For a scripture reading, turn
with me to Psalm 121. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from
the Lord which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore. Chase, would you lead us please
in a word of prayer? I invite you this morning to
turn with me again to Psalm 121. This is the second of the 15
Psalms called Songs of Degrees or Songs of Ascension. As the
Lord ascended up to heaven after putting away our sin and rising
from the dead, so believers are quickened from their spiritual
death and by faith begin their ascension. I titled this song,
A Song to our Keeper. And I have three things that
I want us to see in this song. Three verses, if you will, to
this blessed song. And these are three things that
ought to help us prepare our hearts for worship. The song
begins with a looker. A looker. He said, I will lift
up mine eyes unto the heel. What eyes? These eyes? What eyes is he talking about?
What are the heels that he's talking about? The eyes of which
he speaks are the eyes of faith. Faith has eyes, it has ears. It has a mind, the mind of Christ. It has a heart of understanding
and obedience. I lift up mine eyes unto the
hills. And the Bible is not a book of
trivials, things insignificant, things of little interest or
little value. The Bible is a book of redemption.
That's what it talks about from one end to the other. It talks
about redemption, salvation for dying sinners, life from the
dead. These things are not trivial
subjects. Eternal life. It's the book of
God. In the beginning, God. And it's the only source of information
that we have on these subjects. The Word of God. Well, I just
think Boy, try to weigh that against the Word of God, what
you think and what you know. When God began to fire questions
at Job, Job covered his mouth and he said, Once have I spoken,
yea, twice I'll never speak again. I'll never speak again. It's
the Book of God and it's the only source of information that
we have on these great and grand subjects. It's the Word of God.
God-breathed, God-inspired. The Word of God, quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. And
it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. My
friend, if you study this Word with any kind of Godly understanding. This book can read you like you've
never been read. It will acquaint you with yourself
as you've never known yourself. It'll tell you exactly what you
are, exactly why you do it, and exactly what's going to happen
to you if you keep on doing it. It's a discerner of the thoughts.
Now watch this. and intents of the heart. He knows what you intend to do. He knows. And the Bible deals
with great things, eternal things, issues from sin and salvation. And when this pilgrim wrote this
of lifting up his eyes to the hills, he wasn't talking about
some mountain of scenery that he saw. We saw that, Bo, when
we went up to Montana. A lot of times we'd stop the
truck and take a picture or point it out to one another. There's
lots of mountainous scenery to be seen through Wyoming and Montana. But he's not talking about mountainous
scenery when he said he lifted up his eyes onto the hills. He's
talking about a look of need. Of need. He was journeying to Jerusalem
to meet with God. Oh my soul, he had a need. And
the looker here is a needy looker. I lift up mine eyes. What kind
of eyes? Spiritual eyes. Spiritual eyes. Eyes are symbolic of faith. Look
unto me, Christ said. All ye into the works. work and
be you saved. For I am God and there is none
like Me. At that day, Isaiah said, shall
a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to
the Holy One of Israel. This is not a casual glance we're
talking about, not the glance of a tourist, but a look from
the heart of a hungry sinner. He sees what others cannot see. Everybody around him, all his
neighbors, all his friends could see those hills that surrounded
Jerusalem. But they couldn't see what he
saw. All they saw was hills. Believers
look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporary. that is temporary. But the things
which are not seen are eternal. Blessed are your eyes, Christ
said, for they see. And the sinner here has such
eyes, and his eyes hunger to see even more. Where does he
look? Well, spiritual things require
spiritual eyes, except a man be born again, he cannot see,
that word is perceive, the kingdom of God. Kingdom of God cometh
without observation, that is, from these eyes. This book of
redemption is a mystery to the natural man. He has no eyes for
it. He has no ears for it. He has
no heart for it. I have not seen, the scripture
says, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
hath revealed them unto us." Spiritual eyes receive the revelation
of God. They see it, they understand
it, and they bow to it. Here's a believing man, a man
with eyes to see, and he lifts up his eyes to the hills. What
hills? What's that mean? Well, Jerusalem
was the center of typical worship. Hebrews 9 said that they were
figures for the time then presence. And they stood there in meats
and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed
on them to the time of reformation and the fulfillment of these
things by Christ. And Jerusalem was surrounded
by hills. He could not at the beginning
of his journey see Jerusalem, but he could see the hills. He
could see the hills. And his heart was determined
to go to Jerusalem. Now let me tell you something.
