Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 158 from the hardback temple 158. ? Come Holy Spirit heavenly dove
? ? With all thy quickening powers ? ? Kindle a flame of sacred
love ? ? In these cold hearts of ours ? Look how we grovel
here below, fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily
they go to reach eternal joys. In vain we tune our formal songs,
in vain we strive to rise. Hosanna's languish on our tongues,
and our devotion dies. ? Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live ? At this poor dying rate ? Our love so faint, so cold
to Thee ? And Thine to us so great ? Come Holy Spirit heavenly
dove ? ? With all thy quickening powers ? ? Come shed abroad the
Savior's love ? ? And that shall kindle ours ? Please be seated. I love Isaac Watts. His hymns
are always such a blessing to me. I know they are to you as
well. Let's open our Bibles to 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians. I want to read one verse here
and then we're going to move over to 1 Samuel chapter 22. I've titled this message, Rest
for the Troubled. And the message is very similar
to the first hour in that the believer is always in trouble
and yet the Lord has provided for us in our trouble a place
of rest in Christ. And so it's not either or. It's both. And it's a, as I said
the first hour, it is a paradox is not a contradiction. A paradox
is an apparent contradiction, but it's not. And only by experience
can you relate to this paradox. But every believer knows that's
my experience. That's my experience. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1,
the Lord tells us in verse 7, and to you who are troubled,
rest with us. To you who are troubled, rest
with us. Someone came by our house yesterday
and dropped off some pamphlets advertising their church. And
I took a moment and read it. And it was an advertisement
is what it was for peace and prosperity. Come to our church
and you'll find happiness and power and fellowship. They wouldn't even use the word
saved in their pamphlet. It was rescued. We can rescue
you from your troubles if you'll come to our church. And so I
looked up this pastor and found out that he wrote a book titled
The De-Churching of America, The De-Churching of America.
And the premise of this book was that the demographics and
the economy and all these other things have resulted in less
people going to church in America than is going now. And I thought, no, the reason
people are not going to church anymore is buyer's regret. It's just buyer's regret, that's
all it is. If a company oversells and underproduces,
that company won't stay in business very long. And that's what religion
does. Religion oversells and underproduces. If you're ever drawn into believing
the hype, you'll find out very soon that all that they promised
did not come to fruition and people get disenchanted and discouraged
and they leave. They think, well, you know, this
isn't any better than what I had before. That's the purpose of
the de-churching of America is because religious organizations are offering people things that
they can't deliver. And I thought, you know, how
did the church, how did the Lord Jesus himself present salvation? He said, well, if you don't deny
yourself, if you don't take up your cross, if you don't follow
me. Well, what is it to follow? He said, foxes have holes and
birds have nests. The son of man has no place to
lay his head. Sounds like to me, a life of suffering and sacrifice,
not a life of comfort and ease in this world. We don't come
to Christ in order to find a bed of roses, in order to, oh Lord,
keep us from selling the gospel as something that appeals to
the flesh. The gospel doesn't appeal to
the flesh. If anything, it's gonna make it harder on the flesh.
Truth is that believers have the same troubles in this life
that unbelievers have. Disease. Death, divorce, disappointments,
discouragements. It doesn't matter if you're a
believer or an unbeliever, you're gonna have those troubles. And
coming to Christ is not gonna do away with those troubles,
you're still gonna have them. As a matter of fact, in addition
to those troubles, you're gonna have a struggle you never had
before. Your flesh is gonna war against
your spirit and you're gonna have a daily battle with sin.
And in addition to that, the world's gonna hate you for what
you believe. So coming to Christ is not, it's not a promise that your
life's gonna be easier. It's a promise that things are
gonna get harder. But here's the difference. The
Lord didn't promise us an easier life here. He promised us eternal
life. Eternal life. This pamphlet I
read yesterday wouldn't even use the word save. They use the
word rescue. 50 times in this little pamphlet,
rescue. God's gonna rescue you. God's
gonna, call it what it is. We need to be saved. We're lost. We need to flee from the wrath
that is to come. We need to know God. We need
to be reconciled to him. We need to have life, life, spiritual
life. All life is in Christ. So the de-churching of America,
I believe, is nothing more than buyer's remorse. And I hope I never present the
truth to you in such a way as if you'd become disenchanted
and disappointed that the Lord didn't do for you what
he promised. Paul's writing to this church
who is suffering persecution. And he says to them, to you who
are troubled, rest with us. To you who are troubled, rest
with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. There's our rest.
