Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 23. One line brought me to this psalm. It's in verse 2. It says, He maketh me to lie
down. Don't you love that? He maketh me to lie down. You know, our family just enjoyed
a time of vacation and we enjoyed it very much. Every year when
I get to this point, I dwell on the subject of rest. You can
go back on sermon audio and see it's always rest every time. End of October is the time of
rest. I can't help it. It consumes
me. I'm coming up on it. I'm excited for it. Rest is such
a good thing. It really is. It's such a needful
thing, such an important thing. The harder we work, the more
we appreciate it. Isn't that right? The eternity that we are hoping
for. I have a message and I'm, I'm
begging our Lord to speak instead of me this morning. Because I
pray our Lord might enable us to enter into something personally. Here we sit. And do you know why we're here? We're here to worship God. For the hope that he has given
us. Of an eternity with him. We're here in hopes of an eternity
of sinlessness. We have a hope to be rid of these
bodies of death, these bodies of flesh, these bodies that are
so tired and so, so weak and so weary. And so this is our
hope, our hope. We have a hope waiting for us. This eternity that we are hoping
for, This eternity that Christ has
purchased for us with his own blood. We just heard a man stand up
and he brought a Bible study to us and it was on the person
of Christ. And now we have a message in
the subject of this message is the person of Christ. A little
later on today, we're going to hear a man bring another message
on the person of Christ. We cannot get off of this subject,
can we? Hannah told me something she
read about all these wildfires that are taking place out West,
out in California. A man and his wife, their whole
neighborhood went up in flames. Their house, their neighbor's
house, everything was up in flames. They survived by jumping in the
neighbor's swimming pool. They were in that swimming pool
all night long. Everything burned all around them. They said the
only thing that saved our lives was that swimming pool. Now do
you think that they are going to tell anybody about that swimming
pool? That's their life, isn't it?
That was our life. This is our life. This hope that
we have in Christ, that's our life. The only thing that saved
us is we were in Him. It was fire all around, isn't
that right? But we were in Him. This eternity that He has purchased
for us with His own blood is an eternity of rest. Absolute rest when he said it
is finished. He meant forever. Forever. Absolutely forever. Don't turn, but in Hebrews four,
the apostle wrote, Labor to enter into that rest. Labor to enter into that rest.
Now the sad reality is, as wonderful and as glorious as the rest that
Christ has provided is, as wonderful and as glorious as it is, this
flesh naturally has no desire to enter into it. Isn't that
something? No desire to enter into it. Look with me at Matthew 11. Matthew 11, verse 28, our Lord
said, Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. How often do men
and women truly do that? How often do men and women truly
go to the Lord for rest from all of their burdens and all
their trials and all their fears? How often do men and women actually
do that? When trouble comes, how often do men and women honestly
take their burdens to the Lord? Their spiritual burdens, their
physical burdens, How often do men and women take them to the
Lord and leave them there? That's not in our nature, is
it? It's not in our nature to put
all of our trust in the Lord and come to Him to find the relief
that we need. That's not in our nature. We
look at every other option first, don't we? Go with me over to John 5. John 5 verse 40, our Lord said, And you will not come to me that
you might have life. You will not come to me. How
sad, how true and how sad. We are so needy and we're so
needy. Aren't we needy for everything?
We are so desperate. We are so sinful. We'll spend all of our time running
here and running there. Labored and heavy laden, we sinners
will run everywhere but to the one place of actual rest. Our Lord said, come unto me,
come unto me, come unto me. Right here, he told us the sad
reality, you will not come to me. And if you look at John chapter
six, verse 44, he said, no man can come to me. You will not. You cannot. That brings a center to the good
news of the gospel. That brings us to the good news
of the gospel. This is what David said. He made me lie down. He made me lie down. He made me to lie down. My sinful
flesh wouldn't do it. It would not bow to Him. It would
not believe on Him. It would not put its trust in
Him. It was prone to wander, prone
to run. But bless God Almighty, He made
me lie down. He made me lie down. And David
said, now I found rest. That's the point of that psalm.
Now I have found rest. Could you use some rest? I'm
as sincere as I can possibly be with that question. Could
you use some rest? Could you use some rest in this
heart? Could you use some rest? Rest from the guilt of your sin.
