I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter
11. Matthew chapter 11. I was reading over my notes this
morning and I had a passage of scripture that was brought back
to my mind, and I turned over. I'll just read
this. It's Matthew 19, verses 13 to 15. I kept thinking about
this passage right here. The scripture says, Matthew 19,
13, Then were there brought unto him little children, that he
should put his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked
them. But Jesus said, Suffer little
children and forbid them not to come unto me. For of such
is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them
and departed thence. Now you're just with me reading
a passage of scripture that's That's a very precious, precious
passage of scripture. Almighty God said, suffer, allow, allow these
little children to come to me. The scripture says he laid his
hands on them and he prayed for them. And I thought, how tender
that is. But what it did, it caused me
to think about what I have prepared to preach out of Matthew 11,
verse 28. Here's the scripture. Matthew
11, 28. Come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Now, with the thought of the Lord telling his disciples, you let
these little children come to me. I don't know how old they
were. They were obviously old enough
to to come, to walk. No matter how old they were,
the Lord tenderly dealt with them. And as I began to look at this
verse of scripture again, I thought, I want to preach this message
this morning with little children in mind. Now little children,
you listen to me. I'm talking about, I'm not talking
about infants, you know, two, three month old kids. I'm talking
about anybody that's younger than I am. Children. Anybody that's still here. Anybody that's able to hear what
I have to say. Now listen to me. You kids that
are 8, 10, 15, 18, 24, 31, 37, 45, listen kids, listen. I want to
talk to us all this morning about what the Lord has done for us. Now listen, I want to be so simple,
I want to be plain, I want to be concise. Let me tell you,
what our situation is. Now listen, this is all of us
now. We all think that everything's going to always be as it is and
you know that everything will grow up and we'll, you know,
get married and we'll have, you know, on and on. Let me tell
you where we are. Men, women, boys, girls, we all have been born in trouble. Now we're in trouble. Now we've
got a problem. What happened is when Adam and
Eve were in the garden, God had commanded Adam to obey Him. And He told Adam, Genesis 2,
16-17, The Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of knowledge
and good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Now listen,
let me tell you what happened. Adam disobeyed God. And because
Adam and Eve were the only two people, that was the totality
of mankind. That was mankind right there,
that's everybody. But everybody that would ever
be born had to come from them. They had to come from Adam and
Eve. That's where it started, with mankind. It started with
men and women, all started from mankind. Now, what happened is
when Adam and Eve rebelled against him, Adam rebelled against him.
Adam did something with his eyes wide open. Adam knew what he
was doing. The Lord told Adam, in the day
you eat, you're going to die. And Adam wasn't fooled. Eve was
fooled. Eve was fooled. She was beguiled. That's what scripture says. Satan
tricked her. But Adam knew what he was doing. And when Eve, his wife, gave
him of that fruit, and he took it and ate it, All mankind, because mankind
would come from them, died spiritually. Now what that means is this. It means that they don't have
the ability anymore to know God. They don't have the ability to
understand. They don't love Him. They don't seek after Him. We're
all born now with a bad attitude toward God. The carnal mind is
enmity. It's resentful toward God. And
that's just the way we are. We're all born like that. Some
might say, well, not the preacher. Oh, yeah. Especially the preacher. You know, by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. And now the scripture says in
Romans 3.23, all have sinned. And come short, we've suffered
lack. of the glory of God. And we're
born in a state that's called lost. Lost. What does that mean? That means we're left to ourselves
to do the best that we can do, which is absolutely nothing.
Can't do anything. Why? Because spiritual death
means that we now, we can't please God. We don't have a hope in
ourselves of pleasing God. And here's another thing, we
don't care. We don't care. Have you ever noticed how you'll
hear the preaching of the gospel and you'll hear the glorious
message of God's grace and there's still an old man in every believer
that thinks just like this and it's just, we just don't care.
There's a part of us that hears what we're hearing and we just
don't care. We hear it. Oh, we'd never admit
that. We won't admit it. But we don't. We hear it. There's a new man
there in a regenerated center, and he loves it, hears it, longs
after Christ. But there's an old man that just
don't care. If you're hearing what I'm hearing,
what I'm saying, and you find yourself, this doesn't mean anything
to me. I'm here because I had to come here today. I mean, I
just came to church. That's the attitude that we're
all born with. We just got that, you know, and
we can't do anything about it. The Lord said, without me, John
15, 5, without me you can do nothing. That's our plight. This is how we are. But, with
this declaration, with this truth being set forth that we're in
trouble, listen, mankind is not without hope. We're not without
hope. We've got some hope. And here
is a scripture. It's in Micah 7.18. And here's
the way the Spirit of God moved upon this prophet that lived
years ago. He wrote this. This prophet said,
Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity? Now what
does that mean? That means to lift up and take
away. our rebellion against God, our
attitude, our guilt. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? It just won't charge, won't charge
you. Now, are we guilty? Yeah, we're
guilty. We're all guilty. We're all sinners. But who is a God, like the God
of this Bible, that will pardon iniquity and pass by the transgression
of the remnant of His heritage? Now what does that mean, the
remnant of His heritage? Well, it means that God has a
portion of mankind. Of all men and women that have
ever been born in this world, God has got a portion of them,
a remnant. That's what a remnant is. It's
just a piece. I've said this before. I remember
my mama used to make dresses when I was growing up. She'd
make clothes for us and this, that, and the other, and she'd
have some remnants. And if you looked at the remnants, they
were junk. It was just junk. And this is
what it's good for. They're good, throw them away.
You ain't gonna make nothing out of that. It's just a remnant. It's just a piece of, after you
cut all the good stuff out, make the dress, those little, you
know, stringy looking things, you just pick them all up, you
just hold them all in your hand. They're just junk. Well, God
refers to a people that He calls His remnant. A remnant of his
heritage. He's chosen to show mercy to
some who in themselves are junk. That's all we are. And he's chosen
to not retain his anger forever. He's purposed, I'm not going
to retain I'm not going to be mad at you forever. I'm not going
to. And why has He chosen to do this? And here's what He said, because
He delighteth in mercy. God Almighty delights. But now, here's a question that
we've got. God delights to show mercy, but
the scripture reveals Him to be just. He's fair. He's fair. When God says something,
God means it. He don't give second chances
and stuff. The soul that sinneth is gonna
die. Well, I already know that we're
sinners. I already know that we're in trouble. But I know
that God's gonna show mercy, but I know that He cannot show
mercy at the expense of His justice. God's gonna have to be fair.
God's going to have to deal with our sin and there's only one
payment for sin and that is death. Now you think about that. That's
the only payment that God's going to accept. Well, what kind of hope does
that leave us? What kind of a chance do I have if God is going to
be just and deal with me and the justice of God demands death
for sin? Tell me something, if there's
any good news in this, please tell me what it is right here,
because at this point it doesn't sound very promising. Well, here's
what the scripture says in Jeremiah 31.3, that according to God's
good pleasure, for the remnant, according to
his heritage, for those that he chose. He chose a people out
of all mankind and he said, I'm choosing a people. I'm choosing
a remnant and I'm going to show mercy to you. But for those that
he chose to show mercy, this is what he said. He said, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. Now, you know, That's an
amazing thing to me. That Almighty God could choose
to show mercy to someone that was so undeserving, that was
so rebellious, before He ever made us. He knew what Adam was
going to do. He knew what I was going to do
and you were going to do. He knew that. We didn't slip up
on Him and just really disappoint Him. Oh, I wish they would have
done that. I had such a marvelous plan for
their life, and now, oh no. Before Almighty God ever made
a man or a woman, God said that there was a people that He eternally
loved, and He chose to show mercy to them. But He's not going to
do it at the expense of His justice, so what did He do? He chose His
Son, He elected, He was the first of God's elect. God had an elect
servant. His only begotten Son. And who
is His only begotten Son? He's God. He's God Himself. And God Almighty had a covenant,
that's an agreement. Made an agreement. God made an
agreement with Himself. Father, Son, and Spirit. That's
a marvelous thought. One God, Father, Son, Spirit.
And God made an agreement, a covenant of mercy and compassion where
He could be just and satisfy the justice of God for man's
broken law and show mercy. He could be a Savior. Now this
is going to take something that only God can do. God's going
to have to do this. What He did was, His Son, who
is God Himself, agreed to be one who's called the surety.
He said, I will be the surety. That means I'm going to make
good on what they can't do. I'll do it, He said, and I'll
do it on their behalf. And what I'll do is as I do it
on their behalf, and it'll be reckoned to them, it'll be charged
to their account that they did it, because they did do it in
me. That's what he said. I will make
sure that whatever they owe to the broken law of God, what they
owe, which is death, He said, I'll pay that. I'll pay it. And
I will make them holy. I'm going to make them holy before
God. How are you going to do that?
I will come into this world and I will actually take on their
nature. I will take upon me the form
of what they are, flesh and blood. He was made flesh. God became
a man. God took to himself manhood. And as a man, he said, I will
obey the law of God and I will absolutely earn what's called
righteousness. The righteousness of God wrought
out or performed or accomplished by the man, Christ Jesus. I'll be their surety. And the
father put all of his elect inside him, put them in him. He was
going to be now their representative. And all of them now is in him. And having agreed to take their
nature and to answer before God, the Lord God of heaven did something
unbelievably wonderful. from the time, if I can say it
like that, which is eternity. It never started. From the time
that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
said, I'll regenerate them. I'll mention that in a second.
But the Father and the Son, they've got an agreement now. The Son
said, I'm going to answer for everyone that you choose. Put
in Him, put inside Him for safekeeping. And He said, I'm going to answer.
And from that time, The Father never looked to the sheep again.
He never looked to that remnant again. He's not looking to me
or to any other of God's sheep. He's not looking to me for answers. He's not looking to me to be
obedient. He's not looking to me to answer the law. He's not
looking to me to answer before Him. He's looking to the Son.
I'm looking to the Son. And whatever the Son does, that's
going to be charged to me. He's going to charge that to
me. The Lord comes. He comes into this world as the
representative and the federal head. And the Father who everlastingly
trusted Him. That's what He said. From the
time that Christ agreed, I will answer the Father, trusted Him. And He looked to Him. And He
watched Him. And when He said, while the Lord
was here on this earth, this is My beloved Son. in whom I'm
well pleased." Do you know what that said? That He's well pleased
with me, or you, that know Him, His remnant. He's well pleased
with us because we're in Him. That's the only reason. So He
comes in for 33 plus years. He walks before God and He obeys
God. He earns that righteousness.
And that righteousness that when God calls out one of His own,
the Scripture says they're robed. They're robed. That glorious
righteousness and holiness and obedience of Christ is charged
to them. And now they're robed. They're
robed in Him. Covered in His holiness. And
then Almighty God declared, now this is how I'm going to answer
myself. I'm going to send my Son to the cross with everybody
being in Him that I chose to show mercy. And He's going to
lay down His life. He didn't go kicking and screaming.
He went and He laid down His life. And the Scripture declares
that He was made what we are. He was made sin. And God judged
Him for what was due to us. and the guilt and the penalty
of the law, which was death. Christ paid that debt for His
people, for His remnant, for His elect, for the sheep, for
the church, those that God purposed to save. And now it's paid for,
it's paid for. All of them, all of them. Every
sin, every transgression that any of God's sheep would ever
Commit. Christ paid for it. And He redeemed
all of them at Calvary. When He died at Calvary, every
one of God's sheep that would ever be born. How about those
that have yet to be born? That's right. Yeah, just like
you and I. We were yet to be born when He
died. But all of them since paid at Calvary. And He put away their
guilt. And now they don't owe anything.
God's remnant. According to His heritage, we
don't owe anything to God's law. Why? It's already been paid.
Christ paid it all for His people. What about them being holy? He
robes us in His obedience. So we stand before God in Him
without guilt and perfect, holy. Holy. Now you think about this. God has been just and He put
away the guilt and now He's got a people in Christ, in His Son
that are holy and without blame before Him. Well now, how are
we going to know about this? Who's going to tell us about
it? How are we going to figure this out? Well, the scripture
says that God has chosen to tell His people about what He's done
one way. And it's through the preaching
of the gospel. This is how He's going to tell
them. This is the only way He tells them. He doesn't tell them
any other way. 1 Corinthians 1.21, For after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God,
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. Preaching what?
The gospel. That gospel that Paul said, I'm
not ashamed of. To save them that believe. Now
what happens is, God will providentially, that means He's going to move
heaven and earth to get the remnant. Those that He's everlastingly
loved and those that Christ redeemed. He's going to move everything.
He's going to raise up nations and He'll He'll move kings, and
He'll do everything to get His people under the sound of the
gospel. And He's going to cause them
to come, and they're going to sit, and they're going to hear,
and He having purposed that they're going to hear. Now remember,
until they're called out of darkness, until they're regenerated, they're
dead. They don't hear anything. They just sit like many of us
have done and often find ourselves still doing, hearing, and we
just don't care. But the scripture says He's going to give them
what they didn't have before. He's going to give them an ear
to hear, an eye to see, a spiritual eye, a spiritual ear. And they're
going to hear the gospel. They'll hear it. They'll hear
it with this ear. But there's going to be something
that they hear in their heart. And they're saying, I never heard
that like that before. And there's going to be an interest
created that wasn't there before. And God's going to grant them
faith. Faith to believe. And they're
going to... Believe it! And they're going
to love it. They're going to long after that
truth right there. And that heart, longing heart
of belief, of faith, that gift, that's a gift from God. We're
not born with faith. It's given unto you to believe,
Scripture says. And we'll realize for the first
time, Up until this time right here, I've been doing something
that now I realize is a real burden to me. What is it? Well, I've been laboring and
I'm heavy laden. What have you been laboring for? God's people know when He calls
them out of darkness. I've been laboring. I've been
struggling. I've been striving. I've been
trying to reconcile myself back to God by some self-righteous
work. Some man told me that if I'd
walk down the aisle. Some man told me if I'd pray
through. Some man told me if I'd come down. Some man told
me if my hair was cut a certain length. Some man told me that
if I did this, that, or the other. that I'd be right with God. Perform
some act. And I've been struggling, I've
been striving to do it. And now I've been realizing,
I've been laboring, and now I realize what all of that is. It's just
a heavy burden to me. I'm heavy laden. Now what I'm
doing, I'm groaning under the weight of something that God
said I can't do. Not by the works of righteousness. Not by the works of the law.
We're not saved, not by works of righteousness that we've done.
Yeah, but Marvin, you don't realize how faithful I've been. I've
been here since I was a child. I sat under Scott. I heard Henry. I heard all these other great
preachers. I've been here a long time. Well, unless God's called
you out of darkness, what difference does that make? That's just to
your condemnation. That's all that is. No, I've
been putting all of my trust and my confidence that I was
a member of Katie Baptist Church. That I believe five points of
Calvinism. I've told you before, the devils
all believe five points of Calvinism and everybody in hell believes
five points of Calvinism now. They know that they're totally
depraved and that God's got a people and that Christ only died for
the elect. The Spirit of God is irresistibly going to call
out God's elect and God's going to preserve them. They know that
now. It's too late. But I've been putting all my
trust and now what I'm doing, I'm groaning under this weight
that I can't maintain. I can't do that. So what? is a message from my heart. Listen to this. Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come unto me. Now, I've got just, as I wrap
this up, I've just got a few, three, Just very short, concise
questions. Come unto me. Now, tell me something. How does a sinner come to Christ? How do they come? I don't see
them. Don't tell me to walk down the
aisle because I've already dealt with that. I know that's not
it. How do I come to Christ? Come unto me. Well, I can tell
you according to the Scriptures that we come by faith. Faith. We come by faith. Okay, now don't leave me hanging. Tell me again what faith is.
Okay, I understand that. We come by faith. What is faith? Here's what Hebrews 11.1 says.
Now faith is the substance. That is, it's the assurance of
things hoped for or that's expected. Now what do we hope for? What
do we expect? I want to be with God. When I
die, I want to be with the Lord. That's what I want to be. I want
to be with Him. Faith is the assurance of things
hoped for It's the evidence, it's the proof of things not
seen. Now I don't see, I can't see
heaven right now. I don't see the Lamb's Book of
Life. I'm not looking physically at the Lord Jesus Christ. I know
this, but I know this. I believe the Lord's given me
faith to believe that's so. Faith is the assurance of those
things. Faith. Faith is the assurance
of things hoped for, expected, trusting in, of life eternal. I want to know that I've been
delivered from the penalty of the law. I want to know that. God gives me faith to believe
what God says about the Lord Jesus Christ putting away that
debt. Faith is the only assurance that
a believer has. I know I've never done anything
to assure my heart that I'll be with Him. I know I've never
done anything. I've never had a right attitude. I've never
done it. And if I ever thought I did it, I lied to myself. My
heart's deceitful above all things. Faith in Christ, it just, faith
believes God. It believes God, and it's the
reality, it's the support, it's the foundation of these things.
