Come unto me, all ye that labor, and I will give you rest. There are 10 sermons in that one sentence, and many more, as the Lord would teach us.

Come unto me, all of the, I guess, highly respected Religious figures of the world, Confucius, Buddha, I don't know who they all are, the Pope, all of them, they teach you to learn the tenets of their religion. With Confucius and Buddha and things, that are supposed to bring you spiritual enlightenment, you learn these tenets, these so-called truths, do these things, accomplish these goals, and you'll be clear or whatever you want to, whatever it is that the goal is.

Only the Son of God can say, come to me. Your hope is me. I will give you, I will give it to you. You're not gonna earn it. You're not gonna achieve it. I'll give it to you. I'll give you rest because rest is his to give.

And it seems counterintuitive to put a yoke on and rest. A yoke is the symbol of labor, work, hard work, striving and straining and yearning and exerting energy. That's what that symbolizes. The yoke that's used to plow a field. And we plow a field in order to plant and in order for fruit to be produced so that we might live. the work that is required for us to live.

The Lord Jesus says, put my yoke on you to get that which is vital. There's work to be done, but what's your part in salvation? Rest. Resting in the Son of God and His ability

I'm sure you've heard maybe at one time or another, I used to hear it on a regular basis as a young man, that this is the yoke of service. This is a yoke that you put on and you work for the Lord. Nothing can happen today that you and the Lord can't handle. It's us and the Lord together, we can do anything. That's not what it teaches.

He didn't say, put my yoke upon you and serve. Let that sink in carefully. He didn't say, put my yoke upon you and together we'll get the job done. He didn't say, put my yoke upon you and strive. and work and do your best.

I want to say this carefully, but I want to say it in a, in a way that is clear and emphatic. If you put the yoke of Christ on in order to work, you're a goner. If the reason that you put the yoke of Christ upon you is to do your part, you're a goner. There's no hope for you.

When you put on Christ's yoke, it's because all of your labor, all of your work, all of your service, all of your religion, all of your everything is a failure, and you need a yoke You need for work to be accomplished that you don't contribute to. You put His yoke upon you and you don't do anything.

What did Moses say to the Israelites when the Egyptian army was bearing down upon them and the Red Sea was in front of them? You know, gird your loins and see the salvation of the Lord? No. Shut up and stand still and watch God save you. Watch him save you today. That's where we are when we come to Christ in reality, in spiritual truth.

We've spent all we have and have gotten worse and worse and worse. What does that tell you about your works, what you earned? The money that that woman with the issue of blood earned with her labor, it made her worse. It wasn't just futile. And everything you do in order to please God in your flesh is more sin heaped upon more sin heaped upon more sin.

If salvation is your decision, you're a goner. If salvation requires you to walk an aisle or repeat a prayer or do anything for God, you have no hope. This is the gospel that we see in every passage of this book. Put my yoke upon you. Why is it a yoke? Because there isn't work to be done. but put my yoke on you and you rest. Why are you able to rest? Because he does everything required for your salvation. Salvation is a finished work. You're yoked to him. You're united to him. You have an interest. We use that word interest like I'm interested. That's, that's interesting to me, but that's not what we mean when we say you have an interest in, you have a stake in it. You have a stake. You've yoked yourself to Christ. You've put all of your eggs in one basket. You've placed all of your hope upon him because all you're going to be able to do is just go along for the ride. And the Lord says, that's exactly what I want you to do. That's what I need from you. Just quit. I need you to quit.

What have believers done? They've ceased from their own labors and rested in the Son of God and what he did for me. And we're still doing that. This is not a history lesson. This morning, I'm not here to get you to do something for God. I'm here to make sure you don't do anything for God. And to pray with all my heart and trust His promise that by these means, He might just do something for you.

How true are words the words of our Lord when he said just before this, that these things are hidden from the wise and prudent. People go to theological school and they get degrees and they're doctors of theology and what's the result? Oh, we've got to serve the Lord. See there, there's a yoke for us. Labor for the Lord, you know, let's do the Lord's will. What must we do that we might work the works of God? This is God's work that you believe, that you quit working and look to the Son of God. Quit trying to to heal the snake bite. Quit bandaging it up. Quit listening to somebody over here that's like, boy, I got something for that. This is gonna work. This will heal you. Let's put that on that snake bite and let's bandage it up and it'll be fine. No, look and live. As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up.