Do you ever feel guilt over your sin? Rest from the fear of having
to stand before God. Rest from worrying about who's
in control of all these trials that life brings. In some way,
we are either in a trial or between a trial or heading into the next
trial. Could you use some rest from
worrying about who is in control? Everything is spinning out of
control. What is happening? Do you feel lost? You ever feel
lost? Do you ever feel like you're
searching for an answer and you don't even know what the question
is? Come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's the point of the message. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Fall down at His feet. Commit
everything to Him. Resign everything to the One
who has made you to rest. Already made you to rest. and
you will find rest in your soul. Come to the one who has already
made rest for your soul and you'll find rest in your soul. This
message is for those who could not on their own find rest. and would not on their own find
rest. But he made us find rest. In Christ, our Savior and our
shepherd. Now there's a. A wonderful illustration,
if that describes us. There's a wonderful illustration
that I want to give to you, and I pray that this will be a a. A life help. A true life help. This illustration is in Genesis
8. If you'll turn over there to Genesis 8. Now, if God gives both of us
an ear to hear his message. An ear to hear his call through
his word. Eyes to see Christ. To be the
object of our, our true rest. If he gives us a heart that wants
to come to him. A heart that actually wants to
come to him to find that rest. Then what that means is he has
chosen us to those things. If we have that. It means he
has chosen us to those things. It means he has drawn us to himself. In John six, he said, no man
can come to me except the father, which has sent me draw him. That's
who will come. Had he not drawn us, we wouldn't
hear, see, or come to him. We couldn't hear, see, or come
to him. But if we do hear his voice,
say, come, if he speaks to our heart, And he oh, isn't it so wonderful
when he speaks through his word to our heart? When he threw this
word through his spirit. Pierces us, feeds us with exactly
what we need. If we hear his voice, say come
to me. And if we see him to be the one
to come to only him. And if our heart cries, I want
to go. I truly want to go. I want that
rest. Then it means we're his elect. We're his elect. He chose us. He put us in Christ. And he gave us that rest. This
is perfectly illustrated in Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark, every person
and thing that God chose to save, he put inside the Ark. He chose to hide it and protect
it inside the Ark. That Ark is Jesus Christ. God did not put every soul on
the earth in that Ark. And God the Father did not put
every soul on this earth in Jesus Christ. But just like that Ark,
every soul that's in Christ is going to be saved. Every soul. going to find rest, every soul.
God said, Noah, build an ark and look actually at chapter
seven, begin in chapter seven, verse one. And the Lord said
unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark. For thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation." God called Noah and all of his
house into the ark. Verse 11 says, in the 600th year
of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month,
The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and
the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth
40 days and 40 nights. In the self same day entered
Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth the sons of Noah and Noah's wife
and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark. They
and every beast after his kind and after all the cattle after
their kind every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind and every fowl after his kind every bird of
every sort and they went in unto noah into the ark two and two
of all flesh wherein is the breath of life and they that went in
went in male and female of all flesh as god had commanded him
and the lord shut him in Noah did not shut himself in. God Almighty called him in and
God Almighty shut him in. And that's how it is for every
sinner in Christ. We did not call ourselves into
Christ. Well, don't you want to be in
Christ? We don't call ourselves into Christ. We did not shut
ourselves into Christ. Of God are we in Christ. God
made his people to be in Christ. Verse 17 says in the flood was
40 days upon the earth and the waters increased and bear up
the ark and it was lift up above the earth. God's judgment literally
rained down on the earth because of sin. He said, that's the reason why
I'm going to destroy this earth, man's sin. Verse 21 says, And
all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and
of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth, and every man, all in whose nostrils
was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land died.
and every living substance was destroyed which was upon the
face of the ground both man and cattle and the creeping things
and the fowl of heaven and they were destroyed from the earth
and Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in
the ark." God poured out His wrath and His destruction on
sin. And all sinful flesh died. And Noah and his family they
were sinful flesh too but they endured that wrath and that destruction
in the ark. In the ark they received everything
that was coming to them in the ark. Hid in the safety of the
ark that's the only way a sinner can be justified before God.
