Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist where Moses said through the disappointment of the people, we see a former closeness. Moses said, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. But God, I don't know if that's the case now. We have not been faithful to you. You know, the first thing I would ask, could maybe some of us be in that situation today where there used to be a former closeness to God. We literally used to dwell with him.

And now life and circumstances and things has kind of brought a wedge in between. Notice verse two, he said, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Secondly, he describes a foundation that is claimed. He said, God, you created, you're in charge. He said, thou art God. While we used to formerly be close to you, we have changed, but you have stayed the same. By the way, folks, I want you to understand something. If there's a distance between us and God now, God hadn't gone anywhere.

He hadn't moved, he hadn't changed. We're the ones that left. Notice if you would, verse three, he says, thou turnest man to destruction. Look at verse five, thou carriest them away as with a flood. Look at verse seven, for we are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath, we are troubled.

We see that God's force was challenged, number three here, and Moses says, hey, they challenged you, and we've challenged you, and we've fought against you, but you have won every single time. Notice if you would, in verse eight, we see that their faults were not covered like they thought they were. Verse eight, he says, thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins, in the light of thy countenance. In other words, God, all these things that we thought maybe we've done secretly and hidden, God's brought to light. By the way, I wanna remind you today, he knows everything we do, everything we think, everywhere we've been. We can argue, get mad at the preacher and everybody else if we want to, but dear friend, we're gonna have to answer to God one day.

Our faults have not been covered. Notice, lastly, in this chapter, Moses makes the formula very clear. Look at verse 12, so, in other words, because of all this, teach us to number our days. That means to make sure you make the most of every one of them, to make them important, to make sure we make the right decisions. Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. In other words, to realize we don't have a lot of time and this is important, so we need to give everything we have and we need to turn our hearts towards wisdom. Where is wisdom found? The only place wisdom is found is the Bible. Knowledge is found in books. Wisdom is only found in the Bible. Notice verse 13, return, oh Lord.

How long? In other words, please, we've gotta get back to dwelling with you and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. Would you forgive us? Would you have mercy on us?

Would you give us another chance? Look at Psalm 91. I believe, and I always have believed, Psalm 90 has so many wonderful things, but it basically sets up Psalm 91. Moses says this. He that abideth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver me from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. Notice if you would, verse eight. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high.

Thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. For they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet because he hath set his love upon me. Therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he hath known my name.

Listen to verse 15 to 16. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. God, we need your help today. I pray that you would help us as we literally speak about the subject of staying close to the cloud. Lord, I ask you to bless in Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 91, notice as Moses describes first, who God is in verses one and two.

Now we're going somewhere with all this. Look at verse one. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge, my fortress, my God in him will I trust. Number one, Moses makes it clear that God is the most high. This means that God sees all. He is above us. His ways, the Bible says, are above our ways. I want you to understand in life, God is the most high, not us.

Not our friends, not our buddies, not the people we go to for counseling. God is the one who is above all, sees all, knows all. Notice he says secondly, right under this the most high, he calls him the Almighty. That word Almighty, when he calls him the Almighty, it means this, he does everything and he can prepare the way for people in the wilderness.

There's nothing that's too hard for him. He is the most high and basically he's saying here, he's the most powerful. That's who God is, by the way, folks.

Notice secondly, he says the Lord in verse two. The Lord, that word Lord, capital L-O-R-D is the word Jehovah. He is called Jehovah, which means he is an intimate God. He is very personal. He's the high tower that looks ahead. He's the Almighty that prepares the way, but he is also Jehovah who loves his people personally.

Wow. Moses said he's above us and stronger than us, but thank God he still loves us. Notice what he says, he says he's my refuge. That word refuge literally means shelter.

We all have sung the song Shelter in the Time of Storm. God's our shelter. Notice what he says third, he says he's my refuge. Fourth, my fortress. That word fortress, that word means he's my defense. He's my strong place. It means when things are coming on me, I can hide under God, he's my refuge, but not only that, he's my fortress. When I need strength, when I need somebody to defend me, somebody I can hold onto, that's what God is.

This is all Moses describing, and he is right in the middle of the wilderness as he's describing it. Notice fifth, he says he's my God. Now this is capital G, small O and D. This is the word Elohim. You say preacher, what is the difference? Well obviously, Lord is Jehovah, which means I was, I am, and I always will be.

It's a personal name. He's a personal God. Elohim means this, that this is the great mighty God who is the object of my worship, and he deserves my worship. Moses knew God in all these aspects. He said he's the most high who oversees everything. He's the almighty who can do everything. He's Jehovah who loves me intimately. He is my Elohim. He is all powerful.

