Tonight, Psalms 48. We're going
to walk about Zion. While you're turning there, I'll
read you a verse from Psalm 137. The psalmist said in verses 5
and 6 of that psalm, If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right
hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not
Jerusalem above my chief joy, Now, that's a solemn statement
for a man to make, that he would rather lose the skill of his
right hand, his ability to work, and his ability to speak, than
forget the Lord's city. Prefer her not above my chief
joy. Very serious now. If a man could say something
like that about the Old Testament, Jerusalem, how much more so should
that be said about the New Testament church with the picture? What
was pictured in the Old Testament? Psalm 102 says, look at this
one. Mark this Psalm for you and look at Psalm 102. I know this, that the prosperity
of the Lord's Church in every generation has been accompanied
with a zeal, a jealousy for her honor among the people. And you
see that here in verse 13. Thou shalt arise and have mercy
on Zion. For the time to favor her, yea,
the set time is come. Now how do you know the set time
is come? Look at his next statement. For
thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust
thereof. You know, when the servants of
God take pleasure in the very stones of his city, nothing's
insignificant, even the dust of that city means something
to them. That's the time the Lord favors
his church. The set time has arrived. When
the least of matters are important to his people. Now, and that's
my subject in Psalm 48 here. This psalm is about the church.
Psalm 48. I don't think I'm demeaning my
Lord at all to speak about his pride. So look at what it says
here in Psalm 48 verse 1. It says, Great is the Lord and
greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain
of his holiness. Now there's a phrase you see
a lot in the scripture. Great is the Lord. You know,
we almost have no concept of what's being said. It's said
so often, great is his faithfulness. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? The psalmist said in Psalm 95,
the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. And it goes
on in Psalm 145, 3 to say, great is the Lord, greatly to be praised
and his greatness is unsearchable. It's just as if he keeps repeating
this because it's a superlative, a word, you just can't say anything
other than this. It's just great. Great is God. Great is the Lord. Great is the
Lord and he's greatly to be praised, to be praised, to be thanked.
You know, I think over my life how ungrateful I am. How ungrateful
I am. Really. Over here at Psalm 50,
look at that next Psalm here. You notice how the Lord said
in verse 8 in Psalm 50, I won't reprove you for your sacrifices
and your burnt offerings. They've been continually before
me. I'm not going to make any complaint about your sacrifices.
You brought plenty of sheep. You brought plenty of sheep to
me. But look down here at verse 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving
and pay thy vows unto the Most High and call upon me in the
day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou
shalt glorify me. I often think about, oh, I love that verse,
call upon me in the day of trouble. I'll deliver you and you'll glorify
me, but I keep forgetting the verse in front of it. Offer unto
God thanksgiving. Plenty of sacrifices these people
are offered. What was he saying? You're not
thankful. You're not praising me. And that's what he says here.
Great is the Lord, greatly to be praised in the city of our
God. And I mentioned that this morning. The Lord's people are
called a city. We're an organized place. Cities
are organized, they're just organized places. Even in the vision of
Ezekiel, when those people all stood up, flesh and bone, they
were a great army. This is no unorganized model.
The Lord's church is a city, the city of our God. It's a holy
city, the mountain of His holiness. The church stands, it's called
the mountain of His holiness. You know, a mountain is a very
conspicuous place. It stands up above everything
else, a place of display, and it's in the City of God, the
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that His holiness is seen. And
look at verse 2 here. Beautiful for situation. Ah,
the situation. The Lord has placed His Church
perfectly in the world. He's talking here about Old Testament
Jerusalem. how beautiful it was situated
on the hills. But how much the more so is that
true of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's beautiful
for situation. She's, you know, he's taken away
the first and established the second. That picture's gone,
but what it stood for is still true. The Lord has perfectly
placed his church in this earth, a city which cannot be hid, a
city on a hill, the Lord called it. The city on a hill. And listen
to what he says about it here. It's the joy of the whole earth. The joy of the whole earth. The
Lord's church is the joy of the whole earth. There's nothing
else in this earth that should cause you joy. Nothing should
compare to this. If I prefer not thee over my
cheap joy. She's the joy of the whole earth.
