The Concealing and Revealing of Truth — Mack Tomlinson

Jesus Thanks the Father for Concealing and Revealing Truth

Matthew 11, what began at verse 25, and read through the end of the chapter. Matthew 11, verse 25. 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 have revealed them unto babes, or literally little children, spiritually meaning little children.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. All things are delivered unto me by my Father. And no one, no man knows the Son except the Father. Neither knows any man the Father except the Son.

And He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Come unto me, all you that labor and are burdened down, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek and humble in heart.

And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Father, we thank You for the words of our Savior. We thank You for recording in the Gospels His life and ministry and His words.

We're grateful to hear Your voice this morning here. So we do pray as we've already sung, Lord, for You to speak beyond me, in spite of me. Let us hear from You. Feed us with food by the Spirit that each of us needs in the moment.

We look unto You. Our expectation and our dependence is not upon a man except the man Christ Jesus unto whom we look, for whom we preach now, from whom we hear the voice of the Son of God through Your Word by Your Spirit for Your glory.

Amen. This passage is indeed an amazing invitation. And it's an invitation for you and for me and for anyone who's ever heard it. Anyone who's ever owned a Bible and never read it. Anyone who had a missionary come to their village and heard a little bit about what it's about, but they were disinterested in going and they wouldn't, this invitation, they will be accountable for in the final day.

Jesus had growing opposition here in this place in Matthew's Gospel. For instance, in Matthew 10, He had warned the disciples, I am sending you forth as what? Sheep into the midst of what? Wolves. You will be delivered over to the Romans.

You will be flogged, dragged before rulers, and you will face persecution. In chapter 11 earlier, He says the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence. No matter how truth comes, Jesus said people will not like it.

John came, neither eating or drinking, and they said that guy's totally insane. In fact, probably demonized. And the Son of Man came, both eating and drinking. Well, He's a glutton, and He's probably a drunkard.

He's not like John was. So the rejection and opposition to the ministry and message of Jesus Christ was gaining strength and what's the word I'm looking for? Courage to openly go after Him and oppose Him.

It was becoming more militant. Have you noticed in the last five years society becoming more militant against the truth? Yeah. The more that happened to the Lord Jesus, all the more did He remain firm and encouraged that He was in the Father's will, that His single calling was to fulfill the Father's purpose.

And He was not shaken or moved away. Now, that is seen at the beginning of this text we've read in verse 25 where Jesus prays with thanksgiving implying joy and confidence, a positive heart, a positive attitude.

He prays a prayer of thanksgiving. But He doesn't just pray. He prays affirming something that really comforts Him. Notice in verse 25. I'm sorry. Verse 25. Father, I thank You, Lord of heaven and earth.

That's a unique phrase because Jesus never prays that in any of the recorded Gospels. He calls the Father Lord of heaven and earth. It's a unique thing. It's a picture of all authority throughout the whole universe.

Father, You are in all authority over everything and I thank You. Notice what He thanks the Father for in verse 25. You have hidden these things from a certain bunch and You have revealed them to another bunch.

Father, I thank You that You have concealed the truth and You also have revealed the truth. So, He affirms this in prayer. And then in verse 26, He says, this is good and right. Father, this pleased You to do it this way.

Jesus had no problem with God doing that. But people often do. And then in verse 27, He affirms to His hearers His identity more. Notice this. All things are delivered unto Me by or from My Father. His identity.

Declaring an exclusive relationship here. Everything has been delivered from the Father who is the Lord of heaven and earth. He has delivered all things to Me. And then He says this amazing, deep statement that sounds like John's Gospel.

No one knows the Father. No one knows the Son except the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son. And whoever the Son chooses to reveal the Father to. This sounds like John's language in John's Gospel if you get into it.

So here is this declaration of His exclusive relationship with the Father. No one knows Him except Me. And no one knows Me except Him. And I'm the only one who can make Him known to anybody. Exclusivity.

Pure and simple. So in verses 25 -27, Jesus is thanking God for sovereign, gracious election before He gets to verses 28 -30 which is an amazing invitation. So let's unpack this starting at the beginning.

God's Sovereign Concealing and Revealing of Truth

First, Jesus' prayer in verses 25 -26. Again, notice what He prayed. Father, I thank You that You have hidden, You've concealed these things from a certain bunch and You've revealed these things to others.

