Salvation Is Revelation — Paris Reidhead

Salvation Through Revelation in Matthew 11

Will you turn, please, to Matthew chapter 11. Now, please, to this portion. We were there last week, but you know when you find a good thing it's hard to leave. And so I'm beginning with verse 25, concluding the chapter.

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.

All things are delivered unto me of my Father. No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. This chapter began with the disciples of John coming to Christ, saying, Art thou he, or seek we for another?

John had said that the one that came after him would come in judgment with a fan in his hand winnowing the wheat from the chaff, and would garner the wheat and burn up the chaff. And all that Christ has done in his ministry thus far is to teach and to heal and to minister to the needs of the people.

And there's no message of judgment yet, save that which he gave in the seventh chapter of Matthew when he spoke of that day when there would be a separation. But there's been no exercise of judgment. And so our Lord Jesus said to these followers of John, You go and tell him that you have seen done by me everything that was told that the Messiah would do except judgment.

Now if the dead have been raised and the blind have been made to see in the lame walk, reassure John that in the day, the proper day, judgment will come. And that if I have begun, I will continue. But let John know that he didn't see everything that the Father is revealing by me.

And let him be comforted by this confidence that I will do everything that the Father has said of me. This is by implication. And then he turned to the very people that had beheld most of his works and had shared in his ministry.

And he said, Woe unto you, Chorazin and Bethsaida. It would have been true that had the witness you've had come to Tyre and Sidon, they would have believed. Woe unto you, Capernaum. For if Sodom had had the testimony that you've had, Sodom would have remained until this day.

It will be better for Sodom and better for Tyre and Sidon than it will be for you, Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum. Now we understand that cities and cities have no character. The character consists of that of the people.

And it was men and women that composed the company that saw these miracles and heard these words. Men that lived in Capernaum at the time our Lord ministered and who were thus under the threat of judgment.

And that generation that had been the inhabitants of Capernaum will one day stand before him. These that closed their hearts and shut their minds to the entrance of light, they will be held responsible and judged according to the light they've had.

And he establishes this as a principle. Judgment will inevitably come. Judgment will be in proportion to light and responsibility. Fatal to all, but there will be degrees so that those that have had great light will bear the greater responsibility.

Salvation Is Hidden From the Proud

Having said this and having established this principle of the inevitability of judgment, our Lord then prepares to say that this salvation of which he speaks and for which he has come, that's been demonstrated by his giving life to the leper, for Israel knew that the leper was the type and picture of the sinner, or at least we have reason to think they did, and that the sicknesses of the day also would picture the counterpart in spiritual malady.

And our Lord Jesus is saying, I've spoken to you, I've given you the truth, I've performed the works, I've ministered in your presence. Now, remember, salvation is by revelation. And we must understand this.

We must recognize this, that salvation is by revelation. Let the Lord Jesus speak to his own point. Jesus began to thank the Father. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.

All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Now, this is a tremendously important scripture.

I have in my hand a little booklet that has been the means of blessing to many, I'm sure, written by Charles Spurgeon. I want you to hear his testimony. One weeknight, when I was sitting in the house of God, the thought struck me, how did you come to be a Christian?

I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment. I should not have sought him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek him.

I prayed, thought I. But then I asked, how came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the scriptures. How came I to read the scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that he was the author of my faith.

And so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day. And I desire to make this my constant confession, I ascribe my change wholly to God. And everyone that's been born of God will share in this, realize that God wrought in grace long before we cared for him.

He cared for us. He sought us, he pursued us, he moved upon us. And our Lord's direct statement makes it clear that salvation is by revelation. What is it? These things that thou hast hidden from the wise and the prudent.

What are these things? Why, everything that has to do with life and godliness and judgment and heaven. Everything that our Lord Jesus came to preach and to teach and to show. And these things are indeed hidden from the wise and the prudent.

But now remember, all men, by nature and in the state of rebellion, are wise in their own conceits. When you go into some distant tribe, and there they live in what you would call abject ignorance, you are amazed to discover how completely satisfied they are that when they die, wisdom will die with them.

Wise in their own conceits. And so this is the state of the natural heart, was the state of your heart. For when the, before the gospel came to you, you would have some influence, some contact, some acquaintance with it.

You were smug, hard. You knew the answers. You were aware of the wisdom that you possessed which could make all of this that came from the Bible just as children's prattle and talk. Then something happened.

Something happened. The Word began to work in your heart. Now, that same Word that began to work in your heart and brought you here today as a child of God, in someone else's heart didn't seem to have that effect, because they hardened their minds against it and steeled their wills.

Becoming Like Little Children

And this is the reason why the Word declares in Matthew 18, 3, that except a man, except ye be converted and become as little children, oh, how hard it is for someone that has a great confidence in intellectual achievement and prowess and ability to become as a little child.

And what a picture you find of this becoming a little child in that Philippian jailer. Proudest of the people, a centurion, a captain, if you please, one that's in charge of men, one that's acquainted with all of the philosophies of Rome, one that's so big that his nation can absorb all the gods of all the people they conquer.

And this little Jewish man comes in bruised and broken and bleeding, thrown into the dungeon, and he begins to answer the questions of the other prisoners. Why are you here? Because we believe in Christ.

Well, who's Christ? He's God come in the flesh. How do you know he's God? Because of what he did. He's, well, we thought he was crucified, yes, but he rose from the dead. Well, how do you know he rose from the dead?

Well, we saw him, and these words began to filter out through that dungeon and where the table of the centurion is, and he looks with disdain upon this little bruised maggot of humanity that sits there that dared to say that the man that was crucified by just trial of by Rome was God.

He's haughty and arrogant and proud. But then, at midnight, the angel of the Lord comes and the tumblers and the locks begin to fall to the floor and the doors open, and this Roman officer now isn't so haughty any longer.

The word has been proven true. The word has been demonstrated. And he draws his little sword from his scabbard and puts it against the heart through the chink in the armor and was about to fall on it when he hears this one that he's held in such disdain say, do thyself no harm.

We're all here. Nobody's running away. We weren't here to escape from you. You've been trying to escape from God, and he's just cornered you. That's all. Don't hurt yourself. And here's the change. He looks into the face of this one that he calls from the dungeon who comes out with the shackles and stoops over him as he lies there ready to lay over on his sword blade, and he says, what must I do to be saved?

Where's the arrogance gone? Where's the haughtiness? There's been a revelation. There's been a revelation that Jesus Christ is God and that the word is true. And there's come, he's a little infant now.

He's just an infant. And this is the only kind of people that ever know the Father, for you only know the Father through the Son. And the only ones who know the Son are the ones that have been stripped of all of these rags of pretense and pride.

And so he says, the revelation is just to infants, just to babes. Now, it should be that way. The same truth goes to awe. The communication comes to awe. But there are those, you know, that even under such a display as this will harden their hearts.

And so God would have it that it's not on the basis of education, it's not on the basis of intelligent quotient, it's not on the basis of philosophical achievement that you come to know Christ. Only then a few would ever scale these precipitous heights to peace with God.

And he puts it on the principle of grace. So the revelation, you say, well, to whom will it come? It'll come to anyone that's willing to become a little child. He puts the wise and the foolish down on the same basis.

And the only matriculation, qualification for this school of grace is that you're prepared to become a little child. Just to be prepared to be taught to open one's heart and mind. He puts the responsibility right back upon man for rejecting Christ.

Because it isn't out of achievement. It isn't out of educational prowess. We believe wholeheartedly in securing all the education that one possibly can, but at the same time it is to be remembered that this is revelation from God and not the result of having scaled the heights through science and philosophy.

Saul of Tarsus Receives the Revelation of Christ

Here's a philosopher by the name of Saul of Tarsus, a metaphysician once schooled in all of the learning of Israel, knowing the Talmud and knowing the Torah. And he's convinced that Jesus Christ is an imposter and that the church is a seditious organization determined to undermine the standing of Israel with the Romans.

And that they must be dealt with. And so he's hailing them into prison, testifying against them, seeing them put to death. And he hears God speak through one that's dying under a hail of stones. For he knows that this is a testimony by God through a man.

As Stephen stands up through the hail of rocks and declares, I see Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And this begins to break that strong facade of contempt and disdain in the heart of Saul. And then there's that further revelation.

When on the road to Damascus, Saul comes face to face with the risen Christ. Salvation is always revelation. Oh, you may not see the locks fall to pieces in your room or you may not have a vision as the brightness of the sun at midnight.

But everyone that's been born of God has had come into the death, dark chamber of his spirit. The unveiling that Jesus Christ is God. But it comes because of a response to the truth, a submission to the truth.

The truth that is there. I quote again from Spurgeon, lest some of you should sit back and say, well, I'll wait for God to bring a revelation. No. He makes it clear and I repeat it to you. The system of truth revealed in the scripture is not simply one straight line, but two.

And no man will ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to look at two lines at once. For instance, I read in one book of the Bible, the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that hear us say, come.

And let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Yet I am taught in another part of the same inspired word, that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

I see in one place God in providence providing over all. And yet I see, and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases and that God has left his actions in a great measure to his own free will.

