by the Son of God. We lay trust in holy, all for
us to do. Faith will trust in holy, find
him holy too. Stayed upon Yahovah, our Lord
to be blest, and He can be proudest, earth, faith, peace, and rest. Alright, Philippians chapter
four. Philippians four. Paul wrote in Colossians three,
remember, verse fifteen, he said, Let the peace of God rule in
your hearts, to the which you have called,
call to peace. And here in Philippians 4, verse
7, this is the text, Paul writes, "...the peace of
God, and the peace of God after consideration
of some things of Satan, and the peace of God, which passeth
all other things, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus." And that's our text, and that's our subject,
peace that keeps man keeping the peace. There's a two-fold peace that
we need. We want peace of being. We want
peace of heart, peace of mind. And we need peace of act, peace
in our home, peace in the church, peace with our brethren. But
that's our subject tonight, and the one that begins on Thursday.
You can't have one without the other. You can't have inward
peace without outward. It's a natural outflow into that. You can't have outward without
inward. Inward without outward. You can't
do it. All right, let's look at this peace that keeps us. Peace within. Peace of heart. Peace of mind. Peace that will
keep us from despair. Peace that will keep us from
distress. Peace that will keep us from
overmuch guilt and sorrow and sin. All right, look at verse
four. He begins here. This is how he
begins this. He says, Rejoice in the Lord,
always, and again I say, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice
means to be thankful. Rejoice means to be happy. Rejoice
means to be full of praise in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord,
the Lord Jesus Christ, as it is taught. In His name, we sang
just now, Jehovah. Jehovah Shema, the Lord our peace,
the Lord Jesus Christ who is our peace. This will keep your
heart and mind from despair and distress over your sinfulness
if you rejoice in the Lord your peace. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. Now Paul,
the apostle, is the writer of Philippians. And in every, people,
in every single epistle, letter that he writes to church, every
single one he begins by the same way. Every single one. Look at what he said sometime.
Every single epistle he begins this way. In verse two, every
single one he says, Grace in you and peace. Talking to believers. Grace and
peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
and peace. By grace, you say? Not works. Grace. Pure, sovereign grace. Not the works of the body, but
the grace. Freely given salvation. Free
of the seven from all the mess. Grace, by grace you're saved,
and by the Lord Jesus Christ making peace. Peace, making peace
for others. And this is what he's telling
us to rejoice in. And if you do, you'll keep your
hearts and minds. All right, look down at chapter
two. Now, you need to remember where you came from and what
you were in order to fully appreciate this peace. You need to remember
the pit you were digged from. You need to remember, Paul says,
just remember what you were before, an enemy of God, of man. All right? Verse 1, he said,
you have been quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Verse two, in time past you walked according to the course of this
world, according to the principle of the power of the air. The
spirit did not work within the children of disobedience. You
were no different than the people in the world who don't give God
a thought, who don't care about the gospel of Christ, who care
less, who never give God a word of faith. You were no different
at one time, right? Verse three, among whom we all
had our conversation, every one of them, in time past, in the
musk of our flesh, that is, only thinking of ourselves, fulfilling
our desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath. When things didn't go our way,
we got mad at God. Right? We didn't deserve anything from
God. Yet we got mad, but things didn't go our way. Right? That's
what we want. That's what that means. Children
are mad, angry at it. They're mad and mad. But God. First of all, but God. This is
the gospel in two words. But God. This is rich in words. For His
great love were with the others. Not everyone. Talk about you now, if you're
one of these that's been quickened. But God, for His great love,
or with His love for us, even when we were dead and sick, just
like the rest of the world, had quickened us together with Christ,
how gracious that is. And in the ages to come, He's
going to show them exceeding riches of His grace, and we're
going to know it, and we're going to get it, and really appreciate
it. Really rejoicing in Him. Damn. Really singing His praises. Damn. Look down at verse 12.
