Returning to John chapter 14. John chapter 14, and we'll begin reading at verse 21 of the chapter here. John chapter 14, and we'll begin reading at verse 21. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to his disciples here. And in John 14 verse 21 he says, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If any man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. 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. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye love me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before, it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. We'll end our reading at the end of the chapter, 14, verse 31. And with God's Word before us open and now read, let's seek the Lord for his blessing upon now the preaching of the Word of God. Our loving Father, we do enter into thy presence. We do so, Lord, by faith. We thank thee for the promises of God. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to thee. And Lord, we come with confidence that thou wilt hear the cry of the righteous. Lord, hear our cry. We thank thee for thy people. Lord, as we look around, we see individuals who have made that great effort to come to the house of God today. We think of untreated roads that they have passed over. And Lord, what an encouragement it is to us. To think of the great, Lord, effort that has been made by some and, Lord, by others who find themselves isolating. Lord, bless them today. Encourage them in the Lord. We pray that all means that are employed here, all platforms upon which we are broadcasting might work well today. And, Lord, that the word of God would run. We rejoice, Lord, in the far reach off the word in these days. Oh God, we thank thee for thy goodness towards us. And Lord, now we look to thee. Lord, feed us from thy word. Lord, feed us with the word, that word that is the bread of life to our souls, that which is greater and more important than our necessary food. Lord, feed these our impoverished and famished souls, and may there be a word for the year, and for this day, and for the days and years that lie before us. Lord, we offer these our prayers. Lord, in the name that is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. Amen and amen. The last will and testament of any individual can be one of those issues that can have the potential of being or leading to family dispute and to family division if not carefully thought out and considered. Solicitors aware of such a potential make the attention of the drawer up of the will, they make them aware of certain bequests that can be included in order to avoid future disputes among loved ones. Now a bequest is simply a gift that a person either leaves a family member, a friend, or even an organization. It can be anything from cash to property, to a wedding ring, to other pieces of jewelry, antiques, paintings, whatever possessions an individual possesses in life, they can then, at the end of life's journey, bequest such to loved ones and to friends or, as I've said, to an organization. Now whenever the Lord Jesus Christ came to the time in his earthly ministry, when he would go to the cross and then eventually leave this world to return to heaven, he spoke about certain things that he was going to leave to his people and to his church. In John chapter 14, the Son of God, he mentions two of those things that would form part of his bequest. that he would leave to his people and to his church on his ascension back to heaven. He firstly told his disciples that he was going to give to them the gift of another comforter, that in the person of God the Holy Spirit. If you look at the verses 16 and 17, the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of such a bequest. He says, and I will pray the Father that he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." What a bequest! God the Holy Spirit would be for these disciples as they face an unknown future without the bodily presence of the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God with them as they would go forth to preach the everlasting gospel to the regions beyond and to the uttermost parts of the world. And so the gift or the person of the Holy Spirit was part of the bequest that Jesus Christ gave to His church on His death and subsequent ascension back to heaven. However, the Lord Jesus Christ goes on to speak about something else that He's going to give to His disciples and to every succeeding follower of Jesus Christ. And it is that gift that forms the bequest of Christ. And I want us to think about what He promised to His people here in John chapter 14. I've entitled my message for today, Christ's Bequest to His People. Christ's Bequest to His People. Now the text in which that bequest is mentioned is found in John 14 verse 27. Peace I leave with you. my peace give I unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Now these words, they form the motto tax for this congregation for this new year. The Lord very clearly directed me to, and subsequently confirmed no later than yesterday, on two occasions, that these words were the words that would form the motto text for this year. And so I trust that the words that we find in verse 27 will be a blessing to your heart throughout the next 365 days of 2021, or just a little less. with us now being in the third day of the month of January, just as much as the words of last year's motto text were to us. Do you remember