Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Romans. I'll be speaking from the 5th
chapter of Romans, verse 1. My subject today is peace with
God. Peace with God. In Romans chapter
5, verse 1, the Apostle Paul said, Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God. Peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, many people talk about having
peace with God. And many people claim, and have
claimed for years, to have peace with God. And I hear this frequently,
when they talk about someone on his dying bed, and they say
he made his peace with God. But my friends, throughout the
Scriptures, True peace with God. Now listen carefully to this. True peace with God is always
a blessing that comes to men only in, by, and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And because of a relationship
with Him. He is the Prince of Peace. Now you remember that. No matter
how many people claim to have peace, and talk about peace with
God, and talk about making peace with God. Peace with God, according
to the Word of God, is always and only in, through, and by
the Lord Jesus Christ, and through a relationship with Him. When
the angels... Now listen to these scriptures.
When the angels announced His birth to the shepherds, they
said, We bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is
born a Savior, Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, because of the birth of Jesus Christ." That
peace is inseparably connected with the Lord Jesus Christ. They
said, therefore, because we announce the birth of a Savior, we also
say, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill
toward men. Our Lord Jesus Christ said this,
Peace be unto you, my peace I give unto you, my peace I give unto
you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And
then Paul in Colossians 1.20 said this, And having made peace
through the blood of his cross. Now that's so important. Peace
with God can only be ours through a relationship with Jesus Christ. He's the one who brings peace.
He is the Prince of Peace. He is the King of Peace. Now
let me make about seven statements and you listen to them and evaluate
them and apply them to your own heart, will you? Now listen to
these statements. Number one, if you claim peace with God,
apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a false peace. Now I tell you that emphatically,
dogmatically, with all that I can muster up to get it across to
you, if you claim peace with God apart from faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, it's got to be a false peace. And then secondly,
if you claim peace with God and you are indifferent to the gospel
of Christ, indifferent to the ordinances of Christ, and indifferent
to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and indifferent to the
fellowship of the people of God, that too is a false peace. And
then thirdly, if you claim peace with God through your own merit,
through your own morality, apart from the righteousness of Christ,
that too is a false peace. And fourthly, if you claim peace
with God apart from the death of Christ and the blood of Christ,
which cleanses us from sin and enables God to be just and justifier,
that too is a false peace. And then fifthly, if you claim
peace with God without a constant look to the Lord Jesus Christ
as your mediator, as your intercessor, as your great high priest. Now,
my friend, a preacher said one time in my hearing, the sinner
who's coming to God needs a mediator. But once a man is a believer,
he no longer needs a mediator, for he himself is a priest. That's
half a truth. A man who knows Christ is a priest. He hath made us kings and priests
unto our God. But Jesus Christ the Lord is
the great High Priest. And without the great High Priest
and Mediator, even a believer's prayers are not heard. Even a
believer's worship is a sinful approach unto God. So if you
claim peace with God, apart from a constant look to the Lord Jesus
Christ as your Mediator and as your intercessor, well now that's
a false peace. Now watch this. If you claim
to have peace with God that does not give you strength in time
of trial and rest in daily life and a hope in the hour of death,
all based upon the mercy and grace and love of Christ, that's
a false peace. A peace that does not comfort
you in trouble is not worth having anyway. And my friends, there's
nothing clearer in the Word of God than the fact that all of
God's blessings and benefits and grace and mercy to sinners
is in and through his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so is God's peace in Christ. God's love and mercy and grace
and all the benefits of his redemption, they're in Christ. Well, peace
also is a fruit of the Spirit. and a gift of God, and a blessing
of redemption. So apart from Christ, now hold
on to your chair a minute. I wouldn't offend you, but I
must tell you the truth. Take a deep breath and listen
to me. Apart from Christ, we face an angry, unreconciled,
avenging God. Apart from Christ. Now, I'm trying
to get across to you as simply and forcefully as I can, that
you can have no peace with God. I don't care what we claim. The
devil may lull us to sleep in a false profession, but you cannot
have peace apart from the King of Peace. You cannot have peace
apart from Him who accomplished peace by the blood of His cross.
