Turn back to where Lee read there
in Matthew 11. My words to you this morning, in light of what we have just
read, in light of what Christ says
about those such as the people of these cities who had such
great privilege and witness. And especially in light of the
fact that every one of us here has even greater witness. has even a greater manifestation of God. And my words are words of warning. And at the same time, they are
words of encouragement. They are words, I believe, of
wisdom. and they are words of urgency. And they are simply, flee to
Christ. Flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. If I were to come into this building
this morning and shout, fire! you would certainly heed such
a warning as that. If I were to call out and say,
snake, I'm sure at least one would heed
that warning. And yet the dangers that we face are not just simply physical
fire. but eternal fire, and not simply a literal serpent,
but he who is that old serpent, the devil, the enemy of man's
soul. He says, flee the wrath to come. And we're given in the Scriptures
a number of pictures, one of which is that picture of the
manslayer, those seven cities that were appointed in Israel,
so that every one guilty of manslaughter, if they could make it to one
of those cities, they would be safe. And so when family and
friends and those around them found him in that state, they
would say to them, flee to the refuge. Of course, that refuge,
those cities of refuge, were a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the same in Noah's day
when there was just one way, method of deliverance, the ark. And Noah preached, and he warned,
and he cried out, get into the ark, the flood's coming. And
that's the message all through Scripture. Just as it was with
Lot, who was commanded of God to flee those cities that were
about to be destroyed and get up to the mountain. or you perish. And so that I might stand clear
of the blood of every one of you, not only today, but every
time I preach, I'm saying to you, flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. And most of all, to tell you
and to point out to you this morning, one more time in this
text, that all your warrant for doing so is because He said for
you to. He said for you to. You see, if you look back in
that first verse, it tells us where he is at and what he has
been doing. It says, And it came to pass,
when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples,
he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. He says, Those that won't hear
you won't hear me." And He sends out those to preach, and their
words as ambassadors for Christ are simply to tell you, to tell
all men just exactly what He says. To tell us exactly who
He is and what it is that He's done. And so, in light of that,
in verses 20 through 24, it says that he upbraids the very cities
in which he has preached and to whom he sent his prophets
and done all these great and miraculous things. Verse 20 says,
Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty
works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in tar and sun, they would have
repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of
judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art
exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if
the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in
Sodom, it would have remained until this day." And if these people and these
cities be responsible to this degree, what about us? Because
we have the record of the Son of God concerning every one of
them and what happened to them in light of their response to
these things. We have all of that and more. We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And these cities and people were
just like we are today. They had great responsibility, but no ability. And we have greater responsibility
and the same inability. Look at what it says in verse
25. It says, At that time Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, Father, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babe. You see, rather than being disappointed
or discouraging, or in some way questioning what God has done
as to why everyone did not receive Him or believe on His name, he
thanks the Father. Thanks Him for what? Wisdom? sovereign grace, distinguishing
mercy. He thanks God for what He has
done in saving not every person, but this people that was given
Him before the world began. And so what we have here in verse
26 as well is the Lord Jesus Christ as a man. How are we supposed to respond
to the truths of God's sovereignty? How are we to respond to the
truths of His sovereign and distinguishing grace? How do we respond when He says,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated? Well, how did the
only perfect man respond? He said, even so, Father, for
so it seemed good in thy sight. I may not understand it. This
is me now. I may not understand it. I may
not be able to explain it. I might even find difficulty
in submitting to that truth. But thank God, by what He's revealed
to me of Himself, I know He can do no wrong. I
know if there's a contradiction, it's in me, not Him. I know if
there's anything done wrong, it'll be me, not Him. And so
we submit to Him. We acknowledge His wisdom. We
acknowledge Him as the righteous God. And we thank Him, even so,
Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. And then He shows us the reason
why, if left to themselves, all men are like this. Look at what
it says in verse 27. He says, All things are delivered
unto me of my Father, and no man knows the Son, but the Father,
neither knows any man the Father, save or except the Son, and he
to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." In other words, what is taking
place here is we're being shut up to this reality that everything
is in Christ. You can't know God apart from
Christ. You can't receive any spiritual
blessings apart from Christ. There is no other mediator between
you and God but the man Christ Jesus. There is no forgiveness. There is no pardon for sin. There
is no mercy. There is no grace. There is no
hope of heaven. There is no peace of heart. There
is no joy of soul anywhere except in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, flee to Christ. Flee
to Him. If you'll just hold your place
