Well, good evening. If you would
care to open your Bibles with me to the book of Psalms, Psalm
132. Lord, remember David and all
his afflictions, how he swore unto the Lord and vowed unto
the mighty God of Jacob. Surely I will not come into the
tabernacle of my house nor go up into my bed. I'll not give
sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids until I find
out a place for the Lord and habitation for the mighty God
of Jacob. Lo, we heard of it at Ephrata. We found it in the
fields of the wood. We will go into his tabernacles.
We will rejoice at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, into thy rest,
thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priest be clothed with
righteousness. and let thy saints shout for
joy. For thy servant David's sake, turn not away the face
of thine anointed. The Lord has sworn in truth unto
David. He will not turn from it. Of
the fruit of thy body will I sit upon thy throne. If thy children
will keep my covenant and my testimonies, that I shall teach
them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore.
For the Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath desired it for his habitation.
This is my rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision.
I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her
priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for
joy. There will I make the horn of
David to bud. I have ordained a lamb for mine
anointed. His enemies will I clothe with
shame. but upon Himself shall His crown flourish." Thank God
for His Word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, who art in Heaven,
holy and reverent, is Your matchless Name. Father, we bow before You
this evening. We've gathered here together
out of the world that's so dry and dead and barren. and come
together to hear a word from Thee. And Father, I pray You'd
bless it. I pray You would bless our hearts
in an attempt to worship Thee this evening, that we might behold
Thy glory. That You might enable us to see
by faith the Lord Jesus Christ and to worship. Father, how we
thank You for such a Savior. Your wisdom and Your grace and
Your love and Your pity to send a Savior that would honor and
satisfy you, and at the same time, give such full and free
salvation to sinful men and women such as we are. Father, we're
so thankful. Let us hear more of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Let us depend upon Him more and
more and more fully as the days and months and years roll. Let
us see more of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray for the
sick and afflicted of our friends in here and other places who
need you especially. Father, we pray you'd undertake
in their behalf to heal and to comfort. We're thankful for the
good report we've had on many and for those still in difficult,
difficult places. Father, we pray you'd move in
their behalf to heal and comfort their bodies. Father, we pray
for our country and our world at this time, at this pandemic,
that you would move to give us some relief from it, that we
may be able to return back to work and school and daily activities,
and that your people might meet together without worry and these
restrictions, and we might be able to worship you freely. Father,
all these things we ask in that name, which is above every name,
The name of the mighty God of Jacob, our Lord Jesus Christ,
is in his blessed name we pray and give thanks. Amen. O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder Consider
all the worlds Thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear
the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great thou art, how great thou art! And when I think that God his
Son not sparing Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly
bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come With shout
of acclamation And take me home What joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow In humble adoration And there proclaim My God, how
great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! I was driving over here this morning
thinking, I'm going to ask Isaac to sing, How Great Thou Art.
How about that? Can't think of a better song
to prepare our hearts to bow in worship. How great Thou art.
Alright, if you would, let's open our Bibles again now to
Psalm 132. I titled the message this evening,
Looking for a Place to Worship. Now, if anyone is looking for
a place to worship, and I'm assuming since you're here this evening,
you feel like that you've found one, but if you ever move someplace
or whatever, someone listening to the recording here might be
looking for a place to worship. I have some instruction for us
tonight from the Word of God. I want to read to you what Robert
Hawker said about this psalm. He said, I cannot allow myself,
in reading over this psalm, to bestow a single thought upon
David, king of Israel, nor on Solomon, his son, lest, through
looking at the shadow, I lose sight of the substance. And really,
he probably could have put that heading over every psalm. That's
the way we should look at every psalm, to see first Christ speaking
and then secondly see David or Moses, whoever wrote the psalm,
speaking. Now there's no doubt this psalm
does have some reference to Solomon, but if we're going to get a blessing
from this psalm, we're going to have to see that there's one
greater than Solomon here. We have to see the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as David wrote this psalm, he was, in his mind and
heart, he was determined. He was going to build a house
of worship for the Lord. He was going to build the temple.
Look what he says in verse 3. He's serious about this. He says,
Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go
up into my bed. I will not give sleep to mine
eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, until I find out a place for
the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. But David
is so serious about this building a house of worship, he said,
I'm not going to sleep. I'm not going to rest. I'm not
going to go into my house until I've built a house for the Lord.
