Peace!

Believer, do you have a sense of peace today? What do you dwell on? What do you feed your mind on? What do you mull over?

What do you listen to and what do you read? Is it true? Is it honorable? Is it pure? Is it holy? Is it lovely?

Is it gracious? In other words, when you surrender to the Holy Spirit's control in your life, things, qualities, grow inside of you and eventually surface. And one of those qualities that surfaces in the surrendered life is peace. We use the word peace in a lot of different ways, don't we? We talk about having peace of mind. At night, we hope for a peaceful night's sleep.

When children are boisterous, we long for a little peace and quiet. When we're watching the evening news, we pray for peace in war-torn parts of the world. There are so many kinds of peace we're all longing for. But as Christians, there's a particular kind of peace that matters most. Peace with God. Do you have it?

Do you even know what it is? This is wisdom for the heart. Today, Stephen Davey brings to a close his series out of Romans 1 called Gospel Truth. You're going to learn what it means to have peace with God. Now, here's Stephen with today's Bible message. In his introductory remarks, Paul has delivered a summary of nothing less than the gospel truth. He describes the inheritance as he concludes, to those who have chosen the Son to those who have been chosen by the Son. He concludes his salutation by writing in verse 7 of Romans 1, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, you cannot have this inheritance that he speaks of unless you have what Paul implies that you have. In the last phrase of verse 7, he refers to God as your Father and Jesus Christ as your Lord.

Try as hard as you like. Your life will not be characterized by grace and peace unless you have a living, intimate, active relationship with God as your Father and an obedient, submissive, surrendered life with Jesus Christ as your Lord. Now, the words grace and peace are an interesting combination on the part of Paul. The word grace, charis, or another form, kirete, was a common greeting among the Greeks, translated grace. And the Hebrew, shalom, here the Greek counterpart, eirene, or peace, was the typical Jewish or Hebrew greeting. And so what Paul has done is combined the two and thus he properly greets both the Gentile and Jewish members of the church in Rome.

But these words convey so much more than a casual greeting, do they not? Today, we explore eight different contexts in which the word peace appears and what those eight differing contexts have to teach us today. First of all, peace is something that the world does not have. Twice, Isaiah quotes the Lord saying, there is no peace for the wicked.

In Isaiah 57, 20, but the wicked are like troubled sea for it cannot be still or quiet and its waters toss up refuse and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. The world can simply not arrive at a state of peace. In fact, I have read that in the last 5,000 years, there have been at least 14,000 wars. In the last 400 years alone, the Western world has entered into more than 8,000 peace treaties. And the life expectancy of a peace treaty in the Western world is just a little bit less than two years.

Peace, one author wrote tongue in cheek, is that glorious moment when everyone stands around reloading. Jesus Christ is the prince of peace. Today, people want peace without the prince.

But apart from the prince, the world will never have peace. Donald Gray Barnhouse wrote men may be able to create alliances among a few states which are drawn together by common need or common greed. But a real unity among peoples is not possible in this world of sin and rebellion where men wish to exalt themselves above the creator of the universe.

He wrote this some 50 years ago. If the United Nations could really succeed, man would cry out, move over God, get off your throne. We have succeeded in bringing peace to the earth and we do not need you anymore. Jeremiah decried the lack of peace in his own generation because people were attempting to ignore the word of God and disobey the living God. Listen as Jeremiah writes in chapter six, verse 10, behold, the ears of this people are closed and they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it for from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. In other words, Jeremiah is saying everybody in my generation among my people are consumed with greed.

They want more and they want even more. And those from the leadership on down are living deceitful lives. They are lying to one another.

They are deceiving each other and they are being deceived. He goes on in verse 14 to say they have healed the brokenness of my people superficially saying peace, peace, but there is no peace. They talk about peace, but they don't have it.

They might patch it together for a few weeks or a few months, but it never lasts. In the New Testament, it's interesting that during the early days of the tribulation after the church has been raptured to be with the Lord, the world is occupied with and enamored by the talk of peace. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 3 Paul wrote, while they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape.

That is at about the time they thought they finally had it, they didn't. My friends, the world with its greed and selfishness, its rebellion against God and rebellion against the word of God, they can have one peace summit after another. They can sign one peace accord after another, but they will never last. Peace comes only to the one who has knelt before his majesty and said, you be the prince of my heart. Then to that person, peace comes. Peace, secondly, is an attribute of God. Paul wrote later in Romans 15 verse 33, now the God of peace be with you all.

