“Blessed Are the Peacemakers”

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 5:9

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Well, this morning as we look now to the seventh beatitude here in Matthew 5, verse 9, we'll, as we've done now for several of these beatitudes, we'll consider first and foremost the first half of the verse, and then in the second part, the second half of the verse, and then round out with some concluding application.
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So Matthew 5, beginning in verse 9, We want to consider first, what is the peace that these peacemakers make?
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What is the peace of God? And secondly, what does it mean to be a son of God?
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What is this adoption of God, and how does this adoption come about? And then, bringing it all together, what does it mean to be a peacemaker?
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Why are these peacemakers blessed, and why must we be peacemakers if we would be the children of God?
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So that's how we're going to approach verse 9 this morning. So first, the peace of God.
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Well, the term peace is very rich, it's a layered word. In the
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Hebrew, shalom is still used as a greeting for those who would offer maybe well -being or peace, health.
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There's certainly a sort of connotation of these things in the word shalom. The general idea is wholeness, completeness.
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The idea is conflict is something that fractures a people, a nation, and so when peace overturns that conflict, the people are made whole.
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The idea is peace is being at rest, peace is being one, peace is a completeness.
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So it's far more than just an absence of conflict. Peace has far more positive connotations than that.
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But of course, we live in a sin -stained and fractured world. And for that reason, we see conflict all around.
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We know what peace is because we live in a world that is so fractured, so debased.
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And for that reason, we find peace to be something rare. Peace is something faint, something elusive.
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But as we understand the biblical story, we have to remember that peace was not always this way.
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Peace was not always something out of grasp. Peace was not always something that was just ahead of where fallen humanity finds itself.
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Eden was a world of peace. The Garden of God was a world of peace until we fell.
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And when we fell, so began this fundamental lack of peace.
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This original perfect peace of paradise was then disrupted by rebellion, by fear, and by the curse.
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So for the first time, all that Adam and Eve had ever known as the perfect peace of God in the perfect communion of God was disrupted and broken open now with not only rebellion but with fear, with distance.
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There were not only the consequences of the curse, but more fundamental than that, the consequence of losing the peace of God.
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Man now alienated from other men. Man alienated from creation itself.
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Man alienated from himself because man was fundamentally alienated from the life and peace of God.
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So of course, as we begin the biblical storyline, though the world is ever creative in finding new sources for why we do not have peace, the
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Bible simply says sin results in the lack of peace. Sin takes many forms and many avenues in the tides of history, in the tides of this fallen world, but fundamentally all of these tributaries and streams come back to the very source of sin.
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Sin is the reason that men have no peace with God. Sin is the reason that men do not have peace with other men.
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Sin is the reason that the world, as it groans for redemption, lacks this peace of God in which it had been created in original righteousness.
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And so we find as a result of sin, Adam and Eve turning against one another. Man becoming passive, blaming his wife rather than covering and guarding her, and the wife now seeking to usurp the place of her husband.
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The marriage was a picture of the peace of God. Now that was disrupted, barbed with thorns of conflict.
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And then we find that the family life is now infected with this fundamental lack of peace. Not only is there great disappointment and sorrow as Cain and Abel go their separate paths and brother is turned against brother, but we find that there's such a lack of peace that Cain can take a rock in his hand and outbursts of wrath, slay his brother.
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Lack of peace amidst creation. The earth is now corrupted. The soil, as it were, being forced to gulp down the blood of righteous
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Abel, protesting as it were, gargling out to God to bring forth vengeance.
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This loss of harmony between man and the earth. Man had once labored in the earth, effortless to bring forth fruit, no sweat, no thorn, no thistle, simply the endless enterprise and glory and richness of tilling the fields and pruning the garden, tilling and working to beautify what
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God had made, to bring it to completion even as the Spirit of God hovered over creation to bring it to completion.
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But now man is alienated from the earth. Now man's labor is frustrated. There's a fundamental lack of peace with creation, even a lack of peace with animal life.
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What was once harmonious, all of the animals coming to Adam, him naming them as he saw them and glorified
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God for the marvel of their design, now there's a fear and a dread and an alienation between man and beast.
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And so the creation narrative unfolds in this way. The whole world is characterized by a loss of the peace of God and all of the effects of this have been brought about by sin.
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So where there had once been peace, now there's insecurity. Where there had once been peace, now there's fear, trouble, calamity, distress.
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Then as we go further into the story of redemption, we find that God promises there is one who's coming who will bring peace.
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Through the suggestive rebellion of the serpent, this peace was stripped away from paradise and man was stripped away from Eden.
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But He promises there's one coming who though his heel will be struck by this evil one, he will crush his head.
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We get to the end of Genesis and we know that the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes.
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What's Shiloh? The peace of God. And we find when this one comes in the fullness of time as Zacharias prophesies concerning his son
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John the Baptist, you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest. You will go before the face of the
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Lord to prepare His ways. And what is that preparation going to lead to? To give light to those who sit in darkness, who sit in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
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So the fall had brought us into the way of conflict, fear, and death. But this one has come.
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Even John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord, why? Because he's preparing the way toward peace.
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And so God, from the very beginning, as soon as the fall occurred, His intention was to restore us to His peace, to put us back on the way of peace.
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And that begins with John the Baptist preparing the way to be prepared for peace. And that is repentance, the baptism of repentance.
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And so again, it's another way of seeing that sin is the fundamental reason that there is no peace in this fallen world.
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That all changes when the sun comes. This writhing baby is born in Bethlehem, and what happens to the shepherds on the hilltop?
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We read in Luke 2 that the sky breaks open, the portals of the heavenly host begin to sing hosannas in light of what has taken place, this mysterious marvel planned before the foundation of the world, now in the fullness of time revealed.
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And what do they hear this heavenly host proclaim? Glory to God in the highest. And finally, on earth, peace, something that had never been now inaugurated in the life of this little child crying out into the darkness of a fallen world.
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The prophecy surrounding this one, we go to Ezekiel 37, coming off the heels of the promise of this new covenant, a covenant that will be founded in His blood.
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And the prophecy says they'll all have one shepherd for all the false shepherds, for all the wicked men that tyrannized and stripped away the peace that God intended.
