But let me read verse 7 and 8
of Psalm 116. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered
my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from
falling. Now David had been praying. We
read in verse 4, Then called I, upon the name of the Lord,
O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. I beseech thee, deliver
my soul. And then in verse 5 it says,
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple.
I was brought low, and he helped me. Now the psalmist had a great
deal of unrest in his soul, a great deal of unrest because of the
various problems, the various difficulties that he'd been going
through. And he said the Lord had helped him. He said, God
is gracious, God is merciful, and the Lord has preserved the
simple, and the Lord has delivered my soul. Now, this prayer, we
know that David prayed, he prayed often, and the Psalms are full
of his prayers. And we know that prayer has a
pacifying effect upon the soul of the believer. Now remember
that. If you're ever full of unrest,
full of turmoil, if you're frustrated, the best thing to do is to find
you a place where you can call on the name of the Lord, where
you can pray and where you can breathe out all of those things
that are bothering you and are at the time causing the upheaval
in your life. Breathe them out to the Lord.
Tell the Lord about them. Pray about them. And then he says, after he's
prayed, soul has been pacified. He says, return unto thy rest,
O my soul. In other words, I've been away
now. I've been hindered, I've been afflicted, I've had this
unrest and have been disturbed. That's not normal, not normal
for a Christian to stay that way in length of time. And so
he said, I return unto thy rest, O my soul, return to that rest. which the Lord had previously
given you as you had trusted him and as you have submitted
yourself unreservedly to his will and his commands. Return
to that rest that you had, believing that God's providence was right
and that the Lord's providence was the very best that you could
have in this life. Return unto that rest and to
the believer in Christ And David certainly was a believer in the
Lord and certainly was a believer in God's Christ that was to come
and prophesied in the Messianic Psalms of the Lord Jesus and
of his coming. And so we would say to you, return
to that rest which Christ gives to the weary and the heavy laden. Matthew 11, 28, Jesus says, come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest. I told you last week that if
you were not a believer in Christ, that you had no rest to return
to because you've never found any. The only people that have
rest to return to are those who experience that rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I told you also that when
a believer is as he ought to be, that he has rest. He's in a state of rest. He's in a position of rest because
the Lord Jesus Christ has taken away his sin. The Lord Jesus
has dealt with the greatest problem that we had in our lives, and
that was the sin problem. We're born into this world, we're
sinners by nature, by practice, and by choice. And in this world,
as we find ourself in a state of nature, we're lost, we're
dead in sin, and we need deliverance. And only, the Bible says, the
wicked are like the troubled sea, that when the sea casteth
up dirt and mire. Scripture says, there is no peace,
saith my God unto the wicked. And so to the lost, they have
no rest, they have no peace. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have found this rest. And so return to thy Noah. We said last week that his name
signifies rest. And he sent the dove out of the
ark, you remember. And Noah didn't know whether
the waters had went down on the earth. He didn't know, so he
sent the dove out. And you remember the dove came
back finding no rest for its feet. on the earth, he returned
to the ark. And that is what we are to do
as the people of God. If we have experienced true rest
in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we're to return, when we've been
through a period of unrest, we're to return like the dove returned
to Noah's ark and to Noah. His name means rest, so return
unto thy rest. Matthew Henry said, he said,
I don't know a word that's more proper to close our eyes at night
when we go to sleep, nor to close them with at death, that long
sleep, than this, returning to thy soul, returning to thy rest,
O my soul. You know that sleep is a short
death, and death is a long sleep. It's what it is. And so he said,
I don't know of better words at night, when you close your
eyes to go to sleep, than to say to your soul, return unto
thy rest, O my soul. And then when one is ready to
depart this life, and to close his eyes for that final time,
to be able to say, return unto thy rest, O my soul. I thought that was most blessed,
to think on that. Now the word rest, here in our
text is in the plural and it indicates complete and entire
rest at all times and under all circumstances. Now the only place
you can find complete rest and an entire rest is in the Lord. That's the only place you can
find it. You cannot find it in this world. We told you last
week Malachi 2.10 says Or Micah 2.10, it is, that says, this
is not your rest, for it is polluted. This is not your rest. This world
isn't a place of rest. This side of the river of death,
John Bunyan said, you'll find no place for your weary soul
to rest except in the Lord. except in the Lord our God. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee, David said, returning to thy rest, for the Lord hath
dealt bountifully with thee. Now God was with David a very
liberal, very rich king. And God gave to David like a
liberal and rich king would give to one of his subjects that had
found favor in his sight. Now I want you to see this. Here
we find in verse 4, David asked for one thing. He said, I beseech
thee, deliver my soul. Now that's what David wanted.
