Notes of a Sermon: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.—Ps. xci. 1

BY THE LATE REV. JOHN KENNEDY, D.D.
PREACHED 28TH FEBRUARY 1875.

There is mention made here of a secret place, and one dwelling in it, and because dwelling there abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. It is sad to be before a passage like this without the sinner being under the shadow, or abiding in this secret place; without any sense whatever of being in its shelter and content as one frozen and dead outside. It would be sad to find one outside, without any ray of light shining from the secret place into the heart from the Gospel, seeing that the poor one may look in. But if I have no more than that I have only a foretaste of what awaits us in hell. Some catch a glimpse of it and are afraid they never will reach it, but blessed is the man who can say, like the Psalmist—“The Lord is my fortress.” The Lord deliver us from being content with remaining without the right to say this. Let us consider, I. The secret place, and II. The man who dwells there.

I. The secret place.

Men have a secret place, but some have not much to put in it. A portrait of a friend, a lock of hair, or a few pence may be in the secret place of the poor man, but the rich man has more than that, and requires a secret place, and he is able to provide such. The King requires a secret place for the diamonds of the kingdom, and will have such, and it will be a secure place where the treasures are kept. If men have such, what a secret place the Most High must have! His treasures are there, and if so He has a secret place and His secret place is secure. What are the treasures of the Most High, and what is the secret place He has provided for them? When I think of the treasures of the Most High I must think of His glory. His essential glory dwells in His being and is safe there, and He has not provided a secret place for it; but He determined a manifestation of His glory, and for that scheme He has a secret place from whence to show it forth. There was something else, too, in the sight of God as a treasurer. There was the payment made to the treasury of heaven for which God owes a reward. How wonderful that Jehovah, the independent, infinite, and eternal one should receive a payment for which He owes a reward, and yet God could not be in debt, for the Man who bought it was His Fellow and a divine Person as Mediator. God, therefore, consistent with His independence receives a payment for which He owes a reward. The price was the precious blood of His Son, and if the Most High has a secret place, the precious blood is there and safe to be applied to the fulfilment of His gracious purpose. God has a people whom He loved, though they are a low, mean, and hell-deserving people, although they are a hostile people, and spiritually dead, but what if God loved them. They are precious in His sight, not for anything of theirs, but because in the fulness of His infinite love He bound them up with His purpose of salvation. As loved and as embraced in His purpose, they are infinitely precious in His sight. The provision made for them is precious. How precious is the provision made by the parent for the child, how watchful he is about it, and when he dies, that child’s right to it is a good one. If an earthly parent have this, think what Jehovah’s care will be for the provision made for His people.

(1) His glory is in Christ. How suitable this is. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory. Every manifestation of the divine glory is from the Son. Every manifestation of the divine purpose is from Him. Every manifestation of His will is from Him. Every manifestation of His power is from Him, and no other can be entrusted with the manifestation of His name like Him. He could not manifest it without being in the flesh. What an honour to the human nature that the highest manifestation of the divine glory should be coming forth from it! Look at it in Eden, and then look at it in the temple of Immanuel’s flesh. Verily He has triumphed over the enemy and trampled him under His feet, because He was made sin and a curse. All the iniquities of His people were laid upon Him, and He bore them. Being made sin, the curse of the law came forth and passed over Him, and he that had the power of death got the opportunity of doing his worst. And when this was so, the result was a full manifestation of Jehovah’s glory. Thus Jehovah triumphed over His great enemy. You have only to come to God with your sins. There is One whose name is Jesus, and through Him you can ask what would be eternal life to thee. Would it not be well to draw near to God through the blood? In order to preserve the efficacy of that blood it must be in Christ as the Great High Priest, as the King, as the Prince and Saviour exalted, for only as it is in Him will He reign on the ground of it and exercise the power of His life in the salvation of His people. As surely as the blood is in Him as revealed in the Gospel, and only accessible through faith in Him as it is written, “In whom we have redemption through His blood.” Never expect anything in mercy apart from the blood of Jesus, or from the blood apart from Himself. If you get mercy it is through the blood.

(2) His people were in Him before the world was. Think of Christ taking care of them in the covenant before the work of Christ was begun. Yes, from all eternity, He did this. I think Christ will not grudge taking care of them in the eternity to come without sin, when He did it in the eternity that is past with sin. I cannot contemplate the people without being chosen in Him. They were chosen in Him miserable and blind, and dead as they were. There was an eternal calm in the heart of God as He had them before His mind in the Son. They are in Him, and safe there. The Head is their life, and in Him their life is hid with Him in God. Blessed are they of whom this is true; there is no doubt of that man dwelling in the secret place of the Most High.

(3) All fulness dwells in Him, not merely that He might keep it, but that He might dispense it. You find people willing to take charge of a thing, but who would not be willing to dispense it; but Christ does this to the blind, the lame, the impotent, and the dead. It is safe, not only the provision, but the poor people who are in His charge. It would be well for you to learn this. Some people claim a lordship over grace, and deny the lordship of Christ over it. They don’t think they require to be drawn by Christ to receive of His fulness. Oh, friends, they must be brought to this fulness and receive out of it grace for passing from glory to glory. Such are the treasures of the Most High and His secret place.

II. The man who dwells there.

In the next verse the Psalmist says — “The Lord is my fortress.” I would like to ask the Psalmist one or two questions—1, If you are dwelling there, whence did you come there? 2, How did you come in? 3, What did you find there when you came in? 4, What’s your warrant for saying you are there?

