I'll be delighted to read this
psalm to you again. Psalm 87, the theme of it is
Zion, the city of God. It is a psalm or a song for the
sons of Korah. His foundation is in the holy
mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of
Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of
thee, O city of God, Siloam. I will make mention of Rahab
and Babylon to them that know me. Behold, Philistia and Tyre,
with Ethiopia, this man was born there. God has a people out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Born again by the power of the
Spirit. Verse 5, And of Zion it shall
be said, This and that man was born in her. and the highest Himself shall
establish her." I love the wording of that, the highest Himself. There's none higher than our
God and He is the one who establishes Zion. The Lord shall count when He writeth up the people
that this man was born there And again, he puts the word Sela. As well the singers, as the players
on instruments shall be there. All my springs are in thee. As we now know, Zion is another
name for the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are chosen
unto salvation by grace, pure grace, in the Savior. Those who have been redeemed
by the blood of that very Son of God. Those who have been quickened
by the Holy Spirit, gifted with repentance toward God and faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ. those who are kept by the power
of God through faith, those who are preserved all through their
lifetime believing God, resting in the Lord Jesus, those who
shall someday enter into everlasting bliss, into the paradise of God,
where the Lamb of God is the light in the city of God. These all constitute Zion, that
is the church of our Lord. Another name for Zion is the
city of God. It is the habitation of God.
The Lord spoke of this city in that passage that Joe read to
us in Ephesians chapter 2. And in this city of God, Jews
and Gentiles worship right along beside each other. Brethren and
sisters in Christ Jesus. He writes of the unity of believers
in the Savior. We're one with Him. We're in
union with Him. And I believe that union can
be set forth in a four-fold way. Number one, it is a covenant
union. All who are in the city of God,
all who make up the habitation of the Lord, all who are the
true temple of God, the tabernacle of God, as it were, were all
joined to Christ in covenant grace. Never underestimate the
meaning and the greatness and the wonders of God's covenant,
that everlasting covenant and counsel of peace. There in the
convening of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Jehovah
God in His infinite wisdom, mercy, justice and grace established
Zion. He established the true unity
of the faith in Christ Jesus. We were joined together in union
in the mind and in the purpose of God. this before the world
began. We have always been one in Christ
Jesus. Matters not who people are, doesn't
matter where they're from, doesn't matter what age they live in,
we're in union with Christ through that purpose of God in the covenant
of grace. Secondly, it's, and for lack
of a better word, I'm gonna call it a mystical union. And by that
I mean a union that exists between the saints of God on earth and
the saints of God in heaven. We're still united. We're still
one body. Out of this congregation we have
seen, and before I got here many of you have seen, several people
taken away from this congregation and taken on the glory. But know
this, there's still one with us in Christ Jesus. Though absent
from us physically, and though no longer worshiping with us,
sitting shoulder to shoulder with us, we're still united to
them and with them through our Savior. We worship Him on earth,
they worship Him in heaven. We honor God who saved us by
His grace while we're here. They honor God perfectly in heaven,
right now, having been forever, how many years they've been there,
in the presence of the King of Kings. It's a mystical union. No, they're not with us physically,
but there is that union that will never be broken. And we
really haven't lost anyone. You understand? We have not lost
anyone. They have gone on to where we're
going to go someday, but we're still united to them because
we have the same purpose as they have, only their purpose is perfect
now, whereas ours is imperfect, that is, to honor and glorify
the King. They're doing what we do now.
