Matthew 5, I got brain locked
this morning trying to remember my text, but surely you can forgive
me. I just preached one message and
thinking about preaching another one and then trying to recall
what I was to preach tonight. It's easy to do, especially with
these, with the pea brain I have. Matthew chapter 5, verse 9, we'll
read that one verse. Christ says, Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Now, the apostle tells us to
confess our faults one to another. And let me remind you again.
I always remind you when I quote that verse. When I say, confess
your sins, there's a difference. We confess our sins to our faithful
high priests. See, we don't pour out the wickedness
of our heart and fears of the like sinful people. We don't
scourge that up with anything. We don't confess our actual sins. But we do confess our faults,
things like some of us have a problem with moodiness, and we need to
confess that. I've got a problem with that.
You pray for me. Some of us have a problem with whatever, and
we need to confess that. But not actual sin. But I've
got a confession to make. Confess your faults one to another.
I am a cynic. And I'm ashamed of it. I am a skeptic. I wish I had the spirit of our
brother, Walter Groover, that he mentioned in Wednesday night's
message. about any and all you approach,
considering them to be the elect of God, giving them the benefit
of the doubt first, until they've proven otherwise. I wish I had
that spirit. I don't have it. You pray for me. I have a lot
to learn in many areas, but especially in this area of witnessing and
dealing with people. I have a lot to learn. And I
think some of us have the same problem, don't we? I have such an intense, and this
is no excuse, but this will just explain where I'm coming from,
and you may feel the same way. I have such an intense hatred
for Arminianism and the doctrines, the blasphemous doctrine that
men are espousing or expounding today. I have such an intense
hatred of that. But sometimes, Stan, I catch
myself hating Arminians and not Arminianism. You know, there's
a difference. Catholicism, I despise it. It's
idolatry. It's anti-Christ. I despise it. Every form of it. And it takes
many forms. Episcopal church and so forth.
But I shouldn't hate Catholics. Right? I catch myself doing that. How about you? Anybody? Anybody
guilty, I confess. Confess your faults one to another.
It's wrong. It's ungodly. It's ungodly. God forbids it. God forbids that
type of attitude. And we need to be constantly
reminded of the pit from which we were dug. And I want to do that through
the Scriptures here. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians
chapter 2. We need to be constantly reminded
of the pit from which we were digged, of the grave, that is,
that God raised us from. The idolatry from which we were
delivered, right? The blindness of our own eyes
which God healed, we didn't just up and one day see it ourselves,
did we, Henry? It's a revelation. He anointed our eyes, didn't
he? He anointed our ears. Oh, how I need this. And this
passage here in Ephesians 2, I use this so much in a doctrinal
manner, but look at the spirit of the way this is written. Consider
your own selves. Look at Ephesians 2, verse 1.
You hath he quickened who were dead." Stinking, like they said
of Lazarus, didn't they? Stinking. Lord, he stinks. I
was a wavering, no good, worthless, dead, filthy, rotten, wretched
sinner. Still am. Hard to imagine I was
worse than I am now. You were dead, and where in,
look, verse 2, in time past, you walked according to the course
of this world. You were just like everybody
else. According to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, a devil, a demon, one of his
ambassadors, a spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience
was in you. Among whom also we all had our
lives in time past, the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh, of the mind by nature, children of wrath."
Some of you were in religion. You may not have wallowed in
actual and open sin, but you hated the God of sovereign grace,
didn't you? And you fought this gospel just
like others that you run into now. You hated it. Children of
wrath, even as a but-God. Who's rich in mercy? That is,
he's got a lot of it. Rich in mercy for his great love
wherewith he loved us. You? Even when we were dead in sins?
