Jesus Christ. It doesn't flow
to everyone, but it does flow to those who are of the city
of God. And this river, the streams of His mercy, can you count His
mercies? Can you count the number of streams
of mercy that flow to you every single day, constantly cleansing
you, constantly providing you a source of nourishment and strength?
Yeah. You can't count them. And they
make us work. Oh, the waters of men, they rage,
but it is settling. This gospel is so peaceful to
our hearts. It's so settling. Let them roll. This gospel to us is the pure
river of water of life that flows from the throne of God. I want you to know this, though
we are believers in Christ, though we are redeemed by the blood
of Christ, I want you to understand we are not exempt from trouble. We are not exempt from the hatred
of the world. We are not exempt from temptations
and the sin and our sin nature. It all often wars against our
soul. But let this be our solace and
comfort when we drink from these eternal streams of mercy. This
is what makes us glad. Can you think of anything else
that makes you, if I could say it, gladder than this rhythm? Is there anything that could
bring joy to your heart any more than the streams of mercy that
flow from God? No, because we are troubled,
these streams make us glad. And I'll tell you this, the more
troubled you are, the more glad you are for the streams. Isn't
that right? We found that to be so. When everything seems
to be well, we really often discard the streams. Oh, but when trouble
comes, that's when the streams mean the most to us. We should drink from the river
of God's provisions. For God has provided salvation. He not only purposed it, He purchased
it. He purchased our salvation with
the blood of His Son. With the death of His Son, He
bought us, He redeemed us, He reconciled us to Himself. And then, in grace, what does
He do? He comes to every one of us. He comes to every one of His
elect and He applies that salvation. Has God applied this salvation
to you? If you believe on the Son of
God, you have had this salvation applied to you. And I want you
to hold on to this truth. When you're in trouble, hold
on to this one. Because it's vitally important
that you understand that God dwells in you. God is not distant. Christ surely bodily is distant
from us. He is on the throne of God. He is in that one place. He is
a man. He is seated on the throne of
God. That is a great distance. But
I know this. His spirit is always near to
us. Because He lives in us. Isn't
that what our psalm says? Look at this in verse 5. God
is where? In the midst of her. God dwells
in her. Paul said this, what? Know you
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in
you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? Don't you
know that you're not your own? That's what earthly men want.
They want to be their own man. They want to be the master of
their own destiny. We don't. I don't want to be
on my own. I want Him. I want Him. And we have Him because we are
bought with the price of the precious blood of Christ. Therefore,
what is the result of this? Look at verse 5 again. She shall
not be moved. God shall help her in that right
burden. The result of God's purpose and
purchase salvation when it is applied to us gives us this assurance. When the Holy Spirit dwells in
us, we shall not be moved. Our Lord, the Great Shepherd
of the Sheep said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall,
they shall never, what? They shall never be moved. They
shall never be moved. Every believer knows and feels
that if left to ourselves, we could not keep ourselves in the
faith. How often have you felt as though
it were your responsibility to keep yourself in the faith and
fail? How long does our zeal last when pressed on by the troubles
and sorrows of the world? It doesn't last long. We cannot
keep ourselves, but our joy and peace is that we are not keeping
ourselves. You and I are not keeping ourselves.
I believe today because I am kept by the power of God. You
still believe. Why is it you still come? Why? Oh, because you are kept. by
the power of God, through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
the last time. Lay this to heart when this world
crumbles. And it will. When all you hold dear in this
life is taken from you. When all your joys are turned
to sorrow, When your sin rages within you, and you are overcome with temptation, when Satan and his hordes ride
hard to accuse us, let this be our banner. Nothing shall separate
me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Paul said, neither life, nor
death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, listen, nor any other
thing. If I miss something, nor any
other thing shall separate us from that love of God that is
where? In Christ Jesus. Nothing shall
separate. We shall not be moved. I like that one song where David
said this, the Lord is my rock, I shall not be greatly moved. He said, you know, I feel like
I'm going to be moved, so I can't really be confident that I'm
not going to be moved. But then later in the song, he
said this, the Lord is my rock, I shall not be moved. The more
we think about it, the more secure we become. The more we believe
it, the more we trust it. The more God tests us, the deeper
our faith grows. There's no power on earth, no
scheme of man could ever pluck me from His hand. For I am His,
and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ. Let
us find rest in God's Word. The Lord of Hosts is with us.
Look at that. Verse 7. The Lord of Hosts is
with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Now then, we get to our text
in verse 8. Verse 8, we see this, the Lord
is our refuge, the Lord is the river of our salvation, the Holy
Spirit now dwells in us so that nothing shall move us from Him.
