Yeah. Well, it's good for a few of
us to be here this evening, but just as we did this past Lord's
Day, we have asked folks to stay away and watch by the internet. Or you can always get a CD of
our services or a DVD as they are available. But we're thankful
that several of you have tuned in this evening to watch by way
of the internet. And I think it's pretty safe
to say that this Lord's Day, the coming Lord's Day, we will
do as we did this past Lord's Day, is that we will not have
an in-person any in-person services, but they will be broadcast over
the internet, so I hope that services will be blessing to
you. We miss fellowshipping with each
other and I wonder if I can make a suggestion to those of you
who are of our congregation is to get on the telephone and touch
base with various other folks of our congregation. We love
the interaction with each other and it would be good, especially
if you would give the older folks a telephone call just to check
in with them, and they would very much appreciate hearing
from you. I've asked Brother Bill to read
for us this evening, and if you would, if you have your Bible,
Psalm 91. So I'd like for you to get your
Bible and turn to Psalm 91. and our brother is going to read
for us and then lead us in prayer. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God. In Him will I trust. Surely he
shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome
pestilence. He shall cover thee with his
feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall
be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day,
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not
come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High thy habitation,
there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear
thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a
stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder. Young lion
and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set
his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him
on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me,
and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation. Our Father, we come before you
this evening giving thanks. We thank you that you have assembled
us here. And though we're not assembled as we normally would
be, through this connection of the internet, we're still assembled
around thy word, which is where we long to be. around thy word
and around the Christ of thy word. So we give you thanks for
gathering us together. And we know from thy word, Father,
and from the messages of a few days ago, that you form the light,
create darkness, and you make peace and create
evil. And that withholding of thy precious
light is darkness, and that where Christ is, there is peace. And
outside Christ, there is nothing but evil. So we ask you, Father,
don't withhold thy precious light, thy presence from us this evening,
but pour out thy spirit upon this place and make this gospel
to go forth in power. May it be delivered to those
who are in need, edify your people and bring us all closer to Christ
and give us a greater knowledge of Him. Bless the pastor as he
speaks, giving unction and the power and the liberty to proclaim
Christ and Him crucified. And Father, we know that outside
these walls, it seems that much is chaos and that men are troubled in
their minds and their hearts are weak. and they're in terrors
and fears upon them. But let not that be the case
with our people, Lord, for we know that our Lord Jesus Christ
has been given all authority over all things. And these things
are coming to pass because of his express will and purpose.
And we have much to be thankful for, but we are children of the
King. Why should we fear? Why should
we be fretful over these things? These are just signs of His impending
return. And we do look forward to that
return, Lord. We look forward to seeing our Savior face to
face. So this evening, Lord, tell us of Him crucified. Tell us of a blood sacrifice. Tell us of redemption by the
blood. Tell us of righteousness accomplished. and give us joyful
hearts that we might worship the King. Be with those of our
number who are under trial and who are ill and so forth, Lord.
You know that your people and you know their needs. So be a
comfort and a guide to them under trial until that will and purpose
is accomplished. Walk with us in the days ahead
and make us to be courageous in these times. and make our
greatest interest be to proclaim Christ and Him crucified to a
lost world. May the gospel go out from this
place in power each time it's preached. To the praise of the
glory of your grace, we ask it for Christ's sake. Amen. Thank you, Bill. If you would,
take your Bibles, and I'm going to start in the New Testament,
and I would invite you to go to Luke chapter 24. Luke, the last chapter of the
third Gospel, the gospel according to Luke. Many years ago, when
I was in Bible college, of course we had one of our classes consisted
of the study of the 150 Psalms. And as we went through all of
the Psalms briefly in that class in the fall of 1969, as we went
through them, I still remember the professor saying, The Psalms were, of course they
were important. He didn't say anything negative
about the Psalms. They're the word of God, the
inspired scriptures. But he did say of all the Psalms,
he said there are about 15 of them that are Messianic Psalms. Messianic Psalms. That is, they
have to do with the Messiah. And at that juncture of my life,
I took notes and kind of remembered what he had to say. And then
a few years later, I discovered that actually all of the Psalms
have to do with the Messiah. And I can give evidence of that
