IT PASSES MY UNDERSTANDING
ISAIAH 26:3,4
“Peace that passes understanding”
Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
A. What a great promise! The peace of God can surround us and stand guard over our hearts and minds. We could stop here, rejoice, and claim the promise and all live in peace but I am afraid that real life is not as easy as that.
B. While sitting at a truck stop with a missionary that was working in the states, we discussed my thoughts about writing on the subject of peace. His response was very sobering. He said, “Why don’t you write on how to have peace when your 16 year old daughter, that had a traumatic experience in life and will never be able to grow past that point emotionally and the parents have to change their whole life to accommodate this.” I knew he was speaking of himself and I could tell by his emotion that this was a painful experience for him. As a pastor I am used to hearing sad stories and sometimes find myself giving the same pat answers that I have heard come from others. I wanted to help, I wanted to fix, but what I really wanted to do was go home. I wanted to leave because I became painfully aware of my inability to bring comfort. Instead, I just sat there with nothing to say. I think I mumbled something like, “I am sorry.” All my seminary training was not going to any resolution. Frankly, none was needed.
C. People need something deeper than clichés. They need real, genuine, authentic love. They need the love of our Heavenly Father and the loving arm of a community to demonstrate that love.
D. As humbling as this is, we have to finally face the fact that we do not have, and are not required to have, all of the answers for people to experience God’s peace.
E. You cannot break peace into a formula. There is no A+B/C= PEACE. You cannot put it in a bottle and sell it.
F. The peace of God is like trying to catch a wave of an ocean in my daughter’s sand bucket. I can however, stand in the sand and let the waves splash over me and feel the cool breeze in my face and hear the laughter of my children. I may not be able to get it all but I can experience it and know it is there and is there in abundance.
G. This must be why Solomon wrote, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”
We Need Peace Today
A. The world cries out for peace.
The Israeli’s and the Palestinians are fighting again.
We are caught up in a war on terrorism and we don’t even know where the enemy is.
Colon Powell just returned from a peace mission that did not produce any results.
B. People look for peace in their personal lives and minds.
People all over the world today lack a sense of peace.
They are struggling and they are tormented in their minds.
C. Churches are looking for peace.
D. Families are looking for peace in their homes.
In this confused world, some people have peace while others go to pieces.
E. Some people just bury their head in the sand believing all is well.
Vance Havner writes, “My wife and I were taking a bus trip through the mountains, and the bus broke down right in front of a hillbilly grocery store. The woman there had never been anywhere else much. My wife said, "I don’t believe she knows what’s going on in the world outside." I said, "Well, don’t tell her. I wouldn’t want the poor soul to know. Let her die in peace."” (Vance Havner, from The Vance Havner Quote Book/On This Rock I Stand. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 16.)
Isaiah 26:3,4
A. Background
1. This is a song about the future when God establishes his kingdom. God reveals the future.
2. It is a psalm of trust, praise, and meditation.
3. Peace is not the absence of war or trouble, or strife. But with God we can know perfect peace even in turmoil.
B. When we talk about peace we tend to think about a temporary state of euphoria.
1. We are looking for peace of mind when God wants to give us a mind of peace.
2. Peace is having the mind steadfast, fixed, holding onto Him. He is our peace. He is the peace between God and man. He is the inner experiential peace. He is our hope.
3. J. Oswald Sanders, “Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.”
C. The Old Testament word is the word, “shalom.” its basic meaning is “wholeness” or “well-being.”
1. It means health, security, tranquillity, and welfare. Used as a greeting to ask about a person’s well being, good condition, success, comfort - peace.
2. Shalom is clearly depicted as a satisfied condition, an unconcerned state of peacefulness.
It is a harmonious state of soul and mind, both externally and internally.
3. It is much more than the absence of strife. It expresses completeness, harmony, and fulfillment. To wish on shalom implies a blessing, but to withhold it implies a curse.
D. The New Testament Greek word corresponds to the Hebrew shalom expressing the idea of peace, well-being, restoration, reconciliation with God, and salvation in the fullest sense.
“Peace, Peace”
A. The text in the original, is—"Thou wilt keep him in peace, peace."
It is the Hebrew way of expressing emphatic peace; true and real peace; double peace, peace of great depth and vast extent.
Perfect peace is one of God’s gifts to those who trust in Him. Confidence in God rules out fear and anxiety over lesser things.
B. The mark of peace is ultimately individual rather than national.
It is reclining in the love of God. Your soul throws all its weight and all its weariness upon the Lord, and then a perfect peace follows. It is having absolute confidence in God.
“Stayed”
A. Peace comes from a steadfast mind.
NLT Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!
B. Peace rules the day when Christ rules the mind.
He is the one with authority.
C. Those whose “purpose,” “plan,” or “disposition” is steady in the Lord is stayed on Him.
D. The Hebrew word “mind” includes the whole being. It begins with the thought life, imagination and desires.
If your thoughts are stayed on God, you will have perfect peace. You must connect everything with God.
E. What is meant by “stayed”?
1. It also means rested? When your thoughts recline at their ease in God’s revealed will, that is staying upon God.
It means to stop there, like you would stop at Grandmaw’s house.
Grandmaw’s house for me was a place that I found refuge and peace. It was a place of quiet contentment and nourishment (food).
We speak of staying at a place.
Well, when our minds are stayed upon God, we just stop at God; we have no other pursuits.
Our heart is rooted and grounded in the great Father’s love, and so we stay our souls on Him.
2. Staying means we are dependent on.
We speak of a stay, and of a mainstay; it is something upon which we are depending.
Such a person is the stay of the house,—its chief upholder and support.
“On Thee”
A. Throughout the Old Testament spiritual peace is realized in relationship. It is realized when people are rightly related to each other and to God.
You cannot have peace without the prince of peace.
B. Our relationship to Him is vital in our pursuit of peace. Just like our relationship with our spouse is vital to peace in our home and family.
“Because he Trusts in You”
A. Whatever we trust to the world for, it will last only for a moment; but those who trust in God shall not only find in him, but shall receive from him, strength that will carry them to that blessedness which is for ever.
B. Peace is based on steadfast trust in God. Such trust produces internal, personal peace, the only basis for peace on a larger scale.
C. Verse 4, “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal."
Can you think of a more secure place?
Peace can be ours in spite of our present situation or trial. You may be just as happy in affliction as out of it, if the Lord is with you. To leave everything with God, trusting in Him forever, because in Him there is everlasting strength—this is peace.
D. Spurgeon, “The habit of resignation is the root of peace.”
A godly child had a ring given him by his mother, and he greatly prized it. But he suddenly and unhappily lost his ring, and he cried bitterly. Recollecting himself, he stepped aside and prayed. His sister laughingly said to him, "What is the good of praying about a ring--will praying bring back your ring?"
"No, sister," said he, "perhaps not, but praying has done this for me: it has made me quite willing to do without the ring, if it is God’s will. And is not that almost as good as having it?"
Conclusion
A. In 1555, Nicholas Ridley was burned at the stake because of his witness for Christ. On the night before Ridley’s execution, his brother offered to remain with him in the prison chamber to be of assistance and comfort. Nicholas declined the offer and replied that he meant to go to bed and sleep as quietly as ever he did in his life. Because he knew the peace of God, he could rest in the strength of the everlasting arms of his Lord to meet his need.
B. Peace in the storm is a great testimony to others.
C. You cannot have the peace of God until you know the God of peace.
D. Where is your trust today?
E. Do you have peace? Perfect Peace? God’s Peace?
F. There is an old chorus we used to sing that still means a lot to me. It is “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” It says, “Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace.”
