Everyone, open your Bibles, if
you would, to Isaiah chapter 32. Isaiah chapter 32. Isaiah
chapter 32. We'll read the first eight verses.
The name of the message is The Great Rock. The Great Rock. Isaiah 32. As I was in my study today, I
was pondering how many in the congregation are going through
various things right now. Lots of things going on with
various people, and some that people aren't saying anything
about, some things that I know about, and some things I don't
know about. But there's a lot of people in the body here
going through various things in life. And this was just really
laid upon my heart today as I looked at this scripture. And I hope
it will be a comfort to you. It was a comfort as I put the
message together and I pray that it will comfort your heart. Sometimes
messages just flow. Sometimes they just flow. And
this one I had a little difficulty putting together and maybe it's
just thinking more and more about the different verses and about
things that are going on and just really weighed heavy on
my heart that our Lord is a great rock in a weary land. He's a
great rock in a weary land. And think that. We're going through
a weary land right now. Every one of us. This earth is
a weary land. It's a land of woe. It's a land
of woe. And I like what Jerry Dietz told
me today. We were talking and he gave me
a quote. He said, untried faith is unsure
faith. Untried faith is unsure faith. But I'll tell you what, faith
that's tried is sure. And God puts his people through
things. We go through things, don't we?
And let us remember And Drew and I were talking about this
today and it's good for us to remember this. Look back at the
things you've went through and look and remember how many times
the Lord has delivered you and taken care of you and got you
through all those situations. All of them. And beloved, he
still does it today for us. And here, do it all the way for
us to get to glory, and then we'll be with them forever. Okay,
let's look at our text. Isaiah 32, verses 1 to 8. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule on judgment. 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. And the eyes of them that see
shall not be dim. Now remember we were blind. Now
we see, beloved. Now we see. And the ears of them
that hear shall hearken. There was a time when we turned
a deaf ear to the things of Christ, to the scriptures, to the preaching
of the gospel. But now, praise God, we hear. And that's all we want to hear.
Tell me about Christ. Don't tell me about what I've
got to do. Just talk to me about Christ. Tell me about Him. Tell
me what He's done. And I'll rejoice. I'll rejoice. The heart, also the rash, shall
understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerer shall
be ready to speak plainly. And gospel preachers, we preach
the gospel plainly. Plainly. It's a marvelous gospel. It's inexhaustible. But we just
plainly preach Christ and Him crucified. We don't complicate
it. We don't complicate it. If you
flee to Christ, you'll be saved. If you don't flee them, you're
going to perish in your sins. Oh, may God make you willing
to flee to Him. A vile person shall be no more liberal, nor
that Churl said to be bountiful, for the vile person will speak
villainly, and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisy
and utter error against the Lord to make empty the soul of the
hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
The instruments also of the churl are evil. He devises wicked devices
to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh
right, but the liberal devises liberal things, and by the liberal
things shall he stand. But our verse tonight will be
in verse two, right here. And a man shall be in hiding
place from the wind, in a covert from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadows of a great rock in a
weary land. That's our verse right there.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall
rule in judgment. And a man shall be as in a hidden
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. Sorry I got all tongue-tied with
the liberal there. Tonight we'll look at verse 2. Now when we
apply the language of the verse to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
King of Zion, we are struck with a number of metaphors in this
verse. Take note here in this verse,
he's not merely a hiding place from the winds of life. He's
not merely a covert from the storms of life. He's not merely
a river which pictures that he is the water of life, but beloved,
he is a shadow of a great rock. Now if we attempt to set forth
our Lord's glories by earthly analogies, we shall need a host
of them where no one can set forth to perfection because they
are insufficient to display all His loveliness, all the loveliness
of the Lord. And what a blessing it is to
see that our beloved is in this This verse brings forth a many-sided
Christ, one of the old commentators said. And from not all points
of view, he's so beautiful, just like a diamond. When you admire
a diamond from different points of view, it's beautiful. That's
how Christ is. And this verse here brings different
sides of him, right? He's a hiding place from the
wind and a covert from the tempest. as rivers of water in a dry place,
and then as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Spurgeon
said this, he's a many-sided Christ like a diamond. Same Christ,
but here we have four different views of him. Oh, it's wonderful,
beloved. Think upon the fact that he is
spoken of in this verse in different ways, and our needs, each of
our needs are different, aren't they? Each of our needs are different,
yet the same. Yet the same. But we have different
needs as we travel through this world. And then we have different
circumstances as we travel through this world. Different circumstances
as well. But yet all we need, whether
it be in the circumstances or in our needs, is found in Christ. It's all in Him. It's all in
Him. You don't need to look nowhere
else but Christ and Christ alone. And a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as rivers of
water and a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land. We will focus on this portion
of scripture in verse two that proclaims that our great King
is a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And it is He and
He alone who is our confidence. It is He and He alone who is
our trust. It's He and He alone who is our
hope. And it's He and He alone who
is our refuge, isn't it? He's our salvation. He's our
everything. As I've said many times, if you take away Christ
from me or from you who believe, we have nothing. We have nothing.
