Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2393
“Rest in the Lord.” Psalm 37:7.
IT is certain, Christian, that you have nowhere else to rest. Of the whole of this time-state it was well said, “This is not your rest,” and of all the comfort that you find in earthly friendships and relationships, in the good things of this life, or in any hopes short of Heaven, we may truly say, “This is not your rest.” The other day, at Highgate, I passed some fine old trees that were marked with a white cross, to indicate, no doubt, that they were to be cut down. So, everything we have here is marked with the woodman’s cross and the axe must fell all our joys. You birds of paradise, build not your nests on trees that are marked to fall! This earth is not your rest! You shall fly the wide world over till your wings are weary, but, you doves of Christ, you shall find no rest till you come back to the hand of your Noah and nestle in His ark of Covenant Grace. “Rest in the Lord,” says the text, and in saying so it does, as it were, condemn all other pretended rests and fancied refuges! May everyone of you who have wandered hear the voice of Wisdom and may your hearts say, “Return unto your rest, O my Soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you!”
But though there is no rest to be found in earthly things, yet we may have rest even while here—rest which drops from above. Just as the wilderness yielded no bread to the children of Israel, yet there was bread for them in the wilderness, for it fell from Heaven! The arid sands could give no streams of cooling water, yet there was water even there, for the Apostle Paul tells us that “they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” Because I tell you that this world is a wilderness and you find it true, do not think that you are never to have any rest in it. Behold, your rest is sent to you from on high! Behold, your refreshment comes from the Rock of Ages! In Jesus you have rest, even though you are pilgrims, and even though you are troubled, for we who have believed in Him, even now have entered into rest! True Christians, when they are in a healthy state of mind and heart, rest in the Lord and, as I hope this Tabernacle is not a leper house, but a place where the warriors of Christ have come to feast at the table of their great Captain, I desire for each of you, and for myself, also, that all of us who are in Christ may this night have perfect “rest in the Lord.”
What is this rest that is mentioned in our text?
I. The rest which Believers enjoy is, first of all, REST FROM WANDERING.
You know that God promised to give rest to His ancient people. They had none in the wilderness, for, often, they had no sooner pitched their tents than they had to strike them again. As quickly as the fiery-cloudy pillar moved, so had they, though weary and footsore, to follow. Joshua said to the Reubenites and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, whose inheritance was to be on the further side of Jordan “You shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valor, and help them until the Lord has given your brethren rest.” The Promised Land was always looked forward to by the weary and wandering tribes as a place where they would rest.
Well, Beloved, you and I no longer wander—we have come to our rest. O my Heart, how you did wander, like a weary pilgrim, through the Egypt of your bondage! You did wander to Sinai, where you did hear the Law of God that made you tremble! You did wander across the wilderness of Sin, where your good works vexed and tired you, and your evil works, like fiery serpents, bit you! But that is all over now. My Soul, you have crossed the Jordan and, having found Christ, you have no inclination to wander anymore. My Brothers and Sisters, remember how our minds used to wander after 50 pretended comforts and we found no joy in any of them? One day we thought this, the next day we thought that.
One day we dreamed that peace was to be found here, the next day, we fancied it was to be obtained yonder, the bubble mocked us as we pursued it and it continually fled from our grasp! We thought full sure that we had secured something solid, but the apple of Sodom was crushed when we laid hold upon it—it turned to ashes in our hand!
We used to be always wandering—none could tell where we would rest on the morrow—but now we rest in the Lord! We have no inclination to wander to anyone else. “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” Every now and then people discover a new gospel and they want us to believe it, but we say to them, “No, we are perfectly content with what we have received.” Sometimes a new form of religion is invented, but it has no attractions for us! We have left off being pilgrims—we are settled down and cannot, by God’s Grace, be moved! We say of all these inventions—
“Should all the forms that men devise