This is Not Your Rest

I would invite you to turn in
your Bibles to the book of Micah, the book of Micah, chapter 2.
It's a joy to be back, as I said this
morning with you folks, and to have the fellowship that we loved
in the past again. It's good. It's good for our
souls. We're thankful to the God of
the Bible for his mercies and kindness and grace. his love,
his compassion, and the great truths of the scriptures, the
promises that he has given us. That great promise in the 8th
chapter of the book of Romans, where he said, and we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to his purpose. I am persuaded
that what God does, he does according to his purpose. He does it because
it is involved in the eternal purpose of his Son. the Lord
Jesus Christ and us being conformed to his image. I expect someday
to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells me that he's
loved us and we are now the sons of God even though it does not
yet appear to us what we shall be. We know when he shall appear
we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man
that haveth this hope in him purifieth himself even as he
is pure. I expect to be like the Lord
Jesus Christ. I expect God to go on with his
work. He that hath begun a good work
in you will perform that work until the day of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Philippians 1, 6. I believe he'll do that. I expect
him to. I expect him to do it, even using
the devil. I believe the devil is God's
devil, and I believe he often uses the devil. He uses him. The devil doesn't realize what
he's accomplishing, but God's working even through the devil.
to bring to pass this very end. I remember hearing about a widow
woman one time, and she was a praying woman, she's a poor woman, and
she was in need. She was in distress, had necessity,
and she prayed, she was seeking the Lord. She lived in a little
old apartment building. There was a fellow that owned
the building that lived right next to her in the apartment
next door, and he was, at least she felt, that he was a devil.
He was always ridiculing her for her faith, and he was making
fun of her many, many times. He would ridicule her because
what she said she believed concerning God. Well, one day he overheard
her praying. The walls were thin as tissue
paper in this apartment building, and he overheard her praying,
asking God to supply her needs, and asking God for some groceries.
She needed something to eat. And after a while, while she
finished praying, she went out and went away for a little while
off to visit somebody. And so the old fella in the next
door there that owned the building, he said, well, I'll just fix
her up. He said, she thinks that God hears prayer and thinks that
God answers prayer. So I'm just going to go out and
I'm going to get her a couple of sacks of groceries and I'm going
to take them right into her apartment and set them on the table. And
then she'll come back and she'll start praising God and saying
that God's answered prayer. And he says, then I'll just tell
her that God didn't have anything at all to do with it, and that
he didn't have a thing on earth to do with it, and I done it.
So he went out and did that very thing, and so after a while she
came back, and sure enough, she began to praise the Lord. She
said, thank you Lord, praise God. And so she went right over
and knocked on this old fella's door. And he came to the door,
and he said, I just want to tell you that God heard my prayers,
and I want to tell you that God answers prayer, and that God
has provided groceries. I asked him for them, and he
said, aww, he said, God didn't have anything to do with that
at all. And he said, I did that. He said, I overheard you praying
in that room. And he said, I just went out
and got them groceries for you, brought them right over there.
He said, I'm responsible for that. And she said, no, she said,
even if God has to use the devil to get this job done, bring these
groceries in here, he'll do it. And he's done just that. He used
the devil to do it. So I just expected whatever God's
going to use the devil or whatever he's got to do to bring me to
the right end. And I just believe that with
all my heart. All right, now this evening, I want us to look
at verse 10 of Micah chapter 2. If you found that, let me
read this verse to you. It says, Arise, ye, and depart,
for this is not your rest, because it is polluted, and it shall
destroy you even with a sore destruction. I believe this message
is from the Lord, and I trust that God will enable me to bring
it to you tonight with soberness and with the unction and power
of his Holy Spirit. I want us to talk about the fact
that is stated here in this verse, this is not your rest, and I
want to talk a little bit about the reason given, because it
is polluted, and then to talk a little bit in the end about
the admonition, rise ye and depart. Now, at the outset, I believe
that these words were spoken by the prophet Micah unto the
people of God, those that were in the land of Canaan, And above
all lands, I suppose that the land of Canaan seemed most adapted
for a place of rest of any place upon the earth. And the people
whom God had so wondrously led into this land, they appeared
most likely to find rest in this land. But yet to this very people
that God had led into this land, that land that flowed with milk
and honey, that land which God had blessed and which he had,
I believe, created just for his people to enjoy, This land, the
Prophet says, is not your rest. And in respect to this very country,
God said through the mouth of the Prophet, he said, Arise and
depart, for this is not your rest. Well, why was this? Well, it was because the land
had been defiled and polluted by the people, by their idolatries
and their rebellion against Almighty God. Now, David called this world,
in Psalm 119, verse 54, He called this world the house of his pilgrimage. Now, I believe that what we find
here in this text of scripture, really, is that we find the Lord
giving us a word concerning our need in our own hearts to arise
and depart from this world because this world is not the place of
rest for the people of God. This world is not the place where
we find true rest. Now, I'm convinced in my own
heart that God's people have come, those that are truly members
of the living family of God, those who have experienced the
new birth, those who have been born from heaven and been washed
in the blood of Jesus Christ, that they have found that one
who is the Sabbath, the true Sabbath, the Lord Jesus Christ.
They have found the true rest. They have found that rest, that
rest of the soul, that rest which satisfies the heart, that rest
that regardless of what happens in this world, regardless of
what our experiences are here, that they have the true rest.
