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'd like to read one verse of
scripture. Matthew 11 verse 28. Matthew 11, 28, Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We find throughout Scripture
a precious bidding of the Lord to His people. This is real. It's real. It's not hypothetical. When the Lord in Genesis 7-1
spoke, He actually spoke to Noah. Now, I can just tell you that
this is what the Word of God says. It says, and the Lord said
unto Noah, Noah heard him. He said, Come thou and all thy
house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before
me in this generation. Do you hear that wording? He didn't tell him that he was
righteous in himself. He said, I've seen you righteous.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because the Lord
obviously looked upon Noah in a substitute. I chose to show mercy to you,
Noah, and he let the rest of the world
perish. Noah, his wife, his three sons,
their wives, and some animals. God was pleased to show mercy
and compassion to whomsoever He would, and to whomsoever He would, He
let them go. And He's right. He's right. Isaiah
118. Now listen to this. Come now,
and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Now, God is not trying
to Let's debate. Reason means consider correctly. Let us consider correctly. Though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. We don't reason with the flesh. I'm going to tell you something.
My carnal heart will lie to me. There's nothing as deceitful
as the carnal heart. It's desperately wicked. Deceitful
above all things. Somebody says, well, I'm going
to just trust my heart. Well, I'm going to tell you something.
Unless Almighty God gives you a new heart, you'll perish. I'm going to just trust. Don't
trust Carnal notions and legal thoughts, well, you know, I just
don't think that God would do that. I just don't think that God is
going to, just because somebody is not this side or the other,
I think God is going to weigh everything in the balance. Oh,
He will. And you let a man or a woman come up any other way,
Now listen, let me tell you what it's going to take for a man
or woman to enter heaven. You're going to have to be perfect.
You're going to have to be perfect. You have to be holy. How holy? As God. As God. How can that be? How can that
be? One way. One way. It's for Almighty
God. to choose to show mercy and to
put me in Christ and to deal with Him in my stead. He must be my substitute
and if He has died for me there is no condemnation to me and
in time He's going to teach me that. And He's going to give
me faith to believe it. And He's not going to look to
my faith as that which justified me. I tell you what He's going
to look to. He's going to look to His Son.
And He'll give me faith to believe it. And I will not be saved by
my faith. Faith doesn't save anybody. Now
you listen, listen. Faith does not save anybody.
For by grace are you saved. And when it says through faith,
it means this is how you know it. You trust in your faith, you
trust in your profession, you trust in your baptism, you trust
in your decision, you trust in your will, and you're going to
perish. Now, come unto me. Come unto me. I know how people say, how do
you come to the Lord? Well, I'm going to tell you something.
Coming to the Lord is not walking down an aisle. I'm going to say
a little bit more about that in a minute. We as parents, you take little
children. A parent will say to a little
child, come here, come here, you know why we do that? Because
we want them to come. That's the reason. We want to hold them, we want
to express our love to them. If we as parents will desire
the company of our children, how much more Does the Lord bid
those? And He will bid them. He will
bid them. They're going to come. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Now this is a given. This is
a given. I mean, this is not up for debate. It's going to
come to pass. All that the Father, this is
John 6, 37. How many are going to come to
Christ? All that the Father's given Him. They're coming. Is
there any possibility that they won't come? Not a chance. Not
a chance that they're not going to come. All that the Father
giveth Me shall, shall come to Me. I don't know who God's elect
are. I don't know who they are. But I do know this. I know whoever
they are. I know they're going to come
and I know how they're going to come. They're going to come when they
hear the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace and the Spirit
of God blesses it to them and gives them a new heart, a new
mind. And let me tell you what they do. They willingly come
now when they willingly would not come before. Scripture says
no man seeks after God until God calls him. Those that the Lord has everlastingly
loved, those that the Lord Jesus Christ has everlastingly stood
as the surety, the surety, the guarantor, I guarantee, the Father
gave Him a people and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father
was the first one that ever trusted Christ, who first trusted in
Christ. And then the Apostle Paul says
in Ephesians, whom ye also trusted, who first trusted him, the Father,
gave a people to the Son, entrusted Him to redeem them, live for
them, establish righteousness for them, righteousness that
is charged to, imputed, they're robed in it. And the Father looks
upon them totally, accepted, in the Beloved. Those that He's
betrothed Himself to, lived for, died for, raised for, ascended
for, intercedes for, and soon shall come back for. Here's His loving command to
them. Come unto Me. Believer, there was a day There
was a day, believer, those that believe this report. Lord willing,
I'm going to preach out of Isaiah 53. Who have believed our report?
