I've just been overwhelmed by
that passage there with regard to what Judah and Simeon did
to that king. And there's so much in the scriptures
about God doing something for us to settle us down and to take
away our fight. and argumentation with him and
take away our flight trying to get away from him. Now we see
that in Adam and Eve. I mean, it's just so plain. They
didn't want a word with him and they ran from him. And we need
that dealt with. We need that whole relationship
that developed when Adam sinned and Eve, and we need that negated. We need that taken away. And
the only way that we can be at rest is, and to be comfortable
is when we're not afraid of something. And we're going to look that
a little bit here into the scripture. So let's look here in the book
of Judges. And I want to, I want to start
reading with verse four. Judah's the one that has been
appointed by the Lord to go up and he invites his brother to
go with him to fight the Canaanites and these Perizzites that are
in the land. And they go out and God gives
them. God said, I will give you the
victory. And he truly gives them the victory. And they defeat
a whole host. And it doesn't tell us how many
they had in their army, but you know, in regards to what so many
other places that we find about Israel going into battle is I
don't know if they lost any. The other group paid dearly,
but it doesn't tell us that they lost any. And that's truly the
way the Lord protected them. And then it tells us here in
verse four, Judah went up and the Lord delivered the Canaanites
and the Perizzites into their hand and they slew of them in
Bezek 10,000 men. Now, I have noticed this one
thing about commentaries. Most commentaries, the best job
they do is to create doubt. Now, I read it right here, and
then I go to a commentary and say, oh, that couldn't have been
that many. And it's going to get down here and this Anno Bezek
said he did the same mutilation to 70 kings. And I said, there
couldn't have been 70 kings. You know, all that does is create
doubt in people who say, well, I wonder if this is right. And
I wonder if that's right. I believe what the Bible says. And if it says right there, 10,000,
I want to say, Lord, okay. And if it says 70 kings, okay,
that's what it is. I think we just could trust the
Lord in the matter. So it says, and they slew 10,000,
and they found Eno-Bezek of Bezek. He's the king of Bezek, and they
fought against him. Now notice this. There's just
an outline here. They fought against him, and
they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and Eno-Bezek
fled, and they pursued him and caught him. Now, I'm thankful
from this standpoint that the Lord does the same thing for
us. He pursues us and caught him. Now, Anabezek didn't really
want that to happen, and neither do we. We find out that he imposes
himself on us, and then we are really thankful that he does
that. And then they did something to him that was often done among
these peoples in this part of the world at that time, because
that king did it to 70 other kings. And they took off their
thumbs, and they took off their great toes. Now last week we
mentioned that when he did that to those kings, and when they
did that to him, it took away his ability to use a spear or
a bow, and it took away his ability to run. Now there's something
here for us in this because the Lord does much the same for every
lost sheep that he saves. In our lost sheep condition,
before Christ ever comes to us with the gospel, we are runners
and we are fighters. We follow that with Saul of Tarsus
and he himself admitted that he was a type of believers, that
we fuss with God and we fight with God and Then we run from
God just like our first parents did. Well, we mentioned a couple
of three verses last week about this, and we find out it's the
goodness of God that leads us to repentance. And that repentance
is not repenting of our sins. That repentance is taking God's
side against us, against ourselves. That repentance is turning from
dumb idols to serve the living God. This is much more than what
religion teaches us repentance is. This repentance, God-given
repentance, is a change of mind about God. And we come to the
conclusion that God is right when he tells us that we're sinners.
He's right in what is required to save those sinners, and that
is the blood of Jesus Christ, and he requires that everybody
that is ever saved must believe on him, it's a command, and must
trust him, and then he supplies the fulfillment of that command.
We also found last week in 2 Corinthians, it is the love of Christ that
constraineth us. Now, constraining means we're
brought down, we're held down. And it is the love of Christ
that does this. God doesn't do it out of anger.
He doesn't do it out of bitterness. He doesn't do it out of carrot-stick
mentality. He constrains us out of His love.