You cannot have peace with God apart from that righteousness
of Christ and blood of Christ, which justifies and sanctifies
us and enables God to look upon us with favor. Apart from Christ,
we face an angry God, an unreconciled God, an unfriendly God, and an
avenging God. Now, you listen and see if I
don't make good on that. 2 Corinthians 5, 18. All things are of God. All things. Is not peace of God? Is not peace
a thing? All things are of God who hath
reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ. Listen to 2 Corinthians
5, 19. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself. So apart from Christ, God's unreconciled. In Christ and through the Lord
Jesus Christ, God is reconciled. God is friendly. God is Loving to us and apart
from Christ. He's unreconciled. He's angry
second Corinthians 521 for God hath made Christ To be sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him Now listen to first Timothy 2 5 there's one God Not
many people argue with that with the one God you couldn't have
more than one God. There's one God But would you
argue with this? There's one mediator. There's
one intercessor. There's one advocate. One mediator
between God and men. That's the man Christ Jesus.
The hymn writer put it this way, My faith has found a resting
place. That's peace. Not in device or
creed. I trust the ever-living Christ. His wounds for me shall plead. Enough for me that Jesus saves
This ends my fear, that's peace, and my doubt, that's peace. A sinful soul, I come to him,
he'll never cast me out. The great Redeemer heals the
sick, the lost he came to save. For me, his precious blood he
shed. For me, his life he gave. That's peace, and joy, and rest,
and that's comfort. We cease from our labors. and
enter into his rest." Whose rest? The Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul
wrote in Hebrews 12, listen to this, in Hebrews 12, 2, "...let
us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus." Looking unto Jesus, not looking to our creeds, not
looking to our preachers, not looking to our denominations,
not looking to the law, looking to Jesus. who is the author and
finisher of our faith, looking to Christ. Let's run this whole
race, resting in Him, looking to Him, believing in Him. Now,
I'm going to give you six words which will describe for you how
we're to look to Christ as our prophet, priest, and king, finding
in Him all we need, especially peace with God. Peace with God. Can you imagine what that means? God is reconciled. The wrath
is gone. The judgment is gone. Punishment
and the curse of the law is gone. I'm at peace with God. I can
rest. I can find assurance and comfort.
I can walk in happiness. I have no fear in the valley
of the shadow of death. I have no fear when I leave this
earth and my soul returns to God, not in judgment, but in
mercy. And my body to the dust from
which it came, I can rest. In the deepest waters, in the
heaviest trial, carrying the greatest burden, I can rest.
Peace with God." Well, here are six words that will help you.
This is the way we look to Christ. In looking to Him, we find peace
with God. First of all, the word covenant.
I look to Christ in the covenant, the everlasting covenant. The
covenant of God's grace. Now, I know a lot of people,
when you mention the word covenant, they kind of shy back and they
say, well, he's going to get into some deep theological water
here. Oh, no. The word covenant is
used in the Bible over 250, almost 300 times. And that everlasting
covenant is simply saying this. Now, God made a covenant with
Abraham, a covenant with Israel, a covenant with Adam, a covenant
with Noah, with David. But this everlasting covenant
is simply this. God the Father in eternity past
made a covenant with us in Christ. The covenant was made with Christ
on our behalf. He made that covenant with Christ
and we were included in the covenant in Christ. So he made it with
his son and he called it the new covenant because it's newly
revealed. But in that covenant he gave
his son a people. He chose them in Christ. He predestinated
them to be like Christ. He purposed that they should
be redeemed by Christ. Our Lord tells us about this
covenant in John 6, 37. He said, All that my Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. I came down from heaven not to
do my will, but the will of him that sent me, and this is the
will of him that sent me. that of all which ye have given
me I'll lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day."
And then in John 17 he said, Father, glorify me with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was, as thou hast given
me authority, power over all flesh, that I should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. So this is the covenant
of grace. This is the covenant of promise.
This is an everlasting covenant. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
called in Hebrews the surety of that covenant. He is the guarantor. It will be accomplished because
he guarantees it and he never fails. And then his blood is
called in the book of Hebrews the blood of that everlasting
covenant. In Adam we die, in Christ we're
made alive. By Adam's sin, we became sinners. By Christ's righteousness in
blood, we became righteous. In Romans 5, 19, the Scripture
says, by the disobedience of one, the many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, Christ,
we were made righteous. Do you know what the last words
of David, King David, sweet psalmist of Israel, the son of Jesse,
ruler of Israel so many years, great warrior, great heart believer
in Christ. You know what his last words
were before he died? These were his last words, found
in 2 Samuel 23, verse 5, I believe. He said, Although my house be
not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire. So my friends, when we look to
Christ to find peace, we look back beyond the cross. We look beyond the manger. We
look beyond the tabernacle. We look beyond the promise of
the seed of woman. We look back in the eternity
past, because known unto God are all His works from the beginning.
And we see in that everlasting covenant of mercy, made between
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before the world ever was created,
in which Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world, in which the book of life was written, and the
names recorded, and given to Christ, and they were chosen
in him, and he assumed the responsibility of being their surety. And like
Judah said to Jacob, I'll bring him home, I'll bring him home,
or you're required at my hands." And the Lord Jesus said, I'll
bring them home. All that my Father giveth me,
they'll come to me, and I'll lose nothing. I'll bring them
home. And I look to Christ. He shall not fail. He cannot
fail. All right, the second word is
incarnation. Incarnation. We look to Christ not only in
the covenant, but we look to Christ who became flesh. Who
became flesh. Christ as God can satisfy all
that God requires because He's perfect. Christ as man can suffer
all that the penalty of sin and the curse of the law demands.
And so only as the God-man can He both satisfy and suffer. And in Galatians 4, verse 4,
it says, In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son made of
a woman. God sent him, he already existed,
he already was eternally God. He was with God and he was God.
In the beginning all things were made by him, but God sent him
forth, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were born under the law. Christ came to redeem us. And
John said, and the Word, the Word was made flesh, actually
became a man. I can't explain that. Paul calls
it, a mystery of godliness, that God became a man. The Word was made flesh. The
great, he said, is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested
in the flesh. You know, when the angel was
speaking to Joseph about the birth of the Savior, he said,
She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins. And this
was done that the saying of the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Behold, I give you a sign. A
virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt
call his name Emmanuel, God with us." That's staggering, isn't
it? But it's true. We need to learn
the truth of imputed righteousness. Guilt is ours through Adam. Holiness
is ours in Christ. The law of God is exact. The
law of God is unchangeable. The law of God is binding upon
all flesh, and the law of God requires perfection. And our
Lord Jesus came to earth in the flesh under that law, tried in
all points as we are, and perfectly obeyed it without sin. And His
holiness becomes our holiness, who are by God's grace in Him
as our representative. As we were in Adam, we are now
in Christ. And we look to Christ. We look
to Him for our sanctification. We look to Him as our surety.
We look to Him as our sanctifier. Now, here's the third word, substitution. We look to Christ on the cross
as our substitute. If you don't know the meaning
of the word substitute, you don't know the gospel. I suppose if
you were to look for one word, just one word, which would describe
salvation and redemption, it would have to be the word substitution. Listen to these scriptures. He
was wounded for our transgressions. Far in the stead of, in the place
of, far my transgressions. He was bruised far my iniquities. He died the just far the unjust. He bore our sins in his body
on the tree. Barabbas, son of Sarah, was sentenced
to die on a cross. And Pilate stood before the people
of Israel And he said, it's customary that I release unto you at this
time a prisoner. Whom shall I release? Jesus,
who is called the Christ, or Barabbas? They said, give us
Barabbas. So Barabbas was set free, and
Christ was nailed to his cross. And that clearly illustrates
substitution. Christ took his place and died,
and he went free. The law of God was upon me. I
was in bondage to the law and sin. The curse of God's law was
upon me. The wrath of God's judgment was
upon me. Christ had no sin, knew no sin,
committed no sin. And He stood in my place and
took my cross and died my death under the wrath of God, and I
go free. That, my friend, is substitution. And the justice of God was completely
satisfied when I substitute Jesus Christ died because He was identified
with us. He was numbered with the transgressors. Actually, Christ is innocent,
but being identified with us and being numbered with the transgressors
and becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, he assumed
our guilt before God, and he died. Now, the fourth word is
resurrection. We look to Christ not only as
the surety, as the sanctifier and as the substitute, but we
look to Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead. and became the
first fruits of them that slept. The resurrection of Christ is
a most important part of his redemptive work and of the gospel. For Paul said, if Christ be not
risen, we're false witnesses of God. If Christ be not risen,
you're yet in your sins. If Christ be not risen, the dead
rise not. You see the importance of it?
