And here we are turning round,
to find we are never alone, to find we are never alone. Open your Bibles now to Matthew chapter 11. The verses that we're about to
study will be in the form of a two-part message, and the subject
That we'll be studying both tonight and next Wednesday night. The
subjects are the heart and the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. The heart being his character,
his inmost being, and it's a far too great subject to limit to
one message, let alone in short form. And the yoke of Christ
could take the form of a series of messages, but we will attempt
to make a two-part message out of both of these subjects. What
prompted this message was a statement that I heard Brother Maurice
Montgomery make in one of his messages. He talked about the
perfect and good and holy man who walked this earth." He talked
about the goodness of Christ who walked this earth and how
that no man recognized or saw that goodness in him. A good and holy man walked this
earth, and nobody saw that goodness. And immediately, these verses
of Scripture came to my mind. Matthew 11, let's read it. Now, we've dealt with verse 28
before, but I'm just going to read verse 29 and 30 in our text. Christ says, Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest unto your soul. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light. It's notable that this is the
only passage in all of the scriptures that speaks of the heart of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the only one. And it's remarkable the two things,
the two words that he uses to describe his heart, that is,
his inner self. He said, Take my yoke upon you. That is, be a student in the
school of. a volunteer in the service of. Submit your mind, heart, soul,
and body to this one task of learning of Him. Learn of me. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Because Jesus Christ is the subject
of all subjects. He is the knowledge, for the
knowledge of Him is that which justifies the soul. Isaiah said. He is the one whom John said,
whom to know is to have eternal life. In him, Colossians said,
are hid all the treasures of wisdom. All wisdom and knowledge
are hidden in the knowledge of him. He is called the image of
the invisible God. In him all the fullness of God
dwells. He is the wisdom whom to know
is to make all plain to him that understandeth, such as Proverbs
4. He is the subject of subjects. He is the object of universal
worship. As Colossians 3.11 says, he is
all and in all. Is it any wonder that the great
Apostle Paul said that there's one great desire that he had,
and that was to know him? Oh, that I might know him," he
said. And Christ says to us here, take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. That is, be a disciple, a follower,
a learner, a student of the Lord Jesus Christ. And learn of me. Well then, let's ask these two
questions then. He says, learn of me. Well, it naturally follows. Who
is he? Who is he, and what is he like? Who is he? When Moses stood before
the Lord God on that great and fiery mountain to receive the
law, and he was requesting of the Lord who it was that he should
say sent him, the Lord said unto him, Tell them, I am has sent
you. I am. that I am, the self-existent
one, Yah, Yah, the eternal, ever-present one. That's what the name means.
God over all, you tell them, I am, hath sent you. And Christ
says here, look at verse 29 again. Did you notice this? He says,
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am, I am. As the soldiers came to apprehend
him in the garden that night. And he said unto them, Whom do
you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And he spoke in that same voice, the voice of the sound of many
waters, and said, I am. And they fell backward as dead
men at that voice. So the first thing we must learn
in the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is who he is. He's none other than God of very
gods. And he said in another place,
John 8, 24, if you believe not that I am God, that I am, you
shall die in your sin. So it's vital, it's necessary
that we know who Christ is. Why is it necessary that we believe
that Jesus Christ is God? Now, just today I was reading
a couple of pamphlets on those who are called the Jehovah Witnesses,
the Russellites, and those who are called the Mormons, Joseph
Smithites, you might call them. Neither one of those sects, those
cults, believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. They believe that
he was merely a created being, much like we are. And I'll not
go into the heresies of those two sects, but Why is it necessary
that we believe that Jesus Christ is God? Why? I asked myself that
question sitting in the study. Why is it necessary that we believe
that Jesus Christ is God? Well, the clearest and plainest
answer of all came to me. Because he is! Why is it necessary? Because
he is. First and foremost reason. We
don't need another. But because salvation is of the
Lord, and he said, I have come to seek and to save, he must
of necessity be the Lord our God and Savior. Because only
God can save, because he said, with man it's impossible. Because
only God can justify us from all things from which we cannot
be justified by the works of the law. Because only God can
justify That is, declare us righteous because of his righteousness
that he established. Because only God can satisfy
his own law, because we can't live up to that perfection. Because
only God can sanctify. He said, you didn't choose me.
