me in preparing it, but here
in verse 7 it says this, And the peace of God, which passes
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. The title of my message today
is Keeping the Heart. And the peace of God, which passes
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus." Keeping the heart. God's Word has much, much, much
to say about the heart. And the heart is us. The heart
is us. It's us. You know, we say, I
love you with all my heart. I desire that with all my heart.
Well, God's Word has much to say about the heart. God Himself
says, Love the Lord thy God with all your heart. That means with
you. You're big. He says, My son,
give me your heart. Somebody's got your heart, they
got you. And I want you to look with me over here, and I want
you to see this in Proverbs 4 with me. Just a moment. I want you
to look at this verse of Scripture with me. And the Scriptures,
Proverbs 4 and verse 23. But the Scriptures have so much
to say about the heart. He says a merry heart does good, like medicine. When somebody
feels down, feels sick, feels weary, a merry heart can come
along and treat that soul like medicine. It's like medicine
to them. A merry heart is. And here in Proverbs 4.23, look
what it says. Keep thy heart with all diligence. And that means keep your heart,
above all the keeping that you do, keep the heart. Now, all
of us have things that we say, well, I just wouldn't give that
up at all. That's a keepsake. Oh, I wouldn't let that go at
all. I've had that, that's my mama's, that was my dad's, that
was my grandmother's. I wouldn't give it up for nothing.
I want to keep that. Well, with all the keeping that
you have in this world, of all the things that you're going
to keep, of all the things that you want to keep. He said right
here, above all the keeping that you have in this world, keep
your heart. And do that, for out of it, and
this is the reason why, for out of it are the issues of life. The issues of life. You know,
and that's why He says that. And then our Lord, He says this,
as a man thinketh, thinketh in his heart. So is He. So is He. And out of the abundance of the
heart, our Lord told the Pharisees, out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Whatever's in here, that's what's
coming out. That's what's coming out. And our Lord also said this,
with the heart, man believes unto righteousness. So the Scriptures
have much to say about the heart. But here in Philippians 4, 7,
we have the most blessed, glorious promise concerning the heart. The peace of God. which passes
all understanding, shall keep your hearts." That's promise. He shall keep your hearts. Not
only keep your hearts, but he'll keep your minds. Heart and mind
is the same thing, as far as this goes. And, oh beloved, what
keeps the heart? The peace of God. The peace of
God. Now, there's a double peace that
he's talking about here. A double peace. First of all,
he talks about the peace that we have with God. And, beloved,
this is one of the most glorious things that we can ever be taught
by the Spirit of God, is that we have peace with God. A peace
of God between God and the child of God. And here's the situation. God is the judge. And He's our
judge. And He's the judge of all men.
And, O Lord, if Thou shouldst marsh iniquities, who would be
able to stand? And so here's the judge. the
judge that knows us. And when we stand before Him,
we say, guilty, guilty, guilty, love Him, guilty. Don't do it. Guilty. We have to stand there
and say, guilty of every charge that He can bring against us.
And yet, beloved, that God Himself says that He has made peace.
Made peace. And he said, not only that, but
he said, it's a peace that passes understanding. Well, how in the
world is this peace between God's children and the judge of all
the earth? How is this established? How
do we have this peace with God? Well, by the satisfaction of
the Lord Jesus Christ to God's offended justice. Like I said,
we have to stand there and say, guilty, guilty. Well, God took
his blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ, And he willingly did
this. He faced God's offended justice. And he said, I'm guilty. You
charge every sin, every offense, every act that they've ever done,
you put that on my account, and I'll bear their guilt, I'll bear
their sin, I'll bear every bit of their condemnation. And, beloved,
that's why, because Christ satisfied satisfied God's offended justice. Now God can find no fault with
His children because they have no guilt. Now when they stand
before Him, they're not guilty. Justified. And you see, that's
why He said over Numbers 23-21, He said, I find no fault or iniquity
in Jacob. Now how in the world can that
be? Jacob, when you look at him, naturally, He's like us. He's a deceiver. He's a supplant.
