Pine Ridge Baptist Church

Looking forward to Sunday September 27th at 11:00 am. Bro. Doug Bearden will be with us to preach. This dear man of God is a blessing to so many people. Come and be with us!

Pine Ridge Baptist Church
125 Pine Ridge Church Road
Dallas, GA

Thankful for good men of the church who worked hard to move our shed and worked on other things as well. Pine Ridge has some wonderful people! You should visit and get to know them!

I'm pastor Scott Thomas, and I approve this message!

Since the mic did not work on the first half the video from the message, here is the full outline.

SONS OF KORAH SERIES
This Man was Born There
Psalms 87

Introduction:

This short psalm, only seven verses long, comes once again from the sons of Korah — that remnant family rescued from judgment in Numbers 26:11 who spent their lives singing of the very house their ancestor once rebelled against.

Psalm 87 is one of the most striking of their compositions, because it looks beyond the physical city of Jerusalem and sees something far greater — a spiritual city where people from all nations are recorded as citizens by birth. Does that sound familiar? Let me put it to you this way: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved - or birthed into the family of God! I became a citizen of a spiritual city (glory land, Beulah land, paradise, Heaven) when I was spiritually birthed into the family of God and got saved! That’s what we’re talking about here! By the way, if you are not born into the family of God by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus, you are not a citizen of that spiritual city called Heaven. No way! You are a citizen of Hell! Living in Hell has property taxes that will cause you to pay dearly and painfully for all eternity just to live there!

It is possible that this psalm was likely written during a season when Israel’s borders had expanded or her influence had grown among surrounding nations, and the psalmist takes that moment and stretches it prophetically into a vision of the church, the true Zion, where people from every tribe and tongue would one day be born again and registered as citizens of God’s kingdom.

Throughout Scripture, and confirmed in Hebrews 12:22 and Galatians 4:26, Zion becomes the standing New Testament picture of the church, the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of all who are born of the Spirit. This short psalm is bursting with imagery worth unpacking carefully, verse by verse, name by name.

1 His foundation is in the holy mountains.
2 The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

The psalm opens with A Foundation Fixed in Holiness.

Notice it doesn’t begin by describing Zion’s walls or her beauty, but her foundation — and that foundation is laid in the holy mountains, not on shifting sand. The whole region where Jerusalem was built is a bed rock of hard limestone and it is built on several mountains - Mt. Zion, Mt. Moriah (the Temple Mount), Mount of Olives. Jerusalem literally sits on elevated rock - that’s why it is unshakable, secure, and set apart as elevated to be seen by all people.
We have a church building here that is nearly 40 years old! It has stood that long because someone took great care in making sure the footings were poured correctly and the blocks were laid straight and in plumb, and the gravel was spread evenly, and the concrete was strengthened properly and poured thick and smoothed out evenly so that the church building would stand for years to come!
The plural word “mountains” likely refers to the whole mountain range on which Jerusalem sat, but prophetically it points to something unshakeable, a city whose foundation is Jesus Himself - the Son of God. Christ said, “Upon this rock I build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!”

In other words, God’s built a church on a solid rock foundation that was built with precise planning and with great care! Nothing will make God’s church fall! It is built on mountains of holiness! Nothing can overcome that!

Then comes a striking comparison — the Lord loves the gates of Zion “more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”

Did you know that God has always valued the corporate gathering of His people, the church itself, even above the private dwelling places of individual believers? Your personal walk with God matters, but there is something special about the gathered assembly of God’s saved people. The Lord loves the gates where His people come together. That is God’s treasures. You cannot and will not ever separate God from loving the church where His people come together to worship Him in one mind and in one accord! He loves the gates of Pine Ridge Baptist Church when all His people come together to worship Him. You know what that means don’t you? That means it breaks God’s heart every time you choose something else over the very thing God loves - and what God loves is seeing you coming to church. That is really what God loves! Just remember that the next time you choose something else over coming to church - you are breaking God’s heart! I hope that is a sobering statement that helps you to take note and makes you want to please God.

