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Psalm 87:5-7
So I have two words I want to start with this morning, namely chorus and refrain. Those are two musical terms. I'm not a musical, as my wife can tell you very clearly. I'm not a musical person. I'd always thought those two terms were synonymous, chorus.
And refrain.
But recently, I've learned that's not the case. If you're an amateur musician or you have some training in music, which I don't, you might already know this. Music is not my gifting, so I have much to learn in this area.
When I was looking this up, it said refrains are a single line or a phrase that occur either at the beginning or the ending of verses in songs. These items give verses their unique identity or tie multiple verses together.
Choruses, on the other hand, they're longer. Generally, they consist of several sentences that contain the song's main theme in a hook. If you think about commercial music today, artists spend most of their time composing clever hooks to make songs unforgettable.
I know when I'm listening to the radio sometimes, the song will come on. And I don't particularly want to remember the song. But the hook is so catchy, you can't get out of your head. And sometimes it's not a good song, which is not a good thing.
But when I look at this, I'm thinking refrains are more for the mind. Choruses are more for the ear. If refrains carry a message, then choruses make that message unforgettable. So choruses are the longer form that basically contain the theme and repeat it.
As Christians in this life, we are future members of the heavenly chorus. And we are temporarily assigned to this earth. We're not here permanently. This world is not our home. We are citizens of the heavenly Zion.
Therefore, the question that may arise is, what should our refrain be during our sojourn on this earth? What refrain should we give back to God? There are many great answers to this question. But I want to focus on one specific refrain that God applies to his saints.
If you're looking at Psalm 87, you're going to see a refrain occurs three times in seven verses. When the Holy Spirit repeats a phrase several times, it's as if the Holy Spirit is adding heavenly highlighter to that word.
We best not forget it. We best not skim over it. We best pay attention to it. Even new Christians cannot fail to sense the importance of this pattern. If you tell your kids something once, twice, thrice, even they start seeing this is important.
The words are, if you're looking at our test, they say this one and that one were born there. And born there is referring to heaven. Leaving all other characteristics aside, this is the only one that will matter on that final day of judgment.
Are you a citizen of heaven temporarily stranded on this earth? Or are you a citizen of this earth who's desperately clinging to a dying world with no desire to enjoy God forever? Those are it. Those that fit this refrain, they will be given white robes and they'll be ushered forever into the heavenly chorus.
For all others, an eternity of darkness and despair away from the presence the Lord awaits.
That's it.
You either sing God's refrain on this earth in his chorus in heaven, or you don't hear and you won't be in heaven with him. So let's read Psalm 87 today. I'm gonna read the whole chapter because I think it's good to give us the context since we had the first part of this a couple weeks back.
Psalm 87 says, starting in verse one, hear the words of God. His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God, Selah.
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. Behold, O Philistia, entire with Ethiopia. This one was born there. And of Zion it will be said, this one and that one were born in her. And the Most High himself shall establish her.
The Lord will record when he registers his people,.
The peoples.
This one was born there, Selah. Both the singers and the players on the instrument say, all my springs are in you. We read these verses several times. You really, it really ables us to absorb their meaning.
Structure, rhythm, repetition, these are all important component of verses and must always be considered when we're writing an exposition, when we're reading them for ourselves and we're trying to teach them.
This is especially true for poetic books of the Bible. Psalm is a book of poetry, right? Have you noticed that the translators of our Bible, and I don't know if every translation is like this, but a lot of them, you'll see that the verses in Psalms and Proverbs are arranged differently to that of other books.
Most translations, and I had the New King James right here, they don't text wrap the Psalms. They don't put multiple verses and just roll them. Each verse gets its own line. This is because the Psalms were generally lyrical and were meant to be recited or sung.
During corporate worship.
So the Psalm book was the first Psalter of the church or the first hymn book. Psalm 87 is no exception. And if you look at Psalm 87, you're gonna see both verses and you're gonna see a common refrain.
So look down at the chapter with me and let's see if you can identify the refrain. If you said the phrase, this one was born there or in her, then you are correct. Three of seven verses, verses four, five, and six contain this phrase in slightly different contexts.
Like steel cables suspend a bridge over choppy waters so it doesn't fall into the waters below. This phrase anchors our soul during the storms of this life. In fact, I would go so far as to say.
The statement is the thesis.
That sets the tone for all the verses in this chapter. This one and that one were born in there.
That is the thesis.
We discussed verse four. That's what we left off in the first installment of the sermon series. But I wanna briefly revisit it so we can tie these two threads together. The audience for this verse is both Israel and the Gentile nations that were situated around Israel, some of whom were inveterate or very obstinate, long-standing enemies of God's people.
Additionally, the speaker indicates that he is talking to his friends when he says, I will make mention to those who know me. The sons of Korah, because that's who wrote this psalm, they record their words in first person.
They know that their names are not explicitly mentioned here. However, we know from 1 Timothy 3 .16 that all scripture is God breathed, right? So with all scripture, God is speaking to us either directly or he's speaking to us indirectly.
Every Sunday, we get to hear our fellow saints like we just did. We hear them praising God. And in these verses, we see the opposite. We see God praising his saints. How does he praise them? He calls them citizens of heaven.
That's how God praises his saints. Ethnic pride was a besetting sin of the Israelites. That's all they cared about. I'm Jewish, I'm Israel. I'm not like the Gentiles. And God goes, and in these verses, God sets them straight.
Those who are born in Zion will include redeemed sinners from all nations, including the Gentile nations. So being born into Israel is not enough. You must be part of the Israel of God. Verse five shifts the focus from the heavenly people to a heavenly city, namely Zion.
