May God be with us this morning
as we turn together to his word. And we'll turn to the chapter
we read, the gospel according to Matthew chapter 11. And we'll
read together the words of Jesus found in verse 28. Matthew chapter 11, verse 28.
Come unto me. All ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You know, one of the most serious
things or situations that we can be in is to hear the word
of God, to hear the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and
perhaps hear that many times and never really understand it,
never respond to it, never really believe it, to hear the truth,
and yet never be affected by it. And that was the situation that
Jesus was speaking of by the three cities that we read in
this chapter, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. And these three
cities in Galilee had witnessed God's amazing power in Jesus.
He had done miracles. They had heard his word and his
teaching. They had been hugely privileged
to have literally the Son of God there in the cities and speaking
and working. And yet, generally speaking,
not completely, but generally speaking, the people in those
cities did not believe. They saw, they heard, but they
rejected the truth of the gospel. And that's why Jesus speaks these
really strong words. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! And
thou, Capernaum! For if the mighty works which
are done in you have been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. And he calls down
these woes, these condemnation on these places because they
were blessed and yet they rejected Christ. And what was striking,
the few of us here who visited Israel some 10 years ago, we
visited these places, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and
what's striking is that they are ruins. They are not there
any longer. And some of it's been excavated,
and you can see what it was like, but these are not towns anymore.
There is no church in these places. they have gone. And so it's so
serious, so solemn to think that it's possible to witness the
works of Christ, it's possible to hear the words of Christ,
and yet actually have no effect on you whatsoever. It's important
for us to remember that. Sometimes we can think that if
we had only been with Jesus in Galilee 2,000 years ago, if we
had only seen his miracles, then we would believe. And we can
actually see from these words here that if Jesus even was before
us here this morning and performed a miracle before our eyes, it
would not necessarily mean that we would all savingly believe
in him. You see, we need something more
than just a visual aspect. We need something more than just
a physical thing. And so Jesus goes on in this
chapter then to explain and to give thanks for God for a deeper
work, for something deeper and more wonderful than just an outward
work. He says in verse 25, I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes. 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. And so what Jesus is saying is,
or giving thanks to God, that there's a work going on to reveal
Jesus to the people. So that there's a deeper appreciation,
a deeper work and understanding. Something not just of the eyes,
not just of the ears that they see and hear and then reject
it, but that it is deeply revealed to their heart. so that they
believe, so that they realize that it means something for them
personally, and so that they personally repent and personally
flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives thanks that God does
an inward work of revelation, and that's what we need. You
see, we need something within us, to make us personally, individually,
a true believer in Jesus Christ, not just an outward performance
of religion. Now this, as Jesus says, is God's
work. God reveals, I thank thee thou
hast revealed them unto babes. It is God who opens the eyes
of individuals to see the Lord Jesus for who he really is. It
is God who opens their eyes to realize that they're a sinner
and they need God's salvation. And it is God that shows them
that the gospel is that salvation that they need. This is all God's
work. That's why he thanks his Father
for that work of revelation. But having laid down that groundwork,
that this is God's work and God's work alone, Jesus then utters
these most wonderful and beautiful words of invitation for people
to come to Him. Because you see, as much as the
new birth, as someone becoming a true Christian, is God's work
in their heart, We are not entirely passive in that work. We do not sit back and suddenly
miraculously become a Christian. It is God's work to open the
heart. But it is then for us to actively,
willingly flee and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Which
is why Jesus utters this wonderful invitation, Come unto me, all
ye that labour under heavy laden. Each true Christian has willingly
fled to Christ. There is no Christian who has
unwillingly become a Christian. Yes, it is God who has opened
their eyes. Yes, it is God who has made them
see their need. And it is God who has given them
strength and faith to believe. But they have also actively fled
to Christ because of what they've seen about themselves and because
of what they see in Christ. Which is why Jesus speaks this
invitation to us today. Come unto me and I will give
you rest. And so Jesus calls sinners to
himself. He calls those who are not worthy,
