Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Cross Pt.3

Let's go ahead and turn to the book of Luke again. We want to talk some more about the cross. "How I love that old cross, the emblem of suffering and shame." Is there an affection for that part of it? Not just His suffering and shame, but our identifying with His lowliness that He took upon Himself. His name is a byword; it's mocked. Everything that the world hates, we glory in. Think about it, as it's just continuing, this spirit of antichrist. They hate for anything that is Christ-centered; the things that brings the most joy to our hearts. The thing that the world despises we love the most. This separation, this gulf, is going to continue to broaden. Our commitments, I believe, are going to be very obvious, as the time goes by, in how we are able to truly identify with the cross.

Turn over to Galatians 6 while you're looking at Luke 14. In Galatians 6, as we're looking at the Apostle Paul--I've been spending a lot of time, just hours in these last couple of days, meditating on this passage of Scripture. It just is something that the more I've meditated upon it, the more I see in many of our lives the lack of understanding of what the Apostle was embracing. In Chapter 6, verse 14, when he says, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Listen to the magnitude of what's being said there! Now, we know he was contrasting it to the Judaizers, to the Pharisees; their glorying and their great success of ministry. This is a day that this is very pertinent to us as Christians. We're glorying today in the fact that we have a "Christian" president. We glory today in the fact that we have mega-media ministries and influence. You have your televisions, and you have your T. D. Jakes, and you have your Robert Schullers, and we have our Billy Grahams who have hung out with presidents. Paul said that's not what we as Christians are to be glorying about. In fact, he says, everything that the world would boast in, and everything that we would think is success, he says in Philippians, we need to count loss. We need to call it dung; it's worthless. If the world likes it, we ought to hate it.

Yet, the world is embracing much of our Christendom today. The reason is because it's a cross-less Christianity. What I mean by that is--and we've shared it before--so many people are happy to glory in the cross that Jesus died on. "I'm glad that Jesus died, so that I don't have to go to hell. I'm glad that Jesus died so I can be strengthened emotionally because I'm just an emotional basket case. I'm so fearful. I'm so glad that Jesus died that I might be healed. I'm so glad!" The emphasis on healing, and the emphasis on deliverance, and the emphasis on prosperity, and the emphasis on all of these different things, and that's not Christianity. Christianity is Christlikeness. The cross is about you and me becoming more like Jesus. Humbling ourselves, dying to our own will, or, as the Scripture says so clearly, the necessity for us to come to that place of self-denial. The cross is synonymous with self-denial. How much today of our lives and of professed Christendom involves self-denial? Now, when I say self-denial--I'm going to continue to qualify this--I'm not talking about asceticism. I'm not talking about works of asceticism. I'm talking about dealing with the real heart issue of preferring others, of loving self less, of looking for ways to disassociate ourselves with the world and its system.

Paul says, "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." The cross is about getting the world, its system, its ideologies, its goals, its rewards removed from our thought processes. "It has no pull on me. What I used to call gain," Paul says in Philippians 3, "I now count loss." The things I used to boast in: my master's degree, my Ph.D., my corner office, my split-level home, my German-made automobile--Volkswagen. Those things that I used to count gain, and I used to boast in: my specific intestinal fortitude, my ability to endure and to get [things] accomplished, and my character, and my work ethic, and my morality; its dung, it's worthless if it doesn't originate at the cross. It will not stand under the awesome holiness of the presence of God if it doesn't originate with Him. Paul's telling us in the Philippians passage that we need to reevaluate our treasures and what we boast in and what we trust in. "God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross."

Paul, what are you saying? He's saying, "Apparent success isn't where it's at. Dodging persecution from the Pharisees, from the Jews because of the doctrine of faith; being able to be accepted by the political religious powers that be--that's not what I'm striving for. I want to be hated like Jesus. I want to obey even to the death of the cross like Jesus. I'm not looking for personal worth through what I do for Him, but I'm looking to be more like Him. I want His heart to beat in me." Paul, as he's speaking toward these things--it's powerful that ministry.

