Hear now the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 11, verses 16 through 30.

"But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates. We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating or drinking. And they say he has a demon. 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. Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! Or if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done, and you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom, and for you. 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. 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. 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."

 

The grass withers, the flower fades. But the word of our God endures forever. Nearly a month ago. Ucla, the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA's CTE program That's the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, launched a campaign to ask volunteers to help in the work of trying to find signs of intelligent life outside in the universe and the outer space. What they asked people to do in this campaign is to look at digitized visualizations of radio transmissions, radio frequencies that we receive from outer space, and then to sort of classify those digital visualizations according to patterns. That's something that's fairly easy for human beings to do. It's it's very difficult to write a computer program to tell a computer how to do this. And so what they're hoping is that by having enough manual, humans have looked at this and manually classified this according to one of just a few patterns.

 

They can then teach artificial intelligence systems to do this very rapidly, and to have the opportunity of of working through all kinds of different frequencies at a rate that that we have not been able to previously, uh, assess through all of the data so far, there has been a huge response to this. 9000 volunteers, just one month, 9000 volunteers have classified a quarter of a million signals manually just looking at them and classifying them one by one by one. I think what this shows is that there is a huge hunger trying to figure out who we are, to try to figure out where we stand, especially where are we in the world, in the universe, in the galaxies. Although even if we learned information about this, it's kind of unclear still what exactly we would learn. The British science fiction author Sir Arthur C Clarke once wrote this. He says two possibilities exist either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. We want to know. We want to have some idea. We think that by maybe finding some extraterrestrial intelligence that might give us some kind of meaning, some kind of significance, some kind of understanding of our place in the cosmos, maybe some sort of wisdom. But again, it's unclear what exactly that would bring us now, this technology that we're working with right now, the ability to receive radio signals from outer space, the ability to digitally visualize these radio signals, the ability to train artificial intelligence.

 

All of this is new. However, what is very old is the search for meaning in this world and beyond. Human beings have always been looking at this. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Job chapter 28. Now, if you know anything about the book of job, job most people think is one of the oldest, if not the oldest books of the Bible have been written. It's very, very old. And in job 28, it begins there by talking about human technology, human ingenuity, about our ability to mine deep in the earth, to draw out from the earth all kinds of minerals. And even there, even in the oldest book in the Bible, the Bible says human beings can do anything. We can search out anything and natural creation. Surely there is a mined for silver and a place where gold can be found. Human beings can do all of this. Now we're even searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. All of this is is not a new search. Even if we have newer technologies, we've always used technology to find knowledge. And well, the Bible tells us that there is a certain kind of knowledge that we should be pursuing. Proverbs 25 verse two says, it's the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

 

Nevertheless, what job 28 goes on to say is that as much as we might search, as much as we might be good at finding things in this world and beyond, nevertheless we will not be able to find wisdom. Meaning. Significance. Job 28 goes on to ask this question but where shall wisdom be found? Where shall wisdom be found? And then it says, wisdom is hidden from the eyes of all living, so that even Abaddon, destruction and death have only heard rumors of the place of wisdom. Then Jobe goes on and Jobe 28 verse 23 to say this, but God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. And then the chapter ends this way. Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to turn away from evil is understanding. While we may be good at searching out knowledge, various kinds of knowledge, whether from mining deep in the earth or listening to radio signals from outer space. What the Bible tells us is that if we are trying to find wisdom, that search will ultimately be endless, fruitless, frustrating, and exhausting. To find wisdom requires at the beginning, a fear of the Lord that looks to him, to receive from him what he has revealed, rather than seeking it out on our own. This is what Jesus is getting at in our passage today so that our big idea is this. Find rest in the revealed Son of God.

 

Find rest in the revealed Son of God. As we look at this passage, we'll look at this in three parts. First of all, rejecting Jesus, rejecting Jesus. Second of all, revealing Jesus. Revealing Jesus. And then third resting in Jesus. Resting in Jesus.

