Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 53 and the hardback hymnal 53. Let's
all stand together. Repeat the last phrase in each
verse. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's
ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals
his wounds, and drives away his fear. And drives away his fear. Dear name, the rock on which
I build my shield and hiding place, my never failing treasury
filled with boundless stores of grace, with boundless stores
of grace. Jesus, my shepherd, brother,
friend, my prophet, priest, and king, my Lord, my life, my way,
my end, accept the praise I bring. Accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart,
and cold my warmest thought. But when I see thee as thou art,
I'll praise thee as I ought. I'll praise thee as I ought. ? Till then I would thy love
proclaim ? With every fleeting breath ? And may the music of
thy name ? Refresh my soul in death ? Refresh my soul in death
Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles together to Psalm 47 Scripture reading Psalm 47. Just by way of reminder, this
coming Sunday is time change. I don't think that's a big issue
anymore, because everything is so digital that it just changes
itself, right? So we'll get an extra hour of
sleep this weekend, I think. Psalm 47. Oh, clap your hands,
all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice
of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance
for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved, Selah. God has gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the shout of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises,
sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King
of all the earth. And that's what it means when
it says that he's terrible. We use that word terrible normally
to speak of something negative. But it's just a reference to
our God being God over all the earth. He's sovereign. He's omnipotent. God reigneth over the heathen. People talk about making Jesus
Lord of their life. How foolish. He is their Lord. He reigns over them. God sitteth
upon the throne of His holiness. The princes of the people are
gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham, for the
shields of the earth belong unto God. He is greatly exalted. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we cannot begin to comprehend the full meaning of these words,
and yet we know that they are true of you. We know that you
are exalted among the heathen. We know that you are praised
and worshipped among your people. We know that you hath done whatsoever
you will. with all the armies of heaven
and all the inhabitants of the earth. We know that no man is
able to stay thy hand or to say unto thee what doest thou, to
accuse you of wrongdoing in any way. Lord, we've come to this
place tonight in hopes of being able to bow in submission and
worship to you. In hopes, Lord, that you would
be pleased to send a message from heaven to our hearts, that
you would speak to us, that you would comfort us in thy dear
son, that you would reveal to us more of your glory, enable
us, Lord, to enter into true spiritual worship. We ask it in Christ's name and
for his sake, amen. Let's all stand together once
again, hymn number 23 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymnal, number
23. Pass me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might in truth condemn
me, let your mercy fall on me. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O blessed Savior,
let me hear your gracious call. I'm a guilty, helpless sinner,
Savior, at your feet I fall. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O mighty spirit. You can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of Satan. Give me faith and make me live. Love of God so everlasting. Blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving. Magnify them all in me. Pass me not a poor lost sinner
if you will. ? You can save me ? Reach down
with your hand of mercy ? Saving others, Lord save me ? Love of
God so everlasting ? Blood of Christ so rich and free Grace
of God so strong and saving, magnify them all in me. Please be seated. What a glorious text we have
before us tonight. I just hope the Lord will speak
volumes more to our hearts than what I can possibly communicate. with my voice tonight. Would
you turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 46. Psalm 46. Jeff asked me the title and I
said, well, God is our refuge. God is our refuge. And then I
thought about it. Maybe a better title would be
help for those in trouble. Help for those in trouble. Someone has said that believers
are either in trouble or going into trouble or coming out of
trouble all the time. And I'm thinking about that.
The truth is that that's true of all people. The difference
is that believers recognize it. And believers have a very present
help in their time of trouble. Other men are in trouble. They
just don't know how much trouble they're in. And they don't have
any place to go when they get in trouble. We have some understanding
of the kind of trouble we're in. And we have one that we can
flee to in our time of trouble. Someone made a statement speaking of
how you need to explain the gospel in more detail to those that
are highly educated. And I thought, you know, I don't
have anything against education. I mean, get all you can get.
