Alright, Psalm 120. I'm going
to read it one more time. He said, In my distress I cried
unto the Lord, and He heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from
lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given unto
thee, or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Sharp
arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper, Woe is me that I
sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Keter. My soul
hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace,
but when I speak they are for war." This is the first song
of degrees. The Ascension Psalms are what
these are. These are the songs that the
children of Israel would sing as they came out of the countryside
in the different places and they went up to Jerusalem for the
annual feasts. They had to travel a long ways
through the wilderness to get to Jerusalem. These would be
the songs they would sing as they came up with their families
out of the country going to the Lord's house. First and foremost,
when we look at these, we're going to hear the spirit and
the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ as He sojourned in this earth
working out the salvation of his people on his way to God's
heavenly house. And then secondly, we hear in
these songs the heart and spirit of God's people, his saints as
we sojourn in this wilderness on our way to God's heavenly
house. And we hear something of the believer's attitude and
spirit towards worship and coming to God's house week in and week
out. I think it's interesting now that in the first of these,
the one we'll look at tonight, the saints are leaving their
home to travel to the Lord's house. And they've been dwelling
with unregenerate sinners all around them, and they're distressed. They're distressed. And then
they get to the Lord's house and has to go through these songs
and when they leave the Lord's house in the last of these songs,
they've been strengthened by the Lord and they are renewed
and they're rejoicing and they're singing praise all the way back.
That's us, isn't it? Week in and week out. We come
out of our homes and out of this world to the Lord's house each
week and we come distressed because we've been dwelling amongst unregenerate
sinners all week. And then we come and we hear
a word from the Lord and His power and His grace and He strengthens
us in the heart and we go home rejoicing. That's what we see
in these songs. Now, first of all, let's hear
Christ speak. Let's hear our Lord Jesus Christ
speak as He walked this earth. He says, verse 7, I am for peace,
but when I speak, they are for war. You know, the Lord Jesus
is the King of Salem. He is the King of Salem. That
means King of Peace. He came into this world to work
peace, to accomplish peace between God and His people. We offended
God. He came to work out, to reconcile
us to God, to bring us into communion with God, friendship with God,
peace with God. That's what He came for. Paul
called Him, in Romans 15, Paul called, speaking of our Lord
Jesus Christ, he called Him the God of peace. That's who He is. He's the God of peace. When He
came forth from From his mother's womb into this earth, the angels
announced his birth by saying, peace on earth. He's the peace
while he was on this earth, Christ. He's the goodwill of God toward
men that God chose to save. That's who he is. The Son of
God took the nature of his elect to make peace between the God
we offended and God's elect. We couldn't make that peace.
We couldn't do anything to make that peace. We didn't want that
peace. We were at war with God. We were the ones He speaks about
here by nature. Christ said, I'm for peace. They
are for war. That was us all by nature. We
were for war. God declared through Isaiah that
Christ would accomplish peace between God and His people. Listen
to this from Isaiah 32, 17. He said, the work of righteousness
The work of righteousness, that's what you call what Christ accomplished,
the work of righteousness. That's why He came, the work
of righteousness. God said, the work of righteousness
shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and
assurance forever. That's what Christ works. That's
what He accomplished. Between His people and God, that's
what He accomplishes in the hearts of His people. For His elect,
peace with God came at the ultimate price. For us to have peace with
God, it came at the ultimate price. God sent forth His only
begotten Son, and our Lord Jesus Christ came forth and laid down
His life for His elect. It cost Him His blood, His life. because we had to die. Everybody
that sins against God must die under the fierce fury of God's
wrath. See, when you look to that cross
and you see Christ suffering, and all the things He bore in
His body at the hands of men, those awful things He bore at
the hands of men, as bad as they are, and as much suffering as
it caused our Lord, those things just give us a little bit of
an idea of the ultimate suffering He bore at the hand of God. It shows us something of that
eternal wrath He bore. It shows us something of that
curse that you and I deserved, the hell we deserved. That's
what Christ bore on Calvary's cross in order to satisfy the
justice of God. That's the only way peace could
be made. And that's what Christ accomplished. He satisfied justice
for us, brethren. That means God will never charge
His people with sin again. God will never charge His people
with one sin again. Yes, we're sinners. Yes, we fall. Yes, we say things we shouldn't
and do things we shouldn't. And yes, we don't want to in
our new man, but we do. But here's the blessed good news
and this is the strength and life of our new man. This is
what keeps us walking by faith and looking to Christ and assembling
together and loving one another and being at peace with one another.
