You notice in that reading that
Brother Travis read, man, against thee and thee only have I sinned. Oh, my. We sinned against God,
but the precious blood of Christ has made we who believe whiter
than snow. And God don't remember those
sins anymore. Hallelujah. Oh, my. I'll give you a reason
to shout, let me tell you. Oh, my. Turn, if you will, to
Colossians chapter 3. Today, the name of the message
is governed by peace. Who or what are you governed
by? Everyone in this world is either
governed by their dead nature, those who are still dead in trespasses
and sins. And we were in that state when
we were born into this world, we were governed by our dead
nature. But now we who are born again,
we are governed now by the Holy Spirit of God. How do we know
this? Well, now sin bothers us. As Brother Travis says, we don't
do nothing without sin, nothing. We still sin from the top of
our head to the bottom of our feet, but yet, but yet, those
sins are all forgiven for we who believe. That's magnificent. That's absolutely magnificent. So today we'll look at how the
believer is governed by peace and how the scripture tells us
that we should be governed by peace. Who's our peace? Who's our peace? The Lord Jesus
Christ is our peace, isn't he? We see that too over in Romans. Let's look here. We'll read the
context of the verse that we'll study to see its proper use.
Many will take one scripture and tear it out of place, tear
it out of context, and make all kinds of false doctrines about
it. People have done that all the time. The Church of Christ
says you must be baptized to be saved because of one text
in the book of Acts. That they've torn out and twisted
to support their false doctrine of baptismal regeneration. That's
all that is. And it's a false doctrine. And
it'll lead many to hell. It'll lead many to hell. So let's
read the context of this verse, Colossians 3, verses 12 to 17. Paul's writing again to born-again
blood-washed believers. He says, to us, too, as well,
because remember, this book, again, as we look at the book
of James, it's timeless, it transcends time, and it transcends cultures,
doesn't it? The scriptures do that, and so
we can look at this book, because the author is the Holy Spirit
of God, and we can say it's written, because we're gonna see here
in verse 12, it's written to the elect. Verse 12, put on therefore
as the elect of God. You see it was very common for
people to call each other the elect of God. Isn't that amazing?
You say you're the elect of God now, watch somebody do a dance
in front of you who's in religion. But it's a biblical saying, isn't
it? And the underlying Greek word
means chosen. So put on as the chosen of God,
holy and beloved, boughs of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, long-suffering. So humbleness of mind, we're
not to be self-seeking. Meekness, quiet strength. Quiet
strength. Long-suffering. We're to be long-suffering
with others. You know an easy way for us to
be long-suffering with others? Think of how long-suffering God
was with us and is with us. Think of before we were saved,
how long-suffering God was with us. Oh my, He was so long-suffering
with me, I can't get over it. And I was one of His and I didn't
even know it. And so were you. He is long-suffering. So it makes
it easier for us to be long-suffering when we consider how long-suffering
God is with us. And he says this, forbearing
one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel
against any, even as Christ forgive you, so also do ye. Well, that's
easier said than done, isn't it? Somebody wrong you, what's
going to happen? Right away, right? Even if we're saved. Oh my. It's hard, isn't it? This is what the scripture says.
And then look at this, verse 14. And above all things, put
on charity, which is love in the scripture, which is the bond
of perfectness. Verse 15, this will be our text.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which
also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns, in spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do, In word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving
thanks to God and the Father by Him. So we see a short exhortation
here by Paul to the Colossian saints. Now look at verse 14,
and we see that love is the bond which keeps believers together.
It's the cement. Henry Mahan used to say the blood
of Christ is the cement that keeps us together. And it is,
isn't it? And love, though, is prominent
in the believer, isn't it? The love of God shed abroad in
our hearts. Again, it's a work of God, like
we saw in our study in James. It's a work of God. It's nothing
we can do. We can't manufacture this love that's spoken of here. And we have love for God, knowing
who he is, all because he's revealed himself to us. And we have love
for the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's our Savior and our Redeemer,
isn't he? And we have love for the gospel of Christ. We're not
settled for anything else. All we want to hear is the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me about how Christ died
for my sins. Tell me about how he redeemed
me with his precious, precious blood. Tell me how I'm now accepted
in the beloved, accepted in Christ. Oh, hallelujah. It's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful. Wonderful. And we have love for
God's people, too, don't we? We have love for his gospel.
