Perfect Peace

Matthew chapter 6. I'll begin reading at verse 25 to the end of the chapter.

! Matthew 6, 25. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear? Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, or reap, or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Amen. Well, we just sang of beautiful Savior.

Beautiful Savior. I'm sure that if we were one of the twelve disciples who were privileged to live with our Savior for those three years, one of the things that would attract us to him would be his constant peace.

That inward tranquility with which he moved right through the whole of his life, through the pressures and provocations from all kinds of places.

Studies show that stress is literally killing us. How to deal with it is an increasing topic of increasing interest, even in the workplace.

We can even stress out about how stress is killing us and contributes to many health, serious health problems, to relationships, to job performance.

Well, it's into this very pressure-packed and stressful world that the Lord Jesus Christ came. And unlike us, he lived with perfect peace.

Now, no one can say, well, the Lord Jesus' peace was due to a stress-free environment, as if all was calm around him, or that he managed somehow to avoid all the storms of life.

No, we would have to conclude that here is one who had more stressors in his life than we will ever have in ours. And yet he wasn't stressed out.

That's the picture that comes to us from the pages of our Bibles. He doesn't come unglued like we do. And he doesn't lose it and lose his head feverishly, rushing about.

But he moved through life with an inward tranquility and rest of soul. Jesus' peace was like the eye of the hurricane, when all around him was turbulence.

Yet in that situation, he knew a peace that passed understanding. Amen. Do you not find the peace of Jesus attractive?

What do you think? Do you think we can live in the eye of the storm? Do you think in our storms that we can find that eye where we live beyond the being stressed out and worried and anxious?

Can we enjoy the very same peace that Jesus Christ himself enjoyed while he lived in this world? Well, our text tonight says yes, and our study will show us how.

Turn to John 14 and verse 25 or 27. John 14 and verse 27. It's the night of Jesus' arrest.

The disciples are stressing and fearing and anxious. Their hearts are troubled because the Lord has just told them that he's going to leave them. And indeed, this very night, he will be taken from them.

But notice the legacy that he promises to leave them in verse 27. Peace, I leave you. My peace, I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Notice this peace is a gift and it comes from Christ.

He gives it. It's not found anywhere else but in him. Notice this peace that he gives to his disciples is his own peace.

My peace, I give you. It's the peace that he himself enjoyed. Not up in the perfect environment of heaven. But right here in the sin-cursed world that he's leaving.

The same world that you and I live in. And then notice as well from our text that his peace is not like the world's peace. I do not give to you as the world does.

The contest was being held to see who could paint the most beautiful and communicative painting on the word peace.

And all sorts of paintings were submitted with calm and peaceful landscapes and wonderful sunsets. But the winning painting of peace was a painting of a dark billowing sky overhead pouring forth driving rain and lightning.

And in the foreground of the foreground of the painting. There was a rock right in the midst of the storm. And a little bird sheltered in the cleft of that rock.

There is such a thing as peace in the midst of the storm. And that was the picture that was captured by the painter.

And that is the peace Jesus promised. My peace, I give you. The same peace I enjoyed in this life. It's not like the world's peace. The peace of the world only survives when the weather is fair.

And when there's a beautiful sunset and everybody's treating me as I like to be treated. My peace is fine then says the world. But if anyone even slightly rocks the boat, then that peace is the first thing overboard.

It's gone. The world's peace is worthless because life is not one continuous sunset. Indeed, Jesus says to his disciples in this world, you will have tribulation.

Can you have peace in tribulation? In the storm? That's what Jesus promises. Not a peace like the world. Sometimes a package arrives at your door and it's got in big, bold letters, fragile, handle with care.

That's the sign that could be put on the world's peace. It's a very fragile thing. If you aren't careful with it, it will break. It will be lost.

But Jesus says my peace isn't like that. It survives the roughest weather. I have peace under the world's roughest treatment. Now, I find that attractive.

And so tonight we want to follow the Lord Jesus around in the gospel. And we want to see all the things that disrupt our peace that he did not allow to disrupt his.

And we want to press inside to the calm of Jesus and ask what accounted for such a peaceful spirit in such a troubling circumstance.

I'm going to be sharing many of the insights of a Scottish pastor of the 19th century, William Blakey, from his book, Glimpses of the Inner Life of Our Lord.

And he identified at least four things that contributed to the steady peace of Jesus. And the first was his submission to his father's will. His submission to his father's will.