Look back to the Luke passage for just a moment, Luke 14. "If any man come to me, and [verse 26] hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Now, how many times have we heard these verses quoted, referred to, in teaching? How many times have we looked at ourselves and said, "That's me!"? We can't even deny ourselves the most current trend, pleasure, ease, comfort. We can't deny ourselves the luxury of coming out of our comfort zone and going out witnessing. We can't deny ourselves of the well-deserved time on the sofa or in the yard, to fellowship together and to come and to prefer others better than ourselves. Many of us do it out of obligation. We know the Bible says we've got to come up here, we've got to serve, we've got to be a part, but we're looking for other ways. We're seeking; we're looking for every opportunity to serve ourselves, to give ourselves the well-deserved recreation, the well-deserved comfort, the well-deserved ease. We're looking for and making provision for that, and out of obligation doing the other. Where's our heart?

As we're really dealing with these issues of the heart and looking at what this cross is all about, Hebrews tells us that the Lord delighted in this because of the joy that was set before Him. He understood that there was an eternal consequence, an eternal reward. There's something that we're not going to get in this life. Now, we're not doing it for that reason, but it's the motivation. We know what the end of this thing's going to be, the long-term investments. As we're studying and looking at this, this is what we want to try to get across. Are we really looking at the big picture? We're living in a generation that demands instant gratification. Now, we'd all like to think, "Well, I'm sanctified, praise God, I'm walking in the spirit. It's not affecting me." Really? You don't think this spirit of instant gratification, of having what we want when we want it--let me just ask you.

For instance, Richard was over at the house today getting some kind of a virus off of our computer. It was sick and sneezing, so he was fixing it. In the process of it, we're working on that thing. Here at the church we have one of these things--I don't know what it's called, but it's almost like when you click on something, it's instantly there. Whatever that thing is, it's really fast, and that's cool. I've got one at home that's kind of really slow, but not compared to what it used to be; you know, the dial-up things. I don't know what speed ours is at home, but it's not instant, so it's not fast enough; especially when you've been up here at the church. You click on something, and you have to wait like two seconds. You're like, "Okay..." you know. The microwave, remember how we used to be so fascinated with it? Now, its like, "Okay, already!" Now, how much are we being vexed in every area of our lives with the credit that we live on today? You used to have to save for things for years.

Now, some of you look at me like you don't even know what I'm talking about, and that's where we're at. We're there and being influenced spiritually because we don't understand what it means to deny ourselves. Now, we all live at different levels of prosperity here in America. We're all prosperous, but some of us live at different levels. Some of us do drive German Volkswagens and some of us drive Mercedes. The issue is how does the rest of the world live? Are we thankful, are we content with what we do have, and are we protecting our hearts from being consumed and brought into servitude to what we possess through our affections, through our lack of thankfulness? I'll show you what I mean. The purposeful choosing, Matthew 16:24, Jesus, the classic statement that they were all very familiar with, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me [and we talked about it being a willful choice, you remember, last session] If any man will"--the cross is willful. The cross is a choice. It's not going to come after you; you have to go embrace it. "If you will come after me [the next phrase is], you must deny self."

As we continue on in this study, we're going to get into self-denial and the disciplines that are necessary. In all of our lives, it's going to be something different. We can't just set up a list of do's and don'ts. For each of us, it's going to be something different. All it is, is self-idolatry. We focus on the stuff whether it's--and it's just different in our lives, whatever it is. Whether it's recreation, whether it's clothes, whether it's cars, whether it's houses, whether it's--you name it, just different things that--leisure time, anything you want to put. It's self-indulgence; that's all we're talking about.

Now, see, there's nothing wrong with the stuff, and that's where we get in trouble. "If I don't have--what I need to do is not have the stuff." No, what you need to do is realize, "I don't have to have the stuff." Not about having it, it's about having to have it. It's about thinking that there's some merit in it, that there's worth in it, that there's sufficiency of contentment, safety, gratification, in it. "If I have this much, I'll be secure." You're not trusting God, you're trusting in yourself: self-reliance, self-sufficiency, self-gratification, self-justification, all of this has to go to the cross. The submission to realizing that it's He that is at work within us to will and to do [Say it!] his good pleasure.

