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Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. All right church, let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. Let's sing this out on the first. He will forgive. His whose heart is like beyond all measure, is unto me still a decent rest. God with me is part of pain and pleasure, making full with peace and rest. Every day the Lord himself is near me, with a special mercy for his hour. All my cares he faith would bear in cheer me, he whose name is counselor and pound. The protection of his child and treasure is a charge that on himself he'll gain. As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure, is the pledge to me be made. Help me then in every tribulation, so to trust thy promises, O Lord, that I lose not his consolation. All for he within thy holy word. Help me, Lord, which was humble being, and to take his from a father's hand. One by one the days the moment's fleeting, till I reach the promised land. Amen, all right, great singing. It's good to be back here on a Wednesday night at Stronghold Baptist Church. At this time, we'll go through our announcements. If you do not have a bulletin, slip your hand up real high. One of our ushers will get one out to you. If you open up to the first page, you will see our service time is listed there. It's always Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday evening, again at 5 p.m. Wednesday night at seven is our Bible study. We've got the soul-winning opportunities listed there, as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month of December, as well as for the year. Praise the Lord, we closed out with over a thousand salvations for the year. Appreciate all the hard work and effort that went into that. Let's go ahead and count up salvation numbers to report. So, hold on a second, before we do this. Who took the tally? Did you take it? So, is Saturday six, or is it 46? Six. Okay. I see three, and then the three's crossed out, but then I see a four and a six, so I figure you're adding to that as, okay. I mean, that would be awesome, but... Six is still awesome. So, 46, I was like, did you guys do a marathon? All right. So, let's go ahead and count up the salvations that have not been reported yet. If you've got anyone saved, just slip your hand up real quick. Yes, sir. What day? Today. Amen. And Andrew? From Sunday. All right. Anyone else I missed? All right. Very good. Keep up the good work preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We've got the offering totals listed down there at the bottom of the page, received through the month of December prayer requests. So, Mrs. Bacon, I just found out, had her baby today. Was that from today? And mom and baby are doing well. So, praise the Lord for that. Appreciate your prayers there. Baby is unnamed at the moment, but mom and baby are doing just fine. So, appreciate all of your prayers there. Continue to pray, of course, for all of our other expectant ladies, as well as for all the people who are dealing with some very serious health issues that are on our list. I appreciate your prayers for me and my family. Obviously, we made it back safe from Arizona. Everything went really well out there. The wedding was nice, and everything was good. We left sunshine and came home to rain, but hey, that's the way it works, right? Sometimes they're gonna be coveting our rain, I'm sure. So, it was all good. It was a lot of fun, good trip, good time, and appreciate being back. It's nice to be back home. Does anyone have any updates for those who are on the prayer list right now? Is there anything that we can update with? All right. So, please continue to pray for everyone who is on the list. It is very important prayer works, and we definitely appreciate your prayers there. On the next page, it is the January Bible Reading Challenge. So, of course, this challenge is to complete the New Testament within the month of January. If you are anywhere near the Book of Acts, at the beginning of the Book of Acts, and you are doing well, as far as just kind of keeping on pace, remember, as I mentioned before, that there's a lot more of the longer chapters are early on. So, there's definitely some longer ones also mixed in throughout the New Testament, but the majority or the bulk of the longer chapters are early on. So, when you get through this first couple weeks, then it's a little bit easier as you get through. So, if you are behind, if you wanted to complete this challenge, and you're not quite there yet, don't get discouraged. This is definitely the time not to get discouraged, because there is still plenty of time to be able to get caught up. Don't feel like you have to just do a tremendous amount of reading in one sitting in order to get caught up. Spread it out over the remainder of the days for the month of January. We've got a few weeks left, really. I mean, is today like the tenth or ninth or tenth or something? So, I mean, literally, we've got 21 days left. That's three full weeks to be able to distribute, plus the two free days if you're doing the nine chapters a day that's still plenty of time. So, hopefully you're doing this, but if you are doing this challenge, I will reiterate it is more important to get the reading with the understanding than it is just to check off a box that you read a chapter. If you're not really getting anything out of the reading, don't go so fast, slow down, and even if you can't complete the challenge, get the reading with the understanding. It's way more valuable to do that. So, obviously, ideally, you