Christ Is Our Peace

The Universal Problem of Alienation

0:04 Racial and religious suspicion, racial and religious antagonism, racial and religious bitterness, alienation, tension, racial and religious persecution, strife, pride.

0:30 Are these ugly realities peculiar to the mid-seventies?

0:36 Well, I'm sure we know they're part and parcel of the mid-seventies. We see them in our own country. If we're at all aware of what's going on in the world, we know that these things are present in certain parts of the United Kingdom, particularly in Northern Ireland.

0:53 The tension between Protestants and Catholics in the Middle East, the tension between Jew and Arab in our own country, the bitterness that exists between racial and ethnic groups. And my question is, are these...

1:10 Are these things peculiar to our own generation? And if you have any acquaintance with the word of God, you answer without having to give much thought at all, absolutely not.

1:25 These very things were part and parcel of the situation into which the gospel came in the first century. And in particular, it came into a situation where there was tremendous and almost unspeakable and unimaginable...

1:42 Antagonism between Jew and Gentile. An antagonism that knew no bounds. To the Jew, every non-Jew was a Gentile dog. And to the Gentile, every Jew was this antagonistic and exclusivistic oddball with whom he wished to have nothing to do.

2:03 But into that situation, the gospel came. And it came by the word of the apostles and those...

The Gentiles' Former Condition and Christ's Transformative Work

2:12 labored with them and in the power of the Spirit and effected a radical change not only in the lives of individuals in their relationship to God, but with reference to these things of racial and religious suspicion, antagonism, bitterness, alienation, tension, etc. And it's precisely this wonderful effect of the gospel in the first century which the apostle is dealing with in the passage that is now before us in our careful study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. And will you follow please as I read this morning Ephesians 2 verses 11 through 22. Wherefore remember that once ye the Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that ye were at that time circumcised. Separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus

3:28 ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who hath made both one and break down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the law of enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh. For through him we both have our access in spirit unto the Father. So then, ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom or in union with whom each several building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom

4:44 ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. In the two previous studies of this paragraph in Ephesians chapter 2, we have noted that in verses 11 and 12, the apostle gives us a compact statement of what the Ephesian Gentiles were before they became Christians. You will notice that he is directing his remarks to that segment of the Ephesian church, and it was the majority numerically, who had as their background religiously and nationally, ethnically, and all of the rest, that which was common to the Gentiles, that is, the non-Jewish nations and peoples. And he says that their condition was essentially one of being separate from Christ. They had no vital connection with the promised Messiah. All of the things peculiar to the coming of Messiah were limited to the nation of Israel. So their condition, essentially separate from Christ,

6:03 objectively alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of the promise, and subjectively and personally their condition is described in these frightening words, without hope, and without God. That was the condition of these Gentile Christians prior to the coming of the grace of God. And in that condition, the Jews made them very much aware of their being separate from the Christ, separate from the commonwealth of Israel, for he says, ye were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh. The Jews delighted, they were delighted, they were delighted to remind these Gentiles that they were the uncircumcised, the peoples into which God never entered in covenant, into which he never entered in a covenant relationship, and gave to them, and did not give to them, the sign of that relationship in circumcision. And we saw in our study that this focuses upon the two dimensions of the problem of the Gentiles. They were not only cut off from God, but they were cut off from the people of Israel. And they were cut off from the

7:19 Gentiles. They were cut off from God. Without hope and without God, there was a vertical dimension of the problem, but there was a horizontal dimension. They were separate from the very means that God had ordained for bringing people nigh to himself. They had no prophets, they had no sacrificial system given by God, they had no priesthood, they had no temple that was given of God, and so they were not only without hope and without God in a vertical sense, but they were in the language of this passage far off from the means that would be in the blessing of God effectual to their salvation. That was their condition prior to the coming of the gospel. Verse 13 sets before us what they had become by means of the gospel. But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were afar off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. This is the general statement of what

