It's always a blessing to hear
these saints of God sing, and it's a great encouragement to
us. Music is always exalting to God,
and I'm thankful. And I appreciate the brethren
reading the scripture and praying for us. I'm thankful for Ron's
scripture reading and prayer this morning. It was just a special
blessing to me. And brother, thank you, Alan,
for reading tonight Psalm 45 and then seeking God's face for
us. I'm always grateful when people
pray for me. And I know you're grateful when
people pray for you. We're a needy bunch, aren't we? And the only one who can render
real help to us is our gracious and merciful God. Now, I'm going to begin this
evening in Psalm 84, but then I'm going back to that
portion that Alan read to us in Psalm 45, but I'm going to
begin here in Psalm 84, and just read one verse, and that is verse
11, Psalm 84, and verse 11, where writer of scripture says, for
the Lord God, Lord Jehovah, Jehovah who saves, God who saves, He
is two things. He's a sun and a shield to His
people. He warms us and He protects us. And He says, the Lord will give
grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold
from them that walk uprightly. The Lord will give grace and
glory. He will give. That's got to be
established. Grace has got to be given to
us, and glory has got to be given to us. Because we can't merit
grace, we cannot earn grace, and we cannot merit glory. and we cannot deserve glory. The Lord Himself has to give
grace and He has to give glory to all of His chosen people,
to all of His redeemed people, to all of His called people,
to all who believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
gives grace and God gives glory. Well, what does grace mean? Grace
is God's undeserved good favor to us. What is glory? That's all that heaven affords
for the people of God. Every aspect of salvation is
a gift of God. Every aspect. There isn't any
facet of salvation that you merit, or you earn, or I merit, or iron. That's why the grace of God is
called, indeed, grace that saves. Grace that saves. In Acts chapter
15, you need not look there, but really it's first Bible conference
in Acts chapter 15, where the issue is going to be established,
it's gonna be settled, it'll be put into the word of God,
the way that God saves sinners. Is it by obedience to the law
of God? Is it by us doing something?
And there was quite a disagreement that arose over this issue of
how sinners are saved. And the issue finally went to
Jerusalem. It went to be settled by the
apostolic group. And as they met together and
all the saints of God in the Jerusalem church met together,
it was left to one Simon Peter. He stood up and after everybody
else had their say-so, he had something to say. This is a man
who walked with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a man who was
brought to the feet of the Son of God. This is a man who was
arrested by the Master's grace, and he had this to say. And when
he stood up, everybody got quiet. He said, but we believe that
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved
even as the Gentiles. That's Acts chapter 15. In verse
11. What does grace do? Grace saves
us. That's what grace does. Grace
saves us. It is referred to as electing
grace. Romans chapter 11 verse five,
even at this present time, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. What does this grace do? It justifies. It's justifying grace, Romans
chapter three verse 24, being justified freely. Doesn't cost us anything, and
it's not due to anything that we've ever done, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. It's his redeeming grace, Ephesians
chapter one and verse seven. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. This is regenerating grace, that
is grace that makes us spiritually alive. Even when we were dead
in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you
saved, Ephesians chapter two and verse five. This is indeed
calling grace. The apostle said in Galatians
chapter one in verse 15, but when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and he called me by his grace. And this is grace that meets
all of the needs of all of the people of God. That's why we
read in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 9, God said to the
apostle, who had all these afflictions and he had a thorn in the flesh
due to Satan, God, after the apostle said to the Lord or asked
the Lord, besought him, would you take this away from me? The
Lord said, no, you'll just keep that. You'll keep that thorn
in the flesh. But he said, my grace, is sufficient
for you. And I'm talking to some of the
people of God who are undergoing afflictions now. Some of you
are, and some of those who are watching by way of the internet,
you've got some afflictions, you've got some troubles going
on, and God says to you, my grace is sufficient for you. It may
be you'll keep those afflictions. It may be that you won't lose
the sickness. It may be that the disease that
