Will that with yonder sacred throng we at his feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. Even so come Lord Jesus. It's a real joy to be here with you this morning and I bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters in Portland, Oregon.
And I want you to know that you have been on our minds and in our hearts and in our prayers of late for a number of reasons and circumstances and occasions. And we hardly have a prayer meeting, especially on Wednesday, that we don't mention you in your prayers. And I want to thank you for the warm reception that you always extend to my wife and I when we come here. We look forward to being here, and it is a real blessing to be with you.
And it is my prayer that I May, from God's word, bring to you some encouragement this morning as we, together, are pilgrims in this life. This is not our home. Heaven, indeed, is our home, and it is my desire to bring you some words of encouragement and comfort. Turn with me to the book of Psalms, the 91st Psalm. verses one and two.
This is certainly one of my favorite of the Psalms. I'm always reluctant to say, well, this is my favorite scripture because all of the word of God is breathed out by God, isn't it? It's all of great value to us, but certainly there are passages that speak to our hearts. And this 91st Psalm is one of my favorites of all the Psalms of David.
Just reading the first two verses, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high, We'll abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God and whom I trust. Let's pray and ask for God's blessing once again.
Opening Prayer
Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy and kindness to us that has assembled us together here on this your day in this place. And we thank you, Father, that we have the promise of your gracious presence amongst us. And Lord, we confess our total dependence upon you for all things. Father, we can do no spiritual good without your help.
And we pray that your Holy Spirit would come in the fullness of his power and that you would speak to us through your word to the end, that you would glorify your great name and you would do good to your people. Bless us, we pray for Christ's sake. Amen.
Introduction
In every age, God has always had a believing remnant. And in the Old Testament, the prophets were commissioned to bring words of comfort. They were to give hope and cheer and to ease the grief and trouble and pain and affliction of the people of God. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 1, comfort comfort my people, says your God." And Isaiah in faithfulness to that calling and commission would say to the people, behold your God.
In other words, consider and know your God. So his message to spiritual Israel was a message that was full of gracious consolation and heavenly encouragement. And in the New Testament, when the Apostle Paul was giving his farewells to the brethren at Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, you'll remember how he commended them to God. And so as we go through this life as pilgrims and all that involves, it's important that our eyes remained focused upon the Lord.
Our theme today is the comfort of knowing God. And as I considered and meditated upon this psalm, I found it interesting that in the first two verses there are four different and distinct names for God given to us. Now this is not original to me for sure, but just an observation. Four different and distinct names for God given to us.
And of course these are Not all the names of God, there are many more. I noticed your banner, is it downstairs or upstairs? I get upstairs, I get confused. Upstairs in the room where we met this morning, you have a banner with all the various names of God on that banner.
Well, today we're going to consider four of them from our passage, and I believe it'll be beneficial for us to think about these four different and distinct names. For example,
El Elyon: Supremacy of God
First, we have the name Most High. You see it there in verse one. It's the Hebrew word Elyon, Most High. And so when you put El, the word for God before it, it becomes El Elyon or God Most High.
You might remember in Genesis chapter 14, when Melchizedek came out to meet Abraham, he said that he was a priest of God Most High, El Elyon. which is the word in our text translated most high. Some Old Testament scholars have pointed out that in a significant number of passages, this particular name of God, Elyon, is used especially when the knowledge of God comes into contact with the Gentile world or the pagan unbelieving world. For example, come with me to Numbers Chapter 24. Numbers Chapter 24.
Some of you will remember from Sunday school, we have the record here of a very odd event, many of you know of it, a strange incident where a king called Balak, a king of a pagan people, the Moabites, tried to obtain or hire the services of another odd individual, a prophet by the name of Balaam. And Balak wanted Balaam to curse the people of Israel. And so the setting of Numbers 24 is, as it were, one of paganism or heathenism coming into contact with the people of God. And so it's interesting to note verse 16 where Balaam in this particular prophecy says,
Elyon in Numbers and Daniel
the utterance of him who hears the words of God and has the knowledge of the Most High." There it is, Elion, the Most High. And this strange prophet Balaam seeks to speak the words of God and God makes him to speak what God would say. In other words, I'm sorry, this king Balak seeks to make Balaam, the prophet, speak his words, but instead he speaks the words of God, rather than what the pagan king wanted him to say. But as these two things come together, the revelation of God as it impinges upon heathenism in Balak and the Moabites, God is referred to by Balaam as Elyon, most high.
