The Peace Christ Offers At His Coming - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, December 23rd. Today, we'll continue focusing on Christmas by learning to accept and rest in the peace Christ offers at His coming. All the rest of their life in the Roman Empire as believers establishing that New Testament church, they would never live in a peaceful situation. So he kept saying to them, peace be unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Wonderful words of assurance to the Lord Jesus Christ. So he went through his life expressing to them the peace that God intends for us to have. Now, it's one thing for him to express it.

It's something else for us to understand it. And so beyond the expressions of his peace, I want us to understand, I want to explain the peace that Jesus Christ offered when he came to earth. So I want us to notice here, first of all, that all of us have a need for peace. Now, first of all, all of us need peace with God.

Secondly, we need to be able to have and experience peace within ourselves. Now, listen to what the Bible says. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You've heard that verse all of your life.

But let's think for just a moment. What is this sin? Sin, in essence, my friend, is this sin is my choice to act independently of the will of God. The sin against God is to set up conflict between yourself and God. You cannot live in conflict with God and experience peace.

It's impossible. Somebody says, but I do. God says you don't. So therefore you must be deceived if you think you have peace.

Now, let's look at it. He says, I've come to give you peace. Peace be unto you. What is this peace? Well, sin is that thing, that attitude in our life, those actions and attitudes that deprive us of our peace.

And so what we have to ask is this. How do I get this feeling, this attitude, this experience? How do I get this overwhelming sense of quietness and assurance and confidence and stillness in my spirit when everything around me is falling apart?

That's exactly what I want to explain. Beginning in Chapter five of Romans, verse one, the Bible says, Therefore, having been justified, let me explain that, having been declared not guilty by God, doesn't mean I wasn't guilty, but something happened whereby God now has declared us not guilty, therefore being justified by what? Faith.

We have what? Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that means because the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, God the Father placed all of his sin upon him. He paid the penalty.

He bore all the debt. Therefore, God, when I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior, sees me as no longer guilty. I've been set free and liberated, therefore being justified by faith.

Now you and I can have peace with God because the war is over. Now, I want you to turn, if you will, to Colossians chapter one for a moment. Listen to what he says. He says in this first chapter of Colossians, look at if you will. Look in verse 19. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness of the Godhead to dwell in him.

And listen. And through him, that is through Christ, to reconcile, that is the conflicts over, the walls are torn down, and now the two have become one, to reconcile all things to himself, having made what? Peace through what? The blood of his cross.

Through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Therefore, he says that you and I have been reconciled to him and we have made peace through the blood of his cross. All genuine true peace will find its origin in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is in his crucifixion.

It is in the cross where God paid the penalty for your sins and my sins. And what he did, he says, look, the war can be over. There can be peace. There need no longer be any conflict.

Cease to act independently of the will of God and surrender yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will have peace that passes all human understanding. Now, notice what he said in John 14. He says there is a form of peace the world has to offer, but it's all based on circumstances, situations that are always changing.

My peace I give unto you. Now, I want you to turn to Ephesians Chapter two for a moment and I want you to notice something in this passage. And I want to explain what Paul is describing here and then we can apply to ourselves what he's saying here. He's saying specifically in this passage concerning the relationships between Jews and Gentiles. And he says this is the kind of peace that the Lord Jesus Christ brought into these two warring factions of Gentiles and Jews. What happened between them, he says, is what God wants to happen between us and our spouses or our children or our friends or our enemies.

Now, listen to what he says and we'll explain as we go along. He says in verse 11 of Ephesians two. Therefore, remember that formerly, that is before time, before you were saved, the Gentiles in the flesh, formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, that is by the Jews, which is performed in the flesh by human hands.

That is, he says, separated. They say we're the circumcised ones. We are the sons and daughters of Abraham. We're the children of God. You Gentiles are ostracized.

You're out forever. Verse 12. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. God, God chose the nation of Israel.

