Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Cross Pt.1

Amen. He is worthy. Amen? Let's turn to the book of Luke. We want to talk a little bit about the central theme, really, of the gospel and see if we can apply it to our lives practically. It's something that is spoken of and yet so often just from a religious perspective. We want to talk about the cross a little bit. Some of the old hymns: "At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by [grace] I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day!" [Lyrics from song Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed? (At The Cross).] Simple but so real in the effect of coming to the cross.

What is the cross? You know, we look historically and it's interesting. Crucifixion has taken, historically, a couple of different turns. In antiquity, crucifixion didn't have the cross as we know it. It was basically just a stake, and it was an impalement. You've seen some of the old movies. Thieves, many times traders, were impaled, and sometimes on the walls of cities, just stuck on a point and left hanging outside the walls. It always brought about the connotation of defilement, of rejection. It had to do, many times, with those who were thieves--and this is something that's going to be applicable to you and me--people that were traders many times were treated in this manner and humiliated. It was a true despising of those who were crucified. It went on in later history, as we know it, to the adding of the cross-member. Historically, there have been different types of crosses that were used, but [it] became much more historically recognized in the time of the Romans, of course, in Jesus' day. Again, we see that Jesus was crucified with the two thieves, common criminals that were to be mocked--and still, of course, those who were traders. In the days of Nero and the other leaders in Rome, we realize that the Christians were impaled. Many times they were incarcerated. We know they were used as human torches outside of Rome.

The cross wasn't the thing that we've made it a symbol of today where it's cherished and people wear it around their necks proudly as the sign that they are Christians. Catholics, of course, have their crucifix that they wear and have been criticized by Protestants over the years that Jesus is no longer on the cross. The Catholics recognize this Man still hanging on the cross. In actuality, we know He's no longer there, is He? He's not hanging on a cross. He's not in a tomb, praise God. He is risen, the Scripture tells us. So Protestants wear the empty cross, the sign of the victory that was won. So we can look at the cross historically from different perspectives. We can look at it symbolically from a lot of different perspectives. But practically, what is the cross to you and me? And what is it that is the symbol of the true believer today? It is the embracing, daily, of that cross.

Luke tells us in the ninth chapter--let's turn over there, and this will help us as we take some time in this study. How is it that you and I can relate to the cross, and what is our relationship supposed to be to that cross? It's to be a boasting. Some people are ashamed, Paul said, to identify with the cross, but for you and me as believers, those that are looking to walk in lives of victory, we're to embrace the cross. Before we can embrace it, we need to know what it is and what it involves in identifying with the cross of Jesus Christ.

We sing the song The Old Rugged Cross--"On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame." The songwriter goes on to say, "and I love that old cross..." Do we, really? We're thankful for what Jesus did on the cross. We're glad that He went and died. We've talked many times about biblical Christianity. Biblical Christianity is not about one cross but about many crosses, isn't it? Because one cross wouldn't have been sufficient. Now, a lot of people--you can get in trouble if you make that statement. A lot of people would kind of raise an eyebrow: "What do you mean? The death of Jesus was not sufficient?" It was sufficient to appease God, but it wasn't sufficient to complete the work in you, because there's a personal cross that each one of us has to bear. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

We'll sing songs and we'll weep over the cross of Jesus, but what about your personal cross? What about the personal, daily choice of dying? Jesus died once, that you can die daily. Jesus died once to enable you and me to die daily. For me to live is to die. If you try to save your life, what did the Lord say? You're going to lose it [Matthew 16:25]. So when we talk about embracing the cross, we're talking about finding ways to die to ourselves more effectively, more consistently, more completely. Yet we're living in a society where everything, everything around us, projects just the opposite--comfort, ease, self, indulgence. And our lives are involved in a kingdom of denial. Now, one of the problems that we get into is we get into asceticism, we get into self-denial, we get into works, and we begin to become self-righteous because we have denied ourselves more than the guy next to us. We boast in that and we're prideful, and it's availing us nothing. Self-denial has nothing to do with works (meritorious benefit through works), but self-denial has do with preparation. It has to do with discipline. It has to do with a training of subordination and recognition of the Greater One through an obedience of living separate, rejecting and fleeing from the world's system, or the kingdom of darkness.

