Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 46. The title of the message tonight, God is our refuge. I believe this is something that
will be applicable to all of us, if not immediately, very
soon, that God is our refuge. Because the life of a believer
is seldom calm, smooth sailing. And we need a refuge from the
storm. And I'm so thankful to read in God's word that God himself
is our refuge. And this is a twofold hope that
the believer has. God is our shelter and God is
our hope. That's what the word refuge David
uses here. It means both a shelter and a
hope. First, God is our hope. Our hope is a sure expectation
of eternal life because of who God is. Believers have a good
hope through grace, because the Lord Jesus Christ is the believer's
shelter. All of God's elect were protected.
They were hidden in Christ. And the wrath of God against
their sin fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ, our shelter. And
His people were protected, sheltered, because Christ, our shelter,
took all that wrath until the wrath was gone. The wrath was
gone because His sacrifice put the sin away. Well, that's a
good refuge. And God Himself is our refuge. It's not our religious activity. It's not what we know. It's not
our morality. Every other refuge is a refuge
of lies, which will be swept away. But not God, our refuge. He's a sure refuge for His people. Gives them eternal life. Their
life is protected, hidden in Him. And second, God is our shelter. from the storms and trials of
this life. The trials that our Savior promised
us would come. And God will deliver His people
from trial. And until He does, He comforts
the heart of His people. And He comforts their heart with
His presence. See, He is our hope. He is our
shelter. He is our comfort. It's all in
Him. He comforts the hearts of His people with His presence
until the storm has passed. There are several things I want
us to see here tonight about God our refuge. Number one, God
our refuge is a present help. Verse one, David says, God is
our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. God's
elect are born in this world full of sin because our nature
is a nature of sin. So we don't have any strength.
We can't do anything to please God. But Christ is our refuge. Christ is the strength of his
people. For when we were yet without strength, in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. Christ kept the law for his people.
They could not do it. He did it for them. They could
never satisfy God's justice for their sin. So Christ took their
sin and he died to satisfy justice for his people. God's elect now have the strength
to stand. to stand before God in Christ,
who is our refuge, who is our strength. And we need a refuge. We need a refuge from our sin.
And we need a refuge from the trials of this life. Because
God's children are not delivered from experiencing the trials
that shake and rattles, these storms that just rattle us down
to the very core of our being. Believers experience all those
things. And we're weak and we're prone
to fall. So we need a refuge. The good
news that we have in our text tonight is God himself is our
refuge. And he is present. Not just present. He's very present. He's near
his people. When I was in high school, I
had a friend, her parents bought a house on a hill. And down in
the hill in their backyard was a nuclear bomb shelter built
in the 60s, I reckon. Nuclear bomb shelter, real live
thing. It was empty when I was a teenager,
but we'd all go down there from time to time and sit in this
little cement bunker. It had a steel door on it and
everything. And I'd try to imagine what it would be like trying
to ride out a nuclear bomb in this little shelter. And they
tell me when they bought the house, the people that used to
own the house kept that thing stocked with food and water and,
you know, they kept the door locked and things. And I thought,
well, you know, if I was afraid of a nuclear bomb coming, I'd
be afraid to leave bomb shelter. I mean, I'd be afraid to go to
school or go to work or go somewhere, you know. What if the bomb came
when I was somewhere else? If the bomb came, why is it Kroger's?
Bomb shelter's not doing me any good, is it? Our God is a much
better shelter than that. He's very present. He came near
to His people. He came near to save them. Not
only did He come where we were, He became what we are. He became
flesh and dwelt among us so He could save His people. And He's
always very present, very near His people because He's in His
people. He's in their heart. He's always
with them. One of the names of Jehovah is
Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is present. He's always
with his people. So no matter what's going on
around us, we're safe because our refuge is always with us. He's very near, always. And David
in the next couple of verses gives us four examples of these
very difficult, tough trials that will shake us right down
to our core. We'll learn this in all these trials and all these
storms. God is a very present refuge
for us. First, David says, God's our
refuge. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed. Now, what's David talking about
the earth be removed? Is he talking about Christ's
second coming when the heavens being on fire should be dissolved
and the elements should melt with a fervent heat and God will
create new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness?
Now is that the day he's talking about? Now that day is coming,
isn't it? And in that day when Christ returns,
believers are going to have a refuge. Now when he comes again, his
people will be safe in him. So there's no reason for the
believer to fear that day, is there? Whatsoever. If we believe
Christ, we have every reason to look forward to that day.
