What is a Christian: By Decision

Father, we thank You for today and we are grateful that You

have brought us together tonight to spend time in Your Word.

We realized that in the middle of the week things get kind of

hectic and time consuming. And yet, Lord, those who are

here have made the effort to be here, to hear the Word of the

Lord and to understand what it is You have for us.

So our prayer is that You would use Your word in our lives to

strengthen us, convict us, comfort us, and motivate us to

live for the glory of your Kingdom.

We love you Lord, and we are so grateful for those who are here,

maybe for the first time, others for the second time, others for

a long time. We just thank you.

Thank you for those who are here.

So bless our time together this evening in Jesus name, Amen.

We are discussing what I believe is probably the most crucial

topic for us to discuss at this time.

The question is what is a Christian?

And we're going to answer that question for you.

Last week was by way of introduction, and this week

we're going to begin to move through the text of Scripture

and answer what is a Christian. And I wonder if somebody asked

you that question, how you would answer that question?

Would you answer it based on what the Bible says?

Would you answer it based on your own opinion?

Would you answer it based on what your pastor has said?

How would you answer the question, What is a Christian?

Would you be able to take someone to the text of Scripture

and explain to them Christianity?

Articulate to them what Christ has clearly stated in the word

of the Lord. I would trust that that would be

the case for you. I promise that when we're all

done, 11 weeks from now, you will say, yes, I know what a

Christian is. I know that I am a Christian,

and I know that heaven is my eternal destiny.

That's very, very important. It's unfortunate that in today's

day and age, we live in a state where Christianity is very

confusing. It shouldn't be.

It's not confusing because Christ made it confusing.

It's not controversial because Christ made it controversial.

It's it's very clearly stated in the Bible about what is a

Christian that the problem is not what Jesus said.

The problem is with with teachers and and preachers and

pastors who who misread or misinterpret or mis apply what

Jesus said, thus leading to all kinds of confusion in in

churches all around the world. That shouldn't be, but it

happens that way. And that's quite unfortunate.

You know, there are there are churches that have started out

extremely strong, great churches.

In fact, if you were to think about all the churches in the

Book of Revelation, the seven churches in Asia Minor, all true

churches, all started out great, all were on fire for the Lord.

But when John writes to those seven churches under the

inspiration of the Spirit of God, the Lord speaks to those

churches because of what has taken place in them.

Even though they started out really, really good, over time

they became pretty bad. It was the downgrade of the

gospel. It was a downgrade of

Christianity in those churches. It begins, of course, with the

Church of Ephesus. That was the cold church.

They had lost their first love. And these, these seven churches,

five of whom were told to repent, show us the downgrade.

When it comes to how churches begin to move away from sound

doctrine and move away from the truth, it's Satan's ploy to

detract the church from its mission, to move the church away

from the truth of the gospel. And it begins by churches losing

their first love, that they become cold churches.

Satan's ploy is to steal their passion.

Once he steals their passion, he then begins to supplant their

devotion. That's the Church of of

Pergamum. So once a church grows cold, the

church then begins to compromise.

Once Satan is able to steal their passion, he then supplants

their devotion. And then you come to the Church

of Thyatira. Once a church grows cold, it

begins to compromise. Once it compromises, it becomes

corrupt, and Satan's ploy was to subvert their affection.

If he can effectively steal your passion, supplant your devotion,

he will subvert your affection and your church will become

corrupt. And then the the next church,

the church at Sardis, which was told to repent, that was just

the dead church there Satan secures their destruction.

And once he secures your destruction, then he seals their

deception. And that was the Church of

Laodicea. They were the counterfeit

church. And that's exactly how how Satan

begins to operate in churches that begin really, really good,

but he wants to take them away from the truth of the gospel in

the mission that they've been called to accomplish.

It's a warning to churches all around the world.

But let me give you a, a, a modern day illustration.

I think it would be good to do that for you because we can read

about the churches in Asia Minor and they're in the Scriptures.

It's all true. But when you think about

churches today, you can think about a lot of good churches all

around our community, all around our, our, our state, our

country. That started out really, really

good. But over time, things began to

change. So let me give you an

illustration. 32 years ago, I was called to be the pastor of

what was at that time, or what was that once called, the most

prestigious church in all of Southern California.

That church was called Church of the Open Door.

I was called to be their pastor. And so this church, which began

with the likes of RA Torre, a great evangelist, strong Bible

teacher, that's how the church began.

