Matthew
11:27-30) Jesus said, Come unto Me all of you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. 29) Take My yoke upon you (Which is
His Spirit, Word and Guiding Light) and learn of Me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls, 30) For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.....
Being justified, being
justified, being justified. Law, Law, Law. Legalism, Legalism, Legalism were all in the mix of all those weighty works demanded of the Law that Paul called the dispensation and the administration unto condemnation that CONDEMNED ALL. Paul wrote, For the Law worketh wrath. Strict adherence to even man made up religious looking rules was the enforced smack and treatment going on by the Hypocrite Elders upon the children of
Israel in the days Jesus visited His People. Israels shepherds were in themselves filled with religious judgemental wrath and rage, loving to toss guilt, condemnation, and shame upon everyone but themselves. Those elders paraded
themselves as the shepherds of Israel, but Jesus said to the face of all of those self appointed, self righteous leaders that they were blind guides who were even of the devil (John 8:44). He even said
that they were like dead mens bones, they looked clean and fare without,
but within they were full of dead mens bones and all corruption.
The Pharisees, they
were men who felt that they knew all and needed no one to correct or to teach them
anything about God. They were Self righteous men always exalting themselves, but when it came to others, they were found by God to be so often walking about the streets of Israel seeking whom they could devour with the Law. They loved belittling the
flock, and constantly throwing guilt trips and stoning threats upon the
transgressors. Remember how quick they were to stone to death that woman
who was caught in the act of adultery. This killing rage was their common attitude. The dispensation of their visitation when Christ visited them, the very atmosphere of Israel in those days was ripe and hot for the Cross of Christ by their hands. They were, IN THERE USE OF THE LAW, men who became thirsty for the blood of transgressors and so called blasphemers.
They drooled over publicly ridiculing people for their sins and embarrassing them. Thinking to do so was a real holy adventure. They rebuked harshly anyone that did not wash their hands before they ate or walked to many steps on the Sabbath day. They tried to rebuke Jesus for doing such things, but their foolishness did not work with the Lord from heaven, HE WAS THE BOSS. They became so hard hearted that they would rather stone a person to death for their sin than to have mercy or compassion on them. TO FORGIVE was just out of the question. Jesus said to them about their evil hearts, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. They had Moses, the Law, and the Commandments they enforced, but Jesus shocked them when he told them that they did not have God. He told them, You do the lust and the desire of Satan (John 8:44). We see mean religious hearts like they had back then today in our generation. Religious, Law preaching, Commandment enforcers, and Stoning blood thirsty fanatics....but they do not have the love of God in them. Which Jesus and John said means that they do not have or know the one true God.
They drooled over publicly ridiculing people for their sins and embarrassing them. Thinking to do so was a real holy adventure. They rebuked harshly anyone that did not wash their hands before they ate or walked to many steps on the Sabbath day. They tried to rebuke Jesus for doing such things, but their foolishness did not work with the Lord from heaven, HE WAS THE BOSS. They became so hard hearted that they would rather stone a person to death for their sin than to have mercy or compassion on them. TO FORGIVE was just out of the question. Jesus said to them about their evil hearts, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. They had Moses, the Law, and the Commandments they enforced, but Jesus shocked them when he told them that they did not have God. He told them, You do the lust and the desire of Satan (John 8:44). We see mean religious hearts like they had back then today in our generation. Religious, Law preaching, Commandment enforcers, and Stoning blood thirsty fanatics....but they do not have the love of God in them. Which Jesus and John said means that they do not have or know the one true God.
Many of the elders in Israel in their visitation from The Lord from heaven, they had Law and religion but no
love. That my friends Jesus said is Satans scripture interpretation and deceptively formed religion, not Gods. They were religious and mean spirited and highly judgemental instead of
being the light and hope of the world and to their own that God called them to
be......Jesus said that they lost sight of the heart of the Law which was justice, fairness, MERCY and GOOD FAITH.
Satan twisted and manipulated their religious and biblical
view. They constantly loaded the flock of Israel down with heavy loads
and religious bundles that were burdensome to bare, but though they would
go to a house top to shout your name and expose and point out your sins
publicly to the crowds to stone you to death, they were above the thought and the idea to help lift one ounce of the load of guilt and of religious
bundles that they exalted and laid upon the minds and backs of the sheep of Israel. In other words they
thought it was most godly to be merciless and to exalt Law over mercy
and to stone more than to have mercy and compassion.
Good Samaritans also they were not. They saw that man wounded, bleeding, and in dire need and they just shrugged their shoulders and walked on by. In their twisted by Satan religious mindset they would think, I wonder what sin he did that got him in that condition. Better not mess with the Lords work there and they just walked on by. THEY WERE DECEIVED.
