What Is Your Yoke — Phil Beach Jr.

The Call to Be Separate From Unbelievers

Open them up to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Okay, now I'd like to make a quick announcement for the children. Remember, children, we're going to be speaking to you also this morning, so I want you to pay close attention because I believe that Jesus wants to help you to understand some things concerning what He would want us to understand this morning.

2 Corinthians chapter 6. We're going to read verses 14 on through chapter 7, verse 1. So the entire text for this morning is 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 14 through chapter 7, verse 1. And I'll begin reading at verse 14.

Do not be yoked together. Now, I want you to take special note of that word, yoked, because the entire sermon this morning is going to be revolving around the word, yoked. The word, yoked. So take special note of that word this morning, believers.

For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? For what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Beel? Beel, for a quick explanation here, was a god in the Old Testament that the nations worshipped and that also Israel began to worship.

It's a god, it's a false idol. What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of God, the living God. As God has said, I will live with them and walk with them and will be their God and they will be my people.

Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

Since we have these promises, what promises? The promise that we just read. In verse 17, if we come out from among the unbelief of this world and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. God said in verse 18, I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters.

That's where verse number 1 of chapter 7 is referring to. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates the body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

Let's read verse 1 of chapter 7 one more time. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God this morning. We thank You, Lord, that You have given us ears that hear and eyes that see. Have Your own way this morning. Instruct us, encourage us, and enable us, Lord, to be vessels of honor for Your glory.

In Jesus' name, amen and amen. The title of this morning's message is, What is Your Yoke? What is Your Yoke? Now, by way of introduction, in the Old Testament, there was an instrument that was used for many purposes, and this instrument was called a yoke.

Now, a yoke was either made out of wood or iron, and it was an apparatus that was placed upon the neck and rested upon the shoulders of either a person or an animal. And this yoke was an apparatus that was used in order to confine someone to a particular area.

The Natural Uses of a Yoke

Now, there's two types of yokes. There's the yoke that God offers, and there's the yoke that Satan offers. There's the yoke that God offers, and there's the yoke that Satan offers. Now, first of all, in the natural, the natural yoke, I want to give you three illustrations of what yokes were used for.

First of all, yokes were used to torture people. Yokes were used to torture people. Back in those days, witches were placed in yokes, and these yokes were used to confine witches, and also many witches died as a result of having a yoke placed upon their head.

Also, there was the beast of burden, and that was called the oxen. Now, back in the olden days, all the farming was done by animals. We know that. They didn't have tractors and the tremendous equipment that we have today.

So, what they did is they gathered together a group of oxen and placed yoke on their neck and attached these yokes by ropes, and then they were able to confine the yoke of oxen to a certain area, and they did their farming with it.

And a third use was prophets used yokes in order to illustrate an object lesson. Now, for example, the prophet Jeremiah came to the nation of Israel, to the elders of Israel, and what he did was he placed a yoke of wood upon his head, around his neck, and he came to the elders and he said, just like I have a yoke upon me, so God will turn you over to a wicked nation and they'll put yokes upon you.

And that was God's judgment against the nation of Israel. Now, that's the natural uses for yokes, but now for the remaining part of the message, I want you to use your mind and be able to see this in a spiritual aspect.

Satan's Yokes of Bondage

Satan has a yoke and Christ has a yoke. Remember, the intent of a yoke is to attach you or bind you to something. And you either this morning are bound by Christ's yoke or you're bound by Satan's yoke.

You're either bound by Christ's yoke or you're bound by Satan's yoke. What areas of your life could Satan put a yoke upon? We're gonna look at four areas that Satan can put a yoke upon. First of all, you can be bound this morning by the yoke of Satan's bondage upon your eyes.

In the day that we're living in today, church, Satan is placing yokes. Remember, a yoke is a bondage. A yoke is something that binds you to something. Satan is placing yokes upon the eyes of people. And the eyes of people have become bound to look at pornography.

They've become bound to look at violence. Did you know that there are some people who can't sleep at night unless they've watched the wrestling and the violence and the bloodshed? Some people can't rest unless they've gone out and watched a bloody movie.

That's violence. That's the yoke of bondage upon your eye. Pornography, violence, and inordinate affection. There's a yoke of bondage upon the eyes of many people in the world today. And they can't free themselves from always wanting to look at pleasure, pleasure.

