Come To Me

[0:00] Well, if you would turn with me this morning to the Gospel according to Matthew in chapter 11.

[0:21] That's page 984, if you're using the Pew Bible. So, page 984, Matthew chapter 11.

[0:33] And we're just reading the last five verses, so from verse 25. At that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children.

[0:54] Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

[1:10] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

[1:28] But in particular, the words of verse 28, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[1:41] The Reverend Dr. Horatius Bonar, he was a free church minister during the middle to late 19th century, and he was one of 11 children, two of which were also ministers serving in the free church.

[2:05] Andrew Bonar, who's well known to us for writing his memoirs of his contemporary Robert Murray McShane, and there was also James Bonar. He was the other brother.

[2:16] So there's Horatius, Andrew, and there was James. And all three brothers, they served as colleagues following the disruption of the free church in 1843. But Horatius Bonar, he first served as a minister in the rural parish of Kelso in the Bonars.

[2:34] And then he later became an urban minister. He planted a church in his home city of Edinburgh. But even though he was a faithful preacher of God's word, Horatius Bonar is fondly remembered for the number of hymns that he wrote.

[2:51] And he has often been referred to as the prince of hymn writers, because throughout his ministry, he's said to have written, and you can look it up, he's written over 150 hymns.

[3:02] Of course, back then, the free church sang metrical psalms almost exclusively. But Horatius Bonar, he had this desire to write children's hymns for the children to sing whilst in Sunday school.

[3:17] And then not long after that, Horatius Bonar, he began to write adult hymns to be used in fellowships and house meetings. But one hymn in particular, which Bonar wrote during his ministry in Kelso, it's probably his most famous hymn.

[3:35] A hymn which was not only well received in our own nation, but throughout the English-speaking world. And it was the famous hymn called, I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say.

[3:48] And what makes this hymn so appealing to such a wide audience is its focus upon the gospel call to come to Jesus Christ for our salvation.

[4:01] Because the hymn that Horatius Bonar wrote, it lifts up Jesus before us, and it urges us to come to him, to look to him, to drink from him, and to rest in him.

[4:16] We are to hear the voice of Jesus and obey the simple call to come and find rest for our souls. Because when we do, we will experience through happiness.

[4:31] I cannot tell you how happy you will be. You will be the blessed man, the blessed woman, and you will have the unending joy of salvation.

[4:43] And of course, the basis of Bonar's hymn was the words that we find here in Matthew's gospel, in which Jesus presents to us what is at the heart of the gospel. This invitation to come.

[4:57] And this gospel invitation, it's what Horatius Bonar picked up on, and it's what led him to write the opening words of his hymn. I heard the voice of Jesus say, Come unto me and rest.

[5:10] Lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon my breast. My friend, this gospel invitation to come to Jesus Christ and find rest for your souls, it's a glorious invitation.

[5:25] But what I want to ask you at the outset is, are you willing to respond to this invitation? Are you willing to come to Jesus in order to find rest for your soul?

[5:40] Because that's what we all need. We all need to find rest for our souls. But what we need to see is that this glorious invitation towards sinners, such as we are, it came as a result of preconceptions and misconceptions from the scribes and the Pharisees.

[6:00] And this is no surprise to us because there were many scribes and Pharisees who were leading the people away from the truth of the gospel. And they were distorting the gospel either by adding to it or taking away from it.

[6:14] But what Jesus emphasizes here is that the invitation to come to him and find rest for our souls, this invitation doesn't depend upon our intellect, but our response to the invitation.

[6:28] Our response to come to him. And what Jesus wants to make clear is that this invitation is a divine initiative.

[6:40] As John says in his gospel, it's not of blood, it's not of the will of the flesh, it's not of the will of man, but it's of God. It's a divine initiative.

[6:51] And with that in mind, I'd like us to see that Jesus speaks about three things in these five verses because he speaks about a divine intellect, a divine intimation, and a divine invitation.

[7:07] A divine intellect, a divine intimation, and a divine invitation. So if we look firstly at a divine intellect, a divine intellect, he says in verse 25, At that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

[7:29] Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. Now, the context to this passage is that Jesus has been teaching and preaching throughout the different cities around the region of Galilee.

[7:45] And he's been going around and he's been cleansing lepers, giving the blind their sight, making the lame walk, the deaf hear. He's raised the dead to life and he has been preaching the good news message of the kingdom of God.