It's because God promises us for the sake of Christ, He will
not lay sin to the charge of one for whom Christ died. Isn't
that good news? Isn't that good news? Isn't that
the strength of your heart? Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. The fierce righteousness of God
which demanded Christ's death and peace with God, they have
reached out and shook hands and even more they have embraced
and kissed one another in the Lord Jesus. having made peace
through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself." The all things is His people, His elect. By Him, I say, whether they be
His people in earth or His people in heaven. Everybody that's in
communion with God, it's because Christ reconciled us by His own
blood. He made peace with God for us.
Go to Ephesians 2. You know I'm going to go here
if we're going to look at peace because this is my favorite chapter
on peace. Through the preaching of the
gospel, Christ came to you and me and preached peace. It wasn't
enough that He worked out peace for us at the cross, He has to
come and preach peace to us and regenerate us by the Spirit of
God and give us a new heart and a faith to believe Him. And when
He does this, He not only makes us willing to be reconciled to
God, He brings us into peace with our brethren in whom this
same Spirit dwells. It says here in Ephesians 2.14,
Christ is our peace. who hath made both one, his elect
Jew and his elect Gentile." Whatever differences there are between
God's people, just naturally speaking, it's Christ alone that's
made us one. He's the only one that makes
peace with God and in the hearts of His people and between brethren.
And if you have peace with anybody in this world, it's only because
Christ made peace. That's right. He broke down the
middle wall of partition between us, abolished in His flesh the
enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in Himself of two one new man, so making peace, that
He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. And He came and He preached peace
to you. To you which were far off, that's
me and you Gentiles, and to them that were not, that's His elect
in Israel. For through Him, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access
by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, you're no more
strangers and foreigners, you're fellow citizens with the saints.
You're of the household of God, we're brothers and sisters. under the dominion and under
the guide and protection of Christ Jesus, our everlasting Father. And God our Father. Christ the
elder brother, He is the one the Father trusted the whole
house to. And Christ is going to keep peace in the hearts of
His people. If He has ever given you peace with God in your heart
through faith, He is going to keep you having peace in your
heart toward God and toward your brethren. Christ is going to
do that. He don't fail. Listen, peace I leave with you,
he said. My peace I give unto you. Not
as this world giveth, give I unto you. The world can't give peace
and the world don't even deal in this kind of peace that Christ
deals with. He says, not as the world giveth
I. He said, let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid. Our peace is in Christ alone,
our peace is by Christ alone, our peace is through faith. It's
called peace in believing. That's what it's called in Scripture,
peace in believing. He said, these things I've spoken
unto you that in me you might have peace. You're not going
to have peace anywhere else. We're not going to have peace
in this world. Listen, in the world you shall have tribulation.
That's what Christ said, not peace. but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world." He said, in me you have peace. Senator,
if you would have peace with God. Anybody here that you're
an enemy of God, you're fighting against God, you're rejecting
His gospel and rejecting faith in Him, listen to this now, and
I pray God bless your heart and hear this. This is what God says. God says, you take hold of my
son, You just submit everything to Him and trust Him and He'll
make peace with me for you. Listen to this. People read this
wrong. Isaiah 27, 5. He said, let Him
take hold of my strength. Talking about the man that's
an enemy. Let him take hold of my strength. That's Christ. Christ
is the strength of God. Let him take hold of my strength
that he may make peace with me. And many read that and say, see
I took hold of Christ and I made my peace with God. That's not
what it means. It means you lay hold of Christ
and Christ will make peace with God for you. And he will make
peace with me and he shall make peace with me. He'll do that
on a believer's half. So He's the King of Salem. He
said, I'm for peace, brethren. He accomplished peace at the
cross for His people with God and He comes and accomplishes
it in the hearts of His people and He brings us into peace with
God and peace with one another. Now, secondly, brethren, unregenerate
sinners in this world, especially religious unregenerate sinners,
are not for peace, they are for war. Listen now, verse 5. Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech,
and I dwell in the tents of Keter. My soul hath long dwelt with
him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak,
they are for war. Christ walked this earth preaching
peace. You know the gospel we preach is called the gospel of
peace? He said, I'm for peace. Acts 10.36 says, The word which
God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace. But here's the rub. Here's the
rub. Preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He's Lord of all. There's the problem with the
unregenerate sinner. Christ alone makes peace. How
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things. But while Christ sojourned
through this earth, He said, Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech,
that I dwell in the tents of Keter. Mesech descended from Noah's son Japheth.
