Seeking once again the help of God I would like you to turn with me to the chapter that we read together, the Gospel according to Mark chapter 6 and the text you'll find in verse 31 and 32. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat and they departed into a desert place by ship privately.

At the beginning of the week I was considering continuing with the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ but while praying over that decision these words came into my mind and I thought what I a blessed word it is, what it shows to us of the Lord Jesus Christ, his compassion, his understanding of the human nature, the human body, and also the spiritual condition of his apostles that they they needed to come aside for a little while, they needed to separate from the crowd, from the to-ings and fro-ings, from the constant inquiries that were being brought to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they needed to come to a quiet place to rest for a little while.

It says that there was much coming and going, there were many people who were coming to the apostles and coming to the Lord Jesus Christ for healing and they were so busy, they had no leisure, they had no time for rest, they were constantly on the move, constantly being harassed, constantly having to deal with various difficulties and various people and so they had no leisure time they had no down time as we might say today and they had no time no not even to be able to to do the necessary to be able to eat their food we know in that culture meal times was was a communal thing. It was a thing even today is so. And there was no time for them even to sit down together and to rehearse the events of the day because everything was so fast paced.

And we see even as the Lord Jesus Christ makes this statement, let us go to a desert place and rest a while. and they go and they cross over the sea and they go to somewhere private, the people saw them. They saw them departing and they made way afoot and they overtook them and they came to where Jesus Christ was and there we see that Jesus looks with compassion. You know you and I would probably think look we are we've just come for a rest and we've come apart away from you lot for for a little while and now you've followed us all the way here the last thing that we want to do is is to look with compassion upon you but the lord jesus christ he sees the multitude and he looks upon them with compassion why because they were as sheep not having a shepherd and he began to teach them and we see that he then, as we've looked at before, how he feeds them.

so there was that time they're so busy having no time to eat and then they cross over the lake, they meet the people again, Jesus has compassion upon them, he begins to teach them and then he feeds them along with his apostles and so that rest that they were so desiring, that rest which they so needed they never had.

And isn't that the same always in this world? The rest which we desire never seems to be long enough. It always seems to be disrupted. The peace which we so delighted in is soon gone away. And everything that we had longed for, that rest, that peace and quiet, it is soon disrupted in this restless world in which we live.

And so it was with the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. Jesus knew these men, they needed a rest. They needed to come aside for a little while. A rest was needed.

In this chapter we have three different rests that are spoken of. Rest doesn't necessarily mean falling asleep. Rest can just mean a stopping of the normal things of life. We can rest from our work, we can rest from school we can rest from college or university and we can come aside for a little while it doesn't mean that we have to fall asleep but we just rest from that those things which are constantly on our minds and we can put them aside and we can focus upon something else just like God when he created the heavens and the earth six days he labored on the seventh day he rested he ceased from his work that he was doing he did not fall asleep but he stopped doing that which was he was doing and he created that day we find in chapter 2 of, sorry, verse 2 of chapter 6, that there was the Sabbath day and Jesus in verse 1, and he went out from thence and came into his own country and his disciples followed him and when the Sabbath day was come he began to teach in the synagogue And many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto him, That even such mighty works are wrought at his hand?

So it was the Sabbath day. The Sabbath was created by God for man and the Lord Jesus Christ on the Sabbath day, which would have been the Saturday, took his ministry to the synagogues where the Jews would have been there to worship God and to sit under the word. And so it was a day of rest, a day by which the normal goings on in the week stopped and people went to the synagogue and they went to worship and to sit under the Word of God and we know that from the synagogues the church, the early church, used that tradition, that structure by which to continue the worship of God although they did not do that on the Saturday, they did it on the first day of the week which is described in the scriptures as the Lord's Day which is like the Christian Sabbath and so we come aside today day of rest to we have ceased the normal goings on in the week and we come to present ourselves before the Lord and to worship him. It is a spiritual rest where we come to be to be fed and nourished under the word. It is a rest for our bodies, a rest by which we can come together and to come aside for a little while and to worship God and to feed from his word.

