Okay, turn back to Matthew 11.
Let's read our text once again. Let's read again with verse 28
through 30. 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 you shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is even, and my burden
is light." Last Wednesday night we looked
into some of the excellencies and the beauties and the glories
of our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He says here, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. And that's what we looked at
last Wednesday night. We looked at something of the
character of Christ. To learn of Christ, we said,
is the profession of every true child of God, every believer.
That is the profession of every true believer. We're in the school
of Christ. as Paul said, that I may know
him, that I might know him. Every true child of God is in
God's school of theology. Don't be afraid of that word.
The word means study of God. Every true child of God is a
seeker and a studier of God, his person. And we're learning
of the Father. Remember John 6.45, they shall
all be taught We are all learning of the Father, and every man
that has heard and learned of the Father learns who God is
and what we are and who Christ is. And that's the work of God
the Holy Spirit, to take the things of Christ and show them
to us. And we're ever in that school
of learning of Christ. And God is known and revealed
in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. So in summary of last
week's message, a true child of God is a disciple, a disciple
who sits constantly at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, just
like his disciples did while he was upon this earth. A true
disciple is one who sits at the feet of Christ, hearing his word
and learning of him. And we never get much beyond
that. That's the reason we make much of the attendance of the
assembly. Christ promised to be in our
midst where two or three are gathered, just like the disciples
of old. He promised to be right there,
actually, in spirit. That's the reason we make much
of it, because if he's here, then his disciples are here, waiting to hear his word, like
Mary, who was always found at the feet of Christ, learning
of him. And there's no place a disciple of Christ would rather
be than sit at his feet, cost what it may. And really, really,
I know, I know what you go through to be
here, but really it's more of inconveniences And it involves
more of getting your body ready than anything. And once you're
here, it's really not too tough to sit on this patio, is it?
I mean, if it's not comfortable enough, we'll see about getting
the back status. And if your cars aren't air-conditioned,
we'll all pitch in. But it's really not too tough
a job to sit here and listen to the gospel, is it? Oh, my. A disciple, though, is one who
always wants to be at the feet of Christ, learning of him. A
true child of God is a seeker, a speaker, a student, a follower,
a follower, a seeker. And we talked about this. A child
of God, a true child of God, is not just a hearer only, but
a doer. Christ said that. He said, if
you love me, you'll keep my word, my commandment. So we're students. God's people are all students
in the school of Christ. So the yoke of discipleship,
we're learners, we're students. That's the first yoke that we
take upon us. That's the first yoke that we
take upon us, that is to be learners of him, students at the master's
seat. That's the first yoke we're placed
under, and one that we never remove. We constantly, all of
our lives, ever learning. As Paul said to young Timothy,
he said there's some people who are ever learning, but never
coming to a knowledge of the truth. Well, we're ever learning,
but by God's grace we will come to a knowledge of the truth,
which is, who is Christ, the truth. So we're ever learning,
though. And last week we learned something
of him, his character, his beauty. He said, I'm meek. He said, learn
of me, meek and lowly. And I felt so insufficient to
describe his But that's what he says about himself. Learn
of me, what I'm like. I'm meek and lowly in heart. We learned why. We learned what
it meant to be meek and lowly, and how this is the greatest
of virtues, especially from, I failed to mention this last
week. You know, if you're a great person, if you're a great ruler
and king, it's a hard matter for you to be meek and lowly.
Man, it gets him a little title, gets him a position, and it may
just be a store clerk or something, manager of the shoe department.
And all of a sudden, hey, I'm somebody, one person under you,
you know. We think we're something else.
It takes true strength of character to stay, remain meek and low. We can't do it. We can't. Christ
is the judge of the universe, and he humbled himself. What
strength of character to humble himself and become meek and lowly.
And we learned why he had to do that. He had to humble himself
to come down here to us, and meek and lowly to do the Father's
will. We learned of his work last week,
a substitute and Savior. We learned of him. He said, take
my yoke upon you. and learn of me." And briefly
we looked at him, his person and his work. When someone really
enters into the school of Christ and learns of him, he sees something
of Christ's glory, his beauty, his power, and his love. And
then, when they see him, they will
willingly and longingly take this second yoke upon them. Look at Exodus chapter 21 with
me. The second yoke is the yoke of
Christ's service, his service. I believe this word alludes to
this portion of scripture that speaks of the bond slave in the
Old Testament, a willing servant. a willing slave of the Lord. The word yoke, I looked it up,
the word yoke means servant. That's exactly what it means.
It's like an ox plowing, you put a yoke on him, and he's going
to be your servant, as long as he has that yoke upon him. If
the yoke is off, then he's not under your rule, right? Under
your control. This is a yoke of service. Now look at Exodus 21. This is
a beautiful type of the believer. Exodus 21 verse 1. Now these
are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If you
buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve. Now there's a
great sense in which everybody on the face of the earth belongs
to the Lord Jesus Christ. To this end he both died and
was buried and rose again that he might be Lord both dead and
living. He's Lord over all creatures. God owns, he is the creator of,
the ruler of, the owner of all things. The earth is the Lord
and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein,
the scripture says. But there is a special saving
sense in which some people is chosen, is elected. They belong to Christ in a special
way, and they will be his forever. And they're not their own, but
they're bought with a price. They're bought, you see that?
It says if you buy a Hebrew servant, we're Gentiles. But Hebrew and
Gentiles, Jew and Greek, God makes both one. And we're his. We're bought with a price, the
precious blood of the Lamb, and we're his forever. He bought
us. Now, for six years, for six years, these Servants appear
to be unwilling servants. They appear to be servants forced
against their will in the service of this One who bought them.
Right? And all things and all people do the bidding and the
will of God Almighty. You know that? God has made all
things for himself, even the wicked. Everything and everyone
serves God, whether they know it or not, whether they want
to or not, whether they're willing or not. All people, some unwittingly,
some even unwillingly, serve God Almighty. You better believe
it. There's nothing and no one outside of his divine control. Even us, the scripture says,
even us who were at one time servants of sin, of self, of
Satan, servants of sin. We've sold ourselves for, like
Esau, for a bowl of oatmeal for the world, for a mess of potty.
Sold into slavery like Gomer, sold into slavery in the bondage
of sin. And like Gomer, while on sin's
auction block, our Hosea came along and bought us. Christ, our Savior, our Master,
the one who rightfully owns us all along, came to claim us,
and he bought us with a pie. The highest price a man could
pay, greater love hath no man than this, the highest price
that could be paid, and he was willing to lay it all down, lay
it all on the line to purchase Harlot, sinners, sold on the
auction block of sin. He laid down his life for us,
his precious blood. He died that we might live, and
he bought us with that price, and the Scripture says he set
us free. Think the Son shall set you free? Look at that verse
2. If you buy him, he will serve you, and six years he shall serve,
and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. Peter said over there in chapter
3, 2 Peter, he said, I would not have you ignorant of this
one thing. A day is a thousand years, and
a thousand years is a day. This earth is about six thousand
years old. And most believe that somewhere
around the 7th we're going free, going to set her free. I don't
know. At any rate, that'll work there.
But Christ set us free, took off the shackles of sin, removed
this clothing of our harlotry, our filthy rags, and wrapped
us in pure white garments of righteousness and set us free
for nothing. set us good for nothing, set
us free for nothing. It didn't cost us a dime. We didn't make any contribution
to our salvation at all, did we? It was free, free. He said, I love them free. They
all go out free for nothing. It didn't cost us a thing. All
our lives we were servants of sin, and now we're set free. This is what we call Christian
liberty. Christian liberty. All our lives
were servants of sin, in bondage to sin, Satan, and self. And
now we're set free, but set free not to live as we please, but
to walk in newness of life. There's a difference. Christian
liberty. This is far from being a superficial
freedom to partake of meat and drink. As a Christian, liberty
is not talking about that at all. When we talk about Christian
liberty, we don't say, that means I can smoke a cigarette or drink
a beer. Well, you can, but that's not what Christian liberty is
on the behalf of. Christian liberty is where, in Romans 7, he talks
about being under the rule, the hard rule and bondage and servitude
of the law, under the curse of the law, who is a hard taskmaster
and demands, like a cruel husband to a wife, demanding you do things
perfectly under penalty of death and judgment and condemnation. But he says, no, you're dead
to the law. Now a kind, sweet, loving, tender, merciful, gracious,
compassionate, understanding, meek, lowly, serving man on a
white horse comes riding up, pushes you off your feet, and
says, I'm taking you home with me. Dresses you up, puts a ring
on your finger, jewels on you. sits you at home in a pile of
survivor, you know. You just sit there and I'll wait
on you. That's about what it is. Demands very little. That's what he goes on to say.
We're going to look at it in a minute. He doesn't demand too
much. Like a loving husband, he doesn't demand too much. And
that's, he said, you're married to another. You're married to
another, and oh, what a husband! What a husband now! He's not
a hard taskmaster, a cruel bondman. He's the most tender husband
a wife could ever have. He understands. And she may be
a lazy, no-good, worthless bum. And we are! But he understands. He knows you're praying. He understands. May rebuke and admonish and so
forth at times, but yet he understands. He knows we're married. He found
you where you are. He knows. And he doesn't expect
much. Oh, you lie. He doesn't expect
much, considering where you came from. But he's conforming. All right, we're in the bond
service. This is what this Christian liberty
is talking about. We're talking about the freedom
that's under the service of, and being married through this
time, husband. Freedom. We're not talking about
a superficial, we're not talking about meats and drinks at all.
