Transcript

Am I on out there? Alright, I thought I pushed the wrong button. I thought my mic might not be working but I’m good.

Mark 8. Go to Mark 8. If you’re not regular with us here at Grace Life, you may not know that the main state of the pulpit here is verse by verse, chapter by chapter expositional preaching through books of the Bible but we’re in between books and I’m taking this time to visit some biblical foundations, if you will, that are foundational for Christians, for the church and particularly for us here at Grace Life Church of the Shoals and this is a powerful and penetrating text of Scripture as the Lord was getting near the end of his earthly ministry and he lays out foundationally what we’re all about.

Through the years, I’ve had a lot of questions and quite a few comments about our logo, the two crosses, you see it over the baptistry there behind us. And people will sometimes ask, “Why do you have two crosses?” And sometimes they’ll say, “If you’re going to have more than one, shouldn’t there be three crosses? Wasn’t there the Savior’s cross and the two thieves on the cross?” And I say, “No. In Christianity there is only and has always been only two crosses. There is the Savior’s cross and there is the saints’ cross. Always and only, there are only two crosses.” And sometimes tongue-in-cheek they’ll say, “Well, there are three crosses there at the narrative of the crucifixion.” I say, “Yeah, but that guy went to hell, why would we honor his cross?” The other man believed on Christ and became a Christian and, of course, Christ’s cross is the center cross which everything else depends upon. So we’re going to talk about the two crosses of Christianity.

Look at it, if you will, at Mark 8, beginning in verse 27 going through verse 38.

27 Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” 29 And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And He warned them to tell no one about Him. 31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” 34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

First of all, the Savior’s cross. That’s the first of two very shattering heavy-duty lessons that Jesus gives the disciples on this day. Before we get there, let’s say a word about the setting. The setting the Bible says is at Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi was ruled by Herod Philip. It was a majestic place in many ways. It had a marble temple dedicated to Augustus Caesar and it was a place that was a testament to the glory of Rome, but if you go there today, you’ll find that it’s much like all of Rome, the glory hath departed. All of these great buildings and great artifacts and great coliseums are now but barely standing and what a contrast that is because the glory of Rome fades but the glory of Jesus Christ stands forever. But this is a place, it’s sort of a mountain slope and this is the main thing: it’s something of an isolated area where Jesus could get his 12 disciples and his main committed followers together to teach them some important things they must grasp before he, of course, goes to Jerusalem. So that’s the setting: a mountain slope somewhat secluded for special instruction because his journey into Jerusalem and his crucifixion is about six months away now.

Notice now, secondly, the secular speculation because Jesus asked them a question, “Who are people saying that I am?” And we hear just what…by secular I mean there is no spiritual help in their conclusions. In their natural conclusions, they begin to say, “Well, Jesus, people think you’re something special. They think you’re Elijah, Jesus. Or they think you’re one of the prophets.” But that’s not worthy of Jesus. He’s infinitely greater than Elijah. He’s infinitely and superior to one of the prophets. It shows us that the people didn’t have what Jesus said, they didn’t have ears to hear. They heard him but they didn’t really get it; they didn’t really understand.

People are much like that today. If you go out in the world today and you find historians or professors at the college or just maybe readers and thinkers and they just look on the life of Christ apart from the Spirit of God illumining their understanding and you ask them, “Well, what conclusion do you have?” They say things like, “Well, Jesus was a great teacher.” As a matter of fact, they may even say, “He’s the greatest teacher of all time. What a great example he was. How unselfishly he lived and how he taught us to love.” But they stop far short of saying, “And he was God of very God, God in human form and he is the Savior, the only Savior of the world.” They won’t go there. They just with their human speculation come up with conclusions. One liberal professor said Jesus was just mentally ill and that he was just a man who was mentally unstable and he went around telling everybody he was the Savior of the world and God Incarnate.

