Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 11 and reading for our text verses 29 and 30. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me For I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11 verses 29 and 30. Rest unto your souls. This morning we spoke from verse 28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

We were speaking of the inviter and the giver of rest, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and then those invited to come, ye that labour and are heavy laden, and then the promise and its fulfilment, I will give you rest. But this evening we have the further invitation to take Christ's yoke upon us. There is a blessing of being made willing to come, come unto me, and there is a blessing of being willing to take Christ's yoke upon us. So I want to look firstly this evening at Jishu's yoke, which the heavy laden are invited to take upon them, what is meant by that.

Then secondly, Jishu's meek and lowly heart. He says, for I am meek and lowly in heart. And then lastly, the rest of soul that shall be found in Jesus. And ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So firstly, Jesus' yoke. I want to look first at the illustration here of a yoke and look at it in two ways.

Firstly, as what is used to perhaps carry burdens. In some countries they use them quite commonly. Perhaps a piece of wood that is shaped to go around their neck and rest on their shoulders, and then at the end of each piece of wood, a hook, that they would hang, say, a pail. So they could carry two pails of water or maybe some rocks or stones or something like that quite easily, not on their hands, but actually bearing on their shoulders. And that yoke enables them to carry.

And of course, you could have one person carrying, like I said, rocks, which would be a very heavy load. Another might be labouring in the field, and they'd be picking fruit and things that are quite light. The pails would be still full, but the burden would be very much lighter. And this is the picture what our Lord is saying. These that are heavy laden, they have a yoke. And what they are carrying is a very heavy burden.

But what he is carrying, the yoke that he is inviting them to take on, is a lighter burden, a lighter yoke. This is the illustration that is here. The other way of looking at it would be where a yoke is used to perhaps yoke two oxen together. We think of Elijah and going to Elisha. And Elisha was with 12 yoke of oxen and he with the 12. So you have two oxen yoked together. And it's actually against the law to yoke an ox and an ass together. Because an ass is not as strong as an ox.

And if they are both pulling, they will pull unevenly. And so they needed to be evenly matched. But the thing is with the yoke there is that it is bringing them both together, to walk together. One cannot go one way and another that way. They must be together. What one feels, the other feels. What one pulls, the other pulls. They are together.

And in this illustration, especially where the Lord says, and learn of me, if you're with someone constantly, when I was in my apprenticeship in engineering, I had a fitter with me the first three years. I had to keep close to him. He showed me exactly how to do things, and I had to copy him and learn from him exactly how to do things. In the fourth year, he says, now you're on your own. Don't come and ask me. You know now. You do it yourself. But I'd already had the training. I'd learned of him because I was close to him, saw how he worked.

And this is the illustration again with our Lord. that those are to be close to him, they will learn of him. And so the idea of the yoke can be as a picture in those two ways. One, in a burden that is being carried. Two, in that which brings close together so there is a learning. Our Lord says that, and invites to take my yoke upon you. And it is the heavy laden that are being invited and it is that that yoke shall be found a lighter yoke.

We get a picture of what this means when the apostle writes to the Galatians, when we have the apostles wrestling in their council with deciding should the Gentiles be made to be circumcised, and they say that we should not put a yoke upon the necks of the Gentiles, which we ourselves found hard to bear. So the yoke is something that is commanded. It was commanded under the law that they should do. And of course, in Galatians, this is what Paul is dealing with there.

Our Lord spoke of those in his day that laid heavy burdens on men, grievous to be born, The scribes, the Pharisees, they didn't just limit to the Ten Commandments or the commandments of God, they added some 638 extra laws and regulations that were to guide people in all aspects of their lives. But they're hypocrites, they didn't do them themselves, they just put it on other people to do, and they didn't take off their burdens, they added to their burdens. And so the law of God often is spoken of as the yoke of the law. being under the law and bearing the law, the commandments of the law, to think that I must gain heaven by my own works, I must attain by my own righteousness. The contrast really here between what those that were labouring and those that were to take on Christ's yoke is the contrast between the law and the gospel.