1. Whence did you come there? You say—”As to my state, although I was, according to the purpose of God, chosen in Him, I was lying outside, under the power of sin, the dupe of the world, in the grasp of Satan, on the brink of hell, and the only door open to me was the door of an eternal hell.” So it is with you here to-night. The Lord was warning me, but I would not heed Him; calling me but I would not come, lying in the field frozen and dead. The light of the Gospel produced no effect on me, and I would have lain there until death came to sweep me into hell, unless the Lord had mercy upon me. While I was there I was turning the Word of God as witness against me. As long as you refused to be warned by His law and refused His Gospel, you turned the law and the Gospel to be witnesses against you. A man goes out to the streets at night in search of outcasts. The first he finds is fast asleep on the ground. He shakes him and wakens him, but he says, “Let me alone.” He yields and passes on. The next is a drunkard. He lays his hand on him, and he shakes it off. He leaves him and passes on. The next is enraged and only calls him a fool. So he is left, too. The next has the chill of death on him. He knows a corpse is before him. But you must unite all these before you can find a case like yours and mine. Asleep, intoxicated with the world, and in our conscience desperate, dead in trespasses and sins. What hope is there for such a one apart from the free, rich, almighty mercy of God?

2. How did you come into the secret place? I think I hear this answer—”I did not come without being brought in. The Lord awoke me and made me feel my miserable state. I saw Him who is the secret place and who is the door. I was enlightened and I would fain reach a secret place. I heard His voice to me. I rose, I cast myself on Him, I entered the secret place, and found rest there.

3. What did you find there? It is not much I can tell, it was so wonderful; no one can tell all that he sees there. But if ever I went in I saw the glory. I saw the blood there, too, and the beloved people and the fulness of grace. If I didn’t see the blood there my heart would have fainted. There would be no hope without it. It was through the blood that I saw the glory and the beloved ones who were all sinners saved on the ground of the blood. I was like one that dreamed. The glory is unspeakable, it never entered into the heart of man to conceive its like. The glory is inconceivable, the knowledge infinitely rich, the people for ever blessed.

4. What is your warrant? I would like to be under no mistake in saying:—”The Lord is my fortress.” I would like to have no doubt that I was called by God to Christ. I would like this made known to some here to-night for without it, never will there be a true sense of unbelief. I would like not only that you would be called but that coming to Christ and entering in through Him as the door, you would dwell in Him as in the secret place. What a wonderful Christ! He is the door and He is the secret place. The door is open to let one in but never to let one out. Once the promise is mine I claim a right to what the blood entitles me to. A right to the privileges of God’s saved Israel, He has made the cause of my salvation the cause of His glory, and because He can’t give His glory to another, He won’t give me to be a prey to the Destroyer. Well I have a warrant for saying so. What is your warrant for saying you have closed with Christ on the terms of the Gospel? Because I counted Him worthy trusting, and I counted Him worthy confessing. Thus adding to my faith, virtue, when I became acquainted with Christ, I began to know God, humbled as I never was before, and so I was drawn to God. It is this knowledge which brings down self and sin. There can be no doubt from whence it came. Such is the knowledge I received, to that I added temperance. I was content to have done with the world, with its cares, and with its wealth, and as soon as that the world began to mock me and persecute me. The world does this in its own way. I was content to suffer it. I added to temperance patience; I was willing in the hand of God to suffer from the world; rather to have the sufferings of God’s people than the ease of the world. I added to this godliness. I was often with God in secret. Sometimes the waves of trouble threw the vessels of mercy further in. When the sea is stormy the more pleasant is the haven. I don’t know when a man enjoys his home more than on a stormy winter night. I think God’s people never have such peace and delight as in persecutions. Like the three men in the fiery furnace, they had more peace than the King, for he trembled, and so also with Daniel in the den of lions. Why are we so secure at the prospect of suffering in the world? If the light of God’s face shines upon us what need we care for the persecution of the world? Why change a man’s way for the midges being flying across the path? In the trial seek to keep near to God and when your heart gets warmer it will get warm to God’s people; so adding to godliness, brotherly kindness. I don’t know what makes me so cold to God’s people, but that I am cold to Himself. As there is brotherly kindness there is charity. All these making my calling and election sure, and evidencing that I dwell in the secret place. And in the face of all I will say:—”The Lord is my fortress; I will trust in Him.”

Now where are you? I put this question in the Lord’s presence to each one here to-night. Where are you? Some may say, “I don’t think much about it.” The Lord have mercy upon your poor soul, you have none yourself. You are lying outside the secret place where all the privileges of God’s people are. Another says:—”I don’t say I am in, but I will enter in some time.” The door may be shut upon you before then, and you will be shut out in the storm of wrath in hell. Another says:—”I am afraid to say the Lord is my fortress, but this is all I can say that, as a poor sinner, I desire to thank God that there is an open door in the Gospel to go in, I am looking to Christ, I am afraid I can’t reach Him, but I am looking to Himself to bring me in and all depends on Himself to bring me in to dwell there.” If you are truly shut up to Christ, then it is not too much for me to say on behalf of Jesus that He will not fail you—”Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

Is then one saying:—”The Lord is my fortress” but my soul is too cold to sing the song of praise to Him, but I have the hope to leave the heart of stone behind and have a heart to praise Him for ever and ever. This will be His delight. I cannot conceive His delight when His people are like Him, perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of Him. May this be yours and mine, and to His name be the praise! Amen.