could get both. You know, read at the pace that you can in order to get your understanding and try to get that pace up so that you can complete this challenge. So, all right, continuing on. New church plant, Greenville, South Carolina. Pray for that. Of course, we're just looking for a place to meet. Hebrews chapter 10 is the Bible memory passage, so we've got a couple weeks left on this passage. If you could quote verses 23 through 39 out loud without making any mistakes, you'll earn a prize for being able to do that. And then the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there through the month of January. And then on the back, of course, are the upcoming events, January 19. So, next Friday is the home school field trip as well as the PCA movie night, 4 and 6 o'clock respectively, 4 o'clock for the home school field trip right here. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have a lot of things prepared, activities and classes, and a lot of educational fun for the children starting right here about 4 o'clock. Try to get here, though, on time. Definitely make sure you get here on time so they can start promptly because obviously this is occurring right before our pizza and movie night, so we may have a little bit of an overlap, no big deal, but we're planning to start eating around 6.30. So, that's when we're going to plan on having the food here ready to go, and we'll have that pizza and movie night next Friday right after the home school field trip. And then, of course, the church camp is May 13th, so please sign up for that on our church website if you haven't done so already. And that is about it for our announcements. And, yeah, I think that's it. It looks like everything went well while I was out. I appreciate everybody who stepped up and helped to preach and just kind of take care of all the things that need to run while I'm away. And with that, I will turn the service back over to Brother Peter, who will lead us in our next song. All right, church, if you can, open up your hymnal. This is song number 256. Song 256, Look to the Lamb of God. Song 256. All right, let's sing this out on the first hymn. If you would stand, walking two and three, look to the Lamb of God. He to me, child of Calvary, look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is capable to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. With sins and sins, and towns and fears of sale, look to the Lamb of God. You in His trance, child, over all prevail. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is capable to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Our equal living does not wait too long. Look to the Lamb of God. His love will cheer and fill your heart with song. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is capable to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Fear not the shadows, on your path we fall. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Enjoy your sorrow, Christ is all in all. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Thank you very much, great singing. This time I'd like to ask the ushers to get set up for our Wednesday night offering, which goes to support missions. In church, while the offering plates are being passed around, open up your Bibles to the book of Psalm, chapter 87. It is the book of Psalm, chapter 87. As we do customarily here at Strouhal Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter for the microphone, if you could please do that for us. Amen church, that's the book of Psalms, Psalm 87. Psalm 87, the Bible reads, His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God, Selah. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me. Behold, Felicia and Tyre with Ethiopia. This man was born there, and of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her, and the highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count when he created up the people that this man was born there, Selah, as well the singers, as the players on instruments shall be there. All my springs are in there. Let's pray. Father God, we just thank you and praise you for the book of Psalms and for Psalm 87. And God, we thank you for this church and thank you for all that's been done from last year. God, we pray for a mighty year for 2024. God, we pray that you will allow for us to be a blessing to those out there in the world that need to hear the Gospel and feel past the verse with your spirit. Allow for him to preach your boldness. Thank you for all that you do. Allow for our ears to be attended to your word and to take in notes that we can take home with us and meditate on. Once again, we praise you and thank you. We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Psalm 87, of course, is not a very long Psalm. Only seven verses. No indication of exactly when we'll get out of here tonight, but you never know what's going to happen. So, let's dig right in. There's actually just kind of one main thing I'm going to focus on for this evening. Let's look there at verse number one. The Bible reads, His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. So these first three verses are referring to essentially Zion. It's talking about Jerusalem. It's talking about the city of God and the foundation being in the holy mountains is all representative of that place. And this is a very special place, the city of God. And I'm going to spend quite a bit of time looking up. We're going to view multiple references to Zion, to the city of God. This is important to understand because there is a modern Zionist movement amongst Jews and