Psalm 129, Song of Degrees, reads
as follows. Many a time have they afflicted
me from my youth. May Israel now say, many a time
have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed
against me. The plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows.
The Lord is righteous. He have cut asunder the cords
of the wicked. "'Let them all be confounded
and turned back that hate Zion. "'Let them be as the grass upon
the housetops, "'which withereth afore it groweth up. "'Wherewith
the mower filleth not his hand, "'nor he that bindeth sheaves
his bosom. "'Neither do they which go by
say, "'The blessing of the Lord be upon you. "'We bless you in
the name of the Lord.'" "'Many a time have they afflicted me
from my youth. "'May Israel now say, "'Many
a time have they afflicted me from my youth, "'yet they have
not prevailed against me.'" Verse two really declares the
general theme of the whole psalm. "'Many a time have they afflicted
me from my youth, "'yet they have not prevailed against me.'"
Whilst the psalmist speaks of affliction, he is overwhelmingly
positive in his message. In spite of the afflictions,
in spite of the attacks of the enemy, in spite of the trials
and the difficulties, in spite of the hatred poured out upon
me, none have prevailed against me. He looks back upon his lifetime. And yet he cries out, in spite
of all the afflictions through which he has journeyed, they
have not prevailed against me. All the enemies of Zion have
set their hand against him, yet they have not prevailed. What is the context in which
the psalmist cries out? in such terms. It is that here, by the time
we reach this psalm, we're beginning on our ascent towards Jerusalem,
we're beginning to reach the summit. We're approaching the
city, we're approaching Zion itself. We've come through the
foothills and we're looking up. And the blessings upon Zion and
God's people that were spoken of so clearly in the previous
psalm will only come to that people because of the afflictions
that were poured out upon their Savior. Though the Psalmist calls all
Israel to cry out in unison with him, many a time have they afflicted
me from my youth, their afflictions are nothing compared to the afflictions
poured out upon their Lord and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Psalmist here is really
speaking as Christ in the midst of his people. Christ comes amongst
his people and leads them upwards and says unto them, many a time
have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed
against me. And because they have not prevailed
and because they will not prevail, his is the victory. and to bring the blessing upon
them that the people look for and that the people spake of
in the previous time, for the blessing to come out of Zion
upon God's people, their Saviour must be afflicted in their stead. For the Lord's people to experience
the blessings of God, the blessings of salvation, the blessings of
justification, of sanctification, the blessings of sitting at the
Lord's table, the blessings of fruitfulness, the blessings of
eternal life. For the Lord's people to be brought
in as one, into Jerusalem, into Zion, there must be a way of
access made for them, there must be a way of entrance There must
be a way in which they can enter into Jerusalem, into the temple,
into Zion, into the Holy of Holies. Because as sinners there was
no way. As sinners they could not come
into the Lord's presence. Even Israel in these ancient
times, even Israel under the law, knew as they came up to
Zion, as they came up to the physical city of Jerusalem, they
knew that when they came to the temple, they could only come
into the Lord's presence if a priest went before them and took an
offering and slew it. and offered that offering up
and took the blood and took the blood into the Holy of Holies
and took the blood and sprinkled it upon the ground and sprinkled
it upon the mercy seat. And when he had done so and came
out, then the people would know that the wrath of God against
them was appeased, that a sin offering had been made. and that
they could approach unto God and bring him worship. The people
were coming up to Jerusalem to worship their God, but that worship
was on blood-sprinkled ground. They needed an offering, they
needed a sacrifice, and they needed a priest to go in unto
God on their behalf. And in all these things they
were pointed the one priest, the one sacrifice,
the one offering for sin forever, which is Jesus Christ. And here
Christ comes unto his own and says unto his own, many a time
have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed
against me. And here I head to Jerusalem
with you and for you. to offer myself up, to endure
the affliction that no man can endure, to be slain for your
sins, to have my back ploughed upon, to have them make furrows
upon me, for the Lord in his righteousness to take your sin
and lay it upon me and judge me. Here Christ comes before
his people to lead them into the Holy of Holies, not just
in figure but in reality, not just once a year in Jerusalem
on earth, but forever. He's leading them unto heavenly
Jerusalem. the everlasting Zion, to enter
into God's presence and with that one offering, with his blood
shed once and for all, he will bring them there to live there
forever, to gather around the throne of God, to come into heaven's
glory and to cry out praises unto the Lamb of God, in whose
blood they have soaked their garments. We look into Revelation
at the end of the Bible and that picture of the people who've
endured, who've been afflicted throughout their lifetimes, as
Christ was. who were tormented and persecuted
upon this earth, but at last their journey's over and they
come into eternal glory, they come into this new kingdom, this
new heaven and new earth, they come into the presence of Almighty
God, and their garments are soaked in the blood of the Lamb, and
they come around his throne and cast their crowns down and praise
him forevermore. Here's the picture in this psalm
of Christ leading them there. and a picture in which that people
whose garments are soaked in his blood are clearly divided
from that people who hate Zion, who reject the Savior, who tread
the gospel and his blood underfoot, who despise God and his truth,
who shut their ears to the truth, and who have no way of access
into Zion. Let them all be confounded and
turned back that hate Zion. Let them be as the grass upon
the housetops which withereth before it groweth up. Even before
it's grown up, it's blown away by the wind. They're nothing.
Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, he can't even gather
them up. There's nothing to be seen. nor he that bindeth sheaves
his bosom. They're cast away, they're blown
away, they're nothing before Almighty God. Neither do they
which go by say unto them, the blessing of the Lord be upon
you. We bless you in the name of the Lord. They're not to be
seen, they have no entrance into this. They spend their lifetime
in hatred against Zion, despising God, despising his gospel and
despising his son. They took his son and they cast
him out. They crucified him. They said,
we will not have this man to reign over us. And God says of
the wicked, let them depart from me. Depart from me ye workers
of iniquity. I never knew you. Though many
of them would claim to be religious. Though many of them might come
unto him and say, Lord, Lord, we did this in thy name. Yet
they truly in their hearts hated Zion. They hated the truth. They
hated the true Christ. They hated the true gospel. They
hated his sovereignty. They hated his sovereign grace
and mercy. They would come unto heaven.
They would come unto Zion by their own strength. Not true. his afflictions, and the ploughing
of his back, and the furrows, and the smiting of sin upon him. They come in with their own strength,
their own wisdom, their own works, their own righteousness, their
own glory, but they hated Christ and his salvation. Let them all
be confounded and turned back that hate Zion, the psalmist
says. So we see a division. We see
the people of God here, afflicted with their saviour, one with
him, looking under him alone for salvation, led in by him
into Zion's courts. And we see those that hate Zion,
blown away as grass upon a rooftop. They grow up one day full of
their own glory, they cut down the next, they wither away, they're
gone, they're nothing, as we all are. That's all of us, except
for the grace of God. That's you and me, except God
be pleased to call us out from this world by grace, to name
us, to unite us with his son. gather us in amongst his people,
washed in his blood. Except God be pleased to bless
us with the blessings of which the Psalmist spake in the previous
Psalm, except he set his grace upon us, we're but grass double
upon a rooftop, blown away by the wind. Our hatred of Zion,
echoing in our ears for eternity to come. Yes, for us to enter into Zion's
courts, a way of access must be made. And here the psalmist
in type and figure is Christ, leading his people in. Here Christ,
as it were, looks up to Jerusalem. And he looks towards the afflictions
that he must endure in that place, in order to take away the sin
of his people, in order to lead them into the holy place, in
order to save them from their sins. And in looking towards
the cross, in looking towards Jerusalem, outside of which he
must suffer, outside of which he must be taken by wicked hands
and nailed to a cross and crucified, outside of which he must be offered
up. As he looks towards that affliction
to come, he looks back upon the afflictions he has endured and
cries out in faith, they have not prevailed against me. They have not prevailed against
me. and they will not in the final
hour. Here is his faith speaking. His everlasting trust in His
Father. He knows His Father will be with
Him. He knows the covenant He made
with the Father and the Spirit of God before ever the world
was founded will be brought to pass. He knows that in that trying
hour, in the darkness at the cross, when God lays upon Him
the sins of His elect, when He endures the outpouring of God's
wrath, Though the father must judge him, though he must be
slain, though he must be consumed as a sacrifice, though his blood
must be shed, though he must die, though the father must turn
his back upon him, he knows that in the end, that death, that
affliction, that suffering will accomplish everything he purposed
to bring about. Everything the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit purpose from eternity will be accomplished. He will
look upon the travel of his soul and be satisfied. He will see
the salvation of his people. He will deliver them. He will
rise up from the dead with them. Here he speaks in faith. They
have not prevailed against me. "'The plough was ploughed upon
my back, "'they made long their furrows, "'but the Lord is righteous. "'He hath cut asunder the cords
of the wicked. "'Let them all be confounded
and turned back.'" That hates Zion. Here the psalmist speaks of these
