Go with me now, if you would,
to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. The Lord commanded Isaiah concerning
preaching and preparing his way. He said, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. That was his instruction to him,
comfort my people. Our Lord told Peter, concerning
preaching, preparing his way. He said, feed my sheep. He said, Peter, do you love me?
After Peter denied him, cursed him, rejected him, ignored him,
he said, do you love me? He said, feed my lambs. Feed
my lambs. The apostle Paul did not say,
woe is unto me if I preach not." He didn't say that. He said,
woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. the good news of
the gospel to the Lord's people. The gospel means good news, good
news. We're going through the book
of Matthew. We're in chapter eight. We've made it up so far
to chapter eight. I wanna skip ahead tonight and
look at Matthew 11, verse 30, I'm sorry, 28. Matthew 11, verse
28. Our Lord said, come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Man, what good news that is to
a man or a woman who is labored and heavy laden. What words of
comfort, what words of peace, what words of help. Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you
rest. He said, and I love this, he
said, come, not go. Come means get closer to. Go means leave, go away. Come means draw nearer to, that's
what it means. Get closer to. He said, me. This was his instruction. Get
closer to me. Get closer to me. Not mine. Not the things of mine. Not my
servants, not my ministers, me. That is, that's just, that's full of all. Get closer
to me. He said, all ye. Who does that exclude? You know,
the gospel is not an excluding message. Not at all. If you are labored and heavy
laden, who does that exclude? In this announcement to the labored
and heavy laden, who did he leave out? If anybody is labored and
heavy laden, to which soul who is in need
of him? If we belong to him, We are gonna
have moments where we need Him, if we belong to Him. Oh, we're
gonna need Him. Any soul who is desperately coming
to Him, when everything else is stripped away, all other hopes
are lost, all other avenues are gone. And the only path that's
left is to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Any soul who is
desperately coming to him in need of him, to which soul will
he reject and say, no, not you. I wasn't talking to you. How many souls who come to him
desperately seeking mercy, desperately seeking grace, desperately seeking
help. How many souls will he say that
to? How many souls will he reject and turn away? Here's the answer.
None. No, not one. Not one. If we come, it's because the
Father has drawn us. And how loving is that? If we
hear it, if we desire it, if we do it, In heart, it's because
the Father has drawn us. No man or woman comes without
the Father drawing. If we come to Christ, it's because
the Father gave us to him. And all that the Father has given
to Christ shall come to Christ. And him or her that cometh to
Christ, Christ will in no wise cast out. So he said in verse 28, come
unto me all ye that labor, all who are wearied and heavy laden. That means burdened,
weighed down, bearing a heavy load, bearing a heavy load. He said, you come to me. and I, not somebody else. I won't appoint someone else
to do it. I will, not might. This has really made
an impression on me in moments when I have gone to Him. I think
He told us we can believe the promise of His Word. I will. You come to me. And you can count on it. You
truly come to the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. You can
expect it. You can come prepared to receive
it because He said, I will give freely. I will freely give. I won't offer
you a payment plan. I won't offer to go in halves
with you on it. I will freely give you the one who has come, the one who
is in need. I will give you rest. I'll give you a refreshing. I'll
give you a quiet calm, a quiet calm. Just come to me, he said,
and I'll give it to you. Just come to me and I'll give
it to you. Now, this message is for anyone
who is labored and heavy laden in any way, shape, or form, any
way, shape, or form. and everybody falls into that
category. I was gonna ask, does anybody fall into that category?
Everybody falls into that category. There is a heavy labor that we
experience in body, in this body, this body of flesh that we have. There is a heavy labor that we
experience in mind. heavy, heavy weighted burden. There is a heavy labor that we
experience in heart. Heaviness, heaviness. And there's a heavy labor that
we experience in our soul. And our Lord says to his people,
if you are bearing any of those labors, any of them, you can
come to me and I will give you rest from it." Now, here's what
I want to stress to us. He does not always remove the
burden. He does not always remove the
weight. He does not always remove the
weariness. But He said, I'll give you rest
in it. I'll give you a quiet calm in
it. There is a weariness that we
experience in our bodies, and it's because of our sin. These
bodies of death, these bodies of sin, The spirit that the Lord
has placed in us is so willing, but the flesh that we still have
to live in is so weak. It is so weak, and it's because
of our sin. It's because of our sin. Sin has brought physical burden
on us. physical wearied burden on us. Sin has made everything that
we try to do in this body heavy. It's also heavy. Turn with me
if you would to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3 verse 17, And unto Adam he said, God said,
Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it
was thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return. He said, Adam, because of your
sin, you're gonna have to carry a heavy load through this life. It's gonna be a heavy load. It's gonna be by the sweat of
your brow. The load that we have to carry
because of our sin is real. It's real. The weight and the
burden of life in this flesh is real. Romans eight says the
whole creation growneth and travaileth in pain. And it's
because of the weight of sin that has fallen on us. That's
the whole reason why. And that weight that has burdened
our bodies creates a burden in the mind. And I know you can enter into
that. The burden of the mind. Oh, the burden of the mind. The
heavy burdens we bear, they are real. So real. The weight of things. The worry
of things. The struggle of life because
of sin. We have so much to, so much to
worry about. And it's because of sin, sin
has burdened down our bodies and burden down our minds. And
that has burdened down our hearts. Look with me, if you would, at
Psalm 38. Psalm 38 verse 1 says, O Lord,
rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in
me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in
my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin. That's the reason why. No rest
because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over my head as in heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. My
wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I
am troubled. I am bowed down greatly. I go
mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with
a loathsome disease, and there's no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart." Oh, the sorrow that sin has brought
on us. The heartache, the heartbreak. It's like our hearts are just
constantly sinking down into despair, and it's real. It's
real. A weighty, burdened heart is
a real thing. Sin has brought burden to our
bodies. It has brought burden to our
minds. It has brought burden to our hearts. But there's no
burden like the burden that sin has brought to our souls. Sin
has ruined our souls. It brought our souls down with
the weight of eternal destruction. And every soul who is caused
to realize that, if God ever reveals that to a person, every
soul that's caused to realize that will be labored and heavy
laden over his state before God. Every soul. But here's the thing. There is hope. There is hope. There's hope in every state of
burden. Every one of them. In every weariness,
in every worry, in every sorrow, in every fear, there is hope
before God in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is hope before
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, come unto me. All ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. David
said, I would have fainted. It's so bad and it's so weary
and it's so sorrowful and I'm so burdened and I'm so low. He said, I would have fainted
unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living, the goodness of his mercy. The goodness of
His grace, the goodness of His blood, the goodness of His cross,
the goodness of everything He has secured for us in the heavens. His goodness to us. In Isaiah
1, He said, come now and let us reason together. Though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as white as wool. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said, you just bring your worry and bring your weariness
and bring your sorrow and bring your fear to me. You bring it
all to me. Bring it all to me. I have borne
that weighty load for you already. And I'll bear it for you again.
