Alright brethren, let's go to
Isaiah chapter 26. Isaiah 26. I want to read verse
3 and 4. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in
thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. To you in whom God's
given faith in Christ so that he's your only hope, this is
God's promise to you. This is his promise to you. As
you read these words, read these words saying that to yourself,
reminding yourself of that. This is God's promise, the true
and living God. This is His promise to me. He
says in verse 3, Thou wilt. That's who makes this promise.
That's who will perform it. God will. Thou will keep Him. The Lord Jehovah is a keeping
God. He keeps by His grace. his people. Those he chose in Christ, those
he redeemed by Christ, those he regenerates by the spirit,
he will keep. Thou will keep him in perfect
peace. Is that what you need? That's
what we need. Perfect peace. We just sang this. This is where Miss Havergill
got this hymn. You keep him in perfect peace.
It's shalom, shalom. It's peace, peace is what it
means. Double peace. We have peace with God our Father
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Peace, peace. Peace with God
and peace within. Who is he going to do this for?
That will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
thee. It's those that he's brought
to have our mind stayed on Christ, fixed on Christ, leaned on Christ,
settled on Christ. Why is he going to do this? Verse
3 says, because he trusteth in thee. When he's brought you to
trust him, he won't betray your trust. He brought you to cast
it all on him, he will not betray your trust. Then comes the instruction,
trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. Don't trust yourself, don't trust
anything you've done. He says trust ye in the Lord
forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. He promised
double peace, and here he gives his name double. Jah Jehovah
is what this is. His name said double here. And it says trust the Lord forever
for in the Lord is everlasting strength. Trust the Lord forever
because he's the rock of ages. He's the rock forever. Now in
the context, this song is the song of Christ's church. He says
back in verse 1, In that day shall this song be sung in the
land of Judah. We have a strong city. The church
is a strong city in Christ who is our city of refuge. He says,
Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. But I want
you to read this again and take the italics out and put a capital
S there. Salvation will appoint walls
and bulwarks. Our salvation is Christ. Listen to this. I read it earlier
in Isaiah 12, 2. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become
my salvation. And when you go over to Isaiah
60 in verse 18, they capitalize the S. And they say, thou shalt
call thy walls salvation. He's our wall. He's our bulwark. He's our city of refuge. And
he's our peace. He made his church his righteous
nation. He made us his holy nation. Some
of the old writers used to talk about there was the Jew and there
was the Gentile, and they talked about God's people being a third
race. And they are. that holy nation
created of God. And he says in verse 2, open
ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth
may enter in. That's all his people. Now here's
the promise again, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose
mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee. Now at this
moment, some of God's people, some of his saints are very troubled. And I came upon this passage,
actually, I had my message prepared Wednesday, and I was speaking
with somebody, I'd spoken with a couple of people, and they
were telling me about the trouble they were in. And they just were
rehearsing all the details and the trouble, and that's all the
conversation was, was about all the trouble, all the trouble.
And that's what we do, that's what I do. That's what you do.
When trouble comes, we start thinking on the trouble. We fix
our mind on the trouble and that's all we can think about is the
trouble and the details of the trouble. And we become like David
when he said, my heart's overwhelmed within me. We sink down like
Peter did when he started looking at the waves and saw the wind
boisterous, looked from Christ and he started sinking down.
But David also cried, Lord, lead me to the rock that's higher
than I. That's what our text says. Trust
in the Lord Jehovah. He's the rock of ages. He's the
rock of ages. Well, how is it that we're going
to be made to fix our mind on Christ? You know, sometimes you
just can't seem to do that. You just can't. Well, understand
this. He promises this to you he has
given the mind of Christ. He promises this to his people
who he's already fixed us on Christ. He's always already set
us on Christ in our heart, in our mind. Thou will keep him
in perfect peace. In Christ, our perfect peace. The promise is he keeps us in
perfect peace with God even when we don't feel perfect peace within
us. And I know we want to feel that
perfect peace, and we're going to talk about that too, but we
need to talk about this first. Even when you don't feel like
you have peace in you, that does not change the peace that Christ
has made between God and his people. And he's going to keep
those he's already brought to have your mind fixed on Christ.
