The Yoke the Cross the Crown — Don Wilkerson

Sonship and Joint Heirship Through the Spirit

Verse 14 through 17, For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Jesus’ Call to Daily Discipleship

Go with me to Luke chapter nine. Luke chapter nine, verses 23 and 24. And he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it.

But whosoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. And then turn to Matthew chapter 11 and just leave it there as I want to start in chapter Matthew 11, verses 28 to 30. Come to me, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you shall find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my load is light. Now there are three symbols that I find in these three different selections that I have read to you.

The last symbol that I want to talk about was in the first passage from Romans. And although those verses do not mention a symbol directly, it is there nevertheless indirectly. Children of God are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

And picture in this a crown. There is a royal status that we come into when we come into life. After repentance and into life, there is a royal status that we come into in our inheritance in Christ. That's where he's leading us.

In Luke 9, 23, it refers to denying our cross. It does not directly refer to his cross, but he says your cross. And then Matthew 11 refers to his yoke. And so I want to talk to you about his yoke, my cross or your cross and his crown.

His yoke, which is also my yoke. And then in addition, we are to take up our cross daily or we cannot, it says, be his disciple. And we then become heirs or that's where we're heading. And the meaning of which carries with it the concept of kingship, of authority, of dominion, of power, of reigning.

And allow me to use the symbol of a crown to illustrate this. His yoke, my cross and his crown. Let's bow in prayer. Holy Spirit, we ask that this afternoon that these words would be in the flow of what you are speaking to us and you are speaking to this body.

I pray that you would minister to everyone, everyone in general, but to some in particular, as you are giving us and we're hearing your call to come to you. And Lord, let no one escape that call as we've already been challenged.

And the exhortation to our hearts as we begin this afternoon session and as we come down to the midway point of this conference, let no one escape the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Some who are already feeling it and hanging out on the peripheral.

And some who escape, are trying to escape, but maybe walking the halls or leaving this room, but oh God, search them out wherever they are and bring them to you and to your cross. Knowing these words, we pray in Jesus' name.

The Yoke, the Cross, and the Crown

The question that I want to address myself is this. Do we know the relationship between the three symbols that I bring to your attention? To be a joint heir with Christ is first of all, to be yoked together with him.

And to be yoked is to accept one's very own individual and personal cross. Then and if we wear the yoke and accept our cross, we will know what it is then to move in the power and authority of sonship.

But before examining these symbols, let me set the background to who Jesus was addressing himself to. And in Matthew 11, if you take it into consideration with a parallel in Luke the 10th chapter, it appears that Jesus was addressing three classes of people.

First of all, his very own disciples. And then secondly, the 70 who had just begun their own ministry, their own para-church ministry. They had just come back from healing and evangelistic crusades. And they were very high because of what had happened.

And then he is speaking to, of course, the multitudes in general who followed him. And when he said, come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, he was referring to national Israel who had been laden down with a burden of fulfilling the law and the sacrifices, yet without having entered the rest of forgiveness and the assurance of salvation that he was bringing to them.

But a secondary meaning may also be here in that Jesus may have been referring also to the weariness of the 70 who had just returned from service and ministry that they had performed. Now, I doubt that there's anyone here today who is weary over the burden to find salvation by the works of the law.

When it comes to your personal salvation, you realize it's not of works lest any man should boast. But when we're talking about service and ministry and working the works of God, it is still not our works lest any man should boast that pleases him.

And I believe that there is another kind of weariness that's here because I know I've been there and I've come to conferences like this with the kind of weariness that I'm talking about. It's the weariness of service, of carrying out the necessary legitimate works of your ministry.

And some of you are weary from pastoral duties, from teaching and counseling, from discipling people, from evangelism, from administrative responsibilities and those myriads of other things that are necessary.

Resting in Christ Amid Ministry Demands

Therefore, the call in these words, come unto me are your words. It's the call that the Holy Spirit is making to you. You see, there is a call that comes from him and there is a call that comes from our ministry and they're not one and the same necessarily.

There is a call that comes from a pastor to a pastor from his congregation. There is a call that cries out from our converts and from our fellow workers and from the body of Christ at large. The calls and the demands on the ministry, on the minister and Christian worker are often loud and long and persistently agonizing.

And you would not be a good pastor or worker or director or whatever God has called you to if you did not heed those calls. I know that there are in this place, I know some of you that are in this place and I have high respect for you as choice servants of the Lord.

And you're known by another symbol. It's a, Jesus used it, it's a towel. And you are servants who have willingly washed the feet of weary disciples and you've done it so much that you've come at this place and you're weary from that.

