At Todd's Road Grace Church,
we'd like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nivert. In Luke chapter 24, verse 36,
we read these words that the Lord gave to His disciples. This
is when He first appeared to them all together after His resurrection. And as they thus spake, Jesus
Himself stood in the midst of them. I believe the implication
is that He appeared. He didn't walk into the door.
We know the doors were shut. And He appeared unto them, and
saith unto them, Peace be unto you. I have entitled this message,
Peace Be Unto You. Now at this time, the disciples
were all together with the door shut because they were afraid. They were afraid that the ones
who had crucified their Lord would be after them as well. They were feeling guilt. With the exception of John, every
one of them had forsaken the Lord and fled, afraid to confess
Him before men. They all played the coward out
of fear for their lives, and I have no doubt that they felt
remorse. Furthermore, these men were in
a state of unbelief. We read in all of the various
gospel accounts where they didn't believe the accounts given to
them of the Lord's resurrection. As a matter of fact, when the
Lord appeared to him, this was right when the two on the road
to Emmaus who had seen the Lord, And the Lord had revealed himself
to them, and they come back to tell the disciples about it.
Mark's account says, neither believe they then. So in the
midst of this account of them rejecting what the two on the
road to Emmaus said to them, not believing that the Lord was
resurrected, the Lord appeared to them. And what does he say? I will assure you they were not
feeling peace. They were feeling guilt, anxiety,
unbelief, fear, shame. I can imagine all the different
things these men were feeling. I felt all of those things acutely
myself because of my sin, because of my unbelief, because of my
fear. They were feeling anything but
peace. And the Lord appears to them and says, peace be unto
you. Now, how could the Lord say that
to them at such a time? Well, we're going to come back
to that in a moment, but let's go on reading verse 37. But they were terrified when
the Lord appeared to them and said, peace be unto you. They
were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they'd seen
a spirit. I guess they thought the Lord
was a ghost. But don't miss this word supposed. How many of our
fears are based upon false suppositions? They supposed that they'd seen
a spirit. They thought it was a ghost.
It scared them to death. But their supposition was completely
false. How many of our fears are based
upon false suppositions? And he said unto them, and this
is by way of a gentle rebuke, Why are you troubled? And why
do thoughts arise in your hearts? And he knew the thoughts that
were arising in their hearts of fear. Why? And here's how he quells their
fears. Verse 39, behold my hands and
my feet. Now you will remember that his
hands still had the print of the nails that were driven through
them, even in his glorified body. His feet still had the print
of the nails that were driven through them. His side was still
open because he said to Thomas, thrust hither thy hand into my
side and be not faithless, but believing. Now, the Lord in his
glorified body still has the wounds, the scars, I don't know,
but there's something there that lets us know of his crucifixion. Now, when a believer is brought
into glory, he will have a perfect body. He will not have any flaws. I don't understand that, but
I know that we're going to have glorified bodies. Now, the Lord
Jesus has a glorified body, but He still has the marks. He still has the scars. Evidently, we are still able
to put our finger, our hand within His side. Now, why is that? Why does the Lord still have
these marks of His wounds? Well, verse 40, and when He had
thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet. His wounds
speak of His chief glory, the cross. Oh, the mighty achievements
of the cross. The cross is the most God-like
thing God ever did. and this is His glory. You see,
on the cross, He completely and fully glorified God. He made known God. He revealed to us all of God's
glorious attributes on the cross. You see, on the cross, He magnified
the justice of God. God's going to punish sin even
if it's in His only Son. He magnified the holiness of
God. God's have two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. He forsakes His Son when sin
is found in Him. I know the sin was not His, it
was the sins of His people, but they became His and He became
guilty of them and God forsook Him. He, the cross, demonstrates
the wisdom of God, how the God has made a way to be just and
yet justify sinners like me and you in a way that honors His
justice. He glorified the love of God. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. glorified the power of
God, the power to put away sin so it's not there anymore. He
glorified the sovereignty of God. This was God's purpose from
the very foundation of the world. He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, and every attribute that God
is pleased to make known is manifest in the cross. He showed them
His hands and His feet. Now, this is His way of saving
sinners, the cross. It's for the glory of God. And
when we're in heaven, every believer will be in heaven. And when we're
in heaven, we will not remember our sins. We will not remember
what it's like to be a sinner. We'll be perfectly pure, just
like the Lord Jesus Christ. We won't remember what it's like
to feel guilty, what it's like to feel shame. All those things
have passed away. God has wiped away every tear. He's made all things new. We
have a new history and it's all good. Yet when we're in heaven,
We're going to look at His scars, at His hands and His feet, and
