but we're in Ephesians chapter
two. Paul begins the letter by giving
immediate encouragement by reminding them of Christ's finished work.
Let's look at that in verse one, chapter one. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the will of God to the saints which are
at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Boy, there's nothing greater
that a believer could hear but to hear grace be to you. and
peace through the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have peace in Christ
with God, we have everything. We have everything. What else
do we need? Nothing. Nothing. Now, he tells us that,
well look in verse four with me, he tells us he chose, according
to he had chose us in him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestined us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Now, if
all the letters that we've read thus far up until this point,
I mean, he made a beeline right to the Lord's purpose, the Lord's
will, the Lord's grace. And he does that in the other
places as well. But he he was so full, like a
like a new wine bottle ready to pop of love for these. This
this is the theme of Ephesus is love. And we're going to look
at that Sunday, Lord willing. But he was encouraging them with
this glorious news of we're chosen Christ before the world began
chosen in love by him and so he reminds them of the finished
work of Christ what greater encouragement is there than knowing his works
were finished from the foundation of the world what greater encouragement
is there than knowing that Christ successfully redeemed those given
to him by his father there is no greater encouragement is there
The Holy Spirit regenerates those for whom the Father elected and
the Son redeemed. And we come hearing, wanting
to hear the same thing as Paul was telling to the Ephesians,
as Paul was declaring to them over and over again. Well, Paul
continues his encouragement to them by telling that he's heard
of their faith and that he never fails to pray for them. And he
said, I'll never cease to pray for you. And I would tell us
today that the Lord is faithful in reminding me to pray for each
and every one of you, and I pray he reminds me more often than
he does, but. You are on my heart and you have
my heart. I am constantly asking him for mercy for us and grace
for us and. We don't know what each other
endures, but we do know that it's all purposed by him. It's
all purposed by him, and that's our rest, isn't it? Knowing that.
Paul continues by telling them that he reminds them that Christ
put away their sin and iniquity, that he finished the work given
to him. And he tells them that salvation's all by grace. Look
in chapter two, verse eight. For by grace are you saved through
faith and not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Tells them it's all by grace,
not a single work involved in salvation. There's rest in that.
This is a wonderful letter to remind us, and it's to us. He tells us that it's for those
who, to all the faithful in Jesus Christ. I hope that's us by his
grace. I hope he's making us give us
his faith to be found faithful. That's our hope, isn't it? Then
he declares to them after this our text found in Ephesians chapter
two. And look with me, that's where
our topic's found also tonight. Look at verse 13. But now, in
Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, 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 making peace, and that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. I came and preached peace to
you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. For through
him, we both have access by one spirit and to the Father. Then
he says in the next verse to begin now, therefore. So in light
of everything he just says, he's gonna continue another thought.
That's why I wanna stop reading right there and focus on the
first thought. Our Lord is our peace. He is our peace. Look again in verse 14. For he
is, who is? Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus. Verse 14, for he, Christ Jesus,
the Lord, is our peace. Not is going to be, but we know
he's going to be if we're his. Not might be if we do something
or don't do something. He is our peace right now, right
now. Why? Well, he tells us in verse
five, or verse 15. Look at the end of the verse.
For to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. He's made peace. Why is he our
peace? Because he's made peace with
the father. Instead of us who could not make,
we could not have made peace with God. He did. He did. And
that's what we preach, verse 17. And came and preached peace
to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. Lord
Jesus Christ is our peace. The Lord Jesus Christ made peace
for his people, and that's what we preach, is the peace of Christ.
We preach what he has done, his finished work. Now, peace is,
I don't know if I told you, our title tonight is He Is Our Peace.
He is our peace. Peace is in every book of the
New Testament. If you were to look it up in
a concordance, you'll find the word peace in every book of the
New Testament, and in every book of the Old Testament except for
six. Peace is mentioned 420 times. That is more than joy. That is
more than faith. That is more than hope. So maybe
we shouldn't worry so much. Maybe we should just rest. That's
what peace gives, is rest, isn't it? The Lord said it 420 times.