Another example. Turn with me to Daniel chapter 3. We have the pagan king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and he's seeking to destroy these three Hebrew young men who were faithful to the Lord, the true God. And again, we know the story quite well.
These young men, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they're cast into a fiery furnace and there they are miraculously preserved and kept by God. And of course, King Nebuchadnezzar is taken back by this. He's astonished as a matter of fact. And so again, we have a pagan setting in Babylon.
And King Nebuchadnezzar, one of the foremost figures in the Old Testament. And notice verse 26, Daniel chapter three, And verse 26, then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the fiery furnace and he declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. So again, this indicates what many of these scholars are saying, this name, Elyon, Most High, is used often where the revelation of God comes into contact with paganism. And so this suggests this particular title of God is pointing to his absolute supremacy.
It's telling us the fact that he, that the supremacy of the God of the Bible, that he is the only true and living God. El Elyon, God most high. Well, this has relevance for us and our children. Think of our children emerging from the protection of a Christian home and schooling, and there they go, venture out into the world where there are so many voices claiming to be God.
The God of Islam, the God of the Hare Krishnas. I remember, I'll date myself a bit, but I remember when I was growing up, The Beatles song, I think it was George Harrison, My Sweet Lord. A song of Krishna. The gods of the cults, the New Agers, the gods of materialism and secularism and humanism.
The point is we understand there are many voices out there in the world all claiming as it were to be God. And we find that very disconcerting. We find that troubling and it's more so for our young people as they begin to go out into the world from under the protection of the Christian home to hear all these claims and voices and then to be told of the value of being open-minded here and of being accepting to all of these things. And it's not just children.
If you venture out into the public square, maybe at work, or at school, or the community meeting, or even in the various media outlets in which we live today, if you say something like, well, God says, I can almost guarantee that you'll hear, oh yeah, which God is that? What God are you speaking of? Or something very similar. Which God is that?
Don't change all that much from day to day. Things aren't all that different from the Apostle Paul's day. You'll remember in Acts chapter 17, they had their view that there were many gods out there, many gods speaking. And Paul came to them to declare to them, Elyon, God most high.
And
Supremacy Over All Rival Gods
brethren, as we go on in the world, even this coming week, it's imperative that we are convinced and that we are fixed upon the glorious reality that the God who was revealed in Holy Scriptures, that God who was proclaimed by the Old Testament prophets and the apostles of the New Testament, that God who was especially revealed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that God as Jesus himself said of him is the true and living God that we see him as Elyon. Most high. And we lay hold of the supremacy of the God of the Bible over all others who claim the title of God. Most high.
I appreciated the two hymns we sang this morning focused upon that very reality.
El Shaddai: Sufficiency of God
We also observe in the first verse the word Almighty. Let me get back there. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High and will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. God is described as the Almighty.
I'm sure you're aware that the word there is Shaddai. Some of you may know the popular song El Shaddai. I think it goes, El Shaddai, El Shaddai, El Elyon Adonai, age to age are still the same by the power of the name. In the Red Trinity hymn book, the newer version of the Trinity, we don't use it, we use the blue one, but in the Red Trinity hymnal, that song is in there.
My wife and I used to attend a church and on Sunday evening the pastor would ask for requests. And there was a young man in the church, about seven or eight years old, and immediately he would stand up. Invariably, he'd be the first one to have his hand up, and he would always request we sing El Shaddai. And so we sang this song almost every Sunday night, unless he was, by God's providence, absent.
But certainly a wonderful sentiment. El Shaddai, almighty.
El Shaddai in Genesis 17
And this is the name that God used when he spoke to Abraham in Genesis chapter 17 and verse 1. Turn with me back there to Genesis chapter 17 and verse 1. Remember God, the setting, God has come to Abraham in order to confirm the promises of the covenant that he would indeed have a son. And so we read, when Abraham was 99 years old, the promise was given 24 years earlier when he was 75, an old man then.
Still no son, and now he's 99. And the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am God Almighty, El Shaddai. Walk before me and be blameless. So I'm sure you remember the scene Humanly speaking, it seems utterly impossible.
This is beyond the reach of credibility. That Abraham being so old, 99, and his wife Sarah, an old woman, that together they should have a son. And when you read the passage, Abraham almost in protest says to God. Matter of fact, let's read it.
