All right, let's go back to John
20. We will never, never ever fully
understand the value, the value of the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in what
that means for us eternally. Eternally. That one transaction,
you know, all of the thousands of years, blood of bulls and
goats, kill a lamb, kill a lamb, kill a lamb, and then in one
transaction for all eternity. When 93 billion years have passed,
we've no less days to sing His praise than the day we first
begun. The value. We know, we sing these songs,
we sing, oh the unsearchable riches of Christ. precious, more
precious than gold. We value it more precious than
gold. If you could receive a million
dollars or a billion dollars to never hear the gospel again,
would you take it? To never hear it again. We value it. It is to us more
precious than gold. And we know that Our Lord is
the pearl of great price. We know that and we believe that.
But we will never ever fully enter into the value, the worth. What that means, what it means
that He died and He rose again for us. Our Lord said four simple
words. And He declared an endless ocean
of mercy in four simple words. We will spend eternity. You know what we're going to
do all eternity, throughout eternity? We're going to spend eternity
looking into these things. His one word of His will never
fail. And we are never throughout all
of eternity going to exhaust everything he was saying in these
four simple words. Verse 19, it says, Then the same day at
evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were
shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,
came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be
unto you. Peace be unto you. How do we begin to describe everything he was saying in that? Verse 20, And when he had so
said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were
the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. He said, Peace
be unto you. What was his proof? That's what
he said. What was his proof? What was
his evidence? That everything he was saying
was absolute truth. He showed them his hands and
his side. In his wounds there is peace. Absolute peace. All peace is
found in the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ. All, all peace. Peace with God is found in the
wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with each other is found
in the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we do forgive
each other. When a group of believers come
together and the Lord opens their eyes and He saves them and we
all meet together under the same roof and we become brothers and
sisters, we don't become sinless. Now Christ bore our sin and put
it away, but we're still carrying it until the day we leave this
flesh. So we still do things that aggravate each other. We
don't want to. We sure don't want to. But we
forgive each other. And the reason we forgive each
other is because of His wounds. That's the whole reason. That
is the whole reason. It's because of the wounds of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We forgive even as God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven us. Peace right inside here. It's
a tough life. It's a tough life. It doesn't
get easier. I used to call my dad all the
time and ask him, please, would you tell me it gets easier? I
can't do it. It just doesn't get easier. But
peace, I mean absolute peace, right inside here, is found in
the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know no matter what
this world has for the next few years, I have the wounds of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I know what that means for
me for the next 93 billion years, which is my first fraction of
a second. of eternity. The dictionary says the word
peace means freedom from disturbance. I like that. Absolute freedom
from... Don't disturb me. I'm at peace
right now. Freedom from disturbance. It
means tranquility, calm, restfulness, quietness, harmony. How could
we begin to describe the value of those wounds? There's a man from the 1700s
named Charles Wesley. He's a hymn writer. He was a
hymn writer. We sing his hymns. And he did
a better job than I believe I'll ever be able to do of describing the glory we have
in these wounds. I want us to read together what
he wrote. I was going to quote you a piece
of the song, but I kept reading each verse, and I thought, well,
I've got to quote that, and I've got to quote that, and I've got to
quote that. I want you to look with me in our hymnal. Go to 223. 223 verse 1 says arise my soul arise
Shake off thy guilty fears the bleeding sacrifice in my behalf
appears Before the throne my surety stands My name is written
on his hand. He held his hands up like this.
He said you see that right there That is my name. That's what
he was showing them. That's you. That's your name. That's your punishment. That's
God's wrath on you right there. My name is written on his hands.
That second verse says, he ever lives above for me to intercede. His all redeeming love, his precious
blood to please. His blood atoned for all our
race. Every single chosen adopted child of God. His blood atoned for all our
race and sprinkles now the throne of grace. And sprinkles now the
throne of grace. Verse 3 says, five bleeding wounds
he bears, received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers. We said this morning that the
effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. He said, I pray for them. It says they pour effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry. Nor let that ransom sinner die,
nor let that paid for sinner die. That's what ransom means,
paid for. Verse four says, the father hears
him pray, his dear anointed one. And I absolutely love this line.
He cannot turn away the presence of his son. Can't do it. And the reason is because they're
one. If the son is standing there pleading on my behalf, the father
is there pleading on my behalf. They're one. And he cannot turn
away the presence of his son. It says his spirit answers to
the blood and tells me I am born of God. Tells me I'm born of
God. My God is reconciled. His pardoning voice I hear. He owns me for His child I can
no longer fear. With confidence I now draw nigh,
and Father, Abba, Father, cry, and Father, Abba, Father, cry. Peace be unto you. Peace be unto
you. Absolute peace. Verse 19 says,
Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week,
When the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled
for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said
unto them, peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed
unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again,
peace be unto you. I love how he told them again. He told them again, that is all
we need and want. That's all we need. That's all
we want. Tell me again. You want to hear
something new? Nope. I thought about a husband
and a wife. Do you ever get tired of hearing
your spouse say, I love you? Man, I wish they'd quit saying
that. That's getting so old. Tell me again, tell me again.
We just met here a few hours ago. We met here together in his name.
We looked into this word right here. We left him, we left here
hearing him say to our hearts, peace be unto you. And now we're
back. Here we are. We're here for one
reason only. We want and we need one more
time. We want to hear Him one more
time. Would you tell me one more time? Peace be unto you. That's the gospel, isn't it?
