John 14. In verse 27, the Lord said, 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. We saw last time that when our
Lord commands His children to fear not, the reason He gives
is who He is and what He is to His people. And we see that right
here again. Christ is the Prince of Peace. He is the God of Peace. Christ
is the Prince of Salem, the King of Salem, the Prince of Peace.
And the apostles knew Christ was their peace. He knew Him
to be their peace. And so our Lord assures us here
that His peace did not leave with Him when He departed. He says, peace I leave with you. Whenever a father is leaving their children, when
they're departing out of this world, they leave an inheritance
to their children. They leave their will and their
testament, they leave an inheritance to their children. Christ here
gives something far greater than earthly possessions. He says,
peace I leave with you. Peace I leave with you. He says,
my peace I give unto you. It's his peace. My peace, meaning
one, it's the peace that is his to give to his people. It's the
peace that he wrought. It's the peace that he is to
his people. It's the peace he alone is able
to give to his children. And my peace, two, meaning it's
the peace that He had when He walked this earth. It's the peace
He enjoys now. And it's the peace that He enjoys
with His children that He gives this peace to. When an earthly
father leaves an inheritance to their children, they don't
get to enjoy it with their children. But this inheritance Christ gives
to His children, He enjoys with His children. It's His peace
as well. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. The world cannot give peace,
and certainly not the peace Christ gives. Men have been talking
about world peace for ages, and our Lord said that will never
be. That will never be. Sinners in this world will not
affect peace. The world gives false peace,
earthly possessions. Men try to have some peace in
their money. And as long as they have it and
they have a roof over their head and clothes on their back and
things are relatively peaceful, then they call that peace. But
you let any of those things waver and their peace is gone. There's
a false peace in religion, a peace in what you do, a peace in what
you have done or what you will do, peace in the things you do
to keep peace and to affect peace and to get peace and to have
peace. And if it's not the peace Christ gives, it won't last. It won't be a sure lasting peace. I mean, when everything else
that men call peace is gone, This peace will remain, but it's
not the peace the world gives. Everything the world gives is
a temporary, fleeting, if it can be called peace, it's just
temporary, it's just fleeting. But the world doesn't have this
peace, can't give it. So I want to look at this on
the peace that Christ speaks about here. He says, peace I
leave with you. All through this passage, all
the way through chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, the Lord is speaking
here of His promises. He's telling us His promises.
That's what the covenant is. The covenant of peace is the
covenant of His promises. And that's what we hear Him declaring
here. Like a man that's going to leave
his will and testament. This is his covenant. This is
his covenant. This is his promise. This is
his will. This is his testament of what
he's leaving his people. What his people shall inherit. This is his will and testament.
He promised a dwelling in God's house prepared by him that he
will bring us into. It's said there in verse 2, in
my father's house are many mansions. Many dwellings. If it were not
so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. That's
a covenant promise. This is that covenant of peace.
He's promised. He promised to give us blessings
and provisions that we need simply by asking Him. He said there
in verse 13, Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask
anything in my name, I will do it. If it's needed by us and
it's His will, He will give it. He will give it. He promised
to send the Holy Spirit who produces this fruit of peace in His people.
And He promised He would abide with us. He said in verse 16,
I will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter
that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. This
is the covenant He's promised His people. These are the blessings,
His will, His testament, what He promises to leave His people. This is our inheritance. It's
His will to comfort His people with His presence. It's the peace
of His presence. He says there, He promised He
and the Father would come to His believing people, to His
loving children, to those who obey Him and follow Him. In verse
18, He said, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come
to you. He said in verse 23, He said,
Jesus answered and said, If a man loved Me, he would keep My words,
and My Father would love him, and We would come unto him and
make Our abode with him. He promised we shall live by
His life. He said there in verse 19, yet
a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but you see
me. Because I live, ye shall live
also. He promised to make us know our
oneness with He and the Father. He said at that day you shall
know, verse 20, at that day you shall know that I am in my Father,
and you in me, and I in you. That's the first day He reveals
Himself. In every trial, it's in every
time he comes and truly just makes you see him. And that day,
you know. You know. that I'm in my Father
and you in me and I in you. And he promised the Holy Spirit
would comfort us by keeping his gospel, his doctrine, his words,
and all these promises right here in remembrance, in our heart. He said there in verse 26, but
the comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. So all
these covenant promises, they make up His covenant of peace.
