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.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Dear brothers and sisters, this afternoon we would like to consider together this matter of being yoked with Christ.
Now, when you hear the word yoke, what is your reaction? Probably our first reaction will be, “That is bad.” We do not want to be under a yoke.
We have experienced the heaviness and the impossibilities of being under an iron yoke. But, you know, the word yoke itself is neutral.
A yoke may mean a burden. A yoke means control, and the yoke means service or servitude. It can be good, or it can be bad.
If we are under the yoke of sin and death, that is terrible. But if we are under the yoke of God, that is beautiful.
The yoke that comes to us from the enemy is heavy, but the yoke that comes from God is light and easy.
If we are under the yoke of sin and death, we are hopeless and helpless. But if we are under the yoke of God, then the will of God in our lives can be fulfilled.
So I hope that at the very outset we are not prejudiced against this word yoke.
You know, when God created man, He created man free. He gave man a free will. Man is free to make his choice.
Since God has given us a free will, He will not interfere with that. He allows man to make his own choice.
And this is what happened in the garden of Eden. You remember how God planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life in the midst of the garden.
We all know that God put these two trees before man so that man could make his own choice.
And we find our forefathers, Adam and Eve, and how they made their choice. Of course, they were tempted by the enemy, but on the other hand, we find that they made the choice.
Instead of choosing the tree of life, they chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, why did they do it?
I think probably one of the main reasons is that they wanted to be free—to be themselves. Even though they were created by God, yet they wanted to be independent.
They did not want to get under any control. They did not want to be under any authority. They wanted to be free. They wanted to be independent.
They thought that by choosing death, they would have a life without any yoke.
Now, to their surprise, the result was just the opposite. They wanted to be free, but they were bound.
They were bound by the law of sin and death. They were under it, and they had no way to get out of it.
Now, if they had chosen the tree of life, it would have meant that they would live a life of dependence. They would realize that they themselves were not sufficient.
They needed to depend upon God. They needed God’s life in order to fulfill God’s purpose for them.
Brothers and sisters, remember this: God created man free. He created man according to His image and after His likeness, but man was free.
In other words, God gave man the freedom to choose. Even though, according to the purpose of God’s creation, man was created free, behind that work there was God’s purpose.
God’s purpose was that man might serve His purpose. If man should choose to serve God’s purpose, he must be under God.
You know, as you read the Bible, even though the Bible does not come out right away and say why God created man, we all know that man is the masterpiece of God.
Only in creating man did God create him in His own image and after His own likeness. So there must be some reason behind it.
God wanted man to serve His purpose. In which sense, God had an enemy: the archangel rebelled against God.
Now, it was quite easy for God to put that archangel away. But if God should do it, there would be no glory to God.
For a big man to beat a little child, there is no glory there. For God Himself to deal with Satan right away, there would be no glory to God.
So God, for His glory’s sake, created man a little lower than angels.
Now, if you read Psalm 8, there is a beautiful verse there. Psalm 8:2 says:
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou established strength,
Because of Thine adversaries,
That Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
Here you find that God uses babes and sucklings to establish praise. For what reason? Because of His adversaries, to still the enemy and the avenger.
So you find that behind the creation of man, God has a purpose: to use man for His service. By that, God will get glory, and His enemy will be defeated.
For that reason, man has to put himself under God, because outside of God he cannot do it.
If a man will choose to be under the yoke of God, then God’s purpose will be fulfilled, and God’s glory will be manifested.
But unfortunately, our forefather did the opposite. He thought that by doing that, he would be completely free to do whatever he liked, not knowing that he was deceived.
He was put under the yoke of Satan, and there was no way for him to get out.
So, dear brothers and sisters, before we believed in the Lord Jesus, actually we were all born in Adam.
Adam, when he was created, was free. But when we were born, we were not free. We were under the bondage of sin and death. We were under the dominion of the enemy of God. We were children of wrath. There was no hope.
In other words, we are those who labor and are heavy laden.
You know, during the wartime, during the Sino-Japanese War, I was in the interior of China—in the provinces of Kweichow and Sichuan.
These provinces were full of high mountains. When we traveled, we did not have cars like we have today, because there was no gasoline. They used charcoal to run the buses.
This bus would climb the mountains, and you sat there very fearfully.
But while you were traveling, you would notice some people from Yunnan. They started from Yunnan and crossed the mountains to Kweichow.
On their backs there was a basket above their heads, and the basket was filled with bricks of salt. Yunnan had salt, but Sichuan did not have salt. Salt was a necessity.
How did they transport salt from one province to another? They carried it on the backs of people.
People had to help them put the loads on their backs. They had a stick in their hands, and they just walked, crossing the mountains.
When they were tired, they had to rest, but they could not take off that load.
So what did they do? They put that stick under the basket, and they stood there resting.
When our bus passed by, I felt so sorry for these people. They were really heavy laden. They were under heavy labor, and their whole life was just doing this. There was no hope.
Now, this cannot be compared with the heavy laden condition that all of us had before Christ delivered us.
