You're good to go. Well, thank you all for all your
kindness and generosity and love. Show me those these many years
we've known each other. It's a blessing to be back here.
More wonderful time. Drew and Melinda. It's easy to
be in their home. It's a good place to be. I'm
thankful for you. Turn in your Bibles, please,
to Matthew chapter 11, for a familiar portion of Scripture. I'm going
to see if I can shed this coat. It's a little warm in here today. I didn't mean for you to turn
down the heat. But it might keep us awake until we get some chicken.
What do you think? Matthew chapter 11 verse 28-30 speaking our Lord is speaking
come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am
meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls
for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Most people can quote
those verses of Scripture. There could be no doubt that
the words of our Lord are some of the sweetest that a poor,
wretched, lost sinner can ever hear concerning His heart of
mercy for His labored and heavy laden sheep. That's who He's
speaking to. This is at once a very gentle
call It is a gentle call. It is also a very distinctive
doctrinal truth. Very distinctive. Seen in its
context, it declares the definitive work of the gospel preached and
the sure result of that preaching. He, our Lord, and John the Baptist
had faithfully declared the truth to the Jews. Their response has
been to despise John's message and blamed their hatred for his
unwillingness to engage them socially. He wasn't a social
creature. He wasn't a real friendly fellow.
He came and he preached and he left. And they said, won't you
come over to the house? He said, no, thank you. I got
somewhere else, got something else to do. He was unwilling
to engage them socially. They despised Jesus Christ's
message and blamed their hatred for his willingness to be social,
to engage them socially. For he sat down with publicans
and sinners and spoke publicly and sat down and talked publicly.
And they said, he's just too dang friendly, too friendly. The end result was that that
vehement hatred for the truth was that the Lord stood and called
for those whose heart was heavy laden. heavy laden and laboring
and he said come to me after he had summarily dismissed the
religious crowd out of hand he did that after he had summarily
dismissed the religious crowd out of hand often it's been said
that this call to come is to everyone many people say that
but it is specific to those who are heavy laden and laboring
under sin and the sin that they labor under is not drinking and
chewing and messing around with folks who do. That which weighs
heavy upon their heart and their mind is the sin of religion. That's the heaviest burden. You
see, man as he was made in this world was made to worship God. He was made a religious creature.
And he still is. When Adam fell, the things he
did, though they were things of rebellion, they were religious
sin. When he sinned against God and
knew that he had, what did he try to do? He tried to cover
himself. Why? He didn't want God to see
that he had sinned. Why did he hide when God's voice
was in the Garden of Eden? Because he didn't want God to
see it. That's why he did. These are religious things he
did. Why did he blame everything else but himself when confronted
with his sin? And he did. You want to know
where victimization started? It started in Eden. And the Lord
said, what have you done? He said, that woman you gave
me, she made me do it. And he looked at the woman and
said, what have you done? She said, that snake you made, that serpent
you made, he made me do it. Those are all religious things,
shifting guilt, shifting blame. covering yourself, hiding, these
are all religious things. And this is the heavy burden
and the heavy laden things that burden down these Jewish people
whom the Lord is calling here, His sheep. Those to whom the call is made
are those who are described as distinctly opposite of those
who practice hard and judgmental religion. They're distinctly
opposite. Our Lord has described those
who wouldn't hear John. Wouldn't hear John. John's message
was stern. He didn't pull no punches. He
said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Show works
for repentance. And he was hard on folks. From the pulpit, he was a tough
guy. And they said, well, you know, you're preaching hard.
We're not going to mourn. We're not going to mourn when
you play that tune. We're not going to mourn. Say
all you want to. Then when our Lord Jesus Christ
came along and preached a message of peace and mercy and grace,
they said, you've got a nice little tune, but we ain't going
to dance. We ain't going to dance. They despised both preachers.
And these spoken of here are children of wisdom that are spoken
of. wisdom is justified in our children,
it says in verse 18 and 19. Why? Because they've come to
Christ. They've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. These are
the children to whom the call is made. Well, Scott Richardson
used to say, if you don't fit the description of the one called,
you can't come. God calls you a dog, you've got
to start barking. That's all there is to it. God
calls you a worm, start wriggling and writhing upon the earth.
God calls you a magic boy into the dungeon, because that's where
you live. You ain't willing to take what God calls you to heart,
you'll not come to Christ. These did, they were heavy laden.
Beaten down with the sin of religion. They can't rest for their souls.
