Well, have your Bibles open if
you can, please, at Psalm 84. Psalm 84. We're living in a world
which, I think everybody will agree, this year especially,
is in great turmoil and great confusion. Not just in this country,
but throughout the world. And as soon as we see glimmers
of news that things are easing up, then we get more news that
things are far worse in other places. You know, I wrote that
article a couple of weeks ago that I think it's like the days
of Hezekiah and the Assyrians when God sent the Assyrians a
rumor that they heard and they went away and Hezekiah's prayer
was answered. I think God is bringing this
world gradually, bit by bit, to an end. It's frustrating this
world which is basically the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom
where there is no satisfaction of the justice of God. We can
have some kind of eternal goodness, some kind of lovely peace and
lovely utopia to live in, without the justice of God established.
But the kingdom of God is the kingdom where the justice of
God is absolutely established, and it's established on the basis
of the gospel of grace, of the blood of Christ. For Christ has
redeemed his people, the multitude that no man can number, of every
tribe and tongue and kindred. He has redeemed them from the
curse of the law and thereby has satisfied divine justice.
The justice of God which must punish sin is satisfied, for
Christ has died for his people. He has borne his people's sins. in his own body, on the cursed
tree. For them he has died, that great
multitude. We don't know who they are other
than that they are those who believe the gospel of his grace.
This is it. This is the work of God, that
you believe in the one whom he has sent. So the world is in
confusion. It's as if, isn't it, the blind
are leading the blind. There's looming economic catastrophe. If it's not already here, it
is absolutely going to come to fruition. There seems to be no
hope, and yet we see, when you look around us in society, no
seeking after God. or at least very, very little.
There is no repentance for sin, which is an offence to God. There
is no submission to God's righteousness and justice, because the righteousness
and justice of God is the only righteousness and justice that
matters, ultimately. What we and our legal systems
do, quite frankly, is irrelevant, it's a drop in an ocean, compared
with the importance of the righteousness and justice of God. We read earlier
in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 24, about the days of Noah, as
it was in the days of Noah, verse 37 of that chapter, you don't
need to turn to it, I've got it here. Verse 37, as in the
days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
You see, then in the days of Noah, before the flood, They
were just carrying on life as if there was no God and there
was no need for justice and righteousness and sin didn't matter and they
were marrying and eating and drinking and giving in marriage
until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until
the flood came and took them all away. The judgment of God
came on sin and took them all away. So Also shall the coming
of the Son of Man be. The Word of God has warned us.
The Kingdom of God is bringing the Kingdom of Antichrist, this
world, to an end, but people still refuse to believe. They
prefer people in general, prefer godless company. Godless company,
where there's no thought for the things of God and the justice
and righteousness of God. Godless conversation. Carelessness
regarding mortality, the fact that we're going to die. It's
appointed to man to die once, and then the judgment, says Hebrews
9.27. It's appointed to, we all have an appointment with death
and then it says the judgment. People are motivated only by
this world, what they can see, what they can acquire, what they
can experience. You know the bucket list that
I've talked about so often, the things that you must do so that
you can say I've had a good and fulfilled life. And God said,
like to that man in that parable that Jesus told, the man whose
harvest had prospered him greatly, and he said, oh look, this is
so good, my barns are not big enough, I know what I'll do,
I'll knock them all down and I'll build bigger ones, and I'll
store all this wonderful bounty in there, and then I'll say to
my soul, soul, you've set up forever, you've won the lottery,
sit back and relax and eat and drink and be merry, and God said
to him, thou fool. this night your soul will be
required of you. And then, whose will all these
things be? Oh, what a sobering message that is to hear. You
fool, says God, this night your soul will be required of you.
Then, who will all these things that you've sought to acquire,
whose will they be? Whom will they satisfy? How vain and empty it seems.
especially if you're a child of God, if you're a believer,
if you've tasted and seen the goodness of God. One of the Psalms
says, taste and see that the Lord is good. If you've tasted
the goodness of God in his gospel grace, the goodness and the blessedness
of the kingdom of God, of the hope of eternal glory, how I
pity How I pity those who have not eyes to see, the eyes of
faith, the sight of the soul, ears to hear. So that when, you
know, we were thinking just for a moment last week, blessed are
those who hear the joyful sound. The joyful sound is the gospel
sound of forgiveness of sins. of redemption accomplished, of
God's anger turned away, of peace with God. We therefore have peace
with God, says Romans 5 verse 1. Justified by faith, we have
peace with God. You know, I really do. You think
about not knowing these things. It says in Psalm 4, knowing these
things, I will both lay me down and sleep in peace, for thou,
Lord, make me to dwell safely, dwelling safely in gospel grace. You know, it's like, it's like,
you know, I've said many a time, I absolutely love good music,
but especially classical music. And if you've never experienced
the hairs on the back of the neck tingling at a glorious performance
of some wonderful work. It's just the greatest thrill,
really is. I love nothing better than to
be in a good concert hall hearing a live orchestra doing that.
But you know there are people I know all around us to whom
it's has absolutely zero effect. It just doesn't, it just doesn't
chime a solitary thing with them. It has zero effect whatsoever. Oh, I feel sorry, but how much
more sorry for those that have not seen and sensed the things
of the kingdom of God. These are strange days that we're
living in, these COVID lockdown and its follow-up days, and it
brings into sharp contrast You know, these days in this world,
what a sharp contrast to the blessings of God's kingdom and
the futility of this world's aspirations. How futile are the
worlds? I'm not saying that we shouldn't
try to do things, that we shouldn't try to make a better society,
a just society, a society that works, a society where medicine
does a good job for people. I'm not saying we shouldn't do
that at all, but ultimately, It's just for a few years, a
few short years. What was it we were reading?
It was about, it was the Psalm of Moses, wasn't it? Three score
years and ten is the lifespan, and if by strength he lives to
80 years old, and they're just days of hardness and difficulty,
and you know, it gets, you feel it. You know, we're coming up
for our three score years and ten, and bones ache a lot more
than they used to do, and muscles can't do what they used to do.
So I want to think about Psalm 84 this morning with you briefly,
and think about the contrast with this world that it highlights.
The tabernacles of God, first of all, this is the first point,
just two points, the tabernacles of God and the blessed people
of God. Look in verse 1, how amiable
are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. How amiable, verse 2,
my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. The courts,
meaning as in the royal palace, the courtiers are those who serve
in the court of the king, in the ruling palace of the king.
the courts of the Lord. Verse 10, a day in thy courts
is better than a thousand. In the house of the Lord. Verse
4, blessed are they that dwell in thy house, the house of God.
Verse 10, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. It is
Zion. I know Zion's got bad connotations
because of, in a lot of quarters, because of the Israeli nation's
treatment of the Palestinians, and I'm not talking about that
kind of Zionism, I'm talking about biblical Zionism, which
is the people of God, the church of God, the redeemed of the Lord,
the ones for whom Christ died, the ones that Christ He's taking
to eternal glory. Verse 7, they go from strength
to strength, or it says, company to company. Every one of them
in Zion, appearing before God. Zion, city of our God. Glorious
things of thee are spoken. Zion, city of our God. These tabernacles of God, the
dwelling place of God, the place of God's kingdom, the seat of
his authority, the place where he rules unchallenged. This is
the kingdom of God, the abode of life, life consistent with
God's righteousness and justice, because that is true life, that
is true life, that is eternal life. They shall have life and
shall have it more abundantly, said the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the life he was speaking of is that life which is consistent
with the righteousness and justice of God. It's where God, this
place, Zion, is where God holds blissful communion with his saved
people. We've been singing about it in
the hymns. You know, not just going to a church building, not
just gathering with other people just to see what they're wearing
today, but to go to meet with the living God, to hear His Word,
by His Spirit's application of it, to see the Lord Jesus Christ
in His glory with the eye of faith. We don't see Him physically,
but with the eye of faith. We see where He shines as the
sun. Verse 11, the Lord God is a sun
and a shield. He shines as the sun, just as
the sun is to life on this earth. It is the energy for life. It's
the sustenance of life. All life, it all derives its
life power from the energy that comes from the sun. and God is
likened. He exceeds it. The Lord God is
a sun and a shield. He gives the energy for life
and sustenance. I don't just mean physical life,
I mean spiritual life. You see, in Revelation 21 and
verse 23 we have a picture of Zion accomplished, of the kingdom
of God in the fullness of its consummation, of its fruition.