Thank God, our Lord Jesus said:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
And is it not marvelous? We who were so heavy laden—our sins were above our heads, and there was no rest—when we came to our Lord Jesus, we found the whole load rolled away.
I still can remember the day that my load was rolled away. Brothers and sisters, that was our experience.
Now, after we are delivered from that iron yoke, our Lord Jesus breaks the iron yoke. How do you feel? You feel free.
You try to maintain your freedom. You want to have your own life now. You think that that was the reason why our Lord set you free—that you might be free.
Brothers and sisters, think of the children of Israel. God sent Moses to Egypt to set His people free.
God told Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”
They served Pharaoh. They were under the heavy yoke of Pharaoh. Not only were they doing all this hard labor, but there was no hope for them, because all the baby boys had to be thrown into the River Nile.
They cried to God, and God delivered them. They came out of Egypt; they were free people.
God brought them to Mount Sinai, and God said, “If you keep My covenant, if you keep My law, you will be My people, and I will be your God.”
God supplied their every need in the wilderness and was leading them into the promised land.
But you know what happened. God set them free, and they misused their freedom. They really wanted to be free—free from God, free from the law of God, free from everything.
Dear brothers and sisters, that was not God’s reason for setting them free.
And how often we find that we do the same thing. After we are freed by our Lord Jesus, how do we live from then on?
Do you think that now you are free to live for yourself? Do you think that you can do anything that you want to? Can you live for yourself?
We put ourselves once again under a heavy yoke.
You see, when the children of Israel got out of Egypt, in the wilderness Egypt was still in them. Whenever they met any problem, they thought of Egypt.
And that is the same thing with God’s people today. We want to have free sailing through life. Whenever anything happens against our will, we rebel. We want to have our own way.
We want to return to the world, and we are under the bondage of the world and under the bondage of our flesh. Again, we find ourselves under a heavy burden.
How can we get out of it? Here you find that our Lord Jesus calls us:
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.
Brothers and sisters, we need to realize one thing. Our Lord Jesus delivered us out of the heavy yoke of the enemy. He set us free that we may choose Him.
Then we may choose to be under His yoke, because this is the only true way to freedom.
Do not think that if you can have your own way, then you are free. If you do that, you are under the tyranny of yourself.
Martin Luther said one word: “I am not afraid of all the popes and the cardinals, but I am afraid of one pope.” When we are under our own bondage, that is an iron yoke.
The Lord sets us free that we may make the right choice, that we may choose to follow Him.
Now, what is a yoke? I wonder if young people know what a yoke is, because you use tractors today to till the ground.
In the old days, when you tried to till the ground, you put an animal—an ox, a horse, or a mule—under a wooden bar upon its neck.
The neck is very important. When you rebel, you have a stiff neck. So you find that you have to have a bar upon your neck, that you may be under control and plow the land.
You remember when that young man Saul was on the road to Damascus. He was going to Damascus to seize the Christians.
But while he was near the city of Damascus, a light shone upon him, and he was smitten by that light to the ground.
He heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
You know, the horse, the mule, or the ox has its own will. So you find that even under a yoke, they try to go their own way.
Whenever such a thing happens, the farmer has a sharp instrument called a goad. He gently uses that goad to touch the leg of the animal.
But the ox, the mule, or the horse will kick back. When they kick back, it hurts.
Now, the farmer does not want to hurt that animal, but just to remind that animal, “You have a master. You are doing my work.”
But the animal does not understand, and it gets hurt. After many hurts, it learns the lesson.
Now, that is exactly what we are. Do you know that God created you for His work? Do you not know that He set you free that you may serve His purpose?
Do you know you have His work to fulfill? Now, oftentimes we do not even have that kind of mind.
We think we are free—free to do whatever we want. But remember, you were not created for that reason, and you were not saved for that reason.
The opposite is true: you are saved that you may really fulfill God’s purpose in creating you.
But He will not force you. He wants you to voluntarily take His yoke upon you.
And this is what consecration really means. You know why a believer must consecrate himself or herself to God?
Now, in the old days, when I was saved, even the ministers did not understand the Word of God. They thought that consecration was just for a few people.
Only those who wanted to be preachers, pastors, or Bible women needed to consecrate their lives. Ordinary believers did not need to do that.
The result was that only a few served God, and all the brothers and sisters could live their own lives. All you needed to do was perhaps give your tithe, and that was already enough.
No, that is wrong teaching. Every believer, everyone who is saved, the Lord calls: “Come and follow Me.”
You remember when our Lord was on earth, how He called His disciples. He said, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is calling us to take His yoke upon us. A yoke is a burden, but His burden is light. His yoke is easy.
He calls us to be under His authority, to put ourselves under His control. That is the only way He can use us to complete the purpose of God in our lives.
Brothers and sisters, have you done that? Are you constrained by the love of Christ, so that you no longer want to live for yourself?
Do you want to live for Him and for His will? Are you willing to put yourself on the altar, allowing Him to make you a vessel of honor and to serve His purpose?
Now, our Lord Jesus Himself shows us what it is to be under a yoke.
