Now, I want to focus on the second
verse where it says, the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more
than the dwellings of Jacob. The gates of Zion stand for the
city of God. That is the people of God, the
kingdom of God, the habitation of God. That is Zion. Yes, the tabernacles of Jacob,
that is where God's children live, because they're important
to us, then that's important to God. But that which is most
important to God is the habitation where He lives, and that's Zion. That's the habitation of God.
That city of which we are blessed to be citizens of, occupants
of, it is fully encircled by the walls of salvation. Nothing
can ever penetrate Zion, which is beloved of God. God dwells
there. No harm can come to anyone in
the city because the Lord our God is the defender of the city. He's the protector of the city,
and he's the foundation of the city. The foundation is Christ
our Lord. And that city will not fail,
it will not fall. All other cities made by men
are destined to be destroyed. One of these days, everything
will be melted with a fervent heat that is in this world, but
the city of Zion will go on forever. It had a glorious beginning in
the covenant of grace. This is when God established
the city upon the sure foundation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the rock. on which the church is built.
He said to his disciples, I will build my church. I will build
Zion and the gates of hell, they shall not prevail against it.
They will endeavor to prevail against it. They will raise up
all opposition against the city of God, against Zion, against
the church, But this Zion of God, the city of God, the church
of our Lord Jesus that He has purchased with His own precious
blood, it cannot be overcome by the enemy. It is established
by God Himself. And none can defeat God. None
can overthrow that which is of the Lord. And of Zion, we may
rest assured, she is the beloved of God. His love is nowhere else except
in Christ Jesus for Zion. All outside of Zion know nothing
of the love of God. They know something of the mercies
of God in His daily goodness to them, but they know nothing
of the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Zion is the beloved of the
Lord. What do we know about this city?
What do we know about this habitation of God that is so delightful
to him and so much beloved of God? Well, we know this, it has
a glorious king. Joe read to us there from Psalm
2. God said, I have set my king
upon the holy hill of Zion. He has set him. He doesn't merely
just sit on the holy hill of Zion. He is set. He is fixed. He is established
as the King of kings and the Lord of lords upon the holy hill
of Zion. And make no mistake about Zion,
she is holy. She's always holy. She's not
holy in herself, but she is holy in our God, in our Savior, that
One who is the Lord, our righteousness. He's the King of the city. Ephesians
chapter 1 at the end of the first chapter, He's the head of the
church. And we delight to honor Him and
we delight to worship Him. In this local assembly, we have
no king here save Christ our Lord. We bow to Him. We don't bow to a man. You don't
kneel before me. Please don't ever entertain any
kind of thought of doing that to any man or to any angels. We bow before Christ, our Savior. He deserves the adoration. He
is worthy of all honor. And in our hearts, we bow down
before Him. When the Spirit of God gives
us a faith look at Christ, We do indeed fall down and honor
Him and worship Him as our King, as our Lord. And we delight to
say, He is our Lord. And we'll say with David, the
Lord, He's my shepherd. And the reason that we don't
lack for anything is because who our shepherd is, He is the
Lord, our righteousness. of this city, it has just one
law. You know, earthly cities have
an abundance of laws, and earthly cities have many policemen. But this city has no policemen,
it has no earthly inspectors, it has no earthly rulers. God
has appointed watchmen to the walls of Zion who watch for the
safety of the people and watch out for error, but we have but
one, this city has but one law. It's the law of love. We love
Christ Jesus, our Lord. We love his word and loving him,
we love each other. By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples, Christ said. You have love one for another. Do you? Do you have love for
the brethren? Do you have love for one another? That's one of the evidences of
knowing God. because you seek God the Spirit,
he sheds abroad in our hearts that love of God. And if God
so loved us, brethren, we ought to also love one another. Lord,
increase our love, increase our love for you, increase our love
for the book, increase our love for the gospel, increase our
love for one another. Tell you something else about
this city. It's a very permanent city. Very permanent. Can't ever be destroyed. It's
lasting. And this city has many names.
