Amen. If you would please take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Colossians chapter 1 as we continue and conclude our sermon series on this great passage in Colossians. Colossians chapter 1 beginning in verse 15 and this morning as we conclude I will read through and preach through verse 23. Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 23. Hear the word of the Lord. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things. And in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister." Let us pray. Our God and our Father, we give you thanks for your word and for your gospel. And I pray, Father, that your gospel would be faithfully proclaimed this morning through the teaching of this text. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Well, now this morning we come, as I said, to the conclusion of our sermon series. I, for one, have thoroughly enjoyed studying and hearing last week from Dirk about this passage. One of my favorites in all of Scripture And as I've said several times, this is most likely an ancient hymn of the church, as Christians began to circulate documents and hymns, if you will, that really embodied the core beliefs of the Christian church. As early as mid-first century, you see fragments like this probably circulating. And no doubt it embodies so much of what we as Christians believe. And regarding the very nature of Christ, there are very few, if any, passages in scripture that I know of that more powerfully and profoundly articulate the nature of Christ as being fully God and fully man. And we come this morning, as I said, to the conclusion, what I think is, to some degree, the apex, if you will, of this series. And this morning, what I want to focus on is, if you look in chapter 1, verse 20, it says very clearly, Paul says to the Colossians, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Making peace. I want to look this morning to Christ as the peacemaker. The peacemaker. And I think this is really important that we understand the truth about Christ's work on the cross, in the grave, and his work in conquering the grave. His work in his incarnation, in his life, in his trials, in his death, in all that he did, his life work, if you will. What did it do to bring about peace and what does that really mean? But to begin with this morning, I want to share with you, I want you to imagine with me a story of a fictitious kingdom. This is a fictitious kingdom, fictitious ancient kingdom, probably much like Camelot that I want to share with you this morning. We'll call the kingdom Zion. called the Kingdom of Zion. Now, the Kingdom of Zion was a glorious kingdom. It was built, if you will, from the ground up by a dynasty, by a family, by a king, a man that was noble, loved God, and loved his people. The king himself loved each of his subjects, and he especially loved his only son, the young crown prince, who was positioned to inherit the throne. and the kingdom when he came of age. Now, Zion was known throughout the world for its rich land, its soil, its beautiful landscapes, its natural resources, and more than anything, though, its benevolent, just, and loving king. It would be safe to say as well that Zion was the envy of all the other kingdoms of the world, its reputation and renown spreading to the corners of the earth. But then one fateful day, a wicked and corrupt ruler, who once had been a subject of the king, who was living now in a distant land, decided to invade Zion after amassing an army that greatly outnumbered the population of the glorious kingdom of Zion. Immediately after learning of the attack, the king of Zion realized he had no choice but to go to battle to defeat the invading army and the wicked ruler. The night before the first battle, the king and his son developed a strategy and a plan. A strategy and a plan to defeat the enemy, waiting on the first light of the morning so they could assemble their army and lead them to victory. Yet when the sun began to rise the next day, the king realized that something dreadful and devastating had just occurred. As the king and his son summoned their generals and officers, there was no one to be found. As the morning grew brighter and brighter, the horrible truth and reality of their situation began to emerge. The army of Zion was not dead. Actually, it was much worse than that. They had all defected and gone to the other side. In fact, to make matters even more disastrous, the entire population of the kingdom had left and surrendered themselves to the enemy for fear of imminent defeat. The only remaining inhabitants in Zion were the king and his son. But it got even worse from here. For the leader of the forces threatening Zion was himself once the most decorated and celebrated general in all of Zion. Consequently, the leader of the invasion knew where the choices of food and land was in the kingdom, using the resources of Zion to support his forces and the people, as he worked to surround the great palace on the hill where the king and his son resided. As the forces drew closer and closer to the imperial palace, they took all they could from the land and then scorched it when they were done, simply