Matthew chapter 5 verse 9. It
says here, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the
children of God. Now as I say these attitudes,
blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children
of God, is the next to the last one we're going to look at here
before we move into the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. But
this, this like all of the The things described here are things
given to us by the Spirit of God in His work, both in our
salvation and also in our lives. These things are not things that
we just get once, not like a shot in the arm. It's not attitudes
that we come up with in order that God might bless us, but
attitudes God gives us in order to receive the blessings that
Christ has earned for us. So to be poor in spirit, to mourn,
to be meek, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, these are
the things God has given to us in order that we might know that
Christ is everything in our salvation. We have no hope, but that Christ
has died for us. And as poor people in spirit,
poor in spirit means we have nothing. We have nothing to bring,
nothing to offer, no claims on God, nothing to give. God has
to give to us, and what He's given to us, He's given to us
in Christ. And we mourn, we mourn over our
sin. We mourn that we have sinned so hostily against such a good
God. That's a gift God gives to us.
And so in our mourning, we cry out. And God comforts us. He comforts us with the knowledge
that Christ has done everything for us. And by God's work in
us, He makes us meek. He masters us so that His authority
is our authority. His way is our way. And we desire
salvation for those that He has given to us to minister to and
to pray for. And we hunger and thirst for
Christ's righteousness alone. We long to be found before God
and in our conscience with nothing but the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And these things make us merciful
towards others. We're merciful towards others
because we understand how God had mercy on us. We didn't deserve
anything from God. And God showed us mercy in Christ.
He teaches us what Christ has done and that cleanses our hearts
by His blood in our conscience We're we're clean and in our
heart is made clean. God has given us faith Purified
our hearts by faith and now we come to this verse here blessed
are the peacemakers For they shall be called the children
of God Now, the first thing I'd like to say here is there's four
things I want to try to cover today, if you can keep these
in mind. The first one is the foundation
of peace, the foundation of our peace. And the second one is
our experience of peace. Because there is a foundation
of peace. And that foundation of peace has to be there and
has to be independent of us. It was not established by us.
But based on that foundation, we experience peace. And then
the third thing is... that we are, because God has
given us this peace in our experience, ambassadors of peace. And the
last thing is, is how we are to keep the peace. That's where
peacemakers comes in, making peace and keeping peace. But
before we get into this, we need to understand a few things, some
basic things about peace. And the first thing I guess I
would say is that Peacemakers are sinners who have
received the reconciliation and have been reconciled to God by
the death of His Son. That's what a peacemaker is.
A peacemaker is not someone who just rises up out of humanity
breaks out a peace pipe and starts making peace with people, or
someone who goes to the United Nations and establishes treaties
and contracts whereby countries don't fight anymore, or goes
to an inner city somehow and gets people to lay down their
arms. Those are not peacemakers as defined by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Men can do that without any help from God. A peacemaker
has to be someone with whom God has made peace. God has made
peace. You'll often hear the phrase,
have you made your peace with God? But we can't make our peace
with God. That's our problem. We not only
can't go to God, we can't establish any conditions for peace. We're
not interested in peace. I was driving in this morning
and I noticed there was a police car and immediately I found in
me a reaction of a little bit of irritation just because he
was there. I thought, why is that? Why do
I have this reaction of irritation when I see a law enforcement
person? I think it's because it teaches
us something about ourselves that's naturally there that we
don't like to admit. That we're naturally opposed
to authority. We're naturally opposed to God's
law. And whenever God brings to us
the consequences of our sin, we naturally rise up and we're
offended by that. How could you find things wrong
with me? How could you be so just and austere? And it makes
us hostile towards God. Because we don't want God to
rule over us, and it bothers us, it angers us that He would
judge us out of His own rules. God is good, and God is right,
and what He does is right. But it bothers us to be put under
His rules. Tell people what not to do, the
first thing they want to do is do that very thing, isn't it?
And then you try to correct someone. The first thing that happens
when you try to correct someone is they immediately put up their
defenses and justify it, find an excuse for it, or want to
turn the accusation back against you and say, you're worse than
I am. That's the way we are by nature.
