Go ahead and turn with me to
1 Samuel chapter 22. Continuing our study in this
Old Testament book. We'll begin in verse 6 this evening. Let me say this while you're
turning. In the time of trouble, man naturally
looks for a place of safety. You know, in a storm, You run
to shelter and in time of war, you look for a strong place of
defense. But when wrath and judgment for
sin come, where are we going to run? You know, that's a very
urgent question. Where are we going to go? Different
people run to different things. But the question of all questions
is where will you and I seek refuge? The title of the message
tonight is Refuge in Christ. I think you'll see why I titled
it that as we get into the study. If there be any uncertainty as
to where we ought to run, I hope that the Lord will be pleased
to reveal to us again tonight that it's to Christ and Him alone.
Where else would we go? That's what Peter asked the Lord. Many left the Lord Jesus as He
preached the Gospel. And He said, will you leave Me
also, talking to His disciples and Peter? Oh, I love what Peter
said, where else would we go, Lord? You have the words to eternal
life. And that's all God's people say. Where else would we go? No place
else for us to go. No one else that can help us.
Verse 6, when Saul heard that David was discovered, And you
know we've looked at this in detail. David was on the run
from King Saul who sought to kill him. When David was discovered
and the men that were with him, then we're given here a side
note in parenthesis which says, Now Saul abode in Gibeah under
a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants
were standing about him. I pictured this in my mind's
eye several times. Saul is in Gibeah. This is his
hometown and this is his home base, so to speak. And he's sitting
idle under a tree. He's sitting, but he's not resting. You know, there's a big difference.
You can be sitting and not at all resting. He grips his spear
even while he's seated. It's a symbol of fear and violence. And this is not a picture of
a competent king ruling a secure kingdom. This is an image of
a paranoid ruler who's traded faith for fear. What's the opposite
of faith? Fear. And the opposite of fear
is faith. In our text, King Saul sits sulking,
and as we read this, you'll kind of see, it's kind of like the
old children's rhyme parody in so many words, declares, you
remember this as a kid, nobody loves me, everybody hates me.
Guess I'll go eat worms. Well, that's kind of how Saul
is acting here. He's acting like a child. He's
sitting here holding his spear, which has become very familiar
to those around him. It represents not his authority
as king, but his violent and unstable temperament. We know
of at least two times mentioned in the scripture where he sought
to take David's life by throwing his spear at him. David narrowly
escaping. I say narrowly, might as well
miss by a thousand miles because God was protecting David. He
rules, Saul rules by force, not by favor. His servants stand
with him here out of obligation, out of fear and desire for gain
and promotion, not devotion. Look at verse 7. Then Saul said
unto his servants that stood about him, Here now, ye Benjamites,
with the son of Jesse, speaking of David, will he give every
one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of
thousands and captains of hundreds? that all of you have conspired
against me, and there's none that showeth me that my son,
that being Jonathan, hath made a league with David the son of
Jesse, and there is none of you that feel sorry for me, or showeth
unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me to lie
in wait, as it is this day. Saul's paranoia here is so strong
that he suspects his closest man. And this contrasts in comparison
with David, whose men, who as you remember according to verse
2, were the distressed and the indebted and the discontented,
gather and follow him willingly. Notice what Saul does there in
verse 7. He endeavors to manipulate his
men with fear and bribery. Being insecure and paranoid,
Saul endeavors to bribe loyalty in his men by promising them
wealth and riches. He appeals to their tribal loyalty,
so to speak. He calls them Benjamites. And Saul himself was of the house
of Benjamin. He was of the tribe of Benjamin.
And he reminds them of their shared identity. He, like, shames
them. And he says, we're all Benjamites. We're all in this together. Why
would you do this to me? He offers them rewards. He promises
to give them lands and vineyards and wealth and promotion and
positions of power. And then he hints at the same
time that David wouldn't do this for you. The son of Jesse wouldn't
do this for you. He's trying to buy loyalty by
pointing out the benefits of sticking with him rather than
siding with David. And Saul's manipulation here
is out of self-interest. You know, it almost always is. Self-interest. David doesn't
promise his men wealth or power. He gives them refuge and he gives
them leadership. And what a pitcher he is of our
Lord Jesus. Hadn't we seen that so clearly
in these studies? David points to God, not to himself. That's what men of God do. That's
what preachers do. That's what preachers ought to
do. They ought to point men to Christ, saying, don't look to
me, look to Him that's high and lifted up. The poison of ass, the poison
of the serpents has penetrated you and flowing through your
bloodstream. Look to that serpent of brass
like Moses held up the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that
can deliver you from your sin. David points to God, not to sin.
