Alright, well back in Galatians 5, we're picking up, I guess back in verse 22. What we had done last time is we began looking at these things of the fruit of the Spirit in regards to the same way that we were looking at the works of the flesh not being things that we're trying to cut out and we're trying to stop doing, but those things, if they are in you, that is a sign of what is in your heart. It's a manifestation of the wickedness of your heart. And so those things are made manifest so that we can see that that is our condition before God. On the same kind of wavelength, we have this thing of the fruit of the Spirit not being things that you're trying to work on, not being things that you're trying to produce in your life. I really ought to love more, I ought to have more long-suffering, I ought to have more joy. You know, I need to work on having more joy than... That's not the way that works. Again, that's religion. When religion lays these things out and says, this is the list of the things that you're not supposed to do, and this is the list of the things that you're supposed to have in you, and work on those things, that's religion. But what Jesus Christ does is He shows you the works of the flesh, shows you your state before Him, and then when you're born again, He replaces all those works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. And that fruit is a whole package deal, and I believe that's why it's singular. It's when you get the Spirit of God, these things are produced. It isn't that he's going to give Ashley love, but he's going to give Natalie joy. That's not the way that works. It's everyone that is born of God has these things in them. As we talked about last week, according to the measure of faith that God has dealt to every man, there's a certain measure of these things that God gives you, so somebody might be able to exhibit more, not be able to, said that wrong, they might exhibit more longsuffering than someone else, but the ministry that God has them in, might require that more long-suffering, however it may work. And so we're just working through these things, seeing basically how does God work these things in us? How does he produce these things? What we saw about love and joy is that the Holy Ghost does those things in us. I was talking earlier today with somebody about the Holy Ghost and His ministry in us, and I believe that 1 John 2.20 and 27 are very key in understanding the ministry of the Holy Ghost, in that it is an anointing on the inward parts that Jesus Christ gives us, that Holy One of God. He gives us that anointing and from that He teaches us the mind of Christ. He shows us those things and reminds us of those things that Jesus has instructed us in. He brings those things to mind so that we can live those things out. The entirety of the Godhead really does work together. not only drawing you to salvation, but once you are born of God, in the process of all that, the entirety of the God is at work in that. And then once you're saved, you have that lifelong process of sanctification where there are immediate things that are going to just be immediately evicted out of your life. And then there are those things, just like when you see Israel going into the promised land. As they entered in, there were some battles that God won for them. Okay? You think of Jericho. They marched around the walls and blew their trumpets as he instructed, and the walls fell down. It was seemingly an odd thing to them, and it would be an odd thing. You know, this army is marching around the walls, and that's going to destroy us. But sure enough, that was what God had instructed them to do. And so I want you to understand something. When God tells you to do something, it may seem arbitrary, it may seem totally out of the way. And this is for lost people and saved people alike. Pay attention to this. When God instructs you to do something, you obey it explicitly. Do it exactly as He tells you to, immediately, without reserve. because He is working at something in your life. And you accomplishing that thing that He has commanded you out of His word is going to do something in your life. And it's going to, if we can spiritualize that for just a second, it's going to make those walls fall down. And it's going to break down those walls and it's going to enable some victory in your life or whatever it may be. And there were other victories where God explicitly told them, take up your swords and go kill the people, go slay them, go take them out. So they had to go physically fight that battle. There were others where God told them, no, you just wait here. And when you hear the sound of the going in the mulberry trees, there's going to be a victory one. There was that one angel that slew 185,000 in one night, and I realized this was later on. But those are things that God has set forth that they're going to be victories. That is going to be something, an enemy taken out of your life. But then you see later on in the book of Joshua, and then you get on into Judges, you see it come full swing, where they did not, it wasn't initially that they could not, although there are places where it says that they couldn't drive out this people or that people. they got to the point where they allowed allegiances with some of the people that God said, you destroy them, okay? And just as God told them it would, it became a snare to them. It became a snare in their life. And they were always there as a thorn in their side, and it was a snare to them. And just like those things in your life, when God says, okay, it's over, it's over, it's done. And he gives you immediately victory. But if you allow those things to abide in your life, they'll become a snare to you. And it very well may be that it's a perpetual snare until the day you die. That it'll just always be there. Whereas God was going to give you the victory outright and immediately, you refused to obey, and so that thing is just a snare to you now. Now you still have, if you're born of God, you have the ability to overcome that. That no longer has rule and reign over you, but it's there as a snare. And so these things are very important, and as I say, when God tells you to do something, you act on that immediately. Whether it be through your own Bible reading, whether it be sitting under the preaching of the Word of God, and God stirs up your heart in that thing, you just act on that. And so in this, we see that once you are born of God, God will work these things in you. He'll give you the love, He'll give you the joy, and now we're going to look at this thing of peace. Yeah, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. And we're gonna just touch on this thing for a couple of minutes here. Go to John chapter 14, if you would. We've got a couple of things I wanna look at in light of this word peace. And then I have a list of verses that I'm gonna read to you. I'm not gonna have you turn to them, because that would, there's eight verses, and it'd just take a little bit more time. But John chapter 14, and I wanna start at verse 23. John 14 and 23, it says this, Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. And you think of this thing over in verse 10, he says, believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Okay, so again, he's reiterating that fact that the things that Jesus spoke are the words, the very words that God gave him to speak. They were not His own words, those were the words from the Father. This is instruction from the Father on how to approach Him. And so continuing on, verse 25, these things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. Yeah, we're gonna head on down to verse 27. But it says this, but the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, and there's a little clarity for you. The Bible literally