Psalm chapter 46. We'll be looking this afternoon, this
morning, at verses 8 through 11. My approach in this message this
morning is to take you through the previous two sections of
this and then come to this section here. Let's read these words
together. Come, behold the works of the
Lord." And this is the work he's talking about. There are two
works here. First of all, the work of his
desolations. What desolations he hath made
in the earth. And secondly, this work of peace.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He
breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. As we've studied through this
psalm, I've mentioned this before, that Charles Spurgeon gave a
good title to this psalm. He said it's called the Song
of Holy Confidence. Confidence. For indeed this is the purpose
of the Holy Spirit to instill confidence in the hearts of His
people. This world is full of trouble
for God's saints. This world is full of difficulties,
full of trials for God's people. Now, God's people not only deal
with common troubles that are common to everyone, but we have
greater troubles, spiritual troubles. the trouble of our sin nature,
the trouble of our guilt, the trouble of our conscience, the
trouble of Satan, the trouble of the persecution of the world
and hatred of the gospel. We have trouble. And what do
we need in time of trouble is confidence, rock-solid assurance,
something to stand on that doesn't move or change. And our confidence
is nowhere to be found in ourselves. Our confidence, as the psalmist
said, is in God. God, verse 1, is our refuge. In verse 1 through 3, he gives
three things about God that should instill confidence in every believer. First of all, God is our refuge. God is our refuge. Jesus Christ,
that's who it's speaking of. God hath made Him to be our surety. Surety. That word means guarantor. The one that guarantees. The
one upon whom all the responsibility of our salvation rests is on
Jesus Christ. God made Him to be our High Priest. representative and listen all men had a representative
in Adam when Adam walked upon the face of the earth he was
the representative of all his race and when Adam see it all of his race died in him Now you and I were not there,
but we were there. We were there in our representative. Therefore the scripture, Romans
5 verse 12, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. For all have sinned, even so. I love this. Even so, as I was in Adam and
he sinned and I died, even so was I in Christ. In Christ. Even so, Jesus Christ, as our
federal head, the federal head of all the chosen race of God,
and all who were in him were made righteous and given eternal
life by the works and merits of Christ alone as our refuge
Paul says this in Romans 5 verse 18 therefore as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by
the righteousness of one the free gift upon all men to justification
of life For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." You
hear that? Did you hear that? By one man's
disobedience many were made sinners. Why? Because he was our federal
head, our representative. So, this is also true, Paul said,
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. This is good. So when Christ
lived and Christ died, I was in Christ. When He lived a righteous life,
I lived a righteous life in Him as my representative. And so when He died, when God made Him to be sin,
for us who knew no sin. What for? That we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. I was in Him and He was my refuge. What is a refuge? It is a shelter. It is some place you go into
so that the storm does not come on you. So when I am in Christ,
the storm of God's vengeance fell on Him and not on me. God is my refuge. I can take
confidence in that. That the wrath of God shall never
touch me because it had already affected my head. It had already
affected my refuge. Secondly, God is my strength.
This is something you can be confident in. God's my strength.
One time I was without strength. I was without life. I was dead,
spiritually dead. I followed after my lust. I followed
after my passion. I followed after my own God.
I was dead. And you hath he quickened who
were dead spiritually, And what does this mean? He is the source
of my life. He is the strength of my life.
I was born again by the Spirit of God, by the power of God,
and by the grace of God. You know this, that no man can
believe on Christ except God give him faith. Isn't that the most ruined, pathetic
thing in all the world that a man can't believe on Christ? When you and I that believe know
that it's the most important thing, it's the most wonderful
thing to believe on Christ. Yet we could not believe on Christ
until God gave us strength. Now what it says in Psalm 110,
I believe, Thy people shall be willing when in the day of thy
power. See, faith has to have power. No man can believe except God
give you faith. It's not a decision. It's not
an act of the will. It is an act of God. The will
is involved, but yet it is what God moves the will of the new
man to do. Believe. And so God is my strength. How do I know I'm going to continue
to believe? I fear that, don't you? Don't you fear sometimes
that you would fall away? that your faith is so small,
so insignificant. How in the world could I even
call it faith? It is so weak. How do I know
that my faith will continue? Because God is the strength of
my life. God is the strength of my faith. God is the strength of my love.
