I dare say that anyone who has
ever read that passage of scripture I just read has felt uncomfortable. I've entitled this message, A
Costless Religion. A Costless Religion. A religion that does not cost
me anything is not worth anything. Amen. A religion that cost me nothing is worth nothing. Deep down, everyone knows that
is so. The man who does not deny self,
take up willingly, take up his cross and follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. A man who saves his life and
refuses to lose it. A man who gains all that this
world has to offer and loses his soul, a man who is ashamed
of Christ and ashamed of his words and fails to confess him
before men, his religion is a costless religion. It cost him nothing,
And on judgment day, it will be seen to be worth less than
nothing. Now that is what the Lord Jesus
is saying. The man or woman with a costless
religion will find out that it was very costly, that he will
lose his soul in hell. Now that's a sobering, sobering
thing to think about. What does the Lord mean? Now, listen to this statement,
the salvation, which is in Christ, by grace, demands no payment
from me. Now it was costly to the father,
He gave His Son. It was costly to the Son. But
for me or you to try to put a cost that we could give in order to
have that, something we could do that would cause it to be
applied to us, is to greatly degrade what the Lord did. There's no cost we could pay. There's nothing we could do. absolutely nothing. You know that, don't you? There's
nothing I could do to recommend myself to the Lord. It is absolutely
free. It demands nothing, nothing. I repeat, nothing, no thing from
me or you. And that's the only way it can
be. To him that worketh not. Aren't you thankful for those
words? To him that worketh not. You know that there is nothing
you can do that could recommend you to God that could cause him
to do something for you. To him that worketh not. but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. I repeat, the salvation which
is in Christ by grace demands no payment for me or you, but
it does demand all of me and you. Nothing from me, all of me. And it couldn't be anything else.
Paul said, I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service. Anything else is unreasonable.
Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your minds that you might prove what is that good and perfect
and acceptable will of God. Now let's go to this text in
Mark chapter eight, verse 34. And when he had called the people
unto him with his disciples, now this is everybody, the people,
his disciples, believers, unbelievers, men. You know, sometimes the
Bible is addressed to believers, most of the time actually. Sometimes
it's addressed to unbelievers, but all the time it's addressed
to men. And this is who he's addressing at this time. That's
me and you, his disciples and all the people with him. And
he said unto them, whosoever will come after me. Whosoever will come after me. Now let's take that phrase. Not
everybody has a will to come after him, do they? Matter of
fact, most people don't. Most people who don't have a
will to come after the Lord Jesus Christ, they're fine with things
the way they are. They're happy to stay away from him. Oh, they
may be religious, but they're happy to stay away from him,
to have a will to come after Christ. You know, the Lord said
to one group, you will not come to me. You have no will to come
to me. You have no desire to come to
me. You have no need to come to me. You will not come to me. You don't have a will to come
to me. I think of that great message
in John chapter 6, after he preached that message to 5,000 people.
He watched them leave, and he said to the 12 that remained,
will you also go away? Do you have a will, a desire,
a need to go away? If you have a will, a desire
to come after him, he created that in you. You see, Psalm 110.3
says, thy people shall be willing, shall be volunteers in the day
of thy power. Paul said to the Philippians,
it's God that worketh in you. Both the will and to do is good
pleasure. if any man will come after me."
Now if you'll come after him, if that's your desire, if that's
what you want to do, he put it there. And you know it. There
was a time when you had no will for him. But you do now. If any
man will come after me. Paul said in Romans 7, to will
is present with me. Now how to perform that which
is good, I find not. But to will is present. I love what Joe McSherry used
to always say, when God saves a man, he changes his will. Yeah, I like that. I like that. If any man will, come after me. Now, we detest the doctrine of
free will. It's just not true. doctrine
that says man's will can trump God's will. That's blasphemous. It's so not true. There's no such thing as free
will. Your will is controlled by your nature. You see, when
you have a will to come after Christ, because he's given you
a new will, he's given you a new nature. That's where that comes
from. Now we love the will of God that
makes us willing. So the greatest desire of our
heart And I'm speaking as a spokesman of every believer, the greatest
desire of our heart is to be found in Him and to come after
Him. That's what we want, to be found
in Him and to come after Him, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he gives three things that
must be done to come after Christ. He says, whosoever will come
after me, Three things, let him deny himself. Take up his cross. Now don't miss the language there
because everybody talks about, well, I've got a cross to bear.
