He Is Our Peace (Part 1)

0:33 Let me turn you back to... a part of Scripture that we've been looking at for a number of decades now. I'm going to read to you from Ephesians. Before the holidays and before we did a brief series on the hard sayings of Jesus, we've been looking at Ephesians. We were looking at Ephesians 2. And what I'd like to take you to tonight is back into Ephesians 2. and I'm going to read Ephesians 2 verses 11. I think I'll read verses 11 through 16 Ephesians 2, 11 to 16.

1:31 Therefore, remember that formerly, you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, that done in the body by the hands of men, remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise. without hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ, Jesus, you who were once far away, have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 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 flesh 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 has put to death their hostility.

2:43 Let's close right there. He is our peace. In order to get back into the passage, into the book of Ephesians, I've got to remind you, maybe I should probably tell it to you for the first time. I guess I can't remind you if I never told you, that Ephesians chapter 1 ends with this mighty prayer by God, by Paul to God, and in that prayer, Paul ends praying that the readers will come to understand the greatness of God's power. You can see it up in verse 19. It says in verse 19 of chapter 1, I pray that his incomparably great power for us who believe. And so that's what Paul wants. Paul says the problem with one of your great problems is that you don't understand the exceedingly great power of God. Then chapter 2 actually is just Paul's way of showing us evidences of that power.

3:50 In verses 1 to 10, Paul says, the first evidence that I can show you of God's incredible power is how God comes into your heart when you believe in Christ and completely changes you, moves you from death to life. And we looked at that in great detail about how God remakes us from the ground up. The Spirit of God comes in and just changes us. But from verse 11 to verse 20, the second half of chapter 2, Paul shows us another great evidence of the power of God. And this one is going to be harder for you to grasp than the first one, and I'll tell you why. And I say you, I don't mean every one of you individually, but you in general. Americans, New Yorkers. You see, the first great evidence was that when God comes into your life, He can turn all the deadness into life.

4:49 And oh, we want that. People get very excited, not about doctrine, oh no. Modern people are very aware of their needs, extremely conscious of their own individual needs. And as a result, modern people are not that concerned with duty. They're not that concerned with fulfilling duties and obligations. What they're really concerned with is meeting of their emotional needs. We live in this culture, and therefore all of us to some degree partake in it, extremely concerned about those things. And whenever we hear God's power is manifested, it can come into your life and renovate you and turn you around and turn you into a whole person, we all go, I want to hear about that. The second great evidence of God's power is the church. verse 11 to 20 is all about how God creates in the church a new humanity.

5:50 Another way to put it is the second great evidence of God's power is, the first great evidence is that God can take broken people and put them together, broken individual persons. The second great object of evidence of God's power is that he can take people who would never otherwise be able to live together and make them one in Christ. And that's what verse 11 all the way to 20 is about. And let me just tell you why I think you'll have more trouble appreciating this. And that is that all the surveys and all the polls show that whereas people are more interested than ever in Christ, they're less interested than ever in the church. People like the idea of religion. People are very spiritual, but they're down on the institution. They're very interested in how they individually can grow, but they're very down on becoming a committed part of a whole. They're very nervous about being in a family, being in a church, being in anything bigger than their own individual needs. They're afraid of commitment. And if you're afraid of commitment, you're afraid of the church. You're mistrustful of the church. You're afraid it's going to hurt you. You've been let down by the church. And look, I'm not denying any of that. I'm not mocking those. When I say that, I'm not making fun of those sentiments at all.

7:02 but you see that that means that you're not going to be as open. You're going to have a tendency to read through and go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the church, the new humanity, yeah, the new temple, yeah. God makes peace, brings people together, everybody lives together, yeah, great, the church, fine. But I want to hear more about how God can help me and change me. No, no, no. What we have to look at, what I want you to see, and I don't know if I can do this, I don't know if I can pull it off. There's a lot of prejudices that we're going to have to work through. What I wanted to show you the next couple of weeks, I want to give you a picture of the church, what the church ought to be, not just what the church is, what the church ought to be, what the church can be. And I want to give you a picture that's so vivid it'll just burn a hole in your thinking and ignite something in your heart that says, yes, I want that every much as I want Jesus in my life. I want to be part of a new community. I want to be part. I want to be part of the church. I want to yearn to bring it about. When you read what the Bible says the church is supposed to be like, I hope it burns a hole in your heart. I hope it ignites something.

