It's just lovely to be here.
Appreciate the invitation, appreciate the opportunity, appreciate your
pastor and all of those others here that I know, and Lord willing,
I'll get to know you better. We are family of God, and one
of the delightful things about me coming to these places is
that we just make family, and we meet family. All of us have
natural families, but all of us that have natural families
and know the family of God know the one we're really closest
to and the one that we can share with. So I thank you. I appreciate
your pastor very much and just love him and pray for the work
here. And I'm praying the Lord will
give me strength. At this time of my travels, I'm
heading to Australia. I think it might be in that direction,
anyway. I'm heading home. And home means
rest. And my topic tonight is rest
for your souls. And I love the thought of resting.
I love the thought of my soul being at rest. We are living
beings created in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we are souls. We have a body, but we are souls. It's a big distinction that's
really important. And I love the fact that in this
passage of Scripture that's before us, the Lord Jesus Christ is
telling us and commanding us and commending us to find rest
for our souls. So if you turn with me to Jeremiah
chapter Six, I'll read my text. And I don't want to spend a whole
lot of time talking about the context of Jeremiah. The context
of Jeremiah is the context of the people of God in this religious
world of any age from the time they left the garden. So Jeremiah
is a description of religion in this world, in Australia and
in Tennessee and wherever else you wish to go. But I'll read
my verse in verse 16. It says, Thus saith the Lord,
Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where
is the good way, and walk therein. And ye shall, this is a promise
from God. I'm just reading a promise from
God here. Ye shall find rest for your souls. You shall find
rest for your souls. Well, it's pretty simple, isn't
it? I can stand, I can see by the grace of God, I can ask by
the grace of God, I can walk by the grace of God,
and the promise of God is that I will find rest for my souls. That's my prayer for you this
evening, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we would find
ourselves just at sweet rest in who the glorious God of this
universe that Chris read of earlier from the Scriptures is and then
rest in what he does and rest in all of the circumstances and
the promise. As I said earlier, Jeremiah is
a picture of this religious world under the judgment of God. I'll read you a few verses in
the context of it. This is what the religious world
is doing, and this is the religious world of Jeremiah's day. It's 2,600 years ago, but it
might as well be written that ink is still fresh on the page. Verse 13. And what have they
done? And listen to God's description of this religious world today. Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? That word abomination means disgusting. God finds the religion of this
world disgusting. In Jeremiah's day it was disgusting
and you know something in the story of Jeremiah, the judgment
of God was about to fall on that city and you can read the tragic
circumstances of it in later chapters of Jeremiah and Ezekiel
and particularly the Book of Lamentations, the wrath of God
that was promised them in Deuteronomy 28 and 29 fell upon that nation. This is a religious world and
these men claimed claimed they were the servants of God. And
they claimed that they had a rest in this world, a rest from the
judgment of God. Turn over to verse 4 of chapter
7. They had a slogan. The religious
world today has a slogan, doesn't it? God loves everyone. Jesus
died for everyone. God wants to save everyone. You're
on the throne of the universe. You can choose God at the time
of your choosing. Listen to them. The temple of
the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. They
not only had their slogans, but they had a repetitive slogan.
They thought that because they had the physical trappings of
outward external religion, that they were safe. They were safe. And so this little verse is a
little jewel, a gem of a jewel in the midst of darkness. And
all of the Lord's comforts to his people are little jewels
in the midst of darkness, isn't it? The Lord describes them in
verse 13 of chapter 2. He says, for my people have committed
two evils. They have forsaken me. That's
what religion does, isn't it? It's forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, and hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns, that
can hold no water. That just works religion, isn't
it? But let's go back to our verse.
We've spent enough time looking at the dark things. Let's look
at the light. Let's look at God's antidote to all of this. I like
the antidote to all of that. What's the antidote? The antidote
is here given in these very simple commands. The first one, of course,
is to stand. It's to stop. Stop all you're
doing and stop all you're running around. Stop. Take time to consider,
to contemplate and to reflect. Religion is just busy, isn't
it? You get them in and the first thing you do in religion is you
get them to be busy. And then you get them so busy
in so many programs they don't have time to think about what's
really going on. I did it. You have been involved
in religion and done it. The very first thing you do when
someone comes along and shows some interest is you get them
into a program. You get them doing, doing, doing.
