so much for that great, great
hymn. Let's go back to Psalm 87. I want to begin a brief study
in Psalm 87 this evening. The theme of this Psalm is Zion,
the city of God. Probably take me, oh, two or
three Sunday nights on this, I would think. But I want you
to begin with, I want you to notice the inspired title for
the psalm. Underneath Psalm 87, it says,
a psalm or a song for the sons of Korah. These were musicians, they were
singers, they were keepers of the doors of the temple. Now
when you read that name of Korah, you remember that he was a rebel
against God, a rebel against Moses, and a rebel against Aaron. And I want you to go back with
me to Numbers, the book of Numbers, and we'll read about this rebellion
that arose. And here's one of the main characters
in this story of rebellion, this man by the name of Korah. Numbers chapter 16. He and Dathan and another man
by the name of Abiram, they rebelled against the authority of Moses
and Aaron. Let me read the first three verses
of Numbers chapter 16. Now Korah, the son of Ishar,
the son of Kohab, the son of Levi, So now we know immediately
that Korah is a Levite. And Dathan and Abiram, the sons
of Eliab, and on the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses
with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the
assembly, These were men who were famous
in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered themselves
against Moses and against Aaron, and they said unto them, Ye take
too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy." We're
all God's people here, is what they're saying. Every one of
them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord." Now, I want you to keep
this in mind. This man Korah, his first cousin
to Moses and Aaron, because his daddy and the daddy of Moses
and Aaron were brothers. So these are kinfolk. These are
family. He's a cousin. And Korah is jealous
of the authority that had been conferred upon Moses by the Lord
and also conferred upon Aaron. And he wasn't satisfied with
the dignity that God gave him as a Levite. Now, keep this in
mind that Before God gave the law at Sinai, the priesthood
of every family resided with the head of the household. And
you can go all the way back to Genesis the fourth chapter when
you see Cain and Abel representing their families in worshiping
God or in Cain's instance, seeking to worship God, but he brought
the wrong offering. But the heads of the families
were the ones who led the family in worship. And that continued
on for a few hundred years. That is, until God at Mount Sinai,
he set apart the Levites to be ministers in the tabernacle that
would be built. And he also set aside the family
of Aaron. Now, Aaron was a Levite, but
not all Levites could serve as priests, only those of the household
of Aaron. And Aaron was the high priest,
and his sons were priests. That was the priestly family.
But still God had important responsibilities for the Levites, of whom Korah
was one. When the tabernacle moved after
the priests had got everything ready to go, Korah and other
Levites, they were in charge of then packing things up, getting
them ready to go, got to move to the next location wherever
Moses led them to. And he was following the pillar
of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And when the
Lord stopped moving, then Moses said, everybody stop. And then
Korah and the other Levites, then they'd get the tabernacle
ready, get the parts and the fencing and the posts and all
of that ready, and then the sons of Aaron and Aaron himself would
then proceed to get everything ready tabernacle-wise, get the
furniture where it's supposed to go. But now Korah didn't like
the way that things were being done now. He was jealous of the
position that Aaron had. After all, Aaron's his first
cousin. It's kind of like, who do you think you are, cuz? You think you're greater than
I am? And what about the rest of us? We're all the people of
God here. Surely we can all take a leadership
in offering sacrifices. And then Moses, you've taken
it upon yourself to lead and guide the children of Israel.
