Father, thank you for your many
blessings to us. Thank you for this word that
you've given to us, the Bible, and thank you that we can trust
you. Thank you for all those whose lives you have spared this
week and inclined their hearts once again to hear your word.
We pray you'd be with them and bless each one of us, not for
anything we've done or anything we will do, but for Christ's
sake alone, in whose name we pray, amen. So let's read through
this psalm together, beginning at verse one. Last time, we showed
that without Any doubt, Zion and the city
of God has to do with the Church. The Church of God's elect, of
God's redeemed, of God's children, those born of the Spirit of God,
and those who walk by faith, those who are believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Church. And the Lord
Jesus loved the church and gave himself for it. And here, the
church, the Bible, if you didn't realize it, is written to the
church. It's written to us. In scripture,
you'll hear that us and our pronoun. It has to do with the believer.
And so whenever the Bible talks about how widely God has loved
the world, he's talking about those in the world the Lord determined
to save and did save by Jesus Christ. So here in verse one,
we're told the Lord is great, our Lord, our God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and our God, the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Lord
is great and greatly to be praised. And he's going to use this psalm
to show what God has done for His people and therefore why
His people greatly praise Him. We ought to greatly praise God
for His greatness. And so that's what this first
verse is introducing to us, that God is great and He is greatly
to be praised by His people, those He has chosen and redeemed
and made His children by the spirit of adoption sent into
their hearts. Let's read verse two. Beautiful
for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on
the sides of the north, the city of the great king." North is
a direction we saw last week that refers to God's throne where
he rules in the midst of his people. In Isaiah 14, The devil
had this thought that he would take the place of Christ on the
throne amongst God's congregation. And it was for that that he was
cast out of heaven. And ever since he has been the
enemy of Christ and his people, he always was, of course, in
that thought he was the enemy of God. But here, the north also,
we're told in Exodus, that the Holy of Holies was on the north
side of the tabernacle in the wilderness. And so we know then,
therefore, that this is where God meets with his people, the
Holy of Holies. above the mercy seat, between
the cherubim, on the mercy seat where the blood is sprinkled,
where the propitiation is offered to God and God is propitiated.
The offering for sin, the Lord Jesus Christ is offered above
the ark, which is the ark of the covenant. And so in all these
things we see, therefore, that North refers to God's rule amongst
his people because of his covenant, by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and in that God is known by them, God is seen, and the
communion with the Lord and them takes place there above the mercy
seat. This is just talking about God's
throne in heaven, but this is where God rules, and this is
where He meets with His people. And so he says here, beautiful
for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on
the sides of the north, the city of the great king. City, of course,
is Christ's people. The great king is the Lord Jesus
Christ. The north is where God rules
amongst his people because of the blood that made the covenant
with them. And beautiful for situation,
It means beautiful for the esteem, the prominence that God has given
to the church amongst all other in creation. The church is put
at the pinnacle of God's creation because of Christ. And that's
what he's saying here. And we talked about this last
time, the mountain of his holiness. Everyone in God's family, everyone
in God's church is made holy by the blood of Christ. And then
in verse three, it says, God is known in her palaces for a
refuge. Now, think about it. Let's say
you go to your your place of meeting with God's people, the
church, and that's an appropriate name for it. Every a group of
believers meeting together is called the church, even though
we're part of a larger church that's made up of saints in heaven
and saints on earth. But in any case, if you were
to talk about that church, the church where we go, and the church
at large, the church in heaven and the church on earth, which
is all one body, then the Lord says, God is known in her. in
her palaces for refuge. It's like this is the subject
matter. God is our refuge. And when we say God is our refuge,
we're not talking about God has provided for us a place apart
from Him that is our refuge. What he's saying here is that
God Himself is our refuge. God Himself, remember in Genesis
22, Isaac asked his father Abraham,
Father, here's the wood and here's the fire, but where is the lamb?
