Thank you. And I pray that God will bless you. If you are outside of Jesus Christ this morning, I pray that God will draw you to Himself. This morning, I want to talk to the children first of all, to all of us. I'm so glad that you leave the children here. When a congregation takes them out for children's church or something else, I don't feel like I have a whole congregation to preach to. The kids, I'm going to aim at the kids because I figure if the kids understand, you all can adjust. I know some of you personally, you're kids anyway. Have you ever been afraid? I've been afraid. I grew up really, really fearful. In fact, they had to take me when I was in sixth grade to the doctor to do a bunch of tests to find out why I was having such pains in my belly. It turned out that it was really fear and a lot of other things. I was, children, very fearful growing up. I have a wonderful sister who's taking care of my mother who is probably soon to die with Alzheimer's. And my sister, being a little sinner that she was, and I was a little sinner, She read into me a fear of the Bar Macs. I know none of you are afraid of the Bar Macs. I was about 12 years old playing in the back of my house when I met the girl across the alleyway and her name was Bar Mac. My sister told me for years, if you go in the basement, the Bar Macs will get you. So I understand what fear is. If you're afraid, I wonder what you do to handle that fear. A lot of people do a lot of different things. Older people, they sometimes take drugs and get drunk and do other things to cover their fear. Other people cover their fear by being belligerent and seeming to be strong when inside they're really just afraid. I hope that most of you don't just whistle a happy tune so that no one will know that you're afraid, like in The King and I. That might work when you're a little kid, but it doesn't work when you're downtown Fallujah or you're in the hood when somebody wants to take you out. So this morning I really want to talk about the divine protector for the dangerous pilgrimage. And some of you children as well might be familiar with Pilgrim's Progress. Remember that famous book by Bunyan where a Christian hears about the terrors of hell and realizes he's living in the city of destruction. And nobody is concerned about eternal life the way he is. Do you remember that scene where He comes? Eternal life! Eternal life! And He flees the city of destruction. Now I know, I know that all of you struggle with fear on some level. And I won't preach on that, but you can read Hebrews 2 this afternoon and see where it comes from. Where the writer of Hebrews says, some people, actually all people are what? held captive by Satan because of their fear of death. See, we all know we're going to die, right? I don't know all of you personally. I know some of you, but I know this. All of you are going to die. And those of you that are young look at me and go, it'll be you. sooner rather than me, but unless Jesus Christ comes on the clouds of glory, you and I are going to die. And deep down we have that fear of what? Death, because we know, as Hebrews says, it's appointed unto man once to die and then judgment. So I want to talk about that. And this little psalm that we're going to look at, Psalm 121, if you'll turn to that in your Bibles, when I read it, I'll read my own translation as I work through it. But Psalm 121. Now, children and some of you adults, most of you may know, but you read this and you look at it, it says a song of a sense. Well, what is that? People study the Scriptures and they guess it's this, that, and the other thing, but the best understanding is this. When the Jews, three times a year, all the men, you remember, were required to go up to Jerusalem, right? To the house of the Lord to worship. And these 15 little Psalms within the Psalter are songs of ascent. Every Jew went up to Jerusalem. It was in the mountains, but that was the metaphor. We go up to Jerusalem to worship God. You say, well, that's not too bad. Well, there was no interstate in Israel in those days. And between wherever they were living and worshiping God in the mountain of the Lord, at the temple in Zion. There were lions and bears. There were highway robbers. There were dangerous things. And so when God says, you have to go up to worship Me, not only is it a joyous thing on the one hand, on the other hand, there was no guarantee that you could get there safely. No interstates. So you had to get on a donkey, you had to get on a camel, or you had to walk by foot, and you had to get to Jerusalem, and there were dangers in between. And this little psalm, I want you to picture this. How many of you kids have ever been camping? You've been camping? Like in a tent? Like out under the stars? Well, mom's going, no, but you should. Get them camping, okay? Picture this. Some of you older people may know this. When you're camping, you're out around the campfire at night, and you see all the stars and the handiwork of God, and that smoke goes up. That's probably when this little psalm was sung. It was probably sung on the last night on that journey up to Jerusalem, when off in the distance, you could