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Praise God. If we can get Brother Jeff excited, things will go better. Good to have you here today.
I don't know what this is, but I don't want to mess it up, so I'm going to set it over here. I am always honored to be at Whitten Baptist Church.
You folks make me feel right at home. You're a real blessing to my wife and myself, to our son and his family, and we are honored to be here with you.
I have yet to have a conference as well attended and well encouraged.
People learned as much as when I had the privilege of doing my seminar here at Whitten several years ago.
I can't even remember the time it was now, but it was a wonderful time. We've had some changes since that time.
Now I'm no longer in Arkansas. I'm in Louisville, Kentucky, just down the street from Church Hill Downs.
I'm trying not to lose too much money, but there is a lot of need in the area of Louisville where I have the privilege of serving.
I serve at Beechmont Baptist Church. Beechmont Baptist Church has an auditorium that seats 600 people.
It has a congregation of about 80. It was a fabulous place as far as outreach and ministry years ago, but is often the case in many of our urban churches.
The communities change. People from all over the world live in our community now.
There's 110 different languages in the city schools of Louisville, and we are called of God to reach those people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We're excited about it. We're thankful that God has given us the privilege to be there. The church has grown from about 60 to usually 80 or more in worship service now, and so we're thankful for that.
We've been there since January. A senior pastor preached a few times before that as supply preaching, so I covered your prayers.
We've got a lot of work to do. I'm going to be there this coming Saturday, and we've changed the name of it to Great to Glorious, taking people from how to have a great life in this current earthly life, in this body we live in now, how to have a better life after that, and to eventually be in a new earthly life that is absolutely glorious as we take people from great to glorious when they know the truth of the word of God.
So pray for us as we continue to share the good news of Jesus in that fashion and in that way.
I invite you to open your Bibles this morning to Matthew's Gospel, Matthew's Gospel chapter 11.
I'm only going to focus on verses 28 through 30, but to give you a little bit of the context in which this passage appears and where Jesus is speaking a very familiar passage to most of us in this text, he begins in verse 20 telling us about repentance.
In verses 25 through 27, he's telling us about revelation, and then in verses 28 through 30, we're going to look at his comments about rest.
I don't have time to preach all three of those to you this morning, so we're going to focus on the rest that God has promised.
In verses 20 through 24 is the call of Jesus concerning repentance, and he tells us it's absolutely necessary for repentance to take place.
In verses 25 through 27, the choice of Jesus concerning revelation and his absolute sovereignty, and then in verses 28 through 30, the concern and the compassion, the comfort of Jesus concerning rest and its absolute certainty.
So let's read our text there in verses 28 through 30. The Bible says, and these are
Jesus' words as he's speaking, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Now as we begin, I want you to notice two things. First of all, the universal invitation to all, come to me.
Jesus gives it loud and clear. He does not stutter. He does not stammer.
He does not question. He just says, come to me. And then there's the glorious promise to all who do come, and that is rest for your souls.
Let us pray. Father, as we come before you today, we ask for the grace and strength of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot do this in our own power. We have no ability in our own cognizance, in our own strength, in our own thinking.
We come to you in complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit. And so God, you know the hearts of everyone here today.
You know their listening ears, or you know if their ears do not listen.
Father, I pray that you will open the hearts and minds of everyone in this place today, that Christ might speak to their heart, and they know how to respond to this gracious, glorious invitation.
Come to me, for it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As we look at Jesus' gracious invitation, we want to begin with that, that it is universal in its dissemination.
No sweeter words have ever been heard than those that fell from the lips of our holy and righteous
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he said, come to me.
Come to me. This is the God of heaven and earth. This is the
God that created you, the God that sustains you, the God that knows you intimately, and he invites you to come into his presence.
He invites you to come to a personal relationship. He's not inviting you to come to a church.
He's not inviting you to come to a denomination. He's not inviting you to come to a movement. He's asking you to come to me.
Come to him. Have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
That God would do that is an amazing thing if you know who he is and understand who you are.
However, you will never grasp the sweetness of those words unless you know the contrasting words of Jesus in a parable about the master in Luke 13 and verse 27.
Listen to his words there and see if you notice any difference here in Matthew. He says, come to me in Luke 13 and verse 27.
He says, depart from me, all you workers of evil, the law of God, the word of God, the truth of God, the commandments of God, all of those things come clearly to each and every one since the
Garden of Eden. Depart from me. We have no right to be in the presence of God.
We have no authority to demand that we have an audience with him. We cannot do that.
If God were completely less than loving and kind and gracious and merciful, all of us would be in hell right now, this very moment, because all of us deserve to depart because all of us are evil.
And so God says that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So the law of God says, depart from me.
But the grace of God says, come to me. God's wrath says, depart from me.
