The title of the sermon is God Is Our Refuge by J.K. Popham on the 4th of August 1922, on the 46th Psalm. This is a psalm for troubled people, for an afflicted church, for people who are exposed, exposed to danger. The greatest danger to which any creature coming from Adam and sinning continually in himself can be exposed is the wrath of God. Nothing for terribleness, nothing for inevitableness. If we are out of Christ, can be compared to that awful danger, that consuming wrath of God. And we are all in that case by nature, children of wrath, even as others, daily and hourly and momentally. in the view of God. And if he were to look on us as we are in our first head, Adam, and in our own states and cases, there could be no hope.

But that God against whom we have sinned, whose wrath we have deserved, has made himself, we could not have done it, the refuge of his own people. the refuge of all who are led and taught to fill their dreadful state, and that they deserve perdition. And this is the infinite kindness of God. If any poor wretch comes to fill his exposed condition, to confess that he does deserve an endless hell, He has given to him faith in Jesus Christ. What we have just been singing may be addressed to him. Ye fearing, doubting souls, turn in.

This blessed refuge, as made known in the Gospel, is revealed in the heart as it is in the Scriptures. God is our refuge, and this is what everyone wants to be able to say, each for himself, in the church of the living God. God is my refuge, a refuge in the storm of deserved anger, a refuge in time of trouble, when trouble on every hand appears. Trouble of this kind, that is, trouble for sin and trouble for God, trouble that we have dishonoured his name, broken his law, and brought upon ourselves his most just but awful curse. Trouble, because when we would do good, we find evil to be present with us. When we would be holy, we find nothing but sin in us. When we would fear God, we find a spirit of presumption. When we would go unto Him, we find a spirit of pride and independence. From all this, God has made Himself our refuge.

How could He do it, seeing it is in His nature to avenge Himself, to punish sin? For it is impossible for God to pass sin and to hold Him guiltless that takes His name in vain. We would not answer these questions if they were not answered in the scriptures, but they are answered there. God in the person of Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus, who possessed in himself all deity, this is the refuge, and he in his infinite goodness and pity says, come unto me. His heart is open. His gospel points the way. His spirit teaches the way and gives power to the feeble and the distressed to run in that way into that refuge.

Jesus Christ then is our refuge from an impending wrath. Oh, what a mercy it is to have a heart to flee from the wrath to come. Such a heart is the creation of the Holy Ghost.

God is our refuge from another danger. from the danger felt and feared of indwelling sin, the monster sin. Either by subtlety or by open assault, sin will constantly seek to destroy the soul, and no poor child of God is sufficient for himself in this matter. No, only the Lord Jesus Christ has power to overcome indwelling sin, and it is not the exercise of his own eternal omnipotence apart from his love and grace. No, it is his love, it is his grace, it is his mercy, it is his truth, his blessed gospel, as spoken, open, applied by which he overcomes sin. Ah, he knows how to do this business. He did it effectually in Peter. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And that was more than Peter could stand. That must have been terrible to him, no part with Christ. no lot in him. This was too much, and so ignorant his opposition to Christ washing his feet was thus overcome. And he said in his usual impetuosity, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

This is how Christ overcomes indwelling sin, the sweet compulsion of his grace, the overcoming influence of his powerful love. the enshrining of his truth, his gospel, his countenance whereby we are both justified and sanctified and reconciled and also receive the atonement.

God is our refuge and strength. When you, any of you fearing God, have at any time tried to overcome some evil, some temper, some rashness of spirit, have you not failed? And what has the Spirit done? Corrected your error and turned your eye or your feet to the dear Redeemer. And perhaps given you such a word as this, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. And then you have found that what you could not manage was affected in a moment by him. And then you may have found that word in Isaiah to be most true in your experience.

The lofty city, the lofty city, he layeth it low, he layeth it low, even to the ground, he bringeth it into the dust. Then he says, the foots shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor. And kings were brought in captive, and their power gone. Then said Joshua to the princes, Come and put your feet on their necks.

And when the Lord has captivated you and overcome some of your sins, perhaps some particular sin at a particular time, and you looked upon your enemy as having been overcome, he may say, Now put your feet on the neck of that. The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.

When you can make Christ your refuge from the power of indwelling sin, you will find real help and power in your soul to triumph in the Lord.

And God is our refuge in another respect, in respect of all afflictions, afflictions which make us see what else would escape our sight, how very foul and dim we are, and God, how pure and bright. Afflictions which teach our weakness and our ignorance, which tell us that we cannot hold on our way, that we cannot serve God, for He is holy. Afflictions which make us know our daily and hourly need of God. Afflictions which, like the water, wear out. The stones will also wear out our strength.

then what remains? It is a solemn but a sad truth. Seldom do we think of Jesus till we are brought to self-despair. He is, as one says, the sinner's last shift, and it is in respect of providential things. Painfully true, but blessed be His name. He does not treat us as we treat Him. His heart is full of love and mercy to His poor afflicted people. He opens the door and invites them to come unto himself, into his gracious presence, and says, Roll your burden on the Lord. He shall sustain you. He shall never suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, never suffer you to be moved, and proves it to be true as the Apostle Paul was inspired to write.

There have no temptation taken you. But such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who would not suffer you to be tempted, above that ye are able. But will, would the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it? God is a refuge, and some of us have been favoured to find Him a refuge in these three respects. Blessed be his name. Justification is a sweet and wonderful thing, a wonderful refuge from condemnation, a loving suffering. Lord Jesus is an inviting refuge from the storm of deserved wrath. And the same Lord Jesus is a sweet refuge from the power and pollution of indwelling sin. And he is also a refuge from the storm of affliction. Take refuge in Jesus, though hell should pursue.

Is good advice contained in the hymn? Yes, that when faith is in exercise, that is, the just course she takes, to run into the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. And what strength there is in that when you feel it enabling you to say, the eternal God is my refuge and underneath my fainting head are the everlasting arms.

No storms shall destroy the soul that enters into this refuge. No avenger of blood shall reach the sinner who runs into the name of the Lord. No affliction shall overcome and ruin the creatures. Substance may be lost. Comfort may depart. Friends may change. Nature changes from strength to weakness. Days bring us all nearer and even nearer to eternity. But what harm can come to us if we are found in this refuge?

God is our refuge and strength. strength to run into him, strength to believe in him, strength to hope in the mercy of God, strength to wait till the Lord shall come, strength to look to him for supplies, strength to ask him to come to us and to abide with us and to cover us and to grant us the convoy of his love, strength to say in trouble The will of the Lord be done. Strength to accept anything that the Lord sends to us. Strength to lie low instead of rising high in pride. Strength to believe that all things work together for good to our souls.

God is this strength. This strength is felt, and when felt it is very precious. A very present help in trouble. You want to get out of trouble? Who does not? I do. Everybody naturally wants to get out of trouble. But God's plan, often there for a time, is to give help in it.

Paul got this present help after he had thrice besought the Lord, that the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him, might depart from him. He got that which made the pain bearable, and weakness a matter of rejoicing. He said, I glory in my infirmity, that the power of Christ might rest upon me. And what was that but a present help? My grace is sufficient for thee. It was a present help, a real help, a wonderful help. It helped him against the mighty. It helped him against himself. It helped him to bear the pain, and the irritation, and the trouble of this thorn. It made the will of God better to pull than his own will, than the enjoyments of the East which the removal of the thorn would abort him.

And you are not strangers to this, are you? Some of you must say why the Lord has made us to rejoice in trouble. We have rejoiced in hope of the glory of God, felt our wills lie straight with his will, have been brought into the most comfortable unison with his will. What a mercy it is to get help from heaven. He promises that he will help his people. He says, they shall be hopin' with a little help. And when this is known, we can say, therefore, will not we fear? Plenty to cause fear. It is not because every obstacle is removed, because all storms are calmed. because there is no shaking of our earth, no moving of movable things. This is not the reason, no, we will not fear, because God is our refuge, because He is our strength, because He has helped us and is helping us in trouble, a present help. Therefore, while this lasts, we will not fear. Though things should get worse, though the earth be removed,

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Holy Ghost says by Paul, We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace. What had preceded it? Why, the things that were removable were being removed by the Lord. Heaven and earth moved. Then he says, We receiving a kingdom. the kingdom of his grace, of his Son, the reign of Christ in the heart, and the promise of a blessed kingdom to come. Oh, this is better than the earth which is removed.

You perhaps get some parts of your earth removed, washed away by trouble, but if you have had God with you, you have said, I do not fear, I am not afraid, Then you enter into the language and spirit of Paul when he says, Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more and exceeding eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, not our dangers, not our mortifications, not our pride, not our disappointments,

These are very visible, but we do not look at them at this moment. Rather this, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. The things which I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered in the heart of man to conceive, but which have been revealed by the Spirit to us. We look at them and they are bigger and better, they are timeless, and therefore we will not fear.

Though the earth be removed, and though the mountains that look so solid, big things taken away, though these be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters of the sea roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, there is a great word only the Lord can bring us to it. May he do so.

And then beside this and beyond it and above it there is a river, the streams thereof shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Have not you found sometimes that nothing could disturb you when you tasted of this river and walked by the sweet streams? what has been able to disturb your rest and your peace.

God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. Moved in her feelings, but not to a state. At any time, but sometimes not moved in our feelings, we can look at trouble and not be moved, feel it and not be irritated, because God is with us. The Lord bring us to such an experience from time to time. Amen.