The Battle for the Church

Brother, you've seen words like that and then it brought me to the pulpit. That fired me up. A man can't preach after singing that song and he needs to go back to Oklahoma, right? First of all, I want to say thank you to Grace Life Church, Brookhaven, for spoiling me absolutely rotten. I told in a thread with your pastor and Pastor Noblet and Sims and Jason Johns, I said, "I'm going to be called the Brookhaven brat after you guys get down and spoil me and the gifts in our room and taking care of us so well and loving on us and words of encouragement." You know what the difference between Grace Life Church Brookhaven and Grace Life Church prior is?

600 miles. It's the truth. Same spirit is here. Same sweet communion of the saints is here. The desire for godliness is here. The only difference is between the church where I serve and the church you're in is the mileage. Here's the reason because the Word of God is being used by the Spirit of God to transform us to the likeness of the Son of God. There's a family resemblance. Doesn't matter if you're in Mississippi where there's alligators or in Oklahoma where there's tornadoes. The people of God are the people of God. The verse by verse exposition of the Word of God transforms us to be more like Christ.

It makes me want to preach my sermon I'll prepare for my church for next Sunday out of Ephesians 4 and it's the marks of an expository pulpit. I'm in Ephesians 4 that God has set pastors and teachers in the church to conform us to the likeness of Christ and he there delineates the fruit of a pastor-teacher ministry and that we would be no more children tossed to and fro, that we mature, that we grow up and that we become more like the Son of God. It's such a rich passage but it's just so true and it just made me think about that.

Just the sweet fellowship, the friendly people, the words of encouragement just to visit with some of you brothers. Man, it's just a treasure what you have here. Do not take it for granted. And some of you know because you're new here that you can't find what you have here in very many places. And God is shining in this body of believers upon this local church in a very extraordinary way. And brother I would say that the likeness between our churches is not because we're affiliated with anchor and truth. We're affiliated with anchor and truth because we've been made like one another by the Spirit through the work of the Word of God.

It's not some associational conformity. We're not trying to conform to anchor and truth. We're conformed to Grace Life Church and Muscle Shoals. We just simply fit because the Word is doing that work in us and that we're all being changed and that's what the likeness is being brought about by. So again I just want to say to each one of you thank you for your kindness, your generosity, your sweet spirits, the lords that work in this church and I'm so excited to go back and tell the saints in prior Oklahoma the powerful work of God in Brookhaven. Take your Bible and turn with me to the 84th Psalm once again.

This morning we looked at verses 1 through 4 and the title of the message was the beauty of the Lord's church and what is the cause of the beauty? That we are connected with the head who is the fairest of ten thousands. That we are His blood-bought people and dwelled by His Holy Spirit sealed and set apart for God. He's transforming us. But the church is beautiful. Now I know that the world doesn't see that because their minds have been blinded by Satan. They believe the lie.

But the truth of the matter is for those that have been made alive by the Holy Spirit's power and work, the church is beautiful and the church is beautiful in the eyes of Christ. I love the final stanza of that song that we just sang. It's so, so true. Tonight I'm going to take a look at verse 5 through 7 and I want to talk about the battle for the church. Not the battle in the church but the battle for the church. Let's take a look at it. Take your eyes and feast them on verse 5. This is the inspired, authoritative, sufficient, infallible word of our triune God.

How blessed is the man whose strength is in you and whose heart are the highways to Zion, passing through the valley of Baka. They make it a spring. The early rain also wraps it up the blessings. They go from strength to strength. Each one of them appears before God in Zion. This ends the reading of the word of the Lord. Pray for me as I pray for you. Lord I just ask that tonight that you would work mightily to the glory and renown of Christ.

That the Holy Spirit of God that has been given to us for the purpose of bringing honor and glory to the Christ of God would use this text that's been breathed out by our God to transform us, to sanctify us, to conform us to Jesus Christ. Lord I'm thankful for this Sunday evening crowd. What a wonderful showing. What a wonderful faithful group of Christian men and women and children. The Lord unless your spirit works mightily in our hearts. Unless you speak to us powerfully through your word. Unless you demonstrate the greatness of your might it's all in vain. But I have nothing to give. You're the source of life.

