Because I am still, while life
or breath remain, There are my bed-free sacred quill, There
God my Saviour reign. Thank you. Sherry, thank you. Ron, thank you, John. Go with
me to Psalm 122 now. Psalm 122. I had asked Brother
Ron to read Psalm 84 because it goes so well with this psalm. Psalm 84 speaks of the house
of God two or three times. Psalm 122. Look at it. When they said unto me, Let us
go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy
gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city
that is compact together. With the tribes go up, the tribes
of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks. under the name of the Lord. For
there are set thrones of judgment, thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love
thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions'
sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good." I was glad when they
said unto me, Let's go to the house of the Lord. Are you glad
to be here? Nothing reveals the true state
of our heart more than this. I was glad. I was glad when they
said, let's go to the house of the Lord. There was a time when
I was not glad to come here. There was a time when I was,
well, I was interested somewhat as a child, but I was. But then ten years and
some wildness set in and I was not glad to come worship. But then there came a time when
I was glad. And David said in Psalm 92, 4,
top right hand page, he said, Thou hast made me glad
through thy work. There was a time when the, who's
he talking about? When they said unto me. I was
glad when they said unto me, let's go to the house of the
Lord. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, the psalm says. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit said, arrest that man. Bring that person. The Father says, go to my Son. The Son says, come unto me. The
Holy Spirit. The Spirit and the Bride say,
come. The people of God say, come.
I was glad when they said unto me, let's go to the house of
the Lord. Now, this building is not what
this is speaking of. The temple of God used to be
the exclusive house of the Lord. That was where the ark was, that
was where the blood was poured out on the mercy seat, that's
where the sacrifices were made, that's where the table of showbread,
the candle, the light, and the altar of incense, and so on and
so forth. But all of that was typical of
the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we live and move, our dwelling
place, the tabernacle among us. The house of God that he's speaking
of is the church. Not a place, but a people. Christ is the head. His people
are the body. And they can meet any place,
really. But we do think of this building
as the house of God. No, because this is where we
always gather. So we're thankful for it. But I have made a conscientious
effort not to call this building the church. I have made myself
stop saying that. I call it the church house. The church house. This is the
house where the church meet. The church is God's house. Now,
so David said, I was glad when they said under me, let's go
to the house of the Lord. I want to go be with God's people. To do what, David? To worship
the Lord. to worship the Lord. That's why
we meet here. They go into the house of the Lord to worship
the Lord. Now, the house of the Lord used
to be called by many names. It used to be called Bethel. That's house of the Lord. It
used to be called a house of prayer. Well, it's still is.
Our Lord said, my house should be called a house of prayer.
You remember the pool of Bethesda? That's a house of mercy. It's
called a house of feasting. It's called a house of learning.
It's called a house of rest, a house of repose. Look at verse
2. Our feet, God's people, shall
stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. I was glad when they said unto
me, let's go to the house of the Lord. And all of God's people,
that's where you'll find them, within the gates of Jerusalem. We wouldn't have come here if
the Holy Spirit hadn't brought us. And I hope you're glad to
be here. I am. I'm glad. They told me,
and they put gladness in my heart to come here to the house of
the Lord. And the older I get, the more I want to be in God's
house than anything else. How about you? Our feet, David
said, my feet will be found standing sitting in the house of the Lord.
That's where you'll find me. There's another psalm, I forget
which one it is. He said, but as for me, you'll
find me in the house of the Lord. I don't know about them. He said,
as for me. Joshua said that. As for me,
in my house. We'll serve the Lord. Our feet
shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Now, our feet, my
feet, once were found everywhere but here. My feet were once swift
to run to mischief. How about you? Run with the crowd. My feet were once standing in
the way of sinners like Psalm 1 says. But oh, blessed is that
person who no longer does that. And now I'm standing with the
saint. Now I'm standing on the rock Christ Jesus. Now I'm standing
for the truth like Martin Luther. Now my feet are under his table
like Mephibosheth's feet, because he fetched me. He said, our feet
shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a city.
