And then Jesus went on and talked to them about authority that he would give to them and their work and so forth. And verse number 20, then we're gonna stand. I just wanna show you verse 20. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Now that should, would normally sound really strange to our ears. For instance, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, where you have well said, you didn't figure that out yourself. My father, which is in heaven, revealed that to you. Now don't tell anybody. Well, that sounds just opposite of what we're supposed to be doing or what Jesus would teach. But he said to them, don't you tell anyone. Now, as we begin in verse number 21, we're gonna find out why he said what he said in verse 20. Don't tell anyone. So let's stand together for the reading of the word, beginning in verse number 21, and we will read through verse 26. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, physically laying hold of him. Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he, Jesus, turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, Moment of glory didn't last long, did it? But he turned and said unto him, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me. For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. and whosoever will lose his life, I'm sorry, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Just right quick, I'm interrupting myself, but you see the word life in verse 25 twice, save his life or lose his life? In verse 26, the word soul is the exact word. It means exactly the same thing. It comes from the same word. So he is talking now to a person who will save his life or lose his life. And in verse 26, he says, for what is a man profit if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul or his own life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Father, we pray your blessings now upon this time together in the Word and we pray, O God, for the help and the unction of the Holy Spirit. We've been ministered to by song. It's been pleasing to hear the music, the harmony, the message of the song. It's been a blessing. We've been reminded by the last solo special that you are all we need. And we're reminded that your son Jesus told his disciples, for without me, you can do nothing. And we acknowledge that, oh God. We can't cause anything for eternity to happen in this service. We are dependent upon you. We are dependent upon the working of your Holy Spirit. And so we pray that you would have your way and accomplish your will. You know. I'm reminded of John's words in John chapter two when he said, for he knew Jesus knew all men. And He knew what was in man. And He did not that any should testify to Him of man. And we know, Father, that it's not only that that was so, that is so. So I know that You know who's here today, and You know what the needs are. I don't. I can't possibly know. But I know Your Word is capable, able, O God, to work in every heart and every life, and I pray that your purposes and your will would be accomplished by the preaching of your word this morning, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, and God bless you. You may be seated. I was just talking to one of the members a few moments ago, We were talking about age. We're the same generation. And I think he said he had a year on me. I'm 74 years of age. And so we just kind of get that out of the way right now. And so it was when I was 71, in just a short period of time, I got challenged in two areas, different parts of the country. One, I was preaching in Boston. The other, just a few weeks later, in the state of Washington, forevermore, in a youth camp there. And the way I got challenged, I'll spare the details of it, but the way I got challenged is, one man was challenging me to get in the kind of physical condition that he was, and he was a little past 60. And so he had this incredible physique, and he said, you could do this. And I said, huh? No, that's not going to happen. And so the other one was across the country, as I said, in the state of Washington, preaching the youth camp. And it was just above the Columbia River in central Washington, only far south, central as far as east is west is concerned. And in that area, you might think of Washington and Mount Rainier and the Cascade Mountains and all of that and the water and all that west side. But where we were, it was arid and dry, couldn't hardly find a blade of green grass in the month of July. And it was hot, I mean really hot. And so, right over to the west, though, you can look over there and see Mount Adams, 12,280 feet, the third largest mountain of the Cascade Range. Beautiful. Snow-covered year-round. So here we are standing in this heat, looking at this mountain that almost looks close enough to touch, or to walk to, and it's snow-covered completely. I mean, just a beautiful sight. And so while I was commenting on the mountain, the young man that is a graduate of our Bible college is pastoring the church that owns the camp. He was standing there and I said, TJ, that mountain is awesome. And he said, I've been up it. And then he started talking to me, you're gonna be back soon. Why don't you come early? We'll go up the mountain. And he just told me that he and about 10 men went up the mountain and from the time they started till the time they got back down, 18 hours nonstop. 