May it please God to bless us
together as we meditate in his word, and we'll turn to the book
of Psalms. Psalm 46, and we'll read the
last verse, which is verse 11. So Psalm 46, and reading verse
11. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge,
Selah. In actual fact, this verse is
repeated in verse seven of this psalm, exactly the same. The
Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge,
Selah. Well, it's a very wonderful statement. It's a very confident statement.
but it's a very true statement. And we should be thankful that
we have statements like this in the Word of God to encourage
us in our lives as we now find ourselves on the earth. And there
are, of course, continual difficulties and trials and temptations that
we have to pass through. It is the lot of mankind It is
a lot of the Church of God that life is never an easy life, but
the blessing is surely to have this truth spoken to us. The Lord of hosts is with us.
This of course is the great God, the almighty God, indeed the
ruler of the universe. And this God who is with us was
spoken, you know, in the days, the New Testament and when the
angel came and appeared in the very first chapter of the New
Testament and the first chapter of Matthew. We read this in verse
23. Behold, a virgin shall be with
child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name
Immanuel. which being interpreted is God
with us." Well, what a wonderful statement that was. What an important
word it was for the Church of God in those days. When you think
they'd been waiting hundreds of years since the time when
the last book of the Old Testament had been written, the book of
Malachi, hundreds of years, 400, 500 years. And now the Lord graciously
had brought about the time when the Messiah would come into this
world. And as the angel said, his name
shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with
us. So here we have the same statement,
really slightly different wording, where it says the Lord of hosts,
which of course is God. The Lord of hosts is God. He
is the ruler. He is the king of kings. He is
the Lord of lords. He rules and reigns over everything
in this vast world. Man, for the most part, ignores
the great truth. Man doesn't want to believe there
is a God. Man doesn't want to believe there
is a God who rules their lives, who controls their lives. They
don't even want to think there's anybody like a God. And yet here
we have a very simple statement, a very true statement. The Lord
of hosts is with us and the God of Jacob is our refuge. And where
it says the God of Jacob, Jacob really of course represents the
church of God. So again, the Lord of hosts is
with us. The God of the church is our
refuge. Well, these should be very encouraging
words to the Church of God. And they were encouraging words
through the ages. Indeed, they were to the Church
of God. And when the apostle Paul wrote
to the Church of Rome, And in the eighth chapter, we read probably
a well-known verse, but nonetheless relevant to us. And verse 31
tells us, what shall we say to these things? If God before us,
who can be against us? What a mercy to realize that
we have then such a God, and if God is for us who can be against
us. The truth is, of course, that
no one can stand against the power of Almighty God. No one,
therefore, can actually stand against us and win the day, because
if God before us, who can be against us? You know, he gives,
the apostle gives a beautiful reason for that as he follows
on in this eighth chapter of the Romans, and he says this,
he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? You see, all things are in the
control of Almighty God. Everything that you and I possess
in this world, in our little life, God has given to us. How we need to realize that more
and more. But it's not because we're extra
clever or because we're clever that we obtain certain things.
It's because of God's goodness, naturally, and the same, of course,
spiritually. It's because of His grace, His
free unmerited favor. as we read, also freely give
us all things." Well, that's very humbling. It should be very
humbling. I pray it may be very humbling
if you and I are able to realise that everything that we have
naturally and spiritually, God has given to us. It's not because
of our own ability. It's not because we deserve any
blessing. It's because of God's mercy. It's because of his love. It's
because of his favor toward us. Well, it's good, you know, when
the Holy Spirit convinces us of the reality of such things
to realize that it is God. that directs us. It is God that
is with us. And then we come back to this
word, the Lord of hosts is with us. God is with us. Well, it's wonderful. And I hope
we can, in least some small way, look into our lives, trace back
in our lives, to see how God has been with us. And therefore,
to believe those words, he who has helped us hitherto will help
us all our journey through. And the hymn writer goes on to
say, and give us daily cause to raise new Ebenezers to his
praise. That means they used to, they
placed a stone between Mishpa and Shen and called it Ebenezer. so that the people would recognize
and realize, yes, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Well, it's true. I hope you and
I realize it is true in our lives, that we can say, yes, the Lord
of hosts is with us. God has been with us. Yes, the
Lord has helped us. hitherto, and as he's helped
us, hitherto believe he will be with us therefore all our
journey through. And sometimes don't always appear
to be as smooth and as clear as we might think. And we read
that chapter in The Judges. about Gideon. It's an interesting
chapter and I hope you young people read it and appreciated
it and understood what was being spoken. And of course in that
chapter Gideon was a man who was raised up by God to deliver
Israel from the Midianites. He was just an ordinary person.