It's a gated city. You've heard of gated communities,
haven't you? A gated city. Jerusalem of old used to have
gates around it. I forget how many gates, but
there was Sheep Gate, Dung Gate, Eastern Gate, and so forth. But
gates, gates tell us that somebody owns that place. If you have
a gate, that means you have a fence, a wall around your property. And that means you own that property.
Well, the church is owned by our Lord. It's His. He owns it. A gate means it's an exclusive
place. You can't come in. You can't
just come in. But if you knock, you can. And
our Lord says, straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that
leadeth unto the life. But it's exclusive members only. The body of Christ. But if you
knock, You can come in. Ask, you'll receive. Knock, you
can come in. A gate tells us of protection. Protection. It's gated. No intruders are allowed in. There's only one way in. Anybody
that climbeth up any other way is a thief and a robber. Christ
is that gate. No man, he said, comes unto the
Father but by man. He is that gate. So Jerusalem,
this city, is gated, owned by our Lord. He calls it Jerusalem. Is he talking about that city
over in the far east? No. Although David loved Jerusalem,
the city, it was called the City of David after he conquered it. It used to be Jebusiah was the
name of the city. It was overrun by and indwelled
by the Jebusites, heathen people. And I love that story of David
coming to, and it was a walled city at that time, and David
came to that city, Jebusiah, which is Jerusalem. And they
had all their idols up on the wall, their pagan idols. You see Catholicism with all
these gargoyles all over their buildings. That's old as the
hills. The Jebusites had these idols
all over their walls, okay? And they said, David, he can't
come in here. They thought their idols would
protect them. They said, he can't come in here. You see, David
was coming after them. He was going to own that city.
And the very next line says, he took the city. He took it. Knocked down the wall and the
gate and came in and took it and named it Jerusalem. Founded
on peace. City of peace. City of David. Oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem speaks
of the church again. Jerusalem speaks of the church.
I want you to look at one place. Revelation 21. I'm not going
to keep you long tonight, so I hope to keep your attention.
Revelation 21. Revelation 21 speaks of New Jerusalem. And this is the church. New Jerusalem. Look at verse
1. I saw a new heaven and a new
earth. The first heaven and the first earth were passed away.
There's 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, people, this is not talking
about a literal city. He called her His bride. The
Lord's not wedded to a place. He's wedded to a people. This
is talking about His people. It's all symbolic. Jerusalem
represents the church of God, the people of God, His bride,
Christ's bride. Verse 3, I heard a great voice
out of heaven say, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. He will dwell with them. They
shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and
be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. There shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.
The former things are passed away. Behold, he said. He that
sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." New Jerusalem. He's talking about the city,
not old Jerusalem. That's going to be destroyed.
But the city of God, the church of God. Verse 3 in our text says,
Jerusalem, The city of God is built as a city that is compact
together. It's built across the page. Psalm 127.1 says, Except the
Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. This city
is built by Christ. Remember what He said to Peter?
He said, You're Peter. I'm going to call you Peter because
upon this rock, your confession of faith in me, I'm going to
build my church. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. This city, this church was built
by Christ, for Christ, on Christ the solid rock it stands. And he built it. He's the author
and the finisher of it. And he's like Zerubbabel and
Zachariah. When's the last time you read
that story? Old Zerubbabel. It says, Zerubbabel will bring
forth the headstone, in the end, will bring forth the headstone
with shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. This building
is founded on Christ and he's going to bring the topstone founded
by the grace of God on Christ our Lord, the sure foundation,
the chief cornerstone. Jerusalem is built as a city. that is compact together. I didn't used to like cities. I used to prefer, but you better
like this one. You know, a city can be a very
vibrant thing, can't it? It's full of hustle and bustle
and depending on how clean it is and what the people are like,
a good old southern city. You know, it can be a nice place
to visit. Well, this one, we just read
about it. This city wherein dwelleth righteousness. Everybody there is like Christ.
