Bro Gary Sunday Morning 7/24/11
Isa 26:1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Isa 26:2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
Isa 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Isa 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
God promised in the Gospel Day to keep them in perfect peace. The secular world is in a turmoil. When you get close to the world they will try to bring you into that turmoil and you will be lacking in peace and joy and they will also take your hope.
Jesus told of the destruction of the literal Jerusalem before his death. He said that because of fear people would be upset. Without God, our times and seasons will leave us full of turmoil, fear, mixed emotions wondering if we should run this way or another. God never intended that we be full of the fears of the world. He has another plan.
In the Gospel Day God will keep his people in peace whose mind is stayed on Him.
Paul wrote this to those that had had a new beginning. Each one that is born into the world comes to the age of accountability where they know right from wrong and then they come to the age where they enter into sin by doing that they know is wrong. “For all have sinned.” When we sin, then spiritually we die.
When one enters into sin, the relationship with God is broken and the heart and soul becomes dark. There is no spiritual life there. The thought is not that they are forever sealed to hell. They become dead in sin and need salvation through the blood of Christ.
Being confident of this very thing that he that has begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Think on these eight things. There are things in this world that are true that meditating on will have little value in your life. The fact that gold is valuable is true but has little significance unless you have some gold and want to sell it.
Paul wrote to think on things that are true, things that are agreeable to the unchanging truths of God.
Things true of God: He is a Spirit. This is wonderful because this enables Him to be in all places at all times. We each could find ourselves in a time of need this week. It might be when we are not all assembled together. He can be where this brother is and where that sister is at the same time.
He is a Spirit and can visit the one you are burdened for in Tennessee and the one I’m burdened for in Montana. He is a Spirit and is invisible. I have never seen God or an angel, but beyond a shadow of a doubt there have been many times that I’ve needed God and He was there. I felt His power.
The angels are thousands of thousands. I’ve never seen one, but they have been very good to each one in this congregation this morning. Great harm could have been done to many. The angels have delivered and helped each of us.
Paul wants you and me to know that God is eternal. I love to read of creation, it says, “In the beginning, God…” God was God the first day; God was God before the first day. Before time, God was. Before time, Jesus was and the Holy Spirit was. There is one of an eternal nature that was thinking of mankind before there was mankind.
Jeremiah or David said, “I knew you before your mother carried you.” This God is so beyond our comprehension; He is eternal. From day one throughout time, from Genesis through Malachi, 4,000 to 5,000 years, God was God. He knew that one day He would send his only begotten son. He knew that Malachi was the last prophet and spoke through him of Jesus. “The sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings.” He knew that it would be 400 years before John the Baptist. But God was still God.
There are times that our plate is full of things that we don’t have an answer for. It is good for us to be there.
We may feel like we have things under control and that we are sharp. When that thought comes, you need to thank God for a quickened mind. But the day will come when you don’t know what the right answer is. You may know some answers but you don’t know the right one. How should I handle this? What should I do?
There is an eternal God. He used Malachi to tell of Jesus. God kept the lamp burning through the 400 years after Malachi.
We don’t know what the eternal God is going to do to fulfill the needs. We may look around Paradise. The saints in Carmichael and Athol may do the same thing. There is an eternal God that has a plan. The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. This prophecy was not fulfilled the next day or in the next 100 years. Yet God was still on the throne.
There was a king that built a road system for Mary and Joseph to travel on. This was one thing that God knew was going to happen to help His plan. This God knows everything. This God is omnipotent. He has all power.
In Revelations it speaks of a great multitude which could not be numbered that say Glory to God in the highest…
Rev 7:12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
It mentions not only power but might. There are situations in our life where we admit that we need a miracle.
It may be a close to home need of a miracle in our thoughts. There may be times that your mind is plagued with a thought, a thought of the past, of circumstances, or a thought of despair. You may have used all of your strength, you may have gone to another for agreement of prayer and counsel. We expect the victory to come. There are times that not only do we need the power of God; we need a miracle from God.
This God you and I are challenged to think and know about. (If we are not careful we don’t know very much about God.) We have a lot of numbers in our head. People’s phone numbers, our social security number, if you don’t spend time meditating of God, what you know of Him will be stolen away from you.
