May it please Almighty God to
bless us together today as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let's
turn to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11 and we'll read the
last three verses. Verses 28, 29 and 30 in the 11th
chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly in heart
and ye shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and
my burden is light. We should be very thankful that
we have some wonderful invitations in the Word of God. And here
we have the words of Jesus recorded when he was on earth. He was speaking to the multitude
and he addressed them. And as he came to the end of
his address, he spoke these words, come unto me. What a wonderful
statement that was. And it's still today a wonderful
statement to realize And here we have the words of God, the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking directly to the people
with this command really, come unto me. And there are conditions
attached to it. Jesus knew who the people were
that this word would come to and Jesus knows still today who
this word will come to and how it will affect us to realise
that we have a God who is so gracious and invites us to him
if we qualify with a statement that follows this gracious invitations
and he says come unto me all all ye that labour and are heavy
laden so that's exactly what it says it's a gracious invitation
to all who are labouring and are heavy laden and what a blessing
it is to realise that we have a God who knows about us who
knows exactly where we are who knows our concerns who knows
the situation we find ourselves in and so he gives this a definition
of those who are labouring and those who are heavy laden well
you may say well I'm not quite sure what that really means what
it really means is that if we are under a heavy burden a heavy
burden a heavy burden because of our sin because of that which
is upon us and we find it difficult to get along naturally speaking
if you have something heavy to carry it's not easy you soon
get tired become exhausted so it is really in the spiritual
world and what a blessing it is when God brings us into this
condition so that under his wonderful influence we find we are traveling
on, journeying on through life but it's not an easy journey we find it's a labor, it's a
struggle the struggle because we have the evil one that one who desires to turn
us away from the things of God that one who perpetually harasses
the believers. And therefore they labour under
a burden, a burden of sin. And the Lord speaks here very
clearly. He says, All ye that labour if
we are not labouring if we are not heavy laden then this invitation
does not apply to us but what a mercy if through the grace of God and
the work of His Spirit brings us into a situation and the Lord
knows how to bring us there and when He brings us there and to
cause us to be labouring and heavy laden under the burden
of sin. And then you see the Lord directs
us to come to Him. We shouldn't go anywhere else.
no the gracious word is to come unto me and the great blessing
is that the Lord Jesus knows exactly where you and I are in our spiritual life no one
else knows no one else knows the person next to us doesn't
know no one else knows we're thankful the Lord does know and
the Lord brings us into these situations he brings us into
these times where we are heavy laden where perhaps life seems
to be a great burden a great burden because of the continual
opposition that we find you see the devil knows how to oppose
us. The devil knows how to bring
us into a situation where we're almost tempted and sometimes
almost willing to give up. Perhaps we understand those words. Can ever God dwell here as we
look in our own heart? We wonder whether God will look
upon us, whether he will remember us with the favour he bears unto
his people. Will the Lord bring us into these
conditions so that such a gracious invitation is very suitable to
us. Come unto me. What a mercy then. We have a God and it's a wonderful
situation to think about that God Almighty, the Ruler of the
Universe, the Creator of all things, graciously, wonderfully
invites us to come to Him in our time of need and indeed in
our time of extreme need. Because we can surely appreciate
that to be heavy laden is not just a question of being laden,
it's being heavy laden. We're bowed down by the effect
of it. We're hardly able to continue. We're hardly able to struggle
on. and of course we have temptation
upon temptation and the devil says well there's no hope for you there's
no point in you praying there's no point in you continuing and
sometimes he may come and say because you've sinned against
light and knowledge so there's no hope for you and that condition
will mean that indeed we are labouring and we are heavy laden. There's nowhere else to go. There's
no freedom anywhere else outside of the glorious Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, there is wonderful
freedom in Christ. There's wonderful liberty in
Christ. It's a great blessing, therefore,
to be taught and be directed to the Saviour. We won't come
to the Saviour in a right way unless we come as one who is
labouring and heavy laden. And so God in his amazing love to unworthy sinners brings them
to this condition and brings them into this situation where
they do labour and they are heavy laden And then you see, an invitation
like this is very welcome. Come unto me. And the blessing
is this, the Lord Jesus knows all about us. It's good sometimes
to just ponder the words that we read about the Saviour. This
is what the Word of God tells us. He was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. So we have someone who's inviting us to come to who understands