events, of the heart and mind of Christ when he was about to
enter Jerusalem to suffer the afflictions upon the cross that
none can fathom, that none can comprehend. Here he speaks in
prophecy of that day, but in Mark 10 we read before the hour
came before that day came as Christ was with his disciples
and was on the way to Jerusalem as it were retracing the steps
of the children of Israel as they journeyed to Jerusalem in
these days singing these psalms singing these songs of ascent
as he were he's on the journey they journeyed hundreds, thousands
of years before in prophecy of this day. But there he is with
his disciples bringing about the fulfillment. There he is
walking up to Jerusalem, climbing the hill, heading for that place
of sacrifice. And he says unto them in Mark
10, and they were in the way going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus
went before them and they were amazed. And as they followed,
they were afraid. And he took again the 12 and
began to tell them what things should happen under him, saying,
behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the son of man shall be delivered
unto the chief priests and unto the scribes. And they shall condemn
him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. And they
shall mock him and shall scourge him. and shall spit upon him
and shall kill him. And the third day, he shall rise
again." Yes, Christ, in those days as
he journeyed up, speak exactly of what the Psalmist has in mind
here. They were in the way going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus went
before them. He went before. They were following
him up. They were with him. But he led
them up. And they were amazed. And as
they followed, they were afraid. And he spake unto the twelve,
What should happen? We go to Jerusalem. The Son of
Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes,
and they shall condemn him to death. and shall deliver him
to the Gentiles. And look at these afflictions
he should endure. They shall mock him and shall
scourge him and shall spit upon him and shall kill him. And yet they shall not prevail
because on the third day, he shall rise again. He shall rise again. "'Many a
time have they afflicted me from my youth, "'may Israel now say,
"'Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, "'yet they
have not prevailed against me.'" and on that day when they took
him and condemned him to death and delivered him to the gentiles
and mocked him and scourged him and spat upon him and killed
him they did not prevail because on the third day he rose again
victorious many a times have they afflicted
me How the enemies of Christ hated
him. How they taunted him throughout
his lifetime. How they tried to catch him in
his words and find cause to condemn him. And yet they could not prevail.
From the day Christ was born in this world, when God came
Emmanuel, God with us, when God came and took upon himself humanity,
human flesh, when he was born a man, born a real man with a
human soul, when God came into this world, conceived of Mary,
conceived by the Holy Ghost, when that child was born in Bethlehem,
Herod sought to slay her. A death sentence was set upon
his head from the day he was born. He came unto his own and
his own rejected him. He was born an Israelite and
the Israelites, the Jews, sought to slay him. Mary and Joseph
took him away to Egypt until Herod died and they could return
safely. But as Christ began his earthly
ministry and went about preaching and teaching the gospel of the
kingdom, the gospel of God, so the Jews, the scribes and the
Pharisees railed against him. Many a time they sought to stone
him, and yet he was delivered from their hands. They have afflicted
me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. They
questioned him. They tried to trap him in his
words. And yet they did not prevail.
How annoyed they became when he would not answer them. At
times he was silent. How enraged because they wanted
him to say something that they could use against him. They could
not prevail. Though there were many of them
and but one of him, they ultimately were in his hands. They could
do what they liked, they could persecute him, they could beat
him, they could bruise him, they could do what they liked, but
they could not prevail until the day and the hour when God
said, now's the time. You may have my son, take him
and slay him. But even in that, they could
not prevail. When the appointed hour came,
he offered himself up. He said, now you may take me.
