This 24th verse of the 11th chapter
of the book of Matthew, or 25th verse, our Lord says, At that
time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it for so
it seemed good in thy sight. 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. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I want us to take
a look again this evening at this 28th verse. Let's look at
it one more time. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The first thing
that I want us to consider is who it is that speaks here. Who is it that is speaking? Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, we live in
a world of promise and a world of promises. One says, come with
me and I'll make you rich. Another says, come with me and
we'll guarantee happiness. Promises, promises, promises. The devil can promise. He told Eve, as I told you this
morning, Adam and Eve, He said, eat of this fruit, and He said,
you'll be as gods. You'll be able to know good from
evil. Eat of this fruit, and He said,
you shall not surely die. Well, He that makes the promises,
or the promise in this text, cannot lie. You can depend upon
Him. He is none other than God's Son. Let me read something now to
kind of help us see that He who speaks can be depended upon because
He is God's Son. He is God Himself manifest in
the flesh. He says in the first chapter
of the book of Hebrews that God, in sundry times and divers manners,
spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things. He who makes the promise in Matthew
11 is appointed heir of all things by God the Father, by whom also
He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the brightness of God's glory. He
is the express image of His person. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. And when He had by Himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. It is He who speaks, the Lord
Jesus Christ, one that you can depend upon. You can trust in
what He says. Well, there are three things
that I want to mention to you here in regard to Him who speaks. Number one, He who speaks here
is able to do what he says. He is able to fulfill what he
promises. I read to you up here in verse
27 where it says, All things are delivered unto me of my Father. All things are in His hands. All things have been turned over
to Him. All judgment has been given to
the Lord Jesus Christ. The government has been turned
over to his hands. Listen, in this last chapter,
turn with me real quick if you will. I want you to see this.
It's not anything that you have not seen before, but it's a reminder. Over in the 28th chapter of the
book of Matthew and verse 18, and I think this will help us
to see that he who speaks here can be depended upon. because
He is able to do what He says. He is able to do what He promises.
I said that the government is given to Him. All judgment is
committed to Him. And He came. He came in the 18th
verse. It says, And Jesus came to these
disciples who were awaiting at this appointed time. And He said
this to them, All power, all power, Absolutely all power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. The Lord Jesus Christ
who speaks in Matthew 11, who says, Come unto me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, has all
power. He has all power in heaven and
in earth. So you can depend upon Him. You can trust in Him. He has
all power. He has power over all flesh,
your flesh and my flesh. He has power over all things,
visible and invisible. He is able to do what He promises. He has the keys. He has the keys
of death and hell in His hands. And number two, he's faithful
to do what he promises. Not only is he able to do what
he promises, but he's faithful to his promises. When he speaks,
that's exactly what he'll do. He will not change, he will not
divert, he will not alter, but he will do exactly what He promises. Exactly. He will not lie. He will not break His Word. As
a matter of fact, the Scriptures say that the heavens and the
earth, this whole shooting match, will blow up and fade away, but
His Word shall endure forever. There will not be one word of
the Lord Jesus Christ that will fall from His lips to the ground,
that will go broken or unfulfilled. He is not only He's able, he's
not only able, but he's faithful to do what he promises. And thirdly,
he's willing to do what he promises. That's good, isn't it? He's able
to do what he promises, he's faithful to his promise, and
he's willing to fulfill his promise. Well, who are these people that
he speaks to here? He makes a promise here to somebody. He says, Come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now
what does that mean? Who is he speaking to? Well, it says that
he is speaking to those that are heavy laden and those that
labor. What does that mean? Well, it
means all who are pressed down and burdened by the feeling of
the weight and the guilt of sin. That's who he's talking to. Certainly,
we can understand by way of comparison the man who labors and is heavy
laden, who labors in the heat of the day, and who labors physically,
who carries a heavy load. And at the end of the day, he's