That's the only way that a sinner can survive the judgment, survive
the fiery wrath is if God calls and shuts that center up into
Christ. Now that judgment was over. The rain stopped. All right. The wrath was over and we just
read all flesh died. That's over. Every soul inside that arc was
alive. Every soul outside of that arc
was dead. After 40 days of rain, God said
it is finished. is finished. Now look at chapter
8 verse 1. It says, And God remembered Noah
and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him
in the ark. God remembered every soul that
was in the ark. And that will be the case for
every soul that is in Christ. Every soul. That thief on the
cross said, Lord, would you remember me? The Lord said today, you're
going to be in paradise. Absolute paradise. Well, after
this wrath was over 40 days of rain, 40 nights of rain, Noah,
he took a dove. All right. And this is what I
pray the Lord will help us with. All right, let me, let me recap. God said, I'm going to pour out
my judgment because of sin. But God chose some and stuck
them in the ark. Wrath rained down and everything
died. But every soul in the ark was
safe. And God remembered every soul
in that ark. Now here they sit above all the
wrath and judgment. Here they are in the ark, right? Noah took a dove and he opened
the window of the ark and he let that dove out. Now this dove
was one of the things inside the ark that endured the wrath
and was spared. This was one of the saved. And
Noah opens a window and he lets this dove out trying to see if
the dove would find land. The illustration for that is
here we sit inside the Ark right now. Here we are in Christ. It's over. It's over. The wrath is over. It's finished,
it's done. The saved are saved. But we haven't
made it to the final shore yet. That Ark had not yet landed on
Mount Ararat. This is us if we're in Christ.
We're being kept in him. We're ready to be revealed. But
we're being kept in him. We're waiting for this time to
come. So Noah sent this dove out and this dove represents
all of God's people. Every single one of us. We are
all forced to go out into the world. All of us. Look what it says
in verse 9. But the dove found no rest for
the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark,
for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put
forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the
ark. And you can see in the reference,
it says caused her to come. Noah sent this dove out and this
dove found no rest. This dove went that way, way
out that way. And this dove went way out that
way. There was nothing but water. There was nothing there. And I'm sure this dove was so
tired and so weary and so discouraged. Everywhere this dove went, there
was nothing. This dove found no rest. And then all of a sudden, as
this dove is flying, flying, flying, all of a sudden this
dove spots the Ark. It was the only place It was literally the only place
of rest. And this dove flew right back
down into that window and Noah reached out and grabbed that
dove and pulled her in unto him into the ark. At that moment,
she found rest. At that moment, she found rest. Everything that was not out there
was inside that ark. Everything. Everything that she
was looking for out there and could not find out there was
inside that ark. Everything she needed was inside
that ark. And David describes that in Psalm
23. He describes what we find in
Christ our ark. That dove shows us what we have
in Christ our ark. It's the same thing for every
single child of God. Now go with me back over to Psalm
23. Psalm 23 verse 1 says, The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord keeps me from wandering. You know what I don't want to
do? I don't want to leave Christ. I'm going to repeat that. I don't want to leave Christ. I don't want to leave Christ. I don't. I don't want to leave Christ.
How many things are there out there that could steal our attention
away from him? David said, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord will keep me from wandering
off. Oh, that's so restful. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Well, guess what? The Lord is
my shepherd. He will shepherd me, he'll receive
me, he'll take care of me, he'll keep me from going astray. Others can have another shepherd
if they want to. Believers say, not me. The Lord
is my shepherd. I can see that dove. I was thinking
about that dove. And you think about that being
us. There is nothing out there. There is no rest out there. There's
no rest. As soon as that dove spotted
that arc, that dove said, that's my place. There's my rest. That's where
I belong. David said, the Lord is my shepherd. And then he said, I shall not
want not in him. I'm going to find every provision
I need in Him. I can imagine Noah. Here comes
that dove. Noah reaches out, lays hold of
that dove, pulls that dove inside the ark, and I can see him immediately
scooping up some seed and feeding that dove. That dove was so tired
and so weary. And I'm going to tell you this.
If we will come to Christ in the heart, through the window,
The window of the soul, if we will come to Christ, he will
feed us. He will receive us, protect us,
feed us. That dove, can you imagine that
dove sitting there eating that food? Nothing like this out there. Verse two, David said, he maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. He makes me rest. That's all that dove could do
inside the ark was rest. Just rest. No flying needed to
be done inside the ark. Rest, just rest. Outside the ark, fighting for
his life, flying for his life. Inside the ark, perfect rest.