1. Rejecting Jesus (Matt. 11:16–24)
2. Revealing Jesus (Matt. 11:25–27)
3. Resting in Jesus (Matt. 11:28–30)

Rejecting Jesus (Matt. 11:16–24)

I want to start by directing our attention just to the verse before the one that we're looking at this morning in verse 15. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Last week we looked at Jesus's response to the question that John the Baptist had posed are you the one who is to come? Or should we expect? Should we look for another? And Jesus says, I understand why you're struggling with this. I'm not doing the kinds of things that you maybe have expected, but understand I'm doing everything the Scripture says and more about what the Messiah would do when he came into this world. But then he eventually says, I understand, though, that this will be difficult to comprehend. So let the one who has ears to hear, let that one hear. It is difficult to believe. Jesus says, that he is indeed the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. What Jesus goes on to say in this section is he picks up where he left off from last week, as he says, the difficulty of understanding that Jesus is who he says he is is not primarily an intellectual difficulty. This isn't like calculus. You look at all those squiggly lines on the page, and you have no idea what it's asking of you.

 

It's not that kind of a difficulty in understanding and intellectual difficulty. It's rather a willful difficulty. It's not whether we can understand this. It's whether we want to understand this about Jesus. And so Jesus goes on in verses 16 through 19 and he says this. But to what shall I compare this generation? It's like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates. We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sing a dirge and you did not mourn. Very different approaches. For John came neither eating or drinking. And they say he has a demon. 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. Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. Now Jesus, remember, the context is talking about the different ministries of John the Baptist and the one that Jesus himself undertakes. And what he's saying is that John and Jesus have had very different messages. For John, it was a message of great austerity, great strictness. Remember, John lived out in the wilderness. He wore rough clothing and just ate grasshoppers and honey and preached a message of repentance. Whereas Jesus has come and he's dining with people, including tax collectors and sinners. And Jesus is saying, no matter what either of us declared to, you didn't want what either of us were offering to you, in fact, what both of us were offering to you.

 

Jesus is not saying that that he and John had taken different strategic approaches, or that they had contextualized their message in some way. It's not that Jesus said, John, why don't you take the uptight people and I'm going to take the partiers? That's not what Jesus said. Rather, what's happening here is that Jesus is saying they were given very different missions in this world and whatever and whatever they said, whatever they did, the issue was not in their approach. The issue was rather what both of them were preaching. Both of them were preaching. Jesus Zelensky commentator writes this. He says what they demanded of John, they condemned in Jesus and what they condemned in John. They demanded in Jesus. In reality, by both actions, they condemned themselves. John came preaching. Jesus came preaching. It looked very different. The problem wasn't the way it looked. The problem was the message that both came proclaiming it didn't want either. We cannot craft the right approach. The problem here is what both of them are offering, namely that both of them are offering Jesus. Now Jesus says, this unbelief, this hard heartedness, this lack of repentance is going to carry very significant consequences. And so in verses 20 through 24, then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

 

What Jesus is saying is the unbelief of these cities, and he names the cities that he had done these mighty works in and compares them to other wicked cities. And what he's saying is the unbelief is more significant than the wickedness of these cities who were not, uh, did not have the great deeds of Jesus done in front of them. You had that revelation, Jesus saying, but you did not repent. You have greater knowledge, and therefore your unbelief is a worse sin than some of these wicked places, including the wickedness of Sodom, which is a proverbially wicked city. In the Old Testament. God had to destroy that off the face of the earth for its wickedness. And Jesus is saying your unbelief even worse, if they had had what you have had, Sodom would even remain until this day. The problem again with Jesus is pointing to is their lack of repentance, and especially the lack of repentance, given the additional higher degree of revelation that they had received. Last week we talked about the connection between the old covenant revelation that connects forward to the coming of Jesus. We talked about the illustration from a theologian named Geerhardus Vos that talked about the the difference and the connection between an acorn and an oak tree. Again, if you look at an acorn, it's not just a miniature miniature oak tree. You can't look at one and see the connection, but that acorn has all of the DNA, all the markers, so that it will organically grow into an an oak tree.