see the mountain. the little mountain range in which there was Mount Zion. And that's where they were going. And so if you keep that in your mind, two things that this is this is sort of today, what would I say in the new covenant age? Come to church here. You sing this in the shower. You sing this in the SUV while you're coming to church. This is to prepare your heart Because deep down in some of you kids raised in your parents' home as believers, your parents as believers want you to come to love Jesus. And you might wonder, is it worth it? You might be a non-believer here today and say, I don't even know whether it's worth coming. Somebody drug me here and I don't really know whether or not I ought to set my heart on getting to heaven. I'm not even sure there is a heaven. I'm not sure if there is a God, if He's the God of the Bible or what. I just don't know. The journey is worth it, friends. You've got to set your heart on the heavenly Jerusalem today where King Jesus is. We don't have to go to Israel. We don't have to go to a temple. Christ is in the inner sanctuary, leading in worship in heaven, with all the saints who have gone before in the Old and New Covenant. They're all worshiping around the throne, and Jesus is leading them in worship. And that's where we need to set our hearts. So let me read this song, and then we'll pray and we'll look at it briefly. Song of Ascent, Psalm 121. I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, From where will come my help? My help is from Yahweh who made heaven and earth. Will He allow your foot to slip? Will He who guards you sleep? Look, the guarding of Israel will neither sleep nor grow sleepy. Yahweh is your Guardian. Yahweh is your shade at your right hand. By day, the sun will not strike you, nor the moon by night. Yahweh will guard you from all evil. He will guard your soul. Yahweh will guard your going out and coming in from right now even forever. and ever. Let's pray. Lord God, as we come to Your Word, may we take the shoes of our heart off of our spiritual feet for we're on holy ground. Lord, as we are in this pilgrimage through life, Lord, which will culminate in death, Lord, we can be afraid. And Lord God, we plead with You that You will fix our hearts once again on Your Son and on His work for us, so that as we preach and as we come to celebrate the Lord's Supper, we literally, by faith, may feast on Jesus Christ. We pray this in His name, Amen. You, all of you, little kids, big kids, and everybody in between, you can trust the Divine Protector for this day of His pilgrimage. And this little psalm, in little two verse parts, tells us four things. There's four reasons why you can trust Jesus Christ to get you through this life and get you to heaven, to the new heavens and the new earth. your resurrected body and enjoy that forever. Never to be able to sin again. Never to be able to get sick or to die again. Four reasons that the psalmist gives us. The first one that you can trust this Protector is because of His personal promise. The second reason that you can trust Him is not only His personal promise, Trust Him because He has personal power to keep that promise. And the third reason to trust Him and cast your whole life upon Him is not only He promises and has the power, but He has promised to protect you. And finally, not only has He promised and has the power to keep that promise, to protect you, He says, I will persevere in keeping that promise. Let's look at these. The first two verses. And I'll just read now from the ESV for convenience for you. I lift up my eyes to the hills, to the mountains, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." Consider what this meant for the Jew going up to Jerusalem. He's camped out. He's trying to teach his children to love the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who's made promises and He's keeping them. And they're there around the campfire and he says, look, where is my help going to come from? And you can almost see him pointing off to the mountains to his children saying, there, that's where the help is going to come from. I lift up my eyes to the hills and I think, Who's going to come? Now, you children, if you ever watch cowboy movies, where does the cavalry come from? Usually from the hills. Now, I will go into long discourse about military strategy, etc., but in the good old days and even still today, if you have the high ground, you have extra firepower. Why? Because people have to go uphill. and you can fire down on them. And often the forts and where the protection is, is up in the hills. So this Israeli father is looking off to the mountains and says, where is my help going to come from? It comes from the Lord. Now, in your English versions, usually when you have, you know, this L-O-R-D capitalized, That's the covenant name. That's the name that the Jews did not want to pronounce because they thought they would blaspheme it. So most people don't even know how to pronounce it. Yahweh is probably the closest that we can get to it. But it was the name, remember? Where did it come from? You kids remember? It came from the burning bush. Remember, God said, hey, you