I invite your attention this
morning to Philippians chapter 4, please. Philippians chapter
4. Verse 7 will be our text. We'll look at some other verses
here in this chapter, but a very familiar passage of Scripture.
Philippians 4, verse 7. And the peace of God, which passes
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Peace. Freedom from disturbance. Peace. A state and period with no war. Peace, freedom from dispute or
dissension. Now our subject is not just about
peace. Our subject this morning is about
the peace of God. That's the only true peace there
is. All other so-called peace is
a false peace. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter
14, verse 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. He distinguishes the two. And
then he says, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Then in chapter
16, verse 33, Again, our Lord said, these things have I spoken
unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. The peace of the world is a false
peace. What the world calls peace in
the end will cause nothing but tribulation and trouble. And
it's in this that we see what true peace really is. Our Lord
said, my peace is not as the world gives, be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world. And He has. This is the peace
of God. And Paul says it passes all understanding. We can't understand it. It passes
all our understanding. And this is God's peace. God's
ways are past finding out. Romans 11, 33, oh, the depth
of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out. And so is the
peace that God gives. The peace of God can't be explained. It can only be experienced. Now
hold your place here. Philippians chapter 4 and turn
to the Old Testament book of Isaiah with me, chapter 32. Isaiah chapter 32. I want you
to look at two verses here. Isaiah chapter 32. We're distinguishing
the peace of God from what others call peace or believe peace to
be. And here in chapter 32 of Isaiah, Look at verse 17 and 18. These verses explain something
to us about the peace of God. And to even begin to appreciate
God's peace, that peace that passes all understanding, you
and I need to comprehend and grasp something about what this
verse is saying, these two verses are saying. But we can't grasp
it on our own. You and I can't by ourselves
fathom God's peace. True peace can only be given
by divine revelation. Only the divine one can reveal
it. Now this verse shows us where God's peace is truly found. Verse
17, and look at this. Think about this as we read this.
And the work of righteousness. Now let me just interject here.
that Christ, only Christ, can do a perfect work of righteousness. That perfect righteousness that
God will accept and that work of righteousness alone, Isaiah
writes, shall be peace. See that? And then he says, and
the effect of righteousness, or effect of this righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. Verse 18, and my people shall
dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings and in
quiet resting places. Isn't that sweet? The work of
redemption, the work of salvation, the work of sanctification, the
work of forgiveness comes only by Christ and His perfect work
of righteousness. And that work of righteousness
shall be peace. Christ's work of righteousness
is quietness, quietness of soul, resting in what Christ has done
for us. Christ's work of righteousness
is assurance, it's confidence in that what He's done for us
will stand forever. And it is forever. It's what
Isaiah tells us. And only those that belong to
God, only those who are his people shall dwell in peaceable, in
a peaceable habitation. God said, my people shall have
a sure dwelling. I like that. They'll live in
a quiet resting place. Don't you just love those three
words? Peaceable, sure, quiet. And this is the effect of Christ's
righteousness. Quietness and assurance forever. This is the effect. In Christ,
we don't speculate that we're redeemed. No, we're sure and
we dwell forever with quietness of soul. Turn back, A couple
pages to chapter 30 of Isaiah, verse 15. Chapter 30, verse 15. To the lost, to those who will
not have Christ to rule over them, God says this, verse 15. For thus saith the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel, in returning, and rest shall ye be saved. And quietness and in confidence
assurance shall be your strength." And then he says, and you would
not. That's talking to the unbeliever. You would not. There's no place
but in Christ where rest, salvation, quietness, confidence, and assurance
is the sinner's strength. And this piece passes all understanding. It's quietness of soul, it's
confidence and assurance in Christ. It's a peace and a calm within.
It cannot be understood or explained. Do you have this peace? Peace,
what a needful subject. Oh, today in this life, in this
world, there's just so much anxious care, anxious thought. So much
worry, so much fret, so much disturbance. And it's found within
and it's found without. And what's seen on the outside
always exposes what's on the inside. And it's so obvious that men
and women need the peace of God and sadly most don't have it. The Apostle Paul wrote 13 books,
13 letters of the New Testament in the New Testament, and all
13 of them, I never thought about this, I looked at this, just
doing a word study on the word peace, but all 13 of these books,
these letters that Paul wrote begin with, or with some very
close rendering to it, begin this way, grace and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's two things that
God desires for every child of God. Two things that we desperately
need. Grace and peace. And both are found in one place
and one place only, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusted in thee, Isaiah 26, three. Now, what is the peace of God?