 

One grows into the other. And what Jesus is saying is some of these other cities only had the oak tree they didn't understand or only had the acorn they didn't understand the oak tree that would result. But you have more revelation. You can at least see the seedling growing up in front of you, even if it hasn't fully grown into the shape that it's going to take. And because of this, you are going to have the greater condemnation. Now, one of the things we also talked about last week is that in our context, we have even greater revelation than what those who were living at this time when Jesus said these words at. We know all the message again. The youngest children among us know that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that he was raised up on the third day. We talk about it every week and which means that we have more revelation, and therefore we are more responsible for what we know. And if we reject it, we will face a harsher punishment. Not only the horizon and Bethsaida and Tyre and Sidon and Capernaum and Sodom. We're going to face a greater punishment than all of them if we do not believe. We need to let that sink in. Jesus is warning us here about the eternal horrors of hell.

 

They're coming on the Day of Judgment. For all those who do not believe in Jesus, who do not repent from their sins. And today we hear all kinds of objections to following Jesus. We hear the same kinds of questions that Jesus calls out here when he says, you didn't want us if we played the flute for you, or if we sang a dirge. We hear people say, well, what about those who are sincere about a different religion? Or what about those who had maybe a bad experience with professing Christians? Or what about those who couldn't leave their culture, their family, in order to follow Jesus? Things were too difficult to walk away from this. And when Jesus is laying all of this out, he's not denying for a moment that people will face challenges and following him. He knows these challenges. He says unless you take up your cross to follow me, you are not worthy of me. What Jesus is reminding us in all of this. Is the reminder that he's not just making a bare knuckled threat. What Jesus is doing is reminding us, he said he is precious in all of these challenges. He is the one who liberates people from the captivity to other religions. He is the one who heals and dignifies people who have been abused, even at the hands of professing Christians. He is the one who restores 100 fold whatever we might give up in order to follow him.

 

But Jesus is saying, he said, don't talk to me about the challenges. This isn't that you can't understand what I'm saying. It's that you don't want it. It's not a question of if you understand it. The question of desire. Not that we played the flute when we should have played a dirge, but we zigged when we should have zagged. The problem is whether or not you want Jesus. Jesus is reminding us that there are great, grievous warnings to those who will not. But from here, Jesus goes on. He doesn't only match, but he surpasses what he talked about in the warnings on one side. So much more. The grace of God abounds with gospel comfort. Which brings us to one of the most precious passages in all the Bible in verses 25 through 30. And we'll break it up to look at two different facets here. And the first section, in verses 25 to 27, we come to our second point revealing Jesus.

Revealing Jesus (Matt. 11:25–27)

Where Jesus raises his Father by leaving concealed the gospel for some and revealing the gospel to others. Look at what Jesus says in verse 25. We read at that time Jesus declared, and this is a kind of declaring, which is a a giving thanks. It's a rejoicing kind of declaring. It's not just that he spoke these things. Jesus confessed these things. He declared these things. What time is this at that time? Well, you know, it's interesting if you read the Gospel of Luke and find the parallel account.

 

Jesus says this right after the 70 who had been sent off of a mission of preaching and teaching throughout all of Israel. They are returning and declaring to Jesus some of the good things that God did in and through their ministry while they were away. Well, here, remember, if you remember the last chapter, Jesus was training his disciples for ministry, but we never actually read about the ministry that they embark on. So here, when we when we read at that time, it's not, we're told by Matthew, because the disciples have returned from their mission. We're not told that in the context of Matthew. Matthew is directing our attention. What has just come before Jesus. Reflections on the unbelief of the cities of Galilee, where he had done his mightiest works. And at that time Jesus declared again. He rejoices. He confesses these things. He says, I thank you. Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Now. Jesus is the Son of God. He rightfully calls God his Father. But notice he also confesses the sovereignty. Of this father, Lord of heaven and earth. I thank you, father, Lord of heaven and earth. And what does he say? I thank you that you have hidden these things. And the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Jesus rejoicing here over the father's work to conceal and to reveal the gospel, concealing it from the wise and understanding, and revealing it to those who are little children.

