Isaiah chapter 26. How easy it is for a believer
to get distracted in this world, to become so full of distractions. The world's an ocean of distraction. We're in a constant rush all
the time. We rush in our homes the moment
we get up trying to get everybody out and in the same direction.
We rush in the commute on the way to work. The time we walk
in the door at work, whether we work at home or we work in
the workplace, it's rush, rush, rush. And then when it's all
over, we started all over again just in reverse, trying to work
our way back home. technology has caused a constant
stream of distraction. We always constantly have a telephone,
a text, an email, a social network, a TV, a radio, constant chatter,
constantly. technology has saved us so much
time that we don't have time for anything else. And our responsibilities are
on our minds. We have a lot that we're responsible
for in this world. And we have to live in this world
and function in this world. We've been blessed to if we've
been blessed to have a job today, you're required to do more with
less labor force than ever before. We have a constant. He said and
she said constantly to distract us. We've got the some of us
have got a lot more month left over at the end of the money. We've got mothers and fathers,
sisters and brothers. We've got one who needs us to
be more firm, and we must be. We've got another
who needs us to be more tender, and we must be. And these things
are constantly on our minds, constantly filling us up and
distracting our minds, so much so that it seems like The only time we have to really
think is when we first wake up in the morning, and when we finally
lay down at night, and we can finally think. This is what I
want you to get from the message tonight. Every day, before it
begins, if we have to get up earlier, and in the middle of
every day, Throughout the day, when all the distractions are
coming full force at us, if we gotta take five minutes out of
everything and disappear. Each day when it all ends, if
we have to stay up later, go into your closet, wherever it is that you can get
in that quiet place where it's just you and God. go there and
get these words down in your heart. Open up his word and get
these words down in your heart and hide them away in your heart
and carry them with you in your heart and think about them in
your heart. Walk around with them in your
heart Meditate on these words in your heart. Isaiah 26 verse
3. Thou will keep him. Thou will keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Because He trusteth in
thee. There's absolutely nothing. I'm
talking to you, my brethren, now. There's nothing like the
Word of God. It's a living, abiding Word.
This is the Word that He's given to you and I who He's given faith
to believe Him. This is the Word that He's given.
He's speaking to me right here. He's speaking to you right here.
Read these words, and when you read His Word, not just this
particular verse, all His Word, when you read it, read it believing
Him. Read these words asking and depending
entirely upon Him. Read these words, and even though
you have to live in this world, and we've got to work in this
world, and we've got so many things that are constantly pushing
and pulling and distracting us from His Word. Live in this world
with this Word, God's Word, the Words of Eternal Life. Peter
said, Thou hast the Words of Eternal Life. This is the Words
of Eternal Life. His Word. And constantly think
upon His Word to you. Look there at verse 3. Thou wilt
keep Him. Who will do the keeping? Who's
going to do the keeping? God will. Jehovah God, our strength,
the Lord Jehovah. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Where is he going to keep
us? He's going to keep his children
in perfect peace. And it's in the mind, it's in
the heart, it's in the inner man that he's made. In Christ
Jesus, our peace. He's our peace. You just read
it, Joe. He hath made peace. He is our
peace, Ephesians 2 said. He will keep his children in
Christ Jesus, in perfect peace. In our mind, in our heart, stayed
upon him, stayed upon him. What assurance do I have? How
do I know he's going to do that for me? Look at the last part
of verse 3. Because he trusteth in thee.
Because you trust him. You trust him. Because you trust
him to do so. Because you trust in him. Are you experiencing it right
now? Are you experiencing how true and living this word is?
When I read this, when I read this word right here, and I just
break it down, and I just read something, a simple verse that
the Lord has spoken to me, and I read it, and I hear His voice
speaking, and there's enough truth in that one verse right
there to carry me through a lifetime of storm. If I can just keep
these words in my heart, if I can just have these words in my heart. What is it to have our minds
stayed on Him? What's that, to have our minds
stayed on Him? I read to you in the scripture
reading, I read to you that passage there where Mary sat at His feet. She sat there just listening
to every word that fell from his mouth. That's what it is
to be stayed on him. But I'll give you another illustration.
Remember at the supper, the scripture says John leaned upon his breast. He leaned upon... John couldn't
seem to get close enough to the Lord. He couldn't seem to lean
upon the Lord enough and hear Him and listen to Him. He wanted
to be so close to Him, he was touching Him. He leaned upon
His breast. That's what it is to be stayed
upon Jehovah. stayed upon Jehovah. And John
said this to us in 1 John 5, 18. You don't have to turn there,
but he said, He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that
wicked one toucheth him not. Our mind and our heart, our affection
is stayed upon Jehovah. It's fixed upon Him when we're
born of His Spirit. That's when we become fixed upon
him and stayed upon him. Until then, we're just not. We're
cumbered about many things, but we won't be stayed upon him.