you've got might render you weaker and weaker till God takes you
home to glory. I don't know. Maybe he will heal
or maybe he won't heal. That's up to God, but he does
give us this word. My grace is sufficient for you. Whatever difficulty God lays
upon his people, he gives grace sufficient that the difficulty
can be born, and even born with a measure of contentment. He says here, the psalmist says,
the Lord will give grace and glory. What is this glory? It's heavenly glory. Wherever heaven is, whatever
it is, and also not only what it is, but wherever it is, the
Lord who gave us grace, he's gonna give us that glory. And
you can't merit that either. You can't earn that either. You
can't merit that either. If you go to heaven, if you go
to the king's palace, You will not go by means of anything whatsoever
that you do, that you have done, are doing, or will do. You'll
go by the grace of God. That's the only way anybody goes
to heaven. The Lord who gave us grace, he will give us glory. All who are given grace are absolutely
given this word from God, he'll also give you glory. It cannot
be that He will give us grace and then not give us glory. It
cannot be that He will bestow grace upon us. Hear all this
saving grace, electing grace, justifying grace, redeeming grace,
regenerating grace, and calling grace and sufficient grace. It
cannot be that He will give us grace and then finally refuse
to give us glory. Grace always winds up with the
object of grace going to glory. It has to be that way, they all
go together. None will ever be given glory
except those who've been given grace. You see, grace has been given
to the people of God before the world ever began. That's 2 Timothy
1 verse 9. There was a wonderful, everlasting
covenant of grace. That was the council of peace.
When the Holy Trinity, in blessed, merciful, gracious unity, ordained
the salvation of a multitude of Adams, as of then, unfallen
race. And he gave to those people,
to us, grace even then, grace even before we fell. You see,
grace came to us before it was ever needed. But grace, it came
to us by way of and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's
the only way God gives grace. He gives grace in the Lord Jesus.
Grace was given to the people of God before the world began,
and therefore he who gave us grace before the world began
will give us glory when we leave this world. He'll give us glory. Grace is the assurance of glory. Glory is the winding up of grace. Grace is the forerunner of glory. And glory is the end result of
grace. The psalmist is just telling
us that this same Jehovah who gave us grace in the Lord Jesus
before the world began, he will give us grace when we exit this
world. The glory that he will give us
is heaven's glory. Which means we'll be with Christ
Jesus forever. I want to encourage the people
of God tonight as we think of the wonderful destination that
is sure to be ours, that is glory, that is heaven. And if you would,
go back to Psalm 45. Go back to Psalm 45. As you make
your way back to Psalm 45, let me tell you two of the most important
things I know about heaven. The Bible gives us a good bit
of information about heaven, but I'm gonna tell you the two
most important things about heaven. I know that in the presence of
the Lord, who is in heaven, in the presence of the Lord, there's
joy and gladness forevermore. I know that. There are two things that are
absolutely vital And we must know this about God's heaven. Whatever you think you know about
heaven, it better start this way. There's only one way to heaven,
and the Lord Jesus Christ is the way. That has to be established. There's no entrance for anybody
who wants to enter into the gates of heaven, who wants to go to
glory, there's no entrance for anybody except Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That has to be established. Our
Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples in John chapter 14. He talked about going away. He
referred to heaven, as I'm going to mention in just a few minutes,
Once again, he referred to it as the Father's house. And as
he continued to speak with his disciples, one of them asked
him, Lord, we don't know where you're going, we don't know the
way. What's the way, in essence, he was asking. What is the way
to heaven? And Jesus looked at him and he
looked at those men. There are 11 men. Judas is already
gone. He's looking at these disciples
and he speaks to them, to each of them individually, and I hope
he's speaking to each one of us individually right now. And he said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. And then he said this. No man,
no man, no woman, no boy, no girl, nobody on earth, nobody
who ever lives, nobody can come to the Father. Because heaven,
you see, that's the throne of God. That's the Father's throne. I opened the service by reading
that passage out of Isaiah chapter 66. God said, heaven, what did
he say? That's my throne. Isn't that
what God said? Heaven is my throne, the earth
is my footstool. So you're not going to heaven,
