Dr. Michael Youssef. inviting you to a very special place in God's Word. This is a messianic psalm. Because it is looking forward with longing and with expectations and with anticipation, the coming of God's Messiah who will bring even the enemies of God and the enemies of the people of God together to worship God.
And I believe this is partially fulfilled and will be completely fulfilled when we all get to heaven and we come to worship the Lord from every tongue and every nation and every race and every language. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Yusuf for another episode in his short, life-changing series. looking in several Messianic Psalms of the Bible. Places where the expectation and longing for the Messiah is clearly evident.
To day Psalm eighty seven.
Now before he begins, this quick reminder that Leading the Way has monthly special offers and featured resources. This month it's a prerelease offer for doctor Youssef's coming book. winning the invisible war. Visit ltw.org to get the details or call us and speak to a Leading the Way ministry representative. The number is eight six six.
six two six four three five six Now though, here is Dr. Michael Yousuf to begin his leading the way teaching from Psalm 87. History is really littered. where victims of those who bought into this idea of peace at any price. Peace at any price is always led.
to war has always led to pain, has always led to difficulties. Peace. Without the cost of grace. is not real peace. Whether we are talking about peace at home between husbands and wives, or peace in any relationship.
Oh, peace between communities, peace at work, peace. Even between nations. Peace at any price. can only lead to frustration. It can only lead to exasperation, it can only lead to resentment.
Because true peace can only be the result of grace. Peace that does not come from grace is not the peace that is worthy. of the name. True peace. Can only come from that unmerited Unearned And maybe, actually I should say, unworthily.
Love. Listen to me. I have lived long enough to see and listen to people enough to know that some people think that. Laziness and idleness will lead to peace. It doesn't.
Temporary acquiescence. It's not peace. Compromise and conformity is not peace. Until you understand the grace That comes From unmerited Unearned love, there can be no peace, real peace. Part of the reason why we don't have peace in our homes and communities and in churches and in our culture at large.
The reason we don't have peace in family relationships is because We have ceased to think Biblically. We do not think biblically anymore. Thanks to Hollywood and the television, we have been more impacted by the metaphysical teaching than by Bible teaching. And metaphysical, listen to me, beloved, metaphysical. is contrary to the word of God.
It is absolute opposite to the Word of God. You say, what is it? Here's what the metaphysics said. The only thing that heals all broken relationships. is self-love.
Did you get that? The only thing that heals broken relationships is self-love. That's metaphysics.
Now let me read to you. What best-selling author In the metaphysical realm. A lot of Christians reading this stuff.
Well, a Christian's been influenced by this stuff. Let me read to you what this best selling offer said. You'll understand a little better. What I'm trying to tell you. Here's what she said.
She says, When people start to love themselves more and more each day, It is amazing. How their lives get better. They feel better. They get the job they want. They have the money they need.
Their relationships either improve All the negative ones dissolve. into new ones That will come along. Self-love is the most important gift. We can give ourselves. Within a peace, ah, the world will be no wars, no gangs, no terrorists, no homeless, no AIDS, no cancer, no poverty, no starvation.
So This to me is a prescription. for world peace. To have peace within ourselves Peace, understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and most of all, love. And we have the power within us to affect. These changes.
Now, beloved, I want to tell you. that this is believed by a whole lot of church-going folks.
Some Christians who bought into this metaphysical thinking. They twist the Bible. in order to fit with the metaphysical thinking. And here's what some of them have said. Jesus said that you must love your neighbor as yourself.
And therefore, I must love myself so much so I can love my neighbor. I mean, it's just like the devil coming to even the garden and says, Hey, did really God mean this? Here's what He meant, and give a new interpretation of the Bible. That's what they're doing with that word of God, they're twisting it. No wonder We have multiplied our troubles.
Listen, we all want peace. It's how you get it. In fact, the ancient people of God in the Old Testament were longing for peace. They were waiting for peace. They wanted peace.
And they look forward to a day in which that peace can be established by God Himself. And Psalm 87 is one of those longing hearts for the peace of God that they were waiting for to come and happen when Jesus Christ came into the world. Look at Psalm 87 with me, please. And the reason it's called Messianic Psalm. Because in these messianic psalms, the psalmists Have predicted with accuracy the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the impact that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have on the world.