go, Moses, and deliver my people. And he goes, well, you know, Remember, he didn't want to go. Can you pick somebody else? God's angry with him. He says, look, I told you you were going to go deliver my people. And he says, well, who shall I tell them sent me? Because when they get there, you know how they're like. They're going to kind of complain and say, well, who's this? And he says, this is the name that I want you to remember. This is my memorial name. I am that I am. And so this father is saying, that's where our help is going to come from. Now, you know enough of the Bible, most of you probably, to remember. Did the help come from God? Yeah. When Adam and Eve blew it in sin, who was there? God was there. And when they're hiding behind their fig leaves, think about how stupid that is, right? You sin against the living God who's everywhere and can see everything. And what do you do? You take a fig leaf and you think that that's going to cover your nakedness. Not real smart. But God comes and He says, look, the seed of the woman is going to come and crush the head of the serpent. The first preaching of the gospel. God was there. When the world became so wicked and violent, you think it's bad in some hoods in Pittsburgh? It got so bad, God says, that's it. No more. I'm wiping everybody out. And He saves Noah. Gives him the architect of the ark, the plan. Gives him the animals. He starts all over again. I look to that God. It's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember when Abraham was a pagan over in Erechaldes and God called him out and said, you go over to this land. It's the same God that stood at the sea between the Egyptians who have come to wipe Israel out. It's that God who delivered David. You see, when that Father sits there at the campfire and looks off, that's where the temple is, where God named and God dwells there symbolically, and He's going to come to rescue us. That's where the help comes from. Now, you who are in the New Covenant age, right? Has God come to rescue you? Better yet, when you look to the heavenly temple where the Father is, Where did Jesus Christ? Did He stay there? Philippians 2. No. He what? He humbled Himself. If I can say this reverently, it's as were the eternal Son of God what dove into the womb of Mary and was born. He was a kid like you. He had hair. He walked on the earth. He was unique though. He was a God-man. When you go to bed tonight, and you're afraid like I was to go to sleep, because I knew if I died, I would end up in hell, you can look to the heavenly temple where Jesus Christ is. Where will your help come from? It is from the Lord. the Maker of heaven and earth. Spurgeon said it well. Health is on the road and will not fail to reach us in due time. For He who sends it to us was never known to be late. In the fullness of time, the Son of God came from that glory to rescue us. Praise God. That's the first reason. You can trust the Divine Protector, Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, first of all, because He makes a promise, His covenant name. His name is what? Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. You and I know the bitterness of broken promises. I don't know if any of you have gone through a divorce. Someone promised you, I will love you till death do us part. And they ain't dead, and you ain't dead, and they're gone. We all have the experience of people We laugh about it and joke about politicians, right? Promises, promises, promises. And they don't keep their word. God keeps His word. The second reason that you can trust this divine protector is because he's got power. Look at verses 3 and 4. Now, you can see the kids sitting maybe around the campfire, you know, afraid of the dark. And here's the statement. Will He, that is God, will He allow your foot to slip? Will He who guards you sleep? Look, the guardian of Israel will neither sleep nor grow sleepy. I don't know, again, I've asked if you children have gone camping, but maybe you've gone hiking with your parents. Or maybe just around the city. And it's really, It's really kind of neat when a parent grabs your hand, right? Because you might be going along, especially if you're like walking in a stream bed, and you slip. But boy, if mom or dad has you by the hand, you don't fall, right? You may dangle a little bit, but you don't fall. So, if mom or dad has you by the hand, you're safe. Now, you kids know this too, maybe you go on vacation. Maybe you're too poor to go on vacation, so your vacation is going to Butler, Pennsylvania. I mean, that's as far as you can get, but bottom line, when you go on vacation, it's not always this, but typically who drives? Dad, right? And what's mom's job? Keeping dad awake. You'll all probably experience that. Dad's driving along and gets like this. Mom's job is, you know, and working the windows and getting the air in and say, here, would you like a cup of coffee? Why? Is it because dad doesn't love you? Of course not. But guess what? Your dad is a mere man. And guess what? He does get sleepy. He gets tired. See, and there are people, and your kids will say, I'm afraid because what if mommy and daddy are asleep and some bad