Actually, the claims of Christ to being the Son of God, the
claims of Christ to being our Savior, are verified by His resurrection. If God didn't bring Him forth
from the tomb, what He said was not true, because He said, destroy
this temple, three days I'll raise it up. The work of redemption
undertaken by Christ in our stead is declared to be accepted of
God by His resurrection. When God raised him from the
dead, God is saying, I accept his work of redemption. And our
own resurrection from the grave is verified by his resurrection
because he said, because I live, you'll live. And if he doesn't
live, then we don't live. Job asked, if a man dies, shall
he live again? Well, my friends, the question
is answered in the resurrection. A man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
lived. He died and he lives again. Now
here's the fifth word, intercession. We look to Christ, our great
high priest and mediator with the Father. Hebrews 4 verse 14
says this. Now listen to it. I know a lot
of people don't understand the priesthood of Christ, the priestly
work of Christ. But it's clearly identified in
the Scriptures. Hebrews 4 verse 14, seeing then that we have
a great high priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus, the Son
of God, then let us hold fast our profession, and let us come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may find mercy, obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." You don't have
a great high priest? Don't you come to the throne
of grace? That's what he's saying. Seeing
then that we have a high priest who has entered not into the
place made with hands, but into heaven itself. Not on an art
of the covenant down here, but on the mercy seat of glory he
put not the blood of an animal, but his own blood, and pleads
his own wounds. He daily intercedes, therefore
we have the right to come boldly." Listen to this, Hebrews 10, "...and
having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near
in full assurance of faith." And Hebrews 10, 12 said, "...but
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God. We don't look to Mary. She's
no intercessor or advocate or mediator. We don't look to any
of the apostles or to canonized saints to intercede for us. We
do not confess our sins to any man on earth. We do not seek
forgiveness from any man on earth. We look to the one mediator.
Learn it and learn it well. There's one God, one mediator,
the man Christ Jesus. Now, in the next place, the return
of Christ. We look for Christ to return.
He said to his disciples, let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many dwelling places. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be
also. And when our Lord arose from
the grave, he took his disciples and went out there on a mountain,
and he blessed them. He lifted up his hands and blessed
them. And then he said, Tarry in Jerusalem, till ye be endued
with the power of the Holy Spirit. And then ye shall be witnesses
unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts
of the earth. And then he was taken up from
them into heaven. An angel stood by and said to
the disciples, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you, shall so come in
like manner as you've seen Him go." So we look to Christ in
the covenant, in the incarnation, as our substitute, as our resurrected
Lord, as our mediator, and we look for Him to return, and we
find in Him peace. Now I've edited some epistles
I've written I've written some Bible commentaries, verse by
verse, on the epistles. I told you about it last week
and again the week before. We have six epistles in three
books. We have the Romans, they're on
the screen if you look at them now. We have Romans, we have
Galatians, we have 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and 1st and 2nd
Timothy. If you'd like to have these books,
you write and send a gift of five dollars. As I said last
week, we're not trying to raise money for the broadcast. Our
church and other friends support this program as God lays it on
their hearts. But I want you to have these
books written in simple, everyday language, verse by verse, for
Sunday school classes and for Bible classes, for your own devotional
reading. You send $5, we'll mail them
to you by return mail. Also, if you want this message
on a cassette tape, you write to me and I'll send you the message.
The tape is $2. for two messages this week and
next week, and the books, five dollars. Until next week, we
bid you a pleasant, good day.