Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. And we're going to be looking
at verse 13 down to verse 28. And I've divided this up for
you into four parts. Four parts in Matthew chapter
16. And the title of my message tonight
is The Cost of True Faith. I have several points about true
faith tonight that I want us to see in these verses. As we
look, I'm going to give you this outline so you can kind of follow
along with me. First of all, I want you to see
the object of true faith. The object of true faith is revealed
in verses 13 through 16. And secondly, the cause of true
faith is revealed in verse 17. The foundation of true faith
is revealed in verses 18 to 23. And then lastly, the cost of
true faith. And I want to divide that into
two sections. The cost of Christ and then the cost of the believer. And so let's look at each one
of these sections. First of all, the object of faith.
The object of faith. Look at verse 13. When Jesus
came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, and other Jeremiah, or one of
the prophets. Now, in these verses here, The
Lord is asking His men what they thought, what they had heard.
He said, whom do men say that I am? Some say you're Elijah,
some say you're Jeremiah. Now, I want you to see this first
of all, that these are not His enemies. These are well-meaning
people. They're using men like John the
Baptist. They're using men like Elijah
and Jeremiah. You know, his enemies called
him Satan. His enemies called him a blasphemer. But these men,
because of his doctrine and because of his power, they were trying
their best to exalt him, what they thought was exalting to
him or complimentary to him. They thought as high as they
could think of a man. They thought he was a prophet
risen from the dead. Now, if we were to ask men today
what they think of Jesus, we would get various opinions, wouldn't
we? We'd get various opinions as to who He is. Some say, well,
He's sin of God. Some will say He's a good man
and He came to be an example for others. He came to teach
us how to be moral and how to be good to one another. Some
men claim that. That's what they think of Him.
Others who are a little more familiar with Scripture, they
say, well, He came to die for all the sins of all men. He came
to die to save every man. And now that He's done that,
God's left it up to men, to man's choice or man's will. And they
say, well, if you just accept Jesus, then Jesus is obligated
to save you. He is obligated to save you.
Now, in their minds, like these other men, they think that's
complimentary. They think that they do God a
service by saying these things about Christ, just like these
guys who thought He was a prophet risen from the dead. That was
a compliment. They thought it as a compliment.
But in reality, it's an offense. It's an offense to the Lord and
contrary to the Word of God. And so Jesus then asks, what
do you say? Whom do you say that I am? And Peter answers up real quickly.
Look at this in verse 16. He said, Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter here
gives his confession of the object of his faith. which is the true
object of every true believer. We see Christ as the Son of the
Living God. He is the Son of the Living God. What does that mean, that title,
the Son of the Living God? I want you to know this, it means
that He is God. That's what it means. He is God.
Peter was confessing himself Christ to be equal with the Father,
that he is deity. In John chapter 5, the Jews knew
this when Jesus was preaching. He healed on the Sabbath day
and they wanted to kill him because he made himself equal with God.
In John chapter 8, this is what Christ said. He said, I said
therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins, for if
you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. Now what
did He mean by that, if you believe not that I am? He clarifies that
in John 8, 58, when He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
before Abraham was, I am. And the Jews picked up stones
to kill him because he was saying, I am God. That's the same name
that he gave Moses at the burning bush. I am. So then in order
to believe on Christ, you must know this. He is God. That's Peter's confession. That's
the confession of every true believer. We recognize that Jesus
Christ is deity. The Son of the Living God, the
Eternal Son of God. That He was before all things,
and all things were made by Him and for Him. And it was this
One who was manifest in the flesh. The One Peter was speaking to.
You know what? When Peter looked at Him, he
saw a man. He saw a man. But he said, more than a man.
God. God and man. As a matter of fact, Jesus said,
whom do you say that I, the Son of Man, am? You see, He took
that title unto Himself. But Peter knew something more
than just the Son of Man. He was the Son of the living
God. And He was the Son of Man. God manifest in the flesh. I
like the way Paul says it without controversy. In other words,
there's no debating this. This is not a debatable point.
God was manifest in the flesh. So if you believe in Christ,
I know this, you identify with this. This is the object of your
faith. He is God and He is man. And
secondly, we confess this, He is the Christ. He is the Christ,
the Messiah. In order for Him to be the Christ,
do you realize what He must do? He must fulfill all Scripture. all of the types, all of the
shadows, all of the prophecies. Christ must fulfill them all. If He neglects to fill one, He
is not the Christ. Peter said, Thou art the Christ.
