The blessings appointed for Zion (Quality: Average)

[0:00] words that I hope the Lord may be pleased to lead us into. We'll find in the 50th Psalm, verse 2.

[0:17] The second verse of Psalm 50. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

[0:34] Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. It is very blessed, profitable, and instructive to notice the many threefold cords that we find in the sacred volume of God's holy word.

[1:09] And all because of this, our God, of whom we were reading just now, and what a mercy if living faith should be so an exercise in our hearts this day, my friends.

[1:31] We may even be favored to know something of the blessedness that is in such a word as this.

[1:41] This God is our God forever and ever. And if he's your God today, my friends, he is your God forever and ever.

[1:53] Yes. Because he is the unchangeable God.

[2:05] He is that God who has said, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

[2:17] But I say, our God, this God then, who is our God forever and ever, and will be our guide even unto death.

[2:31] And does not one say very beautifully upon that point, guide us down to death and there. Banish all our guilty fear.

[2:44] How many times have you prayed that? So I couldn't count. Nor could I, my friends. Nor could I.

[2:59] Oh, we need the Lord to guide us through life, be with us in death. But this God is a blessed trinity of persons.

[3:15] The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And while it is a blessed doctrine, a doctrine most surely believed among us, my friends, if we are rightly taught, if we have faith, if we belong to Christ, we are not satisfied with the mere doctrine.

[3:47] Blessed as it is. Blessed as it is. Beautiful as it is. What we want to realize is the experience of the doctrine.

[3:59] And then if we experience the doctrine, it will be bound to come out in our practice.

[4:10] We shall walk in accordance with the divine truths that the Lord has seen fit to reveal to our hearts.

[4:23] And we shall walk in accordance with the divine truths that the Lord has seen. They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus and learned of him. Can that be said of you, my dear friends?

[4:37] Not only as you come into this little sanctuary Sabbath by Sabbath or during the week, but can it be said of you in your everyday life?

[4:49] Can it be said of you, my friends, that such as be the change in our lives that the ungodly gaze and admire, although they hate the change?

[5:16] Great blessing for us, my friends, to be thus hated by the world. Because the Lord Jesus said this, Marvel not, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

[5:34] If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.

[5:52] But I do believe this, my friends, where grace is an exercise, the Lord's dear people won't want to do anything to make the world hate them.

[6:04] I've known some people, you know, speak of being persecuted, but they've asked for it. But the Lord Jesus says this, Blessed are you when men shall persecute you and revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely.

[6:27] It must be falsely, my friend. Yes. And if grace is an exercise, it will be falsely. Because you'll want to be like dear David, you know.

[6:42] If there ever was an experience I covet, and I've coveted for a long time, and more so lately. It is to be like dear David, of whom we read, however much Saul persecuted him, however much he sought even to slay David, and said he would smite him to the war with a javelin.

[7:08] What do we read about dear David? David behaved himself more wisely.

[7:22] That was grace in David's heart, friends, that enabled him to thus act in the midst of Saul's persecution.

[7:33] And I believe the grace of God is still the same today. I know it is from experience. Unless the grace of God is an exercise in your heart and mine, my friends, however much we may be persecuted, and by whomsoever we may be persecuted, there will be that desire in our heart to behave ourselves more wisely, and not give any course, just course, for any to reproach you.

[8:11] But I do want to come to the words of the text. I've already said we admire the threefold cards in the Word of God.

[8:22] Now, our text, my friends, is one of these threefold cards. We read, a threefold card is not quickly broken.

[8:40] Blessed word, that is. It's a very beautiful word in the church, and I know what I'm speaking about, my friends. I have two godly deacons and myself, the unworthy pastor.

[9:00] And I can honestly say, although the devil's tried to break the core sometimes, but it can't be broken because we're bound together.

[9:12] And my two deacons, like Aaron and her, have now for some time held up my hands by prayer, and I've needed it.

[9:28] There have been times when, as I've been telling our friends a little of my experience as a pastor, I've needed the prayers of my deacons.

[9:43] And so it is in the church, my friends, a great blessing to have a threefold card. United we stand, divided we fall.

[10:00] We know that today there is much desire among the people, religious people, I mean now, just mere religious people. Oh, we must all have one purse.

[10:13] But that's not the unity I'm talking about, friends. And it's not the unity I want either. I want that unity of the Spirit, the bond of peace.

