Well, we're in Matthew's Gospel
chapter 11 and at the end of chapter 11 for this message this
morning. We saw last week at the start
of chapter 11, John sending two of his disciples to Jesus to
ask him, are you the Christ? What's going on? Are you the
one or should we be looking for somebody else? And Jesus showed
them the miracles and spoke to them of the miracles and said,
go and tell John that all of the signs of the promised Messiah,
and the Old Testament had promised the Messiah to come, the Messiah
who would come and would accomplish the salvation of His people,
that all of those signs that He promised, those signs are
there, those signs are being seen. The miracles are declaring,
when the Messiah comes, he will speak, but he will also perform
miracles. The dead will be raised, the
lame will be made to walk, the blind will receive their sight.
And Jesus said, go and tell John that exactly what was promised
is happening. The miracles showed John's disciples
that Jesus was the Messiah. But many, many people saw Many
were in those crowds. Many people saw and didn't benefit
from it at all, and didn't believe the gospel, and didn't follow
Christ. They'd had the law preached to
them. John had preached law. John had
preached righteousness and the need for repentance because of
the justice of God. And the law had threatened condemnation. Yet still, in their hordes, people
did not turn away from sin. The law had done that. The gospel
had promised justification. The gospel had promised that
sins would be forgiven. And yet people reacted in such
a fickle way to the words of John and then to Jesus. The same
evidence was seen by many. most were offended. Remember
what Jesus said in verse 6 of chapter 11, blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me. But many were offended in that
they stumbled at the message that Jesus brought. They were
offended, they stumbled. So many had seen Many had seen,
and many were offended at the message, but some were not offended. Some had believed Him. And then
we came down to where our reading began in verse 20, and Jesus
upbraids, He rebukes, the cities, the places where he'd been, and
performed miracles, and they had remained unbelieving, and
they had not repented of their sin, and they had not sought
the Lord while he may be found. These cities, seeing miracles
but unbelieving, and he said, your condemnation is going to
be worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. You think that that
might be the worst sin as ever, because the fire and brimstone
of God rained down upon them. But he said, you cities who have
seen and yet have not repented, greater is your condemnation.
It's a just condemnation. In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus
had sent out the 70, 70 disciples to preach in his name. And in
Luke's account, they had come back, and what we read there
is they had come back more impressed with the miracles that they performed,
demons being subject to them, more impressed with that than
with salvation. The truth of the gospel of grace
is a message of salvation from sin. And even the disciples sent
out had been more impressed with miraculous things than with the
truth of salvation. Why is it like that? Why is it
like that? I've written an article in the
bulletin for you to think about. Is it because we've just been
lax? No doubt we could have done better.
But no, the answer is in verse 25. In verse 25, Jesus says,
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent. That's
wise and prudent in human terms. That's those who consider themselves
to be wise and prudent. You've hidden the truth of God
from them and has revealed them unto babes. God has done that
in sovereign grace. This is his answer to the question,
why is it like that? The sovereignty is God's, to
give revelation in accordance with his choice. It's not of
him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God that shows mercy. You see, the natural man is wise
and prudent in his own estimation. But that wisdom of man, the wisdom
of man will never discern the truth of God. You cannot work
it out by logic and human reasoning. Just turn to 1 Corinthians and
chapter one, and just look at some verses with me. 1 Corinthians
chapter one, Paul writes about this here. He says in verse 19
of chapter 1, it is written, I will destroy, God will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, the natural wisdom, human wisdom, and will
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent, those who are
prudent, wise, in their own human wisdom, their own human eyes. In verse 26, he says, For you
see your calling, brethren, how not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. God doesn't call
the high and mighty in their own human reasoning. In chapter
2, Look at verse 7. But we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
the world unto our glory. That wisdom of God is the gospel,
the hidden wisdom of God, the gospel of God, which it is God's
prerogative in sovereign grace to reveal to whom he will. Verse
10 of chapter 2. But God has revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. It's God's prerogative to reveal
