If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 46. Psalm chapter 46. Tonight we'll be looking at verse
1. Psalm chapter 46 and verse 1
and the title of the message tonight is a shelter from the
storm. A shelter from the storm. Psalm chapter 46 and verse 1
says, God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. The first thing that we can see
in this Psalm is this, God Himself is our refuge. Refuge. Now this word, it means
shelter. Shelter. Not a very complicated
word. It's a place you go in a time
of storm. It is a place that you go for
refuge from the elements or the harm that would come to you. You flee to this place. This
is a place of protection. A place of safety. And this can only be truly said
of Jesus Christ. He is every believer's refuge. He is every believer's shelter. And we who have fled to Him,
We who have fled to Christ as our refuge, is it not because
we needed a refuge? You don't flee to a refuge unless
you have need of one. If it was not raining and people
were running into their buildings and saying, oh, I don't want
to get wet, you'd think they're crazy. Why? They don't need a
refuge. It's sunny outside today. Beautiful. You don't see people running
like y'all saw in the tornado, did you? You didn't see them
running and dashing for their lives? Why? Today we don't need
a shelter. It's nice. But on that day, they
needed a shelter. And everyone was running who
needed a shelter. Who needed a shelter. So only
those who need a shelter, who need a refuge, from their sins,
from the justice of God, only those will find a refuge in Christ. Only sinners find safety, find
comfort, and find peace in Christ, who is our refuge. Man by nature feels as though
he needs no shelter. Man by nature is so clothed with
his own righteousness, self-worth and religion that he has no need
of protection from God's wrath. But the sinner who is exposed,
the sinner who is exposed who is made to know and is sensible
of their sins, who are wet and drenched under the mountain of
God's justice. We know our need of a refuge
from God's wrath. We know and have found Christ
to be that only refuge. That only refuge. Go to Job chapter
24. Job chapter 24 and verse 7. Now
Job is by date the oldest book in the Bible and this is the
first mention of this word that is translated here in the Psalms,
refuge or shelter. Job chapter 24 and verse 7. They cause the naked to lodge
without clothing that they have no covering in the cold. Is that not a vivid picture of
all men by nature? It is. Every man by nature is,
as Adam found himself, to be unclothed before God. To be naked and open before God
concerning our sin. Concerning his sin. They realized
when they sinned that they were naked. There was nothing to hide
their sin. And it is sin that has caused
us to lodge without clothing, to stand in the elements and in the cold. Now, I've been
in the cold. I've been in places that it was
negative digits for a long period of time. But there's one thing
I never went without and that was clothes. I was never, I was
cold enough with clothes. But this is a great picture in
that we are suffering by nature in the cold, underneath the cold,
strict justice of Almighty God. And that's what a sinner is without
Christ. He is exposed in the open underneath
God's strict justice. And there's no protection. There's
no help. They are wet. Now, I'll tell
you, it's one thing to be cold. And without clothes, it's another
thing to be wet without clothes in the cold. Wet with the showers of the mountains. Believer, you remember when God
exposed your sin. Did we not fear under the mountain
of His law? We did. We feared. We saw that we had no clothes,
no shelter. And what did we do? Look at this. And embrace the rock for want
of shelter. We embraced the rock. Christ
is the rock. He is the shelter. He is our
hiding place. Our hiding place. Believers in
Christ, we were drenched with the multitudes of our iniquities. But by God's grace, by God's
power and by God's gift, we embraced the rock and found Him to be
a great shelter. great shelter from God's wrath. You see, I do not seek a shelter
made with my own hands. But we who believe cling to the
rock that is higher than I. We cling to Christ. We who are
naked by nature and felt the cold wind of God's justice have
found a warm place of rest and shelter in Jesus Christ. It is Christ alone who is the
shelter for sinners and He alone can cover our nakedness and has
covered it. We who have believed, we have
this covering. It is the righteousness of Christ
that we are clothed in. He has made for us a garment
most glorious. It is a garment of righteousness. Christ alone has bore the storms
of God's justice and in Him, we are safe, sheltered, and protected. In Christ is a safe hiding place. I like the beginning of this.
