says, Lord, remember David and all his afflictions? Our
afflictions, if you're just talking about David, if it's just David,
really, our afflictions are a lot less than we deserve. and I deserve
every affliction I've got, I've had, or ever will have, I deserve
it, and much more, much more. In Psalm 103, 10, he hath not
dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities, our iniquities. So it's not our affliction, because
I deserve afflictions, and he hasn't dealt with me according
to my inequities and sins. The reference here is to the
greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Read it like this. Lord, remember Christ. Remember
the Lord Jesus Christ and all his afflictions, all his sufferings. Remember him. Look to him. Is that not what we want tonight?
Lord, look to Christ tonight and receive our worship. Receive our praise, our songs
of praise. Here's something interesting.
Aaron, when he made atonement, when he made atonement for the
sins of Israel, you know he had to make an atonement for the
holy things also? You know that Christ had to make
atonement for this service tonight, this worship service? The blood
of Christ makes atonement for the iniquity that's in this service. I saw that this week and it was
just like, Jesus paid it all. The Lord Jesus
paid it all, all to him I owe. He has even put away the sin
of this service that it might be accepted of God. Our praise
is accepted. Now you know and I know we did
not sing those songs with full heart. We didn't do it. We didn't sing it with complete,
full understanding. We didn't sing with full love
and interest in him. We sang it better than we used
to. We used to not sing it at all. And we did sing it in sincerity,
and we did sing it unto the Lord, but the Lord washed away all
the iniquity in it. And God receives it. You know,
he receives this worship service as much as he receives the worship
that's going on right now before his throne. That's amazing. That's amazing. You see, his afflictions have
saving value in them. My afflictions have no saving
value in them whatsoever. None. But his afflictions do. Isaiah 53, 7, he was oppressed
and he was afflicted. For us. For us. Listen to this. Isaiah 63, 9,
in all their affliction, he was afflicted. over in lamentation,
he said, is there any sorrow like a demise sorrow, all you
that pass by, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me? The Lord hath
afflicted me? Jehovah hath afflicted me? His
affliction has saving value in it by his stripes. By his stripes. They whipped
him so, see, he was whipped under Roman rule. You see, under Jewish
law, it was what, 40 stripes save one? They spared one stripe
just so they wouldn't break the law. He was whipped under Roman
law, no limit, no limit. I have no doubt they whipped
him to the point where they thought, if we don't stop right here,
we're not gonna be able to take him to the cross. His visage, his appearance was
so marred, more than any man, by his affliction. Lord, Jehovah,
Father, look to your son and deal with me. Look to your son
and accept this worship service. Look to your son and forgive
me. Look to your son and save me. Isn't that powerful? There's
nothing like taking God's word to him. Look to him. and deal
with me in him, deal with me in mercy in your son. That's
beautiful. Now we know that it's not like
the Lord to forget the sufferings of Christ. It's not being said
in that way. It's being said, look to him.
What really is going on here is us remembering his sufferings
as we stand before God. It's us remembering his substitutionary
work, his substitutionary character. It's us remembering him. That's what's going on. We never want to deal with God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Never. When we pray, we pray in his
name. His name. When we ask for forgiveness,
we ask for forgiveness in His name. We'll see this in a minute,
for Christ's sake. Boy, I've used that so many times.
Father, for Christ's sake, forgive me. Let His blood be propitiation
for my sins. I've used that so many times,
and I'm gonna use it till the end, because it's my hope before
God. It's my hope before God. Listen
here, verse 2. Remember David and remember Christ
and all his afflictions, and remember how he swore unto the
Lord and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Look to the covenant. Remember that covenant. Remember
him. Remember his afflictions. Remember
the covenant that's between you and him. Remember that covenant
that he swore as our surety. as our substitute, as our mediator,
as our all in all. Look to the covenant that's between
you and him and deal with me according to that covenant. God
is a covenant God. I never even heard of the covenant
until I heard Henry preaching the gospel. I never heard of
a covenant. How do you preach the gospel and never preach the
covenant? God is a covenant God. He's a
covenant God. And so he says here, remember
him in his afflictions and that covenant between you and him
concerning me, concerning his elect, concerning those for whom
he died. Look to that covenant. And then in verse three and five,
we see our Lord's determination to accomplish the work given
him to do as our Redeemer. That's what we looked at Sunday.