Some people, all they wanna do is look at yachts and beautiful million-dollar houses. And all they wanna do is look at them and imagine themselves in these things. This is a yoke of bondage upon the eye.

Number two, Satan's yoke of bondage is upon the body of people. And it is seen through homosexuality. The bodies of many men have a yoke of bondage upon them which is driving them to the ugly, damnable sin of homosexuality.

Women, lesbianism, where they desire each other in an inordinate manner. And we've got drugs and alcohol and nicotine. All of these things are yokes upon the body of people. Let me tell you something.

When you get a yoke upon you, you can't free yourself from it. A yoke is heavy. A yoke is burdensome. A yoke is something that binds you. And if you have a yoke upon your eye, friend, you're gonna be bound to pornography.

You're gonna be bound to pleasure. You're gonna be bound to violence. If you have a yoke upon your body, you'll be bound to nicotine, alcohol, drugs, lesbianism, homosexuality, and all the other things that the bodies of people are bound to in the day that we're living in.

This is a real spiritual warfare that we're in. God didn't create us in order to have yokes of sin upon us. He created us, what was the song? For His honor, for His glory, for His pleasure. And it is not His pleasure for our bodies to be bound to sins of homosexuality and bound to sins of lesbianism and bound to sins of alcohol and nicotine and all the other addicting things that the people in this world are bound to.

Bondage of the Mind and the Senses

Number three, Satan's yoke of bondage upon the mind. If you have a yoke of bondage upon your mind, then you're plagued with fear because the yoke upon the mind that Satan places is always yoked to fear.

You're bound to fear, evil thoughts. Many people I have counseled throughout the years and they told me, Brother Beach, I can't free myself from thinking evil thoughts. I wake up in the morning and my thoughts are evil.

I go to bed at night and my thoughts are evil. I drive down the road and I get these crazy thoughts. Most of the time, it's sexual thoughts. But usually as we begin to counsel and talk, we discover that the reason why this individual has a yoke of evil thoughts upon their mind is because somewhere in their life, they're letting the influence of Satan affect them through television or through going to rated R movies.

Even today, you can't go to rated G movies hardly because there's witchcraft involved in kindergarten and in preschool films. There's witchcraft involved in things like, Mickey Mouse at one time was seen to be very harmless, but did you know now Mickey Mouse does disco dancing and all of those, what do you call those characters?

Disneyland. All those Disneyland characters are involved in disco dancing and they're involved in illicit kind of movement and there's implications of licentiousness and adultery in those innocent cartoons.

So you can't even hardly enjoy a rated G movie today if you want to stay pure and separate. Do you remember what our text was? Be not yoked together with unbelievers. You see, you can't just imagine being yoked together with an unbeliever as an unbeliever married to a believer.

That's generally what this scripture is interpreted as. If you're a Christian, you shouldn't be fellowshipping with people that don't know the Lord. But see, there's a deeper meaning. Not only should Christians not fellowship with unbelievers, but Christians should not allow the members of their body to fellowship with unbelieving things.

So we find Satan's yoke of bondage upon the mind will bind you to fear, evil thoughts, depression and also lunatics. People who are lunatics have gone crazy. Their minds have been given over to them. Number four, Satan has a yoke upon the ear and the tongue.

The ear and the tongue. And when Satan places his yoke of bondage upon the ear and upon the tongue, it causes people to gossip or they like to listen to gossip. When I was in Mississippi, there was a group of people who weren't happy unless they were able to get a phone call a day with someone gossiping.

It's actually a lust. It turns into a lust where you lust and you long to either gossip or hear gossip. That is what you call the yoke of Satan's sin upon your tongue and ear. That needs to be broken.

There's also the yoke of corrupt communication, filthy language. If you have a yoke of Satan upon you, then you are yoked to, you're bound to and you habitually have filthy language either coming out of your mouth or you habitually like to get near people who are talking filthy just so you can listen.

Just so you can listen. Some people say, oh yeah, I never speak evil about anyone. But you find all they do is hang around with people that speak evil. But they justify it by saying, oh, I don't partake in it.

Let me tell you something. If you know in your heart that you like to listen to things that aren't good, you're guilty. See, in your heart, you're guilty. So we find gossip, corrupt communication and foul and unclean jokes.

Everything that you basically look to in this world is tainted with these yokes of bondage. And if you're not careful as a Christian without being on your guard, without always praying and studying the scriptures, you can find that without even knowing it, Satan can place this yoke of bondage upon you.

And without knowing it, you can become bound to these particular sins that we're talking about. Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, verse 28. Has someone found that? Okay, Steve, why don't you read verse 28 nice and loudly and slowly.

Christ's Easy and Light Yoke

And let us see now how we just described all the yokes that Satan can put upon us. But now Christ offers us a yoke. 28, 29 and 30, Steve.

Take my yoke, I am gentle and humble in heart. You will find rest for your soul. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

So here we find that not only does the devil have yokes of bondage that chain us to sin, they chain our eyes to sin, these yokes of bondage chain our minds to sin, they chain our tongue and our ears to sin, they bind us and tie us up to practices that are evil and practices that are not good.

But Christ has a yoke, and if we learn of the yoke of Christ, then that will what? Bind us to that which is gentle, that which is light, and that which is easy. That which is gentle, that which is light, and that which is easy.

The Believer's Body as God's Temple

Let's turn our Bibles again now to 1 Corinthians chapter six. 1 Corinthians, which is the book right before 2 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse 19 and 20. 19 and 20. You see, it's Satan's intent to take what belongs to God and misuse it, isn't it?

Did you know that you belong to God this morning? Did you know that you don't have the right legally to use your body and your mind for whatever you want? But if you're a Christian, what you have said is, God, I give up the right in regard to ownership of this body, and I let you use it for your purposes and your honor and your glory.

I don't know if we all heard that. As Christians, what we're doing, or what we should have done if we're really Christians, is we've given up the right of ownership for our own body, and we give it to the Lord himself, and we say, Lord, now you use our bodies and our minds and our eyes and our ears for your purpose.

You say that scripture will fail? Let's read verse 19 of 1 Corinthians chapter six. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? Now, I want everyone to memorize this last sentence.

You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. Does it say you're not your own? No, I don't think it says that. Maybe that's a wrong translation. Dad, you have a different translation.

What does it say in yours? Yeah, verses 19 and 20. You are not your own? You mean to say that the Bible that Christians are supposed to live by says that the Christian's body and mind doesn't belong to him but belongs to God?

My God, I can't believe it. How many Christians do you know that regard their body and their mind and their hands and their eyes as not their own but the Lord's? Therefore, they refuse to use their body and their mind and their soul and everything that they are for their own purposes but only let God use them for His purpose.

I think the Lord stepped on all of our toes just now. Filling the purposes of His heart through our mind and body. Us or God? God. Oh, when we grasp what true Christianity is all about, we recognize that it really is a death.

Christianity means we've died to ourself. We don't live any longer unto ourself. What does it mean to live to ourself? That means that everything we do revolves around what we wanna do. We never ever take an initiative to find out what God wants us to do, what God requires us to do.

We just wanna be in control. So this relates to what the Holy Spirit was saying to us last Wednesday. God says, I wanna be in control. I want you to give up. Well, how does God get in control when we realize that our body is not our own?

You don't have the right to do with your body what you want. You don't have the right to do with your mind what you want. You don't have the right to look at what you want and to fulfill all the pleasures of your heart but it's our responsibility as Christians to determine what God's purposes are, what God's pleasures are, what God's desires are, and allow them to be fulfilled through us.

Now concerning, oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. We won't do that yet. You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Hey, I have a question. How many know? I did it. I usually say how many knows, plural, but I said how many know this morning?

Thanks to my wife. How many know this morning that when slavery was legal, it meant that when you were a slave and you were sold to a master, you belonged to who? Did you have a right to do what you wanted to?

Or did you have to? Did you know that many slave women were just simply bed partners for their master? Did you know that many slave women were abused sexually? Why? Because they didn't have the right to use their body for their own purpose.

They had to do what their master wanted them to do. Did you know that Paul called himself a bond slave of Jesus Christ? You see, Paul saw himself as a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. That meant he saw himself as if he did not own his own life anymore, but he was wholly dedicated to let God do whatever he wanted through his life.

Becoming Love Slaves to Christ

And here's why Christianity is so different from any other religion. God wants us to be slaves to him, but not compulsion slavery, love slavery. He wants us to be a love slave. I have to tell you this.

It's not part of what I planned, but it will be able to help you understand. In the Old Testament, if you were a slave after a prescribed period of time, 40 years, I don't know, either 40 or 49 years, listen closely, you had, listen, now you had the legal right to become free as a slave and to go and be totally free.