We're setting our affections on things above, not on things
of the earth. The things of this earth are
temporal. The things of this earth cannot satisfy souls of
God's elect. They've got to have more. They've
got to have Christ. Oh, you that are troubled in
this world. You that are troubled with your
sin, you that are troubled by the contradiction of the world
against everything that you believe and love and trust in, you that
are troubled by the circumstances of life, rest with us. And what is our trouble, brethren?
It's not our circumstances. It's as we saw in the first hour,
it is the sin that doth so easily beset us. It's our unbelief that
causes all our troubles. If it wasn't for our sin nature,
if it wasn't for our unbelief, no other trouble would bother
us at all. But all of our doubts and our
fears It's caused by our sin. And we need a Savior. He's the only
one that can meet that need. We don't need the hype of a religious
promise. We don't need psychology. We don't need, you know, education. We need a Savior. We don't need
to be rescued. We need to be saved. We need
to be delivered from our sin. And so the Lord says, you that
are troubled, come, come. Find rest for your soul. That's my problem, my inability
to trust God as I ought. We just sang about how cold our
hearts are, how worldly we are. What is the solution? Christ. He is our rest. Hebrews chapter 4, the Lord Jesus
Christ is our Sabbath. The works were finished from
the foundations of the world. We flee to him, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Horatio, it wasn't Horatio Bonar,
what was the guy that wrote It Is Well With My Soul? Horatio
Spafford. We're going to sing that hymn
in the close of this service and one of the stanzas of that
hymn is My Sin. My sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise
the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh, my soul.
It is well. I've got to have Christ. And
when the Lord says, come rest, rest your weary souls. We quote from this passage often,
turn with me if you will, to Matthew chapter 11, Matthew 11. Let's read this passage together. Verse 25, and at that time, Jesus
answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent and revealed them unto babes. That's who this is
for. Babies are in trouble. They can't
take care of themselves. They're defenseless. except you
become as a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven. Suffer the little children to come unto me, for such is
the kingdom of God. You know, a baby can do two things. It can cry and it can mess itself. And that's about all we're good
at, isn't it? Mess ourselves and we cry. Oh, Lord, save me. Lord, help me. Lord, have mercy
upon me. Oh, the wise and the prudent,
those who said, well, I'm not in trouble. I got everything
under control. I got this figured out. And you've seen enough of
that in your own life to know that spirit. You know that spirit,
don't you? You know him very intimately.
And when he rears his ugly head, the Lord lets you fall flat on
your face until you become a babe. He's hid these things from the
wise and the prudent. and he's revealed them unto babes. The Lord has to make us a babe.
He has to make us dependent before he reveals himself to us. And
so father, it seemed good in thy sight. What God seems, what
God says is good is good. This is a good thing. It's a
good thing to be in trouble. It's a good thing to be searching
for a place of rest and to be in need. Because only then will we come
to Christ. Look at verse 27. All things
are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son, but
the father neither knoweth any man. The father saved the son,
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. The Lord Jesus
must reveal the father to us. Oh, Philip, have I been with
you so long that you don't know if you've seen me, you've seen
the Father? What did Philip say? Show us the Father and it sufficeth
us. I and the Father are one, Philip.
You've seen me, you've seen the Father. All that God's gonna
reveal of himself to us will be in the person of the Lord
Jesus. So he says, no man's seen the Father except me. and those to whom I reveal myself. And then that wonderful, wonderful
call of God. May he make it effectual to our
hearts. May it be more than just an outward
call. May he make it an inward call.
May he make it an irresistible call, an effectual call. Come unto me, all ye that labor,
You're laboring under the trouble of sin. Come unto Christ. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. See, everybody labors with sin.
But only those that God does a work of grace in their hearts
are labored to the point to be heavy laden. Heavy laden means
I can't carry this anymore. I can't bear this burden. God
has made it so heavy, he has crushed me under the weight of
it. That, you see, if a person is still trying to fix it, hasn't
been heavy laden. A lot of people burdened, but
very few are heavy laden. God made you heavy laden. Lord,
I've got a sin problem I can't fix. And there's no way I'm gonna
be able to stand in your presence unless you save me and take away
my sin. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. Learn who I am and what I've
done. Oh, he's the successful savior,
the sovereign son of God, who has put away the sins of his
people once and for all. He accomplished the salvation
of his people. He didn't die on Calvary's cross
to make us an offering, to be accepted or rejected by our free
will. He died on Calvary's cross to
offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of his people and
the Father saw the travail of his soul and the Father saw it,
I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied, learn of me, learn
who I am. I am meek. and lowly in heart." The Lord laid down his life for
his sheep. What meekness, what humility,
what lowliness of heart. And you shall find rest for your
soul. For my yoke is easy, my burden
is light. I've already bore the burden
of judgment. And justice, I bore the burden
of condemnation. You don't have to bear that.
