This Psalm, Psalm 87, is a Psalm
about Zion, which is the city of God. The word Zion is used
two times in Psalm 87. And we might well ask this question
as we begin the message tonight. Exactly how is Zion used? in the Scriptures. What does
Zion mean? Well, it has several meanings,
actually, as you look through the Word of God. In 2 Samuel
5 and verse 7, and David took a stronghold of Zion, and the
same is the city of David. This is where David built his
fort. This is where David built his
palace. Zion. And then secondly, it was
a name given to the city of Jerusalem. Thirdly, sometimes it referred
to the temple of God in Jerusalem. And then, of course, sometimes
it refers to God's true Israel, spiritual Israel, The elect of
God made up of Jews and Gentiles, indeed a people from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. They make up the city of God,
which is Zion. Literally, Mount Zion was the
hill upon which the temple was built. There alone, God manifested
himself. There only God revealed Himself. There only God made Himself known. That's the only location where
men could draw near to God, draw near to the mercy seat by means
of the high priest, by the blood of a sacrifice. But we also understand that from
the New Testament, this temple of God, this city of God, this
Zion is all of the people of God of all ages, which I've already
alluded to. Hold your place there and go
to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. This is all
the redeemed of God. And make sure you understand
this. All of Zion, all of the city of God is made up of everyone
that God gave in covenant grace to His dear Son. And these only
constitute Zion, the city of God. This is the citizenship
of which we are most interested in, being citizens of Zion, being
citizens of the city of God. Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse
18. For ye are not come, Hebrews
12, 18, for ye are not come to the mouth that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor
the blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of the
trumpet and the voice of words, which voice that heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 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. And so very terrible was the
sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. We've not come
to Mount Sinai. Now you hear me. We have every
reason to be fearful of the law of God if we're not in Christ
Jesus. Because all of the standards
of God's law, that uprightness that it demands, that perfection
that it absolutely requires, if we're not believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ, that law addresses us. And it says, Be ye perfect,
for God is perfect. God will not permit anyone in
His holy heaven who is not altogether righteous. You understand that,
don't you? There has to be perfect conformity
to God's law. And the thing of it is, we break
God's law all of the time. We are indeed a sinful people. We're weak. We've not only been
wounded by the fall of Adam, we died in the fall of Adam. And that which God rightfully
demands of us, perfection, we cannot produce it. And since
we cannot produce it, it would appear that our hopes are all
dashed. But thank God he sent a substitute,
who is himself the Lord our righteousness. And he fulfilled all of God's
law. He kept God's law. Mount Sinai,
with all of its with all of its lightning, with
all of its demands, with all of the perfections that God required. Our Lord Jesus, He faced Mount
Sinai and He perfectly fulfilled the law for us. And He went then
to the cross of Calvary. Because you see, God's law says
the soul that sinneth shall die. And you're going to die, and
I'm going to die, unless God finds a suitable substitute to
die in our stead. And bless His name, He did. And
He didn't have to look far, Brother Allen. He looked at His own right
hand to see His only begotten Son. And He became the surety
of the covenant in old eternity. We've not come to Mount Sinai. Now you hear me. You are the
people of God. We're not redeemed. We are redeemed
at Calvary, but we don't go back to Mount Sinai to learn how to
live. We are not under God's law. It has nothing to do with us.
Here's what the Apostle Paul said, God's law was not made
for a righteous man. but for the ungodly. And you
and I, who by the sovereign, effectual grace of God, who are
in Christ Jesus, we're righteous. We're saints of God. The law
of God has nothing to do with us, and it will never have anything
to do with us. Because all of the demands of
that holy law have been met for us by our substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We've not come to Mount Sinai. And I'll tell you, if you're
a child of God, you're a fool to go back to Mount Sinai. Would
you leave grace and go back under law? Would you leave that glorious
freedom that we have in Christ and go back under bondage? You being free! Would you go
back into that slavery? No! No! You see, the same cross of Christ
that saves us, that same grace of God that overwhelmed us and
drew us effectually to Christ Jesus, it teaches us how to live. That's the reason I can say to
you without fear of being corrected either from the Word of God and
regardless of what anybody says, you love Christ Jesus and live
as you will. I said, wow. Well, listen, you
got to get that first part. You love Christ Jesus. If you
love Christ Jesus, you'll behave yourself. You'll behave yourself
and you'll show kindness. You'll show love. You'll be forgiving. You see the same grace of God
that saved us Here's what the Scripture says in Titus. It teaches
us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. So we haven't come to Mount Sinai. And even in Mount Sinai, you
remember the children of Israel, they were so fearful as they
saw it belching all this black smoke. and the mountain just
shaking. They said, Moses, you deal with
God for us. We don't want to deal with him.