James asked a question. James 4, 1 and 2. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Now, when someone's fighting and quarreling, are they enjoying peace? No, they're not.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something and don't get it. You cannot have what you want.

So at the store, the child sees something he wants and there's no rest for him or for mom until he has it. A clash of wills between a teenager and her parents.

And there will be no peace in the walls of this house, much less within the heart of the teenager. Peace is destroyed because of an unsubmissive will.

And even so, we may have our will set on something. And we must have that thing. Maybe it's success in our business.

Maybe it's good health. Maybe it's a happy family life. An easy road. A certain job we want. A new car. A house. A restful evening. Things that in and of themselves are good to want.

But God's providence in our lives has slammed the door on those desires. And so, at least for now, it is not God's will for us to have those things.

And as long as our will is not submitted to God's will, then our peace will be disturbed and will be lost. Discontentment will eat up our peace. Or else we'll be destroyed by our conniving and scheming and stressing to figure a way to get what we want.

But either way, it's not the peace that Jesus gives. And so, we look away to Jesus and what do we see in him? How did he live?

How did he react when his own human will was confronted with difficult circumstances? Well, he sweetly submitted his human will to his father's will.

There was no jarring clashing of wills between Jesus and his father. No. There was this submissiveness of Jesus' will to his father's will that maintained peace in his soul.

That was no small part of the secret to his perfect peace and rest. Now, in the Lord's Prayer, he teaches us to pray, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And Jesus is not only teaching us how to pray, he's teaching us how to live. He's teaching us the way to enjoy his peace. Early submitting our will to his. Not my will, but yours be done.

Didn't he pray that in Gethsemane? And pray it he did in Gethsemane, but it wasn't just there that he prayed it. He was able to pray it in Gethsemane in the greatest storm that he faced.

Because that had been the way he faced every lesser storm in his life. It was ever one response. Not my will, but yours be done.

I've not come to do my will, but to do the will of my father who sent me. And so, in the garden he prays. Father, if it be possible, take this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And the father says it can't be done any other way. And so it is my will for you to drink the cup. And Jesus sweetly submitted his will to his father and took that cup.

And suffered the hellish death of the cross. Not a one-time thing, but rather the habitual life of our savior. The daily, moment-by-moment surrender of his will in things small and great.

I mean, think about the road that the father asked the son to travel through this life. How at every step and with each new trial and pain, he would need to respond.

Not with a chafing against the father's will, but with a submissiveness to it. An easy road was not the father's will for his son. And Jesus said, okay, not my will, but yours be done.

A nice house was not in the father's will for his son. Foxes have holes. Birds have nests. Nests. But the son of man has no place to lay his head.

Okay, father, not my will, but yours be done. A day of leisure without interruptions would be nice. Oh, but it's not the father's will.

They throng him. Even when they get away on their vacation, they throng him. With their sick. Enemies come to catch him. Not my will, father, but yours be done.

A successful ministry would be nice with many converts. But no, that was not the father's will. He came to his own and his own received him not. A happy family life.

Not the father's will. A long life. Not the father's will. Thirty-three years. Is that what you want, father? Not my will.

But yours be done. And so his submission to his father's will was perfect at every point. And so he maintained a perfect peace in his heart with what it was that the father ordered up for him.

And if we would know his peace, we must know his submission to the father's will. To align all of our wants with what he wants. And there we find peace.

How many times a day do you need to pray? Not my will, father, but yours be done. Think about it the next time you start to get agitated about something. Am I now ready to surrender my will to what the father has ordered for me right now here in this situation?

Missionary martyr Jim Elliott. And shall, I pray thee, change thy will, my father, until it be according unto mine? No, Lord, never. Rather, I pray thee, change, blend my human will with thine.

There is peace. When we want nothing but what the father wants. So what does the father want? Well, he wants whatever he's ordered for you in your life right now.

He's the one who's designed by his providence. All the people in your life. The amount of health that you have or don't have. The amount of money you have or don't have.

The amount of security you have. All the things in your life have been ordered by the father. And the peace comes in knowing this is what my father wants.

What do you want in life? What is it? Don't you want the father's will? Then embrace it. And learn that peace that comes with embracing the father's will.

If I had God's power, someone said, I might change many things. But if I had his wisdom, I wouldn't change anything. What do you want?

I want what God wants. And when I'm willing to want it more than what my ignorance and my foolishness wants, and I submit to him, then I know that peace that passes understanding.

