Alright, go with me if you would
to 2 Thessalonians 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Let's begin reading in verse
16. NOW THE LORD OF PEACE HIMSELF. Does that not sound nice? The Lord of Peace. Peace Himself. NOW THE LORD OF PEACE HIMSELF
GIVE YOU PEACE. Always. by all means. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with mine
own hand, which is the token in every epistle, so I write,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. That's all I need to hear. I
could go home. I could go home. I believe, though, the Lord gave
me a message, so I'll deliver it to you. Verse 16, it says, The Lord of
peace himself give you peace. Peace is what everybody wants. That's what everybody wants.
If we could just have peace, if we could just have peace,
some may not realize that that is ultimately deep down what
they want. Some may not be aware of that,
but that is what every person wants. That's what every person
wants. Peace, peace in the heart. Peace in the home. Peace in the
family. Peace with friends. Peace at
work. Peace in the community. Peace with God. Peace with God. Listen to the sweetness of these
words. Verse 16 says, now the Lord of peace himself give you
peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. This
world is crying peace. and is striving for peace and
they will never find it. They will never attain it. And
this is the reason why. All right, let me let me emphasize
this. They'll never find it. They're
striving for peace. The whole world is striving for
world peace. And they'll never, ever attain
it. And this is the reason why. They
are trying to attain peace through the enforcement of the law. This world makes its own governments,
makes its own law enforcers, police officers, armies, trying
to create peace through enforcing the law. It will never be had
that way. It will never be had. And it's
because sin is in every single one of us. It's in every soul
on this earth. Sin has infected every soul on
this earth. And all that sin can do, this
is all that sin can do. It's all that sin is capable
of doing. Rebelling against the law. That's
all it can do. Fight against the law. Sin is
transgression of the law. That's what sin is. And that's
what we are. And in the flesh, that's all we can be. The same
thing applies spiritually. That same thing applies spiritually. Man naturally is trying to attain
peace with God through the enforcement of the law. And it will never be attained
that way. It will never be had that way. Not as long as sin
is present. It cannot be attained that way. If peace is going to be won,
sin is going to have to be removed. If peace is going to exist, sin
cannot exist. It has to be removed. Now listen
to the wording of this verse again. Verse 16 says, NOW THE
LORD OF PEACE HIMSELF GIVE YOU PEACE. He'll grace it to you. Give means
grace. Freely given. The Lord of Peace Himself give
you peace. He is peace. And He's the source
of peace. And the reason is because there's
no sin in Him. There's no sin existing in Him.
And He said, I am going to give you peace. If you belong to Me,
I am going to give you peace. You cannot create it in yourself,
of yourself. You cannot attain it on your
own. But he said, I'm going to do something that will enable
you to receive peace. I'm going to give you peace. And this is the glory of it.
He said, I'm going to use every means necessary to do it by all
means. I'm going to give you peace.
And I'll use every means necessary to do it. Now, look at some scriptures
with me. We're just going to quickly stroll
through some scriptures. Go with me to 1 Corinthians 14.
1 Corinthians 14 verse 33, For God is not the author of
confusion, but of peace. He is the author of peace. He
created it. Peace came from His mind and
His heart. He's the one who authored it. Look at Romans 15. Romans 15 verse 33, it says,
Now the God of peace, The God of peace, He's the controller
of it. He is the sovereign over peace. What that means is, in our text,
it said the Lord of peace Himself. Lord means sovereign, ruler over
peace. What that means is, if He commands
it, it must be done. He is the God of peace. He is peace's God. He does not
strive for peace. He does not work towards peace. When He cries, peace, be still,
there's a great calm. Don't you love that story? He
got out in that ship with the disciples and the wind and the
storms came up and everything was raging and these lifelong
professional sailors all said, we're going to drown. We're going
down. I've been in a lot of squalls
in my life. Never one like this. This has taken us down. And they
went down to him and said, do you not care that we're going
to perish? Carest thou not that we perish? And he stood up on the bow of
that ship, and he looked at the wind and the storms raging, and
he said, Peace, be still. I mean, it didn't go... He said, Peace, be still. And there was a great calm. Just everything raging and raging
and raging and the God of peace. Turn over to Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 13, it says,
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach, except
they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace." That is
the message we preach. That is the declaration that
we've been given to tell the good news of peace. Peace. We get to run out. This is so glorious. We get to
run out in the middle of the war zone crying peace. Peace. Peace has been won. Peace has been made. Peace on
earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled. It's peace. How has peace come to such enemies
of peace as we are? That's what we are naturally,
enemies of peace. How has such peace come to enemies
of peace like us? Turn over to Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37 verse 25, And they shall dwell in the land
that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers
have dwelt. And they shall dwell therein,
even they and their children, and their children's children
forever. And my servant David, who do
you think he's talking about? Christ. shall be their prince
forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant
of peace." How can such enemies of peace like us find peace? He said, I will make a covenant
of peace with them. 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. My tabernacle
also shall be with them, yea, I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that
I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in
the midst of them forevermore." How did peace come? It came by
way of a covenant. God the Father made a covenant
with God the Son. I'm so glad God the Father did
not make a covenant with me, the sinner. He made a covenant
with God the Son. The Father, Son, and Spirit had
a particular people that they loved and set their affection
on. My people, He calls them. And every one of those people
fell into enmity against Him. Enmity means enemy. They became
enemies. So God the Father said, I'm going
to gather all of them up and I'm going to give them to you,
my son. And God the Son said, if you
give them to me, I'll go fight every single one of their battles
for them. David represents Christ because
he is the one who fought all the battles. That's how he spent
his life, fighting battles, fighting battles. David fought all the
battles. The end of verse 25 says, my
servant, David shall be their Prince. Do you know what the
word Prince means? Captain. Isaiah 9, 6 says, call His name
the Prince of Peace, the Captain of Peace. You call Him the Captain
of Peace. He is going to fight all their
battles for them. He is going to defeat all of
their sin. And He is going to win peace. And Christ accomplished that
on the cross. That's exactly what He accomplished
on the cross. Brother Mike Bartram, some of
you know him. He sings that song. I love it so much. One of the
verses in it says, the earth shook with the force of the conflict
and the sun refused to shine. For there hung God's Son in the
balance. And then, through the darkness,
he cried, It is finished. The battle is over. It is finished. There will be no more war. It
is finished, the end of all conflict. It is finished and Jesus Christ
is Lord. He's Lord. David represents Christ
because he fought and he finished all the battles. Solomon represents
Christ for this reason right here. Turn with me over to 1
Kings chapter 4. 1 Kings 4 verse 21, And Solomon reigned over all
kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines and
unto the border of Egypt. They brought presents and served
Solomon all the days of his life. In Solomon's provisions for one
day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures
of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and
an hundred sheep beside harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer,
and fatted fowl. For he had dominion over all
the region, on this side the river, from Tispa even to Asa,
over all the kings on this side of the river, and he had peace
on all sides round about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely
every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan
even to Beersheba all the days of Solomon." Now that all the
battles are finished, Now that there will be no more war, what
does that leave? Peace on all sides. Peace on all sides. All the days
of Solomon were days of peace, peace for every soul in his kingdom. No matter which way you turned,
you can turn any way you want to turn. All you would find is
peace. That's all you'd see is peace,
peace on all sides. That's what Christ has secured
for us. If God the Father gave us to
Him, this is all dependent on God the Father's choice in giving
us to Him. We are at His mercy. We're at
His mercy. But if the Father gave us to
Christ His Son, and if Christ fought all of our battles on
Calvary, then that's what he secured for us. All of our days
will be peace. All of our days, absolute peace. We might as well say it this
way. All of our eternal days will be Christ. All of our days
will be Christ. He is our peace. He is our peace. That's what
Ephesians 2 says. I love how it's worded that way.
He is our peace. We're made nigh by the blood
of Christ. For He is our peace. He broke
down that middle wall of partition between us. And He made peace. The Lord of peace Himself. Now, between this moment right
now, this very moment right now, In the moment that we enter into
our eternal peace, for our comfort, let's remember this, alright?
Turn with me over to Jeremiah, chapter 29. Jeremiah 29 verse 10, For thus saith the LORD, that
after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you,
and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return
to this place. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the LORD. Thoughts of peace. I know every thought that I have
towards you. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an
expected in expected in his hope. In expected anticipation, he
said every time I think on you. In that covenant I made. Every time I think on you in
that blood that I spilled fighting your battle. Every thought that
I have towards you is peace. It's all peace. It's all peace. And this is what he said just
before he left to go back to his father. He said, until the
day that I come back to get you, remember this, go over to John
14. John 14 verse 27, 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. Peace be unto you. That's what
he said when he arose and came into the room where all the disciples
were. Peace be unto you. My peace I
give to you. My peace I leave with you. I'm
going to leave it here with you. Whatever it is that is going
on in this tumultuous world, politics, wars, rumors of wars, my peace I leave with you. I'm
in control of every bit of it. I'm in absolute control of every
bit of it. Whatever is going on in your home, whatever is
going on in your family, whatever is going on inside your own body,
my peace, I leave with you. I'm in control of it. Now, I
want to read something to you that Brother Bruce Crabtree just
wrote. This was sent to me. This is
the peace that the Lord has left. We are looking beyond death where
there is no more death. A time and place where there
is no more sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. A time and place where
our Creator and Redeemer makes all things new. What a wise instrument
sickness is, brain cancer is, the shadow of death is when God
uses these things to teach us. How can we trust in ourselves
while facing such devastating things? What is God teaching
us but that we dare not trust in ourselves but in the God who
raises the dead? The Holy Spirit strips us down
to our very nakedness to teach us we must be clothed in the
garments of salvation, the robe of the Savior's own righteousness.
He proves to our conscience that we are guilty before God to show
us that salvation is of the Lord, that we are justified freely
by His grace. He brings us to the dust of nothingness,
that we may find the Lord Jesus as our all in all. He weakens
us only to give us the strength of the grace of Christ. And He
sends these messengers to whisper in our ears that our time is
short, only that our souls may answer, hope thou in God, for
I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. Oh God,
teach us. Joe and I are not discouraged,
for we are hopeful. We can face this and whatever
else God has ordained for us. Not because our faith is strong,
but because our Lord is strong. Not because we have been so faithful,
God forgive us. We are unprofitable servants,
but our God is faithful. Not one promise will fail or
fall. We are hopeful because Jesus,
the Son of God, who died for sinners' sake, is risen and is
at the right hand of God. And where He is, we soon shall
be, to our great delight and comfort. To the one eternal God
in the Trinity of His sacred Persons, God the Everlasting
Father, God the Eternal Son and God the Eternal Holy Spirit be
praise and glory forever, world without end. Amen. Go back to our text one more
time. Verse 16 says, Now the LORD of
peace Himself give you peace always, I mean always, by all
means. The LORD be with you all. The
salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token
in every epistle, so I write, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. What a blessing and privilege
it has been to read this epistle. All right, let's all stand together.