Surely a blessing to be gathered
here today. Trust that we have come here
today to remember the Lord's death till He comes again. He
is surely worthy to be remembered. We're looking in the Psalms again.
Psalm 132. This is another of those songs
of degrees. The Lord remembered David and
all his afflictions. How he swore unto the Lord and
vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Surely I will not come
into the tabernacle of my house nor go up into my bed. I will
not give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids. until I find out a place for
the Lord and habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Lo, we heard
of it at Ephrata. We found it in the fields of
the wood. We will go into his tabernacles. We will worship
at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, unto thy rest,
thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with
righteousness and let thy saints shout for joy. For thy servant
David's sake, turn not away the face of thine anointed. The Lord
is sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it. Of
the fruit of thy body will I sit upon thy throne. If thy children
will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach
them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore. For the Lord hath chosen Zion,
he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever, here
will I dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her
provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also
clothe her priest with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud
for joy. There will I make the horn of
David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for mine
anointed. His enemies will I clothe with
shame, but upon himself shall his crown flourish." Now, David
was a man blessed of the Lord. And he was given a promise from
the Lord that his seed would occupy the throne of the Lord's
kingdom forever. And of course, David, as a natural
man and having natural understanding, assumed that he was speaking
of an earthly seed that would come forth from his loins being
Solomon and that he would occupy that throne which the Lord had
entrusted into David's hands. Now surely That's understandable that he
would think in such fashion as that because he hadn't seen the
things that we have been enabled to see. As Brother Al pointed
out this morning, the secret things belong to God and the
things that are revealed belong to us. And a man can't see anything
more than what he can see and what the Lord please to give
him to see. And that's why it is that if we see the glory of
God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, we should fall on our
faces and give praise unto him who has given us that understanding.
Because all men don't have that understanding. Many men believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is a great prophet, and surely he
is. But that's what they see him as, is as a prophet. Yet
they do not hang upon every word of his prophecy. They many say
that he is a king. Yet they bow not at the throne
of his kingdom. So it is the blessing of God
and the gift of grace when a man is enabled to behold the glory
of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, whom we now know
as what we see that David could not see, is that that seed of
which the Lord promised David would sit on the throne forever
was that one who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. That one
who did indeed in the earthly scent spring from David's loins.
He was the seed of David in human form. And so he did come forth
from that lineage as that one who now we know does indeed sit
on the throne of the kingdom of God forever. We're not waiting
for the kingdom to come. the kingdom has come jesus christ
is the king of it and he rules and he reigns in royal state
forever as the king of kings and the lord of lords and so
it is unto this kingdom that the lord is pleased to bring
his people Even as he says down here in verse 13, for the Lord
hath chosen Zion. Now Zion, as we read about it
in the scripture, is equivalent, or it is speaking about the kingdom
of God, the place where the Lord would set His throne forever. Now a lot of people, and a lot
of these so-called prophets of the end times, they tell us that
the Lord's going to set up a throne over in Israel one day, and He's
going to literally sit on that throne. Well, they got it wrong. because the Lord is already seated
on His throne. He's not going to set up a throne
on earthly soil. His kingdom is not of flesh and
blood. His kingdom is not of this world.
And He is not going to rule and reign on an earthly throne where
people could take a steamship and go over there and see Him
sitting on that throne. He is seated in the heavenlies
in the present time. And the only steamship that can
be taken to see him there is the one which is the grace of
almighty God to awaken a man from the deadness of his sin
to see him as that one who rules and reigns forever. He is the
king. We're not waiting for a king
to come. Now when the Lord stood before Pilate, Pilate asked him,
are you a king? Now the Jews, of course, their
thing and the thing that they wanted to accuse the Lord Jesus
Christ of was setting himself up as an earthly king and that
was one of the pretenses that they brought and brought him
before Pilate. They said, this man says he's
a king. Well, he was a king, but when he came to Pilate, and
Pilate asked him that question, he didn't say, yes, I'm a king.
