(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Let's look at Psalm 48 and verse number 2, Psalm 48 verse number 2, it says beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. The title for the sermon tonight Brevin is Mount Zion, just Mount Zion, okay that's the title for the sermon. Tonight we'll be looking at this idea of what exactly is Mount Zion, what are we looking at here. I mean as this Psalm was being read, what came to your mind, you know, obviously some, I guess you could apply some of this to the times when Jerusalem was a great power upon the earth, a great kingdom with David and Solomon. But as we look at this and we think, when you think about Zion, we often think about like a heavenly Zion, we think of heavenly Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven, I'll show you that later on in the book of Revelation. We've gone through a lot of these Psalms just recently but when we look at this Psalm it's actually primarily about the millennial reign of Christ, okay. If you look at this you'll notice a few things why this is about the millennial reign of Christ. The last few Psalms, Psalm 48 tonight and Psalm 47, Psalm 46, it's been like this trilogy of end time events. It all comes together, then when you get to Psalm 49, you're back to your sort of usual Psalms that you're used to. But yeah these Psalms that we've gone through these last few weeks, 46, 47, 48 is just this sort of mini trilogy of the end times, like a mini book of Revelation if you put them side by side. But one thing that is very clear, when you look at the Old Testament scriptures about the end times, about Christ's reign on this earth, many times it's all kind of meshed. It's not very clear, it's not very distinctive when it might be speaking about Christ first coming or when it might be speaking about the millennial reign of Christ or when it might be speaking about the new heavens and the new earth, but that's why we have the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation means to reveal, it's a revelation, it's revealing, it's giving greater detail, it's giving greater timeframes around the things that we read about in the Old Testament scriptures. So let's start there in verse number one. Begins by saying, great is the Lord, okay no one's going to argue that, amen. That's a great way to start the Psalm, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Now we see here that we're talking about the city of God. Some of the previous Psalms that we've gone through, we've also noticed the city of God being referenced and I pointed to you toward New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. And yes, you can definitely apply these verses to that, but I want to show you that this is not just heavenly Jerusalem. Please keep your finger there and turn to the book of Zechariah. Please turn to Zechariah in your Old Testament, Zechariah chapter number 14, I'll give you a moment to turn there, Zechariah chapter number 14. And while you're turning to Zechariah 14, let me just quickly read to you Revelation 21. We've looked at this just, you know, the last few weeks, but I'll just read this to you. Revelation 21 one, it says, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So we learned that Jerusalem is this holy city of God and this is a heavenly Jerusalem. It's new Jerusalem that God brings down from heaven when he creates a new heaven and a new earth. But before God creates a new heaven and a new earth, we have a millennial reign of Christ upon this existing earth, alright? Now let me show you that, and actually prove to you that the psalm that we're reading about is not so much about heavenly Jerusalem, but it's about Jerusalem when Jesus Christ rules on this earth. Because during the thousand year rule of Christ, he's going to be ruling from Jerusalem, alright? Now when I say this, you know, all my independent Baptists or other Baptists get really excited about the holy ground, you know, holy ground. Let's go to Israel today, alright? Let's just pick a bit of soil up off the ground, it's just holy, maybe God will bless us if we put it on our face, you know, we shower ourselves with some of that soil. You know what? We're not even talking about that same Jerusalem that we think about today, and I'll prove this to you. Look at Zechariah please, Zechariah chapter 14 and verse number 1, Zechariah chapter 14 verse number 1. Now it's interesting, Zechariah gives us more information about the coming of Christ, you know, when we read about Revelation 19, when Christ comes on his white horse with his armies from heaven, he takes on the Antichrist and the armies that have, the Antichrist armies, you know, he takes them out by the word of his mouth. Well Zechariah chapter 14 gives us more detail about these events. Now look at verse number 1, it says, Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. Alright, we know the day of the Lord is when the Lord pours out his wrath upon this world. The Antichrist is going to have some power on the planet earth during this time, but he keeps going there, look at verse number 2, For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle. When it says against Jerusalem, yes, think about Middle