He does that. And we, in retrospect, we say,
thank you, Lord, for doing that. Now, there's many things that
Other people in the scriptures, other saints in the scriptures
may have done, but the love of Christ constrained them. And
the same is true with us. The things that we could do,
the things that we might, where we might be, we might be in prison. if it wasn't for the love of
Christ constraining us. So it is such a wonderful thing
that he does for us. And that helps to take the fuss
out of us. It helps to take the flight out
of us. It takes to fight out of us. And we also found out
that he does so much with regard to,
he did it with a wild, colt, a colt that had never been broken,
an ass's colt that had never been broken. And we find when
he sat on it, that colt just did exactly what he was given
the ability to do. And that was to carry Jesus into
Jerusalem. And there's, you know, I have
seen horses that are good horses. I haven't been around many donkeys.
I haven't been around many asses. But I have seen good horses,
work horses, trained horses get into a crowd and go berserk. You know, my good friend Fay
had that happen a couple of times. They were good workhorses and
would not normally do that, but they got into a crowd and all
the noise and stuff going on. Well, Jesus went right down a
boulevard with people throwing clothes in the street and waving
those palms. And you know what? that Colt
just took him to where he was supposed to go without any fuss. And that is certainly, we are
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. He takes
the flight out of us and he takes the flight out of us. We also
find that that passage of scripture over there about the maniac of
Gadara, it just speaks volumes about us in our natural state.
That religion made every effort possible to constrain us, even
with chains. And talk about the law. It was
imposed on us like a chain. And yet every day we broke it. We could not keep that law. We
tried as hard as we could. We had people tell us we need
to do more. And you know, we just couldn't.
We broke that law on a continuous basis. And then by the mercy
and grace of God, the gospel come along about the Lord Jesus
Christ and his great work of redemption and preached it to
us. And we were given ears to hear
and we can, as that maniac of Gadara, sit down in the presence
of Christ without fear, be clothed with his robe of righteousness,
and not fuss about it, not want to impose our righteousness. It's righteousness, we must trust
his righteousness. It's all we can have. And then
we're sitting, we're clothed, and we're in our right mind.
And what is that? God is right. God is truth. God is everything. And Jesus
Christ is our only hope and our only savior. So he did that.
And so we find so often the scriptures help us to understand how the
Lord takes the fight and the flight out of rebellious lost
sheep. And he does that. And it's of necessity that he
does that. So over in the book of Zechariah,
there's a verse over there that I was reminded of in going through
here, because it hasn't been that long ago. We were over there
in the book of Zechariah in chapter four, Zechariah chapter four.
And there in verse six, we read this. Now, the Lord lets us know
that what he does to settle us down and what he does to take
away our instinct to run is given to us because we no longer have
any fear of him. We have reverence, but we're
not afraid. We can come boldly. But here
it says in the book of Zechariah, oh, please. Is it 3 and verse 6? Is it 3 verse 6? Is it 4? Well, that's not the verse I
wanted. Or did I? Well, it says there. we know it is not by might nor
by power for six okay it is right then he answered and spake unto
me saying this is the word of the lord unto zerubbabel saying
not by might nor by power But by my Spirit saith the Lord of
hosts. So it's not our intellectual
ability. It's not our ability to settle
down. It's not our ability to be in
the presence of God on our own. It is because of the Holy Spirit
and what he has done for us that takes that whole issue away from
us. Now, keeping that in mind, travel
with me back just a little bit to the book of Ezekiel chapter
37. Ezekiel chapter 37, now it's very interesting that chapter
37 follows chapter 36, and there's so much in chapter 36, but in
chapter 37 beginning with verse 10, read this with me, as we
think about how the Lord How does the Lord take the fight
and the flight out of us? He takes that natural instinct
to fight with God and that natural instinct to run from God. He
takes it away from us and gives us rest and peace and solitude,
and we no longer have that hanging over us. Well, here in the book
of Ezekiel chapter 37, And verse 10, we read this, so I prophesied
as I was commanded, as he commanded me. And the breath came into
them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding
great army." Now we know that this is the conclusion of the
Valley of Dry Bones. Now listen to this though. Then
he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house
of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are
dried and our hope is lost. We are cut off from our parts. Therefore, preach, prophesy,
preach, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of God, Behold,
O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come
up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.