What's that mean? It means that everything in the world, everything
in the universe, everything that goes on around you is for the
sake of the Lord Jesus Christ Church. She's the joy of the
whole earth. The center of all providential
dealings, everything. You know, you read that verse,
Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for good.
How can that be? It's because the church is the center of the
universe. Everything, every cog and every
wheel is turning for the glory of Jesus Christ and for the sake
of His elect. Now, I lose sight of that so
often, but it's a fact. It's a fact. Isaiah 43, look
at Isaiah 43 for a second. Isaiah 43, what an amazing statement
here. I am the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, I gave Egypt for your ransom." What's he talking
about? He's talking about that night
when he took them out of Egypt. Killed the firstborn in every
family. Killed the cattle. Anything that wiggled, the firstborn,
died. I gave Egypt for thy ransom.
Ethiopia, Sheba for thee. You were precious in my sight.
Can you imagine that? The Lord says that about His
church. You're precious in my sight. You have been honorable. How's that in Christ? Deniable. And I have loved thee, therefore
I'll give men for thee and people for thy life. The Lord Jesus
Christ has been given power over all flesh. He says this in John
17. The Father hath given the Son power over all flesh that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
The Son has received power to do whatever He has to do with
flesh to give life to the ones that the Father has given. We
are the center of the whole earth, the joy of the whole earth. That's
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing. Amazing. The world turns for
the Lord's people. The joy of the whole earth, listen
to this, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city
of the great king. I used to hear a song about the
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
the city of the great king. Sometimes you have to slow down
and figure out what's being said. What's this about the sides of
the north? Look at Ezekiel 8. Ezekiel 8. We're not familiar with the layout
of that town, but we see it here. Ezekiel chapter 8, look at verse
5. Then said he unto me, Son of
man, lift up thine eyes now, the way toward the north. So
I lifted up my eyes the way towards the north and behold northward
at the gate of the altar, this image of jealousy in the entry.
Now turn over to the same book, Ezekiel 40. He talks about the
gate of the entry there. Gate, Ezekiel 40, verse 35. And he brought me to the north
gate and he measured it according to these measures. Now, if you
look down at verse 39, you'll see what the north gate's all
about. And the porches of the gate on two sides, two tables
on this side and two tables on that side to slay thereon the
burnt offerings and the sin offerings and the trespass offerings. And
the side without, as one goeth up to the entry of the north
gate, there were two tables on each side, which was for the
porch of the gate. There were two tables. He goes
on to talk about this here as being the places where the lambs
were slain. Beautiful for situation is Mount
Zion. The joy of the whole earth. On
the sides of the north, the city of the great king. What about
the sides of the north? This is the most beautiful view
in Old Testament Israel. The most beautiful view in Jerusalem
was that bloody gate. That bloody gate. I'll tell you,
that's amazing if you think about it. That's not normally where
you would think the prettiest sights were, but in the minds
of the psalmist, that's exactly the most beautiful sight he'd
seen there. where the sacrifices were offered, where they were
slain, where the lambs died. That's the most beautiful view
in the City of God. And I tell you, to this very
day, it's the preaching of Christ crucified that's the most beautiful
thing that takes place in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that bloody gate, that north side altar. The Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ declares the sacrifice of the Son of God.
I'll tell you what's beautiful about that and beautiful about
that in that city is the fact that that's where God met man.
