False Peace

Have you discovered that you are without peace? Do you desire to have it? Beware, then, of Satan. The moment he finds souls anxious, and desiring peace, he seeks to mislead them; and is only too often successful, by getting them to trust in something short of Christ; something in themselves, or something that they do. I warn you, therefore, that there is no foundation but Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). He, and He alone, is the rock-foundation that never can be moved, uprooted, or overturned, by all the power and subtleties of the wicked one. If you build on anything else, when the waves of judgment and the billows of wrath of Almighty God shall come, you will find, when it is too late, and there is no remedy, that you have built on sand (Luke 6:47-49).
Thousands, tens of thousands, have been hushed to sleep with the devil’s lullaby, “Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). Thousands have been aroused to their lost estate, and have set to work to right themselves before God. It seems so reasonable to man, that if he gives up his former habits and associates, reforms his manner of life, and strictly observes the externals of generally accepted religion, that he has a fair chance of reaching heaven. What more, thinks he, can be required of him? A man can but do his best. Ah!
sinner, you have forgotten one thing. You are reckoning without the Word of God. There we read that “God requireth that which is past” (Eccl. 3:15). “There is a way which seemeth, right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).
Mark well, the reformation of the present will not make up for the past, any more than keeping out of debt today will pay for the debt of yesterday. It seems right, but it is all wrong. Satan does not mind how long you travel that road, for he knows the end thereof, ―the ways of death. It is the way of reformation, but that is not the way to God. It is all very well as far as this world goes, yet only the cleaner side of the broad road after all. Christ is the way, the only way. Not a way, but the way. The way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Any other, and all others together, are false, and delusions of the enemy of your soul.
It is too late to be doing. You ought to have lived before the death of Christ for that. You are behind the times too late. You are on the ground of law, but it is a day of grace (Rom. 5:20, 21). You may talk about doing your best, but do you do it? No, you don’t. And if you did, would it be good enough for God? Nay, sinner, man’s very best is short of His standard. Christ is what you want; He alone can meet your need. Cease then from self, and self’s doing; cease from man altogether; cease, now and forever (Phil. 3:3). If this is your ground, you have been crying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. It is a false peace, and the sooner it is disturbed, and broken up altogether, the better for you. For there is a day at hand, when many shall cry, “Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them; .... and they shall not escape” (1 Thess. 5:2, 3). So,
“Cast your deadly doings down,
Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.”

Christ “was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4:25; vs. 1).