to Psalm 87. Psalm 87, hear the word of the Lord. The Psalm of the sons of Korah, a song. On the holy mount stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken, O city of God. Among those who know me, I mention Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Cush. This one was born there, they say. And of Zion, it shall be said, this one and that one were born in her. For the Most High Himself will establish her. The Lord records as He registers the peoples. This one was born there. Singers and dancers alike say, all my springs are in you. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you for the reading and the hearing of your word and what a blessing it is because it is your very word that proceeds from your mouth. You have tuned our hearts and our ears to believe what your word teaches. Now we come again, Lord, for the preaching of your word. Grant strength to your servant. Grant the unction of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of the gospel. For, Lord, you know that apart from you, your servants cannot fulfill this task. Lord, you promise to be with us. You promise to give that strength. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As you know from this morning in Psalm 84, we looked at the glory of the worship of God, in particular focused under the Old Covenant in the house of God. But tonight I want to turn our attention to the church itself and to declare very boldly the church of Jesus Christ is glorious. That is the church universal, whether you're talking about the church triumphant in heaven or the church militant here on earth. That's also true of particular congregations. That's true of this congregation here, Covenant Presbyterian Church. The church of Jesus Christ is glorious because God declares her to be glorious, and we see that in this particular psalm. This is a psalm of praise, and yet the praise and adoration is not towards the Lord here, but towards the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, towards the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to point out just how I'm going to be dividing the text, and then we're going to go through and work our way through it. First of all, we're going to see in the first three verses the glory of the church, especially when she comes together in the assembly. Under the heading, the Lord loves his church. And then we're gonna see in verse four, the universal scope of the church. Then we're gonna see in five and six, the blessing of being born in the covenant. And children, that's when you're gonna really need to listen up and understand that particular blessing. And then in the end, this adoration and this praise, a declaration of praise to the church itself. So I'm gonna be dividing it in that way. One of the things I did this morning was I stepped back just to give you a taste, and if some of the ladies have their way, maybe a foretaste, we'll see, of the flow and the arrangement of the Psalms that are in the Psalter. And when we come to Psalms 84 and 87, we find that they're in Book 3 of the Psalter. And I would remind you, Book 3 can be summarized under the heading, The Collapse of the Davidic Kingdom. In fact, Psalms 77 to 83, these are Psalms of Asaph. Those seven Psalms are all devoted to the description of that collapse. Seven out of the 17 Psalms, especially so. But just to make sure you get the point and you see that that's the case, I want you to turn briefly to Psalm 89. It's interesting, beginning with 84, our psalm this morning, and going to the end, this is a section of psalms that were written by the sons of Korah, except for one psalm of David that snuck in there. And you may not realize that when you look at the headings of 88 and 89, especially 89, we read a mascal of Ethan the Ezraite. Anybody know who Ethan the Ezraite is? was. If you didn't, you will shortly. But if you turn back to 88, you'll see in the title, a song, a psalm of the sons of Korah to the choir master, according to Mahalath-Lenioth, and I have no idea what that is in the title, a mascal of Heman the Ezraite. Now note there, it says a psalm of the sons of Korah, and then it mentions Heman the Ezraite. Heman and Ethan are Ezraites. They are in some way related to the clan that's called the sons of Korah. Of course, Korah himself was a contemporary of David as was Asaph. And Heman and Ethan were contemporaries of Solomon. Probably David too, but Solomon. When we read of Solomon's wisdom, he's compared to certain men in Israel. And the first one on the list is Ethan the Ezraite. Solomon was even wiser than Ethan the Ezraite. And then Haman is listed in that list as well. So Psalm 89 is attributed to Ethan the Ezraite. And it's a remarkable psalm. The first two-thirds of the psalm are talking about what we mentioned this morning, hesed, God's covenantal faithfulness, and especially God's covenantal faithfulness and the covenant that he made with David. It is a glowing, a glowing account of God's blessing upon David and the covenant that God entered into with David and that this shall not be moved. It cannot fail as you read through that. But when you come two-thirds of the way through the psalm, it suddenly shifts. In fact, the shift is so sudden, so abrupt, that many, including myself, suspect that the latter part was not written by Ethan the Ezraite, but rather someone during the exile itself. Look at it. Listen to what it says. Remember, I've already told you, book three, The Collapse of the Davidic Kingdom. This is how book three ends. After the opening two-thirds by Ethan the Ezraite that extols the glory of God, and in his covenantal faithfulness to David. Look at verse 38, but now you have cast off and rejected, you're full of wrath against your anointed, you