The Advent of Peace

This morning we're talking about the advent of peace.

And so in uh in 1986, there broke out some protests uh around the nation, but they were kind of localized in New York around the death of a young man.

Uh his name was Howard Beach, and uh he was a 23-year-old immigrant from Trinidad, uh, and he died of very uh tragic circumstances.

But this protest that broke out there was recorded the first time ever the chant, no justice, no peace, uh, was ever uttered.

And so in the midst of these protests, these people came around this sense of injustice, this this tragedy, and they began to chant, no justice, no peace.

That's been a rally cry for a lot of different protests throughout time since 1986, even up to some current events that we experienced uh in the last couple of years.

Why, as a people, though, would we link those two things together?

No justice, no peace.

Why is it innate?

Why was that a rally cry out of the heart of man?

No justice, no peace.

Over the last two years, many of us have been witnesses or even experiencers of injustice.

There's been several high-profile instances over the last couple of years that's made this cry come out.

There's been government orders and mandates enforced on their citizens that have made this cry come out.

Many of us would say there's been an absence of justice in the last couple of years.

And in that, there's been a very wearisome absence of peace.

No justice, no peace.

What we're invited into in this text from Isaiah is the Prince of Peace.

He's gonna come.

He has come, he will come again.

But he does something to enable peace to be given, established, and rule over his people.

We're gonna try and unpack that to understand it through this messianic prophecy, this prophecy about the Messiah who would come that Isaiah utters in chapter nine.

What we see is in just verse six, we would summarize this introductory verse by the promise of peace comes to God's people.

We talked last week about how God has to be a God of his promises.

If God does not fulfill his promises, he actually ceases to be God.

And so we as Christians, as God's people, we have utmost confidence in that what God promises that he will do, it will come to pass.

Not one word will fall to the ground out of God's mouth.

He's not like you and me, right?

He's a God who is faithful.

That's why we can trust him.

And so God's promise of peace is coming, has come to God's people.

Here we're brought into the climax of this messianic prophecy.

So this actually started this prophecy in Isaiah chapter 8, verse 1.

Isaiah 8:1

And it continues and concludes in chapter 9, verse 7.

And so we're at the climax here in 6 and 7, right?

We've kind of been ascending the hill and working up to, well, what is the point of this prophecy?

It's that there's gonna be the Prince of Peace who will come to establish his government over his people.

Isaiah has been speaking, though, up to this point, to the way of how God's people have been in darkness.

God's people have been in darkness for really two primary reasons.

Uh, one is that they were captured as a people and they were put under oppressive leaders in this dark kingdom.

But also, they willingly walked in darkness.

So it wasn't something that just passively happened to them that was outside of their control, but it was something that they willingly walked in because what had happened is God's people wanted earthly rulers and earthly kings.

Their hearts were adulterous and they longed and lusted after these other rulers.

And so God in judgment allowed them to be captured and brought into captivity.

So, yes, there's a part of the darkness that they're residing in that is not in their control, but there's also it was instructed or it was inaugurated through a willing walking in darkness.

This is something that their hearts desire.

They didn't obviously desire this specific outcome, but they had both been captured by and willingly walked in darkness.

This active human behavior we see in Isaiah 9 2.

It says, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone.

We have to realize that God's people were in the state that they were in due to their own sin.

But the beauty of Christ, the beauty of the promises of God is that they have seen a great light.

On them a light has shone.

This is God's active grace.

And through our Advent devotionals at home, uh we talk about this coming of the light.

And we talked about the reality of darkness.

Uh, darkness never seeks out light.

Darkness consumes, darkness hides, uh, darkness tries to stay concealed.

It is always light that pushes back darkness.

It is always light that is the aggressor or pursuer to turn what darkness has created.

And so this is the active grace of God.

In us, in our state of darkness, in our state of desire to remain in darkness as human beings, we would never chase down the light.

It was the light that had to chase down us to expose its beauty and splendor upon our darkness that it might be revealed, his grace and mercy.

God in his grace has caused his light to shine upon them.

He's bringing his people out of darkness and into the light.

We're called out of darkness.

Darkness always kind of represents chaos.

Right?

When we look at the introductory of sin in the garden in Genesis 3, 2 and 3, what we see is chaos ensuing.

Sin brings chaos.

If sin never was a part of our human experience, peace would never be a longing of our heart.

