Christianity. Most everyone presumes he knows. The reality is very few have
any idea what Christianity is. You ask men, and as many as you
ask, that's how many opinions you will get about what it is
to be a Christian. Most people have the idea that
somehow When you're baptized, then suddenly you're a Christian.
When you join the church, you become a Christian. When you
reform your life and you get too old to go out and live like
you used to, then you become a little more moral and ethical
and you're a Christian. And the idea that you believe
certain things, that makes you a Christian. I don't mean to sound cynical,
not at all. I rejoice in God's goodness and
grace. I'm thrilled when God's pleased
to grant life to a dead sinner when God brings someone faith
in Christ. I rejoice in that. Delighted
to have you here. But I'll be honest with you.
I'm not near as excited. When I was younger, I was. I'm
not near as excited about baptizing you, what, two years ago, as
I am about seeing you here now. or that man who just read to
us. Christianity is more than making
a decision for Jesus. It's more than taking his name.
It's more than changing your life. It's more than being a
part of any church, denomination, or religion. Turn with me to Luke 9, 23. Hold your Bibles open to these
five verses of Scripture. and learn from the lips of the
Lord Jesus Christ what Christianity really is. These are solemn,
weighty words indeed. They separate the wheat from
the chaff. I make no effort to do it, but
this book does. They divide the sheep from the
goats. They take the precious from the
vile. They ought to be read prayed over much, and meditated on continually. These few words define true Christianity
more distinctly, more decisively, more clearly than all the volumes
of theology I have ever read. As we look at these words, our
Lord Jesus tells us there are four things, four distinct things
that are always involved in this matter of Christianity, true
Christianity. I'm not talking about lip service
now. I'm not talking about a group of people. I'm talking about
what it is to be a Christian, to be a disciple, to be a follower
of Christ, to be a believer. All right, here's the first one.
Christianity is coming to Christ. Look at verse 23. He said to
them, if any man will come after Throughout the scriptures, faith
in Christ is described by physical acts that represent spiritual
acts. Faith is often spoken of as leaning
on Christ, touching Christ, laying hold of Christ, seeing Christ,
looking to Christ, coming to Christ. Now physically touching
him, physically seeing him, physically laying hold of him, physically
being on him, physically coming to him has nothing to do with
faith. Nothing at all. Lots of folks
came to him in that way in the scriptures who never came to
him. And you cannot come to him with your feet. Coming to him
is an act of faith. And when the scripture speaks
of coming to Christ, this is what it's talking about. It's
talking about us coming to the Lord Jesus as we look to him
for all things from God Almighty, to give us acceptance with God,
to provide all that our souls need for time and eternity. Now
understand this. Coming to Christ is the result
of a deliberate, purposed choice. Write that down. We need to understand
that. Coming to Christ is the result
of a deliberate, purposed choice. I recognize that if a man chooses
Christ, it's because he chose him. If a man comes to Christ,
it's because Christ has come to him. If you and I believe
on Christ, it's because he's given us faith. But if you've
come to him, it's because you want him. God doesn't save folks
by knocking them in the head, dragging them to Christ, and
making them be wed to him whether they want it or not. Those who
are enlisted in the army of Christ are not draftees. They're all
volunteers. They're in his army because they
want to be. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. Yes, it's his power that makes
sinners willing. But if you come to him, you'll
come because you want him. If you believe him, you'll believe
him because you must have him. If you trust Him, you'll trust
Him because you have to depend on Him. God has fixed it so that
in your heart you desire Him and you want Him and you seek
Him. Faith in Christ is a deliberate,
purposed act. I can't stress that enough. When
God calls someone to anything, when God calls someone to anything,
He'll give you a chance to get out. It'll give you a chance to get
out. When I was in college, I went to two Bible colleges. I won't
announce their names because I don't want to promote them,
and they sure don't want to be identified with me. But both
of them were citadels of Antichrist, and they taught classes in what
was called soul winning. They had books on soul winning.
They had seminars on soul winning. And they told us as preachers,
now what you do when you preach? You prepare your sermon, and
you build up to a crescendo. and you use illustrations and
telling stories and when the people are moved right to the
point where you've got on it. It's called psychological manipulation. You strike while the iron's hot,
you give an invitation and you get them to come down and make
a decision because you don't want to lose them. Don't lose
them. You take everything you hear from this pulpit home and
you search it over in this book and you meditate on it and you
find out whether or not this is what you want. Do you want
to follow Christ? I'm not interested in building
up a tote void. I'm not interested in getting more numbers. I'm
not interested in folks looking and saying, my, look, look what
they're doing. Look how God's using them. Look how God's blessing
them. I want you to know Christ. I want you to know Him. Come
into Him as a result of deliberate purpose on your part. Deliberate
purpose. Our Lord said, sit down and count
the cost. It's going to cost you something. We'll see that
in a little bit. It's going to cost you. It's going to cost
you. Coming to Christ is an act of the heart. It's a spiritual
act, not a carnal act. If thou shalt believe in thine
heart. That's the language of scripture.
I don't know how to stress this. It needs to be stressed. It needs
to be understood. You don't come to Christ by saying
a prayer, though certainly you pray. You don't come to Christ
by walking an aisle. You don't come to Christ by kneeling
at the mourner's bench. You don't come to Christ by signing
a decision card. Now, I know that's not popular
in this day, and I know that bucks the trend, but I've been
doing that for a long time. That doesn't bother me any. You
come to Christ, you're just as likely, now you listen to me,
you're just as likely to meet Christ at the front of a Baptist
church after you walk down the end of an aisle after singing
Just As I Am for a little while. As you are to meet Christ, go
into a confessional booth and talk to a priest about your sins.
That's not how you come to Christ. Nobody ever did. You come to
Christ right where you are, right now, with your heart. It's a spiritual thing. It's
a spiritual thing. I was trying to explain this
to somebody one time when I was a thousand miles from home And
I said, the fellow just, he just, you know, he talked and after
a while I was just, let me go get something to drink and get
out of your way. I don't want to talk no more, but I tried it and I said,
I said, listen, now watch, watch my picture and go visit my wife.
And he thought I'd lost my mind. I said, did you see it? He said,
what on earth are you talking about? I said, well, you can
understand what I just told you, understand what it is to come
to Christ. Coming to Christ, Lindsey, if you're coming to
Him, it's not something I observe. It's not something I observe.
If you come to Him now, I don't see it. It's a work between you
and God. An act of the heart. And it's
a continual thing. Hold your hands here in Luke
and turn over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter. Most everybody thinks
they're Christians, because some time or another they had some
kind of religious experience. Twice in my lifetime, I have
tried to witness to folks who, I can remember two distinct times,
who had a little water sloshed on their face as babies, been
in church all their life, and asked them if they were Christians.
They said, oh, yes. And I said, well, how long have
you been a Christian? They both said, well, I guess I've always been a Christian.
Oh, no, you haven't. Oh, no, you haven't. When I was
a boy seven years old, I was talked into a profession of faith
and a stirring emotional service. I was told that I was a Christian,
and I was told that I was a Christian while I lived like hell, folks
still care. Don't you remember when you became a Christian?
Don't you remember when you made your decision for Jesus? That
is not Christianity. Not in terms of this book. Not in terms of this book. Now,
if that gives you a little opium so you can sleep at night, If
that's all you can get, I imagine that's all you can get, but that's
not Christianity. Not Christianity. Those who come
to Christ keep on coming to it. They keep on coming to it. Look
here in 1 Peter 2, verse 3. If so be, you have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. Have you? Have you tasted his
grace? Have you tasted that he's gracious?
Have you? To whom coming? To whom coming? I sat down at my wife's table
a few times, and I've tasted what she fixes. And nobody has
twisted my arm to get me to come back. I've tasted. I've tasted. Will you hear me? Yes, I've tasted. He is gracious. He's gracious. He has what I
must have. He is what I must have, and I
keep coming to him. To him coming as unto a living
stone, disallowing deed of men. Men think, well, you're nuts.
Men think, what is there about this? He's chosen of God and
precious. And to you that believe, he's
precious too. Now then, look at this. Any sinner, any sinner
in all the world who will make Anyone. I have a good friend,
used to pastor down in Western Salem, North Carolina, an older
man, he was talking to somebody, he said, you folks don't believe
in whosoever will. He said, oh yes we do, we just
don't believe in whosoever won't. Well, what do you mean? Whosoever
will come after me, our Lord said. Here in our text, he says,
if any man come, if any man come. Aren't you glad he said that?
If he had said Don Fortner, that's kind of a strange name. Kind
of a strange name. But you know, in the 22 years,
nearly 23 years I've been at David, I've met two others besides
me. Met two of them. But if he had
said, if Don Fortner comes, I'd have said he's dead sure, talking
about one of those fellows. He said, any man. I qualify. Any man. If any man come, come
unto me, all ye that labor in a heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest. Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life
freely. The preacher. You know that only
the elect can come. You know that only those who
are redeemed by Christ can come. I know that. I'm fully aware
of that. I'm fully aware of that. I'm
telling you, any man who will come can come. Any man who will. Is any man coming to me? If you've
never come, come on. Come on to Him. And this is what
he says. Number one now, Christianity
is coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. Keep coming
to him. Keep coming to him. Number two,
Christianity is carrying his cross. Look at verse 23 again. Now this is not optional. In this verse of scripture, as
throughout the word of God, our master tells us plainly, if we
would follow him, if we would be his disciples, if we would
be saved, self-denial is an absolute necessity. He said to them, oh,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross every day, and follow me. Again, this is a matter of personal,
deliberate choice. He's not talking about carrying
a cross like that fool who's made him a cross and put it on
a roller skate wheel and walked across the country with it. He's
not talking about carrying a wooden cross, that superstition, idolatry,
and idiocy. He's not talking about a forced
burden. It's not it. Sometimes people
say, well, you know, I guess this is my cross. I have to bear
it. That's not what he's talking about. If you were born with
one leg, you didn't have any choice in that. If you go down
the road tonight and have an accident and suddenly you lose
your right arm, you didn't have any choice in that. That's not
what he's talking about. He's not talking about enduring providential
hardships, but rather he's talking about picking up your cross with
deliberate choice every day and following him. Choosing a course
that is sure to bring you trouble. Because trouble is in the path
of following Christ. Lord, what's your will? But wait
a minute, that's going to cause my wife, that's going to cause
her trouble. Lord, what's your will? Wait
a minute, my buddy James, he's going to be upset with that.
