Christ’s Invitation to the Labouring (5)¹

A Sermon by Thomas Boston

Matthew 11:28. Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Doctrine 2. All who are out of Christ are under a heavy burden which, by all their labour, they cannot shake off. In illustrating this I shall only: (1.) Offer a few observations; (2.) Make some practical application.

1. A few observations. 1. Satan has a load on all who are out of Christ; it is a load of sin: “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity” (Is 1:4). This load is twofold:

(1.) A load of guilt. “Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear” (Gen 4:13). Guilt is the heaviest load that ever was on the shoulders of men or angels. The Scriptures hold it forth: (1) As debt. He that is in debt is under a burden. Guilt is the worst of debts; we cannot pay it, nor escape the hands of our creditor. Indeed we deny the debt; we do not care for any reckoning of it; we avoid our creditor as much as we can; so the debt is not cancelled. But it must be paid: “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Th 1:9). They shall pay what justice demands.

(2) As a yoke tied firmly on the sinner’s neck; hence pardon is called a loosing of that yoke, guilt being, as it were, cords of wrath, whereby the sinner is bound over to God’s wrath. Pardon is also called remission or relaxation: “To declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Rom 3:25).

(3) As a burden: “Take away all iniquity” (Hos 14:2) – take away, as a burden off a man’s back. Hence Christ is said to have borne our sins, the burden of the elect’s guilt being laid on His back. What a heavy load it is! [1] Guilt makes the whole creation groan (Rom 8:22). It caused them to suffer since 5000 years, and they are not yet delivered from their burden. All the groans that men ever made on earth and in hell were under this burden; it sank the whole world into ruin: Christ “took” (Greek, caught hold of) our nature, to prevent sinners from going down to the pit. He took hold as of a drowning man, yet not of the whole seed of Adam – for a great part of it fell to the ground – but of the seed of Abraham, the elect. [2] This load sank the

¹A further sermon on this text and reprinted, with editing, from Boston’s Works, vol 9. The previous discourse appeared in the April 2023 issue. The preacher has spoken of the sort of labour sinners have, under the law and in their sins – with a view to establishing that such sinners are among those who are called to come to Christ. Boston went on to warn those who have not come of their danger in refusing to come.

fallen angels, made them fall as stars from heaven to the bottomless pit. And what a load it was to Christ that made Him sweat as it were great drops of blood, that made Him groan and die!

(2.) A load of servitude to lusts, which of themselves are heavy burdens; the very remainder of which made the apostle groan, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24). What greater burden can a man have than a swarm of unmortified corruptions hanging about him, whose cravings he is still obliged to answer. This is what creates that weary labour of which we have already spoken; it is better for a man to be burdened with serpents sticking in his flesh than with these.

1. The law is a load on Christless sinners. (1.) A load of duties as great and numerous as the commandment, which is exceeding broad, can lie on them. Though they do not perform them, yet the duties are bound upon them by the commandment, and the duties shall sooner dissolve the whole fabric of the world than make void this commandment. This is a heavy load. True, those who are in Christ have a yoke of duties laid on them – not by the law, but by Christ. The difference is great: the law demands perfect obedience, but gives no strength; Christ, when claiming obedience to His law, gives strength to perform it, which makes it easy obedience.

(2.) A load of curses. “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal 3:10). every commandment of the law is bound up with a curse, which is denounced against those who break it. How great then must be the load where every action is a sin and every sin brings a curse! This is a heavy load, that makes the earth reel to and fro like a drunkard, under its weight.

1. God lays a load on Christless sinners – that is, of wrath. They “were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph 2:3); this is an abiding load. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Jn 3:36). This load is far heavier than mountains of brass; it is heavier than can be expressed.

