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[0:00] As recorded by Matthew, the 11th chapter, in verses 28, 29, 30.

[0:12] The 11th chapter of the Gospel is recorded by Matthew, in the last three verses. Verses 28, 29, and 30.

[0:23] Come unto me, all ye that labour 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.

[0:47] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. It's very difficult to begin an evening discourse without mentioning one or two things of the previous service.

[1:10] And one thing remains very clear, what a blessed invitation this word is that fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus. There are many invitations which cannot be matched with Scripture.

[1:27] Neither are they right invitations, especially when there is the persuasion of man found in them. But this is a blessed gospel invitation.

[1:41] And it speaks to those who are described as, that all ye that labour and are heavy laden.

[1:53] That is the condition of the persons and people and souls of whom the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to.

[2:03] But it is unconditional in the sense that the Lord Jesus Christ does not restrict these words to any particular thing or pathway.

[2:19] We spoke this morning of the laden soul, the soul that knows his own state and condition as a sinner.

[2:30] Those who feel the weight and burden of indwelling sin. It is spoken to such. It is spoken to such who, especially perhaps in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ, in those early days of the gospel, still look to the law of Moses as their salvation.

[2:52] And who, by divine grace and by the truths and the revelation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, are delivered from that labour, of which is a fruitless labour, to keep the law as regarding their salvation.

[3:13] Now it is a word of sweet invitation, a gospel invitation to such souls who are living souls, burdened souls and cast down souls.

[3:36] And it is Christ the speaker. And we said what a precious word it is. We would not lose sight of the importance of such a word from a saviour to a sinner when he invites, as it were, by the word come.

[3:55] Because there's nothing we can bring in any degree of merit. Rather, we deserve the word depart. Because sin and a holy God can never mix.

[4:11] And indeed, God cannot look upon sin in any degree of allowance. But does look upon his dear people as one with Christ Jesus.

[4:23] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. And those things which the Lord brings into our pathways, which are burdens to us, distresses, heavy weights, those things which the Lord lays upon us, of which we cannot manage of themselves.

[4:48] This invitation is to such souls. And I will give you rest. With all of that well-known Psalm 55. In that word there, there is this, cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.

[5:06] You know, there are those in the Church of Christ whom God has laid burdens upon. Those in particular offices in the Church.

[5:16] And that office is a burden to them. It would not be a burden if it wasn't God that laid it there. But God lays specific burdens, appointments in the Church.

[5:34] And, my friends, it is far and beyond those who carry them, to carry them on their own. And, they constantly need the grace of God to continue, and the help of God within the labour and within the burden.

[5:51] But, this is a blessed word. He is the great head of the Church. There's none that has ever brought their burdens to him. It has not been supported and strengthened. And, we could look at that well-known case.

[6:06] We looked at it recently elsewhere, where the trial of the Apostle was a thorn in the flesh, and a messenger of Satan. And, he brought it to the Lord, but to take it away.

[6:17] But, the Lord did not take it away. But, he blessed him with that word, or gave him that word for a blessing. And, he said unto me, my grace is sufficient. Now, that flows.

[6:30] That continues to flow. That ever will flow. To be the strength and comfort of the Lord's people. And, it flows through Christ Jesus.

[6:42] Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We spoke, I suppose, particularly of the burden and trial that sin is to the conscience.

[6:55] Indwelling sin. Past sins. No, the mercy of the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, is that it pardons all sin.

[7:09] The application of that blood removes all sin. But, oh, how often does Satan take advantage, and reminds the Church of Christ, or the people of God, a poor sinner, of past iniquities.

[7:27] Drags them up. Reveals them to them. Brings them into sorrow again. Over past offences. But, there is a rest, you know, and it remains with the Lord Jesus Christ.

[7:42] And, it is a rest from labour. And, it is a rest from the burden. When the Lord takes the burden away, there is a little rest known in the soul.

[7:52] When a child of God walks in the sacred time of forgiveness. My friends, when the Lord forgives, there is a sense of peace, and a knowledge of pardon.

[8:08] And, there is a resting. And, there is a resting, my friends, upon that precious way, that blessed way, that blood-stained way, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the author.

[8:24] Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, as the Lord will help us, and I feel so much need of this help tonight.

[8:40] The following verse, we must look at. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. Now, there is not many that know what a yoke is in these days.

