here in John 14. Tom, my message
is a question. Do you need peace? This is for me, and I'm just
gonna let y'all listen in. Do I need peace? This has been a hard year. I was deployed for 2004 and 2005. And you go on Wikipedia, all
those list of cities, that's where I was, right in the thick
of it. And then I was deployed again,
the work was a lot easier, but I had a family. I had a wife,
three children, and I couldn't help them. I missed everything
for a year. That was hard. It was the hardest
year I've ever lived. I think that movie Office Space,
he said, every day you see me is a little bit worse than the
day before. So every day you see me is the worst day of my
life. That's what it feels like. There's a war going on. I need
peace. I don't want it, I need it. I need peace. Do you need peace? Here's what
the Lord told his apostles. Verse 27, John 14, 27. Peace,
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. We all got a good handle on what
that means? Have I said that twice? Let's consider it. I hope Lord will teach us something
tonight. 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. In this world, human beings want
Peace. We do. We want peace. Whatever
we define that as. We want things our way. I want
to be happy. You want to be happy? If I had
my way, I'd be happy. We think. Human beings want peace. There's a way that seems right
under man. And that's the way we take. If I thought I was doing
something wrong, I'd do something different. Wouldn't you? If you
know you're doing wrong, would you stop doing it and do something?
No, you think you're right. I think I'm right. Man thinks they're
right. They want peace. People want world peace. If we
could just get this nation back on track. You ever said that? I hear a lot of complaints about
the generation that's in charge right now, and all the complaints
come from the very generation that raised them. It's your fault. Shut up. You did it. If we could
end them wars, get our troops back home. If we could get this
nation back on track, get somebody good up there in the government.
We want world peace, don't we? Political peace. We want religious
peace. If the Muslims and the Christians could just get along.
Or if we could get that Catholic cousin to just kind of bend a
little bit and come sit with us. If we could finally get him
on board. If we could get that one denomination or that denomination
to line up with us, we'd have religious peace. We want, by
nature, public peace, don't we? Then my work would be better
if everybody get along. My workplace would. Wouldn't
it be good to work in a place where everybody just had peace?
They wouldn't going at each other. What about peace in schools?
You talk about a politically charged work environment. Parents
are sending their children to school with words on their shirts
to provoke a whole generation. They're using their children
as pawns in their moral causes. Does that sound peaceful? Sounds
selfish. And stupid. That's what it is.
That's dumb. Though it may be a moral cause,
it's still wrong. I want peace in schools, peace
in public, peace in religious places, peace in the family.
What if my family could just get along better? We want that. We want peace in the family.
We want financial peace. Don't we? There's a whole segment
of financial peace. They sell it online. Proven biblical
principles. If that's all you got, you just
got money. And money can't buy happiness. It can buy comfort.
A little bit easier to cry in a Mercedes than it is a cardboard
box, isn't it? But money just makes you more of what you already
are. If you're stingy, pay somebody's house off and put a bunch of
money in their bank and they'll make two pennies scream squeezing
them together. if they're stingy already. And if they give, they
just give it away. If they're happy, they'll be
happier. If they're sad, they're gonna be sadder. Just makes you more of what you
are. Or personal peace. Peace of mind. People say, I
can't deal with that stress in my life right now. I can't have
that in my personal space. They want peace. Peace of mind. I'd just feel better if I had
some personal peace. These are all wants. And all
of us may want these things. Natural man does. You got an
old nature? It wants these things, don't
it? But I can tell you for sure, everybody may want these things,
some may not. Some people shoot up schools. They didn't want
peace in school, did they? Some people may not want these
things. But I'll tell you one thing for sure. I'll tell you
something for sure. Everyone here, everyone that
hears my voice, or anybody, whoever I come in contact with, we have
a need. Not a want for peace, we have
a need for peace. Do you know why all those things
I listed, why there's no peace in any of those? I'll tell you
the answer. You don't have peace with God.
Why do children despitefully use their parents? Why do they
cuss their parents? They don't have peace with God. Parents
don't have peace with God. They knock a taste out of their
mouth. Knock that off. You don't have
peace with God. How could you have peace at the
home? You don't have peace with God. How could you have peace
in a family or a school or a public setting? If you don't have peace
with God, natural man, you can't be unevenly yoked. How can two
that walk contrary walk in agreement? You can't. You can't. You might
be able to. There are people I can't walk
with. They have different gods than I do. They haven't had peace
made. God hasn't made peace with them.
