The sermon 'Come Unto Me' by Jamey Stout explores the deep theological themes of God's sovereignty and Jesus Christ's invitation to rest for weary sinners. It begins with a reflection on the glory and humility of Jesus, who, despite being divine, took on human form to serve and save humanity. The sermon emphasizes the miraculous nature of Christ's sacrifice and the need for believers to appreciate this truth continually. The speaker highlights the sovereignty of God, asserting that salvation is entirely by God's grace, and humans, by nature, are incapable of choosing God without divine intervention. The sermon also addresses the dual truths of God's sovereignty and human responsibility, urging listeners to repent and believe the gospel. The speaker encourages those outside of Christ to flee to Him for salvation and stresses that true rest and security come only from accepting Jesus' invitation. The sermon concludes by calling believers to embrace the rest and joy found in Christ and to live a life centered on Him.

That will make you happy in Jesus Christ. I don't know what will. That's who we're singing about. John chapter 12 lets us know that the one Isaiah and Isaiah 6, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, and Seraphim's flying and singing this praise to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the Apostle John says, by the way, that's Jesus Christ. That's Jesus Christ.

And it's He who felt the nails upon His hands. It's He who suffered for us who ruined sinners and paid the full penalty for all who repent and believe. Let's go to Him and let's ask His help. Oh great and glorious King, it is such a privilege to sing to you who is now back in that place that you had from the very beginning, O Lord, the glory that you shared with the Father as eternal, holy God. And though never ceasing to be fully God, you took on, you humbled yourself by adding to yourself, you, the uncreated one, the one who had no limitations, added to himself a limited nature, our nature, our human nature, yet without sin.

And you would do that for us. It is a miracle. It is amazing. We are so undone, O God, that we get over this, that we sometimes just have no thought of it, that it just becomes old hat. But it is nonetheless the absolute truth that you, Almighty God, creator God, uncreated eternal, took on yourself a limited nature, the nature of man, and that was your great humility.

And Lord, as a man, you became a servant, a slave. You kneeled down and you washed the dirty feet, the most menial task of a slave, and you washed the disciples feet, Lord, and went to the cross, where you obediently obeyed the Father. And it was His will to crush you, to crush you for the likes of us. It was your will to bruise him. Oh God, it was your good pleasure to see the Son of God, who has enjoyed you from all and then Lord father Having accomplished the good work that you sitting to do You would not allow your holy one to decay but now That to is empty and I follow you raised him to right hand Jesus You ascended on high, and You are Lord of all.

And Lord, as we come boldly to You and to Your Father through You and through Your finished work, and now Your intercessory prayer for us, Lord, and know for a fact that You're going to come again. You're going to split that sky. You're going to roll it up like a scroll. And all who are not in You, Jesus Christ, are going to call upon the mountains to fall on them from your wrath. Oh God, I ask you that you would cause those that are here today that are outside of Jesus Christ to flee to you.

Oh Christ, that they would flee to you from the wrath to come. And those that are in Christ would know the security of being in Christ. Oh God, I plead for this as only you can do it, God. This is something that man cannot do. So do it, oh God, for the glory of your holy name and the good of your church.

And we'll give you all the praise. Amen. Oh, so thankful for handkerchiefs. Turn with me to Matthew 11, 25-30. Matthew 11, 25-30.

I love the Gospel of Matthew. I had the joy of preaching through this precious Gospel a few years ago. It's amazing to me that no matter how much you study this blessed book, the Bible, it is such an infinite well because it comes from an infinite God. And there is always more to delight in, more to glory in, more to see of the Blessed Redeemer. And I pray that God would just so enamor you with Jesus Christ, that you can't do anything else but praise Him, adore Him, love Him, fall upon Him, and worship Him, and accept Him as your all, and all that you need and all that you have.