And as long as He sits on the throne, I will have strength
to believe. This is my confidence. And not
only is He the strength of my life, the strength of my faith,
the strength of my love, the strength of my hope, the strength
of my endurance, I know this, He is also my present help. That's
what the psalmist says. He is a present help in trouble. God who saved me dwells in me
and is constantly with me, helping me. He is a very present help. in trouble,
in trouble. This is encouraging me because
that means nothing can touch me without His permission. You understand that? Nothing
can touch me without His permission. Not sickness, not death, not
enemies, nothing can touch me. Now, enemies do touch me, sicknesses
do come to me, but I know this, He only allows them to. That's the only reason they can
do it. Now what David said, here is
the shade on my right hand. Nothing can touch you. except
he allow it. And when he allows it, what is
he doing that for? To show you he is a very present
help in trouble. He allows trouble so that you
should see he is a present help. Otherwise, you wouldn't recognize
him. You wouldn't see his hand, except he give you the trouble.
Now in verses 4 through 7, the psalmist gives us confidence
in this river. Look at this in verse He said,
there is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of
God. The river. The river of confidence. This river is God Himself. God Himself is pictured as a
river. Why? Because without water there's
no life. Why do you think this planet
is so important? Why this planet is singular?
Because it's the only one that got water. Everybody else is
looking for water somewhere else. They were so surprised one day
they thought they found a drop of water on Mars. There's no life on Mars
because there's no water. This is a picture of life and
God is the source of our life. He's the source of our strength.
He's the source of our enjoyment. This river. In a desert country,
you know that there's really just nothing more important than
a river. They build cities around rivers. They build cities around
fountains that spring up out of the earth. Why? Because it's
vital to life. And God pictures His church as
a city. A city built of God. A city redeemed
by Christ. A city called by the Holy Spirit. We are His city built. And in
the midst of this city is the river. And the river is God.
And this river flows from God. Is a source of life and hope
and this river is Christ Christ is the river He said in a Zechariah
in that day a fountain shall be open for the house of Israel
for uncleanness anybody unclean You know what that word unclean
doesn't mean you're dirty. It means you're a leper any lepers
Any sinners? That's what it means. A leper
is nothing but a picture of a sinner. A sinner is unclean. A sinner
cannot approach God. A sinner cannot worship God.
A sinner cannot be accepted with God. Just as the leper could
not enter the temple and worship God, neither can a sinner enter
the presence of God. Except what? He'd be clean. Except
he'd be healed of his leprosy. And look, I'm telling you of
a fountain open, a fountain that is for the purpose of cleansing. Some people, they're sinners
and they say, well, I can't imagine that He would even do that. That
He would even forgive me. That He would even have... That's
what the fountain's for. It's for uncleanness. So if you're
unclean, come wash. Come wash in the river. And you
know what? Just like that man Naaman, he
washed seven times and he came forth clean even as God said.
Listen, Christ is much better than that old river. All you
need is one time. Believe on Him and you shall
be clean every whit. This is the river, the streams
whereof make glad the city of God. What are these streams?
The doctrine of justification. You know what justification means?
It means innocence. That's what it means. Innocence.
You are looking at a man who is innocent of all sin, right
here. Now you watch me a minute and
you'll find out that's not true visibly. That's not true experimentally. I confess my sins daily. But I know this, because of Jesus
Christ, I am completely free of sin before God. And that's
all that really matters. That's all that really matters,
doesn't it? Is to be clean before God. This
river makes me glad. I'm happy for it. I'm happy for
the river of righteousness, the river of peace with God. You know I have peace with God?
in peace with God. And God is at peace with me.
