I'm just thrilled to be here
again. It's always good to be with you. We were talking about it before. September will be five years
since I first came out here. I think you've expanded at least
once, if not twice, since then. Right there in the back. And everyone in Kingsport sends
their greetings, particularly Cody and Luke and Gabe and his
family, of course. Gabe was at the conference with
Kevin this weekend. So there were Frank and Gabe
and Kevin were all at Fred Evans. And I'm out here. Luke went to
Frank's and Tony Moody. I don't know if y'all have met
him. helping Gabe out this evening. We're thankful the Lord's given
that congregation the ability to help, to send men out and
come. So thankful to Kevin for entrusting
me with y'all's message this morning. It's a great honor. Open with me to Isaiah chapter
32, please. Isaiah 32. Of course, Kevin and
I spoke a couple of times about me coming out, and during our talks, life would
come up, you know, what's going on, you know, what are you dealing
with, that kind of stuff. And during one of those conversations,
it just struck me at how vast the differences are of things
we have to deal with between the East Coast and the West Coast,
particularly with weather. He mentioned that he was having
trouble with his tomato plants. And if he didn't water them at
least twice a day, they died. He had to be, he was like, it's
almost to the hour. I have to go out and make sure
my tomato plants are watered. That same week, I was having
trouble with my tomato plants as well. We had gotten so much
rain. I think I lost them all, root
rot. Too wet, too dry, altogether
unfruitful. Kind of sums up mankind's condition
before God. We're too dry, made hard, hard
in self-righteousness, lifted up in pride. Like Paul said in Philippians,
blameless before the law. Well, if I'm blameless before
the law, I can judge you as being not blameless. So whatever my
definition of blameless is, obviously you're not going to meet that.
I'm hard. Or, we're too wet. Having no
fear of the Lord, Accepting of everything. I remember a dear
lady I grew up near. She knew nothing of the gospel. But she had a saying, we're all
going to heaven, we're just taking different paths to get there. To what? Accept everything. Everything's okay. In either case, too dry or too
wet, there's no fruit. Without care, without provision,
the tomato plant perishes. So it is with all of us born
of Adam, if we do not find mercy and grace before Almighty God,
we will perish in our sin and unbelief. Isaiah 32, verse 1. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. In our text,
verse 2. And a man shall be as an hiding
place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land. As I am called to go and fill
in at a pulpit, Sometimes I know things that
are going on at the church, sometimes I don't. But as I search for a message,
I'm searching for a message for the people there. And I didn't know if you had
particular needs. So I thought, what do I need? And the thought occurred to me,
I need a refuge. And our message this morning
is Christ our refuge. Verse two, and amen. What a glorious declaration and
announcement. Who is this man that is a hiding
place, a covering, who meets all our needs and gives us rest? Who is this man that, in summary,
is our refuge? This man is the Lord Jesus Christ,
God the Son, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and
took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men. the Lord Jesus Christ, a man
is the ever-living Almighty God robed in flesh. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God, the Almighty, the
ever-living, the Almighty God, the self-sufficient God, left
the glory and praise of heaven. The God who Solomon declared,
the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, humbled
himself and robed himself in the flesh of a man. Why? The answer is from our text.
A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from
the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow
of a great rock in a weary land. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
man, the only man, who fulfills this scripture. In this life
there are men and women who have a need of a hiding place from
the wind. This word translated wind here
is most often translated as the word spirit. One of the definitions
of spirit being the God the Spirit. Why would a man or woman today
need a hiding place from the Spirit of God? I mean, everywhere
we look, everywhere we hear, this is the God of love. He accepts everyone and everything.
Why do you need a hiding place from Him? Well, indeed, we worship the
God of love. He's called that in the Scriptures. But that's one of His attributes.
