to read from the 27th Psalm. If you want to read a few verses
with me this evening, go to Psalm 27. Hope you've had a good afternoon. You know, each Lord's Day evening,
some of the men gather in my office before the worship service,
and there we One of the men will read the scriptures and then
seek God's face before we come and worship here. Usually, there are some guys
who at the very beginning, as they enter into the office, they'll
be asking each other, well, did you get a nap in this afternoon? And so I hope you got your nap
in this afternoon, especially to you fellows who usually bring
that subject up. And actually, I hope you're all
refreshed physically and that you've had a good day, a good
day of worship thus far. and I hope that God will bless
as we meet together again this evening. Once again, I'll say
to you, if you have issues with connection, to the internet and
evidently a few folks did this morning. You can go to our website
and there you can click on live broadcast and then it will give
you the choice. Of course you can watch it on
sermon audio, although we did hear from a few folks that had
issues with that. Or you can watch it on Facebook
or YouTube. And I understand that there weren't
any issues watching it by those two means, especially YouTube
and Facebook. But I think you've got to have
a Facebook account before you can watch it on Facebook. But you're probably computer
savvy, and you can get on that. Also, let me just mention, Brother
Fortner is in the Danville Hospital, and he is not well at all. Actually, he said today he wants
to be fully well. The only way that's going to
happen is for the Lord to take him He's a very, very sick man,
and if it's God's will, we ask the Lord to take him out of his
misery. I got a text from him yesterday
corresponding with him, and he said, I go into eternity leaning
on my beloved. That's the way to go through
life, and that's the way to go into eternity, leaning on the
Lord Jesus Christ. So, if you would, remember him
in prayer, and remember his wife Shelby. Due to the current circumstances,
she can't be at the hospital with him, and that's a sad thing.
Neither can Faith, his daughter. certainly are aware of the fact
that the Lord said we're never by ourselves, he's with us. But
I'm sure he would welcome the company and be glad to have his
companion of over 50 years. But these things are in the hands
of God, as all things are. And as we said this morning,
everything is good. Here's the Psalm of David, Psalm
27. He says, the Lord is my light
and my salvation. Notice how he uses those possessive
personal pronouns, my light, my salvation. Then he says, whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. And then he says, though
in the host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though
war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One
thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all of the days of my life
to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me, even me, even you who are his people. in his pavilion, in the secret
of his tabernacle, shall he hide me, he shall set me up on a rock."
Well, let's stop our reading there. Let's ask God to bless
tonight as we meet together and we remember our brother Fortner
and we remember all of God's children. Lots of the Lord's people are
suffering, and we ask that if it pleased the Lord that He had
caused the suffering to subside and do what's best for His children,
and indeed He will do that. Lord, it is with gratitude for
all things that we seek Your face this evening. We recognize
to a degree the greatness of our God, and we recognize how
very little we are. We're insignificant beings, worms
of the dust, not worthy that you would even give us a thought.
And yet, as we read in the Word of God, You have given us much
more than a thought, for You have loved us always. You gave
us grace in the Lord Jesus. You gifted us unto Him. We are indeed the people of the
Son of God. We belong to Him by covenant
gift. and we belong to him by redemptive
price. He has bought us with his blood. He owns us. We're his personal
possessions. And then the spirit of God has
dealt with us graciously. He's brought us to know the Lord
Jesus and see in his substitutionary death everything a just God needed
and demanded for the justification of your people. Indeed, we have found by the
gift of the Holy Spirit, by his illuminating grace, We found
that we have all that we need in our Savior. We bless the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is the greatest name. His name is above all names.