Because the war is over, He's already made the sacrifice. He's already ended the struggle. By the death of His Son, Jesus
had made peace by the blood of His cross. And by these streams,
we, the city of... Now listen, not everybody is
comforted by this. Not everybody is glad about this.
Right? I'm talking about God's sovereign
election, God's perfect redemption, the effectual calling of the
Holy Spirit, the preservation and perseverance of the saints.
These things I'm glad about. Not everybody's glad about it. A lot of people don't like the
doctrine, these streams of salvation by grace alone. They like the
stream of salvation by works and will. Salvation by will. They think Jesus has done all
he can do. That river came up short. And they've got to dig
a trench to make it applicable to them. No! No, the river comes
right to my door and goes right into my soul. I don't believe in such a weak
effeminate Christ that docks on the door and can't get in. I'm so thankful he entered in
and gave me life without my permission. And surely when he did, he had
it. He had it. These streams make glad the city
of God. And listen, this stream is an
endless supply. I'm thankful for that, aren't
you? That it doesn't stop. This stream is, since it is God
Himself, is endless. Endless stream of forgiveness
of sins. How many times do you need forgiveness? Well, how many sins have you
committed? And yet, this stream has not diminished one drop. I still have as much forgiveness
now as I had before. An infinite supply of forgiveness.
John says, if any man say he's without sin, he's a liar. But if we confess our sin, Listen,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. He's faithful and
just to forgive us our sins. Never-ceasing streams. And then
He says what? Let the heathen rage. And what
does He say in verse 6? The heathen raged. They don't
like this stream. They hate it. The enemies of
God despise this stream. And what happened? Their kingdoms
are moved. He utters His voice and the earth melts. False religion,
it seems like a large kingdom. Religion is a huge business,
isn't it? It's a large business, full of
people and money and power. They have influence. They seem
like a very unmovable kingdom at times. God said, don't worry,
they're very movable. They're very movable. You know
what moves these kingdoms? You know what crushes the kingdom
of false religion? One word. Truth. A lie and truth cannot stand
in the same place. Light and darkness cannot stay
in the same place. Neither can the gospel and the
lie of false religion stay in the same place. Can't do it.
Can't do it. God says these kingdoms are moved. Now listen, because of the darkness
of the day in which we live, we live in a dark day, the gospel
is not preached everywhere. False religion seems daunting
to us, doesn't it? Seems like it's impenetrable. They speak so high and they sound
so strong. They appear to be so confident
in their knowledge and superior in their intellect. But listen
to this, one word from God destroys all their vain religion. I remember this story of a Catholic
priest. He was walking through a museum
and he saw a picture with this scripture on it. There is one
mediator between God and man. God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
In all honesty, for one moment, in all honesty, He said that
scripture destroys our whole form of doctrine. How many mediators they got?
They got priests, they got popes, they got Mary, they've got Joseph,
they got the apostles, they got a bunch of mediators! But you
see how easily one scripture easily destroys a whole religion.
It seems impenetrable. I don't care how they reason,
that scripture is true. And whatever's against it is
a lie. This past week, Audrey's teacher,
Bible teacher, came and told her something. She said, God
doesn't make people sick. God's not responsible for all
the bad things that are happening in the world. That's the devil.
That's the devil. The devil's doing all this bad
stuff, and God's doing only the good stuff, and he's not going
to be responsible for all that. She came to me quite puzzled,
because obviously I teach God's in charge of everything. And
she said, I don't know how to answer that. I give her a multitude
of scriptures, but just one came to mind. Deuteronomy, I believe
it's 32, 39. If I'm not wrong, look it up
later. It says, I am God and there is
none else. Listen, I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. One verse
easily does away with a lie. You see how they may rage? But
what? God utters His voice, and the
earth melts. How wonderful is our God! How
strong and encouraging! And He said, this God, verse
7, is the Lord of hosts. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Now then, come to this text here.
