The Prince of Peace

Well, for the last time in this series, we turn to Isaiah chapter 9 and look at verse 6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.

Unto us a child is born, that is our Lord's humanity. Unto us a son is given, that is our Lord's deity. Every baby born into this world is a brand-new person, never existed before, but that was not true of Jesus Christ.

He who dwelt throughout all eternity having a father and no mother came into this world as a baby having an earthly mother but no earthly father. He was born of the Virgin Mary, coming into this world the spotless Son of God. He wants to have the government upon his shoulder.

Instead men put a cross upon his shoulder, and he died on that cross with the sins of the world on his shoulder. But Isaiah 9.6 is saying to you and me that if we give the government of our lives to Jesus Christ, certain needs will be met that can be met no other way. His name is Wonderful.

This takes care of the dullness of life. When you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you simply don't have to have all of the exciting substitutes that the world has to offer. You have him who is Wonderful.

He is Counselor. This takes care of the decisions of life. People go to so many different places to get answers to questions.

Those of us who know Jesus Christ have him as the Counselor. He helps us to make decisions. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.

His name is the Mighty God. This takes care of the demands of life. There are days when we wonder if we can keep going, but he is the Mighty God, and the Prophet tells us he is mighty to save.

The Everlasting Father, or the Father of Eternity, takes care of the dimensions of life. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, your life is very empty, very small, very insignificant. If you put the government of your life upon his shoulder, he gives you the length and the breadth and the depth and the height of his marvelous love and his abounding life.

He is also the Prince of Peace. This takes care of the distresses of life. I suppose there are only two kinds of people in the world today who are not distressed at one time or another.

Those who are mentally ill and don't know what's going on, and those who have so hardened their hearts and sealed themselves that they no longer respond to what is going on. Frankly, I don't want to be in either category. I don't want my life to come to such a place that I am not concerned about what's going on.

I think you feel the same way about your life. And yet we want peace. How is it possible for those of us who are Christians to live in a world of war and have peace? We can't isolate ourselves.

We can't insulate ourselves. Some Christians do. Some Christians never confront the cold, difficult facts of life.

I'm very happy that here at Moody Church our people are not insulated and isolated. I have preached in churches, and I'm sorry to say this, where they have turned the church into a citadel, and they've pulled up the drawbridge, and they refuse to see what's going on out there. And consequently they are running a mutual admiration society that's quietly turning into a museum.

The Lord Jesus Christ knew what it was to face the hard facts of life, so much so that he wept and bled and died. I suppose one of the tests of whether or not I'm really like the Lord Jesus is this. Am I isolated? Am I insulated? Or am I so related to the world today that I feel some of the burden on my heart? And every once in a while there's a tear.

It's so easy for us to become self-sufficient and to isolate ourselves from the stark realities of life. But the Lord doesn't want that. But the Lord is saying to me and to you, it's possible to live in a real world and fight real battles and carry real burdens and have real distresses and still have peace.

Because in the word of God, peace is not the absence of war. Peace is not the absence of burden. Peace is not the absence of perplexity and even doubt.

When you read your Bible, you find that the great men of God had their hours of perplexity and bewilderment. I've just finished reading through Jeremiah, and the more I read that book, the more impressed I am with that great man of God who knew how to weep. He was so weak before God, always wanting to quit, and yet he was so strong before men, even to the point of almost being killed.

God never says to you, look, I'm going to give you peace by building a wall around you and isolating you from the facts of life. Or I'm going to give you some sort of a spiritual sedative. And though you may see these things, they won't get through to you.

You'll be impervious to them. God says to you, you're going to go through battles. You're going to go through distresses and difficulties.

But I want you to know, you're going to have an amazing peace down inside. Not in spite of these difficulties, but because of these difficulties. That's why the Bible calls it a peace that passes understanding.

You can't explain it. Now when you think of Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace, you must think of a number of facts about him. First, as the Prince of Peace, you think of his character.

When you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you come face to face with the character of Jesus Christ. There he is. We see him born.

We have a little bit about his growing up. And then suddenly he bursts upon the scene and comes down to be baptized by John the Baptist. And then we have some three years of ministry.

The first year, great success, marvelous following. The second year, rebellion. The third year, rejection.

And then crucifixion. And, of course, resurrection and ascension. But wherever you read the four Gospels, you always meet one at perfect peace.

When I think of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, I think of his character. For example, he always had peace when circumstances were difficult. I see him in that boat.

The storm is blowing. His sailor disciples are frightened, and Jesus is found asleep. I would have a difficult time sleeping in a boat in fair weather.

