Blessed Are The Peacemakers

Matthew 5, verse 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Now, I guess the first thing that I ask myself is this. If you were given like seven opportunities to define what a Christian is, I'm just wondering if we were honest. Would peacemaker make it? I'm thinking that if somebody came up to me on any day when I was not thinking about the Beatitudes at all, I mean, my mind was far away from thinking specifically about them. If somebody came up and said, hey, give me seven adjectives, and I'm saying seven because this is the seventh Beatitude. So within seven adjectives, Jesus chooses this one to describe true Christians. And I'm just wondering if we would. Would I do that? And you know, I'm thinking I probably would not. If I was given seven opportunities to basically give you an adjective for what I believe a Christian is, I don't think I would put peacemaker in the first seven. In fact, I'm not even sure I'd put it in the first 25. Now, if my mind is simply going through Scripture, it might happen on the Beatitudes, and I might go through all the eight things there. I might, but peacemaker typically isn't on the top of my list. And yet it is within the first seven opportunities of the Lord Jesus, He sees... I mean, look, I like to know what Jesus thinks about things, and I know this, that when He has this opportunity, within the top ten, He does think that this is one of the essential, defining characteristics of somebody that is a genuine son of God. And you remember what all these Beatitudes are. You inherit the kingdom, I mean, you inherit the earth, you're going to be shown mercy. I mean, look, these are the promises of people that are in the kingdom. These are the promises, the blessed promises. This is the blessedness that belongs to people that are genuine. And He looks out at His disciples, He says, guys, you want to know what somebody genuine looks like? Here it is. They're a peacemaker. So, that's the first thing. So, then you ask the second thing. Okay, what is peace? Now see, a lot of times, because we're minded to think like the world does, and we're bombarded by the world's thinking all the time. And so, typically what happens is peace gets defined in the negative. Peace. We think about, when did peace come? After World War II, or during World War II, or, I mean, when did it transit? Basically, we bloodied the enemy into submission, and then we call that peace. And then we go through Cold War. See, this is the problem, that even when the guns stop firing, then we have Cold War. Folks, a truce is not peace. I remember, was it Jimmy Carter? I forget which president, but, you know, they're working on the Middle East Peace Accord. I still remember that phraseology. What is that? You're basically trying to bring the Jews and their enemies, whether it was the Palestinians or some Arabs somewhere, you're trying to bring them into a position of peace. What does that mean? That means that you basically offer them enough money, coerce them, threaten them, enough to get them to stop shooting at each other. But you know as well as I do, they still hate each other in here. You see, that's what the world's peace looks like. You never want to define peace that way. Just an absence of war, or an absence of conflict, or an absence of that type of strife. God's meaning of peace, like we find here, blessed are the peacemakers, God's meaning of peace is always far more than the absence of something. It's the presence of something. You see, the thing is, when God makes peace with a sinner, it's not just that the war stops. Have you ever noticed that? God doesn't just say, hey, I'm going to make peace with that individual, and what does that mean? Well, we're going to stop with the war, and He's just going to plant us over on some planet by ourselves, away from Him, where He won't fight with us anymore. Isn't it amazing that when God makes peace with somebody, it's all out? I mean, He brings that person to a place where He calls them His sons, where they're going to have glory, they're going to sit on the throne with Christ, they're going to be Christ's bride, He's talking about eternal life, and that's life more abundantly, and eternal weight of glory. He says this is paradise. You see, you see the difference. You see, the positive aspect of peace is that God brings us into fellowship with Him. He brings us into intimacy with Him. He brings us into a loving relationship, where there is close fellowship. We become one with Him. That's the aspect of peace that we never want to forget. So, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Now, you know, when you think about peace, and you think about this book, I've got that big stack of Bibles in my hallway. Do you know what's true about every one of those books? They basically deal with a snapshot. Now, you think about all eternity. Eternity past. Eternity future. That's a long time. The Bible is just a tiny snapshot in the middle of all of this. It basically deals with that age of warfare. Think with me. Two chapters in, peace reigns. Genesis 1 and 2. The last two chapters, Revelation 21-22, peace reigns. Have you ever recognized that? Your Bibles are basically bookended by two chapters on both ends where there's peace. And everything else in the midst of that is the age of war. But there's a tension. We feel the tension when we go through the Bible in that era, and we look at God Himself. We look at basically what's happening. What do we find? I find this. In Exodus 15, it says, the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is His name. But then I go right over to Judges and Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it the Lord is Peace. And so, just within a few books of each other, you have the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is peace. Isn't that interesting? You see, we get that kind of tension. We understand it. I don't think any of you are baffled or confused by how that can be. You get this. Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one. But then this same one who's told to gird, he's called the Prince of Peace. We know this. His name will be called Prince of Peace of the increase of His government and peace. There will be no end. This is the same one. And then when you come, one chapter... well, basically two chapters before you get to the 21st of Revelation where peace reigns again. When you go to chapter 19, still Christ is presenting Himself this way. Behold the white horse. He who sat on it was called faithful and true. And in righteousness, He judges and makes war. You know what I find very interesting? Have you ever noticed how many times in the New Testament God is called the God of Peace? But listen how Paul speaks. He says the God of Peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. Now does that sound like a God of Peace? I mean, imagine Satan. He's crushing him under our feet. But that's what the God of Peace does. And so we feel this tension. And it's due to the fact that during this age of warfare, what's happening? Well, God is fighting. Somebody said it yesterday. I mean, almost 7,000 people die every hour. You think about just the last hour. 7,000 people have passed off into eternity and you tell me, how many of those people do you believe were lost? I mean, when few there be that find out, how many of you think were actually Christians that perished in the last hour? Few, right? I mean, of the 7,000? Few. Why? Because that's what Jesus said. And so you know the vast majority of those people perished. Which means what? God's warfare came to its conclusion. He damned and destroyed forever these people. You know that is happening all the time. 7,000 every hour. That is happening bang, bang, bang. It's almost to a second. I mean, people are... and the vast majority of these people, they are coming to an end of their warfare with God. At least, I mean, they'll go off into eternity certainly with the same anger and resentment and hostility in their heart. But God is bringing that to an end. He's bringing their day of offering them peace. See, this is the day when the people at war with Him are being offered peace. And one of two things is happening. Either they will refuse to surrender until He damns them. Or they will lay down the weapons of their warfare and surrender to His mercy. See, that's why we get this tension where He's a man of war because He's fighting His enemies and He's subduing His enemies. And He's also the Lord of peace. He's a God of peace. He presents Himself like this. And God speaks two distinct tones in Scripture. We hear it. He doesn't say, there is no peace for the wicked. And yet to His people, He very clearly will speak peace to His people and to His saints. Now, here's the thing. Our beatitude is blessed are the peacemakers. He's not just simply saying blessed are the peace seekers or blessed are those who think they've found peace. That's not what He's saying. He's saying blessed are those who are men and women, children, who actually make peace. That's it. Those shall be called sons of God. And I just say this. Wow. Let's follow the connection. Because there is a connection. It's not just arbitrary that He would say peacemaker, son of God. You want to remember how the New Testament speaks. It speaks this way. Look right in the same chapter. Matthew 5. Look at verse 44 and 45. See right towards the end of the chapter. Matthew 5, 44. I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Now you can see, there's peacemaker written all over this. But notice this, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. See, it's not just an arbitrary connection. You realize what He's saying there. He's saying if you act this way, you act like your father. You prove you are a child. You prove to be a son when you look like your dad. That's the truth. You know, Paul would say to the Ephesians, be imitators of God as dear children. Or John. John said this, now we can tell the sons of God from the sons of the devil by simply looking at their