Matthew chapter 11. Beginning in verse 20 of this
chapter, the Lord began to upbraid the cities in which most of His
mighty works were done, and the reason given is that they repented
not. He says to Bethsaida, Chorazin, The wicked cities of Tyre and
Sodom would have repented if they'd seen what you've seen. Then in verse 23, to Capernaum, he tells them if
that wicked city of Sodom had seen what they'd seen, They would have repented and
it would have remained unto this day. Our Lord makes so much of the
matter of sinning against light. The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter
2 21, for it had been better not to have known the way of
righteousness. than to know and turn from the
holy commandment. Jesus says to Capernaum here
in verse 24, it'll be better for Sodom in the day of judgment
than for you. Now that's some kind of a verse. You say, well, I didn't think
there was anything worse than sodomy. Yeah. One thing. Unbelief. That's what he's saying
here. That's what he's saying here.
People don't think it's serious to go to church all their life
and ignore God's word. They don't think that's serious. But it's worse than any and all
open sin in the whole world. to go to church all your life
and ignore God's Word. Awful, awful, awful. Because
you see, our hearts are open and known to God all the time.
He knows your every thought and motive. And just to put it bluntly, there
is absolutely no hope for a character like you except in Christ. Now that's the bottom line. Verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things. Talking about the precious things
of the gospel, the truth. You've hid them from the wise
and the prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. This is the Lord Jesus
praying to the father and he says, father, I thank thee that
you've done it just the way you have. that you've blinded some that
thought this qualified, and you've enlightened some that
knew they weren't. And the son says to the father, I like it.
And I thank you that you've done it that way. Verse 27, he says,
all things 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. He to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. No man knows the Father except
Christ reveals Him. John 14, 6, No man cometh unto
the Father but by Me. Same thing. And now we have these
familiar verses, verses 28 to 30, which I love. And they direct
us as to how to go about obtaining what every
heart listening to the sound of my voice this morning desires.
Rest for your souls. Rest for your souls. Are you
not tired and weary? And I'm not talking about physically. I'm talking about from all the
garbage. and all the hellishness, and all the unbelief, and all the rejection of God
in this world that we're in. I'm tired of it in the world.
I'm praying I'll be tired of it in my own heart. So the title of our message today
is the school of Christ. And we're going to read these
verses 28 to 30, the school of Christ, verse 28. Come unto me, all ye that labor
in her 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 easy and my burden is light." Note in verse 28, the beautiful
invitation from the lips of our Lord, come unto me. It's not unconditional, but the conditions here are twofold. to full condition to this invitation. First, it's all ye that labor. That is active. That is something
you've taken on yourself. And second, and are heavy laden. That's passive. A load that's
been placed on you that you didn't take on yourself. That's the two conditions. Christ
says to be in on this invitation to come unto me. First all you
that labor, second you that are heavy laden. Now this labor,
he's not talking about working over at the job you're on. Not
that kind of labor. And the heavy laden, he's not
talking about you lifting 75 or 100 pounds. Not that kind
of load. But it's a heart laboring to close with God about your
sin. And this heavy laden is the load
of guilt and shame and unbelief and fear and doubt. That's who the invitation is
for. Now today, all this religious activity that's got the Lord
smiling ear to ear because they're doing so good and doing so much,
this invitation is not for that crowd. This is for people with a torn
heart, a failing heart, an unfaithful heart. Struggling
and laboring in spirit for rest, for peace with God. Those loaded down with the burden
of guilt and shame. In short, the invitation is to
those not making the grade. It is not to those who think
they are. But I want to speak from verse
29, the school of Christ. All God's children are in school. Did you know that? There are no dropouts. A lot of us play hooky a lot.
But you're God's child, you're in school. His school. And all God's children are learning. Some of us insist on learning
the hard way, but we're learning. And whether we recognize it or
not, are progressing all the time. Now, there's lots of people
sitting around that are not enrolled, but all the students are making
progress. So our first thought about this
school of Christ here in verse 29 is this. The command of enrollment. The command of enrollment. And
we find it in the first part of the verse. Christ says, take
my yoke upon you. Notice this is not a question.
