Turn our Bibles to Isaiah chapter
57. Isaiah 57. And let's begin reading in verse
19. Isaiah 57, 19. I create the fruit of the lips. This is God speaking. I create
the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace to him that is far
off and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal
him. But the wicked are like the troubled
sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God
to the wicked. Now the wicked here that does not have peace and
cannot have peace. In one regard, this is the reprobate. This is the man that God has
just left to himself, and the man has done what he wants to
do. He's hardened himself against
God, he's sinned against God, and God's hardened his heart
to where he can't believe God. He won't ever have peace. And
God did that justly. The man rebelled against God,
he hated God, he rejected God, and God turned him over to reprobation.
That's just. Reprobation is an act of God's
justice. Predestination is an act of God's
grace. He chooses some. He leaves everybody
else alone. We come forth sinners. But we
sin of our own volition. We came forth doing what we wanted
to do. So when God turns a man over, that's a just thing. Because
we sin against God. But if God chooses to save some
from that mass of iniquity, that's all by God's grace. because he
chose to do it from the beginning. But, on the other hand, this
wicked person is all of us. That's what we see here. It's
all of us by nature. That's who we are by nature.
Genesis 6, 5 says, God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. That was everybody on the earth
in Noah's day, including Noah. But the only reason Noah entered
that ark is because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Wicked here means guilty. And every one of us by nature
are guilty. Guilty of sinning against God.
And so God says here that we are like the troubled sea. The troubled sea. The troubled
sea cannot rest. When you look at the ocean, it
doesn't matter how it may be calmer at times than it is at
other times, but it's never at rest. Underneath, in the places
you can't see, there's constant moving of currents and all kinds
of things that you're unable to see. And that's a sinner.
We may be more calm at times, may be able to put on an outward
appearance of peace at times, but the natural man is always
constantly enmity against God. Every fiber of his being hates
God. That's just what he is. It's
in places you can't see and he tries real well to hide it. Be
a good little girl and a good little boy. But it's there. It's
there. And so it says here, his waters
cast up mire and mud and dirt. That's speaking of the heart,
brethren. A person will sit in a church service, young or old,
and they'll sit through a worship service and they'll refuse to
open up the Word of God. They'll refuse to hear the gospel
that's being preached. They just determine, I'm not
going to do it. And what they're doing in their heart is spitting
in God's face. In their heart, they're saying,
no, God, shut up, I'm not listening. That's what they're doing. That's
the mud and the mire, the dirt that's coming up out of their
heart. Casting blame on God. Well, if you chose some to save
and you didn't choose others to save, then why do you blame
us then? Why does, you know the depravity
of man is he always by nature puts himself in the camp with
those that God passes by. Have you ever noticed that? and
calls God unfair for leaving him there. That's where, by nature,
man always puts himself in that camp. He never, by nature, says,
well, I'm so thankful God has mercy on some. That means there's
hope for me. He never puts himself in that
camp. He always says, why would God choose some and pass by others?
That's not fair. Puts himself right square in
the camp of those that deserve nothing but damnation. That's
the blood in the mire that comes up out of his heart constantly.
Blaming God for his sin. Blaming other sinners for his
sin. Blaming the world for his sin. Blaming conditions for his
sin. Blaming things for his sin. But
never saying, it's coming out of my heart. Never. Those things which proceed out
of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man, the Lord said. And so, because they come from
the heart, then it's clearly seen in his tongue. The Lord
said through James, the tongue's a fire. It's a world of iniquity.
It's set on fire of hell. What sets the tongue on fire?
That hell in the heart. That's what sets it on fire.
And it's just yakking, yakking, yakking and no man can tame it.
It's an unruly evil that can't be tamed because it's coming
from an unruly heart that can't be tamed. It's just casting up
mire and dirt so there's no peace to the wicked. That's who we
all are by nature. Who does the sinning? The sinner
does. Who refuses to hear the gospel?
The sinner does. Who says no, God? The sinner
himself. And so who's to blame if God
just turns him over to reprobation? The sinner himself. He's just. And yet every believer was once
nothing but a lost, wicked sinner. Every one of us. But here's grace. Here's mercy. God chose to save
the people for himself. That's grace and that's mercy.