them? Psalm 46, 1 and 2, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore will not we fear. I trust that these words will be as much a blessing as the words that we found last year for our motto text. Now, the first matter that I then want to draw your attention to from these words in verse 27, A matter that's going to form the majority of the message today is the bequest itself. We want to consider the bequest itself. Now speaking to his disciples in the upper room on the night of his arrest in Gethsemane's garden and then on the eve of his crucifixion on the cross at the place called Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ identifies what he is going to bequest, what he is going to give to his people. It is his peace. He said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give on to you. This was going to be the legacy of all legacies. This was going to form an inheritance like no other inheritance. It was the bequests of all bequests. And thus the Savior repeats what he is going to give to his people on two occasions, lest they missed it on the first occasion when he spoke it. And so he said, peace, I leave with you my peace, I give on to you. Now, when we come to read about peace in the Bible, we need to consider a number of matters so that we might understand what is being spoken of when Christ speaks here about peace. Now, in the first instance, I want you to think about the nature of the peace. the nature of this peace. The peace that is spoken of in the Bible, the peace that is spoken of by Christ here, I would term as evangelical peace or spiritual peace. This is the fruit of the power of the gospel within an individual's life. Now, that peace has a twofold aspect to it. Let me explain it. there is what is known as objective peace. And really objective peace is that peace that has to do with our relationship with God. And then subsequent to that there is what is known as subjective peace, and really that peace has to do with our experience in this world and in our personal lives. want to explain and maybe broaden it out a little as we think about these two then pieces that we have here. I want you to think about objective peace. Objective peace. Now this objective peace, a peace that has to do with our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, is a peace that is not naturally ours. We do not naturally possess this peace. We know from our reading of Holy Scripture that we are born at enmity, at war with God. Romans 5 verse 10 tells us that we were enemies with God. by nature, and thus being an enemy of God, there is no peace between us and God, naturally speaking, when we come into this world born under sin and born as a sinner. And thereby, you would know that if you are an enemy with an individual, you're never at peace with them well that is what we are by nature we are enemies of God we're not friends of God we're not children of God but by nature we are enemies of God we are on a war footing with the Almighty however When the Christian, when the sinner repents of their sin and receives Jesus Christ into their life and into their heart and into their soul, all hostility between the sinner and God ends. They cease to be at war with one another. They cease being enemies of God and they come to be at peace with God. Listen to what the apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 5 and the verse 1, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. To be at once at war with God and now to be at peace with God is a most blessed state for any individual, any person to find themselves in at this particular moment of time. This peace. This objective piece is the fruit of our justification, because we are justified and because all enmity has been removed and all sin has been dealt with by the sacrifice of Christ, the Christian now stands justified before God. declared legally righteous before God, and thereby God is at peace with that individual, and that individual is at peace with God. Because we have been declared righteous, then we can enjoy peace with God. Something that is utterly impossible when we are still in our sins. On this first Lord's Day of a new year, I think a most then fitting question for me to ask just at this juncture off the message is this question, are you at peace with God today? Are you still in your sin? Are you a child of wrath? Are you still a child of disobedience? Are you at enmity with God? Are you an enemy of God? Are you under the curse? Are you under God's condemnation today? Well then, if so, let me invite you to trust in Jesus Christ, to be at peace with God today, and begin this new year at peace with your Creator. One preacher said this, if you're not at peace with God, he said, then you're at peace with Satan. If you have not peace through the gospel, then you are at peace with sin. And he said, if you die in peace with sin, then you will have God for your enemy, Christ for your angry judge, hell for your abode, devils and damned souls for your miserable companions, and unalterable torments for your portion forever. If you're not at peace with God, and you die as one not at peace with God, then this will be your portion. And so I would counsel you today as those, or as the one in Job chapter 22 verse 21 counseled. There we read, acquaint now thyself with him, with who? With God, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come on to thee. Acquaint yourself with God today. Come