Verses 17 and 18. And then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, O that Ishmael might live before you." Now, what is he saying except, Lord, doesn't this make more sense?
Now Lord, doesn't this seem much more reasonable? For Ishmael, who was already in my household, he's here to be the one through whom this covenant that you have spoken of will be carried on. And God said to Abraham, no, there's going to be one yet born to you and Sarah. And his name is going to be Isaac.
And note he says there in Verse 21, I will establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. Unbelievable. And again, humanly speaking, it seems crazy. But we see how important it was then for God at the very beginning of this chapter to introduce himself by saying, I am God Almighty.
And what I'm telling you, Abraham, it may sound in your ears as an incredible, even an impossible thing, but you see, here's the facts. I'm El Shaddai. I am the almighty God. There is absolutely nothing too hard for me.
I am able to do all the things that I say. Now again, some scholars have suggested that the name El Shaddai might also be translated the All-Sufficient One, the Almighty One, the All-Sufficient One. And I think it would be good for us to think along those lines of thought as well. That this name El Shaddai conveys the idea to us of the absolute sufficiency of God.
As El Elyon speaks of the Most High God, the absolute supremacy of God, El Shaddai of the sufficiency of God. And you see in that God says to Abraham and to all his people, to you and to me, he says, I am able to fulfill my promises. You think the apostle Paul may have had that in mind when in spontaneous praise, he said he's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. God says, I am.
I'm sufficient for every situation. I am sufficient for every circumstance. I am sufficient to meet your every need. I am El Shaddai, the Almighty, the Sufficient One.
And brethren, again, isn't it vital? And isn't it comforting that we grasp that truth? We really need to know that the God that we've laid hold of by faith, the God that we have sung of this morning, the God that we worship and serve is an all-sufficient God. We need to grasp that there is nothing too hard for Him.
He is able. Now think how Abraham needed to understand that. God was calling Abraham to a faraway place. He was going to leave his family, his home, all that he had.
And he was going to live as a stranger, a sojourner. So
Sufficiency for Every Trial
as we face challenges, as we face various opportunities in life, as we face trials, yes, as we face disappointments and heartache and afflictions and setbacks, Or the opposite, as we face success, you know, God is sufficient for us. Consider, He is El Shaddai. Therefore, walk before Him and be blameless. And as we continue on in this wonderful psalm, verses 1 and 2,
Jehovah: Covenant Faithfulness
we see in verse 2 how God is referred to as Jehovah. I will say to the Lord my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Now your translation is probably like mine, and it says Lord. And you'll notice it's all in capital letters, which always conveys that in the Hebrew it's Jehovah.
Or as some scholars prefer, Yahweh. And this is what we must This is what we might describe as the personal name of God. He is the Lord Jehovah. And this is the name God used when he revealed himself to Moses back in Exodus chapter three.
Turn with me there. Exodus chapter three, let's read verses one through six. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father, Logethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses.
And he said, here I am. And then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at, afraid to look at God. What an amazing experience. Moses saw the bush burning, but not consumed, not burnt up. And he thought to get closer to see this remarkable thing more clearly.
And as he approached, he heard a voice from the bush saying, take your sandals off your feet. This is holy ground. And suddenly he realized that he was in the presence of God. And God declared that he was Jehovah.
The Lord. And he said, I am that I am. And so this was the personal name of God and to the Jews it conveyed the idea of covenant faithfulness. Jehovah.
It spoke of the commitment of God to his people. Of his commitment to the promises that he had given to them. It spoke of his commitment to his word. The Jehovah entered into a relationship with Israel in which he pledged himself to be faithful to all the covenant obligations entered into with Abraham and then with Moses as the people were constituted a nation there at Sinai.
And the Lord declared to be faithful to all those obligations. Jehovah, a faithful covenant. promise keeping God and God remains faithful to every promise. We think of Israel, they proved to be unfaithful and yet God remained faithful because he was Jehovah. He's the God who pledges himself to keep his words.
Moreover, the name Jehovah revealed the idea of God's redemptive love, covenant faithfulness and redemptive love. course you remember who delivered Israel out of their bondage in Egypt. It was Jehovah. He brought them out of their slavery and he set them free. And in Exodus chapter 20 he's going to give these commandments which reflect the very nature and character of God and define our responsibilities before him.
