Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 147. We read for our text, verses 2 and 3. Psalm 147, verses 2 and 3. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. Psalm 147, verses 2 and 3. He healeth the broken in heart.

This psalm is full of the things that the Lord does. It's good for us to be like the psalmists, to recognise the Lord's doing. The Lord's saying through time, they've had those times especially where they've seen the Lord's going, been able to say, this is the Lord's doing, it is marvellous in our eyes, or it may be the thing proceedeth from the Lord.

And he's noticed that it is the work of God. The world on one hand, it says that things are just by chance. They just happen. And they don't see, they don't recognize the hand or work of God. But when the Lord begins to work with his people, it is sometimes spoken as the day a man looks to his maker and he begins to realize that God is sovereignly in control. and that it is not in the hand of chance or Satan or any other supposed power. And so when you come to a psalm like this, if we go and look at the verses following our text, we find again and again the word he, what he does.

He telleth, in verse four, the number of the stars. He calleth them all by their names. And when we think of that, literally, you think of how many stars that they're supposed to be, we cannot number them at all. When God would make promise to Abraham and he pointed him to the stars, so shall thy seed be.

But to think that the Lord knows every one of them and knows their names, we are pointed to that which is so great. There may be another application of that, of course, if you go to Revelation chapter one, And we have then a picture of the candlestick, and we have the picture of the stars that are in the hand of the Lord that is in the midst of the candlesticks. And we're told the interpretation, the candlesticks are the seven churches of Asia, and the stars are the angels or pastors of those churches. So in a spiritual way, it could be this, the Lord knoweth the number of his servants, of his ministers and pastors, and he calleth them all by their names. It could point to that. But I believe in the first place, we have set before us that which is so great, far above all what we can ever think. And so following we have, great is our Lord, and of great power his understanding is infinite. Then we have the other things that he does, and perhaps even just confining to the verses that begin with the he. He giveth to the beast his food, verse 9. He delighteth not in the strength of the horse, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. And all the time is setting forth what he does.

In verse 12 and 13, praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise thy God, O Zion, for he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, he hath blessed thy children within thee. He maketh peace in thy borders. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth. Then we have, that he giveth snow like wool, he casteth forth his eyes like mortals, he sendeth out his word, he showeth his word unto Jacob, he hath not doubt so with any nation, the nation of Israel, but also his spiritual people.

And the thing that I want to really emphasize, the psalmist here is recognizing the work of God. For his encouragement, for our encouragement, the inspired Word of God all the time is pointing to what he hath done. He will have a regard to the works of his own hands. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And the whole comfort is that it is the Lord's doing. He has begun it, he will finish it.

And may we be able to recognize these things in our lives as well. That the Lord knows us, he knows about our lives, he knows what we are doing, and he brings things to pass. He performeth the thing that is appointed for me, says Job, in all his afflictions, and many such things are with him. Even in his great trial, he was able to see the Lord's hand, you acknowledge it and point to the Lord's doing. May we be the same. Eyes open, heart understanding to recognise the Lord's work.

And when that's put forth towards us in our lives, in our path, There's a real personal blessing and encouragement that the Lord is dealing with us personally. He knoweth the way that I take, and when he hath tried me, he shall bring me forth as gold. A sinner that is persuaded that the Lord does know the way that he takes, does know that this is a trial, a trial of faith, a trial in our lives and that assurance that he shall bring us forth as gold from it.

Then we have the two verses of our text. And in our text, there is three things that are joined together. And these three things shall be our points for this evening. The first one is that the Lord will build his church, for that is what is referred to when we read, the Lord doth build up Jerusalem. You have it joined together later in what we read in verse 12, praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise thy God, O Zion. It's bringing the two together and it's setting forth the church.

Secondly, the Lord gathering the outcasts. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, he gathers together the outcasts of Israel. And then thirdly, what is joined with that is the Lord healing and binding up wounds. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. So on to then the Lord's help at these three points. Firstly, the Lord building up his church.

