Come back to John chapter 14. John 14. Title of this message is, My
peace I give unto you. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Our great need is peace with
God. I've given you pretty much an
outline of my message in the bulletin. Our great need is peace
with God. That's my great need. I'm not
talking about the peace that the world speaks of. In this
world, there'll never be peace. There never will be peace. I
was sitting down last night and I was trying to count up the
wars that we've had just in the 1900s. I mean, we've had several wars, major
wars, just through the 1900s. Now here we are in the year 2000. And we're still at war. Still at war. There'll never
be peace in this world. Our Lord said, ye shall have
tribulation. You'll have trouble. Trouble. He said, if the world hates me,
it will hate you. This world is not a peaceful
place. But there is a peace. I mean
a real, genuine peace that God's children have that the world
knows nothing of. But I want us to look at what our
Lord has to say before we get to verse 27. Remember, He's comforting
His disciples, and what He comforts them with, He comforts us with. We find comfort in the same place. Now, He says in verse 21, He
that hath my commandments, this shows His authority, His commandments. and keepeth them. Keeps them. He has my commandments in his
heart. Israel had his commandments as
a nation, but they didn't keep them. They were not in their
hearts. David said, I love thy law. There's nothing wrong with God's
law. Nothing wrong with God's commandments.
David said, I love them. It's the motive as to why you
keep them. as to why you keep them. The
believer keeps them because of love. Of love. The self-righteous man pretends
like he keeps them in order to obtain something from God. There's
a difference. There's a difference. And he
says he keeps them, and by faith he keeps them. Here it is. He
walks in obedience. We do not keep God's commandments
perfectly. We know that. We know that. But I tell you what, in Christ
they are kept perfectly. Listen to this over here in John
chapter 17. Listen to this in verse 6. I
have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. Now we have just been reading
about the disciples. Did they keep His Word perfectly?
They didn't even understand most of what He was saying. But He's
saying here, they have kept Thy Word. In Christ, I tell you what,
in Christ, God's commandments have been kept. And that's imputed
to us. That's charged to us. They've
been perfectly kept. So by faith, we do keep them.
We do walk in obedience to God's Word. That's what we do. Obedience
is the evidence of love. Christ said this. He said that
His commandments were not grievous. And the reason His commandments
are not grievous is for this reason. Love. Love. If there is not a real, genuine
love to Christ, Being here is grievous. Really, it's a burden. Can't wait till it's over. Listen
to this. Love, love takes the grief out
of service. Love takes the grief out of service. We love to serve Him. We love
to serve Him. That's why the believer finds
the commandments of Christ not to be grievous. He said, My commandments
are not grievous. And that reason why is because
you love Me. You love Me. And when we love Him, we can
be assured that the Father loves us. That's what He says here.
He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, He it is that
loves Me. It's proven by His obedience
that He loves Me. And He that loves Me shall be
loved of My Father. He can be sure of this. My Father
loves Him. My Father loves Him. My Heavenly
Father loveth Him. And I will love Him and will
manifest myself to Him, reveal myself to Him. Salvation is the
manifestation of a person. It's not a manifestation how
I ought to live. It's a manifestation of a person.
Christ is the doctrine we believe. He truly is. He's the embodiment
of all doctrine. He's the doctrine. Now, we know
when he says here, I will manifest myself to him, we know that he's
not speaking of a bodily manifestation. He's speaking here of a spiritual
manifestation to the soul. That's what he's speaking of.
It is a revelation of Christ to one's soul. He becomes real. He becomes real to your heart. He's real to you. He's not just
someone off in the distance or not someone who lived 2,000 years
ago. He's someone who lives. He's real to you. Through the
written Word, through the preaching of the written Word, the reading
of the written Word, the living Word becomes real. It becomes
a reality. Especially, especially in times
of trouble. Especially in those times, because
listen, they are about to go through some real trouble. And
they're going to go through some even more trouble. They're going
to end up giving up their own lives. And he says, I'm going to come
and I'm going to manifest myself to you. You know, it says over
in Hebrews, I will never, no never, no never leave you." Well, they said, Lord, you just
said you're going to leave. You just said you're going away.
My bodily presence is going away. But I'm going to be with you.