You fulfill all the Scriptures. You fulfill them all. All the
prophecies and types and pictures and shadows are fulfilled in
one person. He must be the seed of the woman. He must be bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh. He must fulfill all righteousness.
He must fulfill the law. He must satisfy the justice of
God by His death. All of these things the Scripture
said Christ would do. And so this evening I'm setting
Christ before you. I want you to see the object
of your faith, friends. Before we even get to worrying
about what the cost of faith is, we must see the object. You must behold the beauty and
the glory of Christ. He came to fulfill the law of
God and satisfy the justice of God. And when He had done all, when He had done it all, He fulfilled
the Scripture. Remember those disciples on the
road to Emmaus. They were sad. And Jesus walked
alongside of them. He said, what's wrong with you?
Why are you so sad? He said, don't you know? We thought
he was the Christ and he's dead. And Jesus said, oh, you fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had said. And he said, ought not Christ
to have suffered and entered into his glory and beginning
at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them and all
the scriptures, the things concerning himself. He says, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of Me to do Thy will, O God. The whole thing is all
about Him. It's all about Christ. The whole
book. And what did He do? What did
He say when He had accomplished the will of God? He said on the
cross, It is finished. You know what that means? That
means it's finished. It's done. All of those Old Testament
prophecies are fulfilled. It's done. What they were in
type, He did in reality. He fulfilled all of them. He
saved His people. That's the object of my faith
this evening. I confess with Peter. He is the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And you know what Jesus
said to Peter? He said, Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed
this to me, thee, but my Father, which is in heaven." That's the
second point, the cause of true faith. Now, you got the object?
It's Christ. He's the object. He's God and
He's man. He came to fulfill the law and
the prophets. And He did that. Now, what's
the cause? How did you come to know this,
Simon? Well, Jesus tells us why. My
Father. revealed it to you. And I want
you to see this. He was blessed. He was blessed. Blessed are you, Simon, son of
Jonah. And this is what he says to you. If you are a believer
in Christ tonight, Jesus says this of you. You are blessed. You are blessed to believe on
Christ. All who know Him, all who know
His great work, His perfect work, you're blessed. You know him? Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. You know whom you have believed?
And I'm persuaded of that one. that He is able to keep that
which I've committed unto Him against that day." What have
you committed unto Him? You've committed everything unto Him. All of our
soul, all of our righteousness, all of our justification, all
of our sanctification, all of our wisdom, all is committed
to Him. My faith is committed to Him.
And you know who keeps me in the faith? He does. Who keeps
me righteous? He does. Who cleanses me? He
does. Paul said, I know that one. You
know Him? Well, you're blessed. You're
blessed, not because of your merit. You didn't earn that.
How do you know Him? How do you know Him? You know it wasn't by your great
learning or wisdom? And you know it wasn't because
of the persuading power of your pastor? One person, they'd always like
to say this to me, and I don't think it was a compliment. When
they were angry with me, they'd say, well, that's what you taught
us. Well, listen, if I taught you anything, you're in trouble. The Scripture says this, they
shall all be taught of God. If you're not taught of God,
you're in trouble. Because if I could teach you
something, somebody else come along and teach you something
else. You see, God's people are blessed because this is the revelation. This is how faith comes. It is
by the power and grace of God. Power and grace of God. Your
faith is not a result of your abilities, or the gifts, or great
minds. Faith is not a result of man's
free will, nor is it caused by our obedience. Faith in Christ,
the Son of God, is caused only by the power and grace of God.
Let me show you that. Go to Ephesians. Look over to
Ephesians real quickly. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians
chapter 1 and look at verse 18. Look what the apostle says here.
He says, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. You see? That's
how you know Christ. You've seen Him. By faith you
see Him. Now here's the result of this
enlightenment. that you may know what is the
hope of His calling. What's the hope of His calling?
Salvation. That you may know what the riches of His glory.
What's the riches of His glory? It's His grace. That you may know the inheritance
of the saints, which is what? Righteousness, eternal life,
redemption. That's the inheritance of the
saints. Now, how were you enlightened?
Verse 19. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power? to usward who believe, according
to the working of His mighty power." Now, how did you know
this? According to the working of His mighty power. That's how
you know Him. That's how you believe on Him.
