And the last time we met in person was at a conference which was elders, deacons Conference and Evangelist Conference in India in Kandala, which is a big campus.
That's where Heis met uncle and he's visiting here. I heard from Brother Blesson and his family and also justly brother that he's visiting in Chicago. So he'll be speaking in different places in US at different states. I think he's visiting here for a conference in Houston. So that's where he'll be going. So I'm glad that he was able to make it.
On Wednesday, this night and he's able to
share the word with us. So I'm happy and
So let's hear him and his ministry back in India and how Lord is leading him in the ministry and in the word.
Yeah, yeah.
I thank the Lord for this wonderful opportunity to
visit with you and also to share from
God's word.
I've been coming to this country for
more than 30, 35 years.
But I've never come here.
I've come to Chicago, but never to Wisconsin.
But I know about this assembly because my son-in-law
sunny match that was here.
At some point.
And his brother, Matthews Madsen, also was here.
So both of them are in
South India in a city called Bangalore
They are with their secular jobs.
my daughter married to Sunny.
They have three children.
And they are happily in fellowship with the
assembly there and they are active in the lord's work
And I've heard
Sonny talk about this assembly so
Only after coming here that I realized that it's the same place.
So anyway, that's very, very, I'm very happy about that
I am here in this country this time to
preach and
missions conference in houston
I'm actually on my way to houston
took a stroke over in one or two places here
Last weekend, I was in
Washington and Virginia.
Speaking at the Cherrydale Bible Church and
New Hampshire Gospel Chapel
And also the Korean assembly there in New Hampshire
So this week I'm speaking in some
places in Chicago.
And because of my contact with the Philip.
He invited me here and made it possible for me to come and
spend this day here.
I'm really, really happy and excited to be
in this place. Thank you for the warm welcome that you gave
we feel welcome here.
That's a very good thing.
And your bright faces and joyful
Participation.
in the activities of this meeting.
He's very encouraging.
But I'm really, really grateful to the lord
And also to the believers here for the privilege
given to come and minister God's word.
Now, I think that's enough about me.
And tonight, I would like to
share with you
thought from the Gospel of matthew
And chapter 11.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 11
We will read verses 28, 29 and 30.
Come unto me holy that labor and are heavy laden.
And I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you.
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart
And ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy
And my burden is light.
I'm sure most of you know this versus by heart because these are very well-known
versus and well-known invitation of the lord jesus in
Verse 28 saying, Come unto me.
All of us have read this verse many, many times.
And we are very quite familiar with this passage.
But, you know, I would like to tell you that the sum and substance of christianity
or the essence of Christianity is there
In these three verses.
That is what I would like to show you.
What is Christianity? Well.
Matthew 11, 28, 29, 30.
All about Christianity is there in these three verses.
I'm really excited to share that with you because
This is a beautiful way in which the lord jesus
put christianity
Now, we will quickly look at
three verb forms.
in this passage that we read.
in the talk of the Lord Jesus. The first one is come.
And the second one
is verse 29, take my yoke.
And the third one is the third one
Learn of me.
the lord jesus asks us to do
Three things, three verb forms.
Come take my yoke.
Learn of me. That is Christianity.
Christianity is coming to the lord jesus.
taking his yoke and following him.
Now, take my yoke.
I would use another word for that.
a single word submit or yield
That is taking the yoke
of the Lord Jesus. You know, York in the New Testament or in the bible
talks about mastery.
Lordship, control.
When we read that the children of Israel were under the yoke of the Babylonians.
that means they were under their control. They were under their slavery.
So yoke always speaks of mastery or control or lordship.
Take my yoke means my yoke
come under my authority.
Come under my control.
yield your life totally to me.
Bow your head.
and your shoulders so that your shoulders
I can pray place my yoke upon you.
And the next word is learn of mean.
You know, the word learn and the word disciple come from the same root.
So learn of me actually means become my disciple.
A disciple is a learner.
a disciple is one who learns from his master. All of us know that.
And the disciple is a follower too.
One who follows his master
and one who learns from his master.
So learn of me actually means of
Follow me as a disciple.
So what is Christianity?
