The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, March 25, 2012, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Are you a monk, a saint, or a sinner? The title given to this brief series of messages by the pastor of the church in Cebu is, Not a monk, but a saint avoiding worldliness without becoming an ascetic. Avoiding worldliness without becoming a monk. There's a motto that comes to my mind and has come to evidently many others' minds because as I've been reading and studying on this topic of worldliness and avoiding worldliness, this motto frequently comes up. We are in the world, but not of it. With that ring in my mind, I said, well, the best place for us to start in looking at this topic on worldliness is with a motto that everybody already knows and everybody already associates with the topic. I went then to my concordance and tried to find with my electronic concordance those words. And I couldn't find them. At least not put together all in one place in one line. I did find the sentiments of those words and that was the first part of this series and the first message where I sought to unpack John chapter 17 and some of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ where the Christian is described as being in the world and not of the world and has been sent into the world. Another name for such people The Bible uses for them is saints. Saints are those who are taken out of the world by God and set apart unto God. Holy ones. In John 17, Jesus addresses this reality, as I've already mentioned, of these saints and their relationship to the world. Of course, the word world has a variety of shades and meaning, even in that one passage in John 17. It can refer to the realm in which you and I live. Just being among humans can be being in the world. It can be used to describe the organization of all of the human beings in the world that are under the leadership of the devil and who are in opposition to God. That can be the world in John's Gospel. The world can be used just to describe humanity or the world in which we live. In John, the most notable and most important phrase is when he speaks of the world hating us. The world hating God, hating Jesus, and those whom the Father has sent into the world. The world. The flesh, and I'm going to use that word flesh to describe, I believe, a biblical reality of the worldly influence which exists in each one of us. And the devil, the prince of this world. These are the ones that are at war with God and with his saints. Jesus and his followers were about to face the most intense battle between the world under the leadership of the devil and all of his hosts against Jesus Christ. Jesus was headed for the cross. Jesus was about to be put to death by the devil and his host. Jesus knows that when He leaves, His disciples will remain in the world. And they will have to face this battle without His personal presence with them as He had been with them when He walked on the earth. Jesus knows the difficulty that they are about to face And so knowing these things, He, there in the upper room, gives them this upper room discourse regarding their things that they need to know to face this battle. And then He prays for them, prays for them in the light of this coming battle. And it's very interesting that Jesus did not pray. As a matter of fact, He prayed specifically that they would not be taken out of the world. For one of the ways that people try to deal with this problem of worldly-ness is to get out of the world. They form little communities which they think will be communities free from worldly influence. In the past they've called them monasteries or convents. in which people thought, if we can get away from the mass of the world, we can get away from worldly influences, and we can be more holy, more saint-like, and maybe even, in their wording, become a saint. But Jesus prays, do not take them out of the world. That's not His answer for His people. Instead, He unpacks and He prays for these who will be in the world and not of the world and are sent back into the world. When addressing such a topic as avoiding worldliness, many have, and there is a very real temptation to run to lists Do this. Don't do that. And you will avoid worldliness. Now the Bible has some lists. Some very important lists. And it's real tempting just to run to those lists and start laying down application after application. Don't do this. Don't do this. Do this. Do this. And you and I can avoid worldliness. But that's not the way the Bible unpacks this. And that's certainly not the way I'm going to unpack this. Those lists, even, that the Bible gives come within a much broader context with some very important general and foundational principles. And so that's where I'm beginning in this series, beginning with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in his prayer. And now, coming to some other New Testament passages where this reality of dealing with the world, some foundational principles regarding the Christian's relationship to being in the world but not of the world and yet sent into the world are addressed. And in particular today, I want us to look at several passages in the book of Galatians. So if you would open your Bibles to Galatians, we'll want to look at this letter that was written to some Christians in Galatia that they were in the battleground where the world, this worldly mass within the flesh and the devil waged war against God's people. False worldly teachers. sought to pervert the Word which Christ had given to His apostles and to His people in which these apostles had taught to these Christians. And these worldly teachers were seeking to pervert that, saying, belief, faith, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ was not enough. You had to be circumcised. You had to keep all the law. I'm not going to expound the book of Galatians. I'm going to avoid a lot of references to the things in the book of Galatians, and I just want to hit these three texts that reference or speak of the relationship of the Christian to the world. The first, Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Paul in this passage says, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me." Second passage, Galatians chapter 5 and verse 24. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. And the capstone statement which brings us right to this issue of the Christian and worldliness. The capstone which as it were takes in these other two statements and much more in this book is found in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 14. May it never be that I should boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." Paul describes in these three verses the nature of conversion. And he describes it as a radical, painful, shameful death. what Jesus described as being taken out of the world by the Father. Jesus looks, or excuse me, Paul looks at and describes in terms of its impact upon the Christian's life. And that impact he describes as a crucifixion. So now look with me at these verses, if you will. My first heading and probably the only one I'll get to this morning. Living in the world and not being of it is life after death. Living in the world and not being of it is life after death. Galatians 2 and verse 20, in the midst of Paul's argument against this Galatian heresy, comes to this point of telling us something about Himself. There's an emphatic change. I. I. I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who delivered Himself up for me. We have him describing something of his life as a Christian and how that transition took place. I have been crucified. I am, I stand having been crucified sometime in the past with Christ. I presently, Paul speaking of his own personal experience, I presently stand in the posture of one who has been crucified. He ties it to Christ. He says it's with Christ. There's a relationship between what has happened to me and what happened to Jesus there upon the cross. Jesus was crucified. He died. And when He died, I died. And the virtue of His death is mine by faith. And when I came to faith in Christ, I died. And in a peculiar way, he addresses his death. His death is death to the law. Paul knew that as an unbeliever, he stood before God on the basis of his law-keeping. And he was inadequate He was inadequate in His law-keeping, so that He knew, but based on my law-keeping, I am condemned. And so therefore, when the gospel came to Him, and He was exposed, and He saw in His own heart the covetousness, He saw in His own heart that sin, which as a Pharisee, yet was still blatant there, the law came to Him. And he died. That righteous man as he had viewed himself as a Pharisee, that man who thought he was doing a pretty good job of pleasing God and keeping the law, he died and he says it was like a crucifixion. I was crucified. Crucified. Thankfully, graciously crucified. in that I came to see that I could not stand before God on my own, but that in Christ Jesus I could have a righteousness I could never gain on my own. And so that righteous man that I thought I was died. One commentator said, the apostle here is describing how death to the law and release from legal bondage were brought about to him. He no longer stood before God on the basis of his keeping of the law, but on the basis of another one who kept the law for him. And so he goes on after saying, I had been crucified, he says, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Now this is interesting, the language here, because it's very similar to something Jesus prayed at the end of his prayer in John 17 in verse 26. The love which you loved me may be in them and I in them. Jesus says, one of the encouragements to those who are in the world, but are not of the world, He says, I am in them. I am there with them. You love them, I love them, and I am in them. Empowering them, strengthening them. And Paul here says, it's no longer I who live, Christ lives in me. My life is taken up with, my life is filled with Christ. The old man, who I was, is no longer alive. He was put to death. The old man has been crucified. And Christ has taken up residence in my heart. And it's by Christ's grace, Christ's strength, it is by Christ and for Christ alone that I live. I am no longer a slave of sin. The bondage, the dominion of sin has been broken. I am now a slave of righteousness. I have become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. I am a new creature in whom all things have become new. I no longer live for myself, but for Christ. Christ, the righteous one, dwells in me. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." But then he goes on, well, Paul, are you some sort of ghost? Have you lost all rationality? Have you lost all personality? Paul, are you gone? He says, no. He says, I live in the flesh. And here he uses the word flesh just to describe being a mortal. I live in the flesh by faith in the Son of God. I live in this flesh. This flesh with all its weakness. This flesh with all the difficulty and vulnerability to temptation. I am no longer pretending, he says, to be independent. But I live by faith in the Son of God. I am consciously depending upon Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for grace, mercy, and peace on a daily basis. This is how I live. This is how He lives in me. I am trusting in the Son of God who cleanses me from all my sins when I fail. I am trusting in the Son of God whose grace abounds to me at the point of my weakness. I am no longer living by sight. I'm not just looking at those other Pharisees around me and saying, what do they think of me? I'm not just looking at the world of matter and saying that's all that matters. I live by faith in the Son of God. I live by faith and not by sight. I live by faith in the Son of God, this one who has revealed himself to me as the second person of the Godhead, the one whom the Father sent, the only one who can save me. Paul's saying, I've died, yet I live. And I live being animated by Christ, completely dependent upon Jesus Christ. This is Paul's conversion experience, at least one of the descriptions of that. Paul's testimony, Galatians 2 and verse 20. Second passage, Galatians 5 and verse 24. What Paul experienced, Paul now says, And in a slightly different way, yet still in a similar language, has happened to every believer. Everyone who has been taken out of the world by the Father and given to the Son, now those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. The passage now turns. Paul speaks of those who belong to Jesus Christ. Every Christian. And he notes something that has changed in their life. He says that they have crucified the flesh. The flesh. Here the flesh is not talking about his human nature. His human humanity. It's talking about that which made him part of that community, that organized effort at opposition to God. I crucified the flesh." Describes that part of him, that when he was in bondage to sin, ruled over by sin, and he stood opposed to the true God. It describes what all men are by nature from birth. Our thoughts, our desires, our delights, our choices are at war with God. In a different place, Paul could say in Romans 8, verse 7, that the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, neither indeed is it able to do so. And in this very passage, notice with me Galatians 5, verse 17, for the flesh sets its desire against, in opposition to, the Spirit, that which the Spirit of God does within the man. It sets its desire against that realm, against that influence, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." This is what's happened. He says, to every believer, they have crucified Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh. And notice he goes a little deeper here, a little more expressive where he says, with its passions and desires. What did it mean that So a Christian has crucified the flesh. That which was in opposition to God. He says, well, here's in part what it means. It means the way that that person responded to circumstances. Passions. The word passion here is the word that is often used to describe the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His passion as He went to the cross and He suffered. He was passionate in that sense. The term is used to describe His, and is actually translated most often in the New Testament, sufferings. And so here the word seems to indicate that what was put to death were those passions. How I related to difficult or responded, reacted to difficult, painful, or positive circumstances in my life. I used to do it as one who was concerned only for myself. I used to do it thinking how I can, what I will get out of it, or what I will feel from it. That's all I thought about. what my spirit in opposition to God would do when pain came to me. God, why are you doing this to me? Or the passions that would receive some pleasure from something that came from without and say, Ha! This is what I deserve. This is mine. Paul said, for everyone who is in Christ Jesus, That was put to death. That was crucified in salvation. In coming to Christ. So that I don't look at these things and get angry at God. I don't blame Him for what's going on. And I don't take all these pleasures as though they are mine. That had to be put to death. That was what was crucified. And, he says, the desires. Longings, interests, goals, lusts, the things I once lived for, the things I once had to have, the things I once was passionately seeking after, that too had to die. Now, that takes many different forms. For Paul, that meant he had to put to death all that he thought was so important. Philippians chapter 3. I thought all my law keeping and all my standing before my fellow Jewish leaders that that was what really mattered. And he had to put that to death. That's not what really matters. Now Paul in this passage, in talking for all the other Christians, gives us a little better picture of what it means that these passions and desires were put to death when he gives us a picture of what those passions and desires produce in those who live according to the flesh. Look with me at verses 19 to 21. I'll just read them. I think they make plenty good sense. Anybody who understands it, English. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, patent, which are sexual sins, immorality, impurity, sensuality, sins associated with taking away God's special place, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, battles with others, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Now notice, Paul is saying, these are the things that were put to death. These were the things that were crucified by the one who came to Christ. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh. They had an active part in putting to death these things. A deliberate act by one being saved in conjunction with God's act of saving. In conversion, there is a deliberate turning from what He once was. The Christian turns back from that and deals with it in such a way in his life that it's like he's crucifying it. Edi described this passage this way, the flesh was crucified once for all when they believed and it remains dead. It was lost, it has lost its living mastery through a violent and painful death. You see he's describing repentance here. Graphic picture of what repentance looks like. Repentance looks like a crucifixion. But here it is said that they crucified the flesh. Their old, unrenewed nature, when they believed and were converted, they inflicted death upon it. In and through union with Christ, believers themselves die to the law and escape its penalty. But at the same time, the flesh is also crucified. Its supremacy is overthrown. The old self was crucified. Now think of it for a minute. Death. Death is definite. It happens at a point in time. Death is permanent. There's no turning back. once someone has died. Death is complete. It's the whole person that's radically transformed. Death by crucifixion is all those things and more. For death by crucifixion is gruesome, painful, shameful, and obvious. I've stood by some of the bedside of brethren and others who are not Christians and watched them die. And sometimes you're wondering, are they still there? Was that the last breath? And you think, oh, that was it. Or you're singing along and you think, maybe they're still hearing us. When did they breathe that last? Because when we got to the Amen, they were looking upon the face of their Savior and were not listening to us sing anymore. Couldn't tell when it happened. Crucifixion was not that way. When somebody was crucified, the person who died and everybody around could tell He was dead. This is what Paul says as he describes in these words the Christian relating to the world. And in conversion, he says, there was a radical break with that which was part of me, this thing called the flesh, which was part of the world. There was a radical break in me with that. And as a matter of fact, that's true for every true believer. But now the capstone passage, Galatians chapter 6 and verse 14. Galatians 6 and verse 14. But may it never be that I should boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Crucifixion in the life of the saint is an inward spiritual reality. in none of these passages is Paul referring to some sort of external reenactment of a literal physical crucifixion. That somehow there is merit or positive value in taking a wooden cross over my shoulder and dragging it through town and then maybe for some time strapping myself on that cross and feeling the pain of it. Paul is not talking about that. There is no virtue in that. But he's talking about a real, radical, inward, spiritual reality which cannot be disentangled, untied, disconnected from the death of Jesus. This crucifixion here, as he talks about it, takes in both of those aspects that we saw in the previous one and more. For here, he talks about specifically our issue, how this crucifixion in conversion affects my relationship, not to the flesh within, but to this whole world system that stands in opposition to God. That world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. The world was hanging on one cross, as it were, and I was hanging on another cross. And when the world looked at me, what did they see? A gruesome death. And when I looked at the world, what did I see? something gruesomely killed. Now, I don't want to be gross, but we need to feel the impact of these words, and the word crucified doesn't have the impact it ought to have on us. One, because we don't see crucifixions, and when we do, they're sterilized, nice little wooden or metal or ceramic things that are very stationary and oftentimes painted very beautifully, or even if they look realistic, there's not much real dislike to them. Two stories I read this week in the news. One was of some Mexican police officers who found some people who'd been killed in the drug cartel wars in Mexico. They were searching for their bodies, for they only found their heads. Imagine walking along the road and there you come across a head and another one, severed. The next was of a woman who when she was 19 or 17 years old, fell out of a plane two miles above the ground before the plane crashed as it was coming down in the jungles. And she was amazingly preserved. And she was able to get up and walk away from that accident. And as she was walking away, she came around a bank and she saw people still sitting in their chairs, their heads buried in the bank. obviously dead. And I thought it had to be gruesome. That was an accident. The one was a deliberate act of violence. This is a deliberate act of execution. This was gruesome. This is gruesome language that Paul is using here to describe this, because he wants to make a point. This is what happened to me. And when my old Pharisee friends saw me, and they heard me saying, I've done away with all that. I'm not earning my salvation anymore. Come to Jesus Christ and live. They said, what happened to you? I'm crucified. And they thought, oh, that is disgusting. And when He saw them all enjoying one another, patting one another on the back for the latest thing that they had done in righteousness according to their understanding, He said, that is so ugly. I would never go back to that. You know, if I came along that road where I happened to see those heads, I don't think I'd ever want to go down that road again. I don't care if they picked them, I just don't think I could