those who do not have anything to bring, and he calls them to
come. And here are their such beautiful,
loving, kind words, aren't they? Come unto me. So simple and so
loving that Jesus speaks this to sinners on this earth. We may be surprised, actually,
how Jesus does speak this invitation this morning. We may be surprised
as we look at it, who he asks, who he invites to come. And we'll
be surprised to realize what he tells them to bring and what
state they should be in as they come to Christ. And this is perhaps
contrary to what we think religion is actually about. And yet this
is the true gospel. These are the words, the true
words of Christ. This is true Christianity. Come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. So firstly,
what state are the people in that come to Christ. What state
are they in? He calls those that labor and
are heavy laden. He calls those who labor. I wonder, does that actually
describe how we feel this morning? To be laboring. To have heavy
laden, it means to be carrying a burden, carrying a heavy weight
on us. And labouring means to be working
and struggling and striving. And we might feel that physically
today with things that are going on in our life or in our studying
or in our work or the path that we're walking, whatever it might
be. We might feel physically tired. and laboring, and I think
there's an invitation here for us to bring that to the Lord,
to pray about that. We should pray about everything,
but really considering it deeper in our souls and how our relationship
with God, does this describe us? We're laboring. We've got
to wait on us. Is there any here who have been
working hard in a religion for a long time. You've been walking
out a religion. Perhaps you've been striving
and struggling to walk a Christian life for many years. But have we got a right view
of what a Christian life is? Perhaps we're trying to make
ourselves look like a Christian. And is that feeling to be hard? And a struggle and a striving
and a labouring? What I mean is this. Have we
been labouring to be righteous ourselves? Now, there's nothing
wrong in living a good life, in trying to live a good life.
There's everything wrong in living a bad life or a sinful life.
But have we been trying to live a righteous life, that is a holy
life, a life that is acceptable to God in itself, so that we
can show God how good we are? And perhaps for years we've been
trying to fit the pattern of what a Christian is so that we
can convince God that we're good enough, that we're at least better
than many other people. And so that God will look at
us and will say, yes, you're good, yes, you're righteous,
yes, you've worked hard to be acceptable, and therefore you
will be accepted by God because of what you've done. Now let me ask you, has that been
easy or has that been hard? Well, I'm sure that if we're
striving and striving to be perfect, We know anything of our imperfections,
that that striving has been like labour. It's been hard work because
we have never, we will never reach that standard that God
is requiring of us. We will never be holy and righteous
in ourselves. We will never be acceptable. We will never be able to keep
the law of God in its entirety and utterly. in words and thoughts
and deeds. You just think about your thoughts.
You know, we might look just all right on the outside. We
may try and keep ourselves very strictly within the confines
of God's ways, and we may try and guard the door of our lips
so that the things we speak are always God-honouring. I don't
think they will be, but we may try. But you think about your
thoughts. You think about the place in
your mind that no one else sees. You think about the thoughts
you have about the Lord or the thoughts you have about others
that no one else hears. Can you say that all of those
thoughts are always good? Are they always righteous? Are
they always in accordance with God's ways and laws? Are they
always full of love and praise to God? Of course they're not. And I wonder, does it feel like
we've been laboring in hard work to be righteous? And yet, we're
always falling short. And we're always disappointed
with what we are. Because the problem, if you've
come to realize this, the problem isn't just what you do. The problem
is what you are. The problem is that what you
do is a result of what you are. You are, in your very self, a
sinner. That's what you are. And therefore
you sin. Therefore you do wrong. Because
you are a sinner. And you can't change that. However
hard you try, however much you labour, and however tired you
get in this endeavour, you cannot change what you are. You're a
sinner and therefore you will always sin. And so do you feel
this morning like you're laboring or you have been laboring perhaps
for many years to try to be a Christian in your own strength? And are you carrying a burden
then with it? Those who labor and are heavy
laden. Something that's heavy. Do you know what it is to have
a burden of guilt? Guilt can be all-consuming, can't
it? It can really be heavy and tiring to carry. Maybe someone
here has got a specific sin on your mind this morning. Maybe this last week, maybe even
this morning, you have done something or you have said something and
it's really weighing on you. It can't be undone. Can't go
back in time and undo it and change it. It's been done. It's been committed. And that
sin condemns you. Perhaps it's a reoccurring sin.