18 hours. And he said, come a little early or stay a little late and we'll take time and go climb that mountain. I said, no, I won't be climbing that mountain with you. And he said, well, why not? Well, I gave him the same answer. I gave him over on the other side of the country about being in that kind of physical condition. And my answer is simply this, it costs too much. And it had nothing to do with money. I mean, I'm a Baptist preacher. I got plenty of money, for crying out loud. So that wasn't the issue. The issue is not money. The issue is I'm not going to put myself through what it takes to look like that man looked in his physique. And I'm not going to put myself through going up that mountain and back down. He said, we'll take a little longer. And I said, three days? I don't think so. We're not going to do that. I'm not going to go up that mountain because I will not pay that kind of price. I'm not going to do that to myself. Now, the reason I mentioned that is this. As you know already, if you're a believer and you're at all serious about the Christian life, then you know that as a believer, you should be, I should be growing ever stronger and climbing ever higher. Now that's a fact. There is no place to stop. I said there's no place to stop at all. And I've made the statement in my wife's hearing, I've said, you know, as long as I have the soundness of mind, and I can read, and I can comprehend, and I can hear the Word, and I can process what the Bible is saying, as long as I have soundness of mind to do that, there is no need for me to not be growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and growing stronger in the faith. There is no stopping place. And there is no need that we not be elevating in our spiritual life. That we should be climbing spiritually higher. You know, He has made us to sit in heavenly places. And while we are here and in this flesh, we should be growing stronger and climbing ever higher. And I'm not going to try to sound critical or hateful or judgmental. I'm not. But I'll just tell you the truth, if you face reality, you know that not many professing Christians are experiencing that. What I mean is, growing stronger day by day, year by year. Let's look at it that way. Year by year, as time goes on, growing stronger in the faith and no place to stop, or climbing higher in their spiritual life with no place to stop, till the Lord takes us out of here. Few are. I hope that doesn't sound judgmental. If it does, I don't know what to say. That's not my attitude. I'm just observing and being real. I've been a pastor of two churches 36 years, observing, trying to do the Lord's work and help people in the past 53 years of my life, and I'm in a continuing education. I went to three years of Bible college. I didn't do that great. I don't have a doctor's degree. I don't have all kinds of degrees. So I've been in a continuing education program trying to pay attention and listen and read the Bible and read the Bible and study the Bible and preach the Bible. I've been trying to live in this word. My wife's sitting right over here. She had testified that I've tried to live in the Bible and live in the word. There is no place to stop. There's not a reason to not be growing stronger and climbing higher in our life. But I'll tell you, wife, you do. The cost. It costs too much. And that's what Jesus is talking about. I'm going to title it, I'm not going to, I already have, given a title to the sermon, The Cost is High Either Way. Now to be clear, I want to say that I'm not talking about the cost of being saved or the cost of salvation. By the way, this is not a salvation text. Jesus is not talking to his disciples about how they might have eternal life or how they might be saved. That's not what he is talking to them about. He is talking to them about what it takes to be a follower of his and to be a genuine, authentic disciple of Jesus Christ. But I want to make it clear that our salvation cost a plenty, but it didn't cost me and it didn't cost you. And as you study the Bible, you'll see that in the book of Romans in chapter five, I love that section where Paul is building the argument on argument for justification by faith, not by works, not by the law. For by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified. It's not of works. And what he's doing, he's building the case for being saved by faith. If anybody's here today and you've never been saved, you never will be apart from a personal faith in the work that Jesus did for you. Because the truth of the matter is, he paid the price for our sin. And in Romans chapter 5, four different times he calls it a free gift. A free gift. A free gift. So all you can do is receive it. And Jesus paid the price. So that when I received Jesus Christ, I received the work that he did when he went to the cross of Calvary and bare my sins and yours in his own body upon that tree, and he was our substitute, he took our place and died for our sins so that when I receive him, I receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ and my sins are on the account of his cross and I'm saved. So it cost a plenty, but it didn't cost you. But I'll tell you what does cost, discipleship. To be a true, authentic disciple means that you will pay a price. And we're not living in a culture, in a society with a mindset that self-sacrifice and self-denial is really what we want to be about. We really don't. You'll see some here and there. Overall, that's not what our culture is about. Not at all. Now, let's check the account here and see what is taking place. because Jesus has just acknowledged that God, His Father, has revealed this to Simon Peter, that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Somebody say amen. I love the sound of that, don't you? This is the central truth of the whole Bible, right here in one statement. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's what the whole Bible is about. The fact that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. And so Peter has spoken well, and then you see the paragraph marker in verse number 21, and as he begins there, it says that he began, from that time forth, began Jesus to show unto his disciples this. He must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and he must be killed, and he must be raised again the third day. That's what he tells them. Now, I don't know if I even know or if any preacher could adequately describe what it might have sounded like to those disciples. who have been on this high because he's told them of their responsibility, told them the authority that he's going to give them, has just commended Peter. We have to believe that, except for Judas, all of the disciples were in assent that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I'm sure even Judas acknowledged that intellectually. I think he probably did. Even Judas probably acknowledged that intellectually. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and so this is a good moment when this takes place, and then Jesus changes gears, so to speak. And he said, now, and he begins to tell them, now I'm going to go to Jerusalem. When I go to Jerusalem, I will be delivered into the hands of those that hate me, I will be killed, and I will rise again the third day. And I don't even know if we can explain how that the disciples were devastated by this statement. I mean, a good indication is Peter took him. Now, I never served in the military. I haven't, but I've imagined, both my brothers are in the army. I can imagine my brothers, you know, told me some of their experiences with officers and everything, and they were privates. And so I can imagine one of my brothers going to a, what, a sergeant or a captain or some higher ranking official that ordered or expected this. And I can see a private getting ahold of that guy and said, now let me tell you something. I don't think that'd go over so good, do you? Well, I wasn't in the army, but I had an authoritative dad. I don't ever remember getting ahold of my dad and saying, now, hold on just a minute, dad. He gave me this list of chores I'm gonna do, and I've got other plans today, and to get ahold of my dad and say, I'm gonna tell you what I'll be doing today, and it's not that. I don't ever remember doing that. Of course, if I would have, I wouldn't remember it. You know? They'd still be giving me smell and stuff to try to wake me up, probably something like that. No, you don't do that to somebody of significance. Here we have a man who understood that the teacher, the master, the Lord Jesus is the anointed one. is the Son of God. All the implications involved there, that this is God made manifest in the flesh. This is the God-man. And can you imagine Jesus saying, okay, you acknowledge that now. I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'll be delivered into the hands of sinners, and I will be killed and raised again the third day. And one of your disciples gets a hold of you and says, oh no! Now, this isn't gonna happen. And Peter would have been saying, no doubt with the attitude in mind, this isn't gonna happen under my watch. He seemed to be the spokesman and the big talker there. And this will not happen. This shall not be done unto thee. What possessed the man to do that? Well, I'll tell you what it was. When you look at the picture, you'll see that the popularity and the fame of Jesus was spread abroad everywhere. As you read through the Gospels, Matthew, very, very clear, the multitudes were coming like waves. You've stood at the ocean and watched the waves come in. I think if we'd have stepped back and kind of looked at a big picture of Jesus' public ministry, you would have seen waves of multitudes coming. Waves of multitudes, they just kept