Good Samaritans also they were not. They saw that man wounded, bleeding, and in dire need and they just shrugged their shoulders and walked on by. In their twisted by Satan religious mindset they would think, I wonder what sin he did that got him in that condition. Better not mess with the Lords work there and they just walked on by. THEY WERE DECEIVED.
The elders of Israel by their zeal to stone (recall with me how they often quickly took up the stones to stone Jesus for this or that. Folks it was in them to do that. They were driven by the stone). The elders were people who seemed to have lost all sight to
what God had formerly said thru the prophet Micah 6:8...and what does
THE LORD REQUIRE of all of you, But to act justly, to love mercy and to
walk humble with your God. Many of the elders of Israel were not at all
walking in the light of those words. They loved the rebuke and the
stones of their religion, and to publicly humiliate sinners above the love and mercy of God. They had forgotten the heart of the Law Jesus said which was justice, MERCY, and faith...
Jesus was appalled at their
hardness of heart and lack of mercy and understanding. He was grieved at many of the elders and teachers of Israel, about
their lack of gentleness and what it had done to the children of Israel
in their views and image of God. He even one day said of the citizens of Israel that they had become like sheep without genuine true caring shepherds led by blind men.....They had such a distorted view of the image of the heart of God that when God and His true image was standing and talking right there in front of them, they were blind to see it and to know who He was. It is written, the Lord came unto His own and His own did not recognize him or receive Him. THEY WERE BLIND and by Satan deceived using the book of the Law.
But Jesus came down from heaven to earth on a BIG MISSION. He came to open the eyes of the blind and to take away THE WEIGHT of all the sin of every person and of all the world. Imagine the enormous weight of all that sin. The weight was SO HEAVY that we find in the scriptures that most of the world and even many of the chosen people of Israel, when they died, THE WEIGHT OF THEIR SINS WENT WITH THEM (UPON THEM) AND THEY DESCENDED BY THAT WEIGHT DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, AND SUNK INTO THE REGION OF HELL ITSELF. Friends that is some heavy weight. That is the most heaviest burden of all to bear in this life and in the life after the body (Eternity in Hell for dying in ones sin). We needed the burden of that enormous worry and weight of the Law and of sin OFF OUR SHOULDERS AND BACKS, AND OFF OUR SOULS.
In the Lords dealing with this weight of the Law which gave sin its destroying power, Jesus was going to have to deal with many different things that were included in the ingredients of THAT WEIGHT that burdened all of Israel and all the world down. In this lift off, He came to take away all self righteous boasting of any sort of any Jew or by any Gentile by the meaningful sight of His Blood in the Sacrifice of Himself. By taking on this sight and HIS YOKE and LEARNING OF WHAT HE DID AND ACCOMPLISHED THRU THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS would, WHEN LEARNED AND UNDERSTOOD PROPERLY be a MIGHTY BURDEN LIFTER TO ALL THOSE THAT UNDERSTOOD. Lets remember in our text what Jesus said, Take My yoke (My guiding light) and LEARN, LEARN, LEARN of Me (Who I am and What I have accomplished for you) and WHEN YOU LEARN RIGHTLY THIS TRUTH, YOU WILL FIND REST UNTO YOUR SOULS. He said, Continue all of you IN MY WORD (His Yoke-His Guiding Light) and YOU SHALL KNOW (they learned something) YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THAT TRUTH (that truth that you learned and came to KNOW of ME) will SET YOU FREE.
In freeing us and in lifting the weighty burdens of our sins off of our backs and souls Jesus HAD TO to do away with the
Laws heavy weight, it's power to condemn and to stone. THE REASON? Read very attentively. I Corinthians 15:56...the strength of sin IS THE LAW, then in Romans 4:15 we find the wisdom of God in the purpose of the Cross of Christ. There we read, For the Law arises Gods wrath, (Now pay attention, this is REDEMPTION GLORY AND WISDOM)...BUT WHERE THERE IS NO LAW THERE IS NO LEGAL TRANSGRESSION.