We're all the Lord's people. We're brothers and sisters in
the Lord. And you men take too much upon
you. These men were jealous of somebody
else's position. Let there be no jealousy in the
family of God. God has men that he puts in positions
of authority. He has pastors. He has teachers. Deacons and elders who have their
responsibilities, don't be jealous of a position that somebody else
has. Be thankful God put you in His
family. Be thankful He saved you by His
grace. He could have left you to yourself,
to the natural error of your own inclination. He could have
let you go your own way. and never, never find grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Never know anything about salvation. Don't be jealous of another's
position. Be thankful that you're in the
kingdom of God. Be thankful that he adopted you
into his family. Be thankful that he said his
love upon you from before the foundation of the world. That
he appointed unto you a kingdom. That is, you would enter into
the kingdom, you would be part of his kingdom. Be thankful your
sins are washed away. Be thankful that you stand in
the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
be envious of another person's position. This was Korah's problem. He was jealous. He was envious. He wasn't satisfied where God
put him. Oh, that the Lord would give
us a goodly measure of satisfaction wherever he has placed us in
his kingdom. We're the children of God. We
have the privilege of addressing God as our father. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is our elder brother, and he's not ashamed to call
us brethren. We're members of the family of
God. We're members of the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, this man, Korah, dissatisfied
he and along with Dathan and Abiram and 250 men of renown
in the camp of Israel, They were dissatisfied with their
positions, and so they stirred up rebellion. And I don't have time to go into
the whole story, but the way it wound up was if you rebel
against God's established authority, you're in trouble. And that's
what happened to these men. Moses, being the leader of Israel,
he was a picture of our Lord Jesus. Actually, he's a picture
of Christ as the prophet, because Moses spoke to the people on
behalf of God. Moses was the one to whom God
spoke, and then he relayed the message to the people of the
congregation. He's the preacher. He's the prophet.
And remember, he says in the book of Deuteronomy, one of these
days God's going to send another prophet similar to myself, but
much greater. And him ye will hear. Christ
is that prophet. You remember when our Lord fed
the 5,000 men plus women and children. Some of the people,
they were so excited when they ate of all that food, they ate
so much, couldn't eat anymore, and they collected the baskets
of food at our Lord's command. There were 12 baskets full of
food that was left over. And people said, this is the
prophet. This is the prophet. Well, they were remembering what
Moses had said back in the book of Deuteronomy. Well, he was
the prophet. but he's also the priest and
the king. Well, they were jealous of Moses,
who was the prophet, who spoke to the people for God, and they
were jealous of Aaron, jealous of Aaron, who ministered with
God on behalf of the people, and he was a type of Christ.
Christ, our high priest. We have a go between. We have
somebody who presents the correct sacrifice to God. The sacrifice
being his own self. Our Lord Jesus laid down his
life for his sheep. He's the good shepherd who did
that. And he's our great high priest
who ministers to God on our behalf. He is our, 1 John 2 says this,
he's our advocate. Who is Jesus Christ the righteous? He's our advocate. He's our go-between. He's our great high priest. He's
the one who deals with God on our behalf, on the behalf of
His elect. God's a consuming fire. I can't
come directly to God. I've got to come to God through
Christ. He's the only mediator. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And Aaron was a
type of our Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, even as Moses
was a type of Christ who is the prophet, who speaks to us the
Word of God. In fact, he is the Word of God,
according to John chapter one. He is the Word of God. Well,
these men, these three, plus the 250 men of renown of the
House of Israel, they rebelled against the authority of Moses
and the priesthood of Aaron. And as it winds up, and like
I said, I don't have time to go through this whole story,
look over later in chapter 16, look at chapter 16th verse, let me start reading
at verse 29. Numbers 16, 29. Moses said, now if these men
die, these rebels, if these men die the common death of all men,
or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the
Lord hath not sent me. If they die of a heart attack,
and get pneumonia and pass away or something like that. If I
just die a common death, then the Lord hadn't sent me. But,
verse 30, if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her
mouth and swallow them up with all that pertain unto them and
they go down quick into the pit, Then ye shall understand that
these men have provoked the Lord. They haven't merely rebelled
against Moses. They have not merely rebelled
against Aaron. They've rebelled against Jehovah.
So verse 31, And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking
all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under
them. And the earth opened her mouth,
and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that
appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that
appertained to them went down alive into the pit. The earth
closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation.
