It is a real joy for my wife and me to be here with you, brothers and sisters, and to share these few days that we have had. It really is so good of the Lord to arrange our schedules so that we can come by and have fellowship with the people of God here in Richmond.
This morning, I would like for us to read together, as a beginning place, in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 4. We would like to begin reading in verse 6.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.
The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.
Let us pray together, please.
Father, it has been a rich experience this morning to be gathered with Your people in the name of Your Son, and to be gathered at that table once again. Lord, how we bless You that You knew how desperately we needed times to come to that table and to be reminded again and again of the wonderful work of our Lord Jesus on Calvary, and to be reminded again of all that is ours in Him.
So we do thank You that the Holy Spirit was here to enable us to release from our hearts the thanks, the praise, and the worship that He alone is worthy of. We thank You for this time that we have already had. May it be something that will set a tone for this entire week of our lives.
And now we come, Lord, to this time when we look into Your Word. We want to commit ourselves fully into Your hands. We acknowledge that by ourselves we are totally incapable of doing any of Your work.
And so we trust this morning that Your Holy Spirit will come and enable us, both for speaking and for listening, so that the word You would speak to us today would be Your word from Your heart to our hearts. We commit our lives into Your hands and trust that the Holy Spirit of God will cause life to come in such a full measure that all that happens during our time will be to the glory and praise of our wonderful God. In Jesus’ name, amen.
In verse 9 of the verses that we have read, Paul says, “And the God of peace shall be with you.” Our God is a God of peace.
It is good, I think, for us to remember that within the Godhead—that is, between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—there is perfect peace. It really is in the heart of God that the peace which exists within the Godhead would also be the experience of all of us.
The word peace in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word shalom. In the New Testament, the word is eirēnē, from which some women receive their name, Irene. Simply put, it means a harmonious wholeness—not just an absence of war or an absence of strife, but harmonious wholeness, in which there is a complete expression of the fullness of the situation or the person.
So, when we refer to God as a God of peace, we see that He really is One with whom there is harmonious wholeness. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit live in harmonious wholeness.
This wholeness that is in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is to be the experience of the children of God. Even in the midst of a situation that does not look very peaceful and is not very conducive to being harmoniously whole, it is really the desire of God that we, as His people, would come into an experience of knowing this harmonious wholeness.
When we speak about God being a God of peace, there are a couple of other dimensions that we need to mention as well. First of all, He is not only the God of peace, but we are to have peace with God. Then Paul also mentions in this passage that we can have the peace of God. The Scriptures further tell us that we have a ministry of peace, that we are to be engaged with God in the promotion of the peace that exists in Himself.
There are many Scriptures to which we could turn, but let us look at one in Isaiah 9. Our God, as the God of peace, is the source—the true source—of all real peace.
For a child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace.—Isaiah 9:6-7
Here Isaiah sets forth before us the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth as the Prince of Peace.
In Ephesians 2, Paul makes a wonderful statement in reference to our Lord Jesus Christ:
For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.
—Ephesians 2:14
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is our peace. Then, in John 14, our Lord Jesus spoke words to His disciples at a very critical time in their lives, because He was going to be leaving them.
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
—John 14:27
“My peace I give unto you.” That is, the peace that exists within the Godhead has now been given to us as those who are the redeemed of the Lord.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul writes:
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23
Notice Paul’s prayer: “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.” Part of his prayer is that we would experience peace by our spirit, soul, and body being in a harmonious whole because of the God of peace who is working within us.
It is God’s design that the peace which He experiences within the Godhead should also be our experience as His people.
It is wonderful that God has revealed Himself as the God of peace. It is also glorious news to know that you and I can be at peace with God. Look with me at Romans 5.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
—Romans 5:1
And then, in verse 10:
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 life.
—Romans 5:10
Here is this matter of not only knowing God as a God of peace, but being brought to a place where we are at peace with Him. We were enemies of God in our natural state. As members of the Adamic race, we are the enemies of God. We are children of wrath; we are sons of disobedience. We have acted in such a way as to make ourselves God’s enemy.
Now, He has never been our enemy, but we are His enemy. God desired very deeply that we would be brought into reconciliation with Himself, so that peace could be established between Himself and us. The enmity between us and Him would be removed, and we could move into a relationship of harmonious wholeness between Himself and ourselves.
The way Paul says this has happened is that we have been justified by faith. This word justification is a very important word for us as the people of God.
We were enemies. We were sinners. We were separated from God. We were outside the scope of God’s love and grace in terms of experiencing it, even though it was there. There was nothing that we could do on our own to reestablish this relationship with God. Being enemies, there was nothing we could do to somehow get ourselves back into experiencing this peace that God desires for every one of us to have.
God, knowing that, did something wonderful on our behalf. He justified us through the shed blood of His Son. God paid the full, complete, total price for the sins of the entire human race, including yours and mine.
Every sin we have ever committed, the sins that we now commit, and any sins we may commit in the future—those sins have been fully, totally, completely atoned for. We have been justified.
In the negative sense, justification means that everything written down against us—every sin we had ever committed, every charge that had been written down and registered—has been removed from us. The slate has been wiped clean. There is no record, brothers and sisters, of the sins that you and I have committed.
Now, we need to be careful. That does not give us liberty or license to be loose in our relationship to sin. But our Lord Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world. That once-for-all sacrifice by our Lord Jesus Christ paid the full atonement in reference to our sins.
This blood that Jesus shed on Calvary, through which we have been justified, first of all gives us a right standing before God. Every sin that we will ever involve ourselves in has been removed from us. As far as God is concerned, it is not merely that we have been forgiven; it is as if we had never sinned.
God looks upon us through the blood of His Son as if we had never committed any sin at all. It is not just a matter of removing the negative, but of giving us a wonderful standing, a wonderful place before Him.
Think about it, brothers and sisters. When God looks at you and me as His children, we know we are sinners. We know we have sinned; we know that we do it daily. But as far as our standing before God is concerned, it is as if we do not commit sin.
That does not mean that the Holy Spirit does not deal with us, discipline us, and bring us to the place of facing up to these sins and dealing seriously with them. But as far as God is concerned, He has made peace with us. He has reconciled us to Himself in Christ Jesus so that we can now be at peace with God.
I think it would be a wonderful thing if we, as God’s people, would learn how to live in the full good of that. Too many of us continually suffer under the cloud of guilt regarding our sins. Somehow, we feel that if we really feel sorry, and feel sorry long enough, somehow this will touch God’s heart.
Brothers and sisters, the only thing that touches the heart of God in reference to our sin is the shed blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That has already been shed. It has already been taken into the very Holy of Holies before God Himself, sprinkled there on the mercy seat. It is there, and it cries out louder than the blood of Abel, declaring to God that our sins are totally eliminated in His sight.
The blood of Jesus Christ also has a very important part to play in our lives. Many times, after somehow accepting the fact that God can forgive us, some of us have a real problem forgiving ourselves. We continue to let these things roll around inside our minds, and it negatively affects us. It hinders us from entering into the peace established for us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember a number of years ago an older saint of the Lord sharing some things with me. She was then in her eighties. She told me, “Ernie, I made a very serious mistake early in my life as a mother. I committed a very grievous sin in that I treated one of my children differently than I treated the others. I made him a pet, and I paid special favors to him.”
She said to me, “You know what I have done from the day that I recognized that I had done wrong? Every night of my life, I ask God to forgive me.”
Now, that sounds so spiritual, so wonderful, so religious. But you know what it was? It was a lack of understanding that when she confessed the first time, it was totally forgiven. Many of us, as God’s people, still approach this matter from that perspective and thus do not know, in reality, the peace that we have with God. Our own conscience condemns us when God does not.
We allow thoughts that come into our minds to rob us of this peace that is ours because of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus on Calvary.
There is another very important way in which this blood is valuable to us. Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him.” That is, they overcame the accuser of the brethren.
We have an enemy who is God’s enemy. He will do everything within his power to keep you and me from fully appreciating all that was wrought for us on Calvary. If somehow he can keep us from really knowing the reality of the peace with God that is ours, he will do it. He will come and accuse us again and again and again.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.
—Revelation 12:11
Suppose that you owed someone money, but it had been paid back—someone else had actually paid it for you. In your hand, you have a piece of paper with the IOU on it, and in big, bold letters it says, “Paid in full.” Yet they keep knocking on your door and insisting that you pay. What should you do? Show them the piece of paper on which is written, “Paid in full.”
When the enemy comes to you as one of God’s dear children and seeks to confuse you regarding this matter of being at peace with God, magnifying the things you have done wrong in the past, pull out that piece of paper and say to him, “Paid in full. It has been fully atoned for.”
Every sin, when we confess it, acknowledge it before God, and accept the atonement which Jesus made, is once for all forgiven and forgotten. When you start confessing it again to God, God does not even know what you are talking about. He has forgotten your sin.
So, brothers and sisters, it is good, since He forgets, that we also forget. Do not allow anybody else, including our arch-enemy, to accuse us of that which God has forgiven.
Our great God, who is a God of peace, has through the finished work of His Son brought about a peace treaty between us and Himself. All He requires is that we sign our name on the contract. He has done it all, and all we have to do by faith is appropriate it for ourselves.
May it be that we, by faith, would really enter into the reality of having been justified by our God through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then, brothers and sisters, there is this matter of us having the peace of God. It is wonderful to know that we are at peace with Him, but God is not satisfied there. We might be, but He is not. He wants you and me to come into a rich experience of knowing the peace that He Himself has.
In the Philippians passage that we read earlier, the apostle says:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
—Philippians 4:6-7
Brothers and sisters, we need to listen to this exhortation from the apostle Paul. We also need to go back to Matthew 6 and hear the exhortation of our Lord Jesus: “Do not be anxious for anything.”
There are two things that seem to be tremendous hindrances to us knowing the reality of the peace of God. One is anxiety, and the second is fear.
Can you imagine what difference it would make in our lives as the people of God if we were free from all guilt through having been justified, free of all anxiety, and free of all fear? Do you think it would make any difference in our lives?
To have the peace of God means exactly that: you are at peace with Him because of the finished work of His Son. Having been justified, the issue of sin and guilt has been removed. It also means knowing that it is possible for you and me to be free from the kind of anxiety and fear that is such a great detriment to most of us as God’s people.
Let us think for a few moments about this matter of anxiety. “Do not worry” is really what it means. Do not worry.
Let us return to Matthew 6 and look at the words of our Lord Jesus in their context.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his lifespan?
And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.
But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?
Do not be anxious then, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “With what shall we clothe ourselves?” For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek;