THE wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
NO PEACE.
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Striking words indeed are these, and how divinely true!
God's pictures are always true; and the raging billows of the troubled ocean fitly express the ceaseless activity of sin in the unregenerate, and the entire absence of either rest or peace!
“The way of peace, have they not known," is God's own description of every unconverted sinner, for there are but two classes in the world to-day,—the unsaved sinner, perishing in his sins, and the child of God, who is on his way to heavenly glory. Which are you, dear reader, and how do you now stand with God? The world of Noah's day, and the world of the twentieth century, are very much alike—at least in this, that "every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually.”
The false cry of "peace and safety" is, alas! but the immediate precursor of the world's doom. Judgment still lingers, but will soon burst on this Christ-rejecting scene, stained as it is by the murder of God's Son; and "sudden destruction" will quickly overtake every unsaved sinner, "as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape." Soon, very soon, heaven's door will shut, and you, dear unsaved reader, will be outside forever! Having "no peace" now, your eternal portion will be found among those who "have no rest day nor night."
Man's rebellion has not, however, hindered the wonderful outflow of God's saving grace, for where sin abounded [as it surely did at Calvary's cross] grace did much more abound."
PEACE MADE.
The more men hated Christ, the more He loved them; and the cruel rage of His murderers only brought forth, from the depths of a broken heart, the gracious prayer that let in the light to the dying robber's soul, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Yes; divine love could not be quenched by all the malice of Satan; and, though forsaken by all, the Lord of glory, spite of the bitter taunts of soldiers, priests, and people, bows His head, in obedience to His Father's will, and dies for His enemies Man's sin surely reached its climax when the soldier's spear pierced the side of the dead Christ; but God's answer was the rich out-pouring of that precious blood which not only cleanses from all sin," but which has, through grace, made eternal and unchanging peace. Yes; Jesus has "made peace by the blood of His cross."
PEACE POSSESSED.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Such is God's way for the anxious, the weary, and the heavy-laden; and none can ever know this true and only way of peace, save those who have received it through faith in a dead and risen Christ. Death is the foundation, and resurrection is the top-stone of this solid and abiding peace.
Peace is the sweet and blessed outcome of the finished work of Jesus; faith in His glorious Person gives life eternal; faith in His perfect work gives lasting peace and joy. Faith looks back to Calvary, and sees a spotless victim, Who has "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," and up to yonder throne, where He has sat for more than eighteen hundred years, as the everlasting proof that the believer's sins are forever gone from before the eye of God.
Every claim of justice and righteousness has been fully and completely net by the cross of Christ; and, "being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." "When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."
CHRIST OUR PEACE.
The very first words that fell on the ears of the trembling disciples from the lips of the risen Jesus were, "Peace unto you," and then "were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." His pierced hands and side were the, precious witness to their hearts that a full atonement had been made, and that the Son of God had triumphed over all their foes.
Forty days after, He led them out to the Mount of Olives; and, "after he had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." "Peace with God," therefore, rests not on happy feelings, prayers, tears, good works, nor on anything that can be found in man, but simply and absolutely on a Person Who has been down into death, and Who is now "alive for evermore," even "Jesus, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come." Yes, Peace rests solely on this four-fold foundation:—
(1) God is satisfied.
(2) Sin (for the believer) is "put away.”
(3) Sin's judgment has been borne.
(4) Christ has died and risen.
Therefore, He [Christ] is our peace." Reader, is He yours?