Hymn number 226. 226. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take him at his
word, indeed Christ I, for sinners this I reap, for in my heart
I That he should leave his place on high And come for sin for
man to die What's did I before I knew my
Savior? And oh, that He fulfilled, they
see, The travel of His soul in me, And with His Word contented
me As I with my dear Savior. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
326. More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show, More of His saving power see,
More of His love would die for me. More, more about Jesus. More of His love to die for me
More about Jesus More of His love to die for me Jesus, let me learn, more of
His holy will discern. Spirit of God, my teacher be,
Showing the face of Christ to me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His faithfulness sing,
More of His love to die for me. More about Jesus in His Word
Only communion with my Lord Hearing His voice in every life Making each faithful saving light. Oh, oh, oh, about Jesus. More of Jesus, more of His saving
cruelty, more of His love to die for me. More have Jesus on His throne
Riches in glory all His own More of His kingdom sure increase
More of His coming creates a peace. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. Open your Bibles with me, if
you have them, to Psalm 46. Psalm 46. While you're turning, Rick Garrett
called me today. His wife's in the hospital down
in Park West. They have to take lots of fluid
off of her and her kidneys. She's supposed to start on dialysis
tomorrow, and they don't think, you know, she's got very little
time left. But when we got to talking, he
started preaching to me before I hung up. Start preaching about
God's will and God's purpose. Ain't nothing happens in time
that wasn't purposed from all eternity. He said, that's what
keeps you standing when everything else around you is going down.
He said, that's what keeps me going. He said, if God be for
us, who can be against us? And he preached to me, and he
said, I don't mean to be preaching, but then he just kept on preaching. That's the difference that somebody
knows God and somebody just thinks they know God. He's facing one
of the toughest trials that anybody could face. His wife's been sick
for years now. But I tell you what, he's a jewel,
she is too. You think about It says, all
things work together for good. Now this here could really, really,
really work together for her good. Go be with the Lord. How good is that? How good is
that? Get to leave this old world behind,
all of its care, and all of its burdens, and all of its tears,
and all of its worries. Just leave it behind. All right,
let me read the 46th Psalm for you. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled through the mountain, though the mountains shake with
the swelling thereof? There is a river, the streams,
whereof shall make glad the city of God. the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She
shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that
right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of the hosts is with
us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord. desolations he hath made in the
earth. He maketh wars to cease unto
the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth
the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Oh, what a God's described here.
What a God. Be still, know that I am God. Not a God like you, not in all
this world, not in all this universe. Lord, you created this universe. You inhabited eternity. You declared
the end from the beginning. And all your purpose shall be
done. Your will shall be accomplished
in this earth. And all of us as your children,
all of us as those you saved by your precious grace, nothing,
nothing we want better and more than your will to be done in
our lives, for your will to be done in this congregation, for
your purpose to be carried out in our lives. And Lord, whatever
it takes for you to bring glory to yourself through us, You do
that. And Lord Jesus, we pray now for
the gospel tonight that you'd bless us in the preaching of
your word. And Lord, we do pray for our dear brother and sister,
for Rick and Helen. God, he asked for prayer, so
we pray for him. We know that you'll uphold him,
you have. Lord, he is Been blessed of you to know you,
she has. The Lord, our hearts are heavy
for him. Our hearts are heavy for him
especially. God, uphold him. Lord, strengthen
him. Give him rest in his body. Give
him rest in his mind. Give him rest where he could
sleep and make his peace, sleep to be peaceful, sweet to him. And, Lord Jesus, we pray for
Doc and Janie. Oh, Lord, please meet their needs. God, we have so many people that's
weak and frail, people that's sick, and they would be with
us if they could. But, Lord, bring glory to yourself
through all of us, through those that listen, those who cannot
make it to the services. Oh, God, bless them, strengthen
them, encourage them. Meet with us tonight. Bring glory
to yourself for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 249. 249. Just as I am without one plea,
but that Thy blood was shed for me. And that Thou bidst me come
to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of wanderplot To thee whose blood can cleanse
each spot Oh God, I go. I go. Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a gone, with many a doubt Fighting same fears, with pain,
without O Lamb of God, I come Just as I am, for rich and fine,
Sight richest healing of the mind, Gave all I need in thee, O God, I come, I come. Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome pardoned men freely. because I promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I back here at Psalm 46 with me. I want to talk about priceless
possessions, things that God's people possess. You know, God's people are confident
people. Now, they don't have any confidence
in the flesh, they don't have any confidence in themselves,
but they have confidence in God. have confidence in the Lord himself. And here in this Psalm 46, we
have the confidence of the Lord's people in their God, in their
God. Yes, they have trials. Yes, they have troubles. Yes,
they have fears. Yes, they have questions. But whenever something comes
their way, they don't fall apart. Whenever something happens, they
don't just come all to pieces, the way I've seen some folks
do. And then they don't excuse theirself. And I'll tell you,
this is something that I've seen folks say, they don't excuse
themselves by saying, I'm just weak. Well, that's a, That won't
hold water, and I'll tell you why. Our Lord said, My strength
is made perfect in your weakness. And is there any day in your
life where you don't feel the weakest? There's people that got strong,
you know, they're strong. They say they're strong, they
can do this, they can do that, and the other thing, they can
do this and that. But a believer, he said, God said, My grace is
sufficient for thee. My strength My strength, God's
strength, Christ's strength is made perfect, complete, absolutely
so, in our weakness. And I tell you what, the weaker
we are, the more we look to our Lord. And oh, here's some wonderful,
priceless possessions of God's people. And look at the first
one. Look at the first one. The mighty God Well, I'm in the
wrong place. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. We have an infallible refuge. God is our refuge. You know when
you need a refuge? Whenever there's a storm, whenever
there's too much heat, Whenever there's too much trouble, whenever
you got something that's against you, whenever something's going
on, you need a place to hide. A refuge is a place that you
go to get in when you got no place else to go, to get in out
of trouble, out of sorrow, out of grief, out of things that
would bother you dearly. And oh my, God is our refuge
and strength. You know what it is when he talks
about God is our refuge and strength? This is what he's talking about,
that we're hidden in God. We're hidden in God. And what
a wonderful hiding place, what a glorious refuge is God. Look over in Deuteronomy 32,
33, excuse me. Deuteronomy 33 in verse 27. You know, Paul says, that we are dead, dead to sin,
dead to the world. But our life is hid with God
in Christ. What a wonderful hiding place.
You know the safest place to hide from God's in God. You know,
we're dead and our life is hid in Christ, in God. And He says that when Christ
shall appear, and He's going to appear, then we'll appear
with Him and we'll also, oh my, be just like Him. We'll have
inner and glory. Look what it said here in verse
27, talking about God our refuge. The eternal God, now listen to
this, the eternal God, not just Him, the eternal God is thy refuge. underneath are the everlasting
arms." We sang that song, leaning on the Lord's everlasting arms.
And look what He says here, "'And He shall thrust out the enemy
before thee, and shall destroy them.'" Oh, the Eternal God is
our refuge, and His everlasting arms is under us. And what do
we need a refuge from? from sin. Oh, we need a hiding
place from sin. We need a refuse from sin. We
need a refuse from the wrath of God. We need a refuse from
wrath. We need a refuse from temptation. We need a refuse from the world.
We need a refuse from our inabilities. We need a refuse from our fears,
our troubles. And look what it says here in
verse 1. Not only has God our refuge and strength, but a very
present help. Very present help. When you're
in trouble. When you're in trouble. Oh my. I tell you, I need a refuge. And I need a refuge from this
flesh. A refuge from myself. And God is our refuge. We hide in His love. And oh, it's love is eternal.
That's one thing that Rick said today. He said, you imagine God
loving us. The love of God, that God actually
loved us before we were. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. How do you know you loved us?
I drew you with the cords of a man. I sent a man to draw you
to himself. And oh my, we hide in his love. It's eternal. We hide in his
grace. Oh my, we're hiding His grace
from our self-sufficiency and self-righteousness and pride.
In His grace we hide. We hide in His mercy. Oh my,
we hide in His power. He upholds us and He protects
us. And I'll tell you what, when
we get ready to go into eternity, we're eternal souls. That's what
we are, we're eternal souls. and our spirit and soul will
need an eternal refuge one of these days. Just as sure as God's
on His throne, we're gonna do our last day, our last hour,
our last minute on this earth, and you know we're gonna have
to have a place safe for our soul to go into eternity with.
And here's perfect safety. Here's a perfect refuge. FROM
ANYTHING THAT CAN HURT US WHEN WE GO INTO ETERNITY. THERE'S
NOTHING CAN HURT US NOW. IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE
AGAINST US? HUH? OH, MY. GOD'S A REFUGE. HIDE IN HIM. WHAT A WONDERFUL
PLACE TO HIDE. HIDE IN HIM. GO AND GET IN HIM. STAY RIGHT THERE. DON'T EVER
GET OUT. AND, OH, MY. LOOK AT THE CONFIDENCE NOW. OH,
THIS IS ONE OF THE IMPRESSIVE THINGS THAT WE HAVE IN VERSE
2 AND 3. Therefore will not we fear though
the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the seas Though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof
Now you're talking about a confidence immovable confidence. Look what
he says. Therefore we will not move Be
afraid we will not fear though the earth be removed And I'll
tell you something It's going to be removed. It's going to
be removed. It's going to be removed. I'll
tell you, look what it says. I'm going to show you that. Look
over in 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. You know, God's going
to roll this thing up. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 10,
you know, the earth shall be removed everything God said in
Hebrews. He said everything that can be
shaken will be shaken. It'll be scattered. It'll be
tore down. But we receiving a kingdom which
cannot be moved. This kingdom of God cannot be
moved. And you're talking about when
the water's swelling. Noah, when the waters were swelling,
he had a place to hide. He had an immovable God. He had
someplace to rest in. But look what it said here in
2 Peter 3 10. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night. That don't mean that, that just
means that he's going to come when you least expect it. That's
what that means. If you know somebody was going
to come and break into your house, you set up and watch for them.
But our Lord says, I'm going to come in such a way that you'll
never know when I'm coming. And in which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works
thereof shall be born, seeing then that all these things shall
be dissolved. What manner of persons we ought
to be in all early manner of life and godliness. Oh, my. for in hasting unto the coming
of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be
dissolved, and the elements melt with a fervent heat." Let me
show you something else in Hebrews. I think it's Hebrews chapter
1. I believe that's where it's at. I thought of this the other day.
Look here, Hebrews chapter 1. what he says here in verse 10. Talking about the earth be removed,
and it's going to be. Either the earth's going to be
removed or we're going to be removed from the earth. But look
what he said here in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 10, And thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the works of thy hands. Now listen to this,
They shall perish. but you remaineth. And this old
world, they'll all wax old as doeth a garment." Wax old, just
like this old, it's going to be like a garment. And as a vesture,
he said, I'm just going to fold them up and they'll be changed,
but God, you're the same. You're the same. Oh, when the
earth is removed, our soul is saved for it dwells in God. And this earth is going to be
removed. You know why? this earth be removed, we got
a foundation already laid for us. We already got a foundation. Christ is our foundation. We're
built on a rock. Let the world do what it's going
to do. Let it be removed. We're on a
solid rock. We're on the foundation. And
not only that, but we're looking for a city that has foundations
that God himself built and laid the foundation for. The world right now is a tumult.
The foundations of this world is crumbling all around us. I
mean, you look around us, and this world is like a drunk man
staggering. One of these days, it looks like
it's going to just fall over. But, oh, this world's in a tumult,
and everything in it. But, ah, listen, look what He
said. We're not going to be afraid. The earth's going to be removed.
