Matthew 11 now. I'll go to Matthew
11. I brought up Bible study nearly
20 years ago to old and young. I asked our young people to be
up here to hear it on the yoke of Christ. And probably two or
three years ago, I stumbled across those notes, put them on my desk
two or three years ago, never moved them, wanting, hoping to
be led to preach on the yoke of Christ. And the other day
I was led to. So this is the message. Matthew
11. Verse 28, verses 28 through 30,
the Lord Jesus Christ says, Come unto me, all ye 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. But my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. Oh, may the Lord cause every
one of us, young and old and young, to cry, Lord, I want your
yoke. Now from the beginning when the
Lord sent Adam, man, out of the garden. He cast him out of the
garden because he shook his fist in God's face. Adam, what a God
I believe. He sent him out to till the ground. To till the earth, okay? That's what he was taken from
and God said that's where you're going back and you're going to
toil in that dirt all your life to try to get things that you
need to sustain your life. And mankind has been toiling
in the dirt ever since. And this is the thing about it.
Everything in this world, in this earth returns to dirt. Dust it came from and dust it
returned. And Ecclesiastes, I want you
to turn with me, Ecclesiastes, everyone. Right after Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes. This is the whole story of life. Everything anyone can go through,
everything anyone can own or do. The story of life. It begins and ends, the message
of God through the preacher, You have it, Ecclesiastes 1,
verse 2, vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Verse 3, what profit hath a man
of all his labor which he taketh unto the Son? None. None. Did you read that with
me? And yet we keep toiling. Verse
8, all things are full of labor. We keep laboring, don't we? We
keep toiling. or something. Verse 13, he says, I gave my
heart to seek, to search by wisdom concerning all things under heaven.
He said, this is the sore travail God hath given to the sons of
men to be exercised therewith. You're going to spend a whole
life toiling and laboring in the dirt. And you know what's
going to happen when it's all over? You're going to realize, I was
laboring for dirt. That everything I accumulated
went back to the dirt. What good did it do me? Including my family. You've got to put them in the
dirt. Isn't that right? Oh boy. Chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes. Look at this. Verse 22. What hath man of all his labor?
What does he get for all that? the vexation of his heart, wherein
he hath laboured under the sun, all these days of sorrow, travail,
grief, his heart taketh no rest, no rest, no rest, no satisfaction,
no fulfilment, nothing that lasts, no lasting joy, no lasting happiness,
and he ends in sorrow. So, you know what our Lord said
in Isaiah 55? Why do you labor for that which
is not bread, for that which satisfies not? Why? Why? And so Christ came and stood
that day and said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, I will give you rest. Oh, boy. Man labors all his life
to try and accumulate things, houses, lands, families, to be
happy, to be content, to be secure, you know. If I have enough money,
if I have a nice house that's paid for, I'll be secure in my
old age. Really? You really think that? How foolish. And then I'll rest. You know, I'll rest from all
my labors. I'll retire. And then you get sick and you
die. Just like that. How foolish. He labors,
he can't find it. He can't find this satisfaction.
Man labors in religion. Man gets some measure of guilt
from his conscience, from the Word of God. He tries to find
some peace, tries to find some peace for his conscience, tries
to appease God for his past life, tries to redeem himself for all
that he's done. He has to pay for his guilt,
his sins, his crimes against God, against man. He works hard
to find rest for his troubled conscience, and he can't find
it. He can't find it, no matter how
hard he works, no matter how religious he becomes, no matter
how zealous, like Paul, no matter what he does, he gives his body
to be burned. He can't find that rest. He can't find that peace.
