The Peace of the Devil and the Peace of God

The Peace of the Devil and the Peace of God

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 3, 1890,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"When a strong man armed keeps his palace, his goods are in peace."
Luke 11:21.

"The Lord will give strength unto His people, the Lord will bless His
people with peace."

Psalm 29:11.

PEACE is a condition of things greatly to be desired. To dread no
outward disturbance and to feel no inward storm–who does not desire
such a state? Peace has been called a pearl and rightly, for it is
precious and smiles with soft, mild radiance bedecking the heart that
wears it. It is, indeed, a pearl of great price–he that has it has
more than riches. If his peace is, in very deed, the true pearl, he who
wears it in his breast is one of the favored sons of God. There may be
some few people in the world who do not love peace, but we love not
their spirit. Certain stormy natures delight in tempest and, like sea
birds, ride on the crests of raging billows. Men of the Byron type are
restless and an atmosphere of peace suits them not. Their spirits, like
thunderbolts, rush onward, finding pleasure in the crash with which
they force their willful way.

I need not go out of my way for such, for in vain we speak to those who
will not hear. The most of us were cast in another mold. We are not
ravens and cannot remain forever on the wing. But, like the dove of
Noah, we seek rest for the soles of our feet and we fly here and there
until we find the olive leaf of peace. How often, amid the disturbances
of this troubled world, have we cried, "Oh that I had wings like a
dove! For then would I fly away and be at rest!" We were not reared
like eaglets on stern crags among the callow lightning–we listen to
the turtle's voice and love the brooks that warble music as they flow.
I know that many of you sigh for rest–you labor that you may enter
into it. If you have found the rest which Jesus gives, your heart is
sure to sing–

"Forever here my rest shall be

Close to Your bleeding side:

This all my hope, and all my plea–

For me the Savior died."

Peace and rest are two names for a flower which buds on earth, but only
found full-blown in Heaven! Yet even the faint perfume of the unopened
blossom excites our strong desire. Gently does the Savior attract us to
Himself by that sweet call–"Come unto Me, all you that labor and are
heavy laden and I will give you rest." 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. The more
a thing is cried up, the more is there need of caution that you are not
taken in with base imitations of it. Satan is the cunning ape of God
and whatever God does, he tries to do the same with his enchantments.
Therefore, 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 case is hopeless till that
peace is dried up and the soul is stranded in self-despair.

I thought this morning I might do you some service if I tried to set
forth the two peaces, the peace of the devil and the peace of God. May
God the Holy Spirit give discerning hearts to all of you, that you may
not be deceived by the poisonous imitation of the waters of peace! May
you discern the counterfeit and reject it with indignation! And may you
find the true peace at the feet of the Prince of Peace! Oh, for "the
peace of God, which passes all understanding"! For my part, I should
dread to give peace to anyone, upon any subject at the expense of the
Truth of God. A temporary hope is ill purchased at the cost of cruel
disappointment.

A poor woman was the loving mother of an only son. He was very dear to
her. He fell sick, indeed, he was sick unto death but the mother could
not bear to think so. She scraped together the necessary fee for a
physician and, oh, the peace of heart she had when the trusted man came
downstairs and said to her, "Your son will recover. There is no grave
cause to fear. Nurse him carefully and very soon he will be at his post
again." The mother was restful of heart, for she believed the doctor.
Within a single day her son died and those hours of false peace were
the wormwood and the gall of her affliction. It was a sad, sad pity to
have raised her hopes for she cried, "Oh, if I had known that he was
going to die, I should not then so bitterly have felt his loss! But I
am grievously disappointed. How could the doctor tell me he would

live?"

The physician was either greatly mistaken, or else wished to soothe the
mother's manifest anguish. If the latter was the case, his
untruthfulness was not wise. I cannot follow the same course. It is a
pity to create a peace which is baseless. It is lamentable to me that
anyone of you should be slumbering in peace when a great danger is near
which will cause that peace to vanish as a dream when one awakes. Avoid
that peace which will prove deceptive in the present and ruinous in the
future–long for that which will keep your heart and mind today and
forever. Follow me, I pray you, while I speak of the two forms of peace
set forth in my two texts.

