Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I? Was it for sins that I had done
He groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace unknown And
love beyond degree My God, why would you shed your blood so
pure and undefiled to make a sinful one like me your chosen precious
child? Well might the sun in darkness
hide And shut his glories in When Christ the mighty Maker
died For man the creature's sin Thus might I hide my blushing
face while his dear son appears. Dissolve my heart in thankfulness
and melt my eyes to tears. Lord, drops of grief can ne'er
repay the debt of love I owe. Make me your holy son to praise,
for naught else can I do. My God, why would you shed your
blood so pure and undefiled to make a sinful one like me your
chosen precious child? Thank you, Adam. Let's open our
Bibles together to Isaiah chapter 32. Isaiah chapter 32. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. For lo, I have come to do thy
will. Oh God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Did the will of the father perfectly. And that's what God required.
And God was pleased. He said, this is my beloved son.
In him, I am well pleased. God is pleased with those who
are found in Christ for all their righteousness. Notice in Isaiah
chapter 32, behold, a king shall reign in righteousness. He's the King of Kings. He's
the Lord of Lords. All other earthly kings are subject
to his rule, to his authority, to his sovereignty, to his power.
And he reigns in righteousness. He's established a perfect righteousness
by his perfect obedience to the Father. And the only hope that
you and I have that we can stand in the presence of a holy God
is to be found in him. Faith is looking to Christ alone,
resting all your hopes in his glorious person and his finished
work for all your acceptance before God. It's believing that
everything that God requires of you, he must provide for you. And so our scripture begins by
saying, behold, a king shall reign in righteousness and princes
shall rule in judgment. Now in that story we read in
Acts chapter 12, the angel led Peter to the gates of the city
and then the scripture says the angel left him. Now the servant
is the messenger of God who's leading the children of God through
the wards of this world until they get to the celestial city,
at which point they don't need a messenger anymore. No. No, there's not going to be preachers
in heaven. Not going to be anything like that. The Lord Jesus Christ
will be the only one. He'll be declaring himself and
revealing his glory in all of its fullness. We won't need another
man. We'll be in the very presence
of his glory. So he says that in the meantime,
princes are going to be ruling in judgment. They're going to
be telling God's people what God demands and what God requires
for justice and judgment. What is it? Death. The wages
of sin is death. You and I are sinners. And God says, the only thing
that satisfies me in payment for sin is death. And only the death of the Lamb
of God, only the death of the one who's without spot and without
wrinkle will satisfy God's justice. So we are declaring, yes, a God
who is loving, yes, a God who is full of mercy, a God of grace,
but we also declare that he's a God of justice and of judgment
and of holiness, and he will not be satisfied with anything
less than the perfect obedience of his own son. Look at verse,
and here's where we get into this message. I've titled this
message, A Man Shall Be as a Hiding Place. This message is for those
who need a hiding place. Do you need a hiding place? Say,
well, I'm not scared. I'm not afraid. I'm not guilty. I don't need to be hiding. Let's
see what God says about that. Look at verse two. And a man
shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the
tempest, as the 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, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. Oh, God opens the eyes of our
understanding, takes the scales away from our eyes. When he makes
the blind to see and the deaf to hear, they know that they
need a hiding place. A place that's safe from the
wrath and the judgment of God. And the only place where they
can hide is a man. God makes this man, this king
who reigns in righteousness, this one who is declared as the
judgment and justice of God, He has made him to be our hiding
place. It is a place where there is
no fear. from the wrath of God, a place where divine justice
has been completely satisfied, a place where God's holy law
has been perfectly kept. Oh, what a hiding place this
