Psalm 28. We'll be looking at
verse 1. I'll read verse 1 and 2. And
if the Lord is willing, I'll get down to 6 through 9, but
you know how that goes. So, Psalm 28, verse 1, Unto thee
will I cry, O Lord, Notice the title he gives the Lord, My Rock. My Rock. Be not silent unto me, lest if
thou be silent to me, I am become like them that go down into the
pit. Hear the voice of my supplication. when I cry unto thee, when I
lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle." Now the title this morning is,
The Rock. My Rock. A root, a refuge, and refreshment. My rock. My rock, the root or
the foundation. My rock, my refuge. My rock, my refreshment. My refreshment. Here in this
psalm, David is in a very dark place. The Lord is silent to
him. He said, be not thou silent to
me. If thou be silent to me, I am
become as those that go down to the pit. Now never is so dark
a time in the believer's life as it when it seems that God
is silent to us. When we pray and we cannot hear,
we hear the preaching of the word and it falls cold on our
hearts. Never is a time more devastating
or dark than when God hides his face and seems to have left us
alone. This we know to be true. We deserve to be forsaken. Every
believer confesses we deserve to be forsaken. We have sinned against God and
we are condemned by our own conscience. And so we stand before the Lord
often like Joshua the high priest You remember how he was dressed
in those filthy garments, standing before God, and what did he say? Nothing. He had nothing to say. He had
no argument, no defense. Even so, every believer, when
God is silent, we come before Him confessing our sins. Confessing our sins. In this darkness and fear, the
psalmist cries out to the Lord to reveal himself, to speak words
of comfort. He cries unto the Lord to restore
his strength and destroy his enemies. I don't know about you,
believer, but I find myself so often in this position. More
often than I want to confess, more often than I ever want to
feel, I find myself often in a place where I cannot feel the
presence of my God. I cannot seem to hear His voice. And I'll tell you, this is the
sharpest arrow that pierces my heart, is when I cannot see Him,
when I cannot know. Because I know this, without
Christ I'm as good as dead. That's what David said. He said,
if you don't speak to me, I'm just like them that go down into
the grave. I'm just like them. There is
no difference between me and them except you. And if you don't speak on my
behalf, I am surely going down to the pit with them. I'm sure I'm not speaking to
myself. But even in this despair, you
as believers should recognize the providence of God. Even in this, we as believers
should know that the will of God is always to do us good,
even when He is silent to us. Why? Because what does His silence
bring? What does His silence move us
to do? It moves us to bow before Him. That's what it does. It moves
us and shows us our sin. It reveals to us things that
were hidden before. We are brought low and what do
we see? We see how precious He really
is. Isn't that right? When He is silent, is it not
the most precious thing in all the world to hear His voice?
when he would speak to me through his word. Oh, how it would fill
my heart with joy and peace to know his voice again. To know this, as David knew,
the Lord is my rock. Had God not been silent to David,
David would have never wrote this passage of Scripture. But he did. And what was his
first inclination? To cry unto the Lord. Isn't that what we do in the
silence? We cry unto the Lord. He said this, I cry unto thee
will I cry. You remember when the Lord preached
the message of His sovereign grace in John chapter 6. He preached
that He was the bread of life that came down from heaven. That
He is God and man. He preached that He came to die
for all those that the Father gave Him. That man was incapable
of coming to Him except the Father draw him. And you know what?
Men didn't like that. They didn't like it then and
they don't like it now. They hate that same gospel. And
many of his disciples left him that day. And he turned to his
disciples and he asked them, will you go away also? Remember
the response of Peter? What did he say? Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. And we are sure that you are the Christ. We're sure that
you're the one. Isn't this the heart of every
believer when they've got no place to go? Where do we go?
