Luke chapter 9. The Gospel of
Luke chapter 9. Isaac Watts wrote
that. He was a great preacher himself. A hymn writer. And he surely
had Galatians 6.14 in mind when he wrote that. God forbid Yahshua
glory, saving the cross. Luke chapter 9. Three groups meet, three different
groups meet, meet Sundays. And I look at each, the list
of who's coming, and I think, what message should I preach
to this group? I prepare three different messages.
What message should I preach to this one? What message should
I preach to this one? I look at so-and-so and preach to this
one. I stop, I stop myself. I think,
he doesn't matter. It should be to all. Verse 23,
the Lord said this to them all. You see that? He said to them all. Everything
he said, he said to all of his disciples. With twelve men, there
were a few of them related. James and John were brethren.
Andrew and Simon Peter were brethren. Most of them were different.
Different families and personalities. Some Yankees, Midwesterners,
Easterners, they're really the same. All just a bunch of sinners.
They all need to hear all that the Lord said. Look at Luke chapter
4. Go back to Luke chapter 4. As do we all. We all need to
hear. All of us, every one of us needs
to hear every word. Every word. Mindy told me that
message was a blessing. She said, I wish I'd have been
here to hear that. Well, you know, you're here to hear this.
It's the same thing, really, the same one that we preach. Every word, though. Most professing
believers have a pick-and-choose religion. They pick and choose
out of the Bible what they believe and leave the rest up to God.
which is most everything. They don't really believe. Most
people do not really believe everything that God said, so
they don't repeat it. Right? You don't hear preachers
and people today repeating half of what the Lord Jesus Christ
said. Virtually none of what God said in the Old Testament.
They think God has changed, because they see very clearly that God
of the Old Testament Holy. Just. Wrath. Anger. And suffering. Absolutely suffering. So they choose not to believe
that God. And now they think God is different.
And Jesus is just all love. And they don't say half. They
don't say 90% of what Jesus Christ said. Look at this. Luke 4. Keep this
in mind, verse 4, the Lord answered, tempted by Satan, Luke 4, 4. The Lord answered him, saying,
It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word of God. Right? That's what he said. Not
just the word, but every word. You can't leave out anything
God said. Someone asked, what must you
believe to be saying? Everything. Whatever God says. So Christ's true disciples, and
this separates the true from the false. It really does. It
separates the wheat from the chaff. It separates sheep from
the goats. God's people believe everything
he says. And they love it. They don't
just believe it. They love it. the love of the truth. And they
say God is true and every man is a liar. That's what they say. But, but, but, no. Right, Brother
Steve? No. I believe God. These disciples hung on our Lord's
every word. There were no idle words told
to people earlier. Our Lord never uttered an idle
word. Not one thing came out of his
mouth that wasn't infinite wisdom, glory, knowledge, necessary,
vital, urgent life or death. And you can hang on. You can
hang your soul. You need to hang your soul on
everything he said. We need every proof. We need
every rebuke. We need every exhortation, every
admonition, every correction. We need every chastening. We
need every word, not just love, love, love, love. Like your children. What kind of children would they
be? Well, they'd be worse than what they are. If all you did
was, oh, I love you, love you, love you, everything, love you,
love you, love you, love you. Now you need a whole lot of correction. Our Lord's words were serious. Paul one time said to the Corinthians,
he said, did I use lightness? The things I purpose, he said,
did I purpose according to flesh? Did I just say, well, what are
we going to do? No. According to the Word of God. It's not light. I don't, you
can't picture Paul or Peter or any of those fellas preaching
like these fellas smile, smile on their face all the time. Can't.
Too serious. Would you listen to a fella like
that, Stephen? You'd listen to Simon Peter,
wouldn't you? These men, they were all killed
for this. Nothing funny about it. Nothing
light, nothing frivolous, nothing to be toyed with. It's life.