[8:00] And because of the miracles and because of his eloquence as a preacher and the authority with which Jesus taught, there were many people who were beginning to follow this man, Jesus.

[8:12] And as they listened to him and as they saw him perform all these miraculous signs, they were becoming more and more curious about him. And they began to inquire if this Jesus was indeed the Christ or are they to look for another one.

[8:31] And Jesus, in the passage, he explains to them that John the Baptist, he was that Elijah figure. He was the one of whom the Old Testament prophet Malachi spoke about, that he will be the forerunner to the coming of the Christ.

[8:46] But Jesus says to his people, the Jews, you didn't accept him. You didn't receive him. You put John in prison. You beheaded him and you silenced his voice.

[8:59] He came to you preaching a baptism of repentance and yet you said that he had a demon. And then speaking about himself, Jesus says, down in verse 19, he says, the Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

[9:20] And with this, Jesus then goes on to condemn all these cities, the cities who heard the gospel, who saw the miracles, and yet they refused to come to him and find rest for their souls.

[9:35] And Jesus pronounces words of woe to them. He says, woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, woe to you, Capernaum. I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.

[9:53] And you know, we might think, well, Jesus' words, they're a bit harsh. They're a bit extreme. But his words are fitting because Jesus came to his own people and they did not receive him.

[10:07] John the Baptist came preaching the arrival of the gospel, but they rejected it. Jesus came as the gospel and they rejected him. And they rejected the revelation of God and the message of Jesus because they were intellectually and spiritually proud.

[10:25] they thought they knew better. They thought they knew better than God himself. And this is why we find Jesus praying to his father in verses 25 and 26.

[10:40] Because in this short prayer, Jesus acknowledges that his father is the Lord of heaven and earth and that he has made himself known. He has made his salvation known.

[10:51] He has made Jesus known. And he has made it known not to the wise and to the intelligent or the intellectual, but to children.

[11:02] He has made it known to children. And what Jesus is emphasizing is that salvation and rest for our souls, it can't be attained by our intellectual ability or our spirituality.

[11:15] And this was one of the great stumbling blocks for the scribes and the Pharisees because they prided themselves in their biblical intellect.

[11:25] They prided themselves in their knowledge of scripture and their knowledge of the laws of Moses and their knowledge of God's covenant and God's ways and God's dealing with his people.

[11:37] And by all their intellect and all their knowledge, they thought that they knew God. They thought that their knowledge of God and their biblical understanding of God was what made them right with God.

[11:50] They thought that they had this great intellect and their intellect was enough for them. But what Jesus is saying is that their intellect was actually keeping them from Jesus and hindering them from finding rest for their souls.

[12:09] And the truth was they were trusting in their own wisdom rather than trusting in God. And you know, that's often what wisdom and intellect does. Because when someone is intellectual, it often makes them feel superior to others.

[12:26] They place their trust in that wisdom and they rely upon it. And as a result, their self-sufficiency often means that they refuse to trust the Lord and to rest in his salvation.

[12:38] Take, for example, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking. Some of the greatest minds in our present day. And they're intellectual, they're learned men, they're scientists, they're geniuses, there's no denying that.

[12:55] But their wisdom makes them feel superior to others and even superior to God. So that they place their trust and their faith in themselves and their own wisdom and their self-sufficiency.

[13:10] It indicates that not only this refusal to trust in the Lord, but it also makes their life, it's also made their life's work trying to disprove that God exists at all.

[13:23] Of course, not every intellectual is like Richard Dawkins or Stephen Hawking. And Jesus doesn't mean that those who are intellectuals can't be saved.

[13:33] But what Jesus does mean is that intellect, knowledge, understanding, it has never saved anyone.

[13:46] Because it's only simple faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ that saves a soul. My friend, it's not what we know that saves us.

[13:59] It's who we know. And we have to know Jesus. Because it's only by coming to Jesus and resting in Him alone that we will find rest for our soul.

[14:13] And so when Jesus highlights the error of the scribes and the Pharisees, He's saying to them that knowing the truth doesn't mean that you're living by the truth. Having biblical knowledge doesn't mean that you're biblical.

[14:24] Possessing a scriptural intellect and wisdom doesn't imply that you're resting upon Jesus for your salvation. In fact, it implies the opposite. That you know it already and you don't need to be told anymore.

