All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter 11. Matthew
chapter 11, this is a passage of scripture that I've spoken
from many times. You've heard many times, but
I think that it would do us well to hear this precious, precious
passage of scripture. Again, verse 28, Matthew. 11 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 Now from the moment that that
the Spirit of God speaks to God's people in regenerating grace. From the moment that He gives
them by the importation of a new heart, gives them hope, and gives
them peace, there is a word that is continually heard by God's
people from that moment of regeneration until that final day of their
departure from this world, and it's the word, come. Come. Now, you know that's a
precious word of invitation. But it's also a word that is
a command. Whenever the Lord says to His
people, you come, He's inviting them powerfully, His people in
the day of His power, and they do just exactly as they're bidden
to do. When the Spirit of God moves
upon God's sheep, In regeneration, they come. That's the first thing
they do. But it's also a command. Whenever
the Lord was speaking to Lazarus, Lazarus was in the tomb and he
was dead. And here's what he said to a dead man. Lazarus,
come forth. And you know what that dead man
did? He became alive and He came.
So this is a glorious word of invitation to those that are
bidden powerfully, but it's a command. And it's such a word of privilege. You know, if somebody says to
you, won't you come on over to the house? You know, they're
wanting you. They're wanting you to come.
They're wanting to visit with you. They're wanting to have
you in their presence. Come, won't you come? Come be
with us. So they hear the voice of the
shepherd as he bids them, through the power of his Holy Spirit,
to come to him. That's what he says. He said,
come unto me. Come to me. None of God's sheep
are ever bidden to come to the front, to the preacher, to the
baptismal pool. But you come to me. You come
to me. And who are these that are bidden? Well, it's all those, all, all
of them that labor, struggle. Heavy like burden down. You know, when we hear the word
labor, that word's toil, struggle. If a woman is in labor, we men
don't know anything about that. We can't even imagine what it
is to be in labor. But you're struggling. You're
toiling. You come unto me, you that are
laboring and you're heavy, you're burdened down. And he said, and
I will. Now you listen to this word of
certainty. I'm so thankful he didn't say
you come unto me all ye that labor and have any laden, I may. Yeah, but he may not. He said, you come to me. Casting
yourself upon me Seeking me trusting me asking after me and I will
I Promise you have my word. I will I'm gonna give you something. It's not you're not gonna earn
it. You don't deserve it. I'm not saying Come to me and
work you what you you come to me and period, and I will, period,
give you rest. Now, the sheep regenerated by
the grace of God, they know something about the plague of indwelling
sin. And they see that body of death
that's Paul says, I see in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells
no good thing. And they're struggling with indwelling
sin. And they're laboring. They're laboring, they're heavy
laden, and they hear those blessed words from the voice of the shepherd,
and he speaks that word of comfort, and he said, you, you that are
in trouble, You that are burdened, you come to me. I'm going, I
will give you rest. So they know something about
struggles. They know something about trials
and afflictions. But let me tell you who's talking
to them. The one that was touched with
the feelings of our infirmities. Now I can't explain all this,
but I can tell you, but the Lord said that he was in all points, all points, tempted, like as
we are. And you think, well, now he surely,
I can think of things I've been tempted with, and I know the
Lord couldn't have been tempted with that. The scripture says,
he was in all points, tempted like as we are yet without sin. So it's not like he doesn't know
the feelings of our infirmities. But he says now to those that
he knows how they're feeling. He knows what we're going through.
He knows the struggle. And he is the sympathizing shepherd. He says, you come to me. You're
not going to find rest anywhere yourself. You're the one struggling. You come to me and I'll give
you, I'm going to give you rest. You come to me, you'll settle
down. So we know something about hearing that word come and regenerating
grace. We hear that word come in the
trials and afflictions of our life. But oh, when we all stand
before God in the day of judgment, when all of the books are open
and the book of life is open too, may we as the vessels of
His love and mercy cherish in anticipation, hearing Him say
unto us, His people, come. You blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
So we find this precious Word come, that bidding by the Lord
throughout, the Word of God to His people. Who's bidding us? I'll tell you who He is. This
is God. This is Almighty God, the Word. And He's coming to this world
to seek and to save that which is lost. What has he done? Hold your place right there and
turn to Luke 4. Luke 4, verse 16. Luke 4, 16. He came into this world. Now
here we are, Luke 4, verse 16 to 21 is what I'm going to read. It says he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up. As his custom was, he went to
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for the read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah.