So Matthew 11, 25-30. Let's read the text of Scripture. At that time, Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants yes father for this way was well pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Son except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." This morning we get to look at a sovereign invitation from Jesus Christ himself. And may we heed it, may we love it, may we come as he commands. We, In our context, we've just come from Jesus Christ rebuking cities that His ministry had been predominantly in and all of His miracles and all of what lifted him up as the Son of God come down from heaven, robed in our flesh to accomplish salvation, and they refuse to repent. And so there's many woes, and we go From woe to wow as He invites ruined sinners to come to Him and enjoy all that He is to us. So, let's fast first of all in the sovereign grace of the Father and Son.

This is clearly laid out in verses 25 through 27. That our God is absolutely sovereign over salvation. There is no doubt and this is exactly what Jesus Christ lays before us and in fact not only lays it before us, but lays it before us in such a way that he says, this is my delight. I delight in this. If you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be a delighter in the sovereignty of Almighty God over all things, including salvation itself.

So, let's delight with Him and be a follower of the King, right? Because if He wasn't sovereign, then there would be no hope for ruined sinners like us, who by nature only want to sin and go the pathway of sin. If there wasn't a sovereign God in heaven who is all-powerful and can break through our blinded deaf ears and blinded eyes to conquer a heart, to cause Jesus Christ to be absolutely precious in their sight. So I'm thankful God is absolutely sovereign. So let's look here.

At that time, Jesus was answering the question. Notice that time constraint that our God has here in the holy text. At that time, Here we have in our chapter, John the Baptist is rotting away, inherits prison, and he sends some of his disciples, Are you the one? Are you the one? Are we still looking for one to come?

You'll notice that in the first part of our chapter, have you ever had doubts? John the Baptist had doubts. He had wrestlings of the soul. And Jesus brings before him, it's like Jesus says to him, look at Isaiah, it's like I've just walked off the pages of Isaiah, here's a prophet approximately 800 years before Jesus was consumed in the virgin's womb by the Holy Spirit. And Isaiah says, listen, this is the type of ministry he's going to have.

He's going to open blinded eyes. The lame are going to leap for joy. The deaf are going to hear and the poor are going to have the gospel preached to them. And what's Jesus been doing? Go back and tell John what you see in here, that I've just leaped off the page of Isaiah, and I'm none other than the promised Messiah.

You have no fear in putting your complete confidence in me, John." Okay. So he comforts John, and then he goes and talks about what's going on in the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Christ himself. First of all, John's the forerunner. He's that prophet that was foretold that was going to prepare the way for the Lord, Yahweh, who is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is none other than the I AM WHO I AM.

Come down from heaven. He prepared the way for the Lord. You'll notice it's in all caps in your Bibles because Lord in all caps is referenced to the Hebrew word Yahweh, which really nobody knows how to pronounce, but we're taking an educated guess of Yahweh. So, the great I Am who I Am, in reference to Exodus chapter 3. And then You have the rejection.

All pastors can get so discouraged, but they're in such good company. They're in good company. Oh, the fickleness of us all. The fickleness of man. And Jesus likens the people of his day to children who just can't be happy with no matter what game the person wants to play.

I don't want to play that. You played the flute for me and then it danced. And then, then, then, then. I'm not happy no matter what you do. And so John was demon possessed.

I hated his ministry. And Jesus is nothing but a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of sinners and tax collectors. But wisdom, says Jesus Christ, is justified by her children. Children who are born again and produce the fruits of the Kingdom of God. Amen.

And so, and then he pronounces the woes of judgment on the unrepentant cities. It's at this time that Jesus does not go into a corner and begin to suck His thumb and cry because for the most part, people reject the Word of God, the Gospel of God, the very incarnate Son come down to share it with them Himself. No. What does he do? He rejoices in the sovereignty of Almighty God.

In the sovereign pleasure of His Father to reveal Jesus Christ to whom He will. And that's exactly what we see in our holy text. I think it's right for us to interpret this in the light of text such as 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26-29, as you see there, God calling the foolish and the weak. And Those who are at the Father and Son can think about that as you think about this text. The best interpreter of Scripture is what, brothers and sisters?

Is it the newspaper? It is Scripture. Compare Scripture with Scripture. Jesus says, I praise you. This word means confess, to profess.

