You noticed it, but this morning
when Matt sang that song, he changed the words, ìKing of my
life, I crown thee now, to king of my life, the crown is thine.î
And I never crowned him, but I know someone who did. We just
read about it in Psalm 21, ìThou saidest to crown a pure gold
on his head.î We read in Romans chapter 15
verse 33 of the God of peace. The God of peace. This is one of five times we
read in the scripture of the God of peace. What a name for our God. The
God of peace. A lot of times when people think
about God, they think of one who is angry, red-faced, waiting
to get somebody, waiting to render vengeance on somebody. But we
read these sweet words, the God of peace. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 says,
Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead the Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of
the everlasting covenant. Now the God of peace is connected, for lack of a better
word, with the Lord Jesus. Don't you love his name? I love
the way his name sounds. When I just heard in that song,
Jesus Christ, my all in all, he is my all in all, and I love
his name. The God of peace is connected
with the blood of the everlasting covenant. And we read in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5 verse 23, now the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And we read in Romans chapter
16 verse 20, and the God of peace shall bruise, crush Satan under
your feet shortly. That's a promise. And then we
read in Philippians chapter 4 verse 9, those things which you have
both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. And the God of peace shall be
with you. And then the passage I just read,
and now the God of peace be with you all. Now we all have some
idea of what peace means between nations. That means there's not
a war. They're in a state of friendship,
a state of peace. We all know something about peace
in our homes. What a blessed thing when there
is peace rather than turmoil and fighting and victory. And
what a blessed thing it is to have peace in relationships.
No turmoil, no stress, peace, amity, concord, fellowship. What a blessed thing it is to
have peace in relationships. Did you know that these fail
to convey the peace of God? and the God of peace. Peace presupposes that before the breach
that took away the peace, listen real carefully, peace presupposes
that before the breach that took away the peace, there had been
a state of peace, amity, concord, and harmony. That's a glorious
thing to think about. Something that took place before
time began. The idea of reconciliation presupposes
that there was a previous time of harmony before the breach
that made necessary the act of reconciliation. The idea of redemption means
you're redeeming something that once belonged to you. When the
Lord redeemed us, there was a time when he had us and then some
breach took place. that causes the need of redemption. The idea of being lost presupposes
that at one time the object that was lost was in the possession
of the one who found it. And then something happened that
caused them to be lost. The present state of war between
God and men Romans 8, 6 says the carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's at war with God. It's at
odds with God. The present state of enmity wasn't
always that way. And it's not going to stay that
way. All reason for breach will be
removed, and there will be uninterrupted peace. No interruptions. Isn't that
a glorious thing to think about? When I was talking to Andrea
Groover, she was talking about her dad being in heaven, and
she said, I don't know how to explain this, But he's up there
speaking with me right now because I'm there too in Christ and I've
always been there. Now that's true. Do I understand
that? No. Do I believe it? Absolutely. Absolutely. There was a time
of perfect concord, of perfect harmony and then some breach
took place and the Lord took that breach away and made
peace. Now, in the fall, man made a
breach, sinning against God, and all peace was removed. It was man that did this, not
God. Man sinned against God, and a breach was created. And the peace was lost, but God,
the offended one, God, the one who had been sinned against,
sent his Son into this world to reconcile, to make peace for
those who were eternally united to him. Turn with me to Colossians
chapter 1. This ought to be a passage of
scripture, and it is a passage of scripture to every believer
that's very precious. I rarely go a week, it seems
like, in preaching without referring to this. Colossians chapter 1,
beginning in verse 20. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him, to reconcile all things unto
himself. By him I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes
alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Now, if I'm holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in His sight, He's at peace with me. He has
no reason for anger. He has no reason to hold me off.
He's at peace with me. And bless our odds, the Lord
enables me to really believe that because of what Christ did,
I am, in fact, holy. and unblameable and unapprovable. In his sight, the question of
sin has been taken care of. I have peace. The God of peace. He sent his Son, and in this
thing of peace, God did it all. He's the God of peace. He's the
Prince of peace. He's the king of peace. He gave his son to be our peace.
