In just a moment, we'll read
the last three verses in the chapter. Throughout this chapter, we hear
the Lord Jesus speaking to a great multitude. Verse 7 tells us,
and as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes, the
multitudes, it was a mixed multitude. And what I mean by that, there
were genuine believers. And then there were always those
that were just there because they were curious, asking questions. And then there were the Pharisees,
religious hypocrites. And then there were just unconcerned
unbelievers. Didn't matter to them one way
or the other. But thank God The ones our Lord directs His attention
to, especially in these last three verses, are weary sinners
in need of mercy. Weary sinners that feel their
need of His grace. It's to those that He looks with
eyes full of compassion, always, always. It's to these that He
speaks these gracious words. He doesn't look to or speak to
those proud Pharisees, not these words, not those who brag that
they're not like other men and don't need mercy, don't need
grace. He was speaking to them on another
occasion in this same Gospel of Matthew in chapter 9 when
he said, when he heard what they said about him associating with
publicans and sinners, He said to them in verse 12, they that
be whole need not a physician, like you claim, but they that
are sick. But go and learn what that meaneth.
Go and learn what that meaneth. Very few of them ever did. I
will have mercy and not sacrifice. Go and learn what it means that
not the labor of your hands can ever fulfill God's law demands. I will not have sacrifice but
mercy, for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners,
sinners to repentance. That's who he speaks of here
in our text, just as was prophesied of him. In Isaiah chapter 66,
this is him speaking. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven
is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house
that you will build me? And where is the place of my
rest? What a great God! For all those
things have mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith
the Lord. But, but, reminding us of who
he is, his greatness, his majesty. God alone lifted up forever and
ever. Can a man have any hope of approaching
such a God as that? Can he be anything to a sinner
other than a consuming fire? Yes, yes, and he says so. But to this man, that this man
will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and tremuleth at my word." Those are the ones our Lord is looking
at. Those are the ones He's speaking to, because that man has been
taught of God. A man that has a contrite and
poor spirit, that trembles at God's Word, It doesn't come to
him by nature. Oh, no, that's the very opposite.
No, our Lord said in John 6 Such people have been taught of God
and Everyone that's been thus taught of God. What did he say
the same thing? He says here they come to me
They come to me. Oh these are gracious gospel
words to every needy soul both to save and the lost. It's not just to sinners, He
certainly speaks to them who need His mercy and grace in the
work of salvation, but He speaks to those who have already believed.
Come to me. I mean, is anybody here that's
exempt of ever experience weariness, ever tired, ever feel wore out,
just want to rest? Christ says again and again and
again, come unto me. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus,
how I proved him over and over, over and over and over again. Isaiah chapter 61, again, the
Lord speaking and he says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto
the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison
to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn,
to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion." That's his church.
to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they
might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the word of the
Lord, that he might be glorified. Now let's read these last three
verses in Matthew 11. Come unto me. Oh, that he would
allow us to do that. Come unto me, all ye 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
ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and
my burden is light. The title of my message is Rest
for the Restless. Rest for the Restless. And it
begins with these gracious words. Exactly what I need to hear.
Christ says, come unto me. Come unto me. The come is to
leave one thing and to advance to another. Christ says, come
then. laboring, heavy laden, leave
all your legal labors behind, leave all your self-reliant efforts
behind, leave your sins, leave your self-righteousness, leave
your presumptions, leave it all behind, leave everything that
you ever trusted in and come to me. Come to me. Don't go to
the Pharisees. They were in the crowd. They
were listening. Christ said, the Pharisees, they'll just make
you more burden. They'll lay on you burdens that
they or you can't bear. Don't go to them. They'll just
instruct you in their religious tradition. They'll tell you how
to dot every I and cross every T. But in the end, you're still
miserable and heavy laden. The Lord Jesus Christ calls sinners
to come to Him. He doesn't call us to come to
a so-called altar. That's what people will be instructed
all over Sylacauga this morning and all over this country. Come
to an altar. Come say the sinner's prayer. No, He doesn't call us to go
to an altar to a church or to a priest or a preacher, to the
waters of baptism, or even to the Lord's table, or the law
of Moses, or even to His doctrine. He says, come unto me. Come unto
me. And notice what he says, the
next phrase, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. All ye that
labor. Does that describe you? The word
labor can be translated, anyone that toils with weariness. All who toil with weariness and
are heavy laden, burdened down, just burdened down, weighted
down, with a load they can't get rid of, are bidden to come
to Christ. Some labor and are heavy laden,
seeking salvation by their own works. They're engaged in an
impossible task, aren't they? No wonder they're worrisome.
