Well, life shall last. How long
is that? What is your life? The vapor. Sleep. That's Psalm 90. We just, you understand what
you're saying. That's from Psalm 90, which I
exhort all of us to read over and over again. Speaks of our
eternal God in whom we live and move and have our being. The
brevity of this life. What is your life? It's just
a vapor. It's sleep. It's like grass. It withers and fades. It's gone,
soon gone. Speaks of our sins in the light
of God's holiness and His Word and the wrath of God clearly
seen from heaven against all ungodliness and speaks of the
number of our days, 70 years. Margaret just turned 70 in case
somebody didn't know. Seventy years? Maybe eighty? He's telling us that's all you
can expect, naturally speaking. That's it. So let us supply our
hearts to wisdom. Let us number our days and supply
our hearts to wisdom. Teach us that. He said, let us
be glad all our days. Satisfy us early. May the Lord
reveal Himself some of our young people now, that we may rejoice
in Him all our days and keep us from this world. And let us be glad in all the
days of adversity, seeing as the goodness of God is taking
us out like the children of Israel. Matthew 16, the title on the
subject is The Life of a Disciple of Christ. Let me just say this
from the beginning. Christ is the life of God's people. Not just doctrine, not just a
slogan. He really is. These disciples
walked, ate, drank, slept, walked, thought of, talked to, were spoken
to by Jesus Christ. It has a chain. It's a marriage. Christ is the husband and we're
the bride. You don't say, you know people
say this all the time, they reveal themselves. Say, God's a big
part of my life. Oh God our, He that dwelleth in the secret
place the most high. Disciple, what struck me in reading
this, is the term disciples. Five times in just this chapter
alone, he speaks of his disciples, his disciples, his disciples. The Pharisees and the scribes
and the Sadducees, they came to him, they wanted to debate,
they wanted to test, put him to the test. And they were only
listening to him to see if they agreed with what he said and
try to find fault with what he said. That's not a disciple of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He called them a bunch of actors,
hypocrites. It was God's people. He said,
the kingdom of heaven is made up of little children. who listen
and hear Him like a little child listens to its father. Excited
and enthusiastic. Believing implicitly. Every word. Hanging on every word. A little
child. I used to lie in bed with Sophie and Isabella. Now the
bed's not big enough for the three of us. Oh, I loved lying
in bed right in the middle of them, reading them stories. You
know, and I was so tired, I wanted to go to sleep. Read it again,
Papa. That's how we ought to hear this.
Read it again, Paul. I didn't catch that last part.
That's a disciple, a learner, a student, a believer, a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you? These were grown men and women
who were in their 30s, 40s, even 50s or older. who sat at his feet. All her day, Mary Magdalene,
all she wanted to do was sit at the feet of Christ and hear
Him, listen to Him. There's nothing on earth she
wanted to do more than to sit at His feet and listen to Him.
And the Lord rebuked Martha, remember? There were things to
do. Yeah, there were things to do, but they can wait. And all those things are going
to be gone someday. So what is the one thing needful? He said, Mary had chosen the
best part. Now, who chose who? Christ chose her, but once He
had chosen her, you know what she chooses? Him. This is the life of a disciple.
This is a believer of Christ. Moses, once Moses saw Christ
crucified in that burning bush, what did he choose? Choosing
rather. and all the riches of Egypt to
be rather than be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. I
want to be with God's people wandering in the wilderness,
heading to the promised land. Is that you? Time will tell about us all. These disciples were all chosen
by God. They didn't choose to be disciples.
Simon Peter. Before the Lord chose him and
revealed Himself to him, nobody told Simon what to do. Don't
you picture Simon that way? Rough, gruff, rough house, you
know? Pulled into a bar by the fishing
wharf and, you know, daring anybody to defy him. Ain't nobody going
to tell him anything today. Proud of himself. No, the Lord
chose him. Made him like a little child.
Totally dependent on him. Looking to Jesus Christ like
he was his mother, father. This is a disciple. Now there are many lessons of
a disciple. First thing we're going to learn
is how unlearned and ignorant we are. Look at verses 5 and
6. The disciples that came to the
other side, they'd forgotten to take bread. And our Lord said,
Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And they said, He's rebuking
us for not bringing bread. He just fed over 20,000 people
at two separate times. Chapter 14. Chapter 15. Hadn't they learned anything?
