Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2758
“Return to your rest, O my soul; for the Lord hats dealt bountifully with you.” Psalm 116:7.
You who have not be1ieved in our Lord Jesus Christ have no rest to which you can return, for you have never found any. May God grant to you the Grace to come to Christ that you may find rest unto your souls! But we who believe in Him do enter into rest. We are sometimes described as journeying through the wilderness towards Canaan, and the type is quite allowable, but still, it must not be pressed too far, for, in another sense, we have already entered into our rest. We have entered the Canaan which our Joshua has given to us. Moses, by the Law of God, could not lead us into this promised land, but Jesus has brought us into it and we now have our portion and our inheritance in the Covenant blessings which God has provided for His people in Christ Jesus His Son. God’s people, when they are as they ought to be, are in a state of rest even now. I do not mean that they will have rest so far as this world is concerned, for this earth is not our rest, it is polluted. But I do mean that as the Apostle Paul writes to the Romans, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” I mean that, as he also says, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And that peace includes “rest, sweet rest”—especially that “peace of God, which passes all understanding,” which the Apostle declares, “shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
If I am, at this time, addressing any who have, for a while, lost the enjoyment of this blessed rest, my message to them is, “Return to your rest.” I hope that they will be able to take the Psalmist’s words to themselves and to say with him, “Return to your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.”
I. The first thing for us to remember is that THE BELIEVER HAS HIS REST. The Psalmist says, “Return to your rest, O my soul,”
There is a position, or an experience in which the Believer’s heart is perfectly at rest. While trying to think how I should describe it, nothing seemed to strike me as a more full and accurate description of the Believer’s rest than the apostolic benediction with which we are accustomed to dismiss our assemblies. He has true rest of heart who abides in the spirit of these words—“The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.”
The first rest of the heart comes to us through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ We generally speak of Him as the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, but in the benediction He is put first because, to our experience, He is first. No man comes unto God the Father except by God the Son. So, to us, Christ is first because that is the way His Grace works in us. And, Beloved, when you know how to come to Christ for Grace—no, when you havecome to Him and have received from Him the Grace to cover all your sin—the Grace to justify you in the sight of God—the Grace of adoption, by which you become a son of God in Him who is the Father’s only-begotten and well-beloved Son—when you have received the Grace of union with Christ so that you know yourselves to be members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones—when you know that all His Grace is yours and that He, Himself, is yours, then it is that you get rest unto your souls!
Sin can no longer disturb you, for it is drowned in the Red Sea of His stoning Sacrifice. Your necessities cannot distress you, for they are all supplied by God “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Nothing need perplex, or afflict, or worry you any more. All the troubles of thought are ended as you believe what your Lord tells you. All the cravings of your heart are satisfied as you take Him to be the Beloved of your soul. All the struggles of your conscience are ended as Christ brings to you peace and rest forever concerning all your sin. In fact, as soon as you come to Him, He gives you, through His abundant Grace, rest about everything!
This, then, is the first rest of the Believer which comes to Him through the Grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
There is a further rest for us who believe and a very sweet one. It is in the love of God. I t comes to us when we hear such a gentle whisper as this, “I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.” Or this, “Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honorable and I have loved you: therefore will I give men for you and people for your life.” Or this, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire: you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Oh, what blessed rest springs out of electing love and adopting love! What sweet rest we obtain from the assurance that God the Father and God the Son both love us, even as our Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “He that has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.” Thus is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.