Perfect Peace | Part 1
In a world built on pride and self-reliance, Isaiah paints a powerful contrast between two cities—one lofty and restless, the other strong and filled with perfect peace. In this episode, discover how God's promise of peace isn't the absence of problems, but the presence of Christ. Learn what it means to live in the city of God, where your mind is stayed on Him and your soul is anchored in His salvation.
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Transcript
Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family Podcast.
Speaker A:It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.
Speaker A:Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.
Speaker A:And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam wood.
Speaker B:Isaiah, chapter 26 and verse 1.
Speaker B:In that day shall this song be sung.
Speaker B:In the land of Judah we have a strong city Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
Speaker B:Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth thee.
Speaker B:Trust ye in the Lord forever.
Speaker B:For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.
Speaker B:For he bringeth down them that dwell on high the lofty city he layeth it low.
Speaker B:He layeth it low Even to the ground he bringeth it even to the dust the foot shall tread it down Even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.
Speaker B:In these six verses in this song tonight, God describes two cities.
Speaker B:He describes a strong city, and he also describes a lofty city.
Speaker B:We might, if we wanted to give a title to this message, one of the titles could be the Tale of Two Cities.
Speaker B:But we really see this in verse one.
Speaker B:It says we have a.
Speaker B:What kind of city?
Speaker B:Church?
Speaker B:Strong city.
Speaker B:We have a strong city.
Speaker B:And this city is described in verses 1 through 4.
Speaker B:But very interesting.
Speaker B:Interestingly, it compares it, in contrast it to a lofty city in verse 5 and 6, where God says that he will bring the proud.
Speaker B:He will humble the proud, he will bring them low.
Speaker B:You might say, what is this lofty city?
Speaker B:The lofty city, I believe, is a human social order based on pride, not humility, and based on self salvation, not God's salvation.
Speaker B:The first example, I believe, of a lofty city, we might say in the Word of God.
Speaker B:We see it in Genesis chapter 11, and that is the Tower of Babel.
Speaker B:And the Tower of Babel was a city based on pride.
Speaker B:It was a city based on self salvation.
Speaker B:And all the people came to that city and built a skyscraper.
Speaker B:We're told in Genesis 11:4.
Speaker B:And it says in verse 4 of Genesis 11 that they did it to make a name for themselves.
Speaker B:A lofty city based on self salvation is a city based on self justification through performance, through individual achievement.
Speaker B:But we notice the contrast.
Speaker B:This lofty city, unlike the strong city, doesn't have something that's very, very important to see in these verses that the strong city does have.
Speaker B:You say, preacher, what is that that is peace.
Speaker B:In fact, the Bible says that this strong city has perfect peace.
Speaker B:This lofty city, it has no peace.
Speaker B:Self salvation, self justification means you're always striving, you're always restless, you're always exhausted.
Speaker B:But again, there's another city where that God is its salvation.
Speaker B:And in that city, this strong city, where it says that salvation will gallop point for walls and bulwarks, it has perfect peace because it's not based on self salvation, it's not based on man's justification, but it's based on God's salvation through the person of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:The word peace there in verse three, very interesting word is the word shalom.
Speaker B:The Hebrew word shalom is much richer than our English word for peace, which usually means a cessation of hostilities or just an inner calm within.
Speaker B:But actually, if you study this Hebrew word shalom, it means full flourishing.
Speaker B:I love this.
Speaker B:It means full flourishing, absolute flourishing in every area of your life to flourish in every area of your life.
Speaker B:What a wonderful thing that is.
Speaker B:And the city of God that's described, and some people call this strong city in verse one, the city of God is a city of shalom.
Speaker B:But it's not just a city of shalom, it's a city of perfect shalom.
Speaker B:Very interesting.
Speaker B:It says, you will keep him in perfect peace.
Speaker B:In Hebrew, very often the way you get magnitude across is through doubling what you say.
Speaker B:And the way you get intensity is across is through doubling the words that are given.
Speaker B:In Hebrew.
Speaker B:There's no word for perfect peace.
Speaker B:So what it actually is saying, you will keep him in peace.
Speaker B:Peace or shalom, Shalom or double peace.
Speaker B:So this isn't just peace, this is peace peace.
Speaker B:This is double peace.
Speaker B:This is perfect peace.
Speaker B:This is infinite peace.
Speaker B:And I like that.
Speaker B:So we have two cities described in this song.
Speaker B:One is a lofty city described by self salvation, pride, restlessness and a lack of peace.
Speaker B:Then you have the city of God described by God's salvation and his perfect peace for those abiding within its walls.
Speaker B:Interestingly, centuries later, Jesus Christ knowing this theme from the prophets, knowing this theme that history in the Old Testament is a tale of two cities, looks at his disciples.
Speaker B:And in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14, he says these words, you are the light of the world.
Speaker B:A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Speaker B:Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Speaker B:When Jesus said that he wasn't just Pulling a metaphor, we might say, out of the air.
Speaker B:He had all this Old Testament background in mind.
Speaker B:Here's what he's saying.
Speaker B:He's saying to his disciples, he's saying to anyone who knows Jesus, anyone who has a born again experience, whose life has been changed through radical grace, anyone who's begun to experience this perfect peace, this deep peace, you are the alternate city of God inside of every human city.
Speaker B:That is, you are the city on the hill.
Speaker B:You are the city of God.
Speaker B:You are this strong city inside of this lofty city.
Speaker B:You are a city on the hill in the midst of a lofty city, filled full of pride, filled full of lack of humility, filled full of self justification and self salvation.
Speaker B:You are a city on the hill that is a city of God.
Speaker B:You know when I thought about that today, when I was studying this over the last few days, and I thought, westside Baptist Church is a church full of believers who are a strong city, a city within a city, a city on the hill, we might say a strong city in the midst of a lofty city, the lofty city of Bremerton, a city on the hill whose light has been shining for 50 years brightly, and God wants to continue to shine for years to come.
Speaker B:And Isaiah is saying that just because a strong city is a city of the salvation of God, the distinguishing mark.
Speaker B:And when I look at this, it was so exciting.
Speaker B:The distinguishing mark of every inhabitant within this strong city.
Speaker B:See, if you have a strong city in the walls, the salvation is the walls of that city.
Speaker B:Then you can have peace, true peace, God's peace within that city.
Speaker B:So the distinguishing mark of this strong city, the city of God, is perfect peace.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:People in the city of Bremerton should see that the city on the hill called Westside Baptist Church, is a city full of believers who have his what church?
Speaker B:Perfect peace.
Speaker B:Who have his perfect peace.
Speaker B:I would ask you tonight, do you have this perfect peace as God's child?
Speaker B:What are you facing right now that you're worried about?
Speaker B:What are you facing tonight that maybe you're anxious about, that you're stressed out about, that you're depressed about that has robbed you of God's perfect peace?
Speaker B:Maybe it's your finances.
Speaker B:Maybe you feel like you have a lack of direction in your life.
Speaker B:You don't know where you're going tomorrow, next month or next year.
Speaker B:Maybe it's your health.
Speaker B:Maybe perhaps it's some family situation with a child or a family situation in your marriage for some singles here tonight.
Speaker B:Maybe it's a Relationship, or the lack of a relationship, whatever it is.
Speaker B:I want you to know that God desires for you to have his perfect peace.
Speaker B:So tonight I want to share with you three things.
Speaker B:And I believe that God says that we can have perfect peace if we'll do from verse three.
Speaker B:So look at it with me as I unpack it tonight and take a few minutes to look in detail at this verse in verse three that talks about God's perfect peace in a city, a strong city, a city of God in the midst of a world that's a lofty city.
Speaker B:I think to have this perfect peace, the first thing you need to do is affirm God's promise.
Speaker B:You just need to affirm this promise to yourself.
Speaker B:Jesus said, I leave my peace with you.
Speaker B:What a wonderful promise of God.
Speaker B:Paul opens many of his letters.
Speaker B:In fact, you'll see often he opens his letters saying this with these words, grace and what?
Speaker B:Grace and peace.
Speaker B:You know, you could read those words and you could preach messages just on that verse.
Speaker B:Grace, peace.
Speaker B:There can be no peace without grace, without saving grace, without God being those walls of salvation in your life, then you cannot have this peace.
Speaker B:So Paul says, grace.
Speaker B:He opens these letters up with grace and peace.
Speaker B:Because you experience the grace of God, then you can have the peace of God.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Paul is saying that every believer, as a believer in Christ, because of this grace, we can have God's peace.
Speaker B:And Jesus says, this peace is a gift to us from God.
Speaker B:It's not something you work for.
Speaker B:It's not something you earn.
Speaker B:It's not something you buy.
Speaker B:It's a gift that God gives to us.
Speaker B:But we must believe it.
