Come and Rest

Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest. (Matthew 11:28)

The Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is available today for you to come to Him. This is a personal invitation to every laboring and heavy laden sinner. There are two persons in Matthew 11:28 - Ye and Me. The laboring sinner and the precious Savior who beseeches him to come that he may find rest in Jesus' finished work on Calvary's Cross. You must come personally to Jesus for His Rest. His Rest is a free gift, He only gives it away, you can never earn it, no matter how religious you get. Only ungodly wretches can receive His free Rest at the Cross.

"Come unto Me, all ye that labor": this is a personal coming to a personal, living Christ. Come to Christ  Jesus directly, not through any others such as priests, elders, ministers, teachers, sacraments, or ordinances. Simply come yourself to Him.  All my Hope and Confidence is in the Cross.

Self-righteous people think they can help Jesus with their salvation, mainly because they do not truly understand divine justice or the heinousness of their sins against God.  There is a quarrel between you and your Creator - it is your sins against Him. This quarrel can only be ended by you coming to God through a sinless Mediator who paid for your sins with His own blood, the Lord Jesus Christ. *I Timothy 2:5-6* You must trust in Him for yourself. Personal faith and simple trust in Christ alone is absolutely necessary and essential to eternal salvation. All things eternal come from Christ, not your religiousness.  You need Christ's holiness to satisfy the demands of a Holy God.

Jesus says, "Come unto Me", not to anyone else. He doesn't say come hear a sermon about Me, but "Come unto Me." He does not say, "Come to be baptized" or "Come to the sacraments," but "Come unto Me," to My finished work, to My blood, and to My person. No one can come between you and Christ. Come to Christ at once, and without any go-betweens.  Come to Jesus directly, even to Jesus Himself. You must have a Mediator between your sinful soul and the Holy God of Heaven. But you need no mediator between you and Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is the only Mediator between God and sinful men.

Come to Jesus right now just as you are by faith in His atoning blood, without anyone else's help. Don't go to church, or the confessional booth, or the baptismal pool. No, you must go nowhere but to the living Christ. You, as you are, must come to Christ as He is, and He will give you His Rest freely, without any works. It is imperative that you come directly to Christ now. He will give you His free forgiveness, Rest, security, eternal life, peace, and joy.  Run to Him - seek after the Savior as bees seek after honey.

This Rest is not found anywhere else but in Christ's love and blood.  Christ gives Rest to man's entire spiritual being. A guilty conscience troubles us till Jesus speaks 'Rest' to it. Conscience looks back on our past life and cries, "Things are not right. You were wrong here, and wrong there, and wrong altogether, there is no rest for you, you're Guilty!" Conscience keeps records, and writes with a dark pen a gloomy report, which we read and fear. "Tremble," says Conscience, "for you will see this evil record of yours again at the Judgment, and you will be condemned by it."

Men may laugh and say they do not believe it, but in their 'conscience' they believe it. Their conscience is constantly blurting out warnings, cautions, and threatenings.  The conscience is the watch-dog of God in the soul of man, and it will not lie down and stop barking till Christ comes into the heart. Every now and then it begins to howl and growl horribly, and the soul of man cannot rest as he wants to rest.

Jesus also gives His Rest to the mind. Your mind is searching for something real for you to believe and trust. Your mind is tossed about like a lost ship on a stormy sea, like a bird caught out in a windy storm. You must cast your mind down at Jesus' feet, and He will put you in your right mind, so you can rest in Him. Your intellect can only rest in the wisdom of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus also gives Rest to the heart of man. You need a rest for your love and affection. If you love Jesus alone, you will crave no other love, for this will fill your soul to the brim. O love the Lord.  Jesus alone can give Rest to the conscience, mind, and heart of man. He alone can bring complete satisfaction to your spirit.

You can be saved now, and find Rest at once. Christ can give immediate salvation if you will simply trust to Him. As soon as you believe in Jesus Christ alone, your sins are all forgiven freely, and you are safe forever and ever by His love and grace. Whosoever believeth in JESUS is not condemned. Whosoever believeth in Him hath everlasting life. You are saved the moment you believe, and rescued instantly by the power of the Holy Ghost.

If you are laboring in self-efforts and love of sin, and heavy laden with the guilt and shame of your sins, come to Christ right now for Rest. If you are panting under the weight of your sinful misery, have done with empty religion, and cleave to HIM alone, and you shall have Rest in your soul. Your soul will not lay down anywhere but at the Cross, Calvary is the soul's only resting place, your soul refuses to recline anywhere else. If you are tired of your sins and self-righteousness, come on to the Savior. If you are downcast, desponding, and brokenhearted, flee into the arms of the precious Lamb of God.

Come at once to the Incarnate God who shed His Precious Blood for you, but remember, come just as you are. Christ does not want your betterness.  Don't try to improve yourself, come to Jesus for improvement. You do not go to a physician when are feeling better. The best time to go to the doctor is when you are feeling as bad as you can be, and the time to come to Jesus is when you are so bad that you cannot be worse.  You had better come just as you are, for He invites you to do so now. Forsake your church membership and church reputation, desert your vain glory and flee from the wrath of God that is to come on your sins. Come empty-handed, bankrupt, undone, ruined, condemned, and you will find rest in the Person of Christ. Remember - Only really bad people (sinners) can be saved.  Jesus said, "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out."

Jesus Christ is God; God manifest in the flesh.  He made the hearts of men, and He alone can make them new. He is able to save you to the uttermost. Why? He was God come to earth as a Man, He took upon Himself our flesh, and He took our grief and sins upon Him.  He went up to the Cross loaded with our sins and guilt, He suffered in our place, to make payment for our guilt.  His most precious blood can wash every sin of yours away forever.  All that believe in Jesus are safe, and safe forever.

This is a simple invitation from Christ. This bidding suits a dying man, an illiterate man, and a guilty man. Are you too good to be saved freely by grace?  Jesus is willing only to save sinners by His grace. Come to Him anyhow: If you can run, come running; if you can walk, come walking; if you can crawl, come crawling; if you can only limp, come limping - come anyhow, so long as you come to Jesus only. You are very ill, a very bad case, go at once to Christ for He has great skill in your Sin's disease. Unless you trust Him completely, He can do nothing for you.  An open heart surgeon must do everything for you, or he will not operate on you.  Now understand - You must helplessly turn yourself over to the hands of the surgeon if you want to live.  Likewise, Jesus must do everything for you in His Salvation, or He will do nothing for you.

Now understand - these are the sweetest words in this verse, "I will give you." That is the Gospel. Christ Jesus does not want you to give Him anything. Come to Jesus, and He says, "I will give you," It is not what you give to God, but what He gives you, will be your Salvation. "I will give you," that is the Gospel in four words. Will you come and take Him and His Rest as a free gift?  The door of mercy is still wide open before you. Jesus wants nothing from you. The Gospel is not what we can give Jesus, but what He gives to you. The emptier you are, the better you can receive the water of life. Christ did not die for perfect people, He died for sinners. Attend to the most important thing - your soul is of more importance than your body, your eternal life is more important than your temporal existence here on earth. The gospel is right, and only it can make you right with your Creator. Trust now to the bleeding Savior - lay hold on Jesus and enter into HIS rest now by simply trusting in His Precious Blood.