Let's turn in our Bibles to Luke
chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. Someone asked me a question that
I thought was a very good question. And the thought came to my mind
that maybe somebody in this congregation has this question. This person asked me, they said,
I believe the gospel Now what? I believe the gospel. Now what? What do I do? What am I supposed
to do now? I believe the gospel. What am
I supposed to do? Well, we don't have to speculate
about the answer to that question because the Lord Jesus Christ
tells us clearly in our text. He tells us here in Luke 9.23, He said to them all, if any man
will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged? if he gain the whole world and
lose himself or be cast away. For whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed
when he shall come in his own glory and in his father's and
of the holy angels. First of all, our Lord says,
when we find ourselves believing the gospel, He says, come to
Christ. He says, if any man will come
after me. Coming after Christ or coming
to Christ is believing on Christ alone. We haven't believed on
Christ if we are trusting something else in addition to Christ. That's not faith. We cannot believe
on Christ and look to our obedience, to our supposed law keeping,
or to our decision, or to an experience we had, or to morality. We cannot believe on Christ and
look to anything we've done, or anything about us. Believing
on Christ is trusting Christ only. Trusting Him to save me,
from beginning to end by Himself. By Himself. The Scriptures tell
us when our Lord was speaking, He said, Come unto Me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He said over in Isaiah 45.22,
Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. No matter where you are, no matter
where you are in the world, to the ends of the earth, no matter
where you are, He says, look unto Me and be ye saved. For
I am God and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the Word
has gone out of My mouth in righteousness that and shall not return, that
unto Me every knee shall bow. And every tongue shall swear.
Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and
strength. Even to him shall men come. And all that are incensed against
him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel, all his elect, be justified. And in the Lord shall
they glory. So it's to come to Christ alone. And then coming to Christ is
spiritual. It's in the newly created heart. It's not doing something outwardly
that is coming to Christ. Coming to Christ is believing
on Him with a new heart. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. The Hebrew writer said, let us
draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. It's a heart
matter, coming to God in the heart, believing on Him in the
heart. That's coming to Christ. And coming to Christ is to willingly
cast all your care on Him. He says there, if any man will
come after me. Now because we are conceived
in sin, we come forth and no man is willing to cast all his
care on Christ. No man is willing to do that.
This willingness comes from Christ. The scripture says, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. But when
we are made willing, we do willingly come to Christ. We willingly
cast all our care on Him because we cannot find satisfaction for
our need anywhere but Christ. That is what it is to be made
willing to cast your care on Him. The rest of that Psalm says,
we shall be satisfied. with the goodness of thy house,
even of thy holy temple. And that's willingness to be
able to find satisfaction nowhere else but in Christ. And then
coming to Christ is to come believing the doctrine of Christ. Believing
faith in Christ, it's not a blind leap. We know Christ. We're taught Christ. We have
a knowledge of Christ. True faith knows from what it
was Christ saved me. He saved me from sins curse and
He saved me from condemnation. Coming to Christ is to come knowing
who it is that saved me, the Lord Jesus Christ alone, the
God-man mediator. We know, we come to Christ knowing
that He saved me and we know how He did it. He did it by His
perfect obedience. He did it by Him fulfilling the
righteousness of the law and purging my sin. He did it. It's
by His obedience. And we know why He saved us.
Why did He save me and not somebody else? Why did He save you and
not so many others? He saved you according to the
good pleasure of His own will. That's why. See, we don't come
just blindly. We come knowing Him because we've
heard the doctrine. We've heard the truth. And coming
to Christ never ends. It's not a one-time thing. That's
what you see so much of in the world is men making a profession
of faith, getting their name on a church roll, and that's
the end of it. They never come back to hear
a word again. unless they get in some kind
of trouble and want to rededicate or something like that. Faith
in Christ is coming to Christ in the first hour and to continue
coming to Christ. We always are coming to Christ.
We are running the race set before us looking to Christ. He is at
the end of that road and we are looking to Him and running to
Him. We are always coming to Him and in every trial and everything
that comes our way in this path. We come to Him. We can't do anything
without Him. Peter said, to whom coming. We
believe like Paul did. He delivered us from so great
a death, and He doth deliver us, and we trust He shall yet
deliver us. We're saved, we're being saved,
and we trust He shall save us. We're always coming to Christ.
So that's the first thing our Lord said. You find yourself
believing this gospel? Come to Christ. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the second thing Christ
says in verse 23. Let him deny himself and take
up his cross daily and follow me. Once God's given a man faith
to believe on Christ, then Christ says let him deny himself. That is, I must deny myself saying
there was nothing done by me or nothing in me. I must deny
myself in everything that pertains to my salvation and my daily
provision. When it comes to the doctrine
of election, I must deny myself. The reason most will not deny
themselves is because they want to say they did the choosing.