8:19 they had become. And he sets before them this vivid contrast. But now, at one time you were this, but now you are this. And the contrast is vividly underscored in the imagery of being afar off and now being made nigh. And the means by which this transformation has occurred is the blood of Christ and the sphere in which it transpires is that of human being. And the sphere in which it transpires in union with Christ, in union with Christ Jesus, ye are now made near. Now, having given the general statement of what the grace of God has done, the Apostle Paul is concerned to open up from the general into the particular. And what we have in the rest of this paragraph is an expansion of what is given to us in germ form, in seed form, in seed form, in seed form, in seed form, in seed form,

9:19 in verse 13. Having told us that these Gentiles are brought near, now he wants to expand upon the issue and tell us precisely how Jew and Gentile are brought near, not only to God, but to one another. And never forget the two dimensions are constantly in the Apostle's mind. And what I wish to do at the beginning of our study this morning is to give you a broad, overview of the remainder of the paragraph, so that you follow the line of argument and the development of thought. Then we shall go back and examine just the first phrase in some detail.

Overview of Peace: Procurement, Proclamation, Participation, and Consequences

10:02 Now, I confess that I've wrestled probably almost twice the time in preparation for the message this morning than I normally spend. I'm still not satisfied with it. It's one of those paragraphs that's so massive, it's so full of such rich thought. One feels, you just can't hold it all together. But such as I have, give I unto you this morning in the name of the Lord, and may he be pleased to bless it. All right? What do we have then in this expanded statement? Well, in verses 14 to 16, we have a statement concerning the procurement of peace and oneness. Peace and oneness are the two great themes of the remainder of the paragraph. Four times the word peace occurs. Four times the word one occurs. And you can just go through the paragraph and circle it for yourself. And so the apostle is concerned that having told us that those who are far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ by virtue of union with Christ, he wants to tell us how such nearness was procured. To procure something, meaning to obtain something by effort.

11:19 How was this procured? On what basis? By what means were they brought near? In what sense is the blood of Christ the means of drawing them near to God and near to each other? And so in verses 14 to 16, he gives us the procurement of peace, the agent by which it is procured, for he is our peace who hath made both one. And then the activity by which he procured the peace. And he talks about this breaking down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh, having reconciled them in one body through the cross, slaying the enmity. So we are given to understand that the peace was procured and the agent was the Lord Jesus, the activity, his redemptive work.

12:19 upon the cross. But then in verse 17 we have a shift in thought from the procurement of this peace and oneness to the proclamation of this peace and oneness. Verse 17, and he came and preached peace to you that were afar off and peace to them that were nigh. It was not enough that the peace was procured. Until that peace was proclaimed, these Gentiles were not enough. They were not enough. They were not enough. They were not enough.

12:50 The Gentiles were in effect still afar off from God and from his visible people. And so the apostle is explaining his statement in verse 13. Ye that sometimes were afar off were made nigh. How? Not only because peace was procured in Christ by the cross, but peace was proclaimed by Christ through his appointed messengers. And then in verse 18, he gives a description of their participation in this peace and oneness. For through him we both have our access in one spirit unto the Father. This is talking of experience. We, Jew and Gentile,

13:40 have access. Here is a description of their actual participation in that peace. So you have the procurement of it. Verses 14, to 16. The proclamation of it. Verse 17. Participation in it. Verse 18. And then verses 19 to 22. Here are the consequences. So then, in the light of the procurement, the proclamation, the participation, so then, here's the wonderful conclusion, the wonderful consequences. You are no more strangers and sojourners. And now he goes back to the thought patterns of verses 11 and 12.

