Thank you, John, Sherry. Now turn with me to the Gospel
of Matthew, chapter 11. Matthew 11. Read verses 28 through 30. come unto me, all that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy. My burden is light. Now, everything our Lord said
is connected. If we had the understanding,
we would see that. Everything He said before this
led up to this. Back in verse 12, you remember,
He said, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence And if violent, take it by force.
In other words, it was a violent act. It took a violent act by
Christ on Calvary's tree to obtain the kingdom for us. And us being
brought into that kingdom is violence. It's a struggle. It's a wrestling like the Lord
wrestled with Jacob, and Jacob wrestled back. You don't come
into the kingdom, you don't say, well, if I'm one of the elect,
I'm one of the elect. If I'm saved, I'll be saved. There's
nothing for me to do. That's not so. He said, you call,
you cry out, you seek, you ask, you knock. And then when the
Lord comes, it's a confrontation. You come to grips with, you battle
and struggle with this thing of sin. There's a violence, an inward
struggle, an inward violence that takes place. A battle rages. A new man, that old man. And
then he said in verse 15, he said, he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. He said, did you hear what I
just said? Like we would say to our children,
are you listening to me? Right? But no. We have ears,
so often, but we don't hear, do we? I've already lost some people
in here, already. I've been through this, I've
been in it for one minute. Did you hear what I said, he
said? I didn't say it, he said it. He that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. This is too important. And then
he's going to give these wonderful words and promise of rest. You've got to come to me to get
it. And then he said in verse 16, what shall I liken this generation
to? This generation. What generation? The Lord talked about this generation.
He said this generation shall not pass away. We believe there
are 2,000-year generations out there, from Adam to Abraham to
our Lord 2,000 years, and from our Lord to his second coming
2,000 years. This generation. So what shall
I liken this generation to? This generation, our generation. He said, we pipe a pleasant tune,
a wonderful, good news, and they don't dance. Or we mourn, we
tell of great sorrow, and they don't lament. There's no reaction.
There's no reaction whatsoever. Yet the best news that human
beings could ever hear, and the most dire warnings, and serious
message that ought to cause great fear, and then great, wonderful news
for the worst sinner on planet earth that ought to make them
shout for glory and call unto God for mercy, and yet no response. And then he said, well, God sent
two preachers. He sent John, but he didn't like
him. He sent Christ, but he didn't like Him either. He wouldn't
listen to Him either. He didn't like the preacher. And our Lord said, Wisdom is
justified of her children. Children whom the Lord has given
wisdom. Justifies God in the condemnation
of Himself. Wisdom that's given to children,
mind you. Children. They say that God's
true in every man. A liar. They justify the Lord. They judge themselves. to be
sinners, and they judge God to be true. Wisdom is justified
of her children, Christ's people. They respond. Christ said, My
sheep hear my voice, and they dance. My sheep hear my voice,
and they mourn over their sin. My sheep have ears, I gave them
to, and they hear what I say, and they follow me. And then
he gave these dire warnings to the cities wherein he preached
so often. He kept preaching in Capernaum
and doing many wonderful works in Capernaum, and Bethsaida,
and Choraza, and Rocky Mount, and Piteville, and Lexington,
and Orlando. He kept preaching and preaching,
and he said, if those works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah,
they would have repented. And he said, it's going to be
easier in the day of judgment for the sodomites than for those
who have heard the gospel over and over and over again and get
hardened to it and don't respond to it. And that's us. That's me. And then he said, it's all leading
into what he said. Then all of a sudden Luke said
he rejoiced in spirit. At that time, verse 25, the Lord
lifted up his eyes to heaven. He said, I thank Thee, and he's
smiling. He's rejoicing. He said, I thank Thee in spite
of all that, in spite of all these people that don't hear
and don't respond. He said, I thank Thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. You revealed these
things unto babes. What things? Eternal things.
Glorious things. Wonderful things. The things
of God. The things that we need. The one thing needful. And all
other things concerning us. Oh, my. I thank you revealed
these unto babes, he said. Little children. Babies. How often did the Lord say this?