[14:41] And you know, my friend, my greatest concern is that some of you are doing exactly the same. Because like the scribes and the Pharisees, many of you have had the privilege of being brought up with the gospel.

[14:56] You know it inside out in your head. You know all the Bible stories. You know about the creation, the fall, the flood. You know about the birth of Jesus, the parables of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus, the cross of Jesus, the empty tomb of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus, the second coming of Jesus.

[15:15] You know all that in your head. but not in your heart. You know the catechism. You can roll it off your tongue.

[15:26] Because you went to Sunday school. You were brought up maybe with family worship at home. You were given the greatest privileges as a child. But as you grew up, as you gained knowledge of the world, as you increased in your intellect, dare I say, you became self-sufficient.

[15:47] Self-sufficient. In which you began to lean more and more upon your biblical knowledge, your doctrinal intellect, and your upbringing, rather than simple faith in Jesus Christ.

[16:01] And maybe now in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, you're so like the scribes and the Pharisees because you reject the simple gospel message of Jesus.

[16:12] You reject the plain and simple invitation to come and find rest for your soul. And you're clinging evermore to your biblical intellect and your Sunday spirituality.

[16:25] And somehow you have, you've come to the conclusion that that will be enough to get you into heaven. But the truth is, the truth is, it's keeping you from receiving and resting upon Jesus Christ for your salvation.

[16:44] And Jesus, he put it so perfectly when he said, in verse 19, he said, yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. Wisdom is justified by her deeds.

[16:57] And what Jesus meant is that through biblical wisdom, through biblical intellect, through biblical understanding, it responds and responds by becoming like little children.

[17:11] And to become like a little child doesn't mean that we're to be naive or immature or gullible or innocent in order to be saved. No, what Jesus is emphasizing is that little children are not self-sufficient.

[17:28] Because there's one thing about little children and that is they are completely dependent upon someone else. In order for that child to grow, they are completely dependent upon their mother or father or carer.

[17:47] They're dependent for everything. They can't do anything for themselves. They can't pay for their food. They can't prepare their meals. They can't feed themselves. They can't wash themselves. They can't dress themselves.

[17:57] They can't do anything for themselves. They are not self-sufficient. They're completely dependent. All they can do is throw their arms wide open and just cry for help.

[18:08] And Jesus says that that's the same with salvation because salvation is not about doing for ourselves. Because when it comes to salvation we can't earn it.

[18:19] We can't work for it. We can't attain it intellectually or by our own self-sufficiency. The only thing we can do is completely depend upon what Jesus Christ has done on the cross and throw our arms wide open and cry out to him for mercy.

[18:37] That's all we're asked to do. And Jesus says when we do that that's divine intellect. That's divine intellect.

[18:48] Divine intellect is having childlike faith. It's simply coming to Jesus in faith and resting upon him and him alone for your salvation.

[19:01] That's what begs the question. Do you have divine intellect? Do you have childlike faith? Not do you know your Bible or your catechism?

[19:14] But are you resting upon Jesus Christ alone for your salvation? Have you come to him and are you resting in him? And so we see that when Jesus speaks about the divine initiative of God he says that we need to have a divine intellect.

[19:32] We need to have childlike faith. But secondly in his statement of divine initiative Jesus says or he issues a divine intimation.

[19:44] A divine intimation because he says in verse 27 all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

[20:04] And in this verse Jesus addresses us by intimating that all things have been handed over to him by his father. All things have been delivered into his hand by his father.

[20:18] And this word handed over or delivered it was often used by the scribes and the Pharisees in terms of handing over tradition.

[20:31] It was used in terms of passing on tradition from one generation to the next. It's the handing down of biblical knowledge and tradition. And these traditions they included ritual washings and cleansings and prayers and tithing and giving to the poor and even your conduct and your dress.

[20:52] And Jesus uses this word here in order to indicate what the scribes and the Pharisees were doing and what was keeping them from finding rest for their souls.

[21:03] Because the problem that many of the scribes and Pharisees had was that they held on to these traditions so tightly and so rigidly and they followed them so obsessively to the letter that it was to the detriment of God's word.

[21:20] In which these man-made traditions became more important and they were elevated higher than God's inspired and inerrant word. And this is what caused many of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Jews themselves, this is what caused them to rest in their intellect and their spirituality and their devotion to these man-made laws.

