Alright, if you take your Bibles
now and turn with me to 1 Peter. 1 Peter, we're looking at verse
13 tonight and specifically just the first part of this verse. I'll read the whole verse to
you. The apostle says, wherefore? Because of God's electing grace,
because of God's saving grace, because of Christ's purchase
with His precious blood, because we are kept by the Holy Spirit,
wherefore, because of all of these things that I've stated
before, wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober
and hope to the end. for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Gird up your mind. If I had a
title, that'd be it. Gird up your mind. Scripture
says, Gird up the loins of your mind. What in the world does
Peter mean by this? Gird up the loins of your mind. Now the expression here is to
be prepared. It is one to prepare for action. It's taken from an Eastern custom. Long ago they used to wear long
robes. And when they were either to
run or to be in a hurry or that they were to journey a long distance
or even prepare for battle, They would gird up the robe, they
would gird it up so that they would not trip over it as they
were running or as they were engaging in warfare. Now remember
the Lord told Israel on the night of the Passover, when the Lord was to pass over
the land of Egypt, After the blood of the Passover lamb had
been shed, after it had been applied, you remember he said
they were to eat the lamb, roasted with fire, they were to eat the
lamb with your shoes on your feet and your loins girded. They were to get ready to travel. They were to make great haste
and get out of Egypt. What a picture here it is of
us who are believers in Christ. The Lamb has been slain. The
blood has been applied to our hearts. God has passed over us
in judgment, passed over us. And now we are to eat the lamb,
we are to eat Christ by faith. Isn't that what he said? He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood. What is he saying?
This is by faith we do this. And as we journey, as we journey
in this life, as we engage in battle, in warfare, as we studied
last week, we are running a race. And in order that we not be hindered
in our race, we are to gird up this coat, this linen of our
minds, gird it up, so that we do not stumble, that we do not
fall. Believer, our journey through
this life, we face many difficulties, trials. We're perplexed. I tell you,
I thought I knew something when I was younger. But I tell you what, the more
I grow, the more I grow, and listen, this is even spiritual,
I grow in grace. The more I understand the gospel,
the less I understand what's going on around me. I'm perplexed. I'm often asking, what's going
on? How in the world are these trials
and difficulties going to work out for my good? Why do the wicked prosper and
the righteous suffer? Is this not a question you face? You know, when a person is wicked
and they hurt someone, do you realize the person that is hurt,
hurts worse than the person that hurt them? They may feel guilty about it,
but they don't ever feel that pain that you feel. Why? Why do the wicked prosper and
the righteous suffer? Why do we seem to be so few who
believe the gospel? Does this perplex you? Why? Is this not the most gracious
thing you've ever heard, salvation by grace? Isn't it the most wonderful
thing and yet men despise it? And I tell you, the years go
by, we grow fewer and fewer, not more and more. I think that
the gospel is being preached clearer today than it has been
in centuries. And yet there are fewer people
who understand it. This often perplexes us. We are often cast down by sickness,
disappointments, troubles, We have troubles that are common
to all men, but we have other troubles that other men don't
face. Spiritual troubles. We're engaged
in spiritual warfare that most of this human race does not understand. We are persecuted, especially
by those of our own household. Our Lord told us that, didn't
he? He said, they'll hurt you the worst. They that be of your
own household. We're fearful, we're doubting,
we're often unfaithful, we sin against our God whom we love,
we offend our brethren. We're easily tripped up by the
afflictions and sins of this life, aren't we? We're easily
tripped up. How easy it is for us to fall.
Is it not easy? You remember when Peter was able
to walk upon the water, was it a hurricane that caused him to
sink? No, it was a slight wind. Just take the slightest wind
and we begin to sink. We're easily tripped up because
we are weak. We are surrounded and pressed
on every side, both without and within. Therefore, believer, let us remove
from our minds those things that would hinder us. Do you desire
not to fall so easily? Do you desire not to be troubled? Peter here is encouraging us
to something that we would not easily fall. And that is, you
have to gird up the loins of your mind. You have to take away those things
that would hinder your faith or your love. Your faith or your
love. I don't know about you but I have
great troubles in my mind. I figured this out. No matter
where I go, there I am. I can't escape me. And that's
one of my greatest troubles. Is I can't escape the things
in my mind. Our mind. Now they may be caused
by outward trouble, they may be caused by other people, or
our own heart. But it's in the mind that we
are troubled. You know if you were troubled
in your heart, you wouldn't know it unless you were troubled in
your mind. Whatever comes out of the heart goes where? Where
does it go? Goes to the mind. And then from the mind it goes
into action, doesn't it? So what he's trying to do is
he's telling us, look, gird up the loins of your mind so as
not to fulfill what your flesh desires to do. We're troubled in our minds,
the mind, we are prone to wander. Isn't your mind prone to wander?