It's a more general sense of praise and acknowledgement of the divine benefits of the divine majesty of God. It's used actually in confession of sin in chapter 3 and verse 6 when they're coming to John the Baptist and they're confessing their sins. They're admitting, they're confessing, they're agreeing with God, God this is what I've done. Well Jesus is agreeing with God, God this is who you are. This is your work.

This is your doing. So I like what this one brother in one commentary says, the basic meaning is acknowledgement when this verb is used with respect to God, the person praying acknowledges who God is, the propriety of His ways, and the excellence of His character. So here is a confession, straight from the lips of none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of the majesty and grace of the Father. He's acknowledging who His Father is. Who's His Father?

Who's the Father of our Lord? He's the Lord of heaven and earth. And when you go from one extreme to the other extreme, what's He doing? Heaven and earth, He's saying, you are the sovereign master of the universe. There's not one molecule and all the universe that is not marching to the drum of my heavenly Father is Jesus' praise.

Father, Lord of the universe, Master of heaven and earth, And what causes Jesus to burst forth in praise to His Father in the midst of such widespread rejection of His ministry of the Word of God that came pouring forth from His lips as He had the Spirit without measure upon Him. Oh, this is what comes out of His mouth. You'll notice if you were to turn to Luke, you would see that the same context, Jesus rejoices in the Holy Spirit. This is Him rejoicing in God and basking and delighting in His heavenly Father. And what is it that He's rejoicing in?

That you have concealed these things from the wise and intelligent. You've hidden these things like a city on the hill and cannot be hidden. You've hidden these things like treasure hidden in a field. Same word used in these other texts. You've hidden these things.

You've caused them not to be known. You've kept them secret. You've concealed them. You've withdrawn sight. What are these things?

It's what we just talked about. It's the fact that John, the forerunner of the greatest person who's ever walked planet Earth, letting all know, Lord's coming down. The Lord's coming. Are you Ready? Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

It's the miracles that he did that showed that he was the Son of God, that showed that he was none other than God, come down incarnate to deal with all the ramifications of sin, all of its misery that it caused to the world, and eventually the very root matter itself, sin itself, as he defeated it on the cross, and then blew the doors off death showing his great victory. You see. He bursts forth in praise and he says, you've concealed these things. You've concealed them from the wise in understanding. It's very important that we understand what he means here.

We're not talking about people that are wise, like in the book of Proverbs, wise. Isaiah 521 characterizes them very well. It's the type of people like this, woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight. Or like Isaiah 29, 14, Therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people with wonder upon wonder, and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning men shall be hidden." Listen, these are people who think they are wise, but they're fools. It is people who think that they are intelligent, but they do not know the God of heaven.

They do not know God when God is staring them straight in the face and robed in our flesh, and they don't even know Him. My friend, if that doesn't show you the depravity man, I don't know what will. Man is so blind that when God Himself, His Creator, shows up and stares Him in the face and gives Him the very Word, straight from God's own mouth. Man says, I don't know you. I don't want this man to rule over me.

That's how depraved man is. That's how blind man is. Compare this with me. Turn with me just a little bit back in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9, just to see this, that this is people wise in their own eyes, that are blinded by God to the Gospel. 9, 12-13.

Let's go back. Let's go to verse 10, chapter 9. Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, Why is your teaching eating with tax collectors and sinners? But when Jesus heard this, He said, It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

But go and learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners." Now this is what I want you to think about. Is it because the Pharisees were truly righteous in the sight of God that Jesus says this? No. But they were convinced of their own righteousness, weren't they?

Of their self-righteousness. That they didn't smoke and they didn't chew and they didn't go with girls who do. Right? And all that. They were convinced that they were righteous by their law keeping.

But I will tell you this, if that's you, you have no understanding of the Gospel whatsoever. You have no understanding of the great depravity of heart that you have. If you seek your righteousness anywhere other than the shed blood of Jesus Christ, you're a goner. You're a goner. You're twice dead.

You're ruined. But such were these men, and they thought they were righteous. And incarnate righteousness, perfect righteousness, was staring them in the face, and they saw a man who never had one impure thought. They heard a man who never sinned in his speech. They heard a man who never sinned in his speech.