Now that's the promise that God made to the church. I will get
you out of that death hole that you were in. I will release you
from death. I will release you from spiritual
death. And then verse 13, and ye shall
know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O
my people, and brought you up out of your graves. Hallelujah,
my goodness, what a description we have here of the condition
that we're in. I will bring you out of your
graves and then put my spirit in you and you shall live and
I shall place you in your own land. Now, this is what the Lord's
going to do for us. I will place you in your own
land. I'm not going to leave it up to you to find the place.
I will place you in your own land, then shall you know that
I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord.
The word of the Lord came to me saying, moreover, thou son of man, take
thee one stick and write upon it for Judah and for the children
of Israel as his companions, and then take another stick and
write upon it for Joseph and the stick of Ephraim and all
the house of Israel, his companions. Now, prior to that, we find out
that God's going to open up the graves of his lost sheep. We're
going to call them Israel because they are. Spiritual Israel. I was told today the church is
not in the Old Testament. I says, the 11th chapter of the
book of Hebrews says otherwise. The church is in the Old Testament.
God's assembly of saints is in the Old Testament. He called
them out just like he does now. And everybody in the 11th chapter
of the book of Hebrews are Old Testament saints. Now, I will
take you out. I will open your graves. I'll
bring you into the new land and I will take care of you." And
then we find out he's going to place
us in the land and we're going to be at peace in that land.
Turn with me on the same vein, turn with me to Psalm 44, Psalm
44. In Psalm 44, we read these words
along the same line. How does the Lord take the fight
and flight out of his rebellious lost sheep? Well, number one,
they're no longer lost sheep, they're found sheep. We find
out my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. We find out that
they have always been his sheep and we just get to discover that
truth about it. He's always had us in mind, we
get to discover that truth about us. He's always had an everlasting
love for us, we just get to discover that truth about it. We're going
to find out he has always had his righteousness for us, that
robe of righteousness. And we just get to learn the
truth about it. He has always had us in an interest. He's had
us written down in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the
foundation of the world. And we find out about it. And
we also had a lamb slain from before the foundation of the
world prepared not in reaction to what happened in the Garden
of Eden, but an action that is going to take place because of
the Garden of Eden. All right, here in Psalm 44,
there in verse three, Psalm 44, verse three, it says here, for
they got not the land in the possession by their own sword.
Now, we're about to go into the promised land in the book of
Numbers. Joshua takes us in. And they did not get the land
in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save
them. But thy right hand and thine
arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hast a favor upon
them. Thou art my God, my King, O God,
command deliverance for Jacob. Through thee will we push down
our enemies, through thy name will we tread them under that
rise up against us, for I will not trust in my bow, neither
shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our
enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we
boast all the day long, we praise thy name forever, Selah. What a statement that God does
for his people here. And they acknowledge the fact
that he has pushed down their enemies and it's not by their
bow and it's not by their sword that this victory has been won.
All right, now go back with me to the book of Ezekiel chapter
36. Ezekiel chapter 36. In Ezekiel chapter 36, what a
familiar passage of scripture this is. And I think it's read
at least twice a month in some lesson, maybe three times a month
in some lesson, because there's so much in it. And this is Old
Testament. This is what God said in the
Old Testament. So Ezekiel 36, verse 33, notice this with me. Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 33. Thus saith the Lord God, in the
day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities,
Ezekiel 36, verse 33, I will also cause you to dwell in the
cities. You know, I don't know how much
truth there is in it, but it sounds good that one of the reasons
that there became civilizations is that people could grow enough
food that they could live in a city. And they were not wanderers
looking for food. They had enough coming in. They
could live in a city. And a city had defenses. And
all of that stuff that we learn about, the benefits of these
cities, particularly in the Old Testament, he says, I will cause
you to dwell in the cities. What's that about? There's enough
food. There's enough protection. And the way shall be builted,
and the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate
in the sight of all that pass by. And they shall say, this
land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. Where
is that? That is in Christ. That is where
we are at rest. That is where we are at peace. The waste and desolate and ruined
cities become fenced and are inhabited. God turns everything
around. God puts it in its proper position
that was there. Then the heathen that are left
around about you shall know that I, the Lord, build the ruined
places and plant that that was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken
it and I will do it. So I'm the one that is going
to make you settle down. I'm going to take this out. There's
going to be plenty of food here. There's going to be protection
here. Everything that you need, you will have no wants when it
comes to spiritual blessings. I will provide every spiritual
blessing. So there's no need for you to
fight or to flight. I've taken that out of you. I
will do that. That's part of what he does in
the everlasting covenant. Now it's interesting, when we
went through the book of Leviticus, when we went through the book
of Leviticus, I was told today that that's a, well, he didn't
use the word flyover, but I supplied it and he understood what I was
talking about. And I said, I used to think that too. But probably
that was the richest place of my ministry, was going through
the book of Leviticus. Because it was such, it had the
notoriety of being so dry And yet it was palm full of sweet
fruit. And in the book of Leviticus,
there was something happened that we find similar to this.
