Rest is essential for spiritual well-being and can be found by drawing near to God, as illustrated by the bride and bridegroom in the Song of Solomon. The sermon emphasizes that in a world of constant rushing and pressure, believers need to intentionally "come apart and rest a while." This rest is not merely physical but a spiritual communion with the Lord Jesus, found by sitting at His feet, much like Mary. The message encourages listeners to recognize the necessity of rest, to choose it actively, and to find it in the "shadow" of God's presence, where His promises bring peace and His proximity is a source of delight and spiritual refreshment. Ultimately, abiding in God's presence leads to a sweetening of one's own character and a deeper enjoyment of Him.
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You know, when we were at camp, boys at camp, always after dinner, the bell rang on the camp, whatever you call him, the leader. You had a bell right on his table. When the bell rang, it was the announcement. And one day, we put our heads together, and just when the bell rang, we began to sing announcements, announcements, announcements. A terrible death to die, a terrible death to die, a terrible death, a terrible death, a terrible death. Now you know why I don't sing solos. There's a very lovely hymn here that I want to hear you sing because it goes with my topic.
My Savior, thou hast offered rest. Five hundred and twenty-three. We'll remain seated to sing this one and think about these lovely words. as you sing them. And how many of you know anything at all about English Catholic? Does anybody here know anything about it? Ah, there's one good brother there, and there's a nice lady there. Now it is held one week in the year, every year. They put up two tents. One holds six thousand people. The other one holds four thousand people, and it's for the young people.
And then when they get together, think about that huge congregation. This is when I learned this hymn. That vast congregation in the adult tent, six thousand people for it was filled, sang this hymn, My Savior, thou hast offered rest. That was the first time I ever heard it, and I'll never forget it. Five to... How many of you know this one? We're going to have a trio.
Well, you can read the music and the words there. Watch the words. It doesn't matter what tune you sing. Get a message here. My Savior, thou hast offered rest, O give it then to me, The rest of CC One. Work on, then, Lord, till on my soul, eternal rest shall break and in thy likeness perfected i satisfied shall wait how many of you never had heard that hymn isn't that a beautiful hymn the message is powerful let's turn to the song of Solomon the song of Solomon and
chapter two verse one I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys as the lily among thorns so is my love among the daughters. Now the verse is a verse of complaint from the bride. I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. It's interesting because in the Holy Land the lily isn't white, it's red. And the rose of Sharon is not red, it's white.
It's a very interesting thing. But both of these little flowers are little flowers and they grow in the hedgerows and she's complaining, I'm just insignificant. Look at the second verse. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. That's the response of the bridegroom. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."
There is a very characteristic sign that we see everywhere, and that often is a frustration to us. It says, no parking. Did you ever go into a parking lot and find it full and you drove around and around and around looking for somebody to leave a space so that you'd seize it? That is the most frustrating thing, I think, and sometimes it leads to panic and that's when the problems really begin.
No parking. We live in the kind of world that is very rushing, that is very pressing, sometimes depressing because we can't seem to keep up with it. And the tragedy is there never seems to be upon the world's program a place for any rest. The world goes morning, noon and night, all night. You wonder when these people get any rest at all. But I read to you from a reciprocal love letter.
Let me read it to you again. I... and the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. The bride and the bridecroom. The bride rises to the occasion and says, As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sun. I sat down under his shadow with great delight.
In this rushing world, if you're not very careful, you can get lost in the crowd and pushed along the way you don't want to go with the tide. Hurry, rush, scurry. No time for this, no time for that. We as believers know there has to be a time when we get aside. Come ye apart and rest a while. The Lord Jesus says to this, Somebody has said if you don't come apart, you'll come apart.
And that's exactly right. Because rest is so very important. And the right kind of rest, the kind of rest I'm speaking of, of course, is the kind that comes from knowing the Lord Jesus. And I know probably all of us here tonight know the Lord Jesus. Do you ever sit down and say, I shouldn't feel this way. I just feel as though I'm rushed off my feet. Do you ever feel that way? Of course you do. Because the world is that kind of place. where even against your will you get pushed from pillar to post. It's very wonderful to be able to say concerning our relationship with the Lord Jesus, I sat down under His shadow with great delight.
I just want to divide that into its three parts. I sat down. I sat down under his shadow. I sat down under his shadow and his fruit was sweet to my taste. I sat down under his shadow with great delight. That's the third thought I want to bring before you. Sitting down. Let's think about the necessity of it.
I was speaking at the nursing home last Monday, Wednesday, last Wednesday. I had spoken two or three Wednesdays before, and I told them I wanted their cane to preach to them. Their canes to preach to them. And so I gave them a little message on the cane. Somebody said to me afterwards, did you notice? Only one came in the place. Oh, boy. I thought about that. So when I went back to preach again, I preached on the chair. They were sitting in because I knew they had to be sitting in a chair. And so I made that the sermon.
