that I did choose. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. In Luke chapter 9, verse 23,
we read these words from the Lord Jesus. And he said to them
all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take
up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his
life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life, for my sake,
the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged
if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed
of me, And of my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed
when he shall come in his own glory and his father's and of
the holy angels. If any man will come after me,
and that's what I want to do. I want to come after him. I want
to be the disciple. of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever that means.
Now, the Lord said, if any man will come after me, let him deny
himself. Deny yourself? Take up his cross
daily. I'm to lift up the cross? And
he says, if we save our life, we'll lose it. I'm not to seek
to save my life, but I'm told to lose my life. These do not
seem appealing or attractive options to deny myself. I'm very important to myself.
To take up my cross and to lose my life. These seem extremely
difficult things and indeed they are, they're impossible apart
from the grace of God. But the only way these things
can be done is if someone sees the Lord. Now, if you and I ever
see the Lord in His glory, if we see who He is, and if we see
something of the greatness and the excellency and the dignity
of His person, we will deny ourselves. We'll see self to be what it
is, and we'll take up our cross, and we'll follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, Saul has been knocked off
his high horse by that blinding light, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who appeared to him on the road to Damascus. And he didn't know
who he was at first, and he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord
said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the bricks. And he, trembling, scared to
death, finding out who Christ really is, and astonished, said,
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? You see, he'd seen the
Lord. Let me read a couple of passages
from the Old Testament and saw the Lord. This is Joshua, and
I think this is such a remarkable passage of Scripture. We read
in verse 13, And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that
he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man
over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua
went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? Are you for us or against us?
And he answered, nay, I'm for neither. But as the captain of
the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his
face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, what saith
my Lord to his servant? You see, when he saw who the
Lord was, he was ready to deny himself, take up his cross daily,
and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, seeing the Lord puts
self into proper perspective. Job said this in Job 42, verses
five and six, I've heard of thee with the hearing of the ears,
but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor, I hate myself,
and I repent in dust and in ashes. Listen to this passage of scripture
from Isaiah chapter six, when Isaiah saw the Lord. In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the
throne. And this is very significant.
He saw the Lord in the year that King Uzziah died. Now, Uzziah
was a great king. He was a good king, and he'd
done many good things. But all of a sudden, toward the
end of his life, He decided he could come into God's presence
without a priest. He decided he could come into
God's presence and offer up incense himself. So he came into the
temple and the priest said, don't do this, you Zionists, I pretend
it's not today. But he went ahead and lit the
incense and offered it up to the Lord. And the Lord struck
him with leprosy. And he went out of the temple
a leper and died a leper. And Isaiah saw from this, God
is holy. God is unapproachable. He can
only be approached Through a priest, we can't come on our own. Now,
Isaiah says, in the year the king Uzziah died, I saw also
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. And his train
filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim,
each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face
in humility. In twain he covered his feet,
ashamed of his walk. And with twain he declied, ready
to obey. And one said to another, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me. I am undone because I'm a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is
taken away, and thy sin is purged. And I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Who shall I sin, and who will go forth? Then said
I, Here am I, sin me. You see, when someone sees the
Lord, they do deny themselves. They do take up their cross and
they do follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Lord said, if
any man will come after me, do you have a will to come after
Christ? Do you have a desire to come after Christ? Now, if
you do, you've got something the natural man does not have.
The Lord said, you will not come to me that you might have life.
No man by nature will come to the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll
come to religion, they'll come to a new way of life, but they
won't actually come to Christ. The Lord said, no man can come
to me except the Father would sit and draw him. Now, if you
have a will to follow after Christ, how blessed you are by God. Psalm
1103 says, thy will shall be willing in the day of thy power. Now, coming after Christ is his
irresistible grace toward you, causing you to find him to be
irresistible, and you must come after him. If any man will come
after me, our Lord says, let him deny himself. Let him deny. As I said, unless
you see the Lord, you will not do this. And if you ever, and
if I ever see the Lord for who He is, we'll see self for what
it is. Now, coming after Christ reveals
the ugliness of self. And you know who my personal
greatest enemy is? Me. Myself. Sin, S-I-N, and the biggest letter
in it is I. Self. Self-righteousness. Self-interest. Self-indulgent. Self-seeking. Self-willed. Self-promoting. Self-centered. Self-vindicating. Self-justifying. self-pleasing, self-absorbed,
self-loved, self-conscious. Self. I'm an authority on all
those subjects. Self. Self is an ugly, evil thing. All of these things are in every
self. It's called self-ish. You can't
serve the Lord and serve self. That monster is to be denied. It's to be renounced. It's to be disowned. Now, if
any man will come after me, let him deny himself. Oh, if you
come after Christ, that's what you do. You can't come after
Christ and keep self. If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross daily. Pick it up every single day. Now, what does the Lord mean
by a man taking up his cross daily? I always dislike it when
I hear people talk about their trials that are very real. I'm
not diminishing people's trials and difficulties. Maybe a health
problem or some kind of broken relationship or some kind of
burden they're bearing. And they say, well, that's my
cross to bear. No, that's not your cross to
bear. That is not what the Lord is
talking about when he says, if any man will come after me, let
him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. This is speaking of willingly
taking up our identification with the doctrine, with the teaching
of the cross, what the cross of Christ actually accomplished. I want to identify with the message
of the cross. I want to preach the message
of the cross. I want to be associated with
the message of the cross, and I do so daily. Now Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 1, 17 and 18, Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Now, he's not taking away from
the importance of baptism. If I'm a believer, I'm to confess
Christ in believer's baptism. But Paul said, my purpose is
not to gain results. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made a benefit for the preaching of
the cross or the doctrine of the cross, literally the word
of the cross. Now, what is that all about?
