BY REV. JAMES S. SINCLAIR, JOHN KNOX’S TABERNACLE, GLASGOW.
THESE are the words of Him who has the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season to the weary. The Lord Jesus was anointed to preach glad tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, and to proclaim liberty to the captives. He was the great Prophet of the Church, and left an example to preachers in all ages. His sermons abound with precepts and promises, warnings and invitations, doctrine and experience, law and gospel. Observe in a previous part of this chapter that He preaches the law in all its righteous terrors, pronounces woes unto Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and declares that it will be more tolerable for Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom than for them in the day of judgment. Observe also, in the verses which precede our text, that He there teaches the divine sovereignty and man’s ignorance and need of spiritual illumination. He thanks the Father that the things of the Gospel were hid from the wise and prudent and were revealed unto babes. “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.” He then declares His exalted commission as mediator between God and men, and the impossibility of any man knowing the Father or the Son except by special revelation. “All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither any man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” It is in immediate succession to this declaration in regard to divine sovereignty and man’s need of divine illumination that the Lord Jesus sends forth the gracious invitation of our text to burdened souls. Each of these truths has its own place in Gospel preaching, and it is the work of the messenger of Christ to declare the whole counsel of God. In the meantime we direct attention to the words—“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Let us, in dependence upon divine grace consider:—
I.—The persons invited: “All ye that labour and are heavy laden.”
THESE persons are described as “all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” Labouring persons are such as toil with difficulty and fatigue, while heavy laden persons are such as carry heavy burdens. The words are to be taken figuratively, and therefore wherever we see persons toiling with burdens, mental or spiritual, there we see the persons addressed by Christ in the text. We think these words apply to three classes: persons burdened with temporal concerns, awakened sinners, and tried believers.
1. Persons burdened with temporal concerns.
We know that the words have a very important meaning for persons burdened with spiritual concerns, and are frequently applied exclusively to these persons, but we think they embrace a still wider class, and that for three reasons. (1) The Lord Jesus does not specify spiritual concerns exclusively. He addresses all that labour and are heavy laden, no matter what their toils and burdens are. (2) Many persons, unconcerned about their souls, are burdened with the troubles of this present life. They seek rest, but run to false refuges. They stand in unspeakable need of the rest Christ is able and willing to bestow. (3) Believers themselves are frequently bowed down with the cares of this life. Christ offers them rest from these cares as well as from soul troubles, and therefore they gladly make use of the invitation and promise contained in the text in the hour of earthly tribulation.
We now enumerate some of the things with which persons under temporal concerns are burdened with:—
(1) Bodily troubles. Multitudes, both young and old, labour under bodily affliction. The young sometimes at an unexpected moment find disease taking hold of their frames that disables them from all active work. Their worldly prospects are blighted, and, living for no higher end than this life, they lose all their happiness and lie down under a burden of despondency. Others again, in riper years, are constantly racked with pain, and groan heavily under the frailties of a decaying body. Many such persons are destitute of all true consolation. The present life with its pleasures is fleeting away, and they have no real hope for eternity. It would be well for such to seek rest in Christ. He says to all these miserable persons—”Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
(2) Family troubles. Some have lost by death their right hand or their right eye, and feel the world empty and life not worth living. Others find their families to be a source of grief and not of comfort. They have much to burden them in the family circle and outside of it, and are frequently bowed down with sorrow, even unto the gates of death. There is only One who can help in such cases, even He that is a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless, the help of the helpless, the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother, who says—”Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
(3) Troubles in worldly estate. Some have a life and death struggle with poverty all their days. Others, richly provided with this world’s goods, lose all their possessions. Such are burdened with their responsibilities, and fears of debt and disgrace constantly cloud and darken their pathway through life. There is something in Christ that will help even such if they only come to Him. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” The Lord Jesus says—”Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
These constitute some of the more familiar forms of temporal trouble. Christ invites all that labour and are heavy laden to come to Him for rest. It does not affect the freeness of the invitation that many of the persons mentioned are unconcerned about their souls. As far as the invitation is concerned, the greatest sinner and the most eminent saint are equally invited. The invitation is addressed to all, unreservedly, that answer the description. Persons unconcerned about the salvation of their souls have all the more need to come to Christ. He will teach them the value of the soul, the depravity of their nature, and their need of a Saviour from sin and wrath. The rest that He gives is spiritual in its nature, and no one will attain it without learning the need of a Saviour. When we invite such to come to Christ, we do not ask them to come for simply a temporal rest. That will do them very little good. Christ offers a spiritual and eternal rest, and it is only at His feet that we can learn our need of it. By His Spirit, through law and gospel, He teaches sinners their spiritual wants. He shows them the burden of sin and guilt that lies upon their shoulders. Temporal troubles will be out-weighed by spiritual concerns, and both will make errands to Christ. They are truly to be pitied who are burdened with the concerns of this present life and are insensible to the concerns of eternity. A felt burden of temporal trouble weighs them to the earth. An unfelt burden of sin, if not removed, will yet weigh them down to hell. They are now miserable in time, and they shall one day enter upon a miserable eternity, unless through grace they come to Christ for the promised rest.