burdened down and he must sit down. He must have some rest
for his aching body. Well, our Lord speaks to those
who are pressed down, pressed down, burdened down by the weight,
by the weight of their guilty conscience. He speaks to those who are Anxious. Anxious about their soul. Anxious
about their salvation and desire to heaven. He speaks to those
who tremble at the very thought of judgment and wonder what they're
going to do at that day. He speaks to those. Have you
oft times thought of that? The day of judgment? The day
of judgment? When you stand before God in
all your nakedness? Stand before God and the spotlight
of the eternal eye of God is fixed upon you when the books
are opened and everything is exposed, everything that's ever
been done by you. What will you do? Have you ever
thought, what will I do at the judgment of God Almighty? I'm telling you, He's speaking
to those who tremble. who tremble in fear at the thought
of judgment and wonder what they're going to do. He speaks to those
who long for heaven and fear that they may not make it. He
speaks to those who are distressed and mournful because of their
badness, because of their meanness, because of their sins, like Peter
preached to those folks on the day of Pentecost. At the conclusion
of his preaching, those that heard him said, Men and brethren,
what shall we do? What shall we do? What happened
to them? They were awakened to their guilt,
and they were convinced of their guilt, and they were condemned
for their guilt, and they saw their need, and they felt their
need, and they said, What shall we do? What shall we do? They
were made aware. of the guilt of their sin and
their shame. And they cried out, what shall
we do? These are the people that our
Lord is speaking to here in Matthew chapter 11. Come unto Me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden. All you who are guilty. All you
who are shamed. Come to Me. Come to Me. You never
come. No man will ever come to Him
till he feels. until he feels his need, until
he sees his need, until he feels the weight of it. I told you
this morning, it's one thing to talk about this, but it's
another thing to feel it. It's another thing to have it
in our heads. It's another thing for someone to open the Bible
point to us a verse of Scripture there in the third chapter of
the book of Romans and say, all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. All have sinned. Now, you're
a sinner. There's what the Bible says. Brethren, I'm talking about
the conviction of guilt, of guilt before God. Guilt for your sins. Be ashamed of them. Feel the
heaviness and the burden. That's who he's talking to. Who
does he speak to? Who does he direct this promise
to? Listen to me now. To those who fit the character
described in the promise, and nobody else. You must fit the
character described in the promise, or you cannot lay hold of one
promise in this text. Or even lay hold of one promise
in the Bible. Until you can fit the character
of those described here in this text. 11th chapter and this 28th
verse. He says, Come unto me, all ye
that labor, labor and are heavy laden. Oh, you are guilty and
ashamed. Can you fit that character described? You cannot lay hold of the promise
until you fit the character. Heavy laden people. In other
words, the more The more that you are convinced that you are
a sinner, the more that you prove me to be a sinner, the more qualified
I become, the more entitled I am to the promise of this text.
The more you can convince me of my ungodliness, my unworthiness,
my sin, my guilt, my shame, the more you can convince me of that,
the more entitled I become to receive this promise. You see
what I'm talking about? Those are the people that he's
talking to. You see, brethren, you've got
to have this sin business cut right down into your heart, right
where you live. You've got to come to the place
where you're brought to know and brought to feel and be brought
to say in sincerity and in honesty, right into the eyes of God Almighty,
there's no goodness in me. That's who He's talking to. People
who fall down before Him and say, Lord, there's no goodness
in me. I've searched myself. There's nothing in myself that's
commendable. I have not one ounce, not one
ounce, not one drop of merit about me. There's no goodness
in me. Have you ever been brought to that place where sin cuts
you right down into the heart and you're brought to know that
there's no goodness in you? No hope, brethren, no hope for
salvation until you reach this state. Your hard heart must be
broken. That's the people he's talking
to. He's talking to those that mourn and grieve over their sin. He's talking to those that long
to be delivered, long that hunger and thirst after a righteousness
that they have not got. And to those, He says, come,
come to Me, come to Me, and I will give you rest. Come unto Me, He says. Come. He does not drive anybody
away. Nowhere in the Bible does it
say that He drove anybody away. There was a rich young ruler
came to Him. And he said, good master, what
must I do? That I might gain eternal life.