How much time have you spent recently saying, "Is my life being spent in what I know to be God's purpose for me?" This is what God has; this is what God wants me to do. My obedience to fulfilling this role, whatever it might be, is what is honoring God; it's bringing glory to God. I am 100 percent fulfilled, content, in hearing, "Well done; that's exactly what I want for you." If it's not, then we're right back to this cross aspect; if it's anything other than hearing, "Well done, good and faithful servant." If anything other than perceiving yourself as--and we've shared it so often--unprofitable servants, "I'm not doing anything extraordinary; I'm just doing what I've been called and told to do." Matthew was--we look at a life like Matthew. Here he was a prosperous man; he's got this great position that so many would have liked to have had. That one day that Jesus strolled by and looked into his eyes and said, "Come and follow me," and he just got up from the table and left what 90 percent of the people would have loved to have had. He just left it [finger snap] on one word! Have you had those eyes look into your soul yet? Now, remember, we're again not talking about the "stuff." It's not about how much money this person left versus how much money that person left; how many family members this person left and you only left this; and you only left this and you know. What's God called you to do, and are you doing it?

Now, in this study, the thing that we're going to spend a lot of time trying to identify is this: I would venture to say that probably 50 to 75 percent of us in this room would attribute to God's will, "What I really believe God wants me to do." and it's your will not God's. I would say the majority of us in this room still haven't identified the will of God in our lives after 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, of serving Him, because so many of us attribute so much to the voice of God being our own will. When was the last time you made willful decisions to do the opposite of what you wanted to do? I'm not talking about sin, and I'm not talking about asceticism. I'm talking about just looking at your own heart and saying, "You know I live in a world of such abundance. I live in a world of such opportunity." We all know the story. I have no question that I could do--I could pretty much do or be whatever I want to be with the opportunities in this country. A person of hopefully lower average intelligence sufficiently motivated--there's no limit to what you can do. There's no end to what we can possess. Are we choosing less than what we could have?

Now, we were talking about this just the other day. We made a choice a number of years ago. I've shared with you. There's no question in my mind as to where we were, what the opportunities were at that juncture. There's no question in my mind. We could have been nationally famous, filthy rich, and spiritually dead by now. We've shared with you so many times the passage in Jeremiah. "You've come to a fork in the road, choose the old paths." Many of you are going to have opportunities to advance in your businesses. Many of you are going to have opportunities to advance in your lifestyles. Many of you are going to have opportunity as young people to fulfill this particular ambition or this vocational opportunity. Before you make any of those decisions, go to the cross and say, "What is this opportunity going to cost me? How will this opportunity affect self-denial, the true treasure?" The glorying in the cross, the eternal investment in others lives; because this is what Paul's speaking of here. "God forbid."

What the natural mind says is, "Hey, there's an opportunity to advance, you ought to take that." What's that advancement going to cost you? "Well, are you going to still be able to get out for church service?" "Yes, if I drive like a maniac, and I get up at three in the morning, and I do this. Yes, I can make it back and kind of fall into the service and get home and hold one eye open enough to read the kid's part of the story before I fall into the story book at night." I can go through the motions of commitment, of involvement, but there's no freshness. There's no treasure. There's no zeal; it's obligatory.

How about choosing less that we could do more that's eternal; be better prepared, fresher? Not more in quantity, more in quality of what I'm giving to God. "Yes, I'm meeting the basic requirements." Which requirements, the ones that we've put forth or the ones that the Holy Spirit set forth? "If you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh." The lust of the flesh isn't just fornicating and getting drunk and being bound in avarice-type lifestyle. It's being under the power of the world system. It's finding contentment in something other than Jesus. It's thinking that somehow that's going to fulfill you, make you happy, build your self image, feel better about yourself.

I'm not content that I'm hitting this thing. There's a spirit here that I'm trying to get my finger on the pulse of it to help us see. It's a spiritual thing. It's a very fine line that we're talking here. Now, I don't want you to think, as I said before, that it's asceticism. It's an attitude. It's a heart that acknowledges the need to die. To be "...crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: [Galatians 2:20] 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." Can you say "It's no longer I, but Christ?" "But I've always wanted to..."

This is something that I'm working through in my own life right now, and I'm dealing with. I'll just share with you some of my own personal testimony and how I try to work things out. You know, like many of you, I've worked hard for a lot of years. I now have the wherewithal to do stuff. There's nothing wrong with that. My heart has been for the community. We've set up, because we've done it biblically, an operation here that's based upon biblical principles, to where we all serve one another; to where there are gifts that are set in place, and we're a strong fellowship. We run well. It works well. It works well with me gone, after all of these years. It's a biblical principle. At 50 years old the priest no longer had to do the work. They didn't do the work any more if you read in the Old Testament. Fifty years old the younger priests did all of the manual work, and the old guys stood around and prayed, said, "Good job! Try that, Sonny."

