We began a study a couple of
weeks ago from Psalm 87. So I'd like you to go back to
Psalm 87 as a starting place. This is about Zion, the city
of God, the habitation of God. It's a song that is sung by the
grandsons of a man by the name of Korah, his offspring. And he sings about Zion or the
people his offspring sing about Zion. First of all, in the first
verse they sing about the foundation of Zion. We're founded in the
purpose of God. Salvation has been ordered and
ordained and determined from old eternity, and it's founded
in God's eternal purpose of grace. And it's founded on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid which is Christ Jesus. He's the firm
foundation upon whom the church is founded. And then in the second
verse, and this is what I wanna get into tonight, the Lord loveth
the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. I wanna
talk to you about Zion loved of God. Now let me begin this
way by saying there is no possibility of salvation. There is no possibility
of eternal life. There is no possibility of true
Christianity apart from knowing God in his rightful and true character
as he's revealed in the Holy Scripture. In John chapter 17,
that's our Lord's high priestly prayer. He said in the third
verse, and this is life eternal. And if we have any understanding,
desire to know the Lord, we listen here. He's gonna tell us what
eternal life is. It's not the length of it. It's
the very quality of it. He said, this is life eternal,
and we almost want to say, Lord, what is it? What is life eternal? And he says that they might know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. Therefore, it is of utmost importance
that we know who God is. that we have an understanding
of His character, of His attributes, of what God is like. God is not
like what most people describe Him to be. If you want to know
what God's like, you look in His Word and see what He says
He is. And the Bible lays down for us
various truths about God so that we'll know Him. I was talking
to some folks during lunch today, and I said, people are all wrong
about God, and they're all wrong about ourselves. And these are
two chief errors in religion today. People have wrong thoughts
about God, and they have wrong thoughts about ourselves. People
have brought God down, and in doing so, they've lifted self
up. And those two eras will wind
you up in the regions of darkness forever. And the more people
bring God down, the more they lift man up. That's just the
way it works. Oh, to know God, to know Him
in His true character. as he has revealed himself in
the Word of God. A proper biblical knowledge about
God is essential to salvation and to true faith. May God the Holy Spirit reveal
to us who God is. First of all, God is spirit. Our Savior says that in John
chapter 4. God is a spirit, is the way the
King James Version reads. God is a spirit. They that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. But in the original
text, there is no corresponding word for the indefinite article
A, God is a spirit. Our King James Version is not
a very good translation when it comes to that word, a. God
is a spirit. It should read, God is spirit. God is, he's not a spirit. You
see, an angel is a spirit. The devil is a spirit. We have
a spirit. God is not a spirit. He is spirit. He is spirit. And therefore those
who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. You see, God is not physical.
And He's not impressed with things physical. God is spiritual, not
physical. That's the reason God is not
impressed with statutes and crosses and beads and things of that
nature, because those things are physical. and God's a spiritual
being. And the only way we can truly
worship God is if He breathes into us spiritual life. And then we will worship God
in spirit and in truth, in spirit and in sincerity. in spirit and
as he's revealed in the word of God. God is spirit in the
highest usage of that word. It distinguishes him from all
of his creatures. He is spirit and because God
is spirit, He cannot be known by natural senses or abilities. Get that. Because God is spiritual,
He cannot be known by physical understanding or by physical
abilities or anything like that. The only way we can comprehend
to a degree and believe God who is spirit is for the Holy Spirit
to make us a spiritual being that is to give us spiritual
life. Otherwise, there is no understanding of God. There is
no belief of God. And consequently, there is no
salvation. You see, I understand what the
natural man wants. He wants a God he can see. He
wants a God he can touch. And since he can't see God or
touch God, he wants a picture of God. They call it picture
of Jesus. He wants a cross. Perhaps a lady
wants a cross to put around her neck. Or a man wants a cross
to put it in his pocket, like a good luck charm. But God is spirit. Those things
don't impress him. You see, to form those things
and use those things is really idolatry. That's not spirituality
at all. Anybody can count beads. Anybody
can wear a cross. Anybody can put a picture of,
they call it Jesus, on a wall. But our God is spirit. He can't
be worshiped that way. Those things don't impress him. That's why images of Christ are
wrong. And if you have images of Christ,
if you have a crucifix or something like that in your house, or you
have a picture of Jesus on a cross, somebody who's supposed to be
Jesus, take it down. Take it down. God is spirit. You gotta worship him in spirit
and in truth. And then fallen man wants a God
that he can impress. by his gifts and by his works. Think of Cain. Think of Cain. He brought the works of his own
hands that he had produced from an earth that God had cursed.
