We're going to be in Philippians
chapter 4. And we'll be looking at verses 7 through 9. Philippians 4, 7 through 9, and
our title is The God of Peace. The God of Peace. And now, as
you know, we got through verse 7 last week, but I want to look
at verse 7 again, because you'll notice that verse 8, which we're
heading towards, It's sandwiched between these two phrases here,
the peace of God and the God of peace in verse 9. So let's
read verses 7 and 9 first. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. 9. Those things which ye have
both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and
the God of peace shall be with you. So what we understand from
that is that verse 8 is, in seeing these things, in verse 8 it's
unto the peace of God. He's encouraging us to do these
things listed in verse 8 because it's unto the peace of God. So we're going to begin here
looking at the peace of God and we have two beautiful understandings
that are traced out for us in the scriptures for us to meditate
upon that we might better understand the peace of God. So this subject here fosters
the blessed thoughts that we have to think upon, that we may
meditate upon the peace of God, that we may meditate upon Christ
because it edifies our soul. And when we're fellowshipping
and speaking with brethren, it's an edification to them as well
to put our hearts our thoughts and our minds on Christ who loves
us and gave himself for us. So it's a good way for us to
begin the study. So of these two things, first,
our God is the God of peace because he's the one who designed our
salvation of peace. The very fact that we have peace
with God, this was all designed and done for us by God the Father. He's the one who purposed to
save us and to create peace with us. He's the one who did this
so that while as yet we were in the womb of the mind of our
God, if I could say it that way, our God already had a people. He already chose and elect people
for himself that he set his love upon and that he separated unto
Christ. So we don't lay claim to our
birth in Christ to anything that we've done. We recognize and
understand this is all of the Lord's hand. This is according
to His purpose. And I was thinking of Romans
9-11, and 9-11 it speaks of the elect the elect and the non-elect that
were in Rebecca's womb, right? And it speaks of them, of Esau
and of Jacob, but she's a type of our standing, our eternal
standing in the Lord Jesus Christ. That verse says, for the children,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of
works, but of him that calleth. And that verse there, what happened
in Rebekah, that's a picture of us in eternity. That it's
not based on anything we've done to earn favor with God. but it's
according to election. It's according to his grace and
mercy shown to us by election. Paul stated it this way to Timothy. He said, who hath saved, speaking
of God, who hath saved us and called us within holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. This is all according to the
purpose and will of God who chose us in eternity and it's not based
on the creature's works but upon his good pleasure as he determined
and willed to do of his own good pleasure of his wisdom in mind.
Listen to these two scriptures in Ephesians, Ephesians 1.5 and
then Ephesians 1.11. He says, Paul says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Verse 11, in whom also we have
obtained, we've received an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will." Now, because of our election and the purpose
of God, he sent his Son, his willing Son, to lay down his
life for us, to obtain, to work salvation for his people, to
make us his own. so that as God purposed it, so
Christ came and fulfilled it in time, and he secured to himself
a people for himself, the people that God had given to him in
eternity." Christ did this in time. 2 Timothy 1.10 says, "...but
is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel." And James, even the apostles,
they all spoke of our election and our security in Christ, all
recognizing that God did this work, he purposed it, in eternity
past. And he says it this way, when
the council were standing up and they were discussing whether
the law has any part in the salvation of the children of God, and they
concluded it was by grace, And James stood and said, Simeon,
or Peter, hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles
to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree
the words of the prophets as it is written, After this I will
return, and will build again the tabernacle of David which
is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and
I will set it up. That the residue of men might
seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is
called." There's the qualification. God has set his name. upon a
people. He has chosen out and separated
a people unto himself, saith the Lord, who doeth all these
things. And then he says this, known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. He already knew this. He purposed
all that's unfolding. He did this unto his glory, to
his praise, and the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. So he's the
God of peace because he determined to save a people rather than
destroying us all in Adam. He knew what was happening. He
allowed it to happen. He permitted it to happen. that
He might glorify His Son before His people. So, instead of destroying
us, He chose a people according to His grace, and when He did
that, He entrusted them to Christ His Son. He entrusted us our
salvation, our good, our eternal standing, our inheritance in
Him. He entrusted all that work to His Son, Jesus Christ. So,
