I want you to open your Bibles
with me now to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11. Seeking a message from the Lord,
I just start reading God's Word.
Any message from the Lord has to be from His Word. And I read
and I read and I read until something speaks to me. And I began to
read in Matthew and got all the way to chapter 11. And then this
really spoke to me. The Lord spoke to me. Let's read
verses 25 through 30. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, and he prayed, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
so it seemed good in thy sight." And now he continues. He's been
preaching to a multitude of people. And he says, are delivered unto
me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Come unto me, all that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me. 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." Is this my last message? I fully believe
it will be the best. Is this yours? He couldn't hear
a more important message. Come unto me, Christ said. Come
unto me. He began with verse 25. It says
he thanked God that he revealed, hid these things from the wise
and the prudent. Most people are wise in their
own conceits. Meaning, they think they're wise,
and they're not. The fool has said there's no
God. Romans 1, professing themselves
to be wise, they became fools. Paul wrote, ever learning, never
coming to a knowledge of the truth. That's our generation. He hid these things from the
wise and the prudent. What things? Things of life. Words of life. and revealed these
sayings unto babes. We all need to hear this like
babes. I've heard this many times. I've
read this many times. In fact, I've preached on these
verses as much or more than any passage in all the Bible. I need to hear it again as if
it's the first time, like a little babe. What does a little babe
desire? What does a little babe need? Paul wrote, desire the
sincere milk of the Word, as little babes. We need to be like
babes. We need to be like little children. Here, he says, you'll live a
long life. We read that, didn't we? Were
you blessed by reading Proverbs 4? Did you hear it? I've read
that so many times. That spoke to me. It spoke to
you. How important is it then? Does anything else really matter? Huh? No, it doesn't. He said in verse 26, he said,
Even so, Father, A very short prayer, isn't it? I thank Thee if You hid these
things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto
me. Are you thankful that the Lord revealed the truth Himself
to you? What a blessing. That's life.
Life eternal. If You hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, even so, Father, it seemed good in
Thy sight. He reveals to whom He will. And whom he will he
what? Harden it. Verse 27, he says, now he continues
preaching. And there were multitudes, it
said back there in verse 7, it says, the multitudes, he began
to say unto the multitudes, there were thousands of people heard
him say these things. Who came to Him? Who took the yoke? Who bowed
the head? Who followed Him? Not many. Have
they not all heard? Paul said, yes, verily they have
heard. Oh, my. He says in verse 27, all things
are delivered unto me of my Father. All things, every person, every
place, everything is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
did you hear that? You and everything you are and
have, your breath is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is the Christ description. This is the sovereign Lord of
the universe. King of kings, Lord of lords. All things are
delivered unto me, given unto me, my Father. As thou hast given
him, he prayed in John 17, as thou hast given him power over
all flesh. This is the Jesus of Scripture.
Power over all flesh. You. Everybody. All things. Listen to Colossians
1. By Him were all things created
that are in heaven are in the earth, visible, invisible. Whether they be thrones, dominions,
principalities, powers, all things, all things created by Him and
for Him. And He is before, above all things. And by Him all things Consist. Continue. That's us. Everyone. Everything. All things
are delivered unto me, he said. All things. I've got to say this. I say it
all the time. But I don't presume that everybody
fully understands it. That modern false religion Preaches a God who doesn't want
things to happen. You can read about that helicopter
crash. I read some comments by different
people and said, God didn't have anything to do with that. God loves you. He's with you
in this time of sadness. That's not the God of the Bible.
That's not Jesus Christ. He said all things. Good, evil. I kill, I make alive. I wound, I heal. He says, I the
Lord do all these things. All things. What hope is there? What peace? What comfort? Why
do you need a God? When things happen, he didn't
want them to happen. What good is he? Why even pray
to him? He has no more power than you
do. Things happen, and he didn't want them to happen? That's what
we say. Isn't it? I didn't want that
to happen. He had no power over it. Then why do you need a God
like that? You don't. But the God of the Bible, Christ
of Scripture says all things. All things. My, my. There's a story in Genesis. The
story of Joseph. Do you remember the story of
Joseph? Joseph was hated, despised, and rejected by his brethren.