This ain't about bread. The kingdom of heaven is not
about meat and drink. That's not why he came to feed
people. He said, except you eat my flesh
and drink my blood, you have no part in it. This is real.
A man doesn't live by bread alone. He kept saying it. He already
said that. He sat on the mountain and taught
them. They were there. He said, this
is what the Gentiles think about, eating and drinking. And 1 Corinthians
10, the Lord rebukes and shows us this example that the children
of Israel, all they wanted to do was eat and drink and rose
up to play. And they didn't go into promised
land. That's all they were thinking about. We need to learn this lesson.
It's a lifelong lesson. But this life is not about eating
and drinking and playing, it's about knowing Christ. This is life eternal, our Lord
said in John 17, verse 3. And they heard Him pray this.
That they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. This is life eternal. This is
true life. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son, no matter how much of this world
and this life he hath, he doesn't have life. Isn't this the lesson
that we need to learn more than anything else? This life is not
about things. Because in Him we live and move
and have our being. And this life is going to end.
When? We don't know. It might be today. Say, let's not talk about that.
No, let's do it. That's what Simon Peter said.
Let's not talk about you dying. I'm getting way ahead of myself
here. But they had forgotten to bring
bread. Now, it's wise and it's prudent
for us to provide for our families, and you're going on a trip, and
it's wise and prudent to take things and, you know, For the
future, you know, husband and wife, many men provide not for
his own. He's worse than infidelity. We
need to work and provide and so forth. Proverbs 31 speaks
of a virtuous woman. It says she's hardworking. It says she rises early. She provides meat for her house
and portions for her maidens. That's all a picture of Christ
and a picture of his church. But in Matthew 6, and I just
alluded to it, in the Sermon on the Mount, the great master
and teacher taught all of the people and his disciples saying,
take no thought what you shall eat or what you shall drink,
and wherewithal shall you be clothed. He said, take no thought
for your life what you eat and drink, that is, constantly thinking
about and worrying about providing for your own. This is what he
said. Is that what you're worried about?
Is that what you're taking up with? Who's providing for you? Who's providing? Who has always
provided for you and your family? Worried about your job? Who gave
you that job? The Lord gave you that, John,
all right? Who takes it away? Answer me now. Are you yet without
understanding? That's what he said to his disciples
after all this time. Do you not know that I gave you
that? And if it's taken away, it's
the Lord. Did we not understand that? Our
children, our family, everything about us. Where did you get these
things? The Lord gave them. He said that
life is more than what your body and what you put on, and more
than meat and the body more than... the fowls of the air. He said
they don't sow, they don't reap, they don't gather in the barns,
provide security for the next day or even the next week? Are
you listening? I'm not the one saying this.
Your Lord is. Are you hearing? This is great
comfort. He said, are you not worth more
than many sparrows? He says, not one of them falls
to the ground unless God did it. This is such comfort. Some of
you are nodding your heads and you believe this and you are
getting comfort right now. As soon as you walk out that
door, you are going to forget this lesson. They did. He just fed 5,000, 10 or 11. He just fed 4,000, 9 or 10, 20
some thousand people. And each time they said, where
are we going to get the money to pay for this? Oh, we didn't bring bread. We
didn't make provisions. Is that what you're thinking
about? We're all guilty. Aren't we? Yeah. And this is recorded in
Mark 8. Let me just read it for you. Because we have trouble paying
attention. It just takes a few minutes for
us to be gone. Out of here. What are we doing?
We're thinking about this thing. This is it. There's no tomorrow. Today is a day of salvation.
Listen to this. Mark chapter 8 is the same story. It said, Why are you reasoning
in your hearts that you have no bread? Perceive ye not, don't
ye understand? Have you your heart hardened?
What hardens our hearts? What shuts our ears, shuts our
eyes to the truth? What makes us forget about what
Christ said? The world. The deceitfulness
of sin. Well, who's the God of this world?
