Friends, sin’s too heavy for you to carry. The only place in the world to put your burden is at the cross of Christ. He bore it for you. He invites you to come. Bring your burden of sin to Him and He’ll forgive you. He bore it for us on the cross. Then there’s that commitment we can make. “Take His yoke”—and that means to be yoked with Him. Learn of Him. He’s “meek and lowly in heart.” And then there is a rest that comes by being committed to Christ. You don’t have to worry about certain things if you’re committed to Him. You don’t have to be running around after it, because He’ll put you right where He wants you if you’re yoked up to Him.

Unless you have really committed your life to Him, paid a price, I wouldn’t talk much about my commitment to Christ. I hear a great deal about a commitment to Christ today. I soft pedal that because I find that Simon Peter and myself have never been too good at this type of thing. But, thank God, He’s faithful. That’s the wonder of it all. And verse 38: “He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” I wish I could have heard Him use that expression “not worthy of me.” Many of us are not, but, thank God, He’ll not throw us overboard, but it means He’s not going to use us unless we’re really committed to Him.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” Isn’t that marvelous? He takes care of those little sparrows. Have you ever watched one of those little old sparrows? It’s marvelous, isn’t it? But not only that, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Now God loves you. The Lord Jesus loves you more than your mother ever loved you. She never counted your hair, did she? He has. He knows the number. “Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Just think of that. If He thinks that of a sparrow, you would never get lost, friends, from Him. That is, you can be lost, but you’ll never get to the place where He doesn’t know where you are.

“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” And this is such a lovely thing. The note of compassion which concludes this chapter and session is startling, isn’t it? You see God’s idea of kings and rulers have all been shepherds. Moses had that training. David had been a shepherd. And the Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd. And when we pray the Lord to thrust forth laborers into His harvest, pray that He gives them the heart of a shepherd. Pray that the Lord would give you a heart of compassion for the lost.

“There came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” Now this leper, when he came to the Lord Jesus, he didn’t come and say to Him, “Will you make me clean?” or, “Are you able to make me clean?” He came with faith. He said, “Lord” and he recognizes His lordship, and he says to Him, “If you will—if you will, you can make me clean.” Not always His will, friends. But if it’s His will, He can do it. And the will of God must come first.

There’s nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments. God gave them. They reveal His mind, His will. Nothing wrong with that. But there’s something radically wrong with man. May I say to you, do you want to hear what the Gospel of Matthew says? It’s the words of the Lord Jesus. Listen to Him. He says, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man.” The heart is the problem. Man has an awful case—a desperate case of heart trouble today, and jogging just won’t help him. He needs Jesus, not jogging. And He alone can change it.

Nothing that you do—you can’t lift your little finger for your salvation. Now after you’re saved, God has a way for you to live. And that way for you to live is not the Law. It’s not the Ten Commandments. Oh, I know, all the denominations—I was brought up in one of them, I was educated, my shorter catechism said that when you get to sanctification and to live for God, they drag in the Ten Commandments. Suppose you did keep all of the Ten Commandments, which you don’t—but if you did, that wouldn’t save you. Because that’s not what saves you today: It’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that saves you.

Friends, the Sermon on the Mount, it’s a glorious passage of Scripture. Don’t bypass it. Don’t say it’s not for today. It is, and if you read it aright, it’s going to bring you to the person of Jesus Christ. You’re going to come to Him, and you’re going to say, “Lord, You said these things, and I don’t measure up to them. And I know You want them done, and I can’t do them in my own strength, and I’m guilty before You. I’ve fallen short, and I need Your mercy. I need You as a Savior.” And you turn to Him. Then He gives you the Holy Spirit that He might produce these things in your life. Oh, that you and I would be brought to Christ through the Sermon on the Mount.

“For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” That’s the kind of a teacher He was. He came teaching with authority. And you and I today need to recognize that we haven’t anything to say unless we can say it with the Father; unless you believe it. I don’t want to hear a man giving me a string of theories that he’s never tried them at all. He knows nothing about them. Today we have a gospel to give; a message to give—a message of salvation. And we know it works, because it’s worked in our case. And we have the witnesses of others. And it’s by coming to Christ.

“Therefore whoso heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man that built his house upon a rock: rain descended, floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house.” If you’ve come to Him, He’s the foundation. “No other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Now, when you come to Him and rest in Him, you can build on that foundation, and you can build a life that has fruit in it. Not by your own effort, but that which the Holy Spirit produces—that which is gold and precious stones and silver.