God's mercy says, come to me. The 10 commandments say, depart from me.
The cross of Calvary says, come to me. No greater urgency should grip our hearts than to disseminate everywhere we can to spread around the entire world this glorious good news.
It reminds me of that old, old hymn by Priscilla Owens. We have heard the joyful sound.
What is it? Jesus saves. Jesus saves. You know that? How many of you know that song?
Okay. There's a few of you that are almost as old as me here. All right. So that's good. We've heard the joyful sound.
Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Spread the tidings all around. Say it with me.
Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Bear the news to every land.
Climb the steeps and cross the waves onward. Tis our Lord's command. Say it with me.
Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Are you happy about that? Say amen.
Listen, I'm glad that Jesus saves. I'm glad he doesn't just say what we deserve.
Depart from me. But he says what he wants us to experience. Come to me.
It is a gracious invitation. Now, I want to move from the fact that it's universally disseminated to all the world.
We are to preach that gospel everywhere we go to every tribe and tongue and language and people and nation.
And the good news is Revelation says there's going to be people there from every one of those. Isn't that great?
And we got a lot of work to do yet because there's still over 3 ,000 ethnic people that have not heard the name of Jesus still in the world in which we live in today.
And so we've got a lot of work to do. We need to be getting the gospel out, spreading it to as many places as we possibly can.
But then also Jesus gracious invitation is specific in its appreciation.
It should be universally disseminated wherever we go, however we can get it there.
But one thing you need to understand is not everyone appreciates this invitation.
It's amazing, but they don't. Jesus certainly meant what he said. He was truly sincere and is today in his offer of those facts we can be certain.
In the same way, our offer of good news is to be given fully and freely to everyone we encounter.
That is our responsibility as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, as Peter tells us in 1
Peter 4. But again, not everyone appreciates the invitation to come to Jesus.
So some of them just refuse to come. Listen to what
Jesus said in John 5, begin verse 39, talking to the scribes and Pharisees, he says, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
And it is they, those scriptures that bear witness about me.
Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Amazing. These people studied the scriptures more than anything else.
But when they studied the scriptures, they understood that Israel was God's chosen nation.
And so that's all they wanted to be concerned about. They understood what God said to Moses. They understood what he said to Abraham.
They understood these things, but they were missing the point of what
God was trying to do through them. So they searched the scriptures and looking at what they read, they thought they had eternal life.
But Jesus says, I give you the invitation to come to me and you refuse to come.
You're not willing to come. You will not come to me that you might have life.
The obvious conclusion from that and the implication of that is, if you do not come to Jesus, you do not have life.
The only way to have life is to come to the author of life, the bread of life, the giver of life, the
Lord Jesus Christ. To those who do not appreciate the invitation, not only are some refusing to come, in reality, they cannot come.
If you do not appreciate the invitation, you cannot come. Listen to what
Jesus himself said in John 6, beginning in verse 63. It is the spirit who gives life.
The flesh is no help at all. Well, we don't like that, do we?
You know, we think we're a little bit more worth things than that. We're worth a little bit more than that.
But the Bible says, your flesh, your ability, your mind, your thinking, your activities, your religious effort, all of that has this kind of value, zero.
In your flesh is no help at all. That's what the
Jewish nation did not understand. That's what those who go to church often all of their life, unfortunately, do not understand.
That's why we have, we just came back from the Southern Baptist Convention. In our Southern Baptist Convention, we have over 44 ,000 churches and supposedly over 15 million members, but you can't find but about 5 million of them in church on any given
Sunday morning. That means about 10 million of them are probably lost and on their way to church, and they're not coming to church.
That's why we have, we just came back from the Southern Baptist Convention. In our Southern Baptist Convention, we have over 44 ,000 churches and supposedly over 15 million members, but you can't find but about 5 million of them in church on any given Sunday morning. That means about 10 million of them are probably lost and on their way to church, and they're not coming to church. That's why we have, we just came back from the Southern Baptist Convention. In our Southern Baptist Convention, we have over 44 ,000 churches and supposedly over 15 million members, but you can't find but about 10 million of them are lost and on their way to church, and they're not coming to church, and they're not coming on their way to hell, and that doesn't mean the other 50 % in churches that are going there, too. Friend, I wish
I could give you better statistics than that, but a lot of people think they're going to heaven, just like the
Jews thought they were going to heaven because they're Jews. Some people think they're going to heaven because they're Baptists.
You don't get to heaven by being a Baptist. Now, you ought to go first class. I mean,
I'm not opposed to you being a Baptist, I mean, I'm not opposed to you being a Baptist, but that's not what gets you there, all right?
but that's not what gets you there, all right? He says, the flesh is of no help at all.
The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life, but there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.
And he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my father.
After this, many disciples turned back and no longer followed him, no longer walked with him.