It’s been taught for years in secular universities that Jesus was a man who meant well and he kept teaching these things and it just kind of snowballed so he just gradually accepted the title of the Savior of the world and the Messiah just because to keep it all going. What nonsense. If you want to clear this all up, it can be clearly taken care of. You see, you stop all speculation when you read the revelation and that’s where you have to be, and that’s what Christianity is: we decide and we determine that the word of God contains the truth and we yield ourselves to the truth it reveals because, you see, entertaining speculation and ignoring the revelation always leads to reprobation and that’s what we see in our culture today. We see a reprobate society; a society that has become God-less and a society that God has turned his back on. It doesn’t mean that God’s grace is not still extended but you cannot help but view in our culture today that this is a culture God has said, “Okay, I’m going to put a veil over your eyes and not allow you to see anymore,” and we see that everywhere that they cannot see.

Really, C. S. Lewis, the brilliant Oxford scholar who had a glorious conversion to Christianity and in his definitive work about Christianity he said, “You know, let’s be done with all this foolish speculation that Jesus is just a great moral teacher or a great example.” C. S. Lewis said, “Intellectually if you read the accounts of Christ in the New Testament you have three conclusions and three conclusions only: he may have been a liar, just a man who just willfully lied and said, ‘I’m God Incarnate and I’m Lord and Savior’; or he was a lunatic, just crazy and out of his mind and said these things; or he’s the Lord who he said he was.” But no just good example or good teacher goes around lying and saying he’s God if he’s not. He’s either who he said he was or he’s a liar or he’s a lunatic. And that’s so true.

So that’s been going on for 2,000 years. Here Jesus is, he asked the folks, his disciples rather, “Who do the folks say that I am?” And they said, “Well, in their speculations they’re saying some pretty nice stuff.” Well, let’s go, thirdly, to the spiritual profession because Jesus goes a little further and says, “Okay, but who do you say that I am? Let’s not just think about what the crowd at large is surmising about me, who do you, my closest followers, who do you say that I am?”

Look at verse 29, “And He continued by questioning them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered and said to Him, ‘You are the Christ.'” So Peter as the spokesman for the 12 comes shining through. Peter says something that goes against the grain of the culture of the day. They were mostly stopping short of declaring him the Lord God Incarnate and the promised Savior of the Jews, the Messiah. And that’s an important lesson for you this morning, that’s an important lesson for me this morning and that is this: are you a true believer who’s willing whenever necessary to fly in the face of public opinion and openly express a conviction that is contrary to those around you? Now, God is not calling all of us to be John the Baptist where you run up to King Herod and shake your fist in his face and rebuke him, but as you live your life in the neighborhood, in the schools, in the factories, around your associates in the office, wherever it may be, there will be times when you will have to say something and stand for something because it honors Christ even though it goes against the spirit of those around you. That’s what Peter does. He says, “They may think you’re one of the prophets but we believe you’re the Christ. We’re willing to take the stand.”

Now, these disciples have come a long way in their understanding. They’ve journeyed quite a distance in their understanding but they still have a long way to go, but when Peter does say, “We’re convinced you’re the Christ,” where did he get that from? Well, I think we see that very clearly in Matthew 16:17 which is Matthew’s account of this very event because Jesus turned and said to Peter after he said, “You’re the Christ,” he said, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” In other words, Jesus said, “Peter, you believe I’m the promised Savior, the Messiah, the one and only Savior of the world, and there is no way, Peter, you would ever have known that had my Father not divinely enabled you to grasp it and embrace it.” You see, you can’t find the truth of Christ just in the power of your learning or your intellect. It’s a spiritually revealed truth. It’s beyond that. That’s what makes Christianity so wonderful because the 12 year old little boy can come to embrace the glorious wisdom of God in Jesus Christ and the professor with five Ph.D.’s can do so but they all do it the same way, through the enablement of the Spirit of God. Now, he uses means, he uses the preaching and teaching of the word primarily but it is God who opens the heart.