David said another place, he said, why should I have such
a nice house to dwell in? And there's no house for the
Lord. He said, I dwell in a house of cedar. That was one of the
best houses you could have built. And he said, there's no house
for the Lord. And that bothered David. And he determined in his
heart he was going to build a palace. I mean, he had determined he
was going to build a glorious building for the Lord, a place
of public worship. And it's good that David is serious
about this. You know, we should be serious
about having a place of worship, having a house for the Lord where
we can gather together and worship publicly. You know, this building,
we're thankful for this building. I'm thankful for this building
because it is a place of worship. This is a place where the Gospels
preach. God's people can come here and hear Christ preach.
I'm thankful for it. I wouldn't want to be out in
the elements tonight trying to worship under the stars in this rain
and cold. We're thankful for it. We take
care of this building. A lot of thought and effort goes
into taking care of this place. It's nice and it's comfortable
as possible for people. But here's what David knew. If
he didn't know it when he started, the Lord taught him this. That
a building is nothing. without the presence of the Lord
in it. It's just an empty shell. It's just like a body without
a spirit. It's dead. A building without the presence
of the Lord in it is not a place of worship. In verse 5, David
says he wanted to build an habitation for the Lord, a place where the
Lord would stay, where the Lord would dwell, where he'd be, where
he would always be to meet with his people. And if we don't have
that, a building is of no spiritual use whatsoever. If Christ is
not there, if the Spirit of God is not there, there's no spiritual
use to the building. So that's why David was looking
for the Ark of the Covenant, because he knew that's where
God dwelt. And that's what he's talking about in verse 6. He
said, Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah, and we found it in the fields
of the wood. David had looked everywhere, trying to find the
Ark of the Covenant. He went through all the land
of Ephrathah, and he finally found it at a house out in the
woods. But just the last place you'd
expect the ark of the Lord to be, that's where it was. It was
just a house in the woods. And it was so important for David
to find that ark because the presence of God dwelt between
the wings of those cherubim, the wings spread over top of
the mercy seat. It's important that David find
that because God can't be worshipped if God's not there. Is that too
simple? God can't be worshipped if God's
not there, if his presence is not there. Just like we, and
the same thing is true today, we can't worship. We can't worship
God if he's not there. And the key issue in worship
is the person. It's not the building, it's the
person. Because look what David says in verse 11. The Lord has
sworn in truth unto David. He'll not turn from it. Of the
fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. Now David wanted
to build a house of worship for the Lord. But David's hope of
salvation was in the person that was coming. It wasn't a building
being built. There's not salvation in that.
There's not salvation in all of the ceremonies. David's hope
was a person. He knew salvation is a person.
He knew this one was coming. A person. A man is coming. Descending
from David. He knew that was so because God
promised David. The Messiah is going to come
through you, David. The Messiah is going to be the
son of David, but he's also the son of God. The God man, the
root of the stem of Jesse is going to come from David. And
that's who David was looking for. That just took up his whole
focus. That's who he was looking for.
That's who he was trusting in. David didn't trust in all of
his giant killing. He didn't trust in all of his
military exploits. David has killed his thousands
and thousands. David was looking for a person.
And this is the heart of the matter. True worship doesn't
just happen in a place. True worship is in a person,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in David's day, God could
not be worshipped without the tabernacle. But it wasn't just
the building. God could be worshipped there
because that building was a picture of Christ. God could be worshipped
in the tabernacle because God was there. That's where God dwells.
God could be worshipped in the tabernacle and in the temple
that David hoped to build because that's where the burnt offering
was made. That sacrifice was accepted by God because it was
a picture of Christ who was slain for the sin of his people. God
could be worshipped in the tabernacle and in the temple David hoped
to build because that's where the blood of the sacrifice was
sprinkled. The blood was sprinkled on the
mercy seat and that blood was accepted. Now, it's just animal
blood. But it's accepted because it was a picture of Christ's
blood. His blood is sprinkled on the
hearts of God's elect. God could be worshipped in the
tabernacle, because that's where the incense was put on the altar.
And when they put that sweet incense on the altar, on those
hot coals, that sweet smelling smoke would rise up from the
altar of incense. And that was a picture of Christ
making intercession for his people. And when Christ makes intercession
for his people, he always pleads the blood of the sacrifice of
his sacrifice. And that blood is always a sweet
smelling savor to the father and the father always accepts
it. So worship can only happen in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And today we worship the same
way. We still worship God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We must
have the spirit of Christ with us or we cannot worship. I can't
preach and you can't hear unless the Spirit enables us to do it.
