Psalm 127 reads as follows. A song of degrees for Solomon.
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build
it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh, but
in vain. It is vain for you to rise up
early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so
he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage
of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows
are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall
not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the
gate. Song of Degrees for Solomon.
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain. that build
it. Salvation is of the Lord from
start to finish, entirely, including the means by which he saves,
including the preaching, the sending forth of the gospel,
the saving and the calling of souls out of darkness into the
everlasting light. the building up and nourishing
of the church, the building of God's house, His people in His
Son Jesus Christ. It all starts, continues and
finishes with the Lord. It's all His work. It is all
of grace and has nothing to do with man. Though God may send
men and use men to purpose his work as tools in his hands, though
he may send his word through the voice of a man spoken by
his spirit, though he may call and gather a people together,
and bring forth worship from their hearts, and cause them
to witness to those around about them. Though he uses men, it
is all his work, it is all of his hand. He stirs them up, He
guides them, He leads them, He gives them the words to speak.
He puts faith in their hearts to believe. He gives them the
words to utter before others. All is of God from start to finish
and wherever man works, wherever men labour, wherever men send
themselves to preach the gospel, wherever men send themselves
to attempt to build God's house, God's church, they labour in
vain. Now this psalm, this song of
degrees, the further one in the series as the children of Israel
journey upwards to Jerusalem to worship their God, is a reminder
to them of the grace of God. It is a reminder to them that
the house of God, the temple to which they journeyed, was
built of God. not built by man, not built by
King Solomon, not built by David. David that king, that chosen
sinner, so blessed of God, so blessed to write so many of these
Psalms. so experienced in the trials
and the ups and downs of the pathway of faith, that great
man David, whom God took as a wretched sinner and poured his grace into
and used so mightily, desired to build a house upon earth,
desired to build a temple for his gods. where God may come
and meet with his people and where his people may gather and
come and worship him. But God said unto David that
he would not be the man, the king, who would oversee the building
of this temple. It would be his son Solomon. Such was David's fall in sin
at various points that God said, no David, Solomon your son will
build it. A little like Moses who led the
people of Israel who God used to bring the people of Israel
out of Egypt and promised that he'd lead them into the promised
land of Canaan and yet because of the sin of the people and
because of Moses' unbelief in striking the rock twice, God
said unto him, you will not enter into Canaan, Joshua will. So, with the building of the
house of God, the temple, God's promise was unto Solomon to build
it. But though God used Solomon and
gave him instruction and gave him the men to labor and the
tools and the resources and the rocks and the gold and all that
was used to build the glorious temple in Jerusalem, though that
came to pass, yet this reminder in Psalm 127 was provided. That it wasn't you Solomon, or
your people, or the labors of the men of Jerusalem. It wasn't
man that built this temple. It wasn't man that built the
earthly temple or the spiritual temple. It's not man that does
it. God brought it to pass. God said
who would oversee it in the physical sense. God sent the men, God
sent the labourers, God sent the resources, God moved them,
God instructed them, God did it all. And he reminds Solomon,
and he reminds the people of God, he reminds us all here that
except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build
it. It's God's work. Salvation is God's work. The
building of the house of God is God's work. The fervorance
of the church is God's work. The preaching of the gospel and
the sending forth of the gospel to the four corners of the earth
is all of God. And yet how we need to be reminded,
because it's in all of us, to look for something that we
can do. It's in all of us, as it were,
to put our hand to steady the arc when we see it may fall.
It's in all of us to feel like we should, not just to push ourselves
forward, but to have a sense in which we feel that we should
be doing this and we should be doing that. And so easily what we feel is
something we should be doing becomes something that we glory
in. Well I was there at every meeting
and I prayed over it and I searched the scriptures and I spake and
I did this and I did that. It's soon something in which
we glory and God will not share his glory with anyone. He builds his church. He builds
it through grace. He builds it through the preaching
of the gospel. We read earlier from 1 Corinthians
1, where Paul writes to the church gathered at Corinth, into which
had come division. And his answer to the division,
which had entered into that company, Division which comes forth purely
because of pride. Purely because one man rises
up against another and people put this man or that man on a
pedestal and follow this one and that one and follow their
own thinking and their own wisdom. As soon as pride and the works
and the glory of man comes into a place, division comes in. Some said I am of Paul, some
I of Apollos, some I of Cephas and some rising themselves up
spiritually above the rest said oh no I'm of Christ. But Paul
says is Christ divided? Was I Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in my name
or in Christ's name? He reminds them that there's
only one head of the church, Christ. We're all of Christ.