That will wear you out. And when I was looking over this
message and thinking about it and praying over it, I couldn't
help but think of old John Bunyan's description of such a person
in his famous old allegory, Pilgrim's Progress. It begins this way. As I walked through the wilderness
of this world, I lighted on a certain place where there was a den.
And I laid me down in that place to sleep. And as I slept, I dreamed. I dreamed a dream. And behold,
I saw a man, clothed with rags, standing in a certain place,
with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great
burden upon his back." Pilgrim had experienced that
grace that got him lost. That's what Newton wrote about,
didn't it? Was grace that taught my heart
to fear? Oh yes, grace did that. Grace
gets you lost. Billy, you'd have never known
it. Not really, not really. You all might have given lip
service to it, but you'd have never known it. You'd have never
confessed it unless grace had taught your heart to fear. Grace
stripped me. Grace brought me down. Grace
may be confessed I am the sinner. Grace does that. This is exactly
what we read of in Psalm 38. Here's a good description of
a sinner under conviction of sin like Christian in Bunyan's
story. Psalm 38 verse 2, For thine arrows
stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no
soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there
any rest in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities
are gone over my head, a heavy burden they are, too heavy for
me. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long. That's what Bunyan was talking
about. He went on and wrote, I looked and saw him open the
book and read therein. And as he read, he wept and trembled. And not being able longer to
contain, he broke out with a lamentable cry, saying, what shall I do? Come unto me. Oh, I've been praying much, much
that I could meet such a sinner. They're rare. But if you ever
encounter a sinner, like Bunyan describes, like we just read
up in the psalm, if you ever encounter such a sinner, a real
sinner, a real sinner, someone who doesn't profess to
know God, that's a rare individual. He's lost, but he knows he's
lost. Oh God, would you bring such
a one here? Would you cross our paths with
a sinner? Someone crying out from the depths
of his heart, God have mercy on me. I'm the sinner. I won't argue about it. I won't
debate it. I won't compare myself to anybody
else because there's nobody else like me. There's nobody as bad
as me. I'm the sinner." If God brings
you into contact with someone like that, and they ask you,
what must I do to be saved? Don't tell them about election.
Oh no. Tell them that Jesus Christ came
into this world to save sinners. That he came into this world
with one purpose. To save his people from their
sins. Tell them about the sinner substitute. Read to them what Christ himself
says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Genuine
sinners that can't lift a finger to save themselves. genuine sinners. The gospel is good news to those
who don't claim anything from God but His justice. The wages
of sin is death. They've earned that, and they
know it. They've got that coming. To everyone who's ever labored
and been weighted down, crushed under the unbearable load of
guilt, the guilt of their sins, When they hear the sinner's only
Savior saying unto them, when they hear these words, I will
give you rest. Man, that's the best news they
ever heard in their life. Wasn't it to you? Wasn't it to
you? When Christ brought you down,
And you felt the load of your guilt and sin? Woe is me, you
say with Bunyan's Christian. What shall I do? Christ says,
come to me. I'll give you rest. I'll give
you rest. Oh, it would be easy to pitch
tent right there. Maybe that would be the best
thing for me to do. Maybe that would be the best thing for us
to do. Just stop and pray God. Help me to remember where I was
and what I was. Help me to remember that there
was a time when the most important thing in my life was finding
rest. Rest for my troubled soul. Peace for my burdened heart. Nothing else mattered. Is that
still the case? And he said, I will give you
rest. It's been a while, as I said,
since I met anybody like that. I don't mean that I don't know
people that are lost. The majority of the folks I know,
my acquaintances, my kinsmen, the majority of them are lost.
