Address—Bill Prost
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good afternoon, I'd like to begin as usual with a him #64 #64 the 1St 6 verses.
#64 the 1St 6 verses. But before we sing it, I'd like to tell you a short story.
And make a request.
I hope no one is offended by this, but it's a true story.
About 30 years ago I was at a conference in North America here, a fairly large conference, and at that conference there was a woman who was a true believer, but who was not gathered to the Lord's name.
And some of us after the meetings were talking to her and asking her how she enjoyed them. Oh, she said, I really enjoyed the meetings. They were very, very good. But she said just one thing. She said, when I came, I thought I would be able to praise the Lord, and I didn't realize that I would be coming to a funeral.
Ouch.
What was she referring to?
Slow singing.
This is a happy hymn. This is talking about the joy that you and I will experience in the coming day. Let's try and sing it that way, please.
Oh bro.
551138.
2014.
Oh, everything, Wine, water and pants when brought in. Christ, come again.
Uh, no longer needs to have.
Uh.
Right, straighteners. And I'm glad we come here to come and come along.
No, no, no.
Thank you.
Let's look to the Lord, our loving God and our Father. We look up to thee this afternoon. We're thankful hearts that we can indeed sing the rest of God, our rest to come, our place of liberty. Yes, in that light unstained our stainless soul shall live. We thank thee for that great prospect, blessed God our Father.
00:05:09
And we thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whose work on Calvary's cross has made all of that possible.
And now we look to thee as we open thy word again this afternoon.
Praying that Thou will speak to each one of our hearts. Undertake forests we pray, for Thou knowest the need far better than we.
For we ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
You will notice.
Excuse me?
In several verses of that hymn it mentions the word rest. And notice the language in verse 2. The rest of God, our rest to come. Yes. And then notice the language in verse six. Our God whom we have known.
Well known in Jesus, love rests in the blessing of his own.
Before himself above.
I was at a Bible conference probably about 25 years ago now and was asked to take the responsibility of a meeting like this. And as I was walking up, an older brother who evidently had a real burden in his own heart.
Said quite loudly to me so that a number could hear.
When with real pathos and emotion in his voice, he said.
Have you got something for the heart?
An older brother here whose name I won't mention, spoke to me yesterday afternoon, probably having no idea that I had this meeting. And he said where is the compassion that we need and words for the heart.
That reminded me of a good story, which is absolutely true, of two brothers more than 150 years ago who were walking to a reading meeting.
And one of them, whose name was John, turned to the other one whose name was also John, and the first one said John.
Please tonight remember that the Saints have consciences as well as hearts.
The other brother was quick on the draw. They were very good friends, and returned the compliment by saying, And you, John, you remember that they have hearts as well as consciences.
Well, the first brother was John Darby. The second brother was John Bellitt. Well known brothers who have written our written ministry, but each one had an emphasis in his ministry and both are needed.
I trust what we have before us. This afternoon. We'll speak to my heart and your heart and to our consciences too, because I would like to speak about rest and peace.
And it has come home to my soul that it is something that everyone in this world desires today.
But yet Satan has done a rather unusual thing, at least in the Western world. And it's kind of a paradox because on the one hand, he has made life so complicated and so involved that our minds are constantly in motion.
It has been estimated today, and probably accurately, that the average man or woman in the business world today.
Probably processes more information in a matter of a week than the average working man in the 1800s did in a lifetime.
Kind of mind boggling, but it's probably true if you think about it.
And Satan has so filled men's minds that there is no time to think about what really matters.
00:10:02
But then people start to go over the Cliff, so to speak. They start to have problems. The mind gets overloaded in computer language, the hard drive gets overloaded, and the computers start to crack.
Yes, they do, don't they? So Satan says well I'll fix that for you. And in the last few years he has introduced the concept and most hear that our younger have at least heard about it, if not experienced it. Mindfulness.
Stop and enjoy the moment. Smell the roses as it were. Take time to enjoy the present. Sounds good, doesn't it?
But then Satan proceeds to connect all that with Eastern religions and introduce into your mind and mind and to the world at large, if he can, all of this idea.
Which is related to what was hatched a number of years ago. Transcendental Meditation. And all of that is merely a tool of Satan to get another means of control.
Of your mind and mind.
Among believers today, likewise, sad to say, there are many who do not have real rest and peace in their lives. And there are young people here and children too, whom I know are finding it very, very difficult even to.
Get on with their homework and to do all the things that are demanded of you today.
It's a very different world.
My children laughed at me when I told them that I never had homework until I went to high school. They said. Boy, we wish we'd lived a generation ago.
Life has changed.
But can you and I walk through this world in rest and peace? Indeed we can.
Some years ago, someone who wanted.
To launch a contest.
Was asking for people, especially artists of course, to paint a picture which exemplified rest and peace.
And many were submitted. Some painted a picture of a beautiful Meadow, very quiet and peaceful, sometimes with cows or other animals grazing in it. Some painted a picture of a majestic mountain. Some painted pictures of beautiful water in one way or another, but I was intrigued by.
The one that won the contest.
And it was a picture of a seashore where a storm was raging.
Winds were blowing with terrific force. Waves were dashing up against the rocks on the shore. But high up on those rocks, in a sheltered area, away from the wind, away from the water and the waves, here was a little bird singing its heart out that won the prize.
By grace, I say to you and me today, we can be like that little bird.
Let's turn to God's Word first of all, Matthew's Gospel Chapter 11 for a start.
Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 11.
Excuse me?
See if we can balance this bottle and not get in trouble with it.
Matthew Chapter 11, verse 28 well known verse.
Just a moment here.
Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And a very similar verse in John's Gospel, chapter 14.
00:15:06
John, Chapter 14.
And verse 27.
The first clause of the verse.
Peace I leave with you.
The first step in having rest in peace is to find peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not a gospel meeting, but I want to say that if there is anyone here who does not have the rest and peace that comes from knowing that the question of sin is all settled before God.
This is the first step to rest in peace in this world.
Doubtless the Lord Jesus, in saying all ye that labor and are heavy laden, was talking perhaps to godly Jews, who in a sincere effort were trying to keep the law.
But it was impossible. The burden was too heavy. And in Acts 15.
Peter could say, referring to the believers, why tempti God to put upon the necks of the believers a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. It was an impossible yoke. And the Lord says, Oh, come unto me, if you're doing that, and I will give you rest.
We aren't going to spend a lot of time on it.
Because I know in the company to whom I am speaking, the vast majority, and I hope all here know what rest and peace is through the finished work of Christ.
What we want to go on a little bit from there because the work of Christ on the cross does not merely deliver you and me from the penalty of sin, it also.
Delivers us from the power of sin. Let's turn to Romans chapter 6 again a well known chapter.
And yet a most important one. Romans chapter 6.
Verse one.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid, How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
No, you're not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised from the dead, raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Verse 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead, indeed under sin.
But alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If we go on to the 7th chapter, we find a man who is really trying to do what is right, but he's trying to do it in human energy. And what happens? Notice what happens here in Chapter 7.
Verse 19.
Romans 7 and verse 19. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Verse 24.
Oh, wretched man that I am.
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
This precious truth is a subject all on its own, and we don't have time to develop it because it would take the rest of the hour.
But many dear believers today, while they have no question that their sins are forgiven through the precious blood of Christ, do not live in the good and blessing of deliverance, not from the penalty of sin so much, but the power of sin. And many dear believers.
00:20:14
Are living lives of fear.
I was in a home once.
Nice family gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But someone who had grown up in that home told me that every time they did something wrong.
They were told, Remember, God's going to get you for that.
Yes, there is a government in the House of God, no question about it, as there is a government, I am sure, in every godly home here and there is government in the local assembly.
But is that God's preferred way of dealing with you and me under grace? That's why it says in the first verse of Romans or the second verse of Romans 6 here. God forbid, God forbid. Why? Because if you and I have been brought to Christ.
Under the grace of God and we recognize that in the death and resurrection of Christ.