Who is it that blinds the minds of men so that they don't hear,
they don't remember? Who is it that wants nothing
more than for you to be taken up with the things of this world?
The God of this world. And this is what he did to Simon
Peter. Now, how often has our Lord,
and he reminded them, do you remember the 5,000? Do you remember
the 4,000? And all the fragments? Do you remember what all was
left over? Do you have food in your pantry? Do you? Do you have
a freezer? Anybody have a freezer? I'd like
to see a show of hands. There probably ain't a person
in here that doesn't have a freezer. If you don't have one, church
does. This is our house. The disciples, every day, they
didn't have a freezer, they didn't have a fridge, they didn't have
a house. Every day, he said, go preach. We need to take a
sack of food. No, you don't. No, you don't. Didn't they? And they came back
and he said, have you lacked anything? After three and a half
years with him, they never worked a job, they didn't even pay their
taxes. Where am I going to get the money
to pay my taxes? When are we going to believe
Christ? When are we going to trust Him? It's going to take a lifetime
in it, a lifetime lesson. About the time we're ready to
leave here, well then we start reverting back to little children
worrying about the same things over again. And we'd live in so much more
peace and comfort and rest if we just really trusted Him, wouldn't
we? Worrying about these things. Here's the question for all disciples. Go back to Matthew 16. He said in verse 13, Whom do
men say that I the Son of Man am? Now this is the question. This
is the question of all questions. What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is it? Who is it? Who is Jesus? Over
the years, I've seen this, Time Magazine, they've printed it
and reprinted it two or three times and put a picture, that
idol, that supposed picture of Jesus. That's an idol. And with the title on the front
of it, Who is Jesus? They're still trying to figure
out who he is. They didn't know then. They don't know now. Do
they? They're still trying to figure
him out. His disciples aren't. They know who he is. How? Now,
it was a little while before this, Simon Peter didn't know
and he didn't care. Did he? Well, he does now. He does now, and He's following
him from now on. This is the question of all questions.
Whom do men say that I am? I, the Son of Man, am. This Son
of, they think He's the Son of Joseph, Son of Mary. Well, they said, some are saying
you're John the Baptist. You know, remember, was it Herod
that thought, you know, he beheaded Him and he thought, well, He's
risen from the grave. Elijah, the Jews thought Elijah
was going to make an actual appearance. Well he did, but only three men
saw it. Remember John? Who saw it? Next chapter. Next
chapter. He took James and Peter and John
on a mountain and Moses and Elijah were there. What did they talk
about? What did they talk about? Christ's
crucifixion. No, Elijah's not going to come
back to this world. He said all he's going to say.
What did Elijah say? What did he talk about when he
was on this earth? Christ! What did Moses talk about? Who
did Moses write of? Christ! This is the lesson he's
teaching them and us right now. This is the subject of all sin.
This is life or death. What think ye of Christ? Whose
Son is He? Hmm. Well, some say he's one
of the prophets. Moses said, a prophet like unto
me, that prophet, that's, he's the prophet. This is the question
of all questions, life or death. I quoted it, John 17, 3. This
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
the living God, the God in whom we live. and move in heaven,
not the God that men are talking about. You let him be God and
God wants to. That's what men are saying about
God, and that's what they're saying about Jesus. Well, he's
a healer, he's a friend, he's a lover, he wants to save me,
he's outside of your heart. That is not the Jesus Christ.
If you don't have life, you believe in that Jesus. That's another
Jesus, another gospel, another God, wrong God. You're dead in
your sins. Dead in religion. You're a Pharisee,
a scribe, and a Sadducee, you don't know Jesus Christ. They
didn't know him then, they don't know him now. They're playing
a game. They're hypocrites. Not worshiping
God. Worshiping man. Man's will, man's
works, man's worth, man's wisdom, man's devotion. True worshipers. Worship God and rejoice in Jesus
Christ. Now here's the question, verse
15, that he posed to his disciple. And this is a question to us,
to me. Whom do you say that I am? I am. Whom do you say I am? Simon Peter was always speaking
up, wasn't he? He spoke so many times. when
he shouldn't have spoke, didn't it? Scripture says, let us be
swift to hear and slow to speak, slow to rap. Simon Peter, he
just spoke out all the time. This is one time that he spoke
out on behalf of all of God's disciples, Christ's disciples.
