Brother Frank Tate invited quite
a few of us up several years ago that... I'm interrupting
you. Lynn just told me to take this
thing off for you. Oh, I'm sorry. That's better. Is that better? That's a lot
better. Brother Frank Tate had a meeting
several years ago and he wanted a lot of the men that were in
Henry's preacher school, he asked us to come up and speak. And
I did, and when I got ready to speak, he went on and on and
on about how, you know, how simple and yet how deep, and he was
going on and on and on about me. And then he said, you come
up and preach. And I said, I hope I can after
all that. I'm not all that. God called
this preacher, I'm safe to say this, they don't know what this
is in Arkansas, but he found me up a holler. And he called me by his grace. And I'm amazed, not a day I open
this book, that I'm not just overwhelmed with the fact that he's allowed
me to see things that this whole world can't see. They can't see. I can read these things and be
blessed beyond description. And I'll be telling somebody
about it and they'll be doing this. Oh, my soul, what a privilege.
What a privilege to know the gospel, just to know any part
of it, to know the gospel, to know the truth. And then when
he called me to preach, I just, I don't even have words to describe
how I feel about that. But I know that I'm here tonight
and you're here tonight by an arrangement of divine destiny. Our Lord controls everything
that goes on. He's sitting on His throne, and
in the ease of absolute omnipotence, He's arranging all things. I know there's all kinds of things
that goes on in the minds of men and the hearts of men, and
I don't understand it all, but I do understand what He said.
He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, and
if He didn't, He couldn't declare the end from the beginning. The
only way you can do that is to control everything in between.
And that's what our God has done. I invite you this evening to
turn back to Psalm 132. This is the longest of the Psalms
of degrees. And that's why I asked your pastor
to read them ahead of time. This will be the 13th message
out of the 15 of the Psalms of Degrees. And these Psalms are
all titled, if you look above them, Psalms of Degrees. And by the commentators, they
say, or at least some of them do, that they're Psalms of Ascent. And I studied about that for
a while. I didn't realize, I started looking
up all these references. I'm not interested so much in
what the commentator says, I am what this book says. And I started
looking all these up, and every time he talked about Israel going
to Jerusalem, he said they're going up. Well, everything wasn't
below Jerusalem in elevation, but when you come to where God's
people meet, where god's presence is going to be you're going up
you're going up i don't care if you live on the mountain top
around jerusalem you're going up to jerusalem when you go there the old testament saints were
shut up to types and symbols and i'm told that these saints
uh... once a year they would go into jerusalem to partake
of these typical uh... meetings that they had, these
feasts, Feast of the Paschal and so on. And that these songs
were inspired of God to be sung by these people when they went
to Jerusalem. And whether that's so or not,
I don't know. But I do know this, you and I
are pilgrims. And we're on our way to the heavenly
Jerusalem. And these songs are inspired
for us to sing on our way to the heavenly Jerusalem. And we're not uh... partaking
of typical anything christ has come we see him we see him in
his beauty and in his glory and uh... these old testament saints
you know i i get the idea of talking to people that everybody
was like the pharisees who were totally ignorant of christ that's
not so christ said abraham They like to talk about Abraham. He
said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it. How'd he see it? By faith. By
faith. He understood what that ram caught
in the thicket. He understood what that meant.
He understood it before he ever went up on the mountain. He told
his servant, the lad and I go yonder to worship and we're coming
back. We'll be back. These Old Testament saints understood
these things. They were shut up to types and
symbols, figures and patterns and shadows of good things to
come. They consisted, it says in Hebrews 9, 10, in meats and
drinks and divers' washings and carnal ordinances imposed on
them until the time of reformation. What's that? That's the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a clear declaration of
this in Romans 3, 24 through 26. He said, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus,
whom God has set forth. When did he do that? Well, he
did it in the garden. He slayed a lamb. He skinned that lamb, he took
the covering of that lamb and put it around our mother and
father in that garden. And then he, all down through
time, you just keep reading about the lamb, the blood of the lamb
on down. And finally John the Baptist
said, behold, the lamb. This is that lamb that was figured
and patterned all through the Old Testament. And these Old
Testament believers, I'm not saying everybody that made that
march to Jerusalem understood these things, but the believers
did. And believe me, God had an instructor in every age to
instruct those people as to what these types and figures were. They were all typifying what
was to come. And these believing Israelites
would sing these wonderfully inspired songs, realizing what
God had done for them, and what God was doing for them, and what
God promised yet to do. And don't we do the same thing?
These hymns that we've sung here tonight, what are they doing?