They've come to the true rest. But beloved, there are many,
and I recognize this and I believe this because of my own experience,
there are many who do not understand the relationship that the world
and the relationship that the experiences of the people of
God that they have in this world, what they are designed to do.
Many, many times we miss what our pilgrimage here is all about. We fail to see and to understand
what this is all about. And I hope tonight, if I can,
to clear this up a little bit. All of those in the book of Hebrews,
you remember that the Bible speaks of them as having died in the
faith and not receiving the promises, but having seen them afar off.
These confess that they were strangers and pilgrims upon the
earth. Here upon this earth, they said,
we're strangers and we're pilgrims. David said, this is the house
of my pilgrimage. I'm just passing through this
world. There's some things that are happening to me here. There's
some things that are going to happen to me. But God said, this
is not my rest. This is not my rest. Now, the
people of God, I believe, have ever been like-minded. We have
here, the Bible says, no continuing city. Abraham had no continuing
city here, but he was seeking one to come. He was seeking one
whom God was the builder and the maker of. Now, this world,
to the believer, regardless of exactly tonight how we look on
it, if we look on it through eyes given by the Spirit of God,
and I know that the things of God are understood by the Spirit
of God, and I know that God must reveal them to our hearts, and
he must teach our hearts. The Bible says the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness,
unto him, because they are spiritually discerned. But yet Paul said
that God hath revealed unto us the things that God hath prepared
for them that love him. God hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit. Even so, he said, no man knoweth
the things of God, but the Spirit of God. Now, I know that the
only thing I really know about God, the only thing I really
know about his purpose, the only thing I really know about his
Son, the only thing I really know about his salvation, is
what he has revealed to my heart. We're told in the Word of God.
Now, this is humbling because we've been told in our time that
if a man has a good mind, If he studies, if he's trained in
a certain seminary, if certain philosophers and teachers get
a hold of him and educate him, he'll know as much about the
Bible, as much about the things of God, as anybody will. Well,
brethren, I don't believe that. I believe that the man or the
woman, the boy or the girl who knows God and knows the things
of the Word of God are those who have had those things revealed
to them and taught to them by the Spirit of God. God must reveal
these things and teach these things. And if you're going to
understand the things that I'm talking about tonight, and there's
many of you that do understand them and will understand them,
but some of you are going to understand them a little ways
down the road. But I hope tonight that you'll hide them away in
your heart, because these things will be more meaningful to you
as you experience some things down the road. I mean, we're
going to go through some things. We're going to experience some
things here in the house of our pilgrimage, in this world. And
you may say to that preacher, you're just a gloomy fella. You're
the kind of fella that just wants to spoil everything. But I want
to tell you something, that this world, if a man sees it through
the eyes of the Spirit of God, is a race-howling wilderness.
That's what it is. This world is not our rest. Life
is the journey of the child of God. Heaven is the home of the
child of God, and the child of God, he himself is a traveler
to the city of Zion, the city of God. We're passing through
this world. This world is not our rest. Now, some professors of religion
don't really believe this. You know, I often think about
the children of Israel, how when they were in the wilderness,
you remember that they moved by the pillar of cloud and by
the pillar of fire. And when they stopped, I often
thought what would happen if they had went out and they began
to build cities, and if they had started building and erecting
homes, I mean sealed houses, and if they had set down their
stakes permanently there, I often wondered just exactly, just how
they would have felt when, you know, God said, you move when
that fire moves, that pillar of fire, and when that cloud
moves, you move. This is what I want you to do.
But beloved, I want you to understand something about it. There are
some professors of religion. There are some who claim that
they know God. But yet they have a miserable
tendency, and I believe in a little way we're all affected this way,
we have a miserable tendency to cling to the things that are
seen. And we all want to build, we
all want to establish, we all want to try to tie down things,
and we all want to, if we can, keep everything just like it
is in this world. Man has a tendency to want to
do that. The father and the mother, they'd
like to keep their children forever. They'd like to keep them right
at home. They'd like to keep them in their household. Some
don't, but there are many that do. And there are others that
would like to keep their situation. They want their health to remain
the same. They don't want anything to change. They want to build.
If they can, they want their rest here. Brethren, we cannot
have heaven here and hereafter, too. We've got to come to see
that this world is not our rest. This is not it. Now, I know that
we pray against every change. There isn't anybody that likes
change. Nobody wants it. If we get any change, we want
it all for the better. Who isn't around here that wants
change for the worse? Is there anybody here that would
pray to get sick? Is there anyone here that would
pray that they would lose a week's work? Is there anyone here that
would... Listen, let me tell you something.
I believe that God, as we said earlier, is at work, and there
are many appointments, divine appointments, that our flesh
is going to meet up with right here in this world. God means
to wing every one of us away from this world. God means that
by the time he's ready to take us out of this world, that we
have come to the conclusion that this is not our risk. And that
every one of us will believe what John Bunyan said when he
said, this side of the river of death, there is no place for
the child of God to lie down and to rest his weary heart.
Not on this side of the river of death. I want you to know
that God's going to, he's going to send some things your way.
