Matthew, thank you for that song. That is going to tie in quite well to what I have to say today. Let's turn to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter five. He came to me, he came to where we were, sought us out. It is indeed amazing. He comes to many, not in mercy, but in wrath. He came to us in mercy, and we thank Him for it. Matthew chapter 5, we'll read the first 12 verses. And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him.

And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those or they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad. For great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. In verse 9, our Savior makes this statement, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

When I prepared this message a few weeks ago, I had no idea we'd be sitting watching television of the war that's taking place on the other side of the world. But making peace many times is the most difficult thing in the world. When two nations are at war, it's hard to bring about peace because of the desire for revenge on each one's part for what they see is the atrocities and the wrongdoings that have been committed against them. And many of us have seen in our short lifetimes, nation after nation after nation, including ours, warring against other nations. And most of those conflicts have come to an end, and this usually happens when one side is totally conquered by the other, and that's when they begin to seek peace.

Thankfully, we in our nation have not known war since the Civil War, only by the grace of God that that conflict did not divide this nation into two different countries. But sadly, it is during wartime that the total depravity of man is on full display. The restraints of a civilized society are completely gone. And the atrocities that follow give us some insight into the very depravity, the total depravity, of the heart of natural man.

I recall reading of the hatred that many of the Chinese, the older Chinese, still have toward the Japanese. We have to remember that 80 years ago Japan, or China I should say, was not the developed country it is today. It was pretty primitive. Japan, however, was an industrialized nation. So when the Japanese invaded Japan, they carried out genocide I read where, I think it was the city of Shanghai, was about 300,000 people. They reduced that to 200,000 in less than a month.

And one of the atrocities that the Japanese soldiers used to do for amusement, and this I say purposely, they did it for amusement. They liked to find a pregnant Chinese woman who was nearly full term, and they would make wagers on the sex of the child. after which they would kill that mother, remove the baby, and see who won the bet. But they didn't stop there. After they saw who won the bet, they took turns tossing that fetus into the air and see who could spear it under bayonets.

That is just a small insight into the heart of man. And, of course, the Nazi death camps They're an example of the utter wickedness of natural man. The things that took place in those places is hard to even read about. It makes you sick to your stomach. But these are just a couple of the examples that have happened through history.

The horrors that take place in time of war, murder, rape, starvation, genocide, cannibalism, plagues, disease, and every other human misery imaginable. occurred during wartime, which is why peace is so desired and so sweet when it finally comes, to bring an end to the sufferings of both the civilians and the soldiers on both sides of the war. But I want to talk to you today about another kind of peace, the peace that happens when lost sinners who have lived their entire life in open rebellion and hatred to God Almighty, come to know the sweet peace of surrender that occurs when that sinner is given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps there's one here today or one who may hear this message in the future, and you've been awakened to your lost condition before a holy God.

Those of us sitting here that know the Lord have been through that, You feel your guilt. You know you're worthy of eternal damnation. The Lord has shown you that. And you just pray, and yet the heavens seem as stone. And you pray, Lord, just let me live one more day. Just one more day. And if that's the case, Perhaps the Lord will yet show you mercy because of the finished work of our great peacemaker, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, when hostilities cease in a country that had been torn apart by war, many times it's decades before that country is restored to its previous condition. Sometimes it never happens at all. Not so when the warfare between God and the center comes to a close. There is an instant restoration of the soul of that center. There's no decades of getting better. There's an immediate restoration of the soul to an even better state than it was previously.

And our Father Adam, he enjoyed sweet fellowship with God. We're told he conversed with God in the cool of the evening in the garden. But we who are the elect of God and now enjoy a much, much higher standing than Adam ever did. We can speak through God or to God through prayer, and even when we don't even know what to pray for, we're told that the Spirit makes intercession for us. We are now, as hard as it is to believe, we are now heirs of God, children of God, and joint heirs with Christ, entitled to every blessing that the blood of Christ has purchased on our behalf.

Those first two verses in Isaiah 40, they speak of this very thing. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. And you will not find any more comforting verse than you find in verse 2 of that Isaiah 40. It says this, speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished.

That her iniquity is pardoned for she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Surrender has taken place. The warfare between the two most mortal enemies that have ever existed comes to an end. And the reason that we're told that her warfare has ended is because her iniquity is pardoned. That is the only way that that warfare could be ended. And it's pardoned because the full price was paid by our Lord Jesus Christ. Justice is now fully satisfied. And this warfare between God and man begins at the birth of each and every child. of Adam's fallen race.

