Heavenly Peace

The United Nations has messengers of peace.

Messengers of peace. These are secret agents. They may even be a monk. No, I'm just joking. They're not secret agents.

But you can go to the United Nations website and you can look. They have messengers of peace.

One of these messengers of peace is Jane Goodall. I don't know if you remember her. I remember when

I was in third grade, there was this documentary. She lived just in close proximity with these chimpanzees.

So that's how I remember that name. But now she is around the age, I believe she's like 89, 90.

She's older. And she said that this is her message of peace to the world.

In a video that has surfaced in the last few years, she said the earth is overpopulated and she would like to, without pain or suffering, mind you, reduce the number of people in the world today.

That's the kind of peaceful messaging that you're getting from the United Nations, from people like Bill Gates or the

World Economic Forum. People are flying around, as you know, in their private jets, telling us that we are living too extravagantly and we're ruining the planet.

Now, let me tell you what's interesting about that. What's interesting about that is people like that look at the world today and they identify that there is a problem.

And now they are going to bring their message of peace in order to fix the problem.

Would you turn to Ephesians 6? Okay, the Bible also identifies that there is a problem with the world today.

But it's not global warming, it's not overpopulation.

The problem with the world today is sin. And the

Bible too proclaims a message of peace, although I should say it this way, the Bible proclaims a true message of peace.

And it's not a peace that you or I can bring about, it's what God has brought about through the work of Christ, through the

Gospel, through the birth of Jesus, through His holy life, through His substitutionary death for sinners, through His victorious resurrection.

This is the Gospel and Paul calls it in our text today, the Gospel of peace.

And so today we consider heavenly peace. Ephesians 6, would you stand as we honor the reading of God's Word and we're walking through and examining these pieces of the

Christian armor. The Christian life is a life of battle. And so Paul tells the church at Ephesus, you should be clothed in the armor of God.

And here it is. Stand therefore, verse 14, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, we've examined these pieces.

And now this one, verse 15, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the

Gospel of peace. Father, we thank You for this text and we pray that we would treat it rightly and reverently.

And we think through each word and we would think through what it means, particularly that Your Gospel is the

Gospel of the declaration of the war being over. It's a declaration of peace.

And I pray that we would understand what this means. And apply it practically to our lives. We pray for believers here that they would be encouraged and strengthened and find their source and nourishment this morning in the

Gospel of peace. We pray for unbelievers today that they would hear the proclamation of the

Gospel of peace and they would surrender to the King who has already won and believe upon Him as their only suitable and all -sufficient

Savior. Bless the preaching of Your Word today. I need Your grace, Father. Please bring reformation to our church through the heralding of Your Word.

May Pastor Jacob and I say, like Martin Luther said, it's not us. The Word did it all.

We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Three times in Ephesians, Paul uses this word

Gospel. Later in the sermon, we'll look at the other two times that he uses it.

But in our text, he calls the Gospel here in verse 15 there. If you look in the text, he calls it the

Gospel of peace. So, we are to have as shoes for our feet, having put on the readiness given by the

Gospel of peace. We have these shoes, which I said last week, shoes are an underrated aspect of our

Christian armor. You think about the game of, I know this excites people like Gunner, you think about the game of football, right?

And football, which has nothing to do with your feet really, except when you're playing the game of football, if you don't have good cleats, it doesn't matter how talented you are as a football player, you're always slipping around on the field and you can't accomplish much.

So, so too in battle, our footwear matters. There's this readiness, the text says, or preparation given to us by the

Gospel of peace. Now, we're going to spend next week looking at what that readiness or preparation looks like.

But this week, what I wanted to do, and I think it's helpful in light of the season we're in, is to think about why is the

Gospel here referred to as the Gospel of peace? It could be called many things in the text.

It could be called the Gospel of love or the Gospel of hope. These things are true certainly, but Paul specifically calls it here the

Gospel of peace. So what is it about the Gospel that is intricately connected with peace?

Peace is something, if you will, in a sense, the whole world is after.

This is a tumultuous world. There are wars and there are viruses and there are conflicts and there are internal restlessness and there is strife and there is arguments with family and violence and all of these things.

So people say things in the world today like, hey, can't we just be nice? Can't we just get along?