2. Awakened sinners.
Men by nature are asleep to the things of eternity. They do not realise their true position in the sight of God. They are unconscious of the being and operation of sin in their hearts. They are insensible to the fact that countless sins are reckoned against them in the book of God’s remembrance, and that they will yet have to render an account for these sins before the judgment seat of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who awakens men to see where they stand before God. They then cry out, as many did on the day of Pentecost, “What shall we do?” They begin to feel burdens they were formerly insensible of, burdens of immeasurably greater weight than any they ever felt before.
(1) They labour under soul-concern. At one time the soul gave them no anxiety. They scarcely believed that they had a soul. Their chief concern was—”What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?” If they got their bodily wants satisfied, they did not care what became of their souls. If the flesh was served, the soul might go to hell. Now the case is changed. The great question presses home upon their consciences—”What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”—(Mark viii. 35, 36.) Their chief concern now is their souls, and their bodies get a very subordinate place.
(2) They labour under a sense of sin. “When he [the Spirit] is come, he will reprove the world of sin.”—(John xvi. 8.) Sin was at one time a mere name, now it is a great reality. It used to give them very little concern. They regretted open sins because of reproach in the sight of men, but sin in general gave them no trouble. They, in fact, found pleasure in secret sins. Again, they only charged themselves with a few sins, and esteemed themselves no worse than their neighbours. Now they see their sins to be innumerable. They feel their iniquity to be very great, and acknowledge themselves the chief of sinners. They come to the conclusion that none ever cherished such vile sins as they have done, and are weighed to the dust with the burden of them. The cloud of their iniquities darkens the heavens, and makes their prospects of the blackest and most hopeless description. They cry with the psalmist—”Mine iniquities are gone over mine head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.”—(Psalm xxxviii. 4.)
(3) They labour under the guilt of sin. The Lord said to Adam when he was in a state of innocence and came under the covenant of works for himself and his posterity, “In the day thou eatest of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt surely die.” The apostle Paul also by the Holy Ghost affirms, “The wages of sin is death.” God is righteous and can by no means clear the guilty breakers of His law. “The law is holy, just, and good.” It righteously claims perfect obedience from all that are under it. Now the Spirit of God brings home to the conscience of the awakened sinner the righteous and reasonable claims of God’s law, and the guilt of disobedience in heart and life is fastened upon his conscience. The natural heart may raise many excuses for sin, but all these palliations of guilt vanish before the entrance of the law. What is more reasonable than that creatures originally created in the image of God should love and serve their Creator, and what is more vile and deserving of punishment than deliberate disobedience to and enmity against Him? The soul that is truly alive to its sin is sensible that it deserves punishment. It therefore labours under a sense of the curse of the law. It formerly thought the curse had to do only with notorious transgressors. Now, there is not a curse or threatening within the Bible from beginning to end, but to which it feels it has exposed itself. Souls in this condition are heavily burdened. It is not the curse of the law alone that crushes them down, but the wrath of God therein revealed. “The Lord is angry with the wicked every day.” Their sense of guilt is intensified by the thought that their glorious Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth, infinite in holiness and infinite in goodness, is angry with them. He is “a consuming fire” to the workers of iniquity. Guilty souls labour under a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that will devour the adversaries. The truth declares that “the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.” An accusing conscience predicts coming judgment, and the awakened soul is afraid he may some morning open his eyes in hell. Such are the effects of a sense of guilt upon the conscience. To sinners that are burdened with an accusing conscience, the curse of the holy law and the wrath of a righteous God, the Saviour addresses the gracious invitation, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
(4) They labour under the yoke of sin. “Whoso committeth sin is the servant of sin.”—(John viii. 34.) Men by nature are in bondage to sin. They imagine themselves to be free, but when they are awakened by the Holy Spirit they find themselves under the dominion of sin. They discover that sin reigns in their hearts. The apostle says, “I am carnal, sold under sin.” Sin has a mighty power. It darkens our understandings, hardens our consciences, enslaves our wills, and corrupts our affections. The whole man is depraved by sin, and awakened souls learn this by bitter but wholesome experience. They can no more free themselves from the yoke of sin than from the guilt of sin. Wherein lies the power of sin? It lies in the heart itself. Sin has power over us not by any external pressure, but in virtue of our inward love of it. Awakened souls realise this, and their burden becomes heavier. They feel themselves bound hand and foot with the cords of their own iniquities. They become sensibly helpless as well as guilty sinners. The Lord Jesus says, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