David wanted that his soul be delivered. But we see there that
he had asked for this one thing, but the Lord gave him, according
to verse 8, the Lord gave him three things. The Lord gave him
three things. The Lord did hear his prayer,
the Lord answered his prayer, and delivered his soul, but he
also gave him these other things. He delivered his eyes from tears
and his feet from falling. So here we find that David is
delivered, the Lord has heard his prayer, and the Lord delivered
him. Now what greater deliverance
to my soul than to be delivered from death? What greater deliverance?
could the Lord give me. None could give me a greater
deliverance than to deliver my soul from death. Now, if we understand
correctly the teaching of the Word of God, we know that the
Bible teaches that the soul that sinneth, it must die. It must
die. And we know that when one dies
in sin, when one dies lost, when one dies without an interest
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice which
he made on behalf of all of his people, then they die, their
soul is lost forever, they're in what we call hellfire, and
they suffer forever and ever, and the scripture teaches that
that is the second death. And we'll read In a moment, those
scriptures over in the book of the Revelation that deal with
that and talk a little bit about that. But what greater deliverance
to my soul could God give me? And scripture here teaches that
God did deliver David's soul. He delivered it from death. He
said, deliver my soul. And the Lord did deliver his
soul from death. Well, what greater deliverance
to my eyes could possibly, could God possibly give me than to
deliver me from tears? deliver me from tears. And many,
many times, God delivers us from the sorrow and the grief that
brings the tears to our eyes. And this is the way the Lord
delivers us from tears. And in David's situation, over
and over again, if you read carefully your Bible and about the life
of David, you will see that in his life, He had a great deal
of grief. He had many, many sorrows in
his life, many bereavements in his life. And the Lord, he says,
delivered my eyes from tears. He gave me this deliverance and
he took away the tears from my eyes. And then also, what to
my feet could the Lord, what greater deliverance could God
give to my feet than to deliver me from falling? And David knew
what it was to fall. He had had many experiences in
his travels with the Lord, and David had a nature just like
you and I have. And David was truly a man after
God's own heart, a faithful man of God, but yet David experienced
falls in his life, various and sundry falls, different falls
in his life, occurred at different times in his life. And so David
wanted to be delivered from, he wanted his feet to be delivered
from falling. And so he asked God for that,
and he says that the Lord, he said, the Lord have dealt bountifully
with thee. And he says, we find that he's
delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet
from falling. And these bounties give my soul
just cause for returning to her. my soul reason, just cause, to
return unto rest. Now, blessed is he who comes in the hand of your bountiful
God, then you too will hasten back. Listen back unto the Lord and
to the rest which the Lord can give you. over and over, the Lord has been
pleased to do this. First of all then, let's talk
a little bit about these three things that the Lord had done
for David when he dealt bountifully with him, which would induce
him quickly to return unto his rest, hoping that the same thing
will happen in our lives as we reflect upon these things. First
of all, he has delivered your soul from death. Listen, the
child of God, the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, those
who have come to faith in Christ and believed upon Him and have
received from Him the gift of eternal life, they will never
experience the second death that Revelation chapter 20 talks about. Now, I want you to understand
me, you young people. Those who have come to Christ,
those who have received from him everlasting life as a gift, their
souls will be delivered at that very time from death. Jesus said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life,
those that believe on me. Now to illustrate this, now I
say that you come, the scripture says that the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord. To illustrate this, Charles Spurgeon
told a story one time about a school teacher, and he had, he was trying
to, he was having a little class on the Bible, and He was trying
to teach his young students what it meant or how that one received
Christ. And so he took off his watch,
which was a very valuable watch, and he said to little Billy,
sitting in the front, he said, Billy, I want to give you this
watch. And Billy said, well, I can't
take that watch. I can't take it. I just can't. I mean, it wouldn't be the thing
to do. And then he said over here to Jim on the other side,
he said, Jim, let me give you this watch. And Jim says, well,
you know, oh no, he said, my parents just wouldn't allow me
to have that watch. I just could not take that watch.
