Someone asked me Sunday if I
was in a hurry, because I only preached about 25 minutes. They
said, was you in a hurry today? I said, no, I just felt like
I had all the liberty, and I ran out. But I'm not going to be
in a hurry tonight. This has been a blessing to me.
I hope it will be to you. I titled this, Pilgrim is Glad. He's happy. He's elated. He went from being distressed
in Psalm 120. These are songs of degrees he's
going to. In Psalm 121, he encourages himself in the Lord and here
he's happy. Happy to go to the house of God.
not a building, but to meet together with the Lord's Church. To really
meet, come together here, not just for the fellowship, and
that's important. I cannot stress to you the importance
of fellowship with one another, but to worship God and be taught
of God. This is special. I wish I could
get this across and I wish I would realize it more and more. When
we gather together like this, the Lord has promised where two
or three are gathered together to be in our midst. He's promised
to be in our midst, to be here, to be here with us tonight. And we have that promise and
we should really, really, Make an effort every time we can to
be under the gospel because the Lord said he's going to be there. Now, I thought when I started
reading this, what a difference. The Lord makes in those whom
he saves. They go from loving sin. They go from drinking iniquity
like water. to loving righteousness and worshiping
God. Their company changes. They said, let us, let us go. His company changed, didn't it? They go from the dead to the
living. You know, I personally don't
like being around dead things. They stink. They stink. When I smell something that's
been dead for a while, it makes me want to throw up. And it's
hard to get that smell out of your nose. And I feel that way
when I've been out in the world for a while and away from God's
people and the service of God. Just being around a bunch of
dead things. But here, here in this Psalm,
Pilgrim is glad, and this is David writing. I'll refer to
David, I'll refer to Pilgrim, I'll refer to you, I'll refer
to me throughout this Psalm. But remember this, David was
not only a king, but he was also a prophet. And he's speaking
here of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, not just a place
over in the Middle East called Jerusalem. He's he's prophesying
here of the church, the city of the great king, the builder
who's builder maker is God. That's who he's talking about.
Now, he says here, I was glad the word means elated. Elated. I told this to Vicky the other
day after I'd been reading this. You know, I used to be a strong
Dallas Cowboy fan. Man, when they won, I was elated.
I mean, I was jumping up and down happy. And now I look back
at that and I'm ashamed that I was more elated over that than
I am being here. The thrill of it. I thought I'd
have that same thrill being under the gospel and hearing the gospel. How sinful, how sinful is our
flesh that we carry around with it? How sinful, how it drags
us down. It just drags us down. You know,
we are literally carrying around a dead body with us until God
lays it in the grave. But that word means elated. elated. What a difference grace makes
in a sinner saved by grace. Those who are born of God, they
go through a real change, a real change, an inner change, not
just outer. There's a real inner change that
takes place. We cannot be born of God and
not go through a real spiritual change. For the first time, we
have been made spiritually alive to God. We can now have fellowship. We can have real fellowship with
Almighty God, the One who created the heavens and the earth, the
Ones who made us. The Scripture says in John 3,
6, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which
is born of the spirit is spirit. Not just spiritual, spirit of
the same nature. That's what he's talking about.
And those who claim to believe God and still love this world
are spiritually dead. We can claim all we want to claim.
But what we love tells who we are. Verse John 2.15, Love not
the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It's not in him. I was glad, I was glad when they
said to me, let's go into the house of the Lord. You know,
over in Luke chapter four in verse 16, I'm not going to turn
there, but the Lord was going to Nazareth. I believe it's Nazareth.
And when he went there, you know what it says, as his custom was,
he went into the synagogue. That was his habit. that if you're
going to find him, you're going to find him in the synagogue.
You're going to find him in the temple. You're going to find
him teaching. That's where you're going to find him, where God
has established a place where his name was set. That's where
you find him. Now, what made Pilgrim glad here?
Here's what made him glad. When they said unto me, the first The first to say this
to Pilgrim, when they said unto me, I was reading this through
the scriptures today, listen to this. John 21, 12, Jesus says
unto them, come and dine. You see, it's when the Lord first
calls me, when he first calls me, that's when it'll make me
glad to be here. When he calls me, regenerates
me, gives me a new heart, new nature, that's when I'll be glad
to be here. Other than that, I'll not be
glad to be here. I mean, I can tell you this,
and I know this about myself, and I know this about you. There
was a time you were not glad to be here. You had other places
to be. But when he made me glad, he
said, come and dine. Listen to Revelation 22, 17.
