Well, Bruce made this message
a whole lot easier because this message that I have is very similar
to where he was at in Romans. And I was concerned about how
I was going to present it, how it was going to come across.
But know this, when I was studying this this week, that this stepped
on my toes. So I'm not here to preach to
you or preach at you, put it that way. But know that this
stepped on my toes as I was looking at it. So turn with me to Psalms
137, Psalms 137. We're gonna read the first six verses of Psalms 137. I think you'll see kind of what's
going on. This is the children of Israel
are getting carried away captive by their enemy, which is Babylon.
They're getting carried away and we'll see what's kind of
going on here. Psalms 137, starting in verse one. By the rivers of Babylon, There
we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion, when we remembered
the church, when we remembered all the ordinances, when we remembered
the covenants, when we remembered the ark, all these things that
was precious to the Old Testament Jew. That's who's writing this. We
hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof for there
they that is who our enemies that is those Babylonians there
they that carried us away captive required of us a song and they
that wasted us required of us mirth saying And can you just
hear the derision and what they're saying? Sing us one of the songs
of Zion. Can you not hear the sarcasm,
the meanness, because they wanted to waste them. And here's the
response of the children of Israel, the elect of God, the chosen,
which is what refers to, how shall we sing the Lord's song
in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, Jerusalem, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer, not Jerusalem, above
my chief joy. Above my chief joy. As I said,
as I was perusing the scriptures, I was personally convicted, struck
with the importance of these verses in Psalms 137, particularly
of interest was verses five and six to me. And I would like us
this morning to consider a few thoughts this morning as we contemplate
this Psalm together. Just a couple points, but I will
have several scriptures. Consider first off, consider
Babylon as a picture or as a type of the world and its relationship
with God's people. Babylon is a picture of the world. It's always, it's always a picture
of evil, but it's a picture of the world in this section. It's not our home. Babylon, this
world is not our home. They were taken from their land,
the promised land, and pulled out and went to Babylon. They wept when they remembered
the church, the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not our
home. First of all, I want us to consider
that, it's not our home. We sing in our hymn book, I think
it's number 514, we are marching to Zion. We're marching to Zion,
beautiful, beautiful Zion, the city, the kingdom of our God.
Secondly, we are not this world's citizens. Philippians chapter
three, verse 20 says, We, heavenly Jerusalem, that's our city. You know, we work here. We do
what we do. We honor the king and honor those
to whom honor is due. But the believer is just passing
through. This is not our home. Thirdly,
Babylon, this world, mocks the gospel of grace. It mocks Christ. It mocks our God. It mocks the
Holy Spirit. And it mocks this simple worship. In second Kings chapter five,
you don't have to turn there, but you remember there was a
leper, a great leper. His name was Naaman. And he went to go visit a prophet
of God. He was, he was a Gentile, a Gentile
general, second or third in command over the whole, over his kingdom. And he went to go to the hut,
he went to the hut of the prophet of God and he went, he went,
he was mad because the prophet of God didn't meet him face to
face. In matter of fact, what he says is very telling. Naaman
said, well, I thought, I thought that he would come out and clap
his hands, kind of like religious worship today. Everybody's moving,
filled with this, or they say the Holy Ghost, moving around,
jumping around. He says, I thought he'd come
out and clap his hands and wave his hands, and he'd clean me. He'd clean the leper. That's
what you thought. That's what I thought. God's
ways are not our ways. We gather together. We have some
hymns. We have the reading of the scripture,
in case I blow it, at least the scriptures were read, and we sing hymns at the end. We
don't have a baseball team, we don't have basketball, we don't
do what this world thinks they need to do. We don't have big
screen TVs, we don't have a bunch of people up here clapping their
hands. I don't think that's in the scriptures. We keep the worship
simple. The simplicity that's in Christ.
Because I don't want to take your eyes off of something, me
or whatever, and get them on me. I want you to focus on Christ,
whom I'm speaking of. But this world, no it doesn't
do that. If this world could, like Babylon,
it would carry us away from our service to God. Now there's a
lot of things that take place on Wednesday. There's a lot of
things that take place on Sunday. And the world would have you
miss the service. Wednesday scriptures, the New
Testament, the first day of the week they met. That's the only
thing I have authority. I think Wednesday personally
is a Baptist thing, but that's my opinion. But my point is,
They carried us away captive and they required of us a song
and they wasted us and they required of us mirth or pleasure saying,
sing us one of the songs of Zion. You remember in Nehemiah chapter
four, you don't have to turn there, there's a man named Sanbalat
and Nehemiah was trying to rebuild the wall. And this guy kept saying,
come down, stop the work, come down and let's, and they basically
were going to kill him. The Lord had, you know, had alerted
Nehemiah. He said, come down off the wall.
You don't need to do this. And he's like, I'm not going
to come down because the work is too important. That's what
I'm saying about the worship of God. Six days a week, you
go out, you work or you don't work, but you're not here. But
when we gather together, I am not gonna talk about politics,
I'm not gonna talk about the economy, because God is over
all that. The powers that be are ordained
of God. So I'm gonna leave it there.
I'm gonna leave it there. But if they could, they would
carry us away from our service of God. Fifthly, if the world
could, if Babylon could, and they did here, it would waste
us. That's oppress us. Fifthly or sixthly, if the world
could, and Babylon did, it would have us be in mirth, that's mirth
is pleasure, with them. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter four, verse four, I think. Verse three, for the time, 1
Peter chapter four, verse three, for the time past of our life
may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when
we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings,
banqueting, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think, who's they?
Babylon. It's the people of the world.
And I'm not saying be mean to them. We have no precedence to
be mean to them. I'm not saying that at all. wherein they think
it strange that you do not run with them to the same access
of riot, speaking evil of you." Let them speak evil. As Joshua
said, as for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. He
wasn't dictating and relegating what they were gonna do. It wasn't
his responsibility, wasn't his business, wasn't his concern.
But look at verse four, this is the believer speaking as typified
by Israel. How shall we sing the Lord's
song in a strange land? But by the total gift of God's
grace in Christ Jesus, the saved sinner knows himself to be a
sinner, cannot sing or rejoice in a strange land. in a land
that hates God and his truth, that hates the freeness of God's
salvation in Christ, that hates the supremacy of his will and
the providence of his kingdom. What this world calls right,
the believer sees as wrong. What this world calls up, we
see it as down. What they call evil, we call
good. That's just the way it is. We do and can rejoice, but it
is in Christ Jesus. It's not in the accolades of
the world. Let the, as I said, the potsherds
of the world strive with the potsherds of the world. There's
people out there that know a whole lot more than I do about science
and all this other kind of stuff. Let them do that. Our concern,
our concern is to be desire to be like Christ. I've told you
this story before because I heard it from Henry Mahan. He says
when he would go to preach at different places, oftentimes
he would stay at a hotel or motel, whatever, and he said if he went
in that, you know, in the morning as you do go for breakfast or
a continental breakfast, he said he didn't get all upset if the
eggs were a little cold. He didn't get upset if the jelly
wasn't there and they just had butter or whatever. And he said,
and then when he went back to his room, he didn't, oh, he didn't
straighten out the stuff in his room and make it, he was just
spending the night, it was temporary. He didn't bring his own furniture.
He didn't, he just, it was not his place. This is not our home.
Well, second point, and this one is of the highest importance.
Consider with me in the highest degree, in the highest concern,
verses five and six. This is five and six. This is
for us specifically this morning. If I say I'm a believer in Christ
and I love his word, and he is indeed precious to me as he says
in Peter, if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her
cunning. If I do not remember thee, next
week, the Lord's Supper, if we're here, by the grace of God, we're
gonna have Lord's Supper. Do this in remembrance of me.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof
of my mouth. If I prefer, not Jerusalem, above my chief joy. So what he's saying is, if I,
and say I'm a believer, and I've got some other interests that
take my thoughts and my mind away from worship and gathering
and fellowship. They want me to play the harp,
and we usually do, but let my hand be cunning. I can't not
even use it. I don't want to play. I don't
want to play this song. And then they want me to sing.
I can't sing. My tongue is stuck to the roof
of my mouth. Consider let me simply state
restate verse six Do we prefer or favor? Jerusalem that is our
God his gospel the church and his beloved son Above our chief
joy and that these chief joys would be things that we enjoy
and things that we like, things that we say we love, and things
that are oft found occupying our time. None of these things
are wrong in themselves. I'm not gonna put parameters.
