Luke chapter 9. The Gospel of
Luke chapter 9. Let me check this. Luke chapter 9. Title of this
message, Eight Vital Questions. Eight vital questions you may
remember not long ago. Eight or nine exhortations from
1 Thessalonians 5. Eight questions we need to ask
ourselves here in these verses. Look at verses 23 through 27.
Luke 9, 23 through 27. The Lord said to them all. all his disciples, if any man
or any person 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. For whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, the same shall save him." For what? For what is a man advantaged
if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? Now, whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and 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. And I tell you of a truth, there
be some standing here that shall not taste of death till they
see the kingdom of God. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was
speaking to his disciples here. These were men that he chose.
He called. He revealed himself to them.
They were born again. These were men who feared him.
These were men who knew him. They knew who he was. They knew
a little bit about why He came. They believed Him. They loved
Him. They followed Him implicitly. Except Judas. You know, Judas
is not... He's there, but he's not one
of them. They're like little children.
They follow Him. They believe Him. The Lord is speaking to
all of them. That's who He's speaking to.
And He's speaking to us, because He wrote it down for us to read.
Verse 23, He said to all. So this is written to all of
his disciples. He's chosen his little children,
his people, and they believe it. The Lord is stating a truth
here. Here's what I want us to see. He's not trying to convince them
of anything. He's not trying to get them to
follow him. They already are. Okay? They've already denied themselves.
They've already forsaken everybody to follow Him. The Lord didn't
come here to earth to try to do anything. He didn't come here
to try to convince people of anything. He came here to save
His people. revealed himself to his people,
his chosen people. He came to call them by his gospel,
by his word. He came to call them out. He
came to teach them, to lead them, to guide them. And they all follow
him. When he calls them, they follow him. And I believe he called me one
day. Still calls me. I had an old
dog, and I never quit calling him. All my life. Until he died. But I didn't call anybody else's
dog. I called my dog. So we're called by the gospel.
They keep calling us. What do we do? We follow him.
We keep coming. We want to hear his voice and
worship him. Now here's the thing. Our Lord
said to Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to talk to him,
to ask him questions. I want to discuss things. About
all the Lord said to him was, you must be born again. Nicodemus
wanted to, how? Tell me how. He said, you have
a master in Israel and you don't know his name. He must be born
again. That which is flesh is flesh,
that which is spirit is spirit. You must be born from above. The Lord is not telling anybody
how to be saved. He does the saving. He's just
stating some facts here. He that hath the Son hath life.
That's what Johnson. Christ is their life, and all
that that means. What is a Christian? A lot of people use that term today,
don't they? What is a Christian? Let me put
it very plainly. Christ is all to them. That's
what a Christian is. Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ is all to them. He's their all, He's their life,
He's their salvation, He's everything. I just read a paper, a young
student of religious studies was given the task of doing an
interview with a Christian. And he interviewed someone And
he asked that person many questions in his research, to put on his
research paper. This young man wasn't searching
for the truth. It's obvious. He was just discussing
things. He wasn't searching. He was researching. Alright, he asked this professing
believer the questions. Stephen, you know, one question
about Jesus Christ. Number one. It's all about modern, what's
going on with this virus, and what do you think about this,
and where you go for your counsel, and who you listen to, and where
you go to, and websites that you use, and what's your church
doing right now, and all those things. Not one question about
Jesus Christ. They asked our Lord Jesus Christ
several questions. Do you remember that? They asked
him several questions about who he paid taxes, about marriage,
and this and that and the other. And he answered them and silenced
them all. And finally, he asked them one
question. Do you remember that? You know.
And this is the question of all questions. This is whether or
not you have salvation. This is the question of eternal
life. And this is the question that
will answer, the answer to it will answer any question you
want to ask in this life. What thank ye Christ. That's
what he asked. And they couldn't answer it.
What do you think the answer of Simon, Peter, Paul, or James,
or John would be when somebody wanted to interview them about
what they thought about things? Back then. Okay? There's our
Lord. There's God manifesting the flesh.
God walking the earth. Right there. There He stands.