[21:42] this is what kept them from coming to trust in Jesus Christ. This is what kept them from coming to know God the Father and resting in Jesus the Son.

[21:56] The traditions which were handed down from generation to generation, that's what led them astray. And you know, traditions are still having the same effect upon the church today.

[22:10] Traditions are still keeping people from coming to know God the Father and resting in Jesus the Son. Because we can only come to know God the Father and rest in Jesus the Son by trusting in his word.

[22:24] Not by trusting in our biblical intellect or our Sunday spirituality or even our traditions that have been handed on from generation to generation. In fact, you know, I hate the word traditional because I don't want us to be a traditional congregation.

[22:43] I want us to be a biblical congregation. I want us to trust in God's word. I want us to submit our lives to God's word. I want us to know that God's word is living and active and it speaks into every situation in our lives and this word is shaping the way we live our lives.

[23:05] My friend, I want us to do what the Bible teaches. I want us to know God the Father and rest in Jesus the Son.

[23:19] But you know, like the scribes and the Pharisees, the problem many of our congregations and churches have is that people criticize and they grumble when others don't live according to the standard of tradition.

[23:31] And the reason they criticize and grumble is because they don't know the Father and they're not resting in Jesus the Son. And in this divine intimation, Jesus says that the only way to know the Father is not by biblical knowledge, catechisms, or tradition, but by simply trusting in Jesus the Son.

[23:56] And we're to trust in Jesus the Son because he knows the Father. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father. No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

[24:13] And Jesus often spoke about this intimate relationship between himself and the Father. And John in his Gospel, he makes it one of his great emphases in his Gospel because John believed that the only way to know God the Father was by resting in Jesus the Son.

[24:33] Which is why John, when he records what Jesus said in his Gospel, he says in John 6, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

[24:46] For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose none of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day.

[24:58] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

[25:09] And then in John 10, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

[25:22] And then in fact, Jesus emphasizes, or he drives home the point of the intimacy between the Father and the Son, when he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

[25:37] No one comes to the Father except through me. Therefore, my friend, the only way to know God as your Father is by resting in Jesus the Son.

[25:53] But what Jesus makes clear to us here is that knowing God the Father can only take place if Jesus the Son chooses to reveal him to us.

[26:04] And for many people, and maybe for you, these words are a great stumbling block. They're either a stumbling block or an excuse as to why you are not yet resting in Jesus.

[26:19] Because maybe you say that, well, if it's up to Jesus to reveal himself to me, I can't do anything. It's not up to me. It's up to God. And so I'll only become a Christian if I'm in the elect.

[26:33] I'll only become a Christian if God reveals himself to me. I can't do anything else. I just have to wait for it to happen. I just have to hope that one day everything will just fall into place for me, where my eyes will be opened, the scales will be removed, and I will see the wonder of who Jesus is and know that I'm a Christian.

[26:53] Christian. But until then I just have to live my life as best as I can, be a good person, attend church, and try my best in the hope that God will one day accept me.

[27:06] And you know, so many people in our communities and in our island think like that, where they hide behind the doctrine of God's sovereign election. and they say, well, if I'm going to be saved, I'll be saved.

[27:20] There's nothing I can do about it. But you know, my friend, that is the most unbiblical statement ever. The most unbiblical.

[27:35] It's not true. And it's not the message of the Bible. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, God knows the end from the beginning. Yes, God knows everything.

[27:45] God knows who will be saved and who will not. But God never, ever tells sinners to stay where they are and do nothing. No, the divine initiative of God is that he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

[28:04] The divine initiative of God is to invite sinners to enter into this relationship with him. The divine initiative of God is to invite sinners to, come to know God the Father and rest in Jesus the Son.

[28:19] And that's what we see in these closing verses of this chapter. We've seen that the divine initiative of God is that we need to have a divine intellect. We need to have childlike faith.

[28:31] And the divine initiative of God has given to us this divine intimation that we need to know God the Father and rest in Jesus the Son. Not by traditions or biblical knowledge or anything else.

[28:42] just resting in Jesus the Son. And we have the privilege of knowing God the Father and resting in the Son because of a divine invitation.

[28:53] A divine invitation where Jesus says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

[29:07] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

[29:23] How can you ever say that God hasn't revealed himself to you? How can you ever say that? Because he has.

