♪ All in today ♪ ♪ All in today ♪ ♪ All in today ♪ We're turning to Psalm 116. Psalm 116. We're reading the first 13 verses here. We'll begin at the opening verse of the Psalm, Psalm 116. And let's read from the verse number one together, and let's hear God's word as we have it before us. The Psalmist says, I love the Lord. Because he hath heard my voice and my supplications, because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compass me. The pains of hell get hold upon me. I find trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low and he helped me. Return on to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death. My eyes from tears and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Amen. Let's pray together. Our loving Father, we pray because we understand that we need Thee. We pray, Lord, because we understand that unless the Lord takes His word and applies it to our souls, Then, O God, this meeting will have been a pointless exercise for us. But we thank Thee for the great Comforter that has been sent into the world, the Spirit of our God. We rejoice in His ministry. We pray that we might know that personally in these souls of ours. Help us to be honest and frank with ourselves. Give us, as so often is prayed, judgment day honesty, as if, O God, we found ourselves standing before the great tribunal of God, to give an account of our lives, an account of our spiritual state. O God, give us, therefore, judgment day honesty among us. Come, Lord, and help the preacher. Fill me, Lord, with thy spirit, I pray. And grant, dear God, the word of God to challenge and to comfort the soul. And may, O God, even as a result of the preaching, may there be a return unto God by even those who have wandered and those who are wandering from the Lord. Jesus is calling, is tenderly calling today. May the voice of God be heard. We offer prayer in and through the Savior's holy name. Amen. I wonder in your life have you ever engaged in interpersonal communication? You might be asking, well what is interpersonal communication when it's at home? Well interpersonal communication is just another way or a fancy way of saying that you talk to yourself, that you talk to yourself. Now some people say that talking to yourself is a sign of madness, or at least the first sign of madness. But scientists believe that talking to yourself can actually be a sign of genius. For example, Albert Einstein, a man who many in the world believe was the world's greatest physicist, is said to have talked to himself. It is reported, and I quote, that he used to repeat sentences to himself softly. Whenever you come into the Word of God, there are times that you find the human writer talking to themselves. This especially, I believe, happens in the book of Psalms, where we find the psalmist taking himself in hand and giving himself a good talking to. For example, in Psalm number 42, we hear the inspired psalm man speaking to his own soul. He asks himself the question, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? He then comes to respond to that self-questioning by declaring to his own soul, hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him. for the help of his countenance. Well, in Psalm 116, we have another example where we find the human pain man communing with his own soul. The opening statement of the Psalm is a declaration of the Psalmist's love for the Lord. And he gives a reason why he has come to love the Lord. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Having proven God in prayer, the writer then promises in the verse number two that for the rest of his days that he will come and continue to call upon the Lord. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. As you move into the verses 3 through to 6 of the psalm, it seems that the psalmist recalls to his mind his own conversion experience. He speaks about a time in his life when the sorrows of death compassed him. A period in his life when the pains of hell had got hold upon him. A time when wherever he turned, he found trouble and sorrow. He speaks about how God has brought him low. Verse number six, I was brought low. He comes to confess. And yet, when he comes to call upon the Lord, the psalmist finds that the Lord delivers him from his distress. We read that he was helped and how the Lord had delivered him from his troubles. As the psalmist reviews what God had done for him, In salvation, he comes to lift up his voice in thanksgiving. In the verse number 5, where he says these words, There's something, sinner, for you to lay hold of today. That the God of the Bible is a God who is gracious. That the God of the Bible is a God who is merciful. that He can be gracious and merciful to you, even if today finds you in your sin, if you find yourself, as the psalmist found himself, finding yourself in trouble and sorrow because of sin, thank God, if you call upon the name of the Lord, as the psalmist did in verse number 4, you will find that the Lord is gracious and the Lord is merciful. I trust that you'll do that even now. Having experienced God's mercy and God's grace and God's help and God's deliverance, you would have thought that the psalmist would have then continued to walk with God faithfully for the rest of his life and for the remainder of his days. But it seems to be, from the words of our text today, which will be verse 7, it appears that there is a wandering from God on the part of the psalmist. There seems to be a departure from God. Because the psalmist comes to speak to himself. He comes to engage in this interpersonal communication. He comes to speak to his own soul, and in speaking to his own soul, he utters these words, It's as if he's speaking to his own soul, directly. And here's the counsel that he's now giving to himself, return on to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee. This afternoon as we continue then to think about some of these great Bible returns that we have recorded for us in Holy Scripture, I want us then to consider the verse number seven under the heading, the soul's returned on to its rest. The souls return on to its rest. Maybe today your soul needs to return on to its rest. Maybe today you would need to take as it were yourself in hand. Give yourself as it were a good talking to and say on to your soul, return, return on to thy rest for the Lord has dealt bountifully Now there are a number of matters for our consideration. In the words of our text I see first of all a return that is encouraged. A return that is encouraged. Now the psalm before us really takes the form of a personal song whose lyrics come to remind us of the psalmist's deliverance from sins, misery and slavery. And I've already mentioned that in my introductory remarks. that the words of the verse number seven return on to thy rest, O my soul. In those words, it appears that there is an admission on the part of the psalmist that his soul had strayed from God, that there had been a turning away from its rest. And thus he cries, return on to thy rest, O my soul. The word return, as we have considered already in this series of messages and fairs, that the soul of the psalmist is not where it ought to be and where it should be at this particular time. And so aware of this distance that had opened up between his soul and his God, the psalmist takes himself in hand and he encourages a return of the soul onto its rest. Now if we were truly honest with ourselves, brethren and sisters, we would have to all, all of us, have to confess that there are times when we do wander and we do stray from Christ. He is the source of rest, gospel rest. And there are times that sadly we find ourselves straying and wandering from the Lord. Robert Robinson, the 18th century hymn writer, had such a departure in his mind when he penned the words in this hymn, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave. the God I love. The irony was that Robert Robinson found himself in a backslidden state after having penned the words of that very hymn, Come thou fount of every blessing. He himself found himself ironically in a place where his feet had wandered from God, that he himself experienced after writing the hymn that he was prone to wander, Lord I feel it, I'm prone to leave the God I love. But God in his sovereign providence, caused Robert Robinson to ride a stagecoach one day. And in that stagecoach, there was another passenger who was humming the words of his hymn. Think of that. Here's a man in a back-slidden state, having written the words of the hymn, and God in his providence had a young girl humming the tune of the hymn that he had written. She turned round to Robert Robinson, and she asked him his opinion on that particular hymn. With tear-filled eyes, Robinson replied, and I quote, Madam, I am the poor, unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds if I had them to enjoy the feelings I had then. Oh, here's a man. writing about an experience, warning others, and he himself was prone to leave the God he loved. Now here's a question then that must be asked and must be then given consideration to. Why do we depart from the Lord? Why do we depart from the Lord? Why does the soul wander from its rest? Well, before I give you some reasons why I believe that we depart from the Lord, let me say that such a departure can never be put or pinned on God. There is nothing in Him that would cause us to depart from Him. There is nothing that He would do to us. There is nothing that He would providentially send into our lives. that would cause us to depart or wander from the Lord. The blame can never be placed on God. Never. It is not God's fault that the soul wanders from its rest. The reality is that the departure of the soul is always traced back to us. We're the reason why at times we depart from the Lord. So, let me give you a number of reasons why I believe at times the soul departs from the Lord. First of all, and the most obvious reason it departs from the Lord is because of sin, because of sin. Sin is often the root cause of every departure from the Lord. We take David as a case example of this. Having allowed lust to conceive in his heart, as he set his eyes upon Bathsheba, David commits adultery with Uriah's wife, only then to murder Uriah in order to try and cover his tracks. And so David's sin led him away from the Lord. Personal sin. Now your sins may not be as obvious, and your sins may not be as heinous as David's sins, and yet sin has taken you away from the Lord. Today, God would have you to say, return on to thy rest. And as you return, surely then the words of David in that penitential Psalm, Psalm number 51, would be words that you should employ as you return on to the Lord. In Psalm 51, David prays, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. God will hear a prayer like that. God heard David's prayer and restored him into fellowship. And so it is our sin that causes us to depart from the Lord. The fellowship is marred, the communion is marred. And there needs to be a restoring of that fellowship and that communion once again. But secondly, a Christian can depart from the Lord because of life's many distractions. Life's many distractions. You know, there are things that vie for our attention in life. That if those things are not kept in check, Those things can come to consume our time, distract our minds, see to the realignment of