Look at Galatians for just a moment. Keep your finger there in Luke 9; we'll be right back. Paul says this in Galatians, and I think it's really the spirit that we want to grab a hold of as we get into this study, because the one thing that we don't want done is to create a works mentality. What I mean by a works mentality, when we talk about works--and this is another problem I think that we're facing in the kingdom today. We contrast works with grace, and we seem to think, then, that grace requires no work. That's not biblical. The grace of God enables us to do works of righteousness. Grace is not the absence of works. Grace is God working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. We're allowing His works through us that we would become doers of the Word and not hearers only. Workers of righteousness, that men could see our good--what?--works and glorify our Father which is in heaven [Matthew 5:16]. You see, the works that are acceptable to God are the ones that bring glory to Him, not to self. The works that are acceptable are the ones that are works of recognition of His worth and not our own. The best that we can produce by "self" is filthy rags in God's sight. Yet there's a work--and we're going to talk about that--that is acceptable to God, that's necessary to fulfill the grace that's been provided for us.

Paul says this in Galatians, and it's a powerful statement--Chapter 6 in Galatians, in verse 14. He's contrasting self-righteousness, he's contrasting pharisaical works, with biblical fruit, works of righteousness, those of us that are saved unto good works. He says there are the Jews, the Pharisees, who have "...a fair shew in the flesh, [verse 12, and] they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." They didn't want to be persecuted by the Jews to accept the finished work of Jesus on the cross. There is no righteousness within ourselves. There's no worth in our works and no meritorious benefit. Works are the free flowing of the character of God in a regenerated man. Good works flow out of the new creation. It's the natural consequence of old things having passed away and all things becoming new. I don't work to prove I am righteous; I am righteous and therefore I work. It's done naturally. It doesn't make me any more accepted. It just brings more glory to God. It reveals Him to a lost world. So the Jews, because of not wanting to identify with the cross and the finished work of Jesus and the merit of faith, were requiring circumcision of those that professed to be believers so there could still be an identity to the world's system, if you please--to the religious system. Paul says, "There's going to be a stigma that comes along with the cross that says Jesus' work was absolutely sufficient." Sola fide: that it's by faith alone that this work has been accomplished.

He goes on and says in verse 13, "For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh." Now, circumcision, we know, was a sign of being cut off from the world. The cutting off of the foreskin in the natural was a sign of sanctification, of cleanliness. He goes on and says, "But those that were circumcised didn't keep the law any more than you. They just wanted to boast in your flesh; they wanted to cause you to be caught up in their numbers." Because of the numbers, because of the public acceptance, there was power, but then there was this little segment of people over here that wouldn't buy into it, that said it's not by works, but it's by grace and it's by faith, and it's finished in Jesus Christ. It's a circumcision of the heart. It's a choice to identify with Jesus and His humility and His death upon the cross and His self-denial, and not the glory of the religious machinery of the day.

You and I are coming into this period again, in the twenty-first century in America, when Christianity is being accepted as it's being promoted on every side through humanistic methods, as we talked about--the seeker-friendly, the super-church, mentality. Churches that are run by demographics: "Who is your audience? What do they want to hear? The consumer is always right. Give them what they want." In a day and an hour of comfort and ease and self-exaltation, in a day that probably typifies the time of the Judges more than any other--"every man doing what's right in his own eyes" [Judges 17:6]. Have you seen; have you been able to look and see? There is no absolute truth in the majority of people today. Everybody does what's right to them--the lawlessness (the secret power of lawlessness), the exaltation of self-will, of self-worth. We're living in a society, especially here in America, where everybody thinks they're as good as the next person--in fact [they think], "No, I'm better, bless God! And I deserve this!" And it comes over into the church, and we've talked about it in every aspect of our society. We need to reaffirm in our own hearts who we are as true bond servants of Jesus Christ, and that [by] identifying with Him, we're going to be despised of the world. We're going to become a reproach. Our obedience to Jesus is going to become a stench in their nostrils. It's going to be offensive to them because it's heaping coals of fire on them; it's bringing judgment to them. Your obedience reveals their rebellion, and you're going to be hated for that.

