Isaiah 48:22 There is no peace, said the LORD, to the wicked. There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked. We may look at - I. THE ANTECEDENT LIKELIHOOD that there would be none. For the wicked are: 1. In rebellion against the Lord of all righteousness and power; i.e. against one who is bound to visit sin with penalty and who is able to do so. 2. In an element of disturbance and disorder. They are in a wrong and false position; they are in a sphere which is unnatural and unlawful; they stand where storms may be anticipated, where calms are things to be surprised at and suspected. II. THE DELUSIVE APPEARANCE of peace in the case of the unrighteous. It is continually happening that ungodly men, that unbelieving men, that even vicious men, spend lives of domestic comfort, prosper in the calling in which they are engaged, are untroubled in their conscience for considerable periods of time, die without great alarm or even serious apprehension. It often appears as if there were peace to the wicked. These facts, however, are consistent with - III. THE ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that guilt and peace are never found together. It is not only true: 1. That crime is almost always attended with a haunting dread of exposure and penalty. 2. That vice and irreligion are commonly associated with a sense of guilt and with the rebukings of conscience. But it is also true: 3. That no guilty soul can possibly have that in his heart which deserves the name of peace. He may have insensibility or false security; but these are not peace. Peace is the blessed calm which belongs to a consciousness of rectitude before God; it is the possession of those alone who are right with God, and who believe that they are so. No hardihood, no delusion, can confer this. A man who is living apart from God, unreconciled to him, unaccepted by him, must be destitute of the peace of God-of the peace which Christ gives to his own. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked. |
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