And that peace that's made and that peace that's put on our
lips is created by the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father put it
into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ to make this peace. That's
our first point. God our Savior is the creator
of peace. He says in verse 19, I create
the fruit of the lips. Now this is all by the grace
of God. We saw there in verse 17, he says, for the iniquity
of his covetousness was a wrath. I smote him, I hid me, I was
wrath, and he went on forward in the way of his heart. I've
seen his ways, God said. That's saying, brethren, that
the sinner God saves is no different from any other sinner on this
earth. He couldn't be turned by God smiting him, chasing him,
putting judgment upon him. That wouldn't change him. They
wouldn't turn him. He went on forwardly in his heart.
But the next verse says, I'll heal him. I will heal him. And I'll lead him, and I'll restore
comforts unto him, and I'll create fruit on his lips. That's the
grace of God. That's the grace of God. Salvation. Salvation. What is salvation?
It's to be regenerated. It's to be made the righteousness
of God. It's to be sanctified, made holy.
That's salvation. It's to be made a new creation.
It's not a restoration of something that already exists. This is
the wisdom of God. You know, God made a heaven and
an earth, and it fell into sin and corruption and everything
else, and it's polluted. The whole world's polluted. God's
not going to use anything in this world, anything that's in
it now, in man or anything else, to create the new heaven and
the new earth. He's just going to create something altogether
new. And he don't use anything in the center to make this new
creation. He creates something entirely
that was not there. That's what he does. It's a creation.
In Christ Jesus, circumcision doesn't avail anything, your
law keeping don't avail anything, and your uncircumcision doesn't.
You know what that tells us? You and I have nothing to do
with it, period. It don't matter if you were born
under the law and kept it outwardly all your days, or if you lived
over in Africa with a bone through your nose. It don't matter. It
don't have anything to do with you. But it's a new creature,
a new creation. That's made by Christ. The triune
God in Christ Jesus is the one and only Creator. He says, I
create the fruit of the lips. And He says this to His people
in Isaiah 65. He says, Be ye glad and rejoice forever in that
which I create, and His people are. We're glad and we rejoice.
While the man that's in his sin is just proving his depravity
because he's mad and he don't rejoice in it, we're proving
God's grace because we're glad and rejoicing in it. Because
He's created it. He's created it. Sin, it's God
alone who creates peace. I have a question. Why then does
God not do it for all men? Why does he not do it for all
men? He could, couldn't he? He's got that power. Why didn't
he? Why did he not choose to do it for all men? Well, here's
his purpose. Romans 9-11 says, the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. The purpose of God.
This is why he chose some and didn't choose others. That you
might understand it's not of works, but it's of him that calleth.
Not of works, it's of him that called. You know, if I was standing
somewhere and I had no way of eating, couldn't get life, couldn't
possess bread, no way of getting it at all. And there was a man
that had bread. And he clearly told me, I'm going
to feed some people. But it's not going to be based
on you or anything in you. I'm going to do it showing that
I have the right to choose whom I will pass by whom I will. You
know what I'd do? I wouldn't yell at him and cuss
him and get mad at him. I'd fall down at his feet and
beg him, would you please have mercy on me? That's what I'd
do. The fool would do the other thing. The one that does that thing,
he surely ain't getting any bread. He chose whom he would, not based
on good or evil in us, to declare that salvation is not of works.
He said to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll
have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. Paul said, So
then, it's not of him that willeth, not of him that runneth, it's
God that shows mercy. This is the thing men hate. They
hate that God, by sovereign grace, shows His right to have mercy
on whom He will. And they hate it because it shows
that God doesn't owe anybody anything. He doesn't owe any
man anything. Mercy means we need to be saved
from something. Mercy means we've sinned against
God and we have no right to it. Grace means he's given us something
we in no way deserve. And that's what man hates. The
two things he hates is sovereign election declares, number one,
he's a dead dog sinner that can't do a thing. And number two, it
declares God's God and he can do everything like he wants to
do it. And man hates that by nature.
That's our depravity, brethren. That's our depravity. That's
the enmity right there. But there's something else He
declares in this. He declares that He has the right
to have all the glory. Look at Isaiah 43, 7. Even everyone
that's called by My name. That statement right there automatically
tells you not everybody is called by His name. But God says, everyone
that is called by my name, I've created him for my glory, I have
formed him, yea, I've made him. I created him for my glory, God
said. Look down at verse 21. Isaiah 43, 21. This people have
I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise. They're
going to glory in one, they're going to glory in me. Look at
Isaiah 48, 11. For mine own sake, even for mine
own sake will I do it. For how shall my name be polluted?