here from Luke chapter 24, and the evidence really comes forth
from the lips of the Savior, the Messiah Himself. As you know, as we get to Luke
chapter 24, our Lord has laid down His life for the sheep,
He has given Himself a ransom for all of His people. He paid
our debt, and He finished the work that God gave Him to do,
the work of redemption, the work of reconciliation, and He gave
His life. He was buried and of course he
arose again the third day. As we get to Luke chapter 24,
the chapter begins with our Lord's resurrection. Then he began to
reveal himself to people that he chose to reveal. himself too. He started off with,
in this chapter, he especially has a lengthy conversation with
two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. And after he spoke
with them, and we don't have the time to get into that, though
you have studied that before, and certainly we've spoken from
that past part of chapter 24, but he leaves those men, and
then he goes to where the 11 disciples are gathered. And so we begin in Luke chapter
24 and verse 36. And as they thus spake, that
is those disciples that the Lord had revealed himself to, they
came and told the rest of them, verse 36, then Jesus himself stood in the midst of them. He
saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified. They were very, very much afraid
and frightened. This just absolutely shocked
them. It startled them. And they thought
that they had seen a spirit or a ghost. And he said unto them,
Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts, that is
anxious thoughts, why do these arise in your hearts? And then
he says, behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. He says to them to handle. He says, handle me and see for
a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when he
had thus spoken, he showed them, he manifested unto them his hands
and his feet. And I'm sure they could see the
scars that were healed over, but still the evidence of his
death, the evidence of redemption, the evidence of the work of our
salvation that he accomplished by his crucifixion. At verse
41, the scripture says, and while they yet believed not for Joel,
but wondered, he said unto them to give further evidence that
he was real, that he wasn't a ghost, they weren't seeing a spirit,
that he was real. He said, have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of
broad fish and a honeycomb. He took it and he did eat before
them, and I'm sure they watched him eat. And then he said unto
them, and he's got their full attention, Any time the master
has something to say, we need to be very attentive unto his
words. And he said unto them, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms, That is, all
these things were written to me, he says, concerning me. And then verse 45, then opened
he their understanding. that they might understand the
Scriptures, he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus
it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third
day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached
in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, the Savior
opened up their understanding. He gave them a revelation of
Himself. And, of course, we know that
is necessary if we're going to see and perceive the Lord Jesus
in the Scriptures. He has to open up our minds. He has to open up our hearts.
He has to open up our intellect. He has to open up our understanding
that we might receive the Word of God. And He says all of the
Scriptures And he left nothing out. There's no exception on
this. He said all of the Scriptures,
including all of the Psalms, he says, they all speak of me. They all have to do with me.
Now Bill read to us from Psalm 91. And like all of the Psalms,
all of the rest of the Psalms, that one, Psalm 91, speaks of
the Savior as well. This is a messianic song. Now, what do we mean when we
use the word messianic? Well, it means that which is
of or related to the Messiah, the Messiah. The Lord Jesus is
the Messiah. What does that mean? What does
the name Messiah mean? It means the Anointed One. Our Lord Jesus is the Anointed
of God. In the Old Testament, there were
three offices. for which you had to have the
anointing of the Spirit of God, the anointing of all, in order
to hold those offices. And no man held all three offices
at one time. First of all, there was the office
of being a prophet. Being anointed of God to be the
prophet. Our Lord Jesus is himself the
prophet. He was anointed of God to teach
us. We do have an instructor. We do have someone to teach us. We do have someone who reveals
to us the gospel. The very beginning of our Lord's
public ministry in the book of Mark is as he went forth preaching
the gospel. He is that prophet of God. You
will remember that Moses spoke, the Lord had given them this
word that there would be raised up a prophet greater than Moses. And Moses said, this is the one
you listen to. If you listen to him, you'll
be blessed. If you don't listen to him, you're
gonna be cursed. Our Lord Jesus is indeed that
prophet anointed of God. When our Lord Jesus had fed the
5,000 men plus women and children in John chapter 6, you remember
what it was that the people said about Him? This is the prophet. Back in John chapter 1, they
came to John the Baptist and they couldn't figure out who
He was. They said, are you Christ? He said, no. They said, are you
Elijah? He said, no. And then they said,
are you that prophet? He said, no, no, I'm not that
prophet. No, that prophet is the Lord
Jesus, the Messiah. He's the one who teaches us.
Listen, we bow to his teaching. We bow to no one else's teaching.