He's going to keep you in that perfect peace, even when you
don't feel like you have that peace. Thou will keep him in
perfect peace, in Christ our perfect peace, whose mind is
stayed on thee, because he trusts in you. Those he's given a heart,
he's gonna keep peace for you. Now we said, looked at this Thursday
night, I'm gonna repeat it, and I don't find it grievous to repeat,
but in Ephesians 2, Paul said, it's not grievous to repeat the
same things, for you it's safe. And I'm gonna repeat this, cause
it is safe for us. Ephesians 2 13, Now, in Christ
Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ, for he is our peace. The Son of God came and
made peace with God our Father for his people. Our Lord Jesus
came here and he perfected peace for his people. He perfected
righteousness for his people by his work on the cross. so
that his people have peace with God. He reconciled us to God
by his own blood on the cross. God was in Christ reconciling
his people to himself, not imputing our sins to us. And he has accomplished
that work, and he is our perfect peace forever. The rock is the
rock of ages. Our everlasting strength is God. Our everlasting strength with
God is God, our Savior. He's our peace. Our only peace
with God is Christ. Now, how do we come to have it?
We're going to work our way here to this point of how is it I'm
going to fix my mind on Christ when the trouble comes? Well,
how did we have our minds fixed on Christ in the first hour?
How did that happen? We didn't have our minds fixed
on Christ to begin with. We were carnally minded. We were
carnally minded. We were spiritually dead. We
were minding only the things of our sinful flesh. And we couldn't
do otherwise. We had no mind for spiritual
things. We had no mind. We only had a mind for sinful
flesh. Now that's so whether we were
in religion or out of religion. We had a mind only for our flesh. We all minded the God of our
imagination. Everybody does that in religion
or out. Everybody has a God in their
mind and really that idol God is self. He comes out of our
mind and he is just like us. We make him out to be somebody
we can get along with, that'll receive us. Look at Romans 8,
5. I want you to see this. I'm just
going to read a part of it. And then I'll come back and read
the other part later. But I want you to just see, this was us
to begin with, right here. And this is still in our flesh,
but look at Romans 8, 5. Verse 5 says, they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. They which are
spiritual, they're after the spirit, they mind the things
of the spirit. But we were after the flesh, born of Adam, after
the flesh, all we minded was earthly things. For to be carnally
minded, that is to be natural minded, is death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. But here's why the carnal mind
is death, because the carnal mind's enmity against God. The
natural mind hates God. He's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. And the best understanding of
that, the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. Paul said, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. We had a mind Minding imaginary
goodness in us. That's what we were minding some
imaginary goodness in us I'm not perfect. I know that but
I'm not I'm not that bad. I'm not as bad as some Not as
bad as that one Our mind was that God Who we imagined would
receive us? Thinking long as our good outweighs
our bad He'll receive us But all was only the evil lust of
our flesh. Every bit of it. Every bit of
it. Whatever sinful lust, whatever
religious lust, it was all just sinful lust. Every thought of
the imaginations of our heart was only evil continually. That's
what God says about us. But Christ came and preached
peace to us. That's what Ephesians 2 said.
He came and preached peace to us. And by His Spirit, He gave
us the mind of Christ. Go over to 1 Corinthians 2. Let's
see what that is. How do we become spiritually
minded and have our mind fixed on Christ and settled on Christ
to believe Christ is all? How did that happen? 1 Corinthians
2 verse 11. He says, What man knoweth the
things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? I don't know what's in you. I
don't know what you're thinking, unless you tell me. Well, even
so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God, that we might know, that we might
be minded of the things that are freely given to us of God. Now, look down at verse 16. The
last part says, because he did this, we have the mind of Christ. We've been fixed on Christ. Christ has been made wisdom to
you who believe. That's what he does in the dead
sinner. He finds you carnally minded and he comes and God shines
light into the darkness and he makes you behold the glory of
God in the face of Christ Jesus. Makes us see we're sinners, undone,
ruined, unable to save ourselves, unable to do anything to please
God and he makes you see Christ is the one he's pleased with.
It makes you see what Christ has done, what He's accomplished
for His people, and He makes you see yourself in total need
of Him and know what nobody else will do. And He draws you to
Him, and He makes your mind be stayed on Him and fixed on Him,
and He shows you the things He's freely, freely given in Christ. free righteousness, justified
freely by the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, who God set
forth to be the satisfying mercy seat, the one who accomplished
mercy and accomplished making atonement with God and satisfaction
to God for His people through faith in His blood. And He brings
your mind to be fixed on Christ, settled on Christ, and therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God. We have peace
with God and through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice
in the hope of the glory of God. We rejoice that we're going to
stand one day in his presence in glory and praise our Lord
Jesus who did this. So the way we began having our
mind stayed on Christ is He came and preached peace to us and
taught us what He did for us and showed us what He did for
us and gave us a new mind and made us be set on Him. They that
are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh. When He
did this for you, they that are after the spirit mind the things
of the spirit. He made you start minding the
things that He had freely done for you. Minding Christ, minding
Him, set on Him. The carnal mind's death But this
spiritual mindedness is what? It's life and it's peace. You have peace in Christ. You
have peace in what he did for you. It's accomplished. Peace, peace, perfect peace.