Neither is there salvation in any other. For as Peter said
in the book of Acts, chapter 4, Neither is there salvation
in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved." This is the Savior we
need. This is the Savior who saves
forever. And this is our Savior. And we rejoice in the salvation
that you've given to your people so graciously. and so freely. We ask Lord for the sick, for
Brother Fortner, for others of your family who are ill in body,
folks who are quite weak, whose earthly tabernacles are about
worn out. Bodies that are diseased and
very frail. Lord, we ask that if you would
be pleased to heal them to a measure of health, we pray that you'll
do that. But if not, Lord, give them comfort
as you do to your children. And we pray that you'd take them
on the home to glory. as our brothers said, leaning
on the Beloved. O Spirit of grace, would you
teach us that's the way to live and that's the way to face eternity
is leaning on Christ Jesus, fully resting the weight of our souls
upon Jesus and his substitutionary death. Lord, we have no other
hope. We have no other help except
this mighty Savior. And we see in others how disease
can bring men and women to utter helplessness. and just total
physical weakness. And it reminds each of us, or
at least it should remind each of us, of how frail we are and
how certain for the grave this body is. May we find our everlasting
hope and indeed our confidence in the Son of God. He said He
would never leave us. He would never forsake us. Lord, we ask that You would hedge
all of Your children about, protect us from disease, from injury, according to Your
will. And yet, we know that Someday these bodies are gonna
come under the attack of bacteria or germs or diseases or viruses
or something. Help us to always look to Christ
and consider everything in the light of eternity. Oh, that we might know the true
God through Christ Jesus, the Lord. Bless those who labor in the
medical community. Protect them. Lord, in our own
congregation, we have those who are administering medical assistance
to those who are in need. We pray that you'll keep them
safe. We're thankful for all of our
congregation, all of our brethren and sisters in Christ. We thank
you for all the young people, all of our children. We ask that
you would teach all of our church family the gospel of the Lord
Jesus and that you would gather us back together as a body of
believers very soon. Indeed, we miss each other and
we pray for the welfare and the well-being of each other and
we look forward to that day when we shall gather together again
and sing the songs of praise and read, pray, and listen to
the gospel and enjoy the worship of God in person here in the building. Until then, we're thankful for
the means that we have to meet around the Word of God. It's
truly a special time. We don't take it for granted
and may we not take for granted the times that you have given
us in the past and the times that we hope that you'll give
us in the future to meet together. Lord, we are people who tend
to fall into habits and Forget about the blessedness of the
things that you bring to pass, the things that you give us.
And indeed, public worship is such a treasure, and we're grateful
for all things. So bless tonight, and Lord, we
ask that you'd magnify your great name and instruct us from the
word of God. These things we ask. In the name
of the Lord Jesus and for his sake, amen. Well, if you would, go back to
Psalm 91. I've given you a brief outline
of Psalm 91 for the benefit of those of you who are just watching,
who haven't been with us in these 16 verses of Psalm 91. I've divided them into six different
points. And we're gonna speak about the
first one tonight, the state of the people of God. And that's
in the first two verses. We'll address those verses this
evening. And then the safety of God's
people, verses three through eight. Thirdly, the habitation of God's
people, verses nine through 10. And then the guardians of God's people,
verses 11 through 12. And then in the fifth place,
the triumph of the people of God, and that would be verse
13. And then lastly, in verses 14 through 16, here are the promises
made to God's people. Well, with that as our outline
and each of the next several messages, I'll just take these
different points and bring a message on each one of them. So tonight,
the state or the condition of the people of God. Let me begin
this way. Each of the Psalms, and there
are 150 Psalms, Each one is an individual hymn
or song, an individual psalm. But that does not mean that there
is no connection between the psalms. You see the order in
which the psalms were written, that is by date, is not the order
in which they're listed in the scriptures. And that's very easily
seen because Psalm 90 and 91 were written by Moses, whereas
some of the Psalms before, many of them, in fact, were written
by David. Well, that is obviously out of
chronological order if you're considering dates. But the reason,
and by the way, it's true after Psalm 91 also. The reason that
I'm persuaded the Lord has given the Psalms to us in this order,
and I don't know who put the Psalter together. I don't know
who arranged in the providence of God, and I suppose it really
doesn't matter, but whoever God used to set all of these Psalms
in the order in which we have them, They did the people of
God, they did the church of God a tremendous service. And I do
believe that God used them even as he used the translators of
the English Bible, of the King James Version. The Lord has used
men down through the ages in first of all, in writing the
word of God, because 40 different men wrote the scriptures as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit over a period of what? 1,500 years, something like that. And then God used men to put
the scriptures together. And God used men to take the
scriptures from the original languages and then put them in
the language that we can understand. And we're very thankful to God
that he did that. But as we direct our attention
to this book, the Psalms, We must not ever entertain the notion
that there is no connection between the Psalms. Now, these are not
chapters. And so it really is incorrect
to say, well, we're in Psalm chapter 91. It isn't a chapter,
this is a Psalm in and of itself, Psalm 91. But it is also a mistake to think
that this Psalm is isolated from and has no connection to the
Psalms before it or the Psalms after it. And I want to take
just a very few minutes to show you that, and I want to show
it to you with regard to Psalm 91. If you go back with my Bible,
it's just one page back, to Psalm 88 and 89. Now, these are at the very end
of book number three in the Psalms. We've talked about that. We've
talked about the five books of the Psalms. And you'll find that
Psalm 88 and Psalm 89 are at the end of book number three,
whereas Psalm 90 and Psalm 91 are at the beginning of book
number four. But I want you to look back at
Psalm 88 and look underneath where it says Psalm 88. He says,
a psalm, a song or psalm for the sons of Korah, that is to
be sung. Evidently Korah was like the
director of the musicians of the instruments and the singers
of Israel to the chief musician upon Mahalath, Leonoth, Maskal
of Heman, the Israelite. The Israelite. Ezra Haidt, I
should say. Now, maskel means instruction. So anytime you see over top of
a psalm, the word maskel, it means this is a psalm of instruction. Well, this is a psalm of instruction
written by one of the Ezra Haidts, who was a priest, he was a Levite,
that God used during the rebuilding of the temple. This man, Heman,
and he worked with Ezra. He was a priest. He would have
been an instructor of the word of God. And this was written
by him. And it says that this was a Mahaloth
Leonoth. Now that was, first of all, an
instrument that was used when music was very sad. like music such as a funeral
dirge, music that moved the emotion
to sadness. That's the literal meaning of
it, a sad, very slow song. And the literal interpretation
of that is, this is a psalm concerning afflictions and disease. That's what this psalm is about.