He's a manipulator. He ain't worth the salt that
goes in his biscuit. But God loved Jacob. And God
chose Jacob. And God elected Jacob. Called
Himself the God of Jacob. And He says, if you look at Him,
He said, I don't find no fault in Him, nor iniquity in Jacob.
And when he looked at us, he said, I find no fault, I find
no iniquity in you. How? By the satisfaction of Christ. And not only is this a peace
with God, that peace we have with God, people say all the
time, I made my peace with God. You can't make peace with God.
Only Christ made peace by the blood of His cross. I mean, beloved,
God Himself, He has to bring this peace. How many wars have
we fought and it's never, ever been brought to a final conclusion
and say, peace is established. And I was watching the other
day when they was on the Missouri, and they brought all them Japanese
on there, and they made those fellas stand there, and they,
because they read to them the condition to surrender, And every
one of those guys took their hats off, gave their swords up,
laid everything down on the line, and that was an unconditional,
absolute surrender, and not ever to take up arms again. You know why? Because we won. You
know why we have peace? Christ won! He faced sin, and
He won! He faced death, and He won! He
faced justice, and he satisfied it. He faced the law of God,
and he kept it. And because we're with Him,
we won. We won. And then not only we
have peace with God, but we have the second piece is peace experience
in our conscience. When you know the first piece
is established, then the second piece comes. Huh? And all beloved
peace expressed in the conscience, where the conscience sees and
understands. And this is why the gospel, people
say, boy, you know, we got that. And I'm talking about experience. But yet at the same time, people
say, well, you know, we have to have these feelings. They'll
bypass the mind and the intellect and that. But God doesn't do
that. And we have peace expressed in our conscience because He
dealt and showed us in our hearts and in our minds and in our understanding
how justice was satisfied and where the verdict has been handed
down by God Himself. And God says, not guilty. Not
guilty of nothing. I mean, God looks at us right
now and everybody who trusts Christ and looks to Christ, he
says, not guilty, have not one eye odor of anything from the
day you're born to the day you die. And I've got a long time
left in this world of God's will. Oh, you know, I've got 20 years,
maybe. Maybe 25. May not have a year. But I know
this, but I do know this, that everything's been took care of
from the day God brought me into this world to the day I leave
this world by the Lord Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. I mean, when I get up tomorrow,
no matter what I do today, God's still gonna say, not guilty.
Ain't that right? You say, well, you'll fly off
the handle. God puts me back home as if not guilty. I'm satisfied with your whole
life. Why? Because he's satisfied with
Christ. Oh, what rest of heart! What
peace of conscience! And that's why the scripture
says, truly, this passes understanding. It passes understanding. And
let me ask you, are you at peace with God? Are you at peace with
God? Is your heart pure? Is your sin
gone? Do you have this double peace
before God, peace with God, and peace of conscience, peace of
heart? Have you seen your sins put away by the doing and dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ once and for all? Have you seen and
understood and believed the satisfaction that Christ gave to God, the
judge of all the earth? Can you say that today that,
yes, I have peace with God? Yes, I have peace of conscience.
Can you say that in your own heart today? Huh? Oh, listen, God's not angry.
I never will forget. I never will forget when I found
out God wasn't mad at me anymore. I spent years Trying to get God,
get on the good side of God, and I couldn't. Trying to make
my own peace. And I couldn't, in the heart
of my heart, I tried to worship God. And I never will forget
when I was reading the book of Romans one day, and I seen that
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, had truly, truly satisfied God. My heart went to rest. And I'll
probably have told you a hundred times, I says, boy, I never will
forget when I found out God's not mad at me anymore. Not because
I did anything, but because I understood that Christ did it all. A fellow
asked me the other day, he said this, I understand the justification
was done for us in eternity, and all the gospel does is give
you the assurance and comfort of it. I go so far as to say
this, that the gospel tells you what God done 2,000 years ago
and done in Christ from eternity, and the gospel just comes and
tells you what God's already done, and you believe that gospel.
And, beloved, because you're not believing in what you're
to do, but what's already been done. That's what we're telling
you. What's done. Huh? Somebody does a perfect
work and you come along and say, well, listen, I need to change
that up. I need to add a little to it. I need to take a little.