coming and they kept coming and they came from Galilee and down to Judea and beyond Jordan and everywhere that Jews were and people were being healed and demons were being cast out, marvelous miracles were taking place. The 5,000 had been fed, the 4,000 had been fed. I'm just talking about the calm of the winds of the sea and demons fleeing at His command. All of these things were taking place. And people were coming, and they were coming, and they were coming. And I can show you in the Gospel of John, chapter number 6, where Jesus was minded to get away from them, lest they take Him by force to make Him king. And the word was around that this Messiah, this is the One, this is the Anointed One. I mean, look at this, at the miracles that He has done. And they began to be excited and they began to be happy about this because this is the One that's going to liberate us. This is the One that's going to sit on the throne of David. This is the One that is going to cause us to be separated from Rome and not have the miserable oppression under which we suffer from Rome. And that was their thinking. They were believing that Jesus would soon be recognized by all. He would sit on the throne of David. He would reign upon this earth. He would liberate them from Rome, establish Israel as a great nation in the world again. Yes, sir, that's Him. Which is why the disciples have been in discussion more than once. Wonder who's gonna sit on his right hand. Who's gonna sit on his left hand. Wonder who's gonna be the greatest when he comes into his kingdom. Wonder who that's gonna be. Even Zebedee's mom gets involved. Zebedee's wife, mother of James and John, gets involved. And she comes right before the cross. This is right before he was taken. I have a request of you. What is that? That when you come into your kingdom, one of my sons sit on your right hand, one of them sit on the left hand. And you and I look at that and think, how humble of her, you know. to make this kind of request. But that's what she was thinking. No, no, don't look at me like I'm weird. That is exactly the thinking of the people. That was the thinking of the disciples, which is why they kept discussing to the point that there was resentment among them about who's gonna have this position, one on the right hand, one on the left hand. Who's gonna be the greatest when he enters into his kingdom? Because the last thing these men were thinking about was him suffering and being turned over to the people that hated him and dying and raised from the dead. I think they didn't even hear raised from the dead. And if you're questioning that, maybe you haven't read Acts chapter 1 lately, to when after Jesus was raised from the dead, then came some of His disciples and said to Him, Master, wilt Thou now at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Even after the resurrection, they were still thinking, now he's going to set us free from Rome. Now he's going to restore our nation back to significance in the world. Now we're going to be liberated from this terrible, miserable oppression from a government that hated them with all their heart. Now we can be free from that. And Jesus said to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. That's quite a fall from, thou hast well said. My Father has revealed this to you. Well, His Father didn't reveal this to Him. That's quite a fall. He called Him Satan. Well, yeah, Satan means adversary, an opponent of. And He, listen to me, Jesus is step by step taking every step he took by the will of his father. Somebody say amen to that so I don't have to preach on it for 15 minutes. Every step he took was the will of the father. Every word he said was from the father. Every work he did was from the father. He did nothing that didn't please the father. And he did everything that the father gave him to do. And while he is in the process of doing this, his disciple, a chief spokesman, gets ahold of him and said, oh no, it's not going to be. What did that make him at that point? an adversary to the purposes of God. an opponent of why Jesus came. Come on, all of us need a reminder. Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He came into this world to die for sin. That's why He came into the world. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and the purpose for His coming, and He knew it, was step by step by step lead Him to the cross of Calvary where He would die and pay the penalty for our sins. That's why he came. And Peter said, oh no. No. That's why he used the term Satan. He knows the difference between Simon Peter, son of Bar-Jonas, and the adversary, the devil, Lucifer. He knows the difference between the two. He's just saying, your attitude is satanic. He is just saying to him, your opposition to fulfilling my Father's will, your opposition is the way of the adversary. Peter, as long as you're doing this in my face, then you're an opponent to my Father's will. Get thee behind me where you belong. That's what Jesus tells him. Amazing. Because they didn't get it. If you