Psalm 87. Psalm 87. I titled this message,
How Firm a Foundation. We're going to sing that at the
end of it. But that's the title that stood out to me as I studied
this. It starts out, His Foundation.
God has not, never has done anything without a foundation. Everything
God does, he has a foundation for it. His foundation is in
the holy mountains and this word holy tells me he's speaking in
a spiritual matter because there's nothing on this earth that's
holy. You know, they call that the holy land over there in Israel.
That's not holy land. That's land like this land. It's
part of this earth. But I had some thoughts on this
and I want to give them to you tonight. Every building, every building
that's worth anything has a foundation. It has a foundation. If it's
a good building, as I said, if it's worth anything, if it's
a good building, it will have a very, very good foundation
laid first. It'll be laid first. You don't
build the building, then lay a foundation. You lay the foundation,
then you build the building. God laid the foundation and the
building is being built right now. As believers are being saved,
the building is being built and is being completed. And when
that last living stone is put into the building, it'll be complete
and this will be over. This part of it will be over.
A good building, a good foundation is one that will not sink under
the weight of the building. A building is no better than
its foundation, is it? It's no better than its foundation.
Well, God has laid a strong foundation for His building, His church,
the building He's building. He laid a strong foundation for
it. Now listen, He's laid that strong
foundation in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the foundation.
And He's the cornerstone of the foundation. He's the cornerstone
of the building. He's the foundation and He's
the cornerstone of it. It is written in 1 Corinthians
3.11, For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid
which is Jesus Christ. He is our foundation. We'll see this as we go along. As I said, the foundation is
laid before the building is built. The scripture says that Jesus
Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
He's the foundation and He was laid before the foundation of
the world. Peter says this in 1 Peter 1.20, Who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you. So before God laid the foundation
of the world, He laid the foundation of salvation in Jesus Christ,
His Son. Long before He laid the foundation
of this world, before He created it. Now every good building has
an architect and it has plans for the building that's going
to be built. The architect of our salvation, the architect
of the foundation, the architect of the building in which God's
going to dwell is God himself. He's the architect. Can you think
of a better architect? Just look at the earth. Look
at creation. I'm more and more amazed as I
grow older. I am more amazed just watching
a bird fly. I can watch a bird fly and stand
more amazed now than ever before. I look at creation. I look at
the trees. I look at the animals. I look
at man. I look at myself. I look at the
mental capacity that we have, the body God's given us, fearfully
and wonderfully made. Our architect, God, He did all
this. And He's the architect of salvation.
He's the architect of the foundation. He's the architect of the building.
And He drew up the plans in the covenant of grace. We have a
covenant of grace. And God goes by that covenant.
He will not break His covenant. Everything in the covenant, God
will fulfill. He will fulfill it. He's good
for His Word. God's good for His Word. In Jesus Christ, God laid the
foundation for all that He will do for time and eternity. Everything God will do. Everything. He laid the foundation
of it in that man, the God-man, Jesus Christ. He's the foundation. We've seen the church's one foundation
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. We have no other foundation other
than Christ. Now this foundation that God
has laid is a sure foundation because God laid it. What gives you confidence and
comfort that some meteorite, some big meteor isn't going to
slam into this earth and destroy it? What gives you the comfort
that's not going to happen? Because God Almighty controls
all things. And God has established this
earth, he said. He established this earth. And
it's going to last as long as he has purposed it to last. He
laid the foundation of it. Here's what's interesting, though.
It says he laid the foundations of it in the sea. This earth
is unstable, isn't it? It's only going to be here for
a while. Now, he keeps it. He does keep it. He established
it. But it's movable. It's going to perish. But the foundation that he has
laid for us in Jesus Christ, the foundation of salvation,
forgiveness, pardon, justification, righteousness, all that we need
to stand before him will not perish. He says here his foundation is
in the holy mountains. Those mountains stand for strength
and stability. They stand for strength and stability.