I. First, there is THE DEVIL'S PEACE. The foul spirit keeps things
quiet in the heart over which he rules–"When a strong man armed keeps
his palace, his goods are in peace." The heart of man is not lawfully
Satan's palace, but he has made it so by capture. In his pride he loves
to dwell in the midst of this captured stronghold so that he may vaunt
himself over the Most High from whom he has taken the heart of His
creature. Satan values a conquered human heart as a palace–he takes
pleasure in domineering over the soul which he has forcibly torn away
from God. That he may dwell securely, he covers himself with armor and
he keeps constant watch and ward. Hence the house is quiet, for his
watchful power puts down every token of mutiny against his tyranny.

The Psalmist describes the dreadful peace of the wicked in Psalm
seventy-three–"There are no bands in their death: but their strength
is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued
like other men." Everything goes smoothly with the man who is left in
this fatal condition–"Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have
more than heart could wish." Though it would seem that they are really
prospering, it is not so–they are set in slippery places and they will
be cast down unto destruction. There is really nothing enviable in the
condition of the godless, but everything pitiable. They cry, "Peace,
peace," where there is no peace. What peace can there be to those whose
rebellions are so many? Satan makes conscience lie still that his power
may be confirmed over the heart of the ungodly.

I may be speaking to some here who are in good health, have a fair
trade and enjoy credit with their neighbors and therefore they have an
earthly peace and care nothing about being at peace with God. My design
shall be to disturb that peace, for if it is the peace of the devil.
The sooner it is broken the better for the soul. This peace is often
merely outward. Men put on the air of peace when they do not feel it in
their hearts. You will often meet with irreligious men who tell you
that they are perfectly happy and then ask–What do they want with
Christ? They feel themselves all right–what need have they of a new
birth? They are getting on so well without God's blessing that they do
not care to seek it. Their laughter is loud, their jests are endless,
their cares sit lightly upon them.

They appear to have no anxiety for the faults of the past, the
temptations of the present, or the recompenses of the future–and yet
this peace is all external. The crust of ice is hardly strong enough to
bear a fly. Follow them to their beds and see their fear! Listen to
them in a thunderstorm–see them at sea in a tempest and you will find
that they are the victims of an awful dread. Some display a peace of
sheer bravado. They want to seem happy and therefore they put on the
mask of the merry Andrew. The plowboy, when he goes through the
churchyard, is afraid of ghosts and therefore whistles to keep his
courage up–and 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, the
fiddle or the dance.

Those are often the slaves of misery who figure as the children of
mirth. Is it not so with many? When they speak of pleasure, it is from
the teeth outward, for there is no Artesian well of joy springing from
the depths of their soul. They hold themselves up as the mirror of
pleasure while their heart is breaking with unutterable pain. In all
who have not come to Christ and found peace through His precious blood,
their peace is false. Let them say what they will of it, it has no
foundation or justification. They have no peace with God for it is
written, "There is no peace, says my God, to the

wicked." The great God is the high contracting party with whom peace
must be made and if He disowns it, in vain will a man pretend to
possess it!

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. Such peace is false peace and what true man will solace
himself with that which is false? Better know that we are at war, if it
is so, than dote upon a peace which is a fool's paradise and only
exists in fancy. I had rather be wounded in a thousand spiritual
conflicts than be soothed into eternal destruction by a false peace!
Let my hopes be slain by the sword of the Truth of God rather than
nourished on the bread of lies. God forgive that we should prophesy
smooth things for ourselves while the pen of justice is signing our
death warrant!

One prayer I often pray–"Lord, let me know the worst of my case." And
though there is no great pleasure in such a petition, I would suggest
that all of you should offer it. It can do you no harm. Pray with the
Psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my
thoughts: and see if there are any wicked ways in me, and lead me in
the way everlasting." See to it that you are not liars unto your own
souls. To many this peace comes through ignorance. They do not know
those terrible Truths which would make peace impossible. They know not
that sin is a deadly viper and therefore they toy with it as with a
bird.