There has to be some significance to it. But unless God gives us
his peace, We'll continually be unable to rest. We'll seek
understanding, whether it be circumstances or whether, whatever
it may be, it will be seeking some understanding. I need to
know the reason for this. Well, the reason is it's for
your good and his glory. That's the reason. No matter
what it is, that's the answer. It's for our good and his glory.
Peace doesn't come by looking to self or circumstances, but
the peace of God, Philippians 4, 7 tells us that it surpasses. that passeth all understanding,
and it shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
When God sends his spirit into the heart of one of his beloved,
one of his elect, and he speaks, he whispers sweet peace, he's
revealing Christ by faith. That's how this peace works,
is by faith. That's how love works, is by faith. We see that
this peace then points us directly to Christ, and we rest, completely
rest, in his finished work. All by his gospel, everything
just stops. We no longer need answers. That
peace passeth all understanding. It far exceeds it. Lord, I don't
need to know anymore. I see Christ. Christ is enough. I don't need to, I don't have
to figure anything else out anymore. I don't need to, I don't need
to know what one plus one equals in my life. I just need to know
that I am found in Christ. If you can see, if he causes
us to see that we're seated in the Lord, there's peace there.
There's rest there and it passeth all understanding. By his gospel, everything just
stops. And if I was to say everything stops spinning, I think everybody
knows exactly what I mean by that. Boy, we get dizzy in this
world, don't we? Just like I got a puppy at home. She's chasing
her tail. She ain't accomplishing anything.
She's trying to accomplish something, but she'll eventually catch it
every once in a while, and she'll bite it and then realize, well,
that was dumb. I shouldn't have done that. Boy, isn't that us?
Isn't that we chase our tail all the time and finally catch
it, and we bite it, and it's out. So that's not what I wanted
to do. Oh Lord, keep us from chasing our tail. Cause us to
rest in Christ. Don't make us need answers anymore.
Cause all the chaos that's inside of us to stop. All the fear,
all the doubt, all the heartache. It ceases when we see Christ,
when he gives us his peace, doesn't it? Every bit of that, it just
ends. It just ends. You know why? Because we see
the Prince of Peace. That's his name. Call him Counselor,
Wonderful, the Everlasting Father, the Mighty God, the Prince of
Peace. That's his name. Why is he the Prince? Because the Father's the King.
He's the King of Peace. He's the Prince of Peace, isn't
he, to his people. He reigneth. And when we see
him, we see it is finished. And we rest in his unchanging
grace. There is no peace in a works
false gospel that says look to self. Look at what you're doing. Look at what you need to be doing. No, there is no peace in that
gospel. A gospel of works, but there
is peace in the gospel of free grace, isn't there? Why? Because
it is finished. See, those who are in the free
will works gospel are chasing their tail, not even realizing,
not accomplishing anything. Not spiritually speaking, there's
no peace in it, but there's peace. There is rest to the child of
God in Christ Jesus. Looking to self will bring no
peace. Do you remember, I use this analogy maybe more than
any other analogy I use, but it's, I can relate to Peter so
much, and you can too, can't you? Peter was full of the Lord's
grace, and he was full of, but he was also confident in the
flesh too, wasn't he? He said, who do men say that
I am? He said, some say you're John the Baptist, some say that
you're Elias and other prophets. He said, well, who do you say
I am? Peter spoke up. And by the divine revelation of Christ
alone and the faith he was given, he said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. And he said, blessed are thou
Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you,
but my father has. Well, what about whenever he
was in the boat and the storm was on the water and Christ came
walking on the water and they saw, what were they, what was
the initial reaction? It was fear, wasn't it? Who is
this spirit, they thought. And the Lord said, it is I, be
not afraid. Well, Peter said, Lord, if it's you, bid me to
come to you. And this is the same one that just had the confession
that Jesus Christ is God, just a little bit later on. That's what he gave to Peter.
