Worldly Ways Can Never Make Peace
An all-creatures Bible Message

Worldly Ways Can Never Make Peace
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
3 January 2021
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Psalm 147:12-20
Micah 4:3
Ephesians 1:3-14
 
Worldly ways can never make peace, at least a truly lasting peace as in heaven.
 
The only way we can ever have a true and lasting peace is to first free the whole of creation from its present corruption, which includes every human being, every other animal, and the environment.
 
This means that we peacefully have to end our warring madness; this is something like what we are told in Micah 4:3…
 
3. And He will judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.
Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they train for war.
NASB
 
I strongly believe that if we are truly born again and have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and we don’t allow worldly people, including religious leaders, to persuade us that any worldly ways are acceptable to God, such as eating animals, we will retain a soft heart and feel the pain and suffering of the whole of creation and do whatever we can peacefully do to free creation from its present corruption.
 
We do not have to sit back and wait for God to do this, and in the process send many people to hell. We can start doing this right now.
 
In our opinion the first step is to end the killing and eating of animals, which begins on our own plates. Then we should have a heartfelt desire to begin sharing our love for God along with our love, compassion and empathy for the whole of creation until others begin to believe and become the peacemaking children of God the Lord calls us all to be.
 
Worldly ways can never make peace, but heavenly ways can, and it begins with each of us.
 
This should be our New Year’s resolution, and lifestyle.
 
 Let’s think about these things as we look at Psalm 147:12-20…
 
12. Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
 
The psalmist was speaking to the Jewish people of his day, but we believe that his message for today also includes Christians, so we all need to praise God for the enlightenment He has given us.
 
We also need to pray that He helps us remain in His heavenly will as His peacemaking children.
 
13. For He has strengthened the bars of your gates;
He has blessed your sons within you.
 
Think about this in spiritual terms. Instead of a physical gate to keep the enemy out, think about this as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit helping us to see the difference between His heavenly will, and the will of the devil in this corrupt world.
 
Thus, if we live in His heavenly will, we will be blessed.
 
14. He makes peace in your borders;
He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat.
 
Actually, God makes the peace by having us being His peacemakers, for if we remain in the ways of this corrupt and violent world, our worldly ways can never make true and lasting peace, as the present day ways of the world testify.
 
The finest of the wheat can be that which makes good bread in this world, or it can be the spiritual bread that comes down from heaven.
 
15. He sends forth His command to the earth;
His word runs very swiftly.
 
For thousands of years, God has been commanding us to live in His heavenly will here on earth as it is in heaven, and relatively few of us have been doing that.
 
Most people don’t seem to want to hear His command, so they let His words run swiftly away.
 
16. He gives snow like wool;
He scatters the frost like ashes.
 
Think about this in terms of people being hard of heart or having a frozen hard heart that is in need of being thawed out back into the softness that God created us to have.
 
And, if we are willing, He has the power to give us back a soft and pliable heart.
 
17. He casts forth His ice as fragments;
Who can stand before His cold?
 
We believe that this is what is happening to people who live in the corrupt ways of this world.
 
However, take notice that since God created this world, it is speaking back to us in the form of the disasters that are happening because of global warming, and we believe that this is His wake-up call to us.
 
So when we wake up to the problems in this world that we have been contributing to, and repent…
 
18. He sends forth His word and melts them;
He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow.
 
Or we could say that He melts the hardness of heart that unrepentant people have, and because of our repentance the blood of His heavenly will once again flows through the veins of life.
 
19. He declares His words to Jacob,
His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.
 
When we see Jacob and Israel used like this, we believe that this writer is referring to the unrepentant Jacob before He wrestled with God, and He changed his name to Israel.
 
Everyone who still lives in the corrupt ways of this world needs to wrestle with God until they see the light of the heavenly will of God and repent and become one of His children.
 
20. He has not dealt thus with any nation;
And as for His ordinances, they have not known them.
Praise the LORD!
NASB
 
We shouldn’t want to praise God for the evil that befalls people, but for those who truly repent and hear the voice of God we should praise Him for His lovingkindness that is willing to forgive.
 
And, we all need to be like Him in our relationship with other people.
 
Let’s continue our discussion on why worldly ways can never make peace while looking at Ephesians 1:3-14…
 
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
 
We need to remember that one of these blessing is to be the peacemaking children of God as the Lord calls us to be.
 
If history has taught us anything, it is that fighting a war never brings lasting peace, for strife and violence always return.
 
True Godly peacemakers prevent wars by solving the problems that make people fighting mad.
 
4. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love
 
Paul is speaking to true believers, for only they can be holy and blameless before God.
 
Others are living in the corrupt ways of this world with all its violence that causes millions of humans and billions of animals to suffer and die every year, and this is why worldly ways can never make peace.
 
5. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
 
We believe that this was God’s plan for all of us, but along the way most people have rejected this gift of God in favor of following the devil in this corrupt and evil world, and until these worldly people truly repent of their worldly ways they cannot become the children of God…
 
6. to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
 
God has offered this through Jesus and the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
 
7. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,
 
This is very important for redemption is only needed by the people of the world, which, as Paul has said in another letter, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God, which means that all of us have either previously repented or have to repent to be adopted as His children.
 
8. which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight
 
And this is God’s desire that none of us would be lost, but that all of us would come to His glory and be saved.
 
9. He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
 
We believe that most of this has been seen in and through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and those who do their best to live in the heavenly will of the Lord.
 
10. with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him
 
We also believe that most people really know the way that God wants us to live, but most of them have chosen to live in the corrupt ways of this world and deny the truth.
 
11. also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
 
Most people live as if they don’t believe this or that God will accept them anyway, which we doubt, unless they truly have repented and desire to live in His heavenly will.
 
12. to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
 
This is for the believers in Paul’s day as well as in our day, too, but the vast majority of the people seem to be excluded from this promise.
 
13. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
 
This is our hope and prayer for everyone, but most people seem to live as if they don’t want it.
 
14. who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.
NASB
 
Again, I pray everyone comes to realize this, and live according to God’s will and have the peace He offers.
 
But worldly ways can never make peace; the only way to have a true and lasting peace is for the peacemaking children of God to bring it into fruition, and I hope each of us becomes one.
 
Amen?
 
Amen.

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