I'd like for you to turn back
with me to the text that I read to you earlier, Romans chapter
5. And I want to talk to you for
just a little while about peace with God. Peace with God. I don't know anything more necessary
for you to learn or to know in this world. than if you have
peace with God. Everything else in your life
can be a success, but if you have no peace with God, it's
all for naught. Peace. Our Lord said, What shall it
profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? This world is so fleeting, so
brief, and yet it has a way of just swallowing up our lives.
It just swallows them up. You go to bed one night, and
you've heard the Gospel preached, and you've heard exhortations
along that line, and you get it set in your mind, and you
pray to God, and you say, tomorrow I'm going to take some time. I'm going to take 30 minutes
tomorrow morning. I'm going to sit down. I'm going
to read the Scriptures. You get up, the clock rings,
and you go out the door. And this world swallows up all
your time, don't it? It takes your mind from the things
of God. What color am I going to paint
this wall? I've got to do something with it. It's beginning to fade.
And my grass is getting so tall, I've got to drag that mower out.
I have to do this, and I have to do that. Let me tell you what
you have to do. You have to die. And after that,
the judgment. And there's nothing, nothing,
hear me, there's nothing more important for you in this world
than to find peace with God. Peace with God. It's so fleeting and so brief
and yet it just swallows up our lives. Husbands and wives and
children and school and houses and lands and cooking and cleaning
and working and business. Our time is captivated by all
the affairs of this world. It's just taken away from us.
Taken away from us. In Psalm 90, verse 12, Moses
had care of over a million people in the desert. Was charged to
his care. I want you to listen to what
this man prays in Psalm 90, verse 12. He prayed and said, teach
us to number our days. to number our days that we may
apply our hearts to wisdom. Help me to know I'm going to
die. John, I'm not going to live forever. I'm not going to live forever.
But I live like that, don't I? Huh? That's the way we live. And I hope this morning that
you'll give me your ear for just a little while and consider what
I'm saying to you. There's nothing more important
or more necessary to you or to me than peace with God. And it
seems like almost a needless repetition, but I feel compelled
to say it anyway. There are two things that lay
before everyone in this building this morning, death and judgment. Death and judgment. Well, preacher,
we know that. I know that you do. But do you?
Huh? Do you? Do you? Did you wake up this morning
and start out this day like it might be your last? Did you prepare
yourself this morning like the Lord's going to be here any minute? Huh? That's what he's talking
about here. Teach me to number my days that
I might apply my heart to wisdom. Death and judgment. It's appointed
unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. Each one
of us has a life to live, a death to die, and an eternity to face,
and you're not going to stay here forever. Write it down. It ain't going to happen. You're
getting older every day. That's another thing you don't
want me to remind you of, but it's so anyway. And then add
to this that you and I are born enemies of God. Now here's where
men go awry. They think that because of certain
things they've done along the line, they've made a little breach
between them and God, and somehow on down in time they're going
to smooth this thing over, they're going to do some extra things.
But they think God doesn't demand to pay for the things that they
did do. And so they talk about making their peace with God.
I've heard them at funerals talking about men. Well, I don't know. He might have made his peace
with God. Well, you can't make peace with God. You can't do
it. You can't do it. And you and
I are born enemies of God. Our very nature is contrary to
God. And that's another thing. Men
sit around and they say, I just don't believe God would do that.
Based on what? Based on the fact that you wouldn't.
But you ain't God. And we're born enemies of God.
Our nature's totally contrary to God. Everything that you do,
God wouldn't do. And everything that God does,
you wouldn't do. We're totally contrary to God. We're at odds with God. We're
contrary to Him. Our nature's nothing like the
nature of God. People get the notion that when
I say that we're enemies of God, I'm talking about somebody out
in the street shaking their fist up at God and throwing stones
in the air like that old Roman general did. He hated that Nazarene. He threw his sword in there in
his dying movements. He couldn't stand that Nazarene.
Or that I'm talking about the atheist who goes out here and
publicly denies God or stands out there and shakes his fist
up at God and says, if there's a God in heaven, let him strike
me down with lightning. Or of the criminal who boldly
lives without the law and takes what he pleases in total disregard
to the law of God. And indeed, all these are enemies
of God. They are all enemies of God.