Would you like to take my yoke upon you? It is not a suggestion. Perhaps
you'd consider taking my yoke upon you. No, it's a command
and all who would know God, Christ said, there's no way to know
him except by me. So take my yoke upon you. Take my yoke upon you. Be my
disciple, my student. Enroll in my school. The New
Testament does not place any value on religious campaigns
that major on getting professions of faith out of people. It rather teaches us in that
great commission. Go and make disciples, which
means students. Teach them, tell them about the
Lord Jesus Christ. Urge men to enroll in the school
of Christ and be obedient to Him. Follow Him. Take my yoke
upon you. Now this thing of the yoke, I
never thought of it until late yesterday, and I had thought
about looking around and trying to find one. Has anybody got
an old one? You know, you see them in these
antique stores sometimes. Anybody got a yoke, an old double ox
yoke? Nobody here? I thought you might,
Andrew. I thought you might, Bill. Literally. An old double. Well, in years
gone by, it was a farm implement before the days of tractors.
power equipment, a farm implement made of wood so long and it designed
to fit under the neck and around the breast area of an ox so that
two side by side could pull a load. Made for two animals. It was
used in this thing of the yoke used in the Old Testament as
an emblem of bondage and slavery. The Lord spoke several times
of Israel's yoke of bondage, bondage in Egypt, bondage in
Babylon. But greater than Egypt or Babylon,
the bondage of sin. The prophet Jeremiah, a great
man of wisdom, said, In Lamentations 3.27, it is good that a man bear
the yoke in his youth. What that means is that he has
some discipline, some restraints on his life. It's a good thing
he said. Then Paul confronting the false doctrine to the churches
of Galatia. Judaism. And he's writing to
the believers there and he says to them, stand fast in the liberty. This is Galatians 5.1. Stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The yoke of
bondage. So a yoke is a binding thing. It puts the burden. of having
to pull whatever load is behind and is attached to the yoke. The great irony in this verse
is that the yoke, a thing which enslaves, a thing which puts
in bondage, a thing which puts to hard labor, a thing which
brings weariness, Christ speaks of His yoke as giving rest. Giving rest. The yoke is a symbol of working
and sweating hard all day. Be like saying to somebody, let's
go out and hoe corn all day and rest up. No, you'll get wore
out. Let's go out and pull the plow
all day and rest. No, it'll wear you out. The yoke
is a binding thing. It is a wearying thing. But Christ speaks of His yoke
as giving rest. And so this is the commandment
of enrollment in the school of Christ. Take my yoke upon you. It is our nature to flee the
other direction at the thought of being put into a yoke. But
Christ explains in verse 30, For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I'll
just say three things about this in relation to this command of
enrollment, then we'll move on. Take my yoke upon you. How does
one do that? You must be willing to draw near
him. Draw near him. You see, the yoke is not made
a mile wide. It's just wide enough for two. to work closely together. Draw
near. Draw near. Without a great distance
in between. Matter of fact, the two oxen
walked so close and worked so close, sometimes they'd rub against
one another's side. See? So you must be willing to
draw near with nothing to hide from the
Lord. Plenty to be ashamed of, yes,
but nothing to hide. Nothing to hide. Secondly, you must submit to
walk in the same direction he's walking. You wouldn't take one
ox and have his head coming this way in the yoke. And the other
one would have his head going that way in the yoke. You're
in for a mass confusion. There has to be submission to
walk in the same way the Lord's walking. Same direction. And that involves agreeing with
God about who he is. Agreeing with God about who his
son is. agreeing with God and His Word,
what it is, and the message and what it says. It has to do with
agreeing with what He's done, is doing, and going to do. And submit to walking in the
same way He's walking. Third thing in taking the yoke
of Christ, you're joined to Him. In other words, that yoke does
not come apart. It's one piece. Joins the two
animals together to pull together. And yoked up with Christ, joined
to Him. You feel the load He's pulling
and has pulled in the flesh and is pulling in spirit in this
world. And at the same time, He feels
the load you're pulling. What hurts him hurts you. The persecution he faced, you
face. The rejection he experienced,
you experience. The tribulation he had, you have.
1 John 3.13, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. Christ
said, they hated me before they hated you. And he told his disciples
a little while before he left here, they'll hang me, then they'll
hang you. So I ask this question, what's
the point today in going through the motions
of religion in pretense of obtaining a ticket
to heaven? That's not it. That's not it
at all. The Apostle Paul, as an old man, riding from a prison
cell at Rome, somebody asked him, what is it you want, Paul,
more than anything else in the world? To get out of this filthy,
cold prison? Paul said, no, that's not it.
Here's what I want more than anything, more than anything
in all the world, is that I might know Him. in the power of His resurrection. That I might know something more
about that that got Him out of the grave. And that I might know Him in
the fellowship of His sufferings. Not His redemptive suffering. He had to do that alone. but
in the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his
death. I want to be made like Christ. I just want a little more progress
in the school of Christ. That's what he said. So what's the command of enrollment?
