Psalms 50. Nathan, when we do the Lord's
Supper, if you would help with the tape, help Matt pass it out. and then you can stand up, stay
up here and lead the singing, the final hymn. Psalms 50, let's look at verses
one through 15. Psalms 50, verses one through
15. The mighty God, even the Lord,
hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto
the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come and shall
not keep silence. A fire shall devour before him
and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call
to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge
his people. Gather my saints together unto
me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. The heavens
shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself, Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will
speak, O Israel, and I will testify against thee. I am God, even
thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy
sacrifice, or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before
me. I will take no bullock out of thine house, nor he goat out
of thy folds. For every beast of the forest
is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all
the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field
are mine. If I were hungry, I would not
tell thee, for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will
I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer
unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me." Now we're going to specifically look
at Verse 15, verse 15. With this one verse, as with
any Bible verses given to his people, we are to lay hold of
them by faith and grace and acknowledge mercy. And we acknowledge that
all these things, faith, grace, and mercy are undeserved. We
can't merit them. We can't work for them. However,
We are to know God's word to us and we are to make full use
of the scriptures to us work in every need, every situation
and every circumstance. I've said this so many times
before, I remember years ago talking to brother Tommy Robbins
and he said, we've got to talk and there's nothing, there's
absolutely nothing in our life that is not covered in the book. Now we may have to dig and look
for it, which would be a good thing, but every situation, every
circumstance, every need we have is found in this book. What I'd
like us to do is view this one verse, verse 15, and call upon
our sovereign God and make appropriate use of Him, three things, as
our hiding place, Secondly, as our resting place, and thirdly,
as our dwelling place. Look with me again at verse 15.
Call upon me. Make use of me in every need,
every situation, every circumstance. Call, he's speaking to his elect. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou
shalt glorify me. We are to call upon him, make
use of him. We have boldness to go to the
throne because of what Christ has done, what Christ has accomplished.
The blood shed on Calvary. And not only he didn't hang there
and he didn't hang there, he was left there, he was taken
down, taken to a tomb, he rose again. So he led captivity captive. That's our hope, he's our hope,
what he has done. So he says, call upon me. Call upon Me. May we call upon
Him first as our hiding place. As our hiding place. Now, we sing this hymn, He hideth
my soul. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows the dry, thirsty land. He hideth
my soul in the depths of His love And covers me there with
His hand. Covers me there with His hand.
He is our hiding place. And I won't read the whole hymn,
but you know that hymn that we sing that Moose Parks
loves so much. Hail Sovereign Love. Hail sovereign
love that first began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless
free eternal grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules the
sky, I fought with hand up lifted high, despised the mention of
his grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. But the last
stanza, a few more rolling suns at most, shall land me safe on
heaven's coast. There I shall sing the song of
grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. So let us make full use
as Christ is our hiding place. The word here, and we'll turn,
we're gonna be in Psalms, quite a few places in Psalms. Turn
to Psalms 32. But the word hiding place in
verse seven, And in other places where we'll see, Psalms 32, verse
seven, thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. Songs of deliverance. Not only
are we delivered, but as he says in another place, he gives us
songs in the night. This word hiding place here is a covering. covering. Truly we are hid safely
under the shadow of His almighty wings, thoroughly protected from
sin, Satan, and the final judgment. We are safe in and under the
blood of the great martyr lamb. We are safe from the curse of
the law. We are sheltered from the wrath
of the Almighty. We are shielded by the total
righteousness of our Savior against the wiles of Satan. He is our
hiding place. Not only are we covered But more
so, we are now the children of the Most High. Nearer to Him
we could not be. He is altogether the lovely one
to us. We are His loved, His covenanted,
His cherished sons and daughters of Adam's race. Turn to Psalms
27. Psalms 27. He is also our hiding
place as in this verse, 27, And verse five, for in the time
of trouble, he shall hide me, cover me in his pavilion. In
the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set
me up upon a rock. Boy, oh my, oh my. Not only are
we hid in Christ, but we are set up upon the rock of ages. Sure, steadfast, and unmovable. Psalms 119. Psalms 119 and verse 114, He
is our hiding place. As in these, Psalms 32, Psalms
27, Psalms 119, verse 114, Thou art my hiding place and my shield,
I hope in Thy Word. Make full use, make full use
in every need, every situation, every circumstance, It just seems
like every day this week, I get hit upside the head with my total
insufficiency to know something, or do something, or forget something. He's our hiding place. May we
go to Him in time of need. Make full use of Him as our resting
place. The word here is a silent or
peaceful abode. Our guilty conscience is silenced,
quieted, and the peace in the blood shed for us is seen, known,
and experienced. Do we know Him as our resting
place? Oh, flee to him while he may
be found. Seek him while he is near. We
are born, says the word of God, full of troubles. Sin lies hard
against us. He is the believer's rest, hope,
and peace, as in Psalm 37. We just looked at this. Matt
just read it. 37 and verse seven. He is our
resting place, silent. Peaceful abode. Verse 7. Rest. If you've got a margin reading,
it says be silent. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Fret not thyselves. There's much
to be fretful about in this world amongst believers or amongst
unbelievers. It's always a tumult, always something going on. But
he is our rest, as in Psalms 37, seven, and in Psalms 23,
and I'm sure we know this, but look at this with me again, Psalms
23, which is read so many times. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down and
grieve, pastors. He leadeth me beside. Still waters, what is
that? Waters of quietness. It's the
word, it's the word. He's our resting place. He leads
us beside the waters of himself. Still waters, refreshing, restored.