So that can't be the day David's talking about here. Because in
this day David's talking about, there's something to fear. There's
something that would cause us to fear. So I'll tell you what
he's talking about. He's talking about the day of
trial, when all of our earthly supports are removed. Now, we're
still in the flesh. And because we're in the flesh,
we're prone to start to think that our refuge is a good job,
that that'll protect us. You know, we've got a good job,
we're making good money, we've got really good benefits, and
we feel like that's a refuge for us. We feel like we've got
some savings, or we've got good health and strength, and we feel
like those things our refuge to us. But in reality, all those
things are a vapor. You can lose your job tomorrow.
Your savings can be wiped out with just a tick of the stock
market or whatever happens in banks and money markets and stuff. It can be gone tomorrow. You
think you've got health and strength? A microscopic germ will take
it away right now. It's just a vapor. Those things
are going to disappear. And when they do. What are we
going to do when those earthly supports are gone? Well, I tell
you what God's people do. They're going to trust in the
Lord. They're going to remember Christ as our refuge. Christ
is our strength. We may lose all the things of
this life, but if Christ is our refuge, we're not going to be
destroyed. because nothing can move our
God against His will. Nothing can make our shelter,
our refuge, crumble. All right, the second situation,
the end of verse two. And though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea. Now what's David talking about
here? He's not talking about literally the mountains falling
off into the oceans. Mountains are landmarks. You
know, you can tell where you are. And you can tell what direction
you're going if you find the mountain. That mountain's always
in the exact same place. You find it, and you can get
your bearings, can't you? You can depend on those mountains.
You just depend on them. They're always there. In a few
weeks, or I don't know when you're planning on going, Jan's going
down to see her mom. You know one thing you're going to see?
Mountains. You can just depend on it. The Smoky Mountains are
going to be there. Well, David here is not talking
about literal mountains. He's talking about people. People
that we love are giants to us. And we tend to think that those
people are like the mountains. We think they'll always be there
for us to depend upon. But they won't. The people are
going to be removed. My dad was my hero. He was my
hero. To me, He seemed like, humanly
speaking, He was true north to me. I could always look at Him
and find out, how does a man conduct himself? How does a father
conduct himself? I could just look to Him and
I'd see that. And when He died, you and I thought,
what am I going to do now? I felt, I'll be honest with you,
I felt a little bit lost. I told my brother that day, I
said, I've never known a day on earth without dad. And it
feels strange. Want me to tell you what we'll
do in that day? We're going to trust in the Lord. He is our
true north. He is our true, true north. How
does the believer walk? By faith. By faith, looking to
Christ. He's the great rock in a weary
land. And these trials will teach us something. They'll teach us
when the mountains go away. They'll teach us to look to the
Lord, not to men. Whether they're family members
that we love or great preachers that we've known and loved. Brother Henry was my pastor for
nearly 30 years. I met a man this past week who
has heard Henry preach on Sermon Audio. He's heard Brother Don
talk about him. He said, I've never met the man.
Seemed weird to me. I've just known him since I can
remember practically. And I'm confident of this. I'm
confident I'll never meet a better preacher. Just confident of it.
God blessed him in just a special way. Many of us were accused
of being mayhem nights, weren't we? Following a man. Tell you
what. Hope that wasn't right. Hope
it wasn't. If it is, what are we going to
do now? Now that he's not here to preach to us. Well, I can
tell you what child of God's going to do. He's going to trust
in the Lord. He's going to trust in the Lord.
Now, we ought to love our pastors and our elders, those men who
so faithfully preach Christ to us. But let's never forget this.
The Lord's our teacher. If the Lord don't teach us, all
this is for naught. The Lord's our shepherd. and
the Lord's our refuge. And when those people who are
those landmarks to us, when they're removed, we're not gonna fear
if we're trusting Christ, if we're hiding in Him. All right,
the third situation, verse three. Though the waters thereof roar
and be troubled. Here, David is talking about
the waters of this life. When they begin to just really
roar and be turbulent, You know, when the waters roar and they're
turbulent, there's a lot of confusion going on. There's a lot of forces
pushing you every which way. And when you're younger, you
think you've got some strength about you. You think you've got
some physical strength. You think you've got some strength
of mind and emotion and you just think I can work my way through
this thing. I just put my shoulder down to
the grindstone and work my way through these things. Those things
we did when we first got married, moved into a house that needed
work in every room. I wouldn't do it now. I don't
got the energy. I don't have the time left in
my life to do all that. That's what a young person thinks.