We're hostile toward any kind of rules and enforcement of God's
law. And that's why we need to be
made peace with. We're hostile towards God. It says in Romans
8, 6-7-8, it says the carnal mind, that's what we are by nature,
is enmity against God. We're hostile, hostile, that's
what it means. Hostile against God. We're not
subject to His law and we cannot be. So those that are naturally
in the flesh cannot please God. Those who try to come to God
in a way that they might please Him on their own works cannot
please God. So we're naturally hostile towards
Him and God has to make peace with us. And that's the first
thing we realize here is that peace is something that God makes. Peacemakers, first of all, are
sinners who have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. No one can be a peacemaker unless
God first makes peace with him. You can't make peace with God
and you won't be a peacemaker according to God's truth unless
God has made peace with you and revealed that peace to you. This
is foundational. If we get things out of the right
order, we'll make ourselves to be a model of something to be
held up and looked to and glorified because we've done something.
I remember as I've grown up listening to presidents and statesmen going
into the United Nations and establishing treaties between countries, how
they would lay down their arms and then them getting Nobel Peace
Prizes for doing that. And it always shocked me because
those peace treaties never lasted, sometimes days, sometimes years.
And then they'd go back and try to get them back to the table
and establish peace again. That's not making peace, is it?
But peace fundamentally is cessation of war, cessation of hostilities,
and we have to have peace made for us. How is it that we have
peace? We're hostile toward God? We
can't make this peace? Well, turn to Colossians chapter
1. This is the foundation of peace,
the foundation of our peace. Colossians chapter 1. The Bible
is full of references to peace. In fact, if you start a study
on peace, you realize that it's too big to cover in any amount
of time, really. It's huge. But we're just going
to cover it in some way today. So Colossians 1, look at verse
20. This is what the Lord has done. And having made peace,
you see that? Having made peace. through the
blood of his cross, this is what God has done, through the blood
of Christ, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by him to reconcile
all things to himself, by him I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven. And listen to verse 21. This
makes it particular, it makes it individual, specific to us.
And you that were sometime alienated and enemies, you see this? Whenever there's a problem, whenever
there's hostilities, there's two entities, two parties, and
one of them at least has to be hostile toward the other ones.
The hostility was on our part. He says, "...you who were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind and by wicked works." That's
what we were, hostile towards God. Yet now hath He reconciled. What grace is this? We were the
enemies and God reconciled us? Have you ever been in a situation
where it seems like someone is angered, and they're upset, and
they're separated from you, and there's a lack of peace, and
you don't want that to be there. You don't like to have this...
this difference between you and you know the only way that peace
is gonna be made is if you humble yourself and you go to that person
and you try to make reconciliation. Even though you may not have
felt like you were the responsible one for creating the hostility,
yet you had to go and make it right. Well, that's a very small
example and we've experienced that perhaps in our own individual
cases. But this is something that we
can't really comprehend. We were angry. We were at war
with God. We rebelled against God and we
were fighting against God. We hated him, it says in scripture.
That's what hostility means. It means we hate God. By nature,
we're haters of God. You say, well, I've never hated
God. I've always, I mean, the worst
that I've, perhaps I haven't done everything right. At some
point, I've done some bad things here and there, but I mean, I
never really hated God. But Jesus said, if you're not
for me, you're against me. And God says that to break one
of His commandments is to break them all. To love God is to keep
His commandments. If we don't keep His commandments,
we don't love Him. If we don't love Him, we hate Him. That's
basic. But our hatred goes much deeper than just breaking a commandment
or two. Our hatred is a complete ignorance
and opposition, not only to God's law, but to His salvation and
to His glory and to His person. Sin is fundamentally an attack
on God's person and his throne. Because right is how God thinks. Justice is what God does. And
so when we break God's law, we're fighting against God himself.
And we're not at peace with Him. We're at war with Him. In our
hearts, in our minds, it says here, and with our actions, with
our deeds. We're alienated in our minds
and by wicked works. Yet now hath He reconciled. How
did God reconcile us? First of all, understand, why
would God? Why is there a need for reconciliation? Well, because God, it says in
Exodus 34, He will by no means clear the guilty. God cannot
clear the guilty. It's not within His nature. It's
not possible that God can clear the guilty. Well then, you might
think, well that means there's no hope for me, a guilty person,
if God can't clear the guilty. And there is no hope in yourself.
And that's where reconciliation had to come from God. Because
God's justice cannot allow the guilty to go free. He cannot
allow it. Wicked men must be punished.
There's no peace for the wicked, saith my God. It says in several
places in the Old Testament, there is no peace for the wicked.
