Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, December 2nd.
Is there turmoil in your life? Today's podcast begins a series of messages that can guide you in search of peace. Let's start by learning to tap into the source of peace. No one else is the source of peace but Almighty God. He's the source of peace. He created you and me for relationship with Him. He created us to love us and to be loved by us. He created to have fellowship with us, to be good to us, to provide for us, to protect us, to preserve us. He created us to have eternal fellowship with us. And until we have made our peace with God, until there's a reconciliation, until there is a uniting, until there's a oneness and a harmony, no matter what you have in life, who you have, where you go, what you control, what your purpose, what your plan, what your goal is, until you have peace with God, you will always have an emptiness in your heart you cannot explain. What I want to do in this message is simply to do this.
I want to tell you where to find it and I want to tell you how to find it. And if you listen carefully, when this message is over, you will not be the same person with the same condition, with the same attitude, with the same position that you're in at this moment. God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, will transform your life. And what has been war going on in the inside of you like a civil war will all come to a close. And you will have thrown up the white flag of surrender. And for the first time in your life, you will understand what it means to have peace with God. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five.
The apostle Paul has been talking about man's hopeless, helpless, sinful, lonely condition for four chapters. And then when he comes to this fifth chapter, he begins it with the word therefore, which means based on everything that he had written before, he says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now, one of the reasons that many people, most people, in fact, everyone who really does not have peace with God, the primary reason is they don't understand where you find it, how to get it, don't even understand that they can have it. So let's talk about what this peace is for a moment. Peace with God means that you and the Lord are in harmony with each other. You have a sense of oneness with Him.
There is a unity with Him. There is no war, no consternation, no fighting. You see, the truth is, until you and I recognize that there is a barrier between us and God, a barrier until it is removed by a change in the heart and life of a human being, until there is a change that takes place, you will never have peace with God. Because you see, peace with God is the heart and the core and the foundation of all peace that you and I have. You can never have peace with yourself, with others. You'll never have peace about how you feel about yourself, about the way you relate to other people, the way you see them, until there is a genuine peace in your heart with God.
So as you think about your own heart, would you be able to say, I have peace with God? At some point back there in your life, you threw up the white flag of surrender and said, I surrender, Lord. No more fighting, no more hostility towards you, no more unbelief and doubt and rationalization and all the rest.
I give up. I want to be the person you want me to be. I'm willing to fall into your plan, willing to follow your leadership, willing for you to have your purpose in my life, willing for you to fulfill that purpose, willing for you to have it your way until you come to the place of full surrender of your life to Him. You will never discover the peace that you're looking for no matter where you look, with whom you look, what you possess, how long you possess it.
It will not happen. That is not my opinion. It is the simple Word of God.
Listen to what He said. He says, therefore, in this fifth chapter, having been justified, listen, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So I want us to think about for just a moment what this barrier is. And I want you to think about it very simply.
Let's think in terms, first of all, what is it that creates this barrier? Well, let's think about the character of God for a moment. Because you see, God created you and me to have a relationship with Him, an intimate relationship where He could express His love and goodness and mercy and kindness towards us. So who is this God that created us? This God is a God of love and peace and gentleness and kindness. He is a God of grace and goodness and love. He's a God who is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. He is a God of justice.
He is a judge. He is a God who is righteous. He is a God who is holy. He is a God who hates sin at the same time He loves the sinner. You've not heard me say that God hates sinners. He hates sin. Why does He hate sin? He hates sin for the simple reason He understands fully its horrible, destructive impact on the life of His children. Therefore, God hates it. He judges it. He condemns it. And when people choose to live in sin, rebel against God, choose to walk away from God, ignore God, they suffer the consequences of it.
Because God condemns sin, He is a God who will judge all of humanity, there will be a judgment. So here's this righteous, holy God who has given His best when He gave His Son in order that you and I would recognize His love and goodness and mercy. In fact, in the first chapter of Romans, He talks about how God has revealed Himself to us. And how He's revealed His love in all the creation and all the good things that He sends our way. Now with that in mind, let's look at the character of man.