East Jerusalem today, where God is going to allow the nations, alright, the armies of the Antichrist to surround Jerusalem and to battle against that city. And it says look, And the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. So there's going to be this final battle in the end times against Jerusalem. The Antichrist and his armies surround this city and basically putting it to ruin. As we keep going forward, it says in verse number 3, Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. So God allows other nations, he gathers those nations to go against Jerusalem because it's time for Jerusalem to be judged and then God, when Christ comes on his white horse, takes it out on the other, all the other nations, all the other armies that have destroyed Jerusalem. Alright, if that makes sense, alright. Now let's keep going there, verse number 4, and it says, And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. Whose feet? The feet of God. Jesus Christ manifest in the flesh, right? Christ is going to come, his feet will literally be in Jerusalem upon the Mount of Olives. If you don't know the Mount of Olives, it's just a mount, you know, just outside the city of Jerusalem. Okay, that's what the Lord's going to be. It says, Which is before Jerusalem on the east, and on, that's what it says, right? It says on the east of Jerusalem, right? And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west. And there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall be removed toward the north, and half of it toward the south. So when Christ comes to this earth, this Mount of Olives just splits into two, okay? Such is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's reinventing the geographical area, alright? Verse number 5, And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel. Yea ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. So that's when Christ comes on his white horse, and all his saints come in along with him, okay? Let's keep going there. Verse number 6, And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark. But it shall be one day, which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. Now notice the next words, And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem. Alright, so you had before all these other armies destroying Jerusalem in a time of battle and war, which God allows, it's time for Jerusalem to be destroyed, but now we have Jerusalem once again, but living waters are coming out of Jerusalem following the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is that? Because when Christ comes, he's going to be reigning from Jerusalem. That's basically going to be the capital city of the world. But hey, now there are living waters coming out of this Jerusalem, okay? Just as much as Christ changes the geographic structure of the land, okay, so can he take away the wickedness out of Jerusalem, okay? It says half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea in summer and in winter shall it be, and look at verse number 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one. And that begins the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, okay? So why have we read Zechariah chapter 14? It's just to show you that Christ will definitely reign from Jerusalem. That will be the epicentre of his kingdom, which is why you have these living waters flowing out through this river system that the Lord Jesus Christ makes out of Jerusalem. But he allows old Jerusalem, Jerusalem as we know it today, to be destroyed in warfare by these other armies, okay, by the armies of the Antichrist, alright? So there is a change, not so much in the location of where Jerusalem is, but what Jerusalem is, okay? Right now it is a place of wickedness. Right now it's a place of great sin. But Christ is going to come, and that's where his kingdom is going to be, alright? And he's going to be ruling for a thousand years. Now as we go through Psalm 48, you'll start to notice that this is about the millennial reign of Christ. So when we talk about Zion, Mount Zion, we're actually talking about Jerusalem in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, okay? So let's go back to Psalm 48 and verse number 2, Psalm 48 verse number 2, Psalm 48 and verse number 2, it says, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth. Is that Jerusalem today, the joy of the whole earth? Does everyone rejoice about Jerusalem, the righteousness and the glory of God in Jerusalem? Of course not. This is of course a future time to come. In the millennial reign of Christ, the entire earth is going to rejoice, beautiful for situation. It says, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king, okay? The city of the great king. We saw the Lord's going to be reigning upon the entire earth during this time as we looked there in Zechariah. Alright, now please keep your finger there and turn to, actually I'll get you to turn to Psalm 75. Turn to Psalm 75 and keep your finger there, alright? As I said, the title for the sermon tonight, brethren, is Mount Zion, okay? What is Mount Zion? So we know, yes, that Zion has a term for, you know, the holy place, New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven, but at first that term Zion, Mount Zion, first was attributed to earthly Jerusalem, okay? And I'm just going to read to you the first mention of Mount Zion, which is in 2 Samuel chapter 5 verse number 6, because if you don't know, the city of Jerusalem was populated by other people, it wasn't built by the Israelites, okay, it was populated by the Jebusites and King David is the one that conquered that city for himself, alright? So in 2 Samuel chapter 5 verse number 6, it says, and the king and his men, that's King David, went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land. So the Jebusites were the people that lived in Jerusalem, okay? 