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PEACE

In reading these scriptures, dear friends, I wish to speak about “peace”; not peace among the nations, though that is greatly desired by everyone, but unattainable in any permanent way until the Prince of Peace comes; nor have I in mind to speak about peace which relates to conditions generally amongst men politically, the question of labour problems, and all these things which cause a good deal of disturbance and unrest. I do not propose to speak about that; although, I might say, that if everyone had the knowledge of God which may be had through the gospel those problems and conditions would not exist. What I want to speak about is individual peace of mind and heart. I am sure that everyone will appreciate that is something to be desired, to be able to go through the world such as this is in peace; peace of mind and peace of heart are something worth having, and not only in this life, but beyond this life, to be able to face death in peace and not only death, but what comes after death, to be able to face that in peace is a very great thing.

One has heard of a man who when he was dying was found in great distress of mind although all his lifetime he had been accustomed to ridiculing religion and the gospel and everything of that kind, and when his friends expressed some surprise that he should be showing signs of fear, he said, ‘It is not death I fear. What I fear is resurrection’. That is what comes after death and, of course, anyone who is instructed in the truth of God and yet at the same time has not the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Christ, might well fear resurrection, because in resurrection you see there is the final severance of those who are acceptable to God from those who are not. Thus the Lord Jesus says, “the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation”.

Now while it is understandable that one who rejected the gospel and rejected Christ, or died it may be, not exactly rejecting but careless in regard of it, it is quite understandable that such an one should fear the resurrection, my object in speaking is that everyone here should have no occasion to fear either death or resurrection or what follows resurrection. In the case of those who die without Christ, what follows their resurrection is judgment. The scripture says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”, but the same scripture goes on to say, “so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation”. That is, apart from any question of sin, “unto salvation”, so the same scripture that makes it abundantly clear that death is a certainty; subject, of course, to the possibility, and a very real possibility, of those who belong to Christ never having to pass through death; that same scripture points to the One through faith in whom you may avoid judgment and be brought into blessing at His coming.

The first two scriptures I have read are remarkable ones, the one in Romans 3 states the position as God sees it in regard of all who have not turned to the Lord Jesus. It says, “The way of peace have they not known”. It does not say in regard of all men that they are all murderers or something very dreadful morally, but it does say “the way of peace they have not known”; that is, they have not the secret. There is a secret by means of which we may pursue what Scripture speaks of as “the way of peace”; a wonderful thing I am sure you will agree, but it is a secret. It is known by some, but only on the principle of obeying the glad tidings, because God has come out in glad tidings of peace; but until we have turned to the Lord Jesus, receiving forgiveness of sins through His name and being justified by God from every charge brought against us; I say, until then, we do not know the “way of peace”. That is how God states the matter and you may rest assured that God’s statement of the matter is accurate.

On the other hand, you may come across people who, if one said they did not know what peace was, would ridicule the idea. They might say they enjoy life, and they do not fear death, they have no occasion to fear death. They will say, perhaps, they have lived as good a life as most people and better than some, and they have no reason to fear anything. There are such people around who will speak like that, and that is why I read this verse in Luke 11, for the Lord says, speaking in parabolical language, “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils”. If you read the context I think you will agree with me that the strong man armed to whom the Lord is referring, is no other than Satan, the devil. “That old serpent called the Devil and Satan”, he is called in Scripture, showing that God knows his character. People speak flippantly about the devil in these days, but the devil is a creature into whose hands you and I cannot afford to play.

We cannot afford to. No one can handle him but God. He is stronger than any man. No one can handle him but the Son of God. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil”. The devil is a power to be reckoned with and not to be spoken about flippantly, and he is the enemy of God and the enemy of the souls of men, and he has very great strength, and he has his armour, and I will tell you what his armour is, the ability he has to make people imbibe wrong thoughts as to God. That is his armour; it is the power he has by means of darkness, by what is darkness in contrast to light. The true knowledge of God is spoken of as light. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. The light is the true knowledge of God, and Christ has come from God to give it to us, but darkness is ignorance of God.