Well, this is to learn the secret of being content in any and every circumstance, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Is this your will, father? Then it's mine, too. Oh, Lord Jesus, may you teach us and give us your peace.

His will was submitted to his father. His trust, secondly, was in his heavenly father. His trust. There's a multitude of worries and fears that rob our peace. Maybe it's the child's fear of the dark and their peace is gone.

Maybe it's a deadline approaching at work or in ministry, and you're not making much headway, and the remembrance of it disturbs your peace. Maybe it's a large bill coming due, a decision you need to make.

A doctor tells you you need a test. You need to go to the hospital and have this MRI. And just thinking of what it might mean, you break out into a sweat and into worry.

Concerns physically and spiritually for your children's well-being, your grandchildren. It sets you to worrying. Maybe it's your own future. Anxious thoughts marching round and round in our souls, in our minds.

And while they do, our peace is gone. It's disturbed as much as if rioters were going through town. Disturbers of the peace. These worrisome thoughts. Now, Jesus lived in the same fallen world.

We've got to remind ourselves of that. The incarnation brought him down from heaven into our world, facing the same dangers and fearful things and far more. There were enemies seeking his life.

There were crosshairs on him. And he knew it. But he moves calmly through the scenes of this life, unruffled and tranquil.

And we say, how, Lord? But how? What we get from the Gospels is by moment by moment, trust in his father. Father knows.

That's enough. He cares for me. He loves me. Jesus is the embodiment of the text in Isaiah 26, 3. You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee.

And Jesus knew that peace because he trusted in his father. His mind was stayed upon Jehovah. And so he knew that peace. Now, every situation in life was looked on by our Savior, not in isolation, but always in connection with his heavenly father.

And that's why stressful circumstances did not move him and disturb his peace. And that's where we go wrong.

We see the circumstance and we fail to see it in relation to our heavenly father and we get stressed out. But Jesus always sees the trial, the test, the difficulty in connection with his father in heaven.

And he knows that whatever happened to him was under his father's sovereign control. And he gave him a calmness of spirit. We had read for us that passage in the Sermon on the Mount, didn't we, about the things that cause men worry and anxiety.

What is it that disturbs the peace of many in the world? Well, it's what shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? It's just the common cares of life. How will we get the things we need and the things that we want?

And as long as they have plenty of these things, they have peace. But if they're threatened to go without them, well, then their peace turns to worry and frantic activity. The pagans run after all these things.

The idea is they're consumed. Their life is consumed with these sorts of things. That's worry. That's that's not peace in their lives.

But Jesus says, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. And why not? Because your heavenly father knows that you need them.

It's enough. It's enough. It's enough for Jesus. It's enough for us. Trusting your heavenly father's care is the end of worry. It's the continuance of peace.

And that's one of the ways Jesus Christ sustained his own peace. And it's the same way that he tells us to. But if you're like me, you may feel.

But I can't relate to Jesus and learn from him because after all, he was God and I'm not. I mean, if he was hungry, he could just turn stones into bread.

He wouldn't have to worry about how he's going to get food. Well, yes, he could. But he didn't, did he? You ever asked why?

Why didn't Jesus, when he was hungry and tempted to worry about having enough to eat, just turn the stones into bread? Well, one reason was because he was working out a perfect righteousness of perfect trust in the heavenly father.

He was teaching us how to live as a man in relation to God, the father.

He's leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps. And so he will not fall back on his own miraculous powers. To supply his own personal needs, but rather for those he will trust in his heavenly father, just as you and I must do.

So he doesn't use his divine prerogatives to meet his needs. No, if he did that, then you and I couldn't relate to his example. We don't have those divine powers.

But he becomes one of us. And he learns to trust in the situation that we, too. Might learn from him. We might have his righteous trust put to our account, but we might also learn how to live.

And so he says man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God. That's the response of faith. God humbled them by causing them to hunger in the desert, to be without food.

And then he fed them with manna totally unknown to them. To teach them that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

That is his word of decree. I live by whatever he decrees for me. So I can trust him to provide for me. And if necessary, he will he will rain bread down from heaven for me.

That's what he was teaching his people in the wilderness. Because God can decree his word can go out and say bread fall on my people for 40 years.

That's our God. That's our father. He was teaching them to walk by faith, to trust in him for their daily needs. And so rather than fall back on his divine powers to turn stones to bread, he trusts in his heavenly father to provide for him just as you and I must.

And so when he's in danger, he refused to call 12 legion of angels to protect him. Could have. But you notice he didn't.