It's the power of God. Jesus said this in John 6. This
is the work of Him that sent me. That you believe. That you believe on Me. Jesus
said this, no man can come unto me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. You see that? Who does the drawing? You can't come unless what? He draws you by his exceeding
great power. Don't you see faith is not just
a simple decision, it is a work of God. that you know Him, that
you believe on Him. That's why you're blessed, because
you've been called with an effectual calling, a powerful calling.
Rejoice if you know Him, if you know His great work and His offering
for sin, because this is the work of God to give you faith. So we see the object of faith,
Christ is God and man came to Save His people from their sins.
That's what the Christ did. He came to save Israel. And what
is the cause of faith? It is the revelation of God.
Blessed are those who have this revelation. Now then, see the
next thing. The foundation of our faith in
verse 18. He says, I say unto thee, Thou
art Peter. And upon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Here is the foundation of our
faith. Here is the root and the foundation
on which all our faith is built. By this statement, he said, I
say unto thee, thou art Peter. You realize what he's doing is
he's abasing Peter now. You see, Peter has had some knowledge,
some blessing of God. Have you ever noticed that? When
you feel the most blessed, immediately soon or soon after, you're going
to be abased. Whenever God lifts you up, know
this, it won't be long until He abases you. Why? Pride comes
in. So He is abasing Peter by this
declaration. Thou art called Peter. You know why it's abasing? It
means little stone. You're not a big stone. You're
just a little pebble. You're a little stone. Calls him little stone. Peter
later on realizes this. He says this in his own epistle.
He says the church, the church is made up of what? Living stones. We're all Peters. We're all little
stones. And so, blessed was Peter, but
yet Peter had a great blessing, along with all the other apostles.
He said this, Whatsoever, and I will give to thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What does this mean? He was going
to use them to be his witnesses. He was going to be given the
great gift of writing The Word of God. And whatever they bound
on earth in this book is bound in heaven. Whatsoever they loosed
in this book on earth is loosed in heaven. He's saying, you're
going to be my witnesses, you're going to write the Word of God. And listen, this Word of God
is the foundation of all our faith and practice. What they
wrote, what the prophets wrote, and what the apostles wrote,
are the foundation of our faith. But what is the authority of
what they wrote? Well, simply this, it's Jesus
Christ. He is the chief cornerstone. As a matter of fact, Paul says
this in Ephesians 2 and verse 20. He says that we are built
on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Listen, Jesus Christ
being the chief cornerstone. See, Christ is the chief cornerstone.
In other words, He alone supports and gives weight and confirms
the Word of God. He alone gives their Word authority. You see, their Word would have
no authority Christ is the foundation of their word. I don't know if
you know anything about building with a cornerstone, but you realize
that the whole weight of the building rests on that stone.
The whole weight of the revelation of this book rests on Jesus Christ.
He is the cornerstone of this book. That's why I just told
you all of this book speaks of Him, because it is His book. It's a book about Him. And so
he says of this little rock, Peter, you are going to be built
upon this rock. He said, I'm going to give you
that blessed privilege of writing my word, but guess what? I'm
the cornerstone of this church. I'm the foundation of this church.
And all the church is going to be built on me. Jesus Christ is the foundation
of our faith, friends. How do you know How do you know
that this is the Word of God? Simply put, because Christ gave
His authority. Christ is the foundation of this
book, and I rest my faith on Him. He is the foundation of
the whole church. So we can sing this, how firm
a foundation, you saints of the Lord. is laid for your faith
in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to
you that He said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? You see the foundation of your
faith? It is the Word of God. And what does that mean by that?
It's Christ. Christ is the foundation of our faith. And now in verse
21, the Lord begins to teach what the foundation, what this
Word of God speaks of. He begins to teach him something.
