Well, good morning everyone.
Good to see everybody this morning. If you would open your Bibles
with me to Mark chapter eight. Mark chapter eight. Before we
begin, let's bow together before our Lord in prayer. Our Father, we're so thankful
that you've given us one more opportunity to meet together
and to worship your matchless name. We're thankful for one
more opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ our Savior.
And Father, I pray that you would enable us this morning to worship
you in spirit and in truth. We pray that you'd give us years
of faith to hear and believe Christ our Savior as he's preached.
Enable us to, with one heart and one accord, to lift up and
glorify and magnify his name together. Father, I thank you
for this family of believers that you've called together and
this place that you've provided for us to meet together. You've
given us love for thee, love for one another, a unity of heart
and focus. And Father, pray that you would
continue to bless your word as it's preached from this pulpit
to bless and teach and save and edify this congregation. But
also, Father, that your word might go forth in power Reach
your sheep wherever they may be found to reveal Christ to
them. Father, that you may bring them
together with us to worship together. What we ask for ourselves, we
ask for your people, whoever they're meeting together today.
Father, how thankful we are to know so many places in this dark,
dark day where your gospel is being preached. And Father, pray
that you'd bless for your great namesake. And we pray a special
blessing in our children's classes going on at this very moment,
Father, how we pray for our children. We thank you for them. And Father,
of all the cares and worries and desires we have for them,
chiefly, Father, how we beg of thee that you'd be pleased to
have mercy on their souls. We pray that you'd use this time
to plant the seeds of faith in their hearts. And Father, all
these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is
above every name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. I've
titled our lesson this morning, A Description of Saving Faith.
Now we know that sinners are saved by grace, don't we? And
it's through faith. That not of ourselves, it's the
gift of God. But what exactly is this faith?
Saving faith that is a gift of God. Well in our text, the Savior
gives us a description of the faith that the Holy Spirit gives
to God's elect. And the first thing, saving faith,
is to come to Christ. Look at verse 34 of Mark chapter
eight. And when he had called the people
unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever
will come after me. Now coming to Christ is the same
as believing Christ. And you'll notice that coming
to Christ is a voluntary act. The Lord said, whosoever will. It's a voluntary act that the
Lord doesn't knock somebody in the head and drag them against
their will to Christ. God's people all come to Christ
willingly. They're willing in the day of
his power. Now, I know this, the Lord has to give us a new
will. The Lord's gotta give us a new want to, he's gotta give
us a new nature and a new birth, or we'll never come to Christ.
But that being said, every believer voluntarily comes to Christ.
I come to Christ because I want to. It makes me happy to come
to Christ. I come to Christ because I need
him. That's the new will that God
puts inside of all of his people. If God's giving you saving faith,
you come to Christ. I come to Christ because the
Lord has taught me who Christ is. The Lord himself has taught
me. Some preacher didn't tell me
this. I mean, he told me this, It's the Lord who taught me this.
Jesus Christ is the savior of sinners that I must have. Our Lord said in John 6 verse
45, it's written in the prophets and they, speaking of his sheep,
his elect, they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore
that hath heard, and if you've learned of the Father, cometh
unto me. We come to Christ because the
Father has taught us who Christ is. I come to Christ because
He is everything that I need. Whatever it is I need spiritually,
Christ is it. That's why I go to Him. In John
7, verse 37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst,
are you thirsty? The Lord said, let him come unto
me. He that believeth on me. See, coming to Christ and believing,
it's the same thing. Let him come unto me. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture has said, Out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. Not just a trickle, not just
a little bit, rivers of living water. I come to Christ because
I hunger and thirst after righteousness. Righteousness I don't have, there's
none in me, that's why I hunger and thirst after it. And I come
to Christ because he's the only righteousness that there is.
I come to Christ believing that as vile as I am on my sin, The
Lord Jesus Christ is all it takes to make me righteous. That's
why I come to him. Next, I come to Christ because
I need rest. I need rest from trying and failing
to keep God's law. In Matthew 11, verse 28, the
Lord said, come unto me. See, the Lord's never saying
you can't come. He never says stay away. Come
unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. That to the tire, those who are
beat down, they're trying to keep God's law and they can't
do it. Christ is coming to me. I'll give you rest. I come to
Christ for rest because he already obeyed the law for his people.
