In that day, sing to her a vineyard of red wine or pleasant wine. I, the Lord, keep it. I water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I keep it night and day. Fury is not in me. Who would set briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them. I would burn them together. Oh, let them take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. and he shall make peace with me. Those who come, he shall cause to take root in Jacob. Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit. Well, you may recall that the generation that Isaiah is speaking to are enduring and are about to endure very testing times. very, very dark times. The nation as a whole has been guilty of terrible idolatry, has spurned the law of God, has lived indifferent and careless lives, and therefore the nation are going to reap what they sow. God cannot be mocked. He promised them in Deuteronomy 28 that there would be curses to endure when that happens, and they are about to experience judgement. But even for God's people, because as we saw, even in a wicked nation, there were always a remnant preserved by grace. You may recall in Elijah's day at the time of Ahab, God said, I have 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. But you know, for those people, for those who are trying to serve the Lord in such circumstances, they get caught up in the judgment, so they're coming. Many of those true believers of the Lord had to be carried away with the ungodly and the unrighteous. They experienced the same afflictions that were common to all the nation. And they tried to pray to see if God could remove it from them, but rather than get deliverance, as we saw, they got more pain. As a woman in childbirth, the pains were just getting worse. The difficulty was getting worse. The suffering. or is getting more intense. And when God's people go through dark times, when they're seeking to please him, and they're only seeking to do what's right, but they get caught up in affliction and troubles, it can raise all sorts of questions in the child of God's mind, can't it? Does God care about me? Does God love me? Is God taking care of me? Is God against me? How does God feel towards me? And we saw, didn't we, in verse two and three last time, the Lord wants his people to know how he feels concerning them. He says, my redeemed people, those who are truly mine by grace, they are pleasant wine to me. I sing over them with singing. I love them, I delight in them. What you can be sure is whatever your circumstances are suggesting to you, this is how I feel about you. Furthermore, again, whether you feel like everything in your life is going wrong and you ask yourself, well, where is God in this? Be assured that my acts towards you are only to keep you, to protect you, to preserve you, to do good to you. My water, my vineyard, every moment, day and night, in the day of trouble, but also in the day of comfort and ease, I am always at work in my people's lives. We can trust tomorrow will be okay, because we can trust that future greats will be there tomorrow. That's what we saw last time. Ultimately, what we are being told here is doctrine. Doctrine. The Christian needs doctrine. The Christian here is learning who God is and what God is to them. You see, doctrine is always meant to be transformative. The often quoted verse, which I keep mentioning because I'm just finding it has so much relevance to everything, is Romans 12, where we are told, be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, which is your spiritual reasonable worship. In other words, to the degree to which we are shaped by truth will correlate to the degree to which we are able to live for the Lord. We have to get out of our minds then this distinction that doctrine is just for pastors. Because doctrine has no relevance to my Christian living. No, the scriptures say. Doctrine and Christian living belong together. Why do you think the Apostle Paul was able to endure all the things that he did? I'll tell you some of the things he endured. And I would ask you, how do you think he did it? He says... From the Jews, five times I received forty stripes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and day I have been in the deep, in journeys often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, so he's getting a hard time from some Christians in the church, Besides other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for the churches, in weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. And yet, he carried on. Because he knew God. He knew Christ. And he knew who this God was to him. what this God thought concerning him, what this God was doing towards him. The doctrine that he had of God held him in the day of trouble. You know, often you go to bookshops, Christian bookshops, they're dying out now, left, right and centre, because of the emergence of Amazon. But I often used to get quite frustrated when you see, because they'd label the bookstands, you see. And you'd have a bookstand over there saying, Christian Living. And it'd all be these easygoing books which really had little doctrine. Lots of allegories, lots of stories, lots of illustrations. And then, oh, doctrine over there. What's the suggestion they're making that somehow the truth has no relevance to the way you live? I've mentioned to some of you the Table Talk magazine. One of the particular issues of the magazine was it was kind of patterned after screw tape letters and it's basically a dialogue between Satan and his demons about how to attack Christians. And here's what Satan said to his demons. Listen to this very carefully in this particular figurative account of probably the kind of things that goes on