May God be pleased to bless us
together this evening as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Isaiah chapter 26 and we'll read verse 12. The
prophecy of Isaiah chapter 26 and reading verse 12. Lord thou
wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our
works in us. We are thankful that the Word
of God has some wonderfully encouraging and instructing statements in
the Word. And here we have one of the very
many positive words which we read in the word of God and we
read, Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us peace is a very pleasant word something that we all like to
know we all like to experience, we all like to enjoy and to walk
in a time of peace. And it's a great favour when
God grants us peace in a natural way, but also peace in a spiritual
way. And when the Lord grants something
of His peace in our hearts, it puts everything else in a right
perspective. Those things which were mountains,
those things which were very troublesome, those things which
were impossible, those things which were so difficult, they
all seem to flow down. And they seem to be the same
weight or height or breadth that they were when the Lord brings
peace. Indeed when He gives peace, who
then can make trouble. It is a great blessing then to
have peace bestowed in our hearts. Now the prophecy of Isaiah is
of course a very blessed prophecy. Much of it we are no doubt familiar
with, especially the latter half. About the first half has many
straight and solemn statements to make to Israel. Because of
their falling away, because of their obstinacy, because of their
failure to follow the commands and directions of the Lord through
his prophets. And so we have that picture that
Isaiah presents to us. And when we come to, as it were,
this 26th chapter, we see really, as it were, a break, as it were,
in the situation. We're thankful that the Lord
is gracious and doesn't perhaps lay on us more and more woes.
Because no doubt there are those times in our lives when many
things seem to flow in and crowd in. Difficulty upon difficulty,
and trial upon trial and perhaps we don't know which way to turn
or which way to go. And the reason is we've often
forgotten to commit everything unto the Lord in prayer. We often found that we try to
struggle on ourselves. We try to produce arguments and
solutions to produce deliverance. But it's only when the Spirit
of God comes and directs our minds to the true channel of
blessing and peace, and that is to be found in the Saviour
Himself, and in a gracious submission to His will, then it is that
we understand and are brought into that wonderful favoured
position of peace with God. This chapter commences with these
statements in that day shall this song be sung in the land
of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation
will God appoint for wolves and bulwarks. And indeed, what a
grand statement that is to think that our salvation, the salvation
which God has given to us, that which is appointed to stand against
all those things which are difficult and trying. I open you the gates
of the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. And then he says thou will keep
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. How true that is. If the Lord
gives us that grace to stay upon our God That means to wait upon
our God. To commit our way unto our God. That is, staying on Him. And as the Lord may grant us
that grace so to do, then there will be that keeping us in this
way of perfect peace. Peace in our hearts. Peace because
we are trusting in the Lord because the verse goes on and says because
he trusteth in thee now such a word is a very obvious word
but we don't always realize and are conscious of obvious things
because remember we continue to have an adversary of the devil
who would if he could blind our eyes and keep us from these wonderful
thoughts and these wonderful desires. He would never have
us looking elsewhere. And you know, he's very successful
very often. And we find ourselves burdened,
oppressed perhaps, by the many things which we have to face
day by day. But then, we bless God sometimes,
And we do bless God sometimes, as it were the Spirit reminds
us. He comes to us where we are, indeed in our lowest state. And
we are able to once again look up and to trust in the Lord. Because He trusted in thee. Now that will immediately direct
us to our God. And that's a comforting place.
To be able to come to the Lord. And in coming to the Lord, rather
than having to work things out ourselves, better cast all our
care upon Him. Believing that He cares for us. When the Lord applies such a
truth to our hearts, it's a very comforting position to be in.
