Afternoon brethren, please take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 16.
Psalm 16.
So we finished the book of Ruth.
We did those four chapters.
We're back in the book of Psalms.
I'll be doing another three Psalms
and then we'll be going to another book of the Bible
as we go through our weekly chapter by chapter study
of the Bible.
Psalm 16, please.
Psalm 16.
And look at verse number nine.
Psalm 16, verse nine.
The Bible reads,
Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth.
My flesh also shall rest in hope.
So the end of that was my flesh also shall rest in hope.
The title for the sermon this afternoon is rest in hope.
Rest in hope.
Do you like to rest?
I know when I've had hard days of work,
I love to come home and rest.
I know when it's a busy day and you've done a lot,
sometimes just seeing the pillow,
seeing the bed resting your head on your pillow is exciting.
Sometimes you just love going to bed
to get some well-deserved rest.
Well, the Bible talks about having a rest in the Lord,
a spiritual rest that we can have
that so many others miss out on.
Of course, the rest of knowing that we're saved
in the ungodly world is unable to share in the rest
that we have when we talk about resting Jesus Christ.
But Psalm 16 is all about finding rest
in different areas of our spiritual life,
different areas that we can find rest with the Lord.
And this Psalm is also very prophetic
about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There's actually quite a lot here about Jesus.
And so I'll show you where that is.
And then we'll also take the spiritual truths
that we can get out of this for ourselves.
Look at verse number one, Psalm 16, verse one.
The Bible begins by saying,
"'Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust.'"
So you can almost immediately see that
there's a desire for David here to rest.
You know, he's asking for God to preserve him.
He's saying, look, I'm gonna trust in you, Lord.
And of course, when you're speaking about trusting the Lord,
you know, David, in many times in the Psalms,
and as you read through his story,
he has times where he's struggling.
He has times when he has enemies against him,
even enemies within his own family at times,
you know, seeking to hurt him.
But he always seeks comfort.
He seeks rest in the Lord.
But this rest that's being spoken about here,
"'Preserve me, O God.'"
This is speaking about a very physical salvation.
This is where David is in trouble,
and he's asking the Lord to save his life.
Again, probably there are enemies out to get him.
And when I thought about this, you know,
Pastor Paul Stevenson, good friend to me,
who's covered some of the preaching
for our church very recently,
he had a sermon entitled, he entitled the sermon,
"'We are immortal until God has finished with us.'"
We are immortal until God has finished with us.
I remember one of my old pastors
preaching a sermon like this,
and I remember just meditating on this truth as well,
knowing that, hey, I can't die.
You can't die.
If you're a child of God,
I'm talking about the physical nature here,
your physical flesh, we cannot die
until God says it's time for you to go.
Okay, and this is why we don't need to be afraid of death.
You know, this coronavirus,
I'm not afraid of dying from this virus, you know,
because if that's my lot in life,
if that's what God wants,
well, so be it, there's nothing I can do to change that.
You know, I'm not afraid to travel
or afraid to put my life on the line at times
because I know that God will preserve me
until he says, well, it's time for you to go home.
And that's a great relief.
That's a great rest that we can have in the Lord,
knowing that he will not allow us to die
until he says that it is time.
So it's a great truth, a physical preservation.
And you know, when you understand this great truth,
it'll cause you to live without fear.
You won't have the same fears that other men have
because you know your life is in the hands of God.
There's nothing you can do
until God says it's your time.
You are immortal.
You can't die before God allows that to happen.
And in 2 Timothy 1-7, the Bible reads,
for God have not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
God has not given us a spirit of fear.
We don't have to be afraid, brethren.
We don't have to be afraid about our physical life
and even more so because we know when we die,
we know we're gonna be in heaven.
We're going to be with the Lord.
We don't have to be afraid.
And I love how verse number one ends.
He says, for in thee do I put my trust.
Where did David have his trust?
He's a king.
You know, he's a king of a kingdom.
He's a king of Israel.
He has all the power.
He has great riches.
He has great authority.
You know, he just says the word
and he has all these servants that'll run
and do his bidding.
But notice that David never sought trust in himself.
He never sought trust in his riches.
His trust was in the Lord God.
The Bible says in Proverbs 29, 25,
the fear of man bringeth a snare,
but whoso put of his trust in the Lord shall be safe.
If you put your trust in the Lord, you shall be safe.
No one can harm you, brother.
No one can hurt you, sister.
No one can put you to death until God says it is time.
God will preserve your life.
Just simply trust in the Lord.
Don't fear what man can do to you.
One of my favorite verses,
I just love it so much, is Isaiah 12, verse two.
Isaiah, verse 12.