And when people are disturbed by the truth you get them to
do a bit more doing, don't you? And then they can look at their
doing rather than contemplating. God says to stand. To stand. To stop. To stand. That was Paul's description of
the Jews in his day, isn't it? They were going about to establish
their own righteousness. Going about. God says, stand. Stand. Ever since we left the
garden in the fall of Adam, Satan has had us busy, hasn't he? He's
always had us busy. Do this and live. He says to stand. And you're
standing in a particular place. You're standing in the ways. That word ways is a word that
sort of pictures this journey and the manner of life and it's
a road. It's a well-trafficked road. So you can imagine the scene.
You're standing, as it were, on a rise of a hill and there
are these roads and there are broad roads and there are broad
roads going in all sorts of directions. You stand in all of those. You stand and you contemplate. There is, as we read earlier,
the way of the false people is to say, peace, peace, and heal
slightly the daughter of Jerusalem. You know the proverb well, isn't
it? There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death. You stand in all of these ways. You stand in time to contemplate. You stand and you see. You see, and the only way we
ever see, and the only light by which we can ever see, is
the Word of God illuminated by the Spirit of God. It's in His
light that we see light. And the Lord echoed these words
in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, Enter ye in at the straight
gate, for wide is the great gate and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Strive, strive to enter in at
the straight gate, for many, I say, will seek to enter in
and shall not. We need, firstly, light from
God to see. We need him to illuminate his
word so we can see. Otherwise, all the broad roads
look very attractive to Adam's fallen flesh, don't they? And
particularly the religious ones, and particularly the religious
ones that have the most doctrinal purity, don't they? You know,
the way of the way these days of reformed religion looks so
attractive and so broad and it's so good at corralling people
into activities of morality and then they can prop it up with
some five-point Calvinism and some other things. We stand in
these ways and we see. And what are we looking for when
we see? We're looking for God to show
us. Because that's why you stand
in the first place. In the midst of all of these ways you stand.
You stand and you wait and you see. I love what Ralph Barnett said
many years ago, walk in the light that God gave you and he will
give you more light. We're standing and we're asking,
we're asking. That's the next thing that happens
is we stand. In all those ways we stand and
then we ask. We ask. The asking presumes a
need. Only the needy ask. Only the needy ask. It's a cry, as it were, of someone
who is seeking for God. to cause him to stand, to cause
him to see, to cause him to see what these ways are, and then
to ask him. And there's only one person to
ask, isn't there? There's only one person to ask, God. And there's
only one place to find an answer from God, and that is in his
word. And what a grace gift from God
that he calls on us to ask. That's what he's saying here,
isn't it? This is the place of rest for your souls, your eternal
souls. You ask. I love the fact that
God promises the most remarkable things in the Bible you could
possibly imagine. The most remarkable things about
everything to do with this life. And then he says, ask. And then
he says, seek. I love in Ezekiel 36, he makes
the most remarkable promises about the new creation and the
spirit being placed in us and we've been taken out of the kingdom
of darkness and put into a kingdom of light and been born again.
And then he says in Ezekiel 36, and I will be inquired of for
this. I just love the fact that he
asks, isn't it? I love Psalm 27 verse 8. It says,
when they said, read it with me, it's just so beautiful. It's
good for us to be asking people, brothers and sisters. When God
commands to ask, open your mouth wide and ask. Psalm 27 verse
8. He says, when thou saidest, Seek
ye my face. God commands us to seek his face,
brothers and sisters in Christ. My heart said unto me, Thy face,
Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me.
Put not thy servant away in anguish. Thou hast been my help. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God, of my salvation. This is David
speaking, what promise David had received. I love the relationship
there is between us and the Lord. He calls on us to ask. He calls
on us to ask, brothers and sisters. Ask, call on the Lord when he
may be found. Recipients of grace are asking
the people. The verse that I love quoting
in our church again and again and again is Moses who had received
the most remarkable promises and the most remarkable presence
of God. He says in Exodus 33 verse 12,
And Moses said unto the Lord, Seeing thou sayest unto me, God
hath made a command, bring up this people, and thou hast not
let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.
