I want to introduce Clay. He
was at this church long before I was. Grew up here, attending
the services, listening to his grandfather. Many of the old
pastors that had to do with my conversion and teaching me came
down to that old church. We have pictures of them back
in the back. We can look at them and reminisce about those days. I'm looking forward to today.
I'm usually so involved in preparing to preach to you that I don't,
a lot of the things people say just go right in one ear and
right out the other because I'm thinking about what it is I have
to preach. So I've enjoyed today. So we've
got Brother Clay Curtis with us today. And his new church
is in Hewing, New Jersey, Grace Baptist Church. Yeah. All right. I'm going to ask him to come
down and preach to us. Well, I'm having an uncommon
problem this morning. I've got two messages I want
to preach to you. I'm glad I've had that problem
and not having anything to preach to you at all. Turn with me to
Matthew chapter 16. I sure do love your pastor and
appreciate him very, very much. I'm so thankful the Lord gave
him to you. So very thankful for that. The Apostle John said in his second epistle, he
said that we love our brethren in the truth. And we love one
another for the truth's sake. We love in the truth and we love
for the truth's sake. He said, this is love that we
walk after God's commandments. This is the commandment that
as you've heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. He said, transgression, whosoever
transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ is
not God. He's talking about the commandment to abide in the doctrine
of Christ. Christ, you remember, said, abide
in me, and I in you. And we're to abide in Christ
in truth, to abide in Him in truth. He said, if there's coming
any to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into
your house, neither bid him Godspeed, for he that biddeth him Godspeed's
partaker of his evil deeds. We live in a day when people
think that love is to tone down the truth and take the offense
out of the cross, and they think as many people as you can gather
up doing that, that shows great love and it shows a great blessing
from God, but that's just not the case, brethren. That's not
the case. If we don't tell somebody the
truth, we haven't loved them at all. You don't love somebody
by telling them lies, especially when it comes to salvation, especially
when it comes to life and death. Love is to tell the truth concerning
God. And that might hurt sinners.
It's gonna offend sinners, and it may hurt their feelings, and
it may get them upset at you. And our flesh has just a natural
desire not to have to bear with that. By nature, we don't want
to be offensive, and by nature, we don't want for others to be
upset with us. And so by nature, there's a part
of us that would sorta wanna hold back the truth. But you know, God's only gonna
bless the truth. Next time we get opportunity
to speak to a coworker or a neighbor or somebody and declare the truth
to them, kindly, in love, don't try to be offensive. The gospel's
offensive on its own to a natural man. The next time we get the
opportunity to declare the truth to somebody, just speak the truth. Because that's what God's gonna
bless. It just might be that he break their hard heart and
draw them to himself, and I guarantee you what'll happen, that person
will love you, and they'll thank you for telling them the truth.
That's right. You know, when you first heard
the gospel, it wasn't something that came to you sweet as honey,
and it was bitter to the taste. The medicine that brings the
cure is often bitter, bitter, bitter to the taste and you don't
want to take it. And we didn't want to at first.
And you didn't like the person that told it to you. But when
God broke your heart and brought you to Christ, that person you
thought, oh, how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of
them that preach, publish a peace. That told me the truth. That's
love. Well, the Lord commended the
apostle Peter here. I'm not going to read it, but
he said, who do men say that I am? And Peter gave him the
multiple choice that men were saying. And he said, well, who
do you say that I am? And Peter said, thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord commended Peter. He said, blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you, but my Father which art in heaven. And he said, Peter,
your name is Rock, but let me tell you something. It's on this
rock that I'm gonna build my church. It's on the clear testimony
of who Christ is and what Christ accomplished. It's on Christ
the foundation through the preaching of Christ that I'm gonna build
my church. and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. There's not a fortified gate
put up anywhere by the fiend of hell that his gospel will
not penetrate through and go into the hard heart of one of
Christ's people and Christ draw him out of there and bring him
under the sound of the gospel. And Christ said it's on the clear
preaching of the truth that I'm gonna establish my church. Well,
then they turn right around And Peter denied the truth. That's what he did, he denied
the truth. And our Lord said this, verse 24. Then said Jesus
unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross, that means it's gonna be painful,
there's gonna be some suffering involved, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life,
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. I want to talk to you about necessary
things. If we'll believe on Christ, if
we'll be saved by him, and if we'll be used by him to preach
the truth to others, then brethren, we must deny ourselves, we must
take up our cross, and we must follow him. Now first of all,
the Lord Jesus Christ only requires of his people what our Lord has
already done for his people in a far, far greater way. He said there in verse 21, from
that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that
he must go to Jerusalem. He must deny himself. He said,
Father, not as I will, but as thou will. He must go to Jerusalem
and he must suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and he must be killed. He must literally take
up his cross and suffer and be raised again the third day. He
was following God his father in faith. He was trusting the
Father would raise him again the third day after he'd accomplished
the work the Father sent him to. Now this was a must. It was a must for our Lord Jesus
Christ to go to the cross. It was a must for him to suffer
and die and be raised again. This was not an option. This
was a must. This was a must. It was a must
in order for him to fulfill the everlasting covenant that Christ
entered into before this world was made. Before He ever created
anything, Christ Jesus the Lord entered covenant with the Father
to save the whole election of grace that the Father chose and
entrusted to Christ. And if He's gonna save them,
it was a must that He go to that cross. It was a must for Him
to fulfill the law and the prophets. Everything that's written in
this book, in this Old Testament, is concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. The law and the prophets declare him. He began at Moses
and went through all of Moses writings and all the prophets
and declared to them the things concerning himself. This whole
book is concerning him. And if you'll read the things
that happened to him as he went about, as he went into Jerusalem
and the things they said to him and did to him, It looks like
they were reading the Old Testament scriptures and saying, okay,
now we're supposed to do this, let's do this, and now we need
to do this, let's do that, and they did everything that was
in those scriptures. He had to go. It was a must that
he go and fulfill the things that were written. It was a must
for him to go to that cross and die in order to fulfill the very
thing God sent him to manifest, the righteousness of God. The
very purpose of the cross is for Christ to declare that God
is righteous, that He is holy, that He is the just judge who
only does what's right. That's who God is. He went there
to declare God just. He went there to show how that
even when the spotless Lamb of God went to the cross, God wouldn't
have respect unto His own Son. He has no respect of persons
in judgment. Before God would ever pour out
wrath upon his son, he made him to bear the sin of his people
so that it was a manifestation of justice for him to pour out
wrath upon his own son. And when our sin was found upon
him, God spared not his own son but delivered him up for all
his elect because it was the just thing to do. And our Lord
Jesus Christ declared by that, God is just. And this is how
he justified his people. On the cross, what you behold
on the cross of Calvary is the Lord Jesus Christ who is God
himself, God in human flesh. That's God justifying his people
from our sins. That's who that is on the cross
and that's what he did on the cross. By that, he declared the
way God saves his people is in a just way. He doesn't just overlook
our sin and sweep it under the rug. The sin's got to be dealt
with. The soul that sinneth must die. And everybody that God saves
has died already in the Lord Jesus Christ. Justice has been
honored. His law's been honored. And so
God and God himself is the justifier. He did it. He accomplished it.
