Trust ye in the LORD for ever

Isaiah {26:2} Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. {26:3} Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind[is] stayed [on thee:] because he trusteth in thee. {26:4} Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH [is] everlasting strength

Which keeps the truth.

The truth.

There are fundamental aspects to the Bible we keep coming back to. There are certain aspects in the Word of God that are prominent and shout for attention.

The truth shouts loudly and demands to be heard.

Only a righteous nation will keep the truth. Only righteous people will keep the truth.

Jesus is the truth.

All other rigteousness is deception.

When we hear people loudly proclaim that we are being too limiting in our demand that Jesus is the Truth, we know they are being led by Satan. Maybe not completely trapped by Him but led by Him. I'll readily agree that I let myself be led by Satan for a long time. That I was one of those who readily accepted the belief that God would save good people no matter what. That God to be a loving God would have to save all those who had good intentions in their hearts because He knows the heart. I believed it didn't matter what you believed, even if you practiced devil worship and hurt no one doing it as long as you did it with a good heart God would understand. It sounds so idyllic. Believe what you want and as long as you're a nice person you're saved. Where is that in the Bible? Oh, that's right, who needs the Bible, all you have to do is be nice, have a good, kind heart and that's that.

We can't seem to acquaint niceness with evil. The two are at odds, opposites like black and white. We see a nice person and we think good. We see a bad person and we think evil. If niceness is good, then the murderer with his nice smile helping an old lady with her groceries every week, checking on her every afternoon to make sure she's okay and needs nothing, then is he good or bad? His niceness is surely good, but his evil isn't. When he strangles that young woman every month or so it's pure evil, right? And yet he has on the guise of goodness.

Not all goodness, not all those who are super nice people we would never dream of being bad, not all those who live in harmony with the world and people around them- not even the people who are truly good and are murderers in disguise, will be God's.

We can't equate niceness with salvation.

We can't point a finger and say, my friend so and so is sooooo sweet, they're definitely saved. We can't say that of anyone, we don't know the hearts, we don't know the walk they have with Christ.

We sometimes can know that they don't believe in salvation by grace through Jesus Christ our Lord, they'll tell us they don't believe in the God stuff. But even then we cannot judge their eternal life as if we know for certain they'll never accept Jesus as their Savior.

We see through a glass darkly--

1 Cor. {13:12} For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

We don't see the eternal, we only see bits and pieces of lives people choose to let us see and no more.

There are truths, basic truths and the Bible is very big on the truth because it is the truth in Jesus that saves us. It is the truth that sets us free.

Christ is our righteousness and this is the Truth. Truth is our righteousness. Keeping the truth in Jesus Christ, keeping that and holding it dear to us, keeping it as we breath in air, such as sustains our lives, this is what will give us eternal life.

Isaiah {26:3} Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Like the air we breath, we live by the grace and mercy of Jesus, trusting in Him now and forever through all.

Perfect peace in a world full of turmoil seems all but impossible. Perfect peace when the world comes crashing down around you and threatens your very ability to sustain your life, impossible? When all hope seems gone, hope is all we have to cling to. Our hope in Jesus. Our trust in Jesus. Our faith in Jesus.

Why is it call perfect peace? Because any other peace is imperfect. All the peace the world offers to us is imperfect and can be taken from us in the blink of an eye. Peace that is dependent upon Jesus and Jesus alone is perfect peace.

When our minds are stayed upon someone we can't stop thinking about them. We think about them during all we do.

Remember being newly in love? Remember that feeling of having thoughts of another bring a smile to your lips? Remember being caught day dreaming away? Remember waking up and thinking of someone? Remember having the hope in you of seeing that person, hearing from them, of constantly living in the hope of being with that person? We place our hopes on them and then when things interfere we get upset because we aren't able to be with them, to hear from them, and it just brings a weight down on us until we can once again renew the hope of a future meeting, until we can grasp hold of the anticipation once more and place our hope in that future.

We understand this on a human to human level and we need to understand it on a human to human/God level. We need to have our minds stayed upon Jesus.

Stayed upon meaning we can't take our minds off Jesus, they need to be stayed upon the Hope, the Way, the Truth, the Life, Jesus Christ our Savior!

{26:4} Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH [is] everlasting strength

By the grace and mercy of Jesus, may our trust in the Lord be forever, may our minds be stayed upon Jesus, and may we find peace in Jesus.

Amen.