Our Lord Jesus went to sleep in a boat in stormy weather, a storm so treacherous that he himself had to stand up and say, Peace, be still. But he had perfect peace in the circumstances of the storm. Let's go to a different kind of circumstance.

He's been teaching and preaching, and some 5,000 people have gathered. And they've been with him for several days. And the disciples come the way we would come and say, Lord, tell them to go home.

They're probably hungry. Tell them to go home. And Jesus said, Don't send them away.

You give them something to eat. They said, We don't have anything. It was a typical evangelical group.

The budget was just about gone. He said, What have you got? Well, he said, We have some loaves and some fishes. And I like what John says when he records this miracle.

It says about Jesus, He himself knew what he would do. I like that. Whenever I've gotten into some circumstance that I couldn't quite figure out, I felt I was obeying the Lord.

And he said to me, Now go ahead and do it. I said, Well, Lord, I can't do it. I've often been reminded he himself knew what he would do.

Isn't it good to have a Savior who always knows what he's going to do? He had perfect peace. A few loaves, a few fishes, five thousand people. Philip was trying to figure up the budget.

Jesus said, I know what I'm going to do. And he took care of it. I wonder if you and I would have had peace in the storm, peace facing five thousand people trying to feed them.

I know some housewives that have a hard time feeding four people. I think, for example, of Jairus. Jairus came to Jesus and said, My daughter's about to die.

We've had this precious girl for twelve years and she's about to die. Come and heal her. He said, I'll come.

So he's pushing his way through the crowd and he stops. And Jairus' heart just went right down to the bottom of his sandals. And Jesus said, Somebody touched me, remember? And this woman comes up and says, Yes, I did.

I've been sick for twelve years. And I reached out and touched the hem of your garment. Now I'm made well.

And he blessed her. And then a committee came and said to Jairus, Don't bother the master. Your daughter's dead.

Don't you feel sorry for people who think that Jesus can only work in certain conditions? There's always somebody in the church who says, Well, it's gone too far for the Lord to work. He said, Don't be afraid. Only believe.

And Jesus went to the little bedroom where Jairus' daughter had died. I can imagine what that bedroom looked like, that twelve-year-old girl. And Jesus raised her from the dead.

He had perfect peace when death came. When they crossed the lake in that storm and landed at Gadara, and these two wild, demonic men came running out, What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus, thou Son of God? Depart from us! A strange tension there. They came running up to him, but they wanted him to leave.

Like many people today, they want God, but they don't know that they want God. I imagine the disciples were rather frightened. Peter may have reached for a sword, I don't know, and Jesus very calmly just moved in on the situation.

You know, there are some people that when they come into a situation, you're relaxed and say, Everything's under control. There are other people, when they walk in, you say, Watch out, civil war is about to break loose. When I think of the Prince of Peace, I think of his character.

He was a man of peace. Now, why? Why was it our Lord Jesus had such perfect peace and poise in his character? You say, Well, he was God. This is true.

But remember, and never forget this, Jesus Christ lived on earth as man. He laid aside, at his birth, his own independent use of his attributes. And when he faced a situation, he drew upon the same resources we can draw upon.

Never say, Well, he's God, he could do it. What he is showing us in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is that we can do it. We don't believe it.

We make excuses. One of my favorite preachers is a Presbyterian. He died back in 1925, but I've been able to collect all of his books and read them and reread them.

George H. Morrison. I hope someday to go to the church where he preached for many years in Glasgow. George Morrison said this in one of his sermons, and it sticks in my mind, and I'll not forget it.

Peace is the possession of adequate resources. That's a good thing to remember. Peace is the possession of adequate resources.

When recession comes, the businessman who knows he has adequate resources has peace. When a surgeon faces an operation, and he's been through that operation 500 times, and he knows he has the equipment and the staff, he faces it with peace. Now Jesus Christ knew that he had adequate resources.

He said that one day, My father has planned this. Are there not 12 hours in the day? My father knows all about this. He said, I do those things that please my father, but it's not I that do them, but my father who does them.

You see, my Lord, when he was here on earth, just drew upon the mighty resources of God, and this is what gave him peace. He knew he had a mission to fulfill. He knew he had a purpose to accomplish.

He knew that nothing could happen to him as long as that mission was being accomplished. And when it was accomplished, and he returned to the Father, he was forever out of the touch of the evil one. And so my Lord Jesus is the Prince of Peace because of his character.