They might have made their peace with God, but God hasn't made
peace with them. You reckon this is important?
I care for y'all souls. I ain't here to just stand up
and talk for 30 minutes. There'll come a day I have to
give account for what I tell you. My laziness won't be a factor
in it. If I have to employ tactics,
I will. I want you to get this. You hear me? It may be unpeaceful in here,
but you need peace with God. My job ain't to come up here
and hold y'all's hands and be your little buddy and sip tea
with you. My job is to make sure to keep your soul out of hell.
That's my job. Tell you who Christ is, tell you what you are, and
maybe God will save you, and we can knock this religion junk
off. I care for you. You get that? I plead with you.
I'm crying. I ain't crying peace, peace,
where there is no peace. I ain't gonna do that. I'll tell you who is peace. Listen,
stay with me. This'll be important. We need
peace with God. What does the scripture say about
all those things I told you? What about peace with the world?
In this world you shall have tribulation. I don't mean you
might. If you ain't having tribulation, I worry for your souls. And I
don't mean the meter man showed up late. I mean soul trouble.
If you ain't got soul trouble, I feel for you, I pray for you.
God might save you. What about peace in our homes?
Somebody said, well, and I know I have like passion like anybody
else, but you think I'm different. And those people we put on pedestals,
if you think they're any different, you're a fool. I got a home. People say, well, if the home's
squared away, what man thinks in their houses? What'd God say?
A man's foes shall be they of his own household. What if I
live alone? He still wouldn't lie. It's a
guy looking in the mirror every day. That's my biggest foe. Our
peace of mind, apart from the Lord, by ourselves, personally,
our personal peace of mind, what's the Lord say? Every imagination
of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually. We may be okay with evil. We
drink it like water, don't we? Do you drink iniquity like water?
God says you do. You calling him a liar? We're
consumed by our lust, wasn't it? Our master's about to leave
these apostles and he says, peace, I leave with you. But this peace
he leaves with you, he said, it's my peace. It's my peace. And the world can never give
you peace like that. No matter how often they say
peace to you. Salaam alaikum, alaikum salaam. It don't matter.
Peace, peace. There's no peace. The world can't
give it. He said it's his peace. He owns it. He's a prince of
peace. Solomon had the three W's, didn't
he? He had wine, wealth, and women. And he said, every bit
of it's vanity. You can get all the architecture
and art you want. It's vanity. Build all the buildings,
race all the cars, fly all the airplanes. It's vanity. Stand
on all the political online platforms. He had Google back then. He's
on Facebook. No, it's vanity. It's all vanity.
This whole world is. Oh, Henry T. Mahan said this,
the peace of this world is at best external and temporary,
but the peace of Christ, it's internal and everlasting because
it rests on the shore promises of his word and the merits of
his blood. And it will strengthen and it
will sustain this piece he's talking about. It'll strengthen
and sustain his people through any trial. That don't mean the
trial is going to go away. He's going to have to give you
a trial to show you he's your peace and that he gives it. You get that? It ain't brain science and ain't
rocket surgery. He said it. It's my peace. I give it to you.
You're going to need it because you ain't at peace. Lord tells him here, he said,
don't be troubled in the heart because I'm leaving. He said,
you don't, don't be afraid of any of the dangers you're going
to face. Because in the midst of all that danger, in the midst
of all that loneliness or whatever, you're gonna have my presence,
you're gonna have my peace. Let not your heart be troubled. I
got three points for you, and they're gonna get shorter as
I go along, so I'll try to go fast, okay? First one, peace
with God. That's what he gives us. What
kind of peace is he giving? He's giving us peace with God. That's
the biggest requirement, that's the need that we have. and that'll
be the foundation for their everything. Peace we need is the peace of
God, and it's gonna produce in us internal peace, and it's gonna
produce peace with others. Now that's so. Why do we need
peace with God? Because we're born at war with
him. I have to tell you these things.
I've been in real war, and I wasn't sitting somewhere changing tires,
changing oil for somebody. I was out there in it. And if
you fell asleep, I've watched people fall asleep in guard towers,
and I know what happens. That's for our good, for their
good. You know, wake them up. It's important for me to fail
to warn somebody, tell anybody that you're at war with God unless
he makes peace for you. I'm failing at my duties. Why do we need peace with God?
