Well, you couldn't tell it by
that clock, but it is time to start. I set that clock ahead
this morning and it stopped. So, fortunately, I have a timer
here. I won't keep you too long. If
you would, open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians
chapter 2. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this morning coming before your throne of grace, seeking a blessing. Father, we beg of you this morning
that you would be pleased to reveal your glory, your redemptive
glory, to your people here this morning through the preaching
of your word. Father, we pray with Moses of old that you'd
show us your glory. We pray, Father, that you would
reach down your mighty arm of redemption, that you might lay
hold upon your people Reveal yourself to us this morning,
we pray. Father, don't let us miss this
blessed opportunity to worship you. Give us a heart of worship
that we might worship you in spirit and in truth. That we
not just go through the motions, but Father, that we might be
enabled by thy spirit to worship you. Will we pray for ourselves,
we pray for our children's classes, we pray to bless our children,
bless our teachers in a special way. that this might be a time,
Father, that you're pleased to plant the seeds of faith in the
hearts of our young ones. And Father, we pray this same
blessing for our upcoming conference, that you would bless your word. We pray you'd give your servants
as they come a message from thee, enable them to preach it, and
Father, enable us to hear it. We pray you'd bless your word.
Father, we thank you for the many, many blessings of this
life. richly that you blessed us and
we beg your forgiveness father for asking for so much and not
thanking you more not praising your matchless name more after
all that you've given us and all that you've done for us father
we are thankful and father we while we're so thankful for your
your blessings to us in this flesh we are a poor and a needy
people Father, you taught us to pray, give us this day our
daily bread. We pray that you'd supply for
our needs, and Father, we especially pray for those that you brought
in the valley of trouble and trial, heartache and sickness.
Father, that you'd be with them, that you'd be with your people,
that you'd comfort their hearts, that you'd heal and deliver according
to thy will. To all these things we ask, and
we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior. What I've titled our lesson this
morning, Peace in Christ. You know, everyone, when we think
of peace, thinks, I'd like to have that. I'd like to have peace. We all want a peaceful life,
don't we? And by that, we mean I don't want any turmoil in my
life. I just don't want drama in my
life. Do you? I want peace. We want
peace of mind. We want freedom from worry. spend a bunch of time and energy
worrying. We want peace, freedom from a
guilty conscience. And we want peace from people
in our lives. I don't want people around me
fussing and fighting all the time. Nobody wants somebody being
mean to us all the time. We want peace from that, don't
we? And I hope all of us can enjoy as much of that peace as
is possible in this life. But everybody here knows we're
not never going to have that kind of peace completely as long
as we live in this world. A sinful world and bodies of
sin like we live in. But there is a peace that all
of God's people do have. And we can enjoy this peace. This peace is ours even while
we're in this life. Now we won't always feel I mean,
peace is a feeling, but it's more than a feeling. We won't
always feel this peace perfectly, but we do enjoy it. It is ours
to have, and even if we don't feel it, this peace is ours. This peace does belong to everyone
who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's peace of heart,
peace of soul. And I want to give you a few
things here about this peace, what it is and where it's found. Now the key to the whole thing
is right here at the beginning of our text in verse 14 of Ephesians
2, for he is our peace. Christ is our peace. This is the key to having peace
of heart, peace of soul. Christ is our peace, personally
is our peace. I try to tell you this often,
the blessings that a believer has are not things. Now, if the
Lord blesses you with, you know, things in this life, you know,
that's wonderful. But the real blessings that a
believer has are not things in this life. Righteousness, salvation,
sanctification, righteousness. These are not things that God
gives us. They're not states of being that
God puts us in. All these things are a person.
They are the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our righteousness.
Jehovah Sikhinu, the Lord, our righteousness. Righteousness
is not a piece of paper that says you're righteous, you know,
before God. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our salvation. Salvation
is not just a state of being. Christ is our righteousness.