He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. You think
about that picture there in the wilderness. They transgressed
against God, and God sent serpents, and the serpents were biting
them, and they were dying because of this serpent bite. And you
know what the remedy was? You know what the cure was to
save them from that? God told Moses, you make a brass
serpent and put it up on a pole, raise it up on the pole. That
very thing that was killing them, that very thing that was killing them, God said, you make
that very thing and lift it up for all to see. What was killing
you and me? Sin, sin. And he hath made him
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. God said, Christ said, I must
be lifted up, just like Moses lifted up that serpent in the
wilderness. When they looked to that serpent, they were healed. That's it. They didn't have to
try to make a pole. They didn't have to try to make
a serpent. They didn't have to do a bunch of works. They had
to look to that serpent. and they were healed. And God
says all he requires of his people, but this he requires of his people,
look to Christ. Cast all your care on Christ. Trust him alone. Don't do any
works to try to be saved. Don't try to make yourself better
before you come to Christ. Don't try to turn over a new
leaf and clean up your act. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Just like they looked at that
serpent, look to Christ and you'll be saved. That's why he had to
go. Now the servant's not above his
master. We're not going to be above our
Lord Jesus Christ. Shall he suffer? Shall he deny
himself and he suffer? And we not deny ourselves and
suffer? He said, you and I, must suffer. Now let me tell you this,
we're not ever going to deny ourselves and suffer the way
Christ did. We're not going to do that. There's
no man that's going to do that. Our Lord said in Lamentations
112, is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold and
see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. which is done
unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his
fierce anger." There's no sorrow like Christ's sorrow. There's
no suffering like what Christ suffered. His visage was marred
more than any other man. There's nobody that's ever gonna
suffer like Christ suffered. But that's why he suffered so
we wouldn't have to suffer like he suffered. Our Lord Jesus Christ
bore the sin of his people, bore the curse of his people, bore
the suffering and death for his people so that we don't have
to suffer that, brethren, but we're gonna suffer. There's gonna
be some suffering involved. When he calls us to deny ourselves
and take up our cross and suffer for his sake, he's just telling
us to do what he did for us in a very lighter way, in a much
less significant way. Go to Philippians 2 and I'll
show you what he's saying here. Philippians 2, 3. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves. In lowliness of mind, esteem
the other better than ourselves. Look not every man on his own
works, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you. That mind he just described,
That's the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. That's what he's talking about
when he says we deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow
him. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. And
by doing that for his people, our Lord Jesus Christ highly
exalted God the Father as he saved his people from our sins
and it says so, verse nine, God also has highly exalted him.
He gave him a name above every name. Every knee's gonna bow
to Christ and every tongue's gonna confess that he is He is
the Christ, he is salvation, he is everything God said he
is, he's everything he said he is. We're gonna bow and confess
it one day. Everybody is, everybody is. Now, so when our Lord calls
us, what he's gonna say here, it's not too much to demand,
because it's what he already did for us. Now look at this
second thing here, I wanna show you Peter's offense, what it
was that Peter did here, and I'll give you a word about rebuke.
Now Peter had just declared the truth that Christ is, that the
Son of Man is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He just
declared this and Christ commended him for it because he told the
truth. He bore witness to Christ. But then Peter heard Christ declare
he must suffer and he must die. He must be crucified and raised
again. And you know what Peter did when
he heard that? I'm gonna boil it right down
for you what Peter did. He rebuked God. Peter rebuked
God. Look here in verse 22. Then Peter
took him and began to rebuke him. He heard the Son of God
declare what he must do. He heard him declare what he
must do. And he turned around and told
the Lord, that's not gonna happen. He called him a liar. Be it far
from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. Now understand,
what Peter did, I'm sure, in himself, he thought it was a
loving thing to do. I'm sure he thought he was doing
what, in his fleshly understanding, was love to him. But understand
this too, you and I can do what Peter did, just like that. Just like that. We don't look
at Peter and say, oh, how dare he? You can do it just like that. Just like that. But now, I want you to put yourself
in Peter's shoes. You ever been rebuked when you
heard the gospel preached? I have. You hear the gospel preached,
and it'll rebuke you. Christ will rebuke you through
the gospel. I've been rebuked one-on-one by a preacher before,
because I needed it. I'm glad he did it. I'm thankful
he did it. But now, I've never been rebuked like this, ever. Not ever. He turned and he said
to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto
me. Why? Because you savor not the
things that be of God, but those that be of men. Now get this
now, not only did Peter rebuke, not only did the Lord rebuke
Peter, He did it openly. He did it right there before
all the other disciples. And Mark says, he spoke that
saying openly when he said, I must go to Jerusalem. He was speaking
to them all. And Peter rebuked him it says, and it says, and
when he turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked
Peter. He didn't, it appears he didn't take him over to the
side and do this privately, he did it right there in front of
everybody. Now, we live in a day where nobody wants to be rebuked
and most of this crazy world thinks you ought not to rebuke
anybody. Everybody's right, nobody's wrong. That's the kind of society
we live in today. Everybody's right, nobody's wrong.
Compromise is the dogmatism of the day. The dogmatism is not
to be dogmatic. That's the only thing they're
dogmatic about. Don't be dogmatic. Compromise on everything. But
the apostles called men by name. Did you know that? The apostles
would call men by name and warn the church about them. The apostle
Paul said to Timothy, war, good warfare, hold faith in a good
conscience from which some have turned have made shipwreck of
whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander." He called them by name. Demas
hath forsaken me having loved this present world. He told Timothy,
them that sin and rebuke before all that others may also fear. So here's our Lord Jesus before
all the disciples. He turns to Peter and he says,
get behind me Satan. Thou art an offense to me." Peter,
when he said what he said, he was saying that of the devil.