 

Now, this word little children is very important. This is the common word for infants. Jesus says that God reveals this to infants, not the wise and the understanding, but to infants. Here at harvest. We do not believe that infants are excluded from the kingdom of heaven because they lack understanding. And part of that comes from a passage like this and many others in the New Testament, where Jesus in fact says the opposite. If you want to be excluded from the kingdom, rely on your own ability to understand something. The father has hidden. He has concealed his gospel from those who are wise and understanding in their own eyes, and instead he has revealed Jesus infants. This doesn't mean that all those who are who have some education are excluded, nor that every infant is included. Jesus is talking about a way of relating to him, depending on our own wisdom, our own knowledge, our own understanding, or. Coming to the father like an infant in absolute dependence. What Jesus is saying, rather, is that it is as much of a miracle for the father to reveal Jesus to an infant as it is for the father to reveal Jesus to the elderly. It's not about your ability to understand. It is a supernatural work of God, to reveal Jesus and to create faith that looks to him and receives him.

 

Our Lord teaches then that the kingdom of God belongs to infants, that infants are set apart as holy on the basis of even one believing parent. Therefore, in obedience to the Lord, we receive infants, even infants, into membership by baptism at this church. Of course, Jesus is pressing not just a difference between those who have some education and those who are infants. Again, it's how we relate to him even as infants and utter dependence. So we have to ask the question what then is Jesus talking about? Why is he talking about the father, or concealing from some and hiding something from from some and then revealing it to others? This gets back to our original question why can't we find this for ourselves? Why are we so dependent upon God to reveal the gospel of Jesus to us? Why can't we just search, if not down into the ground in the minds of the earth, then all the way into outer space to find the wisdom of God that provides salvation? Why? Because it's God's gracious will. Verse 26, yes, father, for such was your gracious will. Why? Because God gets all the glory. This way no one becomes because he or she is clever. No one comes because of one's understanding or wisdom. Everyone comes if they come simply because the father has revealed to us Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Yes, Father Jesus. As for such was your gracious will. And what Jesus is talking here is the about is the mystery of God's election.

 

The Bible also calls this predestination. When we come to this, we have to be so careful, because the doctrine of predestination is a high mystery to be handled with special prudence and care. We can't reject it. It's not something we have created. It's something that has been revealed to us in the scriptures. We cannot ignore it. Jesus is the one who rejoices in the father's choice to conceal the gospel to some and to reveal the gospel others. It's very important to recognize that when Jesus is rejoicing here, he's not rejoicing as though the father is sort of being capricious. He just goes, eenie, meenie, miney, mo. He conceals from some, and then he reveals to others. And it's the same kind of a choice. And theologians say that God's work of concealing the gospel from some and revealing the gospel of others is asymmetrical. It's not the same exact kind of a thing. Glory of Jesus is something rather that is concealed from all of us, that all of us are blind to, that none of us see at the beginning this is concealed from every last one of us because of our sin. Our sin is what leads us to search heaven and earth to find wisdom apart from God. And originally, we are all bent in that direction. We are obsessed with it. You want to find some meaning on our own? God then very graciously, although he would be justified in leaving all of us in our blindness and leaving us all in our sin, in leaving us, handing us over to our own desires to seek meaning and satisfaction apart from him.

 

God, then very graciously. Reveals Jesus Christ the son. That has nothing to do with the goodness of those to whom he reveals the gospel. It has nothing to do with anything that they have done. It's not that they must have done something good in their youth or childhood. It is only because of God's grace, God's mercy. Such was your gracious will, Jesus says. And specifically Jesus says that God is revealing. The sufficiency and glory of the son in verse 27. That all things have been handed over to me. Jesus says by my father, as well as the relationship that the son has to the 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. This is Matthew's version of what we have in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the father except through him. We have here is this great truth that the only way we have of looking to the Lord of receiving the Lord comes only as God graciously reveals His Son to us by the work of the father and the son, as well as the Holy Spirit.

 

You're seeing here. Jesus insists that there is salvation in no one else, that there is wisdom and no one else, that he alone is the only way to God. The exclusivity of Jesus Christ for salvation. Now this, this right here is what the world rages at. Because this strikes at the heart of human pride. We believe that given enough time and enough energy and enough technology, we can find the answers that we need for ourselves. And Jesus cuts across this and says, don't you see? You're blind. You are sinful. You're pointing in the wrong direction. You are helpless. You need the grace of God, or you stand no chance receiving. And that cuts against our pride. What Jesus is reminding us here is what the whole scriptures declare. Even in the Old Testament, we see this kind of choice and all of us face this choice the choice of Naaman the Syrian. Naaman was a foreigner. He was also someone who was unclean because of leprosy. A servant girl from Israel, who had been captured in battle was brought into his household, who told her, master, you need to go to Israel. There are prophets in Israel who could tell you how you could washed and be made clean. And so Naaman believes this little girl's testimony, and she goes, and he goes to Israel trying to find this prophet. He finds Elisha the prophet.

