you so so It's good to be back in the worship
service this morning. And we're thankful that you can
be with us by way of the internet. And we're thankful to God for
this means that we have to get the word of God out. If you have
your Bible, go to the book of 1 Kings 8. And I've asked Ron to read a
portion of this. This is Solomon's prayer of dedication
after the temple had been built. And so he's going to read for
us, beginning in verse 22, and he'll lead us in prayer. And then Suzanne is going to
sing for us, and then I'll have the message for you once again
from Psalm 91. Okay, Ron. 1 Kings chapter 8, beginning
with verse 22 through 30. And Solomon stood before the
altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel.
and spread forth his hands toward heaven. And he said, Lord God
of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven above or on earth
beneath, who keepeth covenant and mercy with thy servants that
walk before thee with all their heart, who has kept with thy
servant David my father that thou promised him. Thou spakest
also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand.
as it is this day. Therefore now, Lord God of Israel,
keep with thy servant David my father, that thou promise him,
saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit
on the throne of Israel. So that thy children take heed
to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked
before me. And now, O God of Israel, let
thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant
David my father. But will God indeed dwell on
the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot
contain thee, how much less this house that I have builted. Yet
have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication,
O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which
thy servant prayeth before thee today. that thine eyes may be
opened toward this house night and day, even toward the place
of which thou hast said, my name shall be there, that thou mayest
hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward
this place. And hearken thou to the supplication
of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray
toward this place, and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place,
and when thou hearest, forgive. Lord, we, your people, whether
in this room or watching by the means you have provided, we gather
in the name of your Son today to hear once again of our Lord
and our Savior and that great work of salvation that he performed
on behalf of his people before you. It was a transaction that
had been made in eternity past and was fulfilled as he hung
on a cross one day. suffering and bleeding and dying,
taking the wrath that your people deserve upon himself, paid for
their sins, robed them in his righteousness, presents them
to you without fault or blemish? And how can words from sinful
lips even begin to start to give you the praise you deserve, the
praise your son deserves? Lest the words of our pastor
this morning from his heart to his lips, to our ears to our
heart. Lift us up, give us assurance,
give us comfort, give us peace, knowing that all things are in
your hand and you do in heaven and earth according to your purpose,
your pleasure, and your will for the eternal good of your
people. Teach us to be content and patient and wait upon you.
Bless those who are going through trials and afflictions and doubts
and fears. Lord, we all have him. Your son
knows our frame. He's always with us. He's promised
he'll never leave or forsake us. And there he's in heaven
seated beside you interceding for us. And we need that comfort
and intercession all the time. We give thanks in his name and
for his sake. Amen. How can I say thanks for the
things, Lord, you have done for me? Grace so undeserved, yet
you gave your only Son for me. The voices of a million angels
could not My gratitude, all that I am and
ever hope to be, I owe it all to thee. To God be the glory. To God be the glory for the things
he has done. With his blood he has saved me. With his blood. be the glory for great things. ? Let me live my life ? Let it
be a ring, Lord, to Thee ? And if I gain any praise ? Let it
go to Christ of Galilee He has saved me with His power. He has raised me to God be the
glory for great things. That's good. Thank you, Suzanne. Well, let's go back, if you would,
go with me in the Psalms again. Psalm, the 91st Psalm. Actually, I'm just going to use
this verse, the first verse, as a kind of a starting point. This morning, this evening, as
we gather together again at 6.30, I intend to still go kind of
verse by verse, phrase by phrase here, but This morning, I want to speak
to you on the subject, and it's in the form of a question, which
of two dwelling places are you in? because the word of God teaches
there is the dwelling place of the wicked. And then here in
Psalm, the 91st Psalm in verse one, there is the dwelling place
of the righteous. And so we read here in Psalm
91, one, he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most
high God. abides under the shadow of the
Almighty. Now you and I know there are
