All right, if you would, open
your Bibles again to Psalm 87. I titled the message this evening,
The City of God. I gave it that title because
in this Psalm, David describes the city of God. Remember, the
writer to the Hebrews told us that Abraham looked for a city
which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Well,
this is that city that Abraham looked for. David was looking
for it, too. By faith, David saw it, too.
Now, when we talk about the city of God, the city of God is the
church of God. It's all the people of God, all
the people of God redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not
just heaven. You know, we tend to think of
the city of God as heaven, but you know, it's not just heaven
at all. It's perfected in heaven. But we're citizens of that city
right now, if we believe on Christ. Christ, he is all in this city. He's all of it. Christ is the
king of this city. He's the architect of it. He's
the builder of it. He's the founder of it. He's
the foundation of it. He's the gate of it. He's the
sustainer of it. And he's the glory of it. Christ
is all to this in this city because Christ is all to his people.
And what I want us to see tonight is that since Christ is this
city of God, that the salvation and the security of God's people
in Christ is secure, that it's certain, that we can rest in
it. Now, it's interesting that there's really no introduction
to this psalm. It just seems like David sat
down and got his quill out and he just burst into joy with the
Savior and showing us our first point that Christ is the foundation
of this city. In verse one, David says, His
foundation is in the holy mountains. Now look at Isaiah chapter 28. His foundation is in the holy
mountain. Well, there's only one foundation
that David can be talking about there. Because there's just one
foundation of God's church. It's Christ Himself. Isaiah chapter
28, verse 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. God's provided one foundation
for his church, one foundation for all of his people. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the rock of ages. And everybody
who trusts in him, everybody who rests upon him is saved. eternally secure. He's described
here as the tried stone. The Lord Jesus Christ has stood
the test of time. He's been tried time and time
and time and time again. And every time he's been proven
to be a sure foundation. There's no cracks in it. There's
no water coming up in this foundation. This foundation is sure. He's been tried and proven to
be sure. Now you trust Him. You trust
Him. You put your all on Him. He won't fail you. You won't
be the first one He failed, I promise you. He's not going to fail anybody.
Then Isaiah describes Him as the precious cornerstone. There
is nothing more precious than Christ. We go through this life
and we're just in the flesh, aren't we? It's so easy. to get
caught up in all the stuff, all the minutia around us. It doesn't take much for us to
be reminded of this. There's nothing more precious
than Christ. Nothing can compare to Him. Nothing
can compare to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said,
unto you therefore which believe, He is precious. And the word
Peter uses is actually preciousness. Unto you therefore which believe
the Lord Jesus Christ is preciousness itself. Now you trust him. You'll find he's precious to
you. Then Isaiah says Christ is the sure foundation. There's
no doubt about this. There's no doubt about salvation
if it's in Christ. There's no salvation. There's
no doubt about salvation if it's all Him. There cannot be a single
doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, saves His people from
all of their sin. That's sure. That's the promise
of God. Now you trust Him. Trust Him.
See, Christ is the only foundation. And in this city, in the church
of God, He's the only foundation preached. There's just one hope
of salvation and all of God's preachers preach him and him
alone. They don't leave you to wonder. Could there be a few different
ways? Could there be a slight different, you know, variation
on this way? Maybe I go a slightly different
way to have the same place. They don't leave you to wonder.
There's one foundation. There's one safety. There's one
sacrifice. There's one way. Look at first
Corinthians chapter three. This is what the Apostle Paul
told us about preaching this one foundation, this one way. First Corinthians chapter three, verse nine. For we are laborers together
with God. You're God's husbandry, you're God's building, you're
God's city, the city that he's built. According to the grace
of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I've
laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every
man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Christ
is the only foundation of life. He's the only foundation of salvation. Now, when you hear him preached,
you trust him because he's the only foundation. He's the only
way any of God's preachers declare. Now look at Matthew chapter 16. Everybody in this city, all of
God's people, the whole body of Christ, every one of them
trusts this one foundation. Every one of them will tell you
that Christ is their only hope. And Peter put the faith that's
in our heart to words here. Matthew chapter 16, verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of man, am? And they say, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or
one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said,
There's no doubt about this, is it? Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. Peter got confused about a lot
of things, didn't he? But not that. Thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father, which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter. And upon this
rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Now, I hope you know that the
Lord's not saying to Peter like now you're the you're the first
pope and I'm going to build my church upon you. I hope you know
that the Lord's not saying he's going to build his church on
the likes of Peter. Aren't you glad? Oh, I mean, I am. I'm glad the Lord didn't build
his church on the likes of me. The Lord's saying here, Peter,
I'm going to build my church on the confession you just made
on Christ himself. that He is the Christ, the Son
of the Living God. And every believer you find everywhere
has that confession. Christ, He's all. He's my only
hope. He is the Son of the Living God.
