Peace! Beautiful Peace!
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. Whether you are joining us online or you are here in person we are so thankful and blessed that you would be here with us this morning. Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Romans 5, Romans 5. We’re in our fourth week of the Advent season and thus far we’ve really scaled to the utter heights of the human experience. As Kyle so ably reminded us last week the Advent season is both a celebration and remembrance of Christ’s initial incarnation on earth and it is also a time for us to look forward to the glorious return that He has promised us.
And so we’ve really spent the last few weeks looking at the heights of the human experience - in fact as I was studying for this sermon and that truth came out to me I thought that maybe we should have titled this series “The Highs of Humanity” but then I remembered where we live and that that title might be taken out of context. Nonetheless, that is what we have been looking at. During the first week we looked at arguably the second highest emotion that a human can have in hope - and we’ll look at the highest emotion a human can experience on Christmas Eve when we culminate this series by looking at love. Then we looked at the highest attribute a human can demonstrate in the attribute of faith. The ability to trust in something we can’t see but intuitively know is true and to operate out of that belief as we navigate our daily lives. We looked last week at the highest human condition that a man or woman can live in - that being the condition of a joyful life, despite the circumstances surrounding our lives we as Christians are called to exude and live in the condition of joy.
This week we come to the highest human desire of peace. Peace is a rare commodity in our world. In fact, in all of human history only 8% of recorded human history has been peaceful. In over 3,100 years, only 286 have been warless and 8,000 treaties have been broken in this time. This may be cliche but there also hasn’t been a single beauty pageant in the history of the world in which one participant didn’t express the desire to achieve world peace. Political platforms used to be built on it and political reputations were made by it. Who can forget Ronald Regan’s impassioned statement “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall” as he sought to bring an end to the Cold War and peace to the world.
But there is something missing in the statistics and desires and speeches. It is a failure to acknowledge that in fact the world has never been at peace and that even when human is at peace with other humans, there is a battle that still rages that is the one we really need a reprieve from, where we really need to find peace. And this is what the peace of Advent is all about so if you have your Bibles open to Romans 5 please look with me at verses 1 through 11. We will be focusing most of our time on verse 1 but I want to read all of this to give us some context for what Christ through Paul has to say to us this morning.
Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,
endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
We live in a day where there are many who are crying out peace, peace but there is no peace. But as we look at this passage this morning we’re going to find that peace is possible - and it’s not even that elusive. First though, we need to understand why we need peace. Only then can we understand how we have peace and with that understanding we’ll be able to discern what the implications are or what do we do with this peace.
Look back at this morning’s text with me and let’s understand the peace that God has provided for us.
Why We Need Peace
Why We Need Peace
Therefore - just stop right there. Circle the word. Let it marinate in your mind for a minute. Let the implications of this nine letter word wash over you - you see it is in the therefore that many of us lived and the majority of the world still lives. It is the therefore that sums up all of why we need peace. It is important for us this morning not to take these verses and think that it is the beginning of Paul’s thought and that he is simply declaring us righteous and peaceful. That is not the case. He has been building to this and the entirety of his discussion is summed up in the word therefore. But what has he been saying?
Keep your finger in chapter 5 and turn back with me to chapter 1. After a nice and friendly introduction and a beautiful statement regarding the righteous being saved by faith Paul switches his direction and begins a rather lengthy and comprehensive condemnation of all of humanity. He begins with the ungodly.
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.
There is a group of people who by their own desire suppress the truth and deny God despite the fact that creation reveals Him - and is being ordered by Him. In our day God is denied through the foolish ideology of evolution being foisted upon our children in school, through the concept of global warming that leads to teenagers being named the “person of the year” and through the continual push of the sexual revolution to force everyone to affirm their particular truth to the derision and complete denial of the created order of humanity.
Paul goes on in chapter 1 to talk more about that but what I specifically want us to see this morning is what he writes in Romans 1:29-32 as he describes the mindset of our world
They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.
The world - in their condition as God-haters - actually encourage and applaud the behaviors of others that are condemning them to death.
And lest we think that we are safe because of some perceived righteousness within ourselves Paul moves on to address those among his initial audience who felt the same way - that’s not me anymore.
There were those in the church of Rome and there are those in the church today who think that they are at peace with God because they have determined it to be that way. They keep all of the commands. They go to church. They give their 10%, read their Bible, they volunteer on holidays, they might even volunteer on days that aren’t holidays. They show up for every event - and yet look at Paul’s words to them
you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal?
You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob their temples?