God manifesting the flesh. And they come and ask us, Simon,
Peter, what do you think about this present virus or thing going
on? He's in it. Go ask Him. Call on Him. You need to bow
to Him. That's not the question. That's
not what you need to ask. You need to bow your knee to
this One who sent this. Yeah, but where do you go for
your wisdom? What websites do you go? Him. He's my counselor. He's the wonderful counselor.
He's the wisdom of God. He's the power of God. I don't
consult men. Him. His Word. And on and on,
you ask me any question of them, what would they say? Him. He
does it then. That's the believer, the Christian.
What do you believe? Him. Where do you go for answers? He is the way, the truth, and
the life. What about this? What about that?
What about it? What think ye of Christ? Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but not one word of His shall pass
away. He must be born again. These
disciples knew that. Christ was their life. Christ
was their all. That's what it means. All right,
let me ask you eight questions, okay? It won't be long, I hope. And he did ask ourselves these
eight questions from these verses. Verse 23, he said, if any man
will come after me, if any person will come after me, and then
we need to ask our question, what am I after? Ask ourselves,
what am I after? What is it I'm after? What do you want? When I was really young, man,
I was after everything. Everything. And now I'm not real young anymore,
but I finally, by God's grace, realize that everything in this
world is vanity. That there's nothing worth going
after. Nothing. Seriously. And by God's
grace, by God's mercy and grace, He has revealed to me that Christ
really is all. He really is. In Psalm 27, David said, One
thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
and behold the beauty of the Lord. He was taking up a cry
and inquiring of his temple. In Psalm 73, he said, I want
to read this to you. Psalm 73, 25, he said this. He said, Whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there's none upon earth I
desire beside thee. He said, My flesh and my heart
faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Can we say that? We're going to lose everybody
and everything in this world. That which is dearest to us,
we're going to lose it. It's going to be real soon. What am I after? Here's the next
question, verse 23. If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. Do I deny myself? Did you all
hear the message before this? I don't know. If not, this is
what it means to deny yourself. It's to deny yourself worth. None of God's people think they're
worth anything. It's to deny your wisdom. I don't
know anything. I can't do anything. It's to
deny your works. Nothing I've ever done counts
for nothing. It's to deny your pride. It's
to deny your glory. God forbid, Paul said, that I
should glory, saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Can
you say that? Can you say that I, when Christ died, I believe,
I hope, I want that to be me and the world to me and me to
the world. Can you say that? Here's my next question. Verse
24, it says, verse 23, and follow
me. Do I follow him? Do I follow
him? He said, my sheep hear my voice.
I know them. I called them and they followed me. Do I follow
Christ? Or do I follow someone else? There aren't many people listening
to what Christ said right now. They're hanging on the words
of everybody. And nobody has a clue. Our leaders,
world leaders, our government, nobody knows what to do. They don't know what tomorrow
brings. But everybody's listening to them and hanging their every
hope and care, waiting on some good news from men. That's pretty foolish, isn't
it? That's pretty foolish. Those that go down to Egypt,
Isaiah 30 says, Pharaoh, if he's not going to help, he can't help
you. Why don't we call on him? All power is given unto him that
hath not given unto him. All flesh. He has power over
all flesh. Have you ever thought about that?
All flesh. What kind of flesh? Flesh. Anything. Plants, animals. I mean, animals,
men. All power over all flesh. Organisms. All power. over all flesh, she
said. Nobody has any power whatsoever
but Jesus Christ. That's who I'm going to follow.
That's who I'm going to look to. Follow Him. Listen to Paul
in Ephesians. Listen to what he said here in
Ephesians 2. He said, I was once walking according
to the course of this world. Following. I was a follower of
this world. But God. Rich in mercy, quick
in me, quick in us, together. And he said, now I'm following
him. I was once following the crowd,
weren't you? Following the crowd. Now I'm
following him. Philippians, listen to this, Philippians 3. He said,
oh, I want to know him. I want to If I might obtain unto
the resurrection of the dead, he said, I'm not perfect yet,
but I follow after. It's him on that. I follow him.
So I'm pressing toward the mark, the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ. He said, may we be minded like
that. Do I follow him? Do you? Look
at verse 24. Look at verse 24. He says, Whosoever will save
his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake,
the same shall save it. Do I want to save my life? Do
I think my life is worth saving? What is my life? Listen again. Listen to Philippians 1. Listen
to verse 21. Paul said this. And remember, he that hath the
Son hath the life. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. To die, he says, is gain. Something to look forward to. Only somebody that knows Christ
can say that. Listen to this. Colossians 3.
