Galatians 5:22
Reading from Galatians 5, verse
16, it says, but I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not
gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh
are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against
the flesh. For these are opposed to each
other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are not under the law. And then in verse 22, but the
fruit of the Spirit is peace. In verse 25, if we live by the
Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited,
provoking one another and envying one another. Let’s pray together. Lord, be gracious to us tonight.
Let your word dwell richly in us. May it speak to our hearts.
our needs, may it speak to our motives, may it speak to ourselves
as individuals, but may it speak to us as a church as well. And
we pray that your word would do its work and we ask it in
the name of Jesus, amen. Well, the fruit of the spirit
is peace. So why is it that people are not at peace? Why is it that
all around us on the news, wherever we see people are agitated, We
go to the dentist and the dentist tells us we’re grinding our teeth
in our sleep. We see riots on television. We see nations full
of unrest. We see people who are anxious
about everything and anything. We see people who are full of
strife and contention. We see people who are strife
causers, strife stirrers and strife sowers. We see people
who are envious. We see people who are jealous.
We see people who hate those who are blessed. We see people
full of selfish ambition and desire to be first. Why is it
that we look around and don’t see people at peace? That’s quite
a question to consider. Why is it that we see turmoil?
Why is it that we see people whose well-being is a well-being
of actually disorder and chaos? Well, the need, the solution,
the hope is that tranquility and wholeness would come to the
people of this world. It’s a little phrase that’s a
simple one, but Jesus speaks it to his disciples. He says,
consider the lilies of the field. I’ve kind of come to take that
as a good little reminder. When you’re feeling anxious,
when you’re feeling overwhelmed, when you’re feeling worried about
things, consider the lilies of the field. What does Jesus say?
Even Solomon in all his splendor was not clothed like one of these. God cares for the lilies of the
field. He cares for the birds of the air and the sparrows.
Why will he not even care for you? And so as we consider peace,
it’s good to consider the chaos in the world, the disorder in
the world. But what’s the solution? Well, the first solution is peace
with God. And if you look in your Bibles
at Romans chapter five, Romans chapter 5 is a wonderful example
of our first need with regards to order and peace. It says,
therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And it goes on to say,
through Jesus, we’ve obtained access by faith into this grace.
We rejoice in hope. We rejoice in our sufferings.
We have endurance and character and hope. And it says, while
we were weak, verse six, Christ died for the ungodly. And then
it goes on to say in verse 10, for if while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, how much
more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life? So you see, the first problem
we have is not strife with others. It’s not war. It’s not rioting
in the streets. Our first, issue with the need
for peace is to have peace with God. If you do not have a relationship
with God, if you do not have salvation, if you do not have
faith in Jesus Christ, you are an enemy of God. You are alienated
from God. You are at odds with God. One
of the great old theologians, Saint Augustine from the fourth
century said, apart from God, our hearts are restless and we
are restless until we rest in Him. And so we see a world, we
see a world that seeks fake peace. You may look at your neighbors
and see happiness, new cars in the driveway, windows shiny and
clean, the kitchen redone, groceries in the refrigerator, successes
and happinesses and all those sorts of things. But that’s not
peace. It may look peaceful. We may
look into their windows and say, I would sure like to have what
they have. But I guarantee you this, they might look in your
windows and see your faith and your godliness and say, I wish
I had what they had and I would give anything for that peace. So there’s not only fake peace,
but there’s false peace. Remember the prophets, they would
speak, peace, peace, and what did God say? There is no peace,
for I am against you. I am against your unrighteousness. See it all the time. We see it
every day. We see it on televisions. We see their smiling faces on
the fronts of their false gospel books. People preach a false
gospel of false peace. God’s not mad at you. God loves
you. God takes you as you are. He
loves anybody. He loves everybody. He loves
you on your terms, not his terms. But that’s a false peace as well.
Why is it that we’re at odds with God? Well, it’s because
of sin. and he makes peace with us through the cross. The cross,
which is an instrument of death, it’s an instrument of execution,
it’s also an instrument of peace. We have peace with God through
the cross. We were enemies, we were under his wrath, and now
by God’s grace, we’ve been reconciled through the blood of Christ.