We always cry unto thee. We always turn unto the Lord. When we are in distress, when
we are in darkness of our heart and the accusations of our conscience
overwhelm us, when Satan accuses us, religion tempts us to turn
back to the law, then in the darkness, in the darkness, In
the void, what do we do? We cry unto thee. We cry unto
our God. In the silence, we cry unto our
God. Why? For there is no other name
given among men whereby we must be saved. There's none other
name. There's no other person. There's no place to go. Shall
we trust in flesh? Shall we trust in family? Shall
we trust in friends? What does God say about the arm
of flesh? The arm of flesh shall fail. What does He say about His own
arm? My arm will never fail. His arm is full of strength. Full of strength. When it seems God is silent to
His children, there's one thing about His children. They will
not be silent. We're like that Canaanite woman.
Remember when the Lord seemed as though He would not hear her?
Remember when they tried to get her to stop? Was there anything
to stop her from crying to Him? No. The disciples said, she cries
after us. She wasn't crying after them.
She was after Him. That's the same way with every
one of His people. They cry unto Him. God's arm
is full of strength. The arm of flesh shall fail because
it is only flesh, but we cry to God because His arm shall
never fail. Listen, His strength shall never
diminish. Isn't that something? We don't
have any experience in that, do we? About strength that doesn't
diminish. Even the strongest of men cannot
bear anything forever. But God, His strength is never
put out. It's never diminished. So we
cry unto Him alone because, listen, He is my what? Rock. That's a very important
word. The Holy Spirit uses this word
specifically to describe Christ. To describe Christ as our rock. Now why does the Holy Spirit
describe Him as our rock? Four things. First of all, because
a rock is firm, you can stand on a rock. It's able to support you. Second of all, he uses a rock
because a rock is a good refuge. A good refuge. If you were in
the midst of a storm or a hurricane, if you were to go into a mountain, That would be a good refuge.
Why? Because the mountain is able
to endure the blow of the storm. So Christ is our refuge. In Him, He endured the wrath
of God for us. Thirdly, because Christ is a
source of refreshment. Now this is something that's
not common to a natural rock. You never would think to go to
a rock for refreshment, would you? Well, gee, I want some water. Go over that rock. No, that would
be silly. In the natural sense, it's foolish.
But in the spiritual sense, it's exactly what Christ is. He is
the rock of refreshment. And we get that because that's
how it was with the nation of Israel. Remember, they was out
in the wilderness. And then God made Moses smite that rock. And
what happened? Water flowed out of that rock
so that 2 million people could drink. And you remember the second time,
that rock, it not only was there, it's in 1 Corinthians chapter
10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Listen, this is what Paul says
about this rock of refreshment. In verse 4, he said, they did
drink all the same spiritual drink, they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them. Listen, and that rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. So Christ
is a rock of refreshment. And fourthly, He uses the illustration
of a rock because a rock can crush. You listen, everyone who is not
built upon Christ, Everyone who is not in Christ as a refuge,
everyone who is not refreshed by Christ, our rock, will be
crushed by Christ, my rock. A rock will crush you. So those
are my four points. A rock, a root, or a foundation. Christ, my rock, my refuge. Christ, my rock, my refreshment. Christ, my rock, that crushes
all his enemies. First of all, let's see this.
A rock has a sure foundation. Believer, we cry unto Christ
our rock because of this. He is our sure foundation. Our sure foundation. The Scriptures are clear. Jesus
Christ is said to be the cornerstone of our salvation. The cornerstone. He was chosen of God to be the
foundation upon which all of His elect people should rest
their souls. Go to Isaiah chapter 28. Isaiah
chapter 28. Verse 16, Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried
stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste." God is putting this stone in contrast
to the refuge of lies. The refuge of lies. Because man
by nature makes lies his refuge. What are the lies and refuge
and foundation of men? His works, his goodness, his
religion, his will, whatever. If you are trusting your soul
before God based on anything you have done, will do, are doing,
or going to do, your foundation is a refuge of lives. And you've made it. You've made
it on your own. God has not made that refuge,
you did it. It's your refuge. You've built it. And God says,
I'm going to destroy it. I'm going to sweep it away. But
in contrast to your refuge, I'm going to show you mine. He said,
I've laid a foundation stone. I've laid a cornerstone, a triad
stone. In Zion, he has set Christ to
be the foundation of all his elect church and all whose hope
is built on this cornerstone shall not make haste. Why? Again, where are we going to
go? We don't have any place else to go and we don't want to go
anywhere else. We believe on this stone as my standing before
God. I trust Christ. I believe Christ. And therefore, I am able to stand
before God. Why? I have a rock. to stand
on. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand. Jesus said this about himself.
