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[0:00] Lord may help me, I would direct you for a short time this evening to the 116th Psalm, verses 7 to 9.

[0:17] Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, for thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, my feet from falling.

[0:42] I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. We mentioned this morning that this voice is the voice of faith in response to the influence of the Holy Spirit in the troubled sinner's heart.

[1:14] And they try and show the importance of having that evidence of like precious faith to hear the voice of the Spirit in their hearts and the response of faith to that voice.

[1:39] It is exceedingly blessing. And if we never hear that voice, and it is a permanent silence, it is a fatal silence, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

[2:05] And therefore, this text, the seventh verse, is an invitation of faith to the soul.

[2:24] Return unto thy rest, O my soul. And when you are brought into a weariness of spirit, there is nothing in this world that can satisfy you.

[2:46] There are things which satisfy the flesh, but you will realize that word of the Lord in the, in the, in Jeremiah, the fourth chapter.

[3:07] If thou wilt return, return unto me. And a poor soul, burdened with guilt, disturbed in his conscience, with united trials, as we mentioned the preceding verses, they are in such a case, that when thus they are under pressure, they will be brought to turn unto the Lord in the first instance, exclusively.

[3:51] There are times and conditions when you may turn to your bookshelves and take down a gracious author.

[4:03] And, uh, it may be sanctified to your good. But when you come to such a path as this, the sorrows of death compassed me, the pains of hell get old upon me, I found trouble and sorrow.

[4:21] You have to bypass all authors except the author of salvation. And so, the Lord said by Jeremiah, if he will return, return unto me.

[4:36] Some of you may know that. You turn, as it were, your face to the wall, away from all creatures, and away from all streams except that which flows from Bethlehem.

[4:54] And what a relief that is. And when the Holy Spirit shows a weary soul, uh, the, uh, the, the, the all-sufficiency of the fullness of Christ, rest, and, uh, can see that in him there is everything to give rest here.

[5:16] and nothing else can. Uh, that account of the dove going from the ark is a beautiful example of this rest.

[5:33] rest. She could not find rest for the sole of her feet. And you will remember it was because the water covered the whole earth.

[5:46] It didn't leave space enough for, uh, to alight on. She had to come back. The raven, uh, could, uh, feed and alight upon the dead bodies, upon corruption.

[6:01] Oh, have you ever felt that, my dear friends? Sinking in self under a sense of the corruptions of your nature.

[6:17] Uh, the universality of your destitution of all that's good, your fullness of all that is evil. Uh, together, uh, with a messenger of Satan buffeting and, uh, uh, the devil whispering in his sarcasm and reproaches, where is now thy God?

[6:49] He knows when to make that thrust at the heart of a poor, weary sinner. Show you your condition. Show to you that the pain of hell got hold of you.

[7:04] Now, where is your God? You've boasted of him, spoken of him, preached about him, talked about him.

[7:14] Where is he? Look, look at your condition and circumstances and things get worse. And things get worse. Return unto thy rest, O my soul.

[7:32] And here is a light. A light to shine upon another road. A light, the lifting up of the light of God's countenance upon a poor, weary, burdened sinner.

[7:51] And a faith labors, labors under this load, and labors to enter into Christ's rest.

[8:02] Knows it's there. faith, yes, faith, faith, will struggle to get unto the Lord.

[8:15] That's his object. That's his end. Return unto thy rest, O my soul.

[8:26] Then the rest here that is set before his people is the gospel of salvation. And the sum and substance, the center and circumference of the gospel is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[8:48] For it pleased the Father that in him should all upon us without exception dwell. And therefore, a weary soul can only find rest in God, God in Christ.

[9:07] I think we concluded this morning by just mentioning the rest that is in his sin atoning blood.

[9:20] And this really is the the most effectual rest in the gospel. Because all restlessness, all burdens come from sin, indwelling sin.

[9:45] And that therefore, we, as we read the word of God, God, I don't know whether we noticed it, but there is a sweet rest in the Holy Scripture.

[9:58] But it will be connected with the work of the Spirit in an exercised soul. As for instance, in that day, there shall be open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Israel, a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.

[10:25] That won't be just a quotation to a poor, sin-burdened soul. You stand before that fountain. And you take, for instance, the 51st Psalm.

[10:42] There was David. David, there, he was returning to his rest right throughout that psalm, pouring out his heart before the Lord.

[10:57] And what a relief that is. It is a rest in itself to fuel your guilt remove. And this sin-atoning blood, it contains the unsearchable riches of Christ.

