SPEAKER_01: Jesse, thank you for your very kind words of welcome.
SPEAKER_01: It's a privilege and a joy to stand behind the pulpit here at Emmanuel Bible Church in Springfield.
SPEAKER_01: I was here a few years ago and just uh I'm actually in town for a weekender at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and taxed Jesse for a get together, if at all we could fit it in, and a coffee.
SPEAKER_01: And he uh went the extra mile and invited me to come over and uh speak to you as a congregation, which I gladly embraced, counted a privilege and a joy that he would trust me with the pulpit here at this church.
SPEAKER_01: Thankful for you as a church, having been here, having spent some time at Capitol Hill Baptist, every time I hear uh the name of our capital mentioned, I think of you and uh think of Capitol Hill and pray that you uh as churches will be um a lighthouse for the gospel at the center of our nation's life.
SPEAKER_01: I've appreciated your pastor, his friendship.
SPEAKER_01: We served together for several years on the board at the Masters Seminary and uh University.
SPEAKER_01: I've appreciated his preaching, his writing at uh Cripplegate, and um and uh continue to rejoice and celebrate in all that God is doing in his life and pray that God would continue to prosper him uh going forward and that you would allow him to do his ministry uh with joy and not with grief.
SPEAKER_01: And uh indeed, not that I've heard anything, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Um I didn't get a free book to say that, but but it's just true, it's just true.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you want the best of him and the staff.
SPEAKER_01: Uh pray for them, get behind them, submit to them, and indeed God will do do wonderful things.
SPEAKER_01: And I I pray that God indeed would just encourage us uh through Psalm 46, and and that this sermon and this evening would be a blessing to you.
SPEAKER_01: Reminds me of a uh a pastor who was at the door following a service, and and the congregation was filing by, shaking hands, and greeting their pastor, and a particular lady came up to him and said, You know, Pastor, um, I want to thank you for that sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it it was a blessing and trying to deflect just the the the you know the the gratitude uh and the words.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he said, Well, you know what, I appreciate that, but don't thank me, thank the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: To which she replied, Well, it wasn't that good.
SPEAKER_01: Um, well, I I hope it's that good.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that you may thank me, but I hope you'll glorify the Lord for his word and his spirit and and the hope and the great and exceeding promises we find there.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 46.
SPEAKER_01: And want to speak tonight on the subject.
SPEAKER_01: Keep calm and carry on.
SPEAKER_01: Now, my assumption before we read the text is that you're in trouble, or having been in trouble, you're coming out of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Or having come out of trouble, you're going back into trouble.
SPEAKER_01: For in this world, you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
SPEAKER_01: And here's a wonderful psalm, Psalm 46, reading from the New King James translation of Holy Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, Selah.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure Jesse has informed you that is a challenge to pause, think about that, you know, meditate on that, mull that over, roll that over in your head, making sure it gets into your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: There is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
SPEAKER_01: God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.
SPEAKER_01: God shall help her just at the break of dawn.
SPEAKER_01: The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Selah.
SPEAKER_01: Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth, he makes wars cease to the end of the earth, he breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two, he burns the chariot in the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Be still and know that I am God.
SPEAKER_01: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Selah.
SPEAKER_01: We trust that the Holy Spirit who wrote this text would indeed open our minds and bend our wills to obedience, to the honor and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For a time, Keep Calm and Carry On was all the rage.
SPEAKER_01: He saw it on t-shirts and mugs and posters.
SPEAKER_01: And the story behind it is the story of a motivational poster that the British government produced shortly after the outbreak of World War II.
SPEAKER_01: It was simple, quintessentially British, and it was intended to be issued upon the expected invasion of the United Kingdom and the British Isles by Germany.
SPEAKER_01: Its message was designed to raise the morale and eat into the anxiety of the British people.
SPEAKER_01: The rally and cry to keep calm and carry on was an invitation to bite down on that stiff upper British lip and persevere to victory.
SPEAKER_01: Now, interestingly, while two million were printed, few saw the light of day.
SPEAKER_01: Because Britain was never invaded.
SPEAKER_01: The poster was never issued.
SPEAKER_01: Most were destroyed and reduced to pulp at the end of the war.
SPEAKER_01: However, in the year 2000, nearly 60 years later, a bookseller in Northumberland, in England, stumbled across a copy hidden in a pile of dusty old books that he had bought at an auction.
SPEAKER_01: And the poster and its reassuring message seemed to strike a cord, touch a nerve with people in the modern world.
SPEAKER_01: And it became a commercial success, a commercial sensation.
SPEAKER_01: Got a question.
SPEAKER_01: How do you explain that?
SPEAKER_01: How do you explain the commercial success and sensation that that simple message came to be?
SPEAKER_01: I would suggest this, that it testifies to the fact that people still need reassured.
SPEAKER_01: In a world of tears and fears, in a world of ups and downs, in a world of joys and sorrows, in a world of life and death, people need to be reassured.
SPEAKER_01: They want to live without fear.
SPEAKER_01: They want to escape the grip of anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: They want to believe that good will triumph over evil.
