Gospel Message

Peace -Lost & Gained.

Reading from Genesis 2v1; Colossians 1v19.

I would like to bring to your notice a subject that has been a problem as far as the world is concerned ever since sin came in, and it is a problem even to the present -time. It was Neville Chamberlain, after he had retired from politics, when he intended to make a world tour, a reporter just caught him as he was ready to board the ship, and he said: 'Mr Chamberlain, what is the object of your tour, and what do you really seek?' He said, ' I am looking for the most elusive thing in all the world, and that is peace.' That is the situation, the greatest problem that confronts the world is the quest for peace.

There are people that think that peace is just a negative thing. As long as we are not at each other's throats that is peace.

Well, that isn't peace, that is just a cessation .of war. We are grateful to God for conditions where we can live in such a state with people, but that is not the definition of peace. It is that which I wish to bring to your notice, and let us look in our own hearts and see whether we have peace.

Now, God says this: 'There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.' So that wickedness doesn't run hand in hand with peace.

The way of wickedness is the way of lawlessness, and where there is lawlessness then there is no peace. But then God goes a step further, and He says, 'The way of peace have they not known.' They do not even know the recipe for peace, they do not know how to get it. I am old enough to remember the United Nations organisation starting, and there was going to be peace when they came together. The Treaty of Versaille, and a lot of other things they have used to obtain peace, but God says that the way of peace have they not known. It is not in the mind of men and it is not in the power of men to know what peace really is.

Now peace is a positive thing, and that is why I have read Genesis 2, because when God created the man He created him in such circumstances that he could enjoy peace. Then it is explained for us why that peace was broken and what came in its place. If ever there is going to be peace enjoyed then that is why I read Colossians 1, because there is only one that can make peace, and He made it by the blood of His cross.

Now, as I have said, peace is a positive reality. So, wherever a man may look there is nothing that offends him, there is nothing that would grieve him, there is nothing that would cause him to desire more. When a man is able to look wherever he will, and he is right in every circumstance that is peace.

Let us look, for instance, at when God made the man. It says He made the trees, the herbs before they were ever put in the ground. He says there was no rain, the earth was watered with a mist that proceeded out of the ground. So that whatever Adam sowed, he knew that he was going to reap. There was no anxiety or doubts at all about it, the conditions were absolutely sublime and perfect, the sun shone in the day, the mist rose in the night, the seed germinated and grew. So that there was no anxiety in the heart of Adam as to what was going to follow, he knew that there was going to be a harvest. I am quite sure of this ( though the Lord Jesus in Matthew 13, when He speaks of the sower, He says that that good ground produced some thirty fold, some forty fold, some sixty fold) that it was like Isaac when he sowed that he reaped a hundred fold. So that here is a condition that made for tranquillity, it made for peace, that what Adam sowed he knew that he was going to reap. That relationship between himself and the ground was absolutely clear and he was right, there were no doubts at all, and that made peace in the heart of Adam in that direction.

But we go a step further, and it says that God planted a garden eastward in Eden. Why did God plant a garden eastward in Eden?

God was doing something that Adam didn't know anything about. In fact, when God took the children of Israel out of Egypt He told Moses to do something that Moses knew nothing about. When Solomon came onto the scene then God told his father David his son was going to do something that Solomon knew nothing about. God had to give instructions to Moses and the Tabernacle was built, and God had to give instructions to David and the Temple was built, because that Tabernacle and Temple were for God. For God's pleasures and for God's name. It was God that planted a garden eastward in Eden, and He did that for Himself.

Now Adam did not know the requirements that were necessary for the presence of God, just as Moses and the children of Israel did not know. Indeed, even though David is called a man after God's own heart, he did not know the requirements. So God had to tell them what they were, and God made a circumstance in this earth so that He Himself could come down without sacrificing any part of His character or His being, and there He could walk in the cool of the day.

It is very interesting to know that God did not put a guard in front of that garden and say to Adam, 'You cannot come in.' God put the man in the garden, and that man was at liberty to walk and talk with God in the cool of the day. No, there was nothing to hide, there was nothing to worry about, Adam was there with a very clear heart and mind, he was able to speak with God as friend with friend, and there they communed the one with the other. That man was not only right with the earth, with what he sowed and what he reaped, but he was right with God as well.

