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[0:00] Matthew chapter 11 and verse 20.

[0:30] Matthew chapter 11 verse 20. We'll be reading through the end of the chapter.

[0:41] When Jesus began to denounce, or then Jesus began to denounce, the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida.

[0:54] If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

[1:11] And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.

[1:27] But I tell you, that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. At that time, Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to little children.

[1:50] Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

[2:06] Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

[2:22] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Let's hear the preaching of God's word. We are our third week into a study on the offices of Christ, and I just want to pause and ask, why are we studying the three offices of Christ?

[2:50] The answer is because it is in the fulfillment of these three offices that Jesus saves us. He saves us through these three offices that he has.

[3:04] And so, class, I'm going to ask you your catechism questions. What offices does Christ have? Christ has the offices of prophet, priest, and king.

[3:17] Those were three separate offices in Old Testament Israel. You know many of the prophets, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah. You know some of the priests, Aaron and Eleazar, Melchizedek, and others.

[3:32] And you know some of the kings, David, Solomon, Asa, Hezekiah. But they were different offices held by different men.

[3:42] But these separate offices in the Old Testament all find their fulfillment in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God and man.

[3:55] And He is now the only prophet, the only priest, and the only king of His people. It's a three-fold work that He continues to do on our behalf.

[4:08] There simply is no salvation without having Jesus as your prophet. There is no salvation without having Jesus as your priest and without having Him as your king.

[4:23] How, class, how is Christ a prophet? He teaches us the will of God. Teaches us the will of God.

[4:35] He brings God's word to us. And why do you need a prophet? Because I am ignorant. We saw last week that left to ourselves, we're ignorant.

[4:50] And not just about trivial facts. But ignorant about the most important things of all. Like who God is. We just heard it read. No one knows the Father except the Son.

[5:05] And those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. About the most important things in life. Who God is. What pleases Him. Who I am.

[5:18] Where I came from. Why I'm here. Where I'm going. I'm ignorant about the most important things. How to escape hell.

[5:29] How to gain heaven. And what is the best way to live in this world? Well, the Son of Man has come as our prophet to enlighten us.

[5:42] He's come to save us from our ignorance. To make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. To teach us things we otherwise would never know until it was forever too late.

[5:56] He brings us God's truth. And that is a necessary part of salvation. It's not the total of His great salvation.

[6:10] We'll need Christ to be more than a teacher. We'll need Him as a priest. And we'll need Him as a king. But we've got to have Him as our prophet.

[6:23] Salvation is bound up in Jesus Christ as our prophet, priest, and king. You know, there's a very serious error in evangelical churches today that people would like to have Jesus be their priest and make a sacrifice for their sins and take care of that problem that they've got with God.

[6:42] But they're not at all interested in Jesus as being their prophet. To teach them how to live, what to do, what to think, what to believe.

[6:55] So I'll take Jesus as a priest, but I really don't want Him as my prophet. Or I don't want Him as my king. You see, we don't have that option.

[7:06] We are to receive Jesus as He offers Himself to us in the gospel. And we have such an offer this morning. It's come to me. Come to me. And this morning we'll see that the one inviting us to Him is the one who has something to teach us.

[7:24] He is our prophet. We must have Him. Oh, how we need this prophet. We have just one life to live, and it's so quickly gone. And left to ourselves, think what it would be like trying to find the right way to heaven.

[7:40] It would be like trying to find a needle in the haystack. Because we all have our own ways. We've all turned from the one way to God, and we've all turned to our own way.

[7:51] Think how many own ways there are then in the world today. Some seven billion or plus. All that seem right to a man. And out of that seven billion ways to live, we are to find the one way that leads to life.

[8:09] And left to ourselves, we would just have trial and error. So we'd start down one way, and we'd see it leads to a dead end that only leads to destruction.

[8:19] It's the way that seems right, but it ends in death. And then we'd have to start up another way. And again and again, trial and error, trying to find the right way to live our lives, the right way to gain heaven.