God has always had a place where his saints meet to worship Him.
Always. Always. There was a place set
apart to worship God in the garden. And when that day came, Adam
and his family came there to worship. As ancient Israel journeyed in
the wilderness, they carried with them the tabernacle of God,
which tabernacle was symbolic of Christ, and set forth, according
to Romans 3, 24, and 25, the free justification of God in
the redemption accomplished by Christ Jesus. Later on, they worshipped God
in a temple at Jerusalem. And today we worship God where
God's saints gather together. That's where the Son of God,
our Savior, meets with us. Where two or more gather together
in my name. He said, I'll be there. That's
where I'll be. I'm not going to be on the river. I'm not going
to be on the mountaintop. I'm going to be where my saints
gather to worship me. Where two or more gather together
in my name. There will I be in their midst.
And the looker was not looking to the hills for help, but to
him who sits upon the hills. My help cometh from the Lord,
he said. I think in my study about this
place here, when I think about it, I can see your faces. I was praying for you this morning,
and I started right back here where Gene's sitting. And I could
see your faces all the way up. I can see the faces of your children.
But it's not the building that I'm looking to. It's what's in
it. The church ain't the building.
The church are those who gather in it. and what's ordained of God to
go on in it. That's what I'm looking to. That's
what this pilgrim was looking forward to. So the ascent of
the believing pilgrim begins with a look at the meeting place
where God has promised to meet. And then secondly, from which
cometh my help, he said. Believers know in their heart,
I mean know, and rejoicing in the fact that God worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. And what God ordains is unchangeable. It's unchangeable. Every gift
given cometh down from the Father of lights. James wrote, with
whom is no bearableness. Neither shadow of turning. I'm
the Lord, he said. I've changed not. Therefore,
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. You better thank God he don't
change. And I don't intend this morning
for a long explanation of all these things, but I'll give you
a few things that have to do with our subject here. And the
first is the assembling of the saints for worship. The preaching of the gospel.
Do these things concern your mind on Sunday morning? Saturday
evening? You begin preparing for worship
today. Do these things enter into your
mind? Do you pray for this man that
God would give him that gospel message of the hour for you? This pilgrim did. The irresistible calling of God's
elect by evangelist and pastor teachers in the power of the
Spirit. He calls men. He called you,
Paul said, by our gospel. The spiritual growth and grounding
of believers being taught by those chosen of God, Ephesians
4. Jerusalem is where this saint
was headed because Jerusalem is where the Lord promised to
meet with him. I've seen so many over the years,
including myself, who needed help, but ignored the place where
God promised to help me. And I tell you, it'll rip your
heart out when you realize it. Why? Well, there's a myriad of
excuses. You all know every one of them. But a needing heart, a hungry
heart, a desperate heart looks toward that place where God promises
to meet with us. And he knows from past experience
that this is where his help comes from. Where is God going to help
you in this world? Well, I know He helps you in
His providence. And He gives you these things.
We like to say, well, I built this company. I did this. I did
that. And there's a lot of ways in
which that's true. But you didn't build anything. God provided everything you have.
Everything. He looks to the hills and He
looks where he knows his help cometh from. And then thirdly,
he looks to the keeper of his soul. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
1. While you're turning, let me
quote this one over in Philippians 1 verse 6. Paul thanks God for these Philippians. And he said, being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. That's our keeper. That's our keeper. I know that believers persevere
in the faith, but they persevere because they're kept by the power
of God through faith. That's why they persevere. You
can't preach perseverance without God's preservation. That's just so. So here's what's going on in
the pilgrim's heart as he looks to the Lord, his keeper, 2 Timothy
1.12. Paul said, for the witch cause
I suffered these things, imprisonment, torture, shipwreck, thieves,
robbers, all types of persecution. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed.