No matter which preacher may have led us to him, no matter
which teacher may have blessed us, we may say, well, I'm blessed
under this man and I'm blessed under that man. But his speech,
the speech of any preacher who is of God and who blesses the
people of God and who brings forth the work of God, it comes
from Christ who sent him. it's all of Christ and he reminds
the people that he Paul was not sent to plant physical churches
on earth, or to baptize people, or to do this thing or that thing,
he was sent to preach the gospel. Because it's through the preaching
of the gospel, and Christ's preaching of the gospel through him, that
people are saved, gathered, and the house of God is built. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It's by preaching. It began by preaching, it continues
by preaching, it will always be brought forth by preaching.
There is none who are saved, but God sends his gospel by a
preacher whom he sends, and he preaches the gospel that they
may hear, that they may be given faith by the Spirit of God, that
they may be quickened to life by God himself, and that they
may believe. But the preaching of the gospel
is foolishness to man. He despises it. He looks for
something else. He says, well if the church is
to be built up, if it's to prosper, we must do this and we must do
that. So Paul goes on, the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. They're always looking
for something else. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, it is Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
That which man thinks is foolish is wiser than any man. And that
which man thinks is weak is stronger than any man. Man despises the
gospel and the preaching of the gospel. He says it's both foolish
and it's weak, it's ineffectual, it doesn't work, it's just words. People don't want to listen to
the gospel. They don't want to listen to
preaching. It's old-fashioned, it's gone, it's not effectual
for our day. Yet God says no. What you say
is foolish, what you say is weak. It's wiser than any man and stronger
than any man. It is the power of God under
salvation. For you see your calling brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in
his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. There is nothing for us to glory
in, but in the Lord, in Christ alone. in his work, in his word,
in his faith, in his gospel. God have chosen the foolish things
of the world, he's chosen the foolish and the weak to save
them, not many great men. Not many mighty, not many rich,
not many powerful are saved because God casts aside that which is
looked upon as great in man's eyes and takes that which is
weak. He saves those who are cast out. He saves the outcasts. He saves
those who are despised of men. He saves those who are weak. He saves those who are nothing.
He saves those who know they're weak and know they're nothing.
and he saves them through that means of preaching the gospel,
a means of saving them that is cast out by the wise and cast
out by the world as being weak and foolish. His very means of
saving, his very means of building his church is rejected and scorned
and laughed upon by this world, by the heart of man. by you and
I by nature. Our response to the gospel is
to close our eyes to it, to close our ears to it, to laugh at it,
to scorn it, to mock it, to deride it, and to run away from it. Yet it's this gospel that God
will send and He will pursue us with it if we are His. He
will bring it unto us and He will cause us to have no way
of escape, nowhere that we can go. We will keep on hearing it
until finally it breaks us and brings us down to see that we
are the fool. And we are the weak. And we are
the despised. We are nothing. But God is all
in Jesus Christ. And His gospel that we despise
is the power of God unto salvation. It is that which brings us life. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe it's this gospel which
will make us believe and save us. But this world, Jews, Greeks,
the world and its religion cannot see this. It cannot see it. It will always look upon the
gospel and God's means of salvation, it will always look upon Christ
himself as weak and foolish. Because it judges on the outward
appearance according to the flesh. The world and its religion looks
upon their large churches, with their thousands in attendance,
and their stage-produced worship, their carefully orchestrated
music and lights, their carefully managed productions. They look
upon all this that they have made, and the congregations gathered
under it, as signs of God's blessing. as evidence of God's building,
as evidence of God favouring them. What have their labours
brought? All this! Look how God is with
us, look at our meeting, look at the numbers coming in, look
at those that say they believe on Jesus, they've accepted him
as their saviour. How blessed they are! And then they look across, at the small gatherings of God's
people. Those old-fashioned meetings
with their old-fashioned gospel preaching. And they despise the
children of God. They despise those who are so
few in number. They come unto them and say,
well how many are in your meeting? Where do you meet? How many do
you have? Fifty. Twenty? Ten? Two? Well where's your God? Where is he? Why does he not
bless you? Look at you, nothing's working.