tells you that comforter is the Holy Ghost. That's who that is. And so when you see the comforter being spoken of in light of John 14, 15, 16, this whole area here, it's the Holy Ghost that is being spoken of. So you can see what Jesus says about the comforter and understand, okay, those are things that the Holy Ghost accomplishes. All right, even this thing in John 16, eight, like look at this here, it says, and when he has come, speaking of the comforter, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. All right, so there is a ministry of the Holy Ghost as the comforter reproving, right? A reproof is a comfort when it comes from the Holy Ghost. It's a reproving of sin, and it's a reproving of righteousness, and it's a reproving of judgment. And so these things are accomplished by him, but continuing on there in verse 26, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I've said unto you. And so these things that Jesus spoke, these things that Jesus spoke and then now are recorded for us in the Word of God, these are the things that the Holy Ghost is gonna bring to remembrance. But I want you to understand something. The Holy Ghost cannot bring something to memory to remembrance, to bring it back from your memory that you never learned of Jesus in the first place. Okay? So things that Jesus teaches you, the Holy Ghost is able to bring back to you. But if Jesus never teaches you those things, the Holy Ghost isn't going to be able to bring them to mind and they're going to be foreign to you. All right, so where do we go with this? Well, you've got to be in the Word of God. You've got to be under the sound of preaching. You've got to have that time where you are submitting yourself to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God in order for Jesus Christ to instruct you so that the Holy Ghost can take that instruction and bring it to remembrance, whatsoever things he taught you. Okay, so as he speaks to you, as he instructs you, as he teaches you, the Holy Ghost is going to bring those things back to mind. I find this quite often, and those of you who will delve into a biblical conversation with somebody, there will be times where there is going to be direct and absolute trigger memory, and you're going to be able to recite a verse, you're going to be able to connect that verse with this one and that one over there, and it's just going to all come together, and there will be solid doctrine that is brought out. That happens. But if you're not in the Word of God, if you're not laboring with God in the Word of God, you're not going to have those things. And all you are doing is resting on what you received from men. Whether it be from a commentary, whether it be from a book, or from a preacher, myself or someone else. If it was only what man revealed to you, the Holy Ghost isn't gonna bring that to mind. So he's not gonna connect those dots that are just gonna glorify Jesus Christ. But when God is the one that reveals it to you, think about, again, what Peter says, we quote this one a lot, but it's so applicable with so many things, where Jesus, you know, Peter says, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus says, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. There is a difference between flesh and blood, man, revealing something to you, and when God reveals something to you. When God the Father reveals something to you, it is going to be that instant recognition, and you're just going to know it, okay? It's going to be just a, honestly, there are times where it's just a thunderbolt of lightning, and it just, bam, and right there it is, and it's like, wow, where has that been this whole time? It's been there the whole time. Why have I never seen that? Mrs. Bell, the thing that you showed me tonight. God is instructing you in that. He opened your eyes to that thing. No matter how many times you've read over that, He finally opened your eyes to it, and He's teaching you on it. That's how this works. And so when God instructs you in something, it's much more than when man instructs you. Think about this. You could go to a liberal arts college. You could go to be a nurse. You could go to be a doctor, an engineer, whatever. And there's not a bit of Bible involved in that. And men are teaching you and your intellect is being stretched and strengthened and you're growing in your intellect and your understanding of the topic at hand. And you may have a certain amount of expertise in that topic. And you may be able to carry on a great discourse. I mean, listen, I learned so much about building traditional archery equipment, bows, long bows, recurves, arrows, how to fletch them, how to flint nap. I mean, how to make the arrow shafts from planed wood, from boards, from twigs, from, you know, multifloral rows. I could even show you how to make an arrow out of multifloral rows, okay? Obviously, you take the thorns off, Mrs. Bell. But with this, it actually does make a very good arrow wood that's very strong. But having said all that, God didn't teach me any of that. I learned it from a book. I learned it from books that men had instructed me in and I have this knowledge and I could carry on conversations with somebody about that. But that's earthly knowledge. And when it takes away from your effort in laboring with God and the Word of God, and when it takes precedence, then it becomes an idol, and then that knowledge is wicked. It's wicked knowledge. In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with shooting archery and building longbows and such, but when it becomes an idol over your time with God, Well, it does become wicked. It is then wickedness to you. And it is earthly, it's sensual, it's devilish, because it's drawing you away from the Word of God. I can say that with authority, because I had God break a bow in my hands, wrap the bowstring around my nose as the thing blew up, okay? Left a brush burn on my nose from the bowstring. Why? Because I had spent over a hundred hours making this bow, And there were specific times where I thought to myself, you know, I ought to go study. I'll go out and I'll scrape just a little bit on it, and that little bit of scraping and sanding and working on it turned into a couple hours of working on it. It had become an idol, and by the mercy of God, He took it from me. And I praise the Lord for it, I thank the Lord for it. It was a great thing that he did, because through that he taught me temperance. I helped Brother Dale Morey make a bow earlier in the spring. And working on that in the few times that he was able to come over and fellowship in with that, the Lord gave great liberty in that, and I was able to finally work on a bow again. But up until that point, it was a struggle for me to work on something like that, to build something like that, because I had made it an idol in my life. Some people may be able to do those things and have it not affect them. I can now work on that type of stuff, and he's taught me temperance. I know how much. I know how much is enough and how much is too much. And if I'm able to exercise that, it is no longer a snare to me. But that whole big long rant on that thing is just to say this, that when God teaches you something, it's different than you learning it from a book or man teaching you. It's on the inward parts. It stirs you up on the inside. It's more than an intellectual knowledge and an assent to something. And see, sadly, this is where we have gotten in the last two or three generations in our good fundamental Baptist churches. I don't point the fingers anywhere else but us. in that we have gone so long just instructing through flesh and blood, rather than allowing God to teach us. We've relied on men, we've relied on books, we've relied on Sunday school curriculum, we've relied on teaching textbooks and