there and turn over just a few pages to Matthew chapter 16,
look at what is said here to Simon Peter. Matthew 16 and verse
13. When Jesus came into the coasts
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias,
or one of the prophets. But he saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Now,
he got it right. Somehow, he was distinguished
from those who were like those in Capernaum and all these other
cities in which all the mighty works of God were done, and even
these who heard and saw and watched the miracles of Christ Himself. He got it right. Why? Look at
the next verse. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood, yours nor anybody else's, hath not revealed it
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." That's the only
way anybody knows. Our Lord sets forth this state
and condition of all men fallen in Adam, born dead in trespasses
and sin. No man knows the Son or the Father
except God reveal it to them. That's the only way. Nobody can,
by their searching, the Scripture says, find Him out. And nobody
can, by their intellect, or by their will, or by their decisions,
or their works, or their experiences, none of them can, by these things,
know God. God must reveal Himself to us
through the gospel and in us by His Spirit, and that is only
in His Son. God, who in diverse manners and
different ways at different times spoke, He says, to the prophets
and fathers in days past, He has in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son. And no man ever knows, no one
ever has any understanding of who God is and more especially
of who Christ the Savior is apart from the gospel. No man. has seen God at any time,
the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared Him." Turn over to John chapter 6.
John 6, this is the plainest of the plain. John chapter 6,
and look down in verse 44. And here this same Christ, this
one Savior, this one God manifest in the flesh, listen to what
He says here in verse 44 of John 6. 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. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." You see, when you read the Bible,
it isn't a matter of God allowing us to come. The difficulty lies in our own
inability, and the inability is manifested in this unwillingness
to come. That's what our Lord said. To
some He said, you will not come to me that you might have lost. Now, the amazing thing about
that is those he said that to, they thought they were the nearest
to God of anybody. And not only that, they thought
that they ought to be teaching him and everybody else, not him
teaching them. And also, the very fact that
what he said showed them, or at least declared to them, and
I hope shows us, that they were dead because they had not come
to Christ that they might have life. But I hope it shows us
this, that the only way to have life, the only way spiritual
life by the Spirit of God is demonstrated is by our coming
to Christ. You will not come to me that
you might have life. And because of the blindness
in men in seeing the One who is speaking, and the ignorance
of man of his grace, and that natural rebellion that is born
out of enmity and self-righteousness and foolish pride." He said, you won't come. No man
can come to me." And so sinners are in this blindness and ignorance
and spiritual death, totally unaware of the real condition
they're in, the real need that they have, and the real danger
that they're in. A blind man can walk right down
the middle of the highway outside and be totally unaware of the
danger. A small child can walk and put
his hand right in the fire and be totally unaware of that great
danger. And so by the evidence we see
here in this passage and others, That's why the multitudes just
walked away from Christ. They just walked away. And yet our Lord says, come unto
Me. Sounds to me like that He was
expecting something to take place beyond what these that He spoke
to were able and capable of doing. Doesn't that sound like? It's
kind of like when he stood out before the tomb of Lazarus who
had been dead for three days. He said, Lazarus, come forth. Now you and I know beyond a shadow
of a doubt that a dead man especially one that's been dead for three
days, given time long enough to show that he was really and
absolutely and totally dead, he cannot answer that call. But he did. Why? Because the ability to bring
that to pass was not in him. but in the one who gave that
call. Look over in John 6 again in
that same chapter down at verse 69. It says that when he spoke these
words, when he told these people their condition, when he spoke
to them spiritual things, It says they didn't follow him
anymore. But look at what verse 69 says. 68. Or go back to verse 67. Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe. We believe. Not only do we believe,
but we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son
of the living God. They believe. Why? Because of the grace and the
will and the power of God. And if you and I are ever enabled
to truly see and believe and embrace the truth as it is in
Christ Jesus, it will be because of the grace
and power of God. You see, the reason why these
rather than the others, did acknowledge and did truly come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, though unable to do so of themselves, is because
of what was said by God to His King. He said, Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy fowl. And it would be totally, as Christ
has clearly spoken and demonstrated in these very people, it would
be totally useless and worthless to stand and to tell any sinner
to flee to Christ were it not for the almighty
grace and power of God. Be just like standing up, as
Ezekiel was commanded to do, and to preach to these dead people,
so dead that there was nothing left but bones, dry bones. That's a fool's errand, isn't
it? Son of man, go and stand out there in this valley of dry
bones and preach to them. Well, they must be able to do
something. No, they're already dead. If left to themselves,
they'll remain dead. And they'll die an eternal death. They're so dead that their bones
are bleached out in the sun. They are beyond all hope. I'm
saying, you go preach to them. So he preached, he went out and
preached, and he prophesied, and it says that the wind came
upon them. That's the wind of God's Spirit.