He thanks the Father for His two actions of concealing and hiding actively from some, and for revealing and displaying and making others see what these have concealed from them. The action and the choice of God the Father in doing both of those.

Jesus is grateful that the Father has hidden the truth from some. Sounds unfair. Hidden these things. God has hidden some things from some people. Well, what things has He hidden? Why did Jesus say You've hidden these things?

These things would obviously refer to the entire process of revelation that started in redemption in the Old Testament. It's God revealing truth here and there. The world had fallen, was in darkness, and suddenly it's hidden from man's mind because sin has blinded the minds of men and the eyes of men.

And truth is hidden. And the whole process of Jesus Christ coming in His ministry, the truth He's teaching, and who He really is, His true identity, God the Father is withholding these things from some people.

Is that right to do? We should answer that in our hearts. Do our hearts argue with that? Do we dislike that? Do we revert to human logic and human understanding and human fairness, if you will, human justice, if you will, and say, you know, I don't like that.

God can't do that. It's wrong for Him to do that. Well, not apparently to the Lord Jesus. It was a point of thanksgiving from His heart that the Father conceals truth from some. God is withholding these things from some people.

This is God's sovereign electing choice to do this. And it tells us that God does not equally reveal all truth to everyone. Some people don't like a God like that. That's not the God I believe in. That's not the God I worship.

But that's the God of the Bible. He conceals truth. Why? We don't ever know why. Maybe it's generally for reasons unknown to us. It's not time yet. Maybe the person has sent away opportunities and God in remedial judgment says that's it.

No more for them. Men are only going to see the truth that God any day chooses to reveal to them and allows them in the moment to know. Does it ever dawn on us how much Bible knowledge do you have? How much understanding of the truth do you have?

How much have you ever learned of the things of God and the Kingdom of God and spiritual truth? Many of you, a lot. Some of you, a lot of real things. But every single time light and truth dawned on your mind and you saw truth, God chose to show it to you right then or you would not know it to this moment.

It's an act of God in concealing or revealing truth. What we know, God has shown us. And what men don't know is because God the Father has not chosen to reveal it to them. Rather, He's covered it up. I don't want them to know this.

Christ's Light and the Blinding of Unbelievers

Now, turn to John chapter 12 and you see this clearly. That God hides truth. He actively blinds men from seeing what is clearly true. That is the New Testament teaching. It's offensive because it goes against, it cuts against the grain of the modern American view of God.

He has been dumbed down that He can't be this way. And men take offense. But look in John 12. Down to verse 35. And just hear the words of Jesus. John 12 .35. Just listen to this. Then Jesus said to them, yet a little while is the light with you.

He's talking about Himself. He's the light of the world. Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you. For he who walks in darkness knows not where he's going.

While you have the light, believe in the light that you may be children of light. These things spoke Jesus. And He departed and hid Himself from them. There's revealing of truth. There's hiding. Right there.

Keep reading. But though He had done so many miracles before them, they didn't believe on Him. Why wouldn't they believe on Him? The next verse tells us. In order that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report?

Verse 39. Therefore, they could not believe. It's not that they would not. They couldn't see it. It was concealed from them. Because, verse 40, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them.

These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory. That is from Isaiah 6. We won't go back there to read it. But it's simply clear that in verses 44 -46 on down, you see that Jesus equates believing on Him with seeing.

Seeing Him. Have you seen the radical power and reality of Jesus Christ with your heart and mind? It's not physical sight. It's heart seeing. Have you seen Him? Where the vision, I don't mean an existential vision where you get a vision in your dream.

I mean where the reality of who Jesus Christ is comes over you and you're gripped with Him and you see this is the most amazing man and person that there could be. Seeing Christ with the heart. If you've not seen Him, you don't know Him.

And He says here in verse 46 of John 12, I am come as a light into the world that whoever would believe upon Me would not abide in darkness. He who has seen Me has seen the One who sent Me. Blindness or sight.

Jesus thanks the Father for concealing the truth from some. And also He thanks the Father here for His revealing of the truth to others that He chooses to reveal these things to. Now why does God do this?

No one knows. And no one can explain it. We don't have to. Jesus thanked the Father for these things and we can too. And we should. If it's knowledge that's far beyond you, thank Him for it. If it's knowledge that you don't even agree with, if you see that it's here, thank Him for it.