Anybody else besides me, I'm preaching and my mind will go
over here. It's just prone to wander. The things we put in
our mind, how often do they leak out? By the end of this night,
how much will you even remember? Our minds are weak. My mind is engaged with holy
things and in a moment I can have such vile thoughts. You see, friends, the battleground
between the old and the new nature is in the mind. That's where
the battle takes place. It's in the mind. There's a warfare
that is engaging in our hearts. And where does it manifest itself
first? It manifests itself in our minds. This is the battlefield. It is
most often here in the mind where the flesh lusts against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh. Flesh desires to sin, but the
spirit desires to refrain. And then there's a struggle.
The flesh is always trying to, in your mind, trying to justify
the sin. And all the while your new man
is in the mind telling you, no, that's not, there's no justification
for it. And you're struggling. You struggle. Luther said this about evil thoughts. He says, I cannot stop the evil
birds from flocking. But I can stop them from nesting.
And this is the idea. Girding up the loins of your
mind. No, you can't stop the evil thoughts. That flesh is
going to put them in there before you even know you had them. But we can stop them from nesting.
So then the apostle, by the illustration of girding up the robe, so it
is not to fall in battle or running, so believers are exhorted to
gird up their minds so as not to fall or be tripped. by the
foolish and vain thoughts of the old man. So that we do not
fulfill the lusts of our flesh, we must gird up the loins of
our mind. How then can we do this? The
word of God, the word minds, the word minds in this text is
translated in another place, understanding. Go over to 1 John. Go to 1 John. This is where I pray the Lord
to help me not to muddy the water, make it clear. I hope it makes
it clear. This word mind is translated
in this text as understanding. Look at this in John chapter
1 John 5 and verse 20. It says, and we know. You know,
you believer in Christ, you know something. John telling you,
you know this. This is something you know. We
know that the Son of God is come. How do you know that? And have
given us understanding. Now that word understanding is
a mind. He has given us a mind. A mind
of what? Understanding. Now why has He given us this
mind? Purpose, that we may know Him that is true. Now we know
He's come and He's given us a mind of understanding in the new birth.
Why did He do that? That you might know Him. Isn't
that what Paul says in Philippians, that I may know Him? Paul knew
Him. I tell you what, I surely don't
know Him as much as I want to know Him. Spirit's given me understanding,
but it's not yet full. That we may know Him that is
true, and secondly, we may know this, that we are in Him that's
true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
This is the true God. Jesus Christ is the true God
and eternal life. Everyone who is saved by grace. We know these things. We understand. Some things in our mind. Even because we have a new heart.
Again, where does the thoughts come from? They come from the
heart out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts. murderers adultery. See, it begins in the heart,
comes through the mind and out in the body. So why do we get
this knowledge in our mind? We get it because we have a new
heart and this new heart produces understanding of something. That
we may fully understand them, we. We don't know We don't we may not fully understand
all of it, but we do know it's true. Listen, I know he's true. I know that. Can I? Can I? Can I set that against
what we experience and see how it works? No. I tell you sometimes
that my experience is seen contrary to that, that knowledge. But
see I have to gird up my mind in this and set aside the experience
and know this, I know he's true. Let God be true and every man
a liar. I know that we are in him. You
often feel you're in him? Your experience, you walk around
with a big smile on your face feeling you're in Christ? With
a skip in your step all the time? No. So we have to gird up our
minds in understanding this, that we are in Him that is true. And so that we may, who are born
of God, we, I'm speaking to God's people because this text is.
