Gonna be looking in Psalm 122. And this is another of the Song
of Degrees of David. David was blessed to write these
blessed words. But yet we believe, as we have
expressed, that many of these Psalms, in fact, the vast majority
of them, or indeed the prayers and the statements of Christ.
It says in Psalm 122, I was glad when they said unto me, let us
go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy
gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built in as a city
that is compact together or compacted or put together. Whether the
tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel,
to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set
thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for
the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love
thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions'
sake, I will now say, peace be within thee. Because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. Now, this is a glorious
psalm, one of my favorites, one I remember as a young child hearing
in the words of of David and I believe of Christ. As he begins
this, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house
of the Lord. Now as a young child, I have
to confess I was not glad most of the time when that was the
case because I was wanting to do other stuff, you know. And
I often wondered about that, how would that be? By the grace
of God and His mercy, He has brought me to a place where I
can truly say, by His grace, that I was glad when He said
unto me, let's go into the house of the Lord. There is a blessedness
that is given to the sons of God when they gather in the name
of Christ. He said it. He said, where two
or more of you are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst
of you. The Lord inhabiteth the praises
of Israel. There is a blessing in the gathering
of the saints of God that cannot be duplicated in any other fashion. You know, you can listen to preaching,
you can go on the radio and the TV, and it's kind of a desert,
but you can go there and every now and then you'll hear something.
But you can go on sermon audio on the computer, you can listen
to preaching, and I certainly wouldn't ever discourage anybody
from doing that, but that does not replace and cannot replace
the coming together of God's people. in corporate worship. There's nothing that is designed
to do that and nothing can do that. Now we understand that
sometimes people are in situations where they're prevented from
doing that. They may be infirm, they may
be bedridden, they may be in places where there is no ready
place where they can go and do these things. So we do understand
all of that. But the fact of the matter is
that the Lord has designed the gathering together of the people
of God in the house of God. Now when we say the house of
God, we're not talking about this building here, this is just
the meeting house. And we're thankful that the Lord's
given us such a place that we can come. This is not the house
of God. The house of God is where Christ
is. And Christ may be here or He
may not be here according to His sovereign purpose. We believe
that He is here. We believe that He does inhabit
the praises of His people where two or more gathered in His name,
He is there in the midst of them. But that's His sovereign prerogative
because we come into this place doesn't mean that he's here,
he doesn't stay here. Like Dagon, when the Philistines
went down to the temple of Dagon, they knew when they opened the
door that Dagon was gonna be standing up there. Because what
was he gonna do? He wasn't going anywhere. David
described him, he said he has hands, but they don't move, you
know, feet, but they can't go anywhere. He has a mouth, but
they don't speak. And so it is, unfortunately,
that the God of most people is just about like that. They're
gonna go down to the church house because they know God's gonna
be down there, because He's right where they left Him. He's just like a little puppy
shut up in a pen. He can't get out. And they can
leave Him when they get ready. See, the God with whom we have
to do, you can't get away from Him. I mean, when God is pleased
to pursue you, you cannot escape. Now we know the best example
of that is with Jonah. I mean, he's a good example of
it, but it's true, it's true of the Apostle Paul. He couldn't
escape, couldn't get away. And so it is that the Lord's
pleased to call his people. As we look at this psalm, I did
something, I don't do this a lot, but I thought it best to do this
as we look at this psalm. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. The house of the
Lord is where the Lord dwells. The house of the Lord is the
kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is not
that which can be seen by men except in one place and one manifestation
and that is in the gathering of God's people. That is the
kingdom of God on the earth. That's the one you can see. Now
you can't, they said to the Pharisees, you know, you can't see the kingdom
of God. He said to Nicodemus, he said,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And many people, they go to church every Sunday, but they don't
see the kingdom of God. They can't see it. Why? Because
they're not born again. They're not given that which
the psalmist speaks of here. I was glad when they said unto
me. Let us go into the house of the Lord. That is the moving
of the Spirit of God that gives them a delight. Now, we believe
this to be true, that the best commentary that there is on the
scriptures, I'm gonna, y'all get you a book, get you a paper
out and I'm gonna write, I want you to write down the name of
this book. This is the best commentary on
the scriptures that I can give you. And it's called the Bible. Now, that may sound silly to
you, but that's the truth. Now, I've got commentaries, and
I read commentaries and things that other people said. I've
about weeded them all out. I only use a couple now. Back
years ago, I used to just have a whole shelf of them, and I
used to, you know, look at all that, but I've kind of, It's
gotten down to just a few now, and I like to read what other
people have to say. And every man, you know, a man's
a fool that just thinks of his own thoughts and thinks he's
got all the answers. I mean, we know nothing as we
ought to know. God gives truth to many men, and no man has all
the answers. I'm one of the few, but no, I
don't entertain that notion at all. I have, you know, I don't know hardly anything.
