Bible open, we're looking at that section from verse 24. And we began this morning in seeing what self-denial is. We saw that it comes in the context at verse 13, Jesus is asking about his identity. Who is he as a person? And Peter concludes that Jesus is the Christ, that is the one sent by God to save sinners, and that he is the Son of God. that there is a statement of faith in who Jesus is. But not only do we think about the person of Christ, the second section, verse 21 to 23, talks about the work of Christ. What has Jesus come to do? He has come to suffer many things, to be killed, and to be raised on the third day. So we've got the person of Christ and the work of Christ. And because of these two things, Jesus lays claim to the lives of people. Follow me. Because of who he is, the Christ, the Son of God, because of his willingness to die and then to be raised again, he then calls people, follow me. But we examined that call. It's not a simple call to follow him. It's a call to give up everything for him, isn't it? It's a call to give up everything for him. Because we see it, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And we examined that this morning. There's a self-denial and there's the bearing of the cross. We thought about how focused we are on ourselves. I give you a few ideas. Self-absorbed, self-confident, self-love and so on, self-care, I'm sure you can think up countless other phrases with the idea of self in it. But this one is so different, so radically different. Self-denial. Stop thinking about yourself. Stop putting yourself first. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his all for his people. And so we are to deny ourselves. And so we thought about that, about denying ourself sin. If our right hand causes us to sin, cut it off. We're to be radically opposed to sin in our life. We're to be careful to put sin to death, get rid of it by the grace of God. But not only that, not only are we to war against sin as we sang in Psalm 18, God prepares us for that battle, we're also to deny ourselves things that are lawful, things that in and of themselves are neither good nor bad, but we're to deny ourselves if They become excessive. Although things can be good when used properly, too much of them can become a snare. And so there are many things that we deny ourselves as Christians because we're seeking to live moderately before God. Our focus is not on us enjoying all these things that are lawful in and of themselves, but our focus is on serving Christ. If anyone wants to follow Jesus, realize that it's not simply a case of having a comfortable seat in a church for a service or two services in a week. That's not it. That's not what following Jesus looks like. It's a radical change in the whole course of your life, denying yourself, denying your place at the center of your life, putting Christ first, and then bearing the cross. And what does it mean to bear the cross? We thought that it's not the illnesses that are common to humanity. Sometimes we say, well, everyone has their own cross. That's not what it means. But this cross is the identification of us as a people with Jesus Christ. He bore his cross, and we are willing to bear ours, to suffer the reproach of Christ, and to suffer for righteousness' sake. Are you prepared to suffer for Christ? Are you prepared to lose anything? Because Jesus demands it from you. Are you prepared to lose? Lose out in the world? Are you prepared to face mockery and ridicule? Well, Jesus tells us, and look, nine fleshes are like just with one word more, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Day by day, we should consciously be choosing to follow Jesus by denying ourselves and being prepared to suffer. We don't go out seeking suffering, of course. We don't go out seeking persecution. No Christian wants to be persecuted, but we do recognize that there are times where we will have to stand up for our faith and speak out for what we know to be right, and that will attract persecution. Jesus lays on us a difficult and a dangerous call. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. But it's immediately followed by the why, the reasons. And I want you to notice here how merciful God is in the Bible. He would have the right to simply command you and me to do anything. do X, do Y, do Z. The Bible, in a sense, could simply be a book like that, where we're told, do this and do that. And we simply should follow, because God is our creator, God is our lawgiver, and God is our judge. God has the right to command us to do anything, and we should do it, in a sense, without even thinking about it, because he has that authority. to command. You know the game Simon Says? I'm sure the children have all played it at kids club or at school, where Simon says, do this and do that and so on. God, in a sense, has the right to command us to do whatever he wants us to do without receiving any questions back. But in the Bible, that is not how God treats us. Although the Lord is our creator, our lawgiver, and our judge, He often, indeed always in some form, gives us reasons and encouragements and motivations to help us understand why he wants us to do that. And that's what we see here, this same idea that there's an appeal to us. Yes, it's a difficult and a dangerous calling to deny yourself and to take up your cross in following Jesus. But there's a reason why. And that's what we want to consider. First of all, the first reason is that you and I are to think about our soul. Think about your soul. We don't always think about our soul. We don't always think that there are two parts to man, a body and a soul. But it's really important that we do. Our main interest is not the here and now, as much as those consume our thoughts, Our main interest is not the health of our body, although that's really important. Our main interest must be our soul and how things are in our soul. Look at verse 25. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And that same word for life is the word that's used for soul. There's a paradox here, isn't there? Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The very thing you're trying to do is not the thing that you achieve. You try to save your life, you lose your life. You try to lose your life, you save your life. That's the paradox here. Try to get a richer life, what will you end up being? Ultimately poorer. Try to get a happier life. Pursue that. You'll end up with a sadder life. Try to have a more fulfilled life. Pursue that. For its own end, you will have a discontented life. We pursue, don't we, what we think is important. But by pursuing what we think to be important, we can so easily miss the thing that is essential. And it's this fact that we do have a soul and that there are spiritual interests to consider. Christianity may at times seem hard and it may seem burdensome. For those who are outside of Christ, Christianity of course seems impossible because the commands of Christ are hard, but there's no sense of grace to hold them up and to sustain them in it. But here we're told this very thing, that if you lose your life for Christ's sake, You will find it. You will find it. The paradox is there in that word, the meaning of the word life. One person desires to save his life. That is, he desires to save the physical, temporal good, the things in the here and now. This person is focused on their health and their well-being, on their wealth, their prosperity, and so on. But that is actually a lower form of the word life. There's a higher form, the spiritual concern, how things are in our soul, how things are between us and God. Is there any life there on that level? And so whilst the first person tries to save his life, that is the physical life in the here and now, the other person denies himself these things. He's not concerned about these things. They don't have ultimate importance. Rather, he loses these things for the sake of Christ, or at least he is prepared to lose these things. He doesn't go out seeking to lose his health and strength or to lose his money, but he's prepared. He holds these things loosely. We all know someone who's tight-fisted, don't we? Try to get someone that's tight-fisted to part with their money. You just can't do it. Their fist is clenched around that money. But that's not the way God wants us to be. We should hold everything loosely. So that if God demands in his providence that we were to lose something, whether it's money, or our health, or a family member, or whatever he may take from us, we willingly let it go. You see, someone, this second person is willing to lose anything. He'll deny himself any pleasure, anything, all sin and anything else, he will deny himself these things. Because he has his eyes on something more important, on his spiritual interests. And whilst he loses his life, this lower form of life, he actually ends up finding life. spiritual life, eternal life, the higher form of life. You see the first person won't deny himself anything and ultimately he ends up losing everything. The second person denies himself willingly and ends up gaining everything. Do you see the paradox there? Do you see how foolish it is to live exhaustively, exclusively for the here and now? You may gain a lot of things now, but ultimately you lose absolutely everything. Stark warning, isn't it? And verse 26 tells us, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Friends, let me tell you this. If you want to, if you're ambitious enough, if you're driven enough, you can gain the whole world. You can do whatever you want. You can achieve what you want to achieve. You can be who you want to be. You can set yourselves goals. You can take small steps, and you can achieve all those goals. But let me say this to you. What benefit will it be to you? What will you gain from achieving that thing, that dream, that thing you set your heart on? What will it ultimately benefit you if by gaining that thing you end up losing your soul? Because you've had no time to consider your spiritual interests. You've had no time to consider the things that are of ultimate importance. Think about money. You can sell your soul for money. You can sell your soul in order to get more and more. You can work flat out seven days a week, not regarding the Sabbath day. You can try to get ahead by being untruthful, by not showing kindness, but having a mean spirit. You can push and push and push until you get to the top, and you can gain the whole world. You can gain money, but you'll lose your soul. you'll lose what is of most importance. Pleasure. You can sell your soul for pleasure. You can find any pleasure you want in the world, physical, mental, emotional, sexual, any pleasure is open to you. And if you want it, you can go and find it. But you can sell your soul to get it. Because