That's what we say to Christ Jesus. You deal with God. I can't deal with pure God. God's
consuming fire. Therefore, I come to God, and
you come to God. If you do come to God, you come
to Him by means of a mediator. And in Him, you're accepted.
Make no mistake about it. God's not going to have anything
to do with you except through His Son. You try to come any
other way unto God, be it your law-keeping, your obedience,
your stinking self-righteous rags, any other way, you're gonna
be rejected. You'll come to a very sad end.
But we've not come to Mount Sinai. Look at verse 22. But you're
coming to Mount Zion. Well, what's that? The city of
the living God. Well, what's that? It's the heavenly
Jerusalem. And you also come to an innumerable
company of angels, and to the general assembly and the church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, names written in heaven. And to God, the judge of all,
and to the spirits, of just men, justified men, righteous men,
made perfect. That is having been made perfect
in Christ Jesus. And so he continues in 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. We've come to Mount Zion. And we are the city of the living
God. Go back over here to Psalm 87. Let me just read you a couple
of, or three verses here. The first three verses, Psalm
87. 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. And I like the translation that
then says, Amen. Amen. This city of the living God,
Here are three things that need to be remembered about it. Number
one, it has a prophet. It has a preacher. There is a
preacher in this city. God in these last days has spoken
to us through his son. He is the prophet Moses wrote
of in the book of Deuteronomy. He is our instructor. He is the one who not only teaches
us, but He gives us the ability to learn. Because you see, the
things of God are so foreign to us naturally. We can readily
learn about science, history, math, all of these things. We can take a book and we study
it. And we can learn those things
and make some application of them. We can benefit from them. But when it comes to the very
truth of God, now you can read the Word of God and I certainly
counsel you to do that. But unless you have a teacher,
unless you have one who instructs you, you won't learn. Because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him. And you can read it like you
would read a history book. You can read it like you read
Reader's Digest. And you might pick up some moral
principles, but you'll never understand the secret of God. The secret of God being how He
can be just and justify the ungodly. You'll never learn the secret
of God without a teacher. And it's got to be this great
prophet, even our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews, they had some idea
that that's who He was when He was on this earth. In John chapter
6, when he fed 5,000 men plus women and children, there were
several thousands of people. There were some people who said,
this is the prophet. And others said, let's make him
king. There are some people who think
He came into this world to offer Himself as the King and to establish
an earthly kingdom. That's far from the truth. People
who speak that way have no comprehension of the purpose of our Lord Jesus
coming into this world. He didn't come to set up an earthly
kingdom. He came to establish redemption
and work it out to the full satisfaction of God the Father. He came to
save. His name is Jesus actually, isn't
it? For He shall save His people
from their sins. And He's our teacher. He gives us the spiritual ability
to believe and love the truth that He teaches. And He speaks
to us the very truth of God, for He is truth. He said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now I know within the city of
God, He has preachers. No question about that. And we're
thankful for that. And we read last week from Isaiah
52. The beautiful feet of those who
come to Zion preaching, thy God reigneth. but make no mistake about it,
we have one prophet, and it isn't Joseph Smith, and it's no other man who claims
to be a prophet from God. Our God-appointed, God-approved
prophet is Christ the Lord. And this city has a great high
priest, one who is our mercy seat, one who is the full repository
of all of God's grace and all of God's mercy and all of salvation. Do you need salvation? Do you
need forgiveness? Do you need righteousness? It's
all in Christ. That's the message. It's all
in Christ. He's the great high priest of
the city. He's the one who leads his people
in worship. He's the one who enables us to
worship. And he is the one who offered
to God that sacrifice that honored God's justice and dealt with
our sins once and for all. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. He is our great high
priest. He is our intercessor. He is
our mediator. We come to God through him. And this city has a king, one
king. Exalted to rule and be head over
the church. Ephesians 1 at the end of the
chapter teaches us that. But he's been exalted to rule
by virtue of his accomplishment of redemption. That man, Christ
Jesus. Oh, he's Lord forever. He's always
been the Lord. He's God. but he left glory and
he came down here. He did not divorce himself from
his deity, but he took into union with himself our nature. Beyond our comprehension and in our nature, he lived perfectly. And in our nature, he died. a
real man, the real God man, laid down his life. He said, you can't
take it from me. That's what he said in John 10.
