Transcript

We’re going to go to the book of Psalms. I told you I was going to finish Isaiah and I didn’t mean to mislead you but I can’t get that done in a shorter period of time and I’ll probably have to chop this one off because I do want to be mindful of the hours the choir is putting in and is going to put in. This beautiful leather Bible was found in the parking lot. If you know somebody that that belongs to. Can’t find the name in it but it will be right here and you don’t get it if it’s not yours. I know you wouldn’t anyway.

But anyway, Psalm 132. I want to finish Psalm 132 tonight. These pilgrims are making their ascent back into Jerusalem and the earlier part of this Psalm, we saw something of their heart petition for God’s blessing. As you know, in the Old Testament mindset there, the blessing of God was geographical. It really was. God blessed you in the Promised Land, in Jerusalem, in Israel in general but Jerusalem in specific. And so they come into the land petitioning God for his blessing and now in this last part, in verses 13 through 18, God is talking about when the blessing falls and we see great and wonderful prophecies of Christ as he, of course, is the blessing of God and is the agent or the means of God’s blessing to God’s people.

Let’s read it together, Psalm 132, beginning in verse 13,

13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation.

That’s a place. Verse 14,

14 “This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.

I like that. “Well, God, why did you geographically at least for a period of time, choose to uniquely bless at this place?” God says, “I have desired it. That’s it. That’s all you’re going to get from me.” Verse 15,

15 “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy with bread. 16 Her priests also I will clothe with salvation, And her godly ones will sing aloud for joy. 17 There I will cause the horn of David to spring forth [that’s Christ]; I have prepared a lamp for Mine anointed. 18 His enemies I will clothe with shame, But upon himself his crown shall shine.”

So notice this place of blessing. That would be my first Roman numeral, the place of blessing. I’m using my chronology here from now being in the present where you and I live. There is a future fulfillment of this that is yet to be fulfilled; this future place of unique blessing. There is actually a place on the earth that’s going to have unique, special blessing from God upon it. Now, this future blessing place, of course, is Jerusalem. It is Israel.

Look over at Isaiah 65 real quick and we’ll see something of a statement of this future kingdom, this future fulfillment. This is what we would call, of course, the millennial kingdom. We see this in verses 18 and 19, he said, “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people.” Now, he’s not that way now, nor is he that way fully in the past but when the millennial kingdom comes and righteousness dwells, then he will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people, “And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.” So there is a future place where God said in a unique way, “I’m going to pour out my blessings on earth.” Now, certainly his blessings will cover the earth but they will extend from and be centered in that place in Jerusalem where he will take the throne of his father David. He is of the line and of the throne of David.

But also not only a future fulfillment, there is a present fulfillment that applies to us in the here and now and we pick up on this in verse 13 back in Psalm 132. In verse 13 he says, “For the LORD has chosen Zion.” What an interesting word. That’s one of the things you never had to convince an Orthodox Jew of and that was sovereign election. The Jews would tell you point blank, no question about it and I’m sure it’s true today, “We are God’s elect, chosen people. We’re different than others.” Now hopefully, most of them would be pious in a true sense and say, “Our election doesn’t have anything to do with us being inherently superior or special, God chose Israel. God chose Abraham and from Abraham, chose to build a mighty nation and chose them as his chosen people.” So the Jews, if you went to the Jews and you told them you were a Calvinist, they would say, “We’re right there with you. We believe God chose his people.” That’s what they would say and that’s what this text is saying. God didn’t choose the Hittites or the Philistines or the Babylonians or any other Gentile people, he chose Israel

And he says he chose them, what does he say there, “My dwelling place forever,” verse 14, “Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.” So Zion and I guess geographically speaking you could say Zion is Jerusalem, Zion was chosen as a unique place of God’s presence and, of course, equally so, God’s blessing but we all hold and agree Zion did not merit this favor. It was what we call in theology “unmerited favor.” Every person that has come to faith in Jesus Christ is the object of the unmerited favor of God so there’s great typology here: types of Christ, types of Christians and a certain type of how he saves us Christians. 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “God has chosen you,” Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica. In Colossians 3:12 he writes to, “Those who have been chosen of God.” Now, I have no problem with the argument that you’re chosen because you believe. Yes, but you also believe because you’re chosen. There are two sides to that coin and we can’t figure it all out down here but the election of God is clearly taught in the word of God. He chose Israel. He chose this particular geographical place as the center of his kingdom and the center of his blessing and he chooses those whom he will save. I like the way Dr. Spurgeon used to say it. I say Dr. Spurgeon, he didn’t even go to school but he was a brilliant man, he was a genius, a Baptist preacher in London and he used to say, “Now, we don’t know who God’s elect are.” He said, “If God would put a yellow streak down their back, we could just run around town and pull people’s shirts up and see who had a yellow streak.” He said, “But God didn’t do that. We don’t know who they are. Our job is to preach to all men everywhere to repent and believe and urge them all to repent and believe.” We’re not God but God says to Israel and God says to this place, “The blessing I’ve chosen, Zion. I am going to dwell there. It’s my resting place. I’m going to abundantly bless there.” Why? “I have desired it.” And that’s what is true about our individual salvation.

