May God bless us together this
evening as we turn and consider his word. We'll turn to the psalm
that we read, Psalm number 46. We'll read the first part of
verse 10. Psalm number 46 and verse 10. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. We read together in the first
book of Kings of that well-known account of when Elijah challenged
the prophets of Baal upon Mount Carmel. How he felt, indeed he
was the only prophet of the Lord left. And there were these hundreds
of prophets of Baal and of false gods living, residing, and practicing
in Israel. And we know well, I'm sure, of
how he brought them to that mount. how he laid out the challenge
really, build the altars, take the bullocks, put that bullock
upon the altar and the God which answers with fire, then he will
be the true God. And it's interesting to note,
isn't it, the difference, the contrast between the prophets
of Baal and God's servant, Elijah. I'm sure you noticed of how after
they laid the bullock upon the altar, this is how the prophets
of Baal acted. We read that from morning, even
until noon, they cried, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice,
no answer. So they become more desperate.
They leaped upon the altar that was made. And still, there was
no answer. They cried aloud, they cut themselves
with knives and lances until the blood gushed out of them.
But there was no answer. It came to pass from midday it
was passed, they prophesied until the time of the evening sacrifice.
So they had been pleading and leaping and cutting themselves.
And this word prophesied is really they were in a frenzy until the
evening sacrifice time. And there was no answer. You see how they acted in their
desperation that their God Baal might answer their pleas. They were in a frenzy. They were
leaping about, they were cutting themselves, they were despairing,
it would appear, as they reached the end, pleading with their
God that he would answer, that their actions would please Baal,
that by doing certain things, he would answer. And by showing
their devotion in an outward way, this Baal would send fire. Contrast that with how Elijah,
how he approaches his God. He says, come near unto me to
the people. He repairs the altar. He takes
the stones. He builds up the altar. And then
he says, praise to the Lord, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel. Let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant, that I have
done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me,
that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that
thou hast turned their heart back again. There's no leaping
about. There's no cutting himself with
knives. There's no frenzy. There's a calmness, isn't there? A calmness. And there's confidence. Elijah was confident that God
was God and that God would hear his prayer, and his prayer was
full of faith. Indeed, the whole event is full
of faith. He believed from the beginning
that his God would send fire. It's full of faith. But there
is a simple and a calm prayer, and it is that prayer that is
heard and that is answered. The fire of the Lord fell and
consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust,
and licked up all the water. It was the Lord who was God,
and it was proved to the people. So they actually fall down, they
cry, the Lord, he is the God. You see the contrast, the frenzy
of the prophets of Baal, the calm faith of Elijah. Well, today, there are many religions
about us. There are many other faiths.
But all faiths, really, other than the true faith, focus on
the outward. They focus on what is done, what
we have to do in an outward sense, or what we have to do to earn
the favour of a certain deity. how we can please them, how we
can bring ourselves into their favor, how we can manipulate
them so that they receive us. And there are certain prayers
and certain rituals that so many other religions will promote.
Perhaps we have to go on a certain pilgrimage, or perhaps we have
to go to a certain person, or perhaps we have to repeat certain
prayers, and that will appease our God, and that will bring
us into favor with God. say even the more, could I say,
inward types of religion, like Buddhism and Hinduism, which
you might say is a form of meditation, is more an inward kind of religion.
But still it is only through their own works, through their
own meditation, that they feel that they are drawing near to
God. It is all through what we do.
It is all through how we prepare ourselves. So it is all through
how we look and appear. That is how their gods receive
them, so they think. But here the Lord declares to
us in this psalm that he is so different. He is so different
to the religions of today. Because our God says, not do
all of this, not go on a certain journey in pilgrimage, not say
certain prayers or follow certain rituals. Our God says something
quite different, not the frenzy of jumping on the altar of the
prophets of Baal. He says, be still. Be still. Not your own works,
but be still, sit still and know that I I am God. Be still. Stop yourself. Stop your works and remember
and come and remember that I am God. I am the Lord and it is
all of me. Be still and know that I am God. Know me from the heart, not just
in an outward observance. Know that I am God. am God. This is the religion
of the Bible. This is the God of the Bible.
Be still and focus on God. Well, this psalm, short psalm,
but this psalm shows us in a number of ways who God is. Who is the God that we are to
know? He says, be still and know that I am God. Well, who is this
God? What do we know about him from
this psalm? Well, first, the psalmist tells
us God is our refuge and strength. God is a refuge. Again, we read in verse 7, the
God of Jacob is our refuge. Verse 11, the God of Jacob is
our refuge. Three times in this psalm, this
word, refuge. The Lord is a place of safety,
a place where he cares for his people, a place where we can
be protected from the danger around us. protected ultimately,
of course, from judgment and from condemnation. He is a place
of refuge. He is strength. He is a God who
strengthens us and blesses the weak. Those who sit still in
their own weakness, the Lord gives strength. This is the Lord
who we read about. He is a place of help, a very
present help in trouble. Not only is a place of refuge,
but a place where if we are in trouble, and we're in difficult,
the Lord will help us. He is not remote and far off. He is a God who is near, and
a God who can help, and a God who rules, and a God who reigns. We read, didn't we, the heathen
raged. Verse six, the kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice,
the earth melted. We are to remember that this
God is the sovereign ruler of the world. He utters his voice
and great things are done. He is in complete control of
all the heathen. This God is our sovereign and
our king. Be still and remember also that
this wonderful God is with us. The Lord of hosts is with us. You see, this is the God that
the Bible tells us about. He is a place of refuge from
judgment. He is a place of strength in
our weakness. He is the sovereign ruler of
the world, and all events are in His hands. And wonderfully,
for His people, He is with us. The Lord of hosts is with us. You see how the Lord is described
in this psalm. And what a blessing it is to
remember, as we sit still and focus on Him, that He is this
wonderful God. He is not far off, He is not
unknown, He has revealed Himself through His Word. So this is
the Lord God, and we could study this psalm perhaps in our own
time to try and draw more from that. But where I really want
to look at this psalm this evening is like this. You see, we are
not very good at sitting still. Generally, we are not good at
waiting. We are not good at leaving a
matter in the hands of another. or of depending on another. It's
true in a natural way. Generally speaking, we're not
very good at relying on another person or leaving the matter
in the hands of someone else. And it is certainly true in a
spiritual sense. We do not want to leave the matter
in the hands of another. We are not good at being still. You see, we want to do things
ourselves. We want to do things in a hurry.
And if we cannot, we will worry. It will plague our minds. We are not good at being still,
sitting down and waiting. And yet this is what the Lord
tells us, be still. You see, man by nature is busy. Man is busy. And what is man
busy doing? Man is busy running away from
God. Running away from the Lord, running
in an opposite direction from the Lord God. Are you busy running
from God? Are you running in an opposite
way? Well, in what ways then are we
busy? What ways are we by nature occupying ourselves and not sitting
still? Well, firstly, let's look at
it in this way. By nature, man is busy convincing himself that
there is no God. Man is busy convincing himself
that there is no God. That there is no outside force,
as it were. There is no creator. There is
no sovereign. There is no God who we are answerable
to. Man is busy convincing himself,
especially in the age and society we live. Man is busy convincing
himself. There is no God and would prefer
would prefer to believe that the world came from nothing,
of sudden chance, and that all around us and everything that
we are just by accident came into being. Man would prefer
to reach that sudden height, those great heights, I could
say of faith, to believe such a thing rather than accept that
there is a God. Man is busy convincing himself,
putting it from his mind, clasping any argument, clasping any strange
idea that might possibly explain that there is not a God. And
man will grasp at anything that can justify that way of thinking,
that justifies not believing in God. And in a sense, They're
busy doing it because it's hard, because it's hard work in many
ways to try and discount the existence of God. And maybe this
evening you are busy, you are striving to convince yourself
there's no God. It does not exist. And therefore