He had adequate resources, and now he shares those resources with you and me. Isaiah has a great deal to say about peace. Would you just turn the page over to chapter 32 and verse 17? Isaiah 32, 17, and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.

Isn't that a great verse? You know what it's saying? It's saying that peace comes from righteousness. And when my Lord Jesus was here on earth, the holy spotless Lamb of God, the Father looked down upon him and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. There's no fault in him.

As long as you and I are walking in the will of God and drawing upon the power of God, and God's righteousness is in our lives, we will always have peace. You know what it is that brings us unrest and distress? A guilty conscience, disobedience, some job left undone, some job poorly done, some sin unconfessed. Whenever you and I have that in our hearts, we lose our peace, and we had better lose our peace.

If you and I can sin and not lose our peace, something's wrong. When you think of the Prince of Peace, you think of his character. Secondly, when you think of the Prince of Peace, you think of his cross.

Here I'm turning to Colossians chapter 1, verses 20 through 22. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

When you think of the Prince of Peace, you think of his cross. Now the key word here is the word reconcile, bring back together again. You people are Bible students, I don't have to spell out every detail to you because you read and know your Bible.

But may I remind you that in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, you had peace. Heaven and earth were in perfect harmony. In chapter 3, there's a declaration of war.

Satan says, yea, has God said. And in chapter 3 of Genesis, man is separated from God by sin. In chapter 4 of Genesis, man is separated from man by sin.

Cain kills Abel. And then in chapters 9 and 10 and 11, nation is separated from nation, family is separated from family. You have the three great branches of the world's people, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

And they're scattered. What does God do? Does God throw up his hands and say, well, look at the mess they've made? No. Chapter 12 of Genesis, he calls out a Jew.

The Gentiles have made a mess of everything, he calls out a Jew. He says to Abraham, through you, we're going to put everything back together again. And the whole story of the Old Testament is the fulfillment of that promise.

The whole story of the Old Testament is God working. First he calls a man, then he builds a nation, and then from that nation he calls a tribe, Judah. Then from the tribe of Judah he calls a family, David.

And then from David's family he calls a woman, Mary. And then Jesus is born. And then Jesus dies.

And when he dies, he makes possible reconciliation. For thousands of years, Shem and Ham and Japheth and their descendants have been at variance with each other, nation against nation, family against family. But then you start reading the book of Acts and you see reconciliation through the cross.

Chapter 8, one of the descendants of Ham is saved, the Ethiopian treasurer. Chapter 9, one of the descendants of Shem is saved, Paul, the apostle. In chapter 10, a descendant of Japheth is saved, Cornelius the Gentile.

And here are these three men reconciled in the church by the cross of Jesus Christ. You can't talk about peace apart from the cross. You know why there hasn't been peace in this world? It's because men don't know how to deal with sin and injustice the way God can.

You see, we think we have peace by signing a piece of paper. We don't. We think we get peace by sweeping crimes under the rug.

We don't. Take your Bible and look at Psalm 85 for just a moment. There's a marvelous verse buried in Psalm 85 that tells us how we get peace at the cross.

Psalm 85, verse 10, mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Now, when we think of Calvary, we think of one of the worst blasphemous kisses in history.

Judas runs up and kisses Jesus in treachery. But did you ever stop to think that at Calvary was one of the greatest kisses in all of God's working with men? At the cross of Jesus Christ, mercy and truth met together. Now, you won't find mercy and truth meeting in the federal court.

They want truth. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? All they want in the court is truth, not mercy. How can you ever bring mercy and truth together? If you know the truth about somebody and he's guilty, how can you legally show mercy? Either the law goes out the window or the criminal has to be prosecuted.

More than that, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. I read to you from Isaiah 32 that the effect of righteousness is peace. What am I saying? At the cross of Jesus Christ, God kissed.

At the cross of Jesus Christ, he made possible for that which was at variance, mercy and truth to come together. Why? Because righteousness had been upheld by his death. He paid the price.

He bore the curse of the law. He upheld the righteousness of God. He maintained the holiness of God.

At the same time, he reached out and reconciled sinners. When you think of the Prince of Peace, you have to think of his cross. Thirdly, when I think of the Prince of Peace, I think not only of his character and his cross, but I think of his companionship.

When Jesus Christ is your companion, you have peace. Let me just drop a few thoughts into your heart about this. I know sometimes many of you feel very alone.

Even though you may live in a big family or you may work in a big office or reside in a huge city like Chicago, you may feel very much alone. We have, coming to Moody Church, numbers of people who just don't have a lot of folks standing by. We have wives without husbands and husbands without wives.