These are the sure mercies of David. It's the peace He leaves
us. This Word, this Gospel, He's
speaking here. They're troubled and they're
afraid and He's speaking these promises to give them this peace
in their heart by His Word. It's called the Gospel of Peace.
And here is the incarnate Word preaching the gospel of peace,
declaring what He shall do for His people and in His people.
And this is wherein and how He gives this peace in the heart
of His child. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give. unto you." This is the Word,
the incarnate Word. And we know the Word which God
sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. And here He
is preaching peace to His apostles in all concerning His covenant
promises, His covenant of peace. And this is itself, this gospel
of peace, these covenant promises of peace, is how He gives us
this peace in our hearts, to know what He's going to do for
His people. and promises will never cease. Now go to Hebrews
9. How is a testament established? He is the one making the testament.
He is the one declaring His will, what He is going to do and the
promises He is going to give us. How is a will in a testament
put into effect? Hebrews 9 verse 15, it says,
For this cause, He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by
means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the first testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance." These things He's promising us,
these are our eternal inheritance. The things He promised in there
in John 14. And we're going to see them as we keep going through
John 15 and John 16. These eternal, this eternal promise,
this eternal inheritance. Where a testament is, where there
is a will and testament, there must also necessity be the death
of the testator. For a testament is a force after
men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the
testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament,
the old covenant was not dedicated without blood, And so Christ
here, He's going to the cross. He's going to pour out His life's
blood in place of His people. And this is what has them troubled.
This is what has them afraid. He's going to the Father and
He's not going to be with them anymore. And so He's declaring
this testament, His testament. And He's declaring it as He's
about to go to the cross and die, whereby this testament's
going to be put in force. He called it the New Testament
in My blood. This is it. These are all the
promises he's given us. And so as our advocate in the
court of heaven, he didn't die and stay in the grave, he came
out. And as our advocate in heaven, he is the reason these promises
are guaranteed to his people. They're guaranteed to his people.
So this is why he promises us assuredly, peace I leave with
you, my peace I give to you. It's the peace he accomplished.
It's the peace He accomplished and the peace He applies, all
these covenant promises, this covenant of peace that He applies
in our heart by the Holy Spirit. He said in Ezekiel 37.26, Moreover,
I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an
everlasting covenant with them, and I will place them and multiply
them and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.
Go to Isaiah 54. And here's this inheritance,
here's his testimony, his testament, and the inheritance he gives
his people. It's everlasting. He says, verse
10, he says, the mountains shall depart, The hills be removed,
but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy
on thee. O thou afflicted, tossed with
tempest and not comforted." Now, we're going to see, this peace
doesn't mean we're not going to be tossed and afflicted. But here's what he promises.
I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations
with sapphires. I will make thy windows of agates,
and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant
stones. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. This is His promise. This is
what He will do. He says, And in righteousness
shalt thou be established. Whose is that? Whose righteousness?
Ours or His? And His. And He is. Now watch
this. Thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather
together, but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together
against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created
the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth
forth an instrument for his work. I have created the waster to
destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage, this is
the inheritance, this is the will and testament of our God,
the inheritance He has given us by His covenant, will and
testament of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness
is of Me, saith the Lord, is of Me. So He declares to His
people, My peace I give unto you by His death. Now, it's His
peace that He gives through the blood of His cross. It's the
peace He gives through the blood of His cross. Go to Colossians
1 and let's look at verse 20. Colossians 1 and verse 20. Having made peace through the
blood of His cross, By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,
by Him I say, and He's speaking of all things as His people,
whether they be in earth or in heaven, and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath He reconciled. That's the peace we have. He
reconciled us. In the body of His flesh, through
death, to present you holy, holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable
in His sight. When He walked this earth, He
said, I always do that which pleases the Father. He said,
which of you can convince me of sin? He was unblameable. He was unreprovable. He was holy
in everything He did. And if He is our only righteousness,
If we believe Him, that's how, in Him, by Him, by His blood
putting away all the sin of His people and by His righteousness.
That's the way His people are going to stand, holy and unblameable
and unreprovable. That's the only way. That's the
only way. Look, that's what He says next.
If you continue in the faith, believe in Him. Believe in Him,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from Christ. That's the hope of the gospel,
Christ. He's the hope of the gospel, which you've heard, which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven. So He
made peace with God for all God's elect by His blood on the cross,
through His flesh. He reconciled us to God forever.
And then He came and revealed it in our hearts by the Spirit. He came and revealed it in the
new birth and spoke peace by the grace and power of God into
the hearts of His children. Now this peace is not of us. This is not the peace the world
gives. This is not the peace the false
prophets that Scott just read about are preaching peace, peace
in something you do to make peace. They're preaching peace in something
you have to maintain and keep up. And that's not the peace
that we just read about. If you think you're going to
stand holy and unreprovable and unblameable because you're holy
and unblameable and unreprovable by what you've done, you won't
stand. You won't stand. This is the
peace that he wrought and the peace he is, and it's the only
peace that he gives in the heart of his people, knowing, knowing
my only righteousness is Christ. It's Christ. The world can't
give it and the world can't take it away. Because this is of God. It's put in the heart of God.
Christ himself is our peace and in him we have peace. And he
shall keep peace in the heart of his children. Look what it
cost him to reconcile and bring his people into peace with God.
Look what it cost him. Look what he suffered on the
Calvary's cross. He's going to keep himself being the peace
in the heart of his children. He's going to do that. It's the
peace of propitiation which Christ wrought for His people. Christ
is Himself this Mercy Seeker. He pleased God. He expiated. He made atonement to God for
the sins of His people. God's not angry with His people
because Christ bore the fury of God's anger in place of His
people. That's the only way we could be made righteous. That's
what he said in Isaiah 53, 5. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace. The only way we could have peace,
that chastisement was upon him. And with his stripes, with the
stripes of divine justice, with the stripes of God's fury and
wrath poured out on him, we're healed. We're healed. So Christ's
peace is the peace of pardon, is the peace of free justification,
is the peace that we have through faith in His blood. Go to Romans
4. Romans 4. Romans 4.25 says, Christ was delivered for
our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.
It means he was delivered because of our offenses, he was raised
again because of our justification. Because he justified his people
by his blood. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And by Christ also we have access by faith into this free justification
wherein we stand, this perfect righteousness in which we stand,
this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the
glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulation also. Why do we glory in tribulation?
Because Christ our peace keeps shedding the love of God abroad
in our hearts and making you know His love for you. That's
how His people know. That's how He keeps this peace
in our heart. You, isn't it an oxymoron that you can have tribulation
and yet have peace? Our Lord said, in the world you
shall have tribulation. And that's why I read 2 Corinthians
4 to us because we see there, there's tribulation, but there's
the grace of God. There's the peace Christ keeps
in the heart of His people. The peace He keeps in the heart.
Now, if there's anybody who's never believed on Christ, Believe
Him. This is only through faith in
Christ. It is believing Him. This is how faith comes. He's
going to declare His works and His person and the peace that
He's wrought for His people. And He's going to speak this
peace into the heart. And He's going to make His people believe
Him. And when we're in unbelief, this is when we have trouble
in our heart. This is when we don't have peace in our heart.
We're not looking to Him only. We're looking at other things.
We've got to look to Him only. The peace He gives is through
faith in Him, through faith in Him. He said this, anybody that's
going to put anything in before me, He said, I'll go through
the wicked. He said, I'll burn them up like thorns and wires,
I'll burn them up. He said, or let Him take hold
of my strength. Who's the strength of God? Who's
the power and wisdom of God? Christ, His right arm. Christ,
the power and wisdom of God. He said, take hold of Christ
and He'll make peace with me. If you never believed Him, believe
Him now. If you're in unbelief, believe Him now. The only way
to have this peace is through faith in His blood. It's knowing
He only is the peace of His people. He only. Well, it's the peace
of knowing this. When He brings you to see this
peace, He's talking about being justified. What does that mean?
What does it mean to be justified? What does it mean to be made
the righteousness of God in Christ? It's the peace of knowing God
remembers our sins no more. Now, something's got to happen
before this happens. The Spirit of God's going to
have to make us hear what the law says about us. The Spirit
of God makes you hear the law, and he makes you hear that the
law doesn't just condemn your outward conduct. The law condemns
the very lust of your heart. In other words, the law condemns
us. The law condemns us completely.
The law just shuts our mouth in guilt. And when that happens,
and the guilt of God is on your conscience, and you see God's
wrath against you, and there's torment. There is no peace. But
this is a necessary thing. He has to come, the Spirit of
God, and convince us of sin. That we are the sinner. That
we are the sinner. Not just when we were a harlot
in our younger days, right now! Right now! We are the sinner. And when the Spirit convinces
us of this and brings us to mourn our sin, brings us before God
to cry out, have mercy on me the sinner. Or when you're a
believer and he brings you to cry out, Lord, against thee and
thee only have I sinned and committed this evil in your sight. Have
mercy on me, Lord. Please have mercy on me. I'm
the sinner. Have mercy on me, O God. Restore
the joy of thy salvation to me. What's that? That's the peace
of Christ. And when He brings you to that
place and makes you lose any confidence in yourself, any hope
in yourself, you can't see anything about yourself that's righteous. It's all wicked. It's all ungodly. He speaks into the heart and
makes you know when you were without strength, when you were
the ungodly, I laid down my life for you." This is what He makes
His particular child, His elect that He redeemed, this is what
He makes each one know in our hearts and never stops letting
us know it. And when He makes you know this,
He says into the heart, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. He said in Isaiah 43, 25, I,
even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own
sake and will not remember thy sins. Think about that. Never. Never remember your sins. That means there are none on
His books. There are none in the court of heaven. In those
days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found. For I will pardon them
whom I reserve. This is what Christ speaks to
the heart. This is the peace He gives. It's
not just as if I never sinned. God says, I have no record of
sin. The all-knowing God who knows
all things. Because of Christ and in Christ,
since He chose His people in Christ, since Christ laid down
His life for His people, since the Spirit of God has brought
you to believe Him and trust Him as your only hope before
God, your only righteousness before God, He says, I do not
remember your sin. Search for them. They can't be
found. That's how fully Christ put away
the sin of His people. That's what it is to be justified
by God. That's what it is to be made
the righteousness of God in Him. To have no sin before God. No sin. And so, since Christ
is our only peace, go over to Ephesians 2. Since He's the only
righteousness of His people, this is the peace that makes
His brethren love one another. because we don't have a righteousness
of our own. We don't have anything we can
exalt ourselves over another with. He alone is our righteousness.
Look at this, Ephesians 2.14, He is our peace who hath made
both one. He is speaking here particularly
of Jew and Gentile elect. But it's true if you're rich
or poor, if you're male or female, if you're mighty in fruit bearing
or lesser in fruit bearing. He's broken down the middle wall
of partition between us. Having abolished in His flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. That
was the enmity. to making Himself of two, one
new man, so making peace." That's in Himself. You see that? That's
what I mean. He's our only righteousness.
It's in Him that He's made Jew and Gentile who are so opposite
to each other. He made us one in Him. He's our
righteousness. So making peace. Peace between
His people. Just like He made peace between
God and you, the sinner, He's made peace between brethren because
He's our only righteousness. And that He might reconcile both
to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
He came and preached peace to you which were far off and to
them that were nigh, for through Him we both have access by one
Spirit unto the Father. This is the peace He gives. Now
lastly, we could be here all night and every day because we
can't exhaust this subject. But I'm going to have to end. Lastly, his peace he gives is
the peace of his providence. It's the peace of his providence.