And Abraham told Isaac, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. So not only will God provide,
but God himself is the lamb. So also, not only does God provide
a refuge, but he himself is the refuge. Rock of ages cleft for
me. That's the refuge for God's people.
And the palaces here refers to the wealth or the majesty of
God's city and his dwelling. Everyone in God's city dwells
in a palace. Remember, Jesus told his disciples,
I go to prepare a place for you, many mansions, many dwelling
places with my father. And so these are called palaces.
And in those palaces, this is the theme, God is our refuge. Okay, so that sets it up. that
our safety, our safety is in God. In other words, our salvation
is in God. And who is that? The Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord himself has become our
salvation, it says in Isaiah 12. And Simeon in Luke chapter
2 verse 30 said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation when he held
the Lord Jesus Christ as an infant in his arms. So God is known
in her palaces and would it would to God that in our churches God
would be known as the Savior of his people. He is our Savior.
He is our salvation. He is not only our God, but he's
our Savior. So that these two things are
always prominent in the confession of faith. Whosoever confesses
that Jesus is the Lord, Remember, whoever calls on the name of
the Lord, who confesses with the mouth that Jesus Christ is
Lord, and believes in their heart that God has raised Him from
the dead, that's both things together. Do you see it? Christ
is both Lord and Savior, and God's people love to have it
that way. They trust Him as their Lord,
their Sovereign. and they submit to Him as their
Lord, and they trust Him as their Savior. They've committed their
eternal life into His hands. And so that's why this is a delightful
verse. Every one of these verses endears
the Lord to us, His people. God is known in her palaces as
a refuge. And then in verses four, five,
and six, let's read those together, and seven. He says, for lo, the
kings were assembled, they passed by together. What did they pass
by? Well, they passed by Zion, the
mountain of God's holiness. They passed by the city of God.
They passed by the place where God is known in her palaces for
refuge. And when they passed by, what
were they thinking? Well, he says here, the kings
were assembled and they passed by together. You can imagine
all the kings that were opposed to God's people passing by this
city, this mountain of where God's holiness is, and where
he himself dwells, and there are palaces where he's known
as a refuge. They saw it, these kings, they
saw it. They saw this mountain. They
saw this city. And so they marveled because
of its grandeur, its greatness. Not only did they marvel because
it was great in appearance, but it was great in its fortitude. It was great in its safety. It was impregnable. They couldn't
access it. They couldn't assail it. They
couldn't overcome it. And so they saw it. It was impenetrable
to their attacks. He says, they saw it, and so
they marveled. They were troubled. and they
hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there,
and pain. As of a woman in travail, thou
breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind." Now this
is all talking about the reaction of those who are not in the city
of God. who are rulers and important
people in this world or in another kingdom. And these kings, when
they pass by Zion, they have a reaction. They're both amazed. They gather together and they're
amazed as they pass by it. They marvel at it. They're troubled
by it. And they run away. They haste
away. They hurry away. And fear takes hold on them there. And that fear can't be escaped
because it's like the travail of a woman. And then the Lord
says, the ships of Tarshish are broken by an east wind. Now,
I want to talk about this verse a little bit here, these verses
here a little bit, because when I read an exposition of a passage
of scripture, and the person who's expounding that scripture
gives an explanation for it, and it doesn't sit well with
me, it actually agitates me, it gets me motivated to respond
with what the gospel actually teaches. And so that's one of
the cases here, is that historically, a lot of paper and ink and space
has been spent explaining how there are these kingdoms throughout
time that arise, let's say the Romans or the Babylonians or
the Assyrians or the Persians or whoever it might be, in our
modern day, the Chinese or the Russians or the Americans or
whoever these different countries are, one rising against another. And so the expositors of scripture
oftentimes fall into a trap of trying to explain a scripture
in terms of these nations of the world and their armaments,
their weapons, and their political power. and their wealth, and
the number of their people, or whatever it might be, their culture,
and so on. But Scripture is not talking
about that here. It is not talking about that.
