GOD tells us in His word that “the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” Have you ever been out on the great deep and seen the heaving, surging, tossing billows; always moving, never quiet, never at rest? And have you been at the sea-shore and bathed in its restless waters and noticed, as the great waves came rolling in and breaking over you, how much of “mire and dirt” they carried? If you have, you will understand better the description God has given to us of the wicked. And what a picture it is!
It is when a person has gone in the ways of sin—when he has followed his own will, departing from God’s way, that he is like the heaving, restless ocean. If you could look into the heart of such a person, you would find there was no rest there; you would see a craving for something that could not be found, just as the great waves toss and seem to say, I am not satisfied. It is not that a wicked person will not try to make himself happy, for this he will surely do.
He will drink at the fountains of this world’s pleasures; but his heart is not satisfied, his thirst is not quenched; he drinks again, but only to thirst afresh. He is restless, unsatisfied, unhappy—like the troubled sea. What about the future for him? Ah! it is all dark and foreboding; no gleam of light—not the smallest ray—to carry comfort to his unhappy heart. He may try, to think himself happy as he pursues his sinful course, but he has no peace, and without peace one cannot be happy. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” His ways are sinful, and leave their evil impress, like the waters of the sea casting up their “mire and dirt.”
It is a dark, dark picture to look at, is it not, dear children? But it only shows into what a wretched condition man will be brought, if he follows his own ways.
In what happy and blessed contrast with this is the picture God gives us of the one who walks in His way. He tells us in His word that He will keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on Him. And while He tells us “there is no peace to the wicked,” He tells us, “Great peace have they which love Thy law.”
Which is it with you, dear children — “no peace,” or “great peace”? If the former, look to Jesus. He has made peace by the blood of His cross. If you believe in Him, every stroke that was due to you for your sins has been taken by Him, and those strokes will never fall upon you. Jesus is now at God’s right hand, and this is the proof to us that all is settled, and that God is satisfied. And so God tells us that He “was raised again for our justification.” Does that give peace? Oh! yes, it does. We are cleared from all charge of guilt, justified from all our sins, and knowing this we have rest of heart—we have peace with God. And this is not through our doing, but simply through believing that Jesus has done all for us. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
May each one of my dear little readers know this blessed peace!
R.
ML 07/15/1900