Now, if you would, let's open
our Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 14. Last week, I started
or preached the first part of this message, the title being
Extreme Discipleship. And this is the second part,
but it's a message in and of itself. So if you didn't hear
last week, you'll be able to hopefully understand what I'm
saying. But in this passage, this is
right in line with the parables of our Lord. Because these parables,
as I've often said, as we've been studying some of the parables,
they are ways that the Lord used to teach his disciples the things
of the Kingdom of Heaven. The things about himself, things
about salvation, what it is to be a child of the King. A sinner
saved by the grace of God. A lot of people have different
ideas about that subject. What is salvation? You go ask
the average person, you know, what is it to be saved? Most
people really don't know. But they have an idea. They may
have some vague idea of what it means. But the Lord teaches
these things plainly. And some of them are what the
disciples refer to as hard sayings. It had nothing to do with easy
believism. A lot of what we see, I'll say
in America, I expect it goes all over the world, is nothing
more than easy believism. And I spoke of it last week,
where they have a meeting, they get people to walk down an aisle,
come to what they call an altar, which is not an altar. Christ
is our altar. Get that in your mind. Or let's
pray that God will get it in your mind, get it in your heart.
He's our altar. And we come to Him, you see. And somebody said, well, you've
got to confess it. Well, you confess it in believer's baptism.
That's what that's about. That's a result, you see. That's
an evidence. And you confess Him by identifying
with His people, by feeding on His Word, and by witnessing.
You do confess Him. Easy beliefism. Just get somebody
down the aisle, repeat a prayer, and then everybody votes them
in, and then they show up once a week and give their money.
You see, what true extreme discipleship is all about is Christ doesn't
want your contribution. He wants you. That's what extreme
discipleship is. And so as he began to As he performed
the miracles, and multitudes began to follow him, and as he
began to teach these parables, and multitudes followed him,
look back here at Luke chapter 14, look at verse 25 again. He says, and there went great
multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them. Now, he's
talking to these multitudes. He's going to give them some
hard things, some issues of extreme discipleship. And I want to read
through these verses and then just give a few comments this
morning. But here's what I want you to think of as I'm reading
through this. Ask yourself this question. Are you, and I'm asking
myself too, I'm preaching to me too, are you or do you want
to be a true disciple of Christ? Now, most everybody will say,
really? Well, yes. I don't want to go
to hell. I want to go to heaven. Yes.
And then the Lord, you know, now most preachers say, well,
come on in, you know. The Lord said, well, think about it. Think
about it in these terms. And then he begins to give them
the terms. And he says, look at verse 26,
he starts out, if any man come to me. Now, that's the first
thing about being a true disciple. It's coming to Christ. It's not
joining a church. It's not getting to be a part
of a club. It's not coming to a preacher.
It's coming to Christ, the true Christ, as he is identified and
distinguished and presented in the preaching of the gospel of
the cross. The gospel that identifies him
as God, man, God in human flesh. He's the Word which came and
tabernacled among us, made flesh. He's Emmanuel. He's Jesus, God,
our Savior. He's Jehovah, the Great I Am,
from everlasting to everlasting, no beginning, no end. He's the
sovereign Savior. He's the perfect Savior. And
he went to the cross to die for the sins of his people that were
charged to him. He became responsible for all
the sins of all his people, which were made to meet on him. And
he suffered and bled and died. You remember the passage that
Brother Joe read there in Matthew 16, how when he was asking his
disciples, who do men say that I am? And people had different
views, just like they do today. In fact, I think one man told
me here that he was working with a fellow and they got to talking
about who Christ is and he said, well, who do you believe he is?
And he said, well, the fellow asked him, he said, do you believe
Christ is God? And the man thought about it and he said, well, he's
the son of God. And what he had in mind there, well, he's not
really God, he's a lesser God. He's kind of like a second tier
God. And that's heresy. You say, well,
the poor fellow didn't know any better. Well, that's the problem.
People don't know any better. That's true, but that's no excuse.