because they could. Within several days of the invasion of Zion, the land laid waste and the imperial palace was completely surrounded. But then it gets worse for the king can see that now as the land laid waste, his people are dying and starving. And those who survive are blaming their deaths, not on the wicked ruler, but on the king himself. What would the king do? His problems are so great. It would be impossible just to isolate them. Sure, he could defeat the general, possibly. But then what about his subjects that he loved? He could defeat everybody, but then he has no kingdom. And he loves his people, many of whom are his family. What does he do? Not only that, the land has now been devastated. To say that this is a complex situation would be an understatement. But I tell you this, brothers and sisters, the situation with sin is like this, but oh so much worse. You see, in man's fall in rebellion against God our King and Creator, the impacts of the fall of Adam extended to all of creation. It extended not just to the heart of man. It extended not just to the heart of man, but to all of creation, to the physical creation. We know that prior to the fall of man, we saw a fall in the heavenly realms, an angelic fall, a third, if you will, of the angels fell. So not only is there a problem in the things we can see, but in the things we can't see. When you look at what Paul writes here in Colossians chapter 1, talking about what he created, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, and guess what? It has all been tainted by sin. And so, there is a problem of cosmic proportions. There has been high treason, if you will, at the highest levels of heaven. And God and God alone can solve the problem. But what shall he do? This is the problem. Sin has created such a complexity of problems that no human could solve this. And so we look to the only one who can solve the problems, Christ alone. Christ, as Paul describes Him, Christ the Peacemaker. Christ the Peacemaker. And this morning, I want us to look at five points of the work of Christ as Peacemaker. Number one, or before we begin there, I want you to understand something. There was a divine necessity in all of this. You know, wisdom tells us, worldly wisdom tells us not to put all of our eggs in one basket. Don't trust, especially when you're dealing in the financial markets. Don't put all of your money in stocks and bonds, mutual funds. Probably safest, if you're going to put all your money in one place, is probably under your mattress. But you don't want to put all of your eggs in one basket. So conventional wisdom tells us to kind of keep things, well, keep your options open and keep your portfolio diversified, right? And sadly, so many of us take this approach spiritually. You know, I have a friend whose wife is Roman Catholic. His children have been baptized in the Catholic Church and the Baptist Church. Make sure we cover all of our bases just in case either one is correct. This is what we do, is it not? In so many ways. But I'm here to tell you, I'm here to call you. I'm here to proclaim to you that Christ is our only hope. That we are to put our whole hope in Him. If Christ fails, brothers and sisters, we are without hope. If Christ fails, or Christ has failed, we are to be the most pitied of all human beings on the planet. Period. Christ is everything to us. If He fails, we fail. We are aligning ourselves completely with Him, surrendering ourselves solely to Him. He is our only hope. And we look outside of Him for nothing. The world does not understand this. In fact, it's foolishness to those who are perishing. The Bible tells us. But that's what we are to do. And so there is a divine necessity that Christ must do certain things or else we're without hope. And that's what I want us to see this morning. Five things. Number one, Christ must defeat the enemy. Christ alone had to defeat the enemy. Number two, Christ had to wage war. There had to be a battle. No amount of diplomacy, education, or negotiations would fix the problem that we got ourselves into. Number three, Christ had to become man. In order to wage that battle, number four, he had to shed his blood, and number five, he had to be victorious. One of my favorite hymns ever written, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, Martin Luther says, and he must win the battle, period. If he doesn't win the battle, we've lost. We're hopeless. We are to be pitied indeed. And so we come to the first point here, that Christ had to defeat the enemy. But there's a problem. There's a real problem. Before, if you ever go to battle, you must understand your enemy. You must define your enemy. You must know your enemy. But I ask you today, who is the enemy? This is the problem with sin. Sin blurs things to the point you don't know. It's like fighting a battle where you can't see the enemy. Sin makes things so complex, so confusing. Who, or dare I say, what is the enemy? I mean, we could say the enemy is Satan, the ancient serpents in the garden whose head needs to be crushed, and you would be right. You could say the enemy is the grave, the impersonal grave. Remember, it was the ground that God originally