Good evening. All right, let's
turn to Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26, and we'll be looking
at verses 12 through 14. Isaiah 26, 12 through 14. Now, we saw last week how that
the Lord comforts his people in the midst of judgment. The
Lord comforts His people, and they're comforted because God
has provided everything His people need. All that they need, God
has provided for them in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, while the Lord is judging
the wicked, The people of God don't need to be afraid and fearful
because God has given to them all things necessary. He's put
them in the Lord Jesus Christ who put away their sins. He paid
for their sins with his own blood to wash them clean of their sin
and iniquity that they no longer have to fear the wrath of God.
There is no wrath for the people of God. So when God is judging
the wicked, The people of God rejoice because the name of God
is glorified. They see that God's name is being
glorified in the judgment of the wicked. And they rejoice
because in the judgment there's no wrath for them. God's not
pouring out any wrath upon them. So, tonight I want to speak to
you more about that provision, that provision that God has provided,
that God has ordained for His people. God chose a salvation
for His people. He's ordained this salvation
for them in His Son. And so that, like as a woman
has a husband, who cares for her, loves her, provides for
her, and does all things for her to deliver her from oppressors. So our Lord Jesus Christ has
made our husband, and he delivers us out from the dominion of those
that would oppress us. of those that would destroy us
spiritually and see us just dead with the wicked and cast into
hell. He delivers us from our oppressors. Our title is Ordained
to Peace, or Ordained Peace, rather. Ordained Peace. And we'll look at two divisions.
we'll see the purpose of God for his people. God has ordained
a purpose. He has a purpose for his people. So, we'll be looking at the purpose
of God, and then we'll see how that we are brought under the
dominion of Christ, under his rule and under his reign. Him
being our husband, we are under his rule and reign. We're no
longer under the rule and the reign of sin, and this world
and wickedness and Satan. We're not under that rule. We're
no longer bound by religious ceremony and religious works
wherein many are in bondage because they think that's their salvation.
That's not salvation. So we'll look at these things
tonight. All right, so let's begin with the purpose of God
for his people. The Scriptures teach us, and
the Spirit of God within His people teaches us that the people
of God are a blessed people. We're a happy people, a blessed
people. We're blessed because God has
provided abundantly for us. He's given us all things necessary. And that's true even when we
don't understand. Even when we don't understand
what's going on or understand the need that we have, God provides
for His people. He takes care of His people. He gives them everything necessary,
even when we don't know about it. That means God isn't looking
to us, waiting for us to figure it out before He'll do anything,
but rather in spite of us, in spite of our ignorance, In spite
of our coldness, in spite of our deadness, God already has
provided everything necessary and He's ordained. everything
that comes to pass. That means He's laid it out.
He's thought it out. He's already determined beforehand
what shall be done. That's what I mean when I say
ordained. God's already determined what
should be done. And so God doesn't need us to
agree to things. He's not waiting for us to catch
up and catch on. He's doing everything necessary
according to His will. His purpose. He is God. And God does according to His
own purpose, according to what pleases Him, according to what
He knows needs to be done. That's what God does. And we
know that He does according to His will. We know that He does
what He wants to do and what He will do because He reveals
it to us by His Spirit. and the Spirit shows us in the
Word what He has done, what it says concerning our God. Turn with me over to Ephesians
1. Leave a marker there in Isaiah 26, but go to Ephesians 1 with
me now, and we'll pick up in verse 9. Here we see what God is doing
and that what He does, He does according to His purpose, His
will. Ephesians 1.9. Here he says, Paul writes, having
made known unto us, He's made known unto us the mystery of
His will, and His will is according to His good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself." God has purposed in himself. He has a will. He has a purpose.