And what does the Holy Spirit that dwells in us say? Look at
this, this is the bidding of the Spirit of God to Him. Listen,
come. Come and do what? Behold the
works of the Lord. It is good for us to remember
and behold the works of God. This is always the work of the
Holy Spirit, isn't it? To point us to Christ. That's
His job. That's His purpose in us. To
always point you to Christ. If you have ever had that still,
small voice that comes in and says, look to Christ. You know
what that is? That's the Spirit of God speaking to you. Whenever you're in trouble and
you can't find a way out and the Spirit of God says, it is
well, It is well with your soul. Look
to Christ. Jesus told us when the comforters
are come, that I shall send to the Father even the Spirit of
the truth which proceeded from the Father. He shall testify
of me. Any spirit that does not testify
of Christ is not the Spirit of Christ. You got it? That is an
important truth because there are many false spirits. There
are many spirits going out in the world. Evil spirits, seducing
spirits. that speak of tongues and speak
of miracles and speak of other men. They speak of man's goodness
and man's value to God. No, that's not the Spirit of
God. The Spirit of God always abases you and exalts Christ. Now, that's the Spirit of God.
And so then, when you are in trouble, when you are perplexed
and confused and fearful, The Lord sends such troubles and
storms into our life so as to seemingly contradict His promises. Have you found that out? Have
you found out you've got a promise from God? What is that promise?
All is for your good. All things work together for
the good of God. Then we're called according to
His purpose. I know my faults of you. Faults of peace and not
of evil. I will not turn away from you
to do you good all the days of your life. And then what happens?
Trouble comes. Evil comes. And then you begin to doubt the
promises of God. How can this be? How can I suffer
the loss so great and yet God say it's good? How can that be? In these times, the Holy Spirit
will come in in that small voice and say this, come, stop thinking about you, stop
dwelling on the waves of the sea, and look to me. Come and behold,
consider the work Christ. Isn't that what Paul says when
he said about our race? He said, let us run the race
that is set before us. How? Looking unto Jesus. The author and what? The finish
of our faith. For the joy set before him endured
the cross, despising the same. He sat down on the right hand
of God. Consider him. Consider Him. This morning, are you fainting?
Are you weary? Are you confused? Are you perplexed? Then let us hear the Word of
God and consider Him. First of all, consider the desolation. He said, consider, the first
thing, the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made
in the earth. This word, desolation, means
Ruin. What ruin has God made in the
earth? The ruin that God has made in
the earth was the result of man's sin. When Adam was made, he was placed
in a garden, in a place that was perfect in every way. World
of paradise, not ruined, but perfect. Every tree, can you
imagine this? Every tree yielded fruit. Can you imagine that? Going to
the weeping willow and pulling off some fruit. Going to the
oak tree and pulling off some fruit. Every tree had fruit.
What an amazing place this was. The world was not ruined. It
yielded its fruit. There were no troubles. There
were no sickness. There was no death. There was no separation
from God. Adam walked with God in the cool of the day. This
was the perfect environment with the perfect man. The perfectly
created man, Adam. He walked with God in harmony
and there was joy and there was peace. But when our father, Adam,
saw the sin of our mother. Rebellion stirred in his heart. And in open, willing rebellion,
fully knowing what he was doing, knowing full well the consequences
of his actions, he ate what God forbid. And behold, what desolation God
made in the earth. This desolation was a just recompense
for sin. The ruin that fell upon all men
by a just judgment of God was this, utter and complete desolation. This is the work of God's judgment.
This is the work of desolation He hath made in the earth. Thorns
infested the ground, now only few trees bear any fruit. There is only toil and trouble
and sorrow now in the earth. What did Solomon say? He said
of the earth, everything in it, What? Vanity of vanity. All is
vanity. Is that not desolation? God had
made everything good, but because of sin, judgment came and God
desolated the earth. So that none of it is profitable. None of it is good to the soul
of man. None of it can save you. Therefore
by one man's sin entered into the world and death, desolation,
death by sin. So this death and desolation,
this ruin passed upon all men full. All have sinned. Ruin is in the heart of man. so that no man can by any means
do any good. No man by any means can merit
God's favor no matter, no amount of religion or moral reformation
could please God. That's how ruined we've become. I know that religious men don't
like to speak like this. Religious men want to give men
a glimmer of hope, but they don't want to give them a glimmer of
hope in Christ. They want to give a glimmer of hope in themselves.
They want to give you a sparkle that there's something still
good, something still worth redeeming in you. Something good, something
that God can use, something God can take and apply to His Word
and make it good, make the man good. No. Behold what desolation
God made the earth. Ruined. Man is ruined. God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth. Listen. That every imagination
of the thoughts of the heart. Imagination of the thoughts.
Not just the thoughts, but the thought before the thought. The feeling before the feeling was what? Evil continued. Ecclesiastes 9 verse 3 said,
This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun,
that there is one event unto all. Listen, all are going to
die. Solomon is saying that this is an evil, this is madness.
