Good morning and welcome to the
Sunday morning broadcast of the Grace Community Church of Rock
Valley, Iowa. We invite you to tune in this
time each week as we bring you the message of the grace of God.
Stay tuned at the end of the message for contact information.
Let me read to you our Lord's words found in Matthew 11, beginning
with verse 26. At that time Jesus said, I praise
you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden
these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to
little children. Yes, Father, for this was your
good pleasure. All things have been committed
to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the
Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those
to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who
are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon
you, and learn from Me. For I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is
easy, and My burden is light. Now after praying, the Lord Jesus
addressed the crowd with these words, Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter
1 verse 10 that God was bringing all things under one heading,
and that heading is the Lord Jesus. Now, we're all familiar
with the accounting practice of arranging expenses in columns,
with each column having a heading that describes the kind of expense
being recorded. Paul is saying that, so far as
God is concerned, everything is in one column and comes under
one heading, Jesus Christ. All life and death, all judgment
and salvation, all providence, whether pleasant or unpleasant,
all rain and sunshine, all sickness and health, everything comes
under the heading of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is from
Him, everything is for Him, and everything is about Him. We cannot
make sense of this world until we understand that all that is
and all that happens is for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing has any meaning apart
from Christ, and all things find their true significance in Him
and His glory. And God has committed the realization
of that truth to the hands of the Lord Jesus. But the Lord
specifically mentions that the revelation of the Father is in
His hands. No one knows the Father except
the Son, and those to whom the Son will reveal Him. The Father
does not reveal Himself, that is, He does not make Himself
known to us. He has committed that work to
the Son. Christ fulfills this work simply by being the Son,
for He is a Son who is the perfect representation of His Father,
and so much so that He told His disciples, the one who has seen
Me has seen the Father. Now the Lord's next words are
based on the truth He has just declared. All things are committed
to My hands, come to Me. Now maybe you've heard the story
of that bank robber of the Depression era. He was asked why he kept
robbing banks. His answer was, that's where
all the money is. Well, why do I come to Christ?
Because that's where all the Father's blessings are. everything
is there, and that includes all that the Father has for a sinner.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, verse 3, Praise be to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places, in Christ. If everything is in
Christ, what use is there going anywhere else? in Him is life,"
says John. If I want spiritual and eternal
life, then I must go to Christ, for He is the only source of
that life. The Bible says, just as God has
life in Himself, so the Father has granted the Son to have life
in Himself. The Lord Jesus told the sisters
of Lazarus that not only did He have life, but that He is
the resurrection and the life. He also said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. If you want life, you must come
to Christ for that life. God's love is in Christ. In Romans
8, Paul wrote that nothing can separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus. Paul is not trying to make a
contrast between a love of God that is in Christ Jesus and some
love of God which is outside of Christ Jesus. Rather, Paul
is teaching that all of God's love is in Christ Jesus. A lot of modern evangelism begins
with, God loves you. Friends, if God loves everyone,
then no one need fear anything. For all God's love is in Christ
and no one can be separated from that love. But God does not love
everyone. His love is in Christ and only
those who are in Christ participate in that love. You may say, well
then, what use is there in going to Christ until I determine whether
or not God loves me? The answer is simple. The love
of God is in Christ. Go to Him and you will find the
love of God for you. election is in Christ. Paul taught
that God's elect were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. There are some who believe that
no one has a warrant to call on Christ until they have some
evidence that they are among the elect. In my religious heritage,
there is a group of Baptists who go so far as to say that
we should not preach the gospel to a person until they show some
evidence of having been chosen by God. But election is in Christ. Do you want to know if you are
elect? Then go to Christ. That's where
election is. And let me tell you a little
secret. No one ever went to Christ to discover whether he was among
the elect and found out that he was not one of the elect.
Christ said, All that the Father gives me, now that's another
way to describe election. All that the Father gives me
will come to me, and he that comes to me I will in no wise
cast out. Did you hear that? That's the
Lord's promise. The one that comes to me I will
in no wise cast out. There is your warrant to come
to Christ. Christ has called sinners to
come to Him, and He's called them with that promise that He
will not cast them out. Therein is your election proven.