We have love for his word. We have love for his people,
which we never had before. And now we're knit together in
love. We're knit together in love. I look forward to coming
here every Sunday, because I get to see my family in Christ. I
get to see you all. It's wonderful, because our hearts
have been knit together in love. We didn't know each other 10
years ago. We had no idea who each other was. I didn't even
know there was a church in Michigan back then. I had no idea. But now our hearts have been
knit together in love, haven't they? It's absolutely wonderful.
And now we have a true love for the scriptures, too, and the
things of God. Now we have that. Our hearts, our affections, our
minds are set upon Christ now, and the things of Christ. And
this love, this love that we have that's shed abroad in our
heart is the love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit of God. And it comes from God. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter five. Romans chapter five. Look at
this. Who is our peace? The Lord Jesus
Christ. And who do we have peace through
with God? The Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
this, Romans chapter five verses one to six. Therefore, being
justified by faith. Note the words there. You're
justified by faith already. We're not justified before God
when we get to heaven. We're justified before God right
now by God-given faith. Isn't that wonderful? What do
we have as a result of that? We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. The only way we can have peace
with God is through He who is the way, the truth, and the life,
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way for man
to have peace with God, not by works, not by anything you say
or do. My, oh, my. Pretty narrow way,
isn't it? Some folks say, well, that's
narrow. Well, it's God who said that, not me. And I believe it.
By God-given faith, I believe it. And I cling to that truth
when the Lord says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. I cling to that, do you?
Oh, my. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavily laden, and I'll give you rest. Oh, praise
God. He's giving me rest. Has he given you rest? I pray
he will. If you do not know him, I pray
he would. Because once you have this rest, it's like no other
rest. Once you have this peace, it's
like no other peace. And he says here, by whom also
we have access by faith into this grace. wherein we stand
and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We stand because
we're kept by God and we rejoice. Remember what we saw on Sunday
school with that one word, greeting? To rejoice. Why? And we rejoice
as God's people in the hope of the glory of God. And not only
so, but we glory in tribulations also. Well, that's a tough one,
isn't it? That's a tough one, but we always
look back and see what God's done and we're being taught Each
time we go through a trial and tribulation, we're taught to
just look to Christ, aren't we? And it makes it easier for us
the next time to look to Christ, doesn't it? We still get worked
up though, but then we go like, okay, nope, Lord, I'm gonna trust
in you. The other night I got all worked
up about a situation. Oh man, I was just in a dither.
I'll tell you what, got myself all worked up, I did. My, I'm
sitting there and I, Wayne, you gotta practice what you preach.
And I just looked to the Lord and I thought, my Lord, I'm sorry.
There I go again. And you know what happened to
that problem? It just melted away right there. I'm not kidding
you. I didn't think about it for the rest of the night. It
was gone. Isn't that wonderful? It was just gone. And then I
find out, why was I even worked up about that little wee thing?
It wasn't even worth it. Oh my, with nothing even to be
worked up about. But in my mind, I sure made it
a mountain. It was nothing. Oh, has that happened to you
too? It happens to me. I'll tell you, I'm constantly
crying out, Lord, help my unbelief. Oh my goodness. And not so only,
but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulations
work with patience, and patience experience. Look at that, and
experience what? Hope. So the things that we go through,
the trials and tribulations, they increase our patience, and
therefore they increase our hope. And again, who's our hope? It's
Christ. And hope make it not a shame, because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given
unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly. Look at that. We're called in
scripture the ungodly and Christ died for the ungodly. See, you
know, looking at a study with some friends of mine this week
and some dear brothers, and one thing that was prominent in this
little study was the fact that all we need is to feel our need
of Christ. It's not based upon any works.