read Luke's account about this, you'd find that Luke put in there, for they understood none of these things. If you think I'm being too hard on the disciples, then you tell me what Luke said when he's in the same account. And Luke says, and they understood none of these things. None of what things? Going to Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of sinners, die. And yeah, but to be raised from the dead. I'm not sure they heard it. Because when he told them he would go there to die, look at me, their expectations of Jesus and their expectations for what he had for them in the here and now came crashing down. I mean, I can say, no, no, no, you go to Jerusalem and we're delivering you into the hands of these wicked people that hate you and kill you? No, no, no, we're gonna reign with you. One of us guys will sit on your right hand, the other on the left. And you're talking about God, oh, God. Jesus said, you don't savor the things that be of God, the Father. You're thinking about the things of man. Isn't that right? That's where he was. That's why Jesus said to them, don't tell any man what you just told me. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You know why? Because they didn't have the right message. They would have been talking about nationalism. They would have been talking about the freedom of Israel from Rome. So you know what Jesus had to do? What Jesus had to do is redefine for them what Messiah means. If you'd have gone to them at that particular time, come on, it's very evident. If you'd have gone to them at that particular time and said, okay, so you're following this Jesus of Nazareth, and he is apparently the Messiah, the anointed one, what does that mean? What do you mean, what does it mean? It means that he's gonna reign. It means he's gonna, haven't you read the Old Testament? It means he's gonna sit on the throne of David. It means that Israel is gonna be restored to prominence in the world again. And see, our big thought is, well, if he's gonna rule and reign and he's going to establish his kingdom here. We've been walking with him for all of this time. So surely one of us will sit on his right hand, one on the left hand, and we're going to reign with him. So that's what Messiah means. And Jesus has given them a reminder. No, that's not what Messiah means. You talk about, have you read the Old Testament? Well, we'll deal with that right now. Have you read the Old Testament? You don't read in the Old Testament the most clear prophecy of the coming Messiah and think power and glory and reigning. When you read Isaiah chapter 53, you can only see suffering and affliction and taking our transgressions upon Himself. and dying and paying for our sins. And those 12 verses, 10 of them talk about the suffering of Jesus Christ. That He's going to be this anointed one. He's going to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And that He's going to bear our sins and take our stripes upon Him and the punishment that we should have for our sin would all be poured out on Him. And Isaiah presents to us the suffering Messiah. He has not suffered yet. And as far as the disciples are concerned, we'll go right around that part and he'll reign upon this earth. And Jesus said, no, we won't. I must go. That's why he said must. This is my father's will. I will go to Jerusalem. I will be delivered into their hands. I will be killed and I will raise again the third day. Can I have your attention? It's an ugly scene to be sure. You and I wouldn't have anything to sing about today if he hadn't done that. Don't get too excited now. I just said we'd have nothing to sing about if he hadn't done that, because that's how our sins got paid for. So they didn't understand messiahship, so he has to introduce them. He has to redefine in their thinking messiahship. Now, ask yourself this question. If they didn't understand his messiahship, are we surprised that they didn't understand discipleship? Okay, we're gonna go back up to them again. They're still over here. Okay, now, what does it mean to you to be a disciple? Well, follow him, of course. And obviously, since he's gonna reign, we'll reign with him. Barney Fife type, you know. Yeah, we'll be reigning with him. One on the left hand, one on the right hand. Yeah, that's what it means. Jesus said, no, you don't go out and tell who I am, because you don't know what it means to be Messiah. And number two, you don't know what it means to be a disciple. So he redefines discipleship for them. Look with me, please, in verse number 24. Watch this. Paragraph marker. He set him straight about comprehending the things that be of men, not the things that be of God. And verse 24, then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, okay, if any man, excuse me just a second. Well, actually this is for the disciples. Actually it's any man. It's talking about the disciples of that day, it's talking about the broader aspect than the twelve, and it's talking about all subsequent disciples that will come. So that he says, if any