your Bibles to the 76th Psalm. Psalm 76. Let's seek his face in prayer. Our Father, as we come into this
portion of our worship service, we feel most acutely our need
of your help to understand your Word, to not be led astray by
it, to not impose human wisdom on it, but to draw divine wisdom
and understanding from it. And we realize, our Father, that
the divine wisdom and understanding of the scriptures is to see Christ
in them and understand how what they say relates to the Lord
Jesus. So give us the ability to do
that today. I pray for all who listen, for
all who are gathered, I pray, Lord, that each heart
would be penetrated by the truth and that no one would turn their
hearts away from the truth, but that all would receive it. Fill our minds with truth and may it affect not only what
we think, but how we see our lives, how we value the things
in this world, and may it stir up true worship
in our hearts. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Now the subject this morning is the God of peace. The God
of peace. It says in verse one, in Judah,
God is known. His name is great in Israel. Now, of course, this is poetry,
and virtually all poetry in every language involves some kind of
repetition. Now, English poetry is a little
different. in that it relies more heavily
on the repetition of sounds, what we call rhyme. Such a thing
isn't practical in most languages because the endings of words
are determined by what part of speech they occupy in a sentence. Consequently, you know, you can't
choose words according to their endings because their endings
are constantly changing. So they do other kinds of things.
In Hebrew poetry, the common thing was to repeat a concept. Say it one way, and then say
essentially the same thing another way. In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel. Now, I don't I think that this
psalm was written before the days of Solomon, so it couldn't
have been written after the nation of Israel was divided into two
nations called Israel and Judah. If you'll remember that after
Solomon died, there was quite a struggle among his sons as
to who would be king. And what finally happened is
that the ten northern tribes followed one fellow and the two
southern tribes followed another. And those northern tribes became
known as Israel and the southern two tribes became known as the
nation of Judah. But if you look down here, In verse 2, it says, his tent
is in Salem. The tent is the tabernacle. It
was during Solomon's reign that the temple was built. And God
no longer dwelt in a tent. He was in a mostly masonry structure. So this was written when God's
worship And God's presence was, that is, his token presence among
the Jews was within a tent. So it had to be sometime before
Solomon's reign. And it says, in Judah, God is
known. Well, this is referencing a single
tribe. And what is distinct about the
tribe of Judah that it was the tribe of kings. All good kings of Israel came out
of Judah. Our Lord is of the tribe of Judah. He was born in Bethlehem, that's
within the tribe of Judah. He is called, in the book of
Revelation, he's called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Jacob
as he comes near the end of his life and he calls his sons in
to bless them. That is, to pronounce on them,
we say the word bless, not everything he said was a blessing in the
way we consider it. Basically, he was saying, this
is what's going to become of you. And when he got to Judah,
he said, the scepter shall not depart from between Judah's feet. until Shiloh come. And most people
think that term Shiloh means the one to whom it belongs. Of
course, the one to whom the scepter really belonged was of the tribe
of Judah. But still, all through that time,
all the faithful kings were in the line of Judah. And in Judah,
God is known. Why would it be important to
single out the tribe of Judah as the place where God is known? Well, part of it is because the
temple, well, the tabernacle was in the tribe of Judah. But
I think at this point, what we need to realize, it's talking
about in his kingliness, in his sovereignty, in his undeniable
will, Those who perceive a God who wants to do things. I weary
of hearing preachers saying that. God wants to. No, God doesn't
want to do anything. He just does things. It said, our God is in the heavens.
He's done whatever He pleased. And so to say God wants to do
something is to describe a different God. than the God of the Bible. You may paste the name of Jehovah
on him, but that's not what Jehovah's like. It is in absolute sovereignty
that God is known. I remember preaching once, it was in a church in, now I'm
relying too much on my memory. to go past Sheldon, the next
city over. I can't even remember what it
is now. But there was a Sovereign Grace Church there, and I preached
at their conference many years ago. And I said, you know, there
are some people who think that God isn't sovereign. And I says,
to such people, you know, they may think, oh, that's OK.