So the first solution to the peace problem, or to the chaos
problem, is we need peace with God, and that can only come through
Christ. that can only come through the great reconciliation. Second
thing we need is peace in our own lives, peace for you, peace
for the individual. Some of you probably made it
through the 1960s where everything was peace, peace, you know, the
little two fingers. But we need real peace. We don’t
need world peace. We don’t need peace between brothers
and we don’t need placebos, we don’t need Maybe a balance sheet
to say, I got this much going well in my life, and this much
not going well, and somehow the goods outweigh the bads. We don’t
need peace that way. We need peace the way the Bible
speaks of it. And that peace, in the Old Testament, you know
the word shalom. In the New Testament, we are
encouraged to be at peace as well. And this whole idea, this
picture of peace is an all-encompassing peace. Everything’s going pretty
well. Everything’s going well. The
cupboards are Maybe not bare, but maybe not full. The power
bill’s paid up, the car runs, it’s got a little gas in the
tank. It’s especially peaceful these days with our local gas
shortages. But things are right with the
world. Our family, our relationships,
our church life, our home life, our work life, it’s all going
pretty well. There’s order and well-being,
it’s tranquility across across all the major aspects
of our lives. And we have to understand that
this peace cannot be bought, this peace cannot be manipulated,
this peace cannot come from any other source except God, the
Holy Spirit. You see, without peace with God,
we have no salvation. But without peace from God, our
lives are gonna be like living in a tempest-tossed sea. There’s
a bit of an idea that when God speaks of peace, he’s speaking
of salvation. Yes, we have peace with God through
the blood of the cross, but yes, we have peace in our lives because
God has saved us and he is at work in us. God has forgiven
us. God holds nothing against us,
and that should give us confidence. But we read over and over, particularly
if you go to the end of New Testament epistles, that the God of peace
will communicate that peace to us. Hebrews 13, the great benediction
says, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the
Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that
you may do his will, may he work in us that which is pleasing
in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be all glory and dominion
and power. If you look at the end of Romans,
there’s another one of these little peace statements. Romans
16 verse 20. Paul just kind of says a random
statement. It’s a wonderful statement. He says, the God of peace will
soon crush Satan under your feet. Isn’t that interesting? The one
who causes the most anxiety in the world, God will crush him
under his feet. And then we come to other passages
like Thessalonians and other where the apostle tells us that
God brings us peace. He brings us benediction. How
does God tell Moses to tell Aaron and the sons to bless the people?
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine
upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace now and forevermore. So there’s peace
for you, the individual. The third area of peace is peace
in the church. We’re good Presbyterians, right?
We like, what do we like? We like order. We like order
in the pews, order in the ranks. Presbyterianism is a church of
order. We say God is a God of peace,
not of confusion, and so we don’t all worship every which way we
want to. And for sure, peace speaks of
our relationships. Ephesians chapter
4 speaks of the bond of unity being peace. If you read Galatians,
one of the problems at the church at Galatia is that they’re not
bearing the fruit of the spirit, they’re bearing the fruit of
the flesh. They want to be first. They want what they want, sort of when
they want it and how they want it. And he’s saying the fruit
of the flesh is envy and strife and contentiousness. That’s a word. But he says, let
the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. That’s what the apostle
tells the Colossians. Let the peace of Christ rule
in your hearts. We’re one body and we’re to be
thankful. And so one thing we can say in
the church is that when there’s not peace, we can appeal to the
gospel of peace, but we can also appeal to the fruit of peace.
Maybe you have a little squabble in your house with your children
and you say, you know, you go work it out with brother and
sister. And what do we always say? You’re gonna have to live
with them, right? That’s a statement we might would
say in the church. You’re gonna have to be in heaven with these
folks. And so work it out. Be at peace
with one another. So there’s peace with God. There’s
peace for the individual. There’s peace within the church.
But let’s understand this. Maybe this will help you. Think
evangelistically. If you see people in the world,
and I’m speaking out in the non-Christian world, and they have no peace,
it is because they have no relationship with God. It is because God is
at odds with them and they with Him. There’s no presence of the
Holy Spirit. There is tension in their lives.
And yes, they may mask it with alcoholism or drugs or some other
way to manipulate the pain and difficulty of it, But you cannot
solve real problems, real issues without the real gospel. Just
this week I was reading of some of the HOPE Awards. The HOPE
Awards is a set of awards given by World Magazine to those who
are making an attempt to help hurting people in a holistic,
gospel-centered way. One of the articles I read, at
least I think this is where I read it, said that this particular
man, he said, I used to work in the public world. I used to work in the state’s
office trying to help people with problems. And he said, I
worked in that area, that field, for like 10 or 15 years. And
all I did was wake up every day to the same problems. But he
says, for the last 10 years, I’ve labored in a gospel-centered
ministry, and I see problems solved. I thought that was a
very interesting distinction. In a non-gospel way, we can make
peace, we can make a hunger pain go away temporarily, or we can
make a monetary problem go away temporarily, but only in gospel
ministry can we make people’s real problems go away by bringing
them to the foot of the cross and to salvation in Jesus. Yes,
we want to give food. Yes, we want to offer a cup of
cold water. But the gospel is what will save. You know, we live in an era where
it’s a gospel-less world. And right now, we’re in the midst
of the 2016 political season, and we’re saying, who can become
president to make our problems go away? Actually, you know what? The real question is, which one
can we elect that will not make it any worse than it is? That’s
probably the better answer, or better question. But friends,
only Jesus, only Jesus can relieve tension and stress and rioting.
