Joe mentioned division, so I'm
gonna continue on with that. Turn with me to Matthew 10, Matthew
10. Very familiar, it's been preached
from here in this place before. Matthew 10, verses 34 through
36. Matthew 10, verse 34. Think not that I am come to send
peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foe shall be they of his own household. We read here Christ's own words. This world speaks of wanting
peace. They say they want all men to get along and have peace.
But they say and do not. But Christ tells us here that
he came not to send peace, but a sword. He came not to send
quietness and rest, but rather judgment. This world will K-N-O-W
This world will know no peace. There will be no peace in this
world. The only thing we will see is
division. There are those in this religious
world who when they come to know their Jesus, there is nothing
but smooth sailing and they will not turn about their ship for
any reason. Anyone who speaks to them of
doing such things are just Debbie Downers as the saying goes. They
come to a Jesus that has caused no turmoil in soul, no disagreement
with others. But the Christ of the Scripture
said he came not to send peace, but of souls. Families will be
divided against one another, and even your own self will be
against you. If this is not you, then you
have not come to know the Christ of Scripture. We all come into
this world as bad as we can be, Joe. We come forth from the womb,
speaking lies. If everyone does that, and we
do because it says we do, how can there be any peace? The answer
is there is no peace there. There is total division and chaos. Light cannot mix with darkness,
Joe. When have you ever seen that
in the same place, light and darkness? They can't exist. But we are darkness itself, and
light has come into the world, but man has not comprehended
it. There is not a man born of Adam that knows peace, nor do
they know how to obtain peace. Romans 3.17 says, and the way
of peace have they not known. Men desire peace, but they just
do not desire the peace of God. This peace of God divides. If everything goes good for you
and you never have any issues, then you have your own peace
and not the peace of God. Because Christ said there will
be division, even against yourself, if he comes to you. So let's
talk about peace today. What does man's peace bring and
who is God's peace? Turn with me to Isaiah 59. I
want to turn to a couple of passages that I want to read several verses. Isaiah 59 verses 1 through 11.
I could read further than that, but I'm going to read 1 through
11 and stop there. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it
cannot hear. But your inequities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from
you that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with
blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken
lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for
justice, nor any pleadeth for truth. They trust in vanity and
speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring
forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice eggs, that
is, serpent eggs, and weave the spider's webs. He that eateth
of their eggs divideth, and that which is crushed breaketh out
into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments,
neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Their works
are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hand. Their feet run to evil, and they
make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in
their paths. The way of peace they know not,
and there is no judgment in their goings. They have made them crooked
paths. Whosoever goeth therein shall
not know peace. Therefore, as judgment far from
us, neither doth justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold
obscurity. For brightness, but we walk in
darkness. We grope for the wall like the
blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday
as in the night. We are in desolate places as
dead men. We roar like bears and mourn
sore like doves. We look for judgment, but there
is none. For salvation, it is far off
from us. There is no peace with man. Even
though man may look for it, he cannot find it. Because the way
of peace he does not know. All man does as he is born in
Adam is tout. As has been said before, churches
are full of those who come together to congratulate each other on
how well they have done. But as we just read, there is
nothing but destruction and misery in all of our ways. We are murderous,
every single one of us. If there is anyone who does not
believe that we in our flesh are as bad as we can be, does
not know God and therefore does not know himself. Sin has separated
us from God and we all have it. The reason we all have sin is
because we are sin itself. And the only thing that can come
from us is sin as we are born in Adam. Men speak of peace coming
from fallen sinful sons of Adam. But let's read Jeremiah 8. Jeremiah
8, if you'll turn with me there. Jeremiah 8. In verses 8 through 15. Jeremiah
8, verse 8. How do ye say we are wise, and
the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain may he
it, the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed,
they are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word
of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them? Therefore will I
give their wives unto others and their fields to them that
shall inherit them. For everyone from the least even
unto the greatest is given to covetousness. From the prophet
even unto the priest, everyone dilleth falsely. For they have
healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
peace, peace, where there is no peace. Were they ashamed when
they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed,
neither could they blush. Therefore shall they fall among
them that fall. In the time of their visitation
they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. I will surely consume
them, saith the Lord. There shall be no grapes on the
vine, nor figs on the fig tree. And the leaf shall fade, and
the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves and let us
enter into the defense cities and let us be silent there for
the Lord our God hath put us to silence and given us water
of gall to drink because we have sinned against the Lord. We look
for peace but no good came and for a time of health and behold
trouble. We also read in Ezekiel 13 of
those who speak of the works of their hands being able to
withstand judgment. They build a wall and they hold
it together with untempered mortar. That is, it is not held together
with mortar that will hold everything together when the storm comes.
God's wind of judgment will blow it over. His rainstorm of judgment
will cause the untippered mortar, that mortar which has nothing
to hold it together, to dissolve in a minute. The mortar of man
is like putting a handful of sand in the cracks of a stone,
a stone wall, to hold it together. But when the rain of God's judgments
come, it will wash all away into nothing and the wall will fall. We will not and cannot bring
peace to ourselves. Why? Because we do not know the
way of peace. So we are in a predicament. We
are in total division in this world and yet we think we have
peace. How are we ever going to know
the way of peace? So next we have who is God's
peace? Let's answer the question right
off, so no one has any doubt. The answer is always a who, and
that who is Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the peace of God. Jesus Christ says he did not
come to send peace, but a sword. First of all, a sword of judgment
against himself. Awake, O sword, against the shepherd,
against the one who is my fellow. there could be no peace without
judgment. That is what the word sword means
there in that passage, judicial punishment. Punishment for all
the sins of his people and him, but also punishment for all those
who do not believe the record God gave of his son. There are
some who do believe by God's grace. They believe this record
God gave of him sending his own son to die for them, and then
there are some who do not believe because of their sin, because
of who they are. There will be division there.
Some who love God because he first loved them, and some who
hate God because it is in them to do so, just like it is in
all of us as we are born and have. That is what his gospel
does. It divides, but not just dividing
believers and unbelievers, sheep and goats, but his gospel will
come to those he came and died for and it will cause a division
in them. Hebrews 4 verses 11 through 13.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, that peace of
God, Jesus Christ the Lord. Lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief, for the word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit and the joints and marrow and is
the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but
all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do." His gospel will come and conquer you if He is
so pleased. It will expose you before Him
as to who you really are, and it continues to do this. It will
cause you to lose your life. We read in verse 39 of our text,
39 says, he that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that
loses his life for my sake shall find it. His gospel will come
to you to show you his righteousness exceeds even the law of Mount
Sinai. And you will see that you are
totally dead before this holy God. In doing this, He will show
you in the Gospel where your life is, and in Him showing you
this, you will find your life. You will come to see that Jesus
Christ is your life and peace with God. If you do not ever
see or have this division, then at the very least, God has not
visited you with His Gospel, and at worst, you are still seeking
your way of peace. Oh, but if He does come to you
in this way, then peace will come to you in such a way that
you have never known peace before. It will come to you so that you
have even full assurance that you have peace and life with
God. I'm not talking about assurance of anything you have done, because
God will teach you that you do not know the way of peace, nor
can you in and of yourself know any peace. He will teach you
that He has made peace by a sword that has plunged into the Son
of God and thereby taking away the great gulf between man and
God. Colossians 1, 18 through 21. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. and having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. You will find no peace in this
world. But there is peace in Jesus Christ. Because he has reconciled us
to God. He has brought us together with
God and that in himself. Oh, what peace and joy can we
find there? You start to look at yourself,
you will find no peace. But should God keep your eyes
fixed on Christ? There is peace there that passeth
all understanding. It is a peace that is just like
it was when he commanded the sea in the storm. Peace be still. And there was a great calm. In
the midst of division, he will calm the storm. I want this world, sojourning
through this world will find no peace. other than in the face
of Jesus Christ. There is no peace elsewhere.