He Who was with God, He Who was equal with God, yet emptied Himself. He took upon Himself the form of a bondservant. He took upon Himself the fashion of a man.
He came into this world to demonstrate to us the man after God’s heart—the man that God really wants.
Throughout His life, He put Himself under the yoke of His Father. And because of this, God’s purpose for the world was fulfilled.
And now our Lord Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you.”
You know, brothers and sisters, whenever we talk about this matter of denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following the Lord, you find that it is too hard.
“How can I do it? It is impossible.” And that is true, so far as we ourselves are concerned.
We do not want to be under a yoke. We do not want to deny ourselves. We do not want to be under control. We do not want to be under any authority. We do not want to serve anybody but ourselves.
It is impossible with men. And yet, the call is there. How can we respond to that? Where do we have the power and the strength to do that?
Thank God, we are not called to take up the yoke of God by ourselves. We are called to take up the yoke of Christ.
And that is to be yoked with Christ.
You know, in the old days, when a farmer wanted to till the ground, he used more than one animal. He would perhaps use two oxen, so that the work could be done quicker and better.
What he usually did was yoke a trained ox with an untrained ox. It was a double yoke.
Now, why is it so? Because the trained ox has learned obedience. He will follow faithfully the guidance of the master.
But the untrained ox still has his own will. His will is not broken yet. So even under the yoke, he wants to go his own way.
But the trained ox is stronger and will pull him back. Gradually, gradually, he learns the character of the trained ox.
And that is the way to fulfill God’s eternal purpose in your life.
So the Lord has not only called us to take up the yoke of God. The Lord says, “Come and take up My yoke. Be yoked with Me.”
You are not trained yet, but I am trained. I am meek and lowly in heart.
What is meekness? You know, the Bible says Moses is the meekest of all men.
Now, in our minds, Moses was very masculine, very powerful, very strong. But the Bible says he was the meekest of all men. Why?
Because Moses was one of complete surrender and obedience. Moses was a person who obeyed God in tiny little things.
You know, he was a trained architect, because at that time Egypt was famous for the pyramids. When God asked him to make the tabernacle, that should have been easy.
And yet God told him that he could not do anything according to his own mind. Every little item, he had to obey God.
That really humbled him, and he was faithful. He was the meekest of all men.
Brothers and sisters, that is our Lord Jesus. How meek He was. He said, “I can do nothing of Myself. I cannot even say anything of Myself.”
There was absolute obedience to His Father. That is the character that must be built up in our lives.
Before we can talk about service, this character has to be built.
God’s emphasis is not merely to do a work. God’s emphasis is the right person to do the right work.
So what is the meaning of being under the yoke? The first and primary meaning is the training of character.
Naturally, we were not fit to serve God. No matter how clever we are, no matter how capable we are, no matter how much charisma we have, we were not fit to do God’s work.
We cannot defeat the enemy. Only the character of Christ defeats the enemy.
So it has to be built up in our lives. The only way to have it built up is to be yoked with Christ.
Now, when we try to rebel, we look at Christ. He pulls us over. He is meek and lowly in heart.
Now, what is lowliness? Lowliness simply means that He never thinks of Himself.
It is not an inferiority complex. You know, an inferiority complex is still self-consciousness.
But He is completely not conscious of Himself. He is only conscious of His Father. That is lowliness of heart.
So, dear brothers and sisters, thank God. The way that we can really be used of God is to be yoked with Christ.
In other words, it is to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow the Lord.
That will enable us to be characterized with the character of Christ. And when that character is built, then God’s work will be done.
Spiritual ministry is based on character, not on teaching.
It is not the outward thing that really will bring down the enemy and bring in the kingdom of God.
It is the character of Christ that will defeat the enemy and build up His kingdom—God’s kingdom.
Now, you remember in the letter to the Philippians, the church in Philippi was a good church, and God was really using them.
But unfortunately, there were two sisters there. They were leading sisters, and they were used of God in the gospel.
Either way, there was a rivalry between these two sisters. They tried to be higher than the other, to have more influence with the sisters.
Now, how could this problem be solved? It was not a matter of knowledge.
You remember, Paul asked his true yokefellow to help them. We do not know to whom that yokefellow referred.
But thank God, there was a yokefellow there—one who had learned Christ. Because he had learned Christ, he was able to help these two sisters.
Now, that is real service.
So, dear brothers and sisters, one thing I hope you remember: there is a yoke that every child of God must learn to take up.
It will not be forced upon you. The Lord says, “Take My yoke upon you.” He expects us to take it on our own initiative.
He uses love to constrain us, but He wants you to take the initiative.
Are you willing to be yoked with Christ? Are you willing to learn of Him?
Are you willing to fulfill God’s purpose in your life? Are you willing to serve God in His way?
This is the real thing. May the Lord help us.
Dear Lord, how we praise and thank Thee, because Thy thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and Thy ways are higher than our ways.
We thought that we wanted to be free, but we praise and thank Thee. Thou knowest better.
Thou hast called us to take Thy yoke, that we may be yoked together and learn of Thee.
O Lord, do teach us, that we may all be usable in the hand of God. And it is all for Thy glory.