you're not going to the Father's holy throne, Christ said, except
by me. He's not a way. Christ isn't
a way. He's not one of many ways. There
isn't the Baptist way, and the Catholic way, and the Lutheran
way, and the Episcopal way, and the Church of Jesus Christ of
the Latter Day Saints way, and the Jehovah's Witnesses way,
and some other way. No, there's just one way. If
words mean anything in the Bible, How in the world can you be confused
on this? Mary is not the way to God. One of the dead saints is not
the way to God. piece of jewelry that's, you
know, supposed to be a carving or whatever, an emblem of a dead
saint, you may as well throw it away. That's not going to
help you at all. In fact, that's idolatry. That's
not the way to God. The way to God is a person, a
real person. He's God, He's man, He came,
He lived, He died, He rose again, He went back to glory. He's the
crucified Lamb of God who shed His blood to satisfy God that
God might be just and justify the ungodly. And He says as far
as going to the Father, I am the way. You get it? Surely you
get it. I can't make it any simpler than
that. Well, the Savior couldn't make
it any simpler than that. I am the way. Every word's a
single syllable. No man cometh, no man comes to
the Father but by me. That's what he said. That's what
he said. It's a wonderful way. He's the
way of grace. He's the way to glory. He's a
way to the Father. He's a way to heaven. He's the
way. It's like in John chapter 10.
He said, I am the door. I'm the door. I'd say to you,
if you want to go visit the office, Go through that door. Now you
go through this door, that'll take you back toward the nursery.
Go toward this door or this door, that takes you back to the fellowship
hall. Yeah, preacher, but I want to go to the office. Right there's
the door. And nobody in here misunderstand.
No child, no one too young and no one too old to misunderstand
that. There's the door. Christ said,
I'm the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. And go in and out and find pasture.
He's the door to heaven. Want to go to heaven? Everybody
wants to go to heaven when they die, at least whatever their
idea is of heaven. But I sure do want to go to the
Father's house. I sure do want to go to glory.
When I die, I'm either going to go to the king's palace or
I'm going to go to the king's prison. And I don't want to go
to prison. Though by nature, that's what
I deserve because I'm a lawbreaker. And so are you. And the adversary, like I read
this morning, the adversary, God's justice, God's law. I said
that word adversary is a forensic word. It's a legal word. It indicates
the authority of the judge. The adversary, he's gonna carry
you away. He gonna carry you away to the
prison, to the king's prison, unless, unless God shows you
grace, and he only shows grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you're washed in his blood, and you're robed in his righteousness.
So I know this, and if you're missing everything else about
the message, don't miss this. Christ is the way. Christ and
him crucified. And here's the second thing I
know about heaven. I know this, it is the very presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes heaven to be heaven. It's the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ that makes heaven to be heaven. That abode up yonder,
Wherever heaven is, somebody says it's in another sphere or
another realm, wherever it is, it wouldn't be heaven if Christ
weren't there. The apostle wrote about his own
departure, about his death and that he was going to heaven.
He worded it this way, to be absent from the body He didn't
say it's to be in heaven, although he could have said that. But
he said to be absent from the body is to be present with the
Lord. Where do the saints of God go
when they die? Now let's understand this. There's
no soul sleeping. Because you're absent from the
body, you're going somewhere. Your soul's going somewhere.
And there is no purgatory. There's nothing in the Bible
about purgatory. The only purging of guilt, the
only purging of our ungodliness and sinfulness, that happened
at the cross. That's where the purging took
place. That's where the atoning death
of the Lord Jesus Christ happened that washed all the sins of all
of his people. Everybody for whom he died, Their
sins were washed away. That's a real redemption. See,
we believe in a redemption that really redeemed and a reconciliation
that really reconciled. A salvation that really saves
and a Savior who really saves. His name is Jesus. What's the
reason for His name being Jesus? He shall save His people from
their sins. When did He do that? When He
died. when he died, when he suffered
the wrath of God in the stead of his people, when he honored
God's law and justice by bearing the just penalty for all of our
sins. We're gonna be with him, that
crucified, buried, risen, exalted Savior. Now there are many names
in the Bible for heaven, I'll just give you a few of them.