You come to Him. There is the promise grasped
in Christ. Redemption and forgiveness are
in Christ. In Christ we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace.
Do you want redemption from your slavery to the law and its condemnation? Do you long for the forgiveness
of your sins, the removal of all that has made you liable
to the eternal judgment of God? Well, redemption and forgiveness
are in Christ, full and free. Go to Him, for with the Lord
there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. Righteousness
is in Christ. Your conscience tells you that
you must be righteous to be accepted by God, and your conscience also
tells you that you are not righteous. Well, Christ is called Jehovah,
our righteousness. In the Lord, our righteousness
and strength. Paul says that Christ is made
unto us righteousness. All the righteousness you need
to be approved and accepted by God is in Christ. Go to Him for righteousness.
truth is in Christ. The Lord said, You shall know
the truth, and the truth shall set you free. The Pharisees sought
the truth in Scriptures and thought they gained life through their
knowledge of the Scriptures. But Christ told them that the
Scriptures were about Him, but they would not come to Him for
life. The Scriptures were not so much about what we should
do, but about what Christ has done. The Scriptures are not
so much a description of our responsibilities, but a message
of how Christ has fulfilled all those responsibilities on our
behalf. Yes, study the Scriptures, but go to Christ to discover
what they mean. Go to Christ for rest. Rest from
what, you ask? Well, rest from laboring to obtain
all those things I've mentioned before. God's love, truth, righteousness,
redemption, and forgiveness. Well, how should you go to Christ?
Well, first, go to Him in faith. Christ said, he that believeth
in me shall never die. Go to Him believing that He is
able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him.
Go to Him believing His promise that He will not cast you out.
Go to Him believing that in His righteous life and sacrificial
death, you have all you need to make you acceptable to God.
Go to Christ ignoring what everyone but Christ has to say about it.
Someone may say to you, but you're not worthy to come to Him. Well,
tell them that your unworthiness is precisely the reason you are
coming to Christ. Tell them it's not your worthiness
to be saved that is at issue, but Christ's worthiness to be
the Savior, and that you are convinced that He is a worthy
person to represent you in the presence of God, for God has
exalted Him to be a Prince and a Savior. But what of my parents?"
you say. What shall I tell them? Would
it not be disrespectful to them for me to leave the religion
of my upbringing and come to Christ and Christ alone? Well,
it's no disrespect of your parents to come to God through Christ.
Did not your parents teach you to be wise? And is Christ not
called the wisdom of God? Furthermore, Christ said, ?If
anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his
wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yea, even his own
life, he cannot be My disciple.? Christ does not mean that we
must despise our parents. Rather, He means that we must
be willing to come to Him, whether or not they approve, willing
to suffer even the loss of their love and acceptance, if need
be, in order to gain Christ. And let me tell you, he would
be worth the loss. If you cannot convince your parents
to go to Christ with you, do not let them convince you to
go to hell with them. If they are determined to perish,
let them do so without you. Instead, with singleness of heart
and determination, go to Christ and find salvation for your soul,
then plead with him to save your parents and spouse and children. Well, what will my friends think
if I come to Christ?" Better you should ask, what will God
think if I do not come to Christ? Your friends shall be no friends
to you in eternity. Go now to Him who is a friend
that sticks closer than a brother. He will be friend to you now
and friend for eternity. I would not have you act rashly
in this important issue, but neither would I have you put
it off for some other time, for some other time may never come. With Christ, I urge you to count
the cost of following Him, for it is costly in this world to
follow Christ. But as you count the cost of
following Him, be sure also to count the cost of not following
Him. Being religious will not do.
Being moral will not suffice. Coming to Christ is the only
avenue of salvation for sinners. God give you grace to do it for
Jesus' sake. Our web address is www.rvgrace.com. There you can find information
on our worship times, audio and video recordings of our worship
service and Bible study, plus a weekly devotional. Our email
address is pastor at rvgrace.com. Until next week, may the God
of all grace and comfort bless you in Christ Jesus.