We're going to see three things from this text. Three things
that, again, should give us confidence. Remember, that's the underlying
theme here. Confidence in the refuge. Confidence in God our
strength. Confidence in His presence. Confidence
in the infinite supply of the river of grace and mercy and
forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ. Now then, he says this.
This is an encouragement to confidence. An exhortation to confidence.
Now he's going to give us practical things by which we may obtain
this confidence, have this confidence. First of all, He gives us this.
He says, an invitation. He says, come, rather a command. I say, I've heard it an invitation,
but it's a command. God, when He invites, it's not
a suggestion. When God invites, it's not a
suggestion. He says, come. And what does His people do?
Do they say no? No. His people come. He says,
come and behold two things. First of all, he says, behold,
what? The works of the Lord. And what are his works? Desolation
and peace. Desolation. He says, behold what
desolations he hath made in the earth. And secondly, he maketh
wars to cease unto the end of the earth. So those are two things
we are to behold. And the second thing is, when you behold it,
what are you to do with it? Be still. Be still. And know, I'm God. No, I am God. And then he concludes
by the same phrase he uses in verse 7, the Lord of hosts is
with us, the God of Jacob. Now then, a call to consider
his work. God says that to all his troubled
saints, all who are weary and oppressed, he says, come to me. I'm so glad that our Savior is
open to me coming to Him at all times. He is always ready to receive
me. I see this as though He were
sitting on the edge of His seat with His arms extended, just
waiting for me to come. It's ready. He's always available
to us. Isn't the Scripture, come boldly
before the throne of grace, that you may find help in time of
trouble? Isn't that what it says? Come.
Come. We who have heard of Him, we
came to Him. But is this coming a one-time
event? That's what people think in religion,
it's more like a something to check off. You've done it. You've
made your decision and you just move on. Not with us. Christ
to me is a constant need. I must have Him always. Without Him, I cannot live. Without Him, I cannot love. Without
Him, I'll die. Now that's what he is to every
child of God. So when he says come, his people
hear. They come. They come to these streams of
water and refresh themselves. Now listen, if I were to present
water to you, what would make you drink it? What would move you to drink
water? Thirst. Thirst. You only drink when you're
thirsty. Now, if I set a cold glass of
water before you, and you were thirsty, but you only just measured
the water. What if, you know, you took the
water, you measured the cup, you saw how much was in the cup,
you said, well, that seems sufficient, and then you measured the temperature
of the water, and it seemed cold enough to drink, What good would
that measurement do you if you did not drink it? Some people measure Christ, they
measure His glory, His person, His work, they see it's sufficient,
they admire it, they stand in awe of it, and yet they don't
come. Why? What good is it to measure
Christ and not believe Christ? To come to Christ is to believe,
to trust, to drink. And I tell you this, only guilty
sinners are moved to drink. Only those who cannot save themselves
are moved to come. Only those who need Christ come
to Christ. And if you don't need Christ,
you won't come. That's as simple as you can make
it. you won't come but we who have come we understand
the only reason we came is because of his grace the only reason
I've ever drank of him you know what makes me different from
one who hasn't believe God who make it differ from another
why Have you received these things? It's by grace you've received
these things. And by grace I still come. I still come. And therefore we give all the
glory to God, all the praise and admiration belongs to God. And after we've come, we still
continually presently come. I know this. I need Him more
now than I needed Him at first. I see more of my sin now than
I ever saw before. I need more of His love, more
of His grace, more of His mercies. And so I come. And what does
He tell us to do when we come? When we come to Him, He says
this, Behold, look. Look. Look at what? Yourself? There ain't nothing to look at
there. What happens when the believer looks within himself? Do you feel confident? Do you
feel assured? Do you feel comforted? Do you
feel righteous? Do you feel holy? Do you feel
accepted when you look within your own soul? No! because there
is nothing to look at in here. He said, don't behold yourself,
behold my work. My work. The works of the Lord. John Gill
rightly put this, this is of nature and of grace. Especially
of the providences of God. Both by way of judgment and of
mercy. These words are in address to
the psalmist, to his friends. It is of the church to the fearful
among them who are dismayed at the commotions and disturbances
of the world and who are encouraged to trust the Lord from the considerations
of his work, particularly his providential dispensations. Is there anyone troubled? Is there anything in the providence
of this life that causes you trouble? These are rhetorical
questions. I do know the answer to them.