We have single people. We have students who are away from home and even those who are at home. Sometimes you feel very alone.

Sometimes you look at yourself and say, you know, nobody understands me. Nobody knows what I'm going through. If I could just talk to somebody, if I just knew that somebody was here.

I've noticed that the disciples in the four Gospels were usually agitated. Have you ever noticed that? Who is the greatest? They were always worrying about that. Who is the greatest? Can I have my own way? What are we going to get? They came to him one day and said, Lord, we saw a fellow casting out demons in your name and he's not one of us.

He doesn't belong to our denomination. He doesn't send us money. Doesn't even read our magazine.

And we told him to quit. Jesus said, you better not do that. The disciples were agitated about so many things.

And then Jesus would just step in and bring peace. I am utterly amazed at the way Jesus walked into situations and his very presence brought peace. For example, you read John 13 through 17, the upper room discourse.

Here he's about to die. Now if I were about to be executed, I wonder if I would want to gather people around me and say, my peace, I give unto you. He did.

It's amazing. He's facing the cross and yet he's not the one who's agitated. It's Peter.

Lord, we got a sword here. It's Philip. Show us the father.

But Jesus is not agitated. In fact, he's able to lead them in the singing of a hymn and then he goes out to pray. Now you and I have the companionship of the Lord Jesus Christ to give us peace.

Several years ago, we had a 13-year-old girl in our church who had a very strange kind of cancer. And I visited her many, many times in the hospital. She was a lovely girl, a saved girl.

Her father and mother were dedicated Christians. We had some sweet times together, but it was very obvious that she was not going to live. I recall stopping at the hospital in Cincinnati one afternoon to see her, and mother and dad weren't there.

They had just gone out to get a bite to eat. And she confided in me, she said, down south they don't call you pastor, they call you brother. She said, you know, brother, I'm a little bit afraid.

She said, I know I'm saved, but I'm just a little bit afraid. I said to her, do you know Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10? She said, no. I said, let me read it to you.

Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

She said, read it again. And so I did. I said, why don't you memorize that verse, it may help you, and it did.

As day after day she had tests and treatment, and then as she got close to that day when God was going to call her home, Isaiah 41, 10 gave her the peace that she needed. She had his companionship. Now God says this to you.

I don't know what you're planning on going through. You may not be planning on going through anything, but you'll go through it. And when you face that, you just remember the peace of his companionship.

I recall that story that came from the mission field about the missionary who was forced to go out to a very dangerous place at night, and he made the trip successfully. Some time later, however, he heard that a group of bandits had been ready to pounce upon him. And the word he got was this, they would have, except for those men who were walking with him.

But he said, I was walking alone. And they said, no, we saw those men walking with you. I tell you, my friend, when the child of God is in the will of God, he has the protection of God.

The companionship of Christ brings you peace. Not only in the dangers of life, not only in these terrible, terrible, difficult times of life, but you know, as you and I get closer to the end of life, his companionship means so much. You've noticed, I'm sure, in Psalm 23, that the first three verses are in the third person.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want he, he, he, he. When you get to verse four, it changes from he to thou. It changes from the third person to the second person.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. It was just three years ago today that my mother passed away. Someone else mentioned to me tonight that a loved one passed away on this very day.

You know, you think about those things. None of us was there when my mother died. We'd stayed around, and we had to go out and get a little bite to eat, and the nurse said, go right ahead.

And while we were gone, God called her home. But you know, she wasn't alone. When she went through that valley, Jesus was with her.

When you read the Greek language that Paul uses in 1 Thessalonians 4, it reads like this, not those who sleep in Jesus, but those who were put to sleep by Jesus. That makes death altogether different. When death comes to the believer, it's simply the Lord Jesus there leading us through the valley.

He puts the body to sleep. He takes the soul to the Father's house. When I think of the Prince of Peace, I think of the character of Jesus, the cross of Jesus, and the companionship of Jesus.

But finally, and ultimately, we think of the coming of the Lord Jesus, and that's what Isaiah is talking about here. He's talking about that time when the government of this world is on his shoulder. I don't know how many are here tonight who don't know Christ as their Savior, but let me issue a warning to you.

The next thing on God's calendar is the calling home of His church. Jesus Christ is building a temple, He's forming a body, He's calling a bride. And when that work is completed, He's going to call His temple home.

He's going to call His body home, and the body will be joined to the head. He's going to call His bride home. And then there's going to appear on this world such awful tribulation that men will cry out for death, and death will elude them.

