Well, if you have your Bibles this morning, turn with me to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9, and we are going to read verses 23 through 27 this morning as we continue to make our way through the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 9, I've entitled this message, The Cost of Following Jesus. because Jesus is going to lay down here what it costs to follow Him. Salvation is free, but it does cost us to follow Jesus. There are things we will have to give up. And we see this in verse 23. It says, And He said to all, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God." Let's pray. Father, as we come to this passage this morning, we pray, Lord, that You would just Help us to understand it. Help us, Lord, to do what you have called us to do if we are going to follow after you. Father, I pray that you would give us a willing heart to surrender all to you, to surrender every thing that we have down to the money we have, the life we have, the home we have, I pray that everything in our life would be surrendered to You, that we would leave all to follow You. Father, give us a greater faith. Increase our faith, Lord. Help us to, Lord, just love You above all the things of this world. I pray that all of the things of this world that are passing away, Lord, we would see them for what they are, that they are nothing but rubbish in comparison to Christ. Lord, just stir our hearts this morning to just have one pure and holy passion, which is to know You and follow hard after You. Lord, we ask these things in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Many years ago, I was watching I believe it was on Fox News years ago, there was a man who was a Muslim, or a former Muslim. He was giving his testimony about how he had come to Christ. He was a Palestinian man. He grew up in the Gaza Strip. His father was a jihadist. and he was trained himself to be a jihadist as well. And this man who had lived in the Gaza Strip, he had come into contact with a group of Christians who befriended him, and he got to know them, and he began to see their life, and he began to see the life of his family. and his own life, and he began to question what he believed. And so, the man took up a Bible, and he took up the Quran, and he went out, and he began to study both side by side. He began to read the Quran, and he began to read the Bible, and at the end of it all, he realized that he had been following a false religion. And so he realized that Christ was the only way, and the one thing that struck him and stood out in comparison to his religion was the love of God. And so this man, he realized that Christ was the only way, that Christianity was true, and so he had a decision to make. He had a decision to make, either follow Christ or continue to live the life that he had been living. And there was much pressure on the man because his father was a Muslim man, and it was an honor and shame type society. If he goes back to his father and to his brothers and family and everything else, they would disown him and perhaps even kill him because of his new found faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, he had a decision to make. Do I abandon my family, who is going to kill me because he couldn't go back there, or do I go on and I give up all to follow Christ? Well, this man chose to follow Christ. He decided and realized by the grace of God that Christ was the only way of salvation and so the man had to flee his family for fear of his life. They would have taken his life. And so the man ended up moving to America and began to serve the Lord and to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a hard decision that must have been for that young man. Most of us do not come to that a point in our life where we have to make such a decision when it comes to following Christ. Yes, there are things that we have to give up, but none of us really in here probably ever had to decide between our Father and following the Lord Jesus Christ. But many people throughout the world have to do this every single day, especially in the Muslim world, in the Buddhist world, in the Hindu world, and so forth. But when it comes to Christ, we know from what the Scriptures say, it will cost us something. It may not cost us our family, it may not cost us our job or anything like that, but it will cost us everything if we're going to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what Jesus shows us here in this passage. We are going to see in this passage that if we are going to follow Christ, we must be willing to give up everything. But this is the thing that the American church today does not understand. Many people who name the name of Christ do not understand this. They have been given a gospel, a message that, oh, just pray a prayer and you're alright. You're in and you can just continue to live however you want. But that's not what true Christianity is. The Bible is clear that when we come to Christ, we must give up sin. We must give up our old way of life if we are going to follow Christ. We must surrender all to the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many people in our day who claim that they are Christians, they name the name of Christ, but sadly, they act like the world. They think like the world, and they do everything that the world does, adopt the same ungodly standards, and live however they want to do, and never give up anything. and yet they claim to be a Christian. Jesus talked about this and warned us about this in Matthew chapter 7. In Matthew chapter 7, He talked about how there will be people, and He was speaking of the religious crowd, who on that day will say to Christ, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy? Did we not cast out demons? Did we not do these miraculous things? And Jesus will look to them and He will say, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of ungodliness or lawlessness. What was the problem there? They called upon the Lord, right? They named the name of the Lord, but the problem was they had not given up their sin. They