We need to ask ourselves, is Christ my life? He said, if you
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection, your
heart on things above, not on things of the earth. You're dead,
and your life is shared with Christ in God. And when Christ,
our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him
in glory. Our Lord's going to go on to
say that there's going to be some that will be with me in
glory. Is Christ my life? Is He? Do
I want to save this life? Do I want to stay here forever?
Now, I would not discourage anyone, young or old, from enjoying anything
in this life. Don't let me do that. I don't
want to do that at all. There's nothing wrong with things.
There's nothing wrong with wanting a home, wanting a marriage, wanting
children. The Lord giveth us all things
to richly enjoy, but none of those things last. None of those
things give us lasting happiness. Scripture says advantage, advantage.
None of those things will give us any Real joy, lasting joy, because
we're going to lose God. And we were told to not set our
affection on things, but rather Him. Because you never lose Him. Job lost everything, didn't he? He lost everything. He didn't
lose his God. He didn't lose his Christ. He didn't lose his hope. He didn't
lose his peace. He said, the Lord gave it to
him. The Lord had taken the man. Did he miss his children? Sure
did. Was he sorrowful? He sure was. But he's rejoicing
in the Lord. Can't take that from me. And
some day when He takes me, He gave me eternal life and I'll
never perish. Job said, I'm going to see God.
My Redeemer liveth. I'm going to go see Him one day. So I'm just going to wait. Job
said, I'm waiting for my change. Did he say that? Huh? I swear to Lord, he's saying
it. You'll save your life. You'll
lose it. People, you know, save up. And I don't guess there's anything,
well, yeah, there's something wrong with that. If you trust
in riches. Ask people, 1929. about their
life savings. What happened to it? Gone. In a moment. Let not the wise
man glory in his wisdom, the strong man in his strength, the
rich man in his riches, and so on and so forth. Why? Because
we're seeing right now, Lord, take it all away just a minute.
Oh, to be rich in faith. Rich in peace and joy that's
in the Lord. Listen to the next question,
verse 25. What is a man's advantage if
he gained the whole world and loses his soul? Do I want the
world? What do I want? What in the world
do I want? Now, we're all materialistic.
Yes, we are. We all want things, but tell
me if it's not so with you. Is it not so that you've set
your affection on something, you think you have to have it,
and you think about it, and you research it, and you go online,
and you think about it, and you save up, and you've got all this
money saved up, and then as soon as you get it, I mean just as
soon as you get it, it's lost its luster. That guitar right
there, you see that? I wanted that so bad. I was looking
for one just like that. And I researched and I went online
and I did everything. I figured I've got to have it.
Got to have it. I got it, Laura. There she is. You know what it is? A guitar. Just a piece of wood and metal. That's all it is. I'm thankful for it, and I enjoy
it. I play the heck out of it. But
it's just not what it cracked up to be. And you can say that
about anything in this world. I counted loss for Christ. Yea,
doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, but I didn't lose a thing." He said, it's
like dung. Dung, refuge. It's going to be thrown out.
That's where it's all going to turn to. The finest house is
going to crumble if the Lord doesn't come. In the next 100,
200 years, the finest house is going to lie in rubble and go
back to dirt down there. So, what do I want in this world?
Look at the next question, verse 25. What would you want, what
would you take in exchange for yourself? Your soul, he said
in another place. Lose your soul or be cast away.
Cast away. Turn to Psalm 51 with me. Psalm 51. Turn over there. Do
you worry about being cast away? That's my question. Cast away. Most people just don't want to
die. Don't want to leave this world. Here's what David's desire
was up there in Isaiah. And there's a reason why this
is God's people, one of their favorite psalms. Psalm 51, it
starts out, Have mercy upon me, O God. Oh, according to Thy lovingkindness,
according to Thy multitude, Thy tender mercy, blot out my transgressions. You know what that means. Sure
you do. It's a salvation. It washed me
thoroughly from my iniquity. It cleansed me from my sin. I
acknowledge my transgression. My sin is ever before me against
Thee, my Creator, my Father, my Benefactor. Against Thee and Thee only, my
Lord, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight. You'll
be justified when you speak. You'll be clear when you judge
me. If you judge me, If you pour out your wrath on
me, you'll be clear in doing it. You'll be just in doing it.
