If you would open your Bibles
with me to Isaiah chapter 32. Isaiah chapter 32. I don't want to sound like Eeyore, but this world is a weary place. You don't have to live in it
very long till you find this world is very weary. But you
know, it wasn't always that way. When God created this world,
put Adam in the garden, the earth was a joy to Adam. It wasn't
a weary something to him at all, it was a joy to him. But after
Adam fell, he rebelled against God and this world became a weary
place to Adam and to all the sons and daughters of Adam because
of sin. And besides death and dying and
destruction, We live in a world full of disease and war and famine
and drought, a world full of unrest. And no one finds this
world more weary than believers. You who regularly gather here
together on Wednesday nights, I know find this world to be
a very weary place. Now I know we find, there's many
things we find joy in. A child of God ought to have
joy, and we do have joy in this world. We find joy in so many
things. We have joy, earthly speaking,
just in our children, our families, and fellowship with one another,
that's joy. But really, it's all fleeting.
It really does seem like we get to the end of this life beaten
and battered and exhausted. Janet thinks I'm sick. I just,
every single year when this is on TV, the Ironman, you all watch
that? The Ironman competition in Hawaii?
I'm utterly fascinated by it. Just fascinated. And I don't
care about the guy that wins. I wanna wait till the guy's right
at the very end when it's almost, if he don't finish, he's not
gonna qualify. He's been out there for 12 hours and he dragging
himself across there like he's got one leg and he's all humped
over. Some of them are crawling. It feels like that's why old
Frank's gonna cross the finish line, just beaten, weary. That speak to anybody? Well,
if so, I've got a message from the Lord for you. I've entitled
it a word for the weary. I have a word for you from the
Lord for the weary lost person who's weary, weary. under the
burden of sin and guilt, I have a word for you. And for you God's
children who are weary, weary with this flesh, the world of
this flesh, I have a word from the Lord for you. And you already
know, all of you attend here often enough to know, this word
of comforts Christ. Everything in this world that
makes us so weary, drives the believer to look to Christ, to
look away from this world and look to Christ. Now, what causes
so much unrest? I'll tell you what causes unrest,
and when somebody's not in control, if somebody cannot control the
situation, there's unrest. If you don't have somebody and
keep everything from becoming unsettled, it will become unsettled. Isn't that the world we live
in? You know, we get together and boy, in about 10 minutes,
we solve all the world's problems, don't we? But we're not in control. We're not able to control and
carry out all of our wise ideas. And that's certainly the condition
of our hearts. It's so unsettled. Why? Because we can't control it.
We cannot control this flesh that we say is so unsettled. Well, then the word from God
is, Look to King Christ. There's somebody in control.
Verse 1 of Isaiah chapter 32. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness and princes shall rule in judgment. Now the happiness
and prosperity of a country depends so much on who the king is. You
know, if there's a good and wise king, the country is at peace
and will prosper. Just like Israel, when they had
kings like David and Solomon, they prospered and they were
at peace. But if there's a wicked king, the country's going to
be divided. They'll have all kinds of unrest,
like King Ahaz. Now, at the time Isaiah's writing,
you know, the story's been going on here. King Snagrab is coming,
and he's going to destroy Israel. That's his plan. So, you know,
we're already in unrest because of this evil king. Now, king
Hezekiah is a good king. But he doesn't have the power.
He doesn't have the ability to control the situation and protect
Israel. And all this worry about what
King Sennacherib is going to do when he gets here is just
exhausting. People are just exhausted with
it. But here's a word from the Lord. There's a king coming who's
going to put everything right. And that king is King Christ.
King Christ is coming. He will protect His people. He's
got the power to do it. He's got the will to do it. He's
going to do it. He's going to reign well. There's no king like
this King. And the situation in spiritual
Israel or in national Israel here in Isaiah, that's our spiritual
condition. Sin is destroying this body.
Sin is damning our souls to hell. Sin's causing total destruction
in our body and all of the world around us. And we don't have
any ability to stop it. We're powerless to do anything
about it. The best of men cannot help you. But the word from God
is there's a King. There is a King who has put everything
right for his people. It's King Christ. Not only does
he reign in righteousness, by meaning that, that he does everything
that's right, he makes his people righteous. He takes care of the
sin problem by putting it away and makes his people righteous.
