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     1. Sweet Peace, the Gift of God's Love   (5:07)
     2. Peace   (13:25)
     3. Under His Wings   (3:03)

John 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.

Romans 14:17-18.  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.  ¹⁸For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.

Philippians 4:6-8.  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  ⁷And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  ⁸Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Jesus Christ says, “My peace I give unto you, not like the world.”  Now, this is not pop-bottle glass.  This is the real thing.  I used to manufacture engagement rings.  In fact, I had a monopoly for quite a while.  The boss would come to me—he says, “You can make all you want.”  There was such a demand for rings after the First World War, and I had a good time making them.  Of course, I never got any for myself; it was always for strangers. 

But (…) Jesus is so near tonight.  He’s here.  He’s looking upon us.  He’s looking into our hearts.  He wants you to have the real thing.  We cannot please Him with imitations.  We must have… and anyone that has received this gift of God’s love knows how real it is, knows that it doesn’t come…  “I don’t give like the world,” He says.  “I don’t give you pop-bottle glass.  I give you the real thing: My peace.”  And it ought to interest us tonight, because we see so much of the other in the world today.  Oh, how many homes are torn asunder by strife.

When I was in Germany in 1937, Ossam—what was his name?—the boy that had been here, took me up the hill.  They had the Stations of the Cross on the hill.  It was a Roman Catholic town, and they had the Stations of the Cross from the bottom up to the top.  Up at the top, there was a shrine.  And he told me that the people used to make that pilgrimage until one day a fat woman rolled down the hill, and then they had to stop it.  It was too dangerous, it was too steep.  But we went up there, and when we were up there, we went into this little chapel, full of idols, looking over the town.  And George said to me, “There isn’t a single house in this town, Roman Catholic though they are, where there’s peace—not one.  In every house there is fighting, and striving, and hatred, and jealousy. 

And isn’t that often the case in the world, and often the case even with Christian people?  But you know, this peace of God’s love is Christ Himself.  It’s the reign of “the Prince of Peace.  And the Bible says that “the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.  And he that herein serveth God is precious in the sight of God, and accepted of men.”  And whoever thought of serving God by having peace?

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Of course, there are the different stages: first of all, “peace with God”: being justified by faith—justified from all things from which you couldn’t be justified by the Law of Moses.  Why was it that we couldn’t be justified by the Law of Moses?  Because the Law of Moses couldn’t cleanse us from our sin—couldn’t break the chains of sin, couldn’t deliver us from the “lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” couldn’t purify us within.  But Jesus Christ: “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”  And here, we’re justified.  Oh, thank God, thank God!  And now, we have peace with God, and we say, “Our Father which art in heaven.”  And we “walk in the light, as He is in the light,” walk in fellowship with God the Father, and God the Son.  These things are so real.  I can’t see how anybody can be satisfied without it.  I don’t see how anyone can rest until he has “peace with God.”

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And that “peace with God” leads you to “the peace of God.”  “…In nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving…”  Whoever thought of that?  “In everything.”  Whatever your trials are, thank God for them, because He’s got a remedy for it, praise the Lord!  You’re being tested and tried because Jesus Christ sees that you’ve got only pop-bottle glass, and He wants to give you real diamonds.  That’s what’s the matter.  That’s why he says, “We glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.”  It takes the broom and it sweeps out all this subterfuge, and all these imitations, and makes room for the real thing.

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Oh, Jesus, I do love You.  I love You because that makes You real.  Everything else is an imitation.  But, oh, when Your “peace that passeth all understanding” overcomes all my trials, and all my anxiety, and all my fears, and all my doubts—and it really does—then I know that You’ve come in.  I know You Jesus, and the power of Your resurrection, and You’ve begun Your reign in my soul, and oh, what a reign this is!  How wonderful, how different from what we used to think it was!  It’s “Peace, the gift of God’s love.”

Now, if God can help everybody in this meeting to react: take this recipe and obey it, and you’ll be surprised what’ll happen.  You will be surprised.  And if you don’t, you’ll never find out.  Oh, “the peace of God that passeth all understanding,” it really does because it’s heavenly peace.  It’s Jesus Christ Himself—“My peace I give unto you.”

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Philippians 4:7.  “…der Friede Gottes, welcher höher ist denn alle Vernunft…”  “...the peace of God, which passeth all understanding...”

This is spoken in Swiss-German Dialekt: “jetzt hen’mr Friede gfunde.”  In German it would be: “jetzt haben wir Frieden gefunden.” — Now we have found peace.

Weicht, ihr Trauergeister,
Jesus Christ der Meister,
selber tritt herein.

A quote from the last stanza of Johann Frank’s poem “Jesu, meine Freude.”  J. S. Bach set this poem as his Motet No. 3 in E minor, BWV 227.  HRW’s variation has essentially the same meaning.  The entire stanza is:

In die Ecke, Besen! Besen! Seids gewesen!

A quote from Goethe’s well-known poem, Der Zauberlehrling, or The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  In the last stanza, the master restores order by the command, “To the side of the room hasten, broom, as of old!”  A translation of the entire poem is available here.

Moment by Moment, a hymn by Daniel W. Whittle, 1893:

Moment by moment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by moment I’ve life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Sweet Peace, the Gift of God’s Love, a hymn by Peter P. Bilhorn, 1887:

There comes to my heart one sweet strain,
A glad and a joyous refrain,
I sing it again and again,
Sweet peace, the gift of God’s love.

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