Alright brethren, Isaiah, I'm
sorry, not Isaiah, 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3. Now Paul, after he
had given that instruction from our Lord on how to, the steps
you go about, the things you do when somebody has been disruptive
and they're disturbing the peace of the church, He said then in
2 Thessalonians 3 verse 16, he said, now the Lord of peace himself
give you peace always by all means, the Lord be with you all. What a name, brethren, the Lord
of peace. That's who our Savior is, the
Lord of peace. His name should be called the
Prince of Peace, scripture said. of the increase of his government
and peace. There should be no end. Upon
the throne of David, to order it, establish it with judgment,
with justice from henceforth forever. That's our Lord. He's the Prince of Peace. He's
Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace. He's the King of Salem,
which is the King of Peace. The Lord of Peace. The Lord of
peace, that's Christ Jesus and the peace he gives is himself. The Lord of peace himself give
you peace. He said, my peace I give unto
you. My peace. Now I wanna look at
three things. I'm gonna look at how he gives
us peace with God and then the second thing, peace in the heart
and then peace with brethren. The second two we'll look at
together because it's just hard to separate them. Peace with
God and then peace in the heart and peace with brethren. First
of all, the Lord of peace himself is who gave us peace with God.
He gives his people peace with God. You know, sin divided us
from God. And, but here's the thing about
that. You read in Isaiah 50, this is
what the Lord said, when the children of Israel sinned, they
were separated from God. But now here's what the Lord
said about that. Thus saith the Lord, where is
the bill of your mother's divorcement whom I have put away? That's
what he said to his people. He said, oh, which of my creditors
is it to whom I sold you? If a person fell in debt, you
know, in those days, they would be sold to their creditor to
work off their debt. He said, where's the creditor
I sold you to? Where's the bill of your mother's
divorcement? He said, behold, for your iniquities
have you sold yourselves. For your transgressions is your
mother put away. Though every elect child sinned
in Adam, Our Lord Jesus betrothed us to himself in eternity, promising
to provide for us when we did nothing right, absolutely nothing
right. You know, when you say your wedding
vows, that's what you're vowing, that you're committed to that,
your spouse, if they do nothing right. Think about it. For rich
or poor, sickness or health, good or bad, you committed to
them, if they do nothing right, nothing right. Well, our Lord
Jesus committed himself to his bride, knowing we would do nothing
right. And so when we send in Adam,
he didn't give us a bill of divorcement. He didn't sell us to our creditors.
Our sin separated us from God, our iniquity separated us from
God, and from one another. But He didn't put us away. His
grace and His love in Christ did not waver one bit toward
His elect. Not at all. Not at all. Now you think about in the beginning,
there was no sin, there was no division whatsoever. None. God created His angels with no
sin and they were all one. One with God, one with each other.
He created Adam and Eve upright. They were one with God, had peace
with God, and they had peace with one another, peace with
the angels. All things in heaven and earth
were one, but when sin entered, sin separated. Sin caused warfare
to begin. Any time there's division between
men or groups of men, when you can ignore the finger pointing,
ignore the blaming of the second causes and the third causes,
the root cause, all of that is just more of the root cause.
And here's the root cause, sin. Scripture's so crystal clear
on that. Only by pride cometh contention. That's what pride
is, it's sin. Sin is pride. Only by pride cometh
contention. Sin's the reason there's no peace
in the world and won't ever be peace in this world. Sin's the
reason that men don't have peace with God and they don't have
peace with each other. At the Tower of Babel, why did
God divide people and separate men by giving different languages
and even separate the continents? Why did he do that? Sin, sin
was the reason. Sin made the children of Israel
separate from the children of Judah and hate them. Sin made
the children of Israel hate the Gentiles. Sin's what it was that
still divides families in the earth and even divides congregations. Pride of face, pride of race,
pride of place, and pride of grace. But though sins of the
devil and a host of angels fell, God reserved His elect angels. And that sin didn't take God
by surprise. It was all part of God's purpose.
And He reserved His elect angels, and He reserved His elect that
He chose in Christ, because before this world was made, He chose
His Son to be the Savior. to be the King of Peace, the
Prince of Peace, and He chose people to save in His Son. And
He did not choose us based on anything in us. Therefore, nothing
changed His love and His grace toward us. Our sins separated
us from Him, but it didn't change His love and His grace toward
us in Christ Jesus. from eternity, His purpose was
that Christ Jesus, the Lord of Peace Himself, would bring all
His people together in one in Him. That was His eternal purpose.
