Good morning. Let's open up this
morning's service in the hymnal number six. Number six, come
thou almighty king. And if you could please stand,
number six. Help thy name to sing, help us
to praise. Father of glorious, Lord of victorious,
come and reign over us, ancient of days. On thy mighty soul our prayer
attend. Come and thy people bless, and
give thy word success, Spirit of holiness on us descend. Thy sacred witness stand in this
glad hour. Thou who almighty art, Thou who
rule in every heart, And e'er from us depart, Spirit of God, May we be seated. Good morning. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. And I want to focus
our attention this morning on verse 165. Great peace have they which love
thy law and nothing shall offend them. That's God's word. Great peace. That's the title
of this message. Great peace. Have them which
love thy law. Nothing shall offend them. Let's pray together. Our merciful
heavenly father. We approach your holy throne
of grace thanking you that we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. And through the shed blood of
his cross, he has satisfied your justice and made his enemies
to be his footstool. Lord, we pray that you would
minister grace to our hearts again this morning by your spirit
that we would find our peace, our hope, our rest, our comfort,
and all our satisfaction in the glorious person of thy dear son. Forgive us, Lord, for our unbelief. Lord, your word is so clear and
it's pure and true, and yet we doubt you and we fear. Lord,
help thou our unbelief. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's begin in verse 161 of that
same passage. Psalm 119 verse 161 purse princes
have persecuted me without a cause. Now we know that these Psalms
are prophetic first and foremost. And this is David speaking not
of himself, but he's speaking of those who would persecute
the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David, without a cause. They
had no cause. Their cause was hatred. Their
cause was jealousy. Their cause was unbelief. They
had no cause against him. And yet the Lord said, princes
have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe
of thy word. Now here's the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking in his humanity, that as a man born of a woman, born
under the law, Born in the likeness, the scripture says, of sinful
flesh. He stood, though he was the living
word of God, as the son of God, as a man, he stood in awe of
the word of God. Oh, that we could stand in awe.
We use that word much too loosely, don't we? We call things awesome
that aren't really awesome. God's word is not awesome, it
is awful. It is full of awe. And if the Lord would enable
us by his grace to believe him, we too would stand in awe of
God's word. And no persecutors, no circumstances
would detract us from standing in awe and believing God. Look
at verse 162. I rejoice at thy word as one
that findeth great spoil. Here's the picture of war. War
has been fought. And the conquering army has spoiled
the enemy. And here's a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. who went up against sin, he went
up against Satan, he went up against death, and he got the
victory. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.
Tell them their warfare is accomplished. It's accomplished. What the Lord
Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross was an accomplishment. He actually won the war. And the spoils is his church. It's his people. That's his spoil. That's what he earned to himself
as a result of this battle that he fought. And so he says, I rejoice at
thy word as one that findeth great spoil. I hate and abhor
lying, but thy law do I love. Well, not much we can believe
in this world when it comes to the words of men. Everybody twists
and couches what they say to their own advantage. We see that
particularly in politics and we see it in the media. how much
better off we would be going straight to God's Word when we
wake up in the morning rather than listening to the lies of
men. God's Word is true. It's pure.
It's perfect. It's trustworthy. And it's always
fulfilled. The Lord, scripture says, our
God, unlike men, cannot lie. It is not in his nature. Look at verse 164. Seven times a day do I praise
thee because of thy righteous judgments. God's people love
the judgment of God. They don't want God to lower
his standard of judgment. Their hope of salvation is that
the Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied the justice of God. The natural
man wants to bring God's judgment down to where he is and wants
to bring himself up to where God is so that he can be reconciled
with God, and the believer says, oh, no. Oh no, I want the justice
of God to be maintained perfectly because the hope that I have
of not being able to come anywhere near the presence of God is that
my advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, has satisfied God's justice. He has met the judgment of God
and God is satisfied with him. and I'm satisfied with Christ.