I mean, the only thing I know is what's written here in this
book and what the Spirit of God is pleased to teach, but I do
believe that the scriptures themselves are the best commentary upon
the scriptures. And if you want to study the
scriptures, the thing for you to do is study the scriptures. Now, there are certain things
that will aid you in that, and I'm sure that most of you know
about these things, but concordances where you can, you know, the
computers have just really made as far as the physical studying
of the scriptures has really made that more simple. Now I
often think of men like John Gill who just wrote voluminously
and would just quote, or in his writings, he'd just have all
these different scripture references. And I'm sure they had some concordances
in a measure in his day, but he still had to look them up.
Each one individually, they had to go through books. And it's
incredible to see how the Lord's able to use men and probably
actually those men who had to spend hours and hours in their
research and study of the word of God to come up with the things
that they did just proves the fact that the Lord is the one
that gives men understanding. And it doesn't make any difference
if you live in the first century or you live in the 21st century.
God alone can give a man an understanding of the Word of God. But the way
that He gives men an understanding of the Word of God is not primarily
through the words of other men, but it is through the Word of
God. Now, He may use a man to bring the Word of God to you,
but it's gonna be the Word of God that is going to be that
catalyst that will give you an understanding by the work of
the Spirit of God. He illumines His Word. He said
He would do that. And so, as I read this Psalm,
and thinking about going into the house of the Lord, and many
scriptures came into my mind, about where the scripture speaks
about the house of the Lord, and going to the house of the
Lord. And here's a few, I wanted to
read a few of these scriptures to you. Psalm 42, verse four. I should have marked these, but
I didn't. So I'll turn with you while you turn. Psalm 42, verse
four. Says, when I remember these things,
I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with multitude. I
went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and
praise with the multitude that kept holy day. Now this is a
holy day. Now we don't go in too much for
days and seasons and all of those type things in an observatory
way, that is in thinking that there's something special about
the day. What makes this day special and what makes it a holy
day is it's a day that's set apart for the gathering together
of God's people. Now that's a glorious thing.
And we need to have regard unto this day in that light.
Because this is the day that the Lord has set aside for us
together. Now we set it aside, did we not?
But something strange, how the Lord has caused that to occur. And down through time, I know
it's a custom that men would meet together on Sunday. Sunday's
the first day of the week. And it's often called the Lord's
Day. It's called the Lord's Day in Scripture. And so surely we
do have in that respect an observance of that day because it is a special
day. It's a day when we're going to
the house of God. That is to gather together with
God's people. And so even as David said, I
went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and
praise with a multitude that kept holy day. What a glorious
thing. And then we got Psalm 55, 14. We took sweet counsel together
and walked into the house of God in company. In company, you
see. I've often said, and you've heard
me say it, you know, it's a good thing to come together as God's
people and encourage one another. Because you see, when I come
down here and I see Ed sitting over there, I'm relieved because
I know that he didn't quit. You know, I see Bobby and I say,
well, you know, he's still hanging on. And that gives me encouragement
to think, well, maybe I'll hang on, you know, maybe I won't quit.
Because you know, there's more quitters in religion and professed
Christianity than any other thing out there. There's more people
that quit following Christ than any other thing that I can think
of. Oh, multitudes. See, it's not something that
just happens in our day, it's happened from the beginning.
I mean when Christ came on the scene and he began preaching
and feeding the multitudes and healing the sick and doing all
these things multitudes followed him but the day came when he looked
around and everybody had left and he turned to his disciples
and he said, will ye also go away? and by the grace of God the Lord
gave Peter and answer of true faith, he said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And so it is that we come here
in company. That is, we come together because
we have a common purpose. Now, We don't always agree on
every jot and tittle of everything. I'm sure if we got to talking
long enough about enough stuff, we could find some stuff that
we wouldn't agree on. But we all agree on this, and
that is that Jesus Christ is worthy to be praised. That He
is the Savior of sinners. And that we will desire to fall
on our faces and give him glory because we believe he alone is
worthy of glory. And you see, that's the company
that we keep. And that's an encouragement.
And that's a strengthening to the people of God when we know
that regardless of all the things that go on in the world, that's
the one place that we can come together with people that we
are on the same wavelength with. You know, when you go out here
into the world, there's people of all kinds of nutcase ideas
and everything else going on in the world. But here, in the
gathering of God's people, there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And he is that one worthy to
be praised. And so we come together in company.
And that's what he said here. Jerusalem is built as a city
that is compact together. Remember when I believe it was
Paul who said that the church is compacted together by that
which every joint supplies. You see, the church is not the
preacher. Nothing I hate worse than to
hear somebody say, well, that's old so-and-so's church. Don't ever call this Mike's church. I'm here the same as you are. This isn't my church. This is
the church of Jesus Christ. belongs to Him. I mean, it's
not ours. And every one of us is the part
of that body that the Lord caused it to be. And He gave some various
gifts in that body for the benefit of the body. But he gave all
men gifts for the benefit of the body. See, because I'm not
the hand, it doesn't mean that I'm not of the body. Because
I'm not the ear, it doesn't mean that I'm not of the body. It
doesn't matter what the part is that the Lord called us to
be, it is all put together in one body and compacted together
by that which the Lord supplies. May the Lord give us grace to
really know and understand that. Jerusalem built it as a city.
Now there's Psalm 63, one through three. O God, Thou art my God, early
will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my
flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is, to see Thy power and Thy glory so as I have seen Thee
in the sanctuary. Because our loving kindness is
better than life, my lips shall praise Thee. To see thy power
and thy glory as I have seen thee in the sanctuary, that is,
in the gathering together of the saints of God, the sanctuary,
the place where God is, that place where the Lord pleased
to meet with his people. What a glorious thing. That is,
is it not? Do we not desire to see Him as
we have seen Him in the sanctuary? I mean, or is not? I can think,
you know, of many blessings in my life, but none of them exceed
the blessings that I have received in gathering together with God's
people. You know, that's the sweetness of the fellowship of
God's people, is that which is a blessing to the soul of a man,
because it causes him to remember. See, when we look around and
we see the diversity that God has among His people, it causes
us to have understanding that he calls his people out of every
tribe, kindred, and tongue on the face of the earth. Short
and tall, and it doesn't make any difference, rich and poor.
So it is, the Lord has built together whether the tribes go
up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give
thanks unto the name of the Lord. See, that's what we're, that's
our primary purpose, is it not? Paul said, in everything give
thanks. I mean, we ought to give thanks.
The Lord's worthy to be praised and to be thanked. All right,
so then we look at Psalm 84, one and two. How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. That's, you know, that's that
which the Lord is pleased to work in His people. For there
are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.
Oh, give thanks unto the name of the Lord. And then 8410, the
same one. For a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
The doorkeeper. I was reading some time back
that years ago over in England, some of the
churches, had men hired to be the doorkeeper. Now the reason
they did that was because there was a lot of people in poverty,
and this was just a manner in which the church could support
some of these people in poverty. They'd give them a job such as
that, and so they had a job, and it was a menial task. I mean,
you know, most people wouldn't think of being the doorkeeper.
I mean, somebody that's gonna open the door for people, that's
not considered to be a real high position, is it? But David said,
I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell
in the tents of wickedness. I mean, what a more glorious
thing would there be to just be in the house of God, to be
among the people of God, to be even as a sparrow, as he says
in one place, sitting up in the rafters, just seeing things going
on. What a glorious place that is. And then Isaiah, Chapter two,
verse three. And this is a prophecy of Isaiah
concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And this is a prophecy that we
have seen come to pass and is presently coming to pass. This
is the day that the Lord has made. This is the day of salvation.
This is the day when the Lord is calling His people unto Himself. And it shall come to pass in
the last days. Now a lot of people read that
in the scripture about the last days and they think, oh yeah,
that's going right there in the last days. Well, brethren, this
is the last time, John said. These are the last days. God,
who is one at sundry times and divers manner speak in times
past to the prophets, to the people by the prophets, hath
in what? These last days spoken unto us
by his Son. This is the last days. We are
living in them. And so it is, it shall come to
pass in the last days, in the present time, that the mountain
of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the
mountains. Christ is exalted. Now he's not exalted in the minds
of the world, but where is he exalted? The top of the mountain,
where's the top of the mountain? The top of the mountains where
the Lord plays together with his people. You see, that's the
glorious thing, the house of God. This is the place He called
us to. That the mountain of the Lord's
house shall be established in the top of the mountains and
shall be exalted above the hills. There's not a higher place. See,
there's no thing that you can do. Some people think, well,
I'll go off to Bible school and I'll be lifted up. I'll really
get me something. Brethren, There's no higher place
of learning than among the saints of God. You can't go somewhere
and find somebody that can teach you the things of God. But the
Lord will minister those things to his people in and among the
saints of God as every joint supplies at which the body is
in need of. The Lord's able to raise up men.