It's the evidence of things that are not seen. All that He's demanded. What has He demanded? Obedience. Obedience. When God said concerning
His Son, this is My beloved Son, whom I'm well pleased. You hear
Him. Faith grasped hold of the truth
that when he did that, he did that for me. Somebody says, what
assurance do you have? Here's my assurance. Faith. They say, you mean to tell me
that you're going to put the eternal security of your soul
totally in that? My friend, that's all I got. But that's all God demands. And
He gives me that which He demands. It's the evidence. So, how do
we come? We come by faith. How do I know
that I'm coming by faith? I'll tell you how you can know. You're going to come as a needy
sinner. Needy. You're not going to come bragging
on yourself. You're going to be like that
publican. There was a publican and a pharisee,
and here's what the publican said, standing afar off, he would
not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven smote upon his breast,
saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, a sinner. I don't have anything in myself
to offer. If God doesn't save me, I'm going
to hell. I can come, I can keep coming
to this church. I come to this church, unless
I'm out of town, seven days a week. Seven days a week. That doesn't more amount to a
hill of beans. If I'm putting my confidence
that I'm coming to this church seven days a week, that means
nothing. I gotta come to Him. This building
right here gonna be gone How do I come? I am a needy sinner. How does a sinner come? He comes
needy. He comes convinced. I can tell
you that. He comes convinced. Many left Him and the Lord said,
Will you go away also to His disciples? And Peter said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Let me ask you something. I'll
ask all of us. Where else? Where can we go? Where else can we go? Can you
tell me another haven of rest? I'm not talking about what men
say. It doesn't matter what men say. If they don't speak according
to these scriptures right here, it's because there's no life
in them. Where am I going to go except to Him? He said, come
to Him. How do I come? By faith. Believe
in Him as a needy sinner, convinced. And I'll tell you another way,
when we come to Him, we come continually. It's so comforting to see so
many faces that I've seen here for over 15 years. But I can
tell you this, there's a lot of you here that's been here
a whole lot longer than that. And you know the way you first
came, those that have come to Him by faith, continually, needy. Do you know the first time you
ever came? You know that's the same way
you're coming right now? Him that cometh to me, I will in
no wise cast out. You come to Him just like you
did the first time. And you come really more with
the realization of your need to come. And you come willingly. Psalm 110.3, Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. You know what that word
willing means? Willing. Look this up. This is good. Spontaneously. I'll tell you this, I know that
the Lord deals with His people in prevenient grace and He puts
them under the sound of the gospel and they begin to hear and there's
some things, you know, but whenever God Almighty is pleased to call
His own They come spontaneously. The Lord said to a man named
Matthew one day, sitting at the seat of custom, he said, follow
me. And you know what that man did?
The scripture says, and he arose and followed him. Whenever the Lord called Peter
and Andrew, they were out there fishing with their daddy. He
called him. He said, follow me and I'll make
you fishers of men. The scripture says, and straightway
they forsook their nets and they followed him. Zacchaeus was up
a sycamore tree. He went up there because he couldn't
see. He was short of stature, the
scripture said. He couldn't see over people. So he climbed up
in a sycamore tree and the Lord walked right up under that sycamore
tree and just stopped, looked up, and He said, Zacchaeus, make
haste. Come down, for today I must abide
at your house. And here's what the scripture
says. And he made haste and came down and received Him joyfully. Whenever God effectually calls
His people out of darkness, the remnant of His heritage, He puts
within their hearts something that wasn't there before. He
puts life. And now there is a willingness,
but it's a spontaneous willingness. They come right now. Come unto me. Who are we coming
to? I'll tell you who we're coming
to. We're coming to God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word,
God, was made flesh, and we beheld His glory. So, is there a safer
place to come? No. There's no place, you know.
He that believeth on me, the Lord said, hath everlasting life. He that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. And that third and final question,
what has he promised to those who come? Now listen, here's
what it is. Rest. Rest. Rest for your soul. The rest
of a new heart. Let me tell you what that rest
is. The law has no hold, no charge
against me. I have not broken God's law being
found in Him. You say, well, you're a sinner.
Yes, I am. And I did break the law. But
I'll tell you this, the Lord has put away the guilt of that
and He's created a brand new man. And that new man doesn't
sin. That which is born of God sinneth
not. It can't sin because His seed
remains in it. Here's the rest for a believer. Almighty God has satisfied my
debt to the law. And I'll tell you this last one,
I already mentioned it. I stand before God, in Christ, uncondemned. The law has been
satisfied. And I stand before God, in Christ,
holy. Now you're looking at somebody
right here who's got two natures about him. There's an old man
about me that doesn't care a whit about what I've been talking
about. Doesn't care a whit. And I hate that man. I hate that
man. Old wretched man that I am. Marvin,
what a wretched sinner you are. How could you be so disrespectful?
But there's a new man, and that new man loves God, and blesses
and praises His holy name, that God Almighty would choose to
show mercy to a remnant like me, in myself a no good nothing,
and would pay my debt before His law. and robe me in the righteousness
of Christ, and then call me out of darkness and give me faith
to believe, faith that He demanded and faith that He supplied, and
then would charge that faith as being my faith, thy faith
that made thee whole. That's what He told that woman
that had the issue of blood. And now He's keeping me. There's
a rest right there. He's not going to let me go.
If I'm in Him, I'll always be in Him. If I'm kept, it's because
he's keeping me. Now, suffer the little children
to come unto me. Little children, little children. If anybody out there hears anything,
if God's given you faith to believe, I'm going to tell you this, come
to him and he'll give you rest. Amen. Let's take a break.