Would you turn in your Bibles
to 1 Peter chapter 2? There is a certain discipline
that we follow to go through a book of scripture. One of the
benefits of that is it forces us to face texts of scripture
that we don't understand or that we think we do and need to understand
better or that we didn't understand and it gives us trouble. And
of course, all the comfort that comes and God's promises, all
these things occur when we're looking at scripture. We shouldn't
avoid any part of it. We should admit when we don't
know what it means, and we should find ourselves described there,
both in our sin and in our need. And we should also see there,
of course, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's
why we systematically go through a book like this, and when I
pick up this book and read it, there's many things in it I don't
understand. But we're going to look at one
verse today in 1 Peter 2 and verse 4, and the first three
words of that verse are the title of our sermon, To Whom Coming. I want to look at that with you
today. To Whom Coming. Last week we looked at the first
three verses as newborn babes, as newborn babes, remember? We
saw there that those newborn babes have tasted that the Lord
is gracious. To taste that the Lord is gracious
means we've come to the absolute end of all hope in ourselves. And it means while we were in
that state, the Lord showed us Christ is all of our salvation. That's what it means to taste
that the Lord is gracious. And the Lord encourages us as
newborn babes having so tasted to desire, to crave the sincere
milk of the word because that's what God's word does to us. It
brings us down and exalts Christ and causes us in seeing Christ
to be lifted up with him. not lifted up in pride, but lifted
up in comfort, in saving grace to trust Him only. and so trusting
and so seeing he is gracious to us, having been humbled by
it. He encourages us here, Peter, as the apostle and elder near
the end of his life, the end of his ministry, with great love
for God's people, his church. He tells us, in light of all
of God's grace towards us, lay aside these things, malice and
guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. And verse
four is a continuation of this. How do we do that? How do we
as newborn babes crave and desire the sincere milk of the word?
How do we find our need met? How do we grow thereby? How do
we walk? How do we live? How do we lay
aside these things that we once thrived in and derived our life
by in retribution towards others rather than forgiveness, in deceit,
in pretending to be what we are not and cannot be? in religion,
in hypocrisy, in envying others, and in all evil speakings where
we want to talk about others in order to exalt ourselves.
How do we lay these things aside? How do we take in the milk of
God's word and grow by it? And how do we taste that the
Lord is gracious? It's answered in the next words.
To whom? Coming. To whom? That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. To whom? Coming. He says, unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is precious to His Father. And because He is precious to
His Father, He should be most precious to us. He's chosen of
God. He alone was chosen to do what
he alone could do, which was to save his people from their
sins. And in so doing, shine forth
the very glory of God in all that he did. We see God in him. We see God's glory in his face.
And he's called here the living stone. A stone is a rock. Throughout scripture, God says
the Lord is our rock. In 2 Samuel 22 and in Psalm 18,
the same psalmist said, the God of my rock, in him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn
of my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my savior. Thou savest
me from violence. So the rock is our God. He is our salvation. The living
stone is that rock, Christ. And that stone was rejected by
men. But to those who are being saved
by God, we come to Him. We come to Him. Others reject
Him. God's people come. That's the
evidence. We've tasted by so coming that
the Lord is gracious. And so we want to look at this,
to whom? Coming. A rock is immovable. You can't move it. If you go
up to, in Oroville, this place called Bald Mountain, it's basically
a mountain of granite. And different parts of the mountain
are big, huge boulders of granite. The only way that men can possibly
move them is with dynamite to blow them up. But a rock is strong,
it is enduring, it is unchanging, it is invincible, and that's
the Lord. He is our salvation. He's unchanging,
eternal, enduring, strong, almighty, and invincible. The Lord is a
rock of refuge for us, but in the wilderness, God commanded
Moses to speak to the rock, that waters would flow out. Because
it was in God smiting that rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we
have the water of life. Now, here he says in 1 Peter
chapter 2 and verse 4, to whom coming? To whom? That is our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, our rock. Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16,
verse 18, Upon this rock shall I build
my church, upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that stone, that
cornerstone on which every believer is built. There is no other,
the Apostle Paul said, there's no other foundation that can
be laid than that is laid, Jesus Christ. And so if we don't have our house
built on him, on the Lord Jesus Christ, then when the reigns
of God's judgment come, our house will fall. And so this is the
word, the message of all of scripture. Our stone, our rock, the cornerstone,
the foundation stone, the one God chose, who is precious to
God, is the one, he's precious to God in himself, but he's also
precious to God because by him, he saves his people. And now
he says, to whom coming? To whom coming? And this exhortation
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ is found throughout scripture.