characteristics. Right? And that's what he says. He said you can tell them. It doesn't matter what they say. You can tell who they are by what they do, by what they're like, by their characteristic. If they bear a resemblance to their heavenly Father, you can tell that they're sons. That's what's being set forth here. That's the connection. You want to make sure you see that connection. Blessed are the peacemakers. They have the connection. They bear the resemblance. Now, can you hear what the Lord's saying? See, I find this very interesting. What He's saying is that one of the great attributes of the Father is that He's a peacemaker. I just want you to think about that. I don't know how you think about God. I think some people see God as somewhat hard, harsh, distant, reluctant to save, stoic, out there, transcendent, not very personal, not smiling upon them. Those who are God's sons prove to be so by their likeness to Him. Blessed are the peacemakers. Because if you're a peacemaker, Jesus is saying that's what God is like. And if you're like that, you bear the resemblance and you'll be called sons of God. But what we need to recognize is what the Father looks like. What is this great characteristic? Do you tend to think of God as a peacemaker? That's the thing. Or stern and hard? Because what Jesus is saying is My Father is so much the peacemaker, you can tell as children by their resemblance to that. You want to think about this. Because I'm not certain that God... I think we can read those many references to the fact that God is a God of peace and we can kind of just move past them. When you think about the attributes of God, you know what we think about. The attributes of God. We're talking about the fact that He's infinite. He's eternal. He's unchangeable or immutable. God is holy. God is just. God is almighty, omniscient, omnipresent. But I ask you this. I know this is dealing with us. Most of us are the peacemakers. But I think that we really have to recognize just what it is that Jesus is saying about the Father when He says this. Do you think often that one of the fundamental attributes of God is the fact that He's a peacemaker? Listen. Jesus is the express image of the Father. And they rejected Him. You know, if you look at John 5, Jesus says this. He said, look, John bore witness of Me. God don't need the witness of a man, but John bore witness of Me. He said, my Father bears witness to Me. My works bear witness. I bear witness. Yes, they knew He did that. He said, Scripture, you think you find eternal life in it, but they bear witness of Me. He said, Moses bears witness of Me. Do you know what He said to them? I say all these things to you that you might be saved. See, He pleaded with men. And then He walks out. He's out there overlooking Jerusalem and He weeps. And He said, how often I would gather you. And see, He said, I brought these things to make for your peace, but you would not. You won't come to Me. Do you recognize God sent His Son into the world to basically plead with men to come? God says, I have held out My hands to this stiff-necked people. What you need to recognize, some people just believe God is reluctant. You see, you can get into this, especially this, I would say, somewhat hyper-Calvinistic view of God to where you take predestination and you take election and you do such horrible things with it that you basically create a monster out of God. And I'll tell you, it is Romans 10. It is right in the context of Romans 9 where God specifically says, I am all day long stretching out My hands. Jesus said, you will not come to Me that you might have life. Do you see God this way? I'm afraid oftentimes, especially in Calvinistic reformed circles, you begin to think about God differently. And you don't want to think about Him that way because you need to recognize this, what God does in His mercy is He overcomes certain men's hostility. But in the end, the reason that people... Listen. Listen very carefully here. God... You can read verses. No man will come to Me lest My Father which has sent Me draws him. And you know what? You can take something like that and you can say, well, there it is. There it is. Do you know why sinners won't come to God? It's God's fault. And you so start to believe that you start to communicate that to the lost. Do you know why they can't come? Do you know what Scripture really says? Why they can't come? I'll tell you why they can't come. You find our Lord Jesus. He says, you know what? There was a king. There was a master. And he had a feast. He had this feast for his son. You know about this feast for the lamb. For his son. And you know invitations are sent out. Have you ever read that? Invitations. They were invited. And you know what he said? Everything's ready. Come on. And you know what? The invitations had already been sent out, but he sent his servants out. Those people that were invited, go tell them again. And what did they say? I've got a piece of land over here. I bought some oxen. I can't come. You know