Psalm 46, verse number 1. We
notice that this psalm starts out and it ends in a certain
way. And it says, God is our refuge. And it comes back down here in
verse number 11, and it says, The God of Jacob is our refuge. It's interesting to note that
over and over, the Bible says the God of Jacob. See, we can
identify with Jacob, can't we? who he was and about him. Then
also it says in verse 7, the Lord of hosts is with us, the
God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah. So he begins and ends with God
our refuge. And I wanted to just think about
this phrase today and make a few comments upon it. And we know that the setting
here is Israel. But as the Bible is written,
and given is given unto us and it's for us just as it is for
Israel as we look at this when he says God is our refuge and
strength a very present help in trouble so we know that this
is for God's children so we look at it and we think about Israel
and It wasn't the armies or the fortress or the castles or all
of this that the psalmist here said is our refuge. It wasn't
those things. But it was God. And he goes on,
he says he's a help, a present help in trouble. There's his
help, truly is a help, is an effective help, is a constant
help that he has. We notice first of all God, and
that is Jehovah, the one that is self-existent. Now, Jehovah
is the only one that is. God is the only one that is self-existent. Everybody else in the world and
everybody that's been in the world other than God has existed
in a different way, but he's self-existent. And it's the glorious
I am. And that's what I am means. I
am self-existent. You know, when He appeared unto
Moses, He said, I am. And tell them that I am has sent
you. It's also interesting when you
come to the New Testament and the Lord Jesus Christ, He uses
the words like I am the door, I am the vine, and so forth.
I am the bread of life. He used this word I am also,
showing His deity. And when we say the word God,
we mean the Trinity, the persons, God the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. And we find that it's the only
true and living God. And here we find also the blessings
that's found for sinners, when it says God is our refuge in
a very present help in time of trouble. And we see that we Here
it is, and we can adapt this to us. We can adapt it to our
condition. We can adapt it to our circumstances. And if you notice, it says, God
is our refuge and strength. And this is the key to it all,
is right here in the word, our. You know, it's the same that
we find In the New Testament, Thomas, he says, my Lord and
my God, didn't he? It is a possession. Jeremiah
said, the Lord is my portion, didn't he? And here it is, here's the key
to the whole thing, is that the claim that is here is ours. He's
my God. He's mine. I have an interest
in it. And here the psalmist, that he
asserts this for that of himself, and we should assert it for ourselves
if he's our God. He's ours. You never enjoy the
greatness and goodness of God till you grasp that He's your
own. Now people just talk about God
today, and they talk about, use phrases concerning Him, but you
never enjoy and know His greatness and His goodness till He's your
own. The Jews say, He's my God. And
in looking at this, we have a great privilege here as having Him
as our refuge. the privileges, and we'll look
at that in a few moments, some of the things about it. But woe
to those that do not. That do not. Woe to those that
do not have Him as a refuge in the day of judgment. What's that
going to be like? When they stand before God, and
there's no shelter, and He's not a refuge for them. Woe to
those that have lies for a refuge, that have superstition. People all through the world
today just have superstition. They have religious superstition. They have ceremonies in their
rites. They just go through the motion. There's authority. Woe to those
that do not have God for a refuge. Woe to those that feel no need
They feel no need of God. They feel no need of having this.
Yet, they are peaceful in themselves. They go about, they feel secure
in their selves. And most people feel this way.
They feel like they're secure. They're alright. They're going
to get by some way or another. But woe to those. Now, this morning,
without God is our refuge. Without Him this morning, we're
exposed to eternal vengeance of God. There is that which is
exposed to everlasting purging. Without God is our refuge. Now by saving faith, we can make
this claim this morning that He's my refuge in Him. He's my refuge, confidence in
Him. I want to speak this morning
about the necessity of a refuge. Now, many say they do not need
this, and does mankind know this? Mankind, in all of his wisdom,
in all of his understanding, does he really know this morning
that he needs a refuge? Does he understand what it means
to be a sinner? Does he understand what it means
to be exposed to danger, and eternal danger? And the certainty
of death, and there's a certainty to it. The death rate and the age might
have moved up, but it's still one per person, isn't it? I mean, it might have moved up
some, and men live longer, but it's still one per person. and
the uncertainties of life and so forth. And yet, most, there's
no alarm, there's no concern about these things. And we find
that most says, well, I'm pretty good. Most says, well, I'm going
to take my chance. I've heard people say, well,
if I go to hell, there's going to be plenty of others there
with me. Boy, that's poor reasoning, isn't it? But I've heard people
say that. And they say, well, I'll take
my change. But I'll say this this morning,
that change is failure. It's failure. Because it's certain
today, what the scripture says, that man is dead and trespasses
in sin. There's no less danger this morning
if one in himself, as his eyes is shut, there's no more danger.
