Would you turn back to Ephesians
chapter two? While you're turning there tonight,
we're going to observe the Lord's table. And the Lord said, this
do in remembrance of me. That is so powerful, that statement.
This do in remembrance of me. I've entitled the message for
this morning, He is our peace. He is our peace. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the God-Man, the Lamb of God, the
Savior, the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd. He is our peace. Now listen real carefully to
this statement. Our peace is a person. He is our peace. He is our peace. Not he may be, or he could be, He will be if we fill in the
blank. He is right now, always has been,
is now, and always will be. He is our peace. He is our peace. Well, who's included in that?
everybody who cannot find peace anywhere else. He is our peace. Now this is
the elect of God. This is those that Christ died
for. This is God, the hope, those
that God, the Holy Spirit has given life to, and they all have
this in common. He is our peace. We look nowhere
else but to Him for peace. He is our peace. He's our peace
with God. God has absolute perfect peace
beholding His Son. He's well pleased with His Son. The reason for his anger has
been removed by the Son. And when God looks at all of
these people who find their peace in Christ, He is at perfect peace
with them. There's nothing there to make
Him angry. Now, our ground of peace is the
same grant of peace that God has, Christ. Christ. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justified them. Who is he
that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Now, I
want you to think of the power of that statement. Who can condemn
me? Christ died. Christ died. And if Christ died for me, I
have peace. He is our peace with one another.
You see, we're not competing. We're not competing. Christ is
all in all. You have all in Christ. I have
all in Christ. There's nothing that you have
in its fullness that I don't have as well in its fullness.
We're all one in Christ Jesus. No competition, nobody trying
to be more blessed or more holy or more anything. I have all
in Christ. Nothing you have that I need
to have because I have all. Nothing I have that you need
to have because you have all. We're not in competition. Peace
with one another. He is our peace. Now notice what he says in our
text in Ephesians 2, 14. For he is our peace. who hath made both one. Now there he's talking about
the Jews and the Gentiles. When Paul was writing this, two
kinds of people in the world in the Jewish mind, there were
the Jews And there were everybody else, the Gentiles, the nations
of the world. These are the two kinds of people
we find in the scripture, Jew and Gentiles. And he made both
one and had broken down the middle
wall of partition between us is in italics. But what is he
talking about when he says he's broken down that middle wall
of partition? What's the difference between the Jews and the Gentiles?
The law. The law. God gave the Jews the law. He didn't give the Gentiles anything. The Jews had the word of God. The Gentiles did not. That's
the difference between Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles had no word
from God. Jews had the word of God. Now it didn't do them any good,
but they had the word of God. And what did the Lord do? He
broke down that middle wall of partition by abolishing the law
of God that God gave to Israel by Moses. That's what it says,
having broken down the middle wall of partition between us,
having abolished, verse 15, having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
the law of commandments contained in ordinances. He abolished the
law and he took away that difference. Now, what does that mean? He
abolished the law. How did he abolish the law? Well,
not by setting aside, not by setting it aside, not
by sovereignly suspending it as an act of his will. Well,
I've just decided it's no longer going to be. That's not how he
abolished this law that we're speaking of. He abolished it
by rendering satisfaction to its demands. and causing it to
cease. He kept it. He paid the penalty
for breaking it. And every believer, whether Jew
or Gentile is just before the law. The law says you're perfect. You're perfect. Listen to this statement real
carefully. I do not try and keep the law. I've kept it. When Christ kept it, I kept it. And when the law looks at me,
the law sees one that can't be spoken against. The Lord Jesus Christ kept the
law and abolished it. It's now satisfied. Paul put
it this way in Romans chapter six, verse 14. You are not under
law, but under grace. Now when Mitch was reading a
few minutes ago, he read Romans chapter 10 and the fourth verse
makes this statement. Christ is the end of the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now, what does
that mean? Well, first, Christ is the end or the purpose of
the law. The end of something is its purpose. Now, I want us to think just
for a moment about the law of God. Ten commandments. Thou shalt have no other God
before me. Every time you sin, every time
I sin, we put something before God. The commandment forbidding
idolatry. How many times have you humanized
God and brought him down to a level that he is not in order to justify
yourself? I think of the commandment regarding
taking his name in vain. His name is so holy that to mention
that without proper reverence deserves hell. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Perfect rest. Honor your mother and father. Perfect honor. Thou shalt not
kill. That means more than physical
killing. You can murder somebody by murdering their character,
by innuendo, by silence. Thou shalt not commit adultery. All sexual sin is forbidden. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. That means more than shoplifting.