People go to court proceedings and to punishments for breaking Laws, but where there is NO LAW the court is CLOSED (glory to God). You see we were all found guilty of sin, that was proven in the dispensation of the Law and we were all in the courts and had been judged GUILTY AS CHARGED. We all had the sentence of death against us. But an amazing thing happened. John 5:22-24 reveals to us that God committed all of us to the authority of HIS SON (John 17:2-3). And that God had made Jesus now the Judge and committed ALL JUDGEMENTS unto His Son. And what did the Son, the NEW JUDGE DO???? He looked at all of us that were guilty under the weight of the condemning Law and that were condemned and sentenced to death, hell and the grave, and said the most remarkable words from His Judgement Seat that He was sitting on as the NEW JUDGE. He said, By the Sacrifice of Myself I will take away their sins, the sin of the world to be their propitiation. I will be wounded for their trangressions so that they would not be. I will be bruised for their iniquities so that they would not have to be. I will be punished for their PEACE WITH GOD to be covenantly established, and by my wounds and stripes they shall be healed and these words shall be sealed (Isaiah 53:4-12 & Isaiah 54:7-10).
People go to court proceedings and to punishments for breaking Laws, but where there is NO LAW the court is CLOSED (glory to God). You see we were all found guilty of sin, that was proven in the dispensation of the Law and we were all in the courts and had been judged GUILTY AS CHARGED. We all had the sentence of death against us. But an amazing thing happened. John 5:22-24 reveals to us that God committed all of us to the authority of HIS SON (John 17:2-3). And that God had made Jesus now the Judge and committed ALL JUDGEMENTS unto His Son. And what did the Son, the NEW JUDGE DO???? He looked at all of us that were guilty under the weight of the condemning Law and that were condemned and sentenced to death, hell and the grave, and said the most remarkable words from His Judgement Seat that He was sitting on as the NEW JUDGE. He said, By the Sacrifice of Myself I will take away their sins, the sin of the world to be their propitiation. I will be wounded for their trangressions so that they would not be. I will be bruised for their iniquities so that they would not have to be. I will be punished for their PEACE WITH GOD to be covenantly established, and by my wounds and stripes they shall be healed and these words shall be sealed (Isaiah 53:4-12 & Isaiah 54:7-10).
He came to literally take away the stone out of all hands even hells hands. He came to remove the old and to establish for us in His own Sacrifice and blood a better covenant of PEACE with GOD far better than the covenant that caused men to pick up stones and throw them at sinners and at each other.
After and thru the blood of His Cross, all of us were humbled to the obedience of these NEW WORDS OF THE NEW AND LIVING WAY. Those words included these words, Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. He that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone.
After and thru the blood of His Cross, all of us were humbled to the obedience of these NEW WORDS OF THE NEW AND LIVING WAY. Those words included these words, Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. He that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone.
What was Jesus saying to us? He was saying, God cannot be deceived nor mocked. God knows every heart you Pharisees. Even to lust at a women or a man in your heart makes you guilty of sin. Your all, everyone of you are guilty before God. So throw away the stone and leave all judgements unto the Son. Jesus told us, So now I say to you all that for you to be forgiven by God then you must forgive all. To obtain His mercy you must always show mercy. Those guilty before God, those even guilty of one transgression is in Gods sight guilty of all, then the guilty of all have no right to judge without mercy, nor condemn with a thrown stone. They that live by the sword shall die by the sword. They that live by the stones shall perish by the stone. They that judge shall be judged and they that condemn shall be condemned. When Jesus took away the Law by the power of the sacrifice of Himself, He lifted the burden of being stoned publicly in Israel. He killed rock throwing and removed the old pointing of the finger fault finding ill will filled spirit with His own blood.
Jesus also came
to fulfill Gods peace and goodwill to man scriptures. He came not to
stone, not to condemn, not to destroy but to seek us and to call us unto
his great table of grace in glory and to save us by the sacrifice of Himself. He
came to make it clear that all of us were sinners, Pharisees and
citizens the same. He even went so far as saying the Pharisees would end
up receiving the greater judgements consequences and their attitude
was, basically yea right Jesus, we be Abrahams seed, We are the Chosen.
We are above reproach. We fast. We tithe and we rebuke. We have the right to throw the
stone. We are the Lawyers of our society. The rest are all together born in sin, but we are the righteous
and have no need to be taught by no man.
Humble the elders and the pharisees they were not. God said that pride
leads the way to the fall with God and they were already fallen in Gods
eyes being so lifted up with pride. Jesus called them the children of the devil, the offspring of
Satan. Their interpretation of the Law had blinded them. They loved to
highlight in bright yellow the scriptures of stone and yet blank out the
scriptures of love and of mercy. When Satan gets a holt of the heart
and mind religiously, that is what happens. This same happening, this
same thing is even going on in a false religion that we see functioning
in the world today threatening the worlds peace with terror....Like the Pharisees in Jesus' day, they have not the love of God in them.