14:21 You were this, but in the light of what has transpired, in procurement, proclamation, and participation, this is all changed now. You're no longer strangers and sojourners. There are wonderful consequences for the Gentiles. Verses 19a. No more strangers and sojourners. Wonderful consequences for all believers, fellow citizens with the saints, the household of God being built upon the foundation. He says, You are now the city of God, the house of God, the church of God. That's what he tells them. Well, that basically is what the paragraph's all about, I think, after spending many, many hours in trying to analyze it and lay it out. And if we alter any of that as we go along, you'll have to give me

15:08 that liberty. But I believe that's the drift of thought. And if we keep that in mind, then we have a wonderful description of what Almighty God did at Ephesus and follow closely. What he always does in dealing with the problem of racial suspicion, racial and religious tension, barriers, and all of these other problems that cripple our own society and many societies, here is God's answer to that puzzling question. What can we do? What can be done to bring men together? Here's the answer of God. This is how he did it at Ephesus. Much for that broad overview. Now we come this morning to begin our study of the procurement of this peace and oneness. And the first thing that encounters us is this statement concerning the

Christ: The Agent and Essence of Peace

16:05 agent who procured it. Verse 14a. For he is our peace. As the apostle is about to expand on this subject, subject of the procurement of peace, he is our peace. He is our peace. He is our peace.

16:23 He brings together this tremendous emphasis or underscores with tremendous emphasis by bringing together these few words that all of our attention must be primarily upon the agent who has effected this peace. Now look at the words themselves. For he is our peace. And in the original, this is not the normal way of making this statement. It's the original way of making this statement. It's the statement. He is this or he is that. But the apostle Paul arranges the words and chooses his words in such a way that a more accurate conveyance of the ethos, of the mood, of the thought of the original would be to render it like this. For he, even he, is our peace. In other words, what has

17:21 been hinted in the general statement of verse 13 is now explicitly and emphatically asserted in verse 14. Look back at verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye that once were afar off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. In that statement, that we who were afar off are made nigh, there were two references to Christ. In union with Christ, we've been brought nigh. On the basis of the blood of Christ, we've been brought nigh. We've been brought nigh. But so that you'll know that this was no accidental emphasis in drawing your attention to the person and work of Christ and to your union with Christ, I now assert at the outset of my expanded statement, Christ himself is the very essence of that peace. For he

18:18 himself is our peace. Before he gives us details as to how he has effected our peace, the precise manner in which he broke down the barriers Godward and manward, before he leads us into that sacred sanctuary of those last three or four verses, what we now have become as a result of this, the city of God, the people of God, the church of God, the temple of God. He says, one thing I want you to keep central in your thought is that Christ himself, is our peace. Further, the apostle is careful to emphasize that that which he now says is not exclusively applicable to the Gentiles. Look at the text. For he is our peace. He began the

19:17 paragraph by saying, wherefore remember that once ye, the Gentiles, he was no Gentile by birth. He's pointing to the Gentiles. He said, you Gentiles were separate from Christ. Strangers, from the covenants of the promise, not Paul. As a Jew by birth, he was near in the language of this passage. He was within the framework of the covenants of the promise. He tells us all those things in Philippians 3. Furthermore, in verse 13, he says, but now in Christ Jesus, ye that once were far off, you Gentiles there at Ephesus, he's very careful to be pointing the finger, saying, I'm talking to you, I'm talking to you, I'm talking to you people, not myself. But now in verse 14, for he is our peace. He is our peace, not your peace. He is our peace. In other words, he's leading us to understand that when Christ effected this peace and reconciliation, Godward and manward on behalf of the Gentiles, it was by means of a work that is equally applicable to every Jew. And so the emphasis here,

20:31 fall, falls upon the universal scope of Christ as the peace of all men. Furthermore, he emphasizes the present reality of this. Look, for he is our peace. As we shall see when we descend to details, it was not enough that an objective once for all work of peacemaking should be accomplished upon the cross. That was not enough. And that's the beauty of this passage.