Psalm 88 is a psalm about afflictions and disease. That's the reason
I would give it the title, it's a psalm of sorrow. And when you
think of Sarah and you know the Lord Jesus is in every Psalm
of the book of Psalms, you remember he was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with griefs. And other than in Psalm 88, other
than the very first line, oh Lord God of my salvation, that's
the high point. The rest of the Psalm, the rest
of the Psalm, it's kind of dark. It's kind of gloomy. It's a sad
psalm. The psalmist says here, Heman
says, let my prayer come up before thee and climb thine ear to my
cry. Now look at verse three, for
my soul is full of troubles. That was true of our Lord Jesus.
Nobody's ever had troubles like the Savior did. Why, his enemies,
they hounded him from his cradle to the cross. He was rightfully
called the man of sorrows, Isaiah 53 says that, and acquainted
with grief. Why, he wept in the garden. He swept, as it were,
great drops of blood. You can hear his sorrow in his
voice upon the cross of Calvary as he bore our sins and our sorrows. He said, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? I know why these have forsaken
me, but why hast thou forsaken me? And you can hear the very
pain in his voice. He's a man of sorrows. And you
can read at your leisure, you read down through this Psalm.
It's just so much of sorrow in this, so much of sadness
in this. Look what he says in verse number
six and seven. Thou has laid me in the lowest
pit. in darkness in the deeps. Thy
wrath lies hard against me, and thou hast afflicted me with all
thy waves. Selah, wave after wave after
wave of trouble. Now this is all true of our Savior,
but listen, it's also true of the Lord's people. You see, one of the things about,
and one of the many beautiful things about the Psalms, and
here's the reason we often go to the Psalms, for comfort, for
consolation. for encouragement, for instruction,
is because these men that God used to write the Psalms, they
wrote with such honesty, led by the Spirit of God, that they
set before us all of their troubles, their difficulties, their sadness. See, the Word of God is so honest. You hear people maybe on the
television, they act like Christianity means you're just sky high every
day. You don't get that from reading
the Psalms. Now there are times of joy, bless
the name of God for that. There are times of happiness,
there are times of encouragement. There are times when we, as it
were, we see the face of our Lord Jesus Christ brightly and
we rejoice in Him, but there are other times when things are
dark in our lives. You know what I'm talking about,
because we've all been there. In fact, some of you may be there
now. The psalmist just, they speak
to experiences that we can relate to, right? We relate to them. That's the reason in times of
trouble, in times of sorrow, in times of anguish of spirit,
which book do you so often go to? The book of Psalms. Because
the experiences of these men, you can relate to them. So Psalm 88 is about a Psalm
of sorrow. It's just low. Look at verse
15. Well, verse 14, Lord, why casteth
thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from
me? Have you ever been there? He
just, it's like you, if I could just feel the presence of God,
if I just know he's there. Verse 15, I'm afflicted. I'm
ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer thy terrors, I'm
distracted, I'm faint. You ever feel faint in your soul? Verse 16, thy fierce wrath goeth
over me. Thy terrors have cut me off.
They came round about me daily like water. They compassed me
about together. You ever... Have you ever felt
like that troubles come to you wave after wave and there's just
no let up? They're like the waves of the
ocean. Yeah, they keep on rolling. And sometimes the waves go down
and you say, well, maybe I'm thankful that one's passed. And
then all of a sudden another one hits you right in the face.
