Thank you. Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with a hymn from the Spiral Gospel Hymnal,
number 32, In Christ We Are Free. Let's all stand together, number
32. All children of wrath In bondage
and sin We helplessly lay Condemned and unclean God's law in its
infinite Justice and wrath suffer an eternal death. But long before time had ever
begun, one stood in our place God's glorious Son, He offered
Himself to go live among men and give His own life to atone
for our sin. The great substitute, behold
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood and he
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the blood of
the Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free. Please be seated. We have a little
bit of a treat this morning. Pam Hardman and her husband Brad
are in town, grandparents for the second time through Savannah
and Ryan. But anyway, she's willing to
sing a special for us this morning. So Pam, wherever you are, thank
you. How deep the Father's love for
us, how vast beyond all measure, that He Should give his only son To make
a wretch his treasure How great the pain of searing was The father
turns his face away As wounds which mar the chosen one Bring
many sons to glory Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon
his shoulders, ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among
the scoffers. It was my sin that nailed him
there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought
me life. I know that it is finished. I will not boast in anything. No gifts, no power, no wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
his death and resurrection. Why should I gain from his reward. I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom. Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom. Thank you, Pam. That was a treat.
The Lord Jesus Christ is called the surety in that he has paid
our ransom in full of the precious blood that he shed on Calvary's
cross. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Mark chapter 8? Pam came in just a few minutes
ago. She said she looked at me. She
said, you know why we're here, right? I said, yeah, to hear
me. She said, oh yeah, that too. We're glad to have them. A couple of announcements. We
will not have our regular Wednesday night service this week. Fourth
of July, I figured everybody would be doing something, so
we'll just forego that for this week. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we are grateful that we have a ransom, we have an advocate,
we have a sin-bearer, a substitute, one who has fully satisfied all
the demands of Thy divine justice, one who stands in our stead,
gives us acceptance in Thy presence. Lord, apart from Him, we have
nothing. We have no righteousness. We have no hope. We have no salvation. We ask now, Lord, that You'd
be pleased to send Your Holy Spirit in power. Enable me to
speak with simplicity and clarity and conviction and speak of Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
give us ears to hear. We know that the hearing ear is of the
Lord and Lord hear us. Let us hear thy voice and thine
alone. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Someone asked me some time ago. You talk about. looking to Christ
and coming to Christ a lot. What does that mean? What does
that mean? How is a sinner to come to Christ? Well, the Lord answers that question
in our text this morning in Mark chapter 8. This passage is repeated
in all the Gospels, as a matter of fact. The Lord says in Mark
chapter 8 at verse 34, will come on to me. Anybody's going to come to me.
Three things have to happen. He must deny himself. He must
take up his cross. He must follow me. Now I want
to say at the very beginning that none of those things are
possible in the power of the flesh. It's not possible to deny
yourself. according to your own will, according
to your own determination, according to your own commitment, we are
not able of denying ourselves. And if we know anything about
ourselves, we know that each of us are the center of our universe. We open our eyes in the morning
thinking about ourselves. We close our eyes at night thinking
about ourselves. The world says, you know, you
need to have a higher image of yourself in order to have a good
high healthy self-esteem. That's our problem, isn't it?
Our problem is that we think of ourselves way too much. And
so denying yourself is certainly not something that we're capable
of doing apart from the work of the Spirit of God who works
in us, causing us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Taking up our cross? Not possible. Not in the power of our flesh.
Oh, but when the Spirit of God opens the eyes of our understanding
and enables us to see our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, that
when he died, we died, then we're able to understand something
about what it means to take up your cross, to follow Christ.
We're not capable of following after him. We can't see unless
he gives us eyes to see. And the seeing eye and the hearing
ear are of the Lord. Lord, open the eyes of our understanding.
Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus. And that's our prayer,
that the Lord would open the eyes of our understanding, enable
us to set our affections on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God, to see him through the eye of faith. You're not going to see him with
your physical sight, but if the Lord gives us eyes to see, we'll
see him and we'll Find ourselves following after him. Now, what does it mean to deny
yourself? Well, first and foremost, it
means to deny all claims on God based upon your own righteousness. It means to deny your righteousness.