the truth of Gospel grace. Verse 13. Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which
the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual,
and verse 14, but the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Where
do you get spiritual discernment? It is God's to give, and it is
God who does the giving of that spiritual discernment. He is
the one who gives spiritual light to see and to understand the
truth. It has pleased God, not to reveal
to those who are wise and prudent in human wisdom. But it has pleased
God to reveal His truth to what He calls babes in verse 25 of
Matthew 11. You have revealed them unto babes. What does the term babes signify? He doesn't mean literal babes,
but what He means is people who are given the demeanor, the characteristics
of a baby in this respect, that spiritually they are brought
to realize how utterly helpless, how utterly without strength
they are, how utterly dependent on God they are for everything,
that they have no human wisdom of any value when it comes to
discerning and plumbing the depths of the living God. One of Job's
comforters said, you know, who can find out God? Who can fathom
out God? Nobody by human wisdom can fathom
out God. No, the truth of God is a condition,
a truth that is bestowed by grace. Look in verse 27. Jesus says,
even so it seemed good in thy sight. And then in verse 27,
all things are delivered unto me of my Father. Remember, this
is a man clothed in the likeness of sinful flesh. He didn't look
any different to any other man. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father. That the hidden mysteries of
God, the truth of God, the majesty of God, is delivered unto this
man who is speaking. And he says, and no man knows
the Son, the Son of God, but the Father. No man truly knows
Him. It's the Father who knows the Son. No man knows the Son
but the Father. neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son. Only the Son knows the Father,
and, and who else? He to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, chooses of His own will to reveal the truth of the Godhead
to His people, to whomsoever He will. It's all perceived and
obtained through the revelation of God in Christ, because how
do we fathom the mystery of God? No man has seen God at any time,
says John's Gospel. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. He has manifested
Him. He has revealed Him. We have
to have this revelation from God. Paul said in writing to
the Galatians in chapter 1 verses 15 and 16, Paul said this, not
when I worked it out, not when I philosophically came to a knowledge
of the true gospel, no, when it pleased God. who separated
me from my mother's womb. I didn't have anything to do
with that either. I just was born. It wasn't any of my choice. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to do
what? To reveal His Son in me. Has God revealed His Son in you? Has He? This is what we need.
We need the Son to be revealed in us and to us. The revelation
of the truth of God. That revelation of the truth
of God stripped Paul of all of his pharisaical wisdom, all of
his pharisaical religious strength and knowledge, all of that prudence
that he thought he had, it stripped him of it, stripped him bare
in a moment when God revealed his Son in him. That revelation
of that truth stripped him of that and left him naked. And
he says, writing to the Philippians, that all of that which he had
counted of such value, his religious teachings, his religious fervor,
his keeping of the pharisaical laws so that nobody could blame
him of any slip-up regarding those laws. He says, all of that
I count as dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
You see, it makes babes in terms of our own strength. This revelation of the truth
of grace by God to people, it makes babes of us in terms of
the human strength that we thought we had. Having stripped a person
of all natural strength and wisdom, the Spirit reveals the truth
of God. The Spirit of God reveals in
a person, the truth of God, reveals the power of God, that we sense
the power of God all around, in creation, in everything around
us, in righteousness, in true righteousness, true biblical
righteousness, true godly righteousness. It reveals the truth concerning
sin and what a vile, repulsive thing it is in the sight of God.
It shows us something of the justice of God, how God is of
purer eyes than to behold iniquity and cannot look upon sin, that
he must punish sin, that it is appointed to die and then the
judgment, and the justice of God must be executed. and to
reveal redemption and the accomplishment of Christ in His death and His
shed blood on the cross as the sinner's substitute, as the sin-bearing
offering that God might have his justice satisfied in the
death and the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to
accomplish salvation, salvation from sin, that God has saved
his people from their sins when Christ died for those people. God's revelation produces a reaction
It does, it produces a reaction. Job thought he knew a lot about
God. I know I've said this many times,
but he said, I have heard of you with the hearing of the ear.
I thought I knew all there was to know, but now mine eye sees
you. And I think he means the eye
of faith. My eye sees what you're really like. And I abhor myself
and I repent in dust and ashes. When Isaiah went into the temple
in Isaiah chapter 6 in the year that King Uzziah died and he
went into the temple and was given a vision of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We know it was the Lord Jesus
Christ because John chapter 12 tells us. that he saw the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah saw his glory, the glory
of Christ. And when he saw the glory of
Christ, the glory of God, filling the temple, manifested, visible
to his eyes. Whether anybody else could see
it, I don't know, but certainly Isaiah saw it. And seeing it,
it produced a reaction. The revelation of God produces
a reaction. Isaiah's reaction? Woe is me,
for I am undone. For mine eyes have seen the King,
I've seen the Lord of glory. I am a man of unclean lips, and
I live amongst a people of unclean lips. We're sinful, and I've
seen God in His glory, in His sinless purity, His glory. It produces a reaction, this
revelation. In Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, You know that Pilgrim was living quite
happily along with everybody else in Vanity Fair in the city
destined for destruction and the Spirit of God awakes him
and he becomes conscious of a burden on his back and that burden is
the burden of sin that will condemn him to hell because he sees that
God is holy and majestic and glorious and cannot possibly
have somebody who is carrying a burden of sin like he did,
like all of us do, with them into glory. And he must be in
glory, but how is he going to get there? And he has this burden
on his back that will keep him from that. The revelation of
God produces a reaction. It produces a consciousness of
sin, of unfitness, of eternity. of the reality of eternity. You
know, this world is just, this is not it, this is not the sum
total, this is not the end of all things. This consciousness
of God produces a consciousness of sin and of unfitness and of
eternity. It isn't just a feeling of remorse.
We can be sorry for what might happen to us. We can be sorry
for what we might lose. That's just remorse, but this
is repentance, wanting to turn from sin, wanting to take God's
side in judgment against ourself. This is all the result of the
Spirit's work. Why are things like this? Jesus
said, even so, Father. For so it seemed good in thy
sight. In the sovereign grace of God,
God speaks and reveals the truth to some. Praise God that he does. He didn't need to, but in grace
he does. He reveals the truth to some.
This is all the Spirit's work. And to such, to whom he reveals
something of himself, comes an invitation and a gracious promise. And it's in verses 28 to 30.
We often quote it, but I want to look at it in a little more
detail in the few minutes that we have this morning. There in
verse 28, we read, come unto me, very familiar words. 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 you shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. You know, we know this so well.
In fact, there's always a danger that the familiarity of the words
will breed contempt and that we don't take it seriously. But
try to take it seriously. Ask God to help us to take it
seriously this morning. What I want to look at in these
words is who it is that is calling, come unto me, who it is. To whom
is he calling? To whom is he calling? What is
the nature of the invitation that he calls with? And what
is the promise to those who heed that call? Very simple. Who is
it that calls? Well, it's our Lord Jesus Christ,
because he it is that is speaking about his Father. He says, come
unto me. This is the one who is calling.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's calling us to come to him.
If a homeless, destitute person were to invite you to dinner,
You know, the sort that you might find sleeping on a park bench
or in a shop doorway. A homeless, destitute person,
if they invite you to dinner, it might be a very kind thought
of them, but you wouldn't go expecting much, would you? Because
you don't see that they have any resources with which to give
you a dinner. But if, for example, you've got
a banquet invitation, there's a series of programmes on the
BBC, the Great British Menu, where it's a competition to come
up with the best banquet menu, and there's about, I don't know,
36 or so different quality chefs from around the country all compete
in stages and get eliminated. And there, finally, there are
four courses of food that are served up at this banquet. Now,
if you had an invitation to a banquet like that, you would expect to
receive a sumptuous feast of the finest of dining that you
could possibly get anywhere in this country. It all depends
on who's doing the inviting as to what you can expect. So who
is this that calls out? Who is this Jesus? Who is this
one who is calling out, come unto me and I will give you rest?
Who is it? Who is this that calls out? This
is Emmanuel. Emmanuel, God with us. God. Think, in the very term,
the resources of God, the infinite resources of God, the infinite
resources of power and majesty and ability. God with us is the
one who calls out, the one who they said, no man ever spoke
like this man, they'd never heard anybody speak like him, because
he was God in flesh. He who calls out is God, manifest
in the flesh. He who calls out this man is
the one, we read, by whom God made the worlds. It says without
him was nothing made that was made. He is the creator of all
things. We read in Hebrews chapter 1
that it is by the word of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ
that God upholds all things. that the planets and the stars
and the atoms and everything is held in its place and governed
by the laws according to His Word. It's His active speaking.
