Now today, this morning, we'll
be looking at Matthew chapter 16, and tonight we'll be there
also. But I'm going to do something
a little different today. We'll be looking at the finishing portion
of this chapter for the morning, and then we'll look at some verses
right above that tonight. So I'm going to flip it around.
Now in order to see the connection of these verses, we must remember
the mistakes that our Lord's disciples made as to his coming
into the world. Peter could not bear the idea
of the crucifixion. The disciples thought that Jesus
would come to set up an earthly kingdom. This was traditions
of the Jewish people. And so they thought when the
Messiah came, that he would set up an earthly kingdom. And that
these disciples, they thought, well, we're going to rule with
him. And we're going to have lofty positions because we're
his disciples. They were looking at worldly
honors, temporal rewards for being in their Master's service. They did not understand that
the true Christian, like Christ, must be made perfect through
sufferings. They didn't understand that. Turn, if you would, to
Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Keep your
finger, though, in Matthew chapter 16, because we'll be going right
there, right back there. But Hebrews chapter 2 brings
this forth. You know that we who are God's people, we are
made holy in Christ. We're made holy in Christ. We're
being conformed to the image of the Son while we're here on
this earth. We're stones being made ready
to fit into the temple. heavenly temple in Hebrews chapter
2 we see but we see verse 9 but we see Jesus who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death that's why
he came tonight we'll look at that the atonement is so important
so important to Christ so important to him that when Peter rebuked
the Lord for speaking of the crucifixion that the Lord said
them get thee behind me Satan Thou art an offense unto me,
for Thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of man. And that's what we'll look at
tonight. The atonement, the suffering of Christ is paramount. Because if Christ does not suffer
on the cross, if He does not die the sinless sacrifice for
His people, then none of us will be saved. So the whole reason
He came here was to suffer and die. And this is the heart of
the Gospel, isn't it? The atonement. It's the heart
of the Gospel. Justification, too. They're the
heart of the Gospel. Because by His sacrifice, we
receive the forgiveness of sins, God's people. God is totally
satisfied. Satisfied. The wrath due us fell
upon Him. So the atonement is paramount.
And we see here that He's made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death. He came here to die, beloved.
He was born to die. Now we, even as believers, now
we know we're going to glory, but we still struggle and fight
at the time of death. Breathing and laboring to breathe.
Oh my, when we get to be in the Lord's presence, it'll be absolutely
incredible. But we still struggle to breathe
our last breath. But our Lord willingly gave up
His life. He gave up the ghost. Remember the Scripture says that?
He willingly died. And the whole reason He came
here was to die in the place of His people. And we see here,
He's crowned with glory and honor, that by He, the grace of God,
should taste death for every man, for all His people. He died
in the room and place of His people. He tasted death in our
place. The sinless one. Now we can't
really fathom a sinless being, can we? Because all we are is
sin. Before we're saved and after we're saved. Everything we do
is tainted with sin. But imagine this, a man who lived
and had not one thought sin. Not one. A man who lived and
had not one sin in deed. A man who lived and had not one
sin in his heart. See, we can't fathom that. We
can't fathom that. But the difference is, we are
mere mortals. He is God incarnate in the flesh.
But He is bone of our bone. He is 100% man, and yet 100%
God. Oh my. He's perfect and He's
sinless. And He came here to die. Now
the law has no claim on a sinless one, does it? No claim on a sinless
one. Do you ever think that? The law has no claim. Death has
no claim on a sinless one. No claim. And yet the Lord Jesus
Christ, oh my, goes to that cross and dies. Our sins are imputed
to Him. And He bears them. He bears the
wrath for us. He bears the justice that was
due us. And then He cries, it is finished. And there's absolutely
nothing we've done. Nothing we've done to merit that.
Nothing we've done to deserve it. Nothing. And He gives His
salvation freely by His grace to whomever He wills. And look
at this, it says here, for both He that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one. We're sanctified in Christ.