No, here's our problem. Our labor, our work, our so-called service is our problem. We serve God, if we do at all, because He loved us and therefore we love Him. We love Him because He first loved us. His love is the cause of our love and faith worketh by love, not by law. Not in order to please God. When I understood and knew that I had to please God, if there's any hope for me, I looked to Christ. I didn't do something. I looked to Christ by His grace, because faith is His gift. Faith has one object. Faith is simply believing God. Not believing in God. Satan believes in God. It's believing God. It's believing what he said about himself, about us, and about his son and how sinners are saved. He says, come unto me. Don't learn these tenets. Learn of me. Don't trust your doctrine. Hear sound doctrine in order to learn of Christ and look to Christ. He said to the Jews, you search the Scriptures, but they are they that testify of me and you will not come to me. They knew the doctrine. They didn't know the Savior.

No, it's our problem. The solution to our problem is resting in Him. You know what Paul said the Jews' problem was? They're serving God. Serving God. He said they have a zeal of God, but they don't know who God is. They have a zeal of God. Religion has a zeal of God. You don't know Christ. You don't know God. And he's the sovereign Christ. He's the successful Christ. He's never wanted to do anything. He's never tried to do anything. To put his yoke on is to take off the yoke of the bondage of the law. The law is a cruel taskmaster that requires perfect obedience, and we can't give it And we're not to try to give it. We're not to do our best and say, well, my good outweighs my bad, so I'm going to heaven when I die. Your good is your bad. When are we going to learn that? Isaiah said, even my very righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of God. And what did Christ teach after teaching that? Come to me. Come to me, though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God.

The hopelessness and endless fruitless toil of trying to satisfy God by your obedience, that's what we need rest from. And that rest is found only in one place. And it's not by learning about rest, it's by coming to him who is our Sabbath. Let me try to say it again as plain as I can. Being yoked together with Christ is rest for us because he has done all the work. He said he came to find his lost sheep. He came to save them that are lost. And when he had done that, he said it's done. And it's perfect. It doesn't need any input from you.

No, no, no, the gospel call is come not because that's your part in salvation. You're what when you do when you what you're doing when you come to Christ is coming away from yourself. You're taking up your cross. And crosses have one purpose. People die on them. We die to self and live under God by Christ. Christ has done all the work. Everything that Christ ever did is my righteousness before God. Christ is my righteousness. And His, listen, He is my righteousness and His precious blood paid for what I call righteousness. I'm redeemed from my so-called righteousnesses. which is sin, by his blood. So on the positive and on the negative, he's my righteousness and my sin offering. And to be accepted with God, I must have both. I must be positively holy in the sight of God, accepted in the Beloved. and all of my sins have to be put away by his precious blood.

Take his yoke upon you and rest. Rest. Listen to Hebrews 4.10. For he that is entered into his rest, Christ's rest, He also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." And you think about that. Look at that passage, it would be Hebrews 4.10. We're going to be very brief this morning, but I want you to look at Hebrews 4.10 with me. Please, for he that is entered into Christ's rest, that's our text, now come to me and rest. How? By putting on a yoke. What did Paul say was the other side of that rest? Take off the yoke of the bondage of the law. Hebrews 4.10, for he that is entered into Christ's rest, he also has ceased from his own works. There's no mixing of the two. What does religion say? Well, Christ has done all he can do. Now it's up to you. No, no. If you're entering into Christ's rest, you've got to cease from up to you. There's no more up to you. There never was any up to you. And there's not ever going to be any up to you. Is that clear there? You've got to cease from your own works as God did from His.

Let us labor, therefore. And let's ask this question. Why did God cease from His labor in the old creation? On the seventh day, God rested. Why did He do that? Because everything that he purposed to do was done. Why is Christ our rest? Because everything that he purposed to do is done. He's the Sabbath. That's why he said it's finished. The Son of God on that cross, if it was going to be up to you from then on, don't you think he would have said it's up to you instead of saying it's finished? Are we smarter than him? He said it's finished. What do you say? What do you say this morning? He said salvation is accomplished. It's perfect. What do I say? What do you say?

Let us labor therefore, what's our work, if you want to call it work, to rest, to enter into his rest. All of your striving, all of your labor, all of your service, all of your everything is exerted to this end to not do anything. Does that make sense? If you know who Christ is to you, and He is that to you, it makes perfect sense.

Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired of trusting yourself? Aren't you tired of looking to yourself? Of expecting anything from yourself? Has the Lord not revealed enough and fully enough to you what a failure you are yet. What an unmitigated disaster you are, that you would still strive to please God with anything that you do.

