The term of the Indian Bible
is Psalm 46. Psalm 46. As Marvin was preaching and using
up all my proof text, I was wondering how in the world I'm going to...
I've got plenty of others. I'm sure the Lord will give me plenty
as I come along. If I quote the same one, I don't think it would
be grievous to you. I think you'll need to hear it
again. I'm thankful for that. Psalm 46, the title of my message
is A Song of Holy Confidence. That hymn we just sang was wonderful,
Lord, I believe, but oft I know my faith is cold and weak. My
weakness strengthen and bestow the confidence I seek. By God's grace, I pray that this
scripture would give you that confidence. You shouldn't expect
that confidence to come from me. And you won't find that confidence
in yourself. You can look to the Word of God
and you can stand on it. You can put your soul on it.
Because God, who is, He cannot lie and He cannot change. The
Word's always been there. I'm gonna tell you something,
it's always been there. It's always been there for you. May
God now take it and apply it. Let's read this together. We'll
look at the, we'll read the first seven verses. You know, I'm never
going to get to these seven verses, so that's just a hope, a vain
hope I ever get through these verses. Psalm 46, chapter 46,
verse 1, it says, a song that says, God, God is our refuge
and strength. 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, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of
God. the holy place of the tabernacle 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, and the kingdoms
were moved. They uttered his voice, and the
earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us,
but God of Jacob is our refuge. a song of holy confidence. I
know this is true of every believer in Jesus Christ. Everyone who
has, by the grace of God, experienced the new birth and been given
faith in Christ. I know this. Your life is full
of trouble. Your life is full of trouble.
You're surrounded by enemies, both without and within. You're
constantly bombarded with sickness and trouble and difficulty. Your hearts are filled with sorrow
and our providences are often dark. This is what religion...
They paint a picture as though when a man is saved, everything
gets better. No. No, I don't want to... I'm not a used car salesman.
The moment you believe, your life is going to turn upside
down. and all the things that once
you once loved you'll hate, and all the things that once loved
you will hate you. God's people experience trouble. But I have confidence in this,
and you should too, that none of our foes, none of our troubles
will overcome you. None of them will win. The Scriptures
are clear. You are more than conquerors
in Christ Jesus who loves you. Through Christ Jesus. You're
more than conquerors. None of these afflictions shall
remove you from Christ. You are His sheep. He is your
shepherd. None of you shall fall short
of eternal life. You can rest on that. None of
you shall fall short. None of us. We have this hope
and confidence. Our Lord says this. that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And this is their confidence. You come to Christ this morning.
This is your confidence. I will in no wise cast them out.
For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the
will of Him has sent me. And if you're confused as to
what the will of the Father is, here it is. That of all which
He hath given me I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day. So then all of us who are believers in Christ now,
this is our confidence that none of us shall be lost. None of
us shall fail to enter in to heaven. Not one. And I'm also
confident of this, that all that God has chosen and Christ died
for, that have not yet come, they will come. Now look, if I didn't believe
that, I wouldn't preach. Preaching's hard enough, that'd
be miserable. Not having any confidence anybody's
gonna come. I know this, they will come.
They will come. God will use me or maybe inspire
me, they will come. All of them will come, none of
them will be lost. All the Father gave Christ, he purposed to save
all Christ saved, the Holy Spirit will come to them, And because
Jesus Christ has fulfilled the will of the Father, none of them
will be lost. All will believe. Therefore,
God the Holy Spirit has given us this confidence, this confidence. And this is a psalm of confidence.
That's what the Spirit has intended, this word for you, that you might
have confidence. Not in yourself, but in God. In God. Now this psalm here has three
things that unfold very rapidly in the first verse that should
instill confidence in every believer. Here it is. Number one, God is
our refuge. There's the first thing that
instills confidence in us. Second of all, God is our strength. And third, He is a very present
help in trouble. And what does these three things
do? It removes fear. Therefore, we will not fear.
Though the earth be removed, the mountains be cast in the
sea, though the waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains
shake, we will not fear, but rather the streams of God, the
streams which is Christ, make glad the city of God. So this
is it. This is my confidence. So first
off, this refuge. Believer, no matter what happens
in this life, this is the whole subject of this psalm, no matter
what happens to you in this life, the Lord's people are happy and
secure. The Lord's people are secure.