priorities, and result in a departure from God. Let me give you four aspects to living. Four aspects of our lives that are fraught with danger, that if we are not careful, may distract us so that we begin to lose out with God and the soul begins to drift from the Lord. Number one, work life. Work life. There is nothing, nothing sinful about work. In fact, work is commended and work is expected from those who can work in the Holy Scripture. God set man to work even before the fall. Work is not a result of the fall, although at times you might think that when you go into your workplace on a Monday morning and you have to listen to your work colleagues. and all that they have to say they you may think well this is a cause of the fall no work was established before the fall god sent adam into the garden and he told him to dress the garden to tend the garden and so work preceded the fall but work is a necessary thing work is a scriptural thing work is a Blessed thing, it is by our work that we come to provide for our own personal needs, and we also come to provide for the needs of those who have been placed under our care. And yet, saying that all, there is a danger that our working hours and that our work shifts can lead to our missing out with God. And in this, we must be guarded. In this, we must be guarded. Every attempt ought to be made to ring fence those times of the week when God's people meet for worship, whether that's in the Lord's day or whether that's on a Wednesday evening. Our worship of God must take precedence over our work. There are works of necessity and mercy, of course there are. And in those things, our catechism and also our confession speaks about works of necessity and mercy. But we must be very careful that we do not employ such terminology in order to allow us to negate our responsibility when we come to the worship of God on His day and also on the other days of the week in which we come and assemble to worship. I can assure you that if you seek first the kingdom of God, Then all other things will be added on to you. And so we must be guarded with regard to our work life. We must be guarded. Secondly, there is the distraction of family life, family life. And suppose it wasn't until we had a daughter born into our own home that we came to understand and appreciate the time and the energy that it really does take to bring up children. From the moment they get up in the morning to the time that they are put to bed at night, children can take up a large percentage of our time. And I'm speaking here about a mother's time. Motherhood, especially during the early years of a child's life. can be a time when, regrettably, spiritual things can take a back seat. With a home that's full of demanding children, there's a challenge of even getting a minute to sit down to pray and to read the Word of God. Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, and also eight other children, so there were 10 children within the Wesley home. Susanna Wesley had a unique way in which she found time in which she could spend before the Lord. As the children around her played, and as the children went about their tasks, Susanna Wesley got her apron, and she sat down on her favorite chair in the kitchen, and she put the apron over the top of her head, and she spent hours under that apron, supplicating the throne of heavenly grace, praying for her children. She was a busy mother, she was a busy housewife, but she found a way by which she could spend time with God and family life and all of its responsibilities and all of its duties. And I speak here to mothers, because at times it can be that a mother's so full of her necessary duties, and that's what she ought to do, of course it is. But at times a coldness can set in. Maybe the spending of time with the Lord is not what it was before. And so we need to try and help those who are fathers in the home. There is a little bit of help in which you can give to the mother of the home. And then what about our social lives? You know, there are people, and they've got very, very busy social lives. I'm just glad to get a Friday night in the house. It used to be that you're always glad to be out of the house as a young person, but there are people, and you've got very, very busy social lives. You go from here to there, and you meet up with friends, and, of course, it's good to have good friendship. Of course it is. But at times people, because of their social lives, they can get in so late, so late on a Saturday night that they're not prepared for the Lord's day. And they sleep in God's house. And others, and you're busy socially through the week. And it seems to be that the Bible study and other meetings that are convened during that week, well they come down the list of priorities and your social get-togethers, well they seem to take precedence. and you get home late at night, and you're so tired that you simply roll into bed, and no longer do you pray, and no longer do you take up the Word of God, no longer do you read the Scriptures, and no longer do you study the Word of God. Be careful that your social life does not eat into your spiritual life. Be cautious that your friendship with others And it's good to have friends, good friends, but be careful that your friendship with others is not detrimental to your friendship with God. And then the fourth area is church life. I have to confess that this is where often a minister or the pastor feels there's so much to do, so many people to visit. So many messages to prepare, so many issues to deal with that they come to spend less and less time in the Word and in prayer. You see folks, there's such a thing as a backslidden minister. Just