So, Matthew chapter 11, and we'll
read from verse 25. At that time Jesus answered and
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour
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
ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and
my burden is light. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. The title of my sermon this morning
is The Gift of Rest. The Gift of Rest. And it really
just draws from this little phrase, I will give you rest. And it
is to remind ourselves that this rest that the Lord Jesus Christ
gives is his gift to us. And I wanted to begin by drawing
our attention to the fact, the presence, the existence of the
goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the kindness of the Lord
Jesus Christ to his people. We must never overlook or forget
these personal dealings with our soul that the Lord Jesus
Christ bestows to his people. And we sometimes think about
the official role and responsibility of the Lord Jesus Christ in what
might be called his mediatorial capacity. We've used that phrase
a lot, I suppose, over the years. But it simply recognises that
the Lord Jesus Christ is our mediator. He is the mediator
between God and man and to fill that role, to accomplish all
the responsibilities of the mediator, that is his mediatorial role. the things that he had to do,
that God commanded him to do in order to save and deliver
the elect. And rightly we dwell upon that
great accomplishment of our Saviour. We think about the humiliation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. His humiliation. in taking flesh
and coming into this world. We think of his boldness, his
courage, his bravery in facing down the enemies of our souls
and indeed of his own soul. We think about his fortitude
and his patience in the suffering that he endured for our sin. And we remark often upon his
obedience to his father, that obedience as the suffering servant,
as the Lamb of God that led him to the cross and led him to his
death. And we see in all of these things,
these mediator roles, the labours of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the duress under which his life was spent. And we acknowledge
and recognise that this labour, this labour of love set him apart
as a man without equal. One that the Bible calls the
captain of our salvation. Hebrews says he is our great
high priest. He is our mighty God. And this
is our God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is our King. And Paul says of him, Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried
and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And the psalmist David, whose
psalm we read a little bit earlier in the service, he says in Psalm
24, verse 7 and 8, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye
lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come
in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. And here we see the strength
of Christ. Here we see the glory of Christ.
Here we see the might of Christ. Here we see his kingship. Here
we see the accomplishments of the cross and all that he secured
in that mediatorial capacity. But there's something lovely
in also remembering the diversity of the Lord Jesus Christ's dealings
with us. Here is the great warrior king. Here is the great deliverer.
Here is our saviour. And we stand amazed and in awe
at such a king of glory, victorious over his enemies and ours. But
we also remember his familiarity with us in a personal capacity. We also remember his sympathetic
care for his beloved children. We also remember that he has
touched with the feelings of our infirmity. We also remember
that he endured trial along with us. And we note his goodness
and his gentleness and his kindness and his tenderness towards those
that he dealt with. And sometimes it's difficult
for us to balance out these two things. Who sees him as a conquering
king and yet tenderly stooping and embracing those little children
and saying, suffer them to come to me. But these characteristics
of comfort and calmness and that ability of the Saviour to soothe
our weary hearts, these qualities that he has in his personality
and in his character to minister feelingly, to distressed souls
and to the people that he loves in our heart and in our sadness
and in our loss. These things too characterise
this Jesus with whom we have to do. And last week we spoke
about this rest that the Lord Jesus Christ gives. And it is
one of God's good gifts, one of the Saviour's good gifts to
his people. And it's that rest that I want
to speak about today. It is perhaps to remember the
great conquering King, but to see that once we have learned
about the great accomplishments of our Saviour, yet too there
is the tenderness of his embrace. there is that relaxation and
there is that peace and there is that calmness and there is
