Proverbs 16, seven, when a man's
ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace
with him. The subject this morning is enemies
at peace. When a man's ways please the
Lord is when the Lord sees that man in Christ. That's just as
plain as I can say it. That's the first thing that we
need to understand here. The Lord does something amazing
for this man in our text. He does something you can't overstate
how wonderful it is. But he doesn't just do that for
anybody. He doesn't do that for everybody. So first and foremost,
this, without faith, it is impossible
to please God. when a man's ways please the
Lord, then he'll do something for that man. But you're not
going to please him without faith. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. He rewards with this great blessing
and many, many others. Those who seek him by faith.
And that verse was from Hebrews chapter 11. Does that chapter
ring a bell? Some call it the hall of faith.
Remember this in that chapter, by faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Brother Nybert, Pastor
Nybert preached a wonderful message to us recently at our meeting
on Cain and Abel. Abel believed God. concerning
his son and knew that the only way that the Holy God of heaven
could accept him was by the blood of Christ. It wasn't by a lamb
that he pleased God, but by faith in the lamb. By faith, Enoch pleased God.
It said there, In Hebrews 11, that also the faith Enoch pleased
God. Faith unites us to Christ and
it is in Christ and only in Christ that we're well-pleasing unto
God. Isaiah 42, 21, the Lord is well-pleased
for his righteousness sake, not yours. Think about this verse
now. I can't have you turn to all
of them, but jot it down if you want to look at it later, I'd
recommend it. Isaiah 42, 21, the Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. Now think about that. The law
is for man. He will magnify the law. The
law is for sinners. The law is not for a righteous
man. The law is for sinners. But it will be, according to
that verse, and has been, according to the New Testament, magnified
and made honorable by Christ for sinners. The law is for sinners. that he magnified it and made
it honorable for us. That's exactly what it says in
Romans chapter eight. Turn over there quickly if you
can. Romans eight, verse one. This is exactly how a man's ways
please the Lord right here. You want your ways to please
the Lord? This is how it happens right here. Romans eight one,
there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. That's
the negative side of it, no condemnation. There's no something and then
there is something. There's no condemnation to those
who are in Christ, who walk. Their ways are not after the
flesh but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. He kept it for me. Listen, for
what the law could not do in that it was weak through my flesh,
sinful flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful
flesh took on him our nature. and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh to this end. Here's the positive side of it.
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled. That the law might be made honorable. In the words of Isaiah, in us. We walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. He did something He sent his
son to do something we could not do so that something would
be true in us. The law is made honorable by Christ for us and in us. Christ is my pleasing of the
Lord. That's the plain message of scripture.
Listen, for he received from God the Father honor and glory.
He did, Christ did. When there came such a voice
to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. When a man's ways please the
Lord, even his enemies will be at peace with him. There it is
right there. He's pleased with his son. and
all who were in his son, all for whom his son came and did
what they couldn't do, that the law might be fulfilled in them,
made honorable in them by Christ. Not by them, but in them, for
them. Also now, when we believe on
Christ, we follow Christ. And that's not unworthy of mention. That's something that the Lord
does for us and in us. This is not our righteousness.
Our following of Christ is not our righteousness. Christ simply
is our righteousness. He's all of our righteousness
himself. But we do follow him because we're in him. And we know him and we love him
because he first loved us and so we follow him. And because
we are in him, this is well pleasing unto God. First Peter 2.21, for
even here unto were you called because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. Who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. That's our righteousness. That
we also though, that we being dead to sin should live under
righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed. You were healed by him and what
he did. For you were as sheep going astray, but are now returned
under the shepherd and bishop of your souls. We follow him.
We walk after him, after the spirit and not the flesh. So
when that is true of you, of a sinner, of any sinner, when
you are accepted in the beloved, when your ways please the Lord,
in that sense, you stand in Christ. As Paul said, not having mine
own right. You're not going to please the
Lord by your own righteousness. Not having mine own righteousness,
but his. When that's true of you, And
you walk after his righteousness in this world. You reckon with
Paul that if he died for us, we ought to live for him. If
that's true of you, God will make even your enemies to be
at peace with you. The truth and the principle of
this manifests itself in more than one way with more than one
enemy. Who are our enemies? That'd be
good to identify here. Who does he make us be at peace
with? Who are your enemies? You gotta
start with God. Gotta start with God, don't you?