[29:34] We were singing about his revelation to us in Psalm 19. The heavens have been declaring, proclaiming, speaking, preaching the glory of God since the beginning of creation.

[29:48] God has been revealing himself to us by everything that surrounds us. the sun rises, the sun sets, the stars, the skies, the moon, the power of the waves, the strength of the wind, the beauty of all that we can see.

[30:03] God has revealed himself to us. But more than that, we sang in Psalm 19 that God has not only revealed himself through the creation, he's also revealed himself through his word, his precious word, the word of God that we have in our own language, readily available in every type of format possible.

[30:25] We've never had so much access to the word of God, whether in paper form or digital, whether in books or on our phone or even on our tablet, it's all there. We've never had so much access to the revelation of God in his word.

[30:41] And so we have no excuse. No excuse, we can't say that God hasn't revealed himself to us, because he has. And we are privileged people who have been brought up surrounded by God's word.

[30:58] But what's even more, my friend, is that you know in your heart that God is speaking to you. And you know that God is revealing himself to you.

[31:12] And you know in your heart that the creation reminds you of the wonder of who God is. You know in your heart that this Bible is speaking directly, personally, intimately to you.

[31:25] To you. And as Jesus said in verse 26, this is the gracious will of the Father. That you will respond to this divine invitation by coming and resting in Jesus the Son.

[31:44] And what we must see is that this divine invitation, it's full of divine imperatives. Because Jesus says, come, take, learn.

[31:57] All imperatives. Which only emphasizes that we're not to sit and wait for divine salvation just to come to us. Because it has come to us. It has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

[32:10] And we are being bidden in the gospel to respond to this divine invitation by taking on board all these divine imperatives. And you know, that's why we read in Isaiah 55.

[32:22] Because it's full of divine imperatives in which the Lord says to us, everyone who is thirsty, come.

[32:34] Come to the waters and drink. And if you have no money, he says, still come. Buy and eat, yes, come. And come without money and come without price.

[32:45] because he says, why are you going to spend your money on that which is not bread and labor for that which will never satisfy you? He says, listen to me.

[32:56] Incline your ear and come to me. Hear and your soul shall live. And the Lord says to us, do it now.

[33:08] Do it now while you have time. Seek the Lord while he's to be found. Call upon him while he is near. My friend, this is a divine invitation and it's full of divine imperatives.

[33:23] Come, take, learn, come, come, come. Listen, incline, hear, seek, call, come.

[33:35] Come. And not one of these divine imperatives says, stay where you are. Not one of them. Not one of these divine imperatives says that sit and do nothing.

[33:48] Not one of these divine imperatives says wait for something to happen. Not one of them says you're okay where you are. No, my friend, they all invoke, they all encourage, they all appeal to you to respond to the divine invitation of Jesus to come to him and to find rest for your soul.

[34:09] To find rest for your soul. people. But you know, this divine invitation, it's only for a certain people.

[34:22] Because Jesus says that this divine invitation is only for those who labor and are heavy laden. It's not for those who think they're righteous and worthy. Jesus tells us that he didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners.

[34:36] because the righteous, they don't need rest in him. They're resting in themselves, they're self-sufficient. But Jesus says that he has come to call this weary world.

[34:48] This weary world that is laboring and struggling since the fall of Adam. And he says that we have been heavy laden with the curse of sin and death.

[35:00] A curse that has left us sorrowing and sighing and burdened with guilt and disappointments and illnesses and worries and anxieties and where we have been heavy of heart.

[35:11] But Jesus says to us, whoever you are, whatever your past is, whatever you have gone through in your life, you are invited to come to me and find rest for your soul.

[35:31] And my friend, when we come to Jesus, he says, we are to take his yoke upon us. And the imagery of the yoke that's been used is of a double yoke in which two oxen would be yoked together to pull a plough.

[35:49] And Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. Free yourself from the yoke of Adam. That yoke which was put upon you at the fall.

[36:01] When Adam sinned and when Adam plunged mankind into the darkness of sin and death, Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. Free yourself from that burden of sin that oppresses you and weighs you down.

[36:16] The burden of sorrow and sadness and hardship and trial and tribulation and death. Take my yoke upon you, he says. And when you do, you will learn from me that my yoke is not like the yoke of Adam.

[36:34] For I am gentle and lowly in heart. I will not deal with you as you deserve. In fact, Jesus says, I will take the yoke of Adam upon myself.

