If you turn in your Bibles, probably
for the penultimate time, we'll come to 1 Thessalonians 5. Paul
finishes this letter with wonderful encouragement, doesn't he? Rejoice
evermore, verse 16, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And I love what verse 15 says,
and what a challenge to our hearts, isn't it? See that none render
evil for evil. Evil will come upon us in all
sorts of ways. See that none of us render evil
for evil. but follow after good, both among
yourselves and to all men. Quench not, and everything gives
thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Quench not the spirit, despise
not prophesy, prove all things, test all things, hold fast that
which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil. And then
he comes to prayer. All of these remarkable things
are the fruit of God's work in the lives of his people. I love
this prayer. He says, and the very God of
peace, sanctify you wholly, sanctify you completely, sanctify you
through and through. And I pray God, your whole spirit,
soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. What a remarkable prayer. And the more I studied it over
this last little while, the more I became engrossed in this time
when there's so much that's potentially been and really been troubling
us. And I just obviously think of
Norm and all of what it meant for him to be at his stepfather's
funeral. with that family and all of the
things that went on, both the religious things and the personal
things, and the things that John's been through and the things that
Sharon's been through. It's been a day where much has
come into the life of our church. And he encourages, doesn't he?
He says, Warn them, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak.
Comfort yourselves together, verse 11, and edify one another. But it's lovely, isn't it? Paul
begins the letter with prayer. He begins in verse 2 of chapter
1 being thankful for what he has heard of faith and love and
hope and patience in hope. In 2, verse 13, he thanks God
for the receiving of the word in their hearts. The word that
was preached was received by the grace of God into the lives
of these people. Received by them and obviously
became a cause of bitter enmity against them by others. In 3.11
he prays for a reunion with them. In verse 17 as we just read he
says, to pray without ceasing, don't stop, never give up. And here in verse 23, there's
a prayer for all that he has written. This might be the cause
of blessing from the Lord, effectual in our hearts. What a great word
from God. But as I read it, the more and
more I was struck by this great definition of God. Isn't it wonderful
how Paul and the apostles and the writers of the Holy Spirit,
they actually encouraged the saints of God by describing the
character of God, describing His person, describing Him in
the very essence of His being. is described in terms of His
holiness, the angels seeing of His holiness, and even the angels
who had never sinned in Isaiah 6 are there brought to a place
of humility. They cover their eyes and they
cover their feet. They're covered in the very presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were there. That's who Isaiah
met in the temple. And this God, Here he is described
in this wonderful way. He is described in verse 23 as
the God of peace. And He's the God of peace, and
He's the God of sanctifying peace, and He's the God of preservation. And verse 24 wonderfully sums
it up, isn't it? How is it going to happen? How
is this going to happen in the lives of this little band of
believers there in Greece, surrounded by enemies, without and within?
Verse 24 gives us the answer. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. The very God of peace. Let's
think about him and let's think about it in terms of the scriptures. He's defined in the scriptures
in several ways in the New Testament as the God of Peace. In Romans
15.33 Paul finishes that letter before he gives his exhortations
about the individuals there in that church that he has never
visited, but he had such a fondness for them and a closeness for
them that he could spend a whole chapter naming these people that
he loved and he cared for and he longed to see and he wanted
to be mutually encouraged by them. But in the previous chapter,
He says in verse 33, now the God of peace be with you all. He's praying to the God of peace,
isn't he? He's looking to the God of peace
in the previous verses, that He might come, that He might
come to them, unto them with joy by God's will. And what's he going to want to
say? and may you be refreshed. That I may come unto you with
joy by the will of God, and may you be refreshed. As brethren
meet together, there's a refreshing in the Gospel. The next chapter
over in chapter 16, he describes our reign with Christ. What a remarkable verse. And
the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. Amen. 2 Corinthians 13 verse
11 We have another description of
this God of peace. And he has another title added
to it. In chapter 13, verse 11, he's
called the God of Peace and Love. He says, be perfect. Finally,
brethren, farewell. Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. Live in peace and the God of
love and peace shall be with you. Greet one another with a
holy kiss. All the saints salute you. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The God of peace. God of peace and the God of love. And the last one is in Philippians
4 verse 9. in verse 7, and the peace of
God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and mind
through Christ Jesus. Finally brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, If there be any virtue,
if there be any prize, think on these things. What a great
description of the Lord Jesus. What a great, great description.