(5) They labour under the bondage of the world and the devil. The world has a mighty power over fallen man. None can overcome it, but “he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.”—(1 John v. 5.) Man at first got dominion over the creatures, but now the creatures have dominion over him. Men are taken up with the things that are created to forgetfulness of the Creator. By nature we worship and serve “the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.”—(Romans i. 25.) The scholar, the scientist, the man of business, each worships his respective occupation. His thoughts and affections are wholly devoted to it. If we give ourselves wholly to our lawful callings and forget God, we put the creature in place of the Creator. Awakened sinners find that the ties and occupations of this world bind their souls, so that it is with the greatest difficulty they can raise them to the contemplation of spiritual things. Again, they realise themselves to be in bondage to the devil. The apostle says in Ephesians ii. 2, “In time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” It is this great enemy that carries souls captive at his will. When sinners begin to flee from his bondage he uses all his powers and devices to hold them fast. Awakened souls find that they have a mighty adversary to contend with, and that nothing will enable them to overcome the wicked one but the power of God. The Son of God took flesh and blood “that, through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.”—(Heb. ii. 14.)
(6) They labour to get rid of their burdens. Some wildly rush to the vanities and pleasures of the world that they may get ease to their consciences. Some labour to shake off their burdens of sin and guilt by engrossment in the business of life. It is one thing to be awakened to a sense of sin and another to be enlightened in the knowledge of Christ, and so there is great danger of ignorant souls, more anxious for comfort than saving grace, committing spiritual suicide when troubled with their sins. It is the work of the devil to quench convictions, and they who deliberately quench the Spirit of God in their consciences are guilty of soul suicide. They are in danger of sinning against the Holy Ghost. Again, others resort to spiritual methods to get rid of the burden of guilt and bondage of sin. They go to good resolutions. They resolve to do better in time to come. They go to prayer and religious duties, they begin to weep and cry over their sins. They may even renounce open sin if they have been guilty of it, or if not, they may apply more rigid rules to their daily life and conversation. They secretly conclude that these duties will take away their burdens and secure for them rest in the favour of God. But they find out that their best duties are defiled with sin and self, and so their efforts for deliverance prove a failure. They will, however, try a still better way. They read in the Scriptures that it is by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by works, sinners can obtain freedom from sin and peace with God. Faith is commanded, and they will do their utmost to obey. In the strength of natural convictions they will exercise faith, and they for a time rest their hope for eternity on a natural intellectual faith in Christ. This also proves a failure. It produces no holiness of heart or life, and so the floods of their lusts and corruptions break forth again and sweep away the natural faith in which they depended. To all who have learned that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God, to all who have been taught that their own faith cannot give them rest and salvation, Christ says, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
3. Tried believers.
We now touch briefly upon the third class to which apply the words “all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” This class is found among the people of God. Christ did not promise His disciples much ease or comfort in this life. He said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” In fact, believers are not exempt from any of the troubles already enumerated that are common to all men. There is this difference, however, that they have a sure and certain interest in the exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel, so that all things will work together for their good, whilst others have only offers of mercy, forgiveness, and rest, and may, notwithstanding, perish in their sins. Again, believers have frequently the same burdens as awakened souls have. Past and present sins frequently becloud their sky and make them go sore bowed down, and they require to come time after time to a throne of grace for deliverance from the guilt and bondage of sin, and from the snares of the world and the devil. The psalmist was often in the depths, crying, “Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.”—(Psalm xxv. 18.)
The following are some of the burdens of believers:—
(1) In-dwelling corruption. The dominion of sin has been broken, yet the being of sin is still in their souls. Sin in all its various workings lusts against the work of the Spirit of God. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.”—(Gal. v. 17.) Sometimes the flesh gains a victory, and they are constrained to cry, “Iniquities prevail against me.” At all times they have to carry about with them the body of sin and corruption. The apostle longed for deliverance, and cried, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”—(Rom. vii. 24.)