I may not know a lot, but I know He's the Son of the Living God.
And I know He's the Savior of sinners. Every believer knows
He is the Son of God. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
is God. He is God Himself. Isaiah said
His name, the Son's name is the Eternal Father. He is God. He's God in human flesh. Well, then He can't fail to save
His people, can He? He can't fail to do anything
He came to do because He is God Almighty. He can't fail. This
man who is God, He cannot fail to establish righteousness and
to make his people righteous because he is holy, because he's
God. Well, then we can gladly trust
all of our salvation to him. He's going to get the job done.
He will make me holy and righteous. This matter of holiness is important
because David specifically talks about this foundation being a
holy. The foundation of the city, the
foundation that upholds everything in God's church is Christ. He's the foundation. So it's
got to be holy, doesn't it? Because he's holy. The holiness
of Christ upholds the whole city. It upholds the whole church.
The holiness of Christ upholds the whole gospel. It underpins
everything we preach. Everything God does must be holy. God, what God does must be holy. It must be just. It must be right.
If he did something contrary to that, he wouldn't be God anymore. And God determined to save sinners. Now, there's a problem, isn't
it? God's holiness and our sin are loggerheads. So you know
what God does? He makes his people holy. He
sent his son to take their sin away from to blot it out with
the blood of his sacrifice and to give his people his righteousness,
the righteousness he earned as a man by obeying the law perfectly. And he made them holy. This this
city is holy. The foundation of it's holy.
The city is holy because Christ made it made them that way. It's
no wonder David just broke out writing this psalm, didn't it?
Oh, the foundation of this city is in his holy mountains. God
has made all of his people holy. Peter described them as a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. And that word is not,
you're strange people, although that might be true, but the word
means purchased. You're purchased people. These
people have been purchased by the blood of Christ, and they've
been made holy by Christ, who is the foundation of our salvation,
and he is the foundation of everything that we believe. You know, I
don't go to doctrine, doctrinal books to try to find out the
doctrine that I should believe. Go to Christ. He is the foundation
of everything that we believe. All right, number two, he's the
foundation of the city and Christ is the gate of the city. Verse
two, Psalm 87. The Lord loveth the gates of
Zion. more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Now this city has a
gate. God's not sealed off the way
of salvation. You know, people find out you're
a Calvinist. They say, Oh, well then you believe,
you know, somebody wants to be saved. Not at all, not at all. God has not sealed off the way
of salvation and what's more, God's not made it difficult to
find the way of salvation. In revelation chapter 21, The
apostle John describes this exact same city. It's the city of God,
the people of God, the kingdom of God. He's describing salvation
in Christ. And John said, this city has
four walls. And on each of the four walls,
there are three gates, three on the north, three in the south,
three in the west, three in the east. Those gates are facing
every corner of the globe because God's got a people from every
country, from every direction. And they're going to come enter
into this city. The gates aren't hard to find. There's three on
every side. And as long as you need to enter
in, they're not hard to enter in at all. John says the gates
of that city are never shut. The way to God is always wide
open. If you come in Christ, if you
come through Christ, the way to God is always open. Now, if
you try to come another way, you're going to find the gates
closed. But if you try to come, or you'll find the gate open
to the Broadway, one or the other. But this way to God is always
open in Christ. Now come, come in Him. You know,
David and John in describing the city, they talk about gates,
plural, but don't let that throw you. All of those gates are pictures
of one person, of one gate, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord told
us plainly, I am the door. There's just one door. So all
these gates are pictures of Christ who is the door. There's one
way to enter into salvation. It's in Christ. There's one way
to enter into God's presence and be accepted. It's through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And thank God, he's provided
the way. He sent his son as the way of
salvation. And David says the Lord loves
the gates of Zion. The Father loves the Son. And
He loves everybody that comes to Him through His Son. Well,
now what does it mean? I know this could be confusing
to someone. What does it mean? When we say,
come to God through Christ, that there's one door, there's one
gate, now come to God through Him. What does that mean? Well,
let me give you one or two things I think could be helpful. First,
it means coming to God, trusting Christ. Trusting Him. The Lord
Jesus Christ is not a trick. You don't need to test Him out
and say, well, now I'll do this if you do this. I'll go this
far if you go this far. Give me a sign I can trust you.