Other men along those lines were Louis Talbot, the founder of

Talbot Seminary. He was another great man in a

long list of men who were great. You would know the church

baseball basically, by the testimony of J Vernon McGee.

I mean, he still speaks on, on the radio today.

His tapes, dude, not him. He's long home with the Lord.

But he was probably the most famous pastor of Church of the

Open Door for 21 years. But after J Vernon McGee stepped

aside, things began to change at the church.

How they changed, how far they had changed, I did not know

until I went there. The first sermon I preached was

on 1st Corinthians 16 verse #9 where Paul says these words for

a wide door for effective service as open to me.

And there are many adversaries. That was my installation message

that I preached at that church in 1993.

Little did I know I wasn't a prophet, nor was I still the

prophet what that verse would actually mean.

As I began to preach each and every Sunday, it wasn't long

before I opened the to the Gospel of Mark and began to

preach steadily through Mark's gospel.

If you have read anything at all about Mark's gospel, that begins

with the ministry of John the Baptist and he is about

preaching A baptism based on repentance because the Kingdom

of heaven was at hand. And of course Jesus followed

John and he preached the same message.

And so as a young 35 year old pastor, I'm, I'm preaching the

same message about repentance and how you need to turn from

your sin and, and follow the Savior.

And I'm preaching it with, with vim, vigor and vitality.

I'm, I'm, I have a lot of passion when I preach.

And so I'm preaching about repentance.

Little did I know that the church, the leadership of the

church, did not believe that repentance was essential for

salvation. I didn't know that.

How could that possibly be? So we had this discussion among,

among the leadership about repentance.

And I would describe to them what repentance is, what the the

Greek word means, and and how do you define repentance?

And they didn't agree. And they soon began to say that

I was preaching A workspace salvation because repentance was

a work. I said no, repentance is a gift.

Second Timothy 225, Acts 11, verse #18 tells us that

repentance is granted to us by God.

It's not a human work. It's a God work that causes man

to turn from their sin. But they didn't believe that.

And I began to realize how far things had changed in the Church

of the Open Door. Let me tell you some of the

things that they believed. They believed that repentance

was a change of mind only about the Christ, that there was no

turning from sin required for salvation.

And I said to them, how? How do you gel that with First

Thessalonians chapter one verse #10 where it says that the the

Church of Thessalonica turned to God from idols in order to serve

the true and living God. That's what repentance truly is

all about. And I even quoted J Vernon

McGee. But they also believed that the

whole of salvation, including faith, is the gift of God, which

I agreed with. But they also said that that

faith might not last. A true Christian can completely

cease believing. How can that be?

Show me in Scripture where a true Christian ceases to

believe. They also believe that saving

faith is simply being convinced or giving credence to the truth

of the gospel. It is confidence that Christ can

remove guilt and give eternal life.

But saving faith is not a personal commitment to Christ.

I said, well wait a minute, how can true saving faith When I put

my trust in someone I'm not trusting in a set of statements

about the Christ, I am trusting in the person and work of the

Christ. That's what saving faith

encounters. They believe that some spiritual

fruit is inevitable in every Christians experience, but that

fruit, however, might not be visible to others.

Christians can lapse into a state of permanent spiritual

barrenness. Again, how do you gel that with

Matthew chapter 13 and the soft soil that produces fruit, some

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

30 fold, some 60 fold, some 100 fold.

That's obviously seen by everybody, but spiritual

barrenness completely over long periods.

Show me in Scripture where that is evidence they could not.

They said that only the judicial aspects of salvation,

justification, adoption, imputed righteousness and positional

sanctification are guaranteed for the believers in this life.

But practical sanctification and growth in grace requires a post

conversion act of dedication. In other words, sanctification

is not a guarantee. Practically, if you're a

Christian, wait a minute, we're set a pardon to God for his his

glory for his purposes. They were saying that if you

want to be sanctified sometime after you are saved, you can

then make Jesus Lord of your life and completely dedicate

your life to Him now. But believing in Christ is Lord

and accepting His Lord that salvation is not necessary.

They would go on to say that submission to Christ, supreme

authority as Lord, is not germane to the saving

transaction. Neither dedication nor

willingness to be dedicated to Christ are issues in salvation.

