Ephesians chapter six, we're looking at verse 15 today. But to get in context, we will read from verse 10 the whole context and be reminded as you turn there that this is God's holy word. Every single word of it is without error of any kind, and it is absolutely the only final authority in everything that you and I are to believe and to do. So be addressed by God himself as you hear these words. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace." Let us pray. Father God, we thank You today for Your Word, and we thank You for the gospel of peace that Your whole Word points to. Thank you that you are clear by your spirit. By grace. Upon our hearts and our hearing that we can see. With the natural eye and the natural mind cannot see that your whole word speaks about Christ. And we pray that as he made peace. As he absorbed your righteous wrath. As He lived the perfect life of obedience all on our behalf, that you would give us faith, and in so doing, in declaring us righteous, that you would give us peace and all that comes with that. Show us now what comes with that peace. Dress us up now by your spirit for battle, by this gospel. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. The title in this part three of six in the armor of God is the boots of the gospel of peace. Well, a man named Henry Garricky was a chaplain from Missouri during World War Two. And he took a post in the army just in time for the invasion of Europe and the march all the way to Berlin. And when the war was over and a tribunal was to be held in Nuremberg, 13 of the 21 convicted high-ranking members of the Nazi party needed a chaplain. And Gerecke got the call. And he agonized in prayer. as you probably would, as you can imagine, dreading having to stare into the eyes of these monsters in human flesh, among whom were Hermann Göring and one of Hitler's main field generals, Wilhelm Keitel. And Gerecke didn't have the authority to pardon these criminals. That wasn't his question. He did have authority. to impress upon them to terms of a much, much higher peace. He faithfully told them about their true king, who had a law above the laws of even the allied powers and their courts, and that the judgment that they really needed to fear at this point was from that higher court. And in the end, a few of them actually listened. We don't know how much. No one can tell, even the chaplain, could tell the actual state of their souls. Now, Goring rebelled to the bitter end, snapping back just moments before taking his poison so he didn't have to be hanged. He said to the chaplain, this Jesus that you're always talking about, to me, he's just another smart Jew. But he wanted to take communion anyway. Just in case there was anything to this Christianity thing. The architect of the Third Reich wanted peace on his own terms, but the chaplain faithfully refused communion to him. Last week, we saw the breastplate of righteousness and how that is the gospel inward. And in this third piece of armor, Paul moves right to the gospel outward. And you're going to see something of that chaplain's dilemma as you hear what this piece of armor is. And we're going to see this in verse 15 in four different ways. First of all, we're going to look at the boots themselves and we'll see that the boots signify the gospel outward. Secondly, we're going to see that the piece of the gospel is an accomplishment of the king. Thirdly, we'll see that the piece of the gospel is an offer of the king. And then our fourth section is going to be our application time. And we'll see that the piece of the gospel makes ready royal messengers. And that's us if we're really saved. And the big idea, if you get lost at any point, come back to this and hear that the king has good news for traders through ready messengers. The king has good news for traders. through ready messengers. Now, I know a lot of commentators have debated whether or not the word gospel that's used in this passage, it's in the genitive case, and that means it's an adjective. It's describing the gospel of peace. And that's the thing that ultimately makes up the metal or the leather or whatever it's made of, of these boots. And the whole debate is really a classic exercise in airing out what's called the either-or fallacy. In other words, is this protection so I can make a stand against the devil on that evil day when he comes this way? Or is this a readiness to announce the terms of peace, which sense of the gospel peace is it? Well, for one thing, in the closest thing to a parallel passage in the book of Colossians, Paul adds in chapter four, verse five and six to walk in wisdom toward outsiders. Making the best use of the time, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. The idea there is that it's outward and that mirrors the readiness that Peter talks about in first Peter three fifteen, where we're supposed to always be ready to give a defense for the hope. that is within you. And you might say to that, as some of these commentators did, what's that got to do with the battle? Yeah, I'm all about doing that. But surely that can't have anything to do with what Paul's talking about here. I find it interesting that even Martin Lloyd Jones and John MacArthur, two guys I