Can't we just be kind? The problem with that, of course, is these things presuppose a standard.

What I mean is, can you be nice according to what standard?

Can you be kind according to what standard? Well, the standard, the only proper standard that is, is

God's standard. But it's God's very standard that we reject and have failed to measure up to, that we have broken, that we cannot hold up.

It seems our prospects of peace then in the world today are quite dim. Actually, in and of ourselves, it's worse than dim.

It's nil. Thus our desperate need for, verse 15, the gospel of peace.

So given the Advent season that we're in and given to some connections here, I want you to turn again to Luke chapter two.

We're gonna come back to Ephesians, so keep your finger there and make it easy in just a moment.

I want you to look again at Luke chapter two and consider this passage that we're working to memorize.

And the angel said to them, fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

I'm reading Luke 10 through, sorry, Luke two, 10 through 14, verse 11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is

Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swallowing cloths and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

So this goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway. This angel, this messenger here of peace, that's the messenger of peace we need this

Christmas season far and away above any kind of messengers of peace the

UN provides. The angel reminds us that true peace was born in a manger.

The Bible calls him in Isaiah six or Isaiah nine, the very prince of peace. And so what we're considering in this message is how is

God's glorious gospel especially connected to peace?

And I have seven ways. First, because the gospel proclaims, number one, peace on earth.

Now, some people have wondered here. Number one, the gospel proclaims peace on earth. Some people have said, well, the angels, they didn't really sing because verse 13 says, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising

God and saying. So it doesn't say singing, it says saying. But I still like to think of it as singing for a couple of reasons.

One, praising. Two, the word for saying there, we could understand it as singing especially when we look at verse 14 and we consider, if you notice probably most of your

Bibles, verse 14's kind of set off kind of funny because it's poetic. It is poetic in nature.

It's written in such a way that it is what lends itself to song. In fact, the

Latin is what we sing, Gloria in excelsis Deo, glory to God in the highest. Verse 14, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom

He is pleased. Now we're memorizing this passage as a church. And I knew at some point,

I was going to have to address this because verse 14 in some translations is different.

I know in the King James and the New King James, it says something like this in verse 14, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.

Now, even if you don't use the King James, probably you have this stuck in your brain because this is how you maybe learned it growing up.

Or if you watch like us, the Charlie Brown Christmas special, this is how Linus recites it in that.

And so it may almost come as a shock to you that verse 14 is translated this way, glory to God in the

ESV that is, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. It doesn't say peace and goodwill toward men, but in the

ESV it translates this way, peace among those with whom He is pleased. Now, pause for just a second.

I'm going to issue a warning. What is about to happen here, it is important, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

So I'm going to just take a couple of minutes in the sermon. We're going to get a little bit technical here. I don't want to get bogged down, but let me say a couple of things.

Number one, translating from one language to another, whether you speak

Spanish, you go from Spanish to English, whatever the case may be, or as in our case, from Greek to English, translating from one language to another brings with it inherently interpretive decisions.

That's just the nature of translation. Secondly, I want you to know this about the text.

The Greek is parallel. It's set off, you see there, it's probably set off in your

Bible. It's set off kind of poetically, but it's a parallel here. The angels are saying two things that are parallel.

So hear me out. Number one, in the Greek, they're saying glory in the highest to God.

That's parallel one. Second parallel to that is, and upon the earth, peace in men.

So this is how it's set up. Glory in the highest to God, and upon the earth, peace in men.

That's how it reads in the Greek. And then after the word men is the word eudokia.

Now the word eudokia means goodwill or good pleasure. And the argument now is how should this be translated?

Should it be translated alongside peace? So peace and goodwill toward men.

Now there is no and in the original. So the

King James would have to supply a word to make it make sense, you understand? Or should it be a modifier of men?

So you're gonna have to supply some words here to make it make sense too. So should it be a modifier of men in the sense that it means peace to a specific group of men?

So is the text saying peace on earth and goodwill toward men, or is it saying on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased?

Now, I've already spent more time on that than I really want to. And we can talk more about it.

These things get technical. It gets a bit technical, but we can trust the scriptures.