And the next thing he knew, bone was joining to bone, and sinew
coming upon the bone, and flesh coming upon it, and there stood
up an exceeding great army. Who's that? The people of God. You see, these things are given
to show us what we are and to show us who must do for us what
we can't do for ourselves. Somebody says, well, that's a
foolish thing to stand and tell men that they're dead, that they're
unable, that they're unwilling, that all these things. No, it's
simply what God uses by His Spirit to show us our desperate state
that we might look to Him. Look back here in John 6 again
at verse 37. He says, "...all that the Father
giveth to me shall come to me." You see that? Does that sound like any empty
seats in heaven to you?" Does that sound like something that
depends on the will of men? Does that sound like something
that man ought to get glory for doing? He said, all, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And when they come, You can just
bet on it, I will not cast them out. I will not send them away. You see, our Lord said to His
very disciples privately, He said to them, blessed are the
eyes which see the things that you see. For I tell you that many prophets
and kings have desired to see those things which you see and
have not seen them, and to hear those things which you hear and
have not heard." These things are not meant to
withhold God's grace from us. nor to render us without hope,
except to render us without hope in ourselves. And they are given to show us
our real condition and why God's free and almighty grace is necessary
for a sinner to be saved. They glorify God. in every aspect
of salvation. And they are, when we rightly
see them, the only things that give a sinner like we are any
real hope. Because real hope is outside
of us. Now, what does our Lord say next? Verse 28. This is so beyond human wisdom
and human logic and reasoning that there would be standing
this close together plain, clear declarations as to the condition
of man and his inability and his spiritual deadness. And yet
Christ said the very next word, He does. Come unto Me. Come unto Me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest." There's always a debate and a
dispute in some way. as to whether or not this is
a command or an invitation or whatever it is. But I'll say this, it is as the man Christ Jesus
that he issues a gracious invitation, which is at the same time, since
he's the God-man, They're also a command. Somebody
says, is it an invitation or a command? Both. Both. And it is certainly to be viewed
in that light and thought of the grace of God. How gracious
is he to say something like that to us? And yet, at the same time, we're
to remember who it is that's speaking it. Not just a man,
but God manifests in the flesh. I'm going to take that as a command.
That's not my equal saying that. That's the living God. You're
the Christ. You're the Son of the living
God. He says, come. And it's grace, man. I say grace because the one we
say flee to, he doesn't say, don't send them
to me. They're a bunch of vile, useless, worthless, blind, rebellious,
vile creatures. No, he says come. That's the perfect setup. I'm come in light of what He
says and in light of these warnings and in light of all that's stated
here by Him. I'm saying, flee to Him. And
He's saying to you, come unto Me. And I'm thankful of this, that
the one who's the Savior, The only Savior that there is in
this world or for this world, the Savior, He's not like all
the false religions that are around us that have characterized
all our days on this earth that are telling us to go, go, go. No, He says come. Our Lord said of them, they bind
heavy burdens. and grievous to be born, and
lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not
move them with one of their fingers." Now, I'll guarantee you this.
