If you noticed the front of the
bulletin this morning, I used Matthew 11, 28. You're very,
very familiar with that passage. Not many sermons preach that
that's not quoted or read. But this morning, I want to look
at it closely with you, especially the last five words of the verse. Christ Himself says, Come unto
Me. all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." This verse is obviously a gracious
bidding to the lost to come to Christ and be saved. There's
no other place a man can be saved unless he comes to Christ. If
a man or a woman labors with their sin, they're heavy laden.
They're burdened. But God caused it. They're bidden
by the One who will one day judge all men and women. And yet it
says He will give them rest. For you see, if one's laboring
with their sin and heavy laden because of it, it's from Him. It's from Him. He says to sinners,
most assuredly, that if you come unto Me, I will give you rest. You see, chosen sinners labor
with their sin. When God reveals to a man or
a woman their sin, oh, they labor. God causes them to be heavy laden,
burdened with it. Just wanted to be gone. That
which we once enjoyed, now we beg God to take away. Heavy laden,
laboring. I've said many times lately,
And it's no new revelation, but the same message of the gospel
of Christ not only saves the lost, not only is it the message
to lost sinners, but it is also the same message that comforts
those that are already saved. We don't have a different message,
one for the lost and one for the saved, do we? It's the same
message and the same source, Christ, God in Christ. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, reconciling his people out of the world. Now I've come to Christ by faith. Yet that was God-given faith.
It wasn't something I mustered up, something that I worked up. I believe that He died for my
sin. I really do believe that. And
I believe that He gave me His perfect righteousness. I don't
believe it like I should, but I do believe it. I do believe
it. I know there's no other message
that saves. There's no other message that
comforts. Christ did for me what I couldn't do for myself, and
I never grow tired of saying it, and I never grow tired of
hearing it. I believe that my God is sovereign. I believe that He rules and reigns.
Bill read over in the men's. He said, I'm God. There's none
beside me. He's the only God in potentate. And He works all things after
the counsel of His will. And none can stay His hand and
none can say, what are you doing? No. Not to the God that I trust
in and that I know you trust in. He rules and He reigns. None
can stay His hand. I have by grace been persuaded,
like the Apostle Paul, that He's able, He is able, able, able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. What
have I committed unto Him? My soul. I've committed unto him my soul.
Lord, if you don't save me, I won't be saved. Lord, if you didn't
die for me, I'm going to die in my sin. That's what I've committed. I've committed my heart, my soul,
my spirit unto him. And I know that he's able. Don't
you? He's able. He's able to keep
that which I've committed unto him. 2 Timothy 1.12. And I tell you something else
I know, God's taught me this. I know that it's not by works
of righteousness which I've done. But it's according to His mercy,
His mercy that He saved us. He's a God of mercy. His mercy endures forever. James
read this morning. Did you notice how many times
that passage said that? For His mercy endures forever.
His mercy endures forever. And it does. I know that Christ kept God's law
perfectly. I know that. I know He kept God's
law perfectly. which served as my schoolmaster
and that was to bring me to Christ. To show me my inability of keeping
it and the fact that Christ in my place instead kept it perfectly. That I might be, that the guilty
might go free. The innocent was condemned, the
guilty was set free. I know that. I know that. God's revealed it to me. There's
no other way I could know it other than God Himself revealed
it to me. But I want to ask you, and I
want to ask myself, and you hear many preachers say, I'm preaching
this to me this morning. God just said, listen, I'm sincere
about this. This is an urgent thing and a
serious thing that I'm considering this morning. Christ said, come
unto me, come unto me. You that are laboring, heavy
laden." And He said, I will give you rest. Do I really have that wonderful
rest that our Lord speaks of? That's what I'm wanting to deal
with this morning. Do I really rest? Do I really have that rest that
Christ promises? Do you really have it? Now I
know that I have more rest than I used to, than I once did, because
I didn't have any. I had no rest. None whatsoever. I was tossed to and fro, as the
scripture says, by every wind of doctrine. Chasing this one
day, this the next. Didn't believe anything the next.
