Return Unto Thy Rest

Turn back to the Bible as you
can will, Psalm 116. I want to read verse 7 and verse
8, please, this morning. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt valiantly with thee. For thou hast delivered
my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from fall. Now this morning, I feel the
Lord has led me to this text, and I hope that the Lord has
something for each one of our souls today. David has been greatly
afflicted, as he tells us in this chapter, and he says in
verse 5, Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is
merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple.
He says, I was brought low, and he helped me. And then he makes
this statement in verse 7, Return unto thy rest, Oh my soul, return
unto thy rest. Oh my soul. Now rest is freedom
from anything that disturbs. It means peace. It means security. And often in the Bible, the Bible
talks about men entering into rest. In verse 15 it says, precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. And it is
so because the saints of God do enter into their rest. when
they leave this world. But the love of the Bible says
that there is a rest for the people of God. There remains
one, and I'm sure that's the rest that is referred to in the
scripture when it talks about us entering into final rest with
the Lord. That place where there should
be nothing else that will disturb us, where there'll be perfect
peace and tranquility. and where there be perfect security
for all eternity with the Lord. But here in this life, and I'd
like to begin this morning by saying that those that have not
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have never come to
the Lord Jesus Christ, I understand that you cannot return to your
rest because you've never found a rest to which you can return. you've not yet come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. May God grant you today the grace
to come to the Lord Jesus that you may find rest unto your souls. Matthew chapter 11 verse 28 says,
come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden and I will give
you rest. But we who believe in him according
to Hebrews 4 and verse 3 do enter into rest. Now we will sometimes
described in the Word of God as journeying through the wilderness.
And I believe certainly that that is, we're journeying through
the wilderness to the spiritual land of Canaan, and certainly
this is allowable, but we must not press it too far. I understand
that many times we feel bogged down as if we're in the wilderness.
We feel that we're in place, we don't know how to go one way
or the other, and it seems that we are not able to see We're
not able to go and we can describe ourselves as being in this wilderness,
in this pilgrimage. But beloved, we must understand
that in another sense we have already with the people of God
and we've been born again, we have been by the Holy Spirit
regenerated, that we are and have entered in to our rest. We've entered the kingdom. which
our Joshua, which is our Jesus, has given to us. We know Moses,
by the law, could not lead us into the promised land. He had
no ability to do that. But Jesus has brought us into
the promised land. And we now have our portion and
our inheritance in the covenant blessing which God has provided
for his chosen people in Christ Jesus, his son. God's people,
when they are as they ought to be, now you hear me this morning,
because it's very important that you get this, God's people, when
they are as they ought to be, are in a state of rest, even
now. Even right now. Now I do not
mean that they will have rest so far, as this world is concerned,
because in Micah 2 and verse 10, it says, this is not your
rest, for it is polluted. And so we'll never do many things
in many situations in this world which we can find no rest. but
I do mean this according to what the Apostle Paul said in Romans
8 and verse 1 he said there is therefore now in O.W. therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus and the word condemnation has
no means of judgment there's no judgment awaiting those that
are in the person of God's Son and he says now there is therefore
now and so talking about the rest that the people of God have
at this time And also, I believe that he said again in Romans
5 and 1, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that peace, I believe, includes
rest. It includes sweet rest, especially
that peace of God which passes all understanding, which God
says, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And so God's people have entered
into their ranks, being justified by faith to have peace and rest
in their soul. Now, because I'm addressing any
here this morning that have lived this peace for a while or have
lost the enjoyment of this blessed rest, The message of this text
is, return unto thy rest, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. Return to thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Now the first thing
this morning for us to remember is that the believer has his
rest. He has his rest. even at this
time, return unto thy rest, O my soul." Now there is a position
or an experience in which the believer's heart is perfectly
at rest. In 2 Corinthians, and this is
the best way I know to describe this rest, in 2 Corinthians 13
and verse 14, We find these words, and I believe that the man has
true rest of heart who abides in the spirit of these words. Now, these words that I'm about
to read to you out of 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 14 is, I
guess you would call them the apostolic benediction with which
some are accustomed to dismiss their assemblies. At the end
of their meetings, they quote this particular verse. And here
it is, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. I believe that the man
who has the spirit of these words has the true rest of heart in
his soul. Let's examine this benediction
just a little bit and I believe you'll understand what I'm talking