I don't care how cleverly it's concealed. I don't care what
different banners under which it may be found stated. But all
that false religion has for sinners is instructions in what to do. You get baptized. You join our
church. You clean up your life. You give. And it just goes on and on. You take all these burdens and
you walk on your way to heaven. Don't drop them now. If you drop them, you won't make
it. What does Christ say? He says,
Come. Come unto Me. Come unto Me. You see, if He says, Come, To
him, why would we want to do otherwise? If he says, come, then evidently
we're to leave some things behind. It might not be what you think
either. You say, well, I certainly want
to leave all those things I did in my youth. I want to leave
all that. what I did on this particular occasion, or I want
to leave all this immorality that I was involved in, or all
these wicked acts that I did that nobody really knows about,
I want to leave them. But you know that's not what the
problem is. What we need to live, leave,
what we must leave is not what we think is bad, It's what we
think is good. It's not what we think is unrighteousness. It's what we think is righteousness. That's what he means by the prophet
when he says this, let the wicked forsake his way. Your way is the way of death.
He says this a couple of times or more in the book of Proverbs,
there's a way that seems right unto a man. Think about it. It seems right to us. But he
says, the way thereof is the way of death. He doesn't even
say ways here. He says, let the wicked forsake
his way, his way of going to God, his way of trying to establish
a righteousness, his way of trying to save himself and the unrighteous
man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. and he'll
have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
And that's what Paul's saying there in Philippians 3. In other
words, coming to Christ, he had to leave the very things most
men and women are striving to get. He left his religion. He left the respect of men. He
left his traditions. He left his own works. He left
his own righteousness. So, imagine, he left all his
false refuges and his experiences. He had to leave what he thought
was right. What he was sure was right. Have you ever had that feeling
to come over you? When the Lord God Almighty begins
to just kind of cause the day star to arise in our hearts,
and we begin to look into the pages of Scripture, we begin
to listen and hear the Gospel, and we begin to realize that
what we thought about God wasn't right. That's why it's called repentance
toward God. What we thought about ourselves
wasn't right. How we thought God saved sinners
wasn't right. And so Paul said, I was before
all these things, a Pharisee, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. a keeper
of the law, I was a teacher." But he said, I was before a blasphemer. Boy, that's a shock when the
Lord brings us unto Himself and we find that we have to leave
before Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress says something about,
here's this man who's carrying this big sack on his back and
he's bowed down and he can't make it. All of a sudden, God
comes along and makes that bag fall off his back and it goes
rolling down the hill into an empty tomb. That's Christ. You see, we leave them, yea,
we repent of them, and we trust His finished work. Christ said, I have glorified
Thee, Father, on the earth, and I finish the work which Thou
gavest Me to do. We leave all these things for
His righteousness. and we flee from every false
refuge to Christ the refuge, and we believe on Him and rest
in Him, he says, come unto me. But I'm here to tell you this. The person to whom we've come
and are to come to is that person who's identified by this particular
word. this substitutionary, God-appointed,
God-ordained, and very successful work, we come to Christ crucified. To Jesus, who is the mediator
of the everlasting covenant, Not simply to Jesus, but to Jesus
who was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. To Jesus whose sacrifice put
away our sin. To Him, not to the front, or
to a denomination, or to a church group, but to Christ crucified. Is that your hope? I'm telling you, every other
one is a false refuge. And a Jesus, Paul called another
Jesus, who is not distinguished by this character, by this purpose
and will of the Father, by this work that he accomplishes, this
salvation that he works out by himself, every other one is a
false Jesus. Just a false one. Because you see, this coming
to Christ is simply believing on Christ. It's leaving everything else
and everyone else to rest in Him and what He's accomplished. And
only that. And I'll tell you this, God gave
us one of the clearest and most perfect examples of what it is
to come to Christ in one of those thieves that hung beside Him
on the cross. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ
on that middle cross. Here is one thief on one side
and one thief on the other side. They both have been railing on
Christ, mocking Him just like those who crucified Him. And
then all of a sudden, with His hands nailed to the cross, with
His feet nailed to the cross, one of those thieves comes to
Christ. And as somebody said, he never
moves a muscle. All of a sudden, he looks over
to that other thief and he says, why are we doing this? We're
guilty of what we're being crucified, but not this man. How did he know that? Because
he'd been taught of God. And he said, Lord, remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Ooh, that's a sinner coming to
Christ. He can't raise his hand and say,
pray for me. He can't sign anybody's card
and join the church. He can't even go down into the
waters of baptism. But he's found coming to Christ
in his heart. in all his really true being,
in his soul, he's coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, our Lord identifies
such people. That thief was found to be one.
