Mark chapter 8, verses 34 through
38, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us several statements that
contain truths of the deepest importance. The words of our Savior in these
five verses of Scripture are solemn, weighty words. They're like a winnowing fan
in the master's hand with which he thoroughly purges his floor
and separates the chaff from the wheat. They separate the
precious from the vile. They distinguish sheep from goats. They ought to be read often,
prayed over earnestly, and meditated upon continually. In these few
words, the Lord Jesus Christ defines true Christianity more
distinctly and more clearly than all the volumes of theology I've
ever read in my life. Now read them carefully. Mark
chapter 8, verse 34. When he had called the people
unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever 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. For whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. But what
shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
Of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh
in his glory. Now, keep your Bibles open to
this text of Scripture and listen carefully as I try to set before
you four aspects of true faith, four things vital to faith, four
things without which there is no saving faith. in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The first is coming to Christ. Look in verse 34. Whosoever will
come after me, let him deny himself. Now, throughout the scriptures,
the Word of God teaches us that coming to Christ is faith in
Christ. Faith in Christ is coming to
Christ. To trust him is represented as
venturing ourselves upon him, it's represented as looking to
him, it's represented as laying hold of him, but most frequently
it is represented as coming to him. We come to Christ when we
come after him. Like disciples who follow after
their master, so believers follow after the Lord Jesus Christ as
true disciples, knowing that he and he alone is our master. Now what is this coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ? First, understand this. Coming
to Christ is the result of a deliberate, calculated, purposeful trust. It is the result of a deliberate,
calculated, purposeful trust and choice, excuse me. I recall
years ago when I was just a young man shortly after God saved me,
going over to Piedmont Bible College during their midwinter
Bible conference. They had all the big shots of
fundamentalist religion down there preaching and they were
talking about soul wedding and they were, boy they were just
go get her soul wedding. And one of the fellows said,
now what you have to do, I remember like yesterday is that what you
have to do is you've got to witness the folks in such a way as you
get them to make a profession of faith before they realize
what they've done. Isn't that amazing? I wasn't 16 years old,
but I had a better sense than that. I got up and went out.
I got better things to do than this. That's ridiculous. Coming to Christ, if you ever
come to Him, you will come to Him because you calculate and
deliberately, willfully choose to come to him. It is an act
of the will. Our master said, whosoever will. Now, I recognize that some fellas
are so enamored with free grace and so upset with their very
word, will, that they are scared to death they're going to get
somebody in the kingdom of God who's not elect. Don't be worried
too much about that. then don't alter the Word of
God to fit any system of theology, whether you understand it or
not, bow to the Word. We recognize that our Lord here
speaks plainly about faith in Christ being an act of your will. It is a deliberate choice made
on your part. Now I understand, I think you
know I understand, faith is a gift of God. If you come to Christ,
it'll be because He brought you. If you believe on Christ, it'll
be because He gave you faith. If you choose Him, it'll be because
He chose you before the world began. And yet, I know that if
you come to Him, you will come to Him because you want Him.
Because you choose Him. Because you cannot live without
Him. Because you must have Him. You'll
come to Him crying like the hymn of old, Give me Christ or else
I die. I've got to have Him. got to
have it. And I recognize that that won't
happen unless he fixes it so you've got to have it. But if
you've got to have it, you'll come to it. God does not save
sinners by knocking them in the head and dragging them to Christ.
He does not save sinners by, by just making them come. No,
no, no, no, no, no. That's, that's the wrong idea
of effectual grace. God graciously works on the heart
and will of chosen sinners, and so reveals Christ to them, and
so speaks to their hearts, and so woos them by his grace, that
they cannot resist looking to Christ. They cannot resist coming
to Christ. They cannot resist choosing the
Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is not a matter
of conscription. We're not, we're not drafted
into this army. Every soldier in the army of
Christ is a volunteer and he's there because he wants to be.
