The Peace Of The Devil & The Peace Of God

THE PEACE OF THE DEVIL & THE PEACE OF GOD

Jer. 6:14; John 14:27

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. A bus full of ugly people had a head-on collision with a truck. When they died, God granted all of them one wish. The first person said, "I want to be gorgeous. God said, “Granted” and it happened. The second person said, “Handsome,” and God made him handsome.

2. This turned out to be the request of the entire group. They were all very happy with their new condition. The last man in line was snickering. When his turn came, he said, "For my one wish, I ask that you make us all ugly again!"

3. Some people not only want bad for themselves, but for others too! They don’t want others doing better than them. What spite! If Satan has to go to hell, he wants others to have to go there too. He wants companions in suffering. Pitiful!

B. DEFINITION OF PEACE & TITLE

1. There are many definitions of peace: a state of tranquility; freedom from civil disturbance; a state of security; freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions; harmony in personal relations, etc.

2. However, in an eternal sense, there are only two types of peace – the false peace of the devil and the true peace won by Jesus Christ.

3. The devil knows that our separation from God produces an innate knowledge that something is wrong in our lives; we are not complete; everything is not right. This lack of inner peace causes us to seek the reason for it, and will lead us to God.

4. So the devil seeks to cover over this spiritual disquiet, to explain it away, or to overrun the physical senses with pleasure or distractions so that the inner cry of the spirit is drowned out. These are his strategies for deceiving us.

5. To summarize, the devil uses these means to produce a counterfeit peace – something that mimics the peace of God which comes from being right with God. So my purpose here is to throw light on the false peace and then on the true peace from God.

6. The title is “The Peace of the Devil and the Peace of God.”

I. THE DEVIL'S PEACE

“They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace” Jer. 6:14; 8:11).

A. GREAT EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE PEACE

1. Thousands of people each year visit the Winchester Mansion in San Jose, California. This massive structure was built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of the gun company owner. For thirty-eight years, from 1884 until her death in 1922, the house was under constant construction. Teams of carpenters, masons and other workers were employed around the clock.

2. Various theories have been told about her reasons for this unusual practice. Most center on Mrs. Winchester’s belief that she either was haunted or would be haunted by the ghosts of those killed by her husband’s weapons unless she kept building her house. Others claim that she thought she would not die as long as building continued. Whatever the reason, she continued ordering more renovations and construction as long as she lived.

3. There are more than 10,000 windows in the Winchester Mansion, doorways and stairs that lead to blank walls, and some 160 rooms in total. It is estimated that she spent more than $70,000,000 in today’s money on largely pointless construction—all in a desperate search for peace that was ultimately doomed to fail.

4. Many people today are seeking peace through equally fruitless means. They turn to pleasure, drugs, alcohol, immorality, wealth and other dead end avenues. Like the staircases that lead nowhere in the Winchester Mansion, pursuing such paths will never bring peace.

5. Instead we find peace when we follow Christ. When we do, we’ll find that peace comes as a side effect that we receive from Him. [The History of Winchester Firearms, Dean Boorman]

B. DIFFERENT FORMS OF FALSE PEACE

1. DRUGS. Today in developed countries, many who have stress or fears resort to tranquilizers, mood altering drugs, and recreational drugs or alcohol to calm themselves. Don’t ever imagine that a drug-induced peace is equivalent to the supernatural peace given by God.

2. FALSE PEACE BY NOISE & ACTIVITY. Many people are like the boy going through the cemetery who is afraid of ghosts, so he whistles loudly to drown out his fears and keep his courage up. People intentionally keep radios and TVs blaring so they can’t hear the whispers of their consciences. But this absence of conviction is a false peace.

3. BY IGNORING GOD. Unbelievers often apply the arguments of atheism to prove to their reason that God doesn’t exist. Then they order their thoughts to resist any dealings of the Holy Spirit, devising strategies to silence Him. Then they say to themselves, "If there is a god, I am at peace with him."