is. You see, we're like that Old
Testament Israelite who was guilty of killing a man and he had to
flee to the city of refuge in order to be safe from the avenger
of blood. The avenger of blood was the
law and the law says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
God's law must be kept, it must be satisfied. And the only hope
that that murderer had, that manslayer had was to get into
the city of refuge. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that city of refuge. He's that hiding place. He's
like a great rock in a desert place. He's like a covert against
the storm. He's a safe place to be. A place of peace and a place
of rest. A place of everlasting mercy
where all sin has been covered even from the face of God. How can thy sin be covered from
the face of God only if it's under the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ? That's the only way it can be
covered from the face of God. The Lord told Aaron to put the
blood of the sacrificial lamb on the mercy seat. And he said,
here, I will meet with you. And that blood is the only sufficient
covering to hide our sins from the face of God. But when our
sins are under the blood of Christ, what's God say? Oh, I've separated
them from you as far as the east is from the west. And I remember
them no more. What a hiding place. What a glorious
man we have. A place where fear and shame
and guilt cannot find you. These are the things that sin
brings, isn't it? Adam hid himself. That's man's
problem. He tries to hide himself. God
knew exactly where Adam was. Adam, where art thou? And what
did Adam say? I was naked and I was afraid
and therefore I hid myself. Trying to cover up his nakedness,
trying to hide himself from God. So he sewed together some fig
leaves and hid behind some trees, but that wasn't going to be a
sufficient hiding place. God had to slay a lamb in that
garden, take the fleece of that lamb, and cover the nakedness
of Adam and Eve. And that's exactly what he's
done on Calvary's cross. The lamb of God was slain in
the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
He was slain on Calvary's cross 2000 years ago, and God's justice
was satisfied. And he takes the fleece of that
lamb, the robe of righteousness, and he covers our nakedness so
that a man shall be as a hiding place. There's no other place
to hide from God, no other place. This is a place of perfect love,
which casteth out all fear. No fear of wrath, no fear of
judgment, not when we're found in Christ, not when we're hid. with Christ, as the scripture
says, in God. Oh, it's a safe place to be. It's a place where Satan is not
allowed. It's a place where sin loses
its power. It's a place where, as before,
we were unable to believe, now We cannot not believe what a
glorious transformation that the Lord does in the new birth
with the hearts of his children. He gives them faith to rest their
hopes on a man, and not just any man, the God man, the perfect
man. He has made him to be our hiding
place. It is a place where the grave
has been opened. The Lord Jesus Christ has rolled
away the stone. Death and hell have been conquered. The fire of God's wrath has been
extinguished. Oh, what a hiding place this
is. Is this the kind of hiding place that you're in need of?
Is it? Have you found all other hiding
places to be insufficient? Have you found them to be nothing
more than what Adam had in the garden, trying to cover himself
up and trying to atone for himself? That's what we do by nature. And what's the Lord saying? Come
unto me, come unto me, learn of me. My burden is light, my
yoke is easy. I've already bore the wrath of
God's justice. It's where the light of truth.
Shines bright. In the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Revealing to us his glory and
his successful work and giving us rest in him. This hiding place God must lead
us to. We can't just discover it on
our own, just like again with Adam. God has to come where we
are. God has to expose us, just like what we saw in the first
hour where Peter was sleeping in the prison, chained to two
Roman soldiers, chained by law and by justice. Chained by the workers of sin
and Satan and no hope. They didn't even know he was
asleep. He was unconscious and the Lord
smote him on the side and raised him and broke the chains loose
and he walked out. Oh, what liberty, what freedom
there is when God comes to where we are in the prison of our own
unbelief and the prison of our own sin. And he causes us to
see the man that he has made to be our hiding place. Only he can roll away the stone.
