The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
The Divine Paradox: How Becoming a Slave to Christ Sets You Free
The concept of being "yoked to Christ" presents one of Christianity's most beautiful paradoxes—surrendering to become truly free. Our passionate theological discussion dives deep into Matthew 11:28-30, where Jesus offers rest to the weary and burdened through an invitation that defies our cultural obsession with independence.
We explore the profound difference between worldly slavery and being a "slave to Christ." As one speaker powerfully articulates, "Putting on his yoke is liberation from your labors." Christ eliminates our spiritual debt, offering a yoke that provides refreshment without end—like the living water He promised the Samaritan woman.
The conversation tackles head-on the biblical teaching about Christian suffering, challenging modern prosperity theology. Scripture clearly teaches believers will face tribulation and persecution in this life, yet the apostles "counted it all joy" to suffer like their Master. Philippians 1:29 even presents suffering for Christ as a gift, not a sign of failure.
We examine God's law as a mirror revealing our sinfulness rather than a mechanism for achieving righteousness. One participant uses a compelling analogy: the law shows our dirty face, but we don't clean ourselves by rubbing against the mirror—we need Christ, our "fuller soap" and "refiner's fire."
The most thought-provoking segment addresses eternal security. Can someone truly yoked to Christ become "unyoked" and ultimately lost? We explore Jesus' terrifying words, "I never knew you," suggesting those who fall away were never truly His. The greatest danger isn't losing salvation but discovering you were never saved to begin with.
Join us for this challenging, refreshing conversation that will transform how you understand Christ's invitation to exchange your heavy burdens for His light yoke. Your soul's true rest depends on it.
Ooh, that's going to get fishy for some Christians.
Speaker 2:I don't really care. That's the truth I love it.
Speaker 3:I'm a slave to Jesus, but we're no longer slaves to the law, but we are slaves to God, the Father. Amen, we all do it all day.
Speaker 2:I'll probably hear some of this mess from other people, but see, I understand what the word of God teaches and I believe it.
Speaker 4:Well, that's what Obadiah means. That's what that means. Slave of Jehovah. That's right.
Speaker 5:Hey, my brother, I'm in agreement with you, but I just want to share this real quick. Well, why are you right there? We are servants, but we also must put into consideration. Put this I guess we can interweave this in there where paul said we're no longer slaves, but now we're sons. So it's all true, everything that we're saying, but we have to just put put it in the equation.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, yeah, but but see, here's the things being a son to god is different than being a son to our earthly fathers. But I understand what you're saying. We are sons, but, and there's a freedom with being sons. There's a freedom with being sons. There's a freedom with being sons, because what's happening here, in this passage here, is that taking on, here's the paradox, because this is a paradox, and the paradox is this you put on his yoke. But putting on his yoke is liberation from your labors. You understand so? So that's the, that's the. It's a paradox, but it's, it's a, it's a harmonious paradox. It is the freedom that the yoke of Christ results in our spiritual freedom?
Speaker 1:Yes, because in the Old Testament wow, the Old Testament when people were slaves, they indebted themselves into slavery. Due to what? Debt, debt. So now we don't have a debt because we have Christ. Therefore, whom the Son has set free, is free indeed my brother, mag 10, 10.
Speaker 2:He says his yoke is our freedom and that's what we have to look at. So so when? So? So, like brother brian, look what you're saying, I get what you're saying, but what I? But here's the thing when we say we are slaves to christ, we're talking about slaves under a different type of master, very different. We're not talking about what's going on in the world and what has gone on in the world, what happened with America. We ain't talking about that. We're talking about a different kind of a master, and Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it, he is our master, not our buddy. You know what I mean. That's right. It's so different. Brother Brian, I think it was you that had a word to say. Go ahead, brother.