Wait a minute, that's going to be mighty costly. Take up your
cross daily and follow me. I know, I preach to you, you
understand, salvation by grace alone. We are not saved by taking
up our cross and following Christ, and yet if we would follow him,
we must take up our cross. We're saved by free grace, and
yet we must do much tribulation. enter into the kingdom of God.
Deny yourself, he says. Sinful self, righteous self,
carnal self. Deny yourself. That's what it is to give yourself
to somebody else. A man gets married I gave myself
to that lady 32 years ago. What's that mean? That means
I gave myself to her. And I continue to do so. She
gives herself to me continually. And that means she has to deny
something that personally she might prefer. That means she
has to go to some trouble. That means she's got some cost.
Deny yourself. Deny your own righteousness and
your own lust. Deny your own ambitions and your
own desires. Let me give you something here. A religion that costs nothing
is worth nothing. It is of no use and no good in
this life and it will be of no value in the life to come. If
I am saved by the grace of God, if God has called me out of darkness
into his marvelous light, I will take up my master's cross and
I will follow him. I'll take up his doctrine, his
gospel, in the teeth of opposition everywhere and confess it. I'll
take up the cross of his will. Our master gave us example. When
he was about to die in our room instead, he was pressed down
and he said, now my soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death. But
what shall I say? Shall I say, Father, save me
from this hour? But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Oh no, this is why I'm here. This is why I'm here. Father,
glorify your name. And that's the example he's given
us. We take up his cross. That means we seek his will,
his honor, above anything pleasing to ourselves. Our Savior's words
here are as plain as the noonday sun. If I choose not to bear
his cross on earth, I will not wear his crown in heaven, no
matter what I profess. And I'll tell you what, if you've
got any question about that, if you've got any other explanation
of this 23rd verse, I'll sit down and let you preach. That's
what it says. That's what it says. Thirdly,
Christianity is coming to Christ. Christianity is carrying his
cross. And Christianity is what Ruth just sang a little while
ago. Consecration to Christ. We don't hear much about consecration
these days. Most folks who talk about it
are involved in silly, charismatic emotionalism and know nothing
about it. Sometimes people say, well, boy, that's a consecrated
Christian. That's kind of like saying that's
a praying Christian. They ain't any other kind. Believers are
consecrated folks. Listen to verse 24. will save his life, shall lose
it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, the same shall save him. For what is a man advantaged
if he gained the whole world and lose himself, or he be cast
away? If I would save my life, I must
lose it. And Merle, this is not a decision
we made a long time ago. It's a decision we make every
day, confronted with it throughout
the day. In every choice you and I make,
in every place where we come to a crossroads and we meet up
with the will of God and our own will, We meet up with the
way of God in our own way. We meet up with what we know
is right and what we prefer. We make a choice. Either I'll
rule my life here, Lord, and you step aside, or Lord, I'm
yours. It's that simple. It's that simple.
Salvation is neither more nor less than the surrender of my
being to the dominion of God's Son. That's what it is. That's what it is. Now, that
may not be the most exciting, emotional thing that you could
hear. That's what it is. That may not
be right in line with what folks want to hear preach tell. That's what salvation is. There's
no way possible for any sinner to believe on Christ apart from
surrender to Christ. Commitment to Christ. Commitment
to Him. You ever had to go into surgery
in the operating room and have somebody who is an absolute stranger
to you? Now you talk about commitment. An absolute stranger. You don't
know him from Job's turkey. You don't know who he is. But
you've got good credentials that this man knows what he's doing.
