Unto Christ

Matthew 11:28-30

I read something this week, that has stuck with me. It is quite important to know and believe!

Paul Washer said this: “You’re not saved because your repentance and faith are perfect. You’re saved because the work of Christ is perfect and you’re clinging to that/Him in your frailty and your helplessness.”

Very powerful, understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We like to insert ourselves into our redemption, but we have nothing within us that is redeemable!

Martin Luther said: “most of your Christian life is outside of you, in this sense: that we know that we’re not saved by good works, we’re not saved as a result of our professions, but we’re saved as a result of what Christ has achieved.”

Allistair Begg adds to that: “if I don’t preach the Gospel to myself all day and every day, then I will find myself beginning to trust myself, trust my experience, which is part of my fallenness as a man. If I take my eyes off the cross, I can then give only lip service to its efficacy while at the same time living as if my salvation depends upon me. And as soon as you go there, it will lead you either to abject despair or a horrible kind of arrogance. And it is only the cross of Christ that deals both with the dreadful depths of despair and the pretentious arrogance of the pride of man that says, “You know, I can figure this out, and I’m doing wonderfully well.” No.”

“Because the sinless Savior died, My sinful soul is counted free; For God the just is satisfied To look on Him and pardon me.”

Something I thought about this week, was that the only time I use I or me is in the negative, as far as my salvation goes..........we take a lot of pride in ourselves whether we know it or not, but it is only Christ that has any merit with God whatsoever and that is all that matters!

The reliance on me is despair........I read this from a sermon by George Whitefield back in the 1700’s: “How few are they who are weary and heavy laden with their sins, and seek to Christ for rest? They say, in a formal customary manner, we are sinners, and there is no health in us; but how few feel themselves sinners, and are so oppressed in their own spirits, that they have no quiet nor rest in them, because of the burden of their sins, and the weight that is fallen and lays on their minds?”

Under these burdens, these heavy burdens, they are at a loss what to do whereby they may obtain rest; they fly to their works, they go to a minister, and he tells them to read, to pray, and meditate, and take the sacrament: thus they go away, and read, and pray, and meditate almost without ceasing, and never neglect the sacrament whenever there is an opportunity for the taking of it.

Well, when the poor soul has done all this, it still finds no ease, there is yet no relief. Well, what must you do then? To lie still under the burden they cannot, and to get rid of it then cannot. O what must the burdened soul do!

Why, goes to the clergyman again, and tells him the case, and what it has done, and that it is no better. Well, he asks, have you given alms to the poor? Why no. Then go and do that, and you will find rest.

Thus the poor sinner is hurried from duty to duty, and still finds no rest: all things are uneasy and disquiet within, and there remains no rest in the soul. And if it was to go through all the duties of religion, and read over a thousand manuals of prayers, none would ever give the soul any rest; nothing will, until it goes to the Lord Jesus Christ, for there is the only true rest; that is the rest which abideth, and will continue for ever. It is not in your own works, nor in your endeavors: no; when Christ comes into your souls, he pardons you, without any respect to your works, either past, present, or to come.”

Then and only then do we find rest, it is in Christ Jesus where my hope is found......it is not in me!

My soul has been given to Christ, my life has been given to Christ

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

I have put myself to death (My works, my endeavors) I do not believe in them, they have no power to do anything for that matter!

Christ lives in me, now! The faith in the Son of God......notice it does not say “my faith” it says “the faith”......I believe that is careful wording by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul!

My faith would assume that I had some kind of power or strength..........The faith means that my source is in someone else besides me!

The only place I come in there is that He (Christ) loved me and gave Himself for me!

It is His work of love and the giving of Himself that saved me and even carries me today!

Without this understanding, self-righteousness will creep in and set us up for a fall! There is absolutely no way that we can cleanse ourselves, there is absolutely no way before salvation in Christ and after can we please God.......it is only in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ do we find righteousness!

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He (GOD) hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, Jesus, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

John MacArthur when asked what do you mean “He made Jesus sin for us?”..........He treated Him as if He had committed every sin, ever committed by every person who would ever believe, though in fact Jesus committed none of them. Hanging on the cross He was holy, harmless, undefiled. Hanging on the cross He was a spotless lamb. Jesus was never for a split second a sinner. He is Holy God on the cross. But God is treating Him---I’ll put it more practically.......God is treating Jesus as if He lived my life. God punished Him for my sin-turns right around and treats me as if I have lived His life. ..........Completer forgiveness, covered by the righteousness of Christ...........When God looks at the cross He sees you and when He looks at you He sees Christ.”

That is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.......That is the believers rest......it is in Jesus Christ!

