He had come to me to tell me
that he appreciated some things that I had to say and that they
were helpful to him. But I told him that he had encouraged
me far more than I could possibly have ever encouraged him. Now,
the world does not look at such a testimony as that young man
gave as being anything. They would say, well, what's
wrong with him? I mean, here it is. Just believe it. I mean, there
it is. But you see, he was telling me something of the truth. The
Spirit of God was teaching him some things about himself that
religion can't teach a man. And it's impossible for another
man to communicate the things of God to a man, but it is most
encouraging when we see men who are stirred by the Spirit of
God who are not seeking for another man to tell them something. They
want something from the Lord. You know, it's a common thing. I mean, churches are full today
of people that's looking for somebody to tell them something
they want to hear. And I hope that we desire to hear something. But brethren, I hope we desire
to hear something from the Lord and not from some smiley-faced
preacher that pats you on the back and tells you everything's
all right. Because that's not what the Word of God is about.
Now, Brother Al had brought the unfolding revelation of God as
the Lord has revealed it in His Word, in His names. And of course,
ultimately to bring us to the ultimate revelation, as he told
Joseph by the angel, he said, Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And the name
Jesus is the Hebrew word Joshua, Yeshua, and it means Jehovah
is salvation. And that is the revelation of
the gospel. The Lord said that thou shalt
call his name Emmanuel, God with us. Now, you know, it is a glorious
thing to contemplate the glories of God in the heavens, but what
a more soul-satisfying thing it is to contemplate God with
us, the One who walked among us and suffered in our behalf
and did those things that were necessary to bring us to a place
of deliverance and such is what we have before us here today
to remember that. Psalm 48 says, Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in the mountain
of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the
joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
the city of the great king. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. For lo, the kings were assembled,
they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled and hasted
away. Fear took hold upon them there
in pain as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish
with an east wind. As we have heard, so have we
seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our
God. God will establish it forever,
say law. We have thought of thy lovingkindness,
O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy name, O God,
so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right hand
is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the
daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Walk about
Zion and go round about her. Tell the towers thereof. Mark
ye well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that ye
may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our
God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. Now, the psalmist speaks about
this one who is greatly to be praised. And he
says where it is that he is greatly to be praised, in the city of
our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Now, the Lord has manifested
the city in which he is pleased to dwell. There is a city in
which he is pleased to dwell. Now, there are some who believe
that has a latitude and a longitude on planet earth. They believe
that the city where the Lord has purpose to dwell is over
across the ocean so that you could get in a ship ride in it
and go over there. And if you could sit there and
wait long enough, you'd be there when he begins to reign. Now
I'm telling you, that's not the city of God. The city of God,
you can go all over this earth, you can search it from pole to
pole, and you can go around the earth's circumference over and
over again, and you cannot discover the city of God as a city of
flesh and blood. That is not what he is talking
about here at all. The city of God cannot be found
by the flesh. It cannot be discovered. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, the mountain of His
holiness. Now, where is the mountain of the holiness of God? The mountain
of God's holiness is in His kingdom, which He has come into the world
to establish. And He said to His disciples
some very simple words that manifest what the kingdom of God is. And
he said, wherever two or more of you are
gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of thee. Now what a glorious thing it
is to be found in that kingdom because it is where the Lord
is pleased to dwell. And yet, it is not a thing that men organize
and bring together because just because we say we are going to
meet does not mean we are meeting in His name. Most churches meet
in their own name, do they not? I mean, they have pride in what
their name is. Well, we're so-and-so. Why, we
belong to this. Why, we're that. Why, we've been
around for hundreds of years. You can trace back our history
and we go back. If you go far enough and dig
up deep enough and find the right records, you can even go back
all the way to John the Baptist if you want to. Why they want
to go back to John the Baptist, I don't understand that. But
a lot of them want to go back to John the Baptist. I don't
want to go back to John the Baptist. All I want to do is be found
in Christ, with Christ in our midst. Because, dear brethren,
if you can trace your lineage all the way back to John the
Baptist, but you cannot find Christ in the midst of you, meeting
with you, then you are not in that city of God, the church
of God, which He has established in the earth. Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain
of His holiness. The Lord would demonstrate the
manifestation of His kingdom by inhabiting His people, that
is, being in their midst. The Lord is in the midst of His
people as a mighty army. Now, the world doesn't see this.