Christianity is the first step
Coming to the lord jesus
and then yielding your life totally to his control
And then following him as a disciple. That is what Christianity is all about.
That's why I told you that some and substance of Christianity
The ascendence of Christianity is there in these three verses.
Now let's get a little more closer to these verses.
The Lord is calling
And saying, Come unto me.
Now, whom is the Lord calling?
Now, in this verse, the Lord is calling
Those who are heavy laden, that means those who
are carrying a heavy burden upon their back.
And those who are laboring hard to get rid of that burden.
Now, in the context of Matthew 11,
This burden can mean two things.
We know that the Jewish religion in those days
that religion was placing a lot of do's and don'ts on these people.
That is, religious rituals
burdens that the religious leaders
We're placing upon the people.
to live a life pleasing to God.
There are so many things that you have to do. There are so many things that you're not supposed to do.
Rules and regulations and rituals of Jewish religion.
The people in those days, in the days of jesus
where heavy laden.
They had this big burden on their back.
somehow they were laboring to please God.
And another sense in which they were carrying a burden
is in the sense of carrying the burden of sin.
You know, sin is the greatest burden that men and women carry.
And the greatest labor involved in the lives of people
is labor
get rid of this burden of sin.
You know, in a country like India, where many of us come from
People are very religious, though they are superstitious and
they probably do not have the right understanding about God. They have some concept of God.
And many of them
are laboring.
They walk long distances
They were persecute their bodies
They would spend any amount of money. They go on pilgrimage, they go on to mountains, they go and take holy
dips in rivers.
In holy reverse, as they call it.
They do a lot of things, labor, hard labor.
All their life, what are they doing it for? To get rid of the burden of sin.
So the greatest burden that men and women carry is the burden of sin.
And the greatest labor that people are involved in is the labor to get rid.
Shake off this burden off their back.
It is in this context that the Lord says.
You come to me.
Now, what does it mean to come to the Lord Jesus?
Tonight, when I say come to the Lord.
He is not standing here physically so that you can come.
Then what does that mean?
In John's gospel chapter 6,
And verse 35
The Lord Himself has…
clarified the meaning of the word come.
John 6, 35.
And Jesus said unto him.
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger.
that is equated to he that believeth on me.
So what's the meaning of coming?
Coming to the Lord Jesus means believing on the Lord Jesus.
putting our trust in him.
So come unto me means.
Put your trust in me.
That's the meaning of saying, come to me.
And the Lord continues that call even tonight.
He calls men and women
Carrying the burden of sin, whose shoulders are heavy with religious rituals and efforts to please God.
The Lord Jesus calls all of them
to put their trust in him so that he can take away the burden of their sin
and give them rest. So if you come to me.
I will give you rest.
Now, what is this Rest the Lord talks about?
This is the rest of sins forgiven.
The rest that a sinner finds
When he realizes that he's guilty feeling
His guilt is removed. His guilty feeling is gone, and he is free
In the sight of God, he's reconciled to God.
His sins are forgiven and he has become a child of God.
That's a great relief.
The burden of sin on his back is gone.
He no more has to strive
Through religious rituals to please god
That's all finished.
When a person comes to the Lord Jesus and puts his faith in the Lord Jesus, his guilt feeling is gone, his sins are forgiven, he is at peace with God, he is reconciled to God, and he finds a tremendous rest in his heart.
That is the rest that the Lord Jesus talks about here.
Now, if you have come to know the Lord in your life.
I am sure you have that joy of sins forgiven.
you have that assurance.
that your sins are forgiven, that you are right with God.
And y'all those who are saved
They all experience this tremendous rest
in their heart. And those who have not come to the Lord Jesus, they do not have this rest.
Guilt feelings are still there.
They stand condemned before a holy God.
They do not know what's going to happen to them if they die tonight.
Where are they going? What's going to happen to them? They're not sure.
There's no rest. Their heart is totally restless.
But when a person comes to the Lord Jesus, acknowledges that he's a sinner, and believes that the Lord Jesus died for his sins and rose again, and when he puts his trust in the Lord Jesus as his personal Savior, that very moment.
The burden of sin is lifted.
And he begins to experience a tremendous rest in his heart.
