Coming to Christ

Let's turn to the Gospel of Matthew, please. Chapter 11. I want us to think in these readings of coming to him.

Matthew chapter 11 and verse 28. The Lord Jesus says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Come unto me.

Let's go to John chapter 5, please. Gospel of John chapter 5. John 5 and verse 28. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth.

They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Now one more from the last book in the Bible again, Revelation and chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. Revelation 4, we read at verse 1. After this, after what? Notice the last word in chapter 3 is the churches. After this, I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter and immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one set upon the throne.

That's our reading. We trust with the Lord's blessing in the gospel in these remaining minutes. There is the requirement of salvation, the Savior says come on to me.

We have read from John chapter 5 about the resurrection of the soul and he will say come, come forth and then we have read about the rapture of the Saints from Revelation 4 when he will say come up, come up. Come on to me. Matthew chapter 28 or chapter 11 verse 28 is a well-known verse often taken up in the gospel.

You've heard it before and he's saying it again to you. He's not writing a whole letter to you in this portion, he's giving you one verse again. Come on to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

That's his promise to you now this afternoon. One of the classes that I had in school and you've had them too was the science class or they call it physics and it introduced me to a new word in my vocabulary. The word was inertia.

Inertia and it simply brings before us an observation that has been made in the physical world around us that there is a tendency of a body which is at rest to remain at rest. So here's a bottle of water here beside me. It would take a little force to move it.

Otherwise, it remains sitting there. There's a reluctance to actually move or if there is a body in motion, there's a reluctance for it to change momentum and that's why a gyroscope works and and so on. But in the human realm now, there is inertia.

I think between the genders, I think men are maybe more marked by inertia than the women folk in that it's harder to change a man in his ways or in his thoughts maybe than a woman. But you see when it comes to the gospel, this word marks very many who have heard the gospel time and time and time again. There is a reluctance to make a move and the Lord Jesus here in this verse is calling to us in our sins and in our fallen nature, which is reluctant naturally to move, disinclined to move toward him.

Spiritual inertia, if you will, but he's addressing that with one word here this afternoon. It's a word to your heart, to your soul, and the word is come. Come.

There's a need to make a move. He's putting the onus upon us in responsibility to make that move toward him. Come onto me.

Now the question is why should I come? Why should I come? The reason why you and I need to come to him is because you and I have naturally got a problem. What's that? It's called a fallen nature. It's what we were born with.

We were shaped in an iniquity, says David, and in sin did my mother conceive me. We were born with a sinful nature that is not naturally hostile against God and hostile to the Word of God and reluctant to hear the Word of God. Indeed, naturally disobedient to it.

Children of disobedience. Why should I come? Because I also have a problem of practice of sin in my life. And you and I have lived in sin.

We've had sinful acts. We have done things that we knew were not right. We've had sinful thoughts.

Our minds have gone astray and into places they shouldn't have gone. We have been motivated by sinful motives. We've entered into wrong relationship.

We've had bad appetites. We have done bad things. We have engaged in bad transactions.

Things that are bad. The Bible identifies our problem before God. Self-word.

Sin brings into my heart a disquiet, an unease, an agitation, a frustration maybe, a struggle that comes from a bothered conscience. And this laboring that the Lord is addressing here, this unease, this laboring to be right. And it's all because of the problem of sin.

Sin in the heart. Sin in the nature. Sin in the life.

Our problem before God. Laboring under that heavy burden. That just summarizes the need that the Lord is talking about right here.

Maybe there's someone who is here, and you have recently felt the burden of this that I'm not right with God. I do have sins in my past and those sins if they get what they deserve, I will be under the judgment of God forever. Are you here? Maybe you can identify with David there in the Psalms, Psalm 32.

Conscious of his sin before God, he says, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me and my moisture is turned into thee the drought of summer. He's remembering that heavy experience, that dryness in his soul, that longing to be right with God, to be forgiven by God for that sin. So are you here today? Do you have a longing in your heart? Has there been that struggle going on? Are you laboring under it? For such, the Savior has a word.

Maybe you've come here to be helped in the gospel. I hope you have, and if you're in your sins, you ought to have. And the Savior has a word for you.

It is, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. But mind you, the onus is upon you.

Come unto me. You need to move out from that place of uncertainty. Move out from that struggle, that struggling with things that you have been engaged in, from underneath that heavy load, from a conscience accusing and bothering you.

Come out from that place. Come unto him. Come unto him with a confidence that he will meet your need.

Come out from that place of doubting and fear. And his promise to you is this, I will give you rest. You come to him, he will give you rest.

But you say to me now, well that just, that just identifies a problem, another problem that I have. That is, where do I come? Where do I come to? I mean, if the Lord Jesus was here, standing at the front of the auditorium today, I could certainly come to him physically, and that would be wonderful. But he's not here physically.

So how or where do I come to? Well, it's to him, isn't it? Come unto me, the person. And he's the one that is, that is speaking. It's not coming to a church.

It's not coming to a church rail. It's not coming to the front. But there is a point of meeting.

There must be a point of meeting, not a physical place. But that place will start at that point in your heart where you agree with God. And your heart agrees that your sins stand between you and God.

And furthermore, that as a sinner before a holy God, I deserve his judgment. And my sins deserve eternal separation from the holiness of God. And I agree with God that what he says about me is right.

You'll meet him there. And you'll meet him at that point where you understand that on that cross at Calvary, the Lord Jesus bare our sins in his own body on the tree, and it was for me. You'll meet him there.