The work's finished. I come to Christ, I can rest
in Christ because in Christ there's nothing left to do. He did it
all. That's a real good reason to come to him, isn't it? Then
I come to Christ because I'm dead in sin. I'm dead and I need
life. Well, Christ is my life, so I
come to Him. In John 6, verse 35, Jesus said
unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall
never hunger. And he that believeth in me shall
never thirst. See, there it is, coming to Christ
and believing Him, it's the same thing, isn't it? And our Savior
says, I'm the bread of life. If you come to me, you're never
gonna hunger. I'm gonna give you life. And then coming to Christ is
a continual thing. We don't come to Christ once
and then that's over. Well, I came to Christ. I made
my decision, you know, 30 years ago. Don't have to worry about
it anymore. If I've ever come to Christ, if I have ever come
to Christ, I keep coming to Christ. I keep coming to him because
I always need him. I'm never gonna grow to the point
that I don't need him anymore. That's what Peter said in 1 Peter
2 verse 4, to whom coming, not whom I once came, to whom coming,
continual coming, as into a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious. And that word, our translators
have translated it precious, but the word Peter used is preciousness. I come to Christ because he is
precious. Preciousness itself. He's everything that I desire
Now our Lord also said in John 6 verse 44 no man can Come unto
me except the father which sent me draw him and I'll raise him
up at the last day And no man can come unto Christ except the
father which sent me drawing. I need to come to Christ So,
you know what my prayer is Lord draw me Draw me if you draw me
to Christ I'll come and I'll come willingly. All right, number
two. Saving faith is to come to Christ,
and saving faith denies self. Verse 34, the Lord said, whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself. Now self-denial is a
very big part of salvation in Christ. And I did some reading
on that this week, and I feel like Almost everybody that I
read on this has missed it. Denying self is a whole lot more
than denying yourself the sinful pleasures that this flesh enjoys,
the sinful pleasures of this world. It's a whole lot more
than that. You know, there are whole sects
of religion that deny themselves the pleasures of sin, they deny
themselves the pleasures of the world, you know, they won't have
a gas furnace in their house. You know, they won't have electricity. They won't have an air conditioner
in their house. I don't know if this makes me
less holy or not, but if there's a house that don't have an air
conditioner, Frank ain't living in it. I mean, it just ain't.
I mean, you know, you want to sell me a car that don't have
an air conditioner? No, sir. I ain't buying it. No. No, maybe
that makes me less holy. I mean, I don't really think
it does, but I mean, think that what you want. I'm taking advantage
of these conveniences. Our Lord is talking about a whole
lot more than denying yourself those kinds of pleasures of technology
and things that the world has to offer. What he means primarily
is denying ourselves any credit, any glory for the salvation of
our sorry souls. because it all goes to Christ.
And that's before conversion, and that's after conversion.
God saved me by His grace, and His grace alone, I can't take
no credit for it. And after conversion, if I remain
faithful, and I keep looking to Christ, and the Lord blesses
me with a greater understanding of who He is, a greater understanding
of who I am, so I see my greater need of Him, He continues to
give me a love for his gospel, a love for Christ, a love for
his people, a love for his word. The Lord's blessed me, and I
can take no credit for it. The Lord didn't bless me because
I've done something right. It's by his grace. I mean, I
just can't take any credit for it. Primarily, that is what the
Lord is talking about. Now, if you need the Lord to
threaten you, to tell you don't seek out the pleasures of sin,
You already know that, and if you're seeking out those things
anyway, I don't know what to tell you, but what the Lord is
primarily talking about here is denying ourself the pleasure
of trusting in our own works of righteousness. There's nothing
that brings this flesh more pleasure than that, trusting in our own
works of righteousness so that we trust Christ as our whole.
I deny self and trust him and him alone. Denying self, means
nothing I do has anything to do with my holiness. Christ is
my holiness. I don't want to sin, I don't
want to act and conduct myself in an unholy manner, but nothing
I do has anything to do with my holiness. Christ is my holiness. Denying self means denying that
our conduct and our orthodoxy, our right understanding of doctrine
of the scriptures That doesn't have anything to do with why
God's been pleased to bless me. He didn't bless me because of
what I've done or what I haven't done. It's by his grace. Denying self means Christ comes
first, even over the most precious relationships that I have. Listen to what our Lord said,
Luke 14, verse 26. If any man come to me, now this
is, remember our first point, Saving faith is coming to Christ.