Look at it. No hesitation. Thou art, whom
do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. John 6, when our Lord was teaching about
himself, John 6, oh my, what he said, he said, Moses didn't
give you that bread, I'm the bread. And on and on he went. And the people, he said, except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me.
And then after he spoke and taught about himself, his sovereignty,
his personality, he is life itself. Many disciples walked no more
with him. They said, this is hard saying,
we can't take this. We can't take this anymore. The cost is
too great. We have our life to live, and
he's not going to be our life. We're not going to have this
man reign over us. We don't want to be in charge
of our own life. We want to do what we want to do, go where we want
to go, live our own life. He can be a part of it, but not
all of it. And they walked no more with him. And he turned
to his disciples, and he said to them, Will you also go away? I tell you what, you will go
away if you can. Yes, you will. Many have from
this very... And I'm preaching the exact same
subject, the exact same things I preached 36 years ago when
I first came here. And you will go away if you're
not a true disciple of Jesus Christ. If Christ is not your
life, you will go away. It's just a matter of time. It's
a sad thing, too. It breaks my heart. It breaks
the hearts of God's people. People choose this world and
themselves and their families and everything else over Jesus
Christ. It's sad. And they lose their
life. They lose their soul. And this
is what He's going to go on to tell us. Oh, boy. It's that serious. And Simon Peter said, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. Simon Peter, as I said, was just
a fisherman, an old godless worldly man, but Christ came and chose
him. What do you think about election? Oh my, Simon Peter, his first
letter, he said, Elect! That's the first thing he said
and he wrote, Elect! Well, you've got to keep on keeping
on. What's the next thing Peter said? Kept by the power of God. Christ was his life. He knew
it. He was dead before Christ came. He heard the voice of the Son
of God. If Christ hadn't chosen him, he wouldn't have lived.
Bless God, he heard the gospel. Christ crucified. He said, Thou art the Christ.
Before, he didn't care. Now he does. In fact, there's
not much else he cares about. He left everybody. He had a home. He had a family. He had a wife.
He had children. And so did the other. He left
all that. He said so. He said, Lord, we've
left everything. Follow You. And they didn't think
they sacrificed anything. Paul did. Paul said, what things
were gained to me is lost. All my life before I knew Christ,
my life, was a waste of time and effort and energy and money.
It's a waste. He said, it's done. Oh, but the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ, the unsearchable riches
of Christ. He said, I want to win. This
is my heart's desire, my life pursuit, the thing I am going
after, forgetting that past death. pressing for the mark, for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ. I want to win
Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
but that righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ.
Oh, I want to know the power of His resurrection. Is that
you? Is it really? It is now, people. It is or it isn't. He is. He is or He isn't. What does Simon Peter say? What
does it mean to say that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living
God? Who is Jesus of Nazareth? This
is the question of all questions. This is what preachers need to
be standing in the pulpit this very day, preaching to every
single human being. What do you think of Jesus Christ?
He that hath the Son hath life. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Let
me tell you who He is. All the prophets prophesied of
Him, who is to come. They said, unto us a child is
born. The Son is given. Call His name. Wonderful Counselor. Can you quote the rest of that?
The mighty God. That man that walked this planet.
