Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee would
like to invite you to listen to a message of Sovereign Grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. I invite you to turn with me
this morning to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11 in verse 28 is
going to be our text. Our title this morning is Rest
and Relaxation. Rest and Relaxation. And here's
the outline for the message. What, where, who, how, and why. What, where, who, how, and why. All right, let's begin with what? Matthew chapter 11 verse 28,
our Lord says, come. Come. Every saved sinner, every believer
knows that no man can come. No man can come." Our Lord said,
come. A true sinner's first response
is, I can't. No man can come except the Father
draw him. So you know what that sinner
says? Draw me nearer. nearer, blessed Lord, to thy
precious bleeding side. Lord, draw me. I want to be made willing in
that day. I can't come, but I want to.
I can't in my flesh, but I want to. I want to be safely tucked
up under your wing. There's a song that has these
lines in it. Under his wings, I am safely
abiding. Though the night deepens and
tempests are wild, still I can trust him. I know he will keep
me. He has redeemed me and I am his
child. Under his wings, what a refuge
in sorrow. How the heart yearningly turns
to his rest. Often when earth has no balm
for my healing, there I find comfort and there I am blessed. Under his wings, oh, what precious
enjoyment. There will I hide till life's
trials are o'er. Sheltered, protected, no evil
can harm me. Resting in Jesus, I'm safe evermore. Our Lord says, come. Come. What he's saying is. I'm drawing
you. I'm drawing you. You are welcome
to. Come. You'll be accepted. Come. All right, now here's the
next question in this outline. Where? Our Lord said come. Where? Peter said, where else
can we go? Where else? Our Lord says, come
unto me. Come unto me. Don't come to religion. Don't
come to religion. Don't come to the law. Don't
come to Mount Sinai. You'll burn. It'll burn you up. The Lord told Moses, you tell
the people, stay away from this mountain. That mountain represents
the law, God's law that no man can keep. If a man's hope is in the law,
he's going to burn. Don't come to that. Come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. That woman at the well said,
come see a man. Come see a man. Come to the savior
of sinners. Come to Calvary. Come to the
foot of the cross. Come to the one source of mercy. We all need mercy. You know that?
There is one place that mercy can be found. And it's at the foot of the cross.
The source of mercy. It's because of what took place
on that cross. It has nothing to do with the
piece of wood. It has everything to do with the one who hung there.
There is a place where the Lord Jesus Christ sheds the oil of
gladness on our heads. A place than all besides more
sweet. It is the blood bought mercy
seat. That seat is the Lord Jesus Christ. Come. All right, here's the next
question in this outline. Who? Who can come? Our Lord says, come unto me all
ye, all ye. Whosoever will, let him come
unto me. Whosoever has a need, let him
come. Isaiah said, 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. Come, all ye, everyone. Turn with me over to 1 Peter
chapter 2. We've already said that no man
can come, so who will come to the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And in 1 Peter 2, verse 9 says,
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy
nation, a peculiar people, and that means a purchased people. that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. All that the father chose, all
whom he chose to be a gift, a present to his son, all who have been
given ears to hear, let him hear. All who have been bidden to the
marriage supper of the Lamb can come." Wouldn't you love to be
at the marriage supper of the Lamb? Can you imagine that day? The groom at the head of the
table, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all of His bride beholding
His beauty, beholding His glory, I would love to be there." Our
Lord says, come. All right, now here's our next
question. How? How do we approach His Royal
Highness? Well, our text back over in Matthew
chapter 11, verse 28, the Lord said, Come unto me, all ye that
labor. and are heavy laden. Our Lord
says if we're going to come, we have to come labored and heavy
laden. Heavy laden. I'm commanded to
come just as I am without one plea. And what that means is
without one work. without one boast of anything
that I have done or anything that I can do. I'm to come just
as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. That's how I'm supposed to come,
pleading only the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ just as I am
without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that
thou bidst me come to thee. You did it. O Lamb of God, I come. I come. It's not a decision I've
made. It's not a work I've done. I'm
coming because you called me. That's my only plea. I'm coming
because you're drawing me. How do we come to Christ? We
come as sinners. Sinners in the hands of an angry
God. We come fearful. Fearful. We come as sinners in need of
a Savior. Call His name Jesus for He shall
save His people. The Lord says, come. We come
as sinners in need of a substitute. God's going to kill me for my
sin if I don't have a substitute, a real substitute. I need somebody
who will die as me. The Lord says, come. We come
looking to Him for all our help. one source of help. We come labored
over our sins. We come worried over our sins. We come burdened, heavy laden,
over our sins. We come helpless. Helpless. I cannot help myself. Some people
say the Lord helps those who help themselves. Well then, There's
no hope for me. I'm helpless. I can't do anything for myself.
I can't do anything to commend myself to God. All my righteousnesses
are filthy rags. We come hopeless outside of Jesus
Christ because we know, we know without Him, no man can come. Outside of Jesus Christ, I'm
hopeless. We come broken. Broken. A broken and a contrite
heart, the Lord will hear. Broken over this sin. We don't
come proud. We don't come proud of what we've
done for Jesus. We don't come proud of how good
we've been this life. We come broken because we know
what we are. We know what we've done. We know
how we've rebelled. We know how we've blasphemed.