In other words, there's no less danger. It's still danger where
his eyes are shut to the things of the Lord or not, isn't it?
He's still in danger. He might say, peace, peace, but
that doesn't change the danger, does it? Now, let's look at the
law and justice of God for a moment this morning and whether men
believe it or not. They are under a condemnation. They are under a sentence by
the law of God. Whether they ignore it or whether
they're ignorant of this, there's this law, and it says if you
break, there's condemnation. If you just break one part of
the law, you've broken it all. James says you're guilty of it
all. It's like a chain. And if you break a chain, you
break one link, you've broken that chain, haven't you? And
that's like God's law this morning. And that fits everyone. Everyone has offended in part
of the law. Guilty. And if you've offended
in one part this morning, one sinful thought, you have offended
the law, haven't you? Just one sinful thought. And
judged by that law, you're condemned this morning. We're condemned
by it. And the Bible says if you offend
one part, you're guilty of it all. Then you turn it right around
and the law says do things and if you haven't done those things,
you're guilty of that. If you should have done it and
you didn't do it, you're guilty there. If you've left undone,
we're guilty. So that's the law. Now, if you
look at the law, you need a refuge from it, don't you? You need
a shelter from it. You take a debt and it's not
paid, A debt is not paid until it's all paid. If you have a
debt book and it all has to be paid. So there's a sentence of
condemnation that stands against us. It stands against the law
breakers. And it says, cursed is everyone
that keepeth not the law, that breaks the law. So this morning
we need, and we're talking about a necessity this morning, I have
a refuge. The only way to escape is a refuge. See, God has inflexible justice
this morning. He doesn't compromise. There's
many people that says, well, you know, here's the Word and
the Bible, and it'll all be different from that. I tell you today,
and I stand on this, that what this Bible says is the way it's
going to be. God's not going to change His
Word. But yet a lot of people are counting on God changing
His Word. Whatever it says, that's the
way that it's going to be. That's His Word. He'll not compromise. So the law has to be satisfied. The law has to be paid. And it's impossible for creature
to do this. It's impossible for man. We look
at it and there's man, he's faced with original sin. We sin because
we are sinners. There's original sin. We're guilty
of breaking the law. There's rebellion. And the only
thing for that is the blood atonement. That's the only thing that gives
satisfaction unto God. And that's what the atonement
is. It's called Christ's satisfaction. So the law demands payment. And
justice demands blood. And the sinner is not saved without
both of these. Man's undone. He's ruined. And
he's unclean, the scripture says. And Isaiah says, from the whole
head down to the foot. And his whole heart faint. And there's an abomination in
the sight of God. He needs a refuge. And here's
what the psalmist said. That he is our refuge. We look
at the fall and how it's left man. Yet, many do not believe
in the fall of man. Nevertheless, they will not preach
on the fall of man, that man is undone, and ruined, and paralyzed,
unwilling towards God's salvation. They won't preach the fall of
man, that man is going opposite of God, that he is dead and trespasses
in sin. Now, how can man obey God's law
completely or satisfy his justice? And when we see this, We understand
this, that there's no shelter, there's no refuge in man. We have to go to God. We have
to go to the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is that refuge. And we find this morning that
He's a refuge, and yet we find that man tries many things. He tries many things. He'll make
vows. I wonder how many vows was made
by men, unregenerate men, unsaved men. He says, well, I'm going
to turn over a new leaf. I'm going to do better. I'm going
to make new resolutions. I'm determined to live better.
I'm determined to be a better person. He tries prayers. He
tried this. He tried that. But the Lord's
people When it comes to a refuge, they are conducted to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here's the difference. They're
conducted to the Lord Jesus Christ. They flee to Him. They continue
to flee to Christ. They're hid in Christ, and that's
what a refuge is. We hide in this refuge. And He's
a refuge from the law and the inflexible justice of God. He's
our refuge. And you know, it doesn't stop
here. There's that initial fleeing
to Christ, but we continue to flee to Christ. We go to Christ
each day. Peter puts it like this. He says,
coming to the Lord, coming to Christ. And there's an initial
coming. We come, but we continue coming,
don't we? That's life. And we continue
to Christ, the shelter. We need Him. There's the world
that's against us. It says, the Bible says, love
not the world. There's the world that it's against.
