Well, I want to turn your attention
this morning to Psalm 84, the 84th Psalm. So please turn to
that very beautiful little psalm, just 12 verses, but great beauty
of language in this psalm. I want to remind you there's
a threefold application of the Psalms. Always bear this in mind
that first of all it's the experience of the one who wrote them and
in most cases that's the experience of David. You can definitely
read into this the experience of the one that wrote but also
if you just stop there you miss by far the most profound revelation
that comes by these Psalms which is the experience of Christ in
union with his people, as a man redeeming his people, as a man
walking in perfection with clean hands and a pure heart. Who else
can say that but him? Blessed is he that hath pure
hands and a clean heart. This must be Christ, but then
he talks about his sins weighing him down. How can that be Christ? He was made sin for his people. He was made the sins of his people. When he went to Calvary and cried
out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was because
he was weighed down with the sins of his people, that he might
pay redemption's price for those sins, that those sins might be
blotted out in the justice of God. that salvation might be
accomplished. And as Cliff said in his prayer,
that Christ might be raised from the dead to vindicate the fact.
He was raised for our justification, showing that God has accomplished
everything he set out to. So clearly, the experience of
Christ redeeming his people from their sins, as the man, the one
who became flesh, it was necessary that as the children, those the
father had given to the son, were made flesh, creatures of
flesh, human beings, flesh and bones and blood, that he, God,
the second person, should be made flesh for his people. In
being made flesh, he might through death, through dying the death
of a man, shedding the blood of a man for the sins of his
people, that he might in that way justify his people from their
sins. He might satisfy the justice
of God which says the soul that sins, it shall die. But thirdly,
It's his people's experience. And this is how I want to look
at this psalm this morning, particularly as the experience of his people. The experience of his people.
The first verse talks about the tabernacles of God. How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts. This was written in the days
of David. There wasn't a temple in Jerusalem,
not till his son Solomon had that temple built in Jerusalem. They were still worshiping God
in the tabernacle that had gone through the wilderness with them
and was erected there in Jerusalem. How amiable are thy tabernacles.
What is the tabernacle? What's the significance of the
tabernacle? It was a place of worship in
Jerusalem, obviously. It was a place of sacrifice. There was the sacrifice of animals,
exactly as the books of Moses had prescribed there should be.
Exactly as God had given the pattern to Moses, there was the
sacrifice of the animals. There was an approach to God. People went there to meet with
God. There was the felt presence of
God amongst man, was there in the tabernacle in Jerusalem.
there were the priests who were the ones who would intercede
between the ordinary people and the holiness of God and there
was the high priest who alone once a year could go into the
holy of holies and only then with an acceptable sacrifice
exactly as Moses had specified under the instruction of God.
And what's it all for? Is it just that's Old Testament
religion with all of its mysteries? That's the way they did things
in those days. No. The whole of it is picturing
Christ and the gospel. That's what it's for. All of
it shows us how God saves his people from their sins. How God,
as we saw in the last couple of weeks, how God saves his flock
how he saves that valley full of dead dry bones and makes them
stand on their feet a living army. It's all picturing Christ.
Every aspect of the tabernacle and of the temple that followed
it pictures Christ and the gospel. It pictures the way that sinners,
and God is a purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot
look upon sin, and we know that we in ourselves there dwells
no good thing. It's how God accepts sinners.