And this is a messianic psalm. Because it is looking forward with longing and with expectations and with anticipation, the coming of God's Messiah who will bring even the enemies of God and the enemies of the people of God together to worship God. And I believe this is partially fulfilled and will be completely fulfilled when we all get to heaven and we come to worship the Lord from every tongue and every nation and every race and every language. This is The longing. of Psalm eighty seven.
Thousand years before Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. He looked forward. To that day, This psalmist was looking forward. beyond Mount Zion, the earthly Mount Zion. He was looking for a for the Mount Zion of the Church of Jesus Christ.
when believers from every corner of the globe will be together in fellowship and with love for one another. With the same sacrificial love That their Lord and Saviour expressed on that cross of Calvary. The Church of Jesus Where according to Galatians chapter 3, verse 28, Become one in Christ. The Church of Jesus Where peace Not at any price. But peace that stems from grace, that stems from grace be unleashed.
Who stems from that unearned, unmerited love will be experienced. The church of Jesus Christ, where his children would have peace with one another. And this piece is not based on self-love. Yeah. It is based on self-giving.
That's the basis of it. Look at verse 1. He says everything begins with the foundation. Everything must be based on the foundation. And the foundation is the rock of ages, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you something. Any ministry Any church? Any home That is not built on the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will crumble. It will suffer. any foundation other than the rock of ages is marshland.
Any foundation other than the rock of ages is sinking sand. Any foundation other than the rock of ages would collapse sooner or later. Hebrews chapter 11 said, Abraham. Who lived 2,000 years before Christ looked forward to that. See, that's the plan of God.
From the very beginning, from that Garden of Eden to this day, the plan of God all along for Jesus Christ to be the foundation, the cornerstone, the rock of ages. That is the plan of God. And that is why Jesus, when he told the Jews, you remember, he said, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced, and they wanted to stone him. Didn't like that. He is The cornerstone.
He is the foundation. And any other foundation will collapse sooner or later. In the same way, all of us who love the church of Jesus Christ, all of us who are church people, look forward to the day to be in the church above. When we are gathered together from every nation and every tongue and every tribe and every corner of the globe, the church whose foundation is Jesus alone, listen to me. We have churches today whose foundation is parapsychology.
Such churches whose foundation is pop psychology. Churches that have its foundation church polity or rituals or traditions or opinions or selfish ambitions or ego-dominated churches. But when we get together in the church of Jesus Christ above, the church will have only one light. His name is Jesus. The church will have one glory and that is Jesus.
And that church will have one focus, it is Jesus. Will have one blesser. It is Jesus. The church on the rock of ages founded. Amen.
Those Christians. Who sadly Have fallen prey to this deception of the metaphysics of self-love are only going to discover sooner or later that they have greater heartache, they will have greater pain, they will have greater anguish, they will have greater frustrations, they will have greater discontentment. Metaphysical notions, even if they are preached by some of the most popular preachers on television. will lead only to a heartache. And will never accomplish real, lasting, deep.
Peace. The peace can only be brought About Through the Lord Jesus Christ and His cross and His grace that is given to us, unmerited, unearned, and undeserved. And therefore, we give it to others. Freely. Because I am freely forgiven, I can forgive.
Because I am freely given so much grace, I can pass it on. Listen. to what Hebrews said, chapter 12 verses 22 to 24. Magnificent verses. Talking about Christians who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Most of them at that time, they're coming to the Lord from Judaism. And here's what The writer to the Hebrews have said to them. He said, You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose name is written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men, made perfect to Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Look at verses four. five and six of that short and yet beautiful psalm. Here's what he looked forward. through the eyes of faith and anticipation of the coming of the Messiah. And he said, number one, there's Rahab.
which is a name that describes prideful Egypt. which was the power to the south. Babylonian, the great power of the East. Philistia, the great power to the west, Tyre, the great power to the north, Cush, which is modern-day Ethiopia, representing the ends of the earth. The rest of the world population.
