Please turn in your Bibles this
morning to Psalm 90. To Psalm 90. All of us by nature, in and by ourselves, are in an awful predicament. As sinners, we must dwell in eternal torment or we must dwell with the thrice
holy God. And the truth of the matter is
we can do neither. We can do neither. Isaiah wrote, the sinners in
Zion are afraid. Fearfulness hath surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? We can't stand the torments of
hell. We cannot endure the presence
of the thrice holy God. And we're like Israel, after
coming out of Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, And for that
generation, the most part, perishing there. They died in the wilderness. But Moses, who wrote this psalm,
we usually think of the psalms as associated with David, but
they're not all associated with David. This is a prayer of Moses,
the man of God. Moses had hope and he had a dwelling
place of safety. As a matter of fact, Not only
Moses, but Caleb and Joshua also. All the rest died in unbelief. And look at what he says in this
first verse. He says, Lord, thou has been
our dwelling place in all generations. His dwelling place was in Jehovah. I thought about it this week.
The only way to dwell with God is to dwell in God. We can only dwell with God if
we dwell in God. And some versions, some translations
translate this dwelling place as refuge. Lord, thou hast been our refuge,
our dwelling place in all generations. Moses, when he asked the Lord
to show him his glory, the Lord said, it shall come
to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in the
cliff of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass
by." The only safe place, the only
refuge and dwelling place to dwell with God, to know God,
to see God, is in the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's with a God-provided covering. He said, I'll cover you with
my hand while I pass by. And this is the whole of the
gospel. This is the good news of the
message of the gospel that God's people have dwelt safely in a
refuge from old eternity. God has been their dwelling place
from before the world began. Let me read you those first two
verses again. Lord thou, You have been our dwelling place
in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever Thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. And God's people, his elect people,
they dwelt in safety before the world began, even to this hour
and will forever because they dwelt and have dwelt in Christ. In Christ. Paul said in II Corinthians
5 and verse 7, he said, therefore, if any man be in Christ, I don't
know how many times he uses that phrase, to show us the blessing
and the safety and the refuge and the dwelling place that has
been ours for all of time and eternity in Christ. He says, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation, Old things have
passed away, behold, all things are become new. That is, they belong, this newness
does, this new creation belongs to all those in Christ. And what we find out is that
God, in His marvelous, sovereign grace, He chose them in Christ
before the world began. Turn over to Ephesians 1 and
look. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
3, Paul states it so clearly. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He blesses God for this. He praises God for this. He says, who hath blessed us? with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. according as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love. He chose us in Christ before
the world began. And he put every one of his people
in that everlasting covenant. And for this reason, Paul again
in II Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13 blesses and thanks God
again. Look at what he says. But we
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is exactly what
is being made known to all the people of God, what's being made
known to them through the gospel. And this is the reason for it. It is to assure us and to make
us know that salvation is all of grace. If it's all of grace,
then essentially and necessarily it is all for the glory and by
the glory of God, and it is all in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. If he has been our dwelling place
for all generations, from everlasting to everlasting, there is no way
that we in time, as the objects of such grace and mercy, can
claim anything for ourselves. We can't claim it to be part
of our works. We cannot in any way make it
to be part, our will, or our person. So much so, have we been
in Christ before the world began, that when we fell in Adam, we
did not fall out of Christ, who is our covenant head. We fell in Adam. We know for
sure that the Bible says, for in Adam, all die. Every person who's ever been
born in this world apart from the Lord Jesus Christ has a connection
to Adam naturally. And in Adam, all die. But as soon as Paul says that,
he follows it with this. Even so, all who are in Christ
are made alive. In other words, their life and
all their salvation and all their acceptance and deliverance from
God, for before God, is all together in Christ Jesus because we are
said to be members of his body. We are supposed to be a bride
of Christ, and he says there that they shall become one flesh. Because Christ, in all that has
happened to us in Adam, did not cease at any time to be our surety. We're said to be in Christ Jesus. And what this means is that when
he went to the cross as our substitute, so much so did we as a people
dwell in him, so much as a people we were in Christ Jesus, so much
did we go to the cross in him that all he did was done by us
and for us. I guess maybe the best picture
that we ever find in the scripture of this is as Noah went into
the ark. You remember when Noah entered
into the ark? When he went into the ark, it
did not make him to be set aside so as to not endure the judgment
of God in the matter of sin. In other words, Noah, as much
so as anybody on the earth, went through the flood, endured the
judgment of God, but he came out on the other side. Why? Because he was in the ark. The waves and the rain and the