So Peter says for the followers, “We believe you’re the Christ.” Now, “the Christ, the Messiah,” meant he’s the one and final true prophet, priest and king. Prophet in that he tells the truth. There had been other prophets but he’s the prophet of all prophets. There had been priests all in Israel’s history but he’s the one true high priest, the only one who can intercede between a holy God and sinful men. And he’s the one and true final king. Israel had had many kings but the Messiah was the king to end all kings. And Peter says, “That’s who we believe you are, this promised Messiah.”

Well, in verse 30 Jesus warns them, “Now don’t tell anybody about this.” That’s kind of strange, isn’t it? Why would Jesus stop them and say, “Okay, you’re believing right. You believe I’m the Christ, the one promised Savior, but at this point don’t tell anybody.” Why was that? Because there was becoming such a mob growth of support for Jesus and, by the way – now listen to me – they wanted Jesus to be their kind of Savior. They wanted Jesus to be their kind of Messiah which primarily meant they wanted Jesus to be a political and military messiah who would overthrow the slavery to Rome and free Israel from her burdens and bring in an era of peace and prosperity. What they did not get was that Jesus did not come to do that, that’s what he’s going to do in his second coming; this first coming was primarily to go to the cross to die for the sins of the world. That they didn’t get. So Jesus said, “I don’t need anybody else pressing on me trying to make me this great political military conqueror. That’s not why I’ve come this time.” And that’s why he’s getting close to what we’re about to see and that is the sobering proclamation. Jesus said, “Let me get down to brass tacks of what I’m really here for in this coming.” Verse 31, “And He began to teach,” that means he just over and over tried to explain and make it clear to them. “He began to teach them that he, the Son of Man, must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed,” that’s his cross, “and after three days rise again.” Now before this time, Jesus had been speaking to them in a veiled manner, sort of in types and figures, but now he’s coming out very plainly and very boldly, “I’m going to Jerusalem. I’m going to be rejected. I’m going to suffer and I’m going to die and I’m going to rise again.”

You and I cannot grasp how shattering this must have been to these followers. I mean, they, like most everyone else, hoped and believed that God was going to send the Messiah and he would be a political and military leader of an overthrow of their Roman bondage but now quite the contrary, he’s not planning to do any of that. He’s saying the religious leaders are going to have him delivered over to Rome and he’s going to die. Think of the faith these guys have had. They have forsaken all to follow him and they didn’t have a whole lot of understanding of all that that meant. They just believed he was sent from God. They have left everything to follow him.

In verse 32, it reemphasizes this, the first part, “And He was stating the matter plainly.” He made it unquestionably clear, “I’m going to Jerusalem to die.” So these intimate followers of Jesus hear this and it has shaken them to the core. They have left everything to follow Jesus of Nazareth and, after all, wasn’t he to be a conqueror? Wasn’t he to be victorious? He can’t die.

Peter, as we see in verse 32, the last part, “And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.” That’s interesting. Here Peter is, functioning in his natural understanding, not spiritually illumined understanding, but Peter functioning in his natural understanding begins to rebuke Jesus thinking Jesus has some sort of pessimistic or fatalistic attitude or idea about his work but, you see, Peter couldn’t see the forest for the trees. He could not see the rainbow above the clouds. Peter had come a long way in his understanding but he’s got a long way to go. Peter loved his Lord, he was committed to him, he was sincere but he lacked faith and Peter thought, “We’re gonna get this thing done, Jesus. We know how to do this Christianity but, Jesus, you’ve got to understand something, you’ve got to do it our way. And this whole notion, Jesus, that you’re going to go and die in Jerusalem, we can’t accept that.” Can you imagine such a thing?