Look at verse 21. It says, And from that time forth
Jesus began to show unto his disciples how that he must go
to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief
priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third
day. He began to teach his disciples
what must shortly take place. Like most of the Jews in that
day, the disciples did not quite understand that the kingdom of
God was not going to be established here on earth. They thought that
Jesus was going to set up an earthly kingdom and they were
going to be part of that kingdom. So when he starts talking about
dying, when he starts talking about being raised from the dead,
that didn't compute, they didn't understand that. They failed to understand what
the Scriptures would teach. That's why I told them in Luke
24, you fools and slow of heart, don't you realize that's what
the Scriptures were going to say? That Christ should suffer? They failed to see the truth
that Christ must suffer and die and be raised in order to establish
this kingdom. He could have no kingdom, He
could have no people except He first come and establish their
salvation by His death and resurrection. And this is the center of the
gospel. This is the center of the gospel. So that Christ should come and
die. So Jesus taught He must go to
Jerusalem, He must suffer and be killed. and rise again the
third day. For God to save His elect people
that He chose, Christ must fulfill this. Therefore, all our hope,
all our blessing and salvation, listen, they're dependent upon
Him doing this. Listen, your salvation tonight
was totally dependent on Christ coming and doing this, dying
totally dependent on His coming into the world and dying for
us. Just as His virgin birth was necessary, just as His being
born of the tribe of Judah and the offspring of David, just
as He must be baptized by John the Baptist, He must fulfill
all righteousness, He must also die and suffer. Excuse me. Sorry about that. He must suffer and die. This
is the cornerstone of our faith, friends. This is the foundation
of our faith, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. He must be surety for us. That
was the purpose of Him coming. That was the purpose of God's
election, that He be surety. And He came at the appointed
time, and He said this, I must die. He said, what shall I say
then? Father, save me from this hour.
He said, for this hour I came. This is my purpose, that I should
come. And would come to die in the
stead of guilty sinners to shed his blood and satisfy the justice
of God. And that's exactly what he did.
Behold him on Calvary's tree, bleeding and dying. under the
justice and wrath of God for our sin. As a substitute, taking
our place, He bore our sin in His own body on the tree. How
am I to escape the wrath of God? Only one way, in the ark, in
Christ, my refuge, my fortress, my tower, my strong bulwark. He endured the wrath of God for
me so that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And what does the Scripture say?
This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, what did
he do? Sat down. The foundation of my faith is
this. He sat down. What does that mean? No more work. There's no more
work to do. The work's done. Religion says
do, do, do. What does our religion say? Done. Finished. Why? He sat down. The work's done. See, the object
of my faith did the work. Father, I have finished the work
you gave me to do. He finished it. So then he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. This is the foundation
of our faith, isn't it? Christ, the object of our faith,
Through the revelation of God, we believe on Him that what?
He has finished the work. He has satisfied the justice
of God by His death at Calvary. I like to think of this, the
blood of Christ extinguished the fires of hell against us.
He put it out. There's no more wrath. No more
wrath against you. He satisfied it. It's done. I
like this. God cannot demand twice payment
for sin. You like that? First at my bleeding,
sure at His hand, and then again at mine. It's done. How do I
know it's done? Simply this. God raised Him from
the dead. You know, I think it was over
in Acts chapter 2 Peter said this, Whom God hath raised up,
having loosed from the pains of death." Now, why did He do
that? Because it's not possible that He should be holy. You know
why it's not possible? There's no more sin there. Death
is a result of sin. But because there was no more
sin, God was of necessity must raise Him from the dead. He raised
Him from the dead and there's no more sin. This was not happenstance,
friend. This was not just by accident. This was by design, by purpose. And so Jesus Christ is our substitute. Satisfied the justice of God
for who? Everyone He intended to satisfy
for. All His elect. Jesus said, glorify
the Son. that thy son may glorify thee,
as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. He said,
I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given
me. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them which shall believe on me through their word. Jesus said, I lay down my life
for the sheep. Don't you see the foundation
of our faith? Is the blood and righteousness
of this one who is God and man, Jesus Christ. And Jesus promises this, all
that the Father giveth me, what's going to happen? They shall come
to me. And when they come, how is he
going to treat them? I will in no wise cast out. Why? Because
it's the will of the Father that I don't lose anything. It's the
will of God that none of them be lost. You who profess to know Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God, do you see the perfection
of His offering? Do you see the victory of His
death? This is clearly seen by His resurrection. Jesus died
for our sins, but one sin was left. He would not be raised,
but He is raised. And what is He doing right now?
