Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So let's go to Matthew, chapter number 11.
[00:00:03] Matthew chapter 11.
[00:00:14] Matthew chapter 11. We're going to look at the last six verses of the chapter.
[00:00:28] You know, there's one subject that I really, really like to talk about. I say it's a subject really. It's not a subject per se, but in particular I really enjoy examining and thinking upon and preaching and teaching about the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:00:50] The it seems to me that in my own mind and heart the words of Christ kind of stand out.
[00:00:58] Because in some way when we read these things that our Lord says, it's almost like we're peering into his heart. We're learning the way the Lord thought. We're learning what's important to him. We're learning his disposition toward us.
[00:01:16] And I think that's one of the reasons why I like to talk about this. And of course, I don't do it justice, but I would like to look at one little passage in Matthew chapter 11 to finish up the chapter that our Lord speaks to his disciples.
[00:01:31] Verse number 25 says this.
[00:01:34] @ 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 hast revealed them unto babes.
[00:01:50] Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight all things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father.
[00:02:02] Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
[00:02:11] Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[00:02:19] 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.
[00:02:28] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
[00:02:32] Would you pray with me?
[00:02:35] Our Father we come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. And we thank you that you are a good God to us, and we thank you for being with us at all times by your spirit that you never leave us or forsake us. And Lord, even right now, as your people have gathered together in your name, you said where two or three are gathered together in your name, there you'd be in the midst. And you are here and you are in us. And Lord, we trust you that though we cannot see you now, yet we are confident that you are present, observing what's happening present to hear us as we call upon you present to work in our hearts as we listen to your very words.
[00:03:16] Lord, would you please Use your words in our lives.
[00:03:21] Let the truths that you spoke here this morning just stand out to us in stark relief. That they would have a great impression upon us.
[00:03:33] And, Lord, that we would be changed. I don't know, Lord. I can't see the hearts of men. I don't know if anyone here is without the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know if they are.
[00:03:43] Because, Lord, you know those that are yours. And if there be a person here that does not know the Lord Jesus Christ and is at this, right now, at this point, without Christ, without God and without hope in this world, I pray that you would prick that person's heart. I pray especially as well for your grace and help to be upon brother Burgess as he preaches the funeral in a few hours.
[00:04:08] Fill him with understanding, wisdom, control what he says.
[00:04:13] And especially that your name would be glorified. So, Lord, would you please bless our time together, Lord, we acknowledge we can't do anything without you. We are babes.
[00:04:22] And so, Lord, bless our time together in your word, in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:04:27] Now notice in verse number 25, our Lord says this. He prays to his Father and he says, oh, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. And that just means that God owns it all. And we have to keep that in our mind that God is the Lord of heaven and earth. And that means he is the possessor of it. It is rightfully his, and we would do well to remember that. Sometimes I think, in our mind, we. We categorize and compartmentalize different aspects of our life, forgetting that God owns it all.
[00:04:58] We are His. Everything we have is His. All the trees are his. The stars are his, the planets are his, the water is His. Everything belongs to Him. He is the Lord of heaven and earth.
[00:05:09] The Lord says, because thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Now, the things that he's referring to go back all the way back through the previous chapter. It's not very specific. He's talking about the different things he said to these unrepentant cities of Chorazin and bethsaida in verse 21. And it goes even further back than that about John the Baptist and the kingdom of heaven. It includes a lot of different things here. But what's interesting is the Bible says that the Father has revealed. Has hid those things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Now, what are the babes? That's just the word. It means baby.
[00:05:56] And who are the babies? Who are the babes? That the Lord is referring to in this verse 25.
[00:06:05] The babes he's referring to are the people who have grasped and understood these truths that the Lord has revealed.
[00:06:12] But the babies he's referring to are not, are not young. They're not like little Will and little Nilla. He's referring to his disciples, but he calls them babes. He calls them babies.
[00:06:23] And this is not the only other, only time in scripture you find that in fact God's people, God's children are often referred to as little children. Jesus said himself, take a peek at this, this is interesting in John chapter 13. Real quick, I want to show you this because this is one of the things you read as you read your Bible and, and you might skip over it or you might read it and think to yourself, why did he say that?