Everyone else. Every sinner who embraces Christ embraces Christ
because he wants Christ. Listen to the scripture. Blessed
is the man whom thou chooses. That's God's election. There
are some men and women in this world chosen of God. Maybe some
here who have been chosen of God. who tonight he will call, call graciously, tenderly, lovingly,
kindly, gently, oh, but effectually calls to approach unto them. Coming to Christ is that act
of faith by which the sinner looks at all the options and
understands exactly what's involved in faith. He understands exactly
what's involved in surrender. He understands exactly what's
involved in bowing to Christ as Lord. He says, I want him.
I've got to have him. If he'll have me, I've got to
have him. I've got to have him. Thy people
shall be willing, willing, willing, willing, willing in the day of
thy life. He comes, exercises the power
of his grace and makes you with him. Now, there was a time when
you weren't willing. There was a time I was not willing
to bow to him. I would not have him. I wanted
to stay out of hell, but I didn't want him. I wanted to go to heaven,
but I didn't want him. And then God called me to his
feet. And I wanted him for life itself
and still do. You understand what I'm saying?
Faith in Christ, then, is a result of deliberate, purposeful choice. Understand this as well about
coming to Christ. Coming to Christ is an act of
the heart. It's a spiritual act, not an
act of the intellect so much as it is an act of the heart,
though the intellect is involved. It certainly is not an act of
the body. It is not a physical act. It is not moving from one
location in a building or a stadium to another. No one has ever come
to Christ by walking down a church aisle. So I came that way. No
you didn't. You just came down a church aisle.
No one has ever come to Christ by kneeling at an altar. Not
unless you knelt at the altar that's in glory. You certainly
didn't get to him by kneeling at an altar down here. No one
has ever come to Christ by responding to some preacher's invitation
to say a prayer that he's made up or written out for you to
say. No one's ever come to Christ by signing a decision card or
getting in the baptismal pool. Oh no. Coming to Christ is an
act of the heart. If you would come to him You
must come to him without moving a muscle. I recall years ago
I was talking to someone, they just couldn't get this. They
said, well, but how can you do that? At that time I was several
thousand miles away from my wife. I said, I just went to my wife.
Did you see it? And he looked at me like, man,
you've lost your mind. I said, no, I'm with her right
now. And he looked at me like, you
sure enough lost your mind. Don't you understand what I'm saying?
It's an act of the heart. An act of the heart. Coming to
Christ is not getting up from that chair or pew and walking
down here. Coming to Christ is lifting your
heart to Him. Going to Him in faith. Looking
to Him. Not with these eyes. That wouldn't
do you any good. If He should come and stand right
here in front of us physically and everybody in the building
saw Him with these eyes, that wouldn't do any good. Lots of
folks saw Him with their eyes. who went to hell. Lots of folks
touched him with their hands. They're in hell today. But looking
to Christ, coming to Christ is coming to him with your heart.
Believing on him with your heart. Look in Romans chapter 10. Let
me show you what I'm talking about. Romans the 10th chapter. Brethren, my prayer, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Paul's attitude toward lost men was not one of nonchalant complacency. His attitude toward perishing
sinners was not one of, well, if they're not elect, they're
going to be damned, that'd be all right. No, no, no, no, no, no,
no. He said, brethren, I want you
to understand, my heart's desire, my prayer to God for Israel is
that they might be saved. For I bear them record, they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. We live in this
religious world around us. Folks go to church, sing their
hymns, read their Bibles, go through their liturgies, and
have a zeal of God. And my heart aches for them.
My heart aches for them. My prayer that God be mighty
to be for them. They have a zeal of God but not
according to knowledge. I don't mean they're not sincere
and religious, they are. They just don't know God. Don't know Him. Their zeal is
altogether a zeal of religious ignorance and emotionalism, custom
and tradition. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, that's the problem. don't have any idea what God
is in his righteousness and therefore have no idea what he requires.