everything in the Bible is wrong and everything that is said here
has no application. There is no God. And you are
trying to convince yourself. But God says to you, be still. Stop. Just stop for a moment. Stop grasping at all sorts of
ideas and philosophies. Stop grasping at all these different
ways of thinking. Be still. Sit still. Sit still and look. Look about
you. Look around you. And see the
creation that God has made. See the design all around you. Look at it. And can you honestly
say there was no creator, no intelligence behind that design? Can you honestly say as you sit
and look that everything is by accident, that everything is
from nothing? Just sit and look around you. Look at the beauty, look at the
perfection of creation. I know it's all marred with sin
because of the fall, but we have such beauty still around us of
God's work. Sit still and look. There is
the mark, there is the clear evidence of the existence of
God. He says sit still, not only look,
sit still and read. Read. Maybe you can think of
all sorts of arguments why you think the Bible isn't true. Maybe
you can think of all sorts of reasons. But just sit still and
read the Bible. Read it for what it says. Read
it for what it is. Because here is the answer. Here
the Bible has the answers. Read it. You think the Lord Jesus
Christ himself The Lord Jesus Christ believed in the account
of Genesis. He believed in Adam and Eve.
The Lord Jesus Christ believed in the creation of the world.
You see, the Bible has the answers. The Lord Jesus himself is declared
in the scriptures to be the creator. The man who came to earth in
the manger of Bethlehem, he is the creator of the heavens and
the earth. Sit still and read. Sit still. And listen. Listen to what your conscience
says. Listen to what your heart says. Listen to that voice inside,
that nagging doubt. Listen to that voice which says,
there is a God. There is a Creator. I am not an accident. There is
a God who knows. There's a voice inside us which
prompts us. There's a voice inside us which
challenges us. However busy you may be trying
to silence that voice, to silence that conscience, however busy
you are trying to grasp all sorts of ideas and evidence to prove
otherwise, sit still and listen. What does your heart tell you? There is a God. Sit still and
think. and think honestly and carefully. Think. What do we instinctively
have within us? Instinctively, we have a knowledge
of right and wrong. Now, our conscience in many ways
is affected by the fall and can be directed in a wrong way. It's
not a pure, it's not a certain voice, our conscience. But sit
and think. How do we know right from wrong?
When someone comes into work or into the classroom or wherever
it may be, when they come in and they're absolutely full of
themselves and they're proud about everything they've done,
something within us recoils against that. And we don't like pride. Why is that? When someone comes
in and tells an obvious lie, something within us rises up
against that. Why is that? When we see something
that's wrong, when we see something going on that we feel to be unjust,
why do we rise up against that within ourselves? It's because
we instinctively know right and wrong in certain ways. How do we know that? Because
we're morally accountable. We're moral beings. Because the
Lord has set right from wrong. Sit and think. Be still. And
maybe you are busy then trying to convince yourself there is
no God. Look at the evidence. Read the scriptures. There is
all that you need. God is there. Be still and know
that I am God. Secondly, maybe you are busy
trying to silence your conscience. You are busy trying to forget
your sins. Trying to forget what you have
done wrong. Or trying to cover up, hoping that yourself, well,
hoping that others, and hoping that God has not seen. And you
know that there's something there, but no one else has noticed.
And you hope God hasn't noticed as well. And maybe you're busy
trying to cover it up. Like David was busy trying to
cover up his sin of adultery. Maybe you're trying to pretend
it's not there. To pretend it never happened.
If no one saw it, then it didn't occur. And you're trying to put
it out of your mind. And you're trying to silence
your conscience. And it's hard work, isn't it?
Because every now and again there's a prick of your conscience. Or
every now and again there's a fear that someone might find out.
Or every now and again you fear that it will rise up again. And
you're trying desperately to appease your own conscience,
to pretend there's no sin. What does God say? Be still.
Stop trying to hide. Stop trying to pretend. Be still.
