The title of the lesson will
begin in Matthew 10 and verse 34. But the title of the message
is Losing Life to Gain Life. And that title comes from these
verse, verse 39, where it says, he that findeth his life shall
lose it, he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. That
concept, that's a grace concept. as all a gospel concept that
we need to learn and understand that we are not citizens of this
world. Now, and I always go to the passage
where Christ told his disciples, he said, we're in the world and
we have to deal with the world. We have to do the things that
we need to do while we're living on this earth. But we're not
of the world. We're separate from, sanctified. That's what that word sanctified
means. It means separated. And we're
separated by the gospel and the power of the spirit, by our understanding
and knowledge of God. And just like he says here, think
about passages like this. You know, he says in verse 34,
he says, think not that I'm come to send peace on earth. I came
not to send peace, but a sword. That's an amazing thing. You
know, when you think about what people have been thinking about
in these past weeks here, when they think about passages, and
I've got this in your lesson, Luke 2, 14, where it says, glory
to God in the highest and peace on earth and goodwill towards
men, and how that literally means, contrary to popular opinion,
It literally means glory to God in highest heaven and peace on
earth to those with whom God is pleased or upon whom rests
God's favor. And we know that God's favor
and God's pleasure does not rest on anyone or with anyone outside
of Christ. If you don't listen, if Christ
is not your hope, your forgiveness, your righteousness, your life,
then you can't say that God's peace and God's rest and God's
pleasure and favor rest upon you. Now, we know that God chose
the people before the foundation of the world and gave them to
Christ, and he's been reconciled to them based upon Christ's work
on the cross, which brings peace between God and sinners, but
it doesn't bring peace between everybody in this world. Nations
and people, there's wars all over the place. Now the gospel
is the gospel of peace. I put it in here, it's a message
of peace. But it's not peace between nations or peace between
even human beings. It does bring peace between human
beings in the gospel, But it's peace between God and sinners. That hymn says God and sinners
reconciled. And what a blessing that is. What I'm going to be preaching
in the next hour in Revelation is a lot of negativity. But that
one shining light of positivity shines through. that God is for
his people. And he will preserve us, whatever
troubles we go through on this life, God's with us. God is for us. If God be for
us, who can be against us? And it's all because of the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. We live our lives
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. But
God is pleased only with those who are in Christ. But here he
says, and there's no contradiction now between Luke 2.14 and Matthew
10.34. Luke 2.14, peace on earth, goodwill
toward men. Literally those with whom God
has favor. And this, think not I'm coming
to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. An opposition, a division, that's
what that means. And look at verse 35. For I'm
come to set a man at variance against his father. His own father. And the daughter against her
mother. And the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law. See, this is division within
families. And he says in verse 36, listen
to this, a man's foes, a man's enemies shall be they of his
own household, his own family. Now that goes contrary to human
religion, which basically is the power of positive thinking.
This is the sword of truth, the gospel. that divides those who
believe that gospel from those who do not believe it and even
hate it. And this division reaches all
the way to our earthly families. A man and his father, a daughter
and her mother, a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law. What is
he talking about? He's not talking about spats,
arguments, preferences, prejudice. He's not talking about those
silly things that really we lay hold of on life and chew on. What he's talking about is the
gospel. This is over the gospel. This is over how God saves sinners. And when you look at things like
this, think about what a blessing it is that God has revealed to
us the glorious person and finished work of Christ to where in by
nature we closed our ears and shut our eyes to it and hated
it, God has given us a new spirit. A new way of looking at it. Now
that which we hated, we love. And can't do without. It's our
life. It's our spiritual food. And that's what he's talking
about. This is the sword of the Lord that divides even family
members. Not just people you don't like.
Or people you don't get along with. This sword divides your
nearest and dearest loved ones who don't believe the gospel.
And so he says in verse 37, now listen to this. This is how far
it goes. 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. What he's saying here is this.
Light can have no fellowship with darkness. Good cannot exist
peacefully with evil. And I've got in your lesson.