continued in iniquity, continued in sin, and yet they named the name of Christ. You cannot do that if you're going to follow Christ. If we're going to follow Christ, we must give up everything. George Barna, the pollster, speaking on this very subject said, of the Christianity in our day, he said the term Christian has become somewhat of a generic term rather than a name that reflects a deep commitment to passionately pursuing and being like Jesus Christ. And that is certainly the case. when you hear the word Christian or disciple and things like that, it's just a term people just throw out. I mean, you go out and witness, you will find that just about everybody and their dog is a Christian, because it's just a term that is thrown around. But here when we come to this passage, we see what it means to be a follower of Christ. It's not what I say, but what Christ says. He lays down what it looks like to follow Him. So let's look at this passage that is set before us. Before we dive into verse 23, let me just set the stage real quick. In the passage that comes right before this, from 18 to 22, Jesus has just asked his disciples. They've been with him, they've seen all the wonderful works that he had done, the miracles, and he comes to them and he asks them two questions. He says, Who do people say that I am? And then he says, Who do you say that I am? And Peter rightly answers that question by saying, You are the Christ of God, that is, the true Messiah that has come from God. And so, we see that the disciples, they get it right, they have come to an understanding, they have verbalized who Jesus is, and they get it right, but there are many things that they must learn. about who Jesus is. They believed that the Messiah was going to be somewhat of a political figure who would come and overthrow the Romans. We see them even in Acts chapter 1. It's like they still are waiting for Jesus to do something like that. But Jesus corrects their understanding in verse 22 if you will look at Luke chapter 9. He said, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised." In other words, instead of being this political figure who was going to overthrow the Romans, and rescue them physically from their enemies. Now one day Jesus will come and he will establish his kingdom on this earth. It will be a visible thing. He will overthrow the nations and we'll see him as Lord of Lord and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. But here we see that Jesus did not come to do that. He wasn't the figure they had hoped for. He had come to rescue them physically from their enemies, but Jesus made it clear that his goal and mission at this time in coming was to die, to suffer, to be handed over to evil men, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and defeat the power of sin and death, and to be raised from the grave to save men from their sins and the wrath to come. And in light of that path that Jesus was going to take, which was the way of the cross, Jesus demonstrates and tells them that if you're going to follow me, you're going to have to follow this same path. You too are going to have to take up your cross. You too are going to have to die to self. And that's what we see here going on in verse 23 in this passage this morning. So let's look at verse 23. We'll read verse 23 and talk about it just a little bit. He says in verse 23, in light of what he was going to do. He said, And he said to all, If any would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. In verse 23, when it says, He said to all, we must take note of who Jesus is addressing. Now, He's been speaking specifically to the disciples when He asked them the question, who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am? But now we see that He's addressing not only the disciples, but He's also addressing the crowds. We know this from Mark chapter 8, which gives us a little bit more insight to this passage. Mark chapter 8 and verse 34 says, 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. Just like the gospel is to be preached to all, so the message about what it looks like to follow him is a message for all. It's not just for the disciples. It's not for a select elite group that they would do such a thing, take up their cross and follow Him and deny themselves. But this is a message for all. It was for a message for the crowds. It was a message for the apostles. And by a way of extension, it is a message for you here today and for me. that if we're going to follow Christ, if anyone would desire, if anyone would wish to come after Christ, this is what it's going to take if we're going to be a follower of Jesus Christ. If we're going to be a disciple, if we're going to be a Christian, if we're going to be a follower after Jesus, this is what it takes. And notice what he says, if anyone, that is the disciples, the crowds, people in the first and second century, or you or me, if anyone of you would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. That's a very simple message. It's very simple. If anyone wants to follow Jesus and be one of his disciples or call themselves a Christian, this is what it looks like. And he doesn't say, well, say this prayer and you're a Christian or just say that you're a Christian and then just go live however you want. No, you must deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. But what does it mean to deny ourself? What does he mean when he says, take up your cross daily and follow me? Well, I think there's a number of things that we could say about this to kind of help us have a better understanding of what it means. We know the cross was not some piece of jewelry in that day. It wasn't a symbol that we put on the wall, though it became that, and we look at these symbols and it reminds us of the cross of Christ and what he did there. But in that day, it was a cruel thing. Enemies and thieves and all kinds of evil men would be hung upon a cross. It was like an electric chair in our day. And so it's like, take up your electric chair, is what he's basically saying. Take up that thing, that