He's not a second tier God. He's not a lesser God. He is
God, very God of very God. That's the way the old writers
used to say it. You say, well, how can he be both God and man
of one person? I don't know, but he is. You don't know either. And there's
no Theologian in any seminary who can answer that question,
he is what he is. He's God and man in one person.
And so these are the issues, you see, that we have to settle.
He asked that question. He said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They couldn't
answer it. That was the religious. They
say he's David's son. He said, OK, you're right. He's
David's offspring. But David called him Lord. David
called him Jehovah, his savior. Now, how could David call? How
could he be both David's offspring and David's God? How could he
do that? They couldn't answer. The Bible teaches us the reality
of that. Unto us, a child is born. That's his humanity. That was
what was created by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin,
without the aid of man. But unto us a Son is given, the
eternal Son of God. And then His work on the cross.
You see, coming to Him not just as a person, but as a person
who finished a work. He put away the sins of his sheep
by the sacrifice of himself. He established the only righteousness
whereby God can be just and justify a sinner like me and like you. That's what he did. He died,
was buried, and rose again the third day. Not just so that we
could celebrate it one day of the year. He died, was buried,
and rose again the third day because he accomplished redemption. He bought his people lock, stock,
and barrel. He didn't try to save anybody.
He saved his people from their sins. And as a result, we can
stand before God, washed clean from all our sins, and clothed
in the perfect, eternal righteousness of the Son of God incarnate.
So if any man come to me, come to Christ, not a counterfeit.
He says in verse 26, And hate not his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, in his own
life. Also he cannot be my disciple. Now, we've talked about that,
what he's talking about. He's not giving us free gratis
there to hate anybody. But he's showing that in comparison
with our love and commitment and trust in Christ, all earthly
relationships have to be put in the background. And, if necessary,
they have to go totally. That's sad. But let me read you
a passage over here in Matthew chapter 10. Matthew puts it a
different way, but the same thought is here. Matthew 10 and verse
34. And you say, well, that's pretty
extreme. Well, that's what discipleship
is. That's what it is to be a sinner saved by grace, one who follows
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 34. He said, thank not
that I am come to send peace on earth. I am not. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. He said, for I am come to set
a man at variance against his father. Now, what he's talking
about is he's not saying that that when you become a Christian
or become a disciple of Christ, you are automatically against
your father. We have fathers here. whose sons
or daughters have come to Christ, they were at variance before,
but now they're not. You see that? What he's talking
about, he's showing the whole realm of it here to say that
if your father is an unbeliever, once you come to Christ, you're
at variance with your father. In other words, your love for
Christ supersedes your love for your father. And you don't follow
your earthly father anymore if he doesn't follow Christ. That's
what he's saying. He goes on, he says, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law, and a man's foes, that's enemies, shall be
they of his own household. Verse 37, 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,
and he that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it." Now that is extreme. That's
what he's saying over here in Luke chapter 14. Let's read on
verse 27 of Luke 14. He says, "...and whosoever doth
not bear his cross." There's a cross bearing here. Now, understand. The foundation, the ground, the
cause, the way of our salvation is in no way connected with our
bearing any cross. The foundation, the ground, the
way of salvation is totally the cross of Christ. You see the
difference? In other words, our salvation
is not based upon our discipleship, our bearing a cross. Our salvation
is based upon Christ bearing his cross to Calvary and dying
for our sins. Our discipleship, our cross bearing
is the result of his cross bearing. You've got to have that distinction
in your mind. You see, we're not saved by what we do or don't
do. We're not saved by our performances. Salvation is by grace. We're made disciples by grace
all the way. And so he says, whosoever does
not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Verse
28, for which of you, now he's telling him, think about this
now before you jump in. And this is not just testing
the waters. He says, for which of you intending to build a tower,
sitteth not down first and counteth the cost. Now, this is not the
cost of redemption. Christ paid that on the cross
by his blood. It's not the cost of my salvation.