Remember the very first murder? Huh? One brother hating another brother. Over what? Well, look over at
1 John. I know, I've heard messages on this and growing up, you know,
when you think about Cain and Abel, I always thought of Cain as being
some kind of selfish, mean brother, you know, that just couldn't
get along. You know, one of those people
that you just can't get along with. And it got out of hand. And I've heard people say, well,
they both brought an offering unto the Lord. God accepted Abel's offering,
and he rejected Cain's offering. Why? And I've heard preachers
say, well, Cain wasn't sincere, or Cain, he did it without being
serious, or something like that. Or Cain, he was religious but
immoral, that kind of thing. Well, my question is, what does
the Bible say about why Cain hated and killed his earthly
brother Abel? Well, look at 1 John 3 in verse
10. It says, in this the children
of God are manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. Now what is it to doeth righteousness
and doeth not righteousness? Well, a lot of people even who
claim to be Christian would say, well, that means if you're doing
righteousness, that means you're a moral, sincere, dedicated person. Yeah. You do right in the eyes
of men. And if you do it not righteousness,
you're immoral, you don't live right. Well, if that's all it
is, then our religion is no different than any other religion. In the context of all this, and
I'm not gonna go into all the context, doing righteousness
is believing in and trusting and following the Lord Jesus
Christ for all salvation. because he is the Lord our righteousness. And to doeth not righteousness
is to reject God's way of salvation by his grace in Christ, and not
follow him. So he says, and neither he that
loveth not his brother, and the brotherhood there is the union,
communion, and the fellowship of those who believe God, sinners
saved by grace, And he says in verse 11, for this is the message
that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
not as Cain, who was that wicked one, the devil, and slew his
brother, and wherefore slew he him. Now the way, that's the
old King James way of saying, why did Cain kill Abel? Why did
he do it? Because his own works were evil,
and his brothers righteous. Abel's works were righteous.
Cain's works were evil. Now, what was Abel's works? Well,
you can go back to Genesis four and read all about it. Cain brought
the works of his hands, the labor of his hands to be accepted with
God. What did Abel bring? of the Lamb,
God's way. God did not accept Abel's works
as righteous because they were meritorious and moral. Abel was
a sinner. Cain was a sinner. And the proof
of Abel's being a sinner is that he brought the blood of a Lamb.
If you're not a sinner, you don't need the blood of a Lamb. In
other words, if you're not a sinner, you don't need the blood of the
Lamb. If you're not a sinner, you don't need Christ. You don't need grace if you're
not a sinner. If righteousness come by the
law, your works of the law, Christ died in vain, you don't need
him. But Cain, he rejected that way. He didn't confess himself to
be a sinner. And God rejected his offering
because his offering represented the works of men and women as
presented to God for salvation, for forgiveness and righteousness.
So Cain killed Abel over the gospel. And that's what Christ
is talking about here between family members. Now, I've got
cited in your lesson here, Luke 14, 26. Listen to how Luke puts
it. He says this. He says, if any
man come to me, Christ says, if any man come to me, and hate
not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, He cannot be my disciple. Now how do you figure that? He says if any person comes to
him and doesn't hate these earthly relationships. Well, we know
this. Christ would never teach us not
to love our fathers, our mothers, our families, our neighbors,
even our enemies. Back over in Matthew chapter
five, you remember he talked about loving your enemies? Praying
for those who despitefully use you and say all manner of evil
against you? He said, what profit is it if
you just love your friends? How can we reconcile what Luke
says about that hatred here? Well, the hatred that Luke is
talking about is not a selfish, sinful, self-serving hatred. just because I didn't get my
way or you didn't do me what I think you should do me or whatever.
That's the sinful hatred. The law says to love our neighbor
as ourself, doesn't it? And to do anything, and it's
clear that our neighbor includes our worst enemies. And anything
less is sin. That's why we need the righteousness
that Christ produced. Our concept of righteousness
is in the person and work of Christ, not in how we compare
to each other. And in order to be accepted with
God, I've got to have the perfect righteousness of the law that
can only be found in Christ. But there's no excuse for me
to hate anybody with a sinful hatred. What Luke is talking
about is this, and I'm gonna read it. You got it in your lesson.
but I want you to see it. Listen to this now. It is a righteous
judgment of another person's state due to their expressed
unbelief of the gospel truth as it is in Christ, which causes
God's people to deny any spiritual relationship and refuse any spiritual
fellowship with them. Go to 2 John. Here's what he's talking about.