You're not to take credit where credit is not due. That's stealing. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not lie. My soul, everything I say, even
if it's totally accurate, is a lie because I'm somehow trying
to make it, make me look better and make you look worse. Thou
shalt not covet. All I got to do is say, don't
covet this. What are you going to do? you'll
covet it. You'll covet it. Now what the
law does is demonstrate to me that I have not kept one commandment
one time. How about you? I have not kept one commandment
one time. the law's end is this. I can't keep it. I need a righteousness,
but I can't produce. I need the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what the law tells me. All I am is a lawbreaker. All the law does is expose sin.
Well, shouldn't we try to keep it? I've kept it. I've kept it in Christ. I've
kept it. Shouldn't it be a rule of life
to us? All the law does is stir up sin.
That's all it does. The law was not made for a righteous
man. If you're a righteous man, you
don't need law. That's what the scripture teaches. They that are led of the Spirit,
Galatians 5.18, are not under law. The purpose of God's law
is to show me that I can't keep it and I need somebody to keep
it for me. Christ is the end of the law.
Christ is the fulfillment of the law. He said, think not that
I come to destroy the law or prophets. I came not to destroy
but to fulfill. He kept all of those 10 commandments
perfectly. And He is the fulfillment of
every type, every sacrifice, every holy day, every picture
in the Old Testament, all He is the fulfillment of it. And
Christ is the termination of the law. Listen to me carefully.
You're not under law. You're under grace. Well, shouldn't we try to keep
the law? I repeat, Paul said in 1 Timothy,
the law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and
the disobedient, for murderers, for whoremongers, for thieves,
for covetous persons. Go on and read that passage in
1 Timothy. Why do you have laws? Because
you have sinners. Him having forgiven you all trespasses,
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, rules that was
against us, thou shalt not, which was contrary to us, and took
it out of the way, nailing it to His cross, this handwriting
of ordinances that was against us. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Now the law was nailed to the
cross, fulfilled, honored. He honored the law. He glorified
the law. It was fulfilled. He paid all
of its debts. It's been nailed to the cross
and every believer is free from that law. We love the law. I
wouldn't in any way say anything against God's holy law. It's
glorious. I love the Ten Commandments.
And I'm not afraid of them either, because I kept them. I kept them
in His Son. And that law has been done away
with. Now, look what it says next.
Verse 15. Having abolished in His flesh
the enmity, the law of commandments, contained in rules, For to make
in himself of two one new man, so making peace. In doing this,
he made himself one new man. Now, every time, other time,
this word is used in the New Testament, it's created. Created. As a matter of fact, if you stay
in the same chapter when he says in verse 10, for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in. And there's the word having
created one new man. Now, this is the creation by
what he did on Calvary's tree. This is the creation of something
that was not there before the new man. The new man. If you're a believer, you have
a man that you weren't born with in your first birth. Wasn't there. You were born evil. You were
born bad. You were born guilty before the
law. You were born that way. And not
only were you born that way, you chose that. When you sin,
it's because you choose to sin. You can't blame somebody else.
You can't blame your birth. You practice sin. That's the way you were born
by nature. Choice and practice a sinner. That's me. That's you. That's the way you
were born. But when Christ saves somebody,
He makes, He creates something new. the new man. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. He's something he was not before. He's a new creation. Now the
old man is still there. The old man is still there. and
he's not improved, he's as bad as he ever was. I love the scripture
in Romans chapter 8 verse 10, if Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin. That's not talking about physical
death. That's talking about spiritual
death. My body, my old man is dead,
dead in trespasses and sins. But the new man, the new man,
The spirit is life because of his righteousness. Now this new
man has a new history. I love thinking about this. This
new man has a new history. You know, the old man, if you
put all of his history on a screen, it'd all be bad. And you'd be
embarrassed and humiliated that folks would even know something
like that about you, that you really are the way you are. But
the new man, you put up his history on a screen, it's all good. It's all perfect. It's all obedience. It's all righteousness. It's
summarized by the word justified. Jew and Gentile has been abolished.
They were alike sinful. I love that scripture where Paul
says, what then, are we better than they? That's Jews. Are we
better than the Gentiles? No, in no wise, for we have before
proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. Now that thing of being Jew and
Gentile, it's taken away. This new man is the man that
understands that he is our peace. This new man understands this
thing of the abolishing of the law. An old man can't understand
that. While you're saying it's okay
to break the Ten Commandments, we don't have to have, I'm not
saying anything of that nature, but that's what the old man hears.