No, no, leave it alone. Just rest in it. Oh, my. God's not angry now. There's
a lasting and an everlasting peace between God's people and
God, who is infinitely holy. He won't condemn us. Who is He
that condemneth? It's God that justifies it. And
He won't consume us. Our God is a consuming fire.
He's done consumed Christ and our sins, and He won't crush
us. He won't crush us with our trials. He won't crush us with our burdens. He won't crush us with whatever
goes on in this life. Do you know why? Because He's
done crushed His blessed Son. And that's why Paul, that's why
John said, and my heart condemns you. If my heart condemns me,
He says, you know what? I have this assurance, I have
this comfort, that God is greater than my heart, and He knows all
things. And I'm telling you what, my
heart may condemn us, but God knows everything about us. Everything
about us. And that's why He says, no wonder
Paul said, this peace passes all understanding. This passes
understanding, don't it? Now listen. And he says, the
peace of God which passes all understanding. What does he mean
by that? A peace that the understanding
can't understand. That's what it means. A peace
that the understanding can never understand. We can enjoy it,
we can rejoice in it, find comfort in it, but explain it. You go through the scriptures
and you find people, you find over in Hebrews, you know, they
wandered in ghost camps, slain, slaughtered, lived in caves,
fed bread and water, suffered at the hands of all their enemies.
Like Moses, he said he chose rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God and better the reproach of Christ
and have everything that Egypt had in it. And done that with
the calmest heart. That passes understanding. Here's
this great palace, all this gold, this throne, this crown, this
wealth, this pleasure, have anything I want. And he said, I'm going
to go over here and be with these slaves. I'm going to identify
with these slaves. I want to bear the reproach of
Christ." That don't make sense. But he
had a peace that passes understanding. Oh, and oh, beloved, you look
at Paul and Silas in jail in Philippians, in Philippi. They've
been beaten. Their backs are bruised and bloody. They're sitting there. They've
got their hands in stocks. Mary and I was up at Williamsburg,
Virginia a few years ago, and they have these stocks in the
old town there, you know, and you can lift up the thing and
put your head, hands through it, get your picture took in
the stocks. The thing lift that up and you
can get out of it. Paul and Silas was in stocks, and they couldn't
get out. And they were beaten and whipped. Midnight rolled around and they
started singing songs. their backs deep, and they start
singing the Psalms. I don't know what psalms they
sung, but oh, they probably sang something like, Look unto the
hills from which cometh our help. God is a very present help in
the time of trouble. And oh, there they was, and they
started singing. How in the world does that happen?
A peace that passes understanding. And you can't They had a peace
that nobody could express. And Peter, when he was in prison,
and they were going to take him out, they killed James. And they
said, boy, these Jews like to select when we slay James, we're
just going to bring Peter out in the morning and go slay him
too. We're going to kill him too. They had to wake Peter up
to be in jail. That's the peace that passes
understanding. Oh, and many of you, Many of
you, down through the years, when you gave up a husband, when
you gave up a child, when you had the worst news that anybody
could get, you stayed calm, you stayed quiet, you stayed restful,
even in the face of sickness, in the face of death, and have
a peace that passes understanding. I never will forget Maurice Montgomery, when they found that brain tumor
right in the middle of his head, cancer, inoperable. They put him in there, well they
did operate on him, took it out and messed up his pituitary gland,
but they put him in there and they said, you want to take a
nerve pill before you go in this thing? He said, well no, why
in the world would I want a nerve pill? He says, God's with me. And they just took him in that
big old machine. You know, that's a peace that
passes understanding. Now, I'd probably have had one,
but he didn't. You know, that's a peace that
passes understanding. And look what else it says here
in our text. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds. Now watch this. Through Christ
Jesus. Through Christ Jesus. Without Him, this peace with
God wouldn't exist, and this peace of conscience wouldn't
exist without Him, would it? No wonder Paul says, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let us come boldly
to the throne of Christ. Look unto me. Our Lord Jesus
says, take my yoke upon you, come unto me, and I'll give you
rest. Then He gives us rest, and not
only that, when He says, when I give you the rest, you'll find
rest. So there's two rests there, like two peas. And when we come
to God through Christ, we have peace with God, and then, beloved,
we find a peace. And this passes understanding
how through the Lord Jesus Christ, This peace wouldn't exist without
Him. I'd have to face an offended
God. I don't want to do that. I hate
to face offended men and offended women. But to face an offended
God, I couldn't. Without Him, this peace wouldn't
exist. And I'll tell you what else. Now, you know this for
yourself. Without Him, this peace would not be maintained. It wouldn't
be maintained, would it? You know how quick we'd lose
it? I mean, he's the one that keeps it alive. And it's by looking
to him that we sustain this peace. And Paul said that he himself
is our peace. When I think of God, think of
my sins, think of my faults, think of my failures, think of
all of my Things that I've done wrong in my whole life, He is
my peace. I don't have to run back to Him.