SPEAKER_01: They want to believe that the best is yet to come.
SPEAKER_01: And that message resonated.
SPEAKER_01: Touched the nerve.
SPEAKER_01: Keep calm.
SPEAKER_01: Carry on.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you need to tell me, or I need to tell you, sorry, that ours is an age of anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Anxiety disorders are a modern plague in American life.
SPEAKER_01: Look, 100% of us will worry at some time, but officially 18% of the United States population is in the grip of anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Nearly 50 million Americans regularly feel the attacks of panic attacks, phobias, anxiety disorders.
SPEAKER_01: One author said this the land of stars and stripes has become the country of stress and strife.
SPEAKER_01: This is a costly achievement.
SPEAKER_01: Stress-related ailments cost the nation$300 billion every year in medical bills, lost productivity, while our usage of sedative drugs keeps skyrocketing.
SPEAKER_01: Just between 1997 and 2004, Americans more than doubled their spending on anti-anxiety medications like Xanax, Balium, from 900 million to 2.1 billion.
SPEAKER_01: A psychologist Robert Leahy points out the average child today exhibits the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the 1950s.
SPEAKER_01: America needs calming down.
SPEAKER_01: Anxiety and fear have twisted as in the emotional pretzels.
SPEAKER_01: Our heads are spinning, our eyes are twitching, our knacks are tense, our souls are unhappy.
SPEAKER_01: So much worry, and so many people worrying.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, so much worry is going around that those of us who are not worried are beginning to worry about the fact that we're not worried.
SPEAKER_01: And so, with that in mind, let's come to Psalm 46 and calm our souls.
SPEAKER_01: The great reformer Martin Luther often said in the middle of the great Reformation fight and ferment fermentation: come let us sing the 46th Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: It was an invitation to our Protestant forebearers to calm down and carry on.
SPEAKER_01: Come let us sing the 46th.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the context of impending disaster and national peril is a message we want to turn to.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is a psalm that calls us to find our peace in the Lord of hosts who's with us and the God of Jacob who is our refuge.
SPEAKER_01: You find that in verse 7 and verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Here is a text about an ancient people who were able to fortify their shrimp, shivering souls against a wintry fear by taking refuge in God.
SPEAKER_01: In terms of a genre or a category, this is what commentators and biblical scholars would call a song of trust or a psalm of confidence.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great statement of affirmation of faith in God.
SPEAKER_01: It teaches us and preaches to us the unfeeling nature of God's character, the history of his works in providence, the value of trusting him, and the danger of trusting in anything else other than him.
SPEAKER_01: It belongs to a category, a genre of Psalms like Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: I shall not want.
SPEAKER_01: There's another Psalm of trust, Psalm 27, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my light, it has become my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Of whom shall I fear?
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 1991, Psalm 121.
SPEAKER_01: I will look to the hills.
SPEAKER_01: From where does my help come from?
SPEAKER_01: It comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth, and he will not suffer my food to be moved.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a great psalm belonging to a great genre of psalms that communicate the message that our trust in God should bring about a calm and a confidence because omnipotence is working for us.
SPEAKER_01: If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_01: You know, when I was in the RUC in Northern Ireland during the troubles in Northern Ireland, we were more likely to be killed off duty than on duty, which uh led to us being uh very cautious of where we went, what we did.
SPEAKER_01: We carried a personal firearm wherever we went.
SPEAKER_01: I checked my car most mornings for an undercar booby trap that the IRA may have uh put under my car during the night.
SPEAKER_01: And it led me during that time to think through my theology and apply it to my life in the context of that trouble, that insecurity, that I was more likely to be killed off duty than on duty.
SPEAKER_01: I was always in danger.
SPEAKER_01: I reminded myself as this Psalm and Psalm 2027 and 23 and 90 and 91 and 121 reminds us: security is not the absence of danger, security is the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Keep calm and carry on.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God calms the storm, but most of the time God calms us in the midst of the storm.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what's going on here in Psalm 46.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me put the text in its context, and then there's three things I I want to say.
SPEAKER_01: What's the context of the text, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure Jesse models this, I'm confident that he does.
SPEAKER_01: A text out of a context is a pretext for error, heresy, misunderstanding, bad theology.
SPEAKER_01: So let's put the text in its context.
SPEAKER_01: From what we can tell, and I think a majority of commentators would agree with this.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 46 is an historic record celebrating Israel's deliverance from the Aveding Assyrians.
SPEAKER_01: The year is 701 BC.
SPEAKER_01: King Sennacherib has come down from the north.
SPEAKER_01: He has thrown a ring of steel around the city of Jerusalem, and he threatens the kingdom of Judah and Hezekiah and the people of the city.
SPEAKER_01: He's tightening the noose, the storm clouds are gathering, the future is foreboding.
SPEAKER_01: Syrian soldiers are to be seen as far as the eye can see, and they're baying for blood.
SPEAKER_01: But as King Hezekiah spreads the matter before the Lord, you can read about that.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord answers his prayer and delivers the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: During a particular night, God visits the Assyrian army in judgment.