When the Holy Spirit convicts us, He shows us our need for
Christ. And you know what? That never
stops, does it? Because as we walk in this world,
it's more in front of us than it was a year ago, the fact that
we need Christ now more than ever, more than ever. Let's go
back to our text in verse 15 of Colossians 3. And we'll read
it now, it says, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts,
to which also you are called in one body and be thankful. Now, when I was getting worked
up about that situation, the peace of God was not ruling my
heart at that time, was it? No, my flesh was ruling my heart
there. And I'll tell you what, our worst
enemy is this body of flesh. We have three enemies, right?
The scripture says, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And
I'll tell you what, my flesh is what gives me the hardest
time. My oh my. So look at this. And
let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also ye
are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Look at that. The scriptures clearly here bring
forth that the Lord Jesus Christ is our peace. We saw that over
in Romans 5.1. that we have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's our peace. So if one,
again, does not have Christ, they don't have any peace. They
have a false peace. They have a refuge of lies is
what they have. And if one does not have Christ,
one has no peace with God. One has no reconciliation with
God. One has no redemption. One has no justification before
God. They are dead in trespasses and
sins no matter what they say. They're religious and lost. My
oh my, if you don't have Christ. Now there's many who've made
professions and they're just empty professions. We call that decisional
regeneration. True regeneration is Holy Spirit
conviction. He works on our souls and He
convicts us of our sins and He shows us our need for Christ. And then we flee to Him by God-given
faith. So in Christ, the believer has
peace with God, and we're to let that rule in our heart. We're
to let that, so in those times when we get anxious, let us focus
on Christ. Let us just look to him. And
think about this. God's people possess the peace
of God. We possess it in Christ. And
again, many people have a peace in this world, but it's a false
peace built upon a refuge of lies. They proclaim peace to
themselves. They think that they will live
in ease for many years, They delight in their temporal happiness,
but then sudden destruction comes upon them. Paul, writing to the
Thessalonians, writes this in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 3, he
says, for when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden
destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with
a child, and they shall not escape. And Paul's writing about the
day of the Lord, the coming of the Lord. Others say, peace and
safety, and then here comes our king. So peace with God, peace
with God. Let those words ring in your
ears, beloved. Peace with God. We have that.
It says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. Again, in Romans 5.1, we have it. But what happens? Our
flesh interrupts that peace, doesn't it? Our sin interrupts
that peace. Oh my. So how do we, as believers,
get peace in the trial and the tribulation? Just look to Christ. That's too simple. Not for this
old sinner. I love my king. I love him. I
have no peace in religion. I'll tell you, I have no peace
at all in religion. Now I have peace that passes all understanding.
Now I know what the scripture means by that. When it says that
God's people have that peace that passes all understanding.
How do you go through trials and tribulations that come your
way and yet have a peace? How do you go into surgery and
you're just saying, Lord, well, if I, if I live, I live. And
if I die, I go home to be with you. How does that come about? Only by the grace of God, beloved.
Only because the peace of God rules in our hearts. I remember
getting a hernia surgery one time and I said, well, babe,
I said, I'll either see you when I wake up or I'll see you on
the other side. That's what I told Vicky. You
don't know, right? You don't know. Anytime you go
under anesthesia, you don't know. My, it's incredible. But we didn't
have that peace before the Lord saved us. We were terrified of
death, weren't we? absolutely terrified of it. But all this
peace which God works in our soul, again we cannot produce
it. No matter what a person does,
they cannot produce this peace. And I'll tell you what, religions
become a master at trying to produce peace, but it's a false
peace. It's a false peace. Think of
this, the Lord takes the wild raging beast of our rebellious
heart. He takes that from us which has
no peace at all, and he puts a new heart within us. We're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Now, we still go through
things, like I said, but we have a peace. And this new heart hungers
and thirsts for righteousness, doesn't it? It hungers and thirsts
for the things of Christ, after God, and it has the peace of
God within it. This is a divine work, beloved.
