If you turn to Leviticus and
chapter 3, we read from verse 1 the following. And if his oblation
be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether
it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before
the Lord. And he shall lay his hand upon
the head of his offering and kill it at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. And Aaron's sons, the priests,
shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. And he
shall offer of his sacrifice of the peace offering, an offering
made by fire unto the Lord, the fat that covereth the innards,
and all the fat that is upon the innards, and the two kidneys,
and the fat that is on them which is by the flanks, and the call
above the liver with the kidneys, it shall he take away. And Aaron's
son shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which
is upon the wood that is on the fire. It is an offering made
by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. And if his offering
for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord be of the flock,
male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. If he offer
a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before the
Lord. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering
and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron's
son shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the
altar. And he shall offer of the sacrifice
of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord. The
fat thereof and the hull rump, it shall he take off hard by
the backbone. And the fat that covereth the
innards and all the fat that is upon the innards. And the
two kidneys and the fat that is upon them which is by the
flanks, and the call above the liver with the kidneys, it shall
he take away. And the priest shall burn it
upon the altar. It is the food of the offering
made by fire unto the Lord. And if his offering be of a goat,
then he shall offer it before the Lord. And he shall lay his
hand upon the head of it, and kill it before the tabernacle
of the congregation. And the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle
the blood thereof upon the altar round about. And he shall offer
thereof his offering, even an offering made by fire unto the
Lord. The fat that covereth the innards,
and all the fat that is upon the innards, and the two kidneys,
and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the
call above the liver with the kidneys, it shall he take away. And the priest shall burn them
upon the altar. It is the food of the offering,
made by fire for a sweet savour. All the fat is the Lord's. It
shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout
all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood. If his
oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the
herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish
before the Lord. A peace offering. Peace offering. Here we see in this chapter the
great need for peace. Peace between God and man. Peace
between two offended parties, two divided parties. Peace between
God and sinful man. between a holy God whose righteousness
and holiness and justice burns with anger against rebellious
man, against the sin and corruption of a created being who has shaken
his fist in his maker's face. There is a great need for a peace
offering. And the gospel The preaching
of the gospel is a message of peace. It's a declaration to
fallen sinners that know that they are under condemnation,
that know that their God is angry with their sin, that know that
left to themselves they shall perish. It is a declaration unto
a fallen people that there is peace in the gospel. through the blood of Jesus Christ,
which has been shed for sinners. Romans 10, 15 tells us, and how
shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things. The Gospel is wonderful
because it's a message, a declaration of peace, that the enmity which
stood between God and his people has been dealt with, has been
taken away, that there has been an offering, an acceptable offering,
offered up unto God, a peace offering, with which God the
Father is pleased. well pleased and because of that
offering, because of the blood of that offering, because of
the fat of that offering, he can look at those for whom it
was offered and say peace, peace be unto you, peace be unto you,
thy sins be forgiven thee, peace. Oh the joy of being brought to
peace with an offended party. You will know just in your earthly
relations, how when you come to blows with somebody, how when
you fall out with somebody, how when you cause somebody great
offense and great sorrow, and you feel that they must be angry
with you, you feel that they are against you, and you know
it's right, you know that you have wronged them. When you're
in that state and then you come to that day, when they forgive
you, when you're reconciled, when the division is over, when
they say it's okay, when you've confessed unto them and said
sorry and they say that's okay, and you embrace and you're at
one again. When you are in that state, you
know the joy. You know the joy that comes from
that sorrow and division being taken away and being brought
to peace again. Well, if that's the joy you can
experience in a mere earthly relationship, what joy there
is to know when you are brought to peace with Almighty God. when you as a great sinner, under
judgment, under wrath, feeling the condemnation of God against
your sin, when you come to know, come to know through the gospel,
through the blood of Christ, through the application of the
blood of Christ to your soul, when you know that all is well,
and you are forgiven. Oh, the joy. The joy of being
brought to peace. The joy of being brought to peace,
not just with an offended party, but with the offended party. Peace. Peace with God. Because as I said, there is a
great need we have a great need of a peace offering. Because of that distance, that
gulf, that enmity that stands between God and man. Enmity. There is enmity between
God and man, enmity with one another. There is not only enmity