to realize that the Lord does care for us and perhaps the Lord
has permitted situations to develop and remember nothing comes into
our lives without the divine permission of Almighty God. It is ordained by the Lord and
it is ordained for our good and sometimes it may be like this
to show us how weak we are in ourselves and to direct us to
the glorious strength of our God. And in that way, to be directed
to those words of the Apostle Paul, I can do all things through
Christ that strengthens me. Now then, that path, that walk,
will have been a profitable one, a good one, If we, as it were,
go down in the depths, bow down with many weights, and are able
to look up and cast all our care and all our burdens upon the
Lord. There is then that great and
wonderful deliverance. We understand then what the prophet
says, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
Thee. And as long as the Lord enables
us to stay our mind upon our God. If things take on a different
complexion, that they lose the weight of the problems, the problems
are still there, they haven't disappeared, but they take on
a different view. Because we're trusting in the
Lord, we're committing our way unto our God. And what does it
produce? It does produce peace in our
hearts. Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace
for us, ordain by God, not something that you and I produce ourself. It is something which is established
for us, this peace. And Isaiah goes on to say, trust
ye in the Lord, not just today, not just when we got a problem,
trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. May you and I be given grace
to view these words and the fullness of them and the wonder of them
to come therefore earnestly to our God trusting in the Lord
forever. That we might be reminded of
it every day as we get up in the morning. So we may commit
our will unto the Lord to come in this way that we can trust
in the Lord, that He will undertake for us, as we start another day,
there may be difficulties, there may be things that we don't know
how they're going to work out, we don't know what's going to
happen, but the blessing is to trust in the Lord and then We're
going in his strength and then there is that peace. What a blessing
it is to be granted then a situation like that. Lord thou wilt ordain
peace for us. Now just moving on for a moment,
we'll come back to the peace in a moment. For thou also hast
wrought all our works in us. Isaiah was very clear as to where
he stood. He was very conscious that everything
that he possessed of a good and righteous nature had been wrought
for him, had been given to him, had been brought about, had been
worked out for him. For Thou also hath wrought all
our works in us, or all our works for us. Everything had been done
by the Lord. All how needful today that we
continue to recognise the benefits that we have, the blessings that
we have, the help that we have, the encouragement that we have.
Where does it emanate from? Does it emanate from our own
ability? Does it emanate from the devil? Not at all. It emanates from our God, from
our gracious from our merciful God who looked upon us and as
it were he seen us going around in circles almost perhaps, struggling
here and there and he's allowed us to do that for a while and
he's graciously then put forth his hand and encouraged us and
helped us and brought us in words to our senses brought us back
to realise that we are one of those for whom He has wrought
a work in our heart that we are one of those who have been redeemed
with a price the price of blood that we are one of those whom
the Lord has loved with an everlasting love and therefore we cannot
be forsaken we cannot be left but the Lord will be round about
us as it were as a wall of fire. He will be round about us, to
guide and direct us in this poor old world that we are passing
through. He will be gracious to us, that we may come therefore
and look to Him. For thou also hast wrought all
this. He will ordain peace, and it
is that same God who also has wrought all our works in us. I hope tonight that we may be
able to look back in our lives, all of us perhaps, perhaps in
only a small way, to see something that God has done for us, wrought
in us. It might be in our natural life,
I hope it's in our spiritual life, but nonetheless, can we
remember something, a help that we've had, perhaps in our schoolwork,
perhaps in our business life, perhaps with our friends, perhaps
those who may be fed our enemies. Have we reason to believe that
the Lord has done something for us? He's provided something for
us. He's wrought all our works in
us or for us. And so tonight, as we ponder
this word with encouragement that God has been gracious he
has been mindful to therefore believe and trust that this word
indeed will be fulfilled or is being fulfilled Lord thou wilt
ordain peace for us how attractive then is this and brought in this
situation and may the spirit of God bring us into this situation
Because as we're brought there, we will recognise that it's not
something that we bring ourselves into. It's something that God
brings us to, so that our hearts go out to Him in praise and thanksgiving
for, as it were, correcting us, bringing us back online, bringing
us to consider Him, to realise His great mercy and His great
favour and His great love. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for
us for thou also has wrought all our works in us now then
the Lord Jesus Christ he spoke about this peace and what a wonderful
thing it is to have none less than the Saviour speaking about
the peace see I can speak about peace and it won't have any effect
but if the blessed Lord speaks about peace, it will have an
effect. And he says this in the 14th
of John, 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." Now sometimes we may need that blessed spirit
to bring back to our remembrance something that God has done for
us. You see the devil will try and hide it, he'll try and make
us forget, but bless God the Holy Spirit is so far superior
to the devil and in his time and in his way to bring back
those things to our remembrance, which God has done for us. And then the Lord says this,
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, nor as the world
giveth, give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid. And that's perhaps just the situation
we may have found ourselves in. Troubled. Troubled with the development
of perhaps the situations. Troubled by them. Perhaps we've
been afraid. Perhaps we've been afraid to
get up in the morning. Afraid to go to school or to work because
of what's before us. and then to remember this peace
I leave with you my peace I give unto you and this is a peace
from God it's not the peace of the world you know people speak
about peace don't they we hear a lot about peace and war we
hear a lot about war and they want peace But the peace the
world thinks of is only a transient peace. By that I mean it's a
peace which is just passing away. It's not something which is everlasting.
