And it came to pass, as he was
along praying, his disciples were with him, and he asked them,
saying, Whom say the people that I am? They answered, he said,
John the Baptist. But some say Elias or Elijah,
and others say that one of the old prophets is risen again.
He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering
said, The Christ of God. And he straightly charged them
and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, The Son
of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be slain and be raised the
third day. And he said to them all, If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross,
and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake,
the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged
if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed,
when he shall come in his own glory and in his father's and
of the holy angels. Tyler, my message this morning
is confessing Christ. Confessing Christ. Our Lord Jesus has said in verse
18 here in Luke 9, It came to pass as he was alone
praying. Our Lord Jesus was a praying
man. You find often times that he went alone by himself to pray,
but this time his disciples were with him. This time they were
with him. And not only was he a praying
man, but he was a very compassionate man. He saw a great multitude. He said he heard about 5,000
men. And that don't count the women and children, He made them
all sit down and He took just a few fish and loaves and fed
that multitude because He saw them as sheep without a shepherd,
had great compassion upon them. And it says there in verse 18,
as He was praying alone, His disciples were with Him. Boy,
wouldn't it have been something to be alone with the Lord Jesus
Christ and hear Him pray? To hear Him pray. And you know,
you read John 17, and all he does there in that prayer is
pray for us. That old prayer is praying for us. And our Lord
Jesus, as he prayed here, and he's praying here as he prayed
here, he prays for us now. Right now. He intercedes in heaven
for us. Continually, constantly. Always
pleading for us. Taking up us and our cause. But
then as he gets with his disciples and they're sitting there with
him, he got through praying. And they asked him a question.
He asked him a question. And he said, who say the people
that I am? He said, I know you're out and
about. You're in your homes, you're with your families. You're
out and about preaching and teaching. And he says, when you're out
and about, what do people say about me? Who do they say I am? I know that they're talking about
me. And today, how many people are talking about Jesus? How many people have something
to say about Christ today? And it matters what they say.
It matters a great deal what they say, what they confess about
Him. And He said, what do you say about Christ? And that's
what I want to ask you. What do you all want to say about
Christ? What do you all say about Christ? It's a good question, ain't it?
What do you say about Christ? If somebody asks you, what's
your confession of Christ? If I ask you to stand up, and
I wouldn't do it, but if I ask you to stand up or ask you privately,
what do you confess about Christ? Who do you say He is? What do
you say about it? What do you say about it? And
I tell you, there's lots of opinions about it. There's lots of opinions
about it. Look what it said here in verse
19. Well, they answered him. I'll say Simon Peter probably,
you know, or Philip or somebody said, well, some say you're John
the Baptist. You know, John the Baptist's
hair had cut his head off. And they said, well some say
you're John the Baptist, risen back from the dead. Others say
that you're Elijah. You're Elijah, the prophet, who
caused fire down from heaven and destroyed 450 false prophets
at one time. Who raised the dead. Who caused
the iron to swim and caused it to come back up out of the water
and caused it to swim. Saved them. Done mighty works. God used him mightily. Mightily. And all they say, well, he's
Elijah. And another said here says one of the old prophets
is risen again. Which one prophet? Was it Moses?
Was it Elijah? Was it Jeremiah? What prophet
was it that they say one of the old prophets is risen again?
Maybe it was Samuel they said. And there are so many opinions
about the Lord Jesus Christ and these are the popular opinions
of that day about the Lord Jesus Christ. These were the popular
opinions. And there's a multitude of opinions about our Savior
today. Multitudes of opinions. If you
turned on the television this morning and went on the religious
station, or any place you want to go to, and I don't care who
you listen to, they have an opinion about Jesus Christ. They have
an opinion about Him. They have something to say about
who He is. Some of them say, well, He's
a prophet. That's all He is. He was just a prophet. Some say
he's a teacher. That's all he's come to do is
just to teach. Some say he's an example. We
need to follow his moral example. A great moral man. A great man. One of the greatest men that
ever lived. And all we need to do is follow his example. Others
say, well, he was a martyr. Others say that he was a man
that just claimed to have illusions of grandeur and claimed to be
God manifest in the flesh. And then they have this historical
Jesus. The one that the Jews wrote about
and Josephus wrote about, this historical Jesus. And others
say he's just a myth. That there was nothing really
real about him. That's just an old superstition. That people
have got, they've just got prime sky dreams in their minds about
an eternity after this. Some even call him a savior.