But Christ said plainly to His disciples, and He says this to
all He calls, you did not choose me. I chose you and I ordained
you. So I have to deny my choosing
and confess He did the choosing. I have to deny my works, that
my works contribute to any part of this salvation. I have to
deny myself by denying my works for salvation. God said in Isaiah
57, 12, I will declare thy righteousness and thy works for they shall
not profit thee. And if I come to Christ, I'm
going to have to deny myself in atonement. I had nothing to
do with making myself righteous and atoning for my sin. We say
with Isaiah, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be
joyful in my God. Why? For He hath clothed me with
the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
He did it. I didn't do it. He did it. I
come denying myself in faith and repentance and all the fruits
of the Holy Spirit. I can't take credit for any fruit
that's been produced in me. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done. It wasn't by cleaning up my act
to come to Christ. You can't come to Christ if you've
cleaned up your act. You have to come denying yourself.
It's not by works of righteousness we've done. It's not by our decision
to turn over a new leaf. It's not that we fanned some
spark of life in us. Not by works of righteousness
we have done. But according to His mercy He
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
I have life in me because He gave me life. He did it. And I must come denying myself
in perseverance. Men like to boast about their
persevering in faith. We always come to Christ, even
after we believe. And we come denying ourselves
always. And we deny even our ability
to persevere by our own ability. Scripture says, the Lord loveth
judgment. And because Christ satisfied
judgment for his people, That Psalm says, he forsaketh not
his saints. They are preserved forever. He does it. But the seed of the
wicked shall be cut off. And then after I'm in Christ
and some good works come from me, I have to deny myself in
all good works. The scripture says, by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we're his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And all those good works, God
ordained. He ordained and predestinated
that we shall walk in them. So I can't take credit for any
good work. God ordained it before. I have
to deny myself all glory and all praise. I can't pat myself
on the back for anything. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's
sake. We give Him the glory. And we
have to deny ourselves in ungodly behavior and worldliness. Titus
2.12 says he's taught us that denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts. Where does that come from? Myself. Denying myself, denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts. We should live soberly, righteously
and godly in this present world. That's denying yourself. And
I must suffer. I have to deny myself in the
fact that I've got to suffer for Christ's sake. Christ says
here, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow
me. You know, our flesh would rather
not suffer persecution from our family and our friends. Our flesh,
in our flesh, we would rather not have people speak out against
us because of Christ and the gospel we stand for and declare. We'd rather not do that. But
you remember the Apostle Paul, he said, I die daily. What was
he talking about? I died daily. He had to deny
himself and be crucified daily for the gospel he preached. Men
just don't like the gospel. They hate the gospel. You hated
the gospel. I hated Christ. And when you
declare Christ is all and has done all, you take it all out
of man's hand and man hates that. but we have to deny ourselves.
When you're declaring the doctrine of Christ, I must stand with
God's Word even when my dearest family, loved ones, and my friends
oppose and try to set forth their false doctrine. That's not according
to God's Word. I have to stand with God's Word.
That's taking up your cross because that's going to be painful when
they reject you. When it comes to the will of
Christ, I must do what Christ tells me to do and not do what
my family and my friends tell me to do. I have to deny their
will and walk in Christ's will. And then when it comes to sanctifying
and honoring Christ, I have to sanctify and honor Him above
all and not my family and my friends. You realize if I bow
to peer pressure, that's sanctifying and honoring my family and my
friends above Christ. But we're to sanctify God in
our hearts. Sanctify and honor Him above
all by doing His heat command. It's called a cross for this
reason. Go to Matthew 10. I want you to see why it's called
a cross. Matthew 10. And look here in verse 34. Christ said, Think not that I
am come to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace
but a sword. For I am come 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. That's what he's talking about
through that whole passage. Taking up your cross daily and
following him. So that's the second thing. First
I come to Christ. Secondly, I deny myself and I
take up the cross daily and I follow Christ. Now here is the third
thing. I must be consecrated to Christ. I must be consecrated to Christ. Verse 24 says, Christ says, Whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his
life for my sake, The same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged
if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? Now if I save my sinful life,
because sin is just so pleasurable to me, I just can't part with
it. And I think if I'm going to confess Christ, I'll have
to walk after Him, be consecrated to Him, and I won't be able to
enjoy all this sin anymore. That's saving, trying to save
my life, my sinful life. Or if I decide I want to save
myself from that rejection that's going to come from my family
and my friends, that's trying to save my life. And if I try
to do that, I will lose my life eternally. He said, whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. But Christ says, but whosoever
will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. Now if
I would be saved eternally by Christ, if I would be saved eternally
by the Lord Jesus Christ, then I must lose my life for His sake. That means I must surrender myself
and all I have to Him. Everything about me, myself,
and everything I have must be consecrated to Him. That means
I'm under His rule, and I'm for Him, and I'm in this life to
serve Him, and His people, and His cause. I'm consecrated to
Him. I don't have anything but what
He gave me. So it's not like I'm giving something to Him that
He didn't first give to me. But everything I have is to be
concentrated to Him. Myself and everything I am. And
the man who consecrates all to Him has no worries. Because Christ will save us.
