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[0:00] The 11th, verse the 28th. St. Matthew, chapter the 11th, verse the 28th.

[0:14] Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[0:31] There are three distinct and most beautiful parts to this verse.

[0:42] And let us name them in this sacred order. First, the complete and perfect description and diagnosis and analysis and delineation of the condition in body, soul, and spirit of certain people who are ultimately proved to be chosen vessels unto God.

[1:28] Ten thousand years ago, or whether it be now in this twentieth century, there is absolutely no difference whatsoever.

[2:11] Down through all the ages from Adam, a federal head, consequent upon his complete fall, and then regenerating grace in him and Eve, his wife.

[2:34] From then, down through all the masses of the human race, those that the Lord has regenerated by his Holy Spirit, have known the description given here so perfectly by the Spirit as being their very life whilst here on this planet.

[3:06] Certainly there are many facets of this terminology, that is to say, they labor and are heavy laden.

[3:20] But nevertheless, I wish to suggest to you that all those who are born of God, quickened by the Spirit, down through all the ages to the end of time, they will all prove, they have proved, and they will continue to prove, that life here for every gracious person is labor and sorrow.

[3:59] I know that terminology applies to 80 years of age, but it begins long before that. Strength is labor and sorrow.

[4:10] So, this is the perfect, I would call it, diagnosis of their experience.

[4:25] And I shall endeavor to deal with that in a deeper sense this evening and from several viewpoints.

[4:36] Then, the amazing thing is this, what will you do in all your labor and with all your burdens and with all your sorrow?

[4:55] Which way will you turn? Is deliverance, is relief obtainable from any human source?

[5:13] Or will the wells of creation give you deliverance? What is the glorious panacea for all ills?

[5:30] For all ills? It is here before you. There is one, God's incarnate Son, who amazingly has a complete list, if I might use reverently that term, of office characters that he fills in the new covenant of grace towards these people.

[6:09] There is a throne of grace that is ever open to them. And most of all, there is a loving heart, the great heart of God, where they belong.

[6:30] I would rather wish to underline those few words. Do you know what it is in the earth to come into certain experiences and you say, this is where I belong?

[6:50] I know it. Now there is a place where God's people belong. Where? In his heart. Did you know it?

[7:06] Do you know it increasingly? And because of his boundless love, he issues this glorious, efficacious, and plenary invitation to them.

[7:32] Come unto me. It can never be inefficacious. If he says to you, come unto me, you will come.

[7:49] Because by his divine grace he will draw you. Grace is invincible. Grace is supremely efficacious.

[8:04] Now there are so many aspects of this, come unto me. Why does the blessed Savior say to these people, come unto me?

[8:17] And there is just one other point that I wanted to name before coming to that. And it is this. To labor and be heavy laden and to know labor and sorrow sanctified is the complete preparation for your appreciation of Christ.

[8:52] Christ. Now just think for a moment. If that could be lifted out of human life so that it was non-existent, no labor, or to use a synonymous term travail, sore travail, if you could lift that right out of your life, and heavy laden, if you could lift that completely out of human life and sorrow, would there be the slightest desire for him to find rest.

[9:44] so what I am to suggest to you is just at this stage that the very travail, labor, burdens, sorrows of human life, something quite beyond and distinct from the inevitable sorrow of human life, life.

[10:12] Everyone born into this world has a legacy that may well be termed the inevitable sorrow of human life. Whether they're rich or poorer or whatever it may be, there is this legacy for every human being, the inevitable sorrow of human existence.

[10:39] But this is distinct from that because it all adds up and is translated as tribulation. And tribulation has a uniqueness in the economy of God.

[10:58] And it may be expressed very simply in this way. Tribulation is a compound if you think of the mortar and pestle of the apothecary and the compound, now you can think of the cup full of mixture, you can think of the compound that a child of God knows in this life.

[11:31] And the term for it is tribulation. And it is simply this. it is a whole compound of trouble and this is the uniqueness of it.

[11:47] From that compound the bane has been extracted. That is of course the poison or the sting.

[11:59] the sting or the poison in the trouble of a sinner is the curse of God. For those who fear God this bane has been extracted and Christ suffered it.

[12:18] Now having extracted that the Lord then injected his divine love and that's tribulation. tribulation. It is a perfect description of tribulation.

[12:35] Now this in itself immediately presents to our view two aspects. One is that it is a school.

[12:48] You go to school in tribulation and why do you go to school in the earth and why do you have further education and why do you go on to the university if you are sufficiently blessed with talent.

[13:10] Why? It is to fit you for something to prepare you for something. Now if you like we can present this facet of it then.

[13:26] You go to school in this tribulation it's sore travel it is bearing the burdens it is sorrow you go to school.

[13:38] Now you learn. And the Lord teaches a complete range of lessons everything that we need to learn and know and it fits us it prepares us as sanctified what for communion with him in his sufferings the complete appreciation of the gospel of our need of Christ of everything that he has to give.

[14:20] You see the whole point my friends is this Christ has all the blessings of the covenant to bestow but he's going to fit you for them prepare you for them so that when he gives them to you you'll appreciate them to the very height so you've gone to school and the other part is we have gone to school to be prepared to be with him if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together so you've gone you may think of this now take it back with you whatever it is you're passing through in all your life child of God you can really translate it into those terms labor sore travel bearing the burdens sorrow you've gone to school and so whatever you come into you may think well

[15:32] I'm at school and I've got a blessed teacher and master and he is just fitting me to come to him to know the value of Christ to know how much I need him and then to value and appreciate him and all his blessings so I've gone to school now he says to these people because obviously the language in the hymn is very beautiful and correct about our bodies tis he supports this fainting frying the body is you might say

[16:33] I am robust look at my heart and I have all your vital organs you may think are wonderfully sound but after all you see we're only blades of grass the grass withereth it doesn't take very long for a blade of grass to be cut down so we have a feeble frame and the Lord knows that we could never live without him and so he says come unto me he knows that you could never go on in your sore travail and with your burdens and your sorrows without him and so of his love and compassion and tenderness he says now look my child this is the secret come unto me let me go aside for a moment just to observe another point and that is the saviour saying to these dear ones come unto me they are dear to him is indicative of another feature and that is that we are going to be stripped of everything else but him all your props have to go you see it has come unto me and increasingly in the deeper path as you come into it you'll find that you've only got one and that one is

[18:35] Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever they may not have thought of that but life is a process where the Lord keeps taking things away from us but he never takes away our all see he says come unto me you may think you have resources within yourself and you'll find that you're emptied and stripped there's nothing to look at in self nothing to rely on you may think that you have many things to rely on in the earth you may think that you have creatures to rely on and he strips you of everything you may say this is very sad it is but the glory is he says come unto me now I want to go a little further on this how wonderful then to stand before the people and have this gospel to preach and to tell you in the name of

[20:08] God and by his divine authority of father's son and holy ghost to tell you in his name and to say to you in his name that is you who are described here to say to you in his name come unto me that is what I am saying to you you see I am not saying this in my name I am not saying this is a man I am saying this in the name of the trinity to you who labor and are heavy laden come unto me I believe this is a grand proof of the ministry of the spirit that word is the word of heavenly authority and divine power and you come but now

[21:15] I want to and first of all does not this take the misery out of your life does it not take the servile and craven fear out of your life does it not take your sin away does it not give you the complete answer to all the temptations of the devil how wonderful it is to know that you have this precious one who can ever compute the preciousness of Christ our savior the incarnate son of God but to realize that you have one who tonight up to all through your days you've known it many of you here you've known it for many years I have but to feel that tonight and to the end of your days and at the end you have one there who loves you and cares for you and says to you in all this that you suffer come unto me and I want to remind you that this word come unto me is something that is permanent this voice of the

[22:54] Lord is as the sound of many waters and this voice you take sound reverberation and the waves of sound you hear a voice or you hear some sound and it echoes and presently dies away now when the Lord speaks it never dies it reverberates throughout eternity have you ever thought of that his heavenly speech never fades once he speaks it goes through eternity so that it means this that this blessed word is always there always as the

[23:55] Lord favors you to be in harmony with him always heard by your soul this is something that has occurred to me did occur to me many years ago now about sound the voice of the Lord never dies so well now from this point let us go forward and you'll know this blessed point because if the Lord speaks to you that will never die in your heart never it goes on through all your life you hear it you hear it when you come to the end the same voice the same words now I want to go a little further why does he say to these characters or these persons these dear people who are so well described perfectly described why does he say to them come unto me do you think well I want to look both sides of it after all the word come has a completeness in it it does not mean advance to a certain degree or point and then stop it means the holy sacred divine heavenly ultimate it means if you like that it must issue in a grand finale come it means come into my heart it means this really you're my bride come you're one with me you're bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh come what it really means is that