[00:06:49] John 13, verse number 33. Notice what Jesus says now to his disciples.
[00:06:55] Not to kids, not to infants, but to his disciples.
[00:07:02] John 13, verse 33.
[00:07:06] He says, Little children, young yet a little while. While I am with you, ye shall seek me. And as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come. So now I say unto you. He calls his disciples little children.
[00:07:20] First John, three times in first John, the disciples of Christ are called little children, Little children, which is interesting because we don't know that perhaps even the disciples, some of the disciples, were older in the flesh than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
[00:07:36] But yet he calls them little children.
[00:07:38] And he does so because it speaks to their disposition toward him. If there's anything I just, as I said, I've been looking through pictures. I've been transferring my pictures from one thing to another. And as I've been looking through them, I've come across my kids have seen it because I've been sending them pictures of little cry faces and little screenshots of pictures that I see of them.
[00:08:02] Had a chance to look through those pictures and see all their little faces at different stages of their lives.
[00:08:10] And I'm just reminded of how not innocent, not so much innocent kids are. Not innocent really. Maybe when they're teeny tiny little babies. But they quickly lose that innocence. Everybody's looking at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. Just have a two year old and you'll know what I'm talking about.
[00:08:28] But they have this certain dependency, do they not?
[00:08:32] They have a dependency. And I think that's what endears us to them is they need you.
[00:08:38] And they know they need you and they're unashamed of the fact that they need you.
[00:08:45] That's kind of the key element of being a child. Being a baby is a baby is totally dependent upon its parent and upon adults. There's no, there's no pride, there's no self sufficiency, there's no. I'm good, thanks.
[00:09:01] But it's good to be wanted. And that's the way these babies are.
[00:09:06] When the Lord speaks of his disciples, you know, they had their issues, of course, we all have our issues, and they're no exception. But in the way they interact with the Lord Jesus Christ, you see, there's a certain humility, there's a certain. They understood they needed him and that they did not understand everything that he said and that they lacked so much. They depended on him.
[00:09:30] And the Lord counts that in very high regard. But not only that, but the fact that he calls them babes also indicates the way the world viewed them.
[00:09:42] Ignorant. They don't know anything silly.
[00:09:47] They hadn't matured to the level of whatever the religious leaders of that day.
[00:09:52] So the world looks lightly upon children. I'll just say this as we go, as we pass on by here, listen, number one, you should never let your child interrupt you.
[00:10:05] If your child, you're having an adult conversation, your child comes up, a little kid comes up and wants to talk to you, you should just say, wait, adults are talking and once you're done, talk to them. But when you're finished, get down on their level and talk to them like an adult.
[00:10:20] When you're finished, do that.
[00:10:23] There is way too much of looking lightly upon kids. I don't know why I'm saying this right now, but it really bothers me. The kids want to be involved and they want to know that you're paying attention to them. And you ought to get on their level and talk to them like an adult.
[00:10:40] But that's the way people view babes, right? View kids.
[00:10:44] They look lightly upon them. And that is the way, like it says in verse 25, the wise and prudent view the disciples of Christ. Now they look lightly upon them. Ignorant, they don't really know anything. But the Bible says in this verse that God has revealed things to them that he has hidden others. Listen to this. Mark 10, 14, 15. But when Jesus saw it, that is the disciples rebuking children, he was much displeased and said unto them, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not. Now notice this, for of such is the kingdom of God.
[00:11:27] Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. So that neediness, that dependence, that self, that understanding, that one is helpless, that's the kind of disposition that a person has to have even to come to Christ, even for anything to be revealed to that person. But it's also true now that if you're a believer, it's also true of you.
[00:12:01] You know you will rob yourself of growth by having a self sufficient attitude toward the Lord.
[00:12:12] You will.
[00:12:14] You see, the Lord wants us to come to him as a child. And that goes again, we're talking about adults here. That goes for adults too.
[00:12:21] We ought to come to the Lord in private, in prayer and say, lord, I need you. You know I'm ignorant you. You know I don't know what I'm doing. You know that if you do not help me, I will fall. I need you.
[00:12:34] That's the way we ought to come to God. And that is the key to having things revealed to us.
[00:12:40] That is the key to having things revealed to us. Because when we are self satisfied, when we are confident, when we feel sufficient in ourselves. Notice what verse 25 says.
[00:12:51] God hides things from those. See that? That means God actively keeps information from you.
[00:13:05] He actively keeps you in the dark until such time as you humble yourself and you come to him as a child.
[00:13:14] Look at verse number 26. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. Now notice verse 27.
[00:13:21] All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father.
[00:13:26] Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Now here's the principle from this verse, and we're trying to get to verse number 28. But the principle is this in verse number 27 is that it is impossible to know God without His Son.
[00:13:49] God our Father has made it such that he has provided no access to Himself without Christ.
[00:14:00] If you are not in Christ, if you are not with Christ, if you do not have him as your mediator, you have no access to God.
[00:14:12] That's what our Lord is saying here. You can't know the Father unless you know the Son. They are inseparable. As far as that goes.
[00:14:21] John 5, 22 and 23 say this. Jesus said, the Father, for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
[00:14:30] That all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the father. In John 14 you know these verses, but listen. Listen to these Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life.
[00:14:47] No man cometh unto the Father but by me. You see that no man cometh unto the Father but by me. There is no access to God. I don't care what church you go to, what religion you're a part of. There is no access to God. There's no forgiveness, there is no salvation without the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:15:07] He is the door. He is the door.
[00:15:11] Jesus goes on to say, if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Philip saith unto him. Because obviously Philip is confused because Jesus just said, you've seen the Father and Philip says, we've only seen you.
[00:15:30] Philip saith unto him, lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us will be happy. Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me?
[00:15:41] Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
[00:15:47] And how sayest thou then show us the Father again. The only access to God the Father is by God, the Son. They are inseparable. You got to be careful here because the cults substitute a fake Son for the real Son of God. A fake son that's kind of like a little God instead of very God in the flesh. That won't get you access to the Father and they don't have access to the Father because their Son is wrong. It's an imposter. It's a fake.
[00:16:18] This is why the Bible says in Acts chapter 4, verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. There's only one way.
[00:16:34] Jesus is the only way to God.
[00:16:37] You know, it's funny, because in this world, people like to give lip service to Jesus and they like to consider, oh, I believe in God and me, and God and me are on good terms.
[00:16:48] We're just like this.
[00:16:50] Listen, there's not a person alive that's just like this with God, without the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:16:57] It's Jesus or you're an enemy of God.
[00:17:02] Right? It's just that simple. Now let's go on to the next verse. Verse 28.
[00:17:08] Jesus says, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[00:17:18] First thing I want you to notice, there's three things I want you to see from these three verses.
[00:17:22] The first thing I want you to see is the recipients of this invitation. This invitation is not given to everyone.
[00:17:30] This Invitation is not given to everyone. Notice what it says. Jesus says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
[00:17:42] The burden that our Lord is referring to is not the burden of difficulty in life, but the burden that touches eternal things, spiritual things specifically. It's a burden that comes of sin. And this is not unique in Scripture. Listen to these two verses that demonstrate what I'm saying. Isaiah 1:4.
[00:18:06] The Lord says, ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger. They are gone away, backward.
[00:18:26] Second Timothy 3, 6 says this, speaking of people in the community and the church. There he says, for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive, silly women, notice, laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts. In other words, sin is pictured in Scripture. In this case, sin is pictured as a way. How many of you have read the Pilgrim's Progress now in that book? A lot of you have read it. In that book, the pilgrim is pictured by John Bunyan as a man who is carrying a load, right? And he carries it from place to place as he meets these different characters in the book. And that pictures our sin. That pictures our sin.
[00:19:10] This invitation is only given to come to Jesus is only given to those who feel the weight of their sin. The reality is, every single one of us, every single one of us, before we knew the Lord Jesus Christ, every single one of us carried burden and the load of sin on our shoulders. Every single. Whether we knew it or not, we did.
