One man said that that was the
greatest hymn in the English language. You won't get any argument
from me against that. I love that hymn. If you turn
back to Romans chapter 14, I've entitled this message, Peace
and Edification. The word edification means being
built up. Peace and edification. Now, I'm interested in this thing
of having peace. And I'm interested in this thing
of being built up. Peace and edification. Now, verse
17 of Romans chapter 14, this is what we considered last week.
There's not a more important verse in the Bible than this
verse. That the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not
in externals. It's not what you do and what
you don't do. That's not what the kingdom of
heaven is all about. The kingdom of heaven is righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now the righteousness
he's speaking of is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. If you have
the righteousness of Jesus Christ as your personal righteousness
before God, and this is what every believer has, I have a
personal righteousness, and that personal righteousness is the
righteousness of Jesus Christ himself. Now, if I have his righteousness
as my personal righteousness before God, you know what I'm
going to feel? Peace. Even when I say it, it makes
me feel peace. And it makes me relax, and I
feel tension come out of my body. To know that all that God requires
of me, I have in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that gives
me peace. If that's the truth, I'm not
afraid to die. If that's the truth, and it is,
I'm good to go if I have his righteousness. And you know what
comes out of that? Joy. Joy in the Holy Ghost. Now this is a gospel through
the Holy Spirit that gives us joy. It's not just something
we give ascent to. We glory in this. The Kingdom
of God is righteousness, His righteousness. And the peace
that comes as a result of that. And the joy that comes as a result
of that. And then he says in verse 18,
for he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable or well-pleasing
to God and approved of men. And he's talking about believing
men. An unbeliever will never approve of somebody like this.
But if you look to Christ only as your righteousness before
God, and you experience peace from that. peace from knowing
that all that God requires you have in Christ, and the joy that
comes from that, that's well-pleasing to God. And it proves to men,
and it's a test, it proves to men that you're real and genuine.
If you really do find peace only from His righteousness, and the
joy that comes from that, that makes you Well-pleasing to God
and God's people know you're the real deal. You're genuine.
You're not a counterfeit. This is what real believers do.
They look to Christ only for righteousness. That's what they
believe, isn't it? What do I believe? I believe
Christ is my righteousness before God. I'm relying on that and
what peace and joy comes from that. Now he says in verse 19,
let us therefore follow Now, that word follow is a very strong
word. It means to pursue eagerly. As a matter of fact, every time
you see the word persecute, it's that word. You feel so strongly
about something and you desire so much, you feel a need to persecute
those who don't believe that way or don't have that. That's
how strong this word is. Follow peace with all men. Pursue peace with all men and
holiness without which no man shall know the Lord. Follow after
charity. Pursue. Make this your aim, your
ambition, your pursuit. Follow after charity. And here,
let us follow after the things which make for peace and things
wherewith we may edify and build up one another. Now, I want to
be built up. I want God to tear me down and
I want him to build me up. I want you to be torn down by
God and built back up. But from there on, I want to
be edifying to people. I want to be a blessing to them
where people are built up through me rather than being torn down
through me. Now we're to pursue the things
that promote peace and edification. I'm going to come back to this
verse in a minute, but look what he says in verse 20. He says, Destroy not
the work of God. If your weak brother thinks it's
a sin to eat meat sacrificed to idols or eat meat that is
contrary to what the law says it's okay, pork or something
like that, what he's saying is don't eat it around him. If he's
offended by that, don't eat it around him. Don't put him in
a position that he's grieved. For me, destroy not the work
of God. Now, you know you can't destroy the work of God in the
sense of eternally destroying somebody else, but you can lead
them to error and sin by your conduct and your attitude toward
them. I think something that's more
contemporary, but it's the same thing, if your brother believes
it's wrong and sinful to drink alcohol. And he's a teetotaler,
and he says, you should never touch alcohol. And if you say,
well, that's ridiculous. The Lord drank alcohol. There's
no sin in it. I don't care what he thinks.
I'm going to go ahead and drink alcohol, whether he likes it or not. You
know what kind of attitude that is? Uncharitable. Unloving. Wrong. You should not
have that attitude about your brother. You ought to care more
about what your brother thinks and how he responds to something.
For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are
pure, it's true, but it's evil for that man who eats with offense.