[8:54] It is, of course, something that was used to unite two things together. Before they ever mechanised farming, they used to put a yoke upon two horses, and they walked together in the fields, and ploughed, and rolled, and whatever may be necessary to do on the ground.

[9:17] But this is a yoke, which is between Christ and his church. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.

[9:27] Now, I read those two chapters in the Song of Solomon for its teaching. In chapter two, we find a very sweet and blessed union between Christ and his church.

[9:49] Because the word yoke can also mean union. It is a word that has been used in years past, respecting a marriage.

[10:00] It's a union between two people. And it is an indissolvable union as far as Christ and his church are concerned. Now, in the second chapter of the Song of Solomon, there was a sweet union revealed.

[10:19] And that union was to continue. That union was to be known. And it's found in this verse. My beloved is mine, and I am his.

[10:32] There's the union. There's the yoke, as it were, we might say. Take my yoke upon you.

[10:43] There is that which joins two people together, indissolvably joined together. A union that can never, never separate. My beloved is mine, and I am his.

[10:57] In the third chapter, by night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him not.

[11:11] And we read on until the fourth verse. And it was but a little that I passed from them. And I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him and would not let him go.

[11:25] But experience tells us, and it's a sad experience, that we can lose the sense of the union. But it doesn't change the union.

[11:40] It is a union that is indissolvable. And what makes the union indissolvable is this, because it's, first of all, subject, as all the blessings of the gospel are, to the covenant of grace, and to that wondrous work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, and also of the work of the Holy Spirit in quickening sinners into divine life, and bringing them into the knowledge of this union, and being found in this union that can never be altered, never be chained.

[12:18] But you may lose the sweetness of it, my friends. And you may lose the sweetness of it, and you begin to wonder, and under temptation, you would be found grieving in your heart and upon your spirit that you've lost the union.

[12:32] My friends, that can never be. Now I sat in that vestry, and this dropped in. And it was so sweet to me, I almost changed one of the hymns.

[12:46] Hail, sacred union, firm and strong, how great the grace, how sweet the song, that worms of earth should ever be, one with incarnate deity.

[13:00] That was ever so sweet to my soul. It brought me to consider this beautiful chapter, or a beautiful book of the Song of Solomon, because that's what flows from chapter 1 until the end of that book, a union between Christ and his church.

[13:17] But it also reminds us that there are seasons that the Lord's people come into of which they lose sight of that union, and they lose sight of the sense of that union.

[13:30] When he hides his face, when he withdraws his presence, you know, I believe, as well as I do, where he hides himself. We read in the second chapter, My beloved is like a row or a young heart.

[13:46] Behold, he standeth behind our wall. He looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice. But there is another place, of which I don't want to spend the time searching, but there is another place where she seeks him, and he is gone.

[14:08] The very doors, or the handle of the doors is perfumed with his presence, but his presence isn't there.

[14:20] My friends, these things are to be worked out. These things are to be walked out also. There is a precious union. There is a yoke. Take my yoke upon you.

[14:32] Now, we could say this about this yoke also. It is also what binds the Lord's people to the Lord's people.

[14:45] In my thinking and meditating just a little, I did this afternoon. I thought of Ruth and Naomi.

[14:57] I was going to read it actually till this chapter's in the Song of Solomon came up to my mind, came to my mind. But in that first chapter of the book of Ruth, we have a union there.

[15:11] And we might describe it that was like this, that it was a union that God brought to pass between those two people. One was an inhabitant of Zion, and one was a Moabites damsel, one from the world, one from idolatry, one from a country that feared not God nor worshipped him.

[15:38] But divine providence brought them together. And there was working in that heart of Ruth, a love and a union between her and Naomi.

[15:51] You've heard it said before so often, and you've read it often, that when old Pa kissed her mother-in-law and went back, we read, But Ruth clave unto her.

[16:03] This is this yoke. This is this union. And it was revealed and shown and proved, as it were, by those words which begin, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.

[16:19] The book of Ruth, as you know, is one of the most beautiful books of the Old Testament. And there's much of the Lord Jesus Christ in that book, and there's much of a poor seeking soul in that book, and there's also much of the Church of Christ.

[16:39] They are represented by those particular people that are named there. But the union between Ruth and Naomi was a union until death us do part.

[16:54] It is like a marriage union. It is until death us do part. It seems to be neglected and forgotten today.

[17:06] But that union, as scripturally we may look at it, was such. But there was a better union. And Ahab was to glean in the field of Boaz, and there was another union formed.