Speaker 6:Yes, sir, now you're finding out exactly why so many people have trouble with this. What it is is so many people have trouble with this. What it is is so many people because we hate that word slave and master and all those things. I want to be a free agent and choose God on my own. That is not how this works and they don't want to give that up. They don't want to be a slave to Christ because if they understood what jesus is saying in those verses, like you just pointed out, there's freedom there, but they won't take that step over it because they can't right to be like an old lady with a bird hat on in the back of the church about to run around in here not even lying.
Speaker 2:I'm Paul, see and Isaiah. Before I go on, because I haven't called on Johnny yet. Johnny, you got anything you want to say. Brother, I didn't ignore you.
Speaker 7:I just you know when I'm listening and I'm thinking about when Jesus, right before he returned to the Father, he gave the church the Great Commission, and our commission was to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. And these last seconds of this evil time that we're living in, that is a thing that I don't envy any pastor, I don't envy anybody in any type of radio or television or media ministry, because it is a difficult thing to share the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom of God, to people who are tied to this world system. Right, and people are so tied to this world system today that when we go forth to minister, we have to be yoked to, to, to to Jesus Christ. Because in my ministry to different people, god had to tell me one time Johnny, I sent you there just to say this, and that was just to plant the seed or to water the seed. Yep, but he's the one who makes the seed grow, he produces the increase. That's right. He produces the increase. That's right.
Speaker 7:So people that are now sitting comfortably in the pews of the church and they're not realizing that they're called to plant a seed, to water a seed. There's people in their family, but people I call them they want to be secret agents when they go forth in the world, they don't want people to know. Really, now you know that, okay, but but then they come back to church and they put back on their, their church clothes. But we, when you, when you become, when you be, when you are born again, you are, I wouldn't say I would say this you, you, you are supposed to share your faith and be not ashamed of your faith. Right, and that's why you have to be yoked to God, especially these last and evil days, because Paul said he suffered and people don't want to suffer no more.
Speaker 2:You know what, brother? You're right. Not only do people not want to suffer anymore, they want to tell you that there's something wrong if you are suffering. Right? He specifically taught in this life, you are going to have affliction, you're going to have affliction, you're going to have persecution, you're going to undergo tribulation Now, today, not at some point in the future after some rapture. Yes, today and now, christians are going through tribulation and we are telling people that God has this, this wonderful plan for your life, and he does, but it's after, here, and so there are many things that we go through here in his life and we have joy in it. We are supposed to take joy in the fact that he has deemed us worthy, or made us worthy, to undergo affliction and tribulation.
Speaker 1:Amen. Now I see why the apostles did everything that they did. That's right.
Speaker 2:They counted it all joy when they were able to suffer like their master did.
Speaker 4:Philippians 12.29. It's a gift to suffer. It's a gift not only to believe but to suffer for Christ's sake.
Speaker 2:Yes, amen, brother. And see, this is what is supposed to happen. And see, here's the thing. This is not something that people want to talk about. They want to hear all the bubbly, warm, fuzzy stuff. But this faith that we have, that Christ calls us to be a part of, it's no joke, it's serious business. Man, everybody's always trying to find some kind of way to tell you that the goal is to give you a life of earthly ease, and so we get frustrated and we become laden with anxiety because we somehow feel that we've been misinformed. And the problem is, you have been misinformed, and willfully so, because the truth is clear in the word of God Clear Persecution, trials, mocking, scorning, on and on. Let me back you up, brother.
Speaker 1:Huh, let me back you up. Go ahead, do it All. Right, here it goes. 2 Timothy 2, verse 3. Second Timothy, chapter two, verse three. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. That he may please him. Who enlisted him as a soldier?
Speaker 4:like I say, we're in the highest mafia and the family got rules. We have a don, we have an underboss and we have a concierge. That holy ghost unless you got him.
Speaker 5:You can't take the reproaches of christ, which is our real baptism. Absolutely right, amen. I just want to, just because Absolutely Right. Black Hebrew, israelites.