This text is speaking to God's people, we know. We understand, He's given us
a mind, we know this. Listen, gird up your mind with
this. We know that we were dead. Before God came to us, we were
dead in sins. We know that we were without
hope, we were without God, and we were guilty. We know that. In fact, this is the beginning
of grace, isn't it? For a man to know these things,
for him to have an understanding of his mind, that he is, without
a doubt, totally and absolutely without hope. This is the word
of God. He strips us of our earthly and
fleshly carnal hopes in making ourselves acceptable. Therefore, I know, I understand. And I have to, because of that
understanding in the initial act of grace, we have to gird
up the loins of our mind and understand that that nature hasn't
changed. that the old man of sin is still
in us. We must gird up the loins of
our mind with this, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Now listen, if we don't gird
up our minds with that truth, if we don't gird up our minds
with that understanding, surely we'll justify anything we do. We have to gird up, I like that
in, I believe it's in Isaiah. He said, look to the pit from
whence you were digged. Now where was that pit? That
was Adam. We were all dug out of that same pit. We were all
in that same pit of sin. And we gird up our lines, we
who know this, we who've been born again, we know that in our
flesh dwelleth no good thing. Knowing the heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked above all things. How often do you
feel things in your heart and say, oh I just feel it with all
my heart. And you're just totally deceived. If you don't remember who you
are, we are so easily duped by our own feelings. Gird up your mind. Don't always
trust how you feel. Because our hearts, the old man
is full of deception. And remember at the appointed
time God gave us light to know and to understand. That the son of God has come
to seek and to save that which is lost. Isn't that the second
thing he showed us when he saved us? He showed us who we were. And he showed us who Christ is.
That he has come. That's what John says. We know. We know that the Son of God has
come. What did he come to do? Save sinners. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. That Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. Now listen, we know this, that
all men are sinners. But all men don't know they're
sinners. Very few know themselves to be
sinners. I like that hymn Joseph Hart
wrote, A sinner is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost hath made him
one. If you're a sinner, who told you that? Who gave you that
understanding? It was the Holy Spirit that gave
us this understanding. And with this understanding,
He also gave us something else. That Jesus Christ has come to
save what type of person? Sinners. He came to save sinners. Listen, if that's your condition
tonight, then I'm telling you, Jesus Christ has come to save
sinners. And so then are you in some warfare
of your minds? Are you in some trouble? Then
gird up your loins with this. You know what you are. And you
know Christ came to save that type of person. Gird up your
loins of your mind with that, that understanding. He came to
save sinners. Well, that's what I am. Well,
that's good for me. He came to save sinners. He came to fulfill. How did He
do this? We know and understand that He came to fulfill righteousness. That's how He saves sinners.
To fulfill righteousness. That's what He told John. He
said, It behooves us to fulfill all righteousness. That's why
He came. To fulfill all righteousness. He said, I came not to destroy
the law, but what? To fulfill the law. To honor
the law. In Isaiah he said to magnify
the law and make it honorable. That's what he came to do. And
secondly, by his blood he would satisfy the justice of God for
our sins. Gird up your minds with this. Set your heart to know these
things. Set your mind to know these things. Do you know them? Yes. Do you
know them completely? No. Are you constantly focused on
these things? No, we're often distracted. That's
what he's trying to tell you. Bring it in. Bring it into these
things. I am by nature a sinner. Christ
is my only Savior. And he did this by providing
righteousness. Righteousness. We are to gird up our minds and
come to Him because He requires nothing. Isn't this the most
astounding thing? That Jesus Christ requires nothing
of you? He requires nothing of the flesh
simply to believe on Him and His accomplished salvation? To
trust in His person? To believe in His work? to rest
your soul on Him. Now if you've believed on the
false Christ of the world that requires something of you, that's
what the false Christ of the world desires. He's done, they say He's done
something to save men, but man, He just didn't finish it. You've
got to finish it. If you believed on a false Christ
who's only made salvation possible and the rest has to be finished
by religious ceremonies or vain tradition, I tell you, repent
of that. Gird up your mind and repent of that. Turn from that
and believe on Him that is true. Believe on Him that has finished
the work of God. I told you that picture this
last Lord's Day. He's the Lord of the Sabbath,
isn't it? The Sabbath that was done in the very beginning when
God rested from his creation. He finished creating Jesus Christ
is our Sabbath and that he's done saving. He's he saved his
people from their sins. Salvation has been accomplished. Therefore, we are born of God,
we know and believe on Jesus Christ. We know him that is true,
and we will not believe another. Is that true of you? Will you believe another? No. There is none other name
given among men whereby we must be saved. If the Savior I worship
is false, then there is no salvation for anyone. But is it false,
is it? We know Him to be what? True,
John says. He's given us a mind, an understanding
of Him that is true. He is true. We know Him. We will not follow
another. Jesus said, My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. A stranger's voice
they will not follow. I know this, you've heard men
preach a false Christ What happens when you hear of a false Christ?