And when I was in the 70s, there was a writer whose name was Hal
Lindsey. You may not know that name, but
he was very popular in the 70s, and he had an explanation of
the book of Revelation that involved this kind of stuff. There's going
to be a great battle. There were going to be a meeting
of these nations together. They would somehow meet at Israel.
There's going to be this huge war. The blood of the slain would
flow so high it would be up to the horse's bridle and so on.
They interpreted scripture in terms of these physical weapons
and physical political nations and so on and geographies on
the earth. But that's all wrong, that's
all wrong. Let me give you what the scriptures say about these
things. First of all, it's not a physical,
but a spiritual explanation. We are told in 2 Corinthians
chapter 10, verse three through six, that the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. And so, in fact, let me just
turn to that scripture and read the whole text there in 2 Corinthians
chapter 10, because this is the New Testament explanation. Never take some history book
and try to explain scripture from it. Don't take somebody's
eschatology or eschatological explanation of scripture as the
way things are. Usually books on eschatology
are not worth the paper they're written on. Here's a very simple
explanation of the warfare. Notice in verse 3 of 2 Corinthians
10. For though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, not material things. If you can touch it,
if you can see it or smell it or taste it, that's not our weapon. If you can feel it, it's not
our weapon. is not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds. And what are those strongholds?
Well, it goes on, casting down imaginations and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Men have false
imaginations, false notions of the truth. The truth is what
God thinks, the knowledge of God. And And it says, the weapons
of our warfare are mighty, not only to the casting down of those
false notions of God and every high thing that exalts itself
against God's revelation, the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now,
this is very important. See, the warfare has to do with
rebellion against Christ's rule. You see that here, the obedience
of Christ is not what men do, but this weapon of our warfare
brings men into the obedience of Christ. subjection to him,
and also trust in his obedience, not our own. So all this is wrapped
up in that, and he says, he's saying that these weapons, he
says in verse six, and having in a readiness to revenge all
disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. He's referring
to the fact that In the end, the consummation of time, the
obedience of believers will be fulfilled, and all other disobedience
will be brought under judgment. And the gospel will reveal what
that is. In Romans 2, the Apostle Paul
says that God will judge the secrets of men by my gospel.
And the gospel reveals our disobedience to God's law and our need for
Christ to be our substitute and that we should trust and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the gospel will find out
men who are outside of Christ in the day of judgment. So notice
by this that the weapons are spiritual, not physical. The
fight is a spiritual fight, not a fight between men on a battlefield. It's not helicopters and planes
and missiles and atomic bombs. It's none of those things. Those
things are just distractions, if you will, from the true battle. In fact, Scripture is full of
the explanation of this battle, and I'm just giving you that
place in 2 Corinthians 10 as kind of a launching point for
giving you a survey of what are these things that have occurred
in Scripture that show us this battle. What is this battle?