God has made your sin a heavy burden. Flee to Christ. He bore
that burden and He put it away. No fear of wrath, no fear of
judgment. The fire has been put out. God,
the Lord Jesus Christ is called our propitiation. He made the
father propitious toward us. He put away all the wrath of
God. There's nothing in the heart
of God for God's people other than mercy and love and grace. My burden is light. Now, if you'll turn with me in
your Bibles to 1 Samuel, Chapter 22. Again, we find an Old Testament
example of this glorious truth. An Old Testament example. No better examples than that
which we can find in the Bible. David is still running from Saul. There is a relentless enemy that
is pursuing him. and is obsessed with his death
and won't quit. Won't quit. You know, the story
of Saul and David is that Saul does take a few reprieves in
his pursuit of David. He stops for a little while.
Jonathan confronts him once and he stops and another confronts
him and he stops. And it lasts just a little while
and he's after him again. What an example of our experience. You know, the Lord gives us some
reprieves and then we turn around and we're in trouble again. I like what one preacher said,
he kept, God keeps his people in trouble, coming out of trouble
or going in trouble all the time. Ye that are in trouble, come
rest with us. Come rest with us. Come and find
your hope in Christ. Come and find his burden to be
light and his yoke is easy. Come and find rest for your soul. Rest from your labors. Rest from
working. The Lord said it's finished. First Samuel chapter 22, verse
one. David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Adullam translated means justice. God's justice must be met. All have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death. And it can't
be your death or my death. It must be a perfect death. It
must be a perfect sacrifice. That's why hell is eternal, because
it'll never satisfy God's justice. God's justice was only satisfied
on Calvary's cross. And the Lord went to that cross
to meet the demands of God's holy justice. And now David is
hiding out. escaping this relentless pursuit
of Saul in a cave. Reminds me of the cave that the
Lord put David in, Moses in. When Moses went up on Mount Sinai,
the Lord said, the scripture says he put him in a cleft of
the rock. He said, come, there's a place near unto me, I'm gonna
hide you in there. And because The presence of God
would consume you if you're not in that rock. We know what that
rock is. That rock's Christ. And the Lord
Jesus Christ went into a cave, didn't he? Went into a tomb.
And he conquered death and he came out victorious. And here
we have the cave of justice, the cave of the dulem. And David
flees to that place to find deliverance from this enemy. And when his
brethren, look at the rest of this verse, and when his brethren,
all his family's house heard it, they went down thither to
him. That's what faith does. It follows
Christ, the son of David to the place of justice to find deliverance
from our enemy. And everyone that was in distress
And everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented
gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over
them. And there were with him about
four hundred men." Now, numbers are significant in the Bible.
And if you go back to the creation in the beginning of Genesis,
you'll find that on the fourth day, God created the sun and
the moon and separated the day from darkness. And what a picture,
what a picture. The Lord made a distinction between
those who walk in darkness. You're not of the night, brethren. walk in the light as he is in
the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all of our sin the Lord makes
us to differ on the fourth day and he sets us in the day and
the Lord Jesus Christ said I am the light of the world. And so
darkness is a picture of separation and judgment and the day is a
picture of light and we have 400 of David's men, these mighty
men of valor that are following their captain into the cave of
Adullam. To find what? Rest. Rest. Oh, we don't find rest at Sinai. When the flood, the waters of
the flood of Noah began to recede, Noah sent out a dove and the
dove could find no place to rest its feet. It's what the scripture
says. The raven had no trouble, the
raven went out and just fed on the dead carcasses that were
floating in the water. But the dove had to come back
to the ark. He could find no place of rest
for his feet. And there we are. God makes his
people to differ. And the dove is different from
the raven. And the raven might can be satisfied with feeding
on the dead carcasses of this world and of this life and of
the flesh. But David's 400 men were discontented. They were dissatisfied with the
things that this world had to offer. They had to come to the
cave of Adullam. They had to follow David. They
had to come back to the Ark. Three things it says about these
400 men that is true of God's people. Number one, they were
in distress. Now this word distress means to be pressed into a hard
place, it means to be between a rock and a hard place, you
got no place else to go. You're pressed into one place. You can't look to the law and
find deliverance from the enemy. You can't go to Sinai, you've
tried that many, many times. You know, well, I'm just, I'll
just step up my religious activity. I'll become more committed. I'll
pull myself up by the bootstraps. I can, I can grit my teeth and
figure it out. No, we try it. We try it. Doesn't
work, does it? Doesn't work. And then the Lord
allows us to experience that until we become distressed. Lord, I'm pressed. I'm between
a rock and a hard place. The law, doesn't help me. And every time I try to go to
the law, I find like the taskmasters of Egypt, they take away the
straw and I can never meet the demands of the law. Kevin kept one of God's laws
one time. Not satisfactory to the destroying
of this enemy, only Christ did that. Well, I'll look to others. We
do that, we try to find help in other men. Then we find out they're in the
same trouble we're in. They got the same problem we've
got. The best man at his very best state we find to be altogether
vanity. Isaiah chapter two verse 22 says,
cease ye from man. whose breath is in his nostrils. For wherein is he to be accounted
of? He can't help you. There's not
a man that can help you with this problem. If you find that a man can help
you, then you didn't go to him with a sin problem. We can help
each other in a lot of ways, but not with this problem. Psalm 146 verse three says, put
not your trust in man, in whom there is no help. There's no
help, we can't help you. Well, I'll turn to myself and
my own understanding and my own ability and my own wisdom. And
then we find ourselves, Lord, these things are too wonderful
for me. I can't bear them. I'm heavy laden, I can't figure
this out. And God says in Proverbs chapter
23 verse 4, cease thou from thine own wisdom. Where is the wise? Where is the
prudent? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Sure he has. And you find the
wisdom of man and your own wisdom to be nothing but foolishness
when it comes to the need that you have to be right with God. So number one, they were in distress.
Are you in distress? You got no place else to go? Coming to Christ is not a choice,
not a choice. You have a choice. You're always
gonna choose something other than Him. The only time we come
to Christ is when He shuts us up to Christ. We have no place
else to go. We're in distress. Tried everything
else, didn't work. And now I realize I'm in debt.
I'm in debt. I'm bankrupt. I'm in abject poverty. I owe God a debt that I cannot
pay. What is the debt that you owe
God? It's a debt of sin. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God and the wages, that which must be paid for sin
is death. And it has to be a perfect death.
There's only one death that will satisfy God's justice in the
cave of Doolam. It has to be a sinless sacrifice.
It has to be the Lamb that's without spot and without blemish. He's the only one that was able
to die the perfect death. You know, we hear people say,
well, you know, they're gonna be rewarded for all their suffering. No, they're not. No, they're
not. No amount of suffering in this
world and no amount of suffering in the world to come, eternal
separation and hell, will not satisfy God's justice. We can't
pay this debt. And no amount of works will satisfy
it. Not only can we not suffer to
make up for our sin, but we can't do enough good things. The Lord told a parable of a
man in Matthew chapter 18, who owed the king 10,000 talents. Now I did some brief calculating
on that. And it seems to me that it's
about $170 billion. $170 million, I'm sorry, than
him. Either way, that's a debt I can't
pay. I don't know about you. And the king came to him and
said, pay your debt. I'm going to take you, put you
in slavery, take your children, take your property. And the man
begged the king, and here's what he said, have patience with me
and I'll pay it all. Now that man ended up in prison
at the end of the parable. Have patience with me and I'll
pay it all. Oh Lord, I've got a debt I can't pay. $170 million? No way. No way I can pay that. Well, that $170 million or billion
is nothing compared to the debt that you and I owe God. Nothing. There's only one price that he'll
be satisfied with. Turn with me to Romans chapter
4. Romans chapter 4. Verse one, what shall we say
then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath
found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. Men that glory in their good
works are just trying to impress men. And men love the praise
of men more than the praise of God, but God's not impressed.
I hear somebody bragging about all the things they're doing
for God and how, you know, I think, oh, how sad. You may be impressing
others and you may even be able to impress me, but you're not
going to impress God. He's not impressed. For what sayeth the scriptures?
And that's the only criteria for everything, isn't it? What
does God say about it? Because that's the only thing
that matters. Doesn't matter what your opinion is, doesn't
matter what the creeds and confessions say, doesn't matter what my religious
organization says, doesn't matter how I was raised or what tradition
says, what sayeth the scriptures? That settles all controversy.
With those who have faith, those who believe God, believe his
word. Here's what the scripture says,
Abraham believed God. and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If salvation is
by works, then God owes it to you. You've earned it. You did what was necessary and
you avoided what was bad and you did what was good and now
you've obligated God to save you. That's what man-made religion
is all about. We're gonna obligate God. And
men who say, well, we're not saved by works, we're saved by
grace, they'll make a work out of faith. They'll make a work
out of their decision. Their decision becomes their
work. And when God shuts you up to Christ and makes you put
you in distress, you know that you're not making a decision
when you're asking God to save you. You're pleading for his
mercy because you've got no place else to go and he was the one
that shut you up there. Faith, by very definition, is
the absence of all works. It's, Lord, I don't have any
works. I don't have any claim on God. I don't have anything
to present to you that would obligate you in any way. All
I can do is cast myself upon you and believe you. To him, verse 5, that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. Now there's another definition.