I find that we put so much emphasis on how we live rather than how Christ lived! Oh, the burden that is........why do we place ourselves in that bondage!

Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

That yoke of bondage is the flesh.....The body of death that Paul calls it!

We don’t measure ourselves by how well we are doing, we measure ourselves by the work of Jesus Christ! Do you understand that?

The works that are in me are not going to be perfect......No excuse for that…and....That alone should lead me to surrender to the freedom and rest that I have in Christ!

Listen to some of our own testimonies......there is so much about me and I, is there any room for Christ? I am crucified, it is Christ that lives in me.........

I know deeply the person that is referred to in George Whitefield’s sermon.......The sinner hurried from duty to duty, to never find rest for His soul!

How burdened is the life that depends on it’s own goodness?

I have never found my own goodness, there is only One that I have found that is good and that is God, He is my source!

You see, we lose sight of the Glory of God when we try and look at ourselves.......The only thing myself has done is defile.........I must look away from me to another source, the Only Source of Goodness!

The only rest is in Jesus Christ.......I quoted a lot of folks today but I would to use 2 more to drive home the point

Paul Washer: Everybody wants to DO something, when we ought to be wanting to BE something! Now listen to me, this might set some of you free. Do you ever get up in the morning and you had your quiet time and feel the presence of God and you were studying the Word and you seem to, God seems to speak to you and then you go out and you witness to everybody and you are obedient, and, boy, you just did it right that day. I mean you just were on top of the world, you loved your wife, you didn’t kick the cat, you are just walking with God and you are so full of joy at the end of the day. Then the next day you get up. Well, you overslept, you shouldn’t have watched that program that night before, you should have been in the Word, you didn’t witness when you had an opportunity, and there’s a real sense in which you are filled with sorrow. You know what it is? Idolatry. You have become the source of your own joy. Your joy comes from you and your continuous work. My joy comes from the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now I want to be obedient, I want to witness, I want to love my wife, and there is a real sense that the Holy Spirit convicts me when I do not do those things.

But the point is, poverty of spirit is a wonderful thing because when you realize…....Apart from any measure of grace in my life, I would be here to you today nothing more than a seething demonstration of egotistical flesh. That’s all I would ever be.

The apostle Paul said...... “I am what I am by the Grace of God.”.......Nothing else!

Allistair Begg about a church service he attended: “I was at a church in California just a few weeks ago now—back in August I think it was, time flies—and I went there. I had a Sunday free and I was staying with friends, and I went down to the church and I was excited because I get to go now, and I don't have to do anything at all except do whatever they tell me to do. And so I sat there and I waited for it to begin. And it was quite fascinating actually. They had big screens, and they had a clock on the screens. And when I got in it said "5 Minutes" and I had only been in about 2 seconds, and you won't be surprised, it said "4 Minutes, 58 Seconds." And then it counted down, and eventually it counted down, "10, 9, 8, 7, 6...". And just right on the moment of time, the band began...and I was waiting for David Letterman at that point. I didn't know what was going to happen next. And then eventually the band did what it did, and then the person who was to lead the praise, his opening gambit was this, "Hey! How do y'all feel this morning?" Well that was enough for me. We could have had the benediction right there that was so good. I thought, what kind of New Testament question is that? How do y'all feel this morning?

If I told you how I feel, especially in light of the last 5 minutes, you would question whether I was even a Christian at all. So don't ask me that question. Ask me what I know. Ask me what I know. Don't ask me what I feel about myself. Ask me what I know about God and His Son Jesus. Ask me what I know about His Word. Ask me what I know to be true and real that can deal with my soul. That's what I need. Don't make me sing songs about how I feel. Don't! These silly repetitive songs again and again, 'I just want to praise you, lift my hands and say I love you, you are everything to me'. Goodness, at half past eight on a Sunday morning I'm barely ambulatory. I can't start there. And you want me to say that? I just kicked the dog. I don't even have a dog. I got in an argument with someone because they took my parking space. I spilled my coffee, I didn't read my Bible, I'm a miserable wretch, and now you want me to start here—'how do you feel?' I feel rotten, that's how I feel! What do you got for me? The answer, nothing. I got nothing for you.

That's why you have to get yourself under the control of the Scriptures. That's why it is what we know—the truth and reality of the Scriptures which fuel our hearts and our emotions, and lead us on. Hence, 'praise my soul the King of heaven, to His feet thy tribute bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. Who like thee His praise should sing?'

Okay, now we've got something to sing about, for we have been reminded of truth. You have been ransomed; you have been healed; you have been restored; you have been forgiven. You're looking away from yourself now. You're looking out and to Christ. And it is in this that we have something that fuels our praise.

1 John 5:5 “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Titus 3:1-6......

Lastly, Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”