But he gives us his word. That is, he promises us, but
he also gives us his word, which we can proclaim that speaks of
himself, to tell all those who are here where you can find peace
with God. John 16, 33, these things have
I spoken unto you. that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. God will ensure his people know
the peace of God, Jesus Christ the Lord. He comes to them by
his Spirit and breathes spiritual life into them. The fruit of
that life from the Spirit, we are told the following things,
Galatians 5.22, you all know this, but the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. He does not leave it up to us
to find our peace, or even His peace, or to somehow come up
with our own peace. In fact, we cannot do it, and
we will not do it. Because as we have already read,
the way of peace we have not known. We can in no way without
the operation of God know peace with God. Without God we remain
as we were born, dead in trespasses and in sin. We are nothing but
carnal. We must be spiritual to know
any peace at all, Romans 8, 6. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. This
is all the work of Jesus Christ. We as we are born are born carnal
and we are spiritually dead. But by that sword which was plunged
into our Lord, he has wrought peace with God for us in himself. We know he has done all this,
and not we ourselves, because we read in Ephesians 2 verses
14 and 15, we read this. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace. in himself. To know peace, you must be in
Christ. And the only way you are in Christ
is if he puts you there. His people are elected, that
is chosen to salvation. And he in time comes with the
sword of the spirit and sets you at variance against yourself.
Tearing you apart to the end that you might see him. So since Jesus Christ the Lord
is the peace of God and he has secured peace with God for those
he came to die for, how do I know him? I need to know him and I
need to believe him. That's what the scripture says.
But I have so much turmoil and chaos in me. I have so much turmoil
and chaos around me and much of it my own doing. This is believers. Unbelievers
never know it. Things with them are the status
quo or par for the course. I believe help thou mine unbelief
is our cry. And I want to be clear here,
Christ sends this division. I said this is chaos that we
caused around us, but this that I'm talking about is division
that Christ sends. God, through and by what Jesus
Christ did to bring peace, will have to give you faith to believe
Him. He does not owe this to you, and you do not deserve this. He does this in grace and mercy. Mercy when the floodwaters of
his judgment come down, showing that without him you are fit
for the fires of hell. But his sweet gospel comes to
you and then peace overwhelms us by what he has done and what
he does. Romans 5.1, therefore, being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. God enables us and the us I am
speaking of are those for whom Christ Jesus died, his elect. Those whom he by faith lets them
know that Jesus Christ the Lord in their place and that he made
peace by dying in their stead. We are justified by faith of
Jesus Christ the Lord to do what he did, but it is the mercy of
God which gives us this very same faith of Jesus Christ, which
points us to Jesus Christ and what he did. Even when all around
me is chaotic, whether it is because of me or because of others,
it does not matter. Chaos is chaos, and it is all
we know by nature. We are born with a mind of chaos
and destruction and division. But that God given faith in us
together with the faith of the gospel proclaimed to us points
us to the one who is our peace. And it tells us that he made
peace. Then there is a great calm to
where everything is still and restful and quiet. It is a joyful
noise to hear the faith of Jesus Christ in the gospel, the gospel
of peace. That's what we are told in Romans
10, verse 15. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. Oh, to be told of what he has
done will calm the storms and will heal the brokenhearted.
Who cannot find peace being damned in their own mind? If I look
to myself or anyone else born of Adam for giving me peace,
I am looking for peace where there is no peace. If I tell
others that there is peace in what I do where others do, then
I am speaking peace, peace where there is no peace. I want to
hear and I want to speak by his grace and mercy of that one who
is the peace of God because he made peace for me. I'm not looking
to get along. I am looking for peace even today.
I look for peace because not only are there those out there
that are at variance with me, I am at variance against myself
and against God in my flesh as I'm born in Adam. Oh, that he
might send me that peace even now today. When I am in the midst
of the storms and chaos, I pray he send his gospel to me to comfort
me and show me where peace can be found. I can be at peace with
God by and through his only begotten son who is my peace because he
made peace for me with God. May he continually by his grace
cause me to continually cry out as the psalmist does, he hath
delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me
for there were many with me. His work, his gospel calls us
nothing but variance and division to some. But to others, it reveals
the very peace of God, who is none other than Jesus Christ.
So just as the Apostle Paul says to those believers in Rome, I
say to us here, the God of all peace be with you all, amen. Our holy sovereign God, thank
you for allowing us to be here. Dear Lord, apply these words
to our heart. It can only be done by you. We're just clay
pots standing up here saying words. Help us to know peace,
dear Lord. Help us to know you. All these
things we ask in Christ's name. Amen.