He was saying that of the devil. Peter was siding with Satan against
Christ. That's what he was doing. But
it looks like Peter was just wanting his Lord to not have
to suffer. Isn't that a good thing? Peter was wanting Christ
not to be exalted on the cross. Ooh, now when you think about
it like that, now you see why our Lord said what he said. Well,
you see why he said, Peter did what the devil tries to get God's
people to do. Peter was savoring not the things
that be of God, he was savoring the things that be of men. The
thing that's of God is, let a man deny himself. Let a man deny himself that God's
will be done and not my will be done. That's the thing that's
of God. But now look at the margin right
there. Pity thyself. That's what Peter was saying
to the Lord. Lord, pity yourself. Have a pity party here and feel
sorry for yourself and don't go to that cross and suffer. The thing that's of God is take
up thy cross, suffer for the sake of Christ in defense of
the gospel. Christ had to go to the cross
to save his people from our sins. Christ had to be exalted. He
had to be exalted high and lifted up. God had to be exalted in
his righteousness. The sinner's got to be abased.
God's got to be exalted. The thing that's of men is compromise. Bring Christ down and bring the
sinner up a little bit. Shave the edge off the gospel
so that it doesn't cut so sharp against man's flesh. Talk about
man's will a little bit more. Don't talk so much about God
being sovereign. Talk a little bit about man's
good works and man's righteousness. Don't speak so much about the
fact that he's a rotten sinner that has to be saved by the God
of glory. Don't give God all the praise
and all the honor and all the glory. Put a little bit of it
in man's hand. That's savoring not the things
that are of God, but the things that be of men. Apostle Paul
said, brethren, if I preach circumcision, if I gave sinners one thing that
they could do, just gave them one thing, I would never be persecuted. I wouldn't be persecuted. But
then as the offense of the cross ceased, And he said, who am I
pleasing here? Who am I sent to please? Am I
sent to please God? Or am I sent to please men? If
I please men, I won't be the servant of God. Who are we sent
to please? Are we sent into this world to
preach Christ and Him crucified so we can present it just in
such a way to please men? Or are we sent to preach Christ
and Him crucified so that the Father hears it and says, that's
how I like to hear my son exalted. You can mark this down. What
Peter was doing is what men do every single time they take the
offense out of the gospel. They were bringing Christ down
so he wasn't exalted. And I know Peter did this because
he didn't want to see his Savior suffer. He didn't want to see
him exalted on that cross. But what Peter was doing, what
he didn't understand he was doing was he was not wanting Christ
to be exalted as he must be. And because that's what he wanted,
it was a serious offense to the Lord Jesus Christ. And anytime
you and I are confronted and we're going to be persecuted
or, you know, railed on because of this, and we decide, well,
I don't want to do that, we're doing what Peter did. Christ must be exalted. Now let
me bring this home to us here. Our Lord's gonna rebuke. He rebukes
those he loves, and usually it's gonna be through the preaching
of the gospel. You're gonna hear this gospel go forth. This is
how it was in the beginning for all of us. When you heard the
gospel in power, he broke your hard heart. He showed you all
your works was filthy rags, and he brought you to behold Christ
Jesus. He rebuked you. He brought you
down to the dust, and he brought exalted Christ before you. And
other times we need to be rebuked because of this thing or that
that we're doing or not doing and through the gospel. The preacher
won't even know that you need this. I preach sometimes and
the brethren will joke with me and they'll say, do you have
our house bugged or something because we were just talking
about this yesterday and here you are preaching the very thing
we were talking about. And it's amazing to me when you preach
the gospel, This one over here will say, oh, that was a blessing
to me because of this thing. Another one over here will say,
oh, that was just what I needed because this happened to me.
And it's something totally different in the message. And this one
over here was raised up and this one over here was brought down.