Remember the demoniac that we looked at last week? And they
come back, After they find him sitting at the feet of Jesus,
clothed and in his right mind, that's what God does for every
single believer. That man had a new heart, not
a physical thumper, right? But he had a new nature in him,
new nature. Now he's being guided by a new
nature. And what's he want to do? Remember, he wanted to go
with the Lord. And the Lord said, no, you go and tell the great things
that God had done for you. My, oh, my. And the peace of
God is greater peace than any other peace. In this world, man
is seeking peace, aren't they? Man, they do all kinds of things
to seek peace. You ever notice? Something else
happens, boom. Something else happens over here.
Somebody gets, we say somebody gets a nose hair over here. And
all now, we got a whole thing going on, right? It's true though,
really. What's the cause of all that? Sin, sin. See, man will
never be peaceful because we're sinful. But all the believer
has the peace of God that passes all understanding. And this peace
is an eternal peace too. It's not fleeting. Let's note
in our text here, we're to let this peace rule. Let's look at
this, Colossians 3.15, and let the peace of God, so there it's
described as the peace of God, and we saw that we only have
peace with God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul
writes here to these Colossian believers, they're being attacked
by Gnostics. Gnostics are saying there's multiple
mediators between God and men, and they're angels, they say.
And Paul, all through this book, is bringing forth the supremacy
of Christ. And he's setting that forth before
them, the supremacy of Christ. And look what he writes here.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which
also you are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Now, see
the word rule there? In the Greek, it's governed.
Let the peace of God govern in your hearts. to the which also
ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Look at that. Now, why would that be penned?
That would be penned there, those words, because we don't let the
peace of God always rule in our hearts, right? See, this is for
our learning too, right? And for the learning of the Colossians.
We let the flesh get the better of us sometimes. So the Holy
Spirit has Paul penned these words, and let the peace of God
govern in your hearts. to govern over our hearts. And
it says this, the Greek word for rule means peace of God is
to rule or govern over our hearts, deciding and settling all matters
that arise in our minds or in the assembly of believers. The
other night, I wasn't letting the peace of God rule in my heart,
was I? How often that happens, right? Let's be honest. How often
that happens to us. You find someone who you think
is the most outstanding Christian, and I'll tell you why. They have
trouble just like you do. They are no different. Paul's
writing these words, the Apostle Paul. He's lived these words.
And let us think upon this. In order for there to be peace
in our hearts, there must be a ruler or there'll be no peace
without a ruler. Our hearts were governed before
the Lord saved us by our own nature. And we were governed
as just tossed to and fro, weren't we? All over the place. You ever
find yourself getting convicted over something? You ever find
yourself mourning over your sin? You ever find yourself saying,
Lord, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You ever find yourself
doing that? Let the peace of God rule in
your heart. Oh, let the peace of God rule in your heart. Again,
before we are saved, our hearts and minds are dictated by our
dead nature, which only loves sin. You know what our flesh
loves? Sin. You know what the world loves?
Sin. My, oh, my. One time we were
carried away by the lusts of our flesh. We did whatever we
willed, being ruled by our dead nature. We had no peace, and
if we did, If we did have a peace, it was a false peace. It was
built on a refuge of lies. It was built up on a refuge of
lies. I remember Henry Mahan saying
one time in a message, and boy, several times listening to his
message, it happened. He said, I'm gonna tear down your refuge
of lies. That's what gospel preaching
does, doesn't it? It tears down any trust in ourselves, and it
only hems us up to Christ. And we who are born again, By
the Spirit, we now have a new nature within us, and we see
here that we're ruled or governed in our hearts by the peace of
God. It subdues and restrains the passions of anger and wrath
and revenge, bringing us to remember how much Christ has forgiven
us by the shedding of his precious blood. And we also sin against
one another, which is bought out in verse 13, for bearing
one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel
against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. So we saw
in the reading that Brother Travis read that our sin is against
God. Even when we're sinning against
the brother or sister, we're sinning against God first. But
what he says here, we sin against one another. And this is why
Paul is bringing forth that we should let the peace of God rule
in our hearts, beloved. We have a war constantly with
the flesh. And Paul addresses that here, bringing forth that
the peace of God should rule in our hearts, should govern
our hearts. Gil brings forth this metaphor, which is taken
from a judge of the Olympic games. who was the empire, the moderator
who determined whose victory was and to whom the crown belonged. The apostle would have no other
empire among the saints than the peace of God. No other governor
amongst the saints but the peace of God. And what a gift of grace
in Christ, the peace of God, which rules in our hearts, the
heart of a believer. And it must rule alone. It must
rule alone because it has the power to put down all rebellion
in us, see our flesh Rears its ugly head, and what puts that
down? The peace of God. When we look
to Christ, just puts it right down, doesn't it? It's wonderful.
