From Psalm 16:1:
"Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You."
Here we see our only hope. This is our cry when we see so much foulness in ourselves. We walk day by day and notice nothing, then something in our lives comes about to show us that we are not the practical saints we have come to believe ourselves to be. The weight of our sin seems to crush us, and we see no hope at all.
But then a light breaks through. Here we see the psalmist petitioning our Lord. "Preserve me, O God. . .". The man has come to be aware of his weakness. And being aware of his weakness, realizes that he is utterly without hope. There is only one to turn to, and that is God.
We must take refuge in God. He is our only hope. We can struggle and strive to contain our flesh but it will all come to nothing unless we take refuge in the Lord.
But there must be a basis by which we can take refuge, for no one can just approach our Holy God on his own terms. Under no circumstances can we just come to God's throne in our filth. This can only be done on the basis of the attonement! That, bretheren, makes all the difference! And we can do so boldly because it is the will of the Father. To do less is to trample underfoot the Son of God.
For it "pleased God to crush" His Son, Who stepped down from Heaven to bear the wrath of a Holy God for our sin. It is the Holy Judge Himself Who made the way for us to gain access to the Father. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21).
We all need Christ as our Refuge. The Psalmist spoke of refuge from his outward enemies. Yet we also deal with sin as the inner enemy. And when we come to a point where we fear all is lost, that we have failed one to many times, or made such a mess of things, that may be near the point where we quit trusting in self and remember our hope!
"Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You."
Here we see our only hope. This is our cry when we see so much foulness in ourselves. We walk day by day and notice nothing, then something in our lives comes about to show us that we are not the practical saints we have come to believe ourselves to be. The weight of our sin seems to crush us, and we see no hope at all.
But then a light breaks through. Here we see the psalmist petitioning our Lord. "Preserve me, O God. . .". The man has come to be aware of his weakness. And being aware of his weakness, realizes that he is utterly without hope. There is only one to turn to, and that is God.
We must take refuge in God. He is our only hope. We can struggle and strive to contain our flesh but it will all come to nothing unless we take refuge in the Lord.
But there must be a basis by which we can take refuge, for no one can just approach our Holy God on his own terms. Under no circumstances can we just come to God's throne in our filth. This can only be done on the basis of the attonement! That, bretheren, makes all the difference! And we can do so boldly because it is the will of the Father. To do less is to trample underfoot the Son of God.
For it "pleased God to crush" His Son, Who stepped down from Heaven to bear the wrath of a Holy God for our sin. It is the Holy Judge Himself Who made the way for us to gain access to the Father. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21).
We all need Christ as our Refuge. The Psalmist spoke of refuge from his outward enemies. Yet we also deal with sin as the inner enemy. And when we come to a point where we fear all is lost, that we have failed one to many times, or made such a mess of things, that may be near the point where we quit trusting in self and remember our hope!