only two religions in this world. There is the religion of truth
and there is the religion of error. We could say there is
the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ and there is the religion
of Antichrist. These two are made very obvious
even in the very beginning of the Word of God. In Genesis chapter
four, you've got one man who is in true religion. His name is Abel. He worships
God by means of a blood sacrifice. He understood death appeased
God without the shedding of blood. There is no remission of sins. And Abel, he had true faith. And then there was his brother,
and his brother, of course, was Cain. And he represents false
religion. His was a bloodless offering
unto God. It did not picture the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was Antichrist. Two religions, the religion of
Christ, the religion of Antichrist, the religion of grace, and the
religion of works. Now we need to hear what God
has to say, and the scripture is very specific, by grace he
is saved through faith, and that, my dear friends, it is the gift
of God not the works, lest any man should boast. If it's of
grace, then it's all of grace. If it's of works, it's all of
works. Now you're in one of those two camps. You're in the camp
of grace, or you're in the camp of works. You have a dwelling
place. You either dwell in the secret
place of the most high God, or you dwell in the dwelling place
of the righteous, or the unrighteous of the wicked, which is a position
of works. you do something in order to
appease God. You see, every religion, every
denomination, every church, every person who is religious will
fit into one of these two categories. Yours is either the religion
of free grace or the religion of free will. Everyone fits into
one or the other, but nobody fits into both. That's what we
need to remember also. You're either a grace person
or you're a works person, but you can't be both a grace and
a works person. You either believe Christ is
salvation, that this reconciliation with God has been accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ and Him only, and God gives you faith
to believe Him, and you rest in Him, you look to Him, you
trust Him. He's all of your confidence.
He's all of your hope of heaven. He's all of your hope of everlasting
life. Either you're in that group or
you're in the other group that this salvation is ultimately
dependent upon something you must do. Your works, your will,
your worth. Now you're in one of those two
dwelling places. I hope you're in the religion
of grace. I hope like the psalmist, you
can say I dwell in the secret place of the Most High God. You see, true religion is the
religion of God. False religion is the religion
of the devil. After all, our Lord Jesus said
that he told the Pharisees of his day, you're of your father,
the devil. He said, he's the father of all
lies. And those who believe this falsehood, that there's something
that you've got to do that God has done. He's done a lot. Most
people acknowledge that God's done a lot in salvation, but
ultimately it's up to you. If you're in that group, if you're
in that camp, then you're in the camp, you're in the dwelling
place of the wicked. And ultimately, if you hold on
to that position, unless God, by His grace, He puts you loose
from that position, you're going to perish. And you'll go in the
everlasting dwelling place of the wicked. So here's the issue
then, which camp are you in? And I hope God gives you honesty.
I hope God will give you the ability to look at your heart,
to look at your foundation, to look at your belief, to examine. Are you listening to what God
has to say? Do you hear what he has to say?
I like the words of the psalmist in Psalm 85 in verse eight. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak. I'll hear him. I'll listen to
God. Don't listen to what men have
to say unless men are consistent with the Word of God. But listen,
the Bible says, let God be true and every man a liar. So we've
got to hear what God has to say. And if you ask me, Jim, is my
religion true? Is my religion false? What do
you think of my religion? Well, I'd say your religion has
got to be examined just exactly the same way that my religion
has to be examined in the light of God's Word. We have to bring
everything to the Word of God. We draw forth only the truth
of the Scriptures. This is indeed the final authority. You see, the Bible says there
are two cities. It likens these two religions
to being two cities. One is Jerusalem. That's the
city of peace. That's the city of God. The New
Jerusalem, this consists of people who believe the gospel of God's
free grace. This is the true church. This
is the bride of our Lord Jesus. But on the other hand, there's
Babylon. Babylon is false religion. Now listen, you are a citizen
of one of those two cities. God gave you honesty so that
you can know with discernment, with understanding about the
Spirit of God, which dwelling place is yours? Are you in Jerusalem? Are you in Babylon? Are you in
the city of peace? Are you in the city of damnation?
