PEACE
- THE FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
BREAD
17 The
fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be
quietness and confidence forever. Isaiah
32:17 (NIV)
10 Love
and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Psalms 85:10 (NIV)
165 Great
peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. Psalms 119:165 (NIV)
6 For to
us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his
shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the
increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV)
3 You
will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in
you. Isaiah 26:3 (NIV)
17 For
the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves
Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Romans 14:17-18 (NIV)
11 No
discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it
produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained
by it. Hebrews 12:11 (NIV)
18 Peacemakers
who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. James 3:18 (NIV)
7 But
whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider
everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I
may gain Christ 9 and be
found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but
that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God
and is by faith. 10 I want
to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing
in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to
the resurrection from the dead. Philippians
3:7-11 (NIV)
4 Rejoice
in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident
to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV)
27 Peace I leave with 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. John 14:27 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Grace remits sin
and peace quiets the conscience. Sin and conscience torment us, but Christ has
overcome these fiends now and forever. Only Christians possess this victorious
knowledge given from above. These two terms, grace and peace, constitute
Christianity. Grace involves the remission of sins, peace and a happy
conscience. Sin is not canceled by lawful living, for no person is able to live
up to the law…the fact is the more a person seeks credit for himself by his own
efforts, the deeper he goes into debt. Nothing can take away sin except the
grace of God. In actual living, however it is not so easy to persuade oneself
that by grace alone, in opposition to every other means, we obtain the forgiveness
of our sins and peace with God.” Martin Luther
“His
love is unfailing, His Word unchangeable, His power ever the same; therefore
the heart that trusts Him is kept in ‘perfect peace’…I know He tries me only to
increase my faith, and that it is all in love.
Well, if He is glorified, I am content.” Hudson Taylor
“Hudson
Taylor was an object lesson in quietness.
He drew from the bank of heaven every farthing of his daily income – ‘My
peace I give unto you.’ Whatever did not
agitate the Saviour or ruffle His spirit, was not to agitate him. The serenity of the Lord Jesus concerning any
matter, and at its most critical moment, was his ideal and practical
possession. He knew nothing of rush or
hurry, or quivering nerves or vexation of spirit. He knew that there is a peace passing all
understanding and that he could not do without it…Christ his reason for peace,
his power for calm. Dwelling in Christ,
he drew upon His very being and resources, in the midst of and concerning the
matters in question. And this he did by
an attitude of faith as simple as it was continuous.” Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor
“All the commandments of God are commandments
of love tending to our real good and great happiness; far from being grievous
to those who have faith and love, the practice thereof is life and peace. The world may think it a grievous burden;
but this is a great mistake indeed. Sin
is grievous. In hatred, envy, anger,
revenge, pride, there is nothing but torment and slavery; but in love there is
a sweet rest and pleasure. Thus a sinner
always punishes himself, and is robbed of great peace and blessing, by
transgressing the commandments of God.” K. H.
Von Bogatzky
“Peace is not found when you get into perfect circumstances. Peace is
found because Jesus Christ, the Price of Peace, has gotten into you. Joy is the
perfect partner to peace and is found in the same way as peace. Joy is never
found in what you have or what you do, but in who you have living in you.”
Roy
Lessin
“However, faith
has its trials, as well as its answers.
It is not to be imagined that the man of faith, having pushed out from
the shore of circumstances, finds it all smooth and easy sailing. By no means.
Again and again, he is called to encounter rough sea and stormy skies;
but it is all graciously designed to lead him into deeper and more matured
experience of what God is to the heart that confides in Him. Were the sky always without a cloud and the
ocean without a ripple, the believer would not know so well that God with Whom
he has to do; for alas, we know how prone that heart is to mistake the peace of
circumstances for the peace of God. When
everything is going on smoothly and pleasantly—our property safe, our business
prosperous, our children carrying themselves agreeably, our residence
comfortable, our health excellent—everything in short, just to our mind, how
apt we are to mistake the peace which reposes upon such circumstances for that
peace which flows from the realized presence of Christ.” C.H. Mackintosh
“Before you can
(know you are right with God) you must not only be troubled for your sins of
your life, but also for the sins of your best duties and performances...before
you can be at peace with God, there must be a deep conviction before you can be
brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol taken out of your
heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit to the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you had no righteousness of your own
or if you never felt the deficiency of your own righteousness, you cannot come
to Jesus Christ.” George
Whitefield
“Now when a man
has learned through the commandments to recognize his helplessness and is
distressed about how he might satisfy the law…and then being truly humbled and
reduced to nothing in his own eyes, he finds in himself nothing whereby he may
be justified and saved. Here the second
part of Scripture comes to our aid, namely, the promises of God which declare
the glory of God, saying, ‘If you wish to fulfill the law….come, believe in
Christ in whom grace, righteousness, peace, liberty, and all things are
promised to you. If you believe you
shall have all things; if you do not believe, you shall lack all things’.” Martin
Luther, On Christian Liberty
HEART
SAVOR
- · Perfect peace presents not through circumstance but through the presence of Jesus – The Prince of Peace.
- · Believers are clothed in Christ’s righteousness bringing much peace.
- · Sin is grievous whereas righteousness brings forth peace.