that's what it says. I can't come. I've got a new wife. Can't come. Do you recognize what's happening? God is inviting. God holds out His hands. And see, brothers and sisters, if we're going to be sons of this God, this is basically it. We're going to be a people that hold out our hands. Now I recognize this. I recognize that peacemaking, it happens right here in the church. Brothers and sisters, I'll tell you one thing. You want peace here? Scripture says that. Pursue peace with all men. You might be surprised how many times you get that kind of instruction in the New Testament about pursuing peace. You want to be aggressive. You don't want to be passive about this. You want to pursue it. And you know what? Scripture gives you no hiding place if there's not peace between you and someone else. Because if your brothers sinned against you, you go to them and you confront them. And if they don't hear you, you take two or three and you confront them. And you know what? If you've wronged them, and you remember that, you leave your gift at the altar and you go make sure... It doesn't matter if you're the one that's done the offending or if you're the receiving of the offense. You have a responsibility either way to go. You see what you're being called to do? You've got no hiding place. You have a responsibility to pursue peace. And I'll tell you this, if you actually want to pursue peace in the church, one of the things you have to do is learn how to control your tongue. I'll tell you this, James says this, you need to be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to rap. One of the reasons you have so many problems in the church is because people cannot control their tongues. You get problems in families because people can't control their tongues. They can sound very righteous, but they know how to provoke people with their tongues. They know how to say just the thing, the rude thing, the backward thing, see soft answers internally. There's a graciousness in speech that's very persuasive. You want to know what really creates problems in churches? It's people's tongues. It can be a look, it can be all sorts of things, but if we would simply start there. But I'll tell you this, it's not just in the church. One of the great peacemaking... We are called to be ambassadors of the cross. 2 Corinthians 5 We are calling men to be reconciled to God. And I'll tell you this, we have a gospel of peace. How beautiful are the feet of them? See, we have a gospel of peace. What we want to do is we want to bring peace to people out there because we realize they are fighting against our Heavenly Father and they will lose that fight. And the result of it will be eternal and it will be severe. And if we really want to bring peace, we're not going to mess around with people. One of the last things you want to do because of your Calvinism is go out there and convince people that the reason that they can't and are not coming to God is somehow God's fault. You know what sinners are very ready to say? I don't know how to believe. I can't believe. I can't repent. I'm trying to repent. I can't repent. I don't think God wants to save me. That is not what Scripture says. You want to be very clear with the lost. Very clear with them. You want to tell them the truth. Listen, peace in Scripture is not peace at all costs, no matter what. It's never that way. Jesus Himself said, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Really? I thought you were the Prince of Peace. And now you're telling us that you didn't come to bring peace? But you know what He's saying? He's going to divide people. Because you're going to have people that will lay down their weapons and surrender and you'll have people that will not. And it will create division, even right in a family. You've got some that are willing to follow Christ and some say I'm not going to follow Christ. You've got parents that have a child and the child decides to follow Christ and unless they hate mother and father, they're not worthy of Christ. And what does that do in a family? See, here's the thing. We don't want to offer peace no matter what. You don't offer people peace on any condition whatsoever. You know what? We have a mandate from God. There's a truth. You see, this is it. You don't bend truth. You don't skirt truth or doctrine, solid doctrine, what the Gospel really is. You don't skirt that if you really want to be a peacemaker. Listen, we want to be like our Father. We want to hold out our hands. We want to plead with people. Come, come. Christ is ready to receive you. Come now. You haven't done anything too bad. He will wash away that guilt. He will make everything right. There is a Gospel of peace here. We're promising peace to you if you'll come. He won't cast you out. He won't turn away from you. But we don't promote peace between God and men when we lead the lost to believe that they have any sort of valid truth whatsoever. Listen, brothers and sisters, you recognize that there is no peace if people come short of faith