Would you turn to the book of
Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah 29, beginning in verse four. As Greg alluded
to this morning, as you get older in grace, there are passages
like this one and so many in God's word that become more precious
because they're soon to become reality. They really are. Verse
four. It's God saying this, the Lord
Jesus Christ, thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel
unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused
to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon. Build ye houses
and dwell in them and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Take
ye wives and beget sons and daughters and take wives for your sons.
Give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters.
that you may be increased there and not diminished. And seek
the peace of the city, whether I have caused you to be carried
away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace
thereof shall you have peace. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, let not your prophets and your diviners that
be in the midst of you deceive you, neither hearken to your
dreams, which you cause to be dreamed, for they prophesy falsely
unto you in my name. I have not sent them, saith the
Lord. And here is every child of God's.
Verse 10, what we are looking for, for thus saith the Lord,
that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you
and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return
to this place. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon
me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto
you, and you shall seek me and find me when you shall search
for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith
the Lord, And I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather
you from all the nations and from all the places, whether
I've driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into
the place whence I caused you to be carried away, captive. Let's pray. Our merciful heavenly Father, we are thankful again for you
to gather all your people into this place. Thankful for your
word, the promises of your word, knowing that the written word
reveals the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord,
unless you revealed yourself to us, we would not know that
we were captive. but since you've come and destroyed
the gates of hell and redeemed us to yourself, Lord, we ask
that you would remind us again of that this morning. Cause our
hearts and our affections, Lord, to rest in thee. Remind us again,
Lord, give us that desire to ask and to seek and to knock.
And Lord, this morning, give us the faith. Remind us again,
of your thoughts towards us this morning. Peace and not evil to
bring us to our expected end. Would you, as we continue to
sojourn until we beheld your face, Lord, that you would continue
to pour out your grace, the preaching of your gospel and the faithful
preaching of your gospel preachers. Forgive us of our sins again,
Lord, and give us faith now to believe you and you alone. for
we ask it in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 158, 158 in the hardback typical. so ? Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove
? ? With all thy quickening powers ? ? Kindle a flame of sacred
love ? ? In these cold hearts of ours ? ? Look how we grovel
here below ? ? Fond of these earthly toys ? ? Our souls how
heavily they go ? ? To reach eternal joys ? ? In vain we tune
our formal songs ? ? In vain we strive to rise ? ? Hosannas
languish on our tongues ? ? And our devotion dies ? ? Dear Lord
and Savior ? At this poor dying rate ? Our
love so faint, so cold to thee ? And thine to us so great ?
Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove with all thy quickening powers,
come shed abroad the Savior's love, and that shall kindle ours. Please be seated. I want to try to bring a message
on having peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ in Judges
chapter 6. But by way of introduction, I'd
like to ask you, if you would, to turn with me to the book of
Titus. Titus. Through faith, we have peace
with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace. And if God be for us, who can
be against us? I hope the Lord will enable us
to leave here today, resting all the hope of our immortal
soul in the glorious person and the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If he does, all will be well. Titus chapter one, beginning
at verse one, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus
Christ. An apostle is a messenger. The
Lord has given to the church some prophets and some apostles. These are the men that the Spirit
of God gave his word to. And they wrote as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit. This is not the opinion of a
man. This is not left up to individual's
interpretation. This is the word of God. And
God's people bow to what God says. According to the faith of God's
elect, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that faith
is not of yourself. It is a gift of God. We are dependent upon him to
give us faith. And when he does, we amen everything
he says. And yet we bear this faith in
a body of flesh that doesn't believe anything. And so the
believer is always crying, Lord, I do believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. And only those who are chosen
of God will have faith. God's elect. And the acknowledging of the
truth. That's what faith is. Faith acknowledges
the truth. It bows to the truth. Whenever
God speaks, faith says, amen. That's simple. That's what faith
is. It's being in agreement with
God. It's believing God. Even if believing God means that
you have to take sides with God against yourself. And that's
where faith really begins, where it really begins. We're going
to see that in judges chapter six, acknowledging of the truth, which
is after godliness in hope of eternal life, which God that
cannot lie before a promise before the world began. Our God established
his promises in the covenant of grace before time ever began,
and our God cannot lie. So whatever God says is true
and faithful. And those who have faith, as
I said, just agree with it and amen, believe it. In verse three,
but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which
is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our
Savior. So the means by which the Lord reveals himself and
gives faith to his people is preaching. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing comes by the word of God. So our hope this morning
Lord, increase my faith. Use your word and cause me. Lord, I won't believe you unless
you make me to believe you. Turn me and I shall be turned.