man will come after me, watch this now, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. I would dare say that in pulpits across the United States of America, this is not one of the most used passages. This is not a most used verse. The matter of self-denial. Don't you know, Pastor, I don't know why you didn't do this, if you'd have just said, put a sign out there and said, guest preacher, Sam Davidson coming today. Well, that name wouldn't mean anything to him, but the topic would. Self-denial is what he'll be preaching about. Don't you know the cars would be out there lined up trying to get in here? Yes, sir, that's something I want to hear about. Talk to me about self-denial. I want to know, oh, is that what it means to be a Christian? Give me some of that. No, that's not the attitude of people, and that's not what's being preached across America today. And most of the pulpits are occupied by men that are tippy-toeing around and make sure that everybody's comfortable about everything. And God's people, listen, pulpits are far more concerned about God's people, if they are God's people, being soothed than stirred. And I submit to you, there is plenty of salve and soothing in the Word of God, but the greatest need in churches today is stirring, not soothing. Jesus said, you want to be my disciple? Any man? And man doesn't confine it to the male gender, it's humanity. You wanna come after me and be my disciple? You can. But it'll cost you. I've got this weird imagination. Make up a lot of my own illustrations. The ones that aren't true, I make them up. My son said, we can tell you make them up. Why don't you get a book, you know? So that's what children are for, to encourage you that way. But I'm thinking about Walking up and Jesus is over here. Jesus, I believe in you. Wonderful. And I want to be your disciple. You can't. I can't be your disciple. No, you can't. I mean, if I believe in you, can anybody follow you? You can't. Not now. But why? Because you haven't paid. I haven't paid? No, you haven't paid. I know you believe in me, you believe in the work that I did. I know you confessed your sin, but you can't be my disciple. Until you pay. Pay to be his disciple? Well, what must I pay? Your will. You give me your will, I give you my will. But until you pay with your will to me, you can't follow me. That's the cost. Well, it says self-denial. Okay, you want to talk about that word? I came ready to talk about it. What does deny mean? Well, it means to disassociate with, to depart from. That's what it means. To deny any association with. What are you doing, sitting there trying to think of an illustration about, how would you illustrate denial? Well, come on, it's coming right up in the account. This man by the name of Simon Peter, they came when they took him to be crucified and said, you're one of his followers. He said, I am not. Second time, you're one of his followers. Man, I know him not. Third time, but you're one of his followers. And he cursed and denied any association with him. And we know it is Peter's denial. Well, oh, yeah, sure, we understand that. Can you not relate that to your self-will? Well, I mean, no way. You don't understand. I mean, I want to please Jesus. I do. But here's, you know, I have a life to live besides. And I also have other goals and dreams, and I have a career. I have this and that. And what I mean by this, be a disciple, stop. You're going to be His disciple, and you're going to define what it means? No, I'm just asking a question. You're going to be His disciple, and you're going to define what it means? I don't think it works that way. If we're going to be His disciples, who should define the requirements of discipleship? Somebody help me. The Lord Jesus decides the conditions of discipleship. And they are not obscure to where nobody can find them, unless you're a Greek scholar. They're right here. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself." We have to understand what it is to separate ourselves from our own ambitions, our own will, our own desire. Why are these disciples over here so crushed? Because their will was that they reign with Him. Their will was that one of them sat on the right hand and the other sat on the left hand. Their will was that they be partakers of His glory, reigning and restoring Israel. His will was that He die and they be willing to die. That's it. Denial of self. Who doesn't grow up with ambitions. I mean, I don't know how these boys are here. What are you about seven? You're not. Come on. Show me your driver's license. No. Okay, he's 10 years old. Well, he's already got what do you want to do when you grow up? You've had don't don't answer me. You have anybody tell you that? Ask you that? What are you going to do when you grow up? What are you 15? No, okay. So what are you going to do when you grow up? People ask that. Sammy, that's not my name now, please. It's Sam, but they say, Sammy, what do you want to be when you grow up? What are you going to do when you grow up? Oh, I'm going to farm with