He will provide everything for His child that you need in this
life. Right now. Temporal things. He
will provide it all. And then He will deliver us into
the eternal bliss of glory with Him forever. So we have no worries
for the man who trusts Him. And here's another thing, when
we lose our life for Christ, we ought not to consider that
we've really given up anything. You will hear people sometimes,
you know, when they have these testimonies at churches, and
it starts out, one will say something, the next one is going to top
that. And it ends up being a contest. And they talk about all they
gave up for Christ. Oh, I was this and I was that
and I did this thing and the other. Oh, you won't be as big
a scoundrel as I am. I was the biggest scoundrel.
I did this and that. Look what all I gave up. Well, is that
really anything? Christ said, what is a man advantaged
if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away?
The life that most people refuse to lose will in no way advantage
the man. it won't advantage you at all. And even if you gain the whole
world, it won't advantage you. But in the end, you will lose
yourself and be cast away by God in just judgment into eternal
separation, eternal condemnation and outer darkness. So you see,
if we come to Christ and we lose our life and we give up all that
we, our former life, and now we're consecrated to Christ.
The only thing we've given up are the things that would not
advantage us and would certainly put us in hell. That's all you've
given up. So we shouldn't boast we've given
up anything. Christ has made us turn from
that which would cause us to perish. Now, here's the last
thing, fourthly. We must confess Christ and His
gospel. We must confess Christ in His
Gospel. Verse 26, For whosoever shall
be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be
ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his father's
and of the holy angels. Now, never imagine, never imagine
that Christ regards you as one who believes on Him. so long
as you have not confessed Him. Don't imagine that Christ regards
us as believing Christ if we have not confessed Christ. It
doesn't matter, you may be under the sound of the truth, right
here. You may have a believing family
member or members, or maybe you are married to somebody that
God has saved. You may be you may not openly disagree with
the gospel at all. You may even disapprove when
you see others forsake the gospel. And yet if you've never publicly,
personally confessed Christ, Christ says, you're ashamed of
me and my words. You're ashamed of me and my words. And He says when He comes back,
when He returns, He assures all who are ashamed of Him, He assures
you, I will be ashamed of you. I will not confess you to my
Father. See, when Christ returns, He
is going to stand before the Father and His people are not
going to have to say a word. He is going to stand before His
people and the judge and He is going to say, these right here
were not ashamed of me and my gospel. And I am not ashamed
to declare, I have saved them. They are mine. But those who
were ashamed of Him, Christ said, I will be ashamed of them in
that day. I will be ashamed of them. But look over at, well
let me just give this to you. Luke 12 verse 8, He said this,
Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of Man
also confess before the angels of God. So he won't be ashamed,
he will confess us before God. Now, confessing Christ is necessary. It's absolutely necessary. Look
to Romans 10, 9. I read a portion of this to you about the heart.
Now, look here at Romans 10, 9. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
And here's what the mouth speaks. Romans 10, verse 9. This is the
word of faith which we preach. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead." That is that he accomplished
everything God sent him to accomplish. That's right. That's what it
is to confess he was raised from the dead. He accomplished everything
this book says he accomplished. If you believe God 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. For the scripture says, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And Christ said, those
that believe on me and are not ashamed of me, I will not be
ashamed of them. So this thing of confessing Christ
with our mouth in addition to believing on him in our heart
is absolutely necessary. Confessing Christ with the mouth
is to personally confess Christ first and foremost to God. is
to confess to God our Father that we believe, is to confess
our sin, is to confess our worthlessness, our inability, and is to confess
our gratitude, our thankfulness for Christ, for the Father sending
Christ and confessing to Him that He is all our hope. John
said, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word
is not in us. You see, I want you to understand
this. A man does not have to do anything
but not believe on Christ to be crying loud and clear to God
that he thinks God is a liar and he is ashamed of Christ. Everybody that has not confessed
Christ, not believed on Christ and confessed Christ and consecrated
to Christ, is saying, I think God is a liar and I am ashamed
of Christ. So confessing Him is necessary
to show we are not ashamed of Him. The Scripture says, he that
believes on Him, that is with the heart and shall not be ashamed
with the mouth. First of all to God and then
secondly confessing Christ is to do so publicly before the
church and before this whole world in believers baptism. and believers baptism. Christ
said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not
shall be damned. You know whenever Philip was preaching the gospel
to the ethiopian eunuch, he preached Christ to him and he must have
mentioned baptism. He spoke about baptism. I'm sure
he was speaking of, he preached out Isaiah 53, and I'm sure what
he was saying there was that he was immersed in our sin, immersed
in the judgment of God, in the wrath of God for his people.
That's what baptism is. He called it a baptism himself,
Christ did. He was immersed in that judgment
for his people, and he was buried And all his people were immersed
in that judgment and they were buried in him and then they arose
in him to newness of life, out of that grave. And as he spoke
of that, I'm sure he told the eunuch that the only prerequisite,
the only prerequisite to being baptized in water, to picture
that death, burial, and resurrection, the only prerequisite to it is
faith. And as they came along, the scripture
says, they came into a certain water. You know what that means? That means it was the water God
had ordained from before the world that that eunuch was going
to be baptized in. God had chosen that water. It
was a certain water. And it was not until he had given
the eunuch faith in his heart that they arrived at that certain
water. But they came to that certain water and the eunuch
said, ìSee, hereís water. What does hinder me to be baptized?î
And Philip said, ìWell, youíre going to have to go through six
months of church watch and youíre going to have to learn the creed
of the church and youíre going to have to sign off on a lot
of paperwork saying that you will obey everything weíve told
you and all our extra-biblical creeds and and commandments so
that if it ever comes up again we can come at you and whip you
with it and show you that you got so much vested you don't
dare want to lose our fellowship. He didn't tell him any of that.
He said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And the Ethiopian eunuch confessed
Christ. He answered. He answered. And he said, I believe. that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He said, I believe Jesus Christ
came down from glory because God the Father sent Him. I believe
the Lord Jesus Christ came down and fulfilled the Law and the
Prophets because God the Father gave Him to fulfill the Law and
the Prophets. I believe He went to the cross
and bore my sin and put my sin away. I believe that he bore
my stripes that I deserve and that he bore them and with his
stripes I'm healed. I know he believed that. I know
that's what he was saying because go read Isaiah 53. That's what
Philip preached to him. That's what it is to believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And look at this.
And he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went
both down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, And he
baptized him. You see, it is to confess publicly
in believer's baptism. The only member of the church
that was present there was Philip. It does not matter how big the
group is, it is just that you are publicly confessing Christ. And then confessing Christ is
to testify His gospel to others is to tell others the truth of
the gospel. Not be ashamed to speak of the
gospel. Christ and His gospel can't be separated. He said here,
be not ashamed of me and my words. And all who are ashamed of any
part of the doctrine of Christ, they're ashamed of Christ. You
know, doctrine, I was talking to somebody this past week. We
were talking about, you know, we want to talk about what's
the least you can believe and believe and truly be a believer. Well, the Scripture speaks of
how much you can believe and still be lost, what Scripture
talks about. But if you think about the doctrine
of Christ, it all stands together. You can't believe Christ accomplished
the redemption of His people unless you believe that God chose
a people and gave them to Christ to accomplish their redemption.
And you can't believe that Christ can't even accomplish their redemption
unless you believe that they're so totally depraved they can't
accomplish their redemption. And that tells you that they
got to be born of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. And they got
to be preserved by God. I mean, the Gospel stands together. No part... And you know, a man
may not know all the doctrine. He may not know all the doctrine.
Christ is our salvation. But when he hears it, you know
what he's going to do? He's going to say, that's the truth. God
said it, and that ends it. Whether I understand it or whether
I believe it, that ends it. God said it. And the believer
will bow to what God said and confess, that's so. See, if there's
any part of the doctrine that we despise, we're ashamed of
Christ. And if we're ashamed of Christ,
we're ashamed of His doctrine. They're inseparable. Listen to
this. Go to 2 John 1. I want you to
see this. 2 John 1. This is why we don't have any
brethren who confess that Christ died for all men and want all
men to be saved. That's to be ashamed of the Gospel.