it's denying the law of God. You can find friends. You can sell your soul for friends. Young people, you should consider this at school. Not all friends are good friends. Not all people are good people to spend time with. There are those who don't share the same principles we share. There are those who don't believe the same things we believe. There are those who don't believe the Bible. They have no love for Jesus or his word. And we can sell our soul in order to fit in with them. We can try to adapt the way we live our life in order to ingratiate ourselves with them and get them to like us. And we can get as many friends as we want in a sense, but what does it profit us to gain the whole world of friends if we lose our soul? If we end up so much sinning against God that we become friends with the world? See, that's the question and that's the warning here in verse 26. And you can apply it to whatever circumstance you're in. What is it that your heart really wants? It could be anything. It'll be unique for you, different from me and other people here. But the same question applies. What will it profit you? What will it benefit you if you can get that thing? Will you really give up your soul? in order to get that thing? Is it worth it? Would an eternity in hell be worth it for a temporary pleasure here and now? Would perpetual soul torment be worth it so that you don't have to deny yourself here and now? See the foolishness of that? On the one hand, eternity of punishment, of God's wrath in hell, or deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus for a short time. Because our life, as we've been singing, is but a breath. The length of time we can possibly suffer in this world as a Christian is so short. But if we lose our soul, the length of time we'll suffer is an eternity. It will never, never end. What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your soul? And yet the reverse is true, isn't it? What does it profit us if we deny ourselves, but we gain everything? Jim Elliott, who was that missionary in Ecuador who became a martyr for his faith, he said this, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain. what he cannot lose. And what wisdom is there in that? If Jim Elliot had lived until he was 100 years old, that statement would have still been true, but it wouldn't be as poignant as it is. The fact that he was willing to die a death as a Christian. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Friends, deny yourself sin. Deny yourself the sin that would make you more money, knowing that you have full riches in Jesus Christ. Deny yourself the pleasures of this world, knowing that when you get to heaven, there will be pleasures at the right hand of God forevermore. Deny yourself anything that Christ calls you to deny yourself now, knowing that he will more than make up for it in the life that is to come. And that leads us in to our second point, We're asking our question, why? Why should we deny ourselves? The first reason was we're to think about our soul. The second reason is to think of the ample reward. Think of the ample reward that Jesus has laid up for his people. We see this in verse 27. For the son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his father, and then he will repay each person accordingly. to what he has done. Notice there the fact. The Son of Man, that is Jesus, the Son of Man is going to come. Jesus died on the cross, he rose from the dead, and after 40 days of being seen by many witnesses, he ascended up into heaven to sit at God's right hand. And that is where he has remained. That is where he has been, physically present at the right hand side of God, ruling and reigning over all things that happen in this world. That is where he is today, ever living to intercede for his people. But know this, the Son of Man is going to come. He will return. The world doesn't believe it. The world has no thought of it, but it is a fact that on a particular date, at a particular time, the Lord Jesus Christ will come with his angels, and he will come in the glory of his father, and he will return to earth. And he will take the world by surprise. He will come like a thief in the night when we least expect it. Then he will come in this great glory and no one will miss it. The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised. It'll be a cosmic event. The son of man is coming again, but he is coming to judge. And that's what it says at the end of verse 27. It talks about him repaying each person according to what he has done. This opens up for us the idea of a reward. Of course, there are those who have been evil. There are those who have forfeited their soul. They've pursued pleasure or money or any other sin. They've pursued their life on their own terms. And such people will be judged for their sin. and they will be amply punished with an eternity in hell. But for those who have denied themselves and taken up their cross and followed after Jesus, they also will be in a sense repaid or rewarded for what they have done. They'll be rewarded according to what they have done. It's very important to notice here, and this is a doctrine that sometimes confuses us, Especially as Protestants, we want to be very clear in saying that we're not justified by works. We're not made right with God on the basis of what we have done. Because what we have done is never good enough. But it is true