Being ignorant of God's righteousness they go about to establish their
own righteousness and because they think they can establish
their own righteousness they have not submitted to the righteousness
of Christ. And that's the only reason you haven't. You who are
yet without Christ, the only reason you do not yet trust him
is because you're really looking to yourself to do something,
find something in you by which you can please and honor God
and establish righteousness for yourself. Verse 4, Christ is
the end of the law. He's the conclusion of it, he's
the purpose of it. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. For Moses described that the
righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them. Moses said, now you want to be
made righteous by your works? Then do this, live perfect before
God, no sin. But the righteousness of faith
is another story. The righteousness of faith speaketh
on this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend to heaven? That is to bring Christ down
from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring
up Christ again from the dead. But what does faith say? Faith
does not say what shall we do or what shall be done, but rather
faith says the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart. That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Confess with
your mouth, Jesus Christ is Lord, and shall believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now this is what
Paul's been driving at, exactly what our Lord said. For the scripture
says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Coming
to Christ is a deliberate choice. Coming to Christ is an act of
the heart. And coming to Christ is a continual thing. I don't know of any aspect of this message that needs
to be more clearly declared and understood than this. Saving
faith is not an event in a person's life. Saving faith is not a historical
event, something that took place back yonder. Saving faith is
not something that was done back yonder. No, no, no, no, no. A thousand times no. Almost everybody
who professes faith in Christ, almost everybody who wears a
religious name of Christianity, points back to some experience,
to some time. And so now this is the place
where I will say, because I believed, Saving faith is not a historical
event. If you've got to look back to
this morning to find assurance for your soul, look back to yesterday
to find peace with God, you don't yet know Him. I'm telling you,
play it. Faith in Christ is a continual
thing. Look in 2 Peter, or 1 Peter rather,
chapter 2. Turn there and look at it. Chapter
2, verse 3. If so be You have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. To whom coming? To whom coming? Brother Scott Richardson was
preaching here one time years ago in one of our conferences,
I believe it was here, and he said salvation begins with a
look. Look unto me and be you saved
all the ends of the earth. Salvation is maintained and continues
in a look, looking unto Jesus, the often finisher of our faith.
And salvation ends, just like Larry said in his prayer a little
bit ago, with a look. We shall see him as he is. Salvation
begins coming to Christ. Salvation is the continual coming
of my soul to Jesus Christ. Salvation concludes in his consummation
coming to Christ. To whom? The believer is a man,
a woman, who lives by faith. Live by faith. What does that
mean? We live continually looking to him. We live continually calling
on his name. We live continually coming to
him. We live continually trusting
him. We live continually turning to
him. And one more thing about this
coming to Christ, and this is as good as any of
it. Any sinner in all the world who will come to Christ may come
to Christ, even you, even me. I'm so thankful when our Lord
speaks about this, his most common choice of words is whosoever. Whosoever will come unto me. Whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely. Whosoever will, let him
come. Whosoever will, look unto me,
he shall be saved. Whosoever believeth in him shall
not be damned. Whosoever, whosoever. I prefer
that. I far prefer that than if I should
read if Don Fortner should come to me. I prefer that than if
I should read if Don Fortner, who lives in Danville, Kentucky,
should come to me. Because I found out there's more
Don Fortners around here. And I would be dead sure talking
about him, not me. But here, he says whosoever. Who's that talking about? Now
that's all about me. I fit in there. He's whoever
will come unto me. He's whoever will come after
me. That means that you will come
to him. Listen to me now. If you will
come to him, you may come Not only are we bidding to come to
Christ, we're commanded to come. He said, come unto me, all ye
that lay there in a heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. That's
not an invitation, that's a command. He says come. And if the king
commands me to come, then I have the right to come. I can come. The warrant of faith is not my
feelings. The warrant of faith is not me
meeting some prerequisite to some preconditions before I can
recognize I'm sinner enough to come. Oh no, the warrant of faith
is he said come. Whosoever will come. Come on. Come on. And I'm telling you,
if you come to this Savior, you come to this King, he says I
will in no way cast you out. Whosoever cometh unto me, shall
be saved. So the first act of faith, or
the first aspect of faith, is coming to Christ. The second,
look at verse 34 again, is carrying the cross of Christ. Whosoever will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Now this is not an optional thing. It's not something you say, well
I believe I'll put that on for a while. No, I'm perfectly happy
to believe all Jesus, but this thing of self-denial, taking
up my cross and following him, no, I'm not going to do that. Our Lord tells us plainly that
if we would follow if we would be his disciples, if we would
be saved, self-denial is an absolute necessity. It's an absolute necessity. This
matter is also a matter of personal, deliberate choice. Somebody goes
through some great difficulty, some great trial, and they say,
well, I had to carry my cross. That ain't You didn't have any
choice in that. It comes your way, you've got
to bear it. If you get in an accident and lose both your legs,
that's not a cross to carry. You didn't have any choice about
that. This matter of carrying a cross is a matter of deliberate
choice. If a man will come after me,
the Savior says, let him pick up his cross and follow me. That involves deliberate, deliberate,
deliberate choice. Salvation, you see, though it
is by grace alone, involves personal sacrifice and personal self-denial. By grace are you saved through
faith in that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. We're not
saved by what we do, but by what God does for us and in us. We're
saved by the election of grace, the redemption of grace, the
call of grace, the preservation of grace. We're saved by free
grace alone. And yet, if we are saved by the
grace of God, The Scripture speaks plainly and says we must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. This morning
in teaching the lesson in Romans 6, I referred us to Colossians
chapter 2, where the Apostle Paul said, the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that
denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world. The grace of God
experienced in a man's soul effectually teaches him to say no to self. Teaches him to deny ungodliness.