By nature, the carnal mind is enmity against God. By nature,
you're the children of wrath, even as others now, by nature. We're not subject, the carnal
mind is enmity against God and is not subject unto the law of
God, neither indeed can be. With men it's impossible, but
with God, all things are possible. And so when he is pleased to
save a sinner, he makes peace between that sinner and himself.
How? By the blood of his cross. Listen to if you want to turn
to these quickly and I may be done early because I'm going
so fast I don't know but look at Colossians 119 if you would
Colossians 119 For it pleased the father that
in him Christ should all fullness dwell and all the fullness of the godhead
in a body it says in another place so we don't have to wonder
what all fullness means in christ dwelleth all the fullness of
the godhead in a body and 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
and you that were at one time alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled Got to start
with God, don't we? Because we were enemies by our
wicked words. In our mind, not in God's mind,
God's eternal. He sees the end from the beginning.
He calls things that are not as though they were. You know
why? Because they are. They're just not yet in our experience.
I haven't experienced perfect personal holiness yet, but God
sees me that way in Christ. Now hath he reconciled in the
body of his flesh through death. It behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest with something to offer in things pertaining to God. To present you. He did it, he
did it for you. In order to present you holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. When your ways please the Lord,
in other words, there's peace. There's peace with the biggest
enemy there is. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, here's our walk. He's not saying that
what Christ did on Calvary depends on what you do now. That's contrary
to all of the word of God. And you know that if you've listened
to the gospel for very long. But what he's simply saying is
we're going to find out about you if you continue in the faith,
because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
You'd lose faith if you could, but you can't lose it because
he gave it. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel, what's the hope of the gospel? Christ Jesus, which hope
we have as an anchor for our soul. which you've heard, which
was preached to every creature, which is under heaven, whereof
I, Paul, have made a minister. Apart from God himself, you are
your own worst enemy. Forget about everybody else for
a minute. Apart from God by nature, we're enmity against God. Thank God we're not in his purpose. and his son, but apart from God
himself, next in line is me. I'm my own worst enemy, but by
the same blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
peace in my heart. There's peace in my conscience.
I'm at peace with myself, with my own evil nature. Listen, 1
Timothy 1.19, holding faith and a good conscience. which some
having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. And always
remember a good conscience now is not one that looks to our
own goodness and is satisfied with it. A good conscience is
one who looks to Christ and sees us justified in him. And so my
own conscience doesn't bother me anymore. I've got a good conscience
toward God. because of Christ. Well, who's
next, you reckon? Satan? Is Satan at peace with us? Not
in his heart. Not on his part. But let me ask
you this, have you had any trouble with Satan lately? Really to
speak of, have you had a whole lot of problems with Satan lately?
I doubt it. And you know why? because we
look into Christ now and he's our refuge from every enemy.
He's our refuge. We don't look to him in vain.
The faith that he gives doesn't look to him in vain. Our text
doesn't say your enemies are gonna like you. It just says there's gonna be peace.
Satan was given permission by God to tear Job to pieces. You
know that story. He tore him to pieces. by God's
permission, he went this far and no further. But what about
after that? What about after that? You reckon
Satan considered God's servant Job very much after that? And what if God had said from
the start? What if God had said from the
start, no. You're not going to touch him.