Now, he's just like the other thief. But our Lord says, Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Well, it looks
like if here are two thieves, two common criminals, and they're
both dying for the same thing in the same boat, as we say,
surely it looks like that they both are labor and heavy laden. No. No. You see, one thief in his blindness,
in his spiritual deadness, in his ignorance, he's willing,
quite comfortably evidently, to go out into eternity, Ben,
and meet God in his own self. But this man is labored and found
heavy laden because of a work of God's Spirit. His labor and his heavy ladenness
lies in something of soul and mind. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden. Is that the way you are? Yep. I lived my young days, I had
no real concern about God or truth or religion or anything
else, really. And I wasn't looking for him. But when he began to reveal who
he is and the awful state that I was in in light of There's only one place to go.
And that's the Lord Jesus. He's not talking about those
who are physically such, but these who've been made to feel
this condition by His Spirit. He's talking about these who
are brought to groan under the burden of guilt for sin in their
consciences, those who've labored under the bonds of the law, those
who are weary of trying to get this peace of conscience through
their doing. Isn't it funny how deceived and
self-deceiving we are? We'll get to feeling real bad. What do we
do? We'll give something to somebody,
or we'll go do something for somebody, or we'll spend a little
time thinking about this, or saying this, or something like
that, and we get this momentary relief. But brother, when it comes back, it's harder and heavier every
time. Somebody says, well, if you'll
do this, you know, it'll be fine. I know a man. This man came to
me one day. I'd been talking to him some,
and he came to me in the most awful state. I thought, hmm. Oh, he was in a bad way. And
I began to talk to him. But you know, it wasn't long.
Before he listened to this one, and he listened to that one,
and the next thing you know, he had kind of mustered up his
strength again, and I could see him. It was just like I could
almost get a mental picture of him. There he goes, laboring,
and under this burden again. But he didn't know it. He thinks
this is his problem, when this is really his problem. their burden with thoughts and
with the weights of religious traditions and in all the things
in which they found no rest for their souls. Why? Because you can't get rest that
way. The only rest a sinner can have
has to be given to them. I've told you before, I'll tell
you one more time, story I heard once about the old man who was
on his deathbed, and he had his grown sons all around him, and
they were trying to quiet him and comfort him and everything
like that. And finally they said to him,
they said, Daddy, just go to sleep. Go to sleep. And he said, boys, he said, you
can't go to sleep. Sleep has to come to you. That's
what rest is. You can't get rest. I'm talking
about real rest. That rest has to come to you.
It has to be given to you. And that's the promise of Christ
here. He says, and I'll give you rest. If you're really this
way, you come to me, I'll give you rest. And if you come, it'll be because
I brought you. Absolutely. I'll give you rest. I'll refresh you. I'll relieve
you. God says, look unto Me and be
ye saved. All the earth, look to Christ
and lay hold of His person by faith and trust in His blood
and rest in His righteousness and His sacrifice. Believe His
promise. Rest your conscience. Rest your soul. Rest from fear. Rest from the threats of false
religion. You know, that's what religion
does, threatens you all the time. That's all it is, a threat. False religion operates on two
principles. Number one, fear and threat. and other promise of reward. Not him. He gives what he promises. And he says, Come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And
not only that, this rest is rest of peace of conscience and ease
of mind and soul and the application, Gil said, of pardoning grace
and a view of free justification by the righteousness of Christ
and full atonement of sin by His sacrifice and eternal rest
forever. Let me ask you this, if you're
really a sinner, I mean really a sinner, under this weight of
sin, can you not believe that the
sacrifice of God in the flesh put away sin? If you're really, really a sinner,
And the Son of God has come and in your place stood before divine
justice and paid the debt which was His very perfect life." Don't
you think God will accept that? If you believe that, He'll give peace to your conscience.