But the Lord called him to do this great work. And yet, Gideon
tells us, as he was threshing wine by the winepress, he was
hiding from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared
to him and said, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of
valor. Well, that was the truth. And
yet, to Gideon, it didn't appear like that. And it may be so in
our lives. The Lord is with us, but it doesn't
always appear to be that way. Things don't always seem to be
running in accordance with our ideas of how things should be
worked out and pursued. And therefore Gideon's response
was very simple. And he said, oh my Lord, if the
Lord be with us, why then is all this before us? It's an understandable statement,
wasn't it? He was asking God, if God was
with them, then why should they suffer at the hands of the Midianites? Why should the Lord allow these
things to come upon them? Well, what Gideon didn't, of
course, realize at that time was the Lord was going to appear
in a most wonderful way to deliver Israel. And it would be a wonderful
victory. Now then, if the Lord hadn't
allowed Midian to oppress Israel, there wouldn't have been the
evidence of this amazing deliverance. So when we see things perhaps
not going rightly in a natural way, perhaps also in a spiritual
way. And we may ask this question,
why is this happening? Why then is all this befallen
us? And indeed, Gideon reminds the
Lord, and he says, and where be all his miracles, which our
fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from
Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands
of the Midianites. Well, that's how it appeared
to Gideon. And sometimes that's how it might
appear to us. But the Lord quickly spoke to
Gideon and he said, The LORD looked upon him and said, Go
in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of
the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And Gideon responded. It's good to see how men of God
responded. He didn't think he was a very
adequate or a suitable person to deliver Israel. Not at all. He said, O my Lord, wherewith
shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. Didn't
put a high position for himself, did he? It's good, you know,
when the Holy Spirit brings us to realize we're not very important
people. We're really quite unimportant.
And yet you see, the Lord came and continued to speak to Gideon
and said, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the
Midianites as one man. Well, Gideon wanted to know the
evidence of that. He said, if now I have found
grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with
me. He wanted a sign. Well, as we
know, God was very gracious to him. He sent this, the angel
to come and to speak to him. and what the angel did. And then,
of course, at the end of this chapter, where Gideon asked the
lords to grant that you might come onto the fleece and nowhere
else, and then everywhere else and not on the fleece. And God
very graciously granted him that encouragement. So we should think
that with the evidence, of this great truth, the Lord of hosts
is with us, yet sometimes we need an encouragement to know
that this word is true and this word has a gracious application
to us in our little lives. That the Lord is indeed with
us, even like it seemed in Gideon, Very the opposite. Everything
was working in a wrong way. But it wasn't, you know, it was
working in a right way. And perhaps we should also just
be reminded of the case of Jacob. Jacob and his sons in his life. You know, there Jacob had, he
thought he'd lost Joseph. He thought Joseph had been killed.
And now the, brothers wanted to take Benjamin down to Egypt
because the ruler there had said that if they didn't bring him
they wouldn't get any food and therefore what was Jacob's response? Jacob's response I suppose was
a natural one that perhaps you and I might come up with the
same response. And he said, all these things
are against me. That's what he thought. All these things are against
me. But of course they weren't. He
didn't realize, he didn't know that God had brought about Joseph
to be in that eminent position in Egypt. He had no idea that
it was Joseph. And therefore, naturally speaking,
to him it looked as though all these things were against him. But in actual fact, all things
were working together for good. And this word was true. The Lord
of hosts was with him. He was going before him. Jacob
couldn't see it. Jacob didn't understand it. Didn't
alter the truth of the fact. God was with him. And as, of
course, I'm sure we know that in due time. Joseph revealed himself to his
brethren down in Egypt and they were able to confirm that Jacob
was yet alive and Joseph then sent all those wagons to encourage
Joseph and bring down to Egypt all his goods and of course it
was when Jacob saw the wagons which Joseph had sent, the very
clear evidence that things were working together for good. He
then believed. And so it came to pass that Jacob
went down to Egypt. And so all these things were
not against him. All these things were working
for his good, for his spiritual good and for his natural good. Well, may we realize that and
therefore be encouraged perhaps in our lives. I know not really
what's in your lives and whether things appear to be very difficult
and very dark, perhaps naturally, perhaps also spiritually, you
may not be able to understand the position, understand why
things are as they are. It doesn't alter the truth. The
truth is, to the whole Church of God, the Lord of Hosts is
with us. May that be a strength and an
encouragement to us. And then perhaps then just turning
to our spiritual needs that we have. We can think in the last
chapter in Luke, I expect it's a reasonably familiar chapter
to us, and it was that occasion when there were two people going
down to a village called Emmaus. It was just after the Lord had
been crucified and had risen from the dead. It was the most
