The believer, in that regard,
is a peacemaker. Now, the Lord Jesus makes the
believer a peacemaker by continually teaching us how He made peace. Did you hear that? The believer
is made a peacemaker by continually being taught through the Spirit
of God in the heart how Christ has made peace. That's what makes
us to be a peacemaker. And I'm going to come to that
towards the end. I'm going to show you what I
mean by that. But first, I want to talk to you about how Christ
made peace. Happy are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called the children of God. Now, Christ Jesus the
Lord is the great peacemaker. He is the great peacemaker. In
Isaiah 9.6, He's called the Prince of Peace. And verse 7 of that
same chapter says of the increase of his government and peace,
there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his
kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice
from henceforth even forever. The Hebrew writer spoke of Melchizedek
and Melchizedek was that great type of Christ, our Melchizedek. And his name by interpretation
is King of Righteousness and King of Salem, which is King
of Peace. Now, turn over with me to Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, in verse 19. This is the only way
that a sinner knows anything about peace. and what peace is. We're not talking about peace
as men define it. We're talking about peace as
God defines it. Now, Colossians 1.19, and you'll
hold your place here because this will be the bulk of our
study this morning. In Colossians 1.19, it says,
It pleased the Father that in Him, in Christ Jesus, the Son
of God, should all fullness dwell. 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. Christ Jesus the Lord
made peace through His death on the cross." Now, the word
reconciliation means that There had to be some peace made. God's
children had to be brought back into peace with God. It's not a reconciliation of
God to men. God didn't sin. God can't sin. It's a reconciliation of men
to God, of God's elect to God. We're the ones who transgressed
against God. We're the ones who sinned against
God. His holy justice is offended. And we have to be reconciled
to Him. So satisfaction is what's talked
about in this word reconciliation. Satisfaction for the sins of
God's elect had to be made to God in accordance with God's
holiness. It pleased the Father. that in
Christ, the Son of God, should all fullness dwell. Now, God is the God of peace. That's His name. He's the God
of peace. God knew what a state of hatred
and rebellion His children would fall into in Adam. It was part
of His purpose of glorifying His name, of bringing honor and
glory to Him. Before the world began, the triune
God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, held
a council of peace. The triune God entered into a
covenant of peace. And the work of being a peacemaker,
of bringing about peace for his people, was given to the Son
of God, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah 6.13 says, he shall
build the temple of the Lord. he shall bear the glory, and
shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon
his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both."
Therefore, the Lord God, because this counsel of peace, this covenant
of peace was entered into before the world began, the Lord God
says He knows his thoughts. No matter what his children did,
no matter how they sinned, what they fell into, he knows his
thoughts towards his children. He says, I know the thoughts
that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil, to give you an expected end. Now, God the Father gave
his son, his only begotten son, to make this peace through the
blood, through the death of His Son on the cross, on the cursed
tree, dying that shameful death at Calvary. He gave His Son,
and His Son entered into this covenant of peace to bring about
this peace this way. And so here we read in Colossians
1.20, and having made peace through the blood of His cross, through
death, through laying down His life on the cross, He reconciled
all things unto Himself. God was in Christ reconciling
all things unto Himself. Now, no man could and no man
ever can bring about peace that Christ has made. or like Christ
has made. He's man, made with the same
nature as those He came to make peace for. And He knew no sin,
therefore He's a fit sacrifice to offer Himself to God in the
place of His people. And He's God, and therefore He
could draw near to His Father. and make this peace through the
blood of His cross. Christ Jesus effectually, you
know what that word means, effectually? It means He did it. He accomplished
it. We don't accomplish it, He accomplished
it. Christ Jesus the Lord effectually
brought about peace. by His death on the cursed tree. He reconciled His people to God. He succeeded. He triumphant in
accomplishing it. Now, here in Galatians 3.13 it
says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree. So when He went to Calvary's
cross, He who knew no sin was made sin for us. For those that
God gave Him before the world began in this council of peace. Those toward whom God's thoughts
have always been thoughts of peace to give them an expected
end. And Christ on the cross died
under the wrath of God, paying the penalty that we owed. We
owed death. If a sinner dies outside of Christ,
outside of faith in Christ, that sinner will suffer for eternity. because He cannot satisfy eternal
justice. Christ satisfied eternal justice
when He died at Calvary, when He suffered at Calvary. He satisfied
eternity at Calvary for His people. And so then here in Colossians
1.21, it says, And you that were sometime alienated, cut off from
God, separated from God by our sin, and enemies in your mind
by wicked works. The mind and the heart was polluted. It was defiled. It was unbelieving. We were enemies in our mind by
wicked works. Yet now hath God in Christ reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death. to present you holy. Christ affected this. To present
you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. He is the maker of peace in the
conscience. You see, it's interesting as
we go through the Beatitudes. Blessed is He. Blessed is He. It's interesting to see how it
starts with all these things that God affects in the inner
man. We mourn because we've been made
to see our sin. We're poor because we've been
made to see we have no righteousness. We mourn because we see our sins
against God. We hunger and thirst after righteousness
because we want to be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness,
but the righteousness which is of God, that righteousness of
Christ. All of these things, the blessed are the pure in heart.