in the Devil's Council. Doctrine, my friends, is essential to the church. But you must never let the church know that. Doctrine is key to the unity of the church. Only a church united around doctrine can survive the winds of time and change. But don't let them know that. Doctrine is essential to a Christian's love for God and others. Doctrine is very simply the way God's people learn about God, our enemy. And therefore, the more Christians know about their enemy, the more they will love the enemy, God, and others. Instead, teach them that doctrine is dangerous, doctrine divides, that doctrine is deadly, and this is what I was just saying about the books, and work to set up two categories of Christian books, doctrine and Christian living. Make sure the doctrine books look intimidating, and make sure the Christian books look inviting, and fill them with funny content. Is that not true? Is that not true? Do we not hear those voices? Are we not tempted to think along those lines? But the truth of scripture is you cannot live as a Christian without knowing the Lord. And knowing the Lord means that to one extent or another we are all students of scripture. We are all students of doctrine. Ignorance of God then is one of the is perhaps, I could just say, the foundational reason we are often easily shaken in dark times. And if you've heard of B.B. Warfield, he recounted a wonderful story to illustrate the strength that truth has for people, God's people, in the most perilous conditions. He spoke of a general officer in the United States Army And he was in a great western city at a time of intense rioting and excitement. And the streets were daily overrun with dangerous crowds. And one day he was walking up the road and there was a man approaching him who had a very composed countenance. He seemed firm. He had confidence in his demeanour. And so impressed was this American officer with this man's bearing in the midst of all that was going on, that he turned back to look at him. But on turning back to look at him, this other man turned back to look at him. And touching his chest with his forefinger, he asked the man, what is the chief end of man? And the man replied, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Ah, I knew you were a shorter catechism boy by your looks. Why, said the other man, that's what I was just going to say to you, was the reply. Point is, these men had grown up in Sunday school, had learnt the catechism by memory, had taken those truths to heart, and when everyone else was having an absolute meltdown, they were just walking, going rods in control. I think perhaps the reason we're so easily tossed to and fro by a life storm is because we know less doctrine than children used to know in Sunday school. There was a time in this country when children knew the whole shorter catechism. And we have an expectation of adults that wasn't even... The expectation we have of one another is less than what Sunday school teachers used to expect of the children at Sunday school. You see, hearing what God says in his heart towards us should anchor us in the day of trouble. When circumstances scream at us, God doesn't care, God doesn't love you, God isn't in control, because we know God. And we've stored up truth of God in our hearts. We can cling to the word and say, let God be true, and every man a liar, including my own thoughts and feelings. and we bring our thoughts and feelings to submit to the truth of God's word. The battleground for us in our lives is with our minds first and foremost. And here God's people are told how God views his people by grace. And he's telling them in advance so that they can believe in the dark what they saw clearly in the light. And it's when you're in the day of ease and comfort, you need to really work hard to study God, to know God, so that in the day of trouble, what the darkness tempts you to forget, you can hold onto. Like a light in a dark place. And we need to get out of our ideas that doctrine is not practical. Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And that's nothing less than simply living a free and triumphant Christian life. Think about the people you've known in your life who've been most active for the Lord, who have done the most, in your mind, the most good for the Lord. They've been an inspiration to you. They set an example for you. They get things done. Is it not genuinely those people who know the Scriptures, who have really made an effort to study the Word of God? For me, that's the case. It's people who know God that get things done for the Lord. Those, Daniel said, who know their God shall do valiantly. And here we hear wonderful things we would never know had God not revealed them. We saw, as we said, that God's thoughts of us are ones of delight, and it is axed towards us of protection and provision. But we also learn more. And so my first point this morning is the law's disposition towards us. Verse four. Fury is not in me. Fury. is not in me.' In painful and difficult circumstances we ask the question, is the Lord against me? Is the Lord against me? Everything in my life is going wrong. And the Catechism says, God decreed all things whatsoever come to pass. And therefore we ask, is God against me? Is his disposition towards me one of revenge and anger? Is he punishing me for my sins? And no doubt Israel were tempted to believe this at this time. It couldn't get much worse, could it, than facing slaughter at the hands of the most wicked nation at the time. What more evidence did they need to conclude that the Lord hates them? and the Lord is full of fury towards them. And we too, when under pain, when enduring problems, when it's at those times that often our past