[26:30] Christ and you are one and that is why he says to you come because he loves you his love is divine immutable sovereign free how wonderful this love is immutable complessential now he says come then because he loves you he says come because he pities you and compassion your case he says come because he will magnify his great name in you because your deliverance and salvation involves his character and all his perfections and his very being his very glory must be demonstrated in you in every one of his people now why does he say come because he desires you to come because his delight is in you because he seeks your communion as you see his

[28:16] Falcon because he made you beautiful because he will look upon you and know the joy of seeing the travel of his soul and being satisfied because he will look upon you and praise you as his bride with all the beauties that he gives you by his Spirit.

[28:49] For instance, take this. Thou art all fear, my love. There is no spot in thee. Well, come unto me.

[29:05] This is his invitation. To my throne. To my table. To my palace.

[29:18] To my heart. Come. How wonderful to know the blessed liberty and freedom of coming.

[29:32] To know that there are no restrictions. No inhibitions. Come. Now is not this absolutely inexpressible?

[29:49] You see, it is very difficult really to present this side. But just as he to you is inexpressibly precious, so you are very precious to him.

[30:06] As you long for communion with him, he seeks communion with you. He loves to hear your praise.

[30:19] You get an inkling of this. Of how the Lord desired that the inner circle of his disciples should be close to him, even in his agony.

[30:40] When he took the favored trio, Peter, James and John, to the very precincts of Gethsemane. He said, now, tarry ye here and watch with me.

[30:55] He desired that they should be near him. Now he desires that you should be near him and with him. So he says, come unto me.

[31:05] I think we very little understand or realize how Jesus seeks that we should be close to him.

[31:22] It is his wish that we should be near him. It is his wish that you should wander away from him. It is his wish that you should be close to him.

[31:38] So he says, come unto me. Take it home. Try in your spirit to appreciate this inexpressible glory.

[31:52] How that he loves to hear your praise and have your communion. That it is all to his glory and you are his bride.

[32:08] So he says, come unto me. Well now, let me just name to you this third part.

[32:21] And what type of experience do they know when they get there? Or when they reach home?

[32:34] When they are there in his arms? He gives them rest. And it is very remarkable that in this trio of verses, that rest is used, the term rest is used twice.

[32:59] The first time rest has relation to sorrow, travail, burdens.

[33:13] He will give them rest. He will give them rest. And that rest, to spell it out, means simply this.

[33:23] Although it is an unfathom truth. But to name it to you concisely, it really means this.

[33:34] That he will do. And you will do all your burdens. And take away all your sin. And deliver you from all your distress.

[33:45] And all your guilt. And all your misery. And you will find rest in his accomplished work of atonement.

[33:56] You will find rest in him as your saviour, as your husband, father, and friend, and mediator.

[34:06] Holy bridegroom. Oh, how you will find rest in him. But, what I want to just now at this moment put over, if possible, is this particular point, that rest does not mean inactivity.

[34:34] The eternal rest of the saints in glory is not inactivity. It is the greatest activity that they can ever know.

[34:47] But it's rest. It is a potential. And it is arriving at a potential of activity that you have longed for here below.

[35:02] And that is to love and worship and adore him in the full measure of a glorified person.

[35:14] And that is the highest activity that you can ever know. But it is rest. But it is rest. Because there is no sin.

[35:25] No temptation. No temptation. No limitation. The full capacity of a glorified person is active in the adoration of Christ.

[35:46] Well, now, that will bring me to notice the second use of the term rest. Take my yoke upon you.

[35:58] Lord, you've come. You've received your blessing. You've had the pardon and peace. You've received your deliverance. You've received your deliverance.

[36:10] Now what? You've got the peace in your soul. You've got the joy in your heart. You've got the rest because I am your resting place.

[36:24] Because there is a resting place in me, in all that I have done. In my character, in my being, in my perfections, in my promises, in the covenant, in Christ, in the covenant.