And the mountains, you know what they're going to say? They'll
say, Rocks and mountains fall on us, hide us from the wrath
of the Lamb of God that's to come. That mountain's gonna be
removed, they're gonna fall on people. And oh my, God's, but
God's the God of the mountains, and He's the God of the valleys.
He's the God of the rivers, He's the God of the ocean. He's the
God of over everything. And oh my, and though the waters
thereof roar and be troubled. Now you go back and think about
Noah. He built an ark. It took him
120 years to build that ark. You can go out here and buy a
boat. You know, you could build a boat yourself quicker than
that, but it took him 120 years, and he preached righteousness
for 120 years. And then that rain, you know,
never had rain before, and they said, what a fool this man is.
But when it started raining, and it rained, and it rained,
and it rained, and it rained, and it rained, and it rained.
And that water started lifting him up, and that water out of
the fountains of the deep, God broke him up. that water took
that up there, and can you imagine how roaring that water was? I
mean, the roar of it. We get in storms sometimes, and
it roars, that water roars. No, of course, the water roared,
it's safe. We're safe as we'll ever be from
time and eternity in our Lord Jesus Christ. Uh-huh. Oh my,
I tell you what, what a sweet, sweet rest we have. That's what
he says. Oh my, oh what a rest we got. Let them be carried, let them
be carried into the midst of the sea. Let the waters roar.
God's the God of the mountains and God of the valleys. Oh my,
and then look what here, you're talking about a supply. Not only
is our refuge and our strength and the very present help and
our confidence in him, but look what he says. There is a river. There is a river. I've got a
message on that. I don't know how many years ago
I preached, but there is a river. And from that river, the streams
whereof shall make glad. Who's it make glad? God's people,
the city of God, the tabernacles of the Most High. Oh, my. There's a river, streams, and
it makes God's people glad. There's a stream. Oh, look at
Psalm, look over here in Psalm 36 in verse 8. Psalm 36 in verse
8. Oh, my. They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures." Oh, my. Everything we need flows
from that river. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
he told that woman at the well, if you knew, if you knew The
gift of God, I would have given you everlasting water. But that river that flows from
God himself and all them streams that come out, there's streams,
there's a stream of forgiveness. There's the stream of justification.
There's the stream of completeness, and perfection, and sanctification,
and assurance, and grace, and mercy, and love. All these different
streams flow from this one river that comes from the throne of
God. And let me show you something, Revelations 22. Somebody read
this just the other day. It was, I believe it was Brad
read this the other night, last Sunday night. Sunday's ago. I don't know. But look what it
says here in Revelations 22, 1. Oh, my. Look what it says. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life. Clear as crystal proceed out
of the throne of God. And it rose right down the street. Let me show you something else
in John, you know somebody asked me about this one time said what
the world's you reckon this means and They had difficulty in John
chapter 7 verse 37 Look what it says over here Our Lord's speaking now. In the
last day, that great day of the feast, he's talking about Feast
of the Passover, of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the Scriptures has said, out of his belly shall
flow livers of living water. Now, there's people that think
that that means when we believe on Christ, there's going to be
streams of living water flow out of us. You reckon that's
right? You know where these streams
of waters come from? They come out of Christ. This, you know,
when you believe on him, that's where that life stream comes
from. That's where that life comes. That's where that water
of life comes. That's where that pure river
comes from. And then look what he said, but this is spake. OF
THE SPIRIT THAT BELIEVE ON HIM SHOULD RECEIVE, FOR THE HOLY
GHOST WAS NOT YET GIVEN THEM, THAT JESUS WAS GLORIFIED." Oh,
not glorified. And, oh, my, there's a river,
streams, and He leads us. And here's another thing He does.
Every once in a while, He'll lead us beside the still waters,
the still waters of His glorious will and purpose. And we drank
from the rivers of God's eternal truth. I mean, God's truth does
not change. His word does not change. God
does not change. And we drank from that river
of eternal truth. Eternal truth. Oh, my. All we need is found in our refuge,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look what else it says now.