person comes and they're not there to protect me. Son, Yahweh, the God of Israel, never sleeps He doesn't even get sleepy. And so, beloved, you don't have to be afraid to go to bed. You don't even have to be afraid to go anywhere. Because the God of Israel is always there. Remember Jesus Christ? I'm sure you remember this incident. He's asleep. He's been so worn out from ministry and healing people, loving people, trying to save his people. He's asleep in the boat. And all of these fishermen, professional fishermen, they're scared spitless. I mean, this storm is so big. They cannot bail fast enough to keep the water from coming into that boat. Remember that? They wake up Jesus. And what do they say? Don't you care that we're going to drown? Really, I think what they're saying is, get up and start bailing. And the Lord looks at him and goes, remember what he said? What's wrong with you? You men of little faith. It's almost like you're going, excuse me, it's not Passover, it's not Jerusalem and the cross. It's not time for my death. Peace be still. Everything's still. See, he doubted the power of Jesus Christ. Some of you have. relatives in the military. Maybe they're even in special ops. You know what Jesus Christ did in one night? The angel of the Lord? He did in 185,000 Assyrians. You read it in the book of Isaiah in the historical account. The pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord, in answer of Hezekiah's prayer, went out and he killed 185,000 men in one night. Do you know how much that is? That is larger than the United States Marine Corps today. Jesus Christ has the power. This God cannot get sick. He cannot sleep. He will not fail. The God that said, I will never leave you nor forsake you to the end of the age. That's the God that makes those promises. So you can trust this divine protector for this pilgrimage, one, because he's made promises and two, he's got the power to keep it. Do you believe that? I wonder if you really believe that. Listen to what Calvin said in short. Never will the hearts of men be led in good earnest to call upon God until a persuasion of the truth of this guardianship is deeply fixed in their minds. The angel of the Lord, we're told, encamps around those who fear Him. And that's why you can almost see this. Look at the stanzas again. Will He allow your foot to slip? Will He who guards you sleep? Look. The word in Hebrew is look. It's almost like the Father is saying, look. You may not be able to see it, but the angel of the Lord is here protecting you. When my children were afraid, I would tell them, and you might think this is cruel, but I don't think it is. You're safer in the hands of the God that you cannot see than in the Father that you can put your arms around and feel. You are safer because Dad can fall asleep, Dad will break his promises, but Jesus never falls asleep, never breaks His promises. Well, the third reason that you can trust Him There's not only promises and the power, but look, it's the power. He says, I'll protect you. Look at the next two verses. Yahweh is your guardian. Yahweh is your shade at your right hand. By day, the sun will not strike you, nor the moon by night. This great God has promised to protect you. Beloved, He protects you from you. You are your biggest problem. So, what do you mean? You don't even know me. I do. I know you're a human being. You're a son of Adam or a daughter of Eve. And because I know you're going to die, at least someday, that proves that you are a sinner. Think about that. Why are you going to die? Because you've sinned against God. God will protect you from yourself, the world around you, and the devil. He will guard you. There's a Hebrew way of saying it from everything, right? The sun. You won't get sunstroke in the day, and you won't go crazy at night. Why? Because Jesus Christ is on guard duty. When there's danger, God interposes Himself. Remember I said, He stood between Israel, the Red Sea, and destruction. When the Egyptians tried to go through the sea, they drowned. What will come upon your pagan relatives and neighbors will not come upon you in eternity. But friends, the greatest place where God guards you and keeps you is His what? His own eternal wrath against you. Because Jesus bore the curse of your sin and your broken promises. Let me give you two incidences that show that. We're going to have communion and it points to this. In the Old Covenant, remember that strange incident back in Abraham's life? Remember where he took those animals and he cut them in half? And remember that incident where the darkness came and he has to chase the vultures away? And then all of a sudden, he falls asleep, he wakes up and what happens? This flaming torch It goes right down the middle of those animals and consumes those animals. The same thing happened every day in the sacrifices that was mentioned in Sunday school, the adult Sunday school. All the Old Testament sacrifices and all those animals that are killed and flayed and burnt. What's it saying? God is a holy God and hates sin. That cutting of the covenant that Abraham experienced. You know what God said? May I do to Myself and worse if I ever break My promise to you. Every one of us. You little kids and us big kids. We have all broken our Word. We have broken God's holy law. Then what does God do? God says, the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Does God protect you? Yes. Here's the culmination. He protects you from His own holy wrath. Let your mind wander back in history to the day that Jesus hung on the cross. What did He cry? Best to understand it in Aramaic, it's, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do you understand that, friend? Jesus stood between you and His own holy wrath. He bore the punishment so that you would never ever have to say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do you understand that the worst sinner who burns in hell forever will not understand what Jesus Christ went through? On that cross, at that given moment, in those three hours on the cross, in the eternity of God's wrath for the sins of His people. Not just for one, but all God's elect people. The sands of the seashore can't number the number of people that were saved at that moment through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He did that. He stood on that cross and He bore the sins of His people. He bore the wrath of His Father and Himself, the Spirit, the triune living God. In all of His holy hatred of sin, I say to you today, look. Look by faith. Look at that Savior. And I'll say to you, friends, if you cannot weep over what Jesus has done for you, then you and I have become very hard. Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And you will see here in the elements today broken bread that represents the broken body of Christ as He lived a perfect life so that His righteousness could be rendered to you. And the fruit of the vine that represents His shed blood to cover your wickedness. It is finished. You are justified. You are adopted. You are set apart for God. All the blessings of God come to you because Jesus wore the curse of the law. You see? Look! Look! The angel of the Lord, the incarnate Christ, protects you from sunstroke, from going crazy at night. He protects you from all evil. You know what Spurgeon said about this? What a mint of meaning lies here. The sentence is a mass of bullion. And often, coined and stamped with the King's name, it will bear all our expenses between our birthplace on earth and our rest in heaven. The Guardian of Israel will protect you from all evil." So you can trust Jesus Christ because of His promise. His power to keep that promise. And that that promise focuses in protecting you from all evil, the evil within you and the evil outside you in the world. Which leads to the final stanza. And what does it say? It expands this to say, Yahweh will guard you from all evil. Notice it doesn't say some evil. Yahweh will guard you from all evil. He will guard your life or your soul. Yahweh will guard your going out, coming in from right now, even forever and ever. See, the promise and power to protect you, He will persevere. You and I, Fail. But Jesus never fails. When you come to Him, beloved, you ask Him for bread, you won't get a stone. When you ask Him for a fish, you don't get a snake. When you ask Him for an egg, you don't get a scorpion. Remember what he said, if you being evil can give good gifts to your children, how much more will my father in heaven. You see. If I can put it this way. There's no small print in the gospel. I know a few children remember Willy Wonka, the old Willy Wonka. Not the scary one. The Johnny Depp, that's a horrible thing. I don't know how you can make that a kid's thing. It's a horror show. But the one with Wilder. You remember when they drink the fizzy? And he reads all the little... There's no fine print in the Gospel. You are not going to, if I can make it as graphic as I can, there are parents on earth that play jokes on their kids. Come on son, jump! What do we think of that? Maybe good on Comedy Central, but when that happens, we look at that parent and go, you are a bad father. What father, I want to say this, you will never die if you put your trust in Jesus Christ. Children, remember this. If you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you will never die and stand in front of the living God and He'll go, got you! You really thought that that guy Jesus was my son? And you really thought that He died on the cross for your sin? Did I really fool you? That's not God. God doesn't do that. You don't get stones for bread. You don't get snakes for fish, scorpions for eggs. You might do that. Your best friend might do that to you. But God will persevere. But God has said, the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head. So let me wrap this up. There you see it. You can trust God because of His promise, His power, His promise to protect you, and He will persevere to end. Do you believe this? I don't even get an amen? Thank you. At least you can nod your head, okay? Your eternal life depends on this. And I will sell this, your actual temporal joy does too. If you don't know where you're going to go when you're dying, you don't know where you are when you're living. And this is so important for you. If you're outside of Christ, you don't profess to be a Christian and you've come here today. Today's the day of salvation. You need to get this right. You need to figure this out. I know you didn't ask to be born and you probably won't ask to die, but I'm guaranteeing this. This much I know. You have been born. I see you. You are here. Okay? And I know that you're going to die. And this needs to be settled. You need to understand whether or not setting your heart on the heavenly Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth, and worshiping the living God is worth it. It is. You had better set your heart on the heavenly Zion. And you better be able to say to your kids at night, Look, our help comes in the name of Yahweh, the Maker of heaven and earth, and now we know that it's Yahweh the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is only but one God, and Allah is not His name. And Jesus is the Prophet. That is the Gospel. And friend, you need to believe it. It's not just that Muslims need to believe it, or Hindus need to believe it. You need to believe it. And you children need to own this as your own as well. You have an incredible privilege to be raised in a Christian home. But I will tell you this, you will not be saved by your baptism, your church membership, your church attendance. You will be saved by memorizing the New Testament. I've heard this story. I don't know if it's true. I don't think it's an urban legend, but you all have heard of Stalin, haven't you? Stalin was worse than Hitler. Killed more people. I am told that Stalin at one point memorized the New Testament in Greek. You're saved by the Lord Jesus Christ who has come from that high and holy temple where He was worshipped by the angels And He came to save. I trust that you believe that this morning. For those of you that are God's children, why are we afraid? Why are you afraid? Afraid you can't break with your sins? You're afraid of other people? Afraid, ashamed of the Gospel? The Gospel is ashamed of Him who died for me? How can it be? I don't care what the fear is that you have today. You ought not to be bound by fear. It's not based on who you are or what you can do, because there's always somebody better looking than you, faster than you, stronger than you, that will get the job that you won't get. But if you are loved by your Lord, you ought to memorize this psalm. You ought to ask that God would stamp it on your heart that three rivers of grace would be a holy and bold people to call Pittsburgh to repentance and faith. Friends, when you come to the table this morning, Here you have the representation of this psalm. Really, it's the fulfillment in Christ. He came. He guards you. He protects you, day and night, from everything that could possibly harm you. Are you bound not only by fear, but bound by other sins? Come to the Savior. My little children, I write these things that you do not sin. But if you do sin, we have a defense attorney with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the wrath bearing sacrifice for all who come to Him. I'm going to tease my friend. I'm giving an invitation not to come forward. I'm giving you an invitation to rest in Christ. Christ is your life. Again, Spurgeon hits it. He who sends help has never been known to be late. Let me read one more quote. I like Spurgeon. I like Judson. I'm not just quoting it because they're Baptists and I'm a Presbyterian in a Baptist church. Listen to what Adonijah and Judson say. I want to end with this. He has not led me so tenderly thus far to forsake me at the very gates of heaven. lived and died in your place, said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you, even to the end of the age. Friends, there are brothers and sisters today, probably already have died today, being killed by persecutors of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. May this be on your heart and mine as you take communion and when you go bed tonight. He has not led me so tenderly thus far to forsake me at the very gate of heaven. It's not St. Peter that will meet you. He'll be crucified, risen, exalted, glorified. Son of God. Let's pray. And can it be that He would die for me? Lord God, we all cry with the Apostle Paul. It is a trustworthy statement that Christ came to die for sinners. of whom I am the chief. Lord God, we thank You for Your love. We thank You for Your promise and Your power. We thank You that You have promised to protect us and persevere in that protection to the very end. That nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We love You. We adore You. We long for all the world to sing around the throne with the elders and the angels and the spirits of justified men and women made perfect. And Lord, until You come again, we thank You that You give us the preaching of the Word and You give us the Lord's Supper. that we might remember Your death until You come back on the clouds of glory. God, we are pleading with You on behalf of any who are here this morning who are outside of Your covenant of grace. Lord, You might draw them in that they might say with us, worthy is the Lamb who was slain and who lives again. For we ask this in Your Son's name, Amen.