A Solution for Turmoil - Isaiah 26:3

- we're studying favorite Bible verses

- last week I told you that we would begin our review time

with me giving the reference of the verse and you saying

the verse

- Zech. 4:6 - Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,

saith the Lord

- Phil. 1:21 - For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain

- Isa. 40:31 - They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their

strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they

shall run and not be weary. they shall walk and not faint

- Rom 8:28-29a - And we know that all things work together

for good to them who love God, to them who are the called

according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, them

he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of

His Son

- Prov. 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and

lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways

acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths

- Phil. 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say

rejoice

- Gal. 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ and I no longer

live, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now

life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who

loved me and gave himself for me

- Eph. 4:22-24 - That ye put off concerning the former manner

of life the old man which is corrupt according to the

deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your

mind, and that ye put on the new man which after God is

created in righteousness and true holiness

- John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his

only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should

not perish, but have everlasting life

- Matthew 28:19-20 - Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe all

things, whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am

with you always, even unto the end of the age

- one of the things we've been saying all throughout this

series is that a believer never knows what kind of events

are going to come into his/her life on a given day, and

we've got to have an arsenol of verses and Bible concepts

ready so we can handle those situations in a way that

pleases the Lord

- that point was driven home dramatically this week when I

heard a testimony from a pastor in Ohio that I'd like to

begin with tonight

- pastor's name is Wayne Smith from Caldwell, Ohio

- last fall he began taking our counseling training program

on Mondays

- After 4-5 weeks he called and said his 15 year old daughter

Kristy had been in an accident and he would no longer be

able to take the training program

- thats been almost a year ago now, and he, along with his

wife are now enrolled in the training class that just

started this week

- Monday night, he gave his testimony concerning Kristy's

accident, and it will help us see the importance of having

favorite passages of Scripture committed to memory

- On a Saturday afternoon, Pastor Smith and his wife were at

a mall shopping for a present for Kristy's upcoming

birthday

- Kristy had stayed behind to help some family friends who

were harvesting corn and putting it into a storage tank

using a tractor driven auger

- Kristy reached over to pick up some loose corn and one of

her pigtails got caught in the auger

- the result of that was that her scalp was completely

removed from just above her eyelid and above her earlobes

- the family is praising the Lord that Kristy is alive today

- she has gone through a number of skin graft surgeries and

she's now back in school

- she can't wear a wig yet but she has a nylon stocking that

fits over the top of her head and she puts a baseball cap

on over that and goes off to school

- she even has gotten to the place where she'll kid about it

- she recently had the opportunity to speak to a group of

pastors and she told her dad, maybe I should tell them I am

called to the ministry, since I'm bald like most of them!

- I listened to that and I thought, that could be any one of us

- We can't choose the circumstances we face

- But there's something we can choose

- can choose how we respond to the circumstances

- can choose to be preparing for whatever God might allow

into our lives

- Pastor Smith said that there was one passage of Scripture

that especially helped he and his wife handle this

situation

- as he quoted it - I knew I had heard it before

- but I had never really studied it, nor had I memorized

it

- the verse he used is the one I'd like to present to you

tonight as another great favorite Bible verse - Isa. 26:2

- READ Isa. 26:2

I. The Promise of Peace

- I just want to say a quick word about the context of

this passage

- Isa. 26 is speaking about the conditions in the

millennial kingdom when Israel will return to God and

acknowledge Christ as their Messiah

- this passage is telling what the people living in the

kingdom will be saying

- read 26:1

- we studied the millennial kingdom in our study of the

end-age events and saw that one of the reasons God gave

us this material is because He wants us to be

exemplifying kingdom living here and now

- so its not inappropriate for us to talk about the peace

God gives today from a passage that is talking about

the peace that will be enjoyed in the future

- Now, I don't want to major our time on this next idea,

but I think we better at least discuss the idea of:

A. What peace is not:

- the idea of peace has been misused in the Christian

community and I realize you may have been brought

up on this concept that I'm about to go after, but

I would ask you to hear me out on this one

- (INPUT) in most Christian circles, in what kind of

a discussion is the concept of peace most likely to

come up? (decision making)

- its not unusual at all to hear some believers use

the idea of peace as the determining factor for a

decision

- usually the phrase its used in is; "I have peace

about that"

- folks will justify about anything with the phrase

"I have peace about it"

- My wife doesn't treat me very well, I'm going to

get a divorce, I've prayed about it and God given

me a real sense of peace about that?