Scripture speaks of the “authority of darkness”, the authority or power of darkness. You might say where is it to be seen? In every church and chapel where the truth of the atonement is denied, where the Deity of Christ is denied, where it is preached that there is no need for repentance or faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; in every place, I say, where things are put out contrary to the truth of God, especially in so-called places of worship, where those conducting the service are regarded by men as having a certain status and authority in these things, wherever that is, there you may see the authority of darkness. These statements are contrary to the truth and they get authority over the minds of men, and so men are held by Satan in darkness. If it is taught in church or chapel that you do not need to fear having to do with God, that all you have to do is to lead a good and respectable life, and do what you can for your fellow-men, and do the best you can. and God cannot expect anything more than that; well, if that kind of thing is taught people may be in peace if they believe it, and alas, there are thousands who believe that kind of thing, and the very fact that they believe it is evidence that the strong man armed is keeping his palace, and his goods are in peace. They are in peace believing what is a lie, and yet in peace, because they do not know that behind what they are believing to be true is the power of Satan himself. Then the Lord goes on to say, “When a stronger than he shall come upon him”. Thank God there is a stronger than Satan, and He is no less than the Son of God Himself, the One whom Christians delight to speak of as “our Lord Jesus Christ”, the Son of God. He is stronger than Satan, thank God for that, and so the Lord says, “when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted”.

Well, suppose you have wrong thoughts as to God, and suppose, as I trust you will, through paying attention to what God has to tell you regarding Christ, you get entirely new ideas as to God, light shines into your soul as to God, and you find God is in no way tolerant of evil, and yet although you find yourself to be a sinner you find God has come out with salvation for you, that which would exactly meet your case, and satisfy His every claim against you. I say, when you begin to get the truth as to God, it means that all that which Satan has trusted in to keep you in his hands is disposed of; the darkness disappears when the light shines. Let me tell you, if I can in what way the Lord Jesus has come into this matter. It says in the epistle of John, putting it in the language of Christians; and when I say Christians, I mean true Christians, who have believed in the Lord Jesus, coming to Him as repenting sinners; for every one of us has had to come that way, make no mistake about that. Do not think the preacher is claiming for himself that he is any better than the rest of men. Everyone who is a true Christian, having believed in the Lord Jesus and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, has had to come to God as a repenting sinner. We have all had to come that way, and we have all received mercy. We have all received forgiveness of sins through the name of the Lord Jesus, and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit by means of which our hearts are filled with the love of God and we are kept in living touch with the Lord Jesus in glory; and all these things are ours simply because we have obeyed the glad tidings. It is purely God’s mercy but, thank God, He has come out to us in mercy, and what He has done to us He is prepared to do to everyone else in the world.

In John’s epistle he says, “in this was manifested the love of God”. You say, do you really mean that, God’s love? You may say, “God is love”, and people will take that up and say, Yes, God is love and therefore He cannot possibly do such a thing as consign a sinner to hell. Can He not? I will tell you what He has done. He has poured out unsparing judgment upon the head of His only-begotten Son. That is what He has done, and done it in order that you might understand that He is holy, and cannot tolerate sin in any form, and yet at the same time that He is love, and wants you and everyone of us to be saved, and so in order that you might be saved He sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him; not die, but live. It says, “in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him”, and then it says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God”. You cannot say you love God if there is no love in your heart towards God, but God has come out so wonderfully and graciously towards you and me. Think of all He has done, as John says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. That is to say, God is being made known in the gospel as One who must judge sin. His holy nature is such that He cannot tolerate it and will not tolerate it, and if He did tolerate it there would be chaos in the universe. Alas, we have a very superficial idea of what sin is, but every sin, whatever its character in detail, is the rising up of the will of the creature in opposition to the will of the Creator-God.

I think, if you will give it a moment’s thought, you will understand why it is that God must judge sin, because if He were to allow His creatures to rise up and assert their wills in opposition to His will there would be chaos in the universe. There is plenty of chaos in the world at the present time, because God is not dealing with it at the moment, but He is going to deal with it. At the present time He is making known the blessing for men which He has at His disposal through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has come out in mercy and grace and forgiveness and blessing to whosoever will, and so it says, “Jesus Christ the righteous”, who is in the presence of God, having first died for all, “is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world”. Not for ours only; that is, the sins of believers, but for the sins of the whole world. That is the position that obtains at the moment, and it means that God is able, without compromising anything, to wait in patience upon men with forgiveness, love and blessing, if they will have it; but there is a day coming when the offer will be withdrawn and the opportunity will have ceased and then there will be no outlook but judgment. Indeed, Scripture says of that day, “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”. That is, those who, as rejectors of God and Christ, will be alive on earth at that moment, and in regard to the dead the apostle John tells us in the vision given to him, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works”.