He is seated On the throne of God, this One who we believe
in, He is King, He is Lord. Don't you realize that there's
no one that is not under His dominion? All power is given unto me in
heaven and earth. What does that mean? That means
that everybody is under Him. You suppose anybody is doing
anything outside of His dominion. All are under Him. But especially,
listen, we who believe. Have we not submitted to Christ
the King? He is King. He is Lord. Oh, but
the sin. It quickly raises its head. Look
now at Peter's sin in verse 22. And Peter took him. He just revealed
the foundation of his faith. You figure Peter said, Glory
to God! Glory to God! He's going to die for my sins
and rise again for my justification. Thank you! Thank you! That's
not what he said. Look what he said. And Peter
began to rebuke him. Can you imagine that? He just
called him God and now he's rebuking God. Oh, how weak we are. How feeble. I want you to learn this, that
such sin is not beyond the realm of believers. Have you ever rebuked God? How many times have we been confronted
with God's exhortations, with God's commands for us that are
plain and clear? You know what? The exhortations
of God are really not ambiguous are they? He's very plain-spoken. The Word of God is not complicated.
You want it to be because you don't like it. If you don't like
it, you try to complicate it. It's not complicated. We see
these things as believers. We see as commands. But because
of our hardness of our heart, we're cold or indifferent. What
do we do? We bring God's providence God's
commands under the microscope of our own judgment. We look at the circumstance,
we look at our feelings and our desires instead of trusting Him. We are troubled, the circumstances
are painful, the sorrows are overwhelming, and then we bring
God to the bar of our judgment? Peter heard Jesus was about to
die, and yet, listen, I don't doubt he was sincere, do you?
In love for Christ and his own selfish passion, he rebuked Him. He said, no, you ain't gonna
die. You ain't gonna die. How many times do we oppose God's
sovereign providence. How often do we fail to surrender
to God's sovereign will and instead rebuke him. But Jesus turned to Peter and
he said this, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offense.
For thou savest not the things that be of God. but those that
be of men." The Lord called him Satan, even because he opposed. He did not love the things of
God. Now, Peter thought he was loving
Christ, but instead he was opposing Christ. He called him Satan because
he was being used of Satan. Peter was becoming a stumbling
block, a rock of offense. Peter was judging things after
the flesh according to his emotion and carnal mind and not looking
by faith to Christ. Believer, let us not look at
the circumstance. Let us not judge God by feeble
sense, but rather simply trust Him for His grace. Let us in blind obedience, even
when it does not appear good or appeal to our flesh, Let us
honor him in word and deed, simply by believing Christ, trusting
his grace. We who would rebuke God and our
defense to him, let us lay this to heart. If
God leave us to ourselves, don't you think Peter is thankful for
this rebuke? What if God just silenced and
let him go? Now, you pay attention. If you're a believer in Christ,
I know this. If we ever do this, you better be ready. You will
be rebuked of Him. If you go on your feelings, if
you go on your own judgments, and you neglect the Word of God,
you will be rebuked of Him. You will be chastened of Him.
And Peter was scorned here by the Lord. Can you imagine a more
sharp word than this? Get thee behind me, Satan! Our savor is not the things that
be of God. It's a sharp rebuke. If He were to leave us alone,
it would be unbearable. But true faith, when it's rebuked,
always repents. True faith always repents and
confesses our sin. This we know because of His finished
work. He's faithful to forgive us our
sins, isn't He? He said if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Have we done that?
Have we rebuked Him concerning our providence? Concerning the
way that doesn't appear? Think of Abraham. I've been thinking
about this a lot, about faith and obedience this week. And
Abraham believed God who has counted him for righteousness,
and then God said, go offer your son to Me. Surely we would have excused
him if he started reasoning, right? Well, surely God didn't
mean that. Surely God doesn't want me to
kill my son. But in spite of how it appeared,
Abraham believed God. And that's how we should do it.
See how it appeared to Peter? Jesus said, I'm going to go die.