Our Lord said, first he straightened him up on this good business.
But anyhow, he said, well, he said, you know the commandments.
Oh, he said, I've kept all of them from my youth. I've kept
all of these. Well, he said, sell what you
have and give to the poor. Pick up your cross and follow
me. Come on, give everything you've got. and give to the poor,
but the fellow was rich, and that grieved him in his heart."
And the Bible says that our Lord loved him. I don't know what
that means. Loved his attitude maybe. I don't
know. His attitude towards sin, his honesty and so forth. I don't
know what it was. But it didn't drive him away.
He didn't drive him away. He didn't say, Go! He says, Come! All that are guilty and ashamed. He said, Come. Come. The word
Come is the word put in the mouth of the King's messenger in the
parable of the Supper or the parable of the marriage feast.
The King's messenger was to pass this word along. All now is ready. Come unto the feast. Come unto the marriage. All things
have been made ready. The table is leading. The delicacies
are there. The food, the drink, the wine,
all is there. Come! Come! One of the last words
in the Bible, in the book of Revelation, is this, the Spirit
and the Bride say, Come! Well, it's not said in the text
here, Go and get ready. But it's come. He doesn't say,
go and get ready and prepare yourself. Those are the words
of the self-righteous and the Pharisees. But He says, come,
not go, not do this and do that, and there's a possibility then
that I might receive you. No, it's come. It's come. It's not said in the text to
wait. He didn't say, wait now, there's
no need for you to come. Come at some more convenient
time. But no, the text, which is directed
to poor, hopeless, helpless, doomed, damned, guilty sinners
who have no righteousness, who have nothing about themselves
to commend themselves to God. They come empty-handed. They
come with nothing in their hands to barter, to trade with God.
These that come and fall at the very feet of God at the court
of mercy, these that have nothing, He says, Come! Come. It doesn't say wait. It doesn't
say wait. But he says, come. Come with
all of your what? All of your guilt, all of your
fear, all of your sins, all of your unbelief. Come! Just as
you are. He didn't say, go to Moses. He didn't say, go to Moses. He
didn't say, come to some doctrine. He didn't say, come to some system.
He didn't say, come to some ceremony. He didn't say, come to some religion.
He didn't say to come to some ministry. He didn't say to come
to some church. He didn't say to come to the
Lord's Supper or baptism or any other ordinance in the Bible.
But He said, Come unto Me. Come unto Me. Come unto Me. You
see, the worse you are, the more prepared you are to come. That qualifies you. The more
vile you are, the better prepared you are. That's a contrast to
what's being said, isn't it, in our day? The worse you are,
the more prepared you are to be the recipient of the gift
of God. Well, listen to me now. He's
not the Savior of the fit. He is the Savior of sinners. Well, when I become good enough.
I remember the first time I ever heard anything along this line
in regard to my to my condition, in regard to
my sinnerhood, in regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember
the first time that I heard it, just the first four or five minutes
of what the man had to say. Oh, I was so impressed with what
he said. I was so convicted in what he
said. But immediately, immediately,
the first thought that came to my mind was this, and I say this
in honesty. filling in, but I'm saying this
in honesty. The first thought that come to
my mind, well, I think that fella's right. I think he's right. A
man ought to get better, and he ought to do better, and he
ought to do all these things. But when I get a little better,
and I'm going to go home, and I'm going to alter my life and
my lifestyle, I'm going to get a little better. I'm going to
get a little better. And then, you see, that was my first impression
when I heard the Word of God preached right there. I'll go
home and I'll get better. I'll get better. Well, I thank
God He didn't leave me in that state. He didn't leave me in
that state. No, sir. He revealed unto my
old, wicked, black heart that I couldn't get no better. I couldn't
get any better. Well, He's not the Savior of
the fit. He's the Savior of sinners. He
came into this world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I
am chief. He said he came into this world
to save the guilty and those that are ashamed. And he says
to come right now. Come right now. You see, no other
time is your own. This time right now is your own.