It's not in me. It's not in us. It's not in something
we did. Christ is our perfect peace.
Peace with God. And he's given peace in our heart.
It's peace, peace. We have it by Christ. And if we're not in Him, we're
not trusting Him, we're not believing on Him, He hasn't made us spiritually
minded so that our hearts are set and we want to be found in
Him alone. We want to walk before Him and
please Him and be found only in Him. If that's not our case,
then saying peace, peace is no peace at all. This peace is only
in the Lord Jesus. Now, I know by experience as
well as you that we become troubled in our minds. We become very
troubled in our minds. We have this nature with us to
still sin and when we get troubled, I know what we do. I do the very
same thing. We do exactly what the Lord teaches
us not to do. Our Lord said in Proverbs 3,
5, He said, Trust in the Lord with all thy heart. He's saying,
Stay on Christ. Keep your heart set on Christ. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. And He says, And lean not to
thine own understanding. That word lean is the same root
word in our text as stayed. It's the same root word, stayed.
He says, stay not on your own understanding. Stay not on your
thoughts. Don't fix your mind on your thoughts.
Stay on Christ. Fix your heart, your mind on
Christ. But, isn't that what we do in
trouble? We stay our minds on our trouble. We go over and over the details
in our mind. We go over and over and over
it. wake up going over it, go over it throughout the day, go
to bed going over it, and get up and do it all over again.
And this is what we do, too. We even start imagining what's
going to happen tomorrow and worrying about what's going to
happen tomorrow, and we don't even know if we're going to be
alive tomorrow. And we create new troubles that
haven't even come to pass yet, and we're worried about those
troubles. And what our minds are stayed on affects everything
about us, affects our communion with God, and affects our unity
with one another. Whatever we got our minds stayed
on. It's really just unbelief. And here's the fact of it is,
leaning to our own understanding is the worst possible thing we
could lean on. It's the worst possible thing
we could have our have ourselves fixed on because our own understanding
is full of speculation, is full of doubt, is full of uncertainty,
fleshly surmising takes over, evil thoughts take over, and
the Lord just quite frankly says don't do it. What happened when
Peter saw the wind and the waves? He was looking at Christ, he
was focused on Christ, his heart was fixed on Christ, and I fully
believe what the scripture says. He walked on water. That wasn't
any big deal for the Lord. The Lord came and took flesh. The Son of God took flesh. The
Son of God went to the cross and put away the sin of his people.
You think it's any big deal to make a man walk on water? He's
holding this whole thing together by his sovereign power. He is
gravity. He is nature that everybody calls
mother nature. It's God doing it. You think
making a man walk on water is any big deal? But as long as
Peter was looking at Christ, he's walking on that water. His
heart was fixed on him. His mind was fixed on him. When
he started looking at the waves and the wind and saw it was boisterous,
he started sinking. Our peace within may falter. But what our text is telling
us is our perfect peace with God does not change, though our
peace within falters. It does not. Christ is that peace. Aren't you thankful it's not
dependent on whether or not you feel peace or not. Christ is our peace. He's our
everlasting strength. But just like he did in the beginning,
how are we going to get our minds fixed on him? Here's the interesting
thing. When I was talking to my friend,
this verse came to me just like a thunderbolt. And I almost preached
on this Thursday night, but I thought, well, I have this message and
I thought that will be better to preach first and maybe I will
preach on this Sunday. And when I was thinking on this
and my mind was fixed on Christ, I mean, scripture was coming
to me. I was writing things down. It was just like that. And I got up Friday morning and
I couldn't fix my mind on Christ. to save my life. I couldn't.