I hope they remember it. I scarcely do. But however, there was a message in the chair. But that's for the nursing home. But when we say here, I sat down, we have to, as we think about that, recognize the need for sitting down. I tried to find a little poem that I once read, and I couldn't find it in all of my treasures, but it went like this, it began like this. While I was busy here and there, and then One, two, three, four, five things happened.
Of course it was phrased differently in poetic form, but this is what it said. While I was busy here and there, prayer was gone. While I was busy here and there, opportunity was gone. While I was busy here and there, love was gone. While I was busy here and there, time was gone. While I was busy here and there, life was gone. It's possible to be too busy. Even for those of us who are older, I didn't say old, I'm the only older one here, but older.
Especially when we're believers, the temptation is just to go and go and keep going. Mr. Gilbert is not at the meeting tonight. He's gone after Orlando. I'm glad he got away. We have to get away sometimes, but I'm glad you came. I sat down, the writer says. I have another little poem that I do have because I stuck it in the front of my Bible a long time ago. Listen to this. When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept.
When as a youth I dreamed and talked, time walked. When I became a foregrown man, time ran. And later as I grew older, time flew. Soon I shall find while traveling on, time gone. That's the poem, and the message is saying, Put on the brakes and remember to rest. Elijah was a very troubled man. And he was so needing rest.
He said to the Lord, let me die. God said, go to sleep. He was saying, get your rest. New day tomorrow, and your problems won't seem half as large. Elijah learned the lesson. I believe Elijah learned the lesson. And it's really true. He was at his wits end. That's a very, very bad place for us to find ourselves. There was another little poem called Which End Corner. Did anybody ever hear that one? I'd like to recite it for you, but I don't know it.
I have read it a number of times, and it has a very real message for me. God said to Elijah, go to sleep. Go to sleep. Take your rest. You know, everybody has to have time out. Has to take five. The soldier has to get his R&R. That's rest and recuperation. They have to take time to rest. Now that lovely hymn that we sang and most of you didn't know, my Savior, thou wast offered rest, or give it now to me. The rest of ceasing from myself to find my all in thee.
Now that's the kind of rest I'm talking about tonight. The rest of ceasing from myself until I come to an end of myself God cannot really work in my life until I get to the place that nothing matters but God in my life I am missing out badly on this and that and the other that God has for me but if I take time out if I take five If I really get aside and rest and use that rest for a time of communing with God, I shall be totally refreshed and bearing to go when it's over.
I sat down. Do you remember Martha didn't? Martha said, Lord, why don't you ask her to help me? I'm busy getting the meal ready. What did the Lord say? Because Mary was not busy around the table. She sat. And do you know where she sat? She sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And Jesus said, One thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that better part.
She was resting. It wasn't just the case of putting her head on the pillow and falling asleep. She didn't do that. She sat at the feet of Jesus. There is no better resting place. There is no better place for rest and recuperation than at the feet of the Lord Jesus. The necessity of it. I sat down. You know, there's a little word in the Bible that you read from time to time. It's spelled S-E-L-A-H. Selah. Do you know what it means?
It means stop and think. So every time you read that word, Selah, quit your reading and think about what you just read. Take a rest, the kind of rest that makes you sense the presence of the Lord Jesus. When you read the Word of God and you come to the Word sealer, the Spirit of God expects you to go back over that and to see if you got the message from what has gone immediately before. Stop and think. I jotted down the words of Ruskin the poet.
Very short sentence. And he was speaking about music and arrest in music. But it's true of life. He said, there is no music in arrest. But with the rest, there is the making of more music. Now you think about that. That was the word of the poet Ruskin. And it bears thinking about it. Because rest is so important. And you know, even in music, that the rest are very powerful. If you don't observe them, you spoil the music. Rests are for rest. You're not singing.
You're supposed to be just making an impact. And the music says, rest, you pause. I sat down, the necessity of it. Now think about the mechanics of it. I don't just mean you bend your knees and make sure you've got a chair and then you relax and flop into it. I don't mean that. When I say the mechanics of it, I'm thinking about when you sit down. Now I, in sitting down, can choose to sit down. I can feel the time has gone, I've been busy enough, and I'm a little tired, and so I'm going to rest my legs.
I can choose to sit down. And actually that's the best way, for you to recognize when you need to rest, when you've had enough, or when God wants you to be silent and to listen and to rest while you're listening like Mary at his feet. She was resting. but she was resting at the feet of Jesus that she might hear his word there is no music in a rest but the rest makes for more music I can choose to sit down but I can be forced to sit down if I fail to rest Eventually, my busyness is going to catch up with me.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. I read a story once about a shepherd and his flock of sheep. And there was one sheep that was wayward. And he was always chasing these sheep. The others would go astray some of them with the sheep. It would get into trouble and he'd have to use his crook to pull it out of the places into which it fell and so on. And do you know what that shepherd did? He broke one of its legs and after it healed it never strayed again.