Save me, Lord, and I'll be saved. Lord, I'm completely dependent
upon you for that. Turn with me to Judges chapter
six now, if you will. The only way to have true peace
is to have peace with God. Peace with God begins with believing
what God has identified as our problem. You know, we live in a world
where everybody's a victim. And if you don't have peace and
you go for worldly advice and counsel, they will help you to
find somebody to blame your problems on. And you'll go away from those
therapy sessions with a false peace, but you won't have peace
with God. You know, I love the, the Lord
just puts his finger right on the problem. He identifies the
real heart of the problem. And it's like Job. You know, Job blamed God, he
blamed his friends, he blamed his circumstances, and then the
Lord spoke, and what did he say? Behold, oh behold, I do see something
I've never seen before. I am vile. We've met the enemy,
and it is us. We are the problem. It's not
my circumstances. It's not my boss. It's not my
spouse. It's not the idiot in the car
next to me that just cut me off. No, it's me. It's me. And our Lord is so merciful to
cause us to believe that. because it's only in believing.
You know, if a doctor misdiagnoses a disease, chances are the treatment
that he gives for that misdiagnosis is only going to make the problem
worse. You've seen that happen. Maybe that's happened to you
before. And that's what happens with worldly wisdom. They misdiagnose
the problem. And then the prescription that
they give only makes the problem worse. And men go away, as Isaiah
said in Isaiah chapter 28, well, I've made a covenant with death
and in hell I'm in agreement. And God says, yes, but I'm gonna
disannul your covenant. And when the overflowing scourge
comes, your covenant will not stand. Here's where our Lord, see God's
elect just acknowledge the truth as God has revealed it. Psalm 86, 15. Thou, O Lord, are
a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and
plenteous in mercy and in truth. The Lord said, if you know the
truth, the truth has set you free. We live in a world that's
filled with lies and We're tempted to believe those
lies. And when we come to God's word, he just speaks the truth. And he gives grace to acknowledge
that truth, to believe him. Verse nine of Judges chapter
six. And I delivered you out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed
you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their
land. And I said unto you." Now, God's
putting his finger right on the heart of the problem. I said
unto you, I am the Lord your God, fear
not the gods of the Amorites. Now, you can look up the word
Amorite, Translated it means the Sayer, the Sayer. And it's a picture of all the
sayings that we're bombarded with in this world. All the lies and all the false
hopes that the world would have us to believe. You know, the
children of Israel in bondage to fear, they're in bondage to
guilt and shame, and God's identifying what the problem is. And he said,
I told you not to listen to them. I told you not to give a sympathetic
ear to the false gospels and the wisdom and the philosophies
of this world I said unto you. He's putting his finger right
on the heart of the problem. This is your problem and this
is my problem. It's called unbelief. It is the
fountain of all sin. It is the sin that does so easily
beset us. It's the cause of all of our
problems. I said unto you, I am the Lord
your God. Fear not the sayings of this
world. Fear not the threats and the
philosophies and the, and the, and the hopes and in whose land you dwell, we are
in the world. We're not of this world. We're
not of this world. We have another world. We have
another, we have another word other than the sayings of this
world, the false promises and false hopes of this world. In whose land you dwell, but
you have not obeyed my voice. You've not obeyed my voice. There's
the problem, isn't it? Sin, the children of Israel were
being robbed by the Midianites. We're gonna find Gideon now hiding
behind a wine press, threshing wheat. They're hiding out in
caves. Fear causes us to do a lot of
bad things, doesn't it? Fear is the opposite of faith,
isn't it? Perfect love casts out fear. If the Lord's pleased to show
us Christ and show us his grace and give us faith to believe
his word, then all those fears will go away. You have not obeyed my voice. Brethren, your problem and my
problem is not our circumstances. It's our sin. It's our unbelief. Period. We sing that hymn, how
tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see. All prospects, sweet prospects,
sweet, sweet birds and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness
to me. Why? Why? Because I've lost sight
of Christ, my Savior. The next stanza says, while blessed
with a sense of his love, a palace, a toy would appear. If we're
blessed with a sense of his love, a palace, a toy would appear
and prisons would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me
there. And do you believe that? We're
saying that here. Do you believe that? Prisons
would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. Isn't
that our problem? You see, Paul said, I've learned to be
content in whatever state I'm in. Where does contentment come
from? Does contentment come from having
the possessions that this world offers, the sayings of this world,
the promises, the false hopes of this world? Or does contentment
come from having Christ? Gideon, let's read on. And there came an angel of the
Lord. And this angel of the Lord is none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ, who's manifesting himself to Gideon and calling Gideon. And here's the hope that we have. Lord, I need you to reveal yourself
to me. I am the problem. It is me. It's my unbelief. Lord, if I
could just, I said unto you, don't listen to the sayings of
this world. They will cause you to be afraid,
but you would not believe my voice. You gave ear to them rather
than to me. Do you see that in your own life?