Really, they want to say that Christians may fall into a state

of life long carnality, a whole category of carnal Christians

born again people who continuously live like the

unsaved exists in the church. Listen.

But does it exist in Scripture? If it exists in the church,

those people probably were never saved to begin with.

But show me where it exists in the scriptures.

You see, it's important to always keep your finger in the

text to prove whatever it is you say you believe, because it must

be supported 100% by the words of Christ.

They would say that disobedience and prolonged sin are no reason

to doubt the reality of 1's faith.

Had they not read first John? Had they not read what John says

very clearly? That he who practices sin does

not love God nor know God. They believe that a believer may

utterly forsake Christ and come to the point of not believing.

God has guaranteed that he will not disown those who thus

abandoned the faith. Those who have once believed are

secure forever, even if they turn away, even if they

apostasize the faith. Well, the right of Hebrews

speaks all against that. The question is, how do you get

there? How do you come to those

conclusions? You come to those conclusions

because you are led by a pastor who has compromised the truth.

For the previous pastor had lived in immorality for at least

seven years before he was dismissed.

Other people that he had an affair with was still

speculation, but he had lived with one young lady half his age

for seven years and as he preached living in sin, the

gospel was completely and totally diluted.

That you could believe in God and still carry on any way you

wish because everything is forgiven by God and the grace of

God accomplishes everything. In fact, he was asked before he

left, why is it you didn't feel the conviction of the Spirit of

God when you were involved in this immoral relationship?

He would just say, well, we believe that everything was

covered by the grace of God and that when we asked for

forgiveness he would forgive us. That was his response to those

who asked him the question. Unbelievable.

See, the grace of God does not mean we have permission to do as

we please. The grace of God means that we

have the power to do what God pleases.

That's the difference. But they were led by a man who

was the fulfilment of what Jude says in Jude 4 when he says

ungodly persons have turned the grace of our God into

licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

He had turned the grace of God into lawlessness, that you could

live without any kind of law and live as you chose and it would

be OK. And that came out very subtly,

but very, very determinedly in his sermons as he preached.

And so you have people that would come to the church, hear

those things, believe that they could.

Add Jesus to their lifestyle and continue to live any way they

wanted afterwards without any consequences because of the

grace and forgiveness of God. He had turned the grace of God

into disgrace. And so when you think about that

and you realize how quickly things begin to turn.

So here I am, 35 years of age, all passionate about preaching

the gospel of repentance and turning to God from idols to

serve the true and living God. And so I am preaching what I

believe is the truth. But because the church had heard

error for so long that when someone comes and preaches the

truth, they think the truth is error and their error is the

truth, that's what happened. I carry in my desk at work a

pamphlet of when Church at the Open Door celebrated 90 years of

existence. And in this pamphlet they list

all the previous pastors of the church.

I happen to be the eighth in line, also the shortest tenured

pastor, 14 months. And in it, it says this.

This was the greatest crisis in the history of the Church of the

Open Door. The greatest crisis was not that

there was a pastor who had turned the grace of God into

licentiousness and denied the only master Lord, the Lord Jesus

Christ. That wasn't the greatest crisis

in the church. The greatest crisis in the

church is that that people heard a false gospel being preached.

No, the greatest crisis in the church was when the man who came

to preach the truth was said to be a heretic.

And therefore because they swallowed error hook, line and

sinker, they believe that the error or the truth was error.

And so that was what they have said is the greatest crisis in

the history of the Church of the Open Door.

I give you the illustration because it's a modern day

illustration of how a church begins.

Great is a great testimony, the great light in the community.

But all of a sudden, over time, very gradually, what did Paul

say in Acts chapter 20? He said it very clearly.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

These words, Paul warned them. I know, he says.

Paul says to the Church of Ephesus, that after my

departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing

the flock, and from among your own selves men will arise,

speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

Paul warned the Church of Ephesus, and that is so true.

And so if the leadership of the church is not careful, not

protecting the flock, not warning the flock, not watching

the flock, the set of heresies rise from within and lead people

astray. That's why it's so important

that you understand these sermons on what is a Christian.

So you understand the importance of of what it means to be a

follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Having said that, let me give you a test.

Let me give you a simple test and I want you to answer this In

your mind, is this describing a Christian?

If someone is devoted to seeking God, are they a Christian?

If someone is devoted to seeking God daily, are they a Christian?