while much of religion is out there today, appealing to men
to do something for God, we find that the child of God confesses
that it's by the grace of God that I am what I am. It's by
his grace. I haven't done this. I haven't
earned anything of God. And he says, for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It's
all according to his purpose. And that's a sweet and blessed
thought for us who know in ourselves that we are weak fallible, very
fallible, full of sin and darkness, and yet God is merciful to us,
and he may be merciful to us because he worked out and designed
this whole salvation for his people in Christ. So this salvation in which we
boast, it's due to God who made peace with his enemies. While
we were as yet his enemies, rebels against holy God, He determined
to save us and put us in Christ in eternity past. Alright, now
the second thing that we see here is the peace of God is found
in Christ. Christ, for He is our peace. As Paul told the Ephesians in
2.14, He's our peace. And so God determined within
Himself, as we know, to make peace, have a people for Himself
and to separate us unto Him. And so the Son came willingly,
sacrificing Himself to make an effectual atonement for us, that
He worked our salvation, that we might have peace in Him with
God. So Christ did that. He came in
time. Looking at Romans 5, turn over
there to Romans 5 and go to verse 1. Here Paul says, therefore, being
justified. By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we enter into this peace,
we have peace with Christ, but we enter into that peace by faith. That's what the Spirit makes
us alive, that we might know the things that God has freely
given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so because of Christ's sacrifice,
we now trust him. He's obtained all these gifts
for us. whereby we enter into what Christ
has done and we understand and know what he's done for us already
when he came and died on the cross and shed his blood for
us. So he says now in verse two, by whom? By Christ also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. So it's by grace that we already
stand in Christ. It's through that work which
he's done, and that because Christ obtained eternal salvation for
us, he obtained all these gifts for his people, and he gives
us these gifts, including faith, wherein we enter into what he's
done. We understand the peace that
Christ has worked for us. That's why we know the things
that we know, He's made us alive by giving us his spirit through
regeneration, whereby we now see our need of salvation, that
we can't save ourselves, and we see that Christ himself is
our salvation. He worked it fully, completely,
and left nothing undone for us to do. and yet we enter into
it by faith because that too is something he gives his people
whereby we lay hold and understand the Lord did this for me and
I'm a sinner. I'm not worthy of this, but he's
worthy and those who come to God through him are accepted
with the Father and we rejoice in that and we're thankful for
that. So here's what faith makes known
to us. Verse eight, but God, the God
of peace, commended his love toward us in that, oh, this is,
I'm sorry, Romans 5, 8. Commended his love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more
than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. That's why
I worded it the way I did, that it's not our faith that saves
us, it's our faith whereby we understand Christ has saved us. He's already done it, we already
stand in Him complete, but it pleases Him to make these things
known to us, to reveal what God has done for us in Christ. And
so He gives us that faith whereby we understand and we lay hold
and we grow in the grace according to His mercy and power and glory
working in us whereby we know and understand. I don't deserve
this. This is all of God. He did this
for me. All right, so that's why we rejoice
in Christ. Now look over at Psalm 37. Psalm
37, we'll look at verse 37 through 40. Psalm 37, verse 37. And as we read this first verse,
tell me, who is this speaking of? Mark the perfect man. Mark the perfect man and behold
the upright, for the end of that man is peace. The end of that
man is peace. That's our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. What He did for His people, He
brought peace for us. Look to Him. Mark Him. He, the
end of that man, is peace, and he is our peace with holy God. He's the reason why we are accepted
and come boldly before the throne of God, because he is our atonement. But the transgressors, verse
38, shall be destroyed together, the end of the wicked shall be
cut off. Because they don't have any life. They don't see their
need of a Savior. They don't see themselves as
condemned sinners who have no hope or no ability to save themselves. They think in their minds that
everything's going to work out. That if there's a God, it'll
all just work out. God will see they're generally
relatively good people and better than some other people and that
the balance of scales will tip in their favor. But to the thirsty,
to the sinner, the one who's shown and has their sin revealed
to them who can't save themselves, verse 39 says, but the salvation
of the righteous, made righteous, it's of the Lord. He is their
strength in the time of trouble. Because for every sinner saved,
there's going to come a time of trouble for them, and many
times of trouble to keep us coming to the Lord. But there's a time
when we see we've offended Holy God, that we've done wrong, that
we're the rebels, that we're the guilty sinner, and that we
need His grace. And then we hear that message.
