0215. QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE.

QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE.

"In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength" (Isa_30:15)

The Difficulty. Israel was in peril from Assyria. She always felt difficulty in placing full reliance upon God in national affairs, and was ever hankering after alliances with Assyria against Egypt, or Egypt against Assyria. The effect was that whoever was victorious, Israel suffered; it was the battle-ground for both; it was the prize of each in turn. The prophet’s warnings were truly political wisdom of a high order, as well as religious.

The Appeal. Here Judah is exhorted to forsake the entangling dependence on Egypt, and to trust wholly to God. They had gone away from Him in their fears. They must come back by their faith. To them the great lesson was trust in God. Through them to us the same lesson is read. This was advice they had not heeded; this is advice we would do well to observe and take to heart.

I. Our Need for such Counsel.

1. Dangers Without.

a. Adverse circumstances.

b. Sore temptations.

c. Fierce assaults from enemy.

2. Dangers Within

a. From our weakness.

b. Our own little faith.

3. Not Easy. It is not easy to carry this out.

II. The Nature of the Counsel.

1. Returning.

a. Some depart from God by sin.

b. Some depart from God by speculative thought.

c. Some depart from God by anxious care.

d. Want of confidence is a departure from God. We go away from Him not only by open sin, but by forgetfulness, by want of faith.

2. Rest.

a. "Submission" is F.F. rendering.

b. Submission is really the prelude to rest.

c. Rest is leaning hard upon Him.

d. This is the fruit of returning. Nearness to God brings quiet rest. Confidence in God stills and quiets the soul. The very exercise of communion with Him brings rest.

e. Rest in spite of the presence of causes of disturbance.

3. Quietness.

a. This is the result of rest.

b. Resting upon Him brings quietness.

4. Confidence.

III. The Blessings which Follow.

1. Saved. In every sense.

2. Strength. Trust is strength. Freed from fear we are strong. He strengthens us.

Autor: James Smith