They heard a man who never once acted in sinful anger towards another human being. They saw a man, walked with a man, looked at a man who was completely and utterly sinless. And yet they still held on to their self-righteousness because they're blind, blind, blind. And if that's you, so are you. God didn't come down from heaven in our flesh so that you could be comfortable in heaven by your own effort.

He came down here to do it all for you, so to take him into only righteousness before a holy God. And self-righteousness damns. Oh, Paul the apostle, obedient to the law, yet on his way to hell, clothed in his own self-effort, gave it all up and said, it's nothing but dog and the light of the perfect garment handed to me by the grace of God through the work of Christ. Oh, this is the most amazing truth that's ever been given to a sinful man. And so I want you to know when we turn back to our texts that we're studying together, that these people are not wise.

They're people that are wise in their own eyes. They're wise when it comes to the value system of the world and what the world puts forward as the way to God. What man thinks by his own fallen nature is going to get him in with his Creator. That's the kind of wisdom. I like how one brother put it.

It's the contrast between those who are self-sufficient and deem themselves wise and those who are dependent and love to be taught. Infants. Those are who it's revealed to. These are the ones who get. John, he's the prophet to come and announce the coming of the Lord.

Jesus is none other than prophecy fulfilled. The miracle's not back up who he is. He is the one we've been looking for on which The hinge of salvation, the door of salvation, He's the hinge on which it swings wide open. Of course, there's much in the understanding of the disciples to get this. Notice the word revealed, to call something to be fully known, especially of divine revelation of certain transcendent secrets to reveal to someone.

Notice this is the language used later in Matthew 16-17 where Jesus says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And of course, that comes after Peter's confession, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. How did Peter come up with that? Was he just fishing one day and said, oh, now I get it? No, God opened his heart, opened his eyes to see these things.

I love what happens on the boat when in Luke's account, when Jesus says, I want you to cast out your net again, or we're toiled all night. We're toiled all night, we didn't catch anything. I want you to cast out that net. Nevertheless, at your word, we'll cast out the net. And they get this haul of fish that only the Creator God come down from heaven could bring into the net.

And what did Peter say when he's face to face with the glory of God in Christ Jesus? Depart from me, Lord, a sinful man. God chose to open up those eyes of the nobodies in the world, the people in rural Illinois, people in rural Iowa, Not the movers and shakers of society. A bunch of fishermen, a bunch of ordinary men, a tax collector who's writing this very gospel to become a disciple maker of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the great news that there is a King who has a kingdom that will not fail and you're invited If you lay down your stubborn pride of thinking you've got it all figured out thinking that you're good on your own.

And take the gift. Infants, those know they need help. Infants, those who know they need help. They need help. Those who know they need wisdom from God, which is Jesus Christ Himself, that sit at His feet.

He is our wisdom from God, 1 Corinthians 1.30. So why does this great reversal thrill the heart of Jesus? Because all the glory for revealing His greatness is not humanly achieved, but instead God-given. Thus, God, His Father, gets all the glory. There will not be a man or woman or boy or girl in heaven that is going to say, Wow, I'm so smart.

There will only be men and women and boys and girls. They say, Father, thank you for not leaving me in my sin and letting me see that Jesus is all, even for me, Even for me. Oh, hallelujah! What a Savior. And He will be the center of our unbroken praise.

So I encourage you to go ahead and start now and stop boasting in whatever you might be boasting in and take the only boast that counts. The Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look at this beautiful, beautiful sovereignty of our God that thrills our Savior's heart. I want you to know both groups, the wise and the intelligent of Jesus' day and in our day, both groups see the same things, do they not? They had the same ministry of John.

They had the same miracles done before them. They had the same word preached. Who are you today? Who are you? Who are you?

So what does Jesus call the concealing and revealing that the Father accomplishes? Notice he says, yes. I don't think Jesus said it this way. Yes. I think he was a little excited here, okay.

He says, yes! He is excited. He is passionate about this. Yes, Father. It's an emphatic repetition of one's own statement.