Now we know there may be a prophetic element to this specific to the Jews. Some 500 years after this time, it would be that the children of Israel would come back out of Babylon. They would be gathered back to Jerusalem, especially under Nehemiah. then they would build the walls of Jerusalem. Very often when we have prophecy, there is a literal interpretation, but then there is the spiritual, which is looking further.

It's looking to Christ, it's looking to not the types and shadows, which the temple and Jerusalem and its walls and Zion were types of, the church. So we are to look to these days, these days of the New Testament church, and what is set forth here, the Lord is building his church. Now one sense, the church cannot be added unto, a church is not a building, we meet in a chapel here, made out of timber or whatever materials. But that is not the church, that is a building where we meet.

The church is those that are the members, the baptised members, those that are put on a profession of faith, those that have been called by the Lord, and those that give evidence that they were chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world. The Word of God speaks of the Lamb's Book of Life written from the foundation of the world. So in one sense, the church of God, a number of people that were chosen in Christ, that were redeemed by his precious blood at Calvary, and that shall be with him at last in heaven when this world shall be no more, cannot be added to or cannot be diminished. That is a number out of every nation, kindred, and tongue from every generation, from Adam's day to the last, that constitute the Church of God, the bride of Christ, his people, of whom he is the head and they are the members.

But where it does refer to is on earth, where the Lord is building a visible church on earth. Each local church is a representative of the one church. And that one church, well, we can't point to it anywhere because his people are in every nation. and in many different places, but each church, each local church, under its own pastor, under its own government, is under Christ, and it's answerable to Christ and to none other. It is His church. But when he builds it, we think especially in the time when our Lord rose from the dead and ascended up into heaven, and he then gave the command to his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. They were to make disciples. And they went forth, and we think when the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, and they were added unto the church, 3,000 souls. Then we read that they added unto the church daily such as should be saved. And they were those that were believers. They were being added by being called to the visible Church of God, made known as God's people, and it is in that sense that the Lord doth build up Jerusalem.

He uses means, he uses men, he uses ministers, but it is the Lord's doing. It is what he said, that's, I shall build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Upon this rock, the rock, Christ Jesus. We think of how David in his penitential psalm, Psalm 951, speaks of building up Zion. He says in verse 18, do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem. And if we join with it the previous verse, and we think of what is our third point with the broken in heart, He says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. And there, as in our text, join together is the broken in heart are those that God will not despise and building up his church with such as them.

And so it's good for us to remember that the church actually belongs to the Lord. When we think of many things associated with the church, we come on the Lord's day. It is the Lord's day. We come to the Lord's table. It is his table. It's not man's table. We gather in the Lord's house. It's the Lord's house. It's not man's house. It's not the pastor's. It's not even those that dwell therein.

It belongs to the Lord and they belong to the Lord. You are not your own. You are bought with a price. Wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit that are his. And we need to remember this. Now the Church of God, the people of God, they are the Lord's. He has purchased them and He is the one that is building up His Church. There's no uncertainty in that. You know, it's very right that we should be diligent in evangelising and in spreading forth the Word of God.

But sometimes you hear and perhaps with a good intention, say that men and women, they're going to be lost. We must go out. We must bring the word. If we don't, they're going to be lost. No, they won't. None of God's people will be lost at all. God doesn't need to use us. He isn't dependent upon us, but he chooses to use us. He chooses to use his people.

He sends them forth, he commissions them, but the only authority they have is the Word of God and the Lord's commissioning. They have no authority on themselves. Their authority is solely in the Word. That's why we are to preach the Word, and it is the Lord's Word. We're like as a messenger.

I sometimes think of it with the children of Israel, when Moses was commissioned to bring them through the wilderness, and he made out he couldn't speak well, and so God gave him Aaron. Aaron will be thy mouthpiece. You'll be to Aaron a God. God was going to speak to Moses, Moses would speak to Aaron, and Aaron would speak to the people, especially it was in relation first to Pharaoh. But when you see it in practice, you realize that Aaron was a sinful man and capable of falling. We think of the golden calf at Sinai.