SPEAKER_01: A hundred and eighty-five thousand men perish.
SPEAKER_01: And King Sennacherib tucks teal and heads back north.
SPEAKER_01: And the emergency has been averted.
SPEAKER_01: You can read about it in 2 Kings 19, 35 to 36, Isaiah 37, 33 to 39.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that historic event is being um remind uh remembered and recorded here in verse 5 of Psalm 46.
SPEAKER_01: God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved, God shall help her at the break of dawn.
SPEAKER_01: Because Israel woke up, or Judah woke up, on a particular morning, and there were 185,000 Syrian soldiers lying stone cold dead.
SPEAKER_01: And God had helped them at the break of dawn.
SPEAKER_01: And this is written to celebrate that fact, and to remind us that security is not the absence of danger, it's the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God calms the storm, but most times he calms us in the storm.
SPEAKER_01: Peace is not finding a lake where there are no storms, peace is remembering that Jesus is in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: And Psalm 46 will do that for us.
SPEAKER_01: There's three things I want us to see.
SPEAKER_01: Uh this psalm is uh is is carved up, so to speak, um, by the use of the poetic punctuation, Silah.
SPEAKER_01: You've got verses one to three, what I call the refuge, you've got verses four to seven, the river, and you've got verses eight to eleven, the rest.
SPEAKER_01: Let's work through this as quickly as we can.
SPEAKER_01: The refuge, verses one to three.
SPEAKER_01: If we accept that the siege of Jerusalem by King Sennacherib and the Assyrian army is the historical backdrop to this psalm, we can we can see that this was certainly a time of national upheaval and national upset.
SPEAKER_01: The air was thick with apprehension.
SPEAKER_01: The invasion from the north of this superpower was nothing less than a political earthquake.
SPEAKER_01: This was their 9-11.
SPEAKER_01: And and things were were not good.
SPEAKER_01: The outcome of the siege was uncertain, the future of the nation unknown, and everything about life was in flux.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you would read 2 Kings 19, verse 3, there's an interesting little historical notation about the fact that King Hezekiah admits that there's such dread and such tension among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, it is so deep and it is so wide that pregnant women about to give birth lack the energy to deliver the children.
SPEAKER_01: That's how bad it was.
SPEAKER_01: The language of natural disaster is employed to convey political upheaval.
SPEAKER_01: When we read here about, you know what, um the earth being uh kind of moved and mountains being carried into the midst of the sea and waters roaring and mountains shaking, that's that's the language of natural disaster, but to speak of political upheaval and peril.
SPEAKER_01: They were experiencing a category five hurricane.
SPEAKER_01: Mountains speak here of empires and waters of nations.
SPEAKER_01: And the image of upheaval here is that indeed their world is being shaken and stirred by the invading Assyrians.
SPEAKER_01: Mountains sliding into the sea, waves crashing against the coast illustrate chaos and calamity.
SPEAKER_01: Fear, anxiety, apprehension.
SPEAKER_01: But notice during all this upheaval and during all this upset, they find a safe space.
SPEAKER_01: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: The refuge they found was the ever-present God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to take time.
SPEAKER_01: You can go to Psalm 18, verses 1 to 2, you can go to Psalm 91, 1 to 4, and you get that similar language of God being a shelter, a refuge.
SPEAKER_01: God remained unmoved despite all the commotion, despite all the chaos, and they find their refuge there in the fact that God's kingdom is unshakable and God's throne is unassailable.
SPEAKER_01: They were reminded that there's no panic in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: They were reminded that the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit never meet in an emergency session.
SPEAKER_01: The angels of heaven were going about their business with a calm assurance.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven's streets continued to be suffused with sweet and sacred serenity.
SPEAKER_01: God was their refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Everything about him, his character, his commitments, his covenants, his promises, the remembrance of the works of his providence, all of that brought stability to them.
SPEAKER_01: They reminded themselves of the God they were in covenant relationship with, and that that acted like a shelter, like a refuge for them.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the Hebrew is stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe your translation translates it that way.
SPEAKER_01: God is our stronghold and strength.
SPEAKER_01: If you were ever to visit Northern Ireland when I'm there, I would love to take you to a castle outside of Belfast called Carrick Fergus Castle.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I take you there is because it was built by John de Courcy, who I want to claim as my ancestor.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I can, but right now I'm claiming him as an ancestor.
SPEAKER_01: John de Coursey was a Norman knight who came and beat up on the Irish, and he built several fortifications all across Ireland.
SPEAKER_01: Right there on the coast at Carrick Vergus, he built a castle.
SPEAKER_01: And you can visit it today.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a typical castle.
SPEAKER_01: It was built in the 13th century.
SPEAKER_01: It's got a series of walls right by the coast.
SPEAKER_01: It's got outer defenses, it's got cannons around those outer walls, strategically placed.
SPEAKER_01: But inside the castle, you've got like a mini castle.
SPEAKER_01: You know what that's called?
SPEAKER_01: The stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: And you've got this kind of turret or this tower, and that's where the walls are thickest, that's where the windows and the doors are fewer.