That's why He sent His Son. His Son is the very Savior. His son was sent to work out
our atonement, to work out our salvation, to secure us unto
himself. So that's when we hear that word,
when we're made to see, I'm the guilty rebel. I'm the one who's
deserving of hell. I've offended holy God and can't
do anything to undo that. I can't make it right between
me and God. but Christ has, and he does,
and he's done that for his people, and he breaks our hearts, shows
us our need of him, and we come before him upon our knees, begging
him for mercy. for grace and we're not going
to come proud and arrogant and boasting and thinking that we
can hold on to things. The Lord knows just how to break
us and to bring us low in ourselves to see our complete need of Him
and He'll deal with those things that are keeping us and preventing
us from coming to the Lord. He knows exactly what we're stumbling
over and what we have need of knowing and understanding about
ourselves and He'll break it out of us. He'll deliver us from
that bondage that is keeping us from trusting him and just
resting in peace in Christ our Savior. Verse 40, and the Lord
shall help them and deliver them and he shall deliver them from
the wicked and save them because they trust in him. So we were
in bondage to that wicked one. We were bound in that sin and
darkness. We were just like all the other
children of wrath and children of disobedience. But the Lord
came in mercy and shone his light into our dark hearts and drop
those chains that were holding us and brought us out of that
household of darkness into the household of the glorious light
of our Savior Jesus Christ and to his kingdom. And he continues
to teach us because he deals with us very mercifully, very
graciously, more than more than our sins deserve. He's very kind
to us and very patient with us, but He knows how to deliver us
and to keep us coming to Him. And He doesn't destroy us all
at once, but He brings us to see our need and to see our need,
and to see our need, and so that we keep coming to Him, and we
don't go back to this wicked, dark world. We see how the sin,
how the flesh turns us, tries to turn us back to this world,
but it keeps delivering us from this world and the love of this
world. 1 John 5, 20 says it sweetly this way, And we know that the
Son of God has come and hath given us an understanding that
we might know Him that is true. And we are in him, that is true,
even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Now, if you recall, Paul was
encouraging the Philippian brethren, right? He was saying, he was
encouraging them to peace. And go back to Philippians and
look at Philippians 2. I just want to cover this real
quickly, just to remind us. Philippians 2, verses 2 and 3.
He wants there to be peace in the church. He wants there to
be unity. And he says, fulfilling my joy, that ye be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, let
nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness
of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. And then
we saw how in chapter four, he addresses the argument going
on between the two women in the church, and he reminds them,
he's bringing them to remind them, Christ has saved you. Christ
has done this work of salvation for you. Rejoice in him. Rejoice
in him. Be glad and be thankful for what
Christ has done. And then he speaks of peace in
verse 7, Philippians 4, 7, and the peace of God in this unified
body where you're all of one heart and of one mind, being
like-minded, loving the Lord, and seeking Him. He says, "...and
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep
your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Alright, so there's
that summary. Hold your place there. Go over
to Colossians 3, because I want to show you that Paul's now writing
this letter to the Colossians, and it's very similar. And this
is going to help us understand what he means, what he's speaking
of in verse 8, Philippians 4, 8. But let's look at Colossians
3, 12. Colossians 3, 12. And again, it's very similar
here, and he's speaking of unity here to this church. He says,
"...put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering,
forbearing one another and forgiving one another, If any man have
a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do
ye. And above all these things put
on love, which is the bond of perfectness." So there's a great
deal of similarity between Colossians, what he's writing to them, and
what he's speaking of to the Philippians. He's saying, be
at peace, do those things that pursue peace and make for the
body to be unified. We're all marching in this gospel,
in the light of this gospel that God has revealed to us. We're
to be of one mind because we want to see this work blessed
and grow and reach his people. Now, Colossians 3.15. And he
says, after he speaks of this unity, he says, and let the peace
of God rule in your hearts. So as we do, as we pursue those
things that promote unity, we're going to experience the free
course of the peace of God. I mean, if you're doing those
things that promote unity and love and just focus on Christ
rather than ourselves, we're going to necessarily experience
the peace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. There's just no
other way around it. It's going to be a sweet, sweet
thing. And it'll be just ruling in our
hearts. To the witch also, ye are called
in one body and be ye thankful. So when we walk by faith in Christ,
all that fighting and arguing that we lay aside, because the
flesh, we know what the flesh does, we know how the flesh works,
we've all done it, we all do it, we know how we fight and
argue. As Peter said, wherefore? We
lay aside those works of the flesh. How do you describe them?