No, that's not trusting. That's like, you know, being
afraid is a trap door. You come to God trusting Him. Trusting He'll do what He said
He'd do. trusting His person, trusting His character, trusting
His blood, trusting Him. You come trusting Christ and
you will be saved. You come trusting Christ and
the Father will accept you. You've got to trust Him. The
gates are never shut. Christ is always open to any
sinner that needs Him. Now, difficulty is finding a
sinner that needs Him. That's the difficulty. But if
you find one, I've got good news for you. you come to God through
Christ. Trusting Him, believing, He's
all it takes. And the second thing is very
similar to it. Coming to God through Christ,
through this one gate, means you come trusting Christ alone. Alone. Now that's important.
Our Lord talked about salvation being the narrow way, didn't
He? And the road to damnation, the road to destruction being
the broad way. Well, the narrow way means Christ alone is the
only way of salvation. And not only is Christ the only
way of salvation, Christ alone is the only way of salvation.
And this is what I mean by that. Salvation is not Christ plus
anything. It's Christ alone. Salvation
is not Christ plus my faith. I'm not saved by Christ plus
my obedience and my morality. Salvation is not Christ plus
my faithfulness. Salvation is Christ alone. It's his obedience. It's his
blood alone. It's his sacrifice alone. It's
his power alone. It's his will alone. It's his
grace alone. The gate of salvation is never
closed, but it's so narrow. You can only come through it
if you're naked. I'm going up to Fairmont this weekend, Lord
willing. And Brother Marvin would tell
you the way is so narrow, you can only come through it if you're
naked. I mean, you've got to be naked. You can't have anything,
nothing in your hand. You've got to come empty handed
and naked. The way of salvation is so narrow,
we can't bring anything about us to God. Now, if God's given
you eyes to see yourself, you don't want to bring anything
of yourself to Him. But if you want to come leaving
everything about you just behind, God, just put it under the blood
of Christ so you don't see it, and come naked to Him, empty-handed,
God will save you. Now that is pleading Christ alone. And if you trust Christ alone
to be all your salvation, you know what? You've already entered
the gate. You've already entered in. God's
already done something for you. All right, here's the third thing.
Verse three, Christ is the glory of the city. Verse three, glorious
things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Glorious things are spoken
of in this city of God. Because the only thing anybody
there talks about is Christ and just how glorious is He. Glorious
things are spoken about the person of Christ, about who He is. Before
we get to what He's done for me, before we get to the blessings
that He's given us, number one, glorious things are spoken of
the person of Christ, of who He is. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the God man. Like I said a minute ago, He's
God. He's not like he's God. He's not a special manifestation
of God. He is God. The Lord Jesus Christ is almighty
God, the eternal God in a human body with a human soul. Now that's glorious. I mean,
you just try wrapping your mind around that. You'll never do
it. How glorious is that? But I can
tell you something even more glorious. Why did God become
a man? It's so He could redeem sinful
men and women in the flesh like you and me. That's glorious. Then we talk
about Christ. We've got to talk about His holiness
and His righteousness, don't we? He's the only righteous man
to ever live. He's the only man who ever obeyed
God's law perfectly. And He loved doing it. He loved
God with all of his heart, soul, and might. He never even wanted
to sin against God. And at the very same time, he
was kind to every sinner he met. Not the self-righteous, but he
was kind to every sinner he met, wasn't he? He didn't sin against
God, and he was always kind to man. He didn't treat people as
like, I'm holier than thou, don't come near me or you might defile
me. No. He was holy. He was perfect.
He was righteous. And at the same time, He made
sinners comfortable to come unto Him. Every time you see Him,
if He just stops anywhere, who gathers around Him? Harlots and
publicans and sinners. They're comfortable coming to
Him. Now that's glorious, isn't it? That's glorious. But I can
tell you what's even more glorious. His perfect obedience is yours
if you believe Him. His obedience is yours. You're righteous if you believe
in Him. That's glorious. We've got to be righteous if
we'd be accepted. We're righteous in the end. That's glorious.
Then we know this about who He is. The Lord Jesus is God. Ruler of all. Yet He's the most
humble man to ever live. I mean, it's just always amazing
if you can find a humble man anywhere. But we got nothing
to be proud of. This man is God. He's the most humble man that
ever lived. And I can tell you what's even more amazing than
that. That the Lord humbled himself so that he could redeem his people.