They are scarcely conscious that they have committed any sin worth
mentioning, but if the light of God's Law were turned upon them they
would see that they are guilty before God and exceedingly vile. They
are not innocent, as they suppose, but guilty before the living God!
Let the Holy Spirit work in a man a sense of sin and an expectation of
judgment to come and I guarantee you he will have no more peace till he
has fled for refuge to the hope set before him in the Gospel! If any of
you are wrapped up in a peace woven in the loom of ignorance, I pray
God it may be torn to shreds! "But," cries one, "Where ignorance is
peace, 'tis folly to be wise." No, no! But where peace is founded on
ignorance, it is folly begetting folly!

Oh, be wise, and drink not the fool's cordial! Know your true condition
even though that knowledge may cost you present loss of rest. To keep
men ignorant is one of Satan's devices because they are then easier to
govern–he dreads that you should go where the Gospel is preached! If
any of you are under Satan's dominion, you are here this morning
against your tyrant's wishes. If he could have his way you would never
come within earshot of God's Word! Even now he will try to make you
feel drowsy and inattentive lest the arousing Gospel should awaken you.
O my Hearers, shun the ignorance which fosters false peace and the
false peace which would make you content without the knowledge of God!

The devil greatly rejoices because in these days so many ministers do
not preach the Gospel–Satan is glad if he can poison the stream at the
fountainhead! He rejoices if he can make the preacher of the Gospel a
mere moral essayist, or a talker of his own inventions, for then those
who go to hear him will be in no danger of being driven by trouble of
mind to fly to Christ. I pray you, if you are wrapped in a peace that
will not bear the light of day, bestir yourselves and escape from your
perilous condition!

With many, however, it is not so much ignorance as thoughtlessness.
Multitudes of persons know, if they would know, but they make no use of
their knowledge for they never think. What a pity to perish forever
from lack of consideration! A man has a letter given to him. He puts it
in his pocket and does not open it. He goes out tomorrow for his day's
pleasure and he promises himself that he will open the letter on
Tuesday, when the Bank Holiday is over. Suppose in that letter there
should be a warning of some plot against his life, or information of
his mother being at the point of death, or of the sudden illness of a
favorite child? What will he say to himself if he opens that letter too
late? The Bible is to many a man God's unopened letter. Alas, how
little do men search the Scriptures! If they do read them, they do it
mechanically and do not think over their warnings.

Why will not men think? Thoughtlessness is one of Satan's great nets in
which he entangles many. If the devil can keep you from thinking, he
will keep you from believing! If he can keep you in the giddy whirl of
vicious pleasure, or even of idle levity, he can make sure of you.
Possibly he can effect his purpose by getting you absorbed in politics,
or parish matters, or science, or business. Little does he care which,
so long as he can draw you off from thinking of God and of your soul
and of eternal things. Oh, that I could draw a mighty bow and shoot
some piercing shaft which would go over the wall and carry death to
that traitor, False-Peace! How gladly would I blow a blast most loud
and break the spell of the Father of Lies and bring you from under his
fatal fascination!

This peace, in many cases, is also the result of carnal security. Men
say, "Well, well. We have not been much troubled yet and why should we
care? We have lived in sin and we have not suffered for it. In fact, we
have prospered through our contempt of scruples." Of old, men said,
"Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were." And
today they cry, "No deluge of fire has broken out upon us. These
Christians say that the earth and all the works of men will be burned
up and the very elements will melt with fervent heat! But we see no
likelihood of it! In the heavens there is no sign of the Son of Man–no
cloud, no Great White Throne–no token of the Judgment! Everything goes
on calmly enough–why need we disturb ourselves?"

Thus, like the sluggard in the Proverbs, they ask for a little more
slumber. They are willingly ignorant that once upon a time, in the
olden days, it was so upon this earth and men married and were given in
marriage. And they ate and drank and were drunken–and as it was told
them, so it happened–for the Flood came and swept them all away! "When
they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon
them." Beware, O men of this generation, lest this happen unto you,
also, and the deluge of fire be upon you before you have escaped to
Christ who alone is the Ark of souls! 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 eyes are not so clear as once they were! Your limbs are not
so vigorous as once they were. If there is no change in the world,
there is a great change in you during the last few years!