Now, they're born sinful in Adam, but in Christ, they're made perfectly
righteous because our King is Jehovah Sid Kinney, the Lord,
our righteousness. And under the rule of King Christ,
There's peace and prosperity. Look over across the page of
verse 17, Isaiah 32. And the work of righteousness
shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and
assurance forever under the rule of King Christ. There's peace.
I look over a few pages at Isaiah chapter 40 under the rule of
King Christ. There are no reason to be weary.
because our king gives strength to his people. Isaiah 40, verse
28. Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There
is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the
youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall. but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and
not be weary, and they shall walk and not be faint. If you're just so weary you think
you cannot take another step through this world, you look
to King Christ. He makes it so there's no reason
for his people to be weary. Now look in Psalm 103. There's
no reason for us to be weary. No reason for a believer to be
weary, because Christ has removed everything that makes us weary. Psalm 103, verse one. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy
name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies,
who satisfy thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is
renewed like the eagle's. The Lord execute righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. In Christ, there's
no reason for us to be weary. Everything that makes us weary,
he's removed. Isaiah here talks about princes
shall rule in judgment. That's God's pastors. God's given
us faithful pastors and elders who rule over God's church, not
by pounding it down with the law, by preaching Christ, by
pointing people to Christ, to King Christ. The kingdom of Christ
is an orderly, peaceful place, and it will always be that way
where Christ is preached. When Christ is not preached,
I promise you, you're gonna start to find unrest and not a peaceful
environment. Now in verse two, Isaiah begins
to describe four situations that makes God's people so weary,
weary, as they travel through this world below. But in each
of these situations, the remedy's Christ. In each of these situations,
you look to Christ, our King, our Savior, has already endured
all four of these situations that make us so weary. Now, verse
two tells us the king will be a man, and a man shall be as
a hiding place from the wind. Now, God, in our nature, the
king, in the nature of a man, is the greatest miracle the world
can know. Before God can be our representative, God's gotta be
made a man. Before God can be our substitute,
God must be made a man. Before God can be made sin for
us to put the sin of His people away, God has to be made a man. Before God can die to satisfy
the law's last demand, God must be made a man. And as if to assure
us that our Savior was a real man, how often did the Lord Jesus
refer to Himself as the son of man, to let us know he has come
as a man, to be the representative of his people. And this truth
that God became a man is so precious to the weary believer, because
if God became a man, that means God assumed my nature so he could
redeem somebody like me. Now that's good news to the weary.
God assumed my nature, the nature of a man, so I could be one with
God and God could be one with me. That's precious. And this
man, the king, he came to earth and he lived and he died as the
sacrifice for the sin of not good people, but sinful men and
women. And right now, you know where
he is? He did die, but He rose again and He ascended back to
glory to sit on His Father's right hand. At this very moment,
there's a man in glory sitting on the throne. Now that gives
us good assurance there's many more men going to follow Him
there. That's good news to the weary sinner, isn't it? So here's
the first of these situations Isaiah describes, the wind. He
tells us this man will be the hiding place from the wind. Now
being in the unrelenting wind, when you just, you can't stop
it, you can't get away from it, it'll just drive people crazy.
I was in a hurricane one time. One of those was enough for me.
And I sat in that shelter and I watched the wind. I mean, it
was constant, unrelenting wind, just blowing everything away. And I was so thankful to have
a strong, sturdy, secure hiding place from that wind. Because
brother, I'd be dead otherwise. I mean, there's no surviving
that thing. We just come out of all those cold winter months.
How many times in the winter did you run from your car to
your house? That cold winter wind is going clear to the bone. How thankful were you for a hiding
place, a warm hiding place from that wind? Now look back at Isaiah
chapter 28. We looked at this a few weeks
ago. First, this wind is a picture of God's wrath against sin. Isaiah
28 verse 2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty
and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth
with the hand. And verse 17. The judgment also will allay
to the line and righteousness to the plummet. And the hail
shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow
the hiding place. And your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not
stand. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall
be trodden down by it." Now the Holy God will destroy sinners
in His consuming wrath, the wind of His wrath. But thank God,
that same holy God has provided a hiding place from His wrath
against sin. And that hiding place is not
the law. It's not doing good enough so God won't destroy you.