Next. But there was a day in which
God Almighty called you. And you heard His voice, not
with a carnal ear, not this. But you heard His voice. I'll
tell you why I know you heard His voice. Because He said, My
sheep, hear My voice. You that know Him, you hear Him
right now. You hear Him in the sound of the gospel. You hear
Him with the truth. You hear Him in that message
that honors Him and doesn't give you any glory. Doesn't give you
any honor. I'm going to say, there's not
a one of us sitting here today that's got any good thing that
we can say about, save that Jesus Christ is their Lord and their
Master and their hope. That's it. There's none good,
no not one. The Lord said in John 10, 16,
other sheep I have. Other sheep I have. They're my
sheep. They're my sheep. which are not
of this fold, them also I must bring. They shall hear my voice. There shall be one fold, one
shepherd." Have you ever noticed how emphatic he is? There was no maybes and mights
and hope-sos. Oh, let me tell you the confidence
that I have this morning. God's going to have His people.
He's going to have His people. They're all going to be there.
The whole family. This morning, my whole family.
My dad passed away years ago. Gave a good confession of faith
in Christ. I truly believe he knew the Lord. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't
say it. I'd just say something else. I believe he did. My whole
family is here. If it was one of us that was
missing, that was still alive, then we wouldn't all be here.
But I'm going to tell you something. All the sheep I have, they're
not of this foal. They're not all Jews, they're
Gentiles too. They're also a must bring. Why?
Because the Father has given them a commission. This is the
work that the Father gave Him. I must, I must. This is Father's
will which has sent me. That of all which He has given
me, given me. that I should lose nothing, nothing. He's eternally known His own.
Though we're born ignorant, we're all born ignorant, deaf, spiritually
deaf and blind, but in the day of grace, in the day of God's
grace, He causes their path to cross with the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the objects of His mercy,
they hear that gospel, and when it pleases God, when does God
call His sheep out of darkness? Paul says, when it pleased Him.
When it pleased Him. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, called me by His grace. Why didn't God
call Paul before the road to Damascus? That wasn't His will.
That wasn't His will. He calls His people when it pleases
Him. And He causes them to pass over
and hear this message of grace. A message that declares that
God has everlastingly established by an eternal covenant of grace. I will and you shall. I'll be
your God, you can be my people. and causes them to hear and empower. He reveals to His sheep who He
is. He's sovereign. And who they
are! You're lost. You're undone. You're helpless. You're wayward. And He gives them a new heart.
Put your new heart, new spirit, wasn't there before. Now with
spiritual eyes, they see what they did not see before. Before
they are given eyes to see, they think that they can. And the
Lord says, no you can't. No you can't. There's not a believer
in this room this morning that believes he has any ability to
do anything. Well you say, well that was before,
you know. That was before. No, he said,
without me you can do nothing. I can do all things through Christ
Jesus who strengtheneth me. Without Him, we're helpless. Helpless. We hear. We hear that voice and he says,
come unto me. Now listen, come into Christ.
is not a mere physical act. It's not merely a mental act
that gives a scent that there is a Lord Jesus Christ. Devils
believe that there's a Lord Jesus Christ. Devils believe that. Coming to Christ is an act It
is an act of the soul. It's an act of a new man. And let me tell you what coming
to Christ does. It does two things. It casts
yourself, it's a casting of yourself upon Him totally for salvation
and it is an absolute Renouncing, I will not acknowledge that I
have any worthiness. There's no confidence whatsoever
in the flesh. If I know Him, if I'm saved,
if I find myself with Him eternally, He's going to have saved me.
I'm going to tell you this right now. I'm going to leave this
world and I'm going to be in hell. If God Almighty doesn't
save me, apart from anything that I can do, I can't do anything. I can't do anything. By that willing heart, a heart
that I had not before, when He says, come unto Me, I come. This morning, I want
to. I want to. And I know that He's
given me a heart to do that. Because I know this. I can tell
you this. I know just enough about myself.