It'll be helpful in this world. But the truth is that the more
educated a person is, the simpler you need to make the gospel for
that person. Because educated people have
a tendency to complicate things. and you need to present the gospel
in such a way to the most educated person so that they don't have
any room to confuse it or complicate it or change it in any way. So, the
more educated a person is, the more abilities they have, the
more of this world they have, the simpler they need to have
the gospel presented to them, not the more complicated. That's
the truth, isn't it? That really is. You see, all
men are in trouble. The well-educated, the well-endowed,
the well-provided for in this world, they just don't know what
kind of trouble they're in. Might God enable us to make the
gospel so simple that even they Even they would come to realize,
oh, I am in trouble, but oh, what a present help I have. There
is one who helps those who are in trouble. Now, in the beginning
of this psalm, there's four troubles mentioned in these first few
verses. There's the trouble of death.
Men don't realize how fast they're moving towards death. They just have no comprehension. We have a little bit because
we're longing for that day when we see Christ and we're able
to put this old man where he belongs. But the unbeliever,
they've got no idea how fast death is coming. The second problem
that we have is assurance of salvation. We'll see that in just a moment.
The third one has to do with trials, and the fourth one has
to do with temptations. And we have trouble when it comes
to death, when it comes to the assurance of our salvation, when
it comes to the trials and troubles of this life, and when it comes
to the temptation of sin. God is our refuge. and our strength. He is the place
that we go to hide. That word refuge means shelter
or covert or hiding place. The best example that we have
of refuge in the Old Testament is those cities of refuge. The
man who the law required an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth and a life for a life. So if you killed someone even
accidentally The law said that the next of kin had the right
to take your life in exchange for the life that you took. And
that next of kin was called the avenger of blood. And that avenger
of blood is a picture of the law. It's a picture of the law. So if you were guilty of manslaughter
and you wanted to escape the avenger of death, the Lord provided
cities of refuge, didn't he? cities of refuge and they were
scattered all over Israel and they were well marked as cities
of refuge and the streets going, the roads going into those cities
of refuge were well maintained so that any person who needed
to get to a city of refuge could find out where it was and would
have no hindrance in getting there. And isn't that the way
we're supposed to present the gospel? Christ is that city of
refuge We are the one fleeing the avenger of blood. And we
don't need any impediments. We don't need somebody telling
us, making the gospel complicated for us, or giving us something
to do in order to make the gospel work for us. We need all the
rocks and stones moved out of the way. We need the road to
be made straight. And we need there to be road
signs pointing us in the right direction. That's what the preach
of the gospel is. We make it simple. We remove the impediments
and we point to the Lord Jesus Christ, flee to him. God is our
refuge and he is our strength. He is our strength. Paul said, I will glory in my
infirmities and in my weaknesses. These are necessities for when
I am weak and then I'm strong. And I wrote a little article
in your bulletin last Sunday about halting upon your thigh. In the scriptures, the thigh
is a picture of strength. And that's the reason why in
that psalm we see the the sword on the thigh. And we see the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ on his thigh as he's coming,
riding victoriously to destroy the world and to deliver his
people. And his name is King of Kings
and Lord of Lords right on the thigh. And then the contrast
to that, we have Jacob. Jacob wrestling with the Lord
at the river Jabbok, fearing that avenger Esau that was coming
for him And Jacob wrestled with the Lord Jesus Christ all night
long. And the Lord touched, the scripture
says, the hollow of his thigh, and he halted on his thigh. He limped. He limped the rest
of his life. What was the Lord saying? Jacob,
you've got to be made weak. In your weakness, my strength
will be made perfect. the psalmist says God is our
refuge, Christ is that city of refuge, and if we get to the
city of refuge we're safe from the Avenger of Blood. Now if
we come out of the city, the Avenger of Blood has the legal
right to pursue us again, but if we stay in the city, and how
long, how long was that, was that, was that man, was he, was
he to stay in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest
wasn't it? God provided in the Old Testament
an opportunity for those who were guilty of breaking the law
to come out at the death of the high priest. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our high priest and in his death we've been delivered from
the bondage of the law. But in the spiritual application
of that city of refuge, we never come out of the city of refuge,
do we? We stay right there. God is our refuge. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the
Son of God, is our refuge. God the Father, the one who chose
