Verse three of Proverbs 20, it's
an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be
meddling. I wanna start with the last part
of the verse and notice the wording carefully. Every fool will be
meddling. It doesn't say that everyone
who meddles is a fool. That would be a completely different
statement. Meddling or stirring up strife
is not a personality trait that some have, and it makes them
foolish to be that way. It's not like that. Every man
is a sinner, called here a fool, and every one of them will be
meddling, every one of them is full of strife and envy and division
and pride, which is the source of it all, which is our attribute,
which leads to all of that. The wicked,
the scripture says, are like the troubled sea when it cannot
rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace,
saith my God, to the wicked. We are full of strife and envy
and we express it, we do it, we act upon it. Now there are those who cease
from strife according to our text, though they are sinners,
all mankind is full of sin and just as sinful as everybody else
and yet, We know that the Lord, when he saves a sinner, gives
them a new heart, a new nature. They become a new person. They're
a new creature created in Christ Jesus unto good works, the scripture
says. The spirit of Christ dwells in
them, the scripture says. They have a new heart indeed,
or new men and women. They're called a new man. And
they're described in many ways in Matthew chapter five. You
know what's called the Beatitudes, blessed are the meek, blessed
are the... Listen to verse nine of Matthew five, blessed are
the peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers.
For they shall be called the children of God. Now think about
that. It doesn't say good for them.
It says they're blessed. They're peacemakers because they're
God's children. One of the things about fathers
and sons is that sons are a lot like fathers. Man begets man. Certain animals
beget their own kind. And that which is begotten of
God is a new creation in Christ. It's a holy creature. created
in Christ, and so we are like him. Not, generally speaking,
because we still have the old nature, too. Well, I say not
generally speaking. Generally speaking, we are this
way. But not exclusively. Not without limits. Not without
that battle that's described in Romans 7 going on inside of
us. between the flesh and the spirit. The spirit lusteth against
the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. But here's a very
important thing to understand about our verse. The cause of
all enmity, whether it's a lover's spat or war on some continent
of the earth, the cause of all enmity is enmity against God.
Enmity against God. Because the carnal mind, that's
man as he's born into this world, is enmity against God. For it
is not subject to the law of God. It's not submissive to the
law of God. It's not obedient to the law
of God. Neither indeed can be. People say, well, all we gotta
do is just submit to the will of God. Neither indeed can be. That's not all we need to do.
We need Christ is what we need, not for us to do something better
than what we've been doing. We need God's son and his precious
blood. People didn't just decide one
day to start hating one another and killing one another. They
just wake up and say, I hate people. There was strife and
murder between Cain and Abel because there was first enmity,
rebellion, and separation from God in the garden. That's the
reason. We fell, we became sinful creatures
in our nature and from that nature. All of these things proceed from
the heart, envy, strife, murders. Because of what we are, we are who we are. That same evil against God in
the beginning is the cause of all evil today. But for the people of God, there
is that beginning phrase in our text. The people of God, for
the elect, for God's sheep, For his eternally loved ones, the
Lord Jesus Christ came and made peace with God for us. And you
see what I'm saying, the original enmity in the garden is the cause
of all enmity. That's why Cain murdered Abel,
because we murdered God in our hearts when we said we will be
like the most high God. we usurped his throne. If you
want to know what happened in the garden, look what happened
on the cross. It was the evil of our hearts
in the garden that was expressed on Calvary. That's what Adam
did in his heart, is what we did when we spit on, beat, tortured,
mocked, and murdered God's son. That's what happened. It's the
same evil. And from that wicked heart, proceeds all enmity, strife,
contention with God and men. But also, that peace that was
made on the cross between us and God, from that flows the
peace that our text is talking about, the honorable peace that
is in the hearts of God's people, because Christ is in the hearts
of God's people. The guard, the evil, the fall
in the garden is the source of our enmity. Well, how then can
I sit here and be a peacemaker? Because of the peace that Christ
made for me with God, with his precious blood. Notice how in this next passage
we're gonna read, Ephesians 2.8, if you wanna turn there please.