Why? For I know whom. I have believed
and am persuaded in my knowledge of Him, I am persuaded that He's
able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that
day. That's our keeper. Let me tell you something. Picture
our Lord bloody and beaten beyond recognition, hanging on the cross. And there he hangs naked, spittle
running down his face, mocked. And suddenly God, about the sixth
hour, calls darkness to fall upon all the world. Didn't just
fall on Jerusalem, the whole world. All over the earth it's here.
And there He hangs with all the sins of God's elect, and He hangs
there before the God of glory, and in that dark alley, He says,
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Huh? Oh, my son. Into Thy hands. That's what I'm
talking about. I'm talking about God our Keeper. All that I've done, and all for
whom I've done it, all the suffering, all the persecution, all the
love that I've manifested, all things. Father, I commend my
spirit into your hands. And then he gave up the ghost.
And the keeper, on the third day, raised him from the dead. With eyes of faith seeing our
substitute and redeemer, do we not say the same thing? Covered
in the leprosy of our sin, righteously condemned of God, we see our
only hope in Christ and commit our souls into his hand. My sheep hear my voice, Christ
said. I know my sheep, and they hear
my voice. And I give unto them, they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life and they'll never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. That's the keeper. He's not just a special man,
a unique man, or even a strong man. He's God the Creator of
heaven and earth. Verse 3 of our text. And He will
not suffer thy foot to be moved. If any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him. Oh, what a terror that ought
to sin through our souls. If any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him. We're not of them that draw back
to perdition. We're of them that believe to
the saving of the soul. Why? Because of our Keeper. He that began a good work in
you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Our help cometh from the Lord.
I give unto them eternal life and they'll never perish. He's
not going to suffer your foot to be moved. He that keepeth
me shall neither slumber nor sleep. He watches. Every move
you make, Russell. Oh, my soul. He knows our uprising
and our down sitting, doesn't he? Always watching, always ready
to save, fit to save, and willing to save his people. Now watch
this, verse 5. The Lord is thy keeper. Who is? Sweet little Jesus boy, ain't
what they says. The Lord. The Lord. How'd He get to be Lord? God
hath made that same Jesus whom you crucify. Both Lord and Christ. He's Lord. He's Lord. The sovereign Lord of glory.
In Him, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you're
complete in the Lord. And listen to me, He's your Lord
no matter what. I don't know where this generation
got the idea that you can make Him Lord. He's already Lord. He's already your Lord. If you're
a drunk hanging on a bar stool, He's your Lord. He's the Lord of the dead and
the living. But eyes of faith see Him as
the Lord our shepherd. Isn't that what David prayed? The Lord our shepherd. The Lord our righteousness. The
Lord our banner. The Lord who will see to it.
The Lord our keeper. Eyes of faith looks to Him in
His sovereignty and sees that sovereignty engaged in His salvation. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Looking with eyes of flesh, unbelieving
eyes, proud eyes, His sovereignty seemed so unfair and cruel to
me when I first heard it. But with hungry eyes and needy
eyes, His sovereignty has become my peace. He's my comfort. His sovereignty
is a pillar on which I can lay my fearful head and rest. Verse 5. He's a shade on my right
hand. What is a shade? Do you know?
Have you ever thought about it? What is a shade? It's a shadow, isn't it? The shadow of a tree, the shadow
of a mountain, it's a shadow. The law had a shadow of good
things to come. And in Colossians 2, talking
about these very feasts, which is why the pilgrim was going
to Jerusalem, While that pilgrim was sojourning,
Paul says in Colossians 2.17, which are a shadow of good things
to come, but the body is Christ. Christ is the shade on our right
hand. He's the shadow that makes the
shadows. It was Christ in that tabernacle.