You see, in the Word of God, Babylon was always the enemy
of the people of God. And Babylon, religious Babylon,
it is still the enemy of God. Because you see, religious Babylon
believes in the deliverance of sin, the deliverance of salvation,
the deliverance from all wickedness, this salvation of body and soul
and everlasting life. Babylon believes it's ultimately
dependent upon you. And Babylon has always opposed
free grace. Babylon has always been against
salvation by the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. Babylon has always been opposed
to salvation being a work of God only. A work of God. God initiated salvation. God ordained salvation. God sent
his beloved son into this world to die for sinners, to redeem
us, to reconcile us, to wash away all of the sins of his people
by his bloody death and then robe us in the garments of salvation. This is the Savior who lived,
who died, who rose, whoever lives to make intercession for his
people. This is a salvation all of God. And the very culmination
of this salvation is our glorification. And so from election and justification
and redemption and regeneration and preservation and sanctification,
all the way to glorification, it's of God. That's the reason
the scripture says that the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord
and of Him only. That's the religion of God. That's
the good dwelling place. Boy, this is where your soul
dwells. Oh, how blessed you are that
God has revealed to you to your mind, to your understanding,
to your innermost being, the salvation is in Christ Jesus
and His work of redemption. It isn't just Jesus without His
work. It is the Lord Jesus and His
work of substitution and satisfaction. God demanded satisfaction to
his law. His law demanded death for sin. That's why Christ died. Listen,
you can't make atonement for your sin. I can't make atonement
for my sin. I can't appease God for all my
transgressions and you can't appease God for all your transgressions. This was the work of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And those who believe that truth, well, they're in the dwelling
place, the secret dwelling place of God. You say, Jim, is my religion
of God or? of the devil, am I a citizen
of Jerusalem or am I a citizen of Babylon? Well, I would ask
you this, do you believe the salvation of your soul is dependent
upon something you had to do? Something you've got to do? Say,
well, yeah, well, you got the religion of Antichrist. I'll
just be, let's just be straight up about it. Just tell it the
way it is. If you believe the salvation
of your soul is ultimately due to a decision you had to make,
or a work you had to perform, or a law you had to keep, here
it is. Yours is a religion of antichrist. And you better ask God, I hope
God will do this for you, that he'll dig you out of that mess
that you're in. because there is no foundation
there. There's no salvation in anything
you can do. You can't do anything to appease
God. Now that's the work of Christ
Jesus. But if you believe the salvation
of your soul is dependent upon the gracious God, this God who
ordained His Son coming to the world, laid out His life for
His people, If He's your hope, if He's your confidence, well,
I'd say to you, you're in the city of Jerusalem, not Babylon,
not Babylon. You see, there are only two dwelling
places, and everybody's gonna seek a rest for their souls,
and one of those two, men are either gonna They're gonna run
to Christ for salvation or run to their works. Run to the doing
and the dying of another, one appointed by God, or they're
gonna run for their salvation to something that they've done,
something that they're endeavoring to do. Oh, hear God's word. Would you hear what God has to
say? The scripture says that there's one way to God. Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Would you hear what God has to
say? God has this to say, there's one God, one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man, Christ Jesus. Oh, how necessary it is for us
to hear what God has to say on this subject. I find it interesting at eight
different times in the first three gospel narratives, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, eight times the Savior said, he that hath ears
to hear, let him hear. Will you hear what God has to
say? Will you hear without interruption? Will you hear without argument? Will you hear without debating
the Word of God? Will you hear just the bare,
naked Word of God? And then will you bow to His
Word? Will you believe his word and
bow to his word and act on his word? God help you to hear. The scripture
says that the seeing eye and the hearing ear, God gives them
both. Blessed are your ears if you
hear. Blessed are your eyes if you see. Blessed is your heart
if you believe the Word of God and you don't add anything to