And so kind of in the back there was a poor boy. a very poor boy
by the name of John. And so he said, well, John, Billy
and Jim will not take this watch. I give it to you. I'll give you
this watch. And Billy, or John being a very
poor boy, he rose and came forth and received the watch and took
the watch and said, I thank you very much. And so Mr. Spurgeon illustrated how one
receives Christ the same way. Many people say, well, I won't
take Christ that way. I will not receive him. I can't
have him that way. I can't have him just him being
given to me. I can't have him that way. No.
But then here's this poor sinner. who says that eternal life is
a gift, I'll have it. I'll have it. I'll receive it.
I'll take it. I'll take it immediately. If
it's being given to me, I'll take it. And so, beloved, that's
the very way we receive Christ Jesus the Lord. Now we know that
once we have it in our hearts, to receive this gift of God,
which is eternal life, we know that it's because God has done
this work. And in the lives of people in
whom the Lord has not done a preparatory work and prepared their hearts
to receive Christ, they will not have it. They'll not have
him. No, we can't have him. We couldn't take that watch home
with us. No, no, we just can't have that on those terms. We
can't have that watch. No, no. But listen, beloved,
if you'll have Christ this morning, you'll pass from death unto life. If you'll believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you will be saved. And if you'll go through the
door, not merely look at the door, Admire the door. Find out all you can about the
door, but if you will just go through the door, then my friend,
you will have life. Jesus says, I am the door. By
me, if any man enter, he shall go in and out and find pasture. I'm the door. Just come to me,
come to me, and you will have life. Now then, those who trust
Christ Death has lost the sting to them. The stinger has been
pulled out of death, and they're no longer under that sentence
of death. Now, you may die, and certainly
we will die if the Lord doesn't come, will experience a physical
death, so after a fashion, we will die. This body will die,
and it ought to die, and it will be buried somewhere in this earth
awaiting the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, but you
will never see death in the full sense of that term as the Bible
talks about it. You will never experience the
second death if you're in the Lord Jesus, and that's what it
means to have your soul again until the thousand years
will finish, this is the first resurrection. Now the... ...will take place before the
thousand years reign of Christ. And then in verse 6, their second death will have
no power upon them. Now, if you take the all-millennial
position, verse 6 says, blessed and holy is he that hath part
in the first resurrection. They say that what that first
resurrection is, is the spiritual resurrection that takes place
when a soul is born of God, when one is regenerated by the Spirit
of God. And so blessed are those who
have part in this physical or spiritual resurrection when the
soul is begotten by God and when the soul is made alive in Christ
and when one becomes a saved individual. Blessed and holy
is that individual. On such the second death hath
no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with him a thousand years. And so, beloved, however you
would look at this, You see that to participate in the first resurrection,
one must have this spiritual resurrection. He must be born
again. He must have the new nature of
God planted in him. And to be born of the Spirit
of God and to participate in this first resurrection, whether
it's talking about the literal resurrection from the dead, or
whether it's talking about the spiritual resurrection that takes
place in regeneration, the end is the same. And the end is that
on such the second death hath no power. Well, what is the second
death? Look at verse 14 and verse 15. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. We read over here that that over
in verse 12, he said, I saw the dead, small and great stand before
God. The books were open. Another
book was open, which is the book of life. The dead were judged
out of those things, which were written in the books according
to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it,
everybody who was buried at sea, all the bodies that ever been
buried in the sea. The sea's gonna give up them,
meaning there's gonna be a resurrection right out of the sea. And then,
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
Everybody's died and went to hell, they'll come back. They'll
be resurrected, they'll be given a body, and they will come back
from hell to be judged in the final judgment. That's what it's
saying. And they were judged every man
according to his works. And so death and hell then were
cast into the lake of fire. cast into that lake which burns
with fire. And then it says, this is the
second death. That's what it is. So to die
and go to hell is the second death. And so David was right
happy. He said, the Lord's dealt bountifully
with me because he delivered my soul from the second death. That's what happened. He delivered
my soul. And to deliver my soul is to
deliver me from hell fire. I am, I am, David would say,
out of hell. And because I'm out of hell,
there's hope for every sinner. on earth, that if they believe
on the same God and the same Christ that I believed on, they
will be delivered from everlasting burnings. They'll be delivered
from hell. And so this is the second death.