Before tomorrow's sun has risen you may lie upon the bed of death!
Therefore, I pray you, set it not to your seal that you have much goods
laid up for many years–for this night your soul may be required of
you. In a moment shall you be troubled–the Avenger shall leap through
the window, though you think you have made fast the door–and you shall
not escape. O Sirs, shall not my voice disturb your wicked slumbers, or
must you sleep on till the trumpet shall awaken you, not to hope, but
to condemnation? Soon shall He come who now would save you, but then
must condemn you to the place of everlasting banishment! O Lord, have
mercy upon those who are bewitched by carnal security! Break the
enchantments of the deceiver.

Some, again, have a peace that comes of superstition. "Well," they say,
"we know that this is true which has been spoken, but it does not bear
upon us. We are all right–we were made members of Christ, children of
God and heirs of the kingdom of Heaven in our infant baptism! We have
been confirmed and we have partaken of the holy communion. We have
attended our church, or we have gone to our meeting-house with much
regularity. Therefore we feel that for us there is a sure hope." O
Souls, beware of saying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord, are these." Joab, in the day when Solomon executed the vengeance
of God against him, instead of confessing his fault and seeking mercy,
hoped for safety in the sanctuary and therefore stood with his hands
upon the horns of the altar.

The tidings came to the king, "He is by the altar." But the stern
sentence was given, "Fall upon him, and bury him." And so he perished
in the Holy Place where God's sacrifice was known to be offered. So
will you die if you do not trust in the Lord Jesus–even though your
hands should lie upon your Baptism and your Lord's Supper. No outward
performance can enable you to dispense with inward repentance and
faith. If your heart is not right with God you shall perish with the
sacramental bread in your mouth and go from the baptismal waters to the
fires of Hell! Beware of the peace which is drawn from the stagnant
pool of superstition–it will carry death into your soul.

Alas, there is a peace which does not lie in believing too much, but in
believing too little! Unbelief brings false peace to thousands. If
Satan can persuade you that, after all, these things are not so. If he
can lead you to disbelieve your Bible. If he can lead you to think that
there is no God, or that, if there is a God, He takes no account of men
and will never call them to judgment–then the arch-deceiver will make
sure of you and keep his goods in peace! I charge you, beware of that
peace which is founded upon the denial of those Truths of God which
your own conscience teaches you. 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!

I fear that many are kept in peace through companionship. Hand joins in
hand–the man would be troubled, but he meets his old friend who is a
skeptic–and he laughs his fears out of him. The woman gets home and
talks with what she calls, "her friends," who are as godless as
herself–and she is by their tattle confirmed in her carelessness. O
Sirs, your friends cannot deliver you if you lose your souls through
their means! 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.

Once more, dear Friends, I say this–and may God make it come with
power to some–peace caused by the devil is often the awful prelude of
the last tremendous storm. One who described to me the earthquake in
the south of France said, "That morning when we rose, I never saw more
lovely weather. Everything smiled deliciously across the blue
Mediterranean and the azure sky was without a cloud. Suddenly, without
a moment's warning, a tremor seized the earth and there was a great cry
of men and women in their fright." It usually happens, before
tremendous convulsions of Nature, that there is an ominous calm. You
must have noticed, a few minutes before a storm, how awfully still
everything becomes. The air is motionless, the birds sit mute upon the
bough–not a leaf is stirring, all is silent expectation.

Deceive not yourself–with wings of flame the tempest is hurrying on
and while you speak it bursts upon you– casting all things into
confusion and amazement. Before the last dread hurricane of doom a soul
may be asleep and all around it there may be a deep calm. Beware of the
treacherous peace! 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 let them slumber–for
to sleep is to wake no more. The man pleads, "Let me sleep a
half-an-hour and I shall be so refreshed." Alas, if he sleeps he shall
do ill, for he will grow rigid in the death which frost brings to one!
Go on, wise friends, and compassionately shake him! Hurry him to and
fro, or rub him vigorously till he grows sore!