He introduced himself there in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 2 by saying I am the Lord your God. I'm Jehovah. Who am I? I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
I brought you out of the house of slavery.
Jehovah and Redemptive Love
And so the name always conveyed to Israel, redemptive love. He was the God who set them free. And brethren, when we gather together at the Lord's supper, Do you observe the Lord's Supper monthly, brother, the first Sunday of the month? That's our practice.
And when we gather together at the Lord's Supper as believers in Jesus Christ, as members of the New Covenant community, we then say, as Paul says in Philippians 3, and don't lose this, this is a very powerful statement, we are the true circumcision. The spiritual Israel of God. We believers in Jesus are the true Israel. The real covenant community.
We who believe in Jesus Christ. We who are joined to Christ by faith. The very purchase of his blood. Participants in the new covenant.
We lay hold in of the reality that the God we worship. The God of covenant faithfulness. Will we lay hold of the reality that he will indeed do all that he has pledged himself to do for us in Christ Jesus? That's why the Apostle Paul can say to those Corinthian Christians that all the promises in Christ are yes and amen.
That all things are yours in Christ. He takes our sins away. He removes them as far as the east is from the west. And he makes us anew in Christ.
And then he keeps us in Christ. He ultimately will bring us spotless to glory in Christ. He will bless us for all eternity in Christ. And when we observe the Lord's Supper, we remember that this God our God, the God of the true spiritual Israel made up of all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we remember his redemptive love.
Because we look at those elements, those simple elements of bread and wine, which tell us of his body broken, savagely, brutally crushed for us. The blood of the Son of God, the Lamb of God poured out for us. And that's why Jesus says of the cup, it's the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
The Lord's Supper, a sign of the new covenant. And obviously there Jesus is taking the cup to stand for the whole of the ordinance. And so we remember the God we worship, you see, is the God of redemptive love. The Lord, Jehovah.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.
Elohim: Creative Power of God
And of course we have the word God in verse 2. The word Elohim. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.
Elohim. It's the name that God used in the, it's the name that's used in the glorious and magnificent opening chapter of the Bible. Back in Genesis chapter one, that wonderful account of the creation, you know it, in the beginning, Elohim, God created the heavens and the earth. And so this name conveys to us the creative power of God.
So here in our passage, Psalm 91, we have the Most High speaking of the supremacy of God. We have the Almighty speaking of the sufficiency of God. We have Jehovah speaking of covenant faithfulness and redemptive love. And we have Elohim speaking about the creative power of God.
He is the one who brings all that exists out of nothing. He brings life out of death. He brings order out of chaos. And this God and his creative power, brethren, is active and at work in the lives of his people.
He's God. He's not aloof. He's not far off. He is a God who is near.
He is as close as our breath. And he is active in our lives. He is preparing our way. He is opening and closing doors.
He is creating opportunities. He is bringing light and understanding out of darkness and confusion because he's God. And he is creatively active in the lives of his people. And he has the power to fulfill all his purposes. and all his designs.
I don't think that, I don't know if it's said any better, any place in the scriptures than in the 139th Psalm. Turn with me to Psalm 139. The whole Psalm is so wonderful. Verses 13 through 18.
For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.
My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret. Intricately woven in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them." Now, verse 7, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God.
How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand I awake, and I am still with you. Isn't that incredible? Could we say it this way?
We take great comfort because we know God. And God has the blueprint of the whole of me in his mind when as yet there was none of it. He had it all there. And then there came what theologians like to call those creative fiats, or commands we read in Genesis 1.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light. Let there be this, and let there be that. Let this happen, and let that happen. And God said it, and it was done.
The blueprint, as it were, in God's infinite mind was brought into existence as Elohim spoke. And so it was done. Well, brethren, this is the God that is presented to us this morning in Psalm 91 verses 1 through 2. Behold your God.
Behold your God. This wonderful God, so multi-dimensional in His being and personality and character, supreme, sufficient, faithful, redemptively loving and creatively active in the lives of his people. Now with this in mind, note the psalmist goes on to say, or adds,
Dwelling in the Secret Place
he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High. I think the King James or the New King James, I believe it reads this way, he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High. The phrase conveys the idea of intimacy, regardless of the nuances of interpretation. They both convey the same idea, the idea of intimacy, closeness of fellowship.
It's the Christian's great need. It's the true Christian's greatest desire. to walk in closeness of fellowship with this God. My favorite hymn writer is William Cooper. You may pronounce it Cowper.