Our Lord was serious. His words were sobering. Words
that separate the wheat from the chaff. Convict and convince. Now, the Lord told them he was
going to the cross. Go back to Luke 9. Luke chapter
9, verse 22. Right before this, the Lord said,
The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected. We just
read that, didn't we? Rejected. Spies are rejected
of men. This Christ is not loved by man. He's rejected. Spies. and be rejected of the elders,
chief priests and scribes. Who's that? Religion. Is man
different now? No. There's more religion now
than ever. So there's more people that hate
the Christ. You know it's so. They said he'd
be slain. Who killed him? There was an
argument years ago in Time Magazine. Who killed Jesus? That's the
thing on the front cover. And there was an argument. The
Jews resented that people said they were the one. Honestly. They said, no, it's the Romans.
The Romans said, no, it's the Jews. No, it's the Gentiles. What does
the scripture say? Everybody. Everybody did. All mankind. But the chief ones
that led the crucifixion party were religious people. He told them he's going to be
going to the cross to suffer and die. He told them. And he's
going to tell us, you're going to go to the cross. You're going to take up the cross. It's not a happy, happy, happy
message. The end it will be. The end is unspeakably happy.
But not until then. Fr. Scott Richardson said, you
know, I've never really heard any bad news since I've heard
the good news. But it's not good news until you hear the bad news.
Our Lord left happiness to come to this sad place. to save poor,
wretched, miserable sinners from this sad plight, from this sinful
plight. Not to make us happy here, but
to take us out of this plight. That's why He came. And He did so by suffering through
sin, bearing our sins and death for us. From the manger to the
cross, the Lord lived a life of suffering. voluntarily. More than all of us combined,
more than all human beings combined, he was hunted, he was hated from
his birth, he was maligned, he was mistreated from a child,
he was despised and rejected by everyone, and finally crucified
in shame, naked. Why? Because man is a despicable creature. That's right. Who did that? Man
did it. That's what man thinks of God.
That's what man thinks of holiness. Man is despicably bad, evil. You tell people that and they'll
get angry at you. Just say, the cross. That's proof. And men hate that because God
is unspeakably holy. He cannot understand God's true
nature apart from the cross. What will God do with sin and
sinners? The cross will tell us. He's a just God, righteous God,
who by no means cleared the guilty. He kept saying that. He kept
saying, by no means cleared the guilty. This God said, I'm going
to destroy this whole world. People. He's angry. That's what the scripture says.
A loving God doesn't destroy people he loves. The holy God
does. He destroys people Now, Luke chapter 9, the just God
and the Savior. Luke chapter 9, there are 24
chapters, the longest gospel in the book. Matthew has 28,
but it's not as long, not as many verses. 24 chapters. We're in chapter
9. And he started right before this talking about the cross.
I just realized this, looking at this. We've been through Luke
a couple of times already. I just realized, from right here,
Luke 9 to chapter 24, he's talking about, he's headed to Jerusalem.
I mean, from right here, he's headed to Jerusalem. Fifteen chapters. What's it about? He's headed to the cross. What's
everything he's saying about it? What's the cause of crying?
Why did he come? For what cause did he come? The
cross. Right here he's telling us. He
started telling me, I'm going to the cross. That's why I came.
I didn't come to make everybody happy. I came to go to the cross. Look at verse 51. It came to pass when it was When
the time was come that he should be received thus, he steadfastly
set his faith to go to Jerusalem. Like David. You know, the first
mention of David, apart from being crowned as king. Samuel came, and they brought
in David, and he said, It may rise. It's him. That's like Psalm
2. God said, I've set my king on
my holy heaven's eye. The law before Christ's king. Talk about here he is, king of
all. King of everything. He's coming. Why'd he come? Why
did David come? Next mention of David, he's going
out against Goliath. Next mention of David is he goes
out against Goliath and he says, is there not a cause? And didn't Christ say? What shall
I say? Father, deliver me from this
hour, for this hour, for this cause has come out of this world.
This is the cause. Why did Christ come? Because sin must be punished. God's people,
he chose to save, and there's only one way. Christ's crucifixion. That's why he came. Twenty-four
chapters. The next fifteen chapters lead
into the cross. All right, so he tells us, look
at verse 23, if any, he said to them all, if any man is in
italicism, man, woman, young person, will come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. And that's as far as we're going
to get this morning. We don't need to go any further.