He said, I say unto thee, Matthew 16, 18, I say unto thee, that
thou art Peter, small rock, little pebble, But upon this rock, giant
mountain, I will build my church and the gates of hell, listen,
shall not, shall never prevail against it. They shall never
overcome it. and shall never drown it. This
rock is Christ. Surely the word of the apostles
and prophets are founded upon this rock. You know, the Scriptures
speak of... this Scripture was written by
the apostles and prophets as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
This is the foundation of our faith, isn't it? The Word of
God. So whenever I'm preaching, what do I preach? The Word of
God. I don't give you my opinion because my opinion is useless.
It doesn't do you any good. It's not a foundation. My opinion
is not a foundation. This is the foundation of my
faith and practice, is the Word of God. But what is the cornerstone
of this Word? What is this Word about? Is this
Word about how to live right, how to do good? Is that what
this Word's about? No. This word's about a person. This whole book has a cornerstone. All of the weight is on this
one person, Jesus Christ. Jesus said of this book, He said,
He began at Moses and all the prophets to expound unto them
in all the scriptures the things, what? Concerning Himself. This
book is a book about Christ. That's what it's about. The whole
thing, from cover to cover, is about Christ. If Christ were to be defective, what does that do to this foundation?
The whole thing crumbles. The whole thing crumbles. But
what does God say about the foundation? He says it's sure. Don't worry
about that. It's sure. He realized that of all the prophecies
of Holy Scripture, Christ failed in not one of them. He's a tried stone. He's a triceratops. I told you this before, you know
that the Israelites, when they were trying to find that lamb
that was spotless, they'd have to go over with a comb, trying
to find out, see if it had any black hairs. You get that saying,
going over with a fine-tooth comb? They'd go over that. That's
what Christ was. They went over Him with a fine-tooth
comb, trying to find one flaw in Him, one failure in Him. You know what they found? They
found nothing. Satan tempted him, and what did
he find? He found he believed in God without
sin. The Jews said, never a man spake
like this man. That's their testimony of him.
Who hated him? And what did Pilate say? That
crucified him. I find no fault in this man.
Jesus said, which of you convinces me of sin? You see, my foundation
of my soul is based on a sinless Savior. A spotless Lamb. A spotless Lamb. This is my refuge. No fault in Him. And through
the ages, He has not changed, friends. He is God, the same
yesterday, today, and forever. This is my rock. My foundation
doesn't move. How about yours? My foundation
is the same. How about yours? Mine's steady
and firm. What are you trusting in? My
foundation was laid by God. What was your foundation laid
by? What are you hoping to stand
on in that great day of judgment? See, I'm not going anywhere because
I believe in Him. I know He is my rock." What does
that mean? He's my foundation. He's my foundation. Yet men still try to falsely
accuse Him. Men still refuse to believe Him. How much more evidence do you
need? People say, well, if I just had
some evidence, 7,000 years of evidence, And if you had even a voice from
heaven, you still wouldn't believe. Still refuse Him, who God has said to be the sure
foundation. Therefore, we who are founded
on Him, we sing this song. Here we have a firm foundation. Here, the refuge of the lost. Christ the rock of our salvation,
His the name of which we boast, Lamb of God for sinners wounded,
sacrifice to cancel guilt. None shall be confounded who
on Him their hope has built. My hope is built on Him. Therefore,
I cry to my rock, my root, my foundation, Jesus Christ." Second
of all, we cry unto the Lord Jesus Christ, our rock, because
He is our refuge. Our refuge. You remember Moses.
