Okay, brethren, let's turn to
Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. I remember seeing mountains for
the first time. We were on a trip with my parents
and I remember driving along and I saw the I saw them in a
distance, you know, but then as we got close, I saw the base
of these giant mountains and you just looked up and they just
went up out of sight into the clouds. That's Christ our rock. He is come down
a mighty mountain rock. to the dust of this earth, and
he's accomplished that which is required, that he requires,
that which he requires of his people. And he's ascended to
the Father. He's gone to the right hand of
God, where he sits. and all glory and all dominion
is to the God of all grace by Jesus Christ forever and ever. In all ages, it always has been,
it always will be. All the praise and all the dominion,
all the power and all the glory. As Isaiah went forth and he was
preaching this word about how the Lord would conquer all his
enemies for his people, how the Lord would call out his sheep
from the four corners of the earth, he said, sing a new song. And I can't go further without
going back to this one little phrase that caught my attention
in Isaiah 42.11. He said this, let the inhabitants of the rock
sing. Let the inhabitants of the rock
sing. You see that little phrase there
in Isaiah 42, 11? I titled this message, Inhabitants
of the Rock. Here's what we need to get, what
we need to be settled on, what we need to hear and rest in.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the rock in whom his children inhabit,
in whom his children dwell. We were put there by the divine
electing grace of God the Father before the world began. We were
in Christ the Rock. dwelling in Him when He walked
this earth and established the law and went to the cross and
laid down His life and justified His people from all their sin.
Every one of His people, every one of His children, every one
of you who here now that believe on Him were put in Him, in Him,
in this rock of God. when the Spirit of God came and
quickened us and made us alive. We're in Him. And we'll be in
Him when there is nothing else. In Christ the Rock. His children
are inhabitants of the Rock. There's coming a day when there
won't be anything here. Look down at Isaiah 43.10. Ye are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and
believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was
no guard formed, neither shall there be after me. Before anything
was made, there was God. And after everything is gone
in this life, there's going to be God. And His people have been
abiding in Christ the Rock from before the world began. And that's
where they'll always be. And not one will be lost. I want
to show you three things here. And we're just going to go over
to Exodus and jump around a little bit tonight. I usually just stick
in one verse. But I want to show you first
of all It's in Christ the rock that we behold his glory, the
glory of God. The second thing is it's in Christ
the rock that the inhabitants stand in one sure immovable foundation,
can't be moved out of this foundation. And then thirdly, that it's in
Christ the rock that we find our rest and our refreshing as
we journey through this wilderness. Here's the first thing. We behold
the glory of God in Christ the rock. In the rock is where God's
children behold his glory. The scriptures, I want to show
you this in Jeremiah 49. Jeremiah 49. This is our problem
by nature. Jeremiah 49, 16. Thy terribleness
hath deceived thee. and the pride of thine heart. O thou that dwellest in the clefts
of the rock, plural, in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the
height of the hill, thou that shouldst make thy nest as high,
though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as the eagle, I'll
bring thee now from hence, saith the Lord. That's our problem
by nature. We dwell in a lot of clefts. We have a lot of hiding places
that we try to hide in. And it's because of the terribleness,
the deception of the heart, and of our pride that's deceived
us. There's absolutely no way a child of God's gonna be left
hiding in some false refuge. God's gonna bring his children
down. He said, though thou makest thy
nest upon high, I'll bring thee down from then, said the Lord.
But this is what he does by his regenerating power. Look over
in Exodus 33. And we'll be over in Exodus for
quite a bit here, so hold your place in Exodus. This is what
He did when He called us by His grace. He took us out of all
our hiding places and He put us in one cleft of the rock,
Christ the rock. And He showed us His glory, God's
glory in Christ the rock. Exodus 33, look at verse 14. Moses was speaking here and Moses
said, God said to Moses, My presence shall go with thee, and I will
give thee rest. And he said unto him, Moses did,
If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight. Remember what we saw in Isaiah
43? He said, since thou was precious in my
sight. We got to make sure we understand
which direction that's coming from. That's coming from God's
sight looking at us. Nothing in us. He said, because
thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name. He said,
beseech thee. I beseech thee, Moses said, show
me thy glory. And the Lord said, I'll make
all my goodness pass before thee. And I'll proclaim the name of
the Lord before thee. And he says, and I will be gracious
to whom I'll be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. And he said, you can't see my
face, Moses. There shall no man see me and
live. And the Lord said, behold, there
is a place by me. There is a place by me. And thou
shalt stand upon a rock. and it shall come to pass while
my glory passeth by, I will put thee in a cleft of the rock and
will cover thee with my hand while I pass by." You know what
Paul said? He said, God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God Where? In the face of Christ Jesus.