We do, but that will be the next hour. If any will come after
me. Alright, let's look at these
words. This one verse is just, oh my, every word is significant.
He said to them all, to them all, except you deny yourself,
take up the cross. Cannot be my disciples then.
Well, if any man come after me, If it's me, you're after. That's
what he's saying. If it's me, you're after. We go after things,
though. That's English language. What are you going after? I'm
going after her. Rick, guess what we did? We set
our eyes on that girl. The Lord put love in our hearts,
and I'm after her. We got them, didn't we? They
got us. That's a good illustration, because when the Lord, he sets
his love and affection, and he chooses, Brother Stephen, he
chooses his bride. They don't choose him. And he
goes after her. Isn't that what he said? He left
the 99 and goes what? After his lost sheep. Why? Why would he go to great length
after one? Because that's who he is. My daughter has a soft spot. Catherine, you'll appreciate
this. She loves animals, you know. From a child, she wanted
to be a veterinarian, you know. So she would baby and doctor
every chicken and all this and that. Well, just recently, she
took in some chickens to raise for somebody had a farm and she
was going to give them back to them. Well, one of them was weaker
than the other. And that chick got way down. like he was going
to die. She nursed that chicken and wiped
it, you know, and fed it with a syringe. See, we've had chickens, haven't
we? What is one little chick worth? You know how many are born a
day? Brother Fred Wood, as a He used
to work for Tyson Chicken. He said they killed two million
chickens a day. One chicken place. Two million
a day. Where'd they work? I've been
down to Johnny and Tommy Parker's farm. You'll see. They've got
hundreds of thousands of chickens. You go in there any time, there'll
be dead ones laying there. Where'd they work? Nothing. I said, Hannah, you're a savior
of a worthless little chicken. And she nursed her back to life.
Okay. Why? Because that's who she is.
That chicken wasn't worth nothing. She gets the honor, he said.
And so it is with salvation. We're all just like... Our mothers
may think we're special. We're not, are we, Steve? He went after his bride. He went
after her like gold. went after Homer. Worthless. And then he sets our affection
on him. Thank God, huh, that he put,
our wives put love for us in him, right? Or they wouldn't
have followed us. It would have been gone a long
time ago, right Jim? A long time. But he puts this love for Christ
in his people. And from that day forward that
he reveals himself, they go after him. They follow him. They follow him. All right, look
at verse 23. It says, If you come after me,
if it's me you're after, let him deny himself. Deny himself. Oh, you know, In the last days,
perilous times, 2 Timothy 3 says, the first thing it says about
the last days, the very first thing, the most prevalent characteristic. Now listen to this. Listen to
how ironic this is, how prophetic this is. In the last days, perilous
times shall come. Men shall be lovers of their
own selves. Now isn't that now more than
ever? Used to, you know, 50, 60 years
ago, people that went through some hard times and all that,
went through the Depression and all that, weren't so proud, weren't
so emotional, weren't so brave, didn't have so much to say. They've
been through some hard times. They're somewhat humble, somewhat
meek, somewhat lowly, because they went through some tough
times and realized you could lose them in it. Not now. Well,
look what's happened. But it won't last. But lovers
of themselves, aren't I something? Proud, bolstered, heavy, high-minded,
blasphemers, in God's name, unthankful, unholy. Look at me. Look at what
I've done. So what has God done? Why did
the Lord send me this? It sure doesn't take much for
the Lord to reduce man to a nothing, a germ. Now what are you going
to do? Many men come after me. When
you're going to follow Christ, if you fall in love with Christ,
if you follow Christ, you're going to deny yourself. You're
going to deny yourself. What that means is you're going
to loathe yourself. You're going to hate yourself.