No other time is your own. He says, come now. Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. You say, well, I feel so vile
and I feel so unworthy. Tell it to Jesus. You say, well,
I feel like I'm full of unbelief. Tell it to the Lord Jesus. You
say, well, I'm so weak. Tell Him of your weakness. Tell
Him you have no faith. Tell Him you have no hope. Tell
Him you have no power. Tell Him you have no grace. Tell
Him you have no strength. Tell Him you have no goodness.
Tell Him you have no righteousness. Tell Him you have no love. But
come to Him and commit your soul to His charge. Come. Come unto Me. I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. That's what
He'll give you. Any poor, guilty, ashamed sinner
who thirsts after the living God, who longs for pardon, who
longs for heaven and fears he'll never make it. This poor, guilty,
God-hating soul. He said, come to me. What will
I do? I'll give you rest. I'll give
you rest. Isn't that blessed? How sweet
is rest. The whole world is full of unrest
and disappointment and weariness and heartache and emptiness. Rest is not to be found. Rest
or happiness cannot be found in anything that belongs to this
earth. There is no stability about it. It's only temporary. It's only
veneer. It doesn't dig down. It's just
on the surface. And it'll soon run off as the
rain runs off of hard, dry ground. You see, rest is not found in
any earthly thing. He said to these four souls,
He said, You come unto Me and I will give you rest. He will
give rest. He won't sell it. He won't sell
it. He won't sell it. He gives it. I wish that men and women could
see that. Eternal life is a gift. It's
a gift. You can't bargain with God in
this matter. He gives it. He will not sell
it. He won't trade His rest for your
good works, if you had any good works. You don't have any good
works. Your good works, your works and
my works is as filthy rags, they're abomination unto God. They make
God sick every time we parade our good works before Him. It
makes God sick! We have no good works, but if
we had even the good works that we think we have, God would not
trade His rest. for good works. God's eternal
life, God's rest is a gift. He gives it. He doesn't sell
it. He gives it. He doesn't lend
it and then take it back, buy and buy. He gives it. Come unto me and I will Not maybe,
not if you qualify, not I hope so, not if you hold out, but
if you come to me, poor guilty sinner, if you'll come to me,
I will give you rest. I'll give you rest. He'll give it, he won't sell
it, he won't trade his rest for your so-called good works. He
gives it freely to every coming sinner. What kind of a rest will
it give me? What kind? We sang a hymn there
prior to the preaching service this evening, written by Fanny
Crosby. She said that she longed for
that day that she would wake and fly off into his rest when
the silver cord is broke. She'll fly off and you don't
have to wait. You can have this rest now. That's where Fanny
Crosby, she was wrong there. It's like David. David was wrong
one place and he said, Oh, that I had the wings of a dove that
I might fly away and bid peace. Peace is in a person. Peace and
rest is in a person. You can have them now, right
now. Come unto me and I will give you rest. Not when you die. I'll give you rest right now. We don't have to have the wings
of a dove and fly off and find peace and rest. Then you have
it now. What kind of a rest will you give me? Come unto me, all
ye guiltless sinners, and I will give you rest. What kind of rest? I want that rest. I want that
rest. If I know anything about myself,
I want that rest this evening. And I believe I've got it. And
I didn't get it by bargaining God for it. He gave it to me. He didn't pay it to me, He gave
it to me. And it wasn't temporary. What
kind of a rest? Rest from the fear of sin? Boy,
oh boy, that's rest, isn't it? Rest from the fear of sin. What
do you mean by that? I mean that when a man comes
to the Lord Jesus Christ, this poor, guiltless sinner, who has
rebelled and sinned against his Maker, when he comes to God empty-handed,
the first thing he receives is the forgiveness of his sins.
He takes them away. Our sins are all gone. Our sins
are all gone. They are taken away. They are
taken away. They are all gone. We get rest
from the fear of sin. That's rest to me, brethren.
That's rest. Look over here in Hebrews chapter
10, if you will. Look at that verse with me. Hebrews
chapter 10. Listen to this. What kind of
rest will it give you? Rest from the fear of sin. I
said our sins are taken away. They are all gone. They are removed. No longer appear against me.
Nowhere. They will not be brought up.
They will not at judgment time be brought up and pointed out.
I will not be embarrassed or shamed or exposed for what I
was, for my weakness. for my unbelief, for my sins. I will not be paraded out before
the whole universe to see, for every man, every woman, and every
boy and every girl that was ever born, standing in judgment. I
will not be brought out there and made a spectacle of and say,
yeah, I know I saved you by my grace, but these are your sins.
Here's your sins that you committed after you were saved. That's
what these fundamentalists are preaching. trying to scare people
into doing something for God. Brethren, I'm telling you that
if we ever do anything for God Almighty, it will be because
our sins have been taken away and we know it. We know it. That
will be the motive that motivates us unto loving Him and serving
Him. Well, listen. He says, "...and
their sins." That's what our God says. And their sins. Whose
sins? Your sins and my sins. All of
them. All of our sins and all of our
iniquities. This is what God says. And their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. The God of heaven, He
said that He would not remember my sins. Big or little. Black or white. He would not. Why? He's taken them away. Christ
Jesus paid for them and He took them away. He took them away. This place don't have scapegoat.
That scapegoat went out into the wilderness never to return. If you can find that scapegoat,
you can find my sins. If you can get back behind the
back of God, you can find my sins because that's where they're
at. He bore my sins, and He bore the penalty due my sins. And God cast them behind His
back, and He cast them from Himself and from me as far as the east
is from the west. And He said, I will remember
them against you no more. Released from the pair of sins.
There's no judgment. Look at this verse here. In John
5 and 24, I believe it is. Let me read this to you. I think
it's, yeah, 5 and 24. Well, we worry about judgment.
We worry about judgment. Oh, I can't do this because of
judgment. I may be judged and I'll not
get any rewards. I don't know about that business.
Rewards. Rewards. Rewards for what? Rewards for what? Rewards for
grace? What kind of reward are you talking
about? Can there be anything, can there be a greater reward
than Jesus Christ? Can there be anything greater
than Jesus? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Well, if you're a believer, you
have Him. There's nothing any better than
Him. Well, I know, but I'd like to
be a ruler over there. I'd like to rule several cities.
I've heard preachers talk like that. They say, well, be thou
faithful unto death and I'll give you a crown of life. And
that's Scripture. I'll give you a crown of life. I'll make you
a ruler over many cities. And people, you know, they get
excited and say, well, I'd sure like to be a ruler. I'd sure
like to be a ruler over many cities. Well, I'll do that then.
I'll do so and so. The preacher said, we ought to
do this in order to be a ruler over many cities. Oh, I'll tell
you, there's no fear of judgment for the believer. There's rest
from the fear of his sins. There's rest from the fear of
judgment. No judgment. No judgment. To who? To the poor
guilty sinner that crawls to the very peak of God Almighty
and says, there's no goodness in me. I deserve to go to hell.
You can save me if you will. You can do it, but you don't
have to. There's no judgment for him. His sins are all gone. They're all taken away. That's
rest. That's rest. You can rest there.
You can rest. Listen to this verse. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. You
know what that is? Shall not come into judgment.
What else could it mean? shall not come into judgment.
That's what it means. It means the same thing as Romans
chapter 8 and verse number 1. Therefore, he that is in the
Lord Jesus Christ is not condemned. See? No judgment for him. Rest. Rest. Complete. Right now. Right now. You don't have to
wait until the silver cord is broke. And fly away and be at rest.
You can be at rest right now. Right now. Right now! Not tomorrow. Right now! You can be at rest. Tomorrow the opportunity may
pass, the door may be shut. Right now! Right now you can
be at rest. Rest from the fear of sin. And
rest from the fear of the law. You know what the law says. You
know the law demands absolute perfection out of you and out
of me. The law demands that. I'll tell
you this, there's not one text in the Bible. There's not one
text in the Bible that teaches that a man may be saved without
the claims of the law having been satisfied. Not one text
in the Bible. No man will ever be saved apart
from the law being satisfied. Rest from the fear of the law.