You know, there wasn't another city in the world. Think about
that. All the cities. You've been out
of Mexico. I've been down there. See those Mayan ruins and those
altars that they built. And you go all over South America,
all over the continents of the world, and you'll see altars
and you'll see temples where men have built things. But God
didn't meet anyone there. The Lord was right there in Jerusalem,
in Zion, on the sides of the north, right where those lambs
were being slain. That's where God met men. There
in that temple, in that altar. What a beautiful city. What a
beautiful city. I really believe that's what
made the psalmist say there in Psalm 137 how much he longed
for Jerusalem. Because that's where the worship
of God took place. That's where true worship took
place. True worship. God meeting men where the lamb
was slain. I've got to go on. I want to
get through this to you and show you a few things. God's known
in her palaces for a refuge. It says there in verse three,
the Lord's known in Zion. I mentioned down there in Mexico,
those Mayans, they didn't know the Lord. But God was known here
in her palaces for a refuge. She's known. Known as a refuge. Known as a shelter. Yet there's
one thing that I have come to see in my life, and I've come
to know, is that the Lord is a shelter. He's a shelter, a
defense. He's a protector. How often have
you found yourself just running like a little chick to get underneath
the wings of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love that Henry talks about
those chickens, those little chicks getting underneath their
mother's wings. I'll tell you, in Zion, we know
all about that. He's known as a shelter. He's
known as a shelter and a refuge. Times of distress, times of disturbance. I love what the psalmist said. Look at chapter 46. This was
called Luther's Psalm. I don't know if you folks are
aware of that. Martin Luther loved this psalm. He said, God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Now,
just imagine this. Listen to this. So we're not
going to fear. If the earth's removed and the
mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, Though the
waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake and
the swelling thereof, we're not going to be afraid." How can
you say such a thing? God is our refuge and our strength.
How can that be said? He's our refuge and our strength
in times of trouble. And back here in the text, verses
4, 5, and 6, I'll read these to you and make a few comments. For lo, the kings were assembled,
they passed by together, they saw it, so they marveled, they
were troubled, they hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there,
and pain as of a woman in travail." Now, what's this about? Well,
I've read through the commentaries and there are a lot of different
things that they say this is about. Some people say this refers
to 2 Samuel 5, 17 through 19. where David was made the king
and the Philistines came up against him. Some people believe it refers
to 2 Chronicles 14, 9. If you look at that real quick,
I'll show you. This is when Asa was the king. 2 Chronicles 14, verse 9. And there came out against them
Zerah the Ethiopian with a host of 1,000,000. One million. One million men
came against the city. Three hundred chariots and came
unto Mershav. Then Asa went out against him
and set the battle in array. Look at verse 12. The Lord smote
the Ethiopian before Asa, before Judah and the Ethiopians fled.
Don't think that's what that's referring to. And in 2 Chronicles,
turn over a few verses, chapter 20. You also read here an incident
where Jehoshaphat was the king. Verse 1 says it came to pass
after this also the children of Moab and the children of Ammon.
And then besides the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Look down at verses 32 and 35.
I won't read all this, but just look at 32 and 35. Excuse me, verse twelve, what
I want you to read. God said. Now, I want excuse me, verse
fifteen, read verse fifteen, chapter twenty, he said, Harken,
ye all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat,
thus saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid or dismayed by
reason of the great multitude, the battles not yours, it's God's.
Now in verse 17, look at that. You shall not need to fight this
battle. Set yourself, stand ye still, and see the salvation
of God. The Lord before you. What's happening here? The Lord's
defending these people. If you read over in Sennacherib,
when Sennacherib came against them in 2 Kings chapter 18, the
Lord told them they weren't even going to shoot one arrow in that
battle. And he sent an angel out in the
evening and slew 185,000. of those people in the night.
And that king turned his tail. He wondered. He was in amazement.
You know, every time the battle was fought against Old Testament
Jerusalem, if she lost, she lost to be rebuilt. You know that?
They returned. They were rebuilt. It's an interesting
city. You know, to this day, I don't
know of another city in the world like it. Three thousand years
of recorded history, and she's still there. It's a great picture of the Lord's
taking care of His people. And I'll tell you, all these
men, they may be right, but I'll tell you, I know that they all
were right. Because the fact is, as you read this, the kings
assembled, they counseled together, they united as best they could,
but the power of God always won on behalf of His people. And
when He didn't, it was for reasons He had to rebuild them. These
enemies were not successful, and I'll tell you this too, if
you read this, and we're going to go on here and look at this
next verse. He secured them even when they were unaware that they
were under attack. Look at the very next verse.
Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. Not only was
he defending the city, but that city was forty miles from the
ocean, and out there on the ocean are some ships coming from Tarshish
that have evil designs against the city of God, and God breaks
them out there with an east wind. What's that all about? That's
all about His security of His people, His defense of His church.
That's the picture that's being given here. Thou breakest them,
breakest them. What's my point? I'm telling
you that Zion's foes are going to lose. Whether we see them
or not, whether we're aware of them or not, Zion's foes. That's your security. And I want
you to look just for a moment here. I want to talk about the
testimony of the Lord's church, Zion. Verse 8, as we've heard, so have
we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts. In the city of our
God, God will establish it forever. I've loved that first line, as
we've heard. That's what we've seen. Now that's the testimony
of Zion. You can't say that about anything
else in this world. You go out every day and people
try to sell you a bill of goods. They'll tell you this and they'll
tell you that. And they're never truthful. They're never truthful. You have absolutely no report
from men. That's true. You promise peace
and joy and security in this earth and yet you don't receive
it. But now the report that Zion's
got here, they report that What they've heard is true. And you
see that throughout the scripture, the very first promise we receive
in scripture was that the woman's seed would bruise the serpent's
head. And we've seen that's true. We've heard it. We've seen it's
true. We were told that there would be a virgin that would
conceive and bear a son. We've heard that. We've seen
it's true. We were told in the book of Isaiah that there would
be one who would come who would bear all our sins, this man of
sorrows spoken of in Isaiah 53. You can't read that psalm and
not see that that's not true, that that has not actually been
fulfilled. You know, to this day, Orthodox Jews will not read
that psalm. They won't read it. Because it's just so obvious
who's being spoken of. All that he's ever said to us
has been found to be true. That's Zion's testimony. We've
heard it. We've seen it. The Word of God
has been accurately kept in the most minute detail. Everything. You know, there's really only
one person who could fit all of these Old Testament prophecies. There's only one person. There's
only one person. You think about how microscopically
true the Word of God is. In Genesis 315, it doesn't say
the seed of a man would bruise the serpent's head. It says the
seed of a woman would do that. Now, women don't have seed. Women don't have seed. Men have
seed, but there would be a woman that has seed. What's he talking
about? He's talking about a virgin. He's talking about a woman that
would have a child without the help of a man, and that that
child would defeat Satan. That has been absolutely fulfilled,
microscopically true. All of the things we've heard
of the Lord, we've heard, we've seen them to be true. That's
exactly what the text is saying here. As we've heard, so have
we seen in the city of the host and the city of God. He'll establish
it forever. Say love. We've heard it, it's true. Everything
God said to us. And you know, it's also true.
Everything that he said to us about Christ, the one who was
coming, is true. And everything he said to us
about ourselves has been true. Have you not seen that? We talked
about that this morning, about your natural inclination towards
evil. As we've heard, so have we seen.
The human heart is desperately wicked. Who could know it? As
we've heard, so have we seen. Dead, impotent, Unable to help
ourselves, as we've heard, so we've seen. Not one good. You
heard that? I believe it. I've seen it. And we've also heard in the Word,
Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. As we've heard, so have we seen. And listen to this. I want you
to see Zion's testimony, but I also want you to look at Zion's occupation. We have thought of thy loving
kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. We have thought
of thy loving kindness. We have thought of thy loving
kindness. I'll tell you, if if you could summarize what worship
is when people come together in the church. It's thinking
on his loving kindness. You know, his loving kindness.