21:02 He speaks of Christ's work in space and time upon the cross, through the blood of his cross, slaying this enmity between Jew and Gentile, reconciling both in one body unto God. But then he goes on to say, it's the same Christ who after he had died and risen and gone back to heaven, he came to Ephesus and he preached the peace. And not only did he come to Ephesus and preach the peace, but it's the same Christ, he said, with whom you are in living, vital, relationship right now, in whom the temple grows. And the emphasis is upon the present ministry of Christ. He is our peace. He not only procured it by his activity in the past, in time and space, when he died outside the city walls of Jerusalem, he not only brought you into the orbit of that peace with God and with his people, when through his messengers he preached to you, but right now, by the indwelling, of his spirit, enabling Jew and Gentile to have the same access to the same God in the one spirit, he is even now the one who effects your peace. And so he says, whenever you think of peace with God and with your fellow man, when you think of the barriers God would and man would having been

22:22 flattened, think of Christ, not alone in his past work, but in his present work and in the glory and reality of your present union with him. He is, not he was, he is our peace. And then further, he is our peace. See how every word is just pregnant with significance? And what does peace mean in this passage? Well, it doesn't mean you go around.

22:49 Peace, brother, peace. No, no. You see how words get prostituted and bled of their meaning? What does peace mean in this context? Well, I'll tell you what peace means. Peace is that which is defined in this context is nothing less than the peace of God. Peace is that which is defined in the removal of every barrier that will bring the sinner into loving communion with God and will remove every barrier and bring the most antagonist groups of antagonistic groups of men into loving, intimate relationship to each other. That's peace. Exegetes, the word peace in the context, for he is our peace who made both one, broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished the law of the world, and made peace with God. Peace is that which is defined in

23:42 the context, for he is our peace who made both one, broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished the law of the world, and made peace with God. Peace is that which is defined in his flesh, the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances that he might create in himself of the two, one new man, so making peace. He says, that's what I mean by peace. Taking the Jew who despised the Gentile dog. And doing what? Just getting to sit next to one another and tolerate each other? No, he says, making them one new man. Uniting them in one bond of common life and love and truth. But then there is the other. He says, making them one new man, uniting them in another dimension of peace, verse 16, and might reconcile them both in one body unto God, and so reconcile them that not only is God's anger laid to rest and neutralized, but so that they have free access, which is literally introduction to God, that they carry on loving communion with the living God of heaven and earth. Now, that's what peace is. Not just the absence of war and tension and suspicion, but the positive application, the positive impartation of communion

24:54 and fellowship Godward and manward. Now, that's what the words themselves mean. For he is our peace. Now, why did the apostle begin his explanatory statement with those words? Well, for the simple reason that every thing that follows forced him to do it as he conceived his own line of thought how shall i describe to these ephesian gentiles and jews that which god has done in the new thing that he has wrought in breaking down the barriers and he has in his mind the work of christ upon the cross and all of these factors and as he thinks of how he'll lay them all out and teach the people he says i must begin with putting all of the focus upon christ himself because in his expansion of it everything points to christ look at it with me will you we're going to go through the passage

25:58 again quickly verse 14b he is our peace who made both one who did that christ did and broke down the middle wall of partition who did that christ did having abolished in his foreign the enmity who did that christ did that he might create in himself of the two one new man so making peace who did this creating of the two into one christ did verse 16 and might reconcile them both in one body unto god through the cross who did that christ did having slain the enmity who did that christ did and he came and preached peace to you who did that christ did verse 18 for through him we have our access in one spirit unto the father by whom do we have access by christ and then as he goes on to describe the results of it christ is central again he speaks of our privileges being no longer strangers and sojourners but fellow citizens we belong to the city of god and of the household of god we belong to the house of god built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets we belong to the church of god christ and the church of god we belong to the church of god and we belong to the church of god we belong to the church of god we belong to the church of god