wind and all the representations of God's judgment blew and beat
and frammed, as we might say here in the South, against the
ark. But Noah was safe because he
was in the ark. And on the cross we suffered,
as it were, all the wrath of God for our sins. When Christ
died for our sins, for when He rose again from the dead, we
all together rose in Him. Look at what it says in John
14. In John 14, our Lord said, Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. Now most people have an idea
that is born out of just fleshly thinking and false religion as
if somehow in heaven each one will be given a gold mansion,
something equivalent to what we might see in Hollywood or
someplace like that, but that is not what that means. It actually means in my father's
house are many dwelling places. Dwelling places. He says, if
it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go, you know. and the way you know. And Thomas
said unto him, Lord, we know not whither you go, and how can
we know the way? And Jesus saith unto him, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. In other words, no person, no
son or daughter of Adam, no sinner can dwell with God, can go to
God, can be accepted by God, can forever dwell with God except
in the Lord Jesus Christ. so that God, in his free grace,
put whom he would in Christ, It was His choice. It was His will. It was His decision. And if He brings us to confess
this, to understand this, to submit to this, we might find
out that He did so for us. You see, the revelation of God
in grace to a person through the gospel is the revelation that God has
been our dwelling place in Christ Jesus for all of time and before
time and will be forever. So all our days, think about
this, all our days upon the earth, with their hardships, with the dangers, with all the
experiences we have in our youth, trying so hard to kill ourselves,
it seems like, all the afflictions, all the wicked people, all the
tragedies that happened, everything, all our days, as well as before
the world began, all our days, as well as when we were in Christ
Jesus, but all our days, we've been in the same place. Why weren't we killed? Why didn't
we die in childbirth? Why don't we die at the hands
of a murderer? Because God His purpose is to
make known to us His grace to us and bring us to believe on
His Son so He preserves us all our days. We've been dwelling
in God, dwelling in the Lord Jesus Christ all these days. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 30. First Corinthians 1 and verse
30. Look at what it says. This is
one of those verses of scripture that's all inclusive, it seems
like. It says, but of him, that means
of God. He did it. He's the cause of
it. But of God are ye in Christ Jesus. That's the only reason. You say, well, I thought we were
in Christ Jesus by believing. We're in Christ Jesus, and therefore
God enables us to believe that we are in Christ Jesus, but that
believing did not put us in Christ. God did it. Now look. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. That's everything. We have everything
because we have Christ, and we have it because we dwell in Christ
by God's grace, and therefore He says that according as it
is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You got to glory in the Lord.
if God put you in Christ. If He's made you all your days,
and before your days, and after your days, to dwell in the Lord
Jesus Christ, to be counted in Him, to be viewed in Him, to
be dealt with in Him, and especially in the matter of our sins. Let
me read you some. Paul says, in the book of Romans
in Romans 8 and verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. The first thing I'd say about
that is It doesn't appear to me to be viewed as a matter of
a feeling, but as a matter of a position. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Galatians chapter 3. Neither, there is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
or female, for ye are all one In Christ Jesus. All these other dividing matters,
all these distinctions that God has sovereignly put us in, and
all that man has added to it, he says, in Christ they are all
gone. In Christ. Ephesians 2, he writes. He says, but now, in Christ Jesus,
ye who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. Nigh to who? Nigh to God. Colossians chapter 1. He says,
we preach, we're preaching Christ, whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present
every man perfect. That's a high standard. He says that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus. As far as this world is concerned, God's people are pictured as
having no dwelling place. No dwelling place. No dwelling
place as far as the world is concerned. They're described
as just pilgrims and strangers and wanderers who are treated
by the world as such, who have here no continuing home. What was Abraham? You might as well say he was
a nomad. He lived in tents. What about
Isaac? He did the same thing. What about
Jacob? He did the same thing. And how
many of those Old Testament saints do we have pictured as wandering,
as moving in this world, and yet having no continuing home? But they all dwelled in God. They had a safe place. They had
a place of provision. They had a place of
protection. They had a place of preservation. Because they dwelt with God. in Christ. You know what Paul says in Ephesians
chapter 1? He says that God has made us
accepted. Now, the Bible is a lot different
from religion. Religion is always wanting people
to accept Jesus. But God's people are, as He says
there, made accepted in the Beloved, in Christ Jesus. And not only that, But they dwell
with God, they dwell in God, and they dwell in righteousness because they dwell in Christ. Now I want you to, if you want
to turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. Now, I want you to look at what
it says. It says, For he, do we know that
he is God? Absolutely. For he, God, that
is God, hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There is a lot of emphasis on
what men call practical righteousness, personal righteousness, imparted
righteousness. But here it does not say that