And they talk about some kind of a difficult thing in their
life that they're having to deal with, and it's their cross to
bear. That's not what the Lord's talking about. He's talking about
willingly, because you want to. taking up this cross, this confession
of the cross, and following the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow me. Now, deny self. If I'm coming after him, I'm
to deny self. Self-denial. Now, I know what
most people think about when they think about self-denial,
they think about suppressing sinful urges and denying yourself. Well, you ought to suppress and
I ought to suppress sinful urges. I'm not saying anything against
that, but that's not really what the Lord is talking about when
he's talking about denying yourself. What's the greatest problem you
have? Self. Wouldn't you agree with that?
Of course you would. The greatest problem you and I have is self. Not somebody else. Self. Self-righteousness. Self-seeking. Self-willed. Self-indulgent. In a word, selfish. Selfish. The common conundrum
of humanity. I never will forget watching
a couple come out of the pharmacy one day, and the man looked at
his wife, girlfriend, I don't know what it was, and says, you
think of nobody but yourself. I reckon that's probably about
the way everybody is, whether we admit it or not, thinking
of no one but ourself. Well, what does it mean to deny
self? Well, it's found in the second
statement. You deny self when you take up the cross. Now, what that is a reference
to is not talking about some kind of burden you're bearing,
some sickness or illness or a trial in the flesh or whatever it might
be. That's not talking about that. What that's talking about is
bearing, willingly bearing, the confession of the cross of Christ. Paul put it this way, God forbid
that I should glory. Now remember who's saying this?
This is Paul. This is the man who could say
without ego, I labored more abundantly than they all. John, I labored
more abundantly than they all. He said that under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. Yet not I, but the grace of God
was with me. Paul, the man God used more than
any other man to expound the gospel. Paul, the man who was
brought up into the third heavens and was taught the gospel directly
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, who Christ met as that
light on the road to Damascus and knocked him off his horse. This man, Paul, probably the
man who was more used by God than any other man. And I don't think I'd get much
argument from that. He said, God forbid, perish the thought
May it never be that I glory in anything save the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you know what that means?
That is a complete negation of self in salvation, isn't it?
It doesn't have anything to do with myself. It's what He did
only. Now, that is a denial of self. There's no room for self-salvation. He did it all. Now, we should deny ourself and
take the lowest seat and all the different things that can
be thought of in that, but that's really not what the Lord's talking
about. He's talking about denying yourself and taking up the cross
as the only message of the gospel. Now, the cross is a declaration
of the character of God. It's a declaration of the character
of man. And the only way you can really tell the character
of man is by speaking of the cross, what men do when they're
allowed to. It's a declaration of the salvation,
salvation by what Christ did on Calvary's tree. When he said,
from the cross it is finished, salvation was accomplished. We deny self and we take it up
willingly. All other ways excluded. Whoever comes after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross. And in denying yourself
and taking up your cross, you know what you do? You follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not following him if you
don't do that. You can talk about it. You can talk about, well,
I'm following his example, and I'm trying to live like he lived, and I'm
trying to do foolishness. It's not real. You follow the
Lord Jesus Christ when you deny yourself, you take up your cross,
and you follow him. Now, when you're following him,
you're doing what you want to do. Remember when the Lord said to
Bartimaeus after he gave him sight, go your way. Set free. Go your way. You know what Bartimaeus
did? He followed Jesus in the way. That is what he wanted to do. That is what he desired to do. To follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I know the key to following Christ is you keep your eyes
of faith on Him. You look to Him. You know, if
you're following somebody, if you look down, you lose them,
don't you? You follow by keeping your eyes on Him. And it's so
important for you to follow Him and not worry about somebody
else. Now, I think of what the Lord said to Peter. Peter, when
you're old, they're going to take you and take you where you
don't want to go. He was telling him by what death
he would glorify God. And as a matter of fact, tradition,
whatever that means, has it that he was crucified upside down.