But all those whose nature is contrary to God are enemies.
They're enemies of God. Ephesians 2 describes the multitudes
and the daily events of their lives. You read it carefully.
Those first four verses, you read them very carefully. And
there in Ephesians chapter 2, the multitudes and the daily
events of their lives, he describes as walking after the prince of
the power of the air. That's what he calls it. walking
after the prince of the power of the air, and fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and as such, renders them
children of wrath." That's what it says. Children of wrath. That's enemies. Enemies of God. And you can be a minister and
be an enemy of God. A lot of them are. enemies of
God. You can be a deacon or a church
member and be an enemy of God. You can be a beloved wife or
husband and be an enemy of God. You can walk in this world a
moral man and never steal anything from anybody and always pay your
bill and be an outstanding citizen and still be an enemy of God. We're born enemies of God. David
said, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray
as soon as they be born, speaking lies. As soon as they be born. He said, man that's born of a
woman, this is what Job said, is of a few days and full of
trouble. It says he drinks iniquity like water. And then God said
this of every man, that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart is only evil continually. His every waking, sleeping thought
is only evil continually. Everything he thinks is tainted
with that nature. And then Paul said the carnal
mind is enmity against God, that natural man. That natural mind,
his natural reasoning and logic, that worldly, that's what he
bases things on just like everybody else. He bases them on his natural
reasoning and logic. And he said that mind, that carnal
mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can it be. You can't beat it into submission.
You can't force it into submission. Boy, I remember in the military,
they'd get right up here real close where you could hear them.
especially in boot camp. And you couldn't say a word,
but boy, I tell you, I was peeling the hide off of that man on the
inside. I didn't express it in my eyes or in my looks or in
my language, but I was tearing him apart on the inside. That's
that carnal mind. It's enmity against God. And
the awful truth is that they that are in the flesh cannot
please God. That's what the scripture said.
We're enemies of God. That natural man, he's got no
heart for it, he's got no nature for it, he's got no will for
it. He loves darkness rather than light. Now, you can forget
reform. I'm telling you the truth. And
you can forget all this other kind of stuff because he don't
have the heart for it. He don't have the will for it.
He don't have the mind for it. He's an enemy of God. And nothing's
going to happen to that man until peace be made. He's an enemy
of God. There must be something done.
There must be an intervention. If there be no peace made, we're
sure for hell as if we're already there. You see, this peace is
important, isn't it? This peace is necessary. And
then man has nothing to bargain with. I've got nothing, William,
to go to God for a basis of peace. I've got nothing to give him.
I've got nothing he wants. The old Arminian preachers where
I went to church when I grew up, he'd stand up there and he'd
cry and he'd whine and he'd beg for you to give your heart to
Jesus. And then one day I found out Jesus don't want it. Out
of the heart proceed adulteries and evil thoughts and all of
these things. They come forth from within and
defile the man. It wasn't a mediate. It wasn't
a day. It wasn't a tithing that he shorted
God and robbed God on. It's his heart. His heart. It's the wellspring of that old
nature. And out of that heart proceeds
all these things. That heart. He don't want that
heart. He's not going to have that heart.
One day that heart is going back to the dust. But He said, I'll
put within you a new heart. Huh? Oh, so I don't give Him
mine, He gives me His. That's what this peace is all
about. Man has nothing to bargain with. In Romans 3, verse 12,
it said, they're all gone out of the way. They are together
become unprofitable. What's that mean? That means
they're worthless, useless, of no value. That's what that means.
They're no profit. No profit to them. Man can't
please his good works because there's none good. He cannot
please his righteousness because there's none righteous. And all
his righteousnesses are his filthy rag. He cannot plead his good
intentions because there's none that seeketh after God. And he
cannot plead a change in mind because there's none that understandeth.
What's going to change his mind? He has nothing in or of himself
to bargain with. Peace, then, is not something
we can make or even barter for, but something we're called to
receive. We're called to receive it. Peace
with God arises from five things freely given to us by God through
the person and work of Jesus Christ and applied to the heart
through the work of the Holy Spirit of God. That's the only
way you're ever going to receive it. It's for God to give it to
you. It's the gift of God. The gift
of God. So let's look at these things.