[17:24] A union between Ruth and Boaz. A union between a poor, seeking soul and Jesus Christ. and how her soul was kept alive.

[17:38] And I'm now talking, I hope, in a spiritual sense, that union was kept alive. If you read that third chapter of the book of Ruth, Boaz sets out to do something.

[17:52] What was he to do? He was to redeem her. He was to take upon himself all that concerned Ruth. And those debts.

[18:03] And everything that had concerned Ruth was to be taken by Boaz. It is a type, it's a shadow, it's descriptive of Christ and his church. My friends, it's a union that can't be dissolved.

[18:18] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Now, the Lord help us to speak about the church of Christ too.

[18:33] Because believers are yoked together. Where the Lord brings that union to pass, this yoke to pass, there is something that binds them together, and that is love.

[18:52] My friends, there would be no union if there was no love. There cannot be between Christ and his church a better description of a yoke or of a union than that, because Christ, having loved his church, suffered for them, died for them, and rose again for them, put away their iniquities, took their debts upon himself, took their sins upon himself, bore their sins away by that sacrifice which God accepted.

[19:32] Now, my friends, that's a real union. I've said many a time, I don't know, I don't suppose it would be as legal now as it used to be years ago, but before this day of equality that we keep hearing about, a man who married a wife took her debts, was responsible for her debts, and if she was one of those wayward characters who ran up all sorts of debts, well, he had to pay the bill, and we can see that, I suppose, in a spiritual sense, in that the debts, the sins, the transgressions that belonged to the church of Christ was laid upon Christ, and he paid the price, the ransom price, for the church, and died and rose again.

[20:25] But my friends, what a sweet union. But the church, the people of God in a church, if it is a right union, it is a union in love, and if it is a right union, it is an indissolvable union.

[20:41] Take my yoke upon you. My friends, there cannot be union where there isn't love, but where there is love, there will be union. And none really can walk together in the things of God.

[20:58] I looked at that word, I preached from it a year or two ago, two or three years ago in Amos. How can two walk together except they agree?

[21:12] And in that word, you know, you can see this union. They cannot walk together. There never will be a together if there's no union, if there's no love, if there's no desire.

[21:25] How could Ruth walk with Naomi from Moab to Bethlehem and reside there for those times? My friends, only because there was love between the two.

[21:39] And how can grace and the world walk together? My friends, how can Christ and the world walk together? It cannot be so. How can two people in the church walk together?

[21:53] Only by the love of Christ which unites them, which unites them to Christ as well. Take my yoke upon you. Now, if we may just briefly say this, respecting the yoke which was, which was, used to be known in days past, it brought two things together so that they could walk together.

[22:18] My friends, that is the importance. It was something that held them together. There was a yoke that a person wore across his shoulder to carry two things, on the left hand and on the right hand.

[22:33] That was a yoke. But it was also a means, as we said, to put two animals together at a plow that they pulled together and they walked together. It would be of no use if they went their own ways as we might put it.

[22:50] My friends, we see a better example in the church between a sinner and a saviour. Take my yoke upon you. What is it that a sinner and a saviour has, and I want to be ever so reverent here, the Lord knows I would not say a word that would be taken wrongly by you or that would offend my God either.

[23:16] My friends, but what is it that shall be found between a sinner and a saviour that brings them together? Is it not love? Is it not love?

[23:28] We love him, John said, because he first loved us. my friends, the Lord Jesus speaks about his yoke being easy and his burden light and that may seem to be a contradiction of term.

[23:45] you may look at the pathway which God's children walk and you may say, well, it's anything but easy and it's anything but light.

[23:56] My friends, if love's in the walk, if love's in the heart of a child of God, and then we may use the word, then it is easy.

[24:09] Oh, it's a way of tribulation. my friends, when Christ withdraws his presence and tribulation is felt upon the spirit, then it is a hard walk and a difficult walk and it's a walk in the dark.

[24:26] But you have, you know those occasions, I hope you do, when there is nothing but you and Christ and then you can say that it is indeed a yoke that is easy.

[24:40] My friends, when the presence of the Lord is in his house, then tribulation does not have the bearing and the burden and the distress that it would have otherwise.

[24:52] And so it is in your pathway and pilgrimage here below. When you walk alone, in other words, when you do not feel this union, we don't feel this yoke, Christ and his church are one.

[25:05] We could have gone on and said one in the tomb, one when he rose, one when he trived all his foes, one when in heaven he took his seat, while seraphs sang all hell's defeat.