Made it. How? Spoke it. Proved it when
he was on his third. Everything he said. Yeah. The mighty God. The what? Everlasting Father. The disciples, even Philip said,
show us the Father. He said, have I been so long
time with you? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Didn't
he? All these denominations, all
these pretended worshippers of God and Jesus Christ, the Mormons,
the Jehovah Witnesses, the Seventh-day Adventists who try to keep the
Law, keep the Sabbath, they don't know Jesus Christ. They say He's
the Son of God, yes, but He's no more Son of God than you and
I are. That's what they say. They say He's not Jehovah. No,
no, no. He's not God. Yes, He is. Scripture says so. God said so. Didn't He? Didn't He say that
in Hebrews 1, Brother John? Unto the Son He saith, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. All the Jews knew that the Christ
who was coming was God. Y'all knew that. Listen, that's
Isaiah 9, 6. I didn't quote it all. It says,
"...of His government there will be no end." His reign and His
rule, no end. He reigns and rules over the
armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. This Jesus, this
Jesus Christ, Your life, You, Your family, Your future, everything
about You is in His hands to do with as He pleases. That's
Jesus. That's who he is. They didn't
like that then, they don't like it now. His disciples do. Yes, they do. That's where they
want it. David said, my times are in thy hands. My God, I want
them there. Don't you? Listen to Isaiah 25. This is
speaking of the Lord. Oh Lord, capital L-O-R-D, that's
Jehovah. Thou art my God. What did Thomas
say? What do you say, Thomas? What
did he call him? My Lord and my God. Did he? This is Isaiah 25. He goes on
to say, in this mountain shall the Lord, that's Jehovah, the
Lord of hosts, make unto all people a feast, a fat thing,
wine on the leaf. What's that? That's His blood,
His body, His broken. That's Christ crucified in this
mountain, mountainside. They're going to know that that
Jesus is Jehovah. All of them. Without controversy. Oh, it's a mystery to most, but
it's not a mystery to us. He's revealed unto us this mystery.
God was manifested in the flesh. He'll destroy in this mountain
the face of the covering, cast over all the people, the veil
over the people. And the very next chapter, Matthew
17, He took three up there, peeled back the veil and they saw. And this is Jehovah's Witnesses,
they take these verses, no man has seen God at any time, or
can see, no man can see. Job said, I'm going to see God.
Didn't he? The disciples did, they saw God.
Who is He? Jesus Christ. And once again, it's not just
a doctrine, not a fact you believe. When you believe this, It's your life. He's your life. Read on. Let me read on to you. It shall be said in that day,
lo, this is our God. We've waited for him. He will save us. Not we ourselves. He will save
us. All who say he wants to save
They don't know God. They don't know Jesus Christ.
They don't know why he came. They don't know who he is. They
don't know why he came. They don't know what year on the cross.
They don't know what happened in the garden. They don't know what
the new birth is. They don't know the spirit of
God. They don't know Christ. They don't know Christ. Do you?
Whom do you say that he is? He said, if you believe not that
I am, you'll die on your sins. I am. Blessed Arthel, Kelly Bar Pendry, Mike Bar Anderson,
son of Anderson, John Bar Sheasley. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. No man knoweth the father but
the son, neither knoweth any man the son, but he to whom the
vice versa. No man knoweth the son but the
father. They didn't know him when he came. The father said,
this is my son. And no man knoweth the Father,
but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal. And you can't
know God apart from crying. You understand that? You do. Why? Because He's come
and given you an understanding that you might know Him that
is true. True what? The true and living
God. And you're in Him. You know what
that means, don't you, John Barr Davis? That you're in Him. You know what that means, don't
you, buddy? Is there anything you want more than that, like
Noah? Anything you want more in this life than to be found
in Jesus Christ, the ark of your salvation. Anything. You know
when this is all over, when God, Jesus Christ comes to destroy
this world, one thing is going to be seen rising above it all.
Christ. Oh, I want to be found in Him.
When He comes. This is the last thing He said.
I'm coming. He's coming. You're going to see Him. All
places you're going to see Him in His glory. When you see Him, You know what that'll do? It'll
obscure all this stuff. When you hear His voice, you
know what that'll do? It'll make you stop your ears to this world
and turn your ears and your eyes before it's the other way around.
And now that you've heard Him, like Ephraim, you say, what have
I to do anymore with that? I've heard Him. That's silent
Peter. Is Christ your God? I say, this is our Lord, this
is the Lord, this is Jehovah. We have waited for Him. We'll
be glad and rejoice in His salvation. I'm preaching to you the gospel
again. The same old gospel. Again, old? Yes, it's old. Good news, but
it's as old as Moses. It's as old as God. I've got to hurry. back in our
text, thou art the Christ. When he says that he's the Christ,
that means he's God manifested in the flesh. When he says he's
the Christ, the Christ is his office. You know, his title is
Lord. That's what you call him. When
you refer to the president or the king, you address him as
such, don't you? If you really fear him, that's
what you do, Lord Jesus. That's his title, that's his
name, Jesus, Savior. Christ is his office. That's
His work. That's what He came to do. Christ.