about. We're trying to remember now that the believer has his
rest. He has it. Now the first thing
I've caught your attention out of this benediction is that the
heart comes, that the rest of the heart in the believer comes
to us through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we often
refer to the Son of God as being the second person of the Blessed
Trinity, but in the benediction here, He is put first, and it
is so because to our experience, He is first. No man, the Bible
says, comes unto the Father except by the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Bible says there is one mediator between God and man, and that
is the man Christ Jesus. So to us, Christ is first because
that's the way His grace works in us. We come to know Him. He's the intercessor. He's our
advocate. He's the one that stands between
us and God. He's our surety, our hope between. Now when we come to Him, we've
found His grace. The benediction says the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we've been able to come
to Christ, if we've been able to believe upon Him and to trust
in Him, then we have found His grace. number one, we found his
grace to cover all our sin. All our sins have been covered
by and in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we found grace
to justify us and to give us right standing and acceptable
standing in the sight of Almighty God. Also, we found the grace
of adoption, for which we become the sons of God in Jesus Christ,
who is the Father's only begotten, well-beloved Son. We found the
spirit of adoption. Now, when we have found this
grace, we have rest because sin no longer disturbs us, sin no
longer bothers us, The sin cannot any longer disturb you, for it
has been drowned in the Red Sea of His atoning sacrifice. Reference being made there to
the Lord drowning the enemies of His people in the Red Sea,
the Egyptians. and also your necessities cannot
distress you any longer because they're supplied by God. Philippians
4 verse 19 says, but my God shall supply all your need according
to his riches in glory brought by Jesus. Now nothing need perplex
or afflict or worry you anymore as you believe what the Lord
tells you in promise and precept. That is, if you've experienced
the true grace of God in your heart. You need not any longer
to allow affliction or worry or frustration any more to perplex
your heart. You need not allow it. That is
if you believe what God has told you in the promise and in the
precept. If you just simply believe the
word of God. Now this then is the first rest
the believer which comes through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He finds his sins are covered, he finds he's justified and accepted
through Christ, and he finds that the Lord has made sufficient
provision in the person of Christ for all of his needs, and he
finds that if he just simply believes, What God says, he needs
not be worried or perplexed. Now this is the first rest of
the soul. Now in the second place, there's
further rest for us who believe, as this benediction sets it forth,
and the love of God. And the love of God. So beloved
he is in the love of God. Secondly, that we find this rest
now in this world. Have you heard him say, I ask
you this morning, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Or this, since
thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable and
I have loved thee. Therefore, will I give men for
thee and people for thy life. Or this, fear not. For I have
redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou awokest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Oh beloved, oh what rest! that
springs out electing and adopting love, the grace of God in Christ,
and the love of God toward our soul. Jesus said, He that loveth
me shall be loved of my honor, and I will love him and will
manifest myself to him. This is the love of God which
is shed abroad in the souls of the Lord's people. And this is
that love which melts their heart and makes them to feel that God
is so near and that they just reach out and touch and embrace
the Lord. The love of God in their own
souls. Now, beloved, this gives us rest
with regard to our present position here in the world. And this is
why we have this rest now. I'm talking about this morning
is a present rest. We either have it and are enjoying
it or we left it and need to return to it. We'll have more
to say about that in a minute. But we ought not, beloved, this
morning to be troubled by affliction because the love of God sends
whatever affliction the child of God experiences in his travels
here below. Any affliction that you have
this morning, it is sent by the hand of God to your heart. It
is sent by the love of God to your life. And another thing
I'd like to say is that you ought not be concerned about the future,
for all its concerns are in the hands of the God of love. Can
you believe that? Can you believe that the God
of love controls everything that has to do with your future and
that He's planned it and that it is love that will execute
it and bring it to pass. And then another thing I'd like
to say is that the love of God will give you wondrous rest for
this reason. Now, I want you to understand
what I'm saying. The Lord never smote one of His
children except in love. He never even frowned upon one
of His children except in love. He never was angry with any one
of his children except in love. And I guessed this morning that
the love of God perhaps never rises to a greater climax than
whenever God lifts the rod and brings it to bear upon the backs
of his children. This is the love of God that
does this. And so I'm trying to help you
to see this morning that this love in regard to our position
here will give us rest if we really understand it. The love
of God toward our soul. And that the Lord will never
deal with us or chasten us except in love. He will do nothing to
us but what infinite love dictates. Can you believe it? Can you accept
that? Well, I'm talking about this.
If you can believe this, beloved, you can rest. And the reason
is, He loves us as He loves His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you believe that? He loves
you like He loves His own Son. He loves Christ and He loves
us in His Son. Now then, that brings me to the
third part of this benediction, and that is, and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Now, the rest of the believer,
I believe it is very much tied up in the communion of the Holy
Spirit in his life. Now, why do I say that? Well,
I believe that the Holy Spirit favors the soul with many visitations. I believe that God visits our
souls through the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy
Trinity. And I believe that the truest rest of the soul is involved
here. When I say this, when the Holy
Spirit comes to the believer and so takes possession of the
believer, so that you will not or do not any longer struggle
in your heart against the will of God. When the Holy Spirit
is enabling you to resign yourself to the will of God, to where
you quit struggling with God and struggling with His will,
but you submit yourself unto God and unto His will, and you're
content to stay at home, or you're content to go, you're content
to be whatever He wants you to be, you're content just that
He has His way in your heart. Now, beloved, apart from this,
I do not believe that you can have any rest. But the Holy Spirit
is that one with whom we're dealing when we're murmuring in our heart,
when we are complaining in our heart, when we're doing such
things as grieve and aggravate God, it is that we're grieving
and aggravating the Spirit of God which dwells in us. And so
it's the communion of the Holy Ghost that we're interested in,
that he's the comforter, and he's the one that visits our
souls. And so we need this. And that's why I say that the
spirit of these words, when we really know what these words
mean, and enter into the spirit of them, then we truly have rest
in our souls in this life. Because he's battled versus love,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste, and we feel when we're
in communion with the Holy Spirit, we feel that we're in the vestibule
of the palace of the great king, and we do have an experience
perfect rest in our heart. We can acquiesce and lay down
all arms and rest ourselves in the Lord when we have the spirit
of these words in our hearts and souls. Now that brings me
to the second thing, and it's a sad thing to reflect upon,
but I must do it this morning, and that is this, that sometimes
the believer leaves this rest, even though they have it, and
experience it, and enjoy it, sometimes they leave this rest. And beloved, I hope this morning
that the Lord will be pleased to help us to see where we have
left our rest. If we be miserable this morning,
if we be frustrated this morning, if we be unhappy this morning,
if we be discontented this morning, that we'll be able to see where
we've left this rest. Now let me say this, sometimes
the believer believes this rest through affliction, especially
if it is what I call this morning afflictions that come from man. If it comes from other folks
around us, I believe this affliction has a tendency to make us to
leave our rest. Now, it is not easy to live in
this world and to deal with the people that we have to deal with
all around us in all our relationships, and always to feel that we've
got rest in the doing of it. Many, many times we're somewhat
disconfigured and perplexed. excuse me, by the relationships
and by the circumstances that we're involved with here in this
clock. And I think that probably most of you can identify with
that. That if you get too much wrapped up in what's going on
with the in-laws or the out-laws or this relationship or that
relationship, the first thing you know that you can have a
disturbance in your heart and you can leave the rest. which
the Lord has given me. Now, if we had more confidence
in our God, we would have less confusion, it seems to me, in
our own experience. And so we must be very, very
careful to trust the Lord, even when we're dealing with hard
cases and with difficult circumstances, and when we're afflicted by those
that may even be very, very near to us. We need to be very careful,
lest we allow this to rob us of our peace. And so when we're
afflicted by the man-made affliction, I think we need to be on guard,
especially because this has moved me at times, and I'm sure that
others have experienced the same. And then secondly, I think we
lose our rest. Whenever we, through moral submission
to the divine will, are found to be quarreling with God, we're
quarreling with infinite love, we're questioning infinite wisdom,
and we suspect the grace of God and the will of God toward us,
it's become suspect. in our hearts, and we find ourselves
disputing with God. Beloved, this is at least half
of our trouble, and this is the reason why we don't have rest
this morning, and why we feel somewhat cast down and discouraged,
is because we are not in submission to God. We're not bowing our
knee to the divine will. We're not in submission to it.