Why are you still gathering and reading that Bible? And singing
those hymns? And listening to that preaching?
Where's it getting you? So man looks upon the outward
appearance and judges upon what he can see, for he determines
and measures God's blessing in the numbers that are gathered
and the outward appearance. But God looks upon the heart. God looks within. God looks for
life within the soul. God doesn't care for that which
appears great in man's eyes. God doesn't deal with the numbers
that are in the meeting. God doesn't deal with the outward
appearance and what people say and what they profess and how
they appear to be. God looks upon the heart and
the reality within. and he sees the reality within
and he sees whether there is life within and whether the gospel
has brought forth that life or whether it's all an outward veneer
whether it's all an outward cleansing of the plate and the and the
cup like the pharisees of old it's all clean on the outside
it's all there for men to see how great we are and what we
have done when inside it stinks All that the world boasts in,
in its religion, is but wood, hay and stubble. The building
of men, stored up to be burnt up at the last day. But that
which they despise, that which they laugh at, that which they
reject, is that gold. which God has wrought and refined,
which lasts forever, however few there may be in which this
gold has been produced. However few there may be gathered
under the preaching of the gospel, under the grace of God, however
few there may be who speak and declare of the free and sovereign
grace of God in Jesus Christ, who declare that they are nothing,
that they are those who are nothing, that they are weak and base and
foolish, but God took them. and delivered them from themselves
and delivered them from their sin and delivered them from darkness
and washed them in the blood of Christ however few they may
be and however weak they may be in the eyes of man in God's
eyes they're his workmanship and they're gold except the Lord
build the house They labour in vain that build it, except the
Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. God builds
His Church and He uses the preaching of the Gospel to build it exclusively. It's not just something, it's
not just a part of what He does, that's what He uses. The Church
exists because of the gospel and to declare the gospel. When
the church gathers in this world, when God gathers it and it assembles
to worship God, it's the preaching of the gospel it gathers for.
That's not just what brings it into being at the start and then
they move on to other things, other worship, other meetings,
teaching and this, that and the other. It's always the gospel,
it's always Christ. God uses the preaching of the
Gospel. He prepares, He calls, He sends
men to preach it. He preaches by them through His
Spirit and exclusively by them through His Spirit. He only uses
the Gospel to save, to add to His Church, to build it up and
to strengthen it. He uses none other means but
the preaching of the Gospel. But men in their churches so-called,
in their meetings, outside of the truth of the gospel
of Christ's sovereign grace, send themselves to preach, or
teach, or give talks, or jokes. They decide where they will go
what to do and what to say. They plant their own meetings. They organize their own evangelism. They invite people to this event
and that event. They alter the gospel to suit
their own ends. They tailor the gospel to the
hearts of men. They take out the offense of
the cross. and speak purely of a God who
loves and desires all men to be saved. They make it appealing
to dead sinners. They tailor the meeting and the
outward appearance of it to appeal to those in the world and what
they love. They give them the world's music
and the world's dress and the world's entertainment. They invite
people along as it were. to nightclubs and discos that
they'd go to in the world in the name of Jesus Christ. They
put a different name above the door, but they're just inviting
the dead to gather amongst the dead. So they alter the gospel,
they chop it apart, they take away everything which offends
and only speak of that which appeals, or they dispense with
it altogether. They create their programs, their
youth programs, their evangelism programs, their old folks programs,
their women's programs, their men's programs. They invent their
sports events, their entertainment events, their singing events,
their choirs. They invent anything and everything
to get people in. And their methods, their inventions,
their works, their labors work. their eyes to the outward appearance. Oh yes their meetings grow in
number sometimes quite dramatically their meetings seem relevant
to the people around them they have an impact in their community
The community receives them and welcomes them in their presence.
