I'm sorry. a a a a a a a a a It's good to speak to you again today and
we hope that each of you are well and we look forward in the
near future to meeting together again here in the building maybe
two or three weeks from now as the governor makes his decisions
and It will be wonderful to gather together as a people of God again. Hope you're getting your bulletins,
by the way, in the mail or email. And I was speaking with a fellow
pastor yesterday, and he said that he wasn't making a bulletin,
these days," and he said, it takes a little bit of the workload
off. I said, well, I'm still making
a bulletin each Lord's Day, or for each Lord's Day. I think
it's good for you to read the articles that we put. They are
beneficial to you, I hope, spiritually. honoring to our God. And so I'm thankful to be able
to still put out a bulletin. And of course, I still put one
of our songs in the bulletin. And if you have your bulletin,
no, we're not going to sing together. But if you do have your bulletin,
you might want to, in just a couple of minutes, be reading the song
that I wrote because Suzanne was going to, she read this,
I wrote this last Monday, and she read it and she said, I think
I'll sing that for my special. And then she decided she was
going to put it to a different tune, and that meant that I needed
to write four more lines. which I did for her, which are
not in the bulletin. But when we meet together again,
I'll even put those four lines in and we'll put this song back
in because I've already had some comments that the song itself
was a blessing to people and that's what we want. I want to
edify you and teach you and indeed encourage you and things of our
God. She'll read or she'll be singing
after I read some scripture out of Psalm 34 and after we see
God's face in prayer. Psalm 34. You know, as you read through
the Psalms, you'll find that whoever the writer happened to
be, whether it was David or Moses or Solomon or one of the Hemanites
or whoever, They were always honoring God, of course, and
magnifying his name. I was just looking through the
Psalms this morning and reading, it talks about the greatness
of God. God is great and greatly to be
feared. That's Psalm 48. God is merciful. Psalm 103. God is gracious, Psalm
111. God is righteous, Psalm 129. The Psalmist are always exalting
God. And there are three or four times
in the Psalms where we read that the Lord is good. He's good to all of his creatures.
His goodness is manifested every day. My, you look at the dogwood
trees blooming, the redbuds, azaleas. That's good, isn't it? It's good. It's beautiful. It's
a blessing to us to see the magnificence of God's creation. But he is
especially good in grace. And he's good to you. And he's
good to me. Since God is good, and He only
is good, nothing that is not good can possibly come forth
from Him. Everything is good. I know it's
an inconvenience to us, and many people are sick. due to the virus
and other sicknesses as well. We certainly keep those things
in mind also. But I tell you, as far as God's
people are concerned, everything is good. Everything is good. I like what Brother Scott Richardson
said many years ago. He said, I've not heard any bad
news ever since I heard the good news. and the good news of salvation
of God's people through the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's the good news. It's good news that it's finished,
and so there is no bad news. I have only good news for the
people of God, and we begin this way. God is good. The Lord is good. And with that
in mind, I'll just read a few verses here in Psalm 34, and
I'll begin in verse 8. The Psalm says, O taste and see
that Jehovah, that is God our Savior, the Lord Jesus, is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want, there is no lack to them that fear him. And then he says, the young lions
do lack and they suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want, they shall not lack any. good thing. Our God is good. It's a wonderful
way to begin the service today by remembering the goodness of
our God. Let's bow our heads together. It is with thanksgiving, our
Father, that we come to you this morning and indeed as we have
referenced a few verses, Lord, you're great, you're gracious,
you're merciful, you're good. And there's a general goodness
to all of your creation. And we're so thankful for the
temporal good that is being carried on throughout all this world.