In verse 14, he does use that word “dwell,” I just want to amplify on that. “I’m going to dwell here for I have desired it.” It’s just an amazing thing. Of all the points on the earth, God says uniquely, “I’m going to dwell here.” Of course, that has a present fulfillment in every Christian. The Bible says about Jesus Christ in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” So actually, Zion, Jerusalem, the temple in Jerusalem where God’s Shekinah glory especially manifested itself, the Holy of Holies in the temple, the place where God would come down and accept the sacrifice on the great day of atonement when the priest would enter there with trembling and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, all of those point to Christ. All of those picture him so God says, “There is a sense in which I dwell in Jerusalem but the real fulfillment of where God is is Jesus Christ.” God is in Christ. That’s where God’s blessing is. Guess where God’s presence is? It’s in Jesus Christ.

Now, since Christ has saved you like Ephesians 2:22 says, “You are also being built together into a dwelling of God.” There is a sense in which, of course, the Scriptures say, “You are a temple of the Holy Spirit,” and we don’t want to negate the individuality of this. God dwells in Christians but there is a sense in which we are collectively one in Christ. God dwells in his church. God dwells in his congregation of believers abundantly so. In the New Testament principle and the Old Testament explicit teaching, we see God talks to Christians in the collectivity of local churches and when you begin to get real heavy on application to individual lives without the interconnected principle of our reciprocal relationship one to another, you lose something. You lose biblical teaching because we are interconnected and God dwells with us. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.” So while he does dwell in individual Christians, there is a unique and special way he dwells when Christians are gathered together as his local church is.

You know, over 73 times in the New Testament, the Bible says Christians are “in Christ.” It’s one of the favorite phrases of the Apostle Paul, we are in Christ. There is something mystical to that. There is a reality there that we can’t wrap our tangible thinking minds around. It’s a marvelous truth that we are in Christ. Now, that’s the place of blessing, Christ and so the blessing of God is in Christ and if you are saved, you are in Christ so you’re under the blessing of God. What a great thing that is. Aren’t you glad we’re not like Muslims who have to travel to Mecca to get some kind of presence or blessing or something from God? We are the Mecca of God, if you will. He dwells with us and he dwells in us. Practically, he lives in us. Positionally, we live in him. Both of those are true. Christ is in me and I am in Christ. There is a sense in which we are in the sphere of Christ which means we are now in the design of God. We are now in the blessing place of God in Jesus Christ. I mean, look folks, we are radically, unbelievably, abundantly blessed. You’ve just got to see it in faith and we’re barely even tasting right now, we’re seeing through a mirror dimly but then face-to-face. Where the Bible says taste and see, we’re getting a taste right now of all that we have in Christ but one day we’ll feast to the full at the very supper of the Lamb. It’s coming for us.

Now, some think that the place of blessing before God is something we have to earn and what an error that is. What a warped thinking. If you could just for a moment slightly, I mean, in the very slightest way, fathom your sinful depravity and the infinite holiness of God, you would abhor the thought that you could ever earn his presence or his blessing. I don’t struggle with working to attain God’s blessing. I don’t wrestle with that. I don’t have anxiety about that. What a foolish notion that I could possibly earn him. My goodness, you might as well tell a tadpole to be a killer whale. It can’t do it. It’s just not there. The DNA doesn’t work. It’s not going to happen. By the way, it’s not going to happen with millions of years of evolution either. God made cats and they’ve always been cats and they died as cats. And God made dogs and they always were dogs and they died as dogs. You just can’t. As a matter fact, the fossil record doesn’t support it either. It’s just not there. Evolution is just not there scientifically. It’s surely not there scripturally. How did I get on that rabbit? I don’t know.