It says, At that time you were without Christ, alien, having
no hope without God in your world. What now? That was a time when
I wasn't interested in the gospel. How about you? Can you say there
was a time when you weren't interested in the gospel? You weren't interested
in the Word of God, the people of God. There's no desire to
be with them. You were far off strangers, all
of this, and that's about it. This isn't a temple. It wasn't
that. The end of Christ's season. You
knew there was some time you were far off. On May 3rd. This is what brings the Sovereign
in, the blood of Christ, for He is our peace. He is our peace. Read
on. Verse 15, He's abolished in His flesh the enmity, and
so making peace. Verse 16, He's reconciled with
us under God, having slain the enmity. And verse 17, and came
through the preacher of the gospel, preached peace again. The first thing that God shows
a sinner is his rebellion against God, his sin against God. And that was God didn't know
him any better. And then a preacher of the gospel comes and preaches
to these children. And you can work far out. And now, verse
nineteen, he says, you're no more stranger, you're farther,
you're a fellow citizen to the Savior. It says, He is our faith. There in verse 14. He is our
faith. Christ is our faith. He took
our dream. Scripture says, He took our sin. He made sin for us. We knew no
sin. That we might be made righteous
as God. He swapped places with us. He was our Savior. He took
our faith. That's what he took out with
him. That's what Isaiah wrote when he said, the chastisement
of my people, that is, God's people, the strikers of the law
should be laid on my people. But he took out the strikers. By his side, he gave the chastisement,
the equipment that we deserve from God. And so to the very
tribe, he laid it on him. He laid it on him. Now, He is our peace. He made
peace by the blood of His Father. God is not angry. God is not
angry. He poured out His wrath on Christ. There's no wrath there. So Paul
said back in our text, rejoicing in the Lord, rejoicing in the
Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Shalom, the Lord our King. And again
I say rejoicing. We have peace with God by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God said this in Jeremiah 29,
He said, I know my thoughts toward you. I know my thoughts toward
you. My thoughts are this, to bring you to an expected place. Your end before this was destroyed. But God, but God Almighty, came
to save you. And so we have peace. This is
the peace that we need the most, peace with God. Because it was,
I just, back to the hymn book, I just pulled this old book of
mine. I'm glad I did. John Owen said, nothing can give
perfect peace of conscience until you have an atonement for sin. You understand that? People the
world over are looking for peace, and they're looking for it in
everything there is to look for in them, but they're never going
to have it. Why? Because God is angry with the
wicked and with us, Jesus. God is angry with those who have
no interest in himself. And God's not going to give man
any peace. That's what he said. There's no peace for the wicked.
There's no peace as long as there's no peace with God. And there's
not going to be any peace of conscience, any peace of life,
until this sin issue is settled with God. And there's only one
thing to settle it. Whoever attempts it, I want to
say, whoever attempts to find peace in any other way but by
Christ's blood and His atonement will never attain it, not in
this world, nor in the world to come. So this is our best
tradition. This is the first time. And our
sins that are ever before us that drive us to despair and
distress at times, there's no peace except by rejoicing in
the Lord our God. So it says, Rejoice in the Lord.
Then again I say, Rejoice. Rejoice. This will keep your
heart and your mind from despair and sin. Your past you can never
erase. You can't get it out of your
mind, can you? That's just as well. Because that keeps you
from the world at all, because you're broken. But God blesses the man. God's
the only one who can forgive. And so you need to rejoice in
the Lord who has forgotten. have forgotten our sins, who
will remember us, but not our sin. That our sin may despair. This is the only thing that will
keep your heart and your mind from despairing. This is the
only thing, this is the peace that will keep us from worry
and distress over the future. We all worry over the future,
whether it's for ourselves, for our children, or whatever it
may be. We worry we don't know what tomorrow may bring. We worry
about it. Don't we? Every one of us. He
says rejoice in the what? And again, I say, rejoice. Rejoice
in who? The Lord your God. The one who's
in control. The one in whose hand you're
praying. The one who said, all things
work together for the good to them that love God. Do you love
God? Then all things work together for the good to them that love
God with a calling for Him to be God. according to His purpose. Everything is working out His
divine and all-wise purpose, and nothing can... Nothing can come about
in our lives other than what He did not order. And it's all
consistent. But you also know, this is peace.
Keep your mind and your heart from worrying about tomorrow.
Our Lord says, don't worry about tomorrow. Sufficient for right now is the
worst. Don't worry about tomorrow. What was the old saying? Some
people worry about, let's see, worry about troubles they
have, troubles they might have, troubles they have had, and just
worry about everything, that they have no control over anything. And this is the peace that will
keep your heart and mind from all the much sorrow. We all go
through sadness. We all go through bereavement. We all go through, well, sadness
over many things. But we know sorrow as those who
have no hope. We sorrow, but not as those who
have no hope. We have hope that this sadness,
this sorrow, will give way to exceeding joy. So he says rejoicing
in it, somehow rejoicing in the Lord, in check. The Lord says
this many times. He says, Tell them, it shall be well with
them. Those who are in private, it
shall be well with them. It is well with my soul
and in private, brother. Yours is the law. That's the
peace within today. All right? Look at verse five.