Because here is man. And man is a sinful human being with a sinful, fallen nature who by his own nature rebelled against God, chooses willfully to sin against God, rationalizes away the very idea that there is a God, denies God His rightful place in His life. Here is one who is hostile toward God, sometimes angry with God, separated from God, blinded to God. A person who has chosen to willfully sin against God, to turn away from Him, to walk away from Him.
A person who has chosen to have it his own way, live life according to their own purposes and plans, and absolutely shut God out of their life. There is no possibility, apart from a work of God in your heart, that you'll ever be able to have peace with God. And until you have peace with God, you're not going to ever be able to experience peace with yourself or with others. Because peace with God is the foundation.
So here's the problem. How does sinful human being, how does sinful man in his unbelief and his unrighteousness, in his disobedience and rebellion, in his hostility and anger toward God, how does he ever come to peace with God? Somebody says, well, now you know I can understand sin and I can understand the fact that I'm not being what I ought to be, but you're telling me that I'm an enemy of God? No, I'm not telling you that I'm just saying that's what God says about you. You say, well, I'm not against God.
Listen carefully. Romans chapter five, verse ten. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His light. The Bible says that you and I, until we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we're the enemies of God. I didn't say He was our enemy. We're His enemies.
Why? Because we're against His will, against His plan, rebelling against His personhood. And what are we doing? Sinning against Him. And so we fall in the category of enemies of the will and the purpose and the plan and the objectives of God. Now on this basis, think about this, His holy God, who's done everything in His awesome power to make us one of His children, in order to bless us and lift us up and encourage us and to make us the person He wants us to be and to help us to achieve all the things in life that He desires for us to achieve.
And here we are working against that. Listen, you work against yourself when you work against God. Listen, you're an enemy to yourself when you're an enemy toward God. So the conclusion is, with that in mind, turn back, if you will, to Isaiah chapter forty-eight and listen to what he says. I want you to look at two or three passages here in this forty-eighth chapter, forty-ninth, fifty-seven, fifty-ninth chapters.
Listen to what he says. The twenty-second verse of the forty-eighth chapter. Now this is what God says. There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord. Somebody says, well, but I'm not wicked. Well, what does it take to be wicked?
Does it mean that you're a thief or a murderer or an adulterer or whatever it might be? Usually we think of wicked people doing certain things. And in our society, it takes, it seems a lot more to be wicked in the eyes of people than God thinks. Here's the essence of wickedness.
Here's the most wicked thing you can do in life. To turn your back upon God. To deny the Lord Jesus Christ as His Son. And listen, to ignore God's call and to ignore God's love and to ignore God's attempts to save you from your sin, to change your life, to accept His love. To absolutely deny that willfully, willingly, deny God His place in your life is the most wicked thing you can do because, listen, it is the rejection of ultimate, eternal, unconditional love. Therefore, we do fall in the category of wicked.
Listen to what he says. He says, there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord. Look, if you will, in the fifty-seventh chapter. Beginning in verse twenty. But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet.
And its waters toss up refuse and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. And then, in the fifty-ninth chapter, in the eighth verse, says they don't even know the way of peace.
And so, when he says there is no peace for the wicked, notice what he says. He says their hearts are like the sea, ever churning, ever breaking upon the shore. And if you've ever stood upon a rocky shore, a rocky cliff and watched these high waves break in and twirl around and go back out and come back again, it's constant.
At no time on the clock does it absolutely stop still and there are never any waves, never any ripples. It is always tossing and turning in some parts of the world. It is so unceasingly violent. And you see, when people live without God, there's something always churning on the inside. And notice he says it throws up refuse. It throws up refuse and mud and that it cannot be quiet. Not may, but cannot be quiet. A heart that does not experience peace with God cannot be quiet.
Listen, there cannot be stillness. There cannot be contentment. There cannot be joy. There cannot be in life what you're looking for. No amount of security.
Listen, no amount of possessions, no amount of relationships, no matter what you try, it won't work. And that is exactly what people do. They look in every way possible trying to find some sort of answer to their consternation, the frustration, the anxiety, the storm.
And many people, if they describe their life, would have to say, my life is like a civil war. There's something going on inside of me. I'd like to make it quiet.
There's all kinds of ideas looking for the answer. God says there's no peace for the wicked. You say, I don't like you calling me wicked. I didn't call you wicked. God called you wicked.