G. Campbell Morgan said, “The man who loves Jesus but shuns Jesus’ methods is a stumblingblock.” That’s what Peter was saying, “We’re all in but, Jesus, you’ve got to be a little more relevant. You’ve got to be a little more culturally sensitive. You’re going to lose all of our followers. Our numbers are going to go way down if you keep talking like you’re going to Jerusalem to die. Pragmatically, Jesus, it just won’t work. Have you not consulted with the church growth experts? I’ll tell you, you can’t preach this kind of stuff and be successful, Jesus.” And that’s where the church is today over and over and over again. You ought to see the stuff that comes across my desk, all the neat, clever, creative, wonderful things to help Jesus get his work done instead of just doing what Jesus says to do and do it his way.

At this point to these guys, Jesus’ statement seems illogical, even irrational but at the end it would make wonderful sense. Now, Jesus knows how dangerous it is for even sincere men to get in his church and start doing things their way instead of his way so what does he do? Look at verse 33, “But turning around and seeing His disciples,” that is, Jesus is saying that Peter can lead the whole group off track so, “He rebuked Peter,” and this wasn’t some mealy-mouthed little mild meek rebuke, this was a bold manly correction here. He looks at Peter in verse 33 and says, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” “Peter, you haven’t risen above the way a natural fallen man would think religion is supposed to work. You’re all about being man-centered and how this will work best to be pragmatically successful. Peter, that’s exactly what Satan wants. You’re acting like Satan.” Now, he’s not saying, “you are saying,” but he says, “Get behind me Satan because you’re thinking and acting the way Satan would think and act.” Satan has always wanted to get in and does get in God’s work and he puts a twist on it so that it sounds right but it’s not. He’s a counterfeiter. He’s a fake. He’s the cosmetic without the substance. That’s what Satan does. Of course, that’s the problem in the church today.

So Jesus rebukes Peter and he was prompt, he was decisive and he was forceful in his rebuke but here’s the foundational message I want you to get, that is that Satan is always behind a cross-less Christianity. Satan is always behind a cross-less Christianity. Jesus begins to tell these disciples, “I’m going to the cross in Jerusalem to die,” and they said, “No!” So Jesus says, “Now you’re acting like Satan,” because whatever else Satan opposes, his primary thing he opposes is the cross of Jesus Christ and, my friend, the cross of Jesus Christ is the foundational component of everything we are and everything we believe. I mean, Satan doesn’t mind Jesus being held as a great healer. Satan really doesn’t mind Jesus being held as a great teacher. Satan really doesn’t mind that Jesus is honored as a great miracle worker as long as he can keep Jesus away from the cross because it’s at the cross where Jesus frees the souls of men from Satan’s dominion and delivers them to God’s kingdom.

Satan hates the cross. We know this because in the wilderness temptation, Jesus is out there fasting and praying as he’s about to begin his earthly ministry and Satan comes to him and among other things, Satan says, “Jesus, see all the glories and the kingdoms of the world, I will give them all to you if you’ll just worship me and not worship God the Father.” In effect what he was saying was, “If you’ll forget the Father’s will for your life which primarily and centrally is dying on the cross for the sins of men, if you’ll just forget the cross and follow me, you’ll have everything anyway.” And what did Jesus do? He said, “Get behind me, Satan,” and quoted Scripture and resisted the temptation to abdicate the Father’s will and follow Satan’s will.

My friend, always remember Christianity without the cross is worthless to save the souls of men. Where there is no doctrine of the cross, there is no true Christianity. Beware in this day, especially you young people as you hear about this church and that church and this ministry and that ministry, but they are soft on the foundational doctrine of Christ’s bloody death in our place for the redemption of our souls. You see, Christianity without the cross is not Christianity. Just like a waterfall without water is not a waterfall, and like there can be no wind without air, there could be no forest without trees, there can be no lightning without electricity, there is no Christianity without the cross.

So Jesus begins on this day with a powerful sobering message, “I’m going to Jerusalem to die.” For in effect, it didn’t say it here but in amplifying all that he thought, in effect he’s saying, “That’s what I came to do was to go and die on a cross. That’s where I’ll pay for the sins of men.”