Many a time they had sought to stone him. Why did they fail? Because he's God. And when he
chose to slip away from their grip, he could just walk past
them and they were powerless against it. But when the time
came, the appointed hour, for which he came into this world,
when the hour came that he came to Jerusalem and said, my hour
hath come, Satan will come upon me, he will bring his legions
to bear, they will take me, they will crucify me, when his hour
came, then he offered himself up. But not until then, And in
that, even in that hour, even in that taking of him, even when
they condemned him to death and gave him up to the Gentiles,
even when they mocked him and scourged him and spat upon him
and killed him, they did not prevail because everything they
did unto him brought about the eternal purpose of God in saving
his people. They could not keep him in the
grave. On the third day, he rose again. Their assumed victory in finally
taking this troubler in Israel and capturing him and condemning
him to death and having the Romans crucify him, their assumed victory
as they looked upon him on the cross was his victory over sin. He died to save his people. He came for that hour. His life
was a journey leading to that hour. He purposed it should come
about. He moved every heart against
him. He moved them all to do what
they did at the appointed hour in order that he might deliver
his people from their sins. Just as Joseph said to his brethren
who betrayed him, and threw him in a pit and sold him off as
dead, got rid of him, sent him down to Egypt. Just as Joseph
said unto his brethren when he came to meet them again, when
they came before him in a day of famine, desperate to live,
and they discovered that God had delivered their brother from
his hands and raised him up to a great height. He said unto
them, but as for you, "'Ye fought evil against me, but God meant
it unto good "'to bring to pass as it is this day "'to save much
people alive.'" Joseph was a figure of Christ and his salvation. His brethren took him in their
hands and as it were, put him to death. But God lifted them
up to a great height and ultimately in the end gathered them under
him and brought about their salvation. They fought evil against him,
but God meant it unto good to save much people alive. And these
enemies of Christ, the chief priests and the scribes,
those that took him in their hands those that spat upon him and
mocked him and scourged him and killed him, meant it for evil,
but God meant it under good. What they did under him in afflicting
him, we did under him. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord deliver him out of them all, the psalmist
writes in Psalm 34. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. When we consider this psalm, when we consider the afflictions
mentioned, we see Christ upon the cross. We see him afflicted
in that hour. We see the most afflicted. This psalm is about Christ at
the cross, looking unto his father by faith to bring him through
this hour. And the afflictions that came
upon him, the furrows, the ploughs made
in his back, are the afflictions that we brought upon him. that our sin, that our hatred,
that our rejection of Christ and his gospel brought upon him. We meant it for evil. We in our
hearts would put him to death, we cast him out, we say we don't
want this saviour, we don't want his truth, we don't want his
gospel, we've no time for it. We've no time for God and his
salvation. We've no time for God and his
ways. We don't want this religion. We don't want this bondage. We
want the freedom we see in the world. We think we have freedom. We think we have life. And we
think that God will take away that freedom and to come unto
God and worship him and bow down before his son, Jesus Christ,
is to take away our freedom. So we hate him. We despise him. We turn our backs upon him. because
we want the freedom of our own will, the freedom of our own
selfish ways, we want the freedom of our own sin. So we despise
him, we hate Zion, we hate Christ, we hate his gospel, and we put
him to death in our hearts. We take the nails and we drive
them into his hands. We take the nails and we drive
them into his feet. We afflict him with our rejection
of him and his gospel. And yet, just as Joseph said,
you fought evil against me, but God meant it under good to bring
to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Oh, what's your response to Christ
and his gospel? Where is your heart this day?
Are you looking unto Zion? Are you longing to be there?
Are you longing to enter into Zion's courts and be led up by
Christ with his people to dwell there everlastingly, having your
sins washed away, blotted out, knowing that you're righteous
before a holy God? Or do you hate him and despise
him? Do you push him aside? Do you
take the nail and drive it into his hand? Do you nail him to
the cross and say, away with this man. Crucify him, crucify
him. The psalmist describes that by
saying, the plough was ploughed upon my back. They made long
their furrows. The Lord is righteous. He hath
cut asunder the cord of the wicked. The ploughers ploughed upon my
back. They made long their furrows.