Where are we going to see God's glory? We're going to see God's
glory in the cleft of the rock. Look, read on here. And he says,
and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by. that I'll put thee in a cleft
of the rock, and I'll cover thee with my hand while I pass by,
and I'll take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts,
but my face shall not be seen. And the Lord said unto Moses,
and he told him here to hew out some tables of stone, like that
law he broke, and bring that up to the mount with him. Because
all the law of God, every bit of the law that we broke is fulfilled
one place. It's fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
That's the only place. And look down at verse 5. And
the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there. You
know where he is? He's in the rock. He's in the
cleft of the rock. We're talking about inhabitants
of the rock. Those who dwell in the rock.
He put Moses in that rock and he proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the
Lord. That's who Christ is. He's God,
our Savior. He's Jehovah. He's one God in
the highest come down. The Lord God. Covenant God. The Lord God. God of covenant
mercy. Merciful and gracious. Where's
the mercy and grace of God seen? It's seen in Christ. He sent
forth His Son in mercy to do for His people what His people
couldn't do for themselves. That's his grace is seen in Christ
long-suffering Why didn't he destroy this world when he made
it when Adam fell in the garden? Because he put his people in
Christ his long-suffering he suffers long with his People
he's gonna bring every one of his people into this rock in
the experience of grace gonna make us behold Christ everyone
abundant abundant Oh, how abundant. Oh, abundant
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means
clear the guilty. God will not sweep our sin under
the rug. He won't put it behind His back
unless a just sacrifice has been made, unless satisfaction has
been made, because He's holy and His justice has got to be
satisfied. And this is where we see it satisfied,
in Christ Jesus. Everybody Christ died for. He
justified. Everybody that our Savior laid
down His life for, He put their sin away. He purged their sin. He obtained eternal redemption.
And we behold it when God puts us in this rock. And He says,
look down at verse 8, And Moses made haste and bowed his head
toward the earth, and he worshipped the Lord. You know what the text
says? It says, sing a new song, O you
inhabitants of the rock. You know what we sing? You know
what we sing? You know, when we sing, when
we gather here to sing, that's as much a part of the worship
of God as when you hear a sermon preached. and you hear God's
glory set forth in the message that's preached. It's just as
much a part of worship, singing praise unto Him. And you know
what we sing when He calls us by His grace, when He puts us
in that rock and makes us to behold the glory of God in Christ
the rock? We sing, He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock. that shatters a dry and thirsty
land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand." That's what he
did with Moses. We sing, rock of ages, cleft
for me. This is the cleft he's put me
in. Christ my Lord, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water
and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed. I love this
right here. Be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. You know what we need? We need
to be saved from the wrath of God, and we need to be made pure. And you know where that double
cure is? It's in the rock of ages. Christ our Lord. That's where we see His glory.
In the rock. Oh, ye inhabitants of the rock,
sing. Sing. That's the first thing.
That's where we're going to see His glory. Here's the second
thing. When the Spirit of God makes this grace effectual in
our hearts, when he comes to us in saving grace and he makes
this a reality in the heart of his people. When he does this,
he plants us immovably in Christ and we can't be moved out of
him. We can't be moved. He's our foundation. We're in this foundation, settled
in this foundation. Isaiah told you placed there
in Exodus and let me read this to you Isaiah 28 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord
God Let's start in verse Let's start
at verse 14. Wherefore hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
And this is why Christ came. This is why He had to come. Because
when He gave a law through Moses, we scorned. one another. We scorned with that law and
reproached the name of the living God and ruled with a yoke over
one another. He said, verse 15, in doing so,
because you said we've made a covenant with death and with hell are
we in agreement. That's what we thought we'd done
by trying to come to God in the law. He says, when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. That's
what we said in our sin and our rebellion. We made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore thus saith
the Lord God. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation,
and he that believeth shall not make haste. There is no other
foundation that can be laid than that which is laid. That doesn't
mean we lay, that doesn't mean that we are building something
else. Our own making on this foundation. It means Christ is
the foundation. He is the sure foundation There
is no other foundation then can be let that can be laid than
that which is laid and that Foundation is Christ. He's the sure stone.
He's the precious stone He's the stone on which the whole
house is built the house that he's built. What do we see there
in Ephesians? You've built on the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets Jesus Christ himself in the chief
cornerstone. He's the sure foundation. He's
the all our foundation Scripture says you're complete in him Those
who he's put in Christ are completely in him. We're not making lies
our refuge anymore. We make the truth our refuge.
