Alright, brethren, good morning.
We're going to be in Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8, and we'll
be looking at verses 34 through 38. Now, having looked last week
at Jesus of Nazareth, at who He is, who is this Jesus of Nazareth,
and we saw that He is the Christ, the one sent of God to bring
forth, to provide salvation for His people. And so now in this
portion of the text, we consider our coming to Christ. Our Lord
said in the text in verses 36 and 37 there, for what shall
it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? And he put a great deal of emphasis
there on considering our soul and the value of our soul and
when I was studying out this passage for the message I was
looking at Robert Hawker and he summarized it really well
and I'll paraphrase it for you. He said that in consideration
of our soul that It enjoined, it engaged the whole Godhead
to create man's soul. And for the soul's redemption,
it cost the blood of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
shed His blood to redeem, to purchase the soul of His people,
and to regenerate that soul, to give life to that dead soul
that spiritually knows nothing of God. It took God the Holy
Spirit, to make that soul alive. And the Lord engages angels and
men to minister to your souls, to minister, to lay down their
lives and sacrifice all the brethren together, ministering and laying
down their life for the souls of their brethren and their sisters
in Christ. And angels rejoice in heaven
when a soul is saved The devil's hell rages and fears and trembles
when a soul is saved. And you think about just how
valuable the soul of men and women are, that it can receive
the grace of God and live for all eternity. So when a soul
is lost, when they continue to hate and reject the Lord God,
that's a terrible a terrible thing, an awful thing to consider,
that value there. And some might say, well, come
on, when you look at someone who has so much in this world
and all the riches of this world and all these opportunities and
power and influence in this world, how are they ever going to look
to the Lord and forsake those things. And the scriptures give
us Moses as an example, where we read in Hebrews 11, 24, that
by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ,
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward." So there are many who have forsaken
the treasures and the passing pleasures and the vanity of this
world for Christ, because they see Christ. And you think, in
that day of judgment, what wouldn't a person give in exchange for
their soul when they see Christ? when they see the glory and the
beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, what wouldn't they give in exchange?
They might be a Rockefeller or a Rothschild here and have abundance
of riches, but what wouldn't they give up? They would give
that all up when they see that He is the Christ and the beauty
of His holiness. So, this morning we'll see in
this passage our coming to Christ, our carrying the cross, our consecration
to Christ and our confession of Christ. And the title is Deny
Self and Follow Christ. So let's look at this coming
to Christ. We saw that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ
of God. He is the Christ of God, and
so we are now to come and follow him. We read there in verse 34,
and when Christ had called the people unto him and his disciples
also, he said unto them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. So faith is coming
to Christ, and coming is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. This
belief that we have in Him, this faith that we are given in Christ,
it leads us to follow Him, to look to Him, and to follow Him.
It says Christ called the people unto Him. And Paul, when he was
writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, 5, and 6, we read, the reason
why we come to this one, to Christ, is because there is one God and
one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who
gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. So when Christ calls his people
through the gospel, through the true and living gospel, It's going to testify. They will
be testified to who are those for whom Christ gave his life
a ransom for. It's going to testify because
they're going to hear that gospel, but they're going to come. They're
going to believe. They're going to confess the
Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to know that they
are the Lord's because there will be a new birth. There's
going to be life there. Our Lord said in John 3, 8, the
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit." And what he's
saying there is, you don't see the wind, but you go outside,
you feel the breeze against your face, you see and you hear. the
movement in the leaves of the trees, you see the effects of
it. So when the Lord saves a person,
you're going to know because there's going to be a new birth
and you're going to see the effects of that new birth in his people. And Christ said, whosoever will
come after me. And faith in Christ is an act
of the will. The child of God, they will believe
Christ. They will have faith in Him,
believing Him, and trusting Him for all their salvation. That
in no way alters the eternal truth that no man can come to
me, Christ said, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.
And the Father will draw them, and he's going to give them faith.
He's the one that moves and acts upon their will so that they
will believe Christ. They will call upon him and confess
him and cry out for his mercy and grace to be shown to them. All who are born again, and we
must be born again, Christ said, except the man be born again,
he cannot see the King of God. So he's going to create life.
He's going to give us life, and we will see the King of God.
and therefore we will come to Christ. And we'll do so willingly.
The scriptures teach that. He makes us willing. It says
in Psalm 110, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. And Psalm 65 4 says, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto
thee, that he may dwell in thy courts, we shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." So
it is a spiritual work that God performs in his children. It's not a work of this Adam
flesh. It's not a work of this fallen,
dead wicked flesh. This flesh doesn't bring forth
anything good, but the Lord gives a new heart. He gives life, and
that life will be evidenced in our coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ. God says that faith is a work
in the heart, and that heart He makes new. In Ezekiel 36,
26, we read, A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit
will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh that is
a soft heart that hears the Lord God and that obeys Him, that
believes the testimony that God has given of His Son, Jesus Christ. We will believe Him and that
hard, stony, natural heart He removes because the natural heart,
the natural man, does not receive the things of God. The natural
man is enmity against God and refuses and will not believe
and will not bow. This new heart must be given
because the Lord is going to have his people. He's going to
bring them to himself. Now, within this new heart, we
read in Romans 10. In Romans 10, verses 8 through
10, Paul there is speaking of the righteousness, which is of
faith. The righteousness, which is of
faith. And he says, it speaketh on this wise. Verse 8, Romans
10, 8. The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. We declare and preach that a
man is saved by faith. And we know that that faith is
given unto us according as the Lord God has given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness. That, verse 9,
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. When he says that we'll believe
that God has raised Christ from the dead, what we're confessing
there is that he's the one who sent this Christ into the world,
he himself is the very righteousness which God requires, he's the
one who wrought all righteousness for his people, and that he was
sent as a sin-atoning sacrifice to shed his blood, that through
his death we are made alive unto God, so that We are the very
righteousness which God requires because Christ has made us that.
And because Christ has made us righteous, the Father imputes
to us righteousness because he declares that is what we are.
What Christ has made us is what we are. We are now righteous
because of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're trusting Christ's merit. and we have no confidence in
this flesh. And so that's our confession.
We believe Christ. We believe him and trust him
and look to him. So we see also that this coming
to Christ is a continual coming to Christ. We're not saved because
we walked an aisle. We're not saved because we prayed
a prayer of the Romans Road with someone at the front of the church
or in the back room. We're not saved because we filled
out a decision card or we raised our hands up when the preacher
asked, you know, who out there believes on the Lord Jesus Christ? That's not how we're saved. We're
saved through faith, looking to Christ, because that's what
God works in us. And He brings forth that hope
that we see we are sinners and that there's nothing we can do
or nothing we have done to merit or earn this salvation. But He
works that in us, showing us that we're undone, we're bankrupt,
we have nothing by which we can come before God, hoping to be
received of Him, except that he gives us that hope and that
faith in Christ. Christ is the very means of our
salvation. He is the propitiation that God
has provided for this purpose, to deliver us out of the bondage
of darkness and the prison of our sin and the dominion of it.
He delivers us from that all by the blessings and the glorious
love and mercy and divine power that is shown to us through the
Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a continual coming to
Him. We never grow out of Christ. We never grow beyond Christ. It's always in Christ that the
Lord God shows blessings and mercy. It continues to be in
and through Christ. We never become so super and
so good that we don't need Christ. We always need Christ. Peter
said in 1 Peter 2.4, to whom coming. to whom coming as unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious." So we also see that belief in Christ is a commandment
to his people. It's a commandment to his people,
to those whom he's given life, he commands them to believe on
him because he gives it to them to believe. It says in 1 John
3, 23 and 24, 1 John 3 23 and 24 says and this
is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son
Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment and
he that keepeth his commandments is dwelleth in him, and he in
him, and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit
which he hath given us." So we know that we have the Spirit
of God because we continue in Christ. We are kept in him and
we abide in him. and he abides in us. So it's his life and he keeps
us looking to him. He keeps us coming to him and
trusting him alone. We don't depart from that. We
know that there are many who have departed and have gone away. They've forsaken Christ and forsaken
the brethren. They may say that they still
trust in Christ, but they cease looking to Christ alone and they
begin to look to their works and trust in the works of the
law. or they go off into the world,
back to the riches of the world that are all fading away. So
that's not how we're saved. We are kept looking to Christ
and resting in his righteousness alone. Now there are many, there's
many a fallen man, they imagine that there's something that they
must do and so they look to their work, so they look to some special
experience that they must have before resting in Christ, before
believing in Him. But the Lord God, He reveals
that Christ is a willing Savior. He's willing to receive all that
come to Him. Those that know that they're
sinners, He says, come unto Me. And He says that in Matthew 11,
28. 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." So don't be turned away from Christ. Don't be seduced away from Christ
looking to some things that you must do to position yourself
so that you can receive the mercy of Christ. But you who hear His
voice, who know that you're sinners, that's all. That He convinces
us that we are sinners and that He alone is sufficient to save
us to the uttermost, all that come unto Him seeking mercy from
God because of the righteousness of Christ, because of His blood,
because of His sacrifice to put away the sins of the people.
And in Revelation 22, 17, Because Christ has done this, we have
that ministry to proclaim the reconciliation between God and
men in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see in Revelation 22, 17,
And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth
say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. We're thankful for that glorious
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ that the Lord God has provided
through his son. And we look to him, we come to
him, and we don't have to put a hedge about Christ that is
to say, well, wait now, let's see if you've done enough now
so that we know that you're really ready to be called a Christian.
We don't seek to put a hedge about the Lord Jesus Christ.
We preach the truth in honesty, declaring that men and women
are sinners, that they cannot save themselves, but that God
has provided his Son, Jesus Christ, for this purpose. The Lord will
take care of those that are not His. They will fall away. They
will hear the truth, and the fact that they hate it and that
they don't believe it, they'll go away on their own, but the
Lord is going to reveal the truth of what He's done in the heart
of His people, in the heart of His children, because they shall
abide in the Lord Jesus Christ and confess and give all the
glory and the praise to Him for their faith and for their believing,
knowing that it's His work. He's done the work. So, you who
need Him, you who are sinners and know that your works are
not sufficient to save you before God, look to the one whom God
has provided, His Son, Jesus Christ, because Christ has been
given for this very purpose. All right, now, let's look at
this carrying the cross. After the child of God comes
to Christ, the next thing they do, they will do, this will be
a necessary thing, as sure as your children that are born grow
up, in the same way those who come to Christ, who are brought
by his power, they shall deny themselves, they shall take up
their cross and carry their cross and follow him. He says in Mark
8.34, Mark 8.34, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow
me. So it's not optional. Like our
faith, this too is also given to us and it's a deliberate choice. It's a deliberate choice that
we make to follow the Lord Jesus Christ because he works that
in us. He works it in us. So the Lord's
people will take up their cross. You think about it, that in a
world that shows their hatred for God and shows their hatred
for the Lord Jesus Christ and shows their hatred for the Lord's
people and looks at you who stand with Christ and confess Christ,
you know that when you stand with Christ and you confess him
before men, you're inviting trouble upon yourself. You're going to
invite the looks of people that wonder, what is this? Why is
this person trusting and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ? But our Savior said in Matthew
7, 13, and 14, enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide is
the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat. because straight is
the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and
few there be that find it." So if Christ has shown you, if he's
worked this knowledge in you, if he's shown you that you're
a sinner, and you know that you're a sinner, and that you need the
grace and the mercy of God, which he's provided in his son, then
you shall enter. you shall enter into that straight
gate. You're going to look to Christ. You're going to come to Christ
and confess Him, because that's what He works in His people.
Now it says in Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, for by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of
God. God must give that to us. and
we will exercise that faith because he has given it to us. It is
not of works lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which includes that
faith which God hath before ordained that we should walk in then. So, if that work is the work
of God to enter that straight gate, we will, because it's ordained
of God, we will enter that straight gate. And it'll be at a cost. It will be at a cost. You think
about, you remember when David, when the Lord moved David? to number the people, and the
Lord was moved against the people, and he began to strike them down.
And David sought to seek reconciliation of the Lord through sacrificing,
looking to Christ, but he was sacrificing. And it says in 2
Samuel 24-24, he went up to Arunah, and the threshing floor that
he had there, and he wanted to purchase the threshing floor
that he might sacrifice to the Lord and stop the slaying of
the people. And Aruna, it says, as a king,
offered up to the king, to David, saying, you can take the threshing
floor You can have the oxen, here's all the instruments, here's
the wood to burn it." And David said, nope, I am not going to
do that. He said to Arunanei, but I will
surely buy it of thee at a price, neither will I offer burnt offerings
unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing
floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. And what the Lord's
showing us there is that our coming after Christ, our faith
and trust in Him, it's going to cost us. It will cost us. We're not purchasing or earning
our salvation. That's not what's being taught
to us there. But rather, those who look to Christ and stand
with Him and confess Him before men, it's going to cost. He's going to bring us to sacrifice. You think about the Lord's doctrine. You think about the Lord's will,
doing the Lord's will, you think about His honor, and it's contrary
to our teaching. That which we're comfortable
with in the flesh, that which joins us to the people of this
world, you know His doctrine is contrary to the teachings
of this world. You know that His will is contrary
to your own will. You know that to honor Him, is
going to dishonor yourself in the flesh before men, before
the opinions and the thoughts of people, it's going to be a
cross to bear, it's going to cost you. And he teaches us in
the scriptures that to save your life, you'll lose it. But to
lose your life for Christ's sake, you'll find life. You will have
life in Him. And so we're going to learn self-denial
in the service of the Lord. And that brings us to our next
point, consecrated to Christ. consecrated to Christ, it says
back in our text in Mark 8, 35 through 37. Mark 8, 35. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what
shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? So if I would save my life, then
I must lose it. That's what Christ has shown
us. We're going to lose our life. We're going to lose our stature
and rank and all the influence that we have with people in this
world as we side with them in the fact that the Lord's going
to bring us to side against ourselves with the Lord God Almighty. So he's teaching us to surrender
all that we are, all that we have, all to his rule and to
his reign. It says in Luke 14, 25, there
were great multitudes that went after Christ. And he turned and
he said unto them, if any man come to me and hate not his father
and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea,
and his life also, he cannot be my disciple. and whosoever
doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Many of us here have been called
to, in separation, to separate from family and to be at odds
with them for the truth of the gospel because many who confess
Christ, they look to their works and they trust in their works.