It's called Hephzibah. It's the only city in which God
finds delight. It's never written of any earthly
city that God delights in those cities, because in those cities,
there's sin and wretchedness and ungodliness and wickedness. But the Lord delights at Hephzibah. The Lord delights in Zion, where
Beulah, that's what Zion is called, Beulah. That means married to
the Lord. were given by God the Father
to the Son of God in covenant love and grace before the world
began, given to be his bride. And our Lord accepted that responsibility
of saving his people, and he said to the Father in essence,
what dowry do you require? To have these people for a bride,
what dowry must I pay? If you want these people and
if you'll have these people and if you'll save these people and
keep them safe forever and ever, here's the dowry. Your death
upon the cross of Calvary. That's what it'll cost you. We're
redeemed at a great price. The precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And our Lord agreed to pay that
dowry to the Father And he paid it when he died upon
the cross of Calvary in the room instead of his people. And as
a result of his death and his resurrection, we're raised from
the dead. Actually, you know, I quoted
this morning that passage in Ephesians chapter two and verse
one, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. We were quickened from our death
in his resurrection. because we were raised in him.
You need to read again the end of Ephesians chapter one, and
then go on into Ephesians chapter two. When he was raised, that's
when we were raised. The restoration of his life,
that's the restoration of life to us. We live because he lives. He is our life, the scripture
says. that someday Zion will be put
on full display for all of the angels of heaven to see, for
all of the demons of hell to behold, for all of the unbelievers,
for all the wicked throughout the universe who've ever lived,
they're going to see this bride dressed in white, dressed in
royal garments, She's not only the bride of Christ, she's the
king's daughter. She's the daughter of God himself. And we will be the trophies of
his grace. You see, there are a lot of people
who expect trophies when they get to heaven. Man, I've worked
for Jesus and I want trophies. No, you're not going to get trophies. You are the trophy. You're the
trophy to His grace. Look with me. Hold your place
there. And look with me in Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter
14. Here in Revelation 14, John in
this vision has He is enabled to see and blessed
to see and behold the Lamb of God standing in or on Mount Zion. He sees, notice verse 1, I looked
and behold the Lamb. You know, our Lord Jesus is said
to be earlier in the book of Revelation. He's the Lamb or
He's the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is a Lion to His enemies. He is a lion in protecting his
children. But when he's presented to us,
he's presented first as the shepherd. Chuck read to us from John 10
back in the office, I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. Nothing fearful there. We don't
hear the roar of a lion, the enemy hears that. The enemy knows
the fierceness of the lion of the tribe of Judah, but we know
the Lord Jesus is the tender shepherd, the good shepherd,
the great shepherd. His blood is the blood of the
great shepherd of the everlasting covenant. He's the chief shepherd
who shall come again. And then when he's presented
to us, he's presented as the lamb, nothing to be frightened
of. Not a roaring lion, that's what
he is to his enemies. But to us, he's a lamb. Sweet, gentle. And he associates himself with
us because we're the lambs of our Lord. We're the lambs of
his pasture. We're his sheep. And he condescends
to be one of us. And he says, I'm the lamb. I'm
the lamb of God. Behold the lamb of God. that
taketh away the sin of the world," is what John preached. And in
that characteristic, He's not fearful, we're not afraid of
Him. We're not afraid to come near Him or approach Him. We
come to Him because He is the Lamb of God. And He has a love
and a tenderness toward His people. We're not afraid of Him. We're
not scared to death of Him. The enemy has every right to
be fearful of Him because to them He's the Lion. He destroys. He protects His sheep. But to you and me, He's the Lamb. Gentle. Let me tell you something. He's gentle to you, isn't He?
Sure He is. He's gentle to me. And as a shepherd,
he guards us. So here in chapter 14, verse
one, I looked and lo a lamb stood on Mount Zion or stood in the
midst of Mount Zion. And with him 144,000. Who are
these 144,000? It's a very symbolic number. that sets forth that multitude
which no man can number that John saw back in Revelation chapter
7. And John said, I saw him in the
midst, in the midst of all of these people he redeemed. Which
reminds me of that passage in Isaiah 53 and verse 7. He shall
see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Satisfied. And here He is, in glory. John is enabled by the Spirit
of God to look into glory, to look into heaven. And he sees
the end, and he sees there's the Lamb of God, and He's standing
in the midst of... In the midst of who? Zion. In the midst of Hezbollah. In
the midst of Beulah. He's standing there in the midst
of the city of God. He's the King. And He's the Lamb. And He stands in the midst of
His people. And all of His people have His
Father's name written in their foreheads. What does that mean? He has given us a knowledge of
the gospel of God's grace. And we're sealed. We're sealed
with that gospel. We have it written in our foreheads. You see, the ungodly, the wicked,
those who perish, they have the mark of the beast. What is the
mark of the beast? Their minds are fixed on, set
on false religion. That's all they're concerned
about. They're totally absorbed with self and with the religion
of this world. That's in their minds, it's in
their heart. But for Zion, for Zion, we have a knowledge of the gospel
in our minds and in our hearts. We know who saved us, God did. We know He saved us by His grace. We know He saved us on purpose.
and He saved us because Christ the Lord has died for us and
His Spirit has quickened us. We're saved by His grace. We
have this written in our foreheads. Look at verse two. And I heard
a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice
of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps. And they sung, as it were, a
new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the
elders. And no man could learn that song,
this song of redemption, this song of salvation, this song
of praise to the king of kings and the Lord of lords, praise
to the Lamb of God. No man could learn that song
but the people of God, the 140 and 4,000. which were redeemed from the
earth. These are people who are blood
bought. These are people whose debt has
been paid. And then John sees them and he
describes them in verse four. These are they which were not
defiled with women. Not talking about sexual impurity
here. What he's talking about, they're
not defiled with the abomination of Babylon and false religion. God brought them out of it. God
delivered them from it. God has saved, he will save,
and in the end it will be seen that he has saved all of his
elect out of false religion. He drew them out and he taught
them the truth. All of God's people have learned
the gospel of pure, sovereign, free grace. These were not defiled
with women. They're virgins. The apostle
Paul calls them chaste virgins. They're pure virgins. Well, how
could that ever be said of us? We're anything but pure. We're wicked and vile and ungodly. We're wretched. Our purity's
in the Lamb of God. He's the Lord of our righteousness. And what do these do? They follow
the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. In that passage in John chapter
10, Christ said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me. A false shepherd we won't follow,
we follow him. We follow in His footsteps. We
follow in His path. We follow Him down into the waters
of baptism after He saves us, and we confess Him before men.
We follow Him through our lives. We follow in His footsteps. He's
our example. And one of these days, we'll
follow Him all the way to heavenly paradise. It will never happen
that one of the Lord's sheep, one of those whom he bought with
his blood, it will never happen that they will fail to inherit
the kingdom of God and the everlasting salvation that is ours in Christ. We follow him as sure as he's
gone to glory, we're gonna follow him. Well, will we have to follow
him in death? We'll have to follow him there
too. and we'll follow him into the grave. But just as our Lord
said to the thief, today thou shall be with me in paradise.
When we lay down this life, when our bodies are worn out or diseased
or whatever, and we have to give up the ghost, the soul goes back
to the Lord, goes to paradise. We follow him there. because
He preserves us. None of the elect of God, none
of the redeemed of God, none of those regenerated by the Spirit
of God shall fail to inherit everlasting salvation in glory. We follow him wheresoever he
goes. And then he says this, these
were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God
and to the Lamb. These were redeemed, watch it,
from among men. Doesn't say he redeemed everybody. You know, and I know, one of
the greatest heresies is that of universal redemption. that
He died for all men, making salvation a possibility. That's just not so. He didn't
make salvation a possibility. He didn't open the door and say,
now it's up to you, now I've done all I can do. No, He redeemed
us under God by His blood. He bought us. He bought us out
of the prison house of law and justice. Justice said, I'm holding
this one for ransom. I'm holding all of your elect
like I'm holding everybody for ransom. And Christ said, I ransomed
them from the justice of God. We've been bought. Our price
has been paid. The law of God, it doesn't hold
us captive. It has no hold on us at all.
That's why in Romans 6, Paul says you're free from the law.
Free from the law. Not free to dishonor it. Not
free to despise it. But we're free from its threats.
We're free from any bondage to it whatsoever. The law of God
has nothing to do with a righteous man. My Savior answered every
demand of God's holy law. He did it for all of his people.