And bow to it. Say, Lord, You're true. And everybody else is a liar if they don't agree with what You've said. We too should thank Him and believe it. But the Lord Jesus here tells us exactly why the Father conceals or reveals.

Look at what it says there in the verse. In the prayer. Because this was your good pleasure. He's praised that right at the end there. Because it was pleasing in your eyes to do so. Even so, Father, it seemed good in Your sight.

Now this is translated a number of different ways in different New Testament translations. Father, I thank You for this because this was pleasing in Your sight. Because this was Your good pleasure to do it this way.

For so it seemed good in Your sight. This is what You were pleased to do. Jesus was encouraged and He thanked the Father for free sovereignty with all truth in God withholding it or dispensing it as He sees fit.

He knows what He's doing. And He's pleased with every choice that He has in revealing or concealing. So that's Jesus' prayer. Secondly then, look at verse 27. Jesus moves from prayer to declaration. Affirming some things.

All things are delivered unto Me of My Father. Now He's not praying, He's declaring. No one knows the Son except the Father. No one knows the Father except the Son. And whoever the Son chooses to reveal Him to.

This is Jesus affirming. Remember, in the face of increasing unbelief and hatred of the truth. Affirming boldly in the face of increasing hostility and opposition. His unique relationship with the Father.

And His unique role as mediator and revelator. What's a revelator? It's someone who's the one who reveals. He declares here His unique role relationally with the Father. And His unique role as the only mediator of truth and knowledge of God.

Christ's Delegated Authority and Exclusive Knowledge of the Father

So let's think about verse 27 here. Let's unpack it a little bit. Jesus affirms three big truths here. First of all, Christ delegated full authority over everything. That's where He starts out. All things are delivered unto Me by or of from My Father.

Now remember, He starts out praying, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that's authority. And that has been given to the Son. Full authority delegated. Those of you who work for others have been under authority at different levels.

You know what delegated authority is. Police officers are wonderful servants of society. They ought to be honored. They ought to be obeyed. They ought to be prayed for. They ought to be appreciated. But their authority is delegated to them.

A guy off the street can't come and use authority that he has that an officer can because he has delegated authority. A boss delegated authority. There is delegated authority. And as the God-man, Messiah, and mediator, Jesus says all of that, all authority has been delegated, committed to Me by My Father.

It's the word committed to. Entrusted to. Delivered over to Me. Handed over to Me. The Father gave all authority over everything to the Son, Jesus Christ. John 5 affirms this, remember. John 5, Jesus said, the Father judges no one, but He's given all judgment to the Son.

That all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father. The Father has given Him authority to execute judgment. It is the Person of Jesus Christ we will all stand before in the final day by ourselves and give an account to.

Every sinner that does not believe on Jesus Christ in their life, they will stand before Him, Christ, as their judge on the final day. Stand alone. Because He has all authority. Full, delegated, unlimited authority.

And Jesus said this in John 10 also. I lay My life down. No one takes it from Me. I lay it down and I take it up. This charge have I received from My Father. And then remember the end of Matthew 28? The Great Commission.

How does it start out? All authority is given unto Me. He means it. So, that's the first thing He affirms. His delegated authority from the Father. And that's real in His mind the more the opposition increases.

The truth of God has to grip us more in times where times get more difficult. 2 Timothy 3. Paul starts out. Linda and I read this chapter this week. Understand this. That difficult days are coming. Brethren, they're here.

Aren't they? They're here. Understand, Paul said. Jesus understands this and He affirms these truths. But then in verse 27, He affirms this second one. And that is this. No one knows the Father. Now here's Jesus standing as a man.

He knows who He is. He knows the Father. And He says, no one knows the Father but the Son. Right? We now know the Father as sons and daughters of God. But that's limited. That's totally limited. But Jesus is talking about an unqualified, unlimited, infinite, perfect, full knowledge of the Father.

No one knows God except Me. That's what He said. No one knows God except God. And Jesus says, no one knows the Father except Me. Exclusively, I know Him and no one else does. Now we know the Holy Spirit.

So that's not the issue here. He's not talking about the Son knowing the Father in a way that the Spirit doesn't know Him. No, they equally know each other. But He's talking about His Messiahship. This inner Trinitarian, unique, unqualified, intimate knowledge.

No one has except the Son. And only the Father knows the Son this way too. The Father and the Son hold this intimate, infinite, reciprocal knowledge of one another. And it's a privileged relationship.

