Good morning. It's good to be back. This last
month has been kind of a whirlwind. We left here and the next week
we went to Montana and was able, by the grace of God, to speak
there a couple of times. They'd get meetings and the church
there, all the people there, they'd love to meet all of you.
They really would. If you ever get the opportunity
to go to Montana, they'd love to see you. But they are lifting
you up in prayer, and I pray that you do the same for them.
They desperately need a pastor there. And they're hanging together. They are. By the grace of God,
they are. And we just continue to pray for them. And remember
my father. He's not getting any better,
that's for sure. But the Lord is with him. You can truly see that in old
age, no matter what, the Lord is always with us. He's always
right there. And the Scriptures that He knows
are such a comfort to Him. He'll sit there. He can't hold
a book anymore. He'll shake so bad He can't hold
it. He can't read it really. But yet, He knows them. He knows
those Scriptures. And boy, He'll sit there and
just preach a message to you right there. If you haven't opened
up a book, He can bring a message to you. Just remember Him, if
you would, in prayer. They're at Providence. They would
love to get together again. Hopefully we can do that again
next month. That would be wonderful. But if you would, turn your Bibles
to Psalm 46. Psalm 46. Psalm 46. I don't know if you
have this underneath the heading of Psalm 46, but it says to the
chief musician for the sons of Korah song upon Alamoth and just
a little. History before we start this
Korah. Was a man that led a rebellion
against Moses, you might remember over there in numbers that he
led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and he thought that
Him and his buddies ought to have a little more say in the
camp and they ought to have a little more stuff to do. And the Lord
came to Moses and he said, I want you to separate Moses and Aaron. I want you to separate yourselves
from these people. I'm going to destroy. And remember,
Moses and Aaron fell on their face before the Lord and said,
for this one man, would you destroy all these people? Oh, how intercession
in the Bible. We love to see that. And we love
to see that. And the Lord told him, he said,
OK, you tell these people to separate. Whoever's going with
Korah, tell them to go with Korah. Whoever's with Moses and Aaron
and myself, have them go over on the other side. And so they
separated. Some of the congregation went
with Moses and Aaron. Some stayed there with Korah.
And I remember that the Lord opened up the ground and swallowed
all those men. And then 250 of the priests,
and Korah was with them, he sent fire down from heaven and destroyed
those 250 priests. Well, later on in Numbers, we see that not
all the sons of Korah were destroyed. The Lord had mercy upon some
of the sons of Korah. There's that remnant. And they
were brought over on the side of the Lord. And we see that
in David's day, these sons of Korah, they were either porters
at the gate, at the city there in Jerusalem, or they were musicians. And in this psalm, it says to
the chief musician. And so it was sent to the chief
musician of the bunch. And these sons of Korah were
musicians. And it was to be sung upon the
alamoth, which I believe that was a musical instrument. I'm
not sure exactly what kind of musical instrument it was, but
it was to be sung upon this musical instrument. All right. Well,
let's look here at this text of scripture, Psalm chapter 46.
It says, God is our refuge and strength. a very present help
in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear.
Now you can just imagine these sons of Korah reading this and
saying this. This is good, isn't it? Therefore,
will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the
mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. I'm sure I
brought back a lot of family remembrances. I'm sure it did.
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof, Selah, 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 is in the midst of
her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her in that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms
removed. He uttered his voice, the earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is
our refuge, Selah. Come behold the works of the
Lord. What desolation he hath made in the earth. He maketh
wars to cease at the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and
cutteth the spear in thunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. My subject today will
be verse 10. The first part of it. Be still
and know that I am God. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father,
Lord, we thank You for this day that You have made. We thank
You that You have allowed us to come to this place, Lord,
by Your grace and by Your mercy. Lord, that You have chosen a
people, a remnant, Lord, and that You have brought them into
the fold, dear Lord, and You have supplied us all of our needs,
Lord, in Your dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, that
we are able to come to worship you in spirit and in truth, Lord,
and that we are able to open up this word and to read of you,
Lord, and to hear these divine and beautiful words that have
been written, Lord, and they're the inspiration of you, Lord.