They were barbarians. They're mentioned a lot in Scripture
along with Gog and Magog, the enemies of God, the enemies of
our Lord Jesus. They were barbarian, fierce people. Keter was a son of Ishmael. All
of these, Keter and Meshach, they're Arabs. Arabs. They dwelt in black tents, and
that here symbolizes the dark, sin-depraved heart. They represent
all the brave sinners as we come into this world. It's just me
and you came into this world with the same heart. Everybody
God saves came into the world with the same heart. We were
at war with God. We hated peace. Not peace that
we could boast that we made with our imaginary little helpless
weakling God. But we hated that peace that
only Christ can make. Because only Christ can make
it. That's why we hated it. That's why this world hates it.
Paul said in Romans 8, every carnal heart, every natural heart,
as we come to this world, is enmity against God. Didn't say
he's at enmity with God, said the heart, the carnal mind, is
enmity against God. It's nothing but hatred against
God. That's all you and I were by
nature. That's all this unregenerate
world is. It's just hatred against the
true and living God. fallen ungenerate sinners will
not submit to the gospel of Christ and cannot submit to the gospel
of Christ. Will not and cannot. Listen,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
What are the things of the Spirit of God? The gospel of Christ,
the gospel of peace. The natural man will not receive
it. Listen, For their foolishness unto Him, neither can He know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. Will not and cannot. That's why Christ told us this,
when you go forth and you speak of Christ and you give Him all
the glory in the preaching of the Word, men may tolerate you
for a little while, but they're not going to for long. Eventually,
this is what Christ said, think not that I come to send peace
on earth, I came not to send peace, but a sword." And you're
going to find that out. You'll find that out. Just like
our Lord Jesus. The whole time Christ sojourned
in this earth, unregenerate religious sinners opposed Him the whole
time. They opposed Him the whole time.
Verse 6, ìMy soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I
am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.î Brethren,
you know, thereís occasional times when you can kind of look
at somebodyís face and you can tell that they hate what youíre
saying about the Lord and how youíre giving Him all the glory.
You can tell they hate it. You can tell it by their face.
But just imagine, you just imagine if you knew everybody's heart
around you, and you knew it just as plain as if they were speaking
it. Christ knows the heart of men just that well, and He knew
their hearts when He walked this earth. Remember that time when
that man that was sick of the palsy, they brought him to the
Lord? And instead of first healing his palsy, the Lord turned to
him and said, Thy sins be forgiven thee. Because he came by faith
and the Lord said, Thy sins be forgiven thee. And it says, certain
of the scribes reasoned in their hearts. Why does this man thus
speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? And immediately, when Jesus perceived
in His Spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto
them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? They didn't even
say a word. Imagine if you knew the hearts
in men. You know, it's difficult preaching
if somebody's looking at you and they're giving you the stink
eye while you're preaching at them. That's hard. That's what
the Lord told Ezekiel. Don't regard their faces. But
if you knew their hearts, can you imagine? But they made it
known by their words too. They called Christ a child born
of fornication. That's what they were saying
when they said, we be not children of fornication. They were saying,
you wasn't born of a virgin. They called him a glutton. That's
not something we typically call people in this country, because
the buffet has pretty much ruined American. We all pretty much
eat more than we should. But they called him a glutton. a wine-bibber, a drunk. They
charged him with sedition, and they charged him with blasphemy,
and they charged him with treason against the king. Whatever they
could find to charge him with, they charged him with. Because
they hated him, and they hated him. And they wouldn't just turn
and go back to their religion quietly and worship the God of
their imagination quietly. They had to try to get everybody
to go with them. And so they were constantly riling
everybody up trying to justify why they wouldn't believe Christ,
why they rejected Him, and they were doing it before men. Why?