For they have some sort of binding effect upon the social strata. And they see all this as God's
blessing. Oh yes, they are blessed. They've
labored and God has blessed them. They've grown in number, they're
blessed. But are they? Are they any more blessed than
the rich man in the world who's prospered in business and lives
a life of leisure and pleasure which is gone in a moment and
eternity awaits? Are they any more blessed than
those who live for sin and pleasure? Than those who live a hedonistic
lifestyle? How more blessed are they? if
when they come before God and stand before him on the brink
of eternity and cry out, Lord, Lord, we've done this in thy
name and that in thy name, we've built up this meeting, we've
gathered in this congregation, look at all the blessing and
God turns around and says unto them, depart from me ye workers
of iniquity. I never knew you. I never called
you, I never sent you, I never spake by you, I never built up
the church by you. I don't know you. You come before
me with your Lord, Lord. You come before me with your
familiarity and your Jesus. You speak of knowing me and what
you've done in my name and I've never spoken to you. I've never
called you. I've never spoken by you. I've
never sent you. I never said go there and build
this and do that. I never said preach in my name. You don't know my gospel. Where
is the blessing if that's our end? And sadly there are many
who are on a broad way, a broad path, heading to that destination,
and heading to stand before Almighty God, who have taken His Scriptures,
taken His words, taken the name of Jesus, and yet never knew
Him. He never came in the Gospel to
them and broke them and showed them their sin. He never brought
them to an end of themselves to know that they are nothing,
to know that they are the base and the despise of this world.
He never brought them to an end of themselves. And so they carried
on in their own strength, glorying in what they did. Which is why
at the last day they come before God and say, Lord, Lord I have
done this in thy name, because they glory in what they've done. They don't come before God saying,
Lord have mercy upon me a sinner, the sinner. They don't come knowing
that God has the power to cast them out into outer darkness
for eternity for their sin and would deserve to do so if it
were not for the blood of Christ which washes away their sins. They're all presumptions on the
love of God, though he never called them, he never spake to
them, he never delivered them. And they can't look in their
life's journey to any true point where they can say, yes, God
did this. He did it for me when I did nothing
for him. He loved me when I hated him. He brought me to life when I
was dead in my sins. Are they blessed? There's no
blessing. in having the riches of this
world and all power and all might and then going to hell in the
end and there is no blessing in being the leader of a mighty
mega church with thousands in your congregation and so much
that men would look upon and say yeah God's blessed them and
then discovering that you'd followed a lie and you never knew God
and he never spoke to you and he was never present There's
no blessing in being left to a delusion. And it's the delusions
of men which lead to such a building of men's churches, such a building
of the house in men's strength, which would lead any to glory
in anything that they have done or said in God's name. God's
people are a broken people. their nothings and their glory
is in Christ and Christ alone. Are they blessed? The fact is
where there is another gospel or no gospel where God hasn't
sent the gospel, there is no blessing whatsoever, no matter
what you may see or hear. It is all a facade, all a mirage,
all a deception. It is all labour in vain. It's all labour in vain. And labour in vain is that which
characterises man's religion, false religion, no matter what
shape it takes. Whether you call it Islam, Buddhism,
whether you call it Hinduism, whether you call it Christianity,
whether you call it any name or shape or division of Christianity,
If it is in the works of man, it is labor in vain. Works cannot
save. The works of the law cannot save. Obedience to the precepts of
the gospel cannot save. Coming to the New Testament and
reading of the life of Christ, and of his instruction as it
were in places like the beatitudes and his instruction to the disciples
coming to the gospel or coming to the epistles and the precepts
in the epistles the exhortations coming to these things and living
a life according to them and thinking that God will bless
you if you live accordingly if you're zealous, if you're earnest
If you meet often, if you listen to the gospel often, if you gather
in the meetings often, if you read the scriptures often and
pray often, any of these things, if it's not of God, is but wood,
hay and stubble, is the works of man, is labour in vain. Psalmist goes on, it is vain
for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread
of sorrows. For so he giveth his beloved
sleep. Oh yes, it's vain to labour away. You may rise up early in the
morning to pray, to be zealous in the things of God as you see
them. You may sit up late. You may read the scriptures till
late at night. You may eat the bread of sorrows,
you may suffer for your labours. You may have turned from the
riches and pleasures of this world to seek God as you see
it. You may put all your strength
and energy into what you see as God's work and furthering
God's work. You get up early, you go to bed
late, you eat the bread of sorrows, you suffer for it. And yet the
psalmist says, yet God says, it's vain. If I've not brought
it to pass, if God hasn't brought this about, it's vain. It's in your own strength. He
gives his own sleep. He gives his beloved sleep. He causes them to rest, not to
labor. The world labours in their churches. They speak of serving God. How may I serve God? What can
I do for God? They are very zealous in their
labours. They rise up early, they sit
up late, they work all day, they eat the bread of sorrows. But
what for? In the end, nothing. Nothing
truly spiritual, nothing of God, no true life is brought forth
for all their much working. Your zeal won't save you. Your labours won't save you.