How propitiation is made. A turning away of the just anger
of God. How mercy is shown. God delights
in mercy. How can God be merciful? It's
only because of this that takes place, that is pictured there
in the tabernacle. It's there that mercy and grace
are on display. The law condemns. Sinai is a
place of fear and of trembling. They said to Moses, don't come
near us, we're terrified. If even an animal went near that
mountain, it was to be shot through with an arrow. But here in the
temple was peace. It was favor. It was acceptance
with God. Here was the word of God, which
is Christ, on display. And all the men, all the males
of Israel, three times a year, were instructed that they must
come up to Jerusalem, to Zion, to appear before God. And it's
picturing heavenly Jerusalem. It's picturing the people of
God. How many times does God say, they shall be my people? and I will be their God. This
is picturing heaven. where the people of God are delighting
in the presence of God. And it's a perpetual, eternal
state outside of time, picturing the heavenly Jerusalem. And Psalm
84 pictures the journey up to Zion. So I've called this message,
The Journey to Zion. This pictures the journey up
to Zion. It's an allegory of the believer's
journey through this life of flesh and of sin to that new
Jerusalem of which we were thinking last week when John in Revelation
21 saw the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as a bride
adorned for her husband. This new city, this new Jerusalem
is preparing us, it's showing us the journey through this life
to that goal. Now David who wrote this psalm
He's fled from Jerusalem. It seems apparent in the history
of the Old Testament and God's dealing with Israel. This was
the time when Absalom, his son, had rebelled, had raised a rebellion
against him. And the days of prosperity of
David as the king had come to an end. and he's driven out of
Jerusalem, and he's in exile, and he can't go back there. And
that's where the presence of God is. It's in Jerusalem. It
must be there. Don't for one minute think that
there's any relevance or reference to that city in the Middle East
today. Yes, it's the physical place, But there is no spiritual
significance to that city today for God ended all sacrifice,
all types, all pictures in A.D. 70 when the Emperor Tiberius
sacked the place. There's never been a temple or
sacrifices there ever since to this day. God did exactly what
he told Daniel he would do. Christ came and made an end of
sacrifice. And he underlined it by what
Tiberius did to that city in those days. So don't be confused
with this. We're talking about heavenly Jerusalem. But here
it's a picture. David's fled from it. He's exiled
from it. He longs for it. He's longing
for it. Look, how amiable are thy tabernacles. Here he is, he can't go there.
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. See, last week we looked at Revelation
21 and 22, the picture of heaven, the eternal destiny of those
redeemed by Christ, the journey's end. This psalm speaks to us
about that journey and its destination, and it's got this sense of longing
for that situation, longing for it. As David longed to be in
Jerusalem, in the tabernacles, worshipping God, not just going
through his religious high, But knowing that there is everything
he needs for this life and for eternity. There it is. And it's
echoed in other Psalms. Psalm 42 verses 1 and 2. As the
heart, as the deer, the deer being chased in the hunt, the
stab. getting itself incredibly hot
and tired, as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth
my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? You see, this is what David's
saying. how much he's longing to be there. Psalm 43 verse 3,
Oh send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me, let
them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Oh how
I long to be in your tabernacles. Why such yearning? Why did he
have such yearning? He's exiled from it. Why such
yearning? Because there was the felt presence
of God. There was the assurance of forgiveness,
because it was all set out before him in the sacrifices, and in
the shed blood, and in the high priest going in and not being
consumed, in the history of Israel. People had approached God in
a presumptuous, high-handed, self-confident way, and God had
struck them dead. Even Uzzah, steadying the ark
in the days of David, doing the most sincere thing, but not as
God had ordained, and God struck him dead. Oh, this was serious. this was serious but there they
saw annually on the day of atonement the high priest and all the people
would wait and see him go in to the holy of holies is he accepted
or is he struck dead because who can go into the presence
of god without an acceptable sacrifice and he comes out and
they know it's accepted and not only that but their sins are
forgiven pictorially allegorically in this picture of the gospel
That's why there's such yearning for this place. It's where the
felt presence of God is. There's the graphic confirmation
of acceptance in the gospel symbols. There's eternal peace. We know
that it's appointed to man to die once, and then the judgment. We know that we must all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. And we have Job's question echoing
in our ears, how shall a man be just with God? How shall a
man be just with God when I know that my sin burdens me down?
But here in the gospel of grace, in everything that's symbolized
in the tabernacle, is peace. Is redemption accomplished? Is
debts paid in full? Is the journey's end? Do you
long for the courts of the Lord as David did? Do you long for
heaven as David did? This is what he's picturing.
Do you have that longing for eternity or even for the gathering
of his people. Do you have that longing to meet
with his people under the sound of the gospel? I'll have you
as the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness and God
gave them that manna, that bread from heaven and they got so that
they despised it, that gracious gift that God gave them. Every
day except the Sabbath day when the The lot that they collected
on the Friday lasted them two days, but every other day if
they tried to keep it, it went off. It went, it smelled bad,
it got worms in it. But every day, fresh manna, fresh
manna from heaven. And Jesus said, I am the manna,
the bread of life that comes down from heaven. Whoever eats
this bread shall live forever. But they despised it. The Israelites
despised this manner. This loathsome food, they called
it. Oh, we're tired of this loathsome
food. We're fed up of it. Is that you? Do you despise this manner? Or
do you need to meet to hear the gospel of God's grace? I remember
times in our life when we have been for a number of weeks separated
from the regular preaching of the true gospel of grace. If
you're a true child of God, it eats away at you and you cannot
stand it. It doesn't matter what view you're looking at. It doesn't
matter what social life you are having, what friends and family
there are around you. Oh, you start to long for the
courts. the tabernacles of God. You start to long to be with
his people, hearing the gospel of grace. You go to a church
and you keep hearing again and again, law, must do, this, that,
and the other. All the made up religion of man. And you don't hear those sweet
words of the gospel of grace. You don't hear those golden bells
on the robe of the high priest sounding the sound of the gospel
of grace, of acceptance. And you long for it. I know in
our case, the reason why we live here is because we knew a man
25 years ago, thereabouts, who was preaching Christ, not in
this room, but in this area, and we had to come. We had to
come, so we uprooted from where we were and we came for that
purpose. Because it doesn't matter that we had the coast on our
doorstep, we loved it, it was great. We had the new forest
on our doorstep, it was fantastic. We had a very nice place to live
and everything to go with it. It was really, really, but there
was no Christ. And oh, the longing for the tabernacles
of the Lord. The longing to hear regularly,
faithfully, the gospel of Christ proclaimed. Verse three. 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 and my God. He's continuing his yearning.
Here he is, and he envies the sparrow and the swallow that
can fly there. Oh, that I had the wings of a
dove, it says somewhere else, doesn't it? Oh, that I had the
wings of these birds that I might fly there to be there. Nothing
could stop me then. I could get in there and I'll
find a place of safety. Isn't that a lovely little picture?
Just as an aside, that the swallow has made a nest. Where has she
made a nest? On the altars of God. What are
the altars of God? They're a place of death, of
bloodshed, of fire. The fire of the wrath of God
against sin. And there, there the swallow
finds a place to make a nest for her young. Is this not the
experience of the believer that in that great altar which is
our Lord Jesus Christ and the cross of his suffering and his
shed blood there is peace and safety? Verse four, blessed are
they that dwell in thine house they will still be praising thee. Blessed. Oh, the blessedness
of dwelling in the Lord's house. Oh, the blessedness of being
in that tabernacle in Jerusalem in those days from which he was
then separated. Oh, the blessing, let's bring
it up to date, of gathering with God's people, with his church,
under the gospel of his grace. I'm not talking about gathering
in a place that calls itself Christian. I'm talking about
where Christ is lifted up. Not where obligation is proclaimed,
but where Christ is lifted up. Not where must do is proclaimed,
but where Christ has done is lifted up. I, if I be lifted
up, he said, will draw all men unto me. Longing for that place,
the blessedness of being in that place, the blessedness in our
ultimate destiny of being around his throne in glory. Who knows
what it will be? We saw last week, John says we
don't know. 1 John 3 verse 1 and 2, we don't know what it will
be like, but this we know. When we shall see him, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Endless praise,
unforced praise, the delight of the heart of all his people.
Spontaneous praise. Selah, stop. Think about these
things. Oh, the blessedness. What a destination
is in prospect. What little encouragements we
have for it in the meeting of God's people. So now I want to
turn your attention to verses five to seven. Blessed is the
man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of
them, who, passing through the valley of Bacchar, make it a
well. The rain also filleth the pools.
They go from strength to strength. Every one of them in Zion appeareth
before God. Three times a year, I said, three
times a year, they made the journey to Jerusalem. And, you know,
you have the account in Luke's Gospel, Chapter 2, where
Mary and Joseph made one of those journeys. And it was for all
the males all the time, but Also, for the women who were strong
enough to do it. So, generally speaking, the older women and
those that were with nursing children, they would stay behind.
But the men were supposed to go. And on this occasion, Mary
and Joseph and the 12-year-old Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And it was an arduous journey.