Chapter, sorry, Isaiah chapter 12, verse two,
which says, behold, God is my salvation.
I will trust.
I will not be afraid.
For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song.
He also has become my salvation.
Man, what great words that God is our salvation.
We don't have to be afraid.
If we put our trust in the Lord,
He's our strength, He's our song.
I talk about the merits of singing praises
to God many times.
And you know, one of the great merits
of singing a song to the Lord,
it'll help you overcome fear.
It'll help you have a greater trust and reliance on the Lord
when you pick up, you know, the hymn books,
you pick up some spiritual song
that you can sing unto the Lord,
and it's gonna help you draw strength from Him.
It's gonna help you place your trust on the Lord.
Hey, we wanna be people that can be rested
in our spiritual life, right?
We don't wanna be stressed and depressed
and worried and fearful and full of care.
We wanna be people that rest.
Point number one is rest in God's physical preservation.
Rest in God's physical preservation.
Yes, brethren, you are immortal
until God is finished with you.
That's a great truth.
Look at verse number two.
The Bible reads,
"'O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord,
"'thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee.'"
So David speaks to his own soul,
and he says to the Lord,
"'You are my Lord.'"
What a great God that we serve,
the God, creator of all things,
creator of the universe, of the world, of your life,
creator of heaven and hell.
Hey, that's our Lord, the Lord that we serve,
the Lord that we worship,
thou art my Lord, the God of the Bible.
But notice the next words.
It can be a little confusing.
I had to read this a few times
for it to process in my mind.
He says, "'My goodness,'" that's David's goodness,
"'David's goodness extendeth not to thee.'"
What does that mean?
It kinda sounds like that David is saying
that I can't do anything good for you, okay?
But when you think about,
and you tie this into verse number three,
well, what he's saying is that
his goodness can never match the goodness of God.
You know, "'My goodness extendeth not to thee.'"
The good that I have, the righteous works that I do,
doesn't even come close to the good God that I have,
the good savior that saved me, the good shepherd.
My goodness comes nowhere near the goodness of God.
And of course, David's just being humble here.
He's obviously showing that he's not a perfect man.
He's a man of sin, as we all are,
and he recognizes that he cannot match God.
Jesus says that there is none good but one that is God.
There is none good but one that is God, said Jesus Christ.
There is only one who is truly, perfectly,
righteously, completely good,
and that is the Lord God, the Father, the Son,
the Holy Ghost.
And look, the Lord allows us to have some good.
You know, if we walk in the Spirit,
we'll be able to accomplish good works,
but you will never be 100% good on this earth,
in this flesh.
And that's what David recognized.
He goes, look, it doesn't even come close
to the goodness that is in God.
But, look at verse number three.
He says, but to the saints that are in the earth,
and to the excellence in whom is all my delight.
Now keep your finger there and go to Matthew chapter 25.
Go to Matthew chapter 25.
And so David is saying, look, I can't be as good as God,
but I am going to be good to the saints.
I'm going to be good to my brothers and sisters in the Lord,
and to the excellence in whom is all my delight.
Hey, who did David delight in?
Who did David enjoy the company of?
Of the saints, of his brothers and sisters.
And again, how much I miss church.
How much I miss being in fellowship,
you know, in proper fellowship with my brothers and sisters.
Thank God that the restrictions are being lifted.
You know, next Sunday,
we'll be able to have our first service back.
Only 10 people though.
So it's myself and nine others.
We'll figure that out in due time.
You know, I'll probably be doing my original plan,
which was going from three services to six services,
and then rotate people
so everyone can have an opportunity to be part of church.
But that's where we need to find our delights,
in the house of God, amongst the brothers and sisters.
And like once again, yeah, they're not perfect.
I'm not perfect.
You're not perfect.
But our call is to delight in one another,
to know how you're my brother and sister in the Lord.
I'm gonna see you for all eternity.
Get used to one another.
They're gonna be in heaven forever for all eternity.
And you go to Matthew 25, verse 37.
Now, I'm not sure if David recognizes this
when he spoke about doing good to the saints.
I'm sure he did.
I mean, he's obviously a very spiritual, righteous man,
but I love the words of Jesus in Matthew 25.
Look at verse number 37.
Jesus says, then shall the righteous answer him saying,
Lord, when saw we thee and hungered and fed thee?
Or thirsty and gave thee drink?
Okay, so when we face God on judgment day,
you know, our goodness could never extend to the Lord.
We could never meet the standard of goodness toward God.
But I love what Jesus says in verse number 38.
When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee?
God, what good could I possibly do to you?
Or when we saw thee sick or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the king, that's referring to Jesus there,
and the king shall answer and say unto them,
verily I say unto you,
in so much as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me.