But oh, what hope we have in Christ. What a Savior we have
in Christ. Everything we need we find in
Him. All that a sinner needs is found in Christ. It's found
in Christ. And note it says here, He's a
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Not just a rock, beloved. Not just a rock. Not just any
rock. He's a great rock. He's set apart. He's set apart. Remember, in our humanity, we're
all a bunch of stones, aren't we? Well, he's a great rock.
He's a lot different than we are. Bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh, yet he's God incarnate in the flesh, beloved. He's a
great rock. He's a great rock. We know that scripture says that
rock that followed the Israelites, that rock is Christ, right? It's
a picture of him, a type of him. And it is he and he alone, again,
who's our confidence. And it is in Him alone that we
rest and repose. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
91. Psalm 91. Where do God's people abide? Well, we see here that God's people beautifully
described as those who abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Under the shadow of the Almighty. And tie that in with what we
see tonight. Our Lord is the shadow of a great rock. He's
a great rock. And we take refuge in the shadow
of that great rock. Look at this in Psalm 91, verses
1 to 4. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide, where? Under the shadow
of the Almighty. Under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress. Can you say that of the Lord?
Can you say as David said, he's my refuge, he's my fortress. And look at this, my God, can
you say that, that God is your God? If you can, you're only
saying it by the grace of God and Christ. Oh my. And then look at this. In him
will I trust. In him. Remember in our text,
a man shall be his hiding place? In him will I trust. Surely he
shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noise
of some pestilence. He shall cover thee with his
feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall
be as thy shield and buckler. So let us always remember that
when our hearts are overwhelmed, and they often are, they often
are, our hearts are often overwhelmed, we cry out for our God to lead
us to the rock which is higher than high. Lord, lead me to Christ. Take me to him. Oh my. And that's where we find refuge.
That rock is Christ. And now, in order for us to fully
understand this type which is set before us here, let's read
it again in verse 2 of Isaiah 32. And a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind, in a covert from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land. Now, in order for us to fully
understand this type and for us to fully appreciate the picture
that is here before us, we have to picture the experience of
an Eastern traveler traveling through the desert. It's not
like nowadays when you jump in a car and you're driving around
and you've got air conditioning. No matter how hot it is outside,
it's not like that. No, these people traveled on
foot or on camel or on horseback. And they would travel through
vast stretches of desert. Vast stretches of desert with
the heat just bearing down upon them. I found this in my studies also
for this message. In the east, the following phenomenon
is often observed. Where the desert touches a river,
a valley, or an oasis, the sand is in a continual state of drift
from the wind. And it is this drift which is
the real cause of the barrenness of such portions of the desert.
Because anything that tries to spring up just gets choked out
when the sand just blows around and drifts over top of it. So any life that would start
upon a piece of fertile ground would be quickly covered over
by drifting sand. But they say if you set a rock
down in the sand, you will see the difference its presence makes. After a few showers, to the protected
side of the rock, some blades will spring up. And if you have patience, you
will see in time a garden. This is, of course, talking about
some fertile ground. You will see a garden. And how
does the boulder produce this? Simply by arresting the drift. Simply by arresting the drift.