To deny something is to affirm that you have no acquaintance
with it. It is to forget it. It is to
lose sight of it. That's the definition that's
in the Greek lexicon on this word deny, to lose sight of,
to forget it. What do we lose sight of when
the Lord is pleased to enable us to deny ourselves? We lose
sight of our own righteousness, don't we? We realize that all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags that man at his very best
state is altogether vanity that we have no claim on God based
on anything that we've done. Now the unbeliever, he still
brings his righteousness, doesn't he? Still brings his free will,
still brings all the things that he's done in hopes that he will
impress God, that God would give him favor. Here's what the Lord
says, you gonna come after me? I'm gonna have to do a work of
grace in your heart, causing you to deny all your righteousness. To be able to say with Brother
Job, behold, I've heard the gospel now and I am vile. To be able to say with Isaiah,
when the Lord was high and lifted up and the seraphim were hovering
over the throne of God, what did Isaiah say? Woe is me, I'm
undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of
unclean lips. My eyes have seen the Lord. I'm
a dead man. What am I gonna do? I have no claim on God based
on anything that I've done. I am in complete need of a righteousness
outside of myself in order to have acceptance with God. Turn
with me to Romans chapter four. Romans chapter 4. We're trying to answer this question.
What does it mean to look to Christ? What does it mean to
come after Him? What does it mean to rest the
hope of your salvation? What are the experiences? The
Lord answers that question. In Romans chapter 4 beginning
at verse 1, and you know that Romans chapter 3 describes our
sinful condition. All gone astray. There's none
that doeth good. No, not one. Why calleth thou
me good, the Lord said. There's none good but God. We
have no goodness in and of ourselves. We have no righteousness in and
of ourselves. And so the Lord's answering that
question after describing our condition before God in chapter
3. He says in verse 4, chapter 4,
what shall we say then that Abraham our father hath pertaining to
the flesh hath found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. Now
you find me a religious person who's glorying in their works
and I'll show you a man who values the praise of man more than the
praise of God. He's glorying for the approval
of man. And if Abraham's justification
was based on his works, then he would have reason to glory,
not with God, not with God, but with man he would. Isn't that
a description of the religious world? Most of us have been there
at one point, haven't we? The self-righteousness, the presumption,
the attempts that men make to intimidate one another with their
own righteousness, it's all a matter of It's all a matter of glorying
in the flesh, glorying with men. But Abraham had no right to glory
before God. For what sayeth the scriptures?
Abraham believed God and it was counted or imputed to him or
charged to him for righteousness. Abraham was given the faith to
believe God. What did he believe? He believed that he had no righteousness
in and of himself. He believed that he was completely
dependent upon God keeping his promises. Abraham wavered not,
the scripture says, at the promises of God, but believed that he
which promised was able also to fulfill, to perform those
promises. And that's what faith does. Faith
believes the promises of God and believes that God was pleased
to fulfill his own promises. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ came to do. He said, I didn't come to destroy the law. I came
to fulfill it. And all the promises of God,
the scripture says, are yea and amen in Christ. So that's what
he came to do, to fulfill the promises of God. Abraham believed
God. What about you? What about me?
Do we believe God? Do we believe that His promises
are true? That He's not able to lie? And that the Lord Jesus
Christ came to fulfill all those promises? Are we resting the
hope of our salvation in the successful, redemptive work of
the Lord Jesus Christ? That was the promise He came
to fulfill. The promise He came to fulfill
was to save His people. And He actually accomplished
the salvation of His people. The death of, listen to me very
carefully now, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is not an offer
of salvation. It's not something that God lays
out there for man to finish with his faith or with his free will.
The death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross was an accomplished
work of redemption for God's elect people. That's the promise.
You shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people. so if you don't believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ has actually saved all of God's elect, you
don't believe God. You don't believe God. It's just
that simple. Abraham believed God and it was
accounted unto him for righteousness. Oh, we need a righteousness outside
of ourselves, don't we? The old writers used to call
it an alien righteousness. an alien righteousness. And I've
discovered that men will believe in aliens from outer space before
they will believe in an alien righteousness. They will. The religious and the irreligious. Look at verse 4. Now to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. You see
if we have favor with God based on something we've done a decision
we've made a work that we performed up up you know life that we did
for you if we have righteousness based on anything that we've
done then God oldest we put God in debt to us and that's exactly
what religion does religion puts God in debt to man I prayed this
prayer I made this decision I've done this I go to church I do
this and that and now you're obligated God to save me because
what I've done If it's of works, then you put God in debt. But
if it's of grace, if it's of grace, oh, grace is unmerited
favor, isn't it? And it's more than unmerited
favor. It's more than unmerited favor. That's the old definition
that men used to give about grace, unmerited favor. I haven't used
this illustration in a while, but I'm going to use it this
morning. If you stop at the stoplight and there's a homeless person
standing there in the corner begging for money, and you roll
your window down and slip them a dollar bill, you just expressed
unmerited favor towards that person. They didn't do anything
for it. You gave it to them out of the kindness of your heart.
That's unmerited favor. Now, you pull up to a stoplight
and you see a man standing there who's responsible for murdering
your only son. And you open the door and let
him into your car and then you write his name into all your
accounts. You give him complete access
to everything you own. Now that's grace. That's dismerited favor, isn't
it? That's what God has done for
us. Our righteousness is not based on anything we've done.
You and I are responsible for putting our hand to the hammer that nailed the
nails. They shall look upon him whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn after him as one mourneth
after his only son. It was from my sins he died.
and then God turns around and opens the door and invites me
in and then writes me into his accounts and gives me access
to everything, all the promises of God and all the blessings
of God are in the heavenlies in Christ for all God's people.
That's grace. What do we do? We forsake. We deny. all claims on God based
on our righteousness. That's what it means to deny
yourself. To deny yourself is to deny your righteousness. Secondly, it's to deny your will. Lord, I can't will myself into
the kingdom of God. I forget all this idea of, it
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Lord, the only thing I can do
is deny my will. Lord, if thy be willing, make
me willing. Do we come willing? Yes, but
He has to make us willing, don't we? We deny our own will, our
ability to choose, our ability to decide. Coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ is never a choice. It's never a decision. A choice means that you've got
two or more options. That's what a choice means. A
decision means that you can decide this way or you can decide that
way. and if an unregenerate man will always choose against Christ. He will give him two or more
options and we do. We extend the gospel. We declare
the gospel and there are many that will hear with their ears
but they will not hear with their hearts. God has to make us willing. He has to draw us to himself.
So the child of God denies his own will as the means of his
salvation. I can't will my soul to be saved. When you get a common cold, you
want that thing to go away as quickly as you can, as it can,
don't you? And you can take medications for it and it might go away in
14 days or not take anything in the last two whole weeks.
but you're not going to be able to cure a common cold with the
power of your will, are you? You can't wake up one day and
say, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna decide today I'm not gonna have
this cold anymore. You can't cure the common cold
with your will, how are you gonna cure the sin problem that you
have with God with your will? Man has a will. The problem with
his will is it's the weakest thing in his life, not the strongest. We make choices all the time,
but until God shuts us up to Christ and causes us to have
no place else to go, that's what it is to deny yourself, it's
to deny your righteousness, it's to deny your will. The Lord asked
the disciples, will you lead me also? Lord, where are we gonna
go? Where are we gonna go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. You've shut us up to Christ. You've shut
us up to yourself. We've got no other place to go. So any man will come after me,
he must deny his righteousness. He must deny the power of his
will. And thirdly, thirdly, He must
deny his flesh. Deny his flesh. Paul said, in
me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Lord, I don't
have the power in my flesh, in my will, in my righteousness
to produce anything of any saving value. Paul said that we know the law
is spiritual. The law is good. The law is holy. The law is just. But I am carnal,
soul under sin. My flesh is not capable of doing
anything. Lord, my flesh is that dead man. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? When Paul said, to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. He wasn't saying, you know, I
want to do that which is right, but I just can't. I can't. He said, what are you
saying, preacher? Well, before the Lord saved the
Apostle Paul, he said, concerning the law, I was blameless. Now, are we going to suggest
that after the Lord was pleased to save the Apostle Paul, that
all of a sudden he just let himself loose and did everything that
his flesh desired? You see, what I'm trying to say
to you is that denying the flesh, and here again, it's a work of
grace. It's the work of the Spirit of God. It's not indulging yourselves. It's not saying, well, you know,
flesh is flesh. I will to do what's right, but
I can't because I'm just a man of flesh and I just give myself
over to all the passions of my flesh. Oh, no. No. Turn to me to 1 Peter chapter
4. 1 Peter chapter 4. You see, what I'm trying to say
to you this morning is that just because there's nothing about
our flesh that's holy, just because everything about our flesh is
sinful, is no excuse to indulge our flesh in sinful behavior. It's not. So to deny yourself is to deny
those desires of the flesh. Look what Peter says in 1 Peter
chapter 4. For as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind. For he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live
the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the
will of God. Oh Lord, Lord control my flesh. Enable me to deny the desires
of my flesh. Paul wasn't saying, well you
know, now I'm just doing whatever I want because I'm under grace.