sins are brought up, isn't it? You are suffering this because of your sins. God is punishing you because of something you did in the past. We're very superstitious. God is paying you back. And sadly, many churches preach this kind of stuff, that there's something wrong in your life, it's to do with something you've done. Your lack of faith, disobedience maybe. The Lord is pouring out his wrath against you. And is it not true, those thoughts are very, very powerful. and they're very, very hard to dislodge, even when you know that they're probably not according to scripture, that they're so prevalent and strong and ever-present in the minds. Maybe your children have not turned out to follow the Lord, and they're rebelling, or you've got children that are rebelling against your authority, and you hear the voice in your head, God is paying you back for being a rubbish parent. Now indeed, many of us as parents, we all make failures and we all make mistakes and maybe there will be some consequences, but is this what God's like towards his children? Does God pay us back in fury? Is this how the Lord deals with his children, redeemed and saved by grace? Our text says, fury is not in me. Let me say it again, fury is not in me. We could say, rage is not in me, towards my vineyard. The ESV says, I have no wrath. But our translation does reflect the Hebrew because it puts the Hebrew word for fury or rage is at the start. The emphasis is on the emotional anger. The passionate burning fury. God says, fury is not in me. The Hebrew word is really, really strong. Fury, perhaps the best English word you could think of, maybe you could think of others. It's regarding a heated up, vented up, passionate rage. Some translations would translate the Hebrew, not in this place, but when it's used elsewhere, as poison, bitterness, bitter fury. The idea of, because when you have bitterness often that leads to what? Revenge. God is bitter because of what's been done to him and he has revenge in his purposes towards his people. And at one level this text is a bit of a paradox because you find yourself saying, well, hang on a second, but he should have fury towards us, shouldn't he? Well, if you don't think that then you need to take a good look in the mirror and look at your sin in light of what God's word says. My heart is wholly inclined to evil, isn't it? The motion, the direction of travel in my soul is not always Godward, it is sinward. And when you think about it, how easily do we get angry and vengeful towards loved ones that offend us. It doesn't take much, does it, to get you angry, to get you heated up. We are so easily quick-tempered. And the Bible tells us that God looked at the heart of man and saw that their faults were only evil continually, not just you but everyone. Isn't it then a mercy that God has not destroyed us all and consigned us to hell? So at one level we find that God should be furious towards sinners, if what the Bible says about us as sinners is true. But our text says, concerning his vineyard, fury is not in me. Because there's a very real sense that we deserve more than we get. I always try to remind myself of that when I go through hard times. This is less than I deserve. This is less than I deserve. Fury is not in me, he says. How can this be? Well, because the Lord is speaking of his vineyard as saved and redeemed by grace. The Lord is speaking of the change of status that has occurred in his people. They have gone from being an object of fury to an object of love. Something has happened to remove the fury from his people. And Isaiah tells about it. Please turn to Isaiah 53. He tells us how it is that God can go from being against his vineyard in Isaiah chapter five to then viewing his vineyard with only thoughts of love. Verse four, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God. Notice that language, smitten, struck, and afflicted. Why, why? He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. Literally, the Hebrew means, to crush him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. So the gospel proclaims the good news that the entire infinite fury, rage, anger of God towards sinners has gone. Completely gone. Because he poured it entirely and wholly and completely on his son. And it pleased God to do so. Because he wanted to bring you into his arms. He wanted to make you the object of his love. When I wake up every morning, as a Christian, As someone who has turned from sin to God, I wake up in the knowledge that God has no anger towards me. There is no anger in God towards me. And when I go to bed at night, even after a day of sin, I go to bed and I trust my soul he will keep because he has no anger towards me. God was pleased to crush his son that there might be no fury left towards his bride. This is what we call propitiation. This is a doctrinal word. It's a biblical word. They actually make this word up to translate the concept. 1 John 4, verse 10. In this is love, not that we love God. but that God loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. Propitiation speaks then of God removing from us what would make him angry with us and giving to us what would make us acceptable to him. It is removing that which prevents us from having a relationship with God. And the fury's gone. If you are a Christian, God has no anger towards you at all. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter 8 verse 1. Romans chapter 5 verse 1. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Or Colossians chapter 2 verse 14 and 15. Wonderful verses. And you, child of God, Christian, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses. All. There is no sin for which God is angry with you about anymore. It's all forgiven if you turn to Christ. Having, here it is again, wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us. So that's like the idea of you've got a list of sins against you, you're guilty of, guilty as charged, And Christ has just got the eraser and just gone, it's wiped away. Because it's all been vented out on me. And so whatever a Christian goes through, what we can conclude, this is doctrine applied, whatever we go through, no matter how wretched it feels, even if it's to the extent that Paul described, we must never conclude God is against me and God is angry with me. God loves me. and gave himself for me, and sent his son to be a propitiation for my sins. My sins have been cancelled and wiped away. And if there are no sins in God's sight, in my account, there can be no anger towards me, because there's nothing in my account. It's the gospel. This does not make you skip. You might be saying, I know this, but do you know this when you go through trouble? That's the great litmus test of the degree to which this has taken hold of your life. Do you walk every day, even if you're an introspective personality, do you walk every day, and though yes, you have sins and you're to confess your sins, do you walk in the knowledge that it is finished? It is well with my soul. It is well. When I suffer then, and when you suffer, we are not suffering for our sins. because Christ suffered for our sins. Oh yes, you deserve to suffer the wrath of God, you do. But a great change of status has occurred in your life and therefore the only disposition the Lord has towards you is one of intimate love. Interesting, isn't it, that Jesus, before he was about to go to the cross to make this possible, he expressed the longing, the reason for which he was going, what it was, in John 17, he wanted to bring about through his death. And hear these words. Here's how he prayed to his father. I have declared to them your name, and I will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them. That's the change of status. God has no anger, the father has no fury towards his son. This is my son, with whom I am well pleased. And he who trusts and casts themselves on the Lord and believes on Jesus Christ is loved, with which the father loves his son. And he says over you, child of God, this is my son, this is my daughter, with whom I am well pleased. How? I've got so much sin, it's all gone. because Christ has washed it away. This is the glory of the Gospel. Loved with an everlasting love, led by grace that love to know. Spirit breathing from above, you have taught me it is so. O this fallen perfect peace of this rapture all divine, in love which cannot cease, I am his and he is mine. The clouds may come and go, the storms may step my sky. This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh. My love is oftentimes low, my joy still ebbs and flows, but peace with him remains the same. No change, Jehovah knows. The law does not change. And he who the Son sets free is free indeed. Free from all charges. Every single one of them. Martin Luther would often have battles with the devil. And the devil would often accuse Martin Luther of his sins. And I can't remember word for word what he said, but on one occasion he rebuffed the devil. He says, you tell me a sinner. I already know that. But Christ died for me. So what are you going to charge me with? It was all charged to his account. What have you got on me? Nothing. And so we as Christians have to not trust what our feelings tell us, but trust what the word of God says over us. The question isn't how great a sinner you are, the question is, are you in Jesus? Have you trusted Jesus, for he came to save sinners? And when darkness veils his lovely face, you need to rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, you need to know your anchor holds within the veil. Who is he to condemn? There's only one who can condemn you, and that's Christ Jesus. He's not going to condemn you because he was condemned for you. He's not going to have gone through all of that only to condemn you at the end of it, is he? What a waste of time. What a pointless suffering. We, in the day of trouble, can be still and know the Lord is on our side. He's no less on our side in the day of ease as in the day of pain. The clouds may frown, but behind them is a smiling face. Okay, fine. We've established there's no fury of God. But the fact remains, difficulties come into our lives, and we are not saying that are we, though, that the Lord doesn't ordain those things. And then the question remains, why? If God is not bringing these things into our life because he's angry with us, why is he bringing them into our lives? Verse four. The Hebrew here is hard, so I'm gonna just rephrase it to give the meaning that I seek to bring from it. Fury is not in me, however, whoever would set briars and thorns against me in the battle, I would go through them, I would burn them altogether. So secondly, see the Lord's work in us. the Lord's work in us. You must not get the wrong idea from what I'm saying. Though fury is not in his heart towards his people, he will purge his people if thorns and briars develop in his vineyard. He's not angry with us, but he will chasten us. He is zealous to see his glory among his people. Oh yes, verse three, he will protect us from outside enemies. but he will also ensure that he destroys any internal enemies towards his people. Those could be internal enemies in the church, internal enemies in our souls, the flesh, any things that arise from within. In fact, verse three speaks of the enemies that are outside the vineyard, the ungodly. But in verse four, he is speaking of internal vineyards. If briars and thorns should