If someone is to take pleasure in understanding God's ways, are

they a Christian? If someone wants to do what is

righteous, are they a Christian? If someone remains true to their

beliefs and stay loyal to their faith, are they a Christian?

If someone says to God that they will seek Him and seek Him for

guidance on what is just and what is right, are they a

Christian? If someone was to take joy in

drawing near to God, are they a Christian?

Well, you would think that someone with those

characteristics would demonstrate true Christianity.

And you would think that the verse in Scripture that states

all that would be describing people who knew the Lord except

for one thing. God says they didn't know him.

God says they were in sin. God said they were far from him.

That verse is found in the book of Isaiah, the 58th chapter.

In verse one, it says cried loudly, do not hold back, raise

your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their

transgression and to the House of Jacob their sins.

Isaiah, you need to declare loudly, not subtly, not

secretly, not behind closed doors, but make sure that

everybody hears this. Everybody knows this.

That's the way he says and say. Yet they seek me day by day and

delight to know my ways as a nation that has done

righteousness and has not forsaken the ordinances of their

God. They asked me for just

decisions. They delight in the nearness of

God. This is what they say.

We delight to know your ways. We delight to know you.

We delight to be near you. We want you to act righteously

among us, Lord. We want to seek you not just

today, but we want to seek you daily.

And God says to Isaiah, you tell them about their transgressions.

You tell them about their sins, because this is what they're

going to tell you, Isaiah. And then they're going to say

this, Why have we fasted, Lord? And you do not see, why have we

humbled ourselves? And yet you do not notice,

Isaiah. They're going to ask you that

question. And this is what you tell them,

Isaiah, Tell them this. Behold, on the day of your fast,

you find your desire. Here's the problem.

You do what you please. You do not do what I please.

This is your transgression. This is your sin, This is why

you are so far from me, he says. Behold, you fast for contention

and strife, and strike with a wicked fist, yet do not fast

like you do today to make your voice heard on high.

You don't come to fast in order to draw near to me and cry out

to me. You do it for your own

attention, for your own admiration.

You do it for your own pleasure. Everything you're doing is

self-serving. It's all about seeking me,

drawing near to me because you want to be noticed by everybody

else. It's all the outward externals.

But everything about Christianity is all about the

internal, not the external. But Israel was known for

honoring God with their lips, but their heart being far from

Him. So he would go on to say, as you

read through Isaiah 58 verse 13, if because of the Sabbath you

Isaiah 58:13

turn your foot, in other words, you keep from breaking my law

for doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call the

Sabbath of delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor

it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own

pleasure and speaking your own words.

You see, everything was about them.

Everything was about them. Then you will take delight in

the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the

earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your

father. For the mouth of the Lord has

spoken verse to the 59 verse #1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not

short that it cannot save, nor is this here dull that it cannot

hear. But your iniquities have made a

separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden

His face from you, so that He does not hear.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with

iniquity. Your lips have spoken falsehood,

your tongue mutters. Wickedness describes them, their

transgressions, their sins so easily.

People become self deceived. And the sad thing about it is,

is that there are pastors who confirm them in their self

deception without warning them, without challenging them,

without causing them to examine their lives to see whether or

not they're in the faith, to know for certain whether or not

they are truly born again believers.

They're truly followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

See, Christ was never confusing in what he said.

He wanted to make sure that nobody was confused about

Christianity. So when Christ would speak, he

would make it very clear to people to understand who he was

and why he came to earth. He preached the gospel message

over and over and over again to make sure that people understood

exactly what he was saying. In fact, he preached the gospel

so significantly that he concluded his ministry with an

illustration. Let's just call it a closing

illustration. All good preachers in with a

great illustration. I don't because I'm not a great

preacher, but most great preachers end with great closing

illustrations and our Lord would would end his ministry with with

the greatest of all illustrations about the gospel.

He wanted to make sure that everybody understood what it

meant to be a Christian. He wanted to leave no doubt in

anybody's mind about all the things he had said throughout

his three-year ministry. And so he closes his ministry

with an illustration. That illustration is summed up

in one verse in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three gospels

recorded. But the illustration in one

verse. And I'm surprised that so many

preachers miss this because it is the epitome of all

illustrations of the Gospel and Christ one to leave etched in

the minds of every man, every woman, what it means to be a

follower of Jesus Christ our Lord.

So what happens on the the Via Dolorosa, the way of the cross?

