Psalm 127, I want to look at
this entire chapter here this morning. Starting in verse 1 of Psalm
127, we read, "...Except the Lord build the house, they labor
in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh in vain." It is vain for you to rise up
early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so
he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are in heritage
of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows
are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them, They shall
not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the
game." Now, a couple things before we
look at this passage of Scripture together this morning. First,
we see something here of man's responsibility. He says, except the Lord build
the house, they labor in vain to build it. Man has responsibility. There's reference here to man's
work, man's responsibility. We've got a responsibility to
work and provide for our families. That's our responsibility. To
love our wives. We've got a responsibility to
love our wives. We've got a responsibility to
believe this Word as it's written in the Scriptures. A responsibility
to believe God's Word. We've got a responsibility to
raise our children under the sound of the Gospel. It's encouraging
to see these little ones here. I have a responsibility this
morning to declare unto you the truth from God's Word. I'm responsible
for that. And in the same manner, you're
responsible to hear it. I'm responsible to declare the
truth about man. Man's sinfulness. To declare
the truth about God who is holy and just and right in all that
He does. the truth about the Lord Jesus
Christ, who He is, what He did, why He did it, where He is, where
He is now. We have a responsibility to believe
on His name and to trust Him and Him alone as our only God,
only Lord, and only Savior. We're responsible. We're responsible
to do these things. And second, With all that said,
with all that said, Almighty God is absolutely, totally, and
completely sovereign in all that He does. The Scriptures declare
this, that He'll have mercy on whom He will have mercy. He will
be gracious to whom He will be gracious. and He'll save whom
He'll save. Almighty God is sovereign. We read, it's not of Him that
willeth, it's not of Him that runneth, but it's of God that
showeth mercy. God is sovereign. Let that be
established. God is absolutely and completely
sovereign. So with these two points in mind,
Let's look together at just these few verses of Scripture here
this morning. Psalm 127 verse 1 says this,
Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build
it. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman, he waketh but in vain. Now back in Ecclesiastes
9, We read this, whatsoever, whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with all thy might. Whatever the Lord has given you
to do, whatever it is, are you a builder? Are you a watchman? Don't lose sight of this, okay? Whatever God's given you to do,
a mother, to raise your children, whatever God has set before you,
whatever He's given you to do, you do it with all your might.
But don't, again, don't lose sight of this. In John 15, 5,
I believe we read this last night, our Lord said this, I'm the vine,
ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, without
me, you can do nothing. We are totally and completely
dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ. except the Lord build the house,
except the Lord, except He do that. They labor in vain that
build it, except the Lord keep the city. The watchman, he waketh,
he waketh but in vain." Hebrews 3, 4 we read, every house is
built by some man, but He that built all things is God. God's sovereign. God's sovereign. Who does the work? Let me ask
you that question. Who does the work? On whom are
we completely and totally dependent? Here's the real question. Who
gets the glory? Who gets the glory? Is it man? Is it man that gets the glory?
If man gets the glory, it's a false gospel. It's just a false gospel. You call it whatever you want
to, it's a false gospel. If God gets the glory in all
things, in creation, in providence, in salvation, God gets the glory. The Lord Jehovah, except He build
the house. And that word build, it means
just what it says, to build or to make something. He's not remodeling. Okay? It's not fixing something
up. It's not taking something and
making it better. Because man is dead and trespasses. There's no making man better.
He's got to be made a new creature, a new creation. It's not a fixer-upper. Watch
that fixer-upper show at home. Okay? We're not taking something
old, again, and making it into something else. It's a new creation. Okay? Except the Lord build,
or the Lord make. This is His work. Okay? This is His work. He says, Behold,
I make all things new. That's what the Scriptures declare.