You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
You see there’s no way that anyone can keep the law or obtain righteousness by their own actions. There are those who think that they can put God in their debt by acting according to His laws but with impure or immoral motives. They reveal themselves to the world daily by claiming the name but wearing it falsely and demonstrating through their actions that they never believed to begin with. And they bring reproach upon the name of God and validate for the world the way they feel and act.
Also in this group are those who, instead of seeking to attain peace with God, are simply content to reach more of a detente with Him. An agreement of sorts that says I’m good with you, you’re good with me and one day I’ll stand before you and we have this agreement but until that time I’m going to operate on my own standards but don’t ever forget we have this agreement. This analogy isn’t perfect but it’s much like the conditions that existed between Russian and Germany in the late 1930’s. The year was 1939 and the Nazi party reigned in Germany. All political signs demonstrated that Europe was headed towards another catastrophic war. That’s why it was a shock to the world when Germany and the Soviet Union - two diametrically opposed political and ideological systems - signed a non-aggression pact that neither would attack the other for 10 years. This ultimately allowed Germany to invade Poland unopposed and two years later, in 1941, to break the pact by invading Russia.
As I said, the analogy breaks down a bit because the circumstances aren’t quite the same - but many of us try and make a non-aggression pact with God, more of a mutual existence agreement. I acknowledge Your Son, and I’ll even agree that He died for my sins (what a bonus for me I get all the benefits and there’s no real cost to me there) but that’s about it, I’m going to continue to live my life and You go Your way. I know this mindset because it is how I tried to live much of my life until Christ brought me face to face with just how fragile life is and how But there is no such thing as a non-aggression pact with Christ, there is no partial agreement, there is no detente. Either you are fully at peace with Him or you are fully at war and a friend of the world. The apostle James writes it this way in James 4:4
You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.
Paul sums up this whole section in that well known section of Scripture Romans 3:21-26 where he leaves all men undone regardless of their station or condition in Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
This verse is the great equalizer because it leaves none innocent. No matter how you were raised, where you were born, what color your skin is, your gender, your iq, or any other factor in your life can prevent you from sinning and falling short of the glory of God. And the thing is when we live in the therefore we would have it no other way. We really don’t want God and are happy to be at war with Him. Kyle made a profound statement last week saying that God will give us “the punishment we desire” - when we live here we don’t desire peace with God because we don’t want to submit to what that requires of us.
Now I’m sure there are some here this morning, or maybe watching online, who are thinking “This is not a Christmas sermon. How can you stand up there and preach this on Christmas Sunday of all Sundays. This is supposed to be an uplifting morning full of manger scenes and shepherds and gloria in excelsis deo.” Yet there are some today who are here who I would provide a grave disservice to if I glossed over their condition and allowed them to leave this place thinking they were at peace with God. There are some here today who are living in this “Therefore” and their eternal souls are in severe peril. It is because of them that I cannot, I will not merely skip over the depth and gravity of this therefore.
There may even be some here today who think they are beyond this therefore but in reality are trying to live on a moment in time, a moment in which they attempted to reach a detente with God and who need to hear that peace has not been declared in their lives and that hostilities still exist. That
But - and that is one of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture because as much woe and gloom as is found in the therefore, there is glorious hope found in the but. The but is significant because the glorious truth is that this therefore is not the end and there is more to the truths of this passage and the hope, joy and yes peace that it contains. It comes in the form of two declarations that we’re going to look at now.
How We Have Peace
How We Have Peace
Paul makes two successive declarations that build on one another that demonstrate our condition as Christians - we have been declared righteous by faith and as a result of that peace has been declared in the war that existed between God and man. Neither of these are dependent on the individual but instead are declarations of God - it is His righteousness that is a result of the faith that He gives us. It is He who declares that we are at peace. And all of this is made possible by the life and death of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. As we celebrate this first advent of Christ we must, and we haven’t, ever get far away from the truth that His advent is the precursor to the salvation event that would end His life and was His sole reason for coming.
This peace was promised by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 32:17
The result of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.
And it is the reason that the seed of David promised in Isaiah 9 would be called the Prince of Peace
For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.
And oh what a peace we has been declared. This isn’t the mere peace of mind that something has changed although that is a factor or a byproduct of the peace that we find here. This peace is solely concerned with the cessation of the hostile condition that exists between God and the sinner. James Montgomery Boice said it this way
We have been at war with God and he with us, because of our sin, and that peace has nevertheless been provided for us by God—if we have been justified through faith in Jesus Christ.
The other beauty of this peace is that this peace is comprehensive and life changing. Unlike treaties or peace agreements in our world where the combatants retreat beyond different borders we are ushered into the very family of the One we were at war with. Nor are we simply made like prisoners of war - because in a sense peace now exists between the prisoner and the capturing nation.