He offers security under God's providence and protection. David serves. He doesn't manipulate. By the way, he conducts himself,
his men see, and they know that he has God's favor. And they
follow him, and they're loyal to him. David builds by faith,
not fear. His men will become mighty, not
because of wealth, not because of what he gives them, not because
of loyalty born out of shared, but out of loyalty and shared
suffering with the Lord Jesus Christ. They know David's situation
and they willingly join themselves to him. And they say to him,
we're in this together. Saul's leadership mirrors that
way of the world and the way of this world's religion. Let's
just be honest about it. That being fear and bribery and
empty promises. You know, to many today, that's
the appeal of false religion. Health, wealth, and everything's
gonna be better. You come to Jesus and you'll
have a better life. You'll have a better marriage.
You'll have a better career. You'll have a healthy and wealthy
existence. But David's leadership points
to Christ. He gathers the broken. He gives them refuge. He leads
by sacrificial care. Is that not what our Lord does?
Saul's way and David's way shows us the difference between the
kingdom of man and the kingdom of God. Big difference. Big difference
and ultimately pointing us to Christ, who is the true King.
Serve this King, serve this King. He's out to do you good. He's working all things together
for your good. And he does, he does. Our Lord
stands for the weak. He bears their burden. He becomes
their safeguard. We'll see that word in the last
verse of the chapter. It means preservation. It means
to be kept. How do I know that I'm going
to endure to the end? Those that endure to the end
to be saved, that's what the Lord said. How do I know I'm
going to be one of those? Because I'm kept by the power
of God. It's not because of my great
faith or any great thing that I've done. It's by the mercy,
the undeserved favor and merit of God that I'm kept. He saved
me by His grace, Jeff, and He keeps me by His grace. And that's
my hope. That's my confidence. He's going
to keep me until the end. Those that endure to the end
be saved. And having loved His own which were in the world,
He loved them until the end. That's our hope. That's our assurance.
We don't come to Christ for what He can give us in this world. We come because He's the only
refuge that we have. He's the only one who can save
our souls. Whose kingdom are we following?
Saul or David's? The worlds or God's? Are we chasing
worldly rewards that will pass away? Or are we resting in the
refuge of Jesus Christ? Somebody asked Brother Winford
one time. You know, he was telling him that, well, I guess he asked
him, but he was telling Brother Winford how because of his religion
and all, that he'd be living in a mansion in glory, and Brother
Winford would be living in a little log cabin on the backside of
heaven. And Brother Winford said, will Christ be there? And he
said, well, yeah. He said, that's all that matters
to me. It doesn't matter to me if I'm in a cabin or in a mansion
of glory, as long as Christ be there. That's what heaven is,
being forever with Christ. Whose kingdom are we in? Paul
wrote in Colossians chapter three, verse two, set your affection
on things above, not on the things of the earth. Everything on this
earth, whatever it may be, it's gonna rust, it's gonna corrupt,
it can be stolen, it can be taken away. Look at verse eight. Saul goes
on to say, all of you conspired against me and there's none that
showeth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse
and there's none of you that is sorry for me. Why, why, why? None of you that showeth unto
me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me to lie
in wait as this day. And Saul imagines a conspiracy
here where none exist. Paranoid is what we call it.
His mind is darkened by jealousy. Fear of losing his throne misinterprets
loyalty to David as treachery against him. It's imagined. And I was thinking, oh, how sin
and jealousy and insecurity can twist a person's thinking instead
of reasoning. Suspicion governs them. Pity
and victimhood take possession. Nobody loves me. Everybody hates
me. So I'll say none of you feel
sorry for me. These are the words of a man
wrapped in self-pity. Rather than seeking God's guidance,
Saul demands sympathy and loyalty from his men. And this shows
how pride can make someone totally blind to the truth and concerned
only with self-preservation. This world's a whole lot bigger
than us. A whole lot bigger than us. Saul accuses Jonathan His
son, he accuses Jonathan and David of conspiring against him
when they had done no such thing. They both remained very faithful
to him. This is all imagined in his mind.