None of these things are wrong in themselves. But if we prefer
these things above, if I do not remember thee, let my tongue,
if I prefer, if I favor, not the gospel, not the fellowship
of believers, not gathering together, not the Lord Jesus Christ, not
the Holy Spirit or the living God, not Jehovah God. If I do not remember thee, if
I prefer anything above my chief joy. Now I've got some texts
for us to consider and probably could just do one. Because like
I say, all these convicted me. So, turn with me to Revelations
chapter 2. Revelations chapter 2. Verses 4 and 5. This is the angel
of the church of Ephesus. This is he speaking to the church.
In Revelations chapter 2 and verse 4, he says, Nevertheless,
I have something against thee, because thou hast left. thy first
love. Remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I
will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out
of his place except thou repent. To prefer anything above our
first love is to leave our first love. I'm not saying a person's
lost but I'm saying We need to be
reminded. Was Peter lost when Christ, three
times, that would have just, I kind of liken myself to Peter.
I open my mouth before I think a lot of times. But that would
have crushed me. Three times. Lovest thou me? Sure I do. Lovest thou, feed
my sheep. Lovest thou me? Lord thou knowest all things,
you're sovereign. We have that name on this church.
What's that mean? That means he's above all, he's over all,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what are you doing?
That's what's sovereign. He rules and reigns in righteousness. You know all things, you know
I love thee. We have to be reminded. We have
to be reminded. First Samuel chapter four. 1
Samuel chapter 4 verses 19 through 22. This is scary. The Ark of God is taken by the
Philistines. That's the context. Verse 19,
and his daughter-in-law, Phineas' wife, verse 19 of 1 Samuel chapter
4, was with child near to be delivered. And when she heard
of the tidings that the Ark of God was taken, And that her father-in-law
and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed,
for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death,
the women that stood by her said unto her, fear not, for thou
hast a son. But she answered not, neither
did she regard it. And the name of the child was
Ichabod, saying, the glory is departed from Israel, because
the ark of God was taken. and because her father-in-law
and her husband, she said, the glory is now departed from Israel,
for the ark of God is taken. Now this ark, that's where the
Shekinah glory, it was right there. That's where God in the
Old Testament, or the First Testament, that's where God met with men. Now he does now, God meets with
sinners. in Christ Jesus, no other way,
no other place. There's one man under heaven,
one name, whereby we must, the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's it. I don't care what other religions
say or do or whatever, this is what the scripture says. God's glory was behind a cloud. The Old Testament is gone, is
taken away, and that crushed her so much, she died. Is this how we feel about? Like
Bruce said, is it just kinda, well, I gotta be here. I gotta
be here. No, no. If I do not remember
thee, if I prefer not Jerusalem, the worship of God, it doesn't
matter who's up here preaching, as long as who's up here preaching
is telling you the truth. Songs of Solomon, chapter five. Songs of Solomon, chapter five. You know this passage. This is
the church. This is the church, chapter five,
Songs of Solomon, chapter five, verse nine. Somebody's asking
the church. The watchman, in verse seven,
is asking the church, what is your beloved more than another
beloved? And that's what we have. Why
do you say you have the gospel and this church doesn't? Well,
they're saying man's got free will, man can choose Christ and
reject him. It's salvation's up to man. No, salvation's all
by the grace of God. It's outside of us, the faith
of Jesus Christ. So why are you charging us? Oh,
fairest among women, that's the church. What is your beloved
more than another beloved? That you charge us so, that you
charge us to leave these false doctrines and come join us. As
Moses' uncle or whatever, he says, we'll do you good because
God's with us. What do you charge us? And then
the church starts describing Christ. My beloved, can you say
that this morning? My beloved? My beloved is white. and ruddy, the chiefest, ah,
there you go, the chiefest among 10,000, is he. His head is the
most fine gold, his locks are bushy and black as a raven. His
eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed
in milk and fitly set. His cheeks are as the bed of
spices, sweet flowers. His lips are like lilies dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set
in the barrel. His belly is bright ivory overlaid
with sapphires. His legs are as the pillars of
marble set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet, yea,
he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend. or dollars of Jerusalem. So to