He's doing what is pleasing to Him. So God, who is sovereign
over all, who does whatsoever He pleases, He has a will which
He has purposed to do. He's doing all things according
to purpose. It's His will. And that means
his will is uninfluenced by the will of man. He's not influenced
by the works of man or the will of man, what man agrees to, what
man doesn't agree to. That doesn't change God's will. God has a will and God has a
purpose to do what pleases Him. We hear much of man's free will
in religion. Man in religion likes to speak
of man's free will. Man has a will that's dead in
trespasses and sins. Man has a will that cannot do
that which is righteous and pleasing to God. Man's will isn't free,
but bound in sin and in trespasses. God's will is free, and God does
whatsoever He is pleased to do. And that's what Paul's saying
here. Look at Ephesians 1 verse 10 now. What is God's will? What is the mystery of His will? That, in the dispensation of
the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him." When I was looking at that, all things in Christ,
I was thinking, well, what are all things in Christ? What does that refer to? The
all things in Christ refers to God's chosen, elect people that
He put in Christ for their well-being, for their keeping, for their
provision to provide for them salvation. Because we cannot
provide salvation for ourselves. So He chose a people and put
them in Christ to save them. He did this in eternity before
we did any good or evil. Before we did anything, before
we chose Him, God chose a people who would come to hear of His
name, come to know their need of Him, and they would then believe
by faith, according to the power of the Spirit of God, by faith
they would believe what Christ has done for them. All right,
so God's will is for all those people, or what his will is for
those people are those people that are the all things in Christ,
because that's what it's speaking of. It's not him gathering all
things in Christ yet, it's him gathering all things that are
already in Christ, the chosen elect people of God are in Christ.
Now God gathers them together by the gospel, by the power of
the Spirit, calls them and gathers them into Christ. That's what
he says, that's what he means when he says, even in him. So Christ is gathering together
all those in heaven and in earth, into himself because God chose
for them. He chose them in Christ and put
them in Christ. All right, and so look at verse
11. In whom, in Christ, also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. So you see,
there's nothing about the will of man, but there's everything
about the will of God, who does everything according to His purpose
and His will. He's gathered us together, and
we find that we have obtained an inheritance in Christ, through
Christ, through the shedding of His blood on the cross for
His people. So this is the God that we're
talking about, this sovereign, almighty, omnipotent God. Omnipotent meaning all-powerful. He does whatsoever he is pleased
to do according as his will is purposed in himself. All right,
so this God has undertaken for us to provide everything we need
in salvation. He's undertaken this and determined
to do this for us by putting us in Christ and then gathering
us who are all things in Christ, gathering us together in him,
all right? Now, back in our text in Isaiah
26, 12. You can leave a marker back in
Ephesians if you want, but we'll be coming to Romans later. All right, back in our text,
Isaiah 26, 12. This purpose is what we see here
in Isaiah 26, 12. This is the purpose of God we're
seeing. Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou also hast
wrought or worked all our works in us. See, God did everything. God does everything in salvation. Man doesn't save himself. God
saves His people as it pleases Him. And so God has ordained
or purposed peace for us. Isn't that beautiful? He's ordained
peace for us. He's chosen a people to establish
for them peace in His Son, Jesus Christ. That's where we have
peace. It's in the Lord, Jesus Christ. You know, if you've spent
any time in religion, laboring and doing what religion says
you're supposed to do. When religion tells you, you
do this now, you stop doing that, you start doing this, and by
religion I mean when you go to a church and they start telling
you what you do for salvation. Now that you're called a Christian,
this is what you do now. And they tell you all these rules
and regulations. If it came down to what you and
I do, our works, there's no peace in that. There's no peace in
that. Because if we're honest, we know
We don't do the things that we're supposed to do. We certainly
don't do them perfectly and we hardly do them at all if we do
anything. We don't do the works to save
ourselves. You know, Paul wrote in Galatians
that If there's anything that you do, if there's anything that
you do for favor with God, to justify yourself with God or
to earn his kindness upon you or get him to like you a little
bit more, to be favorable towards you, then Paul said, Christ profits
you nothing. And he wrote that to the church.
