If you're here this morning and
you're troubled, if you're disturbed, if you're finding it difficult
to find rest for your soul, what you need and what I need is the
peace of God. There's a peace of God that scripture
says that Paul wrote in Philippians chapter four, verse seven, a
peace of God that passes all understanding. It's a peace that
we can't understand. It's so amazing and so miraculous
that we can't understand it. You can go ahead and turn there
to Philippians chapter four, if you would. It's here that Paul writes, and
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, notice this,
shall keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. Recently, I was going through
some handwritten letters that I received from Brother Mahan
over the years. And I noticed, had forgotten,
but I noticed in going through them that very often he would
write at the end of the letter, the scripture, Numbers 6, 24
and 25. And those verses read this way.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face
shine upon thee. and be gracious unto thee, the
Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace."
Now, if the Lord is pleased to bless us, if the Lord is pleased
to keep us, if the Lord is pleased to shine His face on us, pleased
to be gracious to us, if the Lord lift up His countenance,
that word countenance there means His presence and His favor. Oh, if God be pleased to cast
His presence and His favor upon us, He will give us peace. My subject this morning is peace,
I'm sure you figured that out. But it's not peace as the world
gives, but it's the peace of God, that peace which passes
all understanding. Now, I must confess to you this
morning that I am somewhat troubled and saddened that many who call
themselves, many of us, myself included, who call themselves
Christians, followers of Christ, believers in the substitution
of the Lord Jesus, don't seem to have this wonderful peace.
It seems that we're much too troubled and disturbed to have
this peace that Paul describes that God promises and that Christ
provided. No doubt this godly peace is
a scriptural subject. No doubt that the peace of God
is a needful possession. The Bible has a great deal to
say about the peace of God, that peace in the heart, that rest
in the soul. That's what I'm talking about,
that soul rest. that soundness of the mind, that
peace that passes all understanding. I'm talking about the peace of
God that comes from the God of peace. And I'm referring to that
unspeakable privilege that passes the understanding of our finite
minds, that peace of God that's past finding out because it comes
from the God that is past finding that. Any peace that passes our
understanding certainly passes any description that we could
give it. So I'm at a loss of words, but I look around me and
I look within me and I don't see much of this peace. Where
is that peace of conscience, that peace with the Most High
God who was once angry with the wicked every day, but now is
no longer angry with those who are trusting and believing in
His Son? I want that peace, and I want you to have that peace.
I realize this morning that my task is difficult. I'm trying
to describe to you the indescribable. I'm endeavoring to explain to
you the unexplainable, and I'm attempting to define to you the
undefinable, because it passes our understanding. Only God can
give you an understanding of His peace, that peace through
Christ, which brings reconciliation, as we talked about in the first
hour, reconciliation to the God with whom we are estranged. Our
sin has separated us. We need that sin to be put away
so that we can be reconciled to this God. I'm talking about
the forgiveness of this offended God. I'm talking about restoration
to favor with this holy God who will by no means clear the guilty.
I'm talking about justification through the blood and the righteousness
of a just God and Savior. That brings true peace when we
have those things. That's the peace that God has
promised His people. And hear me on this, a guilty
man or a woman can never find peace with God until God makes
them aware that they're reconciled, that they're forgiven, that they're
restored, and that they're justified. You know, true peace is given
when the consciousness of pardon is greater, becomes stronger
than the consciousness of sin and guilt. That's when you find
true peace. That's when you find the peace
of God. When you see that you're pardoned, that God no longer
holds your sin against you. It's been put away. It's been
pardoned. Your sin is gone. And that brings
me to my first question. Where is this peace found? Where
can this peace be obtained? The Lord Jesus said in John chapter
14, verse 27, he said, 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
and neither let it be afraid. Now that came from the very one
who loved us and gave himself forth. Is there anything troubling
you? Is there anything making you afraid? The Lord said, don't
be troubled. I give you my peace. Don't be afraid. My peace is
not as the world gives. In John chapter 16 verse 33,
the Lord said, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me
you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Christ has overcome the world
and He's overcome everything in it and in all things the Lord
Jesus has preeminence. We see that this peace is found
in one place. It's found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I bet that's not a surprise to you, is it? He said, my peace,
I give you. He said, in me, this peace is
found. Now, if Paul wrote the book of
Hebrews, and I certainly believe that he did, then he is the author
of 14 of the New Testament books. And in 12 of those 14 books,
Paul begins his letter this way, or very much this way. He says,
grace be unto you and peace. peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God's people are meant to
have peace. The reason we don't is our own
fault and the reason we don't is because of us. We have no
one to blame but ourselves. So How do we obtain this peace
of God? Well, Paul, in 12 of his letters,
made it very clear that it's from God, our Father, and the
Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the Lord, our righteousness,
Jehovah Tsekanu. We talk about the Lord, our provider,
Jehovah Jireh. He's our provider. We know we
will die without the Lord, our healer, Jehovah Rapha. And we're
thankful for the Lord, our banner, Jehovah Nisi. But what about
the Lord of peace? Jehovah Shalom. Now we have the
Lord, our righteousness, and we're made the righteousness
of God and Him. And I'm so thankful for that.