And I wanna look at this with you. What does it mean in scripture
when it says, to whom coming? How can we come to the Lord Jesus
Christ? When he was on earth, people
came to him. It says in the New Testament,
great multitudes, when they heard of Him, came to Him. Now the principle remains true
even now. When great multitudes heard of
Him then, they came to Him. God's word concerning Christ
is sent forth by God's will and by God's grace in the gospel. This is the word which by the
gospel is preached to you. And in the gospel, Christ is
revealed. The apostle Paul said in Galatians
3 verse 1, Christ has been evidently set forth in all of the evidence
of it, crucified among you. That's the preaching of the gospel.
To the Galatians, Paul unfolded the mysteries of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who was set up from everlasting to be the savior
of his people. And in him, they were saved by
his work on the cross. And that gospel is preached,
and in that preaching of that gospel, we understand the message
of God's word. And that's the milk we're to
desire. And it's that word that tells
us to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Brad read to us from
Isaiah 55. In Isaiah 55, it opens up this
way. The first three verses tell us
to come. It describes us in our foolishness. It describes us in our pride.
It describes us in our great need. It describes us as those
who are hungry and thirsty, Who have money, but have spent it
all on the wrong things. Who have labored, but we've labored
for the wrong things. We haven't found any real thirst,
soul quenching thirst, a soul quenching water for our thirst
in those things. Nothing eternal, no real food
in it. And so as a street vendor, the
Lord stoops here and cries to sinners. He says, ho. Attention,
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. So we see in this description
here, God is calling to the thirsty, those who have a thirst and yet
have no money. He tells them to come and eat,
to come and buy, and buy something that is priceless and yet is
sold only to those who have nothing. You see, the gospel is declared
to those who have nothing. They have a great debt. They
have nothing to pay. And in themselves, they have
nothing before God, nothing to bring, nothing to take confidence
in or find assurance in. In fact, they find the opposite
of that in themselves. They're without money, they're
thirsty and they're hungry, and they cannot satisfy that thirst. They can't find food for their
hunger. And so he says, you come. How
then? How then? And he asked this question,
wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which satisfieth not? You've been self-deceived. You've been deceived in religion.
You've been deceived by this world. Everything you do in your
life has led you empty, in darkness. And he says, this is what you're
to do. Your ears, the physical ears
on your head, are representative of spiritual ears. And those
spiritual ears are like the mouth of a hungry soul that drinks
and eats. He says, hearken, listen diligently
unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight
itself in fatness. In hearing the gospel, we're
hearing the very fatness, the riches of God's truth of salvation
in Christ. He says in verse three, this
is what you're to do. This is how you're to come. How do we
come? This is how. Incline your ear
and come unto me. How clear is that? Here and your
soul shall live. When Lazarus laid in the tomb
four days, Jesus said, he cried, Lazarus, come forth. He didn't call every person dead
to come forth. He spoke to Lazarus and Lazarus
responded because with that word, that command of Christ, came
the power for Lazarus to live. It was an effectual word, an
effectual command. Lazarus, come forth. It means
it accomplished his intent. Effectual means it gets done
what he means to have done. God's word is effectual to his
people. When he says, hear and your soul
shall live, when we hear the gospel and God speaks that gospel
to us, we live. He says in the next part of verse
three, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. David here is Christ. David had
died. He was in the tomb. And his tomb
was with these people long before, but Christ was coming. And he
was the son of David, and God speaks of him in scripture as
David. And God made an everlasting covenant with Christ. And in
that covenant are sure mercies. Mercies have to do with salvation
from sin. Salvation and forgiveness and
pardon and justification in the eyes of God. We need mercy. This is what the hearing has
to do with. The hearing of God's mercy in Christ. that everlasting
covenant he made with him to save his people when he shed
his blood. Verse four, behold, God says, I have given him for
a witness to the people. He's given his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, a leader and a commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt
call, now he's speaking to the Lord Jesus personally, he says,
behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified
thee. Jesus said in John chapter 12
and verse 31 or so, he says, if I be lifted up from the earth
on the cross, I will draw all men to me. glorified by his father
in his death, in his sin atoning, redeeming work on the cross,
so that sinners see him and they look to him in whom their salvation
alone lies. And then in verse six, he says,
now he's spoken to those who are hungry and thirsty, who have
spent and wasted their living in labors and have nothing. He
says, you incline your ear and give diligence to hear. of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, of mercies of God in him. God made an everlasting covenant
with him, and upon hearing, we enter into the experience, we
enter into the knowing of this, the confidence of it, that God
made a covenant with Christ for sinners. Look at verse six. Seek
ye the Lord. This is coming. Seek ye the Lord
while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. And when is he near? When can
he be found? Today. But you don't have assurance
that he will be found or near tomorrow. You have only God's
present declaration of Christ and him crucified. Someday you
may not have it. Someday you will not have it.
Seek the Lord now while he may be found. When you hear in the
gospel to come to Christ, then come. When you hear to seek the
Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, while he may be found, seek him,
call upon him. Verse seven, he describes those
to whom this message is sent here. This is a description of
me. My son was joking around when
he was younger, and he said, what has two thumbs and is good
looking? And then he points to himself. I'm telling you, this text of
scripture is talking about me. Me. Let the wicked, me, forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man, me, That's talking about
me. Do you feel it here? Let the
wicked forsake his way. It describes us. He's calling
to the wicked, to the unrighteous man, to the hungry and thirsty. God has operated in us with his
grace when he teaches us, I am that man. I'm that person. I need the Lord. I need to come
to him. How do I make my way to him?
You have to hear His Word. That's why we give such attendance
to the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Everything about us, our thoughts,
our way, is wrong. And let him return unto the Lord.
That's coming to Christ. You're turned when God turns
you. And when he turns you, you know
you've been turned because you come to Christ. You hear, you
heard, and you come to him. And notice, and he will have
mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. He will lavish pardon, a profuseness
of pardon. This is what we need, isn't it?
I need a wicked, unrighteous man who's hungry and thirsty.
I need to drink the water of the gospel which tells of God's
mercies in Christ and pardoning, abundance of pardon, grace in
him. Don't you? That's what we need.
We need God's grace found in Christ alone. And God goes on,
for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways, saith the Lord. God's thoughts are so much higher.
He says, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
This salvation that he speaks of in the gospel is so much beyond
us, we would never have conceived that God, who is holy, who is
just and must do right without compromising, but would in actually
exalting his characteristics in every way to the maximum,
would so fulfill his justice and judgment towards us who are
sinners and wicked and unrighteous in giving us grace by laying
all of that on his son to accomplish. And he having accomplished it
tells us of it. And then he goes on and talks
about now how the gospel will be spoken of. He will send his
gospel of what he's saying here. He says, for as the rain cometh
down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that
it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. This is called effectual
grace. This is called the Word of God
attended with power, accomplishing His will. Notice, so shall my
word be. It will be like rain falling
on the ground. We just had a bunch of rain and
all the things that grow are just thriving. It will bring
forth a bud, it will bring forth from the seed, fruit, bread to
the eater. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please. God's grace in
the gospel is an irresistible grace. There you have it. God accomplishes everything He
means to accomplish. He does all He intends to do. He does all of His thoughts,
and what gracious thoughts, what gracious intent, what gracious
purpose of God that He would save sinners. He would provide
all in Christ, then He would declare Christ to us, and then
He would draw us to Him, and we would see our all in Him.