I didn't want to mention it, but I couldn't help it now, so
I'm going to do it. The title of this, to the chief
musician for the sons of Korah, a song upon the Alamoth. Now, what the Alamoth is, it
is the highest note that can be sung. Whatever note that is. This was to be sung in the highest
of pitch. Why? Because it comes from the
chief musician. It comes from God Himself. The
song of the redeemed comes from God Himself. And it is given
to the sons of Korah who were sons of rebels. If you remember
Korah, he's the one that God swallowed up in the earth for
rebelling against him, Moses, as being his man. But yet it
was his sons that sang these psalms. Were we not the sons
of a rebel? And yet God has given us who
have believed a song. How is this song to be sung?
God is our refuge. How is this to be sung? With
the highest of notes. Stand on the rooftops. Stand
in the open and say, God is my refuge. Christ is my shelter. Whom shall I fear? Boldness. Boldness in Christ. And that
refuge, that refuge, when you go inside of a refuge, takes the brunt of the storm
for you. Now, when I go inside and it's
raining, I don't feel the rain. Why? Because my house gets hit,
not me. You see that? I'm in a shelter.
I am being safely protected from the cold, from the wind, from
the rain, from the heat. I have a shelter. It bore all. The rain this last month, it
bore it all. And I didn't get a drop on me
when I was in the shelter. Friends, Christ our shelter has
borne all the storm of God's wrath. Every bit of it. So that
we who are in the shelter bear none of it. Not a drop. Not a drop of God's wrath. will
I ever have to bear? Why? Christ was smitten of God. Christ was afflicted of God. Christ was stripped. Christ was
whipped and beaten under the justice of God. Not for His own
sins, but for my sins. They were my sins and they were
your sins. But God in grace imputed them
to Christ and He bore all the wrath of God for them. All of
it. We who have fled to Christ have
this promise that by Christ's one offering, by His one offering, not by our offerings, We offer
the sacrifice of praise tonight, don't we, for this? I'm thankful
that God is my refuge, that Christ is my shelter. I'm thankful for
this. I offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. I offer the sacrifice
of praise unto my God. But the offering of my sacrifice
of thanksgiving and my sacrifice of praise never takes away sin. It never did one thing to take
away my sins. But I give these things because
Christ has taken away my sins. Because He bore all of our sins. And because He did, we are able to see God. We will be able to see the glory
of God and live. You remember Moses when he was
on Mount Sinai, he asked that he see God's glory. And God said,
no man shall see me, see my face, and live. You see, we cannot
see God with our own eyes, with our own
face. Because if God were to appear
in His glory in this place, we would all just die. I remember
one time that I was praying and I won't ever forget it. I was
praying that the Lord revealed himself to me. And the more I
prayed. I got to a point where I said,
God, please don't show me anymore. I couldn't bear it. I couldn't
bear it. How then can we see God and live? Only one way. If God put us in
a shelter. If God put us in the cleft of
the rock and cover us with His hand, it is only then we can
see God. Who is the rock? Who is the cleft
of the rock? It's Christ. When we are in Christ,
we by faith see God. It is only by Him that we can
see the face of God. It's only by Him we can know
God. And we who have believed, we
do know God. We do see God in His face. We do see God in Him. And we are safe. We are in the cleft of the rock.
Praise God for Jesus Christ, our shelter. God is our refuge. Our refuge. Number two, look
at this, Christ is our strength. I'm sorry, number two, Christ
is a refuge from the storms of life. We know that have fled
to Christ, we are sure of this, that we are safe from the storms
of God's wrath forever. The thunderings and lightnings
of the law can no longer harm us because He bore them all. And we are assured that God will
never charge our sins to us again. Is that not a comfort to you?
Is that not the greatest blessing in all the world? If God took
away everything else, would that not be the highest of gifts? That I know this, that my sins
will never be charged to me. They were charged to Christ and
God cannot demand twice payment. He cannot. But friends, we are never promised
to be free from the storms of this pilgrimage. Never. We are free from sin's penalty. We are free from sin's power.
But we are not yet free from sin's presence. And this is why
trouble exists in this world, is because of sin. Because of
sin. Sin is still in our old man,
isn't it? God did not eradicate the old
man. He gave us a new nature, but
He did not take away the old. We still have sin in the old
man. We still have sin in all men
around us then. If sin's in me, I know there's
sin's in you. And so here we are, we're surrounded
by sinners. Surrounded by sinners. All the
time. Everywhere you go. Because no
matter where you go, there you are. So there you are. You're a sinner.
You're surrounded by yourself. If you've got nobody else, you're
still a sinner. But if you're in a group of people,
know this, you're not alone. There's a bunch of sinners around
you too. And we live in a cursed world
too. This world. is cursed. God said, Cursed be
the ground for thy sake. It's because of us, because of
man, that this world was cursed. The world did nothing to be cursed.
The world could do nothing but obey God's commands, and it did
obey God's commands. God said, Yield your best, and
it did. And God said, Cursed be the ground, and it was cursed.
We can see this in the storms and in the nature around us. I mean, it's beautiful today.
Who knows tomorrow what it'll be like, but God. I mean, there was an earthquake
in Mexico. I mean, I'm sure they didn't expect that the day before.
You see, this earth, the Scripture says, groans within itself. It groans waiting for the resurrection. And so we are surrounded then
by many troubles on every side. We're surrounded. Surrounded. Satan still walks about seeking
whom he may devour. Friends, you have an enemy. You
have an enemy within. You have an enemy without. You
have an enemy you can see, but mainly you have an enemy that
you cannot see. What makes all the troubles you
think, when it's time to worship, what do you think makes all the
troubles? Why do those things enter in? Why is it? Because we have an enemy. An
enemy that's under God's control, but an enemy nonetheless, and
he hates you. He hates everything about you
because he hates Christ and he hates our gospel. And his people,
they'll hate the gospel too. The world hates this gospel. Believers in Christ, we experience
these troubles. We experience both good and bad
circumstances. We experience both sun and rain. None of us are exempt from these
things. None of us. God has promised to send His
rain and sun on the just as well as the unjust. And when you are in trouble,
how often do we relate our troubles to God's punishment. It's a natural thing. It's the
natural man that does this. Automatically, when everything
seems to be going wrong, we start questioning, well, you know,
I just deserve God's punishment or something. Well, you know,
this is God's punishment. I woke up this morning, kicked
the cat. I fell and stubbed my toe and hurt myself. God must
be mad at me. Or we wake up in the morning,
we pet the cat, we get up and then don't stub our toe and everything
goes well. Well, God must be happy with
me. You see, we judge our relationship
with God based on our experiences and circumstances. Believer in
Christ, we should not do this. We shouldn't do this. That's
not how God loves. God doesn't love like we love. shelter and protect us like we
would shelter and protect others. Now, we're not like God and God
is not like us. Believer in Christ when the circumstances,
whether good or bad, stay in the refuge. Stay in Christ. Keep your eye on Christ. Constantly, by faith, looking
to Christ as your refuge, no matter what comes your way. If we are in Christ, we know
this, that God is never angry with us. Never angry with us. If we are in Christ, God is not
out to destroy us. Now, we may be chastened by our
heavenly Father, but we will never be prosecuted by a heavenly
judge. Why? Because we already have
in Christ. In Christ. And so no matter what
comes our way, no matter what comes, no matter what storms,
no matter what difficulties, my son, the scripture says, despise
not the chastening of the Lord. He is not doing this for our
ill or our destruction, but whatever it is, it's for our good. Whatever it is. Our father's will is only to
correct us, to keep us in the shelter. If they're in that,
in that storm, if you, if I had my kid, I had
my kids in the basement and there was a storm coming before there
was tornadoes and I put my kids in the basement with me. Now,
if my child would disobedient, ran up the stairs and went outside,
do you not think I would correct him to get him down there? You
bet I would. I'd do everything within my power
and I would get Him in the shelter. Because I hate Him? Do I want
to destroy Him? No! I want to save Him! And that's
what God does. God does to His people. He chastens
us, corrects us so that we look to Christ by faith. That we come under the shelter
and find comfort. I like this illustration. When
a sheep wanders off from a shepherd, a loving shepherd, when he finds
a sheep that is constantly prone to wander, when he goes out and
finds him, he breaks his leg. He binds his leg and he puts
that sheep on his shoulder until he's well. He carries that sheep
around until His will. And you know that sheep is the
one that sticks closest to the shepherd from then on. He stays
close by. Friends, sometimes God comes
and He breaks our leg. Not for our ill, not for our
destruction, not because He wants to punish us and get even with
us. He brings these storms of life so that He might bind us. so that He might put us on His
shoulder and carry us until we are well to walk ourselves. And
a sheep that has been chastened of the Lord will stick closer
to His shepherd. Because that's where the protection
is. That's where the protection is. He is a protection from all
the storms of life. Next, God is our strength. God
is our refuge and strength. What good is a shelter if you
don't have confidence in it? What good is a shelter if you
don't have confidence? Joanne, I love to come over to y'all's
house. And I love to visit and socialize with y'all. And Nancy,
I love to come over to your house. But I'll tell you what, in the
midst of a storm, I'm not too confident. I'm not too sure about
these shelters, y'all. I'm glad y'all find refuge in
that bathtub. You know, I'm sure that you won't
try that too many times if you don't have to. I'm sure if you
could find a better place, you'd go. You've got to trust the shelter. If it is to bring any comfort,
any assurance, the shelter has to be strong. It has to endure. The shelters of earth and wood
may be good for some storms but not for others. Your house may be good for rain.
As we've seen, the houses of earth and wood are not good for
tornadoes, are they? They don't stand a chance. What about a cave? That sounds
pretty good. What about inside of a mountain?
That sounds wonderful. A mountain that's been tested
by time, that's been tested by storms. You know, I can find
real comfort getting in a cave like that. Finding shelter in
a strong mountain. I can find comfort in that from
any storm. You see, a shelter that has never
been tried is not a good shelter at all. Go to Isaiah chapter
28. Isaiah chapter 28. Believer rest in Christ because
He is a tried shelter. He has been proven. He's been
proven. You can take comfort. He is a
strong shelter. Look at this. Chapter 28, verse
16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone. What kind of stone? A tried stone. A tried stone. A tested stone. A precious cornerstone. a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. In other words, somebody that's
in a sure place is not going to be ready to get out of it.
I tell you what, I don't want to be in any other place but
Christ. I don't want to be found in anybody's
righteousness but Christ and Christ alone. Because he was
tried, he was proven of God. In a man there is no goodness
or righteousness, therefore there is no peace with God. The works of religion and self-righteousness
can't even stand the test of our own conscience. Isn't that
right? Who's felt guilty? You see? Not
too sure, is it? Everyone's felt guilt. But you see, in Christ, God tried
him and he was found righteous. He was found without sin. He
is a refuge. He is a strong refuge. And we
who have belief, we have a strong hope, a sure hope. tested and tried Christ and found
Him to be a perfect Savior, perfect refuge. When God poured out all of the
storms of His wrath on Christ, He endured. He endured the suffering, despising
the shame. Friends, he endured the wrath
of God and God said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. This is it. There is only one
refuge. There is only one tried refuge. Christ. He is a strong refuge. A strong refuge. And God has set Him on the throne
and given Him power over all flesh that He should give eternal
life to as many as God has given Him. That's sure. That's sure. There is nothing in this world
more sure than this. God will save His people from
their sin. He will call them and bring them
to Himself. Why? Because Christ has been
proven to be the sure strong refuge. And lastly. I knew I wasn't going
to get through with this. Lastly. Christ is. A strong, strong refuge
must not only be strong and tried, it must be trusted in. It's not
good enough for men to say, well, Jesus Christ is a good, strong
refuge for sinners. It's not enough for men to say
that His blood and righteousness is the only salvation for men. It's not good enough unless they
themselves have entered into the refuge. It won't do you any
good unless you enter into the refuge. Unless you come to Christ by
faith, all of this is academic. A man must believe. And you know
what? You must believe. Not me. You see, I'm not going to be
able to believe for my children. They must believe! You must believe. And that's what it is to enter
into the refuge. That's what it is to come in
from the storm. That's what it is to find assurance.
That's what it is to find hope. It is to believe on Christ. The
just shall live, how? By faith. How did we begin this
walk? By faith. How will we continue
this walk daily? By faith. And how will we end
this walk? by faith in Christ. You won't find any hope, any
help, or any shelter unless you believe in Christ. And faith is a constant daily
thing. May God give us grace to believe May God give us grace to seek
shelter from all the troubles of life. How by faith in Christ, look
to Christ for everything. Pray that God blesses to you.
Let's stand and we'll be dismissed in prayer.