That's the way life is. And even sometimes we feel forsaken. Verse 18, lover and friend hast
thou put far from me and mine acquaintances in the darkness. You see how gloomy this Psalm
is for lack of a better word. Okay, then we get Psalm 89. This was also written by another
Ezra Haidt. His name was Ethan. And Ethan and Heman, both of
these men, the writer of Psalm 88, Heman, and now Psalm 89,
Ethan, these were men who were priests, men who served the cause
of God, men who taught the scriptures. And they set before us the very
truth of God as the Holy Spirit gave them the word. Now, in Psalm
89, it starts off wonderful, and we've so often sung this
course. We love to sing the course. I
will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will
I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. And as Ethan
goes through this psalm, he speaks of the son of David. He speaks of Christ and the covenant
that God made with him. And Ethan tells us that that
covenant's not gonna fail. God has given to Christ Jesus
a seed, a generation, a group of people, and he's gonna save
them. God's gonna keep his covenant. That's what Ethan is saying.
He says forth the son of God. Look at verse, go over here to
verse 19. He says, then thou spakest in
vision to thy holy one and thou saidest, I have laid help upon
one who is mighty. Who is that? That's Christ. I've
exalted one chosen out of the people. This is the son of David. And throughout this psalm, and
for that matter, throughout most of the psalms, when it reads
David, you can just read the Lord Jesus Christ. I have found
the Lord Jesus Christ my servant. With my holy oil have I anointed
him, with whom my hands shall be established, mine arms shall
strengthen him. And it goes on and it pictures
the greatness of our Savior and the certainty of the faithfulness
of God to his covenant promises, his covenant obligations. He
will save his people. However, you get to verse 38
and Ethan uses this word and we know it's gonna be a change
of tune here. But thou has cast off and abhorred,
thou has been wroth with thine anointing. Now, Israel had for
70 years been in captivity to Babylon. Low point. Isn't it amazing, and you know
this for a fact, and I know it as well, those of us who are
the people of God, isn't it amazing that we can go from way up here,
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, but, and then it's like the bottom
just falls out. You're way up here. and all of
a sudden you just like an elevator dropping and just kind of almost
lose your stomach. You come down so fast. That's
how quick, that's how fickle we are and how quickly things
can change and how our attitude can change. And so much so, was Ethan and
the children of Israel so dejected, though God had said he's gonna
keep his covenant. Look what he says in verse 39.
Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant. I tell you what,
we can get so low in spirit, we don't even think straight.
And we know better. We know God's not gonna forsake
his covenant. God's not gonna abandon his people. The purposes of God, the promises
of God in Christ Jesus, they're sure in him, they're yay and
amen, aren't they? We know that. And yet we can
get in some awful circumstances in life. And it's almost like
And God forgive us and God help us. It's almost like we forget
everything we've learned. You know what I'm talking about,
don't you? And he goes on with this sort
of negative attitude. He even says in verse 46, how
long Lord? Will thou hide thyself forever? Shall thy wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is. I'm so feeble, I'm so weak. Wherefore
hast thou made all men in vain? Did you have any purpose in making
me, Lord? He says in verse 50, remember,
Lord, the reproach of thy servants, how I do bear in my bosom the
reproach of all the mighty people, wherewith thine enemies have
reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps
of thine anointed. Blessed be the Lord forever.
Amen and amen. We'll bless you, Lord, but our
condition is awful. And that's the end of the third
book. And then we begin the fourth
book. And it's about the eternality
of God and the brevity and the weakness of men. And it goes through, goes through
this Psalm. You read Psalm 90, the oldest,
of literature in the Bible with the exception of the book of
Job. It's certainly Psalm 90 is the oldest of the Psalms. And once again, the Psalmist
in this case, it's Moses. He speaks and I addressed this
this morning, so I won't repeat much of this, but it's toward
the end of the wilderness journeys. and he's seen the failures of
men. In fact, he's thinking, I persuaded
about his own failure because he's at the end of his life and
the Lord's gonna take him up on top of Mount Nebo and take
his life. And it's his own fault that he's
not gonna go into the land of promise. He rebelled against
God. He sinned against God. He transgressed
God. He smoked the rock twice instead
of speaking to the rock. The rock's already been smitten.
