Happy are the Peacemakers

 

Happy Are the Peacemakers
Matthew 5:9
 
The idea of peace dominates the Bible. The Bible opens with peace in the garden. The Bible closes with peace in eternity. In fact, you could chart the course of history based on the theme of peace. There was peace on earth in the garden. Man sinned, peace was interrupted. At the cross, peace became a reality again as he who died on the cross became our peace. And since the Lord Jesus Christ has provided peace, there can be peace in the heart of a man or a woman who comes to know him. 
 
Some day in the future He will come again. His title will be the Prince of Peace. He will establish a kingdom of peace which will finally go into an eternal age of peace. So peace is a great way to see the theme of the Bible. Peace in the garden, peace interrupted, peace returns in the hearts of men because of the cross. The Prince of Peace comes again to bring a kingdom of peace that finally becomes an eternal peace. There are 400 references in the Bible to peace. God is tremendously concerned with peace. It is one of His great themes.
 
In fact, He Himself calls Himself the God of Peace. You say, but there's no peace. No, not in the world, not now, but there's a reason. The reason there's no peace is because of two things, the opposition of Satan and the disobedience of men. 
 
It isn't that God doesn't want peace. It's that man and Satan are at war with God.  You can only have peace with someone as long as they want it.
And as long as they will have no peace, there will be none.
 
So tonight we come to the seventh step in the ladder which ascends to divine blessedness. The seventh of the Beatitudes, peacemakers. 
 
It almost seems as if God has called us in the world to a very special calling to restore and to experience something that has been lost since the fall. We are, as it were, to restore this world to the peace that was forfeited in sinning. And so God has designated a group of special people that He calls peacemakers. They are His agents in the world and they're here to make peace. They go far beyond anyone who wins the Nobel Peace Prize, because the peace they offer is eternal peace. The peace they set about to bring is a divine peace, a real peace. 
 
And so our Lord Jesus says that God has promised to bless people who are His agents for peace and even to call them sons of God. Now God here through the words of our Lord Jesus Christ is referring to a peacemaker that's unlike any we know in this world. 
 
He's not referring to politicians. He's not referring to statesmen, no matter how good they are at working out a "peace." He's not referring to diplomats. He's not referring to arbitrators. He's not referring to kings or presidents or Nobel winners. He's not referring to organizations like the League of Nations or the United Nations. He's not referring to some ecclesiastical order. He's not referring to a council of churches. 
 
 
 
God's peacemakers are vastly different, which is good because the world's peacemakers have a terrible failure record. We don't have peace politically and we don't have peace economically and we don't have peace socially. We don't have peace in nations. We don't have peace in countries. We don't have peace in political groups. We don't have peace in organizations. We don't have peace in homes. We don't have peace any place because we don't have peace in hearts. That's the real issue.
 
Think about it this way: Do you know how many peace treaties have been broken? All of them. Peace is just that brief moment in history when everybody stops to reload. The United Nations was concerned in the aftermath of World War II with developing an agency for world peace. And so in 1945, the United Nations brought itself into existence and since that time there has not been one single day of peace on the earth, not one.
 
The world is filled with never-ending upheavals. 
We've never known, in the history of America, a generation of peace.
 
We have no ability to get along with each other. Everything in every relationship is fragile. We have difficulty at the personal level. There's no peace. People have mental and emotional illness, family breakups, tragedies in schools. We have demonstrations and parages and mouthing and jawing. And the reason for all of this is that man has no peace in himself. And if ever there was needed a peacemaker, it's now. Desperately does this world need peacemakers and God says through Jesus Christ in this wonderful verse that He would specially bless those who are peacemakers.
Now in order to understand what our Lord is saying here, we have to deal with five truths about peace. 
 
First of all, the meaning of peace. What do we mean by peace?  Does it simply mean, no conflict or war?
 
Peace from God’s perspective, is more than the absence of something, it is the presence of something. 
 
In a biblical way, peace is not the absence of conflict as much as it is the presence of righteousness that causes right relationships. Peace is not just stopping the war. Peace is creating the righteousness that brings the two parties together in love. 
 