In these few verses, the psalmist has predicted that God's people will come to him through Jesus Christ from every corner of the globe, from every tongue, from every nation, and from the east, from the west, from the north, from the south, and from the ends of the earth. Magnificent sum. The came Fulfilled. In the coming of Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 2 tells us that on the day of Pentecost There were thousands upon thousands of people.
who came for a pilgrimage. into Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, which is a Jewish feast. And there the Lord Jesus Christ chose on that particular day to pour His Spirit to come and dwell permanently on the earth in the hearts of His children. with fresh wind and fresh fire. And with tongues speaking, that is, languages of those who were visiting from every part of the known world in the Roman Empire.
And there, Peter gets up with the power of the Holy Spirit and he preaches his magnificent sermon. And 3,000 people become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They receive him as their Messiah. Remember, they were all Jews. And these people went back to their homes with excitement, with enthusiasm, with even a desire to lose life itself because they have discovered the most important thing in life.
And they went back to their towns, went back to their cities, went back to their countries, and declaring the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we are sitting on the greatest news of the face of the earth, and we don't even share it with our next door neighbor. There in the day of Pentecost. The Bible said there were no Jews from Alexandria, Egypt. who heard the good news of the gospel.
on that day of Pentecost. And they went back to Alexandria. Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to my ancestors who have believed and worshiped the sun god Ra. And they too, when they heard the good news of the gospel, they converted to Christ, they turned to Christ, and they became believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in vast numbers. And for nearly 2,000 years, that Christian community survived wars and pestilence, survived the sword and the persecution of Islam.
They have survived until this day, and I'm standing here today as a testimony to those faithful Jewish messianic believers who brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to Alexandria, Egypt. What are you doing with the gospel?
Somebody said years ago gospel is for sharing. It's not for sitting on. Can I be blunt with you? That our problem here as Christians in America and the church in America is that that we think that everything begins and ends with us. We really do.
We think that the American church is all there is. We arrogantly assume. That whatever we do here, whatever we say, goes for everybody else. But listen, our God is the God of the universe. Our God is a global God.
Our God is a visionary God. Our God loves all people everywhere equally. He loves his children in Africa and in Asia and in Latin America and in Europe, wherever they may be, equally to loving us. In fact, I can tell you with all truthfulness that the strength of the persecuted church. ought to remind every one of us that ease and comfort are the enemies of the gospel.
that Christian self-indulgence is contrary to the plan of God. that Christian materialism is an anathema to the kingdom of God. That's what they teach me. And I hope they'll teach you. When our only focus is our little world and little problems and and become so myopic in our vision.
We miss out on the great joy of fulfilling God's purpose for our lives and His purpose for His world. We really do. God's purpose was revealed over 1,000 years ago in this magnificent psalm before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem of Judea. That people will come to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, His Messiah, from every corner of the globe, that they will come to know Him. on an intimate basis.
The question is. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are we doing? To help those who have never heard of Jesus Christ.
or have total misunderstanding of who he is, to come to know him. To come to know him, ask yourself that question. The last verse in this short but very beautiful psalm. It's about those of us. have been reborn.
In Christ. Here in this psalm, he is saying that praising God for his salvation to you may be the only visible evidence. of your salvation. Strong word, but look at the verse. Here's what he said.
As they make music, they will sing. Sing what? All my fountains are in you. Did you get that? All my fountains Out in you.
Where are your fountains? Where do you place your fountains? Are they in material Things Are they in physical fitness? Are they. in people, even though they're dearest and nearest to us.
Where are your foundations? Are they in your job? Are they in your identity? Are they in your occupation? Are they in your title?
Are they even in your family name? Are they in your reputation? Where are your foundations? In him. all my foundations.
They're in Christ alone. Beloved, listen. The financial markets may go up and down. The economy might sputter and stutter and go sideways or go forward or go backward. The world might fall apart all around us.
Families and friends might disown you and forsake you. Family and friends and even Christian friends may fail you, but the grace of God will never, never, never, never, never fail you. Peace. Not at any price. Peace.
At any price will last just for a moment. for a period. But not permanently. But the peace of God, which cost him a colossal price of coming to earth and dying on a cross, that peace will never fail you. Yeah.
Because His peace. emanates from his inexhaustible fountain of grace. Inexhaustible, did you get there? inexhaustible fountain of grace. You can never exhaust The grace of God.
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