And therefore, the law has nothing to say to us anymore. It doesn't
have anything to do with us. Because we're righteous in Christ
Jesus. You see, the only thing that
will satisfy law and justice is a perfect righteousness. We
have that in Christ. Are you not afraid that God will
beat the fire out of you when you misbehave? He's not going
to beat the fire out of me. Will He chasten me in love? I
need that. He corrects His children. But
it's not in anger. It's in love. It's a loving correction. We're redeemed from among men.
Look at verse 5. and in their mouth was found
no guile, no hypocrisy, no sinfulness, no malice, no deception. And get this in the latter part
of verse five, for they are, that is all of Zion, are without
fault before the throne of God. Without fault? Listen, that's
the only way you can be accepted is to be without fault. How can
I be without fault? Man, I'm full of faults, Jim.
I got a lot of faults. Christ is your righteousness.
God's justice sees no faults in you. We're without fault. We're without spot. We're without
blame. Because all of our sins, all
of our iniquities, all of our transgressions have been paid
for by the Savior's death. I wish we could grasp that. We are, we are Zion. And John sees us someday in glory. Go back over here to our text.
So let me get to this. He says this in Psalm 87. He says, the Lord loveth the
gates of Zion. Let me talk about the love of
God to Zion. First of all, he only loves Zion. Satan, Satan is the author of
all lies. And there are three great lies
that he has authored that are absolutely popular in religion. Number one, that God loves everybody. Number two, that Jesus died for
everybody. And number three, the Spirit
of God wants to save everybody. Now, if you think a little bit,
That makes salvation dependent upon the sinner. All three of
those do. See, if God loves everybody just
alike, and if the Lord Jesus died for everybody just alike,
in other words, if our God loved, if he loved Simon Peter and also
loved Judas, Well then, who made the difference
between the salvation of the one and the damnation of the
other? So that makes it a man-centered salvation. Or if Christ died
for the sins of Judas, just as much as he died for the sins
of Simon Peter or the Apostle John. So what's the difference? What's the difference? If Jesus
paid for the sins of all of them, well, here's the difference.
That means it's John who made the difference and Simon Peter
who made the difference and not the death of Christ. Let me tell
you something, if you entertain, if you believe in universal love
and universal redemption, then you believe in the universal
efforts of the Spirit of God to save people. If you believe
that, you have no gospel whatsoever. Because you have a message that
makes this glorious salvation of God not dependent upon God. but dependent upon the sinner.
And therefore the sinner will have reason to glory when it
gets to heaven. The only reason I'm up here and
those are down there is because I decided for Jesus. That's a
hellish statement. That is absolute blasphemy. The
Lord loves Zion. and whom the Lord loves, he saves. None that he loves will ever
perish. Now, let me tell you several
things about the love of God. Number one, the love of God for
Zion is in Christ Jesus and nowhere else. Those who live and die without
Christ, they need not entertain the thought that God loves them.
He doesn't. They're Esau's. All of them. All of them. And the next time
somebody tells you, you know, you know, God loves everybody. Well, answer this way. It's the
way I answer them. Well, the Bible says he loved
Jacob, but he didn't love Esau. He said he hated Esau. And then in the Psalms it says,
the Lord hated the workers of iniquity. Be careful what you
say and be careful what you believe. You believe in error. Don't make
this salvation dependent upon the sinner. If it's dependent
upon the sinner, nobody's gonna be saved. I'm telling you. The
scripture says salvation's of the Lord. David said, the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. Jonah said the same thing. It's
of God. The love of God, where is it?
It's in Christ. You have no assurance that God
loves you. You need not think that God loves
you if you're not in Christ. Jim, can't you say to me, God
loves you? Only if you're in Christ. Read the book of Acts. If we
ever get Sunday School cranked back up again, we'll continue
studying in the book of Acts, but most everybody who studies
the Bible will say, the book of Acts, that's the transition
book between the gospels and the epistles. And that's where
we learn evangelism. That's where we learn the establishment
of local churches. Yes, you're right, you're right.