And so this pattern of six days and then the seventh day rest is set in motion by God himself. It is God who created the weak. It is God who set one day aside for rest. It was always the case when Adam was in the garden, he was called to work. Work and rest is inseparably linked. The harder we work, the greater we desire to rest and the more enjoyable rest is. Adam, even before he sinned, was called to work in the garden. He was to tend it and to care for it and to subdue it. But after he sinned, that work became difficult. That work became, it was by the sweat of his brow, he was to bring forth his food. And so that work became harder as sin entered in. But then as work became harder, rest became more precious

we live in a world that is restless straight into this new year nothing has changed really from the last year it is still restless we have wars and rumors of wars we have anger and hatred and and killing It is a restless world. Jesus tells us in the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 24 from verse four, and Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. He's speaking of the end of time, incorporating it into the destruction of Jerusalem, but also typing it to the end of time and those things that will take place. Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, see that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilence and earthquakes in divers or various places.

These are the beginnings of sorrows and they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And so Jesus says that this is how the world is going to continue. From the time of Christ, or even we can say from the time of sin, there has always been wars and rumors of wars. There has always been earthquakes and pestilences and famines in various places. But Jesus says, as time moves on after him, that these things are going to become more common, that the earth is to become more violent, more as it undergoes its birth pangs, its birth pains.

And the earth at this present time is an earth that is filled with violence. It is said that since the end of the Second World War, today, the Earth has more wars taking place than ever before. We have men like Donald Trump who are trying to bring peace, but they seem to be bringing more and more war. Iran rising up against itself, the violence and the hatred there. You've got Israel and Palestine. You've got Russia and Ukraine. You've got the violences in Africa. You've got a war all over the world and you've got the threat of war. Just as Jesus says, there will be wars and rumours of wars throughout this world and it is how it is. And today we are told that today there is more wars taking place than ever before.

A restless world. And Jesus says, come aside for a little while into a desert place and find rest for yourself. But even Jesus, as he takes his disciples away for a little while, could not find rest enough for them in this troubled world.

In Romans 8, it tells us there, verse 22 of the birth pains, the groaning of this world. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travails in pain until now. Why? Because of sin. The world is groaning and in pain. not only they, but ourselves, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we, ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Why is the earth groaning? Why are believers groaning? Why do we look at the world and we see its restlessness? Why do we groan? What is it that we are waiting for? What is the world waiting for? This earth is waiting for the redemption, for its restoration, when it will be restored to its Eden state without sin, when there will be no more war, when there will be no more sorrow, no more suffering. Isn't that what the believer longs for? That's what Paul, the writer of the Romans, longed for. We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption.

When you look at the news and you see another missile slamming into another country and people dying, do you groan within yourself? Do you think, what a restless world? Oh, when, how long will it be, Lord Jesus, that when I enter into that perfect rest, We groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of our body. Jesus says, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest for a little while. Even on the Sabbath day, he's ministering the word. The day of rest, he's seeking to bring a rest to the people. That is the first rest. But then there is a second rest, which to the natural mind is completely shocking.

But it's the rest of John the Baptist. You see John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, living in the deserts, eating wild locusts and honey, ministering the word of God, preaching repentance, baptizing people, seeking to confront the king because of his sin and his immorality and is now in prison. But his time was coming when he would enter into his rest. The time was coming when his earthly sorrows would cease and his questionings would be over. Art thou the Christ or should we look for another? The questions would be all answered. But it would come in a naturally horrendous end, yet a glorious end. He would come to his death. Jesus would say to him, come apart and rest for a little while. The sand timer of his life finished. His head was cut off. Where did he go? He entered into his eternal rest. His eternal rest.

You see, for a Christian to die, It is to go from war, from battle, from suffering and sorrow and sadness, from restlessness to rest. It is to go from trouble to peace, from sorrow to joy. It is to fall asleep.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13. I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.

And so John the Baptist, though he had his head cut off, he entered into his rest. He entered into what the scriptures call a condition of sleep. A condition of sleep. A heavenly rest. Or a perpetual Sabbath.