Christ has been beaten beyond recognition, and so He is

carrying this cross beam from where he was before Pilate to

Calvary. The place of the skull in this

crossbeam would wear anywhere between 82 to 100 lbs and so you

have to imagine that having been beaten as severely as Christ was

beaten, that he was still able to carry the crossbeam.

Isaiah 52 tells us that He was. He was beaten beyond all human

recognition, but as he began to carry the cross on the Via

Dolorosa, on the way to the place of the skull, he would

fall, thus giving the way for the greatest illustration of the

gospel in the Bible. Luke tells us this in Luke 23

verse #26 when they led him away, they seized the man Simon

of Cyrene coming in from the country and placed on him the

cross to carry behind Jesus. There it is.

That's the illustration. Talk about being in the right

place at the right time. You might want to consider it

maybe consequential. I see it as providential.

You might see it as an exact accident.

I see it as a divine appointment.

Why? Because Simon's name was

mentioned, Simon the Cyrene. Now, we don't know anything

about what he knew about Christ before he got there, but the

crowds had gathered and Simon had gathered in the crowds and

Simon was watching like everyone else was watching about this

individual who was carrying his cross beam to the place of the

skull. Cyrene is a city in North Africa

today. It's modern day Libya.

And we know from the book of Acts that there were many

Cyreneans on the day of Pentecost, and that there was a

synagogue, A Cyrenian synagogue in Jerusalem.

But Simon was compelled out of the crowd to carry the cross of

Christ, and he would carry that cross beam from where they were

to the place of the skull. Whether he remained there or not

we do not know, but there would be this living illustration of

what it means when Jesus said if any man came after me, let him

deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

Simon became the quintessential illustration of what it means to

be a follower of Christ. It's at the end of his ministry.

He's about to die for the sins of man and he wants to leave.

Indelibly etched to the minds of everyone in the crowd.

This is what I've said to you all along.

If any man came after me, he must deny himself.

He must take his cross and follow me.

A life of self denial, a life of self sacrifice, a life of

submission. And Simon was compelled out of

the out of the crowd. Was Simon born again?

He was or he was. He became born again.

He'd be a follower of Christ. How do we know that?

Romans 16 tells us that his wife ministered to the Apostle Paul

in Rome. His son Rufus is also named in

Romans 16 verse #13. Simon was instrumental in the,

the, the church in Cyrene. And so something happened in the

life of of Simon Cyrene. That's why his name is mentioned

here. That's why the illustration is

in the Scriptures, because you need to understand the essence

of the gospel. This is what it's all about.

And Christ wants to make sure that everybody sees it and

understands it. It it says in the very next

verse. And following him was a large

crowd of the people that they weren't followers of Christ, but

they were following along like a lot of people were quote

followers of Christ for a while. But Simon and Cyrene, different

kind of man. He was totally committed to

follow his Christ. He would lead his wife to the

Lord. He lead his son Rufus to the

Lord, maybe left his other son Alexander as his other son to

the Lord. But he realized that this one,

the Christ, was worth dying for because Christ died for him.

Simon's decision to follow the Christ was irresistible.

He was compelled when you when you give your life to Christ,

you are compelled to give your life to Christ.

It's what the Bible calls irresistible grace.

There's common grace for all men, but the irresistible grace,

it cannot be refused because when God calls you to himself,

they get grants you the gift of grace and the gift of faith and

the gift of repentance and the gift of of belief, because

they're all gifts granted to us by God.

And when God compels you to come, you can't say no, you

come. Why, all the Father gives me

will come to me. You will.

As Simon was compelled, so we, when we give our life to Christ,

give our life to Christ because we're compelled to do so.

We've been drawn by the Spirit of God to come to Christ.

And we give our lives to him. And so we begin to understand as

you read through the Gospels that a Christian is known by his

decision, his decision to follow Christ.

And that decision is based on the fact that God in his

sovereignty has chosen you and called you into his Kingdom.

And that's why it's an irresistible compulsion.

So Jesus would say these this long before, long before the the

illustration, there was the instruction Luke 9 verse 23.

Luke 9:23

And Christ was saying to them all, if if anyone wishes to come

after me, he he must deny himself and take up his cross

and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his

life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for

my sake, he is the one who will save it.

For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses

or forfeits himself or his own soul?

Such a tremendous statement. This is the gospel message.

You see, we live in a world designed for self fulfillment,

but we preach a gospel about self denial.

That's why it's rejected. We, we live in a world filled

with self respect, self dignity, self importance, self

fulfillment, self satisfaction. And we come along, we preach a

gospel that says you need to sacrifice yourself, you need to

deny yourself, you need to be willing to surrender yourself.

And that goes against everything that society teaches and wants

us to believe. But the gospel is directly

opposed to what society teaches. And that's why Christ will say

it over and over again. If you want to keep your life

today, you're going to lose it for eternity.

But if you're willing to lose your life, if you're willing to

give your life away. You see, Christianity is not

about exalting myself. Christianity is about executing

yourself, willing to die for Christ, take up your cross and

and follow him. But we've got that all wrong

today because you want to appeal to the masses.

We want to appeal to the crowds and say, listen, if you just

come to Jesus, everything will be better for you.

That's not what Jesus says. In fact, he says direct opposite

you read on the Luke Chapter 9. It says in verse 57, as they

Luke 9 · chapter mention

were going along the road, someone said to him, I will

follow you wherever you go. Matthew's account tells us it's

a scribe. So here's this scribe who says,

I, I want to learn from you. I want to follow you wherever

you go. And you think that Jesus would

say, come on, then you want to follow me, get in line with

everybody else. This is great.

It's not what Jesus says. He says the foxes have holes,

the birds of the air have nests, but instead of man has nowhere

to lay his head. Christ wanted to make sure the

man was serious. You got to realize, if you

follow me, there's no comfort here.

There are no accolades here. There are no palaces here.

It's not a life filled with happiness.

You're going to go through life and and not, not not find a

place to lay your head. The birds there, they got a

nest. Foxes have holes.

But you follow me. You got nothing.

You got nothing. See, Christ didn't make it easy

for if you're going to follow him, he made it so incredibly

hard. Why?

Because you see, if you're called by God and chosen by God,

you're going to accept whatever he says.

If you're not, those sayings are too rough for you.

You don't follow. So verse 59 and Jesus said to

another, follow me. You can imagine the scene.

Here's Jesus walking along and some scribe because I'm going to

say, Hey Jesus, I'll follow you wherever you go.

And then Christ gives him the statement and doesn't follow.

So Jesus says you, hey, you follow me.

See, that's the call of salvation.

The call of salvation is to follow Christ.

The call of salvation is not a not an event, it's not a prayer,

it's not a card you sign, it's not a moment in time.

The call of salvation is the continuous act of following

Jesus without reservation for the rest of your life.

We forget that. And so he says you follow me.

Have you heard what Jesus just said?

He said to Jesus, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my

father. I need to go bury my father now.

His father wasn't dead yet. How do we know that?

Because in Judaism, the burial took place the same day as the

death. So if his father had died, he'd

be sitting at home decaying while he is out trying to follow

Jesus. That's not the case.

His father's still alive. He hears what Jesus said about

no place to lay your head, no place to sleep, no comforts.

Hey, you know what? If I wait till my dad dies,

guess what? I'll get the inheritance.

Take the inheritance and guess what?

I'll have a place to sleep. And this guy will have a place

to sleep. I'll have clothes to wear.

This guy will have clothes to wear.

Everything will be OK. My dad's not dead yet.

I need to bury my father, Jesus says to him.

Allow the dead to bury their own dead.

This is so crude, isn't it? But it's not.

It's Jesus's words. Let the spiritually dead bury

the physical dead. But As for you, go and proclaim

everywhere the Kingdom of God. You want to follow me.

Let the spiritually dead take care of those who will die

physically one day. You be engaged in proclaiming

the Kingdom of God. The first man's deterrent was

materialism. The second man's deterrent was

pacifism. He was going to wait that maybe

Jesus will let him follow him sometime down the road when

everything is financially secure for him.

Then verse 61 another also said I will follow you.

I will you can you can just see the person in the crowd.

Oh, oh, oh, Jesus. Oh, I'll follow you.

I'll. I'll do it.

These are the two losers. They won't, but I will.

I'll follow you. But first permit me to say

goodbye. Permit me to say goodbye to

those at home. Let me, let me go back home and

and say goodbye to mom and dad, brother and sister, aunt and

uncle, nieces and nephews. Come with me first to go back

home and say goodbye. His deterrent was

sentimentalism, but Jesus said to him, no one having or after

putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the

Kingdom of God. There are to be no rivals for my

affection. There is to be nothing that

comes between me and you because if something does that becomes

more important to you than me, that then becomes your God and

not me. And no man can serve 2 masters,

therefore you can't follow me. See, those are hard sayings.