It wasn't a journey, you know, like we take these things so
much for granted now. Even despite delays on the trains,
you know, you still expect, I expect tomorrow morning to get on a
train in Wellinggarden City and less than three hours later be
nearly 300 miles north in Darlington. I expect that, you didn't do
that in these days. It was an arduous journey, an
arduous journey. And it was only those with the
necessary strength would make it. And it pictures this life,
the marching, the walking through this life, struggling even through
this life to eternity. How will you arrive at your destination? Verse 5, blessed is the man whose
strength is in thee. Blessed is the man whose strength. You need strength. Where are
you going to get that strength from? Blessed is the man whose
strength is in thee. Blessed is the man who's come
to an end of his own strength. Blessed is that man. Come to
an end of his own strength. As Jesus said in the Sermon on
the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the mourners,
those that mourn over their sin. Blessed are the meek. Quite contrary
to this world's aspirations of achievement, isn't it? Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are
the merciful because the poor in spirit will have their part
in the kingdom of heaven. The meek shall inherit the earth. Those that mourn over their sins
will be comforted. Those that constantly hunger
and thirst for righteousness will find they are constantly
filled with the righteousness of Christ for he made him who
knew no sin to be made sin for us that we His people might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Pursue, follow holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. Where will I find that
holiness? Will I find it in my own obedience to the law? Never,
for in myself there dwells no good thing, but I find that in
Christ He is the Lord, my righteousness, as Jeremiah said. It's always
been the case. This isn't a New Testament invention.
Jeremiah said, He is the Lord, our righteousness. That is His
name. We're filled with the righteousness for which we hunger and thirst
in Him. We're shown mercy because of what He has accomplished in
the gospel of His grace. And all of this is from God.
All of this is strength from God. Every bit of it. Where do
we get the strength for this journey to eternity? To the New
Jerusalem. Blessed is the man whose strength
is in thee. All from God, not from ourselves. Isaiah 45 verse 24, Surely shall
one say, In the Lord I have righteousness and strength. You see, the saints
of God have always said that. The saints of God have always
known that their righteousness is in the Lord. Job was that
man whom God said to Satan, have you considered him? There's none
like him. He's perfect in all his ways.
And he was brought eventually, through the trials that God allowed,
he was brought eventually to see God. He said, I've heard
of you with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you
and I praise myself for my holiness? No, I abhor myself and I repent
in dust and ashes for I know that if I'm going to have righteousness,
if I'm going to have strength and make this journey to eternity,
it can only be in the Lord. How do we come there? How do
we come to this abandonment of any attempt at our own strength?
Is it not as God chastises us through this life? Is it not
by the trials and temptations that he brings our way? Doesn't
he weaken our trust in our own strength? You know that I'm very
conscious that many of us have been through many difficulties,
especially over the last year. And I've said often, is it not,
you know, how do you understand it? It's God loosening our grip. on the things of this world.
He's just prizing our fingers off our grip of the things of
this world. He's teaching us by trials and
temptations not to trust in our own strength but to trust in
him. Like the prodigal son went and
engaged himself in all sorts of things and he came to an end
of himself and realized where he was in amongst the pigs will.
and remembered his father's house. I must go back there. That brought
him to that condition, to know that his strength was in his
father's house. Paul had that thorn in the flesh
that afflicted him, and he prayed again and again, please take
this from me, and God said to him, my grace is sufficient for
you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. What
strength? The strength of salvation. the
strength of the sin debt paid, the strength of the righteousness
of Christ established for his people and attained, the strength
for that day, for Paul said, I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I'm
convinced of it. This is faith, this is true faith.
I'm convinced that he is able, he has the strength to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. The strength
of the Father's keeping power is the strength that we have.
Who's going to keep you? He will keep his people. We trust
in this. John 10 29, my father, says Jesus,
which gave them his people to me, the father gave his people
to the son, is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. The father's strength. Blessed
is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the
ways of them. In whose heart the ways of them.
It either means in the hearts of God's people are the ways
of God, gospel ways, in his people he has put gospel ways in their
heart. He's put this gospel thinking,
he's put this knowledge of the way God deals with and saves
his people. Or it could mean in God's heart,
in whose heart? In God's heart are the ways of
his people. For he is the one who causes
all things to work together for the good of his people. All things
through this life. All things. Every eventuality. everything that appears as a
tragedy on the surface of it, everything that appears like
that, all things working together for the good of his people. Either
way, whichever is right, whether it's in the heart of his people
or in the heart of God for his people, God's Spirit plants a
new man in regeneration in his people. And the affections of
that new man, unlike the affections of the flesh, the affections
of that new man are inclined to the ways of God for this earthly
journey, through this life. And there's a warfare. Those
of you who know these things, you know there's a warfare. The
flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.