Yeah. Has quickened us together with
Christ. It's by grace you saved, isn't
it? Huh? Verse 11. So remember. Verse
11. Remember. that in time past,
you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, and you know what
the Gentiles were called by the Jews, even Christ himself said,
it's not fit, it's not meet, it's just not right to give the
children's bread to what? Dogs. That's what we were and are. Gentiles in the flesh who are
called uncircumcision by the Jews, by that which is called
a circumcision, that flesh made by hand. At that time, you were
without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenant of promise, having no hope without God in
the world. But now, you see how the salvation
is in a word, but, over and over you see that word, don't you? See, God paints a black picture,
doesn't He? God, I hope, puts the diamond, that precious jewel,
Or that great beautiful pearl of Christ and His work puts that
great sparkling glorious jewel or diamond against the black
background, doesn't it? That's what a jeweler does when
you go in to buy a ring or something. He puts out a dark blue or black
velvet piece of cloth and it makes that diamond sparkle that
much more, doesn't it? It can be a little bitty tiny
thing like I bought my wife, but it can look real big. And
the least mercy of God against the black background of our sin
just shines greatly, doesn't it? And you were aliens, enemies. Verse 13, Now in Christ Jesus,
you who sometime were far off or made nigh by the blood of
Christ, because he's our peace. See, we're enemies. He's made
both one That Jew and Gentile broken now the middle wall of
partition, that veil that separates us from God, having abolished
in his flesh that enmity, even the law that was against us,
containing ordinances, to make in himself of two one new man. So making peace. Peace. Twixt us and God. This daysman
betwixt us. Making peace. Reconciling. an
angry God with a rebellious, God-hating people. Look over
at chapter 5 here in Ephesians, and I'm going to try to remind
you of what we were. Remember what you were, and then
that, in turn, might make us act toward others a little differently. Verse 8, chapter 5, verse 8,
you were sometimes darkness. Chapter 5, verse 8, you were
sometimes darkness. Terry Kinsley, as much as you
know about the gospel now, and I do have a great deal of confidence
in you, humanly speaking. I'm going to put no confidence
in the flesh, you know that. But I believe, I have confidence
you have some spiritual discernment. I wouldn't let you up in this
pulpit if I didn't. But as much as you know now, there was a
time when you didn't know a dad-blame thing about the gospel, that
you were in darkness. Absolute darkness. Ignorance. Ignorance. Just like so many
other people now. But now you're light. How's that?
In the Lord. Light in the Lord. So walk as
children of light. In the fruit of the Spirit is
all goodness and righteousness and truth. Look at Colossians.
A couple of books over. Colossians chapter 1. I'm just
trying to remind us, like I said. Colossians chapter 1. I need
to remember this. Colossians 1 verse 21, And you,
who me? Yeah, you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind and by your mind, by your
own thoughts, by wicked works, yet now God
is reconciled in the body of his flesh, the body of Christ's
flesh, through death. to present you wholly unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Remember, let's never forget
what we were, and even now, let us not think of ourselves more
highly than we ought to think. We're not one whit better, wiser,
more lovely more acceptable to God than the worst man on earth. Or woman. Or what? Man. Not woman. In our sense. We,
by one hundred percent, by the grace of God, we are what we
are. We didn't cooperate. We bombard
people with this, and we talk about, and we blast people that
want to talk about man's cooperating with God in salvation. We sure
didn't cooperate. By the grace of God, 100%, by
the grace of God, we are what we are. We know what we know.
Listen, folks, anybody ought to recognize this, I ought to,
because I don't have any education. I just don't have any. I'm a
high school graduate. Some of you don't have that much,
do you? It has to be a revelation, doesn't it? We know what we know. We believe
what we believe. By grace, you say, through faith.
And that's not of yourself. That's a gift. That's great.
We can do what we can do 100 percent by the grace of God Almighty. Right? Now, if we ever act with this
in mind, if we ever act in a way toward other people that is not
in the spirit of meekness and fear. Then it's pride. And if we ever
act towards someone else with an attitude, anything less than
meekness and fear, it is pride in us. And that is us glorying
in what we have received as if we didn't receive it. Right? Sure it is. Everything we have,
we have by the grace of God. Right? 1 Corinthians 4, 7. Everything we have we've received.