So then we see in this picture how God's people are protected
under the shadow of the great rock. Under the shadow of the
great rock. And that rock again is Christ
and it is in him that we find refuge from all the various storms
of life. It doesn't matter what you're
going through. Doesn't matter what you're going through. And
I know a lot of folks, we like to keep things inside and we
don't like to say a whole lot. We like to tough it out. Take
it to the Lord. Take it to the Lord. Take it
to the Lord. And he's our refuge and he's
our shadow. No matter what storms of life
come up, seek refuge in Christ, in Christ alone. Now when these travelers would
travel, the scorching rays of the sun would scorch the eastern
traveler. They'd have to endure extreme
heat. And what a grateful shelter this
rock would be to that traveler. What a grateful shelter. Think
of that. Like I say, it's not like nowadays when we're driving
around in a car in air conditioning. You're riding on a camel or on
horseback or walking. And that heat, that sun is just
beating on you. And you're getting thirsty and
parched. And think of what a sight it would be to see a great rock. A great rock in the middle of
the desert. You'd run there. We'd run as fast. If we could
run, we'd be running there. We tried to get there as fast
as we can. And oh, just as you sit under that rock and that
shadow. And it's cool. It's cool. Amid all the solitary landscape
of the desert, here this rock stands. Oh, we'd run there. So we see then that our Lord
Jesus Christ is a shelter to the believer at all times, all
times, all times of life. In the morning of our life in
Christ, we sit at the base of this wonderful rock, and we are
just in awe. In the middle of our life in
Christ, we're grounded and settled, sitting under the shadow of the
rock. And in the evening time, in the evening time, when the
shadows of life are drawing to a close, when the sun is starting to set. Oh, what a comfort it is to sit
under the shadow of the rock, which is Christ. When the sun
of life is going down, Oh, what hope we have in Christ
when the joys of life are departing. What rest and repose the believer
has in Christ. He is the rock of our salvation. So see, he's a fitting rock to
seek refuge on no matter what we go through in our lives. to
the wayfarer in the desert. Again, few things are more glorious
and memorable than when seated, one commentator said, when seated
in the shades of a parting day under some over-canopying ledge. And he turns his face to the
towering granite peaks, and he sees those illuminated with the
last glow of the sun. And they're radiant with a luster
indescribable to those who have never witnessed the blaze of
ruby and amethyst. sheltering them from the last
rays of the days of the sun. Beloved, this is what Christ
does for us. This is what Christ does for
us. He's the shelter in all the times of our life. Whether we're
young in Christ or old in Christ. Whether we're young in life or
whether we're older in life. He's our shelter. He's our shelter
in all times. Think of how this, how the promises
of God in Christ are so precious to His people. They are like
a shadow of a great rock. We take refuge in the promises
that God has given us in Christ Jesus our Lord. We take refuge
in that. Take note again of our verse
And think upon what we read over there in Psalm 91, where the
scriptures declare that the believer in Christ shall abide under the
shadow of the Almighty. Let's look at verse 2 again with
that in mind. And a man, not just any man,
not just any man, The man, Christ Jesus, and the
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 a shadow of
a great rock in a weary land. And then think of this again.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91. In Psalm 91 there, the shadow
of the Almighty is Christ. He has all power, beloved. He
has all power. He's the one who protects us.
He's the one who keeps us. Scriptures proclaim that we're
under the shadow of His wings, which is a reference to when
birds overshadow and protect their young with their wings.
That's what Christ does for us. All the time. He does this for
His people. putting Himself between the danger
and us. We'll look at that a little bit
further on. Christ, the Son of God, is sometimes
compared to the shadow of a rock or tree which screams and shelters
from heat. And He preserves His people from
the heat of the fiery law of God. He protects His people from
the flaming sword of the justice of God. He protects His people
from the wrath of God. Have you ever thought of that?
That He's protected you from all that? He also protects you from the
fiery darts of Satan. And He also protects you from
the fury of persecutors. We still are persecuted, but
oh my, he protects us. Think of how it would be if he
didn't protect us. And we're under the shadow. We're under the shadow of the
Almighty Beloved. And what a majestic shadow our
Lord Jesus Christ represents to his people. Because he alone
is the bestower of all peace. Where does your peace come from?
Only from Christ. Where does your pardon come from?