Believed everything I heard the next day. Just tossed to and
fro like a ship in an awful storm. But now I've believed the gospel
for a while. And I must admit that I seem
to still be laboring and seem to be still heavy laden
about many things. Why? Well, I guarantee you the
problem is not from above. The problem is right here. That's
where the problem is. I've been around most of you
long enough to know that You deal with the same things. Up
one day, down the next. On a mountain top, down in the
valley. 2.3 seconds. Boy, I tell you. Oh, the sin, the writer of Hebrews
says in chapter 12, verse 1, that so easily besets us. We're compassed about a great
cloud of witnesses, all those in faith before us. And the writer
says, let us lay aside every weight. Oh, I try to lay them
aside, don't you? You ever lay them aside and you
look back and they're still there? Lay aside every weight and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us." So I'm convinced at this point
that it's our sin that so easily besets us. Now our Savior doesn't
say in this blessed verse in what part of the mind that He
will give rest. You know why? For He gives rest
in every part of the mind. He doesn't say in reference to
what that He will give us rest, because He gives us rest in everything. You see, when a promise from
our great God is in general, I believe that we can take it
to its widest possible meaning. You know, there are particulars
in the scripture, and I love the particulars. We're THE called
according to the purpose. He is THE Great I Am. I love the particulars. But particulars
restrain and restrict. But where there's no particulars,
then you have unlimited reigns of promise. I will give you rest. Rest about everything. Rest at
all times. Rest in every part of your nature,
your being. And there are some, myself included,
that have a good confidence that they're trusting in Christ. I
believe that I am trusting in Christ. I don't see any hope
anywhere else. I don't see any anywhere else. And I'm quite confident that the
Lord has saved me by His grace and that I have a good hope by
grace and the faith that God gave me. But let's just be honest. When tribulations come, when
tornadoes of trials come our way, I won't say we, I'll speak for
me. I second guess most everything.
I do. To my shame, but I do. I just suspect it's that way
with you too. How do you know about me, Brother
David? Because we're both the same, aren't we? We're sinners. Sin and nothing but sin is what
we are. Sinners, some saved, some lost,
but sinners nonetheless. I don't suspect there's much
difference in any of us when you get down to that. Oh, but may we contemplate in
our heart. Let me ask you, you don't have
to answer out loud. Have you ever doubted your salvation?
Recently. I don't mean 15 years ago before
you came, but have you recently doubted your salvation? I have. Not you, you're a preacher. No,
I'm a sinner, first and foremost. And I doubt. Oh, and it's a sin
to doubt, but sin's what I am. Have you ever doubted your faith?
Well, I have. And of course we have because
we all, by nature, we look to ourselves instead of looking
to Christ and Him alone. Don't we? Why do we do that? We know who's in control of all
things. We know that He works all things
together for our good and yet we want to look in here where
there's nothing but death and condemnation and failure. Why
do we do that? I'm going to tell you one thing.
Our rest doesn't have anything to do with our faithfulness.
It don't have anything to do with our dedication. For Christ
said, come unto me. That's where it's found. Look
unto me, He says. The rest is only found in Him.
He said, you come to me and I'll give you rest. So my first hint,
my first clue is that I better go to Him for it. Isaiah 45,
22, isn't that what you read in there? Isaiah 45, look unto
me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth are
from God and there is none else. There's only one that can give
rest. You better come to Him. bear come to him. One old writer
said, if I bury my head in Christ's bosom, I think about the beloved
John when I hear that, how it always said that he laid upon
the Savior's breast, upon his bosom. I can just see him there
with his head resting on the Savior. He said, if I bury my
head in Christ's bosom, none of the philosophers of this world
can make it ache. He said, if I put my hands, my
fingers into His nail-scarred hands, feet and side, I'm no
more faithless but believing. I believe that living in daily
communion with God is the only sure cure for doubt. The reason we don't truly rest
is because we take our eyes off of Him. And it happens to the closest
of us. Those that love Him so much,
we just take our eyes off. You remember what happened to
Peter when he walked on the water? Turn over just a couple pages
to chapter 14. Let's look at it together. Chapter
14, verse 28. Christ came walking across the
water, and in verse 26, and the disciples saw him walking on
the sea, and they were troubled, and they said among themselves,
it's a spirit. And they cried out for fear,
but straightway, verse 27, Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of
good cheer, it is I. Be not afraid. In verse 28, and
Peter answered him, and he said, Lord, He said, Lord, if it be
Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. Lord, let me come
unto You on the water. And he said in verse 29, Come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But what happened? But when he
saw the wind, boisterous. Boy, that wind was blowing, Virgil.