First of all, realize that there are only two kingdoms. Don't
you realize that? In the big fight, in the big
battle, there's really only two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ
and the kingdom of Satan and this world. Satan's kingdom is
this world outside of Christ. And so there's a warfare that
takes place. It's been ongoing since creation. Remember, the
seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent. That's
the warfare. If you remember in the Garden,
it's summarized in Romans 5 that by one man sin entered into the
world. Okay, this is when the battle
began. The temptation of Eve and through her, Adam, sin entered
into the world and death by sin. It seemed like because death
entered, it was over. The battle was lost. God lost,
Satan won, he killed the human race. But, Even though death
passed upon all men, because all have sinned, it goes on to
show that as by man came sin, sin entered into the world, so
also by one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, righteousness entered
and sin was put away. And Satan was overthrown. And
in the place of sin's reign, now grace reigns. And where sin
led to death, Christ's righteousness is the basis and is the reason
why everlasting life is given to God's people. You see this
in Romans 5, verse 21. For as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the fight, that's the
battle. And notice in Romans 5, 21, the battle has been won. And the victory of this battle
is the righteousness established by the Lord Jesus Christ in shedding
his blood to put away our sins. He answered God's law for our
sins and he established everlasting righteousness in obedience to
God's law, all in his substitutionary death for his people. This is
the fulfillment of the law. Love fulfills the law. So we
see this. This is the first fight and the
big fight. It took place beginning at the
garden and the battle peaked and was finalized. The victory occurred at the cross. The Son of God, in our nature,
as Son of Man, submitted Himself to God and trusted Himself with
His people into the hands of God that by his obedience in
offering himself for their sins and magnifying God's law and
submitting to these wicked men who took him and abused him,
mocked him, reviled him, were cruel to him, spit in his face,
hit him on the head, in the face and beat his back and stripped
him and did everything to him. You know the story. And they
put him to death and they divided his garments And they gave him
vinegar to drink. They did everything they could
to add to his affliction. What happened? They thought they
had won. They sat around the cross like
they had won. But then the sky went dark for
three hours from noon till 3 p.m. And at the end of that, Jesus
cried, it is finished. And the centurion standing by
the cross said, when he saw all that had happened with the darkness
and the cry of Christ and how he died, he said, truly this
man was the son of God. And they took him from the cross,
they laid him in the tomb. And death had lost because he
rose again. That was the triumph. All of
Satan's power was stripped from him. He was cast out of heaven. The prince of this world has
been cast out. Judgment came upon him. You can
read about that in John chapter 12. John chapter 12 and verse
31. The prince of this world is cast
out. Judgment. Okay. So that's the beginning of the
battle in the garden, that's the culmination of the battle
at the cross, but everything in between and everything after
that is also part of that fight. throughout the history of the
nation of Israel, for example. You can see this battle going
on. Ishmael and Isaac, they were at war. Esau and Jacob were at
war. Egypt and the entire nation of
God's people, the nation of Israel, were made slaves to Egypt 400
years, and God redeemed that nation out of the hand of their
captors, these people who enslaved them. God led them to the Red
Sea, and God brought them through the Red Sea on dry land, and
their enemies were destroyed and their bodies floated up onto
the shore the next day. And notice, I want to read this
to you in Exodus chapter 15, because the language there is
just like here. So it tells us, this is the explanation
of it. In Exodus chapter 15, if you
remember Miriam, took the timbrel and she began to lead the song
in praise to God. And it says this in Exodus 15. She says, verse one, Then sang
Moses and the children of Israel this song to the Lord and spake,
saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. Now, this is the horse and rider.
in the armies of Egypt with their king. Their king and they all
perished in the Red Sea. The Lord did that. And just so,
Satan... and his kingdom were overthrown
by Christ in the sea of God's judgment when the Lord Jesus
Christ bore our sins and answered God's law and fulfilled it too
and presented his blood in the court of the supreme court of
heaven and God made judgment and overthrew Satan then cast
him out. Now verse two, the Lord is my
strength and song, he has become my salvation. A direct quote
in Isaiah 12, the Lord Jehovah is my salvation, which we know
is Jesus Christ. He is my God, I will prepare
him a habitation, my Father is God and I will exalt him. The
Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. The Lord Jesus Christ
is a son of man, he's the man of war. Pharaoh's chariots and
his host hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also
are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them.
They sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord,
has become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, has dashed
in pieces the enemy." And so you can see all this there. But
notice in verse 14, I'll read verse 13. Thou in thy
mercy has led forth thy people which thou has redeemed, thou
has guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Now,
if you didn't know that this was talking about redeeming Israel
from Egypt and leading them through the Red Sea, you could apply
these words directly to the church. When the Lord Jesus Christ led
captivity captive, when he ascended on high and gave gifts to men,
Ephesians chapter four. when He nailed the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us to the cross, and spoiled
principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it." Colossians 2 verse 13 through 15. So in
all these things you can see the overthrow of Satan and his
kingdom who were out to murder the As in Egypt, the infants,
the children under, when they were male children, they had
to be cast into the sea or the river. And in Herod's day, he
cast all the children under two years old, had them killed. So
all these things are repeating this great battle between Satan's
kingdom and Christ and his people, the kingdom of God. And here,
notice in verse 14, the people shall hear, Now, I want to go
back. Hold your place there. And if
you go back to Psalm 48, verse 4 and 5, the kings were assembled. They passed by together. They
saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled and hasted
away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of a woman
in travail. Now back to Exodus 15, verse
14, the people shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take
hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the Dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. The mighty men of Moab trembling
shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them. By the greatness of thine arm shall they be as still as
a stone till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people
pass over which thou hast purchased. OK, so what is happening here? We see this battle. We see the
enemies of God and his people assembled to either hold them
captive in Egypt, or to prevent them from coming into the land
of their inheritance in Canaan, or to kill them in the desert,
in the wilderness, like Moab tried to do, and like Ammon tried
to do, and these other kings, Sihon, king of Heshbon, and so
on. But all these battles are just
a representative battle when it comes to the true battle.
The true battle is Christ overcoming Satan for his people, overcoming
death, answering an offended God with himself and silencing
an offended law and answering, fulfilling the law in a way that
actually honors God and magnifies it. taking away the power of
the gates of hell, breaking them down so that he could build his
church, Matthew 16 verse 18. And so all these things are teaching
us that the warfare is spiritual. The captain is Christ. The one
who fights is our captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, like David
fought Goliath. The victory is determined by
these two men, the Lord Jesus Christ versus Satan and his kingdom.
Christ won at the cross. Satan's head was crushed, just
like Goliath's head was cut off and then, or was smashed with
a stone from the sling and then cut off with Goliath's own sword.
Like Haman in the book of Esther, he was hung on his own gallows.
So the Lord Jesus Christ put death and hell and Satan all
to death in the cross. He bound the strong man and he
was thrown into the pit for a thousand years, as it says in Revelation
20. So all these things have to do with the great battle of
Christ for his people. And God is saying, He's bringing
this to mind in Psalm 48. He's bringing it to mind because
as the church goes forward after the resurrection of Christ, when
He has ascended and has taken His throne in heaven and sends
His Spirit into the earth, what happens? In the day of His power,
His people are made willing. So that he sends his word, as
in Acts chapter 2, telling the people who actually put Christ
to death there at the cross, that Just like Joseph told his
brethren, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to
save much people alive. So the apostle Peter and those
there in Acts chapter two are telling those who crucified Christ,
you did this, but it was God's will in order to save his people. And they say their response was
by the power of God's spirit that came upon them and convicting
them. What was what must we do? And he said, repent and believe.
You submit yourself to Christ. And so this was something only
God could give them grace to do in believing the gospel. And
so you see this. The enemies of God hate God's
Christ. They hate God's people. and they
hate God the Father. And this is the way they will
continue until the end of time, when God shall send the Lord
Jesus as the judge, and then they shall say these words, it
shall be fulfilled." Look at what God has done. Just like
the inhabitants of Canaan and all these nations mentioned in
Exodus 15 became fearful. Because why? God brought Israel
out of Egypt by blood sacrifice, by the plagues. He plagued Egypt. He destroyed Egypt, Egypt's armies,
Egypt's kings, Egypt's horses, Egypt's chariots. And the people
were decimated. The land was destroyed. And he
brought these people who had no weapons. He brought them out of that nation.