And to solve the problems of the world, there will arise a dictator, the last dictator. The Bible has many different names for him—Antichrist, the Beast, the King of the Fierce Countenance. And there will be peace.

He will bring about a false peace. And men will breathe a sigh of relief and say, thank God the fuel problem has been settled. Thank God that oil has been taken care of.

Thank God that famines have been taken. Thank God there's no war. But it won't last.

There can never be lasting peace on this earth until the Prince of Peace is here, and then He'll come, and we're going to come with Him. And He shall ride forth conquering and to conquer. And from His mouth will come that sharp two-edged sword, and He will speak the word, and His enemies will be judged.

And then He's going to establish on this earth peace. Someone said to me one day, Pastor, the angels didn't tell the truth, did they, in the Gospel of Luke? I said, what do you mean? Well, the angel said to the shepherd, don't be afraid. Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

And I turned in my Bible to Luke chapter 2, and I said, that's right, verse 14. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. He said, but the angels didn't tell the truth.

There was no peace. There hasn't been any peace since Jesus was here. Why? Well, I said, verse 14 tells us that there can't be peace on earth until there's glory to God.

And I said, you've got your Bible, just turn over to Luke chapter 12. Let's see what Jesus said there, and so He did. Luke chapter 12, verse 49, Jesus said, I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? Verse 51, listen to this, suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, nay, but rather division.

He said, now wait a minute, Jesus is contradicting the angels. The angel said, here He is, peace on earth, and now He says, do you think I came to bring peace on earth? I said, now wait a minute, something happened between Bethlehem and this statement that Jesus made. Luke chapter 19 explains the whole thing to us, and so we turn to Luke chapter 19, and we look at verse 41.

And when He was come near, He beheld the city of Jerusalem, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace. Oh, He said, I see it now, the angels offered peace, this peace on earth came through Christ, but men didn't want Christ. I said, that's right, they knew not the time of their visitation, and they rejected the Prince of Peace, and so He had to declare war.

But I said, there is one place where there is peace. He said, where is that? I said, just look at Luke chapter 19, back in verse 35. And they brought him to Jesus, meaning the animal, the colt, and they cast their garments upon the colt and set Jesus on it.

Here's the Prince of Peace. The colt was an animal of peace. We commonly think of somebody riding on a donkey as being somebody very poor.

Donkeys are used in circuses, but back in Jesus' day, the donkey was a symbol of peace. The horse was a symbol of war. And so here He comes, the Prince of Peace, riding meekly upon the donkey.

And as He went, they spread their clothes in the way. Get this now. And when He was come near, even at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King who cometh in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. There's only one place today where there's peace, and that's in heaven. You know why? Because righteousness and peace kissed each other at the cross.

God has not declared war on the world. The world's declared war on God. This is the age of God's reconciliation, not God's declaration of judgment.

I said there's one place where there's peace. That's up in heaven. But you know, heaven can come down to your heart and give you peace.

Isn't that marvelous? We don't have to wait until the kingdom is established. We don't have to wait until Jesus sits upon the throne, judging in righteousness. We can have him on the throne of our hearts.

We can give the government of our lives to him, and he can be the prince of peace. When I think of the prince of peace, I think of his coming. But I'm not going to wait for his coming to get peace.

There's peace in heaven right now. And if I receive God's heavenly gift, there's peace in my heart. That's what Romans 5.1 is all about.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. One of the interesting names for the Lord Jesus is Melchizedek. You find it in Hebrews 6-10, Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was an Old Testament character, the king of Salem. Salem means peace. Melchizedek means king of righteousness.

He was king of righteousness, and he was king of Salem, king of peace. Righteousness and peace kissed each other in Melchizedek. He's a picture of Jesus.

He is my Melchizedek today. He is my high priest. He is my king and priest.

And as my king and priest, when I submit to him, and the government of my life is on his shoulder, he becomes, in my life, king of Salem, prince of peace. Whenever there's sin in my life and rebellion, and the government of my life is in my hands, there's neither righteousness nor peace. It's marvelous to know Jesus Christ.

The prince of peace. He is adequate for every circumstance of life. He's adequate for time.

He's adequate for eternity. He's adequate for you. Maybe you'd like to come tonight and receive him and experience his peace.

Let's pray together. We give thanks, Father, that we can experience peace in our heart from heaven. A peace that passes all understanding.

The peace of God. I pray for those here tonight who have never trusted the Savior, but tonight they might do so. I pray for any believer, my Father, who has not put the government of his life upon his shoulders, and therefore there is war and distress.

Oh, may that one tonight surrender and find that beautiful peace that comes from heaven.