Don't bring something to God that he's cursed. You bring to God his only begotten
Son, the Savior of sinners, whose substitutionary death satisfied
God's justice. Bring Christ to God. He accepts
him, and he'll accept him. He'll accept you in him. A fallen man wants formal religion. He wants ceremony, a liturgy. Ritualism. I watched some of the Roman Catholic stuff about the
new Pope. Have you ever seen so much ridiculous
ritualism? That's ceremonies is all it is.
But those folks are sincere, at least some of them are, maybe
all of them. But if you watch a Catholic service
on television, and they have their channels, people know when
to stand, they know when to sit, they know when to kneel. It's
all ritualism. It's all ceremonialism. And somehow
or another, that makes people feel spiritual. It's not spirituality. We worship God from the heart.
We worship God based on how he's revealed in the book of God.
God is spirit. If you would truly worship him,
you must worship him in spirit and in truth. That's what the
Savior says. For God will only accept spiritual
worship. God is spirit. Who is God? Well,
he's spirit. Secondly, he is light. God is light. 1 John 1 and verse
5 says, God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Light
is the opposite of darkness. Darkness speaks of sin and error
and evil and death. Light represents holiness, righteousness,
truth. and life. When John says God
is light, he means God is the sum of all excellence. You will never in this life and
even in the next life fully comprehend God. But in God dwells all the
beauty and the perfection of absolute pure light. That's the reason God will not
accept any darkness whatsoever. He dwells in light that none
can approach to. There's a brilliance about God,
a glory about God that shines so bright that we can't look
on Him. When Moses said, Lord, show me
your glory, God said, I'll pass before you, but you can't look
on my face. I'm too glorious. I'll tell you
what, when Moses was up in the mountain, and he got a glimpse
of the presence and the glory of God, when he came back down,
there was a glory about him. There was a brilliance about
him. Where has he been? He's been in the presence of
God. That's where he's been. And He's been filled with and
inspired by and enraptured by the wonders and the glory of
God Himself. I wish that all of us, me included
now, all of us who are here, all of you who are watching,
I wish that the Spirit of God would fill us with more knowledge
of the brilliance and the glory and the excellency of our God. I believe we'd believe him more
firmly then and we'd rest more secure in his great salvation. God is light. And this is the message that
is revealed to us and in us by the new birth. Conversion is
nothing less than. It's not a decision. Conversion
is not a decision. Conversion is not making up your
mind that you're gonna live different. You're gonna be better. Conversion is nothing less than
the light of the glory of God shining in our darkened hearts. And when we begin to see the
brilliance of God and the glory of His Son, that's when we'll
be so enraptured to worship Christ Jesus the Lord. 2 Corinthians 4 says, The light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, has shined in our hearts. That's what conversion is. It's
not walking an aisle. It's not making a decision. It's
God revealing to your heart the glory of His salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of His grace. The glory
of His eternal purpose, which led to you believing the gospel
anyway. The glory of that purpose of
God that led to Christ's coming who is the glory of God incarnate
and dying for sinners. This is the message that we declare
it to people. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. And we're nothing but darkness. So how can God dwell with us
or how can we dwell with God? Only through the doing and the
dying of the lovely person of Christ, of whom it is said, he's
the light of the world. The light of the world. You see,
what I'm trying to say is there is no true declaration of the
gospel where the essential character of God is not declared. When we say God is light, we
mean he's pure. and he's holy in his nature and
in his works. He is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. You know, the Bible says he charges
his angels with folly. His angels who have not sinned And if you really want to see
just how light God is, how holy God is, how righteous He is,
only take another look at Calvary. See who bears our sins and see
the death that He dies. See how the justice of God extracted
from Him the full payment for all of our sins. See who bore. The punishment. See who endured
the vengeance of God's wrath. And then you'll know a little
something about God is light. And in him is no darkness at
all. And he's the giver of light. If you're a believer tonight,
he enlightened your darkened mind. Left to ourselves, we're in the
dark, right? We're in the dark. What can you do in the dark?