[8:34] Until we spent our whole lives following wrong ways, ever learning, but never coming to the truth. Until our life was finally over, and we'd wasted it on all the wrong things.

[8:50] We lived for the wrong world and neglected the most important thing of all, the Lord Jesus, who is himself the way, the truth, and the life, the only way to the Father.

[9:04] And then to find that we have nothing to show for the life that we lived as we now enter into eternity. That we've not only squandered our life here, but we now have an eternity of hell to pay.

[9:15] You see, we need Jesus as our prophet to teach us. We are ignorant without him. But rather than leave us in our darkness, in our ignorance, the great prophet has come as the light of the world to enlighten us.

[9:35] He comes to us in the scripture saying, come to me and learn from me. Isn't that a wonderful invitation? Come to me and learn from me.

[9:48] I will teach you the way that is best for you. I will teach you the wisdom's way, the way of peace and blessing, the good life. I will teach you life as it was meant to be, life in fellowship with your God that leads to eternal life hereafter.

[10:07] come to me and learn from me. He didn't have to do that. This is an amazing invitation.

[10:19] I want us to turn to Matthew 11, 28 through 30 this morning. It's a very familiar text. I think I've preached on it within the last year, but I want to see it perhaps as we've never seen it before, as the invitation of our great prophet, Jesus Christ.

[10:37] Because his invitation is to come and learn. That's what a prophet does. He teaches. And this is our great prophet inviting us to come and receive him as our prophet.

[10:49] To come to him, to be taught by him about those things that we otherwise would never know. And as our prophet, he has much to teach us. So I want to tell you five things about this prophet this morning.

[11:02] So that if you haven't received him as your prophet, you will come to him today and receive him as your prophet. And if you are coming to him as your prophet, that you will come to him with a greater sense of your privilege.

[11:16] What a privilege to have the Son of God as your prophet to teach you. So five things. The first thing, he is true.

[11:28] This prophet is true. By which I mean in teaching you, he gives it to you straight. So you go to the doctor and you've had some stomach ache and he orders an MRI to be taken and he gets the results back and it's a second stage stomach cancer.

[11:48] It's detected early enough for effective treatments. And then you go in to get the results very nervously. And he doesn't tell you the bad news.

[12:03] Well, I think you're going to be all right and we're going to treat this stomach upset with some Rolaids and Pepto-Bismol and send you on your way.

[12:15] You wouldn't want your doctor just treating the symptoms and leaving the cancer to grow unchecked. Now, you'd want him to give it to you straight, wouldn't you? Give me the truth, doc.

[12:26] What did the test say? You want the truth about your condition so that you can treat it for the serious thing that it is.

[12:37] Hold your place here and turn back to Jeremiah chapter 6. This is one of the prophets that God sent to bring his word to Israel.

[12:49] But, you know, one of the perennial problems in Judah was false prophets. They weren't all like Jeremiah who spoke the truth. There were a lot of false prophets.

[13:00] Prophets who claimed, I have received a word from the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. And then what they said was just their own lie that they knew the people would want to hear and not really what the Lord had said.

[13:16] But such things were pleasing the people. And so Jeremiah, who's bringing the true word from God, has constantly got to be dealing with, well, that's not what this prophet told us.

[13:30] And so he's constantly dealing with these false prophets. That's where we find him here. The truth was, Judah had sinned against their God grievously, and he was going to bring judgment upon them from an enemy nation that will come in and there will be sword and famine and destroying the land.

[13:50] But they lied about the Lord, saying, He will do nothing. No harm will come to us. He will never see, we will never see sword or famine. Notice the end of chapter 5, verses 30 and 31.

[14:02] A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy lies. Priests rule by their own authority and my people love it this way.

[14:15] Isn't that something? My prophets prophesy lies and my people love it this way. They go to the doctor and they've got cancer and he tells them, take some Pepto-Bismol and they go home happy.

[14:26] But what will you do in the end? So the Almighty would teach them the truth and he sends his prophets, his true prophets, to tell them the way it really is.

[14:42] But the people didn't listen. Chapter 6, verse 10. Here's God saying, To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so that they cannot hear.