Christians alike, probably more so amongst Christians than there is even amongst Jews. And this started way back in the mid-century, the 1900s, 1940s. Of course, the Jews were received land from the United Nations and received a nation and a lot of people, a lot of Christians thought that that was God bringing Jews back to their land and fulfilling Old Testament prophecy and stuff like that. And I'm not going to get too deep into that tonight. That's clearly though not the case. I'll just give you just a real simple explanation of why that's not biblical prophecy being fulfilled is simply because all throughout the scripture in the Old Testament, when the Bible is talking about his people, he's talking about Israel, and he's talking about them being carried away captive or being dispersed and being taken out of the land, it's always conditional on if they turn their heart back to me, if they look towards this temple, if they come back to me, then I'll bring them back. And we don't see that happen at all with modern Jews, with modern Israel. It simply did not happen. It didn't happen on a grand scale. It is not something that God was just bringing them back in and blessing them and putting them in this land for any reason whatsoever. There's no way, there's nowhere in scripture that talks about God just blessing the physical seed of Abraham or the children of Israel simply because they're the physical seed. We don't see that happen anywhere. We only see them be blessed and had been blessed in the past when they would turn their heart back to God, when they were repentant. And look, unless there was some massive conversion of Jews to Christianity, to putting their faith on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they're not turning to God, right? Because Jesus is God in the flesh. And there's no way, you know, you can't have the Father without the Son or the Son without the Father. It's just simply impossible. They are inseparable. You can't have one without the other. So we don't see that. But there is a lot of scripture that talks about the importance of Zion and what a great place it is and it's a city of God. And this is something that we ought to look at and we ought to understand. What is it talking about? When I just looked up Zion itself with a Z, there was like 153 references or something, all in the Old Testament because in the New Testament when I mentioned Zion, it's spelled with an S. Not a big deal. It's just spelled a little bit different. It's still the same place. But that's just that name alone. But Zion's in Jerusalem and it's also referred to as a city of God or a city of the Lord. So you have lots of references to this and don't worry, we're not going to go through all of them. But some of them literally just have to do in a context with talking about the physical location as a reference point. So something's happening there, it's happening in Zion, it's happening in God's will. It's not to make an emphasis on the place so much. There's many references for that purpose. But I'm going to focus on the ones we're going to look at tonight. Some other references that are more symbolic or more representative or things that are more important. The important references to Zion where it's being exalted and lifted up and something that is a good thing. It's something that we definitely need to understand. And I bring all of this up now because there are people who want to apply essentially all of these verses to just like a modern day application of just like a physical Israel or something to that effect. And it's going to be very, very clear that when the Bible's talking about these, you know, like the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more and talking about all the dwellings of Jacob and talking about the city of God this is not just like, this isn't that God has it in his heart that like the literal just like the gates of Zion, like, you know, these are just, these have just been wrought really nicely and man just did such a good job with those gates that God just has this, this affection towards like the extra twist in the wrought iron or what, you know, like whatever the gates are. That's not what it's about, right? It's about the place and there's a purpose for that place and why is that place so special and important that God has affection towards it. It's not just because it's some physical piece of land that God just likes more than some other piece of land on this earth, right? So, keep your place there in Psalm 87. We'll end up coming back to it. Turn if you would to 2 Samuel chapter 5. We're actually going to look at the very first mention of Zion and it's found in 2 Samuel chapter 5 and right off the bat we're going to see, it may seem, it might read a little odd but when you understand, especially as we continue to read more about Zion the spiritual application of this passage, it'll just end up making a lot more sense just being the city of God and having references and application to the city of God that's to come. There's a heavenly Jerusalem that we're looking for that isn't here right now that is going to come down out of heaven and one day be here on earth, literally, which is what we're looking for. 2 Samuel chapter 5, look at verse number 6, the Bible reads and the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, which spake unto David saying, except thou take away the blind and the lame thou shalt not come in hither, thinking David cannot come in hither. So this is the first reference to Jerusalem, not Jerusalem but to Zion, we'll see that in the next