Look at Ephesians 1, Ephesians chapter 1, and you can just stay
in Ephesians because that's where we're going to be. Ephesians
chapter 1, here's God's eternal purpose. Verse 9, he made known
unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure
which he had purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of time, when it's all said and done, He might gather
together in one all things, all His people in Christ, both which
are in heaven and which are on earth, in whom also we've obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ. That was His purpose before He
made anything. Sin entered. all according to
God's purpose. The devil sinned and the host
of angels fell according to God's purpose. And all this division
started happening and all this warring against God and being
enemies in our minds against God and all this took place and
all the division had just gone on and on and on through the
world to manifest His glory in coming forth and making peace
with God for His people. and then making peace in our
heart and making peace with our brethren and gathering us up
all together in Him alone. In Him alone. Christ said, I
in them, thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. You
know, in a human body, the Son of God came down so that you
have the divine nature and the human nature of His elect in
one body. Divine and human in one body.
And right there, just in his person, you see he's the mediator. He's the one that brings God
and his people together in one. You know that verse is a little
difficult to understand over in Galatians 3, where it says
a mediator is not of one, but God is one. Well, Moses He was
a picture of the mediator when God gave the law through a mediator,
through Moses. He went between God and he went
between Israel, but he couldn't be the mediator because he was
a man and he was a sinful man at that. But Christ came. He
is the Son of God and man, the Son of man. He's the God-man
in one person. And just in his person, two natures
you see him bring together in one. His people and His person. God was in Christ reconciling
His people to Himself. And God's elect were in Christ.
And everything Christ did as our perfect representative, we
did in Him. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. The gospel is the gospel of reconciliation. You know, get upset with one
another, pride. Oh, we can't have nothing to
do with each other. Our very gospel is the gospel of reconciliation.
Aren't you thankful God didn't say, I can't have anything to
do with them? He wouldn't take no. He said,
you're going to be mine. We're going to be one. It's going
to be done justly though. 2 Corinthians 5.18, all things
are of God. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us to himself. That's God making peace with
God for us. He did that in Christ for his
people. He reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. To it, God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then,
we're ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be you reconciled to God. For he made him sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. How does, is the Prince of Peace, Is the Lord of Peace
Himself, is He able to make peace? Is He able to make peace between
His brethren and in His congregation and keep that peace there? Is
He? Well, consider what He did on the cross. Was He able to
make peace with God for His people? The spotless Lamb of God, perfectly
holy, perfectly righteous, submitted Himself in perfect obedience
to the Father. And He hath made Him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He laid on Him the iniquity of all His elect. And
then He numbered Him with the transgressors. He imputed sin
to Him justly. And then he made him a curse
in the room instead of his people. What is it? The chastisement
of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we're healed.
That's how peace was made. That's how God reconciled his
people to himself. God didn't have to be reconciled
to us. He didn't do anything wrong.
We're the ones that had to be reconciled to God and brought
into peace with God. By the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. What did he mean when he said
it's finished? What did Christ mean by that?
Christ finished the transgression for his people. Just let that
sink in. But what Christ accomplished
means you have never transgressed against God ever. That's what
it means. He made an end of the transgression. He made an end of sins for his
people. This is what Daniel said. He
made an end of sins for his people. They're gone. Christ made reconciliation
for the iniquity of his people. He brought in everlasting righteousness
for his people. He sealed up the vision and prophecy. Everything in this book was written
of Him and He fulfilled it all. And He anointed the Most Holy.
He is the Most Holy who is anointed, the Holy One of His people. And
then He Himself entered into the holiest of holies where God
is and sat down at the right hand of God and He made His people
holy in Himself. So that's how He made peace for
us with God. All this happened before you
and me knew anything about it. Then we come into this world. Arrogant, little hearty, little
proud, little sinners. Well, this is how I think God
is. And not having one clue who God is. Not having one clue what
He'd already accomplished for His people. But our Lord's going to make
peace in the heart of each one that He redeemed. And that's
what He did for you that know Him. Look there again in 2 Corinthians
5, 19. He hath committed to us the word
of reconciliation. You see, what the Prince of Peace
does is he's the prophet and he calls his preacher and he
sends his preacher with the word. And it's Christ speaking. When
that preacher's preaching, he's speaking on the behalf of Christ.