God saw the end of that old Adam nature, and if I, and I hope you have been baptized and gone down under the water and come up out of the water, that has nothing to do with eternal salvation and releasing us from the penalty of sin, but it has everything to do with not being brought under the power of sin.
But the power is not in you and me.
It's in Christ and we have to look out of ourselves in order to be saved from the penalty of sin. We have to look outside of ourselves to be relieved from the power of sin. And when we see ourselves as being in Christ, then we find that we are indwelt by the Spirit of God and no longer are we.
As Scripture says, in flesh we are in spirit.
That's why a legal standard among believers is so wrong.
Some here, but you pretty well have to be 50 years old to remember my late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe. But I remember his saying in a reading meeting and it was very apartment. He said what is the point of putting a man under law who has one nature that can't keep the law and another nature that can't break it? He said do you put that kind of a man under law?
Why, if the old nature's in exercise, he can't keep the law, and if the new nature is working?
It can't break the law. Does it make any sense to put that kind of a man under law? No. What do you do?
You say, let that old nature be as wicked and bad as it possibly can. God sees it as having died with Christ. Now the old nature is not dead by any means, God says.
Reckon you yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. God saw the end of the first man at the cross. Now you and I are unable to walk in units of life.
I say to each one here, but if I may be permitted, although this is not a young people's meeting, young people, if you don't get hold of that, if that doesn't make sense after the meeting, talk to someone, read the word of God, get it clear in your soul, because the strongest force to keep you and me from sitting is not the fear of the government of.
God, it is rather a sense of grace in our souls. Let's get hold of that.
My mother passed away.
29 years ago. 28 years ago this year.
But it wasn't until my father passed away, and that was 19 years ago this year.
00:25:02
That some of the things that were squirreled away in my father's house came to light, and one of them, Needless to say, was my mother's diary, which I read with great relish. As you can well imagine. She had that well put away where prying eyes of boys did not get into it, but I found it very interesting.
And I found it interesting and it doesn't matter if I say this now.
She's long since with the Lord. She told of how in a gospel meeting when she was going to nursing school in her 20s, how she had heard a reference to deliverance from the power of sin. She was saved. But then the brother after the meeting.
Said if anyone here has a question or a problem, please stay behind. It would be nice to talk about it. Well, she didn't have any problem as to her salvation, but in her diary she wrote, I stayed and the brother explained it very well to me. And then another brother came up and I knew those brothers.
Their long since with the Lord and he explained it even better.
And she said, for the first time in my life, I felt real liberty in my Christian pathway. Rest and peace. Wonderful to have and very, very important.
Well, that has to do with salvation.
But that is not all of it, because we want to talk about other aspects of rest. Suppose that we do have rest as to our eternal salvation, and we understand the rest as to deliverance from the power of sin in our lives.
Is there rest from other things? Let us go back to that verse in Matthew 11 and read the next verse, Matthew 11, this time verse 29.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest under your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Once again, back to John's Gospel, chapter 14.
And again in verse 27.
Let's continue with this verse.
Second clause of the verse.
My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
And then turn over the page to the last verse of John 16.
Verse 33.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.
This peace and rest is not that which refers to our salvation.
No, it goes beyond all that. In one sense it is rest in peace as to our circumstances down here.
And as I said earlier, I know for a fact that there are young people here.
As well as some who are middle-aged and some who in my bracket are getting older.
Do we have rest in peace as to our circumstances? The world has always been against the believer and Satan will do his best to do just what we had before us in the reading meetings that we should not do to get you worried and anxious and upset about things.
In our Christian pathway.
00:30:04
I read some time ago a bit of a study that somebody had done in the secular world that said that people that worried a certain amount generally had a better time and were happier than those that didn't worry at all.
Rather unusual. I took that, as they say, with a pinch of salt, but I suppose they probably had some merit in what they said, because sometimes they were speaking about not mere worry, but the fact that people who were concerned about their affairs sometimes took life a little more seriously than those that were just so happy go lucky.
That they never worried about anything, including whether they should go to work that day.
And that isn't right either. But whatever the point, the Lord would have us as we've had in other par parts. And these verses were quoted in the reading meetings. God would have us without carefulness. God would have us without worry. He would have us to have rest.
And sometimes the conditions in our lives have nothing to do with our doing.
And sometimes, let's admit it because I have been guilty of it, we can easily develop that poor me feeling sorry for myself syndrome, can't we? I have certainly done it. I have no problem admitting it. Because forces that out, that are outside of ourselves arrange circumstances over which we have no control.
Maybe our family breaks up.
Maybe things happen, shall I say it, in our local assembly that throw a big monkey wrench into all of the nice, smooth, happy life that I had. Maybe things happen at work that are out of my control and things go wrong. Things happen in our education. Things happen in all sorts of ways and we say I did not need this.
OK.
The whole point is if we really look into the Word of God, the fact is we didn't need it. And we do need it because God has an an old brother used to say every one of us is in the school of God, but none of us are in a classroom. God has an individual tuition for every believer.
That.
Is wonderful because God is arranging every circumstance in your life and mine in order to do for us what He wants to do.
In order to make us what He wants us to be.
Many years ago there was a sculptor who was sculpting away there, chipping away with a hammer and chisel, and he'd walk around and so on, and eventually he turned out a very beautiful specimen of one of the aboriginals of this land, the so-called North American Indians, in full headdress, standing erect and proud.
It was absolutely beautiful.
And an amateur who didn't know much about art approached the sculptor and he said, how do you do that? How do you do that to make it make it looks, make it look so perfect like that? Well, anybody here that is an artist knows very well how, how can you explain something like that?
And the artist simply replied, Well, he said, it's it's actually quite simple. You just look at that block of marble or granite.
And you just chip away everything that doesn't look like an Indian.
It was pretty elementary, but it's true. But the skill and the art, to be able to do that, well, that, that's another story, isn't it?
But for you and for me, God is chipping away everything that doesn't look like Christ.
And it won't be complete until we get to the glory. But the point is.
00:35:00
Are you and I having Rest in Peace in the midst of that process, or is it very difficult for us?
Sometimes we do have difficulties in our lives, and I want to turn to a verse or two that represent that. They're in the Old Testament. One of them we read earlier, it's in Second Chronicles 15, and we'll turn back to that Second Chronicles 15.
And verse 5. Second Chronicles 15 and verse 5.
Now this is in the time of a man by the name of ASA, a godly king, but it's referring to the days before him. And it says, And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants.
Of the countries.
Now turn over to the book of Isaiah.
Chapter 48.
Isaiah chapter 48.
Last verse verse 22.
There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.
Turn over a few chapters to Chapter 57.
Again, the last verse.
Verse 21.
There is no peace, saith my God, through the wicked.
In all of these circumstances, there was a reason why there was number peace. There was no peace in the time of Israel prior to ASA. And I believe this refers back those that verse that we read in Second Chronicles, probably to the day of the days of the Judges, although maybe not exclusively because there every man was doing what was right in his own eyes.
In Isaiah when God says in chapter 48.
There is no peace. Seth, my God to the wicked. He is culminating 9 chapters, all of which take up God's controversy with Israel for worshipping idols.
And when at the end of the 57th chapter he says essentially the same words.
He is culminating 9 chapters, all of which take up God's controversy with Israel. And it was in the future of course, but for rejecting their Messiah.
The application for you and me is we cannot expect to have the rest in peace of God in our souls if we are not walking with the Lord.
Our time is going. We don't want to go over time, but let me mention a few things here that are on the negative side.
If we collectively turn away from the Lord and follow our own path, then we cannot expect to have God's rest in peace in our lives. God loves us too much for that. He's going to stir your little nest up. He's going to cause you difficulties in order to recall you to Himself.
Maybe you say like I would never worship idols, but it was mentioned in the readings and I reiterate the Apostle Paul could say covetousness, which is idolatry. And John in his first epistle could say, little children, keep yourselves from idols. What are idols? They are anything in this world that comes between you and me in Christ.