This is that washing of regeneration, that renewing of the Holy Ghost,
that sprinkling of the blood of Christ, that purifying through
faith that God performs. what comes first and then we
come to this thing about the peacemaker. Blessed are the peacemakers. And here we see we were alienated
and enemies in our mind by wicked works. So Christ the peacemaker
through the Holy Spirit sprinkles this blood on the conscience
and now we have peace in our heart through this blood. We
have peace in the church by Christ the peacemaker. If we have peace
here, it's going to be to the glory and praise of Christ the
peacemaker. If you are a peacemaker, if you've
made a peacemaker and desire to see peace brought about between
parties, offended parties, it's going to be because of Christ
the peacemaker working in you. He 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. He gives peace. And that's why
we read, happy are the peacemakers. Our happiness comes from Christ
the peacemaker. Now, They shall be called the
children of God. That's our happiness. We know
because of what Christ has done for us and in us. We're children
of God. This is what brings about this
peace, is to be a child of God and know we're a child of God.
Now, I want you to see something here. In this all-fullness, in
Colossians 1.19, it pleased the Father that in Him should all
fullness dwell. Now, all the fullness, the glory
of all God's perfections, all the fullness, the glory of all
God's perfections are found in Christ and in this way that he
made peace. By God's own Son, through the
cross, the fullness of God's grace and mercy are seen in Christ
on the cross. We may not see it fully, but
the fullness of His grace and mercy is in Christ on the cross. The fullness of God's wisdom
the fullness of God's power, the fullness of God, His faithfulness
is manifest in Christ the person through the work that He faithfully,
wisely performed that brought about this power of salvation
that He wrought. The fullness of God's righteousness,
of Him being just and the justifier, the fullness of His holiness,
His holy love, His holy mercy, His holy grace, His holy long-suffering. It's all holy. That's the first
character, the first perfection of God. Holiness. And it's all
seen in Christ on the cross. In God the Son. In Christ Jesus
our Lord. In His sacrifice. In His suffering. In His death. all the fullness
of peacemaking is manifest. So what does that tell us? What
does that tell us? If the believer ever has a question
about the best way to make peace between two parties, you know
where we need to go? We need to go to Christ at Calvary. and behold how peace was made. How did He make peace? How did
grace and mercy, the fullness of grace and mercy, how does
it manifest? How does the faithfulness and wisdom and power of God manifest?
