Rejoicing in the Perfect Peace of God

When I go back up to Whangarei one of the things that always, without fail, catches my attention on the drive is the sign at a gold course on the way. There’s nothing too impressive about it other than its main point of focus is a huge, meters wide, golf ball slung between posts, suspended in the air.

Israel in this passage here are like that golf ball. They sit hung between the past and present, wherein they have been ravaged by their own sin, and by nations who came against them. And between the future, where God promises full redemption to their land which will be of greater glory than what came before.

This reality is played out in chapters 24 and 25. Upon the land of Israel we find the wrath of God coming,

Read 24:1-3

And so, the cry of the people of God comes forth,

“But I say, ‘I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me!”

But God does not leave the earth or His people in a place of desolation for held out to the people is the promise of restoration spoken by Isaiah,

Read 25:1; 25:6-8

We recognise ourselves here also. We too are caught between our past and present sin and the consequences of it, and the future hope and glory of God’s redemption of us. Woe is me! We may say when look at ourselves. For all we see when we look around is the old man, though bruised and beaten by the resurrection of Christ, what we once were still continues to try beat us down and pull us under with Him.

But Christ’s resurrection pulls us out of that state, and in Christ proclaims to us, “it is finished.” God has indeed done wonderful things, and like Israel’s redemption, these plans were formed of old. They are faithful and sure.

The work begun by Christ on the cross is held out to us as a work begun. But the fullness of that redemption is yet to come. For Christ’s work begun in us, will find its completion encompassing the whole of the earth, taking us up in it to glory.

We find ourselves in the same state as Israel, slung in the present between what has happened and what will come. Between what was and is, and what will be. And it is in that suspended present that we find the song of praise upon the lips of the redeemed people of God.

Praise, thanksgiving, rest, and trust are the right responses of the Christian hung between salvation already achieved, and what is yet to come. Though you may suffer now, and the old man may still wage war against your soul, do not despair. Instead, may you lean upon the promises of God, declared to you and finished in Jesus Christ, and turn instead to praising our God. This is what I want us to get from the text this morning, that the joy of our salvation would lead us to rejoicing and rest in our God.

We will look at why we are to do that under three headings from this text:

1. A Strong City

2. A Righteous City

3. The City’s Everlasting Foundation

A Strong City

Isaiah opens up with a song of praise upon hearing of the Lord’s salvation of His people. In that day this song will be upon all the lips of the redeemed people of God. But Isaiah did not intend for this song to only be reserved for in that future day of redemption, God’s people were to also strengthen their hearts with this song of praise. Amidst present struggle and sin, the people of God were to lift up their voices and comfort their hearts with the sure promises of God’s salvation.

So, we read:

Read 26:1

If you’ve ever seen the Lord of the Rings movies or read the books, you’ll be familiar with the mighty fortress of the Men of Gondor at Helm’s Deep. Set at the back of a narrowing gorge sat the fortress of the Hornburg. Surrounded by 20-foot-wide walls, wide enough that four men could walk comfortably abreast it.

Beyond that, spanning the width of the gorge, the first line of defence, stood Helm’s Dike. At some places it stood 20 feet high, and so steep it resembled a cliff. The whole fortress was designed to be impenetrable; funnelling would be attackers into a single point.

This is the kind of image that Isaiah gives us here. The first reason that Isaiah gives for rejoicing amongst the people of God is that our salvation in our God is like a strong city.

Head

Jerusalem’s sins were that they trusted in their own defences and strength instead of the Lord’s.

Read 22:8-11a

Here Isaiah refers to the deeds done in the days of Hezekiah, where he brought water into the city, creating a pool in which the water would be stored. These were good things, deeds done because God had provided Hezekiah with many riches. But as Isaiah says,

Read vs 11b.

Israel, though they had much abundance from God, did not regard the Lord’s provision. When the envoys from Babylon came after hearing of Hezekiah’s sickness, he welcomed them and immediately went to show them,

“all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.”

He was proud of all that he had. He rested in his pride, not caring that his pride would lead to the downfall of Israel. His heart was hard towards the warnings of Isaiah, upon hearing of the coming destruction from Babylon, the same who he had showed all his wealth to, his reply was,

The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

As the king goes, so go the people. So, Isaiah tells us that their greed, pride, and gloating in their luxury is Israel’s sin,

“they have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands.”

Heart

How often do we also trust in our own strength? We see the same pattern of our human nature in Israel. Particularly in the book of the Judges. In hard times they call out to God, so God sends them salvation. They rejoice for a while in that salvation, but soon forget. They soon start to rely again upon their own works and abilities, and so everyone goes their own way. They devolve into sin, into pride, licentiousness, greed, hate, every detestable thing. So as the pattern goes, God judges them, and they cry out to God for salvation in their hardship.

When the goings are easy, we forget God. We start to spiritually cruise. Our jobs are going well, we’re getting promotions and pay rises. Our grades at school are fantastic, scholarships are on the horizon. Friendships are great and fun, your marriage is fantastic. Like Israel, you have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at your feasts.

But it is here that the deeds of the Lord are forgotten. Has He not been the One who has provided for our every need? Is it not He who both gives and takes away? As fast as these things all come, they also go. The walls and buildings that Israel built to protect herself, were run over by Babylon. So too, the walls that we build up for ourselves, the lives that we try and make for us, can come crashing down as quickly as they went up.

Hands

If your hope is in these, what rest do you have?

Instead, as those who have experienced the kind hand of God on our lives, we ought to turn our hearts and mouths to praise Him. Our strong city is not in ourselves, it is in the Lord. Our strong city is not in what our life is and what we have. It is not in our riches, in our houses, our health, our happiness. No, all of these can come tumbling down.

Our strong city is our God. It is Him and all His goodness. The city’s walls are the salvation of our God. We have every reason to lift up our voices because our salvation is in our God. As God is everlasting and eternal, so too is His salvation. As He is unchanging yesterday, today, and forevermore, so too is His saving hand.

Though sin and evil may attack us, though Satan may seek to ravage our lives, the existence of hardships are not reason to doubt the goodness of our God.

We have reason to rejoice, not because we have plenty, not because our lives are going great. But we rejoice because the promises of God hold true. They are our wall of defence. For it is God Himself who protects you and keeps you. Trust not in what you have or who you are in this life, instead trust in the security and salvation of God alone. Sing the song of rejoicing,

Read vs 1

A Righteous City

We have seen the first reason for rejoicing is because it is God who is our salvation. Isaiah moves on to give us the second reason for rejoicing.

Read vs 2

Head

Notice here who it is that enters into this city whose walls are salvation. It is the one whose righteousness is by faith. As we saw earlier, Israel’s problem was the problem of many of us, righteousness by works. Righteousness by self-sufficiency.

When the judgement of God arose against the nation of Israel in the form of Babylonian invasion, they did not look to the Lord’s provision, they sought to reinforce the walls of the city themselves. But the Babylonians overtook it. Israel had forgotten her founding, the saving hand of the Lord.

This too is a problem for us. When problems arise, we turn first to our own abilities to solve things. I think we do this more today than perhaps in days gone past. Think even just of sickness, we have medicine so readily available to us that it is easy to forget that it is God who heals through very normal means such as this.

As Israel’s success ,which she took pride in, came about from God’s provision, it is easy to rely on, and take comfort in what God has provided for us, rather than recognising His hand in it.

Heart

This is often a picture of our hearts towards sin and righteousness too. Just as we can take some Panadol and our pain is gone, we trust in our own abilities to fix our sin. We flick a rubber band on our wrists when we are tempted by lust, and that solves the problem. We have a three-step plan to not get angry. When temptation arises, we count to five and it’s passes. And so, we can become like the Pharisee that Luke tells us of in his Gospel.

Read Luke 18:9-14

Notice here who it is that went away justified. It was not the Pharisee who had all the tricks in the book to avoid his idea of sinning, it was the tax collector that knew without the mercy of God, he had nothing in himself to stand before God.

This is what true righteousness is. It is not conforming to a set list of moral rules, righteousness is believing the promises of God that He will have mercy. This is the faith of the children of Abraham.

Those who dwell in this city are those who are brought from all the ends of the earth, who have no inherent righteousness in them (or believe that they do). It is those who cast themselves upon the mercy of God, trusting that it is He who justifies the ungodly.

Martin Luther puts it so beautifully,

“He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes much in Christ.”

Hands

All the promises that Isaiah spoke of, that God will swallow up death forever, are found in Christ alone. It is He who is the gate by which we enter the city. He says to us, “come to me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Cast yourselves upon the mercies of God. For here is true righteousness, God alone justifies the ungodly. He does not require anything of you, but that you would come.

Martin Luther says again,

“The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it.”

Trust not in your own works to have a righteous standing before God, but in faith, believing the promises of God in Christ, come to Him. God will surely supply your every need because He loves you.

He is your complete, and full, supply of all righteousness. And His salvation is your protection. If God is for us, then who can be against us? This is cause for much rejoicing.