If he may come to me, if he says he believes on me, and hate not
his father and his mother and his wife and his children and
his brothers and sisters, yea, his own life also, his own self
also, he cannot be my disciple. Now listen to me. The Lord is
not telling us to hate our family. He's not telling us that at all.
What he's saying is this, they ain't near first. They ain't
near first. Christ is first. Seeking him
is first. Being with him is first. Serving
him is first. And if that takes me to a town
where my precious baby daughter does not live, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. If I'm his disciple. Denying self means denying Thinking
about what is best for me first. Denying self means I don't think
about what I want first. I think about what others need
first. I think about others first. Now there is a serious, serious,
serious lack of this in the world today. Even amongst believers
there is. But I'm gonna show you how important
that is. Look at Philippians chapter two. This is what denying
self is. And this is what we best be striving
for. Philippians 2 verse 3. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now that's denying
self. Our savior never one time thought
about what was best for his flesh, what was best for his comfort
first. He always thought about what
was best for his people first. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? If he thought about what was
best for his flesh first, and his pleasure first, and his lack
of pain first, you and I wouldn't have sacrifice. but he thought
about what was best for his people first. Paul says, let that mind
be me. That's what I want, that's denying
self. Denying self means I don't look
for somebody to serve me. I don't look for somebody to
love me. Instead, I look for ways that I can serve others
and show my love for others. One of my very favorite things
that your pastor says is, The Bible doesn't tell others how
to treat me. The Bible tells me how to treat
others. That's denying self. Now I tell
you again, I tell you this, I try to every single time I preach.
You come to Christ, whether it's for the first time or the 100,000th
time, you come to Christ. But you count the cost first.
I don't think that's fair to say, because that's what scripture
says. You count the cost first. The good news of the gospel,
sometimes I just, I can't believe that the Lord would give me the
blessing to be able to tell you all this, to be able to preach
this, the glorious gospel of Christ our Savior. God does not
require any payment from the sinner in order to be saved.
God requires nothing of you for him to save your soul. He doesn't
require anything. God requires we pay nothing for
our salvation, doesn't he? However, coming to Christ means
that we're gonna give up our whole selves, our whole selves,
to however God is pleased to use us. Not how I would be pleased
that God would use me, but however it is God is pleased to use us,
that's what we're giving up. Somebody I read somewhere this
week said grace is free, but it's not cheap. God required
total surrender to Christ. Look at Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Verse one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice. Present your bodies that the
Lord would use it in whatever way he's pleased to do it. Holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. It's just our reasonable service
to serve our master in whatever way and wherever it is that he
puts us. It's just reasonable. We give
our whole selves over to Him. And if I'm not willing to serve
the Lord in that way, to give up all of my desires and everything
I want to do and serve the Lord wherever it is He puts me, doing
whatever it is He's given me to do, then I'm not worthy to
be His disciple. I mean, how can I say I'm a disciple
of the Lord, I'm a servant of God if I'm not willing to do
what He tells me to do, if I'm not willing to do what He gives
me to do? Selflessness is the most foreign attitude that there
is in this world today. And you see the attitude of the
world, how it comes into the church. Brethren, guard against
it with all your words, because this selflessness is a vital
key. Denying self is a vital key to
saving faith. Then number three, saving faith
takes up the cross of Christ. Back in our text, Mark 8 verse
34, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross. Now, when the Lord talks about
a man taking up his cross, this is what he means. He means taking
up the message of the cross as my message, as the gospel that
saves me. Now, the cross, it's the cross
of Christ. It's what Christ accomplished
on the cross. Christ is the one who died on the cross, It's the
cross of Christ, but it's my cross in this way. That's the
way that God saved me. That's what it took for God to
save me. Christ's sacrifice of himself upon the cross. What
the Lord is talking about here is the message of the cross.
In 1 Corinthians 1.18, the apostle wrote, for the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved It's the power of God. The preaching of the cross is
telling what is it that Christ accomplished on the cross? How
did he please and satisfy his father on the cross? What is
it that he accomplished on the cross? That's my salvation. The message of what Christ accomplished
on the cross, that's my salvation. In Galatians 6 verse 14, Paul
wrote, God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and
I under the world. Now you know Paul's not talking
about glorying in that hunk of wood, whether it was a pole or
a T or an X, he's not talking about that hunk of wood. Nobody
really wants to, nobody that understands what happened on
the cross. wants to see some emblem of that
and be reminded of the curse that the Savior bore. That is
not what the apostle's talking about. What he's talking about,
what we glory in, is the message of the cross. It's what Christ
accomplished on the cross. He accomplished the full, free,
eternal salvation of an untold number of dead sinners by his
one sacrifice upon the tree. Oh my, I glory in that. It's the only hope I have of
salvation. I say with the Apostle Paul.
God's gospel. This God's gospel. He called
in Romans one God's gospel. It's the gospel of the cross.
You know what else Paul called it? My gospel. I say with Paul,
this is my gospel too. This is the gospel that by God's
grace I believe. This is the gospel by God's grace
I need. It never ceases to amaze me that
I keep needing this gospel. It just never ceases to amaze
me. It's my gospel. And I'm not ashamed of it. I
claim it. I claim it. I claim those people
that believe it is mine. I claim it. I claim it because
I'm going to be identified with where this gospel is preached.
Wherever this gospel is preached, I'm going to identify with it.
I'm going to identify with that message. I'm going to identify
with the man that preaches it. I'm going to identify with the
people that believe it. It's my gospel. I understand
that the world hates that gospel. I mean, if the world hates it,
it's a pretty good indication. It's a good thing for us to love.
The world hates this gospel for several reasons. Number one is
this. The gospel of the cross tells
us what man is. Here's a free piece of advice.
If somebody ever comes and asks you, what do you think about
what they're getting ready to do? Choose your words carefully. Because if what you think they're
getting ready to do is a bonehead move, and you tell them they're
gonna hate you forever, because you just told them what you think
about them. That's why men hate the gospel
of the cross, because of what it says about us. It says that
we hate God so much that we put his son to death in the most
painful, humiliating way that we could think of. The Jews and
Romans didn't do that. We did it. We have the same nature
We were there doing just exactly what they did. And man's sin
is so great. The one and only way our sin
could be put away is by the blood of the son of God. Nothing else
could pay the debt. That's how great our sin debt
is. That's you and that's me by nature. And the natural man hates it.
And the believer loves it. The believer loves for our flesh
to be offended that way because what does that do to the believer?
It drives us to Christ. It makes us trust him more. It
reminds me again who and what I am so that I trust Christ.
The believer loves that message. But the world hates it. The cross says God is holy. And
God is just. God will punish every sin with
death. God's not going to accept the
best you can do. That's foolish. to call God grandfather. My grandson is here this morning. I saw him out in the vestibule. I had to go get him and hold
him. And this is what somebody said while he was just reaching
for his papa, while he wanted to get to his papa so bad, because
this is the guy that never tells me no. True enough. That's not God. That's not God. God's holy. He's just. He will not accept the best that
we can do. The only way God can accept you
and me is in the slaughter of his son. Now, the natural man hates that.
And if I'm going to be a disciple of Christ, I'm going to take
up this glorious message that the world hates. the glorious
message of salvation through the sacrifice of Christ. I don't
care if the world hates it. I don't care if they hate me
for loving it. I'm taking this gospel up as my gospel. And if I don't, how can I be
called a follower of Christ? Don't see how I can. Then number
four, saving faith follows Christ. At the end of verse 34, the Lord
says, take up his cross and follow me. Now, what does it mean to
follow Christ? It means to look to Christ. You
know, you can't follow somebody unless you're looking at them,
can you? It's just like the game that we played when we were children,
follow the leader. If you're playing follow the
leader, you don't take your eyes off the leader, because everything
that leader does, you're going to do. You have to look to him
to follow the leader. Now, we're born blind. And when
we're blind, we can't follow Christ, can we? Because we can't
see him. We'll look at Mark chapter 10, just over a page or two,
verse 49. After the Lord gives us spiritual
sight, we will happily and we will voluntarily follow Christ,
because we can see we're looking to him. Verse 49, this is when
Bartimaeus was crying out to the Lord to have mercy on him,
and Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called, and they called
the blind man, saying unto him, be of good comfort. Rise, he
calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said
unto him, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
And the Lord gave him sight, and the Lord said, go your way.
The Lord gave him sight, and he said, go do whatever it is
you want to do. What did blind Bartimaeus do? And immediately
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. If Lord ever
gives me a new sight, that's what we'll do too. The believer
lives following Christ. Now following Christ is not looking
at others to see how they're following Christ. It's me looking
to Christ and following Christ. Following Christ is not looking
to others to see how they're treating me. It's me following
Christ and looking to Christ no matter what else is going
on around me. No matter what, I'm looking to Christ. Following
Him, that's saving faith. And that's being a disciple of
Christ. Now fifth, saving faith is valuable
beyond comparison. Verse 34, or verse 35, and whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever should lose
his life for my sake in the gospels, the same shall save it. For what
shall I profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Now, a person who would protect
themselves from persecution and hatred of the world by not following
Christ, by choosing to not follow him, by choosing not to confess
him publicly, that person will undoubtedly save his natural
life. He's gonna save himself from a lot of trouble, a lot
of hatred, a lot of persecution in this world, no doubt about
it. But the Lord says he's gonna
lose his soul. And that's a loss beyond comparison. The Lord said
this is what one soul is worth. It's worth more than everything
in this world put together. I mean, you think about all the
gold, all the silver, all the diamonds, all the rubies, all
the platinum, all the oil, all the money, all the fame, all
the love, all the applause of this world and put it all together
at once, one soul is still worth more than all that put together.
One soul. In the judgment, An unbeliever
would be willing to give the whole world, not just what he
has in the world, but the whole world in exchange for his soul. And the price still wouldn't
be enough. The gift of saving faith is more
precious than all of the valuables of this world put together. That
gift of simple saving faith that just believes Christ, that just
looks to Christ, that really doesn't know anything else. I
just believe Christ. That's worth more than everything
in this world put together because that simple faith does save the
soul. It saves the soul by making us
cling to Christ. And you can't ever tell the value
of that. Now, by God's grace, whatever
it is that the Lord's given us in this life and from this world,
we enjoy it. We do, we enjoy it. Just like
me and air conditioning, I enjoy it. But we cling to, we follow
after, we chase after, we must have Christ. We must have him. Saving Faith says with the songwriter,
take the world and give me Jesus. All right, here's the last thing. Saving Faith is confessed. Verse
38, whosoever therefore should 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." Now, saving faith is confessed
by both God and the people that he saves. If God has saved you,
you want to confess him publicly in believers' baptism. You want
to. You love him, it's what the Savior commanded you to do, you
love him, this is your gospel, this is your opportunity to confess
him publicly and say, this is how God saved me, by the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. And I very seriously
doubt a profession of faith if there hasn't been a confession
of Christ in believers' baptism. If God saved you, you'll confess
him, you'll confess him with your mouth. You'll say, you'll
be glad to say, Oh, it's Christ that saved me. You'd be glad
to say that. You'd be glad to say it wasn't
me. You know, anything I've done, it's all the, it's all the gift
of God. You'll be glad to identify with the gospel of Christ. You're
not ashamed of it. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation.
How could I be ashamed of such a thing? But if you're ashamed
to confess Christ in this life, all that means is you're not
one of his and God, This is so sobering. I hate to end on this,
but this is where the chapter ends and we're out of time. God
will be ashamed to confess that person, to say this person, he'd
be ashamed of that person on the day of judgment and he's
going to cast them into hell. But here's a miracle. You know,
I can understand sinners like you and me wanting to confess
Christ as Savior. If God saved us, that's easy
to understand, isn't it? would want to confess Christ.
Here's the miracle, that in that day, the Savior will not be ashamed
to call me His. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. Now that's saving faith. That's
the blessing that saving faith gives. And my prayer is, Lord,
give you and me that faith. All right, Lord bless you.