Christ paid that cost, you see. This is the cost of one who is
made a disciple. You say, well, that means one
I'm going to have to give up. Right, but not to be saved, but
because you already are. And that's the difference. So
he says, counteth the cost, whether we have sufficient to finish
it. Somebody starts in on something, they say, well, I didn't know
it was going to be all this. You fellas, have you ever done some
remodeling or built a house? The wife comes in, she says,
I don't like those cabinets. You say, well, let's just change
it. I'm not putting you down, but
you all just don't understand that. You come in and say, I
want to change this. You've added probably $10,000
to the project in three months. You didn't have sufficient to
finish it. But here he's talking about something a whole lot more
serious than building a house. Then remodeling, he's talking
about eternal life here. So he goes on, verse 29, "...lest,
happily, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to
finish it, all that behold, it begin to mock him." You see,
this whole issue, this is not just starting something, not
to finish it. And he says in verse 30, he's
saying, "...this man began to build, and was not able to finish
it," verse 31, "...or what king?" going to make war against another
king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be
able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with
twenty thousand. Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassadge, a team of ambassadors,
and desires conditions of peace." In other words, he realizes that
he bit off more than he can chew, and so he says, well, we better
make peace quick. He says, so likewise, verse 33,
whosoever be he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple. And then after that, you have
in verse 34 and 35, he says, salt is good. But if the salt
has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? Salt is
a preserve. It was a preservative back then,
but it also was a seasoning. And he says it is neither fit
for the land nor yet for the dunghill. But men tested out,
he that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Now hear what he's
saying. Now are you or do you want to be a true disciple of
Christ? He gives evidences of being a
true disciple of Christ. Again, he speaks of coming to
him and leaving all others. This is total commitment, not
contribution. Preferring Christ over everything,
even over self. Even over self. He speaks of
following Him and bearing His cross. It's coming to Him and
following after Him. He speaks of forsaking all, including
self, and clinging to Him. Remember, last week I brought
this out. A disciple may be defined this way, one who is chosen by
God. Christ chose His disciples. Now,
they chose Him, but only after He chose them. You read the book. You don't make yourself a disciple.
He makes disciples by his saving grace. It's one who's justified
by the righteousness of Christ. In other words, a disciple is
one who realizes that he has no righteousness before God but
Christ. He has no right, he has no reason
to call himself a Christian or saved but Christ and him crucified
and risen again. And that's it. God saved me by
his grace. God be merciful to me, the sinner. That old publican that everybody
hated. He was a disciple of Christ. It's one who's redeemed by the
blood of Christ. I'm not working to pay for my
salvation. Christ already paid the price.
He paid the cost. He's the Redeemer. I'm the redeemed.
I didn't offer any contribution, didn't have any contribution.
None good, no, not one. None righteous, no, not one.
He's been redeemed by God's grace in Christ. He's one who's born
again by the Holy Spirit, a sovereign work of God, the Holy Spirit,
not to entice them to look down within themselves for some spark
of good whereby they can make a right decision. But it's the
Holy Spirit's work of conviction, persuading sinners that there's
no hope of salvation for them outside of Christ and Him crucified. Showing me what I am by nature
and by practice, that even the best that I can offer God is
nothing but dung, like that salt that's to be thrown out on the
dung hill. All my works, All my efforts to save myself were
nothing but evil in the sight of God. Why? Because they denied
His glory and denied His Son and exalted this old flesh. That's
a crime in heaven. It may not be a crime in most
churches today. It may not be a crime on earth,
but it is a crime in heaven. God will not share his glory.