I know this this morning, I know this, I can't answer that question for anybody, but I know this, whoever of you this morning Believe on the Son of God, whoever of you have taken his yoke upon you and found rest unto your souls, unto your souls. Nobody knows what soul rest is except those who are resting in Christ.

We've committed it all. I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able He is able. He is able. He's got to do it all, and he's able. Do you believe that I'm able to do this? Yay, Lord. Yay.

If you're resting in him this morning, I know this, you're blessing the holy name of God that nothing's up to you. Oh. Oh, no, Lord, don't leave anything up to me. Come right where I am like you did, like you did as the good Samaritan who came to that poor man who fell among thieves, that man who was bleeding out in a ditch and the law wouldn't even look at him and religion passed by on the other side and ignored him. They can't do anything for him. They're not interested in real sinners. They're interested in people that trust them and their religious nonsense.

Don't leave anything up to me. Come right where I am and pour in the oil of your perfect regrace and the wine of your precious blood. and bind up my wounds and lift me up and carry me to the end and pay my way. And as I daily incur debt, what does he say? Put it on my tab. If he ever owes anything else, I'll pay it. His precious blood is redemption for all of my sin, past, present, and future.

What was that man's part in being saved? He just laid there. The man at the pool of Bethesda, what was his part in walking again? He just laid there and trusted tradition. Even when the Lord asked him, will you be made whole, he didn't say yes. He said, well, I need somebody to carry me down there. No, he didn't. The one he was speaking to is what he needed.

When the disciples were worried, and they said, these people don't have anything to eat. Let them go to town and buy something to eat. He said, they don't need to go anywhere. Everything they needed was right there. The Son of God is all we need.

What did the Lord say to Martha? How much is needful? One thing. And Mary, Mary hath chosen. Once he chooses you, sooner or later you're going to choose him. We chose him because he chose us first. We sought him because he sought us first. We know him because he knew us first. We love him because he loved us first. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

If your yoking to Christ is not complete, perfect rest for you. It's a question of unbelief. You don't know who he is. You haven't believed on the Son of God. It's a striving in the believer to not work. We love to trust ourselves. What did the Pharisee do? He stood up and started talking about everything good about himself, everything he did. The believer has to strive against that. We have to strive to rest in Christ. Not to gain favor, but to look to him who is our favor with God.

to rest in Christ, to abandon our own works of righteousness and fully rest in Christ as our law-keeping and our propitiation. All of our effort in the flesh as believers is not exerted with the idea that anything we do is meritorious before God. It is a striving to be able to say from our hearts what Paul said in Philippians chapter 3. Turn there with me. Philippians 3.7. But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And to count them but done. That I may win Christ.

What did Paul hate? What did he despise? What was disgusting to him? I count them but dung. I count it dung. What was it that was disgusting to him? Verse four. I might also have confidence in the flesh. I have whereof I might trust in the flesh. The end. I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, as Hebrew of Hebrews, touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal. persecuted the church, trusting the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. He sounds a lot like that Pharisee. When the publican cried, God be merciful to me, the sinner, the Pharisee was talking about all of his religious heritage and rituals and works that he performed. And I'm not like other men. But the only reason Paul is mentioning those things is to say I'm done with them. That's not me anymore. That's what he lost. He doesn't say, he doesn't say, I renounced the good stuff, the bad stuff I've done. He said, I renounced the good stuff I did. I count him, but done.

Why? that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of Christ. Look up that word faith there. The faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith, by grace through faith. And that faith's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

That I may know him, come unto me, I will give, I will give, I freely give. The power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, my hope is that I'm a dead man that God will raise up. I've never looked at that the way I did this time. My hope is that God's able to raise the dead because I'm sure enough dead, dead in trespasses and sins. I'm not taking the first step because I'm dead. I'm not going to decide anything but to sin because I'm dead.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." What is that? That I may apprehend that? For which also I am apprehended of Christ. Well, what's he talking about? Favor with God, fellowship with God, salvation. I'm gonna lay hold of Christ, by the way, He lay hold of me first. You see, I'm apprehended of him. He arrested me on my road to hell. And brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, forgetting my religious heritage, forgetting my works, my filthy rags works, my pile of dung works. And reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

All of it is in Christ. Victory is Christ. Salvation is a person. Rest is him. God, give us grace to abandon, to cease from our own labors and enter into the rest of God's Son and the finished work of salvation he accomplished for his people. Amen.