Does not something go off in your mind? Does not something
go off in your heart? You may not be able to pinpoint
it, but you know something's wrong I remember I used to listen
to men when I was driving a pest control truck at night I was
I Drive in the middle of the night doing jobs and I have the
religious radio station on a man these these guys come on They
talk about real good things. I Mean they talk about marriage
and they talk about finance and they talk about they use scripture
and everything There was this warning bell just going off inside
of me. I knew something was wrong, but
I just couldn't put my finger on it And I went to my pastor
and I said, Pastor, I don't understand. I don't know what's going on.
These men, they're saying good things. It's not anything that
they're saying I can find wrong. But yet there's something that
I know is wrong. And he said this, he said, It's
not what they're saying, it's what they're not saying. What
they refuse to say. They refuse to preach Christ.
They refused to preach a successful Savior. And then it just hit
me. That's it. Why? I know Him that
is true. And I will not follow another. I cannot believe on another Christ
except the Son of God, the successful Savior. John says, We know Him. We know He has come to save sinners
of whom I am chief. And I know this, I am in Him. Gird up your minds with that. I am in Him. We know and understand
that we were in Him because God put us there. I'm not in Him because I'm a
good person. I'm not in Him because I'm married at being in Him I'm
in Him because God put me in there When did God put us in
there? We know this We know when He
put us in there Before the foundation of the world God put us in union
with Christ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ Ephesians 1 verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places according as He hath chosen us, where?
In Christ Jesus before the world began I know you that are believers
in Christ, you gird up your minds with this I know I'm in Him Because
God put me there 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
30 but of God are you in Christ Jesus I believe it you know that
you know you're in Christ Jesus it's what Peter was saying at
the very beginning of chapter 1 he's saying to the elect according
to the foreknowledge of God You were the elect according
to God's wisdom. Believer in Christ, when doubts
and fears come, gird up your minds with this understanding. You remember that armor that
Paul talks about in, I believe, Ephesians 4, I think it is. He said, put on the belt truth. You know, the belt ties everything
together without the belt, the pants fall down. It's saying
he's saying everything falls apart without this. The truth.
This is the truth. And we know it's the truth because
we are in Him because God tells us this. I know I am in Christ
Jesus and believe on Him alone. I know I was in Him before the
foundation of the world because God has made us accepted in Him. Therefore, God by Jesus Christ
has made me holy and without blame by Jesus Christ. Gird up your minds with that. Next, believer, gird up your
minds with the understanding of Christ's perfect work. You may gird up your minds, know
you're a sinner. You know that Jesus Christ saved
sinners. You know that God put us in Christ.
But listen, if Christ's work was not perfect, none of that
matters. If God put you in Christ and Christ's work wasn't perfect,
how good is it? What good is it? What good is your election? What good is the understanding
of your depravity and that Christ saves sinners? We must gird up
our minds with this, that the work of Jesus Christ is perfect. Perfect. And we often trip and fall because
of our imperfect works. Isn't this the reason we fall?
Isn't this reason we're downcast because of our lack of faith,
our lack of love, our lack of hope? Because this is because we are
looking at our faith. How often do you look at your
own faith, your own love and your own hope? Is that anything to look at?
How strong is your faith? How strong is your love? How
confident is your confidence in your confidence? It's weak. Therefore, believer,
gird up your mind so that your faith is not in your faith, but
your faith is in Christ alone. That our hope is not in our hope,
but our hope is in Christ alone. That our love for Christ is not
rooted and based in our love, but His love for us. Gird up your minds to understand
then that Jesus Christ is all. He's all. He's all are righteous. all our righteousness. We contribute
nothing to His perfect righteousness. Rather, God was not willing to
charge us with our sins. Now, if there's one thing we
can own, it's our sin. One thing that belongs to us
is our sin. And yet God was not willing to
charge you with your sin. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord does not impute sin. Isn't that right? That's a blessed
man. God was not willing to charge
us with our sins, so in grace he charged us with Christ's righteousness. Do you realize you have the same
name as Christ? In Jeremiah chapter 23, this
is the name whereby he shall be called. What? The Lord our
righteousness. That's his name. Does he not
deserve that name? He is the Lord our righteousness.
Guess what? In Jeremiah 33, this is the name
whereby she shall be called. The church. She shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. So when you are, you and I are
are bogged down with our sin and our guilt and our shame,
gird up your mind, know this by nature, that's exactly what
you are. But Christ came to save it and
his salvation was so perfect that you get his righteousness.