Saints on this earth, we are known as citizens of heaven. And Zion is a city for the redeemed. That's what Zion is. As you look at the, as this text goes down, it builds on the previous verse. And this verse adds the additional truth.
We see here that Zion is established by God. God established her through his power and through his work of redemption. John Milton wrote a famous poem titled, Paradise Lost, about the fall of our first parents.
It's probably not as widely read today as the classical literature has fallen out. But heaven is paradise secured because no external agent or internal lust can ever disturb the tranquility of this place.
There's no way. Citizens of heaven, they cannot sin. But further than that, they cannot even consider sinning. That's true freedom, as Brother Keith mentioned this morning. It's a, not only is it true freedom, it's a more excellent state than Adam and Eve ever enjoyed during their pre-fall life on earth.
We have a much better state than Adam and Eve because we can't sin. This is the process that the apostle Peter describes. In 2 Peter 1, he gives us this verse, and it kind of sums up the first chapter to a glorious conclusion.
He says, by which we have been given exceedingly great and precious promises that through these, you may be partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust.
So as we become citizens of Zion, we're escaping the corruption in this world. That's what God is doing for us. Finally, verse six rounds out our trilogy. In this verse, God is specifically mentioned as the protagonist or the main character.
The psalmist paints a picture of God recording the citizens of Zion in his register, kind of like that which might be utilized by a census taker. We have a census coming up here in this country in a couple years, I believe 2030.
And when that comes, you will see census takers going around taking a census. Unlike other heavenly tasks, though, there is no delegation here. God doesn't delegate this task, right? Even the holy angels are not important enough to be custodians of this task.
Now, as far as the timing of these actions, they're uncertain. The scene could be an eternity past when the Trinity made the covenant of redemption, or as theologians say, the pactum salutis. It could be at the final judgment, or it could be any time in between.
It doesn't really state that. Of all these options, though, I believe the final day fits best, that great final day where God opens the books and everyone living or dead appears before him. What the psalmist calls a register here, I believe is just symbolic of the book of life that Apostle John describes in Revelation.
God doesn't just know his people. It's not just a mere knowledge of us. He has engraved our names and records where they can never be blotted out. So that shows you when you look at scripture and you look at the unity of scripture, the book of life is not a New Testament concept.
It's not something new. It's something the Old Testament saints grasped imperfectly, but they still understood it. A more direct reference to this can be found in Psalm 69. If you read Psalm 69 and see the words of David there, and he's clearly frustrated with the ungodly, he says this, 69, starting in verse 27.
He says, add iniquity to their iniquity. Let them not come into your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous. So to prevent someone from thinking that they can have their name written in the book of life on their own merits, David writes 27 to qualify verse 28.
He says, let them not come into your righteousness. You can't have your name in the book of life based on your own righteousness. It must be a merit not your own. The wicked cannot come into Christ's righteousness or your righteousness because it is given to believers alone.
Without Christ, all we possess is our own iniquity.
We can't have anything else. And God says in the Bible that those who love iniquity will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You cannot love iniquity and go to heaven. Heaven is for those that love righteousness, not wickedness.
Let's start in verse five of Psalm 87 as we unpack this chapter together. Psalm 87 five, I'm gonna read again. It says, and of Zion it will be said, this one and that one were born in her and the most high himself shall establish her.
So when we look at this verse, the main theme that I see from Psalm 87 five is heaven's people.
We talk about heaven.
Let's start with the question.
What is heaven?
Is it a place of eternal felicity or happiness and joy? Is it the home of angels? Is it a fortress against evil and corruption? What about the saints' eternal reward, the dwelling place of God? All of these answers describe different facets of the glory of heaven.
There's a lot of different things that make heaven heaven. But I think there's one explanation that stands above all the rest. Like when you go to New York City, you see the Empire State Building or the trade towers where they were knocked down.
They stood above the rest. There is one that stands above the rest. Heaven is primarily the home of God's redeemed. And God built heaven with his saints in mind. Like a husband prepares his house for his new bride, God delights in fashioning an eternal mansion for us to dwell with him forevermore.
Now, I don't want you to take my opinion on it. I want you to see from scripture where I get that conclusion. I think the answer is very simple because if you look at the incarnation and the crucifixion, it really shows the importance that God places on redeeming his chosen from slavery to sin.
God organized all of human events, all of human history, focusing around the cross, the incarnation and crucifixion because he wanted to redeem people. That is the most important thing to him. And that's one of the reasons he built heaven.
You know, Jesus could have stayed in heaven, but for the redemption of mankind. Why did Jesus come to this earth? He could have stayed comfortably in heaven, but he came to this earth to redeem us. That's why he came.
God saw Adam was not complete until what? Until Eve was added as a helpmate. That's when he was complete. Likewise, heaven without the saints would not bring as much glory to God. So God redeemed us for himself and we live for him.
That is how those two things fit together, hand and glove. The main theme of verse five is heaven's people. Our verse starts with a conjunction, the word and, and when you see a conjunction, it means the sentence is not complete without referring back to the previous sentence.
So let's go back to Psalm 87, four and read that with me. Psalm 87, four says, I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. Behold, O Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia. This one was born here.
God's people bring him delight. That's what bring God's light. In this verse, we see him discussing believers with others that know him. Think about yourselves in your everyday conversations. People generally like to discuss topics that bring them joy.
Is there anyone prouder of their children's accomplishments than the parents?
Maybe the grandparents,.
But parents love talking about their kids. How often have you heard another parent talking about their kid's achievements in music, academics, sports? You know, in my neighborhood, people put their graduating seniors on signs and put them on the front of their house.