I see that so clearly in my life. If we could just believe God, You think the Lord Jesus Christ
was ever afraid? Why? He believed God with all
of his heart and all of his mind, all of his soul. Lord, there's
my problem. I can't believe you as I ought.
That's what causes my fear. There came an angel of the Lord
and sat under the oak, which is in Oprah, which pertaineth
unto Joash. the Abizerite and his son Gideon
threshing wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. Gideon said unto him, I'm sorry,
verse 12. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty
man of valor. I can just see Gideon, can't
you? He's looking over his shoulder, trying to figure out who this
angel's talking to. Surely he's not talking to him.
He's scared to death. He's cowering down behind a wine
press. winnowing wheat, and the Lord
speaks to him and says, thou mighty man of valor. And then
in Hebrews chapter 11, when Gideon is spoken of in that great hall
of faith that we see in chapter 11, here's what it says about
Gideon. It says, through weakness, he
was made strong. There's our hope. Paul said,
I will glory in my infirmities for when I'm weak, then I'm strong.
And his strength is made perfect in my weakness. So I'm not standing
up here this morning, trying to tell you to toughen up and,
you know, and pull yourself up. I'm telling you that you're a
sinner just like I am. You don't have the ability to
save yourself or to fix your problems. You've got to bow to
Christ. You've got to hide behind the
wine press. That wine press is symbolic of
two things. Turn with me, turn with me if
you will, to Isaiah chapter 63, Isaiah chapter 63. Look with me at verse one. Who
is this that cometh from Edom? Now, Edom means red, and the
answer to that question is this is Christ. Who is this that cometh
from Edom, with dyed garments from Basra? This that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth
in wine-fount? I have trodden the wine-press
alone. And of the people there was none
with me for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them
in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments
and I will stain all my raiment for the day of vengeance is in
my heart and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there
was none to help. And I wondered, and there was
none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury, it upheld me." Isn't that a glorious
picture of Christ on Calvary's cross, pressing out the winepress
of God's wrath? And the blood pouring out like
the juice of a grape and God satisfying his justice by the
sacrifice of his son on Calvary's cross. Now that's where Gideon's
hiding. He's hiding behind the wine press.
And that's where you and I need to hide. because of our sin,
which is all rooted in our unbelief. I said unto you, don't listen
to the world, but you would not hear my voice. You believed them
rather than me. And that's the cause of all of
your fear and all of your problems. But if you'll get behind the
wine press, I'll press out the fury of my
wrath so that you can hide from the
other wine press. Turn with me now, if you will,
to Revelation chapter 14. The wine press represents two
things in the Bible. It represents Calvary's cross
and it represents the final day of judgment. Hide behind the
wine press of the cross of Calvary. Hide behind the Lord Jesus Christ
as your life, and you'll escape the winepress of God's wrath
in the day of judgment. Look at Revelation chapter 14
at verse 19. And the angel thrust in his sickle
into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast
it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress
was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress,
even into the horse's bridle, by the space of 1,600 furlongs."