He's an ambassador for Christ. And he's speaking on the behalf
of Christ. And Christ is speaking through him. He committed us
the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for
Christ. And so God did beseech you by
us. We pray you in Christ's stead
be ye reconciled to God. Now go with me over here to Ephesians
2. Ephesians 2. It says there in verse 1, you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. The verse
right before that said the church is his body, the fullness of
him that filleth all in all, and you hath he quickened who
were dead. He filled you with a new spirit. Well, by our first
birth, that had to be done because by our first birth, in our minds,
we were the enemies of God. In our minds, we considered God
our enemy. Our whole nature was nothing
but enmity against God. Our mind hated God and we didn't,
not the true God, we hated the true God. We didn't hate our
false God, but we hated the true God. And our story is the same
story as the Gentiles here in Ephesus. Look here at verse 11,
Ephesians 2, 11. Wherefore remember, you have
been in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh, made by hands. Now that's one lost group of
people, call it another lost group of people. lost. That's one group of dead sinners
saying to another group of dead sinners, we're better than you.
That's what that is. You see that? You were the uncircumcision,
you're called the uncircumcision by that which was called the
circumcision in the flesh made by hands. All this just fleshly.
And at that time you were without Christ, you were aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. Now that's our
story right there. Everybody God saves, that's our
story. And we couldn't have done a thing about that. We couldn't
change that at all. So how are we going to be brought
to be at peace with God in our own heart? Now in Christ Jesus,
you who were sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood
of Christ. He did it, for he's our peace.
See that? He's our peace, who hath made
both. Talking about Jew and Gentile,
elect Jews and elect Gentiles. You know, nowadays, you got all
these different races. God just had it divided into
two. That's who God divides us into, Jew and Gentile, that's
it. Jew and Gentile. But he made both his elect Jew
and his elect Gentile one. And how'd he do it? He's broken
down the middle wall of partition that divided us. There was a
middle wall that divided us. What was that? He abolished in
his flesh the enmity, and understand what this means now. The enmity
was in us. The enmity's in his people. But
we were using the law, and it's not as the scripture said, lost
earth, up wrath. The law filled us with more enmity
against those that didn't have the grace we thought we had.
That's what it means. Look here. Even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances And so he took down that wall to make
in himself of two, one new man, so make in peace. Now think about
this, because this applies to our day right now. Same thing
going on in our day right now. The enmity of the Jew, the hatred
of the Jew toward the Gentile was circumcision and the law
of commandments contained in ordinance. That's what stirred
up his hatred toward the Gentile. the Jews had circumcision. Circumcision
was an outward token, Romans 4 tell you this, it was an outward
token that God gave Abraham to picture a spiritual inward work
whereby God had given him a new heart and made him be able to
worship God and believe God and follow God. That outward token
pictured that. Well, you got natural born Jews
born in that nation come along, they're circumcised at eight
days old, and they grow up looking at the outward, not having the
inward at all, not being circumcised in the heart, and because they
had just this outward token of circumcision, they looked at
Gentiles who didn't and said, we're so much better than you.
Oh, we stay over there, we're so much holier than you are.
This was something given as a picture of what God does in the heart
to destroy that pride and that rebellion, to bring you down
so low that you see there's no difference in you than any other
sinner. You're as vile as the worst sinner, worse, so that
you see that you're saved by grace alone and mercy alone.
But without that heart work, religion just makes a man arrogant
and proud and want to look down on other people. The ordinances,
that was the preaching of the gospel in that day. The sacrifices
and the lambs that were slain and the incense and all the work
of the priest. That was the gospel being preached
to them when they'd come there. But they didn't have spiritual
discernment to know what that meant to see Christ and believe
Christ. So they just worshipped the fact. They hated going through
the ordinances. They hated having to do it. They
ended up not doing it and just worshiping idols out under a
grove because the shade was good. But because they had those oracles
of God and those ordinances, they used those to say, we're
so much better than those Gentiles, they don't have what we have.