Great thumbs, great toes are going to be dealt with in the
book of Leviticus. Only the ear, the right ear,
the right big thumb and the right big toe. Well, they didn't take
it off, but we find out what God did to symbolize that he's
taking care of this problem. And that's in the book of Leviticus
chapter eight. The book of Leviticus chapter
eight. Join me in the book of Leviticus chapter eight, verse
22. In Leviticus chapter eight, verse
22, we have the dedication, if you please, Chapter eight, verse
22, we have the consecration of Aaron and his sons. It's just
beginning of the tabernacle era. We have a high priest. We have
other priests, which are the sons of Aaron. And we want to
just interject this, that having this animal blood on your ear
and on your thumb and on your big toe, that's going to happen.
did not change the hearts of anybody because two of these
priests that are dedicated are going to turn on God. Now, when
we have this in the heart, we will not. But if we just have
as a religious thing, it's just something we've done. We've just
joined the church. We've just got baptized. We've
just did something really spiritual. I was listening to somebody today
and they brought up, you know, the phraseology today is, did
you get saved? Well, like you're doing it on
yourself. You know what? God gives us salvation. We just
don't get saved. Well, that's what it is. And if you just, that's all you
have, then whatever this symbol is doesn't mean a thing. But
when God does it, he takes out the fuss and he takes out the
ability to run. And people who can, people who
can run and argue with God, no doubt, are those that the apostle
Paul wrote to in Galatia and said, anathema on your gospel,
anathema. All right, we'll read this here.
He brought in Leviticus chapter eight, verse 22, and he brought the other ram, the
ram of consecration, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands
upon the head of the ram and he slew it. And Moses took of
the blood of it, and notice what he did with some of that blood.
He put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, upon the thumb of
his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.
And he brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put the blood upon
the tip of their right ear, upon the thumbs of their right hands,
upon the great toes of their right feet, and Moses sprinkled
the blood upon the altar round about. This is how God chose
to consecrate these priests. That was just typical, it was
pictorial. But what the Lord does for us
spiritually is what he did or had done to that king. He removed
his great, his thumbs and his great toes. That was so this
man would never fight again and never run again. And we're thankful
from a spiritual context that that's what he does for us when
he saves us. He takes all the fight and the
fuss and the running away. We can say with all power, I
can't go back. I can't leave. I am here. Why? There's food here. Why? There's water here. Why? There's
a place to rest here. This is where it is. We have
rest in Christ. He has become all our food. He's
become all our water. There's no reason to go anywhere
else. And besides that, we can't go anywhere else. He has tied
us to himself. He has made us. He is the vine. We are the branches. Can't leave. All right. Notice with me, and we've gone
over this in the past, but I want to do it again because I'm looking
at it from a different light, and that is the book of Isaiah
chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter
40 is that wonderful chapter in Isaiah that starts with Comforti. Now there's some reasons that
this comfort is given, and they're listed right here. In this 40th
chapter of the book of Isaiah, verse one, the command to Isaiah,
Isaiah is a prophet. This is not the only prophet
that was given this message. The other prophets were given
the same message. Our responsibility is to preach to the people of
God. It says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Now this message
is not for everybody. Not everybody's going to get
comfort out of this message. In fact, most people don't get
any comfort out of it because they don't have to do anything.