But let me say it this way. I do think the textual evidence favors the way it's translated in the

ESV. Or if I could offer, so I just did a rough, please, please, please, do not, I hesitate even to say this, do not look at me as like a

Greek expert, I'm not. But here's my rough translation. Glory in the highest to God and upon the earth, peace in men of God's good pleasure.

I think that captures the idea. But let me make a case for a moment, okay?

Here's the case I want to make in this point. Both are theologically true. So I don't even want to argue about it.

If you're like, no, no, no, I think it's this way. I think it's peace and goodwill toward men. Well, I would say that's still theologically true.

And I'll make an argument for that. Let me give you three biblical texts to explain what I mean.

It's theologically true to say, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. So let me give you three passages.

Isaiah 55, you won't have time to turn these, so you can look at them later. Isaiah 55, six and seven says this.

Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.

Matthew 11, 28 and 29, Jesus says, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

Revelation 22, 17, the spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come.

Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Here's what I'm saying. Because of the gospel, there is a general proclamation of peace that goes out to all the earth, to all mankind.

Not a single soul is barred by God from coming to Christ in the sense that, oh,

I want to come to Christ. God says, no, you can't come. No, time and again in the scriptures, the wicked are called to do what?

To come. To come. To turn away from their sins, to believe on Christ by faith.

There is a well -meant offer of peace, I am saying, that goes to all men. God has published a proclamation of peace.

Now, this is not taking away from the fact that there is a real and weighty sense in which

God is angry with the wicked every day. The Bible says that. Judgment is coming. We're not taking away from that.

But what I'm communicating here is that the finality of God's judgment at this moment is stayed.

I think maybe Paul Washer, somebody said this, not me, that God right now has two arms.

One holding back his judgment, the other beckoning sinners to come, and we will enter one day, the last day, where God drops both arms.

So I'm saying that the age that we live in today is not excusing sin.

It is, in one sense, an age of peace. Yes, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, but God is, in a sense, real sense, beckoning to sinners through His church the very passages that I just read earlier.

The Spirit and the Bride say, come. The sad reality is that many, many, many, many, many, many people, some of you even, perhaps in this room, reject this peace.

They harden their hearts, they reject God, and they choose sin and self over God's loving kindness.

Before moving on, let me say two things, then we'll go to the next point. Number one, what an awful day judgment is going to be for those who have sat under the proclamation of peace and have rejected it.

You, if I'm speaking to you, if this applies to you, your judgment will be more severe because you have sat under the proclamation of the peace of God.

You have sat under the gospel of peace. You have heard, even this morning, come to Christ.

There is peace made available to you in what Jesus has done by His birth and life and death and resurrection.

There is peace for you. Come, and you have said no. Friend, if this is applying to you,

I'd say you're in a very serious situation. You must repent and believe the gospel.

Secondly, let me mention this to the church. We'll talk about this more next week. The church must proclaim this peace.

How can, we are envoys of the gospel of peace. How can we, who have this true and lasting peace, not publish it to the nations?

Imagine if you're part of an army and the war is over, but you're just sitting on your hands and you're just letting people continue to fight it out and you won't say anything.

What a horrible person that you would be, but here we have the gospel of peace, so proclaim it.

Right, oh, we gotta move on. That's more next week. Secondly, we have peace on earth. Secondly, peace from God's righteous indignation.

I haven't forgotten my promise, that I said there's two things theologically true.

I lean more toward obviously here, the ESV translation. And I'm gonna make an argument that this also is theologically true.

So verse 14, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace with a specific group of people, among those with whom he is pleased, or as I mentioned earlier, and upon the earth, peace in men of God's good pleasure.

So it's theologically true that there is a general proclamation of peace to all mankind.

It's also theologically true that this peace ultimately only lands home upon those of God's good pleasure.

So for example, Isaiah 48, 22 says this, there is no peace, says

Yahweh, for the wicked. So you need to hear this morning very clearly. Do not think that Christmas, so you see the sign says peace on earth around Christmas lights on our city hall.

There's a line, lights, peace on earth. Well, praise God for that, but don't think for a moment that Christmas means peace for everyone.