amazing time in the history of the world. And in this 24th chapter
of Luke, this is what we're told. Two of them went that same day
to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem. about three
score furlongs, and they talked together of all these things
which had happened. We might just pause there and
say, it's good when we talk about the things of God. These people,
these two were speaking about the things of God. And it says,
while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew
near and went with them. What a mercy if you and I, as
we walk perhaps, as we travel here and there, we speak about
the things of God, and Jesus himself then graciously condescends
to come with us, not in a physical presence, but in a spiritual
presence. by influencing that which is
said and that which is done. And so here we have it in these
words. They didn't understand it was
the Lord. No, their eyes were holden that
they should not know him. Nonetheless, it was the blessed
savior. And he spoke to them and he asked
them and he said, What manner of communications are these that
you have one to another as you walk in our sand? They were sad
because the things which they'd observed hadn't worked out in
accordance with what they believed would happen. The Lord of hosts is with us. The Lord was with them. The Lord
was with them before the Lord came to them. But he was with
them in a very special way when the Lord came to them and spoke
to them. And he asked this question, what
are you talking about? Why are you sad? And Cleophas
said, aren't there only a stranger in Jerusalem and has not known
the things which have come to pass there in these days? And
he said, what things? And they said, concerning Jesus
of Nazareth. which was a prophet mighty in
deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief
priests and our rulers delivered him to be contend to death and
have crucified him, but we trusted. But it had been he which should
have redeemed Israel. Their hope was in the Savior. That was where they now seemed
to indicate that it was now, of course, no good, because the
Saviour was no longer. The Lord of hosts is with us. Yea, and certain women also of
our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre.
And when they found not his body, it came saying that they had
also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher,
and found it even size of women, and said, But him they saw not. Then the Lord said, O fools,
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Well, how true that was. And
how true that is perhaps for us today. How foolish we are. how slow of heart we are to believe
the great and glorious truths of God. We may think we are just
too bad for God to take any notice of. Perhaps we think we've sinned
against light and knowledge. We've turned our back upon God.
Why should God ever look upon us? Well, remember, this great
truth, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. It means, therefore, that notwithstanding
however bad and evil and sinful we may be, that such words as
this are indeed true. We are fools and slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And we, of course,
today have the glorious New Testament, which tells us about the wonderful
life and death and resurrection and ascension and intercession
of the Saviour. And yet so often we are foolish
and slow of heart to believe all these great and glorious
truths. And the Lord speaks. to these
two and tells them, ought not Christ to have suffered these
things and to enter into his glory? And then he wonderfully
tells them, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."
Well, what a sermon that was. What a wonderful sermon it was. Well, today we have the great
word of God to explain to us, which it does, the great and
wonderful truths of God, which explains to us our lost and ruined
condition, how we've failed in our lives, how we've sinned against
a holy and righteous God, how we've offended God, disobeyed
God. And we need a Redeemer. And we need a Saviour. And we need to be delivered from
our sins. We need to be freed from the
curse. We need to know that Lord Jesus
Christ has indeed died to atone for all our sins. What a mercy then to be blessed
with this understanding that notwithstanding our sinfulness,
it doesn't alter the truth that Lord of hosts is indeed with
us. What a mercy then, as we come
and recognize the favor and the mercy of Almighty God. We are not to turn our back upon
God. We are not to rebel against God. We are to acknowledge that we
are before Almighty God. And the Lord himself, indeed,
is that one who rules and reigns. And we are not to murmur against
God. The Israelites, they murmured
against God. They disapproved, really, of
the direction that God was leading them in. And it's a very sad
thing when we today, perhaps, turn our back upon God, and we
don't listen, therefore, to the great truths that are told us. No, we ignore the truth of God. Well, in the history of Israel,
and it's good always to remember the history of Israel, because
it typifies the life of the people of God, and God had brought about
a great deliverance. He fulfilled His promise and
brought them out of Egypt. And it's good to remember that.
God is faithful. He brought them out of Egypt.
He said He would. It's a long time. It's 400 years
or so. But the time came when God delivered
them. Moses was raised up. And again,
it's worth pondering that Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness,
40 years in Pharaoh's palace to be prepared to lead them out
of Egypt and across the wilderness. And so he was. And then they
come into the wilderness and God told them to go and to spy
out the land which they were to conquer. I remember 12 spies
were ordained, they went, spied out the land, came back and said
it was a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey, but there
was a problem. There were some giants there.