He said, for this reason I came into the world, to bear witness
of the truth. And that's why the Lord Jesus
came into the world, was not to set up an earthly throne,
but to bear witness of the truth. And it is the truth that we hope
to declare to you this very day, which is Jesus Christ and him
crucified. That is the truth that he came
to declare, that men might know of a certainty that he rules
and reigns as a king in his kingdom because he has died on Calvary's
cross and risen from the tomb as a triumphant savior as that
one who has gloriously redeemed his people. And he does presently
reign in that glorious kingdom. And it is to that kingdom that
we desire to be found, to come and to be found therein among
those who are privileged to be called into that kingdom. The
Lord said, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them. And they follow me. And we're
not trying to make the goats and the sheep. The Lord has His
sheep. How can the sheep be known? I
can't know them. That's one of those secret things
that belongs unto God. I don't know who the sheep of
God are. But the Lord knoweth them that are His. And He calls
them. And the thing about it is, they
hear Him. They hear His voice. And they
follow Him. So you don't have to persuade
the children of God to follow Christ. They want to follow Christ
because he called them out of darkness and into the light.
And we're not trying to make good little religious boys and
girls and trying to get people to walk in some outward fashion
so that men might see them. But what we are seeking to do
is to declare the glories of Christ so that He might draw
men unto Himself. He will do that. See, the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto
us which are saved, it is the glory of God. And so that's what
we're reading about here in this psalm. Lord, remember David in
all his afflictions, how he swore unto the Lord and vowed unto
the mighty God of Jacob, surely I will not come into the tabernacle
of my house, nor go up to my bed, I will not give sleep to
mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place
for the Lord, and habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.
Now David desired with all of his heart to build an earthly
tabernacle unto the Lord, did he not? I mean, he was sincere,
he longed to be able to do that. But the Lord said to him, you
can't do it. because you got too much blood on your hands.
Says you can't do it. Now, that was surely a let down
to David, I'm sure, because he hungered and thirsted and desired
to do that. But he was not enabled to do
it. But the Lord told him, that that
tabernacle would be built by the one who was of the seed of
his loins. And that was a thing which pleased
him, no doubt, as he considered Solomon to be that one, and he
blessed him that he would do that. And Solomon did raise up
a mighty temple. The wisest man on earth. Now
when we think about Solomon as the builder of the earthly temple,
the wisest man on earth, we see a picture of what man is by nature. Because here's the wisest man,
not the most ignorant man. Not the man who was lowly in
state, but the richest man on earth. I mean, the Queen of Sheba
said, you know, I came to, I'd heard about this guy. But she
said the half wasn't even told to him. I mean, this is just,
I mean, Solomon dwelt in the most opulence of any king ever
did. Gold and silver, and silver was
considered to be nothing in those days, the scripture says. I mean,
silver, it wasn't worth anything because of the abundance of gold
and all of those things that men look at. And this majestic
temple that was raised up. But what happened? Solomon was typical. of what men are by nature. And
we take the wisest of men now. The wisest of men abandoned the
worship of God in favor of false gods. And he did everything that the
Lord told the kings of Israel not to do, Solomon did. And what
did it bring him to? It brought him to destruction.
Not in his lifetime, but in The ultimate, this temple that Solomon
built and this glorious thing in just a few years was brought
to nothing. Not one stone was left upon another. It was raised to the ground and
all of the glories of it was carried off into Babylon. And
so it is that we see what earthly temples are. Now, a lot of people
place a lot of emphasis on building earthly monuments to men. I mean, you can go out here in
the graveyard and there's all kind of monuments. I mean, if
a guy got a lot of money when he dies, they're gonna raise
up a big old monument. You go out there, you can be
sure that the ones that's got the biggest monuments out there
is probably the ones that had the most money. But what difference does all
that make? It's not anything, it's not worth anything. Because
it's all just an evidence of the fact that all men, rich,
small, great, doesn't matter, all men pass away. And all men,
even the wisest of the men of the earth will worship false
gods apart from the grace of God to deliver from it. Oh, you know, we learn many things
from the reign of Solomon. But one thing that we, fortunately
I believe that Solomon came to understand what all these things
were. And he penned these words, all
is vanity. I mean, here's a man that had
everything. He looked at it and he said, man, there's nothing.