[36:43] Now, what does he say to you? You might have received this as a young man or in the early days of your life.

[36:56] You might have known this deliverance. Now what? What are you going to do? He says, well, now, look. Here it is as a yoke for you.

[37:08] Now. A yoke is a carved frame of wood that is fitted over the neck and four shoulders.

[37:26] He says, well, now, look. Here's my yoke. You've been drawing in the yoke that was nothing, only bondage and sorrow in days past.

[37:40] The yoke of Satan and sin. Now I've taken it off. You're free. But now I'm putting on another yoke. And simply, what is this yoke?

[37:57] Because Christ says here, take my yoke upon you. And in verse 30, he says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

[38:09] Now, there are two ways of exposition here. The Lord means in the first place that his yoke, the yoke that he bore himself from his father.

[38:22] When he came into this world, as our surety and as his father's servant, he had the father's yoke on him.

[38:37] And that yoke was to do the work that his father had sent him to do and to finish it. And so he is saying, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

[38:54] I had the yoke on. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. Now, do you see the point? And so, as he delivers you from the old yoke, he says, well, look, here's my yoke.

[39:12] And what is my yoke? It is to obey me. To submit to me.

[39:26] And to obey me. To obey all my commandments. To serve me. To love me. To follow me. To be my servant.

[39:37] This is my yoke. And he puts it on you. How many of you with a yoke? His yoke. You will see the beauty of it.

[39:52] Now, here you get rest again. Take my yoke upon you. See? To love me. To serve me.

[40:02] To obey me. To follow me. To keep all my commandments. To your life's end. Take my yoke upon you.

[40:17] And learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart. The meekness and lowliness of Christ was demonstrated in the assumption of our nature by the Son of God.

[40:33] When he assumed our nature in the Virgin's womb. And in all his work of atonement in his humiliation as our sure-tune.

[40:45] No. This is the point. And learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart. And ye shall find rest unto your souls.

[40:59] Rest what in? In bearing my yoke. In following me. In obeying me.

[41:10] In keeping my commandments. With my yoke. And ye shall find rest unto your souls.

[41:21] Well it doesn't take very long. For me to tell you what my rest is. The greatest rest that I know is in the pulpit.

[41:31] It's an amazing thing. It may sound a contradiction. But.

[41:42] Be it that my Lord is with me. This is the greatest rest that I know. Now do you see? Take my yoke. Learn of me.

[41:56] And this is where you'll have rest. You'll have rest in your service or labour. It's a labour of love in any case.

[42:09] And this is where you'll have rest. Not inactivity. That is no rest. Your rest is inactivity. Serving him.

[42:21] Deniting in him. Following him. Obeying him. Here is rest. Well that is the subject.

[42:35] And it's a divine one. I just give a brief word. Take for instance then.

[42:46] The character. Labour. Sore travail. Heavy laden. Sorrow. Sore travail.

[42:58] Why? Because. Because. You have the principle of holiness in your soul. Because you have a new creation. And consequently.

[43:10] The old man. The corruptible. Fights against. The work of God. And the grace of God. And the.

[43:21] New creation. And the principle of holiness. So that. Your life becomes sore travail. Because you have.

[43:33] An untiring foe. Satan. Always. As allowed.

[43:46] Distressing you. Perplexing you. Tormenting you. Opposing you. Fighting against you. And this is almost.

[43:59] Without cessation. Apart from when the Lord comes. And excludes Satan. This is. Almost. A constant thing.

[44:10] And so. You see. First of all. You need discernment. To see him. And recognize him. And know. And know that it is Satan. But the point is.

[44:22] It is a conflict. And a sore one too. And so. Life is sore travail. To you. And then you have.

[44:37] Your distresses. Your pains. Your griefs. Your wounds. Your bruised by Satan.

[44:48] And all this adds up to. The sore travail of life. And you are heavy laden. You are carrying about. With you.

[44:59] Every moment. The body of sin and death. You have the burden. Many sins. All these burdens.

[45:10] These things that distress you. And your sorrows. So you see. This is a perfect description. But. What I am leaving with you.

[45:21] Here today is this. He is saying to you. So sweetly. So softly. Yet filled with divine efficacy.

[45:36] Come unto me. Amen. Amen. But I will give you rest. Amen. Amen.

[45:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[45:57] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.