Speaker B:We must affirm it within our heart.
Speaker B:This perfect peace is a birthright for the child of God.
Speaker B:Paul said it this way in Romans chapter 5 and verse 1.
Speaker B:He said, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:God promises you as a child of God.
Speaker B:God promises me as a child of God, his perfect peace in Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:Isn't that wonderful?
Speaker B:And we need to affirm that to ourselves, that we can have God's perfect peace in our life because of the relationship we have with Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:But I want you to listen to me very closely now what I'm going to say next.
Speaker B:While many believers have accepted that they're saved from hell, they've not accepted salvation, we might say, from a guilty conscience.
Speaker B:Many believers are like the young man who came to his pastor.
Speaker B:He had a tremendous load of guilt upon his heart, even though he had asked God over and over to forgive him for his sinful acts and his failures in his life.
Speaker B:The young man still was burdened and he said, pastor, I've asked God a thousand times to forgive me and yet I still feel the burden of my guilt.
Speaker B:What can I do?
Speaker B:His pastor replied, son, you should have asked God to forgive you one time and thanked him 999 times that he has forgiven you.
Speaker B:I like that Peace comes when you accept God's acceptance of you.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:When you accept God's acceptance of you.
Speaker B:The pardon of Jesus Christ made possible through the blood of his cross, provides us with complete acceptance.
Speaker B:First, John 17 says, the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Speaker B:The Bible also says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions.
Speaker B:What a wonderful promise that is.
Speaker B:And the Bible also says he has buried our transgressions where?
Speaker B:In the depths of the sea that he remembers them.
Speaker B:What?
Speaker B:He doesn't remember them anymore.
Speaker B:A wise Christian saint said, God has buried our sins in the depths of the sea and posted a no fishing sign for the devil.
Speaker B:I like that.
Speaker B:Affirming God's promise of perfect peace first means accepting acceptance of you through Jesus Christ as it states.
Speaker B:And I love this.
Speaker B:I love chapter one of Ephesians where Paul talks about the many spiritual blessings we get as a child of God.
Speaker B:And one of those blessings is that we are accepted in the beloved.
Speaker B:Praise God, that we are realize, folks, there will never be a time when God will love you anymore.
Speaker B:And there will never be a time when God will love you any less.
Speaker B:God loves you as his dear child.
Speaker B:He loves his children with a perfect love.
Speaker B:But Satan, we have an accuser.
Speaker B:Satan's accuser of the brethren.
Speaker B:He can't steal our salvation away, but he will do all he can to make us as miserable as possible.
Speaker B:Because he wants other people to look at you when you say you are a Christian.
Speaker B:He wants them to look at you and look.
Speaker B:And you look like you've been weaned on a pickle or something.
Speaker B:I mean, you look like you're miserable, you know, and a lot of Christians do look that way.
Speaker B:And we shouldn't look that way because we have perfect peace in Christ.
Speaker B:But he loves to come to you and make you miserable through reminding you of some past sin in your life.
Speaker B:I deal with so many people that are really and try to help so many people that are dealing with this.
Speaker B:You say, brother Sam, how can you tell the difference between Holy Spirit conviction and Satanic accusation?
Speaker B:Of sin.
Speaker B:It's really, I think, very, very simple.
Speaker B:The Holy Spirit will never convict you of a sin that you've already confessed and placed under the blood of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:He'll never do that.
Speaker B:Only the devil will dredge up sins that have been confessed and forgiven.
Speaker B:He'll do that.
Speaker B:Praise God.
Speaker B:You don't have to go through life with a guilty conscience.
Speaker B:Guilt is a terrible taskmaster.
Speaker B:Guilt produces anger.
Speaker B:Anger can produce, and certainly does, depression.
Speaker B:And depression produces fear and failure.
Speaker B:And it robs you of any peace that God would want you to have.
Speaker B:But also notice that God's promise of peace is also God's promise of protection.
Speaker B:Look at verse three again.
Speaker B:With me it says, thou wilt.
Speaker B:And notice this next word.
Speaker B:What is it?
Speaker B:Keep will keep him in perfect peace.
Speaker B:The word keep means to preserve or to guard.
Speaker B:God says, I'm not just going to give you perfect peace.
Speaker B:I'm going to guard.
Speaker B:I'm going to fortify that peace in your life.
Speaker B:It refers to a garrison of soldiers that were charged with the responsibility of defending the city.