God is holy. He's altogether different than
we are. He's holy. He's righteous. He's just. He's right. And if we're to worship Him,
we're going to worship Him as He declares Himself to be, and
not pick and choose That's no God. We worship the
one true and living God. Who is titled the God of love? Why do I need a hiding place
for Him? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All gets this one All, not some. In Noah's day,
imagination of every man's heart, evil continually. Does it say except for Noah?
No, Noah was included in that all. I'm included in that all. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Anyone to whom God is pleased
to reveal who he is, who he is as he declares himself to be,
will also have revealed, I am the sinner, as if there were
no other. There is no other sinner. I'm
one. I don't do just bad things. I
am sin full, full of sin to my very core and will also have
revealed that God is just and He must punish sinners. Knowing that, Do you need a hiding
place from the searching Spirit of God? The God who knows the
heart of men and women? The God who looks upon the heart,
not only outward countenance. He looks upon the heart and He
has declared every imagination of the thoughts of His heart
was only evil continually. I have good news for those needing
a hiding place. A man shall be as a hiding place
from the wind. Why did God come in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ? He came to be a covert from the
tempest. He came to be a shelter. He came
to be a covering from the tempest, a flood of rain. When was that
flood? when the judgment of God came
upon this world. Flood of rain. Do you, as I do,
need a covering from the judgment of God that stands against us?
We read, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
written within the book of the law to do them. My conscience
bears witness against me. I'm guilty. I can't do the least
of the things written in this book, much less keep them all. In and of myself, when the book
of the law is open, when the justice, righteousness, and holiness
of God stands looking at the works that this worm has performed,
the judgment must be guilty. Where shall I turn? When I've
broken the law, when I've been pursued, when the king against
whom I have sinned has me in his court. When the sentence,
or when the verdict come in, guilty on all accounts. When the sentence is death, when
destruction is pitted against me. Oh, that I might find a covert,
a hiding place, a shelter from the tempest. And a man shall
be as a covert from the tempest." Why did Christ Jesus come into
the world? He came because there are some
who are in a dry and weary land. There are some that God has revealed
to, and oh, thank God, is still revealing to this day, our natural
condition. He has made us to know that in
and of ourselves we have no life. and no means to obtain life,
that we are under the curse of the law without a place to find
rest. Search and work as we might,
do as many what we consider good deeds as we can. We cannot get
away from the crushing weight of the law, the crushing load
of our sin against God. We can find no place of rest
no water to quench our thirst. But, oh, thank God, a man shall
be as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. Why did our Lord come into the
world? Turn with me, hold your place
here if you want, and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Our Lord came. He is our hiding
place from the wind, our covert from the tempest, our rivers
of water in a dry place, and our shadow of a great rock in
a weary land. He came to fulfill that scripture. Why did our Lord come into the
world? First and foremost, for the glory
of God. Ephesians 1 verse 4, According as He, our God, hath
chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the blood." Why did God predestinate us unto the adoption of children?
To the praise of the glory of His grace. Verse 7. in whom, in our Lord Jesus Christ,
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure. which he
hath purposed in himself. That in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ. Why do we have redemption through
His blood? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. He gets all the glory. Having established that our Lord
came into the world to accomplish the glory of God, Why else might
he come? For the great need that we have. We guilty, undeserving sinners
cannot obtain peace with God of our own accord. But there's a problem. Just because
there's a need doesn't necessitate action. Think of the needs that we encounter
in this world. Well, we know strangers that
have needs. That doesn't prompt us to go
out and meet their needs. We have friends and neighbors
that have needs. Some might prompt us to go out
and do, but for the most part, we're like, yeah, you've got
needs and I've got needs and we got to take care of our stuff. Their needs don't necessarily
prompt action on our part. We were talking about children
between the service. Go to a restaurant with your
child, and there's a stranger there with their child. During
the course of the meal, your child and the stranger's child
Do the exact same action at the exact same time. This is an action,
this is an event you've declared unacceptable
in your household. Under your law, you shall not
do what you just did. And because your child did it,
you discipline your child and say absolutely nothing to that
stranger's child. Why? You love your child. You want the best for your child.