8:12 I hope it ignites a yearning. That's what I'm here to do, not just to help individuals find Christ. That's not the only reason I came to New York. It's to try to build what the Bible says the church can be something utterly magnificent. And it's not a matter of we'll try for a couple of years and then we'll see and, well, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. We just keep at it and we keep at it. We have to keep at it. There is no alternative. I think I told you once I read a true story of a woman who had lived in abject poverty in a small town out west for years, and she lived on a shoestring and she had learned to live with virtually nothing. someone came to her and sat down and showed her and convinced her that she had inherited $10 million. It was in a fund in her name. She believed it. She was pretty old at that point. She believed it, and she never did a thing about it. She lived another eight years and never did a thing about it.

9:06 And the article was trying to say she never took it and gave it to anybody. You see, if she had just said, well, I'm very happy living the way I am, then she should have at least given it away, right? There's all kinds of people. There's all kinds of causes. There are all kinds of wonderful things. If she didn't want to use any of it on her own lifestyle, she should have at least given it to somebody or some of it to somebody. Or she also, she lived in terrible conditions. They were not safe. They were not healthy. And she should have at least used it on herself so that she was being a good steward of her own health and so on. She didn't. And the only conclusion that the author of the article could draw was that here was a woman who believed intellectually that she was rich, but she had lived for so long on nickels and diamonds she had no concept, no concept of that amount of money. She couldn't grasp it.

10:01 And so she said, yep, yep, I know, yeah, $10 million, it's there. And she used to always say, what would I do with it? or what would I do with it? Which really sounds very humble, but the point is she didn't get it. If she didn't want to spend it on herself, there's other things to be spent on. She couldn't even grasp it. And she lived in rags, and everybody around her lived in rags, because what would I do with it? I submit to you that we're doing the same thing. Are you a Christian? If you're a Christian, you see what the Bible says should be true of the church. It's not enough just to gripe about how bad the church is. It's not enough just to say, but it's never like that. You know, we're in danger of reading these wonderful statements. He is our peace, who makes the two one, one new man, it says here, which means a new humanity, a new community. and we sort of say, uh-huh, uh-huh, and we live in rags. We have no idea.

10:55 We're not drawing on it. We're not seeking it. We're not trying to use it. We're not trying to bring it about. We're not. I'm sorry. The church is more than just a place where you can really get into a great song. the church is a place, as we're going to see, where God completely doesn't just recreate you individually, but recreates society. Recreates society. People have got to be able to get along here that never get along anywhere else. People have got to be able to build each other up and use our gifts in each other's lives. There's nothing we want more than the church when you see it described. Nothing. And yet we are so doggone non-committed, so afraid of actually giving ourselves to a group of people, which is the only way you're even going to get started in creating and building and bringing about the church that God wants it to be. We're so afraid of making those kinds of commitments. We're so afraid of getting burned. We're so afraid of giving ourselves in that way that we've got all that money in the bank and we're still living in nickels, and dimes. What would I do with it? Well, I don't know. What would you do with it?

12:02 You better look at Ephesians 2, verses 11 to 20. Read it. Read it this week. Read what it says about the church. It's a bank account, and it's in your name. What have you been doing about it? Well, we're only getting started. Let's get started. Paul very humbly lays down a foundation principle and says, and I'll just summarize it here and then we'll unpack it. He says, if you understand the cross, any two people should be able to get along. and if you're not getting along two people who say they believe you're not thinking about the cross you don't understand it you're not taking it in see look he says verse 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 flesh the law with its commandments and regulations his purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two making peace, and in his one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death the hostility. Now, let me show you a very interesting case study and the principles that we're supposed to draw out of it.

13:24 We have to be very careful for a moment because Paul is talking here about Jew and Gentile. Why? Because Paul was a Jewish Christian, and he was ministering to Gentiles. And as a result, this is the case study that's closest to his heart. And not only that, Paul shows forth in this place, he's willing, because he's Jewish, he's willing to show forth the sins of his own people and of himself, a sin that he engaged in. Not because he's trying to beat up on Jewish Christians and trying to beat up on the Jews, but rather as an illustration. We have to very quickly move from the illustration to the principles because the illustration is just here to show us the basic principle. Let me show you how the illustration goes. It's extremely interesting. First, notice it talks about the circumcision and the uncircumcision, the Jew and the Gentile, and it says that there is a dividing wall of partition between them, and that dividing wall of partition, what does it say it is?