We're born with a nature that loves darkness rather than light, because the scriptures tell us that our heart and our deeds are nothing but evil, and that continually. We're born with a mind, we're told, that is enmity toward God. Romans 8, 7 and 8 says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, Neither indeed can be, it is an impossibility. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. This word enmity, it means a deep seated hatred toward another.

And of course, the condition of the heart of natural man, it's described in Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart is deceitful above all things. Think about that. The heart is deceitful above all things, and not just wicked, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Our own heart, the very center of our thoughts and emotions, is described as deceitful. This word deceitful has many synonyms. Deliberately misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, insincere, cheating, given to lying, which is why the worst advice you can give anyone who has been awakened spiritually and is seeking our Lord and Savior and seeking forgiveness in His blood is to say, just follow your heart. Just do what your heart tells you. That is the worst advice you can possibly give.

It leads to one thing, and that is eternal destruction. Now when the Spirit of God comes to us in saving mercy, And until He does, we're more than content to dwell in a state of hatred toward the sovereign God of this universe. It is not until the Spirit comes that we're given understanding that we are the enemies of Almighty God. Everything we know about God, He tells us in this book. We would not know that He even existed were it not for the fact that He reveals Himself in this book. And when the Spirit gives us that understanding that we are enemies of God, it is then that we begin to desire peace once we're awakened to our condition.

Because we're taught that we're facing condemnation, and that condemnation is just. Now in the natural world, in times of war, when two or more nations are at war, it is a nation that is utterly defeated that seeks peace. But thank God, it is not that way in the spiritual world. The God who we worship and adore is the one who made peace for chosen sinners. And He did that before this world was ever created. Christ Jesus is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The price of peace between warring nations is paid by the blood of the soldiers that fight in those wars. The most precious thing that a man can give for anything that he believes in is his life. We find the cost of our freedom here in America buried in cemeteries around the world. And likewise, the peace that chosen elect sinners now enjoy between themselves and an offended God was purchased by blood. It was purchased by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What do the scriptures tell us? Without shedding of blood is no remission, no reconciliation, no peace between God and man. And our blessed Savior is the ultimate peacemaker, the most blessed of peacemakers. It is he who took the initiative to bring peace between God and man. The words of that hymn that we sing at Christmastime, but we should actually sing all year long. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king, peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled. But we have to ask, how does this reconciliation take place? What brings about peace between God and man?

Colossians 1.20 tells us, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, and having made peace through the blood of His cross. That's how it happens. 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 sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled.

Romans 5.10 also tells us how this peace is made between God and sinner. It says this, for if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Now, the awful price that was required for peace to take place between lost ungodly sinners and the thrice holy God was the very blood of the precious Son of God.

But so efficacious is that blood that there is now peace, unimaginable peace, between these two former mortal enemies. Peace could never have existed any other way. Now this word peace is found exactly 400 times in the King James Bible. Most every letter in the New Testament, the writer begins with these words, grace and peace to his readers, grace and peace.

And in the book of Leviticus, there's instructions given about the peace offering. Now there are three specific instances in which a peace offering was given. Number one, It was a way to thank God for deliverance from a dire circumstance or from a harrowing situation. Number two, it could be offered as a means to praise God for his goodness and his generosity as a way of saying thank you for undeserved blessings. And number three, it could be given alongside a fulfilled vow, such as when Hannah fulfilled her vow to God that if he would give her a child, she would give him back to God.

And most sacrifices that we read of in the Old Testament were not eaten by the worshippers. But the peace offering was different. It was meant to be eaten by the one making the sacrifice. Now we're told only a portion was burned on the altar. The rest was to be eaten by the one who offered it and his family. And this, of course, is a picture of our coming Messiah. Turn over to John, the book of John. Our Lord is the ultimate peace offering. The peace offering spoken of in Leviticus was a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 6, starting in verse 53, we read these words of our Lord.

John 6, 53, Then said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As a living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Now Christ, who is a true peace offering, bids us to eat his flesh, that flesh which is the ultimate peace offering to our God.

Obviously, our Lord is not promoting cannibalism. but rather speaking of the symbolic eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood, which we do the first Sunday of every month as we take the Lord's supper. We do not believe as do the Catholics. Fred mentioned this in his message Tuesday. We do not believe like the Catholics that the bread and wine actually become the blood and the body of Christ.

The scripture strictly forbid the drinking of blood, but these are merely symbols of those things as a peace offering. was also symbolic. So we've already talked about the peace that was purchased by the sacrifice and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we have to ask, how does this come about?