And this is his word. His word is that which the spirit
of our Lord Jesus uses to teach us. No other writing is inspired,
none of the writings of men, none of the good commentaries
and Bible study books, though we get a lot of good from them,
still they're not without error. It is the book of God, it is
the verbal revelation of the Lord Jesus, that this is the
inspired Word of God, and He is the prophet who teaches us. You remember, He also said in
John chapter 6, he said, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise him
up again at the last day. And then he said, it is written
in the prophets, they shall all be what? Taught of God. Have you been taught of God?
Well, if the Lord Jesus is your prophet, if He is your If He
is your teacher, if He is your instructor, if He is the revealer
of the things of God, you're very well taught. Because you've
learned about God. And you've learned about yourself.
And you've learned about this One who is the Prophet of God. He is the Anointed One. He is the Messiah. He is the
Savior. Our Lord Jesus is the anointed
of God, not only as prophet, but as the priest. He's the priest
of God, and we know in the Old Testament the priest of God had
to be consecrated, had to be set apart by God for this office. For the work of the priesthood,
especially the work of the high priest, was the offering of sacrifices,
and then offering prayers for the people, and then interceding
for the people. presenting to God the sacrifices
of the people and the thanksgiving of the people and the praises
of the people. Well, our Lord Jesus was anointed
to that position as well. He is not only that prophet of
God, but he is the anointed one as the priest of God. He was
suitable to be our priest between us and God because He's man. He's man. As man, He could represent
us. As man, He has a continual priesthood. As man, as the God-man, He's
the one who doesn't die. So His priesthood has no end. He is the priest who has feelings
for us. He is the priest who is touched
by all of our infirmities. He's a sympathetic high priest. It's what we read in Hebrews
chapter two. He is the anointed of God. He
is the Messiah, the Messiah. And we know he's not only man
as our priest, as our high priest, but he's God. He's God is our
high priest. He had to be God to give merit
and to give value to all that he did. Why is it that his offering
to God of himself, why is it that that offering, that sacrifice
has merit with God, has value with God? Why is it that his
sacrifice actually prevailed to to remove all of the sins
of his people, because not only was he man, and the perfect man
at that, but he's also God. And that gave infinite value
to his sacrifice. He carried out all of his responsibilities
of the priesthood with uninterrupted authority and power. He offered
the acceptable sacrifice to God. He dealt with God on our behalf. In the Old Testament, the high
priest, and for that matter, even the regular priest, met
people at the door of the tabernacle, and they did business with God
on behalf of the people. The people couldn't offer a sacrifice
to God, so they came to the door of the tabernacle and they gave
their, whatever their sacrifice was, Whatever animal they brought
could have been a lamb or a turtle dove or a pigeon or a bullock,
whatever it was, or a goat, they came there and the priest, he
was the anointed one of God. All of the sons of Aaron, just
like Aaron himself had to be anointed with God to do the work
of offering the sacrifices on behalf of the people. So our
Lord Jesus, he is the anointed of God. He's anointed as prophet,
he's anointed as our priest, and he's anointed to the office
of king. Here we see our Savior's royal
character to govern, to rule, to maintain, to forgive, all
the sins of his people, and his kingdom is forever and ever.
He is the Messiah. What does Messiah mean? Well,
it means Christ. You see, in the Old Testament,
it talked about the Messiah coming, the Anointed One, the Anointed
One. In Psalm 89, David talked about
that Anointed One that God would send. And in the New Testament,
the Anointed One is the Christ of God. In fact, let me show
you that. If you would, I'm gonna get you
to go two passages of Scripture. The first one is in Psalm 2. Look at Psalm 2. Look at verses 1 and 2 of Psalm
2. Are you there? Make sure you
find it. Psalm 2, look at verses 1 and
2. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth, they
set themselves and the rulers, they take counsel together against
the Lord and against who? His anointed. His anointed? And this is what they say, let
us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from
us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Now, hold your place there and go to Acts chapter 4. Look at
Acts chapter 4. And you'll recognize those, especially
those of you who have been in our Bible classes and our studies
of the book of Acts, you'll recognize this portion of scripture because
we just recently went through this. Acts chapter four, Peter
and John have been in prison. They have been released, admonished
not to preach in that name anymore. And then in verse 23, Acts 4,
and being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief
priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that,
when the people that were there gathered were meeting, when they
all heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord
and said, this is a wonderful prayer meeting. Lord, thou art
God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in
them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said,
Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth, they stood up, and the rulers were
gathered together against the Lord, and against, watch it,
his Christ. Do you remember how it was worded
over there in Psalm 2? Against his anointed. And here
is Luke, led by the Spirit of God, to quote that passage from
the second Psalm, and he identifies that one who is the anointed
as being the Christ. Let's keep reading. Verse 27. For of a truth against
And here I'll just ask the question briefly, who is the Christ? You see, to the Jewish people,
that one who is the Messiah, who is the Christ, had not come. In fact, to Orthodox Jews today,
He hasn't come. But here Luke is led to identify
who the Anointed One is. Who is He? Well, it's not left
up in the air. It's not left for us to guess.