They're religious, but lost. People who've never experienced
God's mercy and grace. I know many such people. But
here's the thing, they're not bothered by it. They're not troubled
by it. Imagine that. Every one of them
soon, my brothers, soon are going to stand before
the living God without the only mediator between God and man,
the only one. The man Christ Jesus. They don't
have the mediator between them and a holy God. The only one
that can reconcile them to God. The only one that can bring them
together in peace with God. They don't have him. They have
nothing to look forward to, nothing to expect, except the God of
judgment saying, depart from me. And they don't even care. They're not bothered by it. You
can preach to them. Priesthood and with all your
heart You can do as Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 5 and 20 now
we then as ambassador ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you by us we Plead with you in Christ's stead be ye Reconciled
to God and they don't care enough to stay awake Hmm Oh, but But,
very real, lost, ruined, helpless, desperate sinner, laboring, laboring,
under a sense of their sins, Christ says, come unto me, come
unto me. Oh no, I don't hold you back.
No, no, come, come. With a heart full of mercy and
grace, he says, come. And there's the last, there's
the other phrase, and I will give you rest. Come and take
rest freely, without money, without price, without merit, without
preparation. Just come. Come now. Come as you are. Come with your
burden. Come with your yoke. The burden
of your sin Yet come, and the promise will be fulfilled in
you. I will give you rest. Christ doesn't say, I'll tell
you about rest. I'll show you rest. No, no, no. He said, I'll give you rest.
I'll give you rest. You'll experience this rest.
Only Christ has the power to do that. The will to give it,
and he alone has the right to give it, has the authority to
give it. God's committed that power, that
authority into his hand. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And he says emphatically, plainly,
unreservedly, I will give you rest. The word rest here expresses
means more than just relaxing. It has the idea of refreshment. This rest our Savior gives to
sinners, both a ceasing from their own labor and a reviving
of life. It's a given rest. Oh, but it
costs Him dear. He gives it to us freely. Oh,
but he bought it, he earned it with a price. It's a present
rest I will give, give. All who believe, when they believe,
enter into rest, the rest of faith, the sweet rest of faith. There's never been true rest
in the labors of my hands, never. go to the altar, and I went to
the altar. They got sick of looking at me. I was a hard case. They just didn't know what to
do. I did everything they said. I did everything they instructed
me to do. I said the sinner's prayer. I repeated it after them.
And I trot up there the next time. No rest. People slap me on the
back and say, well, congratulations. You made your decision for Jesus.
Now you're eternally safe. Now you go out that door, and
don't you ever doubt it. But there was no rest. There was
no rest. I still laid in bed at night
fearful, fearful that God would cast me into hell before morning,
and yet dreading for the day to come, because it would just
be another day that I was lost, lost. Oh, thank God he would
not let me go. Is this true? Can a guilty sinner
really find rest for his weary soul and peace for his troubled
heart? Hebrews 4 and 3, for we which
have believed do enter into rest. Now this is more than a pretense
that religion only gives. It's more than a make-believe
of a mere profession. This is real rest for real sinners
from a real Savior. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is sweet, satisfying rest,
isn't it? Because it is the rest from all
the guilt and fear we had before. A rest from all the toil and
legal work. A rest from all the curse and
all the condemnation. I want that, don't you? I want
that. Is it really so? Is it true?