They talk about him as savior. He said, oh listen, He'll save
you if you let Him. He'll save you if He'll open
your heart. I heard a song just last week,
a young man was singing, and in that song he was singing,
I've got a secret place in my heart, and he says, and I didn't
want nobody to go there, and he says, but you know when the
Lord and Jesus started coming, I said, I gave Him the key so
He could go into that secret place in my heart. Grievous. Christ don't need a
key. He got the keys of David. He
opens and no man can shut. When He shuts, no man can open.
He's got the key to heaven, hell, and earth, and heaven, and every
soul on topside of God's earth. He don't need a key. And I tell
you, they say He's a Savior. But then the question is, who
did He save? What's the effect of his blood? Was his blood affectionate
enough to save everybody? As they say, since he loved everybody
and he died for everybody, can he really save everybody? Well,
he can't save you unless you let him. He can't save you unless
you let him. He can't save you unless he gets
into your heart. His blood, you know there's going
to be a whole lot of people in hell because they didn't make
the right choice. There's going to be a lot of
people miss Christ because they didn't make the right choice.
He died for them and He loved for them and He shed His blood
for them. But if they don't have faith, if they don't repent and
don't accept Jesus, then they're going to hell. And you mean after
Christ shed His blood? Those are opinions that people
have about Him. That's the way they're preaching.
Is that not right? And then there's this prophetic
Jesus. This Jesus that's going to reign
in the millennial reign. He's going to leave glory, and
He's going to come back down here. After a seven year tribulation,
people just being mistreated to no end because they wouldn't
live right for Jesus. So they got to endure to the
end. And then He's going to come back down from glory. He's going
to go to Jerusalem. He's going to set up a throne.
And He's going to sit on that throne. And He's going to reign
for a thousand years. And all the Jews are going to
come over there and get saved again, and they're going to open
up Solomon's temple, and they're going to start offering blood
sacrifices again. Ah, listen, that's why he said,
what are they talking about about me? What are they saying about
me? Huh? And I'll tell you what, this
is the voice of the people. This he said, I want to know
what the people say. This is the voice of the people,
this is not the voice of God. But now, what's my confession?
What's your confession of Christ? Look what Simon Peter said here.
Then he turned around to them, but who do he said unto them? All of them. And Simon Peter
evidently answers for every single one of them. Peter answers, said,
the Christ of God. Oh, the Christ of God. Who in
the world is the Christ of God? He's the one that had been promised.
He's the one who had been prophesied. He was the one who had been pictured
all the way through the Old Testament. God said He would come. He was
the one anointed of God. The Spirit of the Lord had anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted. And I tell you what, we confess
not only that He's the Christ of God, that he's the anointed
of God, but he's the only savior, mediator, sin of God. I mean,
he's the only one. And I tell you something, beloved,
we all have to answer this for ourselves. I cannot answer for
you. When I ask you, what do you say about Christ? I can't
answer for you. The only person I can answer
for is myself. Huh? Look, let's be open. Keep
this and look in Matthew 16 with me, just a minute. Look what
is said here about our Lord Jesus over here in Matthew 16 and verse
15. You see, we have to answer this
for ourselves. What's your confession? What
do you confess about Christ? I know our Lord Jesus, you know,
Paul said that the man believes with the heart. With the mouth,
confession is made. So if you believe in your heart,
and God does something in your heart, what do you confess with
your mouth? What do you say about Christ
with your mouth? Or do you say anything about
Christ with your mouth? And look what He said here in
Matthew 16 and verse 15. He saith unto them, asking His
disciples, He saith unto them, Whom say ye that I am? And Simon
Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son, of the
living God. God who ever lives, God who is
like, God who creates life, God who sustains life, God who is
the creator of all things. He says the Son of the living
God. And you know what our Lord said
to him? He said, Oh, you're so blessed. God has blessed you,
Simon. Oh, God has blessed you for flesh
and blood. Did not reveal this unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven. You see, let me tell you something.