He says this in verse five of Philippians four. He says, Let
your moderation be known unto all men, that the Lord is with
you." Now, what connection does that have, first of all? Our attention is to find the
peace of God. The peace of God will keep your hearts and minds.
Well, when we're talking about peace within, peace that Christ
has made, Now we're talking about peace that he imparts, that he
imparts, that it's peace that he gives his people. Moderation that he's talking
about in verse five. Let your moderation be known
unto all men. It's not moderation in food or
drink, although that applies. But in the context, he's talking
about moderation in personality. I turn with you to James chapter
three. You'll see this. James chapter
three. You need to see this. James chapter three. He says,
Let your moderation be known. Under all men the Lord is at
hand. Let it be known that you are
a peacemaker. Those who have obtained peace
are peacemakers. Blessed, our Lord said, blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children
of God. Are you like those who have obtained
peace through Christ? You know, that's the only way
it ever happened. Blessed are the peacemakers. My wife was, has been teaching
our teenagers that the act is to follow the evidence. And she
rehearsed it with me Sunday morning, and that's pretty much what she
said to take this lesson. And she brought to my attention
how Christ is the He's the, He's the, He's the
peacemaker. He's the blessing one. He's the
one who's made peace. He came down here to a world
where everybody is at peace. He despised it. He killed it. But He made it. He made peace with them. And
so this is what He's saying, that in light of the peace that
Christ has made for us, let your peace be God. David said this, the man after
God's own heart, David said, I'm a peacemaker. There's one of God's... There's
a man who's a peacemaker. He's a peacemaker. James 3, James
chapter 3, he says this, in verse 18, "...the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace." You understand what they're saying? So please, go have peace. That's what it means. Fruit of righteousness. What's
the fruit of righteousness? Gentleness, goodness, faith,
leadership, peace, humility. All these things. Love. The fruit
of that is peace, and it's sown in peace of them that sow it. It sows seeds of peace. They
don't have peace. Those that don't, don't have
peace. He says, let your moderation. Moderate personality. What God
has done for you, let Him know. That's what He says. What God
has done for you, let that be known. There's no peace. There's not
going to be any peace of heart or mind for one who's not peaceful. Like a parent with a child. When your child is content from
being habitually complained and moaning and groaning and causing
trouble and picking on another one, he's going to be under the
storm. And there's not going to be a peaceful parent, right?
He says in our text, look at Philippians 4, look at this.
He says, the Lord is at hand. The Lord is at hand. The Lord
of peace is ordained peace. But one thing my father wouldn't
tolerate in my family was us kids fighting. How about you? Your sibling, sibling fight,
he wouldn't tolerate it. Here with me, Matthew 18. Our
Lord gives an illustration of this. Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18. This is a sobering
illustration. He gives. There's no peace of heart and
mind for those who don't make peace. They'll be only troubled. We're troubled. We're only angered
for those who don't make peace. No mercy for the merciless, no
peace for those who are brawlers and fighters. But Matthew 18, he says this
in verses 23 and following, he says, there's a kingdom of heaven
that's like a certain king which took account of a certain. And
he began to reckon, and one was brought unto him and owed him
ten thousand pounds. And as much as the man had nothing
to pay with, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife
and his children and all he had in payment to be made. And a
servant came and fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
I've paid you enough. I'll pay you all. Read with me.
Verse twenty-seven. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the
debt. All of it. He owed him ten thousand talents. And the Lord, the fellow asked
him, please forgive me. And the Lord just said okay.
All of them. Well, that fellow did it. Okay. The same servant went out, verse
twenty-eight, found one of his fellow servants owed him a hundred
pence. And he laid hands on him, took
him by the throat. And his fellow servant fell down
to his feet, and he saw him and said, have patience with me.
I'll pay you all. He would not. And he went to
test him in the prison till he paid the debt. When his fellow
servant saw this, they were sorry, and they came and told the Lord
that all he had done, his Lord had called him up and said, you
wicked servant, I forgave you all your debts. Oh, yes. should he who had compassion
on the fellow servants of God have pity on him? And the Lord
was lost, and delivered him to the tormentors, and no peace
for his soul after the torment. Verse 35, So likewise shall my
heavenly Father do also unto you, that ye from your hearts
should forgive not every one his brother that trespasseth.