He deserves my worship. If you'll notice with me this morning that literally the first two of these, he says he is my high tower, or he is the high and mighty God. He says he is the almighty. It means that those words are impersonal. It means he is higher than me. He is stronger than me, which means he's beyond me.

That's impersonal, but the last words he uses are personal. He's my Jehovah. He's my refuge. He's my fortress, which means this God is above us, and he is over us, and he is stronger than us, but Moses said I have come to learn through all these years of serving him and wandering in this wilderness that he's also my refuge and my tower, and he's my fortress, and he's my friend.

Wow. Now I know that might not excite everybody, but for some of us that end up in the wilderness every once in a while, that sure is encouraging. He says secondly, not only this is who God is, but he said this is what God has done.

I know he's gonna do this because he's proven it to me already. Look at verse three. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. Oh, hey, Moses knew a few things about pestilences, didn't he? You remember the whole story as they're trying to get the children of Israel out of Egypt and all the pestilences that God had to bring on Pharaoh and Egypt and all those things. Moses certainly knows that, and Moses says hey, he's delivered us from the snare of the fowler, which would mean Pharaoh.

He is literally from the noisome pestilence, all the pestilences that obviously killed so many people, and you remember, obviously, as obviously the angel of death went through and everybody that had put blood on the doorpost and different things, Moses says God has brought us through these pestilences. Notice verse four. He shall cover thee with his feathers. Under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Three things here, Moses says.

Well, I'm gonna tell you who God is, but let me tell you what I know God will do and what he has done. He shall deliver. Verse three. He shall deliver. Moses is saying, hey, I might be in the wilderness right now, and it might be bad right now, and we might not understand what's going on right now, and we might be here because we've blown it, but we have blown it before, and God still out of his mercy has delivered us.

I don't know what you're in or what's over you right now in your life, but God can deliver you. Notice the third thing he says, he shall cover in verse four. Boy, I tell you what, Moses sure knew what he was talking about here. Now, I personally don't know exactly what stage he wrote this, but let me tell you where I believe. I believe it was not long after Moses had been up on the mountain to get, obviously, the 12 commandments.

You know the story. He came back down. The people were rioting and partying, and they had created these idols, and Moses threw down the tablets.

We just preached on it a couple weeks ago. Moses threw down the tablets in anger, and he yelled at the people and all these things, and then Moses had to go back up on the mountain, and God had to deal with the people, and then God, Moses spent 40 days up there on the mountain, didn't eat, didn't drink. He just wrote down the law of God, and the Bible says while he was up there that he told God, God, I need to see your glory, and God said you'd die if you saw my glory, but I'll tell you what I'll do.

I will let my glory pass by, but I am gonna put you in the rock, and I am gonna cover you there with my hand. So a little bit later on in Psalm 91, Moses said he'll deliver me, and he shall cover thee. Notice if you would, the third thing he says, he shall protect in verse four.

He shall protect. Moses said I've seen it. I've witnessed it. I watched him do it to me. I've watched him do it to all these people. He shall protect.

Notice the third thing here. Moses says this is who God is. This is what God has done. Notice thirdly, this is what he says God will do.

Now here's what's interesting. I believe beginning in verse five, there is dialogue back and forth between Moses and God. Some of these verses God is speaking. Some of these verses Moses is speaking, and I don't just say that lightly.

I've done some study and research and looked into it, and I have found that obviously just about everybody agrees with me that has dug into this. What is interesting is is that Moses says this is who God is. This is what he's done, but I believe thirdly this is what God said he will do. Look at verse five. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flyeth by day. This is Moses speaking to the people, but he is doing it as the voice of God. God is giving him these words, so God is speaking through Moses to the people, and this is what God said he's gonna do. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flyeth by day nor the pestilence that walketh in the darkness nor destruction that wasteth at noonday, and he begins verse seven all the way down through verse 16.

Now listen, let me give you this list, and we're almost done today. You say, what? We've heard that before, and I agree. Look at verse 11. He says, for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. First thing God said he would do is to keep thee. Do you know that we are kept by the grace of God? So what do you mean kept?

We only are able to operate. We are only able to take a breath because of the grace of God. We are literally kept by him, and this is what God said to do. I will keep thee. Notice if you would, verse 14. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. He said I will deliver. Moses said in verse three he shall deliver, but in verse 14 he says I will deliver. Moses, you might have said that I would do it and you're right, but I'm telling you right now, this is coming from my mouth. I'm going to do it.