You are the one that saves, sanctifies and glorifies. So Lord our hope and trust is in you. Open up our eyes to behold wonderful things in your word. Give us teachable hearts and spirits. Give us joy in the listening to the word of our God. Lord most of all and we all agree we want Christ to be honored. We ask it in his precious saving name. The church said the battle for the Lord's church. It's worth fighting. It's not always easy is it? Let me just give you some examples because if you're like a lot of families in the church and I've been pastoring for three decades and so I see this.

The road to Sunday and Wednesday worship is uniquely challenged for us isn't it? Preparing for church and coming to church is not as much Norman Rockwell Bliss as it is Norman Schwarzkopf Embattlement. So those of you that smiled on that know Norman Schwarzkopf was the general of the United States Army that led our army to victory in Desert Storm. That getting ready for church is sometimes like a battle. Sometimes and somewhere between going to bed, getting up in the morning and having breakfast and getting the grill cream for the little boy's hair and getting your Bibles and getting into the Buick.

Sometimes our great intentions are stifled by grand frustrations. Usually it's discovered on Sunday morning that cereal box is empty. The milk jug has been drained on Saturday night. The laundry has not been done. The shampoo bottle is empty. On Sunday morning it seems that the kids are more lethargic than usual. The tempers become more short. And I hate to say this but it is true that sometimes the dog messes on the floor on Sunday morning. And all of a sudden the prospect of going to church begins to lose its luster. And we start surfacing questions like this. Is it all worth the hassle? Is it worth the hassle?

And then we have the confrontation of those warm blankets and that soft pedal that begins to inviting prophesy to us saying come to me all of you who are weary and frustrated and I will give you rest. I'm sure this is a reoccurring reality for so many in the church. Brothers and sisters, Satan's most effective weapons are aimed at the critical grace of the local church in your life and in mine. If he can convince you that a day outside of God's courts is better than a day inside them, he's already won the battle. Let me say that again.

If the enemy can convince you that a day outside of God's courts is better than a day inside God's courts, then Satan's already won that fight. I mentioned John 844 this morning where Jesus says that the devil is a liar and the father of all eyes. He can't and does not speak the truth because the truth is not in him. Listen boy, for the Christian, for those that have been rescued from our wickedness, saved by God's sovereign grace, the local church is a non-negotiable. The church is the outpost of heaven on earth. The church is the tangible or the visible token of Christ's kingdom on earth.

Previously, this morning we looked at the verse 1 through 4 and we saw that the psalmist has announced the loveliness of the dwelling place of God. We know that he's been displaced from the house of God, but his heart yearns. He said, "My heart loans." There's a sense by which he's panting, he's desiring in his heart to be in the presence of God with the redeemed, but he's been providentially prevented.

As we talked this morning that David, if David is indeed the author here and if it is indeed the circumstance by which he's fleeing from his own son Absalom, we see that he is underneath exigent circumstances removed from the beloved tabernacle, but his heart and his affections are there. The text that we're looking at tonight in verse 5, 6 and 7 is talking about his trek back to Jerusalem, about this exuberant return to the house of God.

It's the love that he has for the church, it's the love that he has for the presence of God, it's the love and the loaning that he has to be in worship with the congregation that's motivating his feet to move him back in that direction. What we find in this pericope is that the trip back to Jerusalem is arduous, that there's a lot of difficulties along the way, and that these difficulties cannot be circumvented, they must be navigated. And think about this and how this applies to us as we trek to the Lord's house.

And I think that there is a powerful truth here that's helpful for Christian people as they're facing hardship in their journey to the house of the Lord. Now I will just say this by way of argumentation, there are some that take this text to be more of an overview of the Christian life in the journey that we have day in and day out to the celestial city as Pilgrim's Progress would detail in that allegory with Bunyan's little book. But I don't think that's the case at all. I think that this is more specific, I believe that this is detailing and giving to us some truths about our day in and day out fight to be faithful in the local church.

Michael Wilcock in the Bible Speaks Today commentary series writes, "This pilgrimage," talking about verse 5, 6 and 7, "needs to mean nothing more exotic than regular church going, a determination not to give up the meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, being seduced by the modern cult of individualism, leisure, mobility, and the lack of commitment." So what was this commentator saying? He's saying that you should not read this text to mean something that is more outlandish than what God intends for it to be.