arise in my vineyard, they grow within. We would call that as Christian doctrinally remaining sin. We're forgiven, but if we say we have no sin, we've deceived ourselves. The Lord shows mercy to us, but he shows no mercy to our sin. Do you understand that distinction? He will happily preserve our souls, but he will happily smash our sin. and use whatever means he needs to to purify his people, even the fiery furnace. But behind that act is not fury, that's the point. Behind that act is a love that desires your supreme happiness in holiness, because he who is holy is happy. Trust me, sin never makes you happy. It gives you fleeting momentary pleasures, of course, Otherwise, no one would do it. But in the long run, it doesn't make you happy. You ask an alcoholic, you ask anyone who's got these kind of sinful addictions, whether actually it's really making them happy. It gives them a release for an hour, but then they have a hangover the next morning, and they can't go to work, and it's wrecking their lives and their relationships with people around them. Sin is horrible. Sin ruins our lives. The Lord then, though he has no fury against his people, he has a zero-tolerance policy when there is sin in his people. Does not the scripture say, Be holy, for I am holy? And in the same book, in 1 Peter, the Lord says, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various troubles or trials. Why? Why are the children of God having various trials when God has no anger towards them? Here it is. That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The idea here is of all the dross being consumed in fire, but the actual gold or the silver, it does not it is not destroyed. We are purified but we are not destroyed. And God is also, he doesn't give us more than we can bear. That also shows you the mercy of God. I think God should sometimes just absolutely just do something in my life to get rid of all my sin, but he doesn't do it in a way that would crush me, because he loves me, and he knows how tender I am. He knows how frail I am. He knows that I am but a man, and so he only works progressively in my life at a rate that I can cope with. Isn't that wonderful? There is a loving father in, even in the trials that you experience, there is wise wisdom, wise wisdom, there is wisdom in in the way and the measure and the frequency and the intensity through which they come into our lives. Our Lord Jesus prayed again in the high priestly prayer before he went to the cross. He prayed for the purpose for which he was coming. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. He who will not be holy is not Christ's. You think of the great benediction in Hebrews chapter 13. We say this, don't we? And how many of you stand up and hear the preacher say this, but actually haven't taken to heart what is actually being said? Dangerous things like this, habits. They become like a little kind of melody that lulls you to sleep. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Here it is, the sanctification part. make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. So God's disposition towards us is not of anger, but God's work in us is to make us holy, to make us well-pleasing in his sight, to present us blameless before his throne of grace. So to become a Christian is not just to get a ticket to heaven, to become a Christian is to be changed. To be thoroughly changed. To be born again. Now have you been born again? Have you experienced new birth? Has the old gone? Have you got new affections towards Christ that you didn't once have? Have you got a new thought towards Christ? And is there evidence of new works towards Christ? Is there evidence that he is working in you to make you pleasing in his sight. If you haven't got that evidence, you haven't been born again. Have you been born again? For this is the will of God, says scripture, your sanctification. So we are safe from the judgment of God, but we are not safe from the discipline of God. And we have to learn this the hard way. When the Lord sees sinful things in my life, which displease him and grieve the Holy Spirit, he will remove it from my heart painfully if necessary. You know, maybe you're beset with the sin of covetousness and your heart is being set too much on earthly things and the Lord then afflicts you so that you would learn not to set your hope on passing vanities and you would lay a better foundation in heaven. Or maybe you're seeking too much comfort and ease in this life So the Lord does bring any illness or trouble in your life which prevents you from having that idol, to teach you that your treasure, your ultimate comfort must be in him, and in him alone. And you could give loads of examples. But this is encouragement, isn't it? You could take this two ways, depending on your constitutional make-up. But I think this is an encouragement, because what this means is that my trials have purpose. My sufferings aren't pointless. They have meaning. Most unbelievers, bad things happen in their life and for them it's just vanity. It has no meaning for them. But for a Christian whose life is in the Lord's hands, my suffering is not pointless. but comes from a wise and loving father. When you go through the deep waters I call you to go, the rivers of grief shall not you overflow, for I will be with you, your troubles to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress. And when through the fiery trials your path would shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be your supply. Here it is, what we've been saying, there's no fury there. The flame shall not hurt you. I only design your dross to consume and your gold to refine. This applies to us individually, it applies to