They're instructing us And they're also causing us to recall what
God has done in us and for us and promised yet to do. My prayer
tonight is that God will teach us to sing these songs and for
the same thing to take place in our heart. I've tried in this
series of messages the best of my ability to name these heavenly
songs according to their content and their context. And our song
tonight is the song of anticipation. Anticipation. David could not
stand the idea of God's presence not being with him. What do you worry about when
you come here, anything? Oh, I want God's presence. I
tell you, this is the loneliest place in the world up here without
his presence. I don't want to be here without
his presence. Do you? I don't want to meet,
I don't want to attempt to do anything. When God called me,
I was drowning in religion. I was over my head in religion. It had taken me under. And when
he revealed the truth to me, and I saw what a wondrous thing
it was to have his presence. He's everything. Everything. you've got nothing without him,
nothing all you've got is lies and people tell me all the time,
well I've got a hope, yeah, it's I hope, I hope, I hope that's
what that is hope it don't rain tomorrow hope I don't go to hell
you better have more than that David wanted God's presence And that's what he talks about
in this. Our song tonight is the Song
of Anticipation. This is the longest of the Psalms
of Degrees, having 18 verses, but if you read it carefully,
six verses will give you my first point, six verses will give you
my second point, and six verses will give me my final point. David had a sense of emptiness
and folly. And in these first six verses,
I want us to see a real desire and anticipation for the Lord's
abiding presence with us. That's what I want you to see.
And David had a sense of emptiness and folly and uselessness without
the Lord's presence with Israel. Religion, whether you're talking
about unbelieving Jews or unbelieving Baptists, is of no profit without
the presence of god what what could any preacher day without
that you know what that said about breaches he he told me
that there was a hundred twenty at it here's what he told he
said he did hear you here you think you can muster that
up from your insight and speak and have the voice of god all
my soul You can't do that. I have to have God's presence
to do that. All I can do is talk. All I can
do is read to you the word of God. Only He can take that truth
and bury it in your heart. And this is what David's worrying
about here. This is what he's fretting about.
Religion without the presence of God. Oh, my soul. but here's
what he says about crash that's not how it may be manually god
with or that's uh... dot in uh... scott with god for
us it got me for you to make it God dwelling with me in tabernacle
among us, God and man in one glorious person, the God-man
mediator, one mediator between God and me and the man, Christ
Jesus. And Christ is the tabernacle,
he's the house of God and the place of God's abode is in Christ,
in Christ. Well, how does that affect the
church? Aren't we in him? then we're
in his house. How do you get in him? Of God.
Are you in Christ Jesus? Who of God made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He's the tabernacle. He's the house. He's the place
of God's abode. He's the head of the body, the
church. He's the living stone. which
we as lively stones are joined, and Peter said, build up a spiritual
house and a holy priesthood. The house of God's not a building,
it's a people. It's a people. This building's
not the house of God. You're the house of God if you
believe. You're the house of God. What would this building be without
God's people in it? Just be another empty building. And we sing of this house, being
in awe of it because of whose house it is and because of what
takes place in it. David's sole interest in the
house was a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God.
Well, what separates Todd's Road Grace Church from all the other
churches in Lexington? God abides here. God abides here. That's the difference. Oh my
soul, let me never forget as I make my journey to where God's
people are assembled that this is where God promised to meet
with his people. And the journey to Jerusalem
because Jerusalem was God's designated place of worship. Does God have
a designated place of worship today? Oh yes he does. Local
churches. Oh, preacher, I can worship God
on the mountain. I can get on the boat out on
the river. I can worship God. You might do it, but God won't
be in it. He won't be there. He'll be where his church is.
When he inspired John to write the book of Revelation, who'd
he talk to? Did he speak in some universal
language? Now the revelation come to John,
he said, I saw him and he was walking among the candlesticks.
And then at the end of the chapter, he tells you what the candlestick,
he said, that's my church. These are my churches. He wrote
to the seven churches, didn't he? And in so doing, he wrote
to us. Wrote to us. When John talked
about people leaving the gospel, he didn't say they left the gospel.
He said they went out from us. Didn't he? They were not of us. Had they been of us, they no
doubt would have continued with us. But they went out to manifest
that they were not of us. God's people don't go out. They
didn't go in. He put them in. And they're not
going anywhere. I love that over in John where
he's talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood,
and those Pharisees just went nuts. He's lost his mind. He's talking about cannibalism,
and they all just went out the door. He turned to his disciples,
his closest 12, and he said, will you go too? And they said,
where shall we go? Where are we gonna go? God's
people don't go out. There's nowhere else to go. Where
you gonna go? Christ is all. where you're going
to go and if he meets at a local church and I don't have a place
to worship, that's where I need to be, isn't it? And I can look
over all these little things that, you know, I just don't
like the way they talk to me. Oh, my soul. My soul. I think we can look over a few
things, don't you? And I think of what God in the salvation of my soul what
he must have saw in his heart. I don't see it all, but he did.