14:26 Extremely interesting and a little puzzling at first. It's the law with its commandments and its regulations. Now, how in the world could the law with its commandments and regulations have become a barrier of partition, dividing and creating hostility between Jew and Gentile? Well, it gives us so many insights. First of all, when it talks about the law, If he just said the law, he might have meant the Ten Commandments alone, because the essence of the Old Testament law is the moral law of the Ten Commandments. But by adding the law with its commandments and regulations, he's referring to the whole thing. He's referring to the dietary laws. He's referring to the dress codes. He's referring to all of the burnt offerings and the rituals. He's referring to the need for washing before going in to worship. He's referring to all of the laws about the tithes of the poor, and the jubilee year, once every 50 years, all debts were canceled and all the land went back to the original owners 50 years ago, and so forth. All these amazing rules and regulations. Why were they given to the Jewish people? Why were they originally given? They were given to the Jewish people so the Jewish people could be a light on a hill. If you read the regulations, you will see that God intended the Jewish nation to be a mini version of a renewed society. They were there to show the world what God can do if you give yourself to him. The Jews, their laws, for example, demanded integrity. They demanded purity. They demanded compassion. If you read the Old Testament laws, they are astonishingly compassionate toward the poor. You know, every seven years, all debts were canceled. Every 50 years, if your family owned land, and over the years, because of drought or because of poor farming or because of mismanagement, you lost parts of your land. You had to sell it off and so on. Every 50 years, all the land went back to its original

16:35 owners just to level everything so that you didn't have people getting too rich and too poor. You had all the laws that talked about holiness. Therefore, you had to wash and you had to dress in a certain way to come before God. You had all these rules and regulations, and the purpose of them was to make the Jews a people of integrity and of compassion and of purity and of holiness so all the world would see and be attracted to God. Yeah. That's the reason why so many of the Psalms, when the people of Israel are called to come to the temple or called to come to the tabernacle for worship, they're called, come all ye peoples, not people, but peoples, all ye nations. That's what the Jews were supposed to do. But Paul points out here and elsewhere that what naturally happened was a sense of superiority and a sense of distance. And what Paul is showing us, Here's why we have to move on very quickly from the Jew-Gentile thing to look at the principle.

17:36 The principle is that there's something in the human heart so that the more gifts you have, the more abilities you have, the more assets you have, the more enmity there ends up being. All your gifts always lead to enmity. Example. It happens constantly.

17:56 I remember in my school district back in Pennsylvania, one of the great debates when I was growing up is what did you do with gifted children? What did you do with the really smart kids? The real problem was that they started, they used to take all the smart kids and put them in a class, the gifted class, so that they could accelerate them and give them, you know, so they wouldn't be bored and all that. But what always happened was when all the gifted kids were put together in, you know, there was a gifted third grade class or a gifted fifth grade class and all the other, they were there with all the other classes. What happened? What do you think happened? The gifted kids knew that they were the gifted kids, and they began to despise and look down their nose at the other kids. And not only that, the other kids could feel that, and as a kind of self-defense, they'd scorned and despised. And what ends up happening is the giftedness became enmity. It always does. Why do you think men and women scorn each other? Because you've got certain gifts, and you look down your nose at the other ones because they don't have it. I mean, it's easy to see. I hear it. The latest one, it's the one I just was exposed to the last couple weeks, how easy it is for the women to get together and make fun of the fact that men have a lot of trouble expressing weakness. Okay, let's laugh at that. And you do, because it's actually a gift.

19:10 It's a gender gift you've got. It's something that's a strength. It's something that you bring. All right, that's one of the reasons why in marriage we complement each other. But how easy it is for you to begin to despise the people that don't have your gift. Artistically creative people, how quick you are to look at the Philistines around who don't appreciate.