And yet, following Jesus, Who humbled Himself as a servant and was obedient, even to the cross--the Scripture is interesting in Hebrews 12 [verse 2]. It says that we're to "[Look] unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross..." Let me give you a little secret here as we get started into this study. There's nothing joyous about the moment of self-denial. It's grievous, just as chastisement is grievous for the moment. The chastisement works the peaceable fruit of righteousness. The act of obedience (of self-denial), which is different than chastisement, works about the joy that's unspeakable and full of glory that waits for those who momentarily endure hardship and suffering for a joy that's set before us. In other words, in an hour when everyone talks about living for the moment, we're to be a people that are living for eternity. Amen?

We live in a generation that lives for the moment. We won't take a survey here, but I think we would probably do better than the world. But do you know what? Our nation is a nation [full of people] that have far more charged on their credit cards than they have in savings. Now, I'm sure that's not the case here for the majority of us. We've been taught differently. But what is the bondage to credit cards other than living for the moment? I'm not all that old, but I can remember the first credit card I ever saw. How many remember the first time you ever--well, I'm not talking to you young people, but how many of you remember the first credit card you ever saw back whenever it was, the '50s or whenever they came? It was like, "Wait a minute. You mean I don't have to have money? You just take this thing and I get my stuff?" People didn't borrow back then. If you borrowed money at all, it was only for a home. Some people were bold enough to borrow a little bit for an automobile, but [in general] if you couldn't pay for it, you didn't buy it. Does that sound foreign to some of you?

How vexed are we, in this world that we're living, for momentary, immediate gratification to where we don't know anything about discipline, self-denial, about lives that are orderly and sober? But we boast in our great strength and in our intention to be able to deny ourselves, and "When the pressure comes, bless God, you can count on me, Lord! I will forsake all and follow You!" Hmm! I wonder. How is it that we can miraculously do something that we've not prepared ourselves for when everything else in life takes preparation, training, discipline, education, experience? We seem to think that we can go to the cross on any whim that we might have whenever it's necessary, but what are we doing to prepare ourselves for a life of obedience, which is, in fact, a life of self-denial? Because in every one of us, in our flesh, we are rebels, we are selfish, and in us dwells--say it--no good thing [Romans 7:18]. So that "no good thing" needs to be killed on a daily basis. It's like I told you--when I was younger, growing up, my dad would just say, "Somebody find Bob and whip him. He's done something by now." And you know what? He was right. Man, I'll tell you what--we could get into some trouble. And I don't know that it was just that we were bad; I think I was just rebellious. The way to get me to do something was say "You can't do that," and I was there in a heartbeat. You all know what I'm talking about.

This is the spirit. It's the age and it's common to us, but it's being supernaturally fed into all of our members. Everywhere you look, supernaturally you're being told that you deserve these things and you have rights to self-gratification. Everybody has rights to live at a certain standard. We call it socialism. Of course, the country was founded on a little different philosophy. The country was founded on the fact that we have rights to the pursuit of happiness. Everybody seems to think we should have a guarantee of happiness. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We carry it over into the kingdom mentality--"I have the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness." There is no liberty in this kingdom. We're slaves. I have no right to make choices separate from the mind of Christ, the lordship of Jesus. I'm not my own; I've been bought with a price. This is foreign to our society, beloved. We use that verbiage very easily; it flows off our tongues, but can I ask you the question this morning, Are you a slave to Jesus Christ? Have you embraced the cross? Have you sought ways to be crucified and identified with Him through self-denial? What are we doing to prepare ourselves for the hour that's upon us, when the Scripture says Antichrist will destroy them with their prosperity?