You know, and that's brought to our attention that we can't
do anything. In fact, anything that we do is wrong. It really
grates us in the wrong direction. But that's what happens. God
reveals that we can't do anything. And after a while we say, I don't
want to do anything. I want your righteousness. I
want your bread. I want your water. And because
it is, that's what settles us. Well, comfort ye, comfort ye
my people, saith your God. Now the God of heaven, speaking
to one of his children, who happens to be one, somebody, that he
called out of the midst of everybody and said, I have a ministry for
you. I really appreciated the lesson on Sunday about, there
in the book of Hebrews. You know, it's, It's hard for
the pastor sometimes to say what other people can read, but that's
the truth. Oh, to be able to rejoice and
not have heartache. And here it says, speak comfortably
to Jerusalem. What's that? That's the church.
Speak comfortably to the church. Now, a whole bunch of these folks
don't know they're the church. I didn't know I was a church.
until after I was saved and I found out I'm the church. And the church
is a called out group of people, called out of darkness, called
out of sin, called out of hate, called out of everything. And
where to? To the feet of Jesus. That's
where we get to assemble, is at the feet of Jesus. That's
a wonderful place to be. Now, he also gives us the privilege
of meeting together. As members of his body in a locality,
we get the privilege of doing that. We need that. We need that
fellowship. We need that encouragement. We
need people to greet and pray for me, pray for us, pray for
our church, pray for this person that the Lord has put on my heart
to deal with and talk to, pray. So we need that. But that means
nothing if we're not at the feet of Jesus. If we're just in a
church for that, just a social club, then there's nothing in
it. But if we're at the feet of Jesus, then this means something. We have something that's valuable.
All right, speak, keep comfort to Jerusalem and cry unto her,
preach unto her, share with her that her warfare is accomplished. Now I heard brother Henry talk
about, he was off of Okinawa on a ship. when August of 1945
came around. And the war was over. He says,
we got to turn the lights on on the ship at night. We got
to holler. We got to hoop. We got to eat. We got everything. We got to
make phone calls. We got to do all, because the
war was over. The war was over. You know, I
see pictures, photographs of in Paris when that place was
liberated. and see in New York when they
found out the war was over. I mean, it's happy pandemonium. It just, and to have this told
to us that the warfare is over, that we're no longer at war with
God, that we are at peace with God, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, that that God that is, The God of all justice,
the God of all holiness, the God of all, is our God and that he accepts
us as his children because of the blood of Christ. He says,
cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. You know, the Bible tells us
what separated us from God, our sin, our iniquity. That's the
whole issue. That's the problem. We want to
deal with it in our way. We want to deal with it in a
human way. We want to deal with it in a
natural way. And God says, no, there is no
peace in that. There is no peace with me in
that. I will take all of that away
from you and I will give you the imputed righteousness of
Christ and I will give you the the results of the shedding of
his blood, the blood of Christ on behalf of your sins. I will
take away all of your own intentions on this and I will give you my
intentions. And then after it happens, we
say, thank you, Lord. Because my intentions were bad.
They were self-glorifying and his intentions are his self-glorifying,
I will get the blessing and the honor out of this. So, speak
comfortably. Why? Her iniquity is pardoned. The warfare is accomplished.
Her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Now, what does that mean? He
didn't have to reach into his pocket and pull out the last
cent, the last cent to pay it off. He said, It's plenteous
redemption. It's plenteous. Where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. It is so great of redemption. It is not just barely getting
by, you're barely paying the last. It is so overwhelming,
the redemption that we have in Christ. Now, through this whole
thing, we find out That what the Lord has done for us,
and he comforts his people, takes away the reason to run and the
reason to fight. We don't need that anymore. We
don't have it anymore. We're at peace with God. The
message of comfort, the war is over. The enemy is defeated. Our greatest enemy is ourself,
our sin. But all the other things that
we may think that are our enemies. You know, it's so wonderful to
find out that Satan was defeated at the cross. That he poses no
threat at all for the children of God. All we can say, well, he's God's
devil. He doesn't pose us any threat
at all. He cannot bring up a railing
accusation. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elected? It is God that justifieth. There
is no reason to fear anything about Him because we have great
salvation in Christ. He has no power. He can possess
no threat to the children of God. He has no power whatsoever
in the life of a believer. There's nothing there. He cannot
touch anybody. I was discussing today, you know,
I remember Flip Wilson, the comedian, and one of his favorite sayings
is, the devil made me do it. What a cop out. And that's used
all the time by people who say they're Christians, that it was
the devil. It was the devil. If we look
at it, we find out it is natural man's terrible heart in action. And when he saves us, he takes
away all that ability that anything he could do. So judgment is over. Man, I could sit here now, judgment's
over. I don't have to worry. I don't
have to, you know, people run to the city of refuge, but then
they settle down. It was like they had their thumbs
and their great toes taken off. They weren't gonna fight anymore
and they weren't gonna run anymore. This is where I'm gonna be because
if I go out there, you know what? We don't wanna go out there.