3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.

This is Glory Spoken.

Notice the passive language — glorious things are spoken about the city, not glorious things done by the city. This is really prophetic language; it is God Himself declaring greatness over Zion before she had fully lived up to it. It’s much the way God speaks identity and destiny over His church before she has finished being sanctified. The church today has flaws and faults. There are no perfect churches because there are no perfect people. God even inspired John the Revelator to write about seven types of churches that God had somewhat against them because of different faults and failures - telling them to return to their first love.

However, God also said that the church, His bride, would be presented to Him without one spot and without one blemish adorned in purity and white as snow! That is speaking identity and destiny over the church!

The Selah again calls for a pause. Every believer ought to remember that the glorious things spoken over the church were spoken by God’s own mouth, not earned by man’s performance. We did not cause our purity- God did!

4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.

Here the psalm turns to name the nations, and each one carries deep background worth explaining.

This is Enemies Enrolled as Citizens, and it is the theological heart of the psalm. “Rahab” here is not the woman of Jericho (Rahab the harlot that found grace) but it is instead a poetic name for Egypt, sometimes translated “the proud one” or “the sea monster,” used elsewhere in Scripture (Isaiah 51:9) as a symbol of Egypt’s arrogant power and her long history of enslaving Israel.

Babylon, of course, was the empire that destroyed Jerusalem and carried Israel into seventy years of captivity — the very nation responsible for the exile this psalm’s era likely followed.

Philistia was Israel’s relentless enemy throughout the period of the judges and the reign of Saul and David, the people of Goliath, a thorn in Israel’s side for generations.

Tyre was a wealthy, pagan Phoenician trading city, often condemned by the prophets for pride and idolatry.

Ethiopia, or Cush, represented the distant nations at the very edges of the known world, foreign in every sense — such as foreign language, culture, and geography.

This is a list to marvel over. Why? Because every single nation named here was, at some point, an enemy or a stranger to Israel — Egypt enslaved her, Babylon destroyed her, Philistia warred against her, Tyre worshipped false gods, and Ethiopia was as foreign as a nation could be. And yet the psalmist declares that citizens will be born in Zion (into the church) out of each of these very nations.

In other words, there’s going to be people to accept Christ as their Savior who was naturally born in nations that overall were enemies of God and enemies of Israel (God’s chosen people). This is one of the clearest Old Testament pictures of the gospel reaching the Gentiles — the church would not be Jewish exclusively, but the church instead would be a place to obtain a spiritual birth certificate issued to former enemies of God that believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and that includes every one of us who was once, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, “without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” now made citizens by grace alone.

“This man was born there” is repeated like a refrain in our text— not naturalized, not merely visiting, but born there, a new birth, a new citizenship, exactly the language Jesus would later use with Nicodemus in John 3.

5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.

This continues the same thought with added weight — this is Established by the Highest Himself - God Almighty.

Notice the emphasis shifts from the psalmist’s declaration in verse 4 to a settled certainty in verse 5 — “it shall be said.” Zion’s security does not rest on the strength of her citizens but on the establishing hand of “the highest himself,” the Most High God.

The church, likewise, is not held together by human effort or organizational skill but by the sustaining power of God, who Himself lays her foundation and keeps her standing against every gate of hell, exactly as Jesus promised in Matthew 16:18.

6 The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.

Here is A Registry Kept by God. The LORD shall count, and He does count and He doesn’t lose count! There is a record book and my name is written there!! How about you?

The image here is of a census or genealogical record, God Himself acting as the recorder, personally writing down each name and the nation of that person’s spiritual birth. This is remarkably similar to the language of the Book of Life referenced throughout Revelation, where names are written by God’s own hand, not earned through lineage or merit.

No believer needs to wonder whether their name is properly recorded in heaven’s registry — God Himself keeps that book, and He does not misplace a single name. The Selah here again invites reflection: has your name been recorded there, born again into the true Zion? I’ve never been to heaven, but my name is already there!