Oh, the Scriptures is full of Christ. Christ means the Messiah. The, the anointed one. Peter said, Thou art the Christ.
The anointed one. The only one. Definite, singular. The. The Son of the living God. The. The. There are no other.
All these so-called preacher and preacherettes said, I'm anointed. I've got the anointing. Have
you got the anointing? Thou art the Anointed One. And
like the precious ointment in Psalm 133 that flowed down from
the head to the beard to the skirts of Aaron's garment, we're
only anointed, we're only blessed through the Anointed One, the
Christ One. In Him, all blessing. Thou art
the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Christ, that means
prophet, priest, and king. We don't need another prophet,
do we? Do we need another prophet? The woman at the well said, when
Christ has come, he'll tell us all things. He had come. She didn't know
him. She's about to. What did he say? I that speak unto thee am. her grandmother's, that thing
that was in their family for generations. It meant everything
to her, that fine water pot. It was a Waterford crystal. She dropped it. And ran home. What'd she do? Tell everybody
about the Christ. Come see a man. If you ever really hear Christ,
if He ever really reveals Himself to you, you know what you're
going to talk about? You know what you're going to want other
people to know? Him. Him. Whom to know is to have life.
If they don't, they're going to lose this life. They're going
to lose everything in it. It's gone. Every bit of it. Gone. Christ. Prophet, priest, king. Priests. Oh, the millions of
Catholics. Tell them. Tell them who the
priest is, the great high priest. They need to know. Somebody told
you, didn't they? Mike, somebody told you, didn't
they? There's a former Catholic. He's the second Adam, and I was
going to go to Romans 5. You know, my dad, I listened
to him, my pastor, I listened to him preach on this. He just dwelt on the one verse.
But he said, I wish people would read the Bible. I wish people
had some understanding of the Bible. The second Adam? Nobody's asking that question.
Nobody knows what it means to be the second Adam. It's vital. You do, don't you? They sing,
Hark the herald angels sing. Second Adam, from above, reinstate
us in thy love. Adam's likeness now in thy face,
stamp thine image into place. Second Adam. This is a covenant
head. This is substitution. This is
a federal head. This is somebody that represents
a people. In Adam, all die. Every son of
Adam is going to die. Well, how are we going to live?
In Christ. Only. He's the second Adam. The first
man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord of
glory. Do you know the difference? There's
life on this earth, which is not life at all, because it ends.
There's eternal life, spiritual life. There's a soul, and animals
have a soul. It's that which animates and
makes them live and breathe and eat and drink and sleep, and
that's all they do. But there's a spiritual life,
and that comes from God alone. You can't attain that. You can't work toward it. You're
not educated into it. It's given to you. Life-giving, like Lazarus today,
lives. It's just completely different.
That which is flesh is flesh. That which is spirit is spirit.
The Son of God came. He said, I have come that they
might have what? Life. And Adam all died. Every one of us is going to die.
If you don't have Christ, you're not going to live. He that hath the Son hath life
right now. That's why some of you are loving
what you're hearing. That's why some of you know what
you know, who you know. And keep coming. Oh my. Look at verse 21. And from that time forth, he
began to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem,
suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests and scribes,
be killed and be raised again the third day. From that time
forward, for the rest of their days with Him, He began to show
them Christ and Him crucified. Are you catching this? From that
time forward and from the time He chooses you, His disciple,
that's what He shows you for the rest of your life. That's
what you're going to hear. That's what you're going to be
taken up with. That's what you're going to rejoice in. Christ and
Him crucified. Right? We believe and we preach Christ.
Yes, His wonderful, glorious person and His work crucified. He came to die. Because if He
didn't die, we won't live. Because we live by Him dying. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. But you know Isaiah 53, don't you? God made His soul.
an offering for sin. So who shall lay anything in
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies it. Who
is he that condemns it? What's the next word? Christ
died. It's your own salvation. And we're taken up with that
for the rest of our day. And that's the only purpose of
a preacher like Moses holding up the serpent in the wilderness.
That's the only purpose. That's the purpose of this building.
That's the purpose of the church. The pillar and the ground of
the truth. What's the truth? It's a person. It's Christ and
Him crucified. Unless people see Christ like
that brazen serpent, they're going to die from the bite of
the God of this world, Satan, this serpent. This is not a creed. This is
not a statement. This is not just something we
say. This is a matter of life or death. You've got to see Christ
crucified. You've got to. He's it. And from that day forward, he
began to show. Well, Simon Peter, this is important, took him aside
and began to rebuke him, said, Oh, Lord, don't, oh, no, Lord,
let's not talk about you dying. Oh, no, let's not talk about
your suffering. Let's not talk about your death.
Let's not talk about your blood. No, let's not talk about that.
Let's talk about living. Let's talk about living a victorious
life. Let's talk about what things, you know, what a friend we have
in Jesus and how He'll feed us and He's our friend and He wants
us to be good husbands and mothers and fathers and all that. No,
what did Christ say? Get behind me, Satan. You don't care about the things
of God, but the things of men. What's the things of men? This
world. What's the things of religion? What's religion all taken up?
This world. They're of the world and they speak of the world.
That's what they speak of. Under the guise of worshipping
God and worshipping Jesus. Oh yes, He shed His precious
blood. Now, let's talk about living the victorious life. Let's
talk about acquiring a fire. Let's talk about speaking in
tongues. Let's talk about this. Let's talk about that. No, let's
not. That's Satan's ploy. That's what Satan does to keep
people from thinking on Christ crucified. There's nothing he
wants more than for people to think about other things than
Jesus Christ and him crucified. He knows what's the power of
God. It's the gospel. He's seen it. He's seen the power
of God take his subjects from him. Out of the religion. Out of the gutter. He's seen
it. One thing. He's seen it. He's seen a gutter
dweller, a pew dweller, sit in the church where the gospel of
Christ is preached. Nothing else. No invitation.
No choirs. No nothing. Just the Word of
God of Christ on the cross. And seen these people taken out
from His bondage, from His hand, and bowed to, and loved, and
from that day forward followed Jesus Christ only. He's seen
that happen. He knows this is the power of
God. He doesn't believe it, but he
knows, and his ploy is to keep people from hearing that. It blinds the minds of men from
hearing the gospel. There's more to it than this,
people. That's what he says. There's
more to life than this. He says there's other things.
No, there's not. He that hath the Son hath life. Do you understand why that happens?
He's teaching them and He's teaching us. There is nothing else. Yes,
you've got to live your life. Yes, you've got to raise your
children. Yes, you've got to work a job and all that. But Christ
is your life. Because we're going to lose all
these things. But He that hath a Son does not lose anything. Gain. Gain. Oh, I like a man, one time they
asked him, Somebody asked him, what do you do for a living?
He said, Christ is my life. I'm a plumber to meet expenses. What do you do for a living?
I was dead until I heard Christ. Now I'm living. And He's my life. Oh, it's sad. Now look in closing,
it says, if any man come after me, verse 24, if it's me you're
after, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take
up his cross and follow me. Deny himself before we We're
given life. We're in love with ourselves.
We live for ourselves. And self is you. Self is you
and yours and your family. Not God. Not Christ. Not the
church. Not the kingdom of God. It's
me and I, me and mine. Right? You're in love with yourself. Thought more about your family
and yourself and everything else. Might have given God a brief,
passing thought. That's not the disciple of Christ. To deny self, many things. Deny
your self-worth. You and I, brethren, are not
worth saving. Nobody deserves a chance to be
saved. Nobody. Oh, no. It's to deny your wisdom.
These disciples didn't know anything. They didn't know God. They didn't
know themselves. They didn't know the truth. They didn't know
salvation. They didn't know where they were coming or going. They
didn't know nothing. And our Lord kept calling them little
children all their life. Little children. You hadn't learned
anything yet. It's to deny your wisdom. Well, what is your wisdom? He has made unto us wisdom. It's to deny your righteousness.