He said, children, wisdom justified for children. He said, these
things are revealed unto babe. He said, except you repent and
become as little children. Except you receive the word as
little children, you're not enter the kingdom of heaven. How often
do they say that? Little children, you know, are
so receptive. Little children are so enthusiastic. Little children are so believing
and trusting. Little children are so loved.
Those that love them don't. Those girls are mine. They're
mine. They came from me. Those granddaughters,
they love me dearly. They love me dearly. They long
for me. They long to be with me. They
do. And they look to me. When they're
with me, they want my undivided attention at all times. You know
what? I give it to them. I drop everything
and everyone. You know what I mean? Drop everything,
no matter how important it is. I drop it. I realize life is
too short. These other things can wait.
And they're going to grow up too fast. And they're probably
going to grow into whatever, teenagers and all, and they'll
forget me. So I give them my undivided attention. They long for me. They look to
me. They listen to me. If I'm going to tell them something,
if I'm going to teach them something, they're listening intently to
me. They're babies. They're little children. They
love me. They look to me. They long for me. And they have
me. They have everything that's me.
Anything I have to give is theirs, buddy. And so it is with babies
in Christ. Babies. Babies. Children. If we ever rise above that, we
cease to need these We cease to learn. We cease to look to
Him. We cease to long for Him. We
lose our first love. Babies. Oh, I thank You, Father. May the Lord keep us babies,
children in attitude, men in understanding. And then he says
in verse 27, all things are delivered unto me of my Father. Everything
belongs to me. Well, this is good news. Everything
belongs to me, the Lord said. I have it all. Nobody has anything
but me. Power, I have it all. Nobody
has any power. Whoever has any power, I give
it to them. Riches, I have it. I bestow it. I take it away.
Everything, I have it. All authority over all flesh
is given unto me. And that's good news. All things are given unto men. You're going to see in a moment
why I said, come to me. Don't go with anybody else. Come
to me. I have it all. Are you with me? Are you with Him? I'm just repeating
Him. All power is given unto men.
What do you need? Christ said, I have it. You're
poor and needy, he said, and I have it all. Then he says this in verse 27,
he says, No man knoweth the Son, but the Father. They thought
they knew Him when He came, didn't they? They didn't. Many think
they know Him now, but they don't. They revealed that. Another way
they refer to Him and treat Him. He says, neither knoweth any
man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him. Nobody knows God except Jesus
Christ reveals God to them. That's what he said. I have all
authority to reveal the Father, to give life to whomsoever God
gave to me. That's what he said in John 17.
And then in verse 3 he said, what did he say in John 17? This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God. Well, nobody can know God
except Christ revealed. Nobody in here is going to know
God except Jesus Christ revealed Him to you. Our children aren't
going to know God except Christ in mercy and in grace revealed
Himself to them. So what are we going to have
to do? Say, come unto me. Come unto me. You want your children
to know God? You've got to come to me. You've
got to call on me, because I'm going to have to reveal it to
them. It's me, not the preacher. I was preparing this message,
and I was struggling so greatly. So greatly. We've looked at this
12 times together. And yet, I dare not presume that
we know anything about this. I was struggling so greatly.
And I kept looking at these verses. Come unto me, ye that labor.
I kept looking at them. Come unto me, ye that labor.