Yes, there are many. There are many things that trouble
the church of God. And what is God's exhortation
to you? He said, Look at My works. My work of grace for you as was
displayed throughout the whole psalm. I'm your refuge. I'm your
strength. I'm your help. These are My works. I saved you. I chose you. I keep
you. You're Mine. No one can touch
you. And so then in the providence of God, all things are moved
by His hand. Believer in Christ, let us now
come and cast our eyes firmly upon God and see His work of
grace and providence. These words of the Holy Spirit
are addressed to the church, to those fearful and troubled
because of their sin, because of the hatred of the world, or
the coldness of their own heart. Sometimes we're like Asaph. Asaph
said, I know God's good to Israel, but
as for me, I don't know. My foot nigh well slipped. I
envy the wicked. Is he alone? Do we not envy the wicked? They're
prosperous. They have the things of the world.
They seemingly have the power. They seemingly have all things. God's people are oppressed. God's
people suffer. And the wicked prosper. What
are you to do in such a time as this? Behold the works of
God. Behold the works of God. We, by this exhortation, then,
are called to trust in God. And such faith is only strengthened
by considering His works, His grace, and His work of divine
providence. First, we are called to consider
the desolations. Now, I thought about this. How
does viewing His desolations comfort us? How does viewing desolations
comfort you? How does that give you confidence? I've thought
of an illustration of this, and I've looked at some scriptures,
and I believe it's 2 Chronicles. Jehoshaphat was surrounded by
his enemies. He was surrounded by them. They
were ready. They had teamed up with even
more enemies to attack Judah. And God told him, He said, Don't
be afraid. Matter of fact, this battle is not yours at all. You will not have to do one thing. I will have them kill themselves." And he said, tomorrow, after
it is done, I want you to come out and see it. And so, That night, surely, God
caused derision among themselves. They began to fear, and everybody
stood up and killed themselves. And they lay out there, those
bodies, all these armies of soldiers dead on the battlefield. And
God says, come here, come here. Look. Just so you can be comforted,
all your enemies are destroyed. Now then, how does this comfort
you? Guess what, believer? God says, come here and see what
I've done. Come here. Look yonder. You see the cross? You see? You see the dead body? Hey, tree. I killed your enemy. Your sin
is gone. Oh, the desolation He made His
Son to be sin for us. By His one act of love, He forever
removed it. And guess what? By that desolation,
He made peace. My sin is gone. I am forever at peace with God. God made my peace. What about your enemies now?
Enemies that surround you, the world, the flesh, the devil,
what of these enemies? God says, be still, this battle
is not yours, it's mine, come and view the desolation. Where
are we going to view it? Right here. You know what? Some people like
to read the end of the book before they read the book. You know,
people like that, they can't stand it. They just have to read
the end. It's good to read the end of this book even before
you read it. You know what? He wins. He wins. Christ wins. And one day God will make desolate
all the enemies of His people. Come and listen. Come and view
the desolations that God has made in the earth. Do you know
every time God's people have been in trouble, God's killed
their enemies? Do you know that? Every time.
God's destroyed their enemies, every one of them. The last enemy will be death,
won't it? And we're confident of this.
He'll destroy that. Someday there'll be no more death.