You can't even see. You see, the minds of men and
women and young people have been blinded, yet less they should
see. The glorious light of the gospel
of God's grace, they just can't see. Don't get mad at them, pray
for them. Don't get upset because somebody
don't believe the truth because they can't understand what is
elementary for you. Don't get upset with them. They're
in the dark. Lord, turn the lights on. That's
what he did for you. God who is light, turn the lights
on. That's the character of God.
And then thirdly, God is love. Two times in that
passage you read in 1 John 4, it says, God is love. Now, it is true that God loves,
that's true. But those verses that were read
earlier emphasize the attribute of God, God is love. As his nature is spirit, that's
God's nature. As his nature is light, that's
God's nature. So his nature is love. Somebody said God could have
hated everybody or loved everybody. Well, he could have loved everybody
if he'd purposed to do that. I have no problem with that.
But he couldn't hate everybody because God is love. And love,
true love has to be expressed. It has to be made known. It has
to be manifested. And herein is the love of God
manifested in that he sent his son to be the propitiation for
our sins. God is love. It's his nature. It's his being. Now, the love of God commonly
by men is thought to be mere a good-natured feeling that God
has toward people, but that it's a passion with him, like love
is a passion with us. Don't measure God's attributes
by our attributes. That's a big mistake. God's not
like us. His love isn't like ours. His
hatred is not like ours. There's nothing about God that
can be measured by ourselves. The Lord said to Israel, you
thought that I was such a being as yourself. You thought I was
just like you. He said, I'm not like you. And with God, love is not a passion. Love is his being. He is love. With most people in religion,
they view the love of God as a kind of a good, good wishes
of God toward you. You know, he's got a wonderful
plan for your life. That's what they tell us on television.
And he wants to help you if you'll just let him, because God is
love. They really don't know anything
about the love of God because of this. And this, get hold of
this and may this get hold of you and not let you go. When you talk about the love
of God, the love of God is always in Jesus Christ the Lord. And
it's found nowhere else. God has no love for anybody outside
of his son. Now you can just mark that down. If you understand that to some
degree, you'll know more than most preachers in this world
know. They don't have any idea that God loves people in Christ. God is love and the love of God
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God is revealed.
The love of God is expressed. The love of God is manifested.
The love of God is made known. And the love of God is only found
in the Lord Jesus Christ and his cross death. That's the only
place it's known. The Bible never talks about God
being the God of love outside of Christ. Those who speak of the love of
God and fail to declare that love to be in the Lord Jesus
Christ, reveal they have no real understanding of the love of
God. You know Psalm 145 verse nine
says, the Lord is good to all. His tender mercies are over all
his works. And the Lord is good to all.
He sends his rain upon the just and the unjust. He feeds the
ravens. He feeds the all kinds of wildlife. We're up at Nancy's sister's
house for a few days this past week, and she built a new sunroom,
got glass all the way around. I get up early and drink my coffee
and look out. She has bear, deers, turkeys,
big old turkeys. Come right up there, because
she feeds them corn. All kinds of wildlife. And I
know she feeds them, but the Lord is using her to feed the
wildlife. But that's not the love of God.
That's the tender mercies of God. His providence extends to all
of his creatures. But his love is only found in
Christ and it's reserved for people numbered by God and written
down in the Lamb's book of life before the world began. That's
the only people God loves. His elect, his children. You don't believe God loves everybody
who's ever lived? Why, no. That's a foolish belief. Yet some would tell us that God
loves the people who are perishing in hell as much as he loves the
people who are rejoicing in heaven. That's absolute an absurdity. You say, you don't believe God
hates anybody, do you? Well, if you read your Bible,
you'll find there are a lot of people God hates. And I can start
off with this. God said, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. And they try to weaken that down. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I loved less. Well, now you're weakening the
character of God. You mean his love is not like
himself, almighty? and glorious? You mean God has
degrees of love? You got the wrong God. God loves His Jacobs and He hates
the Esau's of this world. That's just the way it is. And
I'm not gonna try to make excuses for the hatred of God, of Esau. It says in Psalm 55, he hated
the workers of Iniquity. That's what it says. So I don't
believe it that way. Well, you believe it any way
you want to, but the word of God's not gonna change. When
you're dead and gone and in hell, the word of God liveth and abideth
forever. If I was you, I'd bow down to
the word of God. There are some people God doesn't
love, but there are some He does love with an everlasting love.