Now, I don't know what that means. But that's an 180 miles of blood
up to the bridle of a horse. That's a wine press of God's
wrath and judgment that's coming against this world. And if we listen to the sayers
of this world and adopt the philosophies of this world, rather than believing
God, that's the wine press that we'll experience. So the Lord Jesus Christ experienced
the fullness of God's justice on Calvary's cross to satisfy
his righteousness and to put away the sins of his people so
that in our unbelief, which is really the root problem of all
of our problems, we can hide behind Christ who has perfect
faith, perfect faith. Lord, it is me. I am the problem. Save me. Save me. Don't you love the publican who
smote himself upon his breast and would not so much as even
look up? I said, God have mercy upon me. I'm the sinner. It's
my sin problem. Behold, I am vile. Woe is me. I'm undone. Lord, it's my sin. It's not my circumstances. It's
not my spouse. It's not my neighbor. It's not
my boss. It's me. And the Lord says here, I got
a hiding place for you. I've got a hiding place for you.
And you can thresh out the wheat there. You know, in the threshing
of wheat, you gather together the wheat. That's what we're
doing right now. We're threshing wheat. Right this very minute, we're threshing
wheat. We gather together the wheat into the barn. The Word
of God is pounding out the wheat and the grain. What is it that separates the
grain from the chaff? You don't make that separation.
I don't make that separation. I don't know which is the wheat
and which is the chaff. God does. So the winner, which
is what Gideon's doing behind this wine press in fear because
he hadn't believed God as he ought, is taking the wheat and
he's throwing it up into the air. He's pounding it out and
throwing it up in the air. And the wind. comes, they gotta
wait till just the wind is just right. The right kind of breeze,
not too strong, it'll blow the grain away. Not too light, the
chaff will fall back down, but just in the right amount of wind,
the wind comes and carries the chaff away and the wheat falls
to the ground and is gathered together and put in the barn. It's the Holy Spirit that does
the work. All we're doing is pounding out
the grain and throwing it up into the air. And the Spirit
of God will separate the wheat from the chaff. The Spirit of
God will convict you of your unbelief and cause you to hide
behind the winepress of the wrath of God's judgment fulfilled at
Calvary's cross. or the Spirit of God will blow
your mind into another place and you'll have no interest and
no concern for your soul and no care for the Word of God and
no belief and no faith and you'll come here and you'll leave and
you won't be saved. Spirit of God makes a difference. It's not the persuasion of the
preacher It's not your will. It certainly is not our works.
It is the spirit of God. That's what the Lord told Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. You've got to be born
from above. You've got to be born of the
spirit. And the spirit of God is like
the wind. He listeth whithersoever he wills. You don't know where he's coming
from or where he's going, but he's going to do the work. He's
going to separate the wheat from the chaff. And so we commend
men to the Word of His grace, and we trust that the Spirit
of God will blow in just the right way so that the grain falls
to the ground and is gathered into the barn. Hmm. Go back with me to our text. Judges chapter 6. This is so glorious. I'm so thankful
that you're not the decider of my soul and me
for you. We have a God who's able to save
to the uttermost. We have a God who will convict
when the Spirit of God comes, Lord said, it's expedient, it's
necessary for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Spirit
will not come. But when he comes, what's the first thing he's gonna
do? Convict the world of sin because they believe not on me. I said unto you, don't be afraid
of the Amorites. Don't listen to them. And you
would not hear my voice. You took the counsel of the world
over the counsel of me. I've got a hiding place for you. And through your weakness, I'm
going to make you strong. My strength is going to be made
perfect through your weakness. Or he's going to convict the
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin because
they believe not on me, of righteousness because they go to my father,
and of judgment because the prince of this world has been judged.
Where's your righteousness? Say it's in Christ. Christ is
all my righteousness. I have no righteousness outside
of Christ. Where's the hope of your victory
over sin and over Satan and over death and over hell? When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished.
