All right, everything's rolling. Mark chapter eight, I wanna begin
reading in verse 34. And when he had called the people
unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit
a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when
he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels. I entitled this, take up his
cross and follow me. These are the words of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, after he gave sight to the blind, after
he asked his disciples, who am I? After he told Satan to get
behind him. For thou savorest not the things
of God, but the things of man. After all this, he tells us here
what it means to come after him and to follow him. This is for our eternal good.
Technically, everything Christ said is for our eternal good. And here, Jesus Christ lays this
out for our knowledge and for our understanding and for our
mulling, is a good word, to ponder. Where I want to start is, whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself. It does say whosoever, but it
says whosoever will. So who's he not talking to? He's
not talking to whosoever won't. That's the first point. He's
talking to whosoever will. If you won't, these aren't the
words for you. There are some words for you
here. But here he's talking about if you will. There are some that
will not follow him. There were some that will not
hear him. There are some that will not
listen to him. But here it says, whosoever will
come after me, let him deny himself. What does it mean to come after
Christ? Very simply, it means you come to him, and it also
means that he is in front. He's the head of the body. He's
the head of his church. He's the one we follow after. I don't know, I mean, I've listened
to some preachers on television, and it sounds like they wanna
lead Jesus to what they want him to do. That's not the way
it works. We are to follow after. And we
are to follow after him. We are to come after him. It's
not about his coming after a lost sheep, although he does. That's
not what he's talking about here. This is talking about what a
found sheep does. And here's a very important point.
No man, no man, No man goes before the Lord of glory. We come after. That's what we do. Not in this
manner. He is in the lead, he is the
head, and he is our forerunner. Now I know the prophets and John
the Baptist even came before Jesus of Nazareth, but they were
heralding his life saying he is coming. And then John the
Baptist said he's here. And he was here. His work and
his words, they were talking about before he came. But that's
not what Jesus is referencing here. He's referencing himself
as the head of the body, as the shepherd, the good shepherd of
his flock. We are to come after him. The body takes direction from
the head. And no one is leading Christ.
But he says these words, let him deny himself. Very clearly, it says himself. It doesn't say let him deny himself
things. He said, let him deny himself.
Because lots of people all around us and other places want to talk
about and emphasize denying yourself things. We are in the season
of Lent right now. I had a discussion with Mason
on the way in. The day before Lent starts, which
was Ash Wednesday, the day before is called Shrove Tuesday. I did
not know this. I saw it on the sign outside
the Episcopal Church in Princeton. They had Shrove Tuesday. Well,
I Googled it. What it is, it's the Tuesday
before Ash Wednesday when Lent starts and you have to deny yourself
something. Well, Shrove Tuesday also has
a better name, I think. It's called Pancake Tuesday. Because that's when you eat a
lot of pancakes before you go to Lent and you have to deny
yourself some food. No, that's not what Christ is talking about.
He's talking about denying yourself, not denying yourself things.
Now, it may be involving denying yourself some things. That may
be involved, but that's not the point. He says, let him deny
himself. He doesn't say, you know, Well,
I got a list here about things people want you to deny beer
movies TV cigarettes dancing nightclubs the beach whatever
Jesus Christ said deny yourself And you can instead of saying
that is himself Yourself say it is two words deny your self
That's the breakdown We are to deny our self, our self-will,
our self-desire, our self-wanting to be in charge. To come after
him, you have to deny your self, your self-esteem, your self-worth,
your wants, your desires, your perceived standing in the community. your very thoughts about yourself. Because, here's the thing, yourself,
and I'm including myself in this, is not good. Even as a believer, myself is
fallen. I'm a fallen creature. Earl used
to say it. I was depraved, I am depraved,
I shall be depraved until I awaken his likeness. And that's what
Christ is talking about here. Yourself. Myself is depraved. Anything of me is depraved. Anything of me is fallen. And I have to deny me. and follow Him and come after
Him. Your self will never lead you
to come after Christ. Your self must be denied. Now
you're not denying the existence of self, but you are to deny
yourself. My self exists. Romans 7 is quite
clear, Mason. There's inside me, there is both
now that I believe. There is both the law of God
in the spirit of my mind, but there is also my own wicked heart,
which is still there. It's still there. And these two
don't get along. They're not like this, they're
like this. And they war against each other, the war in my members,
the war of my flesh against the spirit. This happens in a believer. And we are to deny that self.