Who's he talking to? He's talking to Peter and James,
John, Thomas, Bartholomew. Peter just asked, Lord, how long,
how many times do we have to forgive our brothers? How much have I forgiven you? Children should be able to have
arms and hands. If not, I'll be very pleased
to explain that to you. That's it. See there? It's connected. Those who think, think like me. In fact, think like me. But there won't be any case for
those who don't like me. Never. Ever. Now, look with me
again at the text. Verse 6. It says, The Lord is
at hand, but be careful for nothing. Now, stay with me. Stay with
me. Be careful for nothing. That
is, be not full of anxious care, full of care, careful, full of
care. Don't be full of anxious care,
that is, worry and fear and anxiety, for nothing. We have no control
over it. We don't. But in everything,
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request
be made known unto God, and everything by prayer and supplication."
Now, here's the key to this peace we're talking about. Not only
peace for men, nobody's going to get this peace from God in
some asshole. Somebody says, I don't think
I'm saved. Well, if you ask the Lord, you're saved. I don't have any teeth. If you
ask the Lord for His peace, you'll be saved. I don't have faith,
if you ask the Lord for it. In everything by prayer and supplication. Here's the key to this peace
within and without. Within everything by prayer and
supplication. Prayer, what is prayer? What is prayer? Prayer is not
a magic rabbit spoon or a magic wand or something. Prayer is
calling on the Lord to help you. Prayer is calling on Him who, without Him, you can't
do that. You can't do that. You can't
have His face. You can't do that. And prayer
is calling upon Him. That's what prayer is. Calling
on the Lord. He said in everything by prayer. In all things, in all situations,
at all times. Because we're poor and needy
and we need everything from God. We need His peace. And you're
not going to find it unless God gives it to you. But He called
on the Lord to give you His peace. We need to be peaceable. And we're not going to find this
in ourselves, it's without our faith, it's the grace of God.
We need God's grace to constrain us to be peaceable. We need God's grace to constrain
us to love as He loves us. No? Huh? That's not our virtue. We need God's grace to forgive
us as He forgave us. That's not our virtue. We need God's grace to be merciful
to others as he's been merciful to us. But we don't have that
in ourselves. Where do we live? In everything
by prayer. Go ahead. Go ahead. Our moderation has
to be moderate. See, the word modulation means
to not be given over to anything. If it's moderation in drink or
eat, if that means you're not given to the United Drunk or
the United Pleasant, or if it's moderation in your temper, or
moderation in your desire for things or material things, we
need moderation in all things, do we not? Or else we'll need
the same old compass. So he says, in everything, my
prayer, Lord, in all times, in all situations, especially those
times when you feel these things, if you know what I'm talking
about. We need his grace to restrain
us, to keep the old man down, to keep the anger in a rag. Paul writes so much about that.
Look what he's saying. Anger, wrath, malice, envy, jealousy,
all of that. In everything by prayer, that's
what the word supplication is. You see that? In everything by
prayer and supplication. That just simply means we need
everything only He can supply. It means to ask Him. for your
supplies, your daily supplies of mercy, of praise, of love,
of kindness, of modesty, of peace. Lord, I need help. He said, I'm
in every place, help. And time comes. Just as near as a car. And James
wrote, again, James wrote, you have not been caught. I'm sure that this kind of prayer
is a It's an area that we're all deficient
in. Is it not? There we get out of bed, perhaps,
ask the Lord to put this in our own hands. Let's put on this. Like we put on a suitcloth, you
know? What we all do in the morning, first thing, like, Before we
put our clothes on, we say, Lord, let us put on Christ. Let me put on Father's mercy.
Put on, Lord. And raise the head down. Keep it down all the way, that's
all. First thing in the morning. This is why Paul said, pray for
that face. Now, during the day, Lord, keep
it down. Keep it down. So let me bring
approach on you. Let me do something alright. Let me resemble my Lord in some
way. Before you go to bed, thank you, Jesus. didn't give them the faith that
allowed you to give them what you could have. The thanksgiving. And everything by prayer and
with thanksgiving. Prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving. You see, the thankful heart is a peaceful heart. You
know that? A thankful heart, someone who's
really thankful for God's mercy will be in mercy. I think we're
ever thankful. Someone is mindful of just how
merciful God's been to them. A thankful heart is a peaceful
heart. A thankful mind is a peaceful mind. Keep in mind just how much
God has given you, and you'll be generously saved. Look
at verses 10 and 12. Paul says this, look at verse
12. He says, I know both how to be
laced and how to abound everywhere in all things. I'm instructed
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need.