Christ is all I need, he's all I've got. So we say seven times
a day, do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. The judgments of God are right,
they're true. And the hope of our salvation
rest in the fact that his judgments have been satisfied in Christ. I look at verse 165, and I said,
this is where I want us to focus our attention this morning. Great
peace, great peace. Oh, there's nothing like peace,
is there? The peace of God, Paul said in
Philippians chapter four, which passeth understanding. It exceleth
understanding. It's better than understanding. to be at peace with God. We can't know anything of the
peace of God to rule our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus without
having peace with God. We must have peace with God.
And the only hope that we can have peace with God is through
the sacrifice that Christ made of himself in offering himself
to his father as a sacrifice for sin. We have peace, the scripture
says, with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I looked up this word peace in
the dictionary. And the first definition was
the absence of war. The absence of war is great peace
have they which stand in awe of thy word. We stand in awe
of the word of God because we know that the warfare has been
fought. The battle against sin, the battle
against the grave, the battle against death has been won. It's
been won. The Lord Jesus Christ got the
victory. And so when the scripture says
we have peace with God, we're no longer, the scripture says
that he will cause them to take their swords and turn them into
plowshares. and their spears into pruning
forks. You see, men by nature raises his spear against God. He speaks blasphemy against God. He stands in enmity with God
and he has a conflict with God. And the Lord said, when I make
them willing, they're going to take those spears and turn them
into plowshares. In other words, instead of being
at enmity with God, instead of trying to fight against God,
raising their fist to heaven, they're going to engage in planting
the seed of the word of God and in harvesting the wheat of God's
harvest. They're going to go from being
warriors to being farmers. And that's what it is to have
peace with God. We have peace with him. Another
definition that the dictionary gives for peace is an agreement
or a treaty. Nations sign treaties to be at
peace with one another. And we have a treaty. We have
an agreement. It's called the covenant of grace.
When God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
all etched their names in this treaty, in this covenant, before
time ever began, when God the Father promised to elect a particular
people. And God the Son entered into
that treaty with the Father, that covenant promise to redeem
those whom the Father had chosen. And God the Holy Spirit entered
into that treaty. He entered into that covenant.
And he said, I'll make them willing. I'll make them willing. They
will believe and they will follow after Christ. There's our peace
with God, a covenant. a treaty, an agreement, not that
we had anything to do with. Isaiah chapter 28 says that your
covenant that you made with God will be disannulled. Man's religion
is all based upon the promises that he makes to God. And if
I make a promise and stick to my promise, then I can obligate
God to save me. No, you can't. No, you can't. No, the, the agreement, the treaty,
is one that God made with us and he makes his people willing. Another definition is a state
of mutual harmony. a state of mutual harmony. And in 2 Peter 3, verse 14, it
says, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without
spot and blameless. See, if we're found in Christ,
then we have his righteousness. If the Lord gives us faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have the righteousness
of Christ. And as the lamb that is without spot and without blemish,
so we stand in the presence of God without spot. and without
blemish, and we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not gonna know anything
about the peace of God until we have peace with God. Colossians chapter three, verse
15 says, let the peace of God rule in your heart to the which
also you are called in one body. We have peace with God as members
of his one body. Your hand doesn't stand in opposition
to your foot or your arm to your leg. No, they work in perfect
concert with the instructions that are given to them from your
head, right? You don't beat yourself up with
one part of your body and injure another part of your body. To
the contrary, if one part of your body is injured, the rest
of your body works to heal and men tend to that injury, doesn't
it? And so it is with the body of
Christ. The Lord says we have peace with God. We're not at
odds with our head and we're not at odds with one another.