Now, these are not easy things to preach. I preached to you
this morning, not myself, but I preached the Word of God to
you, and I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you how those
who have entered in positionally into the Lord Jesus Christ have
rest, given to them by God, and then they leave it. And the adulation
of the text is David speaking to his own soul, return unto
thy rest, O my soul. And you know we need to understand
where we left it. And if we've left it, we certainly,
in many times, leave it at that place where we have been disputing
and arguing and quarreling with God over what's going on, what
He's allowed to happen in our lives. Now, beloved, facing,
I know what I'm talking about, I'm not an officer, I've been
dealing with this for years, and I know that's where we lose
our rest, is when we start arguing with God and quarreling with
Him. And if you just come to submission to the Lord and bow
your knee, then you'll be on the way back to returning to
your rest. And then some Christians, I think,
lose their rest through warm contentment in this world. I'm telling you the truth. I'm
telling you that godliness with contentment is great gain. I'm
telling you that if you want to make progress, you've got
to come to where you're content before the Lord. Now, I think
also that there are some who lose their rest. through the
world's joy. I mean by that they find themselves
out in the world and they are carrying on with the world and
they enter into the spirit of things in the world and the first
thing you know they go back to their own private place and they
try to pray and they can't. And they go back and they try
to sing the songs of Zion, and they find the Spirit of the Lord
is breathing in their heart, and they just do not have rest
because they've been in a place where they shouldn't have been
and got involved with the world. And then frequently, too, Christian
people, I think, lose their rest through allowing some conscious
sin to go unconfessed and unforsaken in their life. Now, beloved,
I want to tell you the truth. I mentioned a few minutes ago
I was not preaching myself. I'm preaching the truth of God
to you. I want to tell you that if you walk with the Lord Jesus
Christ, it must be according to His mind, both at home and
abroad, every place in the business place, wherever, it must be according
to His mind. And if it's not according to
His mind, then you and your rest is going to part ways. and you
cannot have rest, because the pure in heart are those who shall
see God, and if you allow some unconfessed sin in your life,
and you will not forsake it, I want you to know that you're
going to lose your rest. The old Puritan said this, and
he was right when he said it. He said, sinning will make you
leave off commuting with God, or else, commuting will make
thee leave off sinning. It will. And, beloved, you can
mark it down. It's just exactly that way. Now,
we must not follow Christ before all, as Peter did, if we want
this rest. If we grow cold, if we neglect
prayer, if we get worldly and carnal, we shall soon find that
the rest of our souls is gone. It's gone. Now, let me say something
more here. I believe it's a great mercy,
it's a great mercy if you know it when it's gone. It's a great mercy. Now, because
you can return to it if you know when it's gone. But there's a
lot of people, I think, this morning that are like an old
hen, sitting on maybe a dozen eggs to start out with, and somebody
comes along and takes two of them, and you're paying attention
to it, she can't count. And so she don't miss them, and
after a while, somebody takes two more, two more, two more,
drags along and says one, she'll go back and sit there, make any
difference to her whether it's a one or a dozen, like I say,
she can't count. And some of the professional
people of God are just that way, they can lose, The majority of
the rest never know it and never feel it, never come to any understanding
of it. But beloved, listen to me this
morning. I think that we should not be like a silly hen. We should
be conscious if we lost any of our rest. Because, beloved, it
means a great deal to lose a little bit of our rest. And if we've
lost some of it someplace, if we have left it, then, beloved,
the admonition is that we should return to it. And we should be
conscious of it and not be like that silly hen that will go ahead
and sit there even after she's lost the biggest part of her
eggs. We don't understand any part of our communion with God.
Listen, when you lose communion with God, if you lose five minutes
of it, it's a great loss. I want you to know that. It's
a great loss. And so be thou careful lest you
leave the rest which God has given you in your soul. And so
my next point, third point, is the believer, when he has gone
away from his rest, he should return to it. You ought to return
to it. Now you should return to it as
Noah's dove returned to the ark, returned to Noah. Remember the
dove was sent out, couldn't find a place of rest for its feet. And so it returned to the ark,
it returned to Noah. Now you should return to your
Noah. Do you know what the name Noah
means? It means rest. And so you should return what
that dove returned to Noah. You should return unto your Noah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now why do I say that? I say
that, number one, and child of God, you listen to me carefully.
I say it this morning because it is quite certain that you
can never rest anywhere else. Beings that you have once found
rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and through the love of God in the communion
of the Holy Ghost. It is quite certain that you
can never find rest anywhere else. Now then, a man who knows
not the Lord Jesus Christ can find a measure of rest in many
places such as it is. Such as it is, I say, now you,
but listen, if you have eaten the bread of heaven, if you have
eaten and drank of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the spiritual sense by faith, if you've eaten the bread of
heaven, your mouth is out of taste. For the bread of this
earth is out of taste, and you cannot find any rest in it. You might have been satisfied
with the world if you had never known Christ. If you'd never
tasted and seen that the Lord is good, you might be able to
go on and eat the bread of this world and be satisfied, but you
cannot. The poet said, what peaceful
hours I then enjoyed, how sweet their memory still. But now I
find an aching void the world can never fill. And it is so
with the people of God. Beloved, listen. Once you've
tasted of the Lord, then you're not going to be satisfied. You
might be satisfied in the world if you'd never known Christ,
but you're spoiled for that now. You're spoiled for it. And I,
beloved, have heard several people say, I'm at that place where
I cannot enjoy my religion and I cannot enjoy the world either. I can't go to the world and I
certainly can't go to the Lord. I'm on the middle of the ground
and I'm just absolutely a miserable soul. I've had people tell me
that. And beloved, I want you to understand that's desperately
true. It's desperately true. If you do not walk with God,
if you know God and if you've experienced God and tasted of
the Lord, then you are going to be a miserable soul. And that's
why I say that it's quite certain that you can never have rest
anywhere else but returning unto Jesus Christ and returning to
your Noel. All right, now let's go on with
this. Your ears have been tuned to something better than the
music of this world. To you, there is only one rest. There is only one. You get into
it and look around. Say, Preacher, I think I'm going
to investigate and see if there's not some other place where I
can get something that my soul requires. There's only one rest
for the people of God. That's why David said, return
to thy rest, O my soul. Return unto thy rest. only one
rest for the people of God. And you will have to come back
to Him. And the longer you stay away, the more bitter will be
your weeping and mourning when you do come back. This is the
only place where you can find it. You know too much. You know
too much, and you have felt too much ever to rest except in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so do not attempt it. Don't
attempt it. Because there is no where else.
Now, the next thing I'd like to say is that the reason why
that you should return is that this unrest puts you out of order
for everything. Have you ever been in a state
of unrest? Have you ever left your rest
and got miserable? And how do you know good to deal
with any problem? You just can't deal with any
bad. You don't have any patience. You don't have any grace. You don't have any forbearance.
You're not able to put up with nothing. The breaking point is
just right at the very surface. Anything said, you just immediately
fly off the handle. You don't have any control. well,
beloved, I want you to know that you're out of order for everything.
You can't pray with anybody when you've lost your rest. You can't
talk to anybody about their soul's need. You don't have any ability
to administer any comfort whenever you've left your rest. You're
out of order for everything. And that's the reason why you
are returning to your rest. And then I think there's another
thing, and I believe that whenever we have lightened our rest, that
we also, we become more, what I would say, vulnerable to temptation,
more vulnerable to sin in our life when we let go of rest.