We must be brought to an end of them. We must come to see
that not only are they not good enough, but they are utterly
against God. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. That which we thought was at
least gaining us some favor in God's eyes, was at least doing
something right, was at least turning from our sins, was at
least the right way to go, was actually filthy rags in God's
eyes. Our much working was of nothing
worth, it was making things worse. We were getting farther away
from God, not nearer. We thought we were building God's
house and we were destroying it. We were laboring away, as
they were at Corinth, and all we were producing was division. At Corinth they labored. but
in glorying in what was done, they divided. Outside of the
gospel and the preaching of the gospel, they began to turn against
one another. They began to follow this man
and follow that man and they divided. The unity went, the
oneness went, the love went. They began to divide and glory
in what they fought and what they did. Their labours were in vain. They
rose up early at Corinth. They sat up late at Corinth.
They ate the bread of sorrows at Corinth. But it all was destruction. It was all death that came in,
not life. God doesn't give his people work. He gives his people rest. He giveth his beloved sleep. God gives His people sleep. They
rest from all their labours. They come to see that their efforts
were of nothing worth and made things worse. They rest in Christ. They enter in Him into Sabbath
everlasting eternal rest. They cease from all their labours. all their works, all their religion,
all their wisdom, all their thinking, all their own ideas, all their
own convictions. And they rest in Him when they're
brought to see in the gospel that there's nothing to do. When
they're brought by the Gospel to the shore of the Red Sea,
having been brought out of Egypt in which they once dwelt, with
the Egyptians behind them nowhere to go, and they're brought to
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. They're brought
to nothing. They're brought to stand. and
they see God work before them. As they stand, He opens up the
sea before them, the waters part and He brings them through. He
does it all. And it's wondrous in their eyes,
it's marvellous in their eyes as we saw in the previous psalm.
He does it all. And they're brought to rest in
Him. To rest in His finished work. To rest in His finished salvation. They come to see Christ. That
Christ came to them when they were lost. That Christ came to
them in the darkness. That Christ came to them in the
grave. And He took the sin that put
them there. And He bore it for them. He took
the death that had entered in by their sin and He took it upon
Himself. And He suffered and He died in
their place. And they look and behold the
Lamb of God slain for them. They see God's work and they believe it. because
God opens their eyes to see and to believe. They came unto Christ
in John's Gospel and said, what is the work of God that we should
do these works? Thinking that God would tell
them what to do for him. Show us the works of God. Jesus
said, this is the work of God. that you believe in Him whom
God has sent, that you believe on Me. God's work is that which
He performs. He comes in the Gospel, and He
comes unto you as a dead sinner, and He says, look unto Me. Look unto Christ. look unto my
son and believe and when he causes you to believe you cease to work
You're brought to an end of yourself in every sense, an end of glorying
in self, an end of glorying in your wisdom, your understanding,
an end of glorying in your convictions, an end of glorying in your upbringing
and the people you associate with, your family, your connections,
who you are. You see yourself as nothing but
a lost sinner and you see your Saviour before you as He who's
done it all. Yes, God comes in the Gospel
unto his own and he does all the work. God builds the house,
all of it. He redeemed his people in his
own Son, Jesus Christ. He set them free. He ransomed
them from the grave. He delivered them from all that
bound them. He chose them in eternity past. He elected them unto salvation
before the world was ever founded. He wrote their names. upon His
heart, He put them upon the breastplate of His Son Jesus Christ and Christ
came into this world with the names of everyone whom He loves,
every chosen sinner, upon His heart, upon His breastplate.