Lift up your voices. Lift up your hearts, to the One who justifies sinners and supplies all your righteousness.

The City’s Everlasting Foundation

Isaiah moves on to the final reason for rejoicing,

Read vs 3-4

Head

Where do we find peace? There seems to be a desire for peace that is content and unfazed by the world. This is something I see this a lot at the moment of people my age. They want to slow down, and not get caught up in the “rat race” as it were. So, they search for peace.

But unfortunately, this peace is often sought out in themselves. Worldly peace, which is what is often turned to, is found through emptying one’s mind, seeking to rid it of anything, in order that one would find this peace. Peace, according to this definition, is not thinking of anything. It is emptiness.

But this is in contrast to biblical, Heavenly peace. Here in this passage, we are given a picture of what heavenly peace is. Rather than seeking to get to a place of emptiness, and grounding ourselves in the earth, we are told that we are kept in perfect peace when our mind is stayed on the Lord.

It seems far too simple, doesn’t it? We often find ourselves reacting to situations around us. We fall in our sin; we fall out of love and devotion for God. We experience health problems, financial problems, marriage problems, it seems as though our friends abandon us, and no one actually likes us.

It feels at times like the Uruk Hai scaling the walls of Helm’s Deep. Life comes at us in wave after wave. This is surely how Israel felt, particularly once they had been taken away to Babylon in chains.

But the beauty of Biblical peace is its simplicity. Like Paul who says to the Philippians,

“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”

Why did he have this confidence? It was because of His trust in the promises of God, that he has no righteousness of his own, but one which comes through faith in Christ. Now Paul has the settled disposition of the believer rejoicing amidst trials because his righteousness is from God.

It is because of this sure fact that Paul is able to say that whatever comes his way, he can do all things through him who strengthens him.

Heart

Paul shows us what this peace is that Isaiah speaks of. It is a peace that is promised to all believers. And it is simple. It is in this simplicity that the beauty of true peace is found. That those who trust in God can rest, assured that they are wrapped up, protected and comforted in the salvation of God in Christ.

The fellowship of the ring and the Men of Gondor knew that they could find comfort and peace behind the walls at Helm’s Deep. But like the great walls at Constantinople which apparently could never be conquered, they will eventually fall.

We have a far greater comfort than these as the people of God because the walls of our city will never fail. We have come to God in faith through Christ, and as surely as we know that Christ has been raised from the dead, we can now trust that God will provide everything we need for life eternal and godliness in Him.

Hands

There is no other guardian that will give you the promise of peace, but the grace of God in Christ. There is a peace to be found in God that is reason for rejoicing. This peace comes through fixing our minds on God and His promises, but it is not dependent upon our clinging to them.

If our salvation were dependent upon how hard we clung, we know that we would fall. We see our grip slip each day. But though your grip on Christ may fail. Though you may lack peace, this in no way changes the promises of God held out to you. We may be fickle, and like the flower of grass, here today and gone tomorrow. God’s word of promise stands true forever.

Read vs 4

Trust is not a onetime event, but it is continual through the life of the believer. But it is not your trust that will save you or give you peace, but that thing in which you trust. Our hope and trust which gives us peace is in the fixed and unchangeable promise of God, according to one author,

“that all who hope in Him shall enjoy eternal peace… when we trust God, he never disappoints our hope, because he has determined to guard us forever.”

He goes on to say that our safety, our peace, is not dependent upon the things that happen to us each day, or to the state of world around us. It is not shaken or moved by the various changes which happen daily, but that our trust is founded upon the purpose of God.

It is for this reason and this reason alone that our trust stands with steady and unshaken firmness, so that it can never fall.

Though you may change, though you may waver in your trust, in your faith and faithfulness, the Lord your God will never change. He is the same today as he was in eternity past, and He will continue to be the same forever more. This is great reason for rejoicing, believer. Praise be to God.

So, the settled disposition of the believer, is the faithful trusting and waiting upon the promises of God to which they would return again and again. Rejoice in the unchanging hope of God that is yours in Christ Jesus.

He has redeemed you and what is begun in you will surely be brought to completion. In this time of waiting and of hope, trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. In Him we are kept in perfect peace.

Lord, have mercy on us sinners. Would you grant us peace. Help us to learn to trust you more,to faith in your promises declared to us in Christ. You O lord, are our rock and safe place. You guard us in and protect us. May we go from here knowing in greater depth these realities, trusting not in ourselves and what we bring but trusting in you alone. To you be all glory and honour, now and forever more. Amen.

Numbers 6 benediction

2 Corinthians

the grace of our lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.