Your self-righteousness. After all these years, people,
if you don't know why you're going to be allowed to be in
God's heaven, Only the righteous. If you don't know this, you don't
know Christ. Talks about the righteous and
the wicked. Who's righteous? Well, so is it. Quit this, quit
that, and quit... No, it isn't. Not in. It's those whom Jesus
the Christ came down here to live a perfect life and give
them his perfect righteousness and take upon him their sin,
made their sin be punished by God for all that they did and
give them all he did. That's it. That's your only help
with it. Do you understand that? Sanctification. He's made on
his wisdom, righteousness. It's to deny your sanctification. Are you getting better? A believer
and not a disciple in here thinks they're getting better. They
think they're getting worse. Why? Because they're growing in grace.
They're not getting worse, they're just growing in grace. Their eyes are being
opened to things about themselves that they just keep seeing. What
does that drive them to? Christ. And redemption. He's made on wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption. It's to deny that you have any
redeeming qualities. That if you're going to be saved
from down in the pit, God's going to have to provide the ransom. I've heard that verse of many
times, but that just gave me great joy to just say it. Deliver
this boy from going down into the pit. He wants in the pit.
He got him out of the pit, and he'll go back to the pit if I
don't say delivering. How? The ransom. Here's the ransom. I'm getting worse. Look! Believe, but I'm such a sinner. You were when He found you, and
you will be until you die. Look! and live! It's that simple. And Satan seeks
to blind the minds of everybody from the simplicity that's in
Christ and Him alone. Brothers and sisters, this is
a good message. This is THE message. If I never preach another one,
I kind of hope this is it. I go out believing, well, I preach
the gospel. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Would
be for me, I guess, maybe for some of you. Oh, he said, you
take up your cross. What's our cross? We don't glory
in anything we suffer. We glory in His suffering. It's
to take up the cross of Christ. It's to take up the cause of
Christ. It's to go home like that woman and say, let me tell
you what great things the Lord has done for me on the cross. That's it. And follow me. He said, whoever
loses, it will save his life. That is, whoever, all they think
about is this life, the things of it, family, home, long life,
good health, saving money, providing for your kids, and this and that
and the other, is that's all you think about. Every single person in here is
going to lose every one of those things. It's just a matter of
time. A matter of time. You're going
to lose it all. Everybody. You can't keep it. We brought
nothing into this world. Here's wisdom. We brought nothing
into this world, and it is absolutely certain that we can take nothing
out of this world. Naked we came into this world,
and that's how we're going to leave, isn't it? Then what? Then you get clothed. If you
know Christ, you get clothed. with a garment of righteousness.
You get to be where at his right hand are joys, joy unspeakable,
full of glory. Unspeakable joy. Righteousness
and peace and joy of the Holy Spirit and the things of God
and a new heaven and a new earth and these former things will
not be remembered. All because of Jesus. And then he said, What would
a man give in exchange for his soul? People are so foolish,
so blind, so foolish, they'd give anything. Why isn't this
building full? Because Christ is not what people
want. They will exchange their soul
for a trip to the Super Bowl. They'll exchange their soul for
a trip to Daytona 500. Yeah, they will. They'll exchange
their soul for a gold medal at the Olympics. They'll exchange
their soul for a ten-point buck. Hunting is their life. Fishing,
a ten-pound bass. A six-pack of beer. That's how
foolish. Exchange their soul for family,
for friends, for life, for life savings, for a good home, for
a good job, for a new car and all that. How foolish can you
get? Because it's all going to lose everybody. And if you get old enough, you
won't be young enough to enjoy any of those things. That's Ecclesiastes
12. That's the last chapter in Ecclesiastes.
You'll be so old, you can't enjoy anything. And boy, if you know
Christ. That was what you preached in
Psalm 71. If you know Jesus Christ, in
your old age. Mark the perfect man. In that
man is peace. You can leave this world in peace.
and he'd keep you in perfect peace, his mind is stayed on
him. All right, stand with me.