don't typically disagree with about gospel stuff. But they both reject the idea that this refers to evangelism on the grounds, here's their argument, that we're fighting a war against the devil here in this context, not using words to communicate. Both men, it seems to me, fall prey to interpreting by reaction. They're living in the 20th century and we're making evangelism all about going out and we forgot what the gospel is by the time we got there. And that's an understandable reaction by these commentators. And I don't disagree with them that that comes first. But not only does this commit the either or fallacy that it's either one or the other, but it blatantly ignores the many places in Scripture that speak of the devil's kingdom being struck a decisive blow precisely by the gospel outward. By us speaking the gospel, we are blasting into the devil's forces. So let's get into this and we'll see how that's the case. First of all, these boots signify the gospel outward. Boots are meant for walking, no matter how you slice it. Everybody agrees with that. And anytime you walk, there's a beginning and there's a destination, unless you're walking in circles. So let's start simple here. That's the case here when Paul adds this third piece of armor. He says, and as shoes for your feet. having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. So let's start this walker and his shoes at the beginning of his journey. This is the first sense of the boots. Ask the question, from where does this person come walking from? And the answer should be absolutely clear by now, he's in a war. He's in a battle. He's coming from a particular military force, namely from the forces of the one true king, Jesus Christ. And what he is strapped on here were the heavy protective boots of the Roman soldier. These aren't simply athletic shoes. They'll be better than that. And we'll get to that. But first and foremost, they are heavy armor. Protection. And so in this first sense, the boots are suited to the feet for the Christian's good. The first thing that's being accomplished here is protection for the Christian's feet. Being at peace through the gospel makes the soldier swifter in every single point of the battle. It's an all purpose gospel quickness. So these boots start out by being protective of the feet. Now, even there, that's spiritual imagery. Don't forget that. We're not actually talking about stuff that's taking on our physical feet here. There's spiritual imagery of a ground and a standing and a grip and a running. Those are spiritual things. Don't lose sight of that as we go on. But this idea of protection follows the command to stand against in verse 13 and 14. I agree with Lloyd-Jones and MacArthur that far. The first sentence, a continuous thought stand, therefore, having this on and this on and this on. And so it's a clause of a standing against the cavalry coming this way. It's a defensive thing first. Sturdiness, the believers standing, the believers place. The believers peace in the king's courts make all of his anxieties disappear so that he or she can be single minded in the battle. Listen to Paul in Romans five verse one. He's going to make a connection between the ground or the standing you have before God and your peace. He says in Romans five one, therefore, since we have been justified by faith. We have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. So you see that God's declaration in the courtroom that you are in right standing with him. Paul says makes us at peace hearing the judge of all the universe say not guilty and not only not guilty, but you are just as acceptable as my own son. Nothing in the world could give us a better standing or a better ground than that. Not only is the Christian soldier not a mercenary soldier, but he is also not a captive slave warrior being forced to fight for the king, but never, ever knowing that if the king will turn on him, never knowing that at the end of it, that the king will not eliminate him as well with all the other enemies when the battle is over. Such a soldier would be weighted down, demoralized, sludging through the battle in dread of its end. And maybe that's you. And it's because you don't know the gospel well enough. So that's part of my goal here is to is to firmly fix you in the courtroom and on the battlefield by God's declaration. But that's the subjective sense of this book. I absolutely agree with those commentators that this comes first. This is primary. But there's also another sense making the same point. And this brings us to the end. of the warrior's journey as a messenger, a messenger to those who are already waiting for the news, whether it's good news or bad news. In ancient battle, there would be a messenger who would inform the city of how the battle went, and he would inform the city of how the battle went by the way that he would approach the city from the battle. They would see him up on the mountain. They would see him coming in and his body language would tell the story. His body language from afar would be the ancient version of a newspaper or of the newsfeed on Google. If he dragged his feet in his hand, it would be a dramatization that it did not go well. And that's what happened to