7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.

The psalm closes with Springs and Singing in Zion.

This final verse pictures worship and joy as the natural overflow of citizenship in Zion — singers and instrumentalists together, celebrating what God has done. “All my springs are in thee” is a beautiful closing declaration; Blue Letter Bible notes the imagery of springs points to the source of life and refreshment, meaning every good thing the psalmist has ever known finds its source in Zion, in the presence and provision of God.

A believer who has truly been born again into the church cannot help but sing, because every spring of joy, purpose, and life flows from that one source.

Taken together, this short psalm paints one of the most beautiful pictures of the church found anywhere in the Old Testament. Zion is not simply a city of stone and gate, but a spiritual mother giving birth to citizens from every nation under heaven, even nations that once stood as sworn enemies of God’s people. Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia — each a picture of hostility, paganism, or distance from God — all become birthplaces of citizens recorded personally by the hand of the Most High. This is the gospel in miniature form, centuries before the day of Pentecost or the Great Awakening or any other revival took place.

CLOSE

Church, this psalm asks a question every one of us needs to answer honestly today — has your name been written in the registry of the true Zion, the church of the living God? It doesn’t matter what nation you came from, what state you were born in or culture you grew up in. It doesn’t matter what sin has enslaved you the way Egypt enslaved Israel, what captivity has held you the way Babylon once did, or how far off and foreign you may feel from the things of God.

The Lord Himself writes the names, and He is still writing them today. If you have never been born again into this city whose foundation is fixed in holy mountains, established not by your effort but by the Highest Himself, I invite you to this altar today. Let today be the day it’s recorded of you — this one was born there.

SONS OF KORAH SERIES

A Longing for the House of God

Psalms 84

Introduction:

Before we step into this psalm, let’s remember who these sons of Korah were and why their voice matters so much in the book of Psalms. Korah himself was a Levite who led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron’s God-given authority in Numbers 16, and the earth opened up and swallowed him and his fellow conspirators alive because of their actions. But Numbers 26:11 makes a point of telling us something remarkable — “the children of Korah died not.”

God, in His mercy, preserved a righteous remnant out of a rebellious family line, and that remnant became some of the most devoted worship leaders in all of Israel’s history. Eleven psalms bear their name, and if you study them, you find a common thread — these were men who had every reason, by family history, to take God’s presence for granted or resent the very tabernacle their ancestor had rebelled against. Instead, they became the greatest lovers of God’s house.

Their motivation wasn’t inherited privilege; it was undeserved grace, and a family line rescued from judgment doesn’t sing casually about worship — it sings it desperately, longingly, the way Psalm 84 sings. This is likely one of the most beloved psalms in the whole collection, a pilgrim psalm, probably sung by worshippers making their way up to Jerusalem for one of the great feasts, and it captures something every believer ought to feel but too many of us have let grow cold — a genuine longing to be in the presence of God.

1 HOW AMIABLE are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!

2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

The psalm opens not with doctrine but with desire. “Amiable” carries the sense of lovely, delightful, deeply pleasant are thy tabernacles — Blue Letter Bible notes the Hebrew word conveys something you can’t help but be drawn toward. The beauty of the tabernacles to the Sons of Korah was not in the architecture, but rather the beauty was in the Almighty God was in the building! A building, no matter how beautiful, is no good unless God’s presence is in it.

But verse 2 is where a Fainting, Fleshly Fondness for God’s presence is seen — not a polite religious preference, but a longing so strong it’s described as physical. “My heart and my flesh crieth out”

We need to understand that true worship was never meant to be confined to the intellect; it involves the whole man, body and soul both straining toward the presence of the living God. A Christian who has stopped longing for God’s house has confused convenience with contentment. There’s a difference between attending church because it’s Sunday and aching for God’s presence because your soul knows it can’t survive without it.

Oh how I long for many to understand this and grasp ahold of this concept! If your attitude is that you have to go to church because it’s Sunday and we don’t have anything better to do or planned, I honestly believe that upon the authority of God’s Word that God is not pleased with that attitude. Something needs to change in your heart and within your mindset so that your attitude and heart doesn’t say, “I have to go to church,” but instead says, “Praise God! I get to go to church today, and I can’t wait to get there and everything else will have to come second or third or fourth because this is the Lord’s Day and I want to worship Him in the presence of God at His house!”

3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.

Here’s a tender, almost surprising image — sparrows and swallows nesting near the altars of the temple. These two groups of small birds, unclean by the ceremonial law and utterly insignificant in the eyes of the world, had found safety and a home in the very presence of God, closer to the altar than many of Israel’s mighty men ever bothered to come.

Here’s a Sparrow’s Sanctuary that puts our excuses to shame — if a bird with no soul to save can find a home near the altar of God, what does it say about a man who has a soul to save and still stays away from the altar? Not just a little away from the altar, but that person goes out of the way to avoid the altar! Listen, God’s house makes room for the smallest and most overlooked among us, and if a sparrow can build her nest that close to glory, surely we can find our place at the house of God, on a pew, and on the altar too. God is spreading the table filled with spiritual food here in the sanctuary. There’s no need to sit up in the balcony or in a Sunday School room or nursery when church is going on because the food and the help and the blessings are right here and around this altar. Why would you want to stay away from what God has for you or avoid it? Too many church people seem to be on a spiritual food diet because they push back from the Lord’s table instead of pulling up to the Lord’s table. Are you listening? Heed to what I’m telling you because this will help your soul and make a difference in your life and a difference in your children and in your grandchildren and in your whole family. We need the same desire for God and His house that the Sons of Korah had!

4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

Notice the psalmist pronounces blessing twice here, back to back — first on those who dwell in God’s house, then on the man whose strength is in God regardless of his location. This is a Double Blessing for the Dwelling and the Distant. Believers get to live close to the courts of the Lord in constant fellowship, and they are blessed. And then when we scatter and depart from God’s house going our separate ways traveling far from the sanctuary, we are still blessed because our strength is anchored in God. We get that strength from eating from the Lord’s table. When we miss a meal, our strength in the Lord gets weak. When we keep missing those meals, we get weaker and weaker!

“In whose heart are the ways of them” — When you get spiritual nourishment and really get in and eat from the Lord’s table, it’s good for your heart. Your heart gets that strength. When everything hits you at once on Monday morning and throughout the rest of the week, you have strength to make it through. You have a strong spiritual heart that stays strong and the ways of that heart is humble and long suffering and desires for the next meal and the next opportunity to get back to the table where God has more good spiritual food to strengthen your heart and soul! I don’t know about some of you, but as far as myself goes, I need to be at church for my own good. I want to be here with God’s people and getting fed and getting help from the Lord! Many times as we have started traveling back home from the service I have said, “Boy, it has been a good day In God’s House!”

Have you ever said that or felt that way? If your first thoughts is to rush out of God’s house because your heart and mind wasn’t even in it to begin with, then you got a problem that I can’t fix. Only you and God can get that straightened out, and it’s going to have to start with you my friend. Your heart needs to get into the right place where your heart is always mapping out a path to get to God everyday and every Sunday!

6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

Baca means weeping — a dry, barren valley these pilgrims had to cross on their journey to Jerusalem. But notice what happens: they don’t just survive the valley, they transform it. They “make it a well” — a true Spirit-filled believer walking with God doesn’t just endure hard seasons, he leaves blessing behind him even in the valley of weeping, turning a place of dryness into a place where others can drink after he’s passed through. That’s what happens when you have been eating and drinking from God’s table and getting your heart strong for God!

Here’s Weeping Turned to Wells — the very tears a saint sheds on his hardest days can become a spring that refreshes somebody else’s journey later. And notice they go “from strength to strength” — not from strength to exhaustion, not from strength to burnout, but from strength to strength, because the God who called them to the journey supplies fresh strength for every leg of it, until every one of them appears before God in Zion - back in the church.