And he's fixing to split you from stem to stern. And he's
going to control what you breathe. He's going to control the beating
of your heart. He's going to control the pumping
of air in your lungs. He's going to control everything
in you. Your life is in his hands. And you got two choices. You
can either commit your life to that surgeon's hands and maybe
die. Or you can say no and for sure
die. One of the two. One of the two. Now we walk in our path of rebellion,
we're dead sure going to hell. How we commit our lives into
the hands of God's Son and dead sure live. But that's what commitment
is. He takes over. He can help. You see the problem with sin
From the very beginning, the problem with sin, in its essence,
is man says, as Lucifer said, God Almighty, I will be my God. I'll do what I please. I'll do what I please. And the
essence of faith is, oh my God, I'm sick to hell of me. and what I please. Please rule
me by your grace. Please rule me for your honor. Please take this thing that I
have left and make something of it for your glory. Faith in Christ, Christianity,
is giving over the rule of my life to Christ. But when all's said and done, that ain't much of a sacrifice. That ain't much of a sacrifice.
Look at the next line. For what is a man advantaged
if he gained the world and lose himself. What is the man advantaged? It's
to gain the world and lose himself. How foolish it is when we are
like David Enzius at the prosperity of the wicked. Look at the ungodly
and you see their prosperity and Begin the end there. Boy, I wish I had some of that.
Oh, how foolish. Don't you understand that's all
he's got? Let him have it. What will advantage you if you
gain the whole world by your self-will and lose your soul? Each of us has an immortal soul,
a soul that will live forever somewhere either in the bliss
of heaven's glory and eternal life or in the torments of the
damned in hell. But forever these souls must
live. And it's a very easy thing to lose your soul. You can murder it by loving and
serving and seeking and clinging to this world. You can poison
it with the religion of this world. You can start it by neglecting
the ordinances of divine worship whereby your souls are ministered
to. There are many ways to hell. Whichever way you choose is your
responsibility and your fault. There's only one way to life
eternal and that way is Christ. What is Christianity? Christianity is coming to Christ. It is carrying the cross of Christ. It's consecration to Christ.
It is giving up myself to him. I haven't come close to doing
what that is. and is confessing him. Verse
26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of
me and my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, for
he shall come in his own glory, and in his father's, and of the
holy angels. And I tell you of a truth, there
be some standing here which shall not taste death till they see
the kingdom of God. And we don't have to guess what
our Lord's talking about. To be ashamed of him is to refuse
to confess him. It is to refuse to identify with
him, his people, his gospel. It is to look at the alternatives,
and you say, well, now wait a minute. No, I better kind of keep my
mouth shut here. These folks over here, they're
not going to understand this. They're not going to understand
that. It's hedging your bets, as they
say. It's covering your tracks so
that you can always wiggle out if you have to. If I'm ashamed of Christ's doctrine,
I'm ashamed of him. If I'm ashamed to be identified
with it, I'm ashamed of him. Lots of folks are. They figure
out some way to identify themselves with the name of Christ without
taking the reproach of his doctrine, without taking the offense of
his cross, and thus they try to straddle the fence. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of this gospel.
I'm going to confess it. Now that doesn't mean That doesn't
mean you go down the road and buttonhole everybody you see.
It doesn't mean you gobble down with a fistful of facts in your
dashing pocket and everybody sees stuff attack in their hand
and you try to get everybody you meet to make a confession
of faith and you are obnoxious. That's not what it's all about.
This matter of confessing Christ and not being ashamed of him
is identifying with him, with his doctrine. Devoting yourself
to him and his doctrine. Seeking his honor regardless
of cost. Seeking his honor. If I'm ashamed
of Christ's ordinances, I'm ashamed of him. If I'm ashamed of his
people, I'm ashamed of him. Read Matthew 10 and Matthew 25. Got a whole lot to do with that. And he said to me, I was thirsty.
He gave me something to drink. I was sick and naked and in prison
and he visited me. Lord, when did we do that? When you did it to one of the
least of these, my brethren, did it to me. You see, believers
are one with the master and to be ashamed of his people to abuse
his people, to despise his people, to mistreat his people. It's to be ashamed of him, to
abuse him, to despise him, to mistreat him. If I'm ashamed
of Christ and his words, his gospel in this world, he'll be
ashamed of me when he comes in close. I recall years ago, I was sitting
in the waiting room down in Durham, North Carolina, Duke University.
I was taking cobalt treatments for cancer. It's been a long
time ago. And I was reading a book called True Christianity. And
I deliberately tried not to make a show of things, but don't hide
things either, just don't make a show. And somebody happened
to see the cover of the book sitting beside me. And the fellow
looked at me, and he said, I want to ask you something. And he
paused a little bit. And he said, what does it cost
to be a Christian? I said, sir, nothing from you. Nothing from you. The cost was
paid at Calvary. But all of you, that's what it
costs. All of you. All of you. Christ won't have what little
bit you want to give him left over. He'll either have all of
you or none of you. That's what it costs. That's
what Christianity is. Coming to Christ. Carrying his
cross. consecration to heal. Confess
and heal. Amen.