No, instead he entrusted himself to his father's care, just like you and I must. And since we can't turn stones to bread and can't call 12 legions of angels into actions.

He too becomes an example for us to follow in. So it was as a real man living in a real world that he leaves behind this legacy of peace.

Peace. A peace rooted in his trusting relationship with his father in heaven. He enjoyed this peace in the same way that you and I enjoy it.

So all around him. He saw evidence of his father's care for him. So there goes a flitting bird. What does he see in that bird?

He sees an evidence of his father's care. They're not sowing or reaping. They're not gathering and storing away in barns.

And yet they live on. How is that happening? Well, I know how it's happening. My father in heaven is feeding them. And he cares more for me than he does those birds.

And oh, look at those lilies. Don't they make that grass look beautiful? And does not my father in heaven know how to clothe me?

And so I can trust him. So he's he's seen his father's care all around him. And he's committing himself to his father. It's his father's world.

He saw his father at every turn. And it was enough to keep him from worrying and to interrupt his peace. So the robin to the sparrow, I would really like to know why those anxious human beings rush about and hurry.

So. Said the sparrow to the robin. Well, I guess it it must be that they have no heavenly father such as cares for you and me. Look to the birds.

Look to the lilies. And trust yourself to your father in heaven. A third thing that maintained our savior's peace was his humble servant heart.

His humble servant heart. Not only did he submit his will to the father and trust in his father's care. He also lived with a humble servant heart. Few things will destroy peace quicker than a proud, arrogant heart.

Heart. Man's own pride and self-importance demand that everybody else treat me with respect. Giving me my rights.

Just like Nebuchadnezzar. Man makes self his idol. And then he's offended when others do not bow down to that image. And they don't treat him as he deserves.

Or they treat him with indifference. It was the same with proud Haman, wasn't it? The great king Xerxes had just elevated him to the seat of honor higher than all the other nobles.

And all the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid homage to Haman as he would strut through the gate each morning and evening. And that's what he thought he deserved.

He had a high view of himself. Well, he's setting himself up for a lack of peace, wasn't he? Because there was one who didn't bow. A Jew.

A despicable, despised Jew. Named Mordecai. And when Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.

That means he lost his peace. He came unglued. He was agitated. And to proud Haman, it's torture that a single human being, especially a nobody like this Jew Mordecai, refuses to treat him with honor as he thinks he deserves to be treated.

He can't be at rest until Mordecai either bows or is hanged on his gallows. It only takes one man to ruin Haman's peace.

I told you it's fragile, this world's peace. But I don't give you like the world gives, Jesus says. A proud spirit is a great disturber of the peace.

It's a source of irritation that makes us easily offended. Our pride says you deserve better treatment than that. Don't stand for that, John. I don't deserve to be cut off in traffic.

I shouldn't have to apply my brakes and spend more of that expensive gas when I reaccelerate. I deserve better than that. You see, my high view of self causes me to lose my peace.

Who does he think he is to treat me that way? I deserve better treatment from my husband, my wife, my children, my parents. And so when people in our life start to treat us like servants, we say I deserve something better than that and we lose our peace.

We may even say it to ourselves. I'm not your slave. And we're upset about it. So Jesus says, well, if you want to be great in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all.

And on the spur of the moment and the spiritual reality comes crashing home to our hearts, we say, that's what I want, Lord. I want to be the servant of all. And then people start treating us like servants.

And we get upset. And right out the door flies all that sanctification and that consecration and that desire to be the servant of all. And our peace goes out the door with it.

Pride makes us touchy. Pride makes us upset over any criticism or slander. Sensitive, oversensitive to disrespect or mistreatment.

A lack of appreciation and praise. So there's Jesus. We look over at him and we say, well, what did he do? Was he ever treated less than he deserved?

Did they ever treat him like a servant? How did he respond? Well, let's remember how he starts. He's the eternal son of God. So he does deserve to have every knee go down. Right?

Every tongue confess that he's Lord. He deserves the highest treatment. He's the creator of all things. There's none higher. And now he's walking on the earth as man. So how'd they treat him?

Well, they didn't all bow their knee and heart to him. Some refused to bend and give him the honor he deserved as the son of God.

They did not believe. They would not obey. They would not have him to rule over them. Others ignored him. Others called him a liar. Demon possessed.

In league with Satan. In league with Satan. A drunkard. A glutton. And humble Jesus. Did not lose his peace over that. He was too humble for that.