They shall see, the scripture says, they shall all see eye
to eye. There's one body and one God
and one baptism and one gospel, one spirit. And we, all the conflicts
and oppositions that we see in man-made religion are just, they
go back to the Tower of Babel, don't they? What is the Tower
of Babel? Man trying to achieve access
to God by the works of his own hands. And what does the Lord
do to them? He confuses their speech so that
one of them says this and another says that and they can't understand
each other. And then when the Lord calls us to himself, he
gives us all the same speech. We say the same thing, we believe
the same thing, we hope in the same. See, our Lord, he doesn't
teach some of his children one thing and others of his children
contrary to that. He teaches them by the same spirit
from the same scriptures to the same end, to rest their hope
in Christ. We have peace with God, a state
of mutual harmony. And listen to this in Colossians
chapter one, verse 20, having made peace through the blood
of the cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself. This ministry of reconciliation,
Paul refers to it as we have to be reconciled to God. By nature, we are at enmity with
God. By nature, we have no peace with
God. And the Lord Jesus Christ came to reconcile his people. And so he says, we have peace
through the blood of the cross by him that reconciled all things
unto himself. Another definition for peace
in the dictionary is cessation of or freedom from strife and
dissension. We have peace with God. We don't
argue with God. God's people don't argue with
him. The world might. You tell the world something
God says and they'll say, yeah, but, and they will contend with
God and argue with God. You tell one of God's people
what God says, and they will say amen. Amen. Truth, Lord. Whatever you say
is right. It's true. I've got no arguments
with God whatsoever. There is a complete cessation
and freedom from strife and dissension with God when we're found in
Christ. Raise our fist to heaven. We
don't contend with God. Another definition for peace
in the dictionary is silence or stillness. Be still, the scripture
says, and know that I am God. We cease from our labors because
the Lord ceased from his labors. He finished the work of redemption.
So we're not running around like the religious man trying to earn
favor with God by something that we do. We're looking in faith
quietly with stillness and with trust to the Lord Jesus Christ
for all our peace with God. Men go about trying to establish
their own righteousness. They go about trying to reconcile
themselves to God. They go about making covenants
and promises and working themselves crazy trying to earn favor with
God. And the child of God says, I
have peace with God. I have peace with God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. When there's a breach in a relationship
between men, the injured party waits for the guilty party to
make an apology. There really can't be any reconciliation
until the guilty party apologizes for what they've done. If the
Lord had waited for us To reconcile the breach that
existed between us and God, we would remain separated from God
for all eternity. The Lord took it upon himself
as the offended party to reconcile the guilty. And that's what he
did when he went to Calvary's cross. And that's what he does
when he sends his spirit in power to make us willing to bow, not
just willing to believe, but willing to follow, willing to
believe everything he says. Lord, I can't object to anything
that you say. It's true. You're true. He took it upon himself to perform
the entire act of reconciliation, right down to making us willing
to take the blame. We wouldn't have taken the blame.
We wouldn't accept responsibility for our lack of reconciliation
with God, for our enmity with God, except he had made us to
do that. If somebody offends you, you
can't make them, not sincerely from the heart, you can't make
them admit when they're wrong. That's a heart issue. You might
be able to manipulate the circumstances to get them to make a confession,
but that's not the same, is it? The Lord's in the business of
changing the heart, and he takes it upon himself. to give us a
broken heart. David said in Psalm 51, he said,
if sacrifices is what you want, I would make them. But the sacrifices
of God are a contrite spirit, a broken heart. That he will
not despise. Why will he not despise a contrite
spirit and a broken heart? Why? Because he made it. He made it. And he accepts that
which he's done, and he accepts only that which he's done. All
that God requires, God must provide. And he only accepts that which
he provides. So Lord, you've got to do a work
of grace in my heart. You've got to make me willing. The angels were the first preachers
sent by God to declare peace on earth. When they went to those
to those shepherds, those lowly shepherds on the night of our
Lord's nativity. And they declared glory to God
on high and on earth. Peace, peace. We can only have
peace with God. Peace and goodwill toward all
men. We can only have peace with God.