The Bible is full of those contrasts. Hebrews 12 is a good one. Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched with burn, with fire, but ye are come unto Mount Zion. We think of also in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, all the time he is comparing the heart or tables of stone or the fleshy heart is comparing that which was hard that which was immovable and that which is real and soft and right through that epistle he is showing the difference between The law of commandments in ordinances and the sentence, the soul that sinneth it shall die, whosoever offendeth in one point is guilty of all.

It is something that is a grievous burden because man cannot fulfill that law. He cannot obey it. There is none that doeth good, no not one, we've all come short of the glory of God. Paul says the Lord is a schoolmaster unto Christ and those that are feeling the labour and heavy laden and are trying to please God, trying to obey the Lord, trying to do what is right, trying to curb their habits, trying to obey the law and make themselves acceptable to God, find it a heavy burden that they cannot sustain, that they cannot find any rest in that at all. Because by the deeds of the law shall no man living be justified.

And God has ordained that it should be so. He has made it so that those that seek salvation through the works of the law will find that a heavy burden, will labour under it, will want to be free of it. And that is where the good news of the gospel comes in. That is where the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ comes in. There are things to be carried, there are things to be obeyed, there is a way to walk, but it is very, very different than that of the law. The law says do, but it doesn't give any strength or help to do.

The gospel, the yoke of our Lord Jesus Christ, It says, done. The Lord Jesus Christ has finished it. That's why we read in Hebrews, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, the Lord is spoken of as the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. Those that died in the Old Testament, died by faith in the promises made before or from the foundation of the world, that Christ should come, that he should suffer, that he should put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and so release those that were under the law as a sentence of death, release them from that sentence, set them free, pardon them of that debt, of that guilt, show them the receipt, an empty tomb, show them that there is therefore now no condemnation, to them that are in Christ Jesus.

And so our Lord is speaking of taking up this yoke. How can we, how do we take up that yoke? Well, when the Lord is setting forth his teaching and when he is going before the people, he is setting forth the gospel. He's preaching the gospel, the good news. If we take up that yoke, we profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We confess that we own the doctrines, the teaching of the gospel, embrace the gospel.

And we have a close attachment to him, identifying with the Lord Jesus Christ. For us that are brought up under the sound of the truth, it wouldn't mean so much as someone perhaps that was a Muslim, or in those countries of which to confess that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the only Saviour, the only God, the only name given among men whereby we must be saved, That could be a capital offence. It would be really taking up the cross. It would be a great thing to associate with him.

They have in the Old Testament the time when Joshua said, who is on the Lord's side? And there was to be a clear separation. There was to be the tent to the tabernacle was put right separate from the camp of Israel. And those that would go onto it had to separate from the multitude and be seen by everybody to be going outside the camp to that tabernacle. This is before the tabernacle was actually built. This is a tabernacle witness or where the Lord was before the main tabernacle was built.

Let us, Paul says in Hebrews, therefore go unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Or we could put in another way, taking on his yoke, clearly saying that we are going to be identified with the Lord and we are going to be taking up the truths, the teaching, the instruction, the hopes of the gospel and rejecting and laying aside the expectation of any good through the law.

There's a clear removing from one to the other. Our Lord said he cannot serve God a mammon, and Paul writes into the Galatians, he said that those that came teaching that they had to fulfill the law even in circumcision, It was another gospel. It was not the gospel. It was completely another one.

And so taking up the yoke, we have a picture of letting one go. You couldn't have two yokes. You couldn't have one yoke and carrying the rocks and the other yoke at the same time carrying the fruit. You couldn't, you had to take one or the other. And that is where the Lord is saying, take my yoke.