There's my peace in Christ. We have come to Him. We have
come. Oh, we've come to You, Lord Jesus.
We come to You with our heart. We come to You with our soul.
We come to You with our weakness. We come to You with our sin.
We come to You in everything that's wrong with us. We come
to You. And we come We do come. We have come. And we're coming
now. We're coming with everything
that's wrong about us without any fear, without any condemnation,
without any guilt. We do come. And beloved, and we're going
to keep on coming. And we're going to keep on coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith because He made the peace. He
gave the peace. And He's going to sustain this
peace. You take Christ away, what do
you got? Take Christ away, what do you
have left? Take Christ away, peace is gone. And you know you've experienced
this yourself. You looked away from Him. You never trusted Him. You never waited on Him. And
the minute Christ is away from your viewpoint, peace is gone.
It dies. It fades away. You put anything
in the place of Christ, and your peace goes like that. Don't it?
Don't it? It does. Now, beloved, I can't
show you what peace is. I can't show you what it is.
And especially if you haven't felt it for yourself. But I'll
tell you what I can tell you. I can tell you where it is. I can tell you where it is. I
can do that. Oh, you look through history.
You look through the Bible, and it's full of God's people whose
peace passed understanding. Moses, before they passed into
the Promised Land, God told Moses, says, Moses, and his strength
had never abated, and his eyesight was still clear. God said, Moses,
you go up there on that mountain. He said, I'm going to take your
life today. Moses just went up that mountain, just as calm and
quietly. And the scripture says, and God
buried him. Oh, my. Hmm. Oh, that's a passage. He done it because God told him
to. That's a piece of passage to understand. Abraham went up
that mountain, and God told him to offer Isaac, his only son,
his beloved son, the son of the heir of all things. But before
he left that day, He told him, fellas, you all wait right here.
I on the ladder going up yonder to worship, and we're going to
come back. He went up there, to offer up his son. And he went
just as calm and as peacefully and as quietly because he said,
Ah, we're going up there just to worship. We'll be back in
just a day or two. You're talking about a peace
that passes understanding. And oh, listen, Luther, Martin
Luther, after he had not put his 95 pieces there on the door,
It's worms, but in German it's called worms. But we have to
say worms. He had to go up there. They called
him before all the priests and all the popes and the Catholic
hierarchy. He got up that morning to go
face that. He said, it occurs as many devils and worms as they
are tiles on the roof. He said, God be with me. mighty
fortresses are gone!" And he went in there and stood
in front of those people and answered every question without
any pause. And how about Stephen? He preached
to all those people that day, and they got mad, they got so
angry, that they went to gnashing on him and cussing him and railing
on him, and they took him out of town and stoned him to death. And you know what they said?
When he was dying, it was as if they saw the face of an angel. And you know what he said? Lord
Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge. And he left us. You're talking
about peace that passes understanding. My soul Daniel. And Floyd said this so many times,
he told me this the other day, he said, anybody can be a Daniel
when there ain't no lions in the den. And that's the truth. When you ain't got no troubles
to fight, you know, when you ain't got no heartaches and no
troubles and no sorrows, it's easy to rejoice. But old Daniel,
you know, they passed the law. Anybody caught praying to anybody
but that God that the king had set up. That had to be thrown
into the lion's den. Oh, old Daniel, he going to look
to his God. Got up in the morning, prayed. Got up at noon, went
in and prayed. Got another evening and prayed.