Teaches him to deny himself. Our Lord said you must take up
your cross and deny yourself and follow me. We must deny self
or we can't follow him. What does that mean? Where do
you carry that? Whatever involves self, that's
what it is. I cannot follow Christ unless
I deny my sinful self, my sinful life, my sinful ways,
my sinful desires. I cannot follow Christ unless
I deny my righteous self, recognize my righteousness as a filthy
rag and I must have his righteousness For alone is righteousness found
in him. And I cannot follow Christ unless
I deny my carnal self. When I say carnal, I'm not necessarily
talking about evil, I'm just talking about worldly, fleshly,
earthly self. Personal care, personal wants,
personal needs. The believer must deny himself. Indeed, the believer is one who
does deny himself. J.C. Ryle made this tremendous
statement in commenting on this verse, a religion which costs
nothing is worth nothing. Someone asked me one time years
ago, I was reading a book called Christianity and it's all the
title of the book and we talked a little while and he said, well
what does it cost to be a Christian? Pause for a minute. And I said,
nothing from you, but all of you. That's what it's called.
All of you. All of you. All of you. From the sole of
your feet to the top of your head, from your heart to your
body, Bob Pontia, either everything will be surrendered to him or
nothing. Every relationship, every possession,
every aspect of life is bound to Christ's benign self. It will
do us no good in the life that now is, and it will lead to no
salvation in the life to come, to have a religion that costs
nothing. Free grace is not cheap grace. free salvation is not cheap salvation. Our Lord bid us come and buy
without money and without price, but buy we must. If you buy something
in exchange, it must be made. And that which we exchange is
our lives for his life. That's it. Read on. If I'm saved by the grace of
God, I will take up my cross and follow my master deliberately,
purposefully, understanding the cross. His cross is his doctrine. In
this world, when everybody despises it, I'll confess his doctrine. His cross is his will. Frequently, it's a matter doing
his will, just doing his will. The believer frequently in life
is faced with choices. Every day you're faced with choices.
Choices in which you're confronted with the will of God and you
know it. You know exactly what the will of God is. I'm not talking
about ambiguous things, I'm talking about plain, clear, obvious stuff. You know it. And you say, well,
man, if I do that, it's going to cost me. It's going to cost me. Make your choice. Take up your
cross and follow him or deny it. Make your choice. I recall years ago, Brother Bob
Coffey on the art gallery in Ashland. He will be embarrassed.
I'm sure you'll probably hear this tape somewhere down the
road. Somebody give it to him, but I'll tell you the story anyway. Someone came in. He had his gallery
in Parsons department store there. Rather ritzy department store,
the place where you're going to make it and make it. If you
don't, you're not. But he had his art gallery there
and someone came in with a picture of Christ on the cross, or a
picture of Christ, maybe it wasn't on the cross, one of these, you
know, idolatrous pictures, and wanted Bob to frame it. This
gal was, you know, she was in prominence and influence in town.