And I thought, I need to come to Christ. I'm laboring over
this. Lord, help me. Help me. I can't do anything. This is your Word. You've got
to preach it. These are your people. You've
got to deal with them. This is your power, your glory,
your wisdom, your honor. It's all up to you. I said, Lord,
would you help me? Please help me. And we got to
do the same thing. Lord, I can't hear. I'm not going
to hear this if you don't help me. Come unto me, he said. Come unto me. Lord, my son is
not going to hear this if you don't reveal yourself to him. My daughter is not going to hear
this message, Lord, if you don't reveal yourself to her. Lord,
help me. Come unto me, he said. Come unto
me. No man know. No man will know. except Christ
come and reveal himself to them. Lord, help. Come unto me. You see that? See why I said
that? Come unto me. Right now. We're
completely at the mercy of the Spirit of Christ to take the
things of God and Christ to show them unto us and our children,
or we won't get a thing out of this message. The most glorious
words known to man, heard by human ear, are what the Lord
Jesus Christ said here. Come unto me, I'll give you rest
unto your souls. And unless He opens our ears,
gives us ears to hear, we won't hear that. He'll pass us by. Come unto me. Now, Scott Richardson said this
years ago. He said, you can't claim the
promise unless you fit the character
described in the promise. And as Scott was prone to do,
he'd repeat that five or six times with him. He said, you
can't claim the promise unless you fit the character described
in the promise. And our Lord, the promise is,
rest for your soul. And the character is, those that
labor are heavy laden. Oh, is it labor or heavy laden?
So it goes without saying, doesn't it? Unless we're laboring or
heavy laden under a load, that is, under a burden, if we're
not burdened by something, these are going to be just worms. We don't need rest. And if we
don't come to Christ, and if we just come to the service,
if we just come to church, if we just come to hear the preacher,
if we come to whatever, like the people came to hear John,
And they were critical of Him, found fault with Him, our Lord,
and critical of Him. They didn't hear a thing. They
didn't need rest, and they didn't get it. But the promise is rest unto
the soul of someone who's heavy laden, has a heavy burden that
they're carrying, and they're laboring to get rid of it. It's
something that's weighing them down, and they can't get rid
of it, and they're coming to the Lord to get rid of it. Would
you please help me with this? He said, I'll give you rest.
I'll give that person rest. Now, go back to Psalm 38 with
me. I was so blessed just reading that. Were you? I hope so. Psalm 38. You can't claim the promise unless
you fit the character described in the promise. This rest is
for struggling. Laboring. It's not a one-time
thing. Oh, I labored years ago. No,
no, no, no. Laboring. It's a continual thing. When
the Lord says, Come, that's an active verb, isn't it? It's a
present tense verb. Come. Not came. Come. I know you country folks say,
He come over the other night. That's just bad grammar. But
what the Lord's saying here is, come. Keep coming. You're going to have to keep
coming to find this red. Now, it's not a one-time thing.
It's a continual thing. To whom? Come in, Peter said. In Psalm 38, here's laboring
and heavy laden. Here's what we labor and heavy
laden about sin. David said, Lord, rebuke me not
in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Thine
arrows stick fast in me, thy hand presseth me sore. David
read God's Word, whom he likened to as arrows that are sharp in
the heart. And he said, your arrows have
pierced me. Is not my word like a fire, like a hammer, like a
sword that pierces? He said, Lord, your Word has
pierced my heart. And I'm a sinner. And you've
convicted me of what I am and what I've done. And please have
mercy upon me. Don't rebuke me in your wrath. And he acknowledged his transgression. Verse 3, he said, There's no
soundness in my flesh because of thine anger. In other words,
David, he's not having any rest. Verse 4, he said, Mine iniquities
are gone over my head. I'm going under as a heavy burdener. I have too heavy for that. A heavy burden. And he went on
to say, I'm troubled. I'm mourning. He said, I'm broken. I've roared because of my heart
is disquieted. I'm groaning. He said, my heart
panteth. He said, other people aren't
even aware of it all around me. And down in verse 17, he said,
I'm ready to halt. I'm ready to quit. I'm going
under. Because of this heavy burden that's on my shoulder. In Bunyan's book, Pilgrim's Progress,
I remembered this as I was reading that verse. The heavy burden
of iniquity. that about the Pilgrim starting
out that way. And I went back and read it,
and it was such a blessing to me. Such a blessing. It made me want
to read the whole book again. It says, and John Bunyan wrote,
he said, I observed a man standing with a book in his hand and a
burden on his back. What he was reading in this book
put a burden on his back. And he started crying unto God.
That's the only thing that's going to make us really cry unto
God for that one thing, and come to cry. Many came to Christ to
get their bellies filled. Many came to Christ for miracles
when they got in trouble. Oh Lord, please save this, that,
he'll give, and so forth. But our Lord didn't commit himself
to that. But the leper came down from
the mountain and came to Christ. and worshiped him first. And
then said, Lord, I'm dying. Heal me of leprosy. There's a heavy burden that we
bear called sin. You ever had a heavy burden and
tried to carry it? You had to carry it. And you
tried to carry it and you thought, I'm going to fall into this.
And you really need somebody to help you. And there was nobody
around. Has that ever happened? He thought, I've got to carry
this, but I can't do it. I can't go any further. Have
you? I have. And our Lord said, come unto
me. We bear a burden, all of us, of past guilt. A burden of past guilt. David
said, my sin is ever before me. I can't get rid of it. I cannot
get out of my mind what I've done and who I've done it to. God, He said, against thee, against
such goodness, such grace, such mercy. I can't get it out of
my mind. Can you imagine how Paul felt? He could never quit
thinking about Stephen as he held the coats of those that
stoned him. He never got over that. That's
why he said, I'm the chief of sinners. David could never quit
thinking about Uriah. He could never quit thinking.
He couldn't get over it. Lord, I've got this burden of
this past guilt that I cannot get rid of. Christ said, come
unto me. And you know what he does? He says unto us through his Word,
forget in those things that are past. Forget it. He said, I have blotted
out thy sins as a thick cloud. He said, their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. You remember them, he said,
but I don't. Don't bring it up again. Trust
me. It's gone. Your sins are gone.
You're a new man. Your past has no relevance now. None whatsoever. Has no bearing
on right now. None. It's wiped out. Is that rest? It's gone. It's
over. Don't bring it up again. I had
forgotten it. I had paid for it. Don't bring
it up. I took your faults. I took your
sins, Christ said. I took your blame. I took your
sin upon me and nailed it to the cross. Everything you did,
I took the blame for. And it's over. And the Father
doesn't hold you accountable. Ain't life feel lighter? Present sin. Present sin. Ah, my sins. My sins. My present sins. Temptation. Lord, I can't resist
one temptation. I can't do it. We can't do it. Adam and Eve were faced with
one temptation. The first temptation they were
faced with, they couldn't take it. They failed. What about us? We're weaker than they are. And
Christ said, Come unto me. Come unto me. Oh, my Lord, please lead me not
into temptation. Future sin. It ain't over yet. It's not over yet. We don't know what we're going
to do. You don't know what you're going
to do. You don't know the depths that you might fall into, the
sin that you might fall to, the temptation you might fall to,
the reproach you bring on the Lord that you might fall into. You just don't know. It may happen. Something's going to happen.
And count on it, because we're sinners. What about future sins? Our Lord said, All manner of
sin shall be forgiven, past, present, and future. And He said,
Come unto Me, I'll give you rest. How? Listen to what He said.
Do you have ears to hear Him? Listen to what He said. He said,
Sin shall not happen to you. Prone to wander, Lord, I
feel it. I know that, but I am the Great Shepherd. And I always
go after my wandering sheep. Always. I've never lost a one. Come unto me. Future sin. Christ came to save sinners.
So you need to come to Christ. He said, for this cause I came
into the world. So he says, come unto me. All. Come all. You see that in our
text? Come all. Whosoever. Come. No matter who
it is. All manner of sin. Chief of sinners.
Come, he said. Come. Yeah, but I've wandered. Come, he said. He doesn't say
come unless you've wandered. Don't bother coming. Did he?
Come. I played the prodigal too many
times, ma'am. You're never going to hear the
Lord, the merciful Father, who Christ is the Father. You're
never going to hear Him say when you wander off for the hundredth
time and come back to Him, you will never hear Him say, is it
you again? Not him again. No, sir. He says. Rest. No matter who. No matter what. No matter how
often. He will never say. He'll never
turn you away. I tell you, if somebody doesn't
rejoice here this morning, you don't have your You don't have
a burden. Dance, you know, you can be dancing in your heart.
If you don't mourn... Where unto shall I liken this
generation? Our Lord said. I need wisdom, Lord. I need wisdom.
I'm a fool. I played the fool. I don't know
it. I'm approaching 60 years old. Or I'm approaching 70 years
old. Or 80 years old. And Lord, I haven't learned a
thing. He has made unto us wisdom. I'll give you wisdom. If any
man lack wisdom, let him ask. Help me, Lord, where's it come
from? Not Wikipedia or not whoever in this world. Christ said, I
am wisdom. Ask me, I'll give it to you.
I won't upbraid you for what you not use that I gave you. Come unto me. I can't find anything right about
me to this day. After all these years, I can't
find one thing right. There's an old song I used to
like. It says, Once in a blue moon,
I'll do something right. Anybody heard that? Once in a blue moon, I'll do
something right. Well, I can't find once where
I seem to do anything right. I'm unrighteous. And all my righteousness
genre is filthy rag. Christ said, Come unto me. I've
got a righteousness that robed you with. I'll give you rest. It's not your righteousness anyway.
Don't try to establish a righteousness. Come unto me. I'll roll you.
I'll close you. I need sanctification. I need
holiness. The Scripture says He's able
to present us holy, unblameable, and unapprovable. Who is? I can't. He can. He does. Redemption. Christ has made on us redemption.
We need rest from trying to redeem ourselves. Trying to redeem ourselves. I remember as a boy doing something
my dad was displeased with, and I tried to redeem myself after
that. Started working real hard or doing something I know he's
pleased with. I'm trying to look to him. Are you happy with this?
Will you forgive me? Maybe this will get me back in
His favor. I'll do this, I'll do that. Have
I redeemed myself yet? Not knowing that I didn't need
to redeem myself. And He loved me, and He forgave
me, and He knew my frame, and there's nothing I could do, nothing
I need to do to redeem myself. Christ said, come unto Me. You
don't have to redeem yourself. Oh, it's fine to want to please
the Heavenly Father, and you should, but I'm the one to please
Him. You look to Me, and I'll give
you rest from trying to redeem yourself. You have no redeeming
qualities. I do, Christ said. Look to me. This message is all about coming
to Him. Looking to Him. Looking to Him. Lord, I'm full
of fears and worries. I'm worried about this. I'm worried
about that. I'm fretting about this. I'm
fretting about that. All these things give me anxiety
and distress and all. He said, Come unto Me. He said,
All things... This is where He started. All
things are delivered unto Me. I own it all. That baby is in
your womb. He gave it to you. What it's
going to be is up to Christ. Come unto me. I'll give you rest.
I provide for it. I provide for you, Christ said.
Come unto me. I'll give you rest. Don't worry
about that. But Obama, he's a man on a camel. Don't worry about
him. Osama, whoever. Don't worry about
it. They're mine. Christ said, all
souls, all principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness
of this world, the rulers of princes, the paupers, it's all
mine. Christ said, come unto me and
I'll give you rest from worrying about that. Quit your fretting.
Trust in me. Come unto me. Don't go to counselors.
I'm the counselor. Don't go to the wise men of the
world, they're fools! Come to me, I have all wisdom,
and I'll impart it to you. What do you need to know? Ask
me! Our fears, our worries, our cares,
our responsibilities. I have a wife. I gave her to
you, Christ said. A wife is a gift. I have a husband.
I have children. I have grandchildren. I, the
Lord, gave. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Come unto me. I'll give you rest, freedom from
fear, worrying about them. How do we come? How do we come
to Christ? We've been saying it. We've been implying it all
the time. Our hearts go out to Him in prayer. See, we're full
of cares and fears and we're full of sin. We're full of guilt. We're full of worries and fretting
and all that. All the time, we never get over
it. Does anybody in here get over it? Guilt and sin and struggle
and fighting and fears and distress. Do you ever get over it? When
do you get over it? There are very brief times when we get
over it. When is that? When we go to Christ. When we
call upon the Lord. And He answers us. How does He
answer us? Right here. The preaching of
the Word. The hearing of His Word. The reading of His Word.