And Lord, we just thank you for them. We pray that we would never
take it for granted, these opportunities to come into your place, Lord. Lord, just help everything that
is said and done in this place today, that it would be glorifying
and honoring to your name, Lord. We pray that the word would go
forth with power, Lord, and that even one here this morning would
come to know you and you would reveal yourself, Lord, with great
power to some sinner here this morning, Lord, we pray. Lord,
we love you and we just thank you for all you've done for us.
Help us all, dear Lord, to be still and to know that you are
God. It is in your dear and precious
Son's name that we ask these things. Amen. It is a sad commentary in nature. It really is. That the hunted,
it is deer season. My mind has been off on a few
other things, sitting in tree stands and stuff like that. But
the hunted has more respect for the hunter than God's creation
has for him, than men have for their creator. It's an amazing
thing. They do. But a simple observation
will prove this correct. It will. The deer and the elk,
we don't have any elk here, but we do in Montana. The deer and
the elk, they're always on alert for men. Always are. They're
never at ease. Their head is always bobbing
up and down. They're always looking. Their
ears are turning sideways. They're listening. They're trying
to see where danger is. They're always looking. Always
thinking. They always are. Many times while
hunting elk in Montana, I would be following some tracks. And
that's how really in Montana you'd hunt elk. You'd follow,
get on a set of tracks and follow them. North Dakotan friends,
and we in Montana make fun of North Dakotans. And they came
over and they wanted to know how to hunt elk. And we said,
well, you've got to get on the tracks and you've got to follow
them until you find them. And if you're quiet enough, you'll
find them. All these North Dakotans, they
got on these tracks and they followed them and followed them.
And then that night they got tired, so they set up camp right
there on the tracks and figured they'd get going again the next
day. Too bad they didn't get to finish their hunt because
that night they got run over by a train. All right. But that's how you
hunt elk. You follow tracks. A lot of times,
though, I was on these tracks, elk tracks, that is, to be following
them. And all of a sudden, up on the
ridge up above me, the elk would jump up and run over the top
of the ridge. What this elk had done is he got out in front of
me And then he went up the side of the mountain and got up on
top of the mountain, laying up there and watching his tracks.
He was waiting. He was watching. He was being
still. He was waiting for me. Lying still. You know, the beast
of the mountain is controlled by a fear that the one who tracks
him could take his life. That's what he's thinking all
the time. That one who's tracking him is going to take his life.
And truly, a deer or an elk that just walked out in the middle
of a hunting camp If he just walked out there and stuck his
tongue out, actually, he'd be in trouble, wouldn't he? He would
be. There'd be no fear in that animal's eye. He'd be foolish.
Truly would be foolish animal. Now there are some animals in
the animal kingdom that are ferocious and they're mean, but they take
their fear and they turn that aggressiveness towards man. That's
what they do. You know, unlike the elk and
the rabbit and the deer, the bear and the lion, They'll attack
when they're threatened. They will. But man uses this
aggressiveness against them. You know, in Africa, they'll
dig these giant holes, and they'll put spikes in these holes, and
they'll tip them with poison. And then they'll bait these animals
in, and they'll yell and scream. These animals will come running
in after them, and they'll fall in these pits, and they'll run themselves
through with those spikes. Truly, these animals, the best
thing they could have done is just sit in the bushes and be
quiet and wait and watch. That would have been the best
idea for them. And then they're the animals of the farm. Everybody
knows, unless you're breeding rodeo stock, that the quiet animal,
the one that obeys command, he's the one that's going to stick
around the longest. I had a buddy in high school. They had this
steer that was always getting out. We had to put that thing
in all the time. Every time I went over there, we were putting this
steer back in the pen because it would just bust out. It would
run right through the pen. One day I went over there to
eat dinner at their house one night and having hamburgers. And we sat down at the table
and I said, you know, I was driving in, I didn't see that steer.
We didn't have to put him up. And the dad looks at me and he said,
I said, well, where is he? And he looks at me and he said,
he's right there between those two buns. But that's what's going
to happen to the farm man. That's what's going to happen
to him if he's crazy. All right. It's what's going to end up.
And the animal kingdom, regardless of what animal it is, if it has
no respect for man, if it has no respect for its superior,
If it pays no mind to him at all, it never follows commands,
never heeds warnings at all. If it never acknowledges his
existence at all, that animal would be considered foolish.
It really would. And in the end, it's going to
pay the price for it. It's going to pay the price for
it. David said in Psalm 14, verse one, he said the fool had said
in his heart that there is no God. That's what the fool has
said. There is no God. If we stop and
we look at this world we're living in, Just for one minute. You
know, we get up in the tree stand and we look at the animals running
around in the forest and how they're always concerned. We
look at this world and don't we see so much foolishness? I
mean, foolishness everywhere. There is. People are running
around like chickens with their heads cut off. No care for God. No concern about God whatsoever. Just no concern. And we look
at ourselves and our lives that we live. We rush around. We rush to work. We rush to school. We rush home. You know, we rush
to church on Sunday. We do it all the time. We rush
to church on Sunday, and we rush through the service, and then
we rush to get home so we can rush to do whatever we got to
do, and so we can rush to get to bed, so we can rush to get
up on Monday morning and start it all over again. You know,
if a wild animal lived like that, they'd be dead. They would be.
They'd get themselves killed. That's what they'd do. Wild animals
are always watching, waiting, and still, and they're only concerned
about physical life. That's all they're concerned
about. How much more should we, who have an eternal soul, be
concerned about these things that we're reading about? There's
a song that says, eternity, eternity, where wilt thou spend eternity? Where wilt thou spend eternity? Psalm 46, 10, God speaks and
he says, be still. He's still and know that I am
God. He's still and know that I'm
God. Well, you say the wild animal, they can see the things that
man has made. They can see the great workings
of his hands. They can see the buildings that
he's made and all these things that he's smarter than they are.
They can see that. Oh, but can't we see the creation
of God? Don't we see that in this world?
Don't we see that? Aren't the mountains taller than
any building in New York? Are they not? Ah, no earthly
bridge can span the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. You can't
do that. No computer is more complex than
what God scooped up out of the dirt and breathed life into.
That's more complex than any computer that's around today
or ever will be. It is. We've not even begun to
talk about the vastness of the universe. Ah, to think of the
hands that created all these things. Oh my, the wonders of
His hands. John 1, 1 through 3. Our brother
read that this morning. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. He's made
it all. He's made it all. Yes, you say,
but yet we've never actually saw him. We never actually saw
him. Wild animals, they see men running
around. We haven't actually saw him.
Oh, but we have. What is verse 14? He said, then
the word became flesh. It was made flesh and dwelt among
us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten, full
of grace and truth. We have seen him. We have seen
the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't point you to some unknown
God. I don't do that. Look over at Acts 17 real quick.
Acts chapter 17. That's chapter 17, starting with
verse 23. Now, this is Paul standing in
the midst of Mars Hill. He says, For as I passed by and
beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription
to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him declare
high unto you. Well, we see that all over, don't
we? This unknown God that people are worshiping. Verse 24, God
that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands,
neither is worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything,
seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and
hath made of one all nations of men, for to dwell on all the
faces of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed
and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord,
if haply they might feel after him and find him, Though He be
not far from every one of us. Verse 28, For in Him we live
and move and have our being. Now look down at verse 31. It
says, Because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge
the world in righteousness by that man. That man is Christ. That man is Christ. Christ is
the Word. And the Word is God. And I want
you to know this morning, I want you to hear these words spoken
from Him. That's why I want you to hear
these words spoken to this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ, that one
who became, who was made flesh and dwelt among us, that one
who took upon himself the sins of his people. I point you to
that one who hangs shamefully naked between two thieves outside
the city walls of Jerusalem on that hill called Golgotha of
Calvary, that one who hang there for His people. I point you to
Him, that One who bled out His life, that One who was wounded
for our transgressions, who was bruised for our iniquities. I
want you to hear these words spoken from His mouth this morning.
Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God.
Paul said, I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That's what he said. He said
this because salvation is looking to Christ. That's what salvation
is. Peace is found in looking to
Christ. That's where it's found. No other
place is peace found but in looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hope
is found in Christ. Assurance is found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the only place where you're
going to find assurance. You can look your whole life.
You'll never find it until you see the Lord Jesus Christ, until
He reveals Himself to you. Oh, that you might see Him today.
The children of Israel found healing power in that snake on
that pole, didn't they? They did. They found the water
of life in that rock that was smitten in the wilderness. They
found it. They found protection in the
blood that was on the doorpost in the mantle of their house.