The foundation of God is sure because God has laid it. It has a divine origin. Then
it's a sure foundation for God Himself is the foundation. God incarnate, God in Christ,
God in the Trinity of His person is the foundation of it. He's
the strength of that foundation. It's a sure foundation because
He laid it and He laid it by His power. And then it's a sure foundation
because it's established by His Word. If God's given His Word
on something, He will not break it. He's magnified His Word above
His name. God's good for His Word. And it's a sure foundation because
it's holy. It's a perfect foundation. It's holy. And then listen, God, it says
in verse two, he loves the assembly of his church. That's local and
universal. You reckon we ought to love what
God loves? Do you love this assembly? Do
you love, I know we know the right answer. I know we know
how to answer it. but i always try to be careful not to answer
something because i know the answer but because i really know
what i'm talking about i know it by experience i know it we
are to love what he loves and hate what he hates and here
it says the lord loveth he loveth now when it says god loveth that's
that's a powerful statement powerful statement He loveth the gates. And that word gates has the meaning
of door. Christ said, I am the door by
me if any man enter in. He's a door into the church.
He's a door into heaven. He's a door into God's presence.
He's the door. The Lord loveth the gates of
Zion. Speaking here of his church,
his people. More than all the dwellings of
Jacob. I wrote something about this.
I think I may have put something in this a few weeks ago, but
I put something in there this week about this. Private devotion
is very important. It is. To get off to yourself,
read the Word of God, private prayer, closet prayer, It's very
important. But the public assembly of God's
church to worship Him in spirit and truth is what He loves most. That's what it says. He loves
the assembling of His people together more than all. And He loves us individually. and he enjoys our fellowship
privately, but I tell you this, he says, none of them supersede
the gathering together of his people, what we are doing right
now. God loves this. Think about that. Think about
that. God loves this assembly right
now. He gets great pleasure out of
this assembly right now. If two or three are gathered
together in his name, he's here, and he loves it. He enjoys it. That just shed a new light on
it for me. It made me think before coming
down here tonight, down here in the Fellowship Hall. It made
me really examine my heart and think, do I really love what
I'm doing? Do I really love this gathering? Because I know, listen,
I know from experience, I'm old enough. One thing about getting
older, one of the positives about growing older is you have the
experience of what you're talking about. When you're young, you don't
really have that experience, but when you get older, you do. I want to come to this service
with a real joy and looking forward to it, because I know my flesh. Something of it. I don't know
the fullness of it. I don't know the full corruption
of my heart. But I do know this. I know that this flesh can give
us 1,000 excuses on Thursday evening or a Sunday morning not
to get here. I mean, there could be just a
thousand and one excuses, this or that. I know myself, I know
my heart. I've done it. And I realize as I get older,
I realize to recognize that old flesh, that old man. I know what he wants. He wants
to sleep in on Sunday. I always sleep better on Sunday morning
than I do the rest of the week. It's just harder for some reason
to get up on Sunday morning than it is on Monday morning. It's
this flesh. That's very real. That's that
old man. That old man enjoys the world,
but that old man does not enjoy this, but that new man does.
That new man does. And listen, do you want to enjoy
this more? Feed that new man. Feed that
new man. Feed him with the word of God.
Feed him with the gospel. Sit under the gospel as often
as you can. Feed him. And I tell you what,
the more we feed him, the more we will enjoy this. The more
this will become real joy. The Lord loveth the gates of
Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. This is where His ordinances
are kept. This is where they are kept.
This is where Christ crucified is set forth. This is where the
glory of His person is set forth the clearest. This is where a lot of mysteries
are cleared up. How many times have you said
to me or you said to other pastors and they preach, you say, I've
never seen that before. Well, just think, if you weren't here,
you still wouldn't see it. See how important it is? This is
where Christ crucified His priest. This is where you are taught
the Word of God. This is where we are taught of
God. God is our teacher here tonight, not just me. Here is where sinners are saved.