No one has ever had a relationship like the Father has with the Son and the Son has with the Spirit and the Spirit with the Father and the three in one. An intimate, incomprehensible relationship. This language of Matthew here sounds much like John's Gospel as found in John 1.

And then you get to John 5 and you see this intimate language of the Father and the Son all the way from chapter 5 through chapter 17. This is what David Turner calls high Christology. Meaning, high and lofty, deep truth about the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Paul says in Romans 9 .5, the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Now Jesus has affirmed here His full authority, His unique relationship with the Father, and His exclusive mediatorial position only through me.

No one will know the Father except me or whoever I choose to reveal the Father to. Jesus makes the choice. No man comes to the Father except through me. No man seeks God. No man can come unless I draw him.

No man can know unless I open his eyes. No man can see truth. It's concealed unless I open his eyes and reveal it. Jesus is exclusively the mediator, the revelator, and the one who opens the truth to anyone.

Now the more difficult Jesus' ministry became, the more solid would He affirm the truths about Himself. After His prayer of thanks for the Father concealing and revealing, He affirms these amazing truths in verse 27.

And after all that, all that is vertical. He's praying to the Father. He's affirming to the Father the relationship. He declares then this vertical truth. No one knows God except me. And He knows me perfectly and no one knows me.

And I'm the only one who can make Him known to anybody. All that's vertical. He's declaring that. But then He comes down to verse 28. And it's a big shift to this. Come. Come to me. He moves into this graciously, overflowingly warm, most wonderful and amazing invitation the world has ever heard.

Christ's Invitation to the Weary and Burdened

He shifts from prayer and proclamation to invitation. Come! Won't you come? Come to me. All who are weary and burdened, just come. Just come. You don't have to understand the secret realities of the inner workings of the Trinity, how the Father only knows the Son, how the Son only knows the Father.

You don't have to figure all that out. Don't let the issue of God concealing truths stumble you. Just get to me. Just come on! It's an invitation. And there's four verbs here Jesus uses that are warm and genuine and inviting and welcoming.

What are they? Four verbs. They're all one syllable. Come. Take. Learn. Find. And in those words, Jesus summarizes what a Christian is and what the Christian life is. If you had just that and you unpack it, all your life, from the time you come to Jesus Christ, all your life is a life of coming to Him, learning of Him, taking His yoke on you, learning of Him, and finding rest and satisfaction in Him.

That's the Christian life. It is the God-man centeredness. It is Christ-centeredness. It's everything. The brief words of Jesus here, it's a comprehensive statement about all of life for anyone anywhere who will hear Him and take Him seriously.

Now this morning, if something I've said or something we've read in Scripture gripped you and light came and suddenly you see some things, God is revealing that to you this morning. He's chosen to not conceal it.

It's coming to your mind. It's coming to your spirit. It's coming to your conscience. And you're hearing the voice of the Son of God through His Word by the Holy Spirit. Don't harden your heart. You're hearing.

God is revealing. The source of this invitation, this four-fold invitation, is Jesus Himself. The scope, it's comprehensive. Come unto Me all. It's also specifically designated those of you who are tired, burdened down.

Who's burdened down? Who's tired? Come on. I've got the answers. I've got the solution. I've got the remedy. I've got the healing. I've got the help. I'm the only one that does. Do you want it? Come to Me.

So the first invitation is one to come. No one in history except the Lord Jesus Christ can make this statement and promise what is promised. Inner, heart, and soul rest. He's speaking about the depths of the biggest issues of life.

No soul, no heart, no mind, no person is going to find satisfaction or inner true peace and purpose and fulfillment except in God through Jesus Christ. It doesn't exist anywhere else. And this is speaking to the depths.

His invitation is dealing with the biggest questions of life. Who am I? What is the real purpose of my existence? Where am I going after this life? How can I interpret life and reality and truth? Who has the ability or the reality to clear away the confusion and cloudiness of the depths of the deception that this world has brought on the minds of people?

Come, Jesus says. Come to Me. Now in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, when I was growing up, the only phones that existed were landlines. And you could make one of two kinds of calls. You could make a local call that didn't cost anything in your area, or you had to make a long distance call.

That costs money. But there was a third kind of call you could make. You could make a person-to-person call. Now what does that mean? It means if you didn't want to pay for the call, but you wanted to ensure you got through to the person if they were home, you could make a person-to-person call.