SPEAKER_01: That's where they go to make their last stand, should that be necessary, it's called the keep.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the language that the psalmist is using.
SPEAKER_01: That God, his person and his character and his attributes and his promises and the evidences of his sovereign and providential work, the reality all of that, our knowledge of that, and the application of that to our lives, it kind of comes as a strong tower, a keep, a refuge.
SPEAKER_01: God's kingdom has never been conquered.
SPEAKER_01: God's rule and reign continues.
SPEAKER_01: And God is a stronghold in all generations, right?
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 90, verses 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord has been a refuge in all generations.
SPEAKER_01: His throne abides, his kingdom continues, his rule is everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: God by nature is immutable and unassailable.
SPEAKER_01: He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_01: He's the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't change.
SPEAKER_01: His word stands forever.
SPEAKER_01: His love is steadfast.
SPEAKER_01: His mercy is unfeeling.
SPEAKER_01: His power is indeed a presence and a constancy in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what, folks, tonight's a wonderful thing to know.
SPEAKER_01: In a world that's constantly turning and churning, that we can run to God for peace and find his person and his providence and his promises.
SPEAKER_01: A place where we can be reminded to keep calm and carry on.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe write down Proverbs 18, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: I'll run with this for a couple of minutes.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's Nym is a strong tower.
SPEAKER_01: Similar language.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's Neme is a strong tower into which the righteous run and are sea.
SPEAKER_01: If you can imagine Carrick Fergus Castle outside Belfast, it's under attack.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the outside walls have been breached, and they run into the strong tower, into the Cape.
SPEAKER_01: And the psalmist is reminding us, and Proverbs is reminding us that God is that to us, and his name is like a strong tower.
SPEAKER_01: Think about the names of God tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what your anxiety is, I don't know what your context is.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the hell-called difficulty is for you.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord's name is a strong tower, a refuge.
SPEAKER_01: You keep Jehovah Ra.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 21, verse 23, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Jehovah Jara.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my provider.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 22, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, literally in Hebrew, the Lord who sees to it.
SPEAKER_01: We have a God that not only sees what we're dealing with, but sees to what we're dealing with.
SPEAKER_01: And his providence will rinse it out and work it out together for good if we give him time and offer him our trust.
SPEAKER_01: Jehovah Shalom, the Lord my peace, Judges 6, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Jehovah Rapha, the Lord my healer, Exodus 15, verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Jehovah Shekenu, the Lord my righteousness, Jeremiah 23, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Jehovah Shamah, the Lord ever-present, Ezekiel 48, verse 35.
SPEAKER_01: Jehovah Nissa, the Lord our banner, Exodus 17, verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: That's just a sampling of the names of God when they're meditated upon and believed.
SPEAKER_01: And we find our confidence in God's nature and character as we find it revealed in the scriptures throughout history and centering on the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we find refuge.
SPEAKER_01: God is all of these things, isn't he?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: But he's not only all of these things, he's all of these things all of the time to all of his people.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We can enjoy the peace of God that passes all understand, uh passes all understanding.
SPEAKER_01: And it garrisons, that's the language again of refuge in the keep and the stronghold that garrisons our heart.
SPEAKER_01: The God who is, who was, who is to come is our stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Spurgeon.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian knows no change with regard to God.
SPEAKER_01: He may be rich today and poor tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: He may be sickly today and well tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: He may be in happiness today, tomorrow he may be distressed.
SPEAKER_01: But there is no change with regard to his relationship to God.
SPEAKER_01: If he loved me yesterday, he loves me today.
SPEAKER_01: I am neither better nor worse in God than I ever was.
SPEAKER_01: Let prospects be blighted, let hopes be dashed, let joy be withered, let mildew destroy everything.
SPEAKER_01: I have lost nothing of what I have in God.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that true?
SPEAKER_01: All of those names describe him.
SPEAKER_01: All of those things are true about him all the time for all of his people.
SPEAKER_01: So take your refuge in God, who's an ever-present help in time of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Spurgeon said that, and maybe this explains why one day in his carriage going through the English countryside, he noticed a farmer's weather van or weathercock on top of his barn.
SPEAKER_01: And it was being blowing.
SPEAKER_01: North, south, east, and west.
SPEAKER_01: But he noticed the words inscribed on the weathercock, God is love.
SPEAKER_01: And so a little bit intrigued by it, a little bit bothered by it, Spurgeon pulled his carriage into the farmer's courtyard and he brought him on.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Sir, you need to explain to me what do you mean to say?
SPEAKER_01: Do you mean to say that God's love blows with the wind?
SPEAKER_01: To which the farmer replied, No, sir, I mean to say, whatever way the wind blows, God is love.
SPEAKER_01: He's our refuge, an ever-present help, keep stronghold in time of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: That's the refuge.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, before I leave that, that little three is ever-present, interesting.
SPEAKER_01: It can be literally translated help from old.
SPEAKER_01: I should have kind of folded that into that idea that God is present and never present, immutable, unchanging help.