What does someone respond to when they receive grace in the
sight of God? Now therefore I pray thee, if
I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. that I may know thee, that I
may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation
is thy people. There's a glory, isn't it, in
the interaction between God. He causes us to ask, and then
he delightfully delights in responding to the commands and the heart
desire that he puts in his people. Moses goes on to say, My presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto
him, If thy presence go not with me, carry this not up hence. That's a man who's under the
grace of God, a recipient of the promises of God, asking God. If you're a recipient of grace,
we're asking people, brothers and sisters, we're asking God
again. I love the word the Lord gave
to the woman at the well in Samaria. If you knew the gift of God and
the who it is, what would you do? You would ask. You would ask. We're asking because
we're in need. We're asking because unless the
Lord guides and directs us, we'll be like those people that you
can read with horror in Jeremiah in their response to this word. The response of the people in
Jeremiah, the response of the natural people, isn't it? They
said, we will not walk therein. We need the mercy and grace of
God. We need to be asking people that
the Lord would not let us go the way of the rest of the world. So we ask God and we ask him,
he causes us and asks us to ask for something particular. This
is the place of rest for our souls, brothers and sisters. You'll ask, you're standing in
the ways. You have by the light of God's
grace illuminating his word, you have seen and you've asked. Amongst all of those well-trafficked
ways made for ease, those paths of tradition and others, here
he has another word. You ask for the old path. This is a place of rest for your
soul. You ask for the old parts. That word old is a glorious word. And it separates a true living relationship
with God from all of the rest of religion, brothers and sisters.
It began in the beginning, because that's what the old path means.
It means eternal in origin, beyond the sight of this world. It can also mean everlasting
and perpetual But it's concealed. That's why
we ask, we stand and we see and we ask. It's hidden from this
world. It's hidden from this religious
world. It was hidden from these people in Jeremiah chapter 6.
It's hidden from this world now. This is something worth asking
for and seeking God again and again and again about. The secret,
Psalm 21, for the secret of the Lord. The sacred of who the Lord
is, the sacred of the Lord's dealings, the sacred of his eternal
purposes, the sacred of the Lord is with those who fear him. And
he will show them his covenant. He will show them the covenant
in his son from the foundation of the world. And this is because
it's concealed and the paths are not well-worn paths. This
is a picture of something that's a narrow, trodden path by a few. And it's revealed only by God,
which is why we ask. That's why we ask to see, because
it's only He who will teach us this way. All those that are
taught of God, they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. They're drawn
by Him. This way is both eternal and
God describes it as good. This is the good way. The good way. It's the very phrase the Lord
Jesus Christ took upon his lips in that upper room, didn't he?
When Peter had just made the most remarkable promises about
all of what he was going to do, all of his abilities, and the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. God alone is good. God alone determines what is
good. God alone opens the eyes to see. God alone reveals all of the
false paths by revealing the true. It's only by the grace
of God that the false paths are seen as false paths. The religious
world in the Lord Jesus Christ day, as the religious world to
this day, thought that they had many paths, and every denomination
on the face of the earth was there, represented in Jerusalem,
in one way or another, weren't they? And they all gathered together
and they had one. Ultimately they were exposed
by one person, and what was exposed was their hatred of God in all
of their religion. God says this is good. Only the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ ever exposes religion for what
it is. Only the grace of God. And when
the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed, he's going to reveal to us this
eternal and good path. Of course, it begins, like all
the scriptures, it just begins with God, isn't it? It begins
with God. And that's where our glory in
God begins. In the beginning, God. In the beginning, God. In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The Word was
face to face in communion with God, in union with God. In the
beginning was the Word. I love to think about what happened
in eternity. The only possible way to have
any light on what happened in eternity is what God says about
what happened in eternity. And what a remarkable, remarkable
time that must have been when it was just God and God in perfect
harmony, in perfect unity. And God the Father, God the Father
took a bride took a bride to give to his son. I've thought
about it a lot lately. The more I think about it, the
more amazed I am. This is the holy God, omniscient,
omnipotent God, taking a multitude, 10,000 times 10,000, a vast multitude,
seen as one, and giving them to his son as a bride. Do you reckon that gift was precious? I reckon that gift was precious,
brothers and sisters in Christ. I wouldn't cross the road to
talk about politics, but I'd rather fly around the world to
tell someone about how amazing he is. He gave his son a bride. What was the son's response when
God the Father gave the bride to his son? Pure, an utter delight. And God the Father, and God the
Son, as recorded by God the Holy Spirit, entered into a covenant.