instrument that's going to kill you. Take up that instrument of death. You are to die to yourself. But what does it look like to do this? Well, think about the man in general. We come into this world, and we think that everything centers on us. We think it's all about us. We think that life should exist for us. We think that people around us and things are all about us, and we're very self-centered people. And we're always looking out for number one. I mean, kids do it. As soon as they come into this world, their sinful nature comes out and mine, that is mine. And they fight with their siblings. They fight with others because that's how we are by nature. It's all about us, but Jesus says, if you're going to follow me, you must die to that way of life. So when Jesus says to take up your cross daily, when he says to deny yourself, I think the first thing that he is saying in all of this that we need to take note of is that he's not teaching a works-based salvation. Let's be clear about that. He's not teaching that you do this and then you'll be a Christian. So we'll start with the things he's not talking about. He isn't saying that if you will deny yourself and you will give up things and die daily that you're going to earn your salvation. Salvation is not by works. It's not something that you do. Ephesians 2, 9 is clear about that. It's salvation is not by works lest any man boast. He's also not telling us that we are to go out and take up our cross literally like some do in the Philippines. Every year in the Philippines there are men who will take up a cross and they will literally be nailed to a cross. to try to identify with Jesus. Jesus isn't telling us to do that, and He's not telling us, like, you've seen people, they'll take up a cross and they'll walk across America with it. Well, that's fine if you want to do that, and use that as a launching point to share the gospel with somebody, but that's not what Jesus is talking about here. He's not telling us to literally carry a cross. He's also not telling us or calling us to some legalistic or ritualistic practice. Jesus isn't promoting rigid rules that we follow. Now, there's things that we are to obey in the Scriptures, yes, but this isn't legalism. You know, there are people who think that dying to self means that I have to live a miserable life, that I have to go around with a long face, and I have to have all these little things that I can't touch and taste and everything else. And so, there are people that do that. They come up with all these extra biblical things like, I can't taste this, I can't enjoy certain things, and all of the rest. And what people do is, they do those things and give up those things, not really for Jesus, but out of a legalistic practice that somehow they will earn God's favor if they do these things. We see people do this, and I would call them extremists. They are miserable people. They are miserable people. They think that living a miserable life in self-denial is what Jesus is talking about here, like living an ascetic life. You've seen this in church history. or go out and give up everything and dwell on a pole, just sit there and just meditate and all of that. That's not what He's calling us to do here in this passage. In fact, 1 Timothy 6.17 says, God has given us richly all things to enjoy. Food is to be enjoyed and received after we've prayed over it. So Jesus isn't telling us that we have to become ascetics who live a legalistic lifestyle of do not taste, do not handle, do not touch, or do not enjoy and just be miserable all of the time. That's not what He's talking about. But what does it mean to deny ourself and take up the cross daily? denying ourselves and taking up our cross means that we are to abandon self-righteousness. I think that's where it begins. We abandon self. We don't trust in ourselves any longer. Instead of us trusting in ourselves, our own righteousness or what we can do or trying to save ourselves, When we become a Christian, when we become a follower of Christ, it is we give up on ourselves. We no longer trust in ourselves. We don't trust in man, but we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I think this is what Paul meant in in Galatians 3.20 when he was speaking to those Galatians who were relying upon circumcision and laws and rules to be saved. He said, I, giving himself as an example, I have been crucified with Christ. I've died with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, Paul wasn't like that previously. If we looked at Philippians chapter 3, we would see that Paul said that at one time, he was just, he had this... great pedigree, this great application, if you will, to say, look, I am very qualified to be accepted before God. At least in his eyes he thought that. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was trained in some of the best schools. He knew the law and everything else. He was zealous for the law. All of these things. He was religious, but then he realized that all of this was nothing but dung. It was nothing but rubbish. And so, he gave all of those things up and counted them as loss. He realized that he himself could do nothing to earn a right standing with God. And so, he gave up on himself and he put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he's talking about here in Galatians 3.20. The life I now live I live by faith, not in self, but in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So what Luke means, or what Jesus means here when he says, deny yourself and take up your cross, that is, deny yourself, be done with self. and look to me for salvation. I think he also means in all of this, denying ourself and taking up our cross, it involves dying to sin, dying to that old sinful way of life, life of rebellion against God, a life of walking in darkness, a life of being opposed to the will of God and rebelling against King Jesus. He says, if you're going to follow after me, this is what it's going to require. You're going to have to die to that old way of life. You're going to have to die to that sinful way of life. You're