We call this one of the moral attributes of God, peace. In Ephesians 2, 14, Paul is speaking of Jesus Christ by saying, for he himself is our peace, who has made both groups into one, that is the Gentile and the Jew. He's made them into one, breaking down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by having put to death the enmity. In other words, you can only have peace when you come to the cross, where the peace treaty, as it were, was signed between God the Father, who represented all that was holy, and God the Son, who on behalf of sinful mankind represented all that was evil and all that was sinful. So the son representing humanity died, therefore he embodied that peace treaty. You could say that the peace treaty was signed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And those who come to the son have peace with God.

They are no longer the enemy of God, and God is no longer their enemy. One of the reasons why, number three, peace is also a description of the gospel. The gospel is simply the declaration that the peace treaty has been signed at Calvary between God and man, and those who come and place their faith in the blood of this slain lamb can have the full benefit of that peace treaty.

But those who ignore the son, they will never have peace in their lives, in the deepest resources of their heart, and their world will never experience peace. So every believer is to spread the news of the gospel. It is the gospel of peace.

In fact, part of our clothing, Paul told us in Ephesians 6.15, is to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The gospel is the gospel of peace. This peace then, number four, is something you receive at salvation. This is a position, positional truth that you practice as we've talked about grace and other things as well, faith and obedience. Paul wrote in chapter five, verse one, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In Colossians chapter one, Paul wrote, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness of deity to dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

Through him, I say, whether things on earth are things in heaven, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Listen, my friends, the average person might think that they can assume some neutral position before God. In fact, the average evangelistic approach to people, at least in our country, says, you know, you ought to try Christ. You ought to try God.

You try all this other stuff, and what you really ought to do is give God a try. My friends, that's not the gospel. That's a slick sales job that ignores the fact that they are in perilous danger because they are, according to the scripture, the enemy of God, whether they want to think of it that way or not. And to die without Jesus Christ means that you face the wrath of an eternal God for all of eternity because you refuse the peace treaty that his son brought about in his death. We go about and we declare the gospel that people are at enmity with God. They need to sign the peace treaty in the person of Jesus Christ, and if they don't, they're in serious trouble. Whatever happened to the gospel presentation of an Englishman like Jonathan Edwards who once preached a hundred years ago a sermon entitled, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

Try that approach out on the street and see how far you get. This is the urgency of the apostle Paul who said that he was under compulsion to preach, that he had to preach to every Gentile the message of this gospel. He said that people come to faith by hearing and hearing by the word of God, but how will they ever hear without a preacher, without a messenger, without someone who has on his or her feet shod for the preparation of the gospel of peace? Who will tell them that the peace treaty has been made available to all?

That is the urgency in our hearts for a world that is in desperate trouble before our God. I remember years ago, I was probably about in junior high, my family and I made our annual summer trip to Minnesota, the place of our forefathers. And as we went, we would stop sort of zigzagging here and there and visit homes and churches that supported my missionary family. So my four brothers and I were told, of course, to behave lest my parents lose support. And so we would go along and we would sit and try not to misbehave too much.

Typically, we'd find something to do outdoors, a bicycle or a basketball goal or an empty can we could kick around. But for whatever reason, I still remember being at this one home, a home of an elderly couple, and they had their aged father who was probably in his 90s. They had him with them, perhaps living out the rest of his days there in as comfortable an environment as they could make.

And he was sitting in a chair and I can remember he had a blanket wrapped around his lower body and his chin was on his chest as if he were resting. For whatever reason, I don't remember what, we were in the living room with my family and so we were sitting there listening. And I imagine that somewhere before this conversation took place, this couple had pulled my dad aside and said, you know, we're not sure if our dad is saved.

Would you say something? And so I'm sure that was in my father's mind. And we sat there in the living room and talked. Well, they talked and we listened. And eventually my dad picked up his chair and he moved it closer to this gentleman facing him. And he said a little louder than normal. This man was a little hard of hearing. Sir, I can remember him saying, if you died today, do you know for sure you'd go to be with the Lord in heaven?