When a Jew says to another Jew Shalom, which is the word for peace, he doesn't mean may you have no wars, may you have no conflict, he means I desire for you all the righteousness that God can give. All the goodness that God can give. Shalom means, God's highest good for you. 
 
So if we are to be peacemakers, we do not only stop the war, we replace it with the righteousness of God, with all the goodness of God. 
 
Now let me show you the difference. There's a difference between truce and peace. Truce just says you lay down your guns and you don't shoot for a while. That's the world's definition when everybody stops for that one glorious brief moment when we reload. That's truce. Peace is when the truth is known, the issue is settled, and the two parties embrace each other. 
 
Now some people think that peace is just stopping the war. And what we need in the world is just to stop the conflict. All that does is make it boil. All we have then is cold war. And cold war is war.
 
That’s why I never encourage fussing spouses to separate, unless violence is involved. 
 
If two people are at war with each other, the thing to do is not separate them so they don't see each other. The thing to do is to bring them together so they can resolve the problem and come together in love and embrace each other and make it right. That's peace not truce.
 
The peace of the Bible never evades the issue. The peace of the Bible is not peace at any price. It isn't a gloss. The peace of the Bible conquers the problem. You see the difference? It conquers that problem in the middle ground so that the two can come together. It builds a bridge to two sides. Sometimes it means struggle. Sometimes it means pain. Sometimes it means anguish. Sometimes it means a little more strife, but in the end, real peace can come.
 
Think about James 3:17 a verse that you need to keep in mind and we'll come back to verse 18 later, but just verse 17 for now. "But the wisdom that is from above, is first," what, "pure then," what, "peaceable." Now you can just stop right there and leave that one, we'll come back to it later. The wisdom that is from God finds it way to peace through what? Purity. First pure, then peaceable. 
 
 
Peace is never sought at the expense of righteousness. You have not made peace between two people unless they have seen the sin and the error and the wrongness of the bitterness and the hatred. And they have resolved to bring it before God and make it right, then through purity comes peace.
 
Peace that ignores purity is not the peace that God talks about. Hebrews 12:14 says, "Follow peace with all men and holiness." In other words, you cannot divorce peace from holiness. You cannot divorce peace from purity. You cannot divorce peace from righteousness.
 
 Psalm 85:10 says, "Righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Where there is real peace, there is righteousness. Where there is real peace, there is holiness. Where there is real peace, there is purity, because that resolves the issue. 
 
And so in peacemaking, the meaning is not that we are to abandon principle. The meaning is not that we are to abandon doctrine, that we are to abandon conviction. When Jesus says be a peacemaker in the world, that doesn't mean you don't ever bring up anything that is true if it offends somebody. On the contrary, you better bring it up if it's true and it better offend them so they can get past that to the real peace. Biblical peace is real peace. We are not peacemakers in the world in the sense that we never make strife. We make strife all the time. But we are peacemakers in the world in this sense that when the strife is over the real peace is there.
 
 
 
True peace can only come when truth reigns and it's more than a truce. It's a real peace. And so when somebody comes along and says well, you know, you have such a narrow view and you need to be more ecumenical. You need to sort of just set aside what you don't agree with and just find the point of agreement and dive in. We just all need to get together and discuss what we agree on.
 
Well, let me tell you something, Christ never pronounced blessing on apostates. And if there was ever anybody that He met who had a point of error, invariably He nailed that point of error. Because the only real peace comes when we respond to the truth.
 
So biblical peacemakers are not quiet, easygoing people who just want to make no waves and no issues who lack justice, who lack a sense of righteousness, who are compromisers, who are appeasers. No, people say oh he's such a peacemaker. And they mean by that he has no convictions. That isn't the issue.
 
A true biblical peacemaker will not let sleeping dogs lie. He will not save the status quo if truth must be brought to bear on the issue. He doesn't say well, you know, I know the person's doing wrong, but oh I just would rather have a peaceful situation. Don't want to say anything about what my son is doing or what my husband is doing or what our friends are doing. Just want to keep peace, that's a cop out. True peace only comes after the truth. 
 
So the meaning of peace is, “It is really peace. It is not just peace at any price. It is not keeping the status quo. It is not calling a halt to the shooting while we reload. It is not simply a truce. 
It is not reducing it to a cold war. It is resolving it by the truth. Bringing to bear the righteousness of God.
 
So we first have The Meaning of Peace.   
 
Secondly, the menace to peace
 
What is it that hinders peace?  Well, it's obvious. The menace to peace is sin. If the meaning of peace is righteousness and truth, then the menace to peace is sin and untruth or error or lies. And if you want to know why there's no peace in the world, it's because the menace to peace rules. 
 
Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked." Now get that, Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked." 
 
So we start out with a wicked heart. How does a wicked heart manifest itself?  
 
Isaiah says in Chapter 48 and verse 22, "There is no peace saith the Lord unto the wicked." So Jeremiah says that man is wicked. Isaiah says there's no peace to the wicked. 
 
So the menace to peace is the wickedness of man. 
 
Mark 7:20 says, "That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, and all these evil things come from within and defile the man." 
Now what you're dealing with then in human society is an internally defiled man. A man from whom precedes all this evil. And that kind of heart can never produce peace, because peace is a result of holiness. Peace is a result of righteousness. Peace is a result of purity and it will not be produced with this kind of internal sin.
 
Now that's why in James 3:18, and we go back to that same text we looked at and it says this. "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace." 
 
Now watch this, true peacemakers then sow righteous fruit. True peacemaking brings to bear first righteousness. You can't ever have real peace until you've brought righteousness. 
 
In other words, if two people are fighting it's because there's sin. If you just separate the people, that does nothing. Eliminate the sin, the fight's over. If something's between you and God and you're at war with God all you need to do is remove what's in the middle, which is sin and God and man come together, right?
 
You see, always a peacemaker makes peace by sowing righteousness. And that's why the wisdom of God is first pure then peaceable. 
 
Therefore, the only peacemakers in the world who are worth anything as peacemakers are those who bring men to righteousness, to God's standards, to bow to God's truth, and that's why all of the diplomats and statesmen and ambassadors and presidents and kings of the world's history could never bring peace.
And by the way, this statement Jesus makes in verse 9 throws us all the way back to the beginning of the Beatitudes.
 
Yu can't be a peacemaker unless you follow the first six; umless you've dealt with sin in your life. Go back to verse 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." You start out with a beggarly attitude toward your own sinfulness. You cower in a corner, crouching in the dark, reaching out the hand of a beggar to God, because you know, you can't earn anything on your own.
 
"Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted and then you weep and mourn and your heart burns and aches over your sinfulness." 
 
And then "Blessed are the meek." You see yourself before an absolutely sovereign and holy God as something worth nothing and the meekness is born out of the mourning that's born out of the cowardliness that comes from seeing your sinfulness. 
 
And at that point in meekness, verse 6, you cry out in a hunger and a thirst after righteousness and you receive, according to verse 7, "the mercy of God." 
 
And when you've receive the mercy of God, verse 8 says "you become pure in heart and only when you are pure in heart can you be a," what, "peacemaker." And that's the whole point.
 
And by the way, when you become a peacemaker, the world isn't going to accept that and so immediately verse 10 says "Blessed are they who are," what, "persecuted." For what sake, righteousness sake. Why?
Peacemakers are always trying to bring a righteous solution. They're always trying to bring righteousness to bear on the situation. And whenever you try to introduce into the world a peace that is based on righteousness, they will negatively react to it, because they don't want to face the reality of sin. They don't want to have the kind of peace you're trying to bring.
 
And so we bring to bear upon this world a righteous peace. Only when sin is dealt with can true peace ever happen. I don't care whether it's peace in your own life, if you're having trouble and turmoil and anxiety and you've got to go to a counselor and you've got to take pills and you've got to take drugs, and you've got all kinds of problems in your life, I'll tell you what you need: you need righteousness in your life. When you have purity in your life, you have holiness in your life and you'll have peace in your life.
 
And if you've got problems in your marriage and there's conflict in your marriage and conflict in your family or in your home, I'll tell you one thing, you bring righteousness, holiness, and purity in your marriage and your home and you'll have peace in your home. 
 