He's not telling you to despise your mother and your father,
your brother, your sister. He's not telling you to wish
harm upon them. He's not telling you to get vengeance
upon them. When he says to hate them, here's
what he's saying. Reject them as being in your
spiritual family. See, if you've got unbelieving
family members, they're your family on earth and you're to
love them. But you have no spiritual fellowship with them. You see
what I'm saying? You reject them as being part
of your spiritual family. Why? Because they don't know
Christ. They don't believe in Christ. Look at 2 John verse
9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ. Now what is the doctrine of Christ?
It's the doctrine of his person, who he is, God manifest in the
flesh. It's the doctrine of his finished
work. What did he accomplish on Calvary
when he died? Was buried in a rose again. Did
he make your salvation possible? If you do your part? Well that's
a lie, if that's what you believe. Or did he secure the salvation
of every sinner for whom he lived and died, was buried, and rose
again? So those who don't abide in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. And if there come
any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into
your house. Now that doesn't mean, or neither
bid him Godspeed, that doesn't mean don't let him into your
physical house. it means you don't receive them
into the fellowship of the household of faith. If I have an unbelieving brother,
he's my brother and I love him. But if he doesn't believe the
gospel, he's not my brother in Christ. You understand that? That's the hatred that Luke was
talking about. And so, When I have a brother
or a sister or a family member who doesn't believe the gospel,
I can say I love them and should love them. Pray for them, pray
for their salvation. But I reject them as being part
of my spiritual family. You here who believe the gospel,
you're my spiritual brothers and sisters. Now, if you think that's far-fetched,
listen to this. Back over in Matthew chapter
12, or no, Mark chapter 12, I believe it is. No, I'm right, Matthew
chapter 12. I've got this in your lesson.
Christ was teaching in a house, and there was a great crowd of
people. And his half-brothers, along with his physical human
mother, Mary, came on the scene, and somebody went into the house,
and they said, now, Jesus, your mother and your brothers are
outside, and they wanna talk to you. Do you remember what
he said? It's recorded in Matthew 12,
50. Listen, here's what he said. Who is my mother, and who are
my brethren? Matthew 12, 48. And then he answered
in Matthew 12, 50. For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, my sister,
and my mother. What's he saying? What is it
to do the will of the Father? It's to believe on the Son. And
he's making that distinction. Now I know it's hard for us to
see because of the flesh. Do you know something? The most
important relationships that we have here on earth is the
relationships we have with our spiritual family. More so than
our physical family. We're to love our physical family.
We're not to neglect them. We're not to seek a fight with
them. Although when we tell them the
gospel, we know what's coming. That's part of it. You know,
You know, over in Hebrews chapter 12, I think it's verse 14, he
says, follow peace with all men. And over in Matthew 5 it says,
we're to be a peaceful people. I don't want to fight. I don't
want to argue and debate with people. But when it says follow
peace, and I'm to do everything I can to keep the peace apart
from denying and compromising the gospel. Hebrews 12, 14 says, follow peace
with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
What is that holiness? It's not just morality, it's
maintaining that which separates us from the world. So when I
come upon a group of people and we're talking about things, to
try to be at peace with them, but if they start talking about
religion, start talking about how God saves sinners, I'm not
to compromise the gospel with them to maintain that peace,
to gain their approval. Now back here in Matthew chapter
10, that's what he's talking about. He says, he that loveth
father, verse 37, or mother more than me. If you would compromise
the gospel for your mother and father, who are unbelievers now,
You're not worthy of him. And that worthiness there does
not mean that you haven't earned your way into heaven or whatever.