her like my dad, or I might play baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. That's my team. Or I might play basketball for the Celtics, whom I don't even like, so I'm glad I didn't play for them. And having overestimated my athletic ability by quite a bit, I said, well, I don't know, I don't know, but I had all these ambitions and dreams and things that I would accomplish, and oh yeah, I did. And I'm sitting there at youth camp and the Spirit of God tugs my heart. I go to the altar and I surrender to God. Three weeks later, I'm sitting there, or about three weeks later, I'm sitting in church on a Sunday night. And you probably could have put all of our congregation in this section here very easily, easily. You could have got them in there. Our preacher's up there preaching away. And I'm sitting right over there about where you are. And I mean, the Spirit of God is tugging at my heart. And I know that I'm being called to preach. I didn't hear a voice, nothing weird happened. Just knew. I sat right there and thought, oh my. And I'm thinking, no, no, this isn't what I had in mind. And he recalled to me my prayer at the altar at youth camp three weeks before. It's not your decision. It's my decision. It's not your choice what you're going to do with your life. It's my choice. I went down and surrendered to preach. You know, I tried to wiggle out of it a time or two before I went off and went to Bible college and took my girlfriend, who became my wife, with me. Yeah, I tried to wiggle out of it, tried to run. Did you ever think about somebody trying to run from God? Come on, it's like Adam and Eve hiding from God in the ghost. Sure, they did. Come on. So I'm going to pull my own little Jonah stunt and try to run from God. There's no place to run. So what'd I have to do? Well, every ambition, desire I had, it had to die. I had to separate myself from it. I had to deny myself. You think that was the last act of self-denial I've had in trying to follow Jesus Christ and be a Christian? Look at me just a second. There's no such thing as convenient discipleship. I said, there's no such thing as that. There's no such thing as following Jesus and you'll set the terms. Well, here's what I'll do. I'll be there on Sunday morning. I've made that commitment. I will be there. But Sunday night, we've always, well, in our family, we've kind of saved it for ourselves. And we've always had this activity, that is this. I hear what you're saying, but I won't be there on Sunday night. Really? Well, no, because I've always done this on Sunday night. So what you want would be, I mean, this came out of your walk with Jesus, right? I'm sorry, sarcasm just blows some people away, but I don't know. It's a gift. If I don't use it, I'm afraid I'm going to lose it, so I use it. I mean, really, seriously, we're going to make up the terms? Do you think if we make up the terms of a discipleship, it'll be a convenient discipleship for whom? For ourselves. And Jesus said, no, Sam, you deny yourself. And then put your name there. You're going to follow me? Then you cannot follow me if you're going to insist upon your will. Jesus Christ is Lord. I know there's all kinds of doctrinal discussion and confusion about the Lordship of Jesus and Lordship salvation, but my soul, man, He is who He is. And his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that means he has authority. And that means if he redeemed you, like they were singing about a while ago, redeemed, I am redeemed, glory to God, how do you keep from standing up and shouting or something like that? But he redeemed you, he bought you, he owns you, and you're gonna set the conditions for discipleship? No. No. Convenient discipleship is fake discipleship. And fake discipleship has done more damage than fake news. And we've had plenty of fake news. You want to be my disciple? Deny yourself. Well, I will, but I'll tell you, I'm not into that tithing thing. It's all about whether you're in or not. Mark that one off. Go by my conditions here. And I will listen to what I want to listen to, wear what I want to wear, go where I want to go, do what I want to do, miss when I want to miss. I'll do things my way, but yes, sir, I want to, how many of you are following Jesus? Oh, yeah. Don't lie about it. Because if your will supersedes his will, you are not his disciple. And take up that cross. and follow me. Take up a cross, a cross instrument of death, pain, suffering, reproach. Look at me a second. The longer Jesus tarries his coming, And the longer we live in the United States of America, we're going to see more and more and more those who truly identify with Jesus Christ, because you will be considered a reproach and a shame to this society, taking the biblical position that comes with following Jesus Christ. And if you think people are going to be smiling and have a tolerant attitude, you may not know it, but that era just passed. Now it's hostility towards anything and everything that on the grounds of devotion to the Bible and Jesus Christ is opposite