He delivered them. He redeemed them. And then He
brought them through the wilderness and into the land of their inheritance
that God promised to give them when He made a covenant with
Abraham. So God is going to give His people exactly the inheritance
He promised in the Lord Jesus Christ because of His shed blood,
as He says in 2 Timothy 1, verse 9, who has saved us and called
us. with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Our inheritance is in Christ,
and with Him we receive eternal glory." All of this is being
spoken of here in the Psalm, in Psalm 48. God has so lavished
his favor and blessings upon his church for Christ's sake,
that the enemies of Christ stand back and they are terrified because
they know if he favors these people, how dare we lift a finger
against them or wag our tongues in accusation against them because
the Lord is with them. He has built them into a city
beautiful and high, holy and unassailable, inaccessible, impenetrable,
can't overcome it, the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation for walls. Salvation for walls. Remember
Isaiah 26? God has made salvation the walls
of this city. OK. Now, I just want to take
you to one more chapter in Scripture to tie this chapter into the
rest of Scripture. And this is phenomenal. Look at Revelation chapter 21.
We're talking about the great king, our great God, and the
city called Zion and Jerusalem here in Psalm 48. Look at Revelation
chapter 21. This is the consummation of all
of God's purposes for creation in the church. And this is spoken
of throughout scripture, but here it's brought to a consummate
picture. Now when we read this, When I
was little, I would imagine what this must be like when you read
the description God gives here of the city, the heavenly Jerusalem. He talks about the jewels. He
talks about the gold. He talks about the walls and
the measurements of this city. Don't get distracted by the physical
things. What God is saying here is the
beauty of his people, because of Christ, is beyond our wildest
imagination. We cannot fathom how highly God
has exalted and how highly He esteems His people for Christ's
sake. And the beauty that He has lavished
upon them is His own beauty. We are His workmanship. Remember Ephesians 2.10? Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Here he says in Revelation 21,
and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The old heaven and old
earth is passed away. For the first heaven and the
first earth are passed away, and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. Now,
clearly, the comparison of a city coming down out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. It's to raise our understanding
to what we're familiar with. What does a bride do on the day
of their wedding? She's arrayed in the finest clothing
she can get her hands on. Expensive clothes, she puts on
her best hairdo, her jewels, her makeup, everything is made
to look beautiful for her husband. And she's presented to him. And the husband looks upon her
and he says, his heart is ravished because he has so much love for
her and favor for her. And that's what God is saying.
This is what Christ thinks of his people. This is how God sees
them. This is how God has prepared
them, how Christ himself has prepared them for him. He loved
the church, he gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and
present the church to himself without spot or wrinkle or anything,
any such thing. Thou art all fair, my love, I
see no spot in thee. From Song of Solomon, chapter
four, verse seven. But notice, he says, and I heard
a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and he will dwell with them. Christ is that tabernacle. And they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." This
is restating the New Covenant. It's fulfilled now. Verse 4,
"...God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." All
of sin and all of the effects of sin and all of the effects
of Satan have been utterly erased. And in their place has been the
success, the complete success without failure, without any
loss of God's eternal purpose in Christ. Verse 5. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write. For these words are true and
faithful. In other words, heaven and earth will pass away, but
my words will not pass away. And he said to me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto
him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
This is Christ speaking to each one of his people individually.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his
God, and he shall be my son." How do we overcome? Faith. Faith,
1 John chapter 4. He says, and what is it that
overcome the world? Even our faith. Then he says
in verse 8, But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable,
and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters,
and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. If God has
given us grace to see Christ as all of our salvation, we've
lost fear. Perfect love casts out all fear. We've lost fear because we're
confident that God receives us for Christ's sake alone, therefore
He receives us as Christ. He goes on, verse nine. And there
came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven files
full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come
hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. This
is the church. And he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain. Sounds like Zion, doesn't it?
And showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God. This is an explanation of Psalm
48, isn't it? having the glory of God. No wonder
she's so beautiful. And her light was like unto a
stone, most precious light. What was that? Jesus said, you're
the light of the world. You have the gospel. You have
the truth of God. And what do you have right along,
joined inseparably to the truth of God, but the grace of God. Truth and grace came by Jesus
Christ. We have the results of Christ's
work. He carried me away into this high, and the church has
the glory of God, her light, the truth and grace, the grace
and truth that God has given to her in the Gospels, like unto
a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal,
and had a wall great and high, 12 gates, and at the 12 gates,
12 angels, names written thereon, which are the names of the 12
tribes of the children of Israel, all the Old Testament saints,
On the east, three gates, on the north, three gates, on the
south, three gates, and on the west, three gates. And the wall
of the city had 12 foundations, and in them the names of the
12 apostles of the Lamb, the New Testament church. And he
that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city and
the gates thereof, and the wall thereof, and the city-life foursquare,
and the length is as large as the breadth, and he measured
the city with a reed 12,000 furlongs, the length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal." It's like a cube. Is that real
measurement? No, it just means that 12,000
is the full measure of God's purpose and God's work in Christ
for His people in every direction. You look, God in all of His doing,
in all of His glory, in all of His perfection is fulfilled in
the church. Verse 17, and He measured the
wall thereof 144 cubits according to the measure of a man, that
is of the angel, and the building of the wall, and the building
of the wall of it, of Jasper and the city, was pure gold,
likened to clear glass." Now, gold is not glass. It's not clear. But here, gold is clear glass.
What does this mean? Well, if you remember in 1 Peter
1, our faith is tried like gold that's more precious than gold
that perishes. So that the promises we've been given, Christ in all
of His words that we have leaned upon in life through faith is
now fulfilled. That's the gold and it's pure
glass. We can see everything here. It's
clear and holy and perfect. It's all done. And I saw no temple
therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of
it." I skipped over this part about the different jewels and
stuff, but just remember the jewels where it says in Isaiah
61.10 that He has clothed me with the robe of his righteousness as
a bride is adorned for her husband and let me read that to you in
Isaiah 61 10 as a diversion here from what we're going over in
Revelation 21 he says in 61 10 Isaiah 61 10 he says I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath
clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered
me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."
What are these jewels then? Listed in Revelation 21, verse
20, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, Beryl, Topaz, Chrysopropsas,
or whatever you say, Jason, and Amethyst, and Chalcedony, and
Emerald, and Sapphire, all these, Jasper, all these, what is it?
Salvation. Perfect salvation, so wonderful. Righteousness, so beautiful,
all given to Christ's people. the Lord Jesus Christ. He says,
The glory of God lightened the temple, the Lamb is 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. And the gates of it shall
not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
They shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
That means all the people the Lord has saved shall be brought
into it. And there shall no wise enter anything into it that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life." That's God's elect.
You see this? All those the Lord Jesus died
for. Now we clearly didn't finish, even though our time is up, we
didn't finish Psalm 48. I'm going to let you read through
the handout I sent if you want to, and I've covered some of
the most salient points there. The rest of it, I think, from
the handout, you can see that so that we can move on to Psalm
49 next time. But this psalm is meant It's
given by God, it's meant for us to understand it as how God
sees his people in Christ because of Christ. He's looking at his
own workmanship. His own beauty, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and His righteousness. He's the Lamb. He's our righteousness. Remember that from Scripture.
Christ is the Lamb. Christ is the Lord, our righteousness. And we have the Lord's beauty.
It's given to us freely by grace. And we know it by faith and only
from God's Word. And this is the work of the Spirit
of God in us, to convince us of this, and to keep us fast
on it. And to stand back and see the
beauty that God describes in the Scripture of His people,
how He has given them all things in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing
fails of all that God has said. Everything will be given to them.
They're His children. They're His heirs. He's going
to read the covenant and all the inheritance is theirs and
Christ sits on the throne to make sure they get it. He died
to give it to them. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
the glory of the work and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord, that you've given your people this truth
in the gospel. It's beyond our comprehension.
We are constantly in need of your reviving it in us so that
we can see in this life, even though we experience the effects
of sin in so many ways, yet the Lord has told us Even though
the earth itself will be removed, and the mountains carried into
the sea, and even though it seems as everything is failing all
around us, the wars and rumors of wars, the Lord Jesus Christ
cannot fail. He will bring His purpose to
pass. He always does, and it shall be done. Thank you for
His great power and for His great grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.