And these are divine appointments. And the flesh, your flesh is
going to struggle with these things. Your flesh is going to
have difficulty with these things. I mean the children are going
to leave the nest. I mean there's going to be some problems. Your
health's going to fail. And I mean there's going to be
some calamities come in your life. I mean God intends to take
the sieve and he intends to shake that sieve up until all the character
is out of it. God intends to send some things
into our life. And oh, how the flesh struggles
against the appointments of God Almighty. And I say to you that
every one of us would rot in honey if God Almighty did not
intervene in our lives. We don't want nothing to change.
We want it to stay the same. And we want to go on and prosper.
We want to make money. And we want to put it in the
bank. And we want some security. We don't want any of this business
of getting down and getting into a hard place. We don't want any
necessity. We don't want any distress. And
Paul said this, he said, our glory, he said, I'll rejoice
in necessity. He said, in distress, he said,
when I'm weak, he says, I'm strong. And he said, I'll rejoice in
this. But there ain't nobody around here, including myself,
that wants to be weak. We're not interested in that.
But I want to tell you something. Beloved, God Almighty intends
to deal with us anyway in the right way. He intends to work.
He intends to bring us low that he might lift us up. He intends
to teach us this lesson that this is not our rest. All right,
now then, this tendency in man is then to cling, and I believe
that word means that we're glued to this thing. David said, my
soul cleaveth under the dust. It's glued to it. I'm not interested
in leaving this world. Somebody said, you know what
Paul said? He said, I'm ready to die. He
said, I'm ready to die. He said, I'd rather depart and
be with Christ than remain here in this world. And I wonder how
many of you could truthfully and honestly say, God has so
dealt with me and I have so experienced the bitterness of this world
and this world is such a waste, howling wilderness to me. And
I've so experienced life that I'm ready to depart and be with
Christ. Most all of us would say, well,
no, you know, I'm really not ready to leave here. I'm ready,
really not ready to leave here. I heard about an old preacher
here a while back. Somebody threatened to shoot him. Years and years
ago, somebody threatened to shoot him. And the old preacher said,
wow, now wait a minute, young man. And the young man was pointing
the gun at him. He said, you can't scare me by
shooting me. He said, you can't scare me about
going to heaven. I'm ready to go. And he was an
old man. But I want to tell you what,
somebody point a gun barrel at you and you're probably not ready
to go. You're probably not ready to leave this world. It's kind
of like that fellow I heard about, this preacher one time. And he
got up and he was asking people to raise their hand and said,
if you want to go to heaven, everybody want to go to heaven, raise your
hand. And there's an old man sitting over in the corner pew
and he never raised his hand. And so the preacher said, what
about you? He said, you never raised your hand. He said, don't
you want to go to heaven? He said, yeah. He said, I want
to go to heaven by and by. But he said, the way you're talking
like you want to get up and load to go tonight. And he wasn't
ready to go tonight. And I want you to know this,
beloved, that the people of God are going to be ready to go when
the Lord calls them, because God's going to fix it up so that
your nest is all going to be shook up here. You know, there's
going to be a crook in your lot. You say, well, you know, things
don't go too smooth for me. They don't go too smooth for
any of God's children. Not their true children, not the true children
of God. You say, I'm just afflicted. David said, I'm chastened every
day. He said, every morning when I get up, God's whipping on me.
He's trying to teach me to walk, and He will teach me. He's chastening
me every day. Other people getting by. Other
men are living, and they're getting by. They don't have the problems
I got, but God's dealing with me. And I want to tell you something
right now. God knows how to raise His children.
And you folks running around here, God never seems to touch
you, and you get your own way about everything, and you're
doing just whatever pleases you. I want to tell you something.
You better start asking yourself a question and that is whether
you're a child of God or not Because I will tell you something.
There's one thing about it a child of God God will teach and discipline
that child. He'll not let that child go God
Almighty will deal with them and he'll teach them and he's
gonna wean your heart away from this world. So beloved listen Don't
pray against God's appointment Don't fret against God's appointment.
Now, this is what I'm leading up to tonight. I'm saying to
you that this world is not our rest. So this is the true state.
At rest, where shall it be found? Well, shall it be found in the
creature? No, it shall not be found in the creature because
the creature perishes. Now, I know some people, and
I've met them, and they're living just strictly for their family.
Oh, they're just happy as they can be. But what about, what
happens whenever the family is gone? What happens whenever there's
no home to go back to? What happens when it's all over
with? You see, in just a short time, I'm not going to have any
folks to go see. As far as my mother and dad,
my dad's already gone, and my mother's about 80 years old.
I mean, that's going to happen. The same thing's going to happen
to you. I mean, we know that the creature perishes. And if
we're living, and if our rest is found in the creature, Then,
beloved, we're going to be in a bad state in a little while.