I cannot get hold of you at this present hour with my hands, nor would
I wish to give you a bodily shaking, but oh, that I could do this
spiritually and wake you up! I cannot leave you to sleep your soul into
perdition! Come, Woman, you must bestir yourself, you must quit this
fatal stupor, this deadly peace or else you will pass away from the
world of hope, and wake up in the dungeon of despair! I have now spoken
as much as I think wise upon this terrible subject–may the Holy Spirit
bless it to you all! It is not my speaking–it is your thinking which
is now needed. The Lord move you to holy thought!

II. Now we come to the second part of our discourse upon which we hope
to speak with far greater pleasure. The Psalmist says, "The Lord will
bless His people with peace." Here we have THE LORD'S PEACE. I trust
numbers of you are now enjoying it! A man of God lay dying, but he was
very calm–more–he was supremely happy! He filled the house with
cheerfulness. All who came to see him, knowing that he was about to
die, as he well knew himself, went away edified and comforted by the
interview with this thrice-happy man.

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, 'You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
You, because he trusts in You.'" 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. You could not keep yourself in perfect
peace in the hour of tribulation, or faintness, or decay–but the Lord
can keep you. When heart and flesh fail, God will be your joy! Then
shall you receive Christ's legacy–"Peace I leave with you, My peace I
give unto you." I love that text because of the double view it gives of
the Peacemaker. Here is a dying Savior making His will and saying,
"Peace I leave with you." Here is the living Savior stretching out His
hands and saying, "My peace I give unto you." He has not only left it
in His will, but He has given it with His hands.

Now, Beloved, the peace that we should desire to possess is, first of
all, a peace which is a blessing–"The Lord will bless His people with
peace." False peace is a curse, but to be soundly at peace with God is
an unalloyed blessing and it brings no sorrow with it. To fall 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 moving of the Holy Spirit and to
yield ourselves up to His influences–this is peace unspeakable! To
have no quarrel with God. No, to have no difference between His will
and your own–this is a delightful experience!

Men may hate me, but if my God loves me, what does it matter? I may
feel the cut of sharp, ungenerous words, but if my God speaks peace
unto me, who can make trouble? "He will speak peace unto His people and
to His saints." This is joy, indeed! 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
marvels at the blessing he 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! The peace of God, which passes all understanding, is
a sacred guard to the soul–it shall keep our hearts and minds by Jesus
Christ.

The value of peace as keeping the heart and mind is exceedingly great.
It wards off all sorts of evils and preserves us unto the day of the
Lord's appearing. The more you enjoy peace with God the better. False
peace is as stupefying and deadly as opium. Even the smallest drop of
this sleeping mixture may be mischievous to the spirit and you may soon
imbibe so much of this false confidence that it may deaden the
conscience and create a fatal hardness of heart. But of God's own peace
you may drink to the full and no harm will come of it! You may be as
happy in the Lord as possible and be all the better for it. Get strong
faith and even full assurance and it will never make you idle–it will
be a blessing and only a blessing to you all your days. "The Lord will
bless His people with peace."

Note, next, that this peace only comes from God. "The lord will bless
His people with peace." You cannot get that peace apart from the Lord
himself–it is of no use to try to work it out yourself. You say, "I
will get better. I will keep the Law, I will do this and do that"–you
will never dig peace out of the soil of your own works. You cannot spin
peace out of your own heart, as a spider spins her web. You must go to
the Lord for peace and there is only one way in which you can go to
Him–Jesus says, "I am the way." Go to the Father through Jesus Christ,
by the power of the Holy Spirit! Trust the Father, rest in Christ,
yield to the Holy Spirit and you shall have the peace that God gives!

O dear Hearers, if you could come and talk with me and I could comfort
you, it might be of no use to you. If you could go to some full-fledged
priest and he could absolve you, it might only be one of the darkest of
delusions. But if you go to God and get His peace, that peace is solid
and abiding–it is founded on eternal Truth! It is guaranteed by the
God of holiness! It is judged to be sound by the Judge of all the
earth! Here we have peace from lips that cannot lie, peace from a heart
which cannot change, peace through the blood which has made a full
atonement! I pray you, seek this peace and make sure of it. You see how
spiritual it is, for you must come to God for it and you can only come
to Him in spirit and in truth. You see how little it depends upon
externals, upon chapel-going, or church-going–it is only by a
spiritual approach to God that this blessing can be obtained. Come to
the Lord and Giver of peace. Come to Jesus who is our peace! Oh, may
the Divine Spirit lead you to come to Jesus now, at this moment, for in
coming to Him you shall receive rest! Plead now this promise–"The Lord
will bless His people with peace."