They use bumper stickers to say my kid's in Cobb County or Paulding County honor system. The successes of the child are often new. And I'd say most of the time, there are a lot of times they're due to the sacrifice of the parents.
That's why the parents put the bumper stickers in their car because the kid doesn't get there without the parent behind them pushing them and getting them to be successful. For better or for worse, you think of your last name, your surname.
For better or for worse, your failure is the success or failure of your surname, right? When you have someone in your family that wanders off, it puts a bad stain on your family. The toil and sacrifice of parents is finally rewarded when their children grow up and become what?
Godly, first of all, mature and successful adults. So the group, your surname rises or falls with how your children behave or how your generations behave. The middle of this verse contains the word behold, right?
So God is putting his people on display for heaven, the devil and the world to see. Imagine God discussing his daughter with an acquaintance. Have you considered my daughter recently? She obeys him perfectly.
She does not completely understand my nature, but she loves me and she comes running at my voice. Though weaker than me, she trusts in my strength. She is not related to me through natural birth, but through adoption.
I chose her to be part of my family because her soul is priceless to me.
This is how God would,.
This is how I imagine God discussing his children. Her nature is not from this world. Rather, she is a daughter of Zion. We see something very similar in Job 1. Let's talk about Job 1 and read verses 7 through 8 there.
Very famous book. One of my favorite books in the Old Testament, probably after Psalms. And starting in verse 7, the Lord says to Satan, from where do you come? So Satan answered the Lord and said, I'm from going to and fro on the earth, from walking back and forth in it.
And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? There is none like him on the earth. He's a blameless man and he's upright. He fears God and he shuns evil. This world system is the devil's kingdom.
We know that from the Bible, but God has ultimate authority over all the devil's actions. In this kingdom of darkness, Job's sanctification shone like a bright light, like a lighthouse, if you will, piercing the gloom of that wicked world.
Job was born on this earth, but he was not from this earth. The devil could see that. His friends and relatives could see that. God could see that. Where do servants live? Have you ever considered, where do servants live?
They live in the master's house or either on the house of their master or the estate or somewhere near their master. Job's body was on earth, but his heart was in heaven. And that's why he stood out on this earth.
Behold, O Lucifer, this man was born in Zion. I can almost see God saying this, and nothing you can do will change that. You can do whatever you want to my servant. You can harry him, you can persecute him, but he was born from Zion and you cannot take that away from him.
Many centuries separated the time of Job from the advent of Jesus. In fact, some scholars would put the writing of Job before the writing of Genesis even. It's some consider it to be the oldest book of the Bible.
But even if it's the oldest book, oldest, second oldest, it's not really immaterial at this point. You can already see the seed of the woman was victorious over that dread serpent of old. In Job, you see God's seed is already victorious over Satan's seed, even before Christ comes to this earth,.
Thousands of years before.
You see the beginnings of Jesus' victory. So moving on to verse six, well, I'm gonna continue on verse six. Zion is the subject of verse six. If you compare verse six with five and seven, you'll notice two small differences between this verse and its fellow triplets.
The phrase this one has been replaced with this one and that one, and then Zion is personified as a woman because the verse says they are born in her. We see two redemptive elements at work in this verse.
I'm gonna lay them out. So the first redemptive element is the selection at certain people for redemption, hence an election, this one and that one, and then the unity of the church can be seen in the word her, are born in her.
So let's start with the first one. This one and that one, I think, is a very apt description of God's electing work. From the very beginning of time, God has bestowed free grace on vessels of his own choosing.
None of us deserve grace. Grace is a gift. If we didn't have grace, we would be sunk to the lowest hell. God chose Abel and Seth, but he passed over Cain. He loved Jacob, but not Esau. Even among the redeemed, God's favors were not bestowed equally.
If you think of unloved Leah, she was, you know, Leah was cast to the side. Jacob was kind of, she was an afterthought to Jacob, but look what the Lord rewarded Leah with. She became the grandmother of the priestly line and Judah and our Messiah, not beautiful Rachel.
Unloved Leah became the, because God puts his favor on those that were all cast out. David was one of his younger, was one of the younger brothers, if not the youngest, I don't remember exactly, but he was first in God's heart because God chose to elevate him to be king of Israel.
The Samaritan woman received the simple gospel while Nicodemus must unwind religious symbolism centered around the new birth. God bestows his grace on those he chooses, and he does this so no flesh can glory in his presence.
There will be no boasting in heaven. Everyone that's in heaven will be there because they were chosen by God and nothing else. Notice the names of specific Jewish people are not present in this verse.
If they were, some might be tempted, or the names of even Israel is not present in this verse. If they were, you could really restrict this down to the verse application of national Israel, but I believe God has kind of left that out because the people that God choose, they come from every nation under the sun.
What does Habakkuk 2 .14 say? The knowledge of God must fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, and that can't happen if the elect come from one people group because it's not gonna just be America, not gonna be just South America, not gonna be Asia.
It'll be every nation will have people from every nation, tribe, and tongue praising God. His creation encompasses the people of all the globe, and his redemption encompasses people of all the globe. Does the world know the names of God's elect?
No, the world doesn't, even us at times, we don't. To them and to us, their names are practically anonymous. This one or that person is a Christian, but that's as far as their interest goes. The world doesn't care to know the names of Christians because God did not choose the wise.
He didn't choose the strong.
He didn't choose the famous.
He didn't choose the beautiful to inherit his kingdom. The citizens of Zion are nameless to the world, but they are precious to God. God doesn't go by names and doesn't go by pedigree. If you read these verses with me, you'll see heaven is mentioned twice.