Christ on that altar. Christ's blood, when I see the
blood, I pass over you. Not that lamb's blood, but what
that lamb's blood typified. Christ is the shade on our right
hand. I see no power in my arm, but
I do in the shadow of his. As the pilgrim began his ascension
to the house of God, he saw in figure the shadow of God's right
hand, and it lay on his. Being one with Christ, he has
the power of God in him. Verse 6. The sun shall not smite
thee by day, nor the moon by night. What's that mean? The sun is a figure of Christ
and the moon of the written word. Now he gives us that in 1st Peter,
or 2nd Peter 1, I forget which, 2nd Peter 1. And the moon has a light side
and it has a dark side. It has no light of its own. I'm going to show you that in
just a minute. This book has no light of its own. This book,
apart from the preaching of the gospel, apart from the Holy Spirit
revealing what's in it, is a dark book. There's no light. I've read it. I've read it hungry. I've read it looking. I don't
see anything. One mystery, I'd read something
and boy off I'd go, what in the world is he talking about here?
And then I'd read a little bit more, here's another mystery.
And one day I heard Christ preached. And boy, this book come alive. This book only shines as Christ
shines upon it. And I'm going to show you that
in the scripture, 2 Peter 1 verse 19. He said, I was on that mount.
Peter said, I was there. I saw the Lord transfigured before
my eyes. I saw miracle after miracle after
miracle. But he said, we have also a more
sure word of prophecy where unto you do well that you take heed
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your heart. Peter, James, John, Paul, Luke,
Matthew, and Mark were writers of the Word of God. And this
Word was a light shining in a dark place. And at certain times it
appeared to have no light at all. And sometimes it appeared
to be all light. I went out the other night and
looked up and there was a full moon. It's so bright. You can
walk all around the backyard and just see everything. Bright
as it can be. But I've been out there when
the moon didn't have any light. No light at all. And even so, the Word of God
is a total mystery to men who live in darkness because of the
blindness of their heart. But in God's own time, Jesus
Christ shines the light of the glory of God and suddenly the
moon lights up the earth. Huh? And as he does, we take
heed to it as a light shining in a dark place till the day
dawn and the day star arise. He said, neither the sun nor
the moon will smite thee. Neither the son of God or the
written word of God were sent to smite his elect, but to be
a lamp under our feet and a light under our path. where it said, and the Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil. Isn't that where our fears arise? Our Lord, when he taught his
disciples to pray, he said to pray deliver us from evil. Lots of the writers said that
that original transcript should read from the evil one. The evil one. It's the Lord's sweet providence
and restraining grace that keeps us from evil and preserves our
soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth even for evermore. What a promise from the Lord
of glory and our eternal God to keep us forever. Oh, but what about this sinful
body? Oh, wretched man that I am. Are you faced with that? I'm
faced with it daily. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this dead, this sinful man? He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. And Paul wrote, even though we
believe not. The disciples said, Lord, we
believe, help thy unbelief. Though we believe not, yet He
abideth faithful. Who? Our Keeper. He cannot deny
Himself. He didn't save you just because
of you. He saved you for His own namesake
and for His glory. And He ain't gonna deny Himself. We sang this song last week,
but I want you to listen to the last two verses again. By bountiful care, what tongue
can recite? It breathes in the air. Do you
know that this whole environment that we live in and our ability
to breathe is typical of God's grace? We can live in that and
nowhere else. And we can live in this environment,
but don't put your head under water very long. It breathes in the air, it shines
in the light. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the dew and rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercy
is how tender, how firm to the end, our maker, Defender, Redeemer,
and oh my soul, my friend. My friend. He said, I spoke to
Abraham face to face as one friend to another. Hard to believe it. God has made you his friend.
Oh, thank God. Father, use the message this
morning for thy name's honor and glory. We ask it for Christ's
sake. Amen.