We're born at war with him. Turn over to Romans chapter 8.
Let's do some turning. Romans chapter 8, verse 6. Romans 8, 6, Paul writes here,
for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life, and peace. You get both of them. We were
conceived in sin, the scriptures say. The scriptures say we're
born speaking lies. I talk to people on the phone
throughout the week, and I'm telling you, they get a handle on these,
and then they'll say, oh, brother, so-and-so, or, well, my cousin's
saved, and they know God. They're born again. They're spiritually
minded, but they have no peace. Everybody's been safe forever.
You know what I mean? That's too long. I've been safe
my whole life. That's too long. We come from the womb speaking
lies. We're conceived in sin. We come out of that womb and
we're dead in trespasses and sin. Dead. That's no peace. But
to be spiritually minded, God has to give us a new mind. That's
life. He came to give it more abundantly.
And that's peace. Romans 8, verse 7. Because the carnal mind, that's
what we get from Adam, is enmity, enmity against God. That means hostility. It's hatred. It's opposition. And it does
not say it is at enmity. It says it is enmity all the
time. Before God comes to us and declares
peace in our hearts, that our warfare is accomplished, we hate
God. You're at war with him. and you're
gonna die. You ain't gonna win. I have to come publish this piece
so people don't meet a holy God that they've offended and perish
in their sins forever in eternal damnation. Carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
We're born with a bad heart. A heart that's at war, and we
need peace. How can we have it? We just sang
it. We must be born again. There
must be a new heart given. The old one ain't worth nothing.
It's corrupt. It won't do. A new heart that
has a new king. We're our own kings. I've talked
to 10 people in the last two weeks, and everybody in this
state's their own preacher. They're their own prophet. They're
their own priest. They're their own king. I'll just make decisions. That's what Korah did. Korah
went to him and said, we're all holy. The Lord's with us. Use
some words of God deceitfully. And the Lord said, hey, Moses,
aren't y'all standing out of the way? I'm going to swallow
him up. And Moses petitioned for him. Well, Moses was the
meekest man alive. Go ask Pharaoh if Moses was meek. No. He was meek. He wasn't timid. We need to get a dictionary.
That was a man. We need a new king, not ourselves.
We need a new country, a new heart, a new king, a new country
of allegiance that we are allegiant to. We need a new citizenship,
his kingdom. That's the only way we can have
peace. How can this peace be made? Turn to the right just
a little bit, 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. How can peace ever be made? Sin's gonna have to be dealt
with, isn't it? 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature, born again, new heart. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new, and all things are of God. He's done
all this. Who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ. Reconciled is a change. That means to bring together.
A reconciler is a peacemaker. He's the peacemaker. That's what
I said in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the peacemakers.
He's the blessed man, isn't he? Christ, by that covenant in his
blood, by bearing our enmity, he bore our hatred. You get that?
Not just the things we thought we did good. He bore that. Our
evil hearts, our evil deeds, and he made us at peace. He made us clean. He made us
presentable in God's sight. How? Paul's going to tell you. And I'm going to tell you. That's
my job now. Ain't his job no more. He wrote
it. Now my job is to tell you. Peace I leave you is what the
Lord said, wasn't it? We have this peace in earthen vessels.
He's left it to us to tell others. He said, I gave it to you. It's
in me. And he left some. It ain't going to run out. I
can tell everybody about it. Here's where peace can be found.
Come have him. Drank freely, come to it. Look at verse 18.
And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. I have this peace, I'm gonna
go tell people about peace. Christ did all this and sent
somebody to tell you about it. And mankind's got the nerve to
charge him with folly. to wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing, not taking inventory,
that's what the word means, it's already there, not imputing their
trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto them this word
of reconciliation. Now then, we're ambassadors for
Christ. I'm an ambassador of his government,
his kingdom, to go into all the world. I'm supposed to go in
behind enemy lines. That's your job. God told you
to do so. We preach Christ and him crucified. As though we're
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. That
was Cora's problem. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled. Is that what it says? Be reconciled
to God. I say it, be at peace with him. I pray to God he put
peace in your heart and make you quit fighting him. And you
can't fight him, you can't hit him, so people just take it out
on his prophets. That's all right, I can handle
it. And they take it out on the preacher's family and the preacher's
kids and the preacher's car. His inbox, on his email, and
everything else. That's all right, I can handle
it. He gave me thick skin, I want peace. I want you to have peace. He's gonna deal with it. In Exodus
34, it says, he keeps mercy for a thousand, forgiveness and iniquity
and transition and sin, but that by no means will clear the guilty.