[25:18] This sacred tie forbids their fears, for all he is or has is theirs. With him their head they stand or fall, their life, their surety, and their all.

[25:31] My friends, that is this union. This is this yoke, Christ and his people. What a blessed union. What a wondrous grace.

[25:43] What a mercy of mercies. If you've known those times in your experience, in your walk, in the pathway of which the Lord has placed you in, my friends, there can't be anything that is so more precious to a child of God when a sinner walks with a saviour.

[26:04] I know no better blessing as they travel on this wearisome way. Oh, but when he hides his face, when he withdraws, when you and I, like a prodigal, goes our way, my friends, there isn't any walking together then.

[26:22] There's no sense of the union, no feeling of the love then. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

[26:34] Now that, my friends, will be, I feel sure, the exercise and desire of every soul. Oh, could there be anything more remarkable, anything more than mercy that brings a black, hell-deserving sinner into the presence and blessing and comfort and love and union of Jesus Christ?

[27:01] Oh, my friends, there could be nothing better. Let's go back on that here just once more. This sacred bond shall never break, though earth should to her center shake, rest, doubt in, saint, assured of this, for God has pledged his holiness.

[27:30] My friends, could there be anything more precious? 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.

[27:44] Now, that must be, my friends, the work of God of God, the Holy Spirit. This is one of those times and blessings and feathons which the child of God mourns about.

[28:01] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. They mourn because there is so little known of him.

[28:12] I do believe this, you know, where grace is in the exercise. In one's soul there is a desire to learn of him. And grace in the soul will bring you to desire this about him that you may be more like him both in your walk and in your pathway.

[28:31] I feel it is right to say this, you know, that as he was tried so will you be. And in the measure of his pathway such is will be your pathway.

[28:44] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My friends, do you not need this gracious teaching and learn? It is the Spirit's work.

[28:55] What did the Lord Jesus say in John 14? He shall teach you all things. Well, he'll teach you all things about yourself and that will take a lifetime.

[29:07] It isn't a one-sided teaching, my friends. It is to learn of me. And he goes on to, as it were, describe the point of learning.

[29:21] For I am meek and lowly in heart. Now, that is what grace will do. My friends, if ever it makes, grace will ever make a difference and the fruit of grace will be seen in one's conversation, in one's desire, in one's walk.

[29:44] But it is that you may learn of me, learn of Christ. The nearer I believe a child of God is able by faith and grace to walk with Christ, the nearer it is, so greater will be the tribulation of the way that they walk.

[30:01] but, my friends, these, if I may use a word, you will understand, they are compensated tribulations. In this, that Christ will be known in the tribulation.

[30:15] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. What is it that, my friends, first of all, that you will desire to know of Jesus Christ?

[30:26] Well, when he was here on earth, there were many things revealed of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the things that was revealed, of course, was his deity.

[30:38] Those wondrous things that he did, those mercies that he brought to pass in the lives of ordinary people, sinners, my friends, showed his deity.

[30:52] The power that he commanded and had possessed that power which was an authority over affliction, over death itself, over the things of nature.

[31:06] My friends, it was Christ that was in the boat who could stand in the midst of a storm and say, peace, be still, and there was a great calm, there was these evidences of his deity.

[31:20] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My friends, one of the things that you and I would desire to learn of Jesus Christ is his mercy.

[31:33] We've spoken a little of his love, but my friends, his mercy, what mercy lay in the hearts of Christ.

[31:44] And that mercy was there on behalf of every one of his blood-built children. mercy would reign all the guilty.

[31:57] Mercy was seen in all his dealings with sinners here below. This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them was the derisive voice of a Pharisee.

[32:08] mercy. But what a blessing that was ever, ever known. That in itself is a mercy. That he should leave the realms of bliss and lay aside those heavenly glories and to take upon himself a body like our own for the purpose of salvation.

[32:27] My friends, if you learn of Jesus Christ, you will learn of his mercy. mercy. Many, of course, are the ways in which he showed it here below, those dealings that he had with poor sinners, their complaints he dealt with, their sins he removed, those hard paths that they walked they were delivered from and so on.

[32:49] My friends, the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ is a heart of mercy. And it must be so. If you can know any, if you can find any other attribute that is of Jesus Christ that put him on a cross at Calvary, my friends, I would love to hear it because it's mercy that put him there.