all of these other things, rather than getting in the Word of God and laboring in the Word of God with God and allowing Him to teach us. You see, when someone has taught you something, flesh and blood, when flesh and blood has taught you something, it is very easy to have your mind changed on that thing. When a stronger argument is presented to you that is beyond the argument that you had, and it's contrary to the point that you had originally taken, When that stronger argument is put to you, you have to stop and you think, oh, I might be wrong on this, because I thought it was this, but this clearly says this over here, okay? But when you have labored in the word of God, and when he puts all the pieces doctrinally in the word of God together, and the whole thing fits together and just locks together like a puzzle, and every piece fits, and he shows you the full complete picture of the thing, heaven and earth can't move you on that thing, because you know it, because God taught you that. I know for a fact that the third person of the Godhead, that His name is the Holy Ghost. I know that for a fact because I've labored with God in that. I know for a fact that the Holy One is not the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus Christ Himself because I have labored with God in the Word of God and He revealed these truths to me. And when you are shown those things, it doesn't matter if they tie you to a stake and light a cold fire under you. Now a cold fire is different than a hot fire. A hot fire will kill you faster. A cold fire won't. It'll just kind of smolder and just kind of bake you to death. That's just factual knowledge. They used to do that specifically for certain ones who would preach. The gospel in the Catholic Church would burn them at the stake. They were very good at doing these things during the Middle Ages. And they could control that fire, and it would control how quickly that person would die. It's a little gruesome and a little morbid, but that's just a fact of the matter. But it wouldn't matter if it was a slow fire and it took you days to die. You know that thing is true. Why? Because God taught you. And what I'm striving to do here is to be able to take the Word of God, show you how to use it so that God can teach you. I'm not the one teaching you these things. I'm presenting what the Word of God says and trying to allow Him to unlock those doors in your mind, in your heart, to line up all those things. to get all your ducks in a row for that thing, okay? So that you can understand it clearly. So, with all of this in mind, He's gonna, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, He's gonna teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Now, look at this. What's the very first thing that Jesus mentions after He says that the Holy Ghost is gonna remind you of everything that I've said? What's the first thing He mentions? Peace. Peace is the very first thing that the Holy Ghost is going to bring to your mind. Peace. And it's a wonderful thing because there are so many times where we want an answer for the problem when really we need peace first. You need peace in your heart before you can answer a question. If somebody confronts you with something, you need peace in your heart to be able to logically think that thing through and doctrinally think it through. And if Jesus Christ has said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. That's the very first thing he says after he says, hey, the Holy Ghost is gonna remind you of this stuff, peace I leave with you. So when you are being led by Jesus Christ and led by the Spirit of God and being led by the Holy Ghost, the very first thing, when you get into any situation, that God is going to bring to your remembrance is that Jesus said, peace. Peace. And it's not like the world gives it. Listen, at the present time, the United States of America is at peace with Japan and Germany. Do you know what that means? It means we're not shooting at each other. All right? Who was it? Theodore Roosevelt said that peace is that rare brief time in history when everybody stands around and reloads. That's pretty much it. That is the world's definition of peace. It's an absence of conflict. But the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord." That peace of God is an abiding peace that will keep not only your heart, but also your mind. Because your heart can run away with your mind and give you all sorts of wicked imaginations and make you panic. Panic attacks come because you're not resting in the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. And in order for there to be a peace that passeth all understanding, there has to be a situation surrounding you in which you should not have peace, and there's no reason you have peace, but yet peace abides with you. And so the peace of God is not just an absence of conflict, but it's an absolute abiding peace in the middle of conflict, in the middle of it. Right in the middle of the firefight, right in the middle of the argument, right in the middle of the trial, whatever it is, there's a peace that abides with you. And this is a fruit of the Spirit. This is proof that the Spirit of God dwells in you because there is a peace there that you can't explain. Okay, so let's keep going with this thought. Go over to Isaiah chapter 32. This is a very familiar passage. I've quoted it many times. There's different aspects of this that are, a different doctrine of this verse that are good to come out and to bring out. For anyone who would believe that you could lose your salvation or give it back, whatever the case may be, I've heard both arguments. This is one that really, takes that out of the water, and makes that argument null and void. For any that would say, hey, you know, you may be saved, but you're gonna doubt your salvation, and you know, you might be sitting on the preaching, and it might just be really hard preaching, and you're doubting your salvation, but that's just Satan, that's not, this verse right here throws that argument right out of the water. Let's look at it. It says this, by the way, you're never gonna find anywhere in the word of God where Satan makes anybody doubt that they're a child of God. You will not find it. I challenge you to find it. Read through the thing. 969,770 words, not a single one of them, line up into a sentence that say that Satan is going to make you doubt your salvation. There are things that he will make you doubt. He'll make you doubt, he can at least, he could try, make you doubt the benevolence of God, doubt the care of God and all of that. But this verse right here proves that he cannot make you doubt your salvation. Let's read it. And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance. How long? Forever. So either you have an assurance that lasts forever or you don't. If you have true Bible salvation, it is an assurance that is an abiding assurance. It'll last forever. And if our heart deceives us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. And so if you are sitting under the preaching of the Word of God, and the Holy Ghost is moving in the service, and there's a heaviness in the service, and all of a sudden you get a pang of doubt, wondering, boy, am I even saved? You better get along with God and search that thing out. You better search that thing out, because When the Holy Ghost is moving in His service like that, He's gonna do one of two things. He's either going to give full assurance that you're a child of God, and it is that peace that passeth all understanding. You hear about the judgment of God and the wrath of God and the righteous, holy indignation of God against sin and wickedness, and all you can see is Jesus Christ standing in your stead. All you can see is the Son of God and His blood as a barrier between any condemnation that you might think. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And so when you're sitting under heavy preaching of the Word of God, and that preaching is going on, and it is a heavy thing, it ought to be bringing you peace. That was me. But I have Jesus, that was me. And the tears start to come, and you're just enthralled with the holiness of God, and you just cannot believe that such a holy God would accept someone like you simply on the merit that you believed his word. And that is just a thrill to your soul. But if there's condemnation, what did Jesus say in John 16? The comforter, when he has come, he'll reprove the world of sin. of sin because they believe not on me. And so if the Holy Ghost is moving, and all you can see is your sin and your condemnation, that is not the devil trying to get you to doubt, that is the Holy Ghost trying to prove to you that you need Jesus, and all you have is a prayer, all you have is a profession, all you have is religion, and it's not going to do you no good whatsoever at the judgment bar. You'll stand before Jesus and you'll say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy names? Didn't we cast out devils and didn't we do many mighty works? It's preachers and church workers that speak up first. The most active ones in the churches that are gonna speak up first. And he's gonna say, behold, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. And so it'd be better to settle that thing now rather than brushing that off. And I'm gonna, I would like to go further on that, but I don't think the Lord wants to go further on that. So we're going to leave that where that lies, okay? All that to say, we just shifted into some preaching here, but let the Lord sort that out. You get alone with God and the Bible and figure out why you're doubting your salvation. Figure that thing out. Examine yourselves to see whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you not that Christ is in you, except you be reprobates. You're either gonna know that Christ is in you or he's not in you. That's it. And so, you know, when these things come, you know, search that out. But this assurance forever, it is a solid thing. Now, if you're off in sin and you're committing some wicked thing and just the guilt and the shame comes over you, you think, oh my goodness, how could a saved person do this? Remember, you're still in your flesh. If you're doubting your salvation at that point, you know what I would tell you to do? Search the Scriptures. Get alone with God and the Scriptures. Why were you able to go off into sin so long? Why were you able to abide in sin so long and the Lord not chasing you? These are things that you need to search out. This is what is needed in this day and hour. You know how I know? Because we as Americans are exactly where we were in the early 1700s when the exact same thing was going on. The churches were full of lost religious people. They had joined the church for political reasons, for social reasons. They joined the church because their families were part of the church. I mean, it was practically a necessity. Now we have made culturally church a necessity. And those of us who are just general church goers, we need to figure out why we go. Are you going to church because you go to church? Are you going to church to meet with the living God and to sit under the preaching of his word? Are you there for the fashion and the show and the program and the process of everything? Are you there for the order of service and the hymns and the thrilling feeling that you get? Or are you there to meet with the Most High God? These are things that you've got to search out. But back then the people were there. And honestly, that's why it was the first great awakening. That's why that happened during that time period. And it wasn't that so many people were getting saved. It was that a multitude of people across the New England states were awakened to their lost state. They were awakened to the fact that they were just sitting in church and what they had is not what the Bible called salvation. And so sinners trembled under that thing. They were shown by the law of God that they were wicked. and that God was holy. They were put under the condemnation of the law. And with that, through that, God was able to bring them to repentance and they were born again. And that's where we've got to get to. We've got to get, listen, judgment first must begin, excuse me, at the house of God. It must first begin at the house of God. And if it begin at the house of God, that means that the people of God that come and gather every Sunday ought to step back and examine their life to see whether you're in the faith. Do you have that full assurance of faith? Do you have the righteousness of God, which brings quietness and assurance forever? These are things that you must search out. You can't just let this stuff go. You can't just let it slide. And it's not something you can come to me about. I'll try to guide you in a couple of verses here and there, but you know what I'm ultimately gonna tell you? Get alone with that King James Bible and let God prove it. Get alone with God and let Him prove it to you. He'll prove it to you one way or the other. But whatever you read in that book, believe it. And take it as a message from God to you. And let Him guide you through that thing. He does that. The Comforter, when He has come, He will guide you into all truth. Again, the Holy Ghost guiding you into all truth, and once you're in all truth, Jesus Christ is there teaching you, and the Holy Ghost is instructing you in these things, and He'll lead you here to there, and another verse will pop up over here, and He'll bring you over there. And He'll have that conversation with you through His Word. That's how this works. It's not some mystical thing. This is the way that God has ordained for His people today to search for Him. For people, I say His people, that sounded almost Calvinistic, but for people to search for Him. Every lost soul can be saved. There's not a single person alive today that can't be saved. There are those that won't because it's against their will to. They're not gonna submit themselves to the righteousness of God. But let's look at this in light of peace. That was about seven minutes worth of instruction, and I hope we can glean from it. But let's look at this as far as righteousness and peace. It says this, verse 17, the work of righteousness shall be peace. All right, so when you have a tool, this is Isaiah 32, 17. Did I say not 17 in the verse? I don't know, it doesn't matter. We're in Isaiah 32, 17. The work of righteousness shall be peace. That work that righteousness does, okay, you think of a jackhammer. What work does a jackhammer do? Is it used for driving finish nails? Is it used for rolling out biscuits? Biscuit dough. And Trevor says, yeah, that's good work. No, it has a specific purpose. Its work is to destroy things. It's to break up concrete. It's to break up stone. It's to break up hard ground and hard things like that. It's what a jackhammer does. That's the work of a jackhammer. So what work does righteousness do? Peace. That's the work that righteousness does. When you have the righteousness of God remembering, and I think I have this verse that we're gonna turn to, Remembering that He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Being made the righteousness of God, that means that you, yourself, that has no good thing in you, nothing worthwhile, only wickedness and evil, and just the works of the flesh, are made into the very righteousness of God. the very righteousness of God himself. And how, listen, righteousness is being at perfect peace with the law of God. It's to be justified. There's not a law of God that could rise up against and say, you're