(2) Temptations. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.”—(1 Cor. x. 13.) The saints of God have undergone severe temptations in all ages. They have temptations from the world. The pleasures, riches, and honours of the world are so alluring, that they prove traps and snares even to the true people of God. They have temptations from the flesh. The carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and which still remains in them, is active enough in seeking to lead them astray from the paths of righteousness. It constantly represents sin in the most pleasing colours. It constantly minimises the guilt of sin, and says “It is a little thing.” They have temptations from the devil. Their great adversary takes advantage of the sin that remaineth in them to make it the fuel for the fiery sparks that he casts into their souls. He frequently injects into their minds foul, wicked, and blasphemous thoughts and desires. They are sometimes in deep waters where standing they have none. They are tempted to regard all their past experience of the power of the truth to be a delusion. They are tempted to disbelieve the Word of God. They are tempted to deny the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. They are tempted to atheism. There is no evil that has mastery over the human race but to which they may be tempted. “But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will, with the temptation, also make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it.”—(1 Cor. x. 13.)
(3) The hidings of God’s countenance. They have frequently to endure the withdrawal of the divine countenance. “Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled.”—(Ps. xxx. 7.) The Lord sometimes withdraws His countenance in sovereignty. The soul is not able to find out any immediate cause in itself for the withdrawal. This is the experience of those who live in close communion with God. In the case of most Christians, the divine withdrawal is easily traceable to some particular sin or sins. The Lord chastises His people for going after other lovers. He will not allow them to rest at ease in the lap of any carnal lust. He will let them know that He is angry. When they seek Him, He will not be found of them for many days. They then begin to groan under this dispensation, fearing that the Lord will never return again. His word, however, still remains in their hands, and the voice of love is still to be heard in the Gospel, saying, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
II. The invitation: “Come unto me.”
A word by way of verbal exposition. The word “Come” here used is in the original a particle of incitement or exhortation, and we have seen it deduced from this fact that the exhortation “Come” does not imply a call to motion towards the person who invites. This is a mistake. The particle is similar to the word “Hither,” and consists of an exclamatory invitation or command to motion, as if the speaker addressed, with a wave of the hand, a number of wearied persons, “Hither unto me, and I will give you rest.” The fact also that the word “unto” is in the text a proposition of “motion towards” irrefutably confirms this view.
1. The person to whom the labouring and heavy laden are invited.
(1) This person is the Son of God. He is co-equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost in the undivided Godhead. He is the Word that was with God, and was God.—(John i. 1.) If anyone can give rest to the labouring and heavy laden, surely He that is God can. If He cannot, no other can give rest. He is also the Son of Man. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”—(John i. 14.) “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law.”—(Gal. iv. 4, 5.) The Son has all the resources of the Godhead at His disposal, for it pleased the Father that in Him should dwell the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He has all the qualities of a perfect humanity, for He took flesh and blood yet without sin. If such a remarkable Person cannot meet our case as burdened souls, there is no hope for us elsewhere.
(2) This person has procured rest for the labouring and heavy laden. Every creature of Adam’s sinful race deserved to suffer the miseries of this life and that which is to come as the righteous reward of sin. But God in His infinite mercy and unspeakable grace laid the help of an innumerable company of hell-deserving creatures upon His own eternal Son. Sin was the cause of all the toils and burdens to which sinners were exposed, and unless sin was taken away none of these toils or burdens could cease to be. The Lord therefore laid upon Christ the iniquity of all the elect. He became their surety to the Father, and He promised to do all that was necessary for their salvation. The Father therefore made Him sin, imputed their sins to Him. As a consequence, He required to bear the curse due to these sins. He was made a curse. The apostle, speaking for the Church, says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us.”—(Gal. iii.) He laboured and was heavy laden during the days of His humiliation. He bore the full weight of the curse of God upon the Cross. He suffered and died under the burden of the wrath of God that poor, sinful, burdened souls might escape the deserts of their sins. He laboured and was heavy laden that they might obtain rest in a way consistent with the claims of righteousness. He has now entered into everlasting rest as the forerunner of His people, and He will bring all His children into the enjoyment of that rest. He is now exalted to give rest, the rest of deliverance from sin, and the rest of forgiveness. He is exalted “to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”—(Acts v. 31.) It is this glorious Person, the exalted Redeemer of God’s elect, to whom the weary and heavy laden are invited to come.
