How Trusting God Brings Lasting Peace

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, welcome to the program again today. We are delighted to have your company. And just as we start, we just invite God's presence to bless this program. Gracious Father in heaven, we're grateful that we can have direct access to you through Jesus Christ our Lord. We're grateful, Father, for the peaceful means that we have been given, that through Jesus, Father, we can have peace with you. And whatever our previous life has been like, whatever our thoughts and our desires, that these can be molded and shaped simply by believing Your Word and trusting you, because you are the person who spoke and it was done. You commanded and It stood fast and you have brought and spoken peace to us. May your peace pervade our lives, Father. May you baptize us afresh with Your Spirit and lead us into all truth, and that Jesus be lifted up in all that we say and do is our prayer in his name. Amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Right. So we're continuing on our theme about faith and how God can actually justify the ungodly. We unpacked that in the previous program we also read that Jesus was delivered up because of our sins, because of our offenses or our ungodliness. But then when Jesus was raised, he was raised because he actually had justified us. Now, that is verse 25 of Romans, chapter four. Immediately following that verse, then talks about the reality of this verse in people who accept it at face value believe God because he says that he justifies the ungodly, that when Jesus was raised, they were justified as well. And it says therefore this is Romans, chapter five, verse one. Therefore so all the things that we've said before now comes into play because of what was said before. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So how does peace come to us through the Lord Jesus Christ? And who does this peace relate to? It's our relationship with God. We have peace with God. So would that suggest that prior to us exercising faith, we don't have peace with God? SPEAKER D That's exactly what it is. It's interesting, through all of our presentations, we've looked at what faith is, and faith is trust. Faith is a relational term about our connection with God. And so as we have been made righteous, we've been declared righteous by faith. We've been justified by faith. That means a trusting relationship with God. Yes, we have peace. Prior to that, there was no trust, there was disconnect. There was a suspicion, there was a disconnect from God. But when that relationship is, as I guess plugged in again, that's where peace comes from. SPEAKER C It's interesting that the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter two and verse three that we are by nature the children of wrath. By nature we tend to get angry. Now, if you're driving in the traffic and someone cuts you off or does something silly, it's a natural response for many people to react to that. We call it road rage quite often. Sometimes it can manifest itself in very nasty ways, but quite often it might just be a yelling at someone or getting annoyed at them. But that is what we are by nature says by nature the children of wrath. And it puts that in the context of the lust of the flesh, of the desires of our natural human nature. And Romans, chapter eight and verse seven actually says that our natural human nature is actually hostile towards God as well. And I just want to read it says Romans eight, verse seven, because the carnal mind, the word carnal just means the fleshly mind, the mind that dwells on the natural nature of man. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for is not subject to his law, nor indeed can it be. So it's hostile towards God. But here we are told that by faith we can actually have peace with God because we have been justified. We believe in the justification that has been preached to us through Jesus Christ. SPEAKER D In our last session together, we were looking at the tax collector and the Pharisee, and that tax collector was standing afar off and he was so discouraged he didn't feel worthy of God. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D He didn't even lift his eyes to heaven. He felt so discouraged, he looked down and he just called out and said, god, please be merciful to me, a sinner. So he embraces his brokenness and his sinful condition and his sinful past, and then he says, please be merciful. And then Jesus says that man went home justified. So he was justified by putting complete confidence in God's mercy, not trying to depend upon himself. Now, it's very interesting after we've just read this verse about being justified by faith and having peace with God. It says, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So there's this now new rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. But then it goes on to say, and not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. Yes, and perseverance character. And character hope. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And I find this so interesting. The source of all of our anxiety a lot of the time is through obviously our own selves and our own issues. But circumstances, troubles and situations that are not ideal, we get a lot of anxiety from these things when we have a right relationship with God, when we have peace with God, we even see our tribulations in a new way. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D We actually see everything in this world. All of the bad situations. We see all of the disasters, all of the just the really hard times. We see them in a new way and we actually see that our characters can be developed through them. So it's a whole new way of seeing the world when we have peace with God. SPEAKER C That's right. And having peace with God, we can actually rejoice in the Lord. It reminds me of that text in Philippians chapter four, where it says Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. And then we look at the second text after that in verse six. So Philippians chapter four and verse six, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And then it says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart. So it puts a guard on it and your mind through Christ Jesus. So what happens is the peace of God actually guards our thoughts and our feelings in Christ Jesus. So that anxiety, those feelings of anxiety are guarded because the God of peace is willing to do that and able to do that if we only but trust in Him. SPEAKER D Now, I'm here in the Gospel of Luke, and I'm here in chapter one. And John the Baptist is about to be, or has just been born, and his father Zacharias is filled with the Holy Spirit and basically communicates a prophecy about the mission of John the Baptist and about the mission of Jesus. And I'd like to read a few verses here because I find it so powerful. We're going to cover a bit of history that we've looked at already, the story of Abraham, the promises that God made to Abraham. Abraham believed God and was accounted to him for righteousness. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And so here we are in verse 68, chapter one of Luke. Zechariah says, blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. SPEAKER C Beautiful. SPEAKER D And God has visited us. Yes, God has come to us and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant and the oath which he swore to our father Abraham. And I love these next few verses here to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear yes. In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. This here communicates the mission of Jesus. The purpose of Jesus coming to this planet is so that we can be delivered from the hand of our enemies and be able to serve God without fear. It'd be very easy for God to, I guess, force us to serve Him. And we'd do so because of we'd be afraid not to. Yes, but the whole business of the plan of salvation is to bring us to the place where we want to serve Him, not motivated by fear, but motivated by a love for God and to be able to serve Him without that's right? SPEAKER C Yes. First John, chapter four tells us that fear involves torment and God wants to get rid of that fear. And then the way it says that to get rid of the fear, we have to have love. And it says perfect love casts out all fear. And the word love, there there's more than one word for love in the Greek, which they obviously translated just love in English, but that word is agape. And you just read before there in Romans, chapter five and verse five, that the agape of God, the love of God has been poured, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who's been given to us. So that fear and that concern that gets taken away by this agape love of God to receive Christ is to receive the Holy Spirit into your lives as well, which represents Christ to us. But with that comes the love of God, which casts out all fear and all anxiety. Now, we just read before be anxious for nothing. Now, how can you not be anxious? A lot of people have a lot of things to be worried about. But when you receive Christ, who's known as the Prince of Peace, that's one of his titles, Prince of Peace, he casts out all these anxieties, all these fears, and dare I say it, I was raised in a home where my mum was a very neat and tidy person. Some people would call her a neat freak. I mean, when we used to go and visit people when we were little kids, like, I don't know, two, three, four years old when we got home, even if it's at midnight, so we might have fallen asleep on the carpet and they're still visiting with their friends. We're quite relaxed in that regard. They'd go home and my mum was so tidy that she'd actually bathe us. She'd put water in the bath, wash us while we were asleep, put our pajamas on us before she put us in the bed because she didn't want us to go into bed after we've been playing around all day. That's how tidy she was. It's incredible. And I even remember when at an older age, I might have been in primary school by then. We go and visit people. We get home at midnight or something. We've been visiting out again. I remember lying in bed and hearing the vacuum cleaner going at midnight because she's cleaning the house. SPEAKER D Oh, wow. SPEAKER C And she later on self diagnosed the fact that she was obsessive compulsive about being clean and tidy. And she then later became a lot more relaxed about this. She would like tidy, but she was able to let that go. But I think it was actually the power of God in her life just to give her a peace and a calmness, which she couldn't have unless she had cleaned the house. And a lot of people have that. I don't know, maybe someone listening out there, you might know someone or you might be someone that has a driven obsession about something and you cannot find peace. Even with these obsessions, God is able to provide us peace, but ultimately the peace is more than that. That's just an example. The peace comes between us and God because by nature we are the children of wrath, as we read before. And by nature also, there's a natural hostility or enmity towards God and his law of love, and that is taken away by Jesus Christ as we read in Romans, chapter five, verse one, and. SPEAKER D I love it here in verse 79, which is basically the end of this prophecy, right? It says, talking about Jesus, his mission was to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. SPEAKER C Okay? So we need guidance into that way. So that's not something that we naturally would walk in in if we need guidance. SPEAKER D That's what I'm getting from this verse as well, that if our feet were left unguided, our feet would walk down a path we're by nature children of wrath. Yes, anxiety is our lot and fear is our lot. We would naturally walk down this path that leads to conflict and segregation and just misery. We need someone to guide our feet and to direct our footsteps to lead us down this path to peace. But the Bible actually says that talking about sinners, the way of peace or the path to peace, they do not know that's, right? So by nature, we don't actually know the way to find peace. SPEAKER C We're stumbling around in the dark searching for a path which continuously escapes. SPEAKER D And we think that peace comes from walking down this other know Jesus talks about the Broadway that leads to destruction. Yes, it just seems like the easiest way to peace because it's a big wide path. There's no conflict, there's no trouble. You're just heading down this path but it leads to destruction. SPEAKER C Destruction? Yes. SPEAKER D And Jesus says there's a difficult path, a little, small, narrow one, and that's the path that leads to life. It's very interesting. When Jesus was looking over Jerusalem and he was weeping over Jerusalem, he know, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. And in another place he talks about, he says, you didn't realize the things which would make for your peace. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D So he says, you didn't realize that me being here as coming as the savior of the world, you didn't recognize where peace comes from. You thought that peace would come through all these different ways, but you rejected me and I'm the only one that can give you peace. SPEAKER C Yeah. Now you talk about the path of peace or the way of peace. I just want to go to Proverbs and just read a few quick texts there in succession. For example, I want to go to Proverbs, chapter twelve and verse 15. It says the way. So this is the path basically the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. So God wants to take us off that path of foolishness and lead us in the right way. Looking at Proverbs chapter 14 and verse twelve, there is a way. So that path again, that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Then another one. This is Proverbs chapter 16 and verse two, all the ways so that path again, all the ways of man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. And I can add that verse 25 as well. So Proverbs 1625, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. And maybe just the last one. This is Proverbs chapter 21 and verse two, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. So by nature, listening to what Proverbs saying, just tying into that text you shared with us before, the path of peace, we do not know. And it's only by knowing Christ, who is the Prince of peace, that we're able to find that path of peace. But we find it by receiving the word of God, by faith and trusting the God of the Word. SPEAKER D It's actually, I can think of an illustration. I was working out at Maury out west central New South Wales, and I'd often for a year I lived in this particular place right near some bushland. And one day I was walking along and I stumbled across a little path that led to this amazing bike track that became my friend shortly thereafter. And it was just hidden away just in the bushes. And this amazing bike track there was mulberry trees that I'd be able to eat hundreds and hundreds of mulberries from. I lived there for so long and I had no idea that that path existed I had no idea that that path existed and all of the things that were down there, but eventually I discovered it. I was living my life, and I had no idea that those bike tracks were there. And it's like in our Christian life, we can be or just in our natural life, I should say we're living and we're not aware that there's a path that actually leads to something that's good. We've got this beaten track that we keep walking on. It's the track that we've seen our parents walk. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D It's the track that we see people on television walk. And if we're honest, no one's ever really come to that place where they've had perfect peace. But there's a little path that just heads off, but it's a path that we're not really familiar with. And Jesus came to this world to show us that path. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And it's a path that leads in a way we wouldn't really expect. It's a path that contrary to sometimes even logic, we think the path to peace is silencing all of our enemies and pushing them far away from us. Jesus is like, no, that only solves the problem halfway. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D What Jesus is offering is to transform our lives so that we can even live in a troubled, war torn world and still have peace. SPEAKER C Isn't that incredible? SPEAKER D When Jesus was born, the angels from heaven were singing this anthem of praise, and they said, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace. SPEAKER C Peace. SPEAKER D Goodwill or favor toward men. And so from the very beginning, jesus'mission was to establish a reign of peace. The kingdom of darkness is not a kingdom of peace. Sometimes there can be a semblance of peace. Know, Jesus says the tax collectors and the sinners, they get along sometimes. SPEAKER C Sure. SPEAKER D But we're talking about a peace where there's the principle of peace in our hearts, which is the principle of God's kingdom, which is love. That agape you were talking about before. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's know, having that peace, there can even be conflict right around you, but you can still have that peace. We live there's daytime and there's nighttime. And I'm using daytime in a metaphorical sense where the sun is shining on our back, we've got the wind in our sails and things are going well, but then we also have nighttime that comes. And with nighttime, maybe there comes a storm in our life as well. So what happens is we are like a little boat blown to and fro by the wind. If it's good, favorable winds, we have the sail and we're heading in the right direction, and then the storm comes and it's blowing us all over the place. And our emotions can be affected by that. SPEAKER D That's exactly right. SPEAKER C But what we have with Jesus Christ is he promised us that we can have peace even in the storms. So it doesn't matter what happens around us. We can have that security, that assurance, and that safe haven in Jesus Christ, regardless of the storms that happen around us. SPEAKER D There's a beautiful verse to illustrate that. In Psalm 27, it says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. And it goes on to say, for in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle. He shall hide me and shall set me high upon a rock. Confidence that comes from knowing God and not just knowing God in a general sense that he exists, but knowing what type of God he is, that he's a God who cares about us, that we have his favor and his love even when we're still sinners, and a willingness to humble ourselves before God and be embraced by God. And it just brings a peace that just cannot be described. SPEAKER C It's interesting that we start looking at things differently when we start looking at through the lens of the word of God and the promises of God. I remember there was the story of Elisha where these people came to attack them, because what happens is this king was concerned that there was an insider in his army, in his organization that was telling the King of Israel what was going on. And he said, Surely there's an informant amongst us. And then they, no, no, there's a prophet in Israel who tells the King of Israel what is going on, even your thoughts in your secret chamber when you're sleeping in your bed. And he said, well, we better go and get this guy. So they go around and surround him. And then what happens? Elisha's servant wakes up one morning and he looks out the window. The city where Elisha is staying