I can sit down because I choose to or I can be made to sit down. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Now I'm not saying that I believe that that is the real interpretation. I think that the thought is that the pastures are so verdant and the grass is so luscious. He makes me lie down. He gives to me all of this and I find a pleasure when I've prayed enough just to lie down and take a sleep. I think that may be the interpretation. But there is a thought here.
He maketh me to lie down. If I don't choose to sit down, God may make me sit down. Can you think of times in your life I'm thinking of one in mine when very, very certainly God made me to sit down. Can you think of times in your life when You'd gone as far as you could go, and you persisted on going, and bam! It hit you like a rock, and you had to take time to get over it. I remember when one of my sisters, a very, very busy sister, had a nervous breakdown.
She had to take time to get over the busyness that had very few interludes of rest. He maketh me to lie down. I can be forced to lay down. Or I can collapse. Then I have to lie down. It's a very solemn thing to ponder, but I think we all need to do it. Because there comes a time when our busyness for God is not pleasing him. Because we are pushing all our buttons and we're getting confused, we're becoming irritable, we're beginning to be frustrated and unhappy.
The Lord didn't intend you to get that far. The writer says, here I sat down. And there are lessons to learn. If you don't choose to, you may be forced to. And if God doesn't see fit to force you, eventually you'll collapse. And when you collapse, it takes a long time to get over it. That's the mechanics of sitting down. But the third thing is the location of it. I sat down. Now you can say that about that occasion, that occasion, that occasion.
You could even tell me perhaps where you sat. I'm thinking about the location. You know, Peter sat down. Do you remember? And he chose the wrong place to sit down. It was by the fire bucket. You remember that story? I don't even have to tell it to you. He sat down. But he sat down. in the wrong place by the fire bucket. Lot sat down. Do you remember? It was in the wrong place. He sat down in the gate of Sodom.
He didn't intend originally to go into Sodom, but where did he land up? He landed up in Sodom. He sat in the wrong place. He sat in the gate. Too close. Too close. The location is very, very important. Mary sat down, as I mentioned. She found the right place. She sat down at the feet of Jesus. And he acknowledged and reminded Martha that Mary hath chosen the good part, and it shall not be taken away from her. I sat down.
That's a lot to say about Jesus. Three words, I sat down. But it bears thinking about. But look what follows. I sat down underneath his shadow. Oh, that's very precious. That's very pleasant to read. And it's wonderful to think about. The bride is saying, the bridegroom, I sat down under his shadow. Of course, the picture here is of our relationship. what it should be with the Lord Jesus. I sat down under His shadow. You've heard of the Passover and you're not taught.
You know all about the Passover. You know about the story and you know how the celebration was commanded of God and carried out time and time again. You know the word Passover has the thought of fluttering over, hovering over, not just passing over, but fluttering. You remember it came into being because of the angel of death, who was going to carry out his daily work. But the doors of the Israelites, if they were obedient, had blood on the lentil.
When I see the blood, I will pass over you. And though there was much mourning in the homes where there was no blood on the lentil, there was no mourning in every house marked by a door over which the blood was found. The angel of death flooded over. You know, I think there's a thought there that while he had to bring death into the homes of those who had no blood on the lintel, I think the thought is that over the other people, because theirs was going to be a rude awakening when they found of the scores, hundreds maybe, of people that were mourning when the sun rose on the next day.
But the angels fluttered over those with the blood because there was a care in the heart of God, the pass over. I will pass over you. God didn't leave his own to tremble and to be fearful. because they knew, although they didn't understand what was going to happen, they knew that something big was in the wind and I think that some must have been timid as they put the blood over the door. Will it work? Will it really work? God told them that something was going to happen.
And I think that they sat down in that home, under that blood, some with real trepidation, some perhaps almost with panic, some perhaps with absolute confidence, but under the blood they were each as safe as the other. The Spirit of God, the angel of death, fluttered over their homes during the Passover. Don't ask me how it came about. that God can do anything. But the angel of death was, I believe, the angel of blessing for those in the homes that were covered in the blood.
I think that God conveyed to them, that God blessed them in a special way, that God perhaps challenged them in the death of their neighbors. They were resting. And when they are resting in obedience to God, in the way that he asks. If we do that, we cannot but benefit from it. I sat down. Not under a roof with blood on the lintel. I sat down under his shadow. Now, if you are going to stand in somebody's shadow, one thing is absolutely impossible.
You cannot do it from a If you're going to sit down under his shadow, you have to be very close to him. You have to be very close to him. Or the Word of God says some wonderful things about the shadow of the Lord. It's a sort of ecstasy to think about or to sense. You know the promise. I will never leave you nor forsake you. This is the promise to you. It's the promise to every believer.
