That was delightful. Thank you.
Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. His name shall be called the
Prince of Peace. I don't pretend to know much
about many things that I know characterize the
lives of God's saints. I've never pretended to know
much about prayer. I want to, but I never pretended
to. I remember years ago on one of my first visits with my friend,
Brother Watson Dufour, who was probably, oh, at least 40, 45
years my senior, He was the only pastor in the area where I was
in West Virginia who had anything to do with me. We were both on
the outs with everybody. And we got to be good friends.
I greatly respected him. And I'd go down to visit with
the old man, sit in his backyard. His wife had no interest in the
gospel, but we'd sit and visit for hours. And he had a little
study in a garden shed, just a tar paper wrapped around it,
poor man obviously. And one day I noticed a pile
of notebooks. And I asked him, I said, what
are these? Seven minutes, he said, oh no. He said, when God
first saved me. And I'd try to pray, I found
I had trouble praying, so I'd write out my prayers. And I've
often thought, that's one set of private papers I'd like to
read. I'd like to see how the man expressed himself. I don't
like reading books or published letters and things, but that's
one, if one of his boys offers them to me, I'm gonna take those.
I'd like to see what the man wrote as he spoke to God. But
some things, that are characteristic of believers, I think I really
know something about inexperience. And one of those is peace. I was raised in a hellhole, this
constant fussing and fighting, bickering, meanness. I wouldn't
have been at all surprised Any day from my youth up to come
home and find either my parents had killed the other or killed
one of the children would surprise me in the least. Just that kind
of turbulence. My life was full of turbulence.
And I came to recognize something in my sin, the horrid turbulence. And when the Prince of Peace
entered, I have for over 50 years lived in peace. Peace in my heart. Peace in my
soul. Peace in my conscience. Peace
with God. Peace in a world of turmoil.
Peace in my home. Oh, what a blessed, blessed,
blessed thing peace is to one who's been in trouble. Nothing
but trouble. What would you give for peace?
I mean real, lasting, substantial peace. Peace with God, peace
in your conscience, peace in your heart, peace in your soul,
peace in your life. What would you give for peace?
Matthew Henry, the great English preacher and commentator, once
made this statement. Peace is such a precious jewel. that I would give anything for
it but truth. Peace is such a precious jewel
that I would give anything for it but truth. Tonight, if God
the Holy Ghost will speak by me to your heart, I want to introduce
you once more to the Prince of Peace. If ever you come to know
Christ, the Prince of Peace, you will find peace. And without
Him, you never can. Only Christ, the Prince of Peace,
can give peace to troubled souls. In our text, the prophet of God
describes the glorious person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
God's Messiah, our Savior. He proclaims our Redeemer's incarnation,
his exaltation, and his mediatorial character. Here is Isaiah's description
of Christ's incarnation. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. As the child of human flesh,
he was born through the womb of the Virgin Mary. As God the
Son, He never was born. He's the only begotten, the everlastingly
begotten Son of the Father, and God gave us His Son. Here's the
prophet's declaration of our Savior's exaltation. And the
government, the government, I like the way that's stated, the government,
there's only one, the government. Not the government of this nation
or that, not the government of this fear or that, but the government. The government of all things
is upon his shoulders. And this is Isaiah's proclamation
of Christ's glorious mediatorial character. His name shall be
called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. In all that Christ has done as
our mediator, whether in planning or in executing the work of redemption,
he has sought and secured peace, the peace and eternal welfare
of God's elect. It was to purchase our peace
that he became incarnate and died upon the cross. It was to
bestow our peace that he ascended into heaven, assumed the reins
of universal dominion, and undertook the management of providence.
Peace is the legacy he left to his church when he departed from
this world. He said to his disciples, my
peace give I unto you. Upon his ascension back to heaven,
he poured out the spirit of God upon his church, the comforter,
he who is the spirit of peace. And to this very hour, the Son
of God, our Savior, the Prince of Peace, dispenses peace according
to his own sovereign will to the sons of men, giving it in
great abundance to all the subjects of his kingdom and his grace.