going to have to repent. You're going to have to turn from that and you're going to have to come after me and turn from those sins. Turn from that life of living in rebellion to Christ and live a life of submission to Christ. This is what Paul could say, or this is why Paul could say in Romans 6.6, of those who have come after Christ, who have trusted Him as Lord and Savior. He says we know that our old self was crucified. Our old self died, in other words, died with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. If you read Romans chapter 6, you'll see that Paul talks about that when we are united with Christ, when that unity or that union takes place when we trust in Christ alone for salvation. We're united with Christ and we die. We die. We die to the old way of life and we're risen to walk in the newness of life. So it involves repentance, this dying to self and dying to or in taking up our cross. It involves repentance and turning from sin. Denying ourselves and taking up our cross involves yielding your life to Christ as king before you were living how you wanted to. You had your own ambitions. You had your own dreams. You had your own desires. And you went after the things of the world. You look to the world to please you. You look to the world to to get ahead. And now you've come to Christ. And then Jesus says, if anyone would follow me, then you must yield your life. Everything you have must come under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Your money, your family, your work, your hobbies, everything that you do, everything about your life must come under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Christ is now king. and He rules over all. He becomes king over even your thought life. Before, you were thinking in terms of how you would do things. You were trusting in self and your own wisdom, but now you come to trust in His wisdom. You adopt a biblical mindset, a biblical worldview. You think biblically about things rather than just going out and doing things how you want. You may still go to the same job after you've come to Christ and you may do some of the same things, but instead of going to work or doing those things out of self-interest, now you see those things as a platform to glorify Christ. Christ is now Lord over those things. And everything in your life now becomes about Jesus. When you deny yourself and take up your cross, now it's about a life of obedience to Christ. Before you were living how you wanted to, doing what you wanted to do, but when you follow after Christ and you deny yourself and you take up your cross, you've died to your ways of doing things, and now you've come under the Lordship of Christ. And now you want to walk as He walked. You want to obey His commands. And His commandments are not burdensome because you love Jesus. You see, the legalists, they may have a list of commandments, and some of them may be good, but they're doing it just to earn salvation, and it's all about them. But the Christian He's following Christ. And out of love for Christ, he now does those things out of obedience from the heart. And a person who has denied themselves and taken up their cross, now they do these things because they love Jesus. First John 2. At the end of verse 5 and verse 6 says, By this we know that we are in Him, that we are a Christian. Why? Because whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. We walk now in the direction that Jesus is going, rather than walking in our own direction. The other thing about the Christian life, is that when we follow after Jesus, if we want to follow after Him, we must be willing to share in His sufferings. Share in His sufferings. As one old evangelist said, to take up your cross means to associate yourself with Christ, and to share His rejection, it means that you stand for Christ, even though people make fun of you, or persecute you, or even when they want to kill you. That's one of the reasons I read Matthew chapter 10. He told his disciples, listen, if they've done this to the Master, and they've rejected Him, and they have called Him names, and all of the rest, don't be surprised when they do that to you. But if you're going to follow me and you're going to live your life for me, just know that it's going to cost. There are going to be family members who will come against you. There will be friends who will reject you. There will be the world who laughs and mocks at you. But Jesus says you must deny yourself and come after me. You must share in his sufferings. And then denying self again takes taking up our cross, it basically, to summarize it all, it is complete surrender to Christ. The way I think, the way I act, the way I live, everything that I have, it comes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm no longer holding on to these things for myself. I'm no longer looking to myself to save me. But everything has come under the Lordship of Christ, and I'm following Him. I'm living for Him. I'm being obedient to Him. I am trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Americans need to hear in churches all over the place, maybe even in this place. We need to hear this because this is what Jesus says has to happen if we're going to be a follower of Christ. I say that because, again, many in our society, many in our churches think that we can be a Christian But it doesn't cost. We can just do however we want. They've bought into this idea of cheap grace that, well, God just forgives you and you just can continue however you want to live. But that's not what the Bible says. Grace is free. Salvation is free. But if you're going to come and receive this grace, if you're going to come and follow Christ, this is what you must do. You must depart from those old ways. But there are many people today that think they can just be a Christian without any cost. They think they can have salvation without a cross. And so they live however they want. But Jesus said you must die to self and come and die daily. You must deny yourself and follow me. But unfortunately, many will not be willing to do this. We see in the Scriptures, for example, there was the rich young ruler. He eagerly came to Jesus and he said, what must I do to be saved? Or what must I do to have eternal life? And what did Jesus say? He said, well, do this and do that. He gave him the commandments, the commandments that reflect following the Lord Jesus. He said, well, I've done, I've kept these things. And then he says, well, there's one thing you lack. Go and sell all that you have and come and follow me. His Lord, that rich young ruler, his Lord was his possessions, and he wasn't willing to give up his possessions and surrender them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Bible tells us that he went away sorrowful. There was a man who wanted eternal life, but he wasn't willing to give up. He didn't want to. He realized that it would cost him too much. He would have to part with these things. in order to follow Jesus. Then there was Demas who followed with the Apostle Paul doing ministry. He followed for a while, but Paul says in his writings that Demas has left me. Why? Because he's left me because of his love for the present world. He went back into the world. He followed for a time, but realized this costs too much. And so He goes back into the world. In John 6, 66, we are told that many of Jesus' disciples, some that were right there with Him for a long time, following along, listening to Him, watching Him do miracles, They would come along, but they could not bear to hear the words that Jesus had to say. And so, they did not have faith, and they rejected them, and it says in John 6, 66, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. It was going to cost too much to follow Jesus in their eyes. But that's what we must do if we're going to follow Jesus. And we must do this on a daily basis. Notice that Jesus says that if you're going to follow me, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and he must take up his cross daily. You know, there's something in the Bible that keeps coming up about the idea of daily walking with Christ. Give us this day our daily bread. Jesus isn't telling us to look at it over the long haul. Take one day at a time. When you get up out of bed in the morning, when you get up out of bed, thank the Lord for giving you life. and surrender your all to Him at the beginning of the day. And if you see yourself throughout the day perhaps drifting from His Lordship, maybe drifting and getting away from Him, then just give up the reins and go back to God in prayer and say, God, I'm sorry. Forgive me of my sins. You are Lord. I want to follow You. Keep me close to You. And just keep, one day at a time, living for the Lord Jesus Christ. The promise to those who die to self and take up their cross is found in verse 24. Jesus said, for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Here we have what seems to be a paradox. Lose my life and I will save it? And save my life and I'll lose it? What do you mean by this, Jesus? Well, it's quite simple. One of the hardest things to do is to say no to ourself. Our natural tendency is to please our flesh, to preserve ourselves, to put ourselves first, to gratify ourselves and all of the rest, to indulge ourself the way the world does and not live for the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus says we're to do the opposite. We're to give up pleasing ourselves, we're to give up gratifying ourselves. We're to give up indulging ourselves in the things of this world. Give up these things, follow me, and you will have eternal life. You will gain life. You'll gain eternal life. You'll gain the abundant life. But if you hang on to these things, these sins in your life, these idols in your life, and just like the rich young ruler did, yeah, you may gain for a season, a short time, a short while, but you're going to lose everything in the end because you will die in your sins. That's what Jesus is talking about here. You lose your life now, give up, die to self, but you're gaining everything. You're gaining eternal life because salvation is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. But you hang on to this world, you hang on to your wants, your dreams, your desires, and you live for self and you reject Christ. and you will lose everything. The moment you take your last breath and you depart into eternity, you will lose everything because you will not have the righteousness of Christ covering you as you stand before the throne of God. That's the great paradox of the Christian life. Gain the world, lose your soul. Give up everything to the Lordship of Christ and look to Him for salvation and you will gain everything. And if we pursue our own agenda, we will lose everything in the end. But if we let go of our selfish aims and entrust ourselves to the Lord Jesus, living for Him and His purposes, seeking His will, looking unto Him alone for salvation, we will gain eternal life and we will receive a multitude of blessings while we live and in the life to come. And as Jesus says in verse 25, in light of this, I mean, He uses logic here. He says, what is it profit a man? Think about it. There may be some hesitating. I don't know if I can give up all of these things. Jesus says, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and he loses or forfeits himself? What does it profit you? If you're the richest man in the world, like one of these guys like Zuckerberg or Bezos or one of those guys, what does it profit you to have everything this world has to offer, all of the luxuries, all of the pleasures of this life, all of the indulgence of the flesh? What does it profit you to have all of these things, all of these material things? and yet lose your own soul. Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to have anything. We know godly men in the Bible who had things, but it was under the lordship of Christ. What I'm talking about is the person who will go out, and that's all their focus is, is what they can get out of this world. And God is nowhere in the equation. They go out and they make things their God. They worship things and they seek after these things. And Jesus is saying, what is it profit you? What is it going to profit you on your deathbed if you are the richest man, you have all this money in the bank, and then you come to that day and you are on your deathbed, and you are five minutes, a minute away from dying, and you die. What will it have profited you? You know, the one thing that you don't see when people die and that hearst is going to the cemetery, you don't see a U-Haul behind it. I mean, you go to maybe the Middle East and you might find in places like Egypt and stuff these kings and stuff that were buried with all of their goods, but you dig them up and open up their casket, the goods will all still be there, the gold, the jewelry, and everything else. Not the man. He'll be there nothing but a skeleton. Why? Because He's gone. Those things didn't profit Him in the afterlife. They didn't profit Him in this world. He died without Christ. And so that's what Jesus is talking about. What does it profit you to hang on to these things? Let them go. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but yet loses his own soul? Forfeits himself. This is what motivated Jim Elliot, the missionary, back in the 1950s. Jim Elliot, young man, full of love for the Lord. He gave up all as a missionary to go to Ecuador to meet a tribe or reach a tribe that had never heard the gospel in their entire life. A tribe that was at war with others. There was much conflict and much sin in this tribe. And Jim Elliot, out of love, went there. He gave up everything to go there. And there he died at the end of a spear as a martyr trying to reach this unreached people group with the gospel. And you know what he said in all of this before he had died at one point in his life? He said, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Let me say that again. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot realized there's nothing in this world that you can hang on to. But if you abandon all to God and you follow him, you cannot lose. You cannot receive anything but blessings because blessings are to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true treasure. Now, in verse 26, there is a warning about not following Christ because you're ashamed. Now there were some in Jesus' day, as we will see later on, I believe it's Luke chapter 12, but there were some who believed who Jesus was. They would say that he was the Messiah, but they would not follow him because of fear of being put out of the temple, put out of the synagogues. And so Jesus says in verse 26, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words of him, will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and of the holy angels. So there were people who had heard the truth. They knew the truth. And for them, the thing they didn't want to give up because they and what was keeping them from following Christ was the fear of man. What's the world going to think of me if I follow Jesus? What is people going to think of me if I go and get baptized? What are people going to say if I go out after Him? What are my family going to say? My friends, the world, they're going to reject me if I follow Christ. That could have been the hang up for some, and I know it was from what the Bible says. But Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me. If you're ashamed of me and my words, you're ashamed of the truth of the gospel. There are people who are afraid. They don't want to say anything that is true from God's Word because of how they might be perceived and how might people look at them. And so they're ashamed of Christ. But Jesus says, of Him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. This is why in Matthew 10, the verses we read earlier, Jesus said, Don't fear. Don't fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And do not one of them fall to the ground apart from your father? But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, for you are of more value than the sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me, listen to this, everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." If you go over to the book of Revelation, we know that some of the people that will be cast into the lake of fire are the cowards. Those who fear men rather than God. Those who will not stand for the truth who will not publicly make a declaration that they are following Christ because they're ashamed of Christ and they're ashamed of His words. Christ will reject such person in the life to come. If you're going to follow Him, deny yourself. Don't care what people say about you. Don't care what people think about you. Follow Christ and stand upon His Word. And then there's the promise to those present with Christ in this passage. He says in verse 27, But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. What is Jesus talking about here? That's the first century He's writing this. There are some here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. Did Jesus' words prove not to be true? Because He hasn't come back yet. The Kingdom of God hasn't been fully realized. We don't see the Kingdom of God. Now, we see the workings of the Kingdom, but seeing it physically with our eyes, we don't. So is Jesus wrong here in what He said? Well, no, He's not. There's four ways which people take this passage. First of all, there's one that we can say, well, that's not the way we should take this verse. Liberals say that it was a mistaken prediction. They say that Jesus would come back before some of the apostles died. We can dismiss that. We know that that's not what Jesus was saying. He wasn't saying that he was going to come back before some of these apostles died. Others relate it to the destruction of Jerusalem in 87, but it is difficult to see why That is even an option. I don't believe that that's what Jesus is saying. Others interpreters, or some interpret it as a reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the rule of Christ through his church. But I think the most plausible explanation of what Jesus is saying here, when He says, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God, is what we find in the context of this passage. If we look on and we read on in the next few verses, we're going to see that there were some among the disciples who were standing there, some who was even among the crowds that were numbered, there were exactly three that we're going to go up on the Mount of Transfiguration in these next verses. They're going to go up on this mountain, and they're going to see Jesus transform. They're going to see him in all of his glory, and they're going to see the kingdom. I believe that's what Jesus is talking about here. And those three would be Peter, James, and John. And all the early church fathers believed that that's what Luke was talking about. as well are referring to. There were some standing there, they were not going to taste death until they saw the kingdom of God. And they would. Peter, James, and John, as they went up on that mountain, they were going to see Christ lifted up. They were going to see Christ for who He was. They were going to get a glimpse of the Son of Man, the Son of God, in His kingdom there on the Mount of Transfiguration. Now, as we close in this passage from looking at it, The thing that we see is it costs to be a Christian. Let me ask you this, has your Christianity costed you anything? You named the name of Christ, but have you given up sin? Have you stopped trusting in yourself to save yourself? There are some people who have not given up on self because they think that if they just do enough things, they go to church enough, they pray enough, they give enough, then they are right with God. Give up on yourself. You are a sinner condemned by God, and the only way to be saved is to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. and be saved. Abandon, be done with self, and look to Jesus by faith. And the other question is, have you repented of your sin? Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, in chapter 1, I believe it's verse 5, he says, Repent and believe in the Gospel, for the kingdom of God is at hand. We must repent, we must turn from our sins and surrender it all to Jesus who can save us from our sins. Have you died to self and come to Christ for salvation? Have you come to him alone for salvation, given up everything and said, Lord, I want you alone to be Lord of my life? I want you to save me. I want to follow you. And I don't care where you tell me to go, what you tell me to do. I want to follow you. And I know with you is life. And so I come now by faith, trusting in you alone to save me. Have you given up everything to follow Jesus? That's what it means to be a Christian. It's free. Salvation is free. But it will cost you everything if you're going to come. and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christian, I know there are still times that we struggle when we get up daily. There are things that will try to take priority in our life. There will be things that will come by way of temptation to lure us away. And even Peter, who heard this passage, or heard these words of Jesus, come and die daily, don't deny me. Guess what he ends up doing a few chapters later? He will deny Christ three times. But does that mean it was the end for Peter because he messed up there? No. Jesus came to him, allowed him three times to reaffirm his love to him, and Peter was forgiven. There will be times when you don't do this perfectly. And Jesus knows that you won't do it perfectly. That's why there is sanctification. There is an ongoing process in the Christian's life whereby he becomes more like Christ. And so you may, as a Christian, look at your life and say, well, I've surrendered a lot, but there are things in my life that need to go. There are sins that I've been petting that I need to let go. I need to repent of. There are things that I know that Jesus is calling me to do, but I've been too fearful. I've been fearful for what people might think of me. I've been fearful of what it looks like, what I would have to go through. And it just scares me to let go. Let go and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian, what area in your life do you need to die to? What area of your life do you need to give up in your life to Christ? What area do you need to come and die? Whatever that is, I want to encourage you to go to the Lord as we go to God in prayer and ask Him to forgive you. Surrender all to the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe it's your money. Maybe it's your job. Maybe it's your future, maybe it's your future spouse or your education. Whatever it is, surrender your entire life to the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul? Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, as we come to you this morning, Lord, we know that we are nothing without you. And we are so tempted to be selfish, to focus on ourselves, to try to preserve ourselves and to try to be in control. But Lord, I pray that there would be a full surrendering of our lives to You. Father, change our hearts. Give us a heart that is just fully abandoned to You. Lord, if You have been calling some here today to maybe be baptized or maybe to be to surrender their life, to go and preach the gospel in some foreign country, or maybe you've been calling someone to go and share the gospel. Lord, I pray that whatever it is that You would give them courage, and pray that they would desire today just to follow You and they would surrender it all. If there's someone here today that's without Christ, and they know that they have been trusting in themselves, they've been trusting in their baptism or trusting in some words they have said, Lord, I pray that they would look away from those things and they would trust in Christ and they would come now to you looking to Jesus alone by faith to save them. Lord, give us a heart that is sold out to you. I pray that every person in this room would have such a heart, that we would love you and we would just abandon ourself to you to come and to follow you. Lord, we love you and we praise you in Jesus's name. Amen.