Spurgeon rightly said that Psalm 46 has for its subject the “holy confidence” of God’s saints. He here names three things in which every believer in Jesus Christ should find confidence concerning our safety and security.

God is our refuge. All who were chosen by the Father in Sovereign election were put in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-4). We were represented by Jesus Christ when he forever obtained our everlasting righteousness and eternal redemption (Daniel 9:24; Hebrews 9:12). And now by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have fled to Him by faith for refuge. We being sinners are much like that manslayer who was pursued by the justice of God. But God has prepared for us a city of refuge which is Jesus Christ. So we fled to Him by faith and he is our refuge from the wrath of God.

God is our strength. When we were by nature without strength, in due time Christ died for our sins (Romans 5:6). So all that the Father gave to Christ he has redeemed by His blood. And all of those for whom Christ died shall come to him by faith. Therefore we who were without strength, by the grace of God were given spiritual life (John 3:3; Ezekiel 37:4-11). We were by nature like those dry bones in Ezekiel 37. We were dead and without strength to give ourselves life. But God in the power of the Holy Spirit gave us life and strength to believe on Christ (Psalm 110:3). And now we are kept by the power of God in faith safe until Christ returns (1 Peter 1:5).

God is our present help in trouble. Though chosen of the Father, redeemed by the Son and quickened by the Holy Spirit we are not exempt from trouble (John 16:33). But here is our comfort and confidence — that God is a very present help in trouble. Our God who has ordered the trouble and who controls the trouble will also be our present help so that we shall not fail or fall away from faith in Christ.

Therefore let this be all our confidence and song that Christ is our refuge from the storms of God’s justice and the storms of life. Be assured that God who was thy strength in the new birth will be thy strength to keep thee until you receive all your inheritance. Let us stand fast in Hope that God is our constant help in every trouble and from every trial.

He who you carry in your own bosom—your daily, hourly, and ever-present companion, that entwines himself in nearly every thought of your heart—that . . .  sometimes puffs up with pride, sometimes inflames with lust, sometimes inflates with presumption, and sometimes works under feigned humility and fleshly holiness.

God is determined to stain the pride of human glory. He will never let self (which is but another word for the creature) wear the crown of victory. 
It must be crucified, denied, and mortified.

Now this self must be overcome. The way to overcome self is by looking out of self to Him who was crucified upon Calvary’s tree—to receive His image into your heart—to be clothed with His likeness—to drink into His spirit—and “receive out of His fullness grace for grace.”

-J.C Philpot

Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:6)

We gather today in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior believing his promise that he is in our midst. What a privilege and blessing it is to gather with others who trust and love Jesus Christ our Saviour.

False religion teaches men to trust in an experience or in certain doctrines and creeds. The Scriptures teach that salvation, eternal life, the forgiveness of sins is not in a creed or doctrine. We acknowledge that good sound doctrine is very important because it always points to Jesus Christ our Saviour.

God’s salvation for sinners is in a Person. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life” (1 John 5:12). He is the one and only mediator between God and men. His blood is the only remedy that puts away sin, His righteousness is the only righteousness that justifies, and his death is the only means that reconciles to God. I’m thankful for the privilege to join today with all of you who know the Lord Jesus Christ and for us to worship Jesus Christ our Savior, who conquered death for us.”

-David Pledger, Pastor of Lincoln Wood Baptist Church, Houston, TX U.S.A

27:46)

Let us devoutly consider Jesus as passing through this eclipse of His soul, and receive the holy instruction and comfort the spectacle was designed to convey.

to have faith in God. “Who is among you that walks in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the lord, and stay upon his God.” Stay yourself upon His covenant faithfulness and unchanging love, and believe that Jesus intercedes for you in heaven, and that soon you shall reach that blissful world where your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself.

Octavius Winslow

There is no learning of Christ apart from Divine Truth (Matt. 11:28-30; John 17:3; 2 Cor. 4:6; 1 John 5:20), yet one may be able to summarize and recite all of the revealed facts concerning Christ and His accomplished redemption and still be unreconciled to God and under His curse. What I am saying is this: It isn’t the mere knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus that saves the soul, but a love of Christ in that truth (2 Pet. 2:19-22; 2 Thess. 2:9-12). It isn’t a mere intellectual belief and ritualistic confession through which guilty sinners enter into a saving interest in Christ, but a “believing with the heart” (Rom. 10:10), a meeting, a welcoming, a loving, and an embracing of Christ in the truth; and as the truth, as the Gospel (Rom. 10:8-17).