Christ promised that the peace he gives is not as the world
gives. It's not like the world gives.
He said in this world you shall have tribulation. You shall. Now, the world speaks of world
peace and the world speaks of wanting peace. Christ said that
will never be. There are going to be rumors
of war, there will be wars and rumors of wars, and you see this.
Countries will sign a peace treaty, we're not going to have war anymore.
Before long, we're having war again. And communities do this,
states do this, people do this. God's children should not have
peace with the unregenerate world. Our Lord said, think not that
I came to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. He said, suppose ye that I've come to give peace
on earth, I tell you no, but rather division. Now those who
believe election is by grace, truly by grace, they're not going
to have peace with those that believe grace means God saw something
in you and that's why He chose you. They're not going to be
at peace there. There's not going to be peace
between those who believe Christ really accomplished the redemption
of His particular people on Calvary's cross and those who believe Christ
died for everybody and it's all in the sinner's hands to make
it effectual. There's not going to be peace there. There's not
going to be peace between God's children who trust that it's
by his irresistible grace we've been born of God, that we're
kept by God, that we're grown by God, that we're kept walking
after him, and those who are trusting that they made themselves
be born again. And they go around boasting what
they've done and haven't done. There's not going to be peace
there. There's not going to be peace in those who walk in after
the imagination of their heart. That's what all that is, is the
imagination of a man's heart, because that's not the word of
God. And those that are going through life rebelling against
Christ, against His gospel, and trying to find peace in the world
and peace in what they've done and what they haven't done, there's
not going to be peace between them and those Christ has made
to hate our sin and mourn our sin and repent from our sin and
keep getting up and following Him and walking after Him. There
just won't be. There will not be. And tribulation
causes us trouble and fear in our hearts just like it did the
apostles that night. That's why they're fearful. That's
why they were troubled in their hearts. They were afraid of this
world. That's what they were afraid
of. And knowing Christ was leaving. But the peace here that Christ
gives, it's not outward. It's not outward. It's internal. It's spiritual. It's not carnal.
It's abiding, it's not temporary. It's kept in the heart by Christ. He said, My peace I give unto
you. Not as the world gives, give
I unto you. It's peace He gives in the heart.
Christ preached this promise of peace. You think about this
now. This shows us it's peace in believing
Him. It's through faith. And this
is what He's going to keep in the heart of His child is faith
in Him. And to show you it's that, Christ is saying this when
He's about to go to Calvary's cross. He's about to suffer being
arrested and rejected and all the things He's about to suffer.
And this is right here coming upon Him and yet He believes God. He believes
God is Father. He had made Himself a servant
to His Father. He is Sovereign God, but He had
humbled Himself and took the form of a servant. He is trusting.
He is believing the Father, the Word. He is believing the Father. And the Spirit of God is upon
Him without measure. And he believed God in perfection. He was not troubled. He was not fearful. This is his
peace. This is his peace. He said when
a multitude walked away, he said all the Father gives to me shall
come to me. He wasn't troubled by that. He said the foxes have
holes and he didn't have where to lay his head. He wasn't worried
about that because he knew the Father would provide for him.
And when he's facing this angry mob, and he's facing this cross,
and he knows God's going to pour out His wrath upon him, he believes
God, that God, when He's justified His people, God will raise him
to the right hand of the Father. When he was on this earth, he
was a man of sorrows, and he was acquainted with grief. He
was hated. He was persecuted by men. Not
just some, everywhere. All he came in contact with.
He had no place to rest in this world. Yet he had God, and in
God the Father he had peace. He had peace. He knew the Father,
he believed the Father, and he rejoiced in the Spirit. You get
what I'm saying? This is peace in believing, and
this is what he gives to us. You think about the Apostle Paul.
Think about the Apostle Paul. He said, if God be for us, who
can be against us? And here's the man who wrote
three-fourths of the New Testament, and from where did he write most
of it? In prison. And if you knew a
preacher today put in prison, and all the rumors started swirling,
everybody started talking and surmising what they think the
cause is, that's what they were doing to Paul. And there was
a multitude that rejected him and said he's guilty. He's guilty. And you know what Paul said?