Will a man rob God? You know, when people think about
that verse, they always think about tithing. Well, OK, think
about it. But here's the issue. God will
not be robbed of his glory. He will not. And his glory shines
forth in its essence and in its height in the salvation of an
undeserving sinner by grace through Christ. That is where God's Shekinah
glory is. A disciple is one who believes
in Christ because he trusts Christ, he follows the doctrine of Christ,
his teaching, he rests upon the blood and righteousness of Christ,
he is filled with the Spirit of Christ, and he strives to
follow the example and live to do the work of Christ because
God has blessed him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. He is one who has no hope. No
peace, no salvation, no assurance, no comfort, but in Christ. And
he's one who puts Christ above everything. True salvation. Total reliance upon Christ and
total commitment to Christ. That's what it involves. And
one thing we need to understand is people can know the facts
of the gospel now and still not believe it. We know that. They
can even affirm the truthfulness of those facts and not believe
them. And in salvation, we must be confronted with the truth,
but we must also be given a heart to believe and to know Him and
to love Him. Over in John chapter 5, in verse
24, the Lord said this, He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. but
is passed from death unto life, believing in him. Turn to John
chapter 8 with me. I want to show you something
here. This passage is used in a lot
of different contexts, especially in light of Independence Day. It was popular during the 60s
and the civil rights movement. When verse 32, the Lord speaking
to his disciples, and he says, and you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. Used to see that, that
those words on bumper stickers, the truth shall make you free.
Well, where did that come from? What is he talking about? We'll
look back up at verse 30 of John chapter eight. It says, as he
spake these words, many believed on him. Now, in the context here,
we understand, as we read on, that he's talking about those
who have a claim of salvation. They claim to believe on him.
And the issue that follows here, as he talks about the truth shall
make you free, it's like this. You claim to believe in Christ.
I claim to believe in Christ. Do I really? Is it a genuine
claim? Or is it just words? Is it just
a sham profession and not true heart faith? So it says, verse
30, And as he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said
Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my
word, Then are you my disciples indeed. Now, that's one of those
passages that a lot of people, they say, well, see there, they're
saved, but unless they continue, they'll be lost again. That is
not what this is teaching. Like I told my Sunday school
class, I said, don't try to take God's revelation and put it in
the parameters of your own sinful, rational thinking, because it's
not going to work. You see, God reveals things from
heaven to his people, those who have ears to hear. He gives them
ears to hear and eyes to see. But he's simply saying here that
if you really believe on him, you'll continue in his word.
And you'll be his disciples, you are his disciples indeed.
In other words, indeed means you're really his disciples. You really believe this. It's
not just a sham profession, but it's a real heart confession.
Well, look what happened. Verse 33. They answered him,
we be Abraham's seed right there. Right there you know that they're
not true disciples. Why? What's wrong with that? Well, my friend, if you think
that your physical pedigree recommends you unto God or makes you righteous
or gives you some special blessings because you were born into a
physical family, Then you're not depending on Christ. You're
not looking to Christ. You're not trusting him alone.
You're adding something to it, and that's deadly. We be Abraham's
seed. You see, that was popular with
the Jews. They thought they were children of God because they
were born into the physical family of Abraham. Now, they added other
things. Circumcision, the keeping of
the law. But it was something other than Christ. Something
other than his blood alone. Something other than his righteousness
alone you see if there's anything else You haven't forsaken everything
See what I'm saying The Apostle Paul wrote about in Philippians
chapter 3 when he was talking about his past life And he says
in verse 3 gives one of the best definitions of a Christian you'll
find in the scripture Philippians 3 3 he says for we are the circumcision
Now, he's not talking about physical circumcision. He's talking about
spiritual circumcision. What is that? That's the new
birth. That's the work of the Holy Spirit in us to convict
us of sin and bring us to Christ for all of salvation. We're the
circumcision which worship God in spirit, which means two things. It means, number one, you worship
God, not as you think him to be, but as he reveals himself.