That worthiness simply means that you show no evidence of
being a true child of God. Who's worthy of Christ? Well, none of us are worthy based
on our works or our confession. Who's worthy of Christ? The sinner
who sees his or her own unworthiness. Because that's a sinner saved
by grace. Now look on, he says, verse 38,
and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not
worthy of me. The cross is an emblem of shame, isn't it? Suffering. bearing our cross,
enduring whatever trials and reproaches and opposition that
God's providence sends our way. And we know it's all by His grace
and power. Over in the book of Hebrews chapter
13, it speaks of following Christ, bearing His reproach. Well, that's the same as what
Christ said in Matthew 15. Or John 15, rather, he said,
if the world hated me, and you're a follower of me, it'll hate
you too. Now that hatred can be expressed
in several different ways. I've dealt with that. But bearing
the cross and following Christ is not how we earn salvation. It's only an evidence that we're
in Christ who earned our salvation for us. So look at verse 39,
he that findeth his life shall lose it, he that loseth his life
for my sake shall find it. What he's talking about is a
person who seeks to gain the things of this world, the approval
of this world, the fellowship of this world, the riches of
this world, the acclaim of this world, the friendship of this
world, at the expense of the glory of God in Christ in the
gospel, you don't have life. He said you'll lose it, you never
had it. But those who forsake all those things for the glory
of God in Christ, well they gain life. Not because they earn it,
we don't earn it. We just show evidence that we
have it. And that's what he's talking
about, losing life to gain life. We have to put things in the
proper perspective. This world is not my home. This world is not the end. We
spend 70, 80, sometimes 90 or more years on this earth. What
is that compared to eternity? You remember the rich man who
built barns and filled them up so he had to build bigger barns?
Thou fool, tonight your soul is required of you. None of us
know when we're gonna die. But when it comes, do you think
we have a choice? Do you think God's gonna come
to you and say, now, do you wanna die tonight or do you wanna wait
till later? He's not gonna do that. Take it. and you leave this world and
it's over. What's the issue then? How do I stand before God? Am
I washed in the blood? Am I clothed in His righteousness
imputed to me? Is my heart and mind and soul
fixed on Him who is life eternal? Let's read these last verses.
Verse 40, he that receiveth you receiveth me, he that receiveth
me receiveth him that sent me. God's preachers, God's witnesses
are ambassadors for Christ. When we preach Christ and preach
the gospel, those who receive what we say, they receive Christ.
And those who receive Christ receive the Father. You come
to the Father through the Son. And then he says, and he that
receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a
prophet's reward. Now he's talking about true prophets
who preach Christ. And they come preaching a message
that they themselves believe under the authority of the word
of God, not the authority of another prophet. They don't come
to you saying, well, I'm of Paul, or I'm of Apollos, or I'm preaching,
you know, he's preaching what Paul preached. Therefore, it's
true. You see what I'm saying? Well,
Paul was a true preacher. But we don't believe it because
Paul preached it. We don't invoke the name of human
beings to be our authority. So when we come in the name of
a prophet, a true preacher of Christ, what are we doing? We're
coming in the name of Christ. And the same thing about a righteous
man. He that receiveth a righteous man. Now who is a righteous man?
A sinner saved by grace, who righteous by God's grace through
Christ or in Christ. that man shall receive a righteous
man's reward. And what is a prophet's reward?
What is a righteous man's reward? Think about that. What is our
reward? That in our lives and in our
testimony, God is glorified. Christ is exalted. Sinners are
put down in the dust where we belong. That's our reward, isn't
it? Because I want to tell you something,
if what we preach, if I'm a preacher, or if I'm just a sinner saved
by grace, a righteous person, if what I claim, if what I preach,
if what I testify of doesn't glorify God, then I'm in trouble. Doesn't exalt Christ. And he
says in verse 42, whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these
little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. What
is that talking about? That's talking about the love
that we have for one another in the gospel. And the reward
again is that God is glorified. Christ is exalted. We're not
doing these things in order to earn our place or our rewards. We're doing them for the glory
of God. And sometimes when the flesh rears up and tries to make
us proud or resentful, what do we have to do? We have to engage
our minds in the warfare of the spirit against the flesh and
say, look, I know that somebody did this, somebody did that.
I know they did me some good. I know they did me some harm.
What do we have to do? Look, what I have by way of blessings
in this past year and I know in the year to come, if God lets
me survive this next year, I know it's of grace based upon the
righteousness of Christ, which I don't deserve. How about you? We'll finish there.