THE PEACE OF GOD AND PEACE OF SATAN

SERIES: THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

TEXT: GALATIANS 5:22-23; JEREMIAH 6:14; JOHN 14:27

We are on a series of messages on the fruit of the Holy Spirit-Galatians 5:22-23, “Peace” is the third fruit of the Holy Spirit.

A story is given about a bus that was full of ugly people. This bus had a head-on collision with a truck. When they died, God granted each one of them one wish.

The first person said, “I want to be gorgeous.” God said, “granted” and it happened. The second person said, “I want to be handsome.” God made him handsome. The entire group asked for the same wish “handsome.” They were very happy with the offer God gave them. But there was the very last man and he said to God, “For my one wish, I ask that you make all of us ugly again!!”

Some people not only want bad for themselves but for other people too!! They don’t want other people doing better than them.

Satan is going to hell, he wants others to go to hell with him. Let us learn:-

DEFINITION OF PEACE.

• There are many definitions of peace.

1. A state of tranquility, freedom from evil disturbance, a state of security, freedom from oppressive thoughts or emotions, harmony in personal relations etc.
2. In an eternal sense, there are only two types of peace, the false peace of the devil and the true peace given by Jesus Christ and born into our lives by the Holy Spirit.
3. The devil knows that our separation from God produces an innate knowledge that something is wrong in our lives.

• We are not complete, everything is not right.
• This lack of inner peace causes us to seek the reason for it, and will lead us to God.

1. The devil seeks to cover over this spiritual disquiet, to explain it away or to overrun the physical senses with pleasure or distractions so that the inner cry of the spirit is drowned out.
2. The devil uses these means to produce a counterfeit peace.

• Counterfeit peace mimics the peace of God which comes from being right with God.
• Let us throw light on the false peace and then on the true peace which comes from God.

THE DEVIL’S PEACE-Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11.

1. Great efforts to achieve peace.

1. Thousands of people each year visit the Winchester mansion in San Jose, California.

• This massive structure was built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of the gun company owner.
• For thirty eight years, from 1884 until her death in 1922, the house was under construction, carpenters, masons and other workers employed around the clock.

1. When you ask the reason for the unusual practice of Sarah, building the castle continually, you are given several reasons.

• Some believe that Mrs. Sarah Winchester was haunted by ghosts and devils from those killed by her husband’s weapons, so she kept the activity of building.
• Others claim that she thought she would not die as long as building continued.
• Whatever the reason she continued to build, ordering more materials for renovations and construction so long as she lived.

1. The Winchester mansion has more than 10,000 windows, hundreds of doors and stairs that lead to blank walls.

• It has 160 bedrooms in total, many living rooms, kitchens.
• It cost more than 70,000,000 dollars, 10,500,000,000 shillings (10 billions).

1. Many people today are seeking peace through equally fruitless means.

• People turn to pleasure, drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, wealth and other dead end avenues.
• Lack the staircases that lead to nowhere in the Winchester mansion, pursuing such paths will never bring peace.

1. Instead we find peace when we follow Jesus Christ fully.

• When we do, we will find out that peace comes a relationship and fellowship with the living God.
• “Peace” is a person, the person of God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit.

1. Different forms of false peace.

1. Drugs. Today many people who have stress or fears resort to tranquilizers, mood altering drugs and recreational drugs or alcohol to calm themselves.

• The drugs or alcohol induced peace is not the equivalent to the supernatural peace given by God.

1. False peace by noise and activity.

• People intentionally keep radios and Tvs and increase the volume so they cannot hear the whispers of their consciences.
• But this absence of conviction is a false peace.

1. Ignoring God. Unbelievers often apply the arguments of atheism to prove to their reason that God does not exist.

• Such people resist any dealing with the Holy Spirit.
• They divorce any knowledge of God from their minds-Romans 1:18-32.

1. False peace of guaranteed provision.

• Many in the developed world have every need met; food, clothes, homes, jobs, health, holidays, retirement and planned death.
• Because they have everything taken care of, they don’t need to worry.
• But having everything creates an emptiness in people’s lives, a vacuum that cannot be filled by material things.

1. False peace of religion.

• Many flock to religion systems which tell them what they want to hear.
• That God is love and that He cannot send anyone to hell.

1. Peace through companionship.

• Many people are co-dependent, they replace relationship with God by relationship with human beings.
• Such a people make that person the center of their life and activities.
• They forget that people die, “at death of their partner they also want to die.”

1. Peace by denial of the aftermath.

• People who want to run away from God, deny religion, they think when they die they will cease to exist.
• They want to close their life to anything after life.
• However, we are immortal spirits living in fleshly bodies.

1. These “card houses” people build for themselves will fall.

THE PEACE OF GOD, THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

1. The origins of true peace.

1. The prince of peace.

• Jesus Christ is the “prince of peace”-Isaiah 9:6 because He reconciled God and man when He died on the cross-Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:14; Col. 1:20.

1. Peace must begin within the human heart by being made right with God.

• The cross of Jesus Christ is the key to worldwide peace.

1. Only where Jesus Christ rules will there be peace-Psalm 29:11; Psalm 119:165.

1. Peace even in the storms of life.

• In the storms of life, the voice of Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit speaks, “It is I, be not afraid.”

CONCLUSION

• Jesus said “My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid”-John 14:27.
• How many of you need the peace of God tonight?
• Let us go to Him in prayer, repentance from sin, faith in Jesus Christ our Savoir.
• Trust in Him as our deliverer and lover of our souls.
• Be filled with the Holy Spirit, walk daily in the spirit, the fruit of peace will be produced in your heart and life.