[11:18] It is the virtue of his person, who he is. It derives his virtue from his person. If Christ was other than who and what he is, there would be no virtue in his life or in his death or in his sacrifice.

[11:39] Christ, and faith sees this and runs to this relief and rests, rests in the atonement of Christ.

[11:51] Oh, I believe I felt in a particular way on one occasion, confession. And you will be in a state to need it.

[12:03] And I believe on that particular morning, I was just in this case. The sorrows of death compassed me. The pains of hell get old upon me.

[12:15] I found trouble and sorrow and had to come into the pulpit like that and nothing else. And dear Mr. Paul, commence with that hymn.

[12:26] There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Well, my friends, it gave me rest at once.

[12:40] The Lord can lift you up in a moment. You may gradually, almost imperceptibly decline. but when the Lord touches you, when this precious blood is sprinkled on your conscience, it brings rest and peace in a moment.

[13:05] It is a transformation. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, so that you rest in the gospel.

[13:20] It is a gospel rest here. And I would say this, if you have ever experienced that rest here, you will undoubtedly enter into that rest that remaineth to the people of God.

[13:39] It is an earnest of it. And every such touch that you get is an earnest of heaven. and the preparation for it.

[13:53] Return unto thy rest, O my soul. You notice in the reading somewhat of this rest.

[14:04] The Lord is a good shepherd. God. In the 23rd Psalm, as you know, he said, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

[14:22] He makes me to lie down. And in the chapter that we read, I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down.

[14:38] Said the Lord, cause them to do it. Oh, under these burdens and agitations, you may come to a service in utter bewilderment.

[14:53] And the Lord may give you this experience. I will feed them in a good pasture upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be.

[15:08] There they shall lie in a good fold. In a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock and will cause them to lie down as said the Lord.

[15:26] And again in that chapter I I will make with them a covenant of peace and will cause the evil beast to cease out of the land and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in other woods.

[15:49] My people shall dwell in quiet resting places. well it is very sacred for a weary soul thus to enter into a gospel rest here.

[16:09] And there is another rest there is a rest in worship. Worship is a supernatural experience it is the labor of faith.

[16:29] It is for a poor inferior sinner bearing before the majesty of heaven.

[16:45] And yet the influence of the Holy Spirit giving such a sacred sense of union God's love.

[16:56] So as to partake of the Lord Jesus Christ. To partake of the benefits of the gospel in Christ Jesus.

[17:09] To receive it into your very soul. Oh, the sacred rest at times as people feel under the preaching of the gospel.

[17:21] When the streams from the river of God flow and make glad poor, weary, sorrowful sinners, becomes to them a life-strong drink to those that are ready to perish and wine unto those that are of a heavy heart.

[17:44] there is nothing to be compared with it. It is different in its nature from every other rest. It is a spiritual rest for those that are spiritually weary, weary of earth and self and sin.

[18:02] Those who have prayed in secret, emptied of earth, I fail would be, the world, myself, and all but thee, only reserved for Christ that died, surrendered to the crucified.

[18:25] You rest there. And it is also a rest in submission to the will of God. We shall never rest with rebellion in our hearts against him, against his dealings with us.

[18:47] But it is a sweet rest, good and still knew it, to lie submissive in his hands, and know no will but this.

[19:00] You rest there. About the end will be heaven. Let not your heart be troubled.

[19:14] Ye believe in God, believe also in me. And this is the voice of the Lord. My dear friends, don't be satisfied with reading it.

[19:29] We must partake of it. Do we ever hear his voice in the scriptures? Does it ever speak to us? Do we ever find rest and lie down in these green pastures of the holy scripture and find rest in God?

[19:48] me. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also.

[20:09] Now, if ever you have found rest in the Lord here, it is an earnest of that rest that remaineth to the people of God. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, for they cease from their labors, and their works do rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.

[20:38] return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

[20:57] This is an acknowledgement of faith, and the remembrance of it in the midst of these troubles and sorrows, is very encouraging.

[21:13] The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, and how bountifully has he dealt with his people, dealt bountifully with them in the covenant of grace, had every provision there for them, and everything that will take them to heaven, and everything that will make them fit to be there, all these covenant blessings the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

[21:50] Peter speaks of them, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

[22:08] It's all there, it makes him precious, and when you view it by faith, you can rest in him, rest and trust in him with body and soul for time and for eternity.

[22:29] The Lord hath felt bountifully with thee. Bountifully too in calling you by his grace.