David said, he is become all my salvation. Christ is our holiness. Christ is our acceptance with
the Father. If we're accepted, we're accepted in the beloved,
aren't we? It's all in Christ. It all is Christ. Well the same
thing's true about a believer's peace. Our peace is a person. The Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah
Shalom. The Lord our peace. He personally
is our peace. When Christ was born, what did
the angels say? Glory to God in the highest,
on earth peace. On earth peace. Now this is what
they were singing. Peace himself is now on earth. It's not just that he's come
to bring peace, he is peace. Peace is now on earth in the
person of Mary's firstborn son, the son of God and the son of
man. Peace is on earth. And right now, our peace is seated
at the right hand of the Father. Now that gives everybody who
trusts in Christ peace. If my peace is seated at the
right hand of the Father and he's accepted, so am I. Look over across the page at
verse 18. For through him, we both have
access by one spirit unto the father. We have access to the
father and acceptance with the father because our peace is on
the father's right hand. Now, all of our peace is found
in Christ. It all is him. First, Christ
is the author of peace. Christ is the one who first wrote,
like an author writes a book, Christ wrote it out. He purposed
peace for His people before time began. Now you think about this,
before man ever sinned and created the need for peace, our Savior
purposed peace for His people. Just like Christ is the author
and finisher of our faith, Christ is the author and finisher of
our peace. He purposed peace for His people,
and He came and finished it by doing everything that it took
to make peace with God for His people. Christ is the author
of peace and Christ is the earner of peace. You and I are the ones
that created the need for this peace. We've broken God's law. You're not obeying God's law.
It's not just breaking the rules. Not obeying God's law is a declaration
of war on God. It's a rebellion of his authority
over us. And we've separated ourselves
from God by our sin. By refusing to obey His holy
requirements that are found in His law. We've broken the law. Now the law stands between us
and God. If we're going to go to God,
something's got to be done with this law that we've broken that's
separating us from God. And you and I can't do anything
about it. Because we can't obey God's law. We can't keep God's
law. We're unable to do it. So Christ came for His people.
and he took the law out of the way for his people. He took it
out of the way by obeying it for them. In verse 15, it says,
having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances. Christ came and he took away
the law. He obeyed the law perfectly as
the representative of his people. Now since Christ is our representative,
when Christ obeyed the law, you did too, if you believe me. Every
time he obeyed the law, you did too. You're in your representative
doing what he did. In Christ, we have obeyed the
law. So there's peace. The law is
not in the way anymore because in Christ we have obeyed the
law and we have peace with God. See, only Christ can keep the
law. He's the only one who could ever
obey God's law. So he is our peace. You see that?
And then Christ is also the earner of peace in this way. It's by
his sacrifice for the sin of his people. You know, we live
with sin. Sin is all we are. It's all we
think, it's all, everything we do, it's everything we desire
is sinful. And that makes us mistakenly
think, well, sin's not so bad. You know, we talk about little
white lies and big black lies, you know, little sins and big
sins. God doesn't see sin that way. All sin makes a holy God
angry. God's angry with the wicked every
day. So what's going to be done about
this sin business? If there's going to be peace
with God, something's got to be done with sin, doesn't it?
Something's got to be done with this sin that makes God angry.
Well, that sin can't be swept under the rug. It can't be done. God still sees that. He's holy.
I'll tell you what has to be done with our sin. It's got to
be made to not exist. It's got to be taken away and
put behind God's back. It's got to be blotted out if
we would have peace with God. And that's what the sacrifice
of Christ accomplished. He blotted out the sin of His
people. Look in verse 16. And that He
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. The blood of Christ took away
the sin of God's elect. It blotted it out. His blood
cleanses his people white as snow. Now sin's gone. The sin that made God angry is
gone. The sin that would bring God's
justice is gone. So God's at peace. God's reconciled
his people. The blood of Christ made it.
So God has no reason to be angry with this people. Now you think about that for
your own self. Get a hold of this. If the Lord Jesus Christ
shed his blood, pay for your sin. Almighty God has absolutely
no reason to be angry. He's not angry with you. If Christ
shed his blood for you, you have peace with God. And you know
that's pictured in the Old Testament. Peace offerings were required.
Now, if you didn't have a peace offering, you didn't have an
animal slain, the blood had to be slain. If you didn't have
a peace offering for your sin, you're cut off from God. There
must be a peace offering. Well, that's why Christ came.