And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was
written. Now, my question was, what has he done? Here it says,
verse 18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. What's he done? He's preached
the gospel. to us poor sinners. He sent me
to heal the broken hearted. Sin has destroyed us and we need
healing. To preach deliverance to the
captives, we're bound in trespasses and sins and recovering of sight,
we're blind to our need of Him until the Lord gives us new eyes
to see, and set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord. He closed the book, gave it again
to the ministers, sat down. The eyes of them all were fastened
in the synagogue, and all of them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them,
This day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears. What did He come
to do? He came to set us free. He came to give us deliverance.
He came to give us rest. So when we hear, every time you
hear God speaking and drawing and comforting His people, it's
always that bid. This is what He said in Genesis
7, verse 1. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come, thou and all
thy house into the ark. For thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation. Listen to what the Lord said
to Isaiah. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. You come
to me. Come. to me. It gives us a heart
to come and a desire, a willingness to come. And when He bids us
come, a believer says, that's what I want to do. I want to
come to Him. I want to come to Him. I want to have rest for
my soul. We don't reason with our flesh. We don't consult our carnal notions
and our legal thoughts. We hear afresh how the Lord saved
us by grace, and He's kept us, and we'll be with Him. That thought
of this life that is a vapor, it's going to be over. And I
mean just immediately. Absent from this body, present
with the Lord in that moment. We're going to come to Him. But
he's telling us now, you come unto me. But how the Lord as
infant. You think about a baby. Baby's
trying to learn how to walk. He's toddling, he's about to
fall, and you're just getting to where he just staggers just
a little bit. Now what does a loving parent
or grandparent do? Come here. Come on. Come to me. Come here. I'll hold you. Come
here. Isn't that what we do to our children? How much more those
that the Lord has everlastingly loved? How much more for those
for whom He stood as the surety, betrothed to Himself, died for,
buried for, raised for, intercedes for, and soon shall come back
for. Come unto me. Oh, what a loving
command that starts at the beginning, throughout our life, and then
finally in that day of our entering into the kingdom. But when we
consider this word rest, I'll tell you what we normally think
of. We normally think of what I just dealt with, our afflictions.
I mean, we're going through some tough times,
and there's times that, you know, these trials and tribulations
and afflictions that just test our soul. And the Lord sends
that to prove our faith. Turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1,
the Lord graciously, we're going through, how often can we say,
I know something about these afflictions. I've been there,
I felt the pain of them, these trials. Look at 1 Peter 1. verses
three to nine. These first three verses we've
read so many times, but those last few I want to read again.
1 Peter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that
faded not away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. But let's look at these last
few verses. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth, though he be tried with fire,
might be found under praise, honor, glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love, in whom though
now you see him not, yet believe in. You rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls." Peter's saying, listen, We're going through
some trials right now. This life, the Lord promised
we'd be going through it. He said, in this life you're
going to have tribulation. But what are they doing? It's proving
His faithfulness to keep us. He hadn't forsaken us, so we
hear these precious words, and this is what we generally think
of. The words of the Lord, to the
sheep in the hour of temptation, to all that labor heavy laden,
I will give you rest. Yes, you're tried. Yes, you're
tested. You're proven by grace, weary
sojourner. You who are a pilgrim in this
world, in the hour of our temptation, as it draws near, rest assured
His first command to come is going to find itself for our
heart to be sweeter and sweeter as that day, and we draw that
last breath, and we leave this world, and that breath that He's
lent us, He graciously gave us for the moment, He's not going
to fail to keep us. He said, I'm going to give you
rest. And when He says, come you blessed
of my Father, We're going to be blessed to be with Him. I know we're going to be with
Him. He's given us that Word. Again, turn to Revelation 3.21.
Revelation 3.21. That precious boy of the Scriptures
that just described Revelation 3.21. Listen to this. To Him that overcometh. And how
are we going to overcome? We're gonna overcome by the faith
that he's given us. To him that overcometh will I
grant. Now you talk about an amazing
passage of scripture. To sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his
throne. Now I'll just shoot as straight
as I can with you. I believe that, but I cannot
enter to the depth of that. That we would be sitting with
the Lord, that He would grant for us to sit with Him in His
throne, even as He overcame. And He said, now you that overcame,
we're gonna overcome being found in Him. He overcame by the power
of His holiness. Righteousness. He said, I'm going
to let you sit with me as I'm sitting with my father in his
throne. What a word of promise. When he said, you come, you bless
to my father, enter in. Oh, I tell you, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him and we're going to see him as
he is. But let me tell you another precious
promise that he's given us. It's found in Revelation 5 if
you want to turn there, Revelation 5. But here's another precious
promise that again I can read these words and it's talking
about the rest and the peace from our labors and that victory
that we have in Him who is the conqueror. But the scripture seems to bear
out that when we leave this world there's going to be some remembrance
There's going to be some remembrance. We're going to have some reflectings
back. Now, I don't know what we'll
know and what we won't know, but listen to this verse. If
we read, as the saints reflect back and they remember with thankfulness,
hearing Him call them and being taught what He did for them,
Revelation 5 verse 8 to 10. John's seeing this in a vision,
and when he had taken the book, now here's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God Himself, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and
he's taken the book out of the hand of Him that sits upon the
throne, and when he had taken the book, the four beasts, the
four and twenty elders, now the four and twenty elders always
refer to the entire glorified church. John is seeing the entire
glorified church. He's looking at this in a vision
and he sees them and they fell down before the Lamb having every
one of them harps and golden vials full of odors which are
the prayers of the saints and they sung a new song saying thou
art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof and
listen to these words for thou wast slain and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation. Now let me tell you what they
just said right there. They said you're worthy for you
as the lamb of God. God will provide himself a lamb.
They're saying you You lay down your life. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep, and they said, Thou was slain. And not only were you slain,
you finished the work, and hast redeemed us. Now when they say
redeemed us, let me tell you what they're saying. We needed
redeeming. We were sinners, born in sin,
fallen in Adam. Sinners by birth, practice, choice. You redeemed us to God. We needed reconciliation because
of our fallen Adam. And you redeemed us to God. How? By your blood. They remembered
that without the shedding of blood there's no remission, there's
no forgiveness. And then they started talking
about election. You redeemed us to God by Thy
blood out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation. How much
are we going to remember? I don't know, but I can tell
you this based on what they're saying. Then they're going to
talk about the victory that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ
and then that blessed privilege of being found in Him and knowing
the glory of being accepted into the Beloved, and being made kings
and priests, and we're going to reign on the earth. How much
are we going to know? We're going to know everything.
We're going to know it all. We're going to be found in Christ. And that blessed remembrance,
as we reflect back upon that, all from the Lord saying, You
come to me, I'm going to give you rest. But in closing, there's
a precious rest that every believer, and I'm not talking about just
the trials and tribulations of this world. I know what we're
going through. Something about that. But not
only does our Lord give us rest in these physical and emotional
trials. I want you to consider with me
in closing the rest that we have of our soul. Because of the spiritual
blessings that we have received in heavenly places in Christ.
Look at Psalm 116. Psalm 116. I'd like to read verses 7 to
9. Psalm 116, verse 79. Listen to the psalmist here.
Return unto thy rest, O my soul. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul
from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. And
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I need
some rest. Not just from the trials and
tribulations of this life, but my soul. I need to have some
rest for my soul. My soul needs to be comforted.
I want to just give you six points. I can tell you this. I know that
we could stand here and never complete the list of truths are
set forth from God's word concerning the rest that he's given to our
souls. But I've just jotted down six
that I'd like to just touch, make a comment, and go on. Here's rest. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes it. God's law will in no wise clear the guilty. God's law is holy, it's just,
and it's good. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world, he absolutely fulfilled and honored every jot
and every tittle of God's law. And he did that for his people. He did that not as a single person
but as a federal head, the representative. And the law that was against
us, Almighty God sent that law that was our condemnation, because
we couldn't keep it. But in the indescribable wisdom
of God, God sent the law that we couldn't keep, and that was
the very thing that brought us to Him. God revealed our need
of our law keeper, and He brought us to Himself by that law. God's
people look at the law right now and say, I can't keep that.
How can I keep, I don't even know the depth of it. I don't
even know what it means. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God. Thou shalt honor him with all thine heart. I don't even
know the depth of that. But now here's the truth. I know
this, there's no curse for God's people because he was made a
curse for us. Secondly, think about this. Here's rest. He has put away
our sin by being made sin for us. He has absolutely, now I
know this, I know something about rebellion against God. I know
something about it. I can see something of it in
myself. I loathe myself. I can't think right. I know what
I ought to be doing. I know how I should be thinking.
I know I just, but I cannot, I cannot do it. And therefore,
the very thought that Christ was made sin and bore all of
my guilt, even though I still see the presence of the remnants
of it still there and it grieves me. But the thing, if he's given
me a heart to cast myself upon him, I have nothing to answer
for. I have not one thing Why? He's cast my sin as far as the
east is from the west. And here's his promise. There
is therefore now no condemnation. If the Lord were to give me one
more breath and I just collapse where I'm standing right now.
You come up here and there's no revival. I'm gone. I'm gone.
No heartbeat. Nothing. If he's given me a heart
to cast myself upon him, then there's rest for my soul. I think
I don't have to fear. I don't have to fear. I know
this life is a vapor. I know that. But there's rest
for my soul. You come unto me, all you that
labor heavily, I'll give you rest. Thirdly, there's rest because
he that believeth, he that believeth is robed in his Righteousness. I'll read this, you'll turn,
it's Revelation 4. Revelation 4, verses 1 to 4.
Revelation 4, 1 to 4. After this, I looked, and behold,
a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard
was as it were a trumpet talking with me, and said, Come up hither. I will show thee things which
must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the
Spirit. And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat
on the throne, and he that sat looked upon it like jasper and
sardine stone, and there was rainbow round about the throne,
and sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were,
here we are, four and twenty seats. And upon the seats I saw
four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and
they had on their heads crowns of gold." White. in the righteousness of
Christ. You say, well, I wonder if He's
robed me in His righteousness. Well, let me ask you this. Do
you believe Him? Robed in His righteousness. Who? Those that believeth. He
that believeth. If I can believe God, then He's
robed me in His righteousness. Fourthly, I can find some rest
because I have a high priest who ever liveth to make intercession
for me. Ever pleading his merit, ever
pleading his worthiness, his holiness, his blood, truly he
is the way, the truth, the life. I've got some rest for my soul.
I've got one who is a mediator, one mediator between God and
men, the man, Christ Jesus. And he pleads for me. I got rest
number five for my soul because his blood ever answers for our
atonement. I love this passage of scripture.
Exodus is when the Passover and when the people were in Egypt,
Exodus 12, 13. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the house. where you are, and when I see
the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. I don't see
the blood. I don't see the, I don't see,
I can't enter in to that place where it is. I don't know, but
I know God sees it. And he said, when I see the blood, Not when I see the blood, when
He sees the blood, He'll pass over me. And then lastly, there's
rest, because we're found in Him. We're found in Him. This is the one that the Father set apart according to that covenant
of grace, and He who willingly stood as the surety of the sheep
and the Father who put us in Him. As old brother Scott used
to say, I say this so many times, where God puts a person, that's
where He keeps that person. And being found in Him, the haven
of rest, the city of refuge. This is the one that's answered.
This is the one that did conquer and finished the work and bruised
Satan's head. Listen to this. The Father's
pleased with him. Father's pleased with him. And
if the Father's pleased with him, and I'm in him, then the
Father's pleased with me in him. And that's rest for my soul.
In that great day, when we all stand before God, and we hear
that final come, oh, how thankful we'll be. We don't even know
how to be thankful now. We think we do, we don't. We don't realize
what we've been redeemed from. But in that day when He calls
us to Himself, you enter in. Then will we know. Then will
we see Him as He is. Then will we know Him and be
like Him. I pray that the Lord comfort
our hearts and give us again somewhat I know we see through
a glass darkly, somewhat of an understanding of the blessedness
to hear the word of the Lord say to his people, you come.
Come unto me, all ye that labor heavy laden. I will give you
rest. I pray the Lord bless this to
our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.