And we have the Lord, our banner to rule over us. And we make
much to do about the sovereign King and the salvation of sinners
while He has mercy on whom He will. We have the Lord, our healer,
Jesus Christ, the great physician who heals us from our leprosy
of sin. We have the Lord, our provider,
who provides all that we need physically and all that we need
spiritually. But in our day, in the midst
of all this confusion and uncertainty and worldly frustration, where
is the peace of God that He's promised? Christ, our righteousness,
our banner, our healer, our provider is the same Lord. He's the same
Jehovah Shalom, who is our peace. How have we missed the peace
of God? How have we let it slip from us? Isaiah tells us something
of where we miss it. I want you to look at one passage
there, and then we'll go to the book of Psalms for the remainder
of the study. But look at Isaiah chapter 26
with me, if you would. Just one verse, I want you to
see this. Isaiah chapter 26, verse three. talking about peace, the peace
of God that passes all understanding, that peace that keeps our hearts
and our minds through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Isaiah
chapter 26, verse three, here we're told that God will keep
the man, the woman, in perfect peace. Now, when God gives a
sinner faith, let me say this, that faith is proven by the act
of believing what God says. Remember what James said? He
said, faith without works is dead, being alone. You show me
your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by
my works. When God gives a sinner faith,
that faith is proven by the act of believing what God said. Without
the action of believing what God says, faith is not faith
at all. It's just words. Now, in verse
three, the Spirit of God here goes on to tell us that God gives
perfect peace to the man and to the woman, now look at this,
whose mind is stayed on thee, because he or she trusts in God,
trust in thee. Now, if God enables us to believe
our mind is stayed upon Jehovah, and the reason it stays on him
is because we trust him. This is not complicated. We believe
what God says. That's what faith is. You know,
I had great peace. I've told you this often. I know
many of you did too, but I had great peace as a child knowing
that my earthly father would take care of me. I don't think
I ever once in all my years ever worried about what I would eat,
if I'd have a roof over my head, or if I would have clothes to
wear. He just provided it for me. How
much more peace should I have with God as my father? Some might
ask if I'm here saying that those who do not have peace are not
trusting in God. Some might ask if I'm saying
that those who do not have the peace of God do not have their
minds stayed on Jehovah. No, I'm not saying that. God
said it. I'm just repeating what God said.
God will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed
on Christ. Let's keep our minds and our
hearts on Him. And those who keep their minds
stayed on Christ, trust in the perfect and righteous work that
Christ has done for them. How do we go about obtaining
the peace that God has promised us? I'm interested in knowing.
I'm interested in you knowing. As a child of the living God,
one for whom Christ died, God has promised us the very peace
of God, which passes our comprehension. Now turn with me to Psalm 37,
if you would, please. And I won't keep you long. Here
in Psalm 37, the Lord, through the Psalmist David, gives us
a very clear path on how to obtain this peace of God. And David
here gives us at least six things that brings about this perfect
peace. Psalm chapter 37, we'll begin
in verse one. Psalm 37 and verse one, we find
the first step to have this peace of God. God says here, fret not
thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity. Now what's the Lord talking about
here? Well, if we're gonna find rest and peace in our hearts
and in our minds, we're gonna have to be weaned from this world
and its vanities. That's just so. If we're going
to find rest, I mean true peace, we're gonna have to set our affection
on things above, not things on this earth. We're gonna have
to seek the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Christ's righteousness
first. First seek ye the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. And what? All these other things
will be added unto you. All the things of God, especially
His peace. That's exactly what the Lord
himself told his disciples. He said, take no thought. And
he's talking about anxious thought. Don't worry, don't fret for what
you shall eat and for what you shall drink or for what you shall
wear. These are the things that the
Gentiles seek. These are the things that the
world frets and worries over. Don't you worry about them. Why,
if God clothed the lilies of the valley, you know, he'll clothe
you, he'll take care of you. Now, if you and I are going to
worry and fret and be anxious over the things that natural
men and women's lust and seek after, then we should expect
the same cares and unrest and lack of peace that they had.
God says, don't do that. Take no thought, take no thought.
What will be the end of those who worry over these things?
Look at verse two, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass
and wither as the green earth. You know, all of this worldly
vanity and worldly glory, it's going to fade away. It shall
pass quickly. Don't be envious of the world
or those in it. What they have now is all they're
ever going to have. So the first step to finding
rest, to finding peace in Christ, the first step for a believer
to find that true peace that passes all understanding is to
just turn loose of this world. Now, I know we live in this world,
have to make a living in this world. We have to live in this
world, but hold the things of the world with a loose grip.
Oh, may we become so wrapped up with Christ and His glory,
be so consumed with Christ and His redemption, become so enamored
with the Lord Jesus Christ and His love and His mercy and grace,
so that the things of the world are just not that important to
us. The more we're weaned from the world and the things of it,
the more the peace of God will consume your body, soul, and
your spirit. After all, we are crucified with
Christ and the world is crucified unto us. Look at verse 3. It's
here that we find the second step. Trust in the Lord and do
good. So shalt thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. Don't fret, don't worry, don't
be anxious, but trust in the Lord. And we do good by trusting
in the Lord. All the fitness that God requires
is that we feel our need of Him. Do you feel your need of Him?
That's all God requires, that you see your need of Christ.
Let's trust in the Lord's salvation. Let's trust in the Lord's righteousness. Let's trust in the covenant of
His grace. Let's trust in Christ's blood,
which cleanses us from all sin and unrighteousness. These are
the things that we're to think on. These are the things that
we are to be caught up with. If we trust in the Lord, we shall
dwell in the land that He promised. And we shall be fed with the
fatness of His milk and honey. Before the world was ever framed,
before the world had a foundation, God chose a people in Christ
and He set His love upon them. And He gave everyone to the Lord
Jesus. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world as a man and he lived perfectly and righteously
before God in their stead, in your stead, child of God. What
do we have to worry and fret about? It's for Christ's sake
that God has forgiven us. God said, I'll have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Before we were born, before we had done any good or evil, we
now see the purpose of God according to election as it stands. We're
not saved by our works nor by our will, but of God that called
us in Christ. He foreknew us in Christ. He
chose us in Christ. He predestinated us in Christ. God predetermined for you to
know and to love the Lord Jesus Christ. He accepted us in Christ. It's all in Jesus Christ, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace, in whom also you
have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will. That brings me such peace. I
find such comfort in that. In whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of Him. Redemption, forgiveness,
everlasting inheritance, boldness and access with confidence to
the throne of grace is found in Christ. And now we say with
Philip, we found him, of whom Moses and the law and the prophets
did write, Jesus of Nazareth. But the truth of the matter is,
is that he found us. We were the ones that were lost.
It was Christ who gave us confidence. It was Christ who gave us faith.
It's Christ who gives us assurance. It's Christ who's worked out
redemption in our souls and for our sake. That should bring us
great peace. Trust in the Lord. And yet another
step we take to God's perfect peace is seen in verse four.
And it's here that we find the third step to the peace of God.
Look at verse four. Delight thyself also in the Lord,
and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Something that
I've learned, and I've learned this the hard way, most of our
unrest, most of our trouble, our disturbance, comes because
we don't dwell on God's blessings. We don't dwell on our Lord and
Savior, but we dwell upon our own disappointments. We dwell
upon our failures. We dwell upon our frustrations.
We dwell on our lack of faith, our unbelief. We look inside
instead of looking to Christ. When we look within, we see what
we deserve instead of looking to Christ, who is God's gift
of grace to us. When I think of how good God
has been to me, it gives me great peace. We should often stop and
think about God's goodness to us. We should often think about
God's undeserved mercy and his unmerited grace. God could have
left us in darkness. God could have left us in our
sin, but he didn't. And by God's grace, I'm determined
to delight myself in the Lord who loved me and gave himself
for me while he lifted me out of the deep miry clay. He's the
one that set my feet on Christ the rock forever to stay. The
desire of my heart is to be delivered from my sin. And he gave me the
desire of my heart. He gave it to me when he gave
me Christ. What is your desire? The way to the peace of God is
found in Christ. And the fourth step here is found
in verse five. Look at it. Commit thy way unto
the Lord. We're gonna have to commit to
our God in Christ. Even our Lord Jesus in the agonizing
garden of Gethsemane prayed, not my will, but thy will be
done. Now that's commitment. We find
no peace and no rest until we can sincerely commit our will
and our way to God. With us, there's nothing but
uncertainty in everything. When we come to the place that
we can commit ourselves to God, we can be assured that nothing
can or nothing will separate us from His love, mercy, and
His grace. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God. Webster defines peace as freedom
from disturbance. True peace is peace of mind,
committing ourselves to that work and righteousness and faith
of Christ. That's real peace. That's peace
of mind. But if my salvation depends upon
me and a perfect work of righteousness that I must achieve, oh, I don't
find any peace there. I'd find nothing but disturbance.
I find nothing there but trouble. because I can't do what God requires
of me. The peace of God is found only
in the work of God in Christ done for us. And we'll only have
peace when we come to the place that we commit ourselves and
all that we have and all that we hope to be to Christ, our
substitute and savior. So if any sinner is gonna have
rest and peace, they're gonna have to commit themselves to
the Lord. And then we find the fifth step in verse seven, rest
in the Lord and wait patiently for him. God had destroyed the
world with the flood of his wrath. It rained for 40 days and God
destroyed everything on earth and everyone in it, but the ark
and those who were in it. And as those waters descended,
Noah, he sent forth the dove out of the ark to see if it could
find rest in the branch of a tree. In verse nine of Genesis chapter
eight, it says, but the dove found no rest, no rest for the
sole of her foot. You know, I can just picture
that little dove flying everywhere and finding no place to light,
no place to rest her foot. So what does she do? Oh, there's
a great lesson here for us. She returned unto him in the
ark, and he, Noah, put forth his hand, and he took her, and
he pulled her into the ark. The margin there says he caused
her to come. Hear me on this, dear friends.
If you and I have lost this peace, and if we've lost this rest that
God has promised, finding ourselves anxious, finding ourselves fearful
about anything, The dove of Noah shows us why we've flown from
him. Any child of God trying to find
rest in any other place other than Christ, God's ark of safety
and refuge will not find it. You just won't. The peace of
God is found in Christ. And just like that dove flying
everywhere, seeking some place to find rest or peace or some
place to put her weary foot, we will find none. If you want
to find rest, if you want to find peace, you got to get back
to his hand. And thank God, he'll take you
with him in the ark, just as Noah did that dove. Matter of
fact, being one of his, you were never out of his hand. And that
gives me such peace. I find peace in that. Peace that
passes all understand. And that's the only place that
we'll find it. And then David says, when you
get there, wait patiently for him. And then the last step that
David in this psalm gives us to find the peace of God is found
in verse eight. And I've got to tell you, this
one seemed especially written for me. Cease from anger and
forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. There's no man or no woman who
can ever have the peace of God in his or her heart as long as
they have anger in their heart. No one can have true peace that
has malice in their hearts towards someone else. The peace of God
is not only peace with God in Christ, but it's peace with my
fellow man. John said, you know, you've passed
from death to life by your love for the brethren. There can be
no peace if we have malice in our heart. He says, cease from
anger. You know, anger takes many forms. It's not just pitching a fit.
Anger is not confined to hatred or wishing vengeance. It takes
many forms. While anger is harboring hurt
feelings in our hearts, refusal to reconcile with another. Well,
I'll forgive, but I won't forget. That's anger too. A misunderstanding
occurs and rather than forgiving and forgetting and erasing it
from our minds, that misunderstanding stays and it brews and it continues. Oh, and I'm so guilty of it.
Anger refuses to speak to someone. Anger refuses to fellowship with
someone. Anger takes the form of envy,
jealousy, and an attitude of self-pity. You remember that
old kid song? I don't know if you sung it,
but I did. Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. I think I'll
go eat worms. Well, there's no peace in eating
worms, is there? We must cease from these things.
We are robbing ourselves of God's peace. May God enable the peace
of God, the love of God, the rest of God to rule in our hearts. May God let peace dominate and
reign in our hearts and souls. And these are the steps to the
peace of God that passes all understanding. Peace is found
where we're anchored in Christ within the veil. Peace is found
when there's contentment. When we learn in whatsoever state
that we are in to be content and to be thankful for all that
God has given us in Christ, we're that much closer to God's peace. Ambition spoils grace. Greed
spoils peace. Lord, make me content. God, give
me confidence in you. Not in myself, but in you. Confidence
in Christ and what He's done for me, why He's out to do us
good. If you don't know that, you've yet to experience the
mercy and grace of God. He's out to do us good, His people. Every good and perfect gift cometh
from where? From above, from the Father of
light, whom there's no variableness or shadow of terming. Whatever
trials may come, whatever trouble appears, whatever loss I suffer,
I can have perfect confidence that my God is working it out
for my good. That's the piece that believes
God can do no wrong. While he's too wise to make a
mistake, he's too good to do evil. He cannot forsake me because
he promised that he wouldn't. He could swear by no higher name
than his own. He cannot change, so he cannot
cease to love me. His love is everlasting. He said,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. He's the Lord that changes
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. No matter how dark the way, no
matter how heavy the load, how lonely the way, if I know Him,
if I know Christ, if I love Him, if I am be called according to
His purpose, it's all gonna work out together for my good, and
I truly believe that. Don't you? And then there's submission. That's another thing that we
need to learn something about. The Hebrew word for submission
means to be silent before God. Be silent before God. Hold thou
still before God. When the Lord took everything
that Job had, including all 10 of his children, he didn't charge
God foolishly. He said, naked I came out of
my mother's womb and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, the Lord
had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now that's submission. When the Lord consumed Aaron's
two sons with fire, burned them up in wrath, the scripture says
just five words, and Aaron held his peace. That's submission. When God killed the sons of Eli,
he simply said, Eli did, it's the Lord, let him do what seemeth
right. That's submission. Whatever the
Lord does, enable me, Lord, to submit to it. He knows what's
best. We don't know what's best, brother.
There's no peace in resisting God. There's no peace in replying
against him. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Isn't that what Moses told the
children of Israel? Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Oh, Lord, enable me to stand
still. And when I see His salvation,
that gives me great peace. Now, I want us to have peace,
I really do. And I know that some listening
to me right now who are struggling with having peace, and it can
be heard in your voice, it can be seen in your actions. Come
back to the heart. Come back to Calvary. Rest in
the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus. Rest in His perfect
righteousness that God gave you in Him. That's where it is, that's
where it's found. Someone once asked an old believer
in his last years, he said, what if after all these years of believing
on Christ and trusting and resting in Him, you should finally be
lost? And the old fellow said, without
any hesitation, he said, well, God would suffer the greater
loss. And the other man was somewhat
taken back by his answer. He said, well, what do you mean
by that? And the old man said, I would lose my soul, but God
would lose his glory. You see, the soul that believes
on Christ shall never perish. And we have God's word for that.
And that's where we rest. That's where we have peace. Lord,
give us faith. Lord, give us humility. Lord,
break our hearts. Lord, give me that peace that
passes all understanding, that peace that's gonna keep my heart
and my mind through Jesus Christ. I see more clearly and more often
that I need it more and more. God's peace, that peace that
passes our understanding.