We plough on his back. We cut him to pieces. We scourge
him with our hatred and our opposition. Our apathy to the gospel is not
just apathy. It's a direct response to Christ. It's like taking a plough and
ploughing up his back and slicing him to pieces. It's like taking
a whip and scourging him. It's a direct response. How his enemies hated him. They
sought to stone him, to ensnare him, to trap him, to put him
to death, and yet they prevailed not. and how we've done the same,
and how you may be doing the same, how our hearts hate him
by nature, and yet we prevail not. Still he stands, still he preaches
his gospel, though we hate him, Still he stands and declares
his mercy, his grace and his love to a people that sought
him not. Though we may despise him, if
we're his, he will stand before us and say, I gave myself for
you. He preaches his gospel throughout
all the world. and he will never stop preaching
it until the last day and everything we may do to silence him and
to run away from the gospel and to get as far away from it as
we can and to shut our ears to it if we're his he'll come wherever
we may be and he will speak into our souls and say many a time
have they afflicted me from my youth Yet they have not prevailed
against me. Salvation is of the Lord. They could not prevail. In John
12, 19, we read, The Pharisees therefore said amongst themselves,
Perceive ye how we prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after
him. We're doing all we can to persuade
the people against him. We're doing all we can to stop
him. And yet we have no strength against him. He speaks and the world hears
and says, never man spake like this man. There's nothing we can do against
the power of his speech, the power of his gospel. There's
nothing they could do. And there's nothing that you
and I can do. The gospel is a power that we cannot quench, that we
cannot silence, and that we cannot stop. And if God sends us the
gospel in order to deliver us from our sins, then it will turn
our hatred into love. It will turn our rejection into
a cry for mercy. And if God leaves us to ourselves,
As one that hates Zion, then we will be left as grass, blown
from the rooftop. The gospel is a saver of life
unto life and death unto death. They cannot prevail against it
until that hour in which he gave himself up. And Christ gave himself
up to the death on the cross. Oh, what they did to him then.
What we did to him then. What a terrible thing to be given
the freedom to take Christ in our hands and scourge him and
mock him and put him to death. Oh, what a terrible thing to
be given the freedom to spit upon the Lord God and Saviour
of sinners, Jesus Christ. Oh may God stop us from having
the freedom to mock Him, to scourge Him, to spit upon Him and to
kill Him. Is that the freedom you want?
Is that the freedom you relish? What a terrible thing to be given
up to this. What they did to him that day,
how they scourged him, how they plowed his back, how they furrowed
in his back. Yet by those furrows, those stripes,
he healed his people. Mark 15, we read of how Pilate
gave him up and scourged him. So Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus,
when he had scourged him, to be crucified. Oh, what they did to the back
of the Son of God. wounds a picture of those spiritual
wounds which he would endure, those spiritual afflictions through
which he would wade when God whipped him, scourged him with
the sins of his people and the judgment due unto them. It's
our sins that furrowed his back. It's our sins which ploughed
him to pieces. It's our sins which afflicted
him. As Isaiah said, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed. Peter in his epistle, 1 Peter
2.24 picks that up when he says who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead
to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed what were those furrows those
stripes there were physical ones yes pilot had him scourged he
felt the pain The wounds were on his body, but they were spiritual
ones too. God laid upon him our inequities,
his people's inequities. All the inequities of God's chosen
people, our inequities, our sins were laid upon him. We caused
his afflictions. The Lord is righteous, the psalmist
says. He hath cut us under the cords
of the wicked, and in righteousness God poured out his fury and wrath
against those sins in his own Son. He poured out his wrath in those
free hours of darkness, when all the world went silent, that
people that had looked upon him on the cross in the light and
had spat upon him and mocked him and sneered him, suddenly
the sun went dark and they knew something strange was going on,
something which they could not control, something the like of
which they had never seen. The whole world was dark at midday
because the light of the sun was taken away, because God had
taken his son. and made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He laid upon him the sins of
all his people. He made him to be sin, and the
light of the sun, the son of God, was taken away because he
became black. He bore the guilt and the sin
and the blackness and filth of sin. He hung there as one who
had endured all things, who had done all things, who had sinned
against Almighty God. Though he never sinned, though
he knew no sin, he was judged as the one who did because he
bore those sins. He bore the furrows in his own
body. He bore the stripes. He bare
our sins in his own body on the tree. The plough came onto his
back. He felt the stripes and as God
judged him and took away that sin and poured out the full force
and fury of the law of God against him in order that an eternity
of wrath, an eternity of hell might be endured and taken up
and swallowed up when he took every sin away and paid the price
in full. Then through this, he cut asunder
the cords of the wicked. The cords of the wicked that
they used to tie Christ down and to nail him to the tree could
not hold him. God cut them asunder. And all
the cords of our sins which tied us down were broken when Christ
took them away and rose again. His people were tied down. There were cords of the wicked
that bound them up in order that they could not move. But Christ
came under his own. Wicked sinners there they were.