I'm going to manifest myself to you. We are going to still
have fellowship. It's just going to be in a different
form. said unto him, not as scary,
Lord, how is it? Are you going to manifest thyself
unto us and not to the world? He's responding to what our Lord
had just said. He couldn't understand. There
was a whole lot they didn't understand at that time. But they were still
His. They were still His. But he couldn't
understand how the Lord would manifest Himself to them in His
glory, in His power, and the world not see it also? Or why
he would not let the world see it? He wants to know in what
way or manner are you going to do this and the world not see
it? He just couldn't understand it.
Well, here it is. It's a spiritual revelation. It is a spiritual revelation
to the soul, and it's only given to those whom He saves. The world
cannot see Him. The world cannot know Him. But
Christ said to them, You know Me. You see Me. He said that
earlier. You see Me. You know Me. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love Me, and notice here, this is more intimate. This here is more intimate. He
will keep my word. We hang on his word, don't we?
We hang on his every word. The prophet said, Speak, Lord,
thy servant heareth. Just tell me what to do. That
centurion whose servant was sick and the Lord was going to go
to his house. And he said, no, I'm not worthy for you to come
under my roof. He said, speak the word only. And he'll be healed. Just speak
the word only, that's all you need to do is give your word.
And he that loves me, now listen, he will. Not that he ought, he will keep
my words. And my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." Again,
love is evidenced by obedience. Children who love their parents
are obedient to their parents. Wives to their husbands, husbands
to their families, the church to the Lord Jesus Christ is evidenced
by love. We love Christ. I put this in
the bulletin. We love Christ no more. no more
than we love one another. We serve Christ no more than
we serve one another. Love is evidenced by obedience.
And he that loveth me not, he is to keep my sayings, keep my
word, And the word which you hear is
not mine, but it's the Father's which sent. He didn't come up
with this word. He said, as I hear, I speak.
He did nothing by himself. He did nothing independently
of the Father. As I hear, I speak. Absence of
love is evidenced by disobedience. He that loves me not keeps not
my sin. He doesn't love the gospel. He
does not love God's people. It's the evidence of an unregenerate
heart is what it is. Now, these things I've spoken
unto you being present with you. While I'm with you, I've taught
you and I've spoken these things. And I know you don't understand
them. You know, Jude said that, how
are you going to manifest yourself to us? Now, how's this going
to happen? How are we going to see you and
your glory in your kingdom and the world not see it also? Because
it's spiritual. It's not corporal. It's spiritual.
And then these things I've spoken to you, being present with you,
but and I know you don't understand these things. He knew that. But
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit of God,
whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all
things. He will instruct you. He will
guide you into all truth. He does not leave it up to us
to figure this out. We have the Spirit of God indwelling
us, guiding us, teaching us. When you hear the gospel preached
or when you read the Scriptures and you say, I see, and you do
see, You understand that's the Spirit of God at work. That's
not human intelligence. That's the Spirit of God revealing
the things of Christ to you. He said the Holy Spirit will
teach you these things. He shall teach you all things
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have
said to you. I've told you these things now,
and I know you don't understand them. But the Father is going
to send the Holy Spirit to you in my name, and He's going to
teach you. All thy children shall be taught of God." That's what
our Lord said. And then He comes to this verse
27, and He's about to leave them.
He's going to go to the cross. He's going to die. He's going
to be buried. He's going to go back to the
Father. They're not going to see his bodily presence again.
And he says, but I'm going to leave you with something. I'm
not going to leave you with nothing. I'm going to leave you with something.
Peace. Peace. I leave with you. My peace. Not just peace or any
peace. It's my peace, that peace that
passes all understanding, that peace that is of God. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Now, let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid. There's three things
we need here. Three things. First, we need
peace with God. We need peace with God. And then we need peace within.