He wrote, There is a Fountain Filled with Blood. He suffered from depression for a great portion of his life. A good friend of John Newton. Together they wrote hundreds of hymns.
His final hymn, God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps on the sea and he rides upon the storm. He understood the necessity and the desire for this closeness of fellowship with God. In one of his hymns he wrote, oh, for a closer walk with God, a calm and heavenly frame, a light to shine upon the road that leads me to the Lamb.
Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing view of Jesus and his word? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, how sweet their memory still, but they have left an aching void the world can never fill. You see, brethren, we are also confronted with a great challenge, a great need, and a great desire, but a great challenge.
I have a friend who's a missionary to Nigeria. And I met him probably 15, 16 years ago. Now, mind you, this is back in the days before Kindles and electronic, that you could take your whole library someplace on your phone. And when we first met, he came back to my study.
And he walked in, and he looked around at the books. And he says, oh, these look so familiar, good old friends. And when he said it, it sounded like he had parted with a lot of his books. And I asked him, I said, well, you still have your books.
He said, well, I have them, but they're packed away. You can't take all that to Nigeria. How are you going to get all that to Nigeria, the cost and all that involved? That never dawned on me, all of that.
And books are important. There's a great deal to learn. And we need to learn. I'm not downplaying that.
But brethren, it's not our greatest need. It's not breadth of learning, though that's important. But here's our greatest need. It is to dwell in the presence of the Most High.
And my friend Richard Gardner expressed to me that day that that was most important. That he was going to a dangerous place far away and he needed God's presence more than he needed those books. And he asked that I would pray for them. To walk in close, intimate fellowship with God.
That's our greatest need. And brethren, that never changes. Day by day, week by week, year after year, it's true all of our life and all of our circumstances. He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High, or the shadow of the Almighty.
And see, here's the thing,
The Triple Enemy of Intimacy
it also presents us with our greatest challenge. Because it is just that, that closeness of fellowship with which the world, the flesh, and the devil are set upon destroying. The world, when we speak of the world, I hope you understand I'm speaking of society as it organizes itself without God, contrary to the will of God, careless to the plans and the purposes of God. The world out there is set upon alluring us who are believers away from a close walk with God.
All its temptations and various offerings, and we could list those things It's approval, it's power, it's influence, it's politics, it's entertainment, it's media, it's sports and amusement, all of it. Now, don't get me wrong. There are certainly elements of those things that are legitimate in their place. But all of those things from the world's perspective, as the world views those things, are set to draw the believer away from his greatest need.
The flesh of course is a word the Bible often uses from our own sinful, referring to our own sinful nature as it has been corrupted by sin. The world, the flesh, our sinful nature corrupted by sin. And our flesh, our sinful nature is set upon taking us away from this close fellowship with God. And this morning it goes without saying certainly the devil himself is set on that.
So we have this triple enemy that the New Testament identifies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, all joining together as it were, seeking to destroy, trying their hardest to disrupt our walk with God. They are set up on taking the believer from intimacy of fellowship and closeness of walk with God another way. to the way of indifference, or the way of spiritual dullness, or maybe it's the way of doubt, or worry, or fear, whatever it may be. Even the way of the world. And that's our greatest challenge, as believers.
We have to fight with all we have, all our very lives, that we may dwell in the presence of God. And note the psalmist says, the one who does that, will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Isn't that a wonderful statement? It conveys a number of things.
Briefly, certainly it implies the idea of protection. Verse one, he who dwells in the shelter, the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Now note verses three through nine. For he will deliver you from the snare of the faller and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day. nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge." Protection. protection, but it also implies power. Those who walk closely with God will know experientially, not just in theory, not just in a theoretical way, not just be able to answer the catechism, you know, but experientially they will know protection and power. They will say with the Apostle Paul with confidence, I can do not confidence in themselves, but confidence in this God. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
As we come to a conclusion,
Application: My Refuge, My God
I want you to notice the emphatic and strong affirmation of faith we have in verse 2. I will say of or to the Lord, says the psalmist, and the King James is very emphatic. saying he is my refuge and my fortress and my God. Now brethren don't miss this. Do you see those personal pronouns?
My refuge, my fortress, my God. You know David could have said he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. True. True.