but they're doing without sin. They're doing without self entering
into the picture. They're giving all glory and
honor to God. And we seek to do that. As in
Ephesians chapter 1, we seek to glorify the Father who chose
us. the Son of God who redeemed us
through whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. It's all to the praise of the
glory of His grace and we glorify the Spirit of God who has quickened
us and made us alive. We glorify Him as best we can,
though it is an imperfect glorying, there's no question about that,
but we do brag on and boast in the Lord. They're doing the exact
same thing we're doing, only they're doing it perfectly. We don't weep for the children
of God when they leave us. We don't weep because they leave
us, we weep because we're no longer in their company. But
we don't weep for them. That's what John Bunyan said
to his family as they gathered around him, all of his children
and his wife gathered around his deathbed and, you know, crying,
which is a natural response to death. But he said, don't weep
for me. Weep for yourselves. I go yonder
to be with my Father. I go yonder to be with my elder
brother. I go yonder to be with the Spirit
of God. I go yonder to dwell with the
saints in glory and sing the praises of the Lamb of God. If
you're going to weep, weep for yourselves. You must stay here. And you must continue to fight
the battle of self. of your old nature. What I'm
saying is we're still united to them. Death can't separate
the people of God from the family of God. We're one family whether
we're on earth or we're in heaven. And you who have had precious
family members who have exited your physical life, Rejoice in
this, you're still one in Christ. There's still that union that
exists. And I know you can't commune
with them, but you can commune with the exact same Savior they
commune with. You can fellowship with the same
God they fellowship with. You can rejoice in that same
Lamb of God that they rejoice in. We're united to them still. So I'll call that a mystical
union, for lack of a better word. So it's a covenant union. It's
a mystical union. And I'll say this, it's a spiritual
union. Thirdly, we're family. We're family. This is a, A union
that exists by the grace of God that isn't one, a union due to
our bloodline physically, but due to the bloodline of Christ
Jesus. We're redeemed by the same blood. We're loved with the same everlasting
love. This is a spiritual union. You and I have a relationship,
those of you who are watching, who are believers now, you rest
in Christ. Christ, He's your all. You build
all your hopes for eternity upon Him alone. You trust His blood. You trust His sacrifice. You
believe you're accepted in Him. Know this, we're family. You're my brother,
you're my sister. And that's a union that will
never end. Now physical relationships, they
must end. And that's difficult, that's
hard. I just spoke about my mother loved that song that we sang,
Fade, Fade, Each Earthly Joy. Difficult to lose you, Mom. Back in 75, my dad, he passed
away. God taught him the gospel on
his deathbed. And we miss those. And I don't
have, I don't have that, I won't ever have that relationship with
anybody like I had with my father and my mother, and you won't
either. but there is a relationship that is more, that is deeper
and more lasting that I do have with Earl Byrd and Violet Byrd. They're my spiritual family.
That's what we've got together. That's how we're united. The
love of our Lord Jesus Christ has brought us together. And
we see that we are in Christ one family. Oh, that God would cause our
love for one another to grow. He said, by this shall all men
know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another. And I wonder how many people
know that we're His disciples by the love that we show for
one another. It is an imperfect love, isn't
it? But we do love one another. We forgive one another. We do
more than just tolerate one another. We embrace one another. And when
one of us falls, we're not standing over them as critics, as judges. We bend over and help them up
because we're family. In your earthly family, When
one of your children or grandchildren or brother or sister, somebody
very close to you, when they do wrong, you don't hang out
your dirty laundry so everybody can know about it. You know what
you do? You try to cover it. You don't get on the phone and
say, well, let me tell you what my daughter did. Let me tell
you what my boy did. Let me tell you what my husband
did. No, you don't do that. You don't do that to your earthly
family. We don't want to do that to our spiritual family either.
In fact, the Savior says, beware of offending one of His little
ones. We're His little ones. You know
what God calls His family? Precious jewels. We're His precious jewels. It's a spiritual union. And then
the last thing on this is that all of God's people have an everlasting
union. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, and nothing can separate
us from each other. Not even death. We are one in Christ. And not
a single one of His sheep shall ever perish. Now this is the city the Lord
builds. We read in Psalm 127, except
the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh, but in vain. I hear men, I get these religious
journals and I hear men talking about, I'm in church planting. I'm a church planter. And I really
don't like that expression. You can't plant a church. You
can't even plant the seed. All you can do is sow it. And
the Lord has to give the increase. And the seed is the Word of God.
It's the Word of the Gospel. It's the Word of redeeming grace.
It's the Word of substitution. It's the Word of the blood. It's
the Word of the righteousness of Christ. It's the Word of the
satisfaction of the justice of God by our dear faithful Redeemer. And we preach that message. Some
of the seed falls by the wayside, hard ground. Amounts to nothing
but we keep preaching Some it falls on stony ground Some of
it falls on on ground that's full of thorns and briars But
every once in a while God prepares the soil he prepares the heart
and the seed goes forth and it falls right into the heart and
and it accomplishes God's purpose of salvation. This is the Lord's
doing. Only He can build up the church. Only He builds Zion. And if He
doesn't build it, we labor in vain. That which is needed in
every congregation, that which is needed right here at 13th
Street Baptist Church, is the work of the Spirit of God taking
the Word of the Gospel of Christ Jesus and making it effectual
to the hearts of men, women, and young people. That's what
we've got to have. It's not by the power of persuasion
of the preacher. It's not by arm-twisting. It's
not backing somebody up and saying, look, you've got to believe.