And so Christ cried, come unto me. All you labor and heavy laden,
I will give you rest. There's only one player, only
one that can give this rest. Now, our Lord uses this yoke
to teach us how and where rest is found. This yoke. Beginning with Adam, I'm quite
certain that Adam plowed the ground with a yoke of oxen or
horses. I'm certain of that. The Lord
taught him. Beginning with Adam, all labor, all heavy burdens
borne in the earth by man. Man needed something or someone
to do for him what he could not do for himself. Heavy burdens. plowing and tilling of a ground
full of stones and rocks and hard labor and toil. He needed
something. He needed someone else to do
for him what he could not do. This heavy labor, this hard labor,
because with man it's impossible to lift certain burdens, certain
weights. With man salvation is impossible,
but with God Son of God, all things are possible. So our Lord
used this yoke, this yoke to tell us how rest is found, with
whom rest is found. His yoke, it's his yoke. A yoke, as many of you know,
we have some horse people in here, some older people that
probably saw your father or grandfather plow with two draft horses. A yoke is a device usually made
of wood, which joins together a pair of
draft animals. A yoke is always two. Always. It's a device made of wood joining
together two draft animals. That is, these animals were created
by God for labor and toil and bearing heavy burdens. oxen, horses for heavy labor,
for plowing, for pulling heavy loads that a man could not pull
of himself. And Christ says, come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. I will give you rest. What is this yoke? What is this
yoke? Well, it's a yoke of ownership. A horse, a horse's oxen yoked
are owned by someone, right? That yoke has to be placed upon
them. The yoke of oxen too, a pair
of draft horses were bought and paid for and trained and taught
and this yoke placed upon them by the owner thereof. If there's
no yoke on an oxen, you know what's going to happen to it?
He's going to be eaten. No yoke, you're dead. But if a yoke, the owner has
chosen you for himself to use you. You know, most people think... Go to 2 Timothy with me. 2 Timothy
2. Most people think they are free. They're their own man. Most people
think they have a free will. Free to do as they please. You
know that? I thought that back in the 60s and 70s. I thought
I was so free. Most think they're free and the
fact of the matter is we're not our own. We're owned by someone. We're under the control of someone. Now God says all souls are mine. He said. The God in whose hands
our breath is and all our ways. He's our creator. What does that
make us? The creature. He's the potter. What does that
make us? Clay in His hands to deal with
as He pleases. Right? You're not your own. But because of man's rebellion,
God gave him over to the God of this world. He owns them all. But because
of man's sin and rejection of God and rebellion, he gives men
and women and young people over to the God of this world. Take
them. Take them. Look at 2 Timothy
2, verse 24. Servant of the Lord must not
strive, but be gentle unto all, apt to teach. I want to teach
this. I want to bring this message
with gentleness and tenderness and love and concern and aptitude, patience, waiting,
forbearing on the Lord, hoping, praying, in meekness, instructing
those that oppose themselves. You know, we're our own worst
enemy. We have an enemy. He's the God of this world, things
of this world, people of this world. But we don't know it.
We're born into it. We think He's all our friends
now. And then there's this old man within us. And it says in
verse 25 that if God, peradventure, through this servant of the Lord,
through this preacher of the Gospel, will give them repentance
to the acknowledgement of the truth, that they may recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil. You see that? They're taken captive
by Him at His will. Are you with me? You see that?
Did you read that, young people? I'm free. I'm going where I want
to, do what I want to. No, you're not either. You're
doing what everybody else is doing. It's called peer pressure. You're not going to do what you
you're free to do. You're going to do what everybody
else does. You're going to follow everybody
else. The God of this world is such a master manipulator of
human nature. It's so easy for Him. A dangle of carrot. So easy. Look at it. I have a little kitten. A cat and a kitten. This little
kitten, you know, runs from me and all that. I can get it to
come to me. Real easy. I just get this little toy. It's
this little toy, and jiggle it in front of her, and she just
followed it right into my hands. Right into my hands. Everywhere. Followed it. It's the God of
this world. Come over here. Come over here.
And run after it. Adele stood there. If God, per adventure, that they may recover themselves,
like the prodigal son. Wake up and realize, look where
I am. Look what I've done. And bring
them out of the pit. And bring them to himself. And
Christ says, come unto me. I'll give you rest. Ownership. It's a yoke of ownership. They're
all captives. Captives to the Godless work.