You know, the mind can play some horrible tricks on us. Causes
sin. Sin's the reason. Hardened hearts
often lead to suspicion, false accusations, injustice. broken relationships. And again,
in David, we see how godly leadership inspires true loyalty. Ungodly leadership produces fear,
suspicion, and betrayal. May God enable us, dear friends,
to guard our heart against envy and fear. They always lead us to see enemies
that don't exist. And besides that, if God be for
us, who can be against us? A true leader relies on God for
security, not on the manipulation of others. And if we are rejected,
and if we are threatened, we just simply trust God's purpose.
My God's on the throne. My God is my father. He's gonna see no harm comes
to me. Oh, I may experience trouble because it's through much tribulation
that we enter the kingdom of God, but He's working all things,
all things, all things together for my good and for His glory. And therefore, I can trust in
Him and Him alone. He's provided for me the one
thing needful, and that's Christ, who is that one thing needful.
David was secure in his father's love. Our Lord never grasped
for power. He humbled himself under the
mighty hand of God, and God exalted him in due time. You know, God
did the same for you. Hadn't he? He sure has. David gave himself instead of
demanding pity, and that's how Christ saved us from our sin.
Our Lord never expected anyone to feel sorry for him. Matter
of fact, he felt sorry for those who crucified him. Isn't that
something? He said, weep not for me, but
weep for yourselves. Weep for yourself. Saul was rightly accused and
he cried out for pity. Our Lord Jesus was falsely accused
and he kept silent. And by His silence, His people
were made righteous. You know, when the Lord remained
silent before Pilate, you know, Pilate told Him, said, don't
you know who I am? Don't you know what power I've
got? I've got the power to let you
go free or to crucify you. And the Lord said, no, you don't
have any power at all that my Father in heaven didn't give
to you. And the Lord remained silent, friends, because He was
standing in our room instead. You and I were guilty. And as
our substitute and our sacrifice and our surety and our security,
He didn't speak a word because we were guilty. Where Saul sought to save his
throne, Christ left His throne to save His people. Big difference. Isn't that something? David was the king that Saul
could never be, and Christ is the king that David could never
be, but David very well pictures Christ, our great king. Now let's
read a few verses here, beginning in verse nine. Then answered
Doeg, the Edomite. You remember Doeg? He was the
one that was there that day that David came to Himalaya and got
the bread and took Goliath's sword. And then answered Doeg
the Edomite, which was said over the servants of Saul, and said,
I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Himalek, the son of
the Hi-tube. And he inquired of the Lord for
him, and gave him vittles, gave him food. God actually gave him
shewbread, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. And
then the king, being Saul, sent to call Ahimelech the priest,
the son of Ahitub, and of all his father's house, the priests
that were in Nab. And they came, all of them, to
the king. And Saul said, here now, thou son of Ahitub. And he answered, here am I, my
lord. And Saul said unto him, why have you conspired against
me? thou and the son of Jesse, in
that thou has given him bread and a sword and has inquired
of God for him that he should rise against me to lie in wait
as of this day." His paranoia continues. Everybody's against
me. Everybody's out to do me in.
And then Ahimelech answered the king and said, and who is so
faithful among thy servants as David? King Saul, he's not out to conspire
against you. He's faithful to you. And who
but the king's son-in-law that goeth at thy bidding and is honorable
in thy house? Did I then begin to inquire of
God for him, be it far from me? Let not the king impute anything
unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father. For thy
servant knew nothing of all this, less or more." If he's out to
conspire against you, I didn't know it. He said he was here
to do your bidding, that he was out on a secret errand of yours. And the king said, Thou shalt
surely die, Elimelech, thou and all thy father's house. And the
king said unto the footman that stood about him, Turn and slay
the priest of the Lord, because their hand also is with David,
and because they knew when he fled and did not show it to me.
But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand
to fall upon the priest of the Lord." We're not going to do
it. We fear God too much to do it.