verse. And the Jebusites were there so this is before Israel conquered it or at least at this time, you know, the Jebusites are here and they're saying unto David, hey, in order for you to come here, you need to take away the blind and the lame and it's kind of an odd statement. If you just think about this like militarily speaking or something like, what do you mean? Like you have to take away the blind and the lame? You know, like those probably aren't the strongest people defending and like how are we going to make it past our front line of the blind and the lame, right? Like, it doesn't seem to make too much sense from that perspective but when we look at how the Bible talks about Jerusalem and specifically Zion, it makes a lot more sense when you consider, for one, the offerings of God needed to be not lame, not blind, you know, all the sacrifices that were made to the Lord because those were representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when those sacrifices were made, as Jesus was perfect, so must a sacrifice be perfect and if this is representative of a heavenly place or a holy place then it also makes sense that, hey, you can't enter into that place if you're lame or blind, right? God's the one who opens up our eyes, you know, the veil is lifted up from our eyes the moment we get saved so the unsaved people would be like the blind and the lame. They haven't been made whole, they haven't been infected and you cannot enter into, you know, heavenly Jerusalem unless you've been saved, unless you are whole, unless you've made whole and you can see your eyes have been opened through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This makes a lot of sense now as to why this statement's even being made. Verse number seven says, nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, the same is the city of David. And David said on that day, whoever getteth up to the gutter and smiteth the Jebusites and the lame and the blind that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain, wherefore they said the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. So, you know, three times the lame and the blind, not the lime and the blame, the lame and the blind are being referenced. Three times, so it's just like, it's making obviously a very significant point in this passage about that and that is because the city of Zion, this stronghold is a symbolic of the heavenly Zion or the new Jerusalem that's going to be coming down out of heaven that doesn't allow anything like that into it. Psalm 2, you can turn there if you'd like and we're going to go to Psalm 48 after that. We're just going to look at some of these mentions of Zion. That was the first one. The Bible refers to Zion in Psalm 2 verse 6, Yet if I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion, I will declare the decree, The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And this is of course in reference to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ being the king that is being set upon the holy hill of Zion. So this is a very significant important place where Jesus Christ will rule and reign from one day even here on this earth. And the first time He came, He did not rule and reign from Zion. But He is coming to fulfill those scriptures. Psalm 48 is the next passage we'll look at in reference to Zion. The Bible reads, Great is the Lord, in verse number 1, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. So this is just referencing the greatness, the beauty, the joy of the whole earth is this Mount Zion. And the only reason it's going to have this status is because it's the city of the great king, Jesus Christ. Not, you know, there's no other reason to have such an exaltation of this city, and there hasn't been throughout history either, other than the fact that it is going to be the place that Jesus Christ is going to rule and reign from. Psalm 125, verse number 1, the Bible reads, They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even forever. And again, this is prophesying and referencing the time to come of Mount Zion that cannot be removed, it's going to abide forever, no one's going to be able to penetrate and come again, you know, God's going to be defending Mount Zion forever. And even in the rain, when Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning, not railing, raining, I don't know why my tongue is getting all tied today. In turn, if you read the Psalm 132, when Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning, there are going to be plenty of unsaved people still on this earth. So, you know, when after God pours out His wrath, there's going to be a kind of a restructuring of things where Jesus Christ sets up His kingdom here on earth, and the saved are going to rule and reign with Christ on this earth, but not every unbeliever is destroyed when God pours out His wrath. There's still a remnant, there's still people who survive through all of that, through all of the tribulation, through all of the wrath that will continue then on the earth and populate the earth and be under, but they'll be under the subjection of Jesus Christ. They'll be under the rule and reign of that supreme authority in the land. And of course, after the seven years that Satan's going to come and deceive the nations, and they're going to come and try to have one last fight against Christ, against the Lord, and that's going to fail miserably, but this does happen and with this stronghold of Zion is going to be in place during that millennial reign. And then later, of course, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven after this earth is changed and there's a new heaven and a new earth. Look at Psalm 132, verse number 11, the Bible reads, For I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon himself shall his crown flourish. And this is just more blessings upon the house of David because, of course, of the seed and lineage of David, Jesus Christ was born to be the king, the prince, to reign, and to rule. And he is the ordained lamp for the anointed, for God's people. Isaiah 28, turn if you would to Isaiah chapter 60, I'll read for you from Isaiah 28. You're turning Isaiah 60. Isaiah 28, verse 16, the Bible reads, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. Pretty inarguable evidence here that Jesus Christ is being referenced as the foundation stone, the cornerstone for Zion, for that city, for, you know, it's founded on Christ. So when we see these great blessings and these great positive references and God choosing this place to set his name and this stronghold and the Zion, the Zion of God is the city that is built with the foundation of Jesus Christ. Not of the people that hate Jesus Christ. Remember that stone which the builders rejected, it ground them to powder, it stamps them, it destroys them. So the Jews today that reject Christ, you know, they don't have this precious cornerstone as their foundation. So even if there's a place literally just called Zion and Mount Zion, that is not the place right now of the blessings that the Bible is referring to until Christ is there and ruling and reigning, that's when we're going to see and experience and know, okay, yeah, this is what the Bible was talking about when God was blessing Zion and choosing to put his name there and all these other things. Isaiah chapter 60, look at verse number 9. The Bible reads, Surely the isle shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish first to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them unto the name of the Lord thy God and to the Holy One of Israel because he hath glorified thee and the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and their kings shall minister unto thee for in my wrath I smote thee but in my favor have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their kings may be brought for the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee and all they that despise thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel and now before we're going to keep reading here but before we do I just want to make a few mentions here of what's being described and what I believe this is referring to is what we're going to see in that millennial reign because you see that the sons of the Rangers are going to build up the wall so other nations are going to be in subjection is what this is describing and it's saying it's going to be built up by other people. Their kings are going to minister unto you right so the kings of the nations, the people who are going to exist are going to be subservient unto the Lord and to his people and this is clearly what is going to happen. It says for in my wrath I smote thee in my favor and have mercy on thee and then talking about the gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night there's no concern there's no worry right you shut the gates in order to keep safe you're going to keep people out right for that you don't want to have come in well hey if the gates are open all the time it's because you're living in peace and prosperity and safety and you have no concern about having to ever shut those gates because everything is going really well and it says that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their kings may be brought for the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to rule with a rod of iron okay the people that don't serve will perish under the rule and reign of Jesus Christ don't think that it's just going to be like oh that's cool oh you don't want to follow me yeah that's fine no Christ is in charge and when he's in charge like literally set up his kingdom look we can't confuse the purpose why Jesus came the first time with when he's coming back he came the first time as the lamb of God he came the first time and humbled himself and suffered the death even the death of the cross in love in mercy in forgiveness not in judgment he came to save he came to give of himself and that's you know great we need to focus on that of course but don't think that when he comes back he's not coming back the same way he's not coming back to have to save again he already did that now when he comes back he's coming back as the king of kings and lord of lords he's coming as the prince of peace yes but he's coming to set up his kingdom and all power is going to be given unto him and he will rule with a rod of iron and the law is established through him and people will every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is lord of the glory of God the father and that is the way that things will run so people can't just think that while yes while Jesus came the first time he allowed a lot of things to happen to him and for him to be beaten and spit on and mocked and that's not happening again he already did that so you be thankful that he did that and accept that free gift that he bought and paid for you because when he comes back he's not coming that way Jesus is not one sided God himself is not just a single faceted God God is love amen he is and his mercy is endureth forever so praise the lord for those really good things that we love about God but that is not the only aspect of God God also