It's the new man that understands what's being said. And this new
man understands that he is our peace. Now, let's go on reading.
He made of himself of the two, one new man, So making peace,
verse 16 tells us how that peace is made, that he might reconcile
both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. Now this verse tells us how he
made that peace. Remember, he is our peace. He
is our peace. And here is how he is our peace. Here is how he made that peace. It's understood by the word reconciliation. Reconciliation. Now this is a
term that we're all aware of. Reconciliation. How many times
If you had a fight with your spouse and you were mad at each
other and you didn't like each other at that time, somebody
says, I've never been that way. Don't believe you for a second.
Don't believe it. You've been mad. Then you're reconciled. You're
reconciled. You're not mad anymore. You feel love. You feel you're
on the same page. You embrace. You're one. Now when you were mad at each
other, you didn't feel one. You felt separated. You felt
divided. But now you feel one. You were reconciled. What a sad
thing it is when people who were once on friendly terms become
at odds, no longer friends, but suspicious and wary of one another. You've seen that. You've experienced
it. And what a glorious thing it
is if those two people who were at odds become reconciled. brought back together. The things
that caused the division somehow is made good. Now, reconciliation
is people who were on friendly terms
and lost those friendly terms are brought back into these friendly
terms. They're reconciled. Now that's
so important. We understand this on a human
level and we're so happy when people get back together and
are reconciled. We're just thankful for that.
But this reconciliation that we're going to look at right
now is much more glorious and it's
much more one sided. When two people get back together,
they compromise, they overlook, they, whatever it is, let's just
forget this, let's let go of that, and let's get back together.
That's not the way God's reconciliation takes place. You see, he is the
one who is offended. He's the one who is offended. My sin, your sin is against him. He didn't do anything to offend
you. No, no, he's God. He didn't do anything to offend
you. You offended him. And it was all your fault. You were the one who has done
the offense toward him. And you didn't do anything to
be reconciled. You know, when Adam fell in the garden at one
time, he was on good terms with God. He lost that by his sin. And did he say, Lord, forgive
me, I'm sorry I did that. Can we work this out? No, he
ran and hid from God's presence. He didn't want to have anything
to do with God. He thought horrible things about
God. He no longer loved him, he hated
him. But God came to him and gave him the promise of reconciliation. Now, because of man's sin, God's
not pleased with him. God's angry with the wicked every
day, the scripture says. He's angry with the wicked every
day. Not because he's some kind of person with a bad temper the
way we are, but because he's just and holy. He's angry with
the wicked every day. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Now, even after Adam sinned,
God came to him with the promise of reconciliation. The seed of
woman shall bruise the serpent's head. This reconciliation was
totally one-sided. It's not man and God getting
together. It's God reconciling man. with me to Romans chapter
5. There's a few scriptures I want
you to look at with me. Romans chapter 5, verse 10, for if, when, we, were, what? Enemy. We were reconciled to
God. When were you reconciled? When
you were enemies. Not you didn't come back to God
on friendly terms or not even that you asked God to do something
for you and bring this thing back. You didn't do that at all.
You were an enemy. if when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Now I'll turn to
Colossians chapter 1. I want to show you how complete
this reconciliation is. Colossians chapter 1. It's a
very familiar passage of scripture. Verse 20. and having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself. By him I say, he's the one that
did this. 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
in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy, and
unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight. Now this is how
complete this reconciliation, this one-sided reconciliation
is. And let me call the one-sided reconciliation. He's the one
who did the reconciling and he made everybody he reconciled
by his death, through the cross, holy, without blame, nothing
to even reprove you for. That's how complete this reconciliation
is. Now turn to 2nd Corinthians 5. Verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creation. Old things are passed away. That old guilt before the law
is gone. That trying to please God by
my works is gone. Old things are passed away. Behold,
All things have become new and all things are of God who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19, to wit, namely, here's
what that is. that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and
have committed unto us. This is the ministry of the gospel. This is the New Testament. This
is what we're called upon to do. He's committed to us the
ministry of reconciliation. Now, what is this thing of reconciliation? It's all God. You didn't do anything
to bring this about. This is what he did. What is
the ministry of reconciliation? Well, let's talk just for a moment
about our trespasses. Our sins. Our iniquities. Anything anybody says about me, if they made it worse, it would
be closer to the truth. Now, that's so. Now, I'm going
to get mad at you if you go ahead and start talking about me like
that. I realize that. What's he saying about me? What's she
saying about me? How dare them? But if we knew the truth, anything
anybody says about me, it's not near as bad as it really is.