So Jesus said to the 12, to his apostles, his closest group, he said to the 12, do you two want to go away?
Do you want to go away as well? Why do some follow
Jesus while others do not? Why did it upset them when they said, when he told them they cannot, they have no ability in their own flesh?
Now you do know the difference between can and may, right? He didn't say you may not come to me.
He said, you cannot come to me. That's a lack of ability. You have no ability in your own strength or power to come to Jesus.
Jesus gives the same invitation to all. So why don't all believe? Well, the reality that all of us must learn is this.
It is not the intervention, if not for, excuse me, if not for the intervention of the
Holy Spirit of God, none of us would appreciate Jesus' invitation to salvation.
None of us. It would go in one ear, not the other, or more specifically, it wouldn't even get in the ear.
If God did not do something to make us hear what he had to say, then we would never respond.
But some did. So here's the good news. Those who are given a divine appreciation for the invitation will come to Jesus.
I like what he says in John 6, 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me.
Let me read that again because it's just too good. All that the Father gives me.
There is a group of people. You can call them whatever you want to call them. But there's a group of people that is the
Father's love gift to the Son. And that group of people,
Jesus says, all of those, every one of them in that group, all of that Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me,
I will not cast out. Isn't that amazing? God has given a gift to his
Son and he assures us that those to whom he has given his
Son will appreciate Jesus saying, come to me. And they will come.
When those whom the Father has given to his Son hear the gracious invitation of Jesus, the
Holy Spirit enables them to have a divine appreciation for it and they will come to Jesus.
As a matter of fact, they cannot not come to Jesus. That's how powerful the word of God is.
Why am I preaching in a church that was near death and if something didn't happen, it was going to die and if still things don't change, it will die anyway.
But God has called me there for the purpose of letting them know that God has his children out in that community and someone needs to tell them the good news and when they hear the invitation, guess what they're going to do?
They're going to come. They're going to come. It doesn't make any difference if they speak English.
It doesn't make any difference if they're red, yellow, black or white, whatever, it doesn't make any difference wherever they come from, whatever their nationality, whatever their ethnicity,
Jesus says, you invite them to come. That's your responsibility, Paul. You invite them to come and those who are
God's gift to me, guess what? They're going to come. They're going to come.
I preach with confidence and assurance because God says they will come to me and those that come to me, he's not gonna cast them out.
He's going to give them the blessings of what he has promised to those who otherwise would not be able to have eternal life.
How does Jesus identify that specific group that appreciates his gracious invitation?
He calls them this in this passage, all who labor and are heavy laden.
Those who are working hard and weighed down under the burden of trying to do good and they keep failing.
They're under the conviction of sin. They've recognized that they are making no progress in being able to please
God through their works and they are worn out. They need to rest.
They need to stop trying to work their way to heaven and trust that Jesus has done the work already.
Jesus gracious invitation then includes the promise of rejuvenation.
He gives us in this passage, the truth that we're going to those that come to Jesus will have rest now immediately and also rest forever in the future.
As A .T. Robertson in his word pictures of the Greek New Testament said, no sublimer words exist than this call of Jesus to the toiling and the burden.
They are given in such a way in the Greek construction that they are in a state of weariness and it's to these people he says, come to me.
He towers above all men as he challenges us. I will refresh you.
I will give you rest. It's more than just rest. It is refreshment.
It is rejuvenation. The slang from the English is what we use in a term and maybe you've had it in your sports careers and things of this nature, but our coach used to always tell us before the day and the night of a big game, he'd say this to us, you guys go home and rest up.
Go home and rest up. Be ready for the challenge you're gonna face tomorrow. In other words, if you're out with your girlfriend till midnight, you're off this team.
You need to go home and get rejuvenated. You need to go home and get freed up from other activities and other thoughts and think about the game and just rest up.
That's what Jesus gives to us now. When we come to Jesus, those who have been toiling, those who have been striving, those who have the weight of sin upon their back, knowing that they are not right with God and not knowing what to do about it,
Jesus said, listen, I can get rid of that burden. Just come to me. Come to me.
You don't have to work to please me because nothing you can do is capable of pleasing me.
All of your righteous acts, the very best things you do are like filthy rags in the sight of God.
Give up that labor. Give up that work and come to me. I am the answer for your need.
I am the one that will give you rest. But not only do they give rest immediately from that toil of trying to please
God, they get rest forever. I love this passage in Hebrews four.
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, but the message they heard did not, because they were not united by the faith of those who listened.
Interesting phrase in the original language. The ESV translates it, they were not united by faith with those who listened to the other believers, to those who, the reason this group is a believer, these in this group are believers and these in this group are lost is because these listened, this group did not.
These listened and they applied faith to what they heard Jesus say.