We don't wanna go out where the avenger of blood is. We wanna
be right here in Christ, settled, because this is where hope and
protection is. Judgment is over. Christ took
our judgment. No danger or threat to the saint. or his safety can come up. The curse has been removed. Christ
became a curse for us. Her iniquities are pardoned.
The problem, the problem, the problem is taken care of. If
Christ died for my sins, I shall not have to die for them. Since he died for my sins, now
I sin. You know, most of us never want
to tell anybody about what we really are. The thoughts that
go through our mind. Once in a while, we visit with
someone. Oh, but the fear of that is over
because he took it to the cross. The fear of sin and the result
of it is over. There's no need for guilt. He
took our guilt. We sin more than we want to,
and it's despicable in our flesh. And we're all wretched man that
I am, but it shall never be laid charge to us. I'm gonna sit right
here in Christ. Not gonna worry about that. He'll
take care of it. Christ died for my sins. Our
sin is blotted out. blood cleanseth me from all sin."
Then he says, comfort ye, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Now,
in the book of 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 4, 1 Kings chapter
4, I like this passage of scripture. It describes Solomon's kingdom. And Solomon's kingdom, I like
what the Lord said about it, greater than Solomon is here.
He didn't ever say that about David. He said that about Solomon. Solomon's kingdom was so typical,
pictorial of his kingdom, because it tells us here in 1 Kings 4,
verse 25. 1 Kings 4, verse 25. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely Every man under his vine and
under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, when? All the days of Solomon. Every man. You know what? There was never a call for army. There was never a draft. They dwelt under their vine and
under their fig tree. Where do we dwell? In our vine. We're the branches. The earth,
there's no worry. All right, and then that same
thought is brought up in the book of Micah. Micah chapter four. verse three and four. And he
shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar
off. And they shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
anymore. I've had this told me, that's
during the millennium. You know what? That's today.
The Lord takes care of that today. But they shall sit every man
under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make
them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken
it. None shall make them afraid. You can't take away what I have.
You cannot take away what I have in Christ. I have been pruned
by the Lord, the best. He's taken me, spiritually speaking,
He's taken my thumbs and my great toes off. And I have no interest
whatsoever of arguing with Him, fighting with Him, or flighting,
leaving Him. Because He's taken that away
by all He's done. He is the Lord. He is my sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. He takes care of it. He will not lose any. He is watching
over everyone. He's taking care of every need.
Even Peter, he denied the Lord three times. First words out
of his mouth to Peter was, peace be unto you. As well as the other
disciples as they were gathered, peace be unto you. And the same
thing is told Thomas when he's there. Peace, I'm not here to
tell you. bring up the past, I'm here to
tell you what comfort you have in Christ. So we have a man,
I believe is a type of what God does for his church. He takes
the fight and the flight out of the church. We don't have
an interest in leaving. You know, people leave, don't
have anything. That's all there is to it, people
leave. Oh, I don't know how many people, I've had parents, older
parents, generally speaking, They want all of their children
to the Lord when they were young, and now they're just not serving,
they're away from the Lord now. Sorry. The Lord does a better
job than that. If it's just, we've just convinced
them to some truths or something, and it's nothing God ever didn't
do anything for them, then they're not, they're out there where
they are, but by their own will and purpose. But we pray that
God will go there. just like he did for us. God
will go there. God will bring them the gospel.
God will retrieve them out of the pit they're in. God will
settle them down and then they will be pleased to serve him.
That is what we find. So the Lord lets us sit under
the vine at peace. He is our bread. He is our food. He is our refuge. He is our hope. He is our righteousness. He's
our peace. He is our all and in all. And the church says, I rest my
case. And we'll stop there tonight.
And we'll pick up another place here in Judges chapter one next
time.