As I said before, she's personified as a woman. It says this one or that one was born in her, and God himself shall establish her. If you know much about maritime or ships or nautical stuff, historically, most ships have had female names or been referred to with a feminine gender.
Sailing was a very difficult, dangerous activity. It was limited to exclusively men, and men had a personal attachment to the ships on which they served, so they would call the ship a girl. They didn't have a boyfriend back home.
They had a wife or a girlfriend, so they would call the ship a she. Language is often a mirror, or not just often. I'd say language is always a mirror for our feelings. So when sailors would personify their ship or they used familial terms, they would indicate how important the ship was to their daily life.
The ship wasn't just an object. It was the ship was her, she. She's doing bad. They're showing a deep connection with their ship. They would have a deep, strong connection with the ship they sailed on.
Jesus doesn't need anyone or anything. We know that from the scriptures, and he's entirely self-sufficient. However, in his love and mercy, he has chosen the church to be his eternal bride, and it befits a family.
Families use informal terms to address each other, right? We don't address each other with the formal, you know, Mrs. Allen, Mr. Allen. We use more familiar terms there, and the Holy Spirit follows that same pattern here.
We know there's no marriage in heaven. The Mormon church believes in celestial marriage. The Mormon church is wrong in their heretical cult because the Bible says there is no more marriage in heaven, but in heaven, God has chosen the church to be his eternal bride.
We are joined as one body eternally with the Lamb. That's why there's no marriage in heaven because your relationship with God replaces your relationship with your spouse. You have a perfect relationship with the God who made you, who sustained you, and who knows you.
God is the perfect spouse, and yet he is still our God. He establishes the church so that nothing, and no one else can ever shake her security ever again. Since marriage is a symbol, or a symbolic of Christ and his church, the relationship, it's not surprising that the devil and his horde wages a fierce battle against this institution on earth.
Think of all the things that assault marriage. Fornication, adultery, homosexuality. I've even started seeing online pastors trying to promote polygamy, saying, God told me to take three wives. No, God didn't tell you to take three wives, the devil did.
God didn't design it that way. In the beginning, it was one man and one woman. All of these deviant behaviors are very common in our society. Biblical marriage is still honorable. Even among the nonbelievers, you can see, they have an honor for marriage.
They recognize that there's something different. You know, they can say all they want, that these people live together, they're common law marriage, and these people are married, but unbelievers give a special, they know, they're married, they're doing what's respectable and honorable, even ones that hate God know that.
But our culture works over time to demean and destroy marriage. The devil can't shake the heavenly Zion. There's no way the devil can shake heaven. And so what does he seek to do? He says, let me disrupt the families from raising up children to go there.
What does Hebrews 13 say? And this kind of goes along nicely with what I was just saying. It says, marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers, God will judge, not might judge, not potentially might judge, he will judge fornicators and he will judge adulterers.
Finally, at the end of these verses, we see that God establishes his bride in heaven so that she cannot be shaken. Like a husband protects and provides for his wife, God does the same for his church. This Jewish verb appears in the same form two times in the Psalm.
So when I was looking at the Jewish verb here, establishes, I saw it's also in Psalm 24. So let's read Psalm 24 together. If you go to Psalm 24, I'm gonna read verse two there. Sorry, one and two. The earth is the Lord and all its fullness, the world and all who dwell in it, for he has founded it upon the seas and he has established it upon the waters.
So once again, we see the word established here. If all the water on the earth was spread evenly, if you took all the oceans, flattened the earth out and spread evenly, the water on this earth would cover the globe at a depth of 1 .7 miles.
It would be one giant sea on the whole globe, 1 .7 miles deep. But God has established the earth so that cannot be happened. He's done that in several ways. He's created mountains and hills to protect communities against local floods.
He also, the Bible's very clear about this. Don't take this allegorically. God sets the boundaries of the waves and tells them they can go no further. He says, this far you go and no further. That means the Lord sets their limits.
Now there are times where there's floods or tsunamis where God allows them to come further up. But if God just took his hand back, the whole world would be covered with water. We talked about, in the kids' Sunday school today, we talked about the Noahic Covenant.
The Noahic Covenant was God's promise that, remember kids, we talked about this? He'll never flood the world ever again. The world is protected from the seas. Why is it protected? Because God established the world.
Yes, you did. The world was protected because God established it. If you want to think about Psalms, Psalm 48 is kind of a twin psalm of Psalm 87. If you want to go back home today and read Psalm 48, feel free to.
There's a lot of similarities. But the difference that I see, though, is Psalm 48 focuses exclusively on heavenly Zion, the place, whereas Psalm 87 is split between Zion and its citizens living on earth.
Let's think, if you read the psalmist's words in Psalm 48, he says the following. He says, as we have heard, so we have seen. In the city of our Lord, our God, in the city of our God, rather, God will establish it forever.
I love the first clause of this verse. I think it's an excellent analogy for faith. As we have heard, so we have seen. Now we hear about the glories of Zion, but one day our faith will become sight and we'll see them with our own eyes.
It won't just be hearing anymore. When newborn babies open their eyes for the very, very first time, they get to behold their parents. Well, one of their parents, anyway. After death, all Christians, when we open our eyes, we will view our heavenly Father face-to-face for the first time.
Like a second birth, we will open our eyes and we will behold Jesus Christ for the first time in all his glory. All the trials and troubles and tears of this earth will fade away as we open our eyes and as we take our place among Zion's citizens.
In this vein, Charles Spurgeon said this. He said, there are no crown wearers on heaven that were not cross-bearers on this earth. That cross is what prepares you for the crown. If you skip the cross, you won't have a crown.