the condition, the situation which you and I are in today. He understands it. other people
may not understand it very often other people won't appreciate
the situation and perhaps may be surprised well what a mercy
it is that we have therefore a friend who sticketh closer
than a brother a friend who understands all about us and brings us into this situation of labouring
and being heavy laden that the glorious invitation to come to
him is very appropriate. You see the Lord leads his people
in that way which will be for their souls eternal good. We don't always understand the
path that God leads us in. But what a mercy when we're in
the depth of trouble, it may be natural trouble, it may be
spiritual trouble, whatever it is, to realise that we have a
God who invites us to come to Him. That's a great blessing,
isn't it? What a mercy if we are able to
come to cast all our care and all our burdens upon the Lord. Naturally, you and I won't be
able to do that. What a blessing when God gives
us that access, to come to the mercy seat, to rejoice in the
glorious freedom of the gospel and to realise that no one is
too bad no one is too far off that's why we have such a statement
as this it's addressed to all those who are in labour and heavy
laden if it was just addressed to all who weren't labouring
and heavy laden we might think it would pass us by we might
think well it doesn't mean me but the life of the Christian
the true believer is not an easy life and we've never been promised
an easy life we have been promised a good end but our life we've
been promised through much tribulation we shall inherit the kingdom
and that's the path which the Lord tells us we shall walk and
yet sometimes perhaps we think well that applies to other people
but it doesn't apply to me well the Lord brings us into those
situations where we realise it does apply to us and we are thankful
for it And we're thankful, therefore, that the Lord has recorded such
a statement as this. It's almost, as we come to the
end of this chapter, we read some very interesting things,
as we've done so this morning, but we come to these last three
verses, which almost seem separate, almost as though the Lord stands
back and then makes this wonderful statement, to
come unto me. where it would be good news you
know to realise that Almighty God
invites us to come to Him and we realise the Word of God tells
us if the Son therefore shall make you free you shall be free
indeed and it's the work of the Saviour to deliver us. And the work of the Saviour brings
us to this time of great need. Great need. As we may think,
perhaps, can ever God dwell here in such a heart as mine? Well,
the Lord knows what He's doing. Other people don't know. They
can't look into your heart or my heart, can they? they don't
know they can make an assessment they can make an assumption can
sometimes be very wide of the mark but my friend the Lord knows
what he's doing he knows what he's doing you know what he's
doing is this he's preparing us for our eternal
home and therefore it brings us to
this situation where we desire to be delivered from the evil
heart of unbelief we desire to be delivered from evil thoughts
and wrong considerations it brings us to that situation where we
plead for mercy What a blessing it is to know
that we have a merciful God. A God who does not deal with
us as our sins deserve. And so we have this glorious
statement. Let's not turn away from it. You see, the devil will say,
if you just read, come unto me, your reaction may be, well that
doesn't... that's not me I can't do that well if you read on and
realise all you that labour and are heavy laden perhaps then
you begin to say well perhaps it does apply to me perhaps the Lord does know about
me he does know the heavy weight I'm carrying at the moment What a mercy, therefore, to have
a God who knows all about us. When He says this, then, come
unto me, all ye that labour, and I'll have you laden. And
having made that grand statement, He then gives us a promise. The promise is, and I will give
you rest. Now, you won't need a promise
like that. unless you are under the conviction
of the Holy Spirit showing us where we are that we are perhaps
far off perhaps we are walking contrary to God perhaps we are
saying I will not have this man to reign over me and therefore
we find that we are being alienated from Almighty God we are far
off You know, we have that example, don't we, of the Apostle Peter. You know, Peter was so sure that
he would not deny the Lord. In actual fact, he said he would
be willing to die for Him. And just a few hours later, he
was denying the Lord with oaths and curses. The Lord knows how to bring us
down in our own estimation. Bring us down to that place where
we welcome such a word as this. Come unto me. And as God then
gives us that grace to come to him, And
when we come to Him to confess our sins, the Word of God tells
us, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, that's good news, isn't
it? Good news. Therefore, as we come to Him
then and we confess our sins, The promise is, and I will give
you rest. To be resting, therefore, not
in what we have done, but what it does is it leads us to this
Saviour who invites us to come to Him. And what we observe then
is that the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Almighty God,
has gloriously condescended to come into this sinful world and
to die in order that he might redeem our souls and free us
from the curse the curse of sin oh my friends the gospel is glorious the gospel is free what a mercy
then that in the word of God we have such complete statements
doesn't leave us really you know it's easy to read the word of
God and to not read it carefully and not read it with an understanding