You can’t earn your way to God. You can get on the morality road, “I’m going to clean my life up morally and I’ll please God.” You can get on the religion road “Well, I’m going to join a church and begin to take the ordinances and give my tithes and offerings and I’m going to participate in religion.” You can get on the good works road and start doing beneficial and benevolent things for mankind around you. Again, like this morning, you may make a better neighbor but that will not cause you to be under the blessing of God. God’s blessing is on a person, the Zion of God, the Jerusalem of God, the temple of God, the Holy of Holies is Christ. The blessing is on him. Oh, aren’t you glad? Boy, you see all these people and you hear all these theological concepts and you see all these fanatics and zealots on TV, the Muslim extremists and all of these things, the things they are trying to achieve and do and the whole time, everything they do is in vain because Christ is the blessing place of God. If you want to get blessed, do you know where you have to go? You’ve got to get in Christ. Wherever he is, that’s where you’d better be. Last I checked, he’s omnipresent. You get into him by faith.

But there is a sense, there is a sense where the blessing of God is merited. Christ merited the blessing of God. Christ fulfilled his Father’s will. He was the champion of our salvation. He’s the captain, the Bible says, of our salvation. He fulfilled perfectly the law of God. He earned the right to save for himself a people that he would cleanse, infuse with his own righteousness, bring them home to glorification one day and enjoy them forever. He earned that. You’re the reward of his suffering. You’re the prize he achieved and merited. But friend, you just go along for the ride. Jesus paid the fare. What a thought. What a truth. What a blessing. What a glory.

Romans 4:6, “Just as David also speaks,” here’s the word, “of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works.” Man, what a mouthful. “Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons,” in other words, the man doesn’t work, God just reckons him righteous apart from works. Verse 7 of Romans 4, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” So how can we get in such a state? How can we find that place where God didn’t take our sins into account? How can we find that place where God blesses without any merited righteousness on our own? It’s in Christ. It’s in Christ. If I might for the 1,000th time just pick on Baptists just a little bit, it’s not right here. It’s not right there. It’s not at these steps. These steps are not altars. Catholics have altars because they come to an altar to perform a sacramental work that somehow achieves grace whereby they are saved which is a total lie. That’s not an altar, those are steps. Now, you may come to these steps and pour out your heart to God and God saves you and that’s wonderful and if that’s the way you want to do it, please come and do it but the steps can’t save you. The spot can’t save you. The mourner’s bench can’t save you. The counselor room can’t save you. Salvation is in Christ. He’s the place of God’s blessing and he’s obtained by grace through faith.

You may be sitting in your pew, maybe sitting in your car, that’s where I was converted. I had an altar in my car one night in of all places, Columbia, Tennessee in front of the Murray County Hospital and I just cried out to God as a sinner and placed my faith in Christ. I didn’t really understand what was happening but I knew something happened. That was my altar. Don’t you go to heaven, listen to me, don’t you go to heaven, don’t you go to heaven from this church and go before our precious Savior and say, “I did what Jeff told me to do.” Don’t you do it. I’ve told you to get to Jesus. I haven’t told you to come to some steps or go to a counseling room. That’s fine to do that. You get to Jesus. You know and rest in settled assurance, “My faith is not in what the evangelist said.” You see, a lot of people place their faith in what the evangelist said. My friend, the evangelist can’t save you, only Christ can save you. Find him. He’s the place of blessing. You can pilgrimage over to Israel, you can go to what temple they’ve got there, you might even break through and get into the Holy of Holies or whatever they’ve got, I don’t know what they’re using over there now, and you’ll be no closer to God than at the Muscle Shoals Wal-Mart. As a matter fact, I believe more people have gotten saved at the Muscle Shoals Wal-Mart than in downtown Jerusalem these days. Christ is the place of God’s blessing.

Well, real quickly, II. Not only the place of blessing and not only do we see a wonderful picture of Christ here but the provisions of blessing. The provisions of blessing. Now again, there is going to be a literal place on earth, Isaiah 65:21-23 is one of the places where this is spelled out. There is going to be a place on earth where the actual provisions of the blessing of God will flow in abundance. So there’s a future fulfillment but also there is a present fulfillment and I think the wording here forces us to see a greater fulfillment than just an earthly kingdom though it includes that. I believe we see some verbiage here that must point to Christ. It must point to him. Notice how he says that there in verse 15, “I will abundantly bless her provision.” Also in verse 15, “I will satisfy her needy with bread. Her priests also I will clothe with salvation.” Folks, that does have a physical dimension to it but we can’t stop there and in balanced systematic understanding of biblical truth, you’ve got to see that Christ is mentioned here. He is the bread of heaven. He is the provision of God. He is the satisfaction of God. He’s all we need. The Bible says in Genesis 22:14 as Abraham is taking his son, Isaac, up on that mountain to sacrifice Isaac before God, what a statement. What a statement. Isaac looks at father Abraham and says, “Father, I see the wood and I see the flame but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” Isaac didn’t know he was going to be sacrificed. And Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb.” That pictures Jesus who was the one God provided that the satisfaction of the atonement would be taken for the children. It was Christ. He’s the provision of God for our sin.