And it says the city, the city of God, that new Jerusalem coming
down out of heaven, it says the city had no need of the sun,
the physical sun, neither of the moon to shine in it. Why
not? for the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb, the
Lamb, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world. The Lamb is the light
thereof. He is the light of that eternal
kingdom. In short, this is God's kingdom. Behold, the kingdom
of God is within you, said Jesus. They said, show us the kingdom
of God. And he said, the kingdom of God doesn't come with observation. You can't observe it. You can't
get a passport and go and visit it. He said, it's within you.
It's within his believing people. The kingdom of God is within
you. It isn't observable by the world, but it is where God is
known by his people. We know him as creator who has
made all things. We're told that people don't
believe in creation because they just find it just so utterly
ridiculous that how on earth could you possibly believe in
a creator and a creation? When you believe in a creator
and a creation, I think the thing is turned around exactly the
opposite way. How on earth can you believe in the wonder and
the beauty and the complexity and the wonder of life, without
thinking that somebody intelligent designed it. And yet, the one
thing that is forbidden in these days, in the realms of scientific
discovery, is to talk about intelligent design, when the great scientists
of the past, almost all, were those who believed in the living
God. No. God is known by his people as
creator and sustainer and giver of life and the source of all
true wisdom. How the wisdom of this world
is shown up daily to be utterly futile. Our government is taking
what it regards as the best scientific advice available in the current
crisis. Governments around the world
the same. And yet day by day it unfolds as absolute abject
futility and nonsense. just completely back to front,
to logic. But God gives wisdom, for in
our Lord Jesus Christ we have the wisdom of God. He is unto
his people wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption. He is the righteous judge. He
is the gracious redeemer of sinners. He is merciful and compassionate.
He is good. God who is a consuming fire,
and into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall, for he is a God
who cannot tolerate sin and must punish sin, yet he is good. and compassionate and gracious.
He's unseen by natural man, yet manifest to his people in the
face of Jesus Christ. I've already quoted it. God who
commanded light to shine in the darkness, in the beginning when
he said, let there be light, and there was light, and God
saw the light, that it was good, it says in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 verse 6, God who shined light in the darkness has shined into
our hearts, the hearts of his people, to give us the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. If you would know God, you must
know the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in John chapter 1 verse
18, no man has seen God at any time. He says, you cannot see
me. Moses said, show me your glory.
Come and stand here. You cannot see my face. You cannot. You cannot. You cannot see the
essence of God. God the Father is invisible.
But he says, no man has seen Him at any time, but the only
begotten Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, He has made Him known. He
has manifested Him. He's in the bosom of the Father
and He has made Him known. In John 14, again a verse I quote
often, show us the Father and it will suffice, that will do.
Him having said he is the way, the truth and the life, no man
comes to the Father but by me. Philip says show us the Father
and that will suffice us. And you know what Jesus said
to Philip. Philip, this is just a man in
a room with the other 11 of them. Philip, have I been so long with
you and you have not known me? He who has seen me, this man,
has seen the Father. Amazing. The Lord Jesus Christ
reveals the Father. The kingdom of God is the abode,
the dwelling place of those who in Christ possess eternal life. Do you have eternal life? What
a blessed thing to have. John 17 verse 3, the prayer he
prayed shortly after what I've just been quoting from John 14.
And he said this, he said the Father had given him, Christ,
power to give eternal life to as many as the Father had given
him. The people the Father put in
union with him before the beginning of time. And he says in the very
next verse, verse 3, this is life eternal. What is life eternal?
that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent." Because knowing Jesus Christ is the only
way we do know the only true God. Have you any notion of this? Have you any experience of it?
Have you tasted it? Have you known the blessing of
being in the kingdom of God? Think about it just for a moment,
just an illustration. You know, there are situations,
there are times when we, a lot of the time we pour scorn on
national institutions and things like that, but there are situations
in this world when it is such a comfort to be a British citizen,
and to have a British passport, and to be able to move freely,
because the government and the Queen of the United Kingdom has
given you this passport to say, treat this person, this is one
of my subjects, give them right of passage, treat them lawfully,
treat them well. There are situations in which
it feels very comforting to be a British citizen. Think about
the situation where there's that girl who went off to join ISIS,
and the government has removed from her her citizenship. She
is stateless. And we keep hearing about the
agonizing state in which she is, because she is no longer
a British citizen. She does not have access to the
privileges of British citizenship. Now, it's a very, very pale,
a very, very dim illustration But oh, when you've experienced
the kingdom of God, and the truth of God, and the gem which is
the gospel of grace, that you're qualified by grace to inhabit
the tabernacles of God. How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, even faints for
the courts of God. My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God. There's something in me that
longs for fellowship with the God who has made me. the God
who has promised, I will be their God and they shall be my people.