Romans chapter 6 verse 1 says, should we continue in sin because
we're not under the law? God forbid. God forbid, and that's
what Peter's saying here. For the time past of our life,
verse 3, may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles
when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, reveling,
banqueting, and abominable idolatries wherein they think it strange
that you run not with them to the same excess of riots speaking
evil of you. To your unbelieving friends,
Because you refuse to do some of the things they're doing,
they may speak evil of you. Who shall give account to him
that is ready to judge the quick and the dead? And for this cause
was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they
might be judged according to men in the flesh, but alive according
to God in the spirit. But the end of all things is
at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watchful
in prayer. If any man come after me, he
must deny himself, deny that he has any righteousness, deny
that he has any power in his will, and deny. All these things are by the power
of God. Deny. Deny the passions of the flesh.
We don't make excuses, do we? Fourthly, we're asking this question,
what does it mean to come after Him? What does it mean to follow
Christ? What does it mean to look to
the Lord Jesus Christ? And looking to Christ does not
advocate an antinomian, lawless life. That's all I'm trying to
say. It does not advocate that. Looking
to Christ causes us to hate our flesh, doesn't it? Causes us
to despise our sin. It causes us to cry out to God,
oh Lord, I do believe, help thou mine unbelief. I've got two natures
here. Keep this old man down. Fourthly, To deny yourself means to deny
family and friends who would keep you from Christ. Turn with
me to Matthew chapter 10. It is amazing what truth Men
will compromise in order to stay at peace with other men. Men
by nature love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Now look what the Lord Jesus Christ said in Romans chapter
10 at verse 34. Think not that I came to send
peace on the earth. I came not to send peace but
a sword Now wait a minute. I thought
the Lord Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. I thought He
said, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth. I thought
we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we
do. Yes, we do. And the only way we're going
to have peace with God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. But having
peace with God is going to put you at odds with men. It's just
that simple. It's going to put you at odds
with men. For I am come, verse 35, to set a man at variance
against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh
not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that
findeth his life shall lose it and he that loses his life for
my name shall find it. So, denying oneself is to deny
that you have any righteousness, deny that your will has any power,
deny your flesh. and deny your friends and families
who deny Christ. In other words, someone says,
well, you know, this way or that, I'm sorry. What did those disciples
say when the Sanhedrin brought them in after the day of Pentecost
and they told them to quit preaching with the threat of their life?
They had just crucified the Lord. They were going to crucify them
as well. And what did Peter say with boldness? You decide for
yourself what you're gonna do. As for us, we have no choice
but to obey God. And that's the spirit, that's
the attitude that we have with family and friends that are set
at variance against us because of the gospel. Fifthly, what
does it mean to deny yourself? The only thing stronger that
will cause men to compromise the truth over the opinions of
men is the almighty dollar. The older
I get, the more convinced I become of how powerful is the love of
money. Men will throw away relationships. They will throw away their integrity.
They will do anything for a profit. It's the love of... When Eve was tempted by Satan
in the garden, she saw that the tree was pleasing to the eye. That's popularity. I want the eyes of other men
on me. That it was good for the taste. That's pleasure. and it
was able to make one wise, that's power. And when John summarized
everything that is in the world, he said all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, that's pleasure, the lust of the eyes,
that's popularity, and the pride of life, that's power. Now why
is money so appealing to men? Why is it so appealing? Because
money buys all three of those things. It buys pleasure, it
buys popularity, and it buys power. He that cometh after me must
deny himself. He must be brought by the grace
of God to the conviction that everything he has belongs to
God. Everything he has. Turn to me to 1 Timothy chapter
6. Oh, don't get caught up. Deny. Deny the power of the dollar. God will provide. He knows your
needs. He said the birds of the air,
they don't fret. The flowers of the field, Solomon
and all of his glory was not arrayed as any of them. How much
more your heavenly father will take care of you? 1 Timothy 6, verse 6, but godliness
with contentment is great gain. How are we going to have godliness?
Only as the Lord enables us to deny those things. Without controversy,
without controversy, this is godliness. God was manifested
in the flesh. having the Lord Jesus Christ
as having godliness and being content with him and with everything
he gives you. Oh Lord, enable me to be content. Contentment is great gain. What peace there is with contentment?
What disquieted anxiety there is when we're always trying to
not satisfy what we have, always grasping and willing to do whatever
in order to get it. That's the world's way. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And
having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall
into temptations. They that make the love of money
the rule of their life, they just want pleasure, popularity,
and power, all those things that money can buy. They fall into temptation and
a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown
men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have
erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee
these things. Deny the world's philosophy about
possessions. Flee these things and follow
after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. If
any man is going to come after me, he's got to deny himself.
Deny his righteousness. Deny his will. Deny his flesh. take up his cross and let me
just say this about summarize this quickly as I can you would
never hear someone say you know I've gotta carry the burden of
a guillotine around on me all the time or I've gotta carry
the burden of electric chair on my back all the time the Lord Jesus Christ I wanna
say this is is as reverently as I can The Lord Jesus Christ
himself fell under the burden of the cross on the way to Calvary.
And they had to get someone else to help him carry it. What am
I trying to say to you? The cross is not a burden. Someone says to you, you know,
I've got to, this is the burden of the cross that I've got to
carry in my life. That is a complete misunderstanding of the cross.
The cross like the guillotine and like the electric chair represents
one thing. You don't go to the cross and
never come down. You don't go to a guillotine and never come
out with your head on. You don't go to an electric chair and survive.
The cross represents one thing, death. That's all it represents,
death. When the Lord says, if any man
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. What did
Paul say about the cross? He said, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not
I, but it's Christ that liveth in me. The life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the power and grace of God who loved me. and died for me. Oh, that I might
know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering
taken up in your cross is identifying with the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ for all the hope of your salvation. When God pulled out
the sword of His justice and plunged it into the heart of
His own dear Son, He was satisfying the demands of divine justice
once and for all, putting away our sin, putting away our sin. Taking up your cross is identifying
yourself with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and saying
that God is satisfied with what Christ has done. He's not ever
going to be satisfied with me outside of Christ. So, if any man come after me,
let him deny himself. Let him take up his cross and
let him follow me. Let him follow me. How are you going to follow somebody?
We've all had the experience of one person being in the lead
car and you having to follow them to another destination.
You didn't have any idea where you were. And once you lost sight
of people getting between you, you lose sight of that person
in the lead car, what are you doing? You're trying to maneuver yourself
so you can keep your eyes on that car. Otherwise, you're going
to get lost. That's a simple illustration,
isn't it? following Christ. Every time something gets in
the way, the Spirit of God causes us in our hearts to say, Oh Lord,
I need to get my eyes back on Christ. Now what happens when
you completely lose sight of that person? What happens? Well, if they're your friend,
what are they going to do? They're going to pull over and
wait for you, aren't they? They're going to find a place on the
side of the road where they can pull over until you catch up. Oh, what a friend we have in
Jesus. When we lose sight of Him, He
waits. He waits for us to catch up. What does it mean to follow Him?
What does it mean to come to Christ? Deny yourself. Take up
your cross. Keep your eyes on Him. All the
work of the Spirit of God in the heart, isn't it? All right,
let's take a break. Yeah.