[00:19:40] There might be somebody here among us that is at this moment carrying a weight of sin. I'm not just talking about one sin, this sin or that sin. I'm talking about you have the weight of your guilt before God upon you. You have the weight of the knowledge of how you have messed up your life laying upon your shoulders that you cannot escape. You have the weight of the knowledge of the judgment of God looming in your future. And all of those things are true.
[00:20:12] You say, well, that's not very nice. That's not very happy. It might not be, but it's true.
[00:20:18] And those things should weigh you down.
[00:20:23] You should feel a heaviness.
[00:20:26] That's what we're come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. But not everybody feels that.
[00:20:33] Have you noticed that?
[00:20:35] Even people who are throwing themselves at sin, throwing themselves at crimes against God, indulging every desire and lust of their flesh, they do that. And yet they do it. And they seem to be perfectly fine. They don't seem to be carrying a burden. Look at one example in Luke, chapter 15, if you would.
[00:20:53] Luke 15.
[00:20:58] You know this story? I just want to show you one little thing from it. Luke 15, verse number 11.
[00:21:10] Notice what it says?
[00:21:13] And he said, a certain man had two sons.
[00:21:16] And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
[00:21:23] And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
[00:21:33] Riotous living. That's a broad word, includes a lot of stuff. He was going to prostitutes, he was getting drunk, he was getting high, he was gambling.
[00:21:43] He was just living it up.
[00:21:45] Let me ask you a question. Is this young man burdened by the load of sin? No, he's not burdened. Look at verse 15 or verse 14. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
[00:22:03] And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have. Would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. Let me ask you a question. At this point, is he feeling the burden of sin?
[00:22:19] He is.
[00:22:21] So at the beginning, when he's indulging himself in sin, he doesn't feel any burden.
[00:22:30] This invitation our Lord gives in Matthew 11 is not for him.
[00:22:35] And so what the Lord does is he brings to pass often by the we talked about this a couple Wednesday nights ago.
[00:22:43] By virtue of the moral law of God, the way God has ordered his universe, sin always destroys. And so God just lets it work itself out.
[00:22:55] And the man sows wickedness and he reaps wickedness. And the burden starts to come on his shoulders. He runs out of money.
[00:23:05] All of a sudden he finds out he has no more friends because he has no money to spend and party with them.
[00:23:11] And now he has no job, he's far from home, he has nobody to depend upon, nobody to call, nobody to help, nobody wants to give him mercy. And so he has to go into a hog pen to feed hogs. And he's hungry. He has anything to eat, and he wants to eat what the pigs are eating.
[00:23:29] That's a burden of sin. But what kind of burden is that in this case? This is a burden of the natural result of our living in sin.
[00:23:40] That's one of the burdens of sin.
[00:23:44] Now, what's not mentioned in this story in Luke is the other burdens of sin, the things perhaps this young man has lost.
[00:23:52] And then on top of that, there's a layer of the judgment of God that we are going to stand before God and God is not happy with us.
[00:24:08] That's one reason a lot of atheists remain atheists is because they know that if they were to open the door to a creator, they are in big trouble.
[00:24:22] You see, that burden weighs down on them. Now, while you're having fun in sin and everything's going good and you have money to spend and the weight of it is not. You haven't yet felt it.
[00:24:39] You don't feel this sense of a burden.
[00:24:44] But the Lord's not talking to you.
[00:24:50] The Lord's talking to people who have started to feel the burden, have started to have and develop a fear of God.
[00:25:01] Matthew Henry says this of this verse. He says this, this burden is a necessary preparative for pardon and peace.
[00:25:14] You see, the Lord wants to bring us to a place where we feel the burden. And he works to do that. You know that one of the ways he does that, John chapter 16 tells us that the Spirit of God reproves the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. One way he does that is, by the by, Christian people, listen to me. If you're a believer in Christ, do not make light of your role among people who are living in sin, living for themselves, living without God. Don't make light of it. Your righteous life shines upon them. You know what it does? It pricks their heart.