How does His holiness and His righteousness manifest? Turn
over to Philippians chapter 2. Just back to the left, one book
from Colossians. Philippians chapter 2. And this is that desire, this
is that fruit of peace and that desire to be a peacemaker that
the Spirit of Christ creates in a believer. And here's where
we find where this fullness is. This is right where Paul went,
the Apostle Paul went when he was showing the brethren at Philippi
how to be peacemakers. This is right where he went to
Christ. Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. It doesn't matter where the believer
is, what station in life he is, if he's if his office or the
capacity he's in is higher than someone else, he knows that his
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is God and equal with God, and
yet he made himself of no reputation. He didn't come into the world
with any kind of superior attitude toward anybody. He came into
the world and made himself of no reputation. And he took upon
him the form of a servant. The form of a servant. This is
how a peacemaker affects peace. He makes himself of no reputation,
he takes the form of a servant. And he was made in the likeness
of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient. This is obedience to God. In the likeness of men, being
found in fashion as a man, he did what no man ever did. He did what no human being, no
sinner ever did. This one who knew no sin humbled
himself. He humbled himself and became
obedient to God. I'm not talking about King David
is a man that the Lord said he's a man after my own heart. But
this one humbled himself perfectly. This one became obedient perfectly. Would you affect peace? Would
you be a peacemaker? We make ourselves of no reputation.
We take the form of a servant and we become obedient. We humble ourselves and become
obedient. Humility is something that is
directly opposite to what we are by nature. Humility is something
that, by nature, we're full of pride. We're going to see something
of that today in our message. But humility, this is how we
learn humility, by looking to Christ, by seeing and being taught
of Christ what he did. And disobedience, brethren, is
not only an obedience as He walked
this earth, which He was. He was perfectly obedient as
He walked this earth. Disobedience was unto death. Even. Not just any death. Even the death of the cross. That is, this death involved
being stripped, being beaten, being spat upon. It involved
being mocked and made fun of. It involved bearing pain in his
body. It involved going to a cross
and being hung up where people just sat and stared at him. Disobedience
involved taking the place of God's people before the thrice
holy God, bearing the wrath of God in their room instead, so
that they could go free. This is something that we see
here. We see through a glass darkly,
but we see here, this is how peace is made. I'm never going
to make peace if I'm trying to make myself somebody. I'm never
going to make peace if I'm trying to have other people serve me. I'm never going to make peace
if I'm full of pride and hearty in spirit. I'm never going to
affect peace if I'm disobedient and rebellious to God. and rebellious
and disobedient toward my brethren. I'm never going to affect peace
if I'm not willing to bear the awesome, awesome burden that
is my brothers or my sisters and bear it in their place and
take it upon myself. It means laying down Our life
is what it means. That's the peacemaking that the
believer, born of the Spirit of God, filled with the fruit
of peace. That's the desire that the inward
man has. This is the law written on our
heart. We want to be peacemakers. I
want to do this. I want to do this. I see another
law in my members. I know that I say things I shouldn't
say. I know I treat my brethren like
I shouldn't treat them. I know I'm lifted up in pride.
I know I disobey my God. But this is what I want, this
peace. I want to be able to be a peacemaker. Happy are the peacemakers. They're
happy. The Lord told His disciples,
He said, He that is greatest among you, let him be as the
younger, and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. He that is greatest among you,
let him be as the younger, and he that is chief, as he that
doth serve. Whether is greater, he that sitteth
at meat, or he that serveth? Which one is greater? The person
that sits at meat. That's what the Lord said. Is
it not he that sitteth at meat? But he said, but I am among you
as he that serveth. As he that serveth. And this
is how he wrought peace for his people that will never, ever
be taken away from his people. And this is the fruit of the
Spirit, whereby His people desire, with everything they are in that
new creation, to be peacemakers. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
It's the power of the Spirit. The power of Christ that causes
a believer to mortify his flesh that he might humble himself
and take the burden from his brethren. And when he does it,
in those times when the believer doesn't do it, he mourns. He sees himself as poor in spirit. He mourns over his sin. He hungers
and thirsts after righteousness and true holiness. He desires
for God to create in me a pure heart, a clean heart. Lead me
in the path of righteousness, Lord. And then in those times
when The believer is able to deny himself. The believer is
able to promote peace among brethren. He says, Lord, thank you. To you, to God be the glory. He's the one that has worked
this. Doing in us what is well-pleasing
in His sight. He's the one that works it. And
this is what we long for always. And one day, brethren, one day,
those who have this spirit in them, because of the work of
Christ Jesus our Lord. They'll be with God for eternity. And there'll be peace with all. Peace with all. Perfect peace. That's the happiness of a peacemaker. Happy are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called the children of God.