Will you believe? Surely you'll believe. No. It's
just the work of God. That's what we've been taught
for years and years. And we don't forsake that. And
we understand as we sow the good seed of the Word of God, that
which has to precede this good seed is the work of the Spirit
of God making the heart ready to receive the Gospel. And the
reason more people don't believe is simply because they have hard
hearts. And the only one who can break
a hard heart, I said this morning, is the Lord Himself using the
hammer of His Word. We have one elder brother, and
that's our Lord Jesus Christ. He's over Zion. He's over the
church. This is not my church. It wasn't
Bill Parker's church. It wasn't Henry Mahan's church.
This is the Lord's church. The Lord's church. He purposed
it. He formed it. He established
it. He brought somebody in to tell
the truth. He blesses His Word as it goes
forth. We have existed now for 60 plus
years. Not because of the power of the
preachers. but because God has brought us
the truth of the gospel and we seek to glorify God. We're not
exalting man. Why, men come and go. I like what I read one time in
a book, what was written on a tombstone in England. God buries His workmen
and the work goes on. The work goes on. And one of
these days, He'll bury me. It's okay. But the work will go on, because
it's God's work. The building of Zion, the building
of this temple of God, is God's work. It's God's work. You see, The Lord sets forth
in His Word that this habitation of God, this Zion, she has everything
she needs to stand before God fully accepted. She always has. The safety of your soul never
was in your hands. Your salvation was never up to
you. God, He ordained that you would
be His. He purposed that you would be
His. And in His time, He brought you
to faith in Christ Jesus. He put you under the sound of
the gospel. It's no accident you're here
tonight. Those of you who are watching,
it's no accident you're watching. God purposed for you to hear
His truth through one of His servants. And His Word as it
goes forth, it will not return unto him void. It will accomplish
that which God pleases in the thing whereto He sends it. Oh
Lord, send it to me. That should be our cry always.
Lord, send it to me. I need this. So I wish so and
so was here to listen to the message. Don't try to throw the
message over your shoulder and say, well, I hope so and so is
listening. This is for you. It's for you. God has ordained the words that
I'm speaking for the good of His elect. And He'll take the Word of God
and make it effectual. That means it'll get the job
done in you. This is how He built Zion. Our text says, the Highest Himself
shall establish her. The word establish here means
prepare, set, S-E-T, put in order. The Lord Himself, the Highest
One, the Highest Himself shall establish her. Oh, this is not established by
man. It's not maintained by man. If
it is the true church of God, if it is the true Zion of God,
it is the highest Himself. Not an angel. Not a servant. Not a preacher, but the highest
Himself, even that one who is the Son of God. You can't get
any higher than Him. He establishes Zion. Let me tell you something, if
the highest Himself establishes Zion, oh how stable she is. Oh how safe she is. We were established, prepared,
and set in the house of God by the Lord Himself in old eternity. All of the attributes of God,
all of His glorious characteristics, they all worked together in the
salvation of His people. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Justice and grace working together
for our salvation. Justice was satisfied by the
doing and the dying, the bloodshedding, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Justice and grace working together. And I'll tell you this, not only does grace demand that
the family of God be brought into the kingdom of grace, But
justice demands it as well because justice has been honored by the
substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. Oh, here's the highest himself. I love that. The highest himself
shall establish her. and we were established and set
and prepared by the eternal purpose of the highest himself. What
more solid, more enduring, more certain, what is more solid,
more enduring, and more certain than the purpose of the Lord
our God? For the Lord of hosts hath purposed,
Isaiah 14 says, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is
stretched out, Who shall turn it back? Within that purpose of God was
His determination to have a people and that they all be conformed
to the image of Christ. And in that determination of
God to have the people all conformed to the image of Christ Jesus,
God purposed that His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, would have
all glory, and every knee's going to bow to Him, and every tongue's
going to confess that He's Lord to the glory of God the Father. We're established and set and
prepared by the unchanging grace of God. The grace which chose
a people cannot be changed. I am the Lord, I change not. And His grace is unchangeable
as well. He willed all that the church
would be. And He settled all the arrangements
for her justification, her redemption, her calling, her salvation, Her
preservation and her perfection. He settled it all in eternity
past. Leaving nothing for us to do. That's the kind of salvation
I'm greatly interested in. One that doesn't require me to
lift a finger because if it does, I'm surely a goner. I need somebody who's going to
work out this salvation all by Himself. And He will get all
the glory. And I'll tell you, we were established,