between us and God, but the same cause of that enmity, the sin
that entered into man when Adam fell, causes enmity between us
and our brethren and our sisters and our neighbours. There is
enmity between one man and another. Hatred. As we saw enter the world
so quickly after the fall of Adam, no sooner had he rebelled
against God than his sons Cain and Abel came to blows. And Cain, jealous of Abel, and
jealous of his sacrifice, slew Abel. And murder entered this world. enmity, jealousy, hatred. There is enmity between individuals,
there's enmity between nations and races and peoples. Enmity
between the Jew and the Gentile. God having mercy upon a people
chose out a nation, the Jewish nation, whom he delivered from
Egypt. under whom he gave his law by
Moses, under whom he gave the priesthood and the sacrifices
of which we have read here in Leviticus, a people whom he chose,
a people whom he blessed, a people with whom he walked. But as a
consequence, the people who were separate from the world around
them, they were different. And the difference showed. And
the difference brought about enmity. There was enmity between
Jew and Gentile. Both ways. The other nations
hated the Jews for what they were. And the Jews looked upon
the Gentiles as dogs. Chosen or not, they were still
full of sin. And their attitude to the other
nations was one of hatred. Enmity, but enmity most of all
between God and man. When man fell in the garden,
when Adam shook his fist in God's face and said, Thou will not
rule over me. Thou will not give me restrictions. If I see fruit, then I will eat
fruit. If I want to go this way, I will
go that way. If I want to do this, I will
do this. Why must I be restricted? Why
must another say no to me? I will rule. when he took his
fist and shook it against God. God condemned him and the woman
and sent them out of the garden and showed them his anger and
divided them from his own presence, set a gulf between him and man,
between God and man, between the presence of God and man.
set a great gulf between them, but he also put an enmity between
the woman and the Satan. In Genesis 3, verse 15, God spake
unto Satan because of what Satan had done in deceiving the man
and the woman and in causing them to turn from their Maker. And he said, I'll put enmity
between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. And the man and the woman. knew
the influence of Satan, knew the influence of his lies, knew
the destruction that sin had brought in, and they knew the
enmity that would come between him and them, and between his
seed and their seed, in which God refers to the people of God,
the true Israelites and the Gentiles, those who hated God. enmity between
Jew and Gentile and enmity between man and God as Romans 5 10 tells
us if when we were enemies enemies of God if when 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 when we were
enemies when we were at enmity with God God sent his own son
into this world as a peace offering for his people. Romans 8, 7. The carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. Our minds are polluted by sin. No matter what we may know, no
matter how much of the Bible, how much of the Scriptures, how
much of the truth, how much doctrine, how much of the Gospel we may
know or have heard, ultimately, Our minds are at enmity with
God. We will take those truths and
twist them and corrupt them and use them to our own ends. Your
knowledge in the letter of the gospel and of the truth will
do you no good. You must know Christ by revelation. For the carnal mind is enmity
against God. But Ephesians 2 gives us hope. Having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so make in peace. Christ came to take away the
enmity, to take away the division. as verse 13 of Ephesians says
before it. Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ for he is
our peace who have made both one and have broken down the
middle wall of partition the middle wall of partition between
god and man and the middle wall of partition between the jew
and the gentile having abolished in his flesh the enmity even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to making himself
of twain one new man so making peace and that he might reconcile
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar
off and to them that were nigh. Here Paul's writing to Gentiles,
and he's telling them that God didn't just come in Jesus Christ
to deliver Jews, but to deliver Gentiles. And He didn't just
come to deliver Jews and Gentiles and keep them separate but to
unite them as one people, one body in Christ. He's made peace
for those who were at enmity with one another and with their
God. James also speaks of enmity.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. What do you love, this
world or God? We're all born We're all born
as those that love the world and love ourselves. We love riches,
we love the pleasures of this world, we love the thinking and
the ways of this world, we love what we can see, feel and hear. We're carnal. And as those who are friends
of the world, we are enemies of God. The carnal mind is enmity
against God. And if we're enemies, and if
there's enmity, then we need to be brought to peace. And we need an offering of peace. We need a peace offering if we're
ever to enter into God's presence, if we're ever to be spared his
wrath and judgment. Our great need is to be at peace
with God. Because our great transgression
is to turn from God, and to hate God, and to despise
God, and to despise His ways, to despise His word, to despise
His righteousness, to despise His Son. to despise the Lord
Jesus Christ. We've hated him, we've despised
him, we are his enemies. And as his enemies, he will deal
with us as enemies, if we remain in that state. Unless we be brought
to peace. Unless you be brought to peace. Have you a peace offering? Well these Jews of old were instructed
to bring offerings. We've read of some in the previous
chapters and in this chapter we read of their peace offerings.