Because peace would have never been interrupted.

We'd have never known any other state but peace.

And so sin created chaos, which inside of the man of the heart of man desired or longed for peace, longed for something to change.

Righteousness always establishes peace.

You see, it's in the darkness that peace is absent.

And it's in the light that chaos is abolished.

Because Jesus has caused his light to shine upon his people.

We see in Isaiah 9:3 that rejoicing ensues.

Isaiah 9:3

Because this light has shown, because it has exposed the darkness, the response of God's people is this rejoicing that ensues.

In verse 3, you've multiplied the nation, you've increased its joy.

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

This is the outcome of the righteousness and the light of God shining upon the darkness.

It is joy.

This is the reality of God's irresistible grace.

That when we are captured by his grace, when the light is shined upon our darkness, we do not buck back against it.

We surrender to the reality of it, and joy ensues.

Because it's only at that moment did you realize the depth of your depravity, but the unending eternal depth of his mercy and grace for you.

That causes a heart to rejoice.

And then out of this, there's three outcomes that we see in four, five, and six.

We see the burden of oppression has been broken.

While God's people have been placed under oppressors, it was because they placed themselves first under the oppressor of sin.

The enmity of war has ceased.

Though they have become captive and conquered people, Jesus came to free the captive and conquer back what had been lost.

And finally, the reign of wicked rulers ends.

No longer would his people reside under wicked rulers and corrupt governments, but they would be made citizens of his kingdom.

And he would reign over them as this threefold figure or uh or this um uh sorry, fourfold figure, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And so, how was this all accomplished?

How was God's people finding themselves under oppression of wicked rulers in their own sin, being liberated and brought into a kingdom of a different king?

How does that come about?

Well, for to us a son is born.

It's the advent of Christ, which inaugurates the kingdom of God being established over his people.

Who is that to us?

That's God's people.

It is only God's people who are those who inherit God's promises.

God's promises are not for those who are not God's people.

And so to us, God's people, those who would believe in Christ, a son has been given.

A child has been born.

It's in the advent of Christ that the kingdom of God starts to establish itself here on earth for its eternal reign forever.

It says that the government shall be upon his shoulders.

Jesus comes to bear upon his own work and strength a righteous rule.

You see, it's only under a righteous king that people can exist in a peace-filled kingdom.

Sin breeds chaos, righteousness brings peace.

So Jesus brings us out of darkness and chaos of our sin through shining his righteous light upon us.

And Isaiah concludes six with these four names of Jesus.

Says that he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

What do these names have significance to this one who is coming, this child who would be born to God's people?

Well, wonderful counselor.

The name wonderful, we kind of use that a lot.

Like, oh, that's so wonderful.

If you're from the South, you probably say wonderful in a way that's like actually derogatory.

Isn't he wonderful?

But it's, you know, you're really saying they're a little special or whatever.

You know, you're just saying something might be a little wrong with them, but we're gonna call them wonderful.

It's that whole bless your heart type thing.

Or we say wonderful in a way that doesn't really have its lost its meaning because we call everything wonderful, right?

But wonderful really means beyond comprehension.

There's actually a verse uh in the Bible, I can't remember where it's at, sorry for not writing it down.

But uh a man approaches God and asks him what his name is.

And he says, Why do you ask for I'm beyond your comprehension?

That same word is what we have for wonderful here in Isaiah.

I am beyond your comprehension.

I'm so wonderful, I am so awe-inspiring that I'm beyond your comprehension.

He is wonderful, but he is wonderful what?

Counselor.

A counselor gives his people guidance through knowledge and wisdom.

In Romans, Paul lets us understand what the wisdom and knowledge of God looks like.

It is it is without measure.

You see, knowledge means this: that God knows the best end.

God has the knowledge of what the best end is in his creation.

Wisdom means that God knows exactly how to execute to achieve that best end.

That's the beauty of the God that we serve.

Not only does he know the best end for himself and for his people, but he has the wisdom, the insight to accomplish all things to that best end.

He is wonderful counselor.

Mighty God.

This speaks to the ability to save his people.

All throughout the Bible, we see God revealing himself, starting all the way back in the book of Exodus, as a God with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

What this means is that he is able to save his people.

Throughout the book of Exodus and the story, what we get to see and understand is that they were under oppression of wicked rulers for over 400 years.