and repentance. Jesus said, repent and believe the Gospel. And anything short of that, they are still enemies of Christ and you don't want to play games with them. The preachers of Scripture never were content to invite somebody to church. They were never content to say, you know, go listen to John MacArthur online. That isn't it. Those things can be good. But that isn't the Gospel of peace. And listen, we only encourage a deception that doesn't promote peace when you start taking some kind of hyper-Calvinistic view of, well, we can't come. You know, we can't come unless we're elect. Or we can't come unless God draws us. Listen, we can understand the reality that men's hearts are hard and we've got to have God come to the rescue and break through that hardness. We recognize that. But our message to men is not that you have a valid reason for keeping and continuing on with your warfare with our God and His Christ. That's not justifiable at all. Repentance and faith. And we need to press people to it immediately. And if they don't do that, they cannot. I married a wife and I cannot. See, you cannot come unto Me. I married a wife and I cannot. Connect them! The reason men cannot come is because they love their sin too much to come. And that is their fault. That is their sin. That is their guilt. And they are culpable for it and damnable for it. And we need to not mince words. You're not encouraging peace unless you're saying you have to flee to Christ immediately, lay down your weapons, forsake your sin. This is what Scripture says. You are not willing to come to Me. That is the issue. That is always the issue. That is always what stands between God and men. They won't come. Because I'll tell you this, you go look in your Bibles. You can find some pretty wicked people like Ahab, like Manasseh. Do you recognize that when the most wicked, debauched people in Scripture humbled themselves before God, He showed mercy? I mean every single time. You'll not find an exception in Scripture. It's not there. And we don't promote peace between God and men. If at any reason we give people the belief that they can stall and it will be okay with them, or if for any reason they have a valid excuse for not coming immediately. People love to play games. They'll always find out somebody else to blame, especially blame God for why they're not a Christian and why things are not going well with their soul. But you don't want to give them that. You don't want to give them any hiding place but Christ. Don't ever. We need to be very clear as to why men will not flee to this God who is extending His hands to them. And brethren, I'll tell you this, you start giving them some other thing, some other out, well, what you really need to do is pray for a new heart. Can you find that in the Gospel? You need to pray for repentance. Christ never said so. He said repent. He didn't say pray for repentance. What good is your prayer going to do if your heart is against God and you have no desire to believe or repent? You think some more prayer, praying for a new heart, is going to fix that? Scripture never gives men an out at that point. Listen, if we're going to truly be peacemakers, and this is... God does not, Christ did not, give men hiding places, any place, but really seeking the true peace. See, we're not content with sham peace. Do you ever notice that the ones who said peace, peace, they were always the false prophet when there is no peace. And I'll tell you there will never be peace unless people surrender. That's the reality. Brethren, we never... A true peacemaker does not press people to do things that if they comply with it they still fall short of heaven. Do you ever recognize that about the preachers in Scripture? They told men to do that which would lead to their salvation. And sometimes we come up... See, we feel this resistance from sinners, and so you know what happens? We want to give them another way out. Rather than pressing them and being... Because listen, you recognize, peacemakers, true peacemakers, are willing to say to somebody, look, you love the darkness. Sonny said this to a girl yesterday. You love your sin. You're in the darkness. You won't come to the light. Maybe that doesn't sound like you're being a peacemaker. Maybe that sounds like you're being cruel to people. That's not cruelty. That is telling people the real deal. You want to know the path to real peace with God? It's right here. We have no good news of peace for sinners except that they find their whole foundation of hope in Christ and they flee to Him and they stop the battle against Him. They must immediately relinquish every false hope. You don't want to speak to Muslims and give them any thought whatsoever, but renouncing that altogether and casting themselves totally on Christ is the way of safety. Or whatever they're in. To tell a sinner... In any way, mince words come off that. Look, you don't want to tell people to pray for certain things. That is not the message. That is not what brings peace. Gospel