Does the Spirit come to the sinner and beat them into submission? Never. Judgment, you will never find a place where judgment ever brought about salvation for anyone in the Scriptures. is a good example. The more judgment came, the more his heart was hardened, the more he refused to believe.

But the Spirit comes to the awakened sinner and begins to show them the goodness and the mercy of God in Christ. Christ comes to us in gentleness. And He shows us His goodness toward undeserving sinners It's the goodness of God, we're told in Romans, that leadeth us to repentance. Not the judgment of God, but the goodness of God. Isaiah 118 is such an incredible verse. And I say that because here we find the sovereign of the universe offering to sit down with lost sinners and discuss the terms of their surrender. to the goodness and the mercy of God. It says this, come now, let us reason together. Not come now or I will beat you into submission, but come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be a wonder of wonders. The Almighty God does not threaten us into repentance and salvation, but rather gently woos His people to Himself by the revelation of His goodness toward them in Christ. It is indeed the goodness of God that leads us gently to repentance. And this goodness of God toward lost sinners is also spoken of in Jeremiah 29-11.

I love this verse. God Almighty says this, For I know the thoughts that I have toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end, This is indeed an astonishing statement from our God. He, who we're told is angry with the wicked every day, doesn't have thoughts of wrath toward His chosen people, but rather thoughts of peace. Thoughts of peace. And the reason He has those thoughts of peace is because our sins have already been purged away by the blood of Christ, by that precious Lamb.

Paul wrote of this in 2 Corinthians 5.20, where we find this amazing declaration.

Now then, Paul wrote, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ's dead, be you reconciled to God. Be you reconciled to God. This word beseech, It means to address an urgent request, to ask or entreat with urgency, to make supplication, to implore. This God who is holy beyond anything that we can ever imagine, who we're told, as I mentioned, is angry with the wicked every day, comes to chosen elect sinners, not in fierce anger, but in tender mercy and beseeches them to be reconciled to Christ, to come to him and enjoy unimaginable peace, to dine at the King's table, to sit with the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. And so because of the unspeakable gift of Christ toward undeserving sinners, we enjoy not only peace with God, but sweet fellowship through the spirit.

But even after this peace comes about, there is still one more enemy that needs to be conquered. It is that old man, that natural mind and nature with which we are born. Many who claim to believe what we call the doctrines of grace believe that once a man or woman is saved, their new nature is no more. But sadly, anyone who is truthful knows that is not the case.

Turn over to Romans 7 with me. Paul wrote of this very thing in Romans 7. This plague that we're stuck with called the natural man. Romans 7, starting in verse 19. Now keep in mind, this is not some wretch. This is the Apostle Paul. who wrote the majority of the New Testament. And he says, starting in Romans 7 verse 19, for the good that I would, I do not.

But the evil, which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. David made this statement in Psalm 9-3. He said, When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish. at thy presence.

The enemies of the soul of man are numerous, but our very nature with which we are born is our biggest enemy. It's an enemy of God, and it's an enemy to our own soul. It desires only evil. It runs after iniquity and drinks it like water. Every thought of our heart, we're told, is only evil continually. And do you not find it to be so? You try to pray and your mind is invaded by some vile thought. You read the Scriptures, you read God's Word, and the next thing you know, your mind is wandering to some disgusting train of thought.

Susan was playing that song, Sweet Hour of Prayer, before the service. But I'll be honest with you, if I can get through five minutes of sincere prayer, it is a major accomplishment. But thank God we know that one day even that warfare will come to an end. When we, like our dear sister Judy Harmon, lay aside this flesh and depart this world for that which is to come, where we shall then finally enjoy a peace that we never knew existed, that we never dreamed in our wildest dreams. We'll surround the throne of God and sing in pitch-perfect harmony the praises of our great peacemaker, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I would be remiss if I did not warn those who do not know the Savior and saving faith of the unspeakable horror that awaits you outside of the person of Christ, turn over with me to the book of Revelation. Revelation 20. Dear lost sinner, be warned that this is your fate outside of Christ. Revelation 20, starting in verse 11, we read of the fate of those outside of Christ when they leave this world. And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their work. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Now, if you have not yet been given faith to believe on this great peacemaker, our Lord Jesus Christ, you have great reason to be concerned for your soul. The Bible warns us that outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire. But perhaps our God will be pleased yet to show you mercy. If you're unable to do so, I would encourage you to be as at public and at the temple, and pray, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And perhaps He will do for you what He has done for millions before. Perhaps He will be gracious and show you kindness for His namesake, to pluck you from eternal destruction and grant you faith and his blessed son, that great, great peacemaker. May he be pleased to do so today. Billy, come lead us in a song, please.