He was standing up there and he was receiving the law from
God, and he desired to see the glory of God. He said, Father,
let me see Thy glory. And you know what God's response
to him was? He said, You cannot see my glory. You cannot see
my face, else you'll die." But God said this. He said, there
is a rock by me. And when I shall pass, I will
put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand. And
when my glory shall pass by, I will remove my hand and you
shall see my hinder parts. You see, Moses could not see
the glory of God except he be in the cleft of the rock. What
is that a picture of? Christ. A refuge. A refuge from what? The glory
of God. You can't see the glory of God
and live except you be in Christ. That's the point. You must be
in the refuge. In Christ. Jesus is the eternal rock near
the Father. And because He is one with the
Father in will and purpose, God has predestinated us, chosen
us, and put us in Christ. If Christ is your foundation,
you should know this. You are in union with the refuge. You have been put in Christ even
before there was sin. Even before there was a need
of a refuge, you were put in the refuge. in Christ. He had chosen us, the scripture
said, in Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world,
and that we should be perfect and accepted, where? In Christ,
in the Beloved. In the Beloved. Oh, this is good. There was never a time I wasn't
in Christ. Never. There was never a time
that I wasn't in Him. God put me in Christ. In this cleft of the rock. And we who are in Christ We who
were in Christ from eternity, did He not preserve us until
the time that we ourselves entered in? We were in Christ, but yet
there was an appointed time in which we ourselves must enter
into Christ. And all our life, under the curse
of the law, under the sentence of death, we lived as others,
going about, fulfilling our own lusts and our own passions and
our own desires, having no love for God, until the appointed
day when God opened our eyes. And what we do? We fled to Christ
for refuge. Like that man who struck his
brother By accident, you remember, he had to run to a city of refuge
or the avengers of blood would come on him. They should kill
him. And there were cities of refuge for this. This is Christ. The city of refuge is Christ. We are preserved until we come
to Him. And how do we come into Christ? How is it that one comes
into the refuge? First of all, you have to know
your need of a refuge, don't you? If you don't have a need,
why do people not come to worship? Why do they not come to hear
the Gospel? First of all, they have no interest. No interest. You know why you have no interest?
Because you have no need. If you had a need, you would
come. But because you have no interest
and no need, you don't come. Because you don't know you're
a sinner. That's why people don't come. Because they really don't
know they're a sinner. They may feel it when they're
in trouble. But other than that, no need.
Only when God reveals the need will you come. And we, the only
difference between a believer and someone else is that God
has revealed our name. And we've come into Christ. We've
believed on Him. And He now is my refuge. What does this mean? When Jesus
Christ came into the world, He came as a representative man.
He came to honor the law of God. But when He hung upon the cross,
God took our sins and made them His own. And when God saw our
sins in His Son, He killed Him. All the vengeance of God poured
out on Christ. Guess where I was? I was in Christ
when He died. And so then, He endured the storm
as a refuge for me. So what does that mean? That
means the justice of God is forever satisfied with me. He has nothing
to say to me. God's law has nothing to say
to me. I'm free. I am justified before God. I am made the righteousness of
God. Where? In the rock. In my refuge. Listen to this. This is a song. since Christ has suffered the
full measure of God's wrath. Believer, if Christ has suffered
for all of our sins, if He has endured the wrath of God as our
rock, as our refuge, how then shall the waves of God's justice
ever come on us? Listen to this song. From whence
this fear and unbelief? Since my Father put to grief
His spotless Son for me. Can he, the righteous judge of
men, condemn me for the debt of sin which the Lord hath charged
on thee? Complete atonement thou hast
made, and to the utmost farthing paid what heir thy people owed. How then can wrath on me take
place if sheltered in thy righteousness and sprinkled with thy blood?