I will not give my glory unto another. This is who God is. And so this is important. Everybody
here that despises God. Everybody here that despises
God. That's everybody that just politely says, well I just don't
think I agree and I just don't think I believe your God. You
hate God. You despise Him. Now to everybody
that does, instead of rebelling against God, He tells you how
to come to Him. He says, O Lord, He says, come
confessing it. O Lord, Thou art our Father,
we are the clay, and Thou our potter, we are all the work of
Thy hand. That's how He says come. Come
that way. Psalm 95, 6 says, O come, let
us worship and bow down. That's what worship means, bow
down. Let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the
Lord our Maker, for He is our God and we're the people of His
pasture and the sheep of His hand. You come that way, you're
going to find mercy. I guarantee it. I could say that
without even a shadow of a doubt. Come that way to God, you're
going to find mercy. You already have if you can.
All right, secondly. How does God create this fruit
on our lips? Isaiah 57, 19. It's by Christ speaking. And
here's what He speaks. Peace. That's what it is. Peace. Peace. Peace to him that's
far off, and to him that's near. Saith the Lord, and I will heal
him. That's how this fruit's created. Christ is the Prince
of Peace. And the fruit that He puts on
our lips is peace. And He puts that fruit on our
lips by speaking in sovereign power peace. He speaks peace. Remember that raging sea? There
the apostles were out there on that sea and that sea is raging
and they're terrified and they're going to die. That's what's going
to happen before God saves you. He's going to show you the law.
He's going to show you what it says of you. He's going to show
you what you deserve. And you're going to be on a troubled
sea. And it's going to be raging to the point that you think,
this is it. I'm dead and I deserve eternal
death. And Christ comes and He says,
peace, be still. And it's come. He's created peace. He's created peace. That's what
he does through the preaching of the gospel. Let's go to Ephesians
2. The Apostle Paul quoted from our text in Ephesians 2. Ephesians
chapter 2. He preached our text here. Let's
just see what he preached. Ephesians 2. Verse 12, At that time you were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who were sometimes far off, are made near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace. who's made
both one. Right there he's speaking of
us and all our brethren that we differed with, namely the
Jew and the Gentile. He's saying he's made us both
one. And he's broken down the middle wall of petition between
us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity which is the law of
commandments contained in ordinances For to making himself of two,
one new man, so making peace." That's what he does between brethren. He makes peace with us. All those
things we use to differentiate ourselves from one another, we
see now, they never did make us any different from the other.
But he took that law out of the way, nailing it to his cross,
and he's shown us, you're all just a bunch of maggots without
me. But I've saved you now, and now you're all equal. You're
all equally righteous and holy in me. All equally saved, so
he's made us one. We have no reason to argue with
each other. All right? Then look. that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. He did this too on the cross.
He took that law and he satisfied it for his people. He satisfied
justice so that he reconciled us to God in his one body. That
word reconciliation means he made peace with God for us. That's what a mediator does.
He brings two parties together that weren't together. He brought
us together. And What else did he do? Now
here's our text. He came and he preached peace
to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. And when
he preaches peace to you affectionately in your heart, here's the result.
Through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. And now we're no more strangers
and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God. That's how he does it. He came to this earth and he
did it. And we were reconciled to God,
reconciled with our brethren, and reconciled to God in Christ
by His cross work, by His resurrection, before we ever even knew it had
happened. But He came to us. Christ, that powerful one, we
saw Thursday night, he's on that white stallion now, and he's
going forth with a bow in his hand and a crown on his head,
and he's calling out, conquering, and he has conquered and he's
conquering his people. And he calls us out. He comes
to where you are. And it's like you're sitting
there hearing this gospel, and it's like Christ sat down beside
you and grabbed you by your hand and started speaking to you personally.
And He begins to speak to you and He begins to show you, you
have nothing wherewith you can come to God. You have nothing
wherewith you can lay a claim on God. You have nothing in you,
nothing done by you, nothing said by you, from the day you
were born to this minute right now, whereby God will accept
you. Nothing at all. And when He speaks
it, the seed becomes troubled. It becomes troubled. And He takes
His child by the hand and He says, He says, I have made peace
for you through the blood of my cross. I have reconciled all
things, all my people unto myself. I've done it on a bloody cross.
That cross you've despised, that cross you've said is useless,
that cross that you've tried to imitate and hang it in gold
around your neck to put on some more fig leaves, that cross Through
my blood, given my life on that cross, I have satisfied divine
justice for you. I have satisfied the holy law
of God. I have satisfied God himself.