They knew the need for peace. They knew the need for peace
with God. And they knew they needed to
offer a peace offering. And Moses instructs them in the
way in which they should offer it. They could bring it of the
herd or they could bring it of the flock. It could be male or
it could be female. It must be without blemish. It must be slain. The blood must
be shed. The innards, the fat, the call,
the kidneys should be separated and burnt. The blood should be
poured out. around the altar and the offering
should be made by fire as a sweet savour unto the Lord. In this is pictured the one piece
offering of Jesus Christ offered up once and for all for his people. But what do these offerings tell
us about that offering? And what is distinct about the
peace offering described in this chapter from the burnt offering
we read of in chapter one? Or the meat offerings we read
of in chapter two? Why a peace offering? Because
each of these offerings in their different ways teach us a different
need for an offering. and a different purpose of that
offering, a different aspect of the offering all point us
to the one offering of Christ but Christ is both a burnt offering
and a meat offering and he's both a meat offering and a peace
offering and all these things show us in various facets, in
various aspects the glory and the wonder of who Christ is what
he did. Consider this peace offering.
It's of the herd or of the flock and unlike the offerings in chapter
1, the burnt offering, it's stipulated here that it can be male or female. Male or female. Why is the burnt
offering in chapter one required to be male if it's of the herd
or the flock? But here we read that it can
be male or female. Why the difference? Because of
what this offering's about. Peace. This offering is about
peace. It's about unity. It's about
reconciliation. It's about the bringing of parties
together as one. It's about the bringing of man
into union and peace with his God. It's about the bringing
of Jew and Gentile together as one body, one man in Jesus Christ. And it's about the bringing together
of male and female, one. the bringing together of Christ
and His bride at peace. The bride and her bridegroom
brought to union, brought to peace and brought to peace with
the Father. All of this is about gathering
those who were once divided. gathering God and man, gathering
Jew and Gentile, and gathering the bride and the bridegroom,
the male and the female. Therefore the peace offering
must be either male or female, because there's no division here,
but peace. And there's a reminder in the
male and the female of where the need for peace originates
from. In the beginning when mankind
fell, the woman fell first. Satan, that great enemy of God,
that great deceiver, that great liar, came to the woman and said
under her, whispered under her, slyly in her ear, half God said. And through the woman, he caused
the man to fall. through the woman. The woman
fell first and Adam followed in the transgression and sin
entered and there was division. Man was divided from his God. Satan was condemned to enmity
between him and the woman and his seed and her seed. and the
woman and the man knew the effects of sin throughout all time. But here in the peace offering,
in Christ's offering, in the blood of Christ, God is reconciled
unto man, and Jew and Gentile are united as one, and the bride
is brought under her bridegroom. is an offering for all, for all
God's people. for all his people, from Jew
and Gentile, male and female, whatever race, the four corners
of the earth, a people gathered from all corners of the earth,
all races, all tribes, all tongues, all kindreds, male, female, black,
white, whatever they are, a people gathered from the four corners
and brought to be one in Christ and one with their Father. One. through that one great peace
offering offered up for them. These peace offerings were to
be without blemish, spotless, perfect, because God can only
be brought to peace with man when sin is taken away. then there can be no blemish
in the sacrifice. For how can peace come through
a blemished sacrifice? How could Christ have delivered
us from our sins if he was himself full of sin? He never once sinned. He was without sin, he was perfect
and therefore he could be offered up as a perfect sacrifice. A
perfect sacrifice which the priest could take and lay his hand upon
its head. as a picture of the transfer
of sin from the people to the sacrifice, that the sacrifice
should be slain in their stead, bearing their sins, being made
sin, delivering them in his blood and his body from their sins
and their sin. He was without blemish. But this
peace offering can be taken from the herd or from the flock. We read from verses 1 to 5 of
the sacrifice of that peace offering taken of the herd and then we
read from verse 6 of that peace offering taken from the flock. But unlike chapter 1 and the
burnt offering, we read no mention of the third type of offering,