just, honest, true, pure, lovely. As He is, so are His people in
this world. Those things which you have both
learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of
peace, shall be with you." What a remarkable promise, what a
remarkable description of our God. I love the way the Lord
Jesus in that upper room discourse at that time of enormous trouble,
enormous trouble in his own heart, and there he is, the Prince of
Peace, this God of Peace. There he is, knowing what's befalling
him, knowing that awful burden, that awful burden of all of the
sin and all of the guilt of sin, of all of his people being placed
upon him that very evening, and what does he do? He spends his
time comforting his people. Comforting those he loved. He loved them to the end. And
in chapter 14 he has this wonderful, wonderful word to them. They
whose hearts in just a few hours were going to be troubled. Peter,
who was going to deny Him, the rest of them were going to run
away, the rest of them had made such great boasts. He says in
verse 27, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid. My peace I give to you. In John's Gospel there is so
much giving and every time the Lord gives, he gives in such
a way that there must be a reception of the gift, isn't it? So that's
why he says, My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives. The world gives and the world
takes away. The world offers us tantalising
delicacies. to please our flesh and then
it takes it away. And what is sweet in prospect
is bitter, so bitter so often. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give to you, not like the world gives. Don't let your hearts
be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He's the God of peace,
isn't He? Our Prince of Peace. Peace and
reconciliation made through the blood of the cross. That's where
He gives peace, doesn't He? That's where He won peace for
His people. That's where He brought that
peace and reconciliation, by His blood. And He gives peace
to our consciences, in the midst of the trials and troubles of
this world, He brings that peace. I love how Philippians describes
it, isn't it? A peace that passes understanding. So often the Lord's
people, in the midst of trials where you cannot understand and
you can't rationalise what's going on, you can't even rationalise
God's peace that He brings in the midst of extraordinary trials. peace to our hearts, peace to
our consciences. He is the author of peace. He is the author of the fellowship
and the unity among the saints." Paul writes this letter with
joy in his heart and thankfulness to God because these people,
this group of Thessalonian believers, had hung together. They had stayed
faithful to the Gospel. They had stayed faithful to each
other. The promises of God, the promises
of God in the Gospel were fulfilled with them and in them. And they are, as I've said before,
they are from Paul just getting a reminder of what has happened
in their lives. He's not writing new things to
them, he's just writing, reminding them of what they have in the
Lord Jesus. And he's praying so that they
would be encouraged that we can go to the throne of grace. We can go to God's throne, brothers
and sisters in Christ. We can go there with confidence,
with expectation that God is going to answer our prayers.
You see, the saints, according to verse 10 of chapter 1, have
been delivered from the wrath to come. So if there is no wrath
between us and God, what is there between God's people and Him?
John 17 gives us remarkable, remarkable promises, isn't it?
There is just remaining between God and his people the God of
peace. There is just remaining love. Just love. Just love and peace. the glory which Thou gavest me,
I have given them, that they may be one, they may be united
as we are. I in them and Thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and the world may know that Thou
hast sent men, has loved them as Thou hast loved me. The love of God the Father for
His dear children is exactly the same as the love of God the
Father for His dear son. Loved eternally, loved unchangeably,
loved forever, loved regardless of the circumstances of their
life. I love what the hymn writer said,
O sacred union, firm and strong, how great the grace, how sweet
the song, that worms of earth should ever be one with incarnate
deity. near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be, for in the person of His Son I am as near as He. Dear, so very dear to God, dearer
I cannot be, for in the person of His Son I am as dear as He. No wonder Paul is thankful. Thankful
for these believers. Thankful for their faithfulness. Thankful to God. Thankful to the God of peace. Wrath is gone, as the Lord says,
fury is not in me. God has thoughts of peace for
his children. He's established that peace in
the council of peace from all eternity, that peace that Zechariah
6 talks about, the peace between the king and the priest, both
of them the Lord Jesus, peace, peace in his blood, peace as
we saw on Sunday, peace because he has taken away their sins
and they are reconciled. The great high priest has gone
in with his own blood into the Holy of Holies and he's established,
he has obtained perfect righteousness. He is called the Prince of Peace. And Paul prays, doesn't he, here,
the very God of peace, sanctify you wholly. He's praying for
the presence of God, the manifest presence of God to be with them,
to sustain them in their trials, that they might be drawn to know
continually what the Lord Jesus did to establish their peace. That's the ground of their peace. It's settled and sealed in His
blood. We don't quote it often enough,
but it's just lovely to think of what Psalm 23 says to us,
isn't it? So He speaks to others. He says,
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. The waters of this world are
raging and unstable, but still waters speak of peace, don't
they? Green pastures of His Word by still waters. He restoreth
my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His namesake. When he speaks to the Lord, Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life." And he wants the world
to know, doesn't he, that that's what God's doing. Goodness and
mercy follow him all the days of his life. And I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. Forever. He's praying with me
that the God of peace, that they would think much on the Lord
Jesus, they would think much on the extraordinary privilege
of hearing the Gospel and receiving the Gospel and being transformed
by the Gospel and being brought together by the Gospel. He's
praying that this peace of God might rule in your hearts, that
peace that passes understanding. There's a remarkable passage
in Ephesians chapter 2. And sometimes we're just struck
by the wonder of it. We would think naturally and
normally that it was Paul who brought the Gospel to them, and
it was. But just let's read who really
brought the Gospel and sent the Gospel. He says in verse 11,
We therefore remember you Gentiles, that you being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called 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 you who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood, made near
by the blood of Christ, for He is our peace. Without Him there
is no peace. When I tell people that I spent
some time in India, it's almost extraordinary how often people
say to me, those Indians in the midst of all their poverty are
people who lived in extraordinary peace. They are so happy. It's an extraordinary thing.
The longer I spent there and the more I came to know them
and the more I understood of the terrible bondage of Hinduism,
the terrible, terrible satanic snare that it is, a religion
that declares that a huge percentage of that population are nothing
more than animals, untouchable. A religion that binds people
to a caste that they can never get out of and just confronts
them day by day. A world, a land, blessed with
so many natural resources and yet so many live in extraordinary
poverty. And it's not peace. It's not
peace that they have at all. It's an illusion. I don't know
how Western people get so caught up in it. It's just resignation. So often it was just resignation,
all of this oppression is just too much and I can't do anything
about it and I just go along with it. And you find them in
situations again and again where just that veneer of resignation
is scratched in some way at all and you find them just extraordinarily
sad and extraordinarily trapped, extraordinarily bound. There is no peace, says the Lord
for the wicked. But He is our peace. Outside of the Lord Jesus, there
is no peace. Outside of the Lord Jesus, in
saving mercy in the Gospel, there is no peace. You've witnessed
it again and again, haven't you, brothers and sisters? And these
Thessalonians had witnessed it. The Gospel came, and there was
a group who had peace, and Paul's praying that the God of peace
be with them. What did the others do? What was revealed in these
religious, pious, hard-working, zealous Jews? You can read about
it in Acts 17. They rise up in enmity and their hatred is completely
irrational. There they were preaching on
the Sabbath morning about righteousness and morality under the law and
then grabbing a mob from the marketplace to go and build up
Paul and his others. They just revealed what they
really were and they chased them down to Berea and they kept chasing
them. No rest for the wicked, no peace
for the wicked. And what happened? What brought
this upon them? It was the revelation of the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of His people. He is our peace. who has made
the both one, having broken down the middle ward of petition between
us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinance, and no wonder the Jews were upset with
Paul, for to make in himself of two one new man, so making
peace. And this is the end result of
it, that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. You see, after he finished on
the cross, he hadn't finished. He was raised from the dead,
and after he was raised from the dead, what was he doing?
