Let us turn in our Bibles today
to the 8th chapter of Mark, Mark chapter 8, beginning in verse 34. And 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. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake in the gospels, the same shall save it. For 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
generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when
he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. The title of my message is Three
Important Lessons. By way of introduction, I want
to point these things out to us. First of all, our text begins
with the word and. And. And that word is a connecting
word, and it takes us back to the verses we looked at last
week, and especially remembering his words in verse 31. when he
said the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of
the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and
after three days rise again. The difference this time that
I would point out to us is those words were spoken only to his
disciples. But you notice our text begins
today introducing the fact that he called now unto him the people,
that is the common people. He called them unto him along
with his disciples. I want to look at these verses
today as speaking to three different categories of people. Three different
categories of people. First, the first category is
those who would be a disciple of Christ. Are you in that category? Are you in this category? Those
that would be a disciple of Christ. Well, here are three parts of
the Lord's lesson that he gives us here for all who would be
his disciples. The word disciple, of course,
means a learner. And those who would be his disciples
must learn these three things. Number one, a disciple of Christ
must deny himself. A disciple of Christ must deny
himself. Now he had just before spoken,
I pointed this out, he had just before this spoken of the fact
that he would suffer, be rejected, and killed. And we know that
Peter tried to dissuade him from that, and as it is given in Matthew's
gospel, Peter told our Lord, be it far from thee. In reality,
what he was saying was, spare thyself. Spare thyself. A disciple of Christ must deny
himself. From what I've read in classical
Greek, in classical Greek, it is common to read this word deny
and for it to be used in different ways. A statement is made. Someone
makes a statement. and it's denied. Someone makes a request and it's
denied. But it's only in the gospel or
only in the New Testament where this word deny is used in relation
to a person, denying a person. A disciple of Christ must deny
himself. And I believe that the English
word renounce helps us to understand what is the meaning of this word
in our text, renounce. In Acts chapter three and verse
14, in Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, he used the
same Greek word. And the scripture there is Peter
is speaking to those Jews who had cried out crucify, crucify. They had delivered him under
Pilate with the desire that he be put to death. And Peter is
speaking to them on the day of Pentecost. And he says, but you
denied the Holy one and the just and desired a murderer to be
granted unto you. In other words, you renounced
Him as the Messiah. As the long-expected and promised
Messiah, you renounced Him to be that person, and you chose,
rather, a murderer, Barabbas. Remember, Pilate brought the
word to the Jewish people, whom would you, that I release unto
you, Barabbas or Jesus? And they all cried out, Jesus.
They renounced him. They chose a murderer over the
Savior, over the Lord Jesus Christ. They renounced him. And when
they asked Peter, what shall we do? Remember what his word
was, repent, repent. Now the word repent, of course,
means to change your mind. So to be a disciple of Christ
is to deny himself, to renounce himself. He must repent. He must, as John Gill said, he
must deny his sinful self as well as his righteous self. What
does he mean by that? A person who would be the disciple
of Christ, he must repent, he must deny himself, or he must
turn, change his mind about all ungodliness and worldly lust. You cannot be, I cannot be a
disciple of Christ, if that's what I want to be, I cannot be
a disciple of Christ and hold on to my sin. That's just not
possible. We must repent of our sinful
self and then our righteous self. We must repent, change our mind
about what we have thought would justify us before God. That is by our works of righteousness. We've trusted in our decision. We've trusted in our morality. We've trusted in our church membership. But to be a disciple of Christ,
we must deny all our so-called righteousnesses, which in God's
sight are as filthy rags, and trust in Jesus Christ alone. The Lord Jesus Christ must be
all. He's not part of our salvation. It's not his work plus my work. It's not his work plus my decision. Oh, no. Christ is all. To be a disciple of Christ, a
person must deny himself. Christ must be all. He must be
the A and the Z in our life and in our relationship to God. Second, a disciple of Christ
must take up his cross, take up the cross. Now, when our Lord
spoke these words to his disciples and the people, they were familiar,
they knew what a cross was, and they knew what a cross was used
for. Now, crucifixion did not begin
with the Romans. It was a practice that I believe
first was in Egypt and then in Western Asia. It was a form of
punishment and it was probably the worst form of punishment
that man could think of because the death was so lingering. But these people to whom our
Lord spoke these words to on this day, they were familiar. They knew what a cross was. They
were familiar with this. In fact, according to Josephus,
the Jewish historian, more than a hundred years before our Lord
came into this world, 800 Jewish rebels had been crucified. And
then after the death of Herod the Great, which was during the
lifetime of Christ, there was a hundred excuse me, there were 2,000 Jews
who were crucified. So these people who heard these
words, they were very familiar with the term cross and what
it meant. And it was also very common at
that time when a person was sentenced to be executed, to be put to
death by means of the cross, that he have to carry his cross
to the place of execution. Now the Lord Jesus Christ told
his disciples on two other occasions that they must take up their
cross. He used this symbolism several
times. But we notice here that just
before this, just before he spoke these words, he had spoken of
his death. And Peter said, spare yourself.
No, he would not spare himself. He was marching toward that end. That end was crucifixion of the
cross. And our Lord here says, whosoever. Now we love that word, whosoever,
don't we? God so loved the world that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But
we see that word in our Lord's text here as well. Whosoever
will be my disciple, he must deny himself and take up his
cross. He must be prepared, she must
be prepared, if necessary, to experience the very same thing
that our Lord would experience, that is, to be killed for his
testimony to the truth. As I said, the Lord used this
image to his followers, taking up their cross on two other occasions. And one time he used the word
daily. Luke 9 verse 23. If any man,
if any will come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me. Every day, every day, every day,
a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ must determine To go forward,
though it means suffering and even death, he must go forward
in serving and following Christ. And third, a disciple of Christ
must follow him. He must deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow him. Now what does it mean to follow
him? I want you to look with me in
1 Thessalonians chapter one. To take up our cross daily is to submit to His will every
day. To pray, not my will, but Thy
will be done. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, beginning in verse 2. We give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Remembering
without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of
God and our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. Now notice, and you, became followers
of us and of the Lord. Having received the word in much
affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were in samples
or examples to all that believe. To follow him is to turn from
our sinful life and serve him, and yes, even to become examples
unto others. Now, we speak often, I do, of
Christ as the sacrifice, the one cenotonic sacrifice, and
I emphasize this quite often because so many liberal Men who
call themselves preachers, they would present the Lord Jesus
Christ merely as an example. They would set before you the
Lord Jesus Christ as an example and tell you, now follow his
example and earn salvation. I'm not ever going to say that
because that's a lie. No, we're not saved by following
his example. were saved by His sacrifice. But it is true, and I must say
this, it is true that we are to be followers of Christ. That is, He is to be our example
in the way we live, if we would be His disciple. If you turn
back just a page or two to Ephesians chapter 5, In verse 1, the apostle writing
to these believers in the church at Ephesus, be you therefore
followers of God as dear children and walk in love. What does it
mean to follow Christ, to follow God? And that word follower in
verse 1 there literally is imitator, imitator. To be a disciple of
Christ is to not is to deny oneself, take up the cross and imitate
God, to follow Christ. And following Christ is to walk
in love. As Christ also hath loved us
and hath given himself for us and offering a sacrifice and
a sacrifice to God for sweet smelling savor. He is an example. He's our sacrifice,
first of all. The only sacrifice for sin that
effectually removes the sin of His people. But at the same time,
He is an example. We ought to follow Him. In 1
John chapter 2 and verse 6, the Apostle said, He that saith he
abideth in Him ought himself So walk even as he walked. So to the first category of people,
the lesson is, if we would be his disciple, we must deny ourself,
take up our cross, and follow him. You say, well, that's a
very simple lesson. It is a simple lesson. And thank
God when God enables anyone to learn that lesson and follow.
to obey. The second category of people
is those who halt between two opinions. In verses 15, the next
few verses, verses 35 through 37, category of people who halt between
two opinions. You remember those are the words
of Elijah when he spoke to the nation of Israel. He said, why
halt you between two opinions? If Baal be God, then serve Baal. But if God be God, then serve
God. There are people, and probably
some here this morning, who are halting between these two opinions. To follow Christ and to save
your life, or to save your life and to lose your life. That's
what our Lord said here, isn't it? 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 it's obvious that our Lord
uses the word life here to include the soul, the life of the soul. Whosoever shall save his life
in this world shall lose his life in the world to come. And
whosoever shall give his life in this world shall
save his life in the world to come. Remember our Lord said,
no man, no man. That's emphatic, isn't it? No
man, no man can serve two masters. Either he will love the one and
hate the other or cling to the one and deny the other. No man. can serve two masters. Our Lord speaks of the soul,
the life to come, the life that is immortal. You know, we're
living in strange times, aren't we? We really are. And we're living in days when
people actually, if they're telling the truth, actually believe that
an animal's life is just as important and valuable as the life of a
person. Now, the animal has a soul, but
the soul is not immortal that the animal has. He has a spirit. An animal has a spirit, but he
doesn't have a soul that is immortal. Man does. It was only man, not
animals that God breathed into the breath of life. We're living in strange days
in many different ways. Man has a soul. You have a soul. And you have a soul. I have a
soul. Think about this. We have a soul that's not going
to die. Not going to die. Not going to
cease to exist, I should say. Yes, this body's going to die.
But when this body dies, our soul doesn't die, doesn't cease
to exist. The Lord Jesus, in Luke chapter
16, told about the death of two men, two men. One man was named Lazarus, and
the other man, we believe, was named Dives. They both died physically, but
our Lord said this about one of those men by the name of Lazarus. He said that he was carried by
the holy angels into the bosom of Abraham. Now the bosom of
Abraham was a term that the Jews used to speak of what we would
call heaven, what we call heaven, the bosom of Abraham. So here's
this one man who dies and the holy angels escort him into the
bosom or to the bosom of Abraham, into the presence of God. But
then he spoke of this other man, he also died. But our Lord said
this about him, he died and was buried. It's very possible Lazarus,
his body was not even buried. He was a beggar. But this other
man was rich, and he was buried, and he lift up his eyes, the
scripture says, our Lord said, being in torments. In other words,
that last man lost his soul. And according to our text here,
he lost, that's what he did, he lost his soul. That's the
most valuable thing that any of us have to do with, our soul. Because our soul is not going
to cease to exist. It's going to go on throughout
all eternity. Look at our Lord's words in verse
36, the word profit. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Now, men are familiar with profit
and loss and business. A person subtracts his total
loss from his total gain and he determines his profit. Did
he make any profit this year? He takes all that he's gained,
and then he subtracts all that he's lost, and did he make any
profit? So if a man, our Lord is saying
here, if a man should gain the whole world, the whole world,
and if he did, what would he have gained? He would have only
gained that which is temporal. because this world's going to
be burned up. And we put all of our attention
and all of our emphasis in this world and this life, but remember,
we have a soul. We have a soul that's not going
to cease to exist when this life is over. What should profit a
man, our Lord says? If we put all of our attention,
all of our time, all of our money, all of our effort into the things
which are only temporal and neglect that which is eternal, what should
it profit a man? In business, man determines whether
he's made any money or not, he may have lost But he can start
over. He can start over, recoup, maybe
recover, and become more wealthy than he ever was before. But
if he loses his soul, there is no starting over. He's now, she's now in eternity. You've heard Preachers, I'm sure,
try to emphasize or illustrate how long eternity is. There's
no way we can do that. But I've heard them use the example
of a bird. If a bird flew and took one grain
of sand from the beach and deposited that grain of sand somewhere
else and went back and got another grain of sand and moved it Suppose
a bird could move all the grains of sand from the beach. That's
not eternity. Eternity's just begun. What should it profit a man?
So the second category of people are those who are halting between
two opinions. You may be here like that this
morning, and you're halting. You've heard the gospel. And
yes, you've even been convicted to some degree in your conscience
you should do something. You know you have a soul that's
going to go on for eternity. You know that. You believe that.
And yet you put off, you put off closing with Christ. You say, like that man that Paul
stood before, that Roman ruler. When I have a more convenient
season, I'll call for you, Paul. You
know, history tells us he never had a more convenient season.
And him and his wife, or his wife especially, she's one of
those who was in Pompeii when that volcano erupted. And all of those in Pompeii were
destroyed by the volcano lava. He never had a more convenient
season. And you never will either. The scripture says, behold, today
is the day of salvation. How many people do you think
there probably are in hell today who put off Put off! Put off! Tomorrow! But tomorrow never comes. Never
came for them, may never come for you. In fact, the proverb says, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may
bring forth. The third category is of those
tempted to be ashamed of the Son of Man. Notice in verse 38,
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. You know what I've put down here
in my notes? Nothing, nothing shows any more
our depraved nature than that we would ever be ashamed of Christ. How depraved are we if we would
be ashamed of the holy, lovely Son of God? in his words. And yet, to be honest, we know
that we all have. We all have been guilty. Our
Lord speaks about a time when he's coming again. He calls his return, we refer rather
to his return as his second coming, because it's going to be so much
different from his first coming. He came the first time in the
form of a servant. And the reason he came in the
form of a servant is he was doing the work of a servant. That is,
he was ministering unto. He didn't come to be ministered
unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. He came the first time in relation
to sin, but when he appears the second time, the next time, it
will be without sin unto salvation. And as he declares in our text
here, he's going to come in the glory of his father with the
holy angels. That glory, that, you know, it's
hard to define glory, isn't it? You ever tried to define, what
does glory mean? What does it mean, glory? We
think of brightness, the glory, the splendor. of God. He dwells in light, unapproachable. And yet He veiled His glory and
came into this world as a man that He might redeem His people. But when He comes the next time,
He's coming in all the glory of His Father. that glory he
said in John 17, which he had with the Father before the world
began. And when he comes in his glory,
he will also be glorified in all of his chosen people. Look to one other scripture,
2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians 1, beginning with verse 7, Paul
is writing this letter to believers who were persecuted for their
faith's sake. To you who are troubled, rest
with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels. Inflaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. What is it to obey the gospel?
It is to believe the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt obey the gospel. Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, And from the glory
of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints,
glorified in his saints, when he comes again, he's going to
bring the soul, the spirit of those who have died and gone
to be with the Lord. He's going to bring them with
him. Many of you, many of us, we have loved ones, don't we?
That are now with the Lord. He's going to bring them with
Him. And at the same time, they're going to be reunited to their
resurrected body. And those believers who are alive
when the Lord comes again, their bodies are going to be changed.
They're going to be glorified. They're going to be like unto
His glorious body. He'll change this vile body,
Paul said, of our humiliation and give us a body like unto
His glorious body. Our prayer should ever be that
we will never be ashamed of Christ and of his words, that we shall
never be ashamed of him and his words. God help us. I want us to close with a hymn. Number 266, fade, fade, each
earthly joy, Jesus is mine. Number 266, and let us stand
as we sing.