of peace never instructs sinners to wait. Why? Because right now, if they're not a Christian, God is at war with them and will destroy them if death takes them. You don't know that tomorrow is promised to you. Today is the day of salvation, which means today is the day you must repent and you must believe. Today! Listen, there has to be an urgency. Real peacemakers want to be urgent about some things. This is important. Gospel of peace never instructs sinners to wait. Ever! Ever! Not to pray for faith, pray for repentance, or to stay in that unrepentant state at all. It is an absolutely fatal, dangerous place to be if we're really extending our hands. We want to put forth the conditions that Scripture puts forth, that Christ put forth. Brethren, I'll just say this, as we're calling people to peace, you don't want to compromise with the unconverted. Don't do that. If there's nothing in Christ, if there's nothing in this gospel of peace, in the blessings that are being offered in our Bibles, if that doesn't appease the sinner, there's no other way. If there's nothing in Christ, if there's nothing in eternal life that suits that unrepentant sinner, brethren, you're not producing peace if you coddle them or you help them to think that it's really not so bad or that a little bit more prayer, a little bit more church attending or waiting is any sort of hopeful path whatsoever. Listen, if the only possible way of giving people that are dead in their sins more hope while his heart is opposed to Christ... Yesterday, I brought out a track. I held a track out. There were two people walking by and they recoiled from it like I had put the most nasty vermin in their face. Like there was a recoil from it. Another girl I heard, I was standing within earshot of her as she walked past Sonny preaching. And she said, well, I'll just perish then. Okay. But you know what? Let's just be honest with people. She, at least, was saying, you know what? What I've got in my life I want. I don't want Christ. I'm just going to perish then. I know she doesn't really know what she's talking about. But I'll tell you this, while people's hearts are opposed, and they are opposed, if they're not a Christian, they are in rebellion against the God of Scripture. You see, we are His ambassadors. We're calling people to be reconciled to Christ. That means they're not reconciled. That means there's hostility. That means God is against them. And if death should take them in that state, God will damn them to the uttermost. And they will pay for what their sins deserve. The only possible way of giving hope to a sinner while his heart is still opposed is by lowering the requirements of the Gospel. Brethren, leave them without hope. If they are not satisfied with that, don't try to create something different. Don't cater to their... Oh, and I'll tell you, the unbeliever can get your sympathy. They can do it with tears. I've had it happen. They will weep. I'm trying to repent. God won't save me. And it's so pathetic you can start thinking, wow, God is being pretty mean to them. Like, Lord, why won't you save them? I'll tell you what Scripture tells us. It's not God. God is doing this. They're standing far off with swords still in hand, weeping tears while they're talking to you, telling you how bad God is. That's the truth of Scripture, brethren. You know this. You're an ambassador. You're an ambassador for a king. The king of glory. If the king of glory comes to you and he says, Ambassador, I'm going to send you to Manchester. There's a people there. I'm the king who is like this. I'm bidding them to come to me. I hold my hands out. I want to make peace with them. Ambassador, I want you to go tell them that if they'll lay down their weapons and surrender, I will show them such wonderful blessings and I will plant them in peace forevermore. But ambassador, they've got to lay down their weapons. And you go. And what can you do? You can tell people. You can seek to clarify. You can tell them you come on the authority of another. This is not your own authority. That's what Sonny was saying yesterday. A couple Muslim girls saying, I'm not telling you my words. He was saying what the king said. There's one way to the Father. You see, that's what we tell people. And you have to surrender to this mercy. Isn't it amazing we have to call men to surrender to mercy? That's exactly what it is. But you know what? If I come to these people and they won't cease in their rebellion, you have no right as an ambassador to change the message. This isn't of your creation. You're bearing the message of another. And if they won't have it on His terms, you don't coddle them. You dare not depart from the message. You have to be reconciled to the king. Lay down your arms. And we have to hold fast to this. And you know what you don't want to do? Do not offer them the least vestige of hope while they remain enemies to Christ. Don't do it. You've got to surrender. It may be self-righteousness, but we've got lots of people... I'm a good