The first thing from which a real and lasting peace arises is a
sense that all of our sins have been put away. Now I'm telling
you, there's not going to be any peace. I had a lady that
attended the church years ago down in Ball, Louisiana. A beloved
family. A man and his wife. Couldn't
have children. And sometime back in her past,
she had committed a sin for which she'd never forgiven herself.
And she hung on to that sin. Now, all these other things that
you preach to her, when you preach forgiveness of sin, she could
take that readily. But that one sin would never
go away. And because of that one sin never
going away, That woman never had any peace. Never. No matter
what, that sin disturbed her. She'd come and talk to me about
it, and she'd talk to the other preachers about it, and it was
on and on and on. And to my knowledge, to this
day, she's never. That one sin will hound her,
I suppose, throughout all eternity. But what I'm saying to you, until
all your sins are gone, you can't have any peace. Because God is
going to demand payment for every sin. Every sin. All my sins must be put away.
And man is a sinner. Everything he says and does and
thinks is polluted with sin. And he can never be brought to
any sense of peace until his sins are dealt with. He said
it's our sins that have separated us from God. Now, I want you
to hear me. It's not enough that your sins
be confessed. I don't know of anybody who won't
confess some kind of a sin. Perhaps the Apostle Paul at one
time wouldn't have, but most people, if you talk to them about
sin, will confess sins. They'll readily confess, yes,
I've not always done the right thing. That's it. That's it. And it's not enough that you
repent of your sins. Not enough that you turn from
them. I didn't get rid of them either. And it's not enough that
you do the best you can to abstain from sin. Sin demands payment. It demands restitution. For God to forgive sin is not
for Him to overlook it or wink at it or excuse it. An old preacher
one time, a blackboard, a small blackboard up on the back and
he used to go over there and he'd say adultery and he'd put
a mark on there and he'd say theft and he'd put a mark on
there and so on. And he'd go down there and he'd
put a bunch of marks on there, four or five or whatever amount
I suppose he thought he was in. And then he'd take an eraser
and he'd say, this is forgiveness. And he'd take that eraser and
erase it all. No, that ain't forgiveness either. Sin has to
be paid for. It has to be paid for. It's not for him to overlook
it, wink at it, or excuse it. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. That's what God said. That's
not what some man said God said. That's what God said. I will
by no means clear the guilty. The soul that sinneth That soul,
he said, shall surely die. And the only hope, therefore,
for any fallen son of Adam is that God has provided for him
a substitute and put on him all his sin, laid on him the iniquity
of us all, put it on him, and then exacted that price from
him of our sin. Now, he showed us that in the
law, didn't he? With the lambs and the goats
and the heifers and the doves and all of those things that
were sacrificed on there. Those were the types and pictures
of this. The Lord had laid on him the
iniquity of us all. He bore our sins, the Scripture
said, in his own body on the tree. Once, in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin Listen, by the sacrifice
of himself, our sins have been put away in
Christ. Can you receive that? Huh? Can you receive that? Do you
believe that? Do you believe that that's what
God required from you? You believe that God extracted
from him everything that was required of you because of your
sin, for every sin, past, present, and future, all sins, for all
God's elect, all laid on him, and all exacted from him, and
therefore he justified them in Christ. Do you believe that? You do. You have peace, peace
with God. Because your sins have been put
away. They've been put away. Unto them that look for Him.