The scripture says, John said, we keep ourselves, but really
our keeping of ourselves is this one who says he'll keep us. He'll
keep us. That's the keeping of ourselves.
It's through faith in this one who said he'll keep you in perfect
peace. The Spirit of God lifts our thoughts,
he lifts our minds, he lifts our hearts out of ourselves to
him. He's the one that keeps us. He's
the sovereign Lord who converts his child, keeps his child. Thou wilt keep him. That's the
first thing he says here. Thou wilt keep him. Everything
good begins with God. And everything good continues
by God. Thou wilt keep him. There's no power, no more power
in us to keep ourselves, by ourselves, after the believer's been converted
than there was before the believer was converted. Who elected His child to salvation
in Christ? Thou did, the Lord did. He did
it. Who was it that came into this
earth and justified His people from all our sin? God the Son
came Himself and He did it. Paul said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. He did it. Who will do it? He
did it. It's Christ that died, yea rather
that's risen again who's at the right hand of God and makes intercession
for us. Who's going to do this? He did
it. He did it. Who is it that sent his gospel
to you? Joe just read that in Ephesians
2. He came and preached unto us. He's still doing that. Joe, he's still doing that today.
He's still coming and preaching unto his people. He does that. Who sent the gospel to you right
now where you sit? Right now where you sit there
listening. Who's done this? He's done this. He did it. He sent the gospel. He sends it to all his children.
He brings the truth to his children. He does so. Who regenerates His child? Who
calls His child? Who gifts His child with everything?
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 5. 1 Corinthians
1 and verse 5. Verse 4, I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ. It's His grace and He's given
it. And it's His grace and He gives it by Jesus Christ. Watch
this. That in everything, you are enriched
by Him. In all utterance and in all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you. That's how this Word began in
you. That's how this Gospel came into
you. And how into our presence and
how the Gospel was confirmed in our own hearts. So that you
come behind in no gift. You're not behind in any gift. He's enriched us in all things
in Christ. And we wait for the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall also confirm you unto
the end. That you may be blameless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. What did we say about all that?
Look at verse 9. God is faithful. by whom you
were called unto the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord."
If you hear his voice right now, if this right now is causing
all the clouds to roll back and causing all the and coming into your heart and
you hear His voice speaking now, it's because God did it. He's
the one doing it. And if you have this peace right
now, the peace that He gives, the peace He is, the peace that
passes all understanding, it's because He said, Thou wilt keep
Him. Thou wilt do it. Without His
keeping grace, we'd surely go away from Him in an instant,
just as surely as we never would have come to Him in the first
place, without His grace, without Him keeping. So He says, keep
your mind stayed upon Him. What do you mean? Remember that. Remember He's the one doing the
keeping. He's the one doing the keeping. Sometimes on Sundays,
on Sundays. And I can remember especially
when I began to preach and try to come and minister to you and
preach the word to you, I would think sometimes, all right, I'll
just take Monday off. Because every other day, I mean,
it's nonstop every other day, trying to get a word to bring
to you. But I'll tell you something that
I've discovered. It's a lot harder to get to hot from cold. It's
a lot harder to start an engine that's cold than it is to start
one that's already warm. When our hearts are distracted
from our Lord, when our hearts, and it's so easy, it's so easy,
it's better to stay upon Him. Our hearts become so distracted.
It's like a mist. It's like a fog. It's like the
freezing cold that just ever so steadily And ever so quickly,
and ever so surprisingly, just freezes over a pond and makes
it frozen. That's what all these distractions
do. But when the Son of Righteousness, Christ Jesus the Lord, when He
comes into the heart, and when He's in the heart, we could be
in the middle of New Jersey, in the middle of the cold snow
winter of New Jersey, but when Christ, the Son of Righteousness
is in our heart, the rays, the beams, that He is, the warmth
that He is, it keeps us warm and keeps that bitter chill of
that freezing cold and distraction that our flesh is. It keeps us,
it keeps it away. He does. We could be, we could
be, when He comes, when He enters in, when He comes in by His grace,
And He is that peace that enters in. And He gives us a peace in
our heart. It's better than being on an
emerald sea on a white sandy beach. And we don't have to travel. And we don't have to spend. We
have this peace. This is what He said. Seek ye
the Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is
near. When? All the time. All the time. We sing it. This
is what we sing. State upon Jehovah. This is this
verse we sing it. State upon Jehovah. Hearts are
fully blessed. Finding, as he promised, perfect
peace and rest. Who's going to do that? He said,
Thou will keep him. Thou will do it. Well, who is
the peace? Who is our peace? He says here
He's going to keep us in perfect peace. Who is this peace? It's the Prince of Peace. That's
who the peace is. Christ our peace. He is our peace. He hath made peace. He came and
laid down His life making peace for every one of His elect children.