 

Elisha tells him the last thing he wants to hear. It's a message that humbles him. Elisha says, wash seven times in the dirty Jordan River and you will be cured. This is a great news, right? He's going to be made clean. And the Bible says that he is angry because of this. There's good news. There's gospel for him, and he's angry about it because he says, aren't there better rivers back in Syria that I could go to? The servants get a hold of him and said, my father is a great word that the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? Has he not said, wash and be clean? That's what all of us are faced with. As God actually said, Believe in Jesus and you will be saved. Has God actually said, repent from your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins will be forgiven. As God actually said, wash in the blood of Jesus by faith, and you will be made clean as he said this. You not do it? Will we receive what God has revealed? Or will we in pride refuse what God has revealed and instead keep searching for some solution that will stroke our egos? Problem is not intellectual. The problem is that we not that we don't know, that we can't figure out the complex math problem. Problem is whether we want to or not. The problem of will, not intellect.

 

Jesus is the gospel. He is the exact image and representation of his father, and the father reveals Jesus according to his gracious will, and Jesus chooses to reveal the father to his people. Jesus, then, is the treasury of the father's infinite wealth. He alone knows the father. The question then is only how shall we respond? Certainly not with unbelief. That's what Jesus warned about earlier. But what then does Jesus want from us? This brings us to our third section. Resting in Jesus. Resting in Jesus.

Resting in Jesus (Matt. 11:28–30)

Again, this is one of the most precious passages in the whole New Testament. What does Jesus want from you? He doesn't want you to climb the highest mountain. He doesn't want you to swim the deepest ocean. He doesn't want you to do some great work for him. He wants you to come to him. Rest. Come to me and rest. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus wants to give rest for our souls. Come to him and find rest. The wise and the proud. Those who have understanding according to their own knowledge, seek to suppress the desperation of their souls. I know Jesus has a solution that he promises, but I can do it on my own. Come to him like an infant. Infants seek comfort. Give me the food that I'm seeking. Change the diaper. Infants need this kind of help, and they're ready for anyone who might give it to them.

 

Jesus has offered us this. Will we humble our pride and receive Jesus like an infant? Are you today seeking to rise above the weariness of the world? You think you can outperform whatever's coming at you? Or perhaps, have you given up on your seeking to numb yourself from the pain and have sunk under and let everything wash over? You just washed your hands of this world given up? Jesus offers you a far better solution. He says, come to me and find rest. In verse 29, he describes this as a yoke. Take my yoke upon you. This is the kind of yoke that you might put on a cow or oxen, as that ox was was pulling a load for you. The rabbis then saw the yoke as the obligations of the law. To take upon the yoke of the law was to be bound by all the obligations of the law. It led to very burdensome duties. But notice Jesus's yoke, he says, has been fashioned by himself. He is one who is gentle and lowly in heart, so that this is not a yoke that adds to our trouble and our difficulty. This is a yoke that brings 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. Finally Jesus says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

 

The yoke is easy and the burden is light. Because the Gospel of Jesus is precious for sinners who are burdened under sin. The world's gospel says do more. Do better. Try to ignore that nagging conscience of yours. And in this there is no rest for the weary. Jesus's gospel promises, on the other hand, promise to meet our greatest needs, forgive our sins before the tribunal of Almighty God to free us from the treadmill of human performance by declaring us once for all righteous through faith in Jesus. Purify our consciences so that, though defiled, we might become clean to welcome us into the kingdom of God as beloved children of the father. Oh weak, weary, wounded sinner burdened under guilt. Find rest in Jesus by faith. Once again, I want to start where I want to continue where I started. And at the end of the day, this question comes to whether or not you want him. There's a church father, a man named Augustine. He died in about 430 AD. He lived a long time ago. Some of his sermons are preserved. And there's a sermon that I think about a lot where Augustine called his people. He said, think of all the evils that greedy men are prepared to face. Think how they will put up with hardships in order to win the things they are greedy for, things that seem unbearable to people who don't share their greed but love makes them brave. Love of evil, though, is called greed. Love of good.

