Psalm 48. Our main focus will be in verses
3 through verse 8. You know I don't
intend to get through all of these verses, but with God's
grace we'll get as far as we can. And I pray He'll comfort
you The title of the message is, The Refuge of Zion and Her Foes. The Refuge and
Foes of Zion. We'll begin at verse 1. The psalmist
here writes, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in
the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for
situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. On the sides of the north, the
city of the great king. God is known in her palaces for
refuge. For lo, the kings were assembled. They passed by together. They
saw it. And so they marveled. They were
troubled and hasted away. Fear took hold on them and pain
as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarsus
with an east wind. As we have heard, so have we
seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our
God. God will establish it forever. The Lord, by the mouth of the
psalmist, here has an intent. His intent is to testify both
of the beauty and the security of his church, which is pictured
by the city of Zion or God's city, the Church. As the city
of Jerusalem was the jewel of the East, a city set on a mountain,
fortified on every side, even so is the Church of God the jewel
of His holy crown. We are His jewels, His precious
jewels. For the great Jehovah dwells
within his church. He has by Jesus Christ, the King
of the city, purchased our redemption as our great High Priest. For
by his one offering, Jesus did what no priest could do or has
ever done. And that is, obtained eternal
redemption for us. Who? His city, His church, you
who believe. Our Lord, our High Priest, our
Great King is also our Great Prophet and Great Priest. He has obtained eternal redemption. Therefore, we as His city, His
elect, like Jerusalem, are situated, elevated, so that none could
assault us. None could remove us. None can
destroy us. This is the intent of the Spirit
so that you see the greatness of your God. And because of His
greatness, great is His city. Great is the city of God. You believe on Christ. Our situation
is most beautiful. You could not ask for a better
situation. It doesn't matter what happens
to this body. It doesn't matter what things appear to be or seem
to... what situation you seem to be
in. Because I know you are often
in great affliction, great hurt, great pain, great sorrow. This
is the lot of the believer in this life. But yet you are in
the greatest situation. You are in Christ. You are in
Christ. Our standing, our position is
what is intended here. If you were to walk down below
Jerusalem and look up at that beautiful city, it was situated
in such a place, it was fortified on every side. Only one way in
and one way out. Even so it is with the church.
There's only one way in, Christ. And all who are in Christ are
elevated, exalted in Him. We are His vessels of mercy,
trophies of grace displayed, set on display. When your kids
have trophies, you know, you put them up. Look what my son
did. Look what my kid did. Oh friends,
God elevates His people because they are trophies of His. He
won them. He bought them. He purchased
them. He chose them. He redeemed them.
He loved them. And He sets us on high. We have been put into union with
His Son. From all eternity, we were in
union with Christ. And when He lived, and when He
died, when He rose again, we were in Him. In Him. Therefore, He has sent His Holy
Spirit into our hearts. You know what the Scripture says?
Because you are sons. I love that text in Galatians
4. He said, Because you were sons.
God sent forth His Spirit into your hearts crying, Abba, Father. We're sons. We're chosen sons. We are the
city of God and are said to be, listen, the joy of the whole
earth. He said, beautiful for elevation and the joy of the
whole earth. You understand that? That you
believers are the joy of the whole earth. are the joy of the whole earth." What does that mean? Well, it doesn't mean that the
world's happy to see us. That's not what it means at all,
is it? Because the world is not happy to see us. The world looks
at Zion, as we're going to see here in a minute. They look up
at Zion, they tremble. It's not a joy to them, it's
a terror to them. The city of God is no joy to
those of the earth. The world and its false freewill
works religion do not rejoice in us. They despise us. They loathe our very existence
and hate our God. They hate our Christ and they
hate our gospel. In truth, Jesus said, the world
will hate you. Now what he told us, he said,
don't be surprised when they hate you. If they hate you, he
said this, John 15, 18, if they, if the world hate you, you know
this, it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world,
the world would love its own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hated you. Remember the word I said unto
you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted
me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also. But all those things which they
do unto you, listen, for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. If I had not come and spoken
to them, they had not sinned. But now they have no cloak for
their sin." Listen, as we preach the gospel of the truth, as we
preach the truth of the gospel in love, as we should, considering
ourselves, considering where God found us,
where did He find you? He found you in the same hog
pen He found them. And so we preach this truth in
love, knowing ourselves, knowing where we came from. And yet we
are hated. Why? Don't we preach this and
desire that all men come to Christ? That all men find what we found?
