I'm reading this morning from
the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11. I hope you'll follow along
in your Bible or listen very carefully as I read from Matthew
chapter 11. I hope those who listen to this,
or at least someone who listens, will be like those Bereans of
old of whom it was said that they were more noble than other
Jews because they, after hearing the apostles preach, they would
go home and search the scriptures to see if these things were so.
They would search God's word to see if what the preacher was
saying was the truth. And that's exactly what I wish
people would do upon hearing me preach. Matthew chapter 11,
I read verse 28. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
and he says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Come unto me, Christ said. What
does it mean to come to Christ? But first, before we deal with
this, I want to go back a few verses. It's important that we
see what he said before he said this. We need to take things
in context. So many are guilty of taking
verses out of context. But look back at verse 25 and
26 and 7. The Lord is speaking to the Father. He is speaking in prayer or conversation
with the Father. And He says, At that time Jesus
answered and says, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent, and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight." He said, I thank thee,
Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. He's talking about the things
of God, the spiritual things, the truth, the gospel. He says
it's hid that God hath hid these things from the wise and prudent. It is written in 1 Corinthians
1 that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen. And he goes on to
describe those whom God hath chosen to reveal the truth to,
the things of God. Because he said in chapter 2
of 1 Corinthians, that the natural man receiveth not the things
of God, their foolishness to him, neither can he know them. They are spiritually discerned. God must reveal them, he went
on to say, by the Spirit. These things must be revealed. And they are revealed unto Badan.
The gospel, the truth, spiritual things, are not known by man's
will or his wisdom, but they are revealed by the Spirit of
God. Because God is spirit, man is
a carnal creature by nature. He is not spiritual. God must
give him spirit. No flesh should glory in his
presence. And it is all to the praise of
God's glory. That is why. That's the reason.
And Christ said in verse 27, All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. This thing is a revelation by
God, of God. It's revealed. No man knows the
living and true God except he reveal himself. No man knows
the Son, knows Christ, except he reveal himself. All right? That's very clear
from God's Word. And Christ said that. And he
said, all things are delivered unto me of the Father. All things. The issues of life and death.
Judgment. Eternity. Salvation is in the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judgment. All things are committed
unto him. He said that in John 17. He said, As thou hast given him
power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him. That's very clear from God's
Word. Salvation is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he gets all the glory from the choosing to the calling to the
saving to the final preservation of. Salvation is of the Lord. It is all in his hands, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. You will hear this
preacher say this constantly, constantly repeating these very
same things. Because God must get all the
glory. Man must not share his glory
at all. All right. And that's what he
said before. He said, come unto me. He said,
all things are delivered unto me. Come unto me. If we need
anything, if there's anything we need, we must come to Christ
for it. If there's anything we want,
we must come to Christ for it. Anything we want to know, we
must come to Christ for it. All things are delivered unto
him, he said. He says, come unto me. All right,
who will come to Christ? Well, let me read to you from
John chapter 6, which the Lord said in John chapter 6, verse
44, verse 43. He said, murmur not among yourselves.
There were many whom he preached to murmured. They didn't like
what he was saying in the same way that many may listen to this
and murmur at it. You're not murmuring against
me. It's God's Word that perhaps you're murmuring and differing
with. But no matter. Christ said, murmur
not among yourselves. Verse 44, no man can come to
me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. And I will
raise him up at the last day. What could be clearer? Our Lord
said, no man can come to me. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. And he said it again in verse
65 of the same chapter, Therefore said I unto you, No man can come
unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. Why is
this written? Why does he say this? Because
it is the truth. It is the truth. And that no
flesh should glory. Again, it is offered to the praise
of his glory. In Psalm 65, David, who was interested
in the glory of God, who gave God all the glory, said in Psalm
65 verse 4, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest
to approach unto thee. And he said in Psalm 110 verse
3, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. So God gets all the glory if
someone comes to Christ. This does not eliminate man's
responsibility, but it just gives God all the glory. And all whom
God Almighty chooses, elects, who God Almighty causes to approach,
they will come to Christ. They will come. They will repent.
They will call upon Him. They will ask Him to save them. They will believe by His grace,
by His power. Again, it is for God's glory.