But Paul
said God sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world to save the world of sinners and not to condemn,
and that we preach His message of peace with God, not by the weights of
the heavy religious stones of the works of the Law that no one could
fully keep, but thru faith in the burden lifting, weight lifting blood of His Cross. He preached Jesus
was the Peace offering. The Guilt Offering. The Passover Lamb offering
that saves us from the wrath to come. He preached God came to us all in
His Son PREACHING PEACE BY JESUS CHRIST. Peace by the blood of his Cross.....
Now notice with me now in
our text that Jesus said that the peace and the rest he was talking about would be a peace and a rest that would come to us by FINDING AND BY LEARNING. He said, Come unto Me all of you that
labor (Work to somehow save and justify yourself but always fall short) and are
heavy laden (Full of the heavy wait of guilt and shame over your notable
weaknesses and sinful nature and ways and fear filled from being stoned) and I will give you rest. Take My yoke an learn of ME and by that learning you SHALL FIND REST unto your souls.
We all, everyone of us, if we
are honest and do not hide this truth in self righteous hypocrisy, we all deal with the yuk of our personal weaknesses, carnality, and sins. Even God said and
the word of God cannot lie, said of us all, there is none righteous in
Gods sight NO NOT ONE. Personally I bow my knees to this truth, but the
pharisees despised such words and scriptures because those words put them in
the same boat with the common people and with the rest of us. The boat being called THE GUILTY BEFORE GOD....
But Jesus knowing that we all were guilty loved us anyway and in our text He
said, Actually God Said it...He said. Come unto me all of you that work for righteousness and yet are weighed down by that burden that leaves you fear filled, worried and worn out. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN OF ME. If you learn of me THE
HUMBLE AND GENTLE ONE PROPERLY, by that proper learning YOU WILL FIND
REST UNTO YOUR SOULS....
When we learn, and that is the key LEARNING OF HIM RIGHTLY what God has done for us in the Powerful Blessing Filled Sacrifice of His Son, when our hearts learn this, when our eyes are opened and we see this, and understand this, then chains are broken. Burdens and religious and sinful weights are lifted. Guilt loses its power over us. Shame and Past sins lose their condemning weight off our minds. We Are Free. For whom the Son has set free is FREE INDEED.
When we LEARN that God has made Jesus to be for
us Salvation and Eternal Redemption. When we learn that we no longer
work ourselves unto the religious bone to be righteous before God, but by faith in
Christ blood God has made Jesus to be FOR US OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS which is FAR
BETTER than our own doings, and that this is THE GIFT OF GOD, when we
really LEARN THIS TRUTH and our eyes SEE THIS TRUTH, WE THEN TAKE ON the
YOKE OF Christ which is easy for us and whose burden is extremely light
compared to the weight of the big heavy stone of self condemnation that
we used to carry around in self righteousness which we all measured
ourselves by, by the works of the Law and not by grace and as a GIFT OF
GOD TO US from His great love.....
The peace and rest in our text Jesus
said, it is given when we TAKE HIS YOKE AND LEARN OF HIM THESE THINGS.
LEARNING IS FINDING....He said His yoke, His leading is easy and his
burden is light. Jesus does not spend all his day knit picking our every
sin. He carries no stone around with him. He carries the blood of His
Cross every where He goes to save us, to rescue us, to redeem and revive us; to renew us and to forgive and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. He knows He is our peace with God and Gods
peace with us. But he also knows that we need to LEARN THAT HE IS OUR PEACE and our PEACE WITH GOD (Ephesians 2:12-19)(Romans 5:1).
Of course we know that Jesus as our Lord and Counselor, He will of course deal with us about our sins (For we are in a very personal relationship with the Holy One) but not
outside the power of the sacrifice of Himself; but you will always find
him gentle and non abrasive to us who are trusting in His Blood and
leaning hard on His Grace and Mercy walking HUMBLE with our God.
We are his (Christ) flesh and bone. He does
not go around seeking whom he may devour or seeking whom he may stone and destroy, (The religious Satan that transforms his dark deceiving self as a religious messenger of light does that). Jesus is gentle and lowly, full of grace and rich in compassion and mercy. He and the Father are LOVE. He does not go about to beat up or stone or behead or crucify his own flesh, nor cut it with condemning stones. His flesh
we are in Christ. But Christ loves us and cherishes us as his own
flesh GENTLY. He purchased our life, our freedom, our peace with God with His Own Blood. The purchase was made at the Cross. The transaction has already taken place. We were bought with a price, A GREAT PRICE. We are the Lords and the Lord is ours. Husband and Wife free of all strife. Learn this..Peace thru the blood of His Cross......Amen.....More could be written but Ill stop
here......deno....please preach, please teach, please share freely. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ smile upon you. Amen