Down here in verse 5 through 7. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. Now he's
talking about his people, his church. God shall help her and
that right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is
our refuge. Oh, refuge means a high place
here. But oh, what an unfailing comfort
here. God is in the midst. God is in
the midst. Our Lord says, wherever two or
three are gathered together in my name, where is he at? He said,
I'll be there. I'll be right in the middle of
them. Be right in the middle of, surely
there's two or three of us here today. And I mean, you know what
he said, I'll be, if you had two or three together, that's
where I'll be too. I'll be right there with them.
I'll be right in the middle of them. And then look what he said, and
God shall help her. God shall help. Now who needs more help than
that? Huh? Who needs, who needs, if
you got that kind of help, if God be your help, who else do
you need? Huh? And then look what it said,
he uttered his voice. Oh my. He uttered his voice and
we heard it in the gospel. We uttered his voice and we heard
it in the nature. We heard it, we heard it in the
heavens. We heard it in the sun. We heard
it in the stars, in the moon. We heard it in everything that
God made. We've heard his voice. We've
heard His voice. We heard it. We heard the voice
of God, the voice of Christ. And then look what He said, the
Lord of hosts is with us. You know what it says when He's
the Lord of hosts? That means all the armies in heaven. I wonder
how many armies there are, how many people there are in heaven.
I wonder how many How many angels are there? Our Lord said, he
said, when they come to get him, he said, I could have called
12 legions of angels. 12. And they'd have been right
here. That's all I had to do, just
call them. And they'd have come. They'd
have come. But God said he's the Lord of
hosts. I wonder what kind of army he's got. But all he has
to do is send one angel. He sent an angel one time and
slew 85,000 people with one angel. So imagine what kind of armies
he's got. And one of these days, he's going
to come with that army, and he's going to destroy this world and
everything in it, and people are going to have to face that
God. Going to have to face that God. And oh my, the Lord of the
armies of heaven, that's what he's called, talking about. And
then he says, oh, the Lord of hosts is here. And listen to
this now. God is for us, God is in us, and he's among us.
God is in the midst. God is in the midst. And then
he says, the God of Jacob is our refuge. The God of Jacob. Oh, my. You know, God shall help
us. Ain't that what it says? God
shall help us. The Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, God shall help
us, and that right early. That means he gets up early to
take care of us. God shall help. Let me ask you,
has he ever failed you at any one time in your whole life?
I told somebody the other day, a lost man. I told a lost man
this. And he don't believe nothing.
And I told him, I said, well, I know one thing, there won't
nobody, nobody meet God. and go into eternity, they'll
be able to say, God was not good to me. God has been good to every man
and woman on this earth. I mean, listen, I mean, even
the most wicked people that ever was, he has been good to people. And when they face God and they
find out how good he was, But I'll tell you what, that's gonna
be awful. But God shall help us. He uttered his voice, he
speaks peace, he speaks comfort. Sometimes he speaks in rebuke.
But oh, bless his name, he speaks to us in his word. And then he's
our protection. He's our protection. Oh, our
confident protection. That's why he calls him the God
of Jacob. Look with me in Exodus 33. I'm about to get ahead of
myself. Or get behind one, I don't know
which. My head or behind. But all we have here is continual
protection. Ain't that what he says? The
Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob, our refuge. Look
what he says down here in verse 13. Exodus 33 in verse 14. And God told Moses here, he says,
my presence shall go with thee, and I'll give thee rest. Oh,
wherever's God at, there's rest. And he said unto him, if thy
presence go not with me, don't carry us up hence. In other words,
God, if you don't have, we don't have your presence, we don't
have nothing. We don't wanna go nowhere without
your presence. That's what he's talking about. And oh my. And then the God of Jacob. Look
what he's back over in our text. The God of Jacob. You know what
it says about Jacob? It's the God of Jacob. God said,
I love Jacob. Never having done any good or
evil. I loved Jacob before he was ever born. I loved him. And you know what else I did
for him? I gave him the blessing, the spiritual blessing that I
promised Abraham. He's going to carry on the covenant.
Jacob have I loved. Oh my. And then not only did
he love him, but he was a chosen vessel unto God Almighty. And
you know what he did? He inherited the blessings. And
then one night when he was on his way out of town because his
brother was going to kill him, he laid down and had his pillow
as a rock. And there's a big ladder come
down from heaven and rest from heaven all the way down to earth.
He was going up and down on that ladder. He woke up the next morning,
and he says, God is in this place. And that's why he called, from
then on, they called that Bethel, the house of God. So that's how the God of Jacob
is our refuge. And then he brought him to nothing.
And guess what he did? He gave him a new name, Israel.
Gave him a new name, the Prince was God. And oh, my. And then let me give you this
one. Look, verses eight and nine. Come, behold the works of the
Lord. What desolations he hath made
in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto
the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow, cutteth
the spear and sunder. He burneth the chariots in the
fire. Oh, what assurance we get here. God says, come, behold. Come behold, what desolations,
what desolations he hath made. He makes wars to seize. And when
he comes and says, behold his works, the works the Lord hath made.
That means look back to what he's done. Look forward to what
he's doing. And oh, this is what he did,
and he won't change. He won't change. And look what
he says. What desolations has he has made in the earth? I Think
the desolations he's talking about to me to me He's made man's
will man's works man's hopes man's He made everything about
man desolate. He makes desolate makes wars
to cease and all he makes desolation of men's works makes desolation
of men's ways and You know, he drove Adam out of the garden.
He rejected Cain, made desolations out of Cain's works of his hands. Oh, my. And I tell you what,
you look at all the desolations he's caused. Babylon. What a
great nation this is that I made. You can't even find where it
existed. Rome. All worlds, everything went to
Rome. You can go to England and find
Roman baths. You can go to Germany and find
Roman roads. You can go all over Europe and
find where Rome has been. And now, They got a desolation,
you're not talking about making something desolate. He made a
man call himself the Pope, and God said, you're a desolate idiot.
You're a desolate man. And anybody that believes on
you, they're as desolated as you are. Oh, I tell you what,
he destroyed Sodom. Oh, what nations he's made desolate. And oh my, of the gospel of Christ,
How many nations has he made desolate of the gospel of Christ? And I tell you what, he's going
to yet make men and their arrogance and their pride and their boasting
to be desolate. And then, bless his name, he'll
make wars to cease under the end of the earth. And I'll tell
you this, he made wars to cease in our hearts. He made peace. He made that war
in our hearts and in our natures to cease. And when the Prince
of Peace comes, oh my, it stops the war in our hearts and someday
we'll dwell in the land of perfect peace. Peace, peace, wonderful
peace coming down from the Fathers of life. Now listen to this one. I tell you, I hope I'm not taking
too long. Look what he says this next one.
Verse 10, be still, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth."
Oh, my. He's talking about peace. Peace. Be still. Be still. Be peaceful. Be quiet. Be peaceful. Be restful. Does God change? Because our circumstances are
tough? Does He change when we're afraid? Does He change when we don't
understand why? No, no, no. Be still. Be quiet, be restful, be peaceful. God, be still, know. Know that I'm God. How can we know He's God unless
we steal? A lot of folks don't know God
unless there's a lot of noise going on. They think there ain't
a lot of noise going on, a lot of whooping and hollering and
walking the aisles and all that. They think God's out of business.
But God said, I want you to just be as still as you can be. I
want you to be as quiet. I want you to be peaceful. I
want you to be still. Be restful. Be restful. You know why? Because I'm God. And ain't nothing gonna change.
No matter what your circumstances, what your situation, what's going
on, nothing will ever change that. Oh, our strength is to sit still. Let me show you. I've got one
little more thing before I get done. Look in Isaiah 30 with
me. Look in Isaiah 30. I think that's where I want to
go. Yeah, Isaiah 30. Look in verse 7. Look in verse
7. You know, our strength is to
sit still. And you know, when people's listening
to the gospel and listening to the Word of God, you know, that's
one thing that people do. They listen. They listen. They're listening. They want
to learn what they want to learn. Look what he said in verse 7,
Isaiah 37. 30, chapter 30, verse 7. For the
Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore
have I cried concerning this, their strength is to sit still. Just be still. That's where your
strength is. Egypt can't help you. There's no purpose there.
Just your strength is in being still. Look what he says down
in verse 15. For thus saith the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall you be saved,
in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Oh, boy. All right. Just hush, hush, hush, listen
to God, be still, and know that I'm God. You know, I told my kids years
ago, everybody wants a radio on all the time. There's something
going on all the time. Gotta have some noise. And I
told them, I said, turn your radio off. Turn your CD player
off, turn whatever you got and listen to your car. That thing
may be falling apart and you won't know it because you got
the thanks aloud that you don't know. But people don't know what
it is to be still and be quiet. They don't wanna be, they just,
listen, there's nothing like just sitting and contemplating
God. There's nothing like it. You sit around and start talking
about God, next thing you know, you'll be lost in wonder. You'd
be lost in wonder. A fellow mentioned the other
day about St. Corinthians 521, God made him
to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And the way he described it and
the way he dealt with it, it was so good, so right. And I wrote him and told him,
I said, every time I've looked at that verse of scripture, I
still stand in wonder, and I stand in awe, how in the world can
Christ, who knew no sin, did no sin, never thought sin, how
could he be made to be sin? How can you explain that? And
I said, I've been pastor 46 years, and it still makes me stand in
wonder and awe. Be still, Lord, I'm God. How
can God do that? How can Christ be made to be
something that he's really not? And then how can we be made something
that we never were? Huh? Oh, be still. I can't understand it. But I
do, I sure do love it. I love it. Oh, my. Then last of all, look at this
one. Verse 10 and 11. Be still, know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the heathen. You know who the heathen is?
That's us. Anybody who wasn't a Jew was a heathen. Barbarians. You understand just what a heathen
I really am. Oh my, but oh, I'll be exalted
among the heathen. Oh my, and he has been. He is
called, oh, a multitude that no man can number. And oh my,
even now, how high is God to us? How high is God to us? How exalted is he? my, and then
he said he'll be exalted in the earth. One of these days, God
is going to be exalted before every soul that's ever lived
on the topside of God's earth. He'll call them all back, and
they'll let everybody know that this is God. And everybody's
going to confess. Everybody's going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. What for? To God's glory. you're gonna find out that I'm
God. And I'll tell you what, and I've said this before, it
won't take him but a snap of a finger to judge this world.
It's already judged, but oh my. And then look what he says. I'll
be exalted in the earth. And again, he said this, the
Lord of hosts is with us. Oh my. He is exalted to be our
refuge, exalted to be our strength, And we attribute everything to
Him. And more someday, everybody,
everybody is going to know that He's God. And I am grateful that
I know it this side of eternity. How do I know it? He made me
know it. He made me know it. Oh, our blessed, blessed Savior,
thank you for your word. Thank you for the hymn sung tonight.
Thank you for our brothers and sisters in Christ. God bless
our brothers and sisters that's in such a trial right now that
you put them in the fire, put them in the furnace. The Lord,
when you put someone in the furnace, you get in it with them. When
you go through somebody in trouble, you go through it with them.
You're there with them, all very present help in their time of
trouble. God bless, God encourage, God
strengthen. Thank you for your people. Thank you for bringing your blessed
people home safe as travel, and give those who are going to travel,
give them traveling mercy, see them safely home. Bring glory
to yourself through us. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. And the things, yes, they really
will, in the light of His glory and
grace. Well, I'll see you Sunday, God
will.