blessed and said was good. And then because of the fall, it was the ground that would resist the attempts of man to cultivate it. And it was the ground that would eventually win out as the human body would go back into the grave. It was the ground that was cursed, not man. And where does man's body go after death? But the grave. And this is why Christ had to conquer the grave. That the ground would give up the dead. The cursed ground would give up the dead. So you could say the grave is the enemy, and you would be right. Man is the enemy. Paul says very, very clearly that we were hostile in our minds. Hostile towards God. We, like the kingdom of Zion that I read about, we are those subjects who decided to align ourselves with a foreign enemy. And in our arrogance and in our blindness, attempt to rebel against the good and glorious king. So you could say we are the enemy and you would be right. You could say God himself is our enemy and you would actually be right. Not because God hates us inherently, but because God hates sin. And God's justice demands that justice be paid. And so the first point is that Christ has to defeat the enemy. But the question is, who is the enemy? And I say it's all of these. It's also fallen creation itself, where there are storms and thistles, where there is death and decay. How is Christ going to do this? Well, once again, only Christ is uniquely qualified to do it. Why do we know this? Because He is the image of the invisible God, for by Him all things were created. All things were created by Him, and only He, who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, can actually redeem all things and make all things right again. So sin is the enemy. The devil is the enemy. We are his enemy. God is our enemy. And to truly make peace would mean to confront the enemy, or should I say, the enemies. And therefore, Christ had to wage war. There had to be war and there had to be bloodshed. I know that doesn't come as a comforting thought to many. You see, our world today looks and hails people who are peacekeepers, doesn't it? I mean, look at the turnout at Nelson Mandela's funeral. Nelson Mandela's funeral. I'm not here at all to criticize the man, just to make a point. Look at that. Consider the reputation of Gandhi, or the Dalai Lama, or any of these great men. And you know what is one of the most offensive things in the world to me is when Jesus is put in that group. I can promise you right now, Jesus Christ was no passive peacekeeper. I've said many times before, there's a difference between peacemakers and peacekeepers. And peacemakers know what it takes to make peace. Because in order to make peace, you must first, oftentimes, confront the problems. And that, in Christ's world, involved bloodshed. It involved sacrifice. It involved the greatest suffering and injustice this world has ever known in order to satisfy the very justice of God himself. In order to redeem us. Christ came to wage war. He was a warrior. Make no mistake about it. I'm reminded, as I prepared for this, of Europe in the 1930s. World War I was still fresh on the memories of the leaders of Europe in the 1930s. And if you've read anything about World War I, I remember in high school reading All Quiet on the Western Front and thinking, okay, if there's one war I would not want to be in, it would have been the trenches of World War I. It was horrific. And Europe was still reeling from it in the 1930s. And the leaders, the last thing that they wanted was another war on their hands. And there was a power vacuum throughout Europe in various places, especially in Germany, which had experienced great defeat in World War I. And in that vacuum emerged a man named, as we all know, Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was a brilliant man. Wicked, but brilliant. And he knew. That it was the time to act if he wanted to start, well, we will say, acquiring lands. So he starts annexing German-speaking lands, beginning, of course, in the spring of 1938 with Austria. Fairly peaceful. They give up fairly quickly. No one wants war at this point. Hitler knows this. And then he sets his sights on Czechoslovakia and the border territories there. And he knows that no one wants war. And eventually, as this crisis begins to escalate, the leaders of France, Great Britain, Benito Mussolini of Italy, go to Munich to try to get some agreement to appease this man. After all, we need diplomacy in order to have peace. We don't want war. And in September of 1938. In fact, on September 22, 1938, the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, boarded a plane for Germany, saying, my objective is peace in Europe. I trust this trip is the way to that peace. And so Chamberlain, Neville Chamberlain, met with Mussolini, Prime Minister of France, met with Adolf Hitler. And soon, in the early hours of September 30, 1938, They signed the Munich Agreement in Munich, Germany. Returning home to Great Britain and believing that war had been averted, Neville Chamberlain famously said that they had achieved peace with honor. He went on to say, I believe it is a peace for our time. 1938, less than a year later, of course, Adolf Hitler would invade Poland. But as Neville Chamberlain declared a peace for our time, Winston Churchill stands up, the man that he was in the House of Commons, right then and says, we have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat. You will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi regime. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude. This is the only first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year, unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." He could not be more correct. Could not be more correct. Brothers and sisters, the United States says it doesn't negotiate with terrorists. And God doesn't negotiate with the enemy. Christ had to come as man in order to wage war, to crush the head of the serpent, to conquer us. to conquer our hearts and our minds, to redeem creation, to satisfy the wrath of God. The complexity of what Christ had to accomplish is absolutely mind-boggling. And I say this, as I said before, no human being could have made this plan up. When you realize the depths that sin has made us plunge to, you realize the work that Christ had to accomplish. It was all on his shoulders. And he came. He came to wage war. Yes, to shed his blood, to crush the head of the serpent, and to appease the wrath of God. And therefore, number three, Christ had to become man. Christ had to become man. There was no other option than for Christ to be born in Bethlehem A helpless and innocent baby boy. By the way, Christ is the only innocent baby ever born. We say, oh, they're innocent little children. The people who've never had children, I think. Christ was an innocent, perfect, righteous baby boy. The only hope that we had. I don't think Mary understood. I think often of Mary and think if she knew how much was riding on this. Can you imagine? I see mothers today in the guilt that every one of you endures on a daily basis. How much are you messing up your child? Women who are carrying children for nine months. Afraid they're not taking the right prenatal vitamins, eating the right things, limiting themselves of the wrong types of stress. Can you imagine carrying the hope of all of creation in your womb? And this is what Mary was doing. Everything was riding on it. And I don't think she understood. Because I think she would have had multiple nervous breakdowns, or at least I would. But everything was riding on it. He had to become man. He had to become man. Because remember, the image of God had to be restored. Remember that Adam was the height of God's creation. And because he was the height of God's creation, when he fell, all of creation fell with him. And therefore, in order, to fix and redeem all of creation, Christ had to assume the form of the highest form of creation, and that is man. And so Christ became man. He also came to, again, restore within us the image of God, and He had to be our representative. He had to be our representative on the cross in order to redeem us as well, and to satisfy the wrath of God towards the sin. that we have committed and are guilty of. Which brings us to our fourth point. Christ had to shed His blood. Had to shed His blood. Again, Paul says He made peace. I love this. Making peace by the blood of His cross. It was bloody. It was gory. It was horrible. The only way to make peace was to confront the enemy. I look at what's going on in the Middle East right now, always, to think of the negotiations that have gone on in Iran, whether or not you agree with what is happening right now regarding the nuclear situation in Iran, I can tell you this, there will never be peace in the Middle East until Christ comes. There will never be peace in the Middle East unless people embrace Christ. Because apart from Christ, there is no peace. This is the problem that our government seems to think that human beings can step in and negotiate peace among people who hate each other and are looking after their own interests. In order to actually bring about peace, you have to get to the core of the problem. And the core of the problem is sin. And the only way to address sin was with bloodshed. Share that with any government official who works in the White House today. By the way, you could have shared it with any government official in the White House 12 years ago, and it would have been the same way. And they would have said, that's foolish. There can be peace. apart from Christ. No, there can't. And there never will be. As much emphasis and money that we put on diplomacy, it will always fail. Doesn't sound very hopeful, but we must understand that Christ is our only hope. And the Scriptures make it very clear. He had to shed his blood. As the Father poured out his wrath on him, But there was a point at which the Father's wrath was satisfied that fateful day, that Friday, that good Friday as we call it. When Christ cried out, it is finished. It is finished. His blood was shed, the wrath of God was satisfied, and there was nothing else left for Christ to do but to give up his spirit for the Father. I want to make this very, very clear. Very few Christians realize the magnitude of what happened on the cross of Calvary. First of all, Christ did not die to make it