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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-skates/coming-to-christ-2/
Now, I want you to turn in your Bible, please, if you have one with you, to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11. Matthew, chapter 11, please. Down to the end of the chapter, Matthew 11, verse 28. It's the Lord Jesus speaking.
He says, Come unto me, all ye 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. Now, just pause as you turn over toward the back of the Bible. Pause in John chapter 11 for a moment. John chapter 11, and come down to verse 43. And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. Now, over toward the back of the Bible, Revelation and chapter 4, please.
Revelation chapter 4, verse 1. After this, I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be.
Hereafter, and immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne. Now, over to chapter 20 for a final reading. Revelation 20, and verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. That's all we read, and we trust with the Lord's blessing.
I want to speak a little word at the close of the conference on coming to him, coming to him. We have read the requirement of the Savior in Matthew 11 and 28. He says, Come unto me, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
When we come to think about the rapture of the saints, you'll notice that the word come is involved. Coming to Revelation 4, John hears the cry from heaven, Come up hither. And while it was addressed to him personally, yet in the context, we believe it is pointing forward to the rapture of the church when the Lord arrives to the air to summon his own people home.
So the rapture of the saints, and we have the word come as well. Then when we come over to Revelation chapter 20, although the word come is not found there, I want you to think of how the Lord raised the dead in John 11.
It was with the word come. And we find that the sea gives up the dead which are in it. Death and hell deliver up the dead which are in them. And I believe it's by the spoken word of the Lord Jesus that those things take place.
And so we're thinking there of the resurrection of the soul. And it involves the word come. Now Matthew 11, 28, let's come to that first of all, the requirement of the Savior. He says to sinners in their need, he says come.
Now the question might be asked, why should I come? Why should I come? Well, the answer to that is very clear. It is very simple. It's because I have a need. There's a problem. It's my sin. And I need to come to Christ to have my sins removed.
You and I were born into this world with a nature that is sinful. We have been polluted with sin from our very conception right through to the moment that we have been born. We were born that way with a sinful nature.
We are natural born sinners is what we are. Now that problem then is manifested in our lives because we have practiced sin. We have lived that way in our sins. And as we were hearing with the boys and girls, there is only one sin that can keep a soul out of heaven.
And you and I have multitudes of sins, mountains of sins before God. There's a multitude of reasons why you cannot be in heaven in your sins. Sins. I wonder, is there anyone here this evening and your sins have been bothering you?
How would you know if they were bothering you? Well, notice what the Lord Jesus says here. He says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Now those words convey what it means to have your sins bothering you.
It's the idea of being disquiet, unease, agitated, frustrated. And there's a struggle going on within. And it all comes because there's a bothered conscience. Your sins are accusing you before God. And you're not right with God.
You've got a problem. It's the problem of sin. Now where that is the case and where your sins are bothering you. And if you're here this afternoon, we put a word on that, don't we? It's the word conviction.
Conviction of sin. The realization that my sins have put me at a distance from God. And if I die in my sins, I'm not prepared to meet God. I think of David back in Psalm 32. He was under conviction of sin.
He says, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me and my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. He's remembering the heaviness and the drought in his soul before his sins were forgiven. That is not a very pleasant place to be.
To find that your sins are like weights around your ankles, that will sink you as a sinner down into hell itself if you die in your sins. Not a pleasant place to be. Recently we were in the old country having gospel meetings.
There was a young mother came to those meetings. She has been anxious to be saved for almost two years since first she heard the gospel. She's attended many meetings. And after a gospel meeting, we would go home to the house we were staying in and the texts would start coming in.
And that dear soul, she actually used the language, I'm just tortured with the thought of going down to hell. Now, there's a soul under conviction. I wonder are you here today and you have a burden in your soul, a longing to be right with God because of your sins.
I just said a message this morning before coming to the conference from that young woman. Her question was this. I should add this. Before going to bed last night, I was burdened to pray for her and her partner.
And this morning, checking my messages, there was a message from her. Her question was this. Will a person who has heard the gospel have more punishment in hell than a person who hasn't? How would you answer that?
I responded with the language of the Lord Jesus to his disciples. They had been out preaching the gospel and he says, those people that do not receive it, he said, shake off the dust from off your feet.
It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for those people that have heard the gospel. Many times have you heard the gospel. Every time that you have heard the gospel, my friend, if you die in your sins, the very memory of that will torture your soul.
To think that I could have been saved and I should have been saved and I've missed it. Would to God that the reality of your sins would sink into your heart, that you would have a longing to be right with God.
We're here to tell you today that there's a Savior for you. Those are the very people that the Lord Jesus came to seek and to save. Who? That which was lost in their sins. The reality of it gripping their very heart.