to the direction of the culture. You oppose it and you're a bigot. Come on, friends. Me, I don't even know what it is to suffer. Oh, I mean, an incident here and there, disappointment here and there, stab in the back here and there. But compared to what our forefathers And our Baptist forefathers have suffered? I don't know what it is. But it doesn't mean if I live long enough, I won't know. And it doesn't mean my kids and their kids won't know. Right here, USA. Absolutely. And somebody says, well, that's not very appealing. Well, okay, you can save yourself from it. You don't have to do that. Your life? Save yourself? No, okay. Well, no, Master. Now, I believe in you. You died for my sin. I'm thankful that I'm going to heaven. I'll do the best I can, but I will... I'm not gonna pay the price of, you know, just a totally unqualified, limitless surrender to you. No, I'm not gonna... Well, Jesus said you can do that. Okay, thank you, but you lose. You lose what? You lose whatever he had for you. If you're saved, you're saved. This isn't a salvation text, what it takes to go to heaven. It's not. It's what it takes to be a disciple. And if you want to save yourself from it, then you lose what he had. How do I know what he had? Living by, we sang it this morning, where were you? Living by faith in Jesus above. My wife and I, you know, our 50 year celebration a few years ago, You know, 50 years in the ministry, we've reflected. You get older, you reflect on a lot of things. We do. And I've stopped and said many times to her, can you imagine if I could run from God? Can you imagine if we hadn't followed the Lord at this critical spot and this critical spot? We look at our lives and think, look, oh my soul, what we have missed. Somebody say, well, that ministry can be so hard. Oh, hush. Life's hard for almost everybody under every condition in some ways. But I measure the pain and the disappointments and the hurt in ministry like this. And we measure the blessings about like this. Can't even see them fingers sticking out. There's no end to it. That I could have missed by doing my thing. Yeah. That's it. But he said, lose your life, you find it. Find what? Whatever he has for you. I said, whatever he has for you in the will of God. And you might just read sometime his Sermon on the Mount, it's helpful. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. has to do with mourning over sin. I can just go through the Beatitudes, and all the Beatitudes are accompanied by what? Blessed are, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are. You make it your business to forget yourself and follow Jesus Christ, and you've got one blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you, one after another after another. You're gonna do better than that? By your will? I tell you now, you will not. So the cost is high either way. Jesus paid for our sin. That was a high cost. We give him our will and we gain the life he has for us. We save it for ourselves and we lose what he had for us. That's a price you don't want to pay. I said, that's a price you don't want to pay just to have your way. Father, I acknowledge again, you know who's here. I happen to know, and I'm not alone, I happen to know you can be the most faithful member of a church and not truly be a disciple. You can be the one that's there the most. You can put in the most money and not be a genuine disciple. I wish I didn't know this, but I do. You can stand in the pulpit and not be truly following Jesus. Because if we are truly following you, we deny ourself and we are willing to pick up the cross. Yes. the self-denial, the suffering, the disappointment, the pain, the reproach that even some Christians will ridicule and mock somebody that's sold out to you. So God, you know who's here. You know. And I pray if there are any in this assembly that, no, I shouldn't walk out this door knowing that my life is far more about myself and my will than it is. Total surrender to Jesus. I know that. So I pray that your Holy Spirit would work and that there would be results in people's hearts and lives. Total surrender. If somebody's here, may say, I don't even know God. I don't even know that my sins are forgiven. I don't even have the assurance that if I died today, I would go into the presence of the Lord. I don't even know that I'm saved. Oh God, may they have the humility of heart to humble themselves and receive Christ. Oh, that verse that we read in Sunday school, Isaiah 57, for I dwell in the high and holy place God, you said, I dwell in the high and holy place. And with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. To revive the heart of the humble and to restore the spirit of the contrite. It's just the humility of heart to say, Lord, I've been faking discipleship. Lord, I've been insisting upon a convenient fellowship. I'll follow you as long as it doesn't get in the way of things that I value that are apart from your will. Now may your Holy Spirit work and accomplish your purpose in this invitation time. In Jesus' name.