Only he can give to us a safe place. This is not a physical
place. It's not a place you can drive to. It's not a place you
can walk to. It's not a place you can get
to by your own effort. It is not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
It's a spiritual place. The Lord's the only one that
can get us there. He's the only one that can change
the heart and cause us to come unto him. but he says a man shall
be as a hiding place. Oh, the God-man, the Lord Jesus
himself. He is in the heavens and only
by the eyes of faith can he be seen. Lord, Turn me, the prophet said,
and I shall be turned. Cause me to come unto thee and
I will come. Lord, give me faith. Give me
faith to come to that man. I need a hiding place. I need
a safe place. Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 24
says, Can any hide himself in a secret
place that I shall not see him? Now that's a rhetorical question,
obviously. Can any man hide himself in a
safe place where I shall not see him? No, you can't hide yourself. God has to hide us. We cannot hide in law, cannot
hide in ceremony, we cannot hide in tradition, we cannot hide
in free will, we cannot hide behind our good works. No. Turn to me to Isaiah chapter
28, just back a couple of pages from where you are. Isaiah chapter
28. Here's what the natural man does. Verse 14, wherefore, hear ye
the word of the Lord. Hear what God has to say. Oh, the opinions of man are just
that, they're just opinions. The word of God is truth. And
he says here, the word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule
this people, which is in Jerusalem, because you have said, we have
made a covenant with death and with hell we are at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge and under falsehoods, we have hid ourselves. That's what the false gospel
says. It makes lies its refuge. It makes God to be dependent
on man to do something in order for God to be able to save you.
That's a lie against God. God's not dependent on us to
do anything. But that's what they've said. We've made a covenant.
A covenant is a promise. Now here's the difference between
the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. A covenant
of works is a promise that man makes to God in hopes that God
will reward him for having done his best to keep that promise.
The covenant of grace is a promise that God made to God and he kept
it perfectly. And the hope of our salvation
is dependent upon his faithfulness to keep his promises. And God
says, because you've made a covenant with death, and because you think
within hell you're in agreement, because you think when the overflowing
scourge comes, when the wrath of God comes and death comes,
that you're gonna be okay. Look what the Lord says in verse
16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a priceless stone, a sure
foundation. And he that believeth in him
shall not make haste. He's not going to be running
around to and fro trying to figure out how to save himself. Oh no,
this is the Lord Jesus Christ. The stone which the builders
rejected, God has made to become the head of the corner. And it's
a tried stone. The Lord Jesus was tried by the
law of God. If you and I are tried by God's
law, here's the summary of God's law. Love the Lord your God with
all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your soul
all of the time. And love your neighbor as yourself
all the time. That's the summary of the law.
God puts a plummet. That's the standard. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
one that ever measured up to that. Look what he says. Verse
17, judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness
to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep away
the refuge of lies and the water shall overflow your hiding place. This is the place where men hide.
Thinking, well, I've done my best, done my best. It's gonna be sufficient. And
God says, no, I'm gonna disannoy your covenant. Look at the next
verse. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and
your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through. Then you shall be trodden by
it. I don't want to have any part
to do with that, do you? But that's the state of the natural
man. That's the state of the self-righteous. That's the state of those who
have set themselves up on the throne of God and have fashioned
in their darkened imagination an idol that they call God who
is dependent upon them to do something in order for God to
save them. Whether it be will or works or
whatever, circumcision, the scripture calls it, the works of man's
hands. God says that covenant, that
promise that man has made will be disannulled. And when the
overflowing scourge shall come, it will sweep away those lies
and it will expose. Here's a picture of a man hiding
in a cave in order to protect himself from a flood only for
the flood to fill the cave. He'd have been worse, he'd have
had a better chance had not been in the cave. But that's what
he's done. He's hid himself in a cave and
the flood has come and filled the cave. Revelation chapter 6. The scripture
says that on the day of judgment, when this scourge, this overflowing
scourge comes, the day of God's judgment and God's wrath comes,
that men will run to the mountains and to the hills and they will
cry for the mountains and for the rocks to fall on them and
to hide them from the one who sits upon the throne and from
the wrath of the Lamb. Now that's what men do. It's exactly the same thing that
the Lord said when He when he spoke of separating the sheep
from the goats. And he said, but the goats will
say, but Lord, did we not many wonderful works in thy name?
Did we not cast out demons in thy name? What are they doing? They're running to the hills.