He got the victory. He got the victory all by himself. Christ, he's my life. That, if
that's, if that's your, if that's what you believe, the wind of
the spirit has made you to believe that. There are people that will
hear this message and they will have no interest in it, no concern
for it. And whatever they hear will be
plucked away like the seeds. The birds will come and take
it away. They'll forget all about it and just go back to the Amorites,
the philosophy of the Amorites. Lord, my problem is I haven't
believed your word. I believe my own ideas and philosophies
of this world, and therein lies my problem, my own unbelief. Lord, save me. Lord, give me
faith. I wanted to read that passage
in Titus chapter one because the scripture says, to the acknowledgement
of the truth, In your heart right now, you said, amen, that's true.
That's my experience and that's God's word. And I believe it.
And I'm not going to be, I'm not going to have someone give
me some false hope and take away my fears and my, and my, my shame by telling me that I'm
not really responsible. I am responsible. Isn't that amazing? The philosophy of this world
gives men a false hope. And God just says, you're the
problem. And a believer said, amen, I
am the problem. It's all on me. All of my sin
is all on me. I can't blame anybody else for
any of it. And it's because I haven't believed
God as I ought. Lord, give me Christ. Cause the wind of your spirit
to blow and blow away the chaff and Lord, don't let me be chaff.
Don't let me be chaff or gather me into your barn. God will send a messenger, an
angel of the Lord to declare unto you the truth And then he'll
give you his spirit to acknowledge. Amen. That's the truth. That's the truth. Christ is my
life. He's my hope. I've got no place
else to go. God's word has shut me up to
Christ. Look at verse 13, and Gideon
said unto him, oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then
is all this befallen us? And where be all the miracles
which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. He's just continuing his unbelief. Lord, you've left us to ourselves. And I hope right now you're saying
in your heart, Lord, don't leave me to myself. Don't leave me
to myself. Don't leave me to the philosophies
of this world. Don't leave me to false hopes.
Lord, I'll make a covenant with death. But I don't want a covenant
that's going to be disannulled. I want a covenant that was established
in eternity past between God the Father and God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit, a covenant promise that cannot fail. That's
what I need. Lord, I'm the problem. I'm the
sinner. And the Lord looked upon him
in verse 14 and said, go in this thy might, and thou shalt save
Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And he
said unto him, oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold,
my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least of my father's
house. Now just like the Lord. bring down a nation like Egypt
with flies and lice. And he'll save the nation of
Israel with a little boy tending sheep out in the yard instead
of the kingly looking brothers that he had, that David had.
And he'll come into this world born in a smelly barn as a babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes. to bear the sins of his people
on Calvary's cross. Don't despise, the scripture
says, the day of small things. You're thinking of yourself right
now. I think of myself. How small are we? How insignificant
am I? God says, no, that's where I
get my glory. I get my glory in saving sinners. I get my glory in showing my
strength in their weakness. And the Lord said unto him, verse
16, surely I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the Midianites
as one man. And he said unto him, if now
I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou
talkest with me. Lord, I need a sign. I need a sign. And I remind you that in the
New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ said, a wicked and perverse
generation seeketh after a sign. Signs were in the Old Testament,
okay? They were pre-cross. The Lord Jesus gave sign. But
after that, he said, no sign to be given unto you except for
the sign of Jonah. which spent three days and three
nights in the belly of the whale. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, there's our sign. And his resurrection proves,
it proves this brethren, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ proves that God was completely satisfied with what he accomplished.
That's what the resurrection proves. That the Lord Jesus Christ
successfully saved his people, offered himself unto his father
and his father accepted his offering. So Gideon asked for a sign and
then he goes and he gets a Well, let's just read it, verse 18.
Depart not, hence I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring
forth my present, and said it before thee. And he said, I will
tarry until you come again. Gideon said, would you please
stay right here? I need to go prepare an offering, is what
he's gonna do. And Gideon went in and made ready
a kid, and unleavened cakes, and an ephah of flour. And the
flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and
brought it out unto him under the oak. and presented it. And the angel of God said unto
him, take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon the rock
and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel
of the Lord put forth the end of his staff. Thy rod and thy
staff, they shall comfort me. This is the staff of God. What
the angel of the Lord did with his staff is what the angel of
Lord's doing right now with his word. His word is his staff. That's his authority. God's people
just believe his word. They hang all the hopes of their
soul on the promises of God, believing that he cannot lie. And so he puts forth his staff.