I had every kind of trouble in my mind and I just could not
fix my mind on Christ. So how is our mind brought to
be fixed on Christ when you're in that shape? Verse 3 says,
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
thee because he trusted in thee. It's not just that he's going
to keep you in peace because your mind stayed on him. It's
because he's brought you to trust him. He's going to keep your
mind stayed on him and keep you knowing he's your peace when
you're sinking down. Who saved Peter? When Peter started
sinking down, went looking the other way, He said, help, Lord,
and the Lord saved him. And he's the one that's going
to keep us fixed on him, knowing he's our only peace. If it's
personal sin that caused our trouble, it will totally land
blast our communion and our peace with God. And it's a good thing. He won't let you have peace with
him, and he's going to He's going to correct you. He's going to
chasten us. He's going to bring us to see it and know it. No
matter what he has to do, that's what he's going to do. How does
he do it? Go to Colossians 3. The Colossians were being They
had men coming in, they were puffed up by their fleshly mind,
and they were telling them to touch not, taste not, handle
not, and all these things they needed to do. And they weren't
fixing their minds on Christ. They were turning them from Christ
to themselves, what they were doing. And Paul came in and he
said, you're complete in Christ. You're complete in Christ. He
circumcised your flesh. Your flesh is dead. He circumcised
you in the heart and brought you to have your mind fixed on
Him. Why, as though your life is in this world, are you subject
to touch not, taste not and handle not? Your life is not in this
world. That does not affect your peace with God. Well, if you
tell them that, Paul, they are just going to sin more and more.
He did not stop there. Here is how the flesh is strengthened
so that we are able to mortify our flesh, right here. Colossians
3, 1. If ye then be risen with Christ,
this is what he said after saying all that, if you are risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God, set, fix, stay your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth, for you are dead. Believer, you're
dead in Christ. He died. When he died, you died.
You old man of sin died. You're dead. And your life is
hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.
Mortify, therefore, your members which are on the earth. That's
how he does it right there. He takes you, Christ comes and
He speaks a word of what He's accomplished for you in your
heart and makes you behold Him bearing your sin, makes you behold
that you really died and your old man of sin died in Him and
He makes you see your sin in light of what He did for you
and He speaks this word into your heart and He says, now mortify
that flesh. And that's when you'll have strength
to mortify. And not a second before. Not a second before. if our troubles over the cares
of this life. We can just, you ever have somebody
say, just don't worry about it. When you got real trouble. Just
don't worry about it. Ain't no way you can stop worrying
about it. Christ comes, look at Luke 12. Christ comes He sends a word
just like this right here, but He speaks it into your heart.
And He says what He says right here in Luke 12 verse 29. Seek not ye what ye shall eat
or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. He speaks
this effect and He says turn from this doubtful mind, this
anxious worry and care you have over all these things. For all
these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your
Father, your heavenly Father, your sovereign heavenly Father
knoweth that you have need of these things. But rather seek
ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to
you. As he sees fit, he'll provide
those things you're all worried about. Fear not, little flock. It's your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. You don't think he's going to
provide whatever we're worried about. And he speaks that into
our hearts. And you know what he does when
he does that? He fixes your mind on him. And you see, I've got
perfect peace. He spared not his son. He's going
to give me whatever piddly thing it is I'm worried about. He'll
do that. And I'm telling you now, I know
we're not always in this perfect peace. This perfect peace is
Christ. We just enter into it and there's
some sweet moments he gives us where we know everything's all
right. A little while, we're back worrying
about something. A little while, that peace is
interrupted. And he comes and he speaks his word effectually
again. And that's when you have peace.
You enter back into this peace. Your mind's fixed on him. Well,
what if you get lifted up in pride or you're opposed by pride?
Well, that happens too. You know, we get offended. We
get all lifted up and puffed up like a big old bullfrog. He
comes and he says, serve the Lord with all humility of mind. What's true humility? Where does
it come from? We can't produce it. When he
says that word, he humbles you. He humbles you. When he says,
let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness
of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. How am
I going to do that? He says, let this mind be in
you, which was in Christ Jesus. He made himself of no reputation.
He took the form of a servant. He was obedient to the father
on your behalf and laid down his life and highly glorified
the father by what he did. But you don't know what's been
said to me. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. When he speaks that word, you
can be the one reviling, or you can be the one being reviled.
But when he speaks that word, your mind's fixed on him. And
you realize, he's my righteous judge. He judged me at Calvary. He declares to me in the court
of my conscience as my righteous judge that my sins put away and
I'm righteous in Him. He can judge the matter. He can
judge it. And you commit it to Him. Why
don't we just stay there? Why don't we just always just
stay there? Because we have a sinful nature.