They wanted to kill him, but the Lord wouldn't let him be
killed. So they sold him. Such a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ. They sold him his brethren. Joseph was his father's well-beloved
son. His favorite. He was sent to
his brethren to check on their welfare and to bring them food
and so forth. And they hated him, despised
him, and rejected him. And they tried to kill him, but
couldn't. God wouldn't let them. And it ended up that God put
Joseph on the throne of Egypt. with all power over all Egypt.
And Pharaoh, who represents God the Father, gave all things into
Joseph's hands and said, now if anybody's going to get anything,
they've got to come to Joseph. All flesh, all Egypt had to come
to Joseph. And Christ said, all things are
delivered unto me by my Father. All human beings get everything
they get from Jesus Christ. attain it, you obtain it. You don't deserve it. It's grace. It's all a gift. Okay? In the end, Joseph had
his brethren come. They didn't know him. What a
story. He had his brethren come. Remember,
they hated him. And Joseph began to reveal himself
to them. And when they found out who this
was on the throne, and they hated him, despised him, rejected him,
they were shaking in their boots. They thought, he's going to kill
us because we hated him. We would not have him reign over
us. But you know what Joseph said? Come near. Some of you, some in this room,
most in this room have found out that God has given all things
into the hands of Jesus, the Lord Jesus. And you've heard his blessed
voice saying to you, now come unto me. You hated him. You despised him. You rejected
him. You didn't believe in him. And then he said in mercy and
grace and loving kindness to you, not your brother or sister. You come unto me. And he said in the end there
of Exodus 50, he said, or Genesis 50, he said, you meant it for
evil. And God did this for your good. He said, I'm going to keep
you alive the rest of your days. Feed you in the land of Goshen.
My, my. All things are delivered unto
me. He says in verse 28, or verse 27, no man knows the, verse 27,
no man knows the son, but the father. They thought they knew Jesus,
didn't they? People today think they know
Jesus. Neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Nobody
knows God. Nobody on the top side of this
earth knows God except through Jesus Christ. The Muslims, the
Buddhists, the Hindus, you name it, they don't know God. They're
devout, they're religious, they think they know God, they don't
know God. Either Jesus Christ is the greatest liar who ever
lived or he's the truth. He said, I am the truth. No man
cometh unto the Father, but by me, he said. Cannot know God,
sitting on the top side of a hill, worshiping the sun and so forth.
You can only know God through the Son of Righteousness, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it says, No man knoweth. Our Lord said in that prayer,
I quoted John 17, 2, that thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. Then he says, And this is life
eternal. This is what it means to be saved.
that they might know Thee. This is what Christ said. Thee,
the only true God. And Jesus Christ whom He sent. This is life eternal. No man
knoweth, save he to whom He reveals Him. Are you with me? You don't figure this thing out.
No man by searching can find out God. It must be revealed. I just told
you about his brethren. They came to him. They didn't
know who he was until finally he revealed himself. I'm Joseph.
I'm your brother whom you sold. Now come here. That's Christ. Come unto me. Look at verse 28. Now he says,
come unto me. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come unto me. What is it to come to Christ?
What is it to come to Christ? This, as I said, most important
message you could hear. My last message, I don't know,
but if it is, This is what you need to hear. It's what I need
to hear. Come unto me. What does it mean to come to
Christ? What does it mean? Well, first of all, it's to hear.
They're hearing Him preach, aren't they? They're all hearing Him.
They're all hearing Him. And all do. I quoted that. Paul said in Romans 10, Have
they not all heard? Yea, verily, the sound has gone
throughout all the ends of the earth. And Psalm 19 says there's
nothing under the earth Day and night utter a speech in the glory
of God. Have they not all heard? Everybody's
heard of the Bible and heard of Jesus and heard of God. Yes,
they have. But they have ears to hear. Everybody
has ears to hear, but they really don't hear. They hear with these
ears. What you and I must hear is His voice. You can read this
Bible all you want to, and until God speaks to you, you're not
going to hear His voice. You need to hear Him. I told
you, I kept reading and reading and reading. It's interesting
to me, and the Lord will speak to me. And I got to these verses,
He said, come unto Me. You have to hear, come to Christ
is to hear His voice. To come to Christ is to believe
Him with the heart. With the heart, man, believe
Him. Believe Him. Now, I heard these things when
I was growing up. Everything you've heard this
morning, I heard many, many times growing up. Just like our children
hear it over and over again. You keep hearing the same thing.