No more sorrow, no more sickness, no more crying, no more pain. For who? Those who are in Christ. Now, those outside of Christ,
there'll be plenty of desolation for you. But for us who are in Christ,
this desolation that God has made is of our enemies, so that
none of them can hurt us. And so then as we view Providence,
we should also view His desolations in Providence. Think of why there
is so much trouble and sickness and trials in this world. You
don't want to know why? Because God is saving His people. Everything
that is happening in time in Providence is moved by the hand
of God and He is doing all His will to save His people. Well, I don't understand. You
don't have to. He just says, look, believe. Trust me. Do you believe that God is sovereign? Do you believe He controls all
things? I'm not asking intellectually.
This is a matter of faith. Because you're not going to be
able to go out there and say, well, see, that's God controlling things
out there. You're not going to be able to see it. Matter of fact, it's
going to make you miserable trying to figure it out. That's what
Solomon said, I think, in Ecclesiastes chapter 8. He said, it's misery
to try to figure out what God's doing. I've used that illustration of
the providence being a wheel. You remember, God says it's a
wheel within a wheel, a wheel spinning within a wheel. If you take a wheel and you spin
it, and you try to look at the spokes, you're going to get dizzy. You try to trace one providence
back to God, you're going to get dizzy. The best thing for
you to do is forget tracing it and believe it's from God. Now then, with this kind of information,
what are we to do with it? Understanding salvation is by
the grace of God. All providence is ruled by God,
and that God will make desolate all of our enemies, sin, death,
and hell, Satan, and the world. God will make desolate, according
to His Word. Seeing that God has made peace,
that He has broken our bow of rebellion, He cut our spear of
doubt, and He burned our chariot of works. Praise God. What are
we to do with this information? Look at verse 2. Be still. Be still. When you're in trouble,
what's the hardest thing to do? Be still. When Israel was being
pursued by the Egyptians, what did they have to do? Be still
and know. See the salvation of God. Matter
of fact, God had to hem them in in order for them to be still.
He put mountains on their right, a valley on their left, a river,
an ocean in front of them, and Pharaoh behind them. And then
He said, be still. What else could they do but be
still? Isn't that what God does to you? He puts you in a place
and you can't do anything but be still. This church is an example
of that right now. So many of us, I know you have
this desire to get out and worship, get out and hopefully see the
church grow and see people come. Maybe God's hindered us here
and he said this, be still. Be still and just keep your eye
on me. Be still, know that I am God. What does this mean to be
still? One preacher put it like this, to be still is to not complain. murmur not at the providence
of God." To be still is not to kick against the dispensation
of God. Isn't there sometimes you kick
at God? Don't do it. Be still. To be
still is to be silent. Like Aaron, when his sons were
killed by God, God said, don't even weep for them. Be still. Be still is to wait, because
God will not be hurried by your impatience. I'm trying to get my own. I understand
these things that I'm saying you know are true and I know
are true, but I'm telling you we need the strength to be still. Be still is to be working. What we are doing right now is
being still. We are beholding the things of
God. We are beholding His desolations and His grace. We are beholding
these things through the Word that is preached. We are doing
the service of God right now. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with all thy might. What? As unto the Lord. Don't
do what your hand ain't got to do. Do what your hand's got to
do. Be still. Be still, for God will
overrule all things for your good. Be still. And lastly, be still, for God
will eventually explain it all. He told His disciples, He said,
you don't know what I'm doing now, but I'll tell you in a minute.
You don't know what God's doing right now? Be still. He'll tell you in a minute. He'll tell you in a minute. Now
that may be an eternal minute, but He'll tell you in a minute. Listen, the Lord of hosts is
with us. The God that rules everything
is with us. Not with them. With us. That's good to know, isn't it?
Can't you just sit still on that? Be patient on that? Wait on that. The God of Jacob, the God of
sinners, is with us. That's good news for sinners.
The God of Jacob, His chosen, His loved, His called. Is that you? Now listen, have
I given you enough things to be confident about? Did I point
any of this to you? Did I lay any of this on you?
No. It's all on God. It's all Him.
He is all our confidence. Now you don't want that to sum
up that whole psalm. He's our confidence. In Him we will trust. May God
give us grace to do that. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.