And Bob, he said, I'm sorry ma'am, I can't do that. And she understood
exactly what he said. You mean you won't frame this
picture for me? No, not that picture. I can't have anything
to do with that. He goes, the manager, I can't
do that. I can't. Well, what if you mean
shutting down business? Well, I can go get business somewhere
else. But what if it means you lose your job? Well, I can go
get another job, but I can't frame that picture. I ain't gonna
do it for you or for anybody else. Why? Because I know God's
will in the matter. More than that, the cost of Christ
is many times Simply knowing and doing what you know is for
the honor of your Redeemer. If the wife understands it, great,
if she doesn't, still got to do it. If my children understand
it, wonderful, if they don't, still got to do it. If friends
understand it, that's great, but if they don't, still got
to do it. This involves the honor of my Redeemer, and His honor
more important than anything else. faith is coming to Christ,
and it is carrying the cross of Christ. And thirdly, in verses
35, 36, and 37, we read that it is consecration to Christ. Look at verse 35. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. Boy, that's deep doctrine, just
as deep as it comes, I promise you. You want to retain control of your life? You want to continue calling
the shots in your life or thinking you do? You want to continue deciding
what you'll do, when you'll do it, where you'll do it? You can. You sure can. Absolutely, you
certainly can. And you can go to hell doing
it. You will go to hell doing it. And whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel, the same shall save him. Thirty years ago, I made a decision, like Jephthah,
I lifted my hand to God and I can't go back. And preparing this message, I
made the same decision. And preaching it to you, I made
the same decision. And I'm making the same decision
right now. I give up every choice. Every choice. I give up every
right. I give up every possession. I give up, my God, everything
involved in my life. That darling lady I love, she's
yours. I give her up. That family of
mine over Lexington, they're yours. I give them up. Whatever you say, whatever you
do, that's it. It's called losing your life. You
see, the problem, the issue between man and God has never been whether
or not you want to be saved. That's never been the issue.
The silliest thing on this earth, walk up to somebody and say,
do you want to be saved? Or do you want to go to hell? I never
met anybody in my life who didn't want to be saved or who did want
to go to hell. Never in my life did I meet anybody. Silly thing
on the desk though for people like that. Well what's the issue? Dominion. Control. Kingship. Lordship. If Jesus Christ is
not my Lord By my voluntary surrender to his dominion, I've never experienced
regret. And the same is true of Larry
Crisp and James Jordan. That's just it. That's just it. Read on. Faith is giving over
the rule of your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's
not much of a sacrifice, is it? For what shall it profit a man
that he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? But what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul? That's a pretty easy calculation,
I think. That's the easiest math I know
of. Each of us has an immortal soul. And we're going to live forever. Maybe I shouldn't use the word
live. For the unbeliever, you're going to continue to exist forever. The everlasting torment. What this book describes as the
second death. But that shall be your lot forever,
if you die without Christ. The believer, the man, the woman
who lives in Christ, shall live forever and never die. He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die, the Savior said. I said to someone the other day,
Brother Rankin, looks like he's going to die any time. I said,
I beg your pardon. He's going to start to live any
time. The believer shall never die.
These bodies just sleep in the grave for a while. Eternal life. That's the lot
of our inheritance forever in Christ the Lord. We each have a soul, an immortal
soul. And I want to tell you it's a
very easy thing for you to lose your soul. I'll tell you three ways you can do
it. You can murder it. You can murder it by clinging
to the world. Loving the world. Pursuing the
world. Murdering. And I'll throw this in, because
it needs to be said. If you make that your choice,
you're not going to just murder your soul. You'll murder those
around you, under your influence. Or you can poison it. with our
many and free will works religion, the deadly, the deadly, deadly
wine of Babylon's fornication. Are you starving? By neglecting God's ordained
means of grace, the preaching of the word, by keeping from
your soul the bread of life. There are a lot of ways to go
to hell, whichever way you choose. a matter for which you alone
are responsible. But there's only one way to life, and that's
Christ. Only one way of salvation is
Christ. Only one way to everlasting glory
is Christ. Faith in Christ involves coming
to Christ, carrying the cross of Christ, and consecration to
Christ. And it involves one more thing.
involves confessing Christ. Look at verse 38. Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me, my person, and my word, my doctrine, 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 Now we don't have to guess what this means. Well,
what does it mean to be ashamed of Christ? He tells us plainly. Read Matthew 25 and Matthew chapter
10. To be ashamed of him is to refuse
to confess him. To refuse to identify ourselves
with him. To testedly deny him. That's exactly how he describes
it. If I am ashamed of Christ's doctrine,
I'm ashamed of him. A lady wrote to me this week
and asked my opinion. She said her husband had moved.