Christ. Your pardon only comes from Christ. Your pardon with God only comes
in and through Christ. Where does your comfort come
from? From Christ. We can comfort one another sometimes,
but we can't comfort each other like God comforts us. Where does your strength come
from? Where's your strength come from each day to carry on? Christ. Christ alone. Where's your hope placed? A lot
of people hope for different things in this world. Where's
the believer's hope placed? It's in Christ. And we rest and
repose in him, don't we? We rest and repose in the shadow
of the great rock. And that's Christ. And our hope in our eternal life
is only in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. A lot of people
are hoping for eternal life outside of Christ and they are going
to perish in their sins. But our hope, beloved, is outside
of ourselves. Our hope is in Christ and Him
alone. And it's under the shadow of
the Almighty that we Oh my. He is faithful who promises that
there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from
the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from the storm
and from rain. In this shadow that we abiding in our under is Christ. He's the great rock. And we seek refuge in the shadow
of the rock. Again, that's Christ and Christ
alone. Let's read the text again. And
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. So what a picture we have before
us, that of a great rock, a great rock. And this brings forth before
us the strength and durability and shelter and safety and protection
and rest that we have in Christ, that we have in Christ. Because,
beloved, this great rock spoken of in our text is immovable. Nothing can move it. Therefore, those who are in the
shadow of that great rock are safe. Because that rock can't be moved.
That rock can't be moved, beloved. Think upon this about our great
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Age after age, this world has
shot arrows at our great God. In hatred Those arrows have fell
to the ground useless against our great God. Useless. Didn't even make a dent. Didn't even make a dent. Like
when you shoot an arrow at a rock, it just bounces off. Just don't
hurt the rock, but your arrow's probably going to be shattered. No harm to the rock, though.
Think of this, ages have come and gone. Ages have come and
gone. Governments, countries, empires
have risen and fallen. Yet this rock here, being Christ,
still provides shelter to the pilgrim of the Lord traveling
through this world of woe. Our dear brothers and sisters
in Christ in ages past have all found refuge here. Have all found
refuge under this rock. And so do we today. It's unchanging,
immovable. In this rock will be a refuge
to our future brothers and sisters in Christ. Whom Christ will bring
to him because he's redeemed them at Calvary's Cross. There
will not be one of God's sheep who shall be lost. Not one. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
10. And as we turn there, let us
ponder that the Lord Jesus Christ remains immediately the same.
And He alone is the rock of our salvation. And we say, praise
His mighty name. 1 Corinthians 10. Verses 1-4. I would not that ye should be
ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all
passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the
cloud and in the sea, and did eat the same spiritual meat,
and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
Now think upon this, that the rock in the wilderness literally
followed the pilgrim tribes from place to place. and from encampment
to encampment, to the last hour of their wanderings. And however
blazing the sun was, and however waterless the streams were, there
the mysterious, ever-present, accompanying rock was with them
in its unfailing shadow." And think of the shadow, too, it
would cast. And think of the inexhaustible
streams which came out of it. Love of this picture is Christ,
and Christ alone, who is ever with his people all through our
journey in this life. So what can we learn here? What can we see? That Christ,
the Rock of Ages, is ever present in the midst of his church. He's
ever present with us. He's with his people and he's
a shadow of protecting grace and love. And when the sun of life is hottest
and the desert is the driest, what refuge we have in Christ,
what refuge we have in him. Turn, if you would, to Exodus
chapter 20. Do you know that during every
stage and experience of the wilderness of this life to the very brink
of death, Christ is ever with His people and He's with us when
we cross over that river too, beloved. He's with us then too. We see He's ever with His people
in the Old Testament. Look at this in Exodus 20 verse
24 it says, an altar of earth thou shalt make unto me and shalt
sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offering, thy sheep
and thine oxen in all places where I record my name and I
will come unto thee and I will bless thee. He's ever with his
people. Ever with his people. In all
places where I record my name. He's with them. Now turn, if you would, to Matthew
28. Let's see what the New Testament says about this. Matthew 28,
verses 18 to 20. And think of what we just read
there. In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee
and I will bless thee. He is with his people, beloved.