Yes, indeed! And then he summarizes what he says. Notice that word, thus. It was well pleasing. What is this divine concealing and this divine revealing to the Father.

What is it? It was well pleasing in your sight. And all the other passages in Matthew, This describes the transcendent purpose of God. It's the resolve, the choice of God that's spoken here. And it's used also as a verb in chapter three, verse 17, and chapter 12, verse 18, and chapter 17, verse five.

And all of those have to do with the way in which God the Father delights in His Son. He's well pleasing. This is my well pleasing one. So when you think about the sovereignty of God over salvation, when it comes to Jesus Christ, Jesus says that this was well pleasing. Just as the Father delights in the Son, the Son delights in the fact that it's well pleasing to the Father to reveal the Son to whom He wills.

And it was well pleasing to God. It's His good pleasure. It's the same word used in Ephesians 1.5. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to what? The good pleasure of His will.

So, you have to also remember, who is God working with? If He didn't choose, nobody would be saved. Everybody chooses by nature, because that's what we are by nature, sinners. What's a sinner by nature going to choose, church? Sin, you got it.

So, thank God He's sovereign. So when He conceals, He passes over, He leaves man in his own wretched state. He's not obligated to reveal His ways to anybody, and when He does, it is a sheer act of grace alone. He will have mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires, as Romans 9, 18 puts it so clearly. Carson, in his commentary, says, Jesus' balance mirrored the balance of Scripture.

He could simultaneously denounce the cities that did not repent and praise the God who does not reveal. For God's sovereignty and election is not mitigated by man's stubbornness and sin. While man's responsibility is in no way diminished by God's good pleasure that sovereignty reveals and conceals. In other words, you'll not be able to walk out of here saying, well that man said all of salvation is in the hands of God, I guess I'm off the hook, I mean I don't have to worry about it now. That's a lie from hell.

You're responsible. Jesus just said to those cities, woe to you. And Jesus is just about to say, come, you're responsible. There are two truths in Holy Scripture that we must not deny. In fact, the virgin said, hey listen, you don't have to reconcile them, they're friends.

And it is the truth of God's sovereignty. And it is the truth of man's responsibility. You are responsible to repent and believe the gospel, and if you don't, you go to hell because you made that wretched choice. So Nonetheless, both are absolutely true, and we must preach both. So we've gloried in the sovereign grace of the Father, now let us glory in the sovereign grace of the Son of God.

Listen to what he says, all things were handed over to me by my Father. All things would include God's prerogative of concealing and revealing the saving knowledge of God and not having the saving knowledge of God was committed to none other than who? According to our text, What does the text say? Jesus Christ, all things have been handed over to me. And our context is so clear.

The revealing of who God is, the revealing of who Christ is, all of this is in the hands of the triune God. And it's His good pleasure to reveal Himself to whom He will. It's been handed over, it's been entrusted by the Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, to the Son. Now notice with me what Jesus says next. And no one knows the Son except the Father.

So, if you'd picture with me, let's just say we'll take the piano right there. Let's say I take the piano and I throw all those things off the piano onto the floor. And then I just pick up one item on the piano, let's say the chorus book right there. And I take the chorus book and I put it back on the piano. What's your focus on?

The one book, right? That's what God's doing here. That's what Jesus is doing. He's saying, listen, no one knows the Father. Or is it the Son first?

Yep. No one knows the Son. Takes everybody off the table. No one knows the Son except the Father. And then he's going to make the same statement again.

He says, nor does anyone know the Father Except who? The Son. Well friends, at this point you and I are undone. Only the Father and the Son enjoy each other in this wonderful relationship that's been going on from all eternity. Because eternal life is to know God and to know His Son Jesus Christ whom He sent.

And we get to share in this eternal life that God gives as a gift, but right now as we see, the only people that are enjoying life is God the Father and God the Son. I won't end on that. Is there any way? But what does he say next? "...and to whomever the Son wills to reveal Him." Did you hear that?