This is that in which we need to rest. This is God's promise. I will never leave thee or forsake thee. We should have sung the chorus, Why worry when you can pray? But some of us seem to be born worry-worse. We rebuke ourselves You know, the only way you can overcome that kind of thing is by constantly tendering yourself to God for His will in your life. Consistently putting your life into His hands and taking your own control away.
Resting in the Lord. We're exhorted to rest in the Lord. Sitting down under His shadow. I wrote three or four things down here and we're going to talk about them. The shadow of his wings. Now there's a precious thought. The wings of sheltering. The shadow of his tabernacle. That's in Isaiah. The shadow of his hand. The shadow of his presence.
the shadow of the Almighty and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. I sat down under His shadow. I think we need preacher along with the congregation to ask ourselves how often do we really enjoy this luxury. and yet it's always there for us. Resting in the Lord honors him.
Resting in the Lord is what brings peace to our hearts. Under his wings I am safely abiding. I'm resting meet the shadow of the rock. The hymn writers took these words from the scripture. It is ecstasy to know his promise. It's ecstasy to sense his presence. We all of us have times when we feel far away from God. The devil sees to that.
He knows the things that sort of are nervous. He knows the things that that create problems for us in our thinking. But resting gives God great pleasure. That's why He exhorts us to do it. To sense His presence. You know, sometimes I'm going to make a confession here. Sometimes when I get a little down, I find myself praying and I don't seem able to pray.
Somehow I have no sense of the presence of God. Do you ever have an experience like that? And sometimes it seems as though, well, I'm sure the devil always tries to take advantage of those times, but it's never true. that God is at a distance from us. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. I repeat that. Because whatever we may feel, we have to learn whenever we fear. We need to remember.
The Lord says, don't be afraid. We have no need to be afraid. You know, I have been depressed for the last several days. For more days than I'd like to think of. And do you know what did it? The horror in New York City. I keep thinking about almost six thousand people who died in one fell swoop and in a matter of three minutes. Where did they go? I can't do anything about it. But the devil uses that sometimes really to get to me.
Because I wonder, did anybody ever give them the gospel? Did they ever have an opportunity? Did they ever turn down a chance to trust the Lord Jesus? They died on the streets and were buried under the rubble. Only God knows what the state of their hearts was. but it troubles me it depresses me I know I'm wrong you shouldn't get depressed when you're a Christian but it does happen and I think again it's because we all have our times of weakness to know his promise are never leaving or forsake me to sense his presence and we don't always do that we cannot always do that but he's there on the times when we do how precious they are, how the memories of them linger, how we grasp at these and say, Lord, I thank you for these times because they make me know that you're as close as you say they are and even in spite of what I may feel, you're
there and I know that in my heart. Please help me more in my head. I know it in my head. Please help me know it more. in my heart to sense his presence and then to enjoy his proximity nearer than hands and feet somebody wrote near so very near to God nearer I cannot be for in the person of his son I am as near as we since we are in such close proximity to God Let's take advantage of it.
Let's talk to him often. Let's cuddle up to God. You can do that. You can do that. I can't tell you the mechanics of that, but I know that the Lord is so anxious to hug you that if you'll let him, you'll enjoy his response. He's not far from every one of us. The word of God says it, and we should enjoy his proximity. A man by the name of Austin Dobson wrote an article called The Paradox of Time.
And he ended it with this. Time goes, you say? Oh, no. Alas, time stays. You go. Boy, that really spoke to me. We don't know what a day is going to bring forth. We better make the best of this one. And the way we do that is to make sure that we keep short accounts with God and cuddle up close to Him. So we know His promise. And we do. To sense his presence and we need to.
To enjoy his proximity. And so to share his peace. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto thee. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. I'm going to repeat that word of Dobbson's. Time goes you say. Oh no. Time stays, you go. And our lives are very short, and we're going to suffer loss for every hour of them that we allowed ourselves to drift away from God.
As the apple tree, among the trees of the wood, so... is the sun. The apple tree. I won't take time to talk about the apple tree. But you get that beautiful simile. Look how this ends and I leave this with you. I sat down under his shadow with great delight. It is impossible to sit under the shadow of the Lord Jesus. without having great delight. Aren't you glad you have an appetite for this?
Even though you know that you miss out, as I know I miss out from time to time, it's a wonderful thing that we have access into the presence of God. It's a wonderful thing that God encourages our intimacy with Him. And the closer we are, the more wonderful we shall... We shall enjoy him. His fruit was sweet to my taste. You know, you cannot come into contact with the Lord Jesus. You cannot maintain a closeness to the Lord Jesus without the experience being sweet to your taste.
But I'll tell you something else. It'll sweeten you. It'll sweeten you. It'll rub off onto you. And that's what God intends it to do. Let's pray, shall we?