Christ died once, once. In the end of the age, he's appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And Moses just kind
of ruined the typology, ruined the picture. Won't salvation
speak to the rock? Water will come out. But of course,
there's another reason because you see, even the wrath of man's
gonna praise God. Even the sins of men will work
to fulfill God's purpose and will. Moses represents the law
and the law can't take you into the land of promise. The law
can't save you. The law can't bless you. The
law curses wherever it sees sin. So Moses who represents the law,
John chapter one, the law came by Moses, grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. So Joshua, he's the one that's
gonna lead him into the land of promise because he pictures
Christ Jesus who's full of grace and truth. And so as you get toward the
end of Psalm 90, there are a few rays of hope As you hear Moses
saying in verse 14, oh, satisfy us early with thy mercy, that
we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according
to the days wherein thou has afflicted us in the years wherein
we've seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants. Let us see your work, work of
grace, your work of salvation. Let us see that anew and afresh. Let us remember what you've done
for us. and let your glory appear to
the children, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.
Oh Lord, see us in the righteousness of Christ Jesus, and establish
thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands
establish thou it. So, that brings us then to Psalm
91. We've heard the disturbing words
of Psalm 88 and Psalm 89 and even here in Psalm 90. And as
we come to Psalm 91, remembering that the previous Psalms have
said before us sadness, trouble, trial, affliction, It leads the
people of God to ask this. Where can I find peace? Where
can I find rest for my soul? I'm surrounded by trouble. My
life is short. That's what he said there in
Psalm 89. My life is short. It's like Job
said, man that's born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. And the Holy Spirit, he puts
this Psalm right here in following 88 and 89 and 90. He puts Psalm 91 right here for
a reason. It's in the Lord, our dwelling
place. That's where we find rest. And
you're not gonna find it anywhere else. Because everywhere else
you're gonna look, it's gonna be dark and gloomy. There's gonna be death, there's
gonna be sadness, there's gonna be disappointment. Where can I find rest? Who's
gonna find rest? Who's gonna find any peace in
this world of trouble? Here we are, as it says in Psalm
90 and verse 10, the days of our years are three score and
10, if by reason of strength, they're four score, yet their
strength is labor and sorrow. It's soon cut off, we fly away. So where are we gonna find any
joy in the soul? Where are we gonna find any safety? Well, you're not going to find
it in yourself. And you're not going to find it in this world.
It's not going to be found in possessions. It's not going to
be found in obtaining something new. I'll tell you where the
peace is. I'll tell you who the peace comes
to. Those that understand and realize they dwell Verse one,
Psalm 91, they dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and they
abide under the shadow of the Almighty. That's where peace
is found. That's where rest is found. And
by the way, the Psalms that follow this, they're not gloomy. They're not gloomy. Psalm 92
is about thanksgiving to God. And then as you get on over to
Psalm 93, it's about the mighty King. And 94 and 95 and 96 and
97, and they're all about the Lord who reigns. You see, we've got to always
come back to the foundation. The foundation is we dwell in
Christ Jesus. We're in him. There's our hope. There's our peace. You're not
gonna find it anywhere else. I would say that Psalm 91, it kind of amplifies the first
verse of Psalm 90. It tells us that where our dwelling
place is. Psalm 90 verse one says, Lord,
thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. And then
in Psalm 91, he just, I'll tell you what Psalm 91 is. It's a
commentary on that verse. And really the very first verse
of Psalm 91, it's the key to understanding this whole Psalm. It's because we're joined to
Christ Jesus. We dwell in the secret place.
He's the secret place. We dwell in him. We abide under
the shadow of the almighty. The shadow? Well, I'll tell you,
a shadow, that's close. That's very close. There's a
verse, look at Psalm 121. Let me show you this. Look at
Psalm 121. And you recognize this Psalm.
Susanna sings it quite often. Look at verse five, Psalm 121,
verse five. The Lord is thy keeper, that
is, he's your guardian. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. How close of a shadow is the
Lord to you? As close as your right hand.
That close. Right there he is. Right there
he is. He's never far away. I tell you
our problem, we get encumbered with other things and then we're
just not sensitive to the fact that he's still there. But he's
always there. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. We're one with Christ Jesus. We've always been joined to him
by covenant love and covenant grace. We've been given to him
by God and we're in him according to the purpose of God. The Lord
Jesus said in his high priestly prayer, thine they were and thou
gavest them me. We were in Christ when he lived,
in Christ when he died, in Christ when he arose, in Christ when
he ascended, we're still in Christ. were in him like Noah and his
family was in the ark. The storm fell on the ark and
indirectly it fell on Noah and his family, but not one drop
of water touched them. But they went right through the
storm, right through the storm. The ark bore all of the wrath
of God. None of it fell on them. It's
because of where they were. It's because of their position.