And I remember that man with his head bowed. I didn't know he heard if he heard my father or not, but he was, I suppose, contemplating. And eventually he raised his head and he looked at my father and he said, no, I don't know. My father began to share the gospel with him. I don't remember his exact words, but he shared the gospel that was freely given to mankind. And I remember with urgency, he was sharing the gospel and I was listening as well as my brothers attentively to this discussion. And eventually my father said, do you understand what I have been telling you?

He nodded yes. And he asked him, would you like to at this very moment pray and receive this Jesus Christ as your own personal redeemer and savior? And I remember his head was bowed for the longest of moments. Finally, he raised his head and he looked at my father and he said, I don't believe I will.

I remember being floored. This man had such little time to live and he just turned down that which would give him eternal life. I thought, well, my dad gave it his best shot, presented the gospel.

He evidently doesn't want it. My dad got up, took his chair and he moved it right next to the man. And he sat down and started over.

It wasn't as if the man could go anywhere. And with urgency that I still remember to this day, he again shared the gospel, not rudely, but with passion, knowing that he was talking to someone who had very few chances left. And he got to the end of it and he said, sir, will you receive Christ as your personal savior? And I remember we were all holding our breath. He sat there for the longest time and I can still remember it as if it were today. He looked up and he said to my father, I believe I will. And I had tears coming down my cheeks and didn't want anybody to know it.

And I excused myself as quickly as I could. And I remember going out thinking that a man has just been rescued. Do you know that's why we're still here? Why upon salvation, God didn't just take us home. We are to deliver this, this peace message with great urgency because people are in trouble with God. John chapter 3 says that they are condemned already. That's why there's true evangelism and urgency combined.

And I stand today as a warning to perhaps someone here. The opposite of peace with God is not just some fitful night's sleep or some case of indigestion. The opposite of peace with God is the wrath of God that you will bear forever unless you come by faith alone to the savior who has signed the treaty and all you have to do is claim it by trusting in his shed blood. And when you do, you come to the peace giver, the peace maker, the embodiment of the peace treaty between God and man. You receive this inheritance called peace. Now there are several contexts where I have found the word as it relates to the lives of believers.

Let me quickly give you them. Number five, peace is something independent of circumstances. It's not only positional truth but it's something that can be practiced.

But it is independent of circumstances. Isaiah the prophet said thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed, whose mind is fixed, whose mind is rooted on thee. See, peace is not at the mercy of outward pressure. Peace has to do with inward focus. Peace is not something you have when everything goes right. Peace is something that you can have when everything goes wrong.

Why? Because your mind is stayed on the unmovable rock who is our God. Paul wrote to the Romans, grace to you and peace. Frankly I think that's the oddest choice of words at first reading. Peace, he's writing Romans.

He's writing believers living in the capital city that was filled with unrest. Already Nero had begun to show his true colors. He had poisoned Britannica as a threat to his throne. He had already brutally murdered his mother. He had already married and divorced and murdered his first wife. He had already formed a brigade of ruffians and they would travel the streets of Rome at night not dressed in his regal bearings so no one could recognize him and they'd visit the brothels and the bars and they'd pick fights with ordinary common people. In fact on one occasion Nero attacked a woman not knowing that she was the wife of one of his own senators. The senator was there and jumped into the fray and defended his wife and beat Nero up. Nero laid low in the palace because of his bruises and his black eyes and he wondered if the senator had known it was him. He thought he wouldn't make it public or he wouldn't say anything because then that would reveal his own embarrassment but that senator had recognized Nero somewhere during that brawl and decided his only hope was to send Nero which he did a secret letter of apology but that was his undoing because Nero knew now that it would be public and he had that man executed. This is the man that would light a fire and burn half of Rome to the ground because he wanted real estate to build his new home on. There wasn't any. Then he blamed it on the Christians and that began in the late 60's AD about seven or eight years after their reading this letter great persecution where Christians would be thrown as it were to the lions. You would think Paul would write something like grace to you and courage or grace to you and perseverance.

They would need that. No. No. Grace to you and peace.

Why? Because peace is not found in the absence of grief. It is found in the presence of God. Peace is something you experience when you fix your focus not on the storm around you but on the savior who is the prince of peace.

Furthermore number six peace is something that we are to invest in others. Romans 12 verse 18 says if possible so far as it depends on you be at peace with all men. I love the realism of Paul.