He came and shed His blood making peace for His children. He's
made His children the righteousness of God in Him. By His work, by
what He has done, by what He has accomplished, and He is our
peace. We've been made the righteousness
of God in Him. Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ. Jesus, that one anointed of God,
that Son of God. He's peace for the believer. He's justified us. He is our
peace. We're resting in His fullness.
And of His fullness, we receive grace for grace. He continues
of His fullness to give us grace for grace. Can you say this? The Lord is
my shepherd. The Lord is. And the Lord is
mine. and the Lord is my shepherd.
He really is. He really is. Thou hast given
him power over all flesh that he may give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him. Now, who is going to keep us
in this peace? It's Him. Jehovah Jesus is omnipotence. He is omnipotence, robed in our
flesh, glorified in the heavens. He is the omnipotence that's
working everything. He's the Word who created the
heaven and the earth. He's the Word who, by Him, the
heavens and the earth are held in place right now. That's what
Hebrews 1 tells us. Let's look at Hebrews 1. Look
at this. He's the Word who's come and
spoken to us. He's the Word whose Word was
confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. God who at sundry times, Hebrews
1.1, and in different manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets. You know who the prophets came
and spoke, and He spoke in different manners, but you know who was
doing the speaking? God was. hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, God the Son. He's come and spoken in person,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things. Look at this. By
whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all
things by the word of his power. This is his word. What I'm saying
to you is he's the word. He is the word. He is the word. He created the heavens and the
earth. He's the Word who came and spoke unto us. He's the Word
of whom God has spoken unto His people throughout the ages. He's
the Word who's come in person. He's the Word who right now upholds
all things by the Word of His power. He's the Word that speaks
into the heart of His child and says, Peace, be still. He's that Word and He is that
peace. He's the Word of the Gospel.
That's who He is. He is the peace. Our great shepherd
is our peace. That's just a two-fold amazing
good news in that. The one who has all power leading
and guiding us and directing us just like a shepherd does
his sheep is the one who has all power and he is the one who
is our peace. Do we think he's going to ever
not ensure us in this world that we have peace? Perfect peace. He keeps us in Him. In Him is
perfect peace. He's that perfect peace. The
other day I went to the refrigerator and opened the refrigerator and
there's all these things in the refrigerator. All these different
containers and different shapes and different sizes and all these
things in the refrigerator. And I'm looking for some creamer
to go in my coffee. And I opened up that refrigerator
and it's just like when we open up this Word It's just so vast
to us. Where do we start? Where do we
start? It's like all the distractions
in this world. There's just so much in it that
we look at it and we think, all right, where do I start? Where
do I begin? And I was looking through all the refrigerators,
trying to find some creamer for my coffee. And I'm looking, I'm
looking all in the back, and I'm looking all in the sides,
and I look in the doors, and I even opened up the bins where
everything, you keep the meat and the vegetables and all that.
I'm looking around, and I can't find the creamer anywhere. You
know where the creamer was? It was sitting eye level with
me, right on the shelf, in the very front, right there in my
face. And I was looking all around,
everywhere, but right where it was. He is our peace. And this is what he says, it's
good for me to draw near to God. He's with us. He said, I'm near,
I'm with you always. I'm right there with you always,
he said. I started out, I said to you
here, about taking time, starting out the day, starting, beginning
the day, looking for Him, honing on, like this verse right here,
honing on one verse. Just, just you, I preached from
this verse before, but I preached it as about, it was like a third
or fourth point in the message that I preached. And now I've
gone back and just taken this one point, and looking at this
one glorious truth from this one verse. And you can go to
this one verse and just take the one point of, thou wilt keep
him. And just think on that, just
grab that one thing and just start thinking on that. Think
of the depths of that and the vastness of that and walk around
with that all day long. But we got to give some diligence
to start out and really seek him first. We've been coming
in here early. We've sort of changed our time. So where we get here, we start
at 1015 and we start the men's meeting earlier than that so
that the past couple of months or maybe it's not that long,
but everybody's been here, we've been seated, we've been sitting
here, and it's good to just sit here with some time to open up
this work and just think about him before anything else is said
before and to prepare our hearts. Well, that's how it is with the
first of the day. And I said to you, take five minutes out
in the day when things gets heated and things get tough at work
and it gets stressful and all that. I'm not talking about steal
time from the boss. I'm not talking about that. What
I'm talking about is we will probably be more beneficial to
the boss and to everybody around us when we got this piece in
our heart. And if you ever been five minutes
late to work, it didn't fall apart when you were five minutes
late, did it? It ain't gonna fall apart if we take the time
to just, I gotta get these words in my heart. I got to keep these
words in my heart. Then I can hit it again. Then I can go back again and
remember that this is what I'm here for. That's why I'm here. I'm here for him. I'm here honoring
him. I'm here doing his work. And
all the mundane, everything else that I'm doing, I'm really here
for him. I'm doing his bidding. He says,
look down at verse 20. This is what he said. Come, my
people, enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee.
Hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation
be overpassed. Where are we hiding ourselves?
We're coming into Him. We're coming into Christ, our
comfort. And here's the comfort of it, brethren. Now look at
Psalm 119.25. Here's the comfort of it. The
Lord doesn't upbraid us when we come to Him. And we can come
to Him in all honesty. Look at Psalm 119 and verse 25. This is what we can come to Him.
And when we open up His Word or whatever it is, come to Him
in prayer. Get alone and just... This is
what... My soul cleaveth unto the dust. This is when we're honest, when
we can come to the Lord and say, Lord, my soul is cleaving to
dust. My soul, Lord, right now is cleaving
to dust. Quicken thou me according to
thy word. You know what he's asking? Revive
me. Revive me. Revive me with your
power to make me grasp spiritual reality. Revive me with the power
that is the soul settling power. Revive me with the power that's
the increasing power. That power that makes the earth
fading power. Revive me with that power. Lord,
I'm cleaving to dust. All I am in my flesh is dust.
All I've got encumbered about but serving and I'm encumbered
about and I'm cleaving to dust. Lord, revive me. Make me to see
Christ Jesus going forth on his white horse with a sword coming
out of his mouth, conquering and to conquer. And cause, Lord,
revive me. Cause this spirit, your spirit,
to come into me and separate The Christ in me from the old
me. Separate the wheat from the chaff
that I am. Separate me from the gold from
the dross, Lord. Revive me. Else I'm just dust,
and I'm cleaving the dust. But we can come to Him in all
honesty, can't we? And He don't upgrade us for that. That's what our Savior, He says,
I'm going to be inquired of for this, but He wants Our Lord makes honest inquiring,
honest inquiry. He makes us come to him in all
honesty and say, Lord, I'm just cleaving the dust. Revive me,
just revive me, revive me. Why does he promise that he will?
Why does he promise he will keep us? Why does he promise that
he will keep his children in perfect peace? Look at the end of Isaiah 26.3. Because he trusteth in Him. Because you trust Him. You know,
this is what the believer knows. This is what we know. Whenever
we're cleaving to dust, and whenever we're troubled, and whenever
we're tossed about, and whenever all those troubles come into
us, or coming about, and we end up doing like Martha, and we
get mad because somebody's not serving like we think they ought
to serve. Cumbered about. The neglect is
never our Redeemer's neglect. It's always our own neglect.
It's always so. It's always my own neglect, not
his. And there's so much sin in my
own neglect of him. There's so much just despicable
dishonor in my neglect of not thinking upon him, in my own
not thinking of him. But there's absolutely nothing
but infinite, tender, unchanging, love and grace that's glorified
in the fact that when I come to Him, He receives me and He
revives me. That's glorifying to Him. Because
those that come to Him, come to Him believing Him. We come
to him believing that he is truly the only strength, the only one
who can revive us. We believe he's the only one
that can settle our heart. We believe he is our peace. We
believe he is our strength. We believe he is our rock. We
come to him. Anybody, I'm telling you this,
anybody on the face of this planet who truly comes to God, who truly
in their heart approaches to His throne of grace, approaches
to His throne of grace because He's given the faith to believe
that we don't have any power in ourselves, that he is all
the power and all the strength. He's made us to believe him.
And because we believe him, because his honor is connected with the
promise that he's made to keep us and to revive us, because
his honor is connected with that promise. Because we trust Him,
He'll do just what He's promised. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Do you understand that? He's true to His word. He wouldn't
draw us to Him and make any promises to us to simply betray our trust
in Him. I've said that to you a lot lately.