All those of you who have come to know the Lord, I'm pretty sure all of you experienced the tremendous rest in your heart.
The burden of sin is gone. You have been reconciled to God, and you are a child of God.
And you feel tremendous rest in your heart, a rest that you cannot explain, something that you cannot describe beyond words.
I experienced that rest in my heart, and I'm pretty sure all those who have trusted the Lord have experienced that rest.
So the Lord says, come to me.
See, it's interesting to note that
that the Lord is not calling people to religion.
He's not inviting people to come to a system.
He's not calling people to a religious system.
Auto philosophy. He calls people to himself.
Christianity is Christ.
Christianity is not a set of rules.
It is not a set of teaching.
It is not a set of philosophy. Christianity is a person.
Christianity is Christ.
So he says, come to me.
Not to that place, not to this place, not to this leader, not to that philosophy, not to this religion. You come to me.
And I will give you rest.
You know, the words of the Lord Jesus are very, very clear.
There's no doubt
In what he says. There's no vague statement here. His statement is very clear. Come unto me and I will give you rest.
You cannot put it clearer than that.
Now, what is his qualification to say?
I will give you rest. In what way is he qualified to say that?
Well, in John's Gospel, chapter 1,
When John the Baptist saw Jesus walking by, he said, Behold, look here.
The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the whole world.
The Lord Jesus came from
to carry the burden of our sin.
Apostle Puerto tells us in 1 Peter chapter 2, I think verse 24, he says, when Jesus went to the cross.
He carried our sins upon his body.
That is his qualification.
the lord jesus is qualified
to take away the burden of our sin because he is the only one who came to die and settle the question of our sin.
When the Lord went to the cross.
He took all our sins upon him.
In Isaiah 53, the prophet Isaiah says
All be like sheep have gone astray.
Each one had turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Our iniquity was laid on him.
The Lord Jesus carried
Our sins when he went to the cross
And there on the cross he suffered blood and died for our sins.
The hell that we should have suffered
The pain of separation from God that we should have experienced for all eternity. The Lord Jesus experienced that pain when he died on the cross.
That's why he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
That sons of being forsaken by God. That's a punishment of sin. The wages of sin is death.
Death is separation. We should have been separated eternally from God because of our sin.
That pain of being separated from God.
That's a pain in hell. The Lord Jesus suffered it.
When he died on the cross and thereby he became qualified
to settle the question of our sin.
There's no other person on the face of this earth
who can forgive our sin. What's the reason? The reason is very simple. No one else has settled the question of our sin.
No one else has died for us on the cross.
No one ever carried our sins in his body and settled the question of our sin.
Because the Lord Jesus bore our sins upon himself, and because he is the only one who died on the cross, suffering the punishment of our sin, because he is the only one who rose again to justify us, the Lord Jesus is well qualified to forgive our sins.
And there he stands qualified
to call men and women all over the world, come to me.
Put your trust in me.
Acknowledge that you're a sinner and believe that the Lord Jesus.
died for your sins on the cross.
And vitamin.
Put your trust in him to forgive your sin.
And that very moment.
The burden of your sin will be lifted.
I'm glad that all of you or most of you have already come to the Lord Jesus.
But perchance if there is anyone here, young or old.
Anyone who listens to me, who has not yet
personally come to the lord jesus
With your burden of sin.
If there is anyone here who has not had put his trust in the Lord Jesus tonight.
The Lord invites you.
The Lord calls you. You come.
Wherever you're seated, from the depth of your heart.
You can say, Lord, I come.
I come just as I am. I come.
I come as a sinner.
I come acknowledging that I have offended you.
I have broken your moral laws.
I deserve to go to hell.
But I believe that you died for my sin.
And you paid the penalty of my sin. Therefore, I put my trust in you. You are my Savior.
The moment you make that confession.
The moment you put your trust in the Lord Jesus.
Your sins are forgiven.
The Lord takes away the burden of your back.
And you feel great relief.
My burden is gone.
I'm just now. I'm a child of God.
My problem with God is settled once and for all, I have peace with God.
And if I die now, I'm sure I'm going to be with the Lord because my sins have been forgiven.
That is the rest that any child of God can experience.