And they said, you know this fella that you think so much
of, King? Said, we call him praying to somebody besides our God.
Boy, that King said, oh man, they got me. So they took old
Daniel out of there. And you know what Daniel told
that King when they was fixing to throw him in among them lions?
Daniel said, oh, King, trouble not yourself. Don't you worry
one minute about this. He says, my God's going to shut
the mouth of these lions. You're talking about calm, peace
that passes understanding. He thought the king was worrying
himself to death about Daniel. But Daniel said, okay, don't
you trouble yourself. He said, my God, that God you
all set up there, he can't do nothing. But my God. that you
can't see, the one that I've been praying to. He's going to
shut them out of them lives. Daniel went down there and used
them for pillars that night. One was a pillar on his head,
and he popped his feet on the rest of them. You know the Bible
don't say that. That's me. That's me talking
now. But I tell you, see, this peace
that passes understanding. Peace that passes understanding.
Now let me go back over here in Philippians. Let me give you
a couple things to look at here with me. In Philippians, we've
been preaching 28 minutes. Does it seem longer than that? But here in Philippians, there
are some precepts before you get to this promise. Paul said,
Rejoice all the way in the Lord. Again I say, Rejoice. Let your
moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be
careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and the
peace of God, which passes all understanding. So keep your hearts
and minds through Christ. To maintain this peace, look
what he says. Here's some precepts. And God
always has precepts. Look there in verse 4. This is
one Rejoice evermore. Rejoice. Now what? Not just rejoice,
but rejoice in the Lord. That's the difference in rejoicing
and rejoicing in the Lord. Oh my, Christmas time, you know,
the kids get something that they want to do, but they just go
to jumping and running and hollering and everything. They rejoice
and oh, they're having a big time. But that ain't rejoicing
in the Lord. He says rejoice in the Lord.
Always. Always. Would you enjoy a peace
that passes understanding? Rejoice every moment. And you
start thinking about all that you have to rejoice over in Christ. All that you have to rejoice
over in the Lord. There's not things to rejoice over in this
world. But rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice over how this peace was
established. You've done that while I was
preaching. You rejoiced over that. Your hearts were full of
joy. Peace just flooded your soul. And so, you see, we have
much to rejoice over the way this peace was established. But
there are people, and I say, beloved, this people, and I hope
you're not one of them, but there are people who just groan, murmur,
and cry. over every little old thing that
goes on with them, you know, cry over their troubles, cry
over their trials, sorrow, everything. And oh, beloved, this soul, a
person like that, they forget the fullness that they have in
God. How full is God? How wealthy is God? How wealthy
is God in His grace? How wealthy is God in His peace?
How wealthy is God in His wisdom? How wealthy is God in His mercy?
How wealthy is God? Huh? And they forget the fullness
that they have in Christ. Complete in Him, who's the head
of all principalities and powers, the fullness of this salvation.
Next time you start that, you start talking about what you
have in Christ. And remember, you rejoice in
the Lord. Mr. Spurgeon said this, he said,
cultivate, cultivate a cheerful disposition. Everybody knows
what it is to cultivate something. Well, he says, you cultivate
a cheerful disposition. You know, I mean, you work at
it. Work at it. Cultivate at it. Cultivate a
cheerful disposition. And as much as you're able to,
smile. Smile. You know, people ask me all the
time, how are you doing? No complaints. I wish everybody I shouldn't
say wish, but I would wish that everybody, by the grace of God,
would be as content and as happy and enjoy life as much as I do. I really do. You know, they say
if you exercise, it's going to add so many years to your life.
If you don't smoke, it's going to add so many years to your
life. And if you laugh a lot, it's going to add so many years
to your life. And if you love a lot, it's going to add so many
years to your life. I'm going to live so long. I'm going to be here a long,
long time. I'm going to be here a long time. See what a tearful disposition
will do for you? Smile. Cultivate it. When you find yourself getting
in that condition, start cultivating. Start thinking about what you're
having. Rejoice in the Lord. And oh, when you're around people
like that, you know, it destroys your peace. It's like a mother. It's like a mother or daddy,
you know, when one of the young ones is crying. And they say,
you know you're crying for nothing. You keep crying like that, I'm
going to give you something to cry about. And that's what the
Lord will do to us. If we just keep on crying, keep
on crying and winding around, God will give us something to
wind us up. Ain't that right? So when we cry for nothing, it
always disturbs our peace. Always disturbs our peace. Rejoice
evermore. Keep that peace that passes understanding. Look what it says there in verse
5. Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. The Lord's right there at you.