I was telling everybody that was here a little earlier, I
was saying, you know why it appears to us that all the truth that
when the truth is preached, why it's so apt for, not really the
believer, but for somebody who comes in that isn't consistent
and doesn't know the gospel and hear the word of his grace. You
know why it seems like everything that is said is so close in proximity
to everything else that's said? It doesn't matter what side,
what face of a diamond you look at, it's all a part of the same
diamond. It's all connected. It's all
so close and so vitally connected that there's no separation of
it. Absolutely no separation. This
is what His unchanging love and grace has promised to the believer. Though we wander, though we stray,
this is what He's promised. Look at Psalm 92.10. He's promised
to anoint us with fresh oil. Look at this. But my horn, You know what a
horn is, that's strength, that's a symbol of strength. My strength
shalt thou exalt, thou shalt increase like the horn of a unicorn. You know what the horn of a unicorn
is, don't you? You know who the unicorn is? It's not that little
silly looking horse that people make out of ceramics and put
on their mantel and hang from trees and all that stuff. It's
a rhinoceros. You see a rhinoceros, he got
one horn sticking out of his head. Can you think of any other
beast as strong as a rhinoceros? That's a strong beast, a rhinoceros.
He will increase my strength like the strength of a unicorn.
I shall be anointed with fresh oil. That's how I'm gonna be
strengthened. You think he'd make that promise
to his child, and then his child trusts that he will, and come
to him for fresh anointing, and He betray it, we won't come to
Him for fresh anointing unless He's fulfilled His promise to
us already and revived us in some sense to draw us to it.
When a man cries out like David and says, I'm cleaving to the
dust, Lord, I need You to revive me. You know what's happened
to that man? Lord's already revived him. I
brought him to see he's feeding on chaff. He's feeding in the
hog trough. So that he cries unto God and
God, you think God's gonna not revive him? He's gonna anoint
him with fresh oil. Here's what he's promised. Look
at Hosea 14.4. Look at this. I will heal their backsliding.
Hosea 14.4. right after Daniel, right before
Joel. Hosea 14, 4. I will heal their
backsliding. I will love them freely. For
my anger is turned away from him. Where's his anger? How's
his anger turned away? It's turned away in Christ. He
bent his sword against his own son. He satisfied his anger.
My angers turn away from him, I'll be as the dew unto Israel.
He shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
His branches shall spread, his beauty shall be as the olive
tree, and his smell as Lebanon. You know what we do when we cleave
to the dust, you know what we smell like. We don't smell very
good. You know, when he's raining down
the dew of his grace in our hearts and bringing his peace in our
heart, he said, you'll smell like Lebanon. You know what Lebanon
smelled like? You ever, you go, you got, anybody got a live Christmas
tree or it was alive till you brought it into your living room,
but have you smelled it? That's what Lebanon smelled like.
It's full of cedars. And it smelled good. It smelled
like a cedar, evergreen. He said, that's what my people
will be when I fill them with this. They'll smell good. And
when they walk about with a good smell in their dealings with
one another, and their dealings in our home, and our workplace,
and with our children, everybody will smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow,
he's the tree, he's the tree of righteousness. We dwell under
his branches. They shall revive as the corn.
They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine. The scent
thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. This is what he promised.
This is what he promised. I remember whenever Emma was
smaller, she would be up on stairs and there were some stairs in
the house. She'd get up, you know, three
or four stairs up, and I'd say, jump. Jump into my arms. And she'd jump. She'd just leap
into my arms. And I never did tell her, jump. Not one time, Art, not one time
did I say to her, jump. And when she jumped, I jumped
back and let her fall. Never. Never. You think I'm gonna tell her,
jump, and betray her trust? She's a little child. She's a
little baby. That's what you and I are before
our Father. You think He's going to tell
us to cast all our care into His arms and He's not going to
take all our care upon Himself? That's what He says. But you
know when she found me wholly true to that promise? When she
cast it all into my arms. Stayed upon Jehovah. hearts are
fully blessed, finding, as he promised, perfect peace and rest. You know what the song says?
Those who trust him wholly find him wholly true. You know what God's telling us
right here in this word? The songwriter who wrote that
got it. They got it. Those who trust
Him wholly find Him wholly true. We can't trust our Lord too much. We cannot trust Him too much. He's completely, complicitly
honoring of our trust because He put our trust in us. And our trust is in Him. Our
best and our most trustworthy friend is the one who is our
strength and is our peace, the Lord Jehovah. Let me read that
next verse there. This is the whole of the application. This is the whole of the gospel. This is the whole of every word
of instruction in this book. This is the whole of everything
that God says to you, his child. You never cast your care upon
Christ. I pray he's quickening you in your heart. I pray he's
giving you life. I pray he's making life where
there was no life and he's bringing you to draw, cast everything
into his hand. And for you that have, you that
do, this is the promise, this is the whole application and
the whole word of God. Verse four, trust ye in the Lord
forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Amen.