I have made peace with you, my child, through the blood of my
cross. You are reconciled to God. He says that to his child
individually. He doesn't come and speak it
to the whole congregation because not everybody's been reconciled
by it. But He comes to each one in the congregation and He speaks
to them personally and says, I've done this for you. I've
done this for you. He says to us, He declares in
our hearts how He made that peace. He shows us that He gave Himself
for us. You see, the problem with us
is we're not going to lay down our life for anything. No, sir. No, sir. Now, that man that just
died over in Philadelphia, that police officer, that's tragic. Apparently, he was a very good
police officer, very good neighbor, and all that, and he was shot
down on that game stop over there. But what that fellow said yesterday
at his funeral, that man didn't lay down his life. That's what
the chief police chief said. He laid down his life, or Mayor
Nutter said it. He laid down, no, he didn't lay
down his life. You or me or nobody else ever laid down our lives.
Christ laid down his life. Christ laid down his life. I'm
not taking anything from that police officer. I'm just saying
he didn't lay down his life. Christ laid down his life. If
that man had his choice, he'd have walked out of that GameStop
and went home with his family. Christ laid down his life. And
he makes us to see. You've been boasting about you
and boasting about what you are and your will and your freedom
and your wisdom and all this. You won't lay that down. And
He comes and shows His child, but I lay down everything for
you. Him who is wisdom, lay down His wisdom. Him who is power,
lay down His power. Him who is sovereign, holy God,
set aside everything and all His rights to submit Himself
unto death on that cross for His people. And He died. He really
died. He really died. And He says to
you now, is it nothing to you? Is it nothing to you? You pass
by and you look at this cross. Is it nothing to you? Breathing
my air, drinking my water, sleeping in my bed, eating my food and
pass by my cross and don't even give it a second thought. Is
it nothing to you? And He makes that word effectual
in the heart of His child. And then we begin to look upon
Him whom we've pierced and we begin to mourn for Him like one
mourns for his only son. Bitterness and sorrow, asking
mercy and just confessing what we are to God. And then He says to you affectionately,
my child, when I died under that law, your old man of sin really
did die. He says to you, knowing this,
our old man's crucified with Him. that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for
he that's dead is freed from sin. And then he says to you
this, he says, now look, child, look, child, you were married
to the law. That was your first husband,
that strict husband that come in and run a white glove over
everything and complained and held you accountable because
you couldn't clean anything up to suit him. He comes and he
says to you, that judge is dead now, that husband is dead now,
and you're dead to that husband. And here's why. Your old man
of sin don't have anything to say about this, and that old
husband don't have anything to say about this. This has all
been taken care of by Christ on the cross so that you'd be
married to him that's risen from the grave. a new husband, Christ
himself, so that now you can really bring forth some fruit.
Before, you were bringing forth these old rotten shriveled up
apples and calling that fruit. You were bringing forth your
little withered up prunes and saying, look at this fruit I
brought forth. And it had no life in it. Nothing was fruitful
about it. You talk about your church going, look at all the
fruit I've done. That wasn't fruit. Look at how much I'm giving. That wasn't fruit. Look at how
much I do for my neighbor. That's not fruit. I give to every
charitable organization. That's not fruit. He says, I'm
going to come forth now in you and put an incorruptible seed
in you and I'm going to create some fruit in you. And you're
going to produce some fruit now. It's fruit whereby you say, I'm
nothing. It's the fruit whereby you say, He's all. It's the fruit
whereby you say, He's made with me an everlasting covenant order
and all things ensure and this is all my salvation. Fruit that
you couldn't produce before. Fruit that you couldn't produce
before was saying, I'm just as low as you can get. I'm just
as worthless as you can get. You couldn't bring that fruit
forth. And you couldn't say He's as high as you can get and as
high as everything I need and my all and I rest right here
complete in Him. You couldn't bring forth that
fruit before. But He brings that forth fruit. And then when He
does all this, it's because when He's spoken in that heart, He's
put a new heart there. You see, we're not only... He
showed us He creates the new heart and makes us holy inwardly
by declaring to us how He made us righteous outwardly. That's how He does it. As this
gospel is going forth, what I'm preaching to you is how Christ
made us righteous by His doing and His dying. And he comes to
his child, then, and speaks this word affectionately into the
heart, and the spirit enters in, that holy seed enters in,
and a new man is created, and that's a holy man. And it's done
through this message of his righteousness. And that's why this holy man
doesn't look to himself, he don't look inwardly for peace, and
he looks out of himself to Christ who did the work. Alright? That's how he creates this fruit.