And the spirit and the bride say, come, come. And let him that heareth say,
come, when they said unto me. And let him that's a thirst come,
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. When
they said unto me. The whole Trinity, God the Father,
the Son, the Holy Spirit, when they spoke to me in regeneration,
in salvation, I was glad, I was glad. And then secondly, when
pilgrim meets other pilgrims like-minded, you remember he
leaves home? The males were to leave and they
were to make a trip three times a year to Jerusalem. And he meets
other pilgrims and they're all saying, let's go to the house
of God. Let's go. He meets other pilgrims like-minded. Pilgrim's company made him glad. Made him glad when they said
to me, he was not alone. He was not alone. Elijah said,
I'm alone, didn't he? He said, I'm alone. I'm the only
one left. Take my life. Just kill me, Lord. Take me.
Take me out of here. I'm the only person on this earth
who believes you. And God said, no, you're not.
There are 7,000 more people and he knows, he knew the exact number.
He didn't say there are several more. He said there are 7,000.
Now, you know, seven in the scriptures is a number of perfection. The
Lord's church is complete. There are 7,000 who have not
bowed their knee to bail. So you're not alone. You're not
alone. God's people are a joy to be
with. You are a joy to be with. I have
no other friends, I mean friends in this community or any place
else, back home, I have no other friends but you. Nobody, nobody,
and I can say, I was thinking about this today, this crossed
my mind, nobody that does not believe the gospel ever calls
me. I don't have anybody calls me.
I don't. All my friends over the years have been those who
believe in God since I have believed. Now, in those early years, there
was some that did call me, then they quit. They don't call me
no more. They don't call me. You do. You do. And I have people back
home. I get phone calls every week from pastors and others. I get texts and I get emails.
But every one of them believed the gospel. Every one of them.
The world doesn't want to talk to me no more. They don't want
to talk to me no more. As Paul said, the world's crucified
to me, and I'm crucified to the world. The world's dead to me,
and I'm dead to the world. It has nothing for me, nothing
at all for me. And I have a gospel message for
them, but God will have to apply it, because other than that,
they ain't it. And that's the truth. Paul wrote this in, I'd
say Paul wrote it in Hebrews 12, one, wherefore seeing we
also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.
We're not alone. That's what made Pilgrim so happy.
He's not alone. He may have started out from
the house by himself, but he's not alone. He's got a cloud of
witnesses now with him. You know, the crowd just keeps
getting bigger and bigger as they get closer to Jerusalem.
And then they speak the same language. That makes him happy.
Zion's language. We speak the same language. You
know, when I talk to Paul, Mahan, or Tom Harding, or when I speak
to these other men and just other believers, when I speak to them,
we speak the same language. Sooner or later, the gospel comes
up. It comes up. We speak the same language. We're
going in the same direction. It's not, I'll see you later.
We're going in the same direction. To the city of the great king,
that's where we're going. We have the same motive. Isn't
that something, to have the same motive? Two people going in the same direction,
except two agree, how can they walk together? Pilgrim is walking
with other pilgrims, and they're in full agreement. They're in
full agreement who God is, who Jesus Christ is, and have God
save sinners. They are in full agreement. Full
agreement. And they're going there to worship
the God of Israel. And it's the Lord's house. It's
called the Lord's house. You know the Lord's house is
the church. You know that. It's not this building. This
building burned down and the church didn't burn down. Church is not gonna burn down.
Church is you. You're the house of God. God
said, I'll walk in them. I'll be their God, and they shall
be my people. She's spoken of as a building.