We are to mortify the members of our body. And I said a couple
of weeks ago, because they need mortification. They need to be
mortified. He means you have to deny the
worth of yourself in relation to God. Now I value my opinion quite
highly about some things, but not about God. Not about the
things of God, like Jesus Christ, for example. I may know a lot
about certain subjects. I know how to do my job. Some
people don't believe that where I work, but I do know how to
do my job. And I think I do it very well,
but my opinion is suspect. But when it comes to Christ and
the things of Christ, we need to bow to him. We're coming after him. The only
thing we have to go by is not our opinion, is what his word
says. And he'll have more to say about
his word in a little bit. Because this is not talking about
a false humility in regards to people. This is about knowing
that in myself, in me dwelleth no good thing. I am under sin still. There's
none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands.
There is none that seeks after God. There is none that doeth
good, and that means me and you. No, not one. My biggest problem is me. I'm the problem. I am undone. What did Isaiah say? I'm a man
of unclean lips, and I'm surrounded by a people of unclean lips.
I dwell in the midst of them. I am unprofitable. It's one thing
to know this about man in general, but it is another thing to know
it about your own self. There's lots of people, oh, we
all sinners. We're all sinners. No, I'm a sinner. And because
I am a sinner, I sin. Amen. And I have to deny that
self if I want to come after Christ. because that self doesn't
want to follow Christ. That self wanted to stay in bed
this morning and sleep late. I have to deny myself, you have
to deny yourself to come after Him. Yes, we should deny our lusts
that lead us to sin, but we are to know that that actually does
come from within. In God's sight, I have no self-esteem. And I have no right to self-esteem
in the eyes of God. Because denying yourself also
means this, after you have believed and came to Christ, you might think you know what
you're supposed to do. It ain't always so. We're to
come after him. We're to come after him. You
may wanna do something. And it may be something good. Actually good. But you need to
come after him. And guess what? He will put you
where you are to be. And you'll be there. And you
know why? Because he will teach you to
deny yourself and he'll put, you can ask Jonah how he felt
about going to Nineveh. He didn't want to go Mason, but
he went. Jonah thought it would be a good
thing for him not to go to Nineveh, to go anywhere else except Nineveh. And guess where he ended up?
In Nineveh preaching the gospel. You may want to do something.
Christ may say no. And Christ may say, not yet.
We are to deny our selves. Then he says, and take up his
cross. I do want to point out one negative
here because there is a say that goes around, especially in, uh,
country places like this. Well, That's his cross to bear. That's her cross to bear. Okay. No, that's not what Christ is
talking about. Because usually when they're
saying that, most people are speaking about a situation or
a person, possibly a spouse or a relative that someone has to
deal with. And they'll say, well that's
their cross to bear. Now let's not get confused between
taking up your cross and reaping what you sow. Because there's
a difference. You're gonna reap what you sow.
But taking up your cross, taking up your cross, we're not taking
up his cross. He handled his cross. He handled
his cross in the future here, in the past to us, but we are
to take up our cross. Taking up your cross is taking
up the cause of the gospel. This is a work. This is something
we are to do. Believing the gospel, the words
of Jesus Christ about himself and his work and his power and
his Godhead, and holding that. We are to carry that with us.
We are to take it up, take it to ourselves. Yes, he has called
us in. Yes, he has brought us in. Yes, he has found his lost sheep
and brought it in, but we are to follow and accept and love
and lay hold of our good shepherd. We are not gonna be nailed to
the cross. It's his cross. We are taking
up our cross. Yes, we can be ostracized and
have been ostracized by some for our belief in this Christ
of the Bible. And our words about Jesus Christ
It says very clearly we are to have and will have tribulation
in this world because of His name. There are those who hate us.
I know some hate me in particular, but the reason they hate me is
because of Him. because you tell the truth to
people about the Lord Jesus Christ and they will hate you because
they hate him. He said, they hated me first. They're gonna hate you because
they hated me first. We have been abandoned by some.