Peace is available to anyone, but no one, not a single soul is going to take

God up on his offer of peace in and of themselves. Mankind left to himself, they may want wars to end, they may want sickness to end, they may want suffering to end, but they do not want

God to reign. They're Genesis three. The serpent says to Eve, God knows in the day that you eat of it, you'll be like him.

We don't want God to reign. We don't want God to reign over our minds.

We don't want God to reign over our hearts. We don't want God to reign over our actions. We wanna do what we wanna do, and we don't want

God to be involved in it unless he's 100 % for us. So we may say that we want peace, but we don't want

God to reign, and therefore we'll never in and of ourselves submit ourselves to his yoke, but it is the good pleasure of God.

It is the good will of God to refuse to accept the choice of men's rejection of him, and instead he bestows upon his people his sovereign grace whereby he opens up their hearts and minds to receive his peace in Christ, whereby his anger against their sin is assuaged.

Psalm 711 says it this way. God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day.

But here's the peace of Christmas. The wrath of God has been propitiated, that is, satisfied in Christ, and by Christ's resurrection, we see that both his righteous life and substitutionary death are sufficient for sinners to have peace with God.

Those who by grace alone put their faith in King Jesus. Those who are in the flesh, the

Bible says, are at enmity with God. God is their enemy. They are not at peace with God.

They are at war with God. They are striving against God. There is no peace, the

Bible says, for the wicked. But when the sovereign grace of God lands home, when the sovereign grace of God opens our eyes to truly see the

King, opens our hearts to truly receive Christ, grants us the faith to believe on Him, it is then that we have true peace with God.

The hostilities have ended. The peace treaty has been signed, not in stone, but in the blood of the

Lamb. The God who was righteously against us because of our sin is now for us in Christ.

There is now no more condemnation for those who are trusting Christ. God's favor rests upon us, not because we did anything, not because we're better, not because of our skin color or our location on the globe, where it is that we're born or whatever, but all because of His divine favor.

Peace among those with whom He is pleased. He is pleased with those only of His sovereign grace.

You are saved by God's good pleasure. This is, by the way, why verse 14 says, glory to God in the highest.

It doesn't start out saying glory to men who are smart enough to choose God and to reconcile themselves to God.

No, it says glory to God in the highest because salvation from beginning to end is about God's glory and all because of His grace.

And then we're reconciled, reconciled. This is how we have peace. Hark the herald angels sing, says this line, peace on earth and mercy mild.

God and sinners reconciled, reconciled. The gospel is the gospel of peace because it proclaims reconciliation with God.

Peace from His righteous indignation. So we have things like Paul saying in 2

Corinthians 5 .20, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Friend, think about this this morning.

Oh, to be reconciled to God. That the greatest need that we have, reconciliation with God.

Here the gospel of peace brings. We owe to God perfect obedience to His sovereign reign.

We have none to offer, but Christ fulfilled all righteousness for us. God owes us

His eternal wrath. Justly do our sin, but Christ has paid the penalty for us and risen again in triumph.

This is the peace that the gospel offers. Reconciliation with God.

This is why the gospel is called from Paul in the

Bible, the gospel of peace. And it's brought home to our hearts by the sovereign and gracious work of the

Holy Spirit. Now, listen, many reject this peace. Some maybe in here are rejecting it even now.

But I wonder if there are any hearing this message, desiring this morning even, peace with God.

I say to you, be of good cheer. This peace is for you if you'll embrace it by faith.

In other words, don't think of Christmas as just God saying, hey, I'm just not going to be angry anymore.

No, it's like, okay, so I'm cool. I can live how I want. I can do whatever I want. And God has to be peaceful with me now because of Christ.

No, no, no, that's not who the peace of Christmas is for. The peace of Christmas is for those who will repent of their sins and believe the gospel, who will put their faith in Christ.

You can't earn this peace. You can't achieve this peace, but you can obtain this peace already won for you by Christ if you will receive it by faith even now.

And those who do owe their change of heart all to God's pleasure.

Glory to God in the highest for our salvation. Soli Deo Gloria. Thirdly, then, the gospel is the gospel of peace because it proclaims peace on earth, because it proclaims peace with God's righteous indignation.

Thirdly, because it proclaims peace with believers. Now let us go back to Ephesians. So Paul calls this gospel the gospel of peace in verse 15, and his shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

Paul uses the word gospel in two other passages. First, we'll just stay here. I'm talking about in Ephesians.