If you have come to the Lord Jesus.
That's the first step in Christianity. What is Christianity?
Christianity is coming to the Lord Jesus.
It is putting your faith in the Lord Jesus personally.
That is where Christianity begins.
You may appreciate Christ. You may say he's a good teacher, a good guru and all that, but that is not Christianity.
The standard is coming to the Lord Jesus as a lost sinner
And putting your faith in the Lord Jesus as your Savior, that is where you become a Christian.
Till that point, you never become a Christian.
They may have been born and brought up in a Christian home.
But that doesn't make you a Christian. The moment you put your trust in the Lord.
You become a child of God. And that is where Christianity begins.
Now, having come to the lord
See, the Lord doesn't stop his invitation there.
He doesn't simply say, come unto me, I will forgive your sin.
That's not the end of it. He goes on to say.
Next verse. Take my yoke upon you.
Having come to me.
The next thing that I want you to do
is to yield your lives
Totally to my control.
See, Christian life is not just a life where you come and find forgiveness for your sin.
And then you live as you like the rest of your life. No.
Christianity is not just coming to the lord
It is yielding your life to the total control and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take my yoke means
Come under my control.
Acknowledge my lordship, my mastery.
over your life.
That is what the Lord expects of every Christian.
It is not that you come to the Lord, your sins are forgiven. Now I can live as I like.
That is not Christianity. Christian life is coming to the Lord and then
Yielding your life totally to his control.
You remember in John chapter 8
A woman caught in adultery was brought to the Lord.
And the Lord told her.
I also do not condemn you. Go.
See, the Lord took away…
The burden of sin of her back.
I forgive you.
But was that all? No.
The Lord said something more. You remember that?
He did not simply say, okay, you can go now.
He said, go, but…
Sin no more.
That is the yoke placed on her.
The Lord took away the burden of her sin.
And he placed another burden on her.
What is that? He placed his yoke upon her and said, Now, the rest of your life, live a life of control.
Live under my control.
Don't sin anymore.
If you have come to the lord
And if the Lord has taken away your burden of sin.
The Lord has definitely told you this.
go but sin no more.
That is the burden the Lord places on us.
Now, the burden of sin would break our back.
But the burden that the Lord places on us, the yoke.
That is not meant to break our back.
That is only to control us and direct us in the right course of life.
You know, there's a verse in the book of Lamentations which says.
It is good for a young man to bear his yoke in his youth.
The yoke that the Lord places on you and me is not to break our back.
The burden of sin, the yoke of sin would break our back.
But the yoke that the Lord Jesus places on us is not to break our back
that yoke is only to control us.
and maximize the potential of your Christian life.
If you are just loose.
Oh, you are saved, you are on your way to heaven, and you are just let loose to live as you like.
you will make a mess of your life.
The Lord knows that because we are still living in this sinful flesh
We are living in this sinful world.
And therefore, the Lord doesn't say, okay, now you live as you like. No.
Having come to the Lord, the Lord says now the rest of your life live under my control. Acknowledge my mastery over every area of your life.
So crystal life is a life of control.
Christian life is a life where you are under.
The control of the Lord Jesus.
Everything in your life comes under control.
And you can maximize your potentials
As you live for God under his control.
Now the question is, are we
Under the control of the Lord Jesus, you are a child of God, very good.
But is your life under the control of the Lord Jesus?
Do you consult him at every step?
Do you seek to do his will in all areas of your life?
Do you do things in a manner pleasing to him at every point in your life?
Do you seek his will in all that you do?
Is your life a life of control?
Are you under the yoke of the Lord Jesus?
How many of us can honestly say
that practically I am under the yoke of the Lord Jesus. My burden of sin is lifted. I am a child of God.
But I have allowed the Lord to put his yoke of control on me, and now I am under his control.
If you are under his control, he will lead you in the right direction.
You know, when a yoke is placed on the oxen
The oxen come under control.
The oxen cannot go here and there now.
The master holds at the other end of the yoke
And he directs the oxen.
There is a particular course
prescribed for the oxen to dread.
And the master, at the other end of the yog, he directs that oxen
to follow the course that he has prescribed.