He's gonna visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
upon the children's children, and unto the third and fourth
generation, he's gonna do it. Uh-oh, this ain't pretend. Sin
has to be dealt with, doesn't it? God judges the righteous,
and God is angry with the wicked every day. I'll tell you something
I've heard horribly. They say, well, we love the sinner
and hate the sin, right? Is that what God does? We're
to do that, because the Lord may save that sinner. What about
him? He doesn't say he's angry with
the wickedness every day. He's angry with the wicked every
day. Because the father gave his only
begotten son is the only reason he can establish his justice,
be just, deal with this sin, and still have peace with us.
The cross had to be our propitiation. He had to be our mercy seat.
The go-between, that's the acceptable bloody sacrifice. Paul said in Romans 3 to declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Luke verse 21, for
he hath made him sin for us. That's the feminine noun, not
a verb, a noun. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's at peace. We was at war,
war's over, he won it, now there's peace, and we're made righteous
in him. Knowing this, knowing this is true, that it's given,
he gives us that peace. What'd you do? Nothing. He said,
I'm giving it to you. It's mine. We'll give you peace.
It's finished. And it's just, this is right. Knowing that, Paul said, there's
therefore now no condemnation, no more war, no more punishment,
no more death, to them which are in Christ Jesus. Peace is
his, and he gave it willingly. Why would he do such a thing?
Why would he do something? Having predestinated us into
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will. He wanted to. He's God, he does
what he wants. to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. He
was grace that did this, that gave us this peace. And it's,
we're going to glorify him because of it. And he's made us accepted
in Christ, in the beloved, in whom we have redemption. We've
been accepted and we've been redeemed. That's peace. Ain't
no payment left. And that's where we are. Through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to how much,
how much peace we got according to the riches of his grace. It
ain't gonna run out. It is the Lord Jesus Christ's
peace, the true peace that he gives to his people. Peace with
God. And what he's given to us, the
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. That means
God ain't gonna turn back on the gifts that he gave his people
if he's given life. And I'll tell you something else, the
other side of that coin, if God's gonna give you peace, you're
gonna take it. I don't want it. Yeah, well,
you're getting it. He'll break you, show you you're at war with
Him, and then you'll be tickled to death if you latch on that
peace. What's that produce? We have peace with God. What's
that produce? Internal peace. Internal peace. When this work
is done in us, the Lord speaks His word to our hearts. We don't
memorize doctrine and memory verses. God speaks to the heart
of His people. And he speaks peace, he speaks
comfort. He says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God. Here's what God says. Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her. Well, how can I
speak comfortably if I cry? Speaking comfortably is speaking
to the heart. I can't do that. I can speak to your ears. I'll
make everybody stand up and then we'll be awake. We can drink
water and do pushups. I'll have your attention. Only God can
speak to the heart. Comfortably. He said, speak comfortably
to Jerusalem, and my job is to cry. I'll yell or plead or weep
or whatever I gotta do, whatever he put to my heart. Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. What happens when the war is
over? That's called peace. Peace! That's real peace. That
ain't peace, peace where there is no peace. Everything else
is charlatans. It's a lie. You get that? that her iniquity
is pardoned. That's got me this week too.
Most of the time, I've just been itching, I ain't even told Kimberly.
You ready? He said, cry unto her, Jerusalem, cry unto her
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
He didn't say that her iniquity, her request for her pardon has
been approved. She didn't even ask for it. He
just showed up and said, peace. I didn't even know we was at
war. You're about to. Your inequity has been pardoned. For she hath
received of the Lord's hands double for all her sins. We have
the remission of sins and a holy nature that can never sin again.
What do I have to do to get that? Already yours. He shows you at
war and he says, peace. War's over. It's done. He's just telling you what's
finished. Does that set you in awe? Or is it old hat? It sets me in awe. Christ accomplished
peace for his people. It's awesome. It's of awe when
we see that war and the enmity that we were, that he made peace
for us, willingly, not begrudgingly, willingly, out of love, out of
his grace, because he wanted to. You want to get to know him? Don said that one time. He said,
you reckon if we was taking our final exams out of this book,
we'd crack it open every now and again? I got a whole list
of verses on peace. I gotta whittle them down some. Remember our Lord sleeping on
that pillow in the rear of the ship? And aft of the ship where
it's the roughest? He's asleep. They're scared to
death. Professional fishermen scared to death. He got up and
they said, we're gonna die, don't you care? And he got up and he
rebuked the wind and he said into the sea, peace, be still. And it ceased. He told the wind
and the waves, peace, be still. And it went away. It went away.
And they feared exceedingly. They were in awe. And said one
to another, what manner of man is this that even the wind and
the sea obey him? That's carnal, but I get it.
If I was on that boat, I'd be shocked. They were in awe. They were in reverence. They
were in adoration. How much more should we be? They saw the waves stop and they
saw the wind quit blowing. We've seen what's done, what
that meant. Christ has made peace for us
in that great wind of the word of God that was given to us over
and over again in his creation and his written word that we
spit on. His word, his law, his person,
his lordship. And Christ came and in our stead,
he fulfilled every jot and tittle in perfect obedience, honoring
his father in love. Our lack of peace is when we
have a lack of faith to look to him alone. He said, why do
you have so little faith? We was looking at everything
around us, not him, not the prince of peace. He's made peace of
the waves. He made peace with the wind,
the Lord's word that we've ignored and spit on. And he made peace
with the waves of wrath that we rightfully deserve that judgment.
We were fighting God, honoring ourselves, and the whole time
while we were enemies, Christ bore all of our judgment. God
turned us back on God. Go read Matthew 27 when you get
home. See how it makes you feel. Now we're holy because of it.
Holy. Our new creation lived a righteous
life that we didn't live. It's yours. You lived it. Well
done, my good and faithful servant. And we forever will live a righteous
life because he's made us holy. And there's no person, no punishment
that will ever be needed because we have a holy nature that cannot
sin. Paul said in Colossians 1, and you that were sometimes
alienated and enemies, enemies were in a war. They hate the
other side, ready to die for it. You were enemies in your
mind by wicked works. Now have he reconciled, he's
made peace. Where? In the body of his flesh through
death. What for? To present you. Holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in this sight. That's, that's good news. He speaks that
to our heart, this internal peace. It's not just for future promises.
When that judgment day comes, I got an insurance policy. No,
it's right now. We experienced that right now.
How do I experience this peace of almighty God doing all this
for me and him being on his throne? Shoe leather, y'all with me?
Pay attention. God's given us peace in his providence. If you get this, take us for
the rest of the week with you. This will help you get through
the week. If God's made peace, if he's made peace with himself
for us and he speaks it to our heart, he gives us that now because
we have peace with his providence. We don't think it often, but
it's so. Before God saved you, you never had that. Some of you
don't have it now. We fought God's providence. We
fought it tooth and toenail and we prayed against it. Oh Lord, don't let this happen.
Lord heal so and so. Let's get us a prayer chain.
It takes us 30 minutes to read it. Now we're thankful for it. We eat, we shave our head, we
rip our clothes off, and we mourn. But God sent it. It's right.
God did it. God did it. Job said that. He
said, the beast of the field shall be at peace with thee.
And Exodus said the children came out of Egypt, and it said,
against the children of Israel will not a dog move his tongue
against man or beast. That, that ain't gonna happen.
Nothing's gonna happen to you that you may know that the Lord
doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. We're
gonna know we're at peace. He's gonna prove it to us in
his providence. But what about the bad stuff? What about stuff
what man calls bad? What if I do get bit by a dog?
You ever been asked that question? I have. They said the tongue
wasn't wagging. I got bit. I got bit too, buddy.
I think Lola's bit half people in this room. Well, if I get
bit, we still know the peacemaker and we know he's on his throne.
We know he sent it and it's for our good. We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them are called
according to his purpose. Old Brother Spurgeon said this,
he goes, Providence, that was once estranged, and seem to work
counter to our welfare. Everything in life's going wrong.