In an age of seduction through pharmakeia, as Daniel speaks--the drug society that we're in--don't you think it's strange that all the school kids are being drugged? I don't read the paper here. We just got back from vacation, and for twelve days I read the newspaper. Man, that thing is depressing! I don't read the newspaper. I don't watch the news. I am up-to-date enough to know that there's a football game on today. What's this all about? It's a football game, folks! It's not a national holiday. It is not the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's a football game! You would think that the Lord was coming back. What's this all about, that people can get so jazzed about something that is so trivial? Worship! I still stand amazed. I've never seen anything like what I saw January 1 in Pasadena. I stood there in amazement and watched the worship of two football teams. If you've never seen anything like this--I've never seen anything like it in my life. I was taken aback, and I stood there and as I watched this thing, I almost began to weep as the Texas team pulled up and tens of thousands of people were doing their "hook 'em horns" [Pastor demonstrates how Texas football fans hold their fingers to resemble cow horns]. The worship and the roar and the rumble, and it didn't cease as a hundred and twenty young people walked though this aisle; the people were just chanting and worshiping! I'm watching this thing, and I'm [thinking to myself], I thought this was a football game; I thought we were coming to watch a football game. I'll bet those are some of the same people that stand in church [imitates stoic]--they're from Texas; you know they go to church.

Living for the moment--the next fix, the next high. In the newspaper, I saw that some parents are less quick now to just put their children on drugs and are spending more time visiting with their psychiatrists, because the drugs, they were discovering, were kind of, you know, causing the children to commit suicide. Did any of you see that article in the paper? I'm reading this thing, and I'm thinking, Oh, good move! And because there's no discipline, the children are out of control, so you drug them up because they all have Attention Deficit "rebellion." I could fix all those kids in a few minutes. It's the world we're living in. I think the question that we really need to ask ourselves this morning is, What about my own flesh?

It's obvious to me, everybody that's out of control. We've talked about it--people don't know how to drive anymore. I don't think it's that they don't know--well, no, I think we're probably coming to a place now where people don't understand the rules anymore. They just don't know them. You should have to be able to read English before you get your driver's license. Comprende? But everybody has rights, see. I mean, these people have rights. They've got to get down there to pick up their leaf blower to be able to go do something. They've got rights! Greer was telling me--she was down doing something at DMV [Division of Motor Vehicles], and this lady came in and asked if there was anybody that could speak Spanish, because this girl had failed her test for the fourteenth time, or whatever. But the thing that made this hilarious was [that] the instructor was Oriental and spoke such broken English, orientally, trying to speak to this Mexican. These are only symptoms, though. We look around, and we see the disorder and the lack of discipline. What's wrong with saying, "You've got to speak English"? You're in America--and I know [we're all descendants] from the melting pot. But you know what? These people [our ancestors] had to eventually learn to speak English to be able to flow into society. And if not, you stayed in the borough where they spoke your language, and your kids, who spoke English, came home and told you what was going on. Eventually, those that wanted to amalgamate did, and [they] became a part and became productive for the whole and not just the locale. I'm just pointing toward the spirit that's overtaking this world that we're living in. How's it affecting you? How's it vexing your life?

I've talked about it before, but I think it really applies to what we're talking about. Driving--it's becoming obvious to me that the people that are merging think they have the right-of-way. Have you ever noticed that? What caused that? The lack of order; the overevaluation of self. Who are those people that pass everybody on the shoulder? Who are those people? "Well, they're trying to get home." Well, that's a novel idea. Maybe the rest of us ought to try to get home.

Now, with all of that said, verse 14, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." We begin to see, right here, how you and I are to relate to the world's system. Now, it's interesting that Paul, in the midst of this, includes in the world, who? The Judaizers, the Pharisees (the religious people). He puts all worldly-accepted religion in the same worldly category, and then he contrasts it with what? The cross of Christ. Now, we're not just talking about the literal redemptive work of Jesus as He died on the cross. Most people embrace that; they're happy for that. "Hey, man, I'm happy that Jesus died for me, praise God, and I get to go to heaven, living like the devil." It doesn't work that way. People misunderstand the cross. People are thankful for Jesus' death until they realize that it requires their death. Jesus' death requires your death. For Jesus' death to be effectual, you must die daily to your own ambitions, your own will, your own methods, your own pleasure, your family traditions, your natural perspective of justice.