- INPUT - Now, what's wrong with that kind of talk?

- making decisions based on emotions

- decisions are to be based on the Word of God

- Bible never speaks of peace as being the

arbitrator in my personal decisions

- now you might be here and would say, well, wait a

minute, I remember hearing a Bible message

somewhere sometime that said peace is supposed to

be the arbitrator or umpire

- let's look at that passage quickly

- Col. 3:15 (read)

- its true that the word rule there can be translated

arbitrator or umpire

- but the problem with applying that concept to

decision making is that the passage has nothing to

do with decision making

- there's nothing at all in these verses that would

allow a person to apply it to their individual

decision making process

- the passage is about interpersonal relationships in

a local church. Because people are solving

problems biblically and following Christ, peace

will rule.

- point is - there's nothing there about decision making

- in fact, often times when a person makes the right

decision, there is little peace, until after you've

done what is right

- think of the last time you talked to someone about the

Lord Jesus Christ, was your stomach a peaceful place?

- or the last time you had to confront a person about an

area of sinfulness? Was you feeling pretty peaceful

then?

- see, sometimes when you make the right decision,

there's very little peace ahead of time

- the other side of that is true as well

- sometimes we're feeling real peaceful when we ought to

be feeling real guilty

- like the guy who ought to be helping his wife and

loving his kids but instead is laying on the couch

- Is he experiencing peace? (you better believe it, thats

where that snoring is coming from)

- Point - when Isaiah talks about God giving peace, he's

not talking about peace at the front end of the

decision making process that serves as some

sort of check

- the other side of that is - we can't throw the baby out

with the bathwater

- just because some have misused the concept of peace

doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it from the right

perspective

- the passage promises peace to those who meet the right

qualifications

- "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace"

- so let's talk about:

B. What Peace Is

- it would probably be good to remind ourselves:

1. remember...that Paul said there is such a thing

as "peace that passes understanding"

- so even the apostle Paul recognized that there are

aspects of peace that are hard even to be put into

words - but lets take a stab at it

- Maybe it would be best to think about this question

from the perspective of:

- INPUT - what are some causes for a lack of peace?

(we do not live in days that lend themselves to

peaceful living - why not?)

- gulf crisis

- economic woes

- guilt - having sinned

- now when you think about all those kinds of events and the

negative and sinful emotions they could cause if we let

them, the opposite of that is peace

2. definition - one writer defined it as "a joyous

sense of well-being that comes from a right

relationship with God and his plan"

- the verse says that God has promised to keep certain

people with that

3. God will keep you with that

- to keep, or to guard

- like walls around a great city, God has promised to

keep (guard) certain people with peace

4. His peace is perfect

- now what's that?

- are we talking about the difference between perfect

peace and imperfect peace?

- in the original, its literally written peace, peace

- they did that for emphasis

- we show emphasis in different ways

- if we see a painting that is real ugly, how do we

express it? (by the tone of our voice)

- that is uggggly!

- in Hebrew, you would say - that is ugly, ugly

- they did that for emphasis

- Isaiah is saying, God will give you great peace

- big-time peace

- the best peace you could have

- PERFECT peace

- even when your child has gone through a tragic accident

(humanely speaking), God can keep in in perfect peace

- Can I ask you tonight - Do you have that kind of peace?

- I wonder if there would be folks here tonight who would

say - PV, there's no peace in my relationship with God

- I don't even like to think about God or eternity

- I know I don't have a personal relationship with

Him - there's no peace there

- listen, there can be -

- if there's no peace between you and God, you need

to meet somebody

- Isaiah called him the Wonderful Counselor, the

Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince

of Peace

- I'm talking about the Lord Jesus Christ

- if you've never trusted him as personal Savior,

I'd sure like to talk to you about that after the

service tonight - there are many others aroung as

well who would like to do that as well

- you might be here tonight and you'd say, PV, I've

trusted Christ as personal Savior, but I'm not

experiencing any peace

- maybe its because of some sin you've been caught up in

- you say you'll change, this is the last time - but you

keep doing it and its tearing you up - there's no peace

- maybe its just the wear and tear of this world

- the uncertainty of our world, the economic woes

- you might say - PV, I worry about those things all the

time - I'm so high strung, I don't have any peace

- In fact, it might be good for all of us to think of the

one or two things that hinder us at times from having

God's peace

- and then remember this - God has promised peace to

certain individuals

- "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace"

- you can be growing in that kind of lifestyle

- you might say, but PV you keep saying - God can do that

for certain individuals - Who are they?

