Turn with me, if you would, now
to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. I can tell
that there are going to be some portions of Scripture that I
preach from very often throughout my ministry. Some, I'm just gonna
go to a lot more than others. And the reason is because I need
them. I just need them. There are some scriptures that
I'm just drawn to. They speak to me in moments where
I need to hear a word from my Lord. Sometimes I'm just preaching
to me. I had a set of notes and I started
and said, I'm going to selfishly preach to myself. And I thought,
well, I'm not going to say that. I just said it. I'm going to
selfishly preach to myself. Sometimes I just need a word
from my Lord. And there are certain scriptures
that every time I read them, they speak to me. And I know
we all have certain scriptures that the Lord has just burned
them into your heart. And this is one of those scriptures. I personally needed this. If
you are anything like me, and I know you, You need this scripture
just as much as I do. I know you do. So I'm gonna read
this. I'm about to read this out loud
like I do. And as I read this, don't listen
to my voice. Okay? With your spiritual ears,
if the Lord has given you spiritual ears, Listen to the voice of
the one who saved you. All right. Listen to the voice
of the one who chose you. Chose you. Listen to the voice of the one
who left heaven for you. Does that register it left heaven? To come get you. and walked this earth bearing
all the heartaches and all the sorrow of life for you. And stood in the place of judgment
and shame and guilt for you, not just his people, you. As accusation after accusation
for the things that you committed, As he was accused for the things
you committed, he opened not his mouth in his own defense
for you. He allowed himself to be led as
an innocent sheep to the slaughter for you. He allowed his own blood to be
shed as a sin payment for you. And he died for you and was buried for you and
rose again for you. And now ever liveth to make intercession
for you. As I read this, don't listen
to my voice. See if God's Spirit will allow
you to hear it in your heart as the voice of our Lord and
Savior, all right? Matthew 11, look with me at verse
28. It says, Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. and I will give you rest. Do you need that as badly as
I do? Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. That is a simple statement to
a simple people with a simple outcome. Come unto me. all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. If you need it,
come." Just like he told his disciples, come and dine. It's
all here. Come and dine. If you are labored
and heavy laden, he said, come to me and I will give you rest. I'll give you rest. Come to me
and I'll give you rest. What is it to be labored and
heavy laden? What is that? What is it for
God's people to be labored and heavy laden? What are we labored
and heavy laden over? I'll give you three things. This
is so real, so real in the life of every child of God. Three
things. Sin, salvation, and circumstance. I'm gonna ask all of us this
question. I'm gonna say you, okay? I'm including me with you. I include myself in this. And again, I write these notes
out and I think about these messages and I think about you, I think
about Those who will be here and who I'm going to say this
to. Do you know what you are? Do you know what you are? I'm
going to say you, meaning us. Have you gotten a good look at
you? I don't mean what's on the outside.
You know, we look in a mirror. We can look into a mirror and
get a good look at ourselves in a mirror. Have you seen in
yourself what I see in myself? Selfishness. I hate to be so
honest, but I can't help it. Greed. Pride. Number one thing the Lord hates, arrogance, vileness, wicked imaginations, sin. Just lump it all into one word,
sin. Do you see sin in you? Do you have honestly no choice
but to say with David, I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is
ever before me ever before me. Is that you turn with me over
to Psalm 38. Now, either this is us or it's
not. As we hear this and read this,
we will either say in ourselves that this speaks on our behalf
and describes us, or it doesn't, one of the two. And I'm gonna
go ahead and confess, this is me. This is my honest confession,
this is me. Psalm 38, verse one, it says,
O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasing me and
thy hot displeasure, for thine arrows stick fast in me." You
know, he said to Saul of Tarsus, he said, it's hard to kick against
those pricks, isn't it? Thine arrows stick fast in me,
and thine 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. I can't rest. I can't just rest in what I see
in myself and in my flesh because of my sin. Verse four, for mine
iniquities are gone over my head. As in heavy burden, they are
too heavy for me. They're heavy. I'm labored under
them. I'm heavy laden under them. Verse five, he said, my wounds
stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. He said, when
I take a step back and look at myself, I see a fool. I see a