That means to be made holy in Christ. Now we don't feel very
holy, do we? God's people don't feel very
holy at all. But the Scripture declares that we're sanctified
in Him, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
He's not ashamed to call us brothers. Look at that. He's not ashamed
of that, because we're his people. Saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. Again, in the midst of the church
will I sing praise unto thee. That's all the church. He's not
ashamed to call his church his brethren. Not at all. So we will
see in our text in Matthew chapter 16, we will see our Lord correct
the idea that he had come to set up an earthly kingdom. Because
that's what the Jews believed, that the Messiah would come and
set up an earthly kingdom. Because remember, they were under
oppression from Rome. They were under oppression for
Rome, so they thought that the Messiah would be raised up and
that he would set them free from Roman oppression. But they did
not understand that our Lord did not come to set up an earthly
kingdom in which the apostles would have worldly honors and
temporal rewards for their master's service. We will see him bring
forth that the Christian life is a life of self-denial. It's
a life of self-denial. See if it's so for you when we
finish this message. See if it's so for you. Because
when I say it's a life of self-denial, now when you say that, people
right away think religious stuff. Oh my, he means like all this
stuff we've got to do and all this. No. It's a giving of our
life to Christ. My life is not my own. And if
you're a believer, you say the same thing. Your life is not
your own. It's Christ to do whatever he's pleased to do with it. That's
self-denial. Lord, I'm yours. Do with me whatever
you will, whatever gifts you give me, whatever talents you
give me. Do with me whatever you will for your glory and for
the glory of your kingdom, whatever you will. My life is yours. It's
not about giving up a bunch of stuff, is it? But it is about
giving up our lives to Christ. We wholly trust our souls to
him. Sometimes we pull back a little
bit, don't we? And then he gently teaches us,
no, trust me, and trust me alone. See, that crook in the staff
is to gently bring us back, not to strike us. The shepherd's
staff has that crook. That's just to gently put around
our neck and just gently bring us back. It's not a whipping
stick. Religion says it's a whipping stick. It's not a whipping stick.
No, our Lord just gently brings us back when we start to wander.
Gently brings us back, doesn't he? In love. Let's go to Matthew
chapter 16. We'll read verses 24 to 28. This
is our text here for today. Matthew 16 verse 24 to 28. Then
said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Self-denial. For whosoever shall save his
life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. For what? Now here's a question
of the ages right here. Here's a question of the ages.
For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? For what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come
in glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward
every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there
be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they
see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. Now, there are three
main teachings found in the Scripture here before us. Number one, a
Christian lives a life of self-denial, having trusted all to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We live a life of self-denial,
trusting all to the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, there is
nothing so precious as a man or woman's soul. There's nothing
so precious as a man or woman's soul. Number three, Christ is
coming again, and He will return. He'll return to this earth. He's
coming. He's coming. Now the idea of an earthly kingdom
that the Messiah would come and set up and deliver the Israelites
from bondage of their oppressors was widely held among the Jews,
as I said earlier. And we see in this portion of
Scripture where the apostles, let's go to Luke chapter 9, we're
seeing this portion that we'll look at here. The apostles are
arguing amongst themselves, Luke chapter 9, who would be the greatest?
My, you see what? Even saved men can be full of
pride. If you don't think so, just talk
to me, I know that. Because I can be full of pride sometimes. I
can be absolutely full of pride. I think we all can, can't we?
We all can. Look at this, Luke chapter 9, verses 46 to 48. Then
there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be
greatest? Oh, they're arguing, who's going to be the greatest
in the coming kingdom? Because they thought that there
would be a kingdom on this earth. Who's going to be prime minister?
No one but Christ. He has no rivals. And we're all
the same. I love what Brother Scott Richardson
said. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. Level,
beloved. There's not little stoop for
preachers, no little stoop for anyone else. We're all, it's
level. It's level. We're all a bunch of saved sinners.
All of us. My. So you see their reasoning
was wrong by thinking who would be the greatest. Number one,
they're thinking of an earthly kingdom. Number two, they don't
realize that they're all just saved sinners. But like us, they've
got a lot to learn, right? None of us have arrived. We've
all got a lot to learn. We've all got a lot to learn.