And we don't have the Ark of the Covenant. You see all these
shows, people are spending all this time looking for the Ark
of the Covenant. There are people in Jerusalem, so they know where
it's at, it's hidden away. It's not going to do them any
good if they find it. Not going to do them any good whatsoever.
We don't have an Ark today. We don't have the mercy seat
today. But don't fear. We've got something better. We've
got something better. We have the gospel. We don't
just have a picture. We have the person. Christ himself
is still in the midst of his people every time they worship.
He's not between the wings of the cherubim anymore, but he's
with his people. He's among his people. Even if
there's just two or three there, if the gospel is preached, he
is there with them. And that's why it's so important
that we keep preaching Christ and only Christ without trying
to add anything to it. because where he's preached,
he's there, so his people can worship him. Let me give you
a few words of instruction here on worship, if you're trying
to find a place of worship. Number one is this, God is worshiped
only through the sacrifice of Christ. Verse one, Lord remember
David in all his afflictions, how he swear unto the Lord and
vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Now, I'll remind you what
Robert Hawker said, This is not David speaking, David writing,
but it's not primarily David speaking. This is the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, speaking as the surety of his people,
the one who made a vow to God. Now, aren't you glad this is
Christ speaking and not David? Aren't you glad this is Christ
speaking, not you and me? How many vows, even if you didn't
want to, just comes up in your mind, how many vows have you
made to God? I don't know how many you've
made, but I know how many you've kept. None. None. How many vows do
people make? Oh, I'm going to quit sinning.
I'm going to start sinning less. If God will just do this for
me, I'm going to start sinning less. Not one of those vows has
ever been kept. How many vows do people make?
Oh, if the Lord will just get me out of this, I'll never miss
another service. I'll be there every Sunday. If
God will just get me out of this. How many of those vows have been
kept? Not one. David made a vow, didn't he?
He made a vow. He said, I'm determined to do
that. I'm going to build a house of worship where God will dwell.
He said, I'm not going to rest till I do it. But David didn't
fulfill his vow, did he? No, because God wouldn't let
him. God's not going to let a bloody man build God a house of worship.
David did not fulfill his vow. But the Lord Jesus Christ did. See, salvation is not in our
vow to God. Salvation is in the vow. that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, made to His Father in the covenant
of grace. He says here, remember David.
Remember the Son of David and all his afflictions. God the
Son vowed to be afflicted for the sin of His people. God the
Son vowed to be afflicted and to be humbled, to be made flesh
just like His creature. You think of how that afflicted
Him, how that humbled Him, the Creator. became one of His creatures,
just like one of His creatures, clothed in the flesh of His creatures.
God the Son vowed to be afflicted, to be humbled, to be made under
His own law and to obey it for His people who could not obey
it themselves. He as a boy was obedient to His
parents. Now, they depended on Him for
life and breath and food and everything they had, but He was
obedient to them. He was obedient to His own law.
He afflicted Himself to do that. He vowed to be afflicted and
to be humble, to be made sin for His people, to be made guilty,
to take their sin and make it His. So He's guilty of it. And
He vowed to suffer everything that sin deserved, to pay for
it, to put it away by His own death, to satisfy the holy justice
of His Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ came,
the Son of David, from David, descended from David, And he
fulfilled his vow to his father. And now Christ prays as the surety
for his people. Remember my afflictions and accept
my people. Don't accept them because of
all the good things that they've done or what they haven't done
or bad things they haven't done. Remember my afflictions. Remember
how I suffered for their sin. Remember how I shed my blood
to put their sin away. And accept them in me, in my
afflictions. Now, God can only be worshipped
through a blood sacrifice. Now, in the Old Testament, that
was an animal sacrifice, wasn't it? And that sacrifice was accepted
because it was a picture of Christ. Now, it was accepted, but all
the blood of bulls and goats never put away one sin, did it?
It was always a picture pointing to one who would come, whose
sin would put away sin, or whose sacrifice would put away sin.
And now that Christ has come, we don't offer animal sacrifices
anymore. Because Christ has offered himself as the sacrifice for
sin. And his sacrifice got the job done. There remaineth no
more sacrifice for sin. Because there's no need for another.