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Finally, my people will have one shepherd, they'll walk in my judgments, they'll observe my statutes, they'll do them.
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Ezekiel 36, I'm going to put it in their heart to do it, I'm going to send my spirit to revive them to do it. Verse 25, my servant
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David will be their prince forever. David isn't around anymore,
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Ezekiel, I don't know if you heard. David, one coming from David, one like unto David, David's son, yet David's Lord, he'll be their prince forever.
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And what's the nature of his reign? I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant with them.
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And so this covenant that is made, this new covenant in the blood of this one becomes our covenant of peace, an everlasting covenant of peace, the very thing we lost when we fell into sin at the very beginning.
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And out of Zion, as we read in Isaiah 2, the same thing is said in Micah 4, out of Zion now goes forth this law, the word of the
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Lord goes forth from Jerusalem, the prince is now reigning, and as this word goes out, what is the impact in the lives of his people?
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How is his kingdom advancing? Is it by marching roughshod over all that resist his will?
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No, he judges between the nations, he strongly rebukes many, but look it, the result is they beat their swords into plowshares, they turn their spears into pruning hooks.
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Why? They don't need to learn war anymore. The kingdom of the crucified one now showing them the way of peace.
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And then we're just simply brought all the way back to what we had lost. What's the result of this one coming into his own, coming into his kingdom's reign?
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Well, fast forwarding all the way to the end, Isaiah uses this language where we go back to the peace of God, back to the harmony of man in creation, and so the wolf dwells with the lamb, the leopard lies down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together.
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I remember seeing a video of, I think it was a leopard, and somehow it had come across an infant gazelle that could barely move or walk around, and the mother had clearly scattered and the video was just amazed.
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The leopard either wasn't hungry or somehow had this harmony and was sort of just laying by this infant gazelle, bathing itself, the infant gazelle was just sort of clueless and every now and then would trot right up to the leopard, are you my mother, and the leopard
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I think even took a few swipes of bathing the gazelle, and everyone's just like, this is amazing harmony.
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Well, it didn't end so well for the gazelle when the leopard realized it's kind of nice not to have to chase this thing down.
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Time to drag you up to the tree for my lunch, but what is Isaiah seeing? The calf with the young lion, the leopard lying down with the goat.
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There's harmony between the beasts and who's at the head of this? A little child will lead them. There's a reason when you go to Franklin Park Zoo or Stonehenge Zoo that these predators are behind all sorts of fences and walls and plexiglass.
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What kind of horror would you have to see your five -year -old wander into some crevice and make it into the enclosure?
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You'd have the panic, right? You'd be wanting the old Harambe sniper shot to happen as quickly as possible.
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What happens here in Isaiah? A little child is leading the most ferocious predators, playing with them.
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This is the nature of harmony. This is the peace that had been lost. It's put forward in these terms.
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Why? Because as Isaiah says earlier, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
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And what kind of son will this be? Well, the government is on his shoulder. His name is called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.
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He's the Prince of Peace. Prince of Peace.
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Not just one who comes into peace only to lose it again. That's how we experience peace.
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We have the faint glimmer of it and then it's gone. As soon as we had five minutes where we seem to be rested and had our minds fixed upon the
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Lord, and then it's back to the chaos and the storm and saying, Lord, don't you care that we're drowning? But this one doesn't come in and out of the peace.
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He's the Prince of Peace because peace is his very nature. His very nature is peace, perfect peace.
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He's introduced to us in Genesis as the one after Melchizedek.
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Who is Melchizedek? Well, Melech, Tzedek, he's the King of Righteousness.
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Melchizedek is this priest. He's a priest -king. Genesis says he's the King of Salem.
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He's the King of Shalom. He's the King of Peace. It's in his very nature. Hebrews 7 makes this point.
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He's the King of Peace. And yet he's a high priest ever living to intercede.
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Abraham bowed down to pay tithes to him. Peace, it is in its very nature.
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So he comes not just to reveal peace, to dangle it like some politician would on a string.
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He hasn't come just to reveal it. He hasn't come just to display it because it's in his nature. As the
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Prince of Peace, he's come to give it. He's come to give it. That's glorious, glorious news for you,
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Christian. Though sin has robbed us of peace in this fallen world, though we're easily beset by every sign, this
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Prince knows how to give peace to His own. He knows how to take you to a place where there seems to be no pasture at all, only thorns and thistles and the effects of the fall, conflict and strife in your marriage, in your family, in your home life, all around you, in the workplace.
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Ways that you're set on edge, ways that you're dreadful, filled with discouragement, to take you into that desolate landscape and in the midst of your enemies, spread a feast for you.
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He's the Prince of Peace. And this
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Prince of Peace wants to give you this peace. John 14, verse 27.
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He's speaking to His disciples and He says, Peace I leave with you. My peace
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I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.
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Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. Do you see what Jesus is saying? He's not just giving a greeting.
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He's not simply saying farewell. Peace, peace be with you. My peace I leave with you. He says, no, my peace, my peace
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I give to you. And I don't give it like the world gives peace.
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The world doesn't even know what peace is. They're trying to conjure and scrape up what they can in the ruins.
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I have a perfect peace and that's the peace I give to my own. It's not of this world, it's not from this world.
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It's my peace, He says, His own peace. Now let's consider. When He says, not as the world gives, what kind of peace does the world give and how does the world give it?
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Just a few, maybe a few observations we could make. Well, the first peace the world gives is the peace of escape.
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The peace of escape. Think of Adam and Eve hiding, and why were they hiding? The peace that they had only known in the presence of God, in the harmony of paradise, all of a sudden was rocked and stripped bare by a result of their rebellion.
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So now they run and they hide. And what are they doing when they're running and hiding? They're trying to find peace.
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They're filled with terror at the presence of God. They need to find peace and what is that peace for them?
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It's the peace of escape. Get out of here. Get far from His presence. If we can just hide, if we can just get away from Him, we'll finally have peace.
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Think of Jonah. What is Jonah doing when he flees, when he gets on that bow?
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He's trying to find peace. I don't want to go to this people. I don't know what they'll do to me, and frankly they don't deserve to hear any pleas of mercy.