And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of
them, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came a fire from the
Lord, the fire that consumed the sacrifices. The fire of judgment
came from God and consumed the 250 men that offered the incense. They wanted to take over. You say, well, that's an interesting
story, Jim, but what's your point? What's the point? Well, go to
Numbers 26 and I'll show you the point. Numbers chapter 26. And as you go there, I'll remind
you once again of the inspired title to this psalm, a psalm
or a song for the sons of Korah. Now, look at chapter 26 of Numbers. And briefly, Moses gives a summary
of what happened with Korah. Verse nine, you're there in Numbers
26, nine. And the sons of Eliab Nimuel
and Dathan and Abiram, this is that Dathan and Abiram, which
were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and
against Aaron in the company of Korah when they strove against
the Lord. And the earth opened her mouth
and swallowed them up together with Korah. When that company
died, what time the fire devoured 250 men and they became a sign,
notwithstanding, This is where I'm getting to. Nevertheless, the children of Korah died not. He had three sons, and they were chosen of God unto
salvation. Korah was a reprobate. He perished in his sin. No sacrifice, no blood offering,
no righteousness. God just had him swallowed right
on into hell, body and soul. But he had three sons and they
were God's elect. God spared them. Their daddy was a rebel, no doubt
about that. These men, they were the sons
of a rebel, but God saved them. And I'll tell you what, our father,
Adam, he rebelled against God. He put his fist in God's face,
as it were, saying, I'll be God. I'll do things by my will. I'll live my life the way I want. I'll choose what I want to do.
Nobody can tell me what to do. I'll be my own God. And his sin was passed along
to all of his sons and daughters. And yet, within the race of Adam, there's
another race. It's the race of Christ Jesus,
the children of God. Marked out for salvation before
the world began. Are we rebels, too? Yeah. Are we sinners, too? Oh, yes. But we don't perish. We're not
gonna perish. That's what they just sang in
that song. Twice payment God will not demand. First, in my bleeding shirt,
his hand, And then again at mine. It can't be. Justice once satisfied
is satisfied forever. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
put away the sins of all of his elect and he brought in everlasting
righteousness. Now, so his three sons didn't
die. Years go by. These three sons
had children. And then they had children. So
we're talking about the great grandchildren of Korah. And we get here to Psalm 87.
Now we're gonna land right back on Psalm 87. And the offspring of Korah, offspring
of a rebel, they labor around the temple. They're singers. They're musicians. They praise
God with their voices. They honor the Lord Jesus by
worshiping Him through a blood sacrifice. Far different attitude
than their great-great-grandfather had. And isn't that the way it
is with the grace of God? God chooses the undeserving. I wonder if some of the people,
knowing the history of Israel, of course now the tabernacle
has been dismantled and the temple has been built, I wonder if some
of the people who remembered the story of this rebel and his
cohorts, I wonder if some of them didn't say, well, who do
these think they are to serve in the temple? Their daddy was a rebel against
Moses and a rebel against Aaron. They could say, these great grandchildren,
whatever how many there were, they could say, yeah, that's
true, we are, but we're saved by the grace of God. And the
Lord has made us to be servants. We're servants of the Lord. We labor in and around the temple. We do the things that the priests
need to have done. They're part of the Levitical
family. And so this psalm was a song
that the offspring of Korah sang. They sang a song about Zion. They sang a song about the children
of God. They sang a song like Stephen
said in his sermon concerning the church in the wilderness.
They're worshipers of God. By the way, Korah, and this is
with a K, His name means trees that have
no leaves and have no fruit. In other words, his name means
bear. Literally, bald. No offense to
any men here who have a balding issue. But literally, that's
what this, Cora's name means bald. There's no fruit produced,
no leaves, like trees that are bare in the wintertime. And that's
a good description of men, fallen men. We have lost our
pristine beauty in Adam's fall. We have lost our fruitfulness
We've lost that created righteousness in which Adam was made. We're
bare of any righteousness. We're bald. We're bald. We have no real clothing. We have nothing to cover up our
sinfulness, and our sinfulness is fully exposed. And had we been left by God to
our own ways, we'd remain like trees in the winter. No fruitfulness, no glory, no
beauty. That's us in our sin. For you see, the glory that God
gave to Adam was lost in the fall. And when we were born,
There's no beauty about us. But thank God there's a restoration
of the fallen. There's a covering for the bald. There's a covering for those
who are bare of any righteousness. Hold your place here. Turn back
to Psalm 69. Look at Psalm 69. This is speaking of our Savior. Psalm 69, look at verse 1. Here He is standing before God, facing death, the death that
we deserve, bearing our sins in His own body. He says, as
a man, He says, Save me, O God, For the waters are coming to
my soul, the floodwaters of God. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. Mine eyes fail while I wait for
my God. Here's the real man, Christ Jesus. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away." I didn't take away peace, but I came to
restore peace. I didn't take away man's standing,
but I came to restore it. He came to do what nobody else
could do, make things right between us and a holy God. Who'd he do that for? Zion. He did that for his church. And
as we look at Psalm 87, you'll notice that the word Zion is
used two times. It's used in Verse two, and it's
used in verse five, Zion. What was Zion? What was Zion? Well, it's where David built
a fort, many years before this, and then a palace. Zion was a
name given to Jerusalem, the city of peace. Sometimes Zion
refers to the temple, but sometimes Zion refers to true Israel, that
is, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the elect of God, of
Jews and Gentiles. Literally, Zion was the hill
on which the temple was built. And that's where men went to
worship God, to meet with God. It's where God met with men and
men met with God. That was a place of sacrifice.