And so for someone to come and say, Oh, I'm gonna be able to get you out of this, seemed completely impossible to them.

But what was God's message to his people?

I am a God with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

This means his ability to save them was true.

And then he demonstrated that ability by actually bringing them out of the oppression of uh of Egypt and bringing them in as his people.

Uh, God is a God who demonstrates and displays himself to his people as one who can truly save them.

Everlasting Father.

Now, this might be interesting because we see um a son is born.

And when we think of the Trinity or we think of the Godhead, we see the Father distinct from the Son.

And Isaiah just said, For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given.

Uh, this word father, though, really means head, headship.

It's the same way that we would understand Christ is the head of the church, that he is the one who reigns over us as his body.

And so he is the eternal head of his church forever and always.

And finally, he's the prince of peace, the one who would bring reconciliation to the Father for his people.

This is his end goal.

This is his main objective: to bring us back to the Father, to bring us back to God through his finished work.

In this way, he becomes the Prince of Peace.

In verse 7, what we see is that peace will never cease for God's people.

Peace will never cease for God's people.

You see, the coming of Jesus also dictated the coming of his kingdom.

We don't get to have Jesus without his kingdom.

A lot of times we like to think that, right?

We can have Jesus and not submit to him as Lord.

Really, all you want is the blessings of Jesus or the consciousness that you feel like you are made right, but you don't want to submit to his kingship and ruling over you.

Uh, it is Jesus as Lord, the same one who bore the cross bears the crown.

We cannot have Jesus without also having his kingdom.

He's not here coming just to save us, but to rule and reign over us as his people also.

And so he says, of the increase of his government, there will be no end.

Jesus' kingdom stretches over all creation, and every aspect of it is under his dominion.

Because of this, because of this truth, peace will have no end.

Why will peace have no end?

Because Jesus' kingdom rules over all creation forever.

That's why peace will have no end.

And there's a twofold reality to this.

One is that the righteous king and righteous kingdom will reign forever.

Jesus as King, after his resurrection, he ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he was given, he was handed over the name which is above every name, and he will not return until the earth, the cosmos, is made his footstool.

He is the king over all creation, and that will reign forever.

And his kingdom, which he establishes, will reign forever.

So there's a trueness in that to establish this, this first reality is that the righteous king and the righteous kingdom will reign forever.

But secondarily, the finished work of reconciliation of God's people to himself will also have no end.

So it's not just a reality that Jesus and his kingdom will reign forever, but those of whom he reconciled to the Father through his finished work will have no end either.

You see, when we are brought into Christ, we are eternally brought into Christ.

This is the security that we have, not in some uh confession that we made out of fear at some Bible camp or some little uh thing that we did one time where we raised our hand and everybody else did too.

What we have is security, because when Christ saves you, he saves you and brings him you into himself forever and always.

This is why we, our security of salvation is not rooted in how good we are or how bad we are.

Our security of salvation is rooted solely in the finished work of Christ, because if he was able to accomplish all of that for us, surely he is able to keep us forever and always in himself.

This is the eternal reality of a king and his kingdom and his people.

And it says this in verse 7.

It says, the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it.

To establish it and to uphold it.

Jesus establishes the kingdom in his uh perfect life in his birth, the advent of the Son, uh, his perfect life of righteous obedience to the Father, his sacrificial death on the cross, and his glorious resurrection on the third day.

This is the establishing of God's kingdom.

We would say that the kingdom of God uh was inaugurated in the finished work of Christ.

But then he also upholds that kingdom.

Of the increase of his government, there will be no end.

It says that this government rests upon what?

His shoulders.

You see, the kingdom of God, this righteous government rests upon the finished work of the Son.

If that is yes and amen, then his kingdom is yes and amen, because Christ has the strength to bear that government upon his shoulders for all of eternity.

And so it is established in his finished work, and it is upheld eternally in his finished work also.

You see, Jesus came to save us.

This is good news.

But in that, he came to save us by bringing us into an eternal kingdom.

We are brought out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

We are brought out of slavery and into freedom.

We are brought out of sin and into righteousness.

We are brought out of war with God and into peace with him.

There is this exchange that's happening in who we are and how we identify and the people that we are into something else, this transformation that takes place, ultimately out of the kingdom of this world and into the kingdom of the Son.