[33:14] It was love, love to his dear people. On his heart they have a place established there through sovereign grace. My friends, it was love in that dear Saviour's heart that took him to Calvary to die for crimes that they had done.

[33:35] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. You will be a lifetime in this school. And at the end of it all you will say so little that I know of this precious and glorious person.

[33:50] Oh, his mercy is so great. His love was so great is a bottomless well of mercy and of love. It neither knows bottom nor shore.

[34:06] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. But then, my friends, we must never lose sight of his holiness. Never.

[34:19] He is, ever, was and ever shall be equal with God and with the Holy Spirit. His holiness. Learn his holiness, my friends.

[34:32] You will learn his holiness. you will know that sin cannot indeed be in any way affect the Son of God.

[34:43] That is, he cannot, he can touch a leper and he can still be holy. He can be the sin bearer and still be holy. He was, is, and ever shall be undefiled and separate from sin.

[34:59] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. as God incarnate. He could never be affected by sin in this respect.

[35:10] My friends, he never was, the trouble of sin was laid upon him but he never was made a sinner. And learn of me, learn of his love, learn of his mercy.

[35:25] He himself said, you know, to his disciples, search the scriptures for in them we think he have eternal life and they are they which testify of me.

[35:40] That is where you'll find, first of all, you'll learn from the scriptures of truth. But it will be as the Holy Spirit brings by revelation and view to your very spirit, my friends, you will learn of this glorious one.

[35:58] Take my yoke. you know, there were times when he was among his people and they didn't recognize him. When he was brought into this world, when he came into this world to be born of a woman, born under the law, we read in John's gospel, he came into his own and his own received him not.

[36:18] Now that is of course the Jews in a general sense. But in his wisdom and in his sovereignty there were times like after the resurrection when he was, when he was, when he came to meet with those disciples on the road to Emmaus and they didn't recognize him.

[36:40] He, as it were, walked with them, talked with them, explained the scriptures of truth concerning himself, went in to suck with them, and it was only then when their eyes were opened their eyes were holden that they should not behold him.

[37:01] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My friends, what a wonderful day that was and is and ever shall be to a child of God when Christ is revealed to them as the holy, sinless, undefiled son of the highest, but the mercy and the love and then the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

[37:31] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My friends, the Lord teach you his faithfulness. You say, well, as God, of course, he is faithful.

[37:43] Well, now he was faithful to his engagement. As a covenant engagement he undertook, he was faithful to that. He said concerning his sufferings or the sufferings that he was walking in, coming into, he said, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.

[38:07] He was faithful to his engagement, his covenant engagement. What lay before him was the path of redemption and that he was to seal by his own precious blood.

[38:21] The deliverance of the people of God from the bondage and the condemnation of sin and the justice of God against sin. My friends, his faithfulness never loses sight of his faithfulness.

[38:36] And then again, his faithfulness is joined to his promises. What he says he will do, my friends, when he left this veil of tears and ascended back to glory, he left behind great and precious promises.

[38:55] Before he suffered on Calvary's tree, he gave great and precious promises. Now you may have some of those precious promises lodged in your heart.

[39:08] The Holy Spirit has applied those and given those promises to you. My friends, his faithfulness to his holy word, not only to his people because his people was the subjects of his faithful work.

[39:21] They are saved because he honoured his covenant engagement and died and rose again. They are safe because they are sealed in the covenant and the covenant is sealed in his blood.

[39:36] But my friends, what he said, he is faithful. He that spake us, never man spake, spake great and precious promises concerning his people.

[39:48] You know, when he suffered for them, he spoke of what he was going to prepare for them. And when he left them for a season, he promised to see them again.

[40:01] My friends, he is faithful to his promise. Ask a child of God, one who has a hope in the mercy of God, one who has a hope of the grace of God within them.

[40:14] My friends, ask them about the promises of restoration, of revelation, and you will see this, his faithfulness. I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from you.

[40:30] I said to you before, there was a minister in Sussex who used to say, the Lord Jesus Christ has never said he'll see you for the last time. And he hasn't, my friends, he'll see you again in your inexperience, but he'll see you in glory at last.

[40:47] And as he left them at Bethany, so we read, don't we, concerning his ever presence with his people, and lo, I am with you all, even unto the end of the world.

[41:02] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Oh, his, and then his righteousness. My friends, his offering was a righteous offering.

[41:15] There were many offerings in Old Testament days were unrighteous offerings. Cain offered that which came from the ground, it was an unrighteous offering. It was not acceptable to God.