Look at this in Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20. Jesus came and spake unto them,
saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. He
just proclaims right there who he is. He's God. He's God. All power. That means all power,
beloved. He has it all. There's nothing. There's not a molecule that's
not, that he doesn't know what's going on with. Not an atom. Nothing. All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. What a God. What a sovereign
God. He's got all power. Go ye therefore
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, oh, and
let this burn into your heart, beloved. And lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world. You see that? I am with you always. Always. And this is where the
believer dwells. Under the shadow. In the shadow
of the great rock. And that rock is Christ, and
he's ever with us, beloved. He's ever with us. Let's go back to our text again
with that fresh in our minds. Let's take note of this verse
in the fact that a man shall be a hiding place in a covert
from the tempest. He shall be as rivers of water
and dry place and there's a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Look, it says, and a man shall
be is in hiding place from the wind. In a covert from tempest
as rivers of water and dry places, the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land. Now, none of us can be for one
another what this verse proclaims. We are all sinners in desperate
need of a shelter. And remember I said I was going
to get back to something about how the Lord shields us and protects
us. Think of this. We need shelter
from the broken law of God. Because we broke it. We need shelter from that. We need refuge from our adversary,
the devil. We need refuge from the persecuting
world all around us. And beloved, we need a suitable
refuge from our sins. And we need a suitable refuge
from the justice and wrath of God, which rightly has a claim
on us. In our natural state, that law
and justice had a natural claim upon every one of us. Oh my. We're sinners by birth, nature,
and choice. And I can't be a refuge for you,
and you can't be a refuge for me. Because we're sinners. I need refuge for myself. So
with you too. Right? Oh my. So we can't be a refuge for one
another, but our great God has provided a refuge from all these
things, and it is God incarnate in the flesh, a man, a man, the
man Christ Jesus. A man shall be as a night in
place, a man. What comfort is here found for
the weary pilgrim? I ask you who are the Lord's
people and I ask you to answer honestly in your hearts. You
ever get weary? I do. You ever get weary? I know you do too. We all do. We get weary. Here is the man
spoken of in our text. Here is he who is our refuge,
beloved. Here is our shelter. Here is
our hope. The one who is pictured as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who is pictured as a great rock. Here's the man spoken of in our
text, Jesus Christ. The Word of God. The Word who became flesh. And who dwelt among us. A man. Bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh. A man. The suffering Savior who perfectly
fulfilled the law of God in our place. The sinless one who died
for sinners on Calvary's cross. Shedding His blood for the remission
of our sins. Here is the man spoken of in
our text. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who is now a living and
glorified man. The one who sits upon the throne
of grace and glory right now. Ruling and reigning and interceding
for us. It is He who is spoken of in
our text. In verse 1 is the King upon the
throne. A man. A man shall be as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Beloved, that man is Christ
and Christ alone. He alone is King Messiah. Look
at verse 1. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness. Oh, our Lord is so righteous. He's a man. who reigns in righteousness and
princes shall rule in judgment. Now I want you to think upon
something. Our text says that a man, and again this is no ordinary
man, this is the king spoken of in verse 1, that this man
shall be a hiding place from the wind and covert from the
tempest as rivers of water in a dry place as a shadow of a
great rock in the weary land. Now think upon this. the Lord
Jesus Christ by Himself, by Himself, in the room and place of His
people. And so we can say, in the room and place of Newell.
And each one of you, put your own in the room and place of
us. Of His people. He bore the wrath of God and
we find shelter under Him. He bore it all. Remember how
I said that the drifts go around that rock and where that other
side of that rock is not affected, He bore the full wrath of God
for us, beloved. He bore it all. It was poured
out upon Him for our sins. For our sins. And that wrath of God, beloved,
has been turned away from us. It's been turned, now it'll fall
upon the unsaved. And it'll consume them. But that wrath, beloved, that
was rightfully ours, we earned it, was poured out upon you. and is turned away from us because
it was poured out fully on Christ. And we're delivered from it in
him. Praise be to God. And, you know, we're so delivered
from that wrath that not one of a drop of it touches us. Think of the ark, right? All that rain beat upon that
ark, which pictures the wrath of God being poured out upon
Christ, but not a drop touched Noah and his family. Not a drop. Because they were in the ark.
We're in Christ. He's the great rock. He takes
it all. And we are safe under the shadow
of that great rock, beloved. He has endured the storm and
the wrath of God for us by himself. By himself. He's our propitiation. So let us never forget that His
righteousness, His blood, His sacrifice, His intercession protect
His people. Protect His people. And we are
clothed in that perfect spotless righteousness, beloved. And He also protects His people
and covers them from Satan's temptation. He protects His people
from the rage and fury of all our persecuting enemies. They
who would seek to destroy His people, He protects them. He
takes care of them. I've seen that in my life. I've
seen it in my life, Abba. And you're just in awe. You're
just in awe. We are supplied with His grace.