And so it is a invitation to walk after the Lord, to obey him in the ordinances of the gospel, in the hope of the gospel, the teaching, the precepts of the gospel, a new law, the law of love and the fruits that flow forth from Christ's death and what he has done. It is a good news. The essential part is that that which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, which walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That is taking up the yoke of our Lord, walking after the Spirit, walking after the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, that which He teaches and sets forth knowing that He has paid the debt, He has satisfied the demands of the law, He has fulfilled the law, He has made it honourable, and it is a finished work.

This is the beauty, the difference between us in these Gospel days. We start our week with a day of rest. We hear of what Christ has done. and we go out in the week and we work out as our fruits what He has wrought in. In the Old Testament they had six days of toil, of labour, and then at the end they could rest. But their rest came after their labours. Ours comes first, as a rest in Christ, a rest in the Gospel, and then we can work out with fruitfulness and with the blessing of the Lord upon us throughout the week.

And so, our Lord, when he says here, take my yoke upon you, take my yoke, take the gospel, take the good news, take my teaching, my word, my promises, Take the New Testament in my blood. Take that as your hope, your title for heaven. And what you carry through this world is not the heavy burden of a law you can never fulfill, but is that which I have done for you. That is what you carry. And our Lord says here that my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

All what the gospel sets before us, all that a poor sinner is to obey and follow, the burdens of making a profession, the burden of baptism, the burden of the Lord's Supper, the burden of walking one with another in the fear of the Lord in church membership, the burden of making a profession before the world so the world takes notice of us, whose we are and whom we serve. That yoke of being identified with the Lord as being Christians, a follower of Christ, that is what is to be taken up willingly. Because unless we have that yoke, then we are heavy laden and burdened carrying a yoke of the law. we will be crushed under that we cannot sustain. May we realise what our Lord is speaking here of his finished work, of what he has accomplished and done.

I want then to look secondly at Jesus' meek and lowly heart. Because he says, learn of me. Again, there's two ways that this can be looked at. The first thing is learn of me as looking at the Lord as an example, seeing how he is walking and follow in his steps.

The second is to be actually being taught by him, and often they are quite closely associated together. We know that the New Testament promise is that all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And we read of the Lord's time on earth that without a parable, he did not speak unto them, he taught them by parables. And we read that, as he is warned, he taught them again. Sometimes there was things that came in between. He wrought miracles, or there was some other things that turned him aside. But he returned back again and again to teaching and instructing of them. And this is what is here. The teaching of our Lord is not a burden. It is that which brings the liberty and brings the joy and comfort for God's people.

But he says that he is meek, then lowly of heart. It seems to be that this is taken or referred to Zechariah 9, verse 9, where we have the prophecy, Rejoice great, thou daughter of Zion, Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. We think of the Lord coming into Jerusalem in that way. And it's also set forth here. He is a King. He is just and having salvation.

We must never mistake meekness for weakness. Meekness is not weakness. We read that Moses was a man meek above every man, but he was a leader and he was a strong leader of the people of God. But his strength was that God always upheld what he did when they tried to usurp him.

Miriam, even Aaron and Miriam, has the Lord only appeared to thee. Miriam was struck with leprosy. The God of Israel always took Moses' side. Moses did not have to exert his authority in that way. It is choosing, meekness is choosing not to usurp the authority that he actually could do. Our Lord showed several times what his authority was.

He could, with his words, still the winds and the waves and the sea. He could, even when they tried to take him in the Garden of Gethsemane, just speak and they all fell backward. He had power to just, when they tried to take him and throw him from the Brava Hill, to pass through the midst of them. He could have consumed them, he could have destroyed them all, but he chose not.

He chose to be humble, to become man, to take our nature, to be submissive to his father, to endure the contradiction of sinners against himself, he chose to do that so that he could fulfil the law, so that he could be brought to Calvary and suffer in the place of his people. And so his very demeanour, everything about him was in a meekness, submissive, obedience to God, and even sufferings unto death.