And that really offended Peter. And yet, the Lord rebuked him
for it because it was necessary. And so now in verses 24-28, we're
going to see the cost of faith. Jesus speaks. here, the cost
of faith. Let's see this, verse 24. And
Jesus said, Jesus said, His disciples, if any man will come after Me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For
whosoever will save his life will lose it. Whosoever will
lose his life for My sake shall find it. The Lord speaks here
to anyone that would come after Him. Tonight, I pray by God's
grace that I have tried to present Christ to you. I've tried to
set Him before you as He is, God and man. I've set before
you He is the object of faith. And anyone who has a revelation
of God would believe on Him. And they believe what? That He
is the foundation of our salvation. He is the foundation of all of
our hope before God. I've set Him before you. And
now, listen, Christ Himself calls you. He says, if any man come
unto Me, if any man believe on Me, He plainly tells us that
there are no restrictions here. He gives no restrictions. Any
man. It doesn't matter what race you
are. It doesn't matter what gender
you are. It doesn't matter what position
you are. Any man. It doesn't matter what
age you are. If any man. Well, some people
would say, well, isn't election restriction? Well, sure it is. Only the elect will come. I know
that. But you know, one thing I don't
know is who they are. Now, if I had a list, And you
say, well, I want to come. Let me look at the list then.
I don't have a list. That's why I said, if any man
come, no restrictions, come. Come. If you come to Christ,
listen, there's salvation. Christ. Sinner, will you be saved? Is there anyone that'd be saved?
Right now, is there anyone who would be saved? Will you have eternal life, righteousness
and peace with God? I'll tell you this, there's none
other name given among men whereby we must be saved. There's no
one else to come to but Christ. If any man will come after me, will you come after him? Will
you believe on him? If you will believe on him, you
shall be saved. Why? Because you are already
saved. If you believe, you're just now realizing something's
already been done. Christ is our salvation. But
I want you to know this. When you come to Him, our Lord
stipulates this, there will be a cost. Listen to the flesh. There will be a cost. If I'm going this way and I'm
going toward this object, and I want this, but all of a sudden,
I turn around and there's another object over here. And I want
this object more than I want this one. I've got to leave this
one to go over here. It's going to cost me this object
to get to this one. And that's what Christ is telling
me. If any man come after me, listen, there's going to be a
cost. You're going to have to forsake something. You're going
to have to deny something. Matter of fact, there are three
things here. First, there must be a denial of self. Secondly,
there must be a death. And thirdly, there must be an
active following. Look what he said. If any man
come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow
me. First of all, if you're to come
to Christ, listen to me, in order to come to Christ in true faith,
you must deliberately, willingly, constantly deny yourself. Have
you not found that you who believe, is that not true? Was it of necessity in order
to have faith? You must deny, first of all,
any self-glory in salvation. You must deny any glory to self
in salvation. In other words, you cannot have
a part in it. You see, to believe on Him, you
must deny that you have any part whatsoever in it. We must confess
with Jonah, salvation is of the Lord, and deny any fleshly impulse
to glory. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that faith not of yourself, it is a gift of God,
not of works. Why? lest any man should boast."
We are His workmanship. We are created by Him. Yes, unto
good work, but we don't glory in Him. We glory in Christ. We glory in Christ. We deny ourself. If any man glory in his works,
he has fallen from grace. That's what Paul said in Galatians
5, verse 4. Christ has become of no effect to you, whosoever
is justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. Therefore,
sinner to come, you must come, listen, you must come as you
are. To deny yourself is to deny that you have any righteousness
whatsoever. You must come as a vile sinner
to Him. You must come with nothing. To
deny yourself, you must come with nothing. Ho, anyone that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money. You got no money? Come on. You got no money? Get over here.
Come on. It's free. It's free. You got nothing. Come
buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Why do you spend your money if
that's what's not bad? Why do you spend your time and energy
in sin that doesn't satisfy? Hearken diligently to me, and
eat that which is good, and delight your soul, and let your soul
delight yourself in faith, and it's inclined to your ear, and
come unto me, and your soul shall live. You see, you've got to
deny yourself through that. You've got to deny any righteousness
in yourself, and find all your righteousness in Him. Deny yourself.
Okay. Okay. Yes. Secondly, we must constantly
surrender to His grace and will. That's what it means to deny
yourself. We must forsake all that oppose Christ. Forsake all
that oppose Christ. Jesus says in another text in
Luke 14, if any man come to me, same words, right? If any man
come to me, and hate not his father and mother and sister
and brother and wife and children, and listen, his own life also. Who do you got to deny? Everybody. Everybody. Anybody that would
oppose Christ or usurp His position, having the preeminence, must
be denied. That's what it's going to cost
you. It's going to cost you to deny everything, including self. Will you believe on Christ? Listen,
grace is free, but it's not cheap. It's free. I'll tell you this. Salvation costs you nothing.