This peace comes only to His own people– "The Lord will bless His
people with peace." He will never bless those with peace who remain in
rebellion against Him. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it
cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Say, are you one of
His people? Are you loyal to the Prince Emmanuel? If so, the Lord has
bought you with His precious blood and you are His. The Lord will bless
His blood-bought people and cause them to be His by power as well as by
price. Do you rest in Christ alone? Is the atoning Sacrifice your
soul's great hope? If so, you have been begotten again unto that lively
hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the Lord
will bless with peace His people who have risen with His own dear Son.

If you have the faith of God's elect, you are one of His elect! If you
have done with self, the world and sin as the main desire of your
heart, you are among His people. If you yield yourself to God to live
unto Him, then you are one of His people and the Lord will bless you
with peace. The more closely you cling to the Lord Jesus, the more
clear and full will your peace be. Do you belong to Him so that He can
call you one of His people? "Well," says one, "I belong to the Church."
That is a secondary matter. Many are in the visible Church who do not
belong to God. "Oh, but I belong to such-and-such a place of worship
well known for spiritual life." So you may, and yet not be one of the
Lord's people, for tares grow among the best of the wheat.

Say, O Heart, do you trust alone to Jesus the Savior? Have you given
yourself over to the Lord, to be your own no longer? Are you affianced
unto Christ, your all to be His and yourself to be His bride? Then the
Lord will bless you with abundance of peace. Here is a practical
statement, see if it is not true. Notice, again, that this is peace in
the time of tempest and peace after storm. Read over again this 29th
Psalm–it is the Psalm of the thunderstorm. Hear how the voice of God
thunders through it from end to end. The great cedars of Lebanon are
split, the mountains are moved, the wilderness of Kadesh is shaken and
the trembling hinds drop their young in their fright! The whole earth
rocks beneath the tremendous Voice and is lit up with flames of the
lightning of the Lord. Yet the Psalm ends with those gracious
words–"The Lord will bless His people with peace."

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." Brothers and Sisters, you will have many a tempest between
here and Heaven, but before the tempest, through the tempest and after
the tempest, "The Lord will bless His people with peace."

As I turned my text over last night, it seemed to me to be a very
wonderful passage. It is a sort of revolving text, like a gun which is
always loaded and may be perpetually discharged. It is a flowing
fountain, ever beginning with fresh streams. "The Lord will bless His
people with peace." We have had peace with God those 40 years, yes, but
we have a promise of peace for today. Suppose we should live another 40
years? We shall still have the same promise–"The Lord will bless His
people with peace." I should like an everlasting check from some
millionaire running thus–"So often as this check is presented at the
bank, pay the bearer what he asks." Few persons possessed of such a
document would fail to put in an appearance at the bank! We should be
regular visitors!

O you children of God, you have such a promissory note in the text
before you! The Lord has endless, boundless peace within Himself and
when you have long enjoyed peace with Him you may go to Him again and
say, "Lord, renew my peace. I am troubled, but You are unmoved–bless
me with Your peace." When you are rich and find that riches bring
cares, bring these to your God who will bless His people with peace.
When you are poor, do the same. When children are born to you and with
them come family cares, take the new burden to the Lord, for He gives
peace. And if the children die and you weep as your young shoots are
cut off, still turn to the Lord and believe that He will bless you with
peace. If you grow sick, yourself, and the tokens of a deadly disease
appear upon you, still be calm, for He will bless you with peace. When
you must go upstairs and lie down upon your last bed to rise no more,
then, even then, the Lord will bless you with His ever-living peace!
And when you wake up at the sound of the last trump the Lord will still
keep you in perfect peace.

