Alright, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 33. Deuteronomy chapter 33 and our
text will be found in verse 27. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. And He shall thrust out
the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. The title of my message this
morning is, God Thy Refuge. God thy refuge. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. Here Moses speaks to Israel
one last time. The context of this is that they
were about to cross over Jordan. They were about to enter into
the promised land that God had promised them some forty years
before. And now He had come to the end
of His journey. And just before they are about
to cross over the Jordan, we know this, that Moses was about
to cross over the veil of death. You remember how Moses had sinned
against the Lord in smiting the rock twice, ruining the picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and how he was told he would not
enter into the promised land. And now that time had come. His
death was imminent. He was fixing to die. And we
know this, that Moses could not have entered into the promised
land because he was a picture of the law. He was a type of
the law. No man by the law shall enter
into the promised land of heaven. For by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But only how would we enter in? By Joshua. That's how Israel
entered in, by Joshua. Even so, we enter into heaven
by our Joshua, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here Moses is
at his deathbed, so to speak. Although he had all of his senses,
he was about to die and he knew it. But here he is at his deathbed
and he speaks this word. This word, the Eternal God is
thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. Now he
had some 40 years prior received a promise of God that Israel
should be delivered from Egypt. that He would give them the land
of Canaan. And here it is, forty years had
passed. Forty years of marching around
in that barren wilderness, and even though Israel had sinned,
even though Moses had sinned in his folly, through all the trials, through
all the backslidings, through all the experiences of the wilderness,
I want us to see this, that Moses' doctrine and faith did not change. After all that that he had been
through, after all that he experienced, all the burdens and trials and
difficulties, what he believed in the beginning was what he
believed at the end. And this is true of every believer
in Christ. What we believe in the beginning
is what we believe in the end. Moses' doctrine did not change
Nor was he moved from the promise of Christ for which he had forsaken
Egypt." You remember the Scripture tells us that Moses forsook Egypt. Why? By faith in Christ. He knew that Christ should come. By the Jews, he knew that Christ
should come from Abraham's seed. And so he forsook Egypt for the
sufferings of Israel. And so Moses died even as he
lived in faith of the precious promise of the grace of God,
that salvation was of God from first to last. Even so it is
with every true believer in Christ. We who by grace through faith
are delivered by the blood of Christ have the promise of eternal
life. Listen to the words of your Master.
He that believeth, he that believeth on Me, he shall never perish,
but have everlasting life. That's the words of Christ to
us. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, listen, you have eternal life. You have it. Now, when did your
eternal life begin? Well, if it's eternal life, it
never had a beginning, did it? It's eternal. Your life was hid
with Christ in God from eternity. And in time, God revealed it
to you. And you see that salvation is
completely of God. And thus, we cling We believe,
we hold by faith that Christ is all. Christ is all. You see, we were depraved by
nature and our hearts were deceitful and desperately wicked. Yet,
we see that we are saved by the blood of Christ, we are washed
by the regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost through the
sovereign mercy of God. This is the faith of a believer. This is one who comes to God
by faith, comes to God by faith in Christ, is one that has no
confidence in the flesh, one that is stripped of the flesh. We come in seeking mercy and
we find it. So then what does this wilderness
journey do for the saints of God? From the time you believed until
the time you die, what is this about? What is God leading us
through? Have there not been so many difficulties
and trials of your faith all the way through? What is God
doing? He's doing His will, we know
that. Whatsoever He pleases, that's
what He does. And so whatever He's doing, that's
His pleasure. It's His will. So what does His
will and His journey and experience do for God's saints? Does this
experience change our doctrine? Will this experience through
life cause us to be moved from trusting Christ to trusting in
law or self? No. By no means. God will use this wilderness
journey to prove us. Go back to Deuteronomy chapter
8. God tells Israel why He brought them through this wilderness
journey. Verse 2, And thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness. Notice His purpose. To humble
thee. And to prove thee. To know what is in thine heart,
whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no. And He humbled
thee. That's what He does. What is
He doing? What is He doing to me? Oh, the
pains of sin, the pains of the world, the pains of the flesh. What is He doing? He is humbling
you. That's what He's doing. You suppose
that when you first believed you were humble enough? Do you
suppose now that you're humble enough that you can't be brought
any lower? Yes, you can. Yes, you can. And God knows how to humble us. We don't. Would you have picked
the path that you've been led on? Would you have picked it? No. God picked it. God chose it. Specifically for
you. As though you were the only one
that He had to deal with. He specifically designed your
wilderness path for you. That's why the apostles said,
you should bear your cross. Jesus said, take up your cross
and follow me. How often do we envy another
man's cross? We do. We say, well man, his
is a lot lighter than mine. No, your cross is yours, designed
by the Lord in order to humble you and to prove you, to know
what's in your heart. Isn't that something? We don't
even know what's in our heart. We don't know the full extent
of the depravity of our own heart. We don't know it. And I tell
you this, I don't know the full extent of the faith and righteousness
that God has given me through Christ. I don't know the full
extent of either one of them. Do you? So what does life do? Life teaches us the full extent
of both of them. It reaches out. And even the
greatest believer, the most knowledgeable believer, the Apostle Paul said
this, We see through a glass darkly. We still don't have a
full grasp of what it is to be depraved and yet righteous in
the eyes of God through Christ. And so what is he doing? He is
proving us. He is trying our faith. The Apostle Peter, in Peter chapter 1, he said this,
that we are kept by the power of God through salvation, ready
to be revealed at the last time. In other words, it's not fully
revealed, is it? This salvation, we've not seen
anything but the down payment. That's it. We received the Holy
Spirit as a down payment of this, but we've not seen the fullness.
wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be. You know why you're going through many troubles and trials?