Now notice this, verse 15, and whosoever was not found written,
you remember they mentioned in the book of life in verse 12.
And then here it says, and whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And so, beloved,
if our name be not penned in that book which is chained to
the throne of God, which nobody knows whose names are in, except
God Almighty himself, if our names from eternity were not
inscribed in that book, we shall be cast into the lake of fire. But if in time, between the cradle
and the grave, God is pleased through his favor, his grace,
to deliver our soul from death as he did David, then we know
that our names are in that book. And Paul mentions some in Philippians. He talks about them, they're
believers and they're workers, fellow workers, fellow laborers
in the gospel, and he said, whose names are in the Book of Life. He'd never seen the Book of Life,
but there were some things about them that give evidence that
their names have been put in the Book of Life before the foundation
of the world. And so it is with you this morning,
my friend, your faith in Christ, you being shut up to Christ and
Christ alone, You being willing to part with everything else,
such as your self-righteousness and your good works and all that
you've done, your upraising and everything about you, your ancestors
and all, and casting it all, and grasping Christ and Christ
only, his work on your behalf, gives evidence of your election,
gives evidence of his atonement on your behalf. gives evidence
that he has been made unto you what God demands of a sinner. When you trust Christ unreservedly
and take hands off everything else and let it go, count it
but done that you may win Christ and be found in him. Then, my
friend, your soul has been delivered from death and you will never
be cast into the lake of fire. If you want to miss hell, then
Christ. You must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Trust him and take him just like
Johnny took the watch. No matter what anybody else did,
he took the watch. He was poor and he took the watch
when it was offered to him. And I tell you here today that
if you get around to getting saved, It'll be whenever you
receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, we will look at a couple
other things here. Your soul's been delivered now
by trusting Christ. Your soul has been delivered
from death. Now, if this doesn't make you rejoice and happy, what
is there between heaven and hell or between the cradle and the
grave that could make a man rejoice and make him happy? If his soul
had to be delivered from death, if that doesn't do it, what is
there that could make you happy? Well, the Lord's given us rest.
What of everything else? Think of it. What is there in
this world that could make a man more happy and full of gratitude
toward God than to have his soul delivered from death? All right,
now there's another thing here. My eyes from tears. Now in Revelation,
In the book of the Revelation again, in chapter 21, we read
in verse 4 these words. This verse has always been a
great blessing to me. And I'd like for you to turn
there if you will, Revelation 21, look at verse four. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Now this
is a scripture that tells us about the day that's coming when
God's gonna wipe away all tears from the believer's eyes, but
in this life, There is an experience wherein God comes and relieves
the soul of the stress of those things that causes one to weep
and cry. Turn back to the 30th Psalm and
look at verse 5. The 30th Psalm. For his anger
endureth but a moment. In his favor is life. Weeping
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Weeping
may endure for a night. This is Psalm 30 and verse 5,
but joy cometh in the morning. And that'll be your experience
as you live in this world and travel with the Lord. Many times
there'll be heartbreaking, experiences that will come into your life.