[00:25:55] And it starts that process where they start to feel burden. It's not you being high and mighty and looking down your nose and holier than thou. It's not that. It's just you with a clear conscience trying to live for the Lord. That's all it is. And it offends people. And you say, well, I don't. I don't want to offend anyone. Listen, that's not what you're. You're not doing it. God is using you to offend them in their sin. And that weight starts that guilt. They start to feel icky about themselves that maybe is not as good and not as sharp as they thought they were. And then someone comes along and maybe a friend, maybe a family member, and starts to inform them of where they actually stand with God, what God actually thinks, and starts to reveal the Scriptures. And this is what the Lord thinks of your life.
[00:26:41] This is your life before God. This is God's displeasure. You are breaking his laws and he is not happy about it. And then they say there is a day of judgment. God's going to bring you into judgment.
[00:26:53] Well, that's not a happy message. No, it's not. But that is what someone has to come to understand.
[00:27:02] They have to come to understand that they are guilty. They have to feel the effect and consequences in time and eternity. And they have to begin to fear an angry God.
[00:27:19] That's when the weight starts to lay down on them. And that's when they hear the voice. And this is why I said what I said at the beginning. That's when they begin to hear the voice of the compassionate Son of God say, come.
[00:27:34] It's that person. It's not the person who's having fun in sin, who's living for themselves and throwing themselves, committing crimes against God. No, no, it's. It's the person who feels the weight. And Jesus extends compassion to them and says, come, come.
[00:27:52] That's who the invitation is for.
[00:27:57] You know what this tells us? It speaks to something about the motivation for coming to Jesus.
[00:28:03] You know, there's this thing floating around somehow that people are giving an invitation to come to Jesus because Jesus can help promote you.
[00:28:16] In other words, you're good. You're good already. But you need to go to the next plateau of your life, the next level of your life, and Jesus can help you do that.
[00:28:29] It's just a way to. It's a way of self improvement, just using divine self improvement, if you will.
[00:28:36] In other words, they don't come. And some of those people respond and they, maybe this is the next thing. I can get things right and whatever.
[00:28:47] But they don't come to Jesus out of necessity. They come to Jesus seeking some benefit.
[00:28:53] But that is not this invitation. That is a false invitation.
[00:28:57] Jesus gives the invitation to people who feel a weight of sin because this is the correct motive for a person coming to Christ. And a person cannot rightly come to Christ without knowing the burden of that.
[00:29:13] That's what this whole thing's about. This thing about the gospel and the cross and the resurrection. It's all about one thing. It's about where you stand with God and what you're going to do with your sin. That's the question at hand. It's not how your life is going to get better.
[00:29:29] No, it's God and you. And there's a problem and there's a gulf between you and you need a savior because sin is going to be your undoing.
[00:29:40] That's the question, you have to see that.
[00:29:44] You have to understand you're sick before you seek the physician.
[00:29:50] So the Lord works in people's hearts to bring them to that point, to get that their understanding and their motivations, right?
[00:29:58] So that they come to him. Right?
[00:30:02] He allows sin to run its course.
[00:30:04] He brings people into their lives to point it out to them that they might feel its weight. But a lot of times people feel. Sometimes people feel the weight of sin, but they look at around them and they see, well, they're doing the same thing I'm doing, and they don't seem to be too unhappy.
[00:30:23] Just like a bunch of. It's like people in prison, you know, they look around at all their fellow prisoners around, and everybody's in the same condition and they think, well, everybody must be like that. But there's other people outside of prison that don't feel the weight of imprisonment.
[00:30:40] Everyone's not bearing the burden of sin.
[00:30:44] But that's what you think when you're surrounded by prisoners.
[00:30:53] So that's the audience.
[00:30:56] The second thing I want you to see is the invitation. Jesus says, come unto me.
[00:31:05] Come unto me.
[00:31:07] So say a person does feel the burden of sin. They know the guilt.
[00:31:12] They know they're not right with God.
[00:31:14] They know they're not good.
[00:31:16] They fear God and they fear judgment, and they fear dying without him and going to hell.
[00:31:22] That's good.
[00:31:24] That's where a person needs to be.
[00:31:28] But sometimes people who feel the weight of guilt, of their sin and transgression against God, do not turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for rest. He says, come unto me. But they don't. They turn to something else.
[00:31:41] In other words, they want the rest Jesus speaks of, but they don't want the Jesus who offers it.
[00:31:54] So they seek rest in many, many other sources.
[00:31:57] They go to other people and they seek to find other people who will tell them, everything's okay, you're doing fine, you're good, everything's right, you're not a bad person. It's okay. God loves you like that.
[00:32:10] The question of God's love has never been the question.
[00:32:14] The question. Of course he loves us. That was proven on the cross.
[00:32:19] The problem is his judgment.
[00:32:21] God's love doesn't negate his judgment, does it?
[00:32:24] No.
[00:32:27] So we surround ourselves with people who will affirm us, sometimes take medications to avoid the thoughts of it and the weight of it. Sometimes we do religious works and. And we think, all right, if I keep doing that, then it'll make me feel better about it. Or sometimes we might do diversions and throw ourselves at pleasures to kind of drown it out.
[00:32:45] But if we're honest, they have no rest, despite all their efforts, and the weight of their sin remains, despite all the happy talk.
[00:33:00] There might be somebody in here that's like, I don't have any idea what you're talking about.
[00:33:05] Well, I understand that because you might be at a place where you haven't begun to feel the weight of sin yet.
[00:33:12] But I think by the grace of God, one day you will.
[00:33:16] And I hope you remember the Lord's words, come unto me.
[00:33:21] You see, the only way to be rid of the weight of sin is to be rid of sin itself.
[00:33:28] Not just the effect of it and how it makes you feel, but the sin itself. That's the problem. You have broken God's law.
[00:33:37] That's why you feel guilty, because you are.
[00:33:41] The only way to be rid of the weight of sin is to be rid of the sin. And there's no way to be rid of the sin and the burden and the weight of that sin apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, from Christ himself. That's why he says, come unto me. Just like in every other matter in this life, the answer is found in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He is all in all. He is the answer. Look at Hebrews chapter number 10, if you would.
[00:34:12] Hebrews chapter 10, verse 2.
[00:34:20] Hebrews 10, verse number 2.
[00:34:25] Talking about the weight of sin, the burden of sin.
[00:34:31] Hebrews 10:2 says this, for then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers, once purged, should have no more conscience of sins.
[00:34:41] This is speaking of the Old Testament sacrifices now. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. You know, the remembrance of sin is something they'll keep that burden, you feel the weight all the time because it's still there. You remember it. You remember it. You remember it. You know, in Alcoholics Anonymous, they tell you, you will never be anything but an alcoholic.
[00:35:04] You will never be. You will always be an alcoholic. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're going to bear that burden forever as a man. Yes, that might be true.
[00:35:16] But that's not true in Christ.
[00:35:18] That's not true in Christ. Keep reading it.
[00:35:22] But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest not but a body. Hast thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for Sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy will, O God. Jesus speaking therefore above, when he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest not. Neither hast pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second.
[00:36:02] By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
[00:36:11] And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices. Notice. Which can never take away sins, would never take that burden away.
[00:36:26] But this man Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.
[00:36:36] Verse 14. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
[00:36:45] Now look at verse 16.
[00:36:46] This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts. I want you to note that verse because we're coming back to that in just a minute.
[00:36:57] And in their minds will I write them. Verse 17. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Who's the I in that verse?
[00:37:08] That's God.
[00:37:10] Do you know when you finally get relief from the burden of sin? It's when God, you are certain and you know and you have the assurance that not. You don't remember your sin, but God doesn't remember your sin. And at that moment the burden goes away.
[00:37:31] Now you can beat yourself up over that, and we all do.
[00:37:34] We can lament over past mistakes and failures, and we all do. But concerning me and the Lord, it is well with my soul because God does not remember them.
[00:37:48] That's when the burden goes away. Jesus says, come unto me, because I can take it away.
[00:38:00] Verse number 18.
[00:38:01] Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Listen to verse 19. Having Therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full, full assurance of faith. Notice having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Do you know the key to having that conscience relieved and that burden lifted?
[00:38:40] The key is that Savior who died on that cross, who took your place if you come to him.
[00:38:50] He alone has the power to forgive you.
[00:38:54] When he forgives you, he removes that from you.
[00:38:59] He lifts that burden.
