Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter eleven. Matthew chapter eleven. I'll just begin reading in verse twenty. Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works have been done because they did not repent.
Woe to you, Corazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.
And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.
God's Absolute Sovereignty Declared
At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.
God's Good Pleasure as the Sole Reason
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my father, and no one knows the son except the father. Nor does anyone know the father except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Amen. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures. We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ and for the redemption that he accomplished at Calvary. We thank you for the covenant of grace and for your sovereignty. We thank you for election and predestination.
We thank you for the offer of mercy through Christ our Lord. We thank you, Lord God, that you have drawn us. It was not we ourselves. It was you, Lord God, who caused us to know our sin and to know the Savior from our sin.
And we rejoice in this truth, Lord God Most High, and we pray that it would always humble us. God, do forgive us for our pride. Do forgive us for our arrogance. Do forgive us, Lord God, that at times we believe that we deserve this.
God, if we understand our Bibles rightly, all we deserve was hell and wrath and condemnation. We praise you for free and sovereign grace, and God, may it be our delight this morning as we consider the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would forgive us and cleanse us afresh in that precious blood and cause us to come into your presence with our hearts and our minds and our consciences being cleansed and purified and enable us, God, to think your thoughts after you. And we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, this morning, we're going to consider the theme, the sovereignty of God and the salvation of sinners, and we're going to focus primarily on verses twenty five to thirty. I did read the preceding section because it is part of the context. that we need to give attention to. But this text or this section or passage in verses 25 to 30 does break down into three sections. And the first is simply a declaration of God's absolute sovereignty.
And it comes in the context of prayer and praise, which I believe is very instructive for us. God's people. So
Outline of Three Sections
we'll notice that in verses twenty five and twenty six. And then secondly, the mediatorial office of Christ is set forth in verse twenty seven. No one knows the father except the son. No one knows the son except the father.
But Jesus, in his grand task as the mediator and as the surety of a better covenant, does bring men into a saving knowledge of our triune God. And then on the heels of this, which serves basically as a foundation, then Jesus gives the commands of verses 28 to 30, the command to come to him, the command to take his yoke, the command to learn from him. And then he gives blessed reasons and enticements and incentives as he issues forth these these wonderful commands will take up. First of all, the declaration of God's absolute sovereignty.
And just so you know, the larger context, if you go back just for a moment to chapter nine at verse thirty five. Chapter 9, verse 35, sets for us the larger context in which our Lord Jesus here praises God for his divine sovereignty. Matthew 9, 35. Then Jesus went out or went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. So our Lord sees the multitudes.
He sees them perishing in their sin, and he has moved to compassion for them. And then he encourages his disciples to pray to God. And then he not only says to pray, but Christ act. In chapter ten, beginning in verse one, he sends his disciples out to go and preach the kingdom of God.
He sends them to go out and heal disease and to cast out demons and to preach repentance. So Christ recognizes the need. Christ tells the disciples to pray concerning that need. and then Christ acts upon or consistent with that need by equipping his disciples, giving them the necessary authority and sending them out on their task to preach and teach the gospel of the kingdom. He gives them very vivid instructions are explicit instructions in chapter ten and then when we get to chapter eleven These disciples return when we compare Luke's gospel and we compare the parallel to Luke.
We see that the occasion was the same. Turn to Luke 10 for just a moment. Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 17. Luke ten seventeen, then the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.
And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. So it's the same occasion, the same prayer, the same context. Even here in Luke chapter 10, verses 13 to 16, we see the condemnation upon the cities that had rejected Christ. that had neglected to act upon the mighty deeds and the miracles that he had wrought. So, I say that again to highlight this.
Go back to chapter 11, verses 20 to 24. There is a specific condemnation that Christ issues forth to those who had witnessed his works and didn't repent. We need to learn from this section of Matthew 11, 20 to 24, just by way of an aside, that miracles don't change man's hearts. Miracles do not convert man.
Miracles authenticate, miracles signify, miracles function as the grounds or means by which gospel preaching can take place. But in order for a sinner to be saved, God must change the heart. And in chapter 11 verses 20 to 24, there is that statement that there are those who reject gospel preaching. There are those who reject gospel truth.
The gospel cuts one of two ways. It either condemns those who reject or it blesses and gives great, great encouragement to those who receive it. So that's what we're dealing with in the context. Chapter 11, 20 to 24. is a condemnation for those who oppose and chapter 11 verses 25 to 30 is the blessed reception for those who come to the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith.
Now again, notice in verse 25 at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. He's praying. You notice the context of the parallel in Luke 10. It said he was rejoicing at this particular time.
This is very important. Christ makes a statement in this passage that asserts unequivocally, without doubt or challenge, the absolute sovereignty of God. He praises God for hiding gospel truth. He praises God for revealing gospel truth.
But in the context, he is not arguing. He is not debating. He is not trying to prove it is the case, but rather he is engaged in praise. This is where the Apostle Paul learned a similar disposition in Ephesians 1.
When he sets forth the glory of the triune God in the salvation of sinners, when he extols God for sovereignty and for election and for predestination, he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. These doctrines aren't given primarily for us to fight over. They are given for us to worship because we are to take these truths of sovereignty and election and predestination. And it's to be like when you take your car to the gas station, you put gas in so that when you push the accelerator, your car can go.
You take these doctrines of the sovereignty of God and you put them in the gas station of your heart, so that when you come in here on a Lord's Day morning, you don't sing praises to you. You sing praises to our triune God, the one who chose us, the one who predestined. Those things that are offensive to the natural man and to many professing Christians ought to be the heartbeat of God's chosen people to serve and to adore and to praise him. We ought not to be ashamed of these truths.
We ought not to shrink back from declaring these truths. And when I say chosen people, I don't mean because of anything good in us. Let's just make sure we understand that we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's the reality that God sets forth.
CH Spurgeon says here is the spirit in which to regard the electing grace of God. Amen, a hundredfold. So many times people stumble over these mentions of God's sovereignty. In fact, this very text may cause you in our survey this morning to say, well, that's not really fair that God would have the audacity to hide gospel truth from the wise and the prudent.
That just doesn't seem very right. Spurgeon corrects us. Here is the spirit in which to regard the electing grace of God. I praise you, Father.
I praise you, Lord of heaven and earth. We come with joy in our hearts, imitating the Lord Jesus Christ. And also why I wanted to share or illustrate the larger context. Humanly speaking, at this point, the gospel ministry wasn't that successful.
They didn't have megachurches. They weren't in a shopping mall. They didn't have a website that got, you know, a million hits a year. And yet Christ praises God for his sovereignty.
I think John Gill hits the nail right on the head. He says this is an address to God by way of thanksgiving, glorifying and praising him, confessing and acknowledging his wisdom, power, grace and goodness discovered in the things he after mentions. So far was he from being discouraged and dejected at the poor success of the seventy and his ill treatment by the Pharisees and at the general impenitence and unbelief of the cities where he preached and wrought his miracles. He is abundantly thankful and admires the distinguishing grace of God in the calling of a few in those places.
He's not going back to the drawing board. He is not going to the conference on how to win men to himself. He is praising his father. He is glorifying his God.
He is full of joy in the Holy Spirit as he returns this praise to his God. And I think this does serve to highlight two things that we ought to avoid as reformed Christians. Two things we ought to shine as those who subscribe to the doctrines of sovereign grace. The first is what Dr.
Talbot calls a Scottish revival. A Scottish revival simply means this. We preach the truth and everybody leaves our church. And we conclude everybody left our church because we preach the truth.
Now, the offense of the cross is a reality. There will be those who are repelled. There will be those who leave our churches in mass when we preach sovereign grace. However, even at the time of Elijah, God had his seven thousand that did not bow the knee to bail.
So we want to avoid the Scottish revival and think that somehow we are doing great things when we have our wife in the front row and we're simply preaching to her. Everybody hates the truth. Everybody despises us. We're doing the right thing.
We want to avoid that. But also, we want to avoid this idea that thinks we can manipulate the Holy Spirit, that thinks we can hawk Jesus. that we can be technicians, that we can be performers, that we can promise people, if you come to church tomorrow, I'll swallow a goldfish and then we can lambast them into making a decision for Christ. Or we move them in with promise of food and drink and all sorts of things and then try to sell them a hard sale on to Jesus Christ. We want to avoid these extremes.
We want to be faithful. We want to be like our Lord Jesus. We want to take accurately or we want to take consistently the biblical text and accurately expound it and understand it and live by it. It was Rabbi Duncan who said that Calvinism or hyper Calvinism rather is all house, but no door.
Arminianism is all door, but no house. What we see Christ preaching is a house with a door. And it depends not on the will of man, not on the strength of the sinner, but on the sovereign discrimination and purpose of our God. Now, when I say discrimination, God is not a respecter of persons in terms of the rich or the white or the black or the whoever.
But he is discriminating when it comes to the election of grace. All you need to do is read Romans 9 to see something of that with reference to Jacob and Esau. That's our context. It is an attitude of praise.
At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. The very terms that he uses to address the father with shows us his sonship to the Lord God, and it shows us God's absolute sovereignty over all things. He is Lord of heaven and earth. As Carson said, God is sovereign, free to conceal or reveal as he wills.