It doesn't amount to anything. And so it is. But that one who
has raised up, who has been raised up as the one to build the true
tabernacle of God, arise, O Lord, unto thy rest, thou and the ark
of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed. with
righteousness, and let thy saints shout aloud for joy, for thy
servant David's sake, turn not away the face of thine anointed."
That one who is commissioned to build the temple of God. Now the Lord Jesus Christ came
into the world clothed in the likeness of sinful flesh. Now
we've just gone through a time of the year when a lot of people
pay a lot of attention and give homage supposedly to this little
baby that was born. And they see him there and they
build up statues and things and set up displays to remind us
how he was born in a stable and all of those things. And I'm
not gonna go out there and tear those down because he was born. in Bethlehem. He was born and
laid in a manger and he was a babe. But that's merely the precursor
to the purpose for which he came into the world. See the Lord
never said I want you all to set aside a day and remember
my birth. He never told us to do that.
Because his birth is just a necessary part of his coming into the world.
It's not something that he would desire to be celebrated in the
sense in which it is. But rather, he said, remember
my death till I come again. Because you see, it's in his
death that the glory of God is seen, revealed in the kingdom
which he came to establish. because he came to triumph over
sin. And the manner in which he triumphed
over sin was to die a sinner's death, to take upon himself the
sin of his people, though he had no sin of his own. But to
have that sin placed within him, it imputed to his account. You
see, when Christ hung on Calvary's cross, he didn't hang there as
an innocent man, but he hung there as a guilty man. made guilty
by the sin of his people which he gladly took upon himself and
he paid the price for sinners. The wages of sin is death. Let
no man ever forget that. Now that's a true thing. All
men need to know and understand that. The wages of sin is death.
The soul that sinneth shall die. God will by no means clear the
guilty. He will not at all acquit the
wicked. A man who dies in his sin has no
hope. There is no hope for the man
who dies in his sin. But oh, that man who's found
in Christ, You see, to be found in Christ is to be found in righteousness. Because he says here, let thy
priests be clothed with righteousness. Now, there's one priest in this
temple. But there are many priests. Because the Lord, the scripture
says, the Lord hath made us kings and priests. All of those for
whom he died have been exalted to a place of honor. Now we don't
deserve any honor, do we? And those who come before His
presence in Scripture say they cast their crowns at His feet. Why? Because they want Him to
have all the glory. But you see, He has given His
people a crown of righteousness that fadeth not away. And He
has exalted them and lifted them up. And he does indeed clothe
his priests with righteousness, but not righteousness of their
own. You see, a lot of men in this world, they think that they
have some form of righteousness. Religious men especially. They
believe they've got righteousness. That's why the Lord said to the
Pharisees, he said, the harlots and the publicans go into the
kingdom of God before you because of the fact that they know they
don't have any righteousness. All the righteousness that we
have is that of Christ. There's not one thing you can
bring to the Lord that's going to please Him. You know, people
say, well, I'm just trying to please the Lord. Well, quit. Quit trying to please the Lord.
Christ has pleased the Lord. Fall down and worship Him who
is our righteousness. See, our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags before Almighty God. There's not a thing in the
world that you can bring to the Lord that is acceptable to Him. Why? Because everything that
you have and are is tainted with sin in one way or another. And
apart from the cleansing blood of Christ. to cause you to be
free from sin, to stand in His righteousness before Almighty
God, justified, justified just as if you had never sinned. You
see, that's the hardest thing for a sinner to ever come to
grips with. Men, even a man who's been shown
the grace of God, it takes him a while to come to the place
where the Lord convinces him that the righteousness of Christ
is all. That there's nothing he can do.