It says down there at the end of Hebrews chapter 9, if you
read that whole chapter, what he's talking about there is the
old priesthood and Christ fulfilling what that old priesthood stood
for. That old priest would take the sacrifice, the high priest
alone, take that sacrifice and they'd all gather around that
tabernacle. A whole multitude. And they brought
those sacrifices. He'd take that sacrifice and
he'd go under that veil, out of your sight where you couldn't
see. And everybody looked to see if he was going to come back
out. Because if he'd come back out, you were justified. And
that's what he said. Unto them at one time in the
end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And unto them that looked for
him, Those who have a part in that, those who have brought
that sacrifice, those who have a hope, a hope from God, a hope
given to them of God, as it was in that ceremonial law, they
look, and unto them that look shall He appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. Sin must be put away. We're justified
freely, it says, by His grace. through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. This leaves God as just and justifier. And I tell you this, you can
go on trusting in those old experiences and go on trusting in those adolescent
professions of faith that you made back when you was 11 or
12, and you can go on trusting in your decisions and reformations
and work But you'll never find any peace with God except in
this, as he is our substitute, and he put away our sins. Put them away. And I'm telling
you this, this thing about faith putting away sin, you can forget
about that, too. And this faith doesn't make his
sacrifice effectual. His sacrifice was effectual,
and you receive it by faith. You receive it by faith. Justification
is an accomplishment of Christ. It's not the work of faith. God
delivered Him for our offenses and raised Him for our justification. And faith's part in this work
is to receive it. Actually, justification is an
eternal work. There's no other way that you
can justify the justification of Old Testament believers except
to say, that they were justified in Christ by His appointment
of the Father before the foundation of the world. He was a lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. And God justified them. He justified them. Every Old
Testament saint was justified the same way you and I are on
the same basis. And so He declares there in Romans
3.25, His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. Talking about those Old Testament
saints. All sins, past, present, and
future. One lady said to Brother Mahan
one time, she said, I can believe that my present sins are forgiven.
I can believe that my past sins were forgiven. But I'm having
trouble believing that my future sins are forgiven. And he said,
which one of your sins wasn't future when Christ died? They
were all future, weren't they? Well, sure they were. Sure they
were. Full restitution, full satisfaction,
no compromise, no change in God. And if all my sins have been
put away, I have peace with God. Listen to this, Colossians 1,
verse 20. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross, By Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime
alienated, now listen, and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath He reconciled. He made peace. In the body of
His flesh through death to present you before God. this holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. If you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which you have heard." So peace arises
from a right understanding of how God has put away our sins
in Christ. He cannot twice demand from you
and from Christ. He can't demand the same payment. All right, here's the second
thing. The second thing from which peace arises is a revelation
of the righteousness of Christ. Why must Christ obey the law? He was righteous. He did no sin.
He said, which one of you convinces me of sin? He did no sin. He thought no sin. There was
no sin in him. Satan came to try to find something
in him and found nothing in him. He was sinless. He was sinless. So why must he be put under the
law? Why must he obey the law? Why
must he go through the daily grind of doing these things? Why did he have to do that? Because
you and I couldn't. And as our representative, he
came into this world made of a woman, made under the law to
redeem them that were under the law. Our redemption is not just
in atonement for sin, but our redemption is also in his obedience
to the law. He was made under that law to
redeem those who were under that law. As our representative, he
came under that law and did exactly what God requires from a man
from birth to death. And that's our righteousness.
That's our righteousness. That perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. No man can walk with God apart
from perfect, continual, spiritual obedience. But our nature won't
allow it. Isn't that the argument of Romans
chapter 7? I've heard people in movies that
I've watched talk about Romans chapter 7. That's just the most
profound thing. And it is profound, but it's
just the most profound thought to them that ever was. They can't
explain it, don't know how to apply it, but they're just amazed
by it when they read it. He said, God's law is spiritual
and you and I are carnal, sold unto sin. Talking about believers. And what we desire to do, we
can't do because of the nature of sin. It still exists in us.
What I would do, I do not. What I won't do, that's what
I do, Paul said. When I would do good, evil is
present. Oh, wretched man that I am, not
that I used to be. He didn't used to be a wretched
man. He didn't find that out until he was converted. And then
he cried, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? What is that death? That death
is not being able to serve God as He requires. That's what that
death is. It's a wanting to but can't.
But can't. And so we walk in that righteousness
that He imputes to us by faith. It's that righteousness of Christ. And it's in this obedience, as
well as his death, that he leaves us justified. You see up here
in our text what it says, therefore being justified. That's why I'm
going over these things. There's not going to be any peace
apart from justification. And justification has to do with
the putting away of sin and the providing of a righteousness.
Those two things are a must. Those two things are required.
And they're required at the perfection of God. and they're accomplished
in Christ. With this righteousness, we're
said to be spotless in the presence of His glory. And I'll say this again, as I
said in the Sunday school lesson this morning, don't misunderstand
me. The believer desires to be righteous. He strives to be honest
in his dealings with men and blameless. He hungers and thirsts
for it. But he does not look at those
failing attempts as the source of his good standing before God.