He came to be the peace offering for the sin of his people. He
offered himself as a sacrifice to the Father. So his people
would be reconciled to God in peace, peace with God. You're the sacrifice of Christ
satisfied. It glorified all the attributes
of God all at one time. That's why God's elect have peace
with God. It's not because sin was swept
under the rug. It was because sin has been put
away. David wrote Psalm 85 verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Now, mercy and truth are two
complete opposites. How can God be merciful to a
sinner and still be true, still be true with his sins, still
truly deal with his sin? They're opposites. Righteousness
and peace, they're opposites. They're opposites. How can both
of those opposites be brought together? How can mercy and truth,
how can righteousness and peace all be satisfied at the same
time? How is that possible? It's only
in Christ. It's only in Christ and his righteousness
and his sacrifice by his obedience to the law. The Lord Jesus truly,
not like he did, he truly made his people righteous. He made
them perfect. By His sacrifice, He truly took
the sin of His people away from them, took it into His own body
on the tree and put it away by His sacrifice. So sin is truly
gone. Then God is just and He's true
when He's merciful to His people. God is true when He forgives
the sin of His people and there's peace. Now, peace with God. means that you have everything
that God requires of you. You have everything. You have
a perfect righteousness. It's not like you're going to
be righteous someday. It's not like God counts you righteous
even though you're not. If Christ died for you, you are
righteous. You have a perfect righteousness.
It's Him. It's Him. You've been made the
righteousness of God in Him. If Christ died for you, you're
justified. so that you have never sinned. That's how completely
the blood of Christ removes the sin of His people. It's so they
have never sinned. If Christ died for you, He shed
His blood for you, He washed you in that fountain open for
sin, you're holy. Inside and out, there's no taint
of sin in you anywhere. The obedience and the sacrifice
of Christ has made you everything. that a holy God loves. So you
have peace with God. Now the sacrifice of Christ satisfied
the father, didn't it? And you know, it's the sacrifice
of Christ that satisfies the sinner too. It's the sacrifice
of Christ that meets the sinner's every need. The same blood that
Christ shed to satisfy his father satisfies the need of his people.
When that blood is applied to the hearts of his people, We're
at peace. We're now at peace with God.
God's not angry anymore. God's reconciled. Paul said,
now you'd be reconciled. You'd be reconciled. And you
will be reconciled when the Holy Spirit applies the blood of Christ
to your heart. When that happens, you'll surrender.
And there's peace. Now in a war, if there's going
to be peace, somebody's got to surrender. Somebody's got to
stack their arms. Somebody's got to quit. If the Holy Spirit ever enables
us to see Christ crucified for my sin, that He was suffered
for me, I tell you that'll break my heart and that'll make me
surrender. That'll make me surrender. Until
then, I'm gonna go about trying to establish my own righteousness,
aren't I? But if I ever see Christ crucified for my sin, well, I'm
gonna submit myself to the righteousness of God. I'm gonna quit my war
and submit The blood of Christ has reconciled God's people,
so they're not mad at God anymore either. And when we surrender,
we surrender to a friend. You're not surrendering to a
tyrant. We surrender to a friend. In verse 16 says that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby. There's no enmity. There's no
hatred. We're surrendering to a friend. The sacrifice of Christ has slain
the enmity that God's elect felt toward God. We're not angry with
God anymore. So there's peace. There's peace
by trusting Christ. Romans five, verse one. Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace. Peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We have this peace with God.
We enjoy this peace with God by faith. by trusting that Christ
is everything that I need. Now, if Christ is everything
that I need, I have everything God requires of me, don't I?
Then I have peace, peace with God. Christ is the earner of
peace for his people, and he is the giver of peace to his
people. In John 16, verse 33, our Lord
is speaking to his disciples, and he says, these things have
I spoken unto you. that in me, you might have peace
in me. Now in the world, you're not
going to have peace. He said in the world, you shall have
tribulation, but you be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. You have peace in me. In John 14 verse 27, I love this. He says, peace, I leave with
you. And then he defines the peace he's leaving with his people.