And so look, we ought to return because we're out of order. And
we ought to return unto our rest. And now another thing is this,
because unrest can do no possible good. It can do no possible good. Now let me explain what I mean
by that. I mean by that, that if you ever thought back to when
you were in a state of unrest and you lost, you left your love
and left your rest to the Lord, that there's no good ever coming
to you. There's no good ever coming to
that state of mind. No good, nothing good can arrive
out of it. At least from my standpoint,
I see many wasted hours and wasted days and I see many, many, many,
many, many situations which I brought on myself because I was in a
state of unrest and I wasn't returning to my rest as I ought
to. And, beloved, there's nothing good ever come of it. Unbelief,
no good ever comes from unbelief. Never comes to me. If God ever
brings, and He does sometimes over me and brings good things
out of bad, but, beloved, just unbelief is a terrible, terrible
thing. Now, in this state of unrest,
I don't think any possible good could ever come of it. And so
I say, as David said to his own soul, and David often preached
to himself, he said, return to thy rest, O my soul. And then he gives the reason
here. He said, for the Lord hath dealt
bountifully with thee. Now this is an excellent encouragement,
I think, to return. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. Now then, you notice in verse
four, let me say just a little bit about this encouragement,
which the Lord gives us here to return to our rest. He said,
in verse four, he said, Then call thou upon the name of the
Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. And then if
you look in verse eight, he said, For thou hast delivered my soul
from death, and mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Truly, beloved, the child of
God, the Lord has dealt meritably with him, and this ought to be
a great encouragement for us to return unto our rest. Number one, he's delivered your
soul from death. You will never die a second death. Death has no sting in it to the
believer. because in Christ, the sting
has been taken out of death. You may die after a fashion,
yet living and believing in Jesus, you shall never see death in
the full sense of that term. And you need to realize that.
That's what David means here. No flaming fires of wrath, no
pit that is bottomless, and no curse. Depart from me, you wicked,
into everlasting burning, ever to be heard. by a dear child
of grace, by a child of God. And so, beloved, our souls have
been delivered from death. Now, that does not make you happy.
I don't know what will. What will it require to make
you happy and encourage you to return to your rest if the fact
that your soul has been delivered from death will not do it? What
of everything else? Beloved, listen, if your soul
has been delivered from death, what does it matter about anything
else really? Does anything else really matter?
You say, Preacher, I'm getting old. Well, but it won't be long
if you know the Lord, if you're a child of grace, to where you'll
be singing hymns in eternal glory. You say, Preacher, but I'm poor.
Well, you may be poor, but if you're a child of God, and if
you're reaching grace and reach through the abundant blessing
of the Lord, and if the Lord's dealt bountifully with your soul,
if He has done so, then what does it really matter? Whether
you have or have not, does it really matter? What else could
ever possibly make you eternally happy but that the Lord has delivered
your soul from death? He's describing here the bountiful
dealings of the Lord with him, which is an encouragement for
him to return under his rest. Now, I've got some things to
say here, but I wish you'd just listen to me and think with me
a little bit, because this is important. I want you to hear
me out. What I'm saying is, David said, the Lord delivered my eyes
from tears. Well, David, what would you mean
by such a statement as that? Do you mean by that that the
Lord has delivered you from grief and sorrow? Do you mean by that
that the Lord has delivered you from such circumstances that
causes tears to run down your cheeks and causes you to water
your cats day and night? Well, beloved, no. No, I don't
think so. I don't think it means that the
Lord has completely delivered us from those experiences. But
I do think that what it means is that the Lord has lifted us
above those experiences in his grace and love, and in his kindness
toward us, and in his truth, to the point where our eyes have
been delivered from tears. The Lord has wiped away the tears,
as it were, in a sense, from our eyes in this life. Now, we
sorrow not, as Paul tells us, as others, which have no hope.
And when we go out to bury our loved one, We go out, we bury
them, but we don't sorrow as those who had no hope. The Lord
has been pleased to deliver our eyes from tears. Now let us shed,
I want to make this statement clear to you, there's many of
God's people who cannot claim, David, that the Lord has delivered
their eyes from tears. And the reason is they continue
to shed the tear of rebellion, and they will not return unto
their rest. Now, beloved, there is such a
thing as a child of God standing and staying too long at the grave. There is such a thing as an individual
being filled with one experience of life so long that they lose
all sense of what they're about, and they can lose their bearings
in this life and become, as it were, almost a lunatic and a
maniac by getting involved and allowing one certain thing just
to completely destroy it. And so we stood too long at the
grave. And I think that it's time for
us to shed our last tear of rebellion and return, O my soul, to your
rest, that the Lord might deliver our eyes from tears. Now listen to me now. You can
have it however you want. I know that some people have
lost. Maybe through death, somebody will adhere to them, and if you
haven't, you will. Somebody that may be out of your
eyes will take it from you that you just can't get over. And
it reminds me of what the Puritans told this lady whose husband
had passed away, and she continued to wear black, and continued
to wear black, and continued, and continued, and continued,
until he finally said to her one day, will you never forget
God? Will you never forgive God? You can have it however you please.