askew in this and you're wrong and you're condemned, okay? When you have the righteousness of God, that can't happen. The law of God cannot rise up against you on the inward parts, okay? And so when you look at this thing of the righteousness of God, if the work of righteousness, and that righteousness is God's righteousness, if that work is peace, when you have been made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, then you will have peace wrought by that righteousness. Which means when you're living in unrighteousness, you're not going to have peace. If you are living in wickedness, in unrighteousness, in these things that the Word of God clearly defines as wickedness, you are not going to have peace. You might settle for some momentary pleasure. You might settle for a solace here and there. A solace is just a momentary distraction from trouble, all right? It's nothing compared to peace. It's nothing compared to comfort, all right? But when you have the peace of God, it passeth all understanding, and it's worked by righteousness. So when you see these things of righteousness, when you see the stuff in the Word of God dealing with righteousness, take note of it. What is it saying? Do I see these things in me? Is God working this in me? I have peace that passeth all understanding. Could it be it's because God has made me righteous? That that righteousness has just settled some things in me? I'm telling you what, you're going to be at peace with God, you're going to be at peace with yourself, you're going to be at peace with others. It's just an abiding peace. But if you don't have that peace, you don't have God. Just as we looked at 1 John, this is what it looks like when someone's lost, this is what it looks like when somebody's saved. Somebody that's lost is never going to have peace. Like I said, they might have a momentary solace here or there, a distraction away from the conflict. but they won't have peace, that deep abiding peace, that peace of God that when you sit under the preaching of the Word of God, all you can see is the goodness of God. You can see the holiness of God. You can see the love of God and the joy that God gives, right? So keeping that in mind, let's go over to Romans 14. Got one verse here, and then I wanna Let's go to 2 Corinthians. Romans 14 and verse 17. Here, and we've covered this before, but Paul clearly defines what the kingdom of God is. He shows first what it isn't. It's not meat and drink. You're not attaining the kingdom of God, you don't have the kingdom of God because of the things that you eat, and the things that you drink, and the ordinances that you keep, and the things that you do. That's not what the kingdom of God is. But what the kingdom of God is, rather, is but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. This is what the kingdom of God is. So as the work of righteousness is done in you and that peace is worked in you, all of a sudden you begin seeing the kingdom of God. And what did Jesus tell Nicodemus? Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except you're born again, you're not gonna find righteousness, you're not gonna find peace, and you're not gonna find joy in the Holy Ghost. You know what you're gonna find in the Holy Ghost? Condemnation, because he's reproving you of sin. because you believe not on Jesus Christ. And this is the Word of God tying itself together, building these doctrines. This is why it's written the way it is, so that you can follow these things throughout, so that you can see the working of God and how it weaves and it works through and it brings you to this understanding, okay? Next, go to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. Look at verse 21. And after this, we're going to jump into looking at this thing of righteousness with God. Quoted it earlier, it says this, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. All right, and again, tie that together with there in Ephesians chapter two, where it says that he hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's not just your position, that's not just your standing with God. That's where you actually are. Your spirit is in the physical body of Jesus Christ, united in a way that it is unable to be taken apart. You cannot separate that thing. You can't ascend up into heaven, reach into the body of Jesus Christ, and pull your spirit out. That would be the only way that you can become unborn again, if you were possible to do that. You can't do that. By the way, anyone who is truly born again would never want to do that. So those who say, oh, you know, he had salvation, but he's lost it. No, no, no, no. He never had it. Never had it. Those that say, you know, they were born again as a child and then they go off in sin and live their entire, you know, 40, 50 years in sin. It isn't that they had it and that it just never did anything in their life. They never had it. Either you're a new creature in Christ, or you're not. Either you have the fruit of the Spirit, or you don't have the Spirit. Okay? It's very clear. The problem is, the scary thing is, is when you begin looking at everybody around you, and I've seen it here. You always start looking at the ones around you. Huh. You know what, that does match up with that one, and I've never seen any fruit out of them, and I always see bitterness and anger out of this one, and I see the wickedness here, and the sneaky life, and it's just a double life, and you just wonder, all right, well, maybe they don't have it, okay? You gotta be careful in that. For one thing, that's not your place to weigh that judgment, okay? Now, judgment is discerning between right and wrong. Okay? If you weigh any judgment, weigh it enough to pray for that one. Okay? But that process starts by looking at others. And then the Holy Ghost brings that circle closer and closer and closer, and then it points to you. And you look at your own life, and you find your own secrets, and you find your own bitterness, and you find your own wickedness, and that own secret life on the inward parts. And maybe you had never even lived it outwardly, but you know what it is on the inside. And then the Holy Ghost is able to point to you and say, you need Jesus. All you have is religion. This is the process. This is the way that God works. It's through the foolishness of preaching that he does these things. But once you're in Christ, you can't be out of Christ. So looking at this, made us the righteousness of God in him. Now, the righteousness of God, that phrase occurs in eight places, the righteousness of God, that whole phrase right there. And so I'm gonna read down through, I'm gonna say the reference, and if you want these later on, I can get them for you. But looking at this thing of the work of righteousness shall be peace, that's how we're tying it into peace, all right? So the righteousness of God, what we're about to read here is what works peace in the believer. Okay, so follow this. Excuse me. Romans 117, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. And you don't have to turn to these. If you want to turn to them, you can. I'm just going to read down through them though. Romans 3, 5, but if our righteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man. So Romans 3.5 is going into some pretty deep doctrine there. It would be good for you to study that out, just all of Romans chapter 3, but let's look at verse 21. It says this, Romans 3.21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So the righteousness of God, that which could be obtained by righteousness, by keeping of the law, by the doing of the law, it is now revealed by the law and the prophets. Now, what did the law and the prophets reveal to us? What do those two witnesses show us throughout the volume of the book? Jesus. Very good. It's okay. Y'all are very, very quiet tonight. That's all right, though. It's showing Jesus Christ. That's what the law and the prophets are there for. Think about that rich man. What did Abraham tell him? They have the law and the prophets. Let them hear them. That's what the law and the prophets are here to do, to reveal the righteousness of God to us through the person of Jesus Christ. On that note, look at this, verse 22 of that same Romans 3. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. And it goes into the Jew and the Greek and all of that, okay? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 10 3 for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness Have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God and so going about to establish your own righteousness you are not going to submit yourself to the righteousness of God and That is something that you have to submit yourself to think about this What does Paul say let the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds? It's something you have to let happen It's something you have to allow. You have to yield yourself to that thing. Because your carnal mind is an entity against God. It wants to rise up against that knowledge. It wants to rise up against that peace. But I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And that faith is even spoken of there, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. That's where it comes from. Jesus Christ is the originator of your faith. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Okay, so Jesus writes it, gives it to you. 2 Corinthians 5.21, we've just read that. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. James 1.20, look at this. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. The wrath of man doesn't work the righteousness of God. So if you are living out wrath in your life, when we looked at that work of the flesh, the wrath, it doesn't work the righteousness of God. So if you have wrath in your life, you can't have the righteousness of God. They are incompatible. They will not work. It's like oil and water, even more so. It cannot mix. And then 2 Peter 1.1, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now what's amazing about that, he says, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God. So, how do we obtain faith? Through the righteousness of God. When He makes us to be the righteousness of God in Him, that is when He gives us the faith. There is so much that happens at the moment of salvation. So much that happens. The more I'm seeing, I would love to just do a whole series of messages just on what happens at the very moment of salvation, but it's such a daunting task to me, because it's almost innumerable, the things that take place. The things that happen right at the moment of salvation. It's peace. Peace comes in. That is one thing that is an absolute in every single person I've ever heard give good, clear testimony that they have been born of God, is that it's an instant and abiding peace. It's just a peace that washes over them. And that peace is something you can't explain. Because you were just condemned and you saw condemnation and all of a sudden there's peace where there shouldn't be peace. And you realize, hey, guess what? The Son of God has just pardoned me. I have the right, I've been made the righteousness of God. I didn't understand these things at the moment I got saved, but boy, the more I see it, the more I see what God did when I was born again. It's like, good night. How could I have even thought that I had gotten saved when I made that profession back in 2002? There was nothing that took place like that. Nothing. I just didn't want to go to hell. If the guy had been persuasive enough to tell me that I had to own a dog and three cats in order to go to heaven, I'd have done that, and man, I'm telling you what, I'd have kept those animals alive. It's just like children. You can convince a child of almost anything. Dale Threadgill talks about this all the time, how careful he is with the children ministry here, because he would be able to convince children that this ice cream cone, for whatever reason, he always had an ice cream cone in his hand when he would explain this, this ice cream cone, if they would believe this ice cream cone, that that ice cream cone would get them to heaven, and the children would believe it. Now, that is flesh and blood revealing it to you, because that's not what the Father revealed. But they believed it, didn't they? They believed it sincerely. But is that salvation? No. Salvation has to be a miracle work of God on the inward parts. And when somebody can't explain it, that's usually a good sign they've probably got it. And so these things are, you know, when there is righteousness, there's going to be peace. But if there's wrath, there can't be righteousness. All right, so these things are things you have to weigh out. And that verse there, 2 Peter 1.1, is a very clear indication when we get the faith of Christ, it's when we are made the righteousness of God in him. Because he says, to them that have obtained, like precious faith, are obtained. When you obtain something, you didn't have it, and then you obtained it, you got it, okay? So it wasn't your faith that you worked up. It was Jesus' faith that He gave you, and He gave it to you when He made you the righteousness of God in Him. Okay? And so, I mean, oh, I tell you, there's so much that we could go into that, but we're gonna move on from this thing of peace now. Any comments? I gotta drink some water. I've been talking an awful lot for the last, you know, 40 minutes or so. Any comments on anything? Been pretty quiet tonight. That's all right, I suppose. John, you're not even saying much tonight. Amen. All right. Well, all right. Long-suffering. Let's look at some long-suffering. Let's see what God says about long-suffering. Okay, where does long-suffering originate? What is long-suffering initially? When long-suffering is in someone's life, they're gonna suffer a long time with other people, and they're just gonna take it. There's a lot of people that are easy to long-suffer, and there's a lot of people that make long-suffering a long process. But just think about this. Think about how long God suffered you. How long you made God suffer in your rebellion, and in your ignorance, and in your unrighteousness, and in your blasphemies. and in your cursings and in your fornications. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. Think about that, how the longsuffering of God is salvation. Without the longsuffering of God, there would be no salvation. So of course, one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering. If you are made the righteousness of God in Him, everything that comes along with righteousness is gonna be in you, which includes longsuffering. So let's look at this thing, Exodus 34. We're gonna see here in Exodus 34 that this is actually an attribute of God, and it is part of His name. And this is a beautiful name that I've never really heard dedicated preaching on, okay? And I throw that, it's not condemnation, but I throw that against myself. I've never preached specifically on this name of God. We've heard all the other names in the Hebrew names, and I think those studies can be interesting in all of that, but look at this. Hebrews, or sorry, not Hebrews, Exodus 34. Let's look at verse five, okay? Moses had the tablets and everything, all right? It says this, and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed. All right, so we're about to hear what the name of the Lord is. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation. That's the name of God. That was the name that God declared to Moses. He proclaimed that name, okay? Now, you look at this thing and you understand, okay, that is one long name. Now, a name is something that identifies you, which is interesting because in Revelation, and I've chewed on this for a little while, I have no answer for it, there is a name that is going to be received that no one knows except him that received it. So what is the purpose of that name? My name, Philip, was given to me to identify me so that I could be addressed, okay? My wife's name is Natalie, okay? Natalie, that's her, okay? Everyone knows it so that they can know who Natalie is. It's not necessarily a descriptive name, because it means Christmas child, and she was born in April, all right? Oh, but she is a gift. Oh, that's good, you guys did good on that, amen. Actually, so is Corban. Corban, it's a gift. That's in a negative connotation. We won't get into that tonight. I'm just kidding. But no, this name of God, He is the Lord. He is the Lord God. And then it describes Him as merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. That's who He is. That's just who God is. He is merciful and gracious. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And so we see even here, He brings, when Jesus Christ came into the world, He brought those things into the world with Him. Grace and truth, mercy, grace, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, it's part of who He is. And without that, there would be no salvation. There would be instant and immediate punishment upon the unrighteousness of men. And that very first time that a child talked back to their parents and knowingly and willingly disobeyed their parents, God would strike them dead and all of humanity would end. That would be it. The only reason you're sitting here today is because of the mercy and grace and long suffering of God. When you start thinking you're some gift to the world, I joke about my wife, but she is a gift to me. God brought her to me, gave her to me. But when you start thinking you're a gift to the world, that your presence in this world makes the world a better place, which is what liberal Christianity and the liberal mindset wants to say, You are enough. You see that printed on the fancy shirts and everything. You're not enough. No, no, stop it. You're a fool to think those things. Jesus is enough. It's all Him. Without Him, you are nothing. He even said that in John 15, five, for without me, ye can do nothing. Without Christ, outside of Christ, you can do nothing. You know what that means? You're worthless without Jesus. But with him, you were made a child of God, a child of the King of the universe. To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. And that was a name only given to angels in the Old Testament. And yet we could be called the sons of God, mortal men, who were made a little lower than the angels. And then he was made a little, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Wow. That he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. That's why. so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him, not so we could have a home in heaven, not so even we could be right with God and have a life of joy and peace and love and all of this. No, He made us the righteousness of God in Him so that His name would no longer be blasphemed. Because His name is holy. And His name is blasphemed and profaned and cursed and unrighteousness reigns in this world. And it's a stench in the nostrils of God. And so that's the reason somebody gets born again. It's so that they are no longer an offense to God. Get that horse before your cart. Let that be the carrot dangling out in front of you. Not that you can have peace and not that you can have joy. Not that you can have a home in heaven. Not that you can get out of hell. I've asked the question before, I wasn't the first one to ask this question, but it's a very good question. If heaven was taken out of the equation, would you still want Jesus? If at the end of this life, you still went to hell, would you still want Jesus? Now that's obviously a hypothetical question, because once you're in Christ, you are in Christ. You have that shield of faith, which is able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Once you're in Christ, you've been made the righteousness of God in Him. You have that assurance forever. There is a salvation that the Bible teaches that gives absolute peace, that gives a complete change in your life, and keeps you from the fires of hell and judgment forever. We are saved from the wrath of God through Him. But if that wasn't there, would you still want Him? It's a hard question. But it's one that you ought to ask yourself, how important is Jesus to me? And so we see this long suffering in the name of God. He's abundant in goodness and truth. Abundant in goodness and truth. You want to know what truth is, you find Jesus. He is truth. That's what he is. Why? He said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God. I disagree with that, I can't even remember his name. did the conference up there at Black Creek. No, no, the Bible conference. Yeah, David Daniels, okay? I disagree with him on that. He said, this isn't Jesus, this is the Bible. I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe this is Jesus. You know why? Because this is the full revelation. This is the record that God gave of his son. Everything that you see in this book, it points to him. He is the eternal word, and this word is eternal. It's already settled in heaven, and it always has been. And God gave us this record so we could find him. This is the word of God, okay? So I disagree with him on that. A couple other things too, but at any rate, yeah, brother? It doesn't make sense what he said, because the Bible says different. Hebrews 10, 7 says this. Then it said, I love, I, parentheses, or quote. In the volume of the book, it is written of me. It's him. In the beginning, one of the words of the Word of God is the Word of God. Right. The whole Bible disputes that. That statement, yep. And that's unbelief. That's holding the truth in unrighteousness. And that's, it's a sad thing. I pray for him on those things, a couple other things, but it just, when you see those things, when you hear those statements, don't just take them wholesale. Figure out if that doctrine will hold up against the words of the Bible. If it won't hold up against the words of the Bible, that is not good Bible doctrine. And John just disputed it and proved it outright that that is wrong. Theron backed it up with a second witness. Out of the mouth of two witnesses, that's good enough for me. Okay? This is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God. This is Jesus in written form here, folks. But Him. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ to mankind. Yeah, magnifies it above his own name. When you magnify something, and this is precious, when you magnify something, you make it appear bigger so that you can see small detail, right? You have a magnifying glass so that you can look at a ladybug really small, or that's really small, make it look big. Okay, you have a microscope so that you can look at little amoebas and bacterias and so that you can make them bigger so that you can actually see the detail in it. And Psalm 132 verse 8, is that what it is? Psalm 138 2, that's what it is. Job 32 8 is the one I was thinking of. But at any rate, Psalm 138 verse 2 says, thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. God magnifies his word above all his name. so that you can see him, so that you can know him in detail. And this sword is so sharp that you can take and you can actually dissect the Godhead, and you can see individually what each person of the Godhead does, and how they operate, and how they work, and everything that they do. And this is the miracle of the Word of God. It's a beautiful thing. Now that was a rant to beat all rants. Let's look at one other verse here tonight and I think we'll be done. Let's look at Numbers 14. Oh, let's see. Let's start at verse 15. So it'll be just a couple more verses. It says this, now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations will have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he swear unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." And so, Moses quotes back to God his own name. Said, this is who you are, this is your character, this is what the world is supposed to know about you, but if you destroy this people in a moment, that's not what the people are gonna say about you. You know one reason why Moses was known as the most meek man above all the other men in the world, in the earth? It's because he cared about the name of God. He cared how that name appeared to others. He was offended when the name of God was slandered. That's one aspect of it. I'm not saying that's the only thing that made him meek. Ultimately, there's a God in heaven and he knew that that God was in control. He didn't need to defend himself, right? That's really what meekness is. But look at this, verse 19. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy. And as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. God had settled in his mind he was going to destroy the people. Moses prayed, God changed his mind according to his word. Okay? That's what your Bible says. And that just eats away at a Calvinist. But that's the Bible. Okay? You don't think your prayers are important? Okay? I preached hard and heavy last night about submitting to authority, about understanding that there's a God in heaven that sees all of this, and He's in control, and nobody gets into a position of authority, but God puts them there. But I also tried to emphasize it's important to pray. Pray for that man in office. Pray for that woman in office. Pray for that person in authority. Fast for them. Okay? So that God will turn their heart to righteousness. Can you imagine, can you just imagine, all right? Think of the, and I'll put this broad spectrum. So whoever's listening and wherever you stand here tonight, I have a great, pretty much idea where everybody stands here tonight. But whoever, put the worst option possible in the presidency. Okay? You have that person in mind according to your opinion. Can you imagine if that one got into the presidency, and then three months in, got born again, and I mean like, true, holy ghost, wrought salvation, and then they completely changed what that could do for this country? Look what happened to Saul when he met up with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Just imagine. That one that you're so afraid of getting into office may be the one that leads this country into the national revival that we've been praying for. Can you imagine that? Okay, so pray for those ones. But longsuffering, it's part of who God is, and it's what he works in you. I've got a list of other verses here, but we won't, I don't think we necessarily need to go through them. The purpose of going through these, the fruit of the spirit, isn't necessarily to define these things and show what they are, but more how God works them in you. All right, where does it originate? It comes from God. And longsuffering is just a part of who God is. So if you have God, guess what you have? Long-suffering. And it's just going to be a part of you. Annoying people aren't going to be annoying to you. In your flesh, you might get to the point where your carnal mind is just agitated, but when you're being spiritually minded, well, you can sit there and you can listen to their story and it's just the boringest story you've ever heard in your life, but my goodness, they think it's important. Yeah. But love takes over. That's exactly right. And that's why, you know, you look at this whole list and it starts with love. That's the first thing that's going to manifest. That's the first thing. Okay. Yeah. Before the birth of Christ, He was the Word. Okay. After He took on flesh, He was named Jesus. Yes. Nope, he's still both. So here's the thing. When you look at the person of Jesus Christ, Christ is a reference to the Messiah, okay? And so when Paul speaks of Christ, Jesus, he's speaking of the messiahship of the person of Jesus. When someone refers to Christ, like Paul preached Christ to the Jews for months before he ever mentioned the name Jesus. How that Christ died according to the scriptures and all of that, that Christ had to die. He persuaded them for a long, long time, Sabbath after Sabbath after Sabbath day, instructing them that Christ must needs die. And then he showed them that this Jesus is Christ. And so when you look at that, there's different aspects to that. It's not just Jesus Christ, his name, and then his surname, like Philip Sealy. Philip is my name, Sealy is my surname. And then Simon Peter. Simon was his name, Peter was his surname. When you look at the Word, the Word was there from the beginning. Forever, O Lord, is thy Word settled in heaven. Forever past, forever future, it's just settled. It's already done, it's completed from before the foundation of the world. And so with that, you look at this thing of the eternal Word of God being made flesh. So the flesh of Jesus Christ the cells that made up His skin, and the membrane that makes up the fat, and the vessels, and all of His internal organs, and the bones, and just everything that was the baby of Jesus that was placed in the womb of Mary, that was made out of the eternal Word of God, okay? The Word was made flesh, okay? And so when that Word was made flesh, dwelled among us, eight days later, it was given the name Jesus. but with something that's interesting. Go here, this is interesting, and we'll just take just a couple of minutes to do this. Go to Hebrews chapter three. Ah, no, look at Hebrews chapter four, sorry. I'm gonna show you two places where Jesus is mentioned in the Old Testament. Okay? Hebrews chapter four. So yes, he was given that name eight days after he was born, but that was his name. Okay, look at this. Hebrews 4, 7. It says, again, he limiteth a certain day saying in David today, after so long a time as it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not have afterwards spoken of another day? When was Jesus gonna give them rest? When he led them into the promised land. It says in Hebrews also that he was that rock that followed them. He's also that rock that was in the wilderness and gave forth that water. And it calls him Jesus at that thing. Go to Acts chapter seven, we'll see Stephen speak of this very thing. Acts seven. Look at verse 44, Acts 7, 44. It says this, our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen, which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers into the days of David. Now it says Jesus went into the promised land with the people of Israel, with the nation of Israel. And it didn't say the word, it didn't call him the Lord, it didn't attribute any other title other than the person of Jesus. So that name Jesus was his even before he was made flesh and it was given to him. And so that name is an eternal name as well. Everything about Jesus Christ is eternal. His blood is eternal. His flesh is eternal. All of that. He is God. God is Jesus. So, it's a good question though. And it's interesting to think of those things, you know, that transition time. Yeah, absolutely. Yep. Yep. All according to the foreknowledge of God. It's good. Anything else before we close up tonight? No. All right, Sean, why don't you close us in prayer? Father, we thank you for this night. We thank you for this place. We just thank you for everything that you show us, Lord. We pray that we would study it and apply it. Lord, I thank you for your truth and I thank you for your son, Jesus. Just be with us now. In the name I pray. Amen.