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False Peace Vs Biblical Peace - part 1

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• Jeremiah chapter 6, and we're going to be looking at verse 14, and then Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 11. You will see that they are essentially the same verse, and we will come back and look at the context shortly. The title of the message is simply, "A False Peace Versus a Biblical Peace." False peace versus a biblical peace. Jeremiah chapter 6, look in verse 14. Here is what the scripture says: "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace." And then if you'll look in Jeremiah 8 and verse 11, Jeremiah 8 verse 11: "For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace." Peace is a wonderful and blessed and glorious state of mind when it is biblical. And one of the main problems that faces professors of Christianity today is that they do not distinguish between the different kinds of peace and assume just simply because they are not bothered that they have a real, genuine, biblical peace.

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• I remember a quote that I read from many years ago, and it simply went like this: most people have a peace that comes from their own forgetfulness. And when you stop and think about that, most of us have really and truly forgotten our sins, or at least all the little ones. We may remember the major ones and the great ones, but if we really genuinely remembered each and every sin, I'm sure that we would be bothered very obviously. There is a truth here in our text that is simply this: that many erroneously believe that they can possess and hold peace even while at the same time they are in rebellion against God. In fact, I want you to look at the context, Jeremiah 6 and Jeremiah 8, and you're going to see how clearly this is brought forth. Notice Jeremiah chapter 6, and let's begin reading there with verse 11, and we'll read through verse 15. Jeremiah 6 and verse 11, God says: "Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord.

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• I am weary with holding in. I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together. For even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together. For I will stretch out mine hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord. For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. And from the prophet even to the priest, everyone dealeth falsely.

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• They have healed also the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall. At the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down, saith the Lord." And then if you will look in Jeremiah chapter 8, you're going to see basically the same scriptures, but notice just a little difference. Jeremiah 8 beginning with verse 9: "The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the Word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?

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• Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness, and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall in the time of their visitation.

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• They shall be cast down, saith the Lord." Now there's one thing that you and I need to learn from these texts, and we need to mark it down in our minds, and that is simply this: any peace that you possess or profess to have while living in open rebellion to God is a false peace. You're being deluded. You're not only being deluded and deceived, you're going to be led to the slaughter by your own wicked ways. So here are these people living in open rebellion against God, and yet the rulers are saying, "Well, we're going to have peace, and you can have peace." It's absolutely impossible. Now, it's imperative for you and I to understand that there is indeed a real, genuine peace with God, which, Lord willing, next Sunday I'm going to be talking about. But there are also many types of false peace. For instance, our Lord said it like this in John 14 and verse 27. He said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you.

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• Let not your heart be troubled, neither be afraid." But note what He said: "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth." So when we're talking about different kinds of peace and especially false peace, then you have to understand that the world can give peace. It is a false peace. It is a worldly peace. It is a temporary peace. It is a delusional peace, but it's still a type of peace. The world's system, philosophy, and standards add a dimension of peace to those who are humanistic and follow it, but certainly it's not the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you think about the peace of the world and the men and the things that bring forth this false peace, to demonstrate its falsehood, our Lord says in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 3, "For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with

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• child, and they shall not escape." So the world may call for peace, but our Lord says when they do, it's going to be sudden destruction. The peace of the world is mainly an external one. Moreover, the peace of the world is usually given to what you and I would call the ungodly, the wicked, the reprobate, all of those who oppose the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom and His law.

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• Let me give you an illustration. I want you to hold Jeremiah, but look back in your Bibles to Psalm 73. Psalm 73, and you will notice one of the complaints of Asaph. Asaph is the author of Psalm 73, and we're going to be reading there with verse 3, and we'll read through verse 12. Notice if you would Psalm 73, and beginning there with verse 3. He begins by saying, "I was envious

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• at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." So Asaph now is looking at the wicked. He's looking at the worldly crowd. Then he says this in verse 4: "For there are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasses them about as a chain. Violence covers them as a garment.