They're running to the rocks. They're trying to hide themselves
from the wrath of the lamb and from the judgment of God by reminding
God what they've done in order to be saved. And the Lord says,
your covenant will be disannulled. For I have made a man to be as
your hiding place, and you would not come to him. And the reason
why you would not come to him is because He's the light. And in coming to the light, all
he does is expose you for what you are. And in your pride and
in your self-righteousness, you would have nothing to do with
my son. He's the only hiding place. Anytime you and I Look to anything
else other than Christ for the assurance of our salvation. We're
fleeing to a hiding place that will be exposed. Don't we do
that? I mean, even as believers, even
as believers. I don't guess there's been a
greater demonstration of courage and faith by a child of God,
greater than what we see Elijah doing on Mount Carmel. When he
exposed those prophets of Baal for what they were. You remember
he mocked them and he said, the God that answers by fire, he
will be the God. And so they each built an altar,
and the prophets of Baal built an altar, and they cut themselves,
and they cried, and they prayed, and they symbolized what men
in religion do in making personal sacrifices in order to try to
entice God and win God's favor, and nothing happened. And then
Elijah. Elijah builds an altar. douses
it seven times with water, calls out to God and fire falls from
heaven, laps up the water, burns the rocks, consumes the sacrifice
and the fire is quenched. What a demonstration of courage,
what a demonstration of faith. Elijah stood up and then Elijah
commands the servants of God to kill those 700 prophets and
they're killed. He killed every one of them. And then this woman by the name
of Jezebel finds out about it. And Jezebel sends a message to
have Elijah killed. And Elijah runs for his life
from Jezebel. He runs for his life. And the
scripture says he traveled for 40 days and 40 nights until he
made it to Mount Horeb. Now Horeb translated means a
desert place. It's the same exact mountain
that's also referred to in the Bible as Mount Sinai, which means
a place of thorns. It was the place of the law.
And Elijah spends 40 days running back to the law and hides in
a cave in Mount Horeb. not knowing that this is the
mountain of the law. And two times, let me show you
this. Turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18.
Chapter 19. 1 Kings chapter 19. The Lord protected him. while he was traveling and fed
him with ravens and provided for him. And in verse nine, and
he came thither unto a cave and lodged there. And behold, the
word of the Lord came to him and he said unto him, here's
what God says to Elijah, Elijah, what are you doing here? Why are you hiding in the mountain
of the law? Now look at Elijah's answer.
And he said, I have been very jealous of the Lord God of hosts,
for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, and they've
thrown down thine altars and slain thy prophets with the sword,
and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take
it away. What is Elijah saying to the
Lord? I'm entitled. Look how faithful
I've been. Look at how much I'm being persecuted. And Lord, don't I earn something
for that? And he's in the mountain of the
law, presenting his case to God, not for mercy. This is one of
the greatest saints of God ever, the prophet Elijah. And he's
not calling on God for his mercy and for his grace. He's presenting
his works to God for the reason why God should spare him. That's why he's in a mountain
of the law. That's why he's hiding in a cave. God passes by with a mighty rushing
wind that rent the rocks, but God was not in it. And then a
fire fell, but God was not in it. And then God spoke with a
still small voice. And what did he say? Look down
at verse 13. And it was so when Elijah heard
it, when he heard the still small voice, he wrapped his face in
a mantle. Oh, he's got a different attitude
now. And he went out and stood in
the entering of the cave and behold, there came a voice unto
him and said, Elijah, what doest thou hear? The Lord asked him
again, Elijah, you're in the wrong place. You're trying to
find your hiding place in what you've done. And the Lord goes
on to tell him, he said, I've got 7,000 in Israel that have
not bowed their knee to Baal. You're not the only one, Elijah.