I will deliver. Notice verse 14. I will, God says, set him on high. What does it mean to set him on high? It means that God says I will set you in higher places.

Always a sign of God's blessing. I could take you through Psalms. I could take you even into David's life where God, where David says he's put a new song in my mouth. He set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. I was in the mire, David said, but he set my feet upon a rock.

I will set thee on high. Notice in verse 15 he said because of what you've done, when you call me, he says I will answer. May I tell you something, dear friend, all these years later we have a promise from God when you call him he will answer you.

You say, but preacher, I've been praying for such for years and God just hasn't answered that prayer. Oh, he's answered it. He's just said not yet. Or he said no. Or he said wait. Or he said I'm working on it. But he didn't not answer.

Husbands and wives do that. Notice if you would, verse 15, he said, I love this one, I will be with him. So what God promised, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

I will be with him. Wow, notice verse 15, God says I will honor him. I will honor. What does that word honor means? It means to reward. It means to fulfill the promises that have been given. I will honor, God says, because you've done this. You've done what, preacher? We're getting to it. Because you've done this, I will honor.

Notice what he says next in verse 16. I will satisfy. Can I tell you something great about God?

He satisfies. You can try everything else in this. Would you throw that back up to me? Where did it go? Thank you. That was kind of cool how I just. You never know what you're gonna see on a sunny morning around here, do you? Notice if you would, verse 16, I will satisfy.

I love this. With long life will I satisfy him. Do you know God doesn't always give a lot of years? He's not guaranteed that to us, but he has promised whatever years you have, he can satisfy them.

God focuses on quality, not necessarily quantity. Notice if you would last, he says, I will, in verse 16, show him my salvation. What's interesting is that God is saying there in verse 16 that I will show him my salvation, which means the Messiah has not come yet. It means that I will show him my salvation until salvation comes.

And that is through the person of Jesus Christ. This is literally prophecy here in verse 16 that I will one day show you my salvation, and it is in the person of Jesus Christ. Remember in this day, Moses, when you get saved, Holy Spirit didn't come into your life. Holy Spirit hadn't come yet. Jesus came, and when Jesus ascended back, he said, now I leave you the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit did work all through the Old Testament, but the Holy Spirit did not automatically embody a believer the moment they put their faith and trust in Christ until Jesus Christ ascended back into heaven and promised from that point that the down payment, the promise, the proof that I'm coming again is that now when you get saved, I will put the Holy Spirit into your life.

Wow. All right, we've seen who God is, what he will do. God says, this is what I'm going to do. What's the point of all this, preacher? Last, I want you to see, this is why God will do it.

And this is the same reason why God will do it in your life. Look at verse one, very, very interesting. After a verse, remember, Psalm 90, Moses says, you used to be our habitation. We used to dwell with you, God, but we've wandered off.

We're going through all this, and this is why I believe this was written near the end of their journey. Moses probably at this point found out I can't go to the promised land, and we're the ones that have left you, and we're the ones that used to be, we were formerly close to you, God, but we've wandered off. So chapter 91 is Moses telling God, we're going to come back close to you, and we're going to get this thing right. Look at verse one.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Look at verse nine. This is God speaking, by the way, in verse nine. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge. You say, preacher, why would God say my refuge? He is literally referring to the title that Moses had just given to him.

He is saying, remember me? It would be like me looking at you, and I'm Brother Daniel. Remember a pastor? Well, I'm not my pastor. I'm your pastor. Brother Joe's my pastor, and I know half of you, he's still your pastor too, and I understand all that. It doesn't bother me one bit because I think he's the greatest pastor ever in history.

Don't you? You can say amen. You're nervous, aren't you? Well, if I say amen, is he gonna get mad at that?

No, he's the best ever, trust me. What God is saying here is this. Listen, because, notice verse nine. Because thou hast made the Lord Jehovah, which is my refuge, and the most high, thy habitation. Habitation, what, where you live, where you dwell.

Verse one, Moses says, he that dwelleth or abideth or liveth in the secret place of the most high shall abide, live, dwell under the shadow of the Almighty. Now, I wanna ask Brother Ben if he would to put this diagram up on the screen, and I want you to understand. Now, this might be hard. I know this one's not working.

This one's out today, so everybody's gonna look over here so you might not be able to see it a lot. This is a diagram of how, obviously, the children of Israel would have made camp as they wandered through the wilderness. If you'll notice in the very center, is what they call the tabernacle. That enclosed or housed the holy of holies.