II. The Prerequisites For Peace

- INPUT - what does the passage say must happen?

A. Whose mind is stayed on thee

B. Who trusteth in thee

- I'd like to look at these concepts together because

their meaning is somewhat parallel

- probably the one that’s least familiar is the phrase

"whose mind is stayed on thee"

- in fact, if I asked you, was your mind stayed on the

Lord, how would you answer?

- what evidence would you give to support that answer?

- the phrase "stayed on thee" literally means "to brace

yourself up"

- Isa. used the same word later in Isaiah 63:5 when he

said "I looked, and there was none to help; and I

wondered that there was none to uphold"

- that’s the idea, brace up, uphold

Isaiah is saying - God is offering individuals perfect

peace - but its dependant upon that person having a

mind that’s stayed on Him

- that’s braced up by God and His truth

INPUT - what are some things that people brace themselves

up with instead of bracing themselves up with God and

His truth?

- now at this point I think we need to ask 2 questions:

1) Is it possible that one of the reasons you don't

have peace is because your mind isn't stayed on

Him? (it’s not braced up with God and His truth)

INPUT - what are some of the ways a person can

develop that kind of mind?

a) prayer - acknowledging Him

b) study of the Scriptures

c) Christian friends - seeing how God has kept

them

d) handling smaller trials well

the second question is:

What are you braced up with?

- I wonder if it’s possible that we have individuals who would

say - my confidence comes from something other than God and

His word

- illus. - northern Indiana - building a bridge over an

Interstate

- they were trying a new construction method where

they were essentially pouring the concrete in mid-

air into a form they had made

- the workers were a little leery of doing it that

way, but the engineers assured them that it would

work because of all the bracing underneath the

forms

- some of you may remember reading about that, where

one day while they had a number of men, pieces of

equipment, concrete trucks; the braces gave way -

a number of men lost their lives

- I think we need to say - that doesn't just happen to

bridges

- it would be good for all of us to consider - with what am I

braced up?

- some might say - I'm braced up with finances (those can be

lost)

- others:

- I'm braced up with my job security (they couldn't fire

me)

- I'm braced up with a relationship with another person

(what will happen when that person health fails?)

- I'm braced up with my family background - (What will

happen when you find there's some skeletons in the

closet?)

- Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is

stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee

- the passage also tells us some things about:

III. The Provider of Peace

- read v. 4

KJV - in the Lord God is everlasting strength

NASB - For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock

- Isaiah is saying - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on God,

- and God surely is trustworthy, consistent

- He's our rock or everlasting strengt

- one of the things that gets to me the most in

counseling is when a person has a spouse they can't

trust

- sometimes its a wife who says, he told me he was going

to work - I called to see how he was doing and he

wasn't there - I found out later he went out with the

guys - I can't trust him

- sometimes its the husband who says - I went off to work

and then realized I forgot something at home

- when I went back a few minutes, my wife was gone

- I started checking, found her at another man's house

- those folks are devastated because their spouse isn't

trustworthy

- but that could never be said of God

- He's always faithful

- He's always worthy of our trust

- Pastor Smith, the man I mentioned earlier was telling us:

- the doctors came to he and his wife and told them they were

going to get a team of psychologists together to help

Kristy handle the trauma of the accident

- the pastor kindly explained to them that they were

believers, and that God had given them truth in his Word

that would strengthen them and help them

- Of course the doctors were skeptical of that, but before it

was over, several of the doctors/nurses were in special

therapy groups trying to handle their involvement in the

case, while Kristy and her parents were handling it fine

- Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed

on thee, because he trusts in thee. Trust ye in the Lord

forever; for in the Lord God is everlasting strength.