And so reconciliation on God's part was something God devised,
something He purposed, something He designed. And it was in His
heart. God didn't have to reconcile us. There was no law that said
He had to reconcile us. No obligation on His part. He didn't owe reconciliation
to us. but he purposed it and he came
up with a way to reconcile us to himself so that he could clear
the guilty by making the guilty innocent by making the guilty
righteous and this is the good news of the gospel the Lord Jesus
Christ is our peace that's what it says here in verse 20 look
at it again having made peace through the blood of his cross
You see, reconciliation that God provides is established by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Isaiah chapter 53. We
were the ones that sinned. Hostility is on our part, but
wrath is on God's part, and His wrath is right, it's just. And
so something had to be done to reconcile. God's wrath had to
be satisfied. And our hostility had to be removed
in order for reconciliation to take place. The first and most
important of those is God's wrath. His justice first had to be satisfied
in order for His wrath to be removed. But look at Isaiah 53. It says, In verse 5, that the
Lord Jesus Christ, remember God reconciled us by the blood of
His cross. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. Look at these next words very
carefully. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. You see, the way that God reconciled
us to Himself is He did not impute our sins to us, but He imputed,
He charged the Lord Jesus Christ with those sins, and having made
Him sin for us, He took the sword of His justice and plunged it
into Him, and brought the beatings that our sins deserved upon Him,
in order that His justice might be satisfied towards us, the
sinners. Because He put that wrath, that
sin on Him, and His wrath was expended upon Him. Look also
at Psalm 85. Psalm 85 says the same thing. And this is the foundation of
our peace. This is how God has made peace. And it's the foundation of our
peace with God. Psalm 85. Verse 1, Lord, thou
hast been favorable unto thy land, thou hast brought back
the captivity of Jacob, thou hast forgiven the iniquity of
thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. How does God remove
his, how does God satisfy his justice? He extracts that just
requirement that justice demands from his son. And He says that
by doing that, He has covered all our sin. Thou hast taken
away all thy wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. We couldn't take God's anger
away. We were the ones that sinned.
God had to take away His own anger. And the way He took away
His anger is He satisfied it by punishing the guilty. Christ
was made guilty in our place. And as our substitute, God brought
His wrath on Him. That's the foundation. And so
he says, look over at Isaiah 12. The same thing is spoken
of there, Isaiah chapter 12. He says in verse 1, And in that
day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee, though thou wast
angry with me. Thine anger is turned away, and
thou comfortest me. How? How did this happen? Verse
2, Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and song, and He also has become
my salvation. You see, the way, the foundation
of our peace is that God took His Son and offered Him up as
the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction to His justice,
and made atonement for our sins. And by that, we were reconciled
to God. God removed His wrath. And now
look at Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. As I said,
there's a lot of verses, a lot of scriptures devoted to God's
peace that He made with us and the peace we receive from Him
because of that. But Romans chapter 5 and verse
9. Much more then. In fact, let's
read from verse 6. Romans 5 verse 6, listen to these
things. Listen to what we are and what
we were when God reconciled us to himself. For when we were
yet without strength, We were without strength to make peace
with God, without strength to take away our sin, without strength
to satisfy God, without strength to obey God, without strength
to bring anything from ourselves with which God could accept us
and be satisfied. When we were yet without strength.
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The ungodly. You would think that's totally
antithetical. You would never die for an ungodly
man. Not if you're godly, but Christ
did. He died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then. Being now justified,
how? By His blood. What does it mean
to be justified? It means that God declares us
before His law to be perfectly conforming to what He requires. Every demand we've met, every
requirement we've fulfilled, by the blood of Christ we're
justified. But being now justified by His
blood, we shall be saved from wrath, through Him, through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to this verse in verse
10. 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. What grace. What grace is this? The Lord Jesus Christ was taken
by wicked men killed with wicked men, and he was murdered and
slain under the purpose of God for wicked men, in order that
he might save wicked men. And this is what this is saying
here. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ did. That is grace. That is mercy. That is the peace
that God makes. And so God tells us on this basis,
tells us something. Now I'll turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. What does God say to His enemies? To those who
in their nature are opposed to Him in every way. And in their
minds and in their wicked works. Well this is what He says. 2
Corinthians 5 verse 19. Verse 18, it says, All things
are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses
to them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, here's the word. Now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador is someone who
is chosen by the king, sent on a mission for the king, with
a message from the king to those designated by the king. And we
are that ambassadors. We're ambassadors for Christ.