And those people He draws unto Himself. The gospel will go forth
like a magnet to those people, and God will draw them in to
the Lord Jesus Christ in whom all the love of God is found. What do we know about this love
of God? Well, I'll tell you this, God loves freely. Hosea chapter
14 verse 4, I will love them freely. It's an unconditional
love. It's an unqualified love. It's
an unmerited love. It's an undeserved love. God
doesn't love us because there was anything attractive in us.
There wasn't anything attractive in us. We were sinful. We're fallen. We're lost. We're undone. We're children
of wrath just like everybody else. Dead in trespasses and
sins. Death? There's a stink about
death. There's a smell about death.
That's us by nature. God didn't love us because we
smelled good. God didn't love us because we
were going to do good. The only reason God loved us
is to be found in His own heart of love. That's it. He loved us because He would.
That's why it says, I will love them freely. I will love them
freely. It's an unconditional love. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us, as one says
in Romans chapter 5. I'll tell you something else
about the love of God. The death of the Lord Jesus,
as great as that was, it's the greatest transaction there ever
was. When God put His Son to death
in order to save His people from their sin, and Christ bearing
our sins in His own body, He bore the vengeance of God and
the wrath of God. He turned up the cup of God's
justice and drank it dry. But that wasn't to get God to
love us. That wasn't why He died. He died
because God did love us. and he would not let us perish. The only reason for the death
of Christ is to be traced back to the love of God. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. That's the reason for the
death of Christ. The remedy for our situation
is that his son was lifted up to die like Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness. Even so must the son of man be
lifted up. And here's the result that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. But you
trace it all back to this, the love of God. You say, well, you
trace it back to God's electing grace. You're right. He chose those whom He loved.
He predestinated those that He loved under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself. Love's behind it all. God is
love. God is love. This love is free. It's unconditional. And this
love is unchangeable, irrevocable, and indestructible. God's love's
not like man's love. I've known some women who've
talked to me over the years, and men too. They come to me
and said, my spouse says I don't love you anymore. That'd be a
dagger in your heart. I don't love you. I used to love you, but I don't
love you anymore. Well, I'll tell you what, God's
love's not like that. Having loved his own, he loved
them all the way to the end, to the end of the age. As there was nothing we could
do to draw forth his love, there's nothing we could ever do to destroy
that love. When David lay in the arms of
Bathsheba, guilty of adultery, God didn't love him any less. God accepted him then, as he
always accepts his people in Christ, in the beloved. We did nothing to attract God's
love, and we can't do anything, no matter how bad it is, to kill
that love. That prodigal, give me what's
coming to me. I want my inheritance early. His dad said, well, here's your
portion. And he went out, and boy, he had the time of his life. He spent it all. Well, not faster than he thought
he would. Didn't go very far. He wound up feeding the pigs.
He said, boy, I tell you what, I'm going to go home to my father. I'll just tell him, I'll be your
servant. I'll work like slaves, like the slaves do. But his father had been sitting
out on the front porch in his rocking chair, keeping a lookout
for that boy, because that boy didn't kill his father's love. Dad is out there drinking a cup
of coffee one day in the rocking chair. Look at yonder coming. He told one of his servants,
he said, you got eyes better than I do. Is that that boy out
there? Is that my prodigal son right out there? Is that him?
He said, yes, sir, it is. Boy, the father put his coffee
down, laid his paper aside, got up out of his rocking chair,
went out there, went to his son and hugged him and embraced him
and kissed him on the cheek. And before the son, the prodigal
son could recite his little speech to his father, the father said,
I love you. I never stopped loving you. Put a ring on his finger. The
ring of sonship. Put shoes on his feet. Feet shod
with the gospel of peace. Put a robe around him, the robe
of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This my son was dead,
he's alive. He was lost, but now he's found. That's the love of God right
there, see. It knows no degree. No degree. And the new birth,
that's a result of the love of God. He quickened us when we were
dead in trespasses and sins and brought us to his Son. Love's behind it all. And what's our response to the
love of God? The Lord loves Zion. His love
is only for Zion. What's our response? We love him because he first
loved us. And I can tell you a little something
about irresistible grace. I can't help but love him. That's
the effectual grace of God. That's the drawing power. That's
the magnetic power of the gospel, of the grace of God to send us
through the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
just have to love Him. And we love Him because, what's
the reason? He first loved us. The Lord loves
Zion. Get those black folders out of
here.