He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for his namesakes. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou
art with me. Thy rod and staff, they comfort
me. So, make full use of him as our
resting place. Psalms 116. Psalms 116 and verse seven. Return unto thy rest. Oh my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with return unto thy rest. If
we have to return, that means we wander and we get chastened
and we get afflicted. Afflictions are not joyous, but
David said it was good for me. We need to be. We discipline
our children. raise the child in the way, not
their way, the way they should go. That's direction, that's,
you know, you're moving them around, you're protecting them
from things, you're exposing them to things. The gospel, that's
good for them. That's what God does with us.
Return unto thy rest. It says he's saying the same
thing in Psalms 50, call upon me, call upon me. Just as there
is no God or rocks as the scripture, like our God, our rock, so there
is no rest like fully reposing in Christ Jesus and his complete
accomplishments for us. He's our all in all. And yet
we look so often to the arm of the flesh, And nothing good will come out
of that. Thirdly, let us make use of our
Lord as our dwelling place. See, our hiding place. We're
hidden in Christ. And then He causes us to rest.
And then we realize He in us, us in Him. We're dwelling in
Him. The word here is It's beautiful. It's a settling. He's our dwelling
place. Settle down, you know, settle
down. You're gonna go home and settle in. That's your home.
He is a, this is a settling or to occupy or an abode, an abode. I ask myself, I ask us, are we
settled in our kinsman redeemer or are we unsettled this morning?
Have we sought the resting place? The hiding place, if we have,
he's our dwelling place as well. Are we settled or unsettled?
The things you read on the news, the things you hear on the TV,
that's unsettling. Unsettling. If He is yours, if
He is mine, if He is our dwelling place, He occupies the heart
and soul of each elect sinner by His free and sovereign grace. What is Colossians 1? Christ
in you, occupying, abiding in you, Christ in you, the hope
of glory. And over again, Psalms 90. Psalms
chapter 90. and verse one. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling
place in all generations. Thou hast been our dwelling place. You could say he's a strong tower.
We've talked about this. The righteous run into it and
are safe. They're going to dwell there.
When we go out ahead of the Lord, so to speak, that's when we have
trouble. When we rely on our finances,
we rely on Science or any of these type of things other than
and we have to have these things in this day and age to to Live
so to speak, but you know you strip all this stuff away And
that's where faith faith. I'm trusting in him. I'm not
gonna trust in this this and all these other things I think
I need or I think I want And it's so difficult. It is so difficult
in a country, and I love this country of plenty plenty It's
difficult to walk by faith. In truth, Christ has been, is,
and ever shall be our settlement, our eternal abode. This is wonderful,
amazing, and cherished grace. In closing, turn to Revelations
21. Revelation is 21. This is absolutely beautiful. Revelation is 21. And verse 3, I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, behold, The tabernacle, that's abiding, abode, settled,
of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God. He's our hiding place, he's our
resting place, and he will dwell, he is our dwelling place. When I read that, I just got
a few comments. Have we, have you, have I, poor
sinners, ever heard such glorious, magnificent news? If you're in need, it is. If you're a sinner, it is. If you're running for the city of refuge,
This is, you're running to go to a dwelling place, and those
cities of refuge, they were built and they didn't move. Our God
is unchangeable. You seek him by the means that
he provides, by prayer and fellowship and hearing of the gospel. You
seek him, genuine. He'll be found. He will be found. But have you ever read, God is
with men and He shall dwell with them? This word is straight from
God to us if we have need. If He by the Holy Spirit has
shown us we need Him. So I tell all of us to look to
Him and live. Look to Him and live. Nathan, would you close this
please?