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.

The psalm shifts here into direct prayer, likely on behalf of the king who is referred to here as “thine anointed.”

This prayer is for the anointed one — ultimately fulfilled in Christ, God’s true Anointed — reminds us that even our longing for God’s house is tied to God’s provision of a mediator between us and Himself. We don’t approach the courts of the Lord on our own merit; we approach because God looks upon the face of His Anointed and, because of Him, looks favorably upon us too. This is a Shielded and Sheltered people, kept safe not by their own strength but by the God who calls Himself their shield. I sure am glad I am shielded and sheltered! Going to church and pouring out your heart to God and allowing Him to fill it is where you will find Him shielding you and sheltering you! I don’t have survival smarts or street smart skills. I’ve never needed them either because I have stayed hid and sheltered in the house of God and hid myself in the arms of God! He is my protector from the thugs of this old world and from the devil too! For I’m sheltered in the arms of God as the song says!

10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

This is perhaps the most quoted verse in the psalm, and for good reason. The psalmist doesn’t just say a day in God’s courts is good — he says it’s better than a thousand days anywhere else. Blue Letter Bible notes the comparison is deliberately extreme, meant to jolt the listener into recalibrating what actually counts as a good life.

And then comes the famous declaration — he’d rather be a doorkeeper, the lowest, most menial position in the temple, standing at the threshold rather than sitting in the inner chamber, than dwell in the bright colored beautiful tents that houses wickedness.

Here’s a Doorkeeper’s Devotion that ought to convict every believer chasing status — the psalmist would rather have the lowest job in God’s house than the highest position in the world’s tents. Listen, that position in the kingdom of God is never about rank; it’s about being close to the presence of God, and a doorkeeper standing at the threshold of glory has a better address than a king reigning in the bright beautiful tents of sin.

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

The psalm closes the way so many of the sons of Korah’s psalms close — not with a request, but with settled confidence. God is described here as both sun and shield.

This is the only place in the Old Testament God is directly called a sun, meaning He is both the source of light, the warmth, and the source of life, and simultaneously the protection from what would otherwise be too much exposure to bear. Here’s a Sun that Warms and a Shield that Wards — God gives grace to walk the road and glory to finish it, and no good thing is withheld from those who walk uprightly before Him.

The psalm ends exactly where it began — with blessing, but now settled, resolved, certain. The man who trusts in the Lord of hosts is a blessed man, whether he’s dwelling in the courts or while having to cross the tearful dry barren valley of Baca to get there.

CLOSE

Church, my hope and prayer is that most of you in this room already know Jesus as your Savior - redeemed by His blood and secure in His grace. If you don’t come to Jesus and He will save you. However, it’s not just this church, but it’s most Bible-believing churches who instead needs a strong call from God to come get hungry again.

The question is are you listening? Are you even interested in getting hungry for God again? Do you turn up your nose at what God is offering and rushing off to get the junk food the world is offering? Do you even want a good heavenly home-cooked meal coming from God’s kitchen, or are you just looking to grab some junk fast-food because it’s quick and convenient?

Somewhere between the busyness of this life and the routines we’ve settled into, has your soul stopped longing for the courts of the Lord? Has attending church out of habit or just nonchalantly quietly replaced actually longing for His presence?

Many church going people need to remember what it feels like to cry out loud again for the living God the way this psalmist did. Oh how God and I wish you would come and ask God to restore that ache, that hunger, that willingness to be a doorkeeper rather than act like you are just a stranger and a spectator just stopping by the church for a few minutes just to say you went by and said hello to a few folks. A day in His courts around this altar pouring out your heart to God is so much better than a thousand days just stopping by, saying hello and taking off chasing the world. Somebody needs to come and pray.

We had an amazing revival with Bro. Mike Bagwell! Join us tomorrow for worship! We can’t wait to see what God is going to do!