He looks at what he longs for. He looks to that righteousness
of Christ. And that's what brings him into
peace with God. That's what brings him into peace.
And he longs for it. And one day you'll have it. You'll
have it in glory. Paul writes there in Romans 3,
he shuts every mouth. He tells you what the law says
to those who are under sin. He tells us that. He tells us
that it shuts every mouth. And then he says, but now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested. being
witnessed by the law and prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe." Paul cried, oh, he said that
I might be found in him not having my own righteousness. That's
what the believer cries. Boy, I tell you, if Christ walked
in that door right now, you wouldn't want to be found in your own
righteousness, would you? Do you know who said that? The Apostle Paul. That was his
whole hope before conversion, was in his own righteousness.
And now he cries, I don't want to be found in my righteousness.
I want to be found in Him. I want to be found in Him. Do
you know when he said it? When he discovered that all his
righteousnesses was filthy rags and he took them out to the dome
heap. That's when he cried that. Do you know why he said it? Because
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes it. And then thirdly, real Lasting
peace, joyous peace arises from the knowledge that we have an
ascended, accepted, and seated high priest and king who intercedes
for us at the right hand of God. I've got peace with that. I tell
you, so long as you think you got a hold of the wheel. I've
often told you, remember years ago they used to have them little
car seats for babies and back then you could sit in the front
seat. And they'd sit up there and they had a little steering
wheel on them. And you'd sit over there and they'd just smile and
happy and going down the road. They wasn't doing anything but
they thought they was. And that's a man, as long as
he thinks he's got his hand on the wheel, he's got peace. You
know, I can do this and I can do that and I can do that. Rather
than you ain't steering nothing. You ain't steering nothing. You
just think you are. This real lasting peace is to
know that there is a person, a person, a person who loves
me, who has a personal interest in me, who died for me, who suffered
for me, who prayed for me. That's what he told Peter. Satan
has desired to shift you like wheat, but I prayed for you.
Huh? Boy, you can have some peace
in that. Huh? I tell you, I pray sometimes. I think my prayers just fall
on the ground. They just go out and just fall on the ground.
He prays for you. That's the important one. I have
at the right hand of God, when this mouth can't pray, when this
mind can't think, when this body can't walk, I've got one who
takes up my cause and calls my name before the throne. That's peace. That's peace. And when this world can't offer
you any more hope, you've got peace with God. You've got peace
with God. Just because this world says
something is going to be, doesn't mean that it is. That's right. I don't mean anything. He can
change things. God can bring things to pass
and He can change things. He does what He will. I tell
you, that's comforting to the heart to know. He's seated. He's accepted. I tell you, sometimes
I pray and, boy, I look at myself and I look at my service and
I think, boy, you've got no right to pray. But that's not my right
to pray. My right to pray is seated at
the right hand of God. You see what I'm saying? That's
peace. That's peace. Teach this doubting
heart to rejoice in Him, and to love Him, and to look for
Him, and call on Him, and wait for Him. Where is any peace in
the religion of this world? The religion of this world depends
on your walk. And I'm going to tell you something,
when you really need it, when you really want it, when you
really seek it, you're not going to have it. Because then you're
going to take a close look at your obedience, and a close look
at your devotion, and you're going to find out what it really
is. And you're going to be standing there with no peace. Peace is
in Him. It's in Him. My hope's already
blessed. It's already blessed. It's already
accepted. It's already glorified. And He's
there for me. Think about that. He said, I
go away. It's expedient for you that I
go away. I go to prepare a place for you. I went down to the bank years
ago. You talk about the hand of God.
I didn't have enough credit to pay attention. And I went down
to the bank, and they agreed to loan me some money. And I
told my wife, I said, I'm going over here, and I'm going to make
us a place. And I did. I went over there and I worked
24-7 for a whole year. I worked on that house until
I couldn't stand up. And finally on the last, they
gave me a year, and on the last day of the year I got it done.