God's going to turn a self-lover into a self-hater. Listen to
me. Not me, but this is what God's
Word said. God is going to destroy a world
full of people who love themselves and hate His Son. And He's created
a new heaven and a new earth for those that love His Son and
hate themselves. Is that you? Job. Job said, I hate myself. Deny self. Loathe self. Only a believer knows what this
means. You know that? People love themselves, but not
God's people. But it's a lifelong battle with
this fellow named self in it. This occurred to me studying
this. Simon Peter. I pictured him before the Lord
saved him as just a rough, gruff fish in a lemon. I pictured him maybe bigger than
everybody else. Rough as a cob. Fisherman. Probably
mean to his wife. Mean to everybody. Challenged
everybody. Coming out of the boat, you know,
didn't catch anything all night. What's he going to do? He's going
to hit this bar. Challenging everybody. Mad, mean. Don't you picture Peter like
that. Thinks highly of himself. Low
thoughts about it. All right, when the Lord came
and revealed himself to Peter, the Lord revealed his wondrous
personality, his power. The Lord came by Peter's boat
one day. And with one word, Ricky, that
big, tough, rough fella, he reduced him to a puppy following the
Lord. Follow me. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ, isn't it? That's the Christ we know. That's
the Christ who saved. That's the Christ who came. That's
the Christ who called, effectually. That's the King who came, finding
his subject, saves whom he will. That's the Jesus Christ description.
Calls whom he will, and buddy, they follow him. And Simon and
Peter follow him. Okay. But, in the end, and our
Lord said, Peter, Satan hath desired you. Sits you like wheat. And one of the first things Satan
does is, you're somebody. That's what he said to Adam and
Eve. You have free will. You'll be
as God. Rise up. Plead. Claim your rights. Simon Peter. So the first thing after the
Lord was taken, Simon Peter denied. The Lord. He didn't have the
Lord. They came to him. One little
maid. What does it take to reduce a
big, old, tough guy to nothing? Nothing. A little old maid. Said,
here's what I just decided. He started cussing at them. I
don't know that man. I ain't one of those Christians.
Me? No. Blankety, blankety, blankety. Now notice, he denied. Our Lord
says, you better deny yourself. He denied, left to himself, one
moment, he denied that the only good man that ever lived, the
only man not worth denying, the only man worth glorying in, the
only man worth boasting in, the only man that's worth anything,
the only man that ever lived that's worth anything, he denied
it. I don't want anything to do with
that family. No, I'm not one of his. Oh, man. Then with a look, with a look,
the Lord was in his, he was in the Lord's eyesight. Peter looked up and there the
Lord was looking at him. I believe, Brother Stephen, I believe from
that moment on. Says he went out and went there.
I believe from that moment on, he hated his own guts. That's the way we say it now.
I hate myself. I am through with me. Lord, take me and just get rid
of me. That's what it means to deny
yourself. I ain't worth living. That's the only man worth living,
and I denied him. And I lived the years, Ricky,
denying Him. I don't need Him. Thank God He
came for me. Didn't deny me. Thank God. And time and again I've done
it. If the Lord looks on us in mercy and grace and compassion
and shows us, you ain't worth living. And went to the cross. Took all
of my sin, all of my blame. Everything I ever did against
God, He took it. I'll take it. I'll take the blame.
I ain't done nothing for Him. This is why Paul said, God forbid,
that I should glory in anything. Certainly don't let me ever glory
in anything I've ever done because I ain't done nothing. Isn't that
right? The thief on the cross. Think
about that. You talk about a worthless life. He lived a whole life of
thief, thieving and robbery and everything in between. Murder
and who knows what else. He's hanging on that cross. He
needs to die. This world needs to be rid of him. He's hanging
there and shaming for all to see. And God, but God, in mercy. He'd never done one thing in
his life worthwhile. He'd never lived one moment worth
living. He'd never said one word worth hearing all his whole life. And now he's hanging on that
cross. But God, rich in mercy, chose him. Oh, why would He choose
him? In his dying breath, he's finally
going to say something worth hearing. In his dying hour, he's
finally going to do something worth doing. What's he going
to do? He's going to glory in that man's sight. He can't do anything, Ricky,
but what he's going to do is he's going to tell his old pony
on the other side, don't you fear God? He'd never feared God
in his life. He'd never said anything about
God in his life, except take his name in vain. Now, by God's
grace and by God's mercy, in his dying breath, he turned to
his crony, his fellow thief, and said, don't you fear God? We're getting what we deserve.