And through his death, he cut those cords. asunder and set
them free. And those cords which were wrapped
around Christ himself, when he cried out, it is finished, he
broke them apart like they were nothing. Like that grass upon
the rooftops which is blown away by the wind. All the afflictions
which were brought upon Christ prevailed not. Let them all be
confounded and turn back that hate Zion. Let them be as the
grass upon the housetops which withereth afore it groweth up,
wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth
sheaves his bosom, neither do they which go by say, the blessing
of the Lord be upon you. We bless you in the name of the
Lord. Do you hate Zion? Have you no interest in heaven's
glory? Have you no interest in the Lord
who gave himself for his people to lead them to Zion? How often
in these songs of degrees do we read of Zion? The blessing
of the Lord comes down from Zion to his own. It is that city in
which and from which God blesses his people. There is no blessing
outside the Zion. Those that hate it will be confounded. Reminded of Psalm 2, where we
read, why did a heathen rage and the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. For he that siddeth in the heavens
shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall
he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare
the decree the Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son. This
day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the haven for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. He set his
king upon his holy hill of Zion. And all they that hate him and
hate Zion shall be turned aside and confounded. The Lord shall
laugh. He shall have them in derision,
but he shall save his own. Yes, those that despise God,
those that despise this gospel, have not, do not, and will not
prevail. But Christ, when he laid down
his life, when they put him to death, that which they meant
for evil, God used for good. He has finished the work. He
has brought about an eternal salvation. He has done all things
well, he has prevailed in all he has done, and so has his gospel. In Acts 19, following Christ's
death and resurrection, when the disciples, the apostles,
went forth and preached this gospel, we read that mightily
grew the word of God and prevailed. It's powerful, it saves, and
God will bring all his people with his Son into glory forevermore. There is nothing that can prevail
against this gospel, this saviour and his church. Christ said unto
Peter, Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. They cannot. God gave his son for this people. Will he let hell take them away
again? God offered up his only begotten
son for sinners. Will he let any of them slip
from his hands? God created this world and sent
his son into this world to save a people everlastingly. Will the deeds of the wicked
and those that hate Zion Prevail? Not at all. Every enemy of Christ
who is not a recipient of his grace shall be blown away like
grass, hay and stubble from the rooftops. That's all we are outside
of Christ. That's all you are. That's all
I am. We cannot prevail. In Revelation
12, we read this. There appeared a great wonder
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her
feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. And she, being with
child, cried, travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. And
there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great
red dragon. having seven heads and ten horns
and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven, and they cast them to the earth. And the
dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered,
for to devour her child as soon as it was born. Like Herod would
have slain Christ when he was born, so the dragon stood there
ready to devour him. And she brought forth a man-child
who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child
was caught up unto God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness.
where she have a place prepared of God, that they should feed
her there a thousand two hundred and three scored days. And there
was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels and prevailed
not. Neither was their place found
any more in heaven. and the great dragon was cast
out. That old serpent called the devil
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down. which accused them before our
God day and night, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives
unto the death." No matter what afflictions they were brought
through, even if people took them and slew them like they
took People love Christ more than
their own lives. They're ready to die for Christ
as he died for them. And they overcome all their enemies
through the blood of the lamb. All their enemies. Many a time
have they afflicted me from my youth. May Israel now say, many
a time have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have
not prevailed against me. For Christ has gone to Jerusalem
in his people's stead. He was taken. He was mocked. He was scourged. He was spat
upon. He was killed. But on the third
day, he rose again. And having risen, he leads his
people on blood-sprinkled ground and to a blood-sprinkled mercy
seat in the presence of God the Father. to gather around his
throne forevermore and praise his name as the one saviour of
sinners. Do you love him? Or do you hate
Zion? Will Zion be your resting place,
for Christ the saviour, or are you as grass upon a rooftop? Amen.