SPEAKER_01: His kingdom is unshakable, his throne unassailable, and we can find our refuge there.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's the help from of old.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday, God helped me.
SPEAKER_01: Today, he did the same.
SPEAKER_01: How long will that continue?
SPEAKER_01: Forever.
SPEAKER_01: Praise his name.
SPEAKER_01: But let's move on.
SPEAKER_01: The river.
SPEAKER_01: The refuge, the river.
SPEAKER_01: I love this part of it.
SPEAKER_01: God is not only a refuge, verses one to three, God is a river, verses four to six.
SPEAKER_01: There is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of God.
SPEAKER_01: God is in the midst of her, verse five, she shall not be moved.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a compelling contrast going on in the text.
SPEAKER_01: The author has set up this contrast between the roaring waters of political upheaval and national crisis and the flowing river that's making the city glad.
SPEAKER_01: Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_01: All this language?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The waters are roaring.
SPEAKER_01: The mountains are shaking.
SPEAKER_01: But in the city of Jerusalem, there's a river that's gladdening and blessing the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: What river?
SPEAKER_01: Well, more than likely.
SPEAKER_01: This is a reference to Hezekiah's tunnel.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody been to Israel and gone through Hezekiah's tunnel?
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: I've been to Israel three times and through it twice, and we're heading back next year with some folks from our church.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you want to know about Hezekiah's tunnel, it's in 2 Chronicles 32, 2 to 4, verse 30, and in 2 Kings 20, 20.
SPEAKER_01: So let me fill in the details.
SPEAKER_01: You can look at that text later.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to make sure that you know I've taken this from the text of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: But during that siege, or at least anticipating that siege, King Hezekiah decided to divert a water source called the Gihon Springs.
SPEAKER_01: It was outside the city limits.
SPEAKER_01: Now you would understand when a city is besieged, water supply and food supply is critical.
SPEAKER_01: You can only hold out as long as you've got water and food and resolve.
SPEAKER_01: So anticipating that, King Hezekiah builds this tunnel.
SPEAKER_01: It's an engineering marvel, to be honest about it.
SPEAKER_01: This is the day before, you know, uh sonar and being able to kind of x-ray the grind beneath us.
SPEAKER_01: They dug a tunnel from one end, from two different ends, and met in the middle.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: Have you been there?
SPEAKER_01: It kind of meets in the middle, almost missed.
SPEAKER_01: You do a little zigzag.
SPEAKER_01: But this is through solid rock.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01: 1700 feet long.
SPEAKER_01: And so he digs this tunnel and they divert the Kihon Springs outside the city to inside the city, and then they cover up their tracks so that the Assyrians have no idea they've got a secret supply of water, life-giving, life-sustaining water.
SPEAKER_01: It's the key to the city's survival.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that may be in the mind.
SPEAKER_01: Historically speaking, of the writer, there is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jerusalem has no river.
SPEAKER_01: If you visited there, there's no river.
SPEAKER_01: The great cities of the ancient world, Rome had the Tiber, Babylon had Euphrates, Nineveh had the Tigris, the Egyptian cities had the Nile, Damascus had Barada.
SPEAKER_01: And all that Jerusalem had was the spring of Gihon.
SPEAKER_01: The King Hezekiah diverted inside the city.
SPEAKER_01: Now, while I think that's going on in the text, I believe that the writer is deliberately piggybacking off that historic story concerning Hezekiah's tunnel to draw attention to the real river.
SPEAKER_01: The river of God's presence and glory and protection residing within the river or the city.
SPEAKER_01: There is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
SPEAKER_01: God is in the midst of her.
SPEAKER_01: She shall not be moved.
SPEAKER_01: God shall help her.
SPEAKER_01: Just at the break of dawn, the nations can rage and the kingdoms can be moved, but he'll utter his voice and they'll melt.
SPEAKER_01: That's what brought them joy.
SPEAKER_01: His abiding, abundant presence.
SPEAKER_01: And you know from Genesis 2, 10 to 13, Ezekiel 47, 1 to 12, and Revelation 22 to 1 to 2, that the image of the river speaks of God's abundant presence and provision.
SPEAKER_01: You find it in the Garden of Eden, you find it in the millennial tabernacle temple, and you find it in the eternal state.
SPEAKER_01: The seething waters of the Assyrians, aggression, were no match for the citizens of Jerusalem who drew their strength and refreshment from the ever-flowing love, peace, grace, and presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that the language of Jeremiah 2 verse 13, where God says, Hey, I have two things against you.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, you've forsaken me what?
SPEAKER_01: The fount of living water.
SPEAKER_01: And we know in the ministry of Jesus that the Holy Spirit hadn't come because Jesus hadn't ascended, but Jesus said, You know what, when I am glorified, the Spirit will come, and you know what?
SPEAKER_01: That from within you will come living water, rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_01: The indwelling presence of God through the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God will bring comfort and strength and joy and peace to your life.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what allows us to keep calm and carry on.
SPEAKER_01: We've got this contrast, the seas are roaring, and the world is seething.