Notice how the language of this passage intertwines peace with
God and peace among men. It's almost like you don't know
what she's talking about unless you're careful to distinguish
that. Because they go together. Ephesians
2.8. Let's look at it together. Let me get over there. Ephesians
2.8. Starts off with this very familiar
but let's go beyond it this time. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. Salvation is of God. We're not
getting any glory out of that. Are you a peacemaker? Are you
one of these blessed ones that's a peacemaker? Paul said, we provide
things honest in the sight of all men. We don't want to hurt
anybody. We don't want to argue with anybody. We don't want to
debate with anybody. We're just trying to tell you
who God is. They accused the Lord Jesus and
Paul and others of being insurrectionists, of stirring
up a rebellion against the government. They weren't doing that. They
were just telling the truth of God. God's people don't do that. Ephesians 2.8. It's all of God. Verse 8. Not of works. It's the
positive side and the negative side. God's grace and not us. Lest any man should boast, we
have no glory in salvation or anything else, for we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. God purposed
it, God perpetrated it, Wherefore remember, verse 11,
that ye being in time past, Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ
Jesus, ye who at one time or sometimes were far off or made
nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace, who hath
made both one, Jew and Gentile one, and broken down the middle
wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh
the enmity. That's what our text is about,
enmity and peace. It's the stirring up of strife
and peacemakers. And the law of commandments contained
in the ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man
and so making peace, verse 16, and that he might reconcile both
unto God. Peace between Jew and Gentile,
but also between both of them and God. in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to
you which were far off and to them that were not. For through
him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore you are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself. being the
chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. There
is peace among God's people. And we want to be peaceable with
those who aren't God's people. The scripture says, when your
ways please God, which is when you're a believer, you're in
Christ, you'll make even the world, even your enemies, to
be at peace with you. That's what we want. That's what
we want. The ancient word atonement, you
remember in the Old Testament, they talked about the day of
atonement. That was the day that the high priest went in to the
most holy place once a year. What are the next words in the
scripture? Not without blood. What is atonement? The word atonement
is a word in the scripture that couldn't, It was difficult to
translate into English, so the old writers of the King James
made this word, and what is atonement? At-one-ment. At one. Atonement with God. No separation. No enmity. What did our Lord say in his
high priestly prayer in John 17? That they may be one, even
as we are one, they may be one in us. I in thee, thou in me,
they in us, us in them. We're one with God. At one, how? The blood, the blood of Christ's
cross. Reconciliation with God is always
made by blood. In the Old Testament, it was
a picture that day of atonement. He came in not without blood.
There was a sacrifice made and blood carried in there. That's
not just some weird ritual that took place. False religions,
you know, they do this weird stuff because they take what
happened in the Old Testament as being some weird voodoo or
something. You know, blood. No, that's a clear picture of
Christ and what he did on Calvary. It's not some weird ritual. An
innocent victim is slain in the place of the sinful, in the place
of God's people. And that blood is brought before
the Lord and splashed on the mercy seat where God said, I'll
commune with you there. The animal blood that was shed
in the Old Testament was just a picture. of that precious blood
of Christ that was shed on Calvary whereby atonement is made in
reality with God for sinners. Colossians 1.20, and having made
peace through the blood of His cross by Him, by Christ, to reconcile
all things unto Himself, by Him I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven, and you that were at one time
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight."
The blood of Christ makes me at one with God. When a sinner is at peace with
God by that precious blood atonement that Christ made for our sins
on Calvary, that sinner is now a peacemaker. We know what peace
is. We know why peace is necessary. We know the precious nature of
peace and the horrible evil that enmity and strife is. The new
heart and nature within us being at peace with God, we love all
peace and hate all strife like God does. You remember what God
said about Job? He loves me and he hates what
I hate. Proverbs, what does God hate
then? Proverbs 6, 16, these six things that the Lord hate. And
seven, yea, seven are an abomination to Him, a proud look. That's
where strife and enmity come from. How did Satan, how was he instrumental
in causing enmity between us and God? You shall be his gods. You, you, you. And ever since then, we've been
saying me, me, me. And that's what you're saying
when you have a problem with your brother or sister and you
won't let it go and it becomes division. It's an ugly, horrible
thing. And it came from right here, right here. My heart, your heart. A proud look, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that deviseth
wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord
among brethren. He that meddleth. He that meddleth. As our text
states, all of those who have not been changed by the blood,
they all sow discord. And we still have an unchanged
evil nature within us. We're all capable of it, aren't
we? We're all prone to it by that evil nature. They sow discord,
they meddle, they meddle with the intent for strife. That's
the word in our text, strife. Our text also says the reason
that you do that is you're an idiot. Is that what it says? The foolish. The foolish. All of them are
that way. The reason I do that, I'm an
idiot. That's what it means. It's not that believers are not
idiots, we clearly are. But God has made a difference
too. He has made a new creature when he saved us. We're both
idiots and wise unto salvation. We're both fools and we have
the mind of Christ. There were two Pauls in Romans
7. You read Romans chapter 7, tell me how many Pauls there
were in that chapter. That's how many of you there
are too. One man, two natures, two very distinct and opposite
natures. We're both wretched and holy
in the sight of God. The only difference between believers
and unbelievers is not just our eternal destiny. God has made a difference. I
just want to look at one example of this in the scripture. We
could look at Genesis 13 with me real quick. In these last few minutes we
have Genesis chapter 13. And I want you to notice something
particularly about this in the practical application of this
thing of being a peacemaker, being at peace with God and therefore
men. As much as life in you liveth
peaceably with all men. And we can do that by God's grace.