we are made the righteousness of God by Him. It says that we're made the righteousness
of God in Him. He is the Lord, our righteousness,
and there is no righteousness outside of Him. You and I have never by our doing, never
in our own person, been or been able to achieve righteousness. But because we dwell in Christ, because we dwell in Him, we're
possessors of the everlasting righteousness. which is Christ
Himself. We dwell in Him. And even now, even now, we're in Him. And being in Him,
we dwell on high. Let me read you this in Ephesians
chapter 2. It says, He hath raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Now, I know that as far as this world is concerned,
we may dwell in a little house, a little shack, a little tent,
a little anything. But if we're in Christ, we dwell
in the heavenlies. We're already in heaven seated
in Him because we dwell in Him. When God raised Him up from the
dead, accepted His sacrifice and proved it by raising Him
up from the dead. We're seated in Him in the heavenlies
spiritually right now. Paul writes to the Corinthians,
he says, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. That's the only sanctification
I expect to know, or want to know, or that there really is,
is that sanctification in Christ Jesus. Call saints with all that
in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
both theirs and ours. And in time, everyone that dwells in Christ because the Father put them in
Christ, that dwells in Christ because being in Christ they
went to the cross, Endured the cross in him and he paid all
their debt Every one of them will by the Spirit of God be
made known to them That they're in Christ Because he'll enable
them to believe it listen to this For ye are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. By faith in Christ Jesus. In the Gospel of John, When Christ was given the instruction after the feeding of the multitude, and He began to teach them what
all that meant, what it all pictured, them eating God-provided bread,
Bread that they had nothing to do with. Miraculously multiplied
and made. He said, this is a spiritual
lesson. And just about everybody walked
away except a few. He said, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood Now, he
was not talking about literally taking
a bite of him or literally drinking his blood, but he's talking about
appropriating unto ourselves the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. He's our life. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. How do we know if we dwell in
God? Well, we believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. We look to Him and Him alone. Let me show you something. Back
over in Psalm 90, which we know was a psalm of Moses, but it's
generally believed that if the next psalms don't have a name,
they are written by the one whose name was prior to that. And then
when it changes, it changes. But over in Psalm 91, I believe
this too is a Psalm of Moses. Because he says, He that dwelleth
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. Now, Thinking of Moses, where was the secret place? In the mind of Moses, in that
Old Testament economy, where was the secret place? It was
in the Holy of Holies. It was there on the mercy seat.
where God says He dwelled with sinners, such as those people
were, and just like we are, because the priests went in there and
sprinkled blood on that mercy seat that had the golden cherubim
on each end. And that was a picture of Christ.
Everybody who dwells with God, dwells in Christ, dwells in Him
crucified, His blood shed, and they dwell under the shadow of
the Almighty. We all like to know secrets,
don't we? When I was a little boy, we wanted
to have a secret place or a secret box or something. This is the secret place of the
Most High, which pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, because He
said, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in Him will I trust. In Him will I trust. That's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's a hymn that I think is really good. It says what I'm trying to say,
that the Lord has been our dwelling place in all generations. He put us in Christ. He enabled
us to go to the cross in Christ. He enabled us to believe in Christ,
and He's going to be our dwelling place, because that word dwelling,
or abiding, doesn't have an end. But it goes like this. In the Beloved, accepted I am. risen, ascended, and seated on
high, saved from all sin through his infinite grace, with the
redeemed ones, accorded a place. In the beloved, how safe my retreat. In the beloved, accounted complete. Who can condemn me? In Him I
am free, Savior and Keeper forever is He. In the Beloved I went
to the tree. There in His person by faith
I may see infinite wrath rolling over His head, infinite grace
for he died in my stead. In the Beloved, God's marvelous
grace causes me to dwell, calls me to dwell in this wonderful
place. God sees my Savior and then he
sees me in the Beloved, accepted and free. when Peter was closing out his
first letter. He closed it out by saying, greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Greet, love, kiss one another
with the kiss of charity. Peace be to all that are in Christ
Jesus. So a believer in this day who knows the Lord Jesus Christ can sing this song, ought to
sing this song, will sing this song, because that's what a psalm
is. Lord, Lord Jesus Christ, You've been
our dwelling place, and we've been safe in you in all generations. Before the mounds were brought
forth or ever, thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. In Christ, We have dwelt, we
are dwelling, and we shall dwell in God forever. Our Father, we thank you this
morning for this sweet song, for this blessed truth. Make
it fresh to our hearts. Cause us to see the blessing
in it. Cause us to see the forgiveness
in it. The comfort in it. The safety
in it. And help us in the reality of
experience. In fellowship. Through your word
and by your spirit. To dwell with you. For we thank you and we pray
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.