She's spoken of as a city. Turn over to Revelation chapter
21. I'm reading this as part of my
study. Look in verses one and three. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem. That's who David's speaking about,
the church. The church is the New Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and
God himself shall be with them and be their God. Look over in
verse 22. And I saw And I saw no temple therein,
that is in this city. He describes this if you want
to read that chapter. But I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
They are the temple. It's a living temple. You and
I are living stones. And the city had no need of the
sun. This city doesn't, the church. Neither of the moon to shine
in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof. He's the light thereof. And the
nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it,
and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into
it. He has made us what? Kings and priests. Kings and
priests. And the gates of it shall not
be shut at all by day, Well, there shall not be no night there
and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into
it. And I'm going to read verse 27 with another statement. I was glad when they said, let
us go. Let us go into the house of the Lord. And
here's another thought that hit me just before coming out here. What about when God calls me
home? When he calls me to heaven, will
I be glad? Yes, I will be. I believe I will.
And I believe that there are some of you who will be glad
when God calls you home. that he'll give us the grace
to say goodbye. He'll give us the grace to say,
I'll see you later. If I go before you, you who believe,
I'll see you again. Didn't that what the Lord said
to his disciples? I'll see you again. And I'll see you again. If I go before you, you who believe,
I'll see you again. If you go before me, we'll see
each other again. It'll just be a little while,
like Henry told Nancy Parks after her husband passed away. She
said it helped her so much. He said to her, he said, he's
just around the corner. He's just around the corner.
It's such a short time. And then pilgrim along with other
pilgrims, they are within sight of Jerusalem, the city of the
great King. And they say this in verse two, our feet shall
stand. And really this is a statement of faith. Here's a statement
of faith. It's not a hopa, hopa, hopa,
hopa there. It's not that kind of hope. You see, the hope that
we have in the gospel is an expectation based on God's word, God keeping
his word. And here's a statement of faith
by Pilgrim and then by David and by all of God's children.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Our feet will stand in heaven
one day in that new Jerusalem, that city of the great king.
Our feet shall stand. It stands in it now. If God has saved us, we are standing
in the church, in God's church, in the body of Christ, we are
standing. And notice here, it's not just,
it's not, he doesn't say my feet shall stand. He says our feet. You see, Pilgrim's not selfish
here. He just, he looks at his brothers and his sisters and
he said, our feet shall stand. And I look at you. And I say, our feet shall stand
within her walls, within thy gates, inside, not outside looking in,
inside, just as Noah was in the ark. And when he says here, our feet
shall stand, shows they've reached their destination. You know,
right now we stand in heaven, even though we are here in Christ.
In Christ, we are seated in him, we stand in him, we are in him. There's a sense, now there's
a real sense, and God has to show this to us,
but there's a real sense that I'm already there. I'm already
there. Now, I'm going to experience
that in a little while, and you are too. But there's a real sense
in which in Christ, we are already there. You know, Christ said that he
was in the bosom of the Father at the same time he's on earth.
And here we are on earth, but at the same time, we're also
seated at his right hand. That's a reality. And that's
a reality we need to live with. I don't wanna just say, someday
I'm gonna be, I'm there now. And then in a little while, I'm
gonna experience it completely, fully, perfectly. You see, it's not just my feet,
it's our feet. You know, Paul said this in 2 Thessalonians
2.13. But we are bound to give thanks always 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. We thank God for each other. We thank
God for each other. Isn't it good to take a walk
with a friend? I thank God for you. I thank
God for your fellowship. I thank God for your fellowship.
I thank God for your love. I thank God for your generosity.
I thank God for you. That's what he's saying here.
Our feet will stand. He's including his other pilgrim
friends. Our feet shall stand within thy
gates, O Jerusalem. And he's glad, listen, I'll tell
you another reason why he's glad. Because of where our feet used
to stand before God saved us. Used to stand over hell. Ephesians chapter 2 says, we
were children of wrath by nature, even as others, even as others. You know, if
you go over to Psalm one, he says that, um, that that blessed
man is blessed is what he's doesn't. He's not in the council of the
ungodly or standeth in the way of sinners in the seat of the
scornful. That's exactly where we used
to be before God saved us, but not anymore. Not anymore. Oh, my feet stand within God's
church, within the body of Christ. My feet don't stand in a honky-tonk
anymore. They don't stand there no more. I'm ashamed of where
my feet have stood before, but they don't stand there no more.
John Newton said, I'm not what I used to be. I'm not what I
want to be, but I'm sure not what I used to be, not what I'm
going to be. I'll get it right in a minute.
I'm not what I'm going to be, but I'm not what I used to be.
Can't you say that? You're not what you used to be.