He came into this world with those names upon his heart and
he suffered the rejection of man. He suffered the despising
of man. He suffered being cast out by
man. He suffered the hatred of man. He suffered being taken to the
cross and crucified. He suffered being nailed to the
tree. He suffered being lifted up in
the midday sun. He suffered the taunts and the
sneers and the hatred of all men. He suffered bearing the
sins of his elect. He suffered entering three hours
of darkness as God laid upon him the sins of all his people
throughout all time and God's justice was poured down on him
in fury. He suffered being cast out. being forsaken by his God because
he bore his people's sins, because he was made sin, because he hung
there as the outcast, as the sinner. He hung in the place
of sinners to deliver them from their sins. He entered hell,
he endured hell and the fury of God's wrath for his own. This is what he worked, this
is what he did in order to bring his people into rest. He suffered the outpouring of
God's wrath and yet throughout he looked up unto his God by
faith knowing that God would bring about their salvation.
My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? but he knew why
because he had to be to deliver them but he did deliver them
when every sin had been answered when the price had been paid
he cried out it is finished and they took him when they found
he had died Not a death from crucifixion. He didn't die from
the wounds in his hands and his feet and his side. He died from
the wrath of God poured out upon the sins of his people. He gave
himself, he gave up his life that they might live. But when
they found he died, they took his body and laid it in the grave.
And all his people were crucified with him. and died with him,
and were laid in the grave with him. And on the third day he
rose again, and they all rose again with him. He said, if you
destroy this temple, I will build it again in three days. And he
spake not of the temple in Jerusalem, but the temple of his body. by
which he meant his own body and all his people in him, the house
of God. And on the third day he rose
again and they all rose again victorious, living, redeemed,
washed of their sins, washed clean with him. The temple was
built perfect in Christ. And it owed nothing to the labors
of man. Except the Lord build the house,
they labour in vain that build it. He built it. He rose. And as a consequence, from heaven's
glory, he sends forth his gospel. to declare what he did freely
for his people. And by that gospel he calls that
people, he calls that chosen people out, he sends the gospel
to them, he quickens them unto life, he gathers them into his
church, he feeds them and unites them in that gospel and in himself,
he does it all. And he cares for his own as a
shepherd of his sheep. He cares. He cares to send the
gospel. He cares to feed his sheep. He
cares to gather them. He cares every day, every time
we hurt, every time we're cast down, every time the world comes
and persecution comes upon us, every time the world hates and
despises us as they hate and despised him, every time the
world cast our words in our face like they did with him. Every
time the world comes and rejects us as they rejected him, every
trouble that we suffer, that he also suffered, he knows it
because he endured it himself. He knows what it feels like to
be cast out. He knows what it feels like to
suffer pain. He knows what it feels like to
be on our own. He knows what it feels like to
feel like God has cast us out. To feel like we've sinned so
greatly that we cannot come into God's presence. He knows what
it feels like. He cares. And because he cares,
he sends his gospel each and every day. And he comforts his
own through the gospel. He binds up their wounds. He
picks them up. He gives them water to drink.
He gives them food to eat. He lifts us up. He's there every
day preaching his gospel. A gospel that saves. A gospel
that strengthens, a gospel that gives life. The psalmist goes
on, Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of
the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of
a mighty man, so are children of the youth. The gospel bears
fruit, it brings forth children, and those children are an heritage
of the Lord. It's God that gives them. Man
can't bring them forth, God does. They are those whom God gives
and only He can. Only God can cause man to be
born again of his spirit. We can't do this, we have no
part to play in this. When a preacher comes preaching
a gospel, his preaching, his words, his labours don't bring
this about. It's God's Spirit through that
preaching, through the gospel, that quickens the dead unto life.