heart and not appreciate what it says but here is a very wonderful
truth come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and
I will give you rest you and I can plead God's promises I
wonder how often we plead God's promises we often fail to because
we often don't have a very good knowledge of the Word of God
what a blessing then if we take the Word of God as it is as it
is you see the devil will say well you can't you're just too
bad and this doesn't apply to you anyway you have no ability
to do this you can't come unto the Lord well the Lord invites
us if we're laboring and a heavy laden don't listen to what the
devil says my friends it's a gracious glorious truth to realize the
door of God's mercy stands open all day the devil will tell you
it's shut there's no access well what a mercy to realise there
is access and that access comes through the wonderful liberty
of prayer how are we to come unto God? we come to Him in prayer
pour out our heart unto Him yes we don't have to hide anything
might be embarrassed some of the things that you think perhaps
some of the things you said too embarrassed to confess them one
to another but you can come to God as God knows all about it
and let me just again repeat and it's wonderful to think of
the Lord Jesus was tempted in all points like we are It's not
an unknown way. The Lord sympathises. But the
great blessing is it's part of the journey which a true believer
walks. Because what does it do? It brings
us to the Saviour. brings us to
the saving that's why we have it in these words and I will
give you rest and then the Lord goes on and he says take my yoke
upon you I expect you know where the yoke is if you don't not
seen so much today of course but in the Middle East in days
past oxen were tied together when they were ploughing or whatever
work they had to do they were tied together and so they didn't
walk in opposite directions they were yoked together so they couldn't
walk separately they walked side by side yoked together now the
Lord here gives us a wonderful invitation he says take my yoke
that means to be joined to the saviour to walk closely with
him not a far off not a far off not like Peter who walked a far
off yes you see he walked a far off and if he followed closely
You know, he wouldn't have fallen as he did and denied the Lord
as he did, but the Lord permitted it. Take my yoke upon you. Well, do you and I desire that? That we might be able to take
that yoke and be joined to the Saviour. to walk with him if
you and I walk closely to somebody you know how they walk you know
the steps they take you know the direction they go in and
also if we're close to somebody we hear what they say what a
mercy that it is to hear what the Lord speaks and to not be
walking far off so that we don't hear but to be yoked to the Saviour
take my yoke upon you well that's the gracious invitation that
means to be a true follower of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
take this yoke if we are to learn of the Saviour we need to be
close to Him We need to have the Word of God in our hands. We need to read it often. We
need to pray often. We need to often commit our way
unto Him, to pray that He will guide and direct us, to pray
that He'll be our comforter, that He'll be our support, that
He'll be our stay. What a mercy then to be close
to the Saviour. it's a sad thing isn't it when
we're not close we're not taking the yoke no we may perhaps not
want to we think I don't want to be joined I don't want to
be tied to the Saviour well let me tell you it's a most blessed
place and you should remember you and I are on a journey a journey through this world we
want to be delivered from it we want to be directed to that
inheritance which is to come and you see if you and I are
walking in a yoke to the Saviour we will be reminded of the journey
we will be reminded of the good end what's more we will be able
to observe what he's done and what he's doing in our little
lives to redeem our souls well it will bring us into the glorious
liberty of the Gospel to be found walking with Him take my yoke
upon you and learn of me well I hope we want to learn of the
Saviour I want to learn more of what He's done on our behalf
and you see the encouragement statement is therefore to be
joined to Him to walk close to Him, to be yoked to Him, take
my yoke upon you in the reason? To learn of me. Do we want to
learn of the Saviour? Do we want to learn more of His
great and glorious work of salvation? The wonderful payment He made
in order to redeem our souls? To be led into all truth as it
is in Jesus? oh my friends don't walk far
off hear such a gracious invitation come unto me take my yoke upon
you what a mercy it is then to have these statements recorded
for our encouragement and learn of me do you want to learn of
the Saviour? do we want to learn of Him? I trust we do we won't
learn of Him unless we're joins to Him, unless we're yokes to
Him, unless we come to Him. Well, take my yoke upon you and
learn of me. And then we're told what the
Savior's like. See, this is so encouraging,
isn't it? He's not a harsh taskmaster. He doesn't come and say, oh,
well, I told you that already and you failed again. He understands
our weaknesses. Frye meek and lowly in heart. He's not high-minded, he's lowly
in heart. He comes right down to our level. It's wonderful, isn't it, to
think that here we have the Lord speaking, Almighty God, telling
us about himself. And telling us what he's like. He's meek and lowly in heart. Lowly. Comes where we are. Surely that's a comfort to come
to Him. Surely it's a comfort to take
His yoke upon us. Because here we have the Blessed
Lord. He understands our infirmities.