[14:53] You know how they're closed, kids? They're closed like this. They put their fingers in. They don't want to hear. That's why they can't hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them.

[15:04] They find no pleasure in it. And so they will not hear. Chapter 6, verse 13. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain.

[15:15] Prophets and priests alike all practice deceit. That means they lie. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. Peace, peace, they say, when there really is no peace at all with God.

[15:33] God is not declaring peace. God is not saying everything's fine. God's saying you've sinned. Judgment is falling. But the false prophets just put a band-aid on the cancer and say peace, peace, when there is no peace.

[15:48] Verse 16. This is what the Lord says. Stand at the crossroads and look. Here you are. You've got lying prophets. You've got true prophets.

[15:59] What are we to do? Well, stand at the crossroads. You're at a crossroads in your life, Judah. Stand at the crossroads and look and ask for the ancient paths.

[16:10] Ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.

[16:22] I want you to remember that verse. And you will find rest for your souls. Where is it found? In walking in the ways of the Lord.

[16:33] But you said we will not walk in it. Verse 17. I appointed watchmen over you. I said listen. But you said we will not listen. Verse 19.

[16:44] So I'm bringing disaster on this people because they've not listened to my words and have rejected my law. The very words marking out the good way that would bring them rest.

[16:56] They refused the rest for their souls. So that's the scene in Judah. And you know it's very much still the scene today.

[17:08] The earth is still full of the lies of the evil one who is the father of lies told the first lie in the garden. And he's still a liar. And he fills the mouths of preachers, prophets, the false prophets of the Old Testament, preachers in the New.

[17:25] But if you come to this prophet Jesus, you will find that he is true. All the way through, true.

[17:37] He is the truth. He cannot lie. Every word of the Lord is flawless. He'll never put a band-aid on your disease.

[17:50] He will never treat your sin as though it were not serious. He'll be dead honest with you about the seriousness of your sin. But then he'll also give you the remedy for your sin.

[18:06] The truth that can set you free himself. What a privilege to have a prophet who only and always tells you the truth in a world filled with lies and ways that seem right to a man but lead to death.

[18:25] That means, young people, that you can take every word that the Lord has given you in this book and you can build your life upon it.

[18:37] And you can build your marriages upon it. And you can build your businesses upon it. You can build your relationships and everything about your life upon it and never be disappointed.

[18:48] You have a prophet who is true. Secondly, this prophet is gracious. Look at the invitation he gives back in Matthew 11.

[19:01] Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Do you see it? He's coming to give you rest. Relief is the idea here.

[19:13] Well, rest from what? Well, from the burden. The burden that comes from going your own way. You see, we all thought we knew better than God where joy and happiness is to be found.

[19:27] How to live the good life. We thought God had it wrong, and we have it right. And so we have all turned our back on God's way, and we have all followed the way that seemed right to us.

[19:41] But what have we found? We have found that the way of the transgressor is hard. It is hard. It is hard. There are thorns. There are snares in the path of the wicked, and when we chose our own way, we hit those snares and those thorns and those hard things, and it leaves us weary.

[20:12] It left us worn out under the weight of all these troubles that are the result of abandoning God's way and going our way. These are the burdens of not following the ways of wisdom, but following folly's way that you find throughout the book of the Proverbs.

[20:36] So we've made a mess of things, just like Adam and Eve did, because the devil's lie does not prove true.

[20:48] His lies are not true, and therefore they cannot prove true. He hasn't kept his promises. I thought this was the way that seemed right, but it isn't right. And we've got the mess now to deal with.

[21:02] Eve was told by Satan, this is the way. This is the way. If you eat from this tree, you'll become like God.

[21:14] The promise didn't pan out so well, did it? And she gave some fruit to Adam, and instead of being holy and happy, which they were, they became sinful and what? Miserable.

[21:27] Burdened. Weary. Heavy laden. Why? Because of the curse of sin. The way of the transgressor. It is hard. And it all started by not listening to God anymore, but listening to an alternative view that was Satan's view.