This Son Jesus was in the mind of God and in His time frame He was born and 33 years later He was crucified. Time is still going and there will be an end of time. There will not be an end to eternity. This is the reason why each of us acknowledges what Solomon said in Ecc 3, “He has put eternity in their heart.” This is the reason why children want to know where they came from and where they will go when they die.
On the Parable where they were called by the husbandman to labor. There were some that were called at the 11th hour. I’ve always thought that God spoke to everyone as a child. I don’t know that. Raising my children they wanted to know as I did as a child, “where did we come from and where are we going.”
I am convinced that there is a land known as heaven that surpasses any beauty that I have ever seen. There is music and singing that excels anything that I have ever heard. May God challenge each of us to think on God.
God is incorruptible. You don’t have to live very long in life and you will have injustices. Unjust people will be unjust. The other scene I want to put before you this morning is the scene of God. God is incorruptible. No one can ever shade your character to Him.
God is so just that He will be just to you and me in every day of our life. If we choose to serve Him, He will be just to us. If we choose to reject Him, He will still be just to us.
God is Omnipresent. This means that he is everywhere present. There are days that you are placed in position and situation that you would not choose to be placed in of your own accord. If you will let God He will help you. He is not a bully and will not force himself on you. He is a God of Power and yet will never force you to accept His presence.
We teach parents to keep your children innocent. Hold at bay the influences that would like to influence them past their age. One day the scene will change and the children will be in school. It is a wonderful thing that God can be there in school with them.
Some in this audience have not only experienced the joy of bringing a child into this world but also the sorrow of burying a child. In our minds we cannot even go there. God is a present help in every time of need. We as humans have nothing to offer the broken heart of a mother or father.
I think of broken dreams and losses, “we had so hoped...” Mothers and fathers have sacrificed their lives for their children and their hopes become shattered because of sin. You remember in devotions the heart cry of a child and you see where they are now.
Many have suffered the heart break of an unfaithful companion. It doesn’t matter what port you seek, the heartache will still be there. There is a God that is omnipotent and omnipresent and He can come and give hope.
God is omniscient. He knows everything. He knows His plans. He spoke to Jeremiah, “I know the thoughts that I have toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end.”
Moses didn’t get to go into Canaan land, he’d sacrificed and led the children of Israel and yet he never got to do his lifelong ambition.
He said, “God and mankind listen, the words that God gives are as a gentle refreshing rain.” It is God that sends the dew. In each of our lives we need the dew of heaven. The dew of heaven can only come when we are still before God. The world would keep you in a turmoil all the time. Our flesh will keep us in a turmoil all the time.
Deu 32:1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Deu 32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
Deu 32:3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
After we have said what we have to say of God all we can say is that we didn’t say half of what there is.
Deu 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
We each need a rock to build on. Build on the Rock, Jesus. His work is perfect. If you need edified, healing, counseling, liberating, direction; He knows how to do it perfectly. He never does anything poorly. If you need to be saved this morning He will save you to the uttermost. If you need forgiveness, if your heart is black and your heart is miserable He gives perfect forgiveness, He removes sin as far as the east is from the west. He buries sin; get your sin that is haunting you buried.
He is a God of truth. Each soul that is honest desires truth. Jesus knew this. He said, “I am truth.”
You may be confused of which church. Let me solve this for you this morning. When you are a child of God, there are three that bear witness in the earth (That is the earth of our body.): the Word and the Spirit and the Blood.
You can know the truth and it is only truth that frees you, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
You can know the truth and be just. Moses was headed up the mountain to die, and God told him that he could see Canaan Land but not go in. God is just. You can fill your mind with many things that are tangible and probably true as far as the world is concerned and I am in no way saying that is sinful.
As Sister Brenda taught us of Mary and Martha: There is one thing that is more needful. Make sure that you think about God, about God being true. You can find marvelous studies about God. The Bible has 66 books that tell us about God. Down deep inside, each of us has a hungering for God. If you taste and see you will want more. These things will keep your heart and your soul in perfect peace.
He offers each of us the best; don’t let this opportunity pass.
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