Sent by the king, on his mission, with his message to those he
has sent us. We're ambassadors for Christ.
as though God did beseech you. Not only did he make reconciliation
by the death of his son, but now he comes to us in this posture
as his ambassadors beseeching you by us. We pray you in Christ's
stead. Christ isn't here, but we're
here in his stead, sent by him. Be ye reconciled to God on this
basis. Look at verse 21. 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. You see what he's saying
here? God laid sin on his son. God punished his son. And God
received from his son perfect satisfaction to his law and his
justice, magnified his perfections and his glory and his person
in his son, and proclaims his goodness and his mercy and his
grace to sinners who are hostile towards him. And He tells them
with His grace, be ye reconciled. And then He not only tells them,
but He brings with that declaration the grace to receive it. and
gives faith to that sinner, so that he's persuaded and convinced,
God has received everything he requires from me, from his son,
in my place. And believing that, we have peace
with God. And this is the next point. The
experience of grace. Look at Romans chapter 15. the
experience. God has made peace. He sent his
ambassadors to declare this peace to us, and now he gives us the
experience of it. Romans 15. He says, in verse
13, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
What's it like to hear the message of reconciliation as a sinner?
You know God doesn't have any good news for good people. He only has good news for sinners. Think of Barabbas. Remember Barabbas? He was the
guy who was in prison when they took Jesus to crucify him. And
Pilate said, I can release one prisoner to you. Who do you want?
Jesus or Barabbas? Remember him? Barabbas. Here
he is in prison. You can imagine what it was.
He's in his cell. Probably a distant from them,
perhaps. Hearing the clamoring of the
crowd. And all he hears is... Pilate asked him, Who shall I
release to you? Jesus or Barabbas? And he's in his cell and they
hear him say, they hear his name. He hears his own name and he
hears him cry out, crucify him, crucify him. Perhaps he's confused. He may not know who they're talking
about. And the soldiers come to get
him out of his cell and take him out into the light and let
him go. And he says, you're a free man. You've been set free. And he
says, why? What happened? And he says, someone
else was chosen to be crucified in your place that's what it
feels like that that sense of it only much much more here that
that's just an inkling you see the peace that God gives to us
is not just you've been set free to go back to your life God gives
us peace so that you know that in his heart God is pleased Accepts
you as his son and Receives you as his son as he was received
his own son He's that satisfied with us for Christ's sake and
when God gives us the grace to believe that it says it creates
joy and peace in believing look at Isaiah chapter 26 Isaiah chapter
26 this is the experience of peace he says I In verse 1 of Isaiah 26, in that
day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a
strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Our city is strong, and what's
the wall? Salvation. That's how strong
it is. And that salvation is the same as spoken of in Romans
8, where it says, Who is he that condemneth? It's God that justifies. And this is that salvation. On
the basis of what Christ has done, God justifies it. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is Christ that
died. That's that salvation. Verse
2, Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth
the truth may enter in. Verse 3, Thou will keep him in
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Why? Because he trusteth
in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. You see God gives us
the experience of peace When He gives us faith, and when He
gives us that faith, our mind is occupied, it's preoccupied
and occupied with the things of Christ. When He gives us that
grace to think upon what God has done for us in Christ, how
God purposed to take His own Son in the place of sinners and
Christ voluntarily gave Himself to the beating and the shame
and all the suffering and pain in order to save us. And we think
about that. We're kept in perfect peace because
God would reconcile us through the death of his own son. And
that's why it says here, whose mind is stated. Look over at
verse 12 of the same chapter, Isaiah 26, 12. Lord, thou wilt
ordain peace for us. For thou also hast wrought all
our works in us." In the margin it says, or for us. You see,
why do we have peace? Because God has worked out all
of our works for us. Look at Isaiah 32. Just a couple
pages over. All our works for us. Look at
this, Isaiah 32 and verse 17. And the work of righteousness.