Remember, I am God. Remember, God knows about that
sin. Remember, God knows what you have done or what you have
said. He saw it and he continues to see what you've done. Maybe it was many years ago.
Maybe you've almost forgotten. Maybe no one else ever knew.
Or maybe they've forgotten. And you think, well, it was such
a long time ago. Maybe God's forgotten. He says,
be still. Remember, I am God. I do not forget. No sin has been
unnoticed. No sin has been forgotten. It's
all been seen, it's all been noted, it's all been witnessed
by the ever-seeing eye of God. What do we read together in Psalm
94? Those who were sinning against
the law, they were doing wrong things, slaying the widow and
the stranger, murdering the fatherless and so forth. And we read that
they say, the Lord shall not see it, Neither shall the God
of Jacob regard it. The Lord hasn't noticed, the
Lord hasn't seen. But he says, understand ye brutish
among the people and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall
he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall
he not see? He that chasteneth the heathen,
shall he not correct? He that teacheth man knowledge,
shall he not know? You see, God who made your ear,
he heard what you said. God who gave your eye, he sees
what you did. He knows our sin. Are you busy
trying to forget, trying to appease, trying to put away from your
mind your sin? Be still. Remember, I am God. And I know, and I see, and I
hear, and I remember your sin. Thirdly, are we busy trying to
be good? Trying to be righteous? Trying to earn our way? Trying to make ourselves how
God would have us to be? Now, of course, we must strive
to be righteous. We must strive for holiness.
But are you trusting in that to take you to heaven? Are you
trusting in your own goodness and your own keeping of God's
commandments and keeping the law of God to work your way in? And you're striving to be what
you believe God has commanded you to be. And you're striving
and you're working. And every time a sin comes up,
you believe that you should be better. And you're trying to
be righteous in your own strength. and in your own way. And yet
God says, be still for a moment, sit down for a moment, sit down
for a moment and think and know that I am God. Because one sin
has polluted you entirely. If we break one part of the law,
we are guilty of all we're told. And he hates all sin. And one sin makes you guilty,
and one sin condemns you. And if we say we have no sin,
we lie, and the truth is not in us. Are you trying to convince
yourself that you're good enough? Convince yourself you're righteous?
The Lord says, be still. Remember, one sin condemns you. Be still and know that I am God. Well, then what are we to do?
What are we to do? You say, well, all my striving
then is in vain, is it? All my work, all my busyness
is in vain. It's not helping me. What am I to do? What am I to
do? Well, the answer is here again.
Be still and know that I am God. Remember that He is God. and therefore He can do all that
we need. He can do all that we need. You cannot make yourself righteous,
no you can't, but He is God and He can. You cannot wipe your
sin away, no, but He is God, He can. You see, He is God. Be still. And where are we to
be still, to find that blessing? Sit still at the foot of the
cross of Christ. Be still at the foot of Calvary. Be still there and look up. And
what do we see on that cross? Be still and look, for there
we see the suffering Saviour. There we see the Lamb of God,
the sacrifice, paying for the sins of His Church. There we
see Him dying, washing away the sins, past sins that we mourn
over, present sins and future sins. thus we sadly will commit,
the Lord paying the price and finishing and completing a work
of salvation. Be still and know that He is
God. Those sins which you're trying
to hide, those sins that you're trying to forget, look at the
cross, for there the price is paid. There the work is finished. Be still and look on that Son
of God. For there also is perfect righteousness. You're striving to make yourself
righteous. Be still, for there is righteousness. Look up to Him. He is perfection. He has never sinned. He has kept
the law like we never could. And He, through His grace, clothes
us in His perfection. so that our sin is removed and
it's as if we lived that perfect life ourselves. Be still and
know that He is God and that He is able to forgive and that
He is able to clothe us with righteousness. Be still at the
foot of the cross, not busy trying to make yourself what you never
can make yourself to be. Be still and look to Him. Remember
that I am God. But also I believe this word
could be, be still and in being still, you will prove that I
am God. Be still and you will know that
I am God. You will prove Him. If we by
His grace are brought to be still, to look to Him, to yield, as
it were, ourselves, to give up in ourselves, to give up in our
striving, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. If we're
brought there, then we will prove that He is God, and that He is
able to save, and He is willing to save. Be still at the foot
of the cross, and there you will prove the power and the grace
of God. Here is the answer, and here
is the blessing that we need. Are you searching for it? Are
you striving for it in your own strength? Oh, how the Lord blesses
us by grace, by his own merit, not through what we earn. Be
still, he says, and know that I am God. Finally then, are we
busy? Worrying about the future path.