What do we ask God to do when we're going through a trial or
tribulation or when we're murmuring about someone or something? Well,
we ask God to give us peace, don't we? Give me peace, Lord.
Spurgeon once said this once in crying to the Lord about murmuring
or about saying something or something going on. He says,
come, put down my murmuring. Arrest this bad temper. Help
me that I may not break out into anger. My, that's wonderful. Hard to do, isn't it? But it's
wonderful. So we yield ourselves to the
peace of God, desiring that it would rule in our hearts. And
this peace only again comes to us in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is utterly amazing.
It's amazing grace. It's mercy beyond words, isn't
it? The fact that the Lord's long suffering with me, the fact
that the Lord does not count my sin against me anymore, the
fact that I'm bought and paid for by the precious blood of
Christ, it's utterly amazing. Me, by the grace of God and the
grace of God alone, yes. And you too, if you're saved
by God's grace and mercy and born again, isn't it wonderful?
It's absolutely wonderful. Remember, the Lord is the great
peacemaker. He's the great peacemaker. And God's glorified when we let
the peace of God rule in our hearts. And if we are always
fretting and anxious, how can we proclaim to have the peace
of God ruling in our hearts? If we're finding fault with others
all the time, how can we proclaim to have the peace of God in our
hearts? My. And you know what keeps unity
in the body? The peace of God. Esteeming each other better than
ourselves, which is what the scripture tells us to do. It's
incredible. Let's look here again, let's
read the text again, and we'll see that we're called in one
body. And let the peace of God rule
or govern in your hearts, to the which you are also called
in one body. Look at that, one body. And be
you thankful. Remember, Paul's writing to born-again,
blood-washed saints, a colossus, who have been given this peace,
which Paul's speaking of. They've been given this peace
from God the Father, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's
counseling them. that they should amidst, remember,
there's false teachers in the midst, and so amidst the false
teachers who are causing the division, he writes to them and
says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which
indeed you were called in one body. Just keep going forth.
Just keep looking to Christ. Let them say, let the gainsayers
say whatever they want to say. Just keep looking to Christ,
beloved. And Paul holds forth the fact that they were affectionately
called to peace by God and have forgiveness of all their sins
in Christ alone. And all this is done by the one
who's called the God of all peace. And again, the Lord Jesus Christ
is a great peacemaker, isn't he? The angel said unto them,
fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Luke
chapter 2, verses 10 and 11. He's the great peacemaker. He
came here to save his people from their sins, to make peace
with God for them. Isn't that amazing? My, oh my. The great peacemaker between
God and his people, a savior whom God had provided and appointed
from all eternity. Because he's the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He had long been promised and
much expected, and there he is. God incarnate in the flesh. The
word of God in the flesh. The great one, fully God and
fully man. The only one who is able to work
out this great salvation. The only one who can accomplish
it. The sinless, spotless Lamb of God. The only one who can
accomplish the salvation of a multitude of sinners. The only one. And
here He comes, willingly, to die on Calvary's cross. And He
alone is a complete Savior. He alone. He's the only Savior
for sinners. He's the everlasting Savior.
And His name is Jesus. because he saves his people from
their sins. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He alone has
fulfilled the law of God in every jot and tittle, fully, perfectly,
as our great substitute. And he did it for us. He did
it for his elect, his chosen bride. People often get upset
when you say God chose His people. Here's a metaphor for you to
think about. You men who are married, did you choose to marry
your bride? You did, didn't you? And you
chose her amongst all the women in this world. You chose to marry
her. Can Christ not choose who His bride is? Yes, of course
He can. And He did. Isn't that wonderful?