The Bible speaks of satisfaction here. We see it in verse 15 again, “I will satisfy her needy with bread.” Yes, it speaks of physical provision and yes, that speaks of the millennial kingdom but it speaks, I’m convinced, more than that, as Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They shall be satisfied.” Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are those who have been wrought upon by the Spirit of God and see the great weightiness of their sins and have turned to Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord. He’s the provision of God. He’s the satisfaction of God. Look, when Jesus died on the cross, God’s wrath was satisfied. I mean, a holy God, a holy God of righteous indignation for our sin went from burning, just retribution toward us that was laid on Jesus on the cross and he poured it out there and it was completely exhausted in Christ and effectual atonement was provided. And now, do you know what God’s wrath in heaven is doing? You say, “Wrath, what are you doing?” He says, “I’m satisfied. I’m just satisfied. There is nothing burning in me toward the chosen elect of God. I’m just satisfied.” The lion of wrath becomes the lamb of contentment because Jesus is God’s satisfaction for us.

You sin this afternoon. And you will sin tonight. You will sin tomorrow. Your human understanding will rage against you, “Oh my, I might not be saved. Oh my, what does God think of this?” If you look up the God, he’ll say, “Would you look at my Son? My wrath for your sin was satisfied in his death on the cross.” I’m having one of those moments where I’d like to run around the building but I would surely have a heart attack. I don’t run like I used to run and it’s your fault, you’ve made me old.

We can talk about the bread, he talks about bread here. Yes, it’s of physical provision for the millennial kingdom but it’s more than that. John 6:48, “I am the bread of life.” He’s the provision for our need. You know, it’s an old expression, I think it’s somewhat misused and out of balance but it does have truth: there is a God shaped vacuum in our hearts and Jesus is the provision that fills that. Some are unloved and I’m telling you, when you repent of sin and come to Christ, you find the love you’ve longed for in this world. Some are without hope and they are discouraged and they are downcast and you come to Jesus Christ and you find hope for your troubled soul. You find an anchor for your soul. We have this hope, the Bible says in Hebrews 6:19, as an anchor of the soul. Well, that’s good biblical counseling right there. Get them to Jesus and they’ll find an anchor for their soul.

There’s security for the insecure. If you want to get people’s attention, talk about insecurity. Everybody is insecure. Everybody is insecure. Jesus can give that security. The beloved of the Lord dwell in security, Deuteronomy 33:12.

There is rest for the weary, “Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden.” If realizing the weightiness and the offensiveness of your heart and your actions before a wondrous and just holy God, if that wearies you, you can come to Christ and immediately in faith find rest for your soul. I want you to listen to Jeff Noblit, I’m going home tonight, I’ve got kind of a congestion thing. I’m going to take some cold medicine and I won’t take the Baptist wine called NyQuil, I don’t like the way it tastes. I’m going to put my head on a pillow, no you listen to me, there will not be one millisecond of worry as to how my soul stands before God. Because I’m special? Oh no, my Savior is special. I’m resting in him. I’m resting in that bread and that provision and that security. Isn’t that a great way to live your life? My goodness, we need to rescue the perishing that are wallowing out there in guilt and in works and in religion and in legalism and let them find the glories of Christ. Bring them to the Shoals’ Christmas Parade. If they’ll just listen, they’ll hear more Gospel than they’ll hear five years in most pulpits and that’s not an exaggeration. I’m telling you, that’s not an exaggeration.

Rest for the weary, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” And forgiveness for the guilty. What a provision he is, Acts 10:43, “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sin.”

Don’t you love the word of God? It’s three minutes after seven. You’d better mark that down, I’m getting this time back when January gets here, alright? I’ve got three more pages of notes and I’d love to carry on but the choir is working hard and I want to get you home just a little bit early.

Well, I love you and thank God for you. Don’t you love Christ? What a Savior. Do you know what you are? I’m looking at a bunch of wicked folks and when I look in the mirror I see the same thing left to myself, apart from grace. But I’ve got a provision, listen, I’ve got a provision that is greater than my wickedness and it humbles me. It makes me want to read my Bible. It makes me want to pray. It makes me want to come to small groups. It makes me want to sing for Jesus. It makes me want to give tithes and offerings. That’s the secret to Grace Life Church. “How do you get so many people to serve? 33 years, 34 years you’ve been there and that many people still come to visitation. You’ve got that many people willing to teach.” I’ll tell you why, they know Jesus and they know what they are apart from him. That’s the key. It’s not me. You just thunder the truth and God will raise up a church for his glory. I’ve rambled on enough. Let’s stand together, alright?