have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust. You have breached all his walls. You have laid his strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder him. He has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes. You have made all his enemies rejoice. You have turned back the edge of his sword. You have not made him stand in battle. You have made his splendor to cease and cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth. You've covered him with shame. And then the pleading cry, How long, O Lord? If Ethan wrote this, which he very well may have, this is a prophetic utterance of what would happen hundreds of years later, very specifically described. That's why some think that perhaps this latter part was added later. Maybe another psalm that was written, whoever put the psalms together, wanted to juxtaposition God's covenantal faithfulness on one hand, and yet God's judgment, his chastising judgment on his people, for breaking covenant with God. As you come to the end, you see of Book 3, where is David's crown? It's in the dust. Where's David's throne? It's in the dust. This is God's judgment upon his people, and thus the heading, the collapse of the Davidic kingdom. And yet, what have we seen in 84? And what we see in 87? In 84, we see the safety and security and the blessing and prosperity and how God has established his own house and it will not be moved. And then we come to 87, we see the same thing about Mount Zion, about the city of God. Of course, under the Old Covenant, we see in terms of redemptive history and the typology there that this is fulfilled in the New Covenant in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you read 84 and 87, you wonder, how can they be in this book? I tried to make that point this morning. Yes, God's people break covenant, but God never does. Chesed, again. There will be restoration after the Babylonian captivity is ended. Now, we need to get a little geography under our feet. Anybody like biblical geography or any kind of geography? We need to think about geography because it's rich. in Old Testament typology, not just typology, but the tapestry of redemptive history. On the holy mount, we read, stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion. So he's talking here about Mount Zion. Do you remember where Mount Zion was located? Actually, still is located. If you look at the tribes and where all the tribes had their assigned territories, you look to the south, you look at that that was assigned to Judah. In Judah, you had Bethlehem, remember that city, six miles to the south of what would be established as Jerusalem, Bethlehem where David was born, Bethlehem where Jesus was born. This is not a coincidence. And God's purpose is in God's plans. Mount Zion was in what would be assigned as the territory of Judah. But if you think back, we encounter Mount Zion under a different name in the book of Genesis. In the book of Genesis, we know that Abraham went to a place called Salem. And there was a king there whose name was Melchizedek. Melchizedek means the king of righteousness who was priest to Almighty God. I think Melchizedek gets two paragraphs, I think, something like that. in the book of Genesis, but oh, are they important, or are they very, very important two paragraphs in terms of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 110 takes this up. The book of Hebrews takes it up and expounds it very, very, very, very clearly. Well, there's a fortification there, and the king at Salem was this man by the name of Melchizedek, who was greater than Abram. How do we know he was greater than Abram? the lesser pays tithes to the greater. Abram paid tithes to Melchizedek. And so we think about Salem and Salem was on Mount Zion. But there's something else as you continue to read scripture in terms of geography. Was Mount Zion the only mountain in this location? The answer to that is no. There's another mountain. In fact, Mount Zion was on the western end of the city that David built on this fortification called Mount Zion. It's David that turned Mount Zion into Jerusalem, his city, and established it. On the western end was this mountain called Mount Zion. That became the seat of the authority of David as king. That's where he built his palace. That was the seat of authority and power in the city. But there's also a mountain on the western side of the city. Anybody know the name of that mountain? You can go to, I saw somebody mouth it, you can go to 2 Chronicles chapter 3 when Solomon is about to build the temple. And he builds the temple where? According to 2 Chronicles chapter 3, on Mount Moriah. Now, does that ring a bell? Children, do you remember another time that we hear about Mount Moriah? Remember when Abraham was told to take his son, his only son, and to offer him as a burnt sacrifice in the mountains of what? Moriah? You see the richness of the texture of redemptive history God wrote this history in his eternal decree before the foundation of the heavens and the earth. And the story that God wrote in his eternal decree, and I mean an eternal story, actually comes to life in history. I mean, I can write a story, I can write a book, and hopefully you can read that book, and in your imagination, you can see the places and see the people as you're reading that book. But God writes a story, and God's pen fills out that story in Providence in history. And when you realize that, and then you look at these things, you just go, wow, wow, wow, all over again. Yes, it's at this same place. Mount Moriah, where Abraham offers his son Isaac. It's at this same place, Mount Zion, that was called Salem, where Melchizedek was the king of righteousness and priest of Almighty God there, to whom Abram paid tithes. Now, hundreds of years