And only in this world, we can only experience the shadow or the type of heaven. The nearest I think we can get to heaven is when we come together on the Lord's day and we come aside from the world on the Sabbath day, on the Christian Sabbath, and we can sit together and commune together. We can come aside from the desert place and come into the, as it were, the oasis of the word. And we can come and be with the Lord's people. And we can come and worship our God through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can come and we can talk to him in prayer. We can listen to his word. And we can have a heavenly rest.

But how quickly that rest is shattered. How quickly we are awoken from that peaceful sleep by the interruptions of this restless world.

In Revelation, it tells us there in two chapters of those who are in heaven, John the Baptist, he had been laboring. the apostles had been labouring in the word and Jesus says to them, come aside and rest for a little while.

John the Baptist, he had been labouring, he had been faithful to his calling and the Lord takes him. Then what does he experience from that moment of separation? If you remember Jesus, today you shall be with me in paradise.

John the Baptist immediately is separated from his body, enters into the presence of the law, Revelation 6 it says, And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God. John the Baptist slain for the word of God. He was faithful. Herodias despised his faithfulness and wanted him dead. He is martyred for Christ's sake, for being faithful to the word. His soul immediately ascends and sits around the throne of God.

They are slain for the testimony of the word and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them. And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season. until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled.

Rest a little season. That the soul enters into a spiritual rest and it rests there for a little season until Christ comes again. It is a heavenly rest. In Revelation, 14 and verse 13, And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. What a glorious hope that is for each of those who are in Christ Jesus.

Yes, this world is restless. Yes, our lives are constantly tried and tested. Yes, our faith also tried and tested. Yes, peace is limited, sleep is limited, rest is limited. that we are here to labour on till the night comes, till our life is over, the sand timer of our life stops, then where do we go? Around the throne, waiting for our brethren. We rest from our labours and our works follow us.

Our Christian life is a pilgrimage. We are strangers and foreigners in this world. We don't truly belong here, but we look to a city that is out of sight as a man traveling or a woman traveling on a journey. And we go for a long walk and we come and we see a bench. It was nice to sit down, have a rest for a little while. then we move on and we keep going and we keep going until we reach our final destination and there is our, there is the end, there is our final rest. And so for the Lord's people on their journeys we have these benches where we can sit down for a little while and have some peace, have some meditation upon the word, have some communion with Christ, have some fellowship with the brethren, We move on, that peace is disturbed and we press on with our pilgrimage until we come to that final day like John the Baptist. His rest, he entered into his eternal rest.

And as with Jesus, his rest, their rest was short-lived as they were followed by the multitude that overtook them and came to where they were going. Our lives are busy. So I was thinking about this, you know, when we were in Kenya, the LC always had a calendar. And although our life was busy, everything revolved around the mission. And so we didn't really go anywhere far. And so her calendar was always blank, apart from the occasional things or birthdays. And she used to say, my calendar in England used to be full, but now there's nothing there. Now we've come back to England, her calendar is now full again. various things to occupy our time. And so it is with the life in England. People are spread out, we have cars, we can rush here and rush there, we can go and visit and we can have people over and our lives are busy. We have a lot going on. Just like the apostles, they had been out ministering the word of God. They came back to the Lord Jesus Christ. They told him all that was going on, all that took place and all of the things that they had taught. And they had the added pressure of all that had taken place with John the Baptist. It's like they are overflowing with things to tell the Lord Jesus Christ. And he looks at them and says, you know, you need a rest. You need to come aside for a little while. Your lives are so busy, you need to slow down. So much so that there was no time to eat.

You see, the Lord Jesus Christ, having been the creator of the human body, understands what the human body needed, that it was only able to take so much before it crumbled. So he says to them, come aside for a little while. They needed to rest, just as God rested, just as the Lord Jesus Christ in his humanity, he rested. We find him asleep on the pillow of the boat, resting.

There is more to this rest than meets the eye. Yes, our bodies have to rest because they can't continue to labour 24-7. but also our spirits, our souls, which have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God as we walk through this world that is at enmity against God, that is a restless world. Our souls seek places of refuge and our souls seek places of rest and places of peace. constantly having to do battle with the kingdom of darkness.

