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The Peace of God
Fury is not in God
Isaiah 27.2–5
Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • September 10, In the year of our Lord, 2017
Prelude:
- How do I know
- that the God of the Bible
- is a God of Peace?
- Man has engaged in a long war against God, yet,
- here we are still living and thriving on His earth.
- You say that He did wipe out humanity at one time?
- True, but from the time Adam and Eve introduced sin onto this planet
- until the time that God wiped out humanity with a flood
- over 1800 years had passed.
- Are you that patient?
- I’m not, for I do not yet fully have the peace of God in me.
- I want to show you something from Isaiah 27
- that I believe will show our God is a God of peace,
- who wants peace with us,
- although if He has to,
- He will unleash His fury upon man.
Persuasion:
- Isaiah 27.2–5 | God Wants Peace
- In Isaiah 26, the Lord spoke to His people,
- telling them to hide from the coming wrath,
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment,
Until the indignation is past.
21 For behold, the LORD comes out of His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
The earth will also disclose her blood,
And will no more cover her slain.
(Isa 26.20–21)
- telling them to hide from the coming wrath,
- Then the prophet used Leviathan,
- an ancient sea-going dinosaur-like reptile
- to represent the fierce enemy of His people,
1 In that day the LORD with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan that twisted serpent;
And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.
(Isa 27.1)
- See, the problem was that the Lord had a vineyard—
- His people Israel—and
- enemies constantly hated the Lord’s vineyard and sought to destroy it,
2 In that day sing to her,
“A vineyard of red wine!
3 I, the LORD, keep it,
I water it every moment.
Lest any hurt it,
I keep it night and day.”
(Isa 27.2–3)
- See how much He cares for His vineyard!
- Let no one ruin it, lest the Lord ruin him.
- Then the Lord revealed His thinking,
- that He has thoughts of peace,
- not of rage,
4 “Fury is not in Me.
Who would set briers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of My strength,
That he may make peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me.”
(Isa 27.4–5)
- God has no desire to show fury.
- It is just not His nature.
- He did not create people only to fight them.
- However, still using the vineyard imagery,
- if someone fights Him with briers and thorns,
- then He will do what He has to do for His vineyard.
- He will unleash His fury, and
- He will march against them, stomping them under His feet,
- finally burning them all together.
- However, what He truly wants
- is for His enemies and the enemies of His people
- to take hold of His strength and
- by doing so, they can make peace with Him, and
- that is what shall happen.
- Think about the suffering of Jesus of Nazareth.
- They beat Him.
- They slapped Him.
- They spit upon Him.
- They scourged Him.
- They nailed Him to a cross.
- Yet, all that He said about it was,
23 “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?” (John 18.23).
- That’s it?
- What would you do if the world did those things to your son?
- What would you do if the world did those thing to you?
- Yet, all that He said about it was,
- Then after all that,
- at the height of His suffering,
- He does this,
34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23.34).
- And the Father does it!
- When Peter convicts thousands of them for what they did to Jesus,
- they saw their war against God and
- felt it in their hearts,
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name ofJesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2.37–38).
- Now if all that does not show
- that God wants peace,
- I do not know what other argument I can present.
- In Isaiah 26, the Lord spoke to His people,
- Live in the Peace of God
- Let’s go back to Isaiah 26.
- Isaiah 25.10–12 speaks of the Lord trampling down the enemies of Judah.
- When that would happened,
- the prophet announces a song that Judah would sing, starting with,
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.”
(Isa 26.1–2)
- Then comes this magnificent part.
- In the midst of attacking enemies,
- Judah could sing because of this truth of which they sing,
3 “You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in the LORD forever,
For in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.”
(Isa 26.3–4)
- the prophet announces a song that Judah would sing, starting with,
- The God of peace enables us to have peace
- when we keep our minds on Him, because
- He has everlasting strength.
- Regardless of what happens to us or around us,
- we can still have peace,
- if we keep focused on God,
- not letting anything distract us from Him.
- In 1809, Alexander Campbell, his siblings, and his mother
- left Ireland to join his father Thomas Campbell in America.
- They ran into a storm and ended up in a bay of Scotland for three days.
- At 10:00 O’Clock one night, a gale blew into the bay and
- shoved the ship, dragging its anchors, into a rock below the surface.
- Everyone rushed to the upper deck.
- The sailors were cutting the sails to prevent the wind catching them.
- All hope disappeared and Alexander knew his life was over.
- He thought of his father, a preacher, and
- realized that everything else in life did not matter.
- Alexander then resolved to become a preacher, if he survived.
- Having made such a decision,
- calm came upon him and he watched the other passengers.
- Sheer terror filled the faces of everyone on board,
“Among the passengers, however, there was one unknown female, who, amidst all the dreadful noise and turmoil of the elements and the contagious sympathy of fear, sat quietly by herself, nursing her babe. This under the circumstances, appeared to the Campbells very singular [unique, remarkable, DR], and it indicates their comparative calmness that they noticed her particularly, as she sat apparently unconscious of the raging winds and waves and the imminence of the danger, sheltering, as best she could her helpless infant” (Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Volume 1, page 102).
- That shows the peace of God in action.
- That leads me to Philippians 4.
- You can also see this passage in the lives of people
- who experience trouble, but they keep their minds stayed on God, and
- they find peace in doing so.
- If your life is filled with anxiety, terror, uncertainty, then hear this,
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phi 4.6–7).
- Things happen that trouble us.
- However, speak to God,
- praying about the matter,
- remembering to thank Him for what He has done in the past.
- Having so spoken, you will experience the peace of God,
- which goes beyond comprehension, but
- you will find it guarding your heart and mind
- as you place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
- The New Testament gives us the promises of the Spirit on God’s peace.
Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen (Rom 15.33).And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen (Rom 16.20).
The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you (Phi 4.9).
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Th 5.23).
Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen (Heb 13.21).
- Follow Jesus and the God of peace shall be with you.
- Live in grace and the God of peace will crush the war-monger Satan.
- Do what the Lord teaches and the God of peace will be with you.
- The God of peace will preserve your spirit, soul, and body when Jesus returns.
- The God of peace make you complete every good work.
- Let’s go back to Isaiah 26.
Exhortation:
- There are people in this congregation who have the peace of God.
- If I named them, you would agree with me that you see His peace in them.
- If you look through our church directory,
- you will discover that most have the peace of God.
- If I took the time to list every person and
- gave the qualities that they have that exhibit His peace,
- it would take a long time.
- It would be shorter to list the few without the peace of God.
- How did they get that peace?
- They let Jesus teach them.
- They pray relentlessly to God, because they trust in Him.
- If I named them, you would agree with me that you see His peace in them.
- Why live without the peace of God?
- How long have you been at war with God?
- Don’t you see that He wants peace with you, because He is a God of peace?
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