He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. So that he could redeem his people
from all of their sin. Now do you reckon any of them
are going to be lost? God died for him. You reckon he was going
to be lost? Of course they're not. Well, that's glorious, isn't
it? And then after he died, the Lord
Jesus lay in a tomb, dead for three days. And he raised himself
from the dead by his own power. And then a little while later,
he ascended back to glory to sit at his father's right hand.
Now that is glorious. That is something that's never
been done before. You know what I can tell you
what's even more glorious than that? It's why He did it. Do you know why He rose from
the dead? He rose from the dead as proof positive, so His people
would know beyond a shadow of a doubt, His death justified
them from all their sins. Their sin's gone. If the sin
laid on Him was still on Him, He couldn't come out of the grave.
It would have demanded his death. But sin's gone. So it demanded
his life. And it demands your life too,
if you believe him. If he died for you. God's justice
demands your life. Your sin's gone. And when he
ascended back on high, what a glorious homecoming that was. But you
know what grabs my soul? He ascended on high to ever live,
to make intercession for the likes of sinners like me. That's glorious. And that intercession
is always going to be heard because of what he pleads. He pleads
his blood. He pleads his sacrifice. Oh,
the person of Christ is glorious. We could go on and on and on
and on and on, but sometime tonight y'all want to go home. The person
of Christ is glorious. But because the person of Christ
is glorious, everything he's done for his people is glorious. God's people are forgiven. of
all their sin, because Christ died for them. The Lord gives
His people life in the new birth, and He calls them to Christ.
And when He calls them to Christ, He's not begging them. He comes
in power. And in the day of His power,
He makes His people willing to come to Christ, so that when
He calls, they come running. And then when they come, He calls
them by His power, makes them willing to come by His power.
He gives them life to come by His power. And then He keeps
them their whole life long. They don't have to keep themselves
for one second. He keeps them their whole life
long and He's not going to lose one of them. He gives them a
mind that understands God's Word. And He gives them a heart that
loves it. Do you have some understanding
that God's Word speaks of Christ? Do you recognize it when you
hear it? Do you find yourself loving when God's preacher points
out Christ in the word? He takes one of those Old Testament
pictures, or he takes these verses we have in the New Testament,
revealing all these things about Christ. You say, what does that
mean? And God's preacher points out Christ in that verse. Oh,
you just love that. That's so thrilling to you. Do
you find that in your heart, in your mind? Well, if so, God's
already done something glorious for you. He saved your soul. He's given you life. He's given
you a heart and a mind that loves and understands his word. Now we can spend a whole long
time talking about the glory of that, can't we? What God's
done for his people. He's the glory of this city.
Then fourthly, Christ defeats every enemy of his city. Verse
four, I will make mention of Rahab. and Babylon to them that
know me and Philistia and Tyre and Ethiopia. This man was born
there and of Zion it should be said this and that man was born
in her and the highest himself shall establish her. Now this
city, just like every city's got enemies, but no enemy will
prevail against this city. This city, it's not a defensive
city. No, it's a conquering city. It's
a city on the offensive. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. When David here talks about Rahab,
he means Egypt. Egypt, which represents all through
scripture sin and bondage to sin. And Babylon represents false
religion. All throughout scripture you
read about Babylon represents false religion. Well, this is
what David's saying. Sin and false religion. are not
going to be able to overcome God's church. They're not going
to be able to stop God's church from preaching the gospel. They're
not going to be able to stop God's church from speaking all
these glorious things of Christ. Sin and false religion are not
powerful, powerful enemies, but they will not stop even one of
God's sheep from coming and hearing Christ. They won't be able to
stop one of God's sheep from coming to Sin and false religion
are rampant. Seems like there's just a remnant
in this city. Sin and false religion are rampant. Yet they'll never
cause one of God's sheep to lose their salvation or get cast out
of this city and perish. And those are powerful enemies
and one day God's going to destroy them forever. Both of those enemies.
He's going to destroy them forever. But that's not the only way.
Our Savior shows his absolute dominion over sin and over false
religion. That's not the only way he's
going to destroy their power. Not only will sin and false religion
not be able to prevail against God's church, but the Lord is
going to go to those places and he's going to save his people
out of He's going to save his people out of the kingdom of
sin. He's going to save his people
out of that kingdom of false religion just to show that he
is the mighty conqueror. He has dominion everywhere. I
think it was Brother John Chapman said, God rules everywhere there's
a where. His dominion is absolute. God's
grace. Oh, I wish we remembered this.