But we never hear him. He just disappears. And I often think of this. It should be the minister disappears. The people just hear Christ. They just see him. and that it's not the messenger that gets the attention, it's the message, and who gives that message. Paul, when he went to the Thessalonians, he said they received the word of God as the word of God, as it is in truth, and not the word of men. And that is a better thing when we realize that.

So it is the Lord, that is building his church. He's spoken of as the foundation stone. He's spoken of as the top stone. And his people are spoken of as lively stones or living stones built up in him, a living temple. Beautiful picture with Solomon's temple. When those stones were added, there was no noise. All was done in the quarry. God's people are all fashioned here below. And then when they are taken home to glory, there is a place prepared for them.

I go to prepare a place. for you, each stone having a design and a number. I always remember seeing Mr. Allen from Clapham in his home, and he showed me a picture of a stone front wall building, and I think it was a chapel, and each stone had a number on it. It was all designed, every different shape. Every different stone, all had a number.

And it was a lesson to me. I'm used to, of course, working with metal as an engineer. And of course, I knew every bit of metal was designed, and its shape, and its purpose, and where it went. But to think that even stonework, even a building, was the same.

Well, the Lord with his people, he fashions, he shapes, he makes them to be so they say like the Apostle Paul, I am what I am by the grace of God. He fashions his people, he's like the heavenly potter and he shapes those pots and he makes them so that they fit into his building and into the place where he'd have them to be. all of them redeemed. The Lord building his church.

May we remember that that is going on. It has been going on from the beginning of the world until the end. No man puts a stop to it. No man hinders it. The Lord doesn't cause a pause in it. He adds unto the church daily such as should be saved. He adds. Not men, the Lord adds. And so we're to remember that here. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. Of course, Jerusalem was the birthplace of the church. Tarry ye here in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.

And then they had to stay there preaching until it came that persecution drove them to different places. Now with Babel, the Lord scattered the people by confounding their language so they couldn't just stay all huddled together. But when it comes to the spread of the gospel, the Lord gives those that have the ability to speak in different languages and to interpret in different languages so the word can go out through the world. But how does he spread the word then? They are persecuted in one city, so they go to the next. The Lord has means whereby his servants are moved from one place to another, and the word spreads in that way.

And sometimes it might be said as well, means why they don't all huddle together. in one place. Remember, years ago, a new believer over in Melbourne, being very attracted to the church in New Zealand, got on very well with the friends there. But they were paedo-baptists. However much I loved them, I knew I couldn't fit in with them in church fellowship. So the Lord put a barrier. He stopped me going that way. And the Lord uses things like that to hedge us about and to put us where he'd have us to be in his church. I want to look then secondly at the Lord gathering the outcasts. He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

Just thinking of the literal would have been when they came back from Babylon, there were those who'd been left in the land, they'd scattered, they'd gone to different lands. You think of in Queen Esther's time a few years later, all the 127 provinces, all of the Lord's people scattered in that way. And so in a literal way, when they came back to Jerusalem, there was to be a gathering. But again, we will look more to what the Lord will do and is doing in these gospel days.

By nature, we may be said to be outcasts. We were cast out with our first parents from the Garden of Eden, cast out from the presence of God, banished, driven out, and the Lord in his work in salvation is bringing in those outcasts. He's gathering the people together.

But then it also applies to those that are outcasts because of what God does for them in a call by grace. The Apostle Paul says that I am crucified unto the world, and the world is crucified unto me." In other words, the world did not want him, and he did not want the world. When the Lord works in a sinner's heart, then those that may have been their worldly friends, they don't want them anymore.

Their names are cast out as an outcast. The Lord says, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. That is all that makes the difference. And that helps them, coming out from among them and be separate. The children of Israel thrust out at last from Egypt. They were outcasts. Egypt did not want them. The Lord's dealings with them and with Egypt made them glad when they departed from them.

But it is the Lord then that gathers his people. And it's not just those of the people of the Jews, but people also of the Gentiles. The Lord has said in John 10, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. There shall be one fold and one shepherd. That's the Gentiles.