That's the gospel. Sinner against God, rebel against
God, you who were cursed by the law, sentenced to the judgment
and the wrath of God, peace be unto you. It's amazing. It's amazing. With his stripes,
we're healed. Tell me that again. Verse 21
says, then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you. As
my father hath sent me, even so send I you. To do what? To say, peace be
unto you. As my Father sent me to make
peace, so send I you to declare peace. And that's the calling
of a true servant of God. That's what he's called to do,
to declare peace through the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look with me at Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 1 says, Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at Romans 8. Verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. No condemnation. Absolutely no
condemnation. Verse 31 says, What shall we
then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? That is such an amazing line.
That God would be for us. Verse 32, he that spared not
his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. I love the thought of that. He constantly has those scars
in view, constantly. Peace, absolute peace be unto
you. That's our message. Peace through
the wounds of Christ. Our Lord shows us in our text
that that peace is all of God. Go with me back to the text. Verse 21, Then said Jesus to
them, again, Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, even
so send I you. And when He had said this, He
breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. The fact that our Lord breathed
on them and said, Receive ye the Holy
Ghost, that tells us two things. Number one, it tells us that
the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of Christ Himself. It's His Spirit. He breathed
on them His own Spirit. On the cross, when our Lord cried
with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit. Romans 8 verse 9 says, If any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Our Lord said
in Ezekiel 36, I will put my spirit within you. My spirit. He breathed on them. And that's what God did for Adam.
He breathed into him. He formed man of the dust of
the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and man became a living soul. That's what he does for all of
his people in salvation. Every one of them. And that's
the second thing we see in this. Just as God did that, God does
this. Just as God gave us physical
life, He gives us spiritual life. I thought about this. Our Lord created everything. He created
all things. Everything physical, everything
spiritual. Both of them. And their order
is the same. It's the same. And the reason
it's the same is because He made them both and His order is perfect.
The way He did it is perfect. Physically speaking, and this
is on the fact that our Lord is the doer of all this. Physically speaking, in the heavens
here, you know it's nighttime outside, you can look up In the
heavens, the foundation, the cornerstone, that centerpiece
of the heavens is the sun. S-U-N. Everything revolves around the
sun. Everything. All life and all
light comes from the sun. You can't look straight into
the sun. It'll blind you. If any man really
looks straight into the sun, it'll blind you. But all life
and all light comes from that sun. It's the exact same way
spiritually. He that hath the sun hath life,
and he that hath not the sun hath not life. He's the foundation. He's that cornerstone. Everything
revolves around him. Now physically speaking, of everything
that revolves around our sun, all those planets, all the moons,
all the stars, all the comets, of everything that revolves around
that sun, not all of them have life. He only chose to give life to
one, this earth. That vast multitude, that huge
multitude. One has life. It's the exact
same way spiritually. God chose a bride. Of everything that revolves around
him, he chose a bride. And to her and to her alone,
all of his people that make up his bride, to her alone he gave
life. In physical life, in physical
birth, the child has no part in it. The one who's going to be born,
he doesn't make a decision to be born, he has no part in it.
Life is given to him and then later on he finds out about it.
He comes to know about it. He's notified of it. And that's
exactly how it is spiritually. It is a work of God. Every ounce
of it is a work of God. Verse 22 says, When he had said
this, he breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the
Holy Spirit. Not accept, receive. Receive it. He's the doer of
it. Now right there in that verse, our Lord is giving these men
the gift of apostleship. That's what he's doing. He's
making them truly apostles. And he did that so that we could
have this truth. He gave them this ability to
write this word of God. And it's this declaration. We're
reading it right now. We read John 20 verse 19, John
20 verse 20, John 20 verse 21, and John 20 verse 22. John penned it. God wrote it. And this is what he did right
here so that we could hold these things and have this message
of peace, this message of Peace through his wounds. Go with me to Matthew 16. Matthew
16, look at verse 13 with me. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremiah, or one of the
prophets. He saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That was
Peter's message. That's what he preached. He went
everywhere preaching, this is the Christ, the Son of God. Verse 17, And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now he is
not saying, Peter, I'm going to give you all authority. He's not saying that. He's saying,
Peter, I'm going to reveal to you my authority. And then you're going to write
it down. You're going to write every bit of it down. And whatever
I have you write, will be bound in heaven for all eternity. Not one word of it will fail. It will be the word of God. Peter, I'm going to reveal to
you the truth of the matter and you're going to call it the gospel. The gospel, the one and only
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to tell men and
women what will damn them and who will save them. I'm going
to give you the gospel. Now go with me back to our text and look at verse 23. Our Lord gave them the gift of
the Holy Ghost, gave him his word, his spirit. Then he said
in verse 23, whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto
them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. He
was not saying, you have the power to save, you have the power
to heal. He was saying, I'm going to give
you my word, and you're going to write it down. And you're
going to tell men exactly what will damn them and exactly who
will save them. It's going to be bound in heaven
for all eternity. We look to these apostles and
we read their writings and we know this is the truth. This
is what saves. This is the gospel. If they say
this is salvation, this is salvation. Whom do you say I am? Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. I love Romans chapter 1
verse 16. I'm going to close with this
verse of scripture right here. Romans 1 verse 16. It says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. Not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. What is the gospel of Christ? Peace be unto you. I'm
not ashamed to say it over and over. Peace be unto you. I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Greek." What that means is if God has given
us eyes to look to those wounds, he held up his wounds, his hands,
his side. God has given us eyes to see
the value of those wounds. If God has given us a heart to
believe on the gospel of those wounds, we have peace. That's what it means. We have
peace. Peace be unto you. We have life,
eternal life through him. And he said, as my father sent
me, even so send I you. Thank God for this message of
peace. Thank God for this message of peace. I pray the Lord will
give it to us and give us the ability to preach it. And I pray
many sinners will hear this and believe it. Peace be unto you
through those wounds. All right, let's stand together.