His peace did not depend on men's opinions of him. Men's praises of him. His peace didn't depend on others recognizing his worth and treating him with the honor he deserved.

So their frowns and mistreatment didn't steal his peace. His eye was upon his heavenly father. His well done is what he lived for.

His opinion of him was what he cared for. And was his constant source of peace. Even when men cursed him. He knew his father loved him.

And he didn't lose it. He shows us that a man can be treated like dirt and still remain unruffled. In his work. His home. His school. The team.

Among friends who abuse him. He's humble enough to take mistreatment without losing his peace. So they're coming into a Samaritan village. And they send.

Jesus sends messengers on ahead to get things ready for Jesus coming. And the people there didn't welcome him. And James and John. Those sons of thunder said. Lord do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?

And Jesus turned and rebuked them. And then they went to the next village. It ruffled John and James peace.

But not Jesus peace. He doesn't allow it. To linger in his heart. To swell and fester and irritate him. He doesn't carry grudges through life.

Bitter and unforgiving. No. It was father forgive them. Even from the cross. I dare say that wasn't the first time. That he said those words.

It's the way he lived. Constantly abused. And when someone came to collect the temple tax from Peter and him. He didn't fly into a rage. What do you mean? Me pay. Don't you know who I am?

You know the son of the king doesn't pay tax. We're not giving you anything. No. He said Peter just go down. Throw your line in. You'll catch a fish and pay. In the mouth will be our money.

Pay the tax. He overlooks. A host of insults and injustices. He turns the other cheek. When others demand. More than they had a right to.

He calmly walks the second mile. They treat him as a servant. And he performs the act of a servant. He's not picking up an offense. He's overlooking injustices and faults.

And so Judas comes into the garden. With a mob. And he betrays Jesus with a kiss. How do you take in that? Betrayal. From one of the closest to you.

Doesn't lose his composure and fly into a rage. How dare you do that to me? Betray me with a kiss? You rotten good for nothing.

No. Judas. Are you betraying the son of man? With a kiss? I see through your deceit. I know what you're doing.

With that phony symbol of love. And though it felt like a knife in his back. And hurt abominably. He still was calm in his spirit. And called him friend.

And so this peaceful Jesus says to you and me. Now you come on after me. Come to me. And take up my yoke upon you. And learn from me. Because I'm gentle and humble in heart.

And what will you find if you come and learn from me who is gentle and humble? You'll find peace. Soul rest. It's one of the things we learn in the yoke with humble Jesus.

Is a humility of heart. And the blessed fruit of it is soul rest. He didn't need men to serve him.

He didn't come to be served. But to serve. And give his life as a ransom for many. So Jesus gives us his peace by teaching us his humility of heart. And lastly.

The fourth element that contributed to the peace of Jesus was his awareness of his father's presence. His awareness of his father's presence. John 1632.

A time is coming and has come when you will be scattered each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone. For my father is with me.

And there was a continual source of peace to our savior. My father is with me. We've seen his trust in his father.

His bending his will. Submitting to his father's will. But there was tremendous comfort. To the man Christ Jesus. In being aware that his father was present with him.

To know that no matter what was happening to him. He was never alone. My father's with me. In this situation. He's here with me. Even as I'm being arrested and roughed about.

My father is with me. We've seen children's lack of. Or children's fear of the dark. And of storms just go away. By mom and dad's presence.

As if they could do anything about the storms. But we see that childlike trust. That things will be well. Because mommy and daddy are here. And that's what we find in our savior.

That childlike faith. That my father is with me. I've set the Lord always before me. We saw it this morning in Psalm 16. 8. I've set the Lord always before me.

This is a messianic song. This is Jesus. Yes, David speaking. But also the son of David speaking. Jesus set the Lord always before him.

And because he saw that the Lord was at his right hand. He was not moved. He was not shaken. His peace was not shaken. And it's that awareness of his father's presence.

That gave him tremendous peace. Now how did he. How did he keep up an awareness of his father's presence? How do you keep up an awareness of your father's presence with you?

Well, he did it by. Continual prayer. He's always talking to his father, isn't he? In whatever situation he's in. He's talking to his father.

Paul tell us to pray without ceasing. Always be talking with your father. And in so doing. You will keep before you your father. You'll see the Lord at your right hand and you will not be moved.

So do not be anxious about anything. But in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Present your request to God.

And what will result? The peace of God. Which transcends all understanding. Will guard. Will garrison your heart and your minds. In Christ Jesus.