It says beautiful for situation. That is, the place that he put
it is beautiful. But it is not a place that men
can see. The joy of the whole earth. Now,
is he speaking in carnal terms here? Could he be? I mean, is
the city of which he speaks, is it the joy of the earth in
a carnal sense? No. Most people have no regard unto
the place where the Lord is pleased to dwell with His people. A lot of people figure that,
well, the Lord is everywhere, so we'll just go wherever we
want to be and the Lord will be there. I mean, He's just everywhere. I mean, don't we believe He's
omnipresent? Well, sure we do. But He doesn't speak in the Scripture
here about dwelling omnipresently, although He is omnipresent. Got it? All right. But it says here it is beautiful
for situation. That is, the place where it is
located is beautiful. It is the joy of the whole earth.
Now, how can it possibly be the joy of the whole earth when the
vast majority of the people that are in the earth have no regard
unto it. Because, you see, it is the joy
of the earth as the Lord has created the purpose of what He
created the earth for. Now, if you fail to understand
what it is the Lord created the world for, then you cannot possibly
comprehend how a meager number of people that are scattered
across the four corners of the earth, how they could possibly
be the joy of the whole earth. If you think that the Lord created
the earth and did the best He could and hoped that He would
bring something to pass as a result of what He did, if you think
that it is just a willy-nilly thing, But if you understand
that it is the purpose of God in the creation of the earth
to form it and fashion it for the purpose of manifesting the
glory of His grace, then you can start to see some things
that become more clear. in the understanding. Beautiful
situation, the joy of the whole earth. Now, why do the multitudes
of people exist in the earth? They exist for the glory of God. But God is going to have glory
in the manifestation of His grace as He demonstrates the redemption
of His people. The world says, and the thinking
of man is, well, that means then that he must be going to save
all the people in the earth. Because if it's going to be the
joy of the whole earth, then it's got to be that. But you
see, that's not the purpose for which God created the world.
Now, Brother Al brought out something very true a while ago. He said
that the Lord revealed Himself, has revealed Himself, unto men
in a progressive fashion. But I would venture to say this,
and I believe this can be supported in Scripture, that it is not
just to men that the Lord has revealed Himself in an unfolding
fashion, but it is to His whole creation. Now, there is a creation,
the Scripture says, that are the angels. And there are elect
angels and there are reprobate angels. Scripture says that a
third of the angels were cast out of heaven, bound in chains,
reserved unto the final day, to the judgment. But the Scripture
also indicates that these angels, these heavenly creatures, desire
to look into the things that the Lord has made plain unto
us. So you see that angels don't know everything. Now, they know
more than we do. They've got more power than we
do. We've been made lower than the angels. They are a more pure
race than we are. But they know nothing of the
revelation of God in Jesus Christ. as the Redeemer of sinners except
that the Lord demonstrates it to them just as He demonstrates
it to us and shows them through us that He is the God who redeems. Because you see, the angel's
only knowledge of God is as a judge with no mercy. I mean, did they not see Satan
and a third of the angels of heaven cast out in one stroke? But you see, that was not the
full revelation of God's power. It was not the full revelation
that God would make not only to men, but unto the angels. that desire to look into these
things that have been revealed unto us. And so indeed, this
is beautiful for situations, the joy of the whole earth. That
is the whole creation. That is that which God has made,
not every individual part of it, but it is the joy of the
whole earth. This is it. that God in Jesus
Christ would redeem sinners. You see, that is the joy of the
whole earth. There is no greater thing that
the earth, the creation could ever witness than that. What
a glorious thing! Now some people talk about, oh
buddy, we want to go to heaven because we want to get up there
and we'll just have all the food we can eat and if we like hunting
rabbits, we can hunt rabbits night and day and we can go fishing
and we can drive the best cars and ride on streets of gold and
all that stuff. But I'm telling you, the joy
of the whole earth is made manifest in the unfolding of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, which thing the Lord has privileged us as
the sons of God to be the partakers of, to be those who are the privileged
ones, to be the very center point of that which God would use to
demonstrate the glory of His grace to His whole creation. Oh, what a glorious thing, dear
brethren! What an unfolding of mercy! And then to sit before
us as the sons of God, wherein He said, as often as
you do this, you do what? Show the Lord's death. You show
it. You manifest it. You make it
plain. And the angels desire to look
into these things. They see us, dear brethren, partaking
of food that the angels cannot eat. They desire to look into these
things but cannot. But we have been privileged,
dear brethren. This is the joy of the whole earth. It is that
which God has seen fit to cause His glory and His beauty to be
known beautiful for each situation. the place that it's put. You
know, when you're going to build a house, you don't just decide
to build a house and then just go out there and start throwing
up some stuff anywhere you do it. No, you think about where
you want to put the house and what it's going to look like
and where it's going to be. The Lord has beautifully situated
the building of this house which He has built in exactly the spot
that He has chosen. a spot that is well suited for
what He set out to build. And there is not one part of
anything that has ever been made in this earth that is not made
specifically for the purpose of the glory of that which He
has ordained to do. You see, there is not a person
living on the earth who shall not bring glory to God. Now they
will not all bring glory to God in being the partakers of the
redemption, but every one shall bow down and worship Him as the
King of kings and the Lord of lords in heaven, earth, and hell,
because this is the joy of the whole earth. This is that which
is beautiful for situation. It is that which is ordained
of God. His Mount Zion on the sides of
the north is the city of the great King. God is known in her
palaces for refuge. Now where did He say He was known
for refuge? He said in her palaces, in the
places where He is pleased to dwell with His people, that beautiful
place. They know that He is the refuge. Now the world does not know that
He is the refuge. Oh, they have heard the gospel
preached. Look, the gospel has been preached across this whole
world. You would be hard-pressed to find any place in the world
where the gospel of Jesus Christ dead, buried, and risen again
for sinners has not been proclaimed. You would be hard-pressed to
find it. But you would be very hard-pressed to find very many
places comparatively where men are rejoicing. that Jesus Christ
is that place of refuge. But you see, he said God is known
in her palaces for refuge. You see, that's the place that
God's people want to be found, is in the presence of the Lord
as He's in the presence of His people, calling them out from
the Corners of the earth. It says, listen to what it says
here. For lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
Oh, the world can't figure it out. Now the kings of the earth
are set in array against this kingdom, because this kingdom
they know to be a threat to their own, even though they can't quite
figure it out. I mean, here's Pontius Pilate
as a good example. I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ
is brought into his midst. And he said, Don't you know that
I have power? I'm powerful! Oh, the governments of this world,
the kings of this world, they believe they have power. But
every decision they make, every step they take, every head they
cut off, everything they do, Brom's back to bring glory to
God in the manifestation of the glory of His kingdom in the earth.
And they can't see it and they pass by and they say, you know,
one day we can overcome this thing. They pass by. They were assembled together.
They saw it and they marveled. They were troubled and they hasted
away. Fear took hold upon them. Now,
fear does not take hold upon them immediately. You see, fear
did not take hold upon Nebuchadnezzar immediately, did it? I mean,
he did pretty good for a number of years, but when it pleased
God to show Nebuchadnezzar what this kingdom was, then he feared
and he said, Now when my reason returns to me, I know the Most
High God rules in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants
of the earth there is none that can stay His hand or say unto
Him, What doest thou? But more importantly, you see
all the kingdoms, we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against powers, against principalities. against the powers of darkness
in this world. But we don't wrestle against
them with carnal weapons. But we have one who fights our
battle for us. And we don't think we can take
up a sword and go forth and conquer. Now many is the band that has
said, we're going to conquer in the name of God. I mean, the
sands of time are littered. Is it not? with great mighty
men that have fought in the name of God with carnal swords. Now,
there is no question about that God has ordained every sword
stroke that ever went forth, every one of them. But I am telling
you that in and of themselves they are nothing more than the
rattling of sabers to no end. because they are not the means
or the method by which God is pleased to establish His kingdom
in the earth. Now everybody is all up in arms
about these Muslims cutting everybody's heads off. Listen folks, this
is not the first people who have ever had their heads cut off.
Now I am not making light of this, do not get me wrong, but
I am telling you this. that the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. And while just like you'd shoot
a mad dog to keep him from biting somebody, the governments of
this earth have called forth to kill the mad dogs that would
harm people. But that's not the hope of the
children of God. Our comfort is not that our government
is going to rise up and slay a bunch of folks, is it? I hope
it isn't. Because, dear brethren, if that's
our hope, that's an empty hope, because it will fade away. They
might cut our heads off. I mean, if they marched in here
today and said, we're going to cut your heads off, you've got
three choices. You can leave, you can join up
with the Muslims, or we're going to cut your heads off. Now I
heard some guys talking the other day on this. They were all up
in arms about these people not being able to leave. Why do you
think that many of the Christians fled from the places they were
in? They didn't like the choices. Nobody said you had to get your
head cut off if somebody gives you a choice to leave, have your
head cut off, or join up with the Muslims. I mean, you can
either get your head cut off or you can leave. Now, if you
are so attached to this world, or your pride, or whatever it
is, oh, this is my land, I'll have kept my head cut off, that's
fine. But I am telling you this, that
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. And there is nothing
wrong, dear brethren, with not taking up an arm to war against
somebody to deliver your own self. Now, there's nothing wrong
with that. I'm not telling you what to do
or not to do, but what I'm pointing out is this. The early Christians,
they fled from persecution. They didn't go to try to find
it, and neither should we. Now, if you know there's a bunch
of Muslims over here cutting folks' heads off, you'd be a
fool to go over there and volunteer to be one of the ones. The only
point I am trying to make here is this, and that is that this
world is not our home. And so that it is not, we are
not bound by some code of honor that men call bravery to be brave in the face of such
things as that. Now, if it comes down to the
place where we do not have any choice but to join up or get
our heads cut off, Then what choice does a Christian have?
He certainly can't join up. He certainly can't deny Christ,
can he? And so he must, by the grace given to him in God, to
stand for those things that he believes in. Now, I kind of got off my subject
here because all that popped into my mind for whatever reason,
but the Lord is going to have glory in the earth in the manifestation
of the glory of Christ. And he is not going to do it
because men are brave. Now bravery is a good thing in
its place if you are brave for the right thing. Everybody that
is called a hero is not a hero in the kingdom of God. As Brother
Al pointed out, there aren't any real heroes in the kingdom
of God because every one of us is a pathetic example. And so
if we're going to think we're going to stand up and be a hero
for God, then we're barking up the wrong tree. We're not called
to be heroes, but the thing that we are called to do is to stand
in those things that God has called us to stand in. And we
can theorize about what all we ought to do if this happens and
what that happens, but the place of the battle that we're called
to wage the fight in is not against the Muslims cutting their heads
off right now. But I'm going to tell you that
the battle just is great because you see the Lord has shown us
what we are by nature. And he's shown us who our enemy
is. And we look at him every day in the Scripture. And if
you want to cut somebody's head off, cut his off. That's what
Paul said. He said, I keep unto my body,
and I bring it into subjection, lest after I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway. Oh, dear brethren, May the Lord
give us a mind to be those who fight for the things that need
to be fought for. There are things that need to
be fought for. There is a battle to which the Lord has called
us to fight, but it is not the battle that this world knows
anything about, but it is a far more important battle A battle
of which the kings of this earth, they tremble when they think
of that battle because, you see, there is nothing they can do
about it. There is no tax they can put
on it. Now, for years people said, Oh,
they have taken prayer out of schools. Look, the government
can no more take prayer out of schools than they can Cause a
man not to be a believer. You can't do it. The governments
of this world have no power against the Kingdom of God. And they know that in a measure,
as God pleased to give it to them. And they fear. And what
do they do when they fear? They try to kill off the people
of God. They can't. Or they might kill
them in body, but they can't kill, you see, the Kingdom of
God. You know, there have been thousands
of people that have given their life for the things of God. Oft times for very minor points
of doctrine as some would call it. I mean, there have been men
that have lost their life because they would not quit preaching
that men ought to be baptized in water in obedience to Christ. There have been people put to
death for that. Now that doesn't seem like a
very important thing, does it? It's not important except and
until somebody comes and says, you can't do that. You can't
preach that. And a man says, well, I'll preach
the Word of God. And if you've got to kill me
for it, you'll have to kill me for it. But you can't stop me
from doing it. Because you see, that's the battle
to which God's people have been called to fight. It's a battle
that the world can't win. Because you see, every time they
kill one of those who belong to Christ, the Lord raises up
another one. And that's what He said, that
I will do what? I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Oh, this world is not a friend
to the people of God. But never lose sight of the fact
that though the world is not a friend to the people of God,
the One who has formed the earth for His own purpose is the Keeper
of everyone that He has ordained unto eternal life, and He will
do so. He goes on to say here, and I'll
close with this. It says, According to thy name,
O God, so as thy praise unto the ends of the earth, thy right
hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the
daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Now, that seems
like a strange thing. Judgment doesn't sound like a
wonderful thing, does it? It does if you know the judge. You know, if you are going to
be brought into a courtroom and you know that the judge loves
you, that is a good place to be, isn't it? If you are going
to be brought into a courtroom and you know that the judge has
sent His only Son into the world to pay for your sins, to cancel
the debt. What a better place can a man
be? So you see, the people of God love the judgments of God.
We love the law of God. Thank God for the law of God
because, you see, it is based upon the law that the justice
of God demanded a payment for sin. But it is the mercy of God
that provided the payment of sin. But it is the justice of
God that demands that the payment that was made be honored. Oh, glory to God! I mean, what
a place for a man to be standing in to be standing fully justified
and brought into a courtroom where the one who presides over
the court has loved you with an everlasting love. And has
sent his only son to settle every debt that you ever had. And he
laughs in the face of all those accusers. that line up and they
say, Oh, but this and Oh, but that! And he just sweeps them
away with the movement of his hand and he says, These belong
to me. And he said, These men and these
women and these boys and these girls, they all stand perfect
before me. I have seen these accusations
and they have no basis. These people never sinned. These
people are perfect. These people stand before me.
Are you trying to impugn the righteousness of my Son? He said,
This is my judgment. He said, My Son is perfect and
He will destroy all of those Who dare stand against that?
I'll tell you what the kings of this world fear. Before it,
walk about Zion and go round about her. Tell the towers thereof. Look at them. He said, walk around
the city. Look at the towers. Now you can
go to one of these prisons and you walk around that thing. And
boy, they've got the guard towers and the fence up there with the
razor wire and all of that. And if I was wanting to be protected
from what was on the outside, I'd want to be in there. If they
had some guards up in those towers armed with weapons that would
protect anybody that came into their sight, wouldn't you want
to be in there? I would be. But there is a prison
of love in which the Lord has put His people. It's a well-defensed
city. It is a city into which none
can come who are not given the privilege to come. It is a privilege
into which none who are inside can ever be harmed. Mark you
well! Her bulwarks! Consider her palaces! Look at the walls of this city! They are painted with the blood
of Christ. as you walk around, what can
triumph over that? Mark ye well her bulwarks. Consider
her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following."
Oh, you see, the glorious thing is that God raises up men in
every generation to declare the glories of God unto the people
of God. of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the manifestation of His kingdom in the earth as He is pleased
to dwell with His people. For this God is our God forever
and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. Oh, brethren, this is a city in which it is sweet to
die because you see there is no death in that city. for me
to live as Christ and to die as a game, Paul says. Whether
therefore we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. Mark
you well her book of words. Oh, ye that tremble in fear.
And you go around, you see, you can go around from the inside.
See, you don't have to be on the outside looking in. You're
on the inside looking out if you be in Christ. And you mark
away all those bulwarks, and you see those towers that are
set up, and you see those blood-red walls, and you know that there
is no power in heaven, earth, or hell that can assail you. Yes, God is our God. He is a
very present help in a time of trouble, even unto the very end.
There is no place where the kings of this earth can do battle against
the kingdom of Oh, what a glorious thing. I don't want them to burn the
Bibles, but I'm going to tell you what, if something happens
one day and they burn the Bibles, it won't matter. They can't burn
the Word of God. They can burn the Bibles. They
can cut the preacher's tongues out. They can do anything they
want to, that the Lord allows them to do. But you see, the
bulwarks of God's city, they're impregnable. He is our God. Behold His judgments. They are
righteous.