19:32 And don't you think that the differences between the races come down like that? Some races are very emotionally expressive, some are very analytical, and next thing you know, you're despising each other for it. The gender wars, the class wars, the generation wars, what happens is gifts are turned into hostility always you start to look down your nose at him why the bible explains it's pride there is something in the human heart that the more gifted you are and the more assets you have those things become barriers middle walls of partition you know paul pointed out that when the jews built the temple and this was not something commanded by God. When the Jews built the temple, you know where the middle partition was? The Jews were on the inner court. The Jews put themselves closer to God, and the Gentiles, if they wanted to worship, were on the outer court. Well, the Gentiles didn't have the law. The Gentiles didn't have the purity. What ended up happening was a gift becomes enmity and hostility. And this is the way it always is, and this is the way it always will be. Listen, there is nothing, we have no bigger problem in the world than the lack of peace. People cannot get along. You know, when the Iron Curtain came down and the Berlin Wall came down, that middle wall of partition, everybody just rejoiced prematurely. We started to say, hey, finally we're getting together. And as soon as that one wall came down, we began to see all the other little walls that were there that the big wall was hiding. Oh, it's not as dangerous when the Serbs and the Croats kill each other as when the Americans and the Russians try to kill each other because the Serbs and the Croats don't have bombs.

21:13 They don't have the big bombs. But the fact of the matter is, we aren't anywhere near being able to overcome the problems. The problem that we don't have peace. Do you know, litigation, the fact that we're suing each other like crazy, is ruining our society. Divorce, the fact that we're suing each other, is destroying ourselves. There is ethnic hostility as well as gender hostility. We're destroying ourselves. Why? Why can't we overcome it? Think of the billions of dollars that we're spending on diplomacy. What is that? Police, what is that? Social work, what is that? Arbitrators, mediators, what is that? Billions of dollars just to keep us from strangling each other. Why? And the Bible gives you the analysis. There's a pride that inevitably will make you look down your nose at people that don't have your assets, your perception.

23:22 You can go down the list. Paul says in Philippians 3, see, Paul's very willing to confess his sins. He said, I was a Pharisee. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, and so on. And what he's saying is that one of the reasons why he could not get along with other kinds of people was he had gifts. And those gifts turned into, because of his sinful pride, they turned into dividing walls. For example, birth. He said he was proud of his birth. Proud of his birth. What does that mean? He looked down his nose at people that weren't born of his race. You know, Kipling, there's this terrible line in Rudyard Kipling where he says, lesser breeds that have not the law. Lesser breeds. Talking about non-English people. Terrible thing. But that's not all. Jeremiah says, let not the rich man glory in his riches. let not the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. What does it mean to glory? You ought to know this by now. The word glory means weight. In other words, when you glory in something, you're saying, that's what makes me count. That's what makes me matter. That's what makes me have worth. That's why I'm not chaff. That's why I'm a cut above other people. The natural ability, the natural tendency of the human heart is to rejoice in those things that make us better than other people, and as a result, the peace is gone.

24:46 The more self-worth you've got, apart from Christ, the harder it is for you to get along with people, certain people, people that aren't as artistic as you, people who aren't as wise as you. Here's another example. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. There is nothing more appalling than seeing in the academic world the pride people have in their particular school of thought. It's astonishing. Scholars do not argue with each other using reason. They despise each other, and they mock each other, and they refuse to let people of that particular school of thought on my faculty, and they ridicule each other. They won't let this particular school of thought have any publications in this particular journal. 30 years ago, that school of thought was in ascendancy. Now everybody laughs at it. There's a terrible pride in my point of view. An example, just to show you how dangerous this is, and Christians have got to fight it all the time, and they don't. They don't. This is one of the problems we've got. The other day, somebody gave me an interesting sermon, a sermon. And in that sermon, the sermon was by a minister, and the point of the sermon was that Christians should see that homosexuality is not always sinful.

26:05 It can be fine. Okay, I sat down to read the sermon, figuring I'd like to hear a good argument. I really want to hear it. So I sat down, and here's how the argument went. People who really take the Bible with complete seriousness are not intelligent. That was the point. You have to remember, says the sermon, that the Bible was written by authors who were pre-scientific, and they had all kinds of strange ideas, and some things in the Bible are fine, but most intelligent people will not take the Bible as completely true. Now, listen, and I said to Kathy, I said, you know, at our church, I'm always saying how great it is that the Bible is totally true. And I turn to people who don't believe that. I assume that there's always people in the audience who don't believe that. But do I, I asked her this, do I ever say, here's why you need to believe the Bible is true, because if you don't believe it, you're stupid. No intelligent person without the complete authority of the Bible? Do I do that? I might. Christians do.