My peace, My peace I give unto you. My peace that I'll earn
for you by my sacrifice, my blood, my suffering for you. My peace,
the peace that I have, I give to you. The peace that I have
with the father, I give to you. He said, I go to my father and
your father. I'm giving you peace with the
father. See, the believer is one with
Christ. If you're one with Christ, the
Father loves you with the very same love with which He loves
His Son. And if you're in Christ, you have as much peace with God
as the Son of God has with the Father. You think of that. Oh,
what peace. Perfect peace. Peace that can
never be taken away. There is nothing that could change
the father's mind and make him not have peace with his son.
Nothing. Sin's already been put away.
The sacrifice has already been offered. Then there's nothing
can take away your peace with the father. My peace I give to
you, he says. Then Christ is also the giver
of peace in this sense. We have peace or we enjoy this
sense of peace when Christ dwells in us. When Christ is with us,
we have some sense of his presence with us. We have peace. I don't care what else is going
on. You have peace if you have a sense that Christ is with you.
Now, the believer always has this perfect peace, but we don't
always feel it, do we? We get a sense of this peace,
sometimes more than others. It's when Christ dwells in our
See, wherever Christ is, he's the prince of peace. He's the
God of peace. Wherever he is, there's peace. There's peace. And here's the other thing about
peace in Christ. It's a sure thing. It's a sure
thing. At the end of verse 15, it has this statement, so making
peace. Christ has already made peace
for his people. It's made. He did it by the blood
of his cross. Look at Colossians chapter one.
Colossians chapter one. You know, I don't think anyone
here would, would think, Oh, I have to make my peace with
God. Y'all been taught, you know, better than that, but our flesh,
Still tries to earn it, don't we? I think if I do this, or
I don't do this, God will be happy with me. That's trying
to make peace with God. Look at what Paul says in Colossians
1 verse 20. And having made peace. Past tense,
it's already done. Having made peace through the
blood of his cross. By him to reconcile all things
unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, in you, even you. They were sometime 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 unapprovable in his sight." Now Christ has
made peace. It's done. He made peace for
his people. He made everything that God loves,
holy, unblameable, and unapprovable in the sight of the all-seeing
eye of God. Christ has made peace for his
people. He didn't come to offer it. There's
many peoples might decide to accept it. He didn't try to make
peace with God. You know, if you do this and
you'll do this and you do this, then you have peace with God.
He didn't come to try to make peace. He didn't come to make
it possible for you to earn peace with God. Christ came and he
made peace. He made it. It's done by the
blood of his cross. Peace has been made because sin's
been put away by his blood. Now enjoy that peace. Lay hold
on Christ. Trust Him and enjoy that peace
He's made for His people. He is our peace. Here's the second
thing. Christ gives His people peace
with each other. Back in our text, verse 14, for
He is our peace who has made both one. He's talking about
the Jews and the Gentiles here. You know, the circumcision and
the uncircumcision. He is our peace. who has made
both Gentile and Jew, the circumcision and the uncircumcision, he's
made them both one, has broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in the ordinances, for to make
in himself of Twain, of those two, Jew and Gentile, one new
man, so making peace. He's made peace between his people. Now this middle wall of partition,
At first, there was a wall in the courtyard. The courtyard
of the temple had a wall. It had, I guess, some sort of
gate out here, you know, and everybody could come in there.
But when you come to that middle wall, the Gentiles couldn't go
in there. They called this out here was
the court of the Gentiles. The Gentiles could come in, but
no, they can't come all the way in. They had to stop at that
wall. The Jews, they could go on into the inner circle, you
know. They were higher up. They could go into the court
of the Jews. And that wall kept the Jews and
the Gentiles separated. At best, at very best, the Gentiles
could only be called second-class citizens, at best. And you know,
the Jews really didn't even think of them as second-class citizens.
They thought them as dogs. It was just like, you know, you
got an outside dog. You're not letting that dog inside.
That's what they made those Gentiles feel. No matter what they did,
no matter what happened, they could never go into the court
of the Jews. And that kept them separated.