We'll see this in a minute. They said this man was born there. This man was born there in Zion. Fellowship with Christ and one
another? Our Lord said no man lights a
candle, puts it under a bushel. The Lord has saved this one and
this one and this one. And He means for us to come together
in fellowship with one another. Fellowship in Him. That's what
1 John chapter 1 says. It talks about our fellowship
was with the Father and Jesus Christ. And he said, I'm writing these
things to you that your fellowship will be with us and our fellowship
with him. We fellowship together here with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And upon this foundation, God
is building a city. Yeah, we're a local assembly
here and we're not big. We're not a big assembly, but
you know, if you put the whole assembly together, it's a city. If you put the saints above and
the saints below, the saints from the beginning and the saints
to the end, put it all together. Put it all together and it's
a huge city. God's building a city. He says in verse 3, glorious
things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah, think about this. Glorious things are spoken of
thee. John Calvin said that it's translated
like this, that which is spoken in thee are glorious things. When we stand here, when I stand
here, and I preach Christ to you week after week, and we touch
on this part of Christ, and this about Christ, and the glory of
Christ, and His person, His work, and the unsearchable riches of
Christ, we cannot exhaust Him. Glorious things are spoken of
Him! Not only here in this assembly,
but other assemblies in this country and throughout this world
There's a city. There's a city that we can't
see with these eyes. The city of God. City of God. Glorious things, he said, are
spoken of thee. I'm trying to think of the Psalm.
Psalm 48. Look at Psalm 48. This is what God's doing. He's
putting together His city. He is the Bride of Christ, the
building of God, the city. Let's see, Psalm 48, verse...
Let me go to verse 1 and 2. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His
holiness. Beautiful, beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion. And I think he has to be talking
about that new earth, that new earth. She's the joy, the joy
of the whole earth. And who knows what will happen
here yet? I don't know. God knows. Who knows what will
happen? But the joy of the whole earth
is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city. The City
of the Great King. John Gill wrote this, It is the
City of the King of Kings, the name of which is Jehovah Shema. The Lord is there. Its foundation
is Christ, its walls and bulwarks are salvation, its gates are
praise, glorious ordinances are administered in it, and glorious
truths are preached here. And so the words may be rendered,
glorious things are spoken, in thee in this city in this city glorious listen glorious things
are spoken of her because of him that's why glorious things
are spoken in glorious things are spoken in her of him and
glorious things are spoken of her because of him turn to ezekiel
16 In Ezekiel 16, and I'll tell you the verse when
I get there, 16.14. Yes, 16.14. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty. For it was perfect through my
comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord. Your beauty's
from me. Your comeliness is from me. Is
not, listen, is not our righteousness from Him? Has He not made us
beautiful in Himself? You know, He's altogether lovely,
but now His people in Him are altogether lovely also. In Him
they are. And then notice the citizens
that make up God's city. Now if you were going to make
up a city, just naturally speaking now, if you took somebody out
here off the street and they got to make up a city, do you
think they would take their enemies and make up the city? Do you
think they would choose their enemies? Do you think they'd
do that? Now I tell you what they'd do,
they'd get the rich of the world, the most famous, most influential,
whoever could help them the most would make up the city. Whoever
could contribute to their campaign, you know, so on and so forth.
Now listen here, in verse four, I will make mention of Rahab,
that's Egypt, and Babylon to them that know me. The old Philistia,
you know, that's where David slew Goliath. The Philistines
hated Israel. And Tyre, with Ethiopia, this
man was born there. God has a people. To just shorten this down, God
has a people all over the world. God has a people in all these
countries He just mentioned here, these countries that hated Him,
God has a people in them. He has a people. His worst enemies will become
his citizens, his subjects, his friends. Were you and I not enemies
in our minds by wicked works? There's no greater enemy on this
earth than we were at one time. I mean that. I realize that.
I realize that. I was an enemy of God. Enemy
of His grace. Enemy of His person. Enemy of
God. I want nothing to do with Him.
And yet here I stand. And here you are. Here you are. And God made you a citizen. Who
were at one time enemies. His worst of enemies, we've become
citizens, the Gentiles. The Gentiles are now part of
the city of God. They're part of that city. Many from the Gentile nation
shall be born again. He said they were born there.
He goes on to say here in a minute, they were born. Speaking here
of the new birth, born again, born of the Spirit, born of the
Word of God, preached in this city. And they shall have full rights
as citizens of Zion. Have full rights. Full rights as the citizens of
Zion, of the New Jerusalem. We are a part of that. These
are the things you and I need to focus on. These are the things
we need to set our hearts on. These things. I know we have
to make enough money to pay the bills. I know what we have to
do, but here's what our hearts are set on. Because sooner or
later, I've learned this, sooner or later, You know, especially
the young ones that are here. There's a few young ones here
that's going to get a job, going to try to get a career. But you
know what? I was a machinist for 40 years.
And you know that means nothing now. That means absolutely nothing. My knowledge of machine shop
is totally worthless. And I spent 40 years learning
that trade and learning that business and now it's useless. But what I've learned of Christ
is not useless. The message I preach here is
not useless. What you come here each week and learn and drink
in is eternal. It's eternal. Your knowledge
is just going to grow. Your love is just going to grow. my knowledge of this things of
this world is going to be it's most of it's useless now but
you don't realize that until you get older you don't realize
that until you finally get in your 60s. I know a man that retired
years ago he retired and he was just depressed about it for a
long time and he said he finally realized what it was he lost
his sense of self-worth Well, we ought to lose that when God
saves us. That's when we need to lose it. And then it won't
be so hard to let these things go as they come and go. You know what my worth is? Jesus
Christ. He's my worth. Jesus Christ is
my worth. Apart from him, I am worthless.
And I mean that I am totally worthless. Apart from him. And you are too. You are too. All of us are. Apart from Christ,
we're worthless. And listen. In verse 5. The Lord shall establish her.
He's going to establish His people. And of Zion it shall be said,
this and that man was born in her. This Ethiopian, remember
the Ethiopian? We looked at here in Acts, Philip
went and preached to. This Ethiopian, this Syrian,
this American, this Chinaman, this all, they were born in her. Someone's going to hear the gospel.
God's going to send him a preacher. They're going to hear the gospel
and they're going to be born of God they're going to be a
part of that city a part of his church a part of the body of
christ and this is going it's made up
of men of all sorts poor rich educated uneducated they will
have a place in the city of god and in the city of god they won't
be this way in the city of god they won't
be uneducated Now, we in this world, we classify
everybody. But in that city, we're all one.
We are all one. This man was born there. I didn't migrate there. We're
not immigrants. I said this before, there are
no immigrants in the kingdom of God. Every last one of them
was born in the kingdom of God. We are born there. That's what
he says. We're born there. We are born citizens in the kingdom of God. Every one of them. You know, it says this in verse
6, The Lord shall count. The Lord shall count when He
writeth up the people. This speaks here of taking a
census. When He writes up the people,
that this man was born there. And just to keep this short,
He's saying here, He knoweth them that are His. He knows everyone whom He has
birthed. He knows everyone whom He's given
life to. You know, there's tares among
the wheat. Wherever there's a congregation,
there's tares among the wheat. Our Lord said that so. But our
Lord, when He takes a census, He takes a census and He says,
this one's mine. This was mine. This was mine. He writes up the citizen. He
knows who belongs to the city. He knows who the citizens are
of the city. He knows who they are. He takes
the census. He knows those who he's given
life to and faith to and repentance to. He knows them when he writes
up the census, when he counts it. He knoweth them, they're
his. It was every one of them. And then in verse 7, as well
the singers as the players on instruments shall be there. These
are the ones that were born there. Who shall be there? The ones
who were born there. And this is what they will do.
The ones who were born there, they will sing. They will sing
and they will play instruments. They will worship. This is part
of worship. What is this is singing playing the instruments, it's
part of worship. It's a festive occasion. What a happy city. What a joyful
city, unlike the cities that we have now. The rioting, fighting,
just so much mess going on. Not in his city, not in his. There shall be great joy in his
city. There is real great joy in Jesus
Christ. Great joy. And there's great
joy in each other. Great joy in each other. And all my springs are in thee. That word springs means source. That just opened that verse up
for me. Jesus Christ is the source of
all spiritual blessings. That's what he's saying. All
my springs, the source of all my blessings are in Jesus Christ. The source of all my happiness.