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So I'm not going. He was seeking peace, and he couldn't find it.
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He couldn't find it until he threw himself into the deep. This is the world's peace, a peace of escape, a peace of run and hide.
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It's the peace of Xanax. It's the peace of numbing yourself. It's the peace of becoming sedated rather than resting in the peace that only comes from the
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Lord. So hide and become numb and become sedated.
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A superficial peace, a hollow peace, not actually being made whole, but actually continually cutting down yourself in ever greater ways, as it were, making a skeleton out of what is meant to be the full image of God, the peace of escape.
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Another way the world gives peace is the peace of distraction. Just don't dwell on things too much.
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The peace of distraction. Don't you see this time of year as the weather starts to chill, and as you get, it seems earlier than ever now, right?
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Christmas, they're now pumping into the airwaves and on the shelves of stores early November.
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It's like, what in the world? And yet, isn't that just a momentary distraction for our society? People all of a sudden temporarily are thoughtful about peace on earth, goodwill toward men.
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And all of a sudden there's a little more sweetness in the air. People are a little more friendly. They're a little more jolly. But it's just a distraction.
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It's only for a time. Especially here in New England. December 26, we go right back to being salty and cranky.
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It's a temporary reprieve. Just like the famous Christmas truce in 1914 when the trench warfare paused for a day.
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It wasn't meant to. No command was given. But the soldiers were so tired of slaughtering each other across no man's land that they came out and began to sing hymns in their own tongue, began to trade cigarettes and chocolate and play soccer and sing carols.
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It was this glorious picture. Peace! But it just lasted a day. Just lasted a day.
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By the next morning, the artillery bombarded again. They were back to slaughtering the people that they had sung with the day before.
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This piece is drummed up by an earthly optimism. It's the piece of false prophets. This piece of distraction.
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Peace! Peace! There is no peace, Jeremiah says. It's drummed up by an optimism.
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Just don't think too much on the bad. Don't dwell on the bad. Just keep distracting yourself. Things will work out just great.
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It's Chamberlain coming back with a piece of paper. Peace in our time! And everyone's going, yes, finally! Something happy to dwell on!
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But hundreds of thousands of people will be killed as a result of this false peace. As a result of this piece of paper distracting them from the reality of what's taking place.
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Another kind of peace the world gives is the piece of repression. If it's not the piece of escape, if it's not the piece of distraction, it's the piece of repression.
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To repress is to squash. It's to crush. It's to subdue. This is the piece of the
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Marxist, essentially. We'll make peace through bloody conflicts. We'll make peace through burning things down.
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We'll make peace. It's an army of peacekeepers. And what are the peacekeepers? They have blue helmets and body armor and tanks and assault rifles.
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Some kind of peacekeeper. It's seeking to force peace rather than to find peace.
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It's seeking to make peace out of shrapnel and terror, out of tyranny, rather than find it.
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You know, they're one of the infamous revolvers in American history.
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Samuel Colt made the single -action army revolver. And the nickname was the Peacemaker. Forty -five
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Colts. You see the old Western movies where they go to the town square at high noon, turn around and gun each other down.
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And they're more often than not holding the Peacemaker. Why is that called a Peacemaker? Because you kill all the opposition. You've made peace.
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How? You've repressed them to death. That's how the world gives peace. Shoot down all the opposition.
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Distract yourself. Don't dwell on things. Just focus on what's flitting in front of your sight. And if things get really tough, just run away.
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Numb yourself. Sedate yourself. Do anything to have this peace of the world.
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And the world's peace is not the Lord's peace. Not as the world gives do
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I give. My peace I give to you, Jesus says. You'll notice in all of this, the world's peace is entirely dependent upon circumstances surrounding yourself.
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What are the circumstances and how can you deal with them? How can you navigate them? How can you avoid them? How can you minimize them?
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How can you numb yourself to them? How can you be distracted away from them? How can you squash them and overcome them?
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It's all dependent on the circumstances around you. But not as the world gives. As the Lord gives peace. The Lord's peace is independent of the circumstances around you.
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Because the Lord's peace comes from communing with Him. And so you can commune with Him, as we said from Psalm 23, in the midst of your enemies.
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Don't you see that in John 16? Jesus Himself experiences peace in this way. When He says, My peace
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I give to you, He's saying the peace that I have with my Father. The peace that means, though there's no reason for me to look to the earth in any way that I can have peace.
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I have a peace in communing with my Father. And if you commune with me, I will give you that peace as well.
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It won't matter what circumstances you're in. It won't matter what you're facing. It won't matter how much it hurts.
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My peace I give to you. Don't we see that in John 16? He says, Indeed, the hour is coming.
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Yes, as now come you'll be scattered, each to his own, and leave me alone. He's not just so divine that He floats by the human psychology and emotion of this.
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Remember what He said when He preached that rather hard teaching on consuming His flesh and His blood and by the thousands people turned away.
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And He turns to His disciples and He said, Are you going to leave me also? Some of you in this room know the pain of abandonment.
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That's what Jesus was experiencing. The hour is coming. You're all going to scatter. I'll go to pray in the garden.
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My cloak will be pockmarked with blood. And I'll just ask that you just stay awake.
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And you won't even do that. And when they come to fetch me, to nail me to a cross, you'll all scatter.
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No one will stand by me. And so He recognizes, I'm about to be abandoned.
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I'm about to be alone. And then He says this, You'll be scattered, each to his own.
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You'll leave me alone. Because the
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Father is with me. These things I speak to you that in me you'll have peace.
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Do you see what He's doing there? When I am utterly alone, facing Golgotha, I'm not alone because I'm with the
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Father. And the Father's with me. And I'm telling you this so that when you're facing, as it were, the cross -bearing crisis in your life, you'll know that I'm with you and you'll have peace in me.
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Peace from me. You see? In this world you'll have tribulation,
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He says, but be of good cheer. I've overcome it. And so the Lord's peace is entirely dependent upon communion with Him.
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This communion means, it's not that you finally have grasped your circumstance and you make sense of it that you have peace.
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It's not that you finally understand what is happening to you and why it's happening and therefore you have peace.
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No, this peace goes beyond all understanding. You don't know why it's happening. You don't understand the reason for it.