that rest into which we can come in his arms as his people and
be like those little children that he cradled and that he held
and that he embraced. To rest in Christ by faith is
also the privilege of those who look to him and see him as our
way of salvation. Now the Lord's people have many
trials that are common to this world and our fallen nature is
prone to the same challenges that we find in this world around
about us. We know what it is to have love
and to lose love. We know what it is to experience
loneliness. We know what it is to suffer
pain. We know what it is to be challenged
by worry and anxiety. Anxiety that makes our minds
race on numerous issues. Worries about our family. Worries
about the uncertainty of the future. Worries about our health. Worries about our money, our
finances and what the future might hold. Worries about our
work and the challenges that brings. And these worries are common
to us in our nature because of our flesh, because of our frailty. But the Lord's people also find
another dimension of trouble. We find a deeper distress in
our own hearts. And we know that we struggle
with sin. We know that we are called to
wrestle with temptation. and we feel weak in our flesh. We struggle with pride and with
self-righteousness and we are prone to wander away from the
Lord and from the things of God. and we're predisposed to doubt
and we're susceptible to the ravages of the old man who rises
up against the new man and endeavours always to slow us down in our
Christian walk and misdirect us in our Christian pilgrimage. And sometimes we long to be able
to quit this wearying fight that we find ourselves in. And sometimes
we long to be able to find rest in this life. But it seems as
if as long as we are in this flesh, as long as we are in this
world, such rest is elusive to our souls. We find the scriptures
to be true when Isaiah tells us regarding this evil and this
wickedness that is part of our humanity, part of our fallen
nature and our flesh. When he says in Isaiah 57 verse
20, but the wicked are like troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose
waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked. But while believers fight on
these multiple fronts, and these battles, both natural and spiritual,
contend against us, The Lord Jesus Christ says to us here
in this chapter and in this verse, Matthew 11, 28, come and I will give you rest. And it's this that I want to
concentrate upon for a few minutes this morning. Because I believe
that if we are to fully grasp and understand this rest that
the Lord Jesus Christ is laying before us, we will see that it
is not simply the rest of salvation, but it is rest for every day
of our lives. It is rest for every battle that
we must fight. It is rest for every challenge
that we must face. It is to remind us that by faith
we are constantly to be coming to the Lord, not just a one-off
event when we get converted. but every day to be coming to
Christ, every day to be calling upon him, every day to be seeking
that rest which he offers to us in this beautiful invitation
that he extends to his church and people. And may we find encouragement
even this morning in this blessed invitation of our dear Saviour. Can we find rest in coming to
Christ? In following his direction to
come to him? We may and we can. And I believe that the Lord's
people do find comfort and rest in coming daily to Christ. Coming to him by faith. for that
supply of rest and peace that he freely affords to us in that
coming to him in this personal and in this intimate way. This
is speaking about the application of spiritual blessings and benefits
to our soul day by day and that we might know something of that
rest which he gives to us. And I thought just as I was coming
to this and thinking about it, that there are so many lovely
parallels in scripture. Think for example with me about
the way in which our body needs rest. Our body needs to recover
and to renew itself every day from the physical labour that
we put it through. And so our spirits are being
encouraged here to realise and remember that we need spiritual
sustenance every day from the Lord and that we are encouraged
to come to Christ daily. Those free willers who stand
up in their pulpit and say, come to Christ, come to Christ, as
if that coming is the end of the matter. really know nothing
of what it is to be a little one, a needy one, a troubled
one in the family of God, daily battling against our own weaknesses
and our own flesh. But regular communion with the
Lord Jesus Christ is as essential to our soul as getting to bed
every night is for the well-being of our body. And do you see how
aware of this God was in creation? He supplied day and night for
us to renew the strength of our bodies. He designed a day and
seven for worship and for renewal. These things are not accidental.