And you see, our position is in Christ Jesus. We've always
been there and the wrath of God fell on him and doesn't touch
us. You see, he consumed the wrath
of God. You remember the, the tabernacle
in the wilderness, the brazen altar, that's the very first
piece of furniture you'd come to if you were an Israelite.
In fact, you just an ordinary Israelite other than looking,
seeing the labor before you go in the holy place, that brazen
altar, that was it, that filled your vision. That's what you
were confronted with. That brazen altar had many a
sacrifice put on top of it. But that brazen altar was never
consumed. The sacrifices were. And we read
in Hebrews chapter 13, Christ, our altar, was sacrificed for
us. And He consumed the wrath of
God, but like that brazen altar, He wasn't consumed. You see, there's one altar for
sinners, that's Christ. The altar bore the violent heat
of divine wrath, so sinners go free. We're in him, we've always been
in him. We dwell in Christ. Now, in the first two verses,
let me show you this. The writer of the book, Moses,
the writer of the psalm, rather, He furnishes us with reasons
to trust our God. Even in the midst of physical
dangers and the battles of life, and we all have our battles,
we're reminded of our safety and our protection in the Lord
Jesus. And in the first two verses,
he sets before us four pictures, as well as four names of our
Lord. Now, let me give these to you.
We've mentioned them already, but they bear mentioning again
and again. Number one, he mentions, here's
the first picture. He that dwelleth in the secret
place, the secret place. That's a holy of holies. That's within the veil. You say,
well, nobody can go back there. We stay back there. That's where
we dwell. That's our home. We dwell there perpetually. That's
our continual, uninterrupted condition, right there. That's
our state, that doesn't change. Other things may change and will
change, but not the state of God's people. We dwell, we dwell
in the secret place. The veil has been rent. I know
and you know only the high priest could go behind the veil and
then just once a year, but that veil, it was rent in twain top
to bottom. Christ did that. He opened up
the way to God. He opened up the holy of holies. And that's where we stay. Don't forget that. When affliction
comes calling, When you get those aches and pains in your body,
when Satan attacks you with some temptation, the doubt, the goodness,
and the purpose, and the providence of God, always remember this,
you dwell in the secret place. You're in Christ Jesus. Nobody
can take you out of Him. And He's not gonna put you out.
He doesn't put his children out. And then he says, here's the
second thing, the shadow of the Almighty. Isn't it amazing that the Lord
says he's a sun and a shield to us, and yet he's also the
shade and he's a shadow. You know what it's like on a
hot summer day to seek out the shade of that tree that's in
your yard maybe. You go out there and you sit
in a lawn chair. Just right over there in the
heat of the sun, man, you'll just wilt. You get under the
oak tree or something and the little breeze is blowing, you
sit there and say, boy, this feels so good. We're under the
shadow, under the shadow of the Almighty. Yes, he is a sun to
us, to warm us, to cause us to grow. The sun is necessary to
strengthen us, but not the bitter heat. No, the bitter heat won't
ever fall on us. He shelters us. He's our shade
upon our right hand. Again, the wrath of God fell
on him and he sheltered us. It's not gonna fall on us. We're
sheltered beneath the shadow of Christ Jesus. No wonder the church says in
the book of Song of Solomon, Song of Solomon chapter two and
verse three, I sat down under his shadow with great delight. It's a sweet verse. I just sat
down under his shadow with great delight. Could I give you some
advice? When those troubles come calling,
just sit down under his shadow and be delighted. The fierce
heat of God's wrath is not gonna fall on you. Let come what may
in this old world. You abide, you lodge, you dwell
under the shadow of the Almighty. You remember when Moses, and
I used this illustration not too long ago, I at least mentioned
it to you, this passage in Exodus, where Moses said to the Lord,
said, show me your glory. God said he'd show him his glory.
He said, I'll cause my goodness to pass before you and I'll be
gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll be merciful to whom I'll
be merciful. But then he said to Moses, but
you can't see my face and live. You can't stand my glory. And then God the Father said,
behold, there is a place by me. I like that. Right beside God,
there is a place. He said, there's a rock. He said,
I'm gonna put you on that rock. I'm gonna put you on a rock.
And I'm gonna put you in the cleft of the rock. You can't see my face and live.
You can't bear, in your state, you can't bear to see my glory.