Not even Jesus got a crown without a cross. We think of earthly nations. Earthly nations keep a record of their citizens and in heaven, it's no different. We use databases on earth, maybe for the IRS or the Census Bureau.
Heaven has the book of life. We're gonna see this in more detail in verse six. So we talked about heaven's people. Let's talk about heaven's records now. Verse six says, the Lord will record when he registers his people, this one was born there, Selah.
One of the many powers of kings and emperors is they have the power to call a census to get an accurate count of their people. The president has a role in our country, but in the ancient times, the king would call the census.
We see King David do this in the Old Testament multiple times. We see Emperor Augustus in the Gospels call a census. God used Augustus' census to fulfill the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
If it wasn't for that census, Jesus wouldn't have been born in Bethlehem, but the census brought them back. Joseph brought Mary back to the city of her father and ultimately his father as well because he was also from that tribe.
In a way, he is a type of Christ, Joseph is, because Jesus will bring his bride at the church to the home of her father in heaven. So just as Joseph brings Mary back to his father's home or her father's home, Christ does the same for us.
Like the census, all Christians will be counted before they are included in heaven's eternal role. So the Lord will number the saints. After the results of an earthly census have been gathered, the next step is what?
You're gonna record that information somewhere. You're not just gonna count the number and forget it. You're gonna put the number down. This count would be done on a papyrus, parchment, wax tablets, they had a few different ways to write back then, and that way, this count would be readily accessible.
If the current king or future king desired it. So the king ordered the census and the king reviewed the results. But other than that, all other actions were delegated to his royal servants. The king didn't go out and number his people personally.
He told his servants to do that and they did it for him. This is one point of departure between our text and ancient custom. So in our text, in verse six, what do we see? We see God himself is listed as performing a census.
And he records the names of his people in a register. Why is that? Why is God himself occupied with this? Why don't the angels do it? Well, I believe it has to do with the importance of the task and the omnipotence of our God.
Leaders understand that when you do a job, like there are times when you do a job yourself and there's a time when you delegate. That's something I'm not too worried about. This is something I must do myself.
If you wanna be highly effective at your work or home, you have to understand this principle. God's people are his most precious possession. And so God does not have angels carry out this task. He leaves it for himself.
Angels themselves, they cannot completely understand the work of redemption because angels are permanently fixed. There's an unfallen state or there's a fallen state. There's nothing in between for them.
Heaven's angels are not numbered in a census. We're never given a part in the Bible where God numbers his angels or where God writes the angel's name in the book of life. That never happens. But God knows each one of his saints.
The angels are God's servants, but they are never called his sons. They're not his sons. The writer of Hebrew states it in this way. He said, for indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
And I'm sorry, I actually think there is one verse where they're kind of referred to as his sons, but they're not adopted sons, is what I should say. Those who have faith like Abraham are citizens of heaven.
So if you have faith like Abraham, like him you will inherit heaven. God created us and God knows our fallen state and he knows what we'll be like on that final day when we are glorified with him. Salvation is provided freely to us, but we all know salvation is not free.
It costs God his beloved son. Satan personally tempted our first parents. Satan didn't delegate that. So Jesus personally descended in the flesh to save us. And finally, God personally welcomes us into heaven as well.
God doesn't delegate, Satan didn't either. Undoubtedly, I think the fact that we're made in God image maybe comes into play here as well. Kings personally reward their heirs or sons. When their heirs or sons do something important, they reward them personally.
They seldom give that task to others. You know, the king appreciates all his servants. He's thankful for his servants, but he loves his children. That's where his energy is focused, on his children. The success or failure of his kids, sorry, their success or failure, occupies more of his energy than worrying about the personal lives of his countless servants.
He's not sitting there stressing over his servants, but he worries about his sons and daughters. The Lord records his saints because his saints are dear to his heart. What a privilege that we get to be called children of God and enrolled among the citizens of Zion.
This is an incredible privilege. And if this doesn't give you joy or me joy, then it should. I'm praying that we would all get restored to the joy of our salvation. What a great privilege it is to be called citizens of Zion.
Since the Lord takes a personal interest in our salvation as well, his spirit is personally grieved when we sin. A citizen, you don't just get benefits from your country. If you're a citizen, you also have responsibilities as well.
So let's talk about US citizens. We got to pay taxes. We can get drafted in the war. We are expected to be a credit to our country when we travel abroad. You don't want to go to some country and cause a ruckus, cause a mess, and say, oh, look how bad Americans are.
You're representing your country when you're abroad. Likewise, as Christians, we are expected to serve God. We are expected to fight for our sanctification, and we are expected to live godly lives so that God's name will be honored among the unsaved.
If we put a lot of energy into being good US citizens, we need to put twice that energy or more into being citizens of heaven, citizens of Zion. Our heritage is not national. Rather, our heritage is all of God's redeemed regardless of their native country.
If you elevate your status as a US citizen over your identity in Christ, that is idolatry. You are not first a citizen of the US and then a citizen of heaven. You are first a citizen of heaven and then a citizen of the US.
Don't get that order wrong. That idolatry should be confessed and should be forsaken. We are training for eternity, and so as we train for eternity, we must not squander our precious time on perishable things.
I like how Stephen Charnock says, he says, Christ's righteousness gives us a title for heaven, but there must be a holiness to give us a fitness for heaven. So God's given us his righteousness, labor for your fitness.
Redeem the time for the days are very evil. They're not just evil, they're very evil. Citizens of heaven, what do they do? They speak the language of heaven, they enjoy the customs of heaven, and they love the ruler of heaven.