us and the one who purposed our salvation, is our refuge. God
the Holy Spirit, the one who speaks effectually to our hearts
and regenerates us and reveals the gospel to us, He is our refuge. Everything that God does, He
does in all three persons. All three persons. elected by
the Father, redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit in perfect cooperation providing for their
people a refuge. A refuge. And giving them the
strength. They don't have the strength
in themselves. We don't have the strength to believe. We don't
have the strength to see. We don't have the strength to
flee. We don't have the strength to hear. We don't have the strength
to come. God is our refuge and our strength. Not only does he provide a place,
but he provides the ability to get to that place. A very present help in trouble,
in trouble. What are our troubles? Well,
look at the first one. Therefore, we will not fear. We all know a lot about fear,
don't we? Fear is very paralyzing. It's the opposite of faith. Every
time we're tempted to look away from Christ, fear grips our hearts. And so the Lord says, You look
to me, you won't be afraid, won't be afraid. Now, how freeing it
is for all those fears to go away when God gives us faith
to look upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust Him. Therefore, we will
not fear though the earth be removed. Now, yes, there's gonna
come a day when the The scripture says God's going to roll this
world up like a scroll. He's going to burn it up. It's
going to be destroyed. He's going to be finished with
it, this whole big globe that we live on. But you know what? For each one of us, the earth
is going to be removed from our experience the moment we take
our last breath. And so God is our refuge and
our strength, a very present help. In time of trouble, even in the trouble of death,
they shall fear no evil, for I am with them, though they walk
through the valley of the shadow of death. Hebrews chapter 2 says,
though through death, through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
he destroyed him who had power over death that is the devil
and delivered them who lived all their lives in fear of death
from the bondage of that fear that's what that's what that's
what the Lord's doing he said I'll I'm your refuge I'm your
hiding place you don't have to fear death Death's coming, you
know it's coming, but you look to me and I'll make death an
anticipation for you rather than something to fear. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15, oh, death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. Thanks be to God, through Christ
Jesus, we have victory. We have victory. You see, the
wages of sin is death. And so if the law was still punishing
us for sin, then death would be all we'd have to look forward
to. And that's why the unbeliever never wants to even think about
death. They don't want to think about it because they have no
hope of knowing that the law has been satisfied. Death hangs
over them with such fear. And the Lord says here, though
the earth be removed, though, yes, you're going to die, but
they that believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Believest thou this, Martha?
I know in the resurrection that my brother will be raised from
the dead. Isn't that what she said? Martha,
Martha, I am the resurrection of the life. He that believeth
in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Yet shall he live. Though the earth be removed.
This earth as we know it is going to be removed from every one
of us. And we'll have no memory of it and no thought of it. And
that's a good thing. For those of us that go to be
with the Lord, now I don't know about, I guess we'll have to
conclude that those who are separated from God for all eternity in
hell from the story that the Lord tells about the rich man
and Lazarus, I guess we have to conclude from that that those
people in hell have memory of this life. He knew that he had
five brothers back, that he had a lot of memories of this
life. We're not going to have a single thought of this life. We're going to see in Mark chapter
14 this coming Sunday when the Pharisees, they tried to trap
the Lord and asking Him, whose wife will she be in the resurrection?
Remember that scenario of one brother passing, dying and passing
on his wife to the next brother And she's married to all the
brothers over a period of time when they get to heaven whose
wife she's going to be. And the Lord said, oh, you do err. You do
err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. We're not
going to be married in heaven. You're not going to have this
memory of this life in heaven. It's not going to be anything
like this life. You're not going to be reunited with loved ones
and rehashing stories about the way it was back on earth. No,
the earth is going to be removed and that's a good thing, isn't
it? It's going to be removed from us in every way. Don't be
afraid. I'm your refuge. I'm your hiding
place. I'm your covert and I'm your
strength. And though the earth be removed,
you have nothing to be afraid of. Now look at the next thing
he says. though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea." Now one thing that every believer
believes with all of his heart is that the Lord Jesus Christ
bore in his body upon Calvary's cross all the sins of all of
God's people and put them away all by himself for all eternity.
Every believer knows that. They believe that. They don't
have any question about it. The Lord Jesus Christ was successful
in satisfying the demands of God's holy justice for his people.
He buried the sins of God's people in the depths of the sea. And I don't know if that can
say about every believer, but I know I can tell you about myself. Sometimes believers wonder, were
my sins cast into the depths of the sea? I know He cast away
all the sins of all of His people, but were my sins in there? Were
my sins in there? See, that has to do with assurance
of salvation, doesn't it? And so the Lord says, and though
the mountains be carried in to the depths of the sea, So what is the evidence that
my sins were cast into the depths of the sea? Some people think,
well, you know, I don't do the things I used to do. Now, that's
not a good evidence. Well, I'm doing things I didn't
used to do. That's not a good evidence. If you look to your
life and what you're doing and what you're not doing as evidence
that your sins were cast into the depths of the sea, then you're
looking in the wrong place, aren't you? Looking in the wrong place. There's only one evidence. Only
one. One. Faith is the evidence of
things hoped for. Faith. I've got no place else
to go but to look upon the Lord Jesus Christ for the hope of
my salvation. I can't trust anything or anyone
else for the forgiveness of my sin other than what he did on
Calvary's cross. And if he didn't save me, if
he did not save me, then I've got no place to go, nowhere else
to go. He's the only hope I have. I won't be saved if he didn't
save me. There's nothing else I can look to. This faith is
what causes us to flee to Christ and trust Him for all the hope
of our salvation. See, the truth is that this is
our biggest trouble, isn't it? Having mountains, you know, the
mountains are the pictures of those things that separate us.
Your sins have separated you from your God and these mountains
are the barriers that come between us and God and And sin is the
only thing that, and the Lord said if you have faith even of
a mustard seed, you can say unto this mountain, be there cast
into the sea and it'll be done. Faith. Trusting Christ. Looking to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the only evidence that there is. And so he says even
if the mountains are cast into the sea, I have nothing to fear.
I have nothing to fear. It's the one problem, you've
heard me say this before and it's not original but I'll repeat
myself again, it's the one problem, the only problem, the only trouble
that you and I have that time nor money can have any effect
on. Every single other problem that
you and I face in this life can be solved either with money or
with time. Every problem. Money won't touch
this problem. and all eternity separated from
God and the devil's hell won't put it away. Though the mountains be cast
into the sea. Lord, sometimes I wonder if my
mountains were cast into the sea, I know that you were successful
in saving everyone that you came to save and I've got no place
else to go, no place else to look, for the hope of my salvation
than what you did on Calvary's cross. So we have troubles of death. We have the trouble of having
assurance of our salvation. And thirdly, we have the trouble
of our circumstances, the trials and troubles of this life. Look
what he says. in verse 3, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled. You know what the water is a
picture of, the way of the Lord is through the seas and the turbulence
of trials and troubles in this life. Normally what we think
about when we think about being in trouble, You think about our
temporal problems. They're all ordained of God.
They were all purposed. They were all sent just at the
right time and just in the right degree to cause his people to
find him as their refuge. Though the waters roar. When Peter said to the Lord,
bid me to come unto thee, and he stepped out of that boat and
began to walk on the water." What was he? He was looking to
Christ when he was walking on that water, wasn't he? And then
what did he do? What did he do? He took his eyes off the Lord
and he looked at the raging sea and he became afraid. And as
soon as he did, he began to sink. Now, I don't know if Peter could
swim or not, but he was about to die. As he cried out, Lord,
save me. And the scripture says the Lord
reached down and pulled him out. And that's the reason every time
we get afraid, though the waters roar, though the seas be turbulent. Jonah, you know, you remember
the story of the Lord being asleep in the boat when the storm came
up on the Sea of Galilee And the disciple said, Lord, do you
care not that we perish? And the Lord was asleep. And he said, why do you fear,
you of little faith? And he said, peace be still.
And the storm, the winds quit. I mean, these were seasoned fishermen. They thought they were going
to drown. And they said, what manner of man is this, even the
wind and the seas obey his voice? And when the Lord calms our troubles,
He doesn't always take them away. He doesn't always take them away.
But He does give us a place of refuge. And He does give us rest
and faith in Him in the midst of our troubles. His voice is
able to calm the seas. The turbulence of circumstances
is not the circumstances, it's our reaction to the circumstances,
isn't it? It's our unbelief in the circumstances. The story of Jonah, what a picture
of the gospel. And you know where Jonah was?
Now again, we've got a ship full of seasoned sailors. and they're
in the midst of a sea of a storm and they thought they were going
to die and they were trying to figure out which one had done
something wrong in order to bring this curse upon them. Do you
remember where Jonah was? Jonah's a picture of Christ in
that story. Jonah's in the bottom of the ship and he's asleep.
He's sleeping in the midst of this storm. I don't know how
you do that. I've been in some bad storms out at sea. But Jonah's asleep. They came
down and said, don't you care that we perish? They said the
same thing to Jonah, the disciples said to the Lord. And Jonah, what'd Jonah say?
It's me. It's me. They cast lots to see
who would guilty and it came upon Jonah. And Jonah said, cast
me into the sea and the storm will stop. And that's exactly
what they did. And that's exactly what happened.
And as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly
of the whale, so the Lord Jesus Christ was cast into the sea
of our troubles. God is our refuge, a very present
help in time of trouble. Though the earth be removed,
though the mountains be cast into the depths of the sea, though
the waters roar, God is our refuge. He's our refuge. You remember in Acts chapter
27 when they were taking Paul back to Rome and Paul was on
a ship with the scripture says 273 men were on this ship and
they got caught in a sea, caught in a storm and the ship was sinking
and Paul said, don't leave the ship. They wanted to kill the
prisoners, but the captain of the ship didn't want to kill
Paul, and so he said, don't leave the ship. If you stay with the
ship, you'll survive. And so the soldiers cut loose
the lifeboats. That's what the scripture says.
They cut loose the lifeboats. You know that's what faith does. Faith cuts loose the lifeboats.
We tend to to find some place of safety, some place of refuge,
some place of help when we're in troubles, when the seas are
stirred up. We try to fix the problem and
then when we can't fix it and we've got no place else to go,
then that's when we've really learned something about prayer
and that's when we learn something about God being our refuge and
our strength and a very present help in trouble. We find ourselves
fleeing to him, and they all stuck with the ship. The ship
broke up on the rocks, but every one of them, all 273 of them,
ended up inshore at Melita, and they were all saved. Why? Because they stuck with the ship. Noah and his family were safe
on the ark, when all the world was being destroyed. You see,
the truth is that the same waters, the same turbulent sea that brings
destruction to the unbeliever gives buoyancy to the ark and
causes the child of God to find his refuge in Christ. All men have troubles, all men. Believers and unbelievers are
either in trouble, going into trouble, or coming out of trouble.
The believer's difference is that he understands. He's got
some understanding of his circumstances, some understanding of death,
some understanding of sin being cast into the sea, some understanding
of turbulence, and some understanding of the
mountains shaking and swelling. You see that in verse three? Though the mountains shake with
the swelling thereof. And when something shakes, it's
because it's unstable. And sin for the child of God
exposes how unstable they are. Is that your experience? You
know, we get confident, we get complacent, and then the Lord
exposes our sin and shows us how unstable we are, how our
sin can shake the foundation of our confidence, and how our
sin can swell our pride. And every believer says with
Rebecca, Why am I thus? And the Lord says, because there's
two nations in you. You've got two natures. That's
why you are the way you are. And so the child of God says,
oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? Thanks be to God. Through Christ
Jesus, we are free. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. He is my refuge. He's my very
present help in trouble. He's my strength. Yes, this world
is going to be separated from me. Yes, sometimes I fear that my sin
wasn't cast into the sea. But even then I've got no place
else to go. I've got no place else to hide other than in Christ. Yes, sometimes my circumstances
are overwhelming and oftentimes caused by my own
sin. Yes, the mountains shake and
they swell thereof. We flee to Christ in all of those
circumstances. Look at verse four. There is
a river. There is a river. The streams thereof make glad
the city of God. Now you know that river is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the river that flows clear
as crystal from the throne of God and from the lamb that John
saw in Revelation. He's the river that the tree
of life was planted. That tree that bears its fruit
and its due season planted by the river, that river is Christ. The tree itself is Christ. He's
the river that Naaman was washed in and made clean. He's that, you remember the 10
plagues in Egypt? You know, those 10 plagues I
thought about never, never thought about this before, but those
10 plagues started with blood and ended with blood. The first
plague was the river, the river, the Nile river was turned into
blood. And the last plague was the slain
of the, of the, um, the Paschal lamb, the Passover lamb. There's,
there's Christ. He's that river that was turned
to blood. He's that Paschal Lamb. Lydia was found by a riverside attending
a prayer meeting when Paul came and Lydia and God opened up her
heart and she heard the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
river. He's the river in which we all are baptized. John was baptizing them in the
river Jordan. That word Jordan translated means
death. And the children of Israel had
to come across that Jordan in order to come into the promised
land. The Lord Jesus Christ is that river. There is a river. There is a river. Turn with me
to the last book. Oh no, not the last book. Turn
with me to Zachariah, close to the end of the Old Testament.
Zachariah chapter 13. Next to the last book, Zechariah
chapter 13. Look at verse one. In that day, there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ is that fountain. He's the river of life. He's
the inexhaustible fountain of life. He said, in that day, a
fountain's going to be opened for sin and for uncleanness to
wash away your sins. And now the Lord says, there
is a river. There is a river. The Lord Jesus
Christ is that river. Now, in Psalm 23, The Lord said
that he will lead us by still waters. A sheep will not drink
from a rushing river because if they fall in, they can't swim,
they get waterlogged, they drown. And so the shepherd has to go
next to the river and dig a trench from the river inland a little
bit so that the trench will fill up with water and it'll be still
water and the sheep will drink from there. The Lord Jesus Christ
is a raging river. He is a raging river. And he
will overwhelm us with his glory, except that you know what he's
done? He's provided streams. Streams which make glad the city
of God. We've got a stream right here
tonight, don't we? Just a little cut off the main river, where
the Lord is pleased to take a little bit of that water out of the
river and make glad the hearts of God's people who are always
in trouble that they might find refuge and strength in their
time of need. There is a river, Christ is that
river. And of that river, there are
streams and the streams make glad the city of God He waters
his garden with a river. God is in the midst of her. Verse
5, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I inhabit the praise of
my people. I walk among the candlesticks.
Where two or three are gathered together, there I am. God is
in the midst of her. You see, this is the stream.
It goes from speaking of the stream to speaking of her. It's
the church. It's his garden. It's where he
sends streams of water to satisfy the thirst of his people. He
shall keep her. He shall keep her. And that right
early. Now that word right early means
at the dawn of a new day. And the imagery here is that
the Lord takes his children oftentimes through some dark nights. But
at the end of that dark night, there's the rising of the Son
of God. There's light, there's hope,
and that's his promise, that right early, I'm gonna help her. I'm gonna help her in her time
of trouble. The heathen raged and kingdoms were moved. He uttered
his voice and the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord. What desolations he has made in the earth. What has he
made a desolation of? Well, he's made a desolation
of the devil. He's made a desolation of sin.
He's made a desolation of death. He's... He's made a desolation
of the false beliefs of his people. He took away from you your wrong thoughts about yourself
and your wrong thoughts about God. He makes a desolation of
those things, doesn't he? And he causes us to take our
swords, that's our words, the things that we said against God
and the things that we said that weren't true. and beat them into
plowshares and take our spears and beat them into pruning forks.