You see, many of us have our own ideas of what's fair and what's not fair. "That's not fair." As little kids: "That's not fair." What do you mean that's not fair? "That's not fair! It didn't go my way!" Kids are cool. Start a game, and you make up the rules as you go. That always leads to conflict, doesn't it? Now, who usually gets to make up the rules? The biggest guy. "No, that's the rule!" "No it's not." "[Pow!] Yes, it is!" OK, rules have been established. The person with the strongest will is in charge. Have you ever noticed--you see it in the movies; you see it in real life. It never ceases to amaze me. You've got some little pip-squeak, and he comes walking up and says, "Alright, you guys. You're going to do this!" The bad guys--you see Vito and the boys, "Squash that guy!" It's usually some big mouthed, self-willed, strong-willed individual. I've got a solution for him. You know, there's always one solution to the little, big mouthed guy: the big, big mouthed guy. Well, what do you do if you're little? You get a gun! What do you do if you're big? You get a bulletproof vest and a bigger gun! And it's the guy that's willing to die, rather than give, that's going to win.

Now, how do we live--because that's in all of us--how do we live to contrast that? How do we live in denial of what is natural to us through our Adamic nature? "For me to live is Christ..." [Philippians 1:21]. We have to set up a new value system. Nothing brings me more pleasure that pleasing Jesus. Do you live for others? In so many of our lives, in our relationships, even our love is selfish. Our love for our children, our love for our spouses, many times--it's not pure. But there can become a supernatural love that's infused into you, when you can begin to die to self, to where your love for the Lord can be conveyed into your love for your spouse and your love for your children, and it can be pure. It's not self-motivated. It's not for personal gain. It's not out of guilt. It's not out of obligation. It's because there's a new spirit, a new heart, a new value system, a devaluing of self and esteeming others better, because of the free gift, because of the joy that's set before us, because we're not living for the moment.

As I was driving down the road, I heard this commercial. They picked the right voice. It's some woman's voice, a very pleasant voice, and it says something like, "You don't have to live under the pressures of today's life. Are you under the pressure of all of the financial creditors of your credit cards? We'll give you one hundred percent of the equity in your home, in a loan." And I'm thinking, Who is stupid enough to take the equity out of their home to pay off a credit card for a shirt that's already worn out? I could have been cruder and said for them to [pay for a] stop down at Sweetwater [for food] that you already dumped in the toilet. And you're going to put your house up to take a little pressure off, so that you can go finance another credit card up to the max? How about disciplining yourself? How about staying home and eating beans instead of going out to dinner? Where are we today in our society? Wait until this thing goes bust, and the guys that have the money come and buy your house up, ten cents on the dollar, when you can't make the payments anymore. "Well, the Lord's will be done. I'll just be ready, praise God. If that's what God has for me, I'll be ready then, and I'm just going to serve the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Really? Or are you going to resent God because God took your house? God didn't take your house. You gave it away. What are we going to do when reality strikes, in this hour that we're living in? "Well, bless God, I'll just come up, and I'll be a champion, because, you know, I won on my video game last night. I'm Captain Expo."

Delusionary--a world out of touch with reality. A world that--I am fed up to here with cell phones! Everybody tries to run into you while talking on their cell phones. I felt like reaching up and smacking a guy. We were on this elevator. People! That's a confined space! Everybody in there doesn't need to listen to your conversation. How about some quiet? Where are the good old days when everybody could just get on an elevator, be self-conscience, and look at the numbers? "Yeah, and we're just walking through the airport, and now I'm on the elevator. Now we're on the twelfth floor. Now we're on the eleventh floor. Now we're on the tenth floor." Talking about nothing! Making noise! People can't be alone. Are people afraid to go through an airport and actually be alone for a minute and walk to the gate? "I've got to get in touch with somebody I know! I don't recognize a face in here! Ahhh!!" [Pastor acts like someone panicking from fear.] "What happened?" "Whew! It was just me and Jesus for a minute, and I had to get a hold of somebody!"