He said, well, I didn't go to those places. Well, you're not,
you're not self-righteous anymore either. You see some stand in
self-righteousness, but you sure didn't stand in favor with God.
Not by nature, you didn't. And we had favor with God in
Christ, but we didn't know that. He didn't know that. To stand here is to stand is
to be in the Lord's church, the new Jerusalem. And he says here,
now he speaks of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city
that is compact, firm. You know when you really compact
something, you make it dense, firm and strong. That's what
it is. Jerusalem is built as a city
that is compact together. And he's saying here, she's well
built. She's well built by the master builder. God built her
just like he did Adam. You know, when you go over here,
let me read. I wrote this down. I'll read this to you over here
in Genesis 2. She's built, she's built. Genesis
chapter 2 look let me read verse 21 22 and the Lord God calls
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one
of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the
rib which the Lord God had taken from Adam made he a woman over
in the margin you know what says builded he built Adam a wife
and that's exactly what God's doing with the church. He's building Christ a wife,
the bride of Christ. And to think you are part of
it. Think about that. You're a part of it. You're a
part of the bride of Christ. God is building you. Listen to
Hebrews 11, 10. For he looked for a city, that
is Abraham, looked for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God. It says in Psalm 100, He hath
made us and not we ourselves. He has built us and not we ourselves. Ephesians 4, 16, Paul writes,
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted,
firmly put together, by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,
the whole body working together, maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love." You're being built by God, a
part of the Body of Christ. And here's the verse I wanted
to read out of Revelation 21, 27 about this city. You see, the church is spoken
of here as a building. It's built together, but it's
also spoken of as a city, a building of God, but also a city. You see, a city is full of people. It's full of people. It's a righteous
city. There's no sin, no sin in this
city, no sin can enter this city. You know, usually where there
are a lot of people, there's a lot of crime in there. The bigger the city, the higher
the crime rate. Even though heaven is made up
of sinners, Saved by grace, there's no sin there. It's all gone.
It's all gone. It's a righteous city. Revelations
21, 27, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that
defile it. That new Jerusalem I just read
to you about. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the land's book
of life. No locks on the doors. Remember, I've read till you
said, the gate shall not be shut. Now, why do people live in a
gated community? They do it for protection more
than anything. They do it for protection. They just shut the
gates. You've got a guard at the gate.
You check everybody coming in, going, coming and going. You
check it. He said, that gate's wide open. no sin no evil gonna enter that
city it's over with that that is over with that's gone and he says here in verse 4 whether
the tribes go up the tribes of the lord unto the testimony of
israel to give thanks unto the name of the lord israel was made
up of 12 tribes it was made up of 12 tribes And the males from
all those tribes went up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. And it was
not just tribes or any tribes. It says the tribes of the Lord,
His chosen tribes, His elect. His elect, you see, it's the
12, it's the elect of God that can make up this city, that make
up this new Jerusalem, that make up the worship in this city of
God. Unto the testimony of Israel,
to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant
was kept there. It was kept. Now you know this,
that David's writing this, the Temple ain't even been built
yet. That's why he's speaking. God gave him a revelation, an
understanding of what's going to happen. Solomon's going to
build this temple and the ark. Listen, the ark is not going
to be carried from place to place no more. It's going to be in
one place. One place. The gospel is in one place. The
church. The gospel's in the church. I
know we have different local churches that the Lord has established
throughout this world, but it's still just one church, one gospel. And that's where the gospel is.
That's why it's so important to come here and hear the gospel.
This is where it is. This is where it is. I like sermon
audio. I listen to it every pretty much
every day. I like it, but it doesn't replace
this. It does not replace this. Forsake
not the assembling of thyself together as the manner of some
is. I think we live in a day when
there are less and less people who go to the worship service,
who go to hear preaching, and any little stupid thing in the
world can come up and have an excuse, and they don't go. You drop everything when it comes
time to hear the gospel. You drop it off. Unto the testimony of the Lord,
the church and the gospel, the testimony are kept there in the
church. And we thank God for it. You
see there, he said, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. You
know, worship, a big part of worship is gratitude, isn't it?
Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. I think if there's anything
that I would regret, and I'm just talking in a natural way
of thinking right now because I'm not in heaven. There we have
the mind of Christ. We have a perfect mind. But I
think if there's anything I regret or be ashamed of, He said, I
didn't worship more, pray more, read more, and be more devoted
to Him who saved me by His grace and gave me all the riches of
glory and an eternal life to walk on a new earth and I'm never
gonna die. Death will never enter my mind. It will never be a subject no
more. That's my future. And to think that I can be so
cold, that just, that disturbs me. It disturbs me. What God has done, what Christ
has suffered, and yet to, my, my, my. Thank you, Lord. God's people are a grateful people.
For there are set thrones of judgment. For there are set thrones of
judgment, the thrones of the house of David." You know, Jerusalem
was a place of authority. It's a place of government. It's
where the king governed was in Jerusalem. That's where he established
his home, his throne, you see. He took it from the Jebusites.
David took Jerusalem from the Jebusites and that became the
city of the great king. That is Jerusalem. And there
He governs. Christ governs from His Church. Listen, Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem,
it's not a lawless city. The Church is not a lawless city.
It's not lawless. The Church is not without authority
and government. We are governed by the Gospel
and the Holy Spirit, aren't we? Grieve not the Holy Spirit. We're
governed by him. You know, Paul throughout his
epistles, he wrote about our walk and our talk. You know,
his epistles started out with doctrine. They started out with
the gospel, you know, the foundation, the foundation of salvation,
the doctrines, what we call the doctrines of grace. But his epistles
don't stop there. They go into our walk and our
talk, our daily lives. He reaches into our daily lives. You're not the same no more.
You're not giving yourself, he says, in his epistles, to fornication
and being whoremongers and drunkards. He said, no drunkard will enter
the kingdom of heaven. The church is not lawless. She's
not saved by the law. She's saved by the grace of God
through the blood and righteousness of Christ. But she's governed
by the gospel. She's governed by love. Love is a stronger force than
any commandment. Walk as He walked. That's what
we're told here, aren't we? Walk as He walked. Listen when we preach the gospel
right now, you know right now judgments being executed in the
preaching of the gospel right now I'm gonna read you two scriptures
2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 15 16 for we are unto God a Sweet
saver of Christ and then that are saved and in them that perish
to the one we are the saver of death and the death And to the
other saver of life and the life who's sufficient for these things
and Those who sit under the gospel,
those who hear the gospel, and they sit under the gospel, you
know that gospel's gonna rise up in judgment on them, who believe
not? Listen, John 12, 48. He that
rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth
him the word that I have spoken. The same shall judge him in the
last day. This gospel will rise up in judgment
in the last day. Now here's what we are to do.
Let me wind this down. He's happy. He gives thanks. He's in good
company. They're going to stand within
the gates of Jerusalem. They're going to worship the
king. And he says this, pray. for the peace. Now in Hebrew
that word means safety. We live in a ungodly world, don't
we? We live in a world that hates
God. Pray for the safety of Jerusalem. Pray for the safety of God's
church. Pray for her safety. He's telling
me that Gabe is going to Africa. Pray for his safety. Pray for
it. We live in a world that hates
God and hates us. Pray for it. The people of this
city are to pray for it's peace, it's safety. We know it's safe
in heaven, we know that. We know the church that is already
there is safe, and we are safe, I know that. But he still says
what? Pray. Do you believe God's gonna give
you your daily food? But he still tells us to pray for it, doesn't
he? We show our dependence on him when we pray. We're not fatalist. We believe God and he said to
pray. Peace, we pray peace within the
church. We're not to be at odds with
one another. We're not. I have been in a situation where
the piece was broken and it was disturbed and it was awful. You
went through that here. You went through that. It's awful,
isn't it? It's awful when you come here and it's a fight. It's
a fight. I wrote this down somewhere.
Behold, Psalm 133.1. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's pleasant to come
here. And we're all in agreement. We're all in love with Christ.
We love one another. We seek one another good. And
we seek peace. We pursue it. We go out of our
way. Listen, we go out of our way. Without compromising the gospel,
we go out of our way to keep the peace. You want that in your
own families, don't you? I do. I want Jason and Jeremy
to be at peace with one another. That way I don't have to discipline. I don't have to break the belt
out or the switch. It's nice when there's peace. And that's what he's saying here.