possible for people to be saved. Christ came to wage war to save his people in a definitive sort of way. The God of all creation does not work in the realm of possibilities. He works in the realm of absolute surety. Christ came to save His people, and to lose not one that the Father had given Him. He didn't save two types of people, Israel and the Church. He did not just say, we'll deal with the ethnic problem later. It was all done on the cross. Peace was made by His shed blood for everyone. No longer is there a dividing wall of hostility between Jew, Gentile, No. Between God and man, no. We are all one in the body of Christ. It makes it very clear. For He is the head of the body, the church. Through His shed blood and subsequent burial and resurrection from the dead, Christ has united all His people in one body, not two. In one body. He's made peace. And it came at a great cost. His blood. But the battle, the war, is over. Now, sure, there will be a final second coming, but He's simply coming to redeem it all. The battle for our hearts, for our hostile minds, is over. Look with me in Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9, beginning in verse 2, this great and glorious passage. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. 700, 800 years prior to the birth of Christ, this is being written. You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy, they rejoice before you, as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. There's rejoicing, but the battle is over. And make no mistake about it, there was a battle. There was a battle. But the battle is over here. For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor you have broken, as on the day of Midian. By the way, where Satan, the ancient serpent, writhing with a crushed head. The battle is over. How do I know that? Look at verse 5. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. In my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful images in all of Isaiah. The boots We talk about boots on the ground, don't we? Putting soldiers in Afghanistan, for example. We don't want boots on the ground because that's when there's really a lot of bloodshed. That's what we're talking about here. And why do you use boots? You use boots to protect your feet to go into battle. But what are the boots now being used for? It says very clearly, burn this fuel for the fire. Why? There's no need for them. What about the garments that are rolled in blood? The bloodied garments? Well, no need for them anymore either. The battle's over. Why? Why is the battle over? Wait a minute. You can imagine the readers 800 years prior to the birth of Christ reading this, okay? The battle's over. There's no more need to fight. Why? Verse 6, for to us a child is born. A child is won the battle. A helpless baby. sent by God, the firstborn of all creation, who came to wage war in order to make peace. He wasn't a warmonger. No, but Christ came to make peace. And finally, he had to be victorious, had to be victorious. You know, we talked about the great peacekeepers of the day, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi. Each of them talked about a utopic peace. Nelson Mandela recently passed away, as I said, and there was a massive outpouring of love, adoration, and support for the South African. He talked about peace, worked to end apartheid in South Africa, something that was indeed corrupt and wicked. But if any of you have ever gone to Pretoria, South Africa, I can assure you there is no peace right now. You see, Mandela could talk about it. Martin Luther King Jr. could talk about it. Gandhi could talk about it. The Dalai Lama today can talk about it. The President of the United States can talk about it. We can dream about it. But what are you going to do about it? Only Christ could make peace. Because he had to change us as well. Paul makes it very clear. We were hostile in our minds. We hated God. You who were once hostile in your minds. That's what he says. Alienated. Why? Because we alienated ourselves. He had to conquer us. One of my favorite quotes I shared a lot at MTA regarding Christian teaching, but it gets to the very heart of the work of Christ in this gospel. It's from Augustine's great work on Christian teaching written in the fourth century. Augustine says this, so when advocating something to be acted on, the Christian orator should not only teach his listeners so as to impart instruction and delight them so as to hold their attention. Don't want to bore you. but also move them so as to conquer their minds. Only the gospel can conquer minds. Sure, I can give you, if I'm Martin Luther King Jr., through my skills of oration, I can give you chills up your spine. I listen to the I Have a Dream speech and it does, it's moving, it's riveting. But it doesn't change me. It doesn't. Maybe for a moment it gives me a warm and fuzzy, but then life goes back to normal. Because it doesn't have the ability to change minds. Neither does legislation. Listen, we can pass legislation in this country, in all 50 states, that says, for example, same-sex marriage is legal. It doesn't change a thing. If God says something is true, if God says something is sin, if God says it, it's true whether we want to claim otherwise or not. And only the gospel will convince us otherwise and conquer our minds to embrace him and to embrace his truth. But Christ had to be victorious because if Christ was not victorious, no one else could be. No one else could be. But since Christ was victorious, we can rejoice, brothers and sisters. We can rejoice in the truth of Christ's perfect and finished work. You know, I've mentioned Martin Luther King Jr.' 