Now, this is so. The source of all my happiness
is Jesus Christ. It comes to me through him. The source of all grace comes
to me through Him. The source of all my righteousness
comes to me through Jesus Christ. The source of all my wisdom comes
to me through Jesus Christ. All the source of redemption,
all the source of my sanctification, all the source of all that God
has to give me flows to me through that man, Jesus Christ. It is written in Ephesians 1-3,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. We don't have them anywhere else.
Jesus Christ is the source of all heavenly blessings. It's
written in Ephesians 2.6 that God has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I and you, the whole of God's
church right now is seated in Jesus Christ. You know the whole
church of God, I don't know how long this world is going to stand,
but there are yet sinners to be born. But you know the whole church
of God from beginning to the very end of it is all assembled
before Him right now. The whole church is assembled
before Him in Christ right now. You and I have to experience
it, but as far as God's concerned, this matter is done. Now we have
to experience it, and all those who are yet to be born must experience
it, but as far as God's concerned, He's determined the end from
the beginning. It's done. This is why, you know, I realize
this now, and I didn't realize this when I was younger. You
know, whatever trial God puts me through whatever trial God's
put you through, I realize this now, the end of that trial is
already determined. It's already determined. Now
the Lord will move me by His Spirit to pray for that which
is already determined. He'll move me in that direction.
And you know, I'll get out of sorts. Don't we get out of sorts? But He brings us around. He brings
us around to that end that is already determined. And that
gives me great comfort. That gives me great comfort.
Job said he knows the way that I'll take when he has tried me.
He already knows. Because he has determined the
end from the beginning. You know, one of the things about,
and I may be getting off here a little bit, but one of the
things about Chasing him, when God chases us. When we chase our children, we
have zero control of the outcome, right? You discipline your children,
you have no control. They may get mad and take off
down the road and do something stupid or whatever. But you know,
when God chases us, he has absolute 100% control of the outcome.
The outcome's going to be what he determined. It's going to be that. He's going
to determine the whole outcome. And I like that. I like that. It's not just, he chases me,
and now let's see if he straightens up. No, I'm going to straighten
up. I'm going to get it right. It may take me a while, but I'm
going to get it right. He's going to see to it. Now, let me close. This is what
we've learned. God has laid the foundation of
the church. Jesus Christ is the church. I mean, He is the foundation.
Jesus Christ is the foundation on which the church is built.
And everyone whom He saves, He saves in Zion. They are a part of that church.
They will hear the preaching of the gospel through His church.
You know, you take, if you send, just like, let's take right here.
You send me someplace to preach. The church sent me. The Lord
sent me. The Lord used the church to send
me, and I preach, and the Lord saves somebody. Zion sent me. You're a part of it. The church
is, what I'm saying, the church is a part of it. Everyone whom He saves shall
be born there. They shall be born again. They
shall hear the gospel. They'll be a part of the church.
The church is a part of this. And all our sources, all our
blessings, all our spiritual blessings are in Christ. He's
the source of them. And God shall establish her.
This city is not going to fail. He said the gates of hell shall
not prevail against me. He says there that Let the Lord
Himself, Himself, Himself. If it was left up to us, we'd
fail a long time ago. We'd quit. But God Himself is
going to see to it that she's going to be established. He's
going to establish her. I was trying to think, that word
establish means this, order. He's going to order her. He's
going to order her steps. He's going to direct, guide,
protect, keep her. He's going to establish, order
her. And you know what's going to happen when it's all over?
He's going to present her faultless before His throne. He's going
to present us faultless before the presence of His glory. Isn't
that good news? Oh, the Lord loveth the gates
of Zion. Now, let us never get tired of this. gathering together. Let us remember this, the Lord
loves this, gathering of his people. Whether it be here locally
or universal, he loves it. He loves it. And I pray God that
he'd make our love for our gathering here together to worship him
grow greater and greater until he takes us home. All right.