"There remained a rest for the people of God." This is always the
heritage of His believing ones–"Being justified by faith, we have
peace with God." Whatever shall befall our race according to the dark
page of prophecy. Whatever of terror shall break forth throughout the
endless ages of the yet-to-be, the Lord will bless His people with
peace! Take this Truth of God home to your heart and live upon it and
you may dwell perpetually in the Presence of the King. I have done when
I have said the following words. First, let us enquire whether we are
resting on a false or a true foundation. Am I addressing a stranger to
this Tabernacle, here today for the first time? I would not wish to do
you anything but real good and yet I should like to search you to the
foundation.

Is your hope built on a false peace? Then I would like to overthrow it
and leave no stone upon another. Refuges of lies must be swept away
before refuges of Divine Grace will be sought. If you take shelter
behind "a bowing wall and a tottering fence," I would desire to find a
hand towards sending it over, for it will go before long, and it had
better go while you can seek another shelter. You will never be on a
right foundation until you are off the wrong one. As long as your
happiness and peace are false and yet are fair to look upon, you will
not seek true peace! Therefore, I would break the idols to shivers!
Will you look to this? Will you give over being too secure? May I ask
you to accept nothing as a ground of comfort which is not true?

Do not believe in a security which is only of temporary value. Believe
eternal Truth and seek eternal life. Do not wrap yourself about with a
comfort which you dare not prove and test. If you dare not examine it
to the very bottom, away with it! If it will not bear the closest
search, leave it to those who can afford to run great risks, for you
cannot. If you dare not think about your state, you can be sure that
there is something wrong with it. Walk in the light of God and have no
fellowship with unfruitful hopes which are works of darkness. May I
entreat you, when you have laid these things to heart, to seek at once
to have close dealings with God? Do not say, "I will begin searching
the Scriptures." That is a good thing in itself, but if you rest in
Scripture reading and do not go to God Himself, your Bible may be made
a stumbling stone for your soul!

Do not say, "I shall attend more religious services." This, also, may
be well, but religious services will ruin you if you put them in the
place of personal dealings with God! Your living soul has personally to
do with the living God. Come to HIM this morning if you have never been
before. Come at once. Delay no more! Do you shrink? Do you want an
introduction? Do you need a friend to go with you to Heaven's high
court? Behold, the Son of God waits to be your Mediator and
Intercessor! Come to the Father through the Son and you will in no wise
be cast out! Get a hope, O my Hearer, which will last you to the last!
Get a hope which you can die with! I charge you by the living God and
by Christ

Jesus, who will surely come to judge the quick and dead, get a
confidence which will endure the test of death, judgment, and eternity!

Seek to have "boldness in the day ofjudgment." No small matter this.
Make sure work for the day of trial. How can you be sure unless your
trust is built upon the Foundation which God Himself has laid? Behold
the All-Sufficient Sacrifice! Rest in the Divine Expiation, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. "But can we be sure?" cries
one. There are thousands of us who possess the assurance of a
child-like faith. We could not rest a minute if we were not sure in
such a matter! I could not be content with a salvation which did not
give me certainty in my soul, for sin is real and I must have real
pardon–my trouble of heart is real and I must have real confidence in
a Savior! My inward sinfulness is real and I must have a real new birth
unto holiness.

In the day when I took hold of Christ Jesus my Lord, I found in Him
such real peace that I knew and was persuaded that He is able to save.
If any call me a dogmatist, I plead guilty to the charge. I must
dogmatize when I am sure! I cannot live without being certain! Doubt in
this matter is death! I accept my Lord's Atonement! I rest on it and I
find peace to my soul. "If," "but," "perhaps"–those are daggers in my
heart! Where is the comfort to any soul in what he does not know to be
true? The sap and substance of consolation lie in the certainty of the
truth believed. If you are not sure, never rest till you are! Once know
assuredly that God is good to Israel and that He will bless His people
with peace and then go on to enjoy as much of that peace as your soul
can hold!

Sing both by day and by night. "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I
say, Rejoice." As for me, I know whom I have believed and the resolve
of my soul is to magnify my Lord, world without end–

"Down from above the blessed Dove

Is come into my breast

To witness Your eternal love,

And give my spirit rest.

My God, I'll praise You while I live,

And praise You when I die,

And praise You when I rise again,

And to eternity."

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Psalm 73,29.