There's Satan that's against. There's persecution. There's
all kinds of things. And you look at it, and here's
the refuge. And there's fleeing to the Lord. Now, this refuge that we're talking
about here, and the psalmist speaks of when he says, God,
who he is, here is a secure refuge. If you will go into a refuge,
you want one that is secure, don't you? You want one where
there is security, and here's one that is secure. Now, a man Mostly, and when he
goes to this one, he's been driven out of all other refuges. He
takes a refuge in his goodness. He takes a refuge in all kinds
of different things. But he's driven out of those.
Now he's to Christ. And it's God Himself. It's the
Trinity. And as we think about it this
morning, here's that secure refuge. Look at it. It's Father's love.
The Son in all of His offices. There's the Holy Spirit in His
operation of grace. Look at this refuge this morning.
Look at the arms. It's the arms of God. It's in
all powerful arms. Here's love. Here's the surety
ship of Christ Jesus. Here's our surety. Here's the invincible operations
of the Spirit of God. Now, what does he do? He brings
us into the shelter. You know, Moses, there's an interesting
thing said about Moses and the ark. And that interesting thing
is this. They said, the Lord shut him
in. Didn't they? The Lord shut him in. Now, I
take it this morning that the Lord comes and He shuts us in. He keeps us in. As He did Noah. And the Holy Spirit does His
work. bringing us and bringing us into
this shelter in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this shelter,
there's peace, there's joy, there's rest, there's comfort in this
refuge. It's an infallible one. It's
one that will not fail. I'd say today that all other
refuge that man has and the refuges that man has is going to fail.
They're going to fail. But here's one that will not.
This is different from all other refuges that man has, man-made
and creature-made refuges. It's different. This is one that
is immutable this morning. It doesn't change. In this refuge you have God's
counsel, and He's going to say, He says to us that He does all
of His counsel. Ours is old. I like the shalves
and the wheels of God. I don't like the uncertainties
of man and the perhapses and the uncertainties, but God says
He shall and He shall. He says He will and He will. And it's immutable. It doesn't
change. And here's the security of that
of the church. It's in the Trinity. It's in
the Deity. And dwelling in this shelter,
we find that Here's the Trinity, and they're all engaged on the
believer's behalf. This morning, as a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father is for you. God the Son
is for you. And the Holy Spirit is for you.
And here's this shelter of the Trinity. Here's this shelter
of God. And it's all on our behalf, everything. It's all of them on our behalf.
We look at it, and the law's been paid. It says, payest me
what you owe me. It's been paid this morning.
The law has been satisfied. And it goes further than that.
The Lord Jesus Christ magnified and made it honorable, didn't
He? By His keeping it. And the curse
has been nailed to the wall, and it's never to be charged
again. See this shelter this morning that we have in Christ,
this refuge that we have in God, that the curse has been nailed
to the wall? Here's the blessedness of the
mercies of God, and He's engaged on our behalf. Look at the blessedness
this morning of the love of God. Look at the blessings of the
covenant of God. How we're blessed this morning
with this shelter. Now, this refuge this morning
is that of saving faith. Now, I specify, and I use the
word saving faith, and that of saving faith apprehends and flees
and dwells in this shelter. I say saving faith because there's
faith that does not save. There's saving faith that's different. It's that which does save. So
here this morning is that of saving faith. It's a faith that
Christ is the author and finisher of. It's a faith in the scriptures
called the faith of operation and the faith of God's elect.
It's that faith. It's a faith this morning that
overcomes the world. It's a faith this morning that
looks to the invisible and sees the reality of the invisible
things. Isn't that what Hebrews says
about faith? It's faith that sees these things,
sees that which is invisible, sees those things. It's a faith
this morning that lays hold on eternal life. It's a faith this
morning that exalts and honors God. It's a faith this morning
that purifies the heart and works below. Hebrews talks about those
in that days that they have fled for refuge. They have fled. And
in thinking about this, they fled from themselves, laid hold
on Christ. And isn't that what we do? We
flee from ourselves. We flee to Christ, don't we?
