Matthew chapter 11. Notice again verse 20 how it
begins. It begins with the word, then. Then began he to upbraid the
cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they
repented not. Then. We didn't read it, but
if you go back in the chapter, This takes place after John's
disciples came to Christ, after John had been in prison. John
actually sends these two disciples to Christ. Look at verse 2 in
chapter 11. And when John had heard in prison,
or when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he
sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that
should come, or do we look for another? Did John in this hour
of difficulty facing death, did he have an eclipse of his faith
where he perhaps doubted what he had professed before? I really
don't think so. I really don't think so. Men
at their best are still men. But I think John sends these
two last remaining disciples away from himself, don't cling
to me." Just like he did with Andrew, remember? Andrew, Peter's
brother, was a disciple of John the Baptist. We learned this
in John's Gospel chapter 1, and one day he stood with John the
Baptist, he and another disciple. And this is after the Lord had
appeared on the scene, after John had baptized him. And he
said to those disciples, Behold the Lamb of God. That's the one
I'm the forerunner of. That's why I'm here. I'm not
to Christ. You need to follow Him. He's the Lamb. And Andrew followed
Him. And you remember, after meeting
Christ, staying with Christ, he comes back and tells Peter,
we found the Messiah. Peter, come with me. I want to
introduce you to him. And now John's in prison. He's
been imprisoned by Herod and he sends these two disciples
that they might see and hear again for themselves that Jesus
Christ is indeed the Messiah. John has been imprisoned, as
we said by Herod, with death soon to follow. In John chapter
3, he said, he must increase. That is, speaking of Christ.
He said, he must increase. He must. What about you, John? He said, I must decrease. Now that he has arrived on the
scene, I, who was only the forerunner. Are you the Christ, they asked,
the religious leaders. Are you the Christ? And John
said, no, absolutely not. Let me tell you again and make
it plain. I am not the Christ. Well, who
are you then? I'm just a voice. I'm just the
voice. I'm just the voice of one crying
in the wilderness. He that has the bride, he's the
bridegroom, and that's not me. He that cometh from above is
above all, and that's not me. He that cometh after me, that
comes as a matter of time, comes after me. He it is that was preferred
before me. The word, as I've told you before,
means he ranks higher than I. He must increase and I must decrease. And it was concerning this. about
John the Baptist that our Lord speaks in the chapter from verses
7 through 19. He speaks of that faithful prophet,
the last of the prophets, the only prophet who literally saw
that one that he prophesied of. What an honor. What an honor. John, the last of the prophets,
our Lord says there's not a greater than him. He saw that one. whom he witnessed of. He saw
that one who he said should come after him, that one that day
that he baptized. He saw the heavens open and the
dove descend upon not John, but Christ. And that voice, the very
voice of God Almighty speak from heaven concerning not John, but
Christ, and he said concerning Christ, this is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." That's final. That's final. Oh, and John said,
I love to have it so. I'm not jealous. One time some
of his disciples came to him and said, Master, he whom you
baptized, who came on the scene after you. All men are going
to Him. And John said, I'm not a bit
jealous. I told you, I'm not the Christ. He must increase, but I must
decrease. And our Lord speaks concerning
John and says, look, if you will, at verse 11. Verily I say unto you among them
that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than
John the Baptist." Not a greater. Verse 10, he quotes from the
prophet Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, and he
said, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face. That was a prophecy
of John the Baptist in Malachi chapter 3 verse 1, which shall
prepare my way before me. Oh, yes. Our Lord said, John
came preaching to you and you wouldn't believe. I came preaching
and you wouldn't believe. That's why He upbraids these
cities. He said, there's no pleasing
you. He said, you're like children, down in verse 17, playing in
the marketplace. And their companions say, We
want to play a game. And the children say, well, let's
pretend we're at a wedding, a festival, a happy occasion, and we'll pipe
to you. But you've not rejoiced, you've
not danced. Well, let's do the other. Let's
pretend we're at a funeral, and we'll play a mournful song, but
you've not lamented. There's no pleasing you. And
Christ said the same with you. John came to you neither eating
or drinking. And you said, the man's possessed.