If he believes it to be sin, it is sin. And if you eat it
and embolden him to go ahead and eat it because he sees you
doing it, you've led him to sin. That's what he's saying. Watch
out for your brother. He says in verse 21, it's good
neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy
brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." Think about
your brother. That's charity to deny yourself
that which you know is lawful for his sake, because you don't
want to be a stumbling block to him. May God give us the grace
to have that attitude and that care for our brother. He says
in verse 22, Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself and the thing which he
alloweth." Isn't it a blessing to be able to enjoy something
and know there's nothing wrong with it? It's a blessing. Happy
is that man who can eat the meat, or drink wine, or those are the
two examples he gives, but he doesn't feel condemned in what
he's doing. He knows there's nothing, it's pure, there's nothing
wrong with it. He's happy. He said, have that
to yourself before God. Verse 23, and he that doubteth
is damned if he eateth. If he thinks it's wrong to eat
and he goes ahead and eats, he's damned. That doesn't mean he's
damned to eternal hell. It means he's committed sin.
He's done wrong. He's condemned in doing what
he's doing. If he believes it, if you believe it to be wrong
in your heart and you do it, to you it is wrong. He that doubteth
is damned if he eateth because he eateth not of faith. And I
love this statement. For whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. Whatever does not proceed from
faith, whatever does not have its origin in true saving faith
is sin. Now, I'm going to get back to
that verse next week, but you know what that means? If you
don't have faith, all you have is sin, and all you've ever done
is sin. Whatever doesn't proceed from
faith is sin. That means that everything the
man does, no matter how good it may appear on the outside,
everything the man does who does not have saving faith, the gift
of God's grace, it's sin. Now back to verse 19. Paul says, let us therefore follow
after, pursue, eagerly pursue, the things which make for peace,
and the things wherewith we may edify one another." Now, pursuing
peace and promoting peace will obviously promote edification,
won't it? I mean, there's no way it can be anything but that. Now, what promotes peace? I want to know. What promotes
peace? Now this is referring to peace
with God and peace with our brethren. A harmonious relationship, concord,
rest, quietness, no conflict. Now if we have this peace with
God, from the gospel, we'll have peace among ourselves. We really
will. That's the key to me having peace
with you is God being at peace with me and me being at peace
with God. And if God is at peace with me
and I'm at peace with God, I'm going to have peace with you.
There's going to be concord. It will end up in edification. Now, what is it that promotes
peace? Well, the first thing that promotes
peace, as far as our experience goes, is the preaching and the
hearing of the gospel. That does more for the promotion
of peace. I've got to hear the gospel of
peace. Now, that's where peace begins
in our experience. hearing the gospel of peace. And you can't hear the gospel
of peace if the gospel of peace is not preached. We turn to Acts
chapter 10. This is a scripture I don't refer
to a lot, and I would refer to it a whole lot more. Acts chapter
10, verse 33. These are the words
of Cornelius. And he says, Immediately therefore
I sent to thee, and thou hast well done, that thou would come.
Now therefore are we all here present before God to hear all
things that are commanded thee of God. What an attitude. May God give us grace to be just
like that. We're here to hear all things,
whatever God has given you to say. We're here to hear. Verse 34. Then Peter opened his
mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation, he that
feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Now a
lot of people stumble at that verse of scripture and say, well
do these people believe the gospel? Yeah, if they fear him and work
righteousness they believe the gospel, that's why they do it.
And this is the fruit of faith. You believe the gospel. This
is not talking about somebody who is a Gentile and has never
heard the gospel, but he works righteousness and has some kind
of fear of God. No, this is a description of
every believer. Verse 36, the word which God
sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. Now what a beautiful summary
of preaching. Peace by Jesus Christ. He's the author of it. He's the
subject of it. He's the cause of it. He himself
is the peace. Ephesians 2.14 says He is our
peace. Peace by Jesus Christ He is Lord
of all. He's the Lord of the universe.
And He exercises sovereign control of everything. There's no event,
there's no happening, there's no circumstance of which He is
not in complete control. Now when you believe that, you
know what you feel? Peace. Peace. I'm afraid a lot of times
we don't much believe what we say we do. Because anytime we
worry or become anxious or filled with anxiety about something
or troubled, we're not really believing at that time that he's
controlling everything. But the Bible says, and we know
that all things, aren't you glad for that word, all things? And
we know. that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. And now, anything that happens,
when I'm believing that, anything that happens, I feel peace. Now, when I'm murmuring and complaining
and not feeling that way, and you say, you ought to believe
Romans 8.28, I'll say, mind your own business. But when the Lord I've just had people say that
to me so many times over the years. You should never grumble
or complain, but I'll do it. And as soon as I do it, bless
Wilma Warder's heart, she did that to me a thousand times,
it seemed like. And Todd, don't you remember? I love that woman.