later, David, of course, is born in Judah. Why? Because Messiah would come from Judah. David was born in the city of David in Bethlehem, six miles south, but would establish Mount Zion as his city. More than just a fortification, this is the city of God that we would call Jerusalem. Of course, Salem, Shalom, means peace. Jerusalem, the city of peace. So that's some of the geography that's involved in this and God's election of Zion as his dwelling place. On the Mount, on the Holy Mount, it's holy. Why? Because God set it apart. He chose it. This is where the city would be built. stands the city he founded. It says he founded. It's hard to know for sure what's the antecedent. Is he talking about David here? Or is he talking about God? I think he's talking about God. But even if he is talking here about David, this is God's purpose and plan that this city be built here, a holy city on Mount Zion. The Lord loves the gates of Zion, we see. In Psalm 132, we see that Zion, Mount Zion is elect of God. He chose it for his dwelling place forever. In Psalm 132. We need to understand that this is where God decided to come under the old covenant and make his dwelling with the people of God in the land of promise would be in Jerusalem. I think it's also interesting that David's greatest desire was to build God a house. In fact, he told the prophet, he says, I'm not going to close my eyes. I am not going to go to sleep until I build the Lord a house. Read about this in Psalm 132. That's a godly desire. You see, God lived in a tent when the people lived in tents, when they were in the wilderness for 40 years. and wandering from place to place to place. Yes, under God's chastisement, but he's right there with them in the midst of this stick-necked people. Stiff-necked, I'll get it out right in a minute. Stiff-necked people the whole time because they're his chosen people. Yes, his dwelling was in a tabernacle. His dwelling was in a tent of meeting. His dwelling was in a tent. But of course, as they come into the land and as Saul becomes king, Saul doesn't really care where the Ark of the Covenant is. He probably wants it as far from him as he can get it, unless he needs God's hand in battle, something like that. But David said, no, I'm going to go get the Ark. And he goes and he gets it, he brings it into the city, and he pitches a tent for it, and he brings it into that tent. And he says, I'm gonna build God a house. We live in permanent houses. We're in the land of promise. We've arrived in this Sabbath's rest, as it were, within the holy land that God had given, had promised to their father Abraham, and given into their hands. God needs a permanent house here. And of course the Lord came to the prophet and said, tell David no. He said, you just tell David, thanks but no thanks. Your son will build me a house. Tell him I'll build him a house. David already had one. No, I'll build you a house. I will establish you and the dynasty that would come from you, and your seed will sit on this throne forever if they keep my covenant. That's the covenant that God made with David. But here's the place, Mount Zion, and specifically the house that Solomon would build was on Mount Moriah. on the place that David had purchased from Arunah or Ornan, according to where you're reading it in the Bible, same man. That holy place on Mount Moriah is where the temple was built. David didn't build it, Solomon built it. Why? Because the covenant made with David was not to reside in that one man, but in his seed and ultimately in his greater son who would come. who would be king, the son of David. He would also be priest after the order of Melchizedek, as we read in Psalm 110. So this is the geography as we see it. This is the redemptive history, the beautiful story as it unfolds and is told to us in Scripture. On the holy mount stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Now, there are a number of things to see here. One is, is God decided he, of course he loves all of the promised land. He loves all of his people. When we speak in language of, he loves this more than he loves that. We're speaking in what we call anthropomorphic language. Because we can't understand it any other way. But we can understand his peculiar presence and blessing and ownership of something by using this kind of language that we find is, his love is perfect. You have to realize that. We're talking about who God himself is. But here's the description. He loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. This is the mountain. This was going to be the holy city. This is where his temple would be built. This is where he would especially reside with his people. This is where his people would come to worship him publicly. Under the old covenant, public worship was national. According to the feast and the festivals and holy days, if you went to celebrate Passover, you couldn't go to Passover and then kill your Paschal lamb and say, okay, we're going to go back to Bethlehem and we're going to cook ours there and eat it. No. It took place within the gates of Jerusalem. This is where God's people under the old covenant came and assembled together. God's special presence is there. His peculiar presence is there. And I know, children, you say, but God's everywhere. Of course he's everywhere. We call it his omnipresence. We know that. But a special presence by God's own design where he is going to meet together with his people. the public worship of God under the old covenant according to the feasts and festivals that God himself had established. It's there that the altar was laid. It's there that the Paschal lamps were offered and the whole burnt offerings and the trespass offerings and the peace offerings and all of the Old Testament system of the worship of God. It was in Jerusalem. As we come to the church of Jesus Christ, we know the temple is not there anymore. Did you know there's not been one sacrifice made under old covenant law since 70 AD? Not a single paschal lamb has ever been slain since 70 AD. because the temple is destroyed, because the Old Testament worship, glorious in its own right under the Old Covenant, is fulfilled in Christ Jesus and abrogated. And why 70 AD? Why not when Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead on the third day? That's when it's all fulfilled. because God was patient with his people according to the old covenant for a whole generation. There was opportunity for them to repent of their sin of rejecting their Messiah and turn to him. Of course we know they did not do that and then this final judgment came upon the people and upon the city of Jerusalem and upon the second temple and it was destroyed and it lays waste to this very day. But under the New Covenant, it's the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation. We don't make a pilgrimage three times a year to some central location. There is a central location to the public worship of God under the New Covenant. I alluded to it this morning when I said, We forgot to put the ceiling and roof back, didn't we? I told you, if we moved the ceiling and roof, and then I went somewhere else, I think, but we would put it back, and we forgot to put it back. But the point I'm making is this, the centrality of worship now is that we worship in the presence of the invisible heavens in local assemblies. And it's because of that glory that there's glory in this local assembly, even on Sunday night. And we are God's special presence. We are God's special place. In light of the invisible heavens, but in the local assemblies themselves, we're not more special than other local assemblies. God loves it. when his people come together on the Lord's Day. There's a special presence of God here right now, a unique presence that's not at all unlike, it's even greater than that presence was in tabernacle and temple under the old covenant. This is why we must love the assembly for worship and the glory of the assembly. So of all of the dwellings where all the tents were originally, and then they built houses in the land of promise, God chose Mount Zion because God desired Mount Zion. There's another application I want to make here that I was reminded of, I might add. by someone who heard me preach this sermon a long time ago because I think that it is applicable here. When you compare Zion and the centrality of Zion over against the tents of Jacob, the tents of Jacob, that is the individual tribes and then within the tribes, the individual family units in those tribes. that there's a distinction made of God's special love for his people of God come together corporately into his presence, which is fulfilled in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the things that I have loved over the past 30 years is there has been an awakening of what we would call full-orbed covenant theology. That is that God's blessings both in old and new covenant are upon a man of faith and upon his house and upon his seed. This is spelled out even further in this text as we work through it. And what's happened is people are understanding this, especially as they begin to embrace the continuity of the old with the new. Yes, there's discontinuity, but there's fundamental continuity between the old covenant and the new. And the blessing is overtly present. You're gonna circumcise your sons when they're eight days old under the old covenant. This was something that was given all the way back to Abraham. We also see it at Sinai. The blessing upon a man, his house, and of course, especially his seed, his children. And that's why, children, we joyfully baptize you. And this is why, this morning, when I was fencing the table, I was not excluding you from participation. You don't participate by eating and drinking to you make profession of faith. But you have every right to be here because Christ's name has been placed upon you in baptism and you belong to him and you belong to his church. And so we say, no, you sit, you watch, you listen, you learn. And one day it's gonna be a great joy when you get to walk up to the front and take the bread and walk up to the front and take the wine and to partake yourself. We believe that our children, belong to Christ, and belong to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, children, you need to be careful there. That doesn't mean, well, mom and dad are Christians, so I don't really have to worry about this. I'm gonna go to heaven anyway. No, it's personal to each one of you. And if the day hasn't come, and it can come when you're very, very small, we even know of cases in the Bible where it happened before they were even born, like John the Baptist. For God does a work in your heart so that you just don't believe what mom and dad believe, but you believe it for yourself. That's very, very important, and this is what you state when you make your profession of faith. But this emphasis upon a man and his seed, what we would call the covenant family. But what's happened with this that I have observed is that some people get the emphasis wrong. They think the fundamental covenant unit is the family. That's what's most important. The Church of Jesus Christ is built with covenant families, which includes families of one person sometimes, singles as well. Covenant family is a temporary covenant group. There's not going to be any moms and dads and children. It's moms and dads and children in heaven. There's no marriage in heaven. The church of Jesus Christ is eternal. I need to recognize as important as the covenant family is, the