But there were some slaves that had masters that treated them so beautifully and treated them so nicely that at the end of this prescribed period of time, these slaves would go to their masters and their masters would put a hole in their ear and put an earring in their ear.

And that signified them as love slaves, which meant they gave up their right to become free. And they chose to be the slave to the master that they were serving. And did you know the Lord wants us to become love slaves?

Listen, God gives you the right every day to do what you want, doesn't He? You say, oh no, He doesn't. Oh, how come we do what we want then? See, God gives you the right and He bought you. You belong to Him.

He shed His blood for you. But He gives us the right every day to do what we want. But He hopes that by us seeing His love that is so perfect for us, His goodness that is so perfect for us, His supply that is so perfect for us, He hopes that as we see more and more of how beautiful and how wonderful He is that we will finally someday come to Him and say, Lord, I'm gonna give up my right that I've been exercising for so many years, that right to do what I want.

And I'm gonna come to you and say, Lord, spiritually take my ear right now and pierce it. Pierce it, Lord, and that will show the whole world that I've become your love slave and you could do what you want.

And I'll no longer go around with my own rights, my own control, taking everything in my own hands. But I'll fall to you, I'll fall to your word, and I'll let you have your way in my life. Do you think the Lord's calling us to be love servants for Him?

Oh my, I do, I do. Isn't it wonderful? What happens when we become a love servant, a love slave to the Lord Jesus Christ? Listen closely, and I'm closing. First of all, when we become a love servant, a love slave to our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, He literally breaks the yoke that Satan has put.

Christ Breaks the Yoke of Sin

So many Christians are struggling with sin, aren't they? And they can't understand why this yoke won't break. Guess why it won't break? They're still in control. God only breaks the yoke of those that become love slaves.

God only breaks the yoke of sin. This is something you can write down, Dad. I appreciate Dad so much. He's the kind of person that makes a preacher feel good. Every time I look at him, he's down there writing.

He's the kind of guy, when you got a congregation full of him, boy, you could just get to preaching. He's always writing down. So this is a good quote, Dad. God only breaks the yoke of those who willfully become love slaves.

That's the first thing that happens. Oh, what joy to be free from that bondage, that burden, that lust, that habit, that drive. My God, I can't be free. Give it over to Jesus and He'll break it. The Bible says that the Word of God breaks the yoke.

The Bible says that the Spirit of God breaks the bondage. And when you become a love slave for Jesus, the Lord fills you with His Holy Spirit. And as you get filled with the Holy Ghost, God breaks the yoke that's upon your mind, your body, your tongue, and your ears.

And then what happens? Then you have the yoke of Christ. And Christ puts His yoke upon your eyes. And what happens when the yoke of Christ is upon your eye? You see the glory of God. You see the goodness of God.

You thank Him for the beautiful trees. What happens when the yoke of Christ is upon your eye, people, and you go out to the mall? Do you see people? Do you see fat people and short people and skinny people?

No, you don't. Do you see black people and white people? Guys, do you see women that are sexually appealing versus women that aren't sexually appealing? I submit to you that when you become a love slave to Jesus Christ, your vision of people begins to change and you no longer see people as people, but you see them as sheep without a shepherd, just as Jesus saw them.

The Bible says, and there was a great multitude and the Lord had compassion on them, for He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. He didn't see good-looking, bad-looking, fat, skinny, short, tall, weird, not weird.

He saw people as sheep without a shepherd. That's what happens when the yoke of Christ begins to come upon your eye. What happens when it comes upon your body? Your body's used to pray. It's used to love your family.

Husbands, the Bible says that you should love your wives and the word love means that you should affectionately with warmth. See, your body is used to love your family and your children. Your body is used to represent Christ, which means you don't allow it to partake in the ugly, filthy, addicting sins of alcohol and drugs and cocaine and all those other terrible things that people are allowing their bodies to be used for.

That's what happens when the yoke of Christ comes upon your body. What happens when the yoke of Christ comes upon your mind, people? You don't fill it with soap operas. You don't fill it with garbage and violence.

Your mind becomes hungry for the Word of God and you fill your mind with the Word. You fill your mind with thoughts of goodness. You don't have to turn to it, but let me read this now. Philippians chapter four.

Look what Paul said. Philippians chapter four. Fondly, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on these things.

