This sermon is from the Advent series CHRISTMAS IS and was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on Sunday December 8, 2013 by Pastor Paul Mims.

Isaiah 9:6-7It was 732 B.C. It was a time of war with Syria and the Northern ten tribes called “Israel” trying to destroy and capture Judah. Ahaz was King and his government was corrupt. He had led the people away from God to the worship of pagan gods. In fact, he had offered one of his own sons to a pagan god. The sins of the people which are included in chapters 1-6 of Isaiah were: the assimilation of pagan religious practices into their lives, the dependence on their wealth, relying on a large army for their security, the worship of idols, turning to the demonic world through trying to commune with the dead, and rebelling against God. The punishment for their sins came through war with 120,000 soldiers from Judah being killed and about 200,000 of the people being taken captive and the land plundered (2 Chronicles 28:6-8). The people were filled with anxiety were deprived of the basic necessities.

A young man, Isaiah, was called to be a Prophet to speak for God to the people. He is given a vision of God that is awesome. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.” (Isaiah 6:1-4).

This vision of God led to his purification. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:5-7).

It is my prayer that we shall see THE KING this Christmas of 2013 and have our sin purged so that we can speak to the nation and bring it back to God so that Divine punishment such as Judah experienced can be averted. Like Judah, we have gone away from God. We have used the Constitution and the pluralism of our country not only to refuse to acknowledge God and give him his proper place in our nation, but to remove any public reference to him in schools and other government institutions. Do you think that our country can remain the greatest nation on earth when we sin so grievously? The people and their views are given more priority than God himself and this is dishonorable to him. We believe in separation of church and state – but not separation of God from the state!

Isaiah’s message was that there was a Righteous King who was coming who would bring peace. At this Christmas we look back on his first Advent. But I think that we are much closer to his second Advent. We can say to our generation, “The Prince of Peace is coming!” There are several dimensions to his peace.

I. PEACE ON EARTH.
In the last century, there have been two major world wars and other major conflicts. Albert Einstein was asked one time, “What will the third world war be like?” Einstein said, “I don’t know, but I can tell you what the fourth world war will be like. They will be throwing rocks at each other.”

There seems to be a national mood that we are moving toward something of a more cataclysmic conflict than we have known before. With the threats to destroy Israel there is an urgency to keep Iran and others from getting atomic weapons. We know that there will never be peace on earth until the giver of peace comes again.

Have you ever thought what it would be like if God did not have his people in the world with this message of peace? There is a hunger for it. In Japan, in Hiroshima, they have built a park for those who died from the atomic bomb and those who died from atomic poisoning afterwards. A memorial in the park to the children who died says, “This is our cry, this is our prayer: Peace in the world.”

Christmas has an amazing message for a world in conflict. In 1914, the British and German forces were confronting each other on Christmas Eve. The British raised a flag from their trenches and said to the Germans, “Merry Christmas.” The Germans responded and raised a flag and said, “Merry Christmas.” Then in a little while they came out of the trenches and went into no-man’s land and exchanged small gifts and sang Christmas carols. So powerful is the message of Christmas that it stopped the war on that front for several miles. Then, on Christmas day, the Germans and British came out of their trenches and played a game of soccer. (The Germans won 3-2). They went back into the trenches and for several miles along that front no one would fire the first shot. The higher German command came and replaced those soldiers with fresh soldiers and put out the word, “If there is ever again this talking with the enemy, it will be considered treason.”

Yesterday, we observed the 72nd Anniversary of Pearl Harbor that brought us into the Second World War. We hunger for world peace.

II. PEACE WITH GOD.
Christmas tells us of him who brings peace with God. “Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 5:1). Just as man has always been in conflict with man, unredeemed man has always been in conflict with God.” There comes a time when God speaks to man and says to him, “I want you to accept my gift that I give to you – a gift of love, of revelation, of peace.” When you and I receive Jesus the Christ as Savior and Lord, we make peace with God. There is no longer that struggle of resisting God. One by one, we come to this peace as he speaks individually to us.

Paul says in Colossians 1:20 that this peace is brought about by his atoning death on the cross for our sin. God had to go to war with sin for us. Every kind of peace is won with blood. It took the blood of the Christ-child to bring you and me this peace with God.