If we don't practice these things down here, it's certain you won't enjoy them forever. You must be a citizen here before you'll be a citizen there. Lachlan Voss was a 19th century Presbyterian pastor in Virginia.
This is how he described sanctification. He said, we cannot be one thing on earth and another of a different type and order in heaven. After death is the judgment, and the character formed here is an indicator of the decision made there from the records of an open court under the eye of an infallible and just judge.
So the records up there reflect what's happening down here. Another aspect of this verse that's important, I think, is the inevitability of the final judgment. God says he will record who belongs to him when he registers them, he will when.
There's no maybe here, there's no might here. The final judgment is more certain the sun rising. The sun may not rise one day, but the judgment will occur. So the judgment's more certain than that. All of us will give an account for the heavenly bar and all of us we number either among the citizens of Zion or the citizens of hell.
If you aren't certain which camp you're in, I beg of you, cry out to God today. That's the most important thing you can do is cry out to God and say, God, make me a citizen today. Citizens of Zion give God no rest.
It's a good thing to bother God. You can't bother God too much. Come to him as often as you want, as frequently as you can. Those of the world give God no time, but citizens of Zion give God no rest. They don't let him rest in heaven.
They're always going to him and saying, Lord, I need this.
Lord, I need this.
Lord, help me there because that's where their hope is. That's where their foundation is. That's where their love is, is in heaven itself. If you have no time for God today, you can rest assured that God will have none for you in eternity.
You give him your time now or he'll give you none later.
That's the way it works.
Today is the day of salvation. You should repent now. Tomorrow is often too late. Commentators have different viewpoints on whether the book of life is a physical book that's in heaven. I don't really, honestly, many godly men have gone over that.
I'm not going to rehash it. I don't really think it really matters that much, but there are different differences whether it's an actual physical book or whether it's allegorical for God's mind and what he knows up here.
As creatures though, we need books because we need to learn new facts and to jog our memory. We're forgetful people for items that we don't remember, but God has neither problem. God can never learn anything new and nothing escapes God's memory.
There's no way for it to get out of his memory. It's possible that the book of life is an allegory for God's memory and wisdom. Many of the differences, if you think about the various eschatological systems, they revolve around do you interpret this part of Revelation literally or allegorically?
Either way, whether the book of life is literal or physical, God knows his saints like a shepherd knows his sheep, and our citizenship was ultimately purchased by the blood of Christ, and thus our pardon cannot be forfeited.
We cannot lose our pardon. This verse ends with Selah or pause. Verse six, I believe, is the mountain peak of this chapter because it depicts the start of the saints' eternal rest. I want to encourage each one of you to wear yourself out for the kingdom of God.
Spend yourself, burn yourself down. When you go into eternity, you want to be like a candle that's burnt out. Every ounce of your energy and every ounce of your strength should be pursuing God's kingdom.
Is there any greater object than this? Let's pause one moment. Think about the glorious salvation that has been provided to us through Jesus Christ. There's what, what a wonderful gift. Our gratitude for our justification, it should bubble over in praise to God, and when we walk, because when we walk in the ways of the Lord, our lives are living doxologies.
We don't have to sing the doxology. Our life is the doxology. The final verse in this text, it ends in the same manner, with a joyous song of praise. So verse seven of Psalm 87 says, both the singers and the players on the instrument say, all my springs are in you.
I think some translations say, all my springs of joy are in you. I like that one even better. So at this point, the psalmist turns from rhetorically addressing the audience to addressing the temple musicians.
So he doesn't address the musicians individually. If you've been to a classical concert, they refer to them as a group. You might notice the conductor waves his baton around while directing the music, and when he does, when the conductor does this in a classical concert, he's telling various groups of musicians when to come in.
Now the violins come in. Change the tempo, or saying play louder or softer. These people in a concert, or performing a concert for you, they're not a bunch of individuals. They're a group. They're part of an orchestral unit.
In the same manner, God expects all Christians to participate in corporate praise and worship. On earth, we gather on which day of the week? The first day, because that's the Lord's day. That's the day he rose from the grave.
We don't celebrate the seventh, we go on the first. This worship is limited in duration because we have secular duties, and we have responsibilities that must be fulfilled. It'd be nice to be here as long as we can, but we have other things to do.
God's given us tasks besides, many tasks besides this. Husbands, fathers, wives, co-workers, grandmas, whatever else. When we reach Zion, all of our worship in Zion is corporate and eternal. There's no more individual worship there.
The night of sin, shame, and suffering is a distant dream, as we praise God forever in his holy mountain. Corporate worship is the cornerstone of Zion, worshiping it out of the Lord together. Additionally, I know we don't consider this a lot, but when you sing to God, or when you play instruments like Liz does in the piano, and we're very thankful for all of her labors there for us, that's a form of worship.
Singing to God is worship, playing the piano is worship. Often we limit worship to the audience, just the people that are singing, but those who play instruments for the church, they're also engaged in worshiping the Lord together.
That's the same way. Their music is just as pleasing in God's ears as the saints' voices singing in unison. We see that here. The singers and the players take center stage. We can, and we've sung acapella before, and I'll be the first to admit that staying in tune is not my strong point.
My wife can tell you that too. She stands right beside me, so you can ask her after church about that. But when we sing to God, God doesn't love our voices because of, or instrumental music even, because of its intrinsic excellence or talent.
God doesn't compare us to great singers. God loves us, whether our voices or our playing is performance quality or not, God loves us because His praise comes from our hearts. He's looking at our hearts, not our talent ability.
The world searches for perfection, but God desires passion. He doesn't want perfection, He wants passion. He loves to hear the voices of music from future citizens of Zion. So as we sing to God on Sunday, sing out.
