This morning, I would like to think of these words as an invitation to the lost. Whether or not that was our Lord’s original intent, I don’t think that we can deny that possibility. And without a doubt thousands of gospel sermons have been preached from these verses. Unfortunately for you, I have not consulted any of those earlier messages. This message is what the Holy Spirit has laid upon my heart for you this morning.
I believe that Christ had just explained to His disciples, why there wasn’t a great response to their ministry. There had been miracles, demonic deliverance, and dynamic preaching, but the world had not flocked to the Saviour under their ministry, and there was some disappointment about that. Do you remember those first few months of your Christian life, when you were overjoyed with the Saviour? Perhaps you were enthusiastically telling your family and friends what the Lord had done for you, but all you received in return were yawns. Can you remember your confusion and hurt? That was the sort of thing these evangelists were experiencing. In response, the Lord said that was to be expected. The gospel is not for the wise and prudent, but for babes – spiritual infants. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, because natural man is spiritually dead. The truths of the gospel are received only by those to whom the Lord especially reveals them. In other words, salvation is a part of the operation of the sovereign grace of God. And yet, there is a responsibility in all mankind to come to the Saviour for salvation and deliverance from sin. Foolish people might blame God for not saving them, but God is buyng that. The Lord commands all men everywhere to repent, to come to Christ, and to trust in Him. In this scripture the command is kindly expressed as an invitation – a gospel invitation. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Let’s think first about the LADEN and LABOURING soul.
A very long time ago, John Bunyan wrote a parable about salvation and the Christian life, which he called “Pilgrim’s Progress.” That story has endured the test of time, because it accurately illustrates sound theology. For example, before he became a Christian, Pilgrim was described as walking about with a huge bag of sins and guilt on his back. Try as he might, he couldn’t put that burden down; it clung to him as if it had claws or was nailed there. That is a true picture of everyone of us, whether we realize it or not. We are all sinners, and the responsibility for our sin is clinging to us like a bad smell, which does not wash away. And yet Christ Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
There are two kinds of people in this world – those who have experienced back trouble and those who have not. In the midst of his back problems the sufferer may not be able to bend over to pick up a kitten, or carry a gallon of milk. Earlier, before his problem, that man might have been able to carry 60 or a 80 pounds without difficulty. I was watching people at camp, sometimes carrying heavy loads – heavier than I could carry that week. But when they were asked if they needed help, they said that they didn’t – and they didn’t. An extra hand might have helped, but they turned it down.
The same is true spiritually – or at least as people often think. There is not a single person on earth outside of Christ, who is not carrying a tremendous load of sin. But the vast majority of those people are sinfully strong enough not to be aware of any problem. When someone comes along, even someone as strong as the infinite Son of God, offering help in carrying the load, that sinner says that he has got it under control. Eventually, there will come a day, when there is a spiritual injury, or age, maturity and wisdom begin to creep up on that person, and he will find that he can’t carry the load any longer. Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” But so many of these sin-sufferers turn to priests, psychiatrists, bar tenders or sports heros for help in carrying their burden. What a mistake, because those other people will soon be unable to carry their own burden.
Let me take my illustration a step farther – There comes the day in every man’s spiritual life when not only is it impossible to carry a small load, but the very weight of his heart and head will crush the degenerated disk in that person’s lower back. He won’t even be able to stand for any length of time because his back will not strong enough to support his upper body. Some of you know what I am talking about. But Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
There is not a person on earth, before he comes to Christ, who is not labouring and heavy laden with sin. The Holy Spirit has used an interesting and curious pair of words here – “labour” and “laden.” Stop and notice that one is active and the other is passive. We are all sinners and under its weight, whether we realize it or not – it is just there from birth – “laden.” And at the same time we are active sinners – often really struggling under its weight. We are loaded with sin, and laboring in sin. A man may not realize his dangerous position, because his personal strength or his resolve is so strong. He may be able to carry a hundred pounds of sin with ease – today. Another may realize that he has a problem, but they will not admit that it is serious. After all he’s “a man” – he can solve his own problems; he can bear his own burdens. But the fact is – he can’t for very long. Should he die with that burden of sin and guilt upon his back and soul, he will pay the price throughout eternity. “The wages of sin is death” – physical, spiritual and eternal death.
But Christ Jesus invites us all to COME to Him.
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Don’t let the deep, but wonderful, doctrine of sovereign grace cover the realization that you, the sinner, have a responsibility before God. As I mentioned earlier in passing, “God has COMMANDED all men everywhere to repent.” We are commanded, urged, encouraged, exhorted and invited to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to accept Him as our own personal sacrifice for sin.
I know, and I am not ashamed to repeat what the Lord Himself has said. “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” “No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.” The things of the gospel are hid “from the wise and prudent,” but they are revealed unto babes, because that is good and right in the sight of God. No man can know either the Father or the Son except “to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” And yet not to know the Son is not to know the Saviour. Not to know the Father is not to know eternal life. The responsibility remains before us all –“Come unto Christ, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and He will give you rest.”