These are pictures. This is design. These are natural
patterns supplied and provided in this physical world to remind
us of our spiritual priorities and to set before us a spiritual
pattern. Are we weary in our Christian
walk? Then we are encouraged here by
the invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Come unto me
and you will find rest for your souls. So I want to draw your
attention just very briefly to five aspects of this rest, this
gift of rest that the Lord Jesus Christ gives us here. And the
first thing is the spiritual rest, which we have from our
efforts at works righteousness. I've placed this at the head
of the list because I believe it's our principal need. It is
the weary who come to Christ. It is the heavy laden, those
who have a sense of their need, those who are burdened with their
guilt. No one ever comes to Christ who
does not feel a need to come. Now we're talking spiritually,
of course we are. We're not talking physically
about walking somewhere or moving in some way. We're talking spiritually
about coming to Christ in gospel terms. But that person who comes
is one who feels a need because of his sin. Who feels that his
sin is a chain about him. Like the picture that we see
of the prisoner dragging his ball and chain. A person who
has tried to change. A person who has worked his fingers
to the bone, endeavouring to improve his situation. One who
has laboured under the law demands to please God, but never feels
it is enough. coming to Christ in that sense
is coming and leaving behind works righteousness in order
to receive imputed righteousness, free righteousness, free justification,
a righteousness that is of God granted to us through the Lord
Jesus Christ and His works and His labour on our behalf. So the Apostle Paul could say
to Titus in chapter 3 verse 5, not by righteousness or not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. Or to use what Paul says elsewhere
in Romans chapter 4 verse 6, Our rest, our joy is the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. We don't have to work for this
righteousness that Christ gives. We don't have to labour for this
righteousness, this justification, because God imputes it freely
to us without works. Imagine what it is to please
God, to obtain righteousness, to be justified without having
to do anything to receive it. That's the spiritual rest into
which we enter when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ. But there
is another rest, and here's the second one that we have. There
is a rest which comes to the Lord's weary people in our peace
of conscience. A resting in our conscience and
in our minds. And this is another important
element of this rest. As we look back on our lives,
we often do so as believers, with regret for the things that
we have done, for the sins that we have committed, and for the
mistakes that we have made. Today, people call them poor
decisions, but these things that have been done willfully, these
things that have been done thoughtlessly, these things that have been done
in our relative ignorance, In those days, perhaps before we
had any knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we realised that
they have left a trail of damage in this world. And they had consequences
that follow us always. Maybe you remember the old song,
memories don't leave like people do. They'll always stay with
you. but there is rest to be able
to commit all our sins and all our guilt and all the consequences
of those sins into the keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. in
looking to the cleansing blood of Christ and learning how by
it hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience, we will find
rest in coming to Christ. Day by day. We cannot go back and right those
wrongs. We cannot undo our errors. We cannot recover those lost
opportunities. We cannot unsay the things that
we have said or undo the things that we've done. But we can find
rest in committing these things to the Lord and resting in the
wisdom of His sovereign grace and purpose. There are no accidents. There are no unforeseens, but
there is purpose in the will of God to lead his people by
the way that he has led us. And therein, God is to be honoured,
and his people are to find rest. There's a beautiful little verse
in Joel, chapter two, in verse 25. It says this, just listen
to these words. I will restore to you the years
that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm and the caterpillar
and the palmer worm, my great army which I sent among you. These things that have happened,
this way in which we have been led, this purpose of God, these
are the great army of God, the locust and the canker worm, the
caterpillar and the palmer worm. But all those things that were
consumed, all the damage that these little insects, these caterpillars,
performed in the fruitfulness of the Lord's people. The Lord
has said he will restore, he will renew, he will undo that
damage. Isn't that an amazing prophecy,
an amazing promise? That the Lord will give us ease,
even from our conscience. Only the Lord can do that. Only
the Lord can make good and grow good from the mess that we have
made of our lives. And that is what he has promised
to do. And knowing this and understanding
this and seeing this gives his people a sweet rest in the knowledge
of what he is able to do. Here's the third rest that the
Lord gives us. The Lord bestows an ease of mind. Perhaps you've heard the little
phrase that the Lord gives his beloved sleep. Do you ever waken
in the middle of the night worrying about something? You waken up
and your mind is going and you can't fall back to sleep? And sometimes we fret over things
until it becomes a distraction and we can't concentrate on what
we should be doing because we're so worried about what it is that
might happen. There is rest for the Lord's
people in this also. How is that? Because the Lord
is able to bestow an easiness of mind upon his people. He does so by teaching us about
His sovereignty. He does so by reminding us that