It's need be. It's necessary. That's it. If it weren't necessary, you
wouldn't be going through it. It's necessary. If need be. We are
in heaviness through manifold temptation, that the trial of
your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not
seen you loved, in whom though you see him not yet believing,
you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. So what is
this wilderness journey about? It's not about eradicating our
faith, but rather increasing it. So what does your experience
do? Our experience in the wilderness
only proves it. That's what it's done. It's only
proved what God has done. It's shown us more of our depravity,
and yet at the same time it has shown us more of the super abounding
grace of God through Jesus Christ. I tell you, I don't know much
of the love of God. Scott and I were talking about
that this morning when I preached from John 3.16. He said, man,
I was scared to preach from that. Why? Because it's so vast. It's
so large. And I tell you, I know something
of the love of God. I do. I don't know the fullness
of the love of God. I know of love, forgiveness,
pardon, peace, which was obtained by the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. But I haven't known the fullness
of it. Therefore, we say, Lord, teach us. Teach us. Give us faith. Give us hope. Give us patience. You know what
you're asking for? Do you? You're asking for trouble. Because this is how God gives
it. He gives it through the wilderness experience. And what does this
wilderness experience do? It proves the depravity, but
it also proves God's grace, God's mercy, God's forgiveness, God's
kindness and love. Over in Acts chapter 14, the
apostle says in verse 22, confirming the souls of the disciples,
and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God." How are
you going to enter the kingdom of God? What am I going to exhort
you? To continue in the faith. And
that you should, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom
of God. And so therefore, as we look
at this text this morning, let us see that what Moses believed
at the beginning, the wilderness journey only solidified it. It only made it more to grow. And let us be able to proclaim
with our dying breath that the experience of our pilgrimage,
that the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting
arms. This was Moses' experience. This
was Moses' faith. This was Moses' life from beginning
to end. Not here is any word given to
human merit, human will, or works. But all the glory and praise
and honor belong to the eternal God, who is all our salvation
and refuge, from first to last, and by whose everlasting arms
we are carried into heaven. So let's look at our text now.
Let's look at some of these parts here. I'm just looking at the
first clause of this because I don't have time to even go
into the second part. But this first one, the eternal
God is thy refuge. Now what is a refuge? What is
a refuge? Well, a refuge is a place of
escape. Escape. It's a place of shelter. It's
a place where one flees for protection from danger. You know, we always think of
trying to escape our troubles, don't we? We say, well, you know,
if I just had a vacation, if I could just get over there to
the islands and lay out on the beach, and I just let the wind
and the surf wash away my troubles... You know what the problem with
that is? No matter where you go, there you are. You see, the
problem is not the world, the problem is ourself. The problem
is that we carry this wicked heart with us wherever we go,
whether on the beach or in the desert. whether at home or at
work. We carry this old wicked flesh
with us wherever we go, and it never escapes us. It's always
there. It's always there. So no matter
where I go, there I am. So where shall you find refuge
in the world? Where shall you find it? You
won't find it in this world. You won't find it in places or
other people. There is no refuge in them. No
shelter in them. The Lord gives us illustrations
of refuge. I don't have the time to go there,
but you can write it down and read these later. In Numbers
chapter 35, as well as Joshua chapter 20, we read of cities
of refuge. There were six cities. God purposed
before they entered Canaan, He said, there shall be six cities
of refuge. So when a man accidentally kill
another man without intent, he may flee to one of these cities
to be saved from the avenger of blood. You remember, that
family of the slain man had a right to vengeance. They had a right
to justice. And they were to kill that man. They had a right to kill him.
And so, the Scripture says, as soon as He slayed him, the best
thing he could do is run. Run! Don't go back to your home. Don't pick up your clothes. Don't
pick up your family. You run to the city of refuge. And when he made it, when he
entered that city, he was safe from the avenger of blood. He
was safe. And you remember that he was
safe in that city. And you know when he was able
to go home? Only when the high priest died. Only when the high priest died.
What a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only refuge
for sinners. The only refuge, the only place
of safety. You see, we by nature were cursed
by the law. We were bruised by the fall.
Consider this. What did you have to do? We weren't
even there when Adam sinned, were we? Yet we all died in Him. We didn't intend to die in Him,
but we did die in Him. And so this is a picture of those
of Adam's race. who has slain a man unintentionally. We've offended God even unintentionally
through Adam, through our representative. And yet God's vengeance is after
you. God's avenger will pursue the
sinner. And God says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. And see, this is the whole purpose
I'm here.