That's actually a plural, it just means his loving kindnesses. It deals with everything that
he's done for us. We talk about his mercy, we talk
about his grace, we talk about everything he's done. It can
all fall under the category of his loving kindness. And this, my friends, is what
Zion thinks on. I want you to see that too. The
church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a thinking people. We're a people of thought. In
our day, religion has gone completely amok and mindlessness just rules
the airwaves. You can turn on television in
the morning and listen to preachers and you find out that it's mindless
religion. There's no depth to it. There's
no teaching in it. Mindless religion. You know,
nobody has an idea anymore what God has to say about Himself.
No one preaching in most of the TV shows and radio broadcasts
has the slightest idea about what the holiness of God is,
how holy He is, and how strict His justice is, and why the Son
of God would have to die for us. No one has any idea. It's
a mindless day, mindless day. You know, people, I see this
all the time, people on television with their minds in neutral,
even got their hands in the air, their minds in neutral and their
mouths just a moving mindlessness. You know, Spurgeon made this
statement. I thought it was a good one. He said, it is in proportion
to our thoughts that we truly worship. When I come here to
hear the gospel, I want to enter into what's being said. I want
to think on what's being said. I want to think on the lovingkindness,
O God. That's what we do in the midst
of thy temple. That's the occupation of the
Lord's people. Always has been to think and to study the lovingkindness
of our great God, to worship Him in our heads, in our hearts,
and our spirits. That's true worship. Thy lovingkindness,
O God, we thought of it in the midst of thy temple. And look
at verses 10 and 11. According to thy name, O God,
so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right hand
is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the
daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Now, what's
he saying here, according to thy name, O God, so is thy praise.
Let me show you a verse in Acts 9, 15. Acts 9, 15. Try to make that a little bit
more understandable. Listen to what the Lord says
about Paul here. The Lord said, Go thy way, speaking
to Ananias. Saul or Paul, he is a chosen
vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings
and the children of Israel. Now, what's he mean to bear his
name before Gentiles and kings? He's talking about his gospel.
He's talking about this man has been chosen by me to bear my
gospel. The testimony of my gospel before
kings, Gentiles, and in that sense, that's what's being said
here. It's according to thy name, thy gospel, O God. So is thy
praise unto the ends of the earth. As the gospel goes forth out
of Zion, the farther it goes, the greater the praise becomes.
Isaiah speaks of it. Let me show you this in Isaiah
42. I love this. Isaiah 42. He's speaking of, this is about
the servant. Look at verse 9, Isaiah 42. Behold the former things that
come to pass, the new things do I declare. Before they spring
forth, I'll tell you of them. Sing unto the Lord a new song
and his praise from the ends of the earth. He's talking about
the gospel here. You that go down to the sea and
all that are therein, and the isles and the inhabitants thereof,
let the wilderness and the cities therefore lift up their voice.
He's talking about as the gospel goes forth, the people who are
out in the seas praising Him, and the wilderness and the cities
thereof lifting up their voices, and the village of Cedars that
are inhabited there. And even the inhabitants of the
rocks, the people that are savages living out on the rocks, let
them shout for the top of the mountains. Let them give glory
unto the Lord and declare his praise in the islands. Because
the Lord's going forth. His gospel's going forth. It
says, According to thy name, O God, Zion's preaching the gospel. So is thy praise unto the ends
of the earth. And your right hand is full of
righteousness. Your right hand, the hand of
skill. He's speaking of God's hand, the hand of skill. Everything
he does is absolutely right. And the gospel goes forth and
praise comes forth throughout the world. out of Zion. So let Mount Zion rejoice. Let
the church universal rejoice. The church throughout the world
and the church in heaven rejoice over this. And listen also, and
the daughters of Judah, every little local assembly that belongs
to Zion, all the daughters of Judah, let them be glad because
of His judgments and His great actions in the earth and the
world. That's Zion. That's the work of Zion. The
praise going forth from the Gospel. And verse 12 here, which is where
I take my text from, he says, walk about Zion. Walk about Zion. Go round about her. Go round
about her. Survey the city of God. Take a view of her. I love this.