And so Jesus not only understands the physical needs of men and women but he also understands the spiritual needs of his people that they need to not only rest physically but their souls also need to benefit from that rest.

In Matthew 11 Jesus says, Verse 28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

And so Jesus is initially speaking to those who are laboring and are heavy laden. If we look at the foundation of the world, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were to work, but their work was sweet to them. It was not a tiresome work. There was no sweat, there was no thorns, there was no thistles. We can't say that they were labouring and that they were heavy laden. And so this labouring and this heavy laden comes as a result of sin. Jesus isn't speaking about the natural labouring that we do in our daily lives. He's not talking about being heavy laden with a bag of cement or with a heavy load of washing or a heavy load of shopping. He's speaking about those who are labouring under the weight of sin. those who have come to see their own sinfulness, those who are seeking to strive against the law, labouring to work a work of righteousness to please God. He is speaking to those whose souls have no rest. And he says to them, come unto me, all ye that labour labouring under the guilt of sin. You understand that you've sinned against a holy God and that is a burden to you. He says, come to me and you will find rest.

Remember the dove as she flew out from the presence of Noah and as she flew around, what does the Bible tell us? She found no rest for the soles of her feet. So where did she go? Did she carry on flying around and around and around? No, she went back to Noah. She went back to the ark. And it was there that she found that rest for the soles of her feet. And so Jesus says to those of you who are going round and round and round, restless, come to him. And you will find rest for your heavy laden soul.

Maybe you're heavy laden by the worldly cares. You're oppressed by this world. And Jesus says, come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. this true spiritual rest, not just coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's learning of him, learning his ways, learning his will, learning his nature, learning his character. He's not a tyrant, but has been yoked together with a loving, caring master, the one who went for a place to rest, and yet he finds a multitude of people, they're filled with compassion, he begins to teach them.

Yoked together with the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall find rest for your souls. You think of a ship, you know, out in the sea, a great storm comes, where do they head? They try and head back to the harbour by which there is safety, there is protection, there is a calmness. Out there in the troubled, restless world, there's difficulty and opposition, but in Christ Jesus, there is a rest for your soul. Learn of him, learn about him. walk with him, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

She says, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. In our pilgrim journey There are what we might call spiritual pit stops or spiritual service stations along the way, where we can come aside into a desert place and spend some time with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, as I said, with the calendar, our calendars, they're so full of things. so many things to occupy us, to keep us busy and to be busy is good but to be so busy that we neglect time with the Lord Jesus Christ is to be busy doing nothing. He says come aside for a little while into this desert place and rest a while, learn of me.

How can we learn of the Lord Jesus Christ? The disciples are told or it is written they had no leisure time so much so as they couldn't eat. Sometimes our lives are so busy that we have enough time for our physical food but do we have enough time for our spiritual food? Do we have enough time for the Word of God, which is our meat and drink, our spiritual sustenance? How often do we come aside to spend time in the Word with the Lord Jesus Christ? So much time for everything else, but no time for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do we look forward to the Lord's Day? Do we look forward to the time when we can come together with the Lord's people and to sit under the Word of God and to be fed by the Word of God? There's no food out there for the Christian. It's just physical food out there that satisfies the body, but real food is to be found in the Word of God. Worshipping God, underneath the Word of God, learning of the Lord Jesus Christ, in communion with his people.

Christians are all part of the one body. They are brought in together. As I said in prayer, I think you know that you have passed from death unto life because you love the brethren. Part of coming aside for a little while into a desert place and resting a while and to learn of the Lord Jesus Christ is to meet together in communion with his people and to feed off the word and to encourage one another in the way. But also to commune with Christ.

Jesus says to them, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. He wanted to talk with them. He wanted them to talk to him. And we talk to Christ through the means that he has given to us, by prayer. He is our great high priest, touched with the feelings of our infirmities, understands our weaknesses and our frame. And we're to feed from him and we're to speak to him. And we will find rest for our souls.

these service station stopovers in the Christian life by which we can be encouraged. Many a believer has met with the Lord Jesus Christ in a desert place. Many of a believer has found an oasis in this wilderness journey as they have come aside and rested for a little while and the Lord Jesus Christ has drawn near unto them and blessed them.