's I Have a Dream speech. Listen to what he says. By the way, we are in the 50th anniversary of his speech. there at the Lincoln Memorial and on August 28, 1963. Recently we brought Elijah because he wanted to see it. We got to see right where he stood and delivered that speech some 50 years ago, moving to think about it. Listen to what he says, I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out of the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today." He goes on to say, and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside. Let freedom ring." And then he quotes an old Negro spiritual. He says, free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. Riveting. Not one mention of Jesus Christ, though. Only a dream, never a reality, I promise you, apart from Christ. In fact, as I read it, it's interesting, I get chills. I get chills. Never once does he mention the Incarnation or Jesus Christ. Just a dream. It's pretty pathetic if you think about it. Not the speech, not the man, but the dream. It's pathetic apart from Christ. It's pitiful. It's to be pitied. Is there any human being that should be pitied more than somebody who dreams for something so grand and it will never happen? We often call people like that delusional. I'm not saying he's delusional. No. But apart from Christ, this sort of dream or hoping for it is delusional. It will never happen. Because it doesn't get to the heart of the gospel. It doesn't involve the true defeat and subjugation of the enemy to the king of Zion. You see, 800 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah, he had a vision. It wasn't a dream, though. It was a prophecy. And rather than saying, I have a dream, you could say, there will be a day with surety. You see, Isaiah 11 is Isaiah's, I have a dream speech. And how does it begin? There shall come forth. I have a, well, not a dream. I see a day when a shoot from the stump of Jesse will come forth. Where does he begin? The birth of Christ in Bethlehem. 800 years prior to the birth of Christ. It would be like somebody today writing in the 1300s about something today. That's pretty profound if you think about it. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his root shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, and the Spirit of knowledge in the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what he sees, or decide disputes by what he hears, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill. Kill. This is battle. This is war. Kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. He'll see a day when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat. Enemies. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks of the enemies of the South. Isaiah is speaking on a much grander scale. Natural enemies will now be friends. There will be true peace because peace has been made. Why? Because he shall kill the wicked and shall destroy the rod of the oppressor. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea." In that day, he concludes here, the root of Jesse, Jesus Christ, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples. Of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. That's the day we hope for, brothers and sisters. When the dead in Christ shall rise, we shall dwell with Christ in a new heaven and a new earth, and there will be no more enemy. Death is destroyed. The serpent's head is crushed. Our hearts have been conquered. Our minds have been conquered. And as Paul says, look back here in 1 Corinthians 1, we shall be presented blameless. We who were once wicked, hostile in mind, are now presented blameless and righteous because we're clothed with the work of Christ. That's peace. That's the peace that only Christ can provide and Christ has made through his shed blood on the cross. That's the peace of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I conclude with a few simple words that came from a letter I got from a friend, a Christmas email that went out. And he put it like this, remembering the birth of Christ in Bethlehem and the profound implications of the work of peace that Christ has made through his finished life work. He says that now we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will know a redemption that is even better than innocence. That's the hope of the gospel, brothers and sisters. That's the peace of Christ. Let us pray. Father, we give you thanks for this day, for the work of Christ on the cross. Christ, the great peacemaker. Father, we pray that we would look to him, him alone, and would not look anywhere outside of Christ for hope, joy, to live our lives, Father, to full commitment. Glory and honor to you in Christ's name we pray. Amen.