SPEAKER_01: But amidst the world is this people, the church, the disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And from within them they have this artesian well, this ever-flowing source of strength.
SPEAKER_01: That allows them to enjoy a joy unspeakable and full of glory, that allows them to experience a peace that passes human comprehension.
SPEAKER_01: Where in the cancer ward they can keep calm and carry on.
SPEAKER_01: Under personal attack, they can keep calm and carry on.
SPEAKER_01: For some of our brothers and sisters across the world, at the end of an AK-47, they can keep calm and carry on.
SPEAKER_01: I love John 1.16.
SPEAKER_01: Hang with me for a few minutes on this.
SPEAKER_01: You've got this great theological prologue on the person of Christ, his eternal person, and then this miracle and marvel of his incarnation.
SPEAKER_01: The God who made, the one who made everything, himself made flesh dwelling among us.
SPEAKER_01: And John says, and of his fullness we have received what?
SPEAKER_01: Grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_01: Favor upon favor, benediction upon benediction.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of my favorite verses in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Of his fullness, of Christ's fullness have we received favor upon favor.
SPEAKER_01: What a beautiful picture.
SPEAKER_01: That is you and I saved by grace, drawing upon the means of grace, you have the promise here of this ceaseless loop of demand and supply.
SPEAKER_01: Demand and supply.
SPEAKER_01: I need grace for that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the grace.
SPEAKER_01: The next day I need more grace for this.
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's more grace for that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we've talked about a river.
SPEAKER_01: The great theologian expositor, Bishop Hanley Mole of England, speaking of that tax, said this.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to these words.
SPEAKER_01: The picture before us is of a river.
SPEAKER_01: Stand on its banks and contemplate the flow of waters.
SPEAKER_01: A minute passes, and another, it's the same stream still.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, but it's not the same water.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: The liquid mass has passed you seconds ago.
SPEAKER_01: It's filled now by another section of the channel, new water, has displaced it, or if you please, replaced it, water instead of water.
SPEAKER_01: And so, R by R, year by year, century by century, the process holds.
SPEAKER_01: One stream, other waters, living not stagnant.
SPEAKER_01: Because in the great identity there is perpetual exchange.
SPEAKER_01: Grace takes the place of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Love takes the place of love, ever new, ever old, ever the same, ever fresh, ever young, for all from R to R, year to year, through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That was pitiful.
SPEAKER_01: Given what you just were promised, that's pitiful.
SPEAKER_01: Year by year, week by week, R by R, you and I can put the little bucket of our life into the ocean of God's provision in Christ and enjoy grace for grace.
SPEAKER_01: I did a series in our church called Total Grace.
SPEAKER_01: And we did a study.
SPEAKER_01: I'd love to develop with you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't, but I'm going to throw some verses your way.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't write them down fast enough, that's fine.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, this is being recorded and you can listen to it another time.
SPEAKER_01: Write down 2 Corinthians 9, verse 8, where we're promised all grace abonding to us in all things.
SPEAKER_01: Just staggering the superatives there.
SPEAKER_01: All grace supplied to us in all things.
SPEAKER_01: We're told to come to the throne of grace and find the strength and help we need in time of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a refuge and we've got a river.
SPEAKER_01: What about saving grace?
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 2, 8 to 10.
SPEAKER_01: What about singing grace?
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 3 verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: What about sufficient grace?
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians 12 verses 1 to 9.
SPEAKER_01: What about speaking grace, Colossians 4 verse 6?
SPEAKER_01: What about serving grace, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10?
SPEAKER_01: What about strengthening grace, 2 Timothy 2, verse 1?
SPEAKER_01: Do you need grace to be saved tonight?
SPEAKER_01: You think you've sinned your way past God's ability to rescue you?
SPEAKER_01: Not true, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: They're saving grace.
SPEAKER_01: The vilest of sinners who truly believes.
SPEAKER_01: That moment from Jesus, a pardon receives.
SPEAKER_01: You need singing grace?
SPEAKER_01: Like Paul at midnight in the jail.
SPEAKER_01: God can give you it.
SPEAKER_01: You need serving grace so that you can labor more than others because of the grace of God that works in you.
SPEAKER_01: That's available.
SPEAKER_01: You need a sufficiency of grace given the fact that God has given you a thorn in the flesh, a sickness, an illness, a set of circumstances that is overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01: There's sufficient grace.
SPEAKER_01: My friend, grace takes the place of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Love takes the place of love.
SPEAKER_01: Ever new, ever old, ever the same, ever fresh, ever young, R by R, year by year through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're sticking with Spurgeon tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another story.
SPEAKER_01: Roland Hill was a contemporary of Spurgeon in London, and he was given a large sum of money by a benefactor who wanted him to channel it towards a poor pastor in a poor slum in London to underwrite his gospel enterprise.
SPEAKER_01: So Roland Hill gets the gift, and then he thinks about this, given that man's circumstances, his budget, he thinks it wouldn't be a great idea just to land it all on his lap in one go.
SPEAKER_01: And so what he does is he parcels the amount out and he sends it in portions over a period of time.