Now if we've received it, why would we ever act as if we had
not received it? That's what pride is, isn't it?
We have no cause for pride, no room for boasting anywhere, anywhere. And I need to remember that as
well as you do. Now we're exhorted We're commanded, I should say,
we're commanded to love our enemies. We're commanded to do good to
those that despitefully use us. Brother Henry, I need this message
desperately, don't you? We face a lot of people. You
do. Nobody is confronted with more
people than you are. We need to know how to treat
one another. We need the Spirit of Christ like that. As much
as possible, Paul said there in Romans 12, as much as possible,
live peaceably with all men. Even Arminians? That's all men,
isn't it? Isn't that about everybody? That
sums up about everybody. This makes me cry out. Do you
remember when the Lord said to the disciples, oh, Peter said,
Lord, how many times am I supposed to forgive my brother? And he
said, Peter said, seven times? That'd be tough. Seven? The Lord
said, seventy times seven. What did the disciples cry out?
Oh, Lord, increase our faith. And that makes me want to say
the same thing. In light of that, as much as possible, live peaceably
with all men, even Arminians? Lord, increase my faith. Help
me." Right? Like Solomon, I cry out, Lord,
give me the wisdom that I may deal with so many and greater
people. Can you imagine the things Solomon
was confronted with, those thousands, even hundreds of thousands of
people that came to him, and all the nonsense and stuff he
put up with? Give me grace. Lord, give me
the spirit of meekness and fear. Give me a spirit of love and
compassion, dealing with poor, blind, ignorant sinners just
like I was. All right, our text says now,
blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers. Now, this has a twofold meaning,
I believe. Two primary points to this message.
Blessed are the peacemakers. What is it to make peace, to
be a peacemaker? I think we can consider this
in a twofold way. First of all, I believe this
is talking about Blessed are those who publish the gospel
of peace. Okay? When you make something, you
construct it or you publish it. Best blessed are those who publish
the gospel of peace. It says in Isaiah 52, 7, how
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth
good tidings, that publisheth peace." Who's that talking about? Christ! Those blessed feet, the
one who came declaring, making peace. by the blood of his cross,
by that precious blood of his, and he published this peace that
bringeth good tidings of good that publishes salvation that
saith unto the church, unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. Now listen carefully. When we
speak of making peace, and I hope a number of people
will hear this message, But when we speak of making peace,
we do not mean that we should give anyone a false hope or cry,
peace, peace, when there is no peace. That's what is going on in our
day, isn't it, in religion today. Everybody is wanting is talking
about love and peace, and that's all well and good, but you don't
start there. Do you? You don't start there. We're not to approach any and
all people with overtures of love and peace from God. Not at all. Especially, obviously,
if they're unbelievers. Unbelievers are under the love
of God? No, the wrath of God. So are we to tell them there's
peace between them and God? God loves you? Oh, no. Oh, no. None of the prophets, none of
the apostles ever approached men and women with that message,
first and foremost, ever. John the Baptist, the last of
the prophets, who was an example of those forerunners, those before
him, came preaching what? Two things. Repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in that order. Christ,
who is truly the Prince of Preachers, he came preaching what? Repentance
toward God and belief in Him. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
The King is here. Repent and believe God's King. Right? Yeah. Men and women by
nature are under the wrath and judgment of God, and we need
to faithfully warn them. to flee from the wrath to come. Right? We need to acquaint men
and women, and this is the first area of evangelism, to acquaint
men and women with their holy and sovereign God. Because the
Scripture is full of this great truth, the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. the fear of the Lord, and the
Scriptures throughout the Scriptures, God's Word declares that we're
to fear God, and this is that knowledge, that wisdom, that
knowledge of the Scriptures which is able to make us wise unto
salvation. Because you're not going to call
upon one whom you've not heard. You're not going to call upon
a Lord. You may call on a Jesus who loves
you. You may accept him as your personal
Savior, but you will not bow to and ask for mercy at the hands
of a sovereign Lord. who may give it or withhold it,
unless you know that he's suffering, that he's holding, and that you
are a guilty, undeserving sinner. Right? So that's how we must
first approach men and women. You do that man, you do that
woman no good at all, but rather you do them harm if you befriend
them and tell them there's peace and love of God for them, when
in fact there is enmity between them and God. Right? Certainly. You must first warn
men. And you may become someone's
enemy for that. But I tell you, the Scriptures,
Paul said this, Am I to become your enemy because I tell you
the truth? In actuality, if you warn a man to flee from the wrath
of God, and if God uses you, to show a man or a woman the
holy and sovereign character of God, and they do bow to Him
and ask Him for mercy and see themselves before this holy God.
And then they see Christ in all His glory, and they repent and
believe the gospel. You've been the best friend that
man's ever had, haven't you? And they'll say the same thing
about you. You've got beautiful feet. And you say that same thing
about the man who first preached to you the gospel, don't you? He stood up here and called you
a worm. He stood up here and told you what a filthy, wretched,
vile sinner you were and how that God does not need you, nor
does God have to save you. And it may have made you mad
at first, but eventually God broke your heart, humbled you
before the Lord, and you said, that's right. Then he cried peace
to you, didn't he? Then he spoke peace to your heart
through that gospel. And you thank him for telling
you what a wretch you were, don't you? Listen to this article by
my pastor. I have put this in our bulletin
and I've used it many times. It is one of the unwisest things
under heaven to comfort people who have not yet closed with
Christ in heart faith. When people manifest an interest
in the gospel and give an ear to our message, we must not allow
our love for them and our zeal for their conversion to lead
us to offer them rest when they need strong words to shut them
up to Christ. There is such a tendency in preachers
to, when because you want to hear him, because you want people
to receive the message, to befriend people and go overboard
in trying to get people in and so forth, so as to kind of pare
the offense of the cross, you see. Now, that's not the way
it's to be done, is it? We're not to be offensive, but
don't take the offense off the cross. And my pastor writes here,
we need people need strong words to shut them up to Christ before
they get soothing, gentle word. Any friendship, listen to this,
any friendship with the pastor and church people, which gives
an unbeliever cheer, fellowship and ease. I like to go to church. They're all so friendly and nice.
That's where we should be. Anything short of a union with
Christ, until that man or woman closes with Christ, anything
short of a union with Christ is dangerous, because they'll
get to loving you. They'll get to liking you. They'll
get to following you. They'll get to liking to come
to church instead of coming to hear the gospel. They'll get
to liking the fellowship. You know what I'm saying. The
gospel, where is our fellowship? What does John say about our
fellowship? Truly, our fellowship is where? With the Father and
with his Son. Our fellowship here, I love these
dinners we have, I wish we could have more of them. And getting
together in one another's homes and so forth, but this is, this
is the fellowship. that I enjoy more than anything.
This is where we really profit, right? This is it. This is what
it's all about, right here. Worshiping our Lord, sitting
at the feet, and that's what our whole fellowship in heaven
is going to be centered around. We're not going to, we're going
to enjoy one another, but oh, it's going to pale in comparison
to the way we enjoy Him. We've got to fall in love with
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And that, in turn,
will make us love one another. A sinner's main business is to
come to Christ himself, not come to the church, not fall in love
with or like the pastor so much or the people, but to love Christ, to rest in Christ. Then come
church fellowship. Then come rest. Then come the
joys that the body has. There's no halfway house before
believing in Christ. That's a good statement there.
Now, when we talk of the gospel of peace, and this is the way
I'm first dealing with this, those who publish the gospel
of peace, when we talk of the gospel of peace, there can be
no true good news. That's what the word gospel means,
isn't it? Good news? Old Brother Scott Richardson,
I've always liked that statement he made. He said, I've never
heard any bad news since I've heard the good news. And that's
right, isn't it? Since you've heard the good news,
you've never heard any bad news. Well, I kind of added to that. You can't hear any good news.
The good news will never be good news to you until you first heard
the bad news. Right? It's not truly good news
to someone who has not first heard the bad news. What's the
bad news? You sin and come short of the
glory of God. The wages of sin is death. You're under the wrath
and judgment of God. God is angry with the wicked.
God hates all workers of iniquity and so forth and so on. There's
none that doeth good, no not one. There's none righteous,
no not one. You must have a perfect righteousness to be accepted.
Right? All our righteousness is a filthy
rag. Nobody's justified by the works of the law, by the deeds
of the flesh. In the flesh, no man can please God. On and on
and on and on. That's the bad news in it. Seems like a hopeless
case, doesn't it? When a man finally hears that,
he despairs of himself. That's where a man, a woman,
has to come to, right? To despair of themselves. Totally. Despair of themselves. Then,
and then only, can you say to that man or woman, But don't
despair. There's good news. There's hope for the likes of
you, but only the likes of you, because this is a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save not the righteous.
He didn't come to call good moral folks, but sinners. You're a
sinner, aren't you? Oh, am I ever. I've got good
news for you. You see, that's the bad news
is that God is angry with you. The bad news is men first need
to know that you can't publish peace, goodwill toward men until
they first find out peace doesn't mean a thing unless there's been
war, does it? I just missed the Vietnam War
by one year. Some of us have not been in the
war, not been in actual fighting. And we take peace for granted,
don't you? Don't we? You men. You were in
Korea. Were you in Korea? You don't
take peace for granted, do you? You know something about it.
It means something to you, doesn't it? It means a whole lot more
to you, Henry, than it does me. I've never been in a war. And
the peace of the gospel, the gospel of peace means a whole
lot more. It means everything to a man
who understands that he's about this enmity between him and God.
Are you following me? When men first know that the
carnal man, the natural man, is enmity against God, that your
sins have separated you between you and your God, God's angry.
Not that he loves you. You have a wonderful plan for
your life. God's plan for my life might be to send me to hell.
Right? Who has the audacity? Who sat
in the eternal councils of God? Look at that, to a man or a woman.
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Now, if you
trust Christ, you believe Christ, If you take your place as an
old sinner, trusting in Christ and Christ alone, then I can
say to you, God loves you, and He has a wonderful plan for your
life, an eternal plan, based on eternal covenants, and chose
you before the foundation of the world and set His love upon
you and put you in Christ, and you're saved. But no one else. You can't say
that to an unregenerate God-hater, can you? That's blasphemy. Isn't
that bearing false witness against God Almighty? Listen to this,
preachers, or whoever hears this by tape. There's enmity. Isn't there enmity
between the natural man and this holy God? Something's got to
be done about it, right? I can't make peace. You hear that all the time, don't
you? Especially at a funeral. Everybody, do you know of any
son of Adam who's ever died without making his peace with God? You've heard it. Well, he finally
made his peace with God. What they're saying is he made
some silly little decision. He was in pain and he was under
narcotics and some silly little hospital wolf or preacher came
in and jerked the profession out of him, got him all teary-eyed,
and he accepted Jesus, you know. And the preacher said, You're
well, you're saying you repeated the center's prayer and so forth.
And he made his peace, and all of a sudden he's going to heaven
on that silly little decision. Folks, something's got to be
done about our sins. Something's got to be done about this enmity
between. Something's got to be done about
it. There's a war that's being waged. between the natural man
and God Almighty. And the first message of evangelism
is repent, repent, repent, repent. God is angry. Repent. It's not
God needs us. It's God does not need us, right? It's we need him. All right,
repent. So Christ first came preaching,
repent, and so did all of the prophets. I challenge every preacher
everywhere to show me in the scriptures anywhere where a prophet
or anybody ever approached anybody with the love of God first. Did
Jonah go down to Nineveh talking about the love of God? Did he? Did Isaiah? Did Jeremiah? Did
Ezekiel? No. Well, why in the world do
men have the audacity to do it today? I'm going to catch myself hating
these guys if I'm not careful doing what I said I don't want
to do. But after you tell a man to repent,
repent of his sin, his rebellion, his unbelief, even his self-righteousness,
you know a man's never repented until he's repented of his self-righteousness?