It's full of people. Full of people. Hustling and
bustling. Resting, but vibrant. Full of life. City of God. Church of God. Do you not like
going to a big A big conference which is full of people. You
squeeze together in the pew there and everybody is worshiping the
Lord. It's alright. You don't like that walking down
the street somewhere in the city, but isn't it wonderful in the
house of the Lord? Wonderful. It's a city. It's
compact. Verse 3, compact together. Let
me read this to you from Ephesians. It says, Ephesians 4, that the
Lord sent apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers for
the perfecting of the saints and so on. And he said this body
is fitly joined together and compacted. by that which every
joint supplieth." We are united together. A city that is compact. We're under a compact. We're
under a contract, as it were. A covenant compacted together. Vitally joined together. That's
where you'll find God's people. Together. Together. Verse 4. This is where the tribes go up.
Tribes of the Lord. unto the testimony of Israel,
the tribes of the Lord. Now he's referring to the twelve
tribes of Jacob, of Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel. So what
he's saying here is, the people that are in this city are the
sons of Jacob. That's who's that. Sons of Jacob. Now that's symbolic, isn't it? He said, I'm the God of Jacob.
I'm the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
In Christ there's no Jew or Gentile, male or female, black or white,
is there? In fact, He's redeemed us out of every nation, kindred,
people, and tongue on earth. But He made us all Jews. We worship
God. Our Lord said to the woman at
the well, salvation is of the Jew. We still have a high priest,
don't we? We still have a sacrifier. We
still have a tabernacle. And that all is Christ. So that's
what he's saying there. Tribes of the Lord. That's where
they are. Why do we come here? As much
as we love each other and enjoy one another's company? That's
not why we come here. That's not why we come here.
Look at it. Verse 4. We come here under the testimony
of Israel to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. That's
why we come here. That's our purpose for coming
here. That's the fellowship of the mystery, the fellowship of
the Gospel, the fellowship of Christ's suffering. Truly, our
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. We come here
to hear the testimony of our God concerning Israel, the covenant
our God made concerning His people, the Word of God, the Gospel of
God. That's why we come here. That's
very revealing. If we come here for any other
reason, we've not yet heard the gospel and really believed. And
we come here to give thanks under the name of the Lord. No way. We come here to give thanks. So do we need another reason
to come here? To give thanks under the name of our Lord, the
Lord God, merciful, gracious, slow to anger. Ready to pardon. The Lord our God. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Give thanks for His great mercy
and grace. Verse 5. There are set thrones
there. There in Jerusalem. There in
the city of God. There in the church of God. There are set thrones of judgment.
Thrones of the house of the Lord. House of David, that is. The
thrones. Now, something I have never really
understood. But I think I do now. In Matthew
19, when our Lord said to... I'll just turn and read it for
you. He said to His apostles, to His apostles, you who have
followed Me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit
in the throne of His glory, you shall sit upon the twelve thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Does that mean there
will be 12 million apostles in glory judging us? Judging. Well, I don't think so. But the
apostles went out preaching. And all that they said and all
that they did, they built on what our Lord did. And they wrote
epistle after epistle after epistle. And these things still stand.
Our Lord one time said to the Pharisees, there is one that
judges you, the Word. Remember that? He said, the Word
of God judges you. And the apostles wrote all of
these epistles which still stand. And the church in Acts chapter
2, it says, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. And
this is good judgment. It says there are set thrones
of judgment, thrones. God's Word reigns and rules among
His people. See? Throne. The sure mercies
of David. But God's Word reigns and rules
in the hearts and in the church of God, the hearts of His people.
And He gives us good judgment, doesn't He? Good discernment.
He judges His people with truth. That's good judgment. And He's given men still, like
the judges of old. Brother John loves the story
of judges. That's got its name for that reason. The Lord had
Moses put judges over the people, and God still has His men and
His churches that have good judgment and do well to consult them. Well, verse 6, pray for the peace
of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love
it. Pray for the peace. Here's an exhortation. and a
promise. Pray. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray. Oh, blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those that strive
together for peace. Peace. Pray. Pray without ceasing. Pray for the church. Pray for
the peace of the church. She has many enemies. Always
has. There are enemies without, and there are enemies with them. And what we need to pray about
is, more than anything, is that we not be a cause of strife,
but that we might be peacemakers. Satan's great design is to keep
you from hearing the Gospel. And if he can get the advantage
over you by making us mad at somebody, especially the
preacher, And you won't hear a thing. You won't hear a thing. Pray. Pray. Pray without ceasing. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray. You see, the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace by them that make peace. Our Lord has ordained
peace. And that's what we should strive
for, and that's what we should pray for. They shall prosper
that love the church, that really love His people. They shall prosper.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. God's not willing to tolerate
anybody that's not a peacemaker. We love to feed the birds. And
this year has just been a wonderful season for the birds. There's
some birds I've never seen before. feeding on our feeder. And our
porch has been full of them. All different beautiful birds. And we just really enjoy that.
And they all get along. Cardinals and woodpeckers and
even blue jays. And some starlings will come
down. I let them all in. It doesn't
matter. Black, white, blue, red. It doesn't matter. As long as
they get along. They all get along. Squirrels even come up. I used to run them off, but now
I just say, no, have at it. The other day, a cat, a cat got up on our porch. I
like cats. In fact, we were feeding this
cat until he got one of those birds. That's their nature, I know that.
It's not going to happen around my place. So I had to do what
I had to do. He ain't coming back. He ain't
coming back. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Peace, verse 7. Here's David's prayer. Peace
be within thy walls, O Jerusalem. Prosperity within thy palaces. Peace within thy walls. Don't
we come here to find peace? We're out in a world that David,
where is that? I thought I wrote it down. Which
song? It took me 30 minutes to find
it and now I've forgotten it. David said, Woe is me that I
sojourn in mesech. It was a hostile land. He said,
I'm for peace and therefore war. Now that's the world. You know,
we come out of the world, dog eat dog world, and we come in
here, why? to get some peace, to get some
peace. And my, my, I hope we find that. But the Lord has ordained peace
within these walls, prosperity within thy palaces. David, John. John wrote this when he was writing
to the elect lady. He said this, I wish above all
things that thou mayest prosper and be in health. even as thy
soul prospereth." We not only wish for the spiritual prosperity
of God's people, their health, but the physical health, don't
we? We want to see people healed. We want to see people prosperous. We don't want to see people in
need, do we? When God's people prosper, they'll
be generous with the things God's given them and support His work.
Now here's what he says, verse 8, For my brethren and my companions'
sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee." My brethren,
my companions, you know how much I love these verses. I quote
them all the time. He said, I'm a companion of all them that
fear thee, of them that keep thy precepts. He said, they that
fear thee will be glad when they see me. This is just so. I don't have
any other friends but you all. I don't. I have nothing to talk
about with anybody else. I have nothing to say after this
small talk is over. You're my only friend, you and
people, other brethren from other churches. I can't have fellowship
with darkness. It's just so. So I'm praying
that God will keep this church together in peace for your sake,
for my sake, for our children's sake. I need it. You need it,
don't you? Our children need it. We've got
some unsaved children. Pray. Pray for our children. Then he says, because of the
house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. The church of
God. Oh, my. The house of God. I want
and I need for it to stand. I need it to stand. So what am
I going to do? David said, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going
to seek its good. I'm going to do everything, David
said, within my power, God-given power to seek, to do my part
to keep this house standing for my brethren and for my own sake,
for God's glory. Alright, stand with me. Our Lord, we do pray for the
peace of that church. We pray for your restraining
grace. We pray for your keeping grace.
We pray for your preserving grace. O Lord, preserve us. Keep us
from the evil one. Keep us, Lord, O keep us. cleaving
to thyself and still believing. Keep the gospel coming forth
from this place. Keep your people coming to hear
it. Make us glad, Lord, through thy work. Make us glad when they
say unto us, let's go to the house of the Lord and worship.
Put it within our hearts. Make it our joy and rejoicing.
Set our affection on things above where Christ is. And let us do
this not only for Thy glory and honor, but for our brethren's
sake. Let us think on things of others, not on our own things.
The Lord delivers from self. He delivers from self. Let us always be about the Father's
business, like our Lord, thinking on our brethren, seeking their
good. Pray for the church everywhere,
your little flocks everywhere, tabernacles of the Most High. They're so amiable, so lovely.
How we thank you for them, all of them. Let's pray for them. Let's take on them, not ourselves.
O Lord, forgive us of our sins. Take these words and use them
for your glory and the good of your people. In Christ's name,
amen. You're dismissed. you