He's our refuge. Christ the truth who satisfied
justice, satisfied righteousness, who is the wisdom of God, who
is the redemption accomplished for his people. We don't build
anything on there. We don't add anything of our
making to this foundation. When he makes this life in our
soul, We're settled in this foundation. Why is it that a, look over at
1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, why is it a unregenerate
sinner doesn't stop trying to establish a righteousness of their own making? Why is it
that a unregenerate sinner is ever trying to establish and
lay a foundation of their own making? Here's why, 1 Peter 2,
7. They don't believe the very word
of God. Christ is the word and he said
it is finished. Look at 1 Peter 2, 7. Unto you
therefore which believe he's precious. Unto you therefore
which believe he's precious. But unto them which be disobedient
The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereunto they also were appointed. The Lord said,
I lay in Zion a foundation, a stone. He that believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. But he that believeth not, but
is disobedient to the word of God. God doesn't tell us to keep
working. He didn't tell us to keep working
trying to come up to God little by little by the work of our
hands. He tells us to rest in this foundation, to rest in Him. And that's what the big, when
He works this work of grace in our heart, We rest in him. We
are settled in this stone. And he says, and sing, O ye inhabitants
of the rock. And what do we sing? When he's
put us in that sure foundation. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith. Where? In his excellent
word. What do we need? Listen to this.
What more can he say? than to you He hath said." Right
here, what more can He say than to you He hath said? Right here
in His Word, to you who were refuged, to Jesus have fled.
What more can He say? It is finished. What more can
He say? It is finished. What more can
He say? Ye are complete in Him. What more can He say? than to
you he hath said. Those who don't rest, we saw
the hurricane come, and that hurricane was a, what was it? It was a F1, I think, on the
scale that came through here. And that, it had some, it had
some force to it. If a F5 comes through, I believe
I'm gonna be looking for some higher ground. That was, we see
the tsunamis and we see the hurricanes and we see the tornadoes and
we see the, all these different acts of God in this earth. And he's communicating to us
in a way that we can sort of kind of perceive that his wrath
is something we don't want to face. His wrath and his anger,
something you and I don't wanna, we don't wanna come into God's
presence trusting in our own anything at all. And you think when we saw all
those reports and all that was coming about, now what did you
honestly think when you would see these reports of people that
just stayed on the coast and said, I hear the report, but
I'm just gonna stay here. You thought, how foolish. Why
stay there? Why stay there? That's foolishness.
This word that is being preached, this is the word that says, why
look to anything wherein we try to take refuge? Anything. Why are you looking and I looking
to anything wherein we would try to take refuge? That's foolishness. That's foolishness. You know
what the Lord said in Matthew 7, 24? He said this, Therefore
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will
liken him to a wise man which built his house upon a rock. The rain descended, the floods
came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell
not, for it was founded upon a rock. Everyone that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the
rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall
of it." That be utter foolishness. There's no other foundation.
This is what the new song, this is what the inhabitants of the
rock sing. My hope is built. on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. His blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground. That's a good song. Every verse,
when darkness veils his lovely face, I'm gonna look to myself
then. When it all seems dark and it
seems like I can't see his face anymore, he put the darkness
there. Why? To make us rest on his unchanging
grace. His unchanging grace, it is grace
that does not change. In every high and stormy gale,
I have an anchor. is Christ Jesus, and He's in
the veil. The forerunner has entered in
for us, and He's there. He's entered. He's gone ahead.
He's there. And by God's grace, I'm there
in Him. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground's sinking sand.
It's all sinking sand. We trust in our word, we trust
in His oath, His promise. We trust in our word, we trust
in His covenant. We trust in our word, we trust
in His blood. Where are we resting? We trust in some kind of righteousness
that we've accomplished, or we want to stand faultless in Him,
robed in His righteousness? all of the ground sinking sand.