In other words, whatever God says about himself and his word,
that's how I worship God. Somebody said, well, my God's
not like that. Well, your God's an idol. See the difference? God's who he says he is. That's
why I say if God says he's sovereign, you better worship the sovereign
God, because that's the only kind there is. Every other God is
a little g-God. That's an idol. And so we worship
God in spirit, but not only do we worship God as he reveals
himself, we worship God from the heart. It's not just outward
ceremony. its sincerity. And then he says
this, he said, we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now that word rejoice there doesn't
mean to be happy. That word rejoice there means
to glory in it. It has to do with a boast. Yeah,
a boast. We boast in Christ Jesus. My boast is not in me. My boast,
my confidence, you might say it that way, my assurance, my
claim of salvation is not in me. It's in Christ Jesus. It's
the same word that Paul used in Galatians 6.14 that's translated
in the KJV as glory. God forbid that I should glory
except in the cross of Christ. We rejoice in Christ. My confidence
is in Christ and what He accomplished on Calvary, in His death, burial,
and resurrection. My confidence is in His precious,
powerful, saving blood and His righteousness charged to me,
whereby I stand before God complete. He is my advocate, Jesus Christ
the righteous. He is my confidence. All the
promises of God are in Him, yea, and in Him, amen. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who is He that condemns? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us. We're the circumcision. We've been born again. How do
you know? We worship God in spirit as He
reveals Himself from the heart. How do you know you truly worship
God in spirit and sincerity? We have confidence only in Christ."
And then he goes on, in Philippians 3, he says, he says, we have
no confidence in the flesh. That's what men can do. No confidence
in the flesh. I don't have any confidence in
my performances. Let me tell you something. I'll
put it to you this way. This may shock some of you. I don't have
any confidence in the fact that I'm standing before you today,
preaching the gospel. I'm glad that I am standing before
you today preaching the gospel. I'm glad you're here hearing
it. But that is not my confidence. My confidence is in the Christ
that I'm preaching to you. That's the difference. My righteousness
is not me standing up here preaching the gospel to you. That's not
my right. If it were, I'd be in trouble. My righteousness
is Christ that I'm preaching to you. You see the difference?
And that's not just splitting hairs. Now look back at John
8 and verse 33 there, they answered, we be Abraham's seed, and we're
never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou you shall be
made free? And verse 34 of John 8, Jesus
answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth
sin is the servant of sin. What he's talking about there
is unbelievers. And he says, and the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth forever. In other words,
as long as you're a slave to sin and unbelief, trying to work
your way into God's favor, you don't abide in the house. There's
no permanent position in the Father's household. But the Son,
the Son of God abided forever. And look at verse 36. If the
Son, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Not only are you disciples indeed,
but you're free indeed. And that freedom is the freedom
of a bond slave who works for his master not to pay a debt
and not to earn reward, but who works for his master because
he loves him and because his master loves him. That's discipleship,
you see. All of this. It may be extreme,
but it's so. You give up everything. including
father, mother, sister, brother, but in self. Remember what he
said, he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth
his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. And this is why so many people
fall short. That's right. Look at Luke chapter
13. We're in chapter 14 as our text, but look back at chapter
13. Let me show you something. It's
why so many people fall short. It's why the way is narrow. And
few there be that find it. Over here in Luke chapter 13,
look at verse 23. Now, this is the Lord. He went
through teaching, telling him what the kingdom of God is like,
teaching these hard sayings. You remember one time he turned
to his disciples and he said, does this offend you? It offended
the Pharisees. Does it offend you? And one time
he said, blessed is the man who's not offended in these things.
Well, after he taught these hard sayings, verse 23, then said
one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? I mean, they
understood that not many people are going to listen to this now.
Not many people are going to receive this. Not many people
are going to buy into this. This is going to turn a lot of
people off. It's like preachers today who
claim to believe the doctrines of grace, but they don't want
to preach them because they say it will split their church or
it will run people off. Now to me, that's a crime. And
it's not that I want people to run. I don't want to run anybody
off. I want everybody to come in. But listen, not at the expense
of the glory of God. Not at the expense of truth.
You see, if it's at the expense of truth and the glory of God,
that's deadly to my soul and yours. And so this disciple said,
Are there few that be saved? And look at verse 24. He says,
Strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." He's talking about
there when it's too late. That's when the Lord comes back
the second time. Many of them, their eyes will
be open. They'll see some things they didn't believe before, and
they'll strive to enter them. But then it's too late. Then
it's too late. But are there few? Well, this
is why so many fall short. They want to hang on. to their
salvation under false gospels, hang on to their works, their
experiences, their dreams, hang on to their families, their friends,
their positions, their comforts, their possessions, whatever it
is. That's why only God can make disciples. Men won't do it of
their own will. That's why he can only do it.
But think about this. Now let me give you this. I want
you to think about this right here. He spoke of two things
here in extreme discipleship. Number one had to do with bearing
our cross. And number two had to do with self-denial. Now what
is that bearing our cross? Again, Christ bore his cross.
That's our redemption. That's our salvation. That's
our justification before God. That's the only way a sinner
can be saved, through Christ crucified and risen again. But
as a result, when he brings disciples into the kingdom of heaven, he
tells us to bear our cross. What is that cross? Back over
here in Luke 14, in verse 27, when he says, Whosoever does
not bear his cross, that word bear means a burden. A burden. It means to bear pain. To bear
suffering. And here's what he's talking
about. Those who are disciples of Christ, true disciples, will
in some form, in some way, at some time, to some degree, Suffer
persecution and reproach for the cause of Christ. That's what
he's talking about, cross-bearing. You know, that cross is a symbol
of death. Again, Christ went to the cross
to die for our sins, to establish righteousness, to conquer sin,
Satan, death, and hell. And that's our hope and glory.
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ.
He bore the cross for his people. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Now in salvation, in being made his disciple, we
must bear our cross for him. Not to be saved. Not to earn
our reward. No, that's greed, not grace.
But because we already are. Let me show you some scripture.
Look at Matthew chapter 5. And this persecution, now I'll
tell you something, folks. We ought to think about this
all the time. Man, thank God for it every day. You consider what our brethren
of the past went through for their testimony of Christ. You
can read about it in Hebrews chapter 11 sometimes, especially
those last verses where it talks about that women had their babies
taken away from them, some were martyred, sawn asunder, that
means sawed in half, beheaded, imprisoned. It was against the
law for them to meet as we're meeting this morning and preaching
the gospel. Now, we've never had to suffer
anything like that, have we? And that's why I do thank God
for our freedom. I thank God for the men and women
who died to preserve our freedom. I do. It's a wonderful thing,
the time that we live. I've heard people say this, they
say, well I wish I lived back in the biblical times. And I
think, you're crazy. You are crazy. And my point is
this, we've got it easy. We shirk even if a person comes
to church and they hear the gospel and they say, you know, I hear
that and I believe it. And then mom and dad challenged,
well, that's not the way you were raised, you know, or we
raised you thinking this and thinking, and we sure get that
derision. That kind of reproach, that's
nothing compared to what the Apostle Paul went through. That's
nothing compared to what Peter went through. You remember when
Christ told Peter that he was going to be martyred for the faith
there in John chapter 21? And he got upset. And he said, well, what's going
to happen to John? What's going to happen to that? And Christ said,
none of your business. What if John lives in old age?
And John did. He was exiled. He had to go by
himself on the Isle of Patmos because the world couldn't stand
him. And he said, it's up to me what goes on. That's what
Christ was saying. So we've got it easy. But think
about this. Verse 10. Look at Matthew 5.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Now understand
this. That's not teaching. Blessed
are they who are persecuted for morality. And you know there
are people who are persecuted for morality. There are people
in this world who, in the past and today, who stand for justice
and what's right in human terms and they suffer for it. That's
true. But that's not what Christ is
talking about. That doesn't evidence a true disciple. When he says
persecuted for righteousness sake, you could just as well
say persecuted for Christ's sake. Read on. He says, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. You see? It's for Christ's sake. It's for the gospel. Let me tell
you something. The only righteousness in terms
of the scripture, now you know what righteousness is? It's perfection. That's what righteousness is.
And we look around the room, we don't see it from the pulpit
on back, you see. Righteousness is perfection.