What does it mean to come to Christ? What does it mean to
come to Christ? Three things I want to ask. What
does it mean to come to Christ? Secondly, who may come? And thirdly,
what will you find when you come to Christ? What is it to come
to Christ? I hope you'll turn back a few
pages to Matthew chapter eight. This is very important because
this is the first way a person must come to Christ. This is
the first way a person will come to Christ if they truly come
to Christ. Matthew 8, it says in verse 1,
when Christ was come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed him. Just like today, there are so
many who claim to follow Jesus, who claim to believe Jesus, but
Christ said to many of them, quite often, He said, you follow
me because you got your belly filled, because you ate the loaves
and the fish. He said to others, you follow
me because you saw the miracles, the signs, and the wonders. Well,
here's a person who came to Christ. In verse 2 of Matthew 8, it says,
Behold, in the midst of this great multitude that followed
him, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him. This man came to worship Christ. Now, this is the difference between
the true believer, the one who truly comes to Christ, and the
merely religious. This is the difference between
the great multitudes today and the few that truly worship Christ. See, most people believe of Jesus
or come to church or are interested in these things because they
want material gain, because they have physical and emotional needs,
because of what they can get out of Jesus. They've heard preachers
promise all these things, and so they want a new a new job,
a new house, a new car. They want deliverance from drugs,
deliverance from a bad marriage, and this and that and the other.
But this man, it says, came and worshiped Christ. That's the
first thing you will do if you hear who Christ is. You'll worship
Him. That means adore Him, admire
Him, follow His feet for who He is, not what you can get out
of Him. You'll see His majesty, His glory.
You'll follow His feet for who He is, the person truly comes
to Christ after hearing who He is, after hearing the glorious
gospel of His person and His work, they come to worship Him
first. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to come with a need. Verse 2, it says this man was
a leper, and he came and worshiped Him and said, Lord... You see,
you don't receive Him as Savior. and then later on make Him Lord.
That's not in the Bible. That's not salvation. Salvation is to know that He's
Lord first, whether you believe He saved you or not. He came and worshiped Him and
said, Lord, if Thou wilt. Not, I've decided to let you
do this or let you do that. I've decided to let you into
my heart. No, Lord, if Thou wilt. You work all things up to the
counsel of your will. All things are according to your
will and your purpose, not my will. Lord, if thou wilt. See,
the Spirit of God had already worked upon this man to show
him who Christ was, to bring him to the feet of Christ, to
worship him, to call him Lord and to ask him, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to come as a leper needing cleansing. Now, again, this is
a saving difference between true believers, those who truly come
to Christ, and the merely religious. Those who come to Christ come
to Christ for salvation from their sins, not deliverance from
drugs, not to help with a bad marriage. No, they come as sinners
in need of saving. They come as guilty in needing
mercy. ignorant, needing wisdom, spiritual wisdom. They come as
unrighteous, needing Christ's righteousness. They come as sinners,
needing forgiveness, needing pardon, needing blood. It was
said of Christ, Call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins. We come to Christ for salvation
from our sins. We come to Christ as our prophet,
priest, and king. We come to the prophet who will
tell us all things about God, about ourselves, about salvation.
We come to Him as our priest, confessing all to Him, not a
mere mortal man, but Christ, the only mediator between God
and men. We come to Him as king with all
authority in His hands to give us everything we need. What is
it to come to Christ? It's to come to worship. It's
to come with a need. It's to come as a disciple. He
said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, there in Matthew
11. Who may come to Christ? He said,
come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, all, that
is, Jew and Gentile, male, female, old and young, but all that labor
and are heavy laden. What does this mean? It's not
talking about physical labor. That's man's lot. God told it
from the garden. Sweat of your brow, you're going
to have to earn your living. It's those who labor and are
heavy laden with their sin. People are laboring to be accepted
with God, laboring to find peace within, laboring to get better,
to get holy. Christ said, come unto me, I'll
give you rest. People are laboring to keep the
Sabbath when Christ is the Sabbath. Do you understand that? Oh, I
hope you do. I hope you'll make you understand.
And what will you find when you come to Christ? Come unto Me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
You'll quit trying to be accepted by God, and you'll see that Christ
is your acceptor. You'll quit trying to keep the
law to justify yourself, and you'll realize Romans 10, verse
4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes it. That's what you'll find. Rest
for your souls. Rest, he said. Hope you'll read
the rest of that for yourselves later on. And I hope the Spirit
of God will cause you to come to Christ for salvation. He must do it. And if you do,
you'll give Him all the glory for it. Until next Sunday, good
day. I don't know if that's a good
thing or a bad thing. I don't know. I'm going to go ahead and close
the door. I'm going to close the door. I'm going to close the door. and I hope to see you in the
next one.