That'll damn you just as quick as unbelief will. That is unbelief,
isn't it? believing that you can do anything
to be accepted before God. That's unbelief. That's self-righteousness,
and it stinks before God. It's filthy rags, Isaiah 64. Then comes the good news. When
a man takes that to heart, or that is when the Holy Spirit
applies it to his heart. It's got to take the Holy Spirit,
doesn't it? The Holy Spirit's got to break a man's heart with
this. Then comes the good news. Peace! Joy! Love of God for repentant
sinners. Peace. How? Making your decision? No. By the blood of His cross. And only by the blood of His
cross. Right? How God can be just and justify
an old ungodly sinner like that. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5 with
me. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I've
got to hurry. I've got ten minutes. 2 Corinthians
5. This is the classic passage of
Scripture dealing with this reconciling, reconciliation between God and
men, not man, men, men. 2 Corinthians 5, look at verse
18 with me. All things are of God, that is,
mercy, grace, salvation, love, peace. See, you can't make peace
with God because he's the one that's been offended. Can you
imagine? You declare war on a nation,
all right? You declare war on a nation,
or your neighbor, let's say your neighbor, you go over, he's sitting
on his porch, you go over and you haul off and smack him in
the face. And you beat him up, and then
you leave. And you come back the next day
and say, I've decided to let you forgive me. I'm going to make peace with
you. Oh, no, it's not. It's not yours to make is it.
You have offended him. Right. You have attacked him.
Right. You have hated him. You have
rebelled against him. Such is the case with man and
God. God didn't attack us. We attacked
God. We rebelled against God. We offended
God. We have sinned against God. Peace
is not ours to make, is it? I'm going to make peace with
God. You can't do it. I've decided to let you forgive me. I've decided
to accept Jesus. He's not up for your acceptation.
He's going to have to be the one to decide to accept you.
Isn't it? I'm preaching this like the world
was here tonight. Everybody here understands it.
I hope. Christ is not up for our acceptation.
We're in the hands, we are sinners, as Jonathan Edwards preached,
which brought about revival in this land. We are in the hands
of a what? Angry God, to do with as he pleases. He said, I will have mercy, but
it's on whom I will. Not obligated to anybody. If
he gives a man or woman what's right, what's coming to them,
he'd damn us all to hell. That's justice. We don't want
strict justice. Martin Luther said it. I don't
want anything to do with a holy God. I don't want anything to
do with the just strict justice of God. I want mercy. I want
grace. All things are of God. Oh, you
could preach a message on that, couldn't you? All things are
of God. They're in His hands. who hath
reconciled us to himself." By who? By Jesus Christ. By Christ. And has given to us
this ministry of reconciliation. God is reconciled. We sang that
song a minute ago. My God is reconciled. His pardoning voice I hear. He
owns me for his child. I shall no longer fear. reconciled
by Christ by the blood of his cross. There is a sense and there's
a lot of preachers who will take issue with me on this, but I
don't care. There is a sense in which God is reconciled. God
is now at peace with us. There is a sense in which the
blood of Christ does appease an angry God. Now I'll explain
it. God cannot be friendly toward
or love anything or anybody except holiness, right? God can't be
friendly toward rebels. God can't let John God can't
love sinners. God hates sin. Thou hatest sin. And all workers of iniquity in
it in that talk about people. Over and over in the scriptures
it talks about God hating people. Not what they've done. Them. How do you separate what you
do and yourself, huh? You can't. You can't. That passage, it talks about
six things that the Lord hate. Seven are an abomination to him.
What's the seventh thing? Him that soweth discord among
the brethren. That's a person, isn't it? He
hates them. Seven are an abomination to him.