He says, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. But unto us what you say, it,
the doctrine, the word, what the cross actually declares is
the very power of God. Now, what is the doctrine of
the cross, the word of the cross, the message of the cross that
I'm to identify with and that I'm to pick up this cross daily? This is not a cross that's laid
upon me. This is something that I willingly
pick up daily because of my love for the message of the cross.
Let me tell you what the message of the cross is. The message
of the cross, the doctrine of the cross. And before I state
it, let me say this. If you identify with this message,
the world will hate you. The world will hate you. You
will be persecuted by the world, especially the religious world.
It's the religious world particularly that will hate you for this message.
The doctrine of the cross, first of all, gives us the true character
of man. What do I mean by that? You want to know the truth about
yourself? The only way you're ever going to know the truth
about yourself is not by looking within. It's not by reading self-help
books. It's not by going to psychiatrists
to find out what makes you tick. The only way that you're going
to find out the truth about yourself is by looking to the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's where you are and there's
where I am. This is what we would do. The
one time God takes away the restraints and lets men do what they want
to do, they nail his son to a tree. The cross tells us that by nature
we hate God and would murder Him if it is in our power. Now that's what the cross declares.
Don't tell me about the goodness of man or the moral ability of
man or the free will of man. The cross declares that man is
a God-hater and deserving of damnation. Now what else does
the cross tell us? The cross not only tells us the
true character of man, but the cross tells us the true character
of God. All that God has been pleased
to reveal of himself is seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I see every attribute of God
beautifully displayed in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, I see his holiness. I see how much he hates sin,
that even when it's found on his son, He turns His back on
His Son and kills His Son because of sin. God is holy. I see the
justice of God. God will not let any sin go unpunished. Now, if your sins are forgiven,
it's because they were punished in the cross, and that's how
God can forgive you, not just sweep them under the carpet.
Oh, God's just, and all sin must and will be punished. But I see
the love of God. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have eternal life. I see God's love for sinners. I see God's grace, His free favor
that He would give His Son for sinners' sake. I see God's wisdom,
how God has made a way to be absolutely just and not let any
sin go unpunished. and yet forgive sinners and have
mercy on sinners and justify sinners for Christ's sake. You
see, God has made a way for him to be just, and yet justify. Remove all guilt from somebody
like me. Oh, the glories of the cross.
We see the sovereignty of God. As Christ is hanging on that
cross, there's a thief on either side. He saves one. and the other
dies just as he lived. But that shows God's sovereignty.
He had mercy on one and passed by the other as an act of his
justice. Every attribute of God is displayed in the cross and
how we see the beauty of God in the cross. In the cross, we
see how a sinner is saved. Let me tell you how a sinner
is saved. By the doing and the dying of
the Lord Jesus Christ. When he said, it is finished,
everybody he died for, their salvation was accomplished. Oh,
what glory we see in the cross. But Paul also speaks of the offense
of the cross in Galatians chapter five, verse 11. the offense of
the cross. See, this message I just delivered
regarding the cross is offensive to the natural man because it
tells the natural man, you can't be saved by yourself. You can't
save yourself. You're totally in the hands of
God. It's up to him as to whether or not he'll save you for Christ's
sake. Men become offended by that. I think of John chapter
six, where after the Lord had finished this message, these
people said, these are hard sayings. These are hard sayings. like
this. These are hard settings." And
the Lord said to him, that this is indeed. It did. Well, what did he say so much
that offended him? Well, he preached himself. You read John chapter
6 very carefully. In the 29th verse, he said, this
is the work of him that sent me, that you believe on him when
he has sent you. Period. The only thing for you
to do. You can't even do that unless
he enables you to, but the only thing for you to do. This is
the work of God that you believe. In that same message, he said,
you see me and believe not, all that the Father gives me shall
come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will know why he's cast out. There he spoke on divine election,
the Father giving him a people. He said in the 39th verse, this
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me, I shall lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. He talked about dying for the elect and all of them
being saved. And he spoke in John 6, 44, no
man can come Except the father would just sit and be drawn.