If you're a child of God, you can return under arrest. Reminds
me of that story that I read recently of a wise man. And there was a boy that came
to him, an old wise man, there was a boy that came to him and
he had a bird in his hand. And that bird was concealed in
the hand of this boy. And he asked this wise man, he
said, is this bird I have in my hand, is he dead or is he
alive? And the wise man said, if I say
he's dead, he'll just open his hand and the bird will fly away.
And if I say he's alive, he'll just crush the bird with his
hand and he'll be dead. And so the old wise man said
to him, you can have it however you will. And I say to you this
morning, as a child of God, I speak this to you as a Christian, I
speak this to you as somebody who's experienced the rest of
God in your soul, and you know it, you've tasted it before,
and if you want to go on in agony, if you want to go on in frustration,
if you want to go on in despair, if you want to go on and continue
to shed tears of rebellion and stand at the grave as it were,
if you want to go on and do that, just go on and do it. Just go
on and do it. But David said, return unto thy
rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt boundlessly with thee.
And the Lord does deliver. He does deliver the eyes of a
child of God from tears. He does. And there comes a day
and there comes an hour when you can walk away from that which
has so caused you to be, as it were, so low. and feeling so
desperate, and the Lord can lift you up and take you from that
situation, deliver your eyes from tears. Praise God for that.
All right, but then there's another thing here. The poet said this,
and I liked it, and I'd just like to share this with you.
He said, why should the soul a drop be moaned? Who has a fountain near? A fountain
which will ever run with waters sweet and clear. And so, beloved,
pause not to look behind, for that which thou hast lost to
find be of earth or heaven. Then both enter at the open door,
and the treble shall be given three times as much will be given.
Don't just stand and pray and continue to moan and groan. all
all all all all all all all all all all all all all all all all
all all all all all all all Well, I don't want you to ever
leave your fear of falling into sin. I don't want you to leave
that. And I want you never to lose
that holy insecurity with regards to yourself. I don't want you
to lose that. But I don't want you to let that
feeling extend to your God. Because the Bible says He's able
to keep your feet from falling. The Bible says He's able to keep
you from falling and to preserve you and to present you before
the presence of His glory with a static joy. He's able to keep
you from falling. The Lord can do that. And remember
also John 10, 28, 29, where Jesus said, I have given my sheep eternal
life, and 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, but no man can pluck them out of his hand. Remember that.
Don't ever allow your insecurity. Don't ever transfer that to God
and say, God's as insecure as I am. No, he isn't. No, he isn't. He's able to keep you from falling,
and he will. He'll keep you from falling.
Now, I believe that we glorify God best by resting in Him. That's the way you glorify God,
resting. Just resting. You say, well, Preacher, I'd
like to glorify the Lord. Well, beloved, one of the highest
acts of devotion that the human soul, that is possible for them
to attain to, is to rest in the Lord. And so if you want to glorify
God, rest in the Lord. Rest in Him. And trust Him. Rely
upon Him. Believe these things. If you
want to glorify the Lord. And I think all of His people
desire that. Desire that. Father, we thank
You that You've allowed us to be together this morning. You've
allowed us to write this message. And I pray that it will meet
the needs Some who are afflicted child will die today, and their
hearts will be lifted, and they'll return to their rest. For the
Lord hath truly dealt bountiful with us all. Grant us health,
Father, and strength, that we shall not fall into the pit tomorrow,
or the day after, or next week, when we've forgotten these things.
But help us that we shall continue on to lean upon the Lord and
rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ of rest
in the pure wisdom and grace of our God. We pray it in his
name and for his sake alone. Amen.

Return Unto Thy Rest

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Return Unto Thy Rest

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