SPEAKER_01: And every time he puts some of those notes into an envelope, he always puts this little message with the envelope, more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: Beautiful, right?
SPEAKER_01: More to follow.
SPEAKER_01: Now Spurgeon heard about that story.
SPEAKER_01: And so he he says this.
SPEAKER_01: Using that story.
SPEAKER_01: And more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That was a little bit better, but still not very good.
SPEAKER_01: More to follow.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Spurgeon said, I forgive your sins, but more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: I justify you in the righteousness of Christ, but more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: I adopt you into my family, but there's more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: I educated you for heaven, but there's more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: I give you grace upon grace, but there's more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: I have helped you.
SPEAKER_01: Even to old age, but more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: I will uphold you in the hour of your death, and as you are passing into the world of the spirits, my mercy shall continue with you, and when you land in the world to come, there shall still be more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: That beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: You may be exhausted tonight.
SPEAKER_01: We've all been there, and we'll all get there.
SPEAKER_01: We're either in trouble, coming out of trouble, to go back into trouble.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll tell you what, God's grace is not being exhausted.
SPEAKER_01: So pucker up.
SPEAKER_01: Keep calm.
SPEAKER_01: And carry on.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about a British, you know, stiff upper lip.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just talking about drawing upon the means of grace.
SPEAKER_01: And remembering, as Cory Tan Boom famously said, there is no pit so deep that he's not deeper still.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a refuge ever present.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's name is a strong tower into which the righteous run and are safe.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's a river.
SPEAKER_01: Let's finish with the rest.
SPEAKER_01: Not going to spend a lot of time on this and time slipping away.
SPEAKER_01: This is verses 8 through 11.
SPEAKER_01: We've looked at the refuge, verses 1 to 3, the river, verses 4 to 6.
SPEAKER_01: And then this rest.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just take some time and read the text.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to delve into this deeply.
SPEAKER_01: Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He makes wars to cease the end of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two.
SPEAKER_01: He burns the chariot in the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Be still and know that I am God.
SPEAKER_01: I will be exalted among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: I will be exalted in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Now the focus of the final stanza moves beyond the immediate political and national situation.
SPEAKER_01: This text takes us beyond 701 BC, takes us beyond the crisis created by King Sennacherib and the Assyrians marching down from the north.
SPEAKER_01: It takes us to a moment in the future.
SPEAKER_01: When God will bring to an end the hostilities between man and between man and God.
SPEAKER_01: And God is saying to the nations that roar, Come, behold the works of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Works like this story, the smashing of the Assyrian army.
SPEAKER_01: Works like the Egyptian army drowning in the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist is pronouncing a coming day when God will be exalted among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord of hosts, verse 7, verse 11, the Lord of heavenly armies, the Lord of angel armies, will come.
SPEAKER_01: And he will indeed smash those who oppose his rule and hurt his people and blaspheme his son.
SPEAKER_01: What you have in the Assyrians being defeated, 185,000 men dying in an instant at the hands of one angel, is a preview of coming attractions.
SPEAKER_01: And it takes us to the second coming of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And Revelation 19 and in the millennial kingdom of Revelation 20 and the battle of Armageddon and the angel armies of heaven falling into line behind the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: That moment when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That moment when swords will be turned into pleasures.
SPEAKER_01: That moment.
SPEAKER_01: Cease.
SPEAKER_01: It's a command that Jesus Christ will utter to the rebellious nations of the world who will gang up on him at the Battle of Armageddon and his people.
SPEAKER_01: And again they will surround the city of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus Christ will return and say, desist, cease.
SPEAKER_01: And he will smite the nations with his word.
SPEAKER_01: And the chariots will burn.
SPEAKER_01: And the tanks will explode.
SPEAKER_01: And the great armies of the world will fall like dominoes.
SPEAKER_01: And the people of God need to remember this.
SPEAKER_01: That in the meantime, God's people can still their own hearts by putting their trust in the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: That he is Lord over history and that will be put on full display when Jesus returns and sets up his reign within history in a doxological moment for 1,000 years, proving within history, in real time, he's Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And Satan will be banished.
SPEAKER_01: And man's mismanagement of the world will end.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian's sense of security as we move to a close is found here.
SPEAKER_01: In this promised rest.
SPEAKER_01: And the fact that government is on his shoulders.
SPEAKER_01: And all the mismanagement of man and the pellaging of Satan and demons upon planet earth will come to an end in the judgment of God, the reign of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We can enjoy a peace that passes all understanding.
SPEAKER_01: We can enjoy the legacy of the promise of Jesus in John 14, 27, a peace I give unto you, not as the world gives.
SPEAKER_01: And part of that peace is this promise of the coming prince of peace.
SPEAKER_01: When the nations that roar and the governments that scheme will be brought to heal.
SPEAKER_01: Just as he calmed the Sea of Galilee and brought it to heal, so the roaring of the nations will be brought to heal in that glorious moment.
SPEAKER_01: In the end we win.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you gotta hang in there.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta hang on to that reality.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to the words of Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Given what I've said, can't you hear echoes of this?