It's called a garner. A garner, G-A-R-N-E-R. Matthew 311, he will gather his
wheat into his garner. What is a garner? That's where
the precious grain is kept safe. I'll tell you what heaven is.
It's a very special place where the very precious people of God
are kept safe forever. He's gonna gather his wheat,
wear his wheat into his garner. And then the Savior did indeed
in John 14, as I mentioned, he calls it the Father's house.
In my Father's house are many mansions. In my Father's house
are many dwelling places. What a name for heaven. The father's
house. Where do saints go when they
die? To the father's house. Where would you expect the children
to go? But to the father's house. Well, whose father is he? You
remember after his resurrection, our Lord said to Mary, go to
my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your
Father. To my God and your God. He's our Father. He's the one
who predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, Ephesians chapter one. He's the one who gave us the
life of children. He's the one who gave us the
nature of children. He's the one who gave grace that
he gives to all of his children. He's the one who gave us the
name of children. Beloved, now are we what? The sons of God. We're born again
by his spirit who uses the incorruptible seed of the word. What is heaven? It's the house of the Lord. David, in that great Psalm 23,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He gets down to the
last verse, and he says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I will dwell where? In the house
of the Lord. How long? Forever. Forever. Because you see, the
same God who gives grace, he gives glory. He gives grace that
never ends. He gives glory that never ends. It's the house of the Lord. What
is heaven? What about paradise? It's paradise. A thief on the cross. Two of them. Both of them railing
on Jesus Christ. And then one of them had a change
of heart. One who changed his heart. The
sovereign Savior did. The one who is always mighty
to save. He wasn't weak on the cross.
He's still almighty and he rescued a perishing sinner. He said to
hell, you can't have this one. This is one of mine. I chose
him unto salvation. I became his surety. He's been
one with me forever. I came into this world to seek
and to save him. He's lived all these years in
open ungodliness and wretchedness, but he's still mine. And I am
now coming to his rescue. And he saved him. He saved him. And the old boy said, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. What a pitiful cry. Boy, it come
right from his heart though. And the Lord said, verily I say
unto you, I'm gonna tell you a truth. What is it? That fella
couldn't lift his hands, but I guarantee he was all ears.
Verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. He could have said the Father's
house, He could have said, you will be with me in the gardener.
He could have said, in the house of the Lord. But he said, you
will be with me in paradise. And you know, paradise, that
kind of paints a picture of something absolutely beautiful and exquisite. It means a walled garden. Where nothing can come in and
hurt or damage No thief can sneak in. No pestilence. No devil. Nothing bad ever gonna happen. It's a walled garden. That's
where we're going. Where everything is beautiful
and the most beautiful thing of glory is gonna be Christ Jesus
the Lord. And when we lay eyes on Him and
He embraces us and kisses us on the cheek and says, welcome
home. That'll be glory. That will be
glory. But there's another name for
it, and it's right here in Psalm 45. And I want to read two verses
to you, Psalm 45, 14 and 15. And I'll tell you, this psalm
is a psalm of love. And as the psalm was being read,
Did you notice the number of times the word king is used? Because this is about the king.
And it's about the king's bride. The king and his bride. And this
is what the psalmist says in verse 14. She shall be brought
unto the king. Now that is, That indicates two
things, I believe. I believe two things are meant
there. First of all, here's effectual grace. That bride that belongs to Christ
Jesus, he's the bridegroom, the church is the bride. We read
in Ephesians 5, husbands, love your wives. Well, how? As Christ loved the church and
gave himself for it. And in the context, he's talking
about the union of a man and a woman in marriage. We're united
to Christ Jesus. He's the bridegroom, we're the
bride. We're the bride of the Savior.