has anger and wrath and we ought to fear the lord and you know we need to embrace all of who God is and know all of who God is so we can love all of who God is because all of the aspects of the lord are good and glorious I mean it is good a God of judgment is still is a good God so we see these we see this being expressed here and to me it just looks like something that must happen in the future because of how secure everything is and because we know the prophecy of Christ to come anyways Isaiah chapter 2 talks about this as well I didn't turn there for sake of time this evening but the fact that he's ruling with a rod of iron the nation is going to perish that doesn't serve him verse 13 there in Isaiah 60 talks about so then these other resources coming in the glory of Lebanon, fir trees pine trees, box trees to beautify the place of my sanctuary verse 14 the sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee and all they that despise thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet and they shall call thee the city of the lord the zion of the holy one of Israel so God and the children of God will truly be the ones in authority and in power and everyone else will be subservient verse number 15 where as thou hast been forsaken and hated so that no man went through thee I will make thee an external excuse me an eternal excellency a joy of many generations thou shall also suck the milk of the gentiles and shalt suck the breast of kings and thou shalt know that I the lord am thy savior and thy redeemer the mighty one of Jacob so referring to you know sucking the milk of the gentiles sucking the breast of kings is they will supply your need they will be working for you they will be subservient and doing things for the lord for the city of God for the saved of the earth essentially verse 17 for brass I will bring gold and for iron I will bring silver and for wood brass and for stones iron I will also make thy officers peace and thine exactors righteousness violence shall no more be heard in thy land this has to be a future event and if you think about this too even everything I'm mentioning here you say bringing gold for brass and bringing silver for iron this isn't talking about when Solomon built the temple because this is after that this is Isaiah preaching Solomon's reign already happened this is getting closer to them being taken captive than it is to the temple being established right so all of these things being referenced here as future things which didn't ever really happen again right because when the temple was even rebuilt at the tomb of Israel came back out of captivity it wasn't like the former it was rebuilt right but it wasn't with the same grandiose extravagant building as the original building of the temple so you can't there's no other time in history to even apply this to so it must still be coming this is referencing future events and especially violence not being heard in thy land wasting nor destruction within thy borders but thou shalt call thy walls salvation in thy gates praise this is absolutely a future time when Christ is ruling and reigning verse number 19 the sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light in thy glory excuse me in thy God thy glory thy sun shall no more go down neither shall thy moon withdraw itself for the Lord shall be thy everlasting light and the days of thy morning shall be ended and I'm just making point of all of this we see clearly these references yes this is talking about Zion in the context but clearly it's referring to a future time there is no mistakenness and I bring up these ones are more clear and more obvious because we need to not conflate these references to Zion with maybe some other references in context that would only be referring to a more temporal location of Zion and start to think that like oh well this is how God just always feels about Zion that exists say right now in the Middle East because this isn't how it is at the moment in fact if you turn to Micah chapter 3 we'll give you we'll read a little description of what I think the modern day Zion is more akin to with this reference of Zion in Micah chapter 3 Micah chapter number 3 we'll start reading in verse number 9 the Bible reads hear this I pray you the heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel that abhor judgment and pervert all equity so what's being spoken is directed towards people who are ruling but they hate judgment and equity they're bad rulers these people in Israel they're not ruling right they're very wicked they're not righteous at all verse 10 says they build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity the heads thereof judge for reward they don't care about righteousness they just they take bribes and the priests thereof teach for hire they're not they're not teaching what's true from the word of God they're just concerned about money and the prophets thereof divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us so they're just claiming the name of the Lord and saying oh look isn't God with us no one can hurt us we've got the Lord but they're wicked they're not judging right they're not teaching right it's all just about money they're taking bribes they don't care about any righteousness I would say this is how modern Mount Zion is like this is how the modern state of Jerusalem is like this is how the modern state of the Jews are like way more than what the Bible's talking about the blessed Zion verse number 12 therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field and again I'm pointing this out in the