[21:48] And we've all done that, Isaiah 53 says. We all have gone astray. We all, like sheep, have turned to our own way. And so we are weary, and we are burdened, because we didn't want him and his word, and we would not listen.

[22:04] And yet, did you see these sweet words in verse 28? He still invites us. Come to me and learn from me.

[22:16] Isn't that gracious? Isn't that gracious? Isn't that gracious? Jesus is saying, I'm still ready to teach you. Always have been. I'm still ready to teach you.

[22:28] If you're ready to learn. So whoever you are, however old you are, however long you have stuffed your fingers in your ears and said, I don't want to go your way, God. I'm going my way.

[22:40] Here he is, saying, I'm ready if you are. I'm ready. I'm ready to teach you. Come on. Come on now. Let's reason together. Come on. Learn from me.

[22:52] He's coaxing us. I'll be your prophet. I'll teach you the will of God. Do you not see the graciousness of God in that? And do you not see it in what he says about himself? For I am gentle and humble in heart.

[23:08] Does that not speak of the graciousness of our prophet? That if we come to him, we'll find him this way. And this actually goes into the advertisement as to the invitation as to why you should come to this prophet, to have him teach you how to live, what to believe, how to get to heaven.

[23:25] Because, he says, I am gentle and humble in heart. Come learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart. You can be at rest around this kind of a prophet.

[23:40] There's no verbal whipping. You had your chance. You didn't take it. You blew it. You should have listened to me the first time, and you didn't. There's no I told you so.

[23:52] There's no standoff. It's just come to me. Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. That he has anything good to say to us is grace.

[24:05] He is a gracious prophet. You'll find rest for your soul with him. You know, when Jesus was in his hometown of Nazareth and the scroll of Isaiah was open to him and he preached to them, they were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

[24:27] The gracious words. Here's the prophet. The long-expected prophet. He's here now. What kind of teacher is he? Gracious words. Gracious words.

[24:38] Amazed them. John says, we saw him. Our hands handled him. We saw the word from God.

[24:50] He was made flesh. And he came to us full of grace and truth. He's true, but he's gracious.

[25:01] John says, grace and truth came from Jesus Christ. John 1 17. It was truth. 16 ounces to the pound truth penetrating, exposing, revealing truth that exposed our sin.

[25:16] But it came with such grace. Gracious words in a gracious manner spoken by one who clearly sought the good of those that he called to come and learn.

[25:28] So no wonder the tax collectors and sinners were constantly gathering around to hear him. Luke 15 1.

[25:40] Because along with searching truth came melting grace. Not like the condemning scribes and Pharisees who would use the truth to nail you to the wall and just leave you there in your guilt.

[25:55] Not like that. Oh, he had truth and it could cut sharper than any other sword at exposing your sin and guilt. But with him there was forgiveness for the worst of sinners.

[26:11] With him there was mercy for prodigal sons who had wasted their lives. With him there was salvation for the undeserving if they would just come to him just as they are and renounce their way and cry for mercy.

[26:26] salvation forgiveness remember the past no more a new beginning his lips with grace o'erflowed who would not learn from this prophet who needs coaxing to come to him that they might learn from him think of the patience the gentle patience he had with the 12 who learned from him.

[26:51] They did come he says come follow me I'm going to teach you and they they were on board and think of his gentle patience with the 12 as I read the gospels I'm struck at how many times Jesus has to teach the same lesson over and over again how many times does he say to these men where's your faith?