And these two are contrary to one another. Blessed is the man
whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them,
are the ways of God, who, verse six, passing through the valley
of Bacchar, make it a well. The rain also filleth the pools,
Bacchus Veil. Any of you that know any of the
writings of J.C. Philpott will know that he has
his book of daily readings, Bacchus Veil, and this is based on this
verse. This is the reference to Bacchus
Veil in the scriptures. A veil of weeping is what it
means. Bakr's veil is a veil of struggle. And Philpott uses it to say that
as we walk through this life which is a veil of Bakr, a veil
of weeping, a veil of trials, on our way to eternal glory,
we must pass through this valley of tears. series of daily readings
that are very very profitable if you can get well you can get
hold of it go to grace ebooks online and you download it and
it's it's it's very very profitable comforting reading but it's based
on this verse this is the people of God on the way to the New
Jerusalem are passing through the valley of Bacar just as those
who journeyed up to Jerusalem passed through that valley that
valley that was a difficult place, a valley of tears, the valley
of the shadow of death. It was evidently an arid place.
It was an arduous journey through it. It was dangerous. You know,
say we don't have places like that now, I can tell you. I could
take you to a walk in the Lake District that we did a few years
ago and just to go a hundred yards was incredibly difficult
because the rocks were so slippery. There are places that are really,
really hard work. This valley of Bacar was like
that, but it's picturing going through this life. In the same
way, the pilgrim's journey, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,
the pilgrim's journey to the eternal city is one that is fraught
with difficulty. There are difficulties that are
common to all people, to all men, to all kinds of people. There are trials of difficulties
that crop up in life. There are trials for some of
financial difficulties. There are trials of health and
disability for others. There are trials of relationships
with people. There are trials of wickedness
all around us from others. There are trials of tragedies.
You know, you hear of accidents that happen. to those that you
know. I told you three or four years
ago, you know, a cousin of mine just a couple of years older
than me looking forward to retirement and he's just driving his car
near Aylesbury to work one morning and somebody comes screaming
around the corner on the wrong side of the road the other way
and it killed him instantly. Just in a moment, just in an
instant. One second he's there with his
family looking forward to his life of retirement ahead and
one second later he's dead. He's whisked off into eternity.
Tragedies, events beyond our control, loss and death. But
for the pilgrim, for the child of God, there are spiritual burdens
as well. There are burdens of knowing
our own sinfulness, which the world does not know. A sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
To know that I am a sinner. You know, there are not many
sinners, are there? There are not many. Oh yes, there are,
but there are not many who know it. But the people of God know
it. God granted to the Gentiles repentance from sin. There's
the backsliding nature. Which of us who believe Christ
are not conscious of how prone our flesh is? Prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love,
says that hymn. God sometimes seeming to hide
his face. We pray and it's as if, it's
as if heaven is cut off from us. There are doubts and unbelief
that arise. But for those that are going
to Zion, this Bacchus Veil, this life is made a well. It's made
refreshing water. In the midst of Bacchus Veil
were these pools that were there. Fountains of living water, Jesus
said to the Samaritan woman. If you'd asked me for a drink,
she says, why are you asking me for water from this well? Jesus said, if you'd asked me
for a drink, I would have given you that which is a well of living
water, welling up inside you. Speaking of the Spirit of God,
a well of living water coming up from within. Isaiah 41, 17
and 18. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. What is this well? What is it?
What is it, tangibly, for you and me? It's the gospel, faithfully
preached. The gospel faithfully preached
is a well of refreshing water. Is it not? Have you been to a
church service when you've been away on holiday perhaps and you've
heard of a place that's got a name and you go there and you hear
the preaching and if you're used to hearing Christ proclaimed
and Christ alone and you come out of that place and your spiritual
tongue is sticking to the roof of your mouth for thirst because
you haven't heard Christ proclaimed. You've not heard the gospel preached. pools of water, wells. Prayer is a well in this walk
through Bacchus Veil, this struggle through Bacchus Veil. That the
child of God has access into eternity. Come boldly before
the throne of grace. Fellowship is a pool of refreshing,
a well of refreshing in this life. Fellowship, and we enjoy
such fellowship via the internet these days. Encouragement. to revive and to keep pressing
on toward the mark, as we read Paul writing to the Philippians,
of the high calling of God in Christ. And he says in the second
half of that verse, the rain also filleth the pools. The rain
comes down from heaven. You see, mere religion might
have its correct doctrine, but it's sterile. it's sterile. However correct it might be,
it's sterile. But living faith brings down
heavenly showers. The just shall live by his faith. The justified one shall live
by his faith, shall walk through this life, living this life by
faith, looking to Christ, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of his faith. And it comes down as heavenly
showers of blessing. God's promises of accomplished
redemption. God's assurance that the prayers
of the saints are heard in heaven. You look at that picture in Revelation,
and there are those vapors and incense going up, and what are
they? They're the prayers of the saints on high. There's the
felt presence of God within. For the Spirit of God, Romans
8, 16, witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God.