Everything's going bad. Ain't no good in it. Now has
become peace with us. I'm going to have to have a surgery
on my leg soon. I'll find out next Monday or Tuesday. And then
I'm going to have to have about four crowns put in my head. And
I'd rather get beat with a garden hose than go in that dentist's
office. Don't want to do none of it. Hits right, God sent it.
I'm at peace with it. I may flinch, but I know who
the peacemaker is. Well, what if I fall away from
this peace? What if I go back to war? What if I cannot keep
the peace? Let me tell you, number one,
you can't. You can't maintain peace. And number two, when we
sin, that word if is when, when we sin, we have an advocate with
the Father. Here's what Jude said, now unto him that is able
to keep you from falling. Falling what? Back into war,
back into hatred, back into the lack of having a father, lack
of sonship. And present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise
God, our savior, glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now
and ever. Let's praise him. What, what, what, what, how about,
thank you, Lord. What if? What if we prayed to
him and thanked him right now? What about that? Peter said,
the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory
by Christ Jesus, after that you've suffered for a little while.
How am I going to know about this peace? You're going to have
some more. You're going to suffer a little bit. You'll be all right. Oh, this trial's terrible. Yeah,
you'll be all right. If you is. If you ain't his,
it ain't gonna be all right. Come Monday, everything ain't
gonna be all right. He said, after you suffer a while,
he'll make you perfect. He'll establish, strengthen, and settle you. That
means give you peace and rest. Now, having peace with God. Crossgate
made peace with us, for us, gave it to us. He says, here it is.
We have that now. He gave it to us internally.
We have peace in us. He spoke it to our hearts. Now,
we have also peace in death. Peace and death. The Lord spoke
of those righteous dying in Isaiah 7. He said, He shall enter into
peace and they shall rest in their beds. What about when this
life's over? That's all right. The dying means
I'm not too fond of. I don't want to hurt. I'm a big
baby. Hence the knee and the teeth.
I don't want to hurt. But the act of dying, I saw a man on
TV today, he's absolutely terrified of doctors. He said, there's
a doctor show. I said, why would you do it on TV? And he said,
I'm scared, there's sick people there. He said, I might die.
I know people that are scared to death. You know people that
are scared to death to die. You know why? They don't have
no peace with God. He hasn't given it to them internally.
He hasn't revealed it to them. The believer has peace in death because
of what the Lord says in it. Paul said, we are confident,
I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord. That's where we say to be absent
from the body is present with the Lord. Paul said we're willing.
We'll look it up later. I'll send you the note. Paul
said we're willing. I don't remember remembering
this, but maybe I've seen it before. It's fresh today. So,
or the other day I saw it. The Lord said about that beggar
Lazarus that died, said it came to pass, the beggar died. It's
in Luke 16, 22. And he was carried away by the
angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried." Oh, he didn't go to the Lord. He didn't get carried
away. He didn't have peace. He went
into a cold hole in the ground, waiting judgment. That's different,
isn't it? Revelation 14, I heard a voice
from heaven saying to me, Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labors. You can have peace from everything
you've been doing. For me to live is Christ, but
to die is gain. Paul said there's a war in our
members. Yes. Yes, he did. But in war, you
have moments of peace. When you're not fighting, you
didn't have that war before. You was at war with God. Now you
got a war inside. And when you're at war, you're not fighting or
watching or working all the time. When I was at war, those times
I ate. Those times I slept. Those times I watched a couple
movies. I went to a movie theater in Baghdad. I did maintenance. How could I have peace in a time
of war when there's members inside of me that's at war? The captain
of our salvation, he doesn't slumber nor sleep. He doesn't. He's the peacemaker. I gotta
go through it. He's going to make peace in me.
That's how we can have peace while our war rages in us. That
lulls a battle. You have a lull in the battle
when you come here. You see him, does he speak peace
to you and you forget about the war that's going on and you just,
you just see him. I like him. I love him. I want
to know more about him. That's a lull in the battlefield,
isn't it? He ain't sleeping, he ain't slumbering. He's on
his throne ruling and reigning, interceding for us, isn't he? Peace with God, he gives eternal
peace, dying peace, and then we have peace with others. Having
peace that Christ made for us with God, that peace given to
us, we want to give that peace to others that are still enemies
and still aliens to God. How can we do such a thing? The believer knows that God's
the first cause of everything. Man might be the second cause,
God's the first cause. Well, man killed Christ, yeah,
by the determined counsel and full knowledge of God, didn't
he? Wicked hands would slew him. God's the first cause of everything.