God's going to kill us right now because we don't deserve
to live. Don't you fear God? He warned
his fellow thieves. Don't you fear God? Now he fears
God. Why? God chose him. God revealed to him. You're worthless. And then he turned to Christ. He was on Christ's right hand
because that's where the sheep are. He's on Christ's right hand,
and he turned to Christ and said, Lord, would you remember me? What did the Lord do? That's
why Christ came. That's who he came for. Isn't
he something? Deny yourself. Oh, my. Thief on the cross. Deny yourself. To deny self is to deny our worth,
to deny our wisdom. Do you think you have any wisdom?
Do you really think, are you now, you know, Dan, you're 70
years old, aren't you? Over that. Close to, not close
enough. All right, how much wisdom do
you have? Do you still not act like a fool? Do you still not
think foolish thoughts? Do you think of yourself as an
old wise man now? No, you think thoughts like you
did when you were 16 years old. No different. Same thoughts,
the same lust, the same passion, the same things go through your
head. Same things, I wish I was a little younger. You just deny your wisdom, deny
your worth, deny yourself, deny your worth, your wisdom, just
deny your works. Have you ever, anybody, done
anything that God ought to take note of? Me, though I preach,
I have nothing to glory." And that's what Paul said. Paul said,
everything I did up to this point, just, I couldn't live a life
long enough to undo what I did. And not one of them undoes anything.
Only one thing undoes it. It's the blood of Jesus Christ.
Do you believe that? You don't have a few people believe that. works, my wisdom, my worth,
all glory, is to quit glorying in self, is to deny our lives,
is to say, I'm not worth living. The Lord ought to crucify that.
The Lord was hung there in shame. The Lord took the sin of God's
people. The Lord took all the blame for things He did not do. He did the opposite. Holy, unblameful,
unapprovable, perfect, spotless, innocent. Went about doing good. Went about doing evil. God laid
on him to make this happen. Now, our Lord said, you deny
yourself, and the only way you will is to see Christ hanging
there. in your place. That's really the only way you'll
deny everything about yourself, is to see Christ in your place,
getting what you deserve. That's the only way. They won't
do it. They won't do it until then. Then he says, take up,
verse 23, let every one of you take up his cross daily and follow
me. Take up his cross. Twenty-eight
times in Scripture. This is it. Every single time. It either says the cross or his
cross. Every single time. The cross.
Definite article. The cross. Most of the time.
Every time but like four. What cross is he talking about?
The cross of Christ. The cause of Christ. What Christ
did on the cross. There's an old song, The Old
Rugged Cross. We don't sing it anymore because
it's a bad song. People love that old song. Oh,
I'll cherish that old rugged crop. We don't cherish that old
piece of wood. That's just an old sentimental
song, an old gospel lyric. Well, Brother Milton Howard changed
the words. He said, I'll cherish the Christ
of the cross. The Christ of the cross. He changed
it from the cross to the Christ on the cross, of glory in the
Christ of the cross. We don't glory in a piece of
wood. That's what people do when they hang this thing around their
chest. Why do they do that? To show you what a Christian
they are. They're not glorying in Jesus Christ. That Franklin
Heights over there has a designer cross as their emblem. A designer cross. A real pretty little cross, Stephen.
They don't know Jesus Christ. Can you imagine making a beautiful
piece of jewelry, something pretty to look at, out of the cross? It's despicable. And that's the way you get people
in. Oh, we're not going to talk about blood too much. We're not
going to talk about Satan. We're not going to talk about
God hating and damning people and all that. It's just love,
love, love, love. Come on in. Ain't that pretty? Come on in.