There was nothing between, and he and God were on speaking terms, and terms of fellowship and friendliness, and I tell you, when a man is at peace with God as well, that is peace, isn't it? So that when Adam looked out he was right with everything, and when he looked up he was right with God as well.

We are told that God caused all creation, the birds, the beasts, the creeping things, to pass before Adam, and Adam gave them their names. There was not a thing that he was afraid of, and their was not a thing that was afraid of Adam. He had dominion over all the works of God's hands. So he could walk among them, and move among them, and they could go in and go out, and there was nothing to worry or trouble. He was right with all that living creation, and that was peace.

But now, God goes a step further, and He considers this man Adam that He has made ( a tremendous person he must have been) and after everything had passed before him, and Adam had given them all names, there was not a thing 'that could stay behind and have fellowship with him. There wasn't a thing that could rise up to Adam's requirements, and so God says 'It is not good for the man to be alone.' He is discussing the need of one person, 'It is not good for the man to be alone.' He would meet that need, and He caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam, and He took out a rib, and as the word is, He builded a woman from that rib. I don't know if you have read the booklet written by a surgeon by the name of Sheldon, an Australian, and he quotes quite a number of British surgeons to corroborate his statements, that the rib is the only bone in the body that can grow again. My dear friend, if you think this book is a collection of old wives' fables, do you know that it is comparatively recent knowledge that a whale isn't a fish, that a whale is a warm blooded mammal, but if you have a look at Genesis 1 God has already distinguished between the fishes and the whales, it says 'He made the fishes, and the great whales also.' So He made a difference. You can trust the Bible, it is true to detail.

So from the rib of the man, God builded a woman, and He introduced that woman to the man, so God is the one who first performed the wedding ceremony. He married the first man and woman, and He's going to marry the second man to his wife. That will be in heaven. That first marriage ended in quite a lot of disruption, but the second one is going on for all eternity - what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

When He made and introduced the woman, Adam could say, 'Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.' Now that is a good marriage, and as marriages ought to be, and anything less than that ought not to be mentioned among the people of God at all.

So, she was to be a help meet for him. Now not a help-meet, it's two words, a help meet, equal to the occasion. That's how God made the woman, to stand shoulder to shoulder with the man, on the ground of equality, to enjoy the things that Adam enjoyed, to walk the way that Adam walked, to talk the language that Adam talked, and there they had all things common, that made for peace. Wherever Adam looked, outside, upward, or within, he was right in every situation, nothing to fear, nothing to doubt, nothing to worry about, and when a man is right like that, then God says that is peace. That is why you will never get peace in the world just because nations come together, they cannot deal with the situation.

How long that lasted I don't know. But I do know this, that when Adam was 130 years old he had his third known son. What other sons and daughter he had I don't know, but he had a least two daughters that are known, because the two known sons are mentioned as building there altars, and if they weren't married then they are tending their father's altar. But when they started a house of their own, according to the scripture, then they were personally responsible before God for their families, and they had to build an altar. Cain didn't go into the land of Nod and take unto himself a wife, did he now? My Bible says he went into the land of Nod and there he knew his wife, he took his wife with him, and she could be no other than his sister.

You know as well as I do there was one command that God gave to prove His authority in the creation that had come from His hand.

He says to that man, 'Of every tree which is in the midst of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For the day wherein thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' So Satan, seeking his opportunity, approached the woman. Now if the woman had done the right thing she would have referred the situation to the man that God had put in authority. God had not put the woman in dominion, He had put the man in dominion, neither had God given the word to the woman, but to the man. So it would have been better if she had transferred the whole of the responsibility to the man.

As Paul says, it was not Adam that was deceived in the transgression but Eve. She usurped his authority and she taught, and she taught wrong. 'We may not eat of it, neither touch it, lest we die.' Now God never said that, but that's the way she expounded it. So God says, ' I suffer not a woman to teach, or to usurp authority over the man.' It goes right back to the beginning of things.