He must fall on his face before God and give him glory for that
which Christ did. Because what he did was finish
the work that he came to do. You see, he didn't leave the
world with unfinished business. Now I know you hear a lot of
preachers today telling folks that, you know, the Lord's done
all he can. That's all up to you. Brother, you'd be in bad
shape if that was true. Because when God has done all
he can do, and you still are not in the kingdom of God, you
are in trouble. See, but Christ came to finish
the work he came to do. He came to do something, which
was to obtain eternal redemption for those people whom he loved
from the foundation of the world. And he has, the script says he
will lose none of them, because they belong to him. How are they
known? How can a man know? How can a man know? Well, he
can't climb up to heaven, can he? And look in the Lamb's Book
of Life and read His name written there. And would you want to
do that if you could? No, the only way that the Lord
has seen fit to give men the knowledge that their name is
written there is that He gives them a heart and mind to call
upon His name. And He has given the Spirit of
the Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And we must confess
with Peter of old, when the Lord said, well, will you also go
away? And Peter said, Lord. He said, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life. I certainly don't want to trust
in my own righteousness. Lord, I don't have any wisdom
or knowledge. It must come from Thee. Oh, Lord,
save me. See, like the old publican in
the temple, he said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. See,
all sinners are gonna be saved. Now, a lot of people wouldn't
believe that to be true, but the fact is, all sinners will
be saved. Now, not all men are sinners,
however. See, a lot of people think they're somewhat righteous. Well, you know the Lord, He understands
my situation. He'll, the Lord knows I'm trying
to do the best I can. You're in trouble if you try
and do the best you can. What you need is the righteousness
of Christ. He has done all he could do.
And when he did all that he could do, he hung upon the cross and
he said, it is finished. And thus he erected every part
and particle of the kingdom of God by his own power. And he is that one who is kept,
and scripture says, if thy children will keep my covenant and my
testimony. Now if I told you today, and there's some out there
teaching this kind of stuff. If I told you today, all right,
from this point forward, the Lord has given you a clean slate. Now all you've got to do is from
this point forward just go and don't ever do any of the same
things that you've done up to this point. Always be thankful. Love the Lord with all your heart.
Don't fail in any fashion. And you can enter the kingdom
of God. Now what would you think if you know your own heart, what
would you think would be the chances that that would ever
occur? It wouldn't occur before you leave this building today.
you'll already be disqualified. You see, it takes a perfect righteousness
to come into the presence of Almighty God. He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully, that's the one who will enter
in. And brethren, the children of God keep the covenant and
testimony of the Lord because he kept it for them. He is our
law keeper. He is our performer. He is that
one who has satisfied the claims of God's justice in our behalf.
And there's nothing left for the sons of God to do but to
praise Him for that which He has done for us. Oh, what a glorious
one He is. For the Lord has chosen Zion
and desired it for His habitation. This is my rest forever. Here
will I dwell, for I have desired it. Now the Lord said, here's
where I'm gonna stay. You see, he has seen the travail
of his soul and he is satisfied. He said Zion is the place of
my rest, the place where I have brought my people. Remember when
the Lord created the world, in seven days and on the seventh
day he rested. Now when I was a kid, I used
to think of the fact when he pulled out a rocking chair and
sat down in it and kicked up his feet and he just took it
easy that day. That's not what it means, although,
I mean, but he finished the work. That is, he rested from it, he
stopped. When Christ said it's finished,
he stopped. That's it. I mean, what he did
is what the sum total of what the sons of God needed, and he
performed it. Oh, what a glorious Savior he
is. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her
poor with blood. Blessed are the poor, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. See, a poor man is a man that
needs somebody to help him. See, poor men can't help other
poor men, can they? Huh? I mean, you know, when the
homeless men out there on the street, they don't go among the
homeless, do they, and hold up their sign and say, we'll work
for food. Because they know, them guys all know that that's
just a bunch of baloney anyway. See, they know who they are.
Now, they're going out there with the sign, they're looking
for what they would consider to be the rich people. So the
poor people can't help the poor. But there is one who helps the
poor. And the needy, those who know themselves to be sinners,
who call upon his name, he helps them. Oh, what a glorious one. I will clothe our priests with
salvation, and our saints shall shout aloud for joy. Because you see, that's the place
that the Lord brings his people, is it not? Let the people of
God rejoice. Let the saints exalt his name.