He is in control. He does so by showing us, by
His faithfulness, by His dealings with us, that He guards His people. He safeguards us. Now, we didn't entirely get into
it this morning when we read that passage from Acts, but we
will see that a little bit later on, how God preserves the apostle
from even the way in which the apostle determined that he would
act and the way that he would go. The Lord is able to protect
us even from our own mistakes. And does that not give us ease
of mind? Does that not give us a sense
of rest and peace in coming to Christ and by faith receiving
Him and recognising who He is as our sovereign controlling
God? Hebrews chapter 13 verse 6 says,
We may boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what
man shall do unto me. You know, that's actually a verse
that is quoted by the writer to the Hebrews from Psalm 118,
verse 6. And there's another little twist
in that verse. So in Hebrews 13, verse 6, we
say, I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Whereas the
psalmist says, it was David as well I think, the psalmist says,
I will not fear what man can do unto me. You see, no matter
what man can do or what man shall do, it should contain no fear
for the child of God. What is going to happen need
contain no fear for the people of God, because in God I will
praise His Word. In God I have put my trust. In God I will not fear what flesh
can do unto me. Any flesh, any flesh, hear this,
even my own flesh, I will not fear what even my own flesh,
my own body, and the frailties of that body, and the sinfulness
of that body, and the weakness of the body, and the sickness
and the illness of the body, I will not fear what my own body
or any other flesh can do to my spirit. Why? Because my soul
is Christ's. Because my spirit is His. Because
God Himself owns my soul, possesses my soul, protects and safeguards
my soul. And this body must be laid down. But the Lord Jesus Christ gives
his people rest. He giveth his beloved sleep. He gives us ease of mind in coming
to him by faith. There is rest for the weary in
trusting in Jesus' word, in committing to his care and to rely upon
his promises. He says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. And the blood of Christ is precious
and efficacious and it secures the cleansing of the elect. But
it also assures us of his day by day protection and preservation
and the knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ is never far away
from us. Here's the fourth rest that the
Lord Jesus Christ can give to his people. He gives to us a
stillness of soul. Not only an ease of mind, but
a stillness of soul. There is a calming, peace-enduring
confidence that comes to us in the faithfulness of God in the
teeth of Satan's accusations. Men might mock, Satan might accuse,
it is our natural disposition to doubt and yet Christ teaches
us that we can have a stillness in our soul in the midst of all
of the tumult that goes on around about us. because we have pardoning
grace in Him. We have free justification by
the righteousness of God in Him. We have full atonement for our
sin by His sacrifice and we can do nothing to add to it, to enhance
it, to improve it, to better it, but everything and every
blessing is ours freely in Christ. Jeremiah 50 and 20 says this,
In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
whom I reserve. In those days, in these days,
in these gospel days, in these days of our life, the Lord Jesus
Christ gives us a peace and a stillness and a rest in our soul, a calmness
that only the elect of God have any right to possess. And this
is ours. This is ours because of the blessedness
of our Saviour. And finally, here's the fifth
rest that we have in Christ. When he says to us, come unto
me and I will give you rest, he is telling us that he has
a rest for us in time and for eternity. For what he does in
time, he upholds for eternity. Our rest in Christ is an eternal
rest. It is an everlasting peace and
we are safe in the arms of Jesus. They are everlasting arms. In
a little while, friends, brothers, sisters in
Christ, in a little while, Our rest in Christ, which is our
present possession, which is today enjoyed by faith, will
become our perfect, never-ending communion with the Father, with
the Son and with the Holy Spirit in heaven. and it is just a moment
away. The hymn writer said in our hymn
earlier that when death makes a passage, we will fly into the
presence of our God. It's just a blink away. In the
twinkling of an eye, all our troubles will be over and God's
promises will become our eternal reality. in these intervening
moments between right now and that moment in which we shall
open our eyes in the sweetness of His presence. We won't even
know about that moment that we pass into His presence. It will
be gone before we realise it. We will be sitting, we will be
waiting, we will be walking, we will be lying, we will be
in the presence of our friends, we will be doing whatever it
is that we will be doing, and then we will be in Christ's presence. and we will see him. We go to
him who whispers sweetly to us, come unto me and I will give
you rest. And in that moment, in that moment
when we find that passage, in that moment when we enter into
Christ's presence, we will hear Matthew 11 28. Come unto me and I shall give
you rest. Let us go in faith to him. moment by moment, hour by hour,
day by day, believing in that rest which he provides for his
people. Let us come to him at his invitation. Let us trust him daily. Let us
depend upon his faithfulness to us. And let us learn something
about the sweetnesses of these rests which the Lord Jesus Christ
alone can give. that he will give us for all
eternity a stillness of soul in this life, a trust in the
blessedness as he provides for us ease of mind, that we might
know something of peace of conscience and that we might know that rest
from work's righteousness, all bound together in the spiritual
rest which he alone can give. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us and encourage our hearts in them.