Sing out loud because that's praising God. That's what citizens of Zion do. Do you expect perfection from your children if you have kids, or if you don't, from your people that work underneath you at work?
Maybe sometimes you do, but most of the time you realize you accept their effort as a token of their love for you. They're not gonna be perfect, but they did this for me. This picture is not the best picture ever, but it came from the heart.
Here with the Lord's, God views us much in the same way. In Psalm 103, hear what God says there. He says, as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. What a great comfort that is.
God knows our weaknesses, and God still deigns to love us. He knows we're weak. He knows we're frail. He knows the issues we have, but He still loves us as an everlasting father. First Corinthians 14 .33, it says, God is not a God of confusion, but a God of order.
And so when you have worship, it should not be disorganized and mayhem. It's not a rock concert because it does not reflect the character of the God we serve. Now, this doesn't mean that you should always sing hymns like we're singing at a funeral.
You know, sing hymns out loudly. You don't have to sing there and be like dirgy about like do, do, do. You can sing loudly to God, but, and sometimes in reformed circles, I do see that, where the form of worship gets kind of so kind of dull and lifeless, like sing out to God.
Be loud and praise Him, right? We should praise God loudly and exuberantly because as Nehemiah 8 .10 says, the joy of the Lord is our strength. God's joy is our strength, so be joyful when you're praising Him.
However, you notice that in this text, it describes a worship leader. He directs the musicians and the singers to sing a new refrain at the appropriate time. So there's an order here. He says, all right, now the musicians of the instrument sing a refrain.
Our services should follow the same principle. Idolatry and false worship of God, if you look at false churches, you see confusion. That's a hallmark of the devil's kingdom, a confused church. Do you remember how Exodus, in Exodus 32, let's hear how the worship of the golden calf was described.
And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. And then Moses said back to him, it's not the noise of victory, the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear.
Like when Joshua heard it, it sounded like a cacophony. And he's like, it's war. But no, that was their idolatrous worship to Baal. It sounded like a mess. These verses show that the joy of saints and the joy of saints and unbelievers, they will be expressed in different modes of worship.
So the final verse, I believe it can be best summed up as the saint's joy, right? The saint's joy we see in Psalm 87 .7. It begins with a descriptive clause. The descriptive clause is concerning what?
The temple musicians. Both the singers and the players stay on the instruments. But then it ends with a prescriptive clause that's true for saints of all time, of all occupations and in all ages. All my springs of joy are in you.
Like a classical conductor at a concert, the sons of Korah bring this psalm to a conclusion with a crescendo, with one final shout of praise, like at a classical concert where it ends on a bang. The final clause uses the analogy of water bursting out from underground.
Think of a spring in the earth, or maybe at Yellowstone, where the water burst up. You know, that's how they typify the Christian's joy in Christ. If you think about a spring, hundreds of feet of rock and dirt cannot contain an underground spring.
Eventually that water shoots out and blows a hole and comes out of the ground. And when it comes up in the ground, what does that water do? It gives life to plants and animals. Likewise, the Christian's joy, our joy cannot be contained by disappointment.
It cannot be contained by remaining sin. It cannot be contained by this evil world or the forces of darkness. The Christian's joy will always emerge. And when it emerges, it encourages the saints, it supports the weak, and it perplexes the unbelievers.
Ponds on the top of the ground and lakes, they may grow stagnant or polluted, but spring water that comes from aquifers deep below the ground is free from earthly contaminants. It comes up and it's pure.
It's not affected by the bacteria and the filth on the surface of the earth. In what ways can we say then, as we've talked about the springs of joy being God, well, in what ways can we say our springs of joy are in God?
Well, I think there's two main ways. First, God gives us joy through the many temporal blessings that he bestows upon us. Next, our salvation is also compared to wells of water that spring up into eternal life.
And finally, our heavenly hope is the spring that keeps us joyful, even when the earthly wells run dry. The theme of rivers of joy, that's a frequent motif or pattern that's used to describe the happiness in our heavenly home.
In a way, these three characteristics do parallel the Trinity. The Father provides for our salvation, the Son secures it, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies us and makes us fit to live with God forever. And all earthly blessings come from God.
The Bible gives a clear and consistent witness that plants, animals, countries, the wicked and the righteous are all sustained through the omnipotent hand. No person on this sin-cursed planet deserves to be sustained but God in his free mercy does so anyway.
James sums this up excellently in his epistle. He says, every good and perfect gift comes from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Please note that God's, in this verse, his God's immutability, there's no variation or shadow of turning is equally important as the gifts he gives us.
If he decided to give us oxygen on just days one, three, and five, or if the sun rose at random intervals, the whole earth would be plunged into chaos. God's benevolence is not greater than his steadfastness else he would be a creature like us.
He doesn't sustain us in one way but in countless ways each and every day. Thus we can truly say with the psalmist, all my springs of joy are in you. Our daily food should elicit a spring of joy toward God.
Do you delight in the spouse that God provided you? He or she was formed in their mother's womb and was given life to be your partner. Your success in your career is not your doing. Who gave you the ability to work or the intelligence to be successful in your job?
Joy in temporal things is a gift from God but God purposely limits the longevity of this joy so we will not make any temporal or physical gratification an idol. We find two references to salvation being like a spring of water in the Gospel of John.
Both are evangelistic with one is directed at a particular woman and the other at the crowd gathering to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Let's start with the account of the woman at the well in John 4.
When Jesus had addressed her sin, he urged her to believe with these words. He says, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
From these verses, we see that Jesus' salvation is a one-time gift but its effects are continuous. Jesus doesn't save us to huddle in corners or cloister ourselves in a convent. He saves us so we can become a living fountain which brings other citizens into the heavenly Zion.