taken from fowls, turtle doves and pigeons. There's no mention. Only the herd and the flock here,
with regard to the peace offering. Now why is this? We saw in chapter
one the picture that it conveyed unto us of three different offerings
in relation to the three persons of the Godhead. The herd, speaking
of the Father, the flock, the lamb, speaking of the Lamb of
God, Christ, and the dove, speaking of the Spirit of God, who ascends
unto heaven and takes his people up into glory. then take in those
persons we have here with the peace offering the picture of
the father with the sacrifice of the herd and the picture of
the son with the sacrifice from the flock but no reference to
the spirit so why the attention on the father
and the son? Why only those? Why no mention
of the doves? And through it, through them,
the Spirit of God. Why the attention? Why is our
thought, why is our gaze being centred specifically upon the
Father and the Son? Because it is a peace offering. Because this is a picture of
reconciliation. between two parties between father
and son and between father and his sons in the sun it's about
two parties it's about the bringing to peace of the father and the
son the bringing to peace of the father and his sons Now we
read earlier from Luke and chapter 15, which is a wonderful illustration
of this. The account that Jesus gives,
the parable regarding the prodigal son. The father with two sons,
one of whom went astray and was reconciled under him. In Luke
15 it says, A certain man had two sons and the younger of them
said to his father, father give me the portion of goods that
falleth to me and he divided unto them his living. And not
many days after the younger son gathered all together and took
his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance
with riotous living. And when he had spent all there
arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields
to feed swine. And he would fain have filled
his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man
gave unto him. And when he came to himself,
He said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to
my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against
the heaven and before thee, and I'm no more worthy to be called
thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his
father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him,
and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed
him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son. the father said to his servants
bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring
on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted
calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my son
was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they
began to be merry Now his elder son was in the field, and as
he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing,
and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath
killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and
sound. He was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his
father out and entreated him. And he answered and said to his
father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed
I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me
a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon
as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with
Harlot, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. he said
unto him son thou art ever with me and all that i have is thine
it was meat that we should make merry and be glad for this thy
brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. This is a wonderful account a
wonderful moving account of the loss of a son of the rebellion
this son to leave his father to effectively as we did in Adam
shake his fist in his father's face and say I do not want you,
I do not need you, I will not be ruled by you and he went off
and left his father's household and went off into the world to
make his own way and what ruin came upon him. Just like you
and I We have shaken our fist in God's face, we've gone our
own way and we've come into this dreadful state of fallen sin,
this dreadful state of rebellion. We've tried to feed ourselves
on what all that this world offers and it brings nothing but ruin. Now many stay in that sort of
ruin and stay in that sort of blindness and darkness to their
dying day constantly warring against their maker and never
coming to their senses. But this son, it is said, came
to the point of starving with hunger. When he came to himself
he said how many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough
and to spare and I perish with hunger he was hungry but spiritually
he was hungry for righteousness being full of sin and he knew
he was full of sin because he didn't just return to his father
because he was hungry he didn't return home saying father i've
used my money up i'm in desperate straits help me out he went home
saying i have sinned against heaven and before thee and am
no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired
servants now has god shown you your sin and rebellion against
your father God in heaven and shown you that you have sinned
against heaven you have sinned against God and you are no more
worthy to be called his son That's the state of man. That's the
state of you and I by nature. But have you been brought to
yourself to see it? Has the Spirit of God opened
your eyes and understanding to show you your state? To bring
you to an end of your striving in your own strength? To show
you the hopelessness and futility of sin and your efforts to walk
right? to show you your desperate state
and to cause you to cry out unto God, I have sinned against heaven
and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Has he brought you to cry out for peace and to see your need
of an offering for peace? Well he did with this son. And
as the son went back to his father, his father, when the son was
yet a great way off, saw him, and had compassion, and ran and
fell on his neck and kissed him. The father came for him. And
despite all that this son had done, and despite all that the
father should rightly feel against him, the father loved him. and received him. And the father
ordered that the fatted calf be slain and that they eat and
be married. The fatted calf. And here we
see a connection back to this passage in Leviticus. The father
here is reconciled to his son. And there's an offering. There's
a beast that's slain. But the beast referred to here
is the calf, because this is at the father's command. It's
an offering from the herd. Whereas if the son, like Abel,
had come unto God with an offering, he would have brought a lamb.
But here the father sees the son and orders that an offering
be slain of the herd. Now we see a contrast in the
second son. The second son is jealous and
furious that his brother, who was so wanton and rebellious
unlike him, should be favoured in such a way that his father
should be so forgiving of him. Oh he'd done everything right
before God. He'd done everything right before
his father. Why wasn't he rewarded in this
way? This is the reaction of the legalist,
the reaction of those that think that they serve God when they
don't. Oh, they've done everything right.
How God should reward their efforts. How they should be rewarded according
to their works. And they're full of hatred and
enmity against the other son. Here's the enmity of Jew and
Gentile, here's the enmity between those who love works and those
who know grace. But read the comment that this
son makes with reference to the sacrifice, with reference to
the feast that's been offered. He's told by the servant that
his brother has returned and that the father have killed the
fatted calf. And yet he then goes on to complain
to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither
transgressed I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never
gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. He
does not refer to a calf, but a kid. Because he is a son who
will take an offering of the flock, not the herd. Yet his
offering would not be a lamb, but a kid, because this son's
a goat, not a sheep. What offering do you have? Abel offered a lamb, and the
father here slays the fatted calf. Because peace comes between the
father and the son. The father and the son. And the sacrifice, as we read
in Leviticus, must be slain. Its blood must be sprinkled around
the altar. And in the flesh of the sacrifice,
the fat, the innards, is burnt. The sacrifice is a lamb. We read
that the priest shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering
and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation. And we see
in these things the transfer of the sin to the head of the
offering and the sacrifice of the blood for the sins of the
people and of the flesh, the fat, for the sin of the people. which is why in verse 17 at the
end of the chapter, in words that should be remembered forever,
it tells us it shall be a perpetual statute for your generations,
throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood. Neither fat nor blood. Why? Because you will remember
in the peace offering. that Christ has delivered you
from your sins and your sin. He's offered up both his blood
and his flesh, fat and blood. He's brought peace in entirety
and he's brought in his body one people taken out of all nations,
Jews, Gentiles, male, female, black, white, all sorts, sinners
alike, he's made one with God his Father, in one body, in the
Son. The Son is reconciled unto the
Father, and the sons of God in the Son, like the prodigal son,
are brought to peace with their Father, who for them has offered
up a fatty calf. it's a peace offering, all of
which points us unto Christ, the peace offering, the peace
offering. Oh what an offering Christ was