Now a plowshare and a pruning fork is an instrument of planting,
growing. A sword and a spear is an instrument
of warfare. And when the Lord says he will
cause us to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into
pruning forks. What he's saying is I'm going
to make a desolation of your enmity against me. I'm going
to make you sit at my footstool. I'm going to cause you to put
down your weapons of warfare. You're no longer going to be
opposing me like you were. You're going to be agreeing with
me on everything I say. And your interest is going to
be to take this message of the gospel and plant it as seeds
of hope in the hearts of other men. This is the church. In verse 9, he maketh wars to
cease unto the ends of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth
the spear and sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Has he done that for you? As he was there a time when you
just were in rebellion against God. I'll not have this man reign
over me. I'm going to do it my way. I'm
going to have it my way. I'm going to believe what I believe.
And now all those weapons have been put down. And now you just
bow in submission to whatever God says. Be still, be still
and know that I am God. Don't you love that story of
Elijah when he was running from Jezebel? And he went to Mount
Horeb, didn't he? Got in a cave at Mount Horeb.
Now, Mount Horeb is Mount Sinai. It's the mountain of the law.
And what did the Lord say? What was the first thing that
the Lord said to Elijah? Elijah, what are you doing here? What did you come back to the
law for? There's no comfort here. And in the fire, there was no voice
from God. In the breaking of the rocks,
there was no voice from God. In the wind, there was no voice
from God, and then God spoke in a still small voice. And he
still speaks that way. Sometimes we look for extraordinary
experiences in order to think, well, God has spoken to me. But
here's how God speaks, be still and know that I am God, because
when I speak, When I speak in a life-changing, effectual way,
it's a still, small voice. You gotta be quiet to hear it. I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth. I love the way the Lord says
that. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted.
There's no question about it. There's no question about it.
One day, Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess,
he's going to be exalted. And our desire is for him to
be exalted in our hearts right now, right now. Be still, be
still. I know you're in trouble, but
you know what? There has no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to all men. God is faithful, will
not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able,
but will provide with the temptation a way of escape that you might
be able to bear it. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
way of escape. He is the way of escape. The
difference between us and the unbeliever is not the troubles
that we face or the troubles they face. It's that we have
some understanding that we're in trouble. And then we have
a very present help in our time of trouble. We have a refuge.
We have one to flee to. Be still and know that I am God. I'm going to be exalted among
the heathen. They're all going to know that
I'm God one day. The Lord of hosts is with us. Now I know what the unbelievers
think. They think we're full of pride and presumptuous thoughts
when it comes to... But whenever there's an us, there's
also a them. Now here's what the Lord is saying,
I'm with you. I'm with you. Those of you that
believe me, they're the ones I'm with. I'm not with them. The Lord of hosts, That means that he's Lord over
the living and the dead. That means there's no one that
he doesn't have sovereign control over. The Lord of hosts is with
us. The God of Jacob. Are you, can you identify with
Jacob? Jacob, the supplanter, Jacob, the deceiver, Jacob, the
liar. Yeah, Jacob went to, and he got
deceived by Laban, but you know what goes around comes around.
Jacob was just getting everything he'd done. You know, it just,
and then, and then wrestling with God and trying to figure
out a way to, to escape Esau and the God of Jacob. That's us,
isn't it? And Jacob's name was changed
from Jacob to Israel. But the Lord is often still refer
to the church. Here's the two natures of the
church, Jacob and Israel. Jacob's our old man and Israel's
our new man. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. He is our covert. He is our hiding
place. He is the only place we have
to go in our time of trouble, and He is a very present help. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly
Father, we ask that Your Holy Spirit
now would comfort the hearts of Your people with these words,
what we prayed in Christ's name and for His sake. for the time. 126 in the hard back temple.
Let's stand together, 126. you Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. While I draw When my eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown, And behold Thee on Thy throne,
Rock of ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee. So...