They trust in what they're doing in the law for Moses to supplement
and to add to their righteousness because Christ isn't enough for
them. And so there's a division there
between that. So rather than having peace and unity and saying,
oh, it's all right if you believe and trust in your own works,
and I trust in Christ alone, it's okay, we're just going to
sit here and fellowship together in that lie. No, the Lord's brought
you to separate from that. And so he's worked that, and
many of you here even, in separating. And there is a cost to serve
the Lord, because you're making sacrifices. You're giving your
time and the money that you earn, and you're separated from family
members and things like that, all for the sake of the gospel,
because the Lord will work that in his people. Because he makes
us to know, what does it profit me? If I gain the whole world
and lose my soul, what am I profiting? And what wouldn't I give in exchange
for my soul in that day when I stand before the Lord God if
I don't know him? You think of Esau, right? And
Esau, for that pottage, that bowl of red stew, he sold his
birthright. And afterwards, he would gladly
have exchanged that. He would have undone that trade
if he could have. And though he sought it with
tears, he was not able to receive his birthright. So the Lord will
teach us not to forsake Him, not to be turned back to this
world, all for the sake of a little bit of reprieve and the shame
that this world casts upon us for standing with Christ. So, the Lord's people, they'll
be consecrated to Christ. All right, now, our final point,
confessing Christ. The last verse in our text reads,
Mark 8, 38, Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of
my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also
shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of
his Father with his holy angels. There are many, as we know, in
this world, there's many that claim to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, but in their actions, they show that they're ashamed,
and that's where it's seen. It's in their actions, they show
that they are ashamed of Christ, because many people are unwilling
to confess him before people. Many people are unwilling to
identify themselves with the people of God, because they feel
shame. Even so, some show shame for
Christ in the fact that they don't rest in Christ alone. They
do look to their works. They look to something more because
in their mind Christ is not sufficient to save them. So they trust in
their own works. But think about it. Is Christ's
robe of righteousness too short to not cover your nakedness before
God? He's sufficient. It's sufficient,
His righteousness. And we don't look to supplementing
the work that Christ has done with our works. We will bring
forth fruit. We will do those works which
God has ordained in us to do. And He's going to bring us to
confess Christ and to stand with Him. But we don't trust those
works for our salvation and for our righteousness before God.
And some They show their shame of Christ because they don't
partake even in the ordinances which Christ has ordained for
the church to walk in. Some won't come and sit under
the preaching of the gospel. They don't want to hear the preaching
of the gospel. They make up excuses and find reasons not to come
and hear the gospel. And some might be willing to
take the Lord's Supper in these four walls, but they don't want
to publicly confess Christ in baptism. They don't want to do
that and stand with Christ and be identified with the Lord's
people through baptism as the Lord said that we are to be baptized
in His name. Now, turn over to John 12. John
12 in verse 42. John 12. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers also many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise
of God. Jesus cried and said, he that
believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. I am come a light
into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide
in darkness. And so Christ calls his disciples
out of darkness. They're not going to remain hidden.
They're going to come into the light of Christ and they're going
to be known because they're going to confess Christ and stand with
Christ, even if that means entering into the persecution or the hatred,
or the opposition, or the ostracizing of people, even if it leads to
them being separated from this world, they're not going to remain
in darkness. They're going to follow Christ.
They will pick up their cross, as Christ said, because it's
His power working in them. They will deny themselves and
carry that cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So, He calls
and we will come. We will come and confess his
name so I pray the Lord will work that in the hearts of his
people and he does work that in the hearts of his people.
Don't look to this flesh to do it because this flesh says I
don't want to go through that kind of tribulation and sorrow
but in that day the Lord will bring forth His work, and we'll
stand with the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will abide in Him. Alright, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, Father, we thank You that this is Your work, and Lord,
we know the weakness of the flesh, we know the inability of our
flesh to believe You and to stand with You, but Lord, We see in
your word that you take up residence in your people, that you abide
with them. And Lord, that you cause us to
abide in you and to stand with you and with your people. Lord,
we pray that you would work this fruit in us, even if it means
opposition and persecution from this world. Teach us, Lord, what
this word means. Help us to be faithful unto you. We pray in Jesus' name, our Lord
and Savior. Amen.