None of these things move me. How can you say that, Paul? If
God be for you, who can be against you? That's the peace he gives.
What are you going to do if God puts you... The man who wrote
most of the Old Testament wrote it in the wilderness on the run
from his own family trying to kill him. He wrote the psalm. And where was His peace in all
that? Where was His peace in all that? The same place Christ
was when He was rejected and despised of men when He walked
this earth. That's right. Believing God. And we believe
Christ. He's given us this peace to trust
Him as the sovereign Redeemer of His people. So when we get
troubled, and we do get troubled, and we get fearful, Christ sends
the Word of His Gospel and He speaks into our hearts. And what
does He do? He turns you from you. He turns you from everybody
else. He turns you from the things
of this world and He turns you to Him. He turns you to Him. Why? Because to be carnally minded
is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the Kingdom of God is
not meat and drink. It's righteousness and peace
and joy. Where? In the Holy Ghost. This
is where the peace is. If we've got peace in anything
we do, in anything we're trusting of ourselves, when you've got
the death rattle in your throat, and if you've ever heard it,
you know when a man's at that point, he's a fool if he's trusted
himself. That's how dependent you are
on Christ right this minute. What you're trusting in that
day, what you're going to trust in that day, If God be for me,
who can be against me? Not even death. Not even death. And he's going to turn us to
him and he's going to remind us that whatever and whoever
we face in this life, It's our sovereign Redeemer who's working
all things together for the good of them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. Everything. Christ our
God is ruling every king, He's ruling all the people in this
world, He's doing it just for His people to give us the end
that He purposed. He said, I know the thoughts
I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. See, He is our peace. He is our peace at God's right
hand. He's the object of our peace. He is our peace with God.
But He's going to keep this peace subjectively in our heart and
He's going to keep Him being our only peace. And when He does
this, this is when it's brought to our remembrance that He is
our peace. And He said that. He said, I'm
going to keep you remembering. The Spirit of God is going to
come and he's going to teach you everything I've said and
he's going to keep you remembering that I'm your peace. I'm your
peace. I just don't think we realize
how little peace is in us. If we're sinning, He's going
to correct us. And He's going to bring us to
Him. And He's going to do that all
over again where He makes you hear what the law says towards
you. It makes you see that you sin and convicts you in your
conscience. But He's going to come then and speak peace to
your heart. And this is the only way repentance is given. It's
the only way faith is given. And we don't ever stop repenting
and believing in Him. That's not a one-time thing. And when we're looking at the
providence and the trouble and the waves, this is how He's going
to keep peace in the heart. He's going to turn you back to
Him and set your affection on Him at God's right hand and remind
you, I'm your peace. And when that happens, that's
when we pray even for those who oppose us. And that's when we'll
follow after the things that make for peace and things wherewith
one may edify another. What edifies you? The bread from
heaven. What really edifies you? The
gospel of peace. The gospel that declares Christ
is our only peace. This is the edification of his
people. I pray, I just pray He'd make
us hear this in our heart and know He is our only peace. He's
our only peace. And knowing peace is of God,
and knowing it's given by the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of God and it's through faith in Him, this is our prayer for
one another. This is it right here. Even for
those who oppose us, this is it. It's hard to be at peace
with those that oppose you. But the Lord can make you. The
Lord can make you. This is what He said. Now the
God of hope, this is what we pray. This is our prayer. This
is not a wish we wish for God. This is our prayer to God. Now
the God of hope fill you, fill you with all joy and peace in
believing that you may abound in hope through the power of
the Holy Ghost. That's what we pray, even for
those that consider us an enemy. And only He can do it. But He
said, My peace I give unto you. I give unto you. He never takes
it away. If we have it interrupted, it's
only because we're not believing Him and we're not looking to
Him. We're looking to ourselves, we're trusting ourselves, we're
walking after our flesh in some regard. But He's going to turn
us back and keep us looking to Him. And I pray that's what he'll
do. Amen.