27:13 himself the chief cornerstone that stone which plumbs the two walls and brings them together and then he goes on to say it's in union with christ that the buildings fitly framed together grow and it's in union with christ that we're building together to be a habitation of the spirit you see what he's done having fought through the development of his own explanation and having seen that in explaining how it is that we are being built upon the foundation of the is that every barrier godward has been broken down and every barrier manward has been broken down by some facet of the past or present work of christ he can do no other than introduce the subject with these words he is our peace you must never think of peace godward or manward apart from thinking of this glorious person and the perfection of his work on behalf of sinners every aspect of peace between god and man and man and his fellow man derives its life's blood from the person and work of jesus christ our lord now briefly

The Folly of Humanistic and Liberal Approaches to Peace

28:36 that's an exposition of the words in their context in their setting now what does all this say to us well it is a word of instruction that and a word of warning to this effect and follow closely this is the burden of everything we've considered thus far this morning whatever concerns are brought before us in the details of this paragraph of how peace has been made between jew and gentile between god and man we dare not lose sight of three things the centrality of the person of christ the foundation of that peace in the work of christ and the work of the person of christ the necessity of union with Christ, if we're to be the recipients of it all.

29:29 Now, that's very simple, but that's the heart of the whole thing. If He is our peace,

29:36 and everything else simply explains the various dimensions of how He is the peace of His people, Godward and manward, then, my dear people, in our study of the passage, in our contemplation of our own Christian experience, we dare not move from the centrality of the person of Christ, who is the agent effecting this peace. We dare not move from its foundations in the work of Christ,

30:10 by the blood of His cross. We dare not move from contemplating the necessity of union with Christ as the only way in which we can enter in to these wonderful, wonderful privileges. Now, if that's so, do you see the absolute folly of the insipid humanism by which men seek to effect peace in our day? Now, what do I mean by insipid humanism?

30:40 Well, when something's insipid, it's something you don't get excited about. It's flat, and it's tasteless. And what is humanism?

30:49 Humanism is basically any system of thought which declares that man is capable of fulfilling and attaining his purpose, and attaining his ideals without the intervention of God. It's do-it-yourself. Everything to be all we desire to be, we've got in us if we'll only use it. That's a poor man's definition of humanism.

31:13 But I hope it's one that sticks. And humanism is insipid. I don't know how anyone even gets excited about it. Most people don't.

31:23 Most political speeches, when the president comes on the air to tell us everything's all right, it's the flattest, most insipid thing in all the world. It's almost like he can't even convince himself it's so. And the rest of the politicians are just the same. You see the folly of insipid humanism.

31:39 What are we going to do with tensions in the Middle East? What are we going to do with the racial tensions in our own country? What are we going to do with the problems in Northern Ireland? Do you see the folly of an insipid humanism that will not allow the person and work of Jesus Christ to enter the picture?

32:00 Insipid humanism is no answer, as it was no answer at Ephesus. What in the world would bring those Jews, who congregated at the local synagogue there, at Ephesus, who, when they passed their Gentile neighbors, would look upon them as dogs? What will ever bring those people, not just to look at one another with some degree of civilized decency, but to embrace one another with a holy kiss?

32:29 There's only one thing. He is our peace. He is our peace. That's the answer.

32:39 And humanism appears, in all of its bloodless, colorless, insipid reality, next to the vigorous teaching of the Word of God.

32:52 Consider also how theological liberalism has no answer to these problems. The text says, He is our peace. And who is the He? The Christ referred to in the passage.

33:04 The Christ of apostolic testimony. The Christ who is God incarnate. The Christ of miracle. The Christ of blameless, sinless life.

33:14 The Christ who died upon the cross, who rose from the dead. Paul's been dealing with these things in the previous chapter. He speaks of the mighty power of God wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. And when he says in verse 13, Now, in Christ Jesus, His Christ is not the religious ideal projected upward out of the thoughts of men.

33:35 He's the Christ who came down from heaven by means of a virgin's womb. The Christ who lived, who died, who was buried, who was raised again from the dead, who sent forth His Spirit. But religious liberalism has a Christ who has no uniqueness to His person except that He was a little better than the rest of us. He's some kind of a freak in the evolutionary process.