So let's flip over to Ephesians 1. That's one place he uses it. Ephesians 1, 13, and 14.

Paul says, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit. That's talking about peace between God and man. So one aspect of the gospel, we just talked about reconciliation with God.

But Paul uses the gospel again in chapter three. Chapter three, verse six and seven.

Paul says, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.

Paul is talking about here that there is a body that both Jews and Gentiles become part of because of the gospel.

Now if you flip back one chapter, so chapter three, now we'll go to chapter two. That's why Paul says this in chapter two, verse 14.

He says, for he himself is our, what's the word? Peace. Who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who were near. Let me just give a quick biblical theology here of the

Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant is like a fence around the people of Israel. So you ever read all this stuff and you're like, why can't you eat shellfish?

Why are you not supposed to wear clothes of mixed fabric? Why can't you do this? And liberals today like to bring this up and they say, see, you only believe parts of the

Bible, but you don't believe others. Now, let me help you with that for just a moment. The Mosaic covenant puts a fence around physical

Israel and it keeps him separated from the peoples of the world so that God will bring through the people of Israel, the

Messiah. The Messiah comes and he breaks down the wall of hostility. You understand?

He breaks down the wall of hostility so that there is not that barrier anymore between Jews and Gentiles, rather as we come to Christ, as a

Jew repents and believes the gospel, as a Gentile repents and believes the gospel, we are now not only at peace with God, but at peace with who?

One another. Peace in the church. That is the peace of the gospel has both a vertical,

I had to make sure I said the word right, a vertical and horizontal dimension. Our reconciliation to God reconciles us to the church.

So let me say it this way. It is impossible to live at peace with God and be at enmity with the church.

I love God, but can't stand the church. That's not the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace reconciles us to God, Paul teaches in Ephesians, and it reconciles us to one another because this is what the gospel is doing in the world today.

It is building the church. So the peace of Christmas is not merely about the peace of God offered to individuals through the finished work of Christ, though it is, but it's also about the peace of God's people, the peace and unity we enjoy together because of Christ.

So I heard Alistair Begg say it this way. The church puts people together, now don't be offended by this, but the church puts people together that wouldn't be together otherwise.

I kinda like that. We're all hanging around and we're picking the soccer team or whatever, right? Maybe we don't pick each other.

Maybe we don't say, I wanna be with Steve or Gunner or Alex or Jacob or Colton.

Maybe we say, I want that guy. He looks more athletic, right? I want that guy, he does more stuff

I like. I want that person on my team. Well, what God does in the church is something beautiful.

By his grace, he brings people together who might not have chosen one another, but God has chosen them together.

And we are at peace with God together and peace with one another together. Are you grateful for your church family?

If I could say it this way, if you give me liberty to say it this way. Well, I've got the pulpit, so I'm gonna say it this way.

I'm thankful for the weird family of Providence Baptist Church. I'm thankful for you.

And I hope you're thankful for me as well. I'm thankful that God has put us together in this way. There's not something

I could have done. There's not something Pastor Jacob could have done. There's not something you could have done. We give all glory to God. Thank you,

God, for putting these weirdos together, right? I'm putting myself in that. Praise God that he's building his family here in this way.

Haggai 2 .9 says, the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place,

I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. The house that God is building today is the church and the peace of God reigns in the church because of his glorious gospel.

One more application, then we'll move on. The strife in the church, disunity in the church, that's a serious thing.

Because God's design for the church is that the church would be at peace. So consider and take seriously these things.

This is a place of peace. The gospel is the gospel of peace because it proclaims peace on earth, because it proclaims peace with God's righteous indignation, because it proclaims peace with believers, fourthly, because it proclaims peace with the world's rejection.

So here's what I wanna say for just a moment, peace with the world's rejection. So Paul understands in Ephesians that we're in this great warfare against Satan and the spiritual forces of evil.

And one of the things, did you know that peer pressure is not a thing just for children and students?

Like we try to act like peer pressure is something that you only have to deal with when you're in high school. There may be a focus of peer pressure, but peer pressure doesn't end when you get out of high school.