God's grace is always greater than our sin. God's grace is
always greater than every enemy. He'll overcome them. The powers
of darkness don't stand a chance when the power of the Savior
is revealed. Darkness has got to flee when light comes on the
scene. When Christ appears, ignorance,
the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of unbelief is going
to disappear. Now this is good news. This is
good news. Because I'm talking about how
God saved you and me. All of God's elect are born under the
power of sin. We're held under the power of
darkness. And here's the evidence that
we're held under the power of darkness. We cannot see Christ. I can't see what other people
see. I remember that. I just, oh,
that's so frustrating. No, being held under the power
of darkness means that no matter what I do, no matter how hard
I try, I can't make myself believe Christ. I can't make myself do
it because this flesh can't. But the Lord is not going to
leave his people in that miserable, miserable darkness. God and his
power delivers them from that power of darkness, and he translates
them into the kingdom of his dear son. He transfers their
citizenship from the power of darkness into this city we're
talking about, the city of God. He goes and gets his people and
he gives them a new citizenship. He gives them a new birth. They
got a new father, they got a new heart, they got a new mind, they
got new motives, they got new desires, and they've got a new
citizenship. They've been born into this new
heavenly kingdom. And in this city, in the church,
God's people are going to say, I was born there. First time
I was born, I was born in Egypt. I was born in Babylon. Or I was
born in their friends, Tyre and Ethiopia. It doesn't matter what
heading you put on them. It's all the powers of darkness.
And that's where I was born, in the power of darkness. But
God's people are going to say, I was born the second time in
her, in her, in the church. I was born the second time in
this city of God. God made me be born again with
a new nature by the power of His Holy Spirit. He had to. I couldn't come to this holy
city and live in this holy city with the sinful, rebellious nature
of Adam I was born with. No, it had to be a new nature.
God gave me a new nature, born again by the Word and by His
Spirit. And He gave me a new heart that belongs in this city. Trying to think, this just came
to me as a song about, it says in it, I'm not worthy to be here,
but thank God I belong. I belong. God gave me a new heart,
a new nature. He made me a citizen of this
city. And you know what's so glorious?
God did it on purpose. He did it on purpose. He causes
an exact people, a specific particular people, He is elect to be born
again. It's this man and that man, this
particular man, that particular woman, God causes to be born
again. He chose them. He redeemed them
and He gives them life and they're born again as citizens of this
city. Oh, that's a glorious thing,
isn't it? Only God could do that. And David says the highest himself
shall establish her. the highest himself shall establish
those people so not one of them will be missing. Verse six, the
Lord shall count when he writeth up the people that this man was
born there. The Lord's going to take a census.
And when that census is complete, he's going to find not one of
his people are missing. They're all there. And there
won't be any illegal aliens there either. The only people that
will be there are natural born citizens. People who've been
born again by the power of God made fit, made meet to dwell
in this city of God. And he's going to establish them.
They'll never leave it. And they'll never get kicked
out. He will establish them. All right, here's the fifth thing.
This city sings the praises of Christ. Verse seven. As well,
the singers as the players on instruments shall be there. All
my springs are in thee. The citizens of this city sing
about the same thing they talk about. All the glorious things
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, we can't all preach
as well as somebody else. We all can't sing as well as
somebody else. But you know what we can do? We can do it with
all we've got. We can do it with all we've got.
We can do it with everything the Lord's given us. The Lord's
given us life. The Lord's given us His people. He's given them a love for His
Word, an understanding of His Word. He put us in Christ. He's washed away our sin with
the blood of Christ. He calls us. He keeps us by His
grace. He gives us a book full of his
precious promises. And if you'd stray off the path,
he uses his rod and his staff to comfort you, not to beat you,
to comfort you, to keep you there, to establish you. Reckon we can
sing about that? Reckon we could. Well, after
we pray, Mike's going to leave us in doing just that. Let's
bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your mercy, how we thank you for your grace, how we thank
you that you put everything that your people need in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that he is all that we need. Father, I pray
that you bless your word as it's been preached. Bless it to your
glory. Bless it to the hearts of your
people to comfort us, to strengthen us, to encourage us, to continue
along the way that you've called us to go. Father, bless your
word, we pray. Enable us to leave here tonight,
resting in and rejoicing in Christ our Savior. It's in his precious
name we pray and give thanks.