Perhaps it's something that a week ago you said you would never
do again. Perhaps when you felt that burden of guilt about this
sin last week, You said, this is not worth it. This sense of
guilt is not worth it. I will never commit that sin
again. I will walk in a right way this time. And yet this morning,
there you are, and you've committed it. You've fallen again. And doesn't that guilt feel like
a heavy burden, a heavy lade against you? Perhaps it's not
a specific sin particularly, but it's the general knowledge
of what we are. That as I say, we cannot change
what we are, and does that weigh heavy upon us? That we do not
love God as we should. That we do have and bow down
to idols in our life from time to time. That we do have within
us like a void, something missing, and it's something that we just
simply cannot fill. And so there's a sense of disappointment,
there's a weight of despair. that we carry, that we realize
what we are and yet there's nothing we can do about it. We realize
we're a sinner and yet we can't stop sinning. We realize that
we don't honor God as we should and yet we know that we never
will. And so we constantly carry with us a weight of disappointment
in ourselves. And has that weight got too heavy? that you can't carry it any further.
That disappointment that you know tomorrow you will sin again. That disappointment that you
know that that reoccurring sin may well raise its head again.
And you cry out with David. David knew when he wrote Psalm
51. He knew the problem wasn't just
he committed adultery and murder. He knew the problem was the seed
was inside him. Which is why he says, oh, create
in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. And he knew the problem was inside
him. Jesus himself says, doesn't he, when the people challenged
him about washing of hands and so forth, he says, it's the things
that come out of a man that defile him, not the things that go in.
It comes out from the heart. That's what defiles the man.
And so is the state of your heart like a heavy weight upon you,
like a heavy burden, and you're weighed down by it. And is it tempting to think,
I'm sure it is if you feel like that this morning, that you've
got to remedy this before you could ever come to God. You've
got to try and sort out this heart problem before you could
ever pray. The Lord Jesus would never hear
you. He would never receive you like this, would he? Surely the
first thing we've got to do is try and cleanse ourselves and
then we could start to pray. The first thing we've got to
do is try and make our hearts a little bit better and then
the Lord Jesus might receive us. Isn't that what we think? But actually the wonderful, the
amazing thing about this gospel invitation is that Jesus calls
people who feel just like that, laboring and heavy laden. He does not say, sort out your
problem and remove your weight and then come unto me. He says,
come unto me when you're laboring and when you're heavy laden.
And those who cannot remove the burden themselves and those who
cannot deal with it themselves, he says, bring the burden to
me then. Bring your laboring to me. And so this is the tremendous
truth of the gospel, is that Jesus actually invites his people
to bring sin and burden and struggle with them. Doesn't tell them
to deal with it and then come holy and righteous. He actually
invites them to come with their sin. Now young people, think
about this. Think if this week your school
was being visited by the Queen. And there were going to be great
preparations for that day. She wants to come and see what
your school is like. She wants to come and see what
kind of things you learn. She wants to see how you study. She wants to know about your
school. So she's coming for a visit this week. Now, what would you
and your teachers try and do in preparation for that? But
I'm pretty sure the first thing you would want to do is make
your school look its best. And so people may decorate. They
would certainly give it a good clean and tidy up. They would
put all the things which are around, so put it in its neat
places. And they would try and make the
school look its best and look smart. And perhaps they would
send you all home to sort out your uniforms so that you came
back the next day looking all smart and prepared for the Queen.
So that it all looked your best, so that the building all looked
its best. And so that when she came round,
she saw the best possible view of your school. She saw the best
possible sights. I'm pretty sure what wouldn't
happen is that someone would then take the queen to one side
and they would say, well actually we have some problems in this
school. This morning when the children arrived, there was a
couple of children fighting and shouting at each other. And actually
some of the equipment that you can't see in the cupboard, it's
broken and it's not been replaced for weeks. And there's a teacher
here who's got a lot of problems in her personal life and she'd
like to have half an hour with you to tell her all about the
issues she's having and see if you'll listen. And actually all
of the children and all of the teachers are just very tired.
All the work they've been doing and it's been a real struggle
as we come to the end of term. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm pretty
sure that what they would want the Queen to see is a beautiful,
clean, tidy, well-functioning school. And you wouldn't take
her aside and tell her of the problems. You want to put on
a good show. You want to show the best. You
know, it can be tempting for us to think that that's how we
need to be with the Lord. Before we come to Him, we need
to tidy it all up. Before we come, we need to make
it all better. He doesn't want to hear about our problems. He
doesn't want to see the sins in our heart. He doesn't want
to see the mess of our life. He wants to see the good. He
wants to see the best. He doesn't want to hear all about our burdens
and our struggling. But that's not what Jesus says
here. He says, come unto me all ye that labor. and are heavy
laden. Commit that to the Lord. Pray
to him and tell him about that. You know, when Jesus was on earth,
as he was speaking these words, what kind of things was he doing?