And when he comes to us in the gospel, in the power of his spirit,
we don't even know we're at enmity with him. We think everything's
okay. That's from an ignorance of who
he is and who we are. And he actually causes us to
know the breach. and then we won't even be willing
to receive his reconciliation and he makes us willing to receive
his reconciliation. Now that lets me know that God
does everything in this being of peace. What a name for our
God, the God of peace. Now I want to look at all five
of these scriptures and gives us a little bit of a different
emphasis on how God is the God of peace. But what a name for
God, the God of peace. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
13. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20. Now, the God of Peace. I love to think of the peace
of God, don't you? You know, the Lord Jesus said, my peace
I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give
I unto you. My peace I give unto you. And I want you to think of the
peace of Christ. The Lord's peace, he has no sin. He has no sin. That peace of
having no sin, He gives to me. He's got the peace of absolute
sovereign control of everything. He's never worried. He's never
stressed out. He's never pacing back and forth.
He's in control of everything and it's not difficult for Him.
He's almighty. Now that peace that comes from
the God of peace, is the peace every believer is privileged
to have. And look what it says, Hebrews
13, 20. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work
to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in
his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. Now there are two things
in verse 20 that stand out to me. The God of peace has something
to do with the resurrection of Christ and the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And the peace we experience from
verse 21, He does everything. He makes you perfect in every
good work. He makes you to do His will. He works in you that which is
well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Now, the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Before we can understand anything
about the resurrection of the dead, we have to understand something
about what he says about the blood of the everlasting covenant.
Now the scripture teaches very clearly that there's two covenants.
Paul said in Galatians 424, these be the two covenants. The first
covenant was made with Adam in the garden. All these fruits,
all these trees, it's all yours. You can have anything you want.
It's all yours. There's one tree you're not to
eat from. Now, do you think that if you
were put in a position like that, you could keep from eating that
tree? If you had a million other trees to eat with really good
food, do you think you could have kept that commandment? If you think you could if you're
deceived, the strength of sin is the law. And where law is needed, it's
because there's lawbreakers. And you could not have kept that
commandment any more than Adam could. How long did he keep it?
I don't know. I have no idea, but I know he
didn't. And I know the Lord said, in the day you eat thereof, you'll
surely die. He didn't say if he eat it. Could
the Lord have prevented it? Of course he could have prevented
it. Of course he could have, but he didn't. For wise and holy
and glorious purposes to make his character known to us. What
would we know of grace if there were no fall? What would we know
of the forgiveness of sins? The most God-like thing God does. through the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the cross of Christ if there were no fall. God was in control of all of
this. But the first covenant is salvation in some way dependent
upon you. That's the covenant of works.
You know all you've got to do is believe in universal redemption.
All you've got to do is believe that Jesus Christ died for everybody
and some of those people are in hell that he died for. If
you believe that, that means you believe that what he did
was not enough. There was something they needed
to do in order to make what he did for them work. That is salvation
by works just as much as believing salvation comes by keeping the
Ten Commandments. That's salvation by works. That's
the first covenant. What's the second covenant? The
covenant of grace. He spoke of the blood of the
everlasting eternal covenant. Now this covenant is a whole
lot older than the covenant of works. The covenant of works
was made in time before the fall. This is a covenant that had no
beginning. It's the everlasting covenant
and we read of the blood of the everlasting covenant. This is
why it's for sure because of the blood of Christ the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He agreed before time began to
be the surety, to be the guarantee of the salvation of all those
included in the covenant. And David said regarding that
covenant, this covenant, when we read of the blood of the everlasting
covenant, this covenant is all my salvation. And he said, it's all my desire.
I don't want anything else. All I want is to be found in
Christ. All I want is to be seen in him. Now those are the two covenants. Which covenant do you like the
best? Salvation depended upon you or salvation depended upon
Christ? I love the language of Judah.
He said, send the lad with me. And I think of the Lord saying
this somehow before time began to the father. He said, of my
hand shall you require Todd. If I bring him not before thee
and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. All this happened. You know,
when he made that covenant with Judah, Benjamin didn't know anything
about it. He didn't know a thing about it. But all of Benjamin's
safety was in that covenant. Now, you know what that gives
me? The blood of the everlasting covenant, then the resurrection
of Christ from the dead. He shed his blood but he didn't
stay dead. He was raised from the dead because
he satisfied the Father. He paid for the sins of all he
died for. He accomplished salvation. He's
raised from the dead. And now, because of that covenant,
everything that I need to do. Now, this doesn't make us stones.