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 they thought, the people in Jerusalem thought, there's no way King David and his men can overtake us and take this city for himself, no way, okay? You might take the blind and the lame, you know, even the blind and the lame will fight you off, David, but you know, they didn't think they'd be conquered. Literally in the verse, I love when the Bible does this, it's like, there's no chance, David, that you can defeat us. And then like, verse number 7 is so short, nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, the same is the city of David. It's like, it must have been a huge battle, but I was like, oh yeah, David just took it, you know, took the stronghold of Zion, the same is the city of David, alright? So this is the first time we see the word Zion being mentioned, okay? Zion is referencing earthly Jerusalem, King David is the one that took it, and it's called the city of David. There's another city in the Bible called the city of David, does anyone else know what the other city of David is in the Bible? It's Bethlehem, okay? And the reason for that is because King David was born in Bethlehem, and he ruled in Jerusalem, alright? And then of course, King David would then picture a type, a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem, born in the city of David, and he too will rule and reign in Jerusalem. This is why when Christ came in his first coming, you may recall he came upon the ass, and he rode into Jerusalem, and it was a great fanfare for Jesus Christ, because they saw, this is David's son, this is David's seed, and you know, he was born in Bethlehem, and he's coming into Jerusalem, surely he's coming to rule and reign, but actually Jesus Christ came to die in Jerusalem, so that was the first coming of Christ, but you see the second coming, he's definitely going to reign in the city of David, Mount Zion, which is Jerusalem. Now you're there in Psalm 75 verse number 6, the reason I want you to turn here is because when we looked at Psalm 48 verse 2, it says, beautiful for the situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, on the sides of the north. This is a term that I've always kind of scratched my head about, what does that mean, the sides of the north, because when we think about, say a compass, we think about the four sides of a compass, we think of north, south, east, and west, so I guess there are sides in that sense, okay, but what are the sides of the north, alright, now, I'll explain to you why this is so important, but we think about this idea of north, we think about it in location, so when I'm coming from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast, I'm travelling north, okay, we often say I'm going up to the Sunshine Coast, but if we're on the Sunshine Coast and we're travelling to Sydney, we're going south, and we often say we're going down to Sydney, okay, because we're talking about north and south in that understanding, okay, but you know when the Bible speaks about north, it's not always in that same sense, like a magnetic north, but sometimes when the Bible speaks of north, it's just talking about an upward trajectory, okay, and that could very well be heaven sometimes, because look at Psalm 75, Psalm 75 and verse number 6, Psalm 75 verse number 6, it says for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, so promotion doesn't come from the east or the west or the south, so what's missing there, the north, so basically what we're about to read is that promotion comes from the north, okay, look at verse number 7, but God is the judge, he putteth down one and seteth up another, so when we talk about promotion coming from the north in this sense, where's it coming from? From heaven, the Lord God who is up in heaven, okay, so when we think about travelling up to the Sunshine Coast, well, you know, we need to think about it in a different sense sometimes in the Bible, where travelling north is actually speaking about the heavens, alright, so when we think about the sides of the north, okay, I want you to start to picture this in heaven, you know, what could the sides of the north look like, please turn to Numbers chapter 2, turn to Numbers chapter 2, and as I show you this, I could be wrong, but I think I'm right, I'm pretty sure I'm right, but I could be wrong, I'm not going to die on this hill if I get this wrong, okay, but turn to Numbers chapter 2 and verse number 1, what could the sides of the north represent? Numbers chapter 2 verse number 1, now when the Lord God pulled Israel out of