But as a believer gets older, they get older in the faith,
they get older in the body. It seems like You start to experience
a whole lot more turbulent waters than you do calm waters. There's
a whole lot more dark days, cloudy, stormy days than there are sunny
days. And it causes you a little bit of worry, doesn't it? Because
you don't have the strength that you used to have. You can't deal
with it as well mentally, physically, emotionally as you used to. So
what are you to do when you can't find any quietness? You can't
find any peace. It's just all turbulent. Everything
around you is confusing. What are we going to do? We're
going to trust in the Lord. Remember this. Those turbulent
waters, who sent them? Our God did. Well, you reckon
he can be a refuge for us in a minute? I think he can. Job
didn't understand what was going on, did he? Oh, what did he say? Though he slayed me, Yet will
I trust Him. I'm going to hide in Him. And
how often, you know, we don't want troubled seas. We don't
want these turbulent waters. And I'm not saying by any means,
stretch the imagination, we should pray for them. But how often
on those troubled seas, when we think we're going down with
the ship, do we see the Lord walking on the troubled waters
and saying, Peace. Be still. Don't be afraid. It's
I. We wouldn't see Him coming on
the waters if they weren't troubled with Him. Oh, there's such a
blessing there. So what are we to do in those
troubled waters? Keep looking to Christ and keep looking for
Him. He's our refuge. He's our strength.
He's our comfort. Right, here's the fourth thing.
Verse 3, though the mountains shake, with a swelling thereof."
Now, David's already talked about the mountains being carried in
the midst of the sea, so what's he talking about here? Look at
2 Corinthians chapter 4. I believe he's talking about
the trial of our faith. It feels like our very faith
is shaken. You think, wait a minute now.
Is a believer really going to do that? Yes. Yes, they will. Look here at
2 Corinthians 4 verse 8. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We're perplexed, we're confused,
but we're not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. Our faith is shaken, but it's
not destroyed. Now look back at Mark chapter
4. I'll give you an example of what
I'm talking about here. Mark chapter 4. beginning verse 35. And the same day when the even
was come, he saith unto them, let us pass over unto the other
side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took
him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him
other little ships. And there arose a great storm
of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full.
And he was in the hindered part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and say unto
him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Master, don't you care about
us? Master, don't you care this is
happening to us? Their faith was shaken, wasn't it? To the
point they questioned the Lord's care for them. Verse 39. And he arose and rebuked the
wind and said unto the sea, Peace. Be still. And the wind ceased,
and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are
ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Now they had faith, but in another
place he said, Why is it, O ye of little faith? They had faith,
but it was little, wasn't it? They were shaken, but it was
not destroyed. Because God is our refuge, our
salvation. is not found in the strength
of our faith. It's found in the strength of
our refuge, in the strength of our Savior. Verse 41, they feared
exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this that
even the wind and the sea obey him? See, that's our refuge,
the one who is soft, the one who has all strength, that the
sea and the wind obey him. He is our guide, God himself. The Almighty, the Sovereign is
our refuge. Therefore will not we fear. All
right, second, here's the second thing about our refuge. Our refuge
has an abundant supply of water. Psalm 46, verse four. There is
a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the
Most High. Now in ancient times, an army
would come and put a city under siege. And one of the things
they'd do is they'd find a water supply coming to that city and
they'd cut it off. They're just not going to be able to last
very long without water, are they? But believers are often going
to find themselves under siege, under attack. But our supply
of water can never be cut off. This river, David said, there
is a river. This river that he's talking
about is the river of God's grace. It's the river. that flows, clears
crystal from the throne of God to his people. We read about
that in Revelation 22. This is the river, the fountain
of blood, the fountain that was open for sin when Christ was
sacrificed for the sin of his people. We read about that in
Zechariah 12. This river never runs dry. There is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners
plunge beneath that flood. It's all their guilty stains.
Hence, they got no reason to fear, do they? This river is
the river of God's grace. It's a mighty flowing river.
It has many different streams flowing off of it. All the different
mercies and graces of God. There's a stream of God's electing
grace. God chose sinners to save. There's
a stream of His calling grace, His regenerating grace. There's
a stream of His sanctifying grace. The stream of His keeping grace.
There's a stream of grace for every hour and for every need.
And it makes God's people glad. That's the city of God and the
holy places are the tabernacles of the Most High. That's God's
people, His church. God's with them. He's in them.