There seems to be so much opposition in our day. There seems to be so much to draw us aside and stopping us from communing with Christ. There's so much to distract us and to draw us aside. And we're so busy with our own leisure. There's no leisure time for the Lord Jesus.

And when we think of the word leisure, what do we think of? When we say leisure, we immediately think of things of entertainment, things to occupy our bodies. But how often do we think about our souls, the leisure time for our soul, as our bodies benefit from rest, as our bodies benefit from leisure, so our souls. need that spiritual leisure time they need that spiritual food that spiritual nourishment they need to be fed and they need to be to commune with christ as i've mentioned before we are body and spirit so entwined that it's difficult to separate them and what happens to the body has a benefit to the soul but what happens to the soul has a benefit to the body and that's why Jesus says to them come aside and rest a little while.

How often do we come aside to be with the Lord Jesus? How often do we try and go to a place? Jesus says they departed into a desert place by ship privately. That's what Jesus wanted. He wanted them to be alone and private. How often do you and I separate ourselves and go and to be alone with the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know what it is to come aside for a little while and to be alone with Jesus, to read his word, to meditate upon his word and to talk to him? Jesus is living. God is living and he can bless you in your soul. And I'm sure there are those here who can testify and say amen to that, that I was in a desert place and Christ came and met with me and blessed my soul.

Now ministers, how is it that they have to come and preach? How is it that they're able to put together a sermon? Is it by being so busy? Is it by being occupied with so much other stuff? Or is it because they've had to be alone with God, alone with Christ in the study? They've had to be on their knees speaking to the Lord Jesus, asking him for help, for guidance, for equipping, for anointing.

And as it is with the preachers, so should it be with each of the dear Lord's people. We should each know what it is to isolate ourselves and to talk with Christ. We should each know what it is to turn off the music, to pop out the earbuds, to lay down the phone and to walk with Christ.

We live in a loud, restless world, yet Christ is not to be found there. He's to be found in the desert place, in the peace and the quiet. And we're alone, private. And as he says in his Sermon on the Mount, go into the closet and your father, which seeth thee in secret, shall reward thee openly. It will be evidenced in your life and my life that we have been alone with Jesus. It will be very evident that we have communed with our creator in prayer and fed from his word. Because Jesus says it will be what is done in secret shall be revealed.

Come yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. And maybe your life is very, very busy. No doubt everyone's life is very, very busy, but make time, make time for Jesus. Order your day so that Christ comes first and Christ comes last. Be alone with the Lord Jesus Christ.

May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.

Let's sing together our final hymn from Gadsby's, hymn number 771.

771. To know my Jesus crucified by far excels all things beside, all earthly good. I count but loss and triumph in my Saviour's cross.

Hymn 771, tune 395.

? To know my Jesus crucified ?
? My Father sells all things beside ?
? All earthly goods ?
knowledge of all terrestrial things,
? That to my soul true pleasure brings ?
? Thou, peace that in the Son of God ?
? Thou, joy love through His fond enwound ?
? The diaper and the pillow ?
? And all its wondrous grace explore ?
? E'er would I covet her handsome sting ?
? And part with the whole and follow him ?

If I bear my every loss, be patient at every cost. Never may I
? Thy Savior bear ?
? The wondrous prize for His dear name ?
? Thus make we with Him glorious and free ?
? To suffer all things full and lame ?
? That God be well, like Jesus is ?
? And rise to everlasting life ?

Dear Lord and Almighty God, we do thank thee for that promise that there remains a rest for the people of God and we do pray that we may each enter into that rest when our life's work is ended and we pray that we may know what it is to know those sweet times of rest with thy presence, thy blessing and favour upon our lives as we seek to walk through this restless, this unpeaceful world.

We thank thee Lord for its beauty, we thank thee for the many goodness and blessings we receive and yet Lord we ask for greater times, more times of rest for our souls. Do dismiss us we pray with thy blessing.

And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you each now and forevermore. Amen.