We have been cursed by others. We are ignored by the vast multitude
and sometimes for that I'm thankful. those that hate the Son of God
hate those who believe the Son of God and that's just the way
it is we are to take up our cross and
our cross our cross I don't know if I can put this away I need
to see you understand We're told
sometimes not to lay our pearls before swine. It's what Christ
said, because they'll trample them underfoot and turn and rend
you. Now, most people I've heard talk
about, well, those pearls are Christ's. Well, no, they're not
gonna trample Christ underfoot, okay? That's a bad analogy or
a bad explanation of that illustration. but what they will trample underfoot
is the words that you say. The words that you read out of
this scripture. I was listening to Earl coming
up the road here and he said, I read a scripture and somebody
says, well, that's your opinion. That's not opinion, it's scripture. I have my opinion, I believe
the scripture. If that's what it says, that's
what it means. But they'll trample this book
under if they can. They'll trample every word that
comes from the mouth of God because they will not have this man to
reign over them and they don't want to talk to you about it. But then he says this, and follow
me and follow me. What's that mean? Follow him.
follow Christ, follow the Lord. Now this is just not, this is
not just a physical following. Although there were some who
did physically follow him while he was here. But that's not always what it
is. We are to follow his example as best we can. We are to follow
his word as we are given understanding. We are to follow his apostles
doctrine as it's revealed unto us. In his word. But we are to follow him. Some in the scripture, here,
just a minute ago, last week, that blind man from Bethsaida
was told, go home. That's what Christ told him to
do. Go to your house. And he did, as far as we know.
So how was this man to follow Christ? He went home. The Gadarene
demoniac, back in, I think it's chapter four, wanted to go and
follow Christ. Christ said, no, stay here among
your people. And he did. What was he doing? He was following
Christ by staying where Christ told him to be. They follow Christ. They denied
themselves. and did what he said, following
his commands. We are not to follow men. We're
not to follow preachers. We are to assemble together to
hear the word of God preached. We are to listen to preachers
who preach his gospel. We are to love the brethren,
but we follow no man save the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to
follow him. We are not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together. We are to have fellowship with
believers. We're to love the brethren. Why? Because it's good to gather
with people who also want to follow him. and to follow in
his word. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
and the gospel's, the same shall save it. There are those who
have said anything to save their lives. If you wanna look at the
history of the Catholic Church, you can find them. There were those who gave up
stuff. You understand there's the whole
thing of the history and it's true where Christians were put
to death in the lions, in the arena. But there were some who
avoided that by turning others in and by turning over the scriptures
they had, the books they had. And those are the ones that survived,
that were not put to death in the arena, and those are the
ones that Constantine turned to to get the Catholic Church
up and running. Whosoever shall save his life
shall lose it. Now, we don't have to worry about
that too much in this country right now. Thank God. But here, what does this mean?
It means that your life is never to mean more than him. his gospel He is worthy of all honor and
praise even if it costs you his life on this earth and there
is other history where there were others you can read Fox's
book of martyrs of People who were put to death why because
they preached the same message that we preach here There are some who have professed
Christ And now they deny him and they didn't even have the
threat of life or limb. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel sake, the same shall save it. There's two sides of the coin. Following him will cost you in
this world and some in times past it has cost their very lives. but we have no life outside of
Him. We have no life without Him. And the life that He has given,
we can't lose because it's His life, not ours. Following Him in this world may
cost you in this world, There are those who lost their
lives, but, but they didn't lose the life. They did not lose the
life because once you have been given eternal life, it is eternal
life. And he will never, never leave
you nor forsake you. But it does say for my sake and
the gospel sake. Walter was talking about it a
few weeks ago. You can't separate Jesus Christ from his gospel. Don't even try. Just don't try. Because there are those in this
world, the religious world, who try to separate Christ from his
gospel. Anytime there's any kind of ecumenical
movement. They want to keep the name of
Jesus and throw this book right out the window It can't be done You can't separate
him from his gospel. It's his gospel It's about him
It is the gospel of God's dear son. I And he here is equating whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's sake. He's put
them together equally. There is no separation between
Christ and his gospel. There are those, oh, I love Jesus,
but they don't know what he said. Now here's the other thing. They don't want to know what
he said. And please don't tell me what he said. Because when you tell them his
gospel, they hate that. Because they hate him. They love
their idea of Christ. They love their idea of Jesus. They don't know Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory. They honor him with their lips,
but their hearts Far far from them from him His gospel his words are a part
of him You can't separate the two it's not possible It says whosoever shall lose
his life for my sake and the gospel sake the same shall save
it Let's be clear, you're not saving
yourself. But let's also be clear, he that
endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. Now this is not
about any of these words here where Christ is speaking. It's
not about how it's done. That's handled elsewhere. But
it is saying it has to be done. We have to endure to the end.
The same shall be saved. Now there, I used to, that was
one of the first things I talked about with Walter, with Arminian
churches and places. They should actually quote that
scripture, he that's enduring at the end. Because they believe
you can be saved and lost and saved and lost. And hopefully,
if you're lucky enough, you'll be enduring at the end. That
ain't what Christ said. That's not what he's talking
about at all. We endure to the end. The same shall save it. Let's
be clear, you're not saving yourself. But this life that we live is
not all. This life that we're living here
on this earth is not all. It's not even close to all. Paul
said it, if we have hope in this world alone, we are of all men
most miserable. Why? Because we know more about
what's going on in this world than the world does. There is life after this life. But let's be clear about this.
There is death after this life. And what's the difference between
the two? The Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel. He is our salvation. He is. For what shall it profit
a man that if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
This is a perfect example of a rhetorical question. You should
not have to strive to answer this question because the answer
is obvious, nothing. Unless you don't know him. You don't know him. You don't
understand the worth of your own soul. Or what a man shall
give in exchange for a soul. Guess what? This is another rhetorical
question. And the answer is nothing. Power,
riches, fame, adoration. What was Esau? A mess of porridge. Nothing. The soul is the part
that shall endure for good or for ill. The soul will go on.
And you will die. That's a fact. The question is,
what about your soul? I remember growing up watching
dumb movies and TV shows all over this place where Satan was
buying up souls. Satan can't buy your soul because
you can't sell it. You don't have any power over
it. The answer and the only answer there is and ever has been is
to trust the Son of God. Come after Him and deny yourself
and follow Jesus Christ. Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation Him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he
cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels It's kind
of ended on a down note here But there's always two sides
to a coin Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me. All right. What does it mean to be ashamed
of Jesus Christ? I'll just start with what Jesus
Christ said You don't come after him and you don't deny yourself.
That's to be ashamed of him. You don't honor him and his gospel. That's to be ashamed of him.
You think of yourself more highly than you ought. That's to be
ashamed of him. Because you consider yourself
first and Jesus somewhere down the line. That's to be ashamed
of him. Who is ashamed of him? He tells
us right here, right in this verse. Here's the character of
those that are ashamed of him. They are those that are ashamed
of his words. Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and my words. Jesus here. He was equating the
gospel with himself earlier. Here he's equating his words
with himself. I didn't say that, he did. Whosoever
therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words. It's the same thing to him. The words of Christ show forth
the life of Christ, the manner of Christ, the truth of Christ,
the glory of Christ, the person of Christ, and the work of Christ. You cannot separate Jesus Christ
from what he has said. It cannot be done even though
man has been trying to do it for 2,000 years. They tried to
do it while he was there. in Jerusalem and other places.
And they're still trying to do it now. Satan's lie hasn't changed,
Mason. That's true. Yea, hath God not
said. They're trying to deny the words
of the Son of God and thereby they are denying the word of
God and the word personally himself. They're ashamed of Him and His
words. You cannot honor the Son of God without His words. And if you don't honor and believe
His words, you are ashamed of Him and His words, His gospel. That's just the way it is. I
don't know any other way to put it. the gospel, the good news
of him. His words have been given to
us in this book and they've been given to us in his own words. It has been preserved and handed
down and translated and given. So there is no excuse whatsoever
to be ignorant of his words or to be ignorant of him. And he
narrows it even further. I find this fascinating. He says
it right here. Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation. Now he's not just talking about
the people there. He's talking about what he said
while he was here. While he was here. Not even talking
about the Old Testament here, Mason. Although he said a lot
of things from the Old Testament. There's no difference between
what he said here and the Old Testament. There's no difference
from what he said here. In this adulterous and sinful
generation, he was surrounded by, he came unto his own and
his own received him not. The words he spoke while he was
here, while he was doing this ministry, what is it, 33 and
a half years. The words that he spoke here,
If you don't believe them, you're not gonna believe anything else
in the scripture. You can't believe Moses and not believe Christ. Who said that? He did. If you
believe the words of Moses, you believe me. Because Moses saw my day and
he was glad. Moses wrote of me. He is speaking right here, right
now in His incarnation. And if you deny these words,
you're denying all of the words of the scripture. And you're
denying all of the words of the Son of God. God loves His Son. God loved
His Son. God gave His Son. And if you
disrespect His Son, you're disrespecting the Father. If you're ashamed
of the son and his words, you're ashamed of the father. That's not a good place to be. Christ never said anything different
or disagreeing with the old Testament while he was here. He spoke the
absolute truth while here. And guess what? The reason we
say he spoke the absolute truth is because the absolute truth
is absolute. It doesn't change. It doesn't
change. And what did the Lord say while
his son was here? He said, hey, this is my beloved
son. Wait for it. Hear him, hear him,
hear what? Hear his words, hear his words,
hear his words. He came to preach and he came
to his own and his own received him not, but to as many as received
him. There are those who will believe
him and his words. You can't separate the two. And
in this adulterous and sinful generation, there were a lot
that rejected him. And it says what? The son of
man shall be ashamed. If you deny Christ and his gospel,
the son will be ashamed of you. What's that mean? Some is gonna
mean I never knew you. Depart from me ye who work, what? Iniquity. Iniquity. If you are ashamed of Jesus Christ
and his words, he never knew you. He never knew
you. He doesn't know you yet. There's
still some hope for the future. Saul of Tarsus denied him for
a while. Saul of Tarsus was kicking against some pricks. That's all
right. The Lord Jesus Christ brought
him around. Anyone who denies the true and
living Christ and his words is antichrist. And there were antichrists
2,000 years ago when John was writing his epistles. Guess what? They're still here today. They're
still here today. Is that too hard? Well, if you
don't own him, own him in this world, he won't own you in the
next. And that's what it says. You
can take that however you want because that's what the word
of God says. They went out from us because
they were not of us. And just so you would know, it
was made manifest that they were not ever of us. Is that too hard? Well, here's
one thing I can tell you. You do not want the son of God
ashamed of you. When he comes, he's coming. He's coming, he's coming, he's
coming. Now he was still here when he
said this. And he said, when the son of
man be ashamed and when he cometh in the glory of his father with
the holy angels. He was still standing on the
planet when he said this, but he told him he was coming again. He knew how he was gonna leave. He knew he was gonna be crucified.
He'd already started telling the guys about it. That's when
Satan showed up. And Peter said, don't do this.
You don't need to do that. That's crazy talk. And he told
Peter, he said, get behind me, Satan. You don't savor the things
of God. You don't think upon, you're
not mindful of the things of God. You want the things of man.
That's what Satan wants. The things of man, not the things
of God. And that's what man wants in his heart. Man wants the things
of man and not the things of God. But he's coming again. And he's coming in the glory
of his father with the holy angels. And what are we to do? Deny ourselves and follow him. Watch and wait. And believe him and his words. because he's coming, he's coming. Whether we know it or not, whether
we like it or not, he said he's coming and he's coming. Now I do want to be clear here,
even by doing this, we are not saving ourselves eternally. We can do nothing on our own. I cannot, I cannot know Christ
without the power and the revelation from Christ. And you and I cannot
follow Christ and continue in his doctrine and in his words
without him who gives both life and faith and works in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. There are those who
want to teach this from here and just about throw you under
the law. You've got to keep yourself safe.
I can't do it. I'm not saying I can do it. Christ
wasn't saying how to do it. He just said do it. He really wants you to do something.
He'll put in you both the will and to do of what his good pleasure. I like that, I do. He gives both
life and faith, but we are to follow him and his words. We stumble, we fall, we fail,
but believers are never utterly cast down or out. Believers will get up and follow
because God will pick you up and make you follow in his paths.
We are kept. Thank God we are kept. Not by
our works. Not even by denying ourselves
and following him. We are kept by the power of God. What? Through faith, which is
his gift. What does it say? unto salvation. What's he mean in there? The
completion of this salvation. We are saved, but our salvation
is not complete. But Peter says it's ready to
be revealed in the last time. What? When he cometh in the glory
of his father with the holy angels. There's gonna be a completion
to the salvation that we're in now. If we have, in this life
only, we have hope. We are of all men most miserable. There's a rest of this salvation.
This mortal's gonna put on immortality. Even better, this corruptible's
gonna put on incorruption. Guess what? That's part of following
Him and that's part of believing His words. Because those are
His words through His apostle. Don't be ashamed of Him and His
words. Believe them, proclaim them,
love Him, and know His words. Love Him, follow Him, and know
his gospel know his words he's coming he's coming he's
coming and it's going to be glorious whether we know it or not i'd
rather know it i'd rather be there and happy about Our Heavenly
Father, we are thankful again for this time and this place.
Thank you for everything. You have given us everything.
You've given us life and faith and love and hope. And you've
made us believe you. Thank you, Lord. In Christ's
name we pray.