2. What is implied in coming unto Jesus Christ?
(1) The renunciation of every other source of rest. All other resting places are inadequate and temporary at the best. The soul must renounce every other person or thing under heaven as either a ground of hope for eternity or as an object of supreme affection. We were made originally for God, and nothing less than rest in Him will give the soul permanent and solid satisfaction. God is in Christ reconciling sinners to Himself, and in Christ there is to be found all that satisfies both God Himself in His holy perfections and the awakened soul in all its longing desires. Sinners must be shut up to Jesus Christ as their only hope of rest and salvation, otherwise they will not come to Him. The soul that is found at the feet of Christ, saying, “Lord, to whom shall I go? Thou hast the words of eternal life,” is not far from the kingdom of heaven.
(2) The persuasion of Christ’s ability and willingness to save sinners. It is one thing to have a notional belief in Christ’s ability to save, it is another thing to believe in it under a real sense of one’s condition and necessities as a sinner. Every thing in the soul itself conspires to produce the conclusion that no power can save. The unspeakable depravity of the heart, its deliberate opposition to God and Christ and the things of the Gospel, and the awful guilt of this wickedness, make the poor soul think there is no one that can deal effectually with his case. Unbelief cherishes harsh uncharitable thoughts of God even as revealed in His Son. Unbelief will cast doubts upon the divinity and power of Christ. In such circumstances it is not a little thing when the soul has a firm persuasion that Christ is able to take away the burden of guilt and reigning corruption and give rest. Another step is to come to a firm persuasion of Christ’s willingness to save. The awakened sinner is apt to conclude that Christ is not willing to save. He believes Christ is willing to save men, viewing them as elect, but he is slow to believe Christ is willing to save men, viewing them as sinners. This does not proceed from any jealousy for the sovereignty of the Son who quickeneth whom He will. It proceeds from dark unbelieving views of the gracious character of Christ and of the declarations He has given of His purposes in His Word. When the light of the Gospel begins to shine into the soul with greater power and clearness it comes to the conclusion Christ is willing to receive sinners, even the very chief. “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”—(Luke xviii. 10.)
(3) An actual approach to Christ. When does this take place? It takes place at that moment when the soul, renouncing all hope in any other, sensible of its guilt and helplessness, and persuaded of Christ’s ability and willingness to give rest and salvation, is enabled by the Spirit to embrace Him as He is freely offered in the Gospel. It is then that the sinner comes to Christ. It was, however, Christ who first came by His Spirit into the sinner’s soul, and then drew the sinner unto Himself. They who desire to come to Christ will ask the Spirit to reveal Christ unto them, and enable them to come to Christ. Souls truly coming to Him are deeply sensible of their need both of Christ and of the Spirit. We cannot dispense with either, and must have both, if ever we find rest and salvation.
3. The authority with which the invitation is given.
It is not human authority. A man may be the ambassador of the message, but it is Christ Himself who invites. He is God, and they who refuse the invitation cast contempt on the authority of God. If you refuse to come to Christ, you not only ensure your own everlasting misery, but you dishonour your Creator, and treat with contempt the highest manifestation He has given of His glory. Some one may object and say he is unable to obey the command. That is true. But this also is true. He who gives the command is able to give you power to obey it. “Ask and it shall be given you.” He gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. But you say you cannot ask in faith. Come then, totally destitute, to a throne of grace, and wait—not in idleness but in urgency—until He give you faith and bring you nigh to Himself. “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”—(Lam. iii. 26.)
III.—The promise: “I will give you rest.”
Let us notice, first, the rest Christ gives.
1. A present rest.
No sooner does the labouring and heavy laden soul come to Christ than it obtains rest. This rest is comparative in degree and interrupted in experience. Not so from any deficiency in Christ, but from the soul’s imperfection in this present life. Absolute and uninterrupted rest will be enjoyed when the soul, made perfect in holiness, enters into glory. The present rest, however, is of unspeakable value. It consists in the following things:—
(1) Rest of justification. The awakened soul labours under a sense of sin and of the curse of the holy law. But at the moment it is enabled to come to Jesus Christ for salvation, it enters upon the rest of justification. “Being justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The Lord Jesus wrought out everlasting righteousness for the guilty and the unrighteous. When such come to Him they are made partakers of freedom from the curse, and of a perfect imputed righteousness. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”—(Rom. v. 1.)
(2) Rest of conscience. The conscience, when awakened and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, becomes a heavy burden to the sinner. It calls for the vindication of God’s justice and the condemnation of the guilty. Nothing will give rest to this conscience now but that which is just and righteous. Nothing will meet the case but Jesus Christ and the blood of His atonement. The blood of Christ gave infinite satisfaction to the justice of God, and so the sinner who comes in all his guilt to Christ and has this precious blood applied by the Holy Spirit to his conscience, finds rest. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”—(Heb. ix. 14.)