Now, men today do the same thing, brethren. Today, men who profess
to be born from above, I just saw something the other day,
a man was explaining what it is to be born from above. It's
to be made aware that you have a spirit in you that's godly.
And you nurture that spirit, and that's how you learn to be
born again. The man speaking, and anybody
that is born again, what that man was saying was, I have never
been born again. That's what he was saying. But that's what these men profess
to be born from above, and they exalt themselves over others
using how long I've been in the faith, Oh, I'm such a wise theologian,
I've been in the faith for so long. If a man has that attitude,
if he knows God at all, he doesn't know very much, and he doesn't
know anything else. That's not the spirit the Lord
gives. The Spirit makes us see we're
ignorant in ourselves. I don't know. There's very little
I know about this book. I know Him who this book's about,
and I know He's my Savior. But as far as being able to exalt
myself because of some knowledge, knowledge without the grace of
God, though, just puffs up. And me and today will talk about
their outward works and their knowledge of the doctrine of
grace and all of these things, and they're exalting themselves
over somebody else, pushing back, rejecting, opposing, and all
they're saying by that is, I don't know a thing about what I'm talking
about. I don't know anything about the grace I claim that
I'm so astute in. Because grace humbles, grace
brings you down, grace makes you one with your brethren because
Christ puts peace in your heart. to make you see. The whole point
of that text in Ephesians 2 is you didn't make yourself to differ.
You have done anything today to make yourself to differ. The
Lord came and made peace, and it's by his blood purging your
conscience and making you see that he's taken the law out of
the way. He took away everything that we use to exalt ourselves
over others and gave us a new heart to see. He's our only peace. And by His blood abolishing that
ordinance, the Lord of Peace, He fulfilled that law by His
obedience. The Lord of Peace took that wall out of the way
for us. The Lord of Peace is the one who come and made this
effectual in us. Look here. Verse 16, and that
he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. He not only slew it so he could
slay it between our brethren, between one another, he did it
to reconcile us to God. Now look here. Then He came and
He's the one who preached to us through that preacher. He's
the one who sent that preacher and He preached to us through
that preacher. And He spoke peace in our heart. Look here, verse
17. And He came and preached peace to you which were far off
and to them that were not. Jew and Gentile. And through
Him, we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. You got
the same spirit in you as I got in me, Ben. And you too, Kalen. And you, Ravi and Debbie. It's
one spirit. And so we have one access to
one Father and one Redeemer and one Mediator. That's oneness. Now you're no more strangers
and foreigners, but you follow citizens with the same. Wouldn't it be a shame if brethren
can't get along on this earth? We're going to be in eternity
together forever in the same city. We're fellow citizens.
We're of the household of God. We're built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, the Lord
of Peace himself being the cheap corner. In whom? In whom? In Christ. The buildings fitly
framed, what? Together. Formed together, cemented
together, inseparably united together, and grows to a holy
temple in the Lord, in whom you're built together for the habitation
of God through the Spirit. You see, Christ accomplished
peace in our heart. He spoke peace in our heart.
He makes us know nothing about ourselves made the difference.
Nothing we did made the difference. Pope Peter stood up on that day,
they were saying, it's okay that these Gentiles have professed
to believe, but they got to be circumcised. Peter said, no,
the Lord put no difference between us Jews and those Gentiles. He
purified their hearts by faith. And he said, in fact, the matter
is, it's not that those Gentiles have to be circumcised like you
were circumcised. No, us Jews are going to have
to be saved like those Gentiles are saved. That was a huge statement.
That was a huge statement. Having made peace to the blood
of his cross by Christ to reconcile all his people to himself, and
then you that were at some 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,
unapprovable in his sight. And this is what makes you know
you have peace with God. When He does this, Romans 5 once
says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God in our Lord Jesus Christ and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then look at Ephesians 4 now. When the Lord of peace Himself
has given you peace in your heart, He's going to make you have peace
with your brethren. And you know what He's going to make you do?
He's going to make you endeavor to have peace with your brethren.
And here's how he's gonna do it, right here. Ephesians 4.1,
Paul said, walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called.