But we also understand there's the spiritual good that you're
working for your people, because all things work together for
good, not for bad, but for good to them who love
you, to them that you have drawn by your grace to Christ Jesus. And Lord, let us look through
the eyes of, not the flesh, not the eyes of the world, but let
us look through spiritual eyes and see that everything is good
coming forth from the hands of that one who only is good, even
our God. We thank you for your tender
mercies and for your faithfulness. And Lord, we say like the prophet
Jeremiah, we thank you for your great compassion and your faithfulness,
your mercies which fail not. Every day is filled with new
mercies from God. And we count the temporal mercies
to be wonderful, precious. Lord, we thank you for our families,
and we know that due to the current circumstances, there's been less
interaction, at least being in the immediate presence of our
families, and we miss that. But we're thankful for the love
and the union, the joy of families, the fellowship especially we
share with the family of God. Lord, we're thankful for our
brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, and the who we find ourselves
once again today in your providence to be separated from one another,
yet, we're together in Christ Jesus. For we are one family,
one body of believers, and we have one Lord, and there's one
faith, one gospel, and we have one goal, to honor
and worship you again today. As we think about the things
for which we're thankful, indeed, all others are subservient to
our thanksgiving for Christ Jesus. We thank you, O Lord, for the
son of your bosom, that mighty Savior, the everlasting
God who took union with our flesh, and as the God-man, he laid down
his life in order to save the people of his everlasting covenant
love. We thank you for that great work
of redemption whereby he successfully put away the sins of your people
and he justified us. And as we view the work of Christ
upon the cross of Calvary, we learn the answer to the age old
question of how can God be just and justify the ungodly? And he who gave his life, he
took it again. He ever lives and he represents
us in heaven. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. So Lord, we have everything for
which to be thankful. Forgive us when we have doubts
and fears and unbelief kind of clouds our judgment. Lord, all
things are good. We abide in Christ Jesus. and He abides with us. What more could we ever ask for? And we go through this journey
of life, being born upon the shoulders and in the arms of
our Savior, who will, at your own determination, who will take
us on home to be with Him forever in glory. Yes, indeed. The Lord is good. Bless us as we go through this
worship service. And these folks who are watching,
Lord, we're thankful for each one of them. The ones, the few
here in the building, and those who are entering into this worship
service by way of the internet. Lord, you know our needs, you
know our any fears that we might have, and I pray that you'd give
us faith to believe the Lord Jesus more fully. So magnify
yourself and bless us as we gather together this day these things
we ask for Christ's sake, amen. you ? Every sinner saved by grace ?
Who dwells within the holy place ? You shall abide beneath the
wings ? Of Yehud's praise the angels sing ? The Lord most high, our refuge
is ? The peace is ours, the shelter is ? Our trust is in the Lord
alone ? Who is the church's cornerstone Exalted ? Upon his throne ? Christ
reigns in glory all his own ? All through the day and through each
night ? Our savior reigns with sovereign might ? Upon our Lord's omnipotence ?
He rules the world with prudent skill ? All things obey our Savior's
will ? Be still ye and do not fear the things he
sent. All things for good will work
for you, for Christ the Lord will bring you through. Soon each of us will breathe
our last, and life's short journey will be past. The Savior's face we then shall
see, ? And praise his name eternally
? Well, I hope that was a blessing
to you. It indeed was to me. I enjoyed writing the lyrics
of that, and it was good to hear Susanna sing that for us. Psalm 91. This morning, if you'd go to
Psalm 91, a subject is Moses and his testimony. Moses and
his testimony. It seems to be prevalent opinion
that Moses wrote both Psalm 90 and 91 at the end of the wilderness
journeys. Forty years of going through the wilderness,
not in a direct line. They could have made it much,
much faster, but they had to wander about in the wilderness
due to the unbelief of the people. The ten spies who came back,
ten of the twelve came back and gave a report that there was
no way that they could enter into the land of promise and
God therefore He brought about these 40 years
of journeys or wandering due to, because of the 40 days that
the spies were investigating and spying out the land of Israel. The people, through those years,
Moses beheld them. He saw the doubts of the people. He heard their expressions of
unbelief. He witnessed their fears. He
observed their idolatries. Many of them committed blasphemy. And there were a multitude of,
well, funerals through the journey. You think of the thousands upon
thousands of people who passed away, who died. We read right
at the end of Hebrews, the second chapter, I believe, the third
chapter it is, I think. that they couldn't enter in because
of unbelief. People died in the wilderness
under the judgment of God. You think of all the funerals. I suppose they had funerals every
day nearly, and perhaps attended to by the elders of the various
tribes of Israel. And Moses beheld all of this
as the servant of God, as the man of God. He saw all of this
discontent among many of the people, but he also witnessed
that there were some of the people who were genuinely the people
of God. They knew God. They believed
him. Yes, many of them, many of them
died a death of unbelief. But there were people who found
their hope in Jehovah. and the sacrifices in which they
were instructed as God gave to Moses the necessity of the offerings
and all of the things pertaining to the building of the tabernacle.