But what we've been saying and what the Holy Spirit is particularly saying on this occasion and it began with a message this morning, is that in the process of all of this, your and my spiritual life can become deteriorated and decayed and denied and perhaps even in a disastrous situation that unless you come to God this day, you may leave from this place and you will burn out in your works and you find yourself in a situation where you respond more to the call of and for service than for communion with the Lord.

And if anybody has a right to speak on this subject, I think I do. I've got a track record of service that I'm proud of in one sense and I'm ashamed of in another sense. Like Martha, some of you are thus anxious about many things, encumbered by the necessary while neglecting the better part of ministry and that part Mary chose, sitting at the feet of Jesus in loving fellowship with him.

The Great Commission Begins With Fellowship

Turn with me to Matthew, the 28th chapter. We have in this place ministers, workers who have heeded the call to go into all the world and particularly to the world of the subculture. In Jesus in Matthew 28, 18, 19 and 20 gives one of the most important instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples.

We call it the Great Commission. But I want you to note prior to this instruction, where he took them when he gave them this Great Commission. Look at verse 16, it says, but when the 11 disciples proceeded, but the 11 disciples proceeded, he took them on a journey to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated or where he had first appointed them to the ministry.

To the very spot where he had chosen them as one of the 12. And why would he do this? Was there significance in the location? I believe there was. It was at the Mount of Appointment where he spent all night in prayer prior to appointing them.

It was there that he gave them power against unclean spirits and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases. And it was there according to Matthew 11, one, that was there that he called them to be with him, not only to go out from him, but first of all, to be with him.

And Jesus therefore takes them back, not just to a geographical location, but to a place of great spiritual importance. They still would not be able to minister unless he was with them in the power of the Holy Spirit and unless they continued in fellowship with him.

And apparently they realized this for in verse 17, it says, and when they saw him, when they saw where they were and they were reminded of the first anointing, the first call, the first appointment, is that they worship him and they doubted.

And I'm so glad that they doubted because you see by now all of the human and fleshly ministerial zeal was being drained out of them. And they had doubt their ability to fulfill the commission being given to them.

And listen, when I started in the ministry, I had all kinds of doubts that I'd ever be able to fulfill it. And then when I got into it, I had no doubt that I could do the whole job. The only problem with my vision in New York City always that it was too big and they were drained and they had a sense of their own inadequacies.

And that's what he was trying to bring them back to. When he gave them the greatest announcement and pronouncement and commission that he'd ever given to them, he takes them to a point to realize that.

And so our call to go and to preach and to teach and to baptize and all other aspects of ministry is nothing without a sense of his presence and of our own frailties as we are reminded of our appointment to ministry.

And I believe one of the things Brother Dave said it last night, what the Holy Spirit is doing is bringing you back, bringing you back to a place of simplicity and trust in him that you once had and somehow lost sight of it in the midst of all of the performance of your ministry.

If I want to know the power of Christ to reach the nations, I must know him constantly and personally at a place where I hear the intimacy of his voice and his call to me, come unto me. I remember Brother Bob was saying something this morning, it reminded me of something in my own life where he said he would get involved in visiting the sick and pastoral duties and then he'd come in and could justify spending the time relaxing before television or whatever.

And I remember a time when I was in the same position, but in particular, I waited for weeks to see, this was some years ago, weeks and weeks I waited to see the Super Bowl. And wouldn't you know it, wouldn't you know it as it begins to come on, the Holy Spirit speaks to me and said, would you go aside and just spend some time with me?

And you know something, I went, but that was a long time ago. And I want you also to know that I don't want you to think, and it's been said and I want to add to it that there's not any one of us who get up here to speak that have escaped from having to go through our own personal repentance.

And some of you are here for the first time, it is heavy to you, this is the third time for us. And each time the Holy Spirit ministers and speaks to us, but it was not just now, it was prior to this.

It was because the Holy Spirit began to deal in our hearts. And we had our own personal calls to repentance and it was because of that that out of this grew a desire to have this. And as the Holy Spirit began to make us sensitive to come back to the place where He first appointed us and anointed us to a ministry of relationship with Him.

Working From Rest Rather Than Toward Rest

Come unto me is not a one-time call. It is a daily ongoing place of worship and communion with the Lord. Hebrews 4 .9 says something that's interesting to me. You don't have to turn to it, very quickly I'll read it.

It says, there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Now, most of my ministry, I was under a bondage to the ministry. In that I thought that you worked for the Lord six days and then went to be with Him at the end of my labors for a Sabbath spiritual rest and you know, being revived, refreshed.

But you know something that has happened to me and oh, I thank God for it. Now, the Sabbath to me is on the first day of the week. I don't mean on the calendar. But you see, we are to work from rest, not towards rest.

We work from Him and in Him, not just for Him. True service flows naturally from my life in Christ and thus, it is the work of love. And there should be, there is and should be no effort to it. No perplexity, no anxiety such as Martha experienced.

It is doing what the Lord findeth you to do and doing it readily and without question but it can only be performed in communion. Now, if you want to know your spiritual condition, test yourself by these words.

Come unto me. Think of all the times that you, as I do, think of the times that you have not come to Him. Think of all the works performed for Him on one's weekly schedule that we have not come to Him about.

Things done by sheer experience or based upon one's past knowledge. Those things that are done mechanically or human, even fleshly. How many of you will agree with me that after some years in your ministry, you know it so well, you can do it so well, you can do it so professionally?

You can do it so professionally, ecclesiastically? That you can get by for a while by not even coming to Him or at least you think you can? Or nobody else knows it, nobody else knows it because you're still going on sheer experience.

But it is this neglect in coming to Him that leads to weariness and heaviness and then to sin. If we are not spiritually focused and centered inwardly, it is because we are too concerned. We are concerned too much about our external focus.

Glorying in the Cross Rather Than Ministry Performance

Paul said in Galatians 6, 14, God forbid that I should glory save in one thing. Not in His testimony, He had a dramatic one. Not in His gifts, He had many. Not in His ministry, He had one of the mightiest ones.

He gloried not in His converts and yet He had every reason to boast about them. And some of you, and I speak to my peers now, some of you Teen Challenge workers, you know we used to do this. I don't know if you still do it but every time we would get together, we'd all wanna get up and tell what we're doing, doing, doing for the Lord.

This project, that project. And if you're still into that or you still go around and say you've got the best center better than anybody else, well, I forgive you for saying that. But God doesn't want us to glory in those things.

He said I glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when the center of our focus is external, if it's in our ministry or in our position or in our title and in our works, rather than being internal, it leads to weariness on one hand and pride and self-centeredness on the other.

And Paul says the cross is the great equalizer. Apostle Paul was consistent in this. Others lived and centered their ministry in their ministry. But Paul's good works were the peripheral and simply the natural result of other more important things.

He referred to those works as the outer, outer court. And he lived constantly in the basement while others lived or wanted to live in the heights of Christian gifts and works and service. And yet he did more evangelism and soul winning and teaching and church planning than any other man, but that was not his focus.

He said in Philippians, the third chapter, he said, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone else had a mind to put confidence in the flesh, he said, I for one. And a few verses later he tells, he says, but whatsoever things were gained to me, those things I have counted lost for the sake of Christ.

More than that, more than that, more than what he used to be before he knew the Lord. But he said, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I might gain Christ.

In verse 10, he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death. And so Paul understood the command. He understood the call, come unto me.

Fellowship With Christ Under His Yoke

Now I want you to note that this call requires a yoke, a cross, and then a crown. Christ said, the purpose for which I have called you to come unto me is in order to put your neck in this here gizmo. Take my yoke upon you.

What does he mean? First Corinthians 1 .9 says God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship in a yoke with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now the call of Jesus in Matthew 11 is not a casual, insignificant call.

Let me call your attention to something regarding this. The words have a much larger meaning than what first meets the eye. This is a transitional call. Christ is calling his disciples away from something and unto something.

The Jews had for centuries been under the heavy burden and yoke of the sacrifices which according to Hebrews 9 .9 cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience. And now the lamb has been announced. Now they can begin to come to me, come unto him and enter into a new and living way.

But this is a transition in that individual commitment was introduced in contrast to the corporate call to the nation of Israel that rejected him and a long line of prophets. And when the house of Israel rejected his call as they had done so, Jesus had just ministered in the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum and they rejected, they would not repent.

You see it in the 11th, in Matthew 11 and 20. He began to reproach the cities in which most of his miracles were done because they did not repent. And it's now that Jesus, it says at that time, verse 25, Jesus begins to introduce a new approach and he makes the call to raise up a spiritual Israel out of nations and tongues and tribes.

And by virtue of those who accepted his personal and individual call, Jeremiah had prophesied in chapters, Jeremiah 34, 33, he says, but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after these days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within them and on their hearts I will write it and I will be their people, I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Personal Identity Versus Corporate Religious Camps

And Matthew 11 is the beginning of the fulfillment of having a people that will be my people. And it begins with this personal and individual commitment to the will and purposes of God. Now please follow me.

We all know that there is a corporate expression of our faith and our worship and our ministry. But there must not be the corporate expression without the personal and individual response come to me. Now in the ministry and in respect to this corporate expression, there are many parts, many things today in the body of Christ that you can identify yourself with.

There is, if we want to use the word camps, there is a faith camp, there is a restoration camp or a unity camp, there's a church growth camp and I suppose some people are gonna label this a repentance camp.

But I believe that all of us really and only wanna be in one camp and that's his camp. It says come unto me. However, many today, especially younger ministers feel like they should be identified with some camp.

They may in fact seek acceptance in their ministry in this camp or another camp. And this is basically brought about by the need for corporate fellowship and the desire to be a part of the body or be a part of somebody or some body.

A pastor told me this. He said, I feel pulled by all kinds of different persuasion in camps today. He said, I see the church down the road from me embrace a certain teaching that blesses people or they like it and they flock there and I wonder is there something wrong with me should I join that camp?

He said, I go to a church growth seminar and I wonder do I get on this bandwagon and grow a larger church so I'll be accepted in the circle of the super pastors? And he confessed to me, he said, I tell you every time I go to the pulpit, he said, there's something in me that wants to be positive that tells me I gotta be positive and I select positive music, I preach a positive message and every exhortation I give, I am obsessed with trying to be positive.

He said, I know that's wrong. And there is a danger in today's climate of charismatic hype to want to be a part of this corporate or mass movement of the spirit. And while there may be good in many of these movements, one's desire or need for identification with it can be fleshly.

You see, God calls us first individually and personally and vertically. And if you don't know your personal and individual place in God, you can't know your place in the body and you will end up being somebody's clone.

Paul said in Ephesians 4, 15, that we are to grow up unto him in all things, which is Christ, which is the head, even Christ. And the next verse would follow says that we are to be fitly joined together in the whole body, but we can't function in the body until we are connected to the head.

And a lot of so-called unity that is going on today is a headless unity. There is also a call for relationship theology, and it can end up with a people in fellowship with one another, but disconnected to the headship of Jesus Christ.

Do you know who you are in Christ? I don't just mean in a salvation experience, but I mean in an ongoing relationship experience with him. Have you come to him for personal identification at the cross?

Do you have a constant fellowship and submission to his headship? Don't be a clone or a parrot or minister to the herd. Don't drift into some camp and take up an identity that is not yours by personal possession.

And that's the seduction that is going on, and that's why our hearts go out to younger ministers who are up for grabs today with all that comes down the pike, and our hearts are with you today. And we pray for you, and our burden is for you, that you will not fall into it until you have a relationship with him, hallelujah.

That's the only way you're gonna be protected from it all. Don't even go home and preach repentance until you have come into personal repentance. A .W. Tozer was asked why his preaching was so negative.

He said, I just wanna turn the herd. Don't be one of the herd. Heed the call, come unto me. Too many are chasing mass movements before they've come to understand the meaning of the yoke and accepting a personal cross.

And the reason that they chase mass movements is because so many people are promising crowns without yokes and crosses. And who wouldn't want to, especially a young Christian that doesn't know any better, a young person, who wouldn't want all the covenant promises without the curses and without paying the price for those covenant blessings.

The Remnant Called to Holiness and Repentance

Mass movements often miss God. That's what we've been saying from this pulpit. Israel in Christ's day saw the miracles and heard his teaching and witnessed signs and wonders, but they still didn't come to him.

And what did Christ do when the cities and people rejected him? He did what he always does. He deals, he finds a people somewhere, hallelujah. And all we're saying to you is make up your mind. You want to be that people that have a heart after God.

The situation in the church now is similar. We've had a charismatic movement, a renewal movement, a so-called born again movement. The Gallup poll has indicated a church size today, I'm sure much larger than what is the reality, but large nevertheless.

But how many in such a movement, and this is where I could begin to come to the heart of what I want to say, how many in such a movement are aware of the full meaning and moving of the spirit? And we are today historically in the body of Christ.

We are in a transition from what has come down the pike in the past to where the Holy Spirit is going. And it's a time of sifting and sorting and sanctifying of a true and holy remnant. When Jesus found that as a nation, there was no response to his message of repentance, he turned and did what he always does.

When the masses are not willing to pay the price of accepting the yoke and taking up a cross in order to wear the crown, he turns and he calls forth a remnant. God is and has always been a God of the remnant.

And by remnant, I don't mean ashfore and no more. I'm not talking about religious snobbery. I'm not talking about a holier than thou attitude. I'm simply saying that whenever or wherever a people fail to fulfill the full and total purposes of God, he does find a people somewhere after his own heart.