But read that, what is the message of the book of Acts? It is not
the love of God. In fact, you won't even read
about the love of God in the book of Acts. It's about the resurrected Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. They
told people who Christ is and what He had done and where He
is now. It's not about the love of God. Where is the love of God to be
seen? Now, don't jump on me on what
I'm going to say. Hear me out. The love of God
is not seen really in the Incarnation. or in the example that Jesus
set or in his miracles. No, because if he had just come
into this world and lived a good example and performed a lot of
miracles and then gone back to heaven, the love of God would
not have been revealed. The love of God's not in those
things. Where is the love of God? Herein is love. Not that
we love God, but He loved us. How? He gave His Son to be the
propitiation for our sin. That's where love, that's where
the love of God is. You want to see the love of God
demonstrated? You want to see the love of God
fully spelled out? Look at Calvary and see the Son
of His bosom. bleeding, suffering, dying, bearing
God's wrath, enduring the sword of justice, feeling the rod of
God's hatred of sin in his own soul. Why would God treat him
like that? Because he bore our sins in his
own body on the tree. I'll tell you, The love of God
is in Christ. It's in Christ. And the love
of God is free and unconditional. Hosea 14.14 says, God says, I
will love them freely. You know, God loves you without
any consideration of what you do, what you did, what you're
going to do. Those are non-factors. You know
why He loved you? Because He would. He loves freely. There's not a cause in you, there's
not a reason in you why He would love you, why He would give His
Son for you. That love is found in the heart
of God. Sovereign love. It's free and
unconditional. And I'll tell you something,
it's from everlasting to everlasting. If God ever loved you, it's a
love that'll endure forever. Lord said to Jeremiah, I've loved
you, and I'm listening now. Have you loved him, Lord? I've
loved thee with an everlasting love. Oh, that's a love as old
as God. From everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God. Jeremiah, from everlasting to
everlasting, I love you. And that's true of all of God's
Jeremias. Loved with an everlasting love.
Therefore, in loving kindness, I've effectually drawn you. I've
pulled you to myself. Why did God effectually draw
me to Christ? Because He loved you. That's
why. And the love of God is unchanging
and unchangeable toward Zion. There's no fluctuation in his
love. There's no fluctuation in God
at all. There's no change in God. Change
is impossible. It wasn't that he hated you before
you came to faith and now he loves you. That's wrong. He's always loved you. That's
why he called you. That's why He drew you with a
love that you just couldn't resist. And He made you willing in the
day of His power to come to Him. And I'll tell you this, the love
of God is the cause of our love to Him. The Lord said to Peter, Simon,
son of Jonas, do you love me? And I would ask each of you,
do you love the Lord Jesus as he's revealed in the scriptures
now? And if you ask me that, I would say, well, the Lord knows
all things. And in my heart, I love him.
I love him being the Lord. Don't you? I love him being God
over all, blessed forever. I love all of his attributes.
I can't begin to commence to get started understanding him,
but I love him. I love him. John says, we love
him. Why? Because he first loved us. If you love him, it's because
he loved you first. The love of God, boundless, free,
sovereign, and it's unchanging and unchangeable. Well, what
about my sins, Jim? Do my sins, when I sin against
the Lord, does that affect His love for me? No. Doesn't affect
it whatsoever. Not one iota. Look at it this way. You didn't
do anything to get God's love. And you cannot do anything that
will put you out of God's love. You say, well, I sinned, don't
I? Yes, you do sin. But you can't
kill the love of God, no matter what you do. David, King David,
You committed adultery, didn't you? I did. And you had Bathsheba's
husband put out there at the very front of the fight and have
all the other soldiers withdraw, left him out there by himself,
didn't you? Yes. Did God quit loving you then? And David with a broken heart
would say, He loved me as much when I was in Bathsheba's arms
as He loved me when I was writing Psalm 23. Now that's the grace of God there.
That's the love of God. It's a love that doesn't change.
I know sometimes with husbands and wives, one or the other can
just stomp all over the love of the spouse till finally, They
just kill that love. God's love can't be killed. It
can't be quenched. And we wouldn't want it to be
anyhow. What about our love? Well, it
kind of grows cold more often than we want to admit. But not His for us. His is a fervent love that's
always looking out for our interests. Always looking out for our welfare. And when we don't love Him like
we ought to, which is most of the time, I'm persuaded. He just
keeps on loving us. And treating us as beloved children. And one of these days, he's gonna
take all his family to glory. And there will be the Son of
God, there'll be the Lamb of God standing with Zion. These
are my beloved ones here, washed and robed. They're my family. Well, let's sing a closing song,
shall we? Let's sing 517. On Jordan's stormy banks I stand. Let's sing them all. Let's sing
all the verses.