This is the old path, brothers and sisters. and the glory of
all of what happens in this world, the glory of God is tied up in
all of that covenant and all of the good of all of God's people
is tied up in the glory of God. in that eternal covenant. The
eternal covenant of grace and eternal covenant. So this is
what you have to look for. This is what he's saying. You
stand and you see and you ask. This is the path. This is the
place you look, isn't it? I love the description of the
Lord Jesus Christ in Mark 5, who's going forth. This is the
king of Israel. Who's going forth have been from
of old. from everlasting is goings forth. Our God reigns with absolute
sovereign supremacy over all things. And in that covenant
of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the covenant himself,
promised his father, I will be fully responsible For that bride
being brought back to you out of the fall of Adam and out of
her failings and her sins and all of the evil of this world,
my responsibility is to present her holy, unblameable, unapprovable
in his sight. Brothers and sisters, there's
only one sight that matters. That's his sight. That's the
glory of the promise of our God. And therefore everything that's
happening, every tiny thing that wriggles in this universe, is
achieving that purpose. Achieving that purpose. I love
how Isaiah declares it. He says, Remember the former
things of old, for I am God, Isaiah 46.9. There is none else. I am God. There is none like
me. declaring the end from the beginning. He declared the end from the
beginning. I'm living with a builder at
the moment. It's a very delightful place,
but we builders and people who build things, you actually have
in your mind a picture of what it's going to be, don't you?
And then you might go back and start doing some plans and other
things. God had in mind what? The end, what's the end? The end is all of God's elect
children, the glorious bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, dwelling
without sin in the presence of God. in a new creation where
every thought of every moment of all of that existence forever
will be the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be crucified. The
Lord Jesus Christ is glorified. You know the verses in 1 John
3. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed on us. We should be called the sons
of God. When will we be called the sons
of God? In that eternal covenant of grace. Call the sons of God,
therefore the world know us not. I love that, therefore. Don't
expect the world to understand you or know what you're doing.
Don't expect them to know your joys. Don't expect them to know
your pains. They don't have a clue. Because it knew him not. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we
shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see Him as He is. Oh Lord, haste the day. What
a glorious, glorious, what a glorious future we have before us. He
declares the end from the beginning. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of this world. And this book is summarized,
this glorious, scriptures we have before us, summarized so
beautifully by Peter, he said, testified the sufferings of Christ
and the glory that should follow. The glory that should follow. You stand, brothers and sisters
in Christ, in the midst of a world that causes so much
consternation in so many ways. You stand in the midst of the
sin that is so easily entangled, the sin of unbelief. You stand,
stand in the word and promises of God and you see and you ask. And you shall find rest for your
souls here. This is the eternal covenant
that we're talking about. The covenant in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So God's command is that we look
to the eternal covenant. God's command is that we seek
the light of the eternal covenant and all of the circumstances
of what is going on in our lives. and that we are promised here
to receive rest for our souls. So all the streams and all of
those glorious beams of eternal election, grace and predestination
and love and eternal justification, they radiate. in the glory of
the cross and the beauties of holiness are seen in the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. The comfort of
believers in our union is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ and
our union with him. We are crucified with him. We're
buried with him, we're raised with him, we're seated with him.
Everything about the gospel is the gospel of union with the
Lord Jesus Christ and his people, that covenant that we're talking
about. Our acceptance before God is in him. All of our blessings,
brothers and sisters of blood brought blessings, all of them,
he is, he is our rest. It's an eternal way. It's a good
way. and it becomes the habit of our
lives. That's what the word walk means.