Our Lord says, come to me. Come unto me. What does that
mean to come to the Lord Jesus Christ? It certainly doesn't
mean walking down a church aisle. In fact, it doesn't have anything
to do with your body whatsoever. The word come is in the imperative
form, however. And it means come hither, come
now, come right now. And being imperative is the same
as a command. So our Lord here, this is often
called an invitation, but when it's the Lord who invites, it's
a command. It's that simple. The gospel
is a command. An invitation can be disregarded.
I've got invitations to parties and things, and they said RSVP,
and I didn't even RSVP. Because it can be disregarded.
A command can. command you either obey or you're
in disobedience. It's that simple. And everything
that comes out of the Lord's mouth is a command. So he says, come to me. Come
to me right now. Come immediately to me. Well, how can we come to God?
How do we come to God? He's in the heavens. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is enthroned sitting at the right hand of the majesty
on high. How can we come to God? He's in glory. Well, you can't
physically come to Christ. It's that simple. You can't physically
come to Christ. To come to Christ, as Scott Richard
used to put it, come to Christ and don't move a muscle. Come
to Christ and don't blink an eye. When you see the word come
in scripture, it's a verb and a word that asserts action, yet
men cannot physically act to that end. Now, religion hasn't
been in ways that men can physically act, a way to be seen of men,
and that's why they do what they do, a way to record their action
in response to the world, to the word come. Those great crusades
of Billy Graham and men like that, that's all well planned
out, well rehearsed. Before they come into a city,
they will contact the pastors of that city, and they will recruit
out of the flock two men for every 100 members they have.
Two people, and they call them counselors. Now, they are put
strategically throughout the stadium, and when the invitation
is given, they're the first one. They get out of their seat, and
they come down, and it looks like, hey, they're going, I'm
going, too. It's a psychological thing. Men have many inventions,
but those who come in such a manner have never come to Jesus Christ.
They've never come to Jesus Christ. They can walk an aisle, come
down front, come to the church altar because they've been convinced
that this is synonymous with coming to Christ. It's a slick
lie. Worked on me when I was 12. That's the Antioch Baptist Church
in Western Salem. It's a slick lie. It works well
for the church roles, but it's not coming to Christ. Have you
come to Christ? It has not changed the fact that
the Lord does call men to come. And the Bible says men will come.
His people shall be willing in the day of His power. The Bible
declares that certainly that some will come to Christ. Some
men do come to Christ. There's no doubt about it. All
that the Father giveth to me shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me, I'll have no wise cast out. For I came down not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is my Father's will, which He sent me. And of all He's given
me, I shall lose nothing, but raise it up again in the last
day. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. But all who are taught of the Father and learned of
the Father come to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are said to be those
who the Father gave to His Son in election and in betrothal
and in predestination. They will come. They will come.
That's why we don't use the inventions of men from the pulpit. We don't
have altar calls. We don't have men
come down front and weep and cry and carry on so we can say
the Holy Ghost was there. We don't do that. Why? Because
we know it's the message of the Gospel that brings men to God. It's the message of the Gospel
that God uses to teach men. And if He teaches them, they
come. Right where they're sitting,
they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. They cannot come unless they're
drawn by the Father. That's the Word. They cannot.
They cannot come. Well, I can. No, you can't. A
lady came to me one time. After I finished preaching, she
said, we have some flowers like these up front. She said, I can't
believe those flowers are God. I said, go ahead. Go ahead, believe
it. She can't believe that. You can't
believe. You can't believe. And yet our Lord says, come.
Come. Are you heavy laden? Had enough
of this mess? then come. Men will not come
unless they are drawn. Some men will not come to Christ
for life, but they'll come to Him for everything else. They'll
come to Him for healing, come to Him for miracles, come to
Him as an example, but they won't come for life. Our Lord said
to those who studied the scripture, who lived in the book, they were
not irreligious people. They were upright, full of rectitude. When you saw them walking down
the street, you knew this guy was a holy man. the way he dressed,
the kind of hat he wore, the phylacteries hanging from his
garments. You knew he was a holy man, no
doubt about it. And he said to those, you do
study the scriptures, no doubt about that. But you think in
the act of studying the scriptures you have life. That equates to
life. You do study the scripture in
them and you think you have eternal life. But, when you see that
word but, it means whatever was said beforehand, the opposite
is coming on the other end. but you won't come to me that
you might have life. You study the scriptures but
you see here's the key to the scriptures they are they which
testify of me and you will not come to me that you might have
life. So some men will not come to
Christ for life. The wisdom that is justified
by the children of God is revealed evidently they've come to Christ
and that's the wisdom That's the wisdom. And from that day
forward, coming to Christ is the tenor of the life of the
child of God. When you come to Christ, you just keep on coming.
You never stop coming. That's how Peter described them.
To whom coming? As lively or living stones unto
Jesus Christ. And the question remains, if
we are unable to come to Christ physically or in the flesh or
naturally, how can we come? What does it mean to come to
Christ? If it's not in the flesh, then those who come must come
in the Spirit. That's how they must come. Now can we see that? No, we can't
see the Spirit. Can't see the Spirit of man.
You don't know whether I have faith or not. You know if you
have it. But I don't know if you have
it. But you do. Spirit can't be seen. When it's
come in the Spirit, this automatically disqualifies everyone born of
the flesh they are born spiritually dead and that which is of the
flesh is flesh and that which is of the spirit is spirit and
never the twain shall meet coming to christ is simply this believing
on him nothing more nothing less believing on him our lord stood
at the end of the feast of tabernacles and lifted up his voice he said
anybody out there thirsty come to me For he that believes on
me shall have the fountain of life in him. He that believes
on me. That's what it is to come to
Christ. It's to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing
on Christ is the result of something. It's not an act that you do.
It's a result of God giving you this thing called faith. This
wonder, this miracle, this great miracle called faith. Now, I
know people talk a lot about faith, and all men have a natural
faith, and people have a religious faith, but I'm talking about
God-given faith that comes only by His sovereign grace. And that
faith, what does faith do? Well, if you use it real hard,
you can make people better. What does faith do? It does one
thing. It believes Christ. It believes God's word. It rests
in that word of God. That's what faith does. And no
man will see it. No man can see it. Come unto
me, he said. Come unto me. God has given you
faith. If he's given you faith, I'll
get out of your way. I don't want to get in your way.
I'll just leave you be. If God's given you faith, you
will believe His Word. You will believe His Word. Faith
believes the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this revelation
is in this book, in this book only. It's the revelation of
Christ. Also, that is the cause of faith. And that's the wonder.
That's the dichotomy, if you will, of this matter of believing. You don't believe until you hear
the Word. You don't believe until you hear the word and the word
is what causes you to believe. Christ must be revealed to you
through the word and he's the word and he reveals himself to
you. It's all in him not in us. We just declare these things
and set them forth and see what happens. Step back and see what
God does. Come unto me. That's simple to understand.
Come unto me. It's uttered in a clear distinction. They are not a general call,
these words. That's what we do when we stand
up in the pulpit and we say, close with Christ and come to
Christ and trust the merits of Jesus Christ and trust Him alone.
We say things like that and many times it falls on deaf ears.
But sometimes God takes this arrow and knocks it in his bow. And the Word of God becomes a
guided missile. And it lands in the heart of his people. And
when they hear the words coming to me, just get out of their
way. They're coming. The kingdom of God suffers the
violence of the violent. Take it by force. That's what
the Scripture says. Just get out of their way. God gives the
hearing ear, scripture says, and the seeing eye. So this is
not a general call, this is an effectual call. An effectual
call simply means it's heard and responded to. That's what
it means. My mama, bless her heart, sweet
thing she was, we used to, my brother and I lived in a, our
bedroom was upstairs in an old hundred year old house and it
was cold up yonder in the wintertime and too hot in the summertime.
come to school in the morning, my mom would open the door and
holler up the stairs, boys, time to get up, breakfast is on the
table. And we'd just sort of lay there,
you know, think about getting up, and mom would call again,
boys, it's time to get up, come on now, hurry up, gotta go to
school. And we'd just sort of lay there, and then my dad would
come to the door and say, get down here and eat. And man, we
was out of that bed with our clothes on in three seconds.
Cutting up our eggs and eating our bacon. That's how it was.
What was the difference? Mom's call was a general call. Daddy's wasn't. It was an effectual
call. It was responding to. We got
down to business when Daddy called. Our Lord gives an effectual call
because he has given it here and here. You think these folks
that are heavy laden here with sin, heavy laden with religion,
you think they don't come? They come. every one of them
because they qualify they qualify as the Lord has qualified them
it's already said that the children in whom wisdom is justified and
that's the opposite of those who will not go in verses 20
through 24 our Lord makes it very plain that sin against light
the light of truth is worse than the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah
now religion today talks about Sodom and Gomorrah a great deal
They talk about things that don't matter a great deal. And they
sin against light. This book declares Jesus Christ.