They're safe. They're safe. This is the doctrine
of the whole psalm, the refuge. It's mentioned in verse 1, verse
7, and verse 11. The Lord is our refuge. Martin
Luther wrote this hymn. He said, A safe stronghold our
God is still, a trusty shield and weapon. He'll keep us clear
from all the ill that hath us now o'ertaken. And where this
world with devils o'er and watching to devour us, We lay it not to
heart so sore they cannot overpower us." No matter what happens. Because why? God is your refuge. God Himself in whom the heavens
cannot contain. He is our refuge. Let us let the world trust in
whomsoever they will. Let them make gods of silver
and gold. who cannot save, who have no
strength or power, but we trust in Jehovah. He is our foundation,
He is our refuge, and we rest our souls on Jesus Christ, our
rock, our sure foundation. We abide in Him, in Christ. The psalmist said, 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. The Lord's my refuge. Secondly,
the Lord's my strength. He's my strength. How is it that you now live?
How is it now you who believe in Christ have been born again?
That was by His strength. By His power you were born again. And it's by His power you will
continue to live and move and have your being in Christ. By
grace we have been born again and given faith and we have laid
hold on Him. We are like Noah who found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. You know why Noah entered in
that ark? He found grace. That's the only reason he entered
that ark. It's the only reason he built the ark. God gave him grace. He found grace. And thirdly,
God's my help. God's my constant help. Not only is He my help, but listen,
He's my perpetual help. My constant help is God. He is
an ever-present God. Now these are the three things
I want us to go over. We're going to go over them in
more detail. I want us to see this. It's very important because
we're so easily thrown. We're so easily... That psalm
that we just... I would. I believe. I would trust. I would believe. I do believe. But man, I would believe. I do
praise. Man, I would praise. I long to
praise Him. I long to have this confidence.
And so let's look at these three things. The Lord is my refuge.
Surely in Christ, this is what it is, we who are in Christ have
a refuge. And this is because He has endured
the greatest affliction ever. He has endured the most fierce
and powerful force in all the universe, the wrath of God. He
has endured the justice of God as our representative, as our
federal head, and we were in Him. The Scripture says, there
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are where? In Christ
Jesus. Who walk not after the Spirit,
but after the flesh. What does that mean? Those who
walk by faith. That's what it is to walk after
the Spirit. It's to walk by faith. It's to walk by love and not
having any confidence in the flesh. What the law could not
do in that it was weak through what? The flesh. God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin where? In His flesh. In His flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Lamb,
He is the Lamb slain. The Lamb of God that bore away
the sin of the world. Who by His one offering has forever
satisfied forever pleased God. And here is our confidence. This
is it. He has done it. He has paid in
full all that we owe to God. You feel that twinge of guilt
in your conscience because of your sin? How can you have confidence
God loves you today? Look inside your heart just for
one minute and see if you find any confidence there. You won't
find any confidence in you. Here's your confidence in your
refuge. Your confidence is in Christ
who has removed your sin from you. God took your sin, imputed
it to His Son, made Him to be sin for you, who knew no sin,
that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now that's confidence.
That's something to be confident about. Him, our refuge, the blood
of the Lamb was slain. We are like that firstborn in
the land of Egypt that night. You remember God required a perfect
sacrifice, a spotless Lamb. He said, take the spotless Lamb,
slay the Lamb, put the Lamb on the door post and on the lentil.
And then you take that firstborn and you put him where? In the
house. And you shut him up. And when
God came through that night, I tell you, the justice of God
fell on every one of them in Egypt. It fell on everybody. But when He saw the blood, what
did He do? He said, I will pass over you. Why? Judgment had already been
satisfied. Justice could not enter in. It was already done. God cannot
demand twice payment. at my bleeding surety's hand
and then again at mine. He cannot do it. Isn't that what
he says in Isaiah? He said that the Lord hath, of
his hand the Lord hath received what? Double for all your sins. Double payment. That's doubly
good. His blood was sufficient, sufficient. And as we in Christ, we were
in Christ, and that blood was applied to our hearts by the
Spirit of God, the justice of God says, satisfied. I'm satisfied
with that one. I'm satisfied with that one.