Why? Paul was thankful that Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child
that was able to make him wise unto salvation. He was thankful.
He heard the Scriptures. Now, he didn't hear Christ's
voice until Christ said, It's time. And he heard. How did he hear? How shall they
hear without what? A preacher. How shall they believe Him whom
they have not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? We hear who He is. I heard who
He was when I was a boy. The Lord, God, the Sovereign.
I believed in the sovereignty of God. The devil believes that. I believe He's Master. But to really believe, to find
out, He's my God. Creator. He said, I girded you,
though you didn't know me. I fed you, I kept you, I've taken
care of you all these years, though you didn't know it. Like
Hosea, Gomer in the book of Hosea, remember? She thought, well,
my lovers gave me this, and my lovers did this, and I did this,
and because of my strength and my talent and my ability, I attained
this. I got a good job, I got a good
house, and I worked real hard, and I accumulated all these things
because I've got talent. You've got nothing. Everything
you have is given to you. The only reason you're not a
quadriplegic is God made you to differ. The only reason you've
got a mind is because God made you to differ. Everything you
have, what do you have that you have not received? And why would
you glory as if you had not received? That's why God hates pride more
than anything else. Look what I've done. You haven't
done anything. You've received grace, talents,
looks, strength, privileges. Right? What do you have? And
one day you find out, I've been taking credit for something
that didn't belong to me. I've been shaking my fist in
the hands of God, defying God, And all along, He's sparing my
life. I had no interest in His Son.
I had no interest in His Gospel. I had no interest in His Word.
I had only interest in myself and this world and everything
and everyone in it. Everything but God. And here's
salvation, but God. He said, You're mine. He didn't
bring you to it. And you're here. You're here.
And you believe with all your heart, now this Lord, this God
is my God. This Lord, this God is mine.
He's my master. He is my owner. He can do with
me as He pleases. To believe Him is to believe
He's your prophet. You remember the woman at the
well? She didn't know what she wanted. She didn't know what
she needed. She married five times and all
five marriages failed. And she thought, well, I'll try
it out now. I'll live with this fella and
hope this works out. It's not going to work out. It's not. And she kept coming
every day to that well. And one day, our Lord was waiting
on her. And she wanted to talk to him
a little bit, and he began to reveal unto her her sin. You
don't know what you... He finally said, you don't know
what you believe. She said, well, we worship here. She said, well,
we used to worship here. He said, you don't know what
you believe. Like Nicodemus, he came. He wanted to ask a question.
Our Lord said, he didn't answer his question. He said, you must
be born again. You'll be born again. If God gives you a new
birth, it'll all clear up. And this woman, She said, well,
when Messiah comes, He'll tell us all things. You need to find out that He
is all things. How are you going to find that
out? When He tells you. He said, I that speak unto you,
am. You know what she did? She dropped
her water bottle. And she went running home. To
tell that man she's living with, you need to come see the Christ.
I've met Christ. I've told everybody that listens
to me, I've met the Christ. Where's your water pot? My what?
Your water pot? Oh, I don't know, but I've met
Him. Now He's become all to her. Whereas before, she's trying
to find this, trying to find that. Laboring. and heavy laden
to try to find some peace, some happiness, some contentment,
something fulfilling in this life. No, it ain't there. He's
not going to find it. He said, come unto me. To come
to Him is to trust Him. People, I know we've got to show
some faith and trust Our fellow man, you know, you go to the
doctor. You know what they say doctors
are doing, don't you? Practicing medicine. You know what a hypothesis is,
don't you? I learned, English was my subject, but I did learn
something in science, and this is what I learned. You know what
I learned? That everything begins with a hypothesis. What's that?