He talked about man's inability to even come to him. These things
said he, these things taught him to burn. And when the people
heard this, they said, this is a horrible saying. Who can hear
it? The Lord said, this is in you.
Yes, they were offended. You see, the message of the gospel
is a message men are offended by. And the Lord says, we're
to pick up our cross daily. This message that the world hates.
And we're to do so daily. Now, what is a cross for? Crucifixion. I am to crucify the flesh with
its affections and lusts every day. It will bucket in self-denial
and pick up the cross, so the cross must be carried daily. Now, the only way Christ can
be followed is by denying yourself, taking up your cross daily, and
following him. Now, he says in verse 24, or
whosoever will save his life, shall lose it. Now, if you, in
order to save your life, or if I, in order to save my life,
avoid this thing of self-denial and taking up my cross, I will
lose my life. That means I will go to hell.
Now, you're not saved by denying yourself and taking up your cross
and following the Lord Jesus Christ. Saved because He died
for your sins. You're saved if you're saved
because He had mercy on you and gave you grace. And if you deny
yourself and take up your cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's because of what He's done for you. He enables you to do
it by His grace, and that's what you do. But if you refuse to
do it, you'll lose your life. And that's what the Lord says,
for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever
will lose his life for my sake. The same shall save it. Now there's the key for my sake. Is any self-denial too great? Any sacrifice too much for His
sake? What power does for Christ's
sake have over you? I think of what God does for
Christ's sake. Ephesians 4, 32. says, be kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. God forgives for Christ's sake. That's the only reason He needs.
He doesn't forgive you because you ask Him to. He doesn't forgive
me because I promise I'll never do it again and I'll be better.
No, He forgives me for Christ's sake. And that's the only reason
he needs. Think of what Christ has done
for your sake, if you're a believer. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes,
he became poor. that you through his poverty
might be rich. Is there anything too great to
give up, to deny yourself of, for Christ's sake? Now in Philippians
chapter 3, Paul is speaking and he talks about what all he lost
for Christ, but notice the way he says it. He talks about what
he was before he was converted. He said, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he hath where him, he may trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised
the eighth day of the shop of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, concerning
zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law, I was blameless. Now this is before God saved
me. He thought I was a good man. what things were gain to me. I thought these were in the plus
column. I thought these were helping me. Those things that
were gaining to me, those I counted loss, garbage, rubbish for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
the things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but done. that I may win Christ and be
found in Him. Now these things that Paul lost
for Christ's sake, he was glad to get rid of them. He said,
I count them but done, that I may win Christ and be found in Him,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God, by faith. Paul lost false religion and
gained Christ. He lost self-righteousness, and
gained Christ's righteousness. He lost bondage and gained freedom. He lost false peace and gained
true peace. He lost pretended glory and he
gained true glory. And the Lord goes on to say,
for what is a man, verse Luke 9-25, for what is a man advantaged
if he gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? Let's say you do save your life.
and you gain everything that this world finds good and desirable. What good would that do you?
Because you're still gonna have to face God and judgment and
you'll be cast away. What would it advantage a man
to gain the whole world and lose his soul or be cast away? Verse 26, for whosoever shall
be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be
ashamed when he shall come in his own glory, and in his father's,
and of the holy angels." Now understand this, we cannot separate
Christ and his words. And he said, whoever is ashamed
of me or my words, I did propose words to Timothy, be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Christ's words,
who he is, is revealed in his words. He said, I am the way,
I am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Am I going to be ashamed to confess
that? He said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. Am I
going to be ashamed to confess that? No. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel. For it, the gospel, is the power
of God to salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. No, I'm proud of the gospel I
preach. I'm proud of the gospel I believe
in. It's a gospel worthy of God.
It's a gospel that gives God all the glory. I love that hymn,
and Jesus shall it ever be. a mortal man, ashamed of thee. Ashamed of thee whom angels praise,
whose glory shines through endless days. Ashamed of Jesus sooner
far than evening blushed to own a star. He sheds the beams of
light divine, or this benighted soul of mine. Ashamed of Jesus,
that dear friend, on whom my hopes of heaven depend? No, than
I was. Be this my shame, that I no more
would fear his name. Ashamed of Jesus, yes I may,
when I've no guilt to wash away, no tear to wipe, no good to crave,
no fears to quell, no soul to save. Till then, nor is my boasting
vain, till then I boast the Savior's flame. And oh, may this my glory
be, that Christ is not ashamed. Paul said in Galatians chapter
6 verse 14, God forbid that I should glory, that I should have confidence
in anything save the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. All I
glory in, all I have confidence in is Him who died on the cross,
was raised from the dead, and accomplished my salvation. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com
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