And we who are the redeemed of the Lord are included in that
number. It's glorious. It's absolutely
glorious. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 5 real quick. We look here at the fruit of
the Spirit. Now, a little bit before this, Paul talks about
the fruit of the flesh. And then down here, though, in
verse 22, he says here about the fruit of the Spirit. And
notice there's a word in here that's in our text. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, and what? Peace. That's the same
peace we're reading about, peace. Long-suffering. Oh, we saw Paul
wrote about that too, didn't he? That's a fruit of the Spirit,
beloved. Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
against such there is no law. And this is not the fruit of
the flesh. There's so many people out there trying to manufacture
this by their doings, and it is impossible. This is God-given. That's why it's called what?
The fruit of the Spirit. He produces it in us. Now, do
we feel like we're more long-suffering? No. Do we feel like we're meek?
No. Do we feel like we have peace
all the time? No. But this is being worked
in us, beloved. Praise be to God. It's the fruit
of the spirit. And our God is the God of all
peace. Christ is the prince of peace. And again, this fruit
called peace is fruit of the spirit. It's not fruit of our
doing. It's all wrought in us by the almighty power of God.
Why do we look to Christ when we do? Because God's working
in us, beloved. Working peace in us. Wonderful. What's the gospel too? The gospel
is the gospel of peace, isn't it? Peace with God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's good news. It's good news.
It talks about rebellious sinners like we are, like we are by nature,
and like we still struggle within our flesh. It talks about rebellious
sinners being justified by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. so that they can appear in the
presence of God forever. Talks about all our sins. Sometimes
we're haunted by our sins in the past, aren't we? Washed clean,
whitewashed clean by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do we know that? Well, let's turn over one chapter in Colossians
there. Look at this. How do we know
that? How do we know? Okay, oh, I love this portion
of Scripture. This is just wonderful, absolutely wonderful. Colossians
2, it talks about our natural state. verse 13, and you, remember
he's writing to born-again blood-washed believers, and you being dead
in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened,
made alive, born again by the Holy Spirit of God, together
with him have been forgiven you how much? Oh, just let that sink
into your heart, beloved. Like Brother Travis said, past,
present, and future. Look at that. All trespasses. That means all the things I can
remember from my past, all the things that I'll ever do, to
the end of my life, forgiven. Again, doesn't give us a license,
right? I've got to preface it with that, because otherwise
people say, well, you're an antinomian. No, I'm not. Doesn't give us
a license to sin. Because why? Because we're governed
by the peace of God. Isn't that wonderful? Look at
that. Look at these words. They're just beautiful. They're
just beautiful. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Look at this,
blotting out, that means whitewashed in the Greek, blotting out the
handwriting against us that was contrary to us. So all those
sins that were against us, that made us guilty before God, blotted
out, beloved, gone, which was contrary to us and took it out
of the way, nailing it to his cross. He paid everything God
demanded for every single one of our sins. In heaven's spoiled
principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it. He's a triumphant King, beloved.
And where His servants go and praise His mighty name, all my
sins are forgiven. It's wonderful, isn't it? Absolutely
wonderful. So we have peace with God in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gospel is the gospel
of peace. And believers are in a state of peace. We saw that
over in Romans chapter 5 verse 1. We now have peace with God. We have it right now. We don't
always feel it, do we? But we have it. We have peace
and righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost. And my oh my,
we're in one body, the scripture says here. Look at this. Verse
15, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which
also you are called in one body. We're part of the universal bride
of Christ, one body. And we're a local body here,
too, as well, aren't we? I like to look at us as like
a, I don't know why I've always looked at this as churches are
like little military outposts. We're planted in the place that
we're at, and we're to serve our king in the vineyard, the
part of the vineyard that he puts us in. But we're like this
little military outpost, and all around us is the world just
coming at us. And the Lord protects us, doesn't
he? He protects us. Oh, my. Oh, my. And we just hold
forth Christ, don't we? We just hold him forth. We just
hold him forth, beloved. So we're part of the body of
Christ. Many members out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation, but yet one body. Here's a good
illustration. He calls you in one body. What
would you think of the hand if it said, I don't want to have
any peace with the eye? That eye, he's really bothering
me. Or if the foot, if it should say, I'm not going to carry this
heavy body around. I'm just tired of doing this.
What would you think of that? That would be absurd, wouldn't
it? Well, we're one body, beloved. We work together for the furtherance
of the gospel. Whatever the head commands, we
do. We do it. We're subservient to him. In
the church universal and our local body, in it, Jesus Christ
is our peace. And the peace of God floods our
souls, it comes to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it comes from Christ. And this peace, Paul's writing,
should rule in our hearts, should govern our hearts. But oh, the
flesh, the flesh, the flesh. But rejoice, we're called in
a holy calling in one body, in one body. That's the body of
Christ, the bride of Christ. And as members of the body of
Christ, we're to love and serve one another. A preacher's just
a servant. We saw that in James today. We're
all servants, but here's James. James, the apostle, and he writes,
I'm a servant. I'm a bond slave for Christ.
It's level, isn't it? We're all on the same level,
beloved. My, oh, my. In this bond of peace, brings
forth a genuine love for the Lord Jesus Christ, which will
move us then to love one another, to love God's people. And we
have a sincere desire for this peace of God to rule in our hearts,
don't we? And we have a desire that our love for one another
will cause us to be gentle, long-suffering, forbearing, and forgiving one
another when we look at what Christ has done for us. Let's
read verse 15 again. We're finished with this last
little bit here. And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body,
and be ye what? Thankful. Thankful. What's thankfulness? It's the opposite of grumbling
or murmuring, isn't it? I'll tell you what. It's a whole
lot easier for us to be unthankful than it is for us to be thankful,
isn't it? That's me. We're all the same, too. I know
it's all the same for you, too, because we're all the same. Religion,
they never admit that, right? They never admit that. Oh, no,
no. They're happy all the time. They got this pasty smile on
their face all the time, right? Nothing's ever going wrong. That's
not reality, is it? No. So Paul writes this again
for our learning. He's telling us, be thankful. He's telling the Colossians,
be thankful. Because he knows, he knows that there's grumblings
and murmurings going on because he's just like them. Oh, isn't
it amazing what the Holy Spirit does here for us? Just reminding
us to be thankful. Be thankful. Paul wrote this
over in Philippians. He wrote this too to the Philippian
believers. He says, do all things without murmurings, which means
grumbling in the Greek. and disputings, which means debate.
This is a constant theme, isn't it? Why do we continue to see
this? Because we're creatures of the
flesh still, aren't we? Even after we're saved. I'll
tell you, it don't take much for me to start grumbling. I'll
be honest with you, it does not. It does not. It's very easy.
Oh, so we're to be thankful. So let us remember that it is
the love of God in Christ which gives us the peace that's spoken
of here in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ alone
is our only hope. He is. He's our only hope, isn't
he? We don't have any other. And it's the joy of the Lord
which gives us peace, knowing that all our sins are forgiven.
I mean all of them. Past, present, and future. All of them. They're
gone. God won't remember them anymore against us. Remember
the scripture says, if the Lord should mark iniquity, who should
stand? Well, no one. But praise be to God. All our
sins are forgiven. And we will one day, because
of what Christ has done, stand in the presence of our great
God, blameless. This is what enables the believer
when we look to Christ and know what we have in Him. This is
what enables the believer to have joy and peace amidst the
struggles that we face in this sin-cursed world. And not until
we experience this peace, this peace of God, can we look from
our little bubble, because that's what our lives are, right? We
have our own little bubble, don't we? We do. Our own little bubble,
our own little world, and really engage in the life of another.
When we have this peace, we can do that then. We can do that
more now than we've ever done before. And until we're born
again, we are at war with God in our natural state. We serve
self. We bow down to idols that Paul describes in earlier passages.
So Paul writes this exhortation to the Colossians and we see
that it is for us also today, for our learning, that we who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ might be thankful. Praise be
to God.