All malice, laying aside all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies,
and all evil speakings, right? So we lay those things aside
because of the works of the flesh. That's not promoting peace and
unity and love. That's just promoting discord
and it produces hatred and it just isn't helping the gospel. Henry Mahan noted that where
love, peace, and thanksgiving are absent, where those things
aren't present, faith isn't present either. Because if you think
about it, if you're trusting the Lord, if you're walking by
faith, even if you have a disagreement, you're saying, Lord, I trust
that you're going to work this out in my brethren. Just like
you work it out in my own wicked heart, you're going to work it
out in them. And Lord, I can't teach them because every time
I open my mouth, it just creates this friction and this fight.
But Lord, you're God and you conquered my wicked heart. I
trust that you'll conquer my brethren's heart, that you'll
change their heart. And I just want peace, Lord.
I don't want to fight and keep this thing going. I don't have
to be right. But I trust me to you and I'm trusting you to my
brethren. So that's why when you see something
that angers you or gets you upset, just go to the Lord with it.
Because we know, I know from my own experience, when I open
my mouth, More often than not, I make it worse, and it just
hurts somebody. So always begin with prayer,
and we do forget that. And so all you can do after you've
forgotten that is go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help
and to create that forgiveness and that peace because we want,
He's the God of peace, and we have peace with Him, and we got
something to rejoice in, and that's a great thing. And so I would put it in a positive
note. We heard what Henry Mahan said, the way he worded it, because
I think that's powerful. But what Paul is saying is that
where love and forgiveness and humility and thankfulness are
present, then the peace of Christ is sure to be present there as
well. You can't get away from it. Where there's a willingness
and just a love, you're going to have peace. It's just there's
no way around it. All right. So that was the first
point there. But now let's look at, we saw
the God of peace. Now let's look at, think on these things. That is verse 8. Let's look at
verse 8. Philippians 4, 8. And he says, finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any
virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. So beginning, just This word
true and honest, we're made true and honest in Christ. We're made
true and honest, meaning that we confess we're sinners. We
confess that we're not perfect and not right in everything that
we do. It's not because we're perfect. And that doesn't mean that we
go around always bringing up every wicked thing we did. I
mean, there was a time when I used to speak about the wicked things
I did and you get into this boasting thing where you start bragging
about how awful you are, how wicked you were as a person.
And I just, I stopped because it's not profitable. It's not
really doing anything. I'm just glorying in my things
I should be ashamed of. It's not about that, but we are
honest. We're not lying and pretending
like we're some kind of holy or special person that was so
good that that's why Christ saved us, but rather were saved by
grace. And Paul said, But after that
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. So that what he's saying to us
is when Christ appeared, when it was his time for us to know
him, he regenerated us. He gave us a new birth so that
we heard that gospel word, we heard what it was saying, and
we believed it. We were delivered from the bondage
of death and sin wherein we were held naturally. That's how we
all come forth. And so from here, being illuminated,
being made alive, we understand just things, that we are justified
by the blood of Christ. We're justified by His death,
not our works. Psalm 85. verse 10 says mercy
and truth in Christ we understand mercy and truth are met together
righteousness and peace have kissed each other so that Christ
bore our death he bore the punishment that we deserve that we might
know God that we might have fellowship and be reconciled to God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that he is the one who
is pure so that by his righteousness now we stand faultless before
the throne of holy God. Faultless before the throne of
God. That's how pure Christ is and
how righteous he has made his people to stand before God. And he's therefore the lovely
one. He's the chiefest among 10,000,
and He's made so in our hearts. So, all that being said, I ask
you, what is more true, more honest, more just, more pure,
more lovely? What's of a better report, more
virtuous, or more praiseworthy than our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ? And to hear and rejoice in His
gospel, what is more precious than Christ and his gospel and
his glorious gospel, what he's done. And so because of what
he's accomplished for this cause, we think on these things. These are the things that we
remember that produce in us that rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when I was looking at some
commentaries and reading them, many of them took this verse
And they applied them in a very natural sense of our dealings
with other people. And it just seemed very, very
natural in our course of dealings with people. But if we're right
and if our hearts and minds are set on the Lord, of a, it's just
gonna spill out over us so that we do deal rightly with people,
whether they're our brethren in the church or they're those
without the church. We're gonna deal rightly and
kindly and gently with all. So it doesn't begin with flesh. It doesn't, that which is good
and right never begins with the flesh. It begins with Christ
and him being preeminent in our minds. Now go back to Colossians
3. I brought you to Colossians 3 earlier because of that similarity,
but remember he's speaking very much the same way in Colossians
3 as he was throughout Philippians 2, 3, and 4. And so he says,
well we'll see what he means when I think on these things.