Once you have righteousness, you're at peace with God, peace with man, peace with self. And so to be a peacemaker, you've got to go through all the Beatitudes. You've got to come to the place where you see your own sinfulness, you see yourself as a wretched soul, miserable, deserving nothing with no rights or privileges, hating your natural self. Crying out to a holy God to give you a righteousness you could never get, but must have. 
And God in His great, great love gives you mercy, purifies your heart, and then and only then will you ever be a peacemaker.
 
Man can search the world over from corner to corner. It can go from counselor. He can gather from summit to summit. He can right treaty, from treaty to treaty. He can go from religion to religion and never find peace. Why? Because peace is not to be found in our circumstances. The problem is in our innate sinfulness. It is our uncontrolled lusts that rob us of peace. If we are feverish, it is not because of external temperature, it is because of the state of our own boiling blood.
 
You know, it's almost strange in our world. We exalt the people who break peace. Oh it's great when we have a peacemaker who keeps us from getting into war or who's going to help to keep the price of oil down or whatever, but when it comes down to day to day living, we really exalt the people who fight. Have you noticed that? 
 
I mean, we'll pay a fortune to go watch two men in a ring beat each other to a pulp. Worldly kingdoms, by the way, have always given the highest honor to the warriors. Have you ever noticed that? It's always the warriors, the soldiers, and the fighters. 
 
You see, the take nothing from nobody, the hardnosed, the tough, the wild, the self-sufficient. These are the heroes, and the heroines are the women who lead the parade for rights and demands and stir up strife and stir up contention and fight against the traditions and the systems.
 
 
We are a whole society of people fighting for our rights and exalting each other. We are told by psychologists and psychiatrists and behaviorists, get all you can get for yourself. Don't let anybody take anything from you and so we precipitate more strife all the time. Our society worships that. 
 
It's no wonder when we come to the society and try to bring the peace that the gospel brings that they fight against us. It's no wonder that they didn't like Jesus Christ. They wanted a fighter. Those Jews say we want somebody who's going to come in here and really lay the iron fist on the Roman government. 
 
We want somebody to come in here who will be a Messiah who will put a stranglehold on Caesar. We want somebody to come along who will knock the Roman government out of its power.  We want a great warrior and when our Lord Jesus came along and said blessed are the peacemakers. 
 
Who needs that? Then we come into the world offering the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ and people look down on us, think we're cowardly, weak, and if we get bold and really preach Jesus Christ, they fight against us. 
 
But a peacemaker is willing to say what has to be said to bring righteousness to bear on the situation. If you're a true peacemaker, you're going to be one who brings righteousness to bear. 
 
The meaning of peace, peace as God defines it.
The menace to peace, sin. It must be dealt with. And you know, it's not easy. 
 
 
Thirdly, the maker of peace.
 
Who is the maker of peace? Who is the source of peace? Paul said it directly in 1 Corinthians 14:33, this is his own statement. "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." Apart from Him there is no peace whatsoever. The New Testament is literally replete with statements about the fact that God is the God of peace. Paul said in Romans 15:33, "Now the God of peace be with you all, amen." 
 
In 2 Thessalonians, he talked about Christ as the Lord of Peace. The author of Hebrews writes about the God of peace. The Old Testament is just loaded with statements about God being the source of peace. Peace belongs to God. It doesn't belong to man at all. In fact, you want to hear something? 
 
Since the fall of man, in Genesis 3, man has never known peace unless he took it as a gift from God, because man doesn't have it. God is perfect peace. In fact, God is at perfect peace with Himself. God is characterized by perfect oneness. The Trinity has perfect oneness. It is absolutely tranquil. It is an absolute harmony. It is perfectly united. In the Trinity there is no conflict. There is only peace and that radiates from God. 
 
The only way we'll ever know peace is if God comes to us. And I love the statement of Ephesians 2:14 that tells us that's exactly what He did. It says, "For He," that is Christ, "is our peace." When Christ came into the world, He was the peace of God coming to take the hand of God and the hand of man and by His own sacrifice make man righteous and join his hand to God. 
I remember the story I read of a couple in a divorce hearing and they couldn't resolve the conflict and they were arguing back and forth and they had just one little boy about four years old and he was greatly distressed. And he was teary-eyed because he was watching the conflict and according to this one this article, he reached over and took his father's hand and then he reached over and took his mother's hand and with tears in his eyes, he just kept pulling until he pulled the two hands together. He became peace. 
 