to know Him through the Son. Receive Him as your Savior. Repent of your sin. Trust in Christ today. And then, thank God, you'll be at peace with God. With God. Now, when on the grounds of Christ's sacrifice, peace with God is obtained, then the sinner comes into possession of the peace of God. Note the difference. First I am at peace with God, and now I possess the peace of God. And that peace is this subjective peace. We thought about the objective peace. I'm at peace with God. Now we think about this subjective peace. While objective peace is that which is outside of ourselves, this subjective peace is that which reigns within, inside of us. This peace is ruling in our hearts. This subjective peace is that which reigns within the heart of all who are reconciled to God. Now being reconciled with God, I have peace with God, and I have the peace of God. And this subjective peace is again a fruit of salvation. This is the peace that Paul would speak about in Philippians chapter 4 verse 7, and the peace of God. He said, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. the peace of God. This is peace of conscience. This is peace of mind. This is peace of heart. This is peace of soul. And they're all the result of the peace of God reigning within the heart of the child of God. One Christian pastor put it like this, subjective peace, peace within, comes from the objective reality of being reconciled to God. Because I am reconciled to God, then I have peace, the peace of God. Archibald Alexander said, peace of conscience is a fruit of reconciliation with God. It's the fruit of reconciliation with God, to have the peace of God reigning within. Now, child of God, do you not remember what it was like before you were a Christian? The trouble of soul, the anxious heart, the fretful mind, the sleepless nights, those days of turmoil within, there is no peace. But now, you've got the peace of God. And when circumstances come in and troubles arrive at the doorstep of the home, yes, they cause concern, but above it all and around it all, there is the peace of God. that I understand that all these things have fallen out for my advancement and for His glory and for my good. And so peace reigns in the midst of the storm. I ask you, do you know anything of that peace? Do you know anything of the peace of God? I've asked you, are you at peace with God? But do you know anything about this peace, this peace within, this reigning, this ruling peace of yours? Is there in that soul of yours an internal peace? Is there an experimental peace? Is there a God-given peace, if you become a beneficiary of the peace of God? Let me say, for the child of God, who is at peace with God, The one who is reconciled to God has nothing outside of them that they need to fear. Nothing outside of them that they need to fear. The Christian, and only the Christian, has peace within with regard to God's providential dealings in their lives. Because they believe, and they know, on the record of Scripture, that such sovereignly ordained events helping them to arrive at conformity to Jesus Christ. Like Christ, the believer can sleep peacefully, even when the storm around them rages, because running deep, running deep in their soul is peace like a river, deep within. Peace, peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above. What a blessing to have peace within and to know that I'm at peace with God. All condemnation removed. All guilt and shame eradicated, all sin dealt with sufficiently by the blood atonement of Christ. And now I am at peace with God. I stand justified before Him. I am accepted in Jesus Christ. And come what may, come what may in 2021, I'll still have this peace. Governments cannot legislate that this peace is removed from the soul of mine. No, this peace will rule and reign within the hearts of God's believing people. So let me be as clear as I can. There is a double peace. There is a double peace that Christ is speaking of here in verse 27. There is peace with God and there is the peace of God. One preacher put it like this, the legacy of Christ is a two-fold peace, a peace of friendship, of agreement, of love, of everlasting union between the elect and God. It is next a peace of sweet enjoyment, of quiet rest, of the understanding and of the conscience. So I asked you, is this double portion of peace yours today? Is it yours? If not, it can be through faith alone in the Christ of God. So we thought about the nature of this peace, an objective peace, peace with God, A subjective peace, the peace of God. Now let's think about the source of this peace. We're still thinking about this, what has been bequested. This peace, let's think about the source of it. From what source does real, genuine, abundant, abiding, evangelical spiritual peace flow from? What source does it flow from? Well, Jesus Christ is very clear in the language that it uses here, and it comes as no surprise to us, but that this peace flows to us from the God of peace, from the Prince of peace. Notice what he says in verse 27, "'Peace I give unto you, my peace. It's His. He possesses it. It's my peace, give I on to you. This is the peace of the Son of God that He possesses in and of Himself, and then He in turn, He will gift that to the child of God. Now you think about Christ and His earthly minister. You think about His life. Now the Savior's life Outwardly was one of the most troubled lives that was ever lived on this