27:05 Because you see, to know the Bible and to have the Bible is a great gift. It's a wonderful gift. But as soon as I say, and therefore, those of you who don't believe in the authority of the Bible like I do, you're not intelligent. You're fools. Do I do that? Maybe I do. We have to fight it. Plenty of churches do it. We glory in our wisdom. We've got a wonderful gift, and so we despise those who don't have it. This is the problem. You know, I know that what I'm saying seems very simple. And in fact, I know what I'm saying is even got, it's sort of common sense. Yes, that's right. That's why we have all the fighting. We despise one another through pride, pride in the things that we're glorying in. And yet, you know what's so tragic? It's so simple when you see it, and that we can do nothing about it. We are trying, and we're trying. Even if we get rid of nuclear weapons, that doesn't really help. I mean, that's a help, of course. I don't want to say that there's no, that that isn't a wonderful help, but I mean, it's not changing the problem. We are no closer to peace than we've ever been. Peace in the family, peace in the cities, peace between the classes, peace between the races, we're no closer than ever. There is no change. It's no better. Why not? Because the Bible says the only way to get peace is through the cross. There are other ways of superficially getting peace. Basically, they're enlightened self-interest. People will never, ever, ever, as a body, politically say, we're the majority, you're the minority.

28:47 we really and you're in trouble and for us to for you to really come up we're going to have to kind of sacrifice for you i guess we'll vote for a candidate who tells us to do that that will never do that never we'll only say if we can help you without hurting us we will be happy to do it people, sometimes through enlightened self-interest, there's ways to live at peace. When somebody shows you that you can be nice to this person without any cost to you,

29:20 that's the reason why, for example, as John Gerstner used to say, that's the reason why there's this wonderful advertising campaign years ago that was very effective. The life, drive safely, the life you save may be your own. John Gerson was an old Presbyterian minister who said, interesting, why in the world didn't they say drive safely, the life you save may be somebody else's well that's not as powerful It's not as powerful to say, the life you save, maybe somebody else is so... No, as soon as you say, you better drive safely, you better be good, you see everybody because it'll pay off for you. And then, oh, there, that's the answer. Now we got it. there is no way to real peace unless we can break the selfishness and pride, the glorying in our gifts. And the only way to do that is the cross. How? See, Paul says it. He doesn't just say it there. And all we're going to do for a minute here is look at this and say, if you can't get along with another person who's a Christian, it's because you're forgetting the cross. Paul says, for example, over in Galatians 6, great spot where it says, yeah, may I never boast, God forbid, in fact, it's on the same page in the Bible. Galatians comes before Ephesians, it's at the very end of Galatians. So in my Bible, without having to turn the page, you can see it from the same spot in Ephesians. Paul says in verse 14, God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

30:51 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation. Now look, if you boast in the cross, God forbid that I should boast except in the cross, and when that happens, Jew and Gentile live together. Do you see that? The cross gets rid of boasting. And here's how the cross brings peace. Two things. The first thing the cross does Is it shows you you're a sinner The first thing the cross does Is it shows you you're a sinner Let me put it another way this is the heart of darkness, this statement I'm about to make. This is the language that creates strife. This is the attitude that is causing war and countless murders and deaths every day.

31:45 It's not my fault. it's not my fault. I'm for peace. I don't want this quarrel. She, he's the fault. I don't really want this. It's not my fault. As long as you say that, there's no problem with me. I'm not the problem. I'm not the problem. The trouble is there. I'm fine. We're fine. We don't want to have a fight with them, but why are they doing this and this and this? It's not my fault. As soon as you say that, there's no peace. Two of my kids, just on the way out the door to come to the 4 o'clock service, two of my kids had a fight, a real good fight. I was just reading this. One of them teased the other one, the other one retaliated, punched.

32:37 So I sat him down, and I said, I would just like you to tell me what you did wrong. I never got it. I never got it. I never got it. You know, if I wasn't the father, if these really weren't my sons, if it hadn't happened, so I'd be laughing if it hadn't been so recent. But I looked at them, you know, and I said, I said, just tell me what your fault is. There is no way there's going to be any peace unless you're willing to see that you are to blame. And each of them said, who? You. which one? That's what they said, but which one do you mean? What the cross does to you,

33:29 in a way, the cross is the most insulting part of the most insulting religion on the face of the earth. Jesus Christ died on the cross so that you could be saved. You know what that means? Every other religion says moral effort's enough. If you really pull yourself together, if you really try hard, if you really bring it together, you can do it.

33:56 The Christianity says, no, you can't. It'll never work. You're so bad, you failed so much as a man and as a husband and as a father and as a citizen. Obviously, I'm thinking of this pretty personally. You failed so much that only the death of the Son of God will save you. See, no other religion would dare to say such a thing. No other religion does. No other religion says, you know, you're so bad off, only God's actual death on the cross could save you. You're a sinner. That's why G.K. Chesterton, you know, some years ago, G.K. Chesterton, the great English writer, was asked, he was a Christian, and he was asked by the London Times to take part in a series. There was a series of great literary figures, and the question was going to be, what is the main problem in the world today? And all of them were supposed to write one. J.K. Chesterton refused to write a column. He says, I would just like you to publish my letter. And he said, dear editor, the problem with the universe is me. Signed J.K. Chesterton. That's all I would say. A radically biblical answer.

35:10 the only way to peace, and nobody but a Christian who understands the cross would dare say such a thing. Everybody else would say that person is obviously guilty of low self-esteem. They don't understand the cross. What G.K. Chesterton is saying is absolutely right. I want you to know what the problem of the world is. The problem of the world is me, me. The real problem is that everybody's like me, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm the only one that I've got any control over. I'm selfish I'm self-centered I want things to revolve around me to a certain degree out of enlightened self-interest I control my selfishness so at least I can get along and I expect other people to as well there's things like taxes there's things like laws and police around to control thank goodness the selfishness but the problem with the world is me the problem is that I don't love my Lord God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind I don't love my labor as myself I don't obey the golden rule I don't live up to my own standards that I have for myself or other people. And as a result, I'm a sinner. The cross tells you that. Anybody who understands the cross, you look at your gifts, you say, here's my professional achievement. Here's my intelligence. Here's all these great things. What are they? Are they going to save me? No. They mean nothing. God forbid that I should boast save in the cross of Christ. Paul says, you can't be a Christian unless you stop boasting in anything. If I say to you, you're a wicked sinner, and the only hope you have is to rest in Christ who died for you, does that offend anybody here? See, the cross will reveal who you are.

36:55 there's no greater test either you will boast in the cross or you will be offended by the cross there's no in between not when you understand what it means Jesus Christ says, Paul says, until you understand that you're so wicked that only the Son of God could save you through his death. That's how bad you are. And you're not a Christian. But once you understand that, once you agree to that, you immediately realize, I'm a sinner. I lose my glorying. I don't glory in my riches. I don't glory in my wisdom anymore. I can't. I can't look at other scholars. I can't look at other people of lower classes. I can't look at people of other races and look at them as if somehow I'm superior in any way. The only thing that I enjoy today that is better than hell is by the mercy of God. Do you believe that? That's the fact. That's the gospel fact. Are you offended by that? Well, you don't have to accept it, but there will never be peace in the world until it's accepted. That's what Paul says. It levels people. So the first thing that the cross does is it shows you it is your fault. It's not my fault.

38:06 It's not my problem. I'm for peace. She's at fault. He's at fault. That is the heart of darkness. That attitude is necessary for strife. And until something rips it out of you, there'll be strife. Then the second thing that the cross does is it shows you that everybody, what everybody else is. See, first of all, it shows you that you're a sinner. The second thing is it shows you that everybody else, male or female, black or white, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, that Jesus Christ has died so that every tongue, tribe, people and nation can come into his church. So the point is, the second thing you see, the second thing that the cross shows you is his love for people who are not like you at all, and how he really doesn't see much of a difference between you and them anyway.

39:05 The cross levels. The cross brings you down. And here's the thing. The cross shows you, thirdly, that you're loved. There's a very profound bit of psychology in 1 John 4. 1 John 4, 17, says, whoever lives in God lives in love. In this love, and this love is made complete, for we have confidence in the day of judgment. Like profound psychology? Whoever lives in God lives in love, and this love is made complete because we have confidence in the day of judgment. Do you know what he's saying? He says, our love for each other is made complete because we know that we're accepted. We know that our conscience is clear. On judgment day, we're going to be able to look the justice of God right in the face because Jesus has died for us. He is saying your love cannot be complete unless you know that you're accepted, unless you know that on judgment day, you will not have any problem. You'll be able to walk right into God's arms. Another way to put it is you can't love completely unless you know you're completely love. That's what it says. There's a freedom that comes from knowing that.

40:14 When somebody criticizes you, do you get defensive or do you say, I'm loved. I'm accepted. I don't have to defend myself here because the verdict of the one who counts has already been laid on me. I'm not guilty. I'm accepted in the beloved. Do you think like that? That's what 1 John 4, 17 means. If you can't get along with another Christian, it's because, A, in some way you're feeling superior. The only way you can stay bitter at somebody is if you feel superior, as if you feel that you've done the same, that you aren't really capable of doing the same thing. You try that out. You can be mad at somebody who you know does just what you do and you know is no better than you and you're no better than they are, But you don't stay bitter at them. You don't cut them off in the same way. You're forgetting the cross if you're bitter.

41:10 You're forgetting the cross if you look at somebody else who comes from a different race or a different background, doesn't smell like you do, doesn't express emotions like you do, doesn't like the same music as you do. And if you find yourself looking down, you're forgetting what makes you what you are. It's the cross. God forbid that you should boast. saving the cross of Christ. That's why Paul's able to say, if I'm not boasting in anything but the cross, then there's no difference between circumcision and uncircumcision. If you're having trouble getting along with people, if you're having trouble despising people, it's because you're not glorying in the cross. You're boasting in something else. You're boasting in something. Do you understand it? Do you believe it? Do you see it? C.S. Lewis said, look at the person next to you and just realize that a trillion years from now, the person next to you, when the mountains are now, you know, they've been worn down to dust and the sun has burned out, and everything in this earth has been completely, you know, turned to chaff, a trillion years from now, the person sitting next to you, whether you know that person or not will still be alive. Every person in this room, human beings, your souls live forever.

42:31 Your bodies and your souls, actually, you're going to live forever, either in heaven or hell. That's what the Bible says. What does that mean? It means, as C.S. Lewis says, next to Jesus himself, the holiest thing, the most immortal thing that you will ever find presented to your senses is your neighbor. You need to realize what a tremendous trust it is to have a relationship. Instead of despising one another, instead of writing one another off, instead of saying, well, I don't need him, I don't need her in my life anymore. The Bible says, if you remember the cross, that you're a sinner and that person is loved, deeply loved. And you're deeply loved, so that you don't have to be afraid of being rejected by that person or the ins and outs. If you remember the cross, then you will become a new humanity, and people who never ever could get along otherwise will get along together here. Where? In the church, not the building.

43:31 In the community. We might as well save our breath if we try to tell other people about Jesus, and we can't show them this. Paul says this is an evidence of his power, and you can just, we can get up on a street corner and blab away and talk about how you better believe the Bible because God's coming back. And if we can't show the world this, then we really can save our breath. Why don't we have it? Don't you want it? Don't you yearn for it? Then glory in the cross. God forbid that you should boast in anything else. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you'd help us to find out. Well, Lord, there's a sense in which this is such a very, very basic teaching. It's so obvious. There's pride that makes us despise one another. There's the cross that breaks our pride and shows how much you love us and all the other people you've died for. And therefore, if we think of the cross, if we remember the cross, if we glory in the cross and in nothing else, we're going to have friendships and relationships of such depth and such power and such inexplicable nature because the world won't be able to explain them. What a place that will be. Lord, we don't see that much, but we thank you that it's available, and we even thank you that it's inevitable. So we ask that you would simply give us the ability to repent tonight. We all have places that we can apply this. We all have ways in which we've got to give ourselves to you.

45:10 We all have relationships we need to patch up. We all have people that we need to speak to. Would you just show us with your Holy Spirit where we should go, where we need to stop scorning, how we need to start to humble ourselves, help us to glory in your cross, and love completely because we're completely loved. We pray this in Jesus' name.