Egypt, of course Moses was leading this nation and God told them how to set up camp, so when it was time for them to stop and stay in a certain location, God explained how all the tribes are to be situated around the tabernacle. In Numbers chapter 2 verse number 1, it says, and the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the end sign of their father's house. Far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch, okay, so don't forget the tabernacle was where God's presence was at this time, okay, he's allowed his own presence to be there amongst the people of God, and he's telling Moses here how they are to pitch or put their tents around the tabernacle, it says in verse number 3, and on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies. Now I won't keep reading, drop down to verse number 10, on the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their armies, drop down to verse number 18, on the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their armies, and drop down to verse number 25, the standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies. And so if you think about this how they would be set up when they would stop and pitch their tents, they would have the tabernacle there in the middle, where God's presence would be, where Moses would be there, you know, leading the people of God, and then on one side you would have three tribes, you know, on the east you'd have three tribes, on the west you'd have three tribes, on the north you'd have three tribes, on the south you'd have three tribes. Alright, so there we have this picture of God's presence and surrounding him would be God's people, there to praise him, there to worship him, there to serve him. Now when you think about the sides of the north, again don't think about necessarily north on your compass, but think about north as far as Mount Zion, a place of exaltation, a place where God situates above, above this earth, okay? When we start to understand this, you know, I think what we're looking at when we talk about Mount Zion being on the sides of the north is the fact that we've got a heavenly host or we've got God's people that surround him. When we think about Mount Zion, we have God's throne there in the centre, you know, and he is the temple, as it were, of the city, and you've got all the people that love him, his angels, his saints, his believers, Old Testament, New Testament, whatever it is, surrounding him like, you know, and serving him and worshiping him and praising him, and we see again a silhouette or, you know, a foreshadowing of this when we see the tribes of Israel camping around the tabernacle. Why are you telling us all that? Because now I want you to turn to another passage. Please turn to Isaiah 14, turn to Isaiah chapter 14, Isaiah chapter number 14, because this idea of the sides of the north appears only one at a time in the Bible, and it's here in Isaiah 14 verse number 12, because I think if we understand this, Isaiah 14 makes a lot more sense as well, okay? Isaiah 14 verse 12 begins, So this is of course speaking about Satan, Lucifer. It says in verse number 13, For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, that would be Mount Zion in heaven, the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high, yet thou shall be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Alright, so notice there, the sides of the pit and the sides of the north, okay? When the devil was trying to exalt himself to be like God, and he says I'm going to be in the mount of the congregation, meaning that God's people, God's hosts would surround him, that he would be there in the sides of the north, that everybody would basically come past the devil, giving him praise, giving him worship, you know, worship, serving him as God. That was the desire of the devil, to be surrounded, right? To be exalted, as it were, in the north, in that mount of the congregation. And he goes, no, you want the sides of the north, you're going to get the sides of the pit. You're going to be, you know, suffering in hell. And of course, when Christ rules and reigns millennium, the devil is bound in the bottomless pit, you know, which I believe is hell, for those thousand years, and after the thousand years are completed, then the devil gets thrown into the lake of fire. But I just wanted to show you, Psalm 48 and Isaiah 14 are the only two times in the Bible where you see this reference of the sides of the north, and I think it makes a lot more sense now, if you can, you know, think of those two things, and the fact that he's been cast down to the sides of the pit instead, okay, he gets the complete opposite to what he desired. Okay, back to Psalm 48, please, Psalm 48 and verse number 3. Psalm 48 and verse number 3, please. It says, God is known in her palaces for a refuge. So during this millennium, you know, and we saw in the previous Psalm, that the nations give up the shields, as it were, to the Lord God. He becomes their defence, which makes sense. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. You know, if you were serving under God in this millennial period, then yeah, you'd be, you know, safe. You know, we think about, when we talk about, you know, the news today, you know, about Russia and Ukraine, the wars going on, and you'll often hear this term NATO, and NATO is basically just an agreement amongst nations, that if your nation gets attacked, we'll come to your defence. Okay, so you've got this pact in the millennium. Basically, you've got safety. If you have God, if you, you know, serve Jesus Christ as the king of this earth, you have refuge in his palaces. Verse number 4, for lo, look at this, the kings were assembled. So this is why this cannot be the new heavens and the new earth, because it says, for lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together, they saw it, and so they marvelled, they were troubled and hasted away. And they took hold upon them there, and pain as a woman in travail. Now this would make no sense if this is about the new heavens and the new earth, because those that populate and live in the new heavens and the new earth are all believers. We're all saved. And not only all saved, we've all at the new heavens and the new earth been given those new resurrected bodies. We haven't got bodies that sin. We haven't got bodies that rebel against God. But you can see here, during this time when Jesus Christ reigns on this earth, there are going to be certain kings that are troubled. They're going to come to Mount Zion, they're going to come to this place where Jesus Christ rules from, and they're going to be amazed, they're going to marvel at the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ, and they're going to be troubled by it. And one thing that we learn here, even though we're going to rule and reign with Christ during this thousand year reign, there are still going to be other kings on this earth as well. These people that have a hard time accepting Jesus Christ as their ruler. And I think the parallel that we could look at here potentially is when Christ came the first time, obviously we had kings like King Herod, but his power was limited. King Herod was the king of Judea, but really he had to report to Pilate. So when the priest would bring Jesus Christ to crucify him to Herod, Herod says, look, I can't do this. You've got to take him to Pilate. Because there's a higher authority in the land, and that was the Roman Empire. And so I think we've got a similar parallel here in the millennium that some kings, obviously not the kings that went to war against Jesus with the Antichrist, will still have some element of power, but they're going to be under the authority of the new kingdom, which is of Jesus Christ, and we're going to be there with Jesus Christ ruling and reigning upon him. Now look at verse number six. It says, fear took hold upon them there and pain as a woman in travail. So these kings, it's like they're going through this fear and this anguish and this burden as like a woman giving birth to a child. And this idea of a woman being troubled and in travail and bringing forth a child is something that is used over and over again in the Bible. Now I'm not going to get you to turn to all these passages, but I'll just quickly read to you. If you can just listen, you'll see the similarities. You know, I've recently gone through the book of Jeremiah in Sydney, and I can't remember how many times, but when God would speak to the nation of Judah about Babylon coming and destroying the nation, burning down the city where God's judgment would fall upon that nation and they would be taken into captivity by the Babylonians, God will often refer this as a woman in travail, that the people, the men there, the leadership will be like a woman in travail. For example, in Jeremiah chapter 6, verse number 23, it says they shall lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel and have no mercy, their voice roarth like the sea, and they ride upon horses set in array as men of war against thee, oh daughter of Zion. We have heard the fame thereof, our hands wax feeble, anguish have taken hold of us and pain as a woman in travail. So the daughter of Zion, the people that live in Jerusalem, the people that make up Judah are like these women in travail to give birth because they're about to be taken over by a new power in the land, the power of Babylon. And when you go through the book of Jeremiah, you know, almost every single time about the woman in travail is about Judah being concerned about the Babylonians taking power over them. And then when you get to the end of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 50, it comes up again, but this time it's Babylon, it's Babylon that's in travail, it's Babylon that's suffering like a woman about to give birth because they're going to be taken over by another power, which is the Medo-Persian empire. I'll quickly read that to you in Jeremiah 50 verse 42, in fact it's almost word for word the same as what we read there in Jeremiah 6 23, but in Jeremiah 50 42 it says, and they shall hold the bow and the lance, they are cruel and will not show mercy, their voice shall roar like the sea and they shall ride upon horses, everyone put in array like a man to the battle against thee, O daughter of Babylon, before it was the daughter of Zion, now it's the daughter of Babylon, the king of Babylon have heard the report of them, that's the Medo-Persian empire and his hands waxed feeble, anguish took hold of him and pangs as a woman in travail. And so once again, now Babylon is worried, they're concerned about they're going to be taken over by the Medo-Persian empire. And so when we go back to Psalm 48 and we look at the kings on the earth, why are they troubled? Why are they in pain like a woman in travail? It's because another power has taken over them, that's why. If we just use it the way the Bible uses it, Jerusalem being worried about Babylon, Babylon worried about the Medo-Persian empire and now the kings of the earth worried about this new kingdom that Jesus Christ has set up on this earth. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is going to rule and reign, he's going to rule with a rod of iron, you know these kings better shape up, these kings better get their nations right, you know fearing God, serving Jesus Christ or there's going to be a price to be paid. Back to Psalm 48 please, verse number 7, Psalm 48 and verse number 7, it says thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. Now I don't know whether there's going to be an attempt to overthrow Jesus once he sets up his kingdom, you know, it might sound that way that perhaps there's going to be like a navy attempt, you know, a ship's attempt to take over Jesus Christ and the Lord just sends a strong east wind and destroys those ships potentially or is it just speaking hypothetically that if they did try that God could just wipe them out with an east wind, I'm not entirely sure. But if you can please turn to Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah chapter 2 and verse number 1, Isaiah chapter number 2 and verse number 1 please, Isaiah chapter 2 and verse number 1, we see something else that takes place here during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Isaiah chapter 2 verse number 1 reads, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem and it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, that sounds like Mount Zion come to me and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So where is Jesus Christ ruling from? Jerusalem. You know the teaching of God's law is coming out of Jerusalem and so the other nations are sending their people, go and listen to what Jesus Christ has to say, you know. Let's keep going there, verse number 4. And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore, oh house of Jacob come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. And so this is definitely about Christ's millennial reign. Why is this not about the new heavens and new earth? Because the Lord is rebuking people. Once the new heavens and new earth, brethren, I establish there's no more death, there's no more sin, there's no more rebellion against the Lord God. This is still a time when people need to learn the laws of God. So this is definitely about Christ's millennial reign and where is he reigning from? Jerusalem, also mentioned as Zion there in Isaiah chapter number 2. Alright back to Psalm 48 please, Psalm 48 and verse number 8. Psalm 48 and verse number 8. Which reads, and we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, God will establish it forever, Selah. So this is the part that I want you to keep in your mind, that the Old Testament teaching on the latter days, on the end times, again can sometimes be a little bit merged, can sometimes not be as clear as the New Testament is. So is this city of God going to continue forever? In one sense it will because it says God will establish it forever, but you need to understand what is God establishing exactly because we know that new Jerusalem from heaven will descend from heaven when God creates new heavens and new earth. Which is a different city. It's a city which is completely built by our Lord God. But I want you to read just a quick passage to you in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 24. I'll just read it to you which reads, then cometh the end when he, speaking of Jesus, shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. You see, once Jesus Christ rules for a thousand years, he's going to conquer the entire earth, all powers, all authorities, and then at the end of that thousand years, God gives the kingdom to the Father. The Father establishes the new heaven and the new earth. And so it is a change, it's a new heaven, new earth, but it's a continuation of the same kingdom, Christ giving that kingdom over to the Father. Christ's millennial kingdom doesn't really end, it just continues into the new heavens and the new earth. And I've told you this in the past, I don't know if you recall this, but I want to quickly read to you from Matthew 13, 33, which says, another parable spake he unto them, the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in free measures of meal till the whole was leavened. So when you think about making bread, and you think about a bread being leavened, right, you mix the yeast in with the flour, with the meal, and you can see as the leaven does its job, the bread starts to rise, doesn't it? The dough starts, whether you put it in the oven before you do that, or if you put it in the oven, you're going to start