You know, salvation really is
a supernatural act of God. It's a miracle. It's a miracle. And when you think of how despicable,
how unrighteous, how corrupt, how black, how mean man is by
nature, God describes him with no uncertain
terms. Lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God. Heady, high-minded, unthankful,
unholy. And then for God to take a human
being like that, full of corruption, full of blackness and darkness,
Without God, without hope, without Christ in this world. And God
Himself, God Himself break in on a man. God does that. God
breaks in on a man. And breaks into his heart, into
his mind, into his understanding. And saves him from his self,
from his sin, from his corruption, And not only saves him from that,
but saves him eternally. And makes him holy and acceptable
and unblameable in his own sight. How in the world? That's a miracle. That's a miracle. And it's a
miracle that only God can maintained and keep on keeping
on or else we will still revert back to where we were if it wasn't
for God alright well that's not what I'm going to preach on that's
just what I was thinking about but I want you to look here in
Philippians 4.7 and the peace of God which passes
all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. What do you think that means? You know, God's word has much
to say about the heart. And here he's talking about the
heart and the mind. And they both are The mind here has to
do with understanding. The heart has to do with the
inward man. That man is affections and his
heart and his soul and all that he really represents him is his
heart. God himself said, love the Lord
thy God with all your heart. All your heart. God said, my
son, give me your heart. Give me your heart. If God's
got our heart, He's got us. He's got us. He says, My son,
keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it, out of your heart
are the issues of life. All the issues of life, how you
think about God, how you think about yourself, how you treat
other people, marriage, everything, your children, everything out
of your heart are the issues of life. And then he says, a merry heart,
a merry heart does good like medicine. And it does. And then
God said, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And he also
said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
What's in your heart, that's what's going to come out. What's
going to come out. And then we've preached so many
times with the heart man believes unto salvation but with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. And here in Philippians 4 we
have a most blessed promise concerning the heart and the mind. And that
promise is the peace of God shall which passeth all understanding
shall keep your hearts and minds through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a promise. He'll keep
your hearts and minds through the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
what keeps the heart? What keeps the heart? Talking
about keeping the heart. What keeps the heart? What does it? You know, I've made my heart a lot of promises
over the years and failed in all of them. I've
made a lot of promises. I said, not one day will I even
keep to myself. But when God makes a promise,
you believe it, you keep it. But what keeps the heart? Well,
it says here, the peace of God does. The peace of God does. And when he talks about the peace
of God here, he's talking about a double peace. A double peace. First, there's peace with God.
And this is critical. This is critical. I used to seek peace with God.
And I never had peace with God. When I was working my way to
heaven, when I was when I was self-righteous, when I depended
on myself, depended on my preaching, depended on my words, depended
on my prayers, depended on my giving, depended on my church
attendance. When I depended on those things,
I didn't have peace with God. I couldn't get peace with God. But now I have peace with God. First there's enmity against
God in my heart, and there's enmity in natural man's heart
against God. But peace with God, peace between
God and His child. God's not angry with us. God's
not upset with us. God's not mad at us. And that's
why folks, they go around all the time trying to know if they
can walk the Roman's road and say, you can find peace with
God. Well, God's the one that has to make the peace. He's the
one that reconciled us by Himself through His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when you think about this
peace that God made with us, that He's not angry with us,
and He's the judge of all the earth. That God is our judge. And He sits on the throne and
does not borrow a leg to be. But He's our judge. and when
we stand before the judge of all the earth right now in this
time and know that he is not angry that he accepts us and
we have peace with him and he's at peace with us that's a peace
that passes understanding that peace that passes understanding
and how in the world did God establish this peace with us
by the satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, I heard an
illustration the other day, and it's a good illustration, that
a mother had bought a vase at a certain store. She sent her
son to go pick up that vase. She paid for the vase and said,
go down there and pick up the vase. On his way home, he's running
to a friend of his, and there he is playing basketball. And
he said, stop and play Johnny, stop and play basketball with
us. We'll name him Johnny. I don't know what his name is.
He didn't say. But he was playing basketball. He said, oh, I can't.
My mama sent me to get this vase, and I got to take this vase home
to my mama. He said, oh, I'll set it down
there. He said, we won't break it, and we'll play basketball
a while. Well, they was playing basketball. That basketball hit that vase. That poor boy went over there
and tried to put it all back together and he didn't put it
together and it didn't fall apart. Tried to put it together and
he couldn't put a piece in, put a piece there and fall off. And
boy, he stood there and cried and cried and cried. And his father come along. He
said, son, why are you crying so? He said, I broke that vase.