I've kept for myself a faithful people. Anytime we run back to the law,
anytime we're looking for evidences of salvation in our lives, that's
what he was looking for. Have you done that? Have you
been tempted to look to yourself to try to prove whether or not
you're saved? And then the accuser of the brethren
will take things that will evidence unbelief and cause you to doubt
your salvation because of something that you have done or haven't
done, right? You see, that's nothing more
than going back. That's exactly what Elijah does here. He runs
back to Horeb and he hides himself in a cave. He's looking to something other
than the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ himself for
the cause and the evidence of his salvation. And God says to his people, what
are you doing here? This is not where you want to
be. This place is filled with fear, isn't it? It's filled with
doubt. It's filled with unbelief. Because
as soon as you start measuring your life to the law of God,
if you're an honest person, if you're a child of God, you know
you can't measure up. And yet we keep doing it, don't
we? We just keep doing it. And that's
why we have to keep hearing the gospel. because the Lord is sending
a messenger to say to each one of us, say first to the messenger,
oh, what are you doing here? I've made a man to be as a hiding
place for you. Don't hide anywhere else. Flee
to him, flee to him. Jeremiah chapter 49 verse 10
says, I have made Esau bare. I have uncovered his secret places
and he shall not be able to hide himself. Oh, that the Lord would
make us bare and he would expose us for what we are. Unprofitable
servants. sinful in the sight of God, in
need of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to be our
hiding place. I have made a man to be as a
hiding place. David said in Psalm 143, verse
nine, deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies, for I flee unto thee
to hide me. I flee unto thee to hide me. You see, they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. As soon as we go
back to the mountain of law, all we're doing is our old man
is looking to fleshly means and fleshly methods and fleshly evidences
to give us assurance and hope and peace. This is a miracle
of grace. Only the eye of faith can set
its affections on things above, where Christ is seated at the
right hand of God. Only God can give us the faith
to see something that can't be seen with the physical eye. Only
God can give us a heart to believe. A broken heart, a contrite heart,
a believing heart. That's a work of grace. It's
not a physical place. This hiding place is the God-man
who God has made to be a priest forever, who is seated at the
right hand of the Majesty on high, waiting until all his enemies
be made his footstool. Where is our hiding place? It
is in the heavens. God has to carry us there. Oh,
then he does by his word. Faith comes by hearing when we
hear of this man, this God-man, the successful savior of sinners. And God gives us faith to flee
to him. David went on to say in Psalm
32, verse seven, thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve
me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
deliverance. Thou, thou, thou. See, man starts
with I. I will. What did Elijah say when
the Lord said, Elijah, what are you doing here? Elijah said,
Lord, I'm the only one left. I, even I have been faithful
to you. And God and David says in faith, thou art my hiding place. Psalm
27 verse five says, for in the time of trouble, he shall hide
me in his pavilion in the secret of his tabernacle. This is a
secret place. This is a place that only God
can show us. Oh, but when he does, what liberty, what freedom,
what hope, what peace, what grace. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter
12 verse 36, while you have the light, believe in the light that
you may be children of the light. And after this is the same verse. And after that, he departed and
hid himself. Now the Lord saying to you and
me right now, While you have the light, you have light right
now, believe on the light that you might be children of the
light because if you don't believe on the light, the Lord Jesus
will depart and hide himself. He's calling on us to believe
on Christ while we have the light. We cannot presume that he will
give us the light again at another time. The Lord says now is the
acceptable time. Now is, you see, nowhere in the
Bible, nowhere in the Bible does God say to us, you know, you
just need to go home and think about this. You need to, you need to study
this out. You need to ponder this a little
bit more. No, over and over and over again, God says to us exactly
what he says here, exactly what the Lord Jesus said in John chapter
12. While you have the light, believe in the light that you
might be children of the light, lest I depart and hide myself
from you. Come. Now is the acceptable time. Today
is the day of salvation. The Lord never instructs us to
put it off. God gives you light, come to
the light, come to the light. Psalm 119 verse 14 says, thou
art my hiding place and my shield, I hope in thy word. My hope is in the faithfulness
of God to keep his promises, to fulfill his covenant, right