We come broken. We come wounded. wounded. If we come, the Lord's going
to use his word to open our eyes and open our ears and call us
and draw us. And he said, my word is sharper
than a two edged sword. We come pierced. We come wounded,
stabbed in the heart, hurting. We come sick. We all have a disease
called sin, and it's worse than cancer, and it's worse than AIDS,
and it's worse than anything that the physical eye can see. Sin. Sick over our sin. Just sick. We've got to come to the great
physician. We come blind. We come halt. We come lame. We come dumb. We come sad. We come humble. But our Lord says, all who come
to me like that, all who labor and are heavy laden because of
their sin, all who have been wrestling with their sin, All
who have been at war with this flesh, our Lord says, come unto
me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden. Now here's the last question
in this outline. Why? Why? Why do we come to the Lord
Jesus Christ? Because he said, I will give
you rest. Dear sinner, are you looking
for rest? Have you tuned into this radio
looking for rest? Have you been searching the word,
trying to find the truth? What's the truth in this matter?
What must I do to be saved? The Lord said, Come unto Me.
Come unto Me. We're not coming to a doctrine.
He said, Come unto Me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I'm going to give you rest. Rest. Is that what you need? Do you need some rest? Rest and
relaxation. We all need rest. I need rest. The thing that every single person
wants on this earth is rest. And this earth can't offer that. There is no rest in this world.
That is all a person truly wants, is rest. Do you know the only
thing that can cause a sinner to rest? Do you know what is
the only thing that will just make a sinner rest? It's seeing Christ's work. Seeing His work. Watching his work causes a sinner
to rest. He says, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I, I, I will do something about it. For
all who can't, I can." Turn with me over to John 17. John 17 verse 1 says this, These
words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said,
Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power,
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal. that
they might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they've kept thy word." Now
they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me
are of thee. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I'm glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I am come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are one. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. those that thou gavest me I have
kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that
the scriptures might be fulfilled he said come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden and I will I will Oh man, what good news that is.
That leper said, Lord, if thou wilt, Lord, if you will, Lord,
if you're willing, I know thou canst make me clean. And the
Lord said, I will. Be thou clean. I most certainly
will. The centurion said, Lord, my
servant is at home, sick of the palsy. Oh, will you heal my servant? The Lord said, I will. I will. I'll come to your house. Our Lord said, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Dear sinner, that includes you
and me. That includes you and me. Our Lord said, come unto me. All ye that labor, and are heavy
laden, and I will give. This thing is all a gift. It's
all a gift. No price in my hand I bring.
This thing is all a gift. It's all grace. Grace means gift. Grace is a gift. It's all by
grace. It's God's grace. And he said,
I will give. I'll give you my word. I'll open my word to your understanding
and I'll give you my promise. I give you my word. I'll give
you my spirit. Put my spirit in you. I'll give
you my blood. That blood that was spilt, I'll
give it to you. I will give you my life. My life. Oh, unto him that loved
us and gave himself. for us, gave him self. He said, I'll give my angels
charge over you. He said, fear not little flock
for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I'll give you the whole kingdom.
Everything that's mine, I give to you. He said, my peace, I
give to you. I will give, and I'll give, and
I'll give, and I'll give. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, rest. Our Lord said to Isaiah, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. Rest. Rest from your inward fighting. The war is over. The war is over. Rest from your struggle with
sin. Christ put it away. If you're
in Christ, if He has drawn you to Himself, if He's caused you
to come, because no man can come, no man will come, so if He's
put a deep burden in your heart, I want to come. I want to come
to Christ. It means you have that burden
because God has put it there and He's drawing you. And if
he's drawing you to himself, then he's put your sin away.
Rest from the burden of this sinful debt you've incurred.
I've incurred one too. But the Lord Jesus Christ paid
the debt, all the debt we owe. Anytime you become overwhelmed
by sin and self, this flesh, anytime you become overwhelmed
by this flesh, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and hear Him say
this. He said it in Isaiah 61. The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives
in the opening of the prison to them that are bound. If anybody
feels like a slave to your own sin, listen to this, your prison
doors have been opened. You're free to go. You're free
to go. The Lord said, I did it. I gave
it. I paid it. So come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, rest,
rest, rest in my word, rest in my promises. Rest in my person,
the person of Jesus Christ. This thing is not a doctrine.
This thing is a person. I'm not resting in my doctrine.
I'm resting in a person. I'm resting in his word. This word of God is his word. These promises are his promises. Thanks be to God there to me.
There to you and me, if we belong to Him, there to all of His children. Rest, He says in my work. I came, I left the Father, I
came here, I came to earth. I walked perfectly for 33 years. I did a perfect work for 33 years. And we sinners have done the
most unperfect work that could ever be imagined since the day
we entered this world. And Christ said, here's what
I did. I took your unperfectness and I laid that all over me.
And I took my perfectness and I laid that all over you. And
then I went to the cross of Calvary and I died. And I fought a battle for three
days over sin and death, and I won. And now because of that, your
sins are gone. And you have entered into peace
and rest with God because of all that work that I did. Rest. Rest and relaxation. There is nothing else to do. Rest. Just rest. Till next Sunday morning, may
the Lord bless His Word. You have been listening to a
message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of Sovereign Grace, you can write
to our physical mailing address at 905 Yadkin Street, Kingsport,
Tennessee 37660 or log on to our website at kingsportsovereigngracechurch.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 10.45 a.m., and 6 o'clock
p.m. Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. Please tune in next Sunday morning
at 8.30 for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.