To be ashamed of Christ. 2 John 1 and look at verse 7. Look at this. Many deceivers are entered into
the world who confess not. that Jesus Christ is coming to
flesh. Oh, they must be devils. No,
they're standing in pulpits and they're filling pews and they're
saying Christ died for everybody and wants to save everybody and
he's got a wonderful plan for your life if you just cooperate
with him. They're denying the scriptures. They're denying that
Christ accomplished the redemption of his people, declaring God
just and the justified. and shall give them all life
and faith, and shall save every one of them, and none of them
be lost. And He does it by making us new and making us willing,
not by depending on us like some helpless idol waiting on us to
be obedient and cooperative. He does it. And people who will
not confess that, this is what Scripture says about them, this
is a deceiver and an antichrist. That's what he is. Antichrist
is not somebody mystical person that we're waiting to appear.
Antichrist is everybody that don't believe Christ. Look, look
to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought,
but that we receive a full reward. What's he mean? Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. And he
that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father
and the Son. See, confessing Christ is to
confess to people. Anybody that you can tell them
to. You don't want to go around being
a badger, you know, and getting people in the corner and all
that stuff. But when the door opens, you
tell them the truth. Rob does not have a problem telling
anybody all about Kristen. You know why? He loves her. And
when you love somebody, you're not ashamed to talk about them
and tell what you love about them. And listen to this. That's why the Scripture says,
We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be
the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
And we've known and believed the love that God hath to us.
God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and
God in him. And because that love dwells
in him, he's like Paul, and he says, I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Gentile, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed, Jesus Christ
our righteousness. And so I'm not ashamed. That's
because Paul loved Christ, and he wasn't ashamed to talk about
somebody he loved. You're never ashamed to talk about somebody
you love. Confessing Christ is to publicly
unite and identify with Christ's people as your brethren. Not
being ashamed of his people. He said, he that receives you,
receives me. And he that rejects you, rejects
me. Christ's people and him are one. And so his brethren don't
reject his people. We unite with his people. We
come together under the sound of the gospel to hear the gospel
priest. We assemble together at the Lord's table. And we help
each other any way we can. Why? Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth
him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. This
is not a possibility. This is going to be a fact. This
is a certainty. Everybody born of God loves everybody
born of God. And then lastly, confessing Christ
publicly is to do so by walking in newness of life as opposed
to walking in sin. Look at Romans 6. Romans 6. We confess what we really believe
by how we walk, how we act and behave. Look at Romans 6, verse
1. He'd been saying that the law
entered that sin might abound, but where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Here's the natural man's thought
where he goes with that. Paul said in verse 1, what shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so
many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto
his death? Therefore we're buried with him
by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over Him. For in that He died, He died
unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise,
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, with that
being the case, that's before God, before the law. We're dead
and we're risen now to the newness of life of Christ. Now here we
are, we still sin in our flesh and we still got to wrestle with
that old man of flesh. What should we do now? Knowing
this good news that we'll never die, that we've been redeemed
by Christ, that the law will never condemn us again. Now how
should I live in the world since I know that? Verse 12, let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it
in the lust thereof. Neither yield you your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace.
What then? He is saying there that you are
under grace. You will never be condemned for
sin. What then? Shall we sin now in our mortal
bodies because we are not under the law but under grace? God
forbid. Know ye not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto
righteousness? But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin, that you have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered you, being then made free from
sin, you became the servants of Christ our righteousness. I believe the gospel, now what?
Let's answer it. Number one, come to Christ. Believe
on Christ. Cast all your care on Christ.
Number two, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ. Take up your cross daily. Number three, be consecrated
entirely, yourself and all you have, to Christ. He has the rule,
you're surrendered to Him. And number four, confess Christ
publicly before God and men. Confess Christ publicly before
God and men. I pray God will answer that question
now for us in our hearts. And if you really believe him,
I know what you'll do. You'll do what Christ said to
do. That's what obedience is, to do what Christ said. And that's
what you'll do. Father, we thank you for your
word. We thank you for answering every question we have. We thank you for sending your
son and doing all the works that need to be done for your people
to make us righteous and holy and accepted. We thank you, Lord,
that you sent this gospel and made us to deny ourselves and
give all the glory and honor to Christ. Now, Lord, we pray
You would make us who do believe You, make us keep coming to You.
Lord, make us deny ourselves and suffer the cross daily and
follow You. Make us, Lord, be consecrated
to You. And, Lord, make us confess You.
Make us constantly speak of You and all that You are and all
that You have done in the person of Your Son. And, Lord, whatever
You are doing in the hearts of some some sinner that has not
yet followed this word of our Redeemer. We pray, Lord, that
you'll make it effectual and that you'll make them indeed
obey Christ in these things. And we'll wait on you to do so.
Forgive us our sins, Father. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.