And the Lord said, come. And Peter gets out of the boat
and he walks on water. We talked about this Sunday. In the very
moment he took his eyes off of Christ, he began to sink. What
did he notice? Number one, he noticed he was
walking on water. And the Lord could not allow him to have any
confidence in his flesh. If Peter would have continued
to walk while looking at himself, if he would have continued to
move along by looking at his self, he would have began to
trust in himself, wouldn't he? He would have thought, hmm, I'm
walking on water. The very moment he took his eyes
off of Christ, he began to sink. He saw the storm around him.
He saw the waves. He became afraid of everything
else. He said, you know, I really don't, I thought that I had this.
I don't have this. Lord, you're gonna have to save
me. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna drown. Save me, Lord.
Isn't that what we do? We take our eyes off of him,
whether it's for circumstance or looking to ourself. Looking
to ourself is just as bad as looking to circumstances. It's
not looking to him. There is no peace in looking
to self. and there is no peace to looking at circumstances.
Aren't you glad we don't have to fix it? It's already finished.
We don't have to fix everything. It's already finished. Does that
mean that we need to be antinomians and just not worry about nothing,
sit at home and just, you know that's not true. That's not what
we believe, not what we preach. We do looking unto Christ, don't
we? We do, not for salvation, not for salvation. towards one
another in love, looking to Christ to order and provide. Whatever
your hands find to do, do it with all your might, the scripture
says. Whether therefore you eat or drink, do it all to the glory
of God, 1 Corinthians 10 31. It's all of Him and for Him and
by Him and through Him. We look to Christ. We try our
best. We chart, Lord, don't leave me
to myself. Lord, don't leave me to myself.
Calls me to work, calls me to provide for my family. Lord,
but you're the one that's providing. It's not these hands. Every time
I grab a hold of something, I mess it up. I need a substitute. Lord,
save me. Isn't that the believer's life?
Over and over and over. There's peace with Christ only.
Lord got in the boat, threw Peter in the boat. He got in the boat
and he said, Peace be still. And everything stopped. Everything
stopped. All the fears that Peter had
was going at that point. The moment that you see the Lord
seated as the sovereign creator and sustainer of this universe
as the successful redeemer of his people, there's rest. There's
rest in that. There's rest in that. That's
the only way that we have peace is look to Christ. Look to Christ. Understand something, his peace
is a gift, just like faith, just like love, just like by grace
are you saved through faith, we read that. All these things
are a gift that comes from him. All by his grace and mercy alone,
these are gifts. James 1.17 says, every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the
father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning. All, he didn't say some good
gifts, every single one of them comes down from our heavenly
father. And if you being evil know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more will your heavenly father give
unto you that ask him? And what do we ask for? Lord, I need your
spirit. Lord, I need to see Christ. I need your spirit to speak peace
to my heart. How does he do that? He causes
us to see Christ, causes us to see it is finished. This is already,
We don't see it wrapped up, but it's already been wrapped up.
It's already done. Everything that we're afraid of is ordered
by him. He has his people. Christ said,
I and them, they and me, me and you, we're all, and if I could
put that in perspective, if I was to put my finger in my palm and
wrap that up and take my hand and put it over top of that,
that's what it's like. Who's gonna get through that? That's
God that has us. We don't have ourself. There's
peace in that. There's peace in looking to him
in that. God is the bringer of peace to
his people. You know why? Because he is. He is the peace
of his people. Well, how do I know if I have
peace? How do I know if I have this gift? What are you looking
to? That's the question. that answers the question, how
do I know if I have the gift of peace? How do I know if the
Lord's give me his peace? Am I, are we looking to self?
Are we self-sufficient? Are we looking to circumstances?
That's not looking to Christ. The only way that we can have
peace is by the faith of Christ that looks to him. And there
is peace in that. Isaiah 26 says, thou will keep
him at perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. See, looking
to Christ, having our mind stayed on him, there is peace. Well,
Lord, I'm like that song that was just just sung. Lord, I'm
so prone to wonder. I feel that I'm so prone to wonder
and leave the God I love. Lord, save me. Lord, give me
your peace. Don't let me take it for granted.
Cause me to have it. I need it. I need the peace that
surpasses all understanding. What we are looking to. If we're looking to Christ, if he's
given us his faith to look to him, we'll have peace with God.
We'll have because where he is, where he is, it's our good deeds
are not peace. Our good deeds are not peace,
doesn't give us any peace. Our righteousness is not our
peace, is it? That's not looking to Christ. But just as Peter
lost all of his peace, and he began to sink, as soon as he
looked away from Christ, that's exactly what we do, and we must
do exactly what Peter did. Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy
on me, the sinner. I've taken my eyes off of you
again. I didn't mean to, it wasn't my intention, but the things
I would do that I don't, and that which I would not, that's
what I find myself doing. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
Save me. Save me. He lets us feel like we're drowning
for a brief moment sometimes, don't he? He does. He lets us
feel like we're drowning sometimes in our circumstances, in our
lives. And that's whenever we cry out.
That's when we cry out. A baby that is sleeping with
a full belly doesn't cry out for mama then baby's resting
the baby's resting but when the baby's hungry or when the baby's
frightened that's when the baby will begin to cry out when it
can't see the mother's face and it's frightened that's that's
the only person that baby wants to see at that time is the parent
that's what he does for his people he lets this flesh that we are
just begin to sink a little bit lets us see it lets us see that
we're sinking lets us see that we're trying to to do something
that takes our eyes off of him. And he says, no, cry out. And he gives us faith that cries
out. And what does he do every time? Has he ever not rescued
you in his time? Has he utterly left us to ourself?
No, he rescues his people in time by revealing Christ. That's the rescue. And the moment
we see Christ, we have peace again. We have peace again. causes us to feel like we're
drowning, to see, or to reveal to us, or better put, better
put, who our peace is. Not just what, but who our peace
is. He causes us to go through trials, tribulations, circumstances,
just to make us cry out to Him, to reveal we need Christ. As our substitute, as our surety,
as our all, we got to have Him. And if we never had a trial,
we would never cry out, save me. If we never started drowning,
we'd never cry out, save me, but he brings them. And I'll
tell you by experience, he knows the exact amount of grace to
give to his children and the exact amount of grace to withhold
from his children at the right time to cause us to continually
come to Christ. Most people talk of making peace
with God. You ever heard that before? I've
made my peace with God. I might have mentioned this to
us before, but I invited someone to the church. They were struggling
in life. Paul said, if we were of all
men, if we had hope in this world only, we'd be of all men most
miserable. And that's true with this individual. He was struggling
in life, but he had hope in this world. What kind of hope is that? What kind of peace is there in
this world? There is none outside of Christ. He told me, I invited
him to church. He said, well, I've made my peace
with God. I've made my peace with God.
By definition, that's something that he did, isn't it? By definition,
if we've made peace with God, that's something I have done.
That's something I have done. There's no peace in that. There's
no peace in that. How can someone make peace with
the eternal God? How can someone do something
to make peace with God, I should say? Our righteousness is filthy
rags. The flesh is enmity against God.
Literally, hey, your flesh, my flesh, right this second hates
God and always will, always will. The Lord didn't come to save
the flesh, he came to save the soul of man, his people. Our
flesh is enmity against God, hates God right now. So how can
we make peace with God? We can't, we can't. But Christ did for us. Christ
did for his people. We can't make peace. Christ did. He did it for his people. Look
in verse 14 of our text. For he is our peace who hath
made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. See, we're one with Christ, and he broke down the
middle wall of partition, that which separated us. And he says,
having abolished in his flesh the enmity. There it is. If our
flesh is enmity against God, he just said he abolished that
enmity. Even the law of commandments contain in ordinances for to
make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, that
he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. What is this middle wall of partition
that he's speaking of? Well, that's something that separates,
isn't it? And Isaiah said, your iniquities have separated between
you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, and
he will not hear if you have sin and iniquity, Isaiah says.