That snake on that pole, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must also the Son of Man be lifted up. That
rock that was smitten in the wilderness, that blood on that
doorpost, what are these? But the Lord Jesus Christ and
him crucified in the mind and purpose of God. That's what those
things are. They're the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, that we might see it. Be still and know that I am God. All right. I believe that there
are four things here that we find out about God when we are
by his grace allowed to be still and to see truth. When I say
see truth, I mean see the truth, the truth. There's a difference.
All right. If we see, you can hear truth
your whole life. You can hear it. All right. But
until you see truth, until he reveals himself to you, truth
is a person. It is. And until he reveals himself
to you, truth is going to go in one ear and right out the
other. Oh, that we might see him today. We need to see him.
See truth. Oh, that we might. All right.
And I heard Henry Mahan say this one time, you'll stick with me
forever. He said, truth can only be seen in the light that shines
from Calvary. I love that. All right, number
one, that one who hangs on Calvary's cross, he says, be still and
know that I am a God and I am omnipresent. I am omnipresent. Now, I've touched on this before,
but this is very important that we understand this. Especially
the little ones. Now you listen to me. God, the
Son, God, the Father, God, the Spirit. These are omnipresent. They are omnipresent. All right.
God is everywhere. He is everywhere. From the highest
peaks of Everest to the deepest depths of the ocean. He's there.
He's there. He's everywhere. He is a God
who filleth immensity. Lee Spurgeon said that. Fills
immensity. Where man has never seen with
a telescope before, God is. He's there. He's there. There
is not a molecule of space that is in existence, that God is
not present there. You say, well, how? And people
question us when we say we believe in absolute predestination. They
say we believe that God is in control of every minute particle,
every minute atom that there is. They say, well, how can that
be possible? It's not that hard to believe that when you understand
that God is in all things. He's everywhere. He's in every
particle of matter that there is. He is. You think of space, think of
space. Everything, all of it, God and
space are equal, they're equal, and this God who is everywhere,
this God who sees all things, he does not look at us from a
distance. That's how that song I believe is Bette Midler used
to say, God's watching us from a distance. That's the most ridiculous
thing I ever heard of. It's crazy. God is not watching us from a
distance. If He was, we could hide from Him. There would be
a place where we could go hide. You can't hide from the God of
the Scriptures. You can't hide from Him. Oh, He's not watching
us from His distance. His gaze is always upon us. It
is. Look at Psalm 46 over here in
this psalm we were reading just a minute ago. Look at verse 1.
It says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help
in trouble. It's right here. It's right here.
Look at verse 5. God is in the midst of her. That
word midst means involved in. It means surrounded by, overwhelmed
by. Verse 7, look at this. It says
the Lord of hosts is with us. Verse 11. It says the Lord of
hosts is with us. He's right here. He's right here. He's not just by us. He's in
us. Within these hearts and within
these lungs. Within these eyes and within
these ears. He's right here. He's right here. He's in all
things. I've said it before. I've said it before. You might
think that God is invading your space. You might think that.
But listen, He was here a long time before you were. He was. He's not invading your space.
You've invaded His space. Yeah. And this God who is everywhere,
He sees everything. Everything. He sees our every
action. He sees our every thought. He
sees all these things. He sees our every motive. Even
the motives of our heart, he understands them and he knows
them and he sees them. The Bible says we will all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. Oh, many earthly judges are going
to have difficulty in judging a case because they're relying
on somebody else's witness. They're sitting there and they're
hearing a case and they're hearing some man tell of what he saw.
That's not the case with our Heavenly Father. It's not. These
are eyewitness accounts that he saw. He saw them himself.
That's what he saw. He sees all. He's heard all.
He knows all. You say, what can I do? Where
can I run? Where can I hide from this all-knowing,
all-seeing God? What can I do? Oh, be still. Be still and know that he is
God. That's what you need to do. Look
over at Psalm 139. Real quick, turn over here, Psalm 139. Psalm 139, verses
6 through 12. Just listen to these words. David said, Such knowledge is
too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right
hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness
shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea,
the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as
the day. The darkness and the light are
both a light to thee. Oh, to you who would run, to
you who would run from it, that think you can hide from the very
God of the Bible. Oh, that he would speak to you
today, speak these words to you. Be still and know that I am God. That we might hear those words.
All right, number two. He says to us today, be still
and know that I am God, that I am a God of justice. I am a
God of justice. God demands perfection. That's
what he demands. His holy law demands perfection.