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But you have peace. It's not the peace of comprehension. You're confused.
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And you're hurting. But you have peace. This peace doesn't come from changing the circumstance.
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Not even from comprehending the circumstance. It comes from communing with Him. He's become peace to you. It's not because you've fixed your mind on your need.
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You've devoted all of your thoughts to your fears. What does Isaiah say? He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on Thee.
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Perfect peace. So trouble comes. Tribulation comes.
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And our mind becomes fixed on the circumstance. How can I change this? How can I overcome this? How can
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I hide from this? How can I numb myself to this? And Jesus says, that's how the world gives peace.
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Fix your mind on Me. Look at what I've promised. Look at who I am. My peace
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I give to you. The Lord does not say, we must do something to produce this peace in our lives.
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Here's a couple Biblical tracks and a couple songs to listen to and go muster up some peace in your life.
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That's not what the Lord does. He doesn't say we have to produce something as though this peace is self -wrought, self -manufactured, something we have to discover on our own.
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No, He says, look to Me. Believe in My Word. I'm going to fill you with peace. My peace
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I give to you. You're entirely passive in this process. You're simply looking to Him as that one poor in spirit, as that one hungry and thirsty, and He fills you.
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That's what He says. Romans 15, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. And we'll come to talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in a moment. But notice this.
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It's God who's filling His people. What's your part? Look to Him. Believe in Him. In believing,
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He will fill you with His peace. My peace I give to you, He says. He'll fill you with all joy and peace.
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He has it in His very nature. He has unlimited reserves of joy and peace. He's going to overflow you with it if you look to Him in belief.
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Aren't you glad that this is a promise for you, Christian, this morning? It's not something you have to arrive at.
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This is a promise. You can take it to the bank this morning. He'll fill you with His joy. He'll fill you with His peace. Aren't you glad that God doesn't operate like the
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DNC operates? Everyone's there. You're suffering under 20 % inflation.
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Somehow the person that's second in command is going to fix, although they're already the cause.
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And what's the mantra that they just keep shouting in the face? Joy, joy, joy, joy. Everyone's beleaguered, miserable, suffering, crisis.
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Joy, joy. Aren't you glad that the Lord doesn't do that? He doesn't say repeat this mantra until it just becomes some artificial reality in your life.
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No, He says, I will fill you with my joy. So transcendent above your earthly trouble that as Paul you'll be able to confess this is just a momentary affliction.
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Light. This is light work compared to what's coming ahead. The eternal weight of glory.
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That's the kind of joy and peace He'll fill you with. There's an old
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Puritan saying that peace is joy resting. Peace is joy resting.
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And joy is peace dancing. Puritans didn't like dancing, so that must have been a hard one for them to use.
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But so it is. So the Lord does not give peace as the world gives, rather He gives us
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His own peace. This was His intention from the very beginning when man entered into rebellion and escaped and numbed themselves toward God, hid away from His presence.
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God's desire was to ever pursue them in order to give them peace. Speak to Aaron his son saying, this is the way you'll bless the children of Israel.
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The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you, be gracious to you.
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The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. That's His desire.
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How much trouble is in your life as a believer because you're under the impression that God has not desired to give you peace?
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You're lacking peace and you say, this is my lot in life. This is what it means to be human. This is what it means to crawl along by fingernails across this narrow way that so few find.
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That's a lie from the evil one to think that God intended for you to crawl through this life without peace in order to find some hope at the very end.
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Nothing could be further from the truth. He is the God of peace. Jesus expressly says,
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My peace I give to you. How many are here this morning lacking peace because they simply think they are not meant to have it?
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The Lord gives His own peace when He gives us His Spirit. It's why He gives us His Spirit. Many reasons and many ways that the
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Spirit is used in the life of the believer, but not least among them is that the
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Spirit may flood and fill our lives with the peace that Christ alone can give.
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John 14. We've already read it. Let me go back a few verses to where we left off. These things are spoken to you while being present with you, but the
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Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He'll teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said.
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My peace I leave with you. You see how He's transitioned now? Saying, I'm going. I won't be here, but the
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Spirit will be sent to you. And what's the result of that? My peace I leave with you. My peace
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I give to you. You cannot have this peace unless the Spirit has been sent to you, unless your life is indwelled by this
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Helper, by this Advocate. He says it even earlier in the same chapter.
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And I will pray to the Father and He'll give you this Helper that He will abide with you forever, this Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it doesn't know
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Him, it doesn't see Him, but you know Him. He dwells with you. He'll be in you. I won't leave you orphans.
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I will come to you. And this really brings us to the heart of Matthew 5, verse 9.
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Peacemakers are those who have received this peace. And why have they received this peace?
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Because the Spirit has wrought it in their lives. They've received this Spirit of God. And Jesus says when this
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Helper comes, He says, don't worry, I'm not leaving you as orphans. I send the Spirit.
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The Spirit adopts you as sons. And because you're sons, now you have this peace with God.
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You've been reconciled to Him. You belong to Him. And so we see Matthew 5, verse 9 holding out the very things that Jesus teaches here in John 14.
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To have the Spirit means we have adoption. We are sons of God. And because we have this
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Spirit indwelling us, we are filled with peace that Christ gives, and for that reason, we are peacemakers.
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We are peacemakers. You will not be a peacemaker if you don't have peace with God. You will not have peace with God if you haven't received the
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Spirit of God. And if you've received the Spirit of God, you are a son of God. A daughter of God.
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A child of God. So that brings us to the second part here. The adoption of God.
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I just want to frame this idea of sonship and the role of the Spirit.
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It's so important. Some people came out yesterday morning as we began looking at Thomas Watson and his arguments for baptism, and we made it about a page and a half.
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So we're just going to do it again probably at least next Saturday, maybe even a couple more. There's so much to say there.
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But one of the points that was pressed is how do we even understand the doctrine of adoption? What does it mean to be a son of God?
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And what is true of those who belong to the household of faith? Who belongs to the household of faith? Who is a son?
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Well, the Spirit is connected to sonship, and there's no way around that. To have the Spirit is to be a child of God.
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And that's why He's called the Spirit of adoption. Spirit is always connected to sonship.