The law has no more claims. on the individual who comes to
the Lord Jesus Christ, that poor sinner that can't save himself,
who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, who mourns in
his inward soul for his sins, who feels pressed down and burdened
with guilt, and he's so ashamed he can't look up into his father's
face. He's ashamed. He's ashamed. I've
sinned against you, Father. I've sinned. I've cursed you
in my heart. I'm ashamed! To that fellow,
to that fellow, and to that fellow alone, my dear brethren, the
Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied. every claim that the law has
against him, and paid his debt. Paid his debt! All his debts
are paid, and the requirements of God's law are all satisfied. Every one of them. Rest from the fear of sin. Rest
from the fear of the law. Rest. Rest. Rest. Isn't that sweet? Rest. Jesus
said, come unto me and I will give you rest. Rest for your
soul. Rest from the fear of the law.
Does not the Bible say? Did you ever read this verse
of Scripture, particularly in the book of Romans, where it
says, Christ Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness? Rest from the fear of hell. Rest
from the fear of hell. You don't have to be afraid of
going to hell. He paid my due. He suffered my hell. When yonder
there, when He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me? When God abandoned the Lord Jesus
Christ, and everything in this world abandoned Him and left
Him to Himself alone, He then bore my hell. He bore my punishment in His
own body. He paid my due. He suffered my
hell. All the agony and punishment,
all of the gnashing of teeth, all of the where the worm dieth
not, the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.
He suffered that. Rest from the fear of hell. I'm
not afraid of going to hell. The Lord Jesus Christ He took
care of the hell situation for the poor sinner that comes to
Him. Rest from the fear of hell! Rest from the fear of the devil!
I want you to know this evening that I know that the devil is
like unto a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And I know
that we need to pray daily, Lord, deliver me from the evil one.
Deliver me from the devil. Deliver me from him. But I know
this. I know this. That that devil
is God's devil. He's God's devil and God has
him on a chain. And he can only do that which
God permits him to do. So I have no fear of him. I have
no fear of him in that respect. He's God's devil. God's devil. God made him. God controls him. God has condemned him. He's God's
devil. Rest from the fear of the devil. Rest. Isn't that wonderful? Rest
from the fear of sin. Rest from the fear of judgment.
Rest from the fear of the law. Rest from the fear of hell. Rest
from the fear of the devil. Rest from the fear of death.
You afraid to die? You afraid to die? I'll tell
you the only reason why a man ought to be afraid to die is
because of his sins. If you die in your sins, Jesus
said, you cannot come where I am. You cannot come if you die in
your sins, if you die in your sins. But a believer, but a man,
a poor sinner, guilty, who's come to the Lord Jesus, who's
come to Him, He said, I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. I'll pay for your sins. I'll
put them away. And so he has nothing to be afraid
of now. Nothing. When he comes down, he can be
like Paul. He can stand there on the edge
of the grave, and he can look down, and he can say, well, I
see it all. I've seen everything. I see death. I see all that death has in store. But he said, I'm not afraid.
I'm ready. I'm ready to be offered. I've
kept the faith. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready.
I see it all, and I'm not afraid. Fear of death! Rest from the
fear of death! God, help us to see what I'm
talking about here this evening. Come unto me. Have you come to
Him? You guilty sinner, have you come
to Him? All that labor, He said, I'll give you rest. What more
can I say? What more can I say? Can you
add anything to it? Poor sinners come. Come to Jesus. No fitness is required. No fitness
is required. If you wait until you're fit,
you'll never come. If you wait until you're fit,
you'll never come. No fitness doth He require. All He requires is your unworthiness. All He requires is for you to
come like you are. All your doubts and all your
fears and all your unbelief All your lack of love and all of
that, come, come, come. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed.