I pray and desperately desire
and am concerned, Paul, that it's coming from here, right
here and not here. That's what we're talking about
this morning. In Mark chapter 8, and I hope
that I'm not guilty. I don't want to be of setting
one scripture above another or against another. I'm not going
to say this is the most important passage of Scripture in the Bible.
I will say this. To me, this morning, and I believe
to you if I am God's servant, this is the most important part
of God's Word right now. I do know this. I know there's
something here very special. There's something here very personal. There's something here very solemn.
Now back here in verse 31, and I showed you before how that
the Lord Jesus turned to his disciples and said, what are
they saying out yonder about me? What do men say? Whom do
men say that I am? And the disciples said, well,
some say this and some say that and some say the other. Their
opinions are divided. They're not all together on this
matter. Some say you're John the Baptist, and some Elias,
and some one of the prophets. And he said, whom do you say
that I, the son of man, am? And Peter was the one who answered.
It's not by chance that Peter made this confession at this
particular time. It's very significant, as you'll
notice in a few moments. He said what I would say, I believe
what you would say. He said, Thou art the Christ.
Thou art that prophet of whom Moses wrote. Thou art that Messiah
for whom Israel looked. Thou art that Christ. of whom
the tabernacle and all the furnishings are a type. Thou art the Christ. And then when Peter said that,
he said, now don't let the word out. Don't run around here talking
about something you don't know anything about. There's a time
to run, there's a time to sit. Our Lord wasn't saying to his
disciples, don't go preach. After they found out some things,
he sent them to preach. Now you can't do much preaching
if you just tell them what's in your head. And you'll see
in a moment that Peter was not ready to go tell who Christ is.
That's the reason our Lord told them there. He charged them to
keep their mouths shut, sit still, tell nobody. Because the information
they had thus far wasn't sufficient. Wasn't sufficient. And then he
began to tell, he began, verse 31, to teach them. He began to
teach them. An untaught man makes a poor
preacher. Brother Barnard spoke one time
down at Pineville, Kentucky at the Mountain Preacher School.
And there was a young man there that had no Bible, no books,
or nothing. He was in class. He was a freshman. And he spoke
to Brother Barnard after the service. You know, Barnard was
an evangelist. And he spoke to Brother Barnard
after the service. And Brother Barnard said, what
class are you in? And he said, well, he just started,
but said he's quitting after this semester. And Barnabas said,
well, why are you quitting? He said, I don't need no education.
I'm going to be an evangelist. But these disciples weren't ready
to do any preaching. And the Lord gathered them together
to teach them that the Son of Man, verse 31, must suffer many
things. Our Lord told them of his suffering,
going to Jerusalem to be denied to be persecuted, to be mocked,
to be spit upon, to be rejected, to be taken outside the city
wall and nailed to a cross and there to hang in agony, humiliation,
shame, suffering, to be buried and rise again from the grave,
to be rejected, of the religious people, rejected of the elders,
rejected even of the chief priest, a man who was a type of Christ,
chief priest and the high priest, and described to be rejected,
to be killed, and after three days to rise again. And here
he was teaching them the gospel, the gospel of substitution, the
gospel of sacrifice. Our Lord must die that he might
rise. Our Lord must die that we might
live. teaching them the gospel of redemption.
And Peter walks up and takes him, one translation said, by
the hand. Our Lord was speaking to the
disciples and took him by the hand and took him off to the
side. And he began to rebuke him. He began to say, now Lord,
this dying business is ours. Now the thing to do is not go
to Jerusalem. If this is a time when they're
all stirred up up there, then the time to go is not now. And
if these fellas are going to nail you to a cross and going
to kill you, the thing to do is let's go somewhere else. Now
think, there's no use in dying. Think of what you can do if you
live. Think about the kingdom. If you don't think about anybody
else, think about us. Let's talk about a compromise.
Let's think about ourselves. Preserve your life. Don't lose
your life. Don't give your life. Don't interrupt
your life at such a young time. You've got the whole world at
your feet. People are following you. They're listening to you.
And the thing to do is let's conserve the gains that we've
made so far. Let's don't talk about dying. In verse 33, and when he turned
about, he wheeled about from Peter. I'm trying to visualize
this setting and situation. The disciples are here and the
people are out there. And he's spoken to them about
his sacrifice and his sufferings and his death. He's spoken to
them about redemption. He came to accomplish redemption.
The Son of Man must rise again. And just Peter took him by the
hand, led him over here and talked to him about this thing. Now
let's don't talk about death, let's don't talk about suffering,
let's don't even go to Jerusalem, let's go somewhere else. And
he turned about, he turned to the other disciples and he rebuked
Peter and he said, get thee behind me Satan, Satan for thou savourest
not. When we talk, I thought about
this word savor. I know if the salt has lost its
savor and then we say the preaching of the gospel is the savor of
life. I'm not talking about savior now, savor, fragrance of life
unto life and death unto death to some. And then we use this
word savor like I do a lemon drop. I love lemon drops. And
I take a lemon drop and I just savor it. I just taste it and
enjoy it and roll it about on my tongue and just keep it in
my mouth. I savor it. I believe that's
what he's saying here to Peter. You do not delight in. You do not think upon. You do
not savor and enjoy. and have your heart on the things
of God." What a terrible charge, Jay, on the things of God. But he didn't stop there, but
he said, the things that be of men. Now let me tell you something,
this is a thing that reached up and hit me right in the heart
when I read this and thought about this message. We're not talking about Judas
here. We're not talking about Demas. We're not talking about Simon
Maglus. We're talking about Peter. We're
talking about the very man who five minutes before was standing
out there declaring what he knew. What he knew. What are they saying
out there about me? Well, this is what they're saying.
Well, now, what are you saying? What do you say, David Atkins? Whom do you say I am? Thou art
the Christ. Thou art the Christ. And then
our Lord, David, told him what was involved in being the Christ. Then, must not Christ suffer? Must not Christ die? I'm a Christian." Then the Lord
sat down and told him what was involved in this Christian business.
Oh, I didn't know that's what was... I thought we was talking
about heaven. I sure thought we was talking about shaking
hands with mother again. That's what I thought we was
talking about. No, no, no, that ain't what we
was talking about. See what I'm saying? Whom do
you say that I, the Son of Man am? Why, you're the Christ. You're
the sovereign God. You're the God of election and
creation and substitution and effectual call and perseverance.
You are this, that and the other. Got that all down. Learned that
in school. Well, the Christ is going to Jerusalem and everybody
that's anybody is going to turn thumbs down on Him. Oh, the Christ. who's going to redeem a people,
is going to have people spit in his face. Oh, that Christ
is going to give his life, all his possessions, all, he'll be
deserted by all men, hated, despised, a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. It's 100%, it's burning the bridges,
it's sold out. And Peter, the very fellow that
had the knowledge, The very fellow that had the information, the
very fellow that was spokesman for the group, took him aside
and said, that's not the way to do it. Now it best be reasonable. And
that's when our Lord said, Satan, get behind me. You might have the head knowledge
and information. You might even rejoice in the
kingdom on your terms. But you're not savoring, tasting,
enjoying, thinking upon, delighting in the things that be of God.
Now watch this next verse. It's the things of men you're
interested in. Now if you have the things of God with the things
of men, you'll take them. But that's not the way it is.
And then he called, watch this verse. And he said, and when
he had called, verse 34, the people unto him, And you know,
nearly every time that I preach this sermon, what shall a man,
what shall it profit a man if he gained the world and loses
his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Nearly every Christian stops up his ears, well, I've settled
that matter a long time ago. I've dealt with that. I've made
my profession. I'm a Christian. I especially like the letter
I received this week. Last week, a dear person from
the television audience wrote to me and told me that she was
in a real problem, a real time of despair and trouble because
she just wasn't sure about her relationship with Christ. She
said, I was saved when I was 21. She said, I was saved when
I was 21. I became a Christian when I was
21. And she said, from then until recently, I started watching
you on television until recently. She said, I've just gotten away
from God. I didn't read my Bible and I
didn't pray and I didn't go to church and didn't worship God
and got out, she said, into the world and all that. And she says,
I need to get back in fellowship. I've been backslidden. What do
you think? Well, most people ask you what
do you think don't really mean what do you think. But I'm old
enough now that I tell them what I think. I'm glad I'm old as
I am because you can tell them what you think. I just wrote
to her kindly and politely and I said, forget that experience,
it wasn't salvation. Forget what you did when you
was 21, you didn't meet Christ. If you'd have met Christ, you'd
still be walking with Him. If you'd been saved, you'd have
loved God's Word, you'd have grown in grace. I'm not saying
you'd be perfect, you know better than that. But John said, they
went out from us because they never were of us. They never
were, never were of us. And I said, the thing to do is
forget it. You need to seek the Lord now. You need to come to
the knowledge of Christ now. And I'm telling you, everybody
here that made that little silly profession when you were 9 or
10 years old or back yonder, and this time spent between then
and now that you've been living for self and sin and Satan and
selfish purposes and everything under the sun but God Almighty,
you better wipe that out and forget it. You'll go to hell
swearing on a stack of Bibles you've been saved. Just forget
it! Is that plain enough? It's not
salvation. A salvation that does not lead
a man to worship God is not of God. A salvation that does not
take a man's heart and soul and life and all of his being is
not salvation, not of God. That's a false experience. You never met Christ. You met
a Jesus, but not the Christ of the Bible. And I told her that
much, I said, you're lost, you don't know Christ, you need to
seek the Lord now, call upon Him now, ask Him to save you
now and bless your heart. We got a letter back this week
and she said, I thank you, that's what I thought too. I thank you. She just went on,
I don't have many do that, but she went on just thanking me,
she said, that's where I'm going, I'm going to forget everything
and start over. Our Lord, now here's what I notice
here, and usually we reserve these statements, what shall
a man profit if he gain the whole world, lose his soul, for lost
people. But you look at verse 34, He called the people to Him,
with his disciples. This applies to all of you,"
he said. You know what he's saying, Jay? Well, I hope Brother Man has
a good sermon for sinners this morning. Well, the chief one's
up here in the pulpit, chief of sinners. And all the other
chiefs are out there looking at me. That's right, with his
disciples, he called the multitude and don't think you are isolated or reserved from this. No sir, with his disciples and
he said to them, whosoever will come after me, would you have
Christ? Would you have the name or would
you have Christ? Would you have religion or would you have Christ?
Would you come after Christ? Would you have Christ? Would
you have a profession or would you have Christ? Would you win
Christ and be found in Him? Paul said, I had all that other
junk. I had circumcision. I had theology. I had morality. I had the heritage. I had all that. But I'll count
it but loss that I may win Christ and be found in Him. I had all
that other, but I counted it but garbage. Can you do it? Can't turn loose of my profession.
Well, I'd rather have Christ than that old profession. This
is what, would you come after me, he said, whosoever will come
after me, will come after me. Would you be his disciple? Would you be his child? Would
you? Well, let's read on. Whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself. Some old Puritan said
one time, here's where the battles fought, won or lost. I, I let him deny himself. Paul faced that. Turn to Romans
chapter 7. Brother, this is the problem.
It's not what we call the world of sin. It's not other folks. It's not the temptations of the
world. It's I. That's my problem. I. And that was Paul's problem.
He said here in Romans chapter 7 verse 9, I was alive. I. Old I. Old I was alive. That's Paul, the way I think,
my thoughts, my ways, my desires, my ambitions, my plans, my family,
my home, my car, my this, my that, my way. I was alive before
God's law came, before God's spirit did a work in my heart,
before I met the master, before I had a confrontation with the
king. I was alive, but when the commandment came, when the Word
came anointed by the Spirit, when the Word of God came anointed
by His power, when the Word of God came seeing revived and I
died. I died. There's going to be a
funeral before there's a resurrection. There's going to be a crucifixion
before there's a resurrection. There's going to be a death,
Jim, before there's a life. I'm going to die. lives not except
where flesh dies. That's what he's saying here,
whosoever will come after me. Paul said that, I'm crucified
with Christ. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me and unto the world. I'll tell
you the reason you have to preachers have ulcers, I'll tell you the
reason they dread defense meetings and the reason they dread business
meetings and the reason they dread Sunday morning and Sunday
night, the reason women in the Sunday schools are fighting and
in the nursery and in the office and you have to fight to raise
money and all that stuff. I'll tell you the reason. I know
the reason. I never had died. You got a bunch of eyes. You're
trying to pastor a bunch of eyes, me and mine. Christ doesn't live
there, I live there. It's my way. It's my children. It's my money. It's my this,
that and the other. It's my will. That's what Christ
said. Are you coming after me? We're
not talking about following a denomination or following a theology. We're
talking about, are you coming after me? Are you going to be
my disciple? Are you going to be my disciple?
Then you're going to die. You're going to deny yourself. You're going to deny yourself.
I'm talking about the social world. I'm talking about the
political world. I'm talking about the material world. I'm
talking about the religious world. I, me, and mine are going to
be denied if Christ is going to be enthroned. That's just so. Let him deny
himself. Take watch it now and take up
his cross What is the cross this cross is a symbol of death? That's
what the cross is The cross is not the life Christ is the life
The cross is a symbol of death. I Don't know why everybody puts
crosses all over their churches. I It looks like we'd have an
open grave out there on top somewhere, you know. The cross is a symbol
of death. That's where he died for my sin. He died. And that's
where I'm going to die. I'm going to be crucified with
Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself
of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant, and became
obedient, even, even obedient to the death of the cross, the
shame of the cross. Wherefore God hath exalted him.
There's going to be no exaltation until there's a, there's going
to be no grace until there's judgment. I'm going to judge
myself, Jay, I'm coming down. Down, Naaman! Come down, Zacchaeus! Come down. Oh, so I will be my
disciple. Follow after me. He's going to
deny himself. He's going to take up his cross.
You're going to follow me. Oh, we'll take the crown, but
we don't want the cross. We'll take the benefits. We're
not too much interested in the suffering. We'll take the blessings. We're not too much interested
in the sacrifice. And what's that next line? And
whosoever shall save his life, whosoever shall preserve it,
preserve his comfort at the expense of his relationship with me and
his testimony for the gospel. You know, brother man, I'd love
to preach what you're preaching, but boy, they'd give me fits.
Then get ready to have a fit. You're saving your life now.
Well, I'm trying to save my ministry. You ain't got one. It's Christ's
ministry, it's not mine. I know, but if I stood out there
where I worked and stood for the things of Christ, I'd lose
my job and lose it. Are you saving your life? You've
been too hard, preacher. I'm not doing this preaching.
This is what the Lord's saying here. You see where I'm shooting? Well, Peter said, you're the
Christ. I know that. We all know that. Well, that
was a great confession. I know that. At that time, even
greater than now. But here, just a few minutes
later, he's calling Christ over and says, now, this suffering
bit, this being cut off from all the religious crowd now,
and the chief priest, and you get those fellas down on you
now, you got troubles, Lord. And the elders and the scribes,
those are the fellas that translate the scripture, the scribes. Now,
you don't want them. There's no use stirring up a
hornet's nest. Let's do it some other way. Get
thee behind me, Satan. You're not watering about on
your tongue the things of God. You're thinking about the fame
and comforts and honor and pleasures and accord of this flesh of men. That's what you're thinking about,
not the will of God. And then when he called the whole
outfit, come on over here, Peter, you listen to this too. Whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself. Now there's the basis
on which this was said, Charlie, wasn't it? That's why he said
this. I've tried to teach you. I've
tried to show you through the years. If you want to know what
the Scripture means, you find out who's speaking, to whom he's
speaking, and what he's talking about, and what made him say
it, what prompted him, what brought this out. And Peter and what
he said is what brought this out. He says, I'm saying it to
every one of you. You want to come after me? You
want to be my disciple? Deny yourself and take up your
cross and follow me. If you save your life, if you
preserve it, preserve your comforts and preserve your enjoyment at
the expense of your relationship with me, you're going to lose
your life. You're going to lose it. What
an indescribable loss. God help us. Well, I lived six,
seventy years on this earth in reasonable comfort and pleasure
and ease and had my way and believed on Jesus and went to hell. I saved my life though. I had
fun while it was going on. Whosoever shall save his life
or lose it, But whosoever, watch this now, shall lose his life,
lose it, shall be willing to give his comfort, give up his
friends, give up his possessions, give up everything for my sake,
for my sake. I'm not asking you to do it for
anybody's sake but his and the gospel's. The same shall save
it. And then he comes in with this,
and then this is far. Old Brother Ralph said, when
you see a fire, see what it's there for. Fire. What shall it profit a man? One
of these days for long, I'm 56 nearly, I'll have a birthday
in two months, 56, that's moving along pretty good. Someday, the
doctor's going to make his last visit to my room, someday. He's going to come in the hospital.
I've been around when this has happened many times. And he'll
come in, just routine visit. He knows deaths imminent. And he'll take the person by
the arm, he'll speak to the wife, he'll speak to the son, how are
you, and he'll listen and he'll pat him, you know. It's going
to be okay. You know how they do. He'll go out and he'll tell
the husband or the wife, you know. If you got any family living
a long ways, you better call them home. Said, that bad doctor,
yeah, she probably won't make it through the night. He won't
make it through the night. And then that night, I'll slip away.
The eyelids will close. The eye strings will break. And
the mortician, they'll call Bill Steen. Old Bill will come around
and they'll go through all the, everybody will go out of the
room, you know, and you don't want to be in the room when they come
in. And they'll put me on a thing, put a sheet over me. I've seen
this so many times. And they'll go down and fix me
up so everybody come in and say, don't he look natural? How else would he look? He's
dead, you know. He can't look very spiritual
at that time. Oh, I tell you, some things people
say. And their friends will call.
You'll come calling. Say a word to Darcy and the children.
Some preacher will get up. Jay will probably get up and
try to say something nice. And they'll close the coffin
lid. put me out there where I put
my mother and father and son. I've been there. And they'll
put the vault over it and then they'll pour the dirt in and
we'll go out there, we all go out there later and put some
flowers there and put a couple of shrubs up. All right now,
let's talk about bad news. This is where, isn't this where
it all is? This is what our Lord said. What shall it profit a
man? I've been a wealthy man. I got six feet of dirt. That's
all I got now. I had 6,000 acres. I got six
feet of dirt and it's all in my face. Huh? I've been a healthy man. You're
a health nut. Everybody's all interested in
health and I'm not against that, but now wait a minute. You can die in the best of health. Right now I'm dead. I've been
popular. Everybody wants to be popular.
Let's see the name in the paper. It'll be there someday. He survived
by his wife. That's another thing I noticed.
Everybody in the paper survived by their wives, you know. Very
few... Did you ever notice that? I've been a religionist. Now
I'm just another son of Adam. I've been a hard theologian.
I've been a toughy boy. I've been a tough one. I've disciplined
and structured the church till I drove everybody off and I died
alone. I tell you, my dear friends,
it's time, it's time for every one of us to look hard at what
our master, our master gathered them all together, Kathy. And
he said, I want to tell you something. You're going to come after me,
but this world, this social, political, economic, religious,
material world is going to be buried by you. You're going to
deny yourself. You're going to take up your
cross and you're going to follow me. Now that's where it is. It's not in a head knowledge
what you believe. Peter, he sounded that loud and
clear. He sounded his theology loud
and clear, and then the Lord revealed his heart loud and clear.
You're not in love with the things of Christ. I know what you're
in love with. Because that's what you give
your time to, and that's what you give your money to, and that's
what you give your efforts to, and that's what you give your
thoughts to, and that's what you give your interest to. Where
your interest is, that's where your heart is. Someone said the value of things
when we're in the grave drastically change. The hour comes when banknotes,
money, and bonds are as worthless as waste paper. Diamonds and
gold and silver will be like dust in the street. You wouldn't
pick it up. Houses and lands will be as worthless
as children's old worn out toys. And the fame and honor of this
world will be no more than a faded flower or withered grass. Think
about that. You got a lot of buddies? They're
singing your name. They're praising your name. No
more than faded flowers. The day will come when our glory
will be our shame. You know what I'm talking about? And the things of which we were
ashamed will be the glory. Now if you think about that,
just take that home with us this morning. The day will come when
our the glory of man. He said, what shall I cry? Go
preach. Preach what? Oh, flesh is grass
and all the glory of man is as the flower of the field. It withereth
and fadeth. And someday that which we thought
was the most glorious, wonderful, those things that are highly
esteemed in the eyes of men will someday be our shame. And the
very things that we were ashamed of and didn't mention and didn't
talk about will be that which will bring glory to us. I'm telling
you the truth. And then our Lord said, what
would a man give then? What would he trade in exchange for one gospel service? Just one. An indescribable loss. I tell
you, a man can lose his soul. A man can lose his soul by giving
his life to blasphemy and drunkenness and idolatry and all of that
outward gutter evil. But a man can lose his soul by
ignoring the means of grace. God's a God of means. I'll take
you back to the tabernacle and show you that. A man who didn't
come to the sacrifice and to the tabernacle perished. God's
a God of means. A man can lose his soul by joining
a false preacher, a false religious cult. A man can lose his soul
by, worst of all, by hiding in a false refuge of a religious
profession. Lord, we preached in your name
and prophesied and cast out devils. I never knew you. Brethren, I
say to you with my heart and all that is within me, I borrow
the words of the Apostle Paul, I count all these things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my
Lord. Yea, I do count them but dawn
that I and you may win Christ and be found in Him. Not having
mine own righteousness. I'm not preaching self-righteousness. I'm not preaching false piety.
But I'm preaching that righteousness which is of God by faith. Even
the righteousness which is of God by faith. But we lay hold
upon that in Christ. And you can't hold Christ with
your pinky. You embrace Christ with your
heart. You don't write Christ a check and put him on hold. He sits on the throne. Is that
what he's saying? He comes in and you go out. We
have a change of management. We have a new king. That's right. He comes in. And this wife, he
becomes your master. And Mr. Husband, he becomes your
master. And young children, he becomes
your master and authority or he won't be Lord at all. That's
so. This game of religion, too many
are playing it. The stakes are high. You're sold. You're sold. And I'm not interested
in playing the game. I am deeply, I hope, devotedly
interested in bowing to the king, kissing his feet. Our Father, honor Your Word, honor Your Word
for Your glory. Use the message for the good
of every one of us. Oh, oh that we may win Christ
and be found in Him. We may lose our taste for this
world. That we might savor, enjoy, set
our affection on Christ, the King. Hear my Lord. Here am I. Possess me. Possess me. Fill me with Thyself. For Christ's sake I pray. Amen.