to see that bread rise. And so the parable that Jesus speaks about is that the kingdom of God is similar. You've got free measures of meal, and you're going to see it develop over time, as it were three steps. I've taught this in the past, just a quick summary, you know, the kingdom of the Lord is here today in a spiritual sense. The moment you get saved, you enter into the kingdom of God, okay? It's here in a spiritual sense. But when Christ comes, that kingdom is going to be here in a very physical sense, right? That first measure represents the existing state that we are in today, okay? The millennial state where Christ rules is that second measure, and the third measure of that meal as it rises with the leaven, is the eternal state, okay? So you've got this progressive development of the kingdom of God as it continues to grow. All right, back to Psalm 48, please, Psalm 48, verse number 9. Psalm 48 and verse number 9. It says, we have thought of thy loving kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Isn't that interesting? Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. You know when Christ rules in the millennium with his rod of iron, and he passes judgments, and you know, you see the wicked destroy, you see the criminals being punished for what they've done, like the right punishment for the crime they've committed, it says the daughters of Jerusalem or the daughters of Judah are going to be glad. There's going to be rejoicing at God's hands of his judgments during this millennial reign, okay? Which is amazing because right now we're kind of rejoicing God's mercy. We rejoice in God's grace, which is wonderful, but when Christ comes, that second coming, we're going to be rejoicing when he passes judgment, we're going to be rejoicing when we see the wicked being judged in accordance to God's word. That's why it says in verse 11, let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Now please go to Isaiah 61, this one's important for you to turn to. Please turn to Isaiah chapter 61, Isaiah chapter 61, because I want to show you, I don't know if I proved that clearly that old Jerusalem, this current Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, and when Christ comes back he's going to rebuild that Jerusalem, okay? We can definitely, you know, rivers of waters flowing out, of living waters flowing out of that city, et cetera, but if you look at Isaiah 61 verse number 1. Now we're going to read some very familiar words that we read about in Luke chapter 4. You may recall there was one Sabbath where Jesus Christ went into the synagogue and he opened up to the book of Isaiah and read some words. We're going to read those words here, and let me show you how sometimes the Old Testament just merges, you know, the coming of Christ all together, okay? And again, we need the clarity of the New Testament to be able to differentiate at what point this is taking place. You know, Isaiah 61 verse 1, it reads, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Now of course, Isaiah is speaking here, you know, but we know in a very true sense this is about Jesus Christ, because as Christ reads these words, he's speaking about himself. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that abound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and then Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 4 closes the roll. He doesn't keep reading. Jesus Christ finishes right there. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And so what Jesus Christ was saying is that this is the acceptable year of the Lord when he came in his first coming, that he would preach glad tidings, that he would bind up the brokenhearted, that he'd give liberty to the captives, and he did all those things in his first coming. But notice that in the New Testament, you can compare this in Luke chapter 4 in your own time, but that's where he ends, but it hasn't ended, alright? The sentence has not ended in Isaiah 61, why? Because as we keep going through Isaiah 61, we're talking about Christ's second coming. Okay, let's keep going there. In verse number 2 it says, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, that doesn't sound like Christ's first coming, the day of vengeance, but we know the day of vengeance is coming. The day of the Lord when Christ comes and takes out the wicked, destroys the antichrist and establishes his kingdom. But let's keep reading there again, and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn. Now why are they mourning? To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, okay, so we know this is earthly Zion, we know this is earthly Jerusalem, to give unto them beauty for ashes. So when the armies surround Jerusalem, they're going to turn it into ashes. So what's God going to give them that are mourning? Beauty for ashes. The oil of joy for mourning, okay, they're mourning, God's going to give them joy. The garment of praise, for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness. Brethren, if you're saved, you are a tree of righteousness, you can see souls saved. These are about believers that are mourning this time where Jerusalem has been destroyed on this earth. It says