And it says here in verse 14, she shall be brought unto the
king in effectual grace. This is the calling power of
God. She doesn't want by nature to
come to the king. So she has to be brought. She has to be brought. Well,
who brings her? Who brings her to the king? Now
the king has loved her from old eternity, but she didn't love
him. She hasn't loved him. She has
to be brought. Who brings her? The spirit of
God using the word of the gospel. draws her to Christ Jesus. This is wooing grace. This is
drawing grace. No man, this is what the Savior
said in John 6, no man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me,
draw him. and I'll raise him up at the
last day. Have you been drawn to Christ
Jesus? You see, this work of grace,
it's a secret work that's done in the heart, whereby, Psalm
110, verse three, thy people are made willing in the day of
thy power. And he draws us. We're drawn
into the king. Watch this, enraiment of needlework. Here's the second drawing I think
this is talking about, when he draws us to heaven. That is when
we die. When we get to the end of life's
road. Nobody knows when that'll be. But he will issue the command.
Bring them to me. Who will issue the command? The
king. Now, where do you reckon the
king lives? Let me just read the rest of
this. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.
The virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought
unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall
they be brought. They shall enter into The king's
palace. The king's palace. Well, where
would you expect the king to take the bride? But to his palace. His palace. If you look up the word palace
in the dictionary, as I do, I think I'm pretty sure I knew
what a palace was. But I thought I'd look up whatever
edition of Webster's Dictionary I got back there in my office.
I looked it up. It said, The Residence of the Sovereign. I said, Boy, that's good enough
for me. That's what it said. The Residence of the Sovereign. Where are we going? We're going
to the Residence of the Sovereign. He's the king, and that's the
significant thing about how many times, I think it's nine times
in this song. Don't count them now. You can
count them when you get home. I think it's nine times that
the word king is mentioned. This is the palace. What is heaven? It is the palace of the king
or the king's palace. It's where the sovereign lives.
And it's where all of his family lives. You see, it isn't only
the king who lives in the palace, it's all his family. It's all
of his children and it's his bride. And this is what this
psalm is about. This is a song of love. The love of the king for his
bride. And he tells us that he's going
to bring his bride into his palace. Let me just kind of whet your
appetite to study this psalm. Look at the very beginning of
the psalm. And I don't have time to go through all of it, but
look right up there under Psalm 45. You see where it says, to
the chief musician under Shoshanim, For the sons of Korah, maskal. And then it says, a song of love. To the chief musician, that's
the one who led the music in the Jerusalem church, or in the
church of Israel. And then it uses a word, soshanan. Shoshanan, which means lilies. Lilies. Our Lord Jesus, and don't, if
you haven't read, you ought to read, I'm sure most of you have,
the Song of Solomon. And it's a love story. That's
what Song of Solomon is. It's a love story between, about
the king or of the king and his bride. That's what Song of Solomon's
all about. She's by nature black. And He is purity. She's by nature
sinful. He's righteous. But He loves
her. And the book of Song of Solomon
begins this way. You know it. I am the rose of,
what? Sharon. And the lily of the valley. Valley. I am the rose of Sharon
and the lily of the valley. He's both. He's the rose of Sharon. He's blood red. That's redemption. That's who we're talking about,
the Redeemer. So you see, when you read here to the chief musician
upon Shoshanim, first of all understand he's the Redeemer.
He shed his blood for his people. He said, I am the rose of Sharon
and the lily of the valley. He's absolute purity. That's
white. He's the lily of the valley. This is a love song about the
lily of the valley, the one who is the rose of Sharon for his
people. It says there in Song of Solomon
chapter one, it says, as the lily among thorns, so is my love
among the daughters. We're lilies too. Ain't that
amazing? You know something about lilies,
don't you? Several of you do. Lilies, they're beautiful. Well,
our Lord Jesus, he is the lily of the valley, and we're lilies
in his garden. We're made beautiful, we're made
calmly through his righteousness. Did you notice back here, look
again at verse 14. She shall be brought unto the
king in raiment of needlework. That's his righteousness. That's
his beauties. You're not going to glory unless
you're righteous. And the only righteousness you'll
ever find is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in his beauties,
you're made beautiful. So he's the lily of the valley,
and we're the lilies among thorns. Boy, a lot of thorns in this
life, aren't there? A lot of thorns. But that can't
ever stop us from being his lilies. His lilies. It says, to the chief
musician upon Shoshanim, for the sons of Korah, maskel. What does that mean? You know,
there's several of the psalms that are said to be maskel psalms. What does that mean? Psalms that
teach. Psalms that are instructive.