If you want to believe God's sovereign, that's fine. If this
guy over here doesn't want to believe, that's fine. But nobody
that has ever met him, nobody that's ever had dealings with
him, has ever thought he was anything other than completely
sovereign. Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful
man in the world of his day, got lifted up with pride. And
God said, I'm going to show you what you really are. And God
made him insane. And for seven years, he ate grass. Lived like an ox, it says. And
Nebuchadnezzar's telling this story, and he says, after the
seven years, my reason returned to me. And I thought this was
interesting. My reason returned, and I extolled God. The beginning
of wisdom's the fear of the Lord. Nobody fears someone who is not
sovereign. because they think they're doing
him favors. They're letting Jesus in their heart as though they
could stop him. And so he says, and I stole the
Most High God, and he mentions some things about him. Finally,
he says, who does what he wills among the armies of heaven. and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stop him,
and no one even has the right to say, what in the world do
you think you're doing? And then he goes this, and he
said, and the proud he is able to abase. Have you ever tried
to humble somebody? You can't do it. You can humiliate
them, but you cannot humble them. There's a difference between
humility and humiliation. Humiliation is a wounding, or
an offending of someone's pride. Humbling is killing it. Only God can humble a man. And his ability to humble a man
and cause him to praise one he previously cursed, that's as
much proof of the sovereignty of God as anything. And so here
in Judah, In the tribe of kings, in the place of the throne, there
God is known. And everyone that knows him knows
that's what he's like. But then he says his name is
great in Israel. It's not just in Judah. Israel,
that name of grace given to the scoundrel Jacob. You remember
how Jacob was born, and as he was born, As he's coming out,
he reached and grabbed his older brother's heel. And the name
Jacob actually means heel grabber, essentially. But they recognized
in Jacob this tendency that he'll trip you up and take what's yours
if he can do it. And so his name became associated
with deception, with trickery, with fraud. And that was his name by birth,
and that's our name by birth. But another name has been given
to us by grace. As Jacob had some dealings with
God, coming back, and he's in Bethel, I believe it was, and
a man wrestles with him, but that man was God. And a man wrestled
with him all night. And then it says Jacob prevailed, as you might say,
over the man that he was wrestling. Now here's the thing, I don't
believe that he actually prevailed in the sense of his own strength.
God led him. And then God said to him, let
me go. Because he's trying to get something
out of Jacob. Trying to pull a confession out of him. And
God, in order to get Jacob to let him go, reached up and grabbed
him, says, in the hollow of his thigh. So I suppose it was that
muscle in the back of your leg or whatever, and just squeezed.
And I probably couldn't squeeze your leg hard enough to make
you let go, but I bet you God can. And oh, how that must have
hurt. And he said, now let me go. And
Jacob said, I will not let you go till you bless me. And what
was Jacob saying by that? Your blessing is more important
to me than my comfort. It's more important to me than
anything. You either have to bless me,
or I won't let go till I die. And God said to him, what's your
name? Jacob, scoundrel, cheat. And God said, no longer will
you be called Jacob, but Israel. So here it says in Israel, in
those who have experienced the grace of God, and having their
name changed from what they are by birth to what they are. Israel means a prince or prevailer
with God. We have our name changed. No
longer shall you be called Jacob. That may be what you are, but
I'm not gonna call you that anymore. I call you Israel, a name of
glory and honor. And while it's a name of glory
and honor in Israel, among all those who've been given this
wonderful name of grace, among them, it's not their name that's
great, it's God's name that's great. If you want to know where the
people of God are, where the recipients of grace are, It's those among whom the name
of God is great. The name of our God is Jehovah
or Yahweh or however you want to pronounce that. The name of
our God is Jesus. What's that name mean to you? I know none of us is perfect
in this. But is he that one you will not
let go? Is he not that one who is so
highly esteemed in your eyes that not any of the things of
this world or all the things of this world put together could
make you truly leave him? He's everything, isn't he? Do you not perceive within your
own heart that nothing else has any value apart from Him? At