So King David says, I'm going to do good to the saints,
to the congregation of the Lord.
And Jesus says, yep, if you do good to the saints,
you do good to the least of God's people.
You do good to the one that's a carnal Christian,
a babe in Christ, recently saved.
You know, he can't maybe offer you anything in return.
You do good to the people of God, even to the least.
It is as though you have done it unto Christ.
It is as though you have served Jesus Christ,
the advantage of church,
the advantage of being gathered together,
where working rewards brethren, when we sing together,
when we edify one another, when we pray for one another,
when you encourage one another,
you are doing that as unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord Jesus will reward you
for the way you treat your brethren.
How do you treat your brethren?
Oh man, if you're starting to treat your brethren
pretty poorly, well it's as though
you're treating Jesus Christ poorly.
This is the body of Christ.
The church is the body of Christ.
It's called the body of Christ for a reason,
because when we serve the local church,
we are serving Jesus Christ.
Back to Psalm 16, verse number four.
Psalm 16, verse number four.
It says, their sorrows, now there,
these people that have been referred to the them here,
are unsaved, ungodly heathen here, okay?
It says their sorrows, the heathen, the ungodly people,
their sorrows shall be multiplied
that hasten after another god, okay?
So he's referring to people that worship a false god,
people that worship another god.
This is idolatry, okay?
Idolatry.
And then it says here, their drink offerings of blood
will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
So even the ungodly, the unsaved,
that do not know salvation,
that do not know salvation in Jesus Christ,
they are still serving a god of their imagination.
They're serving some false god.
They seek to worship,
they do it out of maybe ignorance sometimes.
But David says, look,
I'm not going to be counted amongst those people.
You're not gonna find me worshiping some false god.
You're not gonna find me worshiping another god, okay?
So if you've read your Bibles,
you know this was a major problem,
because the people in the surrounding nations around Israel,
they worshiped false gods.
And every now and again,
that worship for the false gods entered into Israel.
People would bring their false gods
to the hearts of the people.
We saw that toward the end of King Solomon's life,
for example.
And David says, I will never serve in a false religion.
I will never serve false gods.
And it's quite interesting,
because we know this is a major problem
in the Old Testament days.
But then when we think about today, 2020,
God's people,
we don't,
you know, idolatry,
I don't know about you,
but I'm not tempted to worship some stone,
or some piece of wood,
of even a piece of wood that looks like Jesus.
You know, with the Jesus of long hair,
with long hair and blue eyes.
There's no temptation whatsoever.
But, and I was thinking about this,
and I was thinking, what is the,
how can we, you know,
what's the closest thing, I suppose,
that we can think about in New Testament days?
And I thought, you know, keep your finger there,
and please go to 2 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians chapter 11.
Because David says that he will not hasten
after another god.
He was very careful to only worship,
love and serve the God of the Bible, okay?
The God of his forefathers.
And I was thinking about this,
and I thought about 2 Corinthians 11, verse three.
Because even within the world of Christendom, all right,
there are many false gods.
Even though they call their God Jesus, right?
Even though they may call their God the Messiah,
even though they may have an understanding
like Roman Catholics,
but they still serve and worship another God.
And in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse three,
the Bible reads,
"'But I fear, lest by any means,
"'as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
"'so your minds should be corrupted
"'from the simplicity that is in Christ,
"'for if he that cometh preacheth,"
notice the next words,
"'another Jesus.'"
Hey, David said,
I'm not gonna go and worship another God.
I'm not gonna serve another God.
Were New Testament days for us as believers,
you know, we're not gonna be tempted
to worship some false God,
but we could be tricked into serving
or listening about another Jesus, right?
"'For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus,
"'whom we have not preached,
"'or if ye receive another spirit,
"'which ye have not received,
"'or another gospel, which ye have not accepted,
"'ye might well bear with him.'"
We need to be careful, very careful, brethren,
about the preachers you listen to, preachers online.
You know, I've gotta be very careful
about the men I allow to preach behind the pulpit
to make sure that they are not preaching another Jesus.
Right?
That we're not listening and being influenced by people
that have another Jesus.
Hey, the Jesus of the Roman Catholic Church
is another Jesus.
It's another God.
It's not the God of the Bible, all right?
Jesus did not have long hair.
Jesus did not have blue eyes and blonde hair, right?
The Jesus of the Bible is a Jesus
that saved us 100% through his sacrifice.
He is the only mediator between God and man.
He is not a joint mediator with Mary, with his mother Mary.
That is another Jesus.
That is not the Jesus of the Bible.