And what this moderation means is don't be excessive in anything.
Don't be excessive in your appetites. We all have appetites. And I'm
not talking about appetite just for food. We have appetites for
lots of things in this world. And so don't be excessive in
your appetites, whether it's whatever it might be. Money,
things, you know, just fishing, hunting. Eating, work, just don't be excessive
in anything when you're appetizing. Because if you become excessive,
then your peace will be disturbed. Your peace will be disturbed.
And if you're in business, don't speculate, don't count your chickens
before they hatch. People do that all the time.
They get into business, you know, and they start cutting their,
you know, You're going to start counting their chickens before
their eggs hatch, and they start thinking, I'm going to make this much money.
Next thing you know, they've got themselves way out here,
and the chickens didn't hatch. They had a dozen chickens, had
a dozen eggs, but only three of them hatched. So be very careful
about things like that. And that's just putting it in
a language we understand. And being too ambitious will
destroy your peace. Setting your sights too high.
will disturb your peace. All these things hurt your peace.
Be moderate. Be moderate in your spirit. And
this is, and I'll admit this, and Mary will agree with you.
Be moderate in your spirit. And what that means is don't
be quick to anger. Don't be quick to be too hot. Gary told me one time, you know,
he says, you know, when a pot boils over, It'll burn anybody
that's close to it. And so if you're around somebody
that blows over, you're going to get splashed on. And so be
moderate in your spirit. Don't be equipped to anger. And
I'll just own up to you, boy. I'd fly off just like that if
I ain't careful. But that's me. Y'all don't have
that problem. I don't think I'm probably the
worst in the building, but I do. And that'll hurt your peace.
That'll really hurt your peace. That'll hurt your peace in your
conscience. And be moderate in your expectations. In your expectations. When you have great expectations,
and they don't come to pass, all you do is just let down. Don't be excessive in your expectations.
Don't expect a lot, and you won't be disappointed. Ain't that right? And so God helped us to be moderate.
to keep this peace that passes understanding. And then look
what he says here in verse 6. Be careful for nothing. This
word careful means to worry. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God. This be careful means worry,
fretful, over-anxious about things of the world. And oh, let me tell you some
people that fretted. That rich fool fretted over his
barns and lost about everything that he had. Lot's wife fretted
over leaving her home and her friends, and she perished in
the way. And our Lord says, take no thought
for tomorrow. You know why? He said, you'll
have enough trouble, enough evil today. Tomorrow, have enough bread.
You just deal with what you've got to deal with today. Today. And oh, beloved, and by prayer,
by prayer, and supplication with thanksgiving. Now, listen to
this. When you do have care, and we all do, there's no sense
saying no, that we don't. And you know, we're always, people
say, you know, this could happen, this could happen, that could
happen. And it could not happen, too. We always see the worst
that could happen. And the worst is never as bad
as you thought it was when it gets there. Ain't that right? That's the truth. The worst is
never as bad as you thought it was when it gets there. Have
you ever experienced that to yourself? Now listen. Let you request, if you've got
a carefulness, if you've got an anxiousness about something,
Let your requests be named unto God, but go to Him in prayer.
Go to Him in supplication. Lord, I need you. Give to me. And do it with thanksgiving.
Start out with thanksgiving. You know, if you have a burden,
take it to the Lord. If you have a fear, an anxiety,
take it to the Lord. If you have children that's a
great burden to you and a worry to you, take them to the Lord.
If you have sickness, a sickness, do you know Hezekiah? They come
to him and say, set your house in order. You know what Hezekiah
done? He come before the Lord and spread
out his burden for the Lord and the Lord gave him 15 years. You
have sickness, take it to the Lord. You have anxiety for tomorrow
or today, take it to the Lord. You have anxiety for tomorrow,
you're afraid this is going to happen, take it to the Lord.