We need this peace that he's speaking of in order to go through
this world and trials and heartaches and trouble. We need this peace
within. Within. And then we need this
peace with one another. We need it. Now, first of all,
we need peace with God. Peace with God. We have broken
God's law. I know people don't think much
of God's law, but He does. He does. Adam broke it, and we
have broken it. Until this is fixed, there can
be no peace with God. Until this is fixed, there can
be no peace within. Until this is fixed, there can
be no peace with one another. That's why the world is always
at war. There must be reconciliation
made to God's law, because the law has an enmity against us. Now, we are born into this world
with an enmity against God, but there was a law enmity against
us. The soul that sinneth shall surely die. That has to be taken
care of. And no son of Adam can do this. No son of Adam can make peace
with God because he cannot satisfy God's law. That's why hell is
eternal. Because he can't satisfy. The
suffering of a sinful man cannot satisfy God's holy law. Can't do it. Can't do it. We
cannot undo what we have done. They can't
do it. We cannot undo it. But there
is a man. There is a man who is able. God said, I have laid help upon
one that is mighty. There's one that's able. There's
one who can satisfy the strict demands of justice. By one act of disobedience, the
whole world came under condemnation. That's pretty strict, isn't it?
That is strict. By one act of disobedience. Adam
did not sin many times and then finally God just condemned the
whole world. No, he sinned one time. One time. He disobeyed God. He ate a fruit
of a fruit that God said, don't eat of. That's strict. But there is one
man, there is one man who is able
to satisfy such strict justice. There is one man, the man Christ
Jesus, the God maker. He's able, the scripture says,
to say to the uttermost. You know why? Because he was
able to satisfy to the uttermost. He was able to magnify God's
law and make it honorable. By doing so, he made peace with
God. He reconciled us to God. He made
reconciliation. He made peace. On behalf of a
multitude of sinners, no man can number them. Not only did
He make peace, but He is our peace. Listen to Colossians 1.20. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross, that's how He did it. And this is by
whom He did it. By Him. By Him. To reconcile all things unto
Himself. By Him. I say whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. Turn over to Ephesians
chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2, look in verse 14. For He is our
peace. He is. Who hath made both one
and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. He is our peace. He made peace. And He is that peace. He is our
peace. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3.16,
Now the Lord of Peace, the Lord of Peace Himself, give
you peace. The One who reconciled us, the
One who is the Prince of Peace, the One who is our peace. Now
He gives you peace. Always, by all means. The Lord
be with you all. You see, this peace, this peace
with God is objective. It's outside of ourselves. It was performed by Him. He made peace with God. This
man did. This is reconciliation. This
is what the old writers called judicial peace. He made judicial
peace for us. In the court of heaven, the judge
is at peace with all those whom he made peace for. But now listen,
we need this peace within. We need this peace within. Man
is like the troubled sea. He cannot rest. He cannot rest. We need the peace that Christ
is speaking of here in our souls. In our souls. That's where we
need it. Peace on paper. Now listen. Peace on paper will
not quiet my troubled heart. Peace on paper will not carry
me through a storm. It will not take me through the
deep waters. Peace on paper won't do that.
The enmity that we need that we were born with needs to be
subdued. And that peace that our Lord
produced and procured needs to be within. It needs to be in
my heart. I need to experience it. I need
to experience this peace. And mighty work needs to take
place in me in order for me to enjoy this peace. He said, peace I leave with you My peace. My peace. Oh, that's the kind of peace
I want. His. My peace. I want the kind of
peace that will allow me to rest when the storm is raging. Do you remember when the disciples
and our Lord was on the boat? And the wind was boisterous,
it says. It was boisterous. And he was asleep. He was asleep. And you know why
he was asleep? Because he had perfect peace
that all was well. As a man, he believed God. And
as a man, he was given this peace, this peace that passes all understanding. That while the storm is raging,
and the disciples are about to lose their mind, and they're
crying, Lord, don't you care that we perish? Don't you know
that they were bailing out water and scared to death, and no doubt
they're looking at him. How could he sleep? How can he sleep in a storm like
this? We are about to sink. That's the peace, he said, I'm
going to give you. That no matter how much it hurts,
how much you cry, whatever you go through, there is. I can tell
you, there is an abiding peace that will carry you through it. He said, My peace I give unto
you. It says in Luke 10, 5 and 6,
let me read it to you. And into whatsoever house you
enter in, first say, Peace be to this house, and if the Son
of Peace If the Son of Peace be there, if He be there, if
He abides at that house, if He abides at that house, then your peace shall rest upon
it. And if not, it'll return to you. But if it abides at that
house, if the Son of Peace is there, then peace will rest upon it.