Oh, rejoice again, I say rejoice. There will I make the horn of
David to bud, and I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed, the
horn of David, that is the kingdom of David. The horn, if you look
in the scripture, a horn, you see those horns rising up out
of the sea and all that kind of stuff. It's speaking about
kingdoms. But the kingdom of David has
been made to bud. Now I want you to look at this,
and then I'm gonna be through. He said, there will I make the
horn of David to bud. Now whenever a tree is going to put on fruit,
there comes up a bud on that limb. Just a little sprout comes
out there. And if you wanna know, like the
pecan trees out here, if you wanna know if they're gonna have
nuts on them, if they start to bud out, then you know that they're
going to have nuts on them. If they don't, then you're not
going to have any. But when it says here, there
will I make the horn of David, the kingdom of David to bud,
which the Lord did. The Lord exalted David and it
was seen. But I have ordained, I have ordained
a lamp for mine anointed. Now the kingdom of David was
not the kingdom of the anointed of God. But the Lord has ordained
a lamp for the anointed. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world as a light of the world. He is the light
of the world. And so there is a lamp which
is ordained for His anointed. His enemies will I clothe with
shame. The Lord shall have them in derision. In the 63rd chapter of Isaiah, He said, mine own arm hath got
me the victory. And he said, wherefore art thou
thy garments red with blood? He said, it is the blood of my
enemies wherein I have trampled upon them. For the Lord will
trample his enemies. He has trampled his enemies.
He has led captivity captive. He has put down powers and principalities
by that work which he has performed. His enemies will I clothe with
shame. He will triumph in flaming fire,
the scripture says, that he comes again taking vengeance on them
that know not God. He will destroy the wicked. His
enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon himself shall his crown
flourish, upon himself, not through the aid of men. Now I want you
to look at this. Now the word there for the kingdom
of the horn of David is that he'd make the horn of David to
bud. It's that little thing that's first seen. But he says here,
his crown shall flourish. That word is a similar word to
the word bud, but it means to blossom. So the full, now the
blossom, you see, is the full beauty of the glory of that which
can be seen that the Lord has done. And the blossom is Christ. He's that one who, upon his head,
this crown shall flourish. It's upon his head, upon himself. Now how did he get to be the
king? He got to be the king by his own power. See, nobody was
able to install Him as King. You'll hear people say, well,
why don't you make the Lord, make Him Lord of your life? Well,
that sounds real good, but the problem is you can't do that. He's already the Lord. You can't
make Him anything. You can't do anything. That would
cause God to change the thing that He's going to do. Now here's
the thing. The mercy of God awaits sinners. And he saveth such as be of a
broken and contrite heart. He will not despise. There'll
never be a man that ever comes to the Lord seeking mercy who
will not receive it from his hand. But why shall he receive
it? Does he receive it because of
something he's doing or something he's done? No, it's because Christ
has rolled in him by his spirit that work which causes him to
cry out for mercy. Oh, the secret things belong
to God. I don't know how that happens, that we sing a song
sometimes. I know not how the spirit moves. convincing men of sin, revealing
Jesus through the word, creating faith in him. I don't know how
that happened. But thanks be unto God, it does
happen. And you see, the gospel calls sinners, only sinners,
to come to Christ. Come today, without delay. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Now that's
a pretty specific bunch, isn't it? Labor and her heavy laden. He didn't say, everybody come.
That's the way that's kind of pictured today, is it not? Oh,
just everybody come. No, that's not what he said.
He said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. You see a man that's laboring
under the load of his sin. And he knows himself to be lost.
I mean, he needs some help. And the Lord says, come. He said to his disciples, come
and dine. What did he tell them to come and dine? Did he say,
bring you a covered dish? No, he said come and dine because
he already prepared the meal. It was already there. And they
came and they ate with him on the seashore. Oh, what a glorious
Savior he is. Full of mercy to all that call
upon his name.