In the pleasures of time and sense, no, because these are
transitory and they're unsatisfactory and they're vain and they'll
never give you any real satisfying rest. These things are not a
rest in the world and the things of this world, no, because the
Bible says the world is passing away and the fashion of this
world The poet said, O, where shall rest be found, rest for
the weary soul, to avain the ocean depths to sound, or pierce
to either pole? The world can never give the
rest for which we sigh, tis not the whole of life to live, nor
all of death to die. I want you to look, if you will,
in the book of Ecclesiastes. Turn back there, and I think
you'll appreciate maybe a little bit more what I'm trying to say
about this world. And I'm not just making these
things up. I'm telling you that this is a fact. This is not your
rest. This is not where you're going
to find it. All right, now here in the first and second chapters
of the book of Ecclesiastes, there are some tremendous statements
made by the preacher Solomon. He said in verse 2 of chapter
1, vanity of vanity, saith the preacher, vanity of vanity, all
is vanity. Now when he said all is vanity,
beloved, he covered everything. Listen to what he said in verse
4. One generation passes away, and another generation cometh,
but the earth abideth forever. The sun also ariseth, and the
sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. Look
at verse 7, "...all the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea
is not full unto the place from which the rivers come, that they
return again. All things are full of labor,
man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with
seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." That's talking about
the experience of life here in this world. The thing that hath
been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that
which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it
may be said, See, this is new, it hath been already of old time
which was before us." This is the experience. This is what
man finds. This was the wisest man outside
the Lord Jesus Christ that ever lived in this world. This was
his experience. Listen to this. He says, I've
seen all the works in verse 14 that are done under the sun and
behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit. He says that which
is crooked cannot be made straight. You can't straighten this out.
You can't change this. Try all you want. Put all the
money in the bank you can get your hands on and establish everything
here and nail it down the best you can. But you can't change
it. God said this is not the place
of the soul's rest. God Almighty has made man and
made him to be satisfied with God only with himself only and
you will never be satisfied until you know God in Christ and until
your sins are put away and until you're born of the Spirit of
God and until God dwells in you and you're one with the living
head of the church the Lord Jesus Christ until you're a member
of his body of his flesh and of his bones until you're his
and in him you will never be satisfied and you will never
find any true rest Let us notice further here look at verse 16
He says, I commune with my own heart, saying, Lo, I am come
to greater states, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that
have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience
of wisdom and knowledge, and I gave my heart to know wisdom,
and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this also is
vexation of spirit, for in much wisdom is much grief. Get your
education if you want, and I won't belittle your education, but
I want to tell you this. that you're gonna find out it
don't make any difference how much you know until you know
the Lord Jesus Christ you're a fool and until you know him
you don't know anything that's worth knowing. And I'll just
make it just as clear to you as I know. And I know a whole
lot of people that think that if they got a little education,
they know a little bit more than the average Joe. And as far as
they're concerned, they got enough to get them by. And I want to
tell you something, when you begin to know the truth, and
the more truth you know, the more misery you're going to have
in your soul until it drives you to the Lord Jesus Christ
and until you get in Him and find that satisfaction that's
only to be found in Him. Now that's my point. All right,
now notice this. In the second chapter, he said, I made me gardens. Verse 4, I made me great works.
I built me houses. I planted me vineyards. Some
of you done that. Nothing wrong with building a
house, but did you ever see anybody built a house and satisfied with
it when they got finished completely? Oh, we said, well, it's not quite
like I want it. I've talked to a lot of people that said, well,
I just got through with this house, but things are just not quite like
I want it. And he said, I might build another one. And after
they build that one, they won't be satisfied with it. Listen,
I want to tell you something. The reason for that is the fact
that this is not our rest. You just can't make it so it's
going to be permanent and so it's going to make you rest in
it. You can't do it. The true child of God knows that.
They know it's vanity to try to look around here and find
something that's really going to satisfy them, because it's
not to be found in these things. All right, now, and Solomon,
you see, he had the ability to look into these things. He was
the wisest man, and he had the means. He was king, and he had
the means. He had the wealth. There was
nothing that he couldn't do. He could do anything he wanted
to. He had all of the finery of this world, everything that
could make a man's heart glad. And yet he said, it's all vanity.
He says, I got me servants. And he said, I got maidens. And
he said, I had servants born in my house. Also, I had great
possessions, he says, of great and small cattle above all that
were in Jerusalem before me. He was a farmer, and he had wealth,
and he had all these things that would make a man's heart glad.
I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasures
of kings and of the provinces. I got me men singers and women
singers, I guess he had a stereo, and delights of the sons of men
as musical instruments and that of all sorts. He had everything
you could think of. He says, so I was great and increased. He says, more than all that were
before me in Jerusalem, also my wisdom remained with me. Then in verse 11, Now, verse
10, he said, Whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from
them. Whatever I wanted to see, I just
went and gazed upon it. I didn't keep anything back.
I looked at everything I wanted to look at. And he said, I withheld
not my heart from any joy. Anything I thought would make
me happy, I just went and did it. Anything I thought would
make this life worth living, I just went and experienced it.
That's what I did. Didn't stop at anything. I looked on all the works that
my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored
to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there
was no profit under the sun. Look at verse 12, and I turned
myself to the whole wisdom and madness and folly, for what can
man do that cometh after the king, even that which hath been
done already? He said, what's folks going to
do that's going to come along after me? All they can do is
what I've done. And he said it's all vanity and
vexation of spirit. Look at verse 22 and verse 23. For what hath man of all his
labor, and of the vexation of his heart, trying to get everything
fixed up here to where he's satisfied, and where he's got some rest,
and where he'll be happy, wherein he hath labored under the sun?