2. Some practical application. From what I have said I infer that:

1. Everyone must bear his own burden. If people will not take up the burden that Christ lays on them, they will bear a heavier one; if they will not be Christ’s servants, they must be slaves to their lusts; if they will not take on the yoke of holiness, they shall bear a load of wrath; if people will still slip out of the yoke of Christ, God will so place the yoke of their transgressions about their neck that they cannot shake it off. We have given a poor welcome to Christ’s burden; it is too likely that we may get one of another sort. The welcome we have given to Christ’s burden is likely to place a threefold yoke about our necks. For,

(1.) We have had little taste for preaching on Christ, on the great mysteries of the gospel. The preaching of sin and duty, as they call it, has been more desired than the preaching on living religion. I fear it is the plague of this generation to get such preaching of sin and duty that the doctrine of Christ and free grace falls between the two, and the gospel is turned into a system of morality with us.

(2.) We have little valued pure worship; it has been a burden to us, and we have reason to fear a burden of another sort, the trash of men’s inventions in God’s worship. An attempt has already been made to set up Dagon by the ark of God, and God knows where it may stop.² If the ceremonies appointed by God Himself were such, the apostles said, as “neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Acts 15:10), what must they be that are laid on by men?

(3.) God took the yoke of the enemy’s oppression off our necks, for which we have been very unthankful.³ It is very likely that God intends to lay it on again, that we may know the worth of our despised mercy: “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love, and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return” (Hos 11:4,5).

1. We may hence lament the case of the generation living without Christ – heavy laden but not conscious of their burden (Is 1:3,4). Sin sits lightly on people; they reign as kings without Christ; the law’s authority does not draw them away to Christ; and though wrath lies heavy, they do not feel it. What is the matter? They never feel the weight of it, nor do they once seriously put the question to themselves, “What must I do to be saved?” They are taken up with so many things that their soul’s condition cannot come into their minds. Again, they have a dead soul and a dull conscience, they do not complain. Men’s spiritual senses are tied up, and a hardened conscience – got by sinning in spite of daily warnings – is the plague of the generation. But when conscience is awakened, people will find that, when drops of wrath fall on the conscience, it will make a fearful hissing: “The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Is 33:14).

²This appears to be a reference to the case of James Greenshields, an Episcopalian minister, whom the Presbytery of Edinburgh prohibited from conducting public worship and, when he continued doing so, handed him over to the magistrates. Greenshields appealed to the House of Lords, who decided that there was no law prohibiting Episcopal services. The attempt “to set up Dagon” would be the allowing of Episcopal worship alongside Presbyterian.

³This reference is presumably to the deliverance of 1689 from Episcopacy and persecution.

1. I exhort you to labour to be aware of your burden and to be concerned to get rid of it. Is there not a burden of sin on your backs? Remember that you are responsible for it. Consider that heaven’s gate is strait and will not let in a man with a burden of unpardoned, unmortified sin on his back. Only the wide gate will afford room for such people. Off the burden must come, or they will never see heaven. Consider again that all they can do will not shake it off; the bonds of iniquity are stronger than can be broken with their weak arms; all the moisture of their bodies, dissolved into tears, will not wash it off. Consider finally that the burden will never fall off of its own accord. Age coming on may wear off the violence of some lusts, but the guilt and root of sin will remain. Death itself will not put it off, for it will lie down, and also rise with you and cleave to you through eternity.

What shall we do then? What more proper than to come to Christ? He, and only He, can ease you of your burden. This brings us to the invitation itself: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden”.

Doctrine 3. Whatever sinful and vain labours sinners are engaged in, whatever loads are lying on them, they are welcome to Christ; He calls them to come to Him and, in coming, they shall obtain rest. Or, more briefly, The devil’s drudges and burden-bearers, even the worst of them, are welcome to come to Christ and shall find rest in Him. In opening this, I shall show: (1.) What is meant by coming to Christ. (2.) The meaning of the invitation, in several points deduced from the text. (3.) The rest which Christ promises and will give to those who come to Him. (4.) Some practical application.