And that's what they did. They fled for refuge. They laid
hold on Christ and His salvation, a complete salvation. And faith
takes a shelter here and rests upon Christ. And it says, God
is my refuge. It's Him. Now this is typified
in the Old Testament where God set up the city of refuge. He set up this city. and the
mosaic dispensation there, and the manslayer, he would flee
from the avengers of blood, and this is like, it's called manslayer. If someone was slinging an axe,
and the axe head fell off and hit somebody, it killed them.
If he was chopping wood or something, he would flee, and God set up
the city of refuge there. And he'd be set up and he'd be
safe there. And he was safe there as long
as the priest lived. Well, here's a refuse that the
psalmist is speaking of. And man is safe as long as the
priest lives. The thing is, we don't have ever-living
priests, do we? Ever-living. ever-living priests,
so man is safe in this refuge. And Christ is this refuge, and
the Bible says that he's able to save to the uttermost those
that come to God by him. And so just as that city was
set up, the safety of it, the security of it, here is the refuge
of God himself and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, just think about
this refuge here this morning. And what's stored there? What's stored there for us? We flee to it. We go to it. What's stored there for us this
morning? There's a lot of things that's stored there for us. Pardon. Isn't that something great? It's stored for us. Here's a
shelter, and they're stored for us. Pardon. This morning, there's
peace. It's stored for us. There's a
feast, there's all the provisions, there's the bread of life. The
bread of life. You take John, I believe it's
the sixth chapter of John, and there he speaks of the bread,
I'm that bread that came down from heaven, if a man eat of
me, he'll live forever, doesn't he? He's the bread of life. That's what's here in this shelter.
That's the provisions that's made. The Bible speaks of the
water of life. It's there. All of these things
is there. Look at the adopted privileges that we have that
is in this shelter. Look at the promises that's given
unto us in this shelter, in this, as God is our refuge. Look at
all the promises that's made unto us and the constant provisions
that is made, the covenant provision for that of His children, the
parianal love that's bestowed upon every adopted child of God. How great is this love. Now,
God is our refuge. And as he speaks here that he's
our refuge, it means that the psalmist experienced this for
himself. He said he's our refuge. And
we have to experience this for ourselves. And I say in this
refuge we have all. You know, Scripture says all
is yours. I don't understand that. I preached upon it one
time and I said, I'm going to preach on something today I do
not understand. And I don't understand that all
is yours, but that's what Scripture says, all is yours. Doesn't it? So here's a refuge this morning
and look what all's stored there. Everything's stored there. Stored
for you. We have it. Security. It's like
a home. This refuge is. It's like a home. You have it. What you need there. Then also in this refuge this
morning, God is our refuge. We shelter there. We to grow. There is to be a growth there
as we shelter in the Lord Jesus Christ. We to grow. We to attain more. We are not
to be babes always, but we are to grow. The Bible sets out babes,
it sets out young men, it sets out men and aged men, doesn't
it, in the Scriptures. And we are to grow in the things
of the Lord. We are to go forth from that
of faith to the assurance of faith. Paul said that we might
apprehend, for that which I have been apprehending, Paul looked
at his life and he says, I press forward. He says, I go forward. He says, the Lord apprehended
me. The Lord has worked in my life. The Lord has saved me.
And now he says, I want to apprehend for that which he apprehended
me for. We are to go forth. I say unto you this morning,
there is a great deal more. We are to discover more. We need
to enjoy more. The Bible says we need to grow
in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Many years ago, it comes to my
mind that a person was in the bookstore at Booneville and told
Becky that he didn't want to know anymore. That's pretty weird, isn't it? He didn't want to know anymore.
It's a pretty sad situation, isn't it? Really, when you look
at it. But the things of the Lord. We want to grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord. We want to learn more. We want
to know more. We want to know more of His person,
His work, His offices. We want to know more of His promises.