There may be some good green grass here, but the oxen cannot go there to eat that.
There may be some good grass this
But the oxen is not free to go and enjoy that. No.
Because the oxen are under control.
The master holds at the other end
of the yoke so that the oxen has to declare death to itself.
and follow the course
The master sets before it.
Crystal life is a life
where you declare
Depth yourself every day.
You sign your death warrant every day.
You say, you learn to say.
Not to yourself and yes to the Lord at every point.
Just as the oxen cannot go their own way.
cannot go here and there
But the oxen have to follow the course the master prescribes
You and me as Christians, we cannot go wherever we want to go.
We cannot do whatever we want to do.
The Lord is holding at the other end of the yoke.
And therefore, each and every day in our life
We need to learn to sign our death warrant every day
We need to learn to say no to ourselves
And yes to the Lord at every point in our life.
Let me ask you a simple question.
There is only one thing in the gospels
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
There is only one thing in the Gospels that Jesus taught us to do
daily.
Do you know what that is? Only one thing in the New Testament, in the gospels.
Jesus taught us to do daily.
Jesus did not say pray daily. There's no such words.
Of course, we have to pray daily. That's a different thing.
Jesus did not say, read your Bibles daily. Where's that verse?
There's no such verse. Jesus did not say, go to church daily.
There's no such verse.
There is only one thing that Jesus asked his followers to do daily.
You know what that is? Luke 9 verse 23.
Luke 9.23
And he said to them all.
If any man will come after me.
Let them deny himself.
And take up his cross daily and follow me.
Did you know that this is the only thing
Jesus asked his disciples to do on a daily basis.
We need to pray and read the Bible and all daily, no doubt about it.
But the only thing that he specifically
instructed his disciples to follow using the word daily is
Deny yourself
Take up your cross.
You know, Cross always speaks of death.
The moment you see across
The picture that comes to your mind is the picture of death, the thought of death.
Deny yourself and take up your cross means
Every day of your life
Learn to say no to your plans.
Not your ego, not yourself
And yes to the Lord.
You know, our greatest problem
Very often we do not know who our greatest enemy is.
They make a mistake here.
Very often we think, oh, that brother is my greatest problem.
My wife is my greatest problem.
Huh? Our elder is, he is our greatest problem.
That's what we think.
D.L. Moody, that great preacher, said.
My greatest enemy
is the one whom I see.
in the mirror every morning. He's my greatest enemy.
Who is that? Whom do you see every morning?
In the mirror you see yourself.
You are your greatest enemy. Have you understood that?
Who is my greatest enemy? You're not my greatest enemy.
My greatest enemies, myself, that big I, ego
That's my greatest enemy.
Crystal life is a life in which you
said no to yourself.
your own plans, your own desires.
your ego, you're lifting yourself up
You want to follow your own plans, your own ambitions, your own ideas.
Learn to say no to it.
Not on a yearly basis, but on a daily basis.
And say no to.
yourself and yes to the Lord Jesus.
My friends, that is crystal.
Crystal life is a life in which
you say no to yourself
And yes to the lord
Every day of your life. That is what it means.
to follow the Lord Jesus as his disciple.
So come to me.
Put your trust in me.
I will remove your burden of your
And then I will place a burden on you. That is not to break your back.
But that is to direct your steps
That is my yoke. Take my yoke. Come under my control.
Live a life where you say not your ego at every point and yes to the Lord at every point.
You know, when we want to do our own will.
And we are not able to do it.
That is when we become restless.
Have you understood that? When do you become restless?
I want to do something today.
But there is an interference. Someone came in between.
And I become restless. Oh, I wanted to do 100 things today.
And here comes this fellow or this brother or some interference. I'm not able to do what I want to do and I become totally restless.
But if you don't want to do anything.
You just want to do the Lord's will, what God allows you to do
Then you're absolutely at rest.
There's nothing that I want to do. I just want to do what the Lord loves me to do.
I want to do what the Lord permits me to do. I want to do what the Lord has directed me to do.
And when I begin to do that.
My heart is totally at rest.
Because there's nothing that I want to do. As Apostle Paul said, it is no more that big I
But Christ who lives in me.
That is Christian life.
Come to the Lord, yield your life to his control.
Okay, the third thing and
Learn of me.
I told you that the word learn
And the word disciple come from the same root
Learn of me means…
Follow me as my disciple.
What is Christian life? Christian life is
Putting our trust in the Lord.
Yielding our life to his control
And following him
Disciple.
Do you learn from the Lord Jesus every day?
Are we followers of the Lord Jesus?
Are we his disciples?
Learning is learning
the job, the work of a disciple
Now here, there's something very interesting
Something that we very often ignore, we do not understand, we do not pause to think about it.
He did not say, learn my doctrine
He did not say, learn my teachings.
He did not say, learn my philosophy.
He said, you learn of me.
What is the difference between asking you to
Follow my teaching.
And follow me.
Jesus is not saying
Learn my teachings. It's good to learn his teachings. We all must learn Jesus teachings, no doubt about it.
But here, what the Lord says.
You learn me.
And there's a qualifying term there, you know, a sentence added to a phrase
Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly.
What does that mean?
Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly.
What does that mean? That means
Learn my character.
That's a meaning.
What you need to learn
From the Lord Jesus as his disciple
not just his teaching.
not just his philosophy, not just his doctrine. It's good to learn all those things, but primarily the Lord wants you to learn
His character.
Learn of me because I'm meek and lowly.
you learn my meekness.
you learn my loneliness. You learn my character.
In Luke 6 and verse 14,
The Lord Jesus taught this elsewhere also.
Luke 6 verse 40. Jesus said.
A disciple is not above his master.
One who is fully trained, that is a disciple, who is fully trained will become like the master.
What is the greatest thing in a disciple's life
The greatest thing in a disciple's life
is not just to learn all the philosophies that his master teaches
The greatest thing in a disciple's life
is to become like the master.
That is the ultimate goal of Christian life.
What should be my ultimate goal?
become the greatest preacher in the world?
become the number one Bible scholar in India?
No. Part of the ultimate goal that I should have in my mind?
become like the Lord Jesus.
Not only me, but every one of us.
If you are a child of God.
What you need to focus on
is to grow into Christlikeness as days go by.
A disciple who is fully
fully trained will become like the master.
So for a disciple
His focus should be
not become famous like his master.
not become an orator like his master
but to follow the example of his master.
become like him.
in his character.
That is when the world will be impacted
with the power of the gospel.
The world is not looking for a new definition of the gospel.
The world is looking for a new demonstration
of the gospel in the lives of men and women.
How far, like the Lord Jesus, my master, have I become?
That is the measure, measuring yard, measuring stick
of my spiritual growth.
How many of us have understood that?
Some of us think that, oh, if I learn
500 verses by heart.
Oh, I've grown spiritually. Not necessarily.
If I've learned 200 courses.
By heart, I've grown spiritually. Not necessarily.
You may know all the courses in the in-book.
and maybe a thoroughly carnal person.
You may become a highly acclaimed
Bible scholar and you may be a totally unspiritual person
Bible knowledge is good. Learning songs is good.
But what is more important
is to learn him learn of me.
And when we grow into his likeness in our day-to-day life.
people will see Christ.
in you and me. That is one area where we have failed.
We preach, we sing.
We do outreach, we do mission work, we do all sorts of things.
But many Christians fail
to demonstrate the life of christ
in their lives.
Galatians 5.22, we know it's the fruit of the spirit
Love, joy, peace, nine things there.
That is actually the character of Christ.
Prior to the spirit is the character of Christ.
which the Holy Spirit produces in a believer who yields totally to him.
Do I reflect those nine characteristics in my life?
What about love? What about joy? What about peace?
What about self-control?
Am I reflecting the glory of the Lord Jesus?
I don't know how many of you have
read the biography of David Livingston.
David Livingston was a Scottish missionary and a doctor.
And he went into the interiors of Africa, crossed the continent of Africa for the first time.
First man to cross Africa.
And he did expeditions and opened the dark continent of Africa to the world.
When Livingston was in Africa for a long time
There was no news of him because he was right inside
the jungle, the forest.
And the British government sent a journalist
to find out
and record the expeditions
the travels and the findings of David Livingston.
And he found his way
to David Livingston, after I think probably a long travel
travel through various places in Africa.
And found David Livingston.
inside the forest.
And he said, David Livingston, I presume.
And David said, yes.
Then he said, I am Henry M. Stanley. That's his name.
i am henry M. Stanley, sent by the British government
to record your expeditions
and to write journals about what you're doing.
And I am going to stay with you for
Sometime, couple of months
But before I start working with you.
I want to tell you one thing.
I am the greatest staggering atheist.
on the face of this earth.
So don't speak about God to me.
That is condition.
If you say yes to this condition, I'll work with you.
I am the greatest staggering atheist
Alive on the face of this earth.
Don't talk about God to me.
With that condition, I'll work with you.
And this atheist started working with David Livingston.
After four months.
of staying with him, traveling with him.
This greater staggering atheist on the face of this earth
knelt down in the soil of Africa
and accepted the Lord Jesus as his savior.
And Henry himself writes why he accepted the Lord. This is what Henry has written.
Henry says that Christ's life I saw in this man
I could not resist.
The Christ life I saw in this man
I could not resist.
I had to yield.
Why did Henry M. Stanley become a Christian?
because of the Christ life he saw
in David Livingston.
I think Henry M. Stanley has written a biography of David Livingston.
Livingston of Africa, if I remember, that's the name.
This is not a story. This is something recorded in history.
How did he come to know the Lord?
Because in David Livingston, he saw Christ.
And he couldn't resist the force of that
Christ likeness and he gave his life
to the Lord.
Learn of me.
For I am meek and lowly.
And Jesus said.
Then you shall find rest unto your souls. Oh, what is this rest all about?
In verse 28, we already found rest, right? Come unto me, I will give you rest.
We came to the Lord, the Lord gave us rest.
The first one is the rest of sins forgiven.
The second rest is…
The rest that we experience
in our day-to-day Christian life.
See, look at the differences between the first rest and the second rest.
The first west you get
When you come to the Lord.
The second rest you find
when you follow the Lord.
The first verse comes
When a burden is taken away.
The second risk comes when a burden is placed on you.
The first is rest is something that the Lord gives
The second rest is something
I find. The first test is the rest once and for all.
The second rest is a rest
that I keep finding in my day-to-day life.
Did he get the differences between these two Russ?
The second one is the rest
that you experience in your day-to-day Christian life.
If you are a child of God, you all have the first trust.
My sins are forgiven. I am at peace with God.
My heart is at rest. Very good.
But there is a second risk that you need to experience
in your day-to-day life.
How do you find that? When you…
Yield yourself to the Lordship of christ
And when you keep growing into his likeness.
When you say not yourself and yes to the Lord at every point.
then you begin to experience a tremendous rest in your heart every day.
that the rest of Christian life.
Do we have that rest in our hearts?
Do we experience that tremendous stress?
the rest of our Christian life
And finally, the Lord said, verse 30
My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
This kind of a life is a life of rest
And the Lord says, it is easy
Oh, is it so?
Most of us think that Christian life is very difficult, right?
Satan has told all of us that
Christian life is a very, very difficult life.
He says, take my yoke.
So it turns yoke.
It is jolly good.
You can go anywhere.
Eat anything, drink anything, mix with anyone, go for dance or bar or…
Become LGBTQ or become anything you like.
Absolute freedom.
Take my yoke. Your life will be very, very happy.
That's what Satan tells us.
And he says, I pity you christians
all the time you have to pray.
You have to go to church. You cannot go for many entertainments.
All the time you have to hold your Bible in your hand, I pity you.
You're miserable fellows. That's what Satan tells us.
My friends, he's a liar and father of lies. Liars.
What he says is not true.
The joy and pleasure and rest
that the world gives is transient. It is short-lived.
It was only for a moment.
Later, trouble will come.
But the rest that Christians experience
is a permanent rest.
There's no guilt feeling attached to it.
you experience that rest totally in your heart.
Dr. Bilgrim has said.
that the happiest people I know are all Christians.
That's very true.
Christians are the happiest people.
My yoke is easy.
And my burden is light.
Let me just conclude with an illustration.
suppose you are one who bears the yoke of satan
And someone comes to fight with you.
okay you're going somewhere and someone comes to fight with you.
He shouts at you for something and you also shout back because you're
You are a follower of Satan.
He shouts at you, he shows his fit, and you also do like this.
And you shout at each other, yell and cry.
And someone comes and separates, hey, go home, don't fight on the way on the road, and you go home.
whole night you have sleep
Are you able to sleep? You can't sleep.
All night you are having imaginary war.
Tomorrow, when I see him, what am I going to say?
whole night you're restless
you're thinking about tomorrow
what points you're going to raise tomorrow when you see him, how to argue with him tomorrow. Whole night you're restless.
Imagine the war going on in your mind.
But suppose you are a Christian.
And you bear the yoke of the Lord Jesus.
someone comes to fight with you
We just forgive him from your heart.
And you say, Lord, he says
shouts at me and uses all those bad words because he's under Satan.
Have mercy upon him, Lord. Save him, Lord. Give him good sense.
Lord, I forgive him from my heart.
You go home, have your dinner.
that you have sound sleep.
No problem for your sleep because you're not having imaginary war.
As to what will happen tomorrow.
Now you tell me which yoke is easier.
Satan's yoke is easier or the Lord's yoke is easier.
Following the Lord Jesus.
That yoke is far easier.
than Satan's yoke.
And tonight, these claims are presented before us
by the lord jesus come
If you have not come, you can come.
Say, Lord, I come.
I trust you as my Savior. I want you to forgive me.
The Lord will save you. The Lord will lift you.
the burden of sin of your back.
And the Lord wants all of us.
to deliberately yield our total lives
under his authority and under his control.
And say, Lord, the rest of my life, I do not want to do my own will.
I want to do your well. Whatever you want me to do.
I will do that. Where you send me, I will go.
What you tell me to do, I will do that.
I want to say no to myself and yes to you at every point in my life.
And I want to follow you.
as your disciples, I want to learn of you.
I want to become more like you.
That's the ultimate thing in my life.
then your life becomes meaningful
Not only that you have joy and peace in your heart.
But you are able to make an impact.
in the world. People who see you
They'll see Christ in you. They'll be attracted to the Lord Jesus.
And your life becomes meaningful and satisfying and you can genuinely say it is no more I, but Christ lives in me.
This is Christian life. This is the type of Christian life to which the Lord Jesus calls us. It is not just accepting the Lord and then going to heaven
and living a miserable life here. No, that's not just in life.
The Christian life that the Bible talks about is a life of joy, life of rest, and life of peace.
May that be our experience in the days to come.
And may the Spirit of God help each and every one of us.
to put these things into practice in our life.
Thank you for this opportunity. God bless you and prosper you.
As you seek to serve the Lord in this community. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Brother John, encouraging us in the gospel and the
essence of Christian life.
And so we bless your travels in America as you go to Houston and so forth.
Thank you for making yourself known to us here at Walwatosa. We'll be praying for you.
And we bless
All of our friends that we've made in India. Nice to know about the Madsen connection
Greet them for us, please.
We'll close in prayer. We'll look forward to seeing you Lord's Day morning here at Wawatosa Bible Chapel.
And thank you once again for your prayers for Ruth and me as we've
at this time of illness and
pray that this surgery will be effective for Ruth and we'll know really in about a month's time.
about that. So, Father, we are
thanking you this evening for the word of God preached from that first gospel of
of the scriptures, Matthew's gospel
Come unto me. And we…
Plus the time that we each could come.
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, realizing our
our sin and our need and how he wonderfully
can fulfill it by forgiving us and giving us new life in the holy spirit
within us to guide our way, the word of God to direct it
And the Fellowship of Christians, the Blessed.
And so we pray for Brother Currian.
And the others here tonight, we ask you to take us home safely.
And God bless us as we
continue to grow in faith here at Wauwatosa Bible Chapel.
And we pray for those who are ailing.
And those traveling. And we also want to pray at this time for our country
as we are
asking for
Leaders who will respect the word of God and the truth.
And give us a life of peace where the life of peace
Prosperity of the gospel.
Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.