That hiding place is not the ceremonies of religion. You know,
just be religious enough and God won't destroy you. There's
one hiding place. It's the man, Christ Jesus. Christ
is the hiding place for sinners because Christ is the sinner's
substitute. You remember when Noah built
that ark? That ark was a hiding place for Noah. Noah could go
in that ark and God shut the door and in that ark, Noah could
hide from all that storm, the storm of God's wrath that came
against sin. Noah was safe in that ark because
that ark was Noah's substitute. That ark bore everything Noah
deserved. All the rain, all the wind, all
the flood that Noah deserved fell on that ark. And Noah was
safe because he was hidden in the substitute. And that's the
way God saves sinners. Now I tell you, you come hide
in Christ. You come hide from the wind of
God's wrath against your sin, all the wrath that you deserve,
you come hide in Christ. He'll be your substitute. He
bore all the wrath of God's, all of God's wrath against the
sin of his people. He's already bore it. Now you hide in him.
He's the only safe hiding place. And Christ can do that for his
people because he became a man. He assumed our nature so that
he could be our substitute and our hiding place. And when you're tortured by the
unrelenting Wind of guilt. Come to Christ. Would you come
to Christ? I had a conversation with the
lady this week. And it was is utterly heartbreaking.
Terrified, utterly. Terrified. Of what her sin deserves. No matter the guilt. Come to
Christ. Don't let your guilt keep you
from coming to Christ now. Don't say, oh, I'm too bad, I'm
too guilty, I'll never. No, don't let your guilt keep
you from coming to Christ. Your guilt is why you ought to
come to Christ. Isn't that right? The wind of
torture, the torturous wind of guilt should not drive us away
from Christ. It ought to drive us towards Christ because He's
our hiding place from that wind. This wind is a picture of trials
for believers. We don't have any control over
the wind. It comes and goes as it pleases. We don't have any
control over it. We can't stop it. We can't direct it. We can't
do anything with it. And the wind is just like trials. We
don't know where they're coming from, where they're going, what
direction they're blowing. We don't know. We can't control
them. You can't do anything about the wind and you can't do anything
about that trial when it comes. The only thing we can do in the
wind is seek out a hiding place. And when you find yourself in
the storms of life, the trials of life, don't try to fix them
yourself. Run to Christ. He's the hiding
place. You think what grace it is that
God's provided a hiding place for his people. Now come to him
and hide in him. And when you find yourself in
the wind of trial and you just, you don't know what to do. run
to Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
10. What this is such good, what warrant do I have to run to Christ? Well, first of all, he's the
only one that can help you. And second, he promised that
he would help you. He promised he would help his
people. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. There has no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. who will not suffer you to be
tempted, above that you are able, but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it."
Now run to Christ. Christ is our hiding place from
the wind and that is such a comfort to the weary reliever. Second,
Isaiah tells us this man who has come as our king will be
a covert from the tempest. Now the man Christ Jesus is a
covert from the tempest and from the storm. Whenever I think,
hear the word covert, I think of someone hiding in a covert
from a tornado. You know, people see a tornado
coming, they start running to the storm shelter or the cellar
or basement or looking for a covert. Well, you know, the only thing
that keeps us just from being blown away from Christ, blown
to the wind, is Christ our covert. He's the hiding place. Now it
sounds like Isaiah is saying pretty much the same thing. A
man should be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from
the tempest. It sounds pretty much the same, but it is a little
different. The word covert means secret. Christ is the secret hiding place
for his people. He's a secret hiding place. He's
got to be revealed. Now God does reveal that secret
hiding place to his people by his grace. Look back at Psalm
27. Psalm 27, verse five. For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle,
shall he hide me? He shall set me up upon a rock.