This longing, it's described in Psalm 42, I think it is, 42,
1 and 2, as the heart, the deer, the stag, being chased by the
hounds, how it longs and desperately yearns for a drink of cool water
from the stream. That's the way those verses put
it. Well, that's the soul that is seeking God. to be shielded
by the omnipotent ruler of the universe. Do you know that? There's
no contest in truth. God is sovereign over all. He
is, do you know what the word omnipotent means? Break it down.
Omni, all. Potent, powerful. All powerful. Just as he's omniscient, knows
all things. Omnipresent, everywhere. Where
can I flee from your presence? If I go down into the depths
of the sea, you are there. Psalm 139, read it for yourself. If yes, you will agree with verse
10. Look what it says in verse 10.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand, meaning thousand
elsewhere. I'd sooner have one day in your
courts than a thousand elsewhere. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Or, as the marginal reference says, I would choose rather to
sit at the threshold. How did I put it in the bulletin
article? Just paraphrasing that verse,
he says, I would rather sit at the threshold of God's kingdom,
merely sensing its ambience, than to indulge my fleshly senses
for a brief season in the world. That's exactly what Moses did.
You know, Moses, who had all the riches of Egypt at his disposal,
he was raised as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and yet he left that
aside because he considered the reproach of Christ, the abuse
he would get for following Christ to be greater riches than anything
that his days as the prince in Egypt could give him. I would
choose rather To sit at the threshold one day than to dwell for thousands
of days in the tents of worldly godlessness. The tabernacles
of God, and then let's see the blessed people of God. Look how
God has blessed his people. Look at verse 11. The Lord God
is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. I might say that at times we
think that the things he gives are not particularly good because
they're painful to the flesh, but his objective is always eternal
good. No thing that is not for our
eternal good and our eternal peace will he withhold from his
people, from them that walk uprightly. We'll talk about that in a moment.
but he's blessed his people with grace and glory in all good things. What is it to give grace? Grace is that which is completely
undeserved. You don't work for it, you don't
warrant it, you don't get given grace by God because you're better
than other people, you're more righteous, you've got better
connections, your traditions are better, you're civilized,
nice people. It's not in the slightest. God
is a God of grace, and it's without any... As far as God is concerned,
He's no respecter of persons. He doesn't say, oh, this one's
a good one, and that one's not a good one. It's just by love
in eternity in Christ, He united a people, a multitude, that no
man can number, with His Son. And He has, as Ephesians 1 verse
3 says, He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly
places in Christ. The people of his choice, the
people whom he has redeemed, the people whom he has shown
his truth, he has blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly
places in Christ. What more could you need? What
more could you want? For your existence as a sentient
being, what more could you want? Every spiritual blessing in heavenly
places in Christ. He has given, and He will continue
to give grace. Grace, completely undeserved
favor. The undeserved favor of God.
To do what? Here are some things. What has
He given grace to do? Verse 2, My soul longs and faints
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cries out
for the living God. He's given by grace. to his people
a desire for fellowship with God. This is where this longing,
this panting comes from. It's that God by grace has given
it. God by grace has given it. You
know, He stirs up in the hearts of some this desire for Him. desire to fellowship with him.
When the natural man, man as we're all born in our natural
condition, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God for their foolishness to him, neither can he know them.
Why? Because they're spiritually discerned. He must give to a
person's spiritual discernment. And then we will desire fellowship
with God. You see, man in general is like
it says in Romans 1.28. They, all of them, every single
one of them, as it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the
days of Paul the Apostle, as it is today, the vast majority,
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. You say,
well aren't there lots and lots of religious folk around the
world? There are lots of idol worshippers. What's an idol?
That's a false God. It's a God that is not the God
that has revealed Himself in His Word, the Word of eternal
life. You have the words of eternal
life. To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. They did not like to retain the true God, the God of Scripture,
the God of sovereign grace in their knowledge. You see, It's
all sin, is that. It's all sin, it's all rejection
of God. But He has made His people willing
in the day of His power. Psalm 110 verse 3. He has made
His people willing. How? By sovereign grace. He's
given them a desire for fellowship. He's made them willing in the
day of His power. Blessed are they who hunger,
and the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst for righteousness. They know they haven't got it,
and they know they must have it to have fellowship with God
who is holy. But he says, they shall be filled.