Well, according to his name, he says yes. Yes, it's true. It's true. Come unto me and I
will give you rest. Like that leopard did. Like that
leopard did that we read about. And there came a leper to him,
that is to Christ, and beseeching him, and kneeling down to him,
and saying to him, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus moved. Anybody that
saw that man would move in their opposite direction. Jesus moved
toward him. Moved with compassion, he put
forth his hand and touched him. And at the same time he said,
I will, be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken,
immediately the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed. That's a picture of what Jesus
Christ does for sinners. Every sinner that comes to him
burned down with sin. He moves with compassion, didn't
he? He puts forth His hand and He touches them. And when He
does so, He says, I will. I will. I forgive thee, though
thy sins are many, I forgive them of all of them. Be thou
clean. And both that cleansed leopard
And that clean sinner go on their way rejoicing, singing something
like this. He touched me. Oh, he touched
me. And all the joy that floods my
soul. Something happened and now I
know. He touched me. Glory to his name. And he made me whole. Every miracle that Jesus Christ
performed was a demonstration and a picture of that greater
miracle of His saving grace. Another proof, another illustration is that poor demon-possessed
man in Mark 5. Listen to how he's described
before Christ found him. Can you identify with this? who
had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no,
not with chains. Because that he had been often
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could
any man tame him, so much for religion. And always, night and
day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and
cutting himself with stones. What a pitiful looking case.
Now look at him. after Christ finds him. And they
came to Jesus and saw him that was possessed with the devil
and had the legion, past tense, but now he's sitting and he's
clothed and in his right mind. He's resting. He's not hurting himself or anybody
else. He's resting. He's just resting
at the feet of Jesus. Paul in 1 Corinthians 6 says,
That's the before picture. Such were some of you, but you're
washed, but you're sanctified, but you're justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ Jesus, he's a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things become new. You remember what our Lord told
that demoniac? The townspeople came out and
said, we don't want you around here. We'd rather you not have
destroyed our swine. We think more of them than we
do you. Get out of here." And our Lord
was leaving and that demoniac wanted to go with him. Remember
what the Lord said to him? Go home to thy friends. Go home
to thy friends and you tell them. You go tell them what I've done
for you. Go home to thy friends and tell them what great things
I've done for you and have had compassion on you. Go home? Go home? My soul. Nobody ever thought that that
man would ever go home again. His friends and family had been
terrified by him. With good reason. How long since
he had been driven from home and put out into the tombs? I
don't know. Living among the dead. That's
where God found us. We had our dwelling in the tombs.
We were by nature to churn in wrath, even as others. We dwelt
among the dead. But God, but God, who is rich
in grace with His great love and with He loved us, hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace you are saved. Sin put
that poor man out into the tombs. Oh, but grace brings him home. Can you imagine his wife and
children when they see him coming down the road? Whoa. Their first thought is to hide.
Here comes that insane husband or insane father. Oh, but he's a new creature. He's not possessed anymore. What
Christ did for the leper What he did for this demoniac, he
did for this enslaved rebel. He got me lost. He brought me
down. Nobody else could. I think I've told you this before,
but I remember thinking, oh, and this only increased my burden.
Because I thought Christ won't save me. because
I went through the religious hoops, still lost, and I thought
I've been too wicked. John, I've just gone too far.
How can he show mercy on me? I believe this was one of Brother
Lowell's favorite hymns. I once was far from my Savior,
just as vile as a sinner could be, and I wondered if Christ
the Redeemer could save a poor sinner like me. I wandered on
into darkness, not a ray of light could I see. And the thought
filled my heart with sadness. There's no hope. There's just
no hope for a sinner like me. And then, in that dark, lonely hour, a
voice sweetly whispered to me, saying, look unto me. I have
power to save a poor sinner like thee. fully trusted in Jesus,
and oh, what a joy it came to me. My heart was filled with
his praises for saving a sinner like me. Again, let me borrow
Bunyan's story. Now, I saw in my dream that the
highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side
with a wall. And that wall was called salvation.
Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without
great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran
thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon
that place stood a cross, and a little below in the bottom
a sepulcher. So I saw in my dream. Just as Christian came up to
the cross, his burden loose from off his shoulders, and fell from
off his back and began to tumble, and so continued to do so, till
it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I saw it
no more." His burden was gone. Where did
he go? Christ says, come unto me, and
I'll give you rest. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
And there shall be none in the sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found. Why? Because the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Here's the second
thing briefly. I hope that God has been pleased
to stir your memory by the wonder of his grace when you first tasted
that he is so gracious. When he said to you, burden and
cast down, come unto me. But he speaks to the believer
that's come to Christ already with these words, doesn't he?
Come unto me, and I'll give you rest. You, you, struggling brother,
weary sister, he says to you, come to me. Not because of the
penalty of sin. No, no, no. Christ bore that
away. There is now, where there is
remission of sin, there is no more offering for sin, but we
still struggle with the presence of sin in us, don't we? Still
do. Oh, the sin of unbelief. Oh,
I wish I could trust him like he deserves to be trusted. Oh,
how often I dishonor him by not believing, not trusting. How
often do I lean upon the arm of flesh, try to take things
into my own hands. And that just makes me cry out
with Paul, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from
this body? When shall I be free? Paul cried. John Chapman wrote a good article.
It'll be in next Sunday's bulletin along this line. Living in this
body of flesh and sin is like living in a prison with a horrible
cellmate who is so foul-mouthed, never has bathed in his life.
He is a dirty, old, wretched man, and I'm stuck in this prison
cell with him. The sad part is he looks just
like me. When shall I be free? Well, when
that day comes, this body of sin to die, I will be free from
that old man, never, never to be imprisoned again. Who shall
deliver me? Paul answered the question. I
thank God through Jesus Christ the Lord. Come unto me. Come
to Christ, for he that in himself has suffered
being tempted, he's able to succor them that are tempted. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Let us come. Not work, let us
come. Not leaning on the arm of flesh
or our own understanding, but come casting all of our care
upon him. because he cares for us. That's the one thing, the primary
thing, I think, that the devil is always trying to get us not
to do, to keep looking unto Jesus. He's always trying to distract
us with something, somehow, to take our eyes off Christ, because
he knows looking unto Jesus is the best thing for us to do. Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
the psalmist wrote, and he shall sustain thee. He shall never
suffer the righteous to be moved. And our Lord says in verse 30,
my yoke is easy and my burden is light. My yoke is easy and my burden
is light. The old yoke was painful, but
Christ's yoke is easy. That burden was heavy, but Christ's
burden is light. The man found rest from his burden,
and now he finds rest in Christ. Spurgeon said, all who come to
Christ find it so. The easiest, most pleasant, most
tranquil existence in this world is the life of faith in, and
submission to, and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, the psalmist wrote, Psalm
116, the Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought love, and
he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered
my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from
falling. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. And as we walk through this world,
let us do so looking to him and trusting our Lord. Through many
dangers, toils, and snares, we have already come. His grace
has brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home. This rest promised by Christ
begins here, oh, but it doesn't end here. It will continue into
eternity, and there it will be perfect, uninterrupted, everlasting
rest. There remaineth, therefore, rest
to the people of God. A rest beyond all that can be
experienced here. It's the perfect rest of complete
salvation. A rest from all sin. A rest from
all affliction. A rest from all temptation. A
rest from every sorrow. I heard a voice from heaven saying
unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest. from their
laborers, and their works do follow them." Newton went on
to write, "'The Lord has promised good to me. His word my hope
secures. He will my shield and portion
be as long as life endures. The earth shall soon dissolve
like snow, the sun forbear to shine, but God who called me
here below will be forever mine.'" And now, in a few moments, we're
going to observe the Lord's Supper. By faith, let us hear these words
from our gracious Redeemer again. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come and eat the bread
and drink the wine. And remember that the one that
loved us and gave himself for us, God had made Christ to be
sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the very
righteousness of God in Him. All may we remember. My sin over
bliss of His glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole,
is nailed to His cross, and I bury it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. O my soul. Amen. Amen. God bless you.