Nobody can take it from me. While you can't take life from
him, he is life. You can't take life from him
who is life. The only way he could possibly
die was to give up the ghost. which he did after he said, it
is finished. And redemption's work was fully
done. His spirit, his soul went back
to glory, went back to paradise. And then his soul came back and
re-inhabited that body. And it was a real body. He even
told his disciples specifically to Thomas. Thomas wasn't there
the first time they met together. He was the next time. He said,
well, just touch me. Is that what it's going to take
for you to believe me, Thomas? Thrust your hand into my wounds.
Is that what it's going to take? A spirit hath not flesh and bones
as you see me have. Can you really imagine the situation
in glory of a man in a real body governing this world to fulfill
the Father's purpose and work all things out for good for his
people? Can you comprehend that? Way
far away in the third heaven, in paradise, there sits our Lord
and King. He's Lord already, but by virtue
of His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross,
Peter said, God made that same one you crucified, both Lord
and Christ. And there He sits. And He sits
on no precarious throne. He sits on no movable throne. It is from that throne that He
governs, He guides, He directs all things that happen everywhere
in this universe that He created. That ought to help the people
of God. That ought to encourage us. You go through trouble, trial,
sickness. It's not fate. Perish the thought. It's not luck. It's the Lord Christ. Governing
all things to fulfill the Father's eternal purpose. And that's very
true pertaining to everything in this world and also everything
in your life. There's nothing that lives, moves,
wiggles, or exists but what He doesn't have absolute sovereign
control over it. Everything. Everything. God forgive us for murmuring. God forgive us for worrying. God forgive us for our anxieties. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples
when He sent a storm on the lake, And there they were in a boat. And He's asleep. His manhood was asleep, but not
His Godhead. As God, He willed the winds and
the waves. He willed the storm. And His
disciples go to pieces. Do you know anything about going
to pieces in the midst of a storm of life? Who ever heard of such
a thing? Filled with worry, filled with
anxiety, oh no, biting their fingernails. What's going to
happen to us? Oh, what will become of us? And
they go back in the back of the boat and there he is asleep.
Master, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Oh brethren,
have you forgotten that He chose you unto salvation before the
world began? Have you forgotten that He's
the Redeemer, come to save His people from their sins? Have
you forgotten He's the Lord? Not only of the warm sunshine
and the very pleasant days and the gentle balmy breezes, But
He's the Lord of every severe storm of life. And He showed Him He was the
Lord. He just spoke. Peace be still. It just became like a mirror. Well, who can do that? Only God. Only God. And then he went to
the cross of Calvary finally. And there he paid the debt of
sin for all of his people. And God said, I make you the
God-man to be the Lord over all. He's the head of the church. That helps me. That helps me. Because I'm just like you. I sometimes lay awake at night
and I worry. Nancy says I have stress. I try not to have stress. I try
to give stress if I can. And my preaching is stressful
to some people. I say these things somewhat jokingly,
but those are sinful thoughts when we have anxiety and worry. That's wrong. With such a king as we have, We used to sing a chorus, just
came to my mind. Why worry when you can pray? Trust Jesus. He'll be your stay. Let me tell you something. You
trust Him, but even when you aren't trusting Him, He's still
your stay. Isn't that something? When you're
not trusting Him, He's still your stay. He's still your foundation. He's the king of the city. I'll
tell you something about this city, and I'll give you this
real quickly. It has a foundation there in
verse 1. It says, His foundation is in the holy mountains. I like what the Amplified says. You ever read the Amplified?
Every once in a while, it'll benefit you. And I can't wholeheartedly
recommend it because there are some times when I don't particularly
like the translation or the transliteration, really, of the Amplified. But I believe it's very helpful
here in verse 1. And the Amplified reads this
way, On the holy hill stands the city God founded on the holy
hills, which is correct. On the holy hills stands the
city God founded. Let me give you five things real
quick. What are these holy hills upon
which the city of God is founded? I think this will help you. Number
one, it's the hill of God's eternal purpose. It's the hill of God's eternal
purpose. What do we know about the purpose
of God? It is unchangeable. We make our plans, we intend
to follow through with them, try to be truthful people, But
our plans don't always work out because there are a lot of unknowns
out there. A lot of things we don't have
any control over. In fact, we don't have any control
over anything, really. God doesn't make His plans like
we do. He has His purpose. Oh, the purpose of God. All things
work together for good to them who love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose. His purpose is unchangeable.