He's telling him to get out and walk around Zion. Just don't
take a quick glance. Walk about Zion. You know, if
the dust of her is favored by us and the stones, we should
concern ourselves about the prosperity of the Lord's church throughout
the world. Walk about Zion. God has built this church on
the foundation of Christ Jesus alone and the Lord himself. has reached down and pulled out
of this earth from some quarry every individual stone, every
living stone that he has put in his church. And if he told
Moses, you see to it that you build this tabernacle exactly
the way I told you, you can rest assured that he's built the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ just exactly by specifications. It's
all in his hands and every member has been placed by infinitely
wise mind. Every gift, everything that everyone
has in this temple, he has put there. You walk about Zion, you
go round about her, take a look at her history. You know, I love
church history. I don't know if you've ever studied
the history of the Christian church. You study the early centuries,
Fox's Book of Martyrs. Have you ever read that book? The people who died for the gospel,
you come away feeling like you just don't have any faith. There were people that went to
the stake singing. Stephen stoned to death. Tell the towers thereof. You
see that verse? Tell the towers thereof. That word tell there means number
the towers thereof. Go around that city and you see
the bulwarks and there are towers all around that city. That's
where the battle took place. When the city was attacked, there
were men that stood on those towers and there were men that
fought. This could be referring to the
pulpits. of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You look at
history to tell the towers thereof, the men who stood up and fought
off the walls of this city. Stephen was stoned to death,
as I mentioned there in the book of Acts. Paul imprisoned. At early church, how many were
killed? There was only one disciple,
one apostle that lived to the ripe old age, and that was John.
And he ended up in exile on Patmos. There were men that fought the
Judaizers in the early centuries, people who came along saying
that Christ wasn't enough. It was fine for you to believe
in Christ, but you needed to keep this and do that. And there
were men that fought, fought that battle. At early centuries,
there were people who came called the Gnostics, teaching the Jesus
Christ. couldn't be the Son of God because he had flesh and
flesh was evil, so there was no way he could be deity. There
were men that fought that. Days when the battle was raging
over the inspiration of Scripture. Days when the darkness fell upon
the earth and the Roman Catholic Church was selling indulgences
to people, allowing them to do what they wanted if they'd just
make a big enough contribution to the church. And up on the
wall, up in the towers, men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John
Knox, Hus, Whitcliffe. You could go on naming these
people down through history that stood for the gospel. That stood
up and fought in those towers. Right down to our day. Right
down to our day. You know, we can talk about Luther
and Calvin, Let's not forget Mahan and Tot and Ivory. You
number the towers thereof. You number the towers thereof.
You number the conflicts. You become familiar with what's
gone on in the past so you don't get fooled again. Don't let people
bring in errors that have long since been fought over. I think of the fact that there
are people in our day that don't believe in eternal You'd have to ignore the entire
book of Ephesians. It isn't a matter of missing
a verse or two. It's a matter of missing books. Election. Total depravity. Has anyone ever
read the Bible and not been able to see that? If so, if this gospel
is hid, it's hid to them that are lost. Limited atonement. Have men fought over that? Yes,
they have. And is that worthy of fighting over? You better
believe it. The Lord Jesus Christ is a successful Savior. He's
paid the price for His people. And I'm telling you, He calls
them with irresistible grace and they will persevere and be
preserved until the very end. And the men of God through the
centuries have stood on those things and never backed down. You tell the towers, you walk
about Zion. You tell the towers thereof and
you mark well the bulwarks. And you mark well her bulwarks. I love that verse too. What are
the bulwarks? Have you ever been overseas and
ever seen these old castles and things? Outside of the fortresses,
they had a series of moats and ditches and hills and things. They were traps, basically, for
people that were trying to attack the city. Those were the bulwarks. And we need to mark well the
bulwarks. The things outside, they're fortifications. that
have been placed around the city of God. And I can tell you what
a few of them are. You know what? Down here in the bottom of my
Bible here where it says, mark ye well her bulwarks, in verse
13, it says literally, set your heart to her bulwarks. Set your
heart to it. What are the bulwarks of the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ? I'll tell you. Everlasting love. His everlasting love for his
people. His oath. The oaths he's made
to his people, the covenants he's made with his people through
Christ. He said, I'll build my church
upon this foundation, this rock, and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it. So when the attack takes place, I've got
these everlasting bulwarks around me, the love of God. Look at
Romans 8. I'll just read you one of the
bulwarks. I can't comment any better than
what this text does. Romans 8. Listen to this. Verse 30. Whom he did predestinate, them
he called. Whom he called, he justified.