This is talking about, is talking forward, eschatologically into the future, into the church age which we are in today and to the day in and day out faithfulness to God and going to the house of the Lord and that's what this pattern is for us. Some features about our text. I want you to note first of all the road to the house of God, the road to the church is an embellished road. You all know what the word embellished means, beautiful, right? You go into a home like your pastor's, I went there last night, it's embellished, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful place like this building, it's embellished, it's beautiful.

And so the Psalmist here wants us to capture how beautiful the church is in verses 1 through 4, he has already spoken about the church being the object of the love and the affection of Christ, the church is the object of the redemptive purpose and grace of Christ, she will be the aim of his return. He's coming back for the church, even so come quickly, Lord, right? So the road back to the house of the Lord is embellished, it's beautiful, it's characterized with so many blessings. Note in verse 5 with me, we're talking about how the road to God's house is embellished and the text tells us that it's a happy road.

How blessed is the man whose strength is in you and whose heart are the highways to Zion. The Hebrew word here behind the translated word blessed is the word happiness. I believe it's the Hebrew word, "Oz." Happy, but you know what, the enemy is at work to try to convince you and I otherwise, isn't he? But yet the word of the Lord here in our text tells us that the man that is embarked upon the road that travels to the house of the Lord is happy, that this man's heart is filled with joy, his feet are becoming lighter and lighter as he is trekking towards the house of the Lord.

So it would say in Psalm 122 verse 1, "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of Yahweh.'" Or the Lord. But listen, there's joy and obedience, isn't there? There's misery, well if you're a believer, there's misery and disobedience. Have you ever sinned against the Lord and you're just miserable? That your heart's just heavy and you're sorrowing within and you confess your sins and you cry out to the Lord for mercy and he's faithful to cleanse you, but there is joy in obeying God and there's misery in disobeying God. But here it says, "The man whose feet are pointed towards Zion is happy." Happy.

That leads me to this truth that the Lord's not a cruel taskmaster, is he? Psalm 23 says that he's a what? He's a kind and a gentle shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He leads me beside still waters and greens pastures. He's restoring my soul. He's leading me in paths of righteousness for his name sake. This is this emblematic of this glorious, kind shepherd that we serve. In fact, John 10, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep." There's joy in coming to the house of the Lord because of the goodness of God.

But the Lord leads us, he doesn't coerce us, he feeds us, he never forces us, he protects us, he never prevents us, he loves us and he never leaves us. Quoted this morning in the Song of Songs, chapter 5, verse 10, that Jesus is the fairest of ten thousand. Beloved, we've got to be careful that we don't believe the lies of the enemy, that there's happiness outside of the will of God for your life. The fact of the matter is, it's impossible to find happiness outside of the purpose of God if you're a believer. We know the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. They're thieves. They're robbers.

That we cannot attain joy, true joy. We cannot be filled with the happiness that comes from God if we're in pursuit of this present world, if we're trying to gratify the lust or the desires of this world and the lust of our flesh, the pride of life. Here the inspired word tells us the feet that are on the road to Zion are happy and blessed. These are the ones, those hearts have been captured by God. John Calvin, the Geneva reformer writes, "Those are happy who walk in the way which God has appointed." Happy. So, we see here that it's a happy road. This is all part of this embellishment. The road to the house of God is an embellished road.

It's happy, but it's also secure. Verse 5 says, "How blessed or happy is the man whose strength is in you." His strength is in you. Those who are purposely aimed, those that are committed to serving God in the context of his local church are divinely strengthened by God. That there's a strength or a vigor that's given here that's otherwise unknown. The word literally translates out of the Hebrew language power or might or strong or ramparts. Now listen, don't miss the context here. The power of God is found for the journey that lays ahead of us.

That is, with every step that we take in the direction towards the courts of the Lord, that there's power and might found that God blesses, that God strengthens, that God enables, that our feet become lighter, our steps become shorter. Verse 7, look at it. They go from strength to strength, setting your heart like a flint. Now I'll get into this in just a moment. It says, "In whose heart are the highways designed." It's a spiritual thing. It's a divine work that God has done something in our life that the road to Zion is something that's been written on our hearts.

We all know what this is like from our own experience because oftentimes on Sunday morning it's ground zero. I had kids. I would get up early in the morning and to be at the church very early and my kids were little ones and it seemed like all havoc would break loose in the melting house. But yet we set our hearts to obey God. We set our faces like a flint to get to worship. And listen, and there was a strength. There was an unseen divine ability that God helped us and propelled our stride every step of the way that the Lord helped, that the Lord strengthened, that the Lord enabled. We understand what it's like.