scripture here in the minor prophets to show you that this isn't the eternal Zion remember we talked about hey forever you're gonna be blessed and there's gonna be you know well clearly not at this point in Micah chapter 3 right so that eternal forever blessing is a future thing to be inherited not just something that's going to be all the time you know with no break or no gap in between clearly there is therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest that's talking about destruction why because of all the wickedness there so this destruction comes because of all the wickedness all the wicked people all the rulers all the turning from the Lord and the preaching for money why would it be any different today why would God feel any different about it today he doesn't one last place I'll return to Hebrews chapter 12 before we go back to Psalm 87 Hebrews chapter 12 . . . . . Hebrews chapter 12 verse number 22 the Bible reads but ye are come unto mount Sion and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel notice the holiness referenced here just the overall holiness of it being the city of the living God being the heavenly Jerusalem having the company of angels inhabiting this place the general assembly and church of the firstborn right the church it's the saved it's the sanctified it's those who have been redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ the spirits of just men made perfect these are the inhabitants of this place of this land of this mount Sion this is that blessed place and notice it says which are written in heaven I think that's going to be important now when we go back let's go back to Psalm 87 and finish up these other verses that are in here so we see at the beginning of Psalm 87 hey his foundation is in the holy mountains the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob glorious things are spoken of thee O city of God now I do believe that this place was viewed on this way you know back then back in the times when they had the Lord as their God right this was viewed this way and I don't think it was appropriately viewed that way to love this place hey God chose this place because God is coming back but you can't just apply all the blessings and everything that we're reading about Mount Zion in scripture all these great references to Zion as in they apply to the place today I think that's pretty clear let's keep reading here because the Psalm continues verse number 4 says I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia this man was born there now Rahab is probably talking about Jericho because that's where Rahab the harlot was I tried to study this out and there's not many references to Rahab just in general Rahab was the harlot that was saved out of Jericho I'm guessing and I don't know this dogmatically but that this mention of Rahab because everything else is a reference to a city right it's a reference to a place and all of these places all these cities all these things are wicked right they're wicked people Babylon of course was a wicked nation and Babylon continues to have wicked references all throughout scripture Jericho was a wicked place you know the walls of Jericho fell down they raised it they destroyed it and God cursed Jericho to not even be built again if it was it was going to be you know the man that built it is going to lay the foundation of and is first born and you know I forget raise the walls and his last born or something it was like two children had to die in order to even rebuild that city because it was cursed but then you have Philistia that's of the Philistines right the land of the Philistines that they weren't the godly people they were the uncircumcised they were the people that were oppressing the children of God Tyre another place it was you know a very rich place but a wicked place it's not known for its goodness in general in the scripture and same thing with Ethiopia Egypt is probably a little bit more commonly known but Ethiopia Egypt are often times linked together in scripture not positive references there at all so it's talking about all these bad places but hey I'm going to make mention to them that no man would make mention of these places why you don't want to be in those places in verse 5 says and of Zion it shall be said this and that man was born in her and the highest himself shall establish her establishing her meaning Zion the cities are referred to in a female sense her Zion is established the highest establishes Zion and then verse 6 says the Lord shall count when he writeth up the people that this man was born there and I would relate this to Hebrews where we talked about the names of the men which are written in heaven the inhabitants of Zion the holy Zion have their names written in heaven and you know it says that this man was born there I don't think this is a reference to Jesus Christ we know that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem but it could be it still could be it's clear that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem but in Luke chapter 2 the Bible actually refers to Bethlehem as being the city of David even though Jerusalem we know clearly is the city of David but Bethlehem and Jerusalem are like really really close and on a modern map and I don't know if it's any different from like a map from a few thousand years ago if these places were slightly different but they're only like like six miles apart or something that's not very much right I mean I know it's farther maybe a little bit farther than it is now but I mean on horseback or something it wouldn't