[27:17] what? have you no faith? over and over oh you of little faith how many times do we hear him saying don't be afraid fear not don't be anxious over and over and over again how many times did he have to say now men my kingdom's not like the kingdoms of this world where everybody's crawling over everybody else to get to the top if you want to be great in my kingdom you must learn to be the servant of all over and over and over how many times did he have to say to them I'm going to be mishandled by the Jewish leaders and I'm going to be crucified and die and rise again and they simply didn't get it so he told them again and again and again seeking to prepare them for the time when he would die so gentle so patient think of Peter opening his mouth so often when it should have been kept shut saying things that needed correction and the Lord was faithful to give him that correction zealously wielding the sword when he should have kept it in his scabbard put it away

[28:44] Peter put it away those who live by the sword die by the sword and then that threefold denial of Peter I don't even know him don't even know who he is and I swear upon my soul swore by God's name that he did not know him three times he denied him and Jesus looked at Peter and he went out and wept bitterly a look a look of wounded love what was it in that look I don't know what all was in that look but I know it was gentle patience in his teaching of his disciple Peter there's Thomas Jesus is risen he's meeting with his disciples for the first time since he's risen from the dead all gathered together but Thomas isn't there and so the other eleven the ten they're still called the twelve but there's just you know

[29:51] Judas is not there but they tell Thomas we've seen the Lord I don't believe it I won't believe it unless I put my finger into the nail prints and put my hand into his side a week later Jesus appears to the twelve and this time Thomas is present Thomas come here put your finger right here in my hands reach forth your hand put it into my side stop doubting and believe I mean how do you how do you take teaching like that how do you refuse such a gracious patient gentle teacher Thomas is melted he knew what I said he knew what I thought and he's not railing at me but just saying Thomas now I want to help you believe come here come here and put your finger here stop doubting believe he's down on his face my lord and my god this is the prophet who comes and invites us to learn from him and you know he's the same today as he was yesterday is he not patient with you brothers and sisters is he not gentle

[31:15] I find that there are things in my Christian life of over 40 years that he has to keep teaching me that I still do not have down pat yet and it's it's John we're back at this lesson you still got something to learn here so sit at my feet think about what I I've said to you think what I have shown you in the past come on come on learn from me not chiding not berating not if you if you haven't learned by now you never will none of that he's such a gracious prophet no wonder that for centuries those who have come to him to learn of him have been singing about him and to him thou hast the true and perfect gentleness no harshness hast thou and no bitterness make us to taste the sweet grace found in thee and never stay in thy sweet unity gracious prophet he's true he's gracious third he's alive he's alive

[32:48] Islam boasts of their great prophet Muhammad but he's dead as are all the other founders of the great religions of the world but our prophet is alive he was dead but he is risen and is alive forevermore and you know one of the reasons he is alive is to go on teaching his disciples that's what he's doing right now as the prophet he is teaching us the will of God don't just think of the past tense yes he's done a lot in the past you must get Jesus out of the past tense and see him in your life today he is teaching you the will of God dear believer we need past present and future and he's alive and that's why he's able to bring us a word in season do you know what I mean by a word in season that just when you needed some truth of God there it was that didn't just happen that was your prophet coming to teach you the will of God and so it's because he's alive that he's able to teach us a word in season he knows our heart he knows our frame he knows everything about us

[34:10] Job says he knows the way that I take in other words he sees where I am he knows what I'm going through he knows what I'm feeling about what I'm going through he knows exactly what I need today and he knows what I'm going to need on Wednesday and he ever lives to bring this timely truth to us just when we needed it so you were walking in the darkness you were perplexed confused you needed light and direction what am I to do in this situation and your prophet by his word brought his lamp to your feet cast his light upon your path and you had enough light to take the next step maybe not to see the end but enough for the next step your prophet a word in season or maybe you had strayed from the path your heart had grown cold and you're straying away from his commandments and your great prophet brought to you the very rebuke that you needed seeking you speaking teaching maybe you were under a dark cloud of depression and sorrow and he who knows the word to sustain the weary came to you with a word brought to you a word of comfort and encouragement just what you needed!