All are going to die. Everyone is going to face God. But what? Yes, also the heart
of the sons of men is full of evil. And madness is in their heart
while they live. And after that, they go to the
dead. Isn't that utter madness? That
is true ruin. Now I'm going to ask you personally,
have you felt this? Have you felt the ruin and desolation
God made in your own heart? Have you been convinced by the
Holy Spirit of your ruin That all we do is sin. That all we are is sin. That from the sole of the foot
to the crown of the head is no soundness, no goodness, no righteousness
at all. And that what God did was just. Do you not see that? This desolation. Do you not see that this is just
right, what God did? Natural men don't see that, they
don't like it, they hate it, they blame God. What a horrible
evil God to make desolate the whole earth. No, what a just
and holy and righteous God that made desolation in all the earth. Do you realize Adam was the best
of us? God made man the best of us. To represent us all. He made one champion for us all. The most perfect man that could
be created. And yet, what did we find in
this perfect man? We find his inability, even in
his perfection, to sustain holiness and perfection before God. We who know the desolation of
our nature know also of the hope of salvation. We understand something of salvation,
don't we? Because we first understand what
desolate people we really are. But here in this hope, The desolations
God had made upon the earth testify to us of the holiness of God,
and that only those that are holy can be accepted of God,
which is not possible by the works of man. It was by sin that we were ruined. And in our hearts, the flame
of rebellion raged against God. But now the greater work of God
is displayed. The better work of God is displayed
in what? Look at this second part. He
maketh wars to cease until the end of the earth. He maketh what? Peace. Peace. When desolation was wrought,
when sin entered into the heart, what came up? Rebellion came
up. War against God. Isn't that what
our father did? He blamed God. He was at war
with God. He was at odds with God. But see, here God comes and he
does a better work. He makes peace. The man who sinned was man who
offended the justice of God. It was man who declared war upon
God. Therefore, injustice God ruined. But God, who is rich in mercy,
also made provisions of peace. Have you ever known an offended
party to make provisions of peace? No. Usually there are terms of
peace that the offender needs to meet. God laid out those terms in His
justice. But listen, God also fulfilled
all the terms of peace. He made the wars cease. Now because
God is just, He cannot just extend peace Unless first justice is
satisfied, payment must be made. The law must be honored. Sin must be punished. Therefore,
God, before the world were made, before sin was committed by man,
the Father in love, before his judgment was poured out on men,
God in love chose people. Peace. God said, I will have peace on
them. And then in a divine act of love,
he gave them all to his son. Of course, his son had loved
them as well. As much as the father had loved
him, the son had loved him, and the son willingly agreed to be
the surety for them. So He sent Christ into the world
for one purpose, to reconcile, to make peace for all His people. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5
verse 18, All things are from God who hath reconciled us, made
peace for us by Jesus Christ. Now how should that be? For He
hath made Him to be sin, desolation for us. We might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. We might be made the righteousness.
Behold the work of peace God broke the bow of his own
justice. He did it by aiming it at Christ,
by releasing the arrow of his wrath upon Christ. There is no
more justice to be had, no more use for the bow. If there are
no more arrows, what good is a bow? So he broke the bow of
his justice. No more need for that. He broke
the spear into the spear of his wrath. Remember, that spear was
plunged into the side of Christ. And seeing that justice was satisfied,
God looks at the spear and says, no more need for that. And he burned the chariot. Burn
the chariot of his wrath by pouring out full vengeance on Christ.
Oh listen, tis done, tis done, the great transaction's done. God took my sin, put it on his
Son. God took his righteousness and
put it on me. What a transaction. So now then,
God looks at all of his people in what? Peace. Peace! But that's not how He found us,
was it? He made peace long before we knew there was peace. Long
before we desired peace. Long before we wanted peace.
We walked in rebellion and hatred of God, despising His Word, despising
His Son, just like every other man. Until one day God come and
He broke our boat. and cut our spirits under and
burn our chariots. You see, I do never raise the
bow of God. I'm the one to blame. I know this. If He had not made
peace for me, there would be no peace. But I know this, when
He came into our souls, He conquered us. He conquered our souls. And now our hearts are set in
what? Peace. Our chariots are burned. Lord, to whom else shall we go? We're not going to ride anywhere,
are we? Burn that chariot. I ain't got
any place to go. I'm firmly set on the rock of Jesus
Christ. He has made peace for me. Believer in Christ. Consider this. We who were rebels
are now servants. But better yet, we are more than
servants. We are sons. Sons. Sons of God. Now, there will be wars upon
the earth. There will be sorrows. There
will be griefs. But this is our hope. He hath
made peace by the blood of his cross. Though we were ruined,
now we are what? Restored. You know what Jesus
said? He said, I restored that which
I took not away. I restored it. We're at peace
with God. So what does God now say to us?
Listen to this. Verse 10, be still and know that
I am God. Be still. Isn't that the most
difficult thing to do in trouble? In conflict? In sorrow? Be still. God says, look at the
desolation I've made and look at the peace I've accomplished.
Isn't that what Isaiah said? He said, look to the rock from
which you were hewed and the pit from which you were digged.
We constantly are looking at these things, being reminded
of them so that we might just be still and know God is my refuge. And I'm sure of this. I'm sure that God will be exalted.
Are you sure of that? It don't look that way, does
it, right now. It doesn't look as though God
is exalted anyway. You mark it down, God will be
exalted and everyone raising their fist right now will soon
bow. They will soon bow. Every last one of them. But I know this, He will also
be exalted in the earth right now. This means that He will
call all of His people. He will be exalted by His people
right now in the earth. May God give us a heart to exalt
Christ. One, He made peace for us. He is my refuge. And very present here. Pray God bless us.