When it says, we know flesh and blood didn't reveal this to thee.
You see, we don't know Christ after the flesh. Paul said, we
don't know Christ after the flesh. What does it mean not to know
Christ after the flesh? That means that we don't know
Him after our understanding of the flesh. When we were unconverted
and when we didn't know Christ, when we was in legalism, we confessed
Christ after the flesh. We knew Him after the flesh.
People that want to accept Jesus and talk to Him about opening
their hearts, that's preaching Christ after the flesh. People
knowing Him after the flesh. Paul knew Him after the flesh
when he was on the Damascus road with those warrants in his hand
to persecute the children of God. That's when he knew Christ
after the flesh. He did not know Christ as the
Sovereign. He didn't know Christ as the
Son of the Living God. Didn't know Christ as the only
mediator. Didn't know Christ as Savior.
Do you understand what I'm saying? If you're knowing that to the
flesh, it's what you think about him. Do you think he's the only
mediator between God and man? Do you think that he's the only
one that can save you? Do you think that you're a sinner
in his sight? Do you think that he's the only
one that has power and authority to do anything for you? Or do
you just think he's just, well, you know, I don't know what to
think about him. I know I hear people talk about
Him all the time, but we don't know Christ after the flesh.
When I was in legalism trying to make grace and works, that's
knowing Christ after the flesh. Trying to get Christ to accept
you on the basis of what you do, that's knowing Christ after
the flesh. The only way you'll ever know
Him as Lord is that the Scripture says only the Holy Ghost. makes
you to know that He's the Lord. And if God has not made you to
know who He is, the Christ, the Son of the living God, and I
tell you what, the Holy Spirit revealed Him as God and as sinless
man. Now I'll tell you something,
beloved, we don't follow the opinion of men. I don't care
what people say about Him, I care what I say about Him. I don't
care what everybody, you know, listens. We don't follow the
opinion of men. If I did, what if I followed
the opinion of, say, Jimmy Swank? What if I followed the opinion
of Joel O'Steen? What if I followed the opinion
of Jack Van Envy about it? Huh? Oh my. What if that woman
that's real popular, Joyce something or another, what if I followed
the opinion of her? We'd be in the mess. What if
I followed the opinion of what my daddy taught me? Or my mother
taught me? I wouldn't follow him at all.
I wouldn't have no opinion. But now look what he says down
here about himself. What do we confess? I tell you
what we confess about him. This is some things we confess
about him. He said in verse 22. He says,
The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the
elders, chief priests and scribes, and be slain and be raised the
third day. Oh my! We confess that our Lord
Jesus Christ is our substitute before God. Isn't that what he
said here? The son of man must suffer many things. And when
we say the son of man, what that means is that he identified with
us. He became a man in order to identify with us. He was God
and was always God and eternally God. But he assumed flesh, he
assumed human nature. And he took upon himself the
likeness of sinful flesh and he became a man. And he was a
son of man. And he came into this world and
God prepared him a body. And as a substitute in which
one he stands here, he must, must be slain. Must be slain. Suffer many things and be rejected
and be slain. He must suffer many things. And
all the things that he suffered, his whole life was suffering.
He said he was acquainted with grief and sorrow. And he suffered
in his birth. When he was born, he was born
of poor parents. He was born in a cow stable and
laid in a cow's manger where they fed the cattle. His mother
took him and they were poor. And they, beloved, didn't have
anything that they could do for him. He was born into suffering. And all the days of his life
he was suffering, everybody that had anything to say about him
ridiculed him, called him a devil, called him a blasphemer, called
him a everything you could think of, they called him that. He
suffered, he suffered at the hands of his enemies. His enemies
despised him, they rejected him. And not only that, but the scripture
says we despised him, we rejected him. He was despised and rejected
of men. I can remember very well despising
and rejecting Christ as He was talked to me and people say things
to me. I would get upset when I was
a young man. And that's what He's talking
about. He suffered at the hands of His enemies. And not only
that, but He suffered at the very hands of His friends. Look
over at Zechariah. Zechariah, you know Matthew,
I told you the other day. Matthew, then go back to Malachi. It's the last book in the Old
Testament. Zechariah is right before Malachi. Look with me
at Zechariah 13. Oh, we need a substitute. God
is holy. God is righteous. And God must punish sin. He cannot
let sin get by, and that's why we sing, Oh my, oh the bliss
of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, I bear them no more. Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, oh my soul. Somebody's going to suffer for
your sins, and either Christ's going to suffer for them, or
you're going to suffer for them. Then look what he said here in
verse 13, Zechariah 13 and 6, And one shall say unto him, They'll
see him and they'll say, what are these wounds in thine hands? Them wounds where they nailed
you to the tree. Them wounds where they took them
spikes and drove them into your hands. And you know what he'll
say? I said, I'm going to answer you.