That all men receive the reward of eternal life and inheritance
of grace? Is that not what we desire? Yet
they despise what we preach. Why? Because we expose the lie. Expose the lie and men will hate
you for it. Men love darkness rather than
light. Why? Because their deeds are
evil Remember having Thanksgiving
with this family Church of Christ family they've been nice to us
being kind they invite us over we go eat with them They're friends,
but they're my son's friends with their son So we go over
and I remember sitting at the table and we were talking about
some hey, they like talk politics and things So I do that with
them and you know, the subject came up about an evil man. I
And I made the statement, if God would take His hand off of
any one of us, we would not be any better than this man. I'm
telling you, this one lady, she took offense. Well, I'm not like
that. I'm a good person. I could never
be like that. I says, because you don't know
yourself. I know myself. I know what I would be if God
were to take His hand off of me. Surely, we would be in that. You expose that and men hate
that. They don't want to hear that. When sin is revealed and false
religion is exposed, men will hate you. They will persecute us, listen,
not just wicked men, but, as he said, they'll do it for my
namesake. My namesake. They'll do it in
the name of God, in the name of Christ. They will hate you. So, how is it that we, the church,
are the joy of the whole earth, when we seem to be the bane of
their existence? We seem to be the most hated,
the most rejected, the most despised. How are we the joy of the old
earth? Because of the gospel we preach. Because of the Christ we serve. The gospel we preach is the only
joy in all the earth. That salvation is by Jesus Christ
is not Not hindered by our race, or
by our gender, or by our nation, or our people. You know what? My salvation was not even hindered
by my sin. God saved me in spite of my sin. Salvation by free grace and free
mercy is what we preach. That's the joy of the whole earth,
that man is absolutely, utterly depraved, has no merit to stand
before God, and God, but God who is rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us. He sent His only Son into
the world to save sinners. This is a message of great joy
for sinners. Now, self-righteous people, this
is no good message for them. This is no joy to them. Matter of fact, nothing's a joy
to them. They're probably the most miserable people in all
the world. But this is a joy to be saved by grace, salvation
by Jesus Christ. What a beautiful message this
is. And what do people say that hear
this message and believe it? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring glad tidings
of good things. Isn't that your record? I love. the Gospel. I am glad for the
men that brought me the Gospel, that God sent them with a message
of mercy. It is the joy of the whole earth.
And friends, those people weren't sent all by themselves. God has
given us these churches so that we are supporting the ministry
and sending these men out to preach the Gospel. This is what
we do. We are the joy of the whole earth,
whether men see it or not. Therefore we who believe, we
are the joy of the whole earth, for the gospel of joy and peace
with God is ours. We have this treasure. We are stewards of God. People talk about stewardship
with money, stewardship with, you know, your home, your family.
You're not being a good steward. You're not taking care of your
house. You know, in the Word of God, it talks about stewardship
in one instance in the New Testament. We're stewards of the grace of
God. That's what we're stewards of. Our stewardship is in the Gospel.
And by this, we are the joy of the whole earth. That there is
forgiveness of sins, justification without the merits of the flesh
and without the merits of the law. We preach full salvation,
not partial. I don't preach a partial salvation.
I don't preach a partial Savior. I preach a full salvation that
was accomplished perfectly by a perfect Savior. We preach the
purpose of the Father in salvation. Salvation is not maybe. Our gospel is not yea and nay,
but yea and amen in Christ, because it is the determinate counsel
of God. It is the sovereign election
of grace is what we preach. God chose a people and purposed
to save them. We preach that Christ purchased
them. We declare this message. This is Zion's light, that Christ
has purchased redemption. And we declare that the application
of this salvation is by the Holy Spirit. Salvation that requires nothing
from the sinner. How much more free can you get?