The world is constantly, Satan is constantly using the pressure of the world so that you will conform to the world.

But the gospel comes in and gives us a peace with the world's rejection.

So I just wanna point out that peace with God and the church inevitably is going, you can't have it both ways.

And for some of you, this may be a breaking point. You can't have it both ways. You can't be at peace with God and the church and the world.

We are at war with the devil, our sin, and also the world. I don't mean to say that we ought to intentionally make ourselves more and more unliked by the world.

Like some Christians seem to have the gift of just making themselves unlikable. I'm not trying to say that.

I simply mean to highlight the reality that the world ultimately hates God and therefore hates

God's people. Jesus says it this way, John 16, 33, I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace.

In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart.

I have overcome the world. That's why I say to us, church, you cannot have it both ways.

You must declare your allegiance either to God or the world.

You can have peace with God and tribulation in the world. This is your choice before you. You want peace with God, you have peace with God, you have tribulation with the world.

Or you can have peace with the world and enmity with God. But for those who are in Christ, this is my point here.

We are at peace with the world's rejection. Meaning the things

I said earlier, kind of joking about weirdos and stuff, you can't live in Perry County and be a part of Providence Baptist Church and some people not think you're weird.

Why? Because we take very seriously the things of Christ here. We take very seriously the heralding of the gospel.

We take very seriously the worship of God. We take very seriously the holiness of life that's required of a believer.

We take these things seriously. So you say, well, I kind of want to just be liked by the world and also

I want to be liked by God. But you can't have it both ways. If you're going to be serious about the things of God, the world is going to reject you.

Gospel gives us a peace with that. Okay, so be it. Christ is a greater treasure than the world's dunghill.

The favor of God is more precious to me than men's applause.

This isn't always easy. We wonder, we even doubt at times as we see the world moving on without us, as we feel the pool, you know, feel the alluring pool to join the world in its wickedness and debauchery.

Oh, this isn't so bad. It's okay to just indulge yourself a little bit here. Oh, this isn't that big of a deal.

Just come on, just come on, just come on and look at our society today and see that we have, we have,

I'll change it a little bit. Years and years and years and years and years ago in this country, we have died the death of incrementalism.

Meaning, look, that's not so serious. Just take an inch, just go an inch in the wrong direction.

So if you are setting a course for a long journey and at the beginning you're just an inch off, no big deal, what happens though when you get to the end of the journey?

You're miles off. And I believe that's where we're at in our country today. Not that there ever was a golden age in our country, or whatever,

I'm not trying to say that. I'm just trying to say that we have bought in the lie of the world that if we'll just compromise a little bit, we'll be okay.

It's like the old meme that says, if you give the devil an inch, he thinks he's what, the ruler, right?

We continue to go off course and compromise. But I remind you, dear brother and sister, peace with God is greater.

Don't compromise. Christ is our peace. Let the world around you laugh. Let the world around you rage.

Christ is our sure and steady anchor. And we're headed one day to an eternal peace in the new heavens and the new earth.

Christ is better. Christ is greater. Hold fast. It's gonna be okay. Don't compromise.

We're at peace with the world's rejection. Fifthly, we're at peace with the law. Paul says that this is the gospel of peace in verse 15,

Ephesians 6. And we've talked about the law and we've talked about righteousness.

What I'm trying to say here is that the law is a terror to unbelievers. It condemns them for their unrighteousness and it offers them no hope.

But hear me, believer. Are you a Christian? Well, Christian, the law is our friend. It's our friend.

It's our friend in these two ways. One way it's our friend because it drives us to Christ. You never, you still as a

Christian don't measure up to the law. And when you don't measure up to the law, instead of the law beating you over the head, now what does it do?

It drives you to our Lord Jesus. Like if you've got sin in your life, I've said this a lot, like if you've got sin in your life, what should you do?

You should repent and take it to the Lord Jesus. He receiveth sinful men. Go again. Go again to Christ.

The other way that the law is our friend is because now in the gospel, the law's not written on stone, but where is it written? In our hearts.

By God's grace and by faith in Christ, we now seek to live our lives in accordance with what the

Bible says. What the Bible says, believer, that's how we want to live. Because God has written the law.

If God is true, then this is what the Bible, if God is true, and he is, the

Bible teaches that Christians desire to live out the reality of their salvation that God has worked in.

And we do that by listening to what the Bible says and ordering our life by its precepts.

We're not and cannot be justified by the law. Our hope is not in the law. Our hope is in Christ alone.

But now because of Christ, we seek to follow God as he has instructed us, even as we rest our sins and failures in Christ and seek to live a repentant life.

And all of this is only, only, only by the grace of God. The law has been fulfilled.

The believer is now at peace with it. It no longer stands over our heads to condemn us to hell. It drives us to Christ and instructs us in his way.

The gospel is the gospel of peace because it proclaims peace on earth, because it proclaims peace with God's righteous indignation, because it proclaims peace with believers, because it gives us peace with the world's rejection, because it proclaims peace with the law, because it proclaims peace with conscience.

Now I want you to consider the context. Again, verse 15, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In the gospel, we can have peace with our conscience. Here's the context.

There is no way to be victorious in spiritual warfare if your conscience condemns you.

If your conscience condemns you, you will not have shoes of readiness. You will have shoes, you have trembling knees, and you have shoes that will be immobile.

If your conscience stands over you and condemns you, you will be ineffective in battle.

But the gospel comes to us and reminds us, Romans 5 .1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God means we also have peace with conscience. So this is important.

The peace we are talking about is not some bogus bliss, it's not some hokey happiness or forced felicity, it is true peace with God and conscience because of the objective reality of what

God has done in Christ. Now, there are unbelievers, maybe even in this room, there are unbelievers who believe they have peace with God because they've suppressed the truth of God in unrighteousness and refused to objectively consider what the true gospel really has to say.

So they don't have a peace of conscience so much as they have a seared conscience. They proclaim to themselves, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

This is why they need the objective truth of the Word. We need the Scriptures to knock us off the horse of false assurance.

If you're here this morning and you're living in sin, but you say, oh, I have peace with God, you need the

Scriptures to knock you off the horse of false assurance and to behold

Christ and to be drawn unto Him in repentance and faith. But there are also those, probably in this room, most certainly, there are more in here than they would want to admit, genuine believers who have a troubled and to those

I say again, look to Christ. Friends, Christ is your peace.

Rest again in the gospel. Oh, but I'm a sinner. Does Christ save sinners? Yes or no?

If Christ saves sinners and you're a sinner, then why wouldn't you go again to Christ?

Go. The glorious gospel of God is the gospel of peace. Look outside yourself.

Sometimes we can look so deeply inwardly, which we should look inwardly at times and we should do proper introspection.

However, if you look so deep inwardly that you're never looking outwardly and upwardly to Christ, that is a problem.

So look again, look outside yourself and look to Christ. If your conscience is rightly guilty, then repent.

What do I do if I'm actually guilty? Repent, go to Christ. If your conscience is wrongly guilty, then run again to Christ.

Look again to the one who has atoned for your sins, rest in him and then let us all strive to let the

Bible shape our conscience, right? Not the world and not culture, but the

Bible. The gospel of peace readies us, it prepares us for spiritual warfare in part because it gives us peace of conscience.

Okay, finally this morning, the gospel of peace proclaims peace with our circumstances.

And here again, contextually, here's the idea. So Paul says that we're to have the readiness for our feet of the gospel of peace.

This readiness is applicable to you no matter your circumstances.

So Paul's not talking to just rich people here. He's not talking to just poor people here.

He's not talking to people whose health is in good order. He's not talking to just people who are in poor health.

He's talking to the entire church. The entire church, no matter your earthly situation, is to rest in the gospel of peace in such a way that it readies your feet to do the will of God, which we'll talk about next week, in any and all circumstances.

So sometimes Christians, let me say it to you this way.

Sometimes the Christmas season can make Christians long for better circumstances.

It's like the devil uses this time of year to highlight our poor health or our poor finances or the fact that we are at enmity with members of our family.

But hear me say this, the gospel gives us peace with God's providence.

We must and can be content because God has given us exactly what we need.

He has given us the greatest gift of Himself. He has taken upon Himself in Christ all of our debts against Him.

Jesus has fulfilled it. Jesus has paid it all. Jesus reigns over all.