But He keeps you fixed on Him and keeps you knowing. He's judging
righteousness for his people. In this earth, right now. He's
doing it. Committed to him. Committed to
him. And he fixes you on him. He stays
your mind on him. And you know. You know. Well, what if the trouble lasts
a long time? If the devil can't get you by
just coming and making you lose it like this, he'll try to tire
you out. He'll try to go a long time and
make you lose your patience. If he can't get you right away,
he'll eventually try to get you to where you end up like Peter
and throw your hands up and say, I'm just going fishing. What's
going to happen then? How are you going to be kept
then? Our Lord makes us have divine
recall in our minds. That's what he does. Go to Lamentations
3. Lamentations 3. He was thinking about the wormwood
and the gall and was cast down. Verse 21, He says, This I recall
to my mind. How is that going to happen for
a sinner? Same way it happened the first
hour. The Lord is going to get the glory. He is going to make
you have divine recall. He is going to make you recall
what He has done for you in your mind. This I recall to my mind,
therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not concerned. Because His compassions fail
not. There's one whose compassions
never fail you. His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. That's where he brings you when
he sets your mind on him again. He makes you come to this. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in
him. The Lord is good to them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It's good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. That's how He's going to keep
you patient, waiting on Him, rather than giving up and go
back. He's going to make you persevere,
looking to Him. He stays your mind on Him. Whatever
the case, whatever it is, and we could go on through, we got
enough troubles as we got imagination. Whatever the trouble is, here's
what he's doing the whole time. When he comes and he stays your
mind on him, here's what he does. He comes and he says, humble
yourself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due time. Casting all your care upon him,
for he careth for you. That's where He's going to bring
you, every single time. He don't stop it. Now, He's our
peace with God, our perfect peace with God. He never ceases being
our perfect peace with God. But when we're troubled and tossed
and our minds are all over the place, it's Him coming and reminding
you, this, whatever it is got you tossed and troubled, it's
of my hand. It's of God's hand. And it reminds
you, one of these words, I preached this one time before, and I remember
this from before, and I remembered it when we just sang Peace Like
a River. She said, hidden in the hollow
of his gracious hand. One of these words here, I think
it's, I think it's where it says, keeps
him in perfect pea, he keeps you. I believe that word, it
has to do with a hollow, like a crook in an arm or the hollow
of a hand. She knew what she was saying.
That's where she got it, because that's the Hebrew word. And he
reminds you, this is of my hand, but you're in the hollow of my
hand. I'm caring for you. I'm caring for you. He's our
sovereign redeemer, brethren. He's our sovereign redeemer.
He's sovereign in salvation. He didn't try to save us. He
saved us. He didn't try to redeem his people.
He redeemed his people. And he's in glory now having
suffered everything his people suffered. You can't find one
thing in this book that you suffered that he didn't suffer. Not a
thing. Nothing. He has suffered everything
we suffered and knows every feeling of our sinful infirmities. He
was touched with them. He knows them. And He's sovereign
to come and fix your mind on Him. And that's our comfort.
He makes you see He's your perfect peace and He keeps you stayed
on Him. It's not enough to say the devil won't do us any harm.
That falls short of it. By God's sovereign hand, the
devil's doing us nothing but good. That's the truth of it. He doesn't just work some things,
he works all things together for the good of them that love
God to them who are called according to his purpose. All things together. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
He's working it all together for his people. Every bit of
it. and he speaks affectionately
and here is where he brings you, here is where he brings you,
verse 4, trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah
is everlasting strength. Our rock is the rock of ages
forever, trust him forever. You know Proverbs 8, 21, wisdom
speaking and that is Christ, wisdom speaking and he says,
I cause those that love me to inherit substance. You know why
faith is the substance of things hoped for? He says, I'll cause
those that love me to inherit substance. You know why? It means
rock. It means substance. You know
why faith is the substance of things hoped for? Because faith
is trusting Christ our rock. That's why. And that's the substance. That's the rest. That's the everlasting strength
of His people. The everlasting strength of his
people. He's the helmet of salvation.
You know why? He is our salvation. He's the
one that's going to protect our mind and keep a state on him.
So, instead of waking up and rehearsing the trouble, wake
up and read this verse of scripture. and realize and think about Him
all day. Once time comes and you done
been troubled by everything under the sun, pull that verse back
out and read it. And remember, He's keeping me. And when you get ready to go
to bed, read it again and be thinking about Him. Listen to this from Proverbs
16, 3. Listen just how simple this is. Commit thy works unto the Lord. That means whatever is coming
to pass in your life. Commit thy works unto the Lord. Commit thy works to the Lord.
I don't mean give some of them. I don't mean cast a little bit
on it. That means commit every bit of it to Him. What's going
to be the result? And thy thoughts shall be established. You committed all to the rock
and your thoughts will be established on the rock. Amen.