For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief. Yea, his
heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity. You know, it's hard, don't take
no rest. Now listen, beloved, if the word of God didn't say
that, I wouldn't be here tonight telling you this. I'm telling
you it's been proven by a man who was able and capable that
you just absolutely can never fix this thing up to where you're
gonna be happy here in this world. It's not to be had. Well, what
is our experience? Our own experience. Well, our
own experience is that this is absolutely the truth. I'm here
before you tonight and I'm very headed I'm not as old as some
of you people are, but I've had a few experiences in my life.
And the experiences that I've had in my life are not for sale.
I wouldn't take anything for them because they've taught me
some things and they've taught me some truth. And I love the
Lord Jesus Christ more than I ever loved him before. And I know
where true rest is found. And blessed God, if a man can
come to that, amen, if a man can come to that, let him experience
whatever he has to experience. because there's no greater blessing
than coming to the realization that Christ is all in all. And
if you know him, you know him, that is life. Well, listen, change
that's brought about by time, by the passage of time. You know, I was talking to Gary
here this afternoon about the change that's brought about by
time. And beloved, listen, I can look on your faces. There's been
some changes. You look on mine. Time has made
a change in each smiling face, the old song says. Time has made
a change in the old home place. Time has made a change in me.
Time's made a change in you. Time's making a change in every
one of us. We're all dying. We're all in
the vestibule of death. Death is the brother of life,
and every one of us are going down to the grave. Time is changing
things. But not to believe that, because
the word of God teaches that it's appointed and the man wants
to die. Yes, you're dying. Yes, you are. You say, no, I'm
getting healthier. Well, you may be getting healthier,
but you're dying. You're dying. You've been dying ever since
you've been here. And you're going to go on and you're going
down to the grave. The old song that Brother Buell Kazee used
to say, Oh, ye young, ye proud, ye gay, you must die and wear
the shroud. Time will rob you of your bloom.
Death will drag you to your tomb. Time's going to change this thing.
You folks are all going to die. You're not going to be here forever.
I'm telling you, this world is not our rest. Our experience
teaches us that. We see it on each face. We see
it happening. We know it's happening, but we
don't take it to heart. We know it's happening. But that
don't drive us to Christ like it ought to. It don't make us
cling to Christ. It don't make us seek out the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It don't make us to grow in grace
and the knowledge of the Son of God like it ought to. Beloved,
may God's Spirit come with power and open up our hearts that we'll
get sick of this whole thing and more fond of Christ. and
that we'll come to him with a sobered heart, and we'll long to have
his fullness, and we'll long to grow up into the measure of
his stature, and that we'll be like him, that we'll seek to
be like him and walk as he walked, and forgive all this stuff and
quit making so much of all this little petty foolishness that's
going on around us in this world. The cares of this world and the
troubles of life. How we know by that that this is not our
rest. The sparks fly upward. The Bible
says a man is born into trouble. John Bunyan said a man's got
trouble. He says a man's got double trouble when he's a Christian.
He's got troubles. I'm getting healthy. Well, you
may be getting healthy, but you're dying. You're dying. You've been
dying ever since you've been here. And you're going to go
on and you're going down to the grave. The old song that Brother
Buell Kazee used to say, Oh, ye young, ye proud, ye gay, you
must die and wear the shroud. Time will rob you of your bloom.
Death will drag you to your tomb. Time's going to change this thing.
You folks are all going to die. You're not going to be here forever.
I'm telling you, this world is not our rest. Our experience
teaches us that. We see it on each face. We see
it happening. We know it's happening, but we
don't take it to heart. We know it's happening. But that
don't drive us to Christ like it ought to. It don't make us
cling to Christ. It don't make us seek out the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It don't make us to grow in grace
and the knowledge of the Son of God like it ought to. Beloved,
may God's Spirit come with power and open up our hearts that we
will get sick of this whole thing and more fond of Christ. and
that we'll come to him with a sobered heart, and we'll long to have
his fullness, and we'll long to grow up into the measure of
his stature, and that we'll be like him, that we'll seek to
be like him and walk as he walked, and forget all this stuff and
quit making so much of all this little petty foolishness that's
going on around us in this world. The cares of this world and the
troubles of life. How we know by that that this
is not our rest. The sparks fly upward. The Bible
says a man is born into trouble. John Bunyan said a man's got
trouble. He says a man's got double trouble when he's a Christian.
He's got troubles like everybody else has got. All men have got
some trouble, but then he's got the trouble that comes to a man
trying to live for God and walk with Christ in this God-hating,
this sinful and wicked world. And so, beloved, listen, Jacob
said, My days have been few, and they been full of trouble.
God was weaning him from this world, too, and not giving him
his portion here. Brethren, we cannot have, as
we said, heaven here and heaven hereafter. May God teach us that
valuable lesson. All right, now the second thing
I want to talk about a little bit is the reason that's given
here. And we're told in this text the reason for all of this
is because it is polluted. The reason why there's no rest
in this world and why we can't camp here and just be happy and
why we have to have the Lord Jesus Christ is because it is
polluted. All right, now what does that
mean? Well, there was a time when this fair world was unblemished
and the Bible says in the book of Genesis that God saw that
it was very good. God looked upon it and said it's
very good. Adam and Eve found a resting place, but they went
out and what did they do? They polluted it. They polluted
it, and their rest was disturbed and destroyed. Why? Because they
sinned and rebelled against God Almighty. Sin has marred the
whole of this world. And we know that the polluting
streams of unrighteousness have flowed abundantly throughout
the generations of man upon this earth. And all the children of
men drank, and as they drank in the pollution, they also drank
in the miseries and the sorrows and the death. Now, there is
not a care, there's not a trial, there's not a sorrow, there's
not a suffering that can befall us here in this world but is
connected with this pollution, that is connected with this sin
that was committed in the Garden of Eden. Sin opened the door
which admitted all of those disturbers of your rest. It's because sin
has polluted you and this world, and there's a curse upon it,
that there is no place here. And I thought this was good.