It was his intention that they would spread the truth of the gospel throughout the world. Conflict here without God in the world. Verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, that is because he came, something has happened between Jews and Gentiles. But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off Gentiles have been brought near that is brought into this relationship by the what?

By the blood of Christ. For he himself, that is Christ, is listen to this verse. He himself, not something he gives apart from himself. He himself is our what? He's our peace. Peace is to be found in the person of Jesus Christ. He who is our peace, who made both groups, Gentiles and Jews, into one that is the church, the body of Christ, and broke down the barriers of the dividing wall. By abolishing in his flesh, that is the flesh of Christ, the enmity, the hostility, which is the law of commandments, can't contain in ordinances, that is the Ten Commandments, which we could not live up to, which separated all of us from God because we couldn't live up to them. That in himself, that is in Christ, he may make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.

Here's what he's saying, that God sent the Lord Jesus Christ into a world of Jews and Gentiles. And in the person of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, here's what he did. He met all the requirements. He met all the requirements of the Jewish law. He paid the sum total of all the sins of those who'd been sacrificing down through the years. At the same time, he paid the full price of all the Gentiles past, present and future.

So that now in the person of Jesus Christ, Jews and Gentiles can now be one in the person of Christ, in the body of Christ, which is the church. It is that same Christ who comes into a person's life. And what does he do? He breaks down the barriers and the walls of indifference and ignorance and blindness.

And suddenly what happens? A man who's been estranged from God now finds himself at oneness with the Father. Families in great conflict, the walls of separation, the barriers are broken down. And Christ Jesus is the one who seals them and binds them together. Jesus Christ has come, the Prince of Peace doing what? Binding together that which was broken, putting back together into a sense of oneness that which was separated, healing the hurts and breaking down the conflict and healing conflicts and separation in the hearts and lives of people. Almighty God, through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, knows how to heal hurts. He knows how to bring about forgiveness.

He knows how to empower you to forgive your enemies and forgive your loved ones and forgive those who've hurt you and harmed you and taken advantage of you and abused you. And until you're able to forgive, there will be no peace, my friend. As long as I have an unforgiving spirit towards someone, no matter what they've done to me, no matter how much of it they've done, until I'm willing to say I forgive you, there can be no peace. And until you, my friend, are able to receive the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ, there will never be any peace in your heart.

But now here's another question. What are the expectations that you and I have a right to have if, for example, I receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior? If you say Jesus said He's our peace, what does that mean? First of all, the quality of peace that Jesus gives is a peace that's, listen, it is superior to every type of peace you thought you had heretofore.

What's that verse? My peace I leave with you. Not is the world given to give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. You don't have to be afraid. Listen, there is a superiority about the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ offers.

And what is it? It is superior because our peace is in, listen, a person who is dwelling in every single believer. So that the source of our peace has nothing to do with our circumstances. It has to do with a personal intimate relationship with a person who is the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in the upper room, He says, for in me, you will find, listen, in me, you will find peace. Jesus says, I'm abiding in you and you're abiding in me. The reason we have a peace that passes all understanding is because it is not wrapped up in circumstances and situations. It is found, listen, in an unbreakable, if divine, eternal relationship between Almighty God through His Son and the believer. Nothing can ever alter that to think that the atoning death of Jesus Christ has to have anything added to that.

Any performance on my part of living up to matching up to to get the acceptance of God would absolutely destroy the eternal security and the eternal peace that we have because of our relationship to Him. It is superior to everything the world has to offer. Secondly, listen, it surpasses everything you and I can imagine. You see, somebody says, what do you mean surpasses what I can imagine? Well, listen to this passage.

In fact, let's turn to it because somebody you may never have read this. And I want to encourage you to get your Bible and underline these two verses because you're going to need them. Philippians chapter four. This is the way Paul described it.

We know it by heart. Listen to what he says. He says, don't be anxious about anything. Can't you hear the apostle Paul saying that from a prison cell? Listen, he's not saying this out on the beach.