Speaker 5:So when they get to talk about the law, I don't try to convince them that it's not the law. First I push the law to them. I said, okay, what's the purpose of it? And that's where they struggle with. Okay, you want to, you want to keep the law. Okay, since you want to keep, okay, what's the purpose of it? Because if you want to keep the law, it's obvious you don't know the purpose of it, and so, and then that's why I believe, when we really understand, when we bring to them what the purpose of the law is, it's not that we can be righteous, it's to show us that we are unrighteous, we are unclean, and it's to show sin, exceedingly sinful. And so when we present it like that, we realize what the law is. When we bring that to him, then we allow him to wrestle with it, and I believe that's what the purpose of the law and that's why Paul would present it Okay, y'all want to keep the law, y'all think it's the law?
Speaker 5:Okay, we don't let you see yourself in this mirror called the law, and what the law does. It condemns you before a holy God and leaves you in need of a savior. And so that, right there, when we present the law, y'all want to keep the law. Okay, hear the law, eat it, eat it. I'm going to let you see yourself in this law, even with the mother I'm talking about the good deeds cannot wait to pass. Okay, y'all believe that y'all holy. Okay, god is holy, right. Y'all believe that y'all holy, yeah, okay, god is holy, right. And so you saying that you, as a human being, you can stand before a holy god, righteous and holy, what kind of god do you serve?
Speaker 5:well, that's when we present the purpose of the law, that shut it all down and it believes you ain't got no other christ.
Speaker 2:You accept christ or reject it I always tell people what you, what you started by saying when you talked about the. The law is a mirror that reflects our sinfulness, like you said. But here's the thing the law cannot make you righteous or holy. The law reveals to you the filth of sin that abides within you. But what the law cannot do is clean you up no more than you looking into a mirror and it telling you that your face within you. But what the law cannot do is clean you up no more than you looking into a mirror and it telling you that your face is dirty.
Speaker 2:You don't go rub your face in the mirror hoping it will clean. No, it tells you where to go Get the soap, and Christ is our fuller soap, our refiner's fire. So that is what the law does. It reveals to us our sin. It reveals to us our sin and it should point us to one who is willing to take our labor and our heavy burdens and take it upon himself. If we would take on his yoke, but to take on his yoke and to be relieved of that labor and that heavy laden labor.
Speaker 2:We do that because he is saying I will do it for you. I will do it for you. Now here's something else that we need to understand about the rest part. I will give you rest, because it's not just about taking the labors on himself, but it's also coupled with giving you and providing you, as a believer, refreshment. So when Jesus Christ dealt with the lady at the well, he said to her I will give. He says I will give you this living water from which you shall never thirst again. He's telling her I'm going to give you a refreshment that has no end to it whatsoever. Meg and then Brian. Brian Murphy.
Speaker 1:Meg and then Brian Murphy man you lost it yeah, you said something that really hold on. You want me to?
Speaker 2:come back.
Speaker 6:Yeah, all right, brian, go ahead, brother I just want to say there's a perfect illustration in scripture that describes these verses we're talking about in matthew. Everybody, think of the apostles. When the crucifixion is getting ready to happen, they come to arrest Jesus, they all. Peter said he would never deny him or anything. In his own yoke, in his own labor to try to serve God, he chopped a man's ear off and then he turned around and denied Jesus three times. Because that labor is hard, you can't keep it Right. But look at the result after the resurrection, and the Holy Spirit fills them up. The same persecution from the outside is there, but now they've got the yoke of Jesus and they don't care. No more, lock us up, kill us. I'm embracing his yoke and his righteousness now.
Speaker 6:The example is writing in scripture people.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:In essence, we got taken from the garden. We are in his rest and going back to the garden where that state was originally.
Speaker 2:Well, so elaborate on that. So where are you going?
Speaker 1:at In the garden. They had rest, they had everything that they needed. They lacked nothing you know what I mean and they were truly free. But they fell Right. But now we're going back to that rest that we were supposed to originally have in the very beginning.
Speaker 2:We are in Christ, which means what about what they did? In other words, contrast what our situation is now versus what their situation was then.
Speaker 1:They had free will.
Speaker 2:Go ahead say that again. They had free will, but what happened to it?
Speaker 1:It got taken.
Speaker 2:So how is that different than us now?
Speaker 1:Because we're free.
Speaker 2:we're free in christ right so my point is is this? What? Here's what I'm asking can we experience what adam and eve experienced?
Speaker 1:yes, but I think even better no, no, what I'm is.
Speaker 2:what I'm saying is Adam and Eve fell yeah we're not going to fall.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm getting at.
Speaker 2:Yes, Once you get yoked to Christ, there is no possibility of failure. Amen. If there is failure, the failure is on the part of Christ, not us. Because what did he say? Take my yoke upon you and I will give you rest. Not that I might give you rest, not that I will contemplate giving you rest, not that I will think about it, not that I will help you get there. You know what I mean. He says take my yoke upon you and I will give you rest. And it's not this kind of rest where he's saying I will give you rest, and it's not this kind of rest where he's saying I will give you rest. You know, if you stay in there, if you hang in there, if you just that's not what it is he's offering to hang in there, if you just that's not what it is, he's offering to do something that we cannot do for ourselves, which is to have our condition remedied.
Speaker 4:Could you read Romans 820? Because Adam and Eve did not have free will, he was made subject to his own vanity. That's why he sinned.
Speaker 2:Romans 820. Yes, For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly. But Is that King James Version? You said 8.20. Yeah, King James. Okay, read yours. I have the new King James.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, the old King James says for the creature was Adam Right. For the creature was made subject to his own vanity, not wittily, but by reason of hope. Who subjected him in the same? The one that subjected Adam to his vanity was God, so that he would fall. He was not operating under free will, he was operating under self-will.
Speaker 2:He operated out of self-will when he sinned, but he wasn't but his. But he for a? What for the? For a period of time before he fell, he remained upright. Oh yes.
Speaker 4:Yes, but he was made subject, in other words, his self will came before God's will, that his own vanity Right I?
Speaker 2:agree. So so, so so, and this is. We had this conversation the other day. The issue with Adam is that's different than us Is that Adam was made upright. He was made upright, but In his uprightness he had he was not made and created infallible Right so he could do exactly what he did do Paul.
Speaker 4:The only thing that ever takes place inside of time is God's will. Proverbs 16.1. I get it. And also Proverbs 21.1. The heart what condition was his heart? For him or for God? Just like Satan in heaven, his heart was above. His heart was lifted up above. So now the next test was given to the second adam, which is christ. He put god's will above his own, for that came down from heaven not to do my own will that's right amen amen to that.
Speaker 2:So let me ask Candy.
Speaker 3:Candy, you had something you wanted to say? Go ahead. I was just going to say read Romans 8, 2 through 4. 8, 2? 2 through 4. Yeah, because it kind of went with. A while ago when you was asking, right before you asked Meg about what the difference was in the garden of eden, and I just wanted to say, on top of what she was saying was that they weren't living in the flesh before this, the fall of man. So therefore, what she was saying is what we were trying to get back to so you said, you said romans, chapter 2?.
Speaker 3:No, Romans. Chapter 8, 2 through 4. 8, 2 through 4.
Speaker 1:Read 1 through 4.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, 1 through 4, 1 through 8, if you want to go.
Speaker 2:Go ahead and read it, meg, if you have it up. You have it up, I will in 2.5.
Speaker 1:All right, here we go.
Speaker 2:All right, go ahead.
Speaker 1:All right. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, god did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh amen.
Speaker 2:So so this, so this is good. Um, um, this is good because? So thank you for that, candy. Because here's the thing this verse, these four verses that Meg just read, that Candy had to read. What does this suggest? What does this show us from the text that we're reading today in Matthew 11, 28 through 30? Where is the connection between the text that we've been dealing with tonight? What's this connection to this? Romans 8 passage.
Speaker 3:See, that's where I think it has to do with that yoke, that bondage in Christ.
Speaker 7:Yes.
Speaker 3:So you say thank me, you know, thank the Holy Spirit for sending me that to have read.
Speaker 2:But see that right there, sister. See, this is why I love this, because if you, if you take the yoke of christ on you right, like he says to do, take my yoke upon you, then how is it that a person who has taken the yoke of Christ upon them, how can they possibly fall after having done so? You can't. Does anybody on this panel believe that if you've taken the yoke of Christ upon you, that that yoke can be severed or broken and you go back to the world and die in your sin?
Speaker 5:I got something to share on that. It's two points and I know everybody going to be able to identify with it. All right, first of all, I'm going to get the bad part first. The bad part is we got apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, you know, leaders, they. They are leaving the church and they are embracing the stuff that they teach. And on TikTok, or black Hebrew Israelite, and they are embracing the stuff that they're teaching on TikTok, called Black Hebrew Israelite, all kind of pastors. They tell me well, we believe in the wrong name. Jesus is not Jesus, yahoo. And they flood, they leave in the church. Man, I see it every day. Right now I'm right outside Youngstown, ohio, in my hometown of Sandusky, ohio. It's all kind of preachers, it's like it's like a black hebrew is like just just flooded sandusky and and I don't know. It's crazy, but I'm gonna share the part with me, though.
Speaker 5:With me I was. I was raised up in holiness and so my, my grandmother took me to church. It seemed like she took me to every, every day of the week to church. So when I got older and I got around my brothers, I was like man, my grandma was trying to take me to church. I think I'm going to have fun with my brothers. So anyway, to make a long story short, I try to do everything I can do to go to a fiery burning hell, but you see where I'm at. So if anybody can lose their salvation, I don't know nothing about as far as me. God kept me, he kept his hand on me. I don't even understand it, I do see. The fact, like I was talking about, the other side is so many pastors are vacating the church. When they're not vacating, they're staying in their church and they're bringing black Hebrew Israelites in and saying that anybody that's naming the name Jesus and they ain't calling the name Jesus, yahuda, whatever that name is that they use we serving the wrong.
Speaker 2:So here's the question Do you believe you can lose your salvation if you've been yoked to Christ?
Speaker 5:I don't believe I can lose, because it ain't never happened.
Speaker 2:I'm saying as a biblical teaching. Do you believe that anybody can rationalize that being yoked to Christ can result in no longer being yoked to him at some later point in time?
Speaker 5:I don't know. I mean I know as far as my situation, but I do know so many people Hold on, Hold on.
Speaker 2:Forget about other people. We ain't talking about other people. We're talking about what the word of God actually teaches. I don't care about pastors and black Hebrew life.
Speaker 5:None of that nonsense. Oh, you're talking about once saved, always saved, like that I'm talking about being saved?
Speaker 2:This is a very simple question. If you have been yoked to Christ, like it says here in Matthew 11, if you've been yoked to Christ like it says here in Matthew 11, if you've been yoked to Christ this is very simple Is it possible that you can be unyoked, that harness can be broken, you're no longer attached to him and that you can be ultimately lost? This is very simple.
Speaker 5:Do I believe that we can abandon a faith? Yeah, I believe that. I believe that you can.
Speaker 2:So this is where we have a fundamental problem in the church, in the quote-unquote church, because where does Christ go when you're yoked to him? Where does he go when you're falling into trouble? Where does he go? See, we discussed that earlier I mean, where does he go? He ain't never went nowhere with me, no, but you just said you can give it up.
Speaker 3:So then that would see, that would seem to undermine the whole idea of being young but once we receive the holy spirit, he's the, he's in us, right, right, he doesn't go anywhere. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 5:Right, so how do we? I'm still still. What I'm dealing with is how do you rationalize? All these different pastors are abandoned in the faith.
Speaker 2:These people are not God's people. That's how I deal with it.
Speaker 6:They're not Christians.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they were never Christians, even though they was preaching for years.
Speaker 1:Don't matter, they believe in all these doctors of devil's goodness and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2:Hold on One at a time. One at a time, brother Brian, I understand this. There are a lot of people who preach, and they preach fiery sermons. There have been people who preach the absolute truth, a hundred percent To the. You know, they preach truth and in 40 years down the road they abandoned their ministries and I mean, I'm not talking about just in church, I'm talking about their personal ministry, that they committed themselves to Christ. These are people who fall away and are made to be a spectacle to the true believers for us to be able to recognize that they never belong to Christ, never.
Speaker 5:Well, I can say this, my brother, this is what I can say. The things that God gave me, he gave me, but for me to sit back and say I know everything in the world. I don't know everything.
Speaker 2:No, here's the thing. Here's what I'm trying to say, because it's not about the percentages and all that kind of stuff. What I'm saying is this God says this. The Bible tells us this in Corinthians the gifts and the high calling of God are without repentance.
Speaker 5:Do you know what that means? It's without, without anal conditions.
Speaker 2:But no, it says the gifts and the high calling of God are without repentance.
Speaker 5:What does that mean to you anybody? The gifts going the gifts and the calling of god are still going to be with a, with a person. You know god ain't going to take the day back. That's where we're at.
Speaker 2:That's where we're at. You're going to have two groups of people that stand before god, like nathan, brother. Brother nathan says you're going to be sheep and you're going to be goats. And what did the goats say when Christ, when they were at the judgment seat? They said things like haven't we done this in your name? Have we done that in your name? Have we done this in your name? These were people who preached the gospel, who went to visit the sick, who went to the prisons, who did all these different things, but the difference between them and the sheep was the condition of their hearts. And Jesus tells them to depart from me. And he says because I never knew you. Yeah, I never knew you.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we were digging in that verse, right there too, when you dig in that it begins in that verse he said didn't I do, didn't I do. It wasn't Jesus, he wasn't dependent, like we was talking about the yoke. He wasn't yoke. He said didn't I do, yeah, but here's the thing.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing, brother, christ, when you see these verses, like in Matthew 7, when Jesus says I never knew. You See, because this is the part where this is something that everybody should, every Christian should, be able to go, you know what. God is sovereign because Jesus is there. And keep in mind, jesus is the one who created us all, everything. Hold on one second. He created everything. Hold on one second. He created everything. And then he says to these and so he also tells us that he knows all men and he knows what's in all men. Right, but then what does he say at the judgment, at the throne, at the great throne, at the judgment, he tells these people, the ghosts, he says depart from me, he says because I never knew you. You, he doesn't say because you didn't know me. He says I don't know you.
Speaker 5:That's good.
Speaker 2:That's good right there you understand what I'm saying and see, this is a part where when people die and they stand before that throne, everybody's gonna be a reformed theologian. At that point, everybody's going to believe in the sovereignty of God that day. Because when he says, I never knew you, it's not about what you thought you knew, it's what the fact that what he knows is. He says I don't know you, in other words, my affections have not been set upon you. That is to me the scariest words in the entire Bible. Me too, brother Brian. Let me come back.
Speaker 2:Remember the question. We'll come back to you, brian Murphy. Go ahead.
Speaker 6:I just want to say there's a scripture that I mean directly addresses this topic. It says they went out from us to show who they really were Right. I mean, that's why that scripture is in the Bible. When you see people so-called walk away, they're just showing you who they really were all along. They're just showing you who they really were all along.
Speaker 2:These are. These are the kind of people who who used religion and treated it as a job, a way to profit, a way to gain, a way to harness followers and groupies and all this other kind of stuff. People have all kinds of weird ideas, weird ideas and um.