When the gospel goes forth from Jerusalem as the rivers The streams flow from the temple. It goes half to the former sea, half to the hinder, to the Jew, to the Gentile. And it is in that way the people of God are gathered where they actually are. It was like Psalm 107, how it begins.

And we have in verse 3, and gathered them out of the lands. from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, the Lord gathering his people. This is in a day of grace. At the end of the world, we're told that he sends forth his angels to gather his elect from the four corners of the earth, and he gathers and brings them all. But there's a beautiful picture of the Lord gathering his people.

He knows them, he knows where they are, They're cast out from the world, they feel themselves outcast even from the people of God, but he is the one that goes to them and he gathers them and he brings them. In the prophecy of Isaiah, We have in Isaiah 56, the Lord, in verse 8, the Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, yet will I gather others to him beside those that are gathered unto him. It's a wonderful encouragement, isn't it? Maybe you, this evening, you say, well, yes, I know.

I know some of those the Lord has gathered. The Lord has gathered into the church, and we sit down at the Lord's table. For those who have been gathered home, to glory thou with the Lord. But I'm not yet gathered. And the Word said He will gather yet others. May we hold on to that. May I be one of those others.

The Lord continuing to do this, to come where His people are. to find them out. He knows them and he gathers them. The outcasts of Israel, the spiritual Israel, God's people, his people, he searches them out and finds them. Some beautiful illustrations in the time our Lord was on earth, isn't there? He must needs go through Samaria. Why? The woman at the well of Samaria, one of his outcasts. He comes under a sycamore tree and he stops and he looks up and he calls Zacchaeus down, another outcast, a publican, a sinner. He said, come down for I must dine at thine house.

Divine appointment. The Lord knew where he was. The Lord had drawn him. Maybe he thought it was just curiosity. It was one of the appointments of God that he should pass that way and call him down. Those outcasts, those that the Lord finds, goes over the sea to find the mad Gadarenes and to quicken them and to heal them and to call them, those things that he still does by grace, sending forth his word, gathering his people, gathering them to his church, to his visible church, Gathering them to himself, drawing them to himself, no man cometh unto me except the Father which sent me.

Draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. They are gathered. Beautiful promise in Genesis 49, the blessings of Jacob on his dying bed. Unto him shall the gathering of the people be until Shiloh comes. Shiloh which is Christ, the Messiah. And it was even in a literal sense, the crowds that went round him, that were gathered around him, the people of God, drawn to him, gathered unto him.

What a token of being part and made part of this church. You might say, who do we gather round? Where is the central one? The Lord Jesus Christ. That would be the one common thing Those poor sinners will say, I was gathered, the Lord found me, and the Lord drew me to Himself. And I'm gathered to Him with those also that are gathered to Him, that desire Him, that want to be with Him, desire to be where He is.

This is, again, the Lord's work. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. He, not someone else, He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. On to then our third point, the Lord healing and binding up wounds. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

Yet another picture, remember these three things, they're joined together. We have the Church of God, we have the Lord gathering outcasts, and then we have the Lord healing the broken in heart and binding up their wounds. Tells us something about the outcasts, doesn't it? It tells us something about the church, about God's people, those that are wounded, those that are broken in heart. This is what the Lord is doing.

What wounds them then? Faithful are the wounds of a friend. How often, like with Joseph, a friend, really a brother to his brothers, but he wounded them in his dealings with them. And how often it is with the Lord. At first he appears as one that is against them, one that is wounding them. And in this way he uses the law of God.

The law of God is that which wounds. The schoolmaster unto Christ is that which brings in a soul that's guilty. One that is made to feel their sin, made to feel their need, brought them down, brought them to be in need of a heavenly physician. One that understands their very case.

Nebuchadnezzar, he knew a truth. When he had a dream that he couldn't remember, but he knew he'd had a dream. And his magicians, they couldn't tell him of the dream, nor could they tell the interpretation. He said to them, you tell me the dream, and I will know that you can tell me the interpretation thereof.

It is the same God that wounds, that heals. It is the same hand that brings a sinner to have a need and then satisfies that need. It is the same God that brings poor soul as a broken-hearted sinner, and then heals that broken heart. These are the things that are preparation to the gospel, preparation for the good news, preparation so that a soul has need of the Lord.