And what we learn is just a little wee, little wee scratch on the
surface what we learn while we're here on this earth. Just a little
scratch on the surface. Jesus perceiving the thought
of their heart see he he's God he proves his deity there because
he knows what they're thinking in their hearts they're verbalizing
it awful one one commentator said that they probably got pretty
heated they were good they were getting worked up with each other
perceiving the heart took a child and set them by him and said
unto him whosoever shall receive this child in my name receive
with me and whosoever shall receive me receive with him that sent
me for he that is least among you the same shall be great look
at that the least. First shall be what? Last. And
the last shall be first. So the Lord's disciples were
walking here from Caesarea Philippi to Capernaum and then they began
to engage in this argument. Reasoning amongst themselves,
who would be the greatest? Who would be the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven? Now knowing again how we tick as human beings,
they probably got heated. They probably did, as I mentioned
earlier. They probably got heated. I remember being with my friends
and we get talking about stuff about our cars and stuff and
you know you start to flex a little bit and oh I got a faster car
than you oh yeah well perfect okay well let's go you know and
it's just how it is right and then the guy whoever won would
have bragging rights for for a week or so you know But now
here they are, they're reasoning who'd be the greatest. Disputing
amongst themselves. Brothers in Christ. John the
Baptist had spoken these words, and these would be good for us
to put to our heart. He spoke these words, he must increase,
and I must decrease. You see, that's part of the self-denial
of a Christian life. He must increase, he must become
all, and I must become nothing. And that's where he puts us,
isn't it? He puts us in the dust when we're brought to Christ.
He puts us in the dust. Well, these apostles, they're
just acting in the flesh like we can too sometimes. It just
proves that they're sinful humans just like we are. That they're
saved by the grace of God just like we are. See, sometimes again,
I've said this many times, sometimes we vault these Bible characters
to a position where, oh my, they must not almost sin. No, they're
just like you and I. They're just like you and I.
And if the Lord hadn't chosen them by grace, they might have
even been amongst the group that said, crucify Him, crucify Him.
Because we could say we'd have been there too. We're no better
than anyone else. No, we're just sinners saved
by the grace of God. So their argument again was about
who would be prime minister basically to the Lord. Who would be second
in command to the Messiah. But it's just pride. Who would
be the greatest among them? And so this idea was popular
amongst the Jews in particular. And these poor disciples who
had been taught that, remember they'd been taught that growing
up. They'd been taught that growing up in a Jews religion. They'd
been taught that the Messiah would establish a carnal earthly
Jewish kingdom. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
2 verse 30. Let us never forget that our Lord Jesus Christ is
King now. He's King right now. He was King
before He came to this earth. He was King while He was on this
earth. And He's King right now. He's King. He's the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords. And He rules in absolute supreme
sovereignty. Remember, all things are in His
hands. all things. Look what it says in Acts chapter
2 verses 30 and 31. He's the king now seated upon
the throne of David as David's son in heaven. This is brought
forth right here when Peter spoke of Christ on the day of Pentecost.
Therefore being a prophet, verse 30, therefore being a prophet
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ
to sit on his throne. He, seeing this before, spake
of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in
hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. Our Lord's kingdom,
beloved, is His church, His church, the Israel of God, Abraham's
seed, God's elect, those whom He redeemed with His own precious
blood. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost, Romans 14, verse 17. we're born into the kingdom do
you know that and I don't mean with a fleshy birth we're born
into the kingdom by the power of God the Holy Spirit listen
to this scripture if you want to turn there actually let's
turn to John chapter 3 we're born into this kingdom by the
power of God the Holy Spirit by his power and by his grace
and by his mercy John chapter 3 verses 5 to 7 Jesus answered
verily verily truly truly Truly, truly, I say unto you, except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. So that which is naturally born is fleshy. We're born dead
in trespasses and sins. But look at this. And that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. That's the new birth. Marvel
not that I say unto thee, ye must be born again. But look
what it says there in verse 5. He cannot enter the kingdom of
God. If you're not born again by the Holy Spirit of God, you
cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now that changes everything,
doesn't it? These people we know who were outright heathens, who
hated God, and at their death, I remember one preacher saying,
it's justification by death, according to religion. All of
a sudden they became a saint. And they're in heaven, supposedly.
No, they're not. They were never born again by
the Holy Spirit of God. No, they're not. My! That's a
sobering thought, isn't it? That's a sobering thought. "...Except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must
be born again." So faith in Christ is neither more nor less than
bowing to the Son of God. Faith in Christ is bowing to
Him and submitting ourselves to Him. He's our all in all.
Faith looks to Him as our only hope. And faith, we know, is
a gift of God. It's given to us. We can't muster
it up. We can't bow our head and say
a prayer and all of a sudden have faith. You must be born
again. Let's go back to our text with
that in our minds. That they thought the Lord was
going to establish an earthly kingdom. And we see that our
Lord corrects the idea that His kingdom would be of this world.
And may we lay these three teachings to our hearts. May we ponder
them this week. May we meditate upon them. Let
them be honey to our souls. Look at verse 25. We see our
first point. The Christian lives a life of
self-denial, having trusted all to the Lord Jesus Christ. We
give Him everything, don't we? Paul said He's our all in all.
Matthew 16, verse 24. Then said Jesus unto His disciples,
If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross, and follow Me. Jack Shanks brought this thought
forth on this verse. He said, men must make up their
minds to trouble and self-denial if they follow Christ. Our Lord
does away with the big dreams of His disciples by telling them
that His followers must take up the cross. So our Lord absolutely
destroys their idea of Him setting up an earthly kingdom by telling
them that while they're on this earth, they're going to have
to take up the cross. They're going to suffer for my sake.
And some have suffered, haven't we? There are some in this room
who have suffered dearly for our faith. Family members and
friends persecuting us. Sometimes co-workers. But we
keep on. We keep trusting the Lord. We keep resting in Him.
Because He's the only hope we have. We don't have any other
hope but Christ. The glorious kingdom was not
yet, and our Lord tells these disciples that persecution is
coming if they intended to be His servants. I remember Brother
John telling me that we should warn new believers that now the
battle begins, now it starts, after the Lord saves you. Did
you have any struggle with sin before the Lord saved you? No,
we didn't, did we? No. Just like water, we just
took it and drank it. Didn't even think about it. And
you've heard me say this many times, the only time we cried
out to God was when we got caught doing something. Or we're like,
Lord, I'll never do this again. But the next night we're doing
the same thing we did the night before. Oh my, I remember many of those
days. So the battle begins when we're born again. Now we have
a struggle with sin that we never had before. Now it bothers us. And now it bothers us. And we
don't go around pointing the fingers at everybody else and
saying, well, that person's definitely worse than me, and that person's
worse than me. No, no. We just look inside, don't we?
We just look inside. And that shuts our mouths. Because
if the Lord should mark iniquity, who should stand? No one. No
one. Oh, there's a battle we go through
in this world, and it's a battle between the spirit and the flesh.
And that's daily, isn't it? Daily we're battling that. Daily
it's a life of self-denial, because sin wants to reign, doesn't it? You feel like you're having a
body of flesh, like Paul said, that you're hauling around, attached
to you all the time. A constant struggle. Just pray
to the Lord. Ask Him to give you grace and
strength when you find yourself in those situations. Say, Lord,
I can't bear this on my own. I can't. I know I'm a sinner.
Help me through this. Give me grace and strength to
overcome this situation. And if we're honest with each
other, we'll all go through that, don't we? See, religion, there's
no sinners. But in grace, we're all a bunch of sinners. My, oh,
my. So our Lord brings forth that
they have no life of their own. They're going to bear a cross
for Him until He takes us home. One may ask, what does this mean?
Well, again, the believer in Christ knows that our life is
not our own. It's not our own. The Lord can
do whatever He sees fit with us. We've given our life to him
and we come to him with nothing in our hands, do we? Nothing.
And he does whatever he pleases with. He brings us to a place
to hear the gospel. He feeds us. Oh, my. When there's
so many people out there who have no desire, no appetite for
the things of God. Think of that. And here, if you're
a believer, you're sitting in church and you have an appetite
for the things of God. That's a miracle of grace. That's
a miracle of grace. And we do not hide from the fact
that our life is not our own anymore. We see that point clearly
that our life is not our own. Let's not hide from the fact
that true Christianity brings with it daily across in this
life. Well, we look to an eternity
in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. And this doesn't mean
we're working our way to heaven. That doesn't mean that. It means
what Scott Richardson said. The Christian's in trouble, either
in trouble, going into trouble, or coming out of trouble. That's
what it means. It's a constant battle with our flesh. A constant
battle with sin while we're here. A constant battle of self-denial.
My life is not my own, it's Christ's, and He can do with it whatever
He pleases. A constant giving of ourselves to Him every day.
See, we don't just come to Christ when the Lord saves us, do we?
We constantly come to Him. Daily. Daily we come to Him.
And daily our flesh must be resisted. Daily the devil must be resisted.
Daily the world must be resisted. The Christian life is a life
of warfare, a battle. But all of this accompanies true
faith. It accompanies true faith. Sin
did not bother me before the Lord saved me. I didn't even
think of the Bible, guys. I didn't. I had no care for the
Bible. I had no care for the Gospel. I had no care for God's
people. None. I thought I was a good
person. I was a Catholic. I'm part of
that huge organization. Millions of people can't be wrong.
Yeah, they can, and they are. It's nothing but a works-based
salvation. And then the Lord arrested me,
like He did with you. And by His grace, He saved me.
Oh my, and everything's different now. Everything. Now I battle
with sin every day, do you? Every single day. Every day. But you know what keeps me going?
The Lord. He keeps me going. He's my shepherd. In Christ alone
I have hope. He's my stay. He's my defense.
He's my high tower. He's my city of refuge. Is He
yours? Oh, I pray God would make it
so. He says, take up your cross and follow Me. And that's what
we do. We follow Him, don't we? Oh,
His Word is a light unto our path. We have a battle. Let's
read verses 24 and 25 here together in Matthew 16. Let's read them
together. Then said Jesus unto His disciples,
if any man 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, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake
shall find it. And we clearly see then that true saving faith
involves deliberate and preserving self-denial and consecration
to our great God. A constant giving of ourselves
to Him. A constant self-denial of ourself. He's my all in all. That's all
that means. See, religion takes these passages
and says, well look now, you've got to deny yourself all this,
you've got to do this, you've got to do... No. You've just
got to trust Christ. And entrusting Him with true saving faith. You
will deny. You will deny these things. You
will not want the world or the things in the world. Now, we
use things in the world, don't we, while we're here? Of course
we do. But our whole drive is not what it used to be. It's
not, can I get everything I can get now, no matter who I step
on? No. Now it's all about the furtherance
of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my. Matthew Henry
said, the first lesson in Christ's school is self-denial and that
being given your life to Christ. So we again see that true saving
faith involves deliberate and preserving self-denial and consecration. Those who deny themselves here
for Christ shall enjoy themselves in Christ forever. Grace is free,
but it's not cheap. No, our salvation cost one something,
didn't it? Our Lord gave His life for us.
You know, I was pondering this week that He gave His life for
my sins. My sins. The things that I did. The sins that I committed. I
transgressed God's law. I deserve God's wrath. And yet
He took it upon Him. Sister Cara played the deep,
deep love of Jesus. Vast. Unmeasured. So think about
that this week. Think about how much it was our
sins. We committed them. And yet he
died in the place he died in our room instead for our sins,
for mine. You can bring it right home for
my sin. His blood, his blood was shed for my sin. Oh, what wondrous love is this?
Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. Can't measure it,
can you? It's more than we can even think
of in our finite minds, more than we can even comprehend.
This is a wondrous love. So faith in Christ involves a
surrender of myself to him, to his dominion, to his dominion. He's my Lord and my Savior. I
don't make him my Lord and Savior. He's already Lord and Savior.
But we bow to that, don't we? We acknowledge that, where before
we didn't even think about it. Did you think about Christ being
Lord and Savior of his people before the Lord saved you? No,
I didn't think about that. I thought it was something I
had to do. I thought there was something I had to do. No. He's
done it all. Christianity, true Christianity,
involves true saving faith, a total surrender to Christ the Lord.
Either you will be a servant under the dominion of King Jesus,
voluntarily giving up all your claims to anything here, or go
to hell and spend eternity in a Christless eternity. Oh, we
surrender to Christ, don't we? We just look to Him. There's
nothing for us to do. We just look to Him. And God
can save you without you moving a muscle. And we surrender totally,
don't we? Brother Scott Richardson used
to say, we lay down our arms. At the end of the Civil War,
the Confederates had to lay down all their arms before the Union
soldiers. They laid Him down. We take our
arms and things that we said and things that we've done, we
just lay them down at the feet of Christ and say, Oh Lord, I surrender
to You. I'm not even fit to live. And
yet He has mercy on us. He has mercy on us. Oh my. Total
surrender. And then what we do? We take
sides against ourselves, don't we? We say, God be just to throw
me in hell. But by His mercy and His grace,
He doesn't do that for His people because He bled and died for
them. He purchased their eternal souls on Calvary's cross. He's
Lord of all. I ask you, is Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, your Savior? Is He your Savior? Is He truly
your Lord? I pray He'd make it so. I pray
that He'd draw you to Him. I pray He would. I pray He draws
you with cords of love, because that's what He does with His
people. He draws us with cords of love. It's the goodness of
God that brings man to repentance. He reveals to us His goodness.
He reveals to us His mercy. And the fact that He doesn't
give His people what we deserve. And the fact that He took it
upon Himself, that He bore all the wrath of God for us in our
place. The sinless, spotless Lamb of
God. Oh, something else that our Lord brings forth with these
words is how graciously the Lord warns His disciples. Now, His
disciples have been with Him for a long time, but He graciously
warns them that what they believed was wrong. Graciously. He doesn't
just slam them. He graciously tells them. He's
teaching them, and we who are reading this today, to guard
against the terrible tendency of our sinful flesh to rebel
against His rule and against His will. And even we as saved
believers can do that. We can rebel against the Lord's
will and against his sovereignty. Oh, Lord, teach us not to do
that. How much evil we bring upon ourselves
by our carnal misconceptions. We're all like Peter, aren't
we? We're all inclined to quickly judge things by our emotions
and personal desires. But we must not do that. We must
not do that. Rather, we must seek grace to
know how to proceed. We must seek grace to bow to
the will of God. our sovereign Savior in all things. And may God give us grace to
do so. To savor the things which are of God and not those which
are of men. The second point I'd like us
to consider is there's nothing so precious as a man or woman's
soul. Look at verse 25 and 26 here.
Matthew 16 25 and 26 for whosoever will save his life shall lose
it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it
for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Look at that. So we see in these
verses that there's nothing so precious as a man or woman's
soul. Nothing so precious as a man or woman's soul. Our Lord
teaches this lesson by asking us one of the most solemn questions
that have ever been asked. Right here before us. For what
is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? If you gained everything in this world. What profit is
it if you gained everything? If you had more money than Bill
Gates? If you had all the gold and silver in this world? And
there's a lot. If it was all put by your feet and you gained
it and you lose your own soul, what is the profit? Nothing.
You die and go to hell. No profit. And then it says,
what shall give in exchange for your soul? You know, if you had
all that money, you still couldn't buy your way to heaven? You can't.
There's nothing that we can give in exchange for our souls. Not
one, not one work that we could do. And men are trying to do
works out there, aren't they? They're trying to gain merit
and favor with God. That's why you hear me warn about that all the time,
because it's so prevalent. And they don't normally think
about it money wise. Well, some give out of, you know, well,
if I give this, God will bless me. Just stop. God loves a cheerful
giver. People give what the Lord puts
on their hearts and his kingdom goes forth. However he's pleased
and have it go forth. My oh my. But what would you
give in exchange for your soul? Think of the best thing you have.
Think of the thing you treasure the most. You could not give
that in exchange for your soul. God will not accept it in exchange
for your soul. You know the only one who he
will accept in exchange for our souls? His name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. God is only satisfied with His
Son. This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. God will
only accept Christ in our place. And it still has nothing to do
with us except we're receivers of grace and mercy. You see?
So these questions basically destroy works-based religion.
They utterly destroy it. This is a question so well known
and so often repeated. And people often do not see the
depth of it. It's a question that ought to sound in our ears
like a trumpet. If we are ever tempted to forget about eternity,
we should remember these words. Look at this. What shall profit
a man? What profit is there in all the things of the earth that
waste away and that rot and that burn and that just disappear?
What profit is there in all those things? What profit is there
if you have all the gold and all the silver in this world?
If you're the richest person in the world and you die and
you go to hell, you can't take that with you and you're lost
forever in torment. No profit. Look at this, if you
should gain the whole world, there's nothing on earth or under
the earth that can repay for the loss of our souls. Nothing.
Nothing. There's nothing that money can
buy or man can give to be named in comparison with our souls. Nothing. Nothing. And then it
says, and lose his own soul. His own, your soul. Your soul.
the eternal soul that God gave. The world and all that contains
is temporal. It's all fading. It's all perishing.
It's all passing away. But the soul, the soul is eternal.
One word is key in the whole question. Let this sink deeply
into your heart. The profit of the whole world
with the loss of the soul would leave a man poor indeed, Robert
Hawker said. Do you tend to waver in your
faith? Do we fear the cross that we have to bear every day? Does
the way seem too narrow? Well, listen to this. What shall
it profit a man? If you truly hear that, you will
not waver anymore. You'll be like the Dutch baron
years ago who was converted by the power of God the Holy Spirit.
He was a baron. People used to call him Lord.
Little l. Little l. Lord. People used to call him
Sir. He was well-born in the eyes of the world. But he was
converted and he renounced his whole title. He renounced all
the wealth that he had and he went as a missionary to Dutch
Guiana. And there he rendered sacrificial and loving service
to God, speaking of forsaking all to follow Christ. And the
title well-born means nothing to me, he said, since I have
been born again in Christ. For the title for a man who is
Lord means nothing to me, he said, since I desire only to
be the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it to me to be
called your grace? I like this. What is it to me
to be called your grace when I have need of God's grace? That's
what they used to call people. And he said this, away with all
these empty vanities. I will stay at the feet of Jesus.
I will learn of Him and have no hindrance in serving Him.
He gave up everything. There's nothing so precious and
valuable as your soul. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Here are two questions
for everyone who listens to this message. To ponder. Two questions
of great value to your soul. Right here. For what is a man
profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own
soul? And then the second one. What shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Those are two great questions.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ left the glories of heaven, didn't
He? To redeem His people from their sins. The souls of His
people were so precious to Him and so valuable to Him, and let
this sink in if you're a believer, that He left the glory of heaven
to come to this sin-cursed world to live a perfect life that we
could never live and then to die on the cross in our place
and to willingly give His life up, shed His blood to redeem,
to purchase our eternal souls. He obtained eternal redemption,
the Scripture says. for us, for we who are His people
by the shedding of His precious blood as an offering for our
eternal soul. That's amazing. That's how precious
the souls of God's people are to Him. And He rose from the
grave the third day, didn't He? For our justification. And He's
seated right now at the right hand of the Father, ruling in
all majesty and power as the sovereign King, the King of Kings
and the Lords of Lords. His coming to die for the sins
of His people, that was His first advent, beloved. He's coming
again. He's coming again. He told us so. Now, no man knows
the hour of the day when He's coming. And I can tell you this,
I heard this from Milton Howard years ago, and I love it. He
said, if any man predicts a date when the Lord's coming, you know
He ain't coming on that day. He's not. He's not coming on
that day. you not no man knows the hour
day no man no man only the father and and the Lord knows that date
only God himself this brings us to our third point here in
our text Christ is coming again he's coming again he will return
to this earth again let's read verses 27 and 28 and what hope
this gives the weary believer and the weak believer in Christ
now we don't know when he's coming but he's coming again He said
he was and he's God. He cannot lie. He's coming again
beloved Look at this verses 27 28 for the Son of Man shall come
in the glory of his father And this is this is the words of
the master himself This is the words of Christ himself for the
Son of Man shall come in the glory of his father with his
angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works
and Verily I say unto you there be some standing here which shall
not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in
his kingdom. The second coming of Christ is brought forth here
and Christ will come again in the glory of his Father with
his angels. And the promises, this promise
from our Lord Jesus Christ is encouraging to his people, isn't
it? It's encouraging to us. He knows how ready we are to
be in glory. He knows how we desire to be with Him. He knows
all that. He knows all that. Don't think He doesn't, because
He knows. We cry out, even so, come quickly, Lord. He knows.
He knows we feel that way. That's what Vicki and I have
been crying out. You see what's going on in this world. Even so, Lord, come quickly.
Come quickly, Lord, if it be Your will. Oh my. He will come
a second time. Just as surely as the sun rises
and sets, every day He's going to come. He came the first time,
didn't He? And so, we see the bitter must
come before the sweet. We have persecutions here, trials,
temptations, trouble on all sides. But in glory, how sweet it'll
be. So the bitter comes before the
sweet, right? Trials, tribulations in this
world. Oh, how sweet it'll be. Be with
our Savior. Oh, how sweet it'll be. Oh my,
to be in the Master's presence, just to gaze upon Him, just to
gaze upon Him, to see Him face to face, like we see each other
face to face. Oh my. Our great Savior, having
declared the value of our souls, assures His disciples and us
that our reward is yet to come. Look, it says, For the Son of
Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and
then He shall reward every man according to his works. Well,
this speaks of the great day of judgment. The great day of
judgment. Now, people look at this and say, Oh, look, we're
going to get rewarded. On the great day of judgment, every
man will get exactly the reward that he deserves according to
God's will. According to God's will. According
to the books. The ledgers of heaven shall be
open. And the wicked shall be judged
according to their own works. But the righteous, the righteous
shall be judged according to their own works too. That's the
works of Christ imputed to them. were his people. He lived that
life for us. He died for my sins. And his
perfect work of that life fulfilling the law is imputed to me as a
believer. And if you're a believer, it's imputed to you, too. So
when God looks upon us now, you've heard me say this many times.
When God looks upon us, he sees us clothed in what? The righteousness
of Christ. And it's Christ who wove that
quote of righteousness by his obedient life and death to everything
that God demanded for our souls. See how precious our souls are
to Christ? See how much he values us? My! works of Christ imputed to us
in free justification just as if we never seen that's grace
isn't that's amazing grace that's amazing grace verse 28 it says
verily I say unto you there be some standing here which shall
not taste the death till they see the Son of Man coming in
his kingdom now in these days in the days now that we live
in prophecies big business isn't it prophecy big business big
business in religion big business in in all kinds of things. I
remember when the Lord was drawing me and I went into religion.
And I believe He put me through that for a reason. He's all for
a reason. Put me through all that religious stuff. And I got
all caught up in prophecy and looking at the news and looking
at if there was an earthquake over here or a tsunami over there
and all this stuff. And, oh, He's coming soon. There's
earthquakes in divers' places, places that never had earthquakes
before. Well, no, they've had earthquakes there for thousands
of years probably. But we now get instant reporting,
don't we? So we find out now right away
what might have happened a thousand years ago, no one knew, because
maybe no one was in that area, right? But prophecy nowadays
is big business. It's big business. They sell
books about it. They sell all kinds of stuff
about it. And you even have men broken up into different camps
of what's called eschatology, which just means the study of
end times. That's all that is. I don't know why I don't just
say the study of end times, but they have to use a fancy word. The
theologians always have to come up with these fancy words to
explain end times, right? Come on. But that's what they
do. Prophecy, as one grace preacher of old said, should not be really
a matter of concern in the church. Now, we rejoice, don't we, to
know that Christ is coming. We look eagerly. We hope for
his return, don't we? We do. We do. But we don't have
conferences just on eschatology, just on the end time stuff. We
don't do that. No, we rejoice to know that Christ
is coming again. He's coming. We rejoice to know
that, don't we? We rejoice to know that. We can't
wait for his return, whether it be at our death or whether
it be when he comes at the end. My and when he comes here raise
the dead here make all things new you're sitting judgment over
all his enemies But we're not in the least bit concerned looking
for signs and wonders Are we looking for signs of this and
signs of that no you can get so caught up in that stuff make
your head spin No, just look to Christ. No. He's coming back
eagerly await for that have a joyful heart that he's coming again
He is We don't have to try to figure out when the end will
be. Our business as believers should be in serving and honoring
our great Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what
we do. We serve and we honor our Lord Jesus Christ until he
comes. And we do it by the furtherance
of the gospel, don't we? That's what we're here for. That's
why we gather together to hear the gospel proclaimed and preaching
the furtherance of the gospel. Out it goes. Paul said, I suffer
all these persecutions and things for the furtherance of the gospel.
Yeah, that's how we should be as believers. We should rejoice
that the Lord's coming again, and I know, I know you're just
as eager as I am for Him to come back, especially what we see
going on, but He'll come back when it's His time, and when
the last sheep is saved, it'll be all over. It'll be back. The
last sheep of that covenant is saved. The last sheep for whom
Christ died for is saved. It'll be all over. And the text
in verse 28 is referring to Christ's spiritual kingdom, into which
He entered when He ascended up into heaven, which was signified
by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost. Have you entered into Christ's
kingdom? Have you come under the rule of the Son of God? Those
are some questions for us to ponder today and through the
week. Today we've heard from the scriptures the necessity
of taking up the cross and denying ourselves, just following Christ,
following Christ daily, looking to Him daily. It's not easy,
is it? It's a life of self-denial, right?
Just looking to Christ, just looking to Him. And we've also
heard today the value of the soul. Do we live as if we believed
it? Oh my. We've heard the joy of Christ's
second advent. Do we look forward to it with
hope? Yeah, we do, don't we? Happy is the man or woman who
can give a good answer to those questions. May God be glorified
by the preaching of His Word. Amen.