We serve God, not you. And the king said to Doeg, Turn
thou and fall upon the priest. And Doeg, the Edomite, turned
and he fell upon the priest and slew on that day four score and
five persons that did wear a linen ephod. Ephod, the priest. Eighty-five. Slew them. Killed
them. And Nob, he didn't stop for them.
The city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword.
Now look at this. Both men and women and children
and sucklings. Little babies. And oxen and asses
and sheep with the edge of the sword. Now, after reading those verses,
It's in every one of us, if we're honest with ourselves, to ask,
how could this have happened? How could this have happened?
I say that a lot. There was a young man killed
today, assassinated. And the first thing that entered
my mind was, how could that have happened? I want to just briefly
comment on that. When it comes to these priests,
it was prophesied that this would happen back in chapter 2 of 1
Samuel. You remember when Samuel told
Eli that none of his descendants would be priests because of his
disobedience? He had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
and they were making mockery of the priesthood, and Eli just
kind of turned his eye to it. The Lord appeared to Samuel and
told him, you tell Eli, I'm done. None of his descendants will
ever be priests again. They'll all be cut off. They'll
all be killed. That's exactly what happened
right here. The Lord started with his two sons, killed them. Eli died, and then Abathar, being
the last in Eli's line to serve is spared. But all the other
85 priests were killed. Abiathar, as we'll see, served
through David's reign, but Solomon later removed him from the priesthood,
and the priesthood continued through the line of Eleazar,
Aaron's other son. So that prophecy came true. Anything
that the Lord prophesies or says is gonna happen is gonna come
true. And this atrocious act was first caused by disobedience. That's what I want you to see.
Sin and disobedience to God is always the cause. How could God
let this happen? You know, when we think that
way, you know what we're doing? We're sitting in judgment of
God. We're saying that we wouldn't
have done that. Well, I wouldn't have done that. We're saying
that we know better than God. We're becoming God's judge. When
it came to the sovereignty of God, Paul anticipated what the
unbeliever would say. The unbeliever is going to say,
why does he, God, yet find fault? If everything happens according
to His will, how then can God punish someone who's doing exactly
what God purposed them to do? Why doth He yet bind Paul? God's holy. That's something we don't know
anything about. We don't. Something we don't understand.
We don't understand what God's doing. But He does. So if He allowed this to happen,
He has a holy and wise purpose for it. Now, we don't know what
it is. And God's not obligated to tell
us. What are we to do? To bow and to trust. To trust and to bow. To say God's
on His throne. does what he wills in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him what he's doing now, because he always
does what's best. Yep, the Lord told Eli this was
gonna happen, and it did. And it was because of Eli's sin
and disobedience, and it was because of Saul's sin and disobedience,
and it was because of Doeg's sin and disobedience, and yes,
It was because of David's lie to Elimelech. God has a holy
and a just reason for everything that he does. Help me, Lord,
to bow to it, whatever it is. If it has to do with me, my family,
you, your family, help us, Lord, to bow to what you do. Even when
we don't understand it, which is pretty much all the time.