Well, who is the anointed one? Who is Christ? For of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, watch it, whom thou hast anointed. See, that's what I've been saying.
He was anointed to be the prophet, anointed to be the high priest,
and anointed to be the king. This one who is the Messiah.
of whom all the Old Testament speaks. You see, all of the Old
Testament and all 150 of the Psalms are messianic because
they all have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
what most people miss. Many years ago I was preaching
at a Bible conference and afterwards they had a question and answer
session. And my message had been Christ
in all the scriptures. And it was several preachers
there. It was just a preacher's meeting.
I don't remember exactly, 18, 20 preachers, something like
that. It was up in Michigan. And afterwards, they said, we're
gonna have question and answer. The president of a large, very
conservative, Bible College was the moderator and he said, Pastor
Burt, would you get back behind the pulpit and then answer some
questions that some of the men have? And I said, sure. And so I got behind the pulpit
and one of the preachers stood and he said, you know, I've been
teaching through Israel's history and I just don't understand how
you can bring the Lord Jesus Christ into the history of Israel. Well, I was flabbergasted. I
said, well, I don't see how you can't bring him into the history
of Israel because their whole reason for existing was because
of the Son of God. And this One who is the Anointed
One, this One who is the Messiah, this One who is the Christ, He
was ordained to come through Israel. And their priesthood,
picture Him. All of their prophets, picture
Him. All of their kings, picture Him. All of their offerings, picture
His offering. All of their sacrifices, picture
the sacrifice of Himself. And I just said, I don't know
how you can't preach Christ from the history of Israel. And this
is what He had missed. And by the way, I had ridden
with him to that minister's meeting. It was kind of a silent ride
back. I will tell you that. But here's
what he missed. Christ is in all the Scriptures. All of the Old Testament. You've
got to see this, and oh, that the Lord would open up our minds
and our understanding, like He did to the disciples there in
Luke chapter 24, that we might discern this glorious truth,
that all of the Old Testament, all of the prophets, all of the
writings of Moses, and all of the poetry books, and all of
the Psalms, they all direct our attention to that one who is
the Anointed One, that one who is identified, as we see here
in Acts chapter 4, as being the Messiah. He is the Christ. Who is He? He's God's Holy Son,
Jesus. Now, what did men do to Him?
I'll just keep reading. Here in verse 27, for of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both
Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel decreed predestinated before to be done. And then,
of course, the people continued to pray. And they said, Lord,
now behold their threatenings. But they didn't say, Lord, stop
the persecution. Oh God, stop the threatenings.
Oh God, we're fearful for our lives. They said, Lord, behold
their threatenings and grant unto your preachers that with
all boldness they may speak thy word." God's preachers, with
boldness, they set forth the Word of God. They set forth Him
who is the incarnate Word, who is revealed in the written Word. And having said all of that,
and I go back to Psalm 91. So there, that's kind of an introduction
to Psalm 91. And as you, if you read the writings
of various men and they give the list of the Messianic Psalms,
and usually they list about 15 of them. This one is not mentioned. This one is not mentioned. But
they all should be mentioned. because whatever page you go
to, and you folks know this, you've sat under the gospel,
everybody from this congregation who's been here any time at all,
you've sat under faithful gospel preaching and you've been told
Christ and all the Scriptures. That the Old Testament said there's
one who is coming, the gospel narratives say he has come, he's
done the work of redemption, and then from Acts to Revelation
he's coming again. Who is He? He's Christ Jesus. What did He do? He saved His
people from their sins. Why did He do it? That God might
be just and justify. Where is He now? He's in glory,
reigning. What's He going to do? He's going
to come back to receive His people unto Himself. That's the message
of all the Scriptures. All the Word of God can be condensed,
if I may put it this way, into one word, Christ. He's the message of the book.