And in a sense, that's what Christ did. He provided the righteousness that allows man to take the hand of God. God is the only source of peace and a man will never know peace until a man knows the peace that only God can give because there is no other. 
 
Colossians 1:20 says, that "Jesus Christ having made peace through the blood of His cross was able to reconcile all things to Himself." 
 
You see it was the cross that made peace. You say how could the cross be peace. There was no peace at the cross. A chaotic mob screaming and spitting on Christ. The chief priest and the rulers mocking and cursing His name. The disciples fled. The thunder, the lightening, the cracking that was going on. The terrible darkness at noon day. The bleeding Savior, the criminals on either side cursing and swearing. What do you mean the cross is peace?
 
You know why the cross is peace? Because the cross provided the righteousness that alone makes real peace.  
 
In his book, The Peace Child by Don Richardson, he tells the story of the work he and his wife Carol did among the Sawi Indians in the jungles of Papua, New Guinea. He learned the language, and shared the gospel, but it caused great division among the people. IN frustration, they were getting ready to pack their bags and leave, when something unusual happened. 
 
There was a custom among those tribes that if peace was ever made, it would be made when one person from a tribe took his own baby and gave that baby to the other tribe and left the baby there and went away. According to their custom, as long as the baby lived, they would have to honor peace between the tribes. 
 
Peace finally came when a man, picked up the only child that he had, just one little baby boy. Took that little baby boy in his arm and while his wife chased him, but too late, he ran from his village into the village of the enemy and presented to them that baby. And they called that baby The Peace Child.
 
See the significance? Jesus is the peace child and as long as He lives there is peace. And how long does Jesus live? Forever and ever. Through all the suffering, there must have been anguish on the heart of the Father as He watched the Son die and you can imagine the anguish in the heart of that father as he handed the only baby ever to come from his loins to an enemy tribe never to see the child again.
 
 
 
But the price was worth it for the peace. The strife was over. Jesus is the peace child. 
 
So God is the source of peace and Jesus is the manifestation of peace. And the agency of peace is the Holy Spirit. You see, God is a God of peace who made Christ the manifestation of peace and gave us the Holy Spirit who's the agency of peace. 
 
And in Galatians 5:22, it says, "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy," what, "peace." 
 
And so when you become a Christian God comes to live in your life, the God of peace. Christ comes to live in your life, the Prince of Peace. The Holy Spirit comes to live in your life, the spirit of peace.
 
No wonder the whole Trinity is called the Lord our Peace, Jehovah, Shalom. And this is God's will beloved. God who is the source of peace wants peace. He created a world with peace and He'll bring the world ultimately to a destiny of peace. It's in the interim that so much turmoil has come. He brings Christ to bring peace. He'll return to bring peace. He'll set up a kingdom of peace and eternity of peace and that's what God wants. God has always wanted peace. God doesn't want conflict. 
 
People say what kind of a God do we have? Look at the wars. God doesn't want those wars. God doesn't want them at all. Somebody said why doesn't God stop the wars? And the answer is He didn't start them. They're not His wars.
 
 
 
In Jeremiah 29:11, the prophet said, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord and they are thoughts of peace." You see? God's thoughts toward men are peace. 
 
And Jesus said, "These things have I spoken unto you," John 16:33, "that in me you might have," what, "peace. In the world you'll have tribulation, but I have overcome the world." 
 
Why? To give you peace. And so beloved if we're to be peacemakers, we draw that peace from God.
 
So the meaning of peace, righteousness. The menace to peace, sin. The maker of peace, God.
 
Four, the messengers of peace.
 
Who are they? Oh that's us folks. Now we're at the Beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers." We're the messengers. 
 
1 Corinthians 7:15 says, "God has called us to peace." "God has called us to peace." 
 
In 2 Corinthians Chapter 5 that great statement in verse 18 and following, "And all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and given to us the ministry of reconciliation." And by the way that is peacemaking. "To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespass unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We beg you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God."
 