set, and prepared by the highest Himself who loved us with an
everlasting love. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Loved with everlasting
love, we sometimes sing the song, led by grace that love to know. Spirit moving from above, thou
has taught me it is so. Sometimes Susanna sings, oh the
deep, deep love of Jesus. Vast, unmeasured, boundless,
free. rolling like a mighty ocean in
its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me
is the current of Thy love, leading onward, leading homeward to my
glorious rest above. We were established and set and
prepared by the unlimited power of Him who is the highest Himself. Nothing shall interfere with
God's purpose of salvation for His beloved ones. Nothing at
all. Because He has all power and
He will bring it all to pass. Who can overcome Him? Who can
overpower God? Who has power anywhere near the
omnipotence of our Lord? Well, what about Satan? His power
has been loaned to him by God Himself. He can do nothing more
than God has willed. And the power of the creatures,
all those who would be enemies to the Gospel, can they hinder
that which is the eternal purpose of God? Never! Never. He has power and He exercises
His power to bring everything He ordained to pass. Well, these things being true,
how do we come to experience the reality of being a stone
in the building of God? You see, and Peter goes into
this in 1 Peter 2. He says we're living stones in
this temple of God, in Zion, in the house of God. The Gospel
goes forth just like, you remember when Solomon built the temple? He sent workers out and they
went into the mines where they quarried these stones that would
be sent in the temple. And every stone was shaped right
there on site where it was dug out. So that when it was put
on a wagon and hauled back to Jerusalem to go into the temple,
it fit just exactly where it was to fit. And we are stones. We are living stones of God's
choosing. He has sent His Gospel out into
the world and He has dug us out of the quarry of this old world. And I'll tell you, He shaped
us, He formed us, and He fashioned us, and He puts us into this
living temple of God. And guess what? We fit perfectly. You fit perfectly. Because it's
all the Lord's doings. He talks about here that people
are born in Zion. In verse 4, this man was born
there. Verse 5, that man was born in
her. In verse 6, this man was born
there. Born again. That is, all who
are the Lord's people, all of Zion, all ordained unto everlasting
life, they will be born again by the power of the Spirit. Our
Lord told Nicodemus, she must be born again. And born again,
all if they elect will be. And the highest himself shall
establish her. And look at verse 6. The Lord shall count. When he writeth up the people,
that this man was born there, Selah. When all of the elect of God
are gathered together in glory someday. Have no idea when that
will be. People say, and somebody said
to me the other day, said, I think all the signs look like Christ
is going to come back soon. I just said this. I said, well,
the saints of God in the first century were thinking everything
is ready for the coming of Christ. He's coming soon. I don't know
when He's coming. Don't be a date setter. I'm not
looking for signs to be fulfilled. I'm looking for Christ to come.
Let us all who are the people of God stand, as it were, on
the tiptoes of faith and say, even so come, Lord Jesus. As we hear Him say, behold, I
come quickly. One thing is for certain, His
meaning of quickly is far different from our meaning of quickly. but with him a day is as a thousand
years. He doesn't get in a hurry. His
people must be called effectually to believe on Christ. But the Lord shall count. The
Lord shall count. This one, this man was born there,
Selah. The Jews, for the most part,
translate Sela as the word always. Always. I know we think of it
as, some people, merely as a musical notation. It is more than that. It is more than that. Mr. Spurgeon quotes a man that says,
here's what Selah means, amen, amen, amen, forever and ever. That's what it means. But there is coming a day when
there shall be a great roll called. All of the elect will be gathered
together in glory. And when the roll is called up
yonder, that song's in the psalm book, isn't it? When the roll
is called up yonder, one voice will answer for all of God's
people, the same voice that has always answered for us. It's the voice of the Son of
God. One of our viewers, most likely
he's watching now, when Susanna sang that song, Eternal Questions,
recently, he said, that's my favorite song. That's my favorite
song. And it ends up, the theme of
it is, well, when you stand before the judgment of God, and when
your name is called, Will Christ answer for you and say, Father,
I'm here? Our advocate, our elder brother,
our head, our spokesman, our Savior, when the names of the
people of God are counted, When the Lord in eternity numbers
His people, when our names are called, one voice will echo throughout
heaven's glory. When the Father says, James Ferguson
Byrd, the Savior will say, Father, I'm here. I'm here. because we're always viewed by
the Father in Christ Jesus. Father, I'm here. Well might this verse then end
with, Amen, Amen, Amen, forever and ever. In that final census,
when the Lord counts, When He compares the chosen ones
with the called ones, it will be the exact same number of people. The exact same people. I read this this week in a message,
and I've even used these words before. In heaven's glory, there's
plenty of room, but no vacant seats in the end.
Everybody who's supposed to be there in that final counting
by that One who is Himself the highest, when He counts, will
all be there. We'll all be there. By His grace,
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be there. Notice how we're described in
verse 7, as well the singers as the players on instruments
shall be there." We'll all turn into musicians and singers in
that fair land, singing the praises of our Lord. Revelation 15 verse 3 says, and
they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, And the song
that the Lamb sang, great and marvelous are thy works, Lord
God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou
King of saints. We're going to sing the song
of Miriam, which is the song of redemption. We've learned
the song of redemption here on earth. We shall sing it in heaven. We've learned down here to sing,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who has redeemed us to God by
Thy blood. We've learned the words here,
and we step into glory. We'll just sing right along with
all the saints in heaven. And then notice the last phrase
of the psalm, all my springs are in Thee. I think one song
kind of sums this up. Come thou fount of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
they call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me, O Spirit of
God, teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues
above. And here's the original words.
Praise the mount. Oh, fix me on it. That's the
original words. Oh, praise the mount. Oh, fix
me on that mount. Christ Jesus the Lord. Mount of God's unchanging love. And let me give you this when
I close. Everything that flows to us all the goodness of God. Don't ever complain about what
you don't have. You have all the goodness of
God. You have all the grace of God.
You have all the mercy of God. Don't moan and groan about what
you don't have. You have what very few folks
that you know have got. You have everything because you
have Christ Jesus. Having Him, you have all. Every good thing that flows to
us flows from the smitten rod. Smitten with the rod of God's
justice. And that water just gushes, it
springs forth. Drink of the water of life freely
and be refreshed. You say, this whole world is
getting me down. There's so much bad news. All
that's going on over there and in Europe and the war and all
of that. Go back to the rock, Sminton.
Drink of the water of life. And be refreshed and know that
the same Savior who saved you, He's governing everything in
this world. making it all work out for the
good of His people in this life. And sing. Sing praises to the
Lord. And let me give you this reference
finally. Look at Zephaniah. I just want
to read this. It's such a beautiful passage
of Scripture. Go to the book of Zephaniah,
not far from the split of the Testaments. One of the minor prophets, only
got three chapters. Zephaniah chapter 3. I'll give you just a few seconds
to get there. Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 14. Here's the command, to sing,
O daughter of Zion. He says, shout, O Israel. Be
glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy
judgments. There's no judgment for you.
There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. He has cast
out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. No evil can come to you. And that day it shall be said
to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is another name for Zion, fear thou
not, And to Zion, let not thine hands be slack, weak. The Lord
thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. Oh, let me remember
that. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee, He is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee, watch
this, with singing. Can you imagine the Lord Himself
singing? Oh, to hear His sweet voice singing. of His grace to us, and of His
everlasting love to His covenant people. He says, I will gather
them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly who are of Thee,
to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time
I will undo all that afflict Thee, and I will save her that
halteth and gather her that was driven out. And I will get them
praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.
At that time will I bring you again, even at the time that
I will gather you. For I will make you a name and
I will make you a praise among all the people of the earth when
I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord. In one of these days, the Lord
is going to put His redeemed church on display for all the
world to see. And they'll see us dressed in
the beauties of our dear Savior. Say, oh, that we were with them. Oh, that we had been numbered among
them. And then the wicked will perish. But we shall always be
the people of God. Amen. Always be His Zion. Always be His redeemed family. Always be the apple of His eye. That's what He says about us.
We're the apple of His eye. He says, touch not mine anointed.
He's talking about His people. Touch not mine, anointed. You
touch them, you touch me, God says. Zion. Zion. Oh, what a name for the people
of God. And He always abides with us. 75 is the number of our last
song, and we'll sing all four of the stanzas. Hymn number 75. This is taken out of Luke 24,
where the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Savior having
revealed Himself to them,