This is how He answers us. And then we get what? Tell me when you ever feel more
peace, more comfort, more joy, more rest than now. Because we're all a bunch of
wandering sheep, and the Great Shepherd goes and gathers us
together to hear His voice, and His voice says, Peace. Be still. I'm the Shepherd. The
Lord. I am the Lord, your Shepherd.
You shall not want. We come to Him in prayer, we
come to Him in worship, where two or three are gathered in
His name. Christ said, I am there. And I know it so for a fact.
Even when times I feel like I fail miserably, the Word of God doesn't
fail. Even when times I feel like quitting, He didn't quit
working. He said, where two or three are
gathered in My name, I am there. And every single time, though
I feel dead, though a hundred people feel dead, there's two
or three that aren't dead. And they hear something. Christ said, they will come to
Me. Two or three gathered in My name.
You need something? Come. And they do every time.
Every time. Two or three. And He's there.
And they hear from Him. And they get rest. And let me
say it again. I'm going to keep saying it until
we all hear it. Those that observe lying vanities forsake their
own mercy. If we go after or go to whomever
or whatever or look to and forsake the assembly of ourselves together,
the hearing of God's Word, you're forsaking your own mercy. You're
on peace. You will not have any peace.
You will not have any rest. You'll be full of distress, and
fears, and worries, and anxiety, and guilt. He said, come unto
me. Come unto me in prayer. Come
where two or three are gathered. Come to my word. If you don't,
you won't find rest. You're not going to find it anywhere.
He said, you've got to come to me to get rest to your souls. It's warm. And he said, I'll give you rest.
Resting in his person. Resting in his person. I told
you my granddaughters and my daughter rest in me. They believe in me. They believe in my love to them.
They believe that I love them and I only mean them good. And
that's the Lord, His people. He only means them good. Rest
in His Word, His promises. He cannot lie. All men are liars. Don't rest in and trust in the
words, no matter how good the promises are. Do not rest in
that. Put all your trust in the Lord.
He cannot lie. You need to trust Him who cannot
lie. He said, I say unto you, he that believeth. in nation
and everywhere. Rest in His Word. Rest in His
mercy. He is ever merciful. He is merciful. He is gracious. He delights to
show mercy. He is ready to pardon. Rest in
that. But I'm guilty of the same thing.
Come back. He delights to show mercy. He
is ready to pardon, like the Father, waiting to be gracious.
Rest in His person. Rest in His wisdom. Lord, why
is this happening? I purposefully am working all things according
to my will, my purpose, my all-wise will and purpose. You don't understand. I do. The end from the beginning
rests in my wisdom. Rests in His power. I have all
power. I will do it. Rests in His finished
work. Quit trying to keep the law.
Quit trying to keep it and don't let anybody tell you to do so.
Christ said, I finished the work. I said so on Calvary's tree.
It is finished. You rest in that. I finished
the work. You come unto me. In that next verse, we're going
to look at Lord William Winston. He said, take my yoke upon you. Learn of me. Submit. Bend your
head. Bow your knee. Bend your neck. Take this yoke. It's not hard. The way of the transgressor is
hard. That yoke you're wearing now is hard. My yoke is easy. You learn of me. He wore the
yoke. You learn from me. You observe
me. He was at rest. And you'll find
rest for yourself. We're going to sing in closing
number 353. A hymn written by an old black
preacher named William Kendall. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. He said somebody came to him
with worries and troubles, and the old black preacher said to
him, Mr. Tinley said, I'll tell you what
you do. You take all your troubles and all your worries and all
your fears and all your sin and you put them in a sack and you
bring them to the Lord and you just leave them there. That's where this hymn came from.
353. you