You didn't set yourselves apart for holy use. I must choose you. I chose you. You would never
have chosen me had I—not I chosen you. And because only God can
keep us and save us, keep us from falling by his mighty power,
we cannot keep ourselves any more than we can save ourselves.
So, who is Jesus Christ? He's God Almighty. He's God in
human flesh. And secondly, He is man. He is man. Turn with me to Psalm
80. Keep your place there. Matthew
11. Turn with me to Psalm 80. Christ referred—do you know what
title He refers to Himself as more than any other? It seems
that I heard one of the men say it. Maybe not. But, the Son of
Man. Eighty-four times in the Gospels
alone, He's referred to as the Son of Man. Eighty-four Why is
that? Why is he called the son of man? Well, just as important as it
is for him to be God, he must be a man. He must be a man, for
God said, man must live righteously before me. If man is to be accepted,
he must live a perfectly righteous life. We didn't do it, did we?
Somebody had to come do it for us. But God is Spirit, so he
had to take the form of a man and live this life perfectly.
And because man must suffer the penalties of that broken law,
the soul that sinneth must surely die, must pay the wages of sin. And because we can't even pay
that penalty, not even our damnation will pay that penalty, because
our sins are against a holy and eternal God. And they'll never
be paid off, even in hell. That's the reason hell is eternal.
Incidentally, I believe it's the Russellites, Jehovah's Witnesses
so-called, they don't believe in a hell. They believe that
when man dies, he's just dead like a dog. And directly contrary
to the Word of God. Christ himself spoke of hell
more than any other. But think of this. Jesus Christ
must come in the flesh to do that which is required of us.
But think of this. Think of this. A son of man,
he calls himself. The first man, the scripture
says, is of the earth earthy. The first man is of the earth
earthy. But the second man, that is, the son of man, is none other
than the Lord from glory. Now think about this. When God
created man, he said, let us make man in our own image. Our own image. This was not said
of any other creature. Only mankind. Man was the highest
and closest expression of God of any creature. Man was the
closest of all beings, even closer than the angels themselves, to
the person of God Almighty. Man was a glorious creature—glorious. Adam was a glorious creature
in the image of God, and God looked at him and said, This
is good. This is good. Much like we may
look at our own children and admire them, God admired his
own handiwork. Man was a glorious being in the
image of God, yet he fell, and he lost that image—grievously
fell and lost Most of that image, 99% of that image at least. So God said this, think about
this. Man, whom God created, fell and
lost the image of God. So God said, Lo, I come. A body hast thou prepared me.