You're not going to touch his family. You're not going to touch
anything he has, no. How would it have been then? And God could certainly have
said that, couldn't he? He may have said that in your
case. The devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he
may defy, but he only does exactly what the Lord gives him permission
to do and nothing else, nothing else. If God had said no, you're not
gonna touch him, forget Job. There would have been a truce
between Satan and Job, would there not? And that's how it is with most
believers. There's a truce. Not because
Satan wants it that way, but it's that way because our Savior
wants it that way. And the affliction that Job suffered
by Satan's efforts Only did him good. It only did him good. It wasn't pleasant, but it only
did him good, didn't it? All things work together for
good to them that love God, to those who are the called according
to his purpose. Remember Jacob and Esau, and
I wanna close with this, and we've got just enough time to
talk about this. I want you to look at this whole
passage of scripture with me, or much of it. This is the best
picture of this. If you want to see our text,
and what do I always say? Don't try to define it with eloquent
words, like maybe Webster would try to do that. That can be helpful,
that's fine. If you want to consider definitions
and things like that. But if you want to see what God
says, look at what God says. And he doesn't describe it, In
eloquent word, Paul said, when I came to you and preached to
you, it wasn't with excellency of speech. The truth of God is
just revealed in his word as God, the Holy Spirit gives us
light to see, gives revelation. No man knoweth if his father
saved his son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. And
you know how he does that? He shows it to us in pictures. He
shows it being lived. This is the living definition
of our text in Proverbs 16 this morning. It's in Genesis chapter
33. Turn over there with me if you would. This is exactly what
it is. And this is the example of the
trouble that we have with one another, with people in this
world, with those that hate our God. We've talked about all the
different enemies, haven't we? God, ourselves, Satan, and then
there's everybody else. There's everybody else that doesn't
know God. The enemies of our God are our
enemies, aren't they? Unless God reveals them to be
otherwise, they may not be, but we don't know it yet. But remember
now, this is, now think about these two men. God loved Jacob
and hated Esau. There's a big difference between
these two men made by God. He loved Jacob and he hated Esau,
and Esau was terribly wronged by Jacob. You know the story
of the birthright and how Jacob just flat stole the birthright
from Esau, stole it from him. And so they were enemies spiritually,
by the love and hate of God. And they were enemies in a physical,
natural, earthly sense. And yet God arranged it so that
they met on the road and embraced and kissed each other and went
away friends. And having embraced and left
his brother on good and pleasant terms. Look at that. I need to
get over there. Y'all are all over there and I'm not. I've
got some of it in my notes, but not all of it. But look at this
now, Genesis chapter 33. This is a beautiful, beautiful
living illustration of our text. You remember how Jacob was in
great fear for his life. and he slept in that cave. He
went apart from all of the caravan that he was traveling with and
he went off into this cave by himself to plead before God because
he thought Esau was gonna kill him, sure as the world. And then
they meet on the road and before he even gets to Esau, there's
this big caravan of wagons and camels laden with gifts from
Esau. And he's like, what is all this
about? Let's read some of it. Verse one, Jacob lifted up his
eyes and looked, and behold, Esau came, and with him 400 men,
and he divided the children unto Leah and unto Rachel and unto
the two handmaids. And he put the handmaids and
their children foremost, and Leah and her children after,
and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. And he passed over before them
and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near
to his brother. And Esau ran to meet him and
embraced him. God had made an enemy into a
friend and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. Jacob
had ruined this man's life. He had ruined his life. And he
lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children and said,
who are these with you? And he said, the children which God
has graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaidens came near
and they and their children abound themselves and Leah also. And
look at verse eight, what meanest thou by all this drove which
I met? And he said, these are to find grace in the sight of
my Lord. And Esau said, I have enough,
my brother, keep that thou hast. And Jacob said, nay, I pray thee,
if I have now found grace in thy sight, then receive my present
at my hand, for therefore I have seen thy face as though I had
seen the face of God. Jacob experienced this thing
and he said, God's in this. God's done something. I see God
in this. You ever been there? And thou was pleased with me.
This didn't happen by nature. Take, I pray thee, my blessing
that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with
me, and I have enough. I have enough. And he said, let
us take our journey and let us go. And they talked to one another
and everything was fine between them. And they parted ways. And
listen, look at verse, look at verse 18. And Jacob came to Shalem,
a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came
from Padan Aram and pitched his tent before the city. Jacob came
after that happened, after that experience. where God had turned
his greatest enemy into a blessed friend. He came to Shalem. You know what that means? Peace. When a man's ways please the
Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. And he brought, verse 19, he
bought a parcel of field where he had spread his tent at the
hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces
of money. He said, I'm just gonna live
right here in peace. Literally, I'm gonna live in peace. How in the world did that happen?
And he erected there an altar and called it Llo he is real something like
that. You know what that mean? The mighty God of Israel When
the reason he raised up that altar is this because all of
this can be traced back to chapter 32 the previous chapter of where
it says in verse 24, and Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled
a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that
he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his
thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he
wrestled with him, and he said, let me go, for the day breaketh.
And Jacob said to the Son of God, I will not let thee go,
except thou bless me. Literally, what have you got
to lose? What's God going to do to Jacob
for not letting him go? Throw him in hell? If Christ
doesn't bless you, you're in hell anyway. You just don't know
it yet. I can't let go, can you? And he said unto him, what is
thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, not anymore. But
Israel, for as a prince, hast thou power with God and with
men and has prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said,
tell me, I pray to your name. And he said, wherefore is it
that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. God changes our name and blesses
us. And even our enemies now are
at peace with us. Thank God. Let's pray.