Of course, it's peace with God. What is contentment of the heart? Well, of course, it's the peace
of conscience. How do we possess them? Only
in Christ. Last week, we looked at Colossians
1, verse 19. You remember what Paul said there
in verses 19 through 22. He said, for it pleased the Father
that in Him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. That was
our subject. And having made peace, now listen,
having made peace through the blood of His cross, Christ's
cross, that's how Peace is made with us. Through the blood of
His cross, by Him, by Christ, to reconcile all things unto
Himself, by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you, what about you, that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death. God died. to put your sin away. I never
grow tired of hearing that. I don't understand it. I can't
fathom it. But I know that it's so. And
that's the only way that you and I can be saved. And the body
of His flesh through death presents you. How's He going to present
you? Holy. Unblameable. Unreprovable in His sight. Now, According to verse 20 there
in Colossians 1, turning there, peace is made with God through
the blood of the cross. Paul said in Romans chapter 5
verse 1, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the whole theme of this
book. in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
that we have in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Through
the blood of the cross. That's how this peace of God
and peace with God comes about, is made. Through the blood of
His cross, through our Lord Jesus Christ. And it passes all understanding
of both men and angels. That's right, angels too. It's
peace with the Most High through the atoning sacrifice of God's
beloved Son. All reconciliation. Did you know
that we're alienated from God by nature? Yes, we are. All reconciliation, all forgiveness,
all restoration to favor cannot be given apart from justification
through the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only
when our consciousness of pardon Now listen, only when our consciousness
of pardon becomes as strong as our consciousness of guilt will
we enter into the enjoyment and the experience of the peace of
God. I can remember when God first revealed to me what I was,
the sin that so easily beset me. I thought to myself, I'm
gonna die. God's gonna kill me and I'll
have to agree with him. I'll have to stand in agreement
with God that that's what I deserve because it is what I deserve.
The wages of sin is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. Taking sides with God against
ourselves. But then one day I heard, not
with just these little appendages here on the side, but I heard
with my heart that Jesus Christ put away my sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And there was pardon for one
like me. And boy, then that pardon became
the the subject that was most on my mind. Pardon, forgiveness,
perfection. God has provided for me what
I could never provide for myself. And naturally speaking, we can't
understand it. Oh my, even spiritually speaking,
angels can't. Speaking of salvation and the
preaching of the gospel, Peter wrote which things the angels
desire to look at, to look into. It's not past our understanding,
or let me rephrase it, is it not past our understanding that
God Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ would condescend
to look upon us, to visit us, to give us peace, accept us,
reconcile us, and receive us unto Himself. Do you understand
that? Can you fathom that? No, no,
we can't. Now, look at verse 7 again of
our text, Philippians 4. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and your minds through
Christ Jesus. Now, this is not something that
we simply claim for ourselves. This is not a profession that
we make to obtain this peace. You know, that's what men today
have made salvation. It's just a profession. It's
just, you can say, you know, I don't know if you've seen the
commercials on television or not, but a well-known preacher
says, okay, say this prayer after me, Lord, forgive me of my sins. And you know, you're familiar
with that talk. And anyway, That's not salvation. Salvation is a gift of God. It's
a gift of God to us. It's an experience given to us
in Christ. It's inward peace. It's inward
contentment. It's an experience of the heart
and the mind. It's a gift of God through the
blood of Christ, and it passes all understanding. This peace
keeps our hearts and our minds, how? Through Christ Jesus. Oh,
when I think about Him hanging upon the cross, that He was hanging
there for me, that I was on His mind, that you were on His mind,
that He was putting away our sin by the perfect keeping of
God's law and the perfect satisfaction of God's justice. I'm speechless. I'm speechless. My, my. And it's contentment
that I find with who I am. I am what I am by the grace of
God. It's contentment with where I am. In whatsoever state I'm
in, I'm content. It's contentment with what I
have. The believer is content and thankful with whatever God
gives them. He makes us to differ. We can
receive nothing except it be given to us from above. Isn't
that right? And listen to me, we don't receive
this peace all at once. It grows as we grow in the grace
and the knowledge of the Lord. Our Lord said, come unto me and
I will give you rest. I'll give you peace and contentment. And then he said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. And you'll find rest for your
souls. As we grow in grace and in the knowledge, as we learn
of him, learning more of Christ, we grow in peace and contentment.