covenant family is not in isolation of the church of Jesus Christ. I tell the story sometimes about a friend of mine who now worships in our church in Chilhowee, if he stopped preaching somewhere. He's a retired PCA minister that I deeply respect. In fact, I got to sit under his preaching last Sunday. because Hank was out of the pulpit, so I got to sit under Tom's preaching. Probably 30 years ago, maybe longer, when homeschooling was really just beginning to get going in a little bit where I live in southwest Virginia, not many but a few, but he had some homeschooling families in his church long before we did at that point. And he said to me, he said, Lacey, I don't know what I'm going to do with my homeschooling families. And I said, well, what's wrong? This sounds like a good thing to me. He said, oh, it's a good thing. But I can't get them to do anything except come to church on Sunday morning. Because they know they're supposed to be at church on Sunday morning. But they're not a part of the body of Christ. It's all about their family. It's all about us discipling our family, almost as it were in isolation from the rest of the church, except for on Sunday, we run down there and we worship. Then we go back to our families. Now, I don't want anybody to conclude from this that I'm advocating what we see in broad evangelicalism as, well, on Monday nights, the youth meet, and on Tuesday nights, the junior highs meet, and on Wednesday night, the elementary schools meet, and on Thursday nights, the women meet, and on Friday nights, the men meet, and these programmatic churches that tear our covenant families apart. No, I'm not talking about that at all. but recognizing the significance of the body of Christ and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ as the fundamental covenant unit in scripture and why you must be here on the Lord's day for his worship and you must be mutually accountable to one another. You must be shepherded and discipled by your elders. You must pray for one another. You must fellowship with one another. You must have fun with one another. That was another Jim Heemstra thing. He said we need to study the word of God. We need to worship and sing together. We need to play together. And by that he meant fellowship. And we must exhibit the body of Christ. We must teach our children the importance of this lasting institution and covenantal unit, which is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, in no way diminishing upon the significance of the covenant family. But there are those that just worship at their homes, their house churches all over the place. And these are oftentimes faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that don't understand the Scriptures rightly on this, and it will be harmful to them and to their children. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than the dwellings of Jacob. And we need to recognize this as we as we think through the application of these truths. And then we have this statement, glorious things are spoken of you are spoken of city of God. And it's God ultimately who says, this is my dwelling place and therefore she's glorious. And under the new covenant, that's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Covenant, Orthodox, Presbyterian Church, you are glorious. You are glorious because God says so. You look at yourselves and say, no, we're not. You don't know how sinful we are. Yes, I do, I have a mirror too, okay? We have empty seats, we're not full. We don't have a big building like the church does down the street. Oftentimes we look at the chairs that are empty instead of looking at the people that are in the chairs. And seeing how precious these sheep are for Jesus, what did he do? He laid down his life for every single one of them. He shed his blood for them. He purchased them with his blood. Every sheep is precious, even the unruly ones. There's some people that everybody can love. Like me, no. There's some people that just are lovable. There's some people that they just aren't. But guess what? Of course, nobody here. I'm talking about in other churches. We're to love them. Jesus loved them enough, he died on the cross for them. Shed his blood for them. Even the wayward. No, especially the wayward. Jesus is the one that leaves the 99 to go find the one. And the church, you know, we're living stones. And God is building this glorious edifice even here in New Bern. And God declares you to be glorious. And when you don't think so, and when you look at the faults and the weaknesses, and when you find yourself with a critical spirit over and over again, well, the elders didn't do this, and the elders did this, and they shouldn't have done it. I know I'm talking about other churches. I'm not talking about this one. I understand that. Jesus died for his church. And you better love her because he does. But not only that, he calls her glorious. Now, it's true that sometimes the gold becomes dim. As Dr. Smith wrote a long time ago, it is true that some churches cease to be true churches when they forsake the gospel and become synagogues of Satan. It's true that that churches, the glory in churches is greater or lesser according to how faithful they are to what the Scriptures teach. And also, a measure of that is the godliness that God's working out in the people that are there. But even with all of that, even weak and struggling churches, by God's declaration, are glorious. We need to recognize that about ourselves. It's very, very important. And then as we move to the second point, the universal scope of the church, we read in verse four, among those who know me, I mentioned Rahab and Babylon, behold Philistia, and Tyre with Cush. This was born there, they say. Now, if you look at these