And as we consider this declaration of absolute sovereignty, notice the praiseworthy actions.
The Father Hides and Reveals Truth
Why does Jesus praise the father? Why does Jesus thank the father? In the first instance, he says, because the father has hidden truth. He has hidden truth from the wise and the prudent.
If you've ever stumbled with the sovereignty of God, I am here to tell you, you're not going to like this passage. In the context, it is gospel truth is not talking about physics calculus. Not talking about accounting, not talking about how to diagram an English sentence. These things, in context, are how sinners are made right with God Most High.
He is speaking about the preaching of the kingdom of God Most High. The wise and the prudent here are those who are such in their own eyes. Those who esteem themselves as having been very accomplished. They don't need any other help.
They live in a spirit of independence. They live in a spirit of autonomy. When the Lord God commands, they don't respond. They don't see themselves as having offended a holy God.
They don't see all these things that we go on about as being that big of a deal, really. They don't see the necessity for the Son of God to come and offer himself up as a sacrifice. Couldn't there be a better way? Isn't there a more ingenious way?
Isn't there a non-bloody way where we could affect reconciliation between God and sinners? That's the wise and the prudent. They have no need for gospel. They have no desire for gospel.
And we need to remember here that Jesus is dealing with a race, not just the Jews in the first century, but the race of man worldwide is sinful. He's not dealing with innocent people that he is hiding gospel truth from. He is dealing with a race of sinners and rebels and covenant breakers. As D.A.
Carson points out, for God to hide gospel truth from such persons is not unjust, but is an act of judgment itself. Let me just repeat that because we stumble needlessly. For God to hide gospel truth from a sinner is not unjust. It's not unfair.
It is a sign, ultimately, of his judgment upon them. Why did Jesus speak in parables? Oh, because he liked to illustrate spiritual truths with a homely illustration or a parable or a teaching that we could all relate to. Yeah, he did. to read why he did the power why he spoke in parables.
It was for judgment. It was for judgment. Those outside the kingdom don't receive these things. I mentioned Dr.
Talbot earlier. He's the president of the seminary, which, by God's grace, I did finish the course. I know I neglected to say that last week again. I thank you for your prayers.
I hope to hear back this week concerning the final disposition, and then it's all over. One of the things that he said in the block on evangelism and missions, he said, Jesus couldn't have been more conspicuous. He said, even if he wore a white T-shirt with a red cross. Could he be more conspicuous as the Messiah?
I mean, imagine. He was born in Bethlehem, Ephrathah, Micah 5. He was born of a virgin, Isaiah 9. He was the son of David.
There's no lack of proof to substantiate Jesus claims to Messiah ship. He walked on water. He healed people. He raised the dead.
The very claims he made himself would be completely outlandish unless he was who he said he was. He is saying, come to me and I will give you spiritual rest. Who but God can do such a thing, especially when we'll see that he's got Jeremiah 16 in his mind, in his heart, and that those old paths and that that true truth leads to a knowledge of Jesus Christ himself. He couldn't have been more conspicuous man and sin man under the dominion of Satan himself, but ultimately man under the hardening of God refused and rejected him.
Wasn't for lack of proof, even in even in Corazon, even in Bethsaida, even in Capernaum, they saw glorious deeds done. They saw wonderful miracles, mighty acts. Did they repent? No.
You hear people today, if God would just put in an appearance or God would do something miraculously, well, then I would believe. No, you wouldn't. Our brother brought out in the scripture reading, with men it is impossible. You don't just see an evidence and say, well, I think I'll believe on that now.
We don't preach an impossible gospel. We preach the truth that with God, all things are possible and that he hides gospel truth from the wise and the prudent, but he reveals it under babes and praise him that he does so. Calvin said those are called wise and prudent, who swell with diabolical pride, cannot endure to hear Christ speaking to them from above. Amazing people that you have met before.
Again, Brother Cam brought all these things out before people. We may have shared the gospel with that are heavy on our hearts that we pray for continuously. Well, we can pray for them continuously. Not that they'll have some sudden urge or impulse to do the right thing.
But we pray to the one who has all power, who has all authority. Some have said that when you affirm predestination and you affirm election and you affirm sovereign grace, you rip the foundation out of gospel preaching. I say just the opposite. Without that firm foundation, how could any creature ever go and tell men to come to Jesus Christ and ever hope that it would actually be successful?
It is because we have a predestinated God. And I just want to repent publicly. I know in the past, I have parroted that statement. That's a lot of peas right there.
Parroted that statement where people say we need to believe like Calvinists, but act like Arminians. No, we don't. If Calvinism is true, then Arminianism isn't. And we do no one any favors by abandoning the truth and adopting a methodology which is inconsistent with the Bible itself.