What is wrong? Who are we in all of this mess, and what are we supposed to be as the light of the world, the salt of the earth--people that are not living for themselves? How recognizable is your separation? Do people at work know you're separate and you're not one of them? Do we compromise everything? Where is our allegiance, really? The identification: "...by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross..." Our boast is to be how much we are not like the world. Look at it. "My glorying is [that] I am not being overcome by the world. I don't need what the world needs to be perceived as successful. They say I have to have this to be content, but godliness with contentment is great gain." Amen? Are you there? Is godliness the standard, the hallmark?

Things are getting worse. Tonight, do you know there are churches that are going to bring TV sets into their sanctuaries and watch the Super Bowl? And the 49ers aren't even playing. Come to think of it, they didn't even play all year. I wonder if Jesus would turn those TV sets over if He happened to show up. "My house is to be a house of prayer, and you've made it a den of thieves!" I mean, churches are having Super Bowl parties. And you know what? These same people make a big deal out of Easter--almost the same. Not quite as big an event, but Easter is almost as big as the Super Bowl in some of these churches--and Christmas.

But listen to what Luke says in Chapter 9. "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, [verse 23] let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." It's interesting. Luke is the one that uses this one word that the other synoptics don't use (Luke, Chapter 9, verse 23). There are a couple of things that are obvious here, but I want to point [them] out because I want emphasis them to you. "If any man [say the next word with me] will..." The cross is a matter of your will. It's not going to be forced on you. The cross is distinct. The cross that you and I are going to bear is distinct from the chastisement of God. Many of us think that when we're under pressure or we're under discipline that this is a cross. It's not the cross. That's chastisement. When God is chastening us for disobedience, to mature us, it's separate from our will. It's being inflicted upon us because of God's love. The cross is embraced willfully. You go to the cross; it doesn't come to you. It won't chase you down. You have to go place yourself upon it. You have to identify with it. "If any man will [wills, chooses, commits to] come after me, let him [say the next two words] deny himself..."

It's not a real popular message in our generation, is it? "...let him deny himself..." I did something that not many people get involved in. We went to a show in Tahoe, and I got in an argument with the guy on stage. He started it. I'm sitting in the front row. The guy asked me a question. I answer the question, and he doesn't believe me. He said, "I don't believe that." I said, "What, you can't handle the truth?" He said, "That's impossible. Nobody lives like that." I said, "I do." It was all over this one aspect of denying yourself. This dude did not believe--he would not accept that fact that somebody could deny himself. He's a famous comedian. You've seen him on Johnny Carson's show [The Tonight Show]. I saw him the next night, and I started to say something to him, but I wasn't in a real good frame of mind at that time, so I didn't think it would be edifying. I decided it probably wouldn't be best. But you know what comedy is. Comedy is the truth exaggerated. What he was projecting as humor--and it was humorous, and it was the truth--but we don't fit in. This self-denial--the guy really had trouble; the dude was really struggling. It's humorous how separate we are, how different we are. And what becomes so natural and common to them is an offense to us. Oh, what he was talking about, I used to be, but I'm not anymore. I'm a new creature.

So when Jesus is speaking here, He says, "[There must be self-denial.]...take up [this] cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life [for himself: to consume upon himself, for his own purposes] shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same [will come to the realization of what life is all about]..." The greatest question ever asked is answered in self-denial. Why am I here? To know God, to serve Him, to keep His commandments, to fellowship with Him, to honor Him. That's why man exists. The whole duty of man: love God and keep His commandments [Ecclesiastes 12:13]. Is that what your life is about? Is that what we're teaching our children is important? In Him we live and move and have our very being. We have our various liberties--we're in the world; we're not of it--but let's come to grips with our heart and answer that question. What value do I place on the cross (self-denial)? Am I glorying in how different I am? Am I glorying in how much less of self there is (self-will, selfishness, self-exaltation)? Is that my boast? Not how much I'm getting to myself, but how much of God is being given from me. Esteeming others better [than myself], losing my life, that I might find out what life is really about, and in that, I'm able to embrace contentment. It's foreign to our ears, especially in the day that we're living in. It'll always be foreign to your natural man. You're not going to get any better. Your flesh isn't going to change. Your flesh is always going to want to consume things upon itself. It will always want more. It will always want ease. It will always want preeminence. It's not going to change.