God's glory is that He brings good out of evil. Always. The most evil thing that ever
took place is here when men... In the Old Testament, one of
the most horrific stories is right here before us. Eighty-five
priests slain. But the most evil thing that
ever took place in time was when men, by their wicked hands, took
and murdered the Son of God by nailing Him to a cross. And yet
God calls it to be the best thing that ever took place. For it was to save much people
alive, just as all the injustice that was done to Joseph. His
brothers threw him in a pit, he was sold into prison, he was
thrown into Served in Potiphar's house. He was accused of making
advances to Potiphar's wife. He was thrown in prison. And
then God took him out of prison and put him on the throne of
Egypt. And what did Joseph say to his
brothers? You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. That's
all that matters. God meant it for good. To save
much people alive. Thank God that he's in control. I wouldn't have it any other
way. And I grow tired of men that say, God's trying to do
this, and God wants to do this, and won't you let Jesus have
His way in your life? How am I going to do that? He's
God. He does what He wills. All things,
He works after the counsel of His own will. We don't understand
all the things that seem terrible to us, but God does. So when
things like this take place, Thou, and we say, not my will,
not our will be done, but Thou, Thou will be done. We sing that hymn, This is My
Father's World. There's a line in that hymn that
says, that though the wrong seems oft so strong, and it does, doesn't
it? God is the ruler yet. God's in control. Here we see
something of the darkness of man's rebellion and sin. This
is one of the darkest episodes in Israel's history. And it was
all brought about when sin and fear and jealousy and cruelty
takes over the heart of a man. Sin escalates cruelty. Saul's own men refuse to murder
God's priests. And then this evil Doeg steps
forward and slaughters 85 priests. And going even further, he wipes
out the whole town of Nob. Men, women, children, infants,
and even animals. This is sin at its ugliest. I've heard men say, I've said
it myself in times past, well, I'm not perfect, but I'm not
all that bad. I've come to see different. If
God would draw his hand and lead me to myself, I'm capable of
doing anything and everything. The worst of the worst. The darkness of sin spreads. It doesn't stop just at injustice. It spills over into reckless
destruction. Sin never stays contained, left
unchecked. It multiplies and consumes everything
around it. That's what happened here. Just
as Doeg betrayed David, Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus is the true rejected priest. And Ahimelech, the priest,
was innocent, but he was slaughtered. And Christ, the true high priest
and king, was condemned, though innocent, being crucified for
the sins of others. Unlike Nob, where destruction
reigned at Calvary, destruction was undone. Christ bore the weight of sin's
darkness. And by His death and His burial
and His resurrection, Christ proved that sin doesn't have
the last word. Our story reveals the suffering
of the innocent. Eighty-five priests are slaughtered,
though innocent. Christ, the innocent one, laid
down His life voluntarily to bear our sin. In a world of injustice,
Christ entered into that injustice, and He Himself suffered for sin
that He did not commit. You know who committed it. You
did, and I did. Now, beginning in verse 20, we
have one of the most beautiful pictures of the gospel. Verse
20, and one of the sons of Amalek, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar,
escaped and fled after David. Now let me ask you a question. Was he lucky? Huh? Was he lucky that he got
away, that he escaped? No. People today say he was blessed. You know, everything's blessed
today. We have blessed days and everything's blessed. Sneeze,
bless you. Was he fortunate? Well, I could
say that, I guess, but we know what was behind it, don't we?
God was behind it. The mercy and grace of God was
behind it. Eighty-five priests killed, one
escaped. A whole town slaughtered, one
man escaped. Where does he run? Where does
he go? To the anointed one. Was there anything good done
by this man, Abiathar, to deserve this mercy? No. If so, it wouldn't be mercy. Mercy's undeserved favor. Abiathar himself later proved
to be disloyal, and Solomon removed him from the priesthood, which
fulfilled Samuel's prophecy to Eli. But this man's escape here
in our story was by the mercy and the grace of God. So was
ours. So was ours. Verse 21, and Abiathar
showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priest. And look at
what David says in verse 22. And David said unto Abiathar,
I knew it. I knew it that day when Doeg
the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, and look
what he says, I have occasioned the death of all the persons
of thy father's house. In other words, It's all my fault. It's all my fault. You remember
when the Lord revealed Himself to you and you saw your sin?
What did you say? You didn't blame it on anybody
else, did you? You said, it's all my fault.
I'm the one sinning against God. It's all my fault. And you know
David must have felt great guilt. Can you imagine? It was through
his lie that these priests lost their life. And again, we see
that sin can have devastating consequences. Because of David's
sin, everybody in Nob died. Because of Adam's sin, friends,
the whole world died spiritually. Wherefore is by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, did you hear that? Sin's
not just something that God lightly deals with. Wages of sin is death. By one man, Adam, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, all women, everybody, for that all have sinned. We can't blame it on Adam. We
had our part in it. David no doubt felt great guilt
and shame, but we can't even imagine the guilt and shame that
our Lord Jesus felt when with all the sins of all His people
throughout all time was put upon Him. Oh, we're in deep ground
there. We're on holy ground there. And
that's why We, by God's mercy and grace, look unto Jesus, who's
the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that
was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. That's
why we look to Him. That's why we trust Him, because
He did for us what we couldn't do. He kept God's law perfectly. He satisfied God's justice perfectly. We couldn't do that. We couldn't
keep the first of ten commandments, much less all the law. And in
order for God to accept it, it's got to be perfect to be accepted.