Here's what this peace of our Lord in our heart, when he makes
you see that he did it all, that he is your peace, here's what
it does. Makes you lowly and makes you
meek. With lowliness and meekness. Man will try to put that on and
put on a show of that. And then just revile and just
push back against one another and just be such anything but
lowly and meek. But He's going to make His people
lowly and meek. He's going to make you long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit and the bond of peace. He makes you know there's
one body and one spirit, even as you call him, one hope if
you call him. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all who's above all and throughout
and in you all. And unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. We don't
have a thing to boast about. It's all the measure he's given.
So if my brother don't have the measure that maybe somebody else
has, I can't, Be critical of him, he has just the measure
of grace Christ gave him. That's the measure he should
have. What am I to do? Lowliness and meekness gets down
there with him. Instead of exalting ourselves over him, lowliness
and meekness is on the same level with him. Because I guarantee
you this, the measure he hadn't given him He may give this one
over here the measure he didn't give that one, and give this
one the measure he didn't give that one, and that one the measure
he didn't give that one, so that together you make one body, and
the eye can't say I don't need the ear, and the ear can't say
I don't need the mouth, and you know what I'm saying? It's like
our human body. I was joking with Brother Bill.
He can't come to the service at night on Thursday because
he can't see now. Well, I came here and I told
him, I was like, together we make up one man. That's what
he does in his church. That's what he does in his body.
He puts us together and provides what the others lacking to make
us one. And so we need each other. And
then when he does that and he speaks us in the yard, he makes
you know When he does it through the preaching of the gospel,
this is the means he's going to use. He makes you know he
sent the preacher to you. That preacher was a gift to you,
and he makes you know that. The Lord gave me a gift in Marvin
Stocker. That's my pastor. He gave me
the gift when he gave me him to minister grace to me. And
it was Christ who did it. Look here, Ephesians 4.8. When
He ascended up on high, He led captivity and He gave gifts to
men. Verse 11. And He gave some of
pastors and teachers. And when He speaks into your
heart, we stop hearing only a man. We start hearing, verse 15, at
the end it says, The head, even Christ, from whom the whole body
fitly joined together, compacted that which every joint supplied.
according to His effectual working in the measure of every part
makes increase the body to the edifying of itself in love. You
see, you stop hearing a man, you start knowing Christ is speaking
to me. Go to, I'll show you that. Go
to Isaiah 52. I want you to see this real quick. Isaiah 52, 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. That's
when we start cherishing Christ. That's when we start cherishing
his gospel. That's when we cherish his preacher that he's speaking
through. That's when we say, verse seven, how beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, the gospel of peace, that publishes salvation. It says in Isaiah, thy God reigneth,
thy watchman shall lift up the voice. Watch this, with the voice
together shall they sing, with the voice of Christ himself,
they speak. They speak, you hear an audible
voice, but you hear Christ speak in your heart and spirit when
it's Christ speaking. Look there, he said in verse
eight, they gonna sing together when the Lord shall bring again
Zion. He's the one doing this work in the heart of his people.
The Lord hath comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. You know, I want to say this,
sometimes the Lord of peace himself, the way he makes peace amongst
his brethren and in the hearts of people, is sometimes this
gospel rebukes. Sometimes it comes forth and
it rebukes. The Lord told Jeremiah, he said, speak my word. And he
said, don't regard their faces, speak my word. And he told Jeremiah,
he said, and if you don't speak my word, I'm going to confound
you. That's what he told Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1.17. And so the Lord
went forth, and Jeremiah went forth and spoke the Lord's word.
Men will get upset about the preacher preaching, and oh, he's
preaching directly to me, and I don't think he was kind in
what he said. This is what the Lord told Jeremiah to tell them,
directly to their face. Jeremiah stood up and said, Thus
saith the Lord, You have a hoarse forehead. That's what he told
them. He said, You refuse to be ashamed.
He said, You're a dromedary. That's a stubborn camel. He said,
You're a wild ass snuffing up the wind and refuse to call on
the Lord to save you. You reckon that word rebuked
anybody when they heard that? You know what they did? They
heard that word and they said, that's just Jeremiah preaching. That's just a man preaching. You know what Paul said that
is? Colossians 2, Paul said that's being vainly puffed up. by a
fleshly mind, and not holding the head from whom all the body,
by joints and bands, have nourishment ministered, and are knit together
and increased with the increase of God." See, when Christ speaks,
even if it's a word of rebuke, when Christ speaks, it breaks
the heart. It humbles the heart. It makes
us say, oh Lord, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. It makes you come
down to His feet and ask mercy from the Lord. And He makes you
see what He's done for you, what He's accomplished for you, and
that's what makes you have peace with your brethren. Seeing He's
made peace with God for you, He's taken down everything that
divides you and your brethren and made you one with each other.