out of the dust, the stones of the earth to do his beating and
to declare. I mean, a man does not have to
have some great college education or seminary background to declare
the Word of God. If the Spirit of God has sent
the man to do the work that he called him to do, then he will
equip that man however he sees fit to do it. And I believe the best place
for a man to be equipped is among the saints of God. lay those things upon our heart,
that the mountain of the Lord's house should be established in
the top of the mountains, shall be exalted above the hills, and
all nations shall flow into it. And many people shall go and
say, come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth
the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And is that not
what he says here? Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Now what is it Jerusalem that we're to be praying for? Are
we praying for some piece of ground over in the I mean, is
that what he means? Pray for that literal city? Is that what he's called us to
do? No, the Jerusalem that we're to be praying for is the Jerusalem
of God, that holy city, which has come down from heaven with
the place where God is pleased to dwell with men. What a glorious
thing. You know, that's a beautiful
picture. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy
palaces. For my brethren and companions'
sake, I will now say, peace be within thee. Because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. Now, as we think on
these things as the word of Christ, we remember this. He came into the world, And for
the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. He says,
I was glad when they said unto me. See, you know, if you were
called upon to go and lay down your life, for your country or
for your family or whatever, you wouldn't run to the thing. I mean, you'd be kind of reluctant,
would you not? I mean, you might do it. See,
men have laid down their lives, but they didn't do it gladly. I mean, they didn't do it, but
the scripture says that the Lord Jesus Christ, for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross. He was glad. when they said unto me. Oh, when
John sees in his vision, and he said, you know, here is this
book, and it's sealed. And there's nobody that can open
this book. There's nobody that can solve the problem. And he said, well, who's gonna
do it? He said, weep not. The angel
said, for the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open
the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. The Lord Jesus
Christ, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. He came gladly, and the scripture
says, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. He came into the house of God. Let us go into the house of the
Lord. He said, I came not to do mine own will, but the will
of him that sent me into the house of God, for the people
of God. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
And then he says, the blessing of the Lord upon the church. He says, peace be within thy
walls and prosperity within thy palaces. Remember what he said
to his disciples? He said, peace I give unto you,
not as the world giveth, but I give unto you. But I've given
you that peace which passeth understanding. You see, that's
the peace of God that cannot be overturned, it can't be taken
away, it can't be comprehended. We can't even comprehend it ourself.
I mean, you know, a man can't anticipate that he could be at
peace in the midst of strife and trouble and heartache that
comes into his life. He can't anticipate it. He can't
plan it out. He cannot say he is depending
on it. But when the Lord sends it, it's
real. Because you see, it's the peace
of God that passes understanding. It's not in the comprehension
of men to have these things. And then he says this. For my
brethren and companions. Oh, what a glorious thing to
think that these are the words of Christ. He said, for my brethren
and my companions. You know what's a companion?
It's a friend. Now that's a glorious thing, dear brethren. Now on
the one hand, we follow and worship him. But on the other hand, You
know, when we, he lifts us up and he says, I'm alive. And he
says, I am your friend. I am your companion. I will be with you in all things. Oh, what a glorious God he is.
What a wondrous Savior. For my brethren and my companions'
sake, I will now say, peace be within thee. Because you see,
he didn't just come and set out some peace out there. See, as Brother Al talked about
there a moment ago, all my life I've been with all these presidents,
they're always gonna bring about peace. Remember when Jimmy Carter,
the lasting peace, we finally got it. How long did it last? I don't know that it was ever
any difference. Over there in the Mideast, they
was killing each other before they started, and they're killing
each other now. And they'll be killing each other till the Lord
comes back. That's not peace. Men cannot
bring about peace. Only the Lord can bring it. Because the peace that He applies
is not an external peace, but it's an internal peace. See,
the only way that there can ever be peace between the Arabs and
the Jews is for the Lord to give them love, one for the other,
in their heart. And I don't see that happening.
I mean, it could happen. The Lord could do that if He
saw fit to do it. But it's not gonna happen because
of the ways of men. Because of the house of the Lord
our God, I will seek thy good. Oh, what a glorious promise that
the Lord, because of the house, because of the kingdom of God,
because that which belongs to Him, He will seek our good, and
He will do good for us. Oh, that the people of God might
praise Him, and that we might ever be able to say, I was glad
when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.
What a glorious place it is.