This doesn't make us just wait and see what happens. We'll end
up in heaven. No. He works in us. He works in us. Look what
it says. Remember, God of peace said,
verse 21, make you perfect in every good work to do His will. He's going to make sure you do
His will. Do you like it that way? He's going to make sure you do
His will. He's going to cause you to do
His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His
sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory forever and ever. Amen. Christ is the eternal shepherd
of the sheep, and when God raised him from the dead, all the sheep
were reconciled, and God is now at peace. The breach has been
removed, and God is at peace, and that peace is eternal. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. Here's the second one. First Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 23, and the very God of
peace sanctify you wholly. And he calls the one who is to
sanctify us wholly the very God of peace. the very God of peace,
sanctify you wholly. And I pray your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, faithful as he that calleth you, who also
will do it. He's going to sanctify you wholly. Now, what does sanctify mean? It means to make me holy. Holy. Holy. The very God of peace
sanctify you holy. Perfect and complete in all respects. Now who is it that does this?
The God of peace sanctify you holy. Is this a cooperative effort
between God and man? Is sanctification progressive?
Do we, through acts of obedience and self-denial and Bible reading
and prayer, conquer sin and become more and more holy and less and
less sinful through the things that God enables us to do? Oh,
we'll say we give His grace the credit for doing it, but through
what we do, what He enables us to do, we become more holy and
less sinful. Is that true? No. No, that's just not true. Somebody
says I'm different than I used to be. I'm not. I'm just as bad as I ever was.
My old nature hadn't changed a bit. And someone who claims
theirs have, either they're ignorant of what sin is in the first place
or it's a willful lie. It's one of those two things.
Now I have a new nature that wasn't there before. And it's
the result of God sanctifying me wholly. He did the work. He did the work. He's the one
who sanctifies me and he keeps us and he's faithful to do it. Now, not only was everything
done for me by Christ, but everything that was done in me is done by
Christ. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
2. I know that somebody would say,
well, this is antinomianism. It is not. It is not. You can call it that if you want
but it's not. This is the believers rejoicing. Look in Philippians chapter 2
verse 12. Wherefore my beloved as you've
always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my
absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it
is God which worketh in you both to will and and to do of His
good pleasure. Now what if that verse said,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and there
wasn't a verse 13? What kind of peace would you
have? Would you have any at all? I wouldn't have any at all if
all it said was work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
The first thing I'd be thinking, what am I supposed to do? Give
me some information. But then Paul gives us this blessed
encouragement. For it's God that worketh in
you, both to will, I can't even make myself willing, but he does
make me willing. Both the will and to do. Not only is the willing from
him, the doing is from him. His good pleasure. Now that encourages
me. to work out my own salvation
with fear and trembling. And you know what work out means,
to give attention to the things that need to be fixed. Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. It's God that
works in you. And you know, you said, well,
what needs fixed? A whole lot. A whole lot. Do we got the rest of the night
to talk about it? A whole lot. But thank God. Bless his holy
name. He works in you both to will
and to do His good pleasure. Now turn with me to Philippians
chapter 3, or I'm sorry, Philippians chapter 4, verse 9. Those things which you
have both learned and received and heard, and seen in me do. And the God of peace shall be
with you. What did they learn? The Gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. What did they receive? The Gospel. Him. As many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
which believe on His name. We receive the gospel. It's not
an offer. God gives it to me. I take it.
We receive the forgiveness of sins. We receive the grace of
God. We receive the righteousness
of Christ. What's He say next? The things
you've heard, what have we heard? The gospel. And the things that
you've seen in me, what did they see in Paul? He said, follow
me as I follow Christ. They saw faith in Christ. They
saw a man falling at the feet of Christ, wanting to be found
in him, wanting to honor him, wanting to do what he said to
do and be what he said to be. That's what they saw. Now Paul
said, Those things which you've both learned and received and
heard and seen in me do. Note the word do. No, I'm not
going to do that. Then you're not going to have
the God of peace with you. He never was with you in the first
place. But as we do, believing the gospel, the God of peace
shall be with you. Turn to Romans 16. Verse 20, and the God of peace
shall bruise, crush, tread Satan under your feet shortly. And what a promise. The God of
peace is what he's going to do. He hasn't done it yet, but it's
going to happen in a short time. He's going to bruise Satan under
your feet shortly. Now Satan is called the adversary. He's called the accuser of the
brethren. He's the one who goes about as
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He has these devices. We're not ignorant of his devices.