That ship was rocking. That wind was blowing, howling. But when he saw the wind, he
was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried,
saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? When did Peter begin
to sink, dear beloved? When he took his eyes off Christ. That's when. There's a great
lesson to be learned there. That's when and where we lose
our rest. We take our eyes off Him. We
look at the boisterous winds of tribulation. We look at the
storms of life and we become afraid. Uncertain of what tomorrow brings. The winds howling all around
us. And we start looking at the wind instead of the one who rules
and controls the wind. Isn't that right? And we begin
to sink. Sink in despair. Sink in doubt. Sink in faith. But by God's grace, we cry like
Peter did, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. For you see, when
we look to Him, when we look to Him trusting wholly in His
faithfulness, resting fully in His precious blood, daily seeking
Him for our every need, you know why? We find rest. Every time. Walking in the light as God is
in the light is what scripture say That's the surest way to
end all of these undermining things that we deal with Oh,
if I could just walk with him daily You know, I'm convinced
that I'm my own worst enemy I People want to talk and say, well, you
know, Satan, and I know he's a real adversary. And I know
that he is responsible for a lot. But you know what? I think my
biggest enemy is me. God delivered me from myself. We look at the things around
us, don't we, instead of Him. And it destroys the very foundation
of our hope. We have one hope, and that's
Christ. And we want to look at everything
else around it. All the circumstances and all,
instead of looking to Him. That's right. I mean, let's just
be honest. That's exactly right. Hear Peter, one of his closest
disciples. One that told him, said, Lord,
where else will we go? You have the words to life eternal.
I'm convinced that you're the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And he walks out on that water
and he starts looking at everything but Christ. And he begins to
sink. And you know what Christ said to him? Oh, ye of little
faith. You know what? That'd be a good
name for me. Oh, ye of little faith. That
suits me pretty good. So if one of you call me tomorrow
and say, oh ye, is that you? I know who you're talking to. Oh ye of little faith. Oh, the psalmist said in Psalm
57, he said, my heart is fixed. My heart is fixed. Oh may God
enable me to fix my heart on Him. Fix my heart, Lord. My heart is fixed. I'll sing
and I'll give praise. Our conscience, it just becomes
restless because we don't come to Him or look to Him. You see,
the only purging of the conscience from dead works is by drawing
near to Christ again and again and again. Have any of us ever spiritually
slipped and failed? Absolutely. Have any of you ever
dishonored the sacred name of Christ? Unfortunately, most every
day. And we become ashamed and become
confounded that our faith is just so weak and little. But this is what will give you
comfort. He who invites the erring sinner
before conversion to come to Him also calls the erring believer
after conversion to come to Him. I've read this so many times
and I thought, okay, he's speaking to the lost. He's speaking to
his people. The same message, isn't it? Come
all ye, He says, that labor. Within your spirits and your
heavy laden under a sense of your imperfections, come to Christ. Come again and again and again. where you once found rest in
the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall
find it again, for He is faithful." Come again and again and again.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
Why? For He is faithful that promised. If we confess our sins, what? He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins? Do we really believe that? Well,
it says that not only forgive us of our sins, but to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Well, I've already asked for
forgiveness today. Ask again. Ask again. Come to Christ and see Him on
the tree and you can look your doubts away. Let me ask you, the One that
loved you, called you by His grace and saved you by His mighty
power, does He do that and then forget about you? No. He loves you. God Almighty looks at you now
and He sees His perfect Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our problem
is that we can't quit looking inside long enough to look to
Him and grab a hold of that. Oh, there's an old war going
on in our members, isn't there? Come to the fountain, be washed
anew, your conscience will find rest. But what a struggle that
goes on in us. The soul, even when it knows
its pardon is sure, even when it's settled that salvation is
in Him and Him alone, it's still engaged in a struggle. Oh, what
a struggle. A struggle against the old nature.