Verse 2, David said, he leadeth me beside the still waters. The
margin says waters of quietness, waters of peace. Inside the ark
was perfect peace. The whole creation, including
every animal, was affected by sin the moment Adam sinned. The
whole creation started to groan. Lions immediately started eating
lambs. Snakes immediately started eating
mice. That's what the animals were
used to. That's what the dove was used to. That's the life
they knew outside of the ark. Inside the ark, that dove looks
around and immediately realizes, there is perfect peace in here. Perfect peace and rest. That dove was watching her back. Nobody's going to attack me in
here. Rest. Rest. Verse three, David said,
He restoreth my soul. That's encouragement. He gives
me encouragement. Every soul inside the ark knew
all they had to do was look out at all that water everywhere
you see. Every soul knew. What would we
be without this ark? What would we be with had God
not given us this arc? What would we be? Ruined. Ruined. Every soul in the arc
had the encouragement of hope. God has spared us to this point. He's going to spare us all the
way. And that's what we have in Christ. God has spared us
to this point. He's going to spare us all the
way. Verse three says, he restored my soul. He leadeth me in paths
of righteousness for his names sake. He'll spare us. He will
guide us. He will direct us. Do you have
any decisions to make? Does anybody have a decision
to make? Isn't that what life is? Decision
after decision after decision. The lot is cast into the lap. But do you know who the whole
disposing is of? The Lord himself. He will lead
us. He'll guide us. He'll direct
us. Somebody, one of his sons might
ask Noah, what course are we on here? The Lord is leading this ship.
is perfect. It's right on course. And that's
what I can say to every soul in Christ. Every soul who is
trusting in Christ. The path that your life is on
is perfect. It couldn't be better. Everything
going on around you could not be better. It's absolutely perfect. All we have to do is rest in
it. Just rest in it. Verse 4, Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil. Death was all up under that ark.
Death was all around that ark. Not one thing died inside the
ark. I mean, a centipede didn't get
stepped on. Nothing died inside the ark. There was courage inside the
ark. There was companionship inside
the ark. He said, I'll fear no evil for
thou art with me. You're with me. God told Noah. We read it a minute ago, he said,
Come thou into the ark. He didn't say, Noah, go into
the ark. He said, come into the ark. You
know what that means? God was already inside the ark.
God was in there with them. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself. God called us into Christ. He
was in Christ too. You're with me. Verse 4 says, Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil,
for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. There is comfort in Christ. Verse 5, David said, Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. There was not just provisions
in the ark. There was no possible way that
provisions could ever run out. No possible way. That's exactly
how it is in Christ. Everything we will ever need
is going to be abundantly provided. Do we need pardon? He said, I
will abundantly pardon. Do we need life? He said, I'm
come that they might have life and that they might have it more
abundantly. It can't be described what life
is going to be like. Once we land on Mount Ararat,
it's going to be much more abundant than we know it now. Exodus 34
says his goodness is abundant. The apostle Paul said it's abundant
grace. The apostle Peter said, it's
abundant mercy. It will never run dry. Never. It's going to forever just run
over. Verse six says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord. forever. Noah and his family,
they were on that ark. That little dove was on that
ark. All the rest of the animals were on the ark for one year. That's how long they were on
the ark. One year. That was their home. That was
the only home they had. That was the only thing on earth. That was all the home that every
soul and thing inside the ark had. Every soul that was in that
ark was every soul that made it to the shore. It is the exact same for us.
Christ is our home. We have here no continuing city. Christ is the only home God's
people have. Out there, it's nothing. There's
nothing. Christ is all. Christ is our
continuing city. And because of God's goodness
and his mercy to us in putting us in Christ, We're going to
be able to dwell in him all the days of our life forever. I mean forever. That means if God ever puts a
sinner in the goodness and the mercy of Christ, he will never
be taken out. Never. Never. Our Lord said they are in my
hand. I'm in my father's hand. They're never going to be able
to be plucked out. Never. I want to close with this verse
of Scripture. Go over to Psalm 116. Psalm 116, and I pray the Lord
might let us enter into this. Psalm 116, look at verse 7. It says, return unto thy rest,
O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. And that's the truth, isn't it?
The Lord has dealt bountifully. That dove out there flying around,
the wrath was over. Every soul was saved. Every soul
was being preserved in Christ. Every soul had no choice but
to be on the path that Christ was taking them. But we get out
into this world. And this is a very painful, hard,
difficult, trying world. And there's no rest out there.
And what I pray the Lord will let all of us do is spot the
ark. As we're out there running this
way and that way, oh, there's the ark. And Lord, allow us to
return to our rest. Let us come back into Christ
and let us truly see Him to be everything we need. This is where
I can plant my feet. This is where I can feed my soul.
Perfect peace and rest right there in Him. All right, stand
together with me.