because of Christ's spirit within us. We can do that. Look at chapter
13 of Genesis. And Abram went up out of Egypt,
he and his wife and all that he had, and a lot with him unto
the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle
and silver and in gold, and he went on his journeys from the
south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been
at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai. unto the place of the altar which
he made there at the first, and there Abram called on the name
of the Lord." He was worshiping God, he worshiped God. And look,
and Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and
tents, and the lamb was not able to bear them that they might
dwell together, for their substance was great so that they could
not dwell together. And there was a strife. There
was a strife. That strife is in all of our
hearts. There's always a strife. You
can't get away from it. We can't get away from ourselves,
can we? Don't you kind of want to sometimes?
Maybe by the grace of God, every once in a while, we can get away
from ourselves. And look to him. There was a
strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen
of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the The
parasite dwelled then in the land, and Abram said unto Lot,
let there be no strife. Abraham said that. He offered
that. Wow. Well, we see him worshiping
God a few verses before. That's why. He made an altar. You know what happened on the
altar? That's where blood is shed. That's where atonement
is made, on altars. And that altar there was a symbol
of that. There was peace between Abram
and God, and so he said, don't let there be any strife. I don't
want any strife, let's end this. And look what he was willing
to do. Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee,
and between my hermit and thy hermit, for we be brethren. What
does God hate? Discord among brethren, those
that sow it, those that meddle to that end. Verse nine, is not
the whole land before thee separate thyself, I pray thee, from me?
If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right
hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and
beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere
before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. even as the garden
of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest into Zohar.
So Lot didn't say, well, I'll take the land that's not so good,
since you were so gracious, I'll take this, and we'll be fine
over here, and you take the best. No, he took what he saw was the
best, given the opportunity, of course. And then Lot chose
him, Verse 11, Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan. Lot
journeyed east and they separated themselves the one from the other.
Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan. And Lot dwelled in the cities
of the plain and pitched his tent towards Sodom. Look at the
consequences of their choices. Not intentional. It doesn't say
that Lot chose that land because Sodom was over there and that
looked pretty interesting to him. It didn't say that. But
God is working behind the scenes here. Both of these are believers,
but God put in Abram's heart to worship him and to seek him
and everything and put a spirit of just peace. You take whatever
you want and I'll take what's left over. And notice that when we are for
peace, when that new nature is in action, the result is counterintuitive. You might think it fiscally unwise
for Abraham to just take what was left over, but God worked
it out so that Abraham dwelt in the promised land. And Lot ended up as a consequence
of his choice in Sodom. Here's the lesson, our lives
and how we get by in this world, our prosperity or otherwise,
is not a product of our streetwise choices. Our lives are a product of the
grace and providence of God. That doesn't mean that our choices
have no consequences in the providence of God, but never decide anything
based solely on what seems to be best for you. As long as all
things are equal, there's nothing wrong with that. Why would somebody
deliberately choose something worse than them if there's no
reason not to? But for the sake of peace, for
the sake of brotherhood, for the sake of continued fellowship.
Abram did that very thing. If God is ignored, neglected,
dishonored, or disobeyed by it, whether it's better for you or
not, don't look that way. Our decisions have got to be
honorable ones, our text, in the sense of what God calls honorable.
And God calls the shots. You're gonna end up right where
you're supposed to be. And so will everybody else. Now
God saved Lot from Sodom. But you see the difference here. And all of it starts with Christ
crucified. Abram worshiped at an altar.
He sought the Lord his God at an altar. There's no honor before
God without that. And even that honorable behavior
that we may choose as believers has got to be washed in that
precious blood. It's got to be a consequence
of his sacrifice and never the reason for it. It's got to be
the consequence of him saving us and never the reason for it. Our verse is about strife and
peace. We're strife. We're enmity. Christ is peace. Amen, let's
pray.