You see, if our sin had put us in such a state as to be imprisoned by darkness, then what would be the motivating factor for God to extend such infinite grace and mercy to us, right?

If we were the ones, if we see this in Isaiah, this prophecy that's taking place, that it was because we willingly walked in darkness that we found ourselves in a land of darkness, then what would cause, motivate, inspire God to shine a light on this darkness?

Why wouldn't he just kind of wipe us away, right?

Why wouldn't he go like Noah 2.0, but not put the family on the ark, right?

Why wouldn't he just exterminate and start afresh?

He's the God of all creation.

Well, there's a reason.

There's a reason that God has grace and mercy upon his people.

Ultimately, it's jealousy.

It's jealousy.

And here's where we see this.

In Isaiah chapter 9, verse 7, he says, the zeal of the Lord will do this.

Isaiah 9:7

That word zeal is actually uh translated into jealousy.

But it's the jealousy that a husband might have.

And he did something in this making.

He put upon them his steadfast love.

He placed upon his people steadfast love.

That means a love that cannot be broken.

It's a covenant that's beyond anything that we can do to disrupt it.

It is an eternal and permanently placed love upon his people.

And throughout time and this redemptive history, we see that love jeopardized.

Not God toward us, but us toward God.

And what does he do?

Like a jealous husband who would chase after his wife to win her affections, he sets forth to shine a light on our darkness.

This is jealous love.

This is something that God is going to get back that was rightfully his.

It's not covetousness, it's not greed, it's not envy, it's not trying to get something that's not rightfully yours.

It's God saying, No, that's mine, and I'm gonna win it back.

And his jealous pursuit of his bride shines forth in the birth of a son.

The advent of Christ shows how jealous God was that he would take on human flesh to chase us down.

It shows how much the light shines into the darkness, that heaven would descend to earth.

It shows the active grace of God in his pursuit of us, that he would take on flesh, be born as one of us, live a perfect life of obedience, and then be crushed.

This is jealous love.

At any cost, by any means, I'm gonna win our back.

You see, peace will never cease for God's people because Jesus' finished work, Jesus' righteous kingdom, and Jesus' steadfast love are forever.

Well we have to try to understand in this passage in Isaiah 9, 6 and 7, is that the eternal rule of Jesus brings peace through justice and righteousness.

The eternal rule of Jesus brings peace through justice and righteousness.

This is what Isaiah is trying to help us understand.

This government will be established, and this government will rest upon, or it will be upheld by these two factors.

If we go back to verse 7, we see this very clearly.

He says, to establish it and to uphold it with what?

With what two factors?

Justice and righteousness.

The coming of Jesus dictates the coming of his kingdom also.

He's not just coming to save us, as we said.

There's no other way for us to be a people in peace unless it's through these means.

Justice and righteousness.

All other efforts and attempts at finding peace will lead us to be a captive and conquered people.

And so in 1986, when these people in New York gathered around such tragedy and they yelled out, no justice, no peace, they were calling out eternal truths that they did not know.

The thing is, they weren't looking for justice in the way that God defines justice.

They weren't looking for justice that would actually satisfy or bring true peace.

You see, as we're transformed out of the darkness of our sin and into his marvelous light, we obtain Jesus' peace.

Christ promises his peace to us and gives it freely to his people.

We read in John 14 at our call to worship.

John 14, 27 says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

What?

Not as the world gives, do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

The peace that Jesus gives is different.

It's transcendent beyond what the world can actually give us as peace.

Every notion of peace that the world offers up is such a pathetic shortcoming of what God gives us in peace.

You see, we experience the peace of Jesus because we're liberated from the oppression of our sin.

We are no longer enemies of God, but are now children.

We are made citizens of an eternally peace-filled kingdom under the reign of the Prince of Peace.

Peace for us as image-bearers, as those who are created in the image of God and created to be in relationship with Him.

Peace is reconciliation.

Without that, there is no peace.

Without being reconciled to God the Father through the finished work of the Son and being brought into His eternal kingdom, you and I as image bearers will never have peace.

We can fight for it, we can try to obtain it, we can work to protect it.

But that peace is so fragile that the world gives.

That peace is so pathetic that the world gives.

That peace is so finite that the world gives.

But let us look at the way in which Jesus ensures us peace.

Peace is ensured to us because the righteous rule of his kingdom is definite.

Peace is insured to us because the righteous rule of his kingdom is definite.

His kingdom is established and upheld forever and always by his justice and righteousness.

It is these two characteristics of both Jesus and his kingdom that peace will be able to be unceasing.

Justice.

God as judge, God as judge perfectly gives to those what they deserve.

This is what God's going to do.

God is going to enact justice upon his creation.

For some of us, that's good news.

For some of us, that's terrifying.

God is what what the tragedy, the chaos, all of these things that happened with sin that entered into the human experience because of the rebellion of his image-bearers has to be made right.

How will that be made right?

That will be made right through God as perfect judge, enacting justice upon his creation.

God will not sweep any of this under the rug.

God will not overlook any of our sin and chaos.

God will not look treason in the eye and allow it to go past him.

God will enact as perfect judge, perfect justice on all of his creation.

Why?

Because it is by those means alone that an eternally righteous kingdom of peace will be.

Then what is righteousness?

Righteousness is the reality that God is perfect in all his ways.

And God's law is perfect.

This is the righteousness of God, that he is holy.

Right?

We've talked about this several times, but inside of heaven, uh the song, the the anthem of all of the uh of the angels of heaven that circle his throne is holy, holy, holy.

There is nothing about God that has darkness.

He has no shadow or turning.

There is nothing about him that doesn't meet the mark of utter perfection.

God is righteous in all his ways, and what he demands out of his image bears is that righteousness.

Christ himself in his ministry said, Be perfect, for I am perfect.

But the reality is because of our sin and because of our shortcoming, we can never reach that benchmark.

So we needed one who would reach it for us.

Inserts into creation in the human experience Christ Himself, who then lives perfect obedience unto the Father.

And in grace and mercy, when we believe in him, imparts or imputes that very righteousness to you and I and counts us as perfect.

This is the righteousness that God demands, and his kingdom will have righteousness, because in glory we will not be able to sin any longer.

In glory, the righteousness that's been given to us through the Son is eternally, perfectly lived out in our conduct.

We submit finally to the perfect righteousness of which Christ has obtained for us in his finished work.

So Jesus' kingdom is established and is upheld by justice and by righteousness.

But many of us, we do not seek justice.

We do not seek justice.

When it comes to ourselves, we really don't want God to give us what we deserve.

And there's twofold reason for that.

One of the reasons is some of us are blind to the reality of our sin and we actually think way too highly of ourselves.

We believe that if God was going to inflict justice on someone, he would definitely not inflict it upon me.

I'm a good person.

You don't understand yourself, and you don't understand sin if that's the mentality and mindset that you have.

One simple act of rebellion, of sin, is eternally damning for us as his people.

There's nothing that is just a oopsadaisy or a, you know, oh, my bad, in the kingdom.

Every aspect of sin, every act of sin is cosmic treason to a king in his kingdom.

And so what does justice demand of that?

Well, justice demands punishment.

Justice demands judgment.

Justice demands wrath.

If we walk around in this life without Christ, just thinking that we're good enough people, and if God was ever going to execute justice on someone, he would do it on the really bad ones.

We don't understand ourselves, and we don't understand sin and we don't understand the reason Jesus came to die.

If you think that Jesus only came to die for all the bad people, but you're good enough to get into heaven of your own strength, that is an enemy of the gospel that is trying to get in in your own works and strength, and you will not make it into the kingdom.

God is going to either judge you or he's going to judge his son for you.

God is either going to smite you or he's going to smite his son.

Or some of us, we might think rightly of ourselves as sinners, but yet we work relentlessly to tip the scales of justice into our favor.

It's fascinating that throughout all of time and history, and throughout all of the world, even in today's modern culture, there exists in a reality or a thought philosophy that if I just do enough good, I'll tip the scales of justice in my favor, and whatever my heaven is, I will get.

You search every other religion in the world, it doesn't matter what it is, that's the formula.

I know something's wrong.

I know all isn't as it should be.

I'm going to do enough good so that when my time comes to enter into eternity, I'm going to tip this scale into my favor.

That's religion.

It is the gospel alone that teaches something completely different than that.

It is that you can't do enough to ever tip the scale into your favor, and so there had to be one who would come and do it for you.

That was Jesus.

That's what grace is, that's what the gospel is.