They're not easy. That's why when you when you

come a little further in Luke's gospel to the the the 16th

chapter, Luke chapter, chapter 16, it says these words, verse

16, the law and the prophets were proclaimed until John.

Since that time, the gospel of the Kingdom of God has been

preached and everyone is forcing his way into it.

What kind of statement is that? Who's forcing their way into the

Kingdom? What's that mean?

Am I trying to fight to get into the Kingdom?

What is going on here? The whole forcing aspect is that

all of Satan and all of his minions are doing all they can

to keep you out of the Kingdom and you are exercising self

denial, self sacrifice, self surrender.

You are fighting your own pride, your own will, your own

stubbornness, your own sin. All those things are, are the

hindrance to you coming to the Kingdom and that's why man is

forcing his way into the Kingdom, because without the

Spirit of God moving, controlling, calling you to

come, you can't just can't. So important.

Earlier Christ would say these words in Matthew's gospel.

He would say, therefore everyone who confesses me before men, I

will also confess him before my father was in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before

my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to

bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace,

but a sword. For I came instead of man

against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.

He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of

me. And he who loves son or daughter

more than me is not worthy of me.

And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not

worthy of me. He was found.

His life will lose it and he has lost his life for my sake.

We'll find it. See, these are the words of

Christ. But but those aren't the

messages that preachers preach today when it comes to

presenting the gospel to people who need to give their life to

Christ. Because we try to water down the

gospel, dilute the gospel so much down to it's, it's, it's

bare minimum just to get someone to make a decision just to get

someone to say yes, I will follow, yes, I will come, yes, I

will pray instead of as Christ did make it virtually impossible

for man to do it on his own because he can't.

But when God calls a man, he's willing to do whatever Christ

asks because He empowers him to do that, to accomplish His

purposes. Back in Luke's gospel, in the

14th chapter, Christ says these words.

Now large crowds were going along with him.

Stop right there. Large crowds.

That's verse #25 of Luke 14. Large crowds.

How large are large crowds? Well, what do you do when large

crowds follow you? You want larger crowds to follow

you, right? So you do whatever you can to

keep the large crowds coming. Not Jesus.

He didn't want anybody to be deceived.

He didn't want anybody to think that they, they, they just by

getting on the, the, the, the Jesus train that, that everybody

was going to be going to heaven. No, He turned and said to them,

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and

mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and

even his own life, He cannot be my disciple.

He cannot follow me. He cannot be one of mine.

That's just a hard saying. Christ doesn't want any

superficial followers. This is one of these shallow

followers. He wants totally committed

people following Him. So he says in verse 27, Whoever

does not carry his own cross, come up to me, cannot be my

disciple. Same thing he said in Luke 923.

Same thing he said in Matthew chapter 10 verses 34 to 39.

Matthew 10:34–39

He says the exact same thing over and over and over again.

This is this. For which one of you, when He

wants to build the tower, does not first sit down and calculate

the cost to see if He has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to

finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying this man

began to build and was not able to finish.

Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle,

will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong

enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against

him with 20,000, or else, while the other is still far away, he

sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So then none of you can be my disciple who does not give up

all his own possessions. Have you calculated the cost?

Have you understood the ramifications of what it means

to follow me? Have you sat down and began to

add up everything that it consists of?

Christ wanted to be sure that that's exactly what they wanted

to do, because He knew that it would cost them everything.

We just don't want to present Christ like that to anybody.

And yet, when someone's called by God, they are desperate

enough to embrace all that Christ says, no matter how

difficult it may be, because they understand the parable of

the treasure and the Pearl in Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

The man who found the treasure, he stumbled upon the treasure.

The man who've obtained the Pearl, he sought.

The Pearl in Christ has given an illustration of those who who

stumble upon the Kingdom, realizing its value, go back.

Sell all that you have to purchase the field or set out on

a journey for a specific Pearl. Willing to give up all that you

have. Sell all that you have to pay

the price for the Pearl. It speaks of the inestimable

value of the Kingdom, that when someone understands the Kingdom

of God, the forgiveness of sins, the relationship you have with

the living God, you are willing to sell everything that you

have. Matthew 1626.