put anything above him is for us to say that he's not altogether
lovely. And the thing, you know, the
thing is people, people of the world, they can spot this. A lot of times they can spot
our hypocrisy. We say this and say that, but
something else more important comes up, whatever it might be. Luke chapter 10, Luke chapter
10. Luke chapter 10 verse 38 through
42. This is Christ being with his disciples. Luke chapter 10 verse 38. Now
it came to pass as they went, the disciples, that he, Christ, entered into
a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him
into her house. There's no problem. She's a believer. I got no problem with that. Somebody's
got to feed people and have the house ready. And she had a sister
called Mary, which also sat at Jesus's feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered or anxious
about much serving and came to Christ and said, Lord, Do you
not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her,
therefore, that she help me. And Jesus said unto her, Martha,
Martha, you are careful, anxious, and troubled about many things,
but one thing is needful. He's just reminding her. He's
being tender. I know we get onto Martha. He's
being tender. He's just reminding her, Martha, we'll be okay. We got food, you
got clothes. I'll take care of you. But one
thing is needful. One thing is needful. And Mary
hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from
her. When we, back to our text, if I do not remember thee, if
I prefer not Jerusalem, worship, the gospel, services, fellowship,
communion, gathering together above my chief joy. If I forget
the old Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If we
do this, if we have other things that are needful or concern,
we have forgotten that one thing needful. And that's why we gather
together. That's why we gather together.
And lastly, Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16 and verse 26. Now remember, Babylon
is the world. Babylon is, if they could, they
would rob you of your joy in the gospel. If it could, it would
carry you away from service to God, like Sanbalat did to Nehemiah,
come off the wall, come down off the wall. It's not that important.
You say, you know what? It is. It is. Matthew chapter 16 verse
26, for what is a man profited? What is a man, a woman, a boy
or girl profited if they shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what shall a man, a woman,
a boy or girl give in exchange for his soul? Nothing. It's not worth it. It's not worth
it. I go back to our text in Psalms
137. King Solomon, he had all things
the flesh could want, he had all things the humans could ever
want, could need or possess. What did he say about it all?
It's vanity. It's vanity. Now, you have neighbors,
you have good... I'm not saying that these people
are fine people. They help you. I'm not saying
that. But compared to the Pearl of Great Price, what did that
guy do? He sold everything. He sold everything. What about that rare jewel that
kept it? That rare jewel of Jehovah God,
what about a life-changing redemption in the blood and righteousness
of Emmanuel? These things are above our chief
joy, and we have chief joys. Believe me, I thought personally,
could I get rid of this? Could I get rid of that? Could
I do these? I hope I could. I hope I could. Closing, brethren, may we truly
be given a heart to worship our king. It may be under an oak tree,
right? One in the Old Testament, they
worshiped under a tree. If God is there, I don't care what this
place looks like. Really, it doesn't matter. And
we've met in homes, we've met at a storefront, we've met at
your house, and the Lord finally opened this place up. We don't
need what this world thinks is important. May we truly be given a heart
to worship our King, to adore our Savior, and to kiss the Son,
lest he be angry. And may we exclaim like Peter
did so many years ago. You don't have to turn there.
John chapter six, verse 68. Then Jesus said unto the 12,
will you all go away? Then Simon Peter answered the
Lord and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words
of eternal life. Now, this is eternal life. We speak of Him. And the Holy
Spirit takes these things and applies them to our hearts and
causes us to obey and to worship Him above our chief joys. The
older I get, the fewer I get, but I, you know, joy, there's
nothing wrong with joys, but he's saying compared to Christ,
compared to what we have here, this is what we heard this morning.
What a blessing. Every time we do a little bit
more here, I'm just like, ah, this is great. I remember those
pews. They didn't have any back on
it. They were all, they were solid wood, kind of hard. The
older you get, they get hard. And then we got the money together,
we padded them, just a little bit, just the little stuff. Tell your neighbor, tell your
friends, invite them to hear the gospel
of the free and sovereign grace that's found in Christ Jesus. Amen, amen. Nathan, would you
close us please?