The peacemakers.
Peacemakers
I. How great a blessing is peace.
1. It is the preserver of life.
2. It is the preserver of prosperity.
3. It is the preserver of happiness.
4. They are not easily offended.
5. If offended they are not irreconcilable.
6. They exert themselves to reconcile contending parties.
7. Their great effort is to reconcile sinners to God.
`II. The reward which awaits them.
1. They are the children of God by regeneration.
2. By adoption.
3. By their relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. They shall be acknowledged as the children of God. (J. Jordan.)
Peacemakers
I. The principles of the peacemakers. They are heavenly: this seen from the Great Peacemakers-the God of Peace; the prince of Peace; the Spirit of Peace. All the Divine Persons are active for peace. Many things operate to disturb this peace.
II. The way in which they are shown.
1. To compose differences which may exist between ourselves and others.
2. By striving to bring others to a knowledge of Jesus, that they may know the true peace.
3. In the endeavour to make peace between others. (W. Reeve.)
The peacemaker
I. He must understand what things have the capacity of agreement.
II. He must understand the true cause of disagreement.
III. He must take a deep interest in the contending parties.
IV. He must obey the Divine call for inter:position.
V. He must believe that God has made provision for pacifying world. (Caleb Morris.)
Peacemakers
I. View God as a peacemaker.
1. He is a Lover of peace.
2. He is a Maker of peace.
II. Delineate Christians as peacemakers.
1. They love peace.
2. They make peace.
3. They promote peace.
III. Their blessedness.
1. They are pronounced God’s children.
2. They have the inward happiness of self-approval.
3. They look forward to being rewarded by God. (J. G. Horton.)
I. Before they can become true peacemakers and be entitled to this beatitude, they must seek and obtain inward peace for themselves (Ephesians 2:13-17).
II. It then becomes their duty to promote peace and restore it where lacking-between man and God, and man and man-in the Church, in the community, in the world at large.
III. The means to be employed. To obtain peace for ourselves and lead others to its possession, we must use the means of grace. To reconcile man to man, we must set an example of peace (Romans 12:18).
IV. Then we shall be blessed.
1. In the enjoyment of peace (John 14:27; James 3:18).
2. In being known as the children of God, etc. (L. O. Thompson.)
The world is full of peace-breakers. Peacemakers
I. In the family.
II. In society.
III. In the church.
IV. In the state. (J. Mackay, B. D.)
This is the seventh step of the golden ladder which leads to blessedness. The name of peace is sweet, and the work of peace a blessed work.
I. The peace a godly man seeks is not to have a league of amity with sinners, though we are to be
(1) at peace with their persons, yet we are to have war with their
(2) sins
(3) Grace teacheth good nature; we are to be civil to the worst, but not twist into a cord of friendship; that were to be brethren in iniquity.
II. We must not so far have peace with others as to endanger ourselves.
1. If a man hath the plague, we will be helpful to him and send him our best receipts, but we are careful not to suck his infectious breath.
2. So we may be peaceable towards all-nay, helpful.
3. Pray for, counsel, and relieve them, but let us take heed of too much familiarity, lest we suck their infection.
4. We must so make peace with men that we do not break our peace with conscience.
III. We must not so seek peace with others as to wrong truth.
1. Peace must not be bought with the sale of truth.
2. We must so seek the flower of peace as not to lose the pearl of truth.
3. Truth is the most orient gem of the Church’s crown.
IV. We must not let any of God’s truth fall to the ground.
1. We must not so be in love with the golden crown of peace as to pluck off the jewels of truth.
2. Rather let peace go than truth, (Thomas Watson.)
Blessed are the peacemakers
I. 1. They that are desirous to preserve peace among their neighbours.
2. They that avoid and endeavour as much as they can to discourage and prevent in others those practices which are the usual means of raising quarrels and contentions among men.
3. They who avoid backbiting, tale-bearing, slander, detraction, and the like.
II. 1. The peaceful man, if there be any dissension already begun among them, will endeavour to incline parties to coolness and moderation.