So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,
You could add there that you are no longer foreigners, strangers or enemies. In fact earlier in that same chapter Paul says
He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Nor are we simply made like prisoners of war - because in a sense peace now exists between the prisoner and the capturing nation. We’re not like the soldiers in the Civil War who, after being captured would be subjected to the streams of citizens from both Washington and Richmond who would stream out to the prisoner of war camps to get a glimpse of the opposing side. We are not on display as trophies of God’s might but of His kindness.
Recognize here also that not only have hostilities ceased but we have been raised up and seated with Christ in heaven. This is assurance and a truth that is for both the now and the not yet. Paul doesn’t say that we will be or that we might be - he makes the definitive statement that we are raised with Christ and seated with Him in Heaven. What a glorious peace declaration this is.
And yet what an odd declaration this is. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. What an odd manner to bring about peace. Normally hostile intent is met with greater force and the mightier opponent wins and having won dictates terms of peace. But what could be more weak, what could be more vulnerable than a baby. And yet at His very birth the angels sang
Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:
Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!
Again this is not a future condition but a here and now reality. Peace wont exist someday but it exists now because the One who would bring it to pass has come. This condition of peace was ushered in the moment Christ was born. And it is a reality for those who place their faith in Him today. It was ushered in by the weakness of a baby and it was sealed by the perceived weakness of a broken man bleeding and dying a criminals death on a Roman cross. This peace is unlike any other peace declaration in the history of mankind because the victor humbles himself and bears all the reproach necessary to achieve peace. It is so unlike anything that we would devise that the Bible calls this plan foolishness
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.
All of Christ’s life was steeped in the seeming foolishness of this plan - born a baby not to the powerful or wise but to a carpenter and a young girl from a backwater town in the corner of Galilee rather than in the palaces of Jerusalem. His teaching ministry spanned the entire country of Israel with banquets thrown in His honor and thousands would chase after Him yet at His death He was abandoned by all and His scattered followers numbered only 120.
This is decidedly not the plan that we would put together for peace and yet there it is - our peace is purchased through the shed blood of the Son of God. The Prince of Peace. The Holy One. The Great I Am. The God made man - who was truly God and truly man. Who willingly subjected Himself to make payment for our sins. Who became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
And it is through Him that our warlike state, our hostile condition and predisposition toward God is overcome and we can have peace. But again it doesn’t stop there - this is a peace that has further implications than simply the cessation of hostilities.
What Do We Do With This Peace?
What Do We Do With This Peace?
What are the implications to this peace? And how should it impact us during this Christmas season? Paul lays out some of the implications for us here in the text
And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,
endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
We know with certainty that we will face afflictions. Because here is the thing - the peace that we have with God necessarily means that we are now at war with the world. It means that we will live counter to everything the world stands for. And this should be no surprise to us - Christ promised us that this would be so
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.
and again in John 15:20
Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
Later in his epistle to his young protege Timothy Paul would write
In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Charles Spurgeon in his inimitable style put it this way
2009I hear poor souls crying, “I do believe, but I do not enjoy peace.” I think I can tell you how it is. You make a mistake as to what this peace is. You say, “I am so dreadfully tempted. Sometimes I am drawn this way and sometimes the other, and the devil never lets me alone.” Did you ever read in the Bible that you were to have peace with the devil? Look at the text: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.”
Now the idea of afflictions may not sound like something positive. But here’s the point - not only will we face trials but when we do we no longer face them alone or in our own strength. So much angst and anxiousness in the Christian life would be alleviated if we simply remembered three things. The first is that when we face trials we have a Helper who was promised us by Christ who would experience the trial with us and enable us to withstand whatever comes against us. The second is that God is still sovereign and whatever we are facing is being allowed in His providence to teach, discipline or demonstrate some other facet of His love for us as His children. When Paul requested that the thorn in his side be removed do you recall God’s answer to him?
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.
The third is that, even if this life is taken from us, this is not the end. That as a result of the peace this passage lays out for us we have a future home in Heaven with Christ. It is through this peace that we can have the hope that one day, whether it is when Christ returns or when He calls you home, that your reconciliation will be complete when you stand before Him face to face and are pronounced not guilty. This is the promise made at the end of the passage we read this morning
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
This fact, that hostilities have ceased and we can rest in the assurance of our salvation provided for by Christ’s blood is the culmination of the promise that Paul delivers for us in Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
And that is the sweetest gift - that we or those we love can experience. The highest human desire is peace and it is only found in the person of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Do you have that peace this morning?