But I'm gonna put you in a place of safety. I'll put you in the crevice of
this rock, wounded for the transgressions of my people. You'll be safe
there. That's a place right beside God. You know, when our Lord Jesus
went up on the Mount of Transfiguration, He was transfigured. Even His
clothes were glistering, bright, shiny, face shining as bright
as the sun. The disciples, the three favorite
disciples, Peter, James, and John, They beheld the brightness
of the Savior's glory. But they couldn't keep on. It's
an interesting thing and gives you something to think
about. Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with the Lord. By
the way, both of them called men, each one's called a man
of God, the man of God. Moses called the man of God,
Elijah's called the man of God. Both of them spoke with Christ
Jesus. Both of those men had gone to
glory, and they could bear the full sight of the glory of the
Savior, not the disciples. The Lord veiled His deity again
so that His disciples could bear to be with Him. In the state
we're in, we just can't, we can't behold the full glory of God,
except we see it in the face of Jesus Christ. That's all we
can do. We can't bear to see the fullness of it, yet. Yet. He's our lodging. He's the shade. Can't see my
face and live, I'll put you in the rock. That's where we are.
That's where we are. And then thirdly, he's my shelter. My shelter, my shelter in any
time of danger. He says this, the word is refuge. I will say of the Lord, he is
my refuge. He's my shelter. Our shelter is the Lord Jesus.
Let's flee to him for shelter. Don't forget you got shelter.
You got the shelter. From every storm of life and
from the great storm of final judgment, you got shelter. You ever been out having a picnic
or just been outside and all of a sudden the thunderclouds
start gathering and you hear lightning, you hear thunder in
the distance and then you begin to see lightning and somebody
says, you need to seek shelter. Yes, you do. I got a shelter. I've got the
shelter. in the time of storm, Christ
Jesus. He's my refuge. Here's his testimony. I will say of the Lord, he is
my refuge. He's my shelter. And he also
says, he's my fortress. He's my fort. He's my fort. Literally, he's
my stronghold. When you think about a fort,
Ah, you go back and you're thinking in the days of westerns and army. Christ is to us what those forts
were, at least symbolically. Those forts were to the soldiers
and to the inhabitants inside what Christ is to us. Those forts, they were built
with forethought. They were built with purpose.
They didn't just say, hey, we're going to throw some logs together,
we'll have a fort. No. Hey, we've got to plan this
out. Because this has got to be a
place of protection. This has got to be where the
enemy can't get in. It's gonna take some forethought.
It's gonna take some planning. Let me tell you something. We
have a fortress, Christ Jesus, strong and true. And this great
salvation that's in him, it came with planning. A lot of forethought
by him who is all wise. He determined the The Savior,
He determined who He'd save and He determined how He would save.
He determined what this fortress would be. This fort is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Salvation is the work of God.
God chose us, Christ redeemed us, the Holy Spirit, He's called
us, He's brought us effectually to the Savior. This is a fortress. We're in
a fortress. And until God's purpose can be
frustrated, until Christ's blood can be rendered useless, and
until the Spirit's work within us can be nullified, God's elect
are safe in the fortress of his salvation of Christ Jesus. We're
safe forever. And then here's, watch this. He gives four names of the Lord.
Number one, most high. Verse one again. He that dwelleth
in the secret place of the most high, the most high, none higher
than the Savior. Because of his successful work
of redemption, having finished the work that the Father gave
him to do, he's been exalted above the highest heaven. He
is the most high God. He governs all things. We commune with Him reverently
because He is the Most High God. Secondly, He's the Almighty. We rest our souls in Him who
is the Mighty God. Revelation chapter 19, when the
saints of God see Babylon sink and destroyed, all the false
religion eliminated forever. They begin to sing, hallelujah,
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He's almighty. Christ said, all
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Then told his disciples,
now you go preach the gospel. In his high priestly prayer,
he said, as thou has given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to his men as thou has given him. So
we fellowship with him reverently, for he is the most high, and
we rest all of our spiritual concerns and all of our physical
concerns also in him, for he's the almighty one. He's mighty
to save. Thirdly, he's the Lord. It says in verse two, I will
say of the Lord, all caps, I will say of Jehovah my savior. We
rejoice in him in whom we find salvation. And then fourthly, my God, my
God. He's my God, he's Elohim. He
created me and he sustains me. He created me physically and
he created me in Christ Jesus. He created me spiritually. My
God in him will I trust. He's my God. I love the book
of Ruth, you do too. I know you do. You've heard the
book of Ruth preached many times from this very pulpit. First
time I ever heard it preached on Brother Mahan preached on
him. I heard him preach on it several
times and I've preached on it several times. But I think of
the words of Ruth to Naomi. You remember the story, I'll
give it to you briefly. Elimelech and his wife, Naomi,
they lived in Bethlehem, Judah. There came a famine in the land
and Elimelech, very foolishly, he decided to uproot him and
his wife and his two sons and go into the land of Moab. He
thought things would be better over there. And so they went,
and then it wasn't long after they got there before Elimelech
died, leaving Naomi a widow. Well, then her two sons, they
got married, one to Orpah, and the other one was Ruth. Both
of them were Moabite women. And then Naomi's two sons died,
leaving her daughters-in-law as widows also. And then Naomi
heard that the Lord had blessed Bethlehem and things were flourishing
again. And she got her two daughters-in-law
together, Orpah and Ruth. Now, I'm going back to Bethlehem,
Judah, and y'all, you've been wonderful daughters-in-law to
me. You've loved me, you've took care of me, and I appreciate
that. But I'm leaving, y'all go back to your families. And
both of them said, no, we don't wanna go. And she just insisted. She said, no, you need to go
back to your families. I'm broke. I don't have anything. Don't know what I'm going to
run into when I get back to Bethlehem. And y'all just go back to your
families. And she hugged and kissed them,
and orpa left. But Ruth said, I'm not leaving. And Naomi said, now, Ruth, I
appreciate you. and I love you, but behold your
sister-in-law, she's gone back to her people and her gods."