the priest, by the way, in first family fell over dead because he saw that coming. Or if he kicked up his feet like this and you saw his feet, that was good news. And some people think that Paul may have had this passage in Isaiah in his mind at this point, Isaiah 52, 7. It is how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. And the reason for thinking that this is what Paul had in mind, or at least part of it, is that he combines that trio of key words in that passage in this passage. Feet, good news, peace. And this passage is cited by Paul to the Romans in chapter 10 as the answer to the dilemma of what do you do when there's entire people groups who are outside of the earshot of this kingdom? They can't see this messenger coming because they're not even members of this city. They're oblivious, it has no bearing on them, and so Paul says in Romans 10, 14 through 16. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching and how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written, how beautiful. are the feet of those who preach the good news, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And then Paul goes on to end chapter 10 by talking about how God is going to turn from the Jews to the Gentiles, and he's going to have all his people in this fight in this city on his team Go out that way to people who are not my people, who did not even ask for me, who did not search for me. Now, as I said before, other commentators reject this interpretation on the ground that in this context, in Ephesians six, we are fighters here, not messengers, or it might be pointed out that the messenger of Isaiah was barefoot. Whereas these guys are in heavy duty military attire. But again, that forgets the spiritual nature of this war, the spiritual imagery, the metaphors, and it forgets the fact that this is a total war. It's not like there's one class of people that are messengers and one class of people who are warriors. And it's not like there's a season of your life where you're in spiritual warfare and then another season of your life where you're on a mission trip. That's not the way the Bible breaks it down. Now, these commentators may be expert in Greek, but sometimes they can use a crash course in logic. Messaging and standing are not two different realities, but one. And the messenger who announces and the soldier who marches are not two different individuals, but one. The fact of the matter is that the biggest problem on this battlefield for human individuals is not a problem to those who already believe. The biggest problem on this battlefield, which is everywhere, the biggest problem is the problem of the traitor. The problem of the rebel. The problem of the deserter. Notice, by the way, that these shoes are not called the boots of the medic for the wounded. And that might be important. Or the boots of the special ops forces to rescue POWs. That might be important too. But rather, the boots of the gospel of peace. Now, do you see what that means? Paul is having us equipped as if rescuing individuals from the enemy was actually central to our mission. Us in this war, in wartime, in the midst of the battle, rescuing individuals by a message is central to our mission. You might be asking, well, how do I do that? How do I take peace with me on a battlefield? Well, just think of that scene in Braveheart where the messenger of the king, Longshanks, was reading the terms of surrender to the leaders of the Scots. Of course, William Wallace didn't take it very well. But what did he do? He gave him his own terms of surrender. But the idea is that the terms of surrender come from the king. The king will graciously give you such and such in exchange for your unconditional surrender. Our evangelism ought to look a little bit more like that. Not arrogantly, by the way. We're not the king. But we ought to have people get the idea that the king is the king. The king is not waiting for them, pacing the floors of heaven. They are in rebellion against their king, and they need to know that. To spread the terms of surrender from the king to rebels is going to take fleet-footed messengers with no time to lose, who are actually thinking about the gospel so much that you are ready in season and out of season. Secondly, the peace of the gospel is an accomplishment of the king. So now we're going to start moving from the boots in this metaphorical sense or what they're for. And we got to we got to go back almost like we're rewinding in the factory. We got to go back to where they got the leather from or where they where they brought the alloys from and we're melting and shaping it into place. We're going to go back and we're going to look at what are the actual elements or composition of this gospel of peace. At its root, what is meant by calling the good news the gospel of peace? It's not peace as the world means peace, Jesus said in John's gospel. It's peace as he brings it. And that's going to be crucial. Because in the modern church, we tend to define peace from the subjective sense of peace on outward. We'll say things like this. I'm at peace with this decision, and therefore it must be right. And even if we don't say it in those exact words in that exact order, we tend to define peace as a subjective feeling first, and then we start defining all of its effects outward from ourselves. Or else we restrict the whole meaning of peace to this inward sense altogether. What is peace? It's a feeling I feel when I feel all right. That's not how the Bible is going to define peace. That's not how the biblical authors thought of peace in the first place. Peace is objective. It's a real thing. And it's wrought by God. Why? Because enmity or warfare, its opposite, is something that is defined by God. In fact, God doesn't just define warfare. God started it. Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between you, who's speaking, God. Who is he speaking to? The serpent. I will put warfare or hostility or hatred between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring. So all throughout history, the city of God and the city of man in this conflict. But who struck the sword down first? God did. God initiated this warfare. There is a real, infinite object of enmity. a real, infinite hatred or warfare between all that is in God and every single sinner. And consequently, the objective sense of peace is going to have to deal with this enmity in a way that is consistent with God's character. If God would make peace with us, then He must do it in a way that does not violate His character and so join in with the rebels and agree with them that He's not worth it. In other words, the larger context for the peace that's being spoken of here is the war that's being spoken of here. Paul doesn't just introduce us to warfare in Ephesians 6. He is bringing up a dimension that was there all the way back in Genesis 3 and onward. Peace is a part of the war, not war a part of the peace. Warfare is assumed. Peace is not. It is not obvious that the king is going to make peace with those who have betrayed him. It is clear and right and natural for him to wipe out traitors. It does belong to the very nature of God to punish sin. But it is not absolutely necessary that he would have mercy. Before I said that the biggest problem for individuals in this whole theater of war is the problem of the traitor, the rebel, the deserter. So now we have to ask a very practical question from everyday life. What do you do with traitors and rebels and deserters? Well, on the battlefield, you treat them as you treat any other person among the enemy. You treat them as an enemy. And in a court of law, you treat them as you treat any other among the guilty. Justice demands it. And in earthly courts and earthly battlefields, you ought to. Now, how does this translate into God's peace? Well, we have to draw a distinction, as I have here on this chart, a distinction between two objects, and we've already seen it back in Ephesians two. There's the personal action of peacemaking, and that is God making peace that comes first. And there are the terms of peace being read to us. If he didn't make peace, he would be lying by telling us that there's peace available. Kind of like evangelists do who don't copy Christ, but Christ was an evangelist first. So there's two distinct objects here and the order absolutely matters. You may remember earlier from this letter to the Ephesians that Paul had placed the reconciliation of two really vengeful people groups who hated each other a lot, Jews and Gentiles. And when Paul was solving that problem, when he said that God's made peace between Jew and Gentile, how did he do it? Paul places the reconciliation, the peace that was made between Jew and Gentile inside of a much more radical reconciliation between all sinners and God. Whatever Jews and Gentiles think they have against each other, they've got nothing on each other compared to all sinners and what we have between us and God. So listen carefully. You can turn back to it in Ephesians chapter two, verse 13 through 16. Listen carefully, as you look at these words, as you hear these words, listen critically to where Paul places the striking of the root of hostilities. If you were to look at this verse and say, where does Paul have God stamping out the hatred, wiping it away so that there's peace? Where does that happen? How does that happen? He says this, starting in verse 13, But now in Christ Jesus, You who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both, not to each other, to God in one body through the cross. thereby killing the hostility. You see how in every turn of phrase, Paul pointed to the cross. In every turn of phrase, Paul pointed you back to ground zero, which was God making peace on the cross. How did God make peace with his enemies on the cross? Well, the king, who was in this war, who when he looks out at the battlefield would have seen nothing but traitor, the whole pie chart of the human race running away from God, lobbing hand grenades over their shoulder in fear of God, in mockery of God, running to hell, full speed. That's all God would have seen. But the king, before the last day, pouring out his wrath on all of his enemies, which he must do against all sin, the Bible says. But instead, because he's filled with love, he redirected his righteous vengeance toward his own son on the cross, so that the anger was spent and the punishment was delivered for some. And so, having accomplished peace between God and his enemies, Paul's very next words in verse 17 are that Jesus came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near. So you see the flow of thought. It's exactly that picture. It's in the right order. Christ accomplished peace between God and some of the enemies of God. And then Christ announced the terms of peace to those enemies who were absolutely clueless on that battlefield. absolutely continued going through all of the rebel motions that we all go through every single day. But he made peace for some. And now that's going to mean something for us. That's the larger context of war in which Paul now sets each individual Christian into our armor. And so contrary to the commentators who separated the spiritual war from the spreading of the gospel, The biblical authors are seeing the spreading of the gospel as an activity proper to war. The biblical gospels don't just say, there's war over there, there's politics over there, there's school over here, there's family over here, all good stuff, may it glorify God. But at the end of the day, get the gospel right, thick wall, not that other stuff that has nothing to do with the gospel. No, the gospel is the firepower in that hole. Battlefield, it is an activity proper to warfare, like a royal messenger delivering the king's terms of peace. We are pleading with traders in wartime for their surrender. But you still might be saying, yeah, but that's not a weapon. That's a piece of paper. The king tells you this and maybe they might be on the other side, but. And right, there's a clue. So let's go to our third point. The peace of the gospel. is an offer of the king. The peace of the gospel is an offer. Of the king, as you might be asking still. How such a message? Would be a weapon specifically directed against the devil, but the answer is actually quite simple, because the devil is tortured by the gospel being clearly proclaimed because it represents a piece that he cannot have. And it steals away captives and mercenary soldiers that he does have. And that is a wartime effect. And so to deliver a very devastating blow to the devil, Paul says, as shoes for your feet, put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In that sense, we are special ops forces. But we're going to be directed at a very particular person, just as in God's mercy, someone preached the gospel to us. But you may have conceived of these boots as purely defensive. Now, no doubt that's where it starts, as we said, you need a standing. And in the order of this, Paul has us protecting ourselves first. He's got all this stuff in here and then it flows outward. And then finally, we've got stuff that swings around out there. Perfectly natural order. Absolutely. The substance of the boots are protection. But what they are driven toward is what I would call a gospel ambush, an announcement of peace that steals captives away from the enemy's side. Not in timeout. There is no timeout. Not when the war is over. It's over on Judgment Day. But right now. Gospel ambush. in this very act of those very words regenerating people. And so transferring them from the kingdom of darkness, Colossians 1.13 says, to the kingdom of his beloved son. It's like we're zapping. It's like a rapture before the rapture. It's like we're zapping them on to the Christian side. Well, that's exactly what's happening. In becoming born again, they're being transferred from one side to the other. That's power in warfare. What if you could do that in warfare? That'd be pretty cool. That'd be pretty powerful. And in this very act, we are like Christ, who, Ephesians 4, 8 says, led a host of captives. And even in war, by being peacemakers, we are showing ourselves to be sons of God, Matthew 5, 9. We are more like God in being able to make war and peace at the same time, war and peace in the same act. drawing attention to that place where God most clearly does that in history, namely, the cross of Jesus Christ. Our God is a God of war and peace at the same time. Paul says that God is the God of peace in 1 Thessalonians 5.23. The author of Hebrews says the same thing in chapter 13, verse 20. The God of peace. This will be important in how we use these boots. We want to be more like God, right? We don't want to be unlike God. Peace is not our private property so as to determine its flow. We don't get to decide who's in and who's out. We don't know who the elect are. Our job is to simply publish this peace. We have no right, like Jonah tried to hold on to in refusing to go to Nineveh, to refuse to publish the terms of peace abroad on the ground that they're not God's people. I am. Well, you'd be a traitor by nature. This is the king's peace, and he gives it and he withholds it in his time and his secret counsel. And so in Exodus 33, 19, he says to Moses, I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And Paul quotes from that in Romans chapter nine, verse 15. And really, we would have to question how loyal we are to the king if we were not moved If we were not motivated, if we did not have a holy passion and a wartime longing to make as many people as possible loyal to the king as rapidly and as universally as possible. I know it's weird. to walk that line in wartime. I cannot get in my head how if I'm fighting the Nazis, for example, it's World War Two. I have the utmost force delivered at the forces of the Third Reich, and I have a jealousy just as strong, if not stronger, if I could to transfer them to this side. That's never been done in war. Yes, it has in this war. If we would say nothing to the rebel, that you are nothing but a rebel, or if we have nothing to say to the deserter, but you have deserted your one true loyalty. And we might have gotten the first part of that right, but in not following through, we have to question our own loyalty to the king. We are traitors to the king if we are not jealous to make traitors into worshipers. Because God is just that glorious, because this king must be worshipped by the maximum number of former traders. Therefore, our zeal to see God's justice done to traders has to rise along with our jealousy that those souls would be the rightful inheritance of Christ. In fact, I would argue that our jealousy to see the maximum amount of traders turned into the maximum amount of worshippers has to be higher and infinitely greater than our jealousy to see that particular traitor judged by God. Now, as we go to application time, the practical use of this doctrine is implied directly by Paul's two words, readiness given. Readiness given. Something about the gospel of peace makes us always ready. to share the good news. It makes us all wartime evangelists. We never separate the idea of doing justice and seeing God's kingdom spread and seeing the enemy defeated from spreading the gospel. Loving people. I can't wait to preach this to whoever. The peace of the gospel makes ready royal messengers. What Paul's doing, what he's equipping us with now is making us ready royal messengers. Now, most basically, the peace of the gospel makes us ready because we ourselves are at peace. And that's where that wisdom that those commentators were bringing in is you've got to start with your own standing. You've got to start with the metal that's around your feet. You have to have good protected feet if you're going to run. So that comes first. And that's absolutely right. Because we ourselves are at peace, we can actually mean it. So you remember last week we saw about the breastplate of righteousness that only free men can make free men. Well, it's the same exact thing here. So it is with having peace with God. Only sons and daughters of God who know that their sons and daughters of God, only they can call people to a king who is their loving father and not their judge. Now, we've noticed in the first two pieces of armor that there is a distinction between the piece itself, the metal stuff and the action that Paul's commanding. He's always giving us a command to put it on with the thing itself. And so there are two distinct things. Well, so it is here. There's a noun that's usually used as a verb in the Greek, and it's here. It's rendered preparation or readiness as if it's an object, as if by putting it on, that's your readiness. That is your preparation. It's a noun. Well, elsewhere in Titus 3.1, Paul uses it as an adjective. He says, be ready. Verb, be ready. Said adjective, didn't I? Adverb. Be ready. Do this readily. Be prepared. I mean, you ever think to yourself, why is it that I don't Have enough opportunities to give a defense for the hope that is within me. Well, in there, he says to be ready. Maybe the reason people don't ask you to give a defense for the hope that is within you is because you look like you don't have a whole lot of hope. And it's the same thing here with your knowledge of the gospel. Maybe somebody is asking you or maybe there's just this open door and it's clear, but you have nothing to say. And in that sense, you're not prepared. You're not learning the gospel as if it's the thing that the Special Ops forces have to learn before they get dropped out on D-Day. It's not that important. And so we're not ready. And so there is no evangelism without the evangel. That's why gospel is loaded into that word. We're spreading the right gospel. the real terms of peace. And if we don't point people to a perfect peace, paid in full, as Jesus said in John 19.30, then we are still recruiting mercenaries and slave warriors. Why? What's the connection? If we don't believe that Jesus paid for every single one of your sins, paid in full, past, present and future, never to be brought up again. If we don't do that, then everyone we're talking to, we are cultivating mercenaries and slave warriors. Why? Because when they hear you, they think, I'm doing this for some other payment. Or I don't know if the accounts really settled. Maybe after this war, I will not have believed enough. You won't. All your belief is as filthy rags. We are cultivating mercenary and slave warriors who might join the king begrudgingly for a few battles. But having found no infinite peace. The peace of that person that matters the most is still hedging their bets. Still got a foot in the enemy's camp because they don't really know that God is my father instead of my judge. Now, finally, as we consider those people out there, right, so in Paul's imagery, you're in here getting suited up, you're going out there. So as you consider those people, remember the words of Isaiah. All we like sheep have gone astray. and have wandered from our one true family into the hands of our enemies. All we like sheep have wandered. From our forces. Into the hand of the enemy's forces. Now, if you want to ransom an earthly trader. You can really only give and exchange other traders, right? And that's not just a violation of the law for the president to do it. It's actually a violation of the law for anybody in church or out of church to do it, according to Psalm 49, seven through nine, the cost of your life. The ransom, no man can ransom another person's life. Because the price of your life is costly, not because you're so wonderful, but because of the value of what you have trampled upon. And so if you want to ransom an earthly traitor, what can you give? Only more stuff down here. Now, of course, every violation of an earthly law ought to be served with justice in the courts of earth, no doubt about it. Maybe some of you have been wired to current events and you've noticed this theme we've throughout the sermon of some current events, which I won't mention because it'll just be distracting, but I do bring it up. because we ought to all test ourselves. How ready are we to make the terms of peace clear from that higher court? In lower courts, such people should be tried and convicted. There's no getting around that. In earthly courts, there's many things and many people that we need to straighten out. But as you move out there, who are you and who have you been? How ready are you to make the gospel? The first and the last and the constant thing, could you have preached the gospel of peace to those Nazi officers? You ought to know the gospel so much and love its power so much and want to have more worshipers for God so much that you'd be able to say, I had to preach the gospel in Hitler's bunker. And I'd get the heck out of there before the Russians got there, but I'll tell you what, I would preach it. And anybody else who didn't make it to those Nuremberg trials. Because that power should be the thing that should most move you. Can you preach the gospel of peace? Are you ready to preach it to those who have betrayed your confidence? To those who have betrayed your country? Whatever they must go through down here, Are you ready to make the good news the final answer for them? If we recall the passage from Isaiah about the messenger of peace and you move back in Isaiah 52 from verse seven to verse six, I didn't read it. You'll see that ultimately it's God who is speaking about with those beautiful feet. It is ultimately God who will come down. and most perfectly preach this peace to his people. Because when he was saying that, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Every time God looks down in Isaiah and says, well, let's see if anybody's doing this. Nope, nobody again. And he has to come down and do that for us and that for us and all the things he's looking for. And so it is here in the peacemaker. God himself will preach peace to his people. Why? How? How can God give peace to rebels, traitors, wanderers, deserters, when he said in his word that every sin has to be punished? He does it because he himself comes down and makes peace first. It says, therefore, my people shall know my name. Therefore, in that day they shall know that it is I who speak. Here I am. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, that's to his people, your God reigns. God himself came down in the greatest exchange of prisoners there ever was, the faithful one for the deserter. And he was delivered up onto the center of the battlefield. And he was sacrificed in the presence of his enemies. And in that very act, he made peace. And he prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. That was you and me. You don't have these shoes on if you don't realize that when you move out there, whoever that person is you're thinking of, Until Judgment Day, you and I need to understand that that was us. We were the wanderers who wandered away. As Peter says, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. To know that is to be ready for anything. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you. We pray that you would send your spirit to make us ready. As we trust that you have made us ready listeners. Let this word sink deep into our hearts. Whatever else we must do down here, and we thank you that you have given us much. We can say in our hearts now, because we are no longer shaking in your courtroom, but we are in your house, sons and daughters, we can say the psalmist did that. I love your law. I delight in your law. So may we glorify you in all that we do out there, but may we never forget that apart from your grace, we are wanderers, we are deserters, we are traitors. And so we pray that you would dig us in by this gospel of peace, that we would withstand the many assaults from the enemy, one of which we recognize is our pride. We pray that you would cause us to stand firm, that you would be our ground, that you would tether us to your gospel, because it is our tendency to wander away and to go AWOL. We pray that you would do this work on our hearts now and bring us peace. In Jesus' name, Amen.