that God is willing, in his grace, to reward us for good works. It's not on the basis of those good works, but he is pleased in his grace to give us blessings. He doesn't owe us those rewards. It's not a transaction. If I, as a Christian, give my tithe, if I, as a Christian, keep the Sabbath day, if I, as a Christian, read my Bible and pray every day, then God will give me exactly back in return what I'm owed. That's not the way it is. That's a pharisaical way of thinking. That's the legalist way of thinking. That is not how it works. God owes us no debts. As we're told in one of the parables, at the end of the day, we simply remain unprofitable servants doing our duty. We're simply doing what God has told us to do, and we deserve nothing for doing it. And yet, friends, does it surprise you that the gracious God who is willing to save is willing to graciously reward, to give abundantly what we don't deserve, not on the basis that we have been good, but to reward us in his grace according to our works. For those who deny themselves and take up their cross, it is a difficult life. They're denying themselves pleasures that they could have had in the world, They're bearing the reproach of Christ, which is a heavy burden, excruciating pain, mental anguish. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ sees this, takes note of it, and is pleased to more than make up for it in heaven, to give grace and rewards. We read that verse this morning from Hebrews 11. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ of greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward. It is not wrong for Christians to look forward to the reward. As long as we're not looking for it as a transaction, As if we're not to say to God, it's not fair what you're giving me now. I expect back this in return for my suffering. It's not that. But we may, by God's grace, look forward to a reward. He will more than make up for what we have suffered. As we're told there also, without faith it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. One of the fundamental facts of the Christian faith, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And sometimes the reward is here on earth. Those who honor me, I will honor. And how often it is the case that someone who has denied themself in some way has been honored in some way. The Lord makes up for what they have suffered. And so he is able to do that in this life, to give encouragements, to show his grace. And yet, even if we receive no such honors in this life, we can be sure that the reward in the future is ample. Think of heaven. Think of how great it will be to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. We've denied ourselves and taken up our cross. All that will seem as a momentary affliction, not even worth comparing with the glory which is to be revealed. Because there we will stand before one who died on the cross for us. And will we stand beside Him and say, well, you died on the cross. I bore a cross. I faced some laughter. Someone mocked me once for being a Christian. Will that really compare with what Jesus did? And He will reward us. Friends, how great it will be to have Jesus Christ personally and really wiping away every tear from our eyes. And in that day, We will rejoice that we had tears to shed. In that day we will rejoice in the fact we suffered because the hand of Jesus will wipe away tears from our eyes. It will be more than worth it to have the comfort and the love of Christ. I challenge you, name one thing in this world that is worth pursuing. Something in this world that you chase after that would make not following Christ worth it. There's nothing, there's nothing in this life that can justify any course of action that does not follow Christ. Is there any secret sin that you harbor in your heart that you think is worth it because no one else can see it? Is there any immoderate desire for something that's maybe lawful, it's not wrong in and of itself, but you pursue it excessively? Is that worth it instead of following Christ? Is there anything that's so dear to you that you cannot stand to lose it? That's a challenging thought. Is there anything that's so dear to you that you couldn't stand to lose it? Anything. You might think perhaps God could take away your money, he could take away your house, you'd be fine with that, but if he takes away a child or a family member, you couldn't cope. But is there anything that you're holding so tightly that you couldn't stand to lose it. If God takes, remember we thought this morning of Job, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Friends, we ought to appreciate how precious our souls are. Remember, you can gain the whole world and lose your soul. But also remember that Christ can richly compensate us for anything we've lost, not on the basis of works, Not because we deserve it, but because he delights in showing mercy. He delights in giving what is good. And he wants us to eventually in heaven to forget all our suffering and to enjoy his blessedness forever. So friends, this morning we thought about what self-denial means. This evening we see two powerful reasons why we ought to deny ourselves. We have a soul. that can be lost forever, and we also can be rewarded in heaven. Dear friends, will you take up this verse? Will you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus? Because I can tell you, it is worth it. Amen.