Reconciled is another word for peacemaker. It could read this way. All things are of God who has made peace. He is given unto us the ministry of peacemaking. God was in Christ-making peace with the world. And as committed unto the us the word of peacemaking. We are ambassadors and we beg you be ye peaceful with God. We are the peacemakers. We are God's peace corp in the truest sense. That's our calling by God's spirit. There are many other scriptures that talk about this.
 
In Colossians 3:5, it says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." In Philippians 4, it says, "Let the peace of God dominate your life." Why? 
 
Because you've made peace with God. You can enjoy the peace of God. So we are the peacemakers.
 
You say, as a peacemaker what do I do? 
 
Three things. This is the practical part. 
 
Number one, to be a peacemaker, you make peace with God yourself.
 
That means you've accepted the gospel of peace. I love that phrase. It's used in several places in the New Testament. Perhaps one that's most familiar to you would Ephesians Chapter 6, verse 15. "Have your feet shod with the gospel of peace." The gospel is all about peace. You see there was a day when you fought against God. There was a day when you warred against God, but when Jesus Christ's righteousness was imputed to you by faith, you made peace with God. The gospel was the gospel of peace. The battle's over. 
No one will ever be a peacemaker unless he's made peace with God, because then and only then does God become the source of peace. So the first thing a peacemaker is characterized by is he's made peace wit God. Can I stretch that a little bit?
 
I think to be effective as a peacemaker, you have to maintain that peace. And every time there's sin in your life, that peace is interrupted. When there's sin in your life, you can't commune with God.
 
When there's sin in your life, God can't bless you.
 
You remove yourself from the place of blessing. You cannot be a peacemaker with others if there's no peace between you and God. If there's a broken relationship, if you have sinned against God, if you're living in disobedience to His will, if you're living indulging yourself in sin, you are no peacemaker.
 
In order to be a peacemaker, you've got to have peace with God yourself. So a peacemaker, first of all, concentrates on his own peace with God. 
 
There's a second thing: a peacemaker is one who helps others make peace with God. 
 
I think Jesus had in mind here evangelism. I think that's the greatest thing about peacemaking. You can go to somebody who's at war with God and make peace between that person and God. 
 
And I'll tell you something else, anybody who is unsaved is at odds with you too, because they're out of the family. They're cursed by God. They're set apart from the kingdom. 
And the minute they come to Jesus Christ, they make peace with God and peace with you. They become God's child and your brother.  
 
Evangelism is peacemaking. It's a beautiful thing to bring people to a peaceful relationship with God. You want to really be a peacemaker? Just tell somebody about Jesus Christ. 
 
That's infinitely beyond what any mortal politician or statesman has ever accomplished in a political sense. That's ultimate eternal real peace. We are the peacemakers. Oh what an indictment this was of the Pharisees. 
 
The Pharisees who were self-righteous, smug, thought they had every right to fight against Rome. Thought they had every right to spouse their theology. They stepped on people's necks. They weren't interested in anybody being related to them. They weren't interested in anything except pushing themselves up higher and higher. They created strife everywhere they went. They created contention everywhere they went. They looked down on people. They divided society into cliques and groups. 
 
And Jesus says to them, you've got it all wrong. What God wants is not some spiritual elite who think they know it all, but some poor beggarly sinner who knows he's got nothing to offer and who seeks to make peace.
 
Peace is by Christ. When you preach Christ, you preach peace. You want to be a peacemaker? Preach Jesus Christ. 
So peacemakers are peacemakers because they make peace between themselves and God and they help others to make peace with God.
 
And thirdly, a peacemaker is one who helps others make peace with men. 
 
Being a peacemaker means you can bring men together. You can bring them together with each other. You know, that's not always easy, but a peacemaker can do that. A peacemaker can build bridges between people. I hope you're conscious of that. 
 
You know, there's a lot of ways the Bible talks about this and we don't have the time to cover every single one of them, but in Matthew Chapter 5, I'll show you a couple of illustrations. 
 
Matthew 5:21, "You've heard that it was said by them of old thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment." Don't murder, you know that. The law said that. "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the counsel." 
 