An educated Guess. There's no guessing here. What
do you got? Well, I guess you got... Christ said, Come unto me all
things. He cannot lie. I am the truth. The way. The life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God,
don't care what accumulates in this world, he or she, don't
care what they attain to, no matter how high, they don't have
life. And then when everything ends,
then what? Dead. Over. And why, what was it all
about? What good was it? Huh? The whole book of Ecclesiastes
is about this. You know that? He said everything's
full of labor. The eye, not satisfied with seeing. The ear, labors to hear and see,
get contentment and all that. Solomon, the wisest man to ever
live. as is our Lord, who gave Him to us. He said, I tried everything. The whole book of Ecclesiastes.
He said, I tried everything. I labored. I did this, I did
that, I accumulated this, I tried this, I tried that. Everything,
trying to get some satisfaction. And He said, I labored. And He
said, oh, my labor, He said, I found out it was in vain. He said, I came to this conclusion
that I'm going to work all my life to accumulate this and that
and the other, and die and leave it to a fool who's going to blow
it all. What? Vanity of vanities, that's
what he said. This is the truth. And so our
Lord said in Isaiah 55, Ho, everyone at first, come unto me. Here
in your soul will live. Why do you spend your labor for
that which is not bread? Here in your soul shall live.
The days of thy life shall be many. How many? Forever. Everybody wants to live as long
as they can. You can't do it. Who has our
days in His hands? How are our days determined?
Your diet? Is what you do with your life
going to determine how long you live? No. Man's number of his
days are with the Lord. His bounds are set, he cannot
pass. You like that? Oh, I do. Come unto me. Oh, man, he said,
trust me. Trust me. That's what I'm getting
at here. Trust him. Don't trust the words
of man. Trust him. Trust him. This is
trust mingled with fear. Trust him. He says, come unto
me. I'm telling you the truth. I won't lie to you. Don't go
to Egypt. Don't go to Pharaoh. Don't go
here. Don't go there. You're a fool if you do so. They're
going to lie to you. The God of this world is going
to lie to you. Christ is coming. Trust. Let me give you a good
illustration of trust. And you've heard the story of
these cats. And you may not want to hear
it, but I don't care. Everything is a sermon. You know
that? Everything's a sermon, all the world. If you open your
eyes, if the Lord will open your eyes, you'll see truth in everything
and everyone. And these cats give me a great
deal of pleasure. A great deal of pleasure. And
they give me really good illustrations. And I know that's why the Lord
sent them, for these illustrations of the truth. Everything is an
illustration of who God is, what man is, and where salvation is. Everything. Well, you know, one
cat came up, and she was poor, and I took her in and fed her
and kept her and sent my affection on her, and, boy, she loves me
now, Ruth. Well, she had babies, five babies. I don't need cats. I didn't need
Ruth. I sure don't need five little varmints, okay? And so I chose one. And the other four I sent somewhere. Okay. I chose one. Okay. For a year or more, I named her
Grace. For a year or more, she wouldn't
come to me. She didn't trust me. I'm feeding
her. I'm taking care of her. I chose
her. I adopted her. She wouldn't come to me. After
a while, she started coming to me. She started realizing, he's
not going to hurt me. Are you with me? He's not out
to hurt me. He's out to do me good. I don't
know if she realized it yet that I chose her out of, I didn't
choose her brothers and sisters. But I did. She says, come with
me. And so, you know, as I was, she
began to trust me. And now she trusts me. As I was
writing these notes down, she was asleep on my desk, laying
against my arm. She was a feral, wild cat. And I took her in, began to feed
her, and she began to trust me. And now she's leaning on my bosom.
And every day, when I pull up, I will not forget them. If I
don't come, I'll have somebody come feed them. And every day
I pull up there, they're waiting on me. They're waiting on me. God said, come unto Him. Come
unto Him. He will come. It was the Father
who gave Him. It was the Father who chose. Now, you may not know
it, But Jesus Christ has fed and watered you all the days
of your life. He's clothed you, housed you, kept you all the
days of your life. You may not know it. You may
think your dad and mom did it. No, they didn't. Jesus Christ
did it. And what you need to do is come to Him. Yes, you do. To come to Him is to come as
a blind person, like blind Bartimaeus. Lord, I want to see. If you don't
see that Jesus Christ is all, you need to see. You're blind.
You need to come to Him as a leper. That leper came down. He's dying
of leprosy, and so are you. It's called sin. It's going to
kill you one of these days. In fact, you already are dead
if you don't know Him. And that leper came and said, I want to
be clean. What did he say? Clean. We need to come to Christ
as that woman who had the issue of blood and all sheep. Finally,
when she was all over, you know, the Lord ignored her. The Lord
said, it's not fit to give children bread to dogs. I've only come
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as my elect. That's
who I've come for. And she said, truth, Lord, truth.
It's all, everything He says is truth about me, about you,
about the truth and everything. Then she said, help me! Okay. You need help? Oh, I didn't think I needed help.
Did you think you needed help when you were a young fellow?
Nah. Got the world by the tail on a downhill pull, I do. And
I didn't understand the world had me by the tail on a downhill
pull. The God of this world helped
me get there. And I didn't know it. Christ said, come unto me. He said, I'll give you rest.
Rest. You know, when Adam and Eve rebelled
against God, they thought, we don't need His rule and reign.
Oh, yes, you do. Do you know what God sentenced
them to? A life of hard labor. Yeah, He did. He said, Adam,
okay, you had it just fine with Me. You didn't need anything. You had Me. Now you want to be
on your own? Okay. The rest of your life,
you're going to labor in what? Dirt. That's what he said. Earth. And
it's all going to go back to the dirt. All your labor for
the rest of your life, whatever you've accomplished, is going
to go back to the dirt. And that's where you're going
to be when it's all over, in a hole in the ground. And what
was it for? But John, he showed that sinner and his wife a lamb
slain before the foundation of water. This is your hope. This is your help. The woman's
seed, the coming Christ, deliver you from this life of hard labor.
Christ said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden. Labor. Labor for happiness. Labor for
peace. Labor for rest. Labor. Labor. All things are full of labor.
This life is full of labor. Psalm 90 says there's strength,
but then there's labor, and then there's death. Sounds bad, doesn't
it? It doesn't have to be. It doesn't
have to be. Christ is coming to them. I'll
give you rests. I used to think I wanted to be
many things. Preacher wasn't one of them. Honestly. But it'd be the last
thing I wanted to do. I want to be a forest ranger.
I want to be this. I want to be that. I want to be that. But
this is what I'll do. I didn't know what I wanted. You know
what? Christ said, come to me. Come
to me. I'll give you rest. Rest. in
religion. They've lived a life, a vain
life, and wasted their lives and, you know, and they go get
religion. John, was that, you got religion?
And you think, well, I can redeem myself. I can redeem what I've
done and pay for my past bad life by being more devoted and
being a good Christian and quit this and quit that. It's not
enough. It's never enough. It won't work. It won't satisfy your conscience.
It won't satisfy God. You're not redeemed with corruptible
things. You're vain conversation. You can't redeem yourself. You
can't pay for... How many years did you live? Defying God? You can't undo it. You can't
undo it. Christ said, come unto me. I'll wipe it out. Blot out all
your transgressions. Blot out the handwriting ordinances.
I'll give you rest. You won't try to work your way
to heaven anymore. You'll realize He said He finished
it. The labor for our souls. Christ did it. That's rest. That's peace. Oh, my. Rest from
labor. Peace with God. Peace of mind.
Look at verse 29. I'll give you rest. He said,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in
heart and you shall find rest for your soul unto yourself.
He said, I'll give you rest. He said, take this yoke and you'll
find rest. You see that? My peace I give
unto you. The peace I leave with you, my
peace I give unto you. I'll give you rest. Come to Christ,
you find out He's finished the work for you. And you just rest
in Christ for your salvation. Okay? He says, now take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly. Then, this
is when He's still on the earth, you hear me? He's not meek and
lowly now. He's high and lifted up. Then
as a man, he said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I'm
meek and lowly in heart. I devoted a whole message to
just that several times. They say, you'll find rest for
your soul. What is a yoke? Go to Mark 11 real quickly. Mark 11. This story is found
in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Mark chapter 11. A yoke. And most of you know here in
this farm country, you've seen horses, two draft animals, yokes together. A yoke is always two in Scripture. Okay? A yoke, you know, used
to have wooden yokes. And then they changed it to collars
and they tied them together with the traces and the chains and
all that sort of thing. A yoke, but it's two, it's two is what
it is. And this yoke of Christ, He said, take my yoke upon you.