[41:27] The Lord Jesus Christ offered a righteous offering. he offered that which was himself, his life for his people, and his blood was shed for his people.

[41:40] It was a righteous offering. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.

[41:52] You know, there is a meek and there is a lowliness, which is a natural meekness and a natural holiness, that's a natural lowliness, I am meek and lowly in heart.

[42:06] My friends, that's nothing to do with this meekness. This is a gracious meekness, and this is a lowliness which is known only as grace, the fruit of grace in the soul, and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart.

[42:23] My friends, how far short we come. If we are in possessors of grace, what the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of himself, so should be our walk and so should be our place, my friends, meek and lowly in heart.

[42:43] When they took Christ to the judgment hall, when they charged him with this and charged him with that, the meekness, the lowliness as a lamb before her shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth, and my friends, so it was seen there, should it not be seen in us.

[43:07] Oh, how short we come, what I must speak of myself, and I do with shame, far from being meek and far from being lowly, lowly. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest.

[43:26] My friends, do you search for that rest? Do you long for it? It's not only in glory, you know, it is in glory. Blessed be God, there is, as we said this morning in the fourth of the Hebrews, there is that word which we could apply rightly, that there remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.

[43:51] My friends, when they're taken to glory, there is there they shall enter into a rest, which will never change. And their rest from their labours, and their work shall follow them as we read.

[44:05] But there is a rest, my friends, in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the saints of God are led by divine grace and walk by faith into his way and his pathway.

[44:18] 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.

[44:30] We said of one of the burdens of being heavy laden, my friends, what is it that a burdened sinner desires to be relieved of his burden, we said of that John Bunyan's pilgrim progress, he lost his burden when he was brought to the cross, when he arrived at the cross, the burden fell off his back and fell into the tomb, never to be known again.

[45:03] For I am meek and lowly in heart, you shall find rest unto your soul. Where there is rest, where there's real rest, you know, and I'm speaking only of that rest which is known in Christ Jesus, there is peace.

[45:21] There is a sweet sense of peace. You know, there's very few people know anything of the meaning of the word contentment, not in a natural sense of the word, but graciously known, my friends, it is when such as their soul is brought into rest, and you shall find rest.

[45:45] That is, there will be a ceasing of labours, there will be no more working for salvation, there will be a lifting of the burden, and there's a rest, a sweet rest, and in that rest there's this grace, this wondrous and peaceful grace.

[46:04] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find, you will notice, in this, we said this morning, it was a sacred invitation, but it is strengthened and supported by promises, and there's an I will, and there's a ye shall in it.

[46:30] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 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.

[46:46] You know, there's no better place, my friends, than this. We spoke of the dear apostle, I think it was this morning, when he came to the end of his journey, when he said, well if we didn't hear, it must have been somewhere else, but the peace in that man's heart, because he was resting upon the faithfulness of Christ, he was resting on the finished work of Christ, he came to the end of his journey, he said, I am now ready to be offered.

[47:20] It was all accomplished, it was all finished, the work of grace was coming, and rightly understand this expression, the work of grace was almost finished, and then he said coming to an end, that's not the way of putting it, it was nearly finished, that work of grace, he was about to be taken into glory, my friends, and he rested on something, what did he rest on?

[47:46] Well, when people come to die, unless grace is in operation, my friends, it's accompanied with great fear, oh the unknown, a step that's never been took before, it's full of fear, and it's fearful because it's an unknown step to take, but this dear man came to the end of his sojourn here below, end of his ministry, that was to be taken down, his tabernacle was to be removed, his immortal soul was to be found in glory, and he rested on the promise, and the blessing of his God, he could say this, henceforth there is laid up for me, a crown of righteousness, that man's eyes and heart and feelings and desires was already in glory, he only had to die and then he was there, we must stop, come unto me, all ye that labour 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, that may seem a strange word to those who know the tribulation of the way, but my friends, it is, it is, what could be compared to the walk of grace, and what could be compared to a season of the presence of Christ, my friends, what it is with a person who is still dead in trespasses and sins, you know, it is often said of a worldly person, well, when they die, you know, well, they are now better off, their sufferings are finished, however great their sufferings were here, they will be greater, my friends, in hell, but how blessed is the lot of the people of God, by divine grace they walk the path of tribulation, and their rest is in the finished work of Christ, they enter into rest in him, as they enter into rest in glory, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, amen.