The Jesus of modalism, the Jesus of oneness Pentecostal
is another Jesus, okay?
Don't go and listen to men that preach another Jesus.
That's corruption.
It'll defile your mind.
It'll take you away from the simplicity of Jesus Christ,
the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And look, the Jesus of the Pentecostals, all right?
It's a Jesus that died,
but did not do everything that's necessary
for your salvation,
because they teach that if you don't live a good life,
if you don't live by a certain standard,
that you can lose your salvation.
And so their salvation, their gospel, their Jesus
is one that gives you an incomplete salvation.
Now the Jesus of the Bible has given us full salvation
and it's free,
freely paid by the blood of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice.
Hey, we need to make sure that our hearts and minds
are on the Jesus of the Bible.
Be careful who you listen to.
Be careful of the books that you read.
Be careful of the churches that you visit.
At least make sure that they're saved,
make sure that they're serving and worshiping
the same Jesus that you have been taught
through the word of God.
Jesus, the Son of God.
And so David's telling the Lord,
look, I will never serve these false gods.
And it's a great place to be.
That's where our hearts need to be.
Take your worship for God very seriously.
Look at verse number five in Psalm,
back to Psalm 16, verse number five.
He says, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance
and of my cup.
Thou maintainest my lot.
Okay, so just having the God of the Bible
is part of his inheritance, he says, right?
His spiritual inheritance.
His spiritual riches is having the true God,
the true creator of the world, the God of the Bible.
He sees that as riches.
But then he says, and of my cup, my cup.
And remember, the title for the sermon,
I don't want you to get too distracted here,
but the title, once again, was To Rest in Hope.
Rest in hope.
Point number one was to rest in God's physical preservation.
But we're getting to point number two now.
And I'll just read to you from, you can turn,
if you're fast enough, Psalm 116, verse 13.
Psalm 116, verse 13.
Remember David speaking about the cup
that the Lord is to him.
And actually, when I was thinking about the cup
of the Lord, I thought of three different cups, okay?
And the first cup here is found in Psalm 116, verse 13.
It says, I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will take the cup of salvation.
You know, when we talk about salvation,
you know, Jesus Christ points to salvation
as, you know, live in water.
You know, we sing that hymn, the streams,
you know, drinking from the streams of living water.
Happy now am I, my soul they satisfy,
you know, a great hymn.
And the idea, the picture there is that when you get saved,
you take that cup, you take that water
that Jesus is offering, and you drink of that cup,
that cup of salvation.
That's how easy salvation is.
It's not of works.
It's as easy as taking a drink of water.
And that's the first cup.
The first cup that you need to drink of
is the cup of salvation.
And, you know, this brings us to,
actually, sorry, I had misspoken.
I'm not up to point number two yet on the resting hope.
But I was just thinking about these cups, you know,
if you're part of our church, you know,
you know you're saved,
you've definitely taken part of that cup.
But that's not the only cup
that God wants you to drink from, okay?
There is another cup, and please, you may have been,
I've got you to turn away,
but go back to First Corinthians,
First Corinthians chapter 10.
Go to First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 20.
First Corinthians chapter 10, and verse 20.
And we're going to a portion of scripture
which teaches on the Lord's Supper.
But I want you to think about this,
and this is exactly, this ties in exactly
with what King David was speaking about in Psalm 16,
about not, you know,
fellowshiping with the ungodly heathen.
But in First Corinthians 10, 20,
the Bible reads,
but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice,
they sacrifice to devils and not to God.
And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
Notice verse 21,
ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord,
now this is not salvation,
this is a letter being written to a church,
a church made up of believers already, okay?
But the instruction to the believers is this,
ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.
Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table
and of the table of devils, okay?
So you either take the cup of the Lord
or you take the cup of devils, okay?
It's black and white when it comes to our fellowship
with the Lord.
And so the second cup is the cup of fellowship.
Not only does God want us to take the cup of salvation,
but now that we are saved,
God also wants us to drink of the cup of fellowship,
to be able to be close with God,
fellowship with God,
spend time with the Lord.
But if we're spending our time in ungodly things,
we're spending our time with the heathen,
then that's like you're participating
in the cup of devils and you cannot do these things.
When it comes to one of the Baptist distinctives,
is we speak about separation, okay?
And as Christians, we should be separated from the world.
We should be different from the world that God calls us
to be a peculiar people, to be different, to stand out,
to be light in comparison to the darkness,
because we can only fellowship with God,
who is light, if we are in the light.
If we're walking in darkness,
we won't be able to take of that cup of fellowship with God.
2 Corinthians 6.17 says,
Wherefore come out from among them,
and be you separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you.