Now they will be tried. They're going to be shaken, but
they'll not be destroyed. Instead of that, they're going
to be glad. Instead of these trials making
them so sad and so discouraged that they go away, it's going
to make them glad. This spiritual water makes God's
people glad, even in the midst of trial. Even though the trial
is unchanged, even though the pain of it is unchanged, they
don't have any reason to fear, they'll be glad. When our sin
surrounds us, puts us under siege and we're thirsty for righteousness,
We can't find any relief. We have a well-watered refuge. Christ is our refuge. We hide
in Him. We hide from God's wrath against
our sin. We hide in that river of His
blood to pay for our sin. And Christ is our refuge to give
us the water of life. He is the water of life that
gives us spiritual life that cleanses us from our sin. And
then when the trials of this life surround us, they just keep
pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding, will not quit.
And we feel like I can't go on another step. We feel like that
deer running from the hunters whose heart panteth after the
water brooks, but can't find any. We who believe have a well-watered
refuge. In those times, we flee to Christ. We flee to Him. He'll refresh
His people like a cold drink on a hot day because He is the
water. He'll refresh His people by cleansing
us with the water of His Word. Have you ever been in the midst
of trouble? It's bad. I mean, it's bad. You
don't know what way to turn. You don't know what's going on.
You don't see any end in sight. And you read a passage of Scripture.
or you hear a message, some man going verse by verse through
the Word of God, and you find that even though the trial's
unchanged, your heart's comforted, your heart's made glad, you've
been refreshed. What happened? Your soul was
refreshed with the water, the water of the Word of God, just
like your body would be refreshed by jumping in a pool on a hot
summer day. Christ is our refuge. He's over. well-watered refuge
for his people, a water of life, a water of cleansing and a water
of refreshing. He's our refuge. And thirdly,
God, our refuge is our anchor. Verse five. God is in the midst
of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her. And that right early. God's elect
have a refuge and we cannot be blasted out of God's people cannot
be moved away from Christ because God's in the midst of her, anchoring
her to Him. Look over Hebrews chapter 6.
God is in His people. He can't be moved, so His people
can't be moved. He's anchored us to Christ. Hebrews
6 verse 17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable, unchangeable
things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered. Even Jesus made a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. We cannot be moved away from
our hope because Christ has anchored us there. We cannot be moved
away from him. So we can't be moved. Now, that
doesn't mean we're going to not be in the storm. No, we're going
to be in the storm. But we have an anchor, an anchor
of the soul. that won't let us be moved away
from our home. So remember that. Because God's people are going
to suffer dark, stormy nights. But God will help them. He will
keep them. And that, David said, right early. He's going to do it right early.
He'll always be on time. Always he will be on time. He'll
never be late in coming to help his people. And you know why
he won't be late? He doesn't have far to go. He's
a very present helper. He's already in you, so he won't
be late. He'd anchor his people, keep
them, help them, and never be late. All right, fourth. God is a refuge for his elect,
his elect people. Verse six, 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. Now the heathen are going to
rage. They're going to rage against
God. They're going to rage against his people. And they're a fierce
enemy that we cannot defeat. They're stronger than us. But
God is our refuge. God is our defender from every
enemy. All our God has to do is utter
his voice and the earth melts. just melts away. Now, you can't
make that promise to everyone without exception, can you? God's going to speak and to destroy
somebody. He's going to utter His voice
and somebody's going to melt. So who is He going to spare?
Who is He going to speak and save? Who is it that can confidently
say, God Himself is a refuge for me? Well, it's God's elect. His elect people. That's what
Jacob here represents. God chose Jacob, didn't he? He
chose him. And Jacob represents all the
weak, sinful people that God chose to love. God chose to save
a cheat. People are just scoundrels and
cheats and weak and that's who God chose to save. And the Lord
of hosts is the Lord of an elect people A people given to him
in the covenant of grace. Look back at Genesis 15. This
is God's promise to Abraham. The Lord of hosts. Genesis 15 verse 5. This is after
Abraham told the Lord, I don't have an heir. In verse 5, he
brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward the heaven
and tell the stars. if thou be able to number them.