He's meek. He's approachable. We can come
to Him. What a blessing that is, isn't
it? to have a God like this, meek
and lowly in heart. And now we have a bit more detail. And ye shall find rest unto your
souls. Shows us, you see, very clearly
that the Lord is speaking in a spiritual vein. We've had in
the 28th verse, And I will give you rest. And now more detail. And ye shall find rest unto your
souls. These statements are very positive,
aren't they? How often the devil tells us
it doesn't apply to us. Well, you can tell him the Word
of God is truth. We know He is so because the
Saviour Himself said to His Father, Thy word is truth, and you can
tell the devil that it is true, and it applies to you and it
applies to me. What a wonderful blessing it
is. And you shall find rest unto your souls. There's no greater
place of rest than the Saviour. rest in him. Yes, and what a
blessing it is to think that here we have Almighty God, who
indeed came into this sinful world with the one objective
to redeem his church, to save his people from their sins, and
to think that now he's seated on the right hand of the Father
in glory. there to intercede for us to
hear our prayers now because of this gracious and glorious
statement come unto me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye
shall find rest under your souls you know you and I can come to
God and we can plead his word We can plead what he said and
Almighty God will not deny his word. It's wonderful isn't it? The word was written many years
ago but it's still as full today as it was then. And ye shall
find rest unto your souls. He says previously and I will
give you rest and he says and you shall find rest unto your
souls and then finally encouragement encouragement for my yoke is
easy and my burden is light isn't that wonderful to think that
God gives us this yoke he says take my yoke and you may think
it's going to be a really hard journey No, says the Lord. My yoke is easy. My yoke is easy. And the reason? Union with Christ. United to the glorious Saviour. What a wonderful blessing. What
a wonderful favour. For my yoke is easy. Again, it's a positive statement. It is easy. And it's wonderful
when we find it is so. You may perhaps think, oh, I
can't take that yoke upon me. Well, as God gives us grace so
to do, we find it's a blessing. It's a blessing because we're
close to the Savior. We see His way, and we understand
His way, which was much rougher and harder than ours. That puts
things in a right perspective. And that's a glorious comfort
to you and me today as we journey on. For my yoke is easy and my
burden is light. We thought perhaps it would be
a heavy burden to put this yoke on. We had a heavy burden anyway. and putting the yoke on and having
union with Christ relieves us of this burden. Relieves us of
this burden because what we find is the Saviour has taken our
sins. He's taken the burden. Oh, my
friends, wonderful relief, isn't it? Freed us. Freed us from the
wrath to come which was ours because of our sin. The Lord
Jesus Christ paid the price. Oh, how wonderful to realize,
yes, the Lord's taken that burden. I was heavy laden with it. I
was struggling under it. I thought I was going backward
rather than forward. Well, here is the glory, the
glorious freedom of the gospel. What a mercy, therefore, if God
gives us faith to lay hold of these great and glorious truths,
and to follow the wonderful example of the Saviour, to hear His words,
rejoice in them. Well, may you do so this morning. Go home and ponder these three
verses and the great truth they contain. Come unto me, nowhere else, the Saviour. Come unto me, all ye that labour. and our heavy laden, and I, no
one else, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke, no one else's,
upon you, and learn of me, the blessed Saviour. For I am meek
and lowly at heart, and ye shall find rest under your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, Our closing hymn in worship this
morning, hymn 406 to the tune Praise 720. Hark, how the blood-bought hosts
above conspire to praise redeeming love in sweet harmonious strains. and while they strike the golden
liles, this glorious theme each bosom fires, that grace triumphant
reigns. This verse brought me to this
hymn, the loosing of the native chains. Join thou, my soul, for
thou canst tell how grace divine broke up thy cell and loosed
thy native chains. And still from that auspicious
day, How oft art thou constrained to say that grace triumphant
reigns. Hymn 406. O come, O come, O come, O come,
O come, O come, O come, The Greatest Triumphant Rift! to help us to find the path of
the Son, and with humility change. As in the path of sin, Strange to say that grace triumphant
reigns. That grace triumphant reigns. And still the meadows will shift
and come of death echo. Strange to say that Praise till the tribes return
home. Take the place, Christ's triumphant
place, Christ's triumphant place. To God, he opens the gate. ? Suffice our love for Him ? ?
And call to Him the King of kings ? in that great triumphant reign.
That great triumphant reign. And in my 50s, Lord of men, the
place I left it was lost. Now may the grace of our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and
the fellowship and communion of the Eternal Spirit, rest and
abide upon us each, now and for evermore. Amen.