So they themselves, though they might have a right understanding of the reality that they have to tip those scales, that they are a sinner who has done wrong and needs to make things right, they still are trying to bypass the gospel in their efforts and strivings.

You see, ultimately, we don't really want God to give us the justice that we deserve.

We would rather try to work toward relieving what is due to us.

And Jesus says, you can't.

That's why I come.

But when it comes to others, that's when it comes to ourselves.

But when it comes to others, if we're really honest about ourselves and our hearts, we don't want justice, we want vengeance.

We don't seek justice, we seek vengeance.

And there's a major problem with that.

The major problem with vengeance is this you dictate the outcome in a method of vengeance.

I'm gonna get them back.

But that means you dictate the means of how you get them back, you dictate the severity of how you get them back, you dictate what is enough or what is insufficient in getting them back.

You become judge.

And ultimately, vengeance never satisfies.

Vengeance has only self-interest in mind.

A choice and action taken in response to a perceived wrong.

Another reason why revenge is wrong is because, like I said, the act level, the exact level of revenge that needs to be taken is completely at the hands of those taking action.

This isn't justice, this is vengeance.

Justice is impartial.

Justice is balanced, justice is fair.

Doing the morally right thing according to equity and fairness in the law of the land.

This is justice.

So when God executes justice, he does it impartially.

He doesn't have favorites, he doesn't have these systems within side of his governing rule that would give some benefits and others not.

That's not justice, that's not impartial.

We exist and we experience partial justice, ones that give some benefit and others not, ones that allows for others to escape justice and others to be oppressed underneath of it.

We only understand justice through the lens of partialism because of the sin in our hearts of those who govern over our land.

But that's not God.

God is impartial to every single person.

He is fair and balanced.

The reality is, though, that one simple act of sin dictates judgment.

All of us are in the same boat.

All of us are in the same place.

And what does the Lord cry?

Vengeance is mine.

Perfect justice perfectly avenges all wrongdoing.

You see, Micah 6.8 tells us this.

What is that?

What does the Lord require of you?

But to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.

What is good for us to do?

Justice is good.

Justice is a good thing because justice is an act of righting what was wrong.

And we as God's people should walk in justice.

We should love justice.

We should seek justice, but we have to ultimately know that God Himself is both perfect judge and executes perfect justice.

A good king and a good kingdom rule justly.

And this justice establishes and upholds peace in the lives of its people.

But others of us, we do not walk in righteousness.

We are like the Israel who Isaiah is prophesying about, the people who lived in a land of darkness, those who walked in darkness, right?

That's us.

We are Israel.

Israel is this kind of personification of our reality as well.

Sin is what breeds chaos in our lives.

In our relationships with one another, in our culture, in our workplaces, in all of these different aspects of our existence and of our reality.

Sin is what breeds chaos.

Righteousness does not bring dissent and tension and strife and turmoil and war.

Righteousness does not breed those things.

What breeds those things?

Sin.

And so we experience the absence of peace because we invite chaos through sin.

Righteousness.

Righteousness is what breeds peace in our lives.

You see, we're called to live righteously so that we in our neighbor might flourish fully.

God's righteous law is for our good.

Any act of disobedience fractures the good that He desires for us and invites chaos to enter in.

You see, it is from the beginning of time that man thought he might know better than God.

And so what did he do?

He did not believe that God's law was good.

God's law was for their flourishing.

God said, If you eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, surely you will die.

That's law entered in upon his image-bearers.

What did they not believe?

That that was a good law.

They didn't believe that it was for their flourishing.

You see, we talked about uh last week that the word law can actually be understood as a trellis, something that you allow these grapes or vineyards to grow up and flourish and produce fruit.

That is what law really is for us as human beings to flourish and produce fruit of righteousness and goodness.

That's what we're called to do.

And how are we called to do it?

By submitting ourselves under the righteous law of God.

But when we are so arrogant that we can perceive that we know better than our Maker and we go around that or we try to make a different way, what do we invite into this world?

Chaos, sin, trouble.

And this goes with every aspect of our creation.

Who made sex, man or God?

God made sex.

When we try to think that we can go outside of that, what do we do?

We invite chaos in.

Why did God establish that law for us?

So that we might flourish.

Who created relationship?

God or man?

Who created government?

God or man?

Who created work?

God or man?

Who created everything that we know, God or man?

It is God.

Every aspect of who we are and how we function in this world was created by God Himself.

Who are we to say, hey, I think I know better.

God's law of righteousness was given to his people that righteousness and peace might flourish.

If we would have never sinned, we'd have no need for peace to break into our existence.

Because peace would have always been.

You see, a good king and a good rule, or a good king and a good kingdom rule in righteousness.

This righteousness establishes and upholds peace in the lives of his people.

Isaiah 32, 17 says this.

And the effect of righteousness is what?

Peace.

And the effect of righteousness will be peace.

And the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

You see that chant, no justice, no peace, would never have had to even come from the hearts of men if righteousness and justice would have ruled over God's people in the way that it was supposed to.

But it didn't.

It didn't because of our sin, because of our shortcoming.

And so these cries come from our heart.

They cry out from us because we know things aren't as they should be.

But what do we get to rejoice in?

It's this gospel truth that the righteous son was crushed under the justice we deserved.

The righteous son was crushed under the justice we deserve.

You see, Christ comes and he lives in perfect righteousness.

In perfect obedience to the Father, Christ comes.

There's not one part of the law that he uh dismisses or pushes away.

There's not one part of the law that he doesn't fulfill in himself.

He completes the law.

He fulfills the righteous law of the Father.

And in that perfect obedience, he satisfies the demands of God for his people.

That we would live righteously, that we would walk upright before him.

And so Jesus comes and he lives righteously, yet he is crushed as if he was one of us.

The justice that we deserved because we did not live righteously, because we did not uh uh obey the Father, because we had stiff necks and hard hearts, because we functioned in rebellion and treason against this king and his kingdom.

What happened?

We demand we deserved the crushing that the son had placed upon himself because justice was going to be enacted.

Justice was going to be served by the perfect judge of God the Father.

And this is the reality that you and I have to walk in.

That either God was going to judge you, and you don't want that, or he was going to judge the son in your place.

And that's the beauty of the gospel: that the justice we deserve is taken from us and placed upon the sun.

In the 1800s, William Reese wrote a hymn called, Here is Love, Vast as the Ocean.

It says this on the Mount of Crucifixion, fountains open deep and wide.

Through the floodgate of God's mercy flowed a vast and gracious tide.

Grace and love like mighty rivers poured incessant from above.

In heaven's peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in love.

We want peace.

Peace can't come without justice.

No justice, no peace.

The epitome, the climax, the zenith of justice is seen in the crushing of the sun.

He stood in our place.

He took what we deserved.

And there, in that moment, perfect peace, heaven's peace and perfect justice kissed us as people.

A guilty world in love.

You see, the second advent of Jesus will bring final and eternal justice.

And it will bring the reign of a righteous king and his kingdom.

The second advent of Jesus, he will come forth to judge the living and the dead.

Those who are outside of his finished work, who have not trusted him in his life, death, burial, and resurrection, they'll experience the justice of the Father.

They'll experience the crushing of his wrath.

But for those who of us in Christ, who trusted in his finished work, who believed that he took our sin on the cross and who gave us our right standing with the Father, who lean not on their own strength, but on the strength of the Son, we will have the final call that the Son was judged in our place.

And we are perfect and right standing before our Father.

Justice will incur, judgment will happen.

And in this second advent, how will peace have no end?

Because justice and because righteousness.

So what do we do?

Number one, no Jesus, no peace.

No Jesus, no peace.

This might seem like a corny play on words to the chant of those who were there that day in 1986.

But it's not.

It's a rightful correction.

It's an honest assessment of the reality of who we are.

The only way to ever know peace is to know Jesus.

And so for us, some of us sitting in this room, we don't know him in this way.

We don't know Jesus as the Prince of Peace, the one who is judged in our place, the one who gives us his righteousness, the one who is the only one who makes a way for us to the Father.

Some of us in this room are still trying to work up peace in our lives.

We're trying to earn peace.

We're trying to accumulate peace through our strivings and actions and works.

You still don't know Jesus, and that's why you don't know peace.

When you lay your head down at night, do you rest?

Or do you worry?

When you lay your head down at night, are you calmed or does chaos ensue?

You see, to know Jesus is to know true peace.

Romans 5, 1 tells us this.

Therefore, since we have been justified, justified, that means made right before God.

That means that's that same legal language.