In other words, this word Raca means empty. It's like saying to somebody you empty head, you blockhead, you dunce. "Shall be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever says thou fool, which is more serious, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar," in other words, you're going to go worship God, and you remember that your brother has something against you, isn't that interesting. 
It isn't that you've got something against your brother. It's that your brother's got something against you. Drop your gift, leave, go away, and first make peace with your brother then come and worship.
 
God doesn't want you coming to church and worshipping Him if you know somebody's got something against you. Go home get that straightened out and then come back. That's being a peacemaker. 
 
Because you see, the fact is you are not in fellowship with each other. The issue is that real peace is born out of real righteousness. And righteousness means you eliminate the sin that's in between. So you've got to go make peace. You make peace with each other. You want to agree. You want to set things right.
 
Over later on in Chapter 5, he talks about how you're to even love your enemies and bless them that curse you and do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you and do all of these things. Why? 
 
Because then you'll be the sons of your father. In other words, you will prove you're a son of God if you're a peacemaker even with your enemies. Back to the Beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called," what, "sons of God." It is characteristic of a son of God to be a peacemaker. 
 
That's why He said what He did in Chapter 5 later on.
 
 
In Matthew Chapter 18 it says, if your brother has sinned what do you do? Immediately it says you go to him, right? And you tell him about his in and you ask him to repent and if he doesn't repent what do you do? You take two or three what, witnesses, and you go back to try to get him to repent. If he doesn't repent then, you tell it to the church to try to get him to repent. 
 
Why? You say, oh you're just stirring up a controversy. Oh brother, why don't you leave it alone, let sleeping dogs lie, you know. People say, what do you mean going around getting all these people to find out about this thing. See? No, because that's just cold war. That's just truce, not peace. Peace says you bring righteousness to bear. You resolve it righteously and then there's real peace.
 
We are to be peacemakers. It's not easy. But it is commanded by the word of God. 
 
In a family, husband and wife, it talks about the fact that in 1 Peter 3:7, a husband and wife are to live together according to knowledge. We ought to understand each other that our prayers be not hindered. Listen, if you're having trouble in your worship, maybe you better go home and get straightened out with your wife. 
 
Your prayers are going to be hindered. Why? Because unless there's real peace, not just truce, not just all right Ethel, we won't talk about that anymore, especially on the way to church. We're worshipping this morning.
 
 
That's not...that's cold war. That's no peace. You need to resolve it. 
 
Have you ever see a bridge built? Ever seen anybody build a bridge? They build a solid base on one side, solid base on the other side and then from one side to the other they throw some kind of a cord. They stretch some kind of a cable. That's how they start. And once they get the cable going one way, then they come back again the other way and back again the other way, and back again the other way and pretty soon, you know what, they get a bridge. They get a bridge, because when that cable gets heavy enough, they take out something like steel. And when they get enough of that steel out there, they can throw concrete on it. And pretty soon back and forth they've built a bridge.
 
But a lot of times, the problem in making peace is that nobody's willing to start from there and with that little cable, you see, just to get it going. Be a peacemaker. Now maybe it'll cost you a little. Maybe you have to take some suffering but that's what a peacemaker does. That's what Jesus did and He is our example. 
 
Well, the meaning of peace, righteousness. 
The menace to peace, sin.
 The maker of peace, God. 
The messengers of peace, believers. 
 
 
Finally, the merit of peace
 
If I'm a peacemaker, what does that mean? Well, what happens? Well, the merit, the promise of our Lord Jesus is beautiful. 
"For they shall be called the sons of God." 
 
I'll tell you folks, I couldn't think of a better thing to be called, could you? 
 
I’m proud to be a Tolbert. That's a good name. I'm happy to be my father's son. I'm happy about that, but nothing, and I mean nothing compares to being a son of God. 
 
That's the merit that belongs to the peacemakers. This emphasizes the honor of the peacemaker. 
 
By the way it says sons of God, not children. 
 
The word for “children” speaks of tender affection. That is not the word used here. The word here speaks of dignity and honor. He's not just talking about the affection that belongs to us. He's talking about the dignity and the honor of being a son of God. It's a great thought.
 