Verse 11, I've learned in whatsoever state I am to be content. You see, peace comes with contentment. like giving, contentment, peace. It's all connected, because it's
all connected. If we're thankful to the Lord
for what we have, we'll be content with what we have, and we'll
have peace. The biggest turmoil and troubles
and wars and struggles. This is what James wrote about
in James chapter 4. From whence come wars and fightings
and wars in one's community? Isn't it because you lust and
have an honor and want to fight because you can't get it? Isn't
it? Most of our outward struggles
in the home and others do to our own cousins. And so we don't have peace. We
must desire to have what we ought to be content with what we have.
No greediness, no greediness. Thankfulness and greediness.
Contentment, contentment and greediness. Thank you. So Paul says, be thankful
in everything that's thanksgiving. And let your request be made
known to God. You can go to your Heavenly Father with any request.
Hmm? That your children come to you
and ask you anything? Yes, anything. You might come
to pray to them, but you have to ask anything. Sure you can.
If they're young enough, they don't know what to ask for. They
don't know what things to ask for. And that's what the, that's
what the scripture says. We, we don't know what things
to ask for, Romans 8. He said the Holy Spirit, uh,
who knows the minds of God, goes to God with the things he needs,
and that's what he does. But it doesn't mean he can't
act. Paul says, be thankful. And he
says, this gives peace of heart and mind. Paul says, I have all
things to do. Where was Paul when he wrote
that? He was in prison. Where were
his friends? How was his payment? He didn't have
a check. I'm happy. Why? Well, you read
it right. He followed us for a couple of
weeks. He followed some bankers, I think.
He took all of us and said, did you have a piece? I was about to get his head cut
off, but the radio was there, and he said, I know who my master
is. I said, I don't understand. He
said, I don't understand. The pastor doesn't understand.
The pastor doesn't understand. It's Jader. He doesn't understand. Jader, a little bop. He doesn't understand. He's a
scientist. He doesn't understand. I'm not
a scientist. I mean, I got all kinds of stuff. Come to his home, come to his
house, come to his job, come to his government thing, you
know how it is. How did he have that? Paul said,
come on in here and say it. And he had it. And all those things of that,
I bet he never, that he had peace at home after that. Sure did. The Lord saved the whole house. Well, he says in verse 6, In
every phase of prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, let your request
be made known unto the God and the peace of God. Let's pass it on. Rejoice in
the Lord. Let the Lord hear your prayer. Rejoice in the gospel.
And the peace of God. Keep your minds open. And let
it be known that the Lord's You'll be merciful. You'll be kind. You'll be gracious. You'll be forbearing. You'll
be forgiving. Let your moderation be known unto all men in the
Lord's name. Don't be overly anxious about
anything. Don't be full of care about anything. Let everything,
every situation, call upon your Lord. Ask Him for those daily
supplies, be sure to be thankful, and let Him thank you, He'll
make you content, He'll make you content, He'll make you give
you peace. Let your request be made known,
tell Him everything, tell Him everything in the peace of mind,
past the sunshine, in the peace of your mind, in your heart,
that's where we leave first, isn't it? So keep your heart
and your mind through Christ as it gets back to heaven. Through
Christ. Because Christ is our hope. Christ
through faith in Him. Through faith in Him. We're all
going to fail at all of this. But Paul said in verse 13, I
can do all things through Christ. You see that? Which strengthens
it? That he said, I'm right here. Just ask me. Aren't you ever present for your
children's health? Since your eye and your ear always
attend to their needs, so is your heart. And just like Just like
our father, if we see that our children are trying to be too
independent, and if they don't know better yet, move along. We'll leave them alone. We'll
ask for help. We'll ask for our guidance. No
matter what we're running from. And what do they do? Mess up
their plans. They get in all kinds of trouble.
And it comes to all of us. We'll bail them out. And he wrote
there in Colossians, that's a piece of God's rule in your heart. That's what it is. Beware of
it. Our Father, we need this time,
we need this peace to be and peace without, for only You can
give. We thank You, we rejoice, we
give thanks to You for sending Your Son down here to be a propitiation
for our sins. Peace offer, how we thank You. You deserve that. when you do not matter. Still,
we thank you, though, and we ask that you can ever keep us
mindful of what you've done for us, and pray that that's not
in turn make us peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, merciful,
gracious, kind, and loving towards those who deserve it from us.
For your glory. In the name of your son, we pray.
God bless you, son. Thank you. Ha ha ha ha ha!