His purpose includes all things. His purpose is always at work
for the salvation of His people. See, this is what God is all
about. Saving His people. That's what
He's doing. What's God doing today? Well,
I know He's governing all things, He's directing all things to
the end that He Himself has ordained, but it's in order to build Zion. It's to gather into this city
those people in covenant love that He gave to Christ Jesus,
our Prophet, High Priest, and King. This is the hill of God's
eternal purpose. And God's purpose will be accomplished. Now you can just write that down. May God write it on our hearts.
His purpose is going to be accomplished. Whether you like what His purpose
is or not, that has no bearing on anything on this. His purpose will stand. He said,
I will do all my pleasure. Secondly, what are these hills? It is, first of all, the hill
of God's eternal purpose, and secondly, it's the hill of God's
unchangeable grace. You see, the grace of God didn't
come on the scene when you were saved. It didn't just come on
the scene when our Lord Jesus lived and died for us and then
rose again. The grace of God is just like
the God of grace, eternal. And God gave us grace in Christ
Jesus before the world began. 2 Timothy 1.9. This is the hill of God's unchangeable
grace. Who can change His purpose and
who can change His grace? Grace appeared a long time before
it appeared to you. It's as old as God. Somebody
said, I believe you all believe it. I believe up there at your
church you believe that primitive doctrine. We do. It's very primitive. You want
to know how primitive it is? It's as old as God. That's how
old it is. Well, I've never heard this before.
Well, where have you been? You must not have been under
the sound of the Gospel. You must not have been under
the sound of the truth. God just had not opened your
ears to it. I tell you what, this covenant,
that everlasting covenant, it's not called the covenant of grace
for nothing. It's all of grace. It's full
of grace. Anywhere you look at it. If you
tried to poke a hole in it, it'd just bleed grace. It's just grace
through and through. Grace was given us in Christ
before the world began. Thirdly, what are these hills? On the holy hills, there stands
the city God founded. There's the hill of God's eternal
purpose, the hill of God's unchangeable grace. The third one is the hill
of God's everlasting love. His love will not be defeated. It will not be extended or given
to anybody and then that love come back to him unsuccessful. That can't be, that can't be. God said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. Got a problem with that? I didn't
say it, God said it. I didn't write it, God wrote
it. Jacob have I loved. Somebody
said, I have great difficulty with that. I can't comprehend
that verse of Scripture. Yeah, I have trouble with it
too. Ah, Esau have I hated. No, I don't have a problem with
that part. I'll tell you what I have a problem
with. What amazes me is that God loved
Jacob. That's what's amazing. And what's
even more amazing than that, that He would love me. That utterly amazes me. Because
I feel about myself the way you feel about yourself. I'm glad
nobody knows how really bad off I am. That's how I feel. I understand what Paul meant.
when he said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I'm chief. Because every believer, having
been dealt with by the spirit of grace, who just strips us
and lays us bare before the law of God, and we see something
of our guilt, we all say, I'm the chief of sinners. Chief of
sinners. But God loved me in Christ. Those whom God loves, He loves
forever. And don't you ever entertain
the thought that God hated you until you believed on Christ,
and then He started loving you. That is just heresy. I heard
a man preach that one time who said he believed sovereign grace.
I take issue with that because you've got a God who changes
then. If He ever loved you, He always
loves you with a love that you can't comprehend. And then there's
the hill of God's unlimited power. Who can defeat the purpose of
God who has all power? You see, this city is built on
that. It's built on the unlimited power of God. Who can frustrate
Him? Who can defeat Him? Who can put
Him down? Who can stand in the way? Who
can say, no God, you can't act. He'll just run over you. There
won't even be a memory of you left. And lastly, I'll give you this.
It's the hill of God's design to exalt His Son and exalt the people conformed
to the image of His Son. It's the hill of God's purpose
to exalt Christ and to have a whole family conform to His image. Now that, I tell you what, this
is a hill that will stand. It is built, it is built on God's
purpose, God's grace, God's love, God's covenant, God's faithfulness.
Just go on and on and on. And it's built on Christ who
is the firm foundation. Well, I'll try to pick up here
next Lord's Day evening, God willing. But you kind of get
the idea, don't you? Oh, what a city. And thank God
He put me in the fold of salvation. He put me in the kingdom of God. to the praise of the glory of
His grace. Let's sing a closing song. If you would, get your hymn books.
Turn to number 75. This is one of Joe's favorites.
It's one of my favorites as well. Number 75, and I want us to sing
all four stanzas of Abide With Me. Number 75.