places, most of these places were the archenemies of the people of God. These are Gentile nations. And there's one way to read this, especially when you look at the next verse, that I don't think is the right way. But I'm gonna tell it to you anyway, because I think there's an important point to be seen in it. And then we'll come back and give you how I think we're to actually understand the text. But if you look at verses four and five, In contrast to one another, we read, among those who know me, I mentioned Rahab and Babylon, behold Philistia, and Tyre with Cush. This one was born there, they say. And then in contrast, and of Zion it should be said, this one and that one were born in her. For the Most High established, Most High himself will establish her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples. This one was born there. If you see them in contrast to one another, you can see the nations that are not in covenant with God contrasted here with Israel. Now, I honestly believe that this text is looking ahead to the universal character of the people of God as we come to the new covenant. But if you look at this contrast, and there is still a contrast between world and church. We know that very well. The enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is ever present, and we see it. At times, it's clearer and more intense. We've entered into a season like that within our own culture, where the dividing wall between seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, or between the church and the world, is more and more clear to those who have eyes to see. But it's also talking about the blessing of being a part of the covenant people. An illustration that I've used often early on, fairly early on when I became regional missionary, we were first beginning the work in Gastonia, North Carolina. I went to visit two families that were interested in planting a church, two families. And one of them and I had been praying about it for five years because he was an elder in a sister denomination in a church there. And so we were, we prayed about, should we or should we not? Or if we should, when should we seek to plant a church? Literally for five years. Before it became clear, now was the time to pull the trigger. And I was meeting with them, and I went to one of their houses in Gastonia. And a little girl, five years old, comes walking in. She's now about grown. But she comes walking in, and she says, I have a prayer request. I said, OK, we'll hear your prayer request. And she sat down across, she said, pray that my neighbor across the street, another little girl, five years old, isn't sad when her dad comes and gets her and takes her to his house, and sad when her dad has to bring her back to her house, and pray that her mom would let her come to church with us. That was her prayer request. I don't know how you could see any more starkly the difference between what it means to be born in Zion and what it means not to be born in Zion. Two children, two five-year-olds, lived across the street from each other. One of them had every blessing of being a part of God's covenant blessing of the family. Mom and Dad told her about Jesus probably from even before she was born. But she was still in here. Taught her to pray. Taught her to love Jesus. Taught her to love her neighbor who was not born in Zion. Was not a member of the covenant. Who had none of those benefits. Children, don't waste this extraordinary blessing that God has given to you. He's given it to you. Listen to mom and dad. Listen to the pastor when he preaches. Listen to the Word of God. Take it in. Believe in Him. Trust in Him. Love Him. Blessing you have is of extraordinary character. And there are children that live in homes not far from where you live that don't have that at all. Mom and dad, or maybe it's just a mom, or maybe it's just a dad, that don't know Christ Jesus, that are bringing their children up to believe, or to live as though God doesn't even exist. It is remarkable blessing that you have here. Frankly, I don't know how you can read this passage and not hold to covenant theology and understand it. But I also believe that the text is looking forward to the new covenant and to the universal character. When Jesus gives the great commission that we read this morning, go make disciples of the nations. Put yourself in the shoes of those 11 disciples when they received the Great Commission. Jesus said, I'm just about to go away. I've been telling you that since before the crucifixion. I'm about to send to my Father. Now, here's what I'm leaving you to do. Go win the world. Disciple all the nations. What a task. Remember how he ends that. He says, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Yes, I'm sending you to go make disciples of the nation, but you're not going by yourself. I'm going with you. And I'm going to build my church. There is a universal character. The transformation, what happened in the world with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is extraordinary. I'd like to use an illustration of a globe. Nobody uses globes anymore because people study on computers now, but they probably can make them three-dimensional and things like that on computers. I don't know about all that stuff, but a globe Before Christ came, where did you find the people of God? I know you had the diaspora. You had Jews that were scattered. I realize that. But fundamentally, you could find one little pinpoint on that globe and say, this is where God's covenant people resided. Here, this tiny place. The rest of them were in blindness and paganism, the nations. Take that same globe. Where do you find the people of God? Point to any inhabited place on the globe. God has his people there. In that first generation, the enemies of the people of God said, these are the men who have turned the world upside down. It's that transformative, the power of the gospel going forth. And while we need to be praying for ministers everywhere, as they pastor churches here, as they're missionaries abroad, that the word would run before them and be glorified. The expansion of God's manifest reign on the earth. And I think that's what we see here, the anticipation of the day. when he mentions Rahab and Babylon. Of course, Rahab's another word for Egypt there. Philistia, Tyre, with Cush. Guess what? Point to those places. The elect of God are there today. And none of us were born in Zion. But yes, we were. Because we, especially those of us who were reared in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, I was baptized as an infant in a southern Presbyterian church. I was born in Zion. Children, you're born in Zion. It's the same as if you're born in Zion. But what if you're not born in Zion? What if you're born among the nations? What if you hear the gospel and you're brought in through evangelism and you make your profession of faith and you're baptized? We rejoice in that and guess what? It's the same as if you were born in Zion. And then your children are born in Zion. Because here we see Zionists talking about the covenant, people of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the new covenant. This is glorious. And let me say this, you children of this church, you have this blessing because your moms and your dads and your elders and your ministers and your deacons and your Sunday school teachers and whatever else, they know this is true. And a lot of our brothers and sisters don't get it. We love them. We keep trying to convince them. And there is such security and blessing in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. She's glorious because Jesus says she's glorious. The Lord records as he registers the people, this one was born there. Wonderful, glorious truth. And then the psalm ends with verse 7. Now, I want to do something that's unorthodox, but we'll fix it. Okay? I want to take the text out of context. We'll put it back in, don't worry. Just like, no, I forgot a second time to put the ceiling and the roof back on. We'll put it back in its context, but just if you hadn't heard this sermon, imagine that you weren't that you were asleep through the rest of the sermon until right now, or something like that. And you hear these words. Singers and dancers alike say all my springs are in you. Now children, especially children who have had English grammar, you know that there are nouns and there are pronouns, right? And what is a pronoun? A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Is that correct? And so if you have a pronoun, what do you do? You look to see what's the antecedent of the pronoun or where do you find the noun that it replaces to know what noun it's replacing. Is that right? Did I get it right? It's been a long time since Miss Ross taught me English grammar in the fifth grade. It's been almost a hundred, no, not quite a hundred years, but it's been over 60 years, okay? Since Miss Ross taught me that, I hope I got it right. Let's just take the sentence. Out of context, we'll put it back in, don't worry. What would you think would be the antecedent of you? If all you heard, and you knew this had to do with the things of the Lord, singers and dancers alike say, all my springs, all my joy, all my refreshment, all my life is in you. What would you expect to be the antecedent of you? And kids, this is an easy one. It's like when you're in Bible school and you're asked a question, you know the answer to every question is God, right? God or Jesus? No, I'm being facetious a bit here now. But in this case, you would think it would be God. All of my refreshment, all of my life, all of my joy, Because we're talking about singers and dancers, and that's an expression of joy, are found in God. And that would be true, would it not? That's true. But that's taken out of its context. You put it back into the context. Singers and dancers alike say, all my springs are in you. The antecedent of you is Mount Zion. It's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to cling to the church like it's a lifeline, because it is. Yes, you're united with Christ, you cling to Christ, But God has given us the church and the means of grace in the church in order to strengthen us, in order, this is how Christ holds onto us. You need to see the glory of the church and the joy of being a part of the church, especially when she comes together for the assembly to worship God. And exult in it. And stop looking at seats that don't have people in them. Start rejoicing for the people that God's given to us. They're all precious in his sight. We are in the body together. And this is what Jesus declares about Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You are glorious. And it's time for you to remember that and to believe it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, which teaches us about our Savior, who is head of this church, that he loves and that he's bought with his own blood, and who declares of us that we are glorious because of him. O Lord, stir in the hearts of your people a deep-seated love for the church as the body of Christ and for the assembly for your worship together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Father, cause this love to be seated so deep that when there are differences of opinion or hurt feelings that people are quick to be reconciled to one another. Lord, strengthen this church that she be even more glorious. And a lamp stand here in New Bern that dispels darkness that's all around. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.