This word secret in the secret of his tabernacle, shall he hide
me? Is the very same word translated covert over in Isaiah. He's the
secret hiding place that's reserved for God's people. Now, do you
see Christ? Do you see him? Then run to him. and hide from the tempest of
God's wrath and fury against your sin. If you see Him, God's
revealed Him to you. He's the secret hiding place.
This is not something all men by nature see. He's the secret
hiding place. And in times of trial, and trials
are tempests, aren't they? Just a tempest in a teapot. That storm is blowing so hard
you cannot stand. You have the storm of sickness.
knocks you off your feet. You can't stand. You have the
storm of loss of loved ones. It just knocks you off your feet,
throws you for a loop. You can't stand. There's a storm
of loss of friends and fellowship, and it's such a storm you can't
stand. In those tempests, run to Christ. He's the refuge. He's the cover. Seek refuge from the storm in
Him. Christ is the secret hiding place
from the storm and tempest of trial. Now the world can't understand
what you're doing. You who believe the world can't
understand you seeking refuge in the covert of Christ. They
don't understand. They don't see him. It's a secret
to them. How can you find strength and
comfort in Christ and someone you've never met? He's a secret
that's only revealed to his people. You understand. You who believe,
you understand. That's good news to the weary
believer who's worn out by the storm of life. You've got a secret
hiding place. God's revealed him to you. But
I look at Job 22. There's a second meaning of this
word covert. It means covering. Job 22 verse
13. And thou sayest, how doth God
know? Can he judge through the dark
cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not, and
he walketh in the circuit of heaven. That word covering, thick
clouds are a covering to him, is the same word translated covert
over in our text in Isaiah. Now when I tell you, you come
hide in the covert of Christ, you hide there from the tempest
of God's wrath. When I tell you hide in Christ,
I don't mean run and hide in Christ and you're gonna get away
with something. No, that's not what this means
at all. Your sin still must be punished. You still have to be
made something that you're not. That's where this covering for
sin comes in. The covering, the covert, the
covering is the righteousness of the man, Christ Jesus. And
that righteousness doesn't just cover us on the outside, and
hide all the iniquity and the filth and the corruption that's
on the inside. The righteousness of Christ covers us inside and
out, makes us what we're not. So that in the new birth, there's
a holy man born that's righteous, that God does accept. Now that's
good news to the weary believer, who's weary of his sins and his
failings. Are you weary? Come to the covert
Christ and be covered in him. Third in our text, Isaiah talks
about a dry place. He says, this man who's coming
to be the king will be as rivers of water in a dry place. Now our nature is best described
as a dry place. In physical life, there's the
moisture of life. You know, there's no moisture.
When the body dies, there's no more moisture. It just dries
up and turns to dust. But as long as somebody's got
life, there's the moisture of life. Well, our soul is a dry
place. There's no moisture of life in
it, in a sin nature. It's like a desert. When you
talk about a dry place, Isaiah, what he's talking about here
is a desert. You're not talking about a place that has been without
rain for, you know, a little bit and there's still grass there,
it's just kind of mostly turned brown. He's talking about a desert
where Everything there is dead. Nothing but sand. It's all dead. There's no rain, no rivers, no
groundwater, nothing. It's a dry, dead place. And that's
our spiritual nature. It's a dead nature. There's no
water of life in us. I mean, not a drop. There's nothing
there in that nature but sin. But look at Psalm 46. Psalm 46. Our nature is a dead, dry place,
but there is a river for the people of God. Psalm 46, verse
one. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. He's not far away. He's very
present help in times of trouble. Therefore will not we fear, Though
the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried in 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 shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the
Most High God. There is a river." Now look over
in John chapter 4. Isaiah tells us this river is
not a place. He's very clear, isn't he? This
river is a person. This rivers, the mighty rivers
of water is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is exactly what our Lord
told the woman at the well in John chapter four, verse seven. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me
to drink. For the disciples were gone away into the city to buy
meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that
thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered
and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is
that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked
of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman
saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep. From whence then hast thou that
living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well
of water springing up into everlasting life. And if you look over verse
26, our Lord told this woman, this water he's talking about
is not a place, it's not something you draw from a well, it's a
person. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. Now upon this came his disciples,
and marveled that he talked with the woman. They marveled he be
talking with a Samaritan woman. Yet no man said, What seekest
thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her
waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did. Is
not this the Christ? Now just a little bit ago, all
this woman cared about was getting out to that well framed by Sar,
getting her water pot full of water and getting back to her
house fast as she could. After she met the Lord, she left that
water pot where it was and she went to the city to tell the
man I found the Christ. The secret hiding place has been
revealed to me. Come and see. Why'd she leave
that water pot? She already had the water. Now
she had that water, a well of living water springing up in
her heart. She had Christ. Christ is the water of life.