He definitely was crucified. The Lord was telling him what
kind of death he was gonna glorify God, and he wanted to be crucified
upside down because he felt himself unworthy to be crucified in the
same way the Lord was. But the Lord said that to him,
and then he said, follow me. You know what Peter did? He looked over at John and said,
what about him? The Lord said, what's that to you? What's that to you? You know,
you can get discouraged looking at other people following Christ.
Don't do it. It's none of your business. They
belong to Him. He's going to deal with them.
They'll follow Him. If they're His, they'll follow
Him. Don't you worry about somebody else. Follow thou Me. Lord, are there few to be saved? You strive to enter in the straight
gate. Don't worry about the many. You
strive to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the cross goes on,
look in verse 35. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it. Now, as I said, the cost goes
on. This thing of what does it cost? Nothing from me. I hope
we all understand that. All of me. I hope we all understand
that. If I save my life, I lose it,
and it's only in losing my life it will be saved. Now, that's
true in two senses, and they're both meant in this passage of
Scripture. Here's the first sense. If I
seek to save my life, if I believe in salvation by
works, and I think there's something that I do that contributes in
some part, be it ever so small, to me being saved, I will lose
it. I will not be saved. Paul said, where is boasting
then? It is excluded. There's not one thing that I
can boast in. And if I think there's anything
that I do that contributes in any way to my salvation, I'm
going to lose my life. I will not be saved. You see, there's no exceptions
to this. God's not gonna negotiate about
this. God doesn't negotiate with sinners. If I seek to save my
life, I don't care in what way it is. If I think anything I
do contributes in any way to my salvation, I don't care if
you're talking about the beginning, in the middle, or the end. If
I believe in works in any way, I will not be saved. Now here, this goes with this,
but this is a slightly different angle, but it's the same thing.
Believing this will bring on the hatred of the world. If I
really believe salvation's of the Lord, if I really believe
Christ is all in my salvation, and it has absolutely nothing
to do with anything I do, think, experience, it's holy in Him. If I really believe that, the
inescapable implication to somebody else is, if you don't believe
this, you're not saved. I mean, if I'm honest with what
I believe, And someone hears what I'm saying. I don't need
to tell them that. This is going to be the implication
from the gospel I believe. That means if I don't believe
this, he's saying I'm not saved. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to ask me that. I
don't know how many times, because I'm a preacher, I don't know
how many times people say, you think I'm saved? I don't know. I mean, what difference does
it make? If I think you're saved, it doesn't mean you are. And if
I think you're not, it doesn't mean you're not. But I know this, if you don't
believe the gospel that I preach, you're not saved. I know that. That is an inescapable conclusion. And the thing that is, men are
okay with you, with whatever you believe, as long as you think
they're still saved. They're okay with it. He believes
one way, I believe another, but we're all going to the same place.
We're all going to heaven. Men are okay with that kind of
thinking. But if what you believe says
that they're not, because this is the gospel and they own the
gospel, that's when people get upset. And it could be. I've
seen this happen here. I've seen it happen in other
places. Somebody sees the difficulty that it creates in their life,
the anger that is brought on by people because of that kind
of thinking. They think, well, it's not really worth this. I'll
save my life. I'll loosen up. I'm not going
to go in that direction because of all the things that that creates.
Well, you do that, you will lose your life. But if you lose your
life for his sake and the gospels, you will save it. Now, I repeat, a religion that
costs nothing. I don't see where this is worth
it. is worth nothing. A costless religion. If the gospel
I believe is not worth dying for, listen to what Paul said, I don't
count my life dear to myself. that I might finish my course
with joy. Now he said, I know wherever I go, bonds and afflictions
are waiting on me. Paul knew when he went into a
new place to preach, he was gonna get beaten, or he's gonna be
thrown into prison, or he's going to be mistreated. He knew that
ahead of time. And he said, none of these things
move me. Neither count I my life dear
to myself that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry
which I've received of the Lord Jesus, to testify. the gospel
of the grace of God. And let's look at verse 36. For what shall it profit? And you know what, when I was
reading that initially, I was thinking the only one who can
really know what this means is the Lord when he makes that statement.
We believe what he says, but we don't really understand what
the loss of a soul is. I mean, it's scary, don't like
to think about it, but the only one who really understands what
the loss of a soul is, is the Lord himself. And hear his words
in verse 36, for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Now, gaining the whole world. The scripture speaks of all that's
of the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, the pride of life, pleasure, popularity, power.
What if you had life filled with pleasure? That's attractive. What if you
had a life where you were the toast of the town? Everybody
liked you. Everybody was for you. The world loves you. You have
wealth, health, power, and privilege. What if you gained the whole
world and lost your soul? What would a man give in exchange
for his soul. You remember that God breathed
in Adam the breath of life and the scripture says he became
a living soul. Your soul will never die. It
has endless existence. And your soul will spend eternity
in heaven or in hell. Now there's nothing that I would
least rather talk about than hell. I can't stand it when preachers
talk about it as if they enjoy it. It's so horrible. I think
that one of the greatest statements is that Paul never used the word.
The Lord Jesus did a lot, but Paul never used the word. He
thought it was too terrible to use. He would talk about destruction
and condemnation, but he never used the word once. But look
what our Lord says in Mark chapter 9. Just turn over the page at
the end. 43, and if thy hand offend thee,
cut it off. It is better for thee to enter
into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into
the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth
not and the fire is not quenched. This is the words of the one
who knows. And if thy foot offend thee,
cut it off. It's better for thee to enter
into, halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched, where the worm dieth
not and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee,
pluck it out. It's better for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes
to be cast into hell fire, where their worm dieth not and their
fire is not quenched. Now that's a scary passage of
scripture, isn't it? You know, I've heard and I've
read where men have said we ought to be willing to cut our hand
off, rather than let it lead us into sin. We ought to be willing
to cut our feet off, then let him bring us into a place where
we'll sin. We ought to pluck out our eye
if it's causing us to sin. And you know what my response
is? You first. I'll follow your lead. When you
do it, I'll do it. I'll just follow you. I'm sure
sin is that awful. But the Lord is not teaching
us self-mutilation to avoid sin. But the Lord is telling us of
the horror of sin and the horror of this horrible place called
hell. The loss of the soul in that
place eternally. You know no one has ever been
saved because they were afraid of hell. Do you know that? Nobody
has ever been scared into the kingdom of heaven because of
a fear of going to hell. But I tell you what, I'm afraid
of hell, aren't you? What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? Back to our text, verse 38. Whosoever, therefore, in light
of what he said about coming after him, denying yourself,
taking up your cross, following him. If you seek to save your
life, you'll lose it. But if you lose your life for
my sake and the gospels, you'll save it. What would a prophet
or man if he should 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
generation of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when
he cometh in the glory of his father with his holy angels. Now what is this thing of being
ashamed? Now first, you've got to realize
you can't separate Christ's words, can you? He said, whoever will
be ashamed of me and my words. They cannot be separated. He is who he says he is. He's only identified by his words,
by his doctrine, by what he tells us concerning who he is. and
what he did and where he is now and why did what he did and who
he did it for. Now anybody that is ashamed,
now what that means is, turn to John chapter 12. Verse 42. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers also many believed on him. But because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue For they love the praise of men more than the praise of
God. Now these men had a costless
religion. They wouldn't confess Him because
of what it would cost them. And this is what the Lord is
talking about when He's talking about being ashamed of Him and
His words. Paul said in Romans 9-10, If
thou shalt believe in thy heart, if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised
Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the mouth,
confession is made unto salvation. Confession is made. With the
heart, man believeth unto righteousness. That's faith. with the mouth
confession is made into salvation. Now what that tells me is if
I don't confess Christ, I will not be saved. That's what he's
saying. You can't take it any other way. I love this verse of scripture. Paul said in Romans 1 16, and
see if you can enter into this. I know you can. If you're a believer,
you can. Paul said, I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. For it, the gospel, is the power
of God unto salvation. Now, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm ashamed of myself. I am,
but I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm proud of it. It's a glorious
gospel. It's worthy of God. It glorifies
God. It's a gospel that reveals who
He is. It's a gospel that saves me.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Now, he went on to say this,
and I love this. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,
for therein In the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. Now this is what me and you must
have some understanding of. Remember when he talked about
those who are ignorant of God's righteousness and they went about
to establish their own righteousness? Let me tell you what the righteousness
of God in the gospel, it reveals his righteous character. He's
altogether righteous. You believe that? shall not the
judge of the earth do right. He doesn't have a law over his
head that he needs to do right. It's right because he does it. I love that. I don't want a God
that's got a law over his head. He's the lawgiver. And whatever
he does is right. How could a good God allow this? How could a good God? What do
you know about something like that? When people start making
those kind of accusations, how could God? Shut up! Who are you
to sit in judgment on God and tell what he ought to do and
what he ought not do? He's God. Whatever he does is right with
you, see it or not. Problems not with him, problems with you.
Amen? We believe that, don't we? We believe that. But not
only does it show his righteous character, It shows His righteousness
in my own personal damnation. If God cut me off, and if God
sent me to hell, would God still be righteous? Would God still
be altogether glorious? Would God still be altogether
lovely? Yes, He would. And He's utterly righteous in
whatever He does. But thank God the gospel declares
His righteousness in my salvation. When God saves any sinner, It's
the righteous. It's the right thing to do, because
that sinner has no sin. That sinner is perfectly righteous. The Gospel reveals the righteousness
of God, His righteousness in condemnation, but thank God,
His righteousness in salvation. If I'm saved, it's going to be
because I am altogether righteousness, and the very law and justice
and righteousness of God demands my salvation. That's how much
Christ put away my sin. There is no sin. Now, I'm proud of that gospel.
I'm not ashamed of it. I want to preach it and somebody
doesn't like it. By the grace of God, me and you will compromise
the gospel if the Lord doesn't keep us from it. We'll be just
like Peter. We'll get before a little maid.
We'll deny the gospel. All the Lord's got to do is take
his hand off of us just a little bit, and we will deny the gospel. But that ain't what we want to
do, is it? We're proud of the gospel. We realize that apart
from God's grace, we'll chicken out. But we don't want to do
that, do we? One last scripture. Turn with
me to Revelation 12. This is one of my many favorites. Verse 10. Revelation 12, verse
10. And I heard a loud voice saying
in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom
of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our
brethren. is cast down, which accuse them
before our God day and night. Now let me just talk about one
person. If Satan wanted to bring my name
before God, would he have much to work with? He'd have so much. This day, yesterday, all my life,
he could make so many accusations. And here's the thing about his
accusations, not one of them would be untrue. Not one. Easy. But let's go on reading. You know, the devil means the
accuser. Accusing before God night and day. You say he's one
of yours? Look what he did. Look what he
did. Look what he keeps doing. Look
what he thought. Look at his motives. He's yours?
He's a believer? How can you say that? Accused
before God night and day. Verse 11. and they overcame him. How? By the blood of the Lamb. Nothing else seems to be said.
That's how they overcame. By the blood of the Lamb and
by the word of their testimony. You know what my testimony is?
You wanna hear my testimony? I overcome by the blood of the
Lamb, no other way. It's just the blood of the lamb.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is that flow. That makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And look at this third statement. They love not their lives unto
the death. This gospel is worth dying for. We believe that. Now I know,
oh how I know, that I would deny even knowing if he didn't keep me. But I think of the words
of, I think it was Ignatius, as they were getting ready to
feed him to the lions for the gospel he believed. And he said,
to die for Christ, It is an honor I do not deserve. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's glorious
name that we might be enabled by your grace to deny ourselves,
to willingly take up our cross, the confession of thy son, and
follow him. Lord, deliver us from seeking
to save our life, but cause us to lose it that it might be saved. Lord, deliver us from a costless
religion. Bless this word for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Matt, could you come lead us in closing hymn?