And that's how He makes peace. Listen, He said, All thy children
shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace
of thy children. He said in Isaiah 57, 19, I create the fruit of
the lips. Where does that come from? Out of the heart. I give
the little heart. I put this fruit on the lip.
Peace, peace to him that's far off and to him that's near, saith
the Lord, and I'll heal him. That's Jew and Gentile. I want
to tell you something. The fact Jews and Gentiles can
be reconciled and be one in Christ, that's the greatest evidence
there is right there, that Christ is able to make peace between
his people. These Thesians were Gentiles. Listen, the Lord will
give strength to His people. The Lord will bless His people
with peace. Now go to Colossians 3. I'm going
to end with this right here. Colossians 3. Paul said, I pray
the Lord will give you peace. The Lord of peace Himself will
give you peace by all means. Now listen to me. The Lord's, He ruling everything
and doing everything and everything's at His disposal to use. But the
means He's using to create peace is the same way He created peace,
made you to be reconciled to God. The first hour He called
you, made you be at peace with your brethren. The same way He
did that in the first hour is how He keeps doing it. It's through
the preaching of this gospel right here. It's a wiser saying
there is. This is how come we need each
other. This is how come we gonna go through this world together
because we need this gospel. You only value that gospel and
you only value the preaching of it and value the preacher
he sent when he spoken in your heart made peace and made you
know you got peace with God. Then you're willing to, if I
gotta chop off my foot to have peace with my brethren, let's
get to cutting. Whatever it is, cause I need
this gospel. Now look here at Colossians 3.10.
Here's why it is. He made you put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created
him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision,
educated or uneducated, blind or free, But Christ is all in
all. It's all those things that we
were looking at that we said divided us. And that's when it
says by pride come with contention. It's looking at outward exterior
things and saying I'm better than him. I'm not going to listen
to him. I'm not going to bow and be at
one with him because of some outward exterior thing. That
verse just said all them outward things don't amount to a hill
of beans. in Christ, with Christ in that
new man, you're one. Christ is all, and he's in all. So put on, therefore, as the
elect of God, holy by Christ, beloved by God in Christ. Put
on vows of mercies from the inward man, vows of mercy, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one
another, forgiving one another. If any man have a quill against
any, Even as Christ forgave you, so do ye also. Remember what the Lord said? He said, if you won't forgive
your brother, God won't forgive you. What that means is he's going
to make his people forgive one another. That's just a fact. They're going to forgive one
another because God's going to forgive them. He already forgave them
for Christ's sake, and he ain't going back on that. So he's going
to make his people forgive one another. The man that won't,
there's a reason. He don't know anything about
the peace of God, the forgiveness of God, what a vile wretch he
is. Forgive one another as Christ forgave you, and above all these
things, put on charity, which is the bond, that's the bond
of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. To the rich you're called in
one body, and be ye thankful. Can he accomplish peace? Will
he give his people peace? You look at how divided this
whole world was due to our sin and look at what Christ did.
Reconciled us to God, came and gave us peace in our heart, gave
us peace with our brethren. Yeah, he can give peace and he'll
keep peace in his people. That's what he does. Let's one
another, I'm serious brethren, whatever it is that we have to
overlook, whatever it is we have to forego, do it for endeavoring
for unity so we can have the gospel of peace. I'm not saying
if somebody comes preaching a lie, we're not going to receive that. But if they're preaching the
gospel of Christ for the sake of Christ and needing this and
having to hear what he's done for us, that's how he's going
to carry us all our days through this life. So for that reason,
Have peace with one another. Let peace rule your heart. He's
going to correct your brother. He's going to correct your pastor.
He's going to correct your brethren. What do we ought to do? Just
speak this gospel to him. That's how he did it to you.
That's how he's going to keep doing it. And trust him. That's how the peace of God rules
your heart. You know he's going to work his will in good pleasure.
All right. Brother Adam, do you want to
sing a closing hymn or do you want me to just dismiss in prayer?
I'll just dismiss in prayers since he's back there working
the thing.