I think sometimes our young families at Grace Life, like you don't know what it's like to get kids ready. I'm like, "Are you kidding me?" Not only did I raise two of my own biological. I kept dragging home troubled teenagers off the streets. My poor blessed wife. I would come home from the midnight shift and I might have one kid underneath them. Look what I found. These kids ain't got anywhere to live. There's a bedroom right down there just making a pile on the floor. And we might have those kids for years. Man we're getting those kids up and they're eating up all the post toasties. My kids ain't got nothing to eat.

The milk's been drained down by some kid that got up at two o'clock in the morning and was hungry and he went to the refrigerator and popped the top and drank the whole gallon up. I know what it's like, but listen, it's not optional. We're going to the house of God. We're going to church. I didn't sleep last night. I don't care. You could take a nap this afternoon. But as we are setting our face like a flint to honor the Lord, to see the beauty of the Lord in the context of His church, that our hearts have been changed by God and we were fixed upon the things that were given to us by our God and the Lord has given strength. He just helped us.

One commentator wrote this, "We would expect to read that with every passing day the pilgrims grew more and more weary until finally their strength was depleted, not so. In fact, just the opposite was the case. The closer the pilgrims got to Jerusalem, the stronger they became. Their love for worship was so great that the mere anticipation of it had an energizing effect upon them." And I would say that they were strengthened by the Lord as our text tells us. They were helped by God. Their strength is in our triune God. The strength that they received is something that God imparted to their hearts.

Isaiah will prophesy in Isaiah 40, 31, "Yet those who hope in the Lord will gain new power. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary." Listen, beloved, you can never get out and walk on water to get out of the boat. And sometimes in the midst of chaos on Sunday morning, in the midst of everything going wrong, the midst of the kids getting into a spat, in the midst of the hair sticking up everywhere and nothing to eat, listen, we set our heart upon the highway to Zion and that we get our feet in the path and we honor the Lord.

And listen, as we are stepping out in faith and being obedient, the Lord multiplies our strength. So many people never tap into this because they let the circumstances of life deflate them and to keep them in this gutter for the rest of their lives. They run into hardship and the first thing they do is they stay home and veg out. And they don't expect, they don't experience the glorious power of God at work in the believer's life when it sets his heart like a flint to honor and to glorify and to worship God in the context of a local church and that the Lord blesses, strengthen and help them.

The third thing I want to point out in verse 5 is that it is a non-negotiable road. Look what it says, "In whose heart are the highways to Zion." If you have the NIV translation tonight, you will read it says, "Whose hearts are set on pilgrimage." Pastor, what's the ESV say? Yeah. This is so important and I have to ask the question, is our heart set this way? Is our heart set this way? The strength for and the happiness found in the journey is driven by this one principle, their hearts are set on the pilgrimage. Listen, the Psalmist is seeing the beauty of the dwelling place of Yahweh.

He's already told us that my soul longs and even faints for you. And to be in the throng of the happy and worshipful people of our God is not optional to this dear man. That the highway to Zion was something that God had done in his heart. That he had holy and renewed affections for the glory of God in his church. And that the difficulty of the road, the difficulty of the obstacles that were there was overcome by the love of where that road would lead. Is that highway in our hearts? Does the road to Zion run through your heart? Has God done a work in you in so much that you see the glory of the Lord in the context of his church?

Are our affections united to Christ in his church? Is that there are love in you and I for the glory of God in his church? Listen, there has to be new affections. There has to be a work of God that he does in your heart because just duty will not get it done. What I mean by duty, external duty that we're just going through the motions and we're doing it simply because it's the right thing to do. Listen, this is talking about having God given renewed sanctified affections for his glory in his church that capture your heart in so much that the highway to Zion runs through your heart.

That your soul is burdened, that your soul loves God and you love the local church because she is his prized possession. Paul, when he's writing to the Ephesians, would burst into the Rhapsody of Praise and he would say in Ephesians 3, 21, "To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." So for faithful Christians like you, the road to Zion, the road to the church is a non-negotiable road. Our hearts are there. Our hearts belong to Christ.