They heard these things, they witnessed the making of the tabernacle,
the burnt offerings that were offered to God there at the altar. They believed, they looked ahead
to Christ Jesus. They weren't faithless. Oh, they
had their seasons of doubt, but deep down within, they believed
God. They believed Christ Jesus. They
look back with thanksgiving to the Lord, delivering them out
of the land of Egypt. And they trusted him to take
them all the way to that land that he had given promise to
Abraham some 400 years before this. that his seed would inhabit
the land. During these 40 years, Moses
beheld the provision of God, the goodness of God, the faithfulness
of God. When they were hungry, God gave
them food. When they were thirsty, God gave
them water. They were out in the desert,
they were out in the wilderness, They weren't burnt by the sun
because the Lord was to them a cloud by day. The fierce burning rays of the
sunshine, they didn't feel that. They were always in the shadow
of God. They dwelt in the shade. And
every day to them was, to those who believed him now, was a day
of realization that the Lord was with them. Every step of
the way. Yes, theirs was a winding journey
through the wilderness, just like your life and my life is
a winding journey through this wilderness of life. But we always have this blessed
assurance the Lord is with us and He's directing our paths.
And it may seem to you and me that... You know, our life, does
it have any rhyme or reason at all? And sometimes it seems like
that to us, but the answer is, yes, it does, because God is
governing all things, and God is directing each of his children
to the goal that he himself purposed before he made the world. And
the goal is to be with Christ and like Christ. We're predestinated
to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. And so that's
the goal. That's the goal. And God brings
his people by different routes, as it were, guiding us on different
pathways to get to that goal. Now, I know there's one way to
God. There's no question about that. Christ is the way. He said
to Thomas and to the rest of his disciples, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So make no mistake about that. He's the narrow way. He's the
narrow gate to God. Christ in him crucified. But
as we go to God, he is the goal to get to God. He's bringing
us to God. He's bringing us home to God.
Along the way, we all travel a different pathway. And Moses, as he beheld the children
of Israel, he just saw the unbelief of men,
but he also witnessed the faithfulness of God. How that God is always
true to his word, He's always faithful to his promises. It is interesting the way that
this man Moses is introduced to us. Psalm 90 and 91, as I've
said, most likely were written right toward the end of the wilderness
journeys about the time that Moses wrote Deuteronomy 32 and
33, and if there's any doubt in your mind as to whether Moses
is the inspired author of this, I think if you would read as
I have read Deuteronomy 32 and 33, we'll remove all doubt that
Moses is the writer of it. He's right at the end of his
life's journey. He's not going to be able to
go into the physical land of promise because of his rebellious
action against God. But he has witnessed the goodness
of God, this man. He's witnessed the tenderness
of God. how that when people bellyached
about conditions, God gave them daily provisions. And he's introduced to us underneath
Psalm 90 in little bitty print. It says that this is a prayer
of Moses, Psalm 90 is, and then he's the man of God. So here
are two things we know about Moses right from the beginning.