The beautiful passage that sets forth this is Paul's epistle to the Philippians, chapter two. And in this chapter, we read from verse five, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. So this is the make spirit of our Lord. who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Here, in effect, is the yoke, isn't it? At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth, that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And he speaks of obedience. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both the will and to do of his good pleasure. What a different note. that that is then the law, working out what God has worked in.

These people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise. But then we also have that aspect where the Lord Jesus is teaching. He says, learn of me or learn from me. So he taught his disciples and he would teach us many things in our lives. It is good to notice the teaching of the Lord.

One verse has been very precious to me over the years, that thine eyes shall see thy teachers. It's in Isaiah 30. Thine eyes shall see thy teachers. And thou shalt hear a word behind thee, saying, this is the way. Walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

But what I have found precious and proved, that I've been able to see what the Lord has used to teach me, to teach me gospel truths, to teach me about myself, to teach me the way that I should go, things in providence, things that people have said, things that people have done, my faults, the Lord's correction, the Word of God, the preaching of the Word. And we see the Lord using these to teach. And again in Isaiah, line upon line, Here a little, and there a little.

The Lord said to his disciples, I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. He taught them as they were able to bear it. And there's some things, you children, you're taught so much as you can bear. When you get older, then you'll be taught other things, what you can bear then. but there's needing to be a building up of that teaching.

And the Lord is the teacher of his people, they shall be all taught of God. And it is the Lord that teaches, it is the Holy Spirit that blesses through the preaching, through the Word of God, and magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is what the Lord says here, that we are to take that yoke upon us and learn of me. Learn of me, his meek and lowly heart, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

I want to just go back a moment just for the Lord's character here. How necessary it is to view the Lord like this. He's not an angry slave master. He's not a hard task master. He is loving, he is long-suffering, he is merciful. He came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. He is compassionate, he is long-suffering. I am the Lord, I change not. His sons of Jacob are not consumed. And it's good for us to think his character, his person is set before us here. We can think of people that have come or we have come across in our lives.

How different characters. Some have been angry characters. Some might have been like Nabil, like even his wife said, Abigail, he is such a man that you cannot speak unto him. Others might be so gentle. The mothers in Israel, the fathers in Israel, those that are not easy provoked, those that a very meek and mild spirit, and even amongst men you see a big contrast, but here our Lord says he is meek and lowly in heart.

You come before him not frightened, not fearful, not thinking if I put one word out of place, if I say the wrong thing, he'll jump upon me from a great height, he'll rail upon me, he'll consume me. He will not do that. We are to remember the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, who we're coming to, one that understands, one that is meek and lowly in heart.

On to look then lastly at the rest of soul that shall be found in Jesus. I cannot be exhaustive here, of course, but perhaps some suggestions as to how it shall be so. The first one I'd mention is in him giving us understanding. Perhaps to illustrate this, if we think of those two on the way to Emmaus, did they have rest in Seoul? Were they not so burdened and so anxious?

They trusted that it should have been He that should have redeemed Israel. This was the third day they'd seen Jesus crucified and slain. They couldn't understand that He had before their eyes redeemed His people. They couldn't understand the plan of salvation.

The Lord then drew near to them. And rather than just as like later on in that same evening, he opened the understanding of the disciples that they might understand the scriptures. In this case, he preached to them a sermon. Ought not Christ, who has suffered these things, and to enter into His glory, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself? They said later, Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way, while He opened to us the Scriptures?

In that understanding, as they were brought to understand God's plan, understand how that Christ should suffer and then rise again from the dead. Their heart burned within them, their burdens went, their sorrows went, and then it led to the Lord showing who he was, a beautiful ending to that journey. And so when the Lord gives that rest, maybe through a sermon, through the preaching, A great blessing if it's true this evening. The Lord opens the understanding and you see for the first time the gospel plan and what Christ has done.