There are but two points to which I call your attention in this
message. First, I want to show you from the Scriptures what
the Scriptures mean when it says that the Lord Jesus Christ is
a Prince. And second, this great prince
is the prince of peace. Turn over to the book of Ezekiel,
Ezekiel chapter 34. Understand this first. The Lord
Jesus Christ, He who is our Savior, is a prince. In Ezekiel 34, verse
23, you have a prophecy of Him, and it's given this way, in Ezekiel
34, 23. I will set up one shepherd over
them, and he shall feed them. Even my servant David, that's
Christ the Savior, he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their
God, and my servant David a prince among them. I, the Lord, have
spoken it. Look in chapter 37, verse 24,
Ezekiel 37, 24. And David my servant, Christ
my servant, shall be king over them. And they all shall have
one shepherd. They shall also walk in my judgments
and observe my statutes and do them. And they shall dwell in
the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your
fathers had dwelt. and they shall dwell therein,
even they and their children and their children's children
forever. And my servant David, my servant Christ shall be their
prince. Now, look at one more text. Over
the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter nine. Listen to what the prophet says
concerning this one who is Messiah, the prince. Daniel 9, 24. 70 weeks are determined upon thy
people. and upon thy holy city. This
is what the prince is going to do. This is what the Messiah
is going to do. Every declaration of any Christ,
any Messiah, any Redeemer that fails to declare these accomplishments
is the declaration of a false Christ, a false Messiah, a false
Redeemer, a God who is no God at all. When Christ the Messiah,
the Prince comes, he's coming to finish the transgression.
And to make an end of sins. And to make reconciliation for
iniquity. And to bring in everlasting righteousness. And to seal up the vision and
the prophecy. That is, to fulfill the vision
God gave to his prophets. And to anoint the most holy.
This one's going to be made king, seated on the throne of David.
Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of
the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah,
the Prince, shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks.
The streets shall be built again and the wall even in troublous
times. Obviously then, the word prince
simply implies that Christ, at the time of his incarnation and
birth, was the rightful legal heir to the throne of God on
which he now sits. The throne of David and the throne
of God. The word might be translated
king. The Lord Jesus, the prince of
peace, is the Lord of peace, Paul tells us. He's the king
of peace. Christ the prince is a prince
by birth because he's the king's son. Our Lord Jesus, the apostle
goes in detail in Romans chapter 1 and tells us that our Lord
Jesus Christ is David's son. The gospel of God is the gospel
of that man who is of the seed of David, who is both David's
Lord and David's son. That is to say, this one who
is the true Messiah, the true Savior, this one who has finished
transgression, made an end to sin, and fulfilled the vision
and the prophecy, he is David's son, and he is God the Son. declared to be the son of God
with power. Our Lord Jesus by birth is David's
son, and he is given as God's son. As the son of David, he's
the lawful heir to the throne of David, the Messiah of Israel. Peter, when the spirit of God
poured out in Acts chapter two, and folks stood by wondering
what had happened, he said, this is what Joel was talking about.
This is what Joel was talking about. He said, God has put his
son on David's throne. When Christ was seated on the
throne of David, he was exalted to glory and given the reigns
of the universe. And that which is typified in
David's throne is not talking about a carnal earthly throne.
There's never going to be a time when the Lord Jesus Christ steps
off the throne of heaven and comes down here to sit on a little
old bitty throne over in Palestine. That just ain't gonna happen.
The throne of David is the throne of God. The kingdom of David
is the kingdom of God. And Christ sits upon the throne. He sits in the ease of total
sovereignty, in the ease of total dominion upon the throne. And
we who believe him ought to be as perfectly at ease as he is. He who is the king is the king
of peace. He's the prince of peace. He
is that one who says, remember the former things of old. For
I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like
unto me. declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. He says, I have spoken it. I
will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. The Lord Jesus Christ is also
Prince by virtue of his office obedience as our Mediator. Not
only is he Prince and King because he's God, He earned the right
to be Prince and King by fulfilling all the will of God as our mediator
and substitute. You remember back in Psalm 2
when the psalmist gives a prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus, the
King of God. And the Lord God said to his
son, ask of me. And I will give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for
thy possession. And our Lord Jesus, when he finished
his work of obedience, He bowed before the Father in John 17,
and he said, Father, I finished the work thou gavest me to do.