34:01 Jumped up a few degrees and pegs higher than most of us. But He's not God! And man, He is just man who's very God-like. But He's man still.

34:15 He's a Christ who performs no miracles, who never was raised from the dead. The resurrection was just the loving afterthought of people who got so attached to Jesus that He lived on in their hearts. And if He lived in their hearts, they might as well say that He came alive and come out of a tomb sometime.

34:33 And now they tell us, take the ethics of Jesus and we'll get people to be sweet to one another. Oh, my friends, it's tragic. I hear someone snickering. It ought to be.

34:44 It ought to be. It ought to be. It ought to be. It ought to be.

34:44 It ought to be. It ought to be laughed at in that sense. In the sense that God laughs at the folly of man. We ought to laugh at the folly of theological liberalism.

34:57 The curse of trying to resolve the problems that go as deep as the problem between Jew and Gentile. They cannot be resolved by anything less than He is our peace. And it takes all the vigor of the full, essential deity and truth of the true humanity of the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, and all the reality of His work upon the cross and His resurrection and the sending of His Spirit. It takes all of those redemptive realities to get that stubborn, proud Jew,

The Folly of Mysticism and Sociological Manipulation

35:34 that dark and pagan Gentile to bring them to the cross. See the folly then of insipid humanism, theological liberalism. Do you see the folly of the mysticism of our day? We live in the day of TM.

35:55 Even got bumper stickers. I practice transcendental meditation. That is, I get away from it all and turn inward upon myself.

36:05 Oh, my friends, how foolish.

36:10 If TM can answer to the needs of that terrible barrier that exists between men, then this text must be scrubbed out of Holy Scripture. He is our peace. The answer lies outside of us. Until we see it as outside of us and coming down to us from heaven, we'll never know it in our hearts.

36:31 You don't find it by turning into your heart.

36:35 You find it by turning outward to the one who came down from heaven and who comes and preaches peace to us in the apostolic gospel. And then, I want to touch one other false way in which peace is people attempt to make peace by sociological manipulation. What do I mean by that? By seeking to break down barriers by legislation.

36:57 Forced association.

37:02 Done work, my friends. You may force the Jew and Gentile to sit side by side in a religious convocation, but I tell you they'll be as far from one another as California from Maine in their hearts. That's not peace. You may force them to sit together and have a policeman there ready to break it up if they start going at it.

37:24 But that's not peace. And it's not even peace if for fear that the policeman's club will break. Bop them on the bean if they go at one another and they simply look civil. That's not peace.

37:37 Not in terms of this passage. We both have access in the one spirit unto God. And where does the spirit operate? Not in the external restraint, but in the internal attitudes of the heart.

37:50 The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who's given unto us. And the fruit of the spirit is love. No, no. Sociological manipulation, my friends, is not the answer.

38:03 He is our peace. And you see what all of these things have in common? Starting with humanism, theological liberalism, and then the mysticism that turns inward, and then the external force of sociological manipulation. It's man's effort to say, I'll get rid of the barriers without him who will own his peace.

38:26 And man will do anything and try anything and float with any amount of money. A scheme that will bypass the humiliation to his own pride that comes by means of the cross of Christ.

The Cross: God's Solution for Peace

38:41 He'll have anything but the cross. But as one man of God has so clearly said, and I want to read this paragraph to you, the best way to produce peace between alienated minds is to bring them to the same Savior. That will do more to silence contentions and to heal alienations than any and all other means. Bring men around the same cross.

39:10 Fill them with the same love to the same Redeemer. And give them the same hope of heaven. And you put an end to alienation and strife. The love of Christ is so absorbing and the dependence upon his blood so entire that they will lay aside their alienations and cease their contentions.

39:31 The work of atonement is thus designed not only to produce peace with God but peace between alienated and contending peoples. The knowledge that we are redeemed by the same Savior will unite the rich and the poor, the bond and the free, the high and the low in the ties of brotherhood and cause them to know that they are one.