If thou hast my discharge procured, and freely in my place endured,
the whole of wrath divine payment God will not twice demand, first
at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again at mine." God can't charge twice for the
same crime, can He? If He charged my Savior, how
can He charge me? He can't. He can't. Listen. He won't. He said, I will not remember
their sins anymore. Will not. Now how can he be just
to do that? Because they're already paid
for. Why should I be punished for something already paid for?
No, I won't be punished. Why? Christ, my rock, is my refuge. Psalm 27 verse 5, For in the
time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret
place of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon
a rock. You know what that word means?
It means sharp rock. You know those people in Palestine,
that's how they use defenses, is they use the mountains and
the sharp rocks so that no one could get to them. Christ is
a sharp rock and not one sin could get to me. Not one accusation
can get to me. Why? I'm in Him. And so are you
if you believe on Him. Thirdly, Christ, we cry unto
Him as our rock because He is our refreshment. Go to Isaiah
chapter 48. Isaiah chapter 48 and verse 21. This is speaking of the Israelites. It says, And they thirsted not
when He led them through the deserts. He caused the waters
to flow out of the rock for them. He clathed the rock also, and
the waters gushed out. And the children of Israel wondered
about in the wilderness, and they murmured against God because
they had no water. God, in great mercy, because
they were His people, because He had redeemed them, because
He had delivered them, He caused Moses to stand up upon a rock
and He said, come up upon this rock where I stand. And what
you're going to do, Moses, is you're going to strike the rock.
You're going to clave the rock. You're going to smite and break
the rock. And when the rock is broken,
water shall pour out to the nation of Israel. And that's exactly
what happened when Moses struck that rock. This is a picture
of Christ as I've read to you in 1st Corinthians. This is a
picture of Christ, that rock that was struck, that rock that
was smitten. Now listen, who'd ever thought
water should come from a rock? You would say impossible. No man ever would have thought
to seek water from a rock. Listen, even so, by nature, no
man ever seeks refreshment from Christ. No man will ever seek
Christ by nature. Matter of fact, when He came,
there was no form or comeliness that we should desire Him. He
was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. We
were ashamed of Him. Isn't that how men are? They're
ashamed of this. They don't want to hear anything about this.
They're ashamed to even be a part of it. Why? Because they're ashamed
of Him. They don't want any part of Him.
There's no beauty in Christ. No man would have ever sought
a king in a stable. No man would have ever searched
for a mighty man among carpenters. No one would esteem the lowly
and meek as noble and majestic. Yet the king of kings and lord
of lords was born in a stable. The mighty conqueror and captain
of the armies of God was a carpenter. The most majestic and noble man
that ever was was the meekest and lowliest of men. Jesus, the
eternal God, was made flesh, and being found in fashion as
a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient even unto death,
even the death of the cross. He who is our eternal rock of
deity, condescended to be made flesh so that He would be able
to suffer and bleed for our sins. Behold, Jesus was the smitten
rock, And out from his side flowed what? Blood and water. Blood to atone, water to cleanse. And as we have found this smitten
rock, we have been refreshed by him, haven't we? We have been
refreshed by Him. But how then do we receive this
refreshment daily as we wander through this wilderness, this
desert, this barren wilderness in which most of the time we
seem to spend in agony or sorrow of some sort or measure? As we
walk in this barren world of vanities, that's all it is, is
vanity of vanities. Emptiness of emptiness. Everything
is empty. You think something's gonna make
you, it doesn't make you happy. It only is like an oasis in the
desert. You think it's water and it ends
up dirt in your mouth. So how then is a believer refreshed?
Remember when Moses, that second time he came to that rock, what
was he supposed to do? God said speak to the rock. But Moses being a picture of
the law could only smile. He could not speak. That's showing
us that by the way of the law we could not enter in. We could
not be refreshed by the law. The law cannot do anything but
condemn. But we receive this water by speaking to Christ.