What is righteousness? It's an obedience to God that God accepts as the
righteous demand His law requires. And God counts that obedience
as righteousness. The work of righteousness shall
be, what? Peace. And the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. God has done the work Standing
before the throne of God, we who have been redeemed, we who
have been given this salvation, we will look and we will see
this perfect robe of righteousness, the righteousness of the Son
of God, given to us, covering us. And we will sing with the
redeemed and say, unto Him who loved us and washed us from our
sins in His own blood. And that's the peace, the eternal
peace we'll enjoy in glory, but we know it now by faith in our
heart because God has convinced us that He has received from
Christ full payment, full satisfaction, and full honor and glory to His
law. Now, the effect of this on us
is that believers desire peace for others. You see, having experienced
the liberty of our sins being remitted, having been redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb, having been set free, what do we do?
We want to preach the gospel of peace. Paul said it this way
in Romans chapter 10, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. That was his desire. He said, I could wish myself
a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the
flesh. And that's why he said here in 2nd Corinthians 519,
we beseech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. God's
people who have been redeemed are ambassadors for peace. And
so it says in Psalm 122.6, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem. Because we want that peace. And
look at 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2, the peace
that God gives to us. Spurgeon said it this way, no
one can taste the honey of the gospel and eat it all himself. We want it. We want it. We love
this peace. It's free. It's given to us.
It's free to us. It cost God everything, but it's
free to us and we desire that peace for others. That's what
a peacemaker is. Blessed are the peacemakers. We desire that men be reconciled
to God. When men are reconciled to God,
what do they do? They lay down their hostilities.
They see that God has received them for the sake of His Son.
And God has received them in His Son. And God is well pleased
for His Son's sake to receive them to His glory and to His
honor, to the glory of His grace and mercy. And so in 1 Timothy
2 verse 1 it says, supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for
all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Understand that when he says
all here, all men to be saved, God desires all of his people
to be saved. And his people are taken from
among all the nations of the world. Jews and Gentile nations,
from every race, from every station of life, rich or poor. male or female it doesn't matter
all kinds of men all sorts of men whether kings that are in
authority or servants who are serving God will save all kinds
of men men without distinction of their own situation in their
in their in their own lives but God will save his people according
to his to his perfect will of salvation his electing predestinating
grace and he exhorts us therefore to pray to pray supplications
that means asking God prayers and intercessions interceding
for those that we want to be that we want God to be at peace
with. And we ask God to make peace with them by revealing
to them their sin, first of all, and Christ as the one who God
has made peace with them for. You see, a peacemaker, first
of all, is one God has taught. He was at war with God, and his
sin is what separated him from his God. And God, in that situation,
in light of that, in his wickedness, God has reconciled him. And so
he becomes a peacemaker and desires peace. This is what the gospel
does to us. It causes us to want peace for
those we love. And then the last point I wanted
to make here, and this is where I think we need to spend a little
time, is that God's people, the peacemakers, not only understand
and believe the foundation of our peace, and experience the
joy and peace that God has established for us in believing, but also
we're ambassadors for peace. We declare and confess that our
peace is in Christ and we want it for others. So we pray to
that end to God that he would, and we're delighted to become
servants for others in order that they might know that peace.
But the fourth thing is, is that believers also strive to keep
peace in the body of Christ. We strive to keep it. Now this
is something that It's funny that we actually have
to be taught this. We're taught it two ways, and
this is the way God works. When God teaches us something,
how does He do it? How does He teach us our salvation?
He brings His Word to us so that we hear it, first with our physical
ears, but then we hear it in our heart because the Spirit
of God applies it to us. Two ways, His Word and His Spirit. And so when God wants us to make
peace or to keep peace, He gives us His Word, we understand His
Word, and we ask Him to apply that Word to our hearts so that
we might be able to live according to that peace. Look at Ephesians
chapter 4. We should really read the whole
chapter here, but we don't have time, so I'm just going to read
a few verses out of this chapter. The point of this chapter is
that there used to be Jews, and outwardly, that was the only
people on earth God blessed. That was the only people who
could claim any promises of the Old Testament. the Jews. Gentiles were far off from God. But God made peace through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And now he's telling us the results
of that. You could read about that in Ephesians chapter 2 verse
11 and following. But here in Ephesians 4 he says,
on the basis of that peace that Christ has established between
Jews and Gentiles, he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation, the calling wherewith
you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace." How do believers keep
the peace? all lowliness and meekness, with
long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
by those things to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. You see, the first lesson to
keeping the peace is to understand how is it that there's discord? What causes the lack of peace,
the absence of peace? Discord. What causes it is strife. And what causes strife is pride. It says in the Proverbs, only
by pride comes contention. Only by pride comes contention. Why do we fight? Because we're
proud. Because we will not stand down. We just won't do it by nature.