As the tempest of affliction of various kinds beat upon us
in this life, they beat upon the rock. They beat upon the
rock, beloved. And He bears His people and carries
us through all the trials and tribulations that tempt us in
our lives. And yet, let us always remember
that He delivers us in His time. Sometimes it's hard to bear them,
isn't it? But He always delivers His people. He never gives us
more than we can take, never. He always bears us and takes
care of us. And in His time, He brings us
safely out from that temptation. One day, one day, He's going
to bring us safe to glory. What a day that'll be. Can you
imagine that? You ever just stop and think
about that, what that day will be like? What that graduation
day, that promotion day, as Brother Norm says, when we receive our
promotion. Oh, my. Joy unspeakable. I don't even think we got the
words to say what it would be like. But oh, what a day it will
be. Turn if you would to Psalm 18.
Psalm 18, let us consider two verses over there. Verses 35
and 36 of Psalm 18. Look at this. This is just marvelous. This is just marvelous. All about
Christ. The psalmist writes, thou has
also given me the shield of thy salvation. That's Christ, beloved. Verse 35. Thou has also given
me the shield of thy salvation. And thy right hand hath holden
me up. Who's that? That's Christ. That's Christ. He's the only one who holds us
up, beloved. If he didn't hold us, we'd be gone. Like, I heard
one, we'd be gone, Jesse. We'd be gone. We'd just be gone.
we'd be absolutely gone. But oh no, thy right hand hath
hold me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast
enlarged my steps unto me, that my feet did not slip. The Lord
keeps us, beloved, now we fall. He picks us right back up. He
carries us through it all, beloved. So the spiritual pilgrim, God's
blood-bought people, are encamped under his shadow. That's our
hiding place. We hide under the shadow of the
great rock. And knowing this gives us great
peace. It gives us the peace that passes all understanding,
which of course is in Christ and Christ alone. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
chapter 26. And we'll look at verse 4 in a moment, but I'd
like to say a few things here. Christ is the Lord Jehovah, which
is and which was and is to come, the self-existent, eternal, immutable
One. That's who Christ is. He's the
Word of God incarnate in the flesh. Again, He's the Lord Jehovah,
which is, and was, and is to come, the self-existent, eternal,
and immutable One. That's our God. That's our Savior.
And in Him is strength as well as righteousness for His people.
And He is the eternal God, who is the refuge of His people.
and His arms of power and might are underneath them. They are
the everlasting arms of God. Always remember that, beloved,
that you are in the everlasting arms of God. You're in His arms. And Christ is the rock on which
the church and every believer is built, against which the gates
of hell cannot prevail. And He has been the rock of His
people in all ages and ages past, right now, in ages to come, so
that he who trusts in the Lord has a refuge in this world and
in the world to come. Now look at this in Isaiah 26
verse 4. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. See the word strength
there? You know what that word is in
the Hebrew? A rock. A rock. He's a great rock, beloved. He is a great rock. He's an everlasting
rock. An everlasting rock. Christ is
our everlasting rock, beloved. And it is in He and He alone
that we find shelter and rest. Nowhere else. Oh, what comfort. What comfort for us, we who are
weary pilgrims traveling through this world, to know that our
Lord, our Savior is a great rock, an everlasting rock, an immovable
rock. Oh, praise His mighty name that
He's made us willing to seek refuge under that great rock. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee
for Your goodness and mercy and grace to us in Christ Jesus our
Lord. May we leave here rejoicing that you are the rock of our
salvation, that you are the rock that we find shelter under, that
you are eternal, an eternal rock, eternal strength for us, an everlasting
rock. Oh Lord, we thank thee that we
don't seek refuge in ourselves anymore, we who are your blood-bought
people. There was a time when we sought refuge in our own self
and in our own doings, oh Lord, but you, by your mercy and grace,
have saved us and we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God
and now we trust in thee, in thee alone, who is the great
rock. Lord, we love you only because
you first loved us and we seek to give you all the glory and
honor and praise and it's in your name we pray, amen. Okay,
let's close with a song.