But to be saved, it's going to cost you everything. We who believe, this forsaking
all things, this denial of self, is not grievous to us. To us who know Him, we know this,
He is no hard master. Isn't that right? He's no hard
master. To deny yourself, what are you
denying? Really? You're denying everything that's
vile and corrupt. You're denying everything that
is temporal and embracing everything that's eternal. What does it
deny self? If we would view it rightly,
it's nothing. When you deny your righteousness,
what are you denying? Nothing. You don't have any righteousness. Yet I know this. It is painful
to the flesh. We still must war with the flesh.
Flesh lusteth against the Spirit. This our Lord says we must take
our own cross. This is the second part. We must
take up our own cross. The old man must be killed. He must daily be dying to self. And I'll tell you this, you're
going to feel the weight of that. Friends, this is where rubber
meets the road Christianity, right here. Practical things
denying self. Putting off the old man and his
deeds. Putting it off. daily. The kingdom of heaven suffers
violence and the violent take it by force. What are we violently
doing? We're violently grabbing hold
of Christ and violently casting off the world, the flesh. It must be put off. Would you surrender all to Christ?
Why would you deny yourself and forsake all for Him, even because
of His value? What's more important, you or
Him? His commands or your desires? His will or your will? And in order to do His will,
listen, you will take up that cross and you will follow Him. Whosoever, look at this, will
lose his, save his life, shall lose it. You want to keep this
life? You want to keep your will? You
want to keep your flesh? You'll lose your life. Pay attention. Remember Lot's
wife. She was a professing believer
right until that point. You want to keep this world,
you'll lose your life. And you can jump up and down and tell
me how you love Jesus. If you will not hear Him, if you will
not listen, if you will not deny yourself, take up your cross
and follow Him, you pay attention. He said, He said, you cannot
be my disciple. Why? Because my disciples deny
themselves, they take up their cross and they follow me. But
whosoever will lose his life. What are you really losing? What are you losing that you're
not going to lose anyway? What are you going to keep? That's why I ask this question.
What is the profit of man to gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what does man give in exchange for his soul?
Isn't that a question? What are you going to give in
exchange for your soul? What is it that you want? That's so
valuable that you'd exchange your soul for it. And what if
you get everything you want? In the end, you lose everything
you want. Isn't that wisdom? Is it not wise then to take up,
deny yourself, come to Him, bow before Him, surrender to Him,
believe on Him, take up your cross and follow Him? It is. It's wisdom to God's people. To choose happiness in this world
is nothing but chasing the wind. Have you found that to be so?
Every time you grab at that golden ring It evaporates in your hand. And then what? Oh, there's another
one. You go out there and try to grab
that one. You grab it and what? It's gone. Joys of life just last for so
long and they're fleeting. He that loveth silver will not
be satisfied with silver. So what if you gain the whole
world and lose your own soul? You know, soul is the only thing
that endures, isn't it? You remember the rich man in
Lazarus. Where's the rich man today, 2,000 years later? Where's the man who built barns?
He said, O soul, eat, drink, and be merry, for thou hast stored
up much goods. God said, Thou fool, this night
thy soul is required of thee. And who shall these things be? Oh sinner, will you exchange
the lusts of the flesh and the pleasures of the world for the
torments of your soul? And Jesus tells the end of all
things in verse 27, His Son, a man shall come in His glory
with the Father and with His angels. And then shall He reward
every man according to his work. When Jesus will come, He will
judge. He will judge. The wicked shall be damned. The righteous shall be rewarded. I'll tell you this, there is
no hope in ourselves. But let me tell you there is
hope in this. Come to Christ. And you that come to Christ,
have you ever stopped? Have you ever stopped coming
to Christ? We don't. We constantly come to Him. We
constantly need Him. Why? He's the object of our faith,
isn't He? He's the object of our faith.
And I know this, He's the cause of our faith. He's the foundation
of our faith. And I'll tell you this, our faith
has cost what? The flesh. But I'll tell you this, we've
really lost nothing. If we've sacrificed all to follow Christ,
what have we lost? We've lost nothing. We've lost
nothing. In the day coming, we're going
to have everything. Everything. I pray that God bless
this to your heart and I pray to give us such a heart to continually
deny self, follow Him, serve Him. Our gracious Father dismisses
with your blessing I ask this in Jesus' name.