The Fantasy of World Peace

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of

Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L.

Moody.

We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of

the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com.

We hope you enjoy the message.

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew chapter 5 and the title of this morning's message is

Blessed are the Peacemakers.

Blessed are the Peacemakers.

We know that Jesus is called what?

He's called the Prince of Peace.

For the response of reading a moment ago, we heard those words from Isaiah chapter 9, that

one day the government will be upon his shoulder and his name

will be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the

Prince of Peace.

And of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.

So as Christians, we are not only to await the coming of the Messianic

King, coming of the Prince of Peace, we should right now, we

need to be right now, we need to be praying for peace.

For a whole variety of different reasons, believers need to be praying for peace.

And we should be peacemakers.

What does that mean?

Well, Romans 12, 18 says, if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live

at peace with all men.

And we need to try to do that.

We need to be kind and a soft answer turns away wrath and all of the rest.

But we know that true peace, peace with God and the peace of God is

only possible through the Gospel of Peace.

Look at Matthew chapter five, verse nine, because we are a people who believe the Gospel.

This is what he says.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons

of God.

Let's pray.

Our Father, how thankful we are for you and for your word and for how you are

working in the lives of those assembled here this morning.

And Lord, how thankful we are, most of all, for the Prince of Peace,

for Jesus, who when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten.

He is truly our example.

So, Father, help us to learn from him.

And Father, we are most thankful of all that Christ died for us and was risen.

He made peace through the blood of his cross.

That's our message.

That's the solution.

That's what the world needs.

We know this.

So we ask all of it in Jesus name.

Amen.

So one of the things that every Christian needs to be doing right now, we need to be praying for

peace.

Amen.

We could talk about all the things that are happening in the world today.

Certainly this is needed now perhaps more than ever.

So pray for peace.

I'm reminded of what the Bible says in Psalm 122, verse 6, where it talks about pray

for the peace of Jerusalem.

But not only are we praying for peace, maybe on a large scale worldwide.

We should also be praying for peace nationally.

There's not a lot of peace in this country right now.

We don't need to go through all the examples.

We know it.

So we need to pray for peace on a large scale.

We should be praying for peace in our nation.

And then also pray for peace in our personal lives and personal interactions.

So that's kind of the outline I'm going to be working from.

Number one, peace, pray for peace, approaching this on a macro level

worldwide.

And then number two, kind of narrowing it down to focus on our country.

And then number three, we'll finish how we should all personally be peacemakers.

You should be a peacemaker.

What did Jesus say?

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called what?

Sons of God.

Are you a son of God?

Are you a child of God?

If you're saved, you're a child of God.

Therefore, you need to be, we need to be peacemakers.

All right, so first, let's talk about this praying for peace, kind of the peace of the world.

This does not mean, what I don't mean is praying for some type of universal peace

or some unrealistic vision of world peace.

You hear people talking about this, that, you know, it's my greatest desire to see world peace,

some sort of utopia.

That's not going to happen in this age.

It's just not going to happen.

Skip over to Matthew chapter six.

Things can be more peaceful than they are, however.

Matthew chapter six, verses nine and 10, Jesus told his disciples.

He said, in this manner, therefore, pray.

Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So get this true peace or world peace that will never happen

until Jesus returns.

So if you want to pray for world peace, pray, Lord, thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And you know that God's will is not being done on earth right now.

So when it comes to world peace, pray, thy kingdom come.

Because when the prince of peace does come at the second advent, there will be

worldwide peace.

What does it say?

Jesus will rule with a rod of iron.

The devil will be bound in the bottomless pit for 1 ,000 years.

So that time, the kingdom is coming.

Pray for it.

Really, pray, thy kingdom come.

But until then, the more people move away from God, and it seems that people are moving away

from God at an increased rate these days, the more that happens, the worse

things get.

Isn't that true?

Isn't that what we see being played out day by day, week by week?

Things are getting worse.

Speaking of world peace, in his song, Imagine, John Lennon, formerly of

the Beatles, sang about his belief that peace on earth was obtainable if

we could just eradicate religion.

Well, that's what Vladimir Lennon believed as well.

They were both severely misguided.

The fact is their ideology of Marxism is responsible for the death of

over 100 million people in the 20th century.

And now it seems that there are people who want to give it another go.

World War I broke out roughly 100 years ago, a little more.

And it was called, do you remember what they called World War I?

Yeah, the war to end all wars.

Well, how'd that work out?

Obviously, didn't end up being the case.

So we need to pray that history does not repeat itself.

This weekend, of course, is Memorial Day.

Memorial Day weekend where our nation honors the memory of those who paid that ultimate

sacrifice for freedom.

But unfortunately, in every new generation, evil men rise

up.

Freedom is once again threatened.

And this is what Jesus said in Matthew 24.

We should not be surprised that until he returns, there will be wars and rumors

of wars.

So again, we pray, Lord, come back.

Lord, thy kingdom come.

The point is, man cannot bring in world peace.

That's not possible.

Why?

Because man is the problem.

Man cannot bring in world peace because man is the problem.

It was Adam who cast the world into darkness.

Only the second Adam, the God -man, is able to take the world out

of darkness.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 22 says, for as in Adam, all die, even so

in Christ, all shall be made alive.

Jesus is the only solution.

You know, getting this political party in power, voting for this candidate, having this movement, doing this.

That's not going to solve anything.

Could things get a little better?

Maybe.

That's not the solution.

Christ is the only solution.

So world peace is simply a fantasy apart from the second advent of

Jesus Christ.

So pray, thy kingdom come.

All right, moving on to the second part, peace in this nation.

However, it is possible.

It is possible to have peace in a nation.

But again, that goes back to who?

Who does it go back to?

Right?

It goes back to Christ.

Psalm 33 verse 12 says, blessed is the nation whose

God is the Lord.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

Historically, the United States, we have been based.

Well, originally we were, you know, we've always had our imperfections.

We get it.

But the Christian faith flourished in the United States because when we talked about God, that's who we were

talking about.

I believe things are changing.

Things are definitely changing.

But God has blessed this country like no other country on earth.

Why?

Because we have that Christian foundation.

Now, we still have things pretty good compared to a lot of places on earth.

But every believer who has the Holy Spirit within them, we see the moral

decay in our country.

And as the result of it, society is starting to break down.

And now we're sort of seeing the snowball effect where it's just getting worse at an increased

rate.

I was looking at some of the patriotic songs in our hymnal.

I love some of the patriotic songs.

I heard Jen playing some of them before the service started.

I love those songs.

And we always try to play one or two.

So I was thinking about those hymns.

But looking at some of the words, I'm speaking my own opinion here.

They just don't ring as true today.

Let me just illustrate it this way.

I remember after 9 -11, everybody was talking about God bless

America.

Remember that?

Some of you don't remember that, but most of us do.

After 9 -11, that's all you heard.

God bless America.

Again and again.

And there's the song, God bless America.

Wishful thinking, maybe.

I don't know.

And then there were the statistics of how after 9 -11, church attendance went up.

People all of a sudden started going to church more, and there was this increased interest in the things

of God.

But what happened?

Well, slowly, after a few weeks and a few months, it's kind of like the children of Israel.

We've seen this on Wednesday night.

They had some good moments.

They had some victories.

There were times where God was pleased with them and blessed them, but after some time, what did they do?

They just went back to their old ways.

They never seemed to learn.

And I don't know that we're learning in this country.

But, yeah, God bless America, that's all you heard.

I don't hear people saying that anymore.

Do you?

I don't hear people saying that.

I think the people who didn't mean it, they're no longer pretending.

And then for true believers, I think we've finally realized God

is not going to bless a country that rebels against him.

God is not going to do that.

The blessings that we still enjoy, really, they're a remnant from what we had.

Just one quick comment, one more quick comment.

After 9 -11, there was a few very well -known preachers, and there were many more who were

not well -known that didn't get talked about.

But a few well -known preachers, they went out on a limb and they said,.

You know what?

We brought this on ourselves.

This is our fault.

We brought this on ourselves, and God has lifted his protection, and that's why this happened.

And those preachers were almost universally condemned.

Maybe it's time to consider the possibility that they were right.

What does the scripture say?

God is not mocked.

Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website,

morriscornickchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.