That's what she said. She's gone back to her people
and her gods, Orpahan. Now, you go back to your family
too. And Ruth said, she said, entreat
me not to leave thee. or to return from following after
thee. For whither thou goest, I will
go. And where thou lodgest, I will
lodge. Thy people shall be my people. Thy God shall be, or thy God
shall be my God. My God. Your God is my God. I'm not going back to my old
gods. Your God is my God. Where can we find peace in this
world? Where can we find rest? Where
can I find rest? Where can I find peace? Where
can I find a consolation in my God? In Him I will trust. Nobody else is qualified to have
my undivided confidence except my God in Christ Jesus. Oh, hear
the word of God. They must be safe who have Christ
Jesus for their keeper. For you see, he or she that the Lord Jesus has taken
under his care is perfectly safe under his protection. Would you hang with me just a
couple of more minutes? I got something else I wanna
show you here. Just one more thing. Let me tell
you something. Christianity, true Christianity,
I'm not talking about, liberal Christianity and there's a lot
of false religion goes under the big, broad, wide umbrella
of Christianity. I'm talking about real Christianity.
I'm talking about salvation in Christ Jesus. It's a very personal matter. Very personal. Have you ever
noticed how many personal pronouns are used with regard to the people
of God in the Bible? Just in the Psalms. In fact,
I took my concordance. If you've got a concordance,
do this. Now you're gonna be reading lots of verses. Just
look up the word, my. And After I got to seeing how
many times it's used in the Bible, I just looked it up in the Psalms.
Well, it's way too many verses to read them all to you, but
the Psalmist, no matter who the writer is, David, Solomon, Moses,
Heman, Ethan, they're all making personal references to the Lord. The Lord is my shepherd. And let me give you two, three
verses here to leave with you. Psalm 18. Psalm 18. I figure I can get by with preaching
a little bit longer this way because other than the five folks
who are here in the auditorium who are seated in relatively
comfortable pews, the rest of you are seated on your sofa or
your rocking chair, your easy chair. So I figure you're pretty
comfortable. So just hang with me just a little bit longer.
Watch this, here's the state, here's the condition of the people
of God, and it shows you just how personal this relationship
is between us and the Lord. Are you there? Psalm 18. I will
love the Lord, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. I'm just looking for the word
my before each of these words. The Lord is, my rock, and my
fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will
trust, my buckler, that means my defense, my shield, and the
horn of my salvation, and my high tower. In verse six, he's
called my God. And then just for the sake of
time, go all the way over to verse 46. The Lord liveth, verse
46, and blessed be my rock and let the God of my salvation be
exalted. Whose salvation is it? It's mine
by gift. This is personal. It's personal. He's my God. I'm gonna trust
him. I hope that'll help you. Hope
he'll give you some sheep food, last you till we meet again Wednesday
night. Let's close in prayer. Father,
bless the word of the gospel that's gone forth and encourage
your dear people. You're my refuge. You're my strength. You're my
shelter. You're my habitation. You're
my dwelling place. You're my rest. You're my all
in all. You're mine. And this salvation
that you purpose for me, I'll just boldly say, like David said
in the Scriptures, It's my salvation. You gave it to me. I'm so thankful. I'll bless you while I live on
this earth and look forward to blessing you forever and ever. For Jesus' sake, amen.