is surrounded. They've got all these chariots. And he's anxious. He gets worried. He runs to Elisha and said, Elisha, look, there's all these chariots and horsemen around them. We are outnumbered. He goes no, don't worry. Those who are for us are more than those who are against us. And his servant thinks, what is going on here? I can see all these chariots. We don't have an army that can even make a dent in these people. There's so many of them. Then Elisha prays. He asks the Lord to open his servant's eyes that he can see. And then when he looks, he sees all around the hills and the valleys, the armies of the Lord way, way outnumbering, the armies of the enemies here. Then the Lord strikes them with blindness. Then he goes, he says, Whom do you seek? And they tell him who they seek. He then leads them into the city. And when they come into the city, they realize that they've been ambushed and they now at the mercy of that city. And what does Elisha say? Let's make him a feast. Let's give him the food. And they send them away peacefully after that. That's the peace of God. But that comes from having spiritual vision which we receive by the Holy Spirit and through the word of the Lord. I think it's very important for us to see things from a different perspective. Our natural perspective cannot see those things because they are not naturally discerned. They are spiritually discerned. But we can know them through the Prince of Peace, which is Jesus Christ our Lord. SPEAKER D In John 1427, Jesus tells his disciples, he says, My peace I give to you. He says, not as the world gives. It's a very different peace that the world gives. I think the peace that the world gives is when all your circumstances are going right. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D When everything's going for you, everything gives. It like there's a kind of semblance of peace. SPEAKER C And how long does that last? SPEAKER D Typically until the circumstance changes. SPEAKER C That's right. Yeah. Circumstances change all the time. It's never a lasting sense of peace, is it? SPEAKER D Yeah, it changes when the circumstance changes. But Jesus, the peace that I want to give you is something very, very different from that. It's a different type of peace. And we can see a practical illustration of that in Mark chapter four. We have this story, and I'll summarize for sake of time. They were crossing the Sea of Galilee and a massive storm whipped up across the sea. And it was the disciples that they were going to die. They were bailing for all of their worth, all their might, trying to get the water out of the boat. And what was Jesus doing? SPEAKER C Sleeping. SPEAKER D He was sleeping in the back of the boat. He was sleeping peacefully in the back of the boat, just basically undaunted, unaffected, and just, I guess, enjoying being rocked to sleep. He's enjoying it. And the disciples call out, don't you care that we're drowning? We're going to die. And Jesus stands up and he says, oh, you of little faith. And he looks out across the sea and he says, Peace, be still. And with one word, that the sea returns to its natural calm. And Jesus looks at them again and says, oh, you have little faith. Why did you doubt? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Why'd you doubt Jesus? How did he sleep in the storm? Because if Jesus said my peace, I give to you. Now we get to see what Jesus'peace is. He had such a confidence in his father's care. He had such a confidence in the promises of the Word of God, where there's actually a Bible verse that says, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Jesus knew that. And he's like, okay, I'm good with that. And so he's just sleeping there peacefully, not anxious. He's like, The Father will look after me and oh, that we can come to that place where we trust God so much. That's very interesting. Our first verse said, having been justified by faith, all throughout this series of presentations, we've been talking about faith. What faith is, faith is trusting and depending upon what God says. SPEAKER C That's right. Trusting on the word of God only. That's right. SPEAKER D And so we are justified by faith by hanging on with all of our might, just trusting to the word of God. And when we do that, we have. SPEAKER C Peace, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. SPEAKER D When we realize that God's word is so faithful that every promise that God makes is perfect and just will not be violated or broken, we can have peace and confidence because God's got our back. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D Jesus lived with perfect peace because he believed and trusted the words that were spoken by God. SPEAKER C So we may not see it, but when we read it in the Word of God, we believe it. That's why we've unpacked this previously. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So the evidence comes by the Word of God. It has its own convicting power within the Word of God, the evidence of things not seen. Because as we were talking previously, we can't walk just by sight because our natural sight will let us down. We need spiritual vision. And there is a text in two Corinthians, chapter four and verse 18 where Paul says these interesting things. It says, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. Now, why? For the things which are seen are temporary. Everything we see in this world will be consumed, it'll be burnt up, it will be done away with. But the things which are not seen, which is the things that the Bible tells us, the promises of God, these are the things that will last forever. These are the things that are eternal. SPEAKER D I've got a verse here, great thought for us to close on Isaiah 26 and verse three. It says, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed or fixed on you. It's speaking about God because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. SPEAKER C That is a beautiful text and a beautiful text of promise that we can claim by faith as well. And I just want to add a text also coming out of Isaiah chapter 32. And this is from verse 17 where it says, the work of. Righteousness because we're talking about being justified or made righteous by faith. The work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. Dear listener, we pray that God will give you a spirit of quietness and assurance forever by laying hold of the promises of God in his word and also being justified by faith. May God bless you until we meet with you again next time. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.