Now, Paul gives us five things in this part of his letter to
the church at Philippi that gives us more and more peace and contentment. Let me give them to you. First,
the first thing found in verse four, Philippians chapter four,
verse four. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. That word rejoice is used 10
times in eight verses in the book of Philippians. In almost
every occurrence, it has to do with rejoicing in Christ. Philippians
1.18, Christ is preached and I therein do rejoice. Yea, and
we'll rejoice. Oh, we rejoice in the preaching
of the gospel. Philippians 2.16, holding forth
the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ,
that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Philippians
3.1, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same
things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it's
safe. Philippians 3.3, for we are the circumcision which worship
God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. That's something for us to rejoice
about. Rejoice in the Lord and rejoice
in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. There's
always a reason and a cause to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we look to ourselves, no reason
to rejoice there. Let me let you in on something.
Quit looking to yourself. Don't do it. But if you look
to Christ, you can always, always rejoice. Rejoice in Him always
and again, and again rejoice. Rejoice in His grace because
it's sufficient. Rejoice in His blood, it cleanses
us from all sin. Rejoice in His righteousness,
it sanctifies and sets apart. Rejoice in His love because nothing
can separate us from that, nothing. Rejoice in His providence, because
all things work together for the good of them that love the
Lord, who are be called according to His purpose. Rejoice in His
finished work, for God has accepted it, and He's accepted us in Him. Isn't that something to rejoice
about? Rejoice in His intercession,
for He ever liveth to make intercession for us. I'm rejoicing. And when you have done that,
I say again, again I say, rejoice. Now this is the way to peace.
Rejoice in the Lord Jesus. There's always a cause to rejoice
in Him. Rejoice that He's the author
and the finisher of your faith. Friends, you believe, if you're
trusting in Christ, you believe in Christ because He starts and
He finishes your believing for you. He gave you the faith to
believe. He keeps you by the word of His
power. And you die believing because
of Him. He's the author and the finisher. Rejoice in that. The more we
rejoice in Christ, the more peace we have and the more content
we are. Therefore being justified by
faith, by believing, we have peace with God. It was our sin
that alienated us from God. God is angry with who every day? The wicked. Yet in Christ, the
quarrel with me and God has been removed. Because in Christ, the
sin has been removed. God's no longer angry with me.
My sin's been put away. The alienation is gone and reconciliation
has taken place. Our divine scapegoat has carried
our iniquities into the wilderness and out of sight, as far as the
east is from the west, and put them in the sea of forgetfulness.
Christ has finished transgression, made an end of sin, brought in
everlasting righteousness. Everlasting, I'm righteous forever. You can't take it away from me.
The cause of offense is gone, and it's gone forever. The law's
been kept for us. His justice has been satisfied
in our stead. Full compensation has been made.
Justice has been fully vindicated, and we are now accepted in Christ,
who is God's beloved. Does that not bring you peace? There's no gospel, no good news
without effectual atonement. If Christ only made salvation
possible, then I have no hope of ever being saved, because
I will not come, but I might have life, and I cannot come.
There's no good news apart from perfect substitution. What did
Christ our substitute accomplish if he did not save those for
whom he died? To say that He made salvation
possible and yet folks are not saved is to deny His effectual
atonement. The soul of the believer rests
at the foot of the cross where the precious blood of Christ
was shed. And my friends, peace can never
be found anywhere else. This peace doesn't just pass
common understanding. I'm telling you, I'm just an
average man with an average intelligence. I think there was 172 in my senior
class and I was like 99. Right dab in the middle. Average
Joe. Average Dave. Oh my. So, being an average man
with an average intelligence, this piece passes my mental capacity
easily. But not just mine. No. You take the smartest men
and women in the world, those with genius IQs, and it'll pass
theirs also. Matter of fact, it passes all
understanding. And speaking to those with high
IQs, God has hid these things, the gospel of peace from the
wise and the prudent, and he's revealed them unto babes like
me, just average Joes. Babes being those that are what?