They didn't have much choice. He was in the military, and they
encroached away from them, an hour or so drive. And then there's
something around that, you know, I get so disgusted. I don't know why on earth. I
don't know why on earth people even think about, well, you know,
this is, it's bearable. That's like sitting down at the
table. It's bearable. It's only worse. And she said,
we talked to the pastor and he said, he said he believes the
doctrines of grace, but he preaches it subtly. Preaches it subtly. And she said,
what do you, what do you think about us going there? And I wrote
her back and told her plainly, and I hope she shows the letter
to a pastor. And I signed my name to it. I said, God's servants
don't preach the gospel subtly, they preach it boldly. And if
a man preaches subtly, it's because he's ashamed of the gospel. It's
because he doesn't know Christ. It's because he serves himself
and not your soul. He serves himself and not the
glory of God. Preaches subtly. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God. You ever heard tell of handling
dynamite suddenly? Throw it in and get out of the
way. Watch it work. The power of God
and the salvation to everyone that believe it. Got on that subject, can't leave
it alone. contempt, contempt, which men
deserve. Preach the gospel subtly. Oh no, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel. It's the power of God to salvation. For therein is
the righteousness of God. The only way you'll ever know
it is if I preach it. way you'll ever understand it is if I declared
it. It's revealed from my faith to your faith by the power of
his spirit. If I'm ashamed of Christ, it
means I'm ashamed of his word, his gospel, his doctrine. If
I'm ashamed of his ordinances, that also means I'm ashamed of
him. You see, the ordinances of Christ
like all other things, are not options. Our Lord does not give us options.
He says, you identify with me in baptism. He commands us to
do so, fulfilling all righteousness. He commands us to do so, identifying
ourselves with him in his death, burial, and resurrection, confessing
him as our Lord and Savior. humiliating. I've been through
so many religious things. I've gone through this so much.
I believe I'd humiliate myself
one more time. I believe I'd confess it. We
confess it at the Lord's table. Come and eat this bread and drink
this wine. We confess it. Worshipping in
his house. We come together in his name. Well, you know, I sure would
like to come to church out there where you preach. You know, I
believe what you preach. I hear that all the time. I believe
what you preach. Listen to you on television all
the time. But, you know, nobody goes to
church out there. Nobody. Don't have a mayor, don't have
a Member of the City Council don't
don't have don't have anybody of any prominence or influence
Well, they just you know Got to live in this town got to live
in this community I don't I've got to live in eternity and I'm
gonna identify myself with God's people and If they meet in a
barn with a manure floor, I'm going to identify myself with
God's people, for in so doing I identify myself with my Redeemer.
And I'm going to tell you what, you will too. You will too. If I'm ashamed of his people,
I'm ashamed of him. And what he said, he said, you
came visiting me, enclosed me, comforted me, Gave me water when
I was thirsty and food when I was hungry. When? Well, don't you
remember visiting my son over here in the hospital or calling
in my child off the street and feeding him? Don't you remember
that? No. I hadn't done anything. And as much as you've done it
unto the least of these my breakfast, you've done it to me. I'm ashamed of Christ in this
adulterous and sinful generation." Those words could not possibly
be more applicable in that day than they are in our day. Both
sensually adulterous and spiritually adulterous. If I'm ashamed of
Christ in this adulterous and sinful generation, I refuse to confess Him, to identify
myself with Him. If I'm ashamed of Him, and if
you are, then when He comes in His Father's glory with His holy
angels, you'll be ashamed of us. What is faith? It's coming to
Christ, carrying the cross to Christ, consecration to Christ. Confessing Christ everywhere,
always. Amen. Lindsay, lead us in a hymn,
please. The deacons will serve the Lord's
table for us. Mark, if you will, you assist them.