(3) Rest of sanctification. In regeneration when the soul is quickened by the Spirit and united to Christ it is delivered from the reigning power of sin. “Sin shall not have dominion over you; ye are not under the law but under grace.” The believer finds rest in deliverance from the grinding yoke of sin, Satan, and the world. Every step in the life of holiness is a step of entrance into rest. Christ is made unto His people sanctification as well as righteousness. They are complete in Him. There is a fulness of holiness in Him that will supply all their defects. The more they seek after holiness the more they draw out of the fulness of sanctification that is in Christ Jesus. They “give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.”—(Psalm xcvii. 12.)
(4) Rest in the enjoyment of God’s favour and countenance. “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.”—(Psalm lxxxix. 15.) The divine favour is the source of unspeakable rest and delight to poor souls long tossed upon the sea of God’s wrath. Like Jonah, they have been in the belly of hell. The waves of divine wrath passed over them, and they were afraid every moment of being engulfed in these mighty waters. But now in Christ the light of God’s countenance shines with its cheering and strengthening beams upon their heads, and they are at rest. “In that day thou shalt say, O Lord I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.”—(Isaiah xii. 1.)
(5) Rest of consolation. There is “strong consolation” provided for all “who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”—(Heb. vi. 18.) All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. There is consolation for every trial, and strength against every temptation. The apostle exclaims in holy rapture—”Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation.”—(2 Cor. iii. 4.) In Christ Jesus the holy and righteous God, at whose hands we deserve everlasting wrath, is the God of all comfort. The rest of consolation is in Christ.
(6) Rest of satisfaction. Every thing that the soul needs for time and eternity is in Christ. There is light against darkness, life against death. There is in Him an object worthy of the soul’s supreme affection. God Himself in the fulness and glory of His perfections is revealed in His co-equal Son. Nothing will fill to the very full the immortal soul but God. Here then in Christ is the rest of soul satisfaction. “Delight thyself in the Lord.” He becomes a husband unto poor sinners. Christ as a husband loved the Church and gave himself for it, and He is willing that His people should find their supremest delight and happiness in Him. “Rest in the Lord.”—(Psalm xxxvii. 7.)
2. A future rest.
(1) Rest of complete deliverance from sin and sorrow. At death believers are made perfect in holiness. They are freed from “the body of this death.” They are delivered from all sorrow. “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”—(Rev. xxi. 4.)
(2) Rest of immediate, uninterrupted, and perfect enjoyment of God. Believers shall enter into the new Jerusalem, a city of which it is written, “and there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, nor light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever.”—(Rev. xxii. 5.)
Let us observe, in the second and last place, that this rest is graciously and freely given by Jesus Christ.
i. It is a gracious gift.
“For by grace are ye saved.”—(Eph. ii. 8.) The rest spoken is one of the great blessings of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, and therefore we must be debtors to grace for it. Our best works could not purchase one moment of this rest. Christ required to shed His precious blood in order to secure it for the unworthy. It is of unmerited favour that it is bestowed upon any. The Lord said “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,” and in fulfilment of that gracious sovereign decree sent His Son to suffer and die for hell-deserving sinners. The Son quickeneth whom He will, and all who come to Him for rest learn by the teaching of the Spirit that this and all the other blessings of salvation proceed from the sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus. “Salvation is of the Lord.”—(Jonah ii. 9.)
2. It is a free gift.
Christ does not ask any price. He invites sinners to come “without money and without price.” He upbraids those who heed not His invitation, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” He exhorts them to come labouring and heavy laden as they are. This gift is promised to every coming soul, and Christ will be as good as His word.
In conclusion, we invite all weary and heavy laden souls to Christ. We do so in His own name, for it is He that gives the invitation. If you are still in your sins, laden with the burden of God’s wrath, flee for refuge to this hope set before you in the Gospel. Sin will inevitably sink you down to hell except you come to Jesus Christ. In your guiltiness and helplessness look unto His merit and power. “He is able also to save unto the uttermost them that come to God by Him. If you are one who once tasted the sweet rest that is in Christ, but now are tossed about upon the billows of trial and temptation, remember that “He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.” Ask Him now to succour you, and you will find that He is a present help in the time of need. To all burdened souls He says even now in the everlasting Gospel, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”