That's why Paul says, in Romans 6, that the old man was crucified with Christ. So we realize that there has to be this crucifixion, daily. Every day you have to put it down. Aren't you looking forward to that day when corruption takes on incorruption and mortality takes on immortality? For the joy that's set before us, we endure the cross. There's a day coming, beloved, when there aren't going to be any more tears, when there's not going to be any more struggle, when we will know as we've been known. We'll see Him as He is. Up until that day, there's the brutality of the cross, the ugliness of death, the pain of self-denial, which brings the joy of obedience. Your day will be fulfilled and your joy will be unspeakable only when you've accomplished self-denial in the sequence of the day's events. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). That's not just a once-for-all event that's going happen someday. It's a daily process. Dying daily is daily gain--joy, peace, comfort, in the Holy Ghost.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning. In an hour of self-consumption, in an hour of the party spirit, in our nation, in our society, You're looking for a people that'll change their value systems.

What is important to us, really? I think it would be neat if the Lord came back on Super Bowl Sunday. Some people would want to stick around and see how the game finished. What distracts you from bringing God more glory, from becoming more like Him, from becoming less bound by what the world says is important? Where is the gain of godliness in each of our lives? Where is the glory, other than in the cross? Can we say that we love Him and not identify with the glory of the cross? The obedience, even to the cross, [is what] we want to talk about tonight. We're nothing like the world. Their gods aren't our gods. We don't shout "hook 'em horns"; we shout Hosanna! That was the first thing that came to my mind as I heard those throngs screaming, cheering. I thought, Hosanna to God in the Highest--save now! We need to become that involved and that excited in our worship and in our praise and in our preparation for the cross, for there's a greater war being waged now than in any of these pseudo conflicts. There's a war to be won. There's a victory to be claimed through the denial of the world and the glory of the cross. We ask You, Father, to make it real, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord.

We're going to talk tonight a little bit about that obedience, the humbling of ourselves and identifying the cross. It's different in all of our lives, but it's the same. The specifics are different. The commonness is [that] it's the denial of self. You see, what's important to many of us is different, specifically, but common in selfness. And when you have trouble understanding, "Why is that so important to that person? I don't understand why that's that important to that person," just contrast it with what's important to you, and you'll understand that it's all the same root. We count something valuable because we count something valuable. The value is my opinion. What gives it value is my opinion, and my opinion is the most valuable thing that there is. What I place worth upon has value because I place worth upon it. It's self, it's self-exaltation, it's self-will, it's pride. The need is to find out what God has placed value upon, and because of His worth-ness, worth-ship, we place value upon it, and that's what we boast in, contrasted to self. That's what's going to remain. That's what becomes a joy unspeakable and full of glory, and the only way you will ever see this clearly is to pluck your eyes out--"For if your eye offends you, pluck it out" [Matthew 18:9]. And when you're blind to self-will, you'll see clearly the glory of God. You'll see Him Who is invisible when you no longer have natural vision. Then there's no occasion of stumbling; then you can walk in the light as He is in the light.

As Gary plays for us, we'll take a moment and allow the Lord to speak to us. We're living in a dangerous age, and yet we're living in an exciting time of knowing the empowering of the Holy Spirit, knowing the grace of God to stand, embracing the arsenal of God--no natural weapons, but those things that are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

Let's sing it together. "Jesus, draw me..." We worship You, Jesus. Sing it one more time. Hallelujah! Lord, it's our desire just to bring You true worship and the fruit of obedience. Work in us to will and to do Your good pleasure, Father. Here we are; send us. Somehow be glorified in our lives, we ask, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "I choose the cross." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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