These did not hear and did not respond. Verse three says, for we have, who have believed enter that rest as he has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
If your hearing is not coupled with faith, then you will not come to Jesus.
If I were to give you some strong, marvelous challenge and guarantee that if you did that, you would go to heaven, a lot of people
I could get to do it. I mean, if I said you've got to put hooks in your back and drag a cross through the streets of Memphis, a 200 pound cross through the streets of Memphis, barefooted on gravel roads or potholes and rainstorms and snow storms.
But if you do that, I guarantee you, you'll go to heaven. And I can promise you from the word of God, there'd be people that would line up to do that because they want to do something.
When they come to Jesus in the New Testament, they always say, master, what must I do to be saved?
Friend, listen, God's good news is come to me. Don't do anything, come to me.
You can't do anything, but I have done it. I've been to Calvary, I paid for the sin,
I took the burden, I suffered hell in your place, come to me.
And when we come to him, we have rest for our souls. Jesus' gracious invitation includes the assurance of daily application.
In verses 29 and 30, he told us this, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.
Quoting A .T. Robertson again, in portions of Europe even today, people place yokes on their shoulders to make the burden of carrying things easier.
You've seen them on TV, they have a wooden yoke they put across their shoulders and a bucket of water here and a bucket of water there, whatever it might be, whatever heavy load they've got, it balances the weight on them, puts the weight on the strongest part of their body and they're able to bear the burden.
Jesus says, if you will come to me, you'll find my yoke kindly and my burden lightened by my help and the burden lightened by my help.
He said this, take my yoke upon you because it is easy and my burden is light.
He said the word easy, it's poor translation, it's more kindly. That is the meaning of the persons we read in the
Greek New Testament and the Septuagint. We have no adjective in the English language that quite carries the notion of kind and good at the same time.
But Jesus says the yoke of Christ is useful and good and kindly.
When you try to live by the demands of the law, what happens? It becomes a harsh master to you.
You cannot do it, you cannot accomplish it. Nobody has ever accomplished it before you. But when you live as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you have a master that is gentle and lowly and has done everything for you.
The law is a yoke too heavy and burdensome for you to bear.
But the demands of Jesus Christ are a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light.
First John 5, three says, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandment and his commandments are not burdensome.
It is not a burden, listen to me. It is not a burden for me to set aside time to worship the one who died for me and proved his love for me.
That's not a burden. Worshiping, gathering with the Lord's church, witnessing to other people, sharing the good news of Jesus, teaching the word of God, that's not work, that's a joy.
That's not a burden, that is a blessing. It is light work, it is not a heavy load.
Friend, listen, that's why I'm so thankful that the Holy Spirit of God on a
Sunday night in Pinckneyville, Illinois, and a little eight year old boy was there who had been in church all his life.
I memorized scripture, never missed a service or my daddy would have spanked me.
I mean, he was the preacher and I was there. And so I'd have had to escaped home not to be able to be there.
I was in church all of my life. I understood the Roman road. I could tell people how to get saved when
I wasn't saved because I'd already known, I knew all the scriptures. But the
Holy Spirit of God opened my ears to a deaf little boy one night so that I could hear that I was lost, so that I could hear that I needed to be saved.
I could hear the voice of my master saying, come to me. Because of the
Holy Spirit's grace and mercy, I came and called out to Christ to save me.
And guess what? I've been saved ever since. Guess what? I'll be saved tomorrow.
And I'll be saved throughout eternity because Jesus was giving me rest for my soul.
I don't work and do what I do and commit my life to the church and to service to God's people and to the world out there.
I don't do that out of obligation.
I do that out of appreciation for what Jesus Christ has done for me.
I can never repay what he has done for me. I'm just so thankful he let me hear that night.
He raised me from spiritual death and gave me a spiritual life, gave me listening ears, gave me eyes that could see, and I saw my condition.
And I cried out, God, I can't do this. You're going to have to save me. And he saved me.
And friend, he'll do the same thing for any person here today that hears his voice and says, come to me.
And when you respond, you appreciate such an invitation, I encourage you to run to Jesus, come unto him for refuge, and he will give you rest.
Let us pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for how much you love us.
Thank you for what you've done for us. We don't deserve any of it, but we are so grateful that you loved us and gave us ears to hear that we might respond with obedient faith to the
Lord Jesus. If there's one here today that has heard for the first time and you have spoken to their heart today and they've seen that they are truly lost and they need eternal life,
God, I pray that they will come. If they're here and they're believers and they need to be strengthened today, they've strayed from the simple gospel of Jesus and are trying to do things to earn points with God, Lord, let them know the work's already been done.
Let them know that Jesus is the one who suffered and died for our sins. He just wants us to love him, to obey him, to follow what he tells us to do, just because he has loved us so much.
Give him grace to be strengthened and encouraged today. We ask you to Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.