But David says, he's all that he was to them, to me. He says, my God, I'll say that of Jehovah. I will say of the most high, the almighty, he's all that to me. Well, brethren, can't we rejoice as Christians?
We can make the same emphatic and strong affirmation of our faith. We can be thankful that God in grace brought us to a time and a place where we could say just that. Baptized as a confession of its reality, giving testimony to that truth. That we personally know God through faith in Jesus Christ.
What a great sense of security is ours. And so we give thanks in our comfort of knowing God, the blessings, the comfort of knowing God.
Call to Personal Faith
Now there might be some of you here today, and I would be negligent as a preacher of the gospel that we didn't say a few more things here. Because undoubtedly there might be some of you and especially some of you young people, you have never come to a place where you can say from the heart, He is my God. You've never had personal dealings with Him. Now, do you realize how vital and crucial it is that you have personal dealings with God?
Maybe you've grown up in a Christian home. I grew up in a Christian home. Don't imagine. Don't think for a moment that you can simply get by on the faith of your parents.
The God of my mom and dad. The God of my grandparents. We had a man come visit us a few weeks ago and he stayed for the Sunday school, the worship service. He had a meal with us and stayed for the second service.
And afterwards I asked him, I said, are you a Christian? And the first words out of his mouth was, well, you know, my grandmother, she was a real believer. I said, no, she's not here. Are you a Christian?
So you may have had teaching in the home and praise God for that. I'm not making light of that at all. But you must come to the place where you personally come before God himself and embrace him as your God. To say from your heart, my refuge, my fortress, my God, my Lord, my Savior.
You remember how Thomas who had heard things of the Lord Jesus and being resurrected and when confronted with the awesome reality of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, he fell down before him crying out, my Lord and my God. Have you done that? I mentioned I grew up in a Christian home. I went off to Bible college.
I was going to be a preacher. And I couldn't say any of that from the heart. And God had to bring me down and bring me to a place where I had personal dealings with God. Repented of my sins and believed in the Lord Jesus.
Now this is true for all of us, not just young people. Regardless our age, teenager or senior citizen, it is absolutely imperative that you have a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. And let me not just leave it there. That means repentance of your sins and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
So I ask, have you come to that? Have you come to that? believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And of course that wonderful statement at the end of the text, note, in whom I trust. Verse two, I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him I will trust.
That implies only in him I will trust. We must go on whatever God calls us to do, whatever God calls us to be, wherever He calls us to go. We must go on trusting the Lord, knowing that He is constantly directing our faith and our path towards Him. In Him, says the psalmist, I will trust.
The Apostle Paul says we walk by faith. You see, that's how Christians live. We don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. We are those who see with the eye of faith those things that the Bible sets before us and we lay hold of them by faith.
We embrace them. And in him, the Lord, this God who is the most high, the Almighty, Jehovah and Elohim, God of creation, in Him we must continue to trust. What security. What blessed comfort.
Because the going will get tough. I don't need to tell any of you that. There will be trials and difficulties and heartache. They will come.
It is a lie of the devil to tell Christians that all they got to do is believe. And if they believe a little harder, everything is just going to be hunky-dory in this life. Trials and difficulties and heartache, they will come. And this must be our affirmation.
Each one of us. In Him, I will trust. And may we all take these words to heart, these wonderful words. I close in reading them again.
He who dwells in the shelter of the secret place of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. And by God's grace, may we all say of the Lord in truth, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him I will trust. Amen. Let's pray.
Closing Prayer
Our gracious and loving Father in heaven, we are always humbled when we come to your word and You have revealed yourself to us so gloriously. Yes, even as we look around, we see your glory in all of nature. It covers the earth as the waters do the sea. But you have revealed yourself more completely and thoroughly in your precious word.
And you have told us of what you are like. You have told us of your great love and faithfulness. You have told us of our great need. of a Savior, your only Son, the Lord Jesus. Help us, Father, to take these words to heart.
We pray for those who are here this morning who are yet lost and undone in their sins. We pray, Father, that they would repent and that they would look to what you have provided in the Lord Jesus, and that they would embrace by faith the Savior. And Father, we pray for all of us that we would be encouraged to press on in the things of God. Help us, Father, to love and to serve you with greater vigor and more sincerity of heart.
Bless the consideration of these things to us. Grow us up in our faith and comfort us as we seek to serve you and love you. And we'll give you all praise in Jesus' name. Amen.