[35:50] has many instruments to bring his word I'm talking about this word let's not be all confused about I'm talking about this word he's got so many words of encouragement here and he brought you just the word that you needed because he's got many instruments maybe it was something you read in your personal devotions maybe it was something you heard a passing phrase in a Sunday school class you and they dropped one nugget of God's word in it soothed your heart and shed some light in that dark depression and you were encouraged to go on maybe it's a word of God that came over the radio program a CD you see he's got the whole world at his disposal to teach us the truth he's a living prophet who teaches us what we need to know when we need to know it don't miss him it doesn't just happen to you he finds you low and he lifts you up high or he finds you high and he brings you low that didn't just happen no your prophet he's doing good to your soul he's teaching you so here's a prophet for every condition for every need come to me and learn from you need reviving the law of our prophet is perfect reviving the soul anybody out there need wisdom the statutes of our prophet are trustworthy making wise the simple do anybody need joy the precepts of our prophet are right giving joy to the heart anybody needing direction the commands of the

[37:42] Lord are radiant giving light to the eyes you seek that which is solid on which to build your life the ordinances of the Lord are sure they're sure altogether righteous anybody seeking true riches our prophet's words are more precious than gold than much pure gold any danger of falling by the words of our prophet we are warned and in keeping them there's great reward you see there's not a condition we can be in but that there is a word that we need and we have a living prophet to bring us what we need when we need it because he ever lives to be our prophet and he says come come learn from me what a privilege you need eternal life he's got words of life that he's wooing us to heaven so he's true he's gracious and he's alive in order to give us a word and season but fourthly he's effective he's effective what a what a teacher he is

[39:01] I suppose that somewhere along the line the test of teachers today ought to be whether or not anybody is learning that if if if a school or a class is just constantly pouring out failure failure failure failure it may not be all the fault of the kids it could be that somebody is not teaching effectively now granted there are so many distractions and obstacles and what we might call learning disabilities and situations that kids are coming from that it could be that there is a good teacher and she just doesn't have good learners but I want to tell you that our prophet is so effective in teaching us that he even overcomes our learning disabilities our stubbornness our prejudice our pride all of that that he's able to do more than just put the information out there to dump truckloads of information at our ear gate as if that's all that there is to his teaching no he's able to put his truth in our inward parts what

[40:16] Isaiah Psalm 51 says he puts truth in our inward parts he puts his laws on our hearts he writes them on our minds he carves them upon our affections and desires and our will what a teacher he has access to our hearts that's why he's like no other teacher on the planet everyone else must leave the information at the ear gate Jesus is able to put it on the heart that's why we sang before I preached that's why we those words are so fitting that thousands are making a wretched choice and rather starve than come but the truth is there the light is shining but they're choosing to leave it there they've got their finger they don't want to be taught but we have a teacher who's able to put it into our hearts past the listening ear or the non listening ear what a teacher not only setting

[41:24] God's will before us but actually making us desire it and choose it working in us both to will and to do the thing that pleases him Philippians 2 13 he's such an effective teacher that his teaching actually renews our mind transforms our lives changes the way we think and live he not only gives information but he gives understanding wouldn't that be wonderful teachers if you had that power that effectiveness to not only give information but understanding he does he actually makes us wise as he teaches us that's why his pupils pray teach me oh lord to follow your decrees and I will keep them to the end because when you teach me I actually follow your decrees there is a teaching that results in following and I only have it from you so teach me oh lord to follow your decrees not just to know them but to follow them

[42:26] I need you as my teacher if I'm actually to follow and if you teach me I'll follow them and keep them as long as I live what an effective teacher he gives understanding to the simple he makes us to go in the path of his commands he turns our hearts toward his statutes this is the effective teaching of our prophet because he has access to our hearts Jeremiah 31 promises that all who come to this prophet will know the Lord not just know about the Lord there's a huge difference there are seminary professors that know a lot about the Lord who do not know the Lord there are children here that know a lot less about the Lord than those seminary professors but they know the Lord and the promise is that for all who have

[43:33] Jesus as their prophet they will all know the Lord isn't that something he's able to teach us about the Lord in such a way that he reveals him to us so that we know him we have a relationship with him my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me there's this relationship with all who come to this shepherd all who come to this prophet and he teaches us in such a way that we become like our teacher by learning from him we become like him he's got so many methods to teach us and to make his teaching effective he not only teaches us by precept and parable but also by example put your neck in the yoke with me and learn from me he says I'll show you what it means to be gentle and humble I'll show you how to love that difficult person in your life you come and put your neck in my yoke and we'll go together and you'll learn from me what it means to flee temptation to pursue first the kingdom of