God is sovereign. He is able. He knows the power of his word. He says we're to be faithful and to tell man not that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for the rest of their lives, but that they are sinners.
And if they come to Jesus, they will be saved. That's what we need to be about. We need to leave the results to God. We need to leave all the particulars to God.
We need to faithfully undertake as Christians to witness, to shine his lights in a crooked and perverse generation, to hold forth the word of truth. Our churches need to make much of Christ and him crucified and preach the centrality of the cross. We need to be calling men and women and boys and girls to believe on him. who God made to be said so that men with us sinners could be the righteousness of God in him. The Lord Christ praised his father for hiding gospel truth.
You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, but he doesn't stop there and have revealed them to babies. He's revealed that it's not left. It is just. No one ever gets in the whole mission and purpose of Christ was to secure the redemption of these babes.
These ones whom the Spirit comes and convicts and shows them their sin and shows them that they fall short and shows them that Christ alone is the Savior for sinners. You see, God's gospel cuts both ways. It is a saver of life unto life for those who are saved. It is a saver of death unto death.
Paul says, Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one, we are the aroma of death leading to death and to the other, the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?
That's the reality. Our task is to faithfully proclaim God's task, God's privilege, God's desire, God's design, God's will is the salvation of sinners. So let us adopt the mindset of Christ when it comes to these matters. And then notice what our Lord says in verse twenty six.
Even so, father, for so it seemed good in your sight. The NASB renders it. Yes, father, for this way was well pleasing in your sight. You ever met anybody who said, boy, it just doesn't sound right.
You know, Adam and Eve, they eat the fruit. They fall into sin. You say that in them we die. We're all astray.
We're all gone like sheep. And in God's grace and in God's mercy, he calls some to be saved. That just doesn't seem, doesn't seem right. Well, first of all, who are we to say what is right and what isn't?
That's what got us into this mess. What happened to Eve? She started to think apart from God. She didn't think God's thoughts after him.
She looked upon the fruit. It was desirable to make one wise. She listened to the devil instead of God. And Adam was right there culpable, he took, he ate, he fell with her, he fell in sin, and in him all died.
So some people say, wow, that just seems odd. We need to be careful as Christians to ever utter such a blasphemy. It's not odd. It's not unfair.
It's not strange. It's not weird. It is according to the pleasure of the will of the most holy God. Even so, Father, for so it seemed pleasing in your sight.
God hides, God reveals according to his good pleasure. Isn't this what Paul parrots throughout Ephesians chapter one? He praises the Father and he says to the glory, the praise of his grace. This is where we need to be.
This is where we need to come. If someone is offended, if someone is arrogant, if someone is upset, if someone is blaspheming, hope to God and pray to God that this doctrine would be the hammer in the hand of the Holy Spirit to shatter that pride. You see, we are all too proud. We all think we can tell God.
We all think we know. Every time I see one of those RCMP checkpoints out and they stop me for either a seatbelt or ask if I'm drinking. Every temptation is in me to say, go catch guys that are raping people or breaking and entering. Don't do your job there.
We go somewhere and somebody isn't serving us to our satisfaction, we want to tell them how they better perform and how they better operate. That's how sinners are with God. Well, we don't like this, God. We don't want you to rule this way, God.
What's Paul say in Romans 11, who has become his counselor? Who does God consult with? Has God checked in with you? Remember when God told Job to stand up, to gird himself up?
And he asked him that series of questions. Where were you, Job, when I laid the foundation of the world? Brethren, do you realize that many of us have trouble getting up on time? Many have trouble balancing their checkbooks.
Many have trouble wondering what they're going to wear or eat for a day. But we think in our puny minds that we could govern the entirety of the universe in the matters of salvation and damnation, that somehow we think we're better equipped for the job than our most holy and wise God. Shame on Arminianism and Pelagianism. It's blasphemy.
Now, I'm not saying every Armenian is going to hell. Praise God that not all of them are consistent with their doctrine. We're saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Man, as a system, it certainly doesn't sound like Jesus.
Thank you, Father, for hiding. Thank you, Father, for revealing. Even so, Father, it seemed good in your sight. That's what mattered to Christ.
What was primary in God's mind and in God's heart? He didn't make you because he wanted to be complete. This was Paul's declaration to the pagans in Acts 17. He didn't create as if there was a void.
We've got the void. Augustine was right. We have a God-shaped hole in our soul. Not God.
He didn't have a man-shaped hole that he had to somehow fill. He created according to his good pleasure. He saves according to his good pleasure. And dare I say it, he damns according to his good pleasure. to the praise of the glory, according to Paul in Romans nine of his justice.
See, we don't esteem justice, but God really does. And everything will be vindicated on that day of judgment. Notice, Jesus moves on to verse 27 to speak of his position. All things have been delivered to me by my father, and no one knows the son except the father.
Nor does anyone know the father except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him. Christ possesses obviously all authority is God. He says that the father has delivered this authority to him. He's speaking as the God man.
He is speaking as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Bible, the greater king or the greater son of David that would take that Davidic throne. He would sit on that throne and he would reign forever and ever world without end. Amen. This Christ has the position of authority to bring sinners into communion with God most high.
Christ as the Only Way to the Father
This is the synoptic parallel to John fourteen six. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. He is highlighting his role as the mediator of a better covenant.
And he says that he actually does this. This is what's so good about all this. It's not just theory. Christ actually does this.
When we sang 393, you can bank your confidence upon the Lord Jesus that when you venture on him, venture holy, he will receive you. He will take you. He will cleanse you. He will justify it.
He will sanctify and he will wash away all of your iniquity. You may say, I don't know about all this stuff. Here's what you need to know. Christ is an able sinner who are a savior, rather, who can bring your sinful soul onto his father.
Strike that. It was a slip of the tongue. Christ is not a sinner. Never holy, harmless and undefiled.
He is impeccable. He was without sin or he would not be successful in the redemption of sinners. But he not only speaks of this possession of authority, the father has delivered all things to me, but he has a position of intimacy. Don't you see that in our text?
The father in the center like this. And the sun in his mission of mercy has covenanted to come into this world to live in obedience to divine law, which we couldn't do to die as a sacrifice for our sins and to rise again, as Paul says in Romans four for our justification and so that he can bring us into that circle of intimacy so that he could usher us into the presence of God most high. I love what Ryle said, he bears the keys to him we must go for admission into heaven. He is the door through him we must enter.
He is the shepherd. We must hear his voice and follow him if we would not perish in the wilderness. He is the physician. We must apply to him if we would be healed of the plague of sin.
He is the bread of life. We must feed on him if we would have our soul satisfied. He is the light. We must walk after him If we would not wander in darkness, he is the fountain.
He must wash us in his blood. If we should be clear, we would be cleansed and made ready for the great day of account. Blessed and glorious are these truths. If we have Christ, we have all things.
He is in a position or he has a position of authority and a position of intimacy.
Christ Actually Reveals the Father
And he also says that he does do this and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him to love that the primacy here is God, not us. Luther said here the bottom falls out on all merit, all powers and abilities of reason. or the free will men dreamed of, and it all counts nothing before God. Christ must do and Christ must give everything. And he does.
Please hear that he not only says that he does, but he does. We go through the rest of the gospel of Matthew. What does Jesus do? He draws men to himself.
He speaks in John 12 of the necessity of going to the cross so that he may draw all men to himself. I don't believe he means all men without exception. He means all men without discrimination or distinction. Men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
He's not a universalist. But he has promised to save a great multitude that no man can number. The very end of the gospel in Matthew 18 or 28, he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.
Why? Because this isn't just talk with Jesus. See, we may gather together and pray and talk and say we should we should really go out and reach sinners. We should be more evangelistic, which, by the way, we should.
But a lot of times our talk is cheap, it's not with Christ. God will indeed accomplish his purposes, and in that we can rejoice. Talk is not cheap with Christ, he says, go and make disciples of all the nations.
The Commands of Christ
So we've seen a declaration of absolute sovereignty, the mediatorial office of Christ, and then notice, certainly the command given by Christ.
Come to Me: The Command and Its Power
He says, come to me. It's a command. You're commanded to come to Christ. You say, but we're dead in our trespasses and sins, how can we comply?
Because the one who issues the command has the power to enable you to obey. Augustine said, Grant what you command and then command what you will. That is the dividing line in Protestant theology over the ages. That was offensive to his contemporaries.
It was offensive in the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. It still is offensive to those who oppose biblical reformed theology. Grant what you command and then command what you will. Jesus says, Come to me.
There is a vivid illustration of this in the physical realm in John 11, when Jesus issues a similar command to the dead corpse of Lazarus. If you were standing there that day, you would have said, why is he telling Lazarus to come out of the grave? Doesn't he know that Lazarus is stinking by now? In fact, Mary had told him he's been in the grave for a few days.
He stinks now, Lord. And yet Jesus says, come forth. You'd be standing there scratching your head saying, eh, he's taken this a little bit far. And then what happens?
Lazarus comes forth. Why? Because the one issuing the command has the power to enable the recipient to obey the command. So, when we go out and we appeal to sinners to come to Christ, it's not because there's goodness in their hearts, it's not because there's wisdom in their head, it's not because there's works that they have accomplished, but it's because we have a sovereign, predestinating, comprehensive, glorious, wise God who has called us to go out and tell sinners to come.