we're going to know that the only reason we're there is because
of who He is and what He did. will never be allowed to forget
that the only reason we're there enjoying the presence of God
is because of what Christ accomplished on Calvary's tree. His wounds
are the only ground of our peace, and they're why He could say
to us, peace be unto you. Now, it says in verse 41, while
they yet believe not for joy, and wonder, I suppose that they
thought this is just too good to be true, that he was raised
from the dead, that he can say peace to me when I'm so sinful,
when I'm so evil, and yet he can say peace to me, that he
can say peace to me when I've been so unbelieving and cowardly,
that I can have the peace of justification, having never sinned
when I'm so sinful, that I, the chief of sinners, can enjoy perfect
righteousness, that does seem too good to be true. They believed
not for joy. Now, that doesn't mean they didn't
believe. That's just talking about how awestruck they were
with the greatness of this message, that they could have peace. He said to them, have you any
meat? Y'all have anything to eat? He's
showing them that he's a real body. a real man. There's a man
in glory right now. Yes, he has those scars, but
he's a real man, the God-man, and he's showing them that. I'm
no spirit. I'm no ghost. Have you any meat? And they gave
him a piece of broiled fish and of a honeycomb, and he took it
and did eat before them. Now, this lets us know that there
is not sin in matter, in physical things, in stuff. He ate a fish
from this fallen world, and he ate a honeycomb from this fallen
world, and there was no evil in it. he ate it in his glorified
body." Now that lets us know that sin is not in things. Sin
comes from the heart. That's the seat of sin, not in
things. Things are not the problem. The
heart is. What must have been going through
their mind while they watched him eat, and
thought and mused upon his words, Peace be unto thee. I think of the prophet Isaiah, speaking
of the Prince of Peace. Now, if I said, Peace be to you, I don't have the power to confer
peace to you. I can say it, but it would be
meaningless. I don't have the power to confer
peace. If you say, peace be unto you, to me, it's not going to
do me any good because you don't have the power to confer peace,
but he does. When He says, peace unto you,
there's a reason. I love the prophecy in Isaiah
chapter nine, verse six. Unto us a child is born. Speaking of the birth of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, a virgin shall be
with child. Unto us a child is born. And unto us a son is given. That son was not born, that son
is the eternal son, the uncreated son, God the son. Unto us a child is born, he did
become flesh, but unto us a son is given. And the government
shall be upon his shoulders. And his name shall be called
Wonderful. We say, that meal was wonderful. Well, it was good. I like good
food, but we ought to be careful with the way we use that word
wonderful. His name is wonderful. He shall be called Counselor,
and there the word Counselor is a verb. He's the one who counsels,
and his counsel is the doing of his will, the predeterminate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. This is not talking about
him being a counselor. You can come to him and get good
advice. This is the one who works all things after the counsel
of his own will, his absolute sovereign control of everything.
His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. Are you
saying the Son is called the Everlasting Father? Well, I know
this. The Lord said, He that has seen me has seen the Father.
No, I'm not saying that the Father and the Son are the same. They're
one God in three different persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. No, I don't understand that.
Yes, I believe it. And His name should be called the Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father, and listen to this next name, the Prince
of Peace. the prince of peace. He is the one who has the right
and the ability to say, peace be unto thee. At his birth, the
heavenly host sang, glory to God in the highest and on earth,
peace, goodwill toward men. Now this is speaking of God's
goodwill toward men, that He sent His Son to make peace, peace
between God and men. He came to remove God's reason
for anger. The fact that God sent Him, peace
on earth, goodwill to men. When Simeon held him as an eight-day-year-old
child at the time of his circumcision in the temple. He said, Lord,
now let us thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Christ himself is salvation. Now I'm ready to depart in peace. Just before his crucifixion,
he said to his disciples, my peace I give you, not as the
world gives, give I unto you, my peace I give unto you. Now the world's got a peace,
but it's a false peace. You can feel peaceful and not
have a good ground for that peace. But the peace he gives, my peace. You think of his peace before
the Father. He has peace because he doesn't
have any sin. He doesn't have anything to worry about. He's
in absolute control. He says, my peace I give unto
you. And then at the end of his last
discourse with his disciples, before he began the great high
priestly prayer, right before he was arrested, he said, these
things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you'll have tribulation,
you'll have trial, you'll have trouble, you'll have heartache,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Now
understand this, peace is in Christ. Now what's that mean?
It means this, He was manifested to take away our sins, and in
Him is no sin, and if I'm in Him, I have no sin. And if I
have no sin, I have peace. No fear of the consequences of
sin. No fear of the guilt of sin.
I have no sin in him. Baptism speaks of being in him. That's why baptism is so important.
