False peace.
"Peace; and there was no peace."
I. MEN CRAVE PEACE. A city is alarmed at the prospect of an attack. War stands with famine and plague as one of the three great scourges of man, and it is the greatest of the three. There is a worse war than that of man with his fellow—the war of sin against the soul, the war of the soul against God. This spiritual war wounds, slays, devastates, terrorizes. It is true that many who wage it never confess its hurtfulness, and even profess a joy in their condition. But when men retire into the silence of their own souls they must feel that the unrest within, which perhaps they do not yet ascribe to their sinful alienation from God, is a source of utter weariness, perhaps even of soul agony. Cowper exclaims—
"Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more!"
II. THERE ARE FALSE PROMISES OF PEACE. Ezekiel's contemporary prophets promised peace, though Jerusalem was threatened with destruction by the true prophets of God.
1. The peace of unbelief. The threatenings of judgment are discredited. Future punishment is regarded as an invention of the priests to keep their dupes in subjection.
2. The peace of self-satisfaction. The true prophets denounced sin; but the false prophets flattered with smooth words. There is a teaching which minimizes sin and guilt, and so lulls the alarmed conscience to sleep.
3. The peace of presumption. The false teachers taught their hearers to presume on the favour of God, and to assume that God would never suffer Jerusalem to be destroyed. So men now abuse the revelation of God's love by assuming that he will never smite in anger.
III. WORDS OF PEACE WILL NOT CREATE PEACE. The prophets might say "peace;" but there would be no more peace for all their reiteration of the pleasant message. Smooth doctrines do not make smooth facts. We may enjoy a rosy theology with no shadows in its ideas; but if there are shadows in life, they will not be softened thereby. The future is not shaped by our notions of what it should be; neither is real peace given in the present by mere words of peace. The need is deeper than that which any assuring language can satisfy. The unrest of the soul calls for an active, powerful pacifying. Till that is experienced the soul will be restless still.
IV. CHRIST ALONE BRINGS TRUE PEACE. There is a peace of God, but it is not to be got through flattering words and pleasant assurances. Perhaps storms and trouble will precede it. At least there must be the break up of the false peace in the revolution of complete repentance. Then Christ will not only speak peace; he comes to make peace (Ephesians 2:15). His peace is brought about by his victory over sin, which is the one fundamental cause of war between the soul and God, and of unrest in the soul itself. Christ reconciles us to God by his cross, and brings our souls into harmony with the will of God. This is the only sure and solid peace.