And I remember very well reading in our written ministry something that I must confess.
Hit me very hard, it said. If you and I have our hearts set on anything.
On which Christ does not have his heart set. To that extent we are out of communion.
00:40:10
And don't think that I am exempt. That hit me hard.
I don't mind telling you why, because from the time I was five years old, I was a car buff. I loved cars.
They fascinated me right from my younger days and I can still remember when someone that worked on the farm on which I lived happened to crash his car. And, uh, one thing he, he brought home was the hood ornament. There wasn't much else that was left and he gave it to me and that was my prized possession, that little hood ornament.
From the 1940s, Plymouth and so on. The point is, there are idols in the hearts of every one of us, and it doesn't matter what it is.
We better be careful if we have idols because they will take away from the rest of God in our souls.
But then the rejection of the Messiah by Israel goes deeper, and you say, how could we possibly talk about that in Christian circles? Because we have accepted Christ as our Savior?
We have accepted him as our savior but, and it's a big but.
Is he the Lord of my life? Is he the Lord of my life? Or have I accepted Him as my Savior? And then I want Him to give me a nice, relaxed, easy life so that I can go to heaven at the end. That's not what we're here for if you and I are going to have God's rest and peace.
What do we have to do? We have to go back to Matthew 11 and 29 and get in the yoke with the Lord Jesus.
And being in a yoke in one sense is not nice because you're in that yolk. You don't see them in North America very often, but in eastern countries they're still very common. They still use oxen a lot, and I've seen a good many wooden yolks over in India, for example. And in other places, up in the little country of Bhutan, north of India, they still plow with yolks of oxen and still use the.
Old crook stick plow which probably dates back and it's.
Design at least 3000 years, they still do it. And when an ox is in that yolk with another yak, with another ox, you don't get out of that yolk and you don't pull ahead of the other one. That doesn't work, but neither do you drag back. You have to pull together. But there's something in being in the yoke with the Lord Jesus.
You and I will find rest unto our souls, and sometimes we will be like that little bird about whom we spoke earlier in that painting where there's a tremendous storm swirling around.
And the wind is blowing and everything's going wrong. Perhaps.
Maybe the artist, if he'd been a believer, would have put two birds in that little cleft in the rock, one to represent the Lord himself and one to represent you and me. We can be like that. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 4.
Philippians, Chapter 4.
This was already referred to, but it'll bear repeating.
Philippians 4 and verse 6.
So before we read verse six, I wanna read verse five. There is a connection I would suggest.
Let your moderation, let your yieldingness be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand, or the Lord is near. I want to make an application of that scripture before we read verse 6. The yielding us is to be known to all men.
But ultimately, to whom do we yield?
To other men, yes, as far as is possible without dishonoring the Lord, we should. But the yielding us here, I believe, is ultimately to the Lord, because in the JND translation it reads the Lord is near. I like that the Lord is near, meaning two things at least to my soul.
00:45:12
It means that he is the author of every circumstance through which you and I may be called upon to pass, but he is also the one who is near to take me through those circumstances. And so an old brother long since with the Lord used to say, and some here will recognize about whom I'm speaking, the secret of a happy Christian pathway.
Is to take your circumstances from the Lord and your difficulties.
To the Lord.
Very, very true. That is the order in which we have to take it. So let's read verse 6.
Be careful, be anxious for nothing.
But in everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep, and that word keep us a strong word. It has the sense of guarding your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Our hearts and minds need guarding at times.
Because this world is a difficult place, and if we are not in this favored land experiencing outright persecution in the sense that some of our brethren are, yet at the same time Second Timothy 3 holds true. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and Satan is going to make life so difficult for you and me that many are going to give up.
And you may.
And he knows this, you will not lose your eternal salvation, but you may end up paralyzed in the work of the Lord because you say the pathway is just too difficult. And as the difficulties and problems like waves of the ocean just keep coming and coming and coming, it reminds me of what?
Happened, and this was way back in the 1800s when there was a difficulty among God's people.
And as two older brothers, or rather a younger and an older brother were walking home from a brother's care meeting where there had been some difficulties discussed and there were problems on the horizon, the younger ones said to the older one brother, how long does this going to go on?
And the older one, right? Very wisely, said, he said. Brother, the Scripture knows no future for the believer but glory.
Beautiful. No future for the believer, but glory. That's true.
But let's go down in the chapter here for a moment. There's something, if possible, even better than the peace of God guarding our hearts. The peace of God guarding our hearts is taking my circumstances to the Lord and having the sense that he is overall that he is going to that I, I accept them from him and that he's going.
To take me through them.
But then going down in the chapter, what do we read?
Verse 9. Those things which she have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do.
And what the God of peace shall be with you?
Christianity is both negative and positive, and we don't want to forget the positive.
The negative side is that I am anxious for nothing, that I accept the circumstances from the Lord, that I take my circumstances to the Lord, and that I have the peace of God about them.
But the difficulty sometimes that comes in is that believers are paralyzed. The difficulties are so great.
That believers say, well, I'm on my way to heaven and I know where I'm going. But that's about all I can say for now. And I hope the illustration doesn't uh, uh, get overdone, but I've used it because I have seen it happen.
00:50:18
Uh, I can honestly say it's not my normal thing because generally I happen to be a morning person and I don't need something to pick me up in the morning, but I have gone in when I used to work.
During my student days for big companies, gone into an office and particularly on Monday morning, say, uh, at 8:00, see people staggering into work. And maybe they hadn't been using the weekend as profitably as they might, but anyway, they staggered into work, groping for the cup of coffee that they hoped was available. And you asked them how, how are you this morning?
Well, I'm here. And that was.
An indication? Well, don't expect too much for a while because it took everything I had just to get in here.
God doesn't want believers like that. He wants what we read in verse 9. These things that you have both learned and re deceived and heard and seen in me do.
And the God of peace shall be with you.
The Lord wants you and me to walk and live in his company. And when we have the sense of his company, oh, what else matters? What else matters? A sense of his company with us. And I say that to each one he each one here. Maybe you're you're as I was because when I was in grade school, I.
Was generally a good student but I was still afraid of exams.
And I used to pray to the Lord to help me with my exams, and I sometimes pray to the Lord to help me on the way home from school because bullying wasn't limited to this generation. It was around when I was a little boy. You should do that and have a sense of the Lord's company and presence with you. Sometimes you may have difficulties with direction in your lives or difficulties knowing how to deal with other.
Problems that somehow come your way and you say I'm not sure how to do. And I see other young people for whom things seem to open up so smoothly and everything seems to go well.
Remember.
The difficulties and problems are allowed not to defeat you, not to put you down, not to give you a disadvantage, but rather to enable you.
To do something for the Lord. But the Lord puts the ones to whom he wants to give the best work, if I can say it that way, through the hardest school. The hardest school is for those.
Who are going to do something for the Lord? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that if you're not having a hard time, you'll not do something for the Lord. That's not the point. We all are in the school of God. But the point is that if the Lord puts through you through a nightmare of difficulty, you will find afterward that you will be the stronger for it. But you have to go through it without a poor ME syndrome. You have to go through it.
Saying yes, the Lord allowed this.
Again, I say if there's something in your life and mind we need to deal with, we have to deal with it.
And that's very important.
I have seen in many cases 2 memory too many cases.
Where someone has gone along and has been a real help and done something for the Lord.
And many have felt the benefit from it.
But then the Lord comes along and puts his finger on something in that individual's life and says, deal with that.
I knew a brother in a foreign land about whom I felt led to speak about something in his life, and it was true. And he said to me, well, brother Bill, the Lord is blessing my work, the Lord is blessing my ministry, and souls are being saved, believers are being encouraged. How could there be anything wrong in my life?
Boy, said brother, the Lord doesn't withhold his hand a blessing just because we aren't perfectly like Christ yet.
00:55:02
But I believe the Lord wants you to deal with this, and thankfully He did.
But you know, there are times sometimes as believers when our hearts get lifted up in pride because we have done something for the Lord. And when the Lord puts his finger on something and says deal with it, we don't deal with it. And maybe the Lord uses our brethren to put his finger on it, their finger on it and say, brother.
You have to deal with that in your life. It's hindering you, it's serious and if it's not dealt with, it causes big problems.
And we no longer have rest unto our souls. Let's remember that. Well, we have a couple of minutes left for one more rest. And it was already mentioned in the Reading Hebrews chapter 4.
Hebrews, chapter 4.
Verse 9.
There remaineth therefore arrest to the people of God.
There remaineth therefore arrest to the people of God.
And the beautiful thing about the rest that you and I have in the future is that the rest up there is going to be God's rest.
God, as we sung in that hymn, will rest in the blessing of His own. His God resting now? Not really. Why not? Because everything is not according to His mind.
There's a rest coming in a coming day, but God is not going to rest until sin has been entirely removed from this entire universe. That won't take place till the eternal State. That won't take place until after the Great White Throne Judgment, till after every vestige of sin has been removed.
And then there is going to be rest for all eternity. How beautiful.
Let's keep that rest in mind if things are going badly down here. But let's also keep in mind that the complete rest is not down here. Yes, we can have rest under our souls, and we should, but we can never completely rest. Why?
For the simple reason that Satan and the old sinful self, they never rest. Don't think that when you get older, as I am and some others here, that the old sinful self gets burned out. No, it's the opposite, isn't it? And if I were to pick out a few older ones here by name and ask them if the the old nature gets burned out as you get older, they would probably tell me, and I know they would. They'd say no Bill if.
Thing it gets stronger. Why does it get stronger? Because the more you want to live for the Lord. Every new truth that the Spirit of God seeks to bring before your soul will find its corresponding antagonist in some aspect of your old nature.
It.
Works harder to get the ascendancy and Satan works harder on those that are really honoring the Lord. So we can't rest put up there. There will be perfect rest, won't there? And most of all, it will be God's rest. He'll rest in the blessing of you and me. Well, our time is gone.
But may the Lord give us to no rest and peace in our hearts.
Not merely by looking on to the glory, but first of all by looking all the way back to Calvary's cross. That's where it has to start. And ultimately, in one sense, that's where it has to finish. And that's why we had what we had this morning. But then let's remember that God wants you and me, whatever our circumstances, wherever we are.
To have rest and peace in walking in that yoke with our Lord Jesus Christ.
In accepting every circumstance from Him, but in taking the circumstances to Him, and at the same time not merely being at peace in our souls about those circumstances, but in learning more of Christ, being, as James says, not merely hearers of the Word, but doers. And finally.
01:00:13
Let's never lose sight of that eternal rest. It may be sooner than we think.
But that's what God puts before our souls, and that's where the real rest is. Now is the time for work. Now is the time for service. Now is the time for labor. The time for rest will be an eternity.
Yes, 13 and 14. Which chapter? Which chapter?
Colossians one versus 13 and 14.
Colossians 1, verses 12 to 14.
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life.
Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and have translated them into the Kingdom of His dear Son.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Dave, have we got time to finish that him? Can we take a minute and do that?
#64 Let's finish to him. It's too good a him not to finish it up #64 Obviously this refers to the eternal rest.
Glory supreme is there, glory that shines through all more precious still that love to share as those that love did call. And then the last verse, oh love supreme and bright, that is good to the feeblest heart.
It gives us now as heavenly light what soon shall be our part versus 7 to the end of #64 We'll sing it to the same tune.
Glory.
Bless God our Father.
What more can we say in Thy presence, we who should have had nothing but a lost eternity before?
Are now privileged to enter into thy rest.
To enjoy the rest from the penalty of our sins, to enjoy the rest that thou dost give in the midst of all our circumstances, and to look forward to that eternal rest which only Thou canst give. We give thanks, commending Thy word to thee and praying that thou make it good to each one of us.
01:05:13
For we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.