Whom he justified, he glorified. What are you going to say then
to these things? God be for us who can be against us. I tell
you, when you look down off the tower and the battle's raging,
That's a bulwark. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen again, who's even at the right hand of God making
intercession for us. How impervious is the church
to all attacks? The Son of God lives to make
intercession for her. And who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? I love this challenge. Tribulation,
distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, perilous sword. No,
none of those things. It's written. For thy sake we're
killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep for the
slaughter. No, in all these things, nay, in all these things, we're
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I'm persuaded. that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus." That, my friends, is the bulwark around the church.
That's it. That's it. Who is going to storm
That wall. Nobody. I will never leave thee. Nor
forsake thee. I will not, actually it reads,
I will not, no, never leave thee, nor forsake thee. The Lord's
people are secure. And you listen, back in the text,
consider her palaces. I won't be long here. There's
no cottages in God's city. Palaces. All the inhabitants are a nation
of kings and priests. The honorable live here. And
why should we do these things? Why should we consider these
things, these things I brought up tonight? Well, it tells us
here. that you may tell it to the generation
following." That's the reason. If you're interested in the dust
of Zion, you want to pass it along. You hear the report and
you want to tell it to the generation that's following it. To pass on the record that God's
given us, I can tell you Everything he's ever said is true. I want to teach the next generation,
you young ones that are here tonight, I'd like you to learn
to think, to think on the loving kindness of the Lord in his temple.
I'd like you to learn that. I don't want you being caught
in the mindless religion of this world. I'd like to tell this generation
and the next generation of the struggles of those that went
before us. We've got a lot of people we've got a debt to. We have a great debt for those
who've given themselves for the sake of the gospel. I tell you
to tell the towers, number the towers, set your hearts on the
bulwarks that God's placed around this church. Because there's
a time coming when you may well be one of the ones that has to
mount that tower. That's basically it. Preach this old gospel to a new
generation and we do not use old or new methods, we use old
methods and we tell the old story. And the last verse of this makes
a very great statement. I tell this generation, the next
generation, this God is our God forever and ever. I love that,
this God. That's an important word. Zion
has a distinct God. She sure does. Not like the gods
of this world. This God is our God forever and
ever. And he mentions one of the things
here that sets him apart. He'll be our guide even unto
death. He'll be our guide even unto death. You know, we hear
today of a Savior who's not very faithful. He's a Savior who wants
to save everybody, but for some reason or the other just doesn't.
He just can't cut it. He can't get you to come forward. He can't get you to sign a card
or shake a preacher's hand. He can't get you to straighten
up and fly right. He can't get you to do any of
those things. You can ask Him for eternal life
and He'll give it to you, but next week if you mess up, you've
lost Him. He's just not very faithful.
He's not a God that holds on. He's not a God that grabs people. with an unchanging, eternal,
irresistible love and says, I'm going to be your guide even to
your death. Now, that's Zion's God, though. That's Zion's God. He's an unchanging God, a faithful
God. This God, this distinct God,
distinct from all others, the God that's worshiped in Zion,
is the God that I want to tell the next generation And I'll
tell you, if that Old Testament temple and town held a prominent
place in the psalmist's heart, how much more so should the Church
of the Lord Jesus Christ in our day?