If you're doing anything, earn favor with God, to make yourself
righteous or more acceptable to God, because Jesus isn't enough
then. And he says, Christ profits you absolutely nothing. But God has purposed or ordained
peace for us. And that's what the Lord tells
us. Now, if you're in Isaiah there, 26, look at the last verse. In verse 21 there, Isaiah 26,
21. Let's look at the first part
of that verse there. It says, For behold, the Lord
cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth
for their iniquity. And the gospel is that God purposed
that before he rises to punish the wicked, the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity, God provided peace for his people
whom he put in Christ. That's how he ordained peace
for them. He gave them to Christ and Christ came into the earth
taking upon him flesh and he bore the sin of his people there
on the cross before holy God and bore the wrath and judgment
of God in the place of his people as their substitute, bearing
the wrath and the judgment that was their due, what they earned
by their sin and iniquity, Christ took that punishment for them
in their place as their substitute and put it away. put away the
wrath and the judgment of God against them. So that's why God,
before he punished the inhabitants of the earth, he provided salvation
for his people in Jesus Christ. Now he can come, because it's
his will, now he can come and judge the earth, the inhabitants
of the earth, because his people are protected. They're safe.
They're ordained. to peace, ordained peace is for
them. That's what God has given to
them, right? Isaiah 53 5 tells us, but he,
speaking of the Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. and with his stripes we are healed."
So Christ's wounding, Christ's bruising, Christ's chastisement,
the stripes that fell on Christ were all received by him in him
when he hung there on the cursed tree in the place of his people. That's where he received those
things, for you his people that believe in him and have no confidence
in the flesh. Christ did that. He did that
to bear away our sins. And Paul tells us in Colossians,
I'll read it, Colossians 1, 19 and 20, for it pleased the Father
that in Him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace, see, it's already done, he made peace through the
blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things, right,
there's that all things in Christ, to reconcile all the people God
chose and put in him, unto himself, by him, I say, whether they be
things in earth, or things in heaven. So that Christ's work,
what He came to do, was set all things right for His people.
He justified them. That means they are made perfect
as He is perfect. And they stand before the throne
of holy God, perfect, accepted in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But all those who try to come
to God in their own works in their goodness and what they've
started to do and what they've put away and stopped doing, trusting
in something they've done, because Jesus isn't enough, what he's
done. All those who come to God with their works plus Christ
or their works alone, they shall meet an angry God of wrath who
shall judge them for their sin. So we're thankful that God ordained
peace for us and delivered us from the bondage of dead religion,
that religion that could not save and put away our sins. We needed something more. We
needed Christ. All right, so God has sent his
son to reconcile us unto himself, make peace with us, put away
the enmity that's there naturally, and he delivers us now therefore. from the will of our enemies.
He delivers us from the will of our enemies. Okay, look at
Isaiah 26. Oh, and we didn't do this for
ourselves, Christ did it for us. And that's why I just wanna
show you that in Isaiah 26, 12. where it says, Lord, thou wilt ordain
peace for us. Look at this, for thou also hast
wrought, worked all our works in us. And so that means that
all salvation, everything necessary, everything we needed was already
done for us by and in the Lord Jesus Christ, because the scriptures
teach us. In the Psalm 3, just before the
one you read, brother, it says, Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. It's His work. It's what God
does for His people. He saves them. Those that are
His, those that He chose, those that He elected in eternity past,
according to His good pleasure and will, he has brought for
them salvation in his son Jesus Christ. I'll read another verse
that backs this up in Jeremiah 51 10 it says the Lord hath brought
forth our righteousness he brought forth our righteousness. We're
made righteous in Christ, not ourselves, not in our works,
but in Christ. Come and let us declare in Zion
the work of the Lord our God. That's why we're boasting of
Christ. That's why we glory in Christ and not glorying in ourselves. We don't boast in ourselves,
we boast in Jesus Christ because he is our very salvation. Now, The Lord doesn't just make
us righteous and leave us in darkness and in deadness to these
things. There comes a time in the appointed
time of His love when He makes this known to the sinner, what
He's done for them. You may live a long life and
have been very religious and heard many religious things and
did many good works, so-called, in religion, and all that is
nothing if you don't have Christ. If you don't know Christ, if
you don't know the true and living God who saves His people according
to His will, not our will, not my will, not my works, but His
will and His works. You may never know that, but
in the time of God's love, He breaks in upon the hard stony
and brings light where there was nothing but darkness in the
prison and he makes us to know what he has freely done for us
in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior so that he makes us born
again. He gives us a new spirit. He
creates in us in the new man that creation which is in ours
But Jesus Christ, it's His work, He does it. And so He creates
in us life, and then He reveals faith to us. He declares faith
to us. It's the hearing of faith, not
a product of this flesh, of this wisdom, of this mind, of this
will, none of that. It's all His will, His work.
He reveals faith. and with that faith that he gives,
that's how we behold and lay hold of what God has done for
us in his son, Jesus Christ. All right, so he's gonna now
bring, that means he's bringing us out of darkness, all that
confusion and mist of darkness of this dead letter religion,
he brings us out of that, and that brings us to our next point,
brought under the dominion of Christ. So, the scriptures reveal
to us that by nature, By nature, when we're born, we're born sons
and daughters of Adam. That's our first father. And
Adam sinned in the garden. Adam is corrupt. Adam is dead
in trespasses and sins. And so we that are of his seed
come forth dead in trespasses and sins. We have that same rebellious,
sinful nature that our father Adam had. Because that's what
we come forth from him. dead in trespasses and sins.
Paul said it blatantly or bluntly this way, in Adam all die. In Adam all die. We all died
in Adam. So we need a Savior. We need
a salvation. We need a Savior who isn't looking
for us to bring half the half the booty to the party there,
half the prize to that final day there. No, no, we need a
Savior that does the whole of salvation, all the work of salvation,
because there's nothing we can do to contribute positively to
what God requires of us. And so Christ shows us that. He breaks us and brings us down
low in ourselves to stop thinking highly of ourselves like we can
do it, and shows us you can't do it. I'm not perfect in myself. I'm a sinner, just like you're
all sinners. And we need a Savior, a complete,
full salvation in the Savior Jesus Christ, who was ordained
for His people. And He brings us out from the
rule and the dominion of lords that lord over us, that keep
us in this darkness. He delivers us from sin. He delivers
us from Satan. He delivers us from dead religious
works where we thought was our righteousness. He delivers us
from the fear of death, right, and the fear of guilt and shame.
He delivers us from that. Look with me in verse 13, Isaiah
26, 13. He says, O Lord our God, other lords
beside thee have had dominion over us. but by thee only will
we make mention of thy name." You see, it's his work. By the
work of God, we make mention of his name. We don't speak of
those other lords as though they have any power or authority over
us. Now, Christ has delivered us. Other lords beside thee have
had dominion over us, but now they don't. Christ delivers us
from that, all right? And we couldn't free ourselves
from these little lords, right? These little lords with their
dominion, but Christ did. Christ did that exactly for his
people. All right, so leave your marker at Isaiah 26, and now
go over to Romans. Romans is right after the Gospels
and Acts. Romans is gonna be right after
Acts. So you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Acts, and then
you have Romans. So go to Romans and put a marker
here because we're going to look at a couple verses in Romans. So Christ frees his people from
sin. He frees them from sin and if
you're in Romans 6, Romans 6, go to verses 6 and 7. He says, knowing this, Now we
know this by the Spirit of God, knowing this, that our old man,
this natural flesh here, that nature, that natural man of Adam,
this sinful flesh which is dead and corrupt and weak and and
worthless to stand up against these little lords, knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For
he that is dead is freed from sin." So in Adam, we were dead. We were part of that body of
sin. We were just part of that Antichrist
body of all those inhabitants in the earth throughout the world
just dead in trespasses and sins and not knowing how to serve
or please God in any way. And so we were corrupt and we
were servants of sin and unrighteousness. That's all we knew. grew up thinking
was good and right and how to get ahead in things. That's what
we did and practiced and tried to be better at. But it did nothing
for us in terms of knowing God or being free and righteous before
our God. So Christ came and He delivers
us. And He wrought or works salvation for His people on the cross. And we were in Christ. So that
when Christ died, we died with Him. When He bore that wrath,
we already bore the wrath. in Christ, in Christ. When he
died, we died with him. If you know the story of Noah
and the ark, Noah was in that ark when the wrath of God was
pouring down and killed all the inhabitants of the earth except
for those that were in the ark. And they died with those people,
but not really. They were protected. It was a
picture of their death in the wrath, in the storm of being
protected. They went through it and that
pictured Christ for us. We're in Christ, our ark, so
when the wrath of God came down upon him, it came down on us,
too, and we died. We died in Christ. We're made
righteous in Christ. So, sin no more has power and
authority and dominion over us. In fact, John says, just stay
there in Romans, I'll read this, 1 John 3 says, he that commiteth
sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might
destroy the works of the devil. So Christ destroys that love
and affection for the devil that is His ways, what the way this
