T h e r e i s a v e r y beautiful message in Matthew 11:28 and it has brought peace and joy and comfort to millions. This verse has been used all over the world to help hearts and is one that is easily remembered, for it is made up of the words of the Lord Jesus when He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I like that because everyone I know wants rest. The nations want rest and peace and the individual wants rest and peace. Folk in the family want rest and peace. Folk in business want rest and peace. And here the Saviour comes with these magic words “come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Now let’s see the verse that precedes this one — verse 27 is the key to why Jesus spoke to us as He did in verse 28. In verse 27 we read, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father . . .” You see, the Lord Jesus has been given everything that human hearts and lives need, by the Father. The God of heaven saw that all needs of the human heart are to be found in Christ, and we ought to see this same thing. If we have good judgment we will. So the Saviour added, therefore you just come to me and rest. Do not try to find it in business for you cannot. Do not try to find it in pleasure for you cannot. Do not try to find it in religion for you cannot. There you are! The figure hangs loosely in my mind that there are 232 varieties of religion in the United States today and people are in them because they are trying to find rest. Every religion I know of offers rest in some form, but not many of them offer the rest that is to be found in Christ Jesus. The varieties of religion offer rest in the doing of things: rest
in working, rest in keeping laws, or dinances, and rules — trying to live up to the dictates of that particular religion, and the Lord Jesus knew all about that. In talking to a group of people who had come up under the Old Testament Covenant in which God would execute His part of the Covenant and the peo ple were to carry their part of it, and Christ could see, in talking with them that were heartsick and weary of their failure in their part. So the Lord Jesus told them if this was their case) just to come to Him under the New Testa ment Covenant in His blood, and He would give them rest. REST, isn’t that a sweet word? And I want to tell you something, I have been saved for a good many years. In fact, I have been saved for over 60 years and I have found His rest to be, indeed, sweet every step of the way in my practice of medicine and in my business life. You know, rest is a good deal like quicksilver. You try to pick it up but you don’t get it and you try all kinds of schemes and plans and sometimes you think, Now if I could get mar ried to Betty, boy I’d have t h e world by the back of the neck. I’d have a lovely home and everything would be beautiful. Let me remind you that getting married under orange blossoms doesn’t mean you didn’t get a lemon. It works both ways, both men and women, and you get so dis appointed sometimes. Oftentimes it’s the opposite way. Thank God for that and my, my what is sweeter and hap pier than a lovely home where each one loves the other and tries to please the other and lives, for the other and Christ is there. The Word of God is there and holiness is there and God liness is there. Well, the Saviour said
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