Jesus – The Prince Of Peace – Dr. Charles Stanley

Jesus’ disciples experienced tribulation, rejection, and even death as they strived to spread the gospel. Dr. Stanley explains how we can have peace in a world full of rebellion, dishonesty, crime and greed. Look to Christ and follow God’s Word so your heart can remain calm—even when troubles surround you.

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In touch, the teaching ministry of Doctor Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Next on in touch, the prince of peace.
Which one of these words best describes your present emotions?
Conflict, hopelessness, anger, emptiness, loneliness.
We could just go on down the list of those emotions that oftentimes just absolutely overpower people.
I wonder where the emotion of peace fits in that.
For some people, they’d say, well, peace is sort of out there somewhere.
I don’t even know what it is. Sometimes I think I have it. Sometimes I don’t.
And so peace to them is something they hope 1 these days they may be able to grasp and be able to think sincerely about Now I understand what peace is and now that I have it.
But you know what? Most people never will because they avoid the very essence of what peace is all about.
And you say, well, I don’t think I’ve ever found it.
I wanna show you how you can really find it.
And I want us to turn, if you will, to a passage in the old testament.
And, uh, the 9th chapter of Isaiah And I want us to just read this prophecy of the coming of Jesus and how he’s described, and they will turn to the new testament to show you what that really means in light of our present day and who we are.
Beginning in the 6th verse of Isaiah chapter 9, For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty god, eternal father, prince of peace, There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdoms to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.
And how will all that happen? The zeal of the lord of hosts will accomplish this.
Then I want you to turn, if you will, to the 14th chapter of John.
And in this 14th chapter, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, uh, he’s going to be crucified the next day He’s telling him some of the most precious things that he has said in 3 years.
And he says, for example, in, uh, 25th verse of this 14th chapter.
These things I’ve spoken to you while abiding with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, There’s the trinity right there in one verse.
Look at that. The helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I’ve told you.
Peace, I leave with you, my peace I give to you, Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
Now peace is one of the major subjects in the Bible.
Spound 332 times and, uh, the apostle Paul, every single one of his epistles will begin like this.
Grace and peace be unto you. Sometime, it’s all way down to the 3rd or 4th or 5th verse.
But in his salutation, he’s always added peace. So what I wanna talk about in this message is this.
In that Isaiah passage, Jesus is called the prince of peace.
We sing about him being the prince of peace, We talk about it. We see pictures of it.
Why is it that Jesus is the prince of peace? Why is he called the prince of peace?
Does that have any effect in your life in mind? And the answer is indeed it does.
And what I want you to see in this passage here in John primarily.
I want you to see how important it is that you and I understand what real peace is and where real peace comes from and how many people have been duped into believing that they have peace when they really don’t.
So here’s the first thing I want us to look at here. And that’s simply this.
That Jesus secured our peace Listen, through his substitutionary death on the cross.
Now watch this carefully because there is a dis a difference between peace with god and the peace of god.
And so Jesus by coming, sent by the father, he came for the primary purpose of doing what?
We say when he came for the primary purpose of dying on the cross, but what was his goal?
His goal was what? To make it possible for mankind. Distant from god.
These are the words the scripture uses alienated enemies separated These were the words that describe mankind’s relationship to god.
Jesus came in order to do what?
To bring sinful, alienated, separated, mankind, into a relationship with the living god.
And how did he do that? And how could he do that?
God being absolutely holy and man being sinful. And the issue was that sin separates man from god.
When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, You experienced. Watch this. You experienced peace with god.
The war was over. You gave up your rebellion.
You gave up your in your insistence on having it your way. You said, lord, you’re right.
I’m asking you to forgive me and to cleanse me from my sins. Well, why did he do it?
Not simply because you ask. He did it because Jesus, his only begotten son, came into the world and took your sin dead in mind, all of our guilt, all of our penalty, he placed upon Jesus Christ who died on the cross, And when he died, what did he do?
He closed the gap between sinful mankind and what? Almighty god. He closed the gap. He made it possible.
He dealt with the issue. He dealt with the one thing that kept us from being close to god, and that sin And when he died on the cross, he paid our sin debt in full, and therefore, the Bible says, therefore, being justified by faith We have watched this peace with god through our lord Jesus Christ.
Now, sir, you said, what’s that justification mean? Therefore, being justified by faith.
What happens is when Christ paid out sin dead in full, that made it possible. Watch this carefully for god.
To look upon sinful mankind, And forgive him of his sins and declare him no longer guilty.
But what? One of his children? And every single person who accepts Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
They join hands with god at that moment.
They become a child of god, in the family of god, of a household of god, and are eternally secure as the children of god, all because of what Jesus Christ did.
He is the prince of peace. That’s where it all begins.
He and he alone, the sinless son of god, the lamb of god, He and he alone could have paid that price to reconcile man with god.
So when we think about the peace of god and peace with god, that settled the issue that now anybody And everyone can have a relationship with him because Jesus has paved the way and paved the way with his blood.
You’ll hear once in a while somebody’s saying, what’s all that blood got to do with it? Everything?
Because you see, all the way back to the garden, all the way through the Old Testament, all those sacrifices were a foreshadowing of the one final sacrifice that would make it possible for the father to bring together with himself, sinful mankind.
He secured your peace. Now watch this carefully.
Since he secured your peace and the only peace that’s real peace, the only peace that’s lasting peace, the only peace that’s genuine peace, Since he’s secured, why do you think that somehow you and your sinful condition can be brought together in relationship with Holy god and ignore the only one who could have the only one whom god sent to make it possible to do what to reconcile sinful man with holy god.
You must remember that god is holy.
He’s holy god, tolerates no sin, and therefore, cannot excuse sin. He doesn’t excuse sin.
He forgives And Jesus Christ’s death brought about that relationship. Therefore, when a person says, I don’t need Jesus.
We’ll tell me what do you have. You have nothing.
The testimony of almighty god is this testimony by Jesus.
I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but by me, why?
Because he is the only one And that transaction was the only transaction that made it possible for sinful mankind to be joined with the lord god and have eternal life.
That’s the first point. The second point is simply this.
When you think about that relationship, think about it in this light. Listen.
He not only secured that peace, but he is the source of our peace.
On a daily basis, through our personal relationship with him.
Because people say, well, sometimes I have peace and sometimes I don’t. Listen listen to these verses.
And, uh, Jesus makes them makes it so very clear.
In this 14 chapter, listen to what he said, He said, peace, I leave with you. Now watch this.
He’s the one who secured it.
No one else There’s not a soul in history or ever will be who could secure that peace to the cross.
Let’s know what he said. Peace, I leave with you.
My peace I give to you, not as the world gives that I give to you, do not let your heart be trouble, don’t let it be fearful.
So how do we how do we experience this peace?
Now peace with god means the wars over and I’ve trusted him as my savior. I’m his child.
But what about I have to live on Monday morning?
I have to live through difficulty, hardships, trials, turbulence, tribulation, and all How how do we have peace in a world that’s so messed up like ours is?
Every question you put your finger on the globe, that there’s not either revolution uh, rebellion.
It’s either in its beginning stages or it’s hot or whatever it might be.
Everywhere you turn, there is anything and everything, but peace.
And the world gets smaller and smaller and smaller and more and more dangerous.
How can god expect us to have peace in a world like this? For the simple reason, listen.
Number 1, he made it possible by bringing this together with the father through his death.
Secondly, he came not only to die for us, but to 12 in us, he said, I am abiding in you and you are abiding in me.
That is Jesus Christ, lives his life in and through the believer in the presence of the holy spirit and the power of the holy spirit.
Christ in you. Jesus said, I’m abiding in you. I’m living in you. You’re living in me.
He used the branch of the and the vine, uh, uh, of the grapevine.
To show that relationship that a branch can’t produce anything unless it’s connected to the vine, the sap that runs in the vine runs in the branch produces the grapes.
It’s a relationship. And so watch this carefully.
All true genuine peace is the result of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
There is nothing else that can produce that kind of peace.
And I wanna show you how futile it is, how absolutely futile and mistaken and blinded people are to think that they can have peace and reject Jesus Christ, the son of god.
They may have a lifestyle. They don’t have peace.
And it’s so interesting to me when I talk to people and just once in a while, sometimes people come to the line or other times, and and give me the problem and so forth, and I’ll ask what’s going on.
And the longer they talk, the more they tell me.
And the more they tell me, the more it’s very evident that Jesus is nowhere in this situation.
And they’ve trusted this and trusted that and talked to him and talked to her and believe this and tried that.
And this and somehow, they don’t have any peace because you see, watch this and I’m gonna say it many times in this sermon.
Peace The peace of god, that tranquility and calmness and quietness that makes it possible for you to walk through the most difficult trying times of your life.
That piece comes in a relationship. You can’t buy it. You can’t borrow it.
It is a relationship. And that relationship is only with one person, and that’s Jesus Christ.
And when I look at these passages and see uh, how what Jesus said, for example, do not let your heart be troubled.
You believe in god, believe also in me.
And what he’s really saying is do not let your heart be troubled any longer.
Because what I’m gonna say And then the 14, 15, 16 chapters are wonderful chapters of his assurance that made a whole difference and and made all the difference in the world for them.
And so when you come to this whole idea of his peace, what kind of peace is that?
There is a listen, when when you have a relationship with Jesus, There is a sense of quietness and tranquility and calmness that’s indescribable.
Because what happens when you have that kind of relationship, you can walk through any kind of difficulty, hardship, pain, suffering, you name it.
Because what? Because he’s the he’s the source of our peace.
When you have him, you have a relationship. Watch this.
A relationship in which he will never reject you. A relationship, he will never leave you.
Relationship, he he’s he’s not in the business of criticizing you.
He may bring to your mind and heart, convict you of sin, but that’s not being critical.
He just say, this needs to go in your life.
Everything your heart desires is to be found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ because in that relationship, you make right decisions.
You make wise decisions. You don’t just let your life float, but you have a sense of purpose and direction in life because that’s who he is.
And he’s living his life in you.
Then I would say one other thing at that point, Jesus is the stain of our peace through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
It is not just to have him.
We see the difference in his peace and the world’s peace, but he he’s the one who sustains that peace, which means it doesn’t have to come and go.
And he said in the 16th chapter, of of John, the 33rd verse, these things I’ve spoken to you, so watch this so that in me, you may have peace.
Now watch this, In the world in which you live, you have tribulation, but take courage.
I have overcome the world, and I am your life. There’s the victory.
He doesn’t say we’re not gonna have heartaches and troubles. He says, but he says, I am in you now.
I want you to think about this.
Turn to turn to 2nd thessalonians for a moment. Look at this look at this passage.
You know, sometimes One verse will hit somebody, and another verse will hit someone else, look in 2nd desalonions, and, uh, this third chapter, and, um, look at this verse.
Verse 16 3rd chapter of 2nd decimal onions.
Now may the lord watch this, now may the lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance.
Not in some of them, but in all of them.
There is a way that he will give us a piece to walk through anything and everything in life.
No matter what it is. And I can remember on occasion when I got a phone call that would normally have just wiped me out.
I remember putting the phone down, and this overwhelming sense of peace just covered me.
Even I was surprised. I thought god And I remember exactly what I said doing in the process.
It had to be his peace.
Because it could never have been mine and could never have been anyone else’s.
Overwhelming sense of absolute tranquility, confidence, and assurance that he would lead me right through it all.
That’s who he is. That’s the kind of peace that he gives no matter what we face.
In other words, there are no limitations to his peace.
What we have to do is be sure we’re looking at the right place for it.
Now I want you to turn to the 119th Psalm for a moment.
And look, if you will, in the 165th verse. Listen carefully now.
119th Psalm, 165th verse.
Those who love your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble.
You said, what does that mean? Alright. Listen carefully.
How many of you believe the Bible say amen?
How many of you love the Bible say amen? Amen. Alright. Thank you very much.
Now if you love someone, What do you do? You give them time.
Right? Right. You show genuine interest in them. Now here’s what the Bible says.
If I love the word of god, if I love the word of god, I will read it.
I will meditate upon it, and I will obey it. If I love it, I’m gonna read it.
I’m gonna meditate upon it. I’m gonna obey it.
And he says, if I love his law, I will have his peace because When I face something that’s a challenge to me, the first thing I do is go to the word of god.
Why? Now watch this carefully. If I read that, Not quit.
If I read it, that word is imprinted on my brain, my mind.
If I love god’s word, He will still work in my heart that he that he will work me through whatever I’m facing and I won’t stumble.
I’ll have his peace, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives give unto you, let not your heart be trouble.
Now, you see, the first thing to do when you find yourself troubles getting the word of god.
Because, listen, what you’d watch this, what you’re doing is you, uh, you are a solving the mind of god in your life at that moment to deal with this.
And he is the god who deals with any and everything we face, and he’s a god of peace.
That’s what he that’s what he wants for our life. Let me ask you a question.
What do you own? That brings you peace.
So I got the finest automobile you can buy.
How fast can you wreck it?
You said, you can’t think of anything.
In other words, you you do not own anything.
And when I see see people grasping and lying and cheating and stealing and making all kind of decisions to get more money.
Besides ending up in jail and prison or whatever it might be, have futile to look for anything else but peace, except through Jesus.
He is it. If you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, listen carefully.
You don’t have peace, and you will never have peace until he becomes.
Your savior and your life. Now you don’t have to believe me. Look around.
Look at your own life. What is the source of your peace?
Is it something you own? You can lose it. Is it some reputation you have?
You can lose that. No matter what it is, there’s only one source of true genuine peace, and that is a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
You say, well, how do I have that? Here’s the way you have it.
You acknowledge the fact distant from him. So I believe in god.
What kind of god is this you believe in? Here’s the god you must believe in.
Jehovah god of the scripture. Who sent his only begotten son Jesus into the world to close that gap between you and him.
That’s that’s the god of the scripture. That’s the one true god.
The moment you’re willing to acknowledge that and that you have sinned against him and that you do against him, and that you’re a sinner by heart.
You say, well, I’m not as bad as others. No. That’s not the issue.
The issue is you have violated the laws of god. Broken the laws of god, sinned against god.
And the only way to deal with that is to bring it to him and to bring it to him through his son, Jesus Christ, who went to the cross and paid your sin debt in full.
You ask him to forgive you of your sin, surrender your life to him, here’s what he does.
He says he seals you at that moment with the Holy Spirit of Promise.
That is the Holy Spirit, the person of the Trinity. Forever child of god.
And this peace that I’m talking about can be yours immediately.
If you listen, if you will begin to simply look to him as your peace, Get in the word of god and begin to read it.
Watch god work in your life. Transform your life. Let me say one more time.
There is no peace apart from Jesus. God said it, There is no peace for the wicked.
None. God said it. I didn’t say it. He said it. You say, I’m not wicked.
If you’ve turned your back upon Jesus, you are, because you’ve turned your back upon god, Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father, but by me, and you’ve said I’ll have none of that.
That’s wicked. You say that’s just your opinion.
Well, just read the scripture that you’ll find out as this. The rebellion against god is sin.
And god is holy, he doesn’t tolerate it. Well, if he give you yes, only through Jesus.
And once he becomes your savior, everything else we’ve said about the peace of god becomes yours.
And that’s my prayer for you. And, father, how grateful we are that you’ve left nothing unturned.
That there’s not a single circumstance in life in which we will ever have to go through that you’ll not be there with us to walk through it with us.
That means we can experience your power, your assurance, your confidence, your boldness.
And we thank you.
For making it possible for us to live victoriously in a world that is so defeated by sin.
Pray for the person who’s seated here this morning who knows in his or her heart.
There’s no real peace there. That today, they would say yes to Jesus Christ. Yesterday.
Yes to him. Yes today.
And, father, for every single believer seated here, is going through difficulty, hardship, troubles, and trials.
Just let this truth sink deep into their heart.
It is the truth, divine truth, godly truth, difficult truth, and it works every time.
And this we ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.