We want to fight. We see the sheriff car or whatever
it is. We naturally get all stiffened up. And we just start getting
our defenses all up. And that's what happens when
we don't have peace between one another. And we realize the only,
what does it say also in the Proverbs? A soft answer turneth
away wrath. Doesn't it? And so, lowliness
of mind, it means that we take our proper place. Our proper
place. And what is that? What is your
rightful place in the eyes of God? You're a sinner. A sinner. A dead dog sinner. Deserving nothing in yourself
but God's wrath. You don't deserve a place amongst
His people. Those who believe the world was
not worthy of them. The world is not worthy of them.
Who are you to come in as a leper amongst God's people? God says,
take your place as you truly are. You are a sinner. Paul says, I'm the chief of sinners.
The chief of sinners. You can't offend someone who
knows himself to be a sinner. You just can't do it. The only
people you can offend are those who think they are something.
And so that's where the first thing, lowliness of mind. And
look at the Philippians, just turn over a couple of pages.
This is exactly what he tells us. Now remember, how did God
reconcile us? By the death of his son. But
who was it that reconciled us? The Lord Jesus Christ. What did
he do? He, who knew no sin, who was himself God. Look at
this, Philippians chapter 2, verse 1. If there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, and these things
are all in Christ, His comfort, His love, the fellowship of His
Spirit, mercies, the tender mercies of our God, fulfill ye my joy. that you be like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vain glory. Vain glory means an empty glory,
a sham glory, a glory that you think you have but you don't
have. It's conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man
on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. And then you know what follows,
who being in the form of God, he didn't think it robbery to
be equal with God, he was God. But he humbled himself, he emptied
himself, he made himself of no reputation, and he took upon
the form of a servant. Remember, he stooped down to
wash his disciples' feet. He says, You call Me, Master
and Lord, and You say, Well, for so I am. If I therefore,
your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to
wash one another's feet. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus. Not only did he make himself
a servant, but he took on our nature and in that nature obeyed
God so that even his obedience was even unto death. The death
of the humiliating, painful, shameful, whipping and beating
and spitting and hitting and the nakedness and the darkness
and rejection of the cross. He did that. He took the sins
of his enemies. and bore those sins in his own
body up to the tree. And we get offended so easily
when someone speaks a harsh word. I don't know if I like that tone.
Who cares? Take it. Just take it. Isn't that what Paul tells the
Corinthians? I would that you rather take
wrong. So let's strive to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And then back in Ephesians
4, he gives the basis of this. He says in verse 4, there's one
body. One body. If you're in this body,
you're all of one body. One spirit. You've all received
the same spirit of God. To know Christ. To trust Christ.
And to hang your whole eternity on Christ. Even as you're called
in one hope of your calling. One Lord, that's the Lord Jesus. One faith. If you're a Christian,
you all believe the same thing. One baptism. One God and Father
of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. We
have one Father. If we're at discord with one
another, who are we at discord with? The Father. We're at discord
with His Son. We're at discord with His Spirit.
And we're disruptive in the body of Christ. You see, maintain
this peace. Keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. Look over at verse 15 of the
same chapter. Speaking the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love. We speak the truth. We can't
have peace without truth. We don't strive for peace, we
don't release the truth or we don't strive for peace at the
expense of truth. We will not compromise the truth.
Remember what Peter did? He was in Galatians and Antioch
and there were Gentiles and there were Jews and he was eating with
the Gentiles and he saw the Jews come and he gets up and he leaves
the Gentiles and he goes sits with the Jews. What was he doing?
He was causing a division. On what basis? On the basis of
the law. I'm a Jew and I'm defiled by
keeping with these Gentiles. But by saying that, he was saying,
if I'm made better than the Gentiles by what I do, by the law, then
I am right with God somehow, before God, by the law-keeping. And he basically blew away the
whole gospel. Righteousness causes peace, and
it's Christ's righteousness, not mine. Not law-keeping on
my part, but on his part. And so, Paul stands up and says,
no, no. And he calls Peter and corrects
him right there in front of everyone. If you being a Jew live like
the Gentiles, then why do you try to get the Gentiles to live
like the Jews? And he teaches them that we're
justified by faith in Christ and not by what we do. Not by
some distinction in us. And so he says, speaking the
truth in love because we will not compromise the truth. Paul
would not compromise the truth of the gospel for the sake of
peace. That's not peace. God didn't
make peace with us by sweeping sins away and just saying, okay,
everything's fine. Do what you want and you're good
enough to go. No, no. He had to take those
sins and put them away, expending his wrath on them. and putting
them away and then bringing us, bringing us out of our hostility
to look to Christ and be at peace with him. And he says, therefore,
speaking the truth in love, that we may grow up unto him in all
things, which is the head, even Christ. And look over it. At
verse 32, Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be ye
followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us. and offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. That's the peace. That
sweet-smelling savor is the sacrifice of peace. One more place, and
I'll let you go here. Look at James. I just want to
emphasize that those with whom God has made peace, who experience
peace by faith, not only are they ambassadors of peace, but
they're peaceful people. They want peace. They don't desire
war. But we have to see this in correction many times because
the Word of God with His Spirit corrects us by these means. He says in James chapter 3 verse
14. James 3.14, But if you have bitter
envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against
the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and
strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Now, I know
something about envy. Envy, I think, is one of the
most insidious and bitterest roots that lies in the breast
of a human being. Why was it that they killed the
Lord Jesus Christ? Out of envy. Out of envy. He was delivered for envy's sake. They hated him because God favored
him, because he did only right. And they couldn't stand that. And they envied him. Why did
Cain kill Abel? Envy. Envy is who can stand,
it says in Proverbs 27, for who can stand before envy. But envy
is something when we see someone else benefited or blessed And
when we find this animosity, this hatred in our heart, that
we say, why did they get that? Or why do they have such a nice
life? It seems like things are so easy
for them. They're so smart. Problems, they
solve problems so easily. They get the best place at work.
They have the nicest kids, or the nicest wife, or home, or
car, or looks, or talents they can sing. I don't have any of
those things. My life is a wreck. I'm a mess. And we begin to envy
and think ill of others because God has given them good. You
know what love does? Love rejoices when others are
blessed. That is foreign to us. That is
totally foreign to us. To stand by and see somebody
else given blessings and good and then be happy about it. If God is good, if God only does
right, and He has not given you something and has given it to
somebody else, is that not right? Is that not good? Should we not
rejoice in that? That God would be so good to
give something to somebody else and withhold from me what I don't
need? That's the opposite of envy, is to be happy when someone
else is good. But he says, where there's envy
and strife, there's confusion in every evil work. Because what
do you do when you envy? You try to figure out how to
sneak behind and how to get the good that they're getting. How
to short circuit their plan. I mean, how to take it away from
them. If I could just make them look like a fool, then that blessing
would be taken from them. So you're all about confusing
activities. Your whole motivation in everything
you do is misguided and it's confusion in every evil work.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits
without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. And then he says
in the next chapter, verse one, from whence come wars and fightings
among you? Don't they come from the lust in your own members?
You lust, you kill and desire to have and you cannot obtain.
You fight in war, you have not because you ask not. And when
you ask, you receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume
it on your own lusts. That's the opposite of peace,
isn't it? And so God teaches us in these
words. He says, blessed are the peacemakers. Peacemakers are those with whom
God has made peace in Christ. Peacemakers are those with whom
God has taught them what Christ has done by faith in their hearts. So that they lay hold of that
in their conscience. They're at rest. They look forward
to meeting and seeing Him in His glory, knowing that they're
accepted for Christ's sake only. And they go about to make peace,
declaring the truth of what Christ has done, and they desire this
peace, not only with others outside of the church, but within the
church. We lay down our lives for the brethren. Let's pray. Father, we pray, give us this
grace to know what You've done in Christ. that everything we
think and do would be motivated on that basis. We were not redeemed
with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ.
Lord, help us to be willing to take wrong, be willing to think
of others, to be glad when they are blessed. especially when
they're blessed with faith in the graces of your spirit to
lay hold on this salvation that's in Christ. This is our desire
for us, for our children, for all that we know. Lord, help
us to remember to pray. You alone can save us. You alone can convert us. You
alone have made peace with us through the blood of your Son.
Lord, we pray that you would complete that work and save us
according to your faithfulness, your power, your righteousness
in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.