I'm going to try to talk more about on this Wednesday night
when we consider resist the devil and he will flee from you. But
he is. The word devil means the accuser. The accuser. Have you ever heard
this? How can you be saved? You commit the same sin over
and over. And even when you're confessing
it, you know you're going to commit it tomorrow. How could
you possibly be saved? You ever thought that? or statement, maybe better than
question. The implication of that, his reason for saying that,
is if he can get you thinking that if I don't do that, that'll
prove I'm saved. He's got you on the hook. That's
contrary to the gospel. The only reason I'm saved is
not because I, listen, I don't want to sin. I don't want to
sin. I'm not excusing that. But I
know that I commit the same sins over and over and over again. And even when I'm asking the
Lord for forgiveness, I know I'm going to commit that sin
again. I'm scared saying something like that. It's so evil. It's
so wicked. And the devil says, how can you
be saved if you're like that? How can you be saved? And this
is the tempter. I would be saved if I wasn't
like that. And what that is, that's contrary to the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? Why am I saved? I'm saved because Christ died
for me. I'm saved because I've been given
the righteousness of Jesus Christ as my personal righteousness
before God. I'm saved because God the Holy
Spirit has given me a new heart that looks to Christ only as
everything in salvation. Now listen to me, Satan, not
too long a time, God is going to crush him under your feet
shortly. You've got that promise. He's
already been crushed by Christ, but you're still dealing with
him and he's got so much to work with, with me and you. But one
of these days, he won't have anything to work with. He can
turn me and you inside out so easy just like he did Peter,
but the day is coming when I'll be in a state of sinlessness
and he will be crushed under my feet, the accuser of the brethren. I think of that scripture in
Revelation 12 where he accused them night and day before the
Father. And you know any accusation he makes about you, how true
is it? Whatever he says about you, how true is it? Well, you
know it's completely true. But the scripture says they overcame
him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. What is that? What's their testimony?
You know what my testimony is? What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is that flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Now, you've just heard my personal
testimony. That's it. And they love not
their lives, even to death. The gospel that they have testified
of, of Christ putting away my sin, it's a gospel worth dying
for, isn't it? You know, until that state of
sinlessness, the Lord fixes it to where we
don't have anywhere to look but Christ. And we like it that way. Don't
want it to be any other way. And then finally, in the first
verse of scripture I read, Romans chapter 15, verse 33, now the
God of peace be with you all. Now this is talking about his
presence. His presence. Feeling his presence. Oh, it's great when you feel
the peacefulness of his presence. The Lord's my shepherd. I shall
not want... When I walk through the valley
of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me. What a glorious
thing it is to feel his presence, to feel his favor, to know he's
near. The God of peace be with you.
But you know what? There are a lot of times you
don't feel it. I love that hymn. How tedious
and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet
prospects, sweet burden, sweet flowers, they all lost their
sweetness to me. The midsummer sun shines but
dim. The fields strive in vain to
look gay, but when I'm happy in Him, December's as pleasant
as May. His name yields the sweetest
perfume and sweeter than honey His voice. His presence disperses
my gloom and makes all within me rejoice. I would, were he
always thus nigh, have nothing to wish or to fear, no mortal
as happy as I. My summers would last all the
year. Content with beholding his face,
my all to his pleasure resigned. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. When blessed with a sense of
his love, a palace, a toy would appear, and prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. Dear Lord, if indeed I'm thine,
if thou art my son and my song, say, why do I languish in pine?
Why are my winters so long? Please drive these dark clouds
from the sky, thy soul-cheering presence restore, or take me
into the on high where winter and clouds are no more. Now John
Newton wrote that hymn, and I love that hymn, but you know what?
The Lord is just His presence when you feel His presence. He's
just as present when you don't feel His presence. Thank God for that. The God of
peace be with you. What a name for our God, the
God of peace. Let's pray together. Lord, how thankful we are that
thou art the God of peace. Lord, how thankful we are for
our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, for the blood of
the everlasting covenant and his resurrection from the dead.
How thankful we are that the God of peace sanctifies us wholly. Lord, we ask that we would be
enabled by irresistible grace to do, as Paul said, the things
you both learned heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace
shall be with you. Lord, enable us to do those things. And Lord, how thankful we are
that you're going to crush Satan under our feet shortly, and how
thankful we are for your eternal presence. Now, Lord, bless these
words. Minister comfort to our hearts
for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. We've
got Duane. That's okay. Dan will stand and
sing. M number 10.