It demands holiness. It demands a perfect righteousness. That's what it demands. Who shall
stand in my presence but he who has clean hands and a pure heart. That's what the Bible says. That's
what he demands. The Word of God says the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. It shall surely die. It says
the wages of sin is death. Romans 3 verse 23 says for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3 10
says and there is none righteous. No, not one. Not one. These are
eyewitness accounts. God is not relying on some man
telling him what we've done. These are eyewitness accounts.
He's seen it all. He knows all. Hebrews 4.13 says,
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight,
but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with
whom we have to do. We're guilty. Naturally speaking,
we are guilty. Listen, nothing points to the
justice of God like the cross of Calvary. Nothing points to
that. It doesn't. God in his sovereignty,
he could have sent every single solitary person on this earth
to hell and he would have been just in the doing of it. He could
have done it. He could have. But God became
flesh. He was made flesh and he bone
of my bone, flesh of my flesh. He became flesh and he lived
a perfect, holy, spotless life. And this one who was spotless,
who knew no sin, he became sin for me. He became sin for his
people. Look over at 2 Corinthians 5.
2 Corinthians 5. I'm sure you all know this verse.
Oh, that we would commit this to memory. 2 Corinthians 5 verse
21. If you've got a pen, underline
this. This is good. Listen to this. 2 Corinthians 5.21, For he hath
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. He went to
Calvary's cross not as an example. He went as a substitute, as a
sacrifice, as a propitiation for sin. Oh, I mean, people running
around with those bracelets on all the time. What would Jesus
do? What did he do? What did he do? That's the question. What would Jesus do? What did
he do? Oh, he died for his people. That's what he did. He went to
the cross of Calvary for his people. Oh, what people, what
we could not do for ourselves, he went and accomplished. That's
what he did. 1 John 4, verse 10 says, Herein
is love. This is what love is. Not that
we love God, but that He loved us. Well, what is it that we
love of a perfect, holy, spotless God, but that He would look upon
a wretched sinner like me and love me? Oh my, what love is
that? And that He sent His Son to this
earth to be a propitiation for my sin, for the sins of His people. Oh, that's love, that's love.
Oh, and when a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, they receive pardon,
they receive forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Christ
Jesus, then God is just. He's just in the doing of it.
He is. Listen, if I was to, we were driving through Newcastle
here this morning, and if I was to be speeding through Newcastle
and the police officer were to stop me and give me a ticket
and say, you got to go before the judge, and I was to go before
the judge and I was to bring my family with me because they're
the best part of me. I'd bring my family with me,
and they could all stand up there. And he'd look at me, and he'd
say, well, you know, you've got a lot of mouths to feed. You
know, I'm just going to take this ticket and rip it up and
throw it away. I'd like the judge. I would.
Because that'd be great. But I'd know walking out of that
place, I wasn't a just judge. I wasn't. That ticket wasn't
paid for. Now, if that judge had pulled
out his wallet, opened up his wallet, and said, that's a $100
bill. That's what it's going to be. You know, I'm paying it.
There it is. Bill's paid. I'm going to mark
it paid. That's what I'm going to do. That's what Jesus did
for us. For His people. That bill's marked
paid. He didn't just sweep sin under
the rug somewhere. No, He didn't. He went to Calvary's
cross and became sin for His people and died there and put
away our sin. Oh my, what He did for His people.
He's a God of justice. Oh, be still today. Be still
today and know that He is God and that He is a God of justice.
He is. He's going to find out the sinner.
He's going to. If you die in your sin, you'll
go to hell. You will. That is the justice
of God. But if you die knowing His Son,
knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been promised we have
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. That's the
gospel. All right, number three, he is
a God of salvation. Be still and know that he is
a God of salvation. Oh, yes. Do you know that salvation
is to only be had by looking to Christ? That's the only way
we get salvation is looking to Christ. Work your whole life
for it. Never have it until you see Christ. You must look to Christ. There
is such simplicity in the cross of Calvary. It's such a simple
message. Look to Christ. Look unto me,
all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved. For I am God, and
there is none else." The Philippian jailer, remember? He asked Paul
in silence, what must I do to be saved? Didn't he go through
a big long list of stuff? No, they didn't. All they said
was believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Believe on him. That's the gospel.
Why do men want to make the gospel so difficult? Why do they want
to do that? Why do we want to do that? You know, men naturally just
want to be like Naaman the leper. They do. They just want to naturally,
that's the way we are. We're just like him. We want
to make things difficult. We do. You remember that story?
What a wonderful story that is. Naaman was this mighty man of
valor. Okay? That Naaman thought he
was a mighty man of valor just happened to be a leper. That's
what he thought. But in all actuality, he was a leper that just happened
to be a mighty man of valor. Alright? That's what we must
remember. No matter what our station in life is or how high
up we become, that we are really sinners who just happen to be
that. That we're not some high and
mighty man that just happens to be a sinner. No, we're sinners
that just might happen to be in a high position. That's all
we are. And Naaman, he thought he was
something else. And so he got all of his goods
together. Remember that maid of his? He said there's a prophet
over there in Israel. But he got all his stuff together
and he went to the wrong place. He went to the king first. Went
to the king and that king told him, he said, What am I, God?
He raised his hand up to heaven. And so the prophet said, Come
down here. Come down here. I'll show you
there's a prophet in Israel. And he came down there and he
thought that this prophet would come out. He thought Elisha would
come out to him. He did, but Elisha didn't. He
sent his servant out to him. He said, Go dip seven times in
muddy Jordan. That's all you got to do. It's
all you gotta do, man, is just go dip seven times in the muddy
drip. Oh, he was mad. He was mad. You tell people to
believe in Christ, that's all you gotta do? They're gonna get
mad. They are, they're gonna get mad.
I gotta be able to do something better than that. There is nothing
better for you to do than believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
that simple. But yet he took He took what
he said, and he said, no, there's a lot of different rivers around,
a lot cleaner than that. And this maid came up to him,
and she looked at him, and she said, listen, if he'd have given
you some great thing to do, would you have done it? And he looked
at her, and then it came to him. Then it came to him. And he went
down. The scripture says he went down
into the Jordan. And that's what we've got to
do. We're going to have to be brought off of our high horses.
We're going to have to be brought off of our self-righteous pedestals
that we set ourselves up on. And we're going to have to go
down. And we're going to have to see that all we are sinners
and all we can do. And we can't even do this unless
he gives us the grace to believe. But all we have to do is believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And Naomi
came up out of that water. After a simple task of dipping
himself seven times in the Jordan River, he came up out of that
water just as clean as snow. That's how he came. And if you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, simple as that, you believe on
Him with a saving faith that can only be given by Him. I can
never say that enough. He is the one that gives faith.
Faith is a gift. But if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. You shall be saved. That's the
simplicity of the gospel. You shall be saved. You're outside
of Christ this morning. I tell you, you stand unclean.
That's how you stand. You stand unclean. You stand
with leprosy covering your soul. That's how you stand. You're
full of sin. You're full of blackness. You're
full of deceit. You're dead spiritually to God.
If you stand outside of Christ this morning, I cannot tell you
to keep the law. It sounds good, but I can't tell
you to do that. I remember Ralph Barner one time,
he was preaching a message. They'd sung a congregational
song. It was when we all get to heaven. And he got up in front
of the people and he said, you know, that makes for a great
song, but it just ain't so. He said, we're not all going
to heaven. That's true. And that's the truth. And I could
stand up here and I could say, you've got to do this. You've
got to do this. You've got to do this. You've got to make for
a wonderful message. But it just ain't so. It just
ain't so. You can't do anything apart from
Christ. Oh my, you can't. I cannot point
you to ordinances. I can't say just come on up here
to the baptismal pool and be dipped and you'll be saved. If
that was the case, Terrence and I'd hogtie every one of you and
throw you in the pool. That isn't going to do it. That's
not going to do it. That's not going to save anybody.
It isn't. Oh, we must have Christ. I can't
save. Listen, three small words will
make your blackness white as snow. Three small words. It'll take a beggar that is sitting
on a dunghill and it'll place him on a throne among princes. It will. Oh, look to Christ. Three words. Look to Christ.
Look to Christ. You must have the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, that tonight we might be
still and know that He is a God of salvation that we could today.