It doesn't save anybody, but what does it represent? When
he lived, I was in him. I lived. When he died, I was
in him. I died. My sin was paid for. That's what we symbolically say
when we go under the water. When we come back up, we're saying
when he was raised, I was in him. I was raised too. He is
all my salvation. This, God said, is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. He didn't say with him. He said
in whom I am well pleased. And everybody that's in him,
God is well pleased with. Now, he was nailed to a cross, and
It was by the will of God. It was by the hands of wicked
man, but it was by the will of God. Him being delivered by the
determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. It was the justice of
God that called for his death. When he was made sin, he took
my sins and they became his. He became guilty of them. He
took what I deserve. He became the guilty one. God
killed him because he's guilty. God, you say, Christ was guilty? He never sinned, did he? No,
he never sinned, but when my sin became his sin, he actually
became guilty of that sin. That is why God killed him. And you know what he did? Colossians
1.20 says, having made peace through the blood of his cross. I didn't make my peace with God.
I hear preachers say, have you made your peace with God? No,
I haven't. Christ made my peace with God. Having made peace with
God by the blood of the cross. by Him to reconcile all things
to Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven or things under the earth,
and you hath He reconciled through the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. Now, that's what He did by the
blood of the cross. He made peace, and here's what
that peace consists in. By what he did, he made everybody
he did it for, everybody he died for, are made holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in the very sight of God. And if I'm holy,
if I'm unblameable, And if I'm unreprovable because of what
Christ accomplished for me, He put my sin away, He gave me His
own righteousness, He made me wholly unblameable and unreprovable. That being the case, I have peace. Ephesians 2.14 says, He is our
peace. Our peace doesn't come from anything
we do. He is our peace. Everything that God requires
of the sinner, he looks to Christ for. He is our peace. Everything that God requires
of us, we look to Christ for. He is our peace. He, the Son of God, the Son of
The Lamb of God, the one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus, He is our peace, so much so that our peace does
not come from what we think about ourselves in any way, but simply
by what we think of Him. If you start looking for evidences
in yourself for peace, if you find any, you can no longer say,
He is our peace. But if all you have is Christ,
you can say, He is our peace. Now, I want to give you four
scriptures in closing regarding this thing of peace. Peace by
Jesus Christ. Now, when Peter summarized the
preaching of God himself, he said in Acts chapter 10, verse
36, the word which God sent to Israel, preaching peace by Jesus
Christ. He is Lord of all. Christ is the author of peace,
he's the prince of peace, he's the cause of peace, he himself
is the peace, he's the thing itself, he accomplished peace,
and he is Lord of all. Our peace rests largely in His
Lordship. You see, if He's Lord, His will's
done. He cannot fail. He's the Lord
of creation. He created the universe. He's
the Lord of providence. He controls everything that's
happening in time. He's the first cause. He's the Lord of salvation. If He saves me, I'm saved. Salvation
is of the Lord. What peace there is in His Lordship. And then in Romans 4, verse 25,
we read, He was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, think of what was said. He was delivered, delivered to
the cross, Delivered to suffer and die by God the Father. He
was delivered for our offenses. Why did Christ die? Well, somebody
says for our sins. Well, that's true, but that's
not the whole truth. He died because of the character of God.
God cannot accept sin. When my sin became his sin, God's
character demanded his death. He was delivered for our offenses. And he was raised again for our
justification. You see, this one who died as
the sin-bearing substitute actually satisfied the demands and claims
of God's law. God raised him from the dead
because the justice of God demanded that he be raised. He offered
complete satisfaction to God. And God raised him from the dead. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Now what does justification mean?
It means I never sinned. If the judge justifies somebody,
it means they're not guilty. It means they didn't do it. You
see that perfect righteousness that he worked out, his perfect
law keeping, is given to me. My sin was given to him, his
perfect righteousness is given to me, and I have been justified. Now many people use the term
justification by faith as if justification is caused by faith.
That's wrong. Listen real carefully. I'm justified
by what He did. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. By faith, I really believe that
God's at peace with me, and I'm at peace with Him because of
what Christ did on my behalf. Oh, what peace there is in His
justifying work. And then in Romans 15, verse
13, we read of the joy and the peace of believing. Not the joy
and peace of doing, the joy and peace of believing. Believing
that all God requires of me, he looks to Christ for. I have
joy and I have peace. And then in Galatians chapter
6, verse 16, we read, as many as walk according to this rule,
peace be on them. Now there's a rule for peace.
What is the rule the apostle speaks of? Well, he says in verse
14, God forbid that I should glory. saving the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul said, I'm not going
to glory in God using me. All I'm going to glory, all I'm
going to have confidence in is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then he says in verse 15, for in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature. Now, I'll glory only in the work of Christ for me,
and I'll glory in the work of Christ in me. It's compared to
a creative work because it is a creative work. I'm a new creation
in Christ Jesus. Now, how much do I have to do
with creation? Nothing. This is God's work.
I glory in Christ's work for me on the cross. I'll glory in
Christ's work in me as a work of creation. He did it all. I
didn't help. Now, as many as walking according
to this rule, peace be on them. The only way you and I will have
peace is if we look to Christ only for everything. Christ alone, nothing more, nothing
less, and nothing else. To those who look to Christ only,
peace be unto you. To request a copy of the sermon
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