What will a man give in exchange for his soul?

That's the gospel. What will a man give in exchange

for soul? The word exchange is a is a is a

transactional term. What will a man give up to

obtain a soul? Answer everything in his life

because this life means nothing compared to Christ life.

Are you willing to give up all that you have to obtain Christ

life? Or is your life so valuable to

you that you are an unwilling to give up your life for Christ's

life and thus lose your life? That's the bottom line.

And the Christian decides to follow Christ and there's no

turning back. You know the course.

I decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning

back. Though none go with me.

Still I will follow. No turning back, No turning

back. My cross I'll carry till I see

Jesus. No turning back, no turning

back. The world behind me, the Christ

before me, no turning back, no turning back.

And that's the decision that the Christian makes.

But that decision is based on a divine decree by the living God

who calls man to himself, the God.

The man's decision is always subject to the sovereignty of

Almighty God. To as many as received him, to

them gave you power to become the sons of God.

It is true that man receives the Messiah, he accepts the Messiah,

but he's born not of the will of the flesh nor the will of man.

He's born completely by the will of God.

Christ says if you want to follow me, it's the end of you.

That's what it means to deny yourself.

It means you refuse to associate with yourself any longer.

That's what it means to deny yourself.

Man, unfortunately wants glory. He wants his needs met.

God. God does not want to meet your

earthly worldly needs. That's not why He came to die.

He wants you to abandon all your earthly worldly needs and

embrace Him. That's what self denial is.

That's what self sacrifice is. That's what self surrender is in

today's day. We we have rewritten the gospel

or we have reinvented the gospel.

Thus we get a multitude of false converts because we dilute the

truth. Hoping to gain more people to

follow Christ. Jesus never did that.

He knew that all that the Father had given him would come to him,

but he wanted to make sure that nobody was ever self deceived.

No one was ever, ever thinking they were saved, when in reality

they were not. So he kept preaching the hard

truths of the gospel over and over and over and over again,

because he didn't want anybody to be confused, anybody to to be

a counterfeit Christian. He wanted everybody to

understand the genuineness of salvation, the gracious, saving

mercy of a living God. Our Lord is the quintessential

evangelist. He came to seek and to save that

which was lost. That was his mission, and he

wanted to make sure that nobody would have a question about

their commitment to the Christ. And so he spelled it all out

very clearly for those who wanted to follow him.

But for most of what he said in John 6, unless you eat my flesh,

unless you drink my blood, you have no part with me.

And people said, who can hear that?

And many of his, quote, disciples, followers walked

away. They left him.

Why, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, all symbolic of

the life that he would give and the blood that he would shed

you, you have to take in all of me.

You can't take bits and pieces of me.

You must embrace all of who I am and all of what I said and all

of what I'm going to do. People don't want to do that.

So Christ turns to his men. He says, will you go away also?

And Peter said, where are we going to go?

We've left everything to follow you.

You have the words of eternal life.

You have the words that give life.

And before we met you, we had no life because you don't.

If you're not a Christian, you have no life.

You exist. You walk around, but you have no

life. The only people who have life

are those who have Christ's life.

That's true life. I came that they might have life

and that they might have that life more abundantly.

That's that's the life that Christ wants to give.

And I wonder if you've embraced that life.

I wonder if you understand what it means to follow Christ.

Christ wanted to be very, very clearly stated, authorized

ministry. So he concluded his ministry

with an illustration with Simon Cyrene, who would carry that

cross to the place of the skull. And that man would realize this

is what the Christian life is all about.

And that man became the living. Illustration of Luke 9/23.

My question to you today is, are you a living illustration of

what it means to be a Christian for the world to see?

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today,

the opportunity you give us to spend time in your word.

Truly, Lord, you are a great God, and we are grateful for

your mercy, for your grace, for your love, for your goodness,

for your kindness. We are grateful, Lord, that you

died for us. Lord, no greater gift in all the

world than the indescribable gift of eternal life.

It is so valuable. It is so incomparable, It is so

immeasurable, that we can't even begin to compare with anything

on earth. And those of us who have

embraced that gift understand the beauty of it, and we have

decided to follow Christ. So Lord, as we journey on each

and every day, may our lives exemplify the beauty of Christ.

But all who come behind us would see that Jesus is our King, our

Lord, our Master, our Savior forever in Jesus name, Amen.