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 52. Isaiah chapter 52. What peace. This is the absence
of war. This is the cessation of conflict. This is the reconciliation of
a sinner made with God. Look at Isaiah chapter 52 and
look with me at verse seven. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace. That bringeth good tidings of
good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God
reigns. Our God reigns. He reigns sovereign
over all things. And if we're gonna have peace
with God, he is going to have to sovereignly reign in our hearts. He's gonna have to sovereignly
receive the offering that Christ made, which he did, that we might
have peace with God. Preaching is declaring peace
with God. It's what it is. We're not here
to try to threaten men with hell in order to get them to come
to Christ. We're saying to sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the
blood that he shed on Calvary's cross, made peace with God by
the sacrifice of himself for all his people once and for all.
Peace has already been established. Come. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Rest your hope in Him. That's really our problem. The
sin that doth so easily beset us is the sin of unbelief. We
don't have peace with God as we ought because we don't believe
as we ought. When that father brought his possessed child to
the disciples and the disciples weren't able to help him, the
father in desperation came to the Lord with his son and said,
if thou can't do anything, help us, have mercy upon us. And the
Lord looked at him and said, if thou, can't believe. All things are possible to him
that believe it. Then what'd that father say?
Oh Lord, I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. And
so the child of God is always, that's what we always are. Lord,
I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I've
got so much unbelief. I'm like those disciples in Luke
chapter 24. who were walking with the Lord and didn't know
it was the Lord. It was after the resurrection. And the Lord
said to them, he said, oh fools, and slow of heart to believe. Ought not the Christ to have
suffered these things? And beginning with Moses and
the prophets, he expounded unto them those things concerning
himself. And then when they got to their
house in the breaking of the bread, their eyes were opened
and they saw him. And so it is with the breaking
of the bread of life, as we break open the word of God, as we hold
up the Lord Jesus Christ, he opens our eyes and causes us
to say, oh Lord, I've been such a fool. I've been so slow of
heart to believe you. Lord, expound unto me those things
concerning yourself. Help thou mine unbelief. Here's why we don't have peace
as we ought. The Lord Jesus Christ in our
text stands in awe. of the Word of
God. And we know that our Lord had
two natures, fully God, fully God, the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, all the essential nature of God bound up in a man so that
when we look at him as the Son of God, we're able to say there's
nothing in him that's like me. He's holy. He's undefiled. He's
separate from sinners. And at the same time, he was
fully man. He was a man. He tired, he hungered, he wept,
and all the physical limitations of man, he suffered. And yet
in his humanity, in his humanity, he had perfect faith. Now that's
what God requires. God requires perfect faith. And
so we look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ who never doubted
God. He believed God, he had perfect
peace. That's why he's called the Prince of Peace, because
he believed God with all of his heart and all of his mind and
all of his soul all the time. And now he's given to us this
ministry of reconciliation so that we can say to men, You want
peace with God? Come. The Lord Jesus Christ,
he's the faithful one. He's the one who's satisfied
the demands of God's law. He's the one who put away the
sin of his people by the sacrifice of himself. We have peace with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in Isaiah, Isaiah says,
Thou wilt have perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. You have peace, you have the
peace of God. When your heart and mind is pointed
to Christ, all of a sudden you realize, you know what? It's
all good. Not only do I have peace with
God, I have the peace of God. Paul said in Philippians chapter
four, he said, rejoice in the Lord. Your circumstances may
not be to where you're able to be happy about your circumstances,
but regardless of your circumstances, God says, rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say, rejoice. Rejoice in case you misunderstood
or in case you thought, well, Lord, you don't understand. No,
I understand. Rejoice in me. You have peace with God, whose
mind has stayed on thee. And let your gentleness or your
moderation be known unto all men for the Lord is at hand. And he goes on to say, be careful
for nothing. In other words, don't be anxious,
but in all things by prayer and supplication, let your requests
be known unto God. Present your needs to him. And
listen to this, and the peace of God, which passeth understanding
shall keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Now, I
used to think that that verse meant the peace of God cannot
be understood, but that's not what it means. The word passeth
means exceleth or is better than. You see, we want to understand
our circumstances, don't we? We lose our peace. We lose the
peace of God when we become anxious about our circumstances. Lord,
I don't understand. I don't know what's going on.