There the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies at the
temple and offer a sacrifice to the people. At the brazen
altar, the offering was offered to the Lord on fire, and then
the blood was taken into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled
upon the mercy seat. That's where God met with men
and men met with God. There's only one place we can
meet with God, only one place where God's gonna meet with us.
That's in the Christ of Calvary. God's not going to meet with
you anywhere else. Notwithstanding your sincerity
and your desire to meet with God, your desire to worship God,
your desire to prayer, God's not going to meet with, He's
not going to speak with, He's not going to have anything to
do with anybody except through the Lord Jesus Christ. would
to God, we learn that and we pray that God will teach that
to more people and he will teach it to all of his elect sooner
or later. That God deals with people through
Christ Jesus. Let me tell you something, he
deals with people through Christ Jesus both in grace and in justice. Because he's gonna be the judge. You look down your nose at Christ
Jesus, or you think, well, I can be a good person, a good woman,
a good man. I can do things that are honoring
to God, and I'll be okay in the end. No, you won't be okay in
the end. God's not going to receive you except through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's not going to receive you
through a pope. He's not going to receive you
through a bishop. He's not gonna receive you through
a cardinal. He's not gonna receive you through
a priest. He's not gonna receive you through
a preacher. He's not gonna receive you because
you attended the house of worship. God will only deal with us in
mercy through that man who was crucified, then buried and rose
again the third day, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, that people would learn that. And what God does in saving his
people, he brings us into union with the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ that is Zion. We're Zion. We're the house of
the living God, the church of the living God. We're Mount Zion. Hold your place again in Psalm
87. Look over at Hebrews chapter
12. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. And
I'm not going to do more than just kind of give you an introduction
to this Psalm tonight, but look at Hebrews chapter 12. You know, throughout the book
of Hebrews, here's what Paul has been doing. He's been admonishing
the Hebrew believers, that is those who profess faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's admonishing them to be done
with the old covenant and not to go back to it, which some
of them were tempted to do. And he says, there's a new covenant.
It's a covenant of grace. The old covenant said, do this
and do that. The new covenant says it's done.
Christ said, it's finished. That's what he said in his dying
breath on the cross of Calvary. All the types and symbols of
him in the Old Testament, they're finished. All the prophecies
concerning the Messiah who would come and lay down his life, they're
finished. All the prophecies about justice
being satisfied and sin being washed away, they're finished.
They're finished in the Son of God. And there were some, you
see, who were insistent on, well, there's some things we need to
hang on to the old ways. Let's go back to the old covenant.
And Paul writes and he says, no, no. Because he says this, look at
verse 18, you're there, Hebrews 12. For ye are not come unto
the mount that might be touched, and that burn with fire, nor
into blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of
a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them any more. For they could
not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
So terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear
and quake." Paul says, you not come to that mountain. What is
this mountain? This is the law. This is the
law. That's not the mountain we've
come to. Supposedly, these people, they
professed that they'd come to the mountain of grace, to Mount
Zion, into the church of our Lord Jesus Christ that He purchased
with His own blood. And Paul says, you want to go
back to that mountain? Are you fools? The mountain that
couldn't be touched? If a beast touched it, they died? When the mountain quaked, when
it belched forth smoke and fire, the people were scared to death.
You want to go back to that law? And there's a lot of people today
who say, you know, we come to Mount Calvary for salvation,
but you know, we still come to Mount Zion to learn how to live.