40:00 And isn't that what God has done in this place, dear people? As I look out, I see what could be a little cross-section of the U.N. I see some whose faces reflect oriental blood in your veins.

40:19 I see others whose faces and color reflect African blood in your veins. I see others whose face and if not your face, my knowledge of you reflects some Latin blood in your veins. And I see a number of us who are just plain heints, 57 varieties, all mixed up together.

40:45 And I know enough of your personal circumstances to know that some of you come from backgrounds where it was inbred in your whole thinking to be utterly suspicious of others in this building whose background is entirely different.

41:03 Need I enlarge? And what are we doing here this morning? Are we just tolerating one another in the same pews? No.

41:10 Many of you are able to say an amen in your heart when in prayer this morning, I thank God on behalf of the congregation that many of us find our hearts leaping for joy just at the sight of one another. Just at the sight of one another. We find delight just in the sight of one another. Some of us, lest people question certain aspects of our character, we have to restrain ourselves from hugging each other every time we see one another.

41:41 Yes, we do. Now why?

41:47 He is our peace.

41:51 That's the answer. He. Is our peace. He has come and procured peace as we shall see by the awful agony of His cross.

42:03 And the work of the cross in this passage, though it has a Godward dimension, might reconcile both to God, and that's never out of sight, the primary and the first reference is to the aspect of Christ's work in which He broke down the wall that exists between men. He broke down the middle wall of partition and it's because Christ has procured this oneness that we experience it this morning.

42:34 But it's also because He came and He preached it to us. He brought not an insipid humanism that says, well, you're the children of God and you've all got what it takes to overcome your hang-ups now. Get on with it! No, no.

42:49 The gospel Christ preached to us through His Word and His servants was a gospel that indicted us and said, you're alienated from God. Your heart is a sink of iniquity. You're under condemnation. You're dead.

43:03 You're bound. You're helpless.

43:07 Look out of yourself to the One who came from Heaven, God's only begotten Son. Look to Him who lived a perfect life on behalf of sinners, who died the sinner's death, who swallowed up the wrath of God in His own death upon the cross, and go out of yourself and into Him, by faith. That's the gospel which proclaimed peace to us. The gospel of repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

43:39 And what's happened? We've entered in by the power of the Spirit to participate in the blessings promised. And what is the result? Through one Spirit we have access to the one God.

43:53 And that same Spirit who has enabled us to say, Abba, Father, may I say it reverently, has enabled us to say to anyone who has come on the basis of the same procured peace, by means of the same proclaimed gospel, and by means of the same Spirit, He's enabled us to say not only Abba, Father, but Beloved Brother.

44:18 That's the work of the Spirit. He is our peace who hath made both one.

The Necessity of Faith in Christ for True Peace

44:28 In conclusion then, is it not right to say that apart from the knowledge of and faith in the Christ of biblical revelation there is and cannot be any true peace with God or man? If He is our peace, then to be ignorant of Him is to be devoid of peace. If He is our peace and the peace procured and proclaimed is not ours experimentally until embraced by faith in Him, then to be ignorant of or to be ungrateful and unbelieving with respect to the Lord Jesus is to be devoid of true peace. And I say to you this morning in what I trust is an earnestness born of a conviction of this truth. My friend, if you are not vitally joined to Jesus Christ by faith in Him, what a miserable state you're in. Alienated from God.

45:36 You're right where these Gentiles were before the coming of the gospel. Without hope and without God. Oh, you say, I've got some hope. I hope God will just spread it.

45:48 No, no. No, no. You're putting your own meaning on the word hope. The word hope means expectation of promised blessings.

45:57 The Gentiles were without hope because they had no promises. The Jews had the promises in the covenants. In the covenants that pertain to the promise.

46:09 You have no solid basis to think that everything will be all right in life or in death, my friend. You're without hope and you're without God. For God can only be known in Jesus Christ. It was Christ Himself who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

46:25 No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Oh, my friend, listen. To be without Christ is to be without God and without hope. And you know what the living proof of it is?