They ask questions, you know. I'm going to answer you where
I got them. Those with which I was wounded in the house of
my friends. Old Judas came out to betray
the Lord Jesus and he said, friend, who are you coming from? What are
you doing? He says, the man that I kissed, that's the one you
take. And he said, friend? He says, my familiar friend lifted
up his heel against me. And I tell you, beloved, that's
why He says, you know, He must suffer many things. He must suffer
at the hand of God. He's got to suffer at the hand
of men. He's got to suffer in a fossil. Jury gotta suffer in
the false accusations. He's got to suffer lies told
on him. He's got to suffer at the hands of men plucking out
his beard. He's gotta suffer at the hands of men as they beat
his back. They gotta suffer at the hands
of men as they slap him in the face and clear their throat and
spit in his face. Suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer.
And this is awful. My man Mary talked about this
yesterday. This is awful. Man that's born of the woman
is a few days and full of trouble. And there's not a soul in this
building that don't know what it is to have trouble. Trouble. And then to have trouble in this
life. With all the trouble you have
in this life. And then to go into eternity
and suffer forever. Rejected of God. It's horrible to think about.
It's awful to think about. To go through the suffering that
we go through here. And that's why we say Christ
said, I must suffer. And bless His holy name. He suffered
for me. That's what we say about confessing. He suffered for me. He's touched
with every feeling of my infirmity. He's touched with my fears. Touched with my anxieties. Touched
with my asking for forgiveness. He's touched with everything
about me. And He must suffer. He suffered
my sins. He suffered my punishment. He suffered the justice of God
on my behalf. And that's why He said He must
suffer. And all listen to what He says here now. and be rejected
of the scribes and elders, and be slain. It must be slain. Why must you be slain? Wherever God finds sin, death
must follow. Wherever God sees sin, death's
got to come. And as He bore our sins there
in His own body on that tree, the just for the unjust, The innocent for the guilty.
He that knew no sin. He was beloved. He was made a
sacrifice for sin. And where God found sin on him,
God said, you got to die. And that's why our Lord Jesus
says, no man takes my life from me. I have the power to lay it
down. I have the power to take it up again. And I tell you, listen to me. The only sacrifice for sin God
ever accepted, from the day He made Adam in the garden until
the day this world ceases to be, is Jesus Christ, the only
sacrifice God ever accepted for sin. He ain't never accepted
a prayer we prayed, a tear we shed, any suffering we've ever
done, any church attendance we ever did, We've never, ever,
ever done anything to put away one sin. There's only one person
who ever put it away. And if you all listen, sin, sin,
sin. Paul said, you know what I say
about sin? He said, it's so sinful that it's exceeding sinful. I
don't know how to describe it. It's exceeding sinful. And I
say he was slain as a sacrifice for sin. I need a sacrifice for
sin. Don't you? I do. My heart, my
conscience tells me I do. My life tells me I do. The things
I say tells me I do. The way that I act tells me that
I do. The way that my mind works tells me that I do. The things
I do with my hands tells me that I need a sacrifice for sin. And I confess that. That's my
confession. Could you confess now that before
God, before the world, that yes, I need a sacrifice for sin? Huh? And then look what it says
here. Again there in verse 20. And he must be rejected of the
elders and the chief priests and the scribes. What does that
mean? That means that he must be rejected
of everybody who is anybody. The chief priest. That would
be the Pope. That would be the Pope, wouldn't
it, Gary? That's the chief priest. And
all the cardinals, and all the monsignors, and all the nuns,
and all of them, they would come and say, down with him! Give us Mary! Down with Christ! And the chief priests and elders,
look with me over here in John 7, with me just a moment. John
7. look over there with me just
a moment John chapter 7 look in verse 45 you remember it says that the priest they sent chief priest and officers
sent people to get the Lord Jesus Christ to lay hands on him And
they came, and they came to get the Lord Jesus. And then came
the officers to the chief priests and the Pharisees. And they said
unto them, Why have you not brought him? Verse 32 is when they sent
him. And the officers said this, Never man spake like this man.