Surrounded by them, obviously, you'll see all the different things. We have the different tribes that are surrounded on the outside of the camp. You have Moriah, you have Kohaiath, you have all these folks in the middle. At the tabernacle where you see on the one end, it says Moses and the prophets. That is where prophets would come in. That's where the Levites would come in if they needed, but Moses was the only one during the time of wandering through the wilderness. Moses is the one that went into the holy of holies. Moses was the one that communed with God, and Moses was the only one allowed in there. Moses always made camp.

He always had his tent set up right there at the door of the tabernacle. And all the way around is obviously the camp of Reuben and the camp of Ephraim and the camp of Judah. And out of the camp of Judah, by the way, was the line of Christ, the lineage of Christ. Jacob's son Judah, not Jacob's son Joseph, but Jacob's son Judah out of Judah's line through the line of Perez is where the line of Jesus Christ eventually comes from, but they would all camp around this diagram, has how many there would be from each camp there at this particular time.

You say, preacher, what in the world does all this mean? You gotta understand, when Moses wrote Psalm 91, verse one, he says this, he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Now, the secret place of the most high was the holy of holies inside of the tabernacle. That's what it was always called, was the secret place of the most high. Next to the tabernacle or next to the secret place in the center of the camp was the tent of Moses. It was Moses literally who dwelled in the secret place of the most high. The shadow of the Almighty, and you say, what do you mean the shadow of the Almighty?

Look at me, folks. Every day, there would be a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and that means every day, a pillar of cloud would be directly over the tabernacle, which means, as Moses would always camp, if you'll notice on where Moses camps, it's at the entrance of the tabernacle. The holy of holies was always in the backside of that tabernacle. Moses' tent was always right there at the door and the opening of the holy of holies. That means this, that literally when God's cloud would hover over the tabernacle, he would literally hover over Moses' tent, and at night when the pillar of cloud would hang over that camp, it would literally hang over the tent of Moses. You say, preacher, what in the world are you saying?

Are you ready? Listen, here is the danger of living on the fringe. Do you understand, the closer you camp toward God, the safer you are. Moses literally said, he that dwells in the most secret place, he that dwells under the almighty, under the shadow of the almighty. That is exactly why, if you'll notice, look if you would at verse seven. He said, a thousand shall fall at thy side, 10,000 shall at the right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Isn't that interesting? Look at verse 10, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

Isn't that interesting? Notice if you would, verse 13, thou shall tread upon the lion in the adder, the young lion and the dragon, shalt thou trample under feet. If you'll notice all the way through this chapter, he even says that the arrows will not get to thee. Look at me, I want you to get it, because Moses camped closer to God. He was the safest one in the camp. Anybody could get to Moses?

They had to go through everybody else first. There was rank after rank after rank after rank that anybody would have to get through before they could get to Moses. And this is what Moses is telling the children of Israel. If you want to be safe, and if you want to be blessed, and if you want him to be your fortress, and you want him to be your refuge, you've got to dwell with him.

Look at me, folks. The closer you get to God, the safer you're gonna be. We live in a generation that doesn't want to hear a preacher talk about being close to God. We don't want to hear about holiness. We don't want to hear about righteousness.

We don't want to hear about anything. But you gotta understand that there's just a preacher up in the pulpit yelling and letting you know it's not to be mean, and it's not to get you angry, and it's not to make you think we're against everything. We're here to tell you, you're gonna be safer the closer you get to God. Moses is saying, we've wandered off, we've all gotten away, and now all this has happened.

But if we'll all get back under the shadow of the Almighty, if we'll just get back to being close to the cloud, the safer we'll be. What does God say in verse nine? Look at verse nine, if you would. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee. Verse 11, for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up with their hands, talking about his angels, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone.

Look at me. God's saying this, because you've made me your dwelling place, I'll take care of you. Look at me, folks, I want you to understand, the further away from the cloud we get, the more danger we are in. Why does God do all these things? Why do we know that God will deliver? How do we know God will cover? How do we know God shall protect? How do we know God's gonna be our Elohim? How do we know God's gonna be our Jehovah? How do we know God's gonna be our refuge? How do we know that God's gonna be our shelter in the time of the storm? How do we know he's gonna set us on high? How do we know we're gonna answer? How do we know he's gonna be with us? How do we know he's gonna honor us? How do we know he's gonna satisfy us? Dear friend, I'll tell you the only way we know is if you live and camp and put your house as close to God as you can.

It's what it takes. You can't look at me, folks, you can't sit here on the outskirts of town and expect to be near as safe as when you're camped up right next to the tabernacle. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. We'll see you in the next episode of The Kerwin Baptist Church. God bless you.