And this water of life cannot be given to us any way other
than Christ. The law can't do it. Religion
can't do it. The flesh can't produce it. It's
only given to us in Christ. And this is our great desperate
need. I wish I could make this real
to every heart, how desperately we need the Lord Jesus Christ,
the water of life, because our nature is a desert. It's just
a, I saw this week pictures out west where they're having that
severe drought to dry parched earth. I mean, it's just cracked.
And this fellow was standing down there in this little field
or something like down there, and he said, I shouldn't be standing
in 30 feet of water, and it was just all dry, cracked ground,
there's no water. That's our nature. And can you
imagine if that place ever gets any rain, how happy the people
will be, what a different landscape will be if that place ever gets
any water? That's Christ to the thirsty
soul. Can you imagine the difference when Christ enters the soul?
We have eternal life. Look over, if you're still there
in John, look over a few pages of John chapter seven. Our Lord,
what warrant do I have to come to this water? What warrant do
I have to come to these rivers? Christ said, come, that's my
warrant. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried saying, if any man thirsts, if any man's parched
and dry and dead, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit,
he's not talking about literal water, he's speaking of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
This water of life is Christ, and when he enters the soul,
That's the new birth. That's the man who's born of
the spirit. He's got that water. He's got
that life in him. The water of Christ, the water
of life is good news to a weary, thirsty sinner. And here's a word for a time
of trial. In times of trial, our lives become very dry, parched
places. There's no water. There's no
life. There's no joy there. It could be the trial of this
flesh. To the believer, this is a tough trial. The trial of
the sin of our flesh. Now believers born again. You
who know God, you've been born again. You've got life. You've
got eternal life. You're perfectly righteous. But
that flesh you were born with is the same as it ever was. It's
just as dry and just as dead as it ever was. And this is a
trial. There are times you pray. Have you ever prayed and you
found yourself just saying words and not really praying? That's
a trial, isn't it? Have you ever read God's Word
and fallen asleep while you do it? People ask me about studying.
Why is study such a hard work? I mean, it's hard work. Why?
It's just flesh. It ought to be a joy, shouldn't
it? It's such a hard work because
of the flesh. You ever read the Word and you
put it down and you can't remember what you just read? But buddy,
go down to the library and get you a good book. You read it
cover to cover. You can give a book report on it. Five weeks
later, still remember all about it. Oh, it was so good. Why can't
we read the Word like that? And it just makes you weary,
doesn't it? When you hear the gospel preached,
does your mind ever wander? And you're like, what did he
just say? Did I miss something? And worse yet, you're weary. You drag yourself out on a Wednesday
night to come to the service. And you drive home as dry as
when you came. Wish I could remember what his
text was. Oh, what a trial. The trial of the
sin of this flesh. And when you get dry enough,
when God's made you thirsty enough, He's not going to leave you in
that condition. He's going to bring you to the water. He's
going to bring you to Christ and you're going to drink freely
and deeply And it doesn't matter how dry you feel, there's plenty
for you. Isaiah says rivers of water,
plural, rivers of water. There's plenty. Christ is plenty. He's so plenty, he's all you
need. And that's a blessing to a weary child of God. And this
could also be all the rest of the trials of this life that
we face. They're hard trials. Difficult, weighty trials. They
dry us out. I mean, just ever felt like you've
been left alone in the middle of the desert? You're so weary
you can't go on? When that happens to you, look
to Christ. Now you seek Him. He says He's
a very present help in times of trouble. He's not far. Seek
Him. Look to Him. Come to the surface. Come to the surface. hear the
word preached, sing the songs, be with your brethren, read God's
word, spend time in prayer. It won't make the trial end any
faster, but this is where you get a refreshing from God. This
is where you seek him. This is an oasis in the middle
of the week. Does this world just make you
weary? You're going through the desert. Your feet are dusty.
hot, tired. This is the oasis in the middle
of the week where you come and you drink. And we'll see this
in a minute. You come to have shade and have
a refreshment before you trudge back out there into the desert.