now. David said in Psalm 17, Lord,
keep me as the apple of thine eye. The other day my eyes had gotten,
I don't know if allergies or something, and I asked Tricia
to put some eye drops in my eye. She's taking, I'm taking both
hands and holding my eye open while she drops a little drop
of water in my eye. I don't know how y'all wear contacts. I can't. And what other part
of your body can you not put a drop of water on and it doesn't
bother you a bit? How sensitive is the pupil of
your eye? That's what the apple of the eye is. And what David's
saying here is, Lord, keep me. as the apple of thine eye." Lord,
as a part of the body of Christ, keep me. And he goes on to say,
hide me under the shadow of thy wing. Now he's talking about
those wings of the seraphim that touched over the middle of the
mercy seat. And David's saying, Lord, hide
me under the shadow of that wing. Hide me in Christ. A man has been made to be as
a hiding place. There is no other hiding place. Lord, I'm sold. I'm so easily
offended and so quick to unbelief. Keep me as the apple of thine
eye. Or protect me and no, no part
of the body, physically speaking, no part of the body is protected
any better than the eye. I mean, you've got an eyebrow
to take the water and sweat away from your eye. You've got eyelashes
to keep the dust from getting in your eye. The blink of the
eye is the quickest impulse that you have if something's coming
towards you. The bone around your eye is one
of the strongest bones in the body. What is God's protecting? His eye. Lord, you're going to
have to protect me like that. Because I'm vulnerable. I'm weak. Lord, hide me under the shadow
of thy wing. I can't hide myself. I can't
protect myself. I can't keep myself. You know, in biblical times,
there were, of course, no banks like we have today. There weren't
vaults and safes available to every person. So if you owned
something that was extremely valuable, the best thing you
could do was hide it. And oftentimes men hid their
treasures in the earth. And so when the Lord said, The
kingdom of heaven is like a man who found a treasure in the field
and for joy he sold all that he had and bought the field.
You see, people would hide things and then they would die. And
nobody knew where their treasure had been hid except for them.
And there were professional treasure hunters, that's all they did.
They researched where men's treasures might be, and they went around
looking for hidden treasures. And when they found one, for
joy, they sold all that they had and bought the field that
they might have the treasure. Oh, he's the pearl of great price.
You see, the children of God, if I can say this respectfully,
are treasure hunters. We're seeking Christ as the pearl
of great price. And we're for joy selling all
that we have that we might have that treasure that's been hidden
in a field. Proverbs chapter two, verse four
and five, speaking of Christ and his wisdom. says, if thou
seekest her as silver and searchest for her as a hid treasure, then
thou shall understand the fear of the Lord. You see men that think they have
a hiding place, aren't looking for a treasure. People that think
they have a righteousness already that they've established, they
don't need another righteousness. People who don't believe that
God would send them to hell? Yeah, most people don't believe
that. God wouldn't send me to hell.
I mean, look at me, I'm a good person. The child of God who has found
Christ to be his hiding place knows that if God and the children
of God People of God are the best people in this world, I
know. Anybody could be saved by their works and be the people
of God. But every child of God, you ask them, every child of
God knows in their heart of hearts that if God gave them what they
would deserve, they would go to hell. If he gave them what
they deserve. They need a hiding place. Colossians chapter 2 verse 3
says in whom speaking of Christ are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
are hid in Christ and then goes on to say in Colossians 3 3 for
you are dead and Your life is hid with Christ in God What a
safe place to be a safe place to be, we have this treasure
in an earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power might
be of God and not of us." When the Queen of Sheba came
to visit Solomon and she saw his wealth and his riches, she'd
come all the way from southern Arabia that she had heard of
this man. And she said, oh, half the story
has not been told me. What a glorious man of wisdom
and treasure. She looked at all of his treasure
and all of his wealth and all of his wisdom. And that's how
we are. God brings us to Christ. We have
the man, the God man. to be our hiding place, the only
safe place to be. But what a glorious place to
be. The riches of his glory. Cannot
be. Cannot be compared to the things
that we see in this world. Let's pray together our Heavenly
Father. We thank you for your word. Lord,
we pray that you would Give us faith to rest all our hopes on
thy dear son, and that you would hide us in him. For it's in his
name we pray, amen. Number four in the spiral hymnal,
let's stand together, number four.