AN EXTRACT
HEAR the gracious words of the Son of God—of the only One who could use such language without falsehood or presumption—of the One who can use it because "all things are committed to Him in heaven and in earth." The words are addressed to all who are conscious of the burden of sin, and who are laboring to get rid of it. If they are not addressed to all mankind, it is because some do not need the rest spoken of; through divine mercy they have already found it—they have got rest in the Lord Jesus—they have found peace in believing.
But there is another class not addressed in this passage, who are in a very different condition. They are in the enjoyment of a delusive rest—a false peace. They are rocked to lullaby in the arms of Satan; they are sleeping on the margin of the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. They are feasting themselves, like Job's family; in a house which is ready to fall upon them. They are eating and drinking and making merry, in a vessel which has sprung a leak, and is presently to sink. They are unconcerned for themselves, though angels are ready to weep over them. They feel no burden, and yet all the weight of their unpardoned sin rests upon them. The heavens appear bright above them; and yet the wrath of God, like a dark thunder-cloud hangs over them.
Those to whom the Lord's gracious invitation is addressed are conscious of their condition, and this consciousness makes them wretched. Like the pilgrim described by Bunyan, they carry a heavy burden, of which they are most anxious to be relieved. They are conscience-stricken. The sense of unpardoned sin is intolerable to them. It is true they have not as yet taken a right way to get rid of their burden; the course they are taking only aggravates their condition. It is bad enough to be heavy laden; but to labor beneath such a burden can only make matters worse. To do so can only increase the sense of it; and hence Satan often becomes the tormentor of those whom God has stricken. The voice of the Lord has awakened them from their perilous dream of safety. They no longer listen to the, cry of "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." They have discovered that they are sinners and amenable to the righteous judgment of God. The enemy, finding it vain to attempt any longer to blind their eyes to their sin and danger, comes and offers his services to help them off with their burden. For this end he sets them upon keeping the law—that law by which the sinner is convicted—that law by which "no man living can be justified"—that law which stops the sinner's mouth when he would plead innocence or extenuate his offence—that law "by which is the knowledge of sin"—that law which "entered that the offence might abound"—that law which curses all "who continue not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." Yet in spite of all that the word of God says, as to the hopelessness of the attempt, Satan succeeds in persuading untold numbers of convicted sinners to seek this mode of justification. To repeat the folly which ended in bitter disappointment in the case of Israel, of "going about to establish their own righteousness," instead of "submitting to the righteousness of God.”
And though many, through divine mercy, escape from this second snare of Satan, yet it is to be feared that myriads perish in the fruitless attempt to do what God, in so many parts of His blessed word, has pronounced impossible.
Heavy-laden sinner,—the first step, then, towards the rest of conscience, which Jesus offers to thee, and which thou so much desirest to obtain—the rest of conscience which proceeds from the knowledge of pardoned sin—is to give over working for it.
If thou doubtest the truth of what I say, listen to a few of the many statements of the word of God on the matter: “He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His."(Heb. 4:1010For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:10).)
These Scriptures, then, make it plain that thy labor—thy zealous but fruitless attempts to keep the law, are the very things which, instead of aiding thee in the attainment of the object of thy desires, hinder the success of thy efforts to obtain that righteousness of which "the effect is quietness and assurance for ever.”
It is said of a person unable to swim, and who has accidentally fallen into deep water, that if he would be quiet, the water would probably bear him up until succor came: that it is his struggles, in short, which render his `case desperate. Even so it is with thy vain efforts to be thine own Savior; they prevent thee from availing thyself of the kind and powerful aid of that great Deliverer who came from heaven to earth to rescue thee from sin and death. Jesus says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest;" and in another place, "Him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out." But thou hast hitherto obeyed the promptings of "thy evil heart of unbelief," aided by the power of Satan, and refused to obey His call. Thy "dead works" are the witnesses of thy unbelief and disobedience. If thou couldst thus obtain a well-grounded peace, Christ would have died in vain. And thus thy effort is not only a hopeless one, but grossly dishonoring to the blessed God who "sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him," as well as to that gracious Savior "who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification.”
Jesus says, "I will give you rest;" but thy works are the witnesses of the pride of thy heart, which would rather receive wages than a gift. They are an attempt to earn that which is offered to thee for nothing—to buy that which as "a Prince" Jesus has power and as "a Savior" has grace to bestow; having, as "the Holy and the Just One," earned the power to do so by the sacrifice of His own life.
Thy vain effort to "attain to the law of righteousness" "by the works of the law," is a proof of thy utter ignorance both of the holiness of God and of the evil of thine own heart. If it were not so, thou wouldst not think of purchasing that peace, which is the work of righteousness, by bringing to God the worthless produce of such a barren, yea, such an accursed soil. If thou hadst had right thoughts of God and of thy own nature, thou wouldst not have taken "the way of Cain," and offered to the Searcher of hearts the fruit of that on which the sentence of death has passed. If thou continuest this course, with thy back on the cross, and thine eyes turned in upon thyself, as thy work so will thy disappointment be, like that of him of whom it is recorded, that "he was very wrath, and his countenance fell," when God had not respect unto his offering.
Thou wilt never thus render thyself acceptable to God; thou wilt never thus obtain the "rest" which Jesus offers to the heavy-laden sinner. And if thou dolt not get rest in Jesus now, how canst thou hope for the rest that remaineth for the people of God?
Take, then, poor needy one, that rest which it rejoices the heart of the Savior to bestow. It is well for thee that that which He has purchased for thee with His own precious blood, He gives thee "without money and without price." Whatever thou mayest have heretofore supposed, thou hast, as we have just seen, "no money" that will not be found utterly base and worthless when tried in the fire of God's holiness, however it may pass current with short-sighted and sinful man.
Bankrupt as thou art by nature, yet "open thy mouth wide and God will fill it." He will enrich thee with "durable riches" out of His own treasury. "Beggar" as thou art, away from Christ, yet coming to Him thou shalt be "taken from the dunghill, thou shalt be set among princes, and made to inherit the throne of glory.”
Leave off thy fruitless and sinful labor, and come to Jesus, and thou shalt find that thy heavy load has fallen from off thy back; nay, that though thou Nast in thy blindness and unbelief thought it thine, it was borne by Him when on the cross, and left in His grave when "He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.”