And this is what this psalm does. It instructs us about the king,
who he is, what he did, why he did it, where he is now, and
his love for his church. No wonder the psalmist begins
by saying, my heart is indicting a good matter. I'm thinking about
something. Very precious, he says. I'm pondering
it. I'm rolling it over in my mind.
He says, I speak things which I have made touching the king.
I got something to say about the king. That's what he said.
Don't ever listen to anybody preach unless he's preaching
about the king. You gotta have good things to
say about the king. He said, my tongue is the pen
of a ready writer. Well, what do you have to say
about Christ Jesus, the King? He says, thou art fairer than
the children of men, verse two. Grace is poured into your lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee
forever. Gird your sword upon your thigh,
O most mighty, with thy glory and majesty. Gird your, so what
is the sword of God? What is this two-edged sword
that you see in the book of Revelation coming out of his mouth? His
word, his word. Gird your sword, go forth to
conquer. He's conquered us, and he conquered
you by his sword, by his word. And in thy majesty, verse four,
ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. Ride prosperly. Prosperously,
that means successfully. You reckon he could ever fail?
Well, he prospers in everything he does. His very work upon the
cross of Calvary was a successful work. He prospered. in that work,
and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows
are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people
fall unto thee. Don't be in opposition to him. Don't be in opposition to the
king. The sovereign who lives in the palace, you better not
try to overthrow him. You better not try to even steal
his glory. He'll get you with one of his
arrows. And he says in verse six, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom
is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness, you
hate wickedness. He is the perfect man. Therefore,
God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. He was anointed as prophet, anointed
as priest, and anointed as king. In all of thy garments smell
of myrrh and aloes and acacia. Out of the ivory palaces, that's
where he came from. I bet you Marty knows that song,
Out of the Ivory Palaces. It's in our song book. Into a
world of woe, that's where he came to. Out of the ivory palaces. whereby they've made thee glad.
King's daughters were among thy honorable women. Upon thy right
hand did stand the queen in gold of offer. And then here comes
the sovereign effectual call of grace. Hearken, O daughter,
and consider. Incline thine ear. He's got to
get you here. He's got to get you. He'll get
the ear gate. And you'll hear the gospel, because
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And forget
also thine own people and thy father's house. Forget about
everybody and everything but Christ Jesus, the King. So shall
the King greatly desire thy beauty, for he's your Lord. Worship him. Worship Jesus Christ. You better
worship him, because he's God. Oh, Thomas worshiped him. He
said, my Lord and my God. And you're gonna worship him
too. You're gonna worship him willingly by effectual grace
in this life, or you're gonna be forced to bow and worship
him at the judgment. But worship him, you will. You
will adore him, or you will acknowledge his greatness. Put it that way.
The daughter of Tyrus shall be there with a gift. Even the rich
among the people shall entreat thy faith. Who are the daughters
of Tyrus? Gentiles, us. That's us. Gentiles, this is
salvation for the Gentiles. Oh, rejoice in the purpose of
God. The Jews said, we don't want
this gospel. Well then, I'll send it to the
Gentiles. Hallelujah, that's what the Gentiles
said. They rejoiced. And look at verse 13. The king's
daughter is all glorious. Within. Ah, within. Her clothing is of wrought
gold. That's without. She is absolutely
perfect and beautiful to God through the Lord our righteousness.
Within and without. It's like Scott Richardson used
to say, this is not a pasted on righteousness. This is through
and through. Within and without, he sees no
sin, he sees no guilt, he sees no transgressions, he sees no
iniquity in his people. He sees his son's righteous obedience,
his blood and his righteousness. And she shall be brought unto
the king in raiment of needlework. Death's gonna call you one of
these days. It's gonna bring you to the king. Doesn't matter who you are. Everybody's
gonna die. We all know that. The young die,
the old die. Middle-aged die. This week, one
of the famous movie stars of many years ago is a hundred and
some years old. He died. He went to meet the
king. What happened then? What's going to happen when you
leave? Not for me to say. I'm not to judge, but I can tell
you this. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's your
only hope of glory, and you're not resting in your works, your
deeds, your baptism, anything, Christ is your only hope. You
say, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground sinking
sand. I built all my hopes on him.
