Today’s message is kind of a tricky one, where I find myself ‘walking a thin-line’ not wanting to cause anyone unneeded anxiety or self-doubting, but also want to admonish sincere believers to ‘take heed’ and make sure your heart and mind is ‘fixed on Jesus’ and ‘things above’, not on things of the earth. (Col. 3:1-2). The subject matter today has to do with true peace vs. ‘false’ peace.

Those who profess to be true followers of Jesus have not only been called to walk in this peace, but we are exhorted to ‘pursue’ it (Heb. 12:14). Peace is a ‘pathway’ to which Jesus leads us down; that is…if we are truly following Him. (Luke 1:79; Isa. 55:12). We talked about this yesterday and can I just tell you that the best way to maintain walking in ‘His’ peace…is to keep your mind stayed on Him because those who do…are promised to have ‘perfect peace’. (Isa. 26:3).

Where this can get dicey is when people are convinced they do indeed possess or have this ‘peace’…when in reality it is not; or worse…it’s a ‘false peace’. And who am I …or anyone else for that matter… to question or suggest that a person does not have something that they claim to possess?

Have you ever known someone who made a radical decision that was going to be life altering, not only for them but for those around them who loved them…and you knew full well that they could not be ‘hearing from God’ despite their insistence that they were indeed… because they ‘felt a peace about it’? Yeah…me too. It can be heartbreaking to watch someone seemingly ‘drive off a cliff’ and put so much at risk because they were convinced they were making the right decision.

I hope we are on the same page here in agreeing that this worldly advice that encourages people to ‘follow their heart’ is the dumbest piece of advice you could ever give or receive? First of all…we are to be following God’s Spirit, not our ‘deceptively wicked hearts’. (Jer. 17:9; Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:16,18). But take for example when a spouse, for whatever reason ends up entangled in an affair (adultery)…and they ‘feel so in love’ and are convinced that God brought this person into their life and therefore are going to leave their current spouse and kids to pursue this relationship…how do you convince them otherwise? Clearly they are being misled or misguided by a ‘false peace’.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have to explain to a person who was born blind…that they were ‘not able to see’? What descriptive words do you use to explain to someone who has never ‘seen the light of day’…what a rainbow is? It would be one thing to describe things to a person who had ‘lost their vision’ at some point in time, but for the life of me, I have no idea how you adequately convey to someone who has known nothing but darkness their whole life….what ‘light’ is.

This is where I am comforted in knowing that God is the one who ‘opens blind eyes’, not me. (Acts 26:18). Now I’m wading into that area that speaks to spiritual blindness, and friends, we are told in scripture that the ‘god of this age’ has ‘blinded the minds’ of those who are perishing, and in a sense has placed a ‘veil’ over people to prevent them from seeing the light of the gospel and God’s truth. (2 Cor. 4:3-4). But look what happens when a person ‘turns to the Lord’ – the ‘veil is removed’! (2 Cor. 3:16).

If the word picture used by Jesus in Matt. 7:13-14 means anything, it would appear there are far more people who are walking in darkness and deception, then those who are walking in truth and light. For one to be ‘spiritually blinded’ is to be ‘deceived’; and deceived people don’t know they are deceived.

Those folks we read about in Matt. 7:21-23…wouldn’t you like to know the backstory on how they ended up so convinced they were ‘in the know’ and being fully productive and fruitful for the kingdom of God…only to be told in the end that God never knew them and they were cast out into even greater darkness.

If you read the passage preceding that chilling account, we see Jesus warning of ‘false prophets who come to us in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves’. (Matt. 7:15). That would probably be those same prophets that Jeremiah described back in chapters 23-24 in his book, who ‘caused the people of God to err’. (23:13). Do you know how they do this, cause the people of God to ‘err’… which results in them being taken ‘captive’? They convince them they can continue to walk in peace even though they are not following God. (23:17). Ezekiel kind of ‘goes off’ on them as well in Ezek. 13. We were looking at this several days ago.

Nothing breaks the heart of God more than to see His ‘sheep’ suffer and be misled and taken into captivity. (Jer. 13:17; Matt. 9:35-36). But His heartbreak will often turn to anger as He directs it at those who promise His people ‘peace, peace’…even when they continue to walk according to the dictates of their own hearts. It’s not the words of God these prophets declare, rather visions of their own hearts (Lamentations 2:14). That’s probably why God made it a point to warn the prophets that when they ‘see the sword coming’…if they fail to warn the people…the blood of those people will be on their hands’. (Ezek. 33:1-11)

It’s one thing to be deceived by others, and there is plenty of blame to go around these days when it comes to false teaching. We too, have a responsibility to pursue and hunger for truth, truth that brings genuine freedom in our lives (John 8:32-36; 1 Tim. 2:4). But ‘self-deception’ can be ‘a thing’ as well. This usually takes place when we ‘hear truth’ but then fail to walk in it. (James 1:22-23).

Take a look at Deuteronomy 29. God has always been clear of His expectations to those who enter a covenant with Him, both in the OT and the NT. There’s just a little bit more to all this than just ‘saying Lord, Lord’. (Matt. 7:21). The abundance of promises that God makes to those who turn to Him are hard to ignore, when He promises divine protection and provision and healing, etc. But woe to those…who turn from Him and ‘neglect so great a salvation’. In fact, speaking on God’s behalf, Moses declared that “when a person hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart saying, “I shall have peace even though I follow the dictates of my heart…that the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him and the lord would blot out his name from under heaven.” (Deut. 29:19-20)

So how do we differentiate between the two, this ‘false peace’…and the ‘peace of God which surpasses all understanding’? That’s a great question…and perhaps we can explore that tomorrow…Lord willing.