guy. No, you're not. No, you're not. Scripture says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Scripture says there's an unrighteous. Scripture says you're a liar from birth. People have all sorts of looks. They'll hold that sword and they can put on many disguises and guises and they can look this way and they can look that way. We've got to call them. Surrender. Surrender at once. Come to Him as a poor, guilty, broken, bankrupt. Don't come offering your good to Him. Don't offer your religion to Him. Don't offer that. It's filthy rags. That's what He says. You lay it all down. You come like that. By grace alone to be washed in His blood alone. Listen, I'm talking about blessed are the peacemakers. We want peace in the church. But I'll tell you, we are the people that are called to call the world around us to peace with our God and His Son. That's the heart, the reality of being a peacemaker. Listen, God's warfare is fierce. He is an enemy not to be taken lightly. He dashes His enemies to pieces. You start looking at some of the terminology in Scripture. It's graphic. There's a fierceness. To have the Almighty as an enemy. And that's where people are at. Something welled up in me yesterday walking those... I mean, just the way people reject the truth. And I know I was like that. I know, but by the grace of God, there go I. I know that. But what we have to tell people is this, there's an Avenger. I mean, it's amazing. There's an Avenger that is pursuing them. Death is coming. Hell is moving. It is under them like a great wide open jaw. Just waiting to suck them in. It was Jonathan Edwards long ago that said, sinners, they're walking like on rotted cloth. It's ready to rip out from under their feet at any second. And the jaws of hell will swallow them up. That is the reality. And that, listen, the jaws of hell, that's God. I'm talking God damns. God's wrath is what's poured out. And yet, the very God whose wrath pursues us, because if we have not submitted to Christ, we are children of wrath even now. And that wrath is constantly abiding over us. And yet, the God whose wrath we do very well to fear, He also constructed the city of refuge where we can go and not die. He was the one who constructed the ark even though He brought the flood. He brought the flood! He gave instructions for an ark. He's the Avenger. And you know, you can't hide under the title of Christianity. A lot of people doing it. But, you also know many in that day, He's going to say, depart from me. Because they weren't real. They were workers of iniquity. Do you know what that means? They never set down the sword. You know what? If we could really see, there are people that come into the church and they've still got the sword in their hands. I am going to do it my way. I am going to live life how I want to live life. And they've still got that sword. They walk in the church, they're holding it behind their back, but they've still got it. And Jesus says, many in that day, they're going to be just like that. We don't want to give people any hiding place. We, Christians, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. We want to call people to this city of refuge. Jesus finished it all. Jesus accomplished it. Jesus worked out this salvation. We want to tell people, come as you are, just as I am, without one plea. You don't have to clean up your own life. You just come as you are. And you come at once. You're done with the fight. You fall into His arms. Lord, do with me what you want. Stop resisting His benevolent rule. And you know what Scripture says? He'll accept you at once. Absolutely at once. I know that was my testimony. You know what? That fight was in there. No matter how hard things got, that fight was in there. The moment He brought me to the place where I was done fighting, and I threw up my arms, Lord have mercy. He had mercy in a moment. There was no hesitation. Church of God, remember something. There is a Gospel of peace, and we are the purveyors of it. We are His feet. We're the ones called to bear the message. That's our task. And you know the Gospel is not that God has an elect people. I mean, that's a truth. You recognize, I'm not denying that truth, but that's not the Gospel. The Gospel is not that God loved Jacob and hated Esau. That is a truth, but that's not the Gospel. That's not the good news. The Gospel isn't that there are vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. The Gospel is the good news that Christ came into the world to make peace by the blood of His cross. That's it. And those who will surrender to that, He will wrap His arms around them. Not only will the warfare be gone, He will smother you with His love to the place where you can hardly comprehend the breadth and the length and the height and the breadth and the depth and to know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge. Father, I pray, I pray for a church of peacemakers who shall be called the sons of God. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen. You're dismissed.