The local church has been won by the vicarious sufferings of Christ, the bloodshed of Jesus and because of that we long to be there, my heart and my flesh cry out. The highway to Zion runs through my heart is something that God has done. It's not simply the preacher making demands, it's God at work in my life. I love the dwelling place of God. It's something that I can't explain. It's something that's come down from heaven. It's something that God has formed on the inside of me. It's non-negotiable for me and my kids and my wife and my whole family that we are going, if it's snowing we are going. If there's a snotty nose, we are going.

We're facing all kinds of problems. Our roots are going down into Christ and that we're looking unto Him, the author and finisher of our faith and He's strengthening us and that we're going to have these holy affections satisfied. We must go be with God's people. It's a heart issue. It's a heart issue. The highway to Zion must run through the heart of the believer. So the road to the house of God is an embellished road but look at verse 6, it's also an embattled road. It's an embattled road. Passing through the valley of vodka, they make it a spring. The early rain also wraps it up with blessings. They go from strength to strength.

Each one of them appears before God in Zion. Listen, just because we have a heart passion for the local church, the highway to Zion cut right through our heart. Renewed holy affections. God at work in our lives giving us a glorious love for His church. That does not mean the road to Zion is cleared of all of its obstacles, all of its frustrations, obstructions because here we see, especially in verse 6, the journey back to Jerusalem, the journey back to the house of the Lord was very difficult. One of the stanzas of the greatest hymn ever written, I think is amazing grace through many dangers, tolls and snares, I have already come.

And I want you to remember the context here of Psalm 84, now starting in verse 5 and through verse 7 is journeying back. He's been displaced providentially. He's been running for his life. He's been in witness protection but his heart so longs that he's going to go back. He's got to get back. The road to Zion is right through his heart. He's got to go back so this captures the journey to the house of God. And by the way, it wasn't a downhill coast.

I'm sure that you've been taught and that you know that the Psalms of Ascent will be the Psalms that would be sang by the pilgrims as they would go back to Jerusalem for the feasts to honor and obey God. And that all of the roads that led to city were all uphill. That's why they call them Psalms of Ascent. You're walking, you're going uphill all the way and you're singing the songs of Zion. So here we see in this that it was not a downhill coast for him to go back. It was not easy. It was uphill.

But here we've got to understand that the presence of holy longings, the fact that God has indeed cut a highway to Zion through a heart does not imply that there are no hardships along the way. In fact the matter is that whenever you set your face like a flint to get to the house of our God that war breaks out on some front. Some tragedy strikes, some situation arises, some bad news comes, some hindrance will obscure. And I know, I mean you all are people. You've experienced this. Right? Or am I the only guy? So we see here in verse 6 that the road to the church can be difficult. And through the valley of Baka.

That the road to worship, the way back to Jerusalem, to the house of God passed through this valley of Baka. And I know you're going, "What?" Exegetes and scholars are kind of split on what it means. The Hebrew word here for Baka can either mean a valley of weeping or balsam trees. And for those of you that understand horticulture, balsam trees grow in super arid, waterless places. And that implies that there is a challenge or a difficulty in returning to God's house. You're going through a dry place. The highway to Zion is cut to the heart. That's to be sure. That there are affections for God's glory in His church bulging in our chest.

That's sure. That's true. There's anticipation as we take each step. That is true. But then all of a sudden we descend into the valley of Baka and there's no avoiding it. And whether it's a dry place, which I believe that it is, or if it just simply means a valley of weeping, I think at the end of the day the meaning is either exactly the same or similar. It means that all of a sudden things have become extraordinarily difficult. You feel like you have a hundred pounds tied to each one of your legs. The way becomes obscured. The way becomes troubled. The slope becomes steep and arduous.

As I mentioned, I am more inclined to interpret Baka as a dry place, a place that all the moisture has evaporated, a place that is tremendously arid. And the reason that I interpret it that way is by the next statements. They make it a spring and the early rain wraps it up with blessings. Here we have two instances of water, a spring and then an early rain. So I think that the interpretation of Baka being a very, very dry place is probably accurate. Even in the Christian life, my friends, we have moments where we go through dry places. Spiritual droughts, seasons where even our own hearts become dry.

The usual, the ordinary rivers of grace seem to be dried up. The normative experience of the conscious presence of God seems to be evaporated and the Puritans called these spiritual desertions. It doesn't mean that God left them. It means that their sense or awareness of God has left them. And by the way, the Puritans wrote books, let me give you some titles. Spiritual desertions by Gilbertus Velitis and Johannes Hornabeek. Spiritual desertions discovered and remedied by Samuel Willard and then the case and cure of a deserted soul by Joseph Simons.