Now somebody who was trying to be spiritual a religious writer would have left off the first two words if possible not Paul. If it's possible as much as it depends upon you in other words you do everything you can do be at peace with all men. It's interesting he did not say let all men be at peace with you because maybe at work there is someone who is not at peace with you because of your stand.

Maybe there is someone living around you or sharing a dorm room with you or a co-worker who doesn't like you because they know you're a Christian and the presence of you rubs them wrong without you ever saying anything. He doesn't say for all men to be at peace with you. He says for you to be at peace with all men if possible. He goes on to write in verse 19 never take your own revenge.

He assumed they would probably be thinking about such things for their enemies that weren't at peace with him but leave room for the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord but if your enemy is hungry feed him. If he is thirsty give him a drink for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head. Now you might like that burning coals part.

That sounds even better than revenge doesn't it? The only trouble is we don't understand this phrase because our culture is so different. Paul is referring here to an enemy whose fire has gone out and he has to start all over. Somebody didn't attend to the fire and in that day they can't cook unless they have a good hot bed of coals and and so what he's saying is that you're going to give him some hot coals from your fire so that he can quickly build his fire and cook so that he can eat. In other words he's saying when you do acts of kindness to your enemy Paul says it is like giving him a bucket of hot coals which he will carry home in a bucket or a pot on top of his head.

So Paul's point to them was it's hard for somebody to remain your enemy when you're in the process of helping them rebuild their fire. Paul wrote to the Corinthians brethren rejoice be made complete be comforted be like-minded live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you. Number seven peace is something that accompanies gratitude. In Colossians 3 15 Paul commanded not suggested he commanded let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and be thankful.

Present tense. Be currently ongoingly thankful it indicates a continual action pointing to a habit of life. Think about it in your own life is being thankful a continual action that points to a habit of life. Would believers who knew you well say of you he or she is such a grateful person. They're always thankful of the things that God has done for them and given to them or would you be known for complaining and whining. My strength is never strong enough my health is never good enough my life is never good enough the weather is never pleasant enough people are never kind enough your paycheck is never big enough and so you complain and you complain and you complain and you grape and you grape and you grape and you grape and you grape.

This is a little too convicting let's move on here. To the Philippians he wrote the same thing with different words be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God in other words you pray with a context and within the context of thanksgiving. Trench wrote in his book on synonyms thanksgiving is that element which should never be absent from your devotions and what happens when thanksgiving is a constant element of your devotions. The next verse in the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus in other words peace is experienced in the lives of those who express thanksgiving. Finally number eight peace is something you surrender to learn. It isn't something automatic peace with God is that's the position living surrounded by the sense of peace is something that you have to learn and you learn by surrendering Galatians five now the deeds of the flesh are evident he's going to give you a list of things that do not bring peace my friends immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmities strife jealousy outbursts of anger disputes dissensions factions envying drunkenness carousing and things like these but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace love joy and peace now what does it mean when it says it's the fruit of the spirit it means that which grows in you by virtue of your submission to the Holy Spirit in other words when you surrender to the Holy Spirit's control in your life things qualities grow inside of you and eventually surface and one of those qualities that surfaces in the surrendered life is peace Paul said again finally brethren whatever is true here's how you learn it whatever is honorable whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is gracious if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise dwell on these things the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and then the God of peace will be evident to you believer do you have a sense of peace today what do you dwell on what do you feed your mind on what do you mull over what do you listen to and what do you read is it true is it honorable is it pure is it holy is it lovely is it gracious believer do you lack a sense of God's peace what do you practice what is your lifestyle is it one of that which is honorable and true and right and pure and lovely and gracious he says if you dwell on these things and if you practice these things you will sense not only the pleasure of God you will sense the peace of God so when you surrender to God's spirit you sense God's presence let me summarize all of the context in which we have rapidly read through talked about with four statements number one you have peace with God through Christ that's a fact secondly you have peace from God through obedience that's feeling third you have peace within through mental and spiritual discipline that's the fruit you have peace with each other through humility that's our fellowship that was steven davian this is wisdom for the heart this message is called peace i hope today's time in God's word has helped you understand the peace that God offers you through Christ if you know someone who could benefit from hearing this message please share it with them and encourage them to join you in listening this was the final message in steven's teaching series entitled gospel truth we've taken this series and put it together as a set of cds if you'd like this resource in your library give us a call at 866-48-bible and we can help you create bible then join us next time on wisdom for the heart you