Many sorrows, many griefs, many afflictions. And you'll weep
for a night, but joy will come in the morning. And what that
means is that you'll weep for a while. It may be for a season.
But there'll come a season when the Lord will again return joy
into your heart, when the spirit of heaviness will be put off
and the garment of praise will once more be put on by your soul.
And you'll begin to praise the Lord and joy will be given. Now, the Bible says that we sorrow
not as others which have no hope. And this is one of the things
that was such a blessing to me as I meditated on this, is that
the Lord's people... Now turn with me to 1 Thessalonians. I want you to know where this
is in the Bible so you'll be able to find it when you need
it. This is in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I want you to look
at this. In verse 13, he says, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep. Remember what I said about death?
Death is a long sleep. Sleep is a short death, death
is a long sleep. So he says, but I would not have
you ignorant brethren concerning them which have taken this long
sleep, which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others
do sorrow, which have no hope. People that have no hope, their
sorrow is prolonged and they never get over it. They, as it
were symbolically, never leave the grave. They stay at the grave. They continue to weep. They continue
to sorrow. Never is there any relief. But
God's people sorrow not as others. There's a difference between
God's people and the others. So there is us and them, and
we do not sorrow like our sorrow is tempered, knowing that weeping
may endure for a night. but joy cometh in the morning."
And we know that God will deliver our eyes from tears. So let us
shed our rebellious tear and then return unto our rest. To have stood at the grave, we've
stood at the grave long enough. and it's time for us to leave
the grave and to return unto our rest, because the Lord has
delivered our eyes from weeping. Now listen to me now. The poet
said this, why should the soul a drop bemoan who has a fountain
near, a fountain which will ever run with waters sweet and clear? Why? Why will we continue to
weep? Well, the Lord has delivered
our eyes from tears. Well, lastly, and I must hurry
here, God has delivered our feet from falling. Well, there are
many in this world who, many of the professed people of God,
who are very timid and quite unbelieving in reality, even
though they're called believers, You don't believe much God said.
You know, the Bible teaches us that unbelief is to stand, as
it were, in God's face, look him in the eye, and call him
a liar. That's what unbelief is. Now
you say, oh, preacher, I don't mean that by my unbelief. Oh,
no, I don't mean that. That's exactly what you mean.
God, you're a liar. What would your father think?
If you were to tell him, well, now, I just, I just, you know,
I'm trying to believe you. I'm trying to believe you. What
would he think? He'd say, well, son, if you're
just trying to believe me, then what you really say, you don't
know whether I'm a liar or one that tells the truth. You don't
know how it is. In other words, you're really
in reality questioning whether I'm a liar or whether I tell
the truth. Now hear me. Believe God. Believe His promises.
Trust Him. Listen to me. Some cannot rest
because they feel that they're gonna fall from grace. Their
feet's gonna fall. David said, the Lord delivered
my feet from falling. That's one thing that a child
of God should not worry about. Now, we are never to lose our
fear of falling into sin. because that could very easily
happen. And the scripture says in 1 Corinthians
10 and verse 12 and 13, it says, let him that thinketh he standeth,
take heed lest he fall. The next verse says, there hath
no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. But God
is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested above what you're
able, but will with the testing make a way of escape that you
might be able to bear it. So don't you see, beloved, we're
never to lose our fear of falling into sin. Let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed, lest he fall. That is, with regard to
ourself. And in 2 Timothy 2 and 13, this
has always been a great blessing to me. The scripture says, if
we believe not, God is faithful. who he cannot deny himself. If we believe not, God still
remains faithful because he cannot deny himself. Now, you say, well,
I don't know whether the Bible says that or not. You can look
at it, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 13. If we believe not, yet he
abideth faithful. Somebody said, I'm afraid I'm
going to fall away. I'm going to fall from grace.
Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. God has something to say about
that. Wait a minute, this thing doesn't hinge on you and your
faithfulness, it hinges on the character and the faithfulness
of Almighty God. David said, the Lord's removed,
He has delivered my feet from falling. And all God's people,
their feet have been delivered from falling in a spiritual sense,
in that they're not going to fall away. They're not going
to fall from grace. Yet he abideth faithful when
we don't believe. When we stand at his face and
question his word and question him, yet he abideth faithful. Isn't that what it says? He abideth
faithful. Throw out the word yet if you
want to. Say I was supplied by the translators. Throw it out
if you want to. He abideth faithful if we believe
not. He cannot deny himself. And when He's chosen a soul in
eternal election, when He sent His Son to die the death that
He died on Calvary's cross, which was our death to sin, when He
raised Him from the dead and took Him and seated Him at His
right hand, us in Him, God is not going to deny Himself in
His own work and deny His own Son for all that He did on our
behalf. He won't do it. He will not do
it. So then away with this business
of saying, well, I just feel like I'm going to fall from
grace. David said, the Lord, he's delivered my feet from falling,
and he's delivered all of his people's feet from falling. All
the elect, he's delivered their feet from falling. So don't let
that feeling of yours that you may fall from grace extend to
your God. Don't let it extend to your God,
because listen to John 10, verse 28 and 29. Jesus says, I give
unto my sheep eternal life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And my Father which
gave to me is greater than all. No man can pluck them out of
his hand. And then in Jude 24, he is able
to keep us from falling and to present us with joy before the
Father with a static joy. He's able to do that. And so
don't let this feeling of insecurity extend toward your God. You'll
glorify God by resting in Him and believing that He's delivered
your feet from falling. You'll glorify God. Listen to
me now. One of the highest acts of devotion for a soul is to
rest in his God. That is one of the highest acts
of devotion. Say, well, I thought it was giving
a little money, or I thought it was maybe, you know, I thought
it was maybe prayer, more prayer. If you rest your soul in God,
in confidence in God, that's one of the highest acts of devotion. Rest yourself in the Lord. Believe
Him. Trust Him. He said, He's delivered
my soul from death, My eyes from weeping, and my feet from falling. We're shut up, then, not to our
grip on God, but His grip on us. That's what the Lord's done.
David said, return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath
dealt bountifully with thee. So it's God's grip on us. Believe
it. Trust the Lord. Depend upon Him. Lean upon Him with all your heart. And be courageous. Be courageous. Rest. Say, I just think that
it's more healthy if a fellow's just running around all the time
fretting and stewing, and if he's just uneasy and insecure. I just think it's better. I don't
think it's better. I think that's non-Christian.
That's not a Christian. There's one thing about it. I can be just as uneasy and insecure
as anybody else, I suppose. But there's one thing I've found,
and that is that our God is faithful. And that when it comes to God
and the business of salvation, that's not my work. That's not
my business. I didn't have anything to do
with that. I had nothing to do with that. Listen to me. Upon
a life which I did not live, Upon a death which I did not
die, hangs my hope for eternity. And got anything to do with your
fickleness and feebleness and your slipping and turning and
your ups and downs, got nothing to do with that. It's on a life
that I did not live. Christ lived his life for me,
for all of his people, in order that I would be as righteous
as he is before God. He lived that life for me and
for all who will trust in Him. And His death was for all of
my transgressions. He was numbered with the transgressors. And God saw to it in His providence
that He would pay the debt. And so He was nailed to the old
rugged cross. And my debt to sin was His death
to sin. And so therefore, I hang my salvation
on that. That's my salvation. That's eternal
life. Have nothing to do with you.
Got everything to do with him. Everything to do with our God. Father, in the name of Jesus,
we thank you for your word. These few souls that are here
this morning, Father, may it please you that somebody here
today might say, well, if he lived for me, And if his death
was my death to sin, and if believing that he lived and died for me
will save me, I'll have it. I'll believe on him. I'll believe
on him. I'll trust him. I'll depend upon
him. May we hear the testimony of
some poor lost soul saying, the Lord reached down and delivered
my soul from death this morning, and my eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.