Well, that’s the center cross. That’s the main cross. That’s the one who you see that’s out front. Everything depends on that cross but there is a second powerful sobering message he wants to give these disciples and that is they have a cross. II. The saints’ cross. Notice, first of all, the absoluteness of it. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “You think it’s shaking you up that I’m going to go and die? I’m about to tell you, you’ve got to die too.” It’s absolute.

Verse 34, “And He summoning the crowd,” notice this, “with His disciples.” Now this is interesting. Often he just taught the disciples without the crowd, now he says, “Just bring them all in. Everybody that thinks they might want to be my follower, they need to hear this so just bring everybody in, my disciples and the whole crowd.” And by the way, that is an encouraging note there that anyone can follow Jesus. Anyone can be a disciple if they will turn to Christ. The rich, the poor, the educated, the uneducated, the black, the white, the yellow, the brown. It doesn’t matter. Anyone, he says in verse 34, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

Now, three things are mentioned here: deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. And I think we’ve made a big mistake through the years of trying to separate these as distinct and separate steps or something. You know, we’re so engineering and mathematically structured, it’s like, “Okay, tell me what I’ve got to do so I can check off the boxes. Check off 1. Check off 2. Check off 3. Maybe I’m in now.” That’s not what it’s about. Listen to me: all of this is about you having a new heart that has the germ in it that begins to desire to do what Jesus is about to explain.

Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow me. There are actually three facets of one gem. They really interconnect in a way that you shouldn’t really take them apart but I’m going to do it a little bit hopefully to amplify our understanding. To deny himself is the idea of once and for all saying no to self as the lord of your life. There is a time in your life when the Gospel is preached or the Gospel is shared and something changes inside of you and there is a genuineness in you that says, “I desire now to view Christ as the only hope of forgiveness and Christ is the only true wise one and I myself am a failure and a fool compared to him. So once and for all on this day, I may not be perfect at it but on this day, there is a line drawn in the sand in my heart that I will say no to me. I’m not smart enough. I’m not wise enough. And I will say yes to Christ as I learn his ways and learn his truth.” Are you with me, church? You’re not pledging perfect performance, you’re saying, “This change has occurred in my heart.” You begin to be repulsed and ashamed and offended by your own wisdom and own viewpoints as you study Christ’s wisdom and Christ’s viewpoints. Why? Because once and for all you said no to self as the lord and king of your life. You have a new Lord and you have a new King.

2. He says, “Take up your cross.” Again, this is inseparably connected to saying no to self because as you begin that journey – now listen to me – you being that learning of beginning to follow Christ and what that means in this life and, by the way, you’ll make a lot of blunders and mistakes. You’re a baby Christian when you start out. You don’t know all that it means. As I look back on my own early Christian life, I didn’t have much good teaching at all. It’s just amazing how much of a mess I made, how off track I would get but I was genuine about trying to follow Christ. But as you begin that journey of following him, you are willing and you are voluntarily accepting the cross you will carry in doing that.

“Take up your cross,” he says here, is an aorist tense verb. The aorist tense means finished action in past time with continuing results. So there is a settled finished action in my past when I was converted whereby I said, “Okay, I’m looking to Christ now. I’m going to learn to know him, love him, treasure him and follow me, and I readily accept what trouble that’s going to cause me in this world that hates him.” Amen? This world is going against the grain of Christ so when you turn, you’re going against the grain of the world. So it may be a teacher at school, it may be a classmate, it may be the guy you work with at the factory, it may be the person at the office, and it’s likely to be a member of your own family that as you purpose to honor Christ, you’re going to run into ridicules, sneerings, laughings, mockeries, being left out of the group. That’s your cross to carry.

Now listen to me: don’t go looking for your cross, it’ll find you. I’ve run into too many Christians who get saved and try to prove how obnoxious they could be and how many people they could get mad at them. No, the Bible says right the opposite. You do everything you can to get along but you will not deny Christ. And I guess the hardest thing, it was for me anyway, the hardest thing, especially if you’re in a preaching/teaching position, is how they will take your words and take your teachings and put a twist on it to put you in the worst possible light and you just have to bear that and live with that in the community. And if you’re discussing things, if you speak of your faith, they’ll take your belief, for example, in sovereign grace and put a twist on it like you want all babies to go to hell or something. That’s the cross we carry for trying to follow the God of truth. All the lies and twistings and scoffings. Sometimes it’s people in authority over you who make light of you and mock you in front of others. Sometimes it’s friends. Listen to me: you’re going to have to decide, child of God, especially in your friendships, to let Jesus choose your friends. Are you with me? You let Jesus. In other words, you walk with Christ and those who Jesus wants to be your friends kind of draw to you and those whom the Lord does not want to be your friends kind of fall away from you. If you will be consistent, that’s what the world is looking for is consistency, if you’ll be consistent, over time they may not run with you but they will respect you.

Over and over in the Shoals area, I run into people who don’t like us. I shock you with that information. They don’t like our doctrines or some of our convictions. I’m always ready with an open Bible. Show me where we’re unbiblical and I will gladly change. I don’t want to be strong or convicted or anything else, I just want to be biblical. But I have found through the years the spirit changes and these dear people, I can hug their necks, I love them, they in effect might say, “I would not join your church but I do respect y’all,” and that’s because with the weaknesses and some failings and blunders, they can say, “They practice what they preach.” And that’s where we want to be. Never perfect, we’ll never be perfect but we want the new purpose and pattern of our life being willing to take up that cross and realizing whatever that means, that’s what it means.

Then he ends that by saying, “and follow Me.” Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me and, of course, that’s just sort of the summarizing conclusion. What convicts do under force, what a convict would do under duress, we do out of devotion because carrying a cross is what a convict would do in this day. You see, in this day when Rome convicted you of sin, they required you if you were crucified in Jerusalem, to take up that cross and walk down the Via Dolorosa and you’d carry that cross through the public square and you’re going to be crucified outside the gate, and by carrying that cross through the public square, that was a public statement that says, “Rome is just and Rome is right and I am wrong and I am guilty.” That’s why you had to carry it.

So Jesus is saying when you live in this world, to deny yourself and say no to what you yourself and the world and your friends may say is good and right or the right way to live, and you turn from that and you strive, imperfectly maybe, yes, but you strive to say, “I am following Christ best I can,” you’re carrying a cross that says to the world, “Christ is right and I am wrong.” Are you hearing me? “Christ is right but I am wrong but he has forgiven me and I’m going to gladly keep learning how to honor him in this world.” There is an absoluteness to this. Every Christian has that new germ of devotion in their hearts to begin learning to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Christ.

Lastly, the advantage. Jesus said in effect, “I know this has been very very heavy and very difficult for you guys. You’re waiting for any moment a glorious victorious physical kingdom to be established and you’ll be in the leadership of it and I’ve just told you I’m going to die and I’ve told you you’ve got to carry a cross.” But then he says in verse 35, “There is great advantage.” He says, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” That is, if your modus operandi in life is to say, “I’m gonna grab for all the gusto.” Remember that beer commercial? “I’m gonna go out in this world and I’m gonna get all that the world has. I’m gonna do all the pleasures the world has. I’m gonna taste it all and embrace it all.” Now, I’ve taught you in balance as your pastor, God’s not against you enjoying some of the common graces of this present world but here’s what we do, we enjoy those common graces in this world – now listen – but those common graces are not our joy. Did you hear me? You enjoy them but in your heart of hearts they’re not your joy. So you’ve decided, “My chief joy, my primary end is not what this world can give me, my chief joy, my primary end is the joyous treasure I find in Jesus Christ.” Therefore you lose your life, that is, you lose what this world can give you to some degree to gain all that Jesus can give you which is an infinite amount. What a swap. What an advantage that is.