And the only righteousness we're going to find here on this earth
is Christ. That's right. We who are in Christ,
we're a righteous people, not because we're righteous in our
sin, but because of him. He is our, we're in him and he's
in us. And we're with him and he saved us, you see. So this,
this is the preaching, the gospel of the righteousness of God that
he worked out on the cross. That's one. And telling sinners
that all your efforts, all your works, all your experiences,
all your dreams, all your visions are nothing compared to the blood
and righteousness of Christ. Nothing done, even done, Paul
said. Read on there in Philippians
chapter three. All those things that his Jewish brethren, according
to the flesh, were a glorying in. They were Hebrew of Hebrews,
circumcised the eighth day, touching the law of Pharisee. He said,
I count it all but lost. I count it all but done that
I may win Christ and be found in Him. Let me tell you something. If your discipleship is based
upon a profession that you made when you were 12 years old, you've
got problems. I'll just be honest with you.
And I've heard people do that. I grew up like that. Well, I
don't know. I don't know what he believed,
but he was baptized when he was 12. Well, that's the same as
saying we be Abraham's seed. That's the equivalent. My friend,
look at, he says in verse 12, he says, rejoice and be exceedingly
glad for great is your reward in heaven. What is our reward?
Not what we earn, but what God gives us in Christ. And he says,
for so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you. Look at
John chapter 15. John chapter 15. The Lord teaching his disciples
here in verse 18. He said, if the world hates you,
you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not
of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hated you. If they hated your master, they'll
hate you too. That is the unbelieving, ungodly
world in opposition to the gospel. But that's the reproach of Christ.
Hebrews 13 speaks of that. That's bearing our cross. And
then let me say one word about self-denial. Turn to Colossians
chapter 2. And I'll hurry here. Now, most
people, when they think about self-denial, they think about
what they're giving up for the Lord. And they usually put it
in terms of like, well, I quit doing this, I quit doing that,
all that stuff. But that's not self-denial. Now,
I mean, I'm not saying they're not things if you're doing, you
should quit. There's things that people do that they shouldn't
do. I'm not saying it. But that's not self-denial. Self-denial
is denying self. That's what self-denial is. It's
not giving up things for limp. I heard a lady talking about
how she's not going to eat chocolate for Lent. That's not self-denial. That's Phariseeism. I'm telling
you the truth now. You say, well, don't be that
critic. Yes, I'm telling you the truth. That is not self-denial. Maybe she should stop eating
chocolate. I don't know. But that's not self-denial. That's
Phariseeism. Let me show you. Colossians chapter
2, verse 18. Look at this. He says, let no
man beguile you. That means judge against you
of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. That was common back then, worshipping
angels. Just like some today say they
pray through the saints. Same kind of thing. And that's
evil. We don't pray through the saints.
We pray through our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even the saints pray that way. And he says, Intruding into those
things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly
mind, and not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints
and bands, having nourishment, ministered and knit together,
increases with the increase of God the head there is Christ.
In other words, we're to hold up Christ. We're to lift up Christ.
We're to preach Christ. And he says in verse 20, Wherefore,
if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why,
as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,
look at verse 21, taste not, touch not, handle not, which
all are to perish with the using. Well, I'm not going to taste
this. I'm not going to touch that. I'm not going to handle
that. That's how most people measure righteousness today.
but what they don't do. And he says that's acting worldly.
Self-denial is not what you deny to yourself. It may be something
you should deny to yourself, but that's not self-denial. Self-denial
is denying self. It's saying I have no goodness,
no righteousness, no power of my own. My only hope is Christ
and him crucified and risen again. And he goes on to say that that's
after the commandments and doctrines of men. That's the doctrines
of men. That's not the doctrine of Christ. Yes, if you eat too much, stop
it. But that's not self-denial. If you drink too much, stop it.
But that's not self-denial. Self-denial is denying self.
I'm nothing. Christ is everything. John the
Baptist said it. I must decrease. Christ must
increase. That's self-denial. I'm not even
worthy to untie his shoes, John said. I'm not the Messiah. I'm
not your Savior. I cannot save you. Look to Christ. That's self-denial.