That's wrong. We're done with Mount Zion. We're
done with Mount Sinai, rather. Because you see, the law of God
was not made for a righteous man. We're righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're done with the law. Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You
a believer? You trust Christ? You see in
Him everything a holy God could ever demand of you? Do you see
that He finished it? Well, in Christ Jesus, God's
law has nothing to do with you. Nothing whatsoever. It can't
rebuke you. It can't kill you. It's not a code of ethics for
you. No, no. The law was given to expose
our guilt. That mountain was a scary place. And I'm telling you, if you ever
hear what the law of God says and what the law of God condemns,
it'll scare you too. And you'll say, I'm thankful
I'm not under the law. I'm free from the law, I'm under
grace. Grace reigns through righteousness. So it says here in verse 22,
but you come to another mount. What mount is that? Mount Zion. Well, Paul, can you kind of explain
what you mean? Sure. Under the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of peace that is, to
an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, and to
God, the judge of all, and to spirits of just men made perfect,
having been made perfect through the bloody sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 24, and to Jesus. the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. That's the mountain we've come
to. We've not come to a mountain to scare you to death, we've
come to a mountain of peace. We've come to a mountain, we've
come to Mount Zion, we've come to the true church of our Lord
Jesus Christ, whose message is Christ is all. That's a message
of peace, not a message of fear. I'm not trying to scare the people
of God. I'm not threatening you. The Lord doesn't threaten His
people. He promises His people everlasting life, a righteousness
that no fault shall ever be found with. He promises us a heavenly
inheritance that's incorruptible and undefiled and fadeth not
away. There's nothing frightening about
that. The Lord doesn't say, if you don't
live right when you get to heaven, I'm going to embarrass you and
you're going to cry and you'll wish you'd done better. He never
says anything like that. All those who in the scripture
who were ready to die, they were anxious to see the Lord and not
fearful of Him. You're not afraid of meeting
God, are you? Only reason I can think of that
anybody would be afraid of meeting God is meeting Him in your own
self-righteous rags. If that's what you're thinking,
you have reason to be afraid. but washed in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, robed in that salvation that
Jehovah Himself has given to us freely, without works, without
merit, without demanding anything on our part. God doesn't say,
I'll give you everlasting life if you live right. Now, we ought to live right.
Don't misunderstand me. What is it to live right? I don't
know too much about living right. Just being honest with you. I
know something about being a sinner saved by grace, though. I do
know something about that. This is the mountain we've come
to, Mount Zion. Mount Zion. As we look back,
and I'll just give you a couple of things, and then I'll hang
on to some thoughts till next Sunday night, the Lord willing.
But in Psalm 87, it says, His foundation is in the holy mountains. You see, the hill of God, the
mountain of God, it stands on several hills. The church of Zion stands upon
the hill of God's eternal counsel of grace, his purpose of grace. God chose a people unto himself. Isaiah 43, 21, the Lord says,
this people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth
my praise. And that word formed is a word
used by the great potter. I formed you for myself. You're
just part of the whole mess of clay. And I took you and I formed
you into a child of grace. I formed you into a child of
God. Zion stands upon the hill of
God's eternal purpose, which cannot be, cannot be a failure,
This hill of God's eternal purpose will never fail, it'll never
let us down, it'll never let us fall. The Lord says they shall hold
forth my praise. I promise you this, Mount Zion
will praise no one else except Jehovah. That's the only one
the church will praise. That's what it says, Isaiah 43,
21. They shall hold forth my praise. And then there's the hill of
God's unchangeable love. Boy, that's a lasting hill right
there. We're built, his foundation is
in the holy mountains. The hill of God's eternal purpose,
the hill of God's unchangeable love, and the hill of God's unlimited
power. We're kept by the power of God
through faith. The church has a firm foundation. So it cannot totter and it cannot
sink. Christ is the foundation. He's
the foundation. And we're the building, we're
the edifice that God is building. You know, you can have a foundation
without a building. Foundation would be okay. But
you can't have a building without a foundation. And we have a firm
foundation, laid by God himself in his eternal purpose, according
to his unchanging Loving kindness and according to his unlimited
power We're built on the foundation
of Jesus Christ himself He's the foundation of the apostles
he's the foundation of the prophets and He's our foundation Be settled now in the doctrine
of of Christ our Redeemer. Be firm because you're kept safe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's sing a closing song.