He will go in and change the heart. He will go in and regenerate. He will go in and make alive those whom he has purpose to save. Come to me, Christ says.
Jesus has the power to enable sinners to comply with the command. This one who has all authority, intimacy with the father and the role of mediator calls men to come to him. Beautiful statement. Again, if you're sitting here right now, the issue is not, have I been predestined?
Have I been elected? Have I been chosen? The issue is what? Thank ye of Christ.
You come to him and he will save you. That's what he says. Do not let sinners take this doctrine and say, well, I got to wait to see. If I'm predestined to elect.
No, you don't. You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Confession of faith says this is a careful doctrine that demands that we handle it carefully and with prudence. I actually think it needs to be preached because it has a great impact on humbling men.
We need to learn that we don't have power. We need to learn that God is not like the faucet. We don't just turn him on whenever we want to drink. He is not at our beck and call.
He is not dependent upon our whims or our fancies or our desires. But we are dependent constantly upon this thrice holy God. And it bids us well to hear these things, to be humbled by it, and then with that public and say, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Jesus says, come to me, he specifically tells those who labor and are heavy laden.
Perhaps you're familiar with Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. You know, he had that big burden on his back. Lots of alliteration today, big burden on the back. When did the burden fly off when he gazed at the cross?
I've often wondered if the backdrop for Bunyan, when he's sitting in that prison, writing Pilgrim's Progress, as he pictures that burden upon Christians back, if perhaps this text was in his mind. And then I thought, perhaps the Psalm 38 was in the mind of Christ. When our beloved David said, there is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin for my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me.
My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. Jesus is not a humanist. Jesus doesn't just look at the proletariat on that day and see men who have been working hard, who have put in a 16-hour day, whose backs are hurt, whose fingers are worked to the bone, who are struggling and who don't have enough food, and he wants to come and just tend to the outer man. That's not the significance of what he's speaking.
He is talking about spiritual rest. He is talking about spiritual satisfaction, this weariness of this heavy laden, this and this burden that these people bear were because of their own sin and because of the pharisaical system that heat more burdens up and throw them on the backs of these people. Christ comes to bring liberty and peace and joy and salvation, and he comes to bring life and that abundantly. And then David in our song, Psalm 38, says in verse 817, for I am ready to fall and my sorrow is continually before me for I will declare my iniquity.
I will be in anguish over my sin. This is the mindset. This is the heartbeat. This, as Joseph Hart wrote, and we sang in three ninety three, all he requires is that you feel your need of him.
And what does he go on to say this? He gives you this. He gives you this. He gives you your conviction of sin.
Is God right? And Christ is the satisfier, the satisfaction, the answer to the convicted sinner. Come to me, he says, all you who labor and are heavy laden. And he promises, I will rest you.
I will give you rest. But he doesn't stop there.
Take the Yoke and Learn from Christ
He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Well, he frees you from one yoke, but he puts a yoke on you. His liberty, his freedom, his blessedness, all those things, all those good gifts free us in the sight of God in terms of our sin and our condemnation. But Christ lays a yoke on us.
Christ calls us to discipleship. You don't just get saved and go live however you want. You don't get saved and then continue in sin that grace me about. No, he says, take my yoke upon you.
Yoke implies obedience, doesn't it? I've never driven oxen, but I suspect that when they have that yoke on them and you tug the reins, they obey. We're the only oxen that struggle with this whole concept of yoke and obedience. It also implies slavery.
What's Paul saying? Romans six, God be thanks to obey from the heart that doctrine. You've become slaves of another. The Christian life is liberty, brethren liberty to do what God has made you to do not liberty to do what you want to do.
Not freedom to do whatever it is you deem appropriate, but genuine biblical freedom and liberty is the freedom and liberty to do what God made me to do. To worship Him, to serve Him, to follow Him, to wear that yoke happily and joyfully and follow the Lamb in the language of Revelation 14. Wherever He goes. You imagine the yoke on the oxen and the oxen say, I don't want to go there.
I don't want to do that. I won't go over that hill. I don't want to show up that you would smack that ox and make him perform. You know how many of us in the church profess to have that yoga and we continually look back.
I don't want to do that. I don't want to go here. I don't want to have to. I don't want to have to.
That's not the attitude that Christ's disciples bear. You come to him by grace alone, through faith alone, and you're justified. You receive the pardon of sins and the amputation of Christ's righteousness. And then he puts his yoke on you and you need to live for him.
We saw in Titus 2.14, I quoted from Gordon Clark, a very appropriate statement that we need to be reminded of what passes so apparently as good works are not good unless preceded by justification. Somebody says, Oh, I do good works. Not if you've not been justified. You may be a humanist.
You may be a pagan, but that's not a Christian or a Bible. Good work. Then he goes on to say. And if a claimed justification, that's our coming to Christ.
If a claimed justification does not inevitably produce good works, it simply was not justification. You can talk to your blue in the face, but if you don't have that yoke of Christ on, you haven't come to him. There was a theory in the later part of the 20th century called the carnal Christian theory. Said you could have Jesus save you from your sins, but you didn't submit to him as Lord unless you felt lead.
You'd have Jesus save you long term fire insurance, but until you got to a point to yield to him as Lord, you were a carnal Christian. You imagine that? You imagine justifying ungodliness and calling it Christian under the guise of a carnal Christian theory that is elish by nature? I got news for you, brethren.
If you don't wear that yoke, you've not come to Jesus. You know what else he says? You take that yoke and you learn. Praise God, we don't get into heaven based on how much we read our Bible or theology or we know scripture, because there wouldn't be many of us there.
I am amazed at how little we know. And it's not knowledge puffed up. Paul says that first Corinthians eight. But don't take that and say, well, I don't want to be proud.
I already struggle with pride, so I'm not going to study the Bible. Wrong application. We are to learn from our Lord, as Matthew Henry said, we need to be scholars in the school of Christ. That's our calling.
This promise of rest that the Lord Jesus gives, he says in verse twenty nine, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. The prophet Jeremiah chapter six sixteen says thus says Jehovah stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls. That's what Jesus offers.
Jesus is the one to whom Jeremiah is pointing. It is only in Christ that you can have rest. It is only in Christ that you can have peace. It is only in Christ that the tyranny, the bondage of sin can be broken.
Sin is a bad taskmaster. I know it takes a lot of people a long time to learn this, but sin never delivers a good paycheck at the end. It offers to, it promises some things, it holds forth the passing pleasures of sin, but what's its final payment? Death and hell.
Some of you young people and some of you children have not come to this conviction yet. You think it's okay to sin. You think that there is no bad taskmaster about it. You like to entertain it.
You like to play with it. You like, not just young people and children, all of us. Who am I kidding here? This is getting real.
We all have our pets. We all want to engage and indulge. You know what? The end is death.
That's sin's payment. I love it when people say, not really, I'm being sarcastic or facetious. Oh, that's not fair. You know what's not fair?
Is that any sinning, hell-deserving sinner, hell-deserving sinner should ever go to heaven. For the wages of sin is death, makes a whole lot of sense in a moral universe governed by a holy God. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's amazing.
That's glorious. That's beautiful. Do not be deceived. The sin that you engage in now, while it affords some passing pleasure, will ultimately bring death.
That's its payment. I love that statement concerning Moses in Hebrews 11, who would rather suffer affliction with the people of God, who would rather suffer reproach for Christ than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Now, brethren, we're not high up in Egypt with basically everything at our command. Some of us in God's good grace have been restricted.
Don't ever discount the restricting power of God. How much more could you have sinned if you had those resources? How much more profligate would you have been with a huge bank account, with servants and attendants in a godless society? where wickedness was engaged in and promulgated and promoted. And yet he looked at that.
He saw his brethren suffering for Christ. And he said, I'd rather have that than what they have. I don't want those passing pleasures of sin, but I want you to follow this. Moses didn't do that because he was a monk.
He didn't go home and wear a hair shirt and put ashes in his suit and punch himself in the head And he was just a mercenary. I don't want I want the good. I only want this. You know why he did what he did, according to the book of Hebrews, because he esteemed the riches of Christ as better.
Was more to be preferred. Sin offers its passing pleasures for a time and then comes death and hell, Jesus offers pleasures now and forever. You gotta be crazy to go that route. And I think this is the thrust of the prophet in Isaiah 55.
Why do you spend your wages on that which does not satisfy your crazy? You're out of your mind. You're not. This is why we revel in sovereign grace, because we are crazy.
We are out of our minds. We are nuts. The Book of Ecclesiastes says that madness has filled the hearts of men. It's no accident, brethren, when Jesus came to that man who lived among the tombs, who was naked and who cut himself and who howled all through the night and people were afraid to walk in that region.
It is no accident that when Jesus saved that man, we read that he was sitting with Christ and he was clothed and he was in his right mind. Love it when people say, oh, you Christians, you're crazy, we ain't crazy. Non-Christians are crazy. You Christians are sticking your head in the sand like the ostrich and just hoping the world will fly by.
Who's sticking their heads in the sand but the God-hating rebel who suppresses truth in unrighteousness? Jesus says, pull your head out of the sand and come to me and I will rest you. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me.
Learn from me. And then he says in verse thirty from my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The apostle John picks this up in his epistle. He says the commandments of God are not burdensome.
They're not grievous. When you meet a Christian, a professing Christian that's rolling his eyes concerning God's law, you must wonder what's going on here. If anything, we ought to be rolling our eyes that we don't love it more, that we don't submit more, that we don't joyfully concur in the inner man, that the law is good and it's holy and it's right. It is the non-Christian who is offended at the law of God.
And, you know, just if you want to study this later in the context, chapter 12, verses 1 to 13 illustrates this principle so beautifully. It illustrates it so beautifully. Jesus heals on the Sabbath. The Pharisees complain whose yoke is easy, whose burden is light.
It is the Lord Jesus Christ and his alone.
Application: God's Primacy in Salvation
Well, we conclude with a couple of thoughts. First, the primacy of God's will in salvation. We need to understand this. Jonah, the prophet said it in Jonah to nine.
Salvation is of the Lord. The saints in heaven when we get a glimpse of the worship at the church triumphant. What are they praising God for salvation belongs to God and to the lamb sits upon the throne. What is the apostle Paul declare in language that you cannot evade for it does not depend upon him who wills or upon him who runs but on God who shows mercy.
The primacy of will in the matter of salvation is God's. This is helpful for us when it comes to, as I've already alluded to, evangelism. We need to know where the power lies. A brother reminded us after the rich young ruler.
You get why those the disciples said who then can be saved. Riches meant blessing, fewer rich, you are blessed. If you are rich and blessed, why wouldn't you go to heaven? Who then can be saved?
That's what the disciples asked. It rocked their world. Rich men are blessed men. They go to heaven.
Jesus says it's going to be harder for that man to get into heaven than a big, nasty, humpy camel to get through the eye of a needle. We like to try and explain that's not really what it means. That's what it means. You ever tried to put thread through the eye of a needle?
It's pretty tough, isn't it? I can't even imagine trying to get a camel through one. See, Jesus, the way he taught was some sort of outlandish things. Why?
So you get the point. That's why they said, who then can be saved? With men, it is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.
You need to know when you go into the workplace or when you go to your family reunion or when you come here on Sunday and you're praying for someone to be saved, the power is of God. And in that we have confidence in that we have hope, because you know what? God loves to save sinners. That's what he's about, what Jesus is about.
The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Not this angry, mean God who's just doing it because he has to. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
We need to understand this for worship and for all of life. Again, quoting Luther, he says, Now, if I am ignorant of God's works and power, I am ignorant of God himself. Just let's hear that. If I am ignorant of God's works and power, I am ignorant of God himself.
And if I do not know God, I cannot worship, praise, give thanks or serve him. For I do not know how much I should attribute to myself and how much to him. We need, therefore, to have in mind a clear cut distinction between God's power and ours and God's work and ours. If we would live a godly life.
Amen, you need to understand this because it bears on how you witness to people. It bears on how you come to church. It bears on how you worship and it bears on how you live. Theology, according to Luther, does matter.
Sinners Are Responsible to Come
Secondly, we need to appreciate as we leave this particular passage that centers are responsible. Sinners are responsible. Come to me is a command. If you do not come to Jesus, you are responsible for that sin.
Let's just clarify. Sinners are not responsible because of an imagined free will. Sinners are responsible because of a holy God who has promised a judgment who break his law. Oh, we're responsible.
You're responsible. You need to come to the Lord Jesus. You need to believe the gospel. I love the language that Peter uses in Acts 412, there is one name given under heaven by which we must be saved.
I'm sure it's a must of necessity, it's a must of we go to him and him alone. But it sounds like you better flee to him. Venture on him, venture wholly. And then let us leave concerned or considering the character of the Redeemer, the one who possesses authority, who is in a position of intimacy, who is a mediator, reveals himself as gentle, lowly in heart, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.
That's enticement. That's invitation. That's taste and see that the Lord is good. Do not carry.
Do not play games. Come to Christ and you will be saved. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures.
We thank you for our holy Lord Jesus and the way that he preached and taught and declared these truths. And God, I pray that we would do likewise, that we would rejoice in you, that we would praise you, that we would understand that your will reigns supreme in the matter of salvation. And our God, we pray that you would just give us a genuine compassion for the hearts of men, for the souls of men. Jesus in Matthew 9 looks upon the multitudes and he feels compassion for them because they were like sheep having no shepherd.
God, we see these things are not inconsistent to affirm the sovereignty of God and to be brokenhearted over sinners. God, I pray that we would imitate this disposition, that we would go and do likewise. And we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.