If you wanna have fellowship with God,
you wanna be received by God,
you must not touch the unclean things.
You need to clean up your life,
you need to get rid of the sin,
get rid of the ungodliness,
get rid of the worldliness in your life.
If you wanna drink of a cup of fellowship
with our Lord God,
otherwise you're participating in the cup of devils.
And there's a lot of things in our lives,
Brethren, that we need to clean up.
We need to make sure that we're in close fellowship
with God, that's the second cup
that the Lord would want us to drink from.
Please turn to Matthew 20 now.
Matthew 20, Matthew chapter 20, verse 20.
Matthew 20, and verse 20.
And this is, we're now reading about the third cup here,
the third cup.
It says in Matthew 20, so you know,
ideally you're saved, you're drinking that cup,
ideally you're drinking the cup of fellowship with the Lord.
You know, in the Lord's Supper,
that's exactly what you're doing
when we take the Lord's Supper together.
We're talking about, you know,
remembering what the Lord has done for us.
You know, that cup represents the blood of Jesus Christ.
And his sacrifice, right?
But then in Matthew 20, there's a request given here
by one of the mothers of the disciples.
It says here, then came to him the mother
of Zebedee's children with her sons,
worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him.
And he said unto her, what wilt thou?
So Jesus asked the mother of the sons of Zebedee,
what do you want?
And she saith unto him, grant that these two my sons,
my two sons, may sit the one on thy right hand
and the other on the left in thy kingdom.
So she wanted her sons,
and I think this is a great desire of the mother,
to be in a prominent position,
in heaven for all eternity,
to be close to Jesus Christ, right?
Close to his throne.
And then look at verse number 22,
but Jesus answered and said,
ye know not what ye ask.
You don't know what you're asking, right?
He says, are ye able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of,
and to be baptised with the baptism
that I am to be baptised with?
They say unto him, we are able.
Okay, so Jesus says, look,
can you participate of the cup that I'm going to drink of?
And they say, yeah, we can.
Look at verse number 23.
Then he saith unto them, ye shall drink indeed of my cup,
and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with.
But to sit on my right hand and on my left
is not mine to give,
but it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared of my Father.
So Jesus says, look, it's not up to me to say
who's going to sit where,
that's up to God the Father,
but you will participate of this cup.
And this cup that Jesus Christ is speaking of
is his suffering, okay?
The fact that he would be persecuted,
arrested, beaten, even put to death.
And he says, are you going to participate in that as well?
You know, and this is the hardest cup to drink of,
the cup, to share a cup of the suffering of Christ.
Again, this has nothing to do with salvation.
But as a Christian, if you were to live godly,
you live after the Bible, you have certain beliefs,
you walk in his ways, you are going to be persecuted,
you are going to be hated.
There will be a time of tribulation and hardship,
and the world will laugh and mock and scorn at you.
And that's just you sharing a little bit
of the cup of the suffering of Jesus Christ.
First Peter chapter four, verse 12 says,
beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial
which is to try you,
for though some strange, sorry,
as though some strange thing happened unto you,
but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers
of Christ's suffering,
that when his glory shall be revealed,
ye may be glad with exceeding joy.
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ,
happier ye, for the spirit of glory and of God
resteth upon you, notice that, resteth upon you,
and on their part he is evil spoken of,
but on your part he is glorified, he is glorified.
Okay, so the three cups,
the first cup is the cup of salvation,
the second cup is the cup of fellowship,
and the third cup that I see here
is sharing in the cup of the suffering of Christ.
And look, if you're being persecuted for your beliefs,
you're being persecuted for preaching the gospel,
for believing the word of God,
hey, find joy in that.
God will reward you.
You know, God will appreciate the fact
that you've tasted just a little bit
of the suffering of Christ.
Christ has suffered for us,
and it's a great thing if you suffer a little for him.
You know, you will never suffer what Christ suffered.
You know, Christ suffered with all of the sins
of the world put upon him.
You know, he suffered a great deal.
You know, your suffering will not come anyway
any close to the suffering of Christ,
but it is something that we are called to do.
I'm just going to turn back to Psalm 16.
Psalm 16.
And I'm just going to find my place there again.
Psalm 16.
Verse number five, sorry, just lost my point, spot there.
Verse number five, and I just want you to see
the end of this.
He says, thou maintainest my lot.
So he spoke about the cup of the Lord there,
but then it says, thou, speaking to God,
maintainest my lot.
See, David says, God, you have given me a lot in life.
You've given me, you know,
we all have different lots in life.
You know, God has given us different positions.
God has given us different experiences, different families.
You know, we've all been saved
at different points in our lives.