We walk. We walk. We walk there. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, how do you receive him? You receive him as a sinner. You receive him as a needy, mercy-being
sinner, so walk ye in him. I said, lead me to a rock that
is higher than I in all of the storms of the world. Lead me
to a rock. I want to close by looking at
this beautiful word, rest. I love resting. The older I get,
the more I enjoy resting. I love resting in the promises
of God. I love resting in the character
of God. I love the rest that he promises
to bring to his people. But we rest, don't we, in that
eternal covenant? We rest in his being. All of
the glorious attributes of God on display so wonderfully. You rest in his being, we rest
in his sovereignty, we rest in his sacrifice, we rest in him,
the rock, we rest in the fact that he sovereignly rules over
absolutely everything. And it's always worked, worked
for our good. He declares it good. Good for
us spiritually, good for us eternally. We rest in his word of promise. We rest in He who cannot lie
making a promise to us. You know the story of Ruth. I love the pictures in Ruth so
much. But you know when she entered
into that covenant on the grain floor with Boaz and she came
home with him reaching out his skirt over her and entering into
that covenant with her. This is the advice of the church
to her when she came back with all of the tokens of his love
and promise. She said, sit still my daughter. until thou know how the matter
will fall. For the man will not be in rest
until he have finished the thing this day." He won't be at rest
until he's finished the thing this day. We rest in his arms. We rest in his power. We rest in his knowledge of us,
brothers and sisters. Remember Peter. Lord, do you
love me? Do you love me? The Lord says,
do you love me? What's he say? Lord, thou knowest. Lord, thou knowest. We rest in
his knowledge of us, not our ability to know ourselves. We
rest in his blood. We rest our souls in the fact
that on Calvary's tree, all of my sin was perfectly judged by
God almighty to the full extent of his holy justice. And it's
impossible for God to be God. and for that sin to be brought
up again, for that sin to ever be punished again. It's impossible. God's character, that's what
the eternal covenant's about. You ask the old wise, you go
back and look at what happened, you look at the character of
God in eternity. It's impossible for God to lie
and it's impossible for God to deny his character. So our rest
is in who he is and what he did in the glory of of sins forgiven,
the glory of righteousness imputed, the glory of righteousness imparted. We're robed with the robe of
his very righteousness. The glory of justification, the
glory of acceptance. We're accepted in the beloved. The glory of being loved everlasting. I have loved you with everlasting
love. God's love's not inactive, therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn you to myself. We rest. As Paul did, the life I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself to me. I find no rest in my faith and
my activities. My entire rest is in his faithfulness. His faithfulness to his promise,
his faithfulness to his character. He looks upon that bride. Now, as he always did. He has no reason to ever change.
He cannot change, brothers and sisters. The Lord thy God is
in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save, Zechariah 3.17. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. Our God sings, brothers and sisters,
he sang at the last supper. He sang before he went to Gethsemane. He sang before he took his people
to that place where he revealed the wonders and the depths of
his love. So to rest is to stop doing.
To rest. is to gaze upon another. To rest
is to have confidence, isn't it? To rest is to be persuaded. I'm persuaded that he's able,
he's able, he's able to keep all that we've committed unto
him. We rest most particularly in the delightful arms of a person.
I love to think of John leaning back on the Lord Jesus' breast
of the upper room. Isn't that remarkable? the place
of repose for the disciples. We rest in his person, we rest
in his promises, we rest in his provision, we rest in his protection,
we rest in his power, and we rest in his word. The Lord Jesus Christ rested in these
very things himself, brothers and sisters. as he went to contemplate
the horrors of being made sin for his bride and the glory that
would come. In that upper room prayer, he
says, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy son, that thy son may also glorify
thee. Thou hast given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given him. And this is eternal life, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on earth.
I have finished the work which Thou gavest me. When was the
work given to Him? from the foundation of the world. And now, O Father, glorify Thou
me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world began. It began in glory, brothers and
sisters. It began in glorious union. It
began in the glorious persons of our great and triune God.
And then he prays, he prays for us, doesn't he? Verse 22, and
the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they
may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and has loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me from the foundation of the world,
in that eternal, be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world
has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known
that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it, that This is the preaching of
the gospel, declaring the name of our God, that the love wherewith
thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. I pray the Lord gives you rest
for your souls, brothers and sisters. Rest, stand, see, Ask. Walk. And the best word of all
in this short verse of scripture is shall. Shall. Shall.