There is no peace in our works. By definition, it is iniquity,
if we try to present it as our righteousness unto him. If we
try to do something to add to or take away from the finished
work of Christ, it is iniquity. And the Lord hates the workers
of iniquity. Psalm chapter five, verse five. But Christ by himself
broke down the wall of our iniquity, of our sin, the thing that separated
us from God, the enmity that we are against him. He broke
that away. He broke it down for his people.
and put away all the sin of his elect. What does the scripture
say about that veil that we couldn't enter into the holy place, could
we? What does it say about the veil when Christ bowed his head
on Calvary's cross and he gave up the ghost, cried with a loud
voice, it is finished. The veil in the temple was rent
entwined from top to bottom and now we have access to come boldly
to the throne of grace and in complete confidence of Christ's
finished work. that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in the time of need. See, Christ is the one
that abolished all the enmity of the flesh. It's not us that
made peace with God. It was Christ that made peace
with God for us, for his people. He abolished, that word abolished
means to render idle, to make inactive, to put it away. Our
enmity, he put it away by the sacrifice of himself. Christ
replaces the hate, the wrath, the judgment due us. He took
it into himself. He endured the wrath of God for
his people. And with his peace, He gives
us, He gives us rest in Him all by faith. He replaced all the
wrath that was due us with peace. He replaced all the justice that
was due unto us. We're just, He gave us faith
to see Christ. There is no justice demanded
anymore. There is no demands of the law whatsoever. It's been
satisfied. There is no judgment that's required for the Lord's
people. We have real peace with God. Can you put a price on that?
Can you imagine having peace with God? I have peace before
God. Yes. His name is Jesus Christ. That's your peace before God.
Must be or we don't have any. Isn't that right? He's got to
be my peace before God. He made peace for his people
and he gives us peace. He is our peace as we've already
read. Romans chapter 8 says, there
is therefore now no condemnation. We have peace before God. There
is therefore now no condemnation. And I say this often when I read
that verse, but when is it not right now? It's always right
now, isn't it? There is right now no condemnation.
There is right now no condemnation. And every second that ticks by,
there is now therefore no condemnation. To them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Okay, so
in order to not have condemnation, I must walk after the spirit
instead of the flesh. If we are finding ourself walking
after the spirit, God's the doer of it. God's the doer of it.
We no longer go to our flesh looking for peace, do we? No,
thou shalt keep him at perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
thee. There's our new thought process of the new man, isn't
it? Old things are passed away. All things are become new. We
now have a peace that's outside of us in Christ Jesus. We see
that we have no righteousness in and of ourself. We have to
have him. That's walking after the spirit.
It's by faith, isn't it? It's all by his faith that he
bestows. Therefore being justified by
faith. Therefore being justified by faith. The previous verse
says that we were justified by his resurrection. We were justified
by his own blood. And then this verse says, therefore
being justified, we have faith. Faith that does what? Gives us
peace with God. We have faith. And we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. David
said in Psalm 145, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
And his greatness is unsearchable. How can we begin to describe
the greatness of our Lord? How can we begin to describe
the wonders of salvation? It's wonderful, isn't it? That
means full of wonder. There's no way of explaining
it or understanding it. We just declare it. His greatness
is unsearchable. A songwriter once said, What
great salvation wrought by our God that caused his wrath to
cease. By his blood he purged our sins
and now we have his peace. Now we have his peace. He is
the peace of his people in this world and before God in the world
to come. He is all our peace. We have
no peace in this life. We have turmoil and chaos and
sorrow and heartache and frustrations. We'll have a moment of happiness,
but when are we at peace, truly? When the gospel of Christ is
being declared and we are hearing it, there's peace right then,
isn't there? We're no longer thinking about
life and the troubles that we have now. I know from experience
sitting there, sometimes I'll have a memory that pops up in
my mind so quick to just go this way and that way. And I say,
oh, I missed five minutes of what he was saying. But when
we're hearing, there's peace there, isn't there? There's peace
there. Why? Because we're seeing him. We
are seeing him who is our peace. What great salvation, the Lord
wrought by our God and caused his wrath to cease. By his blood
he purged our sins and now we have his peace. The Lord is my
light and my salvation, David said, and whom shall I fear?