Mark 11. Go over there. Mark 11. Some
of you remember this message from Mark 11. What a message
this is. And what I want, what I hope
and pray is that everyone in here, old and young alike, that
everyone in here will say, and he said, take my yoke. I want
every one of us to say, I'm not there yet. That's what Paul said,
didn't he? He said, I haven't arrived there
yet. Well, you're the preacher. The big deal. Paul said, this one thing I do,
I forget the things of the past and press toward the mark for
the prayer. This is what I want everyone
in here to do. I want everyone in here to say right now from
your heart, Lord, put this yoke on me. Young people, I want you
to say, Lord, if you don't call on the name of the Lord, you
won't bear this yoke and you'll remain in captivity to the God
of this world. I want everyone in here to say, Lord, please,
this preacher is preaching to me rest and peace and comfort
and salvation. Lord, put whatever this yoke
is, put it on me. Don't let me have my way. Put
your yoke on me. Put it on me. That's what it
means to take it. Take it. Receive it. A man can
receive nothing except it. Lord, please, I want this yoke. Do you? I want you to want it. If you
don't want it, I want you to want it. Take this yoke. Take it. Mark 11 is the story
of a wild ass' cult tied up between two ways upon whom nobody had ever ridden. And the Lord sent the Word. Look
at this. Mark 11. He sends two of his
disciples. Verse 2. Go into the village
over against you. As soon as you be entered, you'll
see a cold tide wherein no man has sat. Loose him. Bring him to me. You're in a
village, a little old place called Rocky Mount, Virginia. And the
Lord has sent the Gospel to loose you. He sent a man, He sent His
disciple to say, loose Him and let Him go. And my desire, my hope in preaching
is that this will bring you to Him. Put His yoke on you. And I said, Lord, verse 3, if
He says, why do this? Say, the Lord hath need of Him. The Lord doesn't need anybody.
He doesn't need anything. Why did He create the world?
He didn't need anything. Why did He create man? He didn't
need man. That foolish false prophet Oral Roberts years ago,
he said God created man because he was lonely. He said, I'm the Lord. I don't need
anything. Why did He do it? For His glory. For his son's glory. That's why
he created everything. That's why he created you! If
the Lord's going to use you, it's going to be for His glory.
And do you know how it's going to be for His glory? If He puts
this yoke on you. If He quit bucking and kicking
and running and snorting and biting the hand that feeds you.
Quit running away. And you're brought to Him in
humility and lowliness and meekness and you're crying to Him for
mercy. God's going to get glory for that because you wouldn't
come if He didn't call for you. If He didn't send the Gospel.
Grabbed that coat. How many wild asses coats were
there? Verse 4, they went their way
and they found this coat tied. Tied up. I know where he was tied up.
Don't you, Kelly? The fella couldn't do anything
with him. They tied him down. He's a wild asses coat. Nobody
can do anything with him. Tied him down. It says in verse
4, he's in a place where two ways met. If he breaks loose,
he can go one of two ways. If the Lord doesn't bring you
to Him, you're going to go one of two ways. You hear me? Oh, God. Take this yoke. Cause them to
come to You. And verse 5, certain of them
stood there and said, Why are you loosening this coat? They
said, The Lord commanded. Jesus commanded us. And they
let him go. They brought this coat to Jesus,
cast their garments on Him, and lo and behold, the Lord Jesus
Christ got on this wild-ass coat that nobody could tame. Because
he gave the word and brought him to him, and he sat on him,
and that wild ass's coat dropped his head, lowered his shoulders,
with his head nearly touching the ground, and just walked so
humbly and meekly and lowly into town. And now what he's only
good for right now is lifting up this glorious one that's riding
him. Is that you? That was me. Why
the Lord needed me, I don't know. Why the Lord used me, I don't
know. Why the Lord loosed me, I don't know. Wait a minute.
Yes, I do know. Then I might lift Him up and
declare Him and glorify Him. If He saves you, that's what
it's all about. A yoke of ownership. This yoke
is a yoke of union. The yoke joins two together.
It's always two. There's always two. Look at Ecclesiastes
4. Ecclesiastes 4. I promise you, as much as my
promises are worth, that it won't be too long. All right? Ecclesiastes
4. Ecclesiastes 4. Right after Proverbs.
Ecclesiastes 4. This is a yoke of union, joined
together. We're all united with someone
or something. Yes, we are. In the garden, our
Lord God said, it's not good for man to be alone, didn't He?
They say that? I'll make Him a helpmate. Union. You know what salvation is? You
know what salvation is? You know what salvation is? You
know why God saves sinners? To bring them to Christ. To join
them to Christ. To take them from that which
they're joined to for their destruction. To unite them to Christ for their
salvation. To take them from a world in
which they will perish, the world that they have such a hold on
to, that holds to them, that they're one with. To divorce
the two. To bring them out from among
them and separate them unto Himself. To be united to Jesus Christ.