world is and what delights and pleases the hearts and the wills
of men. Christ breaks that love and that
affection there and that body of sin and takes us out from
that dominion and reign and brings us into his body in Christ. So Paul continues in Romans 6,
Romans 6 verses 12 and 13, he says, let not sin therefore reign
in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof,
neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God." And what Paul is showing us, what he's teaching, is that
we have the Spirit of God, whereby we know the will of God. We know
what his will is, not to just go on living as we live, but
it's not in that fear and dread and and guilt, but rather what
we do is done in love, not to earn favor with God, not to please
him, not to try and be more righteous or more holy, but rather by love
we serve one another. We're delivered from that bondage
of religion that kept us working hard and trying to make up for
all the bad things that we had done that week. He's delivered
us from that and given us his spirit whereby we now walk in
peace with God, before Him in peace, not afraid, but in peace. And so Paul said, I'll read it
in Galatians 5.16, he said this, I say then, walk in the Spirit,
and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. When those
lusts and passions of the flesh come rise up in us, the Lord,
He's the one that delivers us and keeps us. And when we sin,
when we stumble, When we fall, it's the Lord that restores us,
that gives us repentance, that reminds us of Him. And it's not
a repentance to re-earn the favor of God, not at all. We can't
do anything more than what Christ has already done for us freely.
But it's returned in love by His Spirit, by His work and His
will in us. And so walking by the Spirit,
that's not us being wrapped up in religious ceremony. A lot
of people think that religion is what saves them. A lot of
people think, well, I'm going to get myself saved now, and
I'm going to join to this church here on the corner, and I'm going
to start doing what they say to do. If they light candles,
I'll light candles. If they say a prayer at this
time, I'll say a prayer at that time. If I've got to walk an
aisle or go to the back room and confess my sins and things
like that, and I've got to start doing these good works and stop
doing these things here, they think that's salvation. Now I
call myself a Christian and I guess that's salvation now. I was baptized
and things like that. And that's not salvation. Salvation
is knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing I'm the sinner. I can't
save myself. I'm desperate for his work, for
his salvation. I desperately need him. And Lord,
you're the only one that can save me. You did it. You did
the work, Lord. And so, it's confessing Christ. It's confessing our need of him.
It's believing the one whom God sent for this very purpose. We're
saying, God, you're true. I am dead in trespasses and sins.
God, you're true. You did send the Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And God, I believe that he is
the Savior. I believe that he is salvation.
And I can't save myself. Have mercy on me. Put me in Christ,
Lord. cleanses me with His blood. He
brings that prayer out of His people and it causes them to
look to Christ. Alright? So, look at Romans 7
now. Romans 7 and look at verses 5
and 6. This is Him delivering us from that
dead letter religion that once ruled over us and had the reign
over us. Romans 7, 5 says, For when we
were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law
did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Alright,
so that gives you an idea of what the flesh is. The flesh
is all our upbringing, what we think is good and what we think
is right according to our mind, according to our thoughts, according
to what religion has taught us, and we think, yeah, I like what
they said there, I don't care for that over there, but I like
this, and that's all the flesh, what the flesh does, that's how
we do it, that's how we do it naturally in our flesh. And Paul
says all those motions of sins, because that's what they are,
all the thoughts of our natural mind and thought, which were
by the law, right, whether it was the law of our upbringing,
of the Gentile, or it's by the law of Moses. We think that's
our righteousness. He says, those things worked
in our members, in our body, and in the body with one another,
it brought forth fruit. fruit unto death is what it brought
forth it was dead corrupt smelly stinky fruit that a god isn't
pleased with it brought forth fruit unto death but now he says
we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were
held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in
the oldness of the letter. So Christ has delivered us from
that dominion of dead letter works that cannot save us. He's
delivered us from that and brought us under His dominion, His life. And so in Christ now we have
life, true life, and liberty, freedom from those things, freedom
from those little Lord dominions. Look back, hold your place there
in Romans 7, because we'll come back there one more time. But
in Isaiah 26, verse 14, let me just read our last verse there.