But what is this “coming to Christ” and how is it done? Please, if you have never come to Christ, listen to me. And if you have made this short journey, and you have been born again, please pray that those who have not will be able to understand and come. In order to come to Christ, you must understand that you are heavy laden with sin and its guilt. You must understand that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” You must understand that “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” You must understand that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” You must understand that no man can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure form my sin.” Coming to Christ is not the same thing as going to church. It is not the same thing as praying or beating yourself with a stick because you are a bad person. This coming to Christ involves a broken, humble spirit before God. The Bible word is “repentance.” You must agree with God that you are being crushed by sin, and that you are absolutely sorry. You must be willing to permit the Lord to deliver you from that sin burden. And of course, it is to CHRIST that you must come. You must be willing to let Him bear away that burden – carrying it off. You must understand that Jesus Christ died as your personal substitute, suffering the judgment of God on your behalf as He hung there on the cross. In other words you must put your trust and faith in the Lord Jesus to deliver you from the wrath of God.
Christ has promised to give REST to this burdened soul.
The linguistic experts tell us that this word “rest” is bigger than we might ordinarily think. Picture a man carrying a heavy load up a long hill. He has been struggling for some time – he’s been carrying this burden of sin for years, and his back problems have been getting progressively worse. Along comes the preacher from the local mega-church, offering to carrying his burden for a while. Oh, how good it feels to walk up that hill for a few hundred yards with no weight to carry. It is refreshing to have someone to talk with, someone to carry the load, someone to guide. But even without the burden, that first man is still the same man, with the same back and heart problems.
The Lord Jesus isn’t talking about merely bearing the load on our behalf, although He does just that – Christ is actually rejuvenating that weary burden-bearer – regenerating him. I am told that “rest” is in the “causative active voice” – it is not a noun, but a part of the verb. Those who come to Christ, are new creatures in the Lord Jesus, old things are passed away, behold even weakened backs are made new.
We all know what it is to be in pain – even children understand what that is. Oh, what relief there is when the pain comes to an end. We have many mothers among us, and some fathers who were there when their wives became mothers. What terrible pain, but what a relief when it was over and that beautiful baby was presented. When it comes to back problems, rarely is the relief immediate, but when it does finally come, it is a joy. The words of the Lord Jesus here are wonderful words to anyone who has known the pain and burden of sin upon a bad back. “Rest” – but more than rest and deliverance – “rejuvination” and “regeneration.”
But what about this business of a YOKE?
Here is one of the areas where the modern gospel swerves away from the original gospel of Christ. Salvation is a yoke – not a “joke” but a “yoke” – an instrument which brings two creatures together. Christ’s may be a wonderful yoke – an easy and light yoke – but it is a yoke nevertheless.. As I said last week, this is talking about a “conjunction with Christ.” To put it in the words of the Lord Jesus – “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.” One of the problems with the modern definition of the gospel is the separation which is made between the Saviour and salvation. There is the common idea that if the sinner merely asks Jesus to save him or asks Jesus to come into his heart, then his sin problem will be forever removed. He need not do anything else for the rest of life, because Christ has saved his eternal soul. It is little different from the Protestant idea that with a little water poured onto an infant’s head – that child’s original sin has been removed, and he has instantly become a Christian.
But “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.” When the Lord spoke of knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ, he wasn’t talking about shaking hands and exchanging email addresses. I once laid my eyes upon Queen Elizabeth II – I saw her – and I’d recognize her anywhere. But I can’t say that I know her. That is precisely the way that some people look upon the Saviour and then pretend that they are Christians with hotel reservations in heaven while still deliberately living in the hovels of sin here on earth.
Salvation involves a yoke – there are responsibilities which come with burden removal. But please understand that this yoke and our Christian responsibilities do not produce salvation. They come along with the rest and salvation which the Lord provides by His grace.
A yoke brings two creatures together – in this case Christ and His saint. They bind them together inseparably until someone comes along to release them. But yokes are not designed simply to keep them beside each other – a stall or a rope could do that. The purpose of a yoke is to facilitate work – team work. If you have come to Christ, and He has rejuvenated you – given you spiritual life, then you will go where He is going. You will want to be baptized, as He was baptized, fulfilling all righteousness. You will want to become a church member in order to fellowship with Him who is the head of His church. You will want to unite your heart and voice with other saints singing His praises. You will want to find the Lord’s designated place for your tithes and offerings. You will want to join your voice with others in prayer. You will want to put your head into the yoke of Bible study. These things do not make you a Christian, but they prove that you are a Christian – that you are wearing the Lord’s yoke.
“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” What should we think about the ox who is unwilling to wear the yoke? If that was what he has been bred to do, is he worth keeping? Maybe he isn’t even an ox – maybe he’s a goat, a donkey, or a camel. What should we think about the ox who says that the Lord’s yoke is terrible and heavy? What should we think about the Christian who says that serving the Lord is not what he wants to do?
Look into that heart of yours, and see what you find there. Have you ever been struck by the fact that you are laden and labouring under sin? Are you still being crushed by the weight of your sins? Come to the Saviour in repentance and faith. Give up everything religious and psychological, turning to Christ alone. Are you willing to take up His beautiful, light and easy yoke, to pull at every task that He asks of you? Without Christ you are going to be crushed by the weight of your sins right into the lake of fire. Do you need salvation and deliverance this morning?