Not only are God's people in distress and not only are they
in debt they cannot pay, but they're ungodly. And we've looked at that word
before. It's the word worship. And in
the Greek language, if an A or an alpha is put in front of a
word, it reverses the meaning of that word, much like in the
English language. And so, the ungodly is not a
person that's living some debauchery, shameful life of, you know. It's a person who is unable to
approach God. It is a person who is unable
to worship. It is a person who cannot come
into the presence of a holy God without an advocate, without
a substitute, without a sin bearer, without a savior. Lord, I'm ungodly. Yes, my sin nature is ungodly
and everything about me is ungodly, but the biggest concern I have
is I can't come into the presence of God unless the Lord Jesus
Christ go before me. I'll not have acceptance in God's
presence. but in the Beloved, but in the
Beloved. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. That faith was a gift of God,
not of works. Here we are, distressed, and
in debt. Listen to Proverbs chapter 6.
Jealousy in our God, my name the scripture says is jealous.
God's a jealous God. He's jealous for his justice.
He's jealous for his righteousness. He's jealous for his glory and
he'll not share his glory with another. Now in this proverb,
chapter six, the Lord's talking about human jealousy, but the
truth of it applies to God's jealousy as well. Listen, jealousy
is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day
of his vengeance, he will not regard any ransom, neither will
he be content though thou givest him many gifts. Thirdly, those who fled to the
cave of Adullam because they were in trouble. They were distressed
and they were in debt. And look at the third one back
at our text. They were discontented. They were discontented. Now this
word in our Bible is actually two words in the original language
and it means bitterness of soul. bitterness of soul. It means
to cry or to weep. It means that, Lord, my sin has
caused such bitterness, I can't do anything but cry like a baby.
Lord, I've just got to cry out to you for your mercy. Discontented, faith can never
be content with itself. It can't be content with its
works, it can't be content with the law. All it can do is cry
and say a message David preached last Sunday for us. Lord help
me, Lord save me, Lord have mercy upon me, the sinner. And they
that cry and call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Only
the discontented will cry. Otherwise, men will be content
with their works. They'll be content with what
they have and what they've done. Discontentment finds no place
to rest outside of Christ. And it's never content with how
much of Christ it has. If you know Christ, you just
want to know Him more. You want to know more of Him. David said, when I'm in his presence
and I see his glory, then I'll be content. Then I'll be content. I'll be satisfied is what David
said. We're not yet satisfied. We've not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended us. But this one thing we do, we
press towards the mark. Through the troubles, God gives
grace to rest in Christ and press toward him. We always want more of Him. Unbelief always wants more than
Him. Men run to and fro. When the
Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself to your heart, you're not looking
for anything else. You're not looking for a secret
formula. You're not looking for a new
doctrine, you're not looking for a new idea, a trinket of
truth that's going to help you get by another day, you're just
looking for more of him, more of him. I want to know the Lord
by his grace has enabled me, he has found me and caused me
to find him and I just want to know more of him. discontented with myself, always
pressing but never achieving, always looking through a glass
darkly, but then face-to-face. And until that day, we will be,
in that sense, discontent. Oh, we're content. With his sacrifice,
we're content with what he's done to save us. We're not adding
to that. We would dare not ever add anything
to what he's done. But we remain distressed. We
remain in trouble, in debt. We remain discontent. And the Lord says, you that are
in trouble, come rest with us. Come rest. Our heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Pray that you would bless it to our hearts.
In Christ's name, amen. Number, oh, the back of your
spiral hymnal, there's a, a copy of It Is Well With My Soul. If
it's not in yours, look around, find another one. Tom. Should be taped to the cover
in the back. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot,
thou It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blast assurance control. That Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate, And hath shed his own blood for my soul, It
is well, it is well, With my soul it is well, it is well with
my soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought! My sin not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. ? Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, O my soul ? It is well, it is well ? With my
soul, with my soul ? It is well, it is well with my soul For me,
be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live, if Jordan above me shall
roll, No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life, thou
wilt whisper thy peace to my soul. It is well, it is well
with my soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. But Lord, tis for thee, for thy
coming we wait. The sky, not the grave, is our
goal. O Trump of the angel, O voice
of the Lord, blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my It is well with my soul. And Lord, haste the day when
the faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trump shall resound. ? The Lord shall descend even
so ? It is well with my soul ? It is well ? It is well ? With
my soul ? With my soul ? It is well, it is well my soul. Yeah.