The world misunderstands us and feels like when we talk about
Christian liberty, we all boast and gloat in our Christian liberty.
Yeah, I can drink beer if I want to. Well, that's not what we're
talking about at all. That's the least of our concern. Besides, Paul deals with those
things anyway. He says, it's not good to drink wine, eat meat,
or whatever, anything, whereby you cause your brother to stumble.
Don't do it. He'd be upset in the back. All right. But this bond service,
this freedom, is in the service to Christ. Freedom is bond service. And they're bonds of love. Now,
the law was changed. Changed. bondage, curse. But the service
we're in now is the bondage. The only thing that holds us
now is not a change. You don't have laws on your wall,
do you? Does God put rules and regulations
on your wall? No, that's not what . . . the
law is not our rule of life, right? It's written on our heart
anyway. We don't have to put it on the
wall. You ain't got it in your heart.
But it goes much deeper, and as we said Sunday morning, it's
much more binding anyway than just the Ten Commandments. That's
what they mostly talk about when they talk about the law being
our rule of life. It goes a lot deeper. We're a lot stricter
in that sense than they are. But we remember that we can't. We can't keep it perfectly. And
I wish more people would remember that. But the bonds that hold
us now are bonds of love. You men and ladies that are married,
if the only thing that's holding your marriage together is a marriage
certificate, I suppose that's no marriage at all, is it? bond a marriage together and
make a true marriage. And parents, the only reason
you care for your children is because you're obligated to them?
Huh? My, I thought. What kind of parent
would you be? Oh, I'll feed you now, that's
got you, they'll put me in jail. I was talking to a preacher,
that's what he, he kept bringing up this thing of hell, you know,
hell as a motive. keep us in line. So I feed my
daughter. I go to work and earn money so
we can feed my daughter just so they won't put me in jail.
That's absurd. That's absurd, isn't it? We're bound by codes of love,
the scripture says. This is not a legal obligation
that binds us and motivates or instructs us, not a piece of
paper, not the letter of the law, but love, love. It's all the difference in the
world. And I believe that the men, women, whoever, that dwells
on the letter of the law as opposed to this loving relationship,
they haven't learned anything of the liberty of Christ. They
don't know the slightest thing about the liberties in Christ.
You know the Son. The Son has set you free. You're
free indeed. And not free to go out to sin.
That's not what they're talking about. Oh, good, now he goes
down to the bar, Billy Epperson. The person that says that, too,
doesn't understand Christian liberty. Look at verse 5. Here
it is. Here's liberty. Exodus 21, verse
5. You're free to go, and I want
to." This is the sense, and this is
the only sense in which I will allow this statement to be made
from the pulpit. Trust Christ and live like you
want to. That's the only sense in which that can be said. Don't
listen through that. Everybody that hears this tape,
we don't believe that. Believers' want-tos have been
changed. That's what men mean when they
say that. The believers' want-tos have been changed. The principle
within, the motive, the desire has been changed. Nevertheless,
there's still another law of warring in the members that wants
to sin. So that doesn't, that's not 100
percent correct statement. It's not biblical. But it'll
work right here in the sermon. You're free to go. I don't want
to. To whom shall we go? I love my Master. The servant, after seeing the
lovely character of, that is, the riches, the honor, like Rebecca,
when Abraham's servant went down to get a wife for Isaac, he told
her all about his master's kingdom and about the beauty of Isaac. told her all about Isaac, and
she fell in love with a man never seen before, whom, having not
seen, she loved him." All on the words of this man. If he's
that beautiful, I'll marry him. Will you go? Yeah, I'll take
you. and whom we haven't seen cry, but we've heard of his lovely
character, his riches, his honor, his glory, his gentleness, his
goodness, his meekness, his humility, his love, his mercy, his grace,
his lowliness, and we're irresistibly drawn. This is what this means,
irresistible grace. It doesn't mean we can go kicking
and screaming. You can't kick, God's going to
drag you in. That's not what that means at
all. One man said, we go against our
will with our full consent. If you can explain that, you
know what the period of this will break is. But no, it means
more like this. We're irresistibly drawn to the
beauty of Christ. The Holy Spirit shows us, tells
us of Christ, and opens our ears and our eyes to see him, like
the woman we've married or the man. We think he's the most beautiful
creature we've ever seen in our lives. We've got to have her.