Speaker B:So God said, just like a garrison of soldiers are defending this city, putting out a garrison of soldiers to defend your peace, I'm going to keep on keeping on giving you perfect peace.
Speaker B:When the troubles of this world comes, you can have my peace.
Speaker B:Now, God's not only promising you peace, but he says, I'll keep giving you, keep on, keep on, keep on giving you and guarding your peace.
Speaker B:Now, this doesn't mean you won't experience trial.
Speaker B:Certainly we will.
Speaker B:Difficulties and circumstances that potentially can rob you of your peace.
Speaker B:But God says he will guard your peace in the midst of them.
Speaker B:I love what Corrie Ten Boone said.
Speaker B:She said this.
Speaker B:When I look at the world, I get distressed.
Speaker B:But when I look at myself, I get depressed.
Speaker B:But when I look at Jesus, I'm totally at rest.
Speaker B:Let me say that again.
Speaker B:When I look at the world, I get distressed.
Speaker B:When I look at myself, I get depressed.
Speaker B:But when I look at Jesus, I'm at rest.
Speaker B:Listen, peace is not the absence of problems.
Speaker B:Peace is the presence of Jesus in the midst of your problems.
Speaker B:So the very first step I think we see in verse three to experiencing God's gift of peace is to affirm his promise of perfect peace.
Speaker B:To affirm it in your relationship through Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:But look, secondly, not only must we affirm his promise, but also we must acknowledge God's presence.
Speaker B:We must acknowledge his presence.
Speaker B:Look in verse 26 again, the second part of that verse.
Speaker B:It says, whose mind is stayed on thee?
Speaker B:God Says, if you want perfect peace, then you must stay your mind on me.
Speaker B:You might say, preacher, what does that word stay mean?
Speaker B:It's translated several times in the Psalms as staff.
Speaker B:A shepherd would use a staff to help him with his sheep.
Speaker B:He might take the crook end of that staff and reach into a crevice of a rock and get that sheep out of that crevice of a rock that had crawled up in there, untangle that sheep in a thicket that he had crawled into during the day.
Speaker B:But one of the chief purposes of a staff or shepherd was at the end of a very, very long day when he was very, very worn out and very, very tired, he would take that staff and he would put it under his arm and he would lean on that staff.
Speaker B:So what God is saying here, he says, listen, if you want perfect peace, he says, whose mind is stayed or whose mind is leaning on who?
Speaker B:On God.
Speaker B:We must.
Speaker B:If we're going to have perfect peace, we got to keep our mind leaning, continually leaning.
Speaker B:God.
Speaker B:We must bring our minds into the presence of God and lean on him.
Speaker B:Many Christians lack the peace of God because instead of their mind being stayed on God, their mind is starved of God.
Speaker B:They're not leaning on God.
Speaker B:When these very, very troublesome times, when these problems and difficulties of life come, I heard about a man who was a tremendous worrier.
Speaker B:He was not only a worrier, but he was worrisome.
Speaker B:He worried other people with his worry.
Speaker B:He couldn't sleep at night because he worried so much, and all he could do is pace the floor.
Speaker B:Well, one day he came out of his house a completely different person.
Speaker B:He wasn't whistling.
Speaker B:Excuse me.
Speaker B:He was whistling happy, singing at the top of his lungs, which was different than the day before.
Speaker B:His next door neighbor saw him and said, what in the world and has happened to you?
Speaker B:Oh, he said, I don't have to worry.
Speaker B:I don't have a worry in this world, and I'm so happy.
Speaker B:The neighbor said, well, how did you get rid of your worries?
Speaker B:He said, well, I've hired a professional worrier.
Speaker B:He does all that worrying for me now.
Speaker B:His neighbor said, well, that's just wonderful.
Speaker B:How much does this professional worrier cost?
Speaker B:The man said, well, he cost $1,000 a day.
Speaker B:The man said, $1,000 a day?
Speaker B:You don't have that kind of money.
Speaker B:How are you going to pay him?
Speaker B:The man said, oh, that's his worry.
Speaker B:I like that.
Speaker B:I'm not going to tell you God's a professional worrier for us because God doesn't worry, but he is a professional folks when it comes to handling our worries.
Speaker B:He's a professional at it.
Speaker B:We can lean on him.
Speaker B:You have listened to the first part of a two part message by evangelist Sam Wood.
Speaker A:Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:And if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through the truths of God's Word.
Speaker A:Remember, for fortifying your family starts with a strong belief in God's Word.