This is what the inhabitants of the rock sing, in Christ the
solid rock I stand. Here's the third thing. Everybody
who's inhabitants of Christ the rock Those that He's put there
by His sovereign electing grace, those who He's revealed, He's
put in that cleft of the rock and made us to behold His glory
by His Holy Spirit. Everybody He's put there, inhabitants
of the rock, we find all our rest and all our refreshing in
that rock, in that rock only. All of our rest and all of our
refreshing, all of our supply, is in that rock. Look at Exodus
17 and look at verse 6. We've been called to bear witness
of Christ. Being called and given eyes to
see Him and ears to hear Him and hearts to believe Him, we're
witnesses of Him. without doing anything, because
nobody can do this except by His grace. Nobody can believe
on Him except by His grace. But we're called on to bear witness
of Him. And as we bear witness of Him,
we're going through a wilderness, an absolute, complete wilderness. And when the children of Israel
were going through the wilderness, they began to murmur in that
wilderness. You know something about murmuring? We don't ever
realize murmuring is murmuring. Unbelief never realizes unbelief
is unbelief. We never do. It's just a word
meant to sort of criticize God's workmanship. It's a word meant
to criticize somebody that's God's workmanship. But you know
all that ever does is put a burden on our fellow brethren. It puts a burden on our brethren.
They were walking through that wilderness and they were saying,
can God furnish a table for us in this wilderness? Can God provide
Water for us in this wilderness? Look at verse, Exodus 17. Let's start in verse 1. All the congregation of the children
of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their
journeys according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim.
And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the
people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that
we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why
chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
And the people thirsted therefore water, and the people murmured
against Moses and said, wherefore is this that thou has brought
us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle
with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord saying, what shall
I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone
me. And the Lord said unto Moses, go on before the people. And
take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thou rod wherewith
thou smotest the river, that same rod that opened that Red
Sea wherein I delivered my people across that sea on dry ground.
Take that rod in thy hand and go. Behold, I will stand before
thee there upon the rock in Horeb. And thou shalt smite the rock
and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink.
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel." You
know what the Apostle Paul said that rock was? That rock is Christ. God Almighty took his son, and
with his rod of justice, he smote his son in my room instead. God Almighty
took his son and he smote his son in your room instead, Scott. And smiting his son in our room
instead He brought forth life for His
people. He brought forth eternal life
in righteousness for His people. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
that water of life. He is that water whereby God
provides water in the wilderness for His people, refreshing for
His people. Because He smote this rock, He
won't smite His people. He won't pour out His wrath on
His people. He's going to give His people
water. He's going to give His people
refreshing, and He is that refreshing. That woman at the well, she sat
there and the Lord said to her, if you knew the gift of God,
and you knew who it was speaking to you, He said, you'd ask of
him and he'd give you living water. Living water. He said, the beast of the field
shall honor me. The beast of the field, the dragons
and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness and
rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. Paul said, let's not tempt the
Lord like they did in the wilderness. Flee from idolatry. That's what
murmuring is, it's idolatry. That's what unbelief is, it's
idolatry. And flee to him who is the river of life. We gotta
go through this world and we gotta hold, we got one responsibility. Hold up, hold up Christ before
God. anybody and everybody who will
listen. That's the one thing we're given
to do in this world is hold up Christ. Hold him up. And we get tired. We get weary. And we don't have any strength
in ourselves. How are we going to strengthen one another? How
are we going to? Paul said, Beloved if a brother be overtaken
in a fault and the word there really is although he be overtaken
in a fault If a man be overtaken in the fall you that are spiritual
restore him in the spirit of meekness How are we going to
restore one another look get there at Exodus 17 Look down
there and Verse 8 Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. You see, there's one trial after
another that the Lord gave them as they went through the wilderness.
Here comes Amalek right after that. And Moses said unto Joshua,
Choose us out, men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow
I'll stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my
hand. That's the gospel. That's what
we're supposed to hold up is Christ Jesus, this gospel. He
said, you go, I'll go up on top of this hill and I'll just hold
up the rod of God. That same rod that smote the
rock out of which came the water. And Joshua, picture of Christ,
did as Moses had said to him. And he fought with Amalek. And
Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it
came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed."
Oh, isn't that so? Isn't that so? When I see Christ,
all is settled and I'm at rest. How about you? When we see Christ,
is your heart settled? You know when our hearts are
not settled? When we're not settled on Christ. It came to pass when Moses held
up his hand, Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy.
He was weary. He was tired. Why? Because Moses didn't have
any strength in himself. I don't have any strength in
myself. You don't have any strength in yourself. His hands were heavy. So they went up there and they
took a stone and they laid it on his shoulders to try to weigh
down his hands and make it a bigger burden for him. That's not what
they did. You know what they did? They
took a stone and they put it under him. Oh, inhabitants of
the rock, who do you reckon that stone's a picture of? How are
we gonna restore one another? Take Christ this rock and set
it under him. And they held up his hands, the
one on the one side and the other on the other side, and his hands
were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua, Christ
our Lord, conquered Amalek. conquered the enemy. How are
we going to comfort one another? How are we going to edify one
another? How are we going to strengthen one another when our
hands are heavy? We're going to set each other
on the rock. We're going to set each other on Christ the rock.