earth, and yet deep peace, tranquility, serenity, conquered and marked his conduct and character at all times. This peace, his peace, was the peace that Jesus Christ knew when he slept in the hinder part of the boat, when the storm arose on the Sea of Galilee and the disciples feared that they were going to perish, Christ was at peace, sleeping there at peace. This was the peace that Christ knew when he was ridiculed and maligned and falsely accused of, whenever he was accused of being in league with the devil. What a charge! a charge brought against him. I say if it had have been any of us we would have stood and defended ourselves to the very last moment of the day and yet here's Christ charged, maligned, ridiculed and despite it all, peace. This was the peace that marked the Savior when he rose from Gethsemane's garden They went forward to meet Judas Iscariot and the band of soldiers that were sent to arrest him. This was peace. When he stood in the judgment hall or before the Sanhedrin, and they buffeted him and they spat upon him and they mocked him, this was the peace. This was the peace that ruled his heart as the Savior stood in the midst of his haters and mockers during his trial in which he would be sentenced to death by crucifixion. This was the peace. It was in the Savior's heart when He hung upon the cross and endured the punishment inflicted upon Him by both man and God. In the midst of it all, He was at peace. He was at peace. And that's the kind of peace the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about here in verse 27. It is a peace that meets whatever God providentially sends into a person's life with calmness and with serenity. That's the kind of peace that God gives his children, and such a peace can only find its source then in God, in God. It is then for the sinner To be, as I've said, reconciled to God, and be at peace with God, and thereby know the peace of God. Because what peace can you have in this world if you're never at peace with God? There is no peace. And for those of us who have been reconciled, those of us who have been saved, and yet peace evades us, and fears envelop us at times, in such instances we are to seek God for this peace. He will give us this peace. He'll give it to us. If we seek Him for it, we must trust in God, and we must, at times, stay our minds upon Him. Though the circumstances seem to be so contrary to even such a procedure taking place in our lives, what does the Bible say? What does the Scripture say, brethren and sisters? It says, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. whose mind has stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee. And I believe I spoke on that verse before. And that word there, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. The word peace is repeated twice. We could literally read the verse, thou wilt keep him in peace, peace, peace, peace, whose mind has stayed on thee, as your mind stayed on God today. Because when it is, and when we trust in Him, then there is peace. The nature of the peace, we thought about its nature, the subjective nature. Subjective nature, we thought about the source of the peace. What do you think about the purchasing of peace? The purchasing of this peace, spiritual peace, evangelical peace, was procured by the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary. purchased there by the sharing of His blood. By the sharing of blood there is peace with God. And then subsequently, as the offshoot, as the fruit of that, then there is the peace of God. Thomas Watson said this, well worth writing in your Bible. Thomas Watson said this about spiritual peace. It swims to us in the blood of Christ. What a thought. This peace, evangelical peace, it swims to us in the blood of Christ. In Colossians 1 verse 20 we read, and having made peace, how? Through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. What a price, what a price to pay for the purchasing of this peace, that I can be at peace with God. It would require the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. It would require the shedding of his blood. It would require him being bruised and beaten, and for him to be afflicted by the Father, and for him to be forsaken by the First Person of the Holy Trinity, and for him to cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And all because he wished and he desired, and he, he committed himself to procuring, and securing peace for me and peace for you. Oh, Christian, let me encourage you to ponder afresh. Ponder afresh the immense price paid by the Son of God so that you today could have peace, peace in that soul of yours. peace of conscience and peace of heart, and to know that all is well with your soul. And then as you reflect on that great price, as you reflect on Calvary, and as you reflect upon all that Jesus Christ did in order that you could be at peace with God, then resolve, resolve on the first Lord's Day of this year to wage war against all that would disturb that peace within your soul. And what is it that disturbs our peace, sin. Which war against a child of God this year? Have done with your besetting sin. Come to the place of victory and of triumph, and seek the infilling of the Spirit of God. And not only that, but then, as you think about all that Christ has done for you, and now you're at peace with God, then commit. Now listen, child of God, commit. to join with the people of God around the table of remembrance every second Lord's day of the year or of the month. And as we sit there, may we think again of the price that was paid, that was secured, or the price that was paid to secure this peace with God. Commit yourself, I'm going to be at the table, because I'm at peace with God. As we take the emblems, we remember that through His body and through the shedding of His blood, I am reconciled to God. What is a few minutes at the end of a meeting? What price is that to pay compared to the price He paid so that I would be given this peace? The fourth thing I want you to think about is the obtaining of peace. And this is really from the purchasing of peace, that really is the Godward aspect, now the manward aspect, the obtaining of peace. I don't know if you've ever heard preachers saying something like this. I'm sure you have. You maybe heard it in a funeral service or maybe in a gospel service. And they would ask a question like this, have you made your peace with God? You ever heard someone say that, a preacher say that? Or maybe you've heard someone say, maybe as they speak to a Christian, you know, I've made my peace with God. Well, can I say in both instances, such is impossible. Actually, it is biblically incorrect to say such a thing. We are never told in the Bible that we are to make peace with God. Peace with God has already been made by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Colossians 1.20, and having made peace. It's already been made, past tense. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself. Christ has made peace through the blood of his cross. It's a work that is already done. And so I do not make peace with God, I haven't made peace with God. No, what I have done is that I have accepted what Christ has done for me, and thereby, through Him, I have obtained the peace that is offered to the sinner in the gospel. We cannot make peace with God. How could we do that? By merit? By works? We cannot do it. It has already been done for us. And so how do I obtain this peace? I obtain it by faith. Faith. I go to Him, He who preached peace, He who purchased peace. He who published peace, I go to Him and by faith I receive Him. I repent, I turn from my sin, I accept Christ as my Savior and peace enters my soul. And thereby, we must always remember that the peace we now enjoy can never be divorced from the peace purchased by Christ on the cross. It is because Christ has purchased peace, Through executing all that was required for Him in the covenant of peace, that we can enjoy peace in our soul. And having found peace where? At the cross. Having found peace there, the Christian finds his peace again and again at the very same place where the Christian life began. They go back to the cross. And as they view the sacrifice and as they view the Savior upon the tree, they remember that they're at peace with God because of Him. And because of that then, a renewed sense of peace floods the soul. Because I am at peace with God, then all is well, all is well. And so we obtain this peace by faith. He will give it if we ask. Ask, and it shall be given you. Do you lack peace today? Ask the Savior for it. He will give it, and He will give it freely and abundantly. Whatever your need would be, He will give it sufficiently. And so the bequest was peace. I want you to think secondly, and these two final points are brief, I want you to think about the uniqueness of the bequest. What dead person can ever leave peace in their will? Ever think of that? They can leave money. They can leave their car. They can leave their farm. They can leave their art collection. They can leave many things, but they cannot leave peace. They cannot leave it. Not one individual is able to give to a troubled soul peace. However, Jesus Christ said, peace I leave with you. My peace I give on to you. In these words, the Savior really is making a contrast between His peace and the peace that the world promises. You see, the world promises peace through its pleasures and through its treasures and through its religions and through its wisdom, through its philosophy, through its relationships. They cry, peace, peace. This is where you'll find peace. But lasting peace is found in none of these things. However, there is a unique peace, a peace belonging only to God that God bestows to His child. It is then no wonder that the Apostle Paul, when he speaks of this peace in Philippians 4 verse 7, he says, it is a peace that passeth all understanding. The worldling can't understand it. The Christian. can't understand it. The angels cannot understand it. The devil cannot understand it. It is a peace so far removed from the world's supposed peace that the human mind cannot comprehend it and human language cannot explain it. It is unique peace within. Thomas Guthrie Contrasting the world's peace with God's peace, he said the following, the world gives conventuality, Christ gives sincerely. The world gives superficially, the Christ gives substantially. The world gives partially, Christ gives perfectly. The world gives capriciously, Christ gives constantly. The world gives temporarily, Christ gives eternally. And so again, I address the unconverted who are here, who are listening in to this service. Whatever sense of peace that you have in that heart of yours today, whatever sense of peace you derive from the things of this world, you're going to find that it's going to be short-lived. I