God needs you. God loves you. You wonderful
people. That's not why Jesus Christ is
on the cross. He is hanging there for good
people. This world is judgments backward. Absolutely backward. Christ is not coming the next
time for good people. He's coming for sinners saved
by grace, thieves on the cross, blasphemers like Paul, Saul of
Tarsus. That's who he's coming for. People
that he hung on that cross and died for. People that weren't
worth living. People that should have gone
to hell, that he went to hell for. That's who he's coming for.
And the rest of them are going to destroy him. That's right. Now, when we take up the cross,
And I resent, and there's been some good men now through the
years talk about crosses we bear, crosses we bear. That's a cross
I must bear. They talk about a trial. That's not what our
Lord is saying here. No, no, no, no. You must take
up, when you lose your uncle, you must bear that cross. That's
not the cross. You cannot, you should not ever
compare anything we go through to what Christ did on the cross.
You understand? That's what people do. Oh, it's
a cross I have to bear. There's only one man in Scripture
that carried a cross other than our Lord, Simon, that fellow.
Remember? What cross did he bear? The Lord's cross. They put on
him the Lord's cross, and he carried that cross. What cross?
The cross. The cross of Christ. He didn't
have to hang on it, Mary. He's sure thankful for that.
He carried it a while, realized what a heavy burden it was, and
then they took it off of him and put Christ on it. And he
stood there and watched, and now he realizes something of
who it was and who he was. He didn't have to hang on that
cross. And every single person whom God reveals Christ crucified
to, they're going to take up his cross. They're going to be
somewhat burdened by their own sin. Their own guilt, like the
thief on a cross, fear of the Lord, realizing that God ought
to be done with me, and they're going to see Christ crucified
for them. And this is the cause. This is the cross that we hold
up. This is the cause that we hold
up before men. Not our trials, but His. Not
our troubles, but His. God forbid, go over there, Galatians
6, and I'll close, okay? I keep quoting it. You need to
see it. Maybe this will be tomorrow's
memory verse. It needs to be. This needs to
be printed indelibly on our minds, in our hearts, written with a
pen of iron in the rock. Look at this. Galatians 6, 14.
God forbid that I should glory Saved in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, meaning what he did on that cross for me. And
he says, by whom the world is crucified unto me. You know,
when you see something of Christ's glory, and we haven't seen half of it,
we've seen a little bit, you won't see any glory anywhere
else. You know what? If anybody that's
ever really seen Christ's glory, Brother Stephen, they don't see
any glory in anybody or anything. Man, anything man's done or said,
in fact, hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Don't
we see this world for what it is, a bunch of worms that don't
have any sense? You see Christ, you hear his
word, you hear his wisdom, you see his glory, you see his honor,
you see his worth, his works, his wisdom, his words, you see
everything that he's done. And glory in heaven, you don't
see any glory anywhere else. The world is crucified to you.
You realize this whole world has gone to pot. It needs to. Go into it. And look at the next
line. and I unto the world." Oh, man. Lord. Oh, man. Crucify the world in me. Crucify
me to the world. Why would I be taken up with
this world? Let me be taken up with it. Let
me take up glory in His cross. Daily. You notice how it says
daily? Why? What do we wake up thinking
about? What do we go to bed thinking
about? We're a sorry bunch, aren't we? We need this daily. We need this daily. That is going
to be tomorrow's memory version. Daily. Galatians 6.14. Daily. And follow me. Follow me. Who would you want to follow
right now? Who are you following? Who are you listening to? Ain't
nobody got a clue about nothing. Do you? No. Nobody knows what to
do. I don't either. Follow me. Would you quit listening to everybody
and follow me? Trust me. That's our whole problem,
isn't it? If we follow blind leaders, we'll
fall in a ditch. If we follow the world, we're going to be
full of fear. If we follow Christ, we're going to have peace, we're
going to have wisdom, we're going to have joy. We're going to see
this world for what it is. We're going to see ourselves
for what we really are. We're going to see Christ for
what He is. What is that? The glory of God. power of God,
salvation of God. Stay with me.