Now if I were to declare that man was so free to act that there was no control of God over his actions, I should be driven very near to atheism. And if, on the other hand, I should declare that God so overrules all things that man is not free enough to be responsible, I should be driven at once into antinomianism or fatalism.

That God predestines and yet that man is responsible are two facts that few can clearly see. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is foreordained, that is true.

If I find in another part of Scripture that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true. And it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other.

I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly will be shown to be perfectly one in eternity. And so, at the same time that our Lord Jesus Christ says it's by revelation, the responsibility comes right back to you to do with the testimony of Christ through his words and by his works and by the ministry that he presents.

And thus, Chorazin and Bethsaida would have the greater guilt because they had rejected the truth that was presented to them. Salvation is by revelation. It is revelation to you, and when you respond to that which comes to you, it is revelation in you.

But if you reject the revelation to you, you will never experience the revelation in you. Thus it is that we walk in the light. But salvation is not only by revelation, it is also by invitation. For he has said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, come.

Salvation by Invitation

The smallest infant knows it. Oh, what a delight it is to see the little child taking his first tentative and feeble falling steps, and to hold out your hands and say to this little one, come. I don't know whether it's that they've understood the English.

I don't suppose they could. We know they couldn't spell the word. But there's something about the desire in your heart for them that they understand. And so our Lord Jesus, who speaks and thunders the eternal truth and says the soul that sinneth it shall die from Sinai, stands now in the presence of these in Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum that have had a revelation with which they've done nothing, and still revealing the eternal heart of God, he holds out his hands and says, come.

And I believe that those hands will be extended until the last breath one draws. We hear from time to time about a deadline, that one has crossed the deadline, and that therefore after that point they can't be saved.

Well, I do not believe in preaching deadline salvation. I think that as long as an ear is tuned to hear, and as long as a mind is capable of responding, that these hands that now have been nailed to a cross are still extended, saying, whosoever will may come, and more particularly saying, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

Our Lord invites all. It's irrespective of who they are. We know that the death of Christ was adequate, potentially adequate, so that if there'd been a world for every man that's lived on this one, his death would have been sufficient, potentially, to have saved them all.

And so he can hold out his arms, infinite mercy, and say, come, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. He said, come, come, and I will give you rest. The wicked are like the troubled sea that casteth up his mire and his dirt.

If you ever have been where the tide has been boiling in the inlet and seen the way it reaches right down and gets all of the filth off the bottom, everything that's settled there, and then begins to boil it up in these great displays of the filth that's underneath the water.

Perhaps the sun reflecting or the sky reflecting on the water makes it seem so beautifully clear. And sometimes you look out at the unsaved and you say, my, their life seems untroubled. They don't seem to have a care in the world, living in such gross sin, living in such complete iniquity, living without regard for God.

Why? They're not troubled in the least. They're just as calm as a mill pond on a windless day. But it isn't so, because God has said the wicked are like the troubled sea, and it begins to boil up. It begins to reach down around the bottom of the heart and gather what's there and stir it and mix it.

No rest, saith my God, to the wicked. What a burden it lays upon one when conscience begins to burn and memory begins to sear and torment begins to rise and it mounts up until layer upon layer it becomes a burden of indescribable weight.

And what do you think that some of the people that you see down here habitually on the bowery are doing? Why do you think they have the neck of the bottle against their lips? Why do you think they're trying to bring themselves into a poisonous oblivion?

Why? Because they've never been prepared or willing to deal with the burning, savage, tearing of conscience in the way that God has provided. They can't live with themselves. This becomes one way to get a false peace simply by some kind of a doping of the brain matter so that it no longer functions.

But psychiatry can't do anything about it. Oh, we're grateful for our practicing psychiatrists. We're happy that they're prepared to help people that are in trouble. But you know when the psychiatrist, through his messages, his means and techniques, has caused you to go clear back into the depths of your conscious and subconscious and find all that's there, everything that's there, what can he do with it?

All he can do is bring it out and say, now this is what you were at three, and this is what you were at five, and this is what you were at ten. This is what you are. This is the kind of a person you are.

When the psychiatrist has done that, then all he can say is, now the wise thing is to be prepared to live with the kind of a person you are. He has no way of taking that cancer out and that infection out and that poison that spreads and eats and tears.

But not so our Lord Jesus. He says, come unto me, all ye that labor, seeking peace and rest, and are heavy laden with the poison of your memory and the guilt of your past. Come unto me, and I will give you rest.

Christ's Yoke and the Rest of the Soul

Then he said something else. The Lord offers his yoke. Isn't that strange? Take my yoke. Why? Well, man needs God. You can't ever be complete or whole or truly at rest until you're linked with God. God made you for himself, and when he did that, he put into you that immense empty place that only he can fill.