He did. Surely I can overlook a few faults.
Let me never forget as I make my journey to where God's people
are assembled that this is where God's promised to meet with his
people. I think about that old tabernacle.
These were all types and figures of what I'm talking about. And
the old tabernacle had an ark inside. And that ark was a figure
of Christ. In that ark was a threefold testimony
of God. In that ark was the law of God. The very law of God. Aaron's
rod budded. and the heavenly bread. In Christ,
God has put his holy law, exalted and honored by him. Paul said,
with the mind, what mind? The mind of Christ, I serve the
law of God. That's the only way I can. The
only way Israel could keep the law was because that law was
in that ark and over it was a mercy seat and the blood was poured.
That's the only way to keep that law. We serve the law of God
in Christ. It's the only way you can. My
wife and I went to Washington, D.C. with my son, and he was
showing us all the highlights, you know. We went into this art gallery,
and I look like I go to art galleries. But we did, and they had benches
about four or five feet long, and they had these, we were in
a section that had the Dutch masters, not the cigar, the paintings,
and they were hanging there on the wall, and they were so good. It was just amazing to see the
perfection in that art. And we'd sit there and study
one and then go over and do another one and so on. And finally, my
wife elbowed me and she said, there was this big guy over there.
He looked like the man from Glad, you know. He was over there and
had his arms crossed and he was looking all around. Great big
guy. She said, what's he doing? And I said, when you get your
watercolors out of your purse, and you go up there to touch
that painting up, that's what he's for. That's what we do with our little
piddly works, and we wanna come up and touch up the masterpiece
of the law. The law's exalted and honored
as high, you can't exalt and honor the law any more than you
do when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's right. And he's the bread. He's the
bread which God sent down from heaven. And this testimony is
always in his house. He's the evidence of life. In
him was life. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. In him's life,
he's the bread which God sent down from heaven, and this testimony's
always in his house, always. And then above it, above that
ark was a mercy seat. Only seat in the tabernacle was
the mercy seat, and no one was allowed to sit on it. Nobody
could sit on it until Christ descended into glory. And when
he sat down on the throne, he sat down on the mercy seat. He can dispense mercy. He can,
by his own blood. By his own blood, he entered
into the holy place one time. And what'd he do? He obtained
eternal redemption for us. In verses 7 through 12, our song
recalls our resurrection hope. Arise, O Lord, into thy rest,
thou and the ark of thy strength. We'll go into his tabernacles,
these temporary places of worship. We'll go into his churches formed
here and there, dwelling places of Christ, dwelling places of
the Father and the Holy Ghost. Go there to his earthly residence, where he walks with his people,
and he talks to his people, and he comforts his people, and he
feeds his people. You want to be fed of God? Show
up here. Every time they meet, show up
here. That's how God's gonna feed you. Peter, do you love
me? then be careful how you walk.
Now, I ain't what he said. He said, do you love me? Feed
my sheep. Feed my sheep. And because of the presence of
God in this house, all things necessary have been provided. His spirit, his word, his ministers,
his people, his gospel, all things have been provided Where was
that provision made? In Christ. In Christ. We'll go into his tabernacles
and we'll worship at his footstool. Where's God's footstool? Isaiah
tells you in Isaiah 66. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven
is my throne and earth is my footstool. We're gonna worship at his footstool.
We're gonna worship in this earth upon which he's resting his feet. Oh, my soul. When he sat down at the right
hand of God, it said he sat there expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. And we can gather in the very
camp of our enemies being surrounded by antichrist religion and worship
our God with a godly contentment. And here's our hope. He's risen
into his rest. Our Lord finished the work he
was sent to do. It's finished was his final words.