Consider the Samaritan woman. Did she slowly saunter back to her village with a jar of water on her shoulder? No, she didn't. She ran, a banner-jogger ran to town to tell her friends and neighbors, I have met the Messiah.
Her fountain of water led many others to eternal life. As a societal outcast, she had avoided crowds but now she ran to meet them with a spring in her step. Isaiah 12 .3 sums up her view perfectly. It was written hundreds of years before this encounter but I think it perfectly foretells this woman's joy.
It says, therefore, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Three chapters later in John, if you go through John 7, we see Jesus repeat the same thing. When all the Jews had gathered for the Feast of the Tabernacles, it says in the last day of the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But he spoke this concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Did you know any differences between this proclamation and what he said to the woman at the well? I spot two significant differences. Number one, as a living word, Jesus was very intent on fulfilling prophecies that were given in the written word.
Jesus spoke on his own authority yet he used the Old Testament to support his messianic claims. If you read the Old Testament without Christ, it's like trying to read a coded message without the key. Modern Jews grope in darkness because they prefer the hazy outline of redemption to the brightness of Christ in all his messianic glory.
They can have no living water if they don't accept the Messiah that God has sent. So how does a believer continue providing living water after Jesus' ascension? Jesus provides that answer in this verse as well.
In John 7, he says it's through the power of the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity, he may operate in the background, but his effective work is no less visible than that of the first two members of the Godhead.
Jesus purchased the fountain, but the Holy Spirit keeps it flowing. Even in his departure, Jesus provides for his saints. Through Jesus' glorification, we receive the twofold gift. We have an untiring mediator in heaven and an unfailing companion here on earth.
Philip Schaaf says the following. He says the benefits of incarnation are incalculable, like the waves of the sea pursuing one another in rapid succession. Many towns have a fountain as their centerpiece or their downtown areas or their shopping district.
This feature beautifies the town, it provides water for birds, and gives locals a place to relax. What is the focal point of heaven? If you said the thrones of God the Father and Jesus, you're correct.
The center of heaven is occupied by our sovereign God who will dwell with us for all eternity. In closing, I would like to examine a few verses from the Old and New Testaments that highlight this truth.
Let's start with the first verse of Revelation 22. Revelation 22 says, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in Revelation 22 .1.
This river is both pure, it's free from unseen contaminant, and it's crystal clear. God desires truth in its inward parts, and thus God's river in heaven, it's clean inside and out. If you take pure water and pour it on the ground, it quickly absorbs dirt and chaff and sand and other stuff on the ground.
How often do our earthly blessings decay and disappoint as they intermingle with the dirt of this cursed world? Unlike temporal blessings, these are mixed with sorrow and dissatisfaction, the river in heaven brings us unmixed blessings directly from Christ's throne and God's throne.
We will be privileged to drink directly from the fountainhead. Right now we only draw from small streams or tributaries, but when we're in heaven, we're drinking directly from the source. Old Testament saints saw the glass dimly, but God did give them a foretaste of this heaven through the words of the Holy Spirit as well.
In Psalm 36, eight and nine, it says they are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house, and you give them a drink from your river of your pleasures, for with you is the fountain of life, in your light we see light.
The devil often likes to paint God as a cosmic killjoy, or an appealing and frowning father. These verses expose both the wickedness and hollowness of that claim. Those that trust in God will be abundantly satisfied with righteous pleasures in their heavenly home.
Like a river, God's heavenly blessings will be continual and varied enough to please every saint that's ever been born. In verse nine, we see a reemergence of this fountain of life motif as illustration.
Paul's daily on, he weared himself in pursuit of a fountain of immortality, and he eventually succumbed to a poison arrow on his quest. He was looking for a fountain of life, and he didn't find it, he died instead.
Had he opened the pages of holy scriptures, he would have found what he sought. However, though Paul's daily on possessed the Bible, he did not receive God's illumination to make those promises come alive.
As our verse states, only in God's light can we see light. The final way that this heavenly river differs from the rivers of earth is that this river has no capacity to harm or destroy. Proverbs 31 says a godly wife does her husband good, and not harm all the days of her life.
Similarly, the heavenly river that springs from God's throne is utterly incapable of harming even the least of heaven's citizens. We see this more fully in Psalm 46, verses one through four. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth will be moved, and though the mountains be pared into the midst of the sea. Though its waters roar and be troubled, though its mountains shake with its swelling, say law, there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
Earthly rivers roar like lions, and their trouble let the souls of the unredeemed. Their great power of an earthly river, it curses and it blesses the inhabitants of earth. Sometimes it destroys their house, sometimes it gives them fresh water and fish.
This river in heaven cannot be compared to earthly rivers because this river can only delight the citizens of heaven. There's no danger of drowning, there's no being eaten by crocodiles, there's no being poisoned by its water.
All these dangers have faded into heavenly amnesia for Zion's citizens. Isaiah 11, eight describes how an infant could play in perfect safety around the lion and serpent in God's holy city. The same principle applies here.
God's creation, whether sentient or not, plants, animals, will revert to its glorious pre-fall state. When we look at Psalm 87, we see a glorious picture of Zion's people, of Zion's people living in perfect harmony under their benevolent king.
The names of heaven's citizens are recorded in the book of life, and they experience the perfect bliss in worshiping God for all eternity. My hope is that this glorious picture today, it encourages you, it encourages me to continue fighting for this imperishable kingdom for the rest of your earthly lives.
Please bow your head and pray with me.
Amen.