You know, some have greater riches, some have greater joy,
some have different families.
None of us are exactly the same.
God has given us our lot, okay?
But what we see with David is he finds rest
in contentment.
He's content with what God has given him.
And brethren, true rest, true satisfaction,
will be found when you can find rest in contentment,
when you can be content with what God has given you.
And God has given you so much.
We talked about salvation.
He's given you that, okay?
He's given you eternity.
He's given you a home in heaven.
He's building a mansion for you on high right now, okay?
But he's also given you a church.
If you're part of New Life Baptist Church,
Blessed Hope Baptist Church, or some other good church,
God has given you a church.
God has given us his word.
God has given us instruction.
He's given us his Holy Ghost
to lead us in our spiritual life.
God has given us the new man
so we can serve him righteously.
And we can't fully understand or fully appreciate
at this point in time how much God has given us.
But brethren, you need to find rest in contentment.
There truly is rest.
Be thankful for what you have.
And if you're an Australian,
be thankful that you're in Australia.
Be thankful that you live in a comfortable,
rich country that's not persecuting you
for the name of Christ.
You could have been born in some other place in this world,
and you could be suffering a great deal,
not having the freedoms that we have in this nation
to open the word of God, preach the word of God,
and to just go about life and enjoy life.
There's great riches even in our nation, okay?
Find rest in contentment.
And so if you look at verse number six now,
which ties into verse number five,
he says, the lines are like boundaries or like a fence.
When someone's dividing a piece of land,
and we know in Israel that the land of Canaan
was divided by different tribes and different families,
the lines represent the boundaries.
In Australia, we would fence off our houses
to determine where our land is.
But he says, look, the lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage.
So he's saying, look, God has given him a portion of land.
Now he's speaking, obviously,
spiritually, God has given us all different portions
of life, like I said.
And no matter what God has given you, brethren,
don't look at what God has given others.
You're not gonna find contentment in that.
Find contentment in what God has given you.
God has given you certain boundaries,
your lot in life has given you your land,
but whatever he's given you,
think of it like David does about his portion for life
as a pleasant place, as a goodly heritage.
So it's like if God were to divide the land of Canaan
and you were there in that time,
that you would receive the best part of the land.
You would receive the most goodly,
the most beautiful heritage, the most pleasant place.
So think about that, when you think of your life
and you think of what you don't have,
well, don't think about that,
think about what God has given you,
the great blessings, the great gifts that God has given you.
God wants you to be content
and God has blessed us with many great things.
Look at verse number seven.
Verse number seven, it reads,
it reads, I will bless the Lord who have given me counsel.
My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons.
I have set the Lord always before me
because he is at my right hand.
I shall not be moved, therefore my heart is glad
and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope.
So David's flesh will rest in hope one day,
but just backtrack to verse number eight.
He says that the Lord is at his right hand,
I shall not be moved, okay?
So at your right hand, you know, David's saying,
look, I know the Lord is right here with me.
All I need to do is turn to the right
and the Lord is there, okay?
What is he speaking about?
He's speaking about his close fellowship,
that second cup of fellowship that I spoke about earlier.
He's in close fellowship with the Lord.
He knows the Lord is at hand, the Lord is right near.
He can stretch out his right hand as it were
and touch the Lord.
He's in close fellowship.
And because the Lord is at his right hand,
he says, I will not be moved, I shall not be moved.
You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today and forever,
the Lord doesn't move.
Hey, we move sometimes, we're not always stable.
We're not always faithful to the Lord,
but the Lord is always the same place that he's always been.
And if the Lord feels far away,
it's because you have moved away from the Lord, okay?
The Lord is always where he's always been.
And if you keep a close fellowship with the Lord,
then you won't move.
The Lord won't move
and if you keep him at your right hand, close to you,
you won't move either, you won't move either.
He finds rest being close to the Lord.
That's point number, that's the next point that I have here
is find rest close to Jesus.
In fellowship with Jesus
is where you're gonna have great rest.
Brethren, now's not the time to put down your Bibles.
Now, you're already missing out on church.
You're already missing out on weekly soul winning
like we used to.
Now's not the time to put down the Bible.
Now's not the time to stop praying.
Find your time of fellowship with God.
Find a quiet place.
Set a time, ideally, first thing in the morning
to be close to the Lord.
If you want, please turn to Mark chapter four
and verse number 37.
Mark chapter four, verse 37.
And we have this great story
of Christ and the disciples on a boat
and there was a great storm.
Okay, and look at verse number 37.
Mark chapter four, verse number 37, which reads,
and there arose a great storm of wind
and the waves beat into the ship
so that it was now full.
I mean, you know, I don't even like water.