What's he doing? What's he been doing for this
last 2,000 years? Read it in the next verse, 17.
He's still talking about the Lord Jesus, isn't he? "...and
came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and to them
that were near." That's what Paul says, isn't he? When he
spoke the words of God in the Gospel to these people and proclaimed
the Prince of Peace, they heard it as words from God. It was
Christ. That's what the verse says, isn't
it? It was Christ. who comes and speaks. He speaks personally, he speaks
powerfully, he speaks to his people. He speaks with that voice,
that voice of the shepherd that the sheep hear, that voice that
they love. They know his voice and they
know the voice of strangers. He speaks peace. He came and
preached peace to them. And there are some things that
are so evident in the scriptures from all of this work of peace.
See, peace presupposes that there had been and was a broken relationship. There is no peace unless there
is something that's broken to have peace brought to it. And
the remarkable thing that the scriptures show us is that a
broken relationship presupposes that there was a time before
the break in that relationship. Isn't that just, that's not rocket
science, brothers and sisters, that's just logical, isn't it?
Peace presupposes that there was a broken relationship. A
broken relationship presupposes it was a time when there was
no break. and there was a peaceful union. This is the glory of the Gospel,
isn't it? It's a ministry of reconciliation. As we just read, He is our peace
who has made them both one, and made them both one that He might
reconcile both to God, to reconcile them to God in one body by the
cross. That's the glory of the Gospel,
isn't it? Man and God reconciled in Christ. The other thing that
is just so evident from those simple things, isn't it, that
the Word of God makes it very plain that this present state
that we're in now is not the first state that we were in. and it's not going to be the
final state that we're in. This is an intermediate state,
isn't it? Between something that was in eternity and something
that will be forever. This is a place of preparation,
isn't it? This is a place and a time of
Gospel declaration and Gospel hope. That's the hope that these
people had, wasn't it? that they belong to God in eternity,
knowing therefore, brethren, your election of God." There
was a time of peace. There was a brokenness in that
peace. There is now in the Gospel a
declaration a declaration of this Gospel, that in the Lord
Jesus, by His death on the cross, there is perfect, peaceful harmony. Nothing between my soul and my
Saviour. Nothing. Nothing between. We are one with Him. As He is, so are we in this world. And there is a time coming, a
time promised, a time that must come to pass when that original
relationship will exist in a much fuller, realised and secure state
and completely unable to be broken again. People think that heaven
is going back to the Garden of Eden. I don't want to go back
to the Garden of Eden. I don't want to be in a place
where I can fall and have snakes come around and deceive me and
lead me astray and lead me into sin. Heaven is much, much better
than the Garden of Eden, brothers and sisters. The relationship
we have in heaven is much, much better and much more secure than
Adam and Eve had in the glory of that garden. There is a new
garden, there is a new garden with a new river, with new trees. They are for the healing of the
nations. That's the place of peace. And the Gospel brings
the most extraordinary good news, doesn't it? The Gospel reveals
God. The injured party, the one who
was treated so badly, He brings peace by his divine
operations, and he does it all alone by himself. Our great God, he made the plan
and He made the promises and He sealed the covenant in all
eternity and He provides all the means, everything that's
needed, everything that's needed for God's children to get to
heaven with joy and delight is all provided. He accomplishes
everything. I love that phrase of the Lord
Jesus, it is finished. Ponder much the It, brothers
and sisters. It's a tiny word, but it has
a world full of meaning and blessing. There's not one thing, not one
thing the sinner did to help to move this process forward,
nothing. Helpless, so blinded were we
that we had absolutely no realisation that we even had a need for peace
and salvation. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be you reconciled to God. And as I said earlier, this peace,
this peace that comes with the Gospel, it's a peace of God that
passes all understanding. It just is in the lives of God's
people. Just as He is in us, His peace
comes with Him. And in the midst of trials and
troubles, He brings that peace. It says, and the peace of God
which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4.7. See in Ephesians
3.18 he says, the love of Christ passes knowledge. So often we
get caught up trying to rationalise and understand it. It passes
knowledge. There is so much that we just
accept and delight in because God has written it here and He's
sealed it in His blood. it passes knowledge that we might
be filled with all the fullness of God." Complete. No wonder when the Lord Jesus
came, the angels had to leave off singing in heaven, and they
came to earth as that great choir, singing, glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peace and goodwill toward men. I do love those verses in Isaiah