the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified, look at verse number 4, and they shall build the old wastes, they shall rise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And so notice there, when God is comforting those that are mourning Zion, he says yeah we'll turn the ashes into, what is it, ashes into beauty, okay, and this makes complete sense when we're reading there in Psalm 48, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth. You know, when I see pictures of Jerusalem, I just think, just look to me, maybe there's something wrong with me, I don't know, but it just looks like an average Middle East city. Like it doesn't look special to me, like it doesn't look like man, what a great city this is. I don't know if you get that impression when you look at pictures of earthly Jerusalem, okay. You know, many people, you know, many Christians seem to love, it's going to be turned to ashes, okay. God's going to allow that city to be completely wiped out, then when Christ comes to rule, he turns it into beauty, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, but only when Christ rules on the earth, that thousand years, okay. Not today, alright. If you, you know, if you wanted to, you know, bless me and buy me tickets to the Middle East to look at Jerusalem, well, I might go, it'd probably be interesting, but I know that's not the one that we're going to be ruling from anyway, okay. That's just going to be ultimately, you know, completely destroyed, alright. There's a greater Zion that we're looking forward to, yes, when Christ rules in the thousand years, and of course, yes, when the Lord God brings down heavenly Jerusalem from heaven, okay. But this Psalm is about the millennium, alright. So I wanted to show you that in the millennium, they're going to rebuild the wasted cities, and one of those wasted cities that we read back here is Zion, is Jerusalem, okay. Alright, now let's keep going there, back to Psalm 48, verse number 12. Psalm 48, verse number 12. It says, walk about Zion, and go round about her, till the towers are off. So it's going to be a beautiful city. It's going to be a city that you want to go and, you know, as a tourist, just check out, just to look at the towers, look at the buildings, right. And people go on holidays to certain places, certain cities, often like to take pictures of, you know, historical buildings, and go, man, look at this building, it's wonderful. You know, people are going to be talking about the towers of Jerusalem during the reign of Christ. It says in verse number 13, mark ye well her bulwarks, bulwarks is like defensive walls. Consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following. This is going to be the talk of the earth, about this wonderful Jerusalem where Jesus Christ is ruling from. And I love how verse number 14 ends, because just in case we get carried away with this wonderful city, and it is going to be wonderful, let's not forget verse number 14, for this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide, even unto death, okay. This is wonderful, because yes, look at the city, it's amazing, it's wonderful, but when they look at Jesus Christ ruling from that city, they're going to say, for this is our God, you know, forever and ever, he will be our guide, even unto death. You know, we're not going to be afraid, the gospel of Jesus Christ is going to be proclaimed throughout the entire world. Are there going to be some people that reject Jesus? Of course there will be, it's always that case. You know, even in his first coming, when Jesus Christ came, he performed amazing miracles, and they hated him for it. You know, even in the millennium, they're going to be, you know, it's hard to understand, I find it hard to believe, I guess because I'm saved. Even Christ comes, you know, from heaven, on a white horse, destroys the antichrist, rebuilds the cities that are destroyed, right. We have peace and prosperity in the millennium, we're ruling with righteousness, and people on the earth with their sinful nature are still going to turn against the Lord, okay. And this is why we know at the end of the millennium, Satan gets loose, and he's able to, you know, have that battle of Gog and Magog finally, you know, and the numbers are going to be like the numbers of sand, the Bible tells us, right. There's going to be a great number of people that actually harbored, you know, in their hearts, harbored in their hearts, you know, great disdain toward Jesus Christ. Maybe on the outward they just served, you know, as a woman in travail, we've got to serve Jesus, but really, they weren't there, they didn't love Jesus Christ, they did not receive the gospel of salvation, which is hard for us to believe. But that even happens there in the millennium, okay. For this is our God, for this God is our God forever and ever, he will be our guide even unto death. So there won't be a fear of death, we know, well, you know, not for us anyway, because we're going to have a new resurrected bodies, but for those that go into the millennium in their mortal bodies, we know they're going to live a longer period, but there still will be death during that time. Alright, brethren, let's go to a word of prayer.