Everybody likes free stuff, except this. They want free stuff, except
this. In matters of salvation, they
demand to have their part. Everything else, they want for
free. We preach free salvation. Look
and live. That was a message Spurgeon heard,
wasn't it, when the Lord saved him? Look and live. He said,
even that young lad there can do it. Look. Look, young man,
and live. And what did he do? He looked
and lived. Looked to Jesus Christ and lived. And all who look, all who believe
on the Son of God, we believe on Him alone and add nothing
of our works to Him, seeing we are altogether sin and vanity. And we would only contaminate
the works. And all who are in Christ then,
you are in this Mount Zion. You are in the Mount Zion. He said, joy of the whole earth
is who? Mount Zion. No other mountain,
not Mount Sinai. That is not a joy to anyone. Mount Zion is the joy. Christ
is the joy. And on the sides of the north,
Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the north side was filled
with towers and bulwarks and fences and mountains on every
other side the only way into the city was through the north
side oh friends this is so wonderful
that it eliminates confusion there's only one way there's
only one way to God Only one way into this city. Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. One way. And all who come by this way,
we see the towers of His righteousness. We see the strength and power
of His blood to purchase us so that we might enter in and find
pasture. And we approach by this one side. So we as Jerusalem, we as Zion,
standing up in the elevation elevated by God, we call out
to men below. We call out men to come by the
north side, to come in by Christ alone. Come and behold the beauty of
elevation of God's church. Come and see. It's safety. Come and see it's security. Because
the great Jehovah dwells in her and He is our King. You know
what it says? The city of the great King. Oh, the King that we serve is
not weak and effeminate, is He? He's a great King. He's a great
King. He rules over His kingdom. And
all who come to Him bow to Him and are under His divine protection. And He has given us His gospel,
which is our charge and our delight to preach. But if any sinner desires to
come unto God, If any man would feel and know his guilt before
God, then let him come. Let him come and sue God for
mercy by the way. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to God but by me. That's it. And so let us come to God. Let
him sue God for mercy and forgiveness. Why? Because God said this, look
unto me, look unto me, all you ends of the earth, for I am God
and there is none else. And so then we must give witness
that there is only one way, one road by which a sinner may be
accepted. There's only one door by which
the sheep enter in and out and find pasture, and that is Christ
Jesus the Lord, Christ, in Him crucified. Therefore the church
is called in Isaiah to clear the way. Listen to this. This is our purpose as Zion.
He says this, go through, go through the gates. Prepare you
the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway. Gather out the stones. Lift up
the standard of the people. What is he telling? Clear the
road. Remove obstacles. Now I want you, everybody listen.
Pay attention to this. If you've not come to Christ,
why? What obstacle hinders you from coming to Christ? Because
I'm going to remove it. I want you to know that if you
do not come to Christ, the only thing that hinders you from coming
to Christ is you. Your love for your sin is the
only thing that hinders you from coming to Christ. Your love for
this life and this world hinders you from coming to Christ. Your religion, your self-righteousness. Those are the only things that
hinder you. Otherwise, there is no hindrance. There's no obstacle
here. If any man thirsts, what's the
prerequisite? Thirsty? Come, drink of the water
of life freely, freely. This is the message of the gospel.
Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth, Say
ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold,
his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall
call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. And thou
shalt be called sought out, a city not forsaken. Have you heard
of Him? Behold, He cometh! Behold, He's
come! Thy salvation is come! His reward
is with Him! His work was before Him! He performed
the work God gave Him to do. And you that have come, they
shall call them holy people." Isn't that what you're called? Believer? Holy people? You are. You're the holy people. He made
you holy. The redeemed of the Lord. Did
He not redeem you by His blood? Purchase you with His precious
blood. Atone for your sins, you city
of God. He said, you shall be called
sought out. Did He not seek you out? When you come to Him, I
know the initial thought is that you're coming to Him. Really,
He sought you out long before you ever sought Him. You're called
sought out. And listen, a city. not forsaken. Zion! That's who you are! You
are Zion! And all who go through that gate,
all who come by that way, all obstacles are removed, and we
lift up the standard of Christ. The Lord says, Behold, thy salvation
is in Him. And so us who abide in this great
city, Christ is our He. Now look at verse 3. all of us
who are in this city we know one thing that provides us with
great and assurance and it's mentioned
in verse three here it is god is known in her palaces god is
the refuge of his The saints of God know Christ
to be our refuge, because we have fled to Him. This is not
just an academic search. This is not just something we
know academically. This is something we know experimentally,
that Christ is our refuge. Now truly, He was my refuge long
before I knew it. This refuge was prepared long
before I ever fled to it. It's like those cities of refuge.