Nevertheless she was deceived with the lust of the eye, and the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, 'Ye shall become as gods.' When she ate her eyes were opened, knowing good and evil.

The effect of conscience came into being, and she gave also to her husband and he did eat. The whole situation had changed. So God comes down, and instead of that man being right with God they hid themselves among the trees of the garden, fear sprung in the heart of the man where peace once reigned, and God cried out, 'Adam, where art thou? What hast thou done?' There instead of walking and talking with God the judgement of God was pronounced, and that man wasn't right with himself, he wasn't right with his God, and peace was taking wings and flying away. The woman, instead of standing on equality, God says to her, 'Thine obedience shall be towards thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.' I tell you, that has been one of the greatest causes of divorce, and peace left the family scene as the woman was brought into subjection to the man.

Then God says, 'In the sweat of thy face.' No, it does not say in the sweat of your brow. You can be hot, and sweat in your brow, you can have a fright and sweat in your brow, it takes hard work for a man to sweat in his face. God says, 'In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, and thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee.' So when he sowed it was the result of hard toil and labour, and even then there were thorns and thistles coming up in the midst of his sowing, and he didn't know what the result of his labours were going to be. His relationship with the ground was completely changed, and peace had gone. Have a look through the scriptures, you'll find famine after famine, and that is because sin came into the world. I remember, I was down in Hampshire, and

I was standing with a farmer one evening looking over a huge field sometime in August, and it looked well.

The wheat stood up there, and looked lovely. He worked out how many tons he'd get and how many tons to the acre there would be, and it went into thousands of pounds. When I' got up in the morning and came down the man was almost beside himself, there had been a freak storm and a wind that night and had completely flattened the whole lot. You see, when a farmer puts his seed in the ground he has no rest until he has the harvest in the barn.

There is no man, and it matters not what kind of a person he is, or she may be, that has the ability to produce peace.

But there came a lovely man, whose name is Jesus, none other than God's eternal son. He was right with God, was right with all creation, and was ready to be right with all mankind, but they hated him without a cause. He went about doing good, healing all that were afflicted and oppressed of the devil. He is called the Prince of Peace. The apostle Paul calls him 'Our Peace,' and that One made peace by the blood of His cross. There upon the cross at Calvary He dealt with that offensive thing called sin, and He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, chastised with a view to our peace, crushed that we might be healed. There in His own body He bore our sins and paid the debt and paid the price, and shed His precious blood, so that the apostle Paul could say, 'We have peace through the blood of His cross.'

So, there is a man who has made peace, and that peace is being offered to men and women. The apostle Paul puts it like this, 'Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' So that there is nothing between, my dear friend. There's peace, God asks no more of me, I stand in all the perfection and all the worth of the person and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am right with God, and that is peace. I am right in my own heart also. 'If thine heart condemn thee not, then hast thou confidence before God.' No, there are none of my sins that can ever come up to torment me, even though the devil will try. You know the story about Luther when he was in prison, there the devil came and showed him a great scroll. 'All your sins, Martin Luther, all your sins.' Martin Luther said, 'Are there many more beside?' He said, 'Many.' Then he said, 'Write across them all, "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin."'

I am aware of the things that I have done, I am aware of the frailty of my life and my heart, I am aware of it all, but my i conscience is right with God. My sins do not stand between me and God any more, and I'm right in my heart, I have peace. I'll tell you something else, and I mean what I say, it doesn't matter who the person is, I like to be right with them as well. I bear no malice, and I bear no offence with anybody. All that was lost, there in the garden of Eden because of sin, that blessed man recovered by the sacrifice upon the cross.

My friend, tonight, if you want to know what peace really is, then you have got to trust the One that made peace by the blood of His cross. You must trust Him as your saviour, and as the One that bore away your sins in His own body on the tree. When you trust Him, you will know you are right with God, with your own conscience, and you will know you are right with everybody else as well.

So I leave the matter with you. This is something too great, too difficult for men to understand, much less to be accomplished, and it took no other person than the Lord Jesus Christ to do it.

Look again to Calvary, my friend, look again, because it is there that He made peace by the blood of His cross.