I'm satisfied with that one. All who are in Christ, I'm satisfied,
God says. I require nothing of you. Why? Already took it at His hand.
Already took it. Paid in full. Faith in Christ then is the evidence
of this. How do I know that blood was
applied to me? That's an important question.
I know it was applied to the elect. Is that me? I know God is good to Israel,
but as for me, how many times have you said that? I don't know
about me. I see how God be good to Marvin.
I have a tough time. It could be good to me. What's
the evidence? Here it is. Faith in Christ. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you believe on the Son? Everyone
that believes this is the evidence of the blood being applied is
faith in Christ. And if you have faith in Christ,
know this, you are in Christ. You are in Christ. And Christ
is your refuge. Now how long is He your refuge?
Marvin, how long? Eternity. He's always been my refuge. I didn't know it till he came
to me. But when he came to me, I know it. And oftentimes I'm
confused. When I'm confused, all I have
to do is look at the refuge. Everything's clear. It's done. Second of all, God is your strength.
God is your strength. are safe in this refuge, yet
in this life, in this body of flesh, we are often contending
with the flesh. As a matter of fact, the Spirit
lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit.
These two things are contrary one to another, so that you cannot
do what you would. What would the Spirit do? What
would the new man do? He would always serve God. He
would always love God. He would always be righteous.
Now what does your flesh do? He will always sin. He will always
hate God. He will always... God didn't
change your flesh, you know that? God did absolutely nothing to
your flesh. He gave you a new nature that
now rules over your flesh, but He didn't do anything to the
old man. He didn't do anything. Still just as vile and corrupt. Spewing out hatred. We are often
continuing with this flesh, so what do you need? What do you
need? You know you must continue in
faith. What do you need? You need strength.
You need strength. Paul said this, he said, Christ
hath made peace by the blood of his cross. How do you know
he made peace for you? If you continue, you must continue. if you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel. And I know this is true, that
all that God chose in sovereign election, all that Christ redeemed
by His blood, shall come to him in faith, and none of them will
be lost, but also know this, every one of them persevered.
Not one of them will fail to believe in Christ all their life. All after he had come to them,
they won't stop believing. And what Martin Luther said,
he said, they shall, he that believeth, he that endureth to
the end. Who's gonna be saved? He that endureth to the end.
He that endureth to the end. There's so many that make a vain
profession of faith, make some decision, get baptized, join
the church, and they endure for a while. They grit their teeth,
and man, they really try. They try to enjoy this. You know,
they put on that front, they really want to enjoy this. They
just can't. And then affliction comes, trials
come, they lose their family, they lose their friends. And
what do they do? Like a dog, they return to their
vomit. Now, if faith is the evidence
of our salvation, then what's the evidence of true
faith? Endurance. If my faith is real, it will
endure. It will endure because He keeps
those that He gives faith to. He keeps them in the faith. So then where does the strength
come from to endure? It does not come from us. It does not come from our sincerity.
It does not come from our devotion. It does not come from your determination.
It comes from the strength of God. Therefore, this is my confidence
I'll endure. The Lord who is my refuge is
also my strength. He that hath begun a good work
in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. There
it is. God's my strength. God's my confidence
and my strength. Now, the third thing here is
He is my present help in trouble. Don't you know this, that you're
a believer that God's always near you? He's so near you, the scripture
says He's in you. He's in you. He worketh in you
both to will and do of His. Why are you here? You suppose
you got up and determined to come here? Well, who did that? God did. He's in you. He is a
very present help in trouble. He's in you. Go to Psalm 91. I want you to see this because
this has got to be, this was a blessing to me. I assure it's
a blessing to you. 91. Psalm 91. Since God is in you, and the
Scripture tells us that He is our present help in trouble,
Psalm 91 and verse 9. Because thou hast made the Lord,
which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation. Isn't that what happens when
a man believes? Jesus said, you abide in Me and
I abide in you. You know, you can't get any closer
than we are. Christ in you and Christ in me.
You can't get any closer. We're one. We're in union together. He's my head and I am His body. And then what's the result of
our union? This is it. Verse 10. There shall
no evil befall thee. Do you hear that? How much evil
is going to befall you? Neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling. This is a promise of God who
is our help. No evil at all shall befall thee. No plague shall come nigh thy
dwelling. Where is thy dwelling? In Christ. That's where your dwelling is.
No plague, no evil shall befall thee. Now this is misunderstood,
misinterpreted, misused by the religious world to say that God
wants you to be happy, healthy, wealthy in this world. That's
not so. We know this and we understand
that this does not mean that we're not going to experience
physical troubles or physical plagues or physical difficulties. What it does mean is this, that
whatsoever happens to you who are in Christ, is not evil. Whatever it is. And so when we live in a hut
or a palace, it's not evil. If you're sick, it's not evil.
If you die, it's not evil. God says, I know my thoughts
toward you. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. That goes against every grain
of your flesh. Your flesh says it's evil, it
hurts. God says it's not evil. Look
at Job. Look at him. All of that was
for his good and not his evil. Nothing shall befall us that's
evil. It is impossible for any ill
to happen to God's people because God controls all things. Every
calamity we face, every difficulty we face is ordained of God. Now listen, if God is my refuge
and God is my strength, listen, then in every calamity and difficulty,
God is also my help. How often do we spend our days
going, trying to find help in the flesh? Usually God is the
last place we turn. I think of Israel, how God had
to pin them in. They'd never went to the Red
Sea. If God had not pinned them in, they'd never done it. But
it was for their good. We see the dead bodies of their
enemies washed up. That was good! It wasn't as good
until they got over there. But it was good. Listen, God
is here and He is only working all things for your good. Everything. This is to be your confidence.
And notice these things that He mentions in verse 46. He says,
Therefore, because God is my refuge, because God is my strength,
because God is ever present and is my constant help in trouble,
that all things are for my good, he says this, therefore we will
not fear. Therefore, will not we fear. And he mentions these four things,
though the earth be removed. What does that mean? Will the
earth be removed? These things kind of sound catastrophic like
it's the end of the world. Remember, we're talking about
a present hell. The context is present hell.
This sounds like, you know, when the end of the world comes, we're
not going to need any help. It's going to be done. We need help now. So this is
talking about things that happen now. Though the earth be removed. What does this mean? Though your
earthly supports and earthly helps and earthly foundations
be removed. How many times God had to remove
those earthly foundations you leaned on? Is He not still doing that? Still
doing it in me? Constantly those things. Family
and friends and all of those things. Why? So we lean on Him. We lean on Him. If those things
be removed, if the mountains be carried in the midst of the
sea, what is this? Mountains are strong, visible things. They are things you would think
would never be removed. I think of the pillars of the
church. We just lost one. Brother Henry was a pillar of
the church. You can remove all the pillars
of the church and the church will still stand. What are we? Just vessels. Just pillars. Just clay pots. And what if we
were removed? Would that do anything to our
salvation? No. No. Though the earth be removed,
though the mountains be casted, though the waters roar in their
trouble. The waters beat against your little vessel. Waters of
trouble and difficulty and trials. The bark seems to overflow. It's like it's going to sink
our ship. Oh no. Don't worry about that. God who
sends the peace also sends the storm. He controls the sea, doesn't
He? Though the mountains tremble
and shake, what is this, your faith? How times our faith is
so strong. When you get in conferences like
this, it's strong. When you hear the gospel, it's
encouraged and your soul, you feel like you can be lifted up
to heaven. It's wonderful. You see Christ so clearly. You
see His salvation as something solid and strong. And the moment
you step out, where'd my faith go? Where'd
my faith go? Oh, then what makes glad the
city of God is this river. Streams makes glad. What are
the streams of this gospel of salvation make glad the city
of God? There is a river. There is a
river that flows from God above. There is a fountain that cleanses
a soul from sin. Who's that fountain? It's Christ.
It doesn't matter who's removed from us. It doesn't matter what
our faith is, strong or weak. My salvation doesn't rest in
my faith. It rests in His. Why? He's my refuge. He's my strength. He's my help. When? In trouble. Which seems to be my whole life. in trouble. Friends, may God Himself give
you holy confidence. For we are of them that have
no confidence in the flesh. No confidence. The more I grow
in grace, the more weak I see this flesh, how vile I see it. But the more I see Him too. Why
do you think He gives us these troubles? So we'd run to Him. Run to Him. May God bless you.