Isaiah 57:20-21 – No Peace for the Wicked
The wicked are like a troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. For them, there is no peace. Now, they may think their way is more pleasant. They may think it’s more sensible, more rational. They may think that their ideas are calculated to bring them the life that they want. They will define or redefine what is right and wrong. They will refine and revise what’s good and bad, what’s true and false, what’s black and white, if they can. They work hard to effect the changes that they want to see. They do not want King Jesus to rule over them. They will twist what they see in nature that speaks to them of God. And those professing to be wise, will take the words of Scripture and grotesquely twist them about to try and tell you, believer, that you are wrong.
The ocean is never still. The wicked are this way. They can never find anything in which to rest. They constantly go from one thing to another, trying to find rest, trying to find contentment, trying to find meaning, trying to find peace, but they cannot ever. Constantly, the dirt and the filth in their hearts is being stirred up. That filth keeps washing up before God.
These wicked ones know that they are guilty. They repress that knowledge, but they know they are guilty. It takes a lot of effort, a lot of work to keep that knowledge down for a while. But it has a really dismaying habit of bubbling up to the surface. They see it. They know God sees it, and that frightens them terribly. And they hate Him because they want to keep on sinning. And He is in their way. Nothing in the life of the wicked, nothing in the life of those not right with God can satisfy.
The only way of peace is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners who see their sin, sinners that heed the good news, that Jesus came to save sinners and that God will forgive sin in and through Him, sinners who say, ‘Jesus, be merciful to me’, a sinner who cries that not only with their lips and their voice, but from the heart, those receive peace, those receive forgiveness.
Questions
- Do unbelievers have peace?
- What is the only way of peace?
Prayer Points
- Pray for the preaching and hearing of God’s Word tomorrow.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.