1. What is meant by coming to Christ. To come to Christ is to believe on Him. “Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst” (Jn 6:35). Unbelief is the soul departing, not from a living law, but from the living God (Heb 3:12). Christ is the Lord; God is in Him; He calls sinners to come to Him. Faith answers the call, and so brings back the soul to God in Christ. Now Scripture holds Christ forth in many ways corresponding to this idea of coming to Him by faith. And so that you may see your privilege and call, I shall hold forth some of these ways to you.

1. The devil’s drudges and burden-bearers are welcome to Christ, as the great gift of the Father to sinners, to come and take it: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). The world was broken by Adam; God sends Christ as a reconciling gift, and the worst of you are welcome to Him; indeed He urges Himself upon you. Come to Him then, broken impoverished souls, who have nothing left to you but poverty, needs and debt.

2. Such people are to come to Him as the great Physician of souls: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Mt 9:12). Christ in the gospel comes into the world as to a hospital of sin-sick souls, ready to administer a cure to those that will come to Him for it. Our diseases are many, all of them deadly, but He is willing and able to cure them all. He is lifted up on the pole of the gospel and says, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else” (Is 45:22).

3. Such people should come to Him as satisfying food for the soul, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Harken diligently unto Me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Is 55:1-3). The soul is an empty thing and has hungry and thirsty desires to be satisfied. Created things cannot satisfy it; Christ can. “My flesh”, says He, “is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed” (Jn 6:55). God has made a feast of fat things in Christ; in Him all the cravings of the soul may be satisfied; there are no angels to guard the tree of life; no seal on this fountain: “In that day, there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness” (Zec 13:1). There is no enclosure around this flower of glory (Song 2:1). Here is the carcase, where are the eagles that should gather together?

4. Such people come to Christ as one on whom they may rest: “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (Song 8:5). We are not able to go in our own strength, but we should rely on Him. “Because thou didst rely on the Lord, He delivered [thine enemies] into thine hand” (2 Chr 16:8). Guilt puts the mind in a fluctuating condition. By coming to Jesus we are kept still, as a ship at anchor is. In or from ourselves we have nothing for justification and sanctification. God has laid help upon One that is mighty; the weary soul is welcome to rest in Him.

5. Such people come to Christ, as One on whom they may cast their burdens: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Ps 55:22). The soul is heavy laden while out of Christ; Jesus holds out His everlasting arms, and faith settles down on them, casting the soul’s burden upon them. Come (says He) with all your misery, debts, beggary and needs; I have shoulders to bear them all; I will take on the burden; you shall get rest (Deut 33:27). He is content to marry the poor widow.

6. Such people come to Christ as One in whom they may find refuge: they

“have fled for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before us” (Heb 6:18). The law, as the avenger of blood, pursues the soul. Christ is that city of refuge, where none can have power against them. The gates are never shut; here is a refuge from the law, from justice and from the revenging wrath of God. Here is shelter under the wings of Christ: how willing He is to gather His people, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings!

1. Such people come to Christ as One in whom the soul may at length find rest: “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” (Ps 37:7). The soul out of Christ is in a restless state, still shifting from one created thing to another, not finding contentment in any of them. But, by coming to Christ, the soul takes up eternal rest in Him, and He becomes a covering of the eyes to the soul. We are like men in a fever, still changing beds [looking for a bed to cool them]. Like the dove out of the ark, we have no rest till we come to Christ.

2. Such people come to Christ as a husband: “All things are ready; come unto the marriage” (Mt 22:4). Your Maker is content to be your husband (Ps 45:10). Ministers are sent, as Abraham’s servant, to seek a spouse for Christ. He is willing to marry the worst, the meanest of you; He seeks no dowry; He is the richest, the most honourable, the most tender and loving husband.

3. Such people come to Christ as a powerful deliverer. Christ stands at our prison doors, to “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Is 61:1). All who come to Him give “their own selves to the Lord” first (2 Cor 8:5). Whosoever will come to Jesus must give themselves up to Him. It is the work of faith to give up the soul to Christ, that He may save it, that He may open the prison doors, take the prey from the mighty, and deliver the lawful captive.