Being tossed about, you know, getting motion sick
on a boat, on the water, this great storm
beating upon the ship, obviously it scared
the disciples somewhat, look at verse number 38.
And he was in the hind up part of the ship,
asleep on a pillow.
So the Lord Jesus Christ, fully at rest, fully at peace,
just having a good snooze, asleep on a pillow,
and they awake him and say unto him,
master, carest thou not that we perish?
And he arose and rebuked the wind
and said unto the sea, peace be still.
And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
The wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Jesus had the power even over nature.
Of course he's the creator, okay.
But Christ in the midst of a storm
was able to bring peace.
Even during the storm, Jesus himself was at peace.
Jesus did not have to calm the waters and the winds
for him to be at peace.
He calmed the storms so that the disciples
could be at peace, right?
And so the next point that I had, like I mentioned,
was you will find rest when you're close to Jesus.
Close to Jesus.
You know, life will have storms.
You're gonna have the storms of life.
You're gonna have the winds beating upon your vessel.
You're gonna have the troubles and trials and sufferings
that we all go through, some greater than others.
And yet, Jesus wants you to have peace.
Jesus wants you to have rest.
But you can only have it if Christ is close by, okay.
You can only have it if Christ is on that boat with you.
Even if you see him asleep on the pillow,
you know you're safe because you're the son of God
who has power over the winds,
who has power over the seas,
who has power over your struggles,
power over your problems.
And you can find true peace and rest
as long as you set Christ on your right hand.
You will not be moved, okay.
Now look, you should find peace even in the midst of storm.
But sometimes the Lord will put that storm away.
He will calm the seas just so you can find
the peace in him, okay.
But you don't need to wait for the storms to rest
because he'll always be there.
Christ will never leave you nor forsake you.
There is rest, there is peace close to Jesus Christ.
Back to Psalm 16 verse 10.
Psalm 16 verse 10, and we're about to read
a great prophecy of Jesus Christ
and of his resurrection, his death and his resurrection.
Verse number 10, it says,
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer, thine holy one,
to seek corruption.
Now remember, this is a psalm of David.
And I can't remember which sermon I mentioned,
that every time you read the Old Testament,
look for Jesus.
Well in this psalm we have found Jesus Christ again.
This verse is about Christ's soul not being left in hell
and that his flesh will not seek corruption in the grave.
Look at, keep your finger there and go to Psalm chapter two.
Psalm chapter two verse 23, I want to show you
where this is quoted in the New Testament.
It's quoted three times, twice in Acts chapter two
and once in Acts chapter 13.
So go to Acts chapter two verse 23,
which reads, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel
and full knowledge of God, ye have taken by,
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,
whom God have raised up, having loosed the pains of death,
because it was not possible that he should be holding of it.
Death was never going to keep Jesus Christ down.
Yeah okay, three days and three nights,
but Christ was always going to be resurrected.
Verse number 25, for David speaketh concerning him.
David, that's King David, the psalm that we're reading.
For David speaketh concerning him, concerning Jesus.
I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Hey, where did we read that?
In Psalm 16, notice that.
Therefore, verse number 26,
therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad,
moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope.
This is harder once again for the sermon, rest in hope.
But look at verse number 27,
this is no longer the words of David,
it becomes the words of Jesus.
Because it says here,
because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
Thou hast made known to me the ways of life,
thou shall make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Now look at verse number 29.
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you
of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried,
and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
So at this point in the book of Acts,
this is the day of Pentecost,
Peter is saying that the grave of David,
of the Old Testament Saint David is still with them.
And there's this stupid teaching
that the resurrection of the Old Testament Saints
occurred at the resurrection of Christ.
Well, that can't be true,
because we can see here
that the grave of King David is still there,
that the bones and the body of David are still with them.
He was not resurrected.
But see, this Psalm 16 is not about David,
it's actually about Jesus Christ.
And this is what Peter is teaching.
Verse number 30.
Therefore being a prophet and knowing
that God have sworn with him,
with an oath to him,
that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh,
he would raise up Jesus to sit on his throne.
He seen this before,
spake of the resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was not left in hell,
neither his flesh did see corruption.
You see, David knew all about Jesus Christ, obviously.
He even wrote about Jesus Christ.
He wrote about the resurrection of Christ.
And so, what's the great truth that we're seeing here?
That the soul of Jesus Christ was in hell
for those three days and three nights,
his body was in the grave,
death could not keep him,
his soul was reunited back to his body,
and he was resurrected from the dead.
Resurrected from the dead.
It's a great truth.
Go to Acts 13, verse 34.
Acts 13, verse 34.
Which speaks of the same topic here.
Acts 13, verse 34, which reads,
And as concerning, that he raised him up from the dead,
now no more to return to corruption,
he said on this wise,
I will give you the sure mercies of David,
wherefore he saith also in another psalm,
thou shall not suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
So there it is again.
For David, after he had served his own generation
by the will of God, fell asleep
and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption.
But he whom God raised again saw no corruption.
So what's being taught here
is that the body of King David saw corruption.
It rotted away, all right?
Once the body's been buried, it decomposes, right?
But the body of Christ never rotted, never decomposed,
because after three days, he was risen from the dead
in his glorious, resurrected body.
Say, why did you speak about all this?
Because the next point is to rest in victory from the dead.
You see, the Jesus, the God that we serve is a living God.
Jesus Christ who brought in the New Testament,
you know, New Testament Christianity.
We serve a living God.
We don't serve some dead God.
We don't serve a God of stone,
a God of wood, or a man that once lived.
No, Jesus Christ, yes, came as a man and he died,
but he rose again from the dead and he's living,
he's been set on the right-hand side of the Father,
and we serve a living God.
We have a living and risen Savior.
Okay, so we need to rest in victory from the dead.
That Christ has been victorious from the dead.
He has been victorious from the power of death.
And because Christ has been victorious,
then we, through Christ, in Christ,
can be victorious from the dead as well.
You know, brethren, this life is a vapor.
We're here, we'll be gone before we know it.
We'll be of old age.
But one thing that we can be sure of
is that we're gonna have victory from the dead.
You know, when we pass away,
we will be in the presence of the Lord
in heaven for all eternity.
And one day, our body will join us.
Just like Christ had his resurrected body,
the day of the rapture will be the day of Christ,
the day of the Lord, if you may recall,
in the end time series, and our soul will be reunited,
our soul and spirit will be reunited
with that new resurrected body one day in the physical form,
and we will be with the Lord forever.
Hey, we're gonna have victory,
our own bodies will have victory from the dead
because of what Christ has done for us.
And so if you can go back to Psalm 16,
I've got just one verse left to read.
But before I read verse number 11,
I'm at my conclusion now.
And you know what?
If you can find rest in the things that we've covered,
then verse 11 can be a reality to you.
Verse 11 cannot be a reality in your life
unless you can first rest
in the things that we've looked at first, okay?
So what were those things again?
Number one, to rest in God's physical preservation.
God will keep you alive.
You are immortal until God is done with you, right?
Point number two, rest in contentment.
Thank God for all the blessings and the rewards
and the gifts that God has given you.
Be content with the provision of God.
You can rest in that.
Number three, rest close to Jesus.
Keep him at your right hand.
Keep him close.
Keep in close fellowship.
You can find rest in him.
And number four, rest in victory from the dead.
Listen, if you can find rest
in these four areas of your life,
then verse number 11 will come naturally, okay?
Verse number 11 cannot come in your life
unless you first can rest in God.
Verse number 11 reads,
That would show me the path of life.
In thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
What else?
Fullness of joy.
Man, do you wanna go about life?
Being full of joy?
Having fullness of joy.
You know, being completely satisfied,
being completely overwhelmed with joy, happiness,
rejoicing in your Lord,
and to have pleasures forevermore.
To always be pleased,
to always be rewarded,
to find great joy and love in the Lord.
Can we be there, brethren?
Can we get to that point, spiritually speaking,
where we can be happy as Christians,
joyful, resting in God?
We can only reach verse number 11 in your lives
as long as you rest in those other areas.
So brethren, I want you to be happy.
I wanna be, I wanna enjoy life.
I'm 38, I'm almost 39.
Hey, 17th of May, when we're back in church, my birthday.
I'm 39, okay?
That's like half my life.
Half my life may very well be gone.
I don't know, if I live a full life,
let's say I'm 80, get to 80 years,
hey, I've lived half my life.
You know what I wanna do for the rest,
the other half of my life,
or whatever, however many years God has given me?
I wanna be full of joy.
I want to have those pleasures forevermore.
But we can only have that in our lives
if we find rest in these areas
that God has shown us in Psalm 16.
So brethren, if you're not, if you're restless, okay,
if you're full of anxiety,
and look, there's been times in recent weeks
that I've been anxious, anxious about the lockdown
and not fully rested in Christ.
And so I've, just by going through this Psalm,
I've had to challenge myself and try to find rest in Him.
You know, none of us are perfect.
And I'm sure, you know, there are times in your life
when you're not fully rested in the Lord.
Well find rest in the Lord, find rest in these areas,
and the Lord will make sure
that you have pleasures forevermore.
God bless.