ever bring myself to go down that road again. Paul's saying that's what the world was to him. what he was to the world. And here, as this capstone expression, he's describing all that anyone could say. This was where I lived in the world. This is what the world was to me. Here's where I found my passion in the world, in opposition to God. Here is where I found my delight in the world, in opposition or neglect of God. Here is where I lived and enjoyed. And now when I go back there, if for some reason I find myself in the place of that, it's grotesque to me. It's been crucified. And they, if they think anything of me in reality, and there's anything of my Christian life displayed at all, their whole thought is, boy, you're worse than weird. Paul and every Christian from birth lived as part of this world, and now everyone in salvation can say, I have been crucified by the gracious work of God, regenerating and working in me, and in response and in faith and repentance, I have put to death, I have crucified the flesh And the world stands in crucified to me and I to the world. And that's what I look at. And guess what? Paul goes further. Because Paul doesn't just say, that's the way it is. He says, that's what I boast in. That's what I love to speak about. That's what I want to declare. Just as we sang, were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." I want to boast in this. Boast in this cross of Jesus Christ. Because it all ties back to that. Not boasting in my own efforts to crucify myself, but boasting in the cross of Jesus Christ by which the world was crucified to me. And my response in that, but it goes back to the cross, what Christ has done for me. Christ died for me that I might be crucified to the world. Christ died for me that the world is crucified to me. This is my boast in what Christ has done for me. So my question to each here this morning, do these verses describe your conversion experience? Is this what God did for you when He saved you? You're very ready to say, God has chosen me out of the world. God has given me to the Son. God has been pleased to open my eyes to see that Jesus Christ is the one whom God sent from heaven to die for me. What a glorious truth. God has given me, Jesus Christ has revealed to me that the God of the Bible is the only true God. And you, like the people at Carmel, can stand and say, Jehovah, He is the God. Jehovah, He is the God. And you've come to see that. And you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His Messiah. That's all good. But can you say that when God took you out of the world, you, as you knew yourself to be, as you know you were, was that crucified? Did that person die on that day? And did you respond? Did you respond in repentance and faith? A repentance which looked like this. This is what I was. It's ugly. I hate it. Put it to death. I don't want it. I must have Christ and I will turn to Christ and put away these things that I once was and I once loved." My friend, is that a description of your conversion? That's a description of Paul's conversion. That's a description that Paul says is true of everyone to whom the Son, who belong to the Son. Is that true of you? Can you say with Paul, formerly Saul, that you have been crucified with Christ? Did you go through that kind of painful reality? Have you faced the shame associated with such a change? Now, for some of us, and some of you sitting here this morning, I know that change was so radical and so real And all of your friends that you used to hang out with, and that you used to sin with, and that you used to spend time with, they looked at you and said, man, what has happened to you? And for some of you, that meant those friends dissipated. They just vanished. They didn't want to be around you. Because all you seemed to want to talk about was Jesus, and what Jesus Christ did on the cross for you, and what Jesus Christ could do for them. And they said, oh, enough of that. If I want to be preached at, I'll go to church. And some of you have faced that and you've felt that. Now, some of you have felt that in your families. For your families thought, well, you were pretty good. Why did you have to change? You know, one man who told me once that he was an ungodly drug addict and foul-mouthed, and when God saved him, his mom said, One back. Mom, I wasn't nice to you? I didn't help you? And you want that person back? When now this is the one I am who loves you and wants to help you? Yeah. Crucified. Some of you are saying, but you don't understand, Pastor Carlson, I grew up going to church. I've always been in church. I've always been a good kid. I heard it. My mom said to me, believe it or not, my mom said to me as an adult, Bart, you never gave me a day of trouble in my life. I don't know what she was drinking that day. Seriously, I know what I did to bring trouble into her life, but that's what she said to me. And basically, I was a good kid. About the worst I can think about is I cursed once and I ate the lava soap and never again. I mean, I can remember the sins that I committed, but the fact was, I was what everybody thought was a good kid. Everybody thought I was a member in the church. Just because of the way I lived. I know where you live. I know what it's like to grow up in that setting. And you say, but it never happened to me. Well, thank God that you don't have a gutter-to-God conversion. Thank God for that. Because you don't have scars that some of our brethren have to live with all the rest of their life. You don't have that. But nonetheless, you need to be crucified. And what needs to be crucified