Rick Dellinger said, “I encountered a mean, barking dog. He had the look that said, if I live long enough, sooner or later, I’m going to bite you! As is my habit, I tried to entice the dog to let me pet him, to which he of course, wanted no part, and became even more vicious. As I came close enough to see his teeth, I snatched him off his feet, and wrapped my arms completely around him, thus disabling his means of attack. As I examined him, he had this look of distress, almost desperation in his eyes, and it was then I noticed, the huge thorn he had in his front paw. I decided I must remove the thorn at once, and he decided at once I wouldn’t. As the battle eventually I won, I put him down, and imagine my surprise, to find he wasn’t near the snarling, mean dog I had imagined, but because of the miracle of the removal of the thorn, he now was a dancing, prancing, a full of love puppy-dog, who seemingly had no care in the world. Thus is the sin in our lives. It becomes a thorn is our paws, which if allowed to, consumes our very being, and eventually, we become barking dogs. Christ says He can remove the sin, if we allow it. Many times we fight the cause, many times we fight the solution, but when it is finally removed, how sweet it is to know His grace.”

III. PEACE IN TRIALS.
Some of us at this Christmas time are going through severe trials in our lives. Jesus brings peace into the midst of trials. He was preparing his disciples for his crucifixion and ascension and he said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” The world’s peace is temporary that can be gained from a moment of solitude or pleasure. But the peace Jesus gives is lasting. It is the kind you need when your life seems to be falling apart. In essence he said, “My peace can stand any kind of test. It will see you through anything.”

In John 16:33, he speaks again of this peace. “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Follow the progression: the person who has made peace with God and has received the peace that Jesus gives will be able to be at peace in the midst of a world that is in conflict.

IV. PEACE IN RELATIONSHIPS.
All relationships can cause conflict. The Apostle Paul speaks to the relationship between Jew and Gentile in saying in Ephesians 2:14, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his death the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”

Paul was talking about two concepts of salvation: one by way of the law, the other by way of grace. He was talking about two peoples: the people of Israel and the people of the New Covenant. Christ breaks down the wall between the two when there are believers who accept him. He Himself is our peace. This also prevails in families, in business, and in the church.

V. PERSONAL PEACE.
The Prince of Peace that Isaiah said was coming brings personal peace to us. I pray that we will all have this at this Christmas observance. Philippians 4:7 tells us of the personal peace that Jesus brings: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Follow the line of truth: the person who has made peace with God through the cross and is able to receive the peace that Jesus gives is privileged then to have that peace stand as a guard, as a sentinel in life. It will guard your heart and keep you in that peace. It will guard your mind from its anxiety. That kind of peace is protective peace and it is yours in Christ. But we have to “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”

In Isaiah 26:3, we read, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you.” The Psalmist in 85:10 linked righteousness and peace together. “…righteousness and peace kiss each other.” There is peace in the life where there is righteousness.

Duke University did a study on “peace of mind.” Factors found to contribute greatly to emotional and mental stability are: 1) the absence of suspicion and resentment. Nursing a grudge was a major factor in unhappiness. 2) Not living in the past. An unwholesome preoccupation with old mistakes and failures leads to depression. 3) Not wasting time and energy fighting conditions you cannot change. Cooperate with life, instead of trying to run away from it. 4) Force yourself to stay involved with the living world. Resist the temptation to withdraw and become reclusive during periods of emotional stress. 5) Refuse to indulge in self-pity when life hands you a raw deal. Accept the fact that nobody gets through life without some sorrow and misfortune. 6) Cultivate the old-fashioned virtues–love, humor, compassion and loyalty. 7) Do not expect too much of yourself. When there is too wide a gap between self-expectation and your ability to meet the goals you have set, feelings of inadequacy are inevitable. 8) Find something bigger than yourself to believe in. Self-centered egotistical people score lowest in any test for measuring happiness.
Several centuries ago, an early church father by the name of Jerome was translating the Bible from Greek into Latin. He was living near Bethlehem. He had a dream one night and he saw Christ appear to him. He was so overwhelmed that he thought, I must give something to him. So he got some money and presented it to him and Christ said, “NO, I don’t want that.” Then he got some of his possessions and presented them. Christ said, “I don’t want your money or your possessions.” “What then can I give you?” he said. Christ said to him in this dream, “All I want from you is for you to give me your sin and then give me your love, for that is why I came.” That is the way to personal peace.

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!