His peace, it'll rest upon it. He said, if a man loves me, he'll
be loved by my Father, and we will come and make our abode
with him. Didn't he say that? If a man
loves me, my Father and I will come and make our abode with
that person, the son of peace, will be in that home. You know where he lives? God has an address. It's wherever his children are. If I truly believe God, he lives
in 4242 Gussler We'll make our abode there. The Son of Peace is there. Listen
here, John 16, 33. These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you'll have
tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. Christ
in you is that peace. Christ in you, you in Christ. God is reconciled to His people
through the blood and the righteousness of His Son. And His people are
reconciled to Him through the same way, through the blood and
righteousness of His Son. And because of this reconciliation, you who believe are able to have
this peace that's His, my peace. I don't just want peace. I want
that divine peace. That peace, I'm telling you,
when everything's gone wrong, you still have an abiding comfort
and peace and joy that you cannot explain. You can't explain it. Even while you're crying, you
still have it. I can tell you, even while you're crying, you
have it. And you know you got it. You know it's there. Now this peace that is spoken
of here is subjective. It's within. It's within. It's a work within. It's a work
that God does in you. It says in Philippians 4, 7,
And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep
your hearts. That's what I'm saying. That's
what His Lord is saying. It will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And this peace that He gives
is the gift of Christ to His children. It's a gift to them.
It's a gift. My peace I give unto you. Listen to this. Here is this
peace at work. This is the peace of God at work.
Habakkuk. 3, verse 17 and 18, Although
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall
yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. That's
bad, isn't it? That's bad news. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy. Joy is a product of peace. It is the product of this peace
in the soul that Christ gives. I will joy in the God of my salvation
even though everything goes wrong. My peace I give you. It's real. It's real. And He gives it to
His children. This peace is a tranquility in
the soul that passes all understanding. Not as the world gives. The world
cannot give this peace. Can't do it. The world knows
nothing of this peace. The peace of this world is temporary.
It's fleeting. It's fleeting. And it will not
carry you through hardships and trials and heartaches of life.
It will not do it. Only the peace that He gives.
Only the peace that He gives. The world cries peace, peace,
when there is no peace. But the peace that Christ gives
is real. It's a body. And you know it. You feel it.
You feel it. It's a feeling. It's a tranquility
that's there. You may not be able to explain
it, but it's there. It's very real. And then we need peace with one
another. Turn over to Psalm 133. Behold, give attention to this,
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity and peace. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard
that went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of
Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. For
there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.
But how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in peace. The presence of this peace will come out, it will be evidenced
by our conduct with one another. Don't you like a peaceful assembly?
I'm telling you this, you cannot worship where there's not one.
You can't do it. You can't do it. 1 Thessalonians 5.13 and
to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and
be at peace among yourselves." We need to peace with God, and
this is where it starts. If this does not happen, if Christ
did not make peace with God on my behalf, if he is not my peace
before God, then there can be no peace within, and there will
not be any peace among us. That's why the world cannot have
peace. That's why it's always fighting. It starts with peace with God,
and then it's peace within, and then it comes out with peace
with one another. Peace with one another. It says in Hebrews
12, 14, follow peace with all men. and holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. This peace within helps us to
forgive and forget. It does. It helps you. When you
really enjoy this peace, you can let things go. You can just let it go. This peace within promotes contentment. It promotes contentment. But
now listen. I think this is important. This
peace that's within, and it comes out among the brethren. It comes
out in our relationships with one another. You know what that
shows? That we do believe all things
are of God. That He is the first cause of all things. Second causes
are just second causes. And we quit getting upset and
tore up over second causes. Because all things are of God
and we are at peace with that. We are at peace with it. We are at peace. And our Lord
says to them, so let not your heart be troubled. Peace I leave with you. What
greater thing could the Lord leave with you and me? Peace. This peace that He gives,
this peace that belongs to Him, my peace, that peace that enables you to
sleep in a raging storm. So let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. This is His conclusion in comforting
their hearts. My peace I leave unto you. I give you. You have nothing to be afraid
of. And I tell you what, they learned that, didn't they? It
takes a while to learn the Scripture. We're babes in Christ, young
men in Christ, and then we become old men and women in Christ.
The aged men and women. And you learn these things. And
you learn as you go through life The Lord will provide. And He
gives peace. He gives His peace to endure
whatever comes our way. They were about to endure a lot.
They were about to endure a lot. True peace is not found in religion. It's not found in the world. It's not found in positive thinking. is found in the Prince of Peace.