This is the One who says, come unto Me, the One who sustains
all things and upholds all things. It is the Sovereign God with
all the attributes of God, with all of the power of God, with
all of the holiness and purity of God, with all of the strength
of God, the One who spoke, let there be light and there was
light, who has shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
This is the One who says, come unto me, all you that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The man who is
the one mediator, for there is one mediator between God who
is holy and man who is sinful. Who is it? It is the man, Christ
Jesus. This man, who is God, who is
the mediator. He is the one in whom dwelt the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. We read in Colossians chapter
2 verse 9. The fullness of the Godhead bodily,
in a human body. As it was put by the hymn writer,
God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man. The fullness of the
Godhead bodily. He who raised the, healed, sorry,
he who healed the sick. He who raised the dead. They
saw it, they saw these miracles. And then in the boat on the storm-tossed
sea, he calmed the storm. And they said, what manner of
man is this? that even the wind and the waves
obey Him. This is God, manifest in the
flesh. He, who Paul says in Romans 9
verse 5, is Christ, who is over all, Christ, who is God, blessed
forever. There it is, it couldn't be plainer.
He is God. Look at Colossians chapter 1
and verse 15. Jesus, speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we could start earlier, but it says of him, who is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
The image, the express image, says Hebrews chapter 1. it pleased the Father, that in
him should all fullness dwell." This is who it is that says,
come unto me. Surely he has the power to perform
the promise of his invitation, and also the will to do it as
well. He needs the power to do it, he needs the will to do it.
He has the will to do it as well. How strong is his will? How strong
is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ to accomplish His purposes,
to give true spiritual rest to those who come to Him, who come
in faith to Him? How strong is His will? We read
in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, for the joy set before Him,
He endured the cross, despising the shame. He went through that.
Why? For the joy set before Him. That's
how strong His will is. His will, that of all that the
Father had given Him, He should lose nothing, but should raise
it up at the last day. He endured the cross, despising
the shame. He who was equal with God, God
could not suffer. for sin. God could not suffer
as a substitute, so God had to become a man. And in the Lord
Jesus Christ, he became man. He laid his glory aside. He who,
as Philippians 2 tells us, though he was in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. He was equal with God, but
he laid that aside temporarily, for a little while made lower
than the angels, that he might come as a servant, a suffering
servant, in the form of a servant, obedient, obedient to the will
of his Father. How far obedient, even unto the
death, which death? The shameful, cursed death of
the cross. so that he might redeem his people
from the curse of the law by being made a curse for them.
He took flesh upon himself, the flesh of the children that he
came to save. He took that flesh upon him,
that he might come in the likeness of sinful flesh. What was his
will? What was his determination? Look
at his joy. He says, Behold, I and the children
whom the Father has given me. Behold, look, look at this, look,
it's accomplished. Look at me and the children the
Father has given me. This is his will, to accomplish
that. As it says in Psalm 24, 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 the King
of glory? Lord strong and mighty, accomplishing
his purposes, who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts,
I and the children whom he has given me. This is the one who
says, come unto me. This is the call of God from
the one who is called the word of God. In the beginning was
the word and the word was with God. In Psalm 119 verse 106,
that very word says this. This is him determining his will,
speaking of how strong was his will. I have sworn, I will perform
it. I will perform it. Jesus, who
calls, come unto me. To those whom he calls, who are
they? The call is not a general call
to all without exception. You know, the call there, you
can see it quite clearly, come unto me. Who? Everybody without
exception doesn't say that, does he? He says, come unto me. all
ye that labour and are heavy laden. Are you labouring and
heavy laden in the way that Jesus means? Then he's calling to you,
and to you he is promising rest. It isn't a call without exception
to all. It's targeted. He calls those
who are weary and labour. They're bowed under a heavy burden.
They're labouring for rest, for rest, but all in vain. They're
labouring for righteousness, but all in vain. Labouring for
the righteousness that God requires, without which no man shall follow
after holiness. Follow it, pursue it. The holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. What holiness must
it be? Not one of your own making. Not
your own filthy rags righteousness. It must be perfect. It must be
without blemish and without spot. A perfect righteousness. labouring
for it, but finding it all in vain. For the more we labour,
the more we discover our inability to labour. The more we labour
for it, the more we discover how out of reach is that righteousness
that we must have in our own strength. We become conscious
that we are as unable as the leopard is to change his spots,
so are we unable to change what we are as sinners by nature.
However, well-meaning, the problem is the heart. The heart of man,
as Jeremiah said, the heart of man is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. That's your heart, that's my
heart. Desperately wicked. Deceitful
above all things. Desperately wicked. and all of
the striving, all of the slaving, all of the labouring, to make
a garment covering, fit for God's presence, and constantly failing,
constantly falling short. To sin means to fall short of
the target, constantly falling short. It must be perfect, but
all of our righteousness is as Isaiah says, are as filthy rags.
Job says this in chapter nine and verses 30 and 31. If I wash
myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet
shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor
me. Because I'm a sinner, I cannot
wash myself clean. And the spirit comes and quickens
a person. to God's righteousness and to
the requirement and to the holiness of God. And then the enlivened
soul becomes conscious of laboring under temptations, laboring with
sin and under temptations, laboring under temptations to sin, to
sin, to lust for things, to covet things, the sin of pride, the
sin of ill temper, the sin of intemperate speech, the temptation
to unbelief, the assaults of Satan, all of these come, and
we're weary, weary, laboring, weary, tired, tired with the
labor to be right with God, crushed, heavy laden, under a heavy burden,
a burden that is, you just, it might be heavy, but it's more
than heavy, it's going to actually crush you down, crushed by a
heavy burden of unfitness in the sight of God. Does that mean
that there's no hope? Listen to what Jesus said, I
came not for the righteous, but I came to seek and to save that
which is lost. He said the whole, those who
are well need not a physician, but those who are sick Are we
sick with sin? Has God made us conscious that
we're sick with sin? The Lord Jesus Christ said that
He came for that very, very purpose. These are the ones that He calls
to. Come unto me, you who labor.
How do you labor? God has made you conscious of
your sin and made you aware, like Pilgrim, with that burden
on his back. And that burden, he just became
more and more. And the people kept telling him, don't be so
silly. There's nothing wrong with you. Why don't you just
get on with your life and enjoy it? But he couldn't. because
he was conscious of the burden that God had placed on his back
of the knowledge of sin. And he must be free from it.
He must be free from it. And it's to such that he calls
here, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Look at his invitation. He says,
come unto me and I will give you rest. He says, come unto
me. I will give you rest. The prophets
of the Old Testament said, thus saith the Lord. But he said,
I say unto you, I say unto you, come unto me and I will give
you rest. This is what he says, come unto
me. What is it to come unto him? All of the big Arminian crusades
that we hear about from time to time, they all say, come to
Jesus. That's what he's telling you. And what you do is you have
to get off your seat and you have to walk the aisle and you
have to come down to the front. That is not what is meant here
by coming unto Jesus. What is it to come to him? Remember,
it's an invitation to the weary and heavy laden only, those who
have a perceived need for ease of this labor, of this struggle
with sin and the lifting of a burden. He says, come to him. What is
it to come? It isn't physical movement. It
isn't bodily movement. You don't move from your seat
down to the front of the aisle and to the platform at the front. No, it is soul movement. It is the movement of the soul
spiritually to Christ. How do you do that? It's faith.
It's faith. Hebrews 11 verse six, he that
comes to God must believe, that's faith, must believe that he is,
that he exists, of what he is, and that he is the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. Coming to God is believing God. Coming to God is soul movement
to God, to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. It's to have faith, the sight
of the soul, to look to Him. The sight of the soul to trust
that Christ has accomplished redemption for God's elect. that
He's the refuge, the only refuge that we need from the storm of
justice, the only refuge. We're going to sing that beautiful
hymn of Charles Wesley, Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy
bosom fly while the raging billows roll, while the tempest still
is high. Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, till the storm of life
is past, safe into the haven guide. O receive my soul at last,
because other refuge have I none. hangs my helpless soul on thee.