I know me just well enough to know that unless God Almighty
gave me a willing heart, I don't want to come. Let me tell you
what I am by nature. Let me tell you what I am by
nature. I hate God. By nature. By my old man. Born
in Adam. I hate God. And I will not come. I will not come. Scripture bears
that out. No man seeks after God. No man. All your farmer works, self-righteousness,
they lose their luster. What you trusted in before, you
don't want to talk about that anymore. I don't want to talk
about what I've done for the Lord. What have I done for the
Lord? What have I done? What have I
done? Paul said, these things I consider dung. Dung. Dung. Well, I have a free will. That's dung. No, you don't. No, you don't. The Scripture
bears out, you can read it, John 1, 14, which were born, now listen
to this, Not of the will of the flesh. Not of blood. Not of blood. Not of the will
of man. I want God to have mercy on my
family. I want God's. But I can tell you this. He's
going to do what's right. He's going to do what's right.
They were born not of blood, not of the will of the man, Not
of the will of flesh, but they were born of God. Born of God. The Lord Jesus Christ says to
a man's new heart, teaches him, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm
the light. No man comes to the Father but
by me. No man. Like that prodigal son, you know, I kind of relate to that. I can
kind of relate to that. I can relate to that. But having first come to Him
by faith, you find that now you never tire of coming. Listen
to this, He that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast him out.
He that cometh. Through this life we're compassed
about with trials and tribulations and testings of the soul to prove
our faith. Look at 1 Peter 1. All these trials. You say, I
just wish I could just kind of be done with these trials. You
won't be. You won't be. They're not going
to end. They're not going to end. 1 Peter 1, 3-9, 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 fadeth 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, 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 be much more precious than of gold that perisheth."
Well, let me tell you what is precious, more precious than
gold, your faith. That faith that God gave you,
it's given unto you to believe. All men have not faith. I tell
you who has faith. Believers have faith. It's given
unto you. That the trial of your faith
being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not
seen, ye love. in whom though now you see him
not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls." Hear these words back in Matthew
11, 28. Come unto me. Now let me tell you the ones
he bids. And those that he bids, he gives
a heart to come. Come unto me. All ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come
unto me, all ye that are laboring and are heavy laden with the
realization of the presence of your sin and your inability,
that have tried and chastened for our good, And for God's glory,
it's good. David said that I've been afflicted.
It's good that I've been afflicted. I need this. I need it. When you're tried and tested
and proven by God's grace, weary sojourner, as the hour of our
departure draws near, rest assured, at first command to come to Him
when you've heard Him for the first time in your heart, And
you did, and you did. Somebody said, I really don't
know what you're talking about. If God calls you, you will. That first time he called, you're
going to find that as the time of our departure draws nearer,
draws closer, that summoning becomes sweeter and sweeter.
Come unto me. You see the things of this world,
they just lose their luster. There's just nothing here, there's
just nothing here that gives any kind of satisfaction. Things
mess and stuff. And when we draw that last breath
that He has lent us, rest assured, He's not going to fail to keep
us. That's comforting to me. We have His word on that. He
said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll
never forsake you. But according to His promise,
we will, for the last time in this earthly life, we're going
to hear. We're going to hear His command,
and I believe more clearly than we've ever heard it before. Come,
you blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you. from before the foundation of
the world. Scripture bears that. God calls. You know, I wonder what Stephen
heard. I know what he says he saw. In
that moment, we're going to see as we've never seen before. When
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is. reflecting on the past days of
His mercy, remembering with a thankful heart His voice. And we can truthfully say, I've
heard. I've heard it in my heart. I've
heard Him speak. Remembering the numberless times
He delivered our panting hearts after Him, the trials of this
world. And we can truthfully say, He
never left me. He didn't leave me. He didn't
forsake me. And knowing that soon, very soon,
we're going to hear Him, we're going to hear Him call us to
Himself. And you know what we say right
now? Lord, come quickly. Lord, call me. Lord, call me afresh. And thank
you for a heart that would want to come. For Christ's sake, amen.