I hope He speaks to you. I hope He comes and sits down
and speaks to you in your heart affectionately now. This is why,
for a believer, this story don't ever get old. Because He still
comes and sits down and tells us this story in our heart. And
it doesn't get old. It's just you look into it and
it's like a spring welling up inside you. There was an old
spring by my house and it was on this old road. And I used
to go back there, and I'd walk that loop back in there, ride
my bicycle. It was just this old gravel road.
All my family lived back in there. Pratt Loop is what it was called.
And all that side of my family lived back in there. And I'd
go along, and I'd be so hot, South Arkansas, and I'd pull
over, and I knew this little trail. I knew right where it
went to. And I'd go down that little trail. I'd get to the
end of that trail, and there was a hole about this big around
in the ground. And it was just constantly bubbling
up with just pure spring water. And I'd get down on my hands
and knees and I'd just drink till my heart was content. I
didn't have to worry about pollution. It was coming straight out of
the earth. Just as pure as you could get. Clear as you could
get. Better than you buying a bottle. That's what he does. He creates
life and it's just bubbling up and it's just as fresh and as
new as the day, the first day he created it. All right? Now,
here's the fruit on the lips. I've already hinted at this.
We'll just look at this briefly. Basically, I'm going to narrow
this down to two kinds of fruit. Two kinds of fruit. First of
all, all of it is the fruit of this contrite and broken heart.
That's where it's coming from. A contrite broken heart that
he's created in you. That's where it's coming from.
It's the fruit of truthfulness for the first time in your life.
You speak truth. Before, everything that was coming
out of your heart was coming out of your tongue was from that
defiled heart. So it was all lies. If you said
you believed God, you were lying. If you said you were trying to
deny yourself, you were lying. All of it was lying. But now
there's a new heart and it's broken and it's contrite. And
for the first time you speak the truth of who you are. Nothing. You begin to speak and confess
your nothingness to God. And you confess the truth of
who God is. that He is the one and only Redeemer. He's the one
and only sanctification and righteousness and wisdom of His people. You
begin to speak the truth of who He is. And He fills your lips
with a plea then for forgiveness. For forgiveness. For acceptance
with God. And you don't know what to do.
If you can find Hosea 14, turn over there with me real quick.
You don't know what to do. You just know that you're a sinner.
You just know that He's all, but you don't know what to do
now. If you did know what to do and
you did it on yourself, you could pat yourself on the back for
something. But you don't know what to do. You're just lost and you
see He's the fountain of life and He's bread and He's light
and He's everything. Hosea 14. But you don't know what to do
now. What do you do when He's brought you to this point? Well,
you know who gets the glory for teaching you what to do? He does.
Christ does. He says this to you, Hosea 14,
2. Take with you words. Hosea 14, 2. Take with you words
and turn to the Lord. Don't take a sacrifice. Don't
take anything else. Don't take some righteousness
or some reformation or some cleaning up your act. And don't take an
old baptism from 20 years ago. Don't take a confession of faith.
Don't take anything with you but words. And turn to the Lord. That's repentance. That's the
granting of repentance. When he says turn to the Lord,
you're going to turn away from whatever it is you trust in.
You're going to turn to the Lord. And he says this, and take away,
say unto him, take away all iniquity, and receive us by your grace,
graciously. Because we don't deserve you
to receive us by your grace. So will you render the calves
of your lips. Now he's showing you there, that's
what all those calves were about. When they would go with a lamb
or a bullock and they would offer it on the altar, a burnt offering
to God, this is what it was meant. Come to Christ our altar with
nothing in your hand. Come to Christ your altar with
words and say, Lord, take away my iniquity and receive me graciously. That's rendering to God the sacrifice
that all those calves represented back there in the old covenant.