[00:39:00] No more fear of judgment, no more fear of guilt.
[00:39:07] He does it. The answer is found in Christ.
[00:39:13] I just don't understand why people don't come to Him.
[00:39:16] They want the rest, but not the Christ.
[00:39:21] He is the answer.
[00:39:25] The last thing I want you to see from Matthew Chapter number 11 is verse 29.
[00:39:41] 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. A yoke. You've seen a yoke, usually two for two oxen, right? It's a little kind of an M shaped deal. It lays on the shoulders of the oxen and has a loop that goes around that. It secures it. And it's tied to some sort of cart or plow.
[00:40:09] Notice, there is a yoke for those that come to Jesus.
[00:40:15] There is a yoke. And there is a burden that comes with coming with Christ, coming to Christ.
[00:40:22] So it's not that there is no burden. Jesus lifts the burden of sin and then we're free and we can do whatever we want. No, no, no. He says, come to me and take my yoke.
[00:40:33] There is a yoke to bear. There is a duty, indeed, there is a job for us to do to serve the Lord. That's what yoke is about, is it not? It's about service. It's about work.
[00:40:46] The Lord does not free us from sin to serve ourselves. In fact, Romans chapter 6 says, Yield your bodies as instruments of righteousness. Yield them to the Lord. Put your shoulder into Christ's yoke and live for him and serve him. That's what he's saying here.
[00:41:08] So there is a yoke. There is a burden that comes with coming to Christ. But that yoke of Christ is easy and light. It's not like the yoke of sin that bears down heavy on you and is hopeless. No, it's a yoke that brings joy and it's easy and it's light.
[00:41:24] Romans 7:22 says this. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Hebrews 8:10 says this. For this is the covenant. I just read it.
[00:41:33] That I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. Here's what happens when you put your Shoulder into the yoke of Christ.
[00:41:51] He writes his law in your heart. And all of a sudden, that work, that labor, that service, that living for God is what you want to do.
[00:42:00] It is your joy, you delight to do it.
[00:42:05] That's why it's easy.
[00:42:07] Yes, it's a yoke. Yes, there's duty, yes, there's work, there's labor involved, but it's a joy.
[00:42:15] That's why it's a light burden. And in fact, if you read in Matthew 11, verse number 29, look at it carefully. 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.
[00:42:32] It is the very yoke of Christ that gives you rest. Do you know why?
[00:42:38] Because you weren't created to live for yourself.
[00:42:42] God created you to live for him. And you will not be happy as a believer, as someone whose burden has been lifted because you came to Christ. You will not be happy until your shoulders are in that yoke, living for God, serving God, because that's where the joy and satisfaction and purpose, that's where the fulfillment comes. Revelation 4:11 in heaven they say, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
[00:43:21] Unless you're fulfilling that purpose, unless you're fulfilling that purpose, you won't have fulfillment and joy.
[00:43:32] So the Lord says, come, get in that yoke and live for me, and your life will be light.
[00:43:44] You know, there might be somebody in here that's like, yeah, I don't know.
[00:43:49] Life of the Christian seems just about like mine, eh?
[00:43:55] I don't see any way as much better.
[00:43:57] I want to tell you something.
[00:43:59] There are testimonies and I'm seeing facial expressions here. There are testimonies of people in this room who have burdened with sin, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and have had it lifted and know the difference, have lived the one way with the burden of sin, and now have their shoulders in the yoke of Christ. And every one of them, without exception, will tell you they their burden is light.
[00:44:24] You can't look at them and say, oh, well, there's nothing to that. You can't do that. They know what the burden feels like, and they know what it feels like, that burden to be lifted, and they know what it's like for the satisfaction and joy of living for the Lord Jesus in his yoke. And they that you can't tell them that there's nothing to it. They have experienced both, and they know which is which.
[00:44:48] So do you feel the burden of sin in your life?
[00:44:52] You know, if you're outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, you should feel it, even if you don't.
[00:44:58] But if you do feel it, would you come to him, a compassionate Savior who is who has paid the penalty for you, to forgive you? He can free you of your sin in a moment.
[00:45:11] Would you come to him?
[00:45:14] Let's pray.