I've read a couple of those and they're extraordinarily helpful because I've been through these seasons. The Puritans believed that this was all part of God's way of maturing saints. It's not that God had forsaken or abandoned His people. It's just simply a season where their awareness of the closeness of God seemed to be for a season to be obstructed. In other words, it was a valley of Baka for them, a dry place. This is a critically important truth because it's not always easy to get to church.

There's times where you've got to go through a valley of Baka that you just don't feel like going to where the kids are not getting along, to where there's been a war on Sunday morning, that providential circumstances have come and zapped you of the moisture in your soul and that you feel like you're in the valley of Baka. Listen, the highway to Zion oftentimes goes through that valley. That's what I'm talking about in this message, the battle for the church that we must be willing to keep on going because it is difficult at times. That there is a lot of things out there that are vying for your affections.

There's a lot of things out there that is trying to drain you of your spiritual strength and energy and that the way of God even at times leads you through these seasons, through this valley of Baka, through these extraordinarily dry places and it just don't feel like going. It's amazing what the text teaches us here, that it's not always easy to go to church. It can be a battle. And I believe that that is clearly the point being made, that the highway to Zion passes right through the valley of Baka. You can't avoid it. You can't get around it. There are dry places for Christian people like you and me to navigate.

There are tears that we have to wipe away. There are disordered desires that we have to crucify. As Iclar Ferguson once said, "The entirety of the Christian life is about crucifying those disordered desires." There are also holy passions that need to be stirred and need to be stimulated. And so the highway to Zion is not as smooth as we think it ought to be. It's not as unobstructed as the way that we think it should be. But I want you to know that the Christian does not end his journey in Zion in defeat. Go to what the text says, "They make it a spring." Another way to render this is they dig a spring.

The King James says they make it a well, i.e. they dig a well. That is this, that they will not allow a drought or a tear or a hardship to keep them from the house of the Lord. Listen, they do what it takes to replenish themselves for the journey ahead. Yeah, it's dry. Yes, they've run out of water. Yes, through many dangers and toils and snares, it's hard, but they stop and they dig a well. They do what it takes to get the moisture, to get the help that they need to keep on going because of the importance of the trek, because of the glory of the objective in sight that they dig a well right there in the valley of Baca. They dig a spring.

That is that a drought, a weeping eye, a broken heart will not keep us from what our hearts are fixed upon. We have the highways of Zion cut right through our heart. And even though we are going through the valley of the shadow of death, even though the journey to Jerusalem, even though the way to the house of God goes right through the valley of Baca where there is a drought, to where there is hardship, to where there are obstacles, that by the grace of God we dig a well. We do what it takes to get the life giving, the strength enabling grace of God to keep on going in the journey right through that valley.

We need moisture and the Lord provides it, but we've got to dig the well. Man what a great truth, isn't it? Matthew Henry the Old Puritan says, "Difficulties in the way of duty are designed to try our resolutions." Don't you know beloved that the Lord will indeed put His people to the test? He's not tempting us with evil, that's not what I'm saying. The Lord is going to put us in a situation to where the veracity of our faith is proven.

That He'll lead us into the valley of Baca, that the Lord will bring us to a dry and a barren place and here it says that the Godly people, those that belong to the Lord will dig a well, that they will get what they need to continue on the journey because of the importance of the trek that they're on, because of the glory of the one that is demonstrated in Zion that they're going to keep on going. I want you to know that the road to the church not only is it difficult but it's also delightful. The early rain also wraps it up with blessings, I'm at the end of verse 6 there.

I don't know if you mark in your Bible, man this is a good place to put some underlines and some highlights because there's going to be a Sunday morning come up and probably pretty soon to where it's going to be difficult. It's going to be a hard day for you and you're going to need to remember what Pastor Derek taught during our revival and awakening services. The Lord will give me provision but I've got to get my shovel out and start digging down. I've got to go to my knees in prayer and start crying out for God's grace. I've got to pray for rivers of living water to come to me through the Lord Jesus Christ and His word.

I've got to get on my knees in prayer in the midst of this hardship. I've got to get my Bible open at 5.30 in the morning on Sunday morning and confront this situation and do what's right for the glory of God because Zion is important. The glory of God put on display there is critical to my life and I've got to dig. I've got to do what God's asking me to do. I've got to go after God. I've got to lay hold of Him and the garment of Christ and the strength I need for the journey that lays in front of me and the difficulty that I'm facing at this moment in my life. There are times my friend when we have to sing our way through our sorrows.

We simply have to take our eyes off the valley of Vodka and put them on the glories of Zion. Putting our eyes on the house of the living God. Digging well in that barren valley. But here we see that there's also times when God opens up the heavens and He rains down blessings on us as we're journeying onward. The early rain comes as we make our way through the valley of Vodka that God opens up the heavens. Now listen Precious Saint, all too often Vodka precedes blessings. So many people miss out on the blessings because they will not traverse Vodka. They will not be found faithful in the barren places.

Here I believe the text teaches us that we're to be faithful even in the dry places in the Christian life. Because it's then and only then that God will open up the heavens. We're talking about renewal and revival and refreshing. It's then and only then that God opens the heavens. So what is my plea with us? Press on faithful Saint. Are you dry? Are you in the valley of tears? Listen are you in a hard place? Has it been very difficult for you? Dig that well. Be faithful to God. Even when it's difficult, even when it's hard, even when obstacles are strewn in the path. Be faithful and then God opens up the heavens.

God ushers these glorious refreshing times in His presence and begins to pour out rain upon His people. The road to the house of the Lord is an embellished road. The road to the house of the Lord is an embattled road. And verse 7 teaches us the road to God's house is an empowered road. Look at it with me. They go from strength to strength. Each one of them appears before God in Zion. What a powerful text. They're not left to human strength for the journey. A lifetime of faithfulness to the house of God is not something that's meritorious. And the reason is it's been the hand of God that's carried us along the way from beginning to end.

Notice the promise of strength here as we're talking about the empowered road that they go from power to power, strength to strength. And I want you to remember the context that Thomas is talking about the trek to the house of God. He's come through these dry valleys. He's faced the troubles and the trials and the tests as he's continuing in his pilgrimage back to Zion. But what he cannot see is that the invisible hand of God has been at work lightening the load. What he cannot see is that the grace of God is at work enabling and empowering every step. Remember that the way to Zion is in the heart of the psalmist.

His deepest desire is to worship in Zion with the saints, to be with the worshipable people of God, to be in the very presence of God, to experience God in his dwelling place. No obstacle has deterred him, no dry place has choked him because his heart is set and because of this God gives him the victory from strength to strength. Precious brothers and sisters, any unfaithfulness in my life and yours is not because of negligence on the part of God. It's because of the problems that we have on the inside of us by way of disordered appetites, sinful preferences and uncrucified wicked desires. Never ceases to amaze me.

My wife will bear witness to this. We have some very large families in our church. We have a family, the dearest sweet Christian people you've ever met. They have 14 children. They just had a new baby. He's 45 years old and he's 50. They got a brand new baby. That makes number 14. They never miss church. Their kids, they take up an entire pew, our pews. We have one aisle down the middle, then you have these great big pews on both sides. They take up a complete pew and they go like this. Those kids sit quiet as a mouse. They listen. They take notes. Their hair is nice and combed. They're as clean as a whistle. They live in a two bedroom house.

Two of the older boys are out on their own. Mind you, that leaves 12 in the house. It's amazing to me how they never miss church. You know that there's difficulties with the post-toasties. You know that there's difficulties getting those kids ready. You know what? They set their hearts like a flint. They prepare the day before. Their whole week is aimed at the Lord's day on Sunday. And when they come in, they're so full of joy. The kids are well behaved. They're looking unto Christ. It just amazes me. How does that happen? They've got so many battles. They've got so many obstacles. But the answer is right here in our pericope.

In their hearts is the highway design. They love the dwelling place of the Lord. They delight in the courts of God. They make the valley of Baca a spring. There's times I'm sure where they're going to dig a well right there on Sunday morning when it's difficult. Maybe one of the kids is not feeling well or whatever it might be. They dig a well. The dry places do not deter them. They find water. They go from strength to strength. And they come week in, week out, every Sunday, every Wednesday, every opportunity that they have, every extracurricular activity, every witnessing event.

When we go out proclaiming the gospel, they bring their children, the little bitty ones. They push the babies in and they're there with a smile on their face. And why is that? How is that? Because there are others in our church that have no children and they don't show up at all. They've learned to dig for the water in the valley of Baca. The Lord strengthens them. They go from strength to strength.

And they're living by faith in the Son of God who loves them and has given himself for them and that the glory of God in the church and the faithfulness and the commitment to the Lord transcends every other opportunity that would frustrate them otherwise. Blows my mind. I love it. The Bible tells us that we are transformed from one glory to another as we behold the glory of Jesus Christ in the scriptures. We go from strength to strength. As we look to Christ, the author and finisher of faith, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, were strengthened. So here's my petition and my prayer. Set your sights on faithfulness to Jesus.

Make his visible kingdom, which is the church, your highest of priorities. Plow through my dear brother and sister. Plow through the valley of Baca and the Lord will strengthen you up on strength. He'll give you grace up on grace. Dig a well when it gets hard. Do what it takes to get the moisture to strengthen you for the trek. Whatever it takes in the valley of tears, whatever it takes in the hardship you're facing, whatever it takes in the obstacles that are set before you, you go after God. You get on your knees in prayer.

You go to the word of the Lord and say, "Lord, give me help and strength in this moment." And you'll go from strength to strength. You'll go from strength to strength. Plow right through it and the Lord will bless. And I know, beloved, it's difficult at times, but the glory of God put on display in his church is beautiful and is worth it. Finally, I want you to note the promise of security at the end of verse 7. Each one of them appears before God in Zion. Isn't it amazing? It says, "Each one of them." Each one of them what? Each one of them that follows the truth of Scripture here.

Each one of them that had the highways of Zion cut through their heart. Each one of them that passes through the valley of Baca that make it a spring. Each one of them that go from strength to strength. Each one of them appears before God in Zion. In fact, if you will look, if you have a new American standard or the legacy standard, you'll see that each one of them has been added by the translators.

It would literally read, "They go from strength to strength before God in Zion." It's amazing that each one of them on the road to Zion arrives safe and secure, that in this tract they behold the beauty of the Lord, Psalm 27 verse 4, coming to the house of God, beholding the glory of the Lord through the word made plain in preaching, being transformed, being changed by the Holy Spirit through the sanctifying water of the Word of God, that God is strengthening, that God is securing us along the way through the journey, and that the saint arrives at the place where God and man meet, arriving at the place where God's presence is manifested in a unique, spectacular way, and that the desire of his heart is satisfied in the presence of God alongside God's precious and redeemed people.

Amazing to me how the beauty of the Lord in verse 1 through 4 is set right beside the battle for the Lord's church. The beauty of the church is right there with the battle for the Lord's church. It's as if the Holy Spirit wants us to see that it is a battle, but it's worth it. The battle is necessary to test the validity of our holy desires. Whenever that battle breaks out on Saturday night, late at night, or Sunday morning that is early, I want you to remember it's nothing more than the Valley of Baca, a dry place or a place of tears. The Holy Spirit teaches us that we're to dig well.

Remember that strength is discovered in the midst of your weakness. Remember that you're simply passing through the Valley of Baca, but your home is the mountain of God in Zion. And so what would the encouragement be? Keep on going. Keep on being faithful. You'll go from strength to strength. You'll go from glory to glory. You'll go from one degree unto another as the Lord is at work conforming you to his own image. I don't know how this strikes your heart. That man that resonates with me. The battle for what's critically important in our lives.

The pressing on and the promise of God that you'll go from strength to strength as you're digging that well right there in the midst of tears, right there where you're hurting and your eyes are wet and you're gasping for breath. But Lord, I want to honor you with my life. I want to do what pleases you and you dig a well and you pray and you go to the Word and you cry out and the Lord strengthens you and he strengthens you as you step out.

Come on kids, we're going and you've got dirty faces and you've got noses that have got stuff crusted around them and you get the kids together and you go on to the house of the Lord and by the time you're home the Lord's given you strength and that you've been helped and that the Lord has been glorified in your life. And then you see the promise of God made true. That you've gone from strength to strength because the highway design's been cut right through your heart and that's been done by his grace and only by his grace. I pray this is helpful for you. I pray that it helps you as you're navigating baka yourself.

And don't think for a moment that you're going to get around baka because the highway design runs right through it. There's no getting around it. Some of you older saints are going, boy it's the truth. You're right? Boy that's the truth. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this powerful truth you revealed in the 80s.