it. God help us to hear. Our Lord,
when He was on the Mount of Transfiguration, we read that a voice as this
gray cloud overshadowed the Savior and Peter, James, and John The
father said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased,
hear ye him. Will you? Will you hear him? Will I hear him? Will we bow
to what he says? Only if he gives us grace, because
let me tell you something, by nature, we're all rebels. And we absolutely refuse to hear
what God has to say unless He opens our ears, unless He effectively
draws us and makes us willing to listen to Him. And that will
be in the day of His power. Let me show you two things. Go
to the New Testament with me. I want you to go first of all
to the book of Luke. The book of Luke. and go to Luke
chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. And I want you
to go to the very end of Luke chapter 14. Forgive me for my congestion
this morning. Luke chapter 14. Look at the
last sentence of the chapter. The Savior said, he that hath
ears to hear, that's what we want, that's what I'm talking
about. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now look at the
next verse. Remembering that these divisions
of chapters are not inspired, then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. He just said, he that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. Well, evidently these sinners,
these who've been convinced of their sinfulness by the Spirit
of grace, who need the Savior, they listened to Him. Then, then
drew near to Him. And I love that they were drawn
near. They were drawn near to Him. these publican sinners, and the
reason was to listen to him, to hear him. But look at the
second verse. And the Pharisees and the scribes
murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them.
They wouldn't hear him. They wouldn't listen to him.
hear these sinful folks sitting out in front of him, and they're
listening to him, and he's giving them ears to hear. Here's these
old publicans, or the Pharisees rather, the scribes, the religionists,
those who base their salvation on their works, they're not gonna
listen to what he has to say. And I wanna show you that, go
to another passage in John chapter 10. Let's go to John 10. Remembering what we just read,
then drew near to him the public and sinners for a hearing. Now look here in John chapter
10. John chapter 10. You know this passage, don't
you? It's about the shepherd and the sheep. The Savior says
in verse 11, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. He comes down to verse 14, I
am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. Look at verse 16, and of the
sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. Now watch this, verse 19. There
was a division therefore again among the Jews for these saves.
And many of them, many of them, they said this, he hath the devil
and is mad. He's a lunatic. This is a man
who's out of his mind. He says he's the shepherd. He
says he's the good shepherd. And they were well, very well
versed in the Old Testament. They knew of the shepherd, the
Lord is the shepherd. They could quote like we can,
Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, that's what they'd say. And then
they hear this man, Jesus of Nazareth, and he says, I am the
good shepherd. They say, he's a madman. This
is a lunatic. This man talks about laying down
his life and then taking it up again. He's crazy. He's a Beelzebub. And then they asked this, why
hear ye him? Why do you listen to him? That's
what they said to the people who were listening to him. Listen,
this man who's teaching you, he says he's the shepherd. He
says he has sheep. He says he has other sheep. He's
going to bring them into the fold. He's going to draw them
in. He said he's going to lay down
his life for the sheep. He's a madman, he's a lunatic,
he's demon-possessed. Why in the world would you listen
to this man? Why would you listen to his preaching?
Why would you listen to his teaching? Why would you pay any attention
to anything he has to say? Well, I would ask that of you.
Why would you hear him? Why will you hear him? Well,
go back to John chapter 6. I'll tell you why I'm going to
hear him. Look at John chapter 6. Yeah,
the Jews, they wouldn't hear him. Now, the publicans and sinners,
they got to hear him. The Pharisees, self-righteous
folks, listen, people who were endeavoring to build a salvation
of their own, a righteousness of their own, they said, I don't
know why anybody wanna listen to this man. Why do you hear
him? I'll tell you why I'm gonna hear
him. John chapter six, you there? You know the story, our Lord
has fed 5,000 men plus women and children. The next day is
a bunch of people still following him. He said, I know why you
follow me. It's the loaves and the fishes.
You want me to feed you again. You want me to perform a miracle
for you. And then he laid out for them
the doctrine of God, the doctrine of salvation, the necessity of
the work of God, in this business of making us right with God. He talked about all that the
Father giveth me comes to me, shall come to me, him that comes
to me I'll know why is cast out. He talked about the necessity
of being drawn unto him. He talked about, he said, I'm
the bread that came down from heaven. He said you gotta eat
my flesh and drink my blood. Lots of people got offended by
what he had to say and they left and they never followed him anymore.
And so we get down to verse 66, and I just gave this to you,
but it says, from that time, many of his disciples, many of
his followers, John 6, 66, many of his pupils, many of his
students, Many of his disciples, they went back and walked no
more with him. Then Jesus said to his 12 disciples,
will you also go away, literally, will you also abandon me? Will
you also turn your backs on me? Listen, these folks, they turn
their backs on the Son of God, they turn their backs on life.
They turn their backs on salvation. You see, the message that he
delivered, it had too much grace in it for them. It's just too much the work of
God. You've got to tell us what we've
got to do. Give us a law to keep. Give us a rule to obey. Give
us an ordinance to partake of, to participate in. And they left. He says to His disciples, those
12 men there, He said, now will you also go away? They won't
hear me anymore. They don't want to hear anything
else I got to say. That's amazing, isn't it? They
don't want to hear anything else the Savior has got to say because,
and yet out of His lips are words of life. Look what Peter said. Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? And here's
why we listen to Him. You say, those Jews over there
in John chapter 10 say, why do you listen to Him? Why do you
hear Him? Well, here's the reason. Because
thou hast the words of eternal life. That's why we listen to
Him. That's why we submit to His teaching. You see, he is the word of life
and he has the words of life. And Peter says, and we believe
and are sure that thou art that Christ, the son of the living
God. We'll listen to it. I'm going to hear what he has
to say. I'm not going to listen to what these ragtag preachers
around here have to say and talk about poor God. He's done all
He can do and salvation is now in your hands and He's kind of
put things together, but you've got to finish filling in the
blanks with your own decision, with your own will, or with your
own works, or you gotta be baptized, or you gotta take the Lord's
Supper, you gotta join the right church, you gotta do this, you
gotta do that. I'm not gonna listen to those
folks. I'm gonna listen to this one who has words of life, words
of truth, who is himself the very word of God. He cannot lie. And he said, he that believeth
on me hath everlasting life. Go over to Matthew chapter seven,
our Lord teaching, you know, this sermon on the mount, chapters
five, six, and seven of Matthew. Here's the end of his message.
Here's the conclusion to his sermon on the Mount. And he goes
through, he talks about two ways, talks about two gates. See, we're
talking about which of two dwelling places. This is all included
in this. He says in verse 13, enter ye
in at the straight gate. What does that mean? What is
a straight gate? It's a gate that is beset with difficulties. It's a gate that is a restricted
gate. There's much opposition to you
getting through this gate. Enter ye in at the straight gate.
Well, what reason do I have that I can go through this straight
gate? which leads, as it says, wide
is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many
there be that go in there at, because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there
be that find it. What reason do I have that I
can go through that straight gate that has much opposition? Because the Savior, He commanded
you, enter ye in at this straight gate. Enter in. He told you to.
Well, there's a very word of Christ. He gives the ability
to obey it. So he sets before us here. He
sets before us two ways. A broad way that leads to destruction. There are lots of people on the
broad way. And a narrow way, few there be that find it. This
is the course to everlasting glory. And then he says before,
it's two gates. Wide is one gate. It allows for
any belief, any doctrine, any religious idea, doesn't matter. And then there's the straight
gate. A lot of opposition to this gate. Opposition from people who say,
it really doesn't matter what you believe. Oh, it matters a lot because
there is in the Bible true doctrine and false doctrine. And then
he gets down here and beginning in verse 15, he talks about two
kinds of preachers. He talks about false prophets.
And then he talks about these false prophets are like, he says, corrupt trees. They
bring forth corrupt fruit. True prophets are like good trees.