Helpless, defenseless. impotent in and of themselves
to say or do anything that is spiritually good. That's who
He reveals this to. And it's all of God. God reveals
the covenant of grace. He reveals Christ. He reveals
all the blessings found in Him. It's God who reveals the mysteries
of the gospel. The veil of darkness and ignorance
that are removed in spiritual sight is given. I was once blind,
but now I see. And God's saints have a peace
they cannot explain. What are you so peaceful about?
I don't know. Well, I do know, but I don't know. I do know,
but I can't explain it. They'll tell you the same. They
have this peace, but we can't explain it. And they rejoice
again and again and again. They rejoice always, all the
time, and then they rejoice again. Do you desire this peace? Philippians 4, look at verse
5. Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand. Here we have the second thing
that puts you on the road to peace. Now the key word here
is moderation. That word moderation is used
only one time in the Bible, just one. And it's right here in this
verse. And you might be surprised, as
I certainly was, that that word moderation doesn't have anything
to do with eating and drinking. I always thought it did. We should be moderate. We should
be reasonable, restrained, and non-excessive in our eating and
in our drinking. And even in the way we dress
is not to bring shame and reproach on the cause of Christ. But that's
not what the word moderation means here. The one time that
the original word is translated moderation means to be patient,
to be kind, and to be gentle. Isn't that something? Let your
patience, let your gentleness, let your kindness be known to
all men. That's the way to have peace
in more people. And what a lesson this is, a
real lesson for me. You and I can't live in peace
with God and not live in peace with those around us. That's
right, Lord help me to be a peaceful man. Get upset about so many
things, things that don't mean a thing. In Ephesians chapter
four, verse 32, Paul said, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
you. The Holy Spirit tells us to follow
peace with all men, and the word men is italicized, so the verse
actually says, follow peace with all. and holiness, without which
no man shall see the Lord." Hebrews 12, 14. God will keep one in
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him because he trusteth in
him. I read that to you a minute ago.
I remember Brother Henry or Brother Scott, one of those blessed preachers,
my, my, so thankful for him. I remember them saying one time
that religious people are the meanest people you'll ever meet. And I found that to be true. Not only mean, but often arrogant
and self-righteous, but not the people of God. And I'm not going
to pick on religion today, not much anyway. But there are a
lot of religious people that aren't saved. Friends, it was
religious people that killed the Lord Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people who
claim to be Christians that are mean, arrogant, self-serving,
proud, and holier than thou. But God's people, true believers,
true Christians, whatever terminology you want to use, saved people,
they're patient, they're kind, they're generous, they're gentle. They let their moderation be
known to all men. Kind of like the man said one
time, it's kind of like being pregnant. You won't have to tell
nobody to get out on you. And that brings us to the third
thing. The Lord is at hand. The Lord is near. Oh, I wish
I could always act as though I really believed that. I wonder
sometimes if I would act like I do, if I would say the things
that I say, if I would treat people the way I shouldn't, if
I could just remember that the Lord is at hand. He's always
at hand. He's not off somewhere, as I
said in the first hour, watching us from a distance. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere all the time.
He's omniscient. He knows all things. He always
sees and He always observes our conduct. Oh my, Lord have mercy upon me. All things are naked and open
unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. All things. Nothing gets by Him. He sees
it all. Over the years I've heard people
use the term of the Lord returning to try
to scare people straight. They say, you better repent,
the Lord may come today. Or you better get busy serving
the Lord. He could come back at any time.
And you know, those threats soon wear off. Besides that, the coming
of the Lord to receive His children, it's like a loving father coming
home to be with his loving family. It's not a threat. We want him
to come. When I was growing up, my father
worked two jobs. He cut timber from daylight to
mid-afternoon, early afternoon, and then he worked as a welder,
second shift, and sometimes he didn't get home until after midnight.
