Sermons
February 6th, 2022 by Pastor Solley020622AM Our Secret Place #2
Sub. A secret place.
Theme: Psalm 91
Text: Ps 91
“Our Secret Place” #2 Psalm 91
Introduction
We are going to continue this morning looking at our secret place as found in Ps 91. – Ps 91:1-16 – It has been said that the most important part of a believer’s life is the part only God sees, the hidden life of communion with and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. A life that is symbolized by the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle, our secret place. – Ps 91:1 – A place we now have access to by the blood of Jesus Christ. We could say that the safest place in the world is a shadow. – Ps 91:1
I. Last week we looked at our access to this secret place and then at four things that are necessary for us to enter in: No one will be denied entrance into this secret place if they so desire. But not all will decide to enter in because it does demand some things on our part. Not hard things, not difficult things, but to enter the secret place does demand some things of us. – Ps 91:1-2
A. We find in these two verses four things that we looked at last week: Ps 91:1-2 Steps we must take to make this our secret place.
1. We must determine to dwell with the Lord: Ps 91:1 To dwell with the Lord, to dwell with Christ is to spend time with Him, to be found with Him. Not just some of the time, all of the time. My physical dwelling place is 155 Nellies Rd. Grampian PA. If you want to find me look there first. My spiritual dwelling place needs to be with Christ. I need to be dwelling with Jesus Christ.
2. I am to abide with Him: Ps 91:1 In short, this means I am not going to change my dwelling place. I am not going to be found dwelling with Jesus one day and with another on a different day. I have determined not to change my dwelling place.
3. I will make my dwelling place my place of refuge as well: Ps 91:2 Troubles and trials, situations and circumstances, people saved or lost, Satan and not even my own flesh are going to turn me away from Christ. I will take refuge in Christ first and always.
4. He will be my fortress: Ps 91:2 It means my strong tower. No enemy can scale the walls, storm the gates of my fortress. It is my strong tower, a fortress that is secure.
B. One should read this Psalm in light of those precious truths and our determination as well: Ps 91:1-16
II. This morning I want to begin to look at the blessings and rewards of coming into this secret place, of making Jesus Christ our secret place: And there are many, not a few and these begin in the third verse and continue through the rest of the chapter.
PROP: Can you say that you have made Jesus Christ your secret place today? The question is not if you are born again or not, but have you make Jesus Christ your secret place? TS. When that answer is yes there are many blessings and rewards.
Body
I. There is an enemy that does all he can to keep us from our secret place: He is described throughout this chapter. – Ps 91:3 , 5-6 , 8 , 10 , 13 – He is known by several names. In verse 3 he is the fowler and noisome pestilence. – Ps 91:3 – In verse 5 he is a terror and an arrow. – Ps 91:5 – In verse 8 he is wicked. – Ps 91:8 – In verse 10 he is evil and a plague. – Ps 91:10 – In verse 13 he is a lion, an adder, a young lion and a dragon. – Ps 91:13 – There is a very powerful foe that will do all that he can to keep us from entering into this secret place, to keep us from making Christ our secret place.
A. Satan would rather this world be our dwelling place, our abiding place: Speaking now of the believer in Christ, Satan would rather this world be our dwelling place, our abiding place. – Ps 91:1 – Satan would rather we not make Christ our refuge and fortress. –
Ps 91:2 – So there is this constant battle going on in every child of God.
B. And as one breaks down the tactics of the enemy as found in this chapter it becomes very apparent that it is a battle we cannot win: To look at the way Satan attacks the believer as revealed in this chapter we find that we are engaged in a battle we cannot win. The enemy is too strong, he comes at us in too many ways, it is a battle we cannot possibly win on our own. That is why the chapter begins as it does setting forth the things we need do to gain victory. – Ps 91:1-2 – I am not going to preach again the message from last week, but while these are simple things, they are vital things as well. And when these things are true of us victory is secured.
C. For every tactic of the enemy revealed in this chapter there is also a path of victory revealed: Now we turn our attention to that path of victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
D. There is an enemy that does all he can to keep us from our secret place: He is described throughout this chapter.
II. We shall be delivered from the snare of the fowler: Ps 91:3 – A fowler was one that made a living out of catching live birds. At that time there was a demand. Some birds could be offered as sacrifices, but they had to be living birds because blood had to be shed at the altar. Also, some of the more affluent would keep live birds as pets as some do today. There was a business of catching live birds.
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A. The fowler would most often use a snare to catch a single bird: He may have dozens of snares set at a time, perhaps hundreds, but a snare would catch a single bird.
1. A snare could be baited and placed where birds would feed on the ground: Some were like an open canopy and when the bird was under it a trap would be sprung and the bird trapped. Others were like a snare a bird would step in and it would tighten around its leg or legs. In both cases the snare would be secured and the bird could not possible escape and the more the bird struggled the tighter the snare would become. No way for the bird to get out of the snare on its own.
2. There were also snares for animals, although less common, because wild animals were not used for sacrifice: But a snare could be placed on the ground along a trail a smaller animal often took, or suspended above the trail. Those snares could be baited as well and when an animal stepped into the snare, or put it’s head through the loop of the snare it wold tighten around the leg or the neck of the animal. The more the animal struggles the tighter the snare gets and many animals have died because they struggled against the snare.
3. I have made snares out of wire, a loop at the end, fastened so that loop will tighten when pressure is applied: They are illegal for hunting or trapping in PA but they are very lethal and I will stop right there.
B. Satan is the fowler in Ps 91: Ps 91:3 The same way the fowler set a snare for the bird Satan sets snares for us. A fowler was very good at his craft and Satan is very good at setting snares. These snares to trap us, to move us away from Christ and into sin.
1. Satan will set snares on familiar paths: Paths that we are used to walking, paths that we have walked before, paths we do not expect a snare to be on and one can step in them and be caught if one is not watchful.
a. Satan set a snare for Moses on a familiar path and Moses was caught. – Num 20:10-11 – Moses preformed this same miracle by the power of God before, water out of a rock. The first time Moses was to strike the rock, but this time only to speak to the rock. Satan set a snare for Moses on a familiar path, Moses was caught in that snare, and it cost him entrance into the Promised Land.
b. Satan set a snare for Joshua on a familiar path and Joshua was caught. – Josh 7:2-4 – Joshua was just coming off a great victory over Jericho, one where he consulted God. Now a snare was set and Joshua consulted men and not God and one needs read all of this account to see just how much this cost Joshua and Israel.
c. Satan set a snare on a familiar path for Peter and Peter was caught. – Mark 14:67-72 – Just hours before this Peter took out a sword and was willing to die for Jesus and now denied even knowing Jesus.
d. Satan will set snares on familiar paths. We think there is no danger because we have walked this way before and so we are not watchful, we are not sober, and we step into a snare of the Devil.
2. Satan will often bait his snares: He will make things seem to be so good, so attractive. – Prov 16:25 Satan will place something above or below the snare, something that attracts and seems good, but something that destroys.
a. The Bible tells us that Eve saw that fruit as pleasant to the eyes but there was a snare set before her.
b. Samson saw that the Philistine woman pleased him but there was a snare set before him.
c. Ananias and Sapphira wanted the praise of men and what was wrong with that? But there was a snare set before them.
3. Satan will also set snares on paths we are not so familiar with: When one is not familiar with a path they may miss a snare. The first time one faces something there are going to be a lot of questions.
a. It was a new Path Joshua was walking.
b. It was a new path Solomon was walking.
4. Satan does set snares to trap us and move us away from dwelling with and abiding with Christ: Expect to find them on familiar paths, on baited paths, and even on paths we have never walked before.
C. But God promises to deliver the one who is following after the first two verses of Psalm 91: Ps 91:2 With our dwelling with Christ, when abiding in Christ we will be watchful, we will be sober, and when a snare is spotted we will not try to escape it ourselves, will try and fight against it, we will turn to Christ. He will deliver. – Ps 91:3
D. We shall be delivered from the snare of the fowler: Ps 91:3
III. We shall be delivered from the noisome pestilence: Ps 91:3 And this is a different attack. A fowler was setting snares for one bird at a time. He may have set hundreds of snares at once but they were designed for one bird at a time.
A. The word noisome refers to something known to many, a calamity, the word pestilence to a plague: This is something that would rush upon the children of God in order to overrun them.
1. When this was written the enemies of Israel would gather in mass and try to overrun the army of Israel: Satan will use the same tactic today.
2. This same Hebrew word is translated as murrain in Ex 9 when God sent a plague upon the cattle and flocks of the Egyptians: That murrain spread through all the flocks and herds, it overran them with disease and destroyed them.
3. Satan is not just setting a snare for one Christian at a time, Satan would attack all in an attempt to overrun: And he will gather in mass and send one thing after another.
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4. Families, churches and institutions are under attack: Satan will send a noisome pestilence in an attempt to overrun God’s people.
a. It was a noisome pestilence Satan set to destroy Job. One thing after another in waves. – Job 1
b. It was a noisome pestilence Satan set to destroy the new church. – Acts 8:1-3
c. It was a noisome pestilence Satan sent to destroy Paul. – 2 Cor 11:23-28
5. This virus has been used by Satan to divide, destroy, and close the doors of many churches: Satan will attack in such a manner.
B. This does suggest as well, wave after wave even upon the individual: I don’t know if just because I have seen more with advancing years, but I cannot recall ever seeing so many Christians and so many churches under the attack of Satan all at once. Wave after wave.
1. We have a Pastor Lee Brown on our prayer list with cancer: He is the Pastor when our daughter and her family belong to a church in VA. Several years ago he battled a severe stomach cancer. That cancer has returned and he is trying to pastor, being hospitalized for chemo and is in need of a miracle once again. They just found out his wife has uterine cancer.
2. How many right here need a Divine healing? Satan seems to be attacking in waves.
C. But a deliverance is promised from the noisome pestilence: Ps 91:3 Our God is able to deliver even when the troubles seem to in mass before us.
D. We shall be delivered from the noisome pestilence: Ps 91:3
IV. Now that place of deliverance: Ps 91:4 We see here a place of power and comfort, a place of strength and softness. Snares laid for the child of God, one pestilence after another thrown at the child of God. Where to go for deliverance, under His wings.
A. The illustration here is of a hen or some mother bird: The hatch is young, they cannot yet escape the snare of the pestilence, so the mother bird will gather them under her wings to protect them. A strong outer covering, a soft inner covering.
1, The trouble is still there, the predator still there: But the young ones are sheltered and protected.
2. And that mother bird will die protecting her young: (Grouse in the forest fire…)
B. So will Jesus gather us under His wings: Ps 91:4 We need to understand as we take shelter there from the attack of the enemy.
1. The snare is still out there: But we are sheltered.
2. The noisome pestilence still out there: But we are sheltered.
3. We have found a place of shelter, soft and tender, a place of deliverance: Ps 91:4
C. The trials may indeed continue, but we are sheltered under His wings:
1. Health problems may continue: But we are sheltered.
2. The loss of a loved one still hurts: But we are sheltered.
3. Family worries still in front of us: But we are sheltered.
D. Now that place of deliverance: Ps 91:4
Conclusion
I. There is an enemy that does all he can to keep us from our secret place:
II. We shall be delivered from the snare of the fowler: Ps 91:3
III. We shall be delivered from the noisome pestilence: Ps 91:3
IV. Now that place of deliverance: Ps 91:4