And the operator, some of you don't know what those were, a live person would come on the line and they would say, it was person-to-person, and yes, who are you calling? Well, I'm calling Philip Neely.

So, Chris Neely answers, yes, this is a person-to-person call for Philip Neely. He's not here. I don't have to pay for the call. Click. But if he's there, I get to talk to him. That's when I pay for the call.

Jesus' words here, they're a person-to-person call. They are for you. Specifically. He's calling individuals. He's calling you. You're included. Now the issue is, you're going to take the person-to-person call?

Or are you going to hang up? You're going to lie and say, no, not here. Won't take the call. Now people used to do that. They'd decline the call and then the parent would call back so the child wouldn't have to pay for the call.

The point is, Jesus is making both a generic call to all who hear these words, all who have a Bible, all who've been ever exposed to the Gospel in any way, all who've had God's truth affect them. The call of God goes out through creation and through the Bible and the research.

Anyone who has a Bible available to them, they're accountable for it, because they know in their conscience it's a divine book. That's a generic call. But it's also person-to-person. Come to Me if you are burdened down and weary.

It needs to be very clear who's extending this invitation. This is God Himself. This is the Son of God. It's this One who says come to Me. He is perfectly true and trustworthy with all authority saying come to Me and you will find.

Before anyone quickly dismisses Jesus' words, we should think again about what Jesus says about the importance of His words. He says in John 12, I've come as the light into the world. Anyone who rejects My words, the words I've spoken, will judge them on the final day.

His words will be our judge on the final day. So that brings significant supreme authority to the words which He's spoken. Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden. It's specifically those who are weary and burdened.

Someone immediately could think, well, I don't feel weariness. I don't feel burdened. Life has been good. It's wonderful. Things, I enjoy life. This doesn't really apply to me. All is well. So that person in their mind can kind of click a button and dismiss Jesus' words because they say I'm neither weary or burdened.

I feel basically strong and carefree. The question I would ask to anybody is are you really strong and carefree? If you're totally honest with yourself, you're not so strong and you're not carefree. We have burdens.

I'd like to meet anyone who's carefree with no burdens, no need, and everything's wonderful. I'd like to meet them. I'm 66 years old and for 46 years of adult life and work, I don't remember meeting a person who doesn't have on their back an invisible backpack that's filled with weight.

Or as Alistair Begg says, they're pushing a wheelbarrow that's so loaded down and they're stumbling along, and it's a burden. The wheelbarrow of life is loaded with cares and worries and anxiety and fears and wounds and guilt and hurt.

And they're just exhausted. Loaded down with wearisome burdens. Despite all outward appearances to the contrary, many people are inwardly, psychologically, emotionally, physically, and spiritually loaded down.

Life has brought a boatload of weight, concerns. There are things today in your heart of heart that you're burdened about, that you're helpless about, that you're grieved over, and that hurt your soul and burden your soul.

Jesus is calling the weary and the burdened. Come to Me. Anyone weary out there, anyone burdened, come to Me. I have rest for you. I'm the only one who does. But you come, I've got it. You come, I will give it to you.

Taking Christ's Yoke and Learning from Him

A Christian is not somebody that's got it all together. A Christian is not someone who thinks he's righteous or better than someone else. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ who has seen that they're sinful and they need forgiveness.

And they come with their burdens and their heartaches and they follow Him. They take His yoke upon them. That means they take His authority on them. They yoke up. They're joined to Jesus Christ in a yoke where He is bearing the burden and the weight and His burden is easy, His burden is light, and His yoke is easy to wear.

You know what a yoke is? Oxen wear them. Cattle wear them. It's a picture of authority. And He says, come to Me. And in coming, take My control, My authority on your life. Yield. Hook up with Me, Master and Servant, Lord and Disciple.

Hook up to Me. And we're together. And we're yoked. Now this picture of the yoke, you know it's a picture of authority and it's a picture of control. It's a familiar term. 1 Timothy 6 Let servants who are under the yoke count their masters worthy of all honor.

It's a symbolic term of significance. Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So you're joined to them in a bound relationship that you shouldn't be. Israel was under the yoke of Roman oppressive power, right?

Israel, in fact, was under two yokes. Rome's control and the yoke of the rabbinic law. And that law was a choking yoke. It was smothering, ruthless. It was nitpicky. It was senseless, joyless, and dead ritual.