So Jesus heart was ever being kept from anxiety and worry. Because he kept praying. Kept holding before him. My father. And he could tell his father everything. Couldn't tell his disciples everything.

They didn't have a clue on so many things. His mission. They didn't even understand his mission. Why he had come. And they were so wrong on so many things. But he had one place where he could go.

And know. My father knows. And he could tell his father everything. And he drew tremendous comfort. From his father's presence.

And so he's kept from worry and anxiety. By talking to his father about everything. That's why we find him often alone. Out there talking to his father. Oh what peace we often forfeit.

Oh what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything. To God in prayer. Folks there's enough pain. That is necessary. In life.

We don't need any needless pain do we. We need all the pain that he sends. But we don't need to be. Piling up more and more pain. Just because we don't. Pray.

About everything. So here then is the way. That Jesus experienced. This wonderful tranquility. And peace in his life. In a world so full of trouble.

There is a way to enjoy. The peace that Jesus enjoyed. In this agitated world. A peace maintained. By submission. To his will. By trust.

In the father's care. By humbling ourselves. Before him. And others. And by a constant awareness. Of our father's presence. Do you know.

There's nothing in those four things. That is out of reach. Of everyone who's in Christ. Here tonight. That's to say. That there. Is nothing in the peace of Jesus.

That's not available to us. Did he not say to us. Through his disciples. My peace. I give you. My peace.

The same peace. I enjoy. I give to you. Not as the world. Gives. Give I unto you. So here is. At least some pointers. Into enjoying this.

Peace. Of the Lord Jesus. Who lived in the same world. That we live in. But you know. There was one time. When he lost his peace. And he became very agitated.

And very upset. Mark tells us. When he came into Gethsemane. He began to be deeply distressed. And troubled. Let not your hearts be troubled.

He told his disciples. And that's the way he lived. But now. We see Jesus. Acting out of character. If you will. This isn't the way. That he. He goes through life.

But now look at him. He's troubled. He's all upset. He's deeply disturbed. And he says to Peter. James and John. My soul is overwhelmed. With sorrow. To the point of death.

And we say. What is this? Well he's contemplating. The experience of the cross. That's just hours away. And it seems that the father.

Showed him more of that scene. And what he will bear there. Than he'd ever seen before. In his life. And instead of. His father's abiding presence. He.

He knows. That he's going to have to see. The father. Turn. His back. To him. And hide his face. From him. And abandon him.

And forsake him. To feel forsaken. For sinners. And instead of his loving care. To trust in. He's going to have to feel.

His holy wrath. And condemnation. All for sinners. But it was in that way. That he won. Our peace. With God.

How is it that we can be at peace. In the presence of God. Our judge. And maker. Well it's through our Lord Jesus. Who in that period.

Lost his peace. That he might win. Peace for us. That we might stand. At peace. With almighty God. Know that there's no problem.

We're reconciled. He accepts me. And loves me. As much as he loves his own. Begotten son. The Lord Jesus. What can do that? It is what Jesus bore for us. And so.

Being justified by faith. We have peace with God. And that's the foundation. The peace. With God. Is the foundation. For all the peace. Of God.

Living in this world. And learning. That peace. That we talked about tonight. That will only happen. If you. Have the peace. Of God. Peace won.

By our Savior. When he. Took our sin. And was judged for us. And was agitated. And troubled. And abandoned.

And forsaken. And knew wrath. For us. Well that's the peace. Now that he. Has won for us. And gives to his disciples. It's his to give.

It's ours to seek. Let's ask him together. For that peace. We thank you. Lord Jesus. For all that you have done. For us.

This. What we have spoken of. Last. Is the greatest. Of gifts. That. You would give yourself. Up to the death. Of the cross. For us. And win. Our peace. With God.

We might have. A foundation. Of a reconciled. Relationship. With you. Our father in heaven. That we might now know. That you are for us. In everything. And might. Be able to trust.

Your love. And wisdom. And power. We ask you. Lord Jesus. You know. What it takes. To live in this world. You were here. You experienced.

All the temptations. That we face. Things that make off. With our peace. You were tempted. In every way. Like we are. And you know.

The grace. We need. Oh. Teach us. This submission. And trust. And humility. And fellowship. With our father. Remember.

That we are. Dust. Remember our frame. And strengthen us. We pray. That we might. Show forth. Something of that same. Peace. That was. In our savior.

We would be. More like him. In his peace. Teach it to us. We pray. For your own. Namesake. And for our good. We ask it. In Jesus name.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.