How are they filled? By grace, by grace. by the gift
of God, by the undeserved gift of God, based on the work that
Christ has accomplished with his righteousness and his death
paying the penalty for sin, hunger and thirst for righteousness,
crying out like that heart, that deer, that stag, crying out for
the knowledge of God. Oh, that I might know him, said
Paul in the letter to the Philippians. He says, oh, that I might know
him, not know about him, oh, that I might know him, that I
might know him. Think about the people you really
know. Oh, that I might know God, that
I might commune with God. You know, again, let me quote
that chorus again. He lives, he lives. Christ Jesus
lives today. He walks with me and he talks
with me along life's narrow way. He lives, he lives, Salvation
to impart, you ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my
heart. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live, Galatians
2.20, by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me, longing, fainting, crying out. Then he gives grace,
verse 3, to find. He not only gives grace to long
for, and to search, and to desire, and to seek fellowship with Him,
but He gives grace to find it. Yea, the sparrow hath found an
house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay
her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King. The
sparrow is such an insignificant bird, isn't it? They're talking
about sparrow populations declining. I think they're all here in our
garden. We've got dozens and dozens of them. They live in
that hedge. There's just so many little insignificant
sparrows. Occasionally we keep finding
them dead. There's so many of them, I think they out-compete
each other. An insignificant sparrow. Do you know, a sinner,
compared with the righteousness of God, is unfit for God's palace. But the insignificant sparrow
has found a house. has found a house, has found
a place where she may live, where she may live peaceably with God.
And where is it? Look, it's on the altars of God. This is the picture of the temple
altar in Jerusalem, the consuming fire, where the justice of God
falls on the sin of His people. This is, that's what's pictured
by the altar. O Lord God of hosts, my King
and my God, the altars, even thine altars, we have an altar. It says in Hebrews, Hebrews 13
verse 10, we don't have an altar today where you go and you dress
up in robes and you take this, that and the other, because the
altar we have is spiritual. It is Christ and his redemption
that he purchased on the cross of Calvary. And like that sparrow,
we sinners have found a house and a nest where we may raise
our young. In other words, here, I think
there's another allusion here, which is to the church, which
is where new converts to Christ are born. The church is pictured
in scripture as the woman, and children are born to the... it's
converts being born to the gospel of Christ, those who hear it
and believe it and love the Lord Jesus Christ, where she may lay
her young, and it's right there. even thine altars. Charles Spurgeon
tells the story about this, he says that when people were, you
know, he ministered in the 1800s and people had started visiting
Palestine and they'd started visiting Jerusalem and there
in Jerusalem were still the ruins of the old temple, that which
was destroyed in AD 70 by the Emperor Tiberius, I think it
was. The ruins were there, and it's
never been rebuilt, the altars have never been rebuilt. But
whilst this man was wandering round there and looking, he observed
a crack in the rock of the old ruins, and there a sparrow had
made its nest. And he said he just remembered
this verse in Psalm 84 verse 3, the sparrow's made its nest
right underneath where the altar of God was. we have an altar,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, praise, verse 4. He's given us grace to praise
Him. You know, not everybody naturally
is inclined to praise God. The natural man is not inclined
to praise God, but by grace his people are brought to praise
Him. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will still
be praising thee. Praise. If you live in The house
of God you cannot but praise God, who has graciously shown
you mercy. And then fourthly, grace for
strength. Strength. He says, where does
he say that? Blessed is the man whose strength
is in thee. This is verse 5. Strength. The
sustaining life force. He's given strength. Sustaining
life force. In Isaiah 45 and 24 we read,
Surely shall one say, In the Lord I have righteousness and
strength. Where is your strength, where
is your life force, your sustaining life force? It's in the Lord
and His righteousness. That's where it is. Blessed,
favoured, shown grace is the man, the person whose strength
is in God. With God's ways to Zion. Look,
in whose heart are the ways of them? An alternative translation
of that is God's ways to Zion in the heart. They have God's
ways to, what's God's ways to Zion? The ways to eternal glory,
the ways to heaven. What is the way to heaven? Jesus
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. With God's grace, we have grace
for the journey next. Verses 6 and 7, passing through
the valley of Bacchar. The valley of Bacchar was a valley
that many of them went through on their way up to Jerusalem
for the feasts, for the several feasts a year. And it was a pretty
barren place where mulberry trees grew. They'd made pools there
to capture water so that there was water to drink on the arduous
journey in the hot days. And it's a journey on the way
to Zion, Jerusalem, which was the picture of the true Zion
of God, the true city of the living God, the true heaven,
the true kingdom of the living God. And they go from strength
to strength, they go from company to company, is an alternative
translation. Every one of them in Zion appearing
before God. It's talking about the journey
through this life. There's grace for the journey.
God gives us grace to keep going in this life. Some of us have
believed when very young. Those who have truly believed
will never, ever walk out on it. You cannot. You just simply
cannot walk out on it. You know it's the truth. It's
your daily source of life. It's your light. It's your... hope that is set before you when
you when you see futility all around you know you know let's
say you get this horrible disease and you are one of the very very
tiny small minority who get it very badly and you go and you
die but you know for the child of God this is not just being
fatalistic it's being truthful it's being truthful what did
Paul say to to remain would be good but to depart and be with
Christ which is far better far better He gives them grace to
walk uprightly. Look at the end of verse 11.
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
What is it to walk uprightly? Well, I would say it is to walk
by faith, looking unto Jesus. We don't walk uprightly in our
own strength, in our own goodness, in our own righteousness, for
we know that we have none. As the Apostle Paul said, I am
the chief of sinners. He said, in me, that is in my
flesh, He didn't say it's getting gradually better and better,
did he? No, he said there dwells no good thing. He said I'm the
chief of sinners, even when he was the great established apostle
of the New Testament church, the chief of sinners. We only
walk by faith, looking unto Jesus, because what is it to do the
work of God? The Jews asked Jesus, what is
it that we might do the work of God? He said, this is the
work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent, that
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that trusting and resting
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and looking unto him, I live, I'm
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. It is only looking unto Jesus that we fulfil the requirements,
the objectives, the aims of the law. It is only by that, it is
only the love of Christ that constrains our behaviour to walk
uprightly. This is the work of God, living
in the light and integrity of the faith of God's elect. Always
empty, always knowing that we're empty and sinful, yet constantly
filled with all good things. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. The things that pertain to eternal
blessing, that's what it is. It doesn't mean he's going to
give you the latest wonderful whizzy gadget, or the best car
ever, or such a glorious place to go on holiday, or anything
like that. As nice as some of those things are, you can possess
them and you can look at them and enjoy them for a while, but
no, he's talking about good things of eternity. The things that
speak of eternal blessing and peace with God, because he gives
grace This is the final point I've got. To trust God. The Lord
of hosts. Blessed is the man that trusts
in you. To trust Him. Based on confidence. That's what trust is based on.
You trust somebody because you have confidence in them. That
they will keep their word. That they will be honest. That
they will not deal falsely with you. You have confidence in God. In the nature of God. Revealed
in His Word. And made known and shown and
manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. Where would
you rather be? That's the title I've given to
this message. Where would you rather be? In the tabernacles
of God's gospel grace, trusting in Him, and destined for eternal
glory, and with a hope of eternal glory, and knowing that your
sins are taken away and cleansed in the blood of the Lamb? Because
you see, grace now is but glory begun. You see, glory is the
goal, glory is the end objective, heaven is the end objective,
and we have grace now, grace to trust, strength for the journey,
to walk uprightly. Grace is what we have now, but
glory is the culmination of it. Grace is but glory begun, and
glory is but grace completed. For when we're there in glory,
there will be no more need for grace, for we will be there.
We will be there. or would you rather be in the
tents of wickedness, in the tents of this world's unbelief? For
how long? Who knows? A few short years?
At the most they're a few short years, even if they seem long
at the moment, looking back I can tell you they're short. As for
me, truly, the more I experience of the knowledge and fellowship
of God in Christ, the easier it is to unclasp the things of
this world and confidently anticipate eternal bliss, the eternal bliss
of heaven. Do you want to know him? Verse
8, O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of
Jacob. Seek, said the Lord Jesus Christ,
and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
to you. Amen.