He’s the only one who can resolve drug problems and psychological
and emotional problems. He’s the only one who can pick
people up from where they have fallen. Well, how about you as
a Christian? It’s easy for a Christian to
not be at peace. I mean, Jesus after all says
to us, don’t be anxious. He knows that we’re prone to
fall into or old sinful tendencies. Well, think of it this way. You
need routine maintenance. I can take a car exactly like
mine. My car just had its 17th birthday
and it’s a pretty good car. It runs pretty well. It’s been
taken care of. It’s been babied along here and there. But you
can take the exact same car that’s not had oil changes, that’s not
had its tires rotated, It’s not been cared for. It’s not been
washed or waxed. It’s just been used and abused.
You can take the exact same car. One still feels like it’s got
some life in it. The other may be ready for the
car graveyard or have been there already five years. But why is
that? What’s the difference? It’s routine
maintenance. It’s brushing your teeth. It’s
changing your oil. It’s vacuuming your floors. It’s washing your windows. It’s
taking care of what needs to be taken care of. How do we take
care of ourselves in a way that keeps us in a state of peace?
Because your life can be easily disrupted. One day you’re happy
and things are fine, the next trouble comes. There are a couple
things that you need to consider for routine maintenance. One
is trust God. That may seem like preaching to the choir, but trust
God. You trust man, you’re gonna come up empty. Trust God. Worried
about things that you can’t get resolved yet? Trust God. He can
take care of it. He knows better than you. Trust
the scriptures. God’s word does not return void.
Sometimes it says hard things to us, but we trust his word
that it will do its work. This third one may not sound
like rocket science to you, and it’s not, but it’s the thing
that we don’t do that we ought to do when life becomes unpeaceful.
It’s worship. Be in worship. If we’re in the
house of God, we’ll see what is right and what is good and
what is true. And even if we don’t feel like
it, even if we don’t want to, even if we’d rather curl up in
the bed and pull the covers over our head that day and think that
if we don’t get out of the bed and we’re in that protective
cave of our fleece blankets or whatever, down comforters, actually
going to the house of God can help us. Fourth thing for routine
maintenance is prayer. Prayer is not empty. Prayer is
approaching the holy God of the universe and saying, here I am,
I need your help. And we ask that he would do all
according to his holy will. How about thanksgiving? You think
sometimes about things that make you anxious. Often it’s the things
you don’t have, whether it’s something that’s not in your
hand or something that’s not yet decided or something that’s
not yet complete or resolved or whatever. Be thankful. And you’ll start listing one
by one by one how God has provided for you the thing that you didn’t
have and that you now have and have possessed for a while, or
something has been resolved. And so we come to God with thanksgiving. The final routine maintenance
is the communion of saints. And that’s a little bit generic,
but this actually relates to the book of Galatians. The communion
of saints is important to us. Yes, the word is important. Yes,
worship. Yes, prayer. But life together is important. You think about Israel, as they
worship God, they often walked to the house of God together.
They walked up to Jerusalem together. We get in our cars and we come,
we zip out the doors and we leave. But there’s something about the
communion of saints that we need to remember, that life is lived
together. And yes, as we joked a moment
ago, you do have to live with your brother and sister in close
quarters, but you’re gonna have to live with your brothers and
sisters in Christ in close quarters. The apostle Paul is giving a
little string of exhortations in Romans chapter 12. If you
look at Romans 12, 9, he says, let love be genuine. Abhor what
is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love
one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing
honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in the spirit.
Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in
tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute
to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless
those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice
with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live
in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate
with the lowly. Never be conceited. Repay no
one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the
sight of all. Listen to verse 18. If possible,
so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved,
never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God,
for it is rich and vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the
Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy
is hungry, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him something
to drink, for by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his
head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let me end by saying this to
you. If there are aspects of your
life that are not peaceful, Maybe a squabble at home. It may be
a fuss with your spouse. It may be tension at work. It may be a stalemate with your
neighbor who lives next door. It may be, who knows what it
may be. Ask the Holy Spirit to come in
and bring calm and bring peace and to ease the situation, to
ease those relationships. And to ask him to bring calm,
particularly where there is no salvation, through salvation. That’s the only way to get peace.
That is the only way to get peace is with God’s salvation. So often
we live in the midst of chaos and uncertainty and in the face
of death and things that are unsolvable. But God says to us,
you can have peace with God, with yourselves and with others. Let’s pray together. Our Lord, we pray that by your
Holy Spirit, you would work peace in us. an outwork and a fruit of your
salvation. We pray father that you’d help
us to be peacemakers. Your word, your own words say
blessed are the peacemakers and so help us, those who’ve had
peace made with us between God and ourselves and sin and alienation,
help us to be peacemakers and we pray that you’d give us the
grace to do it in Christ’s name, amen.