because a minister stands in the pulpit does not mean that his soul does not turn away from God and does not depart from God. There is such a thing as a backslidden minister, a man who has neglected the most needful parts. And so it comes personally to my soul. How much time am I spending alone with God? How much time am I feeding my soul? Am I caring for the spiritual well-being of my soul? Am I concerned about a departure, a coolness in my own spiritual life? It comes to us all. And church life can be busy. Meetings throughout the week. And we can sometimes substitute meetings for our own meeting with the Lord. running here and there and everywhere. I'm not decrying ministry meetings. We have ministry meetings. I'm not decrying evangelistic campaigns. We have them. We believe in them. But we must be very careful that we do not substitute simply going to a meeting for our own meeting with God in prayer and in the Word of God. We mustn't do that. Now, in light of all that I've said, well, what are we to do? Well, we're not to resign from our jobs. Don't be doing that tomorrow. Well, I'm too busy. The minister says my work life's too much and so I'm going to resign. Don't be doing that tomorrow. That's not what you're to do. And we're not to neglect our families. Mother, you're not to neglect your family. Father, you're not to neglect your family. And we're not to become social hermits whereby we don't engage with individuals and have fellowship with others. And we certainly don't stop serving the Lord. through the local church, of course, but in the area of work, well, maybe these things would help. Maybe that extra shift, maybe that taking on of extra work, maybe we should leave that. Maybe we should let someone else do it, unless it impinges upon our own spiritual lives. And as I've already said, maybe in family life, maybe father, maybe you need to do just a little bit. Helping mother. Helping her. Getting the children to bed. Let's do it together. Let's get the children to bed. Let mother spend then a little time with the Lord, alone with the Lord. Allow her out to a meeting now and again. Something that you could maybe do. Come together if at all possible. Come as a family together. And in our social lives, you know, maybe we would need to say at times to our friends that the nights that the church meets, well, those are the nights that I've set aside for the Lord. My Wednesday nights, they're out of the question. They're out of the question. Wednesday night is Bible study and prayer meeting night. That's the night that I'm going to give to the Lord. I'm going to meet with my brethren and sisters, and I'm going to meet with the Lord in prayer. And Friday night, that's youth fellowship night. I'm not going to run the country. Others do that, of course they do. But I'm not going to do that. I'm going to be there. I'm going to support the youth leader and the work of God and the other young people. Because if I miss, then what happens is it's a dynamo effect and it ends up that nearly half the people miss. And in our church lives, maybe we just need to be on our guard with regard to our own times with the Lord. Although we need help in these areas, brethren and sisters, of course we do, but don't allow life's distractions to be a reason why you depart from the Lord. The devil wants to make us busy, so busy that we don't have time to spend with the Lord and that we don't grow in our Christian lives. Let's be careful. Let's be guarded. Let's not be ignorant of the devil's devices. God help us in this area. The departure from the Lord can also be caused by doubts surrounding our faith. People can depart from the Lord because doubts surrounding their faith come to plague their hearts. Thomas, as well as the two men on the road to Emmaus, are really case examples of that. Whenever the other Ten disciples were meeting the Lord on the resurrection evening. Thomas, well, he was found missing in Judah. He died, we're told. He required irrefutable proof and evidence before he believed that Jesus Christ would be raised from the dead. He needed to see the hands pierced and the side pierced. He needed to put his hand into those nail prints. Here's a man, a Christian, doubting. And so he's not present whenever the congregation gathered. He started to depart from the Lord. God was gracious to Thomas. God appeared to him. Thomas met him, spoke to him. God dealt with Thomas tenderly. You think of those two on the mass road. They were doubting the Savior, were they not? They left. They left Jerusalem. They were returning home, disconsolate, dejected. They spoke of Christ in the past terms, in the past tense. We believe that this was the Christ. Not that He is the Christ, but He was the Christ. But no longer do we believe that. And they also disbelieved the accounts of others who claimed that they had already met the risen Christ. And so what are they doing? They're departing. They've got doubts. They're starting to depart. You know, there are times in all of our lives when we can doubt our salvation. And those doubts can ferment in our minds to such an extent that our spiritual lives go into freefall. Such are the doubts that our spiritual lives go into freefall. I was amazed to read this quote from Spurgeon. I think I have given it before, but he was speaking from personal experience, and this is what Spurgeon said. He said, some of us, and he's including himself, some of us who have preached the word for years and have been the means of working faith in others and of establishing them in the knowledge of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible have nevertheless been the subjects of the most fearful and violent doubts as to the truth of the very gospel we have preached. You know, Satan adds fuel on to the fire when the Christian is plagued with doubts. But ask yourself this question. If you are here today, ask yourself this question or these questions with regard to the matter of your salvation. Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord? Do you love His Word? Do you love the fellowship of the people of God? Or you may say, preacher, but I don't love Him as I should love Him. Who does? Who loves the Lord in the way that they should love Him? But do you love the Lord? Is there any love to the Savior today? Or you may say, but I don't love him like others do in my family or in my circle of friends. But the question is not the degree of your love. It is the direction of your love. I'm not here to say where you are with regard to skills, with regard to the degree of your love, whether it's strong or whether it's less. But really today I'm speaking about the direction of your love. Where is your love directed towards? Who is it directed towards? Is it directed towards the world? Or is it directed towards the Lord? Because if it's towards the Lord, let me say that that is wholly unnatural. We do not love the Lord in our sinful fallen state. We hate the Lord. We despise Him. We are at enmity with Him. But the Christian is one to whom they come and they're able to say, I love the Lord. Is that not what the psalmist says here? Here's the proof. Here's the proof that my soul My soul knew the Lord. My soul has been saved. He says, I love the Lord. I love the Lord. Can I say just a few things with regard to that? With regard to maybe your struggles, maybe you're struggling, you have doubts. Let me say to you, and I say it gracefully, and I say it prayerfully, and I say it With love in my heart that your struggles with doubt are not helped by your lack of Bible reading and prayer, and neither is it helped by your absence at the means of grace. These are all blessings and benefits. These are all means by which you can grow in your grace, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so what you maybe need to do, just where you sit, just where you are, You need to return, return. Time is very quickly going. The second truth we want to consider is the rest that is endowed, the rest that is endowed. For it says, return on to thy rest. Return on to thy rest, O my soul. Within that word rest in verse number seven, there is an allusion to an animal that we have already considered. in this series of messages, because there is an allusion here to the weary dove that sought a place of rest in the post-flood world. Finding no place of rest, the dove returned on to Noah, her rest. Remember what we said his name meant? His name means rest. And so the dove returned on to its rest. Genesis 8 verse 9, But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned on to her rest, to him, to Noah. We could literally put it in there. Returned on to her rest, into the ark, for the waters were upon the face of the whole earth. In actual fact, it's interesting that the same Hebrew word for Noah in the book of Genesis is the word that is used for rest here in the verse number 7. We could literally read the words, return on to thy Noah. Return on to thy Noah. Maybe there's a believer, as I've said, and you've turned from your rest, you've gone away from your rest. I would encourage you to return on to that rest today. As Noah's dove came back to him, so the wandering one can fly back to Christ who is their rest. I'm told by Bible linguists that the word rest is in the plural. Return on to thy rests. Now, you mustn't think That that means that there are many rests in which the soul can return to. That's not the use or that's not how the Hebrew would have you to consider this. Return on to thy rests. It's in the plural. But what is it meant here? The returning on to its rests. Really, the use of the plural indicates that there is a fullness to the rest. or there is an entirety to this rest, there is a completeness to the rest that God gives that you don't have to go anywhere else. That is the idea. There is an entire, there is a complete, there is a full rest. A rest for all times and in all circumstances. And this is a rest that is given to the child of God. Now let me pass a few comments with regard to this endowed, this gift that is given to the Christian. In the first place, this rest was promised in the covenant of grace. Every blessing the child of God comes to enjoy is a result of the covenant of grace, sometimes referred to as the covenant of peace. Rest from our sin. Rest from our labors of our own hands. Rest from the pursuit of an avenging law. These are all the blessings that are the child of God in the covenant of peace. And so this rest was promised in the covenant of redemption, the covenant of peace, the covenant of grace. Secondly, it was purchased by Jesus' blood, this rest. Colossians 1 verse 2, and having made peace. through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself. The rest, the peace that the Christian experience is purchased by blood, Jesus' blood. And whenever the trusting sinner is reconciled to God through Jesus' blood, the soul regains its lost peace, as it were, that it once had in Adam before he fell. And it finds a center of rest in Jesus Christ. Not only that, but this rest is possessed by faith. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by faith that we enter into the rest of Christ and his gospel. It is this rest that is imparted to the soul, like every other blessing, and as a gift from God, it is received by faith. But notice the personal nature of this rest. Verse number seven, return on to thy rest. Return on to thy rest. What a mercy there is for the child of God. There is a rest for the people of God. A rest now in this world and a rest that is yet to come. Return on to thy rest. Are you searching for rest for the soul? If you're not a Christian, then come to Christ. Come on to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I'll give you rest. Maybe, Christian, you have left your rest. Well, heed the counsel. Return on to thy rest, O my soul. The return that's encouraged, the rest that is endowed, finally the reason that is expressed. Why is the wandering one to return? Well, the psalmist gives us the answer to that question in the second part of the verse. Return on to thy rest, O my soul. For, here's the reason, because the preacher says, Because you don't want to have a bad name in the church of Jesus Christ. You don't want to get a visit from the minister. He doesn't need to come and visit you and speak to you directly face to face and say, there's something not right. There's a departure that has taken place. Is that the reason why you should return on to the rest? No. The reason why you should turn on to your rest is because the Lord has dealt bountifully with them. There's the reason. God's bountiful dealings with the psalmist in the past was really what was to prompt a return to God in the present. Considering all that God had done for this man, the only logical course of action for this psalmist to take from his wanderings was to return to God. In other words, so catch yourself home. Do you not remember? Do you not recall? Do you not understand that God has dealt bountifully with you? Why have you left your first love? Why have you wandered? Do you not remember what I did for your soul? Do you not remember that I redeemed you? Do you not remember that I saved you? Do you not remember that I reconciled you to God? Do you not remember that I gave you a place in my family, and I gave you the guarantee of heaven? Do you not remember, child of God? Why then has the soul wandered? The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, and the psalmist, he speaks about how God had dealt bountifully with him. God's bountiful dealings are seen in the following verses. God delivered his soul from death, for thou hast delivered my soul from death. from eternal death, from spiritual death. This is what God, or maybe the psalmist he speaks here about a time in his life when he was delivered from physical enemies and God had been gracious to him and dealt bountifully with him. But I believe we could go deeper and we could say, here's a man and he understands that he has been rescued, he has been delivered, he has been saved from eternal death. God dealt bountifully with me in delivering me from death. And God has dealt bountifully with you, child of God, in delivering you from such a death. And yes, he also delivered this man. He delivered his eyes from tears. Verse number eight again, that was delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears. Tears are often the expression of a broken spirit and a sorrowful heart, but God has delivered the psalmist from his tears, and he remembers it. He remembers the brokenness and the misery of a life of sin. He recalls what God has done for his soul. And then he says that thou hast kept my feet from falling. God delivered the feet from falling. Thou hast delivered my feet from falling. But now it seems that this man has fallen again. This man now is in a place where he shouldn't have found himself in. But that's just what happens at times. And so he recalls God's dealings with him, his bountiful dealings with him. And this is the incentive whereby he returns to God. He remembers what God has done in the past, and he understands that this God does not change. And this God who delivered my soul from death, and who delivered my eyes from tears, and who delivered my feet from falling, this God can do it again. And so I take myself in hand, and I return on to God. Would you do that today? Would you not return to the Lord? Why is it that you've left Him? Why is there this need for God to say to you through this preacher, return on to thy rest? God has dealt bountifully with you. You shouldn't be where you are. Child of God, you shouldn't be where you are, but you are. God would say, return. O wandering saint, recall God's bountiful dealings with you in the past, and let his tender dealings with you invoke from you a return. All who return, they come to find They come to find the restorative power of God in their lives. They find that he really does restore the soul. May God restore your soul today. May you take these words to heart and plead them before God in the privacy of your mind, your heart, your bedroom, somewhere even today. on your return home, or as you even travel home, may you say to your own soul, return on to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with me. May God be pleased to bless His word. Let's bow our heads in prayer together. If you need help in these matters, I am available to make contact with us. Return unto thy rest even today. May God return you even by His grace and His love. Our loving Father, our gracious God in heaven, we pray that thou wilt help us, Lord, to search our hearts asking ourselves the question, where is the soul in relation to God? Does it need to return? Is there a departure? Is there a distance opened up between me and thee? Does today mark the day of my return? As I even stand and sing this final hymn, and as I gaze upon the table of remembrance and view the emblems that are representative of Christ's love for me? Do I not understand that God has dealt bountifully with me and therefore there is no reason why