He says that, it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it, for you shall go out
with joy. Now he's talking about those
who have heard. Those who have heard as the wicked and the unrighteous
now, who have come to the Lord, who have been brought by his
grace, who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and thirsted
and had their thirst quenched in the gospel concerning Christ.
because they found him sweeter than anything. You shall go out
with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the
hills shall break forth before you into singing." The mountains
and the hills, that means that God's word is going to overcome
the barriers that his people naturally have. Those are the
mountains and the hills. And that they shall break forth
before you into singing. When they hear the gospel, they're
going to cry out. How beautiful are even your feet
for telling us the truth of heaven, how a sinner like me can be saved
by God's grace, only accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. He
says, hills shall break forth into singing. All the trees of
the field shall clap their hands. He's talking about people here,
like trees. They're going to clap their hands
for joy. Instead of the thorn, which was because of the curse,
shall come up, what? By God's grace, fir tree, the
fir tree, and instead of the briar, which was because of the
curse, shall come up the myrtle tree. It shall be to the Lord
for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."
God's Word not only accomplishes His will, but it stands immovable. It won't be taken back. It is
an eternal salvation. What a blessing that is, isn't
it? To whom? Coming. Now, let's look
also at the New Testament. Look at Matthew chapter 11. These
are the words of the Lord explaining to us what it means to come to
Christ. Coming to Christ is a very humbling
process. It's necessarily a very humbling
process. You're going to be brought, in
coming to Christ, you're going to be brought to the place where
you realize that salvation is in His hands, by His will. And He gives it as it pleases
Him. And all of that salvation is
something that He alone accomplished. You can't contribute. You're
bankrupt. You have no money. And you come
and you hear. What a gracious God our Savior
is to tell sinners, come unto me. Isn't that a gracious command? Come, ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come. And now Matthew 11. In Matthew 11, what we have is
the account of John the Baptist. John the Baptist came before
Christ. God sent him to prepare the way, to prepare the hearts
of his people. And he came preaching repentance
for the remission of sins. He came preaching Christ, the
Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, who takes away
the sins of the world, meaning his people throughout the world.
not restricted by our natural birth, not restricted by our
race, not restricted by our culture, our location, not restricted
by anything, not even our own upbringing. But God's grace conquers
every barrier. So he speaks, he sent John the
Baptist, he speaks about him, God sent him before Christ. And
I don't know how long he preached, but he was six months older in
physical measurements of this Earth's time. He was six months
older by birth than the Lord Jesus. And so his ministry was
probably just a few months long. because the men were only able
to begin the service in the temple and in the priesthood when they
were 30 years old. And it says that Jesus began
to be about 30. So John the Baptist's ministry would have begun when
he was about 30 and ended when Christ came. And so it talks
about John's ministry. Let's read through these first
verses. It came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding
his 12 disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach
in their cities. And when John had heard in prison the works
of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, art
thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Why did
John, who preached Christ, who told men to believe on him, to
turn from their unbelief, Unbelief is the reason why we hold tenaciously
to our self-righteous pride. We hold to this faith that in
our own obedience, in some kind of religious activity, we can
get ourselves right and make God pleased with us. But faith
rejects all of that. Faith abandons and forsakes all
of that. Our thoughts are not like God's
thoughts. We think ourselves to be good. We're not. And so
unbelief not only holds this false attitude of ourselves,
but it holds a false attitude of Christ, that salvation is
in Him, that He's the only one worthy, the only one able to
save us. And so John the Baptist, having
preached Christ, that remission of sins would be by Him, and
telling men to repent, to turn to Him in faith, and depend on
Him, now he's in prison. and he sends his disciples, are
you the one that should come or do we look for another? You
would think that John the Baptist knew, he baptized him, he saw
the witness of the spirit of God landing on him like a dove
from heaven, this is my son, my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased. And he'd bear record. Why would he ask this question?
Because he was only a man. We have to continually do what?