That's what Christ was virtually saying to those dear disciples. All the Old Testament was pointing to this, what you have seen me do. Those scriptures are fulfilled. I have put away sin. by the sacrifice of myself, I have redeemed Israel. I have fulfilled the scriptures. This you have seen, and this they believed.

I think of in Matthew 13, where the Lord speaks of the parable of the sower, and there's four types of ground of which the seed is sown on. equating to four types of hearers. And if you look at those hearers, the first one was where the word was taken straight out of their minds, out of their heart, as a wayside hearer. And we read there that they did not understand the word. The one that bore fruit, it is remarked, who receiveth the word and understandeth it. Paul, he says, I would rather speak five words with the understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. It is one of the blessings of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to cause his people to understand. You think of Philip going to the eunuch Philip's first question as he comes to the eunuch, understandest thou what thou readest? How can I, he says, except some man guide me? He asks Philip, come up into the chariot. And he's reading Isaiah 53. He's led as a lamb to the slaughters. A sheep before her shearers is dumb. Who is he speaking? Is it of himself or some other man?

And Philip, he begins at the same scripture, preaches unto him Jesus. And what a transformation under that sermon. When he wants to be baptised and he's asked his profession, what yoke are you taking up? What is your hope? He says, dost thou believe on the name of the Son of God? I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If the Lord give us understanding, takes away the veil over our hearts, opens our eyes, this is why the psalmist says, open mine eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. The truth is there, the truth is there. But it's so different when the Lord opens it and shows us those things that are there. May the Lord give that rest in understanding. But another way is knowing God. This is one reason why we read in our reading Psalm 46. Because in that Psalm we Reading verse 10, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen, I'll be exalted in the earth. This, of course, was one central thing with our Lord.

The Pharisees, the scribes, the lawyers, the Jews, they hated the idea, the thought that thou being a man, makest thyself God. that when we're brought to see the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is God, that He is Lord of all, that He is Emmanuel, God manifest in the flesh, God with us. to know that he is over all, that he hath power to forgive sins, that he has that authority.

They said, who gave us thee this authority? By what authority doest thou these things? He is God. Those things that he did, he did at the commandment of his father, the authority he had. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth my father that sent me.

The third thing is that he is the eternal, unchangeable, God and the love of God that is unchangeable. Having loved his own, he loved them unto the end. He mentioned this morning, we read that beautiful verse in Jeremiah 31 verse 3, I have loved thee with an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Dear Christ, Once shine upon us, did he once love us? He will always love his people. He doesn't change. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever.

This is what the Lord really reaffirmed with Peter, love us thou may. We love him because he first loved us. That is how we know God's love to us, when he sheds abroad in our heart the love of God. by the Holy Ghost. And when we know that, when we have a token of that, that our sins, they don't turn away the Lord's love, He'll chasten, He'll correct, but He won't cast off. His love is still the same. And we think of Israel, typical Israel.

Through the wilderness you couldn't get a more rebellious people. a more changeable people, a people that sang the Lord's praise at the Red Sea, but then three days later they murmured at the waters, the bitter waters, and God still made them sweet. They murmured, they complained because there was no food, but he still gave them manna. He still gave them quails. He bore long with them in the wilderness.

We read in Deuteronomy 8, that we are to remember all the way the Lord our God led us through the wilderness, to try us, to prove us, to know what was in our heart, whether we would serve him or no. But the Lord, forbearance and forgiveness and long-suffering That is to be realized as a love once set upon his people.

It is an everlasting love. It's love that put their names in the book of life before the foundation of the world. It's love that brought him to this world to live, to bear the image as their made flesh, yet sin accepted. Love that brought him to suffer, bleed and die. Love that then carries on in heaven as our advocate with the Father is all my love. The love of Christ constraineth us. He is God. God is love. And that mark of learning of the Lord We learn that whoso love God, then he love also them that are begotten of him.