The Lord is your light and salvation, whom are you to be afraid of?
The Lord is the strength of my life, whom shall I be afraid?
Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus? There's peace in that, he's the one that keeps his people.
We don't keep ourself. He's ordered all things and provided
well. Well provided in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with
God. Who can separate us from him?
Life can't, because our life is here with Christ and God.
Death can't. because we died in Christ. Hell can't because
he endeared the fires of God's wrath. He endeared hell on the
cross for his people and put that wrath. He absorbed it. He
absorbed the fire. He extinguished the wrath. The grave can't hold us because
he conquered it. Rest. He is our peace. And how easily distracted do
we get of that truth. I wrote down the word how pathetic
I am. That's the truth of how embarrassing
I am of myself. I get so distracted so easy.
My daughter can tell me something that happened at school that
day, and boy, I'm just aggravated at somebody that I've never even
met before. And my mind's over here, then my mind's over there.
I'm not at peace at those moments, but there's peace in Christ.
There's peace in Christ. As soon as we take our eyes off
of his finished work, there's doubts and fears that come. There's
chaos that ensues. We're distracted by the noise
of self, by the noise of the world. We're listening to the
whispers of our adversary, not looking to what we need to be
looking to. And what is that? Christ Jesus.
Lord, cause me to look to you. I want to. Do you want to? How
often do you want to? Lord, I wanna look to you all
the time. Can I please look to you all the time? Can I please
see it is finished every second of every day? Not worry about
anything. You will one day. If you're his,
it's called heaven. That's what heaven's gonna be.
No more worry, no more sorrow, no more chaos, no more confusion.
There's just perfect rest for the Lord's people. Eternity.
Eternity of just peace. Just peace in his presence. Don't
look to self. Don't look to life, don't look
to the past, look to Christ who is our peace. Look to him and
his finished work. And men will say, in closing
I'll give you this thought, men will say that they have a peace,
they've made their peace. Peace comes through your prayer
life, peace comes by reading scripture more. I would encourage
you to pray more. I would encourage us to read
more. I'm not undermining that whatsoever, but our peace comes
through and by the revelation of Christ and the revelation
of Christ comes through and by the preaching of the gospel.
That's how he is revealed. There's our peace revealed, the
preaching of his gospel. We know we don't make him Lord
of our life. We don't trust ourself with any decision, do we? There's
no peace in that. Every decision I've ever made,
I can look back and wondered if it was the right decision.
We don't make decisions when it comes to spiritual matters.
We look to Christ. That's what His people do. We
look to Him. His peace is not looking to ourself, but Christ
alone. Men make lies their refuge. The
Lord said, I'll disannul your covenant, but the Lord's people
has been given the covenant of grace before the foundation of
the world. That's where our hope is. That's where our peace is,
is in His finished work alone. The Lord gave us this promise,
peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, not as the world
giveth, not a false peace, not a temporary peace. Our peace
is eternal. And we don't see it all the time
because we're distracted, but it's always there. He is always
there. Christ is the Prince of Peace.
My peace I leave with you, not as the world giveth thee by you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He's
give us his peace. Paul tells the Church of Galatia
that God is the God of all peace. Every single bit, it's his. And he gives it to his people.
He is the source of his people's peace. Rest in him. Rest in Him. It's all in Christ, all by Christ,
and holy for the Lord Jesus Christ, totally, completely. We have
peace with God. It's the only way we could have
had peace with God. Thank God He is our peace. Otherwise, we
would have none.