And as a boy, I didn't see him a lot. Sometimes I'd fall asleep
at night, but I'd hear that old rickety, loud truck pull up in
the driveway. And I'd get up and run to the
door and meet him. Why? I love my dad. I wanted to see him. I wanted
to be with him. I look forward to his coming
home, returning. And that's the way the child
of God looks for their Savior's return. Beloved, the Lord is
at hand. The Lord is near, so rejoice. Be kind and gentle, for he's
coming to take us to that place that he's prepared for us. Then
fourthly, in verse six, Paul gives us another way to find
peace and to grow in peace. He says, be careful for nothing. Men and women have so much to
be careful about today. Paul says, don't be careful,
but be carefree. Free of care. Be careful for
nothing. Now, we have some things to care
about. We don't have to be anxious over
them. But I need to give some care
and some concern to my body, as you do. We need to take care
of ourselves. We should eat right. We should
get our proper rest. We need to be careful about our
families. The man of the house needs to
care for his family. He needs to work and provide
for them. But if any man provide not for his own, and especially
for those of his own house, he's denied the faith and is worse
than an infidel. Paul told Timothy, when Paul
says, be careful for nothing, he's not saying not to care about
anything. What he means is, don't worry,
don't fret, don't be anxious over things, especially if materialistic. In Luke chapter 10, I pictured
this in my mind so many times, Martha was just that, careful
over things that were not important in the overall scheme of things.
Man, you could call me Martha. She said, Lord, don't you care
that my sister leaves all the serving to me? How are we going
to eat on time? How are we going to get on with
the program if she doesn't help me? She hasn't lifted a hand
to do so while she's just sitting there listening to you at your
feet. Remember what he told her? Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things. Your sister's
chosen the good part. that which can never be taken
away from her. We're not to worry about what
we eat or what we drink, about what we're going to wear. Our
Heavenly Father knows we need these things. The lilies of the
field, they toil not. God clothes them so beautiful,
so much so that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as
one of those. The Father feeds the birds. Not
one bird falls to the ground without His knowledge. How much
more so is He watching you? How much more does He provide
and care for you? You know, growing up, I never
worried about my next meal, not one time. I never fretted over
what I was gonna wear. Why? Because my mom and my dad
took care of me. God, our Father, knows what we
have need of. So what do we do? Our Lord said
we seek first the kingdom of God. And what? His righteousness. And we're right back to the first
thing that we talked about. Christ's righteousness. We come
right back to the source of our peace. The perfect righteousness
of Christ our Savior. Everything else we need to live
is going to be added to us. That's what God said. We're standing
on those promises. Don't worry about your barns.
Don't worry about having enough room to store all your goods. A wise man once said, Lord, keep
me from riches lest I forget you, and keep me from poverty
unless I begin to steal. Somewhere in the middle there's
fine. The way of peace is to rejoice in the Lord. The way
of peace is to be kind and gentle. The way of peace is to remember
that the Lord is near. And the way of peace is to quit
worrying and fretting. And the fifth and last thing
that brings us more and more and more peace found in verse
six. Pray in everything. Pray about everything. There's
nothing that we shouldn't pray about. Well, should I be praying
about that? Yeah. Nothing's too small. Nothing's
too minute to pray about. In everything, pray with supplication. You know what supplication is?
Begging and pleading. It's knowing that what I need
most, God supplies. It's knowing that He is able
to supply. It's knowing that I need it more
than anything else. Now, we have not because we ask
not, and when we do ask, we ask amiss. We ask for things to consume
them upon our own lust. I'm not talking about praying
for a new car or a six-figure job. I'm talking about spiritual
things, the things that we most need in life. If we would ask
God for them, I can assure you, and we beg and plead with Him
for them, you'll get them. You'll get them. Pray in everything. Pray about everything. Let your
request be known unto God. Now in the nine years that I've
been the pastor here, I've never preached one time on giving money. I won't. Not going to do it.
Not long after I became pastor here, we put a box there in the
back of the church and we quit taking up offerings. And I had
someone who attended here ask me, he said, do you really think
that's a good idea? They added, won't the people
stop giving? So I asked that person, are you
going to stop giving? And they said, well, of course
not. You see, God's people don't have to be coerced or shamed
or begged to give. They'll give. They'll give. Just like you don't have to shame
people to come to church. They'll come. If they're interested
in this message, in this book, in this Savior, they'll come.
But we got some folks here driving two and a half hours to come
hear the gospel. My, my. Let our requests be made known
to God. If He wants to supply the need,
He'll tell somebody. We don't have to. There's nothing
for us to worry about because the peace of God that passes
all understanding shall keep our hearts and our minds through
Christ Jesus. Now that's where I'm going to
rest. What about you? May God be pleased to make it
so for His glory, our good, and for Christ's sake.