Take as newborn babes the sincere milk of the word. We have to
taste again that the Lord is gracious. We in ourselves are
thirsty and hungry. We have to come to him. And so
he sends his disciples. This man, Jesus said, who was
the greatest of prophets, sends to the Lord of the prophets to
tell him the gospel of his grace. And notice in verse four, it's
exactly the way Jesus answered and said to them, go and show
John again those things which you do hear and see. Here we
are now, spiritually described. The blind, we cannot see. We are spiritually, utterly blind,
in the dark, can't open our eyes, can't make it happen. What are
you supposed to do? Come to Christ. The blind receive
their sight. The lame, can you walk by faith? Not of yourself. The lame walk. The lepers, those who are declared
by God's law to be unclean, and that uncleanness goes deeper
than the skin, the lepers are cleansed. Do you need that cleansing?
And the deaf who cannot hear good news in the gospel, who
cannot hear the fact that they're sinners before God, they're deserving
of God's wrath. I can't hear that. The deaf hear. And the dead, spiritually without
life, dead in sins, are raised up. And the poor, those who have
nothing, they owe a debt they cannot pay, they have nothing
to pay with. And the Lord says, you come and
buy without money and without price. The poor have the gospel
preached to them. Now John heard this, and you
know the effect it would have. It was that word of God sent
to him. And Jesus now talking to those around him, he said,
and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. To be
offended in Christ is to hold to our pride. It's to not see
that we are those described, the blind, the lame, the leper.
those who are deaf and dead in sins, the poor. You know what
poor people do? They don't have anything. They
expect they're going to get all that they need from another source. And that source has to be Christ.
Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. When the
gospel comes to us, it only penetrates the ground when Christ is all
we have. when all that we are in ourselves
makes us the target, the object of God's wrath, and then we see
that in Christ we have all things. Verse 7, and as they departed,
these were John's disciples, Jesus began to say to the multitude
concerning John, what went ye out into the wilderness to see?
A reed shaken by the wind? But what went ye out for to see?
A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing
are in king's houses. But what went ye out to see?
A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more
than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, Malachi
chapter three, behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way. And in Malachi three, it says,
the Lord will send his messenger before his face. Jehovah God,
this is the one, Jesus is Jehovah God. Verse 11, verily I say to
you, among them that are born of women, there has not risen
a greater than John the Baptist. No greater than he. But, and
how short was his ministry? You know, you hear people, by
God's grace, 40 years they've been a preacher. John the Baptist,
just a few months. Notwithstanding, Jesus said,
he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Well, who would that be? The Lord Jesus Christ. And we're
gonna see that in a minute. Verse 12, and from the days of
John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence
and the violent take it by force. This is a difficult thing to
understand, but the kingdom of heaven is always being attacked
by heaven's enemies. And yet there are those, given
grace, who take it because they need it. Verse 14, and if you
will receive it, this is Elijah which was for to come. John the
Baptist fulfills God's promise that Elijah would come before
the Lord himself. Verse 15. Notice what he says
here. He that has ears to hear, let
him hear. What did Isaiah 55 say? Incline
your ear and come unto me. Who has ears? Does it mean everyone
has ears? No, it means that only some have
ears. And how did we get these ears?
Well, Jesus just said the deaf hear because he preaches to them. He gives them ears. Verse 16,
but where unto shall I liken this generation? It is likened
to children sitting in the markets and calling to their fellows,
saying, we piped to you, and you have not danced. We mourned
to you, you have not lamented. What is the Lord saying here?
He's comparing John's ministry and his ministry to the way the
Pharisees and the scribes and the proud, the self-righteous
respond to it. They said, play our game like
children in the marketplace. Here, dance to this tune. John,
no, I'm not dancing to that. They said, here, mourn with us. Sad faces, showing men that they're
somehow religious. And the Lord Jesus Christ wouldn't
do that. Because he says in verse 18, for John came neither eating
nor drinking. See, he was a mournful man and
he wouldn't dance. And they say he has a devil.
And the son of man came eating and drinking. See, he was joyful
with his people because this is the gospel. And they say,
behold, a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans
and sinners. He wouldn't dance. I mean, he
wouldn't mourn with them. Why should he mourn? The day
of the Lord's salvation had come, and he had come to fulfill it.
But wisdom is justified of our children. Those who believe Christ,
they justify his wisdom. Verse 20. Then began he, the
Lord Jesus, began to upbraid the cities wherein most of his
mighty works were done, because they repented not. And here are
those cities, Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum. He says, woe unto
thee Chorazin, woe unto thee Bethsaida, for if the mighty
works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. This is a pronouncement of the
arrogant, self-righteous pride of those people of Chorazin and
Bethsaida, that they held tenaciously to their self-righteousness before
God in unbelief when the miracles Christ did evidently proved that
he was sent of God. But I say unto you, Tyre and
Sidon, these wicked cities that God destroyed, he says in verse
22, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day
of judgment than for you. Now that's solemn, isn't it?
That means that there are degrees of punishment. And those who
have heard much, who have been given much of them, much will
be required. In verse 23, and thou Capernaum,
which art exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. If God
had been pleased to show the works that Christ did in Capernaum,
historically in Sodom, then Sodom would not have been destroyed.
That's what he's saying here. Why didn't God then do that?
If God wants to save everybody, why didn't he do that? He could
have. It wasn't his will. But I say
unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
in the day of judgment than for thee. At that time, Jesus answered. But no one was asking him a question.
Who was he answering? He was answering the question
that comes to our mind when we read those things. Well, wait
a minute, if you did these mighty miracles, if you preached the
gospel there in Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and they didn't
repent, was there something wrong with the word? Was the power
lacking in your ability to save? Were they too great of sinners
for you to save? Jesus answered, and he said,
this is verse 25. Notice what Jesus gives as the
answer. O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Doesn't that
humble you? Doesn't that make you cry out,
Lord, don't let me be blinded by myself? Arrogant pride. Pride is the issue here. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. How does that
make you feel? Sometimes we think God would
be unfair if he didn't save me. What are we saying when we say
things or think things like that? That we somehow deserve something
from God, right? It shows that we think salvation
should not be by grace alone, but it should be by what we deserve.
That's exactly the opposite of what happens when the gospel
comes to us by the word of God and brings our pride to nothing,
where we have nothing. So Christ thanks his Father. He says, all things are delivered
unto me, of my Father. Everything the father has has
been given to his son. All right, now this is the one,
the father is the one who has hid these things from the wise
and prudent. What does that mean then? It means that everything
you need is going to have to come to you through the son and
from him. All things are delivered to me
of my father. No man knows the son but the
father. Which means he has to be God
because only God can understand him. And neither knoweth any
man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him. So in other words, salvation
is in the sovereign hands of the Son of God. Because we can
only know the Father if the Son reveals him to us. Notice the
next verse. Now we've been brought down,
haven't we? We've been knocked down so that we have, we're with
those who were lame and blind and dead and leprous and poor. And notice what he says. Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. What causes us to be heavy laden? What causes us to labor? Well,
we know we need salvation. We know we need to know God in
Christ. We can only know him in Christ.
And so we're like a squirrel in a cage. We're spinning and
trying to get traction. And he says, come to me. That
what you seek is in me alone. It comes from me alone. I unburden,
I give rest. That's the only way you'll get
it. Come to me, take my yoke upon you. And you know what a
yoke is? They take these two oxen and
they'll put this big old wooden harness around them and strap
it to them so those two oxen will plow straight together.
They'll both pull on the same load together, not one of them
bearing the load instead of the other. So now he's telling sinners,
the wicked, the unrighteous, come to me. My yoke, he says,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in
heart and you shall find rest for your soul for my yoke is
easy and my burden is light. Why? Why is Christ's yoke so
easy? Because it's a yoke of grace.
And the yoke of grace means Christ does all the work. We can't do
anything to make ourselves better. We can't do anything to rid ourselves
of our unbelief and our sin. Then what are we going to do?
Lord, I can't hear as I ought to. I thirst to thirst. I want to be identified by those
who are poor and lame and dead, but I can't make myself what
I... I'm helpless here. And Jesus said, I'm not surprised.