He told him to put it on the rock, pour out the broth, and
in verse 21, he puts forth the end of his staff, that was in
his hand, and he touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes,
and there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh
and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed
out of his sight." Oh, what a glorious picture.
Here's the cross. That rock is Christ. It's the
rock that followed the children of Israel. from which their life-giving
water was brought forth out of that rock. Scripture calls the
Lord Jesus Christ a rock that is higher than the rocks of the
Amorites. The sacrifice was placed on the
rock in the fire of God's wrath. Here's the wine press. Here's
the winepress of the wrath of God falling on the Lord Jesus
Christ as he laid down his life for his sheep and consumed the
sacrifice laying on a rock. And when the sacrifice was consumed,
the fire was quenched. No more fire, no more judgment,
no more wrath for those whom Christ died for. Verse 22, and when Gideon perceived
that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, alas, O Lord God,
for because I have seen the angel of the Lord face to faith. Gideon
thought, I've seen God. Same thing happened to Isaiah
in Isaiah chapter six. I've seen the Lord. Woe is me,
I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm gonna die, I'm going
to die. And the Lord said unto him, peace
be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die. The angel of the Lord appeared,
the wind of the spirit blew away the chaff, Gideon's hiding behind
the wine press because his problem is he didn't believe God. And God meets with him, sacrifice
is made. God is pleased. And God said,
be at peace. Don't be afraid. I've taken care
of your sin. I've taken care of it. Every
bit of it. There's, you see, to have the Amorites and the
sayers of this world to say, to tell to you, they tell you
that you're not really responsible. It's because of somebody else's
influence on you or some, you know, every sin's got a name
now for some sort of disease. You know, it's, what is the word?
They're saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. They're
giving you a false hope, but you have no peace with God. This
is peace with God. It is me. It's all on me. It's nobody else's fault. Lord,
forgive me. I provided forgiveness for you. You have peace with God? If God
be for me, who can be against me? It doesn't really matter
what anybody else thinks. If God's for me, peace. Peace I leave you, my peace I
give unto thee. Now what the Lord said, those
disciples were huddled up in that upper room. They were scared
to death. They thought they've taken the
master, they're coming after us next. We're gonna be crucified. My peace I give unto thee. Verse 24, the Lord said, thou
shalt not die. I've conquered death. I put away
your sin. Yes, it's all on you, but I took
it all on me. And I put it away. And God has
separated your sin from you as far as the East is from the West.
And God said, I remember it no more. Be not afraid, you shall
not die. I died in your stead. What? And Gideon built an altar there
unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom. There's about seven places where
Jehovah is attached to another one of God's characters. This
is one of those Jehovah Shalom. We have peace with God through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, sinner. It's all on you. My sins all
on me. And God put it all on Christ. And he's gonna, when the spirit
of God comes, he's gonna cause you to see, yeah, I can't blame
anybody but me. God said, but I did not believe
his voice. I believed the Amorites, the
Sayers, the philosophies of this world, rather than believing
God. Lord, help thou mine unbelief. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for being so kind and
merciful and truthful to us to identify the real source of the
problem and then to give us, to give us thy dear son. as a
solution and a healing and a remedy for our sin. Might the wind of your spirit
blow gently in our hearts. Separate, Lord, the wheat from
the chaff according to thy will. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 28 in the Sproul Hymnal. Let's stand
together. Number 28. God has mercy on whom He will,
and whom He will, He hardens still. To whom He will, He gives
His grace, and when He will, He hides His face. Let none despise God's sovereign
throne. He does what he will with his
own. It is his right to save or kill
according to his sovereign will. Yes, God saves some and others
leaves to reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages
past, God made His choice and it stands fast. Aware that I'm
a guilty man, and that I'm in God's sovereign hand, prostrate
I fall before His throne, a wretched, helpless, guilty one. Lord, if you will, you can, I
say, take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at your
throne, I beg for mercy through your son. Now trusting Jesus
Christ, God's son, I know that I'm his chosen one. And God's eternal sovereign choice
makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice. ? Sweet Savior. ?