We're going to, Paul said, sing to one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs. What did the Lord say? Oh ye
inhabitants of the rock, sing. Sing to one another. Sing this
glorious, blessed good news to one another. And Christ will do the work.
I believe He will. I believe God will do the work. You know there's a thousand little
decisions to be made. There's a thousand little, little things that have to be decided
upon. If we prefer the honor of another
before ourselves, if we prefer that in all, in all the gifts,
you don't have anything, we don't have anything we haven't been
given, nothing. If any man speak, let him do
as the oracles of God. I'm getting given everything
to speak right here. Any man minister, you know what
that word means? Anything that we do that is serving
somebody else with expense to our time, our resources, ourselves,
anything at all, let him do it as the ability which God giveth. Why? That God in all things through
Christ Jesus might be glorified. To whom is the praise and the
dominion forever and ever. Amen. All the praise is going
to be his and the dominion is his. So we can just strengthen
one another by setting each other on the rock, on the rock, on
the It won't comfort anybody to come
to them and tell them that everything you've ever done is worthless.
That won't comfort them. That won't help them. That won't
strengthen them. To come to them and tell them everything you've
done so far is worthless. They said of John the Baptist,
The Lord said that he came and he preached the gospel to you.
He said, and he said, this is a hard man. We can't hear this
man. And he said, and I came eating
and drinking. And you said, a wine maker and
a gluttonous man. He said, we pipe to you. You
won't dance. We mourn and you won't cry. There's only one way a believer
is going to be satisfied. Only the ones who will be satisfied,
believers. That God sits on this rock and
there will be satisfied and rest and find strength. This is what
he says too. All the judgment, everything
that's coming about, everything that's happening on this earth
right now is happening for the good of his people that he set
right here in this earth to declare his name. Every bit of it. There's times, there's things
that happens in this earth that we see and we think, how in the
world is God gonna get good to his name out of this? And we
may never, we may never understand it and may never comprehend it.
And I'm thankful to the Lord that it's not, we don't have
to understand it. We don't have to understand how
he's doing it. We just trust he's doing it.
He's doing it. And this is what He says to me
and you. Let's look back now at Isaiah 26, verse 20. He tells us this, in the midst
of all of it, this is what He says to His people. Isaiah 26,
20. See, the judgment's been accomplished
in His Son for His people. And so while all the storms and
the wrath of God is coming upon this world, And people are being
tossed to and fro and wondering, how are we going to make it?
How are we going to make it? This is what he says, Isaiah
2620. We talk about inhabitants, those who dwell in the rock.
He says in Isaiah 2620, come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers. Come into the rock, come into
your hiding place, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself
as it were for a little moment until the indignation be over
the past. You see, our rock, our refuge is Christ. Look back there at Isaiah 8.
I want you to remember this, Isaiah 8. Isaiah 8 and 9. Associate yourselves, O ye people,
and ye shall be broken in pieces. And give ear, all of you far
countries, gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. He says it twice. Gird yourselves
and you shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together and it
shall come to naught. Speak the word and it shall not
stand. For God is with us. God's with
us. You know who he's talking to?
He's telling this whole world. There's no use in coming up against
my people. There's no use in you joining
forces, this whole world joining forces against my people, taking
counsel together against my people. For the Lord spake thus to me
with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in
the way of this people, saying, say ye not a confederacy to all
them to whom this people shall say a confederacy? Neither fear
ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. and let him be your fear, and
let him be your dread, and he shall be for sanctuary. He shall be for the refuge. He
shall be the stone in which you cannot be moved. What do we sing? This is an old song I found that
I like. Listen to this. Great rock for
weary travelers made. When storms of sin infest the
soul, here let me rest my weary head. When lightnings blaze and
thunders roll, within the cleft of his dear side, there all his
saints in safety dwell. And what from our Lord Jesus
Christ shall divide, not all the rage of earth and hell. That's what He's saying. That's
what He's saying to His people. God says in mercy what He says
to those who try to find refuge elsewhere. He says in mercy to
His child of grace what He says mockingly to people who put their
trust somewhere else. He says, enter into the rock
and hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord and for the
glory of His majesty. Because of God's own Word, because
of God's own glory, because of God's own righteousness, because
of God's own holiness, for the sake of his precious son, Christ
our rock, we have this promise. Every inhabitant of the rock
has this promise. He that believeth shall never
be moved. Amen.