And that's the truth. Everything that we endure, he
has borne that for us already and he'll bear it for us again.
We bring it to him time and time again. He'll bear it for us again.
He says, I bore the burden of your sin in my body. You talk about a weighty load,
a heavy load. You talk about labored and heavy
laden. The Father laid on Him. You talk
about heavy laden. The Father laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. He said, I bore the weight of
your worry in my mind. In His mind, He bore all of the,
all the worry, all of the, everything that we bear, He bore it. I bore your heavy sorrow in my
heart." That's a true comfort to me. All of the sorrow, all
of the hurt, all of the pain, all of the heartbreak that his
children experienced, he experienced. He bore it in his heart, labored
and heavy laden. He said, you turn your eyes upon
me, And I'll remind you of that. And that's what he does when
we do turn our eyes upon him. He reminds us of that. He reminds
us of that again. He said, cast all your care on
me. I have already cared for you. And I do care for you. I have,
I do, I will care for you. I love the story. of the woman who got on a trolley
car many, many years ago. So long ago, she got on that
car with a heavy, big suitcase. And they were all standing on
that trolley car, holding onto a pole, and they were going down
the street, and that woman was just being thrown all over the
place. That suitcase, heavy suitcase, was just jerking her back and
forth and trying not to fall, and that man was watching her.
And he said, ma'am, if you want to, you can put your suitcase
down. It's gonna get to where you're
going just the same. Meaning the trolley car is already
bearing the weight of that. You don't have to bear it, too.
Don't we pray that the Lord will give us grace to cast all of
our burden on the Lord Jesus Christ? We know you're carrying
it. Lord, help me to not try to carry
it, too. Cast it all on Him. Cast it on
the one who's carrying, carrying. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
says to all of his people. I am carrying all of the weight
of your body, your mind, your heart, your soul. I'm carrying
all the weight of your soul. You just cast it all on me. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. I'll give you
rest." As far as our bodies go, He said He's gonna change these
vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious
body. There is so much weariness in
these bodies. He said, I'm gonna change that.
I'm gonna change these vile bodies that they may be fashioned like
His glorious body. As far as our minds go, He said
He would put us in remembrance. He would stir up our remembrance
of His purpose in all things. His perfect will in all things. The fact that He is only doing
right in all things. May the mind of Christ be in
you, the apostle said. As far as our hearts go, Look
with me at Psalm 27. Psalm 27, verse 13. It says,
I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say on the
Lord, he will strengthen your heart, whatever it is. You know,
we do, we do truly have a burden for our soul. Whenever the Lord
reveals sin to us and reveals his judgment and his holiness
and his justice, we do. We truly do. We want to get to
the bottom of these things. How is a sinner justified before
God? And once he gives peace to us
on that, then every other burden in life comes our way. And we're
still labored and still heavy laden over so many things. And
whatever it is, whatever it is that is truly burdening us, He'll
strengthen your heart in it. Go to Him and He'll strengthen your heart
in it. He'll allow you to be of good courage. He will take
out these hearts of stone and He'll put in a heart of flesh,
His flesh. Wait on Him and be of good courage. And as far as these souls go,
look with me at Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 verse 1 says, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, Come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money, come ye buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and
milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me, here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." He said, I'll
make a covenant. I'll make a promised covenant
concerning your soul. covenant of mercy a covenant
of blood and he said you can rest in my covenant you can truly
rest we are wearied we're all labored we're all heavy laden
over many things but he said no matter what it is come unto
me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you
rest and again I want to say He may not take the labor away.
He just may not. Sometimes to the storm, He does
say, peace, be still. And there's a great calm. But not always. He may not take
the storm away. But this is what He said, I will
give you rest in it. I will give you comfort through
it. And He will. Amazingly, He will. This is what he said, I give
my beloved sleep rest. I give my beloved sleep. So this is our prayer. Heavenly
father, draw us to Christ. The commandment is come to Christ. Our response is heavenly father,
draw us to Christ. You draw us and we will come. Amen. All right, let's all stand
together. Mmm.