Why should I come because of my problem? Another question we might ask is, where do I come to? Where do I come to? The Lord Jesus answers that question. He says, come on to me, the person. The person.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the person that is speaking and he says, come on to me. He doesn't say, come on to a church. He doesn't say, come to the altar rail. He says, come on to me. A real person. And that's where you must come.
There needs to be a point of meeting with Christ. Now, it's not a physical place, but it's a place in your heart where you agree with God. That I'm only a poor sinner, deserving of eternal judgment. But on the cross, the Lord Jesus bore that judgment for sinners.
In the six hours upon the cross, he bare our sins and God dealt with him. And all that was necessary for the putting away of sins took place there upon the tree for sinners, just like you. And the focal point of meeting is simply to acknowledge that it was for me.
It was for my salvation. And it's enough that Jesus died and rose again for me. Come on to me, the person. Now, another question that might arise is this. Not only where do I come to, but what will he do if I come to him?
What will he do if I come to him? Listen to it. I will give you rest. That's the peace. He gives peace. My peace, I give unto you. You know, that's the sweetest thing that a person could know this side of heaven is the enjoyment of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oftentimes, indeed, that dear woman, she asked that very question. How would I know? How would I know that I had believed right? How would I know if I believed right? Well, there's not two ways to believe.
You either do or you don't. It's either true or it's not. It's either black or white. You either trust Christ to do all the saving or there's something else hindering you from coming to him. Through all her struggles and through the text messages, you get to the point where you would just be expecting her to be saying, then I am saved.
But every time she would come so close, she would turn away. There's a problem. She's longing to be saved, longing to be saved, longing to be saved. But I put the question to her. What do you want to be saved from?
I want to be saved to go to heaven, would be the answer. Avoiding the question. I don't know exactly what the problem is, but there is in her life a relationship that is not right. Can't I be saved and still live in sin?
The whole point of being saved is you're looking for one to deliver you from your sins, and he will never save you with the intention of you remaining in sin. He's the Savior who delivers from sin. When you understand that the Lord Jesus has indeed taken my place, and he has saved me from my sins, what does he do for you?
He gives you rest, gives you rest. The rest of salvation, the rest of depending only on Christ, rest to a troubled conscience, of knowing that his work on the cross saves me completely, and it is done, it is finished, and it takes place the moment I trust him as my Savior.
What tremendous cost it was to him to purchase such salvation. The travail of his soul, the nails, the thorns, the cursing, the spitting, the rejection, the ridicule of men, the crushing mountain of sin that came upon him, the judgment of a holy God against sin, when he was wounded for our transgressions, when he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement, the punishment to bring us into peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
You know the wonderful thing is this, that the Lord Jesus, who has paid such a price, there's coming a day when he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. And in the language of Hebrews chapter 2, he'll look over that vast company of the redeemed, and he'll say, behold I and the children which God hath given me, children of God, saved by the grace of God and the work of Christ upon the cross.
For those of us who are saved, we are looking forward to meeting him, of seeing him. The next great event in God's program is the rapture of the saints. He's coming again to call us to him, and in the language of Revelation chapter 4, he'll cry, come up hither.
Or in the language of the song, come up my love, my fair one, and come away. And every soul that has trusted Christ to deliver them from their sins will rise to meet the Savior in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
There will not be one soul left behind that has trusted Christ. If that was to take place this afternoon, before we got out of Logan High School, I wonder if you would rise to meet him, or would you be looking for a set of keys to take a car to get home.
They're on my belt if you need a set of keys, and there's a car in the parking lot, a blue Impala, if you need one. You can have it, free of charge, if the Lord comes before this meeting is over. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of archangel, and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. What a glad moment, brethren and sisters, when he comes to the air to call us home.
But what about those who remain in their sins and die in their sins? Death and hell deliver up the dead which are in them. Why would death and hell ever deliver up the dead which are in them? They will only do it when they're commanded to do it by an authority that's greater.
Revelation chapter one, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. And the one who cried to Lazarus, come forth, he's the one that will command death and hell to deliver up the dead which are in them.
I remember Jack Hunter preaching on John 11 one time, and he lifted up his voice like a trumpet as he quoted those words. He turned them around a little bit, and he said, the Lord Jesus cried, Lazarus, hither, come!
And with the voice of command, there was no force could ever keep Lazarus in the grave. And when the Lord Jesus, with his voice of command, reaches down into death, reaches down into hell, from death there'll come your body if you're dying your sins, and from hell there'll come your soul and resurrected to stand before him at the judgment of the great white throne.
And from there, instead of hearing the word come to go on into heaven, the word is depart. I never knew you. Tonight, this afternoon, the invitation stands open to you to be rid of your sins, to be right with God, to have rest, to have peace.
He says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. His promise to you is this, I will give you rest. Why wouldn't you come? He's ready to receive you when you're ready to receive him. Let's pray.