Well, I do not enlarge on that. I am not here to preach judgment. I am here to preach grace, but I only warn any who might be in danger of frittering away their present opportunity, that in the background there is judgment to come, judgment to come which believers in Christ will never see, never face, never taste one drop of it, because every drop of divine judgment due to them has been tasted fully by the Son of God Himself. And so, again I repeat those two verses, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. God has in mind that we should live and not die.

Well, if that begins to gain a place in your mind and heart I think it will give you something of true light as to God and that is the way the One stronger than Satan binds the strong man and spoils his goods. He takes his armour from him, for the armour which Satan employs to keep men under his control is darkness as to God. It does not matter what form it takes as long as it is contrary to the truth, and keeps people in darkness as to God. He has achieved his end in that case, but the stronger than the strong man is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and He has come forth, “the Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus”, to bring us the truth, the truth as to God, and He has given Himself a ransom for all, and what is the significance of that action? I will tell you what it signifies. In the first place there was the admission on the part of the Lord Jesus that death and judgment were the proper portion of all men. He admitted that, his action betokened that; it is the truth everyone should be brought to acknowledge, but then what did the Lord Jesus do? He stepped into the breach. If men were to be saved they must be relieved from the penalty of death. They must have judgment taken away from them if they are to be brought into life and blessing; and so the Lord Jesus, the Mediator between God and men, stepped into the breach and gave Himself a ransom for all. He endured God’s judgment on the cross, the judgment poured out without mitigation when He took up the whole question of sin and sins, as it says, “Christ ... hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. He went down into death because the penalty of death lay upon men, and now He is risen again from the dead.

He is risen from the dead, and that brings me to the third scripture read. It speaks of the way righteousness was imputed to Abraham. You know very well that if you were in business and I owed you £1,000 for goods delivered, there would be an entry in your ledger with myself shown as the debtor and the £1,000 the amount of the debt, and then if someone came on my behalf and paid £1,000 there would be a credit entry in the ledger and £1,000 put to my credit, and as the account was balanced off you would say to yourself ‘there is nothing to be charged against that man. His account is absolutely clear’. Well, that is exactly what God has done in regard to Abraham. He believed God and it was put to his account for righteousness. The account was squared; that is what God did, and now righteousness will be imputed to us, it will be put to our account “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification”.

Now look at this verse. There is God Himself the great Creditor. What a number of ledgers He has! There is a page for every man and woman on earth in the ledgers of God, and He is the great Creditor and then there was the question of all these outstanding debts and He, the great Creditor, delivered up Jesus for our offences. He delivered up the only Man who could possibly pay the debts and meet the liabilities. He provided in the Person of His Son the only Man who could do it, and He has done it and “raised him again for our justification”; that means, the debt is paid, and for everyone who is prepared to embrace it there will be the credit entry in the ledger, so to speak, against his name; righteousness will be put to your account. Now why not believe it? It is the way God has provided. It says “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification”. Our offences, our guilt, necessitated that the Lord Jesus be delivered up, but He has been raised again, and that means that God is absolutely satisfied with the payment. Not a single question remains unsettled. The One who delivered Him has raised Him again in order that you and I as believing in Him might be justified. God Himself will write you off as clear from every charge against you, accepting the righteous way He Himself has devised through His beloved Son in order that His claims against you might be met.

So it says in the first verse of chapter 5 of Romans, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”; that is, we are justified on the principle of believing and accepting what God presents to us. We do not attempt to justify or become justified on the principle of works that we could do, we are justified on the principle of faith, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God”, or as it should read, “peace towards God”. We have peace towards God. Well, it must be so. You will remember Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, when they disobeyed God they knew they were naked and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden at the cool of the day, and they were conscious that they were guilty before God, and that their condition of guilt was manifest before God. They were naked and they heard the voice of the Lord God. They knew they had to meet God, and then that they had nothing they could do. They did indeed do their best, they made themselves aprons of fig-leaves, but their best was not of the slightest avail. They heard the voice of the Lord God and they went and hid themselves among the trees. If their best was of any avail, if it is true you have only got to do your best, why should Adam and Eve have hid themselves? They did their best. No, dear friends, that sort of thing will not do, but then what did God do? It says, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothed them”. That is, God provided a covering for them, a covering based on the death of a victim on their behalf. God provided it and clothed them. Well, do you think Adam and Eve would be any longer afraid of God when they put on the clothing God provided? They would say, God has provided these; He will not find fault with them. They would have peace, there would be no doubt in their own minds of being justified in the sight of God, because they were covered with what God Himself provided.