[10:27] as the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians. And I was favored to give an address on that word to our dear friends at Red Hill, not in my own chapel, but in Shaw's Corner Chapel some time ago, endeavoring to keep the unity unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

[10:59] You get that, you know, friends, there won't be any divisions. No. There may be two causes in a town, you know, but if you get that among the people, and especially if you get that in the hearts of the pastors, that'll bind those two causes together as one.

[11:25] I don't look upon causes in Red Hill, I look upon one cause. I'm so glad to have that sweet union and the two pastors, as it is in Croydon, of course, and in other places, doubtless, but I know more about those places because they're close to me.

[11:49] We can converse with one another freely on the things of God and the things that matter. And it is refreshing to us, but I don't want to go into that kind of thing.

[12:03] What I'm coming to is this, this beautiful threefold card. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

[12:21] Can you see the Trinity, my friends? You may look at a text, as we ministers do sometimes, and you really just see the text, and you say, well, I don't know really what it means, or what is in it.

[12:39] well, and you won't, until the blessed spirit, whose divine prerogative it is, and who calls the psalmist Asaph to write these words, comes to your help and aid, and gives you a little understanding of it, and anoints your eyes with heavenly eyes, Alan.

[13:06] In answer to the prayer as set before us in one of the psalms, open thou thine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law, and if the Lord opens their eyes, my friends, I know there's wondrous things, even in such a word as this, out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined.

[13:41] And it has opened to me in this way, and I would desire to set it before you, as I believe it has been given to me, as it was in the case of dear Peter, you know, when Peter went to the Gentiles, that was all wrong for some of his friends.

[14:02] all wrong. Oh, Peter, you ought not to have done that. You ought not to have gone to those people. But you know, Peter, he reversed how God had sent him to those people, and in reversing concerning the sheep that they saw, let down from heaven by four corners.

[14:31] And he said, in that sheep they were all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping things. Can you come in this morning, my friend, with the creeping things?

[14:45] Blessed place to be in. I creep beside him as a worm and see him bleed for me. But Peter says this, and it came even to me.

[15:04] Now, I do like it, I do love it, I do appreciate it, and the Lord knows how much I appreciate it when his word comes to me.

[15:14] And I do want to be able to speak and to minister to the Lord's dear people so that they might feel in the pew a little of what we feel in the pulpit, and it came even to me.

[15:34] You may be glad sometimes to sit and listen for someone else, but when all is said and done, my friends, the best time is when you hear for yourself, and when you and I hear rightly for ourselves, we hear not only for time, but we hear for eternity.

[15:58] And when we preach as we ought to preach, my dear friends, we preach for eternity. So, as we look at these words, God the father, my friends, I can see God the father, my friends.

[16:21] God the father. God the father. The Lord is king in Zion. We know that has its application to the Lord Jesus Christ, but then you see, he says, I my father are one.

[16:43] And you can't speak of a father without speaking of Christ, nor can you speak of Christ without speaking of a father. Because they're one, one in essence.

[16:58] And although we know that on one occasion the Lord Jesus said, my father is greater than I. me. Why did he say that?

[17:12] Because he was then in that state of humiliation, humbling himself, making himself of no reputation, taking upon himself the form of a servant, becoming obedient unto death.

[17:35] his father was greater than him, wasn't he? In that respect. And we could mention other things wherein what the Lord Jesus said was, well, he never said anything else but what was true.

[17:56] Every word that the Lord Jesus uttered from the time he began to speak, to that moment went on. Calvary's tree he cried with a loud voice, it is finished.

[18:11] It was true. Thy word is true from the beginning. Blessings on his holy night.

[18:22] But we see God the Father here as he is the one by eternal choice of his dear people.

[18:38] Set his love upon them. And Moses could rejoice in it as he writes that beautiful, blessed, and yet solemn sound.

[18:54] He says, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

[19:12] Yes. The people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem and they dwell there with their Father.

[19:23] Father it is said rightly what is home without a mother and it can be said rightly and so spiritually especially.

[19:40] What would Zion be without God the Father? And when the Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray and if you are one of his disciples my friends you will come to him when you feel your need and you say what they said Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples to pray and what did the Lord Jesus say?

[20:11] cannot say it easily no my friends but look he either is your father or he's not your father is it a solemn consideration to you?

[21:00] Is it a solemn exercise to you? Oh you say with dear Miss Steele my God my father blissful name oh may I call thee mine may I with sweet assurance claim a portion so divine he is my dear friends the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ and Peter was brought to know it and how did he know it more blessedly than ever before by the power of Christ's resurrection and listen to what he says as he commences writing his epistle blessed be the God and father of our Lord

[22:01] Jesus Christ who hath begotten us again to lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ ah my dear friend yes you see a father is one that begets and if God is your father you have been begotten again we had fathers of our flesh that corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live for they verily for a short time chastened us for their own pleasure but he for our prophet out of Zion what does God the father do my friends he corrects his people he corrects them where should we get to if he didn't why did the salmists say at the close of that wonderful 119th salm amazing that is to me after all that the dear salmists has said concerning

[23:34] God's word his laws commandments his testimonies and his statutes and what he felt toward that yet by divine teaching he has brought ultimately to this position before God I have gone astray like a lot sheep seek thy servant how many times have you felt like that as you've come to the throne of grace great blessing my friends to be brought to acknowledge that you are that character described in the 53rd chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah I know the first part of that verse refers to all mankind the first part of that verse is universal don't misunderstand me all we like sheep have gone astray that is true of a whole human race for when

[24:46] Adam by transgression fell and conscious fled his maker's face linked in clandestine league with hell he ruined all his future race the seeds of evil once brought in increased and filled the world with sin

[27:06] Sunday sunday to die yes the lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all out of Zion yes this doesn't mean of course that the lord ever removes from Zion he's there he abides in Zion yes he never leaves his abode god the son in his infinite mercy has become to speak of him as a perfection of beauty he left heaven but he didn't leave his father's bosom it is an error to say that the lord jesus christ left the bosom of the father why do i know it's an error because of what the lord jesus christ himself said he says no man has seen god at any time the only begotten son which is in he was in the bosom of the father when he said it and he was on earth when he said it no he was still in the bosom of his father yes but he did leave his higher abode mysteriously blessedly really and truly he came to earth not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him out of

[28:53] Zion oh yes blessed place is Zion my friends did we not read a little concerning Zion in our lesson just now blessed words the city of the great king the lord is king in Zion what a wonderful mercy to be one of these citizens so that we can say as the apostle was able to say even naturally so the apostle could say it but I believe he could say it in a double sentence he was a citizen of no mean city and if you and I are among these blessed inhabitants of Zion my friends we are citizens of no mean city we may be looked down upon by men set at naught by men but that doesn't make any difference to our standing before

[30:14] God as Zionites glorious things of thee are spoken Zion city of our God he whose word cannot be broken form thee for his own abode he is there my friends God the father is in Zion what a wonderful wonderful thing he never leaves his house he abides there but he has seen fit in his infinite mercy to send his well beloved son to earth and to his people he says this let Mount Zion rejoice let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments we see even in these ill and evil days in which her lot is cast as it has been in all generations the judgments of

[31:30] God abroad in the earth we mentioned in prayer how the words of the Lord Jesus are being solemnly fulfilled wars and rumors of wars earthquakes in divers places famine pestilences we are very favored my friends in this England of ours we deserve God's judgment to be poured out upon us as a nation and not only as a nation we deserve it in the church we deserve it in Zion because you see in Zion we have the word of God and the things of God and the gospel of the grace of God and yet how many are there really strictly speaking who walk in accordance with the gospel of the grace of

[32:40] God today I don't find many you say what do you only by the grace of God but I hope this that that grace has been given to me where I err where I go astray where I come short to ask the Lord to pardon and forgive my sin and to enable me to act in his fear and do that which is right in his holy sight and what does the Lord say to his servants what is the word that he speaks out of Zion and this is the word of a father to his sons and daughters who has said come ye out from among them and be separate saith the

[33:42] Lord and I will receive you and you shall be my sons and daughters have we done that my friends have we been brought out of the world and not only the world profane but the world professing there must be a right a gracious a God given a Holy Spirit wrought separation from the world love not the world neither the things of the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him I was struck recently in meditating a little upon that particular part of God word in the epistle of John love not the world and I thought it was such a wonderful way of putting it I read this the

[34:43] Christian as he passes through the world is like a ship on the ocean like a ship on the ocean and it isn't the water that's outside of the ship that will sink the ship it's when the water gets into the ship then the ship will sink no not the world if the world gets in us my friends we are bound to sink and if you don't sink right out you'll be like Peter was you know of whom we read he began to sink oh many times you and I have begun to sink and what has the Lord done for us hasn't he done for us what he did for Peter oh how beautiful that is my friends how beautiful we read in answer to

[35:54] Peter's prayer Lord save me he stretched forth his hand and drew him into the ship don't we need him to do that for us I had a car the other day sent to me and these words were in it from one of my members the Lord will hold thy right hand oh I do need that my friend yes the Lord shall hold thy right hand do you feel to need it I don't know if I've told you this I've been here several times now but it's just come to my mind I'm speaking this morning particularly of God the Father yes I know we preach Christ but then you can't preach Christ without preaching God the

[36:54] Father I remember when my children were young and they were all around the table I said to them what I'd said so many times before hands together that was in readiness you think for the children to join in with me in asking the blessing upon the food but what struck me so that particular time was this my little daughter my only daughter was sitting beside me and when I said hands together I felt her little hand come into my hand and oh what I saw in that my friends me a poor weak sinner putting my weak hand of faith into my father's hand that's hands together friends we shake hands with each other because we love each other but do we really realize the significance of it if you really shake hands you know with people you'll shake hearts

[38:20] I believe a good many of the Lord don't people have lost the significance of the handshake today I remember one deacon's wife saying in my hearing and I knew that good minister meant well you know he was a builder by trade and he gave that woman such a handshake and she well almost grumbled about it because he gripped her hand so tight said I don't know whether he thought he got the builder's trowel but my friends I felt this if if that woman had gripped his hand as tight as he gripped hers it wouldn't have hurt a real handshake never hurts if you grip and the other one grips now my friends if the

[39:24] Lord grips your hand or if he takes your hand to die and you can say with the dear psalmist he leadeth me beside the still waters he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake you'll know something of the significance of these beautiful words out of Zion but what does he say how is this worked out in our experience he says this walk about Zion and how shall we rightly walk about Zion not finding thought with everybody else not backbiting with our tongue now we shall want to be like this we sing it sometimes do we really mean it hand in hand we would be walking viewing

[40:37] Jesus new command of his love we would be talking till we reach fair canian's land is that how you walk walk about Zion that's the only right way to walk about Zion there are many who walk about Zion and try to find out all her thoughts and her failings and her weaknesses sense but if you and I walk about Zion rightly my friends we should be looking out and listening to for this come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he has done for my soul how lightly have you heard it here you say it was a long time ago why why is it have you lost grip of your father's hand because you know he doesn't lose his grip he doesn't lose his grip you mustn't put the blame on the father you know there was no blame on the father from the beginning of that parable to the end of the prodigal son the blame was all on the son he'd left home he'd wandered far he'd got away from his parental roof and wasted his substance with riotous living and we've all done that friends we have you say

[42:32] I'm not a prodigal when you say that my friends I stand in doubt of you I must admit I am but I tell you this I've been only too glad to get back to father's house and what a wonderful thing it is out of Zion out of Zion the father was looking he was expecting he was anticipating the return of that wayward son and it already made up his mind that when he should reach that son he should fall upon his neck and kiss and kiss and kiss and kiss it and he sings blessed friends and they're all out of

[43:32] Zion where God the father reigns and don't we sometimes sing this there is a family on earth whose father fills a throne there was seed of heavenly birth to mend their little known mend their fairest claims deny and count them basically born but would you would I would they another life prefer rejected be the thought oh no what a great blessing my friends to belong to the father yes to know something of his eternal choice of us and so to walk about

[44:34] Zion go round about her tell the towers they're off mark well her bulwarks consider her palaces that she may tell it to the generation following and this has been done my friends right down through the generations the lord has seen fit to raise up his witnesses do we witness for the truth not so much by what we say you know people will take more notice of what you do than what you say and on the lord's day every lord's day morning we can be reprovers to those that are around us when they see us leave our homes and houses and go into god's house that reproves the ungodly i know it does from the treatment i've sometimes received on a monday morning oh i dreaded when i was in business particularly of course i dreaded monday morning perhaps would have a good day in the sanctuary know something of what the dear solvice meant when he said a day thy corpse is better than a thousand i'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my god and if there was anything i dreaded friends in those days it was that old mill gate because i knew what it would be as soon as i got into the office on a monday morning but i didn't want to change places with them no no we don't want to change places with the world do we friends no you say you pity them you feel sad because of them but you don't want to be where they are out of

[46:42] Zion ah yes you see for god to shine as a Zion and for him to shine upon you as we have it further in the text is to have some little evidence that you are in Zion man yes but i must leave it for this morning the lord bless the few remarks and cause us to further meditate in his ever precious word through the rest of this day for his name sake amen amen you