We want to know more of His work. We want to grow in the grace
and knowledge of Him. So, this morning, the provisions
of this refuge. God is our refuge. Look at all
the spiritual blessings that we have. What He's blessed us
with. And here's a refuge. And all
of this leads to that of eternal blessedness. And here's that
of a refuge this morning. And in this refuge, we're talking
about what all is stored there. There's a fountain to wash us. See, I said a while ago, here's
a refuge, and this is where we go. We continue to go there. If you walk in this world, you
know, there's a picture in the New Testament, there's a picture
of washing the feet of the saints, and there's a picture of that,
of walking in this world, and you get your feet dirty, and
you wash them. But here's a fountain, spiritually. that fountain to
wash us. It is a table to feed us this
morning as we look at this shelter, look at it as a place where we
would feed and feed upon Christ who is the bread of life, feast
upon Him. Also this morning, it's a wardrobe
to clothe us. Now you think of a shelter this
morning and spiritual blessings Look at it. Here's a shelter
that does all this for us. We feed there. We're clothed there. What about
the clothing of this shelter? It's the clothing of Christ,
isn't it? It's the wardrobe of Christ Jesus. It's His righteousness. It's His righteousness. Clothed
in His righteousness. A perfect and a complete righteousness. Oh, what a great refuge this
is this morning. And the blessings of those that
have this refuge. Look at the blessings. If we
could just meditate and think upon the blessings this morning.
God is our refuge. God is our shelter. God is where
we flee to. Look at all the blessings this
morning we have. Look to safety. Where else can
you have safety? Where else? We're headed for
another world. We're headed in the eternity. Look to safety this morning of
this refuge. Safe, secure in Christ. Look this morning again at the
provisions of this refuge. What all is provided. Oh, how
we might enjoy this refuge. And on the other hand this morning,
woe to those that make other things their refuge. Woe to them
that make other things. Woe to them this morning that
reject this refuge. Woe. Woe to those that never
know this refuge. that live in this world and go
out and never know this refuge right here. Woe to them. Woe to those that despise this
refuge. There's a multitude of people
that despise this refuge. They despise Christ. Instead
of embracing Him, it's right the very opposite. Christ is the door. He says in
the New Testament, I am the door. If any man enter in by me, he
shall be saved. He's the door to this refuge
this morning. And we take this refuge by faith. And everyone that takes this
refuge by faith is saved for eternity. They're saved for eternity. Christ is the door. If any perish, and here's how
the Bible sets it out. If any perish, the guilt is on
their own head. Over in the Old Testament, they
set the watchman, and the watchman, he'd cry out. And if they didn't pay any attention
to the watchman, they didn't hear the message. It was their
own head, wasn't it? And it is. today in this world,
man do not heed the message. If he does not hear the message,
the guilt is on his own head. If anyone perish, the guilt is on their own head.
So here we have this shelter this morning. Let me say just
a couple of words about it. God is our refuge. He's our refuge. He's a shelter. He's shelter
from the law. He's a shelter this morning from
the curse of the law. He's a shelter this morning from
condemnation. He's a shelter this morning from
sin and all of the consequences of sin. And He's a shelter from
ourselves. See, we can't save ourselves,
can we? No, it's Christ that saves. Salvation
is of God. And here's that shelter this
morning. And if we are ourselves, we're
going to go the wrong way. We're going to go to the wrong
shelter in ourselves. We've got to go to the Lord.
So, here's a shelter this morning that has all the privileges and
has all the benefits. The great benefits. Look at all
the benefits this morning has given us of the Lord in this
shelter. That's Him being our refuge. Look at it. Food. water, the very water of
life. He supplies our needs. There's
a chapter that whatever your needs are, He supplies it this
morning. You know, when I think about
the Lord supplying our needs, He's been supplying them all
along. He supplied them before eternity, didn't He? He supplied
them before we got here. He supplied them in Christ, didn't
He? And He has an everlasting supply.
Here's a shelter that has an everlasting supply. Here's a
shelter that will never run out. You know, God's been giving all
these years. And He's no less today than He
was. Of all that He's given, He's no less today than He was
to start with. Isn't that amazing? You and I give, and we give out. It won't take long to give out,
will it? But God's been giving all these
years. Probably 6,000 years. I think that's probably what
it is. But he's been given all these years. That's more and he's no less. So look at this, what he gives.
All the benefits. God is our refuge. He's our strength. A very present
help in trouble. And he goes on down and he ends
it up, the Lord of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Ponder this. Think upon it. Meditate upon
it. Selah. Our Father, take the message
today. We thank you for a great refuge
of thou art. A shelter of thou art. May that
you take this message and you reponder it and you meditate
upon it and we just think about the greatness in thy goodness,
thy mercy and thy grace unto us. How gracious that you are. We are thankful of the Holy Spirit
that led us to this shelter. We are thankful of saving faith
that we laid hold upon Christ and eternal life. We ask you
meet the needs of us here this morning, each one of us. You
know us as individuals. You know our needs. We thank
you that you meet them in Christ's name.