[22:44] There's no such dealing with any as there is when one is called by sovereign grace.

[22:55] and that proceeds from the covenant bounty, his bounteous love, his plenteous redemption, the multitude of his mercies, and it proceeds from predestination, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, though this effectual calling is a bountiful dealing.

[23:29] And therefore, oh my soul, return to this Lord, rest in him, rest in his fullness, it is an eternal sufficiency, rest in his infinite wisdom to direct, rest and trust in his name, his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, rest, rest in his name, it is what he is, rest in his divine attributes and perfections, rest in him, as he is omniscient and omnipresent, you cannot be where he cannot see you and you cannot be where he is not and rest too in his immutability he is unchanging and therefore if

[24:39] God be for us who can be against us all this is a rest my friends to enter into you'll be surrounded by Jehovah as the mountains are round about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about them that fear him and that is his people are surrounded and under the divine perfections of what he is oh you'll rest in the Lord then yes he'll be your rock he brought me up also out of a horrible pit where there were the sorrows of death and the pains of hell he brought me up and set my feet upon Christ the rock and that will establish your goings as you staggered as you were ready to halt and feared that one day you would faithless prove and give up all but he set my feet upon a rock and that established my goings you could pursue you could follow after him and your appetite was increased your hope was strengthened your faith was increased the

[26:19] Lord has dealt bountifully with thee and he has dealt bountifully with some in bringing them out of trouble more a thirty second psalm beautiful psalm that is to this point home of hire delivered bye and teach thee in demo guide thee with mine eye.

[27:09] And the response of faith is, Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.

[27:25] It's wonderful to rest in the word of God, not in the mere word, but in the spirit of the word. It must speak to us we shall never rest in it unless it does.

[27:47] And for the Lord hath dealt doubtfully with thee and you needed it. You remember in the 119th Psalm there is this prayer Deal doubtfully with thy servant, O Lord, that I may live and keep thy word.

[28:10] Lord, I want a lot. If you only want a little, you want nothing that's spiritual. Yes, and there will be a kind of an attraction, an arrest in that attraction, as you venture to the throne of grace and say, Lord, deal bountifully with me.

[28:37] You'll feel it because you'll be brought there. You'll say in spirit, Lord, I want the whole of thee.

[28:49] I need the whole of thy precious blood and thy righteousness. And thy righteousness. You'll feel that you need salvation as though you were the only one that the Lord Jesus came to save.

[29:04] Deal bountifully with me. And when he does, when you lie down in green pastures, when he causes you to do it, makes you to lie down, then you can say, the Lord has dealt bountifully with me.

[29:32] And then he goes on to speak of some of these bountiful things that the Lord has done. For thou hast delivered my soul from death.

[29:44] In regard to David, he had delivered him from corporeal death, really. For Saul pursued him and threatened his life.

[30:00] Threw a javelin at him, but the Lord preserved his life. David was a man of war. And so that the Lord did deliver him from corporeal death.

[30:19] But he delivered him from death in sin. He was under that great word in the Ephesians.

[30:36] And you have been quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. Oh, what a death to be delivered from.

[30:52] And if we are, we should have had the sentence of death in ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, finding that there's nothing in ourselves to trust in.

[31:07] that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God that that that raiseth the dead, who hath delivered, who who doth deliver, in whom we trust he will yet deliver us.

[31:27] The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. And oh, cannot some of you say in the pathway of life that he's delivered you from many fears, from many sorrows, from many evil men who have sought your overthrow, delivered you in that way of which he speaks by Isaiah.

[31:56] No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee shall not prevail.

[32:13] And so some of you might have found that the Lord has given men for your sakes. There have been those who have had an enemy perhaps in their workshop or wherever it was been an enemy to them.

[32:33] The Lord has removed them. I give men for thy sake. And so we can look back and see deliverances.

[32:45] You may come into a particular trouble that you fear will bring you into public disgrace and fear that it will involve the church of God and bring a reproach upon the church.

[33:04] And the Lord has delivered you. Oh, it's a wonderful thing, my friends, speaking for myself, that I've not made shipwreck of faith.

[33:17] O, the deliverances that his people have through life's journey. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath built bountifully with thee, for thou hast delivered my soul from death.

[33:40] And he will deliver his people from death at last. death is the last enemy to be destroyed.

[33:54] And the work of grace will go on beyond the grave. That as sin has reigned until death, even so, it's a wonderful evil, even so, as sin has reigned unto death, even so, shall grace reign not only unto death, shall grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, right through death to eternal life.

[34:35] death. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, delivered him from that second death.

[34:47] death. When we come to consider these deep things of God, my friends, it will give us to realize that their only rest, their only refuge, their only happiness is in the Lord.

[35:12] man, oh, it does make him precious. It makes him the cheapest among ten thousand. And it gives us to understand what he said to Martha.

[35:29] Martha, Martha, thou are troubled about many things. One thing is needful. And you'll agree with it in your very soul.

[35:42] Because if we are put in possession of that one thing needful, we have everything. All things are yours because ye are Christ's and because Christ is God's.

[36:00] Thou hast dealt bountifully with me. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears.

[36:15] My tears have been my meat and my drink day and night, said David in the 42nd Psalm. Tears.

[36:30] This is a valley of sorrow, a valley of tears. tears. But they're spiritual tears.

[36:43] I wish I could shed them. The Lord, according to his word, puts those tears in his bottle. I wonder if he's got any of our tears in his bottle.

[36:58] heart. Oh, this is a broken, contrite heart. He knows the upward glancing of an eye, the falling of a tear.

[37:16] These may appear simple things, my friends, but are they? Can you produce it? Can you produce a broken and contrite heart?

[37:30] Of course, these tears are not crocodiles' tears, not hypocrites' tears. It's a mourning soul.

[37:41] Blessed are they that mourn. They shall be eternally comforted. For thou hast delivered my soul from dead, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling, and looking back, my feet from falling.

[38:05] They have said my feet were almost gone, my steps had well not slipped. Yes.

[38:21] And you have had to thank God for this. When my foot slipped, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.

[38:38] Life's a slippery path. And we are apt to let things slip, that we should hold fast.

[38:48] we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

[39:02] And there are some slippery places. One slippery place is prosperity. You're more apt to slip in prosperity than you are in adversity.

[39:15] death. And we're apt to slip because of our carnality. We are the earth earthy.

[39:26] And when grace is not in exercise, then a carnal mind is. We're apt to slip too with respect to idols.

[39:39] We can let idols into our heart, but we can never cast them out. We shall need the Lord Jesus, who cast out unclean spirit.

[39:57] For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, my feet from falling, and now this gives him confidence.

[40:10] I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. And in the 27th Psalm, the conclusion, we see David recounting some of his sorrows.

[40:37] his hope, he said this, I had fated unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

[40:53] And his faith clave unto that. His hope anchored in the person of God's dear son.

[41:05] son. And therefore he didn't faint because he hoped. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

[41:25] Now there's two parts to the land of the living. God's love. One part is in the church of God where the Holy Ghost is and her communications from heaven to the soul.

[41:43] The gospel is the land of the living here. Ye are come unto Mount Zion to the city of the living God.

[41:54] God and there will be times when you feel the very atmosphere is charged with the solemn sacred presence of the living God and his living truth.

[42:08] And there are times when it enters in that you are changed into the same image from glory to glory. And it makes your very soul for the time being the very land of the living.

[42:28] It's a separate land from this poor world. It's a heavenly land and there you sit with Christ in heavenly places. Have you ever known it in measure?

[42:44] Oh it's an earnest of the rest that remain to the people of God. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

[43:02] But ultimately this is heaven itself. He gives his people here to walk up and down in his great name.

[43:16] But there my friends he will be the leader and will lead his dear people to fountains of living water. I will walk before the Lord.

[43:30] It is to walk before him here. And if we walk before him we walk safely surely. It was an instruction to Abraham when he was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said I am the mighty God walk before me and be their car head is a wonderful word of instruction.

[44:07] Abraham had before him a trouble. The Lord told him that although his seed would be as the stars in the heavens yet they would be in captivity for hundred and twenty years.

[44:29] And he said I saw a smoking furnace. But he said walk before me. If you walk before yourself you are faint.

[44:44] If you walk before your enemies you will be overcome. If you walk before the world then you walk before mere darkness dimness and anguish.

[44:59] But if you walk before me you will be perfect. That is complete. Because if you walk before me you walk before him that is infinite in wisdom omnipotent in power and changing whose divine sovereignty is universal and absolute walk before me and be perfect or complete.

[45:27] I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living heaven. That's the issue of it all. Oh return unto thy rest O my soul.

[45:44] And that beautiful invitation will go through to the end. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you eternal rest.

[46:03] O may we not only sing the rest remaining but may the Lord guide us with this counsel and afterward receive us to glory.

[46:16]  Amen.