Thomas Matten made this statement, and I thought it was very good.
Heaven has decreed that sin and rest are incompatible. Have you
ever heard about a couple splitting up and dividing and separating
and getting a divorce because of incompatibility? Well, let
me tell you something, beloved. Right here in this world, sin
and rest are incompatible. They just cannot mix. They don't
get along. And as long as the curse of sin
is upon this earth, and as long as you've got a sinful nature,
beloved, let me point this out to you, you're never gonna be
happy. You'll never be happy until something's done about
that pollution. Until something happens about that sin. Ah, your
vase is chipped, your vase is cracked, and there's something
wrong with you. There's sin in your bloodstream. And until God Almighty washes
you clean, and until in the blood of the Lamb your sin is atoned,
there will be no satisfaction. There'll be no satisfaction and
rest for you. But in that happy land, in that
fair land, there shall be no sin or pollution. Tomorrow the
rest. That place to where we're going
is the people of God. I said that the children of God
are travelers to the city of Zion. God himself, the Bible
says, shall wipe away all tears from off all faces and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain. You remember this word of the
hymn writer? He said, O land of rest, for
thee I sigh. When will the moment come when
I shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home? To Jesus Christ
I fled for rest. He made me cease to roam and
lean for succor on his breast, till he conduct me home. Where
can we go here in this world with what it is polluted? Still
I believe that the wickedness of man is great in the earth,
and still every imagination of the thought of the heart is only
evil continually. Brother, how deep is the pollution
that's in this world? Well, how difficult is it for
you, Christian, to keep yourself unspotted from this world? How
difficult is it for you to walk with God and not have anything,
your own inward corruption and the pollution that's in the world
through sin and corruption, to affect your heart and to affect
your walk with God? Is your communion and fellowship
with God ever hindered by the corruption of your own heart
and the corruption of the world? Well, beloved, it's deep. It's
deep. I mean it's deep. And there's
no wonder tonight that the child of God has the difficulties and
the trials and the struggles that they have when they think
about their own depraved nature and when they think about the
pollution and the corruption that is all around them in this
world. Now then, there's an admonition here, and that is a rise and
depart. The child of God is to arise and depart. And my word
not only to the child of God, but also to those of you tonight
that have no rest in your soul, but you know what I'm talking
about this evening, and you've tried everything that you had
money to afford, and you tried to work out everything and do
everything you can to satisfy and please yourself, but it hadn't
worked. My advice to you is to take this admonition of Micah
2.10 tonight, and that is to arise and depart. And I want
to say this word, arise and depart those of you who want your portion
here in this life. The worst judgment, this is another
statement of Thomas Manning, he said the worst judgment that
God could put on any man is to condemn that man to worldly success
and prosperity for his portion. If God would condemn a man to
be successful, to swear he'd be happy, You know there are
some, what we call blessings, that are, as far as what the
Word of God, my understanding of the Word of God, actually
are curses. You take health, for an example. Long health. A man, he just doesn't
have any sickness, and he just fares well, and just looks like
he's going to be strong and able, and he just, every time you say
something about somebody being sick, I've never been sick. I've
never been to the doctor. I've never been to the hospital.
I don't have any problems. Do you know that if a man is
healthy and he never has any sicknesses, that man will not
think about eternity? He won't do it. He thinks he's
going to live forever. That's right. He really believes
that he's got something somebody else hasn't got. And he thinks,
I ain't going nowhere. I'm going to be around a long
time. Folks around me dropping off like flies, but I'm all right.