Number one, he's a man of prayer. And number two, he's a man of
God. You know the story of Moses of
his birth and so I'll not delve back into that other than to
remind you of the meaning of his name. His name means one
who is drawn out. because you remember back in
the beginning of Exodus how his mother put him in an ark of bulrushes. And then Pharaoh's daughter,
at just the right time, according to God's timetable, she came
down, Miriam, Moses' sister, was watching. And there, Amram
and Jochebed, Moses' parents, had put Moses in this ark of
bulrushes, lying within, without, with pitch. That picture's atonement. That picture's a covering. He
had a perfect cover. He's in a very safe place. That
teaches us of the safety we have in Christ Jesus and his atonement. Well, Pharaoh's daughter came
down and she found him among the rushes, the bulrushes of
the river. And she picked him out, she drew
him out. Moses means drawn out of, drawn
out of. And isn't that the way it is
with all of God's people? We've been drawn out of, we've
been drawn to God by Christ Jesus. In fact, we read in John chapter
six, no man, Christ said, can come to me except the father
which is sent me. Do what? Draw him. And I'll raise
him up at the last day. What is effectual grace? It's
the drawing of a sinner to Christ Jesus and ultimately drawing
us to God. We wandered off. We ran from
God in our father and mother, Adam. We ran from God. If we're gonna come back to God
and enjoy God forever and be with him, the Lord himself must
make bare his mighty arm of grace and draw us. And he draws us
out of the world. He draws us out of the world. and he draws us unto himself.
He even said that in John chapter 17 in his high priestly prayer. He said concerning those that
the father has given to him, he said, the ones that you gave
me out of the world, thine they were, and thou hast given them
unto me. Isn't it a wonderful thought
that you've been drawn to Christ, drawn to God, drawn by the Holy
Spirit, drawn out of the world. We were with the world, headed
with the ideas of the world, the beliefs of the world, with
the world's opposition against God, but God did something for
us. That's grace, my friend. God
came to us in our hour of need. And he drew us with mighty, mighty
grace. Grace is not weak, grace is almighty. Grace is powerful to accomplish
God's eternal purpose. So, boy, we could just camp right
here at Moses' name and stay, but we'll have to move on. But
his name means drawn out of. That's a sweet meaning. And there
are two things that are told us about Moses. First of all,
he's a man of prayer. Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses,
a prayer of Moses. Well, and so I got my concordance
and I go back in my concordance to see if I could discover Moses'
very first prayer that's recorded. And it is recorded in Exodus
chapter 33. Israel had sinned against God. At their insistence, Aaron had
fashioned a golden calf while Moses was up in the mountain
receiving the law of God and Joshua was with him. And you
know all of that story. And finally Moses, Joshua said,
there's a part, there's a war going on. And Moses said, no,
it's the sound of a festival. That's the sound of joy. And
went back down and the people were dancing around the golden
calf. And of course, Moses very upset through the tablets of
stone down the law of God, the law that God had written. with
his finger upon two tablets of stone, broke that which was indicative
of the actions of the Israelites, they had already broken that.
For the law ever came down to them, they had broken that law.
Thou shall have no other gods before me, before the law even
got down the mountain, they had broken that law. And that's you
and me, that's the reason that the law can't save us. what things
whoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. They were guilty and Moses came
down and he had a holy anger of vengeance. He's upset and
rightly so because of the idolatry of the people. And he ground
the idols to pieces. He put the pieces in water, make
the people drink it. And then he had the Levites.
He said, who's on the Lord's side? The Levites stepped over.
He said, put your swords on. And they killed 3,000 men that
day. And then God, at least in Moses'
mind, he thought God's gonna kill a whole bunch of them. The next day, Moses told the
people, he said, you folks stay here. I'm gonna paraphrase now.
You folks stay here. I'm gonna go off for a sacrifice,
and then I'm gonna beseech God on your behalf. And he did that. You see here, if you're gonna
make intercession, If you're gonna enter into the presence
of God, it's the very first thing you gotta have, a sacrifice.