See, what happens when the yoke of Christ comes into your mind? Your thoughts change. Listen, true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy. That's what the Christian should be thinking on and meditating on.

And then our last point here is what happens to our ear and mouth when the Holy Spirit breaks the yoke of sin and we become yoked by Christ in our ears and our mouth? We speak words that build people up, words that edify people.

We don't tear people down with our words. We don't speak words that hurt and wound people. Did you know that if I took an arrow and shot Judy, it would wound her? But did you know that I could wound you very easily, Judy, right now by just saying something to you?

Did you know that I can hurt you? I've got such power in my tongue. I can hurt dad right now so bad if I wanted to, but God forbid, God forbid. The Bible says that I should only speak that which builds people up.

That doesn't mean that I don't correct people and that doesn't mean I don't instruct people, but there's a way to instruct and correct that is profitable and there's a way to do it that's not. And the way to do it is in love.

What happens to the Christian when their mouth becomes yoked with Christ? They're kind. They don't hurt people. They don't hurt the wounded people. What happens to our ears? We don't like to listen to unwholesome talk and to garbage.

We just don't like to. So basically what happens is we become totally new people. 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 16. Now from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. See? Listen.

Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we no longer do so. Therefore, if any was in Christ, He is what? A new creation. The old has gone. What old? All the old practices of sin that I just got done preaching about.

And what happens? The new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.

He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. Verse 16 and 17 is what we need to remember.

If anyone is in Christ, He's a new creature. Verse 14. Listen, for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. Verse 15, And He died for all that those who live should what?

Living as God's Possession

No longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again. It is absolutely clear throughout all the Scriptures that God wants us to see ourselves as His property to be used for His purposes.

Here is something, and I said I'm closing 10 minutes ago, but I'm closing this time. Here's something that we can all do this week, and I pray God will help you to do it. Ask God to show you all the areas of your life like I was preaching, your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mouth, your hands, your feet, your money.

Ask God what you would do with all these areas of your life, and then ask God what He would do with all these areas of your life, and see how different and how close what's really being done is to God's purposes or your purposes.

Folks, this is Christianity. Isn't it exciting? And don't feel like God's trying to trap you because all of this is love. You say, yeah, but my God, how can I do it? Just fall in love with Him. Remember, God's not demanding nothing from you, but He's demanding everything from you.

He's leaving it up to you. He's not demanding a thing from you, but guess what? But He won't take it. Let's pray. Father, we stand and sit in Your presence, and we're flabbergasted at the holiness of Your Word.

The Invitation to Become Christ's Love Slaves

Lord, the message that You gave us this morning is so clear in our hearts now. I sense it's so clear and vivid, and that's because the Holy Spirit has made it clear. Father, we don't want to be yoked.

Any parts of our body or mind, we don't want it to be yoked to the practice of sin. We want to be yoked to Christ so that everything that we are can be used for the honor and glory of God. If you're here this morning, sense God drawing you and God's drawing every member of your body and your mind to be yoked to Him.

Then I want you, in the quietness of your own heart, to ask God to make you, that you would make yourself a love slave. Give God your ear spiritually this morning. Come on, follow along with me now. Give Him your ear spiritually.

Say, Father, I can see right now that instrument of death in Your hand. And if I let You pierce my ear with it, it means that I have become Your servant. He's got it in His hand. He wants to pierce our ears.

But He wants us to do it because He has proven Himself to us. He has proven His faithfulness. God wants to prove His faithfulness to you. Relationships in the natural grow as each partner proves through periods of testing their love for each other.

And God wants to prove His love to us. And I believe that the Holy Spirit is going to take us and prove His love to us. But remember, that is not an end within itself. That is the means to produce God's end.

And God's end this morning, church, is that we would give Him our spiritual ear, let Him pierce it, and you'll never be sorry. I'm not going to rush the Holy Spirit. I feel like the Holy Spirit is telling me that this is something that needs to be thought about before we quickly make a rash decision to say, oh God, yes, I want my ear pierced.

Think about it. If you have questions or understandings, come to me, your pastor, and I'll talk to you. But this is the greatest privilege every Christian has, and that's to enter into a love-slave relationship with Christ.

It's a challenging one. It's frightening at times. But we know that God's hands of love always hold us. Now we're going to close out with a song, okay?

I would set my spirit free. I might break free.