Now look what the Pharisees said about him. Then the Pharisees
asked him, Are you also deceived? See, this is, they have an opinion.
This is what they have confessed about Christ. Are you deceived? Are you deceived? Now watch this. But this people, they said, have
any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him? You know, we who know everything,
we who teach everything, we who have read our Bibles, we who have been to seminary, We
have us who have been to Bible college, we have us who have
got a good education. He said, you don't reckon anybody
that's anybody. He said, you know, have any of
us ever believed on him? Then answered them the Pharisees. And then they said this, but
this people who know not the law are cursed. They're cursed. They don't know anything. Now
they've made an opinion about it. They've been in there. Do
you feel like you've been deceived? Do you think Christ was deceived?
Then look what else he says about him. Bless his holy name. Back
over here in Luke 9. Look what else he says about
him there again. Not only must he suffer many
things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be slain, Look what else has to happen. He must be
raised the third day. Why was he raised the third day?
Because God said, I'm satisfied. I don't need no more offering
for sins. I don't need no more sacrifice for sins. I delivered
him up for all their offenses. And then so what he knew, said,
I raised him up again for their justification to prove to them
that all their sins were put away. To show them that all their
sins is gone. All their sins was nailed to
the cross. All their sins was put in the tomb. All their sins
are gone. What's your justification that
your sins are gone? Christ raised from the dead.
What's your justification that you can put all your eggs in
His basket? Christ is raised from the dead.
What's your justification that God will accept you? Christ is
raised from the dead. And I'll tell you a satisfaction. Satisfaction. Is your heart satisfied? Is your conscience satisfied? You know what? The only thing
that'll satisfy your conscience is a perfect sacrifice. And God
gave a perfect sacrifice. If your conscience still cries
out and screams for more and more and more, then you're trying
to be justified by something you're doing. But if your conscience
says, I'm satisfied that Christ did save me, die for me, bore
my sin, put Him away for me, was crucified for me, was buried
for me, raised again for me, suffered the wrath of God for
me, God inflicted His justice on Him for me, and then if He
raised Him from the dead, When I go to glory, when I leave this
world, my justification when I'm leaving
this world is, how do you know you're going to heaven? How do
you know you're going to see Christ? There he says he's got
his right hand. That's my justification. The
only justification I'll have is that God will accept me. Ain't
that right? What else are you going to say? What else could you possibly
say? Well, my mama prayed for me,
prayed for me real hard, so I'm trusting my mama said prayed
for me, and she said she's praying for me to go to heaven, so I
believe my mama, I believe God accepts my mama's prayers. No. My husband, my husband prayed
for me, and my children prayed for me, and I believe if I go
since they prayed for me, so I believe God has to accept me.
No, no, no, no, 10,000 times no. Don't go out of this world with
anything besides Christ on your lips, Christ in your heart, Christ
in your soul, Christ bearing your sins, Christ satisfying
God. When you lay down to leave this
world, when you go down and your eyes are closing and the darkness
starts coming around your eyes, that darkness life starts leaving
your eyes, and that breath starts leaving your body, And you're
fixing to go into this gray state, this place where nobody can hear
you and you can't hear anybody. If you don't say Christ is my
justification when I go into eternity. If you can't say Christ
is my justification, don't go into eternity without Him. Please
don't. Don't do that. I beg you don't
do that. God, don't do that. His eternity is too long and
life is too short. Oh, he's raised the third day.
Prior justification, prior justification, but God can justify us. He looks
at us and He says, I accept him. Why? Because my son bore his
sin. How do you know? I raised him
from the dead. Oh, I've got to hurry on. I'm
taking way too long. Look over here again with me
now. Let me show you something else we confess. We confess,
oh, that He's our substitute. He's our sacrifice for sin. He's
our justification before God. Look what else we confess about
Him. Our confession about His call.
He said in verse 23, I'm going to turn the air conditioner on.
I don't want you all to get too hot. I think you're getting hot,
ain't you? I can fix that real quick. I
can fix that real fast. You're all setting on a little
thing. You'll be able to tell it real fast. Good. Don't want you to get hot. But look what He said here. What
our confession about Him and His call. And He said unto them
all, all His disciples, And he says it to us, if any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow
me. Now this is our confession about
his call. If any man, he said to them all, if any man will
come after me. He said come after me, not after
Elijah. not after a prophet that's risen
from the dead, not after Jeremiah, but comes after me, the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Not after the opinions of men,
not after the opinions of your fathers or your mothers, not
after the opinion of religion, not after the opinion of Baptists
or Methodists or anybody else, but He that will come after me. Come after me, every place he
went, he says follow me, follow me, follow me, follow me. If
any man come after me, after me. Now that's the key to it
right there, coming after me. We tell our little old youngins
all the time, come to me, come here, get over here. Come here. That's what God says to us. Come
here! Come here! Come here! Come to me! Come on, come to
me! These people start walking, we
get down there and say, come here, come here, come here. That's
what Christ is saying. Come here! Come to me! You can't do nothing for yourself,
come to me, I'll do it for you. You can't help yourself? Come
to me. You can't put away your sin? Come to me. Your flesh can't do anything?
Come to me. Come to me. And then look what
he says next. After he comes to me, let him
deny himself. What in the world does that mean?
Turn on yourself. Turn against yourself. You say,
what in the world are you talking about turning against yourself?
Well, deny your sinful self. Deny your righteous self. Deny
your moral self. Deny your good self. Deny the
love of yourself. I mean, when you deny self, you
say, I have just nothing to me. Deny any hope of saving yourself. Deny any ability. Deny any righteousness
that you have. Any love that you have. You know,
folks, the hardest, the last person, the last soul, the last
thing a person will give up before they come to Christ is their
good self. Is their good self. You know,
they don't mind talking about a few bad things that they've
done, a few bad things that they shouldn't have done and said
things and all that. But boy, when you have to give
up that good self. Huh? But you know when you'll
do that? When you find out there's none good, no, not one. When you find out that isn't
me in my flesh, well, it's no good thing. No good thing. You keep looking, let me show
you over here 2 Corinthians 1 verse 9, look at this, this is what
I'm talking about. Oh, let him deny himself. You
know people say, 2 Corinthians 1 verse 9. You know, people say all the
time, well you got to have some part in it. You know, you mean
to tell me that Jesus did it all? No, what about your part?
What about your faith? What about your faith? What about
this? What about that? There ain't no what abouts. There's
none. Either Christ does it all, and
then when He does it all, you have to deny yourself any part
in it. You deny yourself any part in your salvation. You deny
yourself any part in your righteousness. You deny yourself any part in
your salvation whatsoever. And that's what he's saying.
Look what Paul said here in 2 Corinthians 1.9. But we have the sentence
of death in ourselves. 2 Corinthians 1.9. We have the
sentence of death in ourselves. I'm just writing death on me.
Before God, just write death on me. What can a dead man give
to God? That's what he said and why he
says we write death, a sentence of death in ourselves. Here's
the reason why. That we should not trust in ourselves. Don't trust in, I'm not going
to trust in myself. He's an apostle. He's raised
the dead. He's done works, oh my soul,
the works that he did. Suffered for Christ and he says
we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not
trust in ourselves. Well who you don't trust in Paul?