And Matthew 23 refers to that. Jesus said you Pharisees, you put on people burdens they can't bear and you don't lift one finger to even try. It was a yoke. Unworkable, bad yoke. Acts 15, Jerusalem Council, they said the same thing.

You're trying to put a yoke on people that can't be born. Galatians 5, don't be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. So, Jesus is offering to the weary and the burdened a new, good yoke that fits. That doesn't hurt.

It actually feels comfortable. Because He is in it with you. You're yoked and joined to Him. And that's a nice yoke. It fits well. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't damage you. It's exactly right. It's custom made for you.

It lifts the weary burden. Because we're yoked to Him, and He bears the burdened weight. Take my yoke upon you. Meaning, yield to my loving and faithful authority. Is Jesus Christ, the Person of Jesus Christ, your yoke mate personally?

Is He your Lord and Master? Because you're a church member, because you believe in God, doesn't mean you're yoked to Christ. Is Christ your personal Lord where He calls the shots? Are you under His authority truly?

The yoke of religion is often bondage. Man-made rules, human control, cult-like rules, legalism. But only Jesus' yoke works. Only His yoke fits well and is easy. And we must come to Him and take His yoke on us.

Have you. You can't come to Him without taking the yoke. You can't take the yoke without coming to Him. It's not pick and choose. It's everything. Come to Me. Take My yoke upon you. And then what? Well, you start learning.

Learning. He says, learn of Me. It's all encompassing. Learning about Him. Learning from Him. He is your rabbi. He is your teacher. He is your mentor. He is your Lord. His words are authoritative. All other words except Scripture are not authoritative.

Scripture alone is authoritative, binding words on us. We learn of Him through Scripture. We learn from Him. We learn about Him. Mastering the four Gospels. This ought to be someone's goal. To be so intimate with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that you're intimately just clear on the teaching and the life and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ where it's a part of you.

Learning of Christ. Have you ever read closely Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John where you see these truths unfolded about Him? What He's teaching. What He's like. How He relates to people. Why He's doing what He does.

His views. His motives. His actions. His faithfulness. His impeccability. His courage. You learn of Christ. Seeing Christ. And the epistles. They're all and only about Him. He is the subject and the topic and the theme and the focus and the center and the circumference.

In the book of Acts. In Romans forward to the end of Revelation. Christ is the focus. Those epistles are showing the readers what it means to be in Christ and know Him. What it means to be yoked to Him.

What it means to follow Him. All the days of your life. Learning His ways. Loving Him. And Jesus says you come to Me. You take My yoke on you. And you learn of Me. And you will find rest. Now and for eternity.

Finding Rest in Christ Alone

Some of you don't know Him. And you don't have rest. And you know you don't have rest. And I'm talking to you right now because you know you don't have rest. And you never will have rest until you stop wearing your own yoke and break it and throw it away and let your heart come to Jesus Christ and take His yoke upon you and start learning Him.

You're going to find rest immediately. He says learn of Me. We learn all about Him. His ways, His will, His kingdom, His truth. And we find rest. Sin steals our rest. There's no rest. Guilt. Unforgiven sin.

Guilt that's real that we can't wash away. There's no rest. Life without God, there's no rest. But finding rest in coming, taking His yoke, and learning of Him. This is the lifelong Christian life. Recently there was an obituary in the New York Times, in the Wall Street Journal.

I don't remember his name. He was a young professor, 47 years old. Brilliant. Very popular. He had a number of tumors, I think, in and around his kidneys. 47 years old, he's dying of kidney cancer. And he comes to do his last public lecture.

It's not in the classroom. It's in a big auditorium. And students and faculty and the media and distinguished people and all from across academia come to hear this last lecture. I listened to it. You look at him, you'd never know he was sick.

But he was eaten up inside with cancer. The room is filled with anticipation and human emotion. And the last lecture is an inspiration to all who heard it. He's speaking to a generation he's fixing to leave about important values, about loving others.

Treasure your mate and your children and grandchildren. It's important to make memories. Important to family and friends and living well. Living well. And it was an absolutely masterful speech. Very moving.

With one point intentionally left out. The final paragraph in the New York Times said this, quote, The final lecture was phenomenal, giving practical advice and avoiding any reference to spiritual or religious matters.