Listen, you get to enjoy the fellowship of the triune God by the Son's will alone. Do you see that? Now I would say this to you as well, If Jesus Christ is a mere man, this is the most blasphemous statement I've ever heard in my whole entire life. But if He is every bit of who He is, and He is, God come down from heaven, then my friend, if it wasn't for this statement, we would all be condemned to hell. Do you understand the weight of that?

And to whomever the Son wills to reveal Him. And now, the most amazing truth comes next. With glory and the fact that God the Father, God the Son, are absolutely sovereign over salvation. Left to ourselves, people will never come. They will stay in their sins.

But now we come to the sovereign invitation of the Son. Look at the sovereign invitation. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Dear ones, Listen, the one who just said he holds the knowledge, the saving knowledge of the Father in his hand, just said to you, does the Word of the Eternal God ever lose its power? Is that not good today?

Is this come to me? Is it just as good as the day in which Jesus Christ our Lord spoke it? Is this not Him right now saying to you, come to me? Is that not the truth? Of course it is.

He comes to preach to those who are far away and to those who are near. It is Christ. We are seeking and imploring you on behalf of Christ. Be reconciled to God. We are pleading with men to not continue on in ruin but to hear the Savior, the sovereign Savior over salvation says to you, come to me.

Hallelujah! That's the best news I've ever heard in my life. You say, I'm so sinful I can't come. Come. I just don't know if I can't do the coming.

Come! Stop your excuses. Stop your pride. Stop all the things that you are saying won't allow you to come and know that everything in Jesus Christ is sufficient for you. Oh my friend, why in the world in your pride would you stare at the glorious savior saying, you come, I've got all the goods.

I've got the repentance for you. I've got the faith for you. I've got everything for you. I've bought everything on the tree. Come, come.

Why in the world in pride would you think so highly of yourself and call it humility? My, please come. Why? It's nothing but pride. The sufficiency and glory of Jesus Christ the Savior staring you in the face.

Come! Come! Does he who says come not have the power to cause you to come? Come! I think of that man with the withered hand.

Stretch out your hand. Stretch out my hand? How can a withered man, man with a withered hand, stretch out his hand? He can't. But at the command of Almighty God, he stretches out his hand as well as the other.

So stop. Stop. Christian, with all your failures, with all the sorry return that all of us have given to the grace of God poured out of our head. Come! Come, Jesus says!

Rest. Rest in all that He is for you. It's such an invitation from such an amazing person. Notice all who are weary and burdened. Those who are bone weary, tired, these are those days after working yourself into the ground, and all you want to do is go fall in the bed.

You're weary. You've been laboring. All those who are heavy laden, as Psalm 38, 4 would put it, for my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear.

This is Matthew 23, 4, another place. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. These are people under a load of sin and know it. They're people who have come to the realization they're guilty before a holy God and there's nothing they can do about it. My friends, we're sinners by nature, and thus sinners by nature sin.

And all we've accrued is nothing but unrighteousness before God, and the penalty of sin. And here is Jesus Christ saying, come to me and I'll give you all that you need to be before God. Freely, freely, freely. Why in the world would anyone refuse this? Why would anyone be in their pride and continue to think that they somehow are such a sinner that this couldn't apply to them?

I'll tell you, it's pride. It's pride. And now maybe that person is even thinking this, I can't come because of my pride. Stop it! Come!

Come! Oh, my Savior said this to you, my Lord, and I will tell you this, if He would say that to me, I know He would say it to you, and He does. I was a rotten scoundrel of a man. Scoundrel of a man. And in light of what he's done for me, he's still a rotten scoundrel.

I don't deserve any of it. But He says, come. You can stay there in your pride and not receive one bit of the grace of God offered here. You can come. You can come.

When Bunyan's Christian came to the place of deliverance, And the great burden of the old is back. That great burden of the old is back. And one look at the cross fell off his back, it rolled down the tomb, rolled down the hill, and disappeared into the grave. Never to be brought up again. And the promise of the New Covenant is this, I will remember your sins, how much?

No more, Amen. That's rest, friend. That's rest. And when that happens to a man, to a woman, to a boy, to a girl who's seeking to live under the law, oh I just gotta do more, I just gotta make it, I gotta somehow turn over my life, get a new leap, no! You'll never be able to keep the law if you're looking to the law for justification.

You look to Christ. You look to Christ. And when that takes place, the law instead of being this big burden and hammer coming down on your head, the law becomes your friend. It becomes your delight. It becomes your rejoicing.

It's now a dear friend that tells me what God loves and shows me what God hates. And I now have a new heart that embraces that and says, yes, God, oh God, I still see the sin, but oh God, I hate it, and I want to do this. I want to follow your ways. I want to be about you! Oh, friend.

We are weary and burdened. People are seeking relief. That's what we're seeking. And there's only one place. Jesus Christ.

People who think they have it all together do not see their need. And what does Jesus give to those who come to Him? Weary and burdened, He gives them rest. Rest. Security now in a work that you didn't do.

His work. As God puts it so sweetly for us in Romans 3, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace. Declared righteous is what justified means. Declared righteous in the sight of God. By His grace as a gift.

Through what? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus saying this in Matthew on the way to the cross knows what He's about to do. He's about to give rest for ruined sinners. He's about to accomplish the errand on which His Father sent Him to accomplish.

And do you think he could fail in the salvation that he has provided for sinners who come? No! No, he can't. And so God the Father, in Romans 3, God lets us know whom God, God the Father, put forward, God the Father put forward the only way and remedy, only satisfaction for the divine justice that we should feel for all eternity in hell. He put forward His Son as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

There's the come. Come! Accept what God put forward to satisfy every drop of wrath do you for your sin. Come and enjoy Christ! Oh my friend, why in the world would you place your faith in anything else than what God Himself put forward to satisfy His own wrath against you?

That's crazy! Look at Him. He's perfect in every way. And yet He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. This is why Christianity celebrates their founder's death.

When they get together and celebrate communion, they celebrate his death because they know this is the only reason I'm here. Until he comes. Amen. Until He comes. Amen.

This is what weary and burdened people want. They want the relief to know that I'm secure, I'm safe, I'm in Christ. This is what the soul longs for and will have no rest until it has it. You will not find it in Judaism. You will not find it in Judaism.

You will not find it in any religion. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth, the only way to the Father. No one comes to the Father but by Jesus Christ. Oh friend, if you come to Jesus, you'll no longer have dread of judgment hanging over your head. You'll have peace with God through Jesus Christ, full pardon of sin, all that Romans talks about.

And you'll have been placed on the very pathway of holiness where sin no longer reigns over you, but you are on the road of life, life eternal, the narrow way, which is none other than Jesus Himself. And He takes a center and increasing measure, makes Him more like Himself. And what's called sanctification, progressive sanctification. But never get the two confused. Justification is not based on your sanctification.

It's based totally on the work of Christ alone, not on your progress and holiness. But if you're not making progress and holiness, I would tell you you're not justified. Because these two belong together, they're wedded together. Now I know sanctification is sometimes two steps forward and three steps back, but nonetheless it's taking place. Rest, Rest not in living a life of sin.

What does the text say? Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. This is used, as you well-farmers know this, frame used to control working animals. In the case of humans, maybe it would be a king that captured humans and yoked them. Or maybe even a human user in something to kind of carry burdens.

Here's this yoke that symbolizes the reign of Jesus Christ over your life. You see, you're only a slave, whether you like it or not, and you're either a slave to sin, or you're a slave to Jesus Christ. There's no in-between. There's no in-between. You're a slave to sin, you're going to pay its wages, which is the wrath of God for all eternity, are your slave to Christ, and the free gift in Christ is eternal life.

In Jesus, Jesus says, take my life, learn from me. This is the noun form of the word disciple. Gain knowledge, gain skill. How to live, how to relate to God. Here the lawgiver himself comes and says, hey, I'm going to obey the law for you.

And I'm going to pay its penalty for you. And I'm going to rise again, and then I'm going to come live in you by the power of my Holy Spirit, and I'm going to let you live out my death and my resurrection so that you can now do those things that are pleasing in the sight of Almighty God. That's a miracle. It's a miracle. That's the gospel of grace And it is awesome.