I miss her. I love her. She was a very special
woman to me, but how many times did she say, Todd, don't you
know? I'm like, shut up, Wilma. Well, at any rate, the peace
of knowing he's Lord of all, peace by Jesus Christ. I wish I hadn't said that. Somebody's going to listen to
that and think I'm mad at Wilma Ward. But I'm Wilma Ward's biggest
fan. I love that woman. So just in
case anybody listens to this message on tape or something,
know I love Wilma Ward. I'm not talking bad about her.
Turn with me for a moment to Colossians chapter 1, peace by
Jesus Christ. Peace by Jesus Christ, peace
of which he is the author. Verse 20, and having made peace, remember
he's the author of this, and having made peace through the
blood of his cross. Have you made your peace with
God? No, he made my peace with God. through the blood of his
cross, God is now at perfect peace with me right now. He's completely satisfied because
of what the blood of the cross did. Let's go on reading. And
having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to
reconcile all things unto 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, not He
will present you, this presentation has already taken place, and
it can't be changed, to present you holy and unblameable and
unapprovable in his sight." Now talk about peace. The only thing that causes anxiety
with regard to death is sin, isn't it? The sting of death
is sin and the strength of sin is the law. But the only way
I can feel perfect peace is if the sin question regarding me
has been completely taken care of, and I'm actually holy, and
unblameable, and unreprovable, and these next three words are
so important, in His sight. In His sight. Somebody says to
me, you don't look holy and unblameable and unapprovable. I may not,
but in God's sight I am, and that's what counts. That's what
peace there is there. And that peace, how much of that
was accomplished by my works, by my preaching, by my faith,
by my repentance, but none of that was accomplished by that.
That peace was accomplished for me before I was ever even born. My words didn't have anything
to do with that. John 16, 33, the Lord says, these
things have I spoken to you, and that's everything he'd said
up to this point, that in me, in me, you might have peace. In the world, you'll have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Ephesians
2, 14 says he, I love this, He is our peace. Now, we think
of peace as a feeling, and it is, and it's a good feeling.
But He is our peace. When you think of a saved person,
when you think of salvation, what do you think of? What comes
to your mind when you think of salvation? A saved person. Now, we usually think of somebody
who's changed, whose conduct is better than it used to be,
and now look at them, they're saved. They were lost, and now
they're saved. Well, how did Simeon see salvation? He said in Luke chapter 2, Lord
now let us now thy servant depart in peace according to thy word
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Christ Jesus is salvation and
now I'm ready to depart in peace. Now this is speaking of the peace
of justification Having been justified, Romans 5.1, having
been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now this thing of justification,
it's the gospel. It's not a quote theological
term, I hate that word. It's not a theological term,
it's the gospel. It's not something you study, it's something God
reveals. When He reveals the gospel to
you, you understand that Christ is your justification before
God and you have no guilt. God's at peace with you and you're
at peace with God. It's called in Romans 15, 13,
the joy and peace of believing. Isn't it joyful to believe the
gospel? Doesn't it give you peace? Now, turn with me to Galatians
chapter 6 for a moment. Remember, we're looking at the
things that promote peace. Has something to do with my walk. Verse 16, and as many as walk
according to this rule, Peace be on them and mercy and upon
the Israel of God, all of God's people. Now, my peace has something
to do with my walk. Now, does that mean if I'm walking
in this high standard and I'm kind of walking above my sin
and above my problems, I'm able to do this, then I'll have peace?
How does that work for you? Has that ever happened? No. That's not what that's saying.
Someone that talks about, I have peace because of my obedience
and because I'm walking in this certain way, they're just being
hypocrites. There's no reality to that whatsoever. Now, the rule he's speaking of
is this rule, verse 14. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross. And that word glory means find
confidence in, rest in, Glorying is what you have confidence
in. God forbid that I should have
any confidence save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world for in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision but
a new creation and as many as walk according to this rule peace
beyond them. Now here's the rule of the believers
walk to glory only in Christ, and not in yourself. And understand
that the salvation you have in you is the creative work of God. It has nothing to do with you,
your free will, your works, or anything else. It's the work,
the creative work of God. Now, if you walk according to
that rule, you know what you're going to have? Peace. Peace. Turn to Colossians chapter
3. Verse 15, And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts. That's the only time this word
is used in the Bible. Let the peace of God rule in
your hearts to the which you are called in one body, and be
ye thankful. Now how in the world do you let
the peace of God rule in your hearts? Well, the word actually
is let the peace of God Be the umpire in your heart. It's the
only time this word's used. Let the peace of God be the umpire
in your heart, the decision maker in your heart. I don't feel any peace about
that. Well, there's a reason. There's a reason. Let the peace
of God be the umpire in your heart to which you're called
in one body. There's no such thing as private
Christianity. We're called in one body. And
my relationship with God is seen in my relationship with you.
We're called in one body. And if what I'm doing does not
promote peace in the one body, it's wrong. And next he says,
be ye thankful. Now when we're walking in thankfulness,
how are we walking? In peace. Now, when I'm murmuring
or complaining or resentful, which I spend a lot of time doing
that, I don't have any peace. I just know it's wrong. I know
it from the very beginning. I do it anyway. But when the
Lord gives me grace to just be thankful, to be thankful for
everything He sends my way, it's all good because He sent it to
me. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. You find
me someone that's thankful, and I'm going to show you somebody
that's peaceful, and he's at peace with everybody else. If
you're thankful, that means you're going to be peaceful with everybody
else, whatever they do. God caused them to do it. And
you'll be thankful. You'll have peace. Let the peace
of God be the umpire in your heart. Philippians chapter 4. I love this passage of scripture.
Philippians chapter 4. Beginning in verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. There's never a time not to do
that. And again I say, rejoice. Verse 5, let your moderation
be known. Now this is something you want
to be known about you. You want to know how people ought
to perceive you? Well this is the way they ought
to perceive you, if they perceive you the way you ought to be.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. Now, when people
think of that word moderation, they think of, you know, your
real temperate and eating and drinking and so on, and temperance
and eating and drinking is good, but that has nothing to do with
what this word means. This word moderation means forbearing, fair, mild, non-judgmental, not
putting people under the law, not holding people's feet to
the fire, being kind and humane and considering what's behind
what that brother's going through. He's gone through things you
know nothing of. You don't know the case anyway, and you're to
be kind, middle, moderate. Now, don't you want to be that
way? And he says, that's what I want you to make known. Somebody
that knows you, I want them to know you as a moderate person. The Lord is at hand. Verse 6. Be careful, be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
Let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God
which passeth all understanding. shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. Now what a blessed promise. Be
careful for nothing. Isn't it wonderful when God gives
you the grace to just be carefree? This is my father's world. I
don't have anything to do with anything that's going on. He's
in complete control. This is my Father's world, and
He does all things well. And I am carefree. I'm not worried about a thing.
Now that doesn't happen about two seconds every year, but boy,
it's great when it does. Great when it does. Carefree. Whatever happens, it's best.
It's best. The Lord sent it. Be careful
for nothing, but in everything, in everything. Nothing's too
small. Nothing's too insignificant.
In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God. Now, there's nothing
that you should not pray with regard to. There's nothing that's
insignificant. There's nothing that's too small.
There's nothing that, you know, if you would say, well, you shouldn't
pray about that. Why not? Give me a reason. God's in control, and you just,
you ought to pray about everything, because God controls everything,
in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. You're thanking Him ahead of
time, even if He says no, because if He says no, you know it's
for your good that you don't get it. Aren't you thankful for
the things that He hadn't given you? I mean, there are things
that we've desired that would be destructive to us and terrible. Thank God He didn't give me the
things that I've asked for. We're to give thanksgiving ahead
of time, whatever He gives is best. In everything, by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known
unto God and leave Him there. He's going to answer. He's going
to answer. It might be with a no, but He's
going to answer. You leave them there, and the
peace of God, verse 7, the peace of God. The peace of God. The Lord said
in John 14, 27, My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth,
give I unto you. Now the world has a kind of peace
they give. People practice substance abuse
to feel peace, feel peace, feel everything's okay. The world's
got a type of peace, but it's not real. But he speaks of the
peace of God which passes all understanding. It's not something that can be
figured out. It's the peace of God. Now, one of the things that
I know for sure about God, is he never worries and he knows
his will is always going to be done. Now, you believe that? You and me ought not ever worry
because we know his will is going to be done. Be careful for nothing,
be anxious for nothing, but everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving. Let your request be made known
unto God. Now turn to Ephesians 4. I therefore, chapter 1, Ephesians
chapter 4, verse 1. I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord." Now I can't express how much I love that. He's in a Roman
prison cell. What a miserable place to be.
He didn't have a commode to go to. He didn't have a bathroom
to go to. I mean it was the most miserable of all conditions.
And if I was a prisoner in Rome, I guarantee you I would be thinking
all kinds of things, but Paul says, I'm the prisoner of the
Lord. Not the prisoner of Rome, not the prisoner of Nero, but
the prisoner of the Lord. I beseech you that you walk worthy. of the vocation or the calling
wherewith you are called. Now this he says to every believer.
So listen real carefully. He says, you walk worthy of the
calling wherewith you've been called. And how does one walk
with worthiness? I love what he says first. With
all loneliness. Humility. A just estimate of
yourself. Now what's a just estimate of
myself? I am what I am by the grace of God. I am a sinner. And it's only
by grace I know that. There was a time when I didn't
understand that. I do now. I'm a justified sinner. It's
by the grace of God. I'm an elect sinner. It's by
the grace of God. I'm a believing sinner. It's by the grace of
God. I am what I am by the grace of God. And my attitude toward
you is to esteem you as better than myself. That's what humility
does. Now, is there going to be conflict
and arguing between people of humility? No. No. By pride only cometh contention. That's what the scripture says
in Proverbs 13, 10. By pride only cometh contention. But oh,
what a blessing it is. This is the worthy walk. It's
the walk of humility. Really believing you are the
chief of sinners. And that you are what you are
by the grace of God. And you're thankful for any grace
that comes your way. Oh, what that produces is humility. Now look what it says in Meekness.
Meekness. Meekness is always with true
humility. That means whatever God brings
my way is good because he brought it my way. There's no room for
murmuring and complaining. That's meekness. This humble
man, he's not arrogant and condescending. He's humble. He's not contentious. He's humble. He's not judgmental.
He's humble and he's meek. Everything that God brings his
way is good because God did it. I think of David when Shemai
cursed him, and Abishai said, you want me to go take off his
head? He said, no. God said, curse David. Now when you believe everything
is from the Lord, you walk in humility, meekness, there's peace. Peace. Certainly not going to
be in conflict. Next he says, longsuffering.
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering. Patient forbearance. slowness in avenging wrong, with
all long-suffering, and forbearing one another in love. Now I love
this thing of forbearing one another in love. That means putting
up with one another. That means overlooking one another. You know, most offenses don't
need to be forgiven. They need to be overlooked. Remember
what we are. We're all sinners, saved by the
grace of God. And be quick to overlook and
forbear one another. Bear ye one another's burdens.
That doesn't mean unload all your problems to each other.
I mean, you can if you want to, I reckon. I'm not going to, though. I'm going to bring my problems
to the Lord. I'm not going to tell you all about them. But
I want to put up with you. I want you to put up with me.
bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,
the scripture says. Now these are the things which
make for peace and the things which promote edification. For
bearing one another in love, look at verse 3, endeavoring,
giving every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit, in the bond
of peace. And that means denying your rights
to keep from stirring up trouble, taking the lowest seat and being
quick to apologize, and being quick to accept an apology. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now make your aim. I love the way he says that.
That's a good word. Make your aim. Make this your pursuit.
You want something You know, somebody says, my life is, I
need something in my life. Well, here's something. Here's
something. Make this your pursuit. To follow the things which make
for peace. To preach and to hear the gospel
of peace. To walk according to the Christian
rule of life. Gloring only in the cross and
the new creation. Let the peace of God be the empire.
Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God, and the peace
of God which passes all understanding. So keep your minds and hearts
through Christ Jesus, and endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. And don't you reckon that'll
promote the edification of all God's people? It surely will. May this be our pursuit. Let's
pray together. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel of peace, how we thank you that you are the God of peace,
and how we thank you for the peace that is by Jesus Christ. And Lord, use that to cause us
to be people of peace, people who edify one another. In Christ's name we pray. We're going to observe the Lord's
table right now, but let me give you an example. I have this in
my notes and somehow it came by, passed by. Scott Thompson,
dear friend, I've known him all my life. He was diagnosed with
lung cancer a couple of weeks ago, two or three weeks ago.