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
may glorify thee. I have finished the work which
you gave me to do. Now I want you to listen to these
verses here. In verse three, surely I will not come into the
tabernacle of my house nor go up into my bed. I will not give
sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids until I find
out a place for the Lord. and habitation for the mighty
God of Jacob. Our Lord, when he came into this
world, he said, I must be about my father's business at 12 years
of age. He was 12 years old when he said
that. I must be about my father's business. My meat is to do the
will of him that sent me. Many times he prayed all night.
Every day had its agenda. You know, oftentimes, we get
up and we think, what am I going to do today? That never happened
with him. Every day, I must go to Samaria. I must needs go, he said. I must
needs go to Samaria. I must needs go to Spring Lake. You see, in Samaria, there's
a woman going to be at a well at a certain time, and he's going
to be there waiting. He's right on schedule. God is
always right on schedule. Always. He's never late. He's never late. He's always
on time. Time to be born, time to die.
Time for everything under heaven. Time and purpose for everything
under heaven. And our Lord had it every day. He would go to
Jerusalem. He'd go to Galilee. He went to
Capernaum. He went here. He went there.
He saved this one. He saved that one. He wasn't
just willy-nilly doing this. This was predestinated before
the creation of the world. Every step he took, every word
he spoke, he said, as I hear, I speak. Not a word came out
of his mouth that wasn't God speaking. God speaking. That's why when we read the word
of God, this is God speaking. This is not an ordinary book,
it's not just another book. This is God speaking. For the Lord, he says, look here
in verse six, or five, verse six. Here's the importance of
our gathering together. You see, he said that he was
not going to rest until he found out a place for the Lord. In
other words, he's going to build the church. You know that we
are the place of God's rest. We're the place of his rest.
Look in verse 13. I kind of threw myself off here.
I put verse 13 down in the middle of this, and I thought, whoa,
I thought I messed up. But now, remember the point.
This is what a senior moment looks like. Verse 13, for the
Lord has chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation.
God has desired you for his habitation. That's hard to grasp, isn't it?
So full of sin, so full of sin, so full of This world, so much
of it is still with us and still in us by nature. We still have
that old nature. And yet God has chosen Zion. The scripture says over in Peter,
we are a chosen people, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation. There is one holy nation, truly
one holy nation on this earth. It's not Jerusalem. That is not
holy ground. It's his church. And that's where
he dwells. You know, you're God's habitation.
You're God's habitation. That ought to make us really
think, you know, when we go throughout the day, we're God's habitation. Where I go, what I do, I'm God's
habitation. For the Lord has chosen Zion,
he has desired it for his habitation. Now listen, now I'm gonna get
back to the point I was gonna make out of this. How important
Is our gathering together here tonight? Never take this lightly. Never
take, you can be here or you cannot be here. I'm telling you
the truth, don't take that lightly. Because if you do, God will take
it away from you. He said, I'll come and remove the candle. Those
churches, he told me, the ones that were in trouble, He said,
I'll come and I'll remove the candlestick. I'll remove the
gospel. I'll remove it. I'll remove it. I'll remove the
bastard. Here's the importance of it. Look in verse six. Lo,
we heard of it. What did we hear of? Well, first
of all, they're speaking here of the ark. We heard of it in
Ephrata. You know what, you know what
Ephrata is or where, who that is, where it is. It's Bethlehem.
the house of bread. Where'd you hear the gospel?
You heard the gospel in God's church. God's pastor preaching
the gospel. God crossed your path with the
gospel. He crossed your path with his
servant, and he brought you to his church. And you've been hearing
the gospel for many years now. Let us never take this for granted.
Lord, don't let us grow cold. Don't let me be like that piece
of coal that's taken out of the fire and laid over by itself.