 

Hold love.

 

But Gustin is saying there is what Jesus is pointing at. It's a question of what we love. Do you love your own cleverness, your own wisdom, your own understanding? You can love your pride, and you can endure burdensome, weary hardships of this world as you stick to your guns on this matter. Or you can find rest in the revealed Son of God. And that's our application this morning. Please find rest in the revealed Son of God. Jesus is giving us brutally clear warnings here. If you do not repent, you will perish. Just remember, you have better information about Jesus than even Chorazin or Capernaum had. And they had better proof of Jesus salvation than tyre, Sidon, and even Sodom. Because you know exactly who Jesus was. He's the eternal Son of God who took upon himself a human nature. You know exactly what he did, that he lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross, that he was buried in, that on the third day he rose again from the dead. And then the 40 days after that he ascended into heaven, where he continues to reign at the right hand of his father. And you know exactly what he will do, that one day he will return bodily. And then when he comes, he's going to condemn the wicked and to vindicate his people who have looked to him by faith. If that's true, will you not then repent? Again, it's going to be worse for Chorazin and Capernaum than for tyre, Sidon and Sodom. But it will be worse for you than any of these things. You know the facts better than they did. Will you not repent? But our Lord is not seeking to manipulate us by threats. Certainly he's giving us clear warnings, but not threats. Rather, what Jesus is doing is calling us.

 

Wooing.

 

Is calling us to find rest in him as the revealed Son of God. This morning, I don't want to send you with a list of things to do. Rather, I want to lift up before your eyes the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified. The Lord of glory was condemned. He was beaten. He was spit upon. He was mocked. He was nailed to a tree and cursed as anyone who hangs on a tree. Jesus did this. Sinners like you. He suffered not only the excruciating physical torment of the cross, but the wrath of Almighty God. Have you ever suffered something in your conscience? Have you ever had your conscience condemn you for something you did, not just a little prick? Oh, I probably shouldn't have done that. But something that burdens you. Do you understand your conscience? God has given to you to give you a taste of God's wrath at the final judgment of God. Understand the unbearable weight of our consciences. At times, this will be magnified infinitely on the final day of judgment. Jesus has already entered that for you. Jesus entered into this not just to take a taste of the wrath of God, not just a little bit of feeling the burden of your guilty conscience. Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath to the dregs so that you might go free. Wonder of wonders. Did this to you, for you and for me. For all to whom the father reveals the son, and to whom the son chooses to reveal the father.

 

And you might be saying, well, I don't know what they're that that's me. That seems exclusive. Here's what cuts through all of that. What Jesus tells you is to come if you come. That's how you know all of this election. We're not meant to pry into the mysteries of God. Jesus simply says, come and find rest. That's all you need. Respond. Jesus died so that sinners might be forgiven, cleansed, purified, and sanctified. You don't have to face condemnation. Christ was condemned for you. You don't have to bear your burdens. Christ has cancelled your debt, nailing it to the cross. You don't have to suffer under your shame because Jesus went outside the camp to bear the curse for you. You don't have to do your own penance. Christ calls you rather to take his light and easy, restful yoke upon you. You repent from your sins and turn him. Whatever weariness you carry, whatever heavy laden load that bears you down today. Jesus is the one who knows the father. Jesus is the one who will reveal the father to you, a sinner. Give you perfect rest. Perfect peace. Jesus is the one who calmed the storm on the sea. Jesus is the one who can calm the storm of your heart, who teaches you to find rest for your soul in him, who gives you an easy yoke and a light burden.

 

Come to Jesus.

 

And find rest. Pray. Heavenly father, we pray that you would give us Jesus Christ and Him crucified to know him, love him, to respond to him in faith. And we pray that as we come to Jesus this morning, you would give us rest. Father, if there are any who are confused, wondering whether you have revealed the gospel to them, I pray that your Holy Spirit.

 

Would speak within them.

 

Teaching them to cry out, ABBA, father, by faith to you, bearing witness the spirit of adoption. They are children of God. We pray that you would do this by faith and for our good. For the glory of Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen.