Looking in Psalm 102. And we've
been looking at this Psalm. Last week, we had looked at verse
13, says, Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the
time to favor her, yea, the set time is come. And surely the
Lord has a set time for all the things that he does. And nothing
can occur outside of that set time, and that set time is that
which must come to pass, those things that are to occur at that
set time. Then we begin reading there in
verse 14, it says, for thy servants take pleasure in her stones and
favor the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the
name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth, thy glory.
When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his
glory. He will regard the prayer of
the destitute and not despise their prayer. This shall be written
for the generation to come, and the people which shall be created
shall praise the Lord. For he hath looked down from
the height of his sanctuary from heaven, did the Lord behold the
earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those
that are appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord
in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem. when the people are gathered
together and the kingdoms to serve the Lord. He weakened my
strength in the way, he shortened my days. I said, oh my God, take
me not away in the midst of my days, thy years are throughout
all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundations
of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt
endure. Yea, all of them shall wax old
like a garment. As a vesture shalt thou change
them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall have no end. The children of thy servants
shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee. Now we had made some comments
on verse 14 last week. Thy servants take pleasure in
her stones to favor the dust thereof. Even the very dust of
the temple of God, that is the building of God, is favored by
the children of God. It is a precious place where
the Lord's pleased to gather with his people. For thy servants
take pleasure in her stones. And you know which we read in
the scripture that the Lord has built us up as a temple made
of lively stones, that is living stones. And when the temple was
built in the uh... the original temple was built
the script says that there was not the sound of a hammer heard
in the building of it all of those stones were formed and
fashioned and then they were brought to that temple site and
put in place they were made to fit and the same way in which
the Lord has built his temple, a much greater temple, a much
greater place of dwelling uh... he has taken and formed his edifice,
his building, out of living stones. And each one fits right in with
the other, just exactly as he would have it to be. Without
any aid of men, there's no sound of a hammer heard in the building
of it. If the Lord build not the house,
they labor in vain that build it. And so it is that we rejoice
in Him who is the builder of the temple and not the temple
itself. Now the temple itself, being
the children of God gathered together, we rejoice together,
but we rejoice together in the builder of the temple. Not, you
know, in what one another is able to bring to the mix. I mean,
even though the Lord, when He rose on high, the Scripture says
He gave gifts to men, and those gifts are for the benefit of
the sons of God. But when we observe the gifts
in other men that the Lord has given them, we don't place the
glory on the men. but on the one that gave the
gifts, just like we place the glory on him who built the temple
and not that material of which the building is built, but it
is the one who's the wise master builder. So we favor the dust
thereof. And then he says, so the heathen
shall fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth,
thy glory. The Lord said that he would build
his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against him.
And you look down through history at all of the raging of the kingdoms
of this world against the kingdom of God, against the church of
God, and how there have been in all ages persecutions and
men set forth to destroy the kingdom of God, but they're not
able. because the Lord said that even
the gates of hell would not prevail against it. And even as it is,
the kings of the earth have to take notice of this. Now, thinking about that, Pilate,
a ruler, in Rome and a ruler there over Jerusalem. And he
was the one whom the Lord ordained to pass the sentence of death
upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, even though he was
used in that fashion, yet he had to testify that this man,
never man spake like this man. He said, this man, there's something
different about this man. even though He had not in His
heart a desire to worship Him, yet He knew His soul. And in
such fashion, the kings of the earth shall glory. They shall see the glory of the
Lord. It doesn't mean that all the kings of the earth are going
to worship Him, because obviously they don't. But they shall see
His glory. The Scripture says that every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. Doesn't mean that
everybody is going to love the Lord, but it does mean that they
are going to be made to recognize the glory of Him who has come
into the earth and has established His kingdom unto His glory. They will not be able in any
wise to deny that. The Scripture says the heavens
and the earth flee away at His presence. Why? Because of His
glory. They can't stand in His presence. Remember those men that came
to take the Lord Jesus in the garden? And they said, we seek
Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And the Scripture
says that they all fell backwards. They saw His glory. Now according
to the ordained purpose of God, even though they saw His glory,
they nonetheless carried out their evil designs, did they
not? And so it is that the kings of the earth, they shall see
the glory of the Lord. And they shall fear the name
of the Lord. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy
name? When the Lord shall build up
thine, He shall appear in His glory. He did say, as we said
there a moment ago, He said, I will build my church and the
gates of hell cannot prevail against it. He will do that. And the Lord will manifest the
greatness of His glory in the sons of God in the earth. He
said, you are the light of the world. Now sometimes we kind
of wonder how that could be true. But yet the Lord said, you are
going to be the light of the world. You are the light of the
world. He said to His disciples, go ye therefore and teach all
nations. In other words, he would have
the glory of the gospel declared in the earth by those whom he
has built this temple out of. When the Lord shall build up
Zion, he shall appear in his glory. Wherever you see the Lord
moving in his glory, you are going to see him building his
kingdom in the earth. You're going to see the people
of God in the very forefront of that. He will regard the prayer
of the destitute and not despise their prayer. Now that's a glorious
message, is it not? To a man that knows himself to
be destitute. Now, you know, a lot of people
don't really think they're destitute. They think they've got something
to bring to the Lord. You know, a person that's destitute
doesn't have anything. And when you say somebody's destitute,
you don't mean, well, they can just go draw some money out of
the bank and solve their problems, can they? I mean, you know, if
a man's destitute, he doesn't have any money to draw. He doesn't
have a bank account. He doesn't have anybody he can
call upon. He has nobody to lift him up, nobody to help him. But
the Lord hears the prayers of the destitute, those who are
in such a case as that, those that don't have anything. Now,
when a man would bring something, it doesn't make a difference
what it is. If he thinks that he can bring something to the
Lord, or he has a bargaining chip, or he can somehow or other
make a deal with the Lord, then that man is not destitute because
he thinks he has some power. But you see, the man that has
no power at all, that's the ones whom the Lord will hear. That's
what Scripture says. It says, he heareth sinners,
he will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise
their prayer. He didn't despise the prayer
of the publican, but he did despise the prayer of the Pharisee, did
he not? The Pharisee prayed thus with
himself, and he said, Lord, I thank you, I'm not like these other
people. But the old publican, he just said, oh God. Be merciful
to me, a sinner. He didn't have anything. He couldn't
brag and boast and come before the Lord and say, well, Lord,
I'm better than this guy. No, he knew himself to be lower
than the lowest. As Paul said that he was the
chiefest of sinners. But the Lord will hear the prayer
of the destitute. He will not despise their prayer.
That man that is in need, the Lord will hear him. This shall
be written for the generation to come and the people which
shall be created shall praise the Lord. Now that's an amazing
statement there. If God was not absolutely sovereign,
how could that be? I mean, what if man has absolutely
free will? I mean, how does the Lord know
if somebody, I mean, we know He knows everything, and that's
how people get around it. They say, oh, well, the Lord
knows those that's gonna praise Him. But no, He decreed this. He didn't say, I know it's going
to happen. He said, the generations to come
shall praise my name. How does He know that? because
he's the one that makes them praise his name. He's the one
that opens a man's eyes to see. He's that one who the scripture
says, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. You
know, God doesn't do things against man's will, but he does, he works
on man's will. See, the will of man's not sovereign. God's sovereign. And He changes
the will of men. He causes men to love His Word. He causes men to see themselves
to be destitute. See, it's the work of God. And
so it is. This shall be written for the
generation to come. He will not despise the destitute. This is the message that the
Gospel comes to in every generation. The people that are yet created,
or to be created, that hadn't come on the scene yet. Now how
long will the world go on from this point? I don't have any
idea. It might be 30 minutes. It might be 3,000 years. I don't know. how long that will be, but I
know that this is true, that the Lord has a people in every
age and generation, every generation, every tribe, tongue on the face
of the earth, the Lord has a people that will praise his name. And
the message that he has sent to every generation from the
beginning to the present time is that he will hear the prayer
of the destitute. He's the helper of the helpless,
the hope of the hopeless, For he hath looked down from
the height of his sanctuary from heaven, and did the Lord behold
the earth. For he hath looked down from
the height of his sanctuary from the heaven did the Lord behold
the earth. Now that's an amazing thing in
itself. Now, man in his pride, he thinks
that somehow or other, that the earth has a value of its own. That's why they, you know, all
the movement of men to preserve the earth and, you know, save
the planet, as they say, they think they can do that. See,
isn't it the height of man's pride to say, man, we can save
the planet? Well, how can you do that? How
are you going to do that? And of course, it's so foolish,
the thinking of men, because men in their pride believe that
they can control things. One day, if the Lord lets men
go on long enough, they'll come to the conclusion they can control
the weather and the rotation of the earth. It's amazing. the things that men think that
they can do. But the Lord hath looked down
from the height of his sanctuary, and from heaven did the Lord
behold the earth. The earth's nothing except that
which the Lord made it to be. And he beholds it from the heavens. And I believe that the psalmist As he speaks here, he's speaking
about the fact that the Lord looks with favor. upon it. Now, men in their pride think,
well, that would be right. I mean, the Lord sees all these
good things that men are trying to do. I mean, we're trying to
save all these immigrants, and we're trying to give people shots
that'll save their lives, and we're trying to do all these
good things. These are all good things, and I'm not against good