Married to another. Look at Ecclesiastes 4, verse
7. These are wonderful verses. I return. I saw vanity under
the sun. There's one alone. There he is. He's alone. There's not a second. He doesn't have anybody. She
doesn't have anybody. Yea, he doesn't have either child
nor brother. In no end of all his labor, his
eyes are not satisfied with riches. For whom do I labor and bereave
my soul of good? This is vanity. Sore travail.
Two are better than one. Because they have a good reward
for their labor. If they fall, if you're alone
and you fall, who's going to pick you up? Now I want you to
read this as you without Christ. If they fall, that one will lift
up his fellow. If you're not united to Christ,
who's going to pick you up when you fall? Woe to him that's alone
when he falleth. He hath not another to help him.
Verse 11, if two lie together, they have heat. How can one be
warm when he's alone? We go to this death thing called
death. Men often refer to it as cold
death. Oh no, not for God's people.
You're not alone. He walked through the valley
of the shadow of death. It's not a cold and terrible
thing at all. Thou art with me, Christ said.
Verse 12, if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him. A three-fold cord is not quickly
broken. So, it's a yoke of union. Salvation is to be united to
Jesus Christ as your husband, as your Lord, as your Savior,
as your friend. Paul wrote this, he said, don't
be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. You know where they're
going to take you? Can two walk together except
they be aggrieved? Can't do it. Can't do it. He said in Lamentations,
I was going to have you turn there, but he said I was going
to be short. He says in Lamentations, it's good for a young man or
woman to bear the yoke in their youth. Some of you, Brother Kelly teaches
horses, trains horses, and he trained one for me, a young draft
horse. And to do that, generally speaking,
what you do is you teach that young horse with an older horse.
You tie that horse up, you yoke that young horse to an older
horse, don't you? You get an old horse that's humble,
that's meek, that's lowly, that's been plowing for a long time.
walking one path, won't turn to the right, won't turn to the
left, but goes straight on, his eyes straight on, serving its
master willingly, humbly, obediently. And you tie that young wild colt
or ox to that older one, you tie it to him. And what's going
to happen is that young one will try to go here, try to go there,
but that older one will keep it in the path Keep it straight
on. Won't let it go its way. Christ says, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart
and you'll find rest. Teach a young horse the way you
teach him is time too. Order, submissive, obedient.
He needs to be taught to lower his head. Submit. Watch this old horse. Watch him. I bought an older
horse one time and it had already been trained. And I didn't know
what it was going to do. And I bought one of these horse
collars and I was going to pull something with it. And I went
and I didn't know what she was going to do. And I took this,
this, this, I didn't know what I was doing. But I knew it went
over, this yoke went over. And I took this collar. You know
what she did? She just dropped that head. Didn't
she mean it? She just dropped that head. And
I put that on her. She just sat there. I put those,
I didn't know how to hook the traces and all. Didn't I? Did
the best I could. I heard, well, if it's a good
horse, you know, if it's a broke horse, you can walk around behind
it and just drop the reins, it's not going to go anywhere. I did.
That young horse, you see, needs to learn to drop its head. Young
people, let me tell you something. Pride goes before destruction.
The Lord God has purposed it. He's going to stain the pride
of all glory. He's going to bring into contempt all the honorable
of the earth. Isaiah 2. Isaiah 1 says, I've
brought up a rebellious people. They've all rebelled against
me. Children, they've rebelled against me. They're proud. They're
lofty. Isaiah 3 says, a show of their
countenance tells me that they don't care about God. Full of
pride. Haughty. He said, enter into
the rock and hide in the dust. The lofty looks of man will be
brought down. Humble yourself in the sight
of God. How do you do that? Come to Christ. Take this yoke on you. Our Lord
came, He said, to do God's will. He came to submit to the Father's
will. Why? For us. For rebels. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. I do, so I want to do it for them. John, why would
you? You know what the law says about
a disobedient, proud, arrogant son that won't obey his parents?