The word is used to designate character, to designate quality. Ours is the distinction of being sons of God. You know how you can tell a son of God according to this statement of Jesus?
 
 He'll be a Peacemaker. That's right. He'll be a peacemaker. The mark of a true Christian as were all the other Beatitudes beloved. And if you look at your life and you do not see a peacemaker then the one of two things is true as we've said all along, you are not a Christian at all. Or you're a peacemaker living in sin and you better examine yourself to see whether you're really in the faith or not.
 
 
 
If your life is characterized by discord and disruption and the longing of the deepest part of your heart is not to be a peacemaker, I question whether you're even a Christian. Peacemaker, and I love it. We are called sons of God. 
 
And so it is in our peacemaking that we become recognizable as the sons of God. 
 
How do you tell a Christian? Remember what we said a few weeks ago? You say to a person are you a Christian? Oh yeah. Well, how do you know you're a Christian? Oh I remember when I made a decision. I remember when I walked the aisle. I remember when I raised my hand. I remember when I signed the card, the counsel was there waiting in the prayer room. Well, how do you know you're a Christian? Oh, I'm poor in spirit. I mourn over my sin. I meek before a holy God. I hunger and thirst for His righteousness. I've seen His mercy touch my life and I desire to give it to others. I've experienced purity of heart. I know what it is to be a peacemaker. That's the right answer. You see. Those are the conditions Jesus gave for truly being a son of His kingdom.
 
And so our Lord says here, the peacemakers are my real children. Have you ever thought what it means to be a son of God. Have you ever thought how God looks at you? What a tremendous thought.
 
As a father, do you love your children more than anything you possess? I can tell you as a father, I love my sons more than I love my house. Does God love you more than His dwelling?
And I'll tell you something, God's got a pretty sharp house. Pretty fantastic, His house is the universe and He loves me more than He loves that. I love my child more than I love my estate. I don't have an estate, so that's easy.
 
God loves you more than He loves His estate. Jacob prized Benjamin more than everything He owned. 
 
Genesis 44:30 tells us that Jacob's life was all bound up in Benjamin. And so it is with God. His great love is all bound up with you and me. We're His sons. I love it when it says that we're the apple of His eye. Oh what a great statement that is. The apple of His eye. 
 
We think of some shiny little apple. No. You know what the Hebrew meant by the apple of the eye? The pupil, right here. Have you eve noticed that that is the most vulnerable part of your physical body that is exposed? That's right. It is the most sensitive part of the human body. And you protect it. When anything comes toward your eye, boy you protect it. Nobody touches the pupil of your eye and that's exactly how God feels.
 
You touch one of God's children and you've poked your finger in His eye and that irritates Him. We're the apple of His eye. He says In Malachi 3:7 that we're His jewels and we're going to be a part of that crown that He makes when He takes His jewels and makes them His own. 
 
Do you know that it says in Psalm 56:8, that "He keeps our tears in His bottle." Isn't that fabulous? We're His children. He makes an eternal name for us. 
He stores up our tears in a bottle of remembrance. That was an old Hebrew custom. When you cried for something, you stored the tears in the bottle so people would know how much you sorrowed. God keeps our tears in His bottle so He'll know the sorrow we've been through.
 
And when we die, it's the most wonderful thing of all, Psalm 116 says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." You see, we really matter to God. We're His sons. He makes us sons. He makes us princes, kings, priests, fellow heirs. He calls us in Psalm 16:3, "the excellent of the earth." In 2 Timothy 2:21, "vessels of honor." 
 
Just tremendous and I love it in Revelation where it says we get to sit with Him on His throne. Like little children jumping up on the lap of a father. Have you ever considered what it means to be son of God? 
 
God has a personal eternal love for you. God bears with your weakness and your sin. God accepts your imperfect service. God provides for your every need. God shields you from every danger. God reveals to you His eternal truth. God forgives you and keeps on forgiving you every sin. God makes you an heir to everything that He possesses. God works everything for your good. And God keeps you from perishing forever. And God gives you heaven.
 
I don't know, but if being a son of God is that wonderful, I think I want to be that. And Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God." Let's pray.