Got to have her. And she still is. Still is. Getting more beautiful all the
time. Well, we fall in love with him. We fall in love with him. Why? Why do we love him? Because the Master's love for
us. You see? The goodness of God. leads us,
draws us, the Master's love and treatment of us. And like this
servant here, the Master, this good, kind, benevolent, merciful,
tender, gracious, loving Master who treated him so well, all
these years, he says, now you're free to go. He says, I don't
want to. I don't want to. I want to stay right here. I
will not leave this. Like Jacob, I won't let you go.
No, you're not getting rid of me. Not getting rid of me. I'm here for the duration. Verse
6, Then his master shall bring him
unto the judges, and he shall also bring him to the door, and
unto the doorpost. And his master shall bore his
ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. You see that? He's free to go. I don't want to go. Well, then
you're going to serve forever. That's fine with me. He's brought to the door, and
his ear is bored, and he's to serve forever. This is much like
John 1, 12 and 13, which declares the end before the means. John 1, 12 and 13, it says this,
"...as many as received him, to them gave he the power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
And why are they believed? A basic gift of God, right? Why
do they receive him? If you want to use the word accept,
I don't know, but why would they receive him? Why? Because they
see that they've been accepted in his love. Why are they willing? Because they are made willing
in the nature of God, he said. He uses the means, he tells of
the means in verse 13 after the end. Verse 12 is the end, verse
13 is the means, which were born. They received him, they became
sons of God, they believed on his name because they were born,
not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but born of God. God did this work. I believe what this is saying
right here. The Master, he's declaring the end before the
means. The Master, here it is, here's the means to the end.
The Master brings us to the door. Which end? Who ends? Christ,
the door. He brings us to Christ, the Holy
Spirit brings us to Christ, the Master being the teacher, the
Holy Spirit brings us to Christ, the door, and it's also the door
of his house. It leads us in the door and sits
us down, the door of his house, God's house, and to the doorpost. It says, the door or the doorpost. That's the foot of the cross,
or that's the blood on the doorpost. And in the boy's ire, he causes
us to hear the gospel. And when we cry out, I ain't
leaving here. Right? You see that? He had just like John wanted.
He said, I love my Master. After we are brought to the door,
brought to Christ, our ears are bored through, and we hear the
gospel, we see the beauty of Christ, our eyes are opened,
here we say, I love my Master. He's my Master. I love him. I'm
not going anywhere. I'll be here, like her daddy
said to my dad one day, after his eyes were opened, his My
dad said, I'll see you tonight, Ed. I said, I'll be back tonight,
I'll be back Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night,
you're going to run me out, Ed. And I'll serve him forever. We're
set free to serve forever. So why does anybody enter the
service of Christ? It's not our decision, is it?
It's not our choosing. Christ said, you didn't choose
me. I chose you." No man takes this honor unto himself. We're
made willing, we're irresistibly drawn by his grace and by his
beauty, and we gladly take up his cross and follow him, gladly. The only way that a man will
take up truly the cross of Christ The cross, that is, afflictions
and persecutions and trials and everything, will weed out possessors
from true possessors. It will. The yoke of Christ.
Now, let's look back here at the text. The yoke of Christ.
What is the yoke of Christ? Look briefly at what the yoke
of Christ is. Well, I said before, it's his service. He said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly in heart,
and you find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. The yoke of his service, first
of all, is the service of his kingdom, which is the gospel,
his glory, his gospel. I've seen this on a church sign
right up the road here. Their motto on their church sign
is, to know him and to make him known. Well, by what they preach,
it's obvious they don't know him. And it's obvious that their
programs and so forth are more important than making him known.
But nevertheless, it's a good statement. That is what the believer
is all about, to know him. Oh, that I might know him, and
after knowing him, make him known. Every single person Christ healed,
he said, now go and tell what great things the Lord has done
for you. Go tell your house. To make him known. And this is
the service in which we're all in. We're in the service of Christ. It's a service in which we're
all so unprofitable. We're all such unprofitable servants
in this evangelical cause of Christ. So lacking. Yet it is so. Our failure and
inability to make Christ known doesn't lessen the commandment,
does it? The commandment is to show forth
his glory, to tell all what wonderful things the Lord has done for
us. Christ said, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.
That's still his commandment. And we're so lucky. He says this yoke, this yoke
of evangelism, that's what we're talking about, this yoke of evangelism. The only thing that will cause
us to really take this yoke upon us, to really speak out on behalf
of our Lord, to want to make him known, is our love for him. Our zeal and enthusiasm to tell
other people about Christ is directly related to this. you