fool. What I am, what I do, what my
priorities are, it's all foolishness. That's
all it is. Verse six, he said, I am troubled. I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long. I just feel so depressed and
sorrowful and just, I go mourning all the day long for my loins
are filled with a loathsome disease and there's no soundness in my
flesh. That's what it is to be labored
and heavy laden. It's to be labored and heavy
over what I am, what I do, and what I see in myself. that will make a man labored
and heavy laden over his salvation. Being labored and heavy laden
over sin. That's what causes a man or a
woman to be labored and heavy laden over salvation. David said in Psalm 130, Lord,
if you should mark iniquities Oh Lord, who shall stand? What hope do I have? What hope
do I have? If that's what God's word says,
then what hope do I have? All the disciples said, Lord,
then who can be saved? What hope do I have? What hope
is there for me? That's a heaviness that every
single one of God's people have felt the load of. When the Lord revealed himself
to Saul of Tarsus, he was on the way to Damascus. The scripture
says, he fell down, didn't he? He fell down under the heaviness
and he cried, Lord, what would you have me to do? When God revealed
himself to that Philippian jailer, the scripture says, he fell down
and he cried, sirs, what must I do? Isaiah fell down. Peter fell down. John fell down
at his feet as a dead man. Oh, the heaviness, the weightiness
of the thought of being judged outside of Christ, the fear of
being judged outside of Christ. That's what it is to be labored
and heavy laden. It's a burden over sin. It's a burden over salvation. And nothing in this world can
relieve that burden. Nothing in this world. A man
can try to come to himself, come to his senses. A man can try to come to the
law. And that's what men do. They
try to come to Moses. What Moses wrote, try to come
to the law, come to morality. A man can try to come to doctrine
and come to sacrifice and come to service and all of those things,
but none of those things will relieve the burden. None of those
things. But this is what our Lord said.
He said, if you come to me, If you come to me, I'll take
the burden away. And he does, doesn't he? Boy,
he does. I love the story of Pilgrim's
Progress. I just love that story. Christian,
the pilgrim. It starts, he has this burden
on his back and he can't find relief from it. And that is the
burden God lays on all of his people. When that burden over
sin comes, when that realization of sin comes and the weight of
that sin comes, that's grace before grace, isn't it? He has this burden on his back
and he can't find relief from it. He's searching everywhere
and talking to everybody he can talk to, trying to find relief.
And he cannot find it until evangelist points him to yon wicked gate.
He said, there's a straight and narrow way. You follow that straight and
narrow way. And he said, it'll lead you to
a cross. Like the song says there, my
burden soul found liberty there. Your burden soul will find you
go straight down that narrow, narrow way. And it says he told his family,
he told his friends that that's where he was going and he wanted
all of them to come with him. And they all laughed him to scorn. They all made fun of him. And as he set out, they all started
pulling at him saying, don't go, don't leave us, stay here
with us. And he said, this place, this is the city of destruction.
Destruction's coming. And we have to leave. And they
said, no, no, it's going to be fine. You just stay right here
with us. Don't leave us. You'll make us sad if you leave
us. If you choose that over us. And it says he stuck his fingers
in his ear and he started running, crying life, life, eternal life. And he ran down that straight
and narrow way. And ran all the way up to the
foot of the cross. And it says, when he reached
the foot of the cross, he looked up and as he looked up, the burden
fell off of his back. Life, eternal life. There's only
one place. There's only one way. There's
only one person who can relieve the weight of our heavy burden. And that's the Christ of the
cross. It's the Christ who suffered
on the cross. The whole reason he came was
for the purpose of carrying our sorrows, bearing our griefs. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. That's Isaiah 53. I love how
Isaiah 54 starts out by saying, sing, O barren thou that didst
not bear. He bore it all. When it comes to sin and when
it comes to salvation and when it comes to any and every circumstance. that brings a weighted burden,
a weighted labor to us. This is what he said. If you
come to me and we've experienced this, we
know this is so. He said, if you come to me, if
you bring it to me, I'll give you rest from it. I'll give you
relief from it. I'll give you liberty from it.
I'll take that burden from you and I'll bear it myself. How
many times has that been proven to us? After the Lord finally
allows us to come to a place where we go to Him and think,
oh, what relief. Now I remember it's in His hands.