And as we get to Psalm 91, and I will tell you, the Lord willing,
and I hope you'll be watching this coming Lord's Day, Sunday
morning and Sunday night, I'm gonna have two more messages,
at least two more messages out of this Psalm. Because it sets
forth our Lord Jesus and his people in a beautiful way. in a marvelous way. Now, let
me just show you that this does in fact speak of our Lord Jesus. You have Psalm 91, you've made
your way back to it. Put a ribbon there, and maybe
before the Lord's Day, would you read it again? Take the time
in your personal devotions, each of you read this Psalm. Read it carefully, read it prayerfully,
looking for Christ Jesus. Let me show you something. Did you know, and I'm sure you
do know that, do you know Satan has a really good knowledge of
the Old Testament Scriptures? You know he does. He's an intelligent being. He is not omniscient. He doesn't know all things. But
he has an intelligence greater than ours. And he knows the word
of God. And he knows who Christ Jesus
is. And all of his cohorts, all of
his demons, they all know who Christ is. On one occasion he
comes to cast a demon out and they said, are you come to judge
us before the time? We know who you are. You're the
Holy Son of God. They know who He is. Satan knows
who He is. And Satan knows that all of the
Scripture is about Him and therefore Satan's goal is this, keep you
from Christ Jesus. That's his goal. And He doesn't mind if you're
religious. He doesn't mind at all if you say, I'm living by
the Ten Commandments. Oh, He loves that. Because that's
legalism. That's salvation by work. I'm
doing the best I can. I'm memorizing Scripture. I'm
doing this. I'm doing that. And I hope God
is noticing all the things that I've done for Him. And Satan
is just kind of warming his hands and saying, yeah. That's the
idea. You look to what you've done.
Don't look to Christ Jesus. He wants to keep you from the
Savior. He wants to keep you from blood redemption. He wants
to keep you from imputed righteousness. That's what he wants to keep
you from. He has a knowledge of the scriptures. Now you say,
preacher, where are you going with this? Well, let me show
you. Look at Psalm 91 and verse 11. This Psalm is filled with promises.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee
in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Now, hold your
place and go to Matthew chapter four. This is exactly the scripture
that Satan uses when tempting the Lord Jesus. Look at Matthew
chapter four. And you know that the book of
Matthew sets forth our savior. Chapter one sets forth his pedigree. Chapter two sets him forth as
being the prophesied one. Chapter 3 sets him forth as being
the promised son of God that God announced when John the Baptist
baptized him. This is my beloved son, God said. When John baptized him, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And then we get
to chapter 4, it shows us he has power over Satan. All of
these things are necessary if he's going to save us. He's got
to have the right pedigree. He's got to be the one prophesied
in the Old Testament. He's got to be the one promised
who is the Son of God. And if He's going to save us,
if He's going to deal with our enemies, He's got to have power
over the devil. And so Matthew, as he begins
to lay out his book, led by the Holy Spirit, he sets forth our
Lord Jesus and all of His qualifications to be our Redeemer, to be the
victor over our enemies in order to save us. Now we get to chapter
4 and our Lord, as it were, here He is in a hand-to-hand combat
with the evil one. Our Lord is tempted of the devil
40 days and 40 nights and He's fasted. His body is weak. And Satan, the tempter comes
to him. And for the sake of time, I want
you to look at verse five. Then the devil taketh him up
into the holy city and sitteth him on a pinnacle of the temple.
And saith unto him, if thou be the son of God, cast thyself
down, for it is written. I told you he knows the scriptures.
but he doesn't have a saving knowledge of the God of the Scriptures,
or the Christ of the Scriptures. It is written, he shall give
his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
a stone. And Jesus said unto him, it is
written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. So as
we go back to Psalm 91, we know this, we know this because Satan,
he pulls this out of the Old Testament and this is indeed
a passage that refers to our Lord Jesus. This is the protection
that God has promised to his son. But wait a minute, let me
go just a little step further. Not only does Psalm 91 have to
do with our Savior, but it also has to do with His people. This
is a reason you cannot separate the Lord Jesus from His people. This is about the protection
of our Savior. It's also about the protection
of His people. It's about the safety of the
Redeemer, and it's about the safety of the redeemed ones.