That's the very first thing Moses did. He said, I'm gonna offer
an offering to God and I'm gonna pray for you. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sins. There's no use asking
God for forgiveness of sins to spare people when there's no
blood, when there's no death for sin. So he offered the sacrifice
and then he besought God for his mercy. He said, oh, these people have
sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if
thou wilt forgive their sin, if not blot me, I pray thee. First time the word's mentioned,
I pray thee. The very first time it's mentioned,
was with respect to substitution. If not, if you're not gonna forgive
them, kill me. Blot me out of the book which
thou hast written. Take me out of the land of the
living. That's what he said. If you won't
forgive them, if you're not gonna spare them, Lord, kill me. Don't
kill them, kill me. You can see a picture of Christ
Jesus there, can't you? Lord, take my life and let them
live. It's a picture of substitution
and satisfaction. Death for sin. Moses prayed for
the people. He's a man who sought God's face
in prayer. And you know, it's one of the
things that is true of all of God's people. We pray. The scripture says, the Lord
said to Ananias, after he had dealt with Saul of Tarsus, he
said, you go and meet with this man Saul of Tarsus in Damascus. For behold, be amazed, be astounded."
It's going to astound you Ananias, but he prayeth. He's a Jew, he's
raised at the He was instructed at the feet
of Gamaliel. He'd been a man of prayer all
his life. Those were just religious words
that he recited, that he spoke. He didn't pray. He didn't really
pray, honestly pray, until he met the one through whom he could
pray and draw near to God, Christ Jesus. Before that, Saul of Tarsus
thought he could draw near to God. He could pray on the basis
of his own merits. Man's fooled to think that way.
He came to God through Christ Jesus. He prayed. It's one of the things true of
everybody that God has drawn out of the world and drawn to
himself. We pray. We pray. Our prayers consist of exaltation
to God, as this one does. And I'll just give you kind of
what your appetite for. You read Psalm 90 later on, but
notice how he begins this prayer. He says, Lord, he didn't start with saying,
bless us. and make us to be a better people and provide for us abundantly? No, it didn't start with them. I wish we wouldn't start our
prayers that way. He starts with the Lord, thou
has been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains
were brought forth or ever thou has formed the earth and the
world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. He started off by blessing God.
And then he presents the situation of the people of Israel to the
Lord. He gave himself to prayer. Our
Lord Jesus and Moses typified our Lord Jesus in many ways.
He was a man given to prayer. On many occasions, it's noted
in the four gospel narratives that Jesus went and prayed. And
we have his high priestly prayer in John chapter 17. But here's
the second thing about Moses. He was a man of God. That's very important. This is
a prayer of Moses a man of God, a man of God. About 76, there are 76 usages
of this expression, the man of God in the Bible. 74 of them
in the Old Testament, two of them in the New Testament. The
man or a man of God, a man of God is used 10 times. The man
of God is used 76 times. Now, we know that all of God's
elect are his children. We predestinate unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ unto himself. All of God's people
are the sons and daughters of God. We are the family of God. We're his little ones. We're
his children. But I do not find that the words
a man of God or the man of God are ever used of anyone except
preachers of the gospel. The two times it's used in the
New Testament, the reference is to a young man by the name
of Timothy. He was a man of God. In the book
of Judges, this is interesting if you want to read this at your
leisure, in Judges chapter 13, when the angel of the Lord, and
I believe that's Christ, there's no question about it, it's Christ
in pre-incarnate form, when he came and appeared to Manoah's
wife and told her that she was gonna have a baby, His name,
he would be great. His name would be Samson. He'd
be a judge in Israel. And then Manoah, her husband
came back and she told him about the appearance of the angel of
the Lord. And when Manoah began to speak about this, he spoke
of this unusual, this unusual person or angel or whoever he
was in Manoah's mind. He referred to him as the man
of God. And he asked the man of God,
he said, what is your name? And the man of God said, my name
is secret. If you look up that word, it