You know what the law says? Stone him. Bring him out in front
of everybody. He's good for nothing. He's good
for nobody. Kill him. But the law says, but Christ
came, says, don't stone him. Stone me. No, don't kill him. Kill me. And this will humble
him. This will humble him. Christ
came, bowed his head, submitted himself to the Father's will,
bowed to the Father's will, gave up. He gave to the bit. The yoke. humbled himself, became
obedient, even under death, the death of the cross. The whip,
he took the whip, he didn't need it, Kelly, he didn't need a whip.
We did. Christ said, whip me. He doesn't need humbling. We
do. He said, lay those stripes on
me. Learn of me, he said, I am meek. Man's so proud. What does anybody
in here have to be proud about? What does any human, what do
you have to be proud about? Young people? Old people? What
do you have you have not received? Young people, what have you done
for anybody your entire life? What have you accomplished? What
have you earned? What have you given? What have
you built? What have you constructed? Old people. What have you contributed
to anybody, really? We've given of the excess. We've
given of the excess. Do you remember Obie's message?
He gave himself. Everything he was and everything.
He who was rich, yet for our sake became poor. Made unto us
wisdom. We had none. Righteousness. We
had none. Sanctification. Redemption. Not worth redeeming.
He came. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Lord, I want to be like Christ. Up to now, I've been worthless.
Going my own way. serving myself, out for myself,
a wild ass is called. Lord, please, put this yoke on
me. He said, take it. You'll find rest. Rest for your
soul. This yoke is a yoke of ownership,
a yoke of service, a yoke of submission, a yoke of humility,
a yoke of restraint. A yoke of restraints. You don't
want your will. I don't want my will. You don't
want to have your way. You don't want to go where you
want to go. You know that? You don't. You don't. Let me
have my way. No, no, no. You don't want that.
You need to be tied to Christ. He won't let you go your way.
He'll let you go His way. A yoke of restraints. He says
you'll find rest for your soul. Look at our text and I close.
It says in verse 29, take my yoke upon you, learn of me. The cross is the yoke that we
wear and bear his cross. He says, I am meek and lowly
in heart. You'll find rest for your soul.
Rest from laboring in this world after this vanity. Rest from
laboring in religion to trying to find peace and rest. You'll
find all your peace, all your rest, all your hope in Christ
the Lord. Christ in Him crucified. You'll
find rest for your soul. For He says in verse 30, My yoke
is easy. My yoke is easy. You know, it's really easier
to follow than to lead. What's hard about following?
Follow me. But we're so prone to wander. My yoke is easy. You know, the
way of the transgressor, Scripture says, is hard. It's hard. We labor all our lives to try
to be happy in this world. Yes, it's impossible. You cannot
appease this flesh. You cannot satisfy this pledge.
You can't do it. It's never enough. It's never
enough. It's never enough. I said, my
yoke is easy. It's easy. Just do what I say.
Just bow your head. Submit. Just follow me. Follow
me. Walk with me. OK? Don't turn
to the right. Don't turn to the left. Just
look right on. OK? Walk with me. I'm going to
take you there. I'll take that. My yoke is easy,
my burden is light. How many times does Scripture
say, our light afflictions, just a moment, they work for us a
far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. Our light afflictions. What we're going through is nothing
compared to what we deserve and what many will go through in
the end. Our light affliction. We are to bear His cross. The
burden we bear is to bear His cross, which is nothing compared
to what He bore. We are to bear one another's
burdens, aren't we? And so fulfill the royal law
of Christ. And as the old saying says, it
ain't heavy. That's my brother. This is no
burden, is it? There was a time when I thought
worshiping God was a horrible thing, a terrible thing. Didn't want to come here. Now
I do. There's no burden at all. It's my joy and rejoicing. Christ, for the joy sent before
me, endured the cross. Oh now, come unto me all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and you'll find rest for your
soul. Why do you labor for that which is not bread? Come unto
me, eat, and your soul shall live. Hearken unto me, your soul
shall live. Take my yoke upon you. Take,
Lord, put this yoke upon me. Unite me to yourself. Restrain
me from this world. Keep me cleaving to thyself and
believing. Let me not look here or there.
Let me look straight on. Take me all the way to glory
with you. Take my yoke upon you. You'll
find rest. In the end, you'll be so glad that you were
yoked to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, y'all.