You see, we are one with Him. We're one with Him. In all eternity,
God chose us unto salvation, and He put us in Christ Jesus. We've been knit together in Him,
wedded to Him, even from before the foundation of the world,
so that we're one with Him. Do you remember our Lord Jesus
in John chapter 17? He spoke of this. He said concerning
His people, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one and that the world may know that thou has sent me
and has loved them as thou has loved me. We're one with him. So that which is given as a promise
to the son of God is given as a promise to his people. He's the head, we're his body. We're one. He's the bridegroom. We're the bride. There's no divorce
in this marriage. We're the children of the kingdom.
The king will never forsake his children. We are the flock of
Christ Jesus. The shepherd will not desert
his sheep. We're the branches and he's the
vine. We're one with him. We're united
to him. We can't ever be separated from.
Don't you love Romans chapter eight? It begins with no condemnation
and it ends with no separation. Romans eight one says, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. There is
no condemnation. And then we get to the very end
of Romans chapter eight, and it says nothing, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. We're forever joined to Christ
Jesus by free and sovereign grace, given to Him and put in Him from
old eternity. You see, my friend, He is our
Savior and He is our security. He is our shelter. in the time of storm. So go back
to Psalm 91. Hope you're back there now. This
evening, let me just make a couple of comments from verse one. He
that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty. First of all, this speaks of
our Lord Jesus, because he dwells with God. He's always dwelt with
God. There never has been a time when
he didn't dwell with God except at the cross. That's where he
was forsaken by God for us. But from all eternity, think
of it, from all eternity, from before God ever made anything,
the Son dwelt with the Father. He dwelt in the secret place
of the Most High. He did indeed abide under the
shadow of the Almighty. And that's where He is now. Having
redeemed us, having saved us, He went back to heaven and where
did He go to? To the secret place. He went
to be with the Father. He went to paradise. That's what
he told that thief who believed, today you'll be with me in paradise. Our Lord Jesus died first, went
to paradise, went to the secret place to be with the father where
he had dwelt forever. But now he goes to dwell with
the father as the God man. the God-man who has all authority. And then shortly after he got
there, he welcomed that thief who believed. But you see, this
is not only true of our Savior, he that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. This also is a statement concerning
the safety of the Lord's people. What do you think of when you
think of the secret place? The secret place of the Most
High? Tell you what I think about,
the Holy of Holies. That's exactly what I think about.
And you know what? In the Holy of Holies, nobody
could go but one man. That's right, isn't it? Just
one man. And that's a high priest. And he can only go in there one
time a year. That was on the Day of Atonement.
He killed a couple of goats. Or he chose two goats, I should
say. One of them died. He put it to
death. He goes into the secret place.
He goes into the Holy of Holies. He sprinkles the mercy seed.
And in front of the mercy seed, the blood of that goat. And then
the other goat was to be released. It's called the scapegoat. One
was for the Lord. One was the scapegoat. Our Lord Jesus pictured both
of those goats. He's the one who died, and he's
the one, the scapegoat, who bore our sins away into a land uninhabited. But in that secret place, let's
go back to that. That's back behind the veil.
Like I said, the only one who'd go back there to begin with was
Aaron. and only one time a year. But
then hundreds of years later, now that's secret placing. For
a long time, the tabernacle was moved from place to place and
then it gave way to a tent that David made for the Ark of the
Covenant. And then that was replaced by
a temple, Solomon's temple. But it still had the veil. still
had the Holy of Holies, the holiest place, back behind the veil. And still nobody could go back
there but one man, the high priest, and he only once a year. But
our Lord Jesus, you know what's coming next. Our Lord Jesus,
when he died, the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom. That secret place. that dwelling
place of God. Now we have access to it by a
new and living way, Hebrews chapter 10 says. A bloody way. The way of sacrifice, the way
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And we can go in to the secret
place. And the thing of it is, all who
go in dwell there. Do you know where we dwell? I
know today in the atmosphere, the climate in which we're living
with the virus and people, so many people are fearful. So many
people are, they're scared. They're worried. They're anxious.