You know what happens when you take a piece of coal out of the
fire and you lay it by itself? It doesn't take long. It starts
to smolder. It starts to smoke. And in just a little while, it
goes out. It goes out. Lo, and that word lo, I looked
it up, it means give your attention to this. There's something about
to be said that deserves your attention. Lo, we heard, has
faith come? Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. And God's word is preached here
every week. This is so important. We heard
of it in Ephrata, Bethlehem, the good news of the gospel pronounced
by the angel. Where was it pronounced at? Unto
you is born this day in the city of David, which is Bethlehem,
a savior. A savior. Do you still need a
savior? Brethren, I need a savior. I need God to save me moment
by moment. I need a continual working of
God in saving me. I understand this. I have been
saved. I'm being saved. And I shall
be saved. And I need God to save me right
now. Right now. And right now. It's
always right now with me. It's always right now. Not one
person in this room has the next second unless God gives it to
you. You don't have it. You don't have it. Vicki was
telling me of our niece, I think it's her boyfriend, his 16-year-old
son was killed this past week, 16 years old. He didn't see that
coming. They never do. They never do. We heard the good news of the
gospel in Bethlehem, the city of the great
king. You know where the city of the
great king is now? Church. It's you. It's not over there
in the Middle East. It's you, the church. We are the city of
the great king. How much do we miss when we're
not here? How much, Lord, how much? Well, I'll tell you what we miss
most of all, his presence. And I can listen, I listen to
sermons pretty much every day. Sometimes I listen to two and
three a day, as well as read that God's special presence is
right here. That's what he said. The church,
listen, the church is where the Lord reigns, it's where the Lord
is preached, it's where he is worshipped in spirit and in truth. Now we do so individually in
heart, but right here's where it happens. Here's where it happens. Listen, Isaiah 24, 23. Then the moon shall be confounded
in the sun of shame when the Lord of hosts shall reign in
Mount Zion. And here, Lord, we heard of it
at Ephrata in Bethlehem, city of the great king. And we found
it in the field of the wood. We found it in the most unlikely
place. We didn't find it in, I didn't
find the gospel in religion. I did not find Christ in religion. And yes, I found him. According to the scriptures,
I was found of them. That sought me not. I found him
and I wasn't even looking for him. But I'll never forget, I'll
never forget, and I've told this story so many times because I
never forgot it. I went over to my mom and dad's,
me and Vicki and the boys. Went over to eat, we always went
over on Sunday to eat dinner, supper, lunch, whatever you call
it. And Henry was there, dad had him on the TV preaching.
He said, that man's preaching the gospel. I wasn't looking for it. I was
all right. I wasn't looking for it. I found
him whom I wasn't seeking. He was made known unto me, and
I wasn't asking after him. I wasn't asking after him. And
there, I found him. He made himself known to me.
That's how you find Christ, when he makes himself known to you.
Like those two men on the road to Emmaus. He's walking, they're
talking. He's talking with them. And then
he vanished, and they said, did not our hearts burn? You know,
I've had a lot of heartburn, but spiritual heartburn's a good
one to have. They said, did not our hearts burn within us as
he talked with us? Have you ever felt that? Has
God ever made your heart to burn when you've heard the gospel
preached? Christ speaking, Christ speaking. We found him in an unlikely place. We didn't find him in religion.
First of all, you know where they found him? in a manger,
in a manger, feeding trawl. That's where they found him. He's found among a small group
of believers. There's many places here, no
doubt in this community, that have way larger crowds than we
have. And yet, Here we are, in this
little insignificant gathering, as far as the world's concerned,
we have the gospel, we have Christ. We have the ark of God's strength
with us, the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be a small place where
we find the gospel, and if so, don't leave it, don't leave it. And after we have found it, after
he's made himself known to us, verse seven, we will go into
his tabernacles. We will worship at his footstool.
I don't know what, now I don't know what all these things mean.
There's so many meanings in these, gospel meanings, it's impossible
for me to do nothing but scratch the surface tonight. That's all
I'm doing. We will go into his tabernacles.
And I read a lot of different ones on this, but you know, the
thought that came to my mind, this is the thought that stayed
with me. We will go where the local assembly of God's people
gather together. And we'll worship at his footstool. We'll worship at his footstool.
First of all, here's the spirit of worship. We will go willingly,
wanting to be here. Did you want to be here tonight? I wanted to be here tonight. I didn't just have to be here
because I'm the pastor. I want to be here. We will go, we. We, it's a community. This is a fraternity, you know
that? This is a fraternity. The Lord's
family. The Lord's family. And then we
go, here's the spirit in which we go, is one with humility.