and what peace he has brought in his gospel, the son of peace,
this man of peace, this man that came preaching a gospel of peace. How often we read of the peace
that he brings in the Gospels. In Luke 10 we read of the preaching
of the Gospel and of the going about of the disciples to preach
the Gospel to different houses and of their reception or rejection. We read if the Son of Peace be
there your peace shall rest upon it if not it shall turn to you
again. Where I go before you Where I
as your Saviour go, as your offering of peace go, you will find that
the people will hear, because there is an offering, a peace
offering, which has been slain for them, which has been received
by the Father, and when you come telling them of it, that offering
will be sprinkled in their hearts by the Spirit of God. and they
will look and believe. But where that offering is not
sprinkled, where I have not gone by my spirit to prepare the ground
and the gospel will be just words. Now what of you when you hear
this gospel, has your heart been prepared Have you come to your
senses like that prodigal son? Can you say unto God the Father
I have sinned against heaven and sinned against thee and I
am no more worthy to be called thy son? Has the Son of Peace
Christ come into your heart and made his truth known unto you
and shown you what you are and shown you your need to be brought
to peace with God? do you just fight back and say
not I? Well if you fight this gospel
and if you shake your fist at this God and this Savior and
this Son of God then know who you are resisting because in
Mark chapter 4 and verse 39 it says of Christ that he arose
in the storm and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea peace
be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm this
man the son of god could walk on the waters of the sea and
he could calm the storms of the sea and cry out unto the roaring
wind peace be still and it was Then what power he has, and what
power he has over you. What power he has in his gospel
to deliver the worst of sinners from their sins. And what power
he has to deliver the rebellious, wicked, hater of God into outer
darkness. Don't trifle with God. Don't
trifle with his gospel and don't trifle with his son who comes
in his gospel preaching peace. Christ says in John 16, these
things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace,
in me. Christ. Nowhere else. Where are you looking for peace?
You won't find it in the world, you won't find it in your career,
you won't find it in pleasure, you won't find it in treasures,
you won't find it in the religions of this world. Whatever they
may claim you won't find it in false Christianity. in a Jesus
that stands meekly aside calling unto you to accept him who has
no power to turn your hard heart around. You won't find it in
the lies of men, you won't find it in works, but you will find
peace in Jesus Christ, in a sovereign Christ and in the free grace
of his gospel. I have spoke these things I have
spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace in the world
ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome
the world he's overcome the world how has he overcome the world
how did Christ overcome this world of tribulation how did
he overcome this world of hatred and enmity by the cross by offering
himself once and for all for sin upon the cross, by the cross,
by his death, through his suffering, through the pangs and pains of
death for his people. As Colossians 1 tells us, and
having made peace through the blood of his cross, and having
made peace, having made peace for 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
have he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight
He says unto his people, If ye continue in the faith grounded
and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. In Luke 1 Verse 79 we read of
the coming of Christ that it is said that he came to give
light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to
guide our feet into the way of peace. In Luke 2, the cries of
the angels, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
goodwill toward men. This man of peace, this sacrifice,
this savior who laid down his life upon the cross, brought
peace. Peace and goodwill toward men. And he brought peace in his gospel. in such a way that he could come
to the woman in Luke 7 and say to the woman, thy faith have
saved thee, go in peace. Now that was a woman. but she's
a picture of the woman, the Church, the Bride of Christ, all for
whom Christ died, all who have offered in Him a peace offering
unto the Father, all who look by faith unto that peace offering
Christ. and through faith are saved and
as such he can say unto her, unto you if you're one of his,
he can say unto her, thy faith have saved thee, go in peace. Have you the faith that looks
and rests in Christ alone in this peace offering? If you have,
then he will say unto you, thy faith have saved thee. Go in
peace. Amen.