Now it's been turned over to Him. He said, you bring it to me and
I'll give you rest from it. That sounds pretty good. That sounds like something we
ought to do. Come to him and find rest. Now here's the question
for the night. How do we do that? How do we come to Him? How does a sinner come to Christ? We stand up here and say, come
to Christ, come to Christ. Do you need rest? Do you need
relief? Come to Christ. Here's the question.
How does a sinner come to Christ? There are so many verses of scripture
that we could look at right now. So many. Let me show you two,
all right? These two verses, they're gonna
summarize it all. This is how a sinner comes to
Christ. Turn with me, if you would, to
John chapter six. John chapter six, verse 44 says, no man can come to me except
the father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day. How do we come to Christ? We
come with no ability of our own. That's how we come with no ability
of our own. He said, no man can come. This word tells us that those
who come to Christ, those who the father draws to Christ are
spiritually blind. We could look at many verses
of scripture that say that. Blind. They can't even see where
they're going. They're blind. They have no idea
which way to go. They're blind. This Word tells
us that those that the Father draws to Christ are spiritually
lame. All those that come, they're
spiritually lame. What that means is they can't
walk. How do you come to Christ if
you can't walk? This word tells us that those
that the Father draws to Christ are spiritually dead. Dead. You talk about no ability, dead. How do we come to Christ? We
come with no ability of our own. We come crying, this is what
coming to Christ is. We cry, Lord, I cannot come to
you. My only hope is that you have
come to me. That's what it is to come to
Christ. I can't come. Lord, it's your choice, not mine. Here I stand, I can do no other. Meaning, I'm just here. It's your choice, it's not mine.
It's your will, it's not mine. It's your work, it's not mine.
I'm absolutely helpless. That's what coming to Christ
is. Lord, I'm helpless. I'm helpless. I'm at my wits
end. I've staggered to and fro, and
now I'm at my wits end. Absolutely helpless. That's how
we come to Christ. We come with no ability of our
own. All right, now turn with me to
Isaiah 55. Here's the other one. Isaiah 55, verse one, it 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. How do we come to Christ? Empty. Totally empty. No money. Without money, without
price. We come with nothing to offer
Him. Nothing to offer Him. Nothing
in our hand to make a payment with. We bring nothing. Nothing but our emptiness. That's
how a sinner comes to Christ. Helpless and empty. Helpless and empty. And if that's you, number one,
What a blessing that is. You know how miserable it is
to be helpless and empty? But that's God's blessing to
us. That's the only way we can come to Christ. And if that's you, if that's
me, then let's not listen to this voice right here, okay?
Listen to the one who said, come unto me. How do we come? Helpless
and empty. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I'll give you
rest. And I'll tell you this, if we
have come to Him for the burden of our sin and the burden of
our salvation, then we can come to Him for the burden of every
circumstance in this life. Every single circumstance, Sunday
night, We looked at Romans 8, 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. Everything will bring good. But
that doesn't mean everything's easy. And every circumstance that comes
our way, if we have come to Christ for the burden of our sin, and
the burden of our salvation, then I'm telling you we can come
to Him for every single circumstance that life brings to us. And I've
preached this many times, but I just need it again. And you
need it again. We need to be reminded again
because it is so true. It is so true. This is what David
said in Psalm 37. I'll just quote it to you. He
said, roll thy way upon the Lord. If we could just do that. Roll thy way upon the Lord. Trust
also in him and he shall bring it to pass. Peter said in first Peter five,
he said, cast all your care upon him. He careth for you. He cares for you. If David's words are not enough,
if Peter's words are not enough, listen to the voice of the Savior
himself. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I'll give you rest. Go helpless, go empty, but just
go. Just go. And I say that one center
to another. Just me to you, just go. I know
that there are things that we all worry over, fret over, sorrow
over. Just go to him. Just go to him,
go helpless, go empty, but go to him, take it to him, whatever
it is. Take it to Him. He will give
you rest over it. Now, let me leave us with this,
all right? I'll close with this. Go back one more time to John
6. This is a wonderful verse of
Scripture. John 6, verse 37 says, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Just go. Just go. Go helpless, go empty, but just
go. He said, all that the Father
giveth to me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He has never turned away one
of his children who come crying in need. Never, not one time. That'll bring rest to us. That'll
bring some peace and rest. Go to him. Come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. All right,
let's all stand together.