We will worship at his footstool. We're not walking in here proud
and boasting and with that kind of attitude. We
walk in here with humility. The Lord has allowed, you know
the Lord allowed you to come here tonight? Every one of you,
God allowed you to be here. This is not something I had to
do, it's something I was allowed to do. God gave me a heart to do it,
and it means to get here, and a heart, when I got here, to
worship him. God, listen, if the Lord is here
tonight, two or three gathered together, the Lord is here. He's
got to be the one that'll allow us into his presence. I just
finished reading the book of Esther, and the one thing that
stood out to me, Esther the queen, The queen, the beloved queen,
she could not just walk in that room and just walk up to, she
couldn't do it. She couldn't just walk in there
to the king and say, hey. I wish she wouldn't say it that
way, but she was not gonna walk in there to the king. You know
what happened? When she came in and bowed, and
here's what happens. He took his scepter and pointed
it to her. Quit saying it's okay, come on
in. You and I are here by the authority
of Christ. We are here because the Lord
has reached his scepter and pointed to it, come on in. You're allowed
into the worship service. You remember in the gospels where
the one came in and didn't have the right dress, there was a
dress code for this wedding, and the one guest in there didn't
have it on. And they took him out of there.
They took him out of there. We are allowed of God to be here
tonight. So we come, we'll go and we'll
worship at his footstool. And it says also here, we will
go into his tabernacles. Now Solomon has built a temple
and the ark has a fixed place. You know the gospel has a fixed
place. The church, Zion. The gospel is preached in local
assemblies throughout this world. It's not preached in the taverns.
It's not preached in organized religion. It's preached in Zion,
is where it's preached. And listen here, listen to his
request again. Now here's another request. I'm
not gonna try to go through all this tonight, it'll just be,
It'll be too long. But notice here in verse eight. He asked the Lord to arise. To arise, oh Lord, oh Jehovah. Arise into thy rest. Thou and the ark of thy strength. God was in Christ, and he still
is. The fullness of the Godhead is
in Christ, the place of God's rest. Christ is in the church. You and I are the place of God's
rest. You know, we're told to labor to rest in Christ, but
God's resting in Christ, and resting in Christ, he rests in
us in Christ. You know what? Faith, listen. Faith, by faith, we look to Christ,
don't we? We look to Christ for all things.
We look to Christ in everything we need. We look to Christ in
worshiping God. You know who God looks to? Same
place we do, Christ. Christ is our meeting place. I know we're here in this local
assembly. We got an address out there,
1972 Bethel Baptist Road. But really, we are meeting together
tonight in Jesus Christ. Think of it that way. Don't think
of it as meeting here in this building. We are meeting together
in Christ. And you know that other churches
up here in Rocky Mount, Virginia, and Lexington, and others, they're
all meeting in Christ too. All at the same time, we're meeting
in Christ. Arise. You know, Solomon, listen,
Solomon, over in 2 Chronicles 6, chapter 6, verse 41, Solomon
says this exact thing. He quotes, I mean, this is a
quotation from that chapter. He says, arise, O Lord, into
thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength. When he dedicated
the temple, that's what he said. Where is the ark of God's strength?
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to Romans 1-6, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For
it is the power of God. It's the strength of God. And
that word power means dunamis. Dynamite is what it means. It
means dynamite. For it is the power of God unto
salvation. Christ is that ark. You know,
in the ark, the law was kept. That broken law was kept where?
In the ark. Aaron's rod that budded was kept
in the ark. A pot of manna was kept in the
ark. The Lord Jesus Christ kept God's
law. He kept God's law, and he's the
rod of God's strength. He's the branch. Oh, Lord, arise, arise, oh, Lord,
into thy rest. Into thy rest. Here's the real
rest. The Lord Jesus Christ and his people, the church, is
God's place of rest. And it's the strength of God
in saving sinners. And it's the place and the strength
of God in keeping us. You know, it says we are kept
by the power of God through faith. And that faith is exercised in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's exercised in him. Arise,
O Lord, into thy rest. And let us find rest in the same
place God finds it. His son. His son. I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna stop
there. We'll pick it up, Lord willing,
the next time from this psalm.