Isaiah 48:22 There is no peace, said the LORD, to the wicked. There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the ungodly. There may be what the world calls success and prosperity, without peace. Peace is an inward state and condition. It is not a matter of circumstance, but of mood. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." It is not a specially sent threatening, that there shall be no peace to the wicked; it is the permanently appointed Divine arrangement. By the constitution of things there can be no peace to the wicked - "no peace with God, or their own consciences, no real good, whatever is pretended to." It may be urged that the ungodly have no inward peace, because - I. OF THE DISSATISFACTION WHICH WICKEDNESS BRINGS. Bad men cannot rest in their badness, cannot regard it with pleasure. They want to get away from it to something else. A new excitement alone can clear away the thought of old sins. That is the saddest thing for the wilful and wayward man - he can never be happy in his wrong-doing. Excited he may be, never restful. II. OF THE SMITINGS WHICH CONSCIENCE GIVES. For though a man may gag and stifle Conscience, she will find her way to speak. The one thing absolutely impossible to the most wilful man is the silencing of Conscience. She has a way of waking up, and looking daggers when we think she is dead. If a man will force his own way against God, he must take into account that, as long as he lives, he shall have no peace; for he shall fight daily against his own conscience. It will lie down with him; it will go forth with him. III. OF THE FEARS WHICH WICKEDNESS SUGGESTS. There are always consequences to actions. Every act is a cause. Every result is appropriate to its cause. Sow to the flesh, and you must reap corruption. The bad man fears (1) the circumstances which his wilfulness may create; (2) the enmities which his wilfulness may excite; (3) the future in which all the power may - nay, must - lie in the hands of the God he insults. Wherever the ungodly man walks he can know no real peace; "fears are in the way." IV. OF THE DISTURBANCES OF THE DIVINE ORDER WHICH HIS SELF-WILL OCCASIONS. There is a Divine order; and it involves the very highest well-being - up to its capacity - of every creature, great and small. That order is based upon man's obedient and submissive harmony with God's will. This the wicked man refuses, and so this order the wicked man breaks. Alas! spoiling the peace, not for himself alone, but for all with whom he has to do. The everlasting peace will come when we are "all righteous," and not a moment before. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked. |
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