He says there in verse 35, well, let’s go on to verse 36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” What profit would it be if you gained everything there was here and you drunk of the pleasures of this world as your primary purpose in life and ended up losing all of that and losing your soul in hell forever? What a fool. What a foolish thing. As one wise Christian pastor one time said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” And that’s why I’ve told you, I try to pray as a pattern of my life and just name off the stuff that me and the bank own. Amen. “God, this is yours. This is not my primary joy. Lord, this is yours.” Name it to him, “Lord, this is yours because you’re my treasure and you’re my joy.” By the way, I came into this thing with nothing but Jesus and the last I checked, every time somebody dies, they check out with nothing but Jesus. Some of you, your epithet is going to be, “He’s one of the wealthiest men in the cemetery,” and that’s it. That’s what Jesus is saying. If you try to live for this world as the major purpose and pattern of your life, you’re going to be a loser. It’s temporal. It doesn’t last.

Then lastly, verse 38, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Jesus in summary fashion says, “If your life is marked by a consistent purpose and pattern of living for whatever comes down the pike in this world and grabbing for all the gusto and therefore you continually as a pattern are denying Jesus Christ, it means you’ve never been truly saved. You’ve never truly had a changed heart and you’re going to be one of those who gets Christ’s judgment when he returns.” But if imperfectly, but if as the purpose and pattern of your life, you are striving to honor Christ and treasure Christ and put him first, then you’ll be one that he’s coming for with the grace and love and forgiveness and you’ll inherit an eternal kingdom with him forever and ever.

The question is: are you going to waste your life or are you going to invest your life? To reject Christ and live for this evil world is a total waste. To surrender to Christ is to reap lasting dividends now and for all eternity. You see, Satan’s philosophy is this: glory now. But he’s a liar. He pays in counterfeit bills. It ends in eternal loss. Jesus’ philosophy is, “Follow me. It’s going to cost you some suffering now. I don’t know how much. It varies person to person, generation to generation. But there will be some trouble and conflict now to follow me but there is going to be unbelievable infinite glory for you later.” What an advantage that is.

Friends, there’s always and only ever been two crosses in Christianity. The Savior’s cross, everything depends on him and that, and then once we embrace his cross, he says, “Now you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” That’s the saints’ cross. Here at Grace Life Church, we are striving to embrace the first one with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our might and all of our strength, and then by the power he gives us and enables us by, to carry our cross in this world. If it means losing a friend – listen to me – if it means losing a marriage, Jesus said it’s rare but Jesus said some people will even leave you because you’re committed to me in a marriage relationship, if it means losing a job, if it means new Supreme Court justices are going to be appointed who will deem that teaching that homosexuality is sin is a hate crime, it means pastors and churches are going to be persecuted and maybe locked up, then that’s what it means. Hey, we’re not far off from that but I’m not analyzing what it’s going to mean and figuring it out, I’m just drawing a line in the sand and saying, “This is what I am.” The Savior’s cross and the saints’ cross. Ladies, you heard some weighty stuff yesterday. You heard stuff yesterday, ladies, that goes against your flesh. Amen? It goes against your flesh and the whole spirit of the world. There is only one way you can do this if God has changed your heart and given you a desire to do what Scripture says against what the world says and you have to carry your cross and let the other ladies in the community mock, ridicule and laugh, sneer at you. I’ve walked in meetings with – no exaggeration – leading pastors in America and them sneer at me and say, “Here comes the Renaissance Man,” because they say we go back to ancient history. I say it’s 2,000 years old, the book is. In the same meeting, though, I’ve had men take the floor and said, “If we’re not leading our church the way Noblit’s doing it, you know nothing else matters.” The same meeting from sneering and ridicule to respect and honor. I didn’t go in there, I wasn’t expecting anything. I was just attending the meeting. All I’m saying is whatever it means is what it means.

Two crosses to Christianity. Here we are, here we stand and here we’re going to stand, period. Exalting his cross and by his grace striving to carry ours and may he get all the glory, all the honor and all the praise. Amen?

Let’s stand in prayer.