But listen, if you're a child of God, you dwell in the secret
place. You dwell there. I tell you,
when that high priest was in the Holy of Holies, everybody
outside, they were exposed to the elements, the storms or whatever,
but you're talking about a man when he had the blood and the
incense, you're talking about a man who was safe. There was
no safer place on this earth than where that high priest was,
in the secret place. But now the veil has been rent. And you and I have been brought
by sovereign effectual grace to the Lord Jesus Christ to believe
Him and to trust in Him. And now we dwell. We dwell there. We abide there. We're there forever. This is our constant and forever
habitation. The secret place of who? The Most High. The secret place. It's a secret place because you're
not going to find it. It has to be revealed to you.
And I tell you, if you look up this word dwelleth, the first
meaning is to constantly sit. In other words, the picture is
of somebody who is reposing, resting. Nothing concerns them. except
the glory of the one who is on the throne. He that dwelleth
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide there. The word
abide means shall be brought effectually into that place. And we have to be. We have to
be brought by sovereign grace to abide under the shadow of
the Almighty. Who is the Most High? Well, that's
Christ Himself there. He is the Most High. There's
none higher than He is. God's given Him a name which
is above, what does it say? Every name! He is the Most High! And we dwell there. We abide
there. People who don't know God, who
don't know Christ Jesus, who have not been brought under the
shadow of the Almighty, they're anxious, they're weary, they're
fretful, they're uneasy. I don't know what's going to
happen. And they bite their fingernails
and lay awake at night. But listen, you who are the people
of God, this virus, the economic situation, it's all in the hands
of the Most High. He controls all of this, and
we dwell in His secret presence. We sit there. We sit there. We're in that secret place. You know what was there? There
was the Ark of the Covenant. Inside was the Law. You know
what was on top? The mercy seat. You know what
another name for the mercy seat is? The propitiatory or propitiation. You say, what does propitiation
mean, preacher? It means mercy seat or justice
satisfied. That's where we dwell. That's
where we abide. There's no need to be fearful.
That one who is the most high, he governs all things. He's the
anointed one. He's the one who's been exalted.
And we dwell in his presence. That's why we shouldn't be troubled.
That's why we shouldn't be anxious. Though others outside of the
secret place are agonizing and worrying about the circumstances
of the day, all who dwell in Christ Jesus, we sit under the
wings of the Lord, under the shadow of the Almighty. We're
sheltered. We are secure. And listen, we
are out of harm's way forever. That's good news, isn't it? We're
out of harm's way. I'm not saying our bodies won't
get hurt or harmed. I'm not saying disease won't
come to us. It may come to you. It may come
to me. I don't know. It can't touch my soul. Because I made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. And it is a secret place. You
know what the scripture says? The secret of the Lord is with
those that fear Him. I tell you, the Lord's got secrets.
And He doesn't reveal them to everybody, but He does reveal
them to His people. Lord, draw us, if you haven't
already, into the secret place, that we may dwell there, abide
there, and have no fear Let whatever the Lord is going to do, let
it all happen. Let it all unfold. And it will,
according to His perfect sovereign will and pleasure. It will. But
let us not be disturbed. He's the Most High. And He governs
all things to fulfill His eternal purpose. To glorify Himself. and He'll work all things together
for the good of His people. Who will do this? The Anointed
One. That's who will do it. The Anointed
One. Well, let me close in prayer. Our Father, it is with thanksgiving
we come to You that we have the privilege to open the Scriptures
and to once again see our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Anointed
One, Prophet, Priest, and King. He is the Messiah. He's the Anointed
One. He's the Christ. He's the Holy
Child Jesus. And He's our Savior. He's our
eternal surety. He's our shelter in the time
of storm. He's the rock upon whom we stand. And Lord, we give thanksgiving
for our Savior. And we're thankful for that effectual
grace that drew us to dwell under the shadow of the Almighty, to
abide in the secret place, to live in your presence, and
to know that you will never leave us and you will never forsake
us. You're not only with us, but
the Spirit of Christ is in us. Christ in you, Paul said, the
hope of glory. Lord, encourage your dear people
in these days of trouble and unrest. among many people. May we have a calm and sweet
repose. We've come to Christ Jesus for
rest. For rest. Such a peaceful word. Bless these words to the good
of your people. For Christ's sake I pray. Amen.