Oh, that we might. Well, number four. For all those
that by God's grace believe on His name, He is a kind, compassionate,
caring God. He is. He is. Listen, many times
in our lives, a believer will find himself in trial. We're
going to find ourselves in temptation and trials of pain and trials
of weakness, trials of sickness. We're going to find ourselves
in trials. We are. Believers are going to find themselves
there. And we're going to find ourselves grumbling and mumbling
and complaining. That's where we're going to find
ourselves. Sometimes we will. But does it not bring comfort
to your heart? to know that Jesus was in all
ways. He was tempted and tried like
we are in every way. He was tempted and tried like
we are that on earth. Jesus felt pain. He felt aches. He felt tiredness and weakness. He did. He felt all these things.
And when he hung on Calvary's cross, my friends, he suffered
as no one has ever suffered. Oh, we might in our pain one
day say, oh, my, I suffer so bad. No, He suffered worse. He suffered worse. There's been
no pain ever like His pain. None like His. That One who bore
our sin and our iniquity on the cross, will He not also our burdens
bear? Oh, I believe He will. I believe
He will. He's a kind and compassionate
God to His people. He is. All you who are in trial
today, listen to these words. Be still and know that I am God. Be still. Oh, there are many
times in a believer's lives when we're lacking earthly goods.
There's going to be a lot of times when that's the case. There
are. When it seems that earthly money's
dried up and the bank account's empty and things are going bad
financially. Jesus said foxes have holes and
birds of the air have nests. But the son of man hath not a
place to lay his head. He doesn't. Or that we might
realize that this one walked where we walk. That's what he
does. And that we might be able to
see in this life, when we're walking through this life, we
might understand and realize that why should we walk in some
higher way than he was able to walk on this earth? You know,
he suffered so many things on this earth. Shall we not suffer
as he did? Shall we not be his people? Shouldn't
we? Oh, I believe we should. I believe
that's because where we walk here is where He walked, and
where He sits in glory is where one day we will sit with Him,
won't we? We will. Oh, that we might believe that.
We might see that. In times of lacking, may we not
look to the right hand or to the left, but may we hear these
words, be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that
I am God. Then there's earthly relationships.
Many times our friends will forsake us. They will. Our loves will
forsake us. On this earth, they will. They
will. Jesus came into His own and His own received Him not,
didn't He? He did. Oh, Jesus, look at what He said.
Turn over to John 15. John chapter 15, verses 18 through 25. John 15, 18 through 25. Let me
read these words to you with what Jesus said. He said, If
the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated
you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hated you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things
will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they had not known sin, not had sin, but now they
have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and
hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be filled, that it is written in their law, they
hated me without a cause." So when earthly relationships flee
away, oh, and flee they will. Many of you say you love the
Lord God. Many of you say that there are going to be people
in your life that are just going to flee. They're going to run from you.
They will. The word of that one that we might remember, that
one who sticks closer than any brother. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we might remember him talking to us today. Be still, be still
and know that I am God. Oh, and our little ones, our
little ones. Oh, how we pray earnestly for
your salvation. How we do. Your parents prayed
constantly and earnestly for your salvation. Both young and
old. Turn to Matthew Chapter 18 for
a second. Just a few verses I want to read
to you. Matthew Chapter 18. Look at verses one through six
of Matthew Chapter 18. It says, At the same time came the
disciples unto Jesus saying, Whom is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven? And Jesus called the little child unto him and set
him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you,
except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall
not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. And whosoever shall receive one
such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall
offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck. and
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. I turn over to Matthew
19. Matthew chapter 19. Listen to
verses 13 and 15. It says, Then were there brought
unto him little children, that he should put his hand on them
and pray. And the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer
little children and forbid them not to come unto me. For as such
is the kingdom of heaven, and he laid his hands on them and
departed thence." Now listen, may we never, ever stop bringing
our children before the throne of God. Oh, that we might continually
do this. That we might. That one day,
one day we might see him pick them up, place them on his knee,
and speak to them these words, be still, be still, and know
that I am God. Oh, that we might, that we in
our day would see it, that we would. And when we begin to cross
the Jordan, when we begin to cross the Jordan and death chills
upon us, it is, I think of First Corinthians chapter 15, those
words there where it says, when this corruptible shall have put
on incorruptible and this mortal shall have put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass this thing. Death is swallowed
up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the victory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then that wonderful verse, Therefore, my beloved brethren, Be steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as
much as you know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. In the Lord. Oh, may we always
remember these words to us. May we never forget them. Be
still and know that I am God.