It's written in the scriptures. Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. God said, I'm going to take the
body of a man and I'm going to show you how it's done. I'm going
to come down to the world and show you what a real man is like,
is supposed to be. Adam failed miserably. Look here
at Psalm 80. Look at verse 17. The Scripture
says, Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand. That's Christ. Let thy hand be
upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of Man, whom thou
madest strong for thyself. God created a strong man, a strong
man, the only real man who ever lives, man the way God intended
man to be. Everything about man now is abnormal, perverted, iniquitous, far short
of the glory of God, the glory which God first created man in
the image of. Everything about man is insane. I think it's Brother Coffey that
talked about the mind of man. Every man who doesn't have the
mind of Christ is an insane man and woman. Christ was the only
sane man who ever lived. He was the only normal man who
ever lived. Christ was. We say this of a
man. We say of a man who has all the
admirable qualities such as strength of mind and strength of body
and wisdom and talents and ruggedness and gentleness, we say, now there's
a man's man, don't we? Have you ever said that about
somebody? There's a man. He's a man's man because he possesses
all these qualities. Well, when that man, the God-man,
stood before Pilate, the Holy Spirit led that man to utter
these words, Behold the man. the only one who ever lived,
the man. You understand why Christ calls
himself the Son of Man? The only true man who ever lived,
the only real man. Now look back at our text in
Matthew 11. Now listen as Christ describes his innermost qualities
that distinguish him as being above every other man that walked
this earth. These are the qualities that he himself said that he
bore that distinguishes him above every other man who was ever
born upon this earth. A man among men. He said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. Well, what is he like? We've heard of who he is. What
is he like? He says, I'm meek and lowly. Now, these are not the qualities—these
are not the qualities that the natural man would ascribe to
true manhood, wouldn't he? Yet Christ says, these are my
innermost qualities, the innermost qualities of the Son of Man that
distinguishes him above all other men. Of all the imposters that
walked before him, none of them were quite like this man. the greatest man who ever walked
the face of the earth, at least the greatest man, the man that
God used the greatest, about whom more material is written,
by whom more material is written, is Moses. Okay? How did God describe Moses as
distinguishing him above all of the men? This was the greatest
quality that God could describe Moses as having. He said the
man Moses was Meek. More meek than all the men on
the face of the earth. Meek. Now the world thinks that
meekness is weakness. Not so. Not so. Let me prove it to you. True
meekness. True meekness is the greatest
strength of all. Illustration. You walk down a
street. Walk down the street and up comes
a little terrier, one of these little feisty dogs about this
long. And he starts barking at you. Barking at your heels and
all. Well, you don't pay any attention
to him, do you? He's all bark and no bite. You could kick him
and he'd be gone forever, a little terrier. But over sits a big
bull mastiff, about 200 pounds. He's just kind of laying in the
yard, just kind of looking at you. Now you respect that old
boy, don't you? He doesn't have to say a thing.
Listen, how about a turkey? Rick was telling me about a turkey.
He'll strut his stuff and act the part of the toughest fowl
on the face of the earth. Squawking and a gawking, but
the mighty ox, he just sits and just stands and chews on his
grass. The greatest of men don't need
to spout off. The greatest of men don't need
to tout themselves. Strength is in character, not
in word. That's the reason the scripture
says, he shall not cry. He shall not lift up his voice
in the street. He doesn't need to, like the
bullmastiff. He's God. Well, he said, the
works that I do, they bear witness of me. The man who must demand
respect doesn't deserve it. The man who commands respect
by his life does, and he will get it. The man who must tout
his name, his titles, his degrees, and his knowledge is no real
man. The soon angry are the weak. The patient are the strong. I'm telling you, true meekness,
patience, long-suffering is the greatest strength of character. Is it not? Try it. The loudest are usually the weakest. The strong are usually the silent
type. Right? Right. I mean in character. That's what I mean. Why meek?
Think about this, too. Why did Christ describe himself
as being meek? Because it is written, we read
that in Zechariah 9, 9, Behold, thy king cometh to thee, and
he's meek. Think about that. Why was it
necessary for Christ to be meek or humble? For him to come to
us, he had to humble himself, didn't he? For God to come to
us and for us to come to him, he must humble himself. The word
meek means mild and gentle. He was the only true gentleman
who ever lived. It means mild and gentle and
soft. And he comes to us. Think about
this. He said, I'm meek. He comes to
us and bids us lowly, sinful, wretched creatures It's alright. You can come to me. You can approach
unto me. It's alright. Like we must tenderize
or acquaint ourselves with a little child who's afraid of us. One
of you mothers may be holding your child, and a stranger come
up and want to hold the child, and the stranger must do everything
in his power to make the child unafraid of himself, right? And
this is what Christ does. He humbles himself. He comes
out of that body of glorious light and takes on the form of
a man with no grandeur or glory about him. Completely unassuming. Just a
common man. A common man. And he says, He
can come to me. He can come to me. I'm God, yes,
but I'm a tender and kind and gracious, loving and meet man,
and you can come to me." It was said—I read an illustration of
a great king who lived on the earth—it was said of that great
king—now listen to this—it was said of that great man that no
man knew him who spoke time. That is, any man who took it
upon himself to speak to him didn't realize how great a man
he was, or else he wouldn't have opened his mouth. But then he
said, because of the beauty of this man's character, because
of his gentle nature, because of his compassion and tenderness,
no man knew him who didn't speak to him. You catch that? No man knew him
who took it upon himself to speak to such a want, but no man knew
him who didn't talk to him, because he was ready to receive. Even
so, the Lord Jesus Christ. You follow that? Children were drawn to Christ,
weren't they? Hmm? It's said of children that
they can see through an adult. Children were drawn to him, a
man with no guile. No guile. Perfectly tender. And children were drawn to him.