the church, sometimes as churches, And as a church, we will go through hard times. There'll be tensions, there probably will be, especially in the days we're in. Sometimes the Lord sifts his people, removes people from the church, adds people to the church. But all of this is because God is at work in his people. And we must not judge what God is doing by sight. We live by faith and not by sight. And so then thirdly and lastly, and briefly, the Lord's invitation to us. The Lord's disposition to us, the Lord's work in us, and the Lord's invitation to us, verse five. Let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me. If the Lord is working only for my good, Only one thing remains for me to do in response. It is to rely on his strength and have a disposition of trust and faith. It is, in effect, what it is to make peace with the Lord. If you're like me, which you are because you're sinners, you've probably quarrelled with the Lord in your Christian life, had a little row, secretly even if not out loud, Like Jacob, you literally wrestled with the Lord. You fought against what was going on. And the Lord says here, drop your weapons. Accept my will. Accept that I love you, I delight in you, I'm working in you, I will keep you, I will protect you, I will fight for you, I will have the victory in you, therefore, take hold of my strength to endure what you're about to undergo and make peace with me. And the sign of maturity for us in the Christian life is when we stop striving with the Lord and we learn what it is to be still and wait on the Lord. And we would say with Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. To make peace with God is many things. It's to submit yourself to him. It's to submit yourself under his mighty hands. 1 Peter 5 verse 6, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. In the often quoted verse in 2 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul illustrates this wonderfully. As you know, he had a thorn in his flesh, a messenger from Satan sent to harass him. He said, I wrestled with God three times. That's what he did. I had a fight with God. I argued with God. I pleaded with God. I said, how can this be in your will for my life? How can this be for the good of the church? How can I go on if you leave me with this? My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness, Paul. Are you God, Paul? Are you as wise as me? Where were you when you laid the foundations of the earth? When were you when you set the proportions and the boundaries of the ocean? Where were you when you established the coming and the going and the rising of the sun and the setting of the sun? Where were you? Where were you when I designed the intricate details of the human eye? Where were you? Are you wiser than me, Paul? No. So trust me, submit to me, make your peace with me, accept whatever comes into your life as from a good and loving heavenly Father. I love in Job, because I was just referring really to some of the things I was saying to Job, the way God responds to Job and Job, the lesson that Job learned. I always feel sorry for Job because I can understand why he said the things he said. But he gets a real hiding from the Lord. You know, he was like, when the Lord turned up in the ring, he was like, out, I'm out. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, Job, if you have understanding. Just read you a few verses. Does the hawk fly by your wisdom or spread its wings towards the south? And then Job's response, covers his mouth. Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer to you? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer. Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further. That's Paul, isn't it? I will be quiet. I will submit myself to you. Wherever he may guide me, no want shall turn me back. My shepherd is beside me, and nothing can I lack. His wisdom ever waketh, his sight is never dimmed. He knows the way he taketh, and I will walk with him. Note that line, his sight is never dimmed. When God ordains something in your life, he has taken everything into account. He hasn't missed something in his plan. He's not missed a detail and therefore done the wrong thing. No, he knows all about you, He knows everything, and if it comes into your life, it's the best way to take. It's the safest place to be, in the will of God. What about you, unbeliever? What about you? This is a verse for you, too. Make your peace with God. Stop arguing with God's words. If I could say it lovingly, but politely, who do you think you are? So many of our questions, if there is a God, why does he allow this? If there is a God, are you claiming to be wiser than God? I can't believe in a God, well don't believe in a God, but that doesn't change who God is and the fact that you will have to stand before him one day. You might not like the God of the Bible, but it doesn't change the fact that he is the God of the Bible. And the question is, are you contending with God? You might be a churchgoer, but in your heart you hear the preacher and you think to yourself, I don't like this. Who does he think he is to tell me I need to repent? This is my own opinion. This is Jesus' word. And Jesus said, go into all the earth and command every creature to repent. Repentance is to make peace with God. It is to say, not my way. You are right when you speak. I will cover my mouth. I will fall into the dust. I will confess that against you and you only have I sinned. I need your mercy. I need your pardon. I need Jesus Christ. Forgive me, save me, cleanse me, wash me, change me, make me new. And if you do that, you will be saved with the authority of God's word. May we all find peace through the Lord Jesus Christ.