Now that's good news to the weary believer. Christ is our oasis
in the desert. And then last, Isaiah tells us
this man should be as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
And nothing wears you out faster than heat. That's why when you
run distance races and stuff, you run them things in the morning.
And if it gets up even as much as 70 degrees, runners hate that. Nothing saps your energy more
than heat. Let's run that thing down in
the 50s. We'll all have a good time. Well, there's no finding
a cool spot in this world. This world is a dry, hot, weary
land. It's like we're walking through
the desert. You know, there are no shade trees in the desert.
You just, there's no break from the heat. And finally in the
distance, you see a great rock. It's casting a shade. And you
know all I gotta do is get there. And there's shade. There's a
place to rest my weary, hot body in the shade. In the distance,
I see Christ. If I can just get to Him, oh,
if I could just get to Him, there's rest in Him. And I'm telling
you, there's no heat like the fire of God's wrath against our
sin. Yet God in His grace, like I
told you a minute ago, He's provided a hiding place for His very own
wrath against our sin. That hiding place is the man,
Christ Jesus. Christ stood as a substitute
for His people. And he took all the heat. He
took all the fire of God's wrath against the sin of his people,
and he bore it all. He stood as a sacrifice for his
people until the fire of God's wrath burned out. Fire burned
out because sin's purged. And once the sin was purged,
once the fire's gone, then the Savior bowed his head and gave
up the ghost, but not before. He endured till the fire went
out. Now you come to Christ. You come to Christ to be the
shelter, the shade against the fire of God's wrath against your
sin. He's already born. You're safe in Him. In Christ,
there's no death. There's just life. In Christ,
there's no punishment, just acceptance. The Lord Jesus Christ is good
news to the weary sinner. And in time of trial, when the
land is so weary, And no matter how hard you look, you can't
find any joy anywhere around you. Come to Christ, just get to Him. Christ is the rock that's higher
than I. Now you come rest in His shade.
You come have refreshing in Him. And like I said a minute ago,
the trial not gonna end immediately, but I promise you, you get to
Christ and you'll have refreshing in Him. Now, are you in need? Is there
anybody here in need? Then you come to Christ. He's
everything you need. Maybe you're in a storm and you
think, well, God sent a storm to punish me. Now, if you're
His child, He didn't. Why'd God send a storm your way? To drive
you to Christ. You reckon he's gonna give you
a refreshing when you get there? He sent a storm to drive you
to Christ. You reckon he's gonna save you when you get there?
I think he will. So in that way, we can thank
God for the thirst and the water, can't we? It wasn't said God's
gotta salt us before we get thirsty. He's gonna salt us before we
drink. In that way, we can thank God for the thirst and the refreshing. We can thank God for the trial
and the refreshing. Whatever it is. Whatever it is
that drove me to Christ. Blessing. Christ is the great
rock and he's the great Savior. I pray the Lord in his mercy.
Will make us come to him. Let's bow in prayer. Our father, how we thank you
for this precious promise that we read in your word. of the
King, King Christ, who became a man, to shelter his people
from all of your wrath. How we thank you for a precious
promise given to your people that even though we'll endure
many, many hard, hot, difficult times of trial, there is a shelter,
there is a hiding place that you provided, your own son, where
we can find refreshing, life and peace and joy in him. Father, we're thankful. We pray
that you'd bless your word to the hearts of your people, that
you'd bless your word to your glory, to call out your people,
call your sheep to yourself and to bless and to comfort and to
edify your weary sheep. Father, I pray that you'd preserve
this place. is a place where Christ is preached,
where King Christ reigns, that this will ever be a place that
we can come and have refreshing in the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. It's in Christ's name and for
the glory of His name we pray. Amen.