From our Pastor
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God is Our Refuge and Strength
Psalm 46, Rev. 14:7, Romans 3:19-28, John 8:31-36 October 27/28, 2007
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The opening words of Psalm 46 are so comforting. God is our refuge, he’s our protection, he’s our fort who keeps us safe from all sorts of danger. Under the theme that a man’s home is castle, I thought of the protection we derived from our own homes. We feel safe and protected in our homes from storms that howl outside. But for many Californians, their homes were no longer safe. Because of fire, 500,000 were evacuated from their homes for their own protection. That can be a scary thing. Some of those who were evacuated were sent to hotels at a safe distance from the fire. It must have been reassuring that they were in a place that was safe. But the fire spread must faster and farther than had been anticipated. The people who fled from their homes now had to run quickly from the hotels, for fire approached the hotels. First you’d think your home would be safe, but it wasn’t. When they were taken to a safer place, to a hotel, they found out that even that was not safe.
That’s the problem you have when you trust in anything or anyone… other than God. Nobody, nothing, can protect from all danger. As children we like to think that our parents can keep us safe. And most parents are able to keep their children safe from most things, but not all things. I’ll never forget when I was a child riding in the back seat on a snowy night out in the country. My father was driving. He hit a slick patch and was trying to control the car. When he said, “I can’t control it,” that struck fear in my heart. What could he not control? We ended up in the ditch. No one was hurt. The car was not damaged, but we had to be towed out. The point is that when you put your trust in people, or in things, your trust is misplaced. I’m not saying we can’t trust our homes to keep us dry, and warm. I’m not saying we shouldn’t trust people as they’ve shown themselves to be trustworthy. But ultimately, our trust must be in God.
God is our refuge and strength. Why can we trust God more than our own homes, more than our parents? Why can we trust God more than anyone or anything? Because God is so far beyond everyone and everything in every way. As Revelation 14:7 reminds us, “God is the one who made heaven and earth and the sea and the springs of water.” Worship him. Fear him who will come at the end of the world to judge all people. He’s the one who had the wisdom and the power to create all that is in the first place. The guy who made the whole world is the only one that you can depend on for everything. He can protect your life. Only he can give you everlasting life, only God is able to give you ticket to heaven, and to assure you of safe passage there.
Today we celebrate the Reformation. A great reform was needed in the church. Back in the 1500s while we trusted God as an essential help to get to heaven, we also trusted ourselves to be good enough to get to heaven. People trusted in doing enough good things to get to heaven. The thought was that when a person did some sin, they’d have to do some good things to make up for it, so they could go to heaven. Actually, there are people who fall into that way of thinking today. What wrong with that thinking?
Well first we have to understand that we’ve all sinned. God’s law makes us aware of our sin, we’re taught in Romans 3:20. Further in verse 23 God makes it crystal clear: we have all sinned. We all lack the glory of God. But who’s to say that we can’t work our way back into that glory? God’s to say… He says that no one will be declared righteous in his sight by doing the law. (20) There’s just no way we can do it ourselves.
Did you hear about the homeowner in California who was trying to defend his home from the fires? He had his water hose out and was watering the front of his house. That sounds strange to me, because I’ve never been in such a situation. I’ve heard of watering your garden, or watering your lawn. But watering you home? The idea of course, is to protect the house from the flames. But while he watering the front of the house, the flames came up on the backside. The house was destroyed. There was no way he could protect his house by himself. He needed help. There is no way we can save ourselves. There is no way we can make up for our sins. We need help.
The cavalry is coming. There’s help on the way. Romans 3:21 tells us that there is a righteousness, a holiness, which comes from God, that happens apart from the law, apart from doing good things to make up for the bad we’ve done. The Old Testament had already talked about this. Where do we get this righteousness? It comes through faith in Jesus Christ to every believer. (22) That’s amazing! There is a way to become righteous, to be made holy. What do we have to do? What’s the cost? Where’s the catch? No catch. No cost. Nothing to be done. It comes to us free. “We are justified freely, by his free gift because we’ve been bought back by Christ Jesus.” (24) Jesus paid for us with his blood. So this amazing gift of being made righteous, becoming holy in God’s sight, is free of charge.
Look at it this way. People who try to get to heaven on their own are like the guy trying to defend his house from the flames. He can’t do it. No way. The wall of fire is way to huge for him. He doesn’t stand a chance. But God is our ocean. What looks to be a huge wall of flames to us, from the perspective from Heaven above, doesn’t look so hard. God can douse the flame easily. He is the one who freely gives us forgiveness and life through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And if the Son of God sets you free, you’re really free. (Jn. 8:36)
The only way a person can be free is by God setting him free. Back in the 1500s when people were thinking they had to do a lot on their own to earn their salvation, the church came up with a way to help them out. Now remember, this is when the church needed to be reformed. This was not a good thing that the church did. It turned out to be a big fundraiser for the church, as a matter of fact. This is one of the reasons the church needed to be reformed. The idea was, that you could never be sure if you’ve done enough to get to heaven. If you come up a little short, and haven’t done enough to be saved, why you can buy your way the rest of the way. The church, for what the church determined was an appropriate sum of money, would give you a paper, signed and sealed that would assure you of your salvation. They called the paper an indulgence.
It was worthless. You can’t buy your way into heaven. You can’t work your way into heaven. But here’s some good news. You don’t have to. Jesus has paid the way with his blood. Again, if the Son of God sets you free, you’re really free.
God is our refuge and strength. It’s by his strength, that we are able to make it to heaven. It’s by the power that God exerted over sin and death that we are saved. God is our refuge. He protects us from the evil one, protects us from ending up in hell. God is the perfect refuge, our complete protection. You can count on him.
Remember those California flames. They can destroy a person and all his property. How much worse the flames of hell. God is an ocean. The fires of hell cannot touch us. He can protect us from the raging fires of hell. God is an ocean. Have you ever known of a fire to jump over an ocean? No way! God’s protection of you is perfect, complete. You can trust in God to keep you safe.
No matter what terrible things are going on in your world, in your life, God can keep you safe. Psalm 46 describes terrible things happening. The mountains fall into the ocean, the waters roar and foam. I imagine if the mountains fell into the oceans, the waters would roar and foam. It would be awful. The psalm goes on to describe nations in uproar, kingdoms falling. (6) But God is in control. He is with us. (7) No matter what’s going on, God says, “relax and know that I am God.” (10) Don’t worry. Don’t fret. Relax knowing that “the Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress.” (11)
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