I believe this verse 3.16 makes it more clear. Here he says it
this way. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord." And, you know, what are you supposed
to do? Start singing to everybody? No,
but just like it says in Revelations, they sang a new song. All they
did was praise Christ for what he had done, and it was termed
a song. They were singing. And so it
is, when we speak of grace, we are singing with melody in our
hearts of what God has done for us through his son, Jesus Christ. So when your minds and your hearts
are set upon what Christ has done, remembering whose we are,
that we're not our own, that we are Christ's, that's going
to, just that grace, that salt of grace is going to be right
on the tongue as you're speaking to one another or to the other
people without, so that you're thinking of that which is true
and honest, just, pure, and lovely. And thinking of his good work,
that's the gospel that we have. It's his virtue, which he's called
us unto, and he's the one who's praiseworthy. Paul said, speaking
to yourselves, he said this to the Ephesians 519, I'll read
it. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So
just even speaking of these things is a song of grace that is pleasing
to the Lord that He draws from us. And then Colossians 3.17
says, And whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father
by Him. So that's why I wanted you to
see that similarity there. But don't leave Colossians yet.
Paul, you know, he words it that way and that you see that what
Paul is saying to the Philippians is really about Christ. We're
looking to Christ and I'm sure of it because in Colossians 3,
look at Colossians 3, 23 and 24. 23 says, and whatsoever ye
do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. You're doing
it unto the Lord. It's to his glory and praise.
Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the
inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. So we walk by his
spirit in us. That's why Paul tells us, if
you have the spirit of Christ in you, you walk by his spirit.
You're going to do those good works that are pleasing to him,
because it's not by this flesh, but by the spirit that dwells
in us. And we want to see that. That's
why he says, put on the new man. We want to grow in the grace
and knowledge. We know what we are in the flesh.
We've seen that plenty of times. We know what that is. But we
pray and cry out to him. That's why we groan in our flesh,
because we want to be more like him. We want to see him. and
his word dwelling in us richly. Alright, so we put Christ first
and then all these other things they rightly follow. When Christ
is first, everything else follows and falls into place. Alright,
then Paul closes back in Philippians 4.9, he says, 4.9, and those
things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen
in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you. Well, what
have we learned of Paul? What have we received of Paul?
What have we heard of Paul? What have we seen Paul do? Christ. Christ. Everything that we know
about Christ, I mean, you see it just pouring forth from Paul. Everything, he gloried in Christ
above all things. So, you think on and seek and
speak and desire of the Lord Jesus Christ above all, and then,
as he says in verse 7, Philippians 4, 7, the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, keeping your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. then we'll have that, we'll have
that peace of Christ because it can't but follow thinking
on him. All right, so I pray the Lord
will bless that to our hearts. Let's pray and then we'll be
dismissed for about 10 minutes. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy, for turning our hearts and directing our
hearts toward our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask that
you would fill our hearts with love and joy to our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, that we would rightly walk in Him, Lord,
because then we know that we'll rightly walk toward one another. And Father, help us to think
on these things, not to be so quick to put them out of our
minds. Lord, if need be, bring us low in ourselves that we would
remember our need of Christ and that He really is all. Lord,
please don't let us perish in this flesh, Lord, without Christ,
without him being our Lord and Savior. But Lord, we ask for
your mercy and your grace. Help us to hear the gospel and
to grow in it. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.