[44:40] God and his righteousness to serve one another to honor your father and mother he teaches us by example his own but he teaches us by bad examples remember Lot's wife don't set your heart on this world remember Demas he forsook the apostolic ban because he loved this present world teaches us by his own example good example by bad examples look at Samson learn learn he's teaching us you see and he teaches us by well ordered trials in our lives pressures that he brings into our life thorns in our flesh sickness disappointment failures he knows just the thing to bring into our life to hammer home a lesson that he's teaching us to shape and fashion us so that we will grow in faith in patience in humility in love in dependence upon him so that we will appreciate him for who he is he's an effective teacher he's got the whole world at his disposal to teach even talking donkeys if necessary doesn't he come to me learn from me he says what an effective teacher lastly we just see the result of it that if you come to him to learn from him if you receive him as your prophet that he will give rest to your soul because his yoke is easy and his burden is light his yoke is his teaching his teaching his commands now in

[46:36] Matthew 23 Jesus says that the yoke of the scribes and Pharisees was not easy because they not only taught God's laws but then they added their own laws that were like heavy burdens on the people's shoulders and so it's that yoke of legalistic rules that made obedience a life sentence to hard labor not so with Jesus yoke doesn't mean he doesn't have difficult commands to obey but Jesus yoke is easy and his burden is light and it's easy because of who Jesus is he's remember the humble the gentle in heart and it's not a burden because remember that the one who becomes his disciple and learns from him finds himself in living union with this Christ and finds all the resources to do everything that he commands you to do it's it's Jesus that makes the yoke easy for his followers and the result is you will find rest for your souls the very thing you forfeited the day you turned your back on me that was day one of conception we came from the womb going our own way and we forfeited

[47:49] God's way knowing God knowing wisdom's way knowing the best way to live in life and eternal life to come we forfeited it but if we'll come and we'll come to him and say Lord Jesus teach me he'll teach you and he will lead you on that path that is not burdensome on that path that is not something that leaves you heavy laden but it's the path of peace the path of God's smile the path of a conscience at rest with your maker and you will find rest for your soul where'd Jesus get those words we can't be sure but we heard them in Jeremiah 6 didn't we and there God himself was saying

[48:49] I'm offering you my way and if you follow it you will have rest for your souls and now here is Jesus Christ the last great prophet and he's standing on the earth and he's saying come to me take my yoke on you learn from me and you will find rest for your souls you see he is God he's here to teach us the way that leads to everlasting rest so why wouldn't you come I have to shamefully confess that I was afraid to come I was afraid what might Jesus tell me to do I was afraid that maybe the way he told me to live life would take me away from peace and rest and joy so it was faulting me it was small faith that came and said okay

[50:05] Jesus I'm done going my way teach me you know what I found I found what all you who know him have found that his yoke is easy his burden is light and this is the only place to find rest for our souls Lord willing in the future we'll see why that rest is so sweet and so sure because he is not only our prophet he is our priest and he took our sins to the cross and paid for them all in full who would not come to this prophet priest and king come to him today and live let's pray let's talk to him shall we together Lord Jesus if you had stayed in heaven and just left us to our own chosen way no one would have complained that injustice was being done but you didn't do that you came sent from the father to reveal to us who didn't want you or your word the way to everlasting life wisdom way the way to live here and now so thank you thank you for your grace thank you that we never have to wonder is the word from this prophet true or false thank you that we have it in our language we have it in our laps we have it on

[51:41]  Sunday but we have it on Monday and Tuesday and every day of the week oh help us and continue to teach us Lord we we need you to shed light upon our our ignorant minds our darkness and lead us in the way everlasting and please lead some sinner who's still going the way that seems right to him come and put your truth on his inward parts that he might see the folly of going his own way and bring him to trust in the Lord Jesus so receive our praise and even now as we sing in Jesus name amen