And anything apart from God doing the work is vain. You see that? That's what it
says there in the Scripture. It's vain. It's vain. And that word
means this. It means it's evil. It means
it's useless. It's a waste of time. It's a
waste of time. Like those men and their efforts
back in Genesis. Remember they were going to build
that tower that reached to heaven? Turn to Genesis 11. Turn back there to Genesis chapter
11. Look beginning with verse 3 of Genesis 11. And they said one to another,
Go. Go to, let us make brick, and
burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone,
and slum had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us
build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. Right there,
right there is the language of Warp's religion. It just summed
it up right there. Let us. Let us make. Let us build. Let us make us
a name. Nothing there for the glory of
God. Nothing there for the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us do these things. Let us
do these things. If the Lord build not the house,
If the Lord build not the house, they labor in vain to build it. You know their efforts, man's
efforts, might be genuine. And they usually are. They might
be very sincere in what they're doing. They might be all these
things and a whole lot more. But without Christ, without Christ,
they're nothing. They're absolutely nothing. You
know, when a house is built, it's something new. Whatever was there has been torn
down, and it's new. It's brand new. And that's what
He does with His people. He makes us a new creation in
Christ Jesus. It's His building. It's His doing. And in the same manner, the salvation
of a sinner, when God's pleased to save a sinner, It's His doing. Salvation. Salvation. This is
declared over and over and over again in the Scriptures. Salvation
is of the Lord. He is salvation. He's altogether
become our salvation. And just a few things here. This
salvation, it's by His will. It's by the will of God. It takes
a work of God's sovereign, eternal, electing love and predestination
to save a sinner. It's His work. He did this. Turn
to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. beginning with verse 3 of Ephesians
1. Here we read Paul writing to
the saints there in Ephesians. He said, Verse 3, "...Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted,
in the blood. It's by His will. His sovereign
will. It's by His blood. It's by His
blood. The salvation of a sinner requires
a blood atonement. We read, without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Turn to Romans 3. Don't believe these things because
I'm talented. Be like those noble Bereans and
look in the Scriptures. What does God's Word declare? Look at Romans 3 beginning in
verse 24. but for also to whom it shall
be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who hath delivered us..." Oh, I went to
the wrong... I'm in chapter 4, chapter 3.
Chapter 3, look at verse 24. "...being justified freely by
His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness." It's His righteousness. "...for the
remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God."
This is His Word. It's by His providence. It's
by God's providence. His ordering and directing of
all things. You know, man doesn't have a
problem, for the most part, God being sovereign in creation. Men can let that go. They don't
even have a problem, for the most part, God's sovereignty
in providence. You know, they'll say things
like, well, if it'll be, it'll be, and just go on. But my friend, He's
sovereign in all these things, and He's sovereign in salvation. He saves His people. It's completely His work. Those things that we consider
good things, those things that we like, those things that make
us happy, those things that we have trouble with, those things
that we struggle with, those things that we might call bad
things, we know. That's what the Scriptures say.
We know. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. This thing of salvation, it's
sovereign. It's his sovereign and irresistible
grace. the electing love of the Father,
the redeeming love of the Son, the invincible love of the Holy
Spirit, drawing men to himself. Paul writing to Timothy, he said
this, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,
nor of me his prisoner, but be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God who hath saved us. Almighty God hath saved us and
called us with a holy calling not according to our works."
That's what the Scriptures declare. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in the Lord Jesus Christ before the world began. It's of Him. It's of Him. His sovereign, irresistible
grace. And listen, He saves His people
by His gospel. The world, the world by wisdom,
the world in all that it knows, in all of its intelligence and
smarts, knew not God. Knew not God. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them which believe. Not
foolish preaching, but the foolishness, what men call foolishness. Paul,
writing to the Romans, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth." It's by His will. It's by His blood. It's
by His providence, His grace. It's by His gospel. And listen,
it's by His preserving and His keeping. God's preservation. Turn back to, if you're not there,
turn back to Psalm 127. Look at verse 1. Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Except the Lord keep
the city. Except He hedge it about. Except
He protect it and save it. Except the Lord keep the city.
The watchman, he's waking up in vain. His efforts again are
evil and useless. Let me, just a quick story. A little less than a year ago, Just after midnight, our phone
rang at the house and my wife picked up the phone. Now, I don't
know about out here in California, but back home in Ohio, when the
phone rings after midnight, you get a little edgy, like something
might be wrong. And it was my sister-in-law. And she asked, she said, have
you all seen all those flashlights back behind your house? Like,
no, we haven't even heard the dog barking. She said, well,
what about that SUV parked in your driveway? We don't know
what you're talking about. So immediately got up, got up
and walked out on the porch. And I see a deputy sheriff parked
in our driveway, and I see these flashlights, and I grab a flashlight
and walk out to see what's going on. And immediately, this deputy
sheriff says, get that flashlight out of my face. So I quickly
listened and did what he said about that. I said, what's going
on? And he said, there's a manhunt underway. He said, about 40 yards
from your house, he said, we were chasing a man that's suspected
of killing four people. And he said, we think we've got
him pinned down right here behind your house. He said, go around. He said, you lock the doors on
your car. You make sure your doors are locked. And he said,
you got family here. We got family living around.
He said, you make sure they do the same. And he said, get in
the house. Get in the house, lock your doors, and if you've
got a gun, I would suggest you keep it handy. And this is a
lot to take in any time, but a lot to take in at midnight
when you're about to fall asleep. So, checked the doors and went
in the house and had a pistol on one side of the bed and had
a shotgun on the other side of the bed. And you know, I didn't
sleep. I didn't sleep all night. Didn't
sleep a wink. The next day, this manhunt continued.
Next night, same thing. Couldn't sleep a wink. And about two in the morning,
about two in the morning, this scripture came to mind. Except
the Lord keep the city. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman, he waketh in vain. Oh, I thought of this, too. Oh,
ye of little faith. And there's two or three hundred,
I mean, in a small town, I think we may have 18, the whole county,
we have like 18 deputy sheriffs and all these law enforcement
people from the neighboring states that come in, probably two or
three hundred law enforcement people, one going by the house
every five minutes. Except, except the Lord. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman. He waketh in vain. And you know,
He blessed me. The Lord blessed me with that
and I reached over and I turned out that light and I laid down
my head and I went to sleep. Now I preached this before and
my wife said, you've got to tell people this time that that fellow
was caught. I didn't mention that and people come up to me
after the service and said, what happened? So rest assured that
fellow was caught that next day. But you know, He keeps our physical
bodies. We sing that song, mortals are
immortal here until their work's done. Now, He's pleased to take
one of His servants home. He'll do that. He'll do that,
but He keeps us, and more importantly, He keeps our souls. He keeps
our souls. This is of God. God protects and keeps His people. We are, the Scriptures declare
that, we're kept by the power of God. Jude 24 says, "...unto
Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present
you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding
joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty and
dominion and power both right now and forever. Amen. Amen. He keepeth the paths
of judgment and He preserveth the way of His saints. Think
about this. Think about Joseph. Joseph, when
his brothers cast him into that pit, must have thought, this
is over. And then all those things that
happened to him, each time he must have thought, could this
get any worse? What did he tell his brothers?
He said, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good. What about David? How many times
did God deliver David? Over and over again. How about
Rahab? How about Rahab the harlot? Remember
that? She hung that cord there in the
window and those men came and the whole city is going to be
destroyed. But not Rahab. Not Rahab. And he does this,
listen, he keeps and he delivers all of his sheep. All. All for whom he died. Look just
across the page there at Psalm 121. David said this, he said, everybody
got that? Psalm 121. I lift up mine eyes into the
hills, from whence cometh my help. My help Not this arm of
flesh. That's not where help comes from.
He says, My help cometh from the Lord, the Lord which made
heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber
nor sleep. All for the Lord. He is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time, from this time forth, and
even, even forevermore." Can we find comfort in that? Can
we find rest? Because listen, this is God's
work. This is God's work. You know, and it's His work in
the saving and keeping of His people. Look at verse 2. It's vain, it's vain for you,
back to our text there, Psalm 127. It's vain for you to rise
up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for
so He giveth His beloved sleep. You know, if you're going about,
if we're going about to establish our own righteousness, if we're
going to do this on our own, If we're going to seek our salvation
by the works of the law, then you better be prepared to build,
and to watch, and to rise up early, and to sit up late. Because
the question is always going to be, have I done enough? Have I done enough? Have I repented enough? Have
I resisted enough? Have I given enough? Have I done
all these things? Don't lean on that arm of the
flesh. Lean on Christ. Rest in Him. It says they eat
the bread of sorrows. I read somewhere that Martin
Luther, back before the Lord revealed the truth of the gospel
to him, that Martin Luther would beat himself with a whip. when
he had an evil thought or something like that, he would actually,
at least one point, to the point of unconsciousness. Listen. Listen. He giveth. Did you read that? He giveth
his beloved sleep. He giveth. He saves. He keeps. He gives his beloved sleep. Rest in Him. Henry used to say,
Henry used to say, lay down your shotguns. Quit fighting. Quit fighting and just rest in
Him. Rest in Christ and Him alone. Turn to Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 12. Almost finished here. Acts chapter
12. Look beginning with verse 1 of
Acts chapter 12. Here we read, it says, "...About
that time Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain
of the church, and he killed James the brother of John with
the sword. And because he saw it pleased
the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also." We'll just
grab another one to persecute. And then were the days of unleavened
bread. And when he had apprehended him,
when he'd caught him, he put him in prison. And he delivered
him to four quaternions of soldiers. Now, that's just a large group
of men. He wanted to make sure Peter's
not going to come out from underneath his hand. He's not going to escape
him. To keep them, intending after
Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was
kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing to the church
of God for him. And when Herod, when Herod would
have brought him forth, Herod was, Herod, you know, this is
man here, okay? Herod was going to bring him
forth the same night Look at Peter's demeanor here. Oh, I
wished I could do this. Peter, think about that. James
had already been killed. He's got him in the prison. He's
got all these guards brought in watching him to make sure
he doesn't escape. Look how worked up Peter is about this. Peter
was sleeping. And not only was he sleeping,
he was sleeping between two soldiers. Those men that were going to
carry this thing out for Herod, he was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with chains. He wasn't fretting. He wasn't
wringing his hands. He wasn't saying, what am I going
to do? How am I going to get out of this? He was sleeping.
He was resting. And look what happened here.
He was sleeping between the two soldiers, bound with two chains,
and the keepers before the door kept the prison. Think about
that. And if we read on there, God
delivered him. God brought him out. Peter wasn't
there trying to jimmy the lock and escape on his own. He's waiting
on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord. And God
delivered him. The believer. The believer can
rest right now. Resting. Resting in His love. Resting in His righteousness.
The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can rest right
now. And listen, we can rest in eternity. Free from fear. Free from doubt. Free from sin. He delivers. He delivers His people. There,
we read this in Hebrews, there remaineth therefore a rest. a rest for the people of God.
You know, when David was fleeing from Absalom, he said this, I
cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy
hill. I laid me down, and I slept. I slept, and I awaked. Why? Because the Lord, the Lord sustained
me. Now, back to our text here. Psalm 127. Let's look at these
last few verses here. Beginning with verse 3, "...Lo,
children are an heritage of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is
His reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty
man, so are the children of the youth." "...Happy is the man
that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies, in the game. You know,
what a blessing. What a blessing to know this.
The Lord builds the house. Isn't that what we just read
here? The Lord builds the house. And
listen, He keeps the house. He keeps it. He watches over
it. He protects it. He keeps it. And then third,
He fills the house. He brings His people. He brings
His children. Children are an inheritance. They're not a wage, but they're
a gift. They're a gift of His grace.
They're a gift of His grace. And it says they're arrows in
the hand of a mighty man. Spurgeon said this. I thought
this was good. We must have our children in
hand while they're yet children, for they're not likely to be
so when they're grown. we must point them and straighten
them to make heirs of them in their youth. May we be faithful,
may we be faithful to bring our children, to bring our children
to the worship service, to teach them according to His Word. May it be said of our children
what Paul said of Timothy, from a child, from a child you've
known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation. As fathers, we are instructed
to bring our children up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord, and not to provoke them to wrath. You know, I've got
two boys now, and one's soon to be 17, and one's 18, and I
often think, I often think, I wish I would have, sometimes we forget
children are just that, they're children. They don't act like
grown-ups when they're five years old. And that shouldn't surprise
us because a lot of us don't act like we're grown-ups when
we're 30 and 40 years old, do we? Maybe even older. But remember
they're children and bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. That's our responsibility. And
oh, that the Lord Oh, that he'd be pleased to call them his own.
That he'd be pleased to save them. Whether they're young,
or me and Bob were talking about that earlier. At a young age,
or as long as there's breath in them, there's hope, isn't
there? There's hope. Well, and that he'd put them
in his quiver. As arrows in the hands of a mighty
man, that he'd put them in his quiver. all where they're safe
and secure as arrows in the hand of a mighty man to point them
and direct them in the way that He'd have them to go. He who
is mighty to save, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that should give
us thankful hearts. That should comfort our hearts
with every reason. Almighty God, in His mercy and
grace, He builds the house, He keeps the house and He fills
the house as He's pleased to do so. I'd ask you to turn with
me to one more Scripture. One more Scripture and we'll
close here. Turn to Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews
chapter 3. Let's read a few verses here
and we'll close. Hebrews 3, beginning with verse
1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that
appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy
of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath built the house
hath more glory than the house. For every house is built by some
man." We read this earlier. Every house is built by some
man, but he that built all things is God. "...as Moses was verily
faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of
those things which were spoken after." Listen to this. Christ The Lord Jesus Christ
as a Son over His own house, whose house are we. Whose house are we? Believers
in Christ, living stones, a spiritual house in whom the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself dwells. Christ as a Son over His own
house, whose house are we. if we hold fast the confidence
and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. That's a good hope. That's a good hope. Christ and
Christ alone. All right.