take you that long to go six miles we consider six miles I mean you're still in the same town right so these places might be smaller but they're not that far apart so if you think of maybe like Jerusalem as being the greater Jerusalem and then in Syria having Bethlehem as a suburb of Jerusalem that's the way I look at it that's the way I would view it and I think you could still make the case that sure that makes sense right that you could be born in specifically in Bethlehem but still be in the city of David because it's just close enough to we could say we're in Atlanta technically no we're not in Atlanta Atlanta is just on the other side of the freeway just a couple miles down the road we're essentially in Atlanta I know I always say I was born and raised in Chicago although technically I wasn't in Chicago I was just outside of Chicago I think this is the same type of thing but the fact is that there's these references of being born there being born there why because being a citizen or a resident if you will someone who's born in this place is referencing someone who is saved someone who belongs there someone who is a resident of this holy Mount Zion and is going to benefit from all of the blessings of that holy place and verse 7 of course mentions as well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there all my springs are in the and we can't forget when we're reading the Psalms and we're looking to the Psalms as the word of God that they are songs right that they are poetic in nature the way that they're written they're absolutely useful for doctrine and for teaching and understanding but we don't look at this with necessarily the same literalness as we do other places of scripture does that make sense so when we're reading about these people being born there it's a more expressive way it's alluding to this great truth but it's not something you want to just drill down super finely and focus on the literal sense of some of these things does that make sense I hope it does it's a very short Psalm but it seems to be all about this praise of the city of God of this Mount Zion and so many people are confused about this today but if you just look at these things in context you can see and hey there's something to be happy about that Mount Zion you know I can't wait to go there one day right when Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning and the gates are just open day and night and there's no violence and there's no threat and there's no reason to be you know like you don't have to be looking over your shoulder anywhere you go in that new kingdom you don't have to worry about it there's no violence no one's going to be violating you and whatever when you work no one's going to be stealing your stuff you don't have to build up and lock everything up and you don't have to worry about that what peace peace of mind not having to worry about you know like I mean here you've got to lock up your car door it's like right out in the parking lot like 50 feet away right there it's you know gates are going to be open everything's unlocked not a big deal so what a place that will be but let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer dear heavenly father lord we thank you so much for Psalms we thank you for your word and for this great place that we're going to be able to see and be a part of one day in the future it's exciting to even think about these things right now because things are so different looking forward to the time when Christ is ruling and reigning and lord I pray that you please help us to continue to open up our understanding from scripture help us to get the right context and know what what you're referring to in the Bible and that we wouldn't be have our thoughts or our minds twisted with some false teachings especially those that would want to promote and propagate a people that hate you and try to treat them differently especially in a blessed way lord when yes we want people to get saved of course and we want to preach the gospel of our creature but that we wouldn't exalt one people above another just based off of their ethnicity or their ancestry dear lord I pray that you please help us to be wise and discerning of what the truth is and god just help us to win all people unto you in Jesus name we pray amen alright we're going to sing one last song before we are dismissed for the evening brother Peter will you please lead us alright church if you can grab your hindles and open up the song number 43 song number 43 we're marching to Zion song number 43 alright church let's sing this out on the first come we land of the lord and let our joys be known join in a song that's made of wood join in a song that's made of wood and thus surround the throne we're marching to Zion beautiful beautiful Zion we're marching upward to Zion the beautiful sea of God and those we used to see who never knew our God the children of the heavenly thing the children of the heavenly thing we speak their joys abroad we speak their joys abroad we're marching to Zion beautiful Zion we're marching upward to Zion the beautiful sea of God the hill of Zion before we reach the heavenly field before we reach the heavenly field or walk the golden streets we're marching to Zion beautiful beautiful Zion we're marching upward to Zion the beautiful sea of God and every tear we try we're marching through and man goes proud we're marching through and man goes proud to fairer worlds on high we're marching to Zion beautiful beautiful Zion we're marching upward to Zion Thank you so much for coming you guys Thank you