Detestable. Utterly odious. The word is sone
in the Hebrew. Utterly hateful and odious and
despicable to God. He said, Esau, have I hated. Hey, God can't love or be friendly
toward or be at peace with rebels. He can't. Sinners. God's holy. God is holy. The sun, the moon
doesn't change. It's not pure in God's eye. How
much more abominable and filthy is man with a drink of iniquity
like the water? But Christ hath slain this enmity
in the body of his flesh, this enmity, his holy, righteous indignation. God's anger, God's wrath against
rebels and sinners has been pacified, has been extinguished. Do you
remember that passage, and I don't even remember where it is, where
it says that his rod was broken? The rod of his wrath was broken, he extinguished his wrath on
the back of the Son of God for you and me. Christ was made sin
for us. Now listen to me, and this is
where preachers take issue with me. God doesn't, isn't, the blood
of Christ didn't make God love us. There's a sense in which the
blood of Christ does appease an angry God, but it was the
love of God that sent Christ down to shed his blood for us,
OK? God determined to be reconciled toward men, to be friendly. It
was the love, the goodness, the mercy and the grace of God that
sent Christ in the first place. But he could not love us even
eternally without seeing us in Christ. You see what I'm saying? We had to be considered, accepted,
found in Christ before the foundation of the world, else God could
not love us, be reconciled to us. He cannot love that which
is unlovely, sinners. He hates sin. But it was the
love of God that sent Christ to do this. The only way he can
love us is by eternally considering us in Christ, and this is the
only way he can not be ashamed to call us his children or call
himself our God. Right? Secondly, we're reconciled. God is reconciled, and we are
reconciled. The word reconciled means to
make friendly, to make friendly. When you make reconciliation
between two people, you make friendly toward one another.
OK? Since we have been made like
Christ, Now, we're not enemies, we're not God-haters, like Paul
described in Romans 1. We're God-lovers, man. We once
were God-haters, proud, boastful, hating God, loving the God of
our imagination. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who were sometime enemies are now friends, lovers of God, lovers
of God more than pleasure even. We now bow to God, submit to
God, love God, admire God, desire God, seek to emulate the Son
of God, and become followers of God as what? Dear children,
dear obedient children. Oh, sure, they fall, but they
love their Father. And this is all by the sovereign,
omnipotent, reconciling grace of God as outlined in the All
right, now that's the first point. Got a minute? That's my first
point. I had to get to this. Blessed
are the peacemakers. And I believe we have to talk
about publishing the gospel of peace first. Because there is
no peace. We don't cry peace, peace to
those when there is no peace. All right? Secondly, blessed are the peacemakers,
those that live peaceably and act peaceably toward others.
The fruit of the Spirit is first what? Love, joy, peace. Fruit of the Spirit, and so on.
The gift of the Spirit, the working of the Holy Spirit. The gospel. We sum it up by calling it the
doctrines of grace, don't we? I prefer to call it the doctrine
of grace, because it's all grace. The doctrine of God's grace. It's nicknamed, commonly nicknamed
by some, Calvinism. Ever heard the term hardshell?
He's a hardshell. The true gospel of God's grace
shouldn't make a man or a woman a hard shell. It ought to make
them a soft shell. Right? Seasoned with grace. It ought to make a man an old
softy, not a hard shell. James said
in James 3, verse 19, you know you have the wisdom of God. You
know Christ, if you understand the gospel, you have this wisdom
that comes from above. What did James say in chapter
3, verse 19, about this wisdom that first comes from above?
This is interesting. We've been studying the Beatitudes
in Matthew 5. Blessed are the pure in heart.
He says it's first pure. The wisdom that comes from above
is first pure, or that is pure Christ, all Christ, all grace,
no mixture, pure. His faith, this wisdom, this
knowledge of salvation is pure Christ, one hundred percent.
And then he says it's first pure and then what? Somebody say it. Come on, peaceable. First pure and then peaceable. The blessed one, listen to Matthew
Henry here, I'll read this and if Matthew goes over you blame
him. Blessed are the pure and the peaceable. He said, the blessed
ones of God Almighty are peacemakers. First of all, they have a peaceable
disposition. They have a desire to make peace,
a strong and hearty affection to peace. Do you remember where
David said in Psalm 100, verse 7? He said, I'm for peace. They're for war. Do you remember
that? And the blessed one, David was
blessed, wasn't he? It's to love and desire and delight
in peace. It's to be in our element, to
be in peace. Secondly, he says, a peacemaker is one who has a
peaceable life, a peaceable life. Or that is, as far as we can,
we try to preserve the peace, that it be not broken, to recover
it when it is broken, to hearken to proposals of peace ourselves.
Let me stop right there, though, and quote to you what I wrote
in a bulletin by Martin Luther. He said, peace if possible, but
truth at any rate. Remember that. Remember that. Peace if possible. As much as
life, live peaceably with all men, but not if they're going
to reject your gospel and preach another gospel. Paul said, let
them be accursed, didn't he? All right, peaceable. Be ready
to make peace with others, where distances among brethren and
neighbors, do all you can to accommodate it, to repair it,
repair the breaches. He says the making of peace is
sometimes a thankless office. He said it may be the lot of
him who parts a fray. I've got to translate the old
English. It may be the lot of a man who
parts the fray to have blows on both sides. Or that is, in
other words, a man who tries to break up a fight may get hit
on both sides. And he may become the object.
He may be, but blessed are the peacemakers. And he says this
may especially apply to ministers, to me. And it does, because Paul
said to young Timothy, a servant of the Lord must not strive,
that is, be a fighter, a brawler, but be gentle unto all men, apt
to teach, patient, in meekness instructing others. He says they
should be called the children of God. These peacemakers, peaceable
people. Isn't that Christ? Wasn't that
Christ? They should be called the children of God and it will
be evidence to them God will own them as such. They'll resemble
him. He's the God of peace. The Son
of God's the Prince of Peace. Spirit of adoption, the spirit
of Christ, is the spirit of peace. And God has declared himself
reconciled to us. He won't own anybody for his
child who is implacable or refuses to be reconciled to somebody
else. He won't have them as his child. All right. I'll quit on this
note. As I stated, and I repeat, we don't approach people with
terms of peace from God first. but rather exhortations to repent,
to believe the gospel, to believe God's claims, to believe God's
Son. Then, if the Holy Spirit brings
them to see themselves and desire forgiveness and mercy at the
hands of this holy and righteous God, then comes peace. But in
this area of how to conduct ourselves toward men and women and toward
others and treat our fellow man as much as possible. Live peaceably,
as much as possible. Live peaceably with all men. Be a peacemaker. Be a peacemaker. Approach people desiring peace. Do we want people to believe
the gospel? Sometimes I wonder about myself, Henry. I ain't
going to talk to him. He wouldn't believe in it anyway.
That's a pretty negative attitude, isn't it? Sounds like you don't
even want him to. Approach people desiring peace,
wanting the best, hoping for the best. My pastors always said
we ought to expect people to believe this gospel. It's true. Giving the benefit of the doubt,
like Walter said, we ought to consider them the elect until
they're proven otherwise. That's a good statement. Because
truly the man after God's own heart is a man of peace. A man
of peace. And the promise comes, blessed
are the peacemakers. Those who publish the gospel
of peace, they're blessed. And those who are peaceable and
gentle people toward others, God will call them. He says they're
going to be called children of God. That's my ultimate desire,
Terry, isn't it you? Isn't this the greatest thing
you can consider, to be called a child of God? He says there's
a condition right there. And we need His Holy Spirit to
instill that in us, don't we? It's not in us by nature. I'm
a fighter and a brawler by nature. He's got to make me peaceable.
And He will, if you ask Him for it. Any man like this wisdom,
What does James say? How does he continue? Let him
ask of God, who giveth liberally, and doth righteth not. Wisdom
from above. Okay. Stand with me, and I'll
dismiss this in prayer.