Cast your troubles, cast your fears and your anxieties and
your heartaches and all the things that you're worried about that
might happen, take them to the Lord. Cast your troubles where
you put your sins on Christ. Put them on Christ. Take them
to the Lord. Oh, that old hymn that says,
take your burden to the Lord and leave them there. Oh, take
them there. If you take them to me, you're
going to take them back away with you. If I take mine to you,
I'm going to take them away with me and leave mine with you. But
if we take them to the Lord and leave them there, let's take
them there. Oh, bless His holy name. And
then, beloved, give Him thanks. You know why? Because He has
kept you. He has kept you in peace. He
has kept you in faith. He has kept you in the grace
of God. He has kept you in the love of God. Has He not kept
you? Does He keep this peace? Oh, He gives you that peace that
passes understanding. And oh, let me tell you this
real quick. Oh, my. And then he says, You're the
peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your
hearts. This peace, it keeps your heart. Let me give you a
couple of things about this. This peace will keep the heart
full. Full, when you think about what God's done for you. You
start thinking and blessing God for what He's done. Me and Mary
sat outside all the time, and we just sat there and said, Oh,
Lord, what? What joy, what peace, what a
place, what a wonderful. And it'll keep the heart full
when we think of what God's done for us. What He did for us in
Christ. Our heart turns to Him and we
must love Him. We must honor Him. We must give
up our hearts and souls to Him. And follow Him and look to Him.
Election! What a reason! What a reason. That'll keep us in peace. God
chose me not because of any good or any bad, won't keep me because
of any good or any bad, but because of Christ. And oh, beloved, and
you think about this. You start thinking about going
home and about your eternal rest. You start thinking about going
to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. When you go to Zion's hill and
you lay your burdens down, and the clouds all go away, and you
go to that city where Christ is the light, where beloved gold
is so worthless there that they make streets with it, and Christ
is on His throne, and I tell you, every one of us will have
Him for ourselves. How in the world can Christ,
who is so glorious, how can I have Christ just for me? when I get
to glory, when there's going to be a multitude that no man
can number. I'll tell you how. That's how
glorious. Do you have Him for yourself
right now? Is He yours right now? Are you His right now? That's
how glorious He is in His being, that we'll have Him there just
like we have Him here. And just be near Him. Oh, my! You start thinking about
that rest that we're going to enter into. I cannot think about
dear children of God. Some I miss because of where
they sat and what a blessing they was to me. But when I think
about where they are and what they do, what they're going through
now, what they're enjoying, I get so happy. I get so full of joy
thinking about what they... And I get to go through the same
thing. What could tip my soul away? Huh? Oh! You're talking about peace and
passive understanding. And now, last thing I'm going
to say is this. You know what God said about
the wicked? No peace said my God to the wicked. Surely, surely. Surely you trust
Christ, who's already made peace. And if you trust Him, that peace
of conscience, peace of heart comes. Oh, the peace of God. This truly passes understanding,
don't it? I cannot understand why this
ain't bothering me like it... And how many times have you said,
this ain't troubling me like I thought it would? How can that
be? This ain't got me scared like
I thought it would. That's that peace that passes
understanding. You say, I just don't understand how I can be
so calm. God, Christ, bless His Holy Name. Our Father, oh, how wonderfully,
wonderfully, wonderfully glorious You are. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
how wondrously, wondrously, wondrously blessed you are. Thank you for
keeping us. And you told us, you keep us
in perfect peace whose mind stayed on thee. And Lord, even when
our mind doesn't stay on you, we still have this peace. And
you keep us in this peace. God, bring glory and honor to
yourself. Help us to rejoice. To be moderate and to be careful
for nothing, but to bring our burdens, our prayers, our supplication
with thanksgiving to you. God bless these saints here.
Father, save your people in this place. Bring glory to yourself
and the salvation of those in our midst. We ask these things
in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. This turns to wonderful
peace. PRABHUPÄ€DA. Two-eighty-eight. Stay with me. Two-eighty-eight.