52. I can just read them to you.
You can join with me if you like. He speaks to a world, in verse
5, where his name continually, every day, is blasphemed. But then he says in verse 6,
Therefore my people shall know my name, therefore they shall
know in that day that I am He that does speak. Behold it is
I. It's exactly what Paul said in
Ephesians. It's He who speaks, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that brings good tidings,
that publishes peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes
salvation, that says unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. I was intrigued by that word,
publish, and even though I've looked it up in the past before, it
means evangelize. That's what it means to publish,
isn't it? The Gospel is a declaration, a publishing, a publishing of
peace and a publishing of salvation. Thy God reigneth. Thy watchmen
shall lift up the voice. With the voice together they
shall sing. For they shall see eye to eye
when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy. Sing together, you waste places
of Jerusalem. For the Lord has comforted His
people." How does He comfort His people? He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has made bare His holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God." See, he goes on in this
verse in Thessalonians to talk about sanctify. To sanctify is
to separate. Let's read on in Isaiah chapter
52 verse 11, depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch
no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her, and be ye clean
that bear the vessels of the Lord. That's why he goes on to say
this God, this God of peace, is a God who sanctifies, He separates,
To sanctify is to declare holy. To sanctify is to render, to
make holy, to consecrate. And it's essentially to separate
from the common. That's what it is to sanctify
them, isn't it? And again and again throughout the scriptures,
despite what the religious world says about progressive sanctification,
the Lord again and again says, I the Lord sanctify you. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine
upon you. The Lord Jesus says in John 17,
for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. There is no sanctification apart
from the Gospel truth. There is no sanctification apart
from He who is the truth. It's remarkable, the Lord Jesus
says to those disciples of his, he says, only your feet need
washing. We've trodden on this earth and
got the dust of this earth. And he says to them, you are
clean in John 13 verse 10. He says, you are clean. And in
verse 15 he says, you now, verse 15 verse 3, he says, you now
are clean. How do God's people get to be
clean? In the sight of a holy God. You'll claim through the word
that I have spoken to you, that gospel that he preached, the
gospel that he in his Ephesians 2 said, or personally sent Paul. It was the Lord Jesus who came
by his Spirit into that church, into that assembly. The Lord
commissioned Paul, set him aside, this man who wrote this letter
before us. And in Acts 26, he describes
the commission he had from the Lord, to open their eyes. These are the Lord's words to
him in Acts 26, 18, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness
to light. and from the power of Satan unto
God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith that is in thee." What
a remarkable, remarkable... I've given you those sheets which
have every Every time in the New Testament the word sanctify,
sanctify, sanctify and sanctification is there. And just at your leisure
just go and read them and find delight and rest and peace in
your God who sanctifies His people by faith. How does Peter describe
those who are being troubled by the Judaizers, the legalists,
the wolves in sheep's clothing. He says to those Gentiles that
their hearts have been purified through faith. Your body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you. May God cause us To
know, to trust and to love this Prince of Peace who has come
and preached the Gospel to his people as he began, so he will
continue. By God reigneth. He rules. He rules absolutely
every little tiny thing in all this world.