Another way the Lord gives rest is when we see his faithfulness, faithful to his word and faithful unto us. We are so often unfaithful, unreliable, that the Lord can be and is to be relied upon. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, we read, There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, that God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able. but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear in. And the comfort there is God is faithful. The Lord's faithfulness is very coming, is very accomplishing what he did. His faithfulness.

And have we proved that so in our lives? In all that we have been brought to walk in, all we brought to experience, all the changes we've had, all what we've done, that the Lord has been faithful. Also as our refuge, God is our refuge, and we read also that underneath of the everlasting arms That gives rest for a poor soul. How many souls have felt under a trial to absolutely sink and yet they've sunk upon the Lord. They've sunk upon what he has done.

Remember years ago when I'd just returned from Tasmania when my mother had died, we'd taken her to a funeral, and when I got home the Lord was pleased to favour me with a blessing in my soul that night. The next morning I heard a phone call from my sister that my father had a heart attack and he'd been taken into hospital. and my heart just sank. I thought how can I stand there 250 miles away my mother has just died and I was 25 at the time and now my father and then I suddenly remembered the blessing of the previous night and just sunk onto that. I still remember that that relief, that resting upon the Lord and the Lord's word at that time.

The word that he's given, the promises he's given, the helps that he has given, they are laid up in store. And you know they don't wear out. And it's when the Holy Spirit brings them back to remembrance, just at the right time, and you sink upon them, you rest upon them, you remember what the Lord has done. And suddenly you remember he is in control, that our lives are in his hand. There is those everlasting arms underneath.

And then there's the covenant. David at the end of his life, he says, although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, And this is all my salvation and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. And there, hemmed in between those although, poor David's house wasn't as he wanted it. Why? He'd had murders there. He'd had rapes there. He'd had uprisings there. All sorts of troubles in his house.

And then when the Lord had blessed him, he didn't seem to grow. How many of the Lord's people would look at their profession and say, well, there's nothing there I can be proud of, but I'm thankful for it, and I'm thankful for his covenant, and I'm blessed. and to realise that the Lord doesn't say to his people, I've made a covenant with you, but if you don't keep your side, if you don't keep up your good works, if you don't do your part, then you'll be lost, then you'll be damned. No. The covenant is between God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, and the subjects of it are the people of God.

Sir David could say he'd made this with me. This is the New Testament, this is the Gospel, the covenant realised in the blessing of a poor soul with her sins forgiven. who sees the precious blood of Christ shed for them at Calvary, who remember it at the Lord's Supper, this doing remembrance of me. And it is what the Lord says, this is the new testament or new covenant in my blood, which was shed for you. May we know that resting on that blood, like Luther when Satan came with a long list of accusations, and he said, Luther, this is all your sins. And Luther said, yes, that is right. But right at the bottom, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth from all sin. It is not by denying, it's by confession and by trusting in that precious blood.

Then there is the words that the Lord speaks to us. How many of us have, though we esteem every word of God as pure, and all this inspired word of God, but the Lord himself has made some parts of it precious to us, because he has spoken them into our souls, blessed them through the ministry, brought them to our remembrance with power and with sweetness, He says in John 6 verse 63, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. That's the thing, when the Lord speaks life, forgiveness, pardon into a poor sinner's soul, when it raises up from the dust and strengthens in his way. Our Lord makes this invitation to those that labour and heavy laden.

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. or my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He said this morning, the preparation for such invitations, those that labor and heavy laden, is not how heavy or how much we labor, but is it enough, is it enough to make us, when he says, come unto me, And you say, lo, I come with all my ranks and all my sin and all that I am, but I come. And when he says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, you might say I feel the most ignorant, the most unworthy, but I desire to have thy yoke and not this yoke that I have groaned under. and laboured under for many a day, the Lord prepares a people to receive something that is free, something that is given, something that identifies them with and unites them to himself.

Men, unprepared, have no desire for the gospel. They don't want it. They don't need it. They're satisfied with their own works, with their own way. But the people here, this is a lovely invitation. This is good news. This is the gospel. This is the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.