You believe that about yourself? Sinful, all motives, bad, wicked,
horrible, just all, I wish I could describe it the way it ought
to be, but I can't, but your trespasses, your trespasses,
your sins against God, sin upon sin upon sin. Anything you think
about yourself, you don't know even about yourself. I mean,
I know myself better than you do, and I don't want you to know
about me. I know myself better than you do, but I don't know
myself better than God does. God knows what I really am. He
knows. Now, what's my hope? It's not that I can do anything
about this, but that God has not imputed it to me. That's my hope. Everything about
me is true, even worse. But here's my hope. These things
are true. I'm not going to try to deny
them. But God doesn't charge them to me. Well, how can God
do that? Because He's God. That's why. Because this is something only
God can do. He took my sins and He didn't charge them to me.
He charged them to His Son. And my sins became the sins of
Christ. And I'm scared when I say that.
But he owned them as his own. You read the Psalms, my iniquities,
my iniquities, my foolishness is not hid from thee. My sin
became his sin. Look in 2 Corinthians 5, 21.
For he hath made him. Now look at that to be. It's
in italics, isn't it? Once again, the italics don't
help the translation. For he hath made him sin. I tremble when I say that. He hath made him sin. Who knew no sin? He never sinned
in His person. He honored God's law. He knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now that's the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19, to wit that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Now somebody in
here is thinking, what's the world mean? Does that mean everybody?
You say Christ elected only a fixed number and not everybody and
Christ didn't die for everybody. What's this word world mean?
Well, same world that God so loved that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Not one time in the scriptures
does the world mean every individual without exception, but I like
the word. God, the Holy Spirit loves the
word. He uses it. Christ is called the savior of
the world. And I have no problem speaking this to all the world.
God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Now, obviously,
if that means every individual, every individual is reconciled,
then you know not every individual is reconciled. But still, I like
the language. I'm not going to apologize for
it. I love it. What do you mean not going to apologize? This
is the Word of God. We love everything exactly as He says it. God was
in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. How? By not imputing
their trespasses unto them. and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. Now, if there's something we
don't want to muddy the waters on, it's right here. He's committed
to us this word of reconciliation. Now then, verse 20, now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
By us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. I say this to everybody he's
reconciled toward, you be reconciled to him. Don't be mad at him. Don't have
these unjust charges toward him. Don't think harshly of him. Don't
be mad at his providence. You be reconciled to God. I love the scripture in Jeremiah
29 verse 11, where God says to his people, I know the thoughts
I have toward you. Thoughts of peace. not of evil, to bring you to
an expected end. I say to every believer, Lord's
not mad at you. I know the thoughts he has toward
you and me, thoughts of peace, satisfaction, complacency, joy,
Nothing about you that angers Him. You're perfect, holy, unblameable,
and reprovable. There's no law you need to keep
in order to gain His favor. That's been done away with. You're
perfect in Christ Jesus. He is reconciled. You be reconciled to Him. You don't have anything to be
mad at Him about. You don't have any reason to fear him as far
as, oh, he's going to get me. I did this. I did that. He's
going to exact this out of me. He's going to take it out. He's
going to cause me all the different things people think. Quit thinking
that way. It's stupid. You're making him
like you are when you think that way. And when I think that way,
we're making him like us. Thou thoughtest thou was altogether
such a one as thyself. He's not like you. Aren't you
thankful? you be reconciled to God. And here's the most powerful
argument for that, verse 21. For He, God the Father, hath
made Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin for us. All that sin is, He was made
to be. Who knew no sin, He never sinned,
that we might be made righteousness of God." Now how righteous is
that all together? I don't know how to say it other
than Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. And every believer is
the righteousness of God in him. Now back to our text. We'll close
with this, Ephesians 2. Verse 16, that he might reconcile
both Jews and Gentiles unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. All the law does is stir up enmity. The strength of the law, or the
strength of sin is the law. And what did he do? He came and
preached peace to you, which were far off unto them that were
nigh. Now what is this peace? He is
our peace. Aren't you thankful it says it
just like that? He is our peace. His person, the God-man, His
ability, His righteousness, His shed blood, His death, His resurrection,
His ascension, His intercession, He is. He is our peace. The prince of peace. And my only hope is that God
will take this message and bless it in spite of me and in spite
of you and cause us to say from the depths of our hearts, he
is our peace. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you that thy
blessed son is our peace. Lord, how we thank you that he
is our peace. How we thank you that he is our
peace. Peace with you, our peace within,
comes only from seeing that he is our peace. Our peace with
one another is because he is our peace. And Lord, bless this
message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we
pray.