And the only freedom you'll ever know is when you've come back and you've abandoned yourself to him. Have you ever wondered why it was, why it is today that in countries where dictators arise and a totalitarian government comes, brilliant young intellectuals will commit themselves to men and to movements and to ideologies?

Why? Do you know why? Because they've discovered that until there's something bigger than themselves for which to live, they're utterly unhappy. The human spirit absolutely is appalled at the void of no God.

And so if they will not take the God of the Bible, they'll make a God, either in an ideology or a system or a scheme or a person that becomes a demigod to them. And our Lord Jesus, knowing just how he made you, says, you come to me and take my yoke upon you.

For the only rest you'll ever find is when you've come to the place that you do what your conscience tells you is right, and what your conscience tells you is right is to obey God. And so when you come to the place that you submit wholly to him, you discover that the yoke lifts and that he bears.

You take his burden, my burden is easy and light, and you take his burden, the burden of his sovereignty and the burden of his rule and the burden of his yoke, and instead of it pressing you down, it bears you up.

He said, I'm not like Moses. I'm not like the Pharisees that added to Moses. I'm not like these other religious teachers that tell you that if you'll change yourself and wash yourself, then you can have peace.

No, I'm not like that. I know you. I'm gentle. I know. I know you. I know your sins. I know your iniquity. I know your pride. I know your uncleanness. I know all about you. You come to me, for my yoke is easy, and I'm meek and lowly in heart.

I'm not here to burden you. I'm here to deliver you. And so to the sinner, he holds out his nail-pierced hands, and he says, look, I went to the cross for you. I took your sin and your guilt and your condemnation.

You may die unsaved because haughtily and proudly you resist, but you can't die unloved. I loved you. And if anyone here today goes to hell, you're going to go to hell over the protest of outstretched arms.

You're going to go to hell treading right over the blood of the everlasting covenant. You're going to go out into darkness resisting the prayers of God's people and the entreaty of his grace and the invitation of God's Son.

It's going to take effort and determination on your part to be lost. You're going to have to say, I've made up my mind to doom my soul. You can't go any other way when the Son of God not only says, come unto me, but then shows you nail holes that were made because of your sin.

Salvation is by invitation. Then I close with one other word. Salvation is by participation. Why can you come to Christ and see him dying for you in your place, shedding his blood for you? Why? Because he was your representative.

He was your substitute. He died for you. He died for you. You see, he had no sin of his own. He reached out and he drew you to himself and he stood before God as you. And so when he went to the cross, you were participating with him.

He was there as your substitute dying your death. And the Father accepted him as you and every sin you've committed Christ carried. He died as you. You see, the scripture says a soul that sinneth it shall die and you had to die and you died in the person of God's Son.

So salvation is by participation of Christ participating with you in your sin in the sense in which he was made to be what you were and then he participated in your redemption by dying as you. And when you see that he died for you and you come and receive him as the sovereign that he is, then God counts all of his righteousness, his perfect righteousness to you and he counts all of your sin to him.

You're participating. But you soon discover that you not only have the burden for what you've done, but you also had what you were. Your nature and your traits and your tendencies and your disposition.

And some people say, well, I don't want to become a Christian. I tried it once and I didn't hold out. Oh my soul, what a pity it is that you hadn't heard. Listen, he not only died for you, but you died with him.

You see, you died with him. Since he was your substitute, the day he died, you died. Now if you'll just reckon that that you that's still subject to temptation and capable of sinning died the day Christ died, then just as seeing him die for you washed away the penalty of your sin, so seeing yourself die with him breaks the tyranny of your trait and tendency and disposition.

And so he says, come unto me, ye that labor under heavy laden with a mountain of sin that separates from God, and I'll give you rest when you see that I died for you. But then that you that are laboring under heavy laden with your temptation and with traits and with tendencies, it's still the same invitation.

Come unto me, all ye that labor under heavy laden, trying to get victory over your attitude and over your tongue and over your mind. He says, when I died, you died. Take my yoke. You see, you were with me.

You died with me. So salvation from the tyranny of yourself is on the basis of participation. There's one other thing, and that's weakness. Oh, how weak you are. And how greatly you need power. And you need God's power, because that's the only kind of power that'll meet the need where you are in the kind of life you have to live.

And so when you come to the place that weary with trying to do the work and be the fruit-filled Christian that you know you should be, not so much victory over temptation, but just power for witness and life and for fruit.

Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to realize that God never intended your power and the power of your personality and your intellect to do this. So he says, come unto me. It's the same invitation. Come unto me and take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

What are you going to learn? You're going to learn that God knew you couldn't live the Christian life and he never intended you to do it, but he wanted to do it. And so the Lord Jesus Christ will just move right in and by the Holy Spirit will fill you and will live his life in you.

And so you take on his yoke, which is total submission to him, and then he comes into you and furnishes the power. Let's suppose that in your task tomorrow you're utterly incapable of doing it, but you know someone that is.

And if just somehow tonight you could die and that person could come in, then tomorrow they'd think it was you, but it wouldn't be you, but it would be the person that knew just how to do it. And so that's exactly what God has done.

You can't live the Christian life tomorrow in the office. You've been carrying a yoke and a burden, trying to be what you ought to be and talk the way you ought to talk and live the way you ought to live, and it hasn't worked.

It's a burden. But now if you'll just come to him and say, now Lord Jesus, I'm taking my place crucified with you and I'm presenting my body to you. Now Lord, you live your life in me. You answer these questions.

You meet these difficult people. You live in these circumstances. And then it's no longer I, but as Paul said, Christ liveth in me. So every answer to the Christian in every phase of his life is met right here.

Come unto me, all you that labor. Under a mountain of sin, I'll give you rest and forgiveness. Under the tyranny of your personality, I'll give you deliverance. Under your need for strength and power, I'll become your life.

I'll fill you with myself. And so every need in the Christian's life is met right at this point. Come unto me, all you that labor under heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The answer is Christ. Christ in you.

Christ filling you. Won't you come today? So many needs today. Won't you come today to him and take whatever you need? If it's pardon, come. You'll give it. If it's deliverance from yourself, you've carried this awful thing of a mind that's critical and a tongue that's sarcastic and don't you want deliverance, dear Christian?

Come. You've been filled. Failing to show the fruit of the Spirit and not having power for witness and work, come whatever it is. Christ is the answer. Let us pray. Look well to your heart. Somewhere this morning the Spirit of God has spoken to your need.

The Invitation to Repent and Come to Christ

Somewhere he's found you. Perhaps I'm speaking today that someone that's come in with a mountain of guilt and past sins that have risen up in one like another until, like a huge chain, pull over the side of your little boat of your life and it's soon filling up with the links of sin until you're sure that your life is going to be submerged and destroyed.

The Lord Jesus loved you. He died for you and he shed his blood for you. He says to you this morning, come unto me. Come just as you are, poor, wretched, blind. He furnishes everything. You bring your need and he gives everything else.

Won't you do it? Oh, how I'd like to talk and pray with you today that are here. Don't leave. Don't leave when others go. Just remain quietly. No one will bother you. And after a moment we can go into the little room to the side and have a time of prayer.

Dear sinner friend, don't leave without Christ. And dear Christian, to go into another week under the tyranny of your personality and traits and habits and attitudes. Oh, what a drudgery it must be. How hard it is to labor when you hate a tongue that gossips and a mind that criticizes and life that's so bound up.

You know you're a child of God. Don't leave. Hear him. Come unto me. For you participated with him and he'll give you victory over yourself. And you that are hungry and burdened and longing for the fullness of Christ, come unto me, said he, and I'll give you my life and strength.

I'll fill you. I'll live my life through you. Salvation is by revelation. It's by invitation. It's by participation. And he's holding out this great salvation to you today. Come unto me. This is his word.

Prayer for the Spirit's Convicting Work

Father of our Lord Jesus, search us out. And where thou hast seen need, let the spotlight of thy grace just focus on it. Move upon those to whom thou hast spoken to seek thee this morning. There's nothing more important than that.

If they've felt thy wooing, help them to remember that when they get out in the hall and out on the street, their mind is going to be on a thousand other things. And the gentle impress of the Holy Ghost will soon be removed unless they harden it and seal it by prayer and by purpose and by seeking thee.

And so, grand Lord, that there shall be some who, having had revelation of their need and of thy grace, will meet thee this morning. This is the most important thing in all the world to them. And, Father, we do pray for everyone, for those that rejoice because they've seen what thou hast done.

Meet us now. We dismiss but not to leave thy presence nor to leave what we've heard, but just to go to our responsibilities for the day. Go thou with us. Let not the fowls of the air snatch away the good seed, but, O, may it do its gracious loving work in every heart and life.

For Jesus' sake. Amen. Let us stand for the benediction. And now may the love of God the Father and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the communion and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be in abide with all who are right with him and walking in the light of his truth and word.

But for those, our Father, with whom thou dost have yet that which thou must do, we pray the absence of peace and rest and contentment until they've entered into all that thou hast for them. For Jesus' sake.

Amen.