Christ's blood put the sin of his people away. But God is,
we don't offer new sacrifices anymore. But God still worshiped
through a blood sacrifice. The only way you and I can approach
God in worship is by the blood of the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The only way our sin could be
forgiven is through the blood of Christ. Now that tells us
two things. It tells us how sinful we are
and how gracious God is. If you want to know just how
sinful we are, just look at what it took for God to put it away.
The only way even God could put away the sin of His people is
by sacrificing His Son. That's how vile and wretched
we are. But this also tells us, secondly, how gracious God is,
that He would sacrifice His Son. that He would shed the blood
of His Son to put away the sin of His people, so He could bring
them into His presence. Now that ought to make you and
me bow in worship. That God would do something so
wonderful that He'd sacrifice His Son to save the likes of
you and me. And if you find a place preaching
that sacrifice, preaching the blood of Christ, that's a place
you can worship. Because God's worshipped through
a blood sacrifice. Alright, number two, God is worshipped
in Christ our righteousness. Verse nine, David says, let thy
priests be clothed with righteousness and let thy saints shout for
joy. Now, if God's going to be worshiped,
it's got to be in righteousness. God can only accept what is perfect. But the problem you and me have
is this. We don't have any righteousness. We're unrighteous. Our so-called
righteousness, what we think is our righteousness, what we
think is the best thing we've ever done, God calls it filthy
rags. Rags defiled with sin. Rags that will never cover our
shame and our guilt. So if we're going to be righteous,
God's got to clothe us. He's got to clothe us with the
righteousness of Christ. He says that in verse 16, I will
also clothe her priests with salvation. and her saints shall
shout aloud for joy." God's going to clothe His people with righteousness,
the righteousness that He'll accept. And when we say that
God clothes us with righteousness, you know, we don't just put a
clean robe over top of our filth and our guilt and our sin. When God talks about clothing
His people with righteousness, He's talking about making his
people to be righteous. Making them the righteousness
of God in Christ. Making them righteous through
and through. Christ was made sin for them. Him who knew no
sin was made sin for his people. Why? He took their sin away from
them so that he could make them righteous. The righteousness
of God in Christ. And that's the only way that
you and I could ever be righteous. It's through Christ's obedience.
Look here at verse 12. If. If. thy children will keep my
covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them. Their children
also shall sit upon thy throne forevermore." Now that could
sound like bad news, couldn't it? That could sound like bad
news, that God will bless us if we keep His covenant, if we
keep His testimony, if we keep His law. Well, that sounds like
bad news because none of us can say that we've kept God's covenant. No, none of us can honestly say
we've obeyed God's law, but the Lord Jesus Christ did. He did. And when he obeyed God's law,
when he kept God's testimony and he kept God's covenant, God's
people did too. God's elect did in him. Just
like we were made guilty by what Adam did. We're guilty in Adam
because we were in Adam doing what Adam did. In the very same
way, God's elect are made righteous through what Christ did. Now,
surely there's nobody here that can deny you're really a sinner.
Adam really did. We really are guilty. We really
were made sinners in Adam. Surely nobody thinks he can deny
it. Well, God's elect are actually made righteous in Christ the
very same way. Not through what we did, but
through what Christ our representative did. So when we come to worship
God, we come before Him pleading Christ's righteousness. And that
worship is always accepted. It can only happen in Christ
our righteousness. God will accept our worship because
He sees us in Christ. And that's the whole point of
this. The place to worship is in Christ. And that's such a
miracle that God's performed for us. It ought to make us shout
for joy, like David says here. So if you can find a place preaching,
not your righteousness, but Christ's righteousness. Not your obedience,
but Christ's obedience. You should go there. You should
sit and listen to that man, because you can worship there if he's
preaching Christ's righteousness. Christ our righteousness. Alright,
here's the third thing. Our worship is accepted for Christ's
sake. Verse 10. For thy servant David's
sake, turn not away the face of thine anointed. Now again,
David's not talking about himself here. If Solomon is the one that
wrote this, he's not talking about his daddy, David. God will
not turn away His people, not for our sake, but for Christ's
sake. Because Christ has made His people
perfect. The obedience and the sacrifice
of Christ is perfect. So God has no reason to turn
His people away. He'll accept them for Christ's
sake, because of who Christ is and what Christ has done for
them. We say that every single time we pray. When we pray, we
say, For Christ's sake, in Christ's name we pray. I'll tell you why
we say that. The Lord taught us to pray that
way, but it's not magic words we use when we pray. We say that
in Christ's name we pray because the only hope you and I have
of being heard in prayer is for Christ's sake. That He's making
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. That's
the only reason God would ever hear us is for Christ's sake. And I feel like I can honestly
say this. We talk about coming to a place
to worship. This congregation, we come here
and worship reverently. I really appreciate that. I thank
God for that, for this congregation. I really do believe it has a
heart of worship. We come here seeking a word from
God. We need to hear a word from God.
We need to hear a word from God so that we know Christ, so that
we can believe on His precious name. And I'm thankful. But if
we start to think that God's going to accept us, that He's
going to accept our worship because of how sincere we are, or how
well we follow all the right things, so we have the right
worship. If we think God's going to accept us on account of what
we've done or what we're doing, we will be sorely disappointed.
If we think God has blessed this congregation, haven't He blessed
this congregation? But if we think God's going to
continue to bless us because of how sincere we are about worship,
about how sincere we are about seeking the Lord. I'm telling
you, we've got another thing coming. Because we're not as
sincere, we're not as serious about worship as we should be.
And if it has to depend upon us that God's going to continue
to bless us, I'm scared out of my wits and probably just quit
if it depends on me, if it depends upon you. Does the thought of
that scare you? Well, you know what our comfort
is? God accepts us, and He accepts our worship for Christ's sake. Not for our sake, for Christ's
sake. See, we were turned away from
God in Adam. Because of what we've done, we've
been turned away from God. But we've been brought back to
God, accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam. Accepted
for His sake, what He's done, what He's accomplished for His
people. Now, it is a miracle. Worship is really a miracle.
If God enables us to have a time of worship, that's a real miracle.
The thrice holy God, that He would ever enable us to worship
Him, that's a miracle. That He would accept our worship.
The worship of just maggots like us, that's a miracle. And He
does it for Christ's sake. I tell you, that gives us an
awful good reason to continue worshiping Him, doesn't it? If
you can find a place preaching salvation and preaching God's
blessing for Christ's sake, you can go there because you're going
to be able to worship there. All right, here's the fourth
thing. God is worshipped in God's covenant. Verse 11. The Lord has sworn
in truth unto David. He'll not turn from it. Of the
fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. Now, this is
God's promise. David held on to that promise
and scripture is plain. The salvation comes to us through
God's promise, through His covenant of grace. The word covenant means
promise. Now I know this, I know this
much about me. You see if it's true about you.
If God's going to save me, God had the purpose to save me. He
had to promise to save me before He created anything. I'm so sinful,
I could not be saved. unless God promised to save me
by His grace. Unless He promised to give me
not what I deserve, but what Christ deserves, what Christ
earned for me as my representative. If God didn't promise that to
me, just because He would, I'd have no hope of salvation. Now
you think what a miracle it is that God would promise to do
something so wonderful for somebody as so wretched and vile as I
am. And God promised to do that.
Now that makes me worship. That makes me worship God in
awe and reverence that God would promise to save me by His grace. And God had to promise. He had
to promise to save me in Christ, by His grace in Christ. He had
to promise it before time began because He waited until after
I got here. I never would have done anything to deserve it.
It had to be by God's promise. And God can't be worshipped any
other way than through God's covenant. If salvation is something,
if this is what you hear preached someplace, if salvation is something
that I earn, or I deserve because of my decision, if that's what
makes salvation apply to me and real to me, then what's God's
covenant got to do with salvation? What's the reason that I would
worship God? If salvation is dependent on
on my decision, on what I've done, then I should be worshipped,
shouldn't I? I should be praised because I
made this decision. But I'll worship God if I see
that salvation is all in God's covenant, by God's decision,
by God's purpose, and by God's promise. And if you find a man
daring to preach that gospel, daring to preach God's covenant
grace, covenant mercies, which is in Christ Jesus, You can go
there, because you're going to worship. That's the only way
God can be worshipped, in His covenant. Alright, the fifth
thing. God is worshipped in His electing
love, which is in Christ, who is God's first elect. Verse 13. For the Lord hath chosen Zion. He's chosen His people. He hath
desired it for His habitation. If God's a God, whatever it is
He's desired, He's going to have it. Whatever it is God desires
is going to happen. God has desired His people. He
has chosen those people. Then God's going to have them.
Now, God's covenant, His covenant, is a covenant that was made between
God and God. This covenant wasn't made between
God and me, and you know, God do His part and you do your part.
God's covenant of grace is made between God and God. Between
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And
God's covenant is concerning you and me. His covenant concerns
God's elect. But it concerns the people that
God chose to save. But the covenant is between the
Godhead. The Father chose the people to save. And He promised
He'll accept those people in the person and work of His Son.
The Son promised to pay the redemption price for those people. He promised
he would come in the flesh to be sacrificed. He promised he
would come and be born in the flesh for this purpose, so that
he could die. To shed his blood to satisfy
God's wrath against the sin of his people. And God the Holy
Spirit promised to give those people life and to bring them
to Christ by faith. That was a covenant, promises
made between the Godhead. And again, I say, what a miracle
that God would elect, that He would choose to save sinners. Now, the very fact that God would
choose to save sinners who had done nothing and God knew when
He chose them, they never would do anything but sin against Him,
and God chose to save them anyway. I honestly can't think of a better
reason to worship God. Can you? I mean, true worship
is not me bargaining with God and getting God to do something
for me. True worship is knowing I can't get God to do it. I can't
control Him. I can't maneuver Him. All I can
do is bow and say, God, choose me. God, if you will, you can
make me whole. If you cast me into hell, you'd
be just. But Lord, would you save me? That's worship. God
cannot be worshipped any other way than through the preaching
of His electing love, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This
is what I can assure you. No one is worshipping anywhere
where they preach man's free will. Nobody is. If the message
is that you must choose to believe, that you must decide to accept
Jesus as your personal saviour, nobody there is worshipping God.
Nobody. You know how I know they're not
worshipping God? God's not there. God's not being talked about.
That's not the God of the Bible. The God that wants to save you
if you'll just let Him, if you'll just accept Him, that's not the
God of the Bible. You can't be saved not hearing about the true
and living God. You can't be. God's not there. That's not God's
way of salvation. God has chosen who He will save. And He's chosen the means by
which He'll save them. It's through the preaching of
Christ. And that's the only preaching God will ever use. God does the
choosing. God does the saving. God's the
one that gives life and faith and draws to Christ. And God's
the one who keeps them, keeps them to the end. And every single
time in Scripture, one of God's people meet with the truth of
election. Every single time you see somebody that knows they're
a sinner in Scripture, and they meet with this truth of election,
that God has the right to choose them. And He has equally right
to pass them by, if He will. Every single time. That somebody
knew they were a sinner, met with that truth. You know what
they did? They bowed. They bowed in submission. The
best example I can think of is that poor Syrophoenician woman,
begging the Lord to heal her daughter. And the Lord just told
her, it's not right for me to give the children's bread to
dogs. What do you say to that? She
said, true Lord, true. She bowed. She came and worshipped
Him and said, true Lord, I'm in your hands to do with as you
will. I'm a dog. Boy, if you'd just give me some
crumbs, I'd be mighty satisfied. Every single time a sinner met
with the truth of God's electing love, they bowed. And that's
what worship is. It's bowing and admitting God
can do what He will with me. And whatever He does is right.
And that's the only way God can be worshipped. And anything contrary
to that is not worship. And I tell you, people can hate
election if they want to. But I tell you, you cannot worship
God without the preaching of God's electing love and without
believing in God's electing love. Because what's your choice? What
is the alternative if you just hate God's electing love? You
hate His sovereign will. What's the only other alternative
that you have? Your works and your will. It's not good enough, is it?
So if you find a man daring to preach God's electing love, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord, you can worship there. God's
going to bless that message. Alright, here's the sixth thing.
God is worshipped by resting in Christ. Verse 14. This is
my rest forever. Here while I dwell, For I have
desired it." God is worshipped only by resting in Christ. Now
this is Christ speaking, and this is my rest forever. Christ
has rested, hasn't He? He's rested from all of His work.
And He's resting because He finished the work. He did it perfectly.
It's all done. And the only way you and I can
worship God is by resting in Christ. By believing that Christ
Himself is all it takes to save a sinner like me, and I don't
add one blessed thing to it. If I do, I've ruined it. If I
do, if I try to add anything to Christ, I've corrupted it,
I've polluted it. Now you and I cannot worship
God in our own religious works, because God will never accept
them. And if we're trying to come to
God on the basis of our works, we're never going to have any
rest. The only thing you ever can do is work. If you're trying
to come to God on your own works, you'll never have done enough.
You'll never find any rest. But God will accept us if we're
resting in Christ. And I'll tell you how you can
tell if you're resting in Christ. You're resting in Christ if you
truly believe this. There's nothing that you need
to do to be added to Him. Because He's perfect. He's your
perfection. He's your righteousness. God
can't be worshipped any other way because the Father will only
accept the perfection of His Son. And I'm just real happy
to rest in Christ and leave it all up to Him. Aren't you? Just
leave it all up to Him. And if you can find a man who
dares tell you, quit your working and just trust Christ. Just believe
in Him and trust Him that He's enough even for a sinner like
you. You can listen to that now. You'll
be able to worship there. Alright, here's the last thing.
God's people are blessed in worship. Public worship is good for us. It really is. Look over here
at verse 15. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy
her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests
with salvation. And her saints shall shout aloud
for joy. There will I make the horn, the
power of David to budge. I've ordained a lamp for mine
anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon himself
shall his crown flourish." Now where does God abundantly bless
His people? In public worship, where Christ
is preached. When the Lord enables us to truly
worship, and true worship is glorifying God. That's glorifying
Him as He is. But you know that it's good for
us. It's good for us just to glorify God, just to talk about
His glory and His perfection, His power, His sovereignty, to
talk about who He is. God's people are blessed when
God is glorified, when we sing, how great thou art. And the opposite
of how great thou art is how small I am. Now we can get ready
to start worshiping. When God is glorified and I'm
put down in the dust, now we can start to worship. And you
know that blesses God's people? You know, human beings don't
like to be humbled like that, do they? But that's good for
God's people. God's elect, they love that,
to be humbled like that, because that's when we're blessed. God's
people are fed. They're blessed with the bread
of life in public worship where Christ is preached. God clothes
His people and gives them salvation. He applies that salvation to
the hearts of His people only where Christ is preached. God
gives His blind people light so they can see. You know, it's
something I heard Brother Henry talk about all the time when
I was growing up. I didn't know what he meant. And Janet will
say, you'll understand what I'm saying in a minute. She said,
that's preacher talk. She said, I don't understand that. That's preacher talk. But
I heard him talk about preaching and watching the light go on
in somebody's eye. Watching it. I can see it. The
light's on. What a blessing. God's given
you light to see. God's given you a path for your
feet. So you go to Christ. You see
the way to Him. That's public worship. I hope you see this throughout
this whole psalm. God can't be worshipped any other way but
in Christ. God helped us to be taken up
with Christ. To preach Him and Him only. To
think about Him and Him only. To worship Him and Him only.
God's not worshipped with buildings made with hands. I'm thankful
for this building, but God's not worshipped because of the
building. There's a whole lot nicer buildings than this all
around this world. God's not worshipped there. God's
not worshipped in all the form and the ceremony of religion.
People can give all the do's and don'ts and have the ceremonies
and all. And God's not worshipped there.
Tell you where God's worshipped? In the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if you can find a man who
will preach to you Nothing but Christ. He won't alter. He won't
veer off to the right or the left. He'll preach nothing to
you but Christ. You can go hear Him confidently.
Because that's where God's going to bless His people. Where Christ
is preached. Oh, God makes a place like that
here, don't you? Where we can hear Christ our
Savior and worship Him. Alright, let's bow together. Our Father, how thankful we are
that you've given us a place of worship, the person in our
Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, how we thank you for
him. How we thank you for his righteousness, because we could
be righteous no other way than in him. How we thank you for
the blood of his sacrifice, his sufferings. Our sin could be
put away, washed away and forgiven no other way than through his
bloody, awful sacrifice. Father, how we thank you. how
we thank you for your will, your purpose to save your people.
And Father, we humbly bow before you and ask, would you save us? Would you save those here that
do not know you? Would you reveal yourself to
them? Would you continue to bless your word here so that you would
continue to feed and keep and comfort and edify the hearts
of your people? Father, we ask this. We do ask
for our sake. We don't have a greater need.
But, Father, for Christ's sake, for the glory of His precious
name, would You make this a place where Your glory is seen in the
salvation and keeping of Your people? Now, Father, bless us
as we return back to our homes. We pray You bless us and cause
Your Word to go with us in our hearts that we may feed on and
rejoice in the things of our Savior we've heard this evening.
For it's in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.