I came to you doing both, eating and drinking and associating
with sinners, and you've called me a winebibber. In that context,
he begins to upbraid those cities wherein most of his mighty works
were done. Oh John, yes, faithfully bore
witness to Christ. Faithfully. Again he said, I'm
not the Christ, behold the Lamb of God. And now Christ bears
witness to John. What did our Lord say? Him that
honoreth me I will honor. Is there not something very comforting
in that to all believers in our Lord concerning his testimony
of John? It shows the tender care and
interest the head of the church, Jesus Christ himself. It shows
what tender care and love and concern he has for all of his
members, does it not? He acknowledges John. And it
is a sweet foretaste of that confession that he'll make concerning
them when he presents them. I love this. when He presents
them faultless before His Father's throne. Turn if you will to chapter
25 before we come through our text. Just breathe. Matthew chapter
25. Our Lord speaks of that time.
Matthew 25 verse 31. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, Then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered
all nations." That's not a fairy tale. That's not an old, old
wife's tale. That's not a fable. That's going
to happen. That's going to happen to every
one of us. Every one here this morning, every one of us are
going to stand before him. And before him, again, verse
32, shall be gathered all nations, all nations. And he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, he's the great
shepherd of the sheep, but the goats on the left. Then shall
the king say unto them on his right hand, the king, the one
that sets upon the throne, he'll say to those on his right hand,
come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom, prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. He'll acknowledge
them, He'll own them, He'll claim them as His own in eternity.
He does so now, does He not? Is that not comforting? Because
His brethren, Hebrews 2, were flesh and blood, he likewise
took part of the same. He said, I'm not ashamed to call
them brethren. I'll declare thy name, O God,
to my brethren. And when time shall be no more,
I shall present my brethren, bone of my bone and flesh of
my flesh, back to you, Father, without fault before the throne
of God. What more? What more could be
desired than to have Him acknowledge me? What more could I ask for? What more could a redeemed sinner
want? And I'll tell you, the answer
is nothing. That's enough. If He acknowledges
me, if He says, I know my sin, And he's one of mine, like he
said concerning John. John's mine. Oh, Herod's in prisoning,
and he's soon to face death. He'll soon be beheaded. Oh, but
he's my sheep, and he'll be brought to glory to abide with me forever. Oh, bless God, he said, I know
my sheep. That's all that matters. Are
you listening? Does anything else matter? Does anything else matter? Does
anything else really matter at all? Is anything in comparison
to this even to be considered? We're all leaving this world.
We're all going to stand before God. We're all going to face
an eternity. and the only mediator, the only
one there is between my sinful soul and that holy God is Jesus
Christ. Does anything else matter if
He doesn't know me? If He doesn't love me? If I've
not come to Him and found sweet rest. Take away all the worldly
distinctions that we have in this world. Big eyes. and little me's, big thou's alone. Take away all those worldly distinctions
that mean so much now. Take away all man's religious
pretense, stripping of all those false notions. Take away the
plastic and the glitter and the show And this is the only thing
needful, that I may know Him." Carlos, that's all that matters. That's all that matters, Logan.
If God is pleased to allow me to be aware that I'm leaving
this world, When I'm laying on my deathbed and drawing my last
breath, the only thing that's going to matter is not what I'm
leaving behind, not what I've done. The only thing that's going
to matter is does he know me? Oh, and the only comfort I can
have, the only comfort I can have is by grace to say, yes,
I know whom I have believed, brother-in-law, I know him. And
oh, I'll wrap up. I'm wrapped up in his righteousness.
I'll leave this world in his righteousness. I'll stand before
God in his righteousness and hear him say, enter into the
joy prepared for you. On what grounds? Because I'm
accepted in him. Oh yes, he acknowledged John
and he acknowledges all his own. Look in chapter 10 of Matthew.
Just look across the page of your Bible at chapter 10 verse
32. Our Lord again speaking and he
says, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, Him will
I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." Oh, what
comfort! He's going to tell His Father,
He's mine. He's one that you gave me. He's
one that you entered into that everlasting covenant with me
before the world began, that is, with Christ. He's one of
the sheep that you entrusted into my hands. He's one that
I entered the world for. He's one that I lived for. He's
one that I died for. He's mine. Oh, thank God, is
anything else important? But whosoever, verse 33, shall
deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father
which is in heaven. No wonder our Lord said in Jeremiah,
Let not the rich man glory in his riches, or the strong man
glory in his strength. But he that glorieth, let him
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, saith. Oh yes, again I ask you, is anything
else important? And then in verses 20 through
24, our Lord speaks of man's responsibility. Man's responsibility
to repent and to believe. Oh, but he's not able. Our Lord
says that on down in the chapter plainly, emphatically. In verse
27, oh, but that's his own fault. Man's inability is the very essence
of his sin. That doesn't excuse him. When
Adam failed and lost the ability to obey God, when he failed in
the sin and depravity and could no longer love and obey God or
even have a desire or a will to do so, that didn't excuse
him, did it? God still held him accountable,
did he not? and he does you and I. That's
why our Lord said it'll be more tolerable for Sodom than these
cities that saw his works and heard his gospel. Briefly, let
me just say this, Christ taught and the book teaches throughout,
God's word teaches throughout, man's responsible for his damnation. If you go to hell, And if you
don't know Christ and you die in that condition, that's where
you'll go. And if you go there, there's nobody to blame but yourself. You won't be able to blame God's
sovereignty. You won't be able to blame election. You won't be able to blame not
having the gift of faith. It'll be your own fault. You
believed not. That's your sin. But on the other
hand, for every child of God, not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. If you're lost, it's your fault,
but all if you're saved, it's all God's fault. It's all a matter
of grace. And then in verses 25 through
27, Our Lord goes on to speak about
divine sovereignty. He spoke about man's responsibility. But then he speaks about divine
sovereignty. In those verses he speaks about
discriminating grace. And only that that maketh one
to differ from another. And that alone makes the difference. Look at verse 25 again. At that
time Jesus answered. He answered. He answered who? I don't read there that anybody
asked him anything. What does it mean? At that time,
Jesus answered. He answers what he spoke about
in the previous verses. The answer to sin abounding in
man is grace abounding in Christ. That's the answer. That's the
answer to man's depravity. That's the answer to man's enslaved
will. God's amazing grace. I'm so thankful. And if you ever see your need
of Christ, if God ever strips you bare, you'll be thankful
too. That it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. Because if it was of him that
willeth, you know what? Nobody would be saved. Nobody
would be saved. Thank God it's of Him that showeth
mercy. That's the only reason any sinner
is ever saved. Only those who have never bowed,
our Lord describes them as the self-proclaimed wise and prudent. They have no need, have no need
of the great physician. Only those who have never bowed
have a problem with sovereign mercy. But ask any helpless sinner. Ask anyone who's been stripped. Ask anyone who's been enslaved
by sin. Ask any poor rebel or prodigal
that's been brought back to the Father's house, what do you think
of sovereign mercy? What do you think of discriminating
grace? What do you think of the God
of heaven saying, I will have mercy? He'll say, I thank God
that that's so. I thank God that that's true,
that he has declared and it can't be revoked. I will have mercy. I will have mercy. on whom I
will have mercy." And they'll also tell you, I'm so thankful
that he didn't leave me to my will. Look again at verse 27.
Our Lord says, all things are delivered unto me of my Father. That's an undoubted fact. In
God's Word and in the experience of every called sinner, they
know this. They know it by personal experience. If I know the Father, it's because
the Son has been pleased to reveal Him to me. I could never know
Him otherwise. It's utterly impossible. There was a time that I couldn't
believe. I couldn't believe. I wanted
to believe. I tried to believe, Lester. I
mean, Brother Lowell and Lester. I tried to believe, but I couldn't. I couldn't. People said, well,
just believe. Just believe. I said, OK. But I couldn't. I couldn't believe. And then one day, God said, look
unto me, and be ye saved. And I looked, and I saw. Because he granted me the gift
of his precious No man knoweth who the Father is, save the Son. Blessed are your eyes, he said
in Luke 10. Why? Why? Because you see. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Why? Because my Father's done
something for you. He's done something for you that
He's not done for Judas, that He's not done for everybody.
He showed you. He's dropped his grace into your
heart so that you know who I am. Blessed are your eyes for they
see. Oh, aren't we? Brothers and sisters
in Christ, are we not? Let's come now to verse 28. I'm
anxious to get there. Here you have the promise of
rest. The promise of rest. Come unto
me." And our Lord says this in all sincerity. Come unto me. Well, He's spoken about discriminating
grace in verse 27. Yes, He has. But then He says
at the same time, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." Who knows more or understands
more about God's eternal decrees than the Son of God Himself?
Who knows more, seen more about man's depravity than the Son
of God Himself? And yet he says in verse 28,
any sinner, any sinner that comes to me, Anyone who is laboring
and heavy laden, come to me and I promise you, I promise you,
he says, I will give you rest. You that came to him, did you
not find it so? When you came to Him seeking
rest for your weary, sinful soul, when you came to Him with that
load on your back, that burden of guilt that was weighting your
soul down to hell, when you came to Him seeking mercy and peace,
did you not find it? Did He turn you away? No. No. Oh, you found then what you
could not believe before, that it was grace all along. It was sweet grace, grace that
taught my heart to fear, yes. It was grace doing that necessary
work of stripping me so that I might be clothed, bringing
me down that he might lift me up, or making me bow before him,
saying, I've sinned so he could sweetly speak to me, thy sins
are all forgiven. Oh yes, come unto me all ye that
labor, and I will give thee rest. The place of rest, that is most
important. Don't fail to see the forest
for the trees. Look what he says, come unto
me. Come unto me. People all around
this morning, all around us, all in Alabama, in the United
States, all over the world, people are gathering in churches like
we are. Men are standing up like I'm doing, but they're directing
people to look to everything and everyone except the only
source of rest, Jesus Christ Himself. They're exhorted to
move their feet. They're exhorted to repeat a
prayer. They're encouraged to sign a decision card, to do all
these things, and the Lord of Glory stands and says, no, no,
no. Come unto me. You can't have rest unless you
come to me. You can't know God except you
come to me. You won't find forgiveness unless
you come to me. Come unto me, he says, and you'll
find rest. I promise it. And ye shall find
rest unto your souls. Come to me, not to law, not to
ordinances, not to priest, not to preachers, not to a Catholic
church, but not to a Baptist church either. He says, come
unto me. To obtain peace, we must come
to the Prince of Peace. Because only He, to whom God
had delivered all things into His hand, verse 27 again, only
He can give me peace with God. He's the only one that has the
right has the authority and has the ability. Man cannot give
me peace. If he does, it's a false peace.
If I have some peace I think with God that I have not received
from the hands of Jesus Christ the mediator, it's a false peace. And it's based upon a false hope.
Oh, but the King of Glory says, you come to me. And it won't
be a false peace, can it? It won't be something you'll
have to pretend about. It won't be based upon anything
you do. It'll be based upon the sweet
promise of my word. I give you peace. Is this not what he said to the
woman in Luke 7? As Simon looked down his self-righteous
nose and said, oh, if he was a prophet, he wouldn't allow
this woman, this sinner, to touch him. And he turned away from
Simon and looked at the woman and said, woman, as if he said,
ignore him. I say unto you, it doesn't matter
what Simon said, I say unto you, thy sins are all forgiven thee. Go in peace. Go in peace. Isn't that sweet? Isn't that
glorious? Come unto me. The only door of
entrance to heaven is Christ. He says, I'm the door. Come to
me. The only shepherd of souls is Jesus Christ. Come to me. The only physician to cure my
disease is Jesus Christ. And he graciously says, come
unto me. All ye that labor and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Someone might ask or say, well,
everybody knows that, Larry. Everybody in our day knows that. No, they don't. No, they don't.
If they did, then why are they invited to altars and confessional
booths and baptismal pools and all that and not to Christ? Old Newton expressed it this
way in a hymn. He said, a beggar poor at mercy's
door lies such a wretch as I. You know my need is great indeed. Lord, hear me. Hear me when I
cry. With guilt beset and deep in
debt, for pardon, Lord, I pray. Oh, let thy blood sufficient
prove to take my sin away. And I prayed that he would do
that today. the Lord of Glory will prove
the sufficiency of His grace today, that He might speak to
some weary, troubled, heavy-laden sinner and say, Peace, peace,
thy sins are forgiven. He is the place of rest, and
then the way of rest is in that one little word, come. Come. Surely not. Surely not. Must be more than that. Oh, no.
He says, come. Remember what he said to Noah
after the ark was completed, before the wrath of God destroyed
everything that wasn't in the ark? He said, Noah, go into the
ark. No, he didn't. He said, Noah,
come into the ark. Come into the ark. I'm in here. I'm with you. The Lord says,
come to me. Come to me, all ye that labor
on heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come into the ark,
Noah. And Noah found everything, didn't
he? He found everything he needed in the ark. It was the only place
of refuge. It was the only place where God's
wrath didn't take place. Everything outside of the ark
perished. All those in the ark were safe
and secure, riding on the waves. There is therefore now no condemnation. Brothers and sisters, you don't
mind hearing this again, do you? I know you don't. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. He's the ark, and with His holy
garments on, I'm as accepted before God as He Himself is. And as I've told you before,
I'll tell you that again, it feels so good to be wrapped up
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It feels good and
it just keeps getting better and better and gooder and gooder. Oh, to know Him, complete in
Him, Christ is all, all in all, Christ is all in all, all I need. And then notice, Who are to come? Come unto me, all ye that labour,
and are heavy laden." The word labour in the original means to toil
with weariness. To toil with weariness. Labour. Paul said, I bear witness
that my brethren, my Jewish kinsmen, after the flesh, In Romans 10,
they labor. They labor wrongly. They labor
to establish their own righteousness before God and prove their ignorance
of God's righteousness by doing those things. Touch not, taste
not, wear not, go not. And he said, Christ is the end
of the law. He's the rest with God. He's
the peace of a needy sinner before God. He's the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Come, poor sinner. Bunyan said, come and welcome. He delights. Oh God forbid, and
I've prayed about this. Don't ever allow me, Lord, to
preach in such a way. those blessed doctrines of grace,
sovereign mercy, election, predestination. Don't ever allow me to preach
those things in such a way to give any poor sinner any idea
that you don't delight to show mercy. Come unto Him now. Come unto Him now. No, no, I'm
not inviting you up here. Right where you sit, right now. Ye that labor and heavy laden,
is there such a one here? Come unto me, Christ says, and
on the authority of his word I tell you, ye shall find rest
unto your soul." I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that. He
himself has promised it. He delights to show mercy. Come
poor sinner, weak and weary, bruised and wounded by the fall,
if you tarry till you're better, You will never come at all. When I wrote this down last night,
remembering the line of that hymn, and I don't even remember
the title of it, but I remember that much, I looked at that last
line again and underlined it. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. And I thought, that's going to
be the case. Our Lord said with a multitude,
they will never come at all. And I wondered last night, will
I be preaching to people this morning that that describes that
we'll never come to Christ. We'll never come to Christ. They'll
live and they'll die and they'll never come at all. And I pray
that God won't allow that. That God won't allow that. But
that He will make you willing in the day of His power. Is there
any weary, heavy-laden sinners here? Any wearied, heavy-laden
sinners? Anybody toiling with weariness,
as the word means? Oh, religion. Religion puts men
to work, does it not? And it'll just wear you out.
It'll wear you out. Do this. Do that. Go here. Go there, come here, say this,
repeat that, do, do, do, do, do. Oh no, the gospel is, it's
done, it's done, come unto me, come unto me, and I will give
you rest. And last of all, last of all,
the sure result of coming to Christ, he says, I will give
you rest. Verse 29, and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. I heard a voice of Jesus say,
come unto me and rest. Lay down, thy weary one, lay
down thy head upon my breast. Oh, I remember being worn out
with religion. What must I do to be saved, I
asked professing Christians. Do this. Do that. Come with me. What must I do to be saved, preacher? Come up to this altar. What must
I do to have peace with God? I'm wore out. Repeat after me. No peace. No peace. And I thought, man, I'm wore
out. I'm wore out with this. I'm tired. Say the sinner's prayer. I did
it. No rest. Walked out. I wore the carpet out. No rest. Look within. Oh, my soul. No rest. And I thought, when
I'd lay on my bed at night and couldn't go to sleep, I'm afraid
I'm never going to have rest. I'm never going to have it, because
God's not going to forgive this wretched sinner I've rebelled
for too long. And then when my brief existence
in this world is over, He's going to cast me into outer darkness.
And Carlos, I'll never have rest throughout eternity. I came to Jesus as I was, weary
and worn and sad. I found in Him a resting place,
and He has made me glad. Lord, He gave me rest. Bless
His name. He gave this worthless sinner
rest, and He still does. Let me close the message. One
of my favorite books. is Bunyan's old allegory, Pilgrim's
Progress. And I'm sure I've read this portion
to you before. Bunyan, Bunyan's pilgrim is running
with that burden on his back, and he couldn't get rid of it.
And it says, Bunyan writes, 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 loosed
from off his shoulders and fell from off his neck back and began
to tumble and so continued to do till it came to the mouth
of the sepulcher where it fell in. And he says, I saw it no
more. Jeff, what a death of love we
are. at the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden, Lord, and the burden
rolled away. Bless his holy day. Then was
Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart,
he had given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death. Then he
stood still a while to look and wonder, for it was very surprising
to him, that at the sight of the cross, that it should thus
ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked
again, even until the springs that were in his head sent the
waters down his cheeks. Oh, the bliss, and it is, of
this glorious thought, my sins not in part, but the whole, are
nailed to his cross, and I bear them no more. Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, O myself. Lord bless you.