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Perfecting the image of sonship is the role of the Spirit in sanctification. To make you like the
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Son because you belong to the Son. Because you're a son of the Father, He perfects you until you look like the
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Father. Until you are like the Father. All the way until that day when seeing Him, you're made like Him. That's the role of the
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Holy Spirit in your life. No wonder it's the peacemaker who's called a son of God.
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They make peace because they've received peace from the Spirit of God. Romans 8, 14, and 15.
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As many as are led by the Spirit of God, please notice, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
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There is no son of God unless they're being led by the Spirit of God. There's no such thing.
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You don't belong. As many as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God. Why? Because you didn't receive the
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Spirit of bondage again to fear, to lack peace. You didn't receive the
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Spirit. The Spirit doesn't move in this way. The Spirit comes to bring you into bondage and fear. No, the Spirit comes to free you from all that.
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To give you peace in place of fear. Freedom in place of bondage. So what does Paul say?
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You receive the Spirit of adoption. You become sons. And for this reason you cry out,
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Abba, Father. Galatians 3, 26, For you all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
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What is a son of God? Someone who has exercised faith in Christ Jesus. They and they only are sons of God.
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They and they only occupy the household of faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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Why? Because you've put your faith in Christ. And that's why you're a son. The implications of this are profound.
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Come on Saturday morning as we talk about these things. John 1, 12.
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Jesus makes it incredibly clear. As many as received Him, to them
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He gave the right to become children of God. Who has a right to be called a child of God? Those who received
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Him. As many as received Him. These and these alone are the children of God. And what consists in the life of a child of God?
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What makes them a child of God? Instead of a child of the world and the devil? But as many as received
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Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God. To those who believe in His name.
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And what's true of those who believe in His name? Is this something you can be born into? As long as you have one believing parent?
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No. Who were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God.
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Vital that we understand this. And so the Spirit has come for the same reason
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Jesus has come. Galatians 4. To redeem those who are under the law. So that we would receive the adoption as sons.
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The Spirit is sent to adopt us. Jesus said He wouldn't leave us orphans. And so it is.
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We are sons of God. God has sent forth,
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Paul goes on to say, because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out,
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Abba, Father. So before we have the peace of God, we must have the Spirit of God. The Spirit of adoption.
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The Spirit who makes us cry out, Abba, Father. So that the Father, in that time of distress and need, can give
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His own peace through Christ by His Spirit. What do we know about Abba?
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This is a knowing term. It's not something formal. It's not
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Father. It's not when the English boy gets sent off to boarding school and hasn't seen his dad for six years and then he comes home on Christmas and says,
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Father. And there's some distance between them. That's not Abba language. That's the formality of adults meeting each other.
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The quick nod. I sort of like the gentleman. I used to love doing this in high school. You walk down the long corridor and as you see someone passing by, you give them the gentleman's nod.
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There's no gentleman nod when you're talking about Abba. Abba is running through the crowd, looking at all the faces that are unrecognizable.
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And when you see the face of the Father, you cling to the knees. Abba. I found him.
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Access beyond comprehension. And it really doesn't matter the occasion. This is what it means to have the spirit of adoption.
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It's a confidence to draw an eye to him. Because we know him. Of course we're not hiding.
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Of course we're not running away. Of course we're not distracted. We know him. The spirit of adoption makes us cry
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Abba. And when we've hidden, and when we've run, usually it's on the way back like the prodigal that we're saying
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Abba. Our confession in chapter 12 talks about the adoption of God.
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What does it mean to have this adoption? And I love the word that they chose.
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They talk about the privileges. They don't just say we have the privileges. They say something more important than that.
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He says in adoption we're taken into the number of those who have faith, those who have been born not of blood nor the will of man but of the spirit of God, the spirit of adoption.
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We're taken into the number and enjoy. That's the key. Don't just have.
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Enjoy the liberties and privileges of the sons of God. And what are these?
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He's put his name on us. We receive the spirit that adopts us. We have access to the throne of grace with boldness.
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We're so meek. We don't know what it's like to charge the throne of grace. Listen, if you comprehended the value, the infinite worth of the blood of Christ, however dirty you are, you would storm the throne of grace.
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An infinite sacrifice. An infinite shield. Nothing bars you from the presence of the
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Father. That veil that always said to the sinner, no! When Jesus breathes out his last and cries it is finished, it's torn open.
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Unfettered access to the presence of God. This is a privilege that belongs to those who are adopted.
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And it goes on to say, we cry Abba. We're pitied, protected, provided for, chastened by him, and yet never cast away.
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This is what it means to be a son of God. This is what peace with God looks like. Pitied, protected, provided, chastened.
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This is what it means to be reconciled to God. To know Him as Abba. No wonder
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J. I. Packer says in that tremendous book that's gone through dozens of print runs ever since it was published in the late 80's,
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Knowing God, and he speaks of adoption, and he says this, if you want to judge how well a person understands the
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Christian faith, you want to know how much someone understands Christianity? How much it means to them?
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Listen to this. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought that he is
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God's child and has God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship, his prayers, his whole outlook on life, it means he doesn't understand
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Christianity very well at all. Do you see what Packer's saying?
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Someone who has thoughts of what it means to cry Abba Father, someone who has understanding of this access to the
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One who pities and protects and provides and chastens is one who's received the spirit of adoption.
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Of course they're thinking with a filial fear, a filial reverence. Of course that's the controlling thought of their life.
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And if it's not, how could it be said that they've received the spirit of adoption as sons? Probably their understanding of Christianity is more of a transaction.
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I come, I believe, and therefore here's my get -out -of -hell -free card that I'll tuck into one compartment of my life.
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This is not someone who understands Christianity very well at all. And when you talk to them, usually what they have to rattle off is why they're doing pretty well and could always be doing better, but we all struggle, and it's all transactional.
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Go find someone who has the peace of God as it were, smoldering from their very presence.
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Not in some braggadocious way. Not a chip on their shoulder, but you just almost feel like a toddler when you talk to them because they're filled and subsumed with such peace.
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And they'll have a lot to say about this relationship to the Father. The Spirit does this work in our lives.