things. You know, there's good things and bad things in the
earth for sure. But men think that, you know,
as they do these things, that they're making God to take notice
of them. But it's an amazing thing that
the Lord beholds the earth, because what He sees, the wickedness
of man in the earth, that it is very great, and yet, in His
mercy, He looks at the earth, even as the Lord Jesus stood
over Jerusalem, a city of great rebellion against him. And he
said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered
thee as a hen doth gather her chicks, and you would not. Now is that not the truth? of man's condition before Almighty
God? I mean, how often has the Lord's
mercy been revealed in the earth through the provision that is
made and through the wonders of creation, and yet man in his
rebellion has said, no Lord, we don't need you. We can go
it on our own. We're doing all right. Oh, the
mercy of God is indeed extended, for he hath looked down from
the height of his sanctuary. From the heaven did the Lord
behold the earth. See, there is a great gulf fixed
between the heavens and the earth, and there's no way you can pass
from one to the other apart from the mercy of God. Men can't go
up to where God is But God in His mercy hath come down to where
men are, because He created the earth for His pleasure, for His
purpose, for His glory. He hath looked down, the Lord
did behold the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner. David said, Lord, what is man
that thou art mindful of him? Now, the natural man in his pride
says, well, man has got intrinsic worth. We're creatures that the
Lord should take notice of us. Look at us. Why should he? I mean, as we
understand the state of man before Almighty God, we ought to wonder
why He hadn't already just blotted us out and just be done with
us. I mean, when you look at what He did in the days of Noah
when He destroyed all the living creatures in the earth except
those that He put in the ark, I mean, who could have said that
was a bad thing? The Lord was pleased to do what
He did because of His mercy. See, He saved the earth. He didn't
destroy the earth, He saved the earth. Because men would indeed
destroy the earth and themselves if it was not for the mercy of
God to restrain the wickedness of men. And the way in which
He restrained the wickedness of men in the days of Noah was
to wipe them out. But it's still an act of His
mercy. which he showed to Noah when Noah came out of the ark
and he saw the sign of the bow in the heavens. And God gave
to him such a covenant of mercy that he would not destroy the
earth in that fashion again. And he hears the groaning of
the prisoner to loose those that are appointed to death. Who's
appointed to death? You know who has an appointment
with death? Everybody sitting in this room. For it is appointed
unto men once to die. Now some of these people think
they're going to shoot their ashes off out into outer space
and somehow or other they're going to, because they're just
going to live out there in space with their ashes out there or
they're going to have their head cut off and freeze it. And then
one day they're going to come back. But it's appointed unto
men once to die. Now death is the end. It's not a thing man can do anything
about, nor is it anything that man can do beyond it. For if the Lord doesn't give
a man life, that man will be eternally dead. Christ alone is giver of life.
and he does give to men life, to hear the groaning of the prisoner,
to loose those that are appointed in Zion, or those that are appointed
to death, to declare the name of the Lord in Zion and his praise
in Jerusalem. Now what a glorious remedy the
Lord has seen fit to give to men appointed to death. Not that
they might die, but that they might live. And as he determined
that they might live by looking unto Christ, the one who is the
life, the way, the truth, and the life. And he goes forth and
he sends forth a word into the earth. Come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And by His grace, some men hear
that and rejoice. And they're glad. And they fall
at His feet. And they say, Lord, I'm destitute.
I'm in need of Thy mercy. There's not a thing in the world
that I can do of myself to bring myself unto Thee. For I am appointed
unto death, but Lord, You have life. What a glorious thing. When the
Lord stood before that tomb in Judea, and all of Lazarus' friends were
mourning, weeping, and his sister said, Lord, if
you'd only been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died. And he said, Lazarus isn't dead,
he's sleeping. And they said, Lord, he's been
in the tomb for four days. And then he said to his disciples,
Lazarus is dead. Because he didn't want them to
understand that Lazarus was not physically dead, but he wanted
them to understand that he wasn't really dead. Why? Because the
giver of life is the one who causes men to live, and without
that, they don't live. And when he said, Lazarus, come
forth, did Lazarus come alive, or was he alive and heard the
voice of the Lord? See, you can't really define
that, can you? Because dead men can't hear,
can they? So he was made alive and he heard and hearing he rejoiced. Why? Because the dead can't stay
in the living. Now, you know, I just don't,
I don't know what it would be like to be buried alive, but
I can imagine a man, if he was woke up and he was in a coffin
in the ground and he woke up, he would want to get out. Don't
you imagine that he would? I mean, it was a glad day for
Lazarus. when the Lord said, Lazarus,
come forth. And the scripture says that he
came forth still bound in the grave clothes. I don't imagine
he was running, was he? I don't know how it was that
he came out, but he did. He came out of that grave, and
the mercy of God, he said, loose him and let him go. Why? Because he said, The living don't
have any place among the dead. Dear brethren, the Lord's the
giver of life, and he grants it to all who hear. And all who hear have been given
life. I don't know how that happens, but I know it's all in the hand
of the Lord. As the Lord said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. May the
Lord give us that light today. May we rejoice in the life that
we have in Christ.