Now glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. Give
me the glory which I had with you before the foundation of
the world. He said, give me dominion, for thou has given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou has given him. I've told you several times in
the past, I know by Mr. Spurgeon, when he was called
as pastor of the church in England, in London, England, where John
Gill, before him, had pastored, where Benjamin Keech had pastored,
where John Ripon had pastored. And Spurgeon, when he was called
there, almost immediately, became known sensationally. And the
church grew, bursting its walls, and they had to build another
building. And while the tabernacle was building, Spurgeon was preaching
to a huge crowd in the Surrey Gardens. And someone, as that
young man was preaching, screamed, fire, fire! And folks stampeded
out of there, too, were trampled to death. Spurgeon was devastated. He was devastated. He just he
couldn't bring himself again to preach for two weeks He was
just devastated and then one Saturday. He read Philippians
chapter 2 and He preached the next morning from Philippians
2 on the subject Christ exalted The Lord God gave him a gracious,
fresh realization of the fact that Christ is on his throne. Everything is all right. Christ
is on his throne. He rules. And that rule is my
peace. The Lord Jesus earned the right
to dominion by his obedience to God as our mediator. There is no question this dominion
was placed in his hands as the God-man, our mediator before
the world was when he was accepted as the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. and was manifestly given to him
by his ascension after he rose from the dead and then ascended
up into heaven, attended by the heavenly angels, seated upon
the throne of David to rule all things for the Israel of God.
God, the triune Jehovah, has put the universe under the absolute
dominion of that man, who loved us and gave himself for us. He
is called the prince of the kings of the earth. He is the sovereign
prince that he might be the great savior of God's elect. Listen
to what the book says. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Christ Jesus is the Prince. He's exalted as Prince, God in
our flesh, for this specific purpose, to give repentance and
forgiveness of sins to the Israel of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the sovereign monarch of the universe. Oh God, teach me that,
seal it to my heart, let me live moment by moment, hour by hour,
day by day in the realization of this, he who is God my savior
is the prince upon whose shoulders is the government of all things. He holds the reins of absolute
dominion over all things to save his people from the wrath of
God. What a picture we have of the
Lord Jesus in the book of Exodus. He was made to be prime minister
over God's nation, Egypt. Yes, God's nation, Egypt. I'm
sorry, Genesis. He set it seated on the throne
next to Pharaoh. And anything anybody wanted,
anything anybody needed, Pharaoh said, go to Joseph. He is king
of everything. He holds all the storehouse of
Egypt. You get corn by going to Joseph.
You get bread by going to Joseph. You get permission by going to
Joseph. If you would have peace, go to
Christ, the Prince of Peace. Now, here's the second thing.
This great prince, the son of God, our Lord Jesus, is the prince
of peace. Everything connected to him as
a prince and king shows him to be the prince of peace. His kingdom
lies not in meat and drink, but in righteousness, joy, and peace
in the Holy Ghost. The scepter of his kingdom is
the golden scepter of mercy and grace, of truth and righteousness. His throne is the throne of grace. His royal proclamation is the
gospel of peace. The fruit of his spirit is love,
joy, peace. The subject of his kingdom are
both peaceable and peacemakers. They're both peaceable men and
women and peacemakers. He is called the Prince of Peace
because it is his sovereign prerogative to speak peace to his people. And there is no peace in this
world but that which he bestows. It matters not whether you're
talking about a carnal little time of peace in the midst of
some political conflict. or just a little peace in the
midst of a storm. I would be talking about peace
in your heart and peace in your soul. Any peace anybody has comes
from him who's the Prince of Peace. Our Lord Jesus alone gives
peace, true peace in the soul. I know that people delude themselves
with the thoughtless peace of insensible carnal security, And
I know that many are deluded by the messengers of Satan who
cry, peace, peace, when there is no peace. But theirs is a
blind, fruitless peace that will never bear reflection or examination. For God has says, there is no
peace to the wicked. Christ alone, I repeat, is the
Prince of Peace. And those who trust him, Enjoy
what the Apostle Paul describes as peace that passeth all understanding. Our Savior stood forth before
the world was in the everlasting council of peace as our surety
for our peace. And Zacharias says, he shall
build the temple and he shall bear the glory and he shall sit
and rule upon his throne. He shall be a priest upon his
throne and the council of peace between him and the triune Jehovah. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
five. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. You may wonder, Pastor, do you
always have to turn to 2 Corinthians 5? Well, I do so on purpose. Because 2 Corinthians 5 contains
the message, I want God to seal to your heart and mine continually. The Lord Jesus Christ has made
peace for sinners. peace with God by the blood of
His cross. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. And this is God's work. All things
are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. and hath given to us the ministry,
the service of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word, the message
of reconciliation. Now this is what Paul says. The
Lord God Almighty was in Christ his Son, refusing to impute our
sins to us. He made his son sin and imputed
our sin to his son because he made his son to be sin for us
and thereby reconciled the world of his elect to himself. And
now he's given us the service and the ministry of reconciliation.
so that we go through the world proclaiming the gospel, as Paul
wrote to the Colossians, beseeching men to be reconciled to God,
calling sinners who are rebels to lay down their arms and be
at peace with God. Look at verse 20. Now then, we're
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we
pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. for He
hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And as soon as you're
reconciled to God, the Lord God Almighty, by Christ the Prince
of Peace, bestows peace on all who come to God by Him through
the sweet, blessed influence and operation of His Spirit.
When the Spirit of God gives faith in Christ. Oh, would to
God he'd do that for you. When he works faith in Christ,
he sprinkles the conscience. He sprinkles the heart with the
blood of Christ. and declares sin forgiven. And believing on the Lord Jesus,
we receive, Romans 5, 11, the atonement. That is, we receive
the reconciliation. That's what the word atonement
means. Reconciliation accomplished by blood. We now receive from
the hand of the Prince of Peace, reconciliation with God, the
atonement that God Almighty made for us by His Son, we receive
that atonement and there we have peace with God, peace with God. For the first time, for the first
time, God when He gives faith For the first time, a sinner
believing on Christ has peace. Oh, the blessedness of this peace. But none will ever apply to Christ
for peace until they're in trouble. You will never seek peace from
Christ until you're in distress of soul, until you're made to
feel the danger bitterness and consequences of sin. We shun
from that word feel and we shouldn't. Religion without feeling is religion
without meaning. And I know that religion, true
religion involves much more than feeling. But religion without
feeling is religion without meaning. But when a sinner is made to
feel the danger, the bitterness, and the consequences of sin,
when you're made to see the impossibility of helping yourself, then the
weary, heavy laden soul seeks Christ. And the Lord Jesus hears
his prayer and gives peace. He steps out on the bow of the
troubled ship of your life. And he says, peace be still.
And suddenly, where there was nothing but turmoil and turbulence
and no ease, suddenly, The life of a man that's been full of
turbulence experiences and finds great calm when Christ speaks
peace. A preacher can't do that for
you. A decision for God can't do that for you. A trip down
the church aisle can't do that for you. Baptism can't do that
for you. But oh, if Christ steps into
your heart, he says, peace be still, and suddenly, there's
a great calm. Read the 140th Psalm and you'll
find out that before he speaks that peace, he brings the soul
into trouble. But if the Prince of Peace brings
trouble, if the Prince of Peace brings trouble to a sinner's
heart, he brings the trouble that he may speak peace. And he does bring trouble. He
strips and exposes and shakes and freezes and burns and draws
forth his glittering sword and terrifies and troubles the soul. that he may speak peace. When he comes to bring peace,
he first brings trouble. And not only does Christ make
peace between God and sinners, he makes peace between believers
and one another. Those who are natural enemies,
by his saving grace, he makes to dwell together in peace. I often say this to my friends. I have some friends who weren't
raised in the South during the turbulent 50s and 60s. Some who are black. And if we
had been raised together in the streets of Winston-Salem, if
we were ever together, we would have been fighting. I didn't have any black friends
growing up, not a one. And I didn't have any black men
I knew who wanted to be my friend, rightly so, not a one. But now,
I have black friends all over the world. All over the world
and I often remind them, in Christ, we're one. He made us peace with each other. Men who have nothing in common,
but by nature everything full of animosity. When Christ comes
to both, he makes peace. So that in Christ, the Jew and
Gentile are one. The black and white are one.