means my name is wonderful. My name is incomprehensible. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about Christ Jesus. Because in that same chapter
there in the book of Judges, this messenger of God, this angel
of the covenant, the man of God identified himself as being,
I am. I am. That's the same way he identified
himself to Moses back in the book of Exodus at the burning
bush. I am that I am. I'm the one that
sent you. That's how he identified himself
to the Jews. Before Abraham was, I am. And then just to remove all doubt
as to his identity when Manoah, had a worship service and he
put some rocks together and then he offered a sacrifice and the
fire began to roar and he put this animal up on top of it and
the smoke began to send up to God. as if saying we're sinful
people and we need a redeemer, we need a savior, we need a substitute
to do something about our sinfulness, this man of God, this one whose
name is secret, this I am, the angel of the covenant, he stepped
up into the fire. And in that fire, he arose up,
he ascended, and went back to glory. Our Lord Jesus is the
man of God. The man who is God. What was it about Jesus that
so unnerved the Jews and drove them to madness? Was it not the
fact that he being a man said he was God? They accused him
of blasphemy. Well, this is an issue of all
issues. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? He's the man of God. He's the
man who is God. When our Lord Jesus stood before
Pilate, he said, I find no fault with this man. A little bit later, his wife
had a dream and she sent a messenger to her husband and she said she
spoke of Jesus of Nazareth in a higher manner, with more dignity,
with a more dignified way than did her husband Pilate. She said,
have nothing to do with this just man. This just man, this
righteous man, she recognized he's a man above all the men.
Pilate said he's a faultless man. She said he's a just man. But I'll tell you that centurion,
He went even further after the death of our Lord Jesus, that
centurion witnessed and felt the earthquaking and the rocks
being rent and the graves bursting open. He said, truly this man
was the Son of God. He's the God man. He's the God
man. So Moses, one drawn up out of,
he was a man of prayer, as was our Savior. And he was a man
of God, as was our Savior. Now there's the man. What about
his testimony? In examining his testimony, we
go back, of course, to Psalm 91, one and two. Here's the beginning
of his testimony. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. Now this is his testimony. And
then he really makes it personal. I will say of the Lord, this
is his testimony. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Let them always be ready with
an answer. What have you got to say about
the Lord? And here's the testimony of Moses. I will say of the Lord. Well, Moses, I'm listening. What
do you have to say of the Lord? He is my refuge. He is my fortress. He is my God. And here's my testimony. I trust in him. I trust in him. He says, he that dwelleth in
the secret place. The secret place is Christ Jesus.
We've learned that. Like in the Holy of Holies, we
dwell where God dwells. What is the safety of the people
of God? Here all around us, there's sickness. Evidently things are not as bad
as they anticipated things being. We've tried to be good citizens.
We've tried to be obedient to those who have the authority
over us. We've exercised social distancing and we cover our faces
with masks and all of these things. Who is it who's been providing
for us and who's been watching over us through all of this?
It's the Lord himself. He is our secret place. Our safety
is in him. He is our home. Now remember,
Moses was writing to people, originally, who had no earthly
dwelling place. He wrote to people who lived
not in houses, but in tents. And they didn't get a surveyor
to survey whatever little piece of ground that they put their
tent up on. Wasn't any need for that. They
weren't going to stay there long. And on this earth, they had no
permanent dwelling place and their condition physically was
not so good in the desert. And just like
us, and Moses is writing not only for them, but writing for
us, it's like our physical condition, sometimes it's okay, sometimes
it's not okay. As we view things, ours is a
physical condition that fluctuates, it's subject to change. The changes, of course, are according
to the purpose of God, brought about by his purpose, but still,
our condition physically, it changes. Think of the physical condition
just a few weeks ago. We met together. Perhaps we had
grown accustomed to it, and maybe it became a habit to us. Maybe
we took it for granted. I'm sure to a degree we did.
Things sure have changed, haven't they? But I like what the hymn
writer, what was his name? Henry Light. He wrote, he was
a Church of England preacher, and he wrote, Abide with me,
change and decay, and all around I see, O thou that changest not,
abide with me. Here we have no permanent dwelling
place, not physically, And you'll notice that even at
the beginning of Psalm 90, as in Psalm 91, it doesn't say that
the Lord had provided wonderful houses for his people to dwell
in while traveling through this world. We may have comfortable
houses or we may not. He hasn't made that promise to
any of his people, but here is what he has said. We dwell in
the secret place. We have a permanent home. This
world is not our home, but God is. Our Savior is our permanent
dwelling place. Our physical condition, yes,
it fluctuates, it changes almost with the tides. But as far as
our spiritual condition, we dwell perpetually in the secret place
of the Most High. No wonder he goes on to say,
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge. He is my shelter. He is my hiding place. He is
the dwelling place of all of His people. You see, to all of
the Lord's children, this self-existent God, this One who is God our
Savior, He stands as our home instead of mansion or palace. And it makes no difference what
kind of house you live in in this world. That is not your
house. You will leave it behind. But
your true dwelling place is your dwelling place, your home forever. He shelters his people. He's
our home. As far as your earthly house
is concerned, you expect that to provide comfort for you, protection
for you, to preserve you, keep you safe
from the elements. You lock your doors at your house
so that the enemy can't come in. We see all of those things are
true in a spiritual sense to the people of God. We're locked
into Christ Jesus. Let me tell you how secure you
are. Let me tell you how safe you are. I'm talking about people
who believe in, people who trust the Lord Jesus. Let me tell you
how sheltered you are and how safe you are. And this will give
you something. If you can remember this, and
if I can remember this, we can feed on this from now on. I am
in Christ Jesus. God put me in Christ Jesus, my
dwelling place, before the world ever began. He is my dwelling
place. He's that secret place in which
I dwell. I abide under the shadow, under
the shade of the Almighty Christ. I dwell there. I'm safe there. I dwell in Him. Here's the other
thing. He dwells in me. That's what
Paul said, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, let me ask
you a question. If you dwell in Christ Jesus,
and Christ Jesus dwells in you, Isn't that a union that is forever? And doesn't that mean that you
are not relatively safe, but you are very securely safe, perpetually
safe. And He has set around you the
bulwarks of salvation, the walls of salvation surround you. This is the testimony of Moses. We dwell in the secret place. We're safe. Where are we? We're
in Christ Jesus. Well, where is Christ Jesus?
Well, I know He's on His throne, certainly ruling and reigning,
but He's also in us by His Spirit. If you're in Him and He's in
you, if I'm in Him and He's in me, I'd say we're pretty safe,
wouldn't you? I'd say that nothing can harm
you. No wonder the Savior spoke to
his sheep. And he said there in John chapter
10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me
and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Well, how can we perish? We're
in a hymn. and he's in us. Will Satan tempt us? Yes. But can he destroy us? No. Why not? We're in Christ. Christ is in us. Psalm 32 verse
seven, thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. And then he has that musical
notation that is written out for us, Selah. Oh, give great
consideration to this. I know heaven is our home, and
someday we shall dwell in that glorious land, but we need to
understand that even right now, we dwell in the secret place
of the Most High. And we abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. And that last phrase of verse
1, abide under the shadow of the Almighty, one writer says
it means we pass through the night, we pass through the night
underneath the sheltering arms of the Lord our God. He is the one in whom we're safe
and by whom we're protected from all destructions that shall come
upon this world. Yes, we are pilgrims and strangers
as we journey through this world, but we are not without a home. The Lord is our home. I'm at
home in God. Home is where you're loved. Home
is where you're happy. Home is where you're contented.
Why, we even say, there's no place like home. You've got that
right. That is especially true in the
spiritual sense. There is no place like home.
There's no place like dwelling in Christ. Abiding in Him. You see, with a child of God,
he may be robbed of life. She may be robbed of liberty. We may be robbed of money. You might take away from us our
wellbeing, our property, our houses, and our friends. You may take away from us all
earthly possessions, but you cannot rob a child of God of
his home. Because the Lord is his dwelling
place. The Lord is our dwelling place. It's a changing world. Everything
about us is continually moving and being altered and passing
away, but we have a home that doesn't change. The Lord is our
dwelling place. This is the testimony of Moses.
It's what he has to say. And he isn't just saying this
to people back hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years ago, writing
to the children of Israel, he's writing to the true people of
God for today. He has a message for today. In the midst of all the decay,
in the midst of all the change, we have a dwelling place, the
dwelling place, the secret dwelling place. of the Most High. And we pass through the night
under the shadow of the Almighty. And I know it's a trying and
a disappointing world. All of us, all of the people
of God, know something about the trials and tribulations of
life. Trials with children, Trials
with disease, trials with age, trials with money, trials with
well-being, physical well-being, that is. There are lots of them. Somebody said, our trials, you
might as well name them Legion, for there are many. What's the
name of that evil spirit? He said, my name is Legion, for
we're many. That's kind of the way it is
with the trials of the Lord's people, Legion. It's a world
full of trial and disappointment, but it's not our home. But in
the midst of all that's going on, we have the home of homes,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and it's a dying world. Death
is all about us, and death is at work within us. But we have a home, we have a
dwelling place that death can't touch. Because when this body dies,
the soul is still at home in God. He's still my dwelling place.
Oh, my soul may change residences, it may change locations from
here to there, but I'll have the same home. We used to sing a silly chorus,
I've got a home in glory land that outshines the sun. Let me
tell you something, I've got a home down here. And he's my dwelling place. It's
the secret dwelling place of the people of God. It's where
we abide. It's where we pass through the
night. It's where we lodge under the shadow of the Almighty.
That's the testimony of Moses. Here's a man of God. Here's a
man who's drawn out of. Here's a man who prayed. Here's
a man who had this, written of him in the word of God. He's
the man of God. He's a preacher of the gospel.
Our Lord told the Jews, they said, oh, we love Moses. They
esteem Moses very highly. He said, if you believe Moses,
you'd believe me, because Moses wrote to me. He's a man of God. Every man of God writes of and
preaches Christ Jesus. Why we even speak of preachers
today is, we say he's a man of God. Well, if he's a man of God,
He's been sent by God, he's been equipped by God, he's been taught
by God with God's message. And the man of God comes through
with a testimony. His testimony is very, very simple. Those who believe Christ Jesus,
we dwell in him. And that's where our safety is.
and you get to looking around you at the circumstances and
so forth, you focus on those things, you're gonna lose some
peace. But you know what? You'll still
be in the home. In the home, the home, the dwelling
place of God. And no matter what you do, it
grieves us. Our sins grieve us. Mine grieve
me. Don't your sins grieve you? I
know they do. And you weep over them. Oh, God,
help me to live honorably for you. But when we'd sin, and we
know we do, we never kicked out of our home, because our home
is Christ Jesus. And in him, we're forgiven of
all sin. And in him, through his death,
we're made the righteousness of God in him. Let's bow our heads. Thank you,
Father, for the privilege to open the Word of God and once
again set forth our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the dwelling place
of your people. Indeed, we do pass through the
night, through the night of life, with all of the fears outside,
with all of the troubles without, yet we're in the dwelling place,
the secret dwelling place of our Lord Jesus Christ, of our
God. We pass through the night under
the shadow of the Almighty. Lord, calm the fears. Give us
sweet peace. a peace that passes understanding
as we know that we dwell safely in our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless
your dear people. Glorify yourself. For Christ's
sake I pray. Amen.