The mama sent me to get it. He said, son, here I give you
the money and you go buy another vase and take it home to your
mother. And that broken vase is like us with God's law. We broke it and we couldn't put
it back together. And our Father paid the price
to put that law honored and magnified. And I'll tell you what, and how
did He do it? He sent His Son into this world.
And by His life on this earth, and by His death on the cross,
bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, where we had broke
that law and justice demanded payment, and justice demanded
death, Christ said, I'll pay your debt. And justice says,
okay, I'm satisfied with what he did. And that's how God makes
peace. Now God can find no fault with
his children. Why not? Because they don't have any. God did that. He says in Numbers 3.21, Behold,
I found no iniquity in Jacob. And that's us. And so that's
the first peace. Peace with God. God's made peace. And then peace experienced. Here's
the second double peace. Peace experienced in the conscience.
Oh my, to have peace in your conscience? To have peace in
your heart? When you understand that God
is satisfied? Scott Richardson made a statement
one time and I mean it was just like BAM! I mean it just opened
up a world to me. He says, the only thing that
will satisfy a man's conscience is a perfect sacrifice and when
he understands that God has a perfect sacrifice and Christ is that
sacrifice his conscience will never ever ask for anything else and I tell you what our conscience
our conscience and that conscience either accuses or excuses a man
and our conscience when it sees that God has accepted Christ
and the verdict is handed down from the judge of all the earth
and he sends down this verdict from heaven itself not guilty
not only not guilty but perfect complete full and accepted And then God says to us in the
gospel, I'm fully satisfied with you. I'm satisfied with your life.
I'm satisfied with your mind. I'm satisfied with your law keeping.
I'm satisfied with everything about your life. How can he say that about us?
through Christ Jesus. Your whole life is justified.
That God wracked this time from the day He saved you by His grace. He looks at you and says, I find
no fault in Him whatsoever. find no fault in his thoughts,
find no fault in his heart, find no fault in his words, find no
fault in his deeds, find no fault in his... ain't nothing about
him. How can that be? Oh, listen. God in Christ justified
us. And what peace of heart, what
rest of heart, what peace of conscience, this truly, truly
passes understanding. It does. And let me ask you this
question. Are you at peace with God? Or
I should say, is God at peace with you? Is your heart pure? Only the pure in heart shall
see God. Do you have this double peace? This peace with God? God has made peace. He's established
this peace. And has He produced that peace
in your heart? That peace in your conscience?
Have you seen your sins and experienced by God's blessed grace? Have
you seen your sins put away by the blood and life and righteousness
of Christ? Have you seen the satisfaction? God has to be satisfied. And
there's no way He can be satisfied with a man outside of Christ.
He can't do it. He's a just God. And yet, beloved,
have you seen the satisfaction that Christ gave to the judge
of all the earth? God said, I shall see the travail
of his soul and be satisfied. Now you know, I'll tell you what,
that you just as well quit trying to satisfy God by anything you
think, say, do or act. Because you can't do it. Only
one person ever satisfied God. Only one person ever pleased
God. Only one person was accepted
of God. Only one person worked his way
to heaven. Only one person's ever been accepted
of God. And that's his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And here's the kicker behind
it. chosen in Him. Everything He is and did is ours. We're one with Him. Oh, listen, God's not angry. Oh,
I never will forget when I found that out. Oh, my soul. God's not angry. There's a lasting,
an everlasting peace between God and His people. And God is
infinitely holy. He said He won't condemn us.
Why won't He condemn us? Because we're in Christ. He won't consume us. Why? Because
Christ has done consumed His wrath. He'll not crush us with
trials and beat us down with trials. And God says it like this, if
my heart condemns me, God's greater. God's greater. Oh, it's like
I've told you this before. I've used this illustration before. Martin Luther had a dream. And
Satan came and rolled out this great big huge scroll. Went on
and on and on and all of them was just full of sin, sin, sin,
sin, sin. But oh in that dream he also
saw at the end of that scroll, put away by the blood of Christ. And so when Satan rolls out that
big old scroll on you, and he has done me that way a time or
two, remember this, they're all taken away. They're all taken
away. My sins are gone and I am free. They're all taken away. You see,
God knows all things. And this passes understanding. Oh my, the peace of God which
passes all understanding. A peace that understanding can
never understand. How did all this, you know how
do we come to these truths? They have to be revealed to us.