It declares that sinners must come to Him. They must. It's not about abortion. It's
not about homosexuality. It's not about any of those things.
It's about Christ. And we're guilty in that sense. believers, we have so much light. Why in the world would we sin?
Why in the world would we doubt? So much light we have. Our Lord
said to those cities that had the light of Him being there
and preaching the gospel, it's going to be better for Sodom
and Gomorrah and hell than it is for you, because you've heard
the truth. Knowing the truth, hearing the
truth, and rebelling against it. Not so. Not everybody in
the world has heard something about Jesus Christ, and most
people nowadays, because of the internet, have heard about the
true Christ. Yet men reside in darkness. He
makes a distinction. This is the light of truth. This
is the light of truth. Then he makes a further distinction.
He gives the reason why these who are not addressed with the
words come unto me, or who they are, why don't they come? Why
don't they come? He makes the distinction here.
As I find what men call invitation in the scripture, they usually
follow an ultimatum. Or they come as an ultimatum
because they set such things in motion that no man can just
leave it alone. It must be dealt with. It must
be dealt with. Our Lord said in verse 25, He
said, At this time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee. Now this
is something to be thankful for. Our God thanked. Our Lord thanked
his heavenly Father. Oh Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, I thank you because you've hid these things from the wise
and prudent and revealed them unto babe. What a distinction
that is. Now who's he talking about? The wise and the prudent.
He's talking about those who have listened to him and listened
to John and don't want anything to do with the message. Well,
how come they didn't hear? Well, they didn't use their free
will. No, they didn't hear because
God hid it from them. So this coming to me has to do
with sovereign grace? Absolutely. There's no doubt
about that because God has hid these things in the wild prune.
He actually hid it from them. So as Christ spoke the truth,
as Christ brought the light, as John the Baptist spoke the
truth, God shut their eyes. and close their ears so they
could not hear and could not respond. God act that way? Of
course He does. He's God. You're not. He's God. Remember what He said to Isaiah
after Isaiah saw the Lord and his countenance filled the temple
and his voice shook the pillars. He said, I've seen the Lord God.
I've seen the King of righteousness. I've seen the King of glory.
He said, I'm unclean and undone. And our Lord said, well, I need
somebody to go preach for me. And he said, I'll go. I've got
something to tell. Boy, I can go and tell them an
experience I had when the Lord came into the temple and everything
changed. I can tell them about Uzziah
who went before the Lord and tried to be a priest and God
smote him with leprosy and I can tell them about how the six-winged
beasts fly back and forth singing, holy, holy, holy, holy. I've
got a story to tell. Our Lord says, go to tell it
and go ahead and tell it. He said, this is what's going
to happen when you tell it. You're going to close their eyes. stop
up their ears to that message and they're not going to repent
because I'm not going to save them. God has hid these things from
the wise and the prudent. Why don't men believe? Why don't men believe? God has
hid these things from the wise and the prudent. and He's revealed
them unto Baal. The wise and the prudent are
religiously so. Thinking themselves alive, they
have revealed themselves to be fools. They are wise in their
own conceits. That's how the Lord describes them. Which means
that they are unduly enamored with their own worth. That is
why they could say what they said about the Lord in John's
preaching. They were the ones who would be the judge of what
was right and wrong. They would be the ones who would
be the judge of what's good preaching and what isn't good preaching.
And they act this way because God has done something to them.
God has put blindfolds on them. And stoppers in their ears. And
hid the truth. And of all things, our Lord says,
thank you, Father. Thank you for doing that, Father.
Thank you for hiding the truth from them. Thank you. Thank you. Does that sound like the Jesus
of being preached today? God wants to do this for you.
Oh, He just wants to do this for you. God wants to do this
for you and you won't let Him. That's what they say. Christ
is standing over the banners of heaven wringing His hands
because you won't let Him save you. God's hands are tied. He can't do anything unless you
let Him. Is that this God? No, this God views humanity. He has viewed it since eternity
and He has chosen out a people for Himself. to save he has loved
them with an everlasting love and therefore because of that
love he has drawn them to him and the rest of humanity is blinded don't think what you do when
you tell somebody the gospel doesn't have an effect don't
you think it doesn't have an effect our lord promised in saint
brenton's chapter four that it would have always be victorious
i know we look at our little church groups and we see these
mega nuts and then these big megachurches they have twelve
thousand fifteen thousand members by telling people how they can
better themselves and be better people and in places it's just
fool because they give men something to do there's no offense in the
gospel the gospel is removed the offense of the gospel is
removed But when you preach the gospel, when this man stands
up on Sunday morning and preaches the gospel to you, something
happens to you. And see, it's the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes. It's the power of God.
It's the dynamic of God, the dynamite of God, if you will.
It's the power of God. And people say, well, you know,
good message, appreciate the preacher, and things, you know,
I already knew that. But that gospel's done something
to you. because our Lord said it would. He said, you will always
be a triumph in Jesus Christ when you declare the gospel.
You'll always triumph. Well, the results don't look
that good. They look great. I'm thinking, I'm looking out
at this crowd. You say, well, there ain't no crowd. Oh, it's a crowd.
It's a crowd. Why? Because God has saved His
people and here they are. They're coming out on Sunday
morning hearing the gospel. Why? Because the gospel's done
something to them. He says, when you hear the gospel,
God loves it. When the gospel is preached,
God loves it. It's a sweet-smelling savor unto God. It rises like
those Old Testament sacrifices. God waited on that sweet-smelling
savor. You know what that was? It was
fat. Fat belonged to the Lord. You put that on the fire, you
know how good it smells when pork chops are cooking on an
open fire. It ain't nothing but bacon. That smell is fat. That belongs to the Lord. and
it's a sweet smelling savor and he said when the gospel is preached
I smell that it's good he said and it always goes out and does
what it's supposed to do to some that smells like life it's a
savor of life to some it smells like death and we're not sufficient
for that we preach it and step back and see what God is going
to do But if God has revealed it to you, you'll come to Him. You will. You'll come gladly.
You'll come willingly. You'll choose to come. It's that
simple. You'll choose to come. Because
God has worked in you. But if God has hid it from you,
it'll smell just like a rotting carcass. It'll smell like death. And one of those two things always
happens when people ain't no small thing we're handling
things of life and death light and darkness peace and war all
that being handled when we preach the gospel why don't men hear? I pray for them, you do too oh
that they would hear they will if God reveals Christ
and they won't no matter what else we do We can't convince
them. We might convince them of some
doctrinal truth, but that ain't helped them that much. And our
Lord declares again, to whom the call come to me is made.
They are babes. They are babes to whom the gospel
is revealed. The word revealed is where we
get the word apocalypse. It's the same word. When you see the revelation,
in other words, the apocalypse means the revelation, that which
is revealed. It does not mean some grand calamity.
It means to uncover a thing, to lay open a thing that's been
veiled or covered up, to disclose, to make bare, to make known,
to make manifest, to disclose what before was unknown. That's
what he said. You've revealed what they could
not know and what has not and cannot be known otherwise. to
them by the gospel of Jesus Christ. When they hear the words come
unto me, they'll trot right to the Lord Jesus Christ in their
heart. The use of the word babes does not describe them as to
age or immaturity, but as to inability and lacking knowledge
and helplessness and utter neediness. We've all had our children, and
we know what they were like when they were babies. I just spent
about ten days out in Las Vegas with my two, two-and-a-half-year-old
grandson twins, Boy, they're something. But they're babies.
I talked to them, but I'm not sure they understood me. And
they talked to me, and I didn't understand them. They still have
to have their diapers changed. They do things that are crazy.
But they can't survive on their own. They're babies. They have to be taken care of.
That's who gets the gospel. Those that have to be taken care
of. that are utterly dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Come
unto me. Come unto me. Those who can't
do anything are those to whom the glory of the gospel and all
its attendant mercies are revealed. I think about that. I was a preacher
of sovereign grace for many years. Didn't know God from a goose.
Didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. Didn't even know I was an unbeliever.
Thought I was a believer. And one night, I was sitting
in a pool, sitting in a pew, listening to a man named W. R.
Cruz. That night he preached the gospel.
God opened my eyes. And here's the wondrous thing.
And I still can't get over this. When I think about it still,
it's utterly amazing to me. that before I heard the gospel
and while I was hearing the gospel I was an unbeliever and somehow God took that word
and planted it in my mind and heart and in the next second
I was a believer now think about that you travel your whole life
in unbelief and God sends a gospel to you and it's not a process
All of a sudden, you're a believer. Before, you couldn't believe
any of it. Not really. You couldn't believe
it. It made no sense to you. You
couldn't believe. And now you can't do anything
but believe. And it all happened in a moment
and a twinkling of an eye when the gospel is preached. Come
unto me, he said. Now. Come unto me. Come unto me. We lack knowledge. but God revealed
it to us. That's what he said. He was glad
that God hid it from some and revealed it to others. He said
in verse 26, Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight,
all things. Now, if you can find a thing
that ain't a thing, then it's not involved here. But if it's
a thing, it's involved here. 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." Will reveal Him. That's really a distinction,
isn't it? It's a distinction. The Lord
makes this final distinction. The revelation of the truth is
the sole prerogative of God and His Son. I want all of y'all to be saved.
I'll be honest with you. One of these young people, these
children, I wanted to know God. Wanted my children to know God.
The Lord has saved one of them. I'm thankful for it. She is 42
years old. And the Lord brought the knowledge
of himself to her. Married and had children. Had
a child. She began to talk about things
and me and Debbie had to bite our tongues so we wouldn't try
to interfere with what, if God was doing something, that we
didn't want to interfere with it. One day she called and said,
Daddy, the Lord's revealed Himself to me. What a day. Me and Debbie just danced around
the living room. It's alright to dance. Indians do it all the
time. Where I'm from. what a day now
pray for my son he's approaching 40 in his late 30s he knows the
gospel it's all he's ever heard raised under it pray God will
take that and slam it into his heart one of these days he'll
wake up to what he is I want to see people know Christ cause
I love knowing Christ and those who know him love knowing I want
to see it but I know this It's not my doing that'll make it
happen. And it ain't yours. Still, pray for your children.
My mother told me, I used to pray to God like He was His elect.
I didn't know whether He was or not, but I prayed like He
was. Lord, isn't it about time for you to bring Tim home? Isn't
it about time, Lord? Pray for your children. But know
this, that they'll know nothing until God reveals Himself to
them. and know this he reveals himself to them through the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so bring your children
under the gospel for heaven's sake for heaven's sake what a
day our Lord makes that distinction he said no man knows the father
but the son no man knows the son but the father and he to
whomsoever the son will reveal him whomsoever the son The truth
is not some commercial commodity to be plucked at will from a
universal shelf of some salvation superstore. It's not floating
out there in the ether for men to decide whether they want it
or not. No, dear brothers and sisters, if you know the truth,
it's because God, and only because God in grace revealed it to you,
and with that grace, he has given you faith to believe what? What
he has revealed to you. and embrace it. Now I just ask
you simply, have you heard? Have you heard? Has God revealed it to you? Who Jesus Christ is and what
he's done? Are you tired and heavy laden
and tired of religion? come unto me." The Lord says,
are you weary and heavy laden? Do you long to rest in the delicious
freedom of knowing the truth of God? To lie down in the arms
of the Almighty? Do you want to cease from your
empty works and only believe? And that's what he did. Only
believe. And our Lord said, all things are possible, only believe.
He didn't say, only believe. He said, only believe. Don't
do anything else but everything else will follow that. Don't
worry about the rest of the stuff. Hear the words of the Lord. Common
to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke. What is his yoke? Faith. Believing. It's an easy yoke. Once you have
faith, it's pretty easy to believe. We're still plagued with unbelief,
but that ain't from your spirit, that's from your flesh. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Well, how am I going to learn
of him? I hear in his book. Revelation is his revelation.
It's the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ from the first verse.
In the beginning, God. Go to John 1. In the beginning
was the Word. The word was with God and the
word was God. The saint was in the beginning with God. This
is about Jesus Christ. Avail yourself to this. Don't
ever get away from this. Come unto me. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. Why? Because I'm not mean. I'm not a mean God who stands
behind the corner waiting for you to screw up so I can thump
you on the head. I'm not that way. I'm not out there to punish
you. I'm meek. and lowly when you
approach Christ you're not going to find one who stands high above
you and says bow down to me. You're going to find one sitting
and saying come sit with me. That's what he did to all those
sinners wasn't it? Those old sinners. He sat down
right in the middle of them. Religious people took the Moses
seat and sat up here, not him. He was down here with the real
people. I'm me. And I'm lowly. The word God strikes
fear in the hearts of people. People are scared to death of
their idea or image of God. That's not Christ. Christ said,
I'm meek. I'm meek and I'm lowly. And when you come to me, you'll
find rest for your soul. You will. Come unto me. I love this passage of Scripture. This is so very decisive in its
language. It tells you who's going to believe
and who's not. It tells you why men don't believe. It tells you
why men do. God has commanded you according
to scripture to believe and to repent and to love one another. But he's done that. So I kind
of believe with the command. comes the privilege. Believe
right now, where you are, this moment, in your seat, in your
heart. Believe. Believe. God bless you.