He's saying this in jail. He says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all human comprehension. Well, guard, keep, overshadow, garrison about, protect your mind and your heart, your emotions in Christ Jesus. It is a surpassing kind of peace. How many times all of us have been through valleys, heartaches, difficulties, trials, tears. And everything around us falling apart and on the inside, there is this overwhelming sense of undeniable, incomparable, unexplainable, quiet peace that has you, my friend, established.

I mean, you are set in the grace of God. He says, because if you and I will just focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, set our mind upon him. Who is our peace? Listen, not only is the peace that he has given us, provided for us, a peace that is superior to anything we've ever had and a peace that surpasses all of our human understanding, but it is a peace that will sustain us through every circumstance of life. Listen to the simple verse in Isaiah 26, thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is fixed on God. You know why you and I can go through circumstances that are full of conflict?

Because our mind is not fixed on the conflict or fixed on the warriors, it is fixed upon God. One of the most precious times in my life, a little lady in this church said to me, I went to see her. She still comes. She's an elderly lady.

Can't come very often now. At a time of great turmoil in my life, she took me to her apartment. She showed me this picture on the wall, and I was full of conflict at that time and full of hurt and discouraged. She said to me, You see this picture?

She'd been a nurse for about 50 some years, and she said, I want you to tell me what you see. It was a picture of Daniel in the lion's den. I told everything that I saw, Daniel standing there with his hands behind him and all these lions looking like they're about to eat him alive, except all their mouths are closed. And so I told everything that I saw. And this perceptive, godly woman said to this pastor full of conflict, full of frustration, wondering what God was going to do because I was not the pastor of this church at that time. She said to me, she put her arm around my waist and she said, Son, what I want you to see is that Daniel does not have his eyes on the lions.

He has them on God. That's one of the greatest sermons I've ever heard in all of my life. Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is fixed on God, not on the conflict, not on the conflictors, but on God himself. You can't beat that kind of peace. And so the last thing I want to talk about for just a moment is how do you experience it?

There is only one way, and I want you to listen carefully. Peace is a choice that I make. It isn't something I find. It is a choice that I make. It is a choice to accept Jesus Christ's death on the cross as payment for my sin and receive the person of Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. It's a choice I make. But here's what the choice demands.

The choice demands that I throw up the white flag of surrender. God, I surrender. I give up. I give up, Lord.

I quit. Now, let me tell you what that means. It means I must be willing for God to break my stubborn will. It means I must be willing to drop my pride. It means I must be willing to humble myself before God and tell him, Lord, you win. I give up. God, you win. I give up.

I quit. Did you know until you do that, you'll never know peace? As long as you insist on having your way, you'll never know peace. You know how to get his peace? You make a choice to accept his death on the cross as payment for your sin.

Surrender your life. Your will and all that you are to the person of Jesus Christ and receive by faith Christ and with him comes the peace. Listen, he said, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. He'll be in you, with you and upon you.

And listen to what he says. The fruit of the Spirit is what? The fruit of the Spirit, that is what he produces, not what we produce. Like a fountain on the inside of you, he says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, what? Peace. It isn't something you get. It is something you experience from one who lives on the inside of you.

Now, listen carefully. On the inside of you, my friend, in the person of Jesus Christ, and here's what happens. When you receive Christ, not only you have peace with God, but you have the peace of God.

And you know what begins to happen? You begin to have peace with yourself. And you're able to walk in a peace that surpasses all human understanding. But remember what we said, peace is a choice that you make. It is a choice to receive Christ.

Listen carefully. It is a daily choice to walk with him and to obey him. That is the source of all true, genuine peace.

What do the prophets say of him? Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And I want to ask you, my friend, in this Christmas season, will you not accept into your life the Prince of Peace and experience forever what God came to give you? Thank you for listening to part two of The Peace Christ Offers at His Coming. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.