You're teaching your child. Stranger's child? You have no
love for that child. Do what you will. As our love prompts us to act
for our children, so did God's love prompt Him into action for
those that He chose in eternity past. Therefore, God the Father
chose those He loves in Christ, and He gave us to His Son. in Christ, and He adopted us
as children in Christ. We were given to God the Son
in all our sin and all our shame, and He redeemed us by making
peace by the redemption of His blood. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ,
God the Son, leave glory and come as a man? To glorify the
Father and to fulfill the need of all those He loves. Now how did Christ become what
we elect sinners need? How did He become a hiding place
from the wind, from the Spirit of God? A covert from the tempest? rivers of water in a dry place,
and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land? Because no man
born of Adam is able or willing to keep the law. But Christ our
Lord, the seed of woman, the Son of God, He did not inherit
the nature of the seed of Adam, but He is holy, harmless, undefiled,
And as a man, he fulfilled all things written in the Law of
Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms. Having fulfilled
the Law, not for his own righteousness, but for those he loves, our Lord
took our sin, our iniquity, our shame before God, and he bore
it in his own body on the tree. He shed His blood. He laid down
His life. He paid our debt as His own. He entered the tomb. And when He came forth, He declared,
paid in full. And He ever liveth, making intercession
for those He loves. Back in Isaiah 32. A man shall be as a hiding place
from the wind. Is Christ Jesus your hiding place
from the Spirit of God's scrutiny? When the accusation comes, you,
O.B. Williams, have broken God's law,
you are guilty. Do I have any hiding place? Do
I have any hope This is my hope. This is my confession. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am complete in Him. For I am dead and my life is
hid with Christ in God. It's the only place to hide from
the Spirit of God is in Christ. A man shall be a covert from
the tempest, as it was in the days of Noah when the flood came. Men and women had been warned. Men and women are being warned
today. Judgment is coming. God is on
His throne, and He is the sovereign, holy, righteous God, and He is
coming. Only those in the ark, though,
only those that were put in Christ, were spared the judgment. The
penalty of each person's sins must be paid. Our Lord, Jesus
Christ, upon the cross, he paid the debt due. And for those chosen
sinners who were crucified with him, he bore the penalty of our
sins. A tempest of God fell upon Noah and his family in that ark. Those floods raged upon that
ark. But Noah and his family were
secure. No harm came to them. And Christ, upon that tree, where
He suffered in agony, where He shed His blood, where the wrath of God was poured
out against my sin, He bore that judgment. He bore the wrath of God in my
place so that I was safe in Him. He is our covert from the tempest,
from the judgment of God. A man shall be rivers of water
in a dry place, Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Has God given you that appetite for Him, for Christ? Go to our Lord Jesus Christ,
for He is the water of life. As He cried out in John 7, if
any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water." In Him, just as Noah inside that
ark had everything that he needed to sustain life for as long as
they were in that ark, in our Lord Jesus Christ, we have everything
we need to sustain life For He is our life. A man shall be the shadow of
a great rock in a weary land, from east to west, from north
to south, from dry to wet. In this life, we find constant
need. We're never able to find a place
of rest, as long as we're in this sinful flesh. The longer
we continue, I have found it to be so, and I suspect many
of you have, the longer we continue in this flesh, the more we can
enter into Paul's cry, O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? You desire a rest, a place to
lay aside your burdens? Our Lord declared, Come unto
Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Come. Come to Christ today. Come to Christ as you are. Come
now. and soothe him from mercy, and
find rest for your weary soul. Thanks be to God, when we were
unable, unwilling, He, in loving kindness, saw our need, and He
sent forth a man, the man, Christ Jesus our Lord, our hiding place,
our covert, our life, and our rest. Oh, may this be our prayer. I think Mr. Bob mentioned it
earlier. Lord, keep me coming to you. Amen.