Only when God sends the preacher, only when God sends the gospel,
only when God speaks through the gospel, is there life. Does a child come forth? and
he only brings life, he only brings forth children through
the preaching of the gospel. A gospel, the gospel, the only
gospel which declares the person and the work of Christ. as he's
described in the scriptures, as he truly is, a sovereign God,
one with God the Father, one with God the Spirit, the creator
of heaven and earth, the one who gave the law, the one who
fulfills the law through his death, the one who shed his blood
to save sinners, the one who calls and chooses his own and
gathers them into his church, the saviour who does it all. That child Jesus who was born
of Mary in Bethlehem. That Son of God who took upon
himself human flesh and was born in Bethlehem, the city of David. That child who was conceived
in her womb of the Holy Ghost. He was not born of the agency
of man. He wasn't Joseph's son. He was God's son. Conceived of
the Holy Ghost in Mary, taken upon himself human flesh, but
born of God. As Isaiah says, unto us a child
is born. God brought forth Christ of Mary. And to what end did he bring
him forth? to be offered up as a sacrifice. Like Isaac, that promised son
given to Abraham, he was taken up the hill by his father to
be offered up as a sacrifice. A son promised of God, given
of God, but given as a sacrifice to save sinners. So like Abraham
with Isaac, the father took his son Jesus, he gave him to us
to save his people from their sins and he took him, he took
him up the hill and he offered him up as a sacrifice for sin. He was given in order to bring
life to everyone that the Father chose, in order that they should
be born again, brought forth as the children of God, in order
that children should be born of the Gospel. Jesus said, suffer
ye the little children to come unto me, for of such are the
kingdom of God. We're all little children born
of God. We have no strength, we have
no wisdom. We're his offspring, he brings
us forth by the gospel. But of ourselves, we are nothing
but those children who are in his care. Finally the psalmist
concludes by saying, Happy is the man that hath his quiver
full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but
they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Why shall he not
be ashamed? He shall not be ashamed of the
gospel that brings forth these children, that builds this house.
He shall not be ashamed because these children are the fruit
of the gospel, not the fruit of man's work, not the fruit
of man's labors. There's nothing to be ashamed
of in the gospel. There's no sin, there's no rebellion,
there's nothing to tarnish it. It's all God's doing. This gospel,
the power of God unto salvation, is that by which God builds his
church. Hence his people, these little
children, called forth by grace, called forth by God, called out
of the darkness, called out of the grave, shall speak with the
enemies in the gate, because this power this dunamis, this
dynamite of the gospel which saves them is that which they
declare unto others is that which delivered them from darkness
and it is that that they know God uses to save sinners like
them to build the house of God to gather his church together
and nothing else does Hence Paul tells the Ephesians that we're
his workmanship. We're created in Christ Jesus
unto good works which God have before ordained that we should
walk in them. Remember that ye being in time
past Gentiles in the flesh. who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time ye were without Christ, once ye were without
him. You were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world. You had no right to this salvation. We're Gentiles. You and I are
Gentiles. We were outside of Israel. We
weren't part of that physical nation of Israel. We were lost
without hope and without God in the world. But now through
the gospel, now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace,
who hath made both one, Jews and Gentiles, and God and man,
and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us,
having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so make in peace. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and
to them that were nigh. For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building, fitly
framed together groweth unto one holy temple in the Lord,
in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. God builds his house. He builds it through the gospel.
He builds it by Christ. He quickens and saves sinners.
He builds them together. as an habitation of God, in which
God dwells by his spirit. Oh believer, what blessings you
have. What blessings we have in Christ.
Not only has he delivered us out of darkness, who were once
without hope in this world, but he gathers us and adds us and
builds us into his church, into his holy temple, that perfectly
built temple of God, and he dwells within us. God dwells in us,
by faith, in Christ. O have you heard, have you seen,
has he caused you to look and believe upon the Son of God,
who loved his own and gave himself for them? May God give us eyes
to see and ears to hear and cause us by faith to look upon Christ
and Christ alone for salvation. Amen.