It kept them separated from the altar. It kept them separated
from the brazen altar, or the brazen altar and also the brazen
labor. It kept them separated from the
priesthood. It kept them separated from the sacrifices. It kept
them separated from those ceremonies. They all went on inside the temple,
in that inner courtyard. And that was the only way God
was worshipped at that time. It was in those ceremonies. And
you know if there was a Gentile that believed God, they felt
bitterness at that. At being kept at a distance like
that. Just being always kept at arm's length, you know. Well
that went on for a long time, didn't it? And then Christ came. Peace is on earth now. Christ
came and he broke that middle wall, partition. He tore it out. Christ came. He removed every
ceremony. He removed every type by fulfilling
them all. Now, the believer is one in Christ. Not in that building. They're
one in Christ. They're all part of the same
body. They're all part of the body of Christ. There's no part
of your body that's unimportant to you. You don't want to lose
any parts of it, do you? So in Christ, all these physical
differences that we make such a big issue of, they don't matter.
They don't matter. It doesn't matter whether you're
Jew or Greek. It doesn't matter whether your background is religious
or heathen. It doesn't matter if you're male or female. It
doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, black or white or whatever
color. Physical differences don't matter
at all. All that matters is Christ. I wish I could stress this strongly.
All that matters is Christ. Every believer is one in Christ. We're all equally perfect. We're
all equally loved. We're all equally righteous in
Christ. Not because of what we've done
in Christ. In Christ. Christ is the only
issue. And where Christ is the only
issue, there'll be peace. There really will. but when something
else becomes the issue, peace is going out the window. I promise
you that. Look at verse 18 for through
him, we both June Gentile, we both have access by one spirit
under the father. Now, therefore, you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and have the household of God. God's people have peace with
each other and the reason for it is Christ. He's our peace. for all of us. We all have the
same peace. We have the same heart. We have
the same father. We have the same savior. We live in the same
house. Then there's peace. We have the
same hope, the same faith. There's peace. We have peace
with each other. As long as the issue is always
Christ, don't let the issue become anything other than him, other
than Christ. All right, here's the third one.
God has given us the gospel of peace to preach. In verse 17,
it says, he came and preached peace to you, which were far
off to the Gentiles and to them that were not. The Jews, Christ
himself came and preached peace. Now, I'll preach to you as long
as God gives me breath to preach. But you know when you'll have
peace? When Christ preaches to you by his spirit, he speaks
to the heart. But preaching the gospel is preaching
Christ. We're not preaching a set of
doctrines necessarily, we're preaching a person. And all those
doctrines are taught in him, if that makes any sense to you.
Now if we preach Christ, we'll have peace. People will have
peace as long as we keep pointing them to Christ. In Acts 10 verse
36, the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching
peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. See, there's
peace for God's elect because Jesus Christ, our Savior, is
Lord of all. He is in charge of it all. And the one who's Lord of all
suffered and died to put the sin of his people away. Then
he got the job done. He didn't fail. He's Lord of
all. Now, when we talk about this peace, We're not just up
here in our Sunday finest and putting on a big old fake cheesy
smile saying everything's going to be all right. Don't worry,
everything's all right. God loves you and so do I. Just
have peace. We're not crying peace, peace
where there is no peace. No, if you don't trust Christ,
you have no peace with God. None whatsoever. We're not crying
peace, peace where there is no peace. If you look in Isaiah
chapter 40, there's a concrete reason that the believer has
peace with Christ, and this is what God's given us to preach. Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Our gospel is a gospel of comfort
and peace to the hearts of God's people. Speak ye comfortably,
speak to the hearts of Jerusalem, and here's what you preach to
her. Cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. The war's over.
Her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all of her sin. Now here's why the warfare's
over. Christ, the mighty conqueror, the captain of our salvation,
he's won the war. He won the war against our sin
and our iniquity. He put it away by his blood.
He's pardoned his people. He's given from his hand to his
people double for all their sin. Double. Blood and water. Blood to justify, blood to pay
for sin, and water to cleanse from sin. By his sacrifice, Christ
our Savior has taken away the sin of his people. He's defeated
every enemy. He's conquered them all. Now
sin's gone. then there's peace. See, there's
a concrete reason why we preach peace to God's people. It's Christ
our Savior, His obedience and His sacrifice. And if you believe
Him, if you trust Him, you trust Him as your all, you have peace
with God. And if you don't, if you're not
trusting Him, you have no peace with God. My recommendation to
you is cry out to him and beg him to have mercy on you. All
right, Lord bless you.