-Maurice Montgomery

He who you carry in your own bosom, your daily,
hourly, and ever-present companion, that entwines
himself in nearly every thought of your heart that . . .
sometimes puffs up with pride,
sometimes inflames with lust,
sometimes inflates with presumption, and
sometimes works under feigned humility and fleshly holiness.

God is determined to stain the pride of human glory. He will never let self (which is but another word for the creature) wear the crown of victory. It must be crucified, denied, and mortified.

Now this self must be overcome. The way to
overcome self is by looking out of self to Him
who was crucified upon Calvary’s tree — to receive
His image into your heart — to be clothed with His
likeness — to drink into His spirit — and “receive out
of His fullness grace for grace.”

-J.C. Philpot

I will keep My mercy for him forever, and My covenant shall stand fast with him. (Psalm 89:28)

 There is no end to the inventory of God’s mercies! May He who has given so much to me, and done so much for me—add the crowning mercy of a thankful heart! Though I can talk of thankfulness, I feel much insensibility and hardness of heart; but, I know that, while sin dwells in me, it will have such effects. Sin will distress—but it cannot condemn, those who believe in Jesus!

-John Newton

What is religion without a living faith in, and a living love to the Lord Jesus Christ? How dull and dragging, how dry and heavy, what a burden to the mind, and a weariness to the flesh, is a round of forms, where the heart is not engaged and the affections not drawn forth! Reading, hearing, praying, meditation, conversation with the people of God, what cold, what heartless work where Jesus is not! But let Him appear, let His presence and grace be felt, and His blessed Spirit move upon the heart, then there is a holy sweetness, a sacred blessedness in the worship of God and in communion with the Lord Jesus that makes, while it lasts, a little heaven on earth.

Means are to be attended to, ordinances to be prized, the Bible to be read, preaching to be heard, the throne of grace to be resorted to, the company of Christian friends to be sought. But what are all these unless we find Christ in them? It is He who puts life and blessedness into all means and ordinances, into all prayer, preaching, hearing, reading, conversing, and everything that bears the name of religion. Without Him all is dark and dead, cold and dreary, barren and bare! Wandering thoughts at the throne,unbelief at the ordinance,deadness under the word, formality and lip service in family worship, carelessness over the open Bible, carnality in conversation, and a general coldness and stupidity over the whole frame—such is the state of the soul when Jesus does not appear, and when He leaves us to prove what we are, and what we can do without Him!

-J.C Philpot

There is a day appointed by God for the salvation of his elect, a day fixed from eternity when grace will come to the chosen sinner, an hour determined before the world began when the Good Shepherd will seek out and find his lost sheep.

There is a time fixed before time began, called “the time of love,” when the predestined child, the elect sinner, redeemed by the blood of Christ, must be saved. At that hour, salvation must and shall come to the soul loved of God with an everlasting love.

Only one thing is really important in this matter, only one question must be answered, only one issue must be settled. “Do you believe on the Son of God?”

You will know that God has saved you, that you are chosen, redeemed, and called by grace, when you find yourself believing the gospel. Do you believe? If you do, the Lord has sought you out and found you by his grace.

-Don Fortner, Pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Danville, KY USA

“And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that all of you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19

There is no love which can be compared with the love of Christ. He is God manifest in the flesh . . . so that sinners, believing in Him, might not only escape deserved condemnation—but actually become His children!

For this great purpose, though truly God, He emptied Himself and appeared upon earth in the form of a servant; for He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross!

The LAMB, once upon the cross, is now the Lamb upon the throne, possessing and exercising all power in heaven and on earth. Yet He is still mindful of those for whom He suffered; His heart is made of tenderness; His affections melt with love; He appears in the presence of God for them, as their great High Priest, Advocate and Intercessor. He promises to save them to the uttermost; to support and guide them safely through all their conflicts, temptations, and trials; to lead them safely through the dark valley of the shadow of death; and then to receive them to Himself, that they may be forever with Him to behold His glory!

Such is the love of Christ! When we attempt to consider the glory of His divine person, the depth of His humiliation, the unknown sorrows and agonies which wrung His heart in Gethsemane, and on Golgotha; and that He endured all this for His enemies, the power He exerts in reconciling them to Himself; the blessings He bestows upon them in this life, when they are renewed by His grace; and the eternal happiness He has prepared for them in the eternal state—this love of Christ to sinners is inexpressible, unsearchable and unfathomable! It is an ocean without either bottom or shore!

-John Newton