Leave or leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
We'll sing that shortly. where one realizes that the righteousness
of God cannot be earned by works, but hears and believes that Christ
has made his people the righteousness of God in him, by him taking
their sins. That is coming to Christ. That is what it is to heed this
invitation, to come to Christ, is to believe him, to believe
the gospel of his grace. driven there by inability to
satisfy the law, and drawn by everlasting love. It's a carrot
and stick. The law is our schoolmaster,
it says, to bring us, the to bring us is in italic, so it's
not really there. It's our schoolmaster to Christ. It's like the stick
that drives us. The inability to keep it drives
us to where alone we can have the righteousness of God in him. But yet at the same time, the
everlasting love of God draws us, as he says in Jeremiah 31
and verse 3, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. and it isn't a once only coming
either, it's a daily coming. Daily we come to him, daily we
find rest for our souls, daily, constantly in our consciousness,
our spiritual consciousness, we come believing, trusting,
resting in him. And what is finally his promise?
Come unto me and I will give you rest for your souls. My yoke,
the yoke of the oxen, the thing that holds them together, he
says, put this yoke on with me, is what the Lord Jesus Christ
says. This yoke is easy. It's easy. And the burden is
light. His commandments are not grievous,
we read elsewhere. It's a rest for our souls, a
Sabbath for our souls. It's the relief of the burden,
it's the soothing of the weariness, the lifting of it. In the Song
of Solomon chapter 8 and verse 5 we read, Who is this that cometh
up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved, resting upon
her Beloved, leaning upon her Beloved? It's the church, it's
the people of God, and the beloved is the Lord Jesus Christ. Come
unto me and I will give you rest. You can lean on me, you can rest
on me. The rest of peace with God. Is it not so good to know that
we have peace with God? Where there was enmity, where
there was condemnation, where there was justice to be exacted,
to find peace with God. All the blessings of peace with
God. All the rest from conflict with
sin and with God. You know, we've marked the 75th
anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on Friday. And you're looking
back at the scenes of London on that day, the 8th of May,
1945, when the Nazi regime had finally unconditionally surrendered
and the people that had had six years, almost, of intense conflict,
intense struggle and strife to have the victory, and now there
it was, it was achieved. Rest from conflict, well, in
the same way, rest for your souls is rest from the conflict that
sin will drag you down to hell, for Christ has dealt with it,
and looking unto Him, coming unto Him, believing in Him, we
find rest for our souls. Rest on the foundation rock,
You know that's what the building rests on, the foundation, the
solid foundation, the rock foundation. The building rests on the rock,
and the rock we read is Christ, the foundation. You will find
rest for your souls. The termination of strife. My
sin, says another hymn, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious
thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to his
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
Oh, my soul, rest for your souls. May the righteousness of God
in Christ. Rest from anxiety regarding death,
which every day we're a step nearer to. Every day we're one
day nearer to the day we die, for it's appointed to man to
die once and then the judgment, but rest. for your souls. Rest. Rest. It's dealt with. Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law. There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
There's rest in a good hope of eternal promise fulfilled so
that we will hear what he will say on that day. Come, you blessed
of my Father, enter into the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. As I said before, when Jesus
preached, many saw, many heard, but many were blinded by unbelief. Why? For, so it seemed good in
thy sight, is the only answer I can give on the strength of
Scripture. It's what God reveals to us through his Son here. But
by grace, some were made like babes, stripped of human prudence,
human wisdom, and God revealed his eternal truth to them, and
he still does. His divine righteousness, the
fact of sin and of justice, and the accomplishment of righteousness
by the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel of his grace. To them,
to all such, he calls, come unto me and I will give you rest.
Do you hear his call? Is he calling to you? Will you
heed his call? Have you not heard it? Do you
want to hear it? There's another hymn that says
this, I often quote it. Savior, dear Savior, hear my
humble cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. That's the prayer that we should
pray. Amen.