Take my yoke upon you. It involves drawing near to Him.
It involves submitting to walk in the same direction He's walking.
It involves bearing the same load, pulling the same load He's
pulling. Secondly, in this verse, I see
another thought. The content of the education
in the school of Christ. What is the curriculum in this
school of Christ? What is it we're to learn? So
here it is, he says it plainly, and learn of me. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Not just learn from me, but learn
of me. Yoked up with me, you'll learn
me. You'll experience in a measure. small measure, what it is to
be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. In the world, you should have
tribulation. All that live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. But here's the glorious part.
John 17, 22. The glory which my father hath
given unto me I give unto you. My love, my purity, my peace,
my promise, I give unto you. Yoked up with me, alive with
me, will bring you to testify with Paul and to reckon with
Paul that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And these scriptures we're talking
about, they're not just general statements to a religious society. This is for those truly in the
school of Christ. I'm glad to be a student today. Enroll. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me. A third thought,
one of the things we'll learn, yoked up with him, we'll learn
the character of the master teacher. Look what he says. For I am meek
and lowly in heart. I am. This is one of those neglected
I am's of Christ. I am meek and lowly in heart. Many have written and have preached,
and I have preached about the seven I am's of Christ in the
gospel of John, but there are others scattered throughout the
scriptures. For instance, Psalm 22, six, I am a worm. That's not David, that's Christ. I am broken, Psalm 38. I am bowed
down. I am feeble. Psalm 39, I am a
stranger. That's not just David, that's
Christ. The Old Testament. That's the I am. Job 40 and verse
4, Behold, I am vile. That's not just Job. That's Christ
with our sin upon Him. Psalm 22, 14, I am poured out
like water. That's not just David. That's
Christ, the great I am. Rejected and suffering and cut
off in this world. And here in Matthew is another
one. I am meek and lowly in heart. This is to be learned in the
school of Christ. First, I am meek. I am meek. Let me read you five thoughts.
I jotted down about meekness and we see Christ in all this.
One meekness is not weakness. It is strength under control. Two. Meekness is the bearing
of injuries with a belief that God will vindicate you. Three, meekness is believing
God's word. Vengeance is mine. I will repay,
saith the Lord. Four, meekness is the expression
of a heart Too great to be moved by little insults. And five, meekness is not cowardice,
but courage, which wastes no energy on childish
retaliation. This is Christ our Lord. In other words, He is. He said,
I am meek. He is what we need. Christ is saying, when you yoke
up with Me, when you walk with Me, you're going to learn. I didn't fight back every time
I could have fought back. And if you're yoked up with Me,
a measure of that will rub off on you. You'll learn at least a little
bit along life's way that in God's time, He'll straighten
things out. There was a time in my life when I never had the patience
to cope with all the things I've had to cope with through the
years, but I have learned Just a little, just a little. And the biggest thing I've learned
and the best thing I've ever learned is to lean on Him. That's right. Learning to lean. It's the best thing you can ever
learn in this life. Making it on your own is not
an option. I know a lot of folk that needs to understand that.
Making it on your own is not an option. I didn't know if you knew that.
So I'll say it again. Making it on your own is not
an option. Learning to lean. Learning to
lean. I believe the greatest demonstration
of meekness this world has ever seen was when the sinless, spotless
Son of God, hanging on a cross, dying the death of a sinner in
humiliation and shame, and there was not one speck of swaying
toward what he could do. He was fully occupied with the
will of his father and what he would do. You see, Christ was not in this
world to get what he deserved. He was here to get what you deserved.
And he got it. Nailed to a cross. So we really ought not whine
over a small measure of the fruit of our sin along the way when our Lord took the full wages
of it upon himself and bore it away forever. Then he said, not only me, but
I am lowly in heart. What does that mean? Well, his
heart was not set on fame and fortune and glory while he was
here. I am meek and lowly and hard. I looked for that word lowly.
It's not anywhere else in the New Testament. Lowliness is,
but lowly is not. But listen to Zachariah, the
prophet. Zechariah 9 9 rejoice greatly o daughter of zion shout
o daughter of jerusalem behold thy king cometh told my christ Behold our king cometh unto thee
he is just and having Salvation he is just and having salvation. Well, boy, that means he can
just march in, knocking people out of the way and take charge.