Worrying about the future. What should I do may be your
question. What path should I take? What
decision should I make? Which way should I go? And maybe you're so desperate as
it were, saying I need direction. I need a word from the Lord.
I need a clear revelation of what I should do. And maybe you
come in, even here, maybe this evening even, you come in and
you're hanging on every word. Is that a word of direction?
Is that a word of direction? Does that mean something? Does
that indicate something else? And you're hanging on every word
and you're reading things into every circumstance, into everything. What could that mean? Or what
could that mean? And you're busy, as it were,
trying to work it all out, trying to work out what the Lord might
be saying, reading into things. And you're not having what you
expected. You're not having what you have
desired. Where is the word? Where is the
direction? Where is the direction even from
the ministry and the pulpit? hanging on every word, but the
Lord says, be still. Be still. Stop for a moment. Stop and sit. And remember, I am God. I am your God. Remember, I know
where you are, and I know what is right and where you will be,
remember and listen to me. Listen to me. You see, we can
often be so taken up in expecting certain words or certain direction
or certain things that we don't stop and listen to what God is
saying. Listen to me and follow me, he says, follow me. Go where
I lead. Go where I command. Go where
I go. Go with me. And what he says
then, do it. Do it. You see, we may be so
busy, as it were, wondering what the Lord's will is for us, that
we're not willing just to sit still and hear simply what the
Lord will say, to step back, and see what is the Lord doing?
Step back and see how is the Lord leading? And variably we
find that we can see what the Lord would have us do. Be still,
sit still, and know that I am God. Remember, he who calls,
he who has called, and he who blesses is God. And as we look to Him and as
we trust Him by His grace, we prove that He is God and that
He is with us. Think of that occasion when Peter
saw the Lord walking on the ways of the storm. And Peter says,
bid me, Lord, if you would come out. And the Lord says, come. Peter steps out of the ship and
stands on the raging waves, and he walks on the water towards
the Lord, and he then looks around him, sees the wind, or hears
the wind, sees the waves, sees the water, and he begins to sink. And he
begins to cry out. He fears he will drown. He fears
he'll be lost. He can feel his desperate state
and he cries out, Lord, save me. He looks again to the Lord
and cries out to him. The Lord reaches down and lifts
him up. Tonight are you like that. The
Lord has said, come. The Lord has called you. The
Lord has bid you step out of the ship. Step towards him. Go where he is. Go where he leads. And then you've looked about.
And you've seen the ways. You've seen the difficulty. You've
seen the opposition. You've seen the apparent impossibilities. And you've seen the different
ways that you may have to go. And you've seen, perhaps, the
views and opposition of others. And you've seen your own sin
and your own hardness of heart. And you fear your fall. And you've looked about you,
and you've started to sink. Because all these other things
have crowded in. All these other worries have
taken over your mind and your heart. And the Lord now says,
be still. Sit still. Because it says he looked to
the Lord Jesus Christ, he walked on that water towards him. And
it's as you look to the Lord Jesus Christ, as you are still
focusing on him, that he will give you the strength, the grace,
the boldness you need to take that step forward again. Be still, he says, be still. Or may the Lord bring us there.
May the Lord bring us to look to him, to let go of ourselves,
and look unto the Lord alone, and in being still, not only
remember he is God, but prove that he is our God, and he will
bless us. Be still, he says, and know that
I am God. May God add his blessing tonight.