And when the church as a body fails to move in righteousness and holiness, as well as faith and power, and there's no doubt that the church today is moving or says it's moving in faith and power. But when a church wants to move only in faith and power and not in righteousness and holiness, God finds a people who will move along two tracks of truth rather than just one.

And you pardon me for saying this, but it's right here in my notes, I gotta say it. I see a church and a people wanting to ride a one track monorail to a charismatic Disney world. And God wants his church riding an old fashioned train moving along a dual track of faith and holiness.

Hallelujah. Turn with me to Micah chapter four. I don't know if the other ministers are gonna get into Micah four or not. And they haven't, so I'll get there first. And it will come about in the last days.

Micah four, that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. And brother Bob ministered this morning. You can cross reference this with Ezekiel 43 and 12, where it says the entire area on top of that mountain shall be a holy area.

It will be raised above all of the other camps. You see that? It'll be raised above the hills. And the people will stream to it. And many nations or peoples will come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us about his ways that we may walk in his paths.

For from Zion will go forth the law. Now, you wanna know why this is the remnant? Who else but the remnant will go up when they announce, when the call goes out that this is a meeting we're gonna preach the law.

I mean, go home and announce a repentance conference and see how many turn out. That he may teach us about his ways that we may walk in his paths. For from Zion will go forth the law. Even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations. And if I can paraphrase the rest of it, it says they will beat their swords of the Lord into plowshares in order to break up the fallow ground of their own hearts.

And they will hammer their spears of spiritual warfare into pruning hooks to lay their own flesh at the altar of burnt offering. Now, that's what I read when I read that. And I ask you, have you felt his plow sharing?

That's a part of what is going on here. If you're feeling uneasy or whatever, that's the plow trying to break up some fallow ground. There's a pruning hook that's going out to get a hold of some of your flesh and asking you to come and lay it upon an altar of sacrifice and leave it here and burn it, hallelujah.

And verse four, and each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree with no one to make them afraid. And no one to make them afraid. You won't be afraid of the fear of man anymore when you come to Jesus, you have a word from him.

For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken, though all the peoples, though all the rest of the peoples walk each in the name of his God or his teaching, as for us, we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God forever and ever.

And in that day declare, oh my goodness, this blessed me. Brother Dave first shared a message, I think I'm breaking out, the breaker's out, he used this, I don't know if he'll preach that message. And it blessed me when it came to this part, it said in that day declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame.

You know who the lame are? There are people who have recognized that there's something wrong with their walk and they just want to get it right. They just want to get it straight. And I will assemble the lame and he'll heal your lameness, hallelujah.

And I will gather the outcast because when you begin to preach what God has in your heart like the brother last night, you'll become an outcast perhaps. You'll be looking for a congregation to pastor somewhere, another congregation.

But he said, I will, and verse six, even those whom I have afflicted. I'll never forget last time we were meeting before prayer and somebody in our group said, boy, there's a lot of distress and a lot of turmoil going on in this conference and a lot of people are feeling the heaviness of the message.

Your brother Warnock said, good. He said, good. And I used to get upset because I have to do some things on the outside sometimes and in every conference there's always a minister or two who walks the halls.

They're not in here, they walk the hall. They go make telephone calls or they pretend they do. I don't know, maybe some of them are legitimate, some of them aren't. And it got me upset until the Lord showed me something.

He said, thank God for they're under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I just hope they don't walk out the door. I hope they get back in here. They're being afflicted. And he said, I will gather. I will gather, even those whom I have afflicted, I will make the lame, hallelujah, a remnant and the outcast a strong nation.

And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on and forever. Back to Matthew 11. Jesus turns away from the national movement and he says to his own, come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

And he didn't say this to an inactive people. He said it to evangelists. If you harmonize the gospels, you will see that it was said the 70, I believe, were included in that. And in fact, they were enthused by the fact that even the devils are subject unto us through his name.

And he said, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your name is recorded in heaven. And to these very same workers, he says, come unto me. Get your head in this yoke with me and learn of me.

Because you see, there is always a danger in disciples who are newly endued with power and enjoying the freedom of sins forgiven. And they're going forth to tell the world about this. There's a danger in it.

Is that they go, they go without Isaiah's woe. And there are several times when, in fact, when Peter made his great confession of faith, Jesus said, don't tell anybody. I mean, he just made one of the greatest declarations of faith.

He said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, don't tell anybody yet. Because you're not ready yet. You haven't come to the cross yet. You haven't put your head in my yoke yet.

You haven't picked up your own daily cross. And Jesus understood that in such a people, the first stirrings and movements in the spirit is manifested in enthusiastic service. They wanna save everyone and heal everyone and cast out everything.