God. Who raises the dead? Who raised
Christ from the dead? And I tell you what, when you
give up, the last one you'll give up is your good self. Your
good self. And you know people start telling
you, oh my, honey you're such a good thing, you're such a sweet
little old girl, you're such a sweet thing. And I said, you
know, don't let them tell you that you're not no good. I don't
tell you that you're no good. God says you're no good. Ain't
that right? That's what God says. And I'm going to believe what
God says and never let everybody else believe. If God says I ain't
good, then I ain't good. If God said there's no good thing
dwells in my flesh, and you know what? I know it by experience. I know it by experience. I know
that because I've experienced that. And if you haven't experienced
it, you won't have any problem at all saying, preacher don't
say nothing good about me because he doesn't say. And look what else he said back
over here in Luke. Not only deny himself, but look what he says
in verse 23, come after me, deny himself, take up his cross and
take it up every day and follow me. Now, what does the cross
mean? Cross is a symbol of death, a
symbol of suffering, a symbol of humiliation. That's what our
Lord did. He suffered shame. He suffered
humiliation. He suffered death. And that's
the place where sins were put away. And so when we take up
our cross, what we're saying is, is that we're joining Christ. We acknowledge Christ and everything
he did on that cross. And we'll enter into his humiliation,
we'll enter into his shame, we'll humiliate ourselves, we will
exalt ourselves. And this is the place. But you
know what we say about his cross also? What we confess of Him
and His cross? God forbid that I should glory
in anything except the cross of Christ. I'm going to glory
in what He accomplished. I'm going to glory in who it
was that suffered. I'm going to glory in what He did. I'm
going to glory in why He did it. And I'm going to glory in
who He did it for. That's what I'm going to do.
And then look what He says in follow me. Follow me. Oh my. You know John, the scripture
said, followed him when they took him to be judged. They said
John followed him afar off. You may follow him afar off,
but at least you followed him. And follow him. Follow him. Sometimes I feel like I'm way
far off. Don't you? But he says, without me you can
do nothing. Follow me. Follow me. Follow me. And let me deal this. Let me
show you what we confess about the worth of the soul. Look what
our Lord Jesus said here. In verse 24. For whosoever will
save his life shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, the same shall save it. Do you know how worth, what
a soul is worth? The unspeakable value of the
soul. Our Lord said, for whosoever will save his life shall lose
it. What He is saying is, if you
want to identify with Me, you want to identify with My cross,
you want to identify Me as the Christ, as the Savior, as the
anointed of God, as the one sent from God, the one who bore sin
on the cross, If you don't want to identify with me and my cross,
if you don't want to deny yourself, if you won't take up your cross
and follow me, if you say it's not that important, I've got
plenty of time. Our Lord said, if you don't identify
with me and everything I said, all you'll do is end up losing
your life. You'll lose it. Lose your life. Is your life worth losing? You don't want to lose your life,
do you? I've got plenty of time. He said, our Lord said, if you
don't follow me, don't deny yourself. Don't identify with me. You'll
lose it. Lose it. Look what else he said. But he says, but whosoever will
lose his life for my sake, The same shall save. Lose his life
for my sake. Now what in the world do you
reckon he means by that? What did you lose in coming to
Christ? What did you lose? Huh? Lose
his life for my sake. In having Christ, his life, what
did we lose? Yeah, I'll tell you what we lost.
We lost sin, a life of sin, a life of rebellion, a life of corruption,
a life of death, a life of guilt. That's all we lost. Huh? That's what we lost. You know
what Paul said? He said, I'm in a strait in betwixt two. Having
desired a part to be with Christ, but nevertheless it's better
for you that I stay here. What did we lose? We lost condemnation. That's all we lost. I lost my
life for Christ? You know what kind of life did
I have before I had Christ? What kind of life did you have
before you had Christ? Sin, condemnation, guilt, shame,
rebellion, hatred, enmity, everything that's ungodly and
unrighteous, that's all we had? And we lost that and had Christ? What did we find? We found Christ. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear. Paul said, I want to be found
in Him. And look what we confess here. Listen to this. In verse
25. Oh, for my sake. For my sake. Oh, for my sake. That's why Paul said, you know.
Listen to what he said, For what is a man of vanish if he gain
the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? What if you gained everything
in this world? When he says gain the world,
what he means is gain what you consider to be the world to you.