As God Himself is perfect judge and executes perfect justice, he seeks to justify us, make us right before him, not guilty in standing before his cosmic throne.

So since we have been justified by what?

Through our own works, through our own good doings, through our own charitable giving, through our own good deeds, through us serving at the church, through us being in a mission group, through us doing reading our Bible through and through 1,600 times in our life?

No.

Through what?

Through faith.

Through faith in what?

Through faith in the finished work of Jesus, in his perfect life, in his substitutionary death, in his burial and resurrection on the third day.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And when we have peace with God, we can have peace with anything this world gives us.

Why?

Because Jesus said, I give you my peace.

Not that this world gives you.

It's not the same kind of peace, it's a different peace.

And what did he charge us to do?

Don't be afraid.

Do not worry.

Why?

Because he has given to us freely his peace.

So to know Jesus is to know peace.

Secondarily, we need to live as citizens of his kingdom.

Live as citizens of his kingdom.

Church, we have to be a people who understand the reality that we are citizens under a king and under a kingdom.

And we have to live in such a way.

And that dictates that we live out the righteousness that's been given to us by Christ.

You see, there's a difference in the gospel understanding and religion.

Religion tells you to work for righteousness.

The gospel tells us we get to work from righteousness.

And that means that we can't earn or accumulate righteousness to our credit or account.

But the righteousness that has been given to us through Jesus, we get the freedom and joy to actually live out in our lives.

And so we have to submit ourselves and live as citizens of his kingdom, to do justice, to seek goodness, to be merciful to one another.

These are attributes and characteristics of the citizens of the kingdom of God.

We have to consciously live as citizens.

You don't get to just have Jesus and then get into heaven.

You get to have Jesus and then submit to Him as Lord.

Lastly, what do we need to do?

We need to shine the light into the darkness.

This world still is filled with darkness.

What did Jesus do?

Jesus came to shine the light into the darkness.

That's even what the Gospel of John opens up with this reality of the word became flesh.

And what did he do?

He shined the light on the darkness.

We need to be as God's people, those who continue that mission.

Right?

We don't get to make up the mission.

That's what the whole point of our name as a church, sacred mission, means.

We don't get to make up the mission.

We get to joyfully join into the mission that God is already on.

And what is he doing?

He's shining the light in the darkness.

But how does he do that now?

He does that through me and you.

Matthew 5, this is something so easy for us to forget.

Listen to Jesus' words.

Just listen to them as I read them.

Church, you are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but they put it on a stand and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Church, you are the light of the world.

You are the light of the world.

Because Jesus lives in you.

Because the spirit and power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you.

You are the light of the world.

What we are doing is we are living in such fear and turmoil that some of us are extinguished or we're putting the lights under the basket and we're retreating into the darkness of this world.

And we wonder where our peace is.

We wonder where the fruit and flourishing is.

We wonder where these things have gone that we've so desired in our lives.

What are we doing?

We're not being what God's called us to be.

We're not being what God's made us to be.

What happens to the darkness when light comes in?

It gives light to all who are in the room.

It pushes back darkness.

We don't need weaker testimonies and lives, uh testimony uh lives of uh gospel testimony.

We need stronger lives of testimony.

You don't like the darkness in your world?

Then be the light that you're called to be and start pushing it back.

But don't push it back with your nonsense uh uh gibber jabber of different uh government rulings and and oh, we need this law, or can you believe what they did uh here at the Democratic Party or the Republican Party or whatever else, the economy?

Who gives, you know what?

No one, that that's not gonna bring peace to anyone.

It's about the gospel being on your lips, and it's about the light that Christ has put in you to start pushing back the darkness that we see in our life.

Because even if they made the economy perfect and you put some semblance of a righteous leader above our nation, it will still crumble and fall one day because Christ will come back to establish his own.

It's not true peace, it's a false peace, it's a false hope.

And what you're giving people is trying to get them to believe that if they think this way or think that way, they might actually have some type of goodness and peace in their lives, but you're not.

You're giving them chaos.

You're giving them the absence of hope and the absence of peace.

We are the light of the world.

We are the light of the world.

We have to shine the light into the darkness.

No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

This is the truth that we long for, that we yearn for.

Because it's the truth of the kingdom.

Peace will reign forever because God's perfect justice will reign forever.

And with it, a righteous king and a righteous kingdom will have no end.

Let's pray.