They bring forth good fruit. He's still comparing two, two
things. And then he gets down toward
the end, at the very end of the sermon in verse 24. Therefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I liken him unto a wise man which
built his house upon a rock, The rain descended, the floods
came, the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not,
but was founded upon a rock. This is a man who had a very
secure dwelling place. You see, I would ask you, is
your dwelling place founded on the rock Christ Jesus? Now, I guarantee this, I promise
you this, your house is gonna be buffeted by storm, the storms
of life. Will it stand? Will it abide? This dwelling place that you
have for your soul, if you build it on Christ Jesus, will it abide? Oh yes, because it is built on
him. because it's founded on him. He is this solid foundation. And then he says in verse 26,
and everyone that hear these sayings of mine and doeth them
not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon
the sand. The rain descended, the floods
came, the winds blew and beat upon this house and it fell and
great was the fall of it. Examine the foundation of your
dwelling place. Examine it. I'll tell you something
about our dwelling place. That is Christ Jesus. All of
the storms that God could send to him, he endured them all. You see, let's take a person
who builds their, salvation upon their works or their will or
their worth or baptism or something like that. There's gonna be some
storms during life. And one of those storms may very
well bring their dwelling place crashing down. But it may be
that they're so dug into that false foundation that it lasts
all the way through life, and then they die, but then they're
gonna face the storm of all storms. They're gonna face the judgment
of God. And no house built on anything you do is ever gonna
stand in the presence of God. That's impossible. Because his, Son will deal and
judge in righteousness. And your house can come crashing
down. On the other hand, if you're building all your hopes on Christ
and him crucified, he's already born the storm. All of the wrath
of God's already buffeted him. And our rock, our rock stood
fast. And when the storm was over,
when the wrath of God had been poured out, when all the thunder
and the lightning of the vengeance of God had exhausted itself,
there still was our Savior. Justice had no more to give,
because our Lord Jesus had borne our sins in His own body, the
tree. And the justice of God went after
him in all of its fury until it exhausted itself. And he said, well, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he
gave up the ghost. And this is the one we build
on. the one who finished the work of salvation. And I'll tell
you here, these two builders, they come to two different ends. One is a good ending. That's
what I want. I want a good ending. The other
man, scripture says his house fell and great was the fall of
it. It came to a sad end. Listen to me. You must examine what is your
dwelling place. Let me give you two more references,
and I want you to go to the book of Job with me. Job 8. Job 8. I want you to see what Bildad had to say to Job,
and this regards the enemies of Job, the wicked. Job chapter
eight. Now look at verse, I'll get the
last three verses, verse Job 8, 20. Behold, God will not cast
away a perfect man. He will not. And God Himself
had said of Job in chapter 1, he's a perfect man. He is absolutely
complete. And so are we in Christ Jesus. He is our perfection. God will
not cast away a perfect man. He can't. You say, preacher Walt,
how good do I have to be before God won't cast me away? You've
got to be as good as God. You've got to be righteous. You've
got to be perfect in Him. And Bildad is absolutely telling
the truth. God will not cast away a perfect
man, but watch this, neither is this other group. You see, the perfect man, he's
got a good dwelling place. He's resting in Christ Jesus,
that's Job. But he says, but neither will
he help the evildoers. And if you've got a center, a
column with some notes there, look at the one beside verse
20, and he kind of expands the meaning of that word that is
help. That is, take the ungodly by
the hand. He will not take the ungodly
by the hand. He will not take the evildoers
by the hand. When they die, he's not gonna
take them by the hand and take them right on into glory. He's
not gonna do that. Because they're not perfect.