And I went over and I got all the kids and got her and we came
over there and we went in that house and it served and protected
us and sheltered us and gave us warmth and had a lot of, he
said, I go to prepare a place for you. But that wasn't all of it. He
said, if I go away, I'll return. Huh? What's he returning for? And I'll gather you unto myself,
that where I am there you may be also. That's hope. And that's peace. That's peace. And then fourthly, peace, everlasting,
unbreakable peace arises from a sense of the love of God. What would it be worth to you
right now to know that God loves you? Huh? He loves you. I tell you, we've all grown up
in here, most of us have. We've grown up and we've been
through this and we've done things and you just thought, oh man,
dad finds out about this, it's all over. It's over. Huh? What was it worth to you the
first time you found out he loved you? Huh? He didn't throw you
out. He came in and paid the fine
or did whatever he had to do. Why? Because he loved you. He
loved you. Oh, the love of God. You're talking
about peace. It was his love that sent his
son to die on our behalf. It was his love that bestowed
that mercy and grace on us. It was His love that quickened
us. Isn't that what it says there in Ephesians 2 after it described
all those enemies and those children of wrath even as others? But
God, but God, He said, who rich in mercy for that great love
wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and
sin, quickened us together with Christ. That's the love of God. And this love will not let its
objects go. It won't turn them loose. God
won't turn them loose. Paul said, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril, or so. Nay, but in all these things
we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And here's the real assurance
of election. You find assurance in election,
find assurance in it this way. Jacob have I loved. That's what
God says. Huh? You mean it's love that chose
me. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Well, I just don't understand
it. I don't either. I don't either. I don't think
we'll understand it when we get there. I think we'll go through
eternity wondering, wondering at the love of God. And then
last of all, real peace. Peace that transcends suffering
and peace that transcends circumstance and situations. arises from a
heart conviction that God will do everything He promised He
would do. That's it. That's peace. Brother
Winston told me one day, this was his favorite scripture. Philippians chapter 1, verse
6. Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. God's work in Christ will never
be discovered a miscarriage. What God has purposed and promised
he'd do, he's going to do. He's going to do it. He can't
fail. His promises can't fail because
he can't fail. And not one jot, not one tittle
going to pass until all be fulfilled. And I'll close with this. It
brings a blessed peace to our souls. to know that if the earthly
house of this tabernacle be destroyed, I've got a house in the heavens
not made with hands. Huh? That give you some peace? Oh my, they lay this old body
in the box. How many times have I been out
to the cemetery and saw the old tent put in the box and the box
was lowered down and the dirt put on top? But I know now, I know now, if
the earthly house of this tabernacle be destroyed, I have a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, one that's not
going to be destroyed. My friend, the believer has peace
knowing that if they close their eyes in death, they're going
to wake in the arms of Christ, that peace, that peace. Peace is in the person of Christ.
That's what religion just don't get. It's in a person. If it's in a creed, then you
have to learn the creed. And you learn the creed in perfection.
And then you have to interpret the creed. And we've got to go
to somebody who's going to interpret the creed. Well, it means this.
You're so confused, you don't know which end is up. Christ
just cried at the end of all that ceremony and confusion and
mess. Even the eunuch was confused
when he came back from it. He didn't learn anything. And
he cried and he said, anybody thirsty? Come to me. Come to me. Oh, as we exalt Christ
and try to describe to you his work and things, I just tell
you, look to him. Look to him. You know, that old,
he said, is that serpent was raised up, that serpent of brass
was raised up. Well, you try to, I told you
the other day at 14 wide, Estrell stretched out for 30 miles. And
when those fiery serpents were raining down and biting the people
and they were dying here and there, he told them, raise that
serpent up. Everybody that looked lived. Well, some of them laying
right under it. They looked out up there and
see all the details and the little tongue and all that. I'm just
using my imagination. I don't know what it looked like,
but they could see it's eyes. But they was folks way off. And
all they could see, they didn't even know what they was looking
at much, but they knew it was being raised up and they knew
why it was being raised up. All they had to do was look,
wasn't it? So let's be careful about cutting people in and out. Salvation's in Him. Peace is
in Him. Embrace Him. You've got everything
God has for the sinner. Embrace Him. May God give us
that peace. Father, we thank You. Oh, what
would we do without this blessed book, without these blessed promises? Use these things that we said
here this morning to comfort those who believe. and use these things to show
those who don't the glory of God in Christ. I ask you for
Christ's name.