We're told they are dead, all those little lords that had dominion
over us, they are dead. They shall not live, they are
deceased, they shall not rise, therefore hast thou visited and
destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. All right,
so Christ did that. He destroyed them. He killed
them. They're dead and we're dead to
them. So they don't have any more authority and power over
us. We're not afraid of the guilt and the shame of dying because
we're not looking to our works. If when we're honest, we know
my works are imperfect, they're not gonna stand up for me in
the day of judgment. But in Christ, who is perfect
righteousness, who has no flaw or blemish or did anything wrong,
we that come in Christ we have confidence and we can come boldly
before the throne of God because we know God isn't looking at
me in my works, he's looking at me in Christ. Really, he's
just looking at Christ and he sees all his people in Christ
and he's at peace with them. He's ordained peace for them
in his son, Jesus Christ. All right? So go back to Romans
7, Romans 7, and we'll see this now that we're in Christ, He's
our husband and He's our Lord and He's delivered us from the
dominion of those little lords that were all dead and wicked
and evil. It says in Romans 7 verse 1, Know ye not brethren, for
I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. Now look at verse two. For the
woman, we couldn't free ourselves, but like this woman here in the
text, for the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law
to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be
dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So if your
husband said, honey, I want you home by eight o'clock at night,
and while he's alive, she would come home at eight o'clock. But
when he dies, If she wants to come home at 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock,
it don't matter because she's not under his rule and dominion
anymore. She can do what she wants to, and that's what he's
saying here. All right, so, if while her husband liveth, though
she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress.
But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that
she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Okay, so there's our deliverance. If we're dead to it, how do we
die to it? Verse four, wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married
to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God. Just like a married couple,
they bring forth fruit in their marriage. So it is, Christ our
husband, he's the one that brings forth fruit from his bride, that
precious fruit that is a sweet smelling savor unto God because
it's of his son, it's the product of his work. He is the one who's
done all that work. It's not the product of our dead
flesh in league with Adam and this world and Satan and all
those things. He's delivered us from all that
because now in Christ we have life. He's our husband. He's
delivered us out from that dead dominion and brought us into
the dominion, the rule and the reign of Christ. All right? We see in our text, Isaiah 26,
13, O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion
over us, but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. So we're glorying and boasting
in Christ now. Any good work that's in us, it's
of Christ. We know it's of Christ, not me
anymore. And he's made peace for us with
God and filled us with his spirit, setting us free from the dominion
of those little lords, and now he brings forth fruit in us unto
God our Father, and brought us into the family of God, so that
it's no longer us and what we've done, right? Because thou hast
brought all our works in us. And I'll just close with what
Paul said, because Paul is speaking from this text, and he says in
Ephesians 2, when he's writing to them, in Ephesians 2.10, He
tells us, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk
in them, so that now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were
far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for He is our
peace. You can see that in Ephesians
2, verses 10 through 14. I pray the Lord would comfort
your hearts under the dominion of Christ, that He would break
you from the body of sin, in thinking that there's something
we do to save ourselves, and that He would make you satisfied
with Christ, even as the Father is satisfied with Christ. He's
done everything necessary for his people. So that's how God
provided for his people. That's why we're at peace in
the midst of judgment, coming down upon the wicked inhabitants
of this world. It's okay because God's name
is glorified and there's no wrath in it for us. So I pray the Lord
will help you rejoice in Christ. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your provision in your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank
you that this is your kingdom, and you're doing your will, working
your purpose, doing all things as it pleases you, Lord. We thank
you for that. And Lord, we pray and ask that
you would bring our will into conformity with your will, that
we would see Jesus Christ, that we would love him, rejoice in
him, and know him, Lord, because he alone is salvation. Lord,
break us from looking to our own works and trusting in something
we've done. And Lord, let us be satisfied
with Christ alone. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. And Lord, we pray for your people that you would
bless them to rest in Christ, to rest in that peace which you've
ordained for them in Christ. That you would heal our bodies. Lord, help us in our sicknesses,
make us well. Help us to be at peace. with
our Lord and his people here. We pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.