What kind of people were he talking to? Did he go to the Roman palace? Did he go to the people at the
top of the Jewish society? Generally speaking, the Lord
Jesus, he spoke to the sick. And he received the beggars at
the side of the road. And he came to people who were
outward, obvious sinners. And he even touched the demon-possessed
and the lepers. You see, he didn't come, he says
he didn't come to call the righteous, but he came to sinners, to call
them to repentance. So that's who Jesus calls still
today. He calls those who are sick, and tired, and burdened,
and struggling, and feel like giving up. And he calls them
to tell him about it. He calls them to pray to him.
He calls them to tell him that they're sinners and that they
can't make themselves any better. He calls them to tell him that
they wish that they could rid their hearts of what it is, but
they can't. He calls them to tell him. that they long for
rest. You know, your burden that you're
trying to hide from Christ this morning, your sins that you're
pretending aren't there, your heart that you're trying to clean
up, he's seen it already. He knows what we are. He knows
what we've done. He knows where we are this morning.
He's seen it already. We can hide nothing from the
Lord. And so he says, come unto me. Come. And tell me about it. Come and commit it to me. Come
with your burden and with your struggling. Come unto me. Because he holds out with this
invitation a glorious promise. We bring our burden. We bring our sin. We bring our
struggles to him. And what does he give us? I will give you rest. You see, it's a gift. Well, we could never earn anything
with our sins and our burdens, could we? He can't give us anything
in exchange for that. Surely, it's a gift. We don't
earn it. He gives us rest. And everything that we've been
striving for, this is a wonderful thing. Everything we've been
striving for is met in Jesus Christ. All those things that you've
been struggling with is dealt with by Jesus Christ. Come unto
me, I will give you rest. That sin that we've been carrying,
perhaps that particular thing we've done which we know was
wrong, or certainly the state of what we are, that we keep
doing wrong, and we keep thinking wrong, and we keep saying wrong.
That's sin that you're carrying. You can't remove it. You can't
take it away. You can't cleanse yourself. But
he can. I will give you rest, he says. And so we see, as we come to
the Lord, that here is a savior. Here is someone who took the
sins of his people on himself. You see, that burden, that guilt
that you carry, that heavy weight of guilt that you're carrying,
we read, the Lord took the trespasses, the transgressions of his people
on himself. He has laid on him the iniquity
of us all. And so when Jesus went to die,
when he was on a cross, he also felt the weight of the sins of
his people. And that's why he died on a cross.
To suffer the punishment that they deserve. To endure what
they deserve. And so we bring our sin to him.
We bring our burden to him. We say, I cannot deal with it.
I cannot cleanse myself. I cannot change. I am a sinner
and here is my sin. And he says, come unto me, come
to the cross, come to Calvary, because there all the sins of
his church was dealt with. There it was all removed. There
he paid the price, the penalty for it. So bring your sin to
the only one who can take that sin away. He cried out on that
cross at the end of his suffering, it is finished. And we can believe
there that day, the sins of his people were dealt with. Come unto me, as here is one
who is a sin bearer. One who carries it and suffers
for it instead of his people. So that problem, that mountain,
that weight of sin, the Lord can take that away. That's why
you went to the grass. What about that struggling, that
laboring to be righteous? That laboring to fulfill God's
law in your own strength, to make yourself acceptable to God,
to be pure and to be holy in who you are. Come unto me with
your laboring, I will give you rest. Because the Lord's people
not only know their sin taken away from them and imputed to
Christ, given to Christ, but they know His perfection, His
righteousness given to them. It's that summary of that, isn't
there, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians of the Lord taking
the sins of his people and giving us his righteousness when he
writes, he hath made him, that is Christ, to be sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. This verse really encapsulates
that great transformation. He takes our sin, He has made
Him to be sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of
God. You see, that burden of sin you carry, He takes. And that perfection of righteousness
that you cannot earn and you cannot work up, He gives. And
so as God the Father looks upon a Christian, He sees him through
Christ as one who has lived a life of perfection. And so Christ
keeping the law means that we keep the law. It's as if we live