And God comes along and He gives us this understanding. And then
when He gives us this understanding, we stand back and say, how can
it be? How can it be? Look over here in Hebrews chapter
10. Let's look at this together. Hebrews 10 verse 37. You know, it's a... and you think and that's why we come here to the
gospel to hear these things to be reminded of these things that's
all a preacher does is just put people in remembrance he ain't
coming up with nothing new he's just happy to remember what's
already been done but look here in Hebrews 10 in verse 37 for yet a little while just a
little while just a little while and he that shall come will come
and he won't wait any longer just a little while Christ is
coming now until he comes this is what we do the just shall
live by faith we live by faith in Christ who he is and what
he did and who he did it for and where he is now we live by
faith in Christ But if any man draw back, goes back away, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. No satisfaction in him.
But listen to this now. But we are not of them. We are not who? Those that's
waiting for Christ to come. Those that live by faith. Those
that Christ justifies. But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition, unto damnation, and being lost, but of them that
believe for the saving of our soul." Oh, that's a piece that passes
understanding. There's Paul and Silas. They
put those two fellas in jail one night. And they beat them
and whipped them. And then they put them in stocks.
And I was looking up that word stocks and it just says wood. You know, I was up in Williamsburg,
Virginia one time and they got these stocks up there. And I,
you know, they put your hands in there and they put it down
around your neck and you have to stand there. I had my picture took
like that. But of course, I mean, they didn't
lock them. I could just lift them off myself. But Paul and
Silas was whipped and they put them in stocks. They put their
legs or feet or whatever to where they couldn't get away. Now you'd
think those fellas would have just moaned and groaned and cried
and just wailed and carried on. But you know what they did? They
went to singing. They went to singing. I'll probably
sing the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall,
I won't. Or else they sing, oh listen,
who is this King of Glory? Lift up your heads, oh ye everlasting
gates, who is this King of Glory? Oh, and I tell you what, they
sang, and oh listen, Peter, you know, they put him in prison.
They killed James and they put Peter in prison because we told
you to quit preaching. They put him in prison and he
was chained by both hands. This hand to a guard and that
hand to a guard. And you know what he did? He
laid down and went to sleep. That's a peace that passes understanding.
And you know what had to happen? An angel had to come and wake
him up to get him to come out. Oh, that's a peace that passes
understanding. And many of you, many of you
have been calm and been quiet and been restful even in the
faith of sickness, in the face of death, in the face of great
trials. How does that happen? It's a
peace that passes understanding. and then look what it says here
at verse 7 Philippians 4 7 and this peace of God which passes
all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus now let me say something here this peace keeps the heart
and your mind through the Lord Jesus Christ without Him this
peace wouldn't exist Without Him, there'd be no peace. Without
Him, we wouldn't have peace with God. Without Him, we wouldn't
have peace of conscience. Without Him, this peace that
we experience and enjoy would not be maintained and kept up. Look over here in Colossians
1 in verse 19. Look what it says here. for it pleased the father God
was pleased it pleased the father that in him in Christ should
all fullness dwell everything that all the fullness of everything
is in Christ and having made peace how? through the blood of his
cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself by Him and
you go through the scriptures and see how many times unto Him
or by Him, unto Him, by Him, by Him, for Him, through Him
and look how many times it says that unto Himself by Him I say
just to emphasize by Him I say whether there are things in earth
or whether there are things already in glory and you That were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Listen
to this. Yet now has he reconciled. Brought peace to you. Reconciled
you. In the body of his flesh. Through
death. Listen to now. Listen. To present
you holy and unblameable and unreprovable. in His sight. And that's where it counts. In
His sight. What you are in my sight, what
I am in your sight, don't amount to much. But boy, in His sight,
that's a piece of love. You see, without Him, this peace
wouldn't exist. Without Him, this peace would
not be maintained. He is our peace. He is our peace. We've come to Him We do come
to Him and we will continue coming to our Lord Jesus Christ by faith. He made the peace. He gives the
peace. He sustains this peace. And if
we take Christ away, take Christ away, what do you have? You certainly don't have no peace.
You certainly don't have any rest. You certainly don't have
any acceptance. Take Christ away, peace is gone. It dies, it fades away. And I'll
tell you this, put anything in His place, and peace is gone. That's why we do not look to
ourselves for anything. Do you look to yourself for anything
before God? Huh? Do you? The minute you look
at yourself in any way, peace is gone that quick. But keep
your eyes fixed on Him and peace stays established. Ain't that
right? Oh my. I mean put anything in
His place. I don't care what it is, the
minutest thing. And you can't keep peace. But
boy, you keep your eye looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. And when he, you know, God provided
an ark to save his people. Everybody inside that ark was
holy and acceptable. God lifted up a serpent to save
those that were bitten. And everyone that looked and
everyone that got in that ark was saved and saved. And everyone's in Christ. God
lifted him up for us. And he is our peace. And I, for
me, for my part, I ain't putting, I ain't even putting my thoughts,
my good intentions, or my promises into place to being accepted. If I do, my peace is gone like
that. I can't show you what peace is.
I can't show you what peace is. If you haven't felt it. But I
can tell you where it is. I can tell you how you get it
and how it's accomplished. And you take the historical account
of God's people in the Bible. And I tell you what, their peace
passed understanding. God told Moses, and Moses you're
not going into the promised land. You're not going over there.
You get up there on that mountain. Get up on Moab up yonder. And
I'm going to bury you. Moses just walked up that mountain
just as calm and quiet and peaceful. And he laid down and died. God
wouldn't bury him. Christ wouldn't bury him. He went up that mountain
to die because God told him to. God told Abraham, offer your
son Isaac, your only son. Give the son of your love. Offer
him. He went up that mountain. He
said, oh, you all wait right here. Me and the lad will be
back. We're going to go up on the mountain and worship. He's
going up there to offer his son. He said, I'm going up there to
worship. I and the lad will come back. Now that's a piece of past
understanding. How in the world does he know
he's going to take his son up on that mountain and he's going
to offer him and then yet they're going to come right back down. Abraham started up that mountain.
That boy said I'm glad to go on yonder to work. And we'll
be back. How are they going to come back?
He said he believed that God would raise his son up by whom
Christ is a figure, by whom he is a figure of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh my, you read some of these
accounts of the martyrs burned at the stake and the things that
they said. Oh, it's incredible the things that some of them
said. And when they were stoning Stephen, stoning him to death,
and a young man named Saul was standing there holding their
clothes while they did it. You know what he said about Stephen
while he was dying? They said, they beheld the face
of an angel. And he said, Lord Jesus, lay
not this sin to the chart. That's a piece that passes understanding. They took Daniel. They passed
a law that you couldn't pray to nobody but this one God that
he set up, this big statue. And they thought, well, we got
old Daniel. We got him. We said, little fellas, you know,
said, we passed a law that Daniel has to be offered up. Said, you
can't pray but to this great image. Well, old Daniel got up
in the morning, opened the window, started praying toward Jerusalem.
Got noon, opened the window, started praying toward Jerusalem.
In the evening, went to open the window and started praying
toward Jerusalem. They went and told the king, said, Daniel's
not praying to this God that you set up here and you told
everyone, you passed a law that they have to do that. Said, Daniel's
not doing it. Well, why didn't the world go
ahead? Well, Daniel's going to have to die. He's going to have
to die because He didn't do what the King told him to do. Nebuchadnezzar,
Belshazzar told him to do. And then they're getting ready
to put Daniel in the lion's den. They put him down there in that
lion's den and said, boy, we got rid of him once and for all.
King went down there the next morning to see what was left.
You know what old Daniel said? Oh, King, don't trouble yourself. Don't trouble yourself. My God
shall close the lion's mouth. That's a peace that passes understanding. Only God can do that. Only God
can do that. And let's go back over here and
go through a few of these verses together. Oh listen, maintaining this peace,
this double peace. One thing you don't ever want
to do, you don't want to look at yourself. You don't want to
look at yourself. You don't want to do that. Because
when you look at yourself and anything you've accomplished
really, you'll get hmmmm. It won't work. But let us look
at what he says in verse 4. And oh boy, you're talking about
Because we have this peace that passes understanding. That our
Lord Jesus Christ keeps our hearts and minds into this peace. That's what causes this peace
to have whole understanding. That our hearts and minds are
kept. The way they are. The way they are. Not the way
we would like for them to be, but the way they are. Right now. And look what he says. Rejoice
in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Oh
my. We rejoice over this peace. Rejoice. We enjoy this peace. Rejoice
evermore. And there's much to rejoice over.
Rejoice over how this peace was established through our Lord
Jesus Christ. And I tell you, beloved, you
know what, there's some things that blesses us and helps us. And then this peace that keeps
the heart. Election. You talking about something to
rejoice about? Election. God chose me in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And then what about our eternal
rest? Oh, I mean eternal rest. Not
just a rest, but an eternal rest. When this thing's over, said
and done. Ruby's been in glory three weeks. But she's always been in eternity.
Once she got there, she never knew anything else but eternity.
When a believer goes to peace in eternity, and that's all he
ever knows, is eternity. Time just does not enter into
them. They have no remembrance whatsoever
of this world, all they've ever known is eternity. Now that's
the peace that passes understanding. And then look what God, and then
He says in verse 5, Let your moderation be known unto all
men. And that's the word moderate. Moderate, oh my. Moderate, be
moderate. Know how we need to be moderate. Moderate in what we think, moderate
in what we do. Moderate, moderate, moderate,
moderate. Moderate in a thought, Modern interactions. You know, our appetites, we all have appetites. You know, appetites, different
types of appetites. Eating, drinking, Don't be excessive. Be moderate.
Don't be excessive in your appetites. If you do, your peace will be
disturbed. And be moderate in business. Now what that means
is don't count your chickens before their eggs hatch. And
be honest in every business thing you do. Don't be too ambitious.
That will hurt your peace. And then be moderate in your
spirit. Don't be quick to anger. That'll certainly hurt your peace
in your conscience. And be moderate in your expectations. Expect little and you won't be
disappointed. You know, that's why I'm not
never disappointed in myself. I really ain't. I don't expect
much. Nobody else does either. So you
know, there's no way I can disappoint you because you don't expect
much out of it. And oh, God help us to be moderate.
The peace that passes understanding. Then he says in verse 6, be careful
for nothing. That word careful means weary,
weary, weary, being full of care. Oh, don't be weary, don't be
fretful, over-anxious about things, especially things of this world.
Let me give you some illustrations. That rich fool fretted. Fretted over his barns and how
much he had had. And he lost everything. Lot's
wife fretted over leaving Sodom and her home and her friends.
Look what happened to her. Perished in the way. Our Lord
told him, He says, you know, you all fellas, you're looking
for, you come to me because I fed you with bread and fishes. He
said, I'll tell you what, if you're going to labor for something,
don't labor for meat, don't labor for drink. Don't do that. Don't do that. Because all you'll do is be dissatisfied. And then he says, be careful
for nothing. And listen to this, and everything
by prayer and supplication. That word supplication means
asking for, pleading with. Thanksgiving, let your request
be made known unto God. By supplication, and that means
like we prayed for folks here that's in real need, supplication. And do it with thanksgiving.
And then here's the thing, let your request be made known to
God. Let your requests be made known
unto God. That old hymn that says, take
your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Take your burden, take
your fears, take your children, take your sickness, take your
anxiety, take your worries for tomorrow and your family, take
them to the Lord and leave it there. And I'll tell you what, cast
your troubles where your sins are. And give him thanks for
he has kept this peace that passes understanding. Do you ever experience that peace
that passes understanding? You ever experienced it? You
ever enjoyed it? You ever delighted in it? There
is a peace that passes understanding. I've seen it. Several people
that the Lord's called out of this world over the years. And
they have been so peaceful and so calm. Peaceful and calm. Looking forward
to it. Looking forward to leaving. How
in the world can that happen? That's a peace that passes understanding. Ain't it? Now when we go home, and I've
said this before, whether I take a nap or whether
I sleep at night, or whatever's going on through the day, I have
a pillar that I rest myself on. You know what that pillar is?
The satisfaction of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is satisfied with Him and
me in Him. And if I don't get to wake up
in the morning, if I wake up dead, if I wake up dead, I'll be in
glory. That's a day or two story. You know, I don't want to...
We was watching this show one time. These two fellas got down
in this cave and there was no oxygen in there. One of them
got up and he passed out. And the other went down there
and found him. And they got down in there and they had no option. They finally got back out of
there. They crawled out of there and got to where the oxygen was.
And that one old boy that found the boy that passed out said,
boy, I tell you what, if we had stayed down there, we would have
woke up dead. And I tell you what, I won't
wake up dead. You know why? I'll wake up alive. I've already got eternal life.
All I got to do. And I enjoy it now. I mean, I
enjoy life now. I enjoy eternal life now. You
imagine what it's going to be like when I get there. That peace
passes understanding. How the world of people, they
look at you and say, boy, how in the world can they be so happy
about leaving this world? That's a piece of the Pastor's
understanding. Our Father, oh, blessed, blessed
Father, precious Lord, precious Lord, You've took our hands and
You lead us on and You keep us. And oh Lord, enable us by Your
precious grace to keep our minds stayed on You stayed on you and
what you did, and that you did it for us, those that were given
to you, those you loved, those you gave yourself for, and those
that you give faith to live by you, through you, because of
you. And Lord, bless this message
to the heart. Bless it to the understanding.
And those that don't know what this peace is, Lord, you can
teach them, you can bring them to where they can come to Christ
and find that rest, find that peace, find that enjoyment that
we have in our great and glorious God and His Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. We bless you in His holy name.
Amen. Let's turn to 288. Stand together. Let's sing this.
We're going to sing it all. Let's sing this together.