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• Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than the heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak wickedly. Concerning oppression, they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walking through the earth. Therefore his people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, 'How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?'

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• Note what he says: "Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world, they increase in riches." So note if you would, here is Asaph looking at the ungodly and he is seeing their peace, their prosperity, everything surrounding them. They don't have the problems that the godly have. And that's why he said in verse 13, "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.

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• For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning." He said, "Man, something's wrong. Look at the wicked and look at the godly." There's a vast difference, but here is indeed a worldly peace. Now, one of the problems that you have with a worldly peace, and especially with these wicked individuals, if you look in Psalm 10 and verse 6, here is their attitude. This is a vile and wicked assumption, yet certainly it is in the minds of many individuals. In Psalm 10 and verse 6, God, talking about the wicked, says: "He saith in his heart,

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• I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity." In other words, they're telling themselves nothing wicked and nothing wrong is ever, ever going to happen unto them. So there is a worldly peace. It's a false peace. Secondly, I'm going to point out that there is a fleshly peace. And by that, I simply mean this: that the flesh can be satisfied temporarily. You understand this when you hear people say or think, "Well, I've gotten my way. I've done what I wanted to do. I've accomplished my desire." And so temporarily they're at peace because they actually did what they wanted to do and got what they really, truly wanted. But the truth of the matter is the flesh can never be satisfied. Any peace the flesh gives is merely temporary.

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• If you will look in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 2. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Look in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 23, because the Apostle here talks about the satisfying of the flesh. I'm not going to go into detail with the context, but note just verse 23 he says, "Which things have indeed a show of worship. Which things indeed have a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh." Now everyone

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• understands that the flesh wants to be satisfied physically. Most of us are not satisfied with one meal a day; we want three and whatever we have. The flesh always wants more, that is for sure. But the same thing is true concerning the flesh on a spiritual level. Sometimes the flesh can be satisfied and produce a false peace and a false contentment. When people say something like this, "Well, I've joined the church," or "I've gotten baptized," "Well, I've given to the poor," "I've done all that I need to do. I've covered all my bases. I fulfilled all the ceremonies, all the rituals, all the traditions, and I'm satisfied." Well, the flesh can be satisfied with those things, at least temporarily.

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• But when the judgment of God begins to fall, then that peace is certainly going to disappear. You have to remember that the flesh does not promote holiness. It does not promote righteousness. It does not promote obedience. The flesh always wants to gratify itself. It wants to be proud and boastful, and it wants to boast in its own self-righteousness. And the evidence is there is no real genuine humility to a fleshly peace. There is no bowing before the throne of God. There is no worshiping Him and glorifying in that which God has done. Rather just the opposite: there is always a glorification of what the flesh has done and what we have accomplished. So you can have a false peace from the world. You can have a false peace from your flesh. Thirdly, you can have a false peace that stems from the deceitfulness of your own heart. I hope you remember that passage in Jeremiah 17 verse 9 where God says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?

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• The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?" And yet you have heard people say, and I've even heard preachers say this, "Well, I know my heart." And the truth is you don't know your heart because your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. And God gave a solemn warning about the deceitfulness of the heart in Deuteronomy 11 and verse 16. Here's what He said: "Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and that you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them." Now listen to what He said: "Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived." And if you turn aside, He said, and worship other gods, you are deceived. Your heart has led you astray. He gives warning. The Bible also says, in Isaiah 44 and verse 20, "He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, and say, Is there not a lie at my right hand?" But know that it was a deceived heart that turned him aside.

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• He said to Edom in the book of Obadiah chapter 1 and verse 3, "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee." And most everyone can quote the passage in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 13 when the Bible says, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." So your own heart can deceive you and give you a false peace. Oftentimes we conjure up things in our mind, we daydream and we think about things, and we know that they're unbiblical. We know that they're ungodly, and somehow our heart deceives us and makes us think that we can actually do those things and still have peace and escape the judgment of God,

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• which of course is absolutely ridiculous. And so many people trust their heart when the heart is not something to trust. You cannot even trust your peace if it's not a biblical peace. You cannot trust your desires. You cannot trust your will. You cannot trust even what you think. The only objective standard in which you and I can trust is indeed the Word of God. That's why the Bible says, "Lean not to thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." So, the only objective standard that we have is the Word of God. So, there are many people today that rest upon a false peace. I have known people who have been doing things that are totally unbiblical, and you confront them and they will say something like this: "But I have such peace about it." Really? Well, you have to understand that there is indeed a false peace. Peace is not your standard. The Word of God is your standard. Your feelings, your composure, your state of mind are all transitory, fleeting, and temporary.

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• You cannot trust your feelings. So you have to ask yourself some questions. How does one detect a false peace? How does one know when peace is true and real and genuine? We have to study the peace that our Lord gives us in order to answer these questions. I read a long time ago that when the FBI or the Secret Service, whoever is involved in it, begins to expose counterfeit bills, they do not take samples of all the counterfeits and show them to the individuals that they're teaching. They only take a real Federal Reserve note and demonstrate that which is true concerning the reality. In other words, if it does not conform to that which is real, it is a counterfeit, it is a fake. And so in reality that is what we could do with the Scripture. We could just say here is what real peace is, and anything that is not this is indeed a counterfeit. But in order to give you a further understanding and to give you a word of caution and warning, I also want to take the scriptures and show you some of the characteristics of a false peace.

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• Before I do that, let me just point something else out. When you talk about a false peace, usually the people who are the possessors of a false peace are what you and I would call religious people, or professors of Christianity. The wicked, the atheists are not concerned about peace whatsoever. You remember what God said in Isaiah 57, verses 20 and 21? He said, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it casteth up its dirt and mire. There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked." There's no peace. And the atheist who proclaims that he does not believe in God is always fighting against Him. But I mean, he's not concerned about peace particularly. And a wicked man is not concerned about peace particularly. But the religious person is the one who's interested in salvation, the one who's interested in eternity, the one who knows he's going to die. He's interested in peace because he wants to die in peace. So in order to understand a false peace, you must know its characteristics.

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• So let me give you four things today. Number one, a false peace does not flourish in or with righteousness. Let me say that again. A false peace does not flourish in or with righteousness. All a false peace is concerned about is what you and I would call punishment and/or forgiveness. All a false peace really wants is forgiveness. A false peace is not concerned with righteousness, holiness, or obedience. The man or the woman who has the false peace is someone who does not want to be punished for their sins. They do not want to go to Hell. And if Hell is as bad as Scriptures declare it to be, and it is—the lake of fire, eternal torments—no one in his right mind would want that.

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• But stop and think about it like this. The man who has a false peace, he's not interested in righteousness and obedience. He wants to be forgiven just so he will escape punishment, but he's not interested in letting his sins go and repenting and turning from them. So he's trying to use Jesus Christ mainly as a fire escape. That's what it amounts to. He has no desire to be punished for his sins, but he's not willing to repent and let go of those sins. So the man who has a false peace is someone who does not even think about being positively holy or righteous. He is not concerned about walking in obedience with the Lord.

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• He is negligent about his life. He is negligent about duties. He is negligent about responsibilities. He does not take the admonition from Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 14 to heart, when the Bible says, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." The man who has false peace is an antinomian. He does not care about God or God's law, and he's just very obviously concerned only with himself. Now I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 32. Let me show you this, Isaiah 32 and look if you would please at verse 17. Isaiah 32 and verse 17. Look what the scripture says, because I'm pointing out that a false peace does not flourish in or with righteousness. It flourishes outside of righteousness and holiness. But in Isaiah 32 in verse 17, the Bible says this: "And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." First of all, let me point out, it says, "and the work of righteousness," which is singular.

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• It does not talk about the works of righteousness, but the work of righteousness, an act of God. It is something that God alone can do. It is the righteousness of God that brings peace along with quietness and assurance. "And the work of righteousness shall be peace." So, if you can have peace without righteousness, then it's a false peace. Righteousness cultivates peace and it produces tranquility of mind and security as well.

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• There's an interesting verse in Psalm 37 verse 37, and I've got a friend by the name of Mark and he likes this verse because Psalm 37 verse 37 says this: "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." And so since his name is Mark and you have a Mark as well, they claim to be perfect. No, but the word "mark" just means to single him out, single out the perfect man, because the end of that man happens to be peace. But note if you would please, peace then is associated with righteousness and with holiness. I hope you remember Romans 14 and verse 17: "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." A false peace can exist in disobedience and in unrighteousness. A false peace is willing to disobey God and His orderly will and way and His established and ordained authority. A false peace will disobey parents. A false peace will disobey preachers. A false peace will disobey the scriptures.

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• A false peace will disobey God. And a false peace will be unrighteous in the face of God. So if your conduct is contrary to the scriptures, and you still claim to have peace, then you better mark it down, it is indeed a false peace. Because true biblical peace always exists and flourishes in righteousness. An unbiblical peace, a false peace, can flourish without righteousness.

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• Now, let me give you the second characteristic. The second characteristic is closely connected with the first. Here it is: a false peace usually only embraces what you and I would call an intellectual faith. What is an intellectual faith? It's when you mentally give assent to truth. You mentally say, "I believe certain truths," or "I believe certain doctrines," and/or "I believe certain propositions." And then once you have mentally assented to those truths, you claim that that is salvation, and therefore you now have peace. And in other words, you believe that salvation is nothing more than mental assent. That's it. You will hear people use these kind of expressions when they hold a false peace. They'll say something like this.

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• "Well, I walked the aisle. I joined the church. I got baptized. I prayed the sinner's prayer. The preacher prayed for me. I went forward in a revival meeting. I joined the church and they told me what to believe and that's what I believe." They just simply say, "That's it." Let me show you. I want you to turn to two passages, Romans 10 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We'll go to Romans 10 first, then we'll go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

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• You see a lot of people quote this verse, or these two verses actually, trying to make salvation mouthing certain words and mentally assenting to certain truths. So in Romans 10 and verse 9, the Bible says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

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• So here's what I'm talking about. Someone says, "Well, do you believe that Jesus Christ is God?" "Yes." "Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for sinners?" "Yes." "Well, do you believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead?" "Yes." "Do you believe Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God?" "Yes." "Well, you're saved." No. It is true, these verses talk about confessing with the mouth and believing with the heart.

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• But you have to take all of Scripture and not take Scripture out of context. But let me show you another passage. If you will look in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul said it like this: "Wherefore I give you understanding, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost."

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• Now, what is he saying? He is saying that no one can savingly acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord except by the Holy Ghost. In other words, it's the power of God, it's the work of God that enables the confession of our mouth to be real and genuine. It's the power of God that enables the heart to genuinely believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Men may mouth words and intellectually assent to the truth, but only the Holy Spirit can make it real. Man may imitate, but only the Holy Spirit can authenticate. It is the work of God and the work of God alone that enables us to savingly believe in Jesus Christ. And certainly when God works in us, we do believe with our heart and we do confess with our mouth. But it's not just a mental assent. It is the work of God in our lives. Usually one that holds only an intellectual faith is not really concerned about holiness and righteousness and obedience.

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• He believes a certain set of facts or truths or propositions or doctrines, and that is sufficient for him. And if you try to convince him from scripture that saving faith always produces works in obedience to the Word of God, he refuses to believe it. He'll usually say something like this: "I now believe and therefore I must be all right." And they persuade themselves. They're not looking to Jesus Christ. They're looking at their work. They're looking at their faith, and they've turned their faith or they've turned their belief into a sort of work in which they trust.

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• Let me give you an illustration that will illustrate this point very clearly. Years ago, I preached in the jail on a regular basis. The jailer was a friend of mine. He was a professing Christian, and he would try to get all the men and put them in the bullpen so I could preach to them. And as I went there that night to preach, he informed me that they had a new man in the jail. This man was charged and arrested

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• for murdering his wife and his mother-in-law. And he told me, he said, "He will be in the bullpen tonight." I said, "Fine." So I went back to preach and there was, I don't know, 30 or 40 men there. And this one man who had been described to me leaned up against the back wall with his foot on the wall the whole time I was preaching. After the preaching service was over and the men began to filter back, this one man came up to me and he thanked me for the message and he said that the men there really needed it. And I looked at him and I said, "Sir, I may be mistaken, but aren't you so-and-so?" He said, "Well, yes, I am." Well, I said, "Haven't you been arrested for murdering your wife and your mother-in-law?" "Well, yes, I have." I said, "And now you're telling me that all the rest of these men needed this preaching, but you didn't need it." Well, he said, "That's right." I said, "Why is it you don't need the preaching?"

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• He said, "Because I'm already a Christian." I looked at him and I said, "How can you say that you're already a Christian when you've been charged with two murders?" Well, he said, "I know I'm a Christian." And here are his exact words: "I know I'm a Christian because I went forward in a Billy Graham crusade." I looked at him and I said, "Sir, the scripture says in 1 John 3 and verse 15, 'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.' I said, I know that God can save murderers. I understand that. But if you're claiming to be a Christian and you're now charged with two murders, two violations of the sixth commandment, either you are lying or the scriptures are untrue, and I do not believe the scriptures are untrue." So here is someone who mentally assented to truth, went forward in a Billy Graham crusade, and now believes he's saved and has perfect

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• peace, even though he committed two murders. That's a false peace. That is a delusional peace. There's a third characteristic. And by the way, let me just say this: believing facts about the gospel is not the gospel. Believing facts about Jesus Christ is not the same as believing in Jesus Christ. Facts do not save you. Jesus Christ saves you. Jesus Christ is the gospel. It's not just facts about Jesus Christ.

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• So you may mentally assent to the entirety of the Word of God and still be lost. It's not that we believe about Jesus Christ. We believe in Jesus Christ. There's a third characteristic, and that is this: the one who holds a false peace always takes sin lightly. Sin is nothing to him. He can say, "It's all right that I've done this because I have believed." He does not have a biblical conception of sin. He does not view or see sin the way God views or sees sin. Sin does not grieve him. Sin does not upset him. Sin does not push him to sorrow and repentance. Not only can he sin lightly, but he can joke about sin and laugh about his sin. And it seems that someone with a false peace can violate the Word of God with a good and clear conscience. Disobedience does not bother him; rebellion does not upset him. He thinks to himself,

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• "Well, if I sin, all I have to do is confess it." Now let me tell you something. In fact, I want you to look there. I want you to look in your Bibles to 1 John 1 and verse 9. 1 John 1 and verse 9. I could quote this verse, but I want you to see it. 1 John 1 and verse 9. Here is what the Scripture says, 1 John 1, verse 9. Watch carefully. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If we confess our sins. And so most people, when they read that, especially someone with a false peace, they're going to say, "Well, all I've got to do is just confess it." Their understanding of the word "confess" means to mouth the words. So it's just like if I went into Publix and I stole something, and I came out and said, "Lord, well, I just stole such and such from Publix, and I'm confessing it. And now, Lord, I want you to forgive me because I'm fixing to go into Goody's and get some clothes and steal those, you know."

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• That's what most people think about confessing. It's just simply saying it. No, no. The word "confess" is the Greek word homologeo. Lego means "I say," homo means "one in the same." To confess your sins means that you say the same thing that God says about those sins. You take the attitude that God takes about those sins. You agree with Him about the guilt and the wickedness and the iniquity of that sin. And no one really truly confesses their sin until they agree with God. And once you agree with God, you're going to have to confess and acknowledge the awfulness of that sin, the penalty that that sin deserves, and you're going to see that you cannot confess without repenting. And if you truly, genuinely confess your sin, you turn from that sin.

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• And a man who does not understand what true confession is can live in a false peace because he thinks confession is nothing more than just mouthing words. No. A false peace takes sin lightly. Sin doesn't bother the individual unless it's a false peace. Here's the fourth characteristic, and that is this: that the man who holds a false peace is usually never troubled with doubts. A man that holds a false peace is usually never troubled with doubts. Let me put it like this: counterfeit peace is always too wonderful. It's too good to be true. You've heard that old adage, if something is too good to be true, it probably is not true. Have you ever read Fox's Book of Martyrs? Have you ever read the lives of some of these saints who actually struggled with doubts? I have read the lives of some men who were eminently godly, holy, obedient individuals, and they struggled with doubts almost their entire life. God always brought them through it. But one of the reasons they struggled with doubts was because they knew their own sins. Let me give you a very

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• practical test. I want you to look first of all in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and look at verse 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 5. Look what we are exhorted to do. 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 5. Here it is. God says: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" Now God says, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith or not." You make sure that your peace is not a false peace. You make sure that your faith is not a false faith. And the word "examine" here is the word peirazo, which literally means to prove, to test, to ascertain the quality, to try one's faith, virtue, and character. So we're exhorted to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. We're exhorted to prove ourselves and to know ourselves. And he said, you will know whether or not Jesus Christ is in you unless you are reprobates.

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• Wow. If you would turn right over in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter basically says the same thing only with different words. Notice 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 10 and 11. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 10. Note what he says: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Now, watch verse 10: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure." What's he saying? Examine yourselves. Prove your own selves. Make sure that you have been savingly called. Make sure your election.

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• How do you do that? By examining your life in light of the Word of God. And if you read the context of 2 Peter chapter 1, he tells you once God saves you what you're to be adding to your life, what your conduct is to be like. And that's why he said, "Give diligence to make your calling and your election sure." Do you understand that it is impossible to have a real, genuine, biblical peace without having a real, genuine saving faith? Saving faith will produce real, genuine peace. You see, the man who has a false peace is never troubled.

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• Because he refuses to face truth. He refuses to examine himself. He refuses to prove himself. He refuses to give diligence to make his calling and election sure. He's not going to do anything that will upset him.

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• Now, here's an interesting thing. A message like I'm preaching right now would be sufficient to upset and bother a real, genuine Christian. But it would not upset or bother a man with a false peace. You know why it would upset us? Because we know our sins. We know our lives. We know what we've done. We know how we've lived. And can it be that I should gain an entrance in my Savior's love?

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• Died He for me who shed His blood? We get to thinking, "Oh Lord, how in the world could you love a sinner like me?" It would bother us. It'll tend to make us examine our lives. But it would never bother a man with a false faith. Let me just tie it together today and tell you this: Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone can give real peace. He is the God of peace. He is the Prince of peace. He is the one that procures peace. He is the one that preserves peace. He is the one that continues peace and establishes peace. He is the author, and the prince, and the promoter, and the keeper of peace. And without Him there is no peace. We have to understand that there is a false peace, but there is also a biblical peace. And we want to examine ourselves and make sure that our peace is real and genuine and biblical. And we're not trusting in our peace. We're trusting in the truth of God and the Word of God, which gives us the characteristics of a real, genuine, believing, saving faith, which produces peace and righteousness.

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• Is there a biblical peace? The answer is yes. And Lord willing, next Sunday, we'll delve into it. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow before Thee. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We thank You, Father, for there is indeed a real peace, the peace of God that passeth all understanding. And we commit ourselves unto Thee and ask that You work in our hearts, open our minds, give us understanding. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray, amen.

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• you you

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-04T15:49:11Z