one time we saw value in things apart from Him. But if you woke up tomorrow morning
with a certain knowledge that you are separate from Christ,
would you be able to look out on the world and say, oh yeah,
okay, I don't like Christ anymore, but I still got this. Nothing would be good without
him. His name is great. His tent is in Salem. His dwelling place in Zion. So there's the tent and a dwelling
place, so it's speaking of the tabernacle. But where is this
place, Salem? Well, Salem was an old name for
Jerusalem, or Jerusalem. And Salem, as we see it here,
if you were to ask a Jew to pronounce that, he would say, shalom, peace. You know how, that's how Jews
greet one another, or did in times past anyway. Peace. That's why Paul often finishes
his letters with, or begins his letters with, grace and peace
be with you. Grace was, as I've been told,
a common Greek or Gentile greeting. Peace, the Jewish one. And he
always put it in that order, grace and peace, because there
is no peace with God apart from the grace of God. But when it says his tent, his
dwelling place is in Salem, he's using an old name for Jerusalem. And as much as he's using this
old name rather than the name by which he would have recognized
the city, shows us that he is pointing out that the essential
aspect about that city, Jerusalem, is the last part of its name,
peace. God's dwelling is in peace. He is the God of peace. Now, I think we can apply this
in saying his dwelling, which was, you know, it says that he
was enthroned between the cherubim. That's how they perceived him,
as what was called the Shekinah glory, dwelt between those cherubim
that were on the Ark of the Covenant. It was called his throne, and
yet his throne was that, what's often called the mercy seat,
that's with the traditional name given to it. But if you look
in the Hebrew, it actually means atonement cover. A gold lid on
top of that Ark of the Covenant. And it was on that lid that the
high priest would come in once a year and pour out the blood,
the blood of atonement. the sins of Israel, the national
sins of Israel, would be forgiven. But this is all within the context
of a throne. That's why the writer of Hebrews
says, let us come boldly to the throne of grace. And while he
used the word grace instead of mercy, he's talking about the
same place where God is enthroned and he is enthroned within the
context of an atonement having been made so that sinners can
enter his presence and not die. And here's the thing about God.
There, as pictured by his presence there in the In the tabernacle,
in the city of peace, God is entirely at peace upon his throne. Our Lord Jesus Christ ascended
on high and was seated at the right hand of the Father, and he is not disturbed by anything. In my college years, we had to
go to chapel every day. And I remember a fellow who later
became president of that college, but he was a so-called evangelist
at the time, and he was trying to stir us up to go out, you
know, win souls for Jesus. And he said, you know, when our
Lord raised up on high, you know, went up to heaven, and when he
got up there, the angels were saying, OK, are you ready for
us to go down there and preach the gospel? And Jesus said, no. They said, well, why not? He
said, well, I've chosen 12 men to do that, and one of them betrayed
me. So there's only 11 left. And I've given them that job
to do, to preach the gospel. And the angel said, well, if
they don't do it, then what's your plan? I'm not lying to you.
That guy said, and the Lord dropped his head and says, I have no
other plan. He didn't need another plan because
he was not relying on those 11 men. They were relying on Him. And
that's why He said, you stay right here in Jerusalem until
the Holy Spirit comes, because you won't be able to accomplish
anything until He comes. And when He comes, you'll accomplish
everything that I intend for you to do. Our Lord has not left one slight
bit of the work of saving His people, not left it in the hands
of men. Yes, in one sense, He's entrusted
me with the truth of the gospel. but not as though his plan will
fail if I prove faithless to the task. If I were to begin preaching
something else or simply refuse to preach, that would be on me. But I know this, the elect of
God, none of them would be lost on that account. The one who would suffer by that
is me, not God's purpose. But he has
ordained, at least so far, that I do remain faithful to this
gospel, that this is all I preach. And one way he's ensured that
I remain faithful to the preaching of the gospel is keeping me in
such a state that I have a desperate need of the gospel. There are
plenty of things in this book that might fascinate me. It might,
you know, I want to dig into something and find out some kind
of juicy little tidbit maybe that somebody else hasn't seen.