It's awesome. If you haven't tasted this, man, what are you doing? Jesus said come, right? Come. Come.

Don't stay in your sins. He's got everything for you. He's got everything. He won't withhold one good thing from you. There are no elite Christians.

There are just Christians. Period. Period. We have different roles, yeah, but we've got the same goods. What a king.

There's two. So just Please hear me. Being saved by grace is never a license to sin. It's always freedom to live for God as we were originally created to live. And we live that in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Well, what two motivating factors does Jesus give to us for taking His yoke and learning for Him? Well, it's because of who He is. Look at who He is. He's gentle. This means He's not, He wasn't, He did not have, he was not overly impressed by a sense of his own self-importance.

Think about that for a minute. Here is the one that we know from Isaiah 6 was the center of unbroken praise of angels in all of His glory. Isaiah just has a vision of it. And It just undoes Isaiah. This is him.

And yet, the very people that are rejecting his ministry, he is sustaining their very breath. He's on the cross, hanging on the cross, and the people spitting on him and mocking him, and the very ones that drove the nails in his hands, he's causing their heart to beat. You talk about meekness. You talk about someone who did not use the authority and power that he had and could rightfully do. Instead, he humbly took all of it for the likes of you and I.

Gentle, humble, considerate, me. If anyone should be filled with self-importance, it should be Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Instead, He came to what? To be served or to serve? And to give His life as a ransom for many.

He who has the sovereign power to reveal the Father to whom He will is meek. He commands his followers to be the same, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. He is lowly in heart, pertaining to being unpretentious. He does not let success or station go to his head. Think about that for a minute.

He who has the greatest station doesn't let the station go to his head, but instead takes on himself the form of a servant, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And listen, dear ones, in that text in Philippians that I just quoted to you in chapter 2, God says to us that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us both the will and the do of His good pleasure. Well, how do we work out our own salvation? By having the same mind of Jesus Christ and not being all about me and my interest, dying to self. It's about the bride.

If Jesus did this for His people, you shall call Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. If He came here on a divine errand to pay for the sins of all those whom the Father gave Him, How much more should we, those who have been bought by the precious blood, be about what our Savior is about? How in the world can you not be about the church? Right? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

You can't even call yourself a Christian if you don't love the church. There's no bearing. You find it nowhere in the New Testament. Neek, rest, humble of heart. How much more should we learn from our dear Savior?

The second reason, you will find rest for your souls. Do you believe that? Church, do you believe that? Have you found it? Do you know this rest?

To come and give yourself to being Christ-centered. Come to me. Notice, it's me. I will give you rest. My yoke.

Learn from me. My yoke. My burden. If you're a Christian, what does it mean to be a Christian? It means Christ is everything to you.

He's everything. He's all you have. All you need. So let us bask in the sovereign grace of the Father and the Son. Let us accept the sovereign Son's gracious invitation.

Have you done that? That's my question for you. And are you continuing to do that? This text has been very sweet to me as I fumble seeking to live out Christ every day and blowing it. And He says, come.

And he means it just as much as he meant it the day he spoke it because his word is immutable it never changes it's always good And He's saying it to you now. What will you do? Will you scoff? Will you think I got something better to come to? Maybe my lunch, my nap?

This is the Lord's day. And He's inviting you to come and receive everything that ruined, weary, As vile as we are sinners, we need to know the Father savingly. Oh come. Come, weary one. Find, promise, rest.

And enjoy God for all eternity. Now and for all eternity. Let's pray. Father, I know there's no way in the world that I could ever do justice to what is here in this holy text. But oh God, I pray that every person in here, every boy, every girl, every man, every woman, would stop their excuses.

I pray that I would not allow myself to lift up any excuse whatsoever when the sovereign King of heaven and earth, whose over all things, and the very saving knowledge of Himself, says come, I pray that none of us would be so foolish, so stupid, to say no. God, I beg of you, Lord, that you would remove every single excuse because there's none, and that every sinner in this room would come to the Lord Jesus Christ at His own invitation and take you at your holy word. Because you, oh Lord God Almighty, are worthy worthy. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.