God commanded those six cities to be built, and the highways
and the signs to be clearly marked as to where to go, that if the
man were to accidentally slay his brother, he was to flee to
those cities, because if not, the avenger of blood would kill
him. And as he fled to that city,
and he was in the city, the avenger of blood had no right, no power,
To exact justice. Why? Because in that city was
a high priest. A high priest. Friends, Christ is our refuge
because He's our high priest. He's our refuge because He has
offered to God the sacrifice necessary to satisfy the avenger
of blood. You know, in that illustration,
that picture of the refuge, you know when that man was allowed
to go out of that city? And he was supposed to stay in
that city, and he could not step foot outside, otherwise the avenger
of blood could kill him if he stepped foot outside the city.
But once the high priest died, he was allowed to go out freely.
Prince Christ, our High Priest, we fled to Him for refuge, but
we come in and find out He's already died. He's already died
for our sins. So wherever we go, we are protected. We are shielded by this refuge. And you know I love the illustration
of the Ark. I love that picture as a refuge.
When Noah and his family were in the Ark, they did not escape
the justice of God, did they? They did not escape the wrath
of God that fell on all flesh. They did not escape it, but they
lived through it because they were in the Ark. That's what
we are. We were in Christ. And because
we are in Christ, we did not escape justice. Justice fell
on our refuge. And when justice was finished,
when justice was satisfied, after His blood was extracted, what
could justice demand of us? Nothing. When I hear of the justice of
God, I'm happy. Are you happy to hear about that?
Judgment. Are you happy? I am. Because if God is just, and judgment
is just, God cannot demand twice payment. That makes me happy. He cannot demand payment at the
hand of my surety and then later demand it of me. So when I hear
of justice, I'm happy. God will be just and justify
the ungodly only through Jesus Christ. Only through this refuge. He's my refuge. Therefore, this true refuge,
is according to the immutable counsel and oath of God." Did
you know that? This refuge that we have fled
to is a refuge that God purposed for us. It's a refuge that God
swore He would give to us. And so if God purposed it and
God gave it, is this refuge not sure? Is it not something to
stand on? Is it not something to believe
in? Is it not something to trust in? Yes, it is. Matter of fact, that's why I
came to this refuge. Because of its surety. Because
of its immutability. It can't change. It won't move.
This is our refuge. God is our refuge. Therefore,
we who are in Him are safe and secure and have such a beautiful
situation. Now then, let me ask you this.
Does being in this refuge then alleviate us from all difficulty? all troubles in this life now
truly it does defend us from the justice of god we shall never
experience the wrath of god if you're in christ but i'll tell
you this you and i in this world still will have trouble and god
makes it very clear we will look at this in the next verse he
says in verse five verse four he said for low the kings were
simple And they passed by together. He says low because He wants
you to stop for a minute. You've just been elevated. You've
just seen your situation before God. And I tell you, it's a wonderful
situation you're in. You've got a refuge that's immutable. But He also wants you to know
this. You're not free of enemies. You're not free from enemies.
He said, even lo, even though you're exalted, even though you
have this refuge, even though God is your great God and great
King and great Priest, even though this, they still will assemble. The enemies of God will still
march around Zion. They still will encamp us. They
still will seek to hurt you and destroy you. Lo, beware them. Behold them, the kings of the
earth, the enemies of God's church. Listen, they're great and powerful. You cannot, in your strength,
ever defeat these foes. Ever. That's why He calls them
kings. Now, kings. This is talking about all of
humanity outside of Christ. Satan and his hosts and the world
that is outside of Christ are kings that Assemble I Want you
to understand this that you have ungodly men you have Immoral
men you have all of the wicked and violent men of the world,
you know, they're against you you do. I You know they hate
the church. But I want you to know this,
that all the moral men, all of the self-righteous men, all of
the false religion of this world are just as much against you
as those wicked men. You see, they assemble themselves
together. They've got one purpose, and
that is to get rid of your Christ and you. That's it. This was pictured. Some believe
this psalm comes from 2 Chronicles 20. Jehoshaphat, he was king
over Judah and the Moabites and the Amorites and the people of
Mount Shur, they gathered together, they assembled together. Now
God told them as they took over this land, He said, look, I don't
want you to attack these people or these people. I want you to
leave them alone. And now those people God said you're not supposed
to attack, now then they're all gathering together. They assembled
themselves together. And Jehoshaphat, he fell before
God and he said, Lord, you told us not to destroy them and now
look what's happened. They've come upon us to seek
to destroy us and take our inheritance from us. And God sent this man,
this priest, and he said, don't be afraid. I did this on purpose. I allowed
them to assemble together on purpose for one reason. This battle is not yours. It's
mine. And he said, tomorrow, I want
you to get together, I want you to assemble and set yourself
in array against him. I want you to put on your armor,
I want you to put on your stuff, and you come on out tomorrow.