But my soul can't live on such things. My soul needs the gospel
over and over and over again. And that's why you get it. Because
I cannot waste my time. When I open this book, I can't
waste my time looking for other stuff. I'm hungry and I need
the food." His tent is in Salem. It's in
peace. He is not troubled. He's not looking at our world.
He's not looking at America as its culture goes down the tubes
and saying, I had such high hopes for that nation. Well, I guess I'll try somewhere
else. No. This nation will continue until
he's done with it. And probably like other nations
where he has blessed them for a time with an outpouring of
his spirit and many people understanding the gospel, that lasts a while,
and then it just goes downhill. And he does move along somewhere
else, but not because he's disappointed, he's done. Now, my prayer is that he'd send
a revival here, but I'm not so jealous that I'd be upset Well,
what if there was a revival in China? Wouldn't that be a wonderful
thing? Or anywhere? Nobody's deserving of a working
of the Spirit of God in taking the things of Christ and revealing
it to many of the people, and they call upon the name of the
Lord and find salvation. There's not one nation worthy
of that. I would hate to live in a place
where that wasn't going on, at least in some measure, and still
in the United States we've got it better than believers almost
anywhere else. But I cannot say that the United
States deserves the presence of God. His tent is in peace and he's
not worried. But it's more than this. He is
the God of peace. Look over at Romans chapter 5. He is at peace. And he makes peace with his people. Our Lord said, blessed are the
peacemakers. Brother Spurgeon said, nobody is more blessed
than God. And if it says blessed are the
peacemakers, then the most blessed peacemaker there ever was is
God. Romans 5 verse 1, therefore,
since we have been justified through faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, God's not at peace
with all men. Those of us that believe, we
are at peace with God. We've been reconciled to him.
There's nothing about God we don't like. There's things about
him we don't understand, that's for sure. But whatever he is,
we worship him as that and glorify him as that. We have been reconciled
to him. But there are many in this world
that the Lord has nothing but wrath for them. Now, there are some in this world
who are yet at war with God, even though God's not at war
with them. But he'll win them, because they're his. And the
blood of his son has put away the wrath He has no cause against
them, because their sins have been put away by His Son. And
they will, in the appointed time, come to know and understand the
gospel of the Lord Jesus, they will call upon the name of Christ,
and they will find salvation, they will be reconciled in their
hearts to God. But there's a lot of people who
God has just determined he's gonna leave them in their rebellious
state. They were born rebels, he's gonna leave them that way,
and he has warfare ordained for them. They are his enemies. and he will destroy them in his
time. But we who believe, we have been justified through
faith. That means God has declared us to be righteous, God has declared
that we're not guilty of sin, and therefore he has no cause
of war against us. Isn't that a wonderful thing
to think about? Now the world makes war against
us, and that's troubling and stressful, I understand that.
But I'd much rather have the wrath of the world than the wrath
of God. That's why the Lord said, what shall a prophet of man,
if he gains the world and loses his soul? Oh, what a blessed
state to know that God is at peace with me. that he has no banner raised
against me, has no sword of justice drawn toward me. He's the God of peace. And then he is also the God of
peace in that when his people put their minds on that which
is Decent, this is in the book of Philippians. Good, praiseworthy,
all of this. And I'll tell you, there's nothing
that fits the description Paul gives there, nothing more than
the gospel or the Christ of the gospel. When our minds are set
on that, it says, the God of peace shall be with you. when we set our minds on the
things of this world. The God of peace, we understand
in one sense he's with us, but we do not sense his peace, do
we? And then he's the God of peace
in this way. Turn over Romans chapter 16. He creates peace in the heart.
of those who set their minds on Him. God will keep him in
perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee. And then He is the God of a conquering
peace. Romans chapter 16, verse 20,
the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Now, this is an interesting thing.
