Cut yourself free for tranquility

Chicagoan Mary Baker, a leader in the "Temperance Movement" of the 1800s, wrote the great hymn, Peace! Be Still. The lyrics include:

The winds and the waves shall obey Thy will.

Peace, be still! Peace, be still! Peace, be still! Peace, be still! Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, Or demons, or men, or whatever it be, No water can swallow the ship where lies the Master of ocean and earth and skies; They all shall sweetly obey Thy will! Peace! Peace! be still!

“How do you get through the storms?” says Jordan. “You believe what the Master of the winds and waves said. You realize the storm isn’t the reality. The reality is what God said and when you trust what God says, you know what it brings? Peace in the midst of the turmoil. A peace that passes all understanding. Paul calls it ‘the peace of God.’

“In John 14, Jesus told the apostles, 'My peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives; I’m giving you MY peace.'

“If you look for a definition of ‘the peace of God’ it would be John 14:27 when Jesus talked about His peace. He’s God. And His peace was, ‘I’m going to the Cross. Why? Because I’m doing the will of my Father.  I’m trusting my Father and I’m being obedient to my Father.’

“His peace--His complete, relaxed, tranquility was in doing the will of His Father. He said it when He began His ministry. ‘My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me. The thing that sustains me, marshals me, carries me forth and energizes me is the will of my Father.’ In the shadow of the Cross He said, ‘That’s all I live for is to please my Father; to glorify Him.’

*****

"In Luke 3 is a wonderful counterpart to what we read in Matthew 3. Luke 3:21 says, ‘Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

[22] And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.’

“Now, in Matthew, the voice said, ‘This is beloved son.’ It was a pronouncement to the world; to Israel: ‘This is my boy; I’m pleased in Him!’

“But in Luke, Luke adds that personal touch, looking at the personal side of things. Luke doesn’t just say, ‘The Father says, This is Him!’ That’s Matthew; the royal proclamation.

"Luke says, ‘There was something more said because the Father looked at His Son and He said Thou, first person, personal address. 'Thou art my beloved Son and in thee I am well-pleased. I want you to understand, Son, that I know who you are and that all of my delight is in you!’

*****

“Jesus Christ leaves there in chapter 4 and goes out into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil; the first temptation of the devil. The slanderer says, ‘If thou be the son of God, command these stone . . . IF you really believe who the Father said you are . . .’

“But you notice what the devil did? He didn’t say, ‘If thou be the beloved Son of God in whom the Father’s well-pleased . . .’ That’s what the Father really said.

“Because the Adversary understood that if Jesus Christ understood, and was going to stand in an appreciation of who the Father really said He was, temptation was going to be of no success.

“The Adversary is trying to move Christ away from the identity the Father had just conferred upon Him. Christ knew who He was, but He also knew who the Father said He was and Satan knows, ‘If I’m going to tempt Him, I’ve got to move Him away from that.’

*****

“Temptation loses its grip, friend, when you stand in a conscious commitment and faith in the identity God gives you in Jesus Christ. Living, standing, in the reality of who God has already made us in Christ Jesus, stand--refuse to be moved from that. That’s the key!

“If you’re going to proclaim the gospel, and you’re going to defend the faith, it’s going to start with you, preaching the gospel to yourself and defending the gospel to yourself.

"It's about standing in who God’s made you in His Son, not in the world, in the flesh or in the devil's work, and refusing to be moved away from it.

“That’s how victory comes into the experience of a Believer. That’s why you want to put this armor on, so you can stand and withstand the attempts of the Adversary to move you away from that marvelous identity."

*****

"The poem says, 'So near, so very near to God
  Nearer I could not be;
For in the person of His Son,
  I am as near as He.
So dear, so very dear to God,
  I could not dearer be;
The love wherewith He loves His Son,
  Such is His love to me.'

"Paul writes, 'That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.'

“Paul says, ‘To be established means you and I share the same mutual faith.’ Christ gives it to Paul, and through Paul’s epistles, it’s given to you.  When you believe and understand the same thing Paul believes and understands, you have that mutual faith. You know, like Mutual of Omaha, where you share it together. That is spiritual establishment.

*****

“You ever hear the question, ‘Did Adam have a belly button?’ Well, he didn’t because he wasn’t born. He was a new creature. In Christ, you’re a new species of humanity.

“That’s why Paul says you’re buried with Him by baptism into death. When you died with Him . . . ‘I’m crucified with Christ nevertheless I live,’ Paul says. You're circumcised with the circumcision made without hands and the putting off of the body with the sins of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ.

“You have an experience there that cuts you free from all that stuff in the past. Death is a liberating experience because the only answer to sin is death. Just like the answer to your sins was Christ dying, the answer for your sin, your nature, is you dying with Him. Then you’re buried with Him.

“The gospel of I Corinthians 15 is that Christ died for our sins and was buried and raised again the third day and that He was seen.

“First time anybody in the Bible was ever buried, Abraham took his wife Sarah, bought a little piece of ground, and he said, ‘I want that piece of ground so I can bury my dead out of my sight.’ The burial with Him is you taking that old corrupt man and putting him away. God’s put him away."