And remember why He did. Because when you reject the offer, listen, the eternal offer of unconditional love that makes it possible for you to live in harmony with Almighty God for all eternity, to reject that willfully is an act of wickedness on your part. You may be acceptable in the eyes of others.
You may think you're something special. In the eyes of Almighty God, as much as He loves you, you are deemed wicked in His eyes, willing to forgive you, yes. Willing to save you, yes. Willing to turn you around, yes. Willing to give you peace, yes. But you're wicked until God's peace prevails in your heart.
So people do what? They say, well, I think there's certainly a way for me to find peace in my life. If I change my vocation, I am sure that will give me peace because that's the problem. Change your vocation and you may be excited for a while, but there's no peace.
Some people say, well, I just need another marriage partner. If I just get out of this marriage and get myself into another one, a good one next time, I will have peace. Only to discover you jumped out of the frying pan into the fire because you don't find any peace there either. Well, somebody says, well, if we can just have children, then we'll have peace. You don't understand what it means to raise godly children in a wicked world. So when I look at the Scripture and I think about all the things that people, people say, well, you know, if I had more time just pleasing myself and taking care of myself, then I would have peace. No, you just think about all the people in the world who have lots and lots of money, who spend all the time they want to own themselves. And you know what, listen, you can patch up the outside till the day you die.
It will not change the inside. We're talking about the condition of the heart. We're talking about a change that only God can bring about. And some people have the idea and probably most people. Well, if I just had more money, if I had the security that I want, I am sure I would have peace.
Without Jesus Christ, you can not experience peace with God. And people will try anything and everything. And here's the tragedy. You see, when you're looking for something and you're looking in the wrong direction, and you head in that direction, the longer you go in that direction, the deeper into your bondage you move until finally, listen, this is why an alcoholic starts with somebody and says, there's nothing wrong with one drink. What about two? Well, there certainly couldn't be anything wrong with two. Two never hurt anybody. What about four? It's just four, five, ten, twenty, fifty, and you're an alcoholic.
Why? Because you had to have a little bit more to quieten the storm in your life. You see, maybe at first a little bit helped you forget. Listen, it didn't bring you peace. It helped you forget the intensity of the storm. But you see, the more of it you drink, or whatever it may be, drugs or whatever it might be, the more you have, the more you've got to have, because you see, it doesn't quieten the storm.
And here's the deception of Satan. A little bit more will do it, and you try a little bit more. Well, that wasn't enough. A little bit more will do it, and so what happens? Before long, you're in chains and bondage, which you created in your pursuit of peace in the wrong direction. One more affair here, one more here, one more person, one more relationship, one more marriage, whatever it might be, just one more, one more, one more. You see, if you're looking in the wrong direction, it doesn't matter how many more you have of anything in life.
You have to find out what's the right direction. Where do you find peace? You only find peace with God through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. But people will live their entire life, and at the end of their life, they've never experienced a day of genuine peace. And they're still trying because they refuse to throw up the white flag of surrender to Almighty God. Listen, that is the ultimate surrender. But it is the wisest, ultimate decision you can make.
And the time to make that decision is when you are very young, not after you've spent your life, wasted your life, wrecked your life, looking at the, listen, all the ways the world has. Satan has deceived our society into believing that here's where you find happiness, here's where you find peace. Why don't they look at the accidents as a result of alcohol? Why don't they look at the broken lives and broken bodies as a result of sin and disobedience to God? Why don't they put those on the television? Why don't they parade those on the radio?
Why don't they put those in the magazines? Because Satan has blinded man's eyes to reality and truth. If you want peace with God, I'm about to tell you how to get it.
Not how I think you can, how I know you can. Because I've never met anybody who had real peace, who didn't get their peace from Almighty God through His Son, Jesus Christ. I've met a lot of people who put on a big front. But the longer I knew them, the more I realized they don't have any peace. This is a counterfeit, this is a cover-up, this is a camouflage. Real, genuine peace is a gift from God. It isn't something you work up. It isn't something you manipulate. Peace is a gift from God.
It is not the result of your effort. It's the result of the effect of Christ living His life in and through your life. That is what provides peace in a person's life. Thank you for listening to The Source of Peace. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And 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.
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