I need to know. I need to know where this is going. I need to
understand what's gonna happen next. And we become anxious about
things, don't we? We become disquieted and we lose. We can have peace with God and
not be at experiencing the peace of God. And what is the Lord
saying to us? The peace of God? It's better
than understanding. It exceleth understanding. You're
spending all your time and energy trying to understand your circumstances,
and I'm telling you, look to Christ, rest your hope in Him,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the peace of God will keep
your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. How glorious, knowing
that everything is right on schedule with our God. Now there's peace.
There's peace. Knowing that he makes everything
beautiful in his time, Ecclesiastes chapter three. In his time, he
makes everything beautiful. There's peace. I can rest there.
And we're not resting our hope in the sovereignty of God. We're
resting our hope in the God who is sovereign. He's all powerful. He works all things together
for our good, for them that love him, for those that are called
according to his purpose. You remember when the children
of Israel came back from Egypt and they, and they said to their
father, Jacob, I said, uh, no Pharaoh wants us to bring Benjamin.
And what Jacob say, Jacob said, Joseph is no more. Simeon is
no more. You remember that had to leave
Simeon last time. And now you want to take my youngest Benjamin. And then he made this statement.
All these things are against me. That's what he said. You ever feel that way? This is gone and that's gone.
And now you want to take this and all these things are against
me. Oh no. To the contrary. To the contrary. Joseph may have even thought
that at some point, sold into slavery, falsely accused, thrown
into prison, forgotten in prison. And yet. What's the end of the
story? You meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. He sent me ahead to save a people. This is all God's working. That's
what the Lord's saying to me and you. He's saying, be careful
for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let
your requests be known to the God and the peace of God, which
is far better than any understanding that you could. You're not gonna
understand what's going on right now. Joseph didn't understand
until hindsight. Jacob didn't understand until
he got to Egypt and found and saw Joseph and Benjamin and Simeon. We're all together now. You see
hindsight's 20, 20. Faith is not always 20-20. Faith
is, we look through a glass darkly now, the scripture says, but
we believe God. And the peace of God, the peace
of God will keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Daniel chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar
in his pride, he thought, look at this great kingdom that I
have made. And God smote him, turned him into an animal. then
the scripture says that when Nebuchadnezzar's time was up,
he said, I lifted up my eyes unto heaven and my understanding
returned unto me. I knew that God was sovereign. You know the passage, Daniel
chapter 4, said all the Inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing
and he hath done whatsoever he wills with the armies of heaven
and all the inhabitants of the earth and no man can stay his
hand and no man can say unto him what doest thou? Our God
reigns. Our God reigns. Great peace. Great peace. Go back with me
to our text. Verse 165, great peace. Lord, I need great peace. I need
the great peace that only the Lord Jesus Christ can make with
God for me. I need to know that I have peace
with God through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Lord, my unbelief causes so much conflict and so much turmoil
in my heart, so much fear. Lord, help thou mine unbelief.
Cause me to set my affections on things above where Christ
is seated at thy right hand. Lord, I'm so prone to set them
on the things of this earth. I'm so prone to be afraid. And
the Lord says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. In all things,
in all things, by prayer and supplication. This is not the
power of positive thinking. This is not the world's philosophy. You know, don't worry, be happy.
No, no. The Lord's saying, don't be afraid. Pray, let your requests be known
unto God. Seek the Lord Jesus Christ for
all your peace and the peace of God, the peace of God, which
is better than understanding. How oftentimes we spend all our
time and energy trying to understand what's going on and God's saying
right here, no, no, no, you're looking for the wrong thing.
The peace of God, is better than understanding. And the peace
of God will keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus until
such a time as God gives you the understanding that you need. In the meantime, great peace,
great peace. Look at verse 165. Great peace have they which love
thy law and nothing shall offend them. Amen. All right, let's take a
break.