Now, that is exactly the position. “God has delivered up Jesus for our offences and raised him again for our justification”, and as we believe that, on the principle of faith we have “peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. Then it goes on to say, “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace (or favour) wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”. The Lord Jesus on the cross was there because we deserved the cross. We deserved the judgment of God and He took our place on the cross and satisfied every claim of God against us there; and now the very One who was on the cross on our behalf is in the favour of God in heaven, and just as He was on the cross on our behalf, He is now in the favour of God in heaven on behalf of all who believe in Him. The same favour in which Jesus stands is the favour in which God delights to bring all those who believe in Him, and so “we have access by faith into this favour wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”. Coupled with the announcing in the name of the Lord Jesus remission of sins through repentance and faith in Him, God makes known that His desire is to give the Holy Spirit. He gives the Holy Spirit to them who obey Him, and so later on in Romans 5 it says, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”.

Now, just one word in closing on the verse in Philippians, because that goes further than “peace with God” or “peace towards God”, and it completes the subject I had before me and that was “peace individually”, peace of mind and heart. This is what belongs to Christians. You will see that the great thing that souls need is the knowledge of God. Peace is the result of knowing God. What dispels Satan’s power over us is light as to God shining into our souls, As knowing God, the Christian can well afford to trust Him; he can well afford to trust God for everything. If you know God who has taken up for you and settled for ever this greatest of all questions, this most difficult of all questions, this eternal question of our souls; if God has proved Himself able and willing to take up that question for us and solve it, we may surely rest in Him and trust Him that He will take up every other question for us.

Now Paul says, “Be careful for nothing (that is, be anxious for nothing); but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God”. Do not forget the thanksgiving, dear friends. “With prayer and thanksgiving”. And then it says, “And the peace of God ... shall keep your hearts”. It is not now “peace with God” but the “peace of God”. Can you ever suppose that God is disturbed; God, who inhabits eternity, who is far above all the small things, so to speak, in His sight, that are going on in this world; do you suppose God can ever be disturbed? Could anything disturb the peace of God? Far from it. It says, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. That is, the believer who knows God, if he has any difficulty or any concern, he makes it known to God. He spreads it out before God and asks God to take notice of it, and it says, “the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds: through Christ Jesus”.

It does not say we shall necessarily get what we ask for, but the point is we make known the need and God will most certainly meet it in the best way. What we might have asked for might not be the best way. What God will do is surely the very best, and when I say His best, I do not mean it as we say, ‘I will do my best’. We mean, ‘I cannot be sure I can do it, but I will do my best’, but when God does His best, you cannot improve on God’s best. You will all remember the parable where it says the young man returned to his father and said, “I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son”; but the father says, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him”. That shows what God is like. He has nothing less than the best for those who come to Him by Christ, and if He meets us with the very best in regard to the need of our souls, surely He will do the very best for us in the circumstances of life. The more you know God, the more you trust Him.

The Psalmist, speaking of God, said, “My exceeding joy,” and “He is the Rock”. You can depend upon a rock. You can build anything on a rock. You can be sure of it, and the Psalmist as knowing God says, “He is the Rock”. It is a great thing to get to rockbottom and that is the knowledge of the blessed God known as the Saviour God in the Person of our Lord Jesus, God pledging Himself to be for all those who believe in Christ. “If God be for us (and He is), who can be against us?” And it goes on, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things”. That is the God we have to do with. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect”? The gospel invites you to come in amongst the ranks of God’s elect. “It is God who justifieth” “Who is he that condemneth?” Who can say any word if you are justified? The devil must be silent. The Judge has the last word. If God says that one is justified it closes the whole matter and closes it for eternity. “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us”.

At the present time the Lord Jesus, who gave Himself for us, is engaged in heaven on behalf of all who belong to Him in this world. So Paul could say, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” He was the chief of sinners, so it shows that this is open to every one of us. “I am persuaded”, Paul says, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

Well, may every one here be brought to know God and enjoy not only peace towards God, but have the peace of God keep their hearts and minds as we go through life until we see the Lord, for His Name’s sake.

WHANGAREI

This preaching was probably on 9 March 1947 as Mr Gardiner gave an address in Whangerei on Saturday 8 March 1947 (published in ‘Piety and Other Addresses’)

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