And what you're going to find is I'm going to kill these people
and they'll be... Oh, I love this. He said specifically
that they should be found, their dead bodies will be found at
the end of the brook, Kittron. Oh, I ain't got time to go into
all of that, but that's a picture of Christ. You know, it's where
all the sacrifices and done from the sacrifice. When He shall
drink of the brook in the way. That's what Christ did. He drank
all of our sins in, and God punished Him in Him. And because of His
death, where are your enemies? They're dead. They're destroyed. Sin was your enemy. It's gone.
God can't even find it. Isn't that something? God can't
even find your sin. What about the world, the flesh
and the devil? They're gone too. He said, just tomorrow you'll
see it. We don't see it right now, but they're already gone.
God's already taken care of all your enemies. Listen to this. They passed by
together. You know how he killed those
enemies? This is very important in relationship to this. They
killed each other. Now false religion and the world
hate you above everybody else. But guess what they're doing?
They're killing each other. Those wicked men have no idea
what the true church looks like, so what do they do? They just
persecute anything with the name Christ on it. You think those
churches that were persecuted this last weekend on Easter holiday,
that they were actually true churches? They didn't believe
the gospel. They were popish, pagan churches. And yet they think that they're
killing Christians. They're not. They're killing
each other. They passed by together. They
saw it. They marveled! They were troubled,
and they ran away just as fast as they came. Tell somebody the truth, and
they will run away as fast as they came. They have no place
to hide. Fear took hold of them, and pain
as a woman in travail. Friends, this is the Gospel we
preach. Man is absolutely, completely and utterly depraved, dead in
trespasses and sins, incapable, unable and unwilling to come
to Christ. We preach that God in sovereign grace chose a people,
loved them, and gave them to Christ. We preach that Christ
died for them, represented them, gave them righteousness and atonement. We preach that the Holy Spirit
will come to all those that Christ gave, and they will believe.
And we preach that all of the elect shall endure in faith unto
the end. And at that gospel, they are
terrified. They hate it. They despise it,
but they can't stand against it. Why? God's Word. The battle is not ours, it is
the Lord's. And our enemies will be destroyed. now i wanted just tell you that
he uh... give you a little bit of taste
of what's next but this this thing here now break is the ships
of parsis with the nice when this has nothing to do with the
enemies of the world this has to do with chastise god keeps
his kingdom by protecting us from our enemies but he also
keeps us by protecting us from our sale the ships of parsis where the
things that uh... It was Jehoshaphat allied with
Ahab. And they sent those ships of
Tarsus out for gold, and God broke up those ships. Isn't that
what He does for us who is a city? He breaks our ships. I'm so glad
He breaks our ships. Don't you? Our schemes, our plans. He breaks them up. And what do
we say? This is what the church says.
We have heard and we have seen. This thing is not just academic
for us, is it? We are the city of God. We are
His people. We are the joy of the whole earth.
We are in a beautiful situation in Christ. God is our refuge. Our enemies, they surround us,
but they can't get to us. They will be destroyed. And God
will chasten us, but He will keep See that. Think about that. You just chew on that for a while. And I know this. God will comfort
His people. That was His intent. To comfort His people. To show
them His greatness. And to show you your situation.
Safe. Safe. May God please help us
to see that daily. We're saved. Saved in Christ. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.