So those people that are against us are enemies and that we're
at war with in the workplace and this and that, and you make
a list, school, and everything else. God's the first cause. He's doing this for my good,
for my eternal peace. And two, they're sinners just
like me. They're at war, they're dead in trespasses and sins,
and they think because they breathe. They think because they got eyes
open and closed, they can see. They think because they have
ears that can hear it when I do this, that they hear. They think because
they own a Bible and they memorize some verses. They're presuming
their salvation, not possessing it. And I wouldn't know different.
I stayed up real late at night and arguing people about five
point Calvinism. I wouldn't apologize to nobody.
And God saved me. Did you know that? We speak so the Lord may be pleased
to speak to the hearts of others. We cry, peace is a person. Give me buddy. Peace is a person.
Don't let anybody tell you nothing different. And his peace is the
only true peace. He's the prince of peace. Those that cry, that's all of
us. I wrote an article, my bulletin's done for the week. I wrote an
article in it. Why I did that, because I could be down here
for the time being. I go to my office and study and
write these things. We publish these things. We cry unto her
that her warfare is accomplished. To who? I don't know. My job's
to cry. My job ain't to sort nobody.
And I thought of this. Paul said this in Romans 10.
He said, how shall they preach except they be sent? How are
we going to cry? Tell people, the person of peace. Maybe he'll
cry in their heart. As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. What's that? Their foundation, the providence
that brought them. What they brought up on, what's
their stable on, settled on, and bring glad tidings of good
things. Paul said, how beautiful are
the feet of them. What makes their feet so beautiful?
Paul misspoke. Did you know that? What does
it say in Isaiah 52? How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him. Mike David Pledger stood where
I stand right now and told you that about 10 years ago. I stole
it. I hope somebody steals it from
me one day. How beautiful the mountains are the feet of him
that bring up good tidings. Those that have beautiful feet
that cry peace in this world, they're just telling you of a
person who is our peace. I pray we could do that. Wouldn't
that be something? What if the Lord was to use us
to save some of those enemies with him? That despitefully use
him and despitefully breathe all his air, live on his earth,
eat all his vegetables. Well, it'd be peace if the Lord
saved him. You reckon that mean old boss you had, Matt, God save
that fellow? You wouldn't have no problems
with him. Easy peasy, wouldn't it? Paul told us in Romans 12,
if it be possible, as much as life in you, live peaceably with
all men. And we remember that the best
of men are men at best. We were no different. Ain't that
right, DM? Let me read something to you. We know that peace. He's made peace with us with
God, gave it to us. We have it inside. Now we want
peace with others. We want personal peace, don't
we? Well, we got it. I want family
peace. Well, now we have it. Now the
Lord's the head of this house. Christ and his church is not
like a husband and a wife. A husband and wife is supposed
to be like Christ and his church. Do you get that? Peace in the
schools. God rules and reigns. And my
Walmart fellas, some fella went in there and shot up, killed
like 13 of her kids in Pennsylvania years ago. They were wrong, but
they acted like men and women that believed God. And they had
funerals and they dusted themselves off. They patched the holes up
and they went back to school the next week. God did it. We have peace
in that. Public peace. What about our
work environment? It's politically charged, maybe
God'll save them. God's brought a couple of them here, ain't
he? God may save some of them. What about world peace? One day,
one day we'll wake up in a new kingdom. What peace that'll be. Oh, it'll be something. After
I got through, I went home and I thought, I wonder what old
Webster says about peace. You know how much time I'd have saved
if I'd looked that up first? Peace is a state of tranquility
or quiet. Freedom from civil disturbance.
Freedom from disquieting or oppression thoughts and emotions. That's
peace in the heart. Harmony in personal relations
with one with another. And a state or period of mutual
concord between governments. I once was my own head and now
I have a new head. And then peace as a verb. This
is the obsolete definition of what a travesty it is for those
that speak English to keep quiet or silent. God gave me peace
by shutting me up to sin so he could tell me about the peace
he made between me and God. Wouldn't that be something? Hold
our peace? That used to be something people said, wouldn't it? I wish
I could quit talking about me and talk about him. That'd be
peaceful, wouldn't it? All right.