How are we going to do that? I'm not going to argue with you about
you not being perfect, but not all that bad, because you're
all that bad and worse. That's what God said, not me.
And he's talking about me when he said it too. Verse 23, abide
thou with me. Aren't those precious words?
The king, the anointed king says, abide thou with me. Fear not. For he that seeketh
my life, seeketh thy life. But with me, Thou shalt be in
safeguard. There's that word. That's a precious
word. Abiathar had lost everything.
Everything. His family, his fellow priests,
his friends, his security. But there was a refuge to be
found in God's anointing. This points us again to Christ,
the greater David, God's chosen king of kings. He's a king of
kings. David, the anointed king, promises
Abiathar safety and refuge. Christ promises the same to all
who come to him. And then what did he say? He
said, come unto me, and I'll give you rest. You can't have
true rest until you see that you've got security. Until you
see that you, that He, Christ, is a refuge in the time of storm.
He's a shelter in the time of storm. And here we see our union
in suffering and our union in life with Christ. David tells
Abiathar that the same enemy who sought his life also sought
David's life. To be with David meant to share
in his sufferings. He said, the same one that's
out to kill you, the same one that would have killed you before
you fled to me is out to kill me too. You see, in the gospel,
believers are called to share in Christ's sufferings. Philippians
1.29, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on him, but to also suffer for his sake. Romans
8, 17, and the children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be also glorified together. Now listen, this light
affliction that we suffer doesn't even compare. We talked about
that some Sunday. but it doesn't even compare to
the glory that we're gonna share with Him. To share in Christ's
suffering means that we'll also share in His victory and in His
glory. And here we see the security
that we have in the King's presence. Though danger surrounded them,
David assured Abiathar, he said, with me, thou shalt be in safeguard. You're going to be protected.
You're going to be preserved. You're going to be kept and no
harm will come to you. Christ promises the same thing
to those who believe and trust in him. Even in a world filled
with enemies, filled with sin, filled with death. He said, your
life is hid with God in Christ. Paul said that in Colossians
3. Your life is hid with Christ in God. When a sinner abides
in Christ, what is there for them to fear? What is there for you and I to
fear? Death. That's a promotion. That's a
departure. That's leaving a world of sin
and going into glory where Christ is. We have nothing to fear. He's
our only place of safeguard and safety. He's our only refuge
from sin. And all of God's mercy, all of
God's grace, all of God's forgiveness, all of it, all of God's favor
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, David here assumed responsibility
for Abiathar's safety. He said, I'll take care of you.
We're in this together. Our great shepherd does the same
for his sheep. We're safe in the shepherd's
fold. We sing that little chorus. Under the blood of Jesus, safe
in the shepherd's fold. We are safe. I'm safe. Everything's going to be all
right. Christ, our Savior, substituted sacrifice, takes responsibility
for His people before God. We can rest in the words of our
Lord, who said, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish. Never. You're never going to
perish. Christ gives you eternal life.
You will never perish. Neither shall any man pluck you
out of God's hand. No man's able to. Who's gonna
pluck you out of God's hand? Huh? You can't jump out either. He said, my Father which gave
them me. Did you hear that? God gave Christ
to us. He's my refuge. He's my security. He's my shepherd. He's greater
than all. Than all? Yes, than all. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. And then He said, I and my Father
are one. Jesus Christ is God. With Him
is our shepherd. With Him is our security. With
Him is our refuge. We have nothing to worry about. So don't. It's easier said than
done, isn't it? Lord, help us not to worry and
fret and fear. Now, man's sin brings destruction,
but God provides refuge where? In His anointed kingdom. That's
where we've got to get to. We've got to flee to Christ.
Not a one-time thing either. To whom coming? We talked about
that. We come and we keep coming. I haven't come today, I've got
to come tomorrow, I've got to come the next day. To whom coming? We flee to Christ, God's anointed
One, for in Him, in Him alone is refuge, safety, and life forevermore. I don't suppose I ever heard
such good news as that. That's why we call it the Gospel,
isn't it? Good news for sinners. Good news
for centers. Amen.