That's what the whole religion was about. Justifying themselves
before men. That's what all Will Work's religion
is about. It's doing things to be seen
of men. And all that while, Christ is
preaching peace. He's preaching peace. And He
is that peace. And this is what made them rage
and rage and rage more. That Christ alone made peace
with God for His people. And God didn't trust any of the
sons of Adam or any of his, even his elect to make peace with
him. He sent his own son to make peace. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who could so fulfill the law of God and declare God
just and justifies people and so make peace with God. And the
Spirit of God has to give us a new heart and make us willing
through the blood and righteousness of Christ to submit to Him and
believe Him and be reconciled to Him and stop fighting God.
And this is all of God. That's the message of peace and
man hates it. Man by nature hates it. Unregenerate
men hate the peace that only Christ works. But Christ makes His saints peacemakers. He makes His saints peacemakers.
You remember the Holy Spirit descended on our Lord Jesus Christ
like a dove. A dove is a symbol of peace.
Christ tells His people, be wise as serpents, but harmless as
doves. Be wise as serpents, but harmless
as doves. Christ compares His people to
olive trees. The olive branch is a symbol
of making peace with somebody. He teaches us, if it be possible,
if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
with all men. That's what Christ teaches us.
We desire nothing more. This is what God makes you desire
in your heart. We desire nothing more than peace
with God. We want peace with our brethren.
And we want peace with all men. God's people are peacemakers.
I'm for peace. That's so of anybody in whom
the Spirit of Christ dwells. That's so of us. I am for peace. But the gospel is the gospel
of peace because it declares salvation and peace is only of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so just like men oppose Christ,
men will oppose you and me. They will oppose us because we
declare that we didn't choose God. God the Father chose us
freely by His grace. We had nothing to do with making
ourselves righteous and holy. Christ perfected us forever by
His one-off concovery. The Spirit of God created a new
holy man in us when Christ entered in and was formed in us. We don't
preserve ourselves. It's not perseverance of the
faith so that we boast that we've persevered. It's Him preserving
us. And we've declared these things are all of God, A to Z,
salvations of the Lord, and men hate the message of peace. They wage war. Listen to Galatians
4.28. Remember how Ishmael persecuted
Isaac? Remember that? Ishmael persecuted
Isaac. What did Paul say about that?
The Spirit of God says this, We brethren, as Isaac was, are
the children of promise. But as then he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now. It's been this way for God's
saints in every generation. Every generation has suffered
at the hand of unregenerate men. Let me read you some things here.
Matthew Henry, an old preacher, he said this. He said, though
the people of God are and study to be quiet, yet it's been the
common practice of their enemies to devise deceitful matters against
them. All the hellish arts of malice
and falsehood are made use of to render them odious and despicable. Their words and their actions
are misconstrued. Even that which they abhor is
fathered upon them. Laws are made to ensnare them
like they did Daniel, and all to ruin them and root them out.
Those that hated David thought scorn, like Haman of old. They wanted to lay hands on David
alone, not only to lay hands on David alone, but they contrived
to involve all religious people of the land in the same ruin
with him. They weren't content just to
go after David, they tried to turn everybody against David.
That's what the Pharisees did to Christ. William Huntington,
I was reading his letters. He began one of his letters like
this. This was the first opening line of his letter. He said,
I am for peace, a son of peace, and a preacher of the peace.
But I find, go where I will, the devil forestalls my market
by aiming at war. Spurgeon said this, he said,
the Christian will long to be out of a world like this where
there is a satanic rifleman behind every bush. a devilish archer
behind every crag and where often times while we're going along
some quiet veil of life, all secluded and peaceful, the arch
fiend comes behind us and we hear his flattering words. And all of a sudden he gives
a shrill call and from every side tempters rage. We see every
one of them armed to the teeth and with their arrows weaned
for flight and thirsty to destroy. And we wonder why we're brought
into such a place where all seem so calm and secluded, but now
we're surrounded by the enemy. Why is it? Why does that happen? Sometimes Christ puts us in situations
for this reason. Enemies all around, slander all
about. The grapevine about to blow up,
it's running so much. Why does Christ put you in a
situation like that? Number one, show you you can't
make peace. You can't do anything about it. And number two, to show you he's
the only one can make peace. So, lastly, when we are reviled
and we are slandered, the Spirit of Christ is going to make God's
child do what our Savior did when He walked this earth. The
Spirit of God is going to make you do what Christ did when He
walked this earth. What did He do? Verse 1, He said, In my distress
I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me. Christ cried unto the Lord, and
the Lord heard him. to teach you and me to cry unto
the Lord that the Lord will hear us." It says, "...who in the
days of His flesh, when He offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save
Him from death, was heard in that He feared." Let me show
you something. Go to Luke 22. I don't think
I've ever noticed this, or I don't recall ever noticing it. Luke
22. When he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22, verse
41, it says, And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast,
and kneeled down, and he prayed, saying, Father, if Thou be willing,
remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
Thine, be done. God the Father heard our Savior.
He heard Him. Look, and there appeared an angel
unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. Now here's what I never
noticed before. What did our Savior do when the
angel appeared and strengthened Him? And being in an agony, He
prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was as it were
great drops of blood falling down to the ground. You see,
the strengthening didn't take the trial away. Of course we
could bear up if the Lord would just take the slander away and
take away the wicked tongues and the lying tongues and take
the suffering away. Of course we could bear up. But
then we'd bear up and feel pretty strong because we wore up, but
it's just because the suffering was taken away. Christ didn't
take Paul's thorn away. When Paul prayed to Him and cast
his care on the Lord, Christ didn't take Paul's thorn away. Our Lord did something far better. He strengthens us in spirit. He strengthens us with the gospel.
He strengthens us with the word of what He's accomplished for
us and what He is accomplished for us and what He shall accomplish
for us. He strengthens us in the heart. And when He does that,
you know what He does? He doesn't take the suffering
away. He doesn't take the sorrow away. He doesn't take the tongue's
wagon away. He doesn't do that. He brings
you into closer communion with Him. It causes you to cast all
your care on Him and trust Him to vindicate you. And by that,
He shows you it's Him that is the strength and power keeping
you. It's His grace that's sufficient for you. It's what He's doing
for you that's saving you, not what you're doing. It's not in
the thorn whether you have it or don't have it. That's not
what's going to make you happy or sad. It's Christ coming and
comforting you that's going to be the peace of your heart. When reviled, here's what I like
about God's people. God has given you a spirit in
which is no guile. And we're honest. When we read
these things in the Scriptures and Epistles and they warn us
not to do this and to do the other thing, you know why we
have those in Scripture? Because we don't do what we're
supposed to do, that's why. We have them there because we
need them. We have them there because we do the opposite and
we need to be reminded. Our Lord teaches us that when
we are reviled, don't revile back. When people speak evil
against you, don't speak back at them like that or about them. But we do, don't you? We all do. Shouldn't, but we
do. We're God's people, honest about
it. We're not trying to be something we're not. We're not trying to
act like we're holier than other folks. We're just sinners, brethren. But why do you do that? Why will
you revile back? Why will you speak evil of somebody
else? Because you want to vindicate
yourself. It hurts when your character is maligned and you're
slandered and what have you. But brethren, if we're gods,
though you may do that in your flesh, and that's needful too
for the Lord's going to show you, you're still a sinner. You
still need Him. But then in time, the Spirit
of God is going to come and subdue you in your flesh and make you
mortify that flesh. And He's going to do it, strengthening
you in the heart just like He did our Lord Jesus. And you know
what He's going to bring you to do? He's going to bring you
to pray more earnestly to Him and commit it all to Him. That's what He'll do for His
child. That's what He'll do. We get in our flesh, we do. But
the Spirit of God will come and He'll restrain us, He'll make
us abandon all other means we're trying to use and cast ourselves
upon Christ alone in prayer. This is what He speaks into your
heart. In Isaiah 26, He says, Come, my people, enter into thy
chambers. Where is that? In Christ. You
go into Christ, into that secret place, and pray to Him from the
heart. Shut thy doors about thee, hide
thyself as it were for a little moment, till the indignation
be overpassed. He brings you just to commit
it to Christ. Christ committed His cause to God the Judge. Peter
said, when He reviled, He reviled not again. He committed to Him
that judges righteously. That's what we see Him doing
in our text, verse 2. He cried to the Father and He said, deliver
my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.
That's Christ casting His care on the Father to deliver Him.
It's not so much here. Deliver my soul from the men
who speak lies and deceit. We're going to be around folks
who speak lies and deceit and hate the peace of Christ and
the gospel of peace we preach. They're going to hate the gospel.
We're going to be around men like that all our life. It is
deliver my soul from the effects of their lies and their deceit. Two things, it's deliver my soul
by making my brethren not believe the slander, deliver my soul
by making my brethren not believe the slander, and deliver my soul
from the distress and the sorrow that it causes in my heart. That's what the Lord did for
Christ. God's able to do both in our brethren and in our own
hearts. He's peace. Christ is the only
one that can work this peace. This is Him giving you peace
when there's no peace around you, when men are making war
with you, and He gives you this peace in your heart, and He gives
this peace in other brethren's hearts to show you He's the only
one that can do it. Just like He's the only one at
the cross that can make peace with God, He's the only one that
can keep peace in my heart. He said, My peace I give unto
you, not as the world gives you, God our Father delivered our
Savior from the slander of the Pharisee. They slandered Him.
They said everything. God recorded it in His book.
And you know, everybody, unregenerate men that the Pharisee spoke to,
they believed that slander. And I'm going to tell you something,
unregenerate sinners today believe that slander. They believe there's
some truth to some of those things said about our Lord Jesus. Me
and you did when we were for war. But what happened? The Spirit of God gave a new
heart of faith to every one of those that Christ redeemed and
none of Christ's brethren believed any of that slander. And you
don't believe that slander. Who gave you that peace in your
heart with Christ to not believe what was spoken against Him?
Who gave that to you? The only one that could, the
Lord Jesus. Brethren, that's it. He's the
only one that can do this. We ask Him to deliver our soul
as only He can. And as He puts this peace in
the hearts of your brethren and causes them to, you know what
sort of things are honest, what sort of things are good, think
on these things. Christ speaks that in the hearts
of your brethren. He turns them from listening,
giving an ear to the slander. And He shuts their mouth from
repeating it. And He gives them peace in their heart to believe
the best. Love thinks the best. That's what He did in your heart
toward Christ. And so He creates peace in our
heart, and He creates peace in the heart of our brethren. You know, when Shimei cursed
David, calling him a bloody man and all these things, he was
saying, David told his men, leave him alone, God sent him. He said, it may be that the Lord
will look on my affliction and that the Lord will requite me
good for His cursing this day. And that's exactly what the Lord
did in David's heart. And that's exactly what the Lord
did in the heart of David's brethren. They didn't believe the slander. And He kept peace between David
and his brethren and Christ. And Christ did that. And at last,
this is what our Lord did for our Savior. And at last, you
know what God did? God vindicated the Lord Jesus
Christ. God raised Him from the dead,
declaring to this whole world, He is the wisdom of God, the
righteousness of God, the holiness of God, the redemption of God.
He is the salvation of His people. He's the one in whom His people
are complete. And God raised Him from the right hand, declaring
that loud and clear before this whole world. And there's coming
a day when He's going to bring everybody into His presence and
every knee is going to bow and everybody is going to confess
that soul of our Lord Jesus. God the Father vindicated Christ. And He will vindicate you. Not
with those that are lying and slandering on you and hate you
and are for war. He will do it in the hearts of
His people. Because Christ is the Peacemaker.
He is the King of Salem. You do it in the hearts of His
people. He'll vindicate His saints. Verse
3, What shall be given unto thee? What shall be done unto thee,
thou false tongue? From God shall come sharp arrows
of the mighty with coals of juniper. Christ said, Every idle word
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day
of judgment. Every word, every idle word. Listen, For by thy
words thou shalt be justified. You that believe Christ, you're
going to be justified by your words. Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. and by
thy words thou shalt be condemned." Every idle word. You know what
an idle word is when it comes to God's children and liars and
people that charge us? It's idle to condemn God's children. It's God that justifies. You
can't do it. It's an idle thing. You might
as well, you're barking up the wrong tree. You can't condemn
one of them. It's Christ that died. It's Christ
that's risen that's advocating for them. but you'll be condemned
for doing it. That's what the enemy will. Rather,
the only way to overcome the enemy of our own sinful flesh,
that great enemy called the devil, and all the enemies of the cross,
there's only one way to overcome them. It's through the power
and protection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our Savior in all
points at all times. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. I pray tonight, like the children
of Israel, I pray that you left your home and you came here in
distress because you've been in this unregenerate, wicked
world, speaking lies all week. And I pray you came here and
the Lord Jesus spoke into your heart and comforted you and you're
going to go home like the children of Israel at the end of these
psalms, singing and rejoicing in strength and trusting the
Lord. What I'm saying to you, brethren, is when these things
come, cast all your care on Christ, because He careth for you. He's
the peacemaker. He's the only King of Salem.
He's the only one that can make peace. Amen.