say the world's peace, it's only an illusion. It's only a mirage. I say it's only a mere fantasy. How did I say that? I say it because of Scripture. Isaiah chapter 48 verse 22, there is no peace saith my God unto the wicked. And so if you're deluded and you say I have peace, I tell you it's not the peace of God if you're not a Christian. However the peace that God gives the child of God is immutable. It'll never change. It'll endure forever. It is a peace that permeates the heart and soul when sorrows and sickness and troubles roll and crash into their lives. Is that not what the hymn writer said? Spafford, on the death of his children in the Atlantic Ocean, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, that was taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. Another hymn writer, Anne Murphy, she said these words, there's a peace in my heart that the world never gave, a peace it cannot take away, though the trials of life may surround like a cloud of a peace that has come there to stay. The bequest itself, the uniqueness of it, I want you to think about the suitability of the bequest. You know, some people, they leave the most strangest things in their last will and testimony to their family and to their friends. I did a little bit of research and I found that whenever Napoleon Bonaparte came to draw up his last will and testament, he said that When he died, he wished that his head would be shaved and his hair divided up between his friends. Imagine getting that in the last will and testament when you were sitting around. You think of it, you think of a person and they're sitting there and they've got no money and their children are starving and there's nothing in the cupboard. And all of a sudden, there arise news that you've been left something in the well, and the person comes with it, and he drops it down on the table, and it's a few strands of Napoleon Bonaparte's hair. What good would that have done to a family starving? It wouldn't be suitable, would it? Wouldn't feed them. It wouldn't, as it were, remove their hunger, no more suitable. A more suitable gift would have been money or would have been food. Because you see, at times men leave the most unsuitable gifts. But not Christ. Jesus Christ, when he thought about what he was going to leave his disciples and his people, he bequested them something most suitable and most fitting. Don't forget the context in which these words sit. We know them well. John 14, verse 1, what were the words of Christ to his disciples? Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. And then don't overlook the words at the end of our text, in the verse 27. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid." These two statements, they identify that the disciples of Christ had troubled hearts. They had many a fear. And so being aware of this, the Omniscient Savior bequests to them peace. He said, it is because your hearts are troubled, it is because you're full of fear that I'm going to leave you something most fitting, something that is ideal. I'm going to leave you my peace. Could anything have been more suitable? Peace is just what these perplexed and perturbed disciples needed. Brethren and sisters, are we not in need of peace? Is God's peace not a most suitable legacy for us to be gifted, living in a world in which we live and living in an era in which we find ourselves as the coming of Jesus Christ hastens on? We need the peace of God ruling in our hearts. We need peace. a supernatural peace to flood these souls of ours, because folks, there are going to be events that are going to happen in 2021, and they are going to rock your little world. And they're going to disturb your peace, and they're going to crash into your personal life, and into your family life, and into the life of the nation, and they're going to cause us to be troubled, and they're going to cause us to become afraid. whenever the peace of God reigns within the heart, then we are enabled to face, come what may, everything with calm serenity and with an unflinching confidence that God doeth all things well. May we all enter the unknown as those who are at first at peace with God and then those who have the peace of God ruling within their hearts and minds. And so I trust that these words of the Savior will be words of great comfort for us all in coming days. Peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. And as a consequence, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. May God be pleased to bless this word to all hearts today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Let's pray. Our loving Father, we thank Thee for the great peace treaty It was signed and sealed, as it were, at the place called Calvary, peace through the blood of His cross. And being reconciled to God, we now have the peace of God. May this peace rule and reign in our hearts. We look out into the unknown future. Lord, there are many things that would disturb our peace, but may in these souls of ours there be a deep river of peace running within. May we be able, dear God, to come in thy will to the end of 2021 and be able to testify God's peace steadied me in the hour of testing. God's peace flooded my soul in the day of sorrow, and may we be able to say my heart does not fear, because he doeth all things well. Blessed so God thy Word, may it be comfort every heart, for we offer prayer in the name of Christ our Savior. Amen and Amen. Thank you.