No, no, he came just and having salvation. But Zachariah continues,
he came lowly, lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt,
the foal of an ass. Our Lord did not demand the respect
and the honor He was worthy of while He was in this world. And yet for you and I to be chosen
and called out as His children, we've been given far more honor
than we could ever be worthy of. Oh yes. And Paul instructed us
to be like Christ in this. Ephesians 4.2, to walk with all
lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one
another in love. And that means don't demand other
people to be perfect. Philippians 2.3, in lowliness
of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. There's no use in me lowering
the boom on you or you lowering the boom on anybody else. All
we have to do is look in the mirror and we'll find somebody
just as sorry. It's the grace of God, I'm telling
you. In other words, what Paul is
saying, don't dare think about treating others according to
what you think they deserve. Rather, you consider how much
better you've been treated than what you deserve. I'm telling you, this school
of Christ is rough business. He said, I am meek and lowly
in heart. You link up with me. You link
up with me. You'll be like John the Baptist.
You'll not be looking for the best shoes. You'll be looking
to take your own off. and forfeit your authority to
Him. The school of Christ, it's rough
business. I'm telling you, it locks us up, it shuts us up,
but it frees us in Him. The command of enrollment, take
my yoke upon you. The content of the education,
the curriculum of the school, learn of me. And the character
of the educator, the master teacher, I am meek and lowly in heart."
And then fourth and finally, the comfort of the educated,
those in the school, those that make progress. Look what he says,
ye shall find rest under your souls. What about that? You've been looking everywhere
else for it. The Lord said you could find it with me. And the rest he promises here
is not in idleness or in laziness, but it's in the yoke with Christ. It's about not having your way
all the time. It's about not avoiding everything
that's uncomfortable. It's about not crucifying everybody
that don't agree with you. No. You'll cut with Christ. He is
the rest. The rest is not something about
him or something from him. The rest is him. Mr. Spurgeon said this. And this
will nail us now. He said, it is a vain idea of
ours to suppose that if our circumstances were altered, we should be more
at rest. Now that's the way most of us
seek it, isn't it? Struggling to change circumstances. But
he continues, my brother, if you cannot rest in poverty, neither
would you in riches. If you cannot rest in the midst
of persecution, neither would you in the midst of honor. It is the spirit within that
gives the rest and has little to do with anything without. Christ is the rest. In reading a little about the
yoke, in olden times when it was a necessity. It wasn't any
tractor, oxen. The yokes were custom made to
fit the individual ox. It was quite an art. It was a
skill, craftsmanship. and the yoke maker would actually
go to a man's farm and measure the animal across the neck and
across the shoulders and chest area and would get an idea whether
it was a thin build or a more stocky build animal. And then
he would cut the wood and finish the yoke file it, sand it, smooth it,
shape it. He would finish the yoke to fit
the individual ox that it's made for. The yoke wasn't the same on both
sides. Each side was made for one particular
ox. And sometimes there's a noticeable
difference in the two sides. one side is fitted for a much
larger ox than the other side, that they both could work in
to their full potential. The strong ox and the weak ox
weren't expected to pull the same weight, but that yoke was
made to where the strong ox could do his best, and the weak ox
could do his best, and the full strength of both Working together
did the job. But I want to say to you, Christ
is the big ox. That's why he said, my yoke is
easy. The other side of it will fit
you and you'll work fine. You can
make it with me is what he's saying. What you can't pull,
I'll pull. My yoke is easy and my burden
is light. You won't fail with me and you
won't fall with me. I'll take up the slack. I'll
make up the difference. One other thought and we'll stop.
And looking at verses 28 and 29 together, Look at this with me, both verses,
28 and 29, both begin with a command. In verse 28, it's come unto me.
And in verse 29, it's take my yoke upon you. And then both
verses end with rest. But my point is how the rest
comes. In verse 28, it's given. I will
give you rest. But in verse 29, it's found. You shall find rest for your
soul. How? By taking my yoke upon you. It's a thing to be found. And in this, there is a refuting
of easy believism. Those who truly come to Christ
are given rest. But in that given rest, there
is a desire for a deeper rest that has to be found. Nowhere in the Scriptures do
we find that our Lord or any of the others taught, come unto
me for your ticket to heaven, if that's all you want. If that's
all you want, you'll never have it. See, this thing's about a
relationship. This thing's about knowing Christ.
It's about being made like Christ. So there does a desire for a
deeper rest. And that must be found in yoking
up with him. Those who truly come to him in
verse 28. And take up his yoke upon them
in verse 29. In addition to the initial rest
that's given in the yoke with him, continual
rest will be found. And that's the teaching, the
school of Christ. Are you interested? Are you interested? It's the way to find rest. Amen. Stand with us.