It can't help but be that way. Where could we expect rest except
in God and from God? Where could we be safe from all
things except in Christ? Who could meet our every need
but Him? How could we be righteous except
He who is righteousness Himself give us the gift of righteousness? Suppose I said this morning,
Now, here's Highway 53 out there beside us. If you turn left, you go to Burgaw.
If you go right, you go right into the city of Jacksonville. In Jacksonville, there is a Walmart
or two. There is this store and that
store. There's this. There's a hospital. There's all kinds of activities
and things like that, everything. Everything you say you need.
But now, if you go left of Burgaw, you're going to get a couple
of convenience stores. Which way are you going to go? If I say go right, you go that
way, it's a safe passage. Go left now, and there's a bridge
out down there. What are you going to do? Isn't any wonder that Christ
said, you will not come to me that you might have life. Oh, but I'm so thankful that
he says, not only with the word spoken, but with the word of
his power to his people, come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest." You know, the problem with us
as sinners is that we find ourselves Since
we're still in this flesh, since the devil is still our enemy,
since things are like they are in this world, we find ourselves
slipping back into this state of laboring, weariness, burden. What do we do then? You know what the amazing thing
is? Every time you come to verse 28, the Lord Jesus Christ says
the same thing. Come unto me. You know, when I was growing
up, my mom and dad, I don't know the occasions, you know, they
had to put their arms around me and pat me on the back and
pick me up and lift me up and wash me up and encourage me up. And I knew if I couldn't find
that anywhere else, I could find it with them. And so Peter says, to whom coming?
See, we don't just come to Him one time. We just keep right
on coming. Because if He has dealt with
us so mercifully and borne in Himself all our sins, my land,
surely He will Him also freely give us all things. Just keep
coming to Him. Well, will you wear Him out?
No. Will He run out? No. Will He
weary of helping you? Weary of blessing you? He's God. Some king, I can't remember who
it was, was helped or saved in some way
by a man. And so he called that man before
all his court. And he asked him, whatever you
want, he said, I'll give it to you. And the man asked for something
rather outlandish, very expensive or something, a title or something.
And one of the king's men just started almost to kill him right
on the spot. He said, whoa, whoa, whoa. He said, He's asked for a lot,
but He's not asked for that which I'm unable to give Him. That's why we can come and keep
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, because God has put everything
in Him. That's why we can run in times
of conscience and burdens over our sins and our falls and our
failures. That is why we are to flee to
Christ, because He says, Come unto Me. God has made faithful promises,
covenant whereby we might have a strong consolation who have
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us." An old writer said, those who
will not flee to the arms of divine grace which are stretched
out to receive them, will not be able to flee from the arms
of divine wrath, which will shortly be stretched out to destroy them." Christ says, come unto me. Leave every other hope. And I say to you, flee to Jesus. Flee to Jesus. Leave all those other things
behind and flee to Jesus Christ. You would just be amazed. The very things sometimes that
we think are our very hopes, when we flee to Christ, we begin
to realize what a terrible burden they were to carry around. job it was to maintain. I love rest. Our dear Father, we thank You
for Your blessed Son in whom You have in grace given to Your
people all these things. And Lord, we know that He has
said, that His sheep hear His voice and they follow Him. They come to Him. They believe
on Him. They believe the truth of the
gospel about what He's done. Lord, may we be found among that
people ever and always coming to Christ. Trusting only Him, believing
on Him. And when we're found, Lord, in
this flesh, for even an instant seeking to trust on something
that we have done and in who we are, we begin to feel that
weight and burden. Command us by the power of your
Spirit, afresh and anew, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, to
flee to Him, to leave every false refuge and
flee to the city of refuge. We thank you for your goodness
to us. We pray that we might, like Noah,
be moved with fear to flee, like Lot to flee the city and run to Christ. We thank you for your mercy to
us on every front. We pray for those of our number
who are sick and weak, those who travel Bless your word as
it goes out, Lord, not only in this place, but wherever this message might
be heard in this world. Save and comfort your people
and glorify your own self, for we ask it in Christ. Amen.