And you didn't, the preacher don't know any of that. He just
gets a word from God and goes and preaches it. And God's doing
that. That's the Lord rebuking. He's,
that's the Lord. He's bringing up those that need
to brought up, brought up from the dust a little bit that are
discouraged and about to fall away. And, and, and then those
that are too proud, he was bringing them down. He's doing just what
needs to be done, just as real as he did it for Peter right
here, face to face with him. And so the Lord told Paul, Paul
told Titus, you speak these things and you exhort and you rebuke
with all authority. Let no man despise you. And sometimes
the Lord uses his pastor to speak a word in season one-on-one with
us, and that rebukes us. And like I said to you, one time
I was just doing what wasn't right. And I thought I was doing
it for the glory of God and the good of the church, but I was
blind as a bat. I couldn't see what I was doing
was wrong. And a faithful pastor told me it was wrong. He did. Now that wasn't pleasant when
it happened. Don't get me wrong. But I'm so thankful he did it
now. So if we're rebuked through the
gospel, or if we're rebuked by God's preacher, remember who's
doing it. It's the Lord doing it. We have
a tendency to, if we hear a message and we're blessed by the message,
we have a tendency to say, oh, the Lord blessed me today. But
if we hear a message and we're rebuked by the message, we have
a tendency to say, well, that preacher was talking directly
to me. No? The same one that blessed you
that last Sunday was the one who's rebuking you this Sunday,
the Lord. And if it offends me, why would
it offend me? It's my flesh that's offended.
Is that not right? And if God gives me something
that's out of his word that rebukes me, it's only for my good. Would we get mad if we were walking
along and all of a sudden Brother Darvin knocked you upside the
head and knocked you over here on the ground? And you looked
up at him and said, why did you do that? And he said, he was
about to step on that copperhead. You wouldn't get mad at that,
would you? You'd say, thank you, man. Now, that knocking you upside
the head didn't feel too good. When you landed on the ground,
it didn't feel too good. But he saved you from a copperhead.
We hear this gospel preached, it doesn't feel too good. No
chastening for the presence. Joyous, it's grievous, but afterward
it yields peaceful fruit of righteousness. And we thank God for it. Don't
we? Think about how bad it would
have been if the Lord hadn't rebuked Peter. A wise son hears his father's
instruction, but a scorner hears not rebuke. So James said, be
swift to hear, slow to speak, Slow to wrath. I tell our folks
at home, if you don't understand something or you get rebuked
by something, just do me this one favor. Spend as much time
in prayer and study asking God to give you an understanding
and to teach you what it is he's teaching you as it took the preacher
to prepare it and preach it. Just don't run right off the
bat and say, well, this is what I think. Okay? As Brother Barnard used to say,
I'll forgive you if you apologize. Take some time and seek God on
it. And then, if you want to say
something, say something. Lastly, let me show you what
the Lord requires of us and why. Verse 24, He said, to his disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me. See, Peter didn't want to deny
himself and suffer, and that's always the case with us. But
in the first hour, if we're going to come to Christ and believe
on Christ and be saved from our sins, what was necessary? We had to deny ourselves. We
had to deny our works, we had to confess we was a sinner, and
we needed Christ to save us. We had to deny our self-will.
We didn't come to Christ by our will, He gave us a new will in
a day of His power. We have to deny our self-works,
confessing that I'm not saved by my works, saved by Christ's
works. That's denying self, brethren. And if those we love now, if
they deny the gospel, those we love, they reject the gospel. Or if they just want you to compromise
it just a little bit, though I love them, I must deny myself. Ain't that right? I can't compromise. I can't change and say, well,
okay. I knew a man one time, and this
man knew the gospel as good as anybody knew the gospel, but
he would not renounce free will works religion as false and damning. He wouldn't do it. You know why?
Because his mama said she was saved under it. And come to find
out, he thought he was saved under it, too. You see, if you
love your father or your mother more than Christ, you'll reject
the gospel to save Mama and Daddy's false refuge. Get what I'm saying? The Lord said that. He said,
don't think I came to send peace on earth. I came to send a sword,
not peace. A man's foe is going to be there
of his own household. But he said, if a man loves father
or mother more than me, son or daughter more than me, he's not
worthy of me. He means if you give them such
preeminence that you're willing to deny the gospel or deny Christ
or even compromise it to please them. See, we have to deny ourselves
in this. What if you have a brother or
sister who sows discord and you have a brother or sister who's
walking contrary to the word and causing division in the church?
I love them, but I can't Aside with that,
I have to stand with Christ. I have to deny myself. I have to take up the cross.
It's going to mean suffering because they're not going to
like it. Well, I have to suffer it. And that's the same when we declare
this truth far and wide or wherever, brethren. People aren't going
to like it. They're going to be offended by it. But I have
to deny myself. And I have to suffer whatever
happens to preach the truth, to declare the truth. Because
that's the only thing that's going to be blessed and save
God's people. Listen to this. Paul, when he
was rejected and he was in prison for preaching the gospel now,
you're talking about somebody that by God's grace, he denied
himself and took up his cross and suffered. He was thrown in
prison for preaching the gospel. And a lot of the brethren, when
that happened, a lot of the brethren left him alone. They wouldn't
have nothing to do with him. He said, they've forsaken me. I'm by myself. I'm alone now. And he wrote to the Philippians.
He said, only let your conduct be as it cometh the gospel. Whether I hear or whether I'm
there with you, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand
fast with one mind. One spirit striving together
for the faith of the gospel and in nothing terrified by your
adversaries. See, that's what causes us not
to deny ourselves. That's what causes us not to
want to suffer. We get scared of man. What he's going to say, what
he's going to do. You know, that is exalting man. That's exalting
man when we do that. Scripture says, sanctify the
Lord. Let Him be your fear. Let Him be your dread. He'll
be a sanctuary for you. And He'll break the heart of
that man through this gospel. He said, my word's a hammer that
breaks the rock in pieces. And He said, but that's to men
that are terrified of their adversaries, that's an evident token of perdition.
But to you that aren't terrified, that's an evident token of salvation.
And that of God. He says, now listen, for unto
you it's given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe
on Him, you know what comes next? But to also suffer for His sake. You know what He's saying? As
necessary as it is for you and me to believe on Christ, it's
that necessary that we suffer for Christ. If God didn't make a man deny
himself and be willing to suffer and follow Christ, you know there
wouldn't be a preacher anywhere? There wouldn't be a preacher
anywhere. Because that's required to preach the gospel. I knew
a man that left the gospel and he went out and he said, well,
I'm not going to worship corporate worship anymore. I'm just going
to worship at home now. I said, well, you're never going
to suffer doing that. I said, you're going to have
to rip out Philippians chapter 1. You have to rip out Ephesians
4, where Christ is the head of the church and gives his preacher
and assembles his people fitly framed just to carry. You got
to rip that out. You got to rip out 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John,
because you can't love the brethren just sitting at home. You see,
these things are all required. But it's nothing to ask, is it?
We suffer much, just light affliction compared to what he suffered.
What if I compromise to keep the peace And I please men and
men love it and I get a great following of people. Look at
this. He said, what a man, what does
he profit if he'll gain the whole world and lose his own soul? See, he says there in verse 25,
whosoever will save his life, who won't deny himself, who won't
suffer for Christ, he gonna lose it. But whoever loses his life
for my sake, Christ said he'll save it. Aren't you glad Christ
lost his life? Aren't you glad Christ was willing
to lay down his life and lose his life? We wouldn't have salvation
otherwise. So he calls his people and says,
now, in a little small way, you do what I've done for you. You
lay down your life for me. Declare this word in truth. Be
prepared to suffer for it, and see what He does. Watch what
He does. Watch what He does. Now look at this, there's going
to come a day, verse 27, the Son of Man shall come in the
glory of His Father with His angels, and He's going to reward
every man according to his works. Well, I don't think we're saved
by works. We're not. See what Christ is saying here.
If I try to save my life, if I pity myself so that I never
deny myself and I never took a stand because I refused to
suffer for Christ, I'm going to prove in that day I never
really trusted Christ. I never really believed on him.
But if God's grace draws me, breaks my heart, makes me deny
myself that Christ might be exalted, makes me willing to suffer that
His suffering might be declared and proclaimed through which
He saves His people. It'll be proven in that day that
I really trusted Him. I really believed Him and believed
that He would save His people through this word. I really believe
Him. Don't you believe Him? I pray God give us grace now
to trust Him, follow Him, suffer for Him, Denying ourselves. Amen. Thank y'all so much.