It's four things. It's a yoke of ownership. It's
a yoke of service. It's a yoke of discipleship.
It's a yoke of restraint. Okay, look at Mark 11, a yoke
of ownership. Alright? When they came nigh
unto Jerusalem, unto Bethphagia, and Bethany, at the Mount of
Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and said unto
them, Go your way into the village over against you. As soon as
you be entered into it, you shall find a coat tied up. In another place, it says, a
wild ass's coat. Are you reading this with me?
Verse 2, And never a man sat on it. Why? He's too wild. He's tied up. Somebody owns him. But he's tied up and he's wild.
And he can't be ridden by any man. He's a wild ass's colt. Now that's you and that's me.
We were born in sin. Did my mother conceive me? She
was wild until the Lord tamed her. And so was yours. Tied up. Who? Who owns? Who has the people
in this world captive? What scripture says? The God
of this world. Satan. Until a stronger than
he comes and takes his goods from him. Binds that man and
takes from him those that he held captive. That was me. That was you. That is still some
of you. Hopefully, our Lord Jesus Christ
will give the command, loose him. See, our Lord didn't say, go
ask him. I'd really like to have him if
you'll give me permission. No! It's just a command, isn't
it? And he gives commands to say, send that gospel to this
fellow, loose him and bring him where? Bring him to Christ. Now, these horse people in here, You own horses. And how you know
an animal is owned, generally, is they have a halter on, don't
they? Huh? A dog. Do your dogs have collars? Well, they ought to, if they
don't. But it's a yoke of ownership. Okay? Our Lord, when He said,
The Son shall make you free, He didn't say set you free. And you don't turn your domesticated
animals out just to hope they turn out all right, do you? Our
Lord led captivity, what? Captive. And He puts this yoke on you. You need to be yoked. You know
that? You don't want to be a wild animal
out there. that most wild animals don't
live very long. You know that? A coyote is a
wild dog, isn't it? What good are coyotes? Well,
the Lord made them, but really, they're a nuisance. A coyote in the wild rarely lives
more than three years. A coyote in captivity can live
as long as 15 years. They're better off captive, aren't
they? It's a yoke of ownership. Now, he says, take my yoke upon
you. I don't want anybody reigning
the rule over me. Yes, you do too. You will destroy yourself. The God of this world will destroy
you, your children. Now, no, you don't turn your
children loose. Take my yoke upon you. You know,
a horse, The horse people tell you this. Polly had horses and
others didn't. I had a horse, too. A horse by
nature that had head doing this, isn't it? Bow your head. Bend that knee, proud sinner. Come down, young man. Come down. If you don't, he's going to leave
you alone. You're going to destroy yourself. Bow that head now. He said, you come to me and get
down. You don't know it, but you're
a nothing. He doesn't need you. You need
Him. Bow that head. If you don't,
He will. Yes, He will. The lofty looks
of man are going to be bowed down. Look at me. God said, I know it and I'm sick
of you. Bow that head. Bow that head. Take that yoke. You don't want
to run wild. You want the Lord to have absolute
control of you. Bow that head now. Take my yoke
upon you. Learn of me. Our Lord was meek
and lowly as a man and submitted to everything that God sent Him
to do. Though he was a son, Scripture
says, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered.
Imagine that. The Lord of the universe bowed
his head and took that crown of thorns and took that yoke,
that burden, that heavy burden of the sin of God's people on
his shoulder. He didn't have to do that, but
he did. He did. Why? For us worthless cats, dogs,
no good wild ass. Take my yoke upon you, learn
of me. when those men, it was men, His
disciples that went and got the... The Lord sent His disciples to
go get that wild ass's coat, didn't He? And they led Him to
Christ. And what does it say? That Christ
got on Him. Nobody had ever ridden Him. You
can't tame Him. Oh, really? God can't save you
unless you let Him. Oh, really? That's not the God of the Bible.
You bring it to me. Christ got right on him, and
that old wild-ass is cold, dropped his head, just humbled himself. And buddy, man, that's just not
natural. They don't want you on their
back. He did. And buddy, he just went
walking into town. Now he's good for something.
He was good for nothing. And he's going to die. He's going
to kill himself. Now he's good for something. What is it? What's
his purpose in life? Lift up the Son of God. Glorified Son of God. And he's
so happy. He's so happy. How do you think
that colt lived out his days? What do you think Christ said
to that colt, huh? Before, he's going to the knacker.
He's going to the meat market, isn't he? Isn't he, Kevin? He's
going to the meat market. He's good for nothing. Now that
Christ has brought him down and ridden him,
and now he's tame and all, and Christ got off and said, you
take care of that. You put him out to pasture, and
you feed him green grass, and you give him a bucket of grain,
and you just pet on him. He's finally good for something.
He's mine. That's mine. You take care of
mine. It's a yoke of service. See,
that's why God created you and me. If we don't give Him any
glory, we're not good for nothing. If we take His glory, you're
going to the knackers. Discipleship. My yoke. Learn
of me. This is a good illustration.
I've got to quit. I don't want to quit. If you're enjoying this,
you don't want me to either. Some of you do. A yoke of discipleship. Usually when you yoke to another
animal, you yoke one that doesn't know how to pull. You put it
up with an older animal. You put it together. And that
young animal, wild though it may be, learns from that obedient,
knowledgeable, understanding animal. And so, you know, this
young one wants to do this, wants to do that, and the old one says,
no, don't look right, don't look left, we've got to plow. We've got to row. Just look straight
ahead. Don't be jerking. The yoke will
be hard on you. It'll chafe your neck. Just bow
your head. Watch me. If you be obedient,
willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land, son.
Ain't nothing out there. This is good. This is good here.
Our Master is good. And we learn that from Christ.
Right on. The yoke of discipleship. The yoke of restraint, as I said.
And he said, take my burden. Verse 29. Take my yoke upon you. I am meek and lowly. You will find rest unto your
souls. Verse 30. My yoke is easy. My burden He's right. My yoke is easy. And He says to us, don't be unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. Why? They're not going to lead
you to God. They're not looking to Christ.
They're looking at this world. And you're going to go over a
hill. They're going to lead you over a hill to death. But Christ
says, I lead in the ways of righteousness. He says, My yoke is easy. The way of the transgressor is
hard. Hard to kick against bricks.
You take an animal that keeps chomping at the bit and pulling
at the strength. What's going to happen? He's
hurting himself. He's hurting himself. And if
he gets wild enough, and you've seen this, boy, they'll flip
over on the ground. They'll get... They'll kill themselves. Just take it. Be still. And my burden is life. Christ took this burden of His
people on His shoulders. The salvation of our souls, didn't
He? He didn't have to. He did. Willingly
took this burden upon himself. Took the yoke. Had those old
wooden yokes. Boy, that was uncomfortable.
You better settle down if you're wearing a wooden yoke. Our Lord
bore the cross. Bore a crown, a cross. He said,
my yoke is easy. My burden is light. For the joy
set before Him endured the cross. He gives me great pleasure. To
bear this cross that you submitted to. What is our burden? What
is Christ's burden? Our souls. Now what becomes our
burden? The same burden as Him. But we're
not bearing it. He says, bear ye one another's
burden to Him. Christ is. But we're laborers together with
Him. Are you with me? We bear this same burden. Okay? Not this, not that. We have one
burden. We have one yoke. We have one
purpose in life. Believer, I'm talking to you
believers now. We have one purpose in life. Do you have a burden? That's why Christ came. And then
when it's over, it's over. Everything's over. Seeing all
these things be dissolved, what manner of person do we ought
to be? Have a burden. Burden for the gospel. Burden
for one another. Burden for our children that
they wear the yoke. Does that sound like I have a
burden for you and your children? If I don't, I'm not God's preacher. I'm not. Take my yoke away. Learn of me. It's why I came.
It's why you're here. It's why I revealed Himself to
you. This burden of the Word. And it's light. You know that? Our afflictions are light, aren't
they? Compared to His. His burden. Didn't you used to like that
song, He Ain't Heavy? My brother. Why are you carrying him? Because
he fell. Isn't he heavy? No. It's somebody carrying both
of us. My Lord. All right. Let's sing a closing hymn. Number
252.