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The Spirit shines the love and the peace of Christ. No wonder in John 14 Jesus says,
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I'm not alone, I'm with My Father. That's the peace you have in Me. It's the peace of the Father that I have given to you.
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And so the Spirit of adoption comes and brings us through Christ to the Father. That's redemption.
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Because this peace was willed by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and is applied by the
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Spirit of adoption in the Beloved. The Spirit, as it were, applying what is freely given from the
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Father and accomplished by the Son. No wonder then that it's said of the
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Son, He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace fell upon Him.
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It's not an effortless thing for Jesus to say, My peace I give to you. It's so easy to walk by and greet someone, peace.
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It's not some effortless sleight of hand that Jesus can say, I give you My peace. Fallen sinners have chosen chaos and rebellion and death.
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They have forfeited, abandoned, and run away from the peace of God and communing with God. They don't deserve the peace of God.
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It's not an easy thing for Jesus to say, My peace I give to you. I don't even know who you are, just come and get it and before I know it, all the peace is...
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It's not an easy thing for Him to say. Why? Because Isaiah 53 claims the chastisement for our peace fell upon Him.
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By His stripes were made whole. Do you see? For Jesus to say, My peace
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I give to you, means He can only give us peace because He went to the cross. And so there is no peace to be given unless Jesus is the crucified
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Savior. This is what makes Him the Prince of Peace.
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Having been justified by faith, Paul says we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.
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This is a peace that comes through Jesus Christ. But it's not just because He arbitrarily gives it as He wills.
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Why can He give it? Why will He give it? Why will He give it freely? Because it comes through the blood of His cross.
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It's why He went to the cross. There's perhaps no greater reason, no greater motif of what the cross accomplishes than this, that you would have peace with the
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Father through the bloodied and crucified body of the Son. Reconciled to God.
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Isn't this what Colossians 1 .19 says? It pleased the Father that in Christ all the fullness should dwell and by Him to reconcile, to make peace with all things by Himself, whether things on the earth or things in heaven, having made peace.
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How? How was Christ the peacemaker, having made peace? Through the blood of His cross.
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That's how. There is no peacemaking without the blood of the cross.
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We're peacemakers because of the blood of the cross. It's why we're sons of God. We're sons of this Father who made peace with us by sending
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His own Son to be crucified. This is the ultimate peacemaking.
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We're justified by faith in His life, in His death, in His resurrection. This is why we have peace.
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He has made peace. He's made it through the blood of His cross. In fact, it's not just even that He has peace.
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It's not even that He's made peace. What does Ephesians say? But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for He Himself is our peace.
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Not just that He has it. Not just that He makes it. He is peace. He's peace incarnate. He is the emblem of the peace of God towards sinners.
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Is He your peace? Paul says,
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He Himself is our peace. Is He your peace? What are you seeking so desperately to find peace in?
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What's the green pasture just in front of you that says, this is peace.
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This is peace. Christ is peace.
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Do you have peace with God? That's as important as asking this.
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Do you have peace from God? How can we be ones who have been reconciled with Christ as our peace to then be troubled and fearful and anxious and idolizing everything else in our lives?
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Do you have peace with God? Then you ought to have peace from God. Do you understand? This is what it means to be a peacemaker.
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What do you know of peace? What do you know of peace? The Christian's life should be marked.
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It should stick out like a sore thumb as a life of peace. Inexplicable peace.
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Profound peace. The kind of peace that the world has to be distracted from. Has to hide from.
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Has to ignore. Maybe has to repress. It's a supernatural peace.
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That's the Christian's life. Do you know that peace? Do you know perfect peace?
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The old hymn by Edward Bickersteth. Peace. Perfect peace in this dark world of sin.
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The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. It's the blood that speaks peace. Peace.
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Perfect peace. By thronging duties pressed. Overwhelmed. Stressed out to the max.
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Troubled. Sleepless. I went last night to sit down with a family that reached out.
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A family that used to come here. And the wife's been struggling in some very deep and difficult ways lately.
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And we went out to the backyard and sat down and she shared why. Why she's restless.
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And the pain that it's causing. And the disruption that it's bringing into her life.
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Peace. Perfect peace. By thronging duties pressed. To do the will of Jesus. This is rest.
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Peace. Perfect peace. Death shadowing us and ours. Jesus has vanquished death and all of its powers.
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Listen to this. Peace. Perfect peace. Our future all unknown. Jesus we know. And He's on the throne.
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Peace beyond understanding. Peace beyond circumstances. Is the future troubled? Does it seem dark?
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Is it unknown? That's okay. Jesus you know. He's on the throne. My peace I give to you,
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He says. And so these are the peacemakers. They've received this spirit by which they cry,
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Abba Father. Their peace is transcending over all the circumstances of their life. They become by degree more and more immune to the false offers of peace in a greener pasture yet to come.
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No. There's no peace with vanity fair. They don't become friends with the world because that's enmity with God. And to God their mind is fixed and therefore they're held in perfect peace.
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These are the peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers. They'll be called sons of God. Now as we move to application, as we close here, we talk about the peacemakers.
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What is a peacemaker? I like Lloyd -Jones in his sermon on this. He defines this finally.
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He goes through several aspects of what it means to be a peacemaker and he says a peacemaker is someone who finally and ultimately is concerned with the fact that everyone should be at peace with God.
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Why do they seek to make peace? Because their ultimate concern is that others would find the peace of God that they have found.
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That others would receive the peace of God that they have received. Therefore, they are peacemakers. These ones are like God.
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These ones are the sons of God. We're reminded that this beatitude follows all the earlier beatitudes.
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You've begun with someone that is poor, bankrupt, mourning their sinfulness, brought low because of their offense, their meek, and therefore seeing their great gap and distance between how they ought to be and how they want to be and where they really are, they hunger and they thirst for righteousness.
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God declares He's going to fill them. That they'll be satisfied. And having that down payment of satisfaction, they receive the mercy of God and they become merciful.
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And for this reason now, walking in the mercy and grace of God, they begin to purify their hands and purify their hearts.
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Truly it can be said of them, though sinful like David, that they have a pure heart toward God. And it's these ones who by the time we reach v.