The male and female are one. The learned and unlearned are
one. The bond and free are one. We're one in Him, so that all
social, racial distinctions, political distinctions are done
away in Christ. We're one in Him. Christ is all
and in all. What does that mean? It means
a lot of things. I'll tell you. It means Colossians
3.11. It means that if you and I, all
of us here, are in Christ, Christ is everything to us. And if Christ
is in each of us, we are all together one in Christ and nothing
else much matters. Nothing else is significant.
Nothing else has any consequence. The Lord Jesus has broken down
every wall of separation between His people. So that where the
Prince of Peace reigns, there is peace. If Christ reigns in
you, you live in peace. Now I've said a mouthful when
I said that. Shall I qualify it? Not for your soul's sake, I won't
qualify it. If Christ lives in you, you live
in peace. If Christ reigns in this church,
in this congregation, the church lives in peace. If Christ reigns
in your home, you go home in peace. The Prince of Peace gives
peace to all the subjects of his kingdom by graciously inviting
us and doing more than that, enabling us to cast all our care
on Him. We wouldn't if He didn't enable
us. But this is what it says, humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that is,
bow down under the Lord, that He may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon Him. Why shouldn't you? For he careth
for you. He careth for you. Cast everything
on him, all your care, all your burden, all your desire, all
that troubles you, cast it on him. I mean, cast it on him. You can't carry it yourself if
you cast it on him. Cast it on him, everything's
all right. This I know, Mark Daniel, He
who is my Savior, my King, the Prince of Peace, will do everything
just exactly right. Everything concerning me and
mine and everything concerning you and yours, he will do right. So trust in the Lord with all
your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your
ways, acknowledge him, bow before him, surrender to him, and he
shall direct thy paths. He manages and rules everything
for our good. Even his afflictions, even the
chastisement he brings upon us are tokens of his love. And they
yield to us the fruit of peace. Peace. Now you can't really know
that until the peace has been tested by the storm. You can't You can't really know
what peace is until you've been in time of conflict. You can't
really know what peace is until you've sailed through troubled
seas. You can't really know what peace
is until you've been shaken to the very foundation. And so he
sends the storm, the conflict, and the shaking. and says, this
is my peace. This is my peace. Our gracious
prince, the prince of peace, teaches his people to live in
peace by his word, by his example, and by his spirit. If you would
live in peace, hear me now, preacher. Hear yourself. Bow to God's will
and you'll find peace. Trust your heavenly father. He
knows what you need. He'll take care of it. Love and
serve one another. Be benevolent, generous with
what God puts in your hand, not grabbing and keeping. Seek not
your own good and happiness, but the good and happiness of
others. And when God's saints draw near to death, the prince
of peace. I can only say this from a little
bit I've observed. I can't speak about it from experience,
but I can't speak about it from his word. When they draw near
to death, the prince of peace floods the hearts of his saints
with peace. Mark the perfect man and behold
the upright. For the end of that man is peace. And when he calls us home to
glory, we will greet him in judgment, who is the prince of peace, who
will introduce us into an everlasting peace, an everlasting life of
peace and joy. and ever-increasing satisfaction. So I say to you, come to Christ
and go home in peace. Trust Christ, my brother, my
sister, and live in peace. What is that peace? What is that
peace? I got this from William Hendrickson.
I thought it was outstanding. I'll give you this last statement.
You got your pen handy? Peace is the smile of God reflected
in the soul of the believer. Peace is the smile of God reflected
in your soul. What would you give for peace? anything but truth. Amen.