And when God raised him from the dead, he raised up a victorious
savior. When he ascended into glory,
he sat down. None of the priestly figures
ever sat down because their work was never done. But he finished
his work and he sat down. Everything concerning Christ,
even our Heavenly Father, rests in him. I was telling him this
morning in Danville, I was bringing a series of verse-by-verse studies
all through the book of Genesis. And I'd just finished the creation
series and I was going into chapter 2 and I was reading that and
he said, and god rested from all his work this is at the beginning of creation didn't he know that
satan was going to tempt the woman? did that take god by surprise?
didn't he know that adam would virtually sell his soul because
of his bride that he would partake of that forbidden fruit and bring
death upon all mankind? Did God not know that in a few
generations every thought of the imagination of men's heart
would only be evil continually? Did he not know even after the
flood That they were gonna go to Babylon and build a tower
in the glory? They're gonna build a staircase
right up in the glory. Did he not know when he sent
his son into this world that he was gonna be despised and
rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief? They're gonna spit
on him and laugh at him while he died. Did God not know that? Then how can he rest? He tells
you over in Ephesians chapter one. He said, we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to him, according to
him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
What's he say next? To the praise of his glory who
first trusted in Christ. Huh? When did he first trust
in Christ? At the beginning, at the beginning. He said, here it is, here it
is. It pleases me to give you all preeminence. It pleases me
that in you should all fullness dwell. I'm giving it all to you,
and I'm gonna rest. And then he said, in whom we
also rested after we heard. What'd we hear? If God can rest
in Christ, now come on surely you and I can if God rest in
all things the glory of his name everything in Christ surely I
can rest in him you talk about contentment what
do you need that he can't give what do you know you've got full
provision in him and not provide perfect righteousness cracked
into the law for righteousness everyone believe free justification
justified freely by the grace of the redemption of christ full
adoption he came to own creation he came
to the world that he created and they didn't recognize him
they didn't want any part of him and he came to his own to
the very ones that he set up a tabernacle that he gave his
word he gave these figures to and they wouldn't have him but
as many as received him how come they did? to them gave he power
to become the sons of God even to them that believe on
his name, because your sons, he said, God has sent forth his
spirit into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Full adoption,
an effectual advocate, if any man sin, Brother Henry's favorite
term there was to stop, and he'd say, when, when, not if, when. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. A continual high
priest, a high priest that never stops his ministry. He's a priest
forever, God said, forever. And this man, the God-man, the
surety of a better covenant, because he continueth ever, have
an unchangeable priesthood, whereby he's able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him. What else do you need? A favorable
providence. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. He works all things for your
good in His glory. And think of His coming. You
talk about a favorable providence. He didn't come too late, and
He didn't come early. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth His Son. made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. And when the whole world joined
hands to crucify, what'd they do? They did what God's hand
and God's counsel determined before to be done. When the Gentiles
at Antioch heard the gospel, and even warned them with the
word of the prophet, they wouldn't have it. They wouldn't have it.
And so he said, seeing you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting
life, he said, lo, I turn to the Gentiles. And he quoted the
scripture concerning the Gentiles. And you know what's it? Oh, they
were glad. They were glad. And as many as
were ordained to eternal life believed. They believed. He tells you, how shall you hear
without a preacher? You can't. I didn't ask that
question, the Holy Ghost did. How shall you hear without a
preacher? But he don't stop there. How
shall they preach except they be sent? Do you believe that every time
this pulpit is filled and you gather in here that God sent
a man here to speak to you? whether it's your pastor or some
visiting pastor. Do you understand that? God's
providence has arranged for one of his servants to speak to you. Arise, Lord, into thy rest, thou
and the ark of thy strength, the ark of the testament, the
ark of the testimony. The Son is God's testimony. in this world he that believeth
on him he has the testimony in his heart and this is the record that God
has given to us eternal life and this life is in his son and
the gospel of God's testimony in his son is God's record it's
God's record I tell you, this gives me a godly
anticipation. When I think on these things
before I come to worship him, I have an anticipation. Why shouldn't
I believe that the Lord's gonna work? He's here, his people's
here, his preacher's here. Why do we doubt? My soul, we
ought to be filled with anticipation. Ought to be filled with anticipation.
12 men turned the world upside down. And then thirdly, the Holy Ghost
inspired both writer and believer to sing with joy and sing with
all God's elect of their hope in the Lord. Listen to this,
verse 13. For the Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath chosen Zion. I didn't
choose him, he chose me. And now what he said to his disciples,
you hath not And listen to this. He desired
Zion. He desired it for his habitation. My father and I will come and
take up our abode with you. That's what he said. The Holy
Ghost, he said, when he comes, he'll take up his abode in you.