46:36 There are all kinds of barriers between you and your fellow men. You can't stand those, and then you call them that in your heart. Why, those, and there's another group that you, and those, you've got all your prejudices, all of your fears, all of your barriers rooted in ethnic, in racial, in cultural, in national distinctions. In your heart is a present proof that you've never been brought near to the Lord and to His people.

47:08 And my friend, you never will be if you look anywhere else but to the Lord. And you never will be if you look anywhere else. But you never will be but to the One who sat before us in the beginning of the 14th verse of Ephesians 2. He is our peace.

47:23 Is He your peace?

47:26 We read in 1 John 5 this morning, He that hath the Son hath life. Doesn't say anything about the church, doesn't say anything about the sacraments, doesn't say anything about any of those things. It says, He that hath the Son. Do you possess Him in a present, living, faith, life, relationship?

47:48 If not, then you do not have Him who is peace. And if you don't have Him who is peace, you have no peace. You see, He doesn't parcel out the peace apart from Himself. He is our peace.

47:57 Doesn't say He gives. He imparts. And if you are not in Him, there is no peace.

48:07 And I plead with you to flee to Him. He comes in the gospel this morning and preaches peace to you. It's Christ. It's Christ who preaches when His servants give you His word.

48:22 It's Christ who comes and proclaims peace. He proclaims that He lived and He died and He rose and He lives today. To do what? To impart all the blessings of the gospel to those who repent and believe.

Living by Faith in Christ for Ongoing Peace

48:38 Oh, may you not turn away in impenitence, in the pride of your heart. But may you cast yourself upon Christ. Dear child of God, the measure to which you and I enjoy the peace that Christ is and Christ has procured, is the measure to which we live by faith in the Son of God. How did we come initially to lay hold of that peace when we laid hold of Him?

49:08 And it's as you feed upon Christ that the knowledge of a reconciled God and your reconciliation to His people is a living, burning reality. You keep Christ uppermost in your eye and you'll get along with me, all right? And I'll get along with you, all right.

49:29 But you begin to put me in your eye or I put you in my eye, then we're going to have some problems.

49:37 He is our peace. And it's as Christ is all to the people of God in any given place. As He becomes more and more the lodestone, the center point, the focal point of their desire and their aspirations, their meditation, their joy, their worship. The more they are drawn to Him, the more they are drawn into loving communion with one another.

50:03 And whenever a congregation sets out to fighting one another, being suspicious of one another, you mark it down as an inflexible rule. Christ has ceased to be the common focal point of their life together.

50:24 Oh, may God help us. May the Holy Ghost write the text upon our hearts. It's one of those times when I feel I've preached around it and under it. But it still eludes me, but there it is.

Prayer for Peace in Christ

50:36 He is our peace. Let us pray. Our Father, we do thank You that He is our peace.

51:02 We acknowledge that left to ourselves we would never desire, let alone find our way into fellowship with You.

51:12 And we would never desire nor find our way into fellowship with one another. Lord Jesus, we thank You. You great Prince of Peace, that You've reconciled us to the Father and that You've reconciled us to one another. We thank You for the present living reality of the very things that we've meditated upon this morning.

51:40 Oh, God, seal them to our hearts and grant that those who are strangers to this peace because they are strangers to Him who is our peace, oh, may they be drawn drawn to Him and may they find joy in embracing Him as their Savior and as their peace.

52:05 Lord, we ask for our life as a congregation that as we grow and as we come together from more and more diverse backgrounds, ethnically,

52:17 religiously,

52:19 culturally, oh, Father, grant that Christ shall be all to all of us. And we know if He is this, then we shall know with each other that bond of peace that brings glory to You and such refreshing to our hearts.

52:41 Hear, then, the prayer that we offer this morning and answer us.

52:47 Oh, God, answer our cry for Jesus' sake. Amen.