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9 are the peacemakers. They began poor, then they became pure, and now they're peacemakers.
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That's the flow. The logical flow. And this is vital to understand.
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Being pure in heart must precede peacemaking. Being pure in heart, having our hands and our feet cleansed in that John 13 way, goes hand in hand with being a peacemaker.
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You must cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, if you have any hope of understanding the peace and reconciliation of God.
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If you would seek to be that toward others in your life. No wonder that the
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Levitical priests were called to a certain role of purity, of an order of cleanliness.
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Why? Because they were tasked with reconciling sinful Israelites to God. They had to maintain an order, a purity.
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They had to purify their hands and be pure in heart because they were the ones that were meant to reconcile the people of God to God.
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And so it is with us. We're a priesthood, a royal priesthood unto God. Why are we pure in heart?
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So that we can be peacemakers, reconcilers. And this is why we're called sons of God.
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Jesus isn't telling you what you need to do in order to become a son of God. He's telling you what sons of God are like.
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Sons of God are peaceful, peacemaking, peace -loving. That's a son of God. Jesus does not say, blessed are the warmongers.
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He says, blessed are the peacemakers. This doesn't mean we need to take a path down toward Anabaptist pacifism.
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But it does mean we need to run all of our convictions and postures through the gauntlet of what it means to be a peacemaker.
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Because only the peacemakers are called sons of God. In other words, if we've been reconciled, we become reconcilers.
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James speaks of the wisdom that we looked at a few weeks ago. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable.
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First it's pure, then it makes peace. That's what the wisdom of God does in someone's life. They don't go from one degree of crankiness into another.
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They don't become increasingly stubborn. No, they are first pure, then peaceable. Blessed are the pure in heart.
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Why? Because they will become these peacemakers that are blessed. So purity is the basis for peace. This, of course, does not mean that we compromise.
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If purity precedes peace, then peace is never at the expense of purity. You don't compromise with sin to make friends with the world in the attempt to be a peacemaker.
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We welcome. We affirm. You've just made peace with sin. That's not a peacemaker, however much you protest to the contrary.
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A peacemaker is first pure because the wisdom from God is first pure. Only then peaceable. A filthy, hypocritical priest cannot reconcile an
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Israelite to God. And what does
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James go on to say in the very next verse? The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
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Peacemakers. What are they doing as peacemakers? How are they making peace? Well, James tells us.
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They have this fruit of their own purity, a fruit of righteousness. And what do they do with that righteousness?
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They sow it into the lives all around them. They're sowing the fruit of righteousness. And how are they sowing it?
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With accusations and intimidations? No, in peace. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
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They're peacemakers. James is telling us what a peacemaker is and what a peacemaker does. And these are sons of God.
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Some translations just jump to children of God. Of course it's comprehending sons and daughters. But we lose the import of what it means to be a son of God and the
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Hebraic concept of sonship. It's not just a generic relationship between children and a father.
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It's so much more than that. To be a son is to possess the character and to do the work of the father.
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You're a son not so much by virtue of the relationship, but by virtue of the character. By virtue of the transmission of what the father's image is.
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That's what sonship is. And so, John 8. You seek to kill Me, Jesus says to the
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Jews, because My Word has no place in you. I speak what I've seen with My Father. I'm a son because I'm like My Father.
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What does He say to the ones that are seeking to kill Him? You do what you've seen with your father. I do what
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My Father does. You do what your father does. Lie, kill, destroy. It's why you're seeking to kill
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Me. Well, they say, Abraham's our father. And what does
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Jesus say back? If you were Abraham's children, if you were the sons of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham.
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That's the idea. Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called sons of God.
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Why? Because a son of God is one like God, and God is the one who reconciles all things to Himself.
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He is the ultimate peacemaker. And therefore, if we are those that are called
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His children, His sons, we must bear that character to those around us. We're going to come back to this very point later in the same chapter, in Matthew 5, 43 through 45.
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Jesus goes on to say that by loving our enemies, we become sons of the Father who is in heaven.
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You see? So as we come to a close, with some application, we ask this question.
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If we're to bear the character of God, the peacemaker, the God of peace, what kind of character must we cultivate in our lives?
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Let me just run through several of these. First, we avoid being quarrelsome.
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Isn't that just on the face of being a peacemaker, that you're not quarrelsome? You know,
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I never grew up with a brother, but it seems to me like in a household with brothers that are close in age, one is always wanting to wrestle, and the other one isn't.
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And it kind of goes back and forth. I see this in some ways with my little girl. One wants to tease, and the other one's like, no,
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I'm being serious. I'm trying to color. I'm doing work. One just wants to get into it. Come on, let's go. One's always quarrelsome, and one just wants peace.
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Well, in the household of faith, there's no room to be quarrelsome. There's no room to try to engage and wrestle at every turn.
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This means we do our best to give no voluntary offense. Offenses will come, but we do our best before God to give no voluntary offense, to not knowingly give offense.
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We seek to remain blameless in this very way. This is a peacemaker. This is one who's like God. Next, and closely related to that, we learn now to subdue our tongue, because James says the tongue is a restless evil.
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And that means you don't just control something in the organ of your mouth. You recognize it comes from the very thoughts of your heart.
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And so you guard your thoughts. You examine them before the
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Lord. Is there some evil glance that's happening in your heart, some malicious desire that's happening at the level of your heart?
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It'll be there long before it exits your mouth. But you also have to put a watch over your mouth and guard your tongue.
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It means you won't harbor wounding whispers. Not only will they not proceed from your mouth, you won't entertain them and allow them to come in to be retransmitted.
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You don't harbor whispers that would wound or disrupt. And so one writes, I may hear much that I cannot tell.
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I may know much that I must conceal. I must not allow jealousies towards any to dwell within me.
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I must be swift to hear everything that is good, slow to speak everything that isn't. That's the idea. This is a peacemaker.
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A church ought to be full of holding tanks. We're not pipes just conveying information and intrigue and gossip around the rows.
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We're all holding tanks. However it comes to us, it comes in and just sits there and becomes stale and stagnant because we won't allow it to keep circulating.
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We're peacemakers. This means we have a very thin skin for others.
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We see others and we have an eggshell about them. I hope they understood.