You are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Gird up your minds that God calls
us who are born of God. We believe on his son. He calls
us righteous. So then no matter our struggle,
no matter our failures, our griefs, our sorrows, or our trials, this
is what God says to you. So you don't fall down. Listen.
Say you to the right. What is he talking to? If you're born of God, he's talking
to you. If you believe on Christ, he's talking to you. Say you
to the righteous, it is well with you. It's well. Can you say that about your situation
right now? gird up your minds. We know Him
that is true and everything that He says is true. Say you to the
righteous, it shall be well with him. He shall eat of the fruit
of his doings. You understand that? You're gonna
receive exactly what you got coming to you. What does a righteous man have
come into? He has the blessings of God.
He is accepted with God. How can this be? How can this
be? Because I know in your mind you're
warring. I am. I know. This is what it
says and yet I look in the mirror and that's not what I see. So
what do you do? You war. There's a warfare, gird
up your mind then. How can this be? We're so full
of sin, so full of unrighteousness, how can he call me righteous? Believe it is true, we do have
this old man of sin and he has not changed. Therefore, we struggle
against sin in our members, sin in our minds, sin in our hearts.
Yet consider the understanding of this truth. Jesus hath forever
put away your sin. This is how you can be righteous.
This is how he can take his righteous and give it to you because he
took all of your sins and put them away. That's how he can call you righteous. What do you call a man with no
sin? He called him righteous. He's
righteous. He has no sin. He's holy. He's without sin. Where's your
sin? Gird up your minds with this.
Where is your sin? How can God be just and justify
you if you still have sin? He couldn't. He took your sins
and put them away. He forever put them away. Gird
up your minds with this understanding, because it's true. See. Psalm 103. And look at this. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all of its benefits. Who forgiveth
thine iniquities, who healeth thy diseases. Well, how could
he do that? Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
and tender mercies He did this out of tender mercy He put away
your sins Forgive you of all your sins And because of His mercy Now
listen How long is God's mercy going to endure with you? If
His mercy is what forgives you, then how long will He endure?
The scripture says His mercy is as high as the heavens. How high is His mercy? His mercy,
you see it says, as far as the east is from the west, so far
hath He removed our transgressions from us. For as the heavens is
high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that
fear him. His mercy is everlasting. It is from everlasting to everlasting. How can we know his mercy? Because
Christ has removed our sins from us. How far? You can't measure
as far as the East is from the West. You just can't measure
it. That's how far he went away of our sin. I like that picture
of the Great Day of Atonement. Remember, he killed the sacrifice. He brought that, he had two goats
and he confessed the sins on the scapegoat, right? He killed
the other one. brought the blood in, and then
that strong man, he picked up that scapegoat who had all the
sins confessed on him, and he started walking. And as you see
him, he's walking, he gets smaller and smaller and smaller until
he's gone. Christ took away our sins. He
took them to a land unknown. And you see that strong man coming
back, don't you? What's missing? The goat. The sin. It's gone. Consider
this, that Jesus Christ's death has paid the full debt we owed
to God. He is that fit man that carried
away our sins to an uninhabited land, the habitation of God's
forgetfulness. Gird up your loins of your understanding
of this. God says, I will forgive their
iniquities. I will remember their sins no
more. Is there any condition that you
need to meet in order to get that? That's a covenant God made with
His Son for you. I will forgive your iniquities. Well, I don't deserve it. But he does it anyway. I will forgive their sins. Jeremiah 50, in those days at
that time, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there
shall be none the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.
For, here's the reason why, I will pardon them whom I reserve. And this was done by the blood
of Jesus Christ. Peter says in our text, in chapter
1, he says that you were redeemed not with corruptible things as
silver and gold from your vain conversation, but with the precious
blood of Jesus. Gird up your minds with this. Set your attention on these things. Christ's salvation was perfect. So perfect that God said, Satisfied. I'm satisfied. Let us gird up
our understanding and consider Christ who we know. Consider
the gospel that we have heard and believe. Consider the great
work of salvation that he has accomplished. Gird up your minds
with this. And lastly, consider and gird
up your minds with this truth. Jesus Christ is King. Jesus Christ is King. When Christ
died, He was buried. And when He was risen from the
dead, where did He go? The Scriptures are plain. It
tells us He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on
High. Christ Himself said that all power is given to Him in
heaven and in earth for this purpose, that He should give
eternal life to as many as the Father had given Him. Jesus Christ
is King. Our troubles of mind often arise
because of circumstances. It's not right. Because of circumstances,
because of something that is contrary to the way we think
it should be. Go to Mark chapter 6. Go to Mark
chapter 6. Think about this. In Barth chapter
6 you know that this is the time where the Lord took the five
loaves and the two small fishes and fed 5,000 men What a miracle Now these disciples
had pretty much been abused and hated and Christ had been rejected
everywhere they went and all of a sudden they got a following
5,000 What if one day 5,000 people
just showed up at this building? We'd be falling all over ourselves,
wouldn't we? We'd be amazed. That's exactly
how they felt. And yet look what happens, something
contrary, something's going to cause a struggle in their mind. Look at this. It says in verse
46, Verse 45 and straightway he constrained
his disciples to get in the ship. He made him get in the ship.