What would be the world to you? Say, if I gain this right here,
if I could have this, that would satisfy me. If I could have this,
and get that, and if I could attain that, that my world, if
I could have that world that I have in my mind, have in my
mind's eye, and that I want to accomplish, if I gain that world,
I'll be happy. Well, our Lord said, if you gain
the whole world, and then lose yourself, or be cast away, What
would it profit him? What would it profit him? And oh my! Whatever the world to
you. Whatever is the world to you. And then look what he says
here, let me hurry up and finish up. And then our confession of
him and his words. He said in verse 26. For whosoever
shall be ashamed of me and of my words, Oh my, are you ashamed of the
words of Christ? To be ashamed of His words? Are you ashamed of anything Christ
ever said? Are you ashamed of anything that
the Lord Jesus would ever demand? Would you be ashamed to tell
people what Christ said? And look what He says, would
you be ashamed of Him and His words? Huh? Would you? And then, oh my, that's why Paul
said, you know, I want to be found in Christ. I
want to know Christ. I want to win Christ. And I tell
you what, when he stood before kings, when he stood before Caesar,
when he stood before mighty men of this world, he was not ashamed
of the words of Christ. John Bunyan spent 12 years in
a dungeon, in a bridge in Bedford. You can go over there and look
at that bridge where he stayed under that old bridge. And they'd
come over there and tell him all the time. Oh John, all you
got to do is quit meeting with these people, quit preaching,
and use the prayer book. He said, the moss will grow on
my upper limb before I'll do that. Because he wasn't ashamed
of Christ and his words. Oh, would you be ashamed of him?
Why would anyone be ashamed of Christ? Paul got to the end of
his way and he says this. He said, I fought a good fight.
I fought a good fight. And guess what he said? I kept
the faith. I kept what Christ taught me. And now I'm fixing to leave this
world. Oh, what's going to happen, Paul said? Christ got a crown
of righteousness waiting on me. He wasn't ashamed. And look what
our Lord said, now this is awful to think about. And He said,
whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him, of that
person, shall the Son of Man be ashamed. When He shall come
in His own glory, in the glory of his father and in the glory
of the holy angels. Can you imagine when Christ comes? John said it like this, he says,
let us not be ashamed at his appearing. Be brought to shame
at his appearing. If we're ashamed of him, now
just wait a minute. When he shall come in his glory,
will he recognize you or me? Will he say, that's mine, that's
mine, that's mine, that's mine. When he comes in his Father's
glory, when he comes in the glory of the angels, will he say, well
it was a shame to me, a shame to confess me, a shame to own
me, a shame of my words, when I said follow me, when I said
come to me, When I says that no man can come unto the Father
but me, He said, if any man is ashamed of me and my word and
won't follow my words, obey my words and not be ashamed of me. He said, you know what I'll do?
When I come, I'm going to be ashamed of him. Wait a minute, don't say a word.
I'm going to be ashamed of you. I'm going to be ashamed of you. What would you confess of Christ
today? If I ask you right now, right now, and if God does something
for you in your heart, what would you confess of Christ right now?
What would you say? Would you say, in my hands no
price I bring, simply to the Lord Jesus I come. Jesus paid
it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. I have no one else to turn to
but Christ. Oh God, it's work in your heart
to where you can stand up and say one of these days, Lord Jesus, You did it. You did
it all. I owe it all to You. I'm not
good. I've never done anything good. I'm nothing but a sinner. And
bless His holy name, that's who He came to save. Our Father, O our Father, if
you'd be pleased to take these words today, lay them heavy on
the heart, lay them heavy on the conscience of those who've
never yet confessed you. You ask His disciples, who the
men say that I am, and we here as disciples, we say who we confess
Him to be. And all fathers, laying heavy
on their conscience, laying heavy on their heart and on their mind,
that they would confess Christ our Lord, who asked in His holy
name. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to 400
in the hymn book. We say, Mr. Justice, I am. I believe you. I think y'all woke
up. Just as I am. Stand together. Jesus, and shall it ever be,
our Lord of angels pray whose glory shines
through endless days. Ashamed of Jesus, Let it be flesh to hold the star
He sheds the beams of light Divine on this united soul Ashamed of Jesus Yes, I sing
All through my whole of every pain Oh, when I brush me No more reveal His name Ashamed
of Jesus yet I lay When I don't know Him So to say. Till then, nor is
thy boasting vain. Till then, Well, Lord bless you to see you tonight,
6 o'clock, God willing.