But look at verse 11. Cast me not away from thy presence. Don't cast me away. Can you say
that? Lord, don't cast me away. You remember Ruth. Pleading with
Naomi, don't, don't, treat me not to leave you. I don't want
to go back. She said, well, your sister-in-law
has gone back to her people, her gods. Those aren't my gods.
I don't want to go back to that. That man sitting right here used
to be in religion and all that. I preached the message one time. He said it was a great encouragement
to me. He said, I need to hear Christ,
and I don't want to go back to that. Our Lord turned to his
disciples one day, and many people, it's too hard, it's too much,
too serious, what you say, hard thing, they don't like that,
and they left. And our Lord said to his disciples,
will you go away? They said, I don't want to go. And Peter, Lord, to whom shall
we? To what? To go back to what? I don't want to go back to that.
You brought me out of that. I was following everything. I
was after everybody. Now you came and called me. I'm
following you. Please don't entreat me not to
leave you. I'm following you. You have words
of life, Lord. That's what he said to our Lord.
This is life. Is Christ your life? Is this
the gospel of your life? There aren't many of us in here. I hope, I pray that you're here
because you need this. If ever there was a reason, a
good excuse maybe, to not come, be now. Right? Why am I here? I need this. I need this gospel. I do. Anything or anyone worth losing
Christ for. Is anything or anyone worth losing
pride for? Well, look at this. I'm going
to be cast away. I had an old dog. I preached
a little while. Now let me tell you something.
I had an old dog, and you've heard about him many times. Abner. And that's a good... I just thought about Abner. One time somebody asked me, Vicki,
why did you name him Abner? Remember Abner and the story
of Abner? He followed Saul. For a while there, he was David's
enemy. But not forever. The Lord called him back. The
Lord turned him to David. Remember? He came to David. He
said, if you'll have me, I'll turn all Israel back to you. Anyway, I had an old dog named
Abner, and oh, he followed me all the days of his life. He
was an outside dog. That's where dogs belong in the
childhood. That's where they belong. If somebody said you
have a dog in your house, you live in a dog house. Dogs belong
outside. You hear that, people? Well,
we had one inside too. But anyway, old Abner, he was
so humble, he was so meek, he loved me so much, and he wanted
to be around me so much, that every now and then, The door,
I mean, somebody opened the door and he darted through that door.
He'd run into the house, okay? And Lauren, he'd lie down. And
he'd prostrate himself, lie down. And he was like, I won't move.
I won't cause any trouble. I won't do anything. You just
leave me in the house. Just let me in the house. I'll
just stay right here. That's what he'd do. Charlie,
the one in the house, all he wanted was out. Till he almost
was on that high and got out in the snow one time. Oh, back
in the house. Little Abner, he'd say, don't,
please, don't cast me out. I just want to stay right here. That make sense? That's what
David said. I want to dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life. Behold the beauty of the
Lord. Inquire into His temple. Lord, don't cast me out. I don't
deserve to be here. Wagner said, I know I'm an outside
doctor. But he knew I was merciful. It was real cold, Stephen. I'd come on up by the fire, old
buddy. You stay here. Kick Charlie out. No, I wouldn't
do that. Do I fear being cast out? Only
people that esteem the house of God, Christ, salvation, only
those fear being cast out. Those people don't care. Not
interested. Look at the next question, verse
26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of
me and my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed. Brethren,
the truth of God right now, the truth of God, who God is, Sovereign,
that He does all, the true God, He's angry, God of wrath and
judgment, that God sent this, has never been hated more than
now. You tell people that, that God sent this, they'll hate you. Even religion won't say this.
You tell people that God did this because God's holy, God's
sovereign, God is offended, God is angry every day. God hateth
all workers of a dictum. God is a God of judgment. God
will punish sin. God is holy. He cannot clear
the guilty. He will not clear the guilty.
He's merciful. He's gracious. He's love, but
only in Christ. Only in the ark. That's one way.