in you is the neglect of Jesus Christ as your Supreme King. What needs to be crucified in you as needed to be crucified in me was the self-righteousness that thought, well, you know, I am pretty good. I mean, if my mom could say that, certainly I must have been pretty good. And what needs to die in you and what needs to be crucified is what needed to be crucified in the Apostle Paul. Self-righteousness. Self-contentment. Neglect of the great salvation that there is in Jesus Christ. And that your sins, though they are but lying, little lies, you're not covering up drug problems and stealing. You're covering up that little bit of a bad attitude and you're covering up the fact that you didn't really take the trash out your brother did for you and you're covering and you know little things that one of the big scope of the world what do they mean well in the big scope of the world they may not mean much but before God they mean everything. For every sin is an infinite offense to a holy God who is perfectly infinite, and you deserve hell for that. And you need to be crucified to your self-righteous minimizing of sin. Just like the Apostle Paul who had to see coveting in his heart. Have you experienced this kind of crucifixion? Did Christ die for you and have you died with Him? And did you put to death the flesh? And do you go around? Do you go around boasting in what Christ has done for you? Is it just the kind of thing that you like to talk about? Some of you here in the Christian school or in other Christian school settings or homeschool settings, you know what? Some of your Christian friends are going to be the ones who are going to look at you when true conversion comes to you. They're going to look at you and say, whoa, what happened to you? I'm okay. Well, if you're okay, then why do you want to do this? And why do you want to do that? And why are you living this way? And why are you so upset when all I want to do is sit down and read the Bible together and pray? And why are you so upset when I ask you, are you really believing in Jesus Christ? Well, of course I am, how dare you ask? Why do you get so offended? You see, some of you are going to have to offend some of your nice Christian friends. by boasting in what Christ has done for you and evidencing this kind of a radical conversion where you have been crucified to self and you have put to death self and self-righteousness. Is this what has happened to you? Let me ask you something. You say, well, Pastor Carlson, what does that all have to do with worldliness? You and I both heard the words of the Lord Jesus, and you and I both know the motto, we are not of the world. What does that mean? That means this kind of radical change has happened in your life. That's what it means to not be of the world. Not being of the world does not mean, well, I go to church. Oh, it's good that you go to church, but that's not what it means to, quote, be not of the world. It's this kind of radical change in your life. And if this kind of radical change has happened and Christ paid the price for it with His own death upon the cross, then why, why in the world would you want to go back to anything that looks like that? That looks like what you were when that was crucified. Why would you want to go back to anything like that? If Christ paid such a price for you, can you say with the psalmist, oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, oh, for a billion tongues to sing, oh, for a terabyte full of disk space to put all of the praises of my God? It would be far too small. Is that the heart that's within you? Well, you see, this is the heart that's necessary to ever even come close. This is the kind of experience that's necessary to ever come close to actually wanting to be somebody who's not worldly. It's where it begins. Trusting in Christ. Repenting of your sins. Being converted by the living and true God. The world then becomes something crucified to you, through Christ, and you to the world. And if you sit here this morning and you say, you know, I've never had an experience like that. I've been a member at Trinity Baptist Church, or I've never been a member at Trinity Baptist Church. I grew up in a Christian home. But you say, you know, I've never had an experience like Pastor Carlson just described from the Apostle Paul. Never. Don't despair. cry out to Christ and he will crucify the old self right here and right now and you lay hold of Jesus Christ and you can follow after him I didn't get to my second point which is Luke 9 23 that then you will live a life of taking up your cross daily but you go to him now don't despair don't sit there and tell me well I'm not a Christian that's a terrible thing to say Imagine that I walk into one of the local prisons, and I walk in there, and there's all these people that are there locked up, and I say, I have a pardon for anybody who wants it! Just confess your sin, confess your crime before all the world! And look to this one judge. Call upon Him. And keep calling upon Him. And He will give you a pardon. He has it. He'll give it. Oh, woe is me! I'm a prisoner! My friend, when you say, I'm not a Christian, You're saying the first true thing. But now say the others. Turn from your sins and turn to Christ. Don't stop shaking the bars of your cell and saying, oh, I'm a prisoner. Cry to God for that pardon. Look to Him for that salvation. And may God be pleased to crucify many a sinner today. Let's pray. Father, be merciful to us. Write your word upon our hearts in a way that will truly accomplish your glorious saving purposes. We plead in Jesus' name, amen.