What do we do in silence? We cry unto Him. And what does
He do? He pours out refreshment to us. Is that what He's doing to you?
Right now, is that what He's doing? He's your refuge. He's
your foundation. Is He not your refreshment? He's
refreshing to the soul. To hear this blessed gospel again. Salvation by grace. Salvation
by grace. It's refreshing to know that
I have no part in this. That I have no merits. Nothing
to do. It's done. The work is done. Redemption accomplished. By the work of Jesus Christ.
And now He says, speak. Remember he told that woman,
he said, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it was that
giveth, sayeth to thee, give me drink, thou would, what? Ask
of him, and he would have given thee the water of life. Now is that not something? If
you but ask, you would give. And the first thing He taught
her was what? Her sin. Then He showed her Himself. And
what did she do? She believed. She was refreshed. The water of life. The water
of life. That's the Spirit of God. The
Spirit of God. John says this in John 4.13,
it says, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst. But this is the water that I
shall give him shall be, listen, in him. A well of living water. This is the Spirit of God. The
Spirit of God using the Word of God to refresh the soul of
the believer daily, constantly. This is why we live by faith.
The just shall daily, constantly live by faith. And that faith
comes from the well of water springing up in our souls to
refresh us. And what's the source of this
water? It's Christ, the rock. Christ, the rock. Isn't that
what the Spirit leads you back to? If you're tracing the source
of your refreshment, where does the Spirit point you? He points
you to the rock. To the rock. Believer in trouble, then let
us cry unto our God. And we'll find what David found.
Go back to your text. He said, I cried unto thee, I
cried unto thee, hear my supplications. I cried unto thee, I lift up
my hands toward the holy oracle, toward Christ. Verse 6, blessed
be the Lord, because he had heard my voice, the voice of my son.
What is God going to do when his people cry? He's going to
hear. He's going to hear, and this
is what He's going to do. The Lord is my strength, that's
what He revealed, and my shield. My heart trusted in Him, and
I am held. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices,
and with my song will I praise Him. The Lord is their strength,
and He is the saving strength of His anointed. This is His
request after He is refreshed, save thy people. After you're
refreshed, isn't that your desire that others be saved? That others
come to Christ? I desire that everyone understanding
my voice come to Christ now. Without hesitation. Don't wait.
Come now. Come now. Believe now and you
shall be justified forever. And I say this because my rock
is not only my foundation. He's not only my refuge, he's
not only my refreshment, but I'm telling you this, he is a
crushing rock. And if you do not fall upon this
rock and be broken, this rock will fall on you and you'll be
crushed. You will be crushed. Friends, today is a day of salvation.
Isn't that true? Everyday believer, isn't that
what you know? Today is the day of my salvation.
Today is the day of my salvation. Now, when do you believe? Well,
I believe now. And now, and now, and now, until
the day I die. My salvation is ever fresh, ever
new. I don't ever look back to a point.
I don't ever try to rely on old faith. I need new faith, and
I need it today. I need faith now, to believe
on the Son of God now. Today is a day of salvation.
He is the only foundation and refuge for the souls of men.
And all who will not come to Him, listen, He will crush you. All who refuse to come, who abide
on their own foundation, God says this, I will sweep away
your foundation of lies. That covenant you've made, with
death and hell shall be disannulled." In that day, you're going to
find out there was only one foundation. There was only one refuge and
refreshment for the souls of men. But then, too late. Too late. Now is the time. Come to the rock and find all
that you need. I found all I need. I'm safe
in him. And though he may be silent to
me, at times he is. But he's only showing me how
precious he really is to me. He's only showing me again he's
my rock. And though I can't see anything,
the rock doesn't move. Though I may stagger, I'll never
fall off the rock. And because I'm in Christ, nothing
will get to me. Except what? Refreshment. Refreshment. He's my rock. Is He your rock?
I pray He would be. Let's stand, be dismissed, and
pray.