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 3, we are bound to give thanks to God always, brethren.
SPEAKER_01: It's fitting because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abinds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer, since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you.
SPEAKER_01: And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we rest.
SPEAKER_01: Are you a victim of crime that's never seen justice?
SPEAKER_01: Are you bothered by the wickedness of wicked leaders and rulers?
SPEAKER_01: I am.
SPEAKER_01: How do you keep your sanity?
SPEAKER_01: How do you keep your serenity?
SPEAKER_01: By keeping this vision before you, someday, soon Jesus will return and say, Cease, desist, be still.
SPEAKER_01: And the roaring of the nations will be calmed, just as he did on the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, Rest with us in that.
SPEAKER_01: Read the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Some things are complicated about it, but fundamentally it's not that complicated.
SPEAKER_01: In the end, we win.
SPEAKER_01: In the end, all the mixed-up kingdoms and fragmented kingdoms of this world will become the one glorious united kingdom of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a big Margaret Thatcher fan.
SPEAKER_01: I love one of her quotes.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I can be extraordinarily patient so long as I get my way in the end.
SPEAKER_01: So can we.
SPEAKER_01: We can be extraordinarily patient.
SPEAKER_01: We can be enduring.
SPEAKER_01: We can be unshakable in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because we, under Christ, reigning at his side, in the end we get our way.
SPEAKER_01: As he makes a way.
SPEAKER_01: I love the story told by a missionary, Gregory Fisher, and with this we close.
SPEAKER_01: Fisher was teaching a class at the West African Bible College when he was caught off guard by a student who asked him a question concerning 1 Thessalonians 4 and the coming of Jesus Christ for his people.
SPEAKER_01: And the question was this: he wasn't ready for it.
SPEAKER_01: Based on 1 Thessalonians 4, 16, that he will descend with the shout with the voice of the archangel.
SPEAKER_01: This student asked the professor, what will he shout?
SPEAKER_01: Now, for a moment, the professor was gonna, you know, that's that's impertinent.
SPEAKER_01: And where the Bible leaves off teaching, we leave off learning.
SPEAKER_01: But he couldn't bring himself to do that because he thought earlier in the day about a refugee from the Liberian Civil War that he had talked to, who had escaped the death squad, who had been hiding in the bushes and the brush for two days, gathered his family to flee to a neighboring country, and on the path to freedom lost two of his children.
SPEAKER_01: And then he imagined on the way into seminary the beggars along the way, the poverty, the injustice, the indignity that seemed to be all over life.
SPEAKER_01: And he was haunted by the vacant eyes of those who had lost all hope.
SPEAKER_01: So he thought about it, wanted to dodge the question, but he made a star about it.
SPEAKER_01: You know what he said?
SPEAKER_01: He said, when Jesus comes back, he will say enough.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he'll say.
SPEAKER_01: Enough! Enough suffering, enough starvation, enough terror, enough death, enough indignity, enough lives trapped in hopelessness, enough sickness, enough disease, enough time, enough.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a bad answer, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Enough.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 46, 10.
SPEAKER_01: Desist.
SPEAKER_01: We're bringing this to an end.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna know that I'm God.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna replace man's mismanagement of this planet with my reign.
SPEAKER_01: And those who endure will reign with me.
SPEAKER_01: That's good enough for me.
SPEAKER_01: I look forward to the day when we'll have seen enough division, enough despair, enough death, enough disease, enough of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: That's our hope.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a hope big enough to keep us strong enough in faith, sure enough in hope, and resolute enough in love.
SPEAKER_01: Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you for the evening of the Lord's day.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for these precious people that have sought to sanctify the Lord's day to the good of their souls.
SPEAKER_01: We realize that our forefathers and forebearers called this day the market place of the soul.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray that tonight we will buy the truth of Psalm 46 and sell it not.
SPEAKER_01: Help us not to allow the things that are going on around us, the thoughts that are trying to implant themselves in our mind to rob us of the glorious truths of this wonderful celebration and song.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, we thank you, you're our refuge, and you're our ever-present help.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday God helped me, and today he did the same, and I believe that this will continue forever.
SPEAKER_01: Praise his name.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you for this image of the river.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you supply love upon love and grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to believe that there's more to follow.
SPEAKER_01: And that as our days, so shall our strength be.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to live one day at a time, because there's only grace sufficient for today, and then we'll go to bed and you'll watch over us, you who neither slumber nor sleep, and in the morning you'll give us a full plate of grace for the challenges of Monday.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, in the midst of a seething world, in the midst of a wicked world, and and we get bothered by the mismanagement, we get bothered by the wickedness, we get bothered by the flaunting of your law, the blaspheming of your name.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to rest in the knowledge that you will trouble those who trouble us.
SPEAKER_01: And that someday the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus shall reign wherever the Son doth its successive journeys run.
SPEAKER_01: We can be patient.
SPEAKER_01: We can be extraordinarily patient.
SPEAKER_01: Because in the end we win.
SPEAKER_01: Come, let us sing Psalm 46.
SPEAKER_01: These things we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.