I can tell you, according to this book, when you die, you
go into the king's palace, and he's gonna say, open the gates!
Here comes another one. Here comes another one. I often
think about that thief, that believing thief. The Lord Jesus
died first. He went on to heaven. He went
to paradise. And he's made everything ready. But that poor old thief, I guarantee
you that thief had never entered into a king's palace, even on
earth. Boy, I'll tell you, he entered
into the king's palace. But he wasn't taken up with all
that he saw. He saw somebody. Last time he
saw him, he was nailed to a cross. And now he sees him face-to-face,
face-to-face with Christ my Savior. Face-to-face to see and know. Face-to-face with Christ my Savior,
Jesus Christ who loved me so. He saw him, the Savior said,
come on in. You're home now. You're home. That's what it is for the people
of God. When we die, it's the Lord bringing us home. I was
talking to a person actually just this week. It kind of, actually,
you know, the Lord leads you to go to different subjects,
and he does it in different ways. And I was just talking to one
of the saints of God, and she said something to me about heaven.
And that triggered, that was like a seed thought. Ever since
you said that, I got thinking about the king's palace. But
for the people of God, when we leave here, we're leaving everything
bad behind. I know there's some good, there's
some good things in life. I enjoy my family, I enjoy y'all,
you're my family. But this old world is not a friend
to grace, and it's not a friend to God, and it's not a friend
to God's preachers. But this is not my home. No wonder Peter says we're pilgrims
and strangers. This is not the Father's house
down here. You read back in the old, our
citizenship is in heaven. That's where Bill read from in
the book of Philippians. Our citizenship's in heaven. That's where we're going. And
when a believer dies, we're changing residence. We're legal aliens here. But this is not our home. We're
going home. Where are you going? I'm going
to the king's palace, where joys and gladness and pleasures
are forevermore. I'll be in his presence. And
I'm gonna go dressed in raiment of needlework. You can't get any better than
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And I'm gonna go, verse 15, with
gladness and joy, you'll be brought. Who's gonna bring you? Angels.
Angels of God gonna bring me. See, I'm still attached to this
world. We look forward to seeing the
Lord, but it's just that death part we kinda puts a lump in
our throat. But it ought not to. Because
all death is, is the messenger from the Father who says, go
get that one. It's time for him to come home.
Come home. Come home. And that's when we
go. Well, and the Lord calls us as
He will. And let me give you this. Time's
gone, but I'll give you this. Okay, verse 16. Instead of thy
father shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes
in all the earth. In other words, as God calls
one home, it isn't like there's no more children of God here.
There are other children of God. He brings young ones along. He
brings young ones along. And this is what the psalmist
says, verse 16. 17, I will make thy name to be
remembered in all generations. Whose name? The name of the king. The name of the king. Therefore, what are we gonna do in the king's
palace? Therefore shall the people praise
thee forever and ever. That's what we're gonna do in
the king's palace. We're gonna praise the king. That's only
right, isn't it? To praise the king. Let's get
your song books out. Now, here's a song that we used to sing many years
ago, 506. And I'm going to tell you why
I picked this song out. Because I remembered, out of
some reason or other, the lyrics of songs have a way of sticking
in my mind. I can't explain it. I don't set
myself to try to memorize them. They just stick. Some of them
are good songs. Some of them not so good. But
the words of songs have a way of sticking with me. But I'll tell you why we're going
to sing this. Really, because of one line.
The rest of it's all right. This is not my favorite song,
but the third stanza says, where the harps of angels ring and
the blessed forever sing, in the palace of the king, meet
me there. That single line right there. And that's what I say to all
of y'all. In the palace of the king, meet me there. And we'll
meet at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And we'll praise Him forever. You know this? Some of you know
it, probably. Well, maybe nobody knows it.
I'll sing it. Trish and I'll sing a duet. But
we'll do the best we can. 506, meet me there.