2. If his neighbours will not be subdued by his good words and entreaties, he can at least in a great measure allay the dissension.
III. By promoting peace we
(1) do a work pleasing to God,
(2) and for which we shall receive abundant reward. (Bishop Ofspring Blackall, D. D.)
Children of God
Peacemakers are the children of the Most High.
I. By eternal generation: so Christ is the natural Son of His Father (Psalms 2:7).
II. By creation: so the angels are sons of God (Job 1:6; Job 38:7). When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
III. By participation of dignity: so kings and rulers are said to be children of the High God (Psalms 8:2; Psalms 8:6).
IV. By visible profession: so God hath many children. Hypocrites forge a title of sonship (Genesis 6:2).
V. By real sanctification: so the faithful are particularly and eminently the children of God. (Thomas Watson.)
Let us carry ourselves as becomes the children of God.
I. In obedience.
(1) Obey God out of love;
(2) readily;
(3) every command of His.
II. In humility. Look in the glass of God s Word, and see therein our sinful spots.
III. In speech.
1. Grace must be the salt that seasons our words.
2. Sobriety must govern our actions. Error is a spiritual intoxication.
IV. In fidelity. Faithful in all things.
V. In sedulity. We must labour in a calling: God will bless our diligence, not our laziness.
VI. In magnanimity.
1. Must do nothing sordidly.
2. Must not fear the faces of men, but be brave-spirited as Nehemiah.
VII. In sanctity. Holiness is a diadem of beauty. In this let us endeavour to imitate our heavenly Father.
VIII. In cheerfulness. Why do the children of God walk so pensively? Are they not heirs of heaven?
IX. Let us carry ourselves as the children of God in holy longings and expectations. Children are still longing to be at home. There is bread enough in our Father’s house. Oh, how we should ever be longing for home! (Thomas Watson.)
There is a fulness of meaning in the term as it stands in the Scripture, which includes both the effort; to make peace, and the disposition of the mind towards it.
I. A man may be officially or otherwise employed in composing a difference that exists between two families or two individuals, without possessing the spirit and disposition of peace which the word includes.
(1) No one can be the peacemaker of the text without; he
(2) possesses a peaceable and conciliatory disposition.
II. The duty combines the attempt to reconcile men to God, through the peace-speaking blood of the cross, with the effort to heal the breach of friendship which has been made among individuals.
(1) This of all labours the most noble and Divine.
(2) We overlook the most essential part of making peace if we confine our endeavours to the composing of differences among men, while we
(3) pass by multitudes around us who are “contending with their Maker.” (J. E. Good.)
The peacemaker
I. Describe the peacemaker.
1. He is a citizen.
2. He is a neighbour.
3. He is a Christian.
II. Declare his blessedness.
1. He is blessed of God.
2. He is one of the children of God.
3. They shall be called the children of God.
III. Set the peacemaker to work. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
How the Rev. John Owen restored peace between the Rev. Robert Hall and the Rev. Charles Simeon
A pleasing instance of a successful effort to restore peace is related in the life of the Rev. John Owen. The Rev. Charles Simeon and the Rev. Robert Hall were offended with each other, and in their anger declined intercourse. After several friends had tried to restore peace, and failed, Mr. Owen wrote the under-mentioned lines on two cards, and then left one at the house of each person”-
“How rare that task a prosperous issue finds,
Which seeks to reconcile discordant minds!
How many scruples rise to passion’s touch!
This yields too little, and that asks too much.
Each wishes each with other’s eyes to see:
And many sinners can’t make two agree:
What mediation, then, the Saviour showed,
Who singly reconciled us all to God.”
The first man who read the lines was so strongly impressed by them that he hastened from his house to call immediately upon his offended friend; the friend had also read the lines, and, being affected by them, had done the same, and the offended persons met each other in the street. A reconciliation instantly took place-a reconciliation which, it is believed, was never interrupted or regretted by either of those useful and highly esteemed men.