It says, God's going to crush Satan. We can understand that. But he says, but he's going to
do it under your feet. And what was going on? Well,
this is the church in Rome. You can imagine what they had
to deal with, depending on whoever was Caesar
at any given time, the level of persecution would go up or
down, but it was never gone. And that was Satan working within
the hearts of his agents in this world to create trouble for the
people of God. He had tried the same thing with
Christ, and he lost there, but he thought, well, maybe I can
win with these weakling Christians. They can't stand up against this. They can't endure such hardship. And Paul says, don't worry. The God of peace is going to crush Satan under
your feet. Our brother read to us. where
John says faith is the victory that overcomes the world. It
does not mean that by faith we somehow overcome the world. The
very fact that you believe is overcoming the world. And for
all that Satan tries to do, to drag the believer away from Christ, the believer comes out victorious. He may feel as though he's the
one being crushed, but that's not the way it is. You can imagine
what it was like for the martyrs as they're about to be put to
death because of their testimony of Christ. And they're believers,
yes, but they're also natural people. Death is a scary thing.
And they're probably thinking, It looks like I'm losing." No. They loved not their lives unto
death, and in so doing, they crushed Satan under their feet.
God crushed Satan under their feet. He did all he could to
make them give up, and they didn't. And he lost. Back in Psalm 76, There's only two ways you can
make peace. That is, make peace with your
enemies, because you don't have to make peace with your friends.
Only two ways you can make peace with your enemies. Turn them
into friends. And that's what God does by salvation. The other way to make peace with
your enemies is to destroy them. Really, you know. because enemies
will never be at peace. They may quit their warfare,
but they're just looking for another chance. And look what
it says here. His tent is in peace, his dwelling
place in Zion. There he broke the flashing arrows,
the shields and the swords, the weapons of war. Why will the
God of peace or how will the God of peace crush Satan under
your feet? As you live your life as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're walking along, and the whole
time, just because you believe, you are crushing Satan under
your feet. And God's accomplishing this by his power under your feet. He's making peace. He's already
made peace with you by the blood of his son. He's making peace
for you by destroying his enemies who are your enemies. A few weeks ago, I mentioned
to you that it was inevitable that somebody would wonder whether
or not Putin is the Antichrist. Because every time somebody starts
a war, there's somebody going to wonder if that's the Antichrist. is a pawn on God's chessboard. And we may not know the game
God's playing, that is, we may not be aware of his strategy
and how he's doing it this way, but I know this, whatever he
does with him, or any other of the leaders of this world, or
even the nobodies of this world, or whatever, all of it, God's
controlling it. And he will move Putin and the
President of the United States The prime minister of England
and whatever other leaders you want, he moves them wherever
he wants them to accomplish whatever he wanted them to do. And when he's done with them,
he discards them. Just like he did Pharaoh in Moses'
day. I raised you up that I might
show my power in you. So here we are in this world
insignificant. The world looks at us and doesn't
think we're worth bothering with. But by the grace of God, the
God of peace is trampling what Paul calls the God of this age,
Satan, under our feet. And when all is said and done, We will be in his presence glorified
to be like him. And all those who sought to rise
up against God and against his son and against his people shall
be in everlasting torment because of their rebellion. Nobody can overcome a believer. As he walks around, the God of
peace crushes Satan under his feet. Now, what does that say regarding
us and how it should affect the way we perceive things? Well,
first of all, worship God. as the God who is at peace because
he's in absolute control. Secondly, in your hearts, be at peace. Your God is in control. There's
nothing in this world that can harm you. There's plenty in this
world to make you sad, plenty in this world to bring you pain, but nothing can harm you. Not
even the most powerful evil spirit in the universe can bring any
harm to you. And when you're done with this
life, or this life is done with you, your eyes will be opened and
you will see that all through your lives, God was trampling
Satan under your feet. So be at peace. All is well. Heavenly Father, bless this message
to your glory and our benefit. In Christ's name, amen. Scott,
could you and James give us a hand with the Lord's table?