They have no righteousness. They were very satisfied with
their dwelling place. A dwelling place of works. A
dwelling place of worth. A dwelling place of their free
will. That's where they dwelt all through
life. And then they die and it says,
God will not take their hand and lead them into the promised
land. He will not do it. Verse 21, till he filled thy
mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoicing. In other words,
the righteous are gonna rejoice in the perfections of Christ
Jesus that they're brought in. And they're also gonna rejoice
and bless the name of God for his righteous judgment of the
wicked. Now look at verse 22. They that hate thee, those that
hate the people of God, those that hate Jerusalem, those that
hate those who build their salvation on Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
they that hate thee shall be clothed with everlasting shame. And now watch this, and the dwelling
place of the wicked. shall come to naught. Kind of reminds you of what we
just read there in Matthew chapter 7. You build your foundation
of a house, you build it on sand, it's all gonna come crashing
down. And that's what he's saying right here. It's like here's
a man, he's built all of his salvation on a house of cards. There's nothing to support him. There's nothing to hold him up.
You stand at the last day, the final day in the court of heaven, standing on sinking sand, I tell
you that sand will sink you, you'll go all the way to hell. But those who built on Christ
Jesus dwell forever in God's dwelling place. Now one more
verse. And that's in, I want you to go to Psalm 90. Here's another, here's the other
dwelling place. See, I told you, just two dwelling
places, just two. Just like two ideas of salvation,
all of these things. Psalm 90, verse one, Lord, Thou has been
our dwelling place. Oh, that's what I'm saying. That's
what I've been trying to say. Lord, thou has been our dwelling
place in all generations. In other words, he's always been
the dwelling place of the people of God. Because back in old eternity,
God put us in Christ Jesus. He's always been our dwelling
place. We've always been in union with
him. We've always been built in on
the rock. This according to God's eternal
purpose. Lord, was it me? Jehovah, our
savior. Thou has been our dwelling place. He has been, he is, he always
will be. Now, as I close the message,
I want to leave this with you. Once again, I admonish you to
examine your foundation. Examine your dwelling place.
Do you have a good dwelling place? Well, if you hide in Christ Jesus
and Him crucified, the blood of the Savior Mr. Spurgeon said two words sum up
the gospel quite adequately, substitution and satisfaction. If the Lord Jesus who died in
the stead of sinners, if he's your hope, you believe he made
full satisfaction of God for everything God demanded, that
he rendered it to God, he's all your hope, he's all your confidence,
then he is your dwelling place. But if you build on anything
else, oh listen to me, build on anything else, you're going
to perish. There's no safety except in the
Son of God. I'll give you this and I'll pray.
There's only one place to hide from God. And that's to hide
in God. That's to hide in Christ Jesus.
And thank the Lord, He says, He will hide me in His pavilion. He'll cover me. He'll take me
in. We're safe in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Thank you, Father,
for these moments we've had Open the scriptures and see what you
have to say for us and see what you have to say to us. And we
say with the psalmist, I will hear what God the Lord will say. I want to hear what you've got
to say. I want to hear, I want to believe. I don't want to be like those
Pharisees. of John chapter 10. He said,
why do you hear him? Why would you listen to him?
Oh, here's the reason. He has the words of life. He
speaks the purpose of God. He speaks the mind of God. He speaks the will of God for
he is the word of God. He is the full revelation of
God to us. And we listen to him. God who
spoke in sundry time by the prophets, and in other ways, angels and
dreams, et cetera. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us in, through, and by His Son. We'll listen to Him. Oh,
God, give us ears to hear Him, and give us a heart to believe
Him. Bless your dear people. Give us a comfort in Christ,
and in these days of so much trouble and turmoil.
When people are worried and anxious, Lord, give to your people a spirit
of peace and contentment. Let us know and remind us again
that our God does all things well. And even this virus that
is going around the world, it's in the hands of God too. And
you'll send it where you will. It's like everything else. It's
like your grace. You'll send your grace where
you will. You'll send your word where you will. You'll send your
sickness where you will. And we know that you're fulfilling
your purpose. And maybe, maybe one of your
purposes, one of your designs in this sickness is to get our
attention. We're a busy society. But now things are kind of coming
to a stop. And Lord, may you stop us in
our tracks and then use these things to make us think about
eternity, to think about God. And Lord, would you send your
word forth, the word of truth, through your preachers, through
your servants. Bless all who listen. For Jesus'
sake I pray. Amen.