No, he doesn't love Muslims. No, he doesn't love Hindus. No,
he doesn't love Buddhists and all that. He loves his people
in Christ. And if you better get to Christ,
you better come to Christ. That's what the scripture says.
Nothing is hated more than that than man. Nothing. Never been hated more than that.
You tell people that man is evil. That's why this is happening.
Man is proud. Man is evil. Man is against God. Man deserves
it. You tell people that? No. Ain't
you? You tell people that there's nothing you can do to save yourself. There's nobody worth saving.
Tell them that. You know that's what this book is. Not worth
saving. You tell them that? Tell them
all our works are useless? Morality? Tell them that. That's Isaiah 64.6. Tell them
that all our righteousness, it doesn't matter how moral anybody
is, it doesn't account for anything. Only what Jesus Christ did on
the cross, suffering divine vengeance against sin and wrath against
sin and bloodshed and soul. People hate that. And they call
that God a monster. You tell them they're only saved
from wrath of bloody death by a sovereign substitute? Tell
them God is true and every man is a liar? Man is not worth listening
to. His wisdom is worthless? What do you think about it? What
do you think about what I just said? Are you ashamed of it? That's what our Lord said. Anybody's
ashamed. And here's the sad and tragic
and dreadful thing is that the people glory in what they ought
to be ashamed of. And they're ashamed of what they
ought to glory in. Men ought to be ashamed of themselves
with their glory and their pride of it. They ought to be ashamed. God's people glory in Him. They
glory in Christ. They glory in what He's done.
They glory in Him. They've seen His glory. Look
at that. Verse 26, it says, The Son of Man will come. When He
comes, He's going to come in His glory and His Father's glory
and the Holy Angel's glory. And even religion has changed
His glory. Romans 1 says, They don't acknowledge
His glory. They don't acknowledge Him as
God. They change His glory, glorify man, man's will, man's works,
man's decision, man's faith. Not the glory of God in choosing
a people and saving and quickening and Christ dying for them and
Christ satisfying justice. They don't believe any of that.
They don't preach any of that. They change His glory into a lie. Worship and serve the creature
more than the Creator. And God is angry. That's why
I said all this. And this ain't nothing compared
to what's coming. This is when His anger's rather
kindled just a little bit. And that's why. You know that,
don't you? We know that. In religion, glory and what they ought to
be ashamed of. They ought to be ashamed of their glory. They ought to
be ashamed. Have I seen His glory? You know
how ironic it is. That's my last question. Have
I seen His glory? Have you considered, in only
33 minutes, have you considered how all this stuff and these
people that the world is glorying in, athletes, movie stars. God shut it all down. These athletes,
these prima donnas, these multi-millionaire athletes that people hang on,
idolize them and go and just think they're something. There
ain't nothing now. Ain't nobody cares if a man can
throw a football 75 yards or not. What difference does it
make? We're dying. Nobody cares if
somebody can hit a little round ball 300 yards. Who gives a flip? He ain't worth nothing now. He
never was worth anything. Nobody was. Nobody is. Nobody on top side of this earth
is worth glorying in. It's all vanity. It's all used
for sports, arts, crafts, politics. Our politicians, our leaders
are huddled up, scared. And ain't nobody listening to
Jesus Christ. Boy, I am. How about you? Everybody
will be ashamed of themselves. They're not. Why? Because they
haven't seen His glory. When you see His glory, you won't
see any glory anywhere else. And in fact, when you hear people
glorying, it'll make you angry. It'll make you mad. That's right. It'll make you mad, especially
in religion. One person deserves all the glory
and honor, and he's come. And when it's all over, when
Christ splits the skies wide open, nobody will be thinking
about anybody but Jesus Christ. The whole earth, Sister Vicki,
will see then and then, when it's all over, one person. He really is all in you. And
to think that I, all this stuff, in ashes. What a fool. But I believe some of you here,
he said here at that last verse, I tell you the truth, some of
you standing here, some standing here have not tasted of death
until they see the King of God. That's you and me, John. It says
John, the disciple of John, Patmos. Yeah, I have too. I've seen his
glory. I've seen his kingdom. I've heard
of the gospel of the kingdom. I believe. I believe I'm in it.
And Christ said, those that believe will never die. They won't even
taste of death. It won't be death to him. It'll
be sleep. All right, stand with me.