And the reason that you're in the circumstance you are, now, sometimes it's discipline, sometimes you've made poor choices, but the reason that you're in the circumstance you're in right now is because of how much

God loves you. You understand that? Why is this happening? Because God loves you.

Not in contrast to God's love for you. God is making all things work together for good for His church, for His people, for those who love

God. That's what the text says, Romans 8 .28. For those who are called according to His purpose. We can have peace with the circumstances that we're in because we know that God is doing a work for His Son.

And this is the good news of great joy. That the peace of the gospel transcends all circumstances.

In pain, in sorrow, in happiness, in fun, in anxious moments, and in confidence, we have peace with God through the shed blood and resurrection of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And His shoes for your feet have

He put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. It is His peace with our circumstances that readies us wherever we are, whatever situation we're in, to fight the good fight of faith.

We engage in spiritual warfare no matter our circumstances because of the gospel.

And the gospel of peace is also the gospel of hope. I'll get to that in just a second.

Let me remind you again that if you say here today, I can't fight the world and the flesh and the devil because I'm just not ready yet.

I'm just not in a good circumstance. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year. I'll make a New Year's resolution.

I'll start January 1st. I say to you, the gospel of peace says, no, no, no, no, no. Wherever you are in life today, you are called to arms.

You are called to fight against the world, the flesh and the devil, and to put on the armor of God and to join us together as we march on toward the celestial city.

This is the gospel of peace that readies us. And as I said, it's also the gospel of hope.

Because in a little while, the Bible says it this way, and I'm not trying to minimize anything that you're going through.

I'm just telling you how the Bible says it. The Bible calls these things light, momentary afflictions.

In a little while, these momentary trials and afflictions will be over.

All wrongs will be righted. All sorrow will end.

Ephesians 6 reminds us that there is a real evil in the world today. But the armor of God reminds us that we will ultimately triumph over it all in Christ.

Turn in your Bibles to the end. I read the end of the book. We win. Revelation 21.

Revelation 21. Revelation 21. We all need this.

Some of you need this, especially this morning. We all need it. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their

God. He will wipe away every tear. It's not that there won't be tears in heaven, right?

So much as it's when we get there, God's gonna wipe them away. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

One day, the whole world, and the new heavens and the new earth will give back the song the angels sang, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom

His favor rests. I can see it.

Can you see it on the faint horizon in the distance?

That is the celestial city where we are traveling.

Where the war with the world and the devil in our own flesh and thoughts and motivations, where that will be over.

It will be no more. Where every tear that I've cried, every broken situation

I've been through, every foolish thing that has happened, everything, it will not have been in vain.

Don't look down at your circumstances, or you'll miss it. Don't look back to what you wish would have been, or you'll miss it.

Our eyes are to be ahead. They're to be on Christ. We're to keep running. The gospel of peace, friends, will carry us there.

Keep striving for holiness. Keep fighting sin. Keep loving the church.

Keep standing firm against the evil one. Don't stop running. Rest your all today, and in this

Christmas season, in the gospel of peace by the cross of Christ, by the blood of Christ, by the resurrection of Christ, run toward the celestial city.

Don't look back, and as you're running, proclaim the gospel. Why? Because God will use the proclamation of the church to bring more people in as we journey together towards the city, and preach it to those who will listen, preach it to those who won't, because Christ is worthy to be proclaimed.

The Christ of Christmas is worthy to be proclaimed over all the earth. The war has been won, and Christ is king, and this is the heavenly peace afforded to us by the gospel.

Let's go. I'm ready. What about you?

What say you this day? The world's peace or God's?

Sometimes people don't like this kind of language, but I'm just gonna say it. You gotta make a choice. Am I going to believe what the crazy man in the pulpit is preaching?

Am I gonna adjust my life, and my finances, and my situations, and my thoughts, and everything in my life by this gracious gospel of peace?

Or am I just gonna check a few boxes and live the way that I want? Friends, the peace of Christ is available to us.

Church, don't quit pressing on in the gospel of peace.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your gospel. Thank you that it's through the foolishness of preaching that you save, and we pray that you would use the words preached today for the glory of Christ.

Forgive me for the areas I fell so short. Strengthen your people today and call sinners to repentance.