We haven't completely gained the victory yet. We're still
walking in this life. We're still tossed to and fro
because of our sin. But one day, one day soon, for
even if it's a hundred years, that's soon, isn't it? One day
soon, we should be without sin and we'll see Him face to face
and we'll be like Him. What a day that'll be. What a
day that'll be. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7.
You've read this many times, but hold your place. Well, you
don't even have to hold your place. Turn to Romans chapter
7 real quick. Oh, I read this passage often. Apostle Paul, one of the most
used men in all Scriptures, He struggled just like you and
I do. Did you know that? Know why? He was a sinner saved by grace. Verse 18, Romans 7. He said,
For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform it. Boy, I tell you, I want to do
what's right, don't you? But to perform it? To perform that which is good
I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. That's our problem. We've still
got sin dwelling in us. That old nature. Christ has forgiven
my sin. In the eyes of God Almighty,
I have no sin. But until I receive that glorified
body, I'm going to have this war, this struggle. And that's
what Paul's saying. He said, it's sin that dwelleth
in me. In verse 21, I find then a law
that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. There's a part in us, that
new nature, that desires to be righteous, holy, pleasing to
God Almighty. But it's that sin that dwelleth
in us. He said, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man, verse 22, but I see another law
in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members,
O wretched man that I am. He doesn't say, O wretched man
that I was, does he? He said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Do you feel
a struggle within your spirit? I must confess that I struggle
daily, daily, against the old self. My old nature, if it can,
keeps a hold on me and it robs me of all the rest that my Lord
has promised. O wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from this body of death? That seems to be my
daily cry. Lord, how wretched and can still
be called one of Yours, but by His grace I can say, thanks be
to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Are any of you asking within
yourself, how shall I ever get the victory? I think that often,
Lord, how am I ever to get the victory? Well, I'm tempted, I'm weak, I'm prone
to slide. Do I really believe? I ask myself. And I listen, and I hear these
words, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, And I will give you rest. Christ will give you rest and
sweet confidence that you'll get the victory. Oh, when we
shall see the face of our Savior in glory, we shall be like Him.
Secondly, and I'll hurry up, I would have you notice from
whose hands comes this rest. That makes all the difference.
If I sit up here and say, Heather, I give you rest, you got a reason
to worry that you're not going to receive it. But when our Lord
and Savior says, I give you rest, you can count on it. If Christ
will give me anything, I'll be glad to have it, won't you? If
Christ gives me rest, then I know that Him giving it to me guarantees
it. If He gives me peace, I'm going
to have peace. If He gives me calmness, then
who's going to make trouble? Beloved, do you see the fact
that if Christ gives it, it's a sure thing? It's a sure thing. What has He ever promised to
give that He's not given? Haven't we experienced that enough
to know? How many times have I worried,
fret, usually about things that never come to pass. But when God gives peace, when
Christ gives peace, it proves the value of it. He's God. It's His to give. He's able and
He's willing. For He said, I will give you
rest. That makes all the difference
in the world. My peace and my rest is Christ
Himself. And this is the kind of rest
that the Lord Jesus Christ gives. It's the rest of the truest,
deepest kind. This is rest which the world
cannot give. And you know what? If the world
can't give it, the world can't take it away. Doesn't that make
sense? If the world can't give this
peace, it sure can't take it away. Problem is, is I give it
away. I throw it away. When Christ says, I'll give you
rest, it's His hand. And He gives it. And it's a sure
thing that you're going to get it. He doesn't say, I'll send you
rest. Because if He sent it by another, there's a chance it
could be lost. He says, I will give you rest. It comes from His hand. Oh, this should be of great encouragement
because it comes from Him. Not only should I be encouraged
by it, I should trust Him more because of it. Lastly, and always remember that
this is a promise from God Himself. Now when I break down those words
individually, And I do that often when I read a passage. Last week
we looked where the psalmist said, oh, visit me with thy salvation. When I break those words down
individually, that really helps me. Helps me to understand it
more. So let's quickly do that and
we'll close. He says, I, we'll give you rest,
I, God. God in the flesh. The ruler of
all things. The one and only potentate. The
one by whom all things were made and all things consist. I will
give you rest. Will. Not might. Not maybe. Not if you do this
or that. Not if I'm able. Not if I feel
like it, but I will give you rest. Give. Give. Not that you must earn
it. Not if you deserve it, because
you don't. It's a gift from God. I will
give. Give. You. Oh, that word becomes mighty special,
doesn't it? As always, God's promises are
personal. The psalmist said, visit me.
Visit me with thy salvation. Visit me. While on others thou
art calling, don't pass me by. It comes out of a desperate need,
dear friends, that I have. It comes out of a desperate need
that you have. And when He says, I will give
you, it is given to all. He says it too.
But it's personal to me. It's personal to me. And it's
personal to you. I will give you, you, you, you
rest. And then the last word, of course,
rest. Webster defines that word as
a freedom from activity and labor. What freedom there is, what rest
there is in and from Christ. I have rest when Christ gives
it. I cannot labor through activity for my salvation. For by grace
are ye saved through faith, that's not of yourselves, it's a gift
of God. Peter told that fellow one time, he said unto him, Thy
money perish with thee, because I thought that the gift of God
may be purchased with money. Acts 6.23, for the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. And why is it so easy for us
to conclude that salvation is clearly, most definitely, unmistakably
a gift, and then struggle over our rest? Why is that so? I'm talking to me. Why is it
that I can bow completely to the unmistakable fact that God
is the salvations of the Lord and yet struggle with rest? It's given from the same God,
isn't it? The same One who freely saves,
freely gives rest. I will give, He said. The promise is given to a specific
people. No doubt about it. It's given
to those who what? Who labor and are heavy laden. I qualify. I qualify for that. I'm on that list. Has God shown you that you need
Him? Are you truly sick? Has God shown us that we're sick? If you know it to be so, then
as I said, it's He that's shown it to you. We're studying the
book of Ruth on Wednesday nights. I've learned so much. Boaz in
the book of Ruth, I'll leave you with this, represents our
Lord and Savior. Boaz was Ruth's kinsman redeemer. And Christ is ours. Ruth gleaned
her food in the fields of Boaz. We glean ours from the fields
of the gospel which belong to Christ. Boaz told his servants
concerning Ruth, he said, you let her glean among the sheaves. You know the sheaves, they were
the best of the best. the best of the best. He told
his servants, he said, you throw down handfuls of purpose. You throw them down on purpose.
You make sure she's got plenty. You make sure she has the best.
And after all that, Boaz gave a strict order to Ruth. He told her, he said, Day after
day, when you come to Glean, you stay fast by my young men
and don't you dare go into another field. You see where I'm going with
this? Don't you go into another field to Glean. Boaz was her
provider. He was her kinsman redeemer.
All that she needed was found in Boaz. And all that you and
I need is found in Christ, our Kinsman and Redeemer. To eat
from His handfuls of purpose the best that there is to have. Take. Eat. Are you weary? Are you heavy
laden? Are you worrying and fretting? Then come again and again and
again and again. to the throne of grace. Come
again and again and again and again if you must to the Lord
Jesus Christ for He alone can give you rest. And you know what? It's His will and His good pleasure
to do so. Oh, we have not because we ask
not. And when we ask, we ask amiss. We don't ask for the things
that we truly need by nature to do. Lord, give me rest.