And he's never gonna leave you. and I'm never gonna leave you,
and the Father's never gonna leave you. This is my rest forever. Here
will I dwell where I have desired it, God said. I will abundantly
bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with
bread. Poor, needy sinners. I will also
clothe her priests Who's that? That's all of Zion. I will clothe
her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout for joy. There will I make the horn of
David, the promised king, to bud. I have ordained a lamp for
mine anointed, and his enemies will I clothe with shame. but
upon himself shall his crown flourish. These are the blessings
of God in Christ. God will dwell there because
he desired to. And I'm not sure I understand
this, at least not as I ought to, but God's people are his
portion. I just look at that in awe, in
awe. What would he want with me? But
he says you're his portion, his portion. And he says in this song, this
is my rest forever. Here will I dwell. And watch this. I'll bless her
provision. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him
freely give us all things? And if at any time it seems like
we're wanting, We can know for sure that God has sent it for
our good. We need to be wanting every now
and then, don't we? And oh, he feeds four sinners
with the bread of Christ. I was preaching for Brother Carol
Poole down in North Carolina. There was probably 20, I'm guessing
20 or 25 people there. But in that message, I was talking
about assurance. the song of assurance, all my
soul. The song of our keeper. And as
I preach those messages, I look out and the big tears are just
rolling down their face. They're just being fed and just
drinking at the end. Oh, I tell you, it's easy to
preach to folks like that. Needy sinners being fed, and
God feeds them. And Peter tells us we're a royal
priesthood, a holy priesthood, and God says I'll clothe my priest
with salvation. Until he clothes us with the
garments of salvation, how in the world are we going to minister
in his house? You can't tell what you don't know. Somebody
say it anymore and you can come back from somewhere you haven't
been. Now all my saints shall shout
for joy. I'll tell you, I've been preaching
to folk before and I just wanted to shout. I just wanted to shout,
but I know we're all reserved and we're not allowed to shout,
but one of these days I'm going to. I want to shout, and here
he says his saints do. They do. If they can't shout
with their mouth, they'll shout in their heart. when i think about what i am
and where he found me in the condition of my soul all how
i want to share when i think about it now see people running
around there are ways down morning over some inability some weakness
some flaw and yes we didn't want to see and i'm not saying that
we don't want to see but you'll see into being put away i've
been put away And what he talks about more than mourning is rejoicing. Rejoicing. Hymn writer said, have you heard
what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Huh? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away. Oh, I'll clothe her priests with
salvation and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. I'll make
my king appear. I'll never forget the first time
I saw Christ as king. King. And I'll clothe his enemies with
shame. Babylon flourished for a little
while. The tower grew for a little while. But in the end, There
they stood in shame. They couldn't finish what they
started. And people may stand proud in
this world and even depart that way, but they'll stand before
Him ashamed. Anticipation. Oh God, teach this
poor sinner how to sing the song of anticipation. I'm so hungry
to hear, I don't care who's preaching. I just sit there and let Todd
preach, it's okay with me. I drank it in, I drank it in,
I don't care who's preaching. I might even get up with him
preaching. I love this message, I love my
Lord. So what can I say about all these
things? My wife was always getting me
in trouble. She wanted to go on a Thanksgiving weekend and
go see where Kennedy was shot in the middle of Houston at rush
hour. And she always wanted to go to
Niagara Falls, and I said, okay, we'll go to Niagara Falls, so
we went. And of course, you have to buy a coffee table book when
you go somewhere, so we bought this book, and it lay there.
I don't know how many years, maybe 15, 20 years. Laid there,
I never read it. I'd already seen the Falls, I
don't need to look at the picture. And I was having some folks over
from the church, and ain't it funny how you can live in a house
and you don't see anything, but you got company coming, you start
looking, and there's dust that deep on books and stuff. So I
pulled that book down, I started wiping it, and I opened it up. And in that book, it was talking
about one of the old daredevils from years gone by that walked
a tightrope across Niagara Falls. The Great Blandin was his name. And he did things on that tightrope
that nobody could do. I watched this last thing they
had here a few years back where that guy walked across the falls
and he had that big pole and it took him 30 minutes to walk
across it. This guy walked across it with
peach baskets on his feet. He pushed a man across it in
a wheelbarrow on that thing. And for his grand finale, he
went out there and he sat down on the wire and he lowered down
a rope and the boat down there, they gave him a bottle of wine
and a glass and he pulled it up and poured him a glass of
wine and drank the wine and got back up and he walked across.
And when he got on the other side, his promoter, old Harry,
he was sitting there and he said, well, Harry, do you believe now
that I can do everything I said I could do? He said, I believe. And he bent over and he said,
get on. Get on. And Harry got on and he walked
back across that wire and sat him down on the other side. Do
you believe what I'm preaching? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? Get on! Get on! He can do everything. He said
He can do. May God open our hearts to receive
it. Thank you.