And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be as that host of the
stars. And he believed in the Lord,
and he counted it unto him for righteousness. God told Abraham,
you're going to have a seed, a host, more than the stars of
heaven. God kept his word to him. Physically
and spiritually, he kept his word. He kept his word. There's
a people that's been saved that no man can number. The Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed a host of people that you cannot count. And the
God of hosts is a sure refuge for those people. He's the God
of hosts. He will keep His promise. He'll
keep His covenant of grace to His people. He's the Lord of
hosts. So it's not rational for us to fear, is it? The Lord of
hosts is our refuge. And then here's the fifth thing,
verse eight. God is the sovereign refuge who keeps his people safe
by doing his will. 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
and cutteth the spear and sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. God is sovereign. And that simply means God does
as he will in every event in creation. He rules all things. He's the first cause of everything
that happens. God makes the desolations. God
makes the war, the conflicts that just cause such destruction
on this earth. God did those things because
He's the first cause of everything. And somehow, in ways that you
and I cannot fathom, God uses those events that seem like to
us cause such desolation God uses those opinions to accomplish
His purpose, His eternal purpose and the redemption of His people.
I don't have to understand how it is He's doing it. I just know
this. He's doing it because He sought for it. He's the one who
brings the war and God's the one who brings peace too. He
makes the wars to stop and He destroys all the enemy's weapons
of war so they can't make war anymore. I don't know how God
can accomplish the redemption of his people, his will, through
the rebellion of the wicked. I don't know how he can do that.
Nobody does. But we who believe can rest in
it because God's our refuge. Look at 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. Now just be still. Probably every
time we start to think about making a decision and what we're
going to do about this or that or the other, probably the first
thing we always ought to do is be still. Be still. Be still. Don't try to help God
out. Don't be like Abraham and Sarah
and try to help God out. Just be still. Be like the children
of Israel. So worried about the armies of
Egypt coming up behind them. And just be still. and see the
salvation of our God. God is our refuge. We're in Him. We're hiding in Him. Then just
trust Him. Trust Him to accomplish His will. We may as well be still because
our activity didn't help nothing. Remember that bomb shelter I
told you about? It wasn't very big. And here, you know, me and
my friends were sitting there imagining what it would be like,
you know, a nuclear disaster. And I am not the be still is
not my forte. And I thought, if we're all in
here and nuclear bombs are falling outside, where am I going to
pace? Because I just got to pace. Right? You may as well be still. Be still. Your activity ain't
helping anything. There's no point in us running
around in our refuge trying to dodge bombs that aren't going
to hit us anyway. aren't going to hit us anyway.
We're safe in our refuge. God's our refuge. We're in him. Then we may as well be still. Just be still. And you can depend
on this, too, in our refuge. God says, I will be exalted among
the heathen in all the earth. I will be exalted. Now, this
I know. God's going to be glorified in
all things. Everything that happens is going
to happen so that God is glorified. He's not going to allow anyone
that He chose, anyone for whom Christ died, or anyone the Spirit's
given life to, to perish. He's not going to allow that.
If it does, if that happens, God's going to lose His glory.
And He said, I'll be exalted. He's going to be exalted in the
salvation of his people. He's going to be exalted. He'll
not lose one of them. He'll keep every last one of
them safe in him. I love that. I love God himself
is a refuge for his people. I want to close verse 11, the
word of comfort, the word of encouragement. The Lord of hosts
is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. You know, our God is not a small
refuge. He's the Lord of hosts. So don't you fear. There's room
in Christ for every sinner that needs saving. Every sinner. He's
the Lord of hosts. Someone might wonder, well, I
don't know if I'll come and hide in Him. I don't know if there's
room there for me. I don't know. Is there room in Christ for me?
Is there? There is, if you're a sinner,
who needs a Savior. If you're a sinner who needs
a refuge, the Lord of hosts is our refuge. You come to Him,
there's room for you. Our God is the God of Jacob. He is the Savior of sinners.
What could encourage a poor sinner to come to Christ more than He
Himself saying His name is the God of Jacob? He is the Savior
of sinners. Don't let your weakness make
you fear. Rest in the strength. God our strength and God our
refuge. Don't make your sin keep you away from the Savior. Trust
in Christ. He's the Savior of sinners. You
rest in Him. He will never fail you. God is our refuge. I hope that's
been a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our God, how we thank You for
this passage of Your Word that we've just looked at. How we
thank You for this precious declaration of truth that God, God Himself,
is our refuge. What a refuge, what a Savior,
Father, we're thankful. And we pray for the grace to
rest in Thee, to come to You for everything that we need and
rest in Thee. We thank You for Your love, Your
care, Your provision, Your salvation, that you work all things out
after the counsel of your own will and that you will be exalted. Father, we thank you. Cause us
in our daily walk, in our faith, in our talk of thee to exalt
the name of our Savior by resting in Him. It's in His precious
name, for His glory we pray and give thanks. Amen.