I want to tell you something. You get sickened to death and
you're going to start thinking about the fact that you're just
a mortal. You're just a mortal and you're
going to start thinking about meeting God. You're going to
start thinking about the time's going to come when that breath
is going to be gone and the eye strain is going to snap and you're
going to breathe out that last breath and you're going out of
this world. I want to tell you something right now. You may
be strong tonight, but pride is stiffened in your heart, and
you think that you've got something somebody else don't have. But
God Almighty is going to take that away from you one of these
days, and you're going down. You're going down. You're going
down to the grave. Yes, you are. And so those of you that would
have your portion here in this life, money for an example, A
man's got wealth, and he thinks that's a blessing. But I want
to tell you what, if that money keeps you from finding Jesus
Christ and to be the most precious thing that a man could possibly
have in this life as his treasure and portion, you missed it! And
you go on to hell with your money. But I want to tell you what,
you missed the best. You missed the best. You missed
union with Jesus Christ. You missed being joined to Him
that's alive! You miss being one with the best,
heaven's best, the best that ever lived in this world. You
miss being joined to him. Ah, beloved, listen to me. Go
on with your money. That's no blessing. That's no
blessing. No, sir. Arise those of you,
we mentioned the creature, husband, wife, child, son, daughter, a
fellow man, the arm of flesh, the old song says will fail you,
Isaiah 2.22 says cease you from man whose breath is in his nostrils,
whose breath is in his nostrils, whereof is he to be accounted
of, cease you from man. You say I just live for my children,
you better quit doing that. There's nothing wrong with now
raising your children, raising them right and doing what you
ought to and being right and actual affection and all that,
but if you're just living for your children, that's all of
it, and you're not worshiping God and seeking Christ and love. If your love's not growing for
Christ, you know Jesus said, if a man don't come to me and
hate father and mother and brother and sister and so on and so forth,
he said he's not worthy of me. But I just believe the Lord Jesus
Christ was teaching a man just ought to get his eyes off everybody
and get them on him. Go ahead about your responsibilities
and do what you should, but you better get your eyes on the Lord
Jesus and you better love Him supremely. Get your eyes on Him. All right, and then those tonight
that have no rest and they've come to this world and they tried
through the instability of this world to find it, I want to say
a word to you tonight. I want you to turn to Genesis
8. Here is the illustration, the gospel, and I want you to
get this. I want you to get this. Where shall rest be found? What
are you going to do? What are you going to do? Well,
here it is. In Genesis chapter 8, I want you to look at verse
8 and 9. Now, you remember the story of
the flood, and you remember that Noah, when the waters were receding,
that he sent forth a raven in verse 7, which went forth to
and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
And verse 8 says, And also he sent forth a dove from him to
see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground.
But listen to this. 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 unto the ark. Now what we have here, beloved,
is a picture of where true rest is to be found. This dove could
find no rest for the sole of her foot when she flew out over
the waters because there was not a dry spot. And what did
she do? She came to the Ark. Now what
is that Ark? That Ark is a tithe for the Lord
Jesus Christ. That Ark is the place of refuge
for poor sinners. The Ark is Christ. Where is rest
to be found? Let me say it clearly, let me
say it as loudly as I can. Rest is to be found in the person
of Jesus Christ, the ark of safety. Get to Him, get to Him. There's
no place for the rest for the sole of your foot but until you
get to Him. Get to Him. I remember reading,
bless me, they said to George Whitefield, and it don't bother
me any, the Bible says, Jesus says, come unto me and you shall
find rest for your soul. Come unto me, he said, and you
will find rest. I'll give you rest. Come unto
me. And they said that George Whitefield, when he was wanting
for an idea, when he was preaching, would just raise up his hands
and say, sinners, come to Jesus. Come to Christ. Beloved, I'll
tell you what, there's where the rest is. There's where it
is. There's where the satisfaction
is. You know, I want you to turn over there in the Bible to the
Gospel of John. I want you to look at this, because
this was a blessing to me, the fourth chapter of the Gospel
of John. The Lord Jesus Christ was at
the well. And he said to the woman in verse 10, he answered
and said to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is
that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked
of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman
saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep from whence then hast thou that living water.
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well,
and drink thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again. That water that he was talking
about was that water that came out of Jacob's well, which is
a type of this world. You drink out of this world,
you thirst again, but look at the next verse. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
give me this water that I thirst not. Is that what you're saying
in your heart? Oh, that I was not thirsty, that
I could be satisfied? The Lord Jesus Christ said in
verse 14, But whosoever drinketh of this water that I shall give
him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Now
I'll tell you, beloved, that is not something that you cannot
experience. The children of God do experience
that. God does give them a living inward
experience wherein they are satisfied inwardly. Now that doesn't mean
that every hour of every day I walk around and completely
satisfied having no trouble with the flesh, no longings, no desire
after the flesh, no lust of the flesh, no lust of the eyes, no
pride of life. No, it doesn't mean that. But
it does mean that there are times when God is pleased to manifest
himself to my soul, when God is pleased to come to the child
of God, to come where he is. God is pleased to bless him with
an inward satisfaction that he wouldn't give for anything in
the world. And as Scott mentioned about priming the pump, it makes
him to long for that experience, and he's looking for it every
day of his life. I want to get near the Lord Jesus. I just want
to get closer to Christ. That's the only time I'm happy.
I can't get any good out of nothing else. It's only when I get near
Him, and when His joy floods my soul, and when His heart I
can hear it beat, and when I can get his breath, I mean when I'm
kissed with the kisses of him who said it's finished, and when
his fellowship is with me, that's when I'm satisfied. I'm not satisfied
any other time. My soul, I just can't be satisfied
with the trucks, and the cars, and the buildings, and the houses.
I can't be satisfied with them. There's nothing there. I'm looking
for the Lord Jesus like the church was looking for Him in the Song
of Solomon. And they got beat up, and they were black, and
they didn't have a high opinion of themselves, but they said,
oh, that I could find Him. And that won't let my soul ever,
if I could just find Him. And I tell you, when He's pleased
to let you find Him, and when He's pleased to come to you,
and when He's pleased to show you Himself and bless you, and
to give you just a little bit of glimpse of what it means to
be in Him and join to Him, I'll tell you what, brother, sister,
that's satisfaction. That's real soul satisfaction. You can have it all. You can
have it all. All I want is just a little bit
of that right here in this life. And then like old David, he said,
he said, I'll be satisfied when I awaken his likeness. When I
wake up, he said, when I, when I'm in, when I wake up righteous,
when I wake up dressed in beauty, not my own, when I wake up like
him, I'll be completely, entirely satisfied. Take the world and
everything in it. All of the glamour, all of the
flattery, everything else, just take it and go on and burn it
all up. It don't make any difference.
Just give my soul Him. I've got to have Him. And I've
got to have some experience with Him. I've got to be able to pray. I've got to be able to read this
book. And that word's got to come off
of that book right to my soul. I've got to eat and live on this
book. I've got to. Because I can't
live any other way. I got to. That's it. That's it. And I believe that when God takes
you and weans you away from this world, I want to tell you what,
that's what he'll bring you to. That's glorious. That's glorious. I can't talk about it. I don't
know how to preach it. I don't know how to say anything about
it. But I just hope you get just a little bit of the thought here
tonight. And that is that this dove went
to that ark. And everybody that gets satisfaction,
like that woman at the well, Got to drink that living water.
And when that water is in you, and God starts a work in you,
ere long, ere long, you're going to be ruined as far as this world
is concerned. You're going to be flat ruined.
You say, you mean that preacher? I mean that. You're going to
get so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. You're going
to start looking for Jesus Christ to come every day. You're going
to start You're going to start saying, well, I just, I just,
I just got to get, I just got to find some of the Lord's people
that wants to seek the Lord. I got to go to church. Well,
the scripture says that I got to get with God's people. I got
to get in fellowship with the Lord's people. Well, the scripture
says this in the book of Revelation. Let me read that to you. Chapter
14. And I'm going to close now right away. I'm not, I'm not,
uh, I promised somebody I wasn't going to preach over about 40
minutes. I may be old with that now, but anyway, I want to read from 14th chapter
of Revelation, 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, that they may rest from their labors,
and their works do follow them. They rest from their labors.
They rest. That's right. When you die in
the Lord, don't you die outside the Lord. You'll never rest for
all eternity. You think you have a little hell
here? You don't know nothing about hell yet. Listen, there's
a death that never dies. And you're going to experience
that forever and ever if you don't get to Christ in this life.
Old Ralph Barnard said, either you're in Christ or you're in
for hell. He's right. He's right. That's the truth,
all right? So depart from the world. Depart from the vain customs
of the world. Brethren, beware of earthly mindedness. Beware
of that tendency that would want to draw you down. Beware of it.
Beware of anything that would suggest to you that you just
drive your stakes as deep as you can here and that you try
to make this thing work for your satisfaction. Give it up and
come to Christ. All of you, just come to Christ
and love him. and fellowship with it. And you
be ready to die, you be ready to leave this world anytime.
I'll read this poem and I'm done. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
come unto me and rest. Lay down thou weary one, lay
down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was. In
my true character I suppose that means. worn and sad. I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to your heart this evening, and I trust that the Lord will give
us a remembrance of these things. And like I said, there's times
when people are ready. I believe there are. It's just
like reading a book. Sometimes when you pick up a
book and read it, it seems like the message is for you. There's
people when a preacher's preaching that it's for them right then.
But I trust God to give you remembrance of these thoughts. When you get
a little older and things start changing and you have some of
these trials and these tests that just shake up your life,
and you feel like the world's coming apart, everything's coming
apart at the seams, just everything's coming apart, nothing ever gonna
be the same again, that you'll just think about this message.
Preacher said that's exactly what it's gonna be. Preacher
said, God's doing this on purpose. Preacher said, I was getting
a little bit comfortable about this thing, and I was just getting
a little happy here, and I wasn't seeking Him, and I didn't love
Christ. I mean, I wasn't seeking Him. I wasn't running after Him.
And therefore, he said, I've got to wean this soul away from
this world, because He knows what's best for me, and He knows
what's best for you. Best thing He could do is just
draw you right to Himself. If He's got to... Whoever else
dies, God lives, and the best thing for us is to get to Him.
And God's going to bring us to Him. His people. He's going to
bring you to Him. He's going to bring you to Him.
And that's good. That's good. Praise the Lord,
that's good. There's a time when I'd have
been a little slower on some of these things. That's right. It's like
I said, that experience, boy, ain't no substitute for a little
experience. No substitute. Somebody said spiritual truth
is learned experientially. That's the way you learn it.
That's the way you learn it. The Lord bless you. It's been
a pleasure to be here. I'm thankful you invited me and
helped me get here. I'm grateful. I want you to know
that. And I love you the best I can.
I love you. And the Lord, I do. I love you
more now than I ever did. I want you to know that. And
may the Lord be pleased to bring fruit. May some poor sinner tonight
just throw up his hands and say, I just want to give up all this
business of trying to make happiness for myself. I'm just going to
come to the ark. I'm just going to come to Christ. I'm just coming to Jesus. I don't
know anything about it and I don't know much about it myself. Except
I just know that you can get to Him. If you mean to come to
Him, you can get to Him. You don't have to come up here
or anywhere else. You can just come to Him right in your heart. Give
it all up. Throw it away. Forget it. Come
to Him. Come to Him in your heart. Come
to Him now. Come to Him now. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus, sinner. Welcome,
sinner, John Bunyan said. Welcome, sinner. Welcome to Jesus. May the Lord bless these souls.

This is Not Your Rest

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This is Not Your Rest

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