Brother Rick Sunday School 9/27/15

Brother Rick Sunday School 9/27/15

Oh Sweet and tranquil Home, where only God is known. 

Joh 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Thank God we can have an experience where we can really partake of the peace of God.  Peace is a state of tranquility or quiet.  It is a freedom from disquiet or disquieting thoughts.

Aren’t you glad that you know that you are clear with your maker and ready to meet Him at any time?

Adam Clarke
Peace I leave with you - The Jewish form of salutation and benediction. A wish of peace among them is thus to be understood: May you prosper in body and soul, and enjoy every earthly and heavenly good! For the meaning of this word, see Mat_5:9.

My peace I give unto you - Such tranquillity of soul, such uninterrupted happiness of mind, such everlasting friendship with God as I enjoy, may ye all enjoy! And such blessedness I bequeath unto you: it is my last, my best, my dying legacy.

Not as the world giveth - Not as the Jews, in empty wishes: not as the people of the world, in empty compliments. Their salutations and benedictions are generally matters of custom and polite ceremony, given without desire or design; but I mean what I say; what I wish you, that I will give you. To his followers Jesus gives peace, procures it, preserves it, and establishes it. He is the author, prince, promoter, and keeper of peace.

Neither let it be afraid - Μηδε δειλιατω, Let not your heart shrink back through fear of any approaching evil. This is the proper meaning of the word. In a few hours ye will be most powerfully assaulted; but stand firm: - the evil will only fall upon me; and this evil will result in your comfort and salvation, and in the redemption of a lost world.

Isn’t it nice when you go through a battle and get the victory and the peace of God floods your heart?  God’s peace in our heart should make us so willing to serve Him in everything.  What more can there be than having God’s peace and knowing we are doing right?

Col 3:15  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Thankfulness is a big part in retaining and maintaining a spiritually satisfied life.  We need to be thankful for the difficulties that come as well even though it is not easy.  Everything that happens is allowed by God and can work for our good.  We need to give God a chance to prove Himself and He will.

Sister Dorothy - The tests don’t only come for us to prove God, but it is also for Him to prove us.  The satisfaction is that we pass the test.  It proves where we are and where we stand.  That is what is so good when we get the victory.  “Thank God I made it.  I made the test.”

Brother Bill - We don’t always know what is totally in our hearts.  There are times that things will bubble up and we say, “Whoa, I didn’t know that was in there.”  When we go through some things it helps us to know what is down in there.  “I really desire to serve God; I have proved it to myself.”

Sister Annette - The refining purges us from ourselves.  We must be willing to go through the fire and allow God to liberate us from ourselves.  It causes us to be free.  We can then have more love in our heart.

1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Sister Beverly - Yesterday I learned a new little thing about being thankful.  I saw a plaque on the wall, “If you could only have tomorrow the things that you were thankful for today, then what would it be like?”  What if God didn’t give me anything tomorrow that I was not thankful for today? 

It has really helped me.  It made me more keenly aware of “What if it was that way?”  It has made me more thankful, and more appreciative.  What I am thankful for today then I want to have in my life tomorrow.

Those things that we see in our life, God can help us to change.  Where we see we can measure up we want to measure.  We can.  God has the grace for us.

Mat 5:9  Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

We want to not only have this peace in our life but to share it.  God wants us under the influence of peace.  That is why it is so good to be around the saints. 

We must have courage in this walk.  We have an enemy that doesn’t want us to keep the peace.  We must battle to hold onto peace.  Our victory is in the truth.

Matthew Henry – peace should include: peace with God, peace with one another, and peace in our own bosom.

What a valuable thing to have peace in our soul and know that we are right with God!  What good would a mansion do for us if we didn’t have peace in our soul?

Matthew Henry goes on to say, “Peace is a tranquility of mind arising from the sense of justification before God.”

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

We will have difficulties.  How much better to go through the difficulties that come along with God to help us through to comfort us and give us peace to go through the difficulties.

I think of the difficulties I went through before I became a Christian.  I had no hope of peace in my soul or His comfort.  The battle just went on and on.

Alexander McLaren: true faith, by the mighty help of the will, fixes its gaze on our mighty helper and there finds it possible to lose its fears.  It is madness to say, “I will not be afraid.”  It is wisdom and peace to say, “I will trust and not be afraid.”

Billy Sunday – riches have not yet given anyone peace or rest.

Our life here on earth is just a short time compared to eternity in heaven.  We need to be laying up treasure in heaven.

C.S. Lewis – God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself.  It is not there.  There is no true peace or happiness where God is not there.

We want people to find God.  That is where the treasure and the help is.  It is where every need is supplied.  We want to be a real help and encouragement to those that just get saved.

Charles Brent – Peace comes when there is no cloud between us and God.  To be able to look into God’s face and know that there is nothing between the soul and Him is peace.

When people live in sin and do that which they know is not right it brings a cloud between them and God.

Charles Spurgeon – doubt discovers difficulties which it never solves.  It creates heaviness, despondency, despair, and lack of peace.  Doubt nails down the coffin of man.

How many times have you had a difficulty in your life that you put in your mind and go over and over again trying to discover a solution?  What a waste of time, drain of energy and opposite of peace!

We need to believe in God’s Word and we can believe.  The enemy will try to rob us of our faith.  We will have difficulties where we will have to man up and choose to believe.  We can choose to believe.  The enemy can bring unbelief and make things seem impossible to believe but we can choose to believe.

It may be that we just have to take our stand and say, “I can believe, I will believe, and I do believe.”  We can repeat that over and over again to ourselves.  God will give us the victory.

Charles Spurgeon – I find myself often depressed, perhaps more than any that is here.  I find no better cure than to trust in the Lord with all my heart and His infinite love in dying on the cross to put away all my transgressions.  Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength. And gives to mortals the peace of God. 

We need to pray for our pastors.  We don’t know what they go through: more difficulties and trials than we know of.  The enemy will target them especially

Don’t you thank God when you have prayed for strength in a certain area of your life and He gives it?

Brother Bill – The word of God exposes a God that wants us to trust in Him.  The heart throb of God is, “Trust in me.”  It tells in the gospels of the sparrows, the ravens, and the lilies.  The atmosphere of those scriptures is to trust in Him.  He wants us to believe in Him.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Oh that souls would launch out and see that God is real.  There are really souls that are living a saintly life.  “Blessed is the man that trusts in Him.”

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Sister Dorothy – The understanding is in our mind.  Peace is more than that.  It goes to our experience.  We can really truly experience peace.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. 

Adam Clarke - That in me ye might have peace - I give you this warning as another proof that I know all things, and to the end that ye may look to me alone for peace and happiness. The peace of God is ever to be understood as including all possible blessedness - light, strength, comfort, support, a sense of the Divine favor, unction of the Holy Spirit, purification of heart, etc., etc., and all these to be enjoyed in Christ.

In the world ye shall have tribulation - Or, as most of the very best MSS. read, εχετε, ye have - the tribulation is at hand; ye are just about to be plunged into it.

But be of good cheer - Do not despond on account of what I have said: the world shall not be able to overcome you, how severely soever it may try you.

I have overcome the world - I am just now going by my death to put it and its god to the rout.

My apparent weakness shall be my victory; my ignominy shall be my glory; and the victory which the world, the devil, and my adversaries in general, shall appear to gain over me, shall be their own lasting defeat, and my eternal triumph. - Fear not!

Aren’t you glad that there is victory with Christ?