[36:49] I will bear your griefs and I will carry your sorrows. I will be wounded for your transgressions. I will be bruised for your iniquities.

[37:00] I will be chastised so that you will have peace. By my stripes, by my beatings, by my crucifixion, you will be healed. You will be healed.

[37:12] And so Jesus says, come to me and you will find that my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus says, come to me.

[37:25] Come to me. I can see that you're restless. Come to me. I can see that you're weary and burdened. Come to me. I can see that you're sorrowing and sighing.

[37:37] Come to me. I can see that you're searching for answers in life. Come to me. I can see that you're seeking. Come to me. Come to me.

[37:49] Come to me. My friend, this is the divine initiative. It's all of God. It's all from God. and it's all to us.

[38:01] Jesus saying to us, come to me and I will give you rest. I will give you rest. We need to have a divine intellect, not a biblical intellect, childlike faith, that believes the simple promise and leans upon it, rests in it, receives it, the divine initiative has issued to us this divine intimation.

[38:35] We need to know God the Father, not by our traditions, but by resting in Jesus the Son. And the divine initiative says that we are loved and that we have the privilege of knowing God the Father and resting in Jesus the Son because of this divine invitation.

[38:55] And this invitation, it's a personal invitation. Personal invitation. Jesus is saying to us today, come unto me.

[39:07] me. And you know, when we consider a passage like this one, it becomes more and more apparent as to why Horatius Boner wrote that beautiful hymn.

[39:23] Because as we said, his purpose in writing the hymn was to lift up Jesus before us, to lift up Jesus and invite us to come to him, to look to him, to drink from him, to rest in him.

[39:39] Because as he says in the hymn, I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest, lay down thou weary one, lay down thy head upon my breast.

[39:50] I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad. I found in him a resting place and he has made me glad. I heard the voice of Jesus say, behold, I freely give.

[40:05] The living water, thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live. I came to Jesus and I drank of that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.

[40:21] I heard the voice of Jesus say, I am this dark world's light. Look unto me, thy morn shall rise, and all thy days be bright.

[40:33] I looked to Jesus and I found in him my star, my sun, and in that light of life I'll walk till travelling days are done.

[40:51] I heard the voice of Jesus say, come. my friend, you have heard his voice.

[41:03] You have heard his voice because he is saying to you today in the gospel, come unto me and you will find rest for your soul.

[41:19] It's up to you if you want to respond. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray. O Lord, we give thanks to thee that salvation and the gospel call, that it belongs to thee and to thee alone, that thou art the God who has given it to us, thou art the initiative behind it all, and Lord, we thank thee that it is a wonderful invitation, an invitation telling us not to sit where we are, but to come now, as even thy prophet said, come now, let us reason together.

[42:01] Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Help us, Lord, we pray, for to come and to keep coming, to keep drinking from this fountain, this wonderful fountain of eternal life, that thy word says to us therefore, with joy, shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.

[42:27] Bless us, Lord, we pray, bless this day to us, the Lord's day. Help us, we pray thee, to rest in thee, to wait patiently upon thee, and to worship thee as we ought.

[42:38] Go before us and do us good, for Jesus' sake. Amen. We shall conclude by singing the verses of Psalm 62.

[42:53] Psalm 62 from verse 5 down to the verse marked 8. Page 294 in the blue book. Psalm 62 from verse 5.

[43:08] My soul wait thou with patience. Upon thy God alone, on him dependeth all my hope and expectation. He only my salvation is, and my strong rock is he.

[43:20] He only is my sure defense, I shall not move to be. In God my glory placed is, and my salvation sure. In God the rock is of my strength, my refuge most secure.

[43:32] This is the call to us. You people place your confidence in him continually. Before him pour ye out your heart, God is our refuge high.

[43:43] These verses of Psalm 62 to God's praise. Ship deall with patience upon thy God the Lord on him dependeth all my and expectation.

[44:21] The only mind's salvation is and lies the rock is here.

[44:37] The only is my sure defense, I shall not believe.

[44:55] In God my glory, implicit is and my salvation true.

[45:11] In God the rock is of my strength, my refuge, most secure.

[45:30] Keep a place, pure confidence, in Him continually.

[45:45] Before Him pour ye out your heart, for this a refuge high.

[46:06] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen. Amen.