What do we go? Where are we going? Boys, get in the boat. I don't
understand. Get in the boat. He constrained
them, get in the ship. To go to the other side, the
best said, and he sent away the people. You got that? 5,000 show up here and all of
a sudden If our Lord were still present all of a sudden he says,
all right, you guys leave I'm gonna send these people away
It's people way you wouldn't understand either And so they get in the boat and
they said they sent them away and departed into the mountain
to pray Not only do you send the people away? Not only did
he constrain to go the other side the Lord didn't go with
them. I Look at this. And when even was
come, the ship was in the midst of the sea alone, and he was
alone on the land. And it was smooth sailing. Is
that what it says? No, it wasn't smooth sailing. And he saw them toiling and rowing,
for the wind was contrary to them. Believer, gird up the understanding
of your mind. that the way of the believer
is not smooth. Everything in this world and
the feelings of your old nature are always going to blow contrary
to the way you think it should go. But this is our comfort. Gird
up your minds with this. It's going to be rough. But this is our comfort. Look
at this in verse 48. He saw them. Listen, our Lord is not bodily
with us, is he? I wish he was. I wish at times I could feel
him. But it doesn't matter. He sees
me toiling. He sent the wind to be contrary
to me. But this is my hope. Look at
this. In about the fourth watch of the night, they'd been rowing
for about nine hours, and he cometh unto them. walking upon
the sea. The thing that caused him the
most trouble, he walked on. Was there any resistance to him? He wasn't striving to walk against
the wind. He was walking, and it seems
as though he was just passing by. It was so as a casual stroll
on the sea. Consider this, the troubles that
we are toiling with, Christ walks on. What we seem to be opposed, oppose
us, Christ controls. So therefore, believer, keep
rowing. rowing in faith that the clouds and darkness we so
much dread shall soon break with blessings on our head. Know that
behind every frowning providence hides a smiling face. Because he who promised to come will come. He will come. Not in the time you demand. but
in the time that is best. He will come walking on our troubles. I like that God moves in a mysterious
way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea, rides on the storm. Believer, in Zephaniah chapter
three it says, don't let your hands be slack. Don't be slack
in faith. Don't be slack. Gird up your
loins of your mind and faith. Trust in Christ. Why? The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He's king. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He
will joy over thee with singing. Why? Our God reigneth. He will save us. He will rejoice
over us. Why? He has taken away our judgments. He has conquered our enemies
and he dwells within us. Gird up your loins of your mind
because nothing happens to you for evil. You have to gird up the loins
of your mind in faith because it's not going to You're not
going to see it with these eyes. You're not going to feel it with
this body. We have to believe. What Peter's telling you, gird
up your Lord's of your mind, be sober. Other places, be sober,
be vigilant in these things. Be vigilant, gird up your mind.
And this is what you see in all of this. Listen, Christ is all,
isn't he? You're the sinner. That's all
you've got. Keep that in mind so you're not
deceived by your own heart. Then see this, Christ is savior. Savior. We know him that's true,
we are in him that's true. God put us there and because
his salvation is perfect, all our sins are gone. He has given
us his righteousness and he is king. He is king. He rules over
all our troubles. God, I do pray that God give
us the ability to follow this exhortation. Because it takes effort in this. We must search these things out. We must remember these things. I pray God give us grace to do
so. Let's stand and be dismissed. Father, dismiss it with your
blessing. Use the word as you please. Father, I do pray you
give us strength to gird up our minds in these things so that
we are not deceived by our flesh. Father, gird up our minds concerning
Christ, that he is all our hope. Set our hearts and minds and
faith and hope upon him who is true. Help us in our trials. Come to
us, deliver us from our enemies. Keep us in the faith as you promised.
Help us to give you the glory and praise for it in Jesus' name.