You think of the woman with the issue of blood, 12 years. She'd had taken that long to prove that none but Jesus could do her good. And the Lord uses even time. We sung in our hymn about the experience of a soul that is wounded, that is praying, that is seeking for help, but help does not seem to come.

But the amazing thing is they're still looking in the right place. They're still looking for the Lord. As if the Lord would say and try them like this, If I answered you quickly, then who knows that you might have been looking somewhere else. But if I don't answer straight away, then the language is, to whom else can we go?

Thou hast the words of eternal life. There were those in John 6. They said that the Lord's words, who can hear them? This isn't hard saying. They went back. They walk no more with him. The disciples, Peter speaking for them, they'd learn this, there wasn't another one. They had no other help. And that's a great thing for a poor sinner to be put to, that it is Jesus only. My help must come from Thee. And we wait, and we look, and we pray.

And the Lord knows how long. We think of the man 38 years at the pool, and he said the Lord knew he had been a long time in that case. There is appointed time to favour Zion, a set time. And the people of God, as gathered by the Lord, the Lord deals with them sovereignly.

Bring them to see their sin, groan under it, feel it, feel the weight of the law. Feel the wounds that that makes, a wounded conscience who can bear. Then he comes in with the oil and wine of the gospel. He healeth the broken in heart, bindeth up their wounds. If you gather tonight and you feel wounded under the law, you've got a wounded conscience, a sore conscience, you feel your sin, you feel that outcast, You feel that man cannot help you like the woman with the issue of blood, and that there is only one home, one name that you look to.

It is through the gospel that the Lord will heal such wounds. It is through the word that we read we think of this way the Lord started and it was a quote from Isaiah 61 in Luke 4 we read in verse 18 and it struck me as we read in how many years the Lord must have in the place where he was brought up we're told it was his custom and he goes in And they deliver to him the book, the Old Testament scriptures. And he reads it. He must have done that years. He must have often done that. But this time is a different time. This time he has begun his ministry. And this time he comes and he reads, the spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering her sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. What a beginning. and what a description of the gospel. And then as their eyes were fastened on him, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Then the greatest words that proceeded out of his mouth, solemn thing really, they immediately had a stumbling block, is not this Joseph's son? They stumbled at it, and yet they still recognised those gracious words. But if you and I are one of those broken-hearted ones, if we are one of those captives, one of those that are blind, one of those that are bruised, then that gospel is a sweet sound, it's a blessed sound, the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. I, if I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me.

The gospel is in Christ alone. The good news is that it is he in the sinner's place. This is why, with the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, the church is never to forget it is Christ that died. It is his blood that was shed. He endured the wrath of God. It was He in the sinner's place. And the people of God are gathered, as it were, around that table, around what that table sets forth. I know when I was drawn to the ordinances of the Lord's house, it was the Lord's table, not baptism, that I was drawn to. Under a blessing of the Lord, that ordinance beautifully set forth what I felt in my own soul. and what Christ was to me.

Unto you which believe he is precious. When a soul first sees the Lord, when it sees what he has done for them, and the Lord makes it known, the Lord won't hide that from those of his church. He won't hide that from his people. They may have sorrow like the disciples did on that first day of the week, But eventually the Lord came and turned their sorrow into joy. He showed them His hands and His feet. He revealed Himself to them. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.

That put everything right, set everything right. We trusted it should have been He that should have redeemed Israel. He had redeemed Israel. And the Lord then showed them what He had done. And it was done for them. This cup is New Testament in my blood, which was shed for you.

And that heals the festering wounds of sin. That makes a wounded soul whole. And that is what we need. That is what broken hearts, broken souls need. the great physician, our Lord Jesus Christ, and him alone. These three things, they're joined together. What a picture. The Lord building his church, the Lord gathering his people, and his people are those that are broken in heart, feeling their sin, wounded under the law, and he comes and he heals them, and he makes them whole. May we be found amongst that number. May we be found in His Church, bound up with Him. Amen.