And he says to you today, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Is there a soul here today and for the first time you could agree with God that what he says about me is true and what he has said about the Lord Jesus bearing my sins is true as well? And that's all I need. I need him.

What will he give me when I do come to him? Well, his words are these, I will give you rest. I take it that's the peace of salvation. And that's the sweetest thing that a soul could ever enter into.

The joy of knowing that all of my many sins, and there's mountains of them, they're every single one of them forgiven. And the work that Christ did on the cross we were hearing already this afternoon satisfies God in full. There's nothing more needed.

And when the Savior said it is finished, everything was fully done. Done as God himself would have it. Christ the victory fully won.

And when I see him there taking my place, I can rest. I can rest from the problem that I have before God to know that it's all taken care of. Rest of salvation.

Now a rest for my conscience, knowing that his work is finished. It is done. It doesn't need to be added to.

I can rest in Christ who finished that work. We were speaking there at the break earlier about the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. And you know it was all necessary.

Brethren, don't be restricting it now to a certain period of time or anything like that. On that cross it was all necessary. He was taking our place as our substitute even in shame, the shame of sin.

Every aspect was covered. He was nailed. He wore the thorns.

His back had been lashed. He's hanging there for those hours bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. The judgment of God, the wrath of God that was my due has fallen upon him.

And he was wounded. Make it personal for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities.

The chastisement, the punishment to bring me into peace with God was upon him and with his stripes I am healed. The Savior finished the work and now he has entered into his glory. He has entered into his rest and so now he invites sinners who are at unrest to come unto me, to come into the peace that he has now entered into, into the rest that God has entered into, to come into that place of knowing the work is done and nothing more is needed.

And he invites me to come and receive of that rest that his work upon the cross has secured to put away my sin by the sacrifice of himself. So he invites you this afternoon in your sin, in your need. Tenderly he calls to you, but it's a real invitation.

Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. And his word for it, I will give you rest. So we have the requirement of salvation to come to him.

It brings us now to think of the other scripture we read from John chapter 5 where the Lord is speaking. He says the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth. His voice, what does he say? I take it it's these two words come forth.

You remember Lazarus in chapter 11 was dead four days and the Lord Jesus spoke and he said Lazarus, he identified who he was talking to and he said come forth. And the man that had been dead came forth even in his grave clothes bound hand and foot, but the force of the voice of the Lord Jesus penetrated into the caverns of death. And recall Lazarus, recall his body from that grave.

And there he was now before the people alive. Loose him and let him go. Come forth.

There's coming a time, there are actually two different times, well, maybe more than if you're going to identify particular times, there's the call at the rapture. And those who have died in Christ will be raised. They'll come forth from the grave.

Then there'll be a resurrection stage at the end of the tribulation. When martyrs who have died during the tribulation, they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. They're going to be raised.

That completes the resurrection of the just that the Lord Jesus speaks about here. And then he speaks about the resurrection of damnation. And for that you go another thousand years into the future.

Where at the end of Revelation chapter 20, we read about a great white throne and him who sat upon it. And before him are gathered those who have died in their sins. And it's the resurrection of damnation.

The Savior has called to many during their lifetime. Come unto me. And that inertia that we were talking about has set in and they've just sat reluctant, refusing to come to him.

But you see when the Savior cries in that day, come forth. There will be none that will be able to resist his call. With almighty power, the power of the almighty, for that's who he is.

Souls will be recalled from death. Souls or bodies will be recalled from death. Souls will be recalled from hell.

And brought together they will stand the dead. Small and great will stand before him and there's no one will ever be able to say no. That cry will be with almighty power.

Come forth. Then cast into the lake of fire. Why will that be the case? The reason is this.

They had spiritual inertia. They would not make the move when they heard come unto me. Will you come today? Will you respond? To his gracious and sweet and tender invitation.

He has looked upon us in all our need as sinners. Like that man that fell by the wayside there on the road down to Jericho, fell among thieves. And here comes the good Samaritan and he shows him compassion.

That's the savior. That's the savior in view there. And that's the savior in view here this afternoon.

He's saying come unto me. All you that labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you rest.

I love revelation chapter four. I love revelation period but I love chapter four. It comes right after the account of the seven churches, right? The church age.

And then we read after this. And John, he hears a call. And John is representing, he's a representative of the church, I take it.

And this is in picture at least, this is an indication of what will take place at the rapture. He hears as it were a voice, the voice of a trumpet. And when the Lord Jesus comes to the air, revelation chapter or first Thessalonians chapter four rather, he comes to the air with voice of archangel and the trump of God.

And again his voice penetrates into every grave of every saint of this dispensation. And he says come forth. And then he says come up.

And we who are alive and remain unto that moment will be changed too in a moment of time and then we shall be caught up together with those who have been raised to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And then he says come forth. And we who are alive and remain unto that moment will be changed too in a moment of time.

And then he says come forth. And we who are alive and remain unto that moment will be caught up together with those who have been raised to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord in the air. that we're living in the closing days of the day of grace.

And there's not a biblical reason why that could not happen today. That we would hear the call, come up hither. And we would rise to meet him in the air.

But tell me now, would everyone in this room go? Would there be a response from the heart to rise to meet him in the air? Or would you be left behind for the judgment that's going to come? He calls to you today and he's calling for a response from your heart to make the move. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. But if you remain deaf to his call, when that call to come up is given, you'll be deaf then too.

You'll not make a move then. You'll be left behind for the judgment. So we trust that you'll have grace to make the right move today and respond to his call in the gospel to come unto me.

Trust him as your savior even now. Let's pray.