For men, this is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. What are we to do then? Look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You come to him. That's what
faith is. It's coming to him, relying on
him, depending upon him. Asking him, Lord, save me. Like
the leper, we looked at last week in chapter eight, Matthew
eight, verse two. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Jesus looked on him with compassion
and touched him and he said, I will. Be thou clean. Do you see that your cleansing
is only by the will of Christ, the word of Christ, because of
the blood of Christ? and that the only way you can
possibly come before God is if God is pleased not to hide these
things from us, but to reveal his son to us, to actually draw
us to his son. One last text of scripture and
I'll close. In John chapter six, look at
this. John chapter six, in verse 37, or we'll read verse
35 first. Jesus said in verse 35, I am
the bread of life. You're hungry? He that comes
to me shall never hunger. Because when we come to Christ,
we found the banquet. We found everything. There's
nothing missing at this feast. There's food, there's pardon
in abundance, there's righteousness for the ungodly, there's justification
for the ungodly, for sinners, there's forgiveness of sins.
Isn't that what you need? If you don't need that, and if
that's not the thing you thirst from Christ, to know God in Him,
then you're not thirsty. He says here in verse 35, I am
the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never
hunger. He that believes on me, that's coming, shall never thirst. Verse 37, all that the Father
gives me shall come to me. And him that comes to me, I will
in no wise cast What a gracious, compassionate Savior to look
upon the helpless in their sin and call to them to look to Him
and incline their ear and come, trusting Him. Come, trust me,
believe me. And all who come, He says, I
will not cast out one of them. For I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will, which has sent me, that of all which
He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. Notice, that everyone that seeth
the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and
I will raise Him up at the last day. Isn't that gracious? I said I was only going to read
that one scripture. I have to read this one too. I'm compelled
to read this to you. Revelation chapter 22. Look at
this with me and we will close. Revelation 22 verse 17. The book
of Revelation is an unfolding of the purpose and work of God
throughout time. Especially focusing on the time
from the cross to the end of time. And in this revelation
of God, it's a revelation of Christ and His victory over all
of our enemies. When we were helpless, it's a
victory by His blood. And it's a picture of Him reigning
in heaven and bringing His enemies under subjection and utter defeat
to their final end. And bringing His people, His
church, out of that battle. to a consummate and glorious
end because of his work for them. And now at the end of this, notice
what God says. This is after all of the obscure
and dark language of the book of Revelation. Notice the clarity,
the light bursts upon the scene. Verse 17, the spirit and the
bride say, come. And let him that heareth say,
come. Notice here how the message is
coming from those who have heard and came. And let him that is
athirst come. Are you thirsty? Come. And whosoever will, not one of
you who come to Christ will be cast out. Let him take of the
water of life freely. It's abundant, never ending. It's without cost, it's without
price, and without cost from those who need it most. And that's
the glory of it. There's no case impossible for
Christ. to whom coming. We don't talk
about how, when I was hungry, when I was 13, I got this great
meal, I went to McDonald's, it was wonderful. I haven't eaten
or been hungry since. Or we don't say, I remember one
time I was out on a hike, I got really thirsty, there was no
water around, finally found a stream where it was stagnant, I drank
it anyway, I didn't thirst anymore after that. We don't talk like
that, do we? No, we talk about getting thirsty every day and
being unsatisfied and being thankful every day for the water and the
food that we eat and drink. Everyone who has come to Christ
does what? Well, we know that we are in
ourselves nothing and that everything is in Him. We seek to know Him. I want to know His compassion,
the one who says, come to me. I'll bear the yoke. I'll unburden
you. Come. Come, there's life in a
look, in a call, in a come, and God gives this to us. And our
wickedness, our unrighteousness qualifies us, doesn't it? Let's pray. Father, we pray that
by your grace and mercy in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
your only begotten Son, you would not leave one of us, you would
not pass by and leave one of us uncalled. By your effectual
grace, accomplishing your will, doing what you do alone, which
is to call those who cannot come to come. and bring them in that
call, draw them to your Son, and so being brought to Him,
have everlasting life. We know this coming is not a
physical act, but it's an action of our heart, through the operation
of your Spirit, giving us faith to lay everything on Christ,
admit what we are, and have nowhere else to go, and be thankful for
it, and be so glad that we say, come, in Jesus' name we pray,
amen.