Psalm 29:11 The LORD will give strength to his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace. Peace and rest are two names for a flower which buds on earth, but is only found full-blown in heaven; yet even the faint perfume of the unopened blossom excites our strong desire. Every precious thing in this world is sure to be counterfeited. If the government mint issues gold and silver money, rogues will be found to make spurious coin. Satan is the cunning ape of God; and whatever God does, he tries to do the like with his enchantments. Hence, while there is a peace more precious than the gold of Ophir, there is another peace which is worse than worthless. When a soul is borne up upon the waters of false peace, its ease is hopeless till that peace is dried up, and the soul is stranded in self-despair. I. THE DEVIL'S PEACE (Luke 11:21). 1. This peace is often merely outward. The plough-boy, when he goes through the churchyard, is afraid of ghosts, and therefore whistles to keep his courage up; and so, many who are loaded with apprehension try to conceal it by those flippant songs in which they boast of "driving dull care away." In the secret of their soul that same dull care sits on the throne of their hearts, and is not to be driven away by the ballad, and the fiddle and the dance. 2. This peace is false. A sinner may say, "I am at peace as to God"; but if this comes of forgetting or ignoring Him, it is a sorry sham. If a man has to forget God before he has peace, that fact betrays a fatal secret. If the man, on remembering God, is troubled, then his peace is a mere writing on the sand. Better know that we are at war, if it be so, than dote upon a peace which is a fool's, paradise, and only exists in fancy. 3. To many this peace comes through ignorance. They know not that sin is a deadly viper, and therefore they toy with it as with a bird. 4. With many, however, it is not so much ignorance as thoughtlessness. This is one of the devil's great nets, in which he entangles many. If he can keep you from thinking; he will keep you from believing. 5. This peace, in many cases, is the result of carnal security. Will things always be as they have been? Can you be sure of it? Are you not warned that it will not be so? Your eye is not so clear as once it was; your limbs are not so vigorous as once they were. If there be no change in the world, there is a great change in you during the last few years. Before to-morrow's sun has risen you may lie upon the bed of death. 6. Some have a peace that comes of superstition. No outward performance can enable you to dispense with inward repentance and faith. 7. Unbelief brings false peace to thousands. Sin must be punished, and if your peace is built upon the supposition that it will not be so, your foundation is even less to be depended upon than the sand. Hazard not your soul upon a lie, 8. Many are kept in peace through companionship. Choose rather as friends those who roughly tell you solemn truths, than those who with excess of sweetness would flatter you to your everlasting undoing. 9. Peace caused by the devil is often the awful prelude of the last tremendous storm. Beware of insensibility! Your unfeeling state should warn you that you are given over to destruction. In the higher and colder latitudes, when men feel a sleepiness stealing over them, their companions stir them up, and rub them, and will not leg them slumber; for to sleep is to wake no more. II. THE LORD'S PEACE. A man of God lay dying, but he was very calm; yea, more — supremely happy. One said to him: "Friend, how is it that you have such peace?" He answered, "I can see no ground or cause for it save this: it is written, 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee..'" Was not that, a satisfactory reply? There is a weight of argument in it. If your mind is stayed on God, He will keep you in perfect peace. 1. The peace that we should desire to possess is a peace which is a blessing. False peace is a curse; but to be soundly at peace with God is an unalloyed blessing, and it bringeth no sorrow with it. To fail back upon the Father's bosom, and say, "I know that He Himself loves me, and I know that I love Him"; to look up to Jesus, and to say, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me"; to feel the movings of the Holy Spirit, and to yield ourselves up to His influences — this is peace unspeakable. Do you know it? It is not only a blessing in itself, but it is a blessing in its consequences. There is no man so humble as the man that is at perfect peace with God: he wonders at the blessing lie enjoys. There is no man so grateful; there is no man so courageous; there is no man so little affected by the world; there is no man who bears suffering so patiently; there is no man who is so ready for heaven as the man who is at perfect peace with God, and knows it. 2. This peace only comes from God. Here we have peace from lips that cannot lie, from a heart which cannot change, through the blood which has made a full atonement. 3. This peace comes only to His own people. If you have done with self, the world, and sin, as the main desire of your heart, you are among His people. 4. This is peace in the time of tempest, and peace after storm. Some of us enjoy our greatest peace when the Lord is abroad, and the thunders roll like drums in the march of the God of armies. We feel a rapture as we perceive that our Father is very near, and is speaking so that we hear His voice. In spiritual storms that voice is our comfort; and after the tempests are over, the Lord speaks a sweet hush to the hearts of His children. He allays our fears, while He whispers, "It is I; be not afraid." ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace. |
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