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I hope they haven't taken offense at that. But we have a Tyrannosaurus Rex skin for ourselves.
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Someone insults you to your face and you find a charitable way to look at it.
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Thick, thick skin. Almost ignorant. This is someone who has the heart of a peacemaker.
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It means we have a watchfulness over ourselves so that we can be watchful over others. We're watching ourselves not for our own sake but for the sake of others.
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We're mindful of our own words, our own behavior, so that we can mind and be cautious toward others who want to be good -willed.
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Now in the home as much as in the church, this means that men especially have to learn the difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking.
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What is the cardinal sin of men, especially men in the home? Passivity. What's the old tired line of the henpecked husband in the home?
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Just keeping the peace. No, you're not keeping peace at all. You've just become passive to difficulty and trouble.
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And it would cost you too much and it would be too exhausting to really take things head on and lead.
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This is the fundamental discord of the fall. This is not peace. This is not peacemaking. This is just passivity disguised as peace.
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But at the same time, don't think that peacemaking is this bold aggression because that often strips peace away.
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Peace is like this garden. Every aspect of it is delicate and yet it's lush and rich.
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You can wound it so easily if you take the wrong step or you move too quickly and yet all together it can withstand the hail and the rain.
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That's peace in the life of a Christian, in the household of a Christian. And so we take pains to prevent any discord.
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We do that not just by avoiding, but by promoting. We promote humility. We promote charity.
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We promote unity. You become an ad executive, marketing as it were, for humility and love among the people of God.
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You walk by the streets, you know, on the streets of Boston or Worcester, there's always someone posted on the wall and they're getting paid,
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I don't know, $10 an hour. They have a stack of brochures advertising something and as you walk by, they're just doing this.
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People are either dodging it or throwing it away and, you know, you go a block down and it's just litter everywhere.
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This person is devoted to just promoting and that's you. You're just always, where anyone passes by,
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I'm going to promote unity. Unity, love, love you. Charity, charity, love you. That's what it means to be a peacemaker.
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It means, as Augustine said, you carry the best to both sides. You carry the, is there a conflict?
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You take the best to both sides. Augustine said he learned that from his mother, Monica. He said throughout her holy life, she was in the middle of so many, so much intrigue and scandal and he saw as a young boy how his mother would only ever report and take the best of both sides and give the best to one another.
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So Augustine learned a lot about being a peacemaker from watching his mother. What are our children learning from us?
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Are they learning how to be peacemakers? Are they learning how to look aside and go, we don't really deal with those people over there.
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We have no dealings with that clan. And so peace is something that we pursue.
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Let us pursue the things which make for peace. You don't have to pursue peace if it's easy to find. You just stumble upon it.
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Peace is never presented as something you stumble upon. Peace is always presented as something you need to pursue.
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That means peace is evasive. Peace is trying to get away from you. You've got to hunt it down, chase it down.
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Pursue this kind of peace, Paul says. But he also says, if it's possible, because of our flesh, because of the world, because of this fallen condition, peace is not always possible, even for the most consistent and zealous peacemaker.
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Paul says, if it's possible, as much as it depends on you, pursue this kind of peace.
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So sometimes you have to let conflict be. And the only peace you find is not in a healed relationship or a wholeness in the home or in the marriage.
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It's the peace you have in your conscience. I've done what I can do, Lord. You know. You know.
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Well, as we close, brothers and sisters, let me say this. We live in a world full of restlessness, trouble, fear, anxiety.
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Look at the suicide rates. Look at the rates of prescription to antidepressants. We live in a world suffused with fear and anxiety and trouble and distress.
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Are we not missing the golden way for us to be salt and light in such a world?
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Which is by having the peace that only can be found in Christ. Glowing like light in a dark world from our very lives.
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Do you know this peace? Do you have this peace? Do you want this peace? Will you make this kind of peace?
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If Christ gives you His peace, He's given you His Spirit, and if you have this Spirit, you'll be a peacemaker.
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You will have a lack of rest because others are not resting with God. You will have a lack of peace because others are not at peace with God.
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You see? You're a peacemaker. A Christian is to be consumed by the peace and rest that comes through Christ.
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Only Christians can have this kind of peace and rest. We might as well have different words, special vocabulary for what this peace is compared to the peace of the world.
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Christians alone understand why there is unrest. Why there is trouble. They know from their own experience as well as from observation, the deepest source of what trouble, unrest, and fear is.
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Sin. They also know the greatest wellspring of peace and mercy, which is
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God the Savior in the crucified body of His Son. And so when we convey this peace, this fearful, miserable world around us, we'll take notice.
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If there's a lack of anything in our culture, it's a lack of peace, isn't it? If there's anything so sorely needed in our culture, it's this peace, isn't it?
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Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.
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And above all these things, brothers and sisters, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which you are called in one body, and be thankful.
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Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom, first pure, then peaceable, teaching, admonishing one another, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the
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Lord and to one another. What a lampstand we would be if the peace of the
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God of peace would rule in our hearts when we gather and when we fellowship and when we partake of that peace together as one.
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Amen? Blessed are the peacemakers. They will be called the sons of God.
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Let's pray. Father, thank
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You for Your Word. Thank You for Your promise, Lord. As You say,
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Lord, all things have been delivered to You, and You say to us, come to Me, all you who are heavy laden, all you who are troubled, all you who are restless, in Me you'll find rest.
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Lord, You say that You'll give us this rest. You'll give us this peace. And so, Lord, we pray each one here would take that yoke upon ourselves that is light and not burdensome, so that we can find not only rest, but Lord, be filled with the joy that comes from knowing
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You and communing with You. A joy and a peace that surpasses understanding our circumstances.
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That is not merely solving our circumstances, but is able to sit, even in the presence of enemies and chaos and injury, and find that You have spread the feast as our faithful shepherd, leading us ever into a peace that comes only from You.
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Keep us, Lord, from the power of sin. Keep us, Lord, from the fear of man. Give us peace in the midst of a fallen world.
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And teach us by Your own Spirit to be peacemakers in this way, knowing that soon, very, very soon, the
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God of peace will crush Satan under our feet. And this is our prayer in Your Son's name.