The second thing he says about himself, look at it. He says,
I'm meek and lowly in heart. Lowly. The Scripture says, God
hath exalted them of low degree. Now, lowly—this term lowly means
humility. It means to cast yourself down,
bring yourself down, humble yourself. The Scripture says, He that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. This is the reason, I believe,
that the greatest occupations upon the face of the earth are
those the most menial and servile occupations, such as a mother,
a mother, wiping the snotty noses and other bad places, wiping,
carrying forward, doing all the menial, degrading and lowly,
and a wife, and all the menial and degrading and lowly tasks,
a willing slave to the ones that that she loved. I believe that's
the reason this is one of the greatest occupations upon the
face of the earth, washing the feet of our loved ones. Does that sound familiar? The Scripture says, Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, to being in
the form of God. Taught it not, Robert, to be
equal with God? but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of," and this is lower than a servant, men. He said,
I'm a worm and no man, and being found in fashion as a man. God, great is the mystery of
godliness. God manifests in the flesh, being
found in the fashion the habit as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore, the scripture says, God hath highly exalted him. Why? Because he humbled himself
and became obedient. God hath highly exalted him and
given him a name which is above every name. that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father." And he says here, Now you take
my yoke upon you, and you learn of me. I am lowly. Let this mind be
in you. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Let this mindset be in you, for
I, the great God, am meek and lowly." In heart. Do you notice that? In heart. This is no feigned humility like
the Pope. You know how the Pope washes
everyone's feet? in front of the millions so that
everyone can see him? How he feigns humility. This
is not a pretended humility by this man. Oh, no. The Scripture
says he's the true friend of sinners. He's truly a meek and
lowly man, a friend of sinners, a true man, the only true man
who ever lived. And because he was, because he
was the man, Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, because he humbled
himself and became in the fashion of a man, God has highly exalted
him. The second man, the Lord of Glory,
God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above
every name, Son of Man and the Lord of Man. But man, yet God. Now, next week we're going to
look at this yoke of Christ, what it is and what it means
to take the yoke of Christ upon you, what's involved in this
yoke of Christ, and what this yoke does for you. He said, Take
my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest for your soul. You know, He says
it's a light yoke. My yoke is easy. My burden is
light. And it's a yoke we must bear.
We must bear it just like His cross. One and the same thing.
Take up your cross. Take that yoke upon you and learn
of Me. The service of Christ. Okay. Stand with me. We'll be dismissed. Our Lord and Savior, how we bless
your holy name for this marvelous portion of Scripture. Dear God,
it's more than just a portion of Scripture, though. It's the
very Word of our Savior. It's a little glimpse into the
heart of this Holy One. We feel so helpless, so—feel
so insufficient to the task. Lord God, open your heart and
show it to us personally. Show us yourself, meek and lowly,
high and lifted up, yet meek and lowly. And, Lord, impress
upon us, impress upon us, learn of Thee,
to be disciples in the school of Christ, to be followers of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to emulate the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. We will not take that yoke unless
you first place it upon us. Place that yoke upon us and let
us take it willingly, and learn of thee, and cause us to bear
the image of Christ, be meek and lowly ourselves in heart,
and then to manifest that outwardly in our daily lives. And then
give us that rest, give us that rest you've promised. We plead
your blessed promise, your word. In the blessed name of Christ
we pray, who met together tonight. Amen.