the life He lived. It's as if we were perfect as
He was. It's as if we were well-pleasing
to the Father as He was. It's imputed, given righteousness. That's amazing, isn't it? Isn't
that a wonderful thing? That as God looks upon the Christian,
it's as if they lived the life that Christ lived, as they are
given his righteousness. So are you laboring to be righteous? Are you laboring to be perfect? He says, come unto me, I'll give
you rest. I will show you that it's not
through your labor, because you have been blessed with righteousness
in Christ. Come unto me. Come to me. How can we come to
God? You say, how can I draw near
to God? With my labor, with my heavy laden, with my sin, with
my filth. How can I come into the holy
presence of God? Well, Jesus Christ answers that
need, doesn't he? How do we come to God? Through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Through his name. Through his
intercession in heaven as he speaks on our behalf so we can
end our prayers and believe that God hears our prayers when we
come for Jesus' sake. Or hear me in Jesus' name. And so that barrier that we feel
between us and God broken down and we have access to God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he gives us rest, now
we can pray, now we have access through Christ. Come unto me. He answers our greatest of needs. And then maybe there's one other
labouring or one other burden that we're carrying. And that's
the fear of death. The fear of that day. The fear
of the end. The fear of what's beyond. And
that can feel like a heavy burden and a great fear. And what does
he say? Come unto me. Come unto me. Look to him. Tell him about it. Cast it upon him. Because He
says, I'll give you rest. And that's not just peace. It
is peace in this earth. It is a sense of resting in the
Lord in this earth. But it's more than that. I'll
give you eternal rest. I'll give you eternal peace.
I'll give you eternal life to be received into eternity, into
the presence of Christ forever and ever. And so we come to Him
in prayer today. That's what it means to come. It means to pray. and to look
to him. But one day, this word will take
on a far greater, deeper meaning, a more wonderful meaning than
that even, when it's as if on the day that we pass from this
earth, Christ says, come unto me. Come unto me. You've been labouring in the
world. You've been heavy laden with
the struggles and with the burdens and with the sins and with the
difficulties of your life. And he says, come unto me now.
Come into my presence now. Come into my glory now. Come
and be by my side now. Come and feast on me now. I will
give you rest forever and forever and forever. And so this great weight and
burdens that we carry, it goes beyond the grave. this wonderful
rest. Oh death, where is thy sting?
Oh grave, where is thy victory? Because Christ has given me rest. Come unto me. It's so simple, isn't it? It's
so wonderful. He says come as you are. Come
with your weight and your burden and your sin and your striving
and your struggling. Come heavy-laden and laboring,
and come unto me." Jesus Christ who spoke these words, we're
told, is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. And so as much as he spoke them
in that day, he speaks them today. And as much as he blessed the
people who came in that day, he blesses them today. And he
still gives this perfect peace and this perfect rest to those
who will come. I say this morning, will we hear
this word? Or will we go out of the doors
into the street and back to our homes like Chorazin, Bethsaida,
and Capernaum? Will we go home having seen and
heard the wonderful works of God and turned our back? Will we go knowing that we're
guilty, knowing that we can't make ourselves righteous, and
yet still carrying on to strive? Or will we come? Will we go home,
as Jesus says, to our closet, to our private room where no
one else can see us, so that there's no outward show, it's
not to impress men, it's not to convince anyone of anything,
and you'll go to your knees and you'll say, Lord, I come. I come
with my burden, my failings and my sin, and I come to thee not
because I'm good, not because I've convinced myself of anything,
not because I'm worthy, but for this reason I'm burdened, I'm
laboring, and you have called me to come. And I go on the basis
of that promise, come unto me. Will we do that? Will we seek
the Lord before it is too late? Will we pray to him and will
we tell him all that we are and all that we're lacking and all
that we long to be and ask him to give us this true gospel rest? To remove our sin. To give us
his righteousness. To grant us access to God through
the Lord Jesus. and hope of heaven at last. Oh, that will, when we've been
brought to trust him and to plead with him, that will bring us
to praise him. Come unto me, he says, all ye,
all of you, who are laboring and are heavy laden. It doesn't
count anyone out. And I will give you rest. Or may God add his blessing to
his word this morning. Amen.