God's peace is everlasting. We may not always feel the effect
of it in that way, but nonetheless it is. It's everlasting. He says, my peace I leave with
you. It's with us. And it's not as the world giveth.
And therefore, let not your heart be troubled." That's the words
of the Saviour. How comforting they are. It's
applied by the very Comforter, the Holy Spirit Himself. Applied
to our heart. Because what does it do? It must
and will direct us to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And also, The last verse of the
16th chapter of this same gospel before the Lord commences that
high priestly prayer in the 17th chapter, the very last verse,
he tells us this tremendous statement. These things I have spoken unto
you, that ye in me ye might have peace. Now, notice this. He says, in me ye might have
peace. That means our peace is to be
found in Christ. It's not to be found in ourself,
it's not to be found in the world. And the Lord Jesus goes on to
say this, in the world, that's where we are today, ye shall
have tribulation. There's no doubt about it. It's
a straight statement. It's a fact that we would have
to face and endure and have tribulation day by day. But the promise is
this. Be of good cheer. Be of good
cheer. I have overcome the world. And it is therefore to remember
the words that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks and my friends
as the Lord may bring to our remembrance as the Holy Spirit
may bring to our remembrance the blessed words of the Saviour
they will bring peace which the world can never do it is something
completely outside of the ability of anything in this world and
how wonderful it is to think that we have such a saviour that
brings these things into our hearts and into our minds to
encourage us and to strengthen us. When the apostle wrote to the
church at Rome, you will remember, I expect that he homes in on
that great doctrine of justification by faith. And how needful it
is that we possess living faith to believe, faith to believe
we do come to this God of peace, it's God who brings this peace
into our hearts. And the Apostle says, therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God. and the secret through our Lord
Jesus Christ. See, everything centres on our
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And how needful it is that we
are blessed with the conscious realisation that we are justified,
that we are made just. And the Lord gives us that faith
to believe in that justification which the Blessed Saviour gives
to us through His death, justified by faith, to receive that faith,
to believe these truths. And as the Lord gives us that
faith to believe, then there is found in our hearts that peace,
that peace Because the Holy Spirit conveys to our spirit that we
are those who are justified. And that's not because of anything
that we've done, but it's because of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done in dying for us, in taking our sins upon himself
giving us His righteousness and therefore we are justified through
Him. Now as the Spirit of God directs
our hearts to this understanding it's an amazing truth and we
may be amazed as we think of God's great grace and great mercy
and great favour And I believe there is then an entering into
that peace with God. Before we were at war with God, we were a sinner, an unpardoned
sinner, and we were at war with God. And oh, bless God, we know
something of that peace. We read this in the hymn, it
says, peace through His cross as Jesus made. That's where our
peace stems from. What the Lord Jesus Christ has
done in dying for us upon that cross at Calvary, that's where
our peace comes from. In viewing Him as our substitute,
suffering for us, bearing the curse for us, the curse which
said the soul that sinneth it shall die and there we were sinners
and enmity and enemies with God and Christ came and took our
sin and carried it Himself our sin was laid upon Him and He
procured our freedom through His death so that death upon
the cross If the Son therefore hath made you free, you shall
be free indeed. And as the Spirit of God may
direct us to a little of that freedom, it's peace. It's peace in our hearts because
all our sins have been washed away in the precious blood of
the Redeemer. therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way, this is
where our peace is to be found, and blessed peace it is. And the apostle goes in to clarify
this truth, the reference to believing in the 15th chapter
of this same epistle, and he says, now the God of hope. God of hope. Well, perhaps you
may not be able to come with faith too strong. But do you
have a hope? And this is not a vain hope.
This is a good hope. The God of hope. The God who
gives us that hope. Now, the God of hope. Fill you
with joy and peace. in believing. My friends, it's
a great blessing to be given that faith to believe. And when we possess that faith
to believe, it is then that we realize that God has given us
that faith to believe. That we do believe in God's word. We do believe in what he has
said. We do believe there is hope for
such a sinner as me. So the God of hope, fill you
with all joy and peace in believing. It goes on to say that ye may
abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Now we may
not have appreciated that when The Holy Spirit gave us that
faith to believe that it was through the power of the Holy
Ghost. And how wonderful it is to realise
that the Almighty God condescended to give us that power to have that faith to believe
the truth of God's word to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
have that good hope now the God of hope fill you fill you not
just a little bit but to be filled with this we might say like David
did my cup runneth over to realise the goodness and the mercy of
the Lord. The goodness of the mercy of
the Lord that has filled us with a hope, a good hope. We all join in peace in believing
that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Never fail to be thankful to
the gracious Spirit of God that reveals to us these great and
precious and wonderful truths so that we know a little and
enjoy a little of that true peace of God which then passes all
understanding. Again just moving on, the Apostle
when he wrote to the Galatians he wrote these words and he said
according to, sorry, to the Colossians and having pleased the Father that in Him
should all fullness dwell and having made peace through the
blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself
by Him I say whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven and you and you, you and me, it comes down doesn't it,
oh bless God for a personal gospel and you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblamable and unreprovable in His sight. Well, peace isn't
that. The Spirit of God applies these
things to our hearts. What does it mean? It means we
are complete in Him. There's no lack. There's nothing
missing. Complete in Him. And how was
it formed? How did it come? Through the
blood of His cross. We say sometimes, let's let know
under Him invaluable blood. Without the blood of the Saviour,
there will be no peace tonight, there will be no peace tomorrow,
there will be no peace ever. But it's through this blood of
the cross, that we receive this peace and to be by Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself, by Him I say, it's by Him, none less. Oh, what does Christ then mean
to us tonight? Is He our peace? Is He your peace? Is He my peace? Do we rejoice
in a crucified Saviour tonight? Do we by faith view Him? suffering
upon Calvary's cross to atone for our sins. And as we may hang
our head in shame as we confess our sins and realise how violent
bad we are and yet even in that state to know something of this
blessed ordained peace which comes to us through the blood
of the cross. Lord thou would ordain peace
for us. peace there is, what a blessing
there is, what a favour there is to such unworthy people. Well we can thank the Lord tonight
that he is a God who doesn't lie. And then we come to the
end of Hebrews and the Apostle tells us this, he says, now The
God of peace, the God of peace, that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, is in
your shepherd tonight, as he brought you thus far, as he rounded
you up, brought you into the fold. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of everlasting covenant. You
can't get away from it. You won't want to get away from
it. If you're thankful, it's there. Make you perfect in every
good work, to do His will, working in you, that which is well pleasing
in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom glory forever and ever. Amen. And as the Holy Spirit
of God may come and direct our hearts into the love of Christ
and direct us to the blessed work of the Saviour in saving
our souls and to give us that right understanding that we have
received that living faith to believe the Word of God and to
trust His Word, and to have that good hope in His mercy and His
favour. And He has indeed died for us,
to atone for all our sins, and that we stand guilty before God.
And yet, with that good hope in His grace, in His mercy, in
His favour, that we are clean everywhere. The Lord has condescended
to come to us, and therefore By His grace, one day that will
be that wonderful time when we shall be found in glory. And my friends, there's everlasting
peace there. Everlasting peace. You know,
here we do have that peace, but the peace in our spiritual life
isn't always as full as we would like it. Sometimes it seems to
almost disappear. But my friends, when by God's
grace we shall look on His face, that will be glory, be glory
for me. And that will be a time of endless
peace, where there will be no sin and no sorrow to detract
from that peace which passes all understanding and it will
be a blessed eternity to spend in that wonderful peaceful environment
in glory singing the praises of our Saviour forever and ever
and this blessing is to those that we read of here Lord thou
wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our
works in us to his glory Amen