As we hear the word preached especially, this is the case.
As we come to the Lord's table as we were thinking in the study,
in the Lord's table rightly discerning the body of Christ, remembering
that the eternal infinite God, who is spirit, must become man
with a real body and real blood if the sins of human beings,
of his people, are to be paid. And baptism, seeing in that,
these are pools of refreshment, seeing in that the unity between
Christ and his people. as they're united with him in
his death and raised with him to newness of life. These are
pools of heavenly blessing as we pass through the valley of
Bacar. Verse 7, they go from strength to strength. Every one
of them in Zion appeareth before God. From strength to strength
or it could be translated From resting place to resting place,
or as it is in the margin, company to company. From resting place
to resting place is where we go as we walk through this life.
We walk through this life and there are periods, the middle
of the week, and you're up to your eyes in work and all of
other responsibilities. But we have this weekly. Resting
place to resting place. And what is our resting place?
Christ himself is our resting place. This is not, this day,
Sunday, is not the Sabbath day in its Christian form. This isn't
conforming to the fourth commandment, no. But there is a rest that
remaineth for the people of God, Hebrews 4, and that rest is Christ. The people of God rest in Christ. If this day, Sunday, is a Sabbath
in any sense whatsoever, it is the day when we come aside from
the world to particularly Stop a while. We see La. Stop and think for a while. In
this resting place of the one who is our rest. And we're refreshed
with water. And we eat of the manna from
heaven. And we think on him. Isaiah 42 verse 1. We think on
him. God says, the father says, behold
my servant whom I uphold. Behold Christ, mine elect, in
whom my soul delighted. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Think on Him.
He is the rest of His people from resting place, from strength
to strength to resting place. Every one of them appears in
Zion. All His people will appear in
Zion. Not one of them will be lost.
Not one of them. The Father shall accomplish his
purpose from all eternity. This is the will, said Jesus
to the Jews, this is the will of him that sent me. Of all that
he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up at the last day. Not one of them will be lost.
Ezekiel's dry bones, as we saw two or three weeks ago, that
dead that that valley full of dead dry bones all higgledy-piggledy
all come together under the sound of the preaching of the gospel
of grace. And all have spiritual life as
the wind comes from the four corners of the earth and blows.
Nobody knows where it comes from. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, you
don't know. The wind blows where it listeth,
and you cannot tell where it's come from or where it's going
to. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. But they
all stand on their feet, a great army. They all stand there in
their ranks, not one of them missing, all the ranks perfectly
made up, picturing that every one of those that the father
gave to the son before the beginning of time, all appear in Zion,
as all of these males would have appeared in Jerusalem at the
end of this journey through Bacchus Vale to Zion to meet with God
in those amiable tabernacles. Verse eight, O Lord of God of
hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Lord,
hear my prayer. Keep me. Take me there. Take
me there. What does Revelation 22 verse
4 say? And they shall all see his face. The people of God shall all see
his face there. They shall see his face. In whose
face? In the face of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Shines all of the glory of God. The knowledge and the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let's look at the rest
of these verses. Behold, O God, our shield, and
look upon the face of thine anointed, for a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper,
a day in thy courts, one day is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I had rather be a doorkeeper, menial job in the house of my
God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God
is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. We could delve so much more deeply into that. I'm just
going to read it now. We've run out of time. No good thing will
he withhold from them that walk uprightly. as Paul wrote to the
Galatians, you know, 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. That's what it is, to
walk uprightly. It's not to be holier, don't
stand near me, for I am holier than thou. No, it's to walk looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. O Lord of hosts,
Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. Blessed is the man. Do you see the blessedness of
the one that trusts? In this life of all of its perplexities,
this life, if nothing else, is filled with perplexities. Oh,
how lost and without hope are the multitudes without Christ.
Without Christ and without hope in this world. But by contrast,
oh how eternally blessed are those who walk through this backer's
veil, heading for Zion, looking unto Jesus. Amen.