Pray for the peace and the safety of Jerusalem, God's church. And
he gives a promise here to those who do. They shall prosper that
love thee. Those who love God's people,
you love God's people. Now, if you really genuinely
love God's people, it's because you're one of them. You're one
of them. And he says here, they shall
prosper. That's a promise. And I believe
he's speaking here mostly of soul prosperity, soul prosperity. But I tell you what, we are prosperous
in every other way too, aren't we? We're not a poor people. We're
not financially poor. We're not poor people. We've
been blessed above measure. We live better than Kings have
lived. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. Jerusalem was a walled city,
just as the church is. You know the church is a walled
city. Isaiah 26, 1. In that day shall this song be
sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation
will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. That's our wall. Salvation
in Christ. That wall's about the church.
It's the salvation that we have in Christ. A prosperity within
thy palaces. Spiritual prosperity, that's
what I want. I want spiritual prosperity.
Pray that she may grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. I pray
that, I'm serious, I pray that for you every week. I pray that God will enable me
and you to grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ. And because
I know this, I know this. That will take care of all trouble. And that will enable us to truly
come here and worship. Worship the Lord Jesus Christ. If we grow in grace and knowledge
of him. And listen. Pray, he says here, peace be
within thy walls, within the church, peace be within the church.
It's one thing that, you know, there's no peace out there in
the world. But brethren, there should always be peace in the
church. And I know there's gonna be tares and goats among the
sheep, there always will be. But not among us who believe,
there should never be, there should never be a division between
us who believe the gospel. And prosperity, pray for the
palaces. Plural, palaces. You know, our Lord said, in my
father's house are many what? There are no slum in that city. I looked at that, and I looked
at that, and I looked at that. And I thought, palaces. Palaces,
plural. We are made kings and priests
under God. Kings live in palaces. Everyone whom God saves, they
are kings and priests. And as I said, there's no slum
in that city. Where there's sin, you'll find
slums. That's where slums come from.
It comes from just human depravity. That's where the slums come from. People create the slums. Slums
don't create the people. They create the slums. It's because
of that sin within. And they like to wallow in it.
It says in Psalm 48.3, God is known in her palaces for refuge. for my, listen, verse eight,
for my brethren and companions sake, I will now say peace be
within thee. You know this, our Lord speaks
peace to his church for his brethren's sake, his companions, he speaks
peace to his church. I can hear the Lord speaking
through this Psalm. But also here, David was not a selfish
king. You know, he spoke of pray for
the peace of Jerusalem, Peace be within thy walls, prosperity
within thy palaces. And it wasn't because his wife
and his children lived there. It's because his companions,
God's people, lived there. He was not a selfish king. Our
Lord's not a selfish king. He prayed. He prayed for our
prosperity, spiritual prosperity, is what he prayed for. Pilgrim
here does not think of himself only, but his companions who
he attends worship with, who he attends. You know, when
we come here, if we really honestly prayed for one another to come
here with the spirit of worship, what a service it'd be, what
a real service this would be. Love of the brethren is evidenced
by doing what you do for their spiritual well-being. Last of
all, because of the house of the Lord, because of the church,
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. Our Lord did that. Our Lord sought our good. And
someday we'll realize that. Because of whose house it is,
I will seek thy good. I often think when I'm preparing
to preach, when I'm coming out here to speak to you, one of
the thoughts that goes through my mind is that I'm preaching
to a people for whom Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, died for. Christ died for you. And he has
given me charge as an under-shepherd to teach you and to preach to
you the gospel. And whatever I do, I aim to do
it for your good. I ran a business, plant manager
one time years ago for a man, and one of his mottos, when we
were making decisions about the business, one of his mottos was,
do no harm to the business. Whatever decisions you make,
do no harm to the business. And that's the motto here, do
no harm to the Lord's Church. Do no harm, not on purpose. This
Psalm puts our gathering together in a true spiritual light. Pilgrim
was distressed. Pilgrim lifted up his eyes unto
the Lord, and he found comfort, and he found encouragement, and
here he's glad, he's happy, he's elated. He ran into other pilgrims,
and they said, let's go, let's go together to the house of God,
and let's worship Him. I hope we can keep that attitude
every time we come here.