That's the sacrifice. That's the sacrifice. Isaiah
is an example. You remember over in Isaiah 6,
he said, I saw the Lord sitting up on a throne high and lifted
up. And here's the fruit it produced. He said, woe is me, I'm undone,
I'm a man of unclean lips. And everybody in this land is
full of unclean lips. That's the fruit it produced
when he saw the Lord high and lifted up. The publican, he bowed
upon his breast and he wouldn't even look up to God and he said,
have mercy on me the sinner. That's the fruit that he brings
forth. And God's pleased with this fruit. Psalm 51, 16 says,
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
You see, I said to you, if you come to God this way, bowing,
begging mercy, you're going to get mercy. Because the only way
a man can come that way is if God's created his heart. You
just can't do it any other way. You can't be honest with God
and honest about yourself any other way. But when you come
this way, that's the sacrifice God's pleased with. Man can't
get that. Man thinks sacrifices. Man, I've got to get out of here
and I've got to get on my hands and knees and walk through broken
glass. I've got to deny myself anything that's pleasant in the
world and I've got to look like a mud fence and make my wife
look like a mud fence and be separated from everybody and
do all these things to try to please God. God says, just come
empty and ask God for grace. You'd think it'd be simple, but
man can't do that. Man can't do that. And Christ
speaks affectionately in our hearts when we come that way,
and this is what He says from Isaiah 43, verse 1. You come
there trembling like that, you don't know, you know God don't,
you don't deserve to be accepted. But when you come like that,
Isaiah 43, verse 1, Thus saith the Lord that created thee, He said, I create the fruit of
the lips. He creates the heart that it comes from. And He says
to you, when you come that way, thus saith the Lord that created
thee. He that formed thee, fear not. I've redeemed thee. I've called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. He says to you, my peace I give
to you. In me you'll have peace. In me
you'll have peace. Believer, have you found this
to be the case? When you're troubled and you do what we all do, you
run through your gamut of things to try to ease your troubles
and whatever they are, and you don't ease it, and you end up
in the end after you've just finally broken and contrite to
where you got nothing and can do nothing and say nothing, and
He brings you to His feet, where do you find your peace? In Him. In Him. Why don't we just go
to Him in the beginning? But we do the whole thing all
over again and have to be broken again. And He's showing us every
time, weaning us a little more and a little more from this world.
You're not going to have peace in this world. There's nothing
in this world you're going to get peace from. I've tried it. I'm telling you, I have tried
it. If it can be tried, I've tried it. You're not going to
get peace in this world. Peace is in Christ only. Christ
only. When you get to that point where
you've made it into whatever industry you want to go into
and you finally look behind the curtain, you're going to be disappointed. I promise you. But not with God. Not with God. And the effect
of all this is peace. It's peace. Isaiah said, he laid
a live coal from off the altar on my mouth and he said, this
has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away and
your sin is purged. That publican, the Lord said,
went down to his house justified. And the Lord says, therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God. Completeness,
soundness, safety, contentment, friendship with God, everlasting
covenant peace, no more warring with God ever. That's what peace
means. In other words, as the Lord says
in our text, I will heal them. I will heal them. If God's given you a broken heart,
a contrite heart, hear what the Lord says. Turn to Him with words
and ask Him to forgive you because He says this, with the heart
man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. That's how a man's saved, with
the heart and the mouth, not with anything else. Not with
anything else. Confessing your sin, confessing
Christ is all. Your need of grace. That's salvation. All right, there's another kind
of fruit. Here's the second kind of fruit that's produced. When
he's done this work, Hebrews 13, 15. Turn there with me. And I'll be done. Hebrews 13,
15. That mouth that was speaking
enmity and vile and mud and dirt and all that coming up like the
troubled sea, now this is the fruit on the lips. By Him, Hebrews
13, 15. By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to His name. That's the second kind
of fruit. We stop glorying in ourselves
and we start glorying in God. The psalmist said, My lips shall
utter praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes. When you sit
down by me, Lord, and spoke affectionately into my heart, that's when my
lips are going to utter praise. The only reason I'm standing
here now speaking this to you is because Christ created the
fruit of my lips. It's because Christ spoke peace
in my heart. and healed me. That's the only
reason. I couldn't do it any other way.
And if He ever lets me go, if He ever takes His hand off of
me, it's because He never had His hand on me. And I'll stop
the minute I'm left to myself. But He promises He won't ever
take His hand off His people. He promises He's going to keep
us, and He's going to keep us praising Him. And one day we're
going to come into glory with Him, and when we do, Everybody
there with one common voice is going to be singing to His praise,
His glory. I tell you, that's going to be
a song. There's been some number one chart toppers in this world.
That right there is going to top them all. I want to hear
that one, don't you? Peace, peace to the Prince of
Peace. Amen.