There were difficulties. The cities were strong, there
were good walls that surrounded them. It was going to be very
hard and therefore they shouldn't go up and they shouldn't obey
the word of God. Well, the result, as you may
well remember, was that ten of those spies advised Israel not
to obey the word of God. There was only Joshua and Caleb
who said that they were well able to go up and conquer the
land. But then, as we read on in that
account, we come down to these words that Joshua spoke. He said, and they spoke unto
all the company of the children of Israel, saying, the land which
we pass through to search, it is an exceeding good land. If
the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land. and giveth us a land which floweth
with milk and honey, only rebel not against the Lord. Neither
fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us, their
defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear
them not. The Lord is with us. Fear them
not. How true was the word of Joshua
and Caleb. And yet, the Israelites did not
accept that great truth, the Lord is with us. And as you know,
as a result, they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
A day, a year for every day, those spies looked at the promised
land. Well, they did not receive the
word of God. And here we have this morning
a very wonderful word. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Well, may we be encouraged to
believe this, even when things may not be going in accordance
with our plan. Even when we may think the Lord
is against us, the word is true. The Lord of hosts is with us. In Israel's case, we read, he
led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city
of habitation. And today, the Lord leads his
people by the right way. that they might go to a city
of habitation. But in that right way, the Lord
shows us what we're like, what we're like inside. He shows us
how bad we are. He shows us how gracious He is.
He shows us His abounding mercy, His wonderful love to such unworthy
sinners, so that we are able to come and declare the Lord
of hosts is with us, As we're able to observe, yes, the Lord
hasn't left us. He hasn't forsaken us. We deserved
it. We deserve to be cut off. We
deserve to be ignored by God. But because of His love to our
souls, He hasn't. He's been mindful of us. And
to Israel of old, He led them in that right way. And it is
today. He leads you and me in a right way. Not the way perhaps
we wanted, but the right way. And what is that right way? I'll
tell you what that way is. It's a way which brings honour
and glory to God. It doesn't bring honour and glory
to ourselves. But the people of God are able
to testify that the Lord has been with them, and he has helped
them, and he has directed them. The Lord of Hosts is with us.
And it's interesting that the psalmist goes on to say then,
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Having already commenced this
short psalm, as I'm sure most of you know, with these words,
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. A very present help in trouble. God doesn't leave us. He's a
present help. He helps us day by day. And he strengthens us. We're
not always aware of it. Nonetheless, the word of God
is true. God is our refuge. And refuge
means a place that we can continually prepare to for safety. You and I face a great enemy,
a great enemy, the devil. The devil's aim and desire is
to destroy us. That's his desire. His desire
is to bring us so that we ignore God. We don't believe God. We turn away from the things
of God. What a blessing then to realise
that in those times we have a refuge to flee to the blessed Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord brings us into these
paths and into these situations to make us realise that our help
cometh from the Lord. We may have looked to ourselves.
We may have tried to work it out in our natural life, in our
spiritual life. We may have tried to produce
a blessing. We may have tried to draw ourselves
to the Saviour. My friends, it is the blessed
work of the Holy Spirit and how wonderful it is when that work
is brought about because we realize it's not of ourselves, it's the
work of God. And when the Lord works, when
the Lord brings us into this place of refuge, we realize our
help cometh from the Lord. Our strength is dependent upon
the Lord. left to ourselves we're weak
we're foolish we're feeble again as the apostle says i can do
all things through christ that strengthens me well it's a great
blessing then to have a savior who looks upon us and a savior
who is gracious to us now these two verses 7 and 11 they and
conclude with this little world word sila now it's a very difficult
word and there's very many people who've made very many interpretations
of it and I'm not proposing to bring any new light upon this
at all today but it's a very simple word and I think some
of the explanations that I've looked at and I think one of
the best is this it can perhaps mean this to pause and to consider. So having read such a great truth
as this, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is
our refuge, not to just pass on and ignore it, but to just
pause, just consider the greatness of such a truth as this, the
wonder of it, for unworthy sinners, to think that here we have the
Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the God of the Church of God,
the God who created all things, the God who sent his only beloved
Son into this world to die upon Calvary's cross, to redeem us
from all our sins. This is the great God of hosts
that you and I are privileged to come to, a privilege to pray
to, a privilege to worship, a privilege to follow. The Lord of hosts
is with us. The devil will no doubt say he's
not. Well, the devil was always a liar and he always is. But
the word of God is true. Rely on the word of God. As the
Lord Jesus Christ said in the 17th of John when he was praying
to his father, thy word is truth. And you and I can answer the
temptations of Satan who will pretend it's not by telling him,
yes, I believe thy word. I believe the word of God. And I believe this word today. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Amen.