In the process, as we set some of these things up we were able to enjoy different benefits. Janet and I had planned on doing a lot of things, and, recently--and where I'm going is to show you, trying to strike the balance--with Janet going home, I was affected some in this particular thought process, too. I thought, "You know, we had a whole bunch of stuff planned that we were going to do, and she just flat out died too young. Now, all these things we were going to do when we got old, so, bless God, I'm going to do them because I don't have any guarantee I'm going to live. I have the wherewithal, so I'm going to do it." We had a list of things we were going to do. We were going to go see the Rose Bowl. We were going to go see the Rose Parade. We were going to go to a World Series, and we were going to go watch a Super bowl. We were going to build a retirement place in Myrtle Beach. Then as things changed, the retirement property was sold, and the money given to buy property in Africa. Other things that were plans went the way of the cross; it didn't work out the way I'd planned it. Now, in the balance of this thing, and much of the things that we were wanting, things that I was wanting to do, I'm having to try to strike a balance here in going, "I have the wherewithal to do that, life's short, I want to do these. These are things I want to do, and I have the wherewithal to do them." What's the balance of doing something just because you want to and you have the wherewithal, and coming back and saying, "You know you just can't do everything you want even if you have the wherewithal"?

I'm supposed to leave tomorrow morning for Pomona to do one of the things that I enjoy most, more than going to Disney World, more than going to Tahoe; I do that for my family, for my kids and my grandkids. Pomona's the Winter Nationals. I've meditated on this subject (yes, we had the tickets, reservations, everything), and I said, "I'm not going." Why? "Because I want to, and I have the wherewithal, and I deserve it, so I'm not going to do it." Until you realize again you don't deserve it, it's a gift of God. It's nothing necessary, so what can I do to become more aware of the denial of self? When do you make decisions like this, like I've shared with you that we just made? When you begin to be aware in your own life that it's out of balance, not in the doing but in the thinking. I don't have any guarantee that I'm going to live past the young age that she was removed. That doesn't mean I have to crowd everything that I necessarily wanted to do into eighteen months. If the Lord wants to let us do it, then we're going to do it; but it can't be self-generated. Those are the things that I'm trying to share from our own perspective. Many of you young people as you're--the same principles, planning to go to college, planning to marry, planning life's vocations or whatever. The desire, the thought, the dreams, aren't always the will of God, it's not always what Father has for you. To glory in the cross--so, Paul says in the Philippians passage; take a look over there for just a second. Verse 7 of Chapter 3, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ."

What's gain to you? If you had to make a list right now, what's gain? What is it you really want to accomplish? What will make you happy? What do you want? You could be like Kimberly and Greer; they have matching shirts, "I want everything. You got a problem with that?" What do you want? What's gain? As I've looked back in where Father's brought us all these years, and I've had to battle through some of these things because I'm not naturally perfect. In the last couple of years, the trial that we've been through, and I can remember wrestling with God. I can so identify with Jacob because I'm evil like he is, same nature, but that wrestling match. I can remember in that wrestling match, as through the years, and, of course, all of our lives none of us are on a straight up plane; we all cycle in our growth process. I can remember saying to Father one time, "You don't let me have anything I want. Everything that's been important to me you've taken away, everything I've wanted you've taken from me." He said, "Everything you wanted would kill you. Why don't you want to be like Me, who condescended to be a man to dwell among you? Why aren't you willing to leave the glory that I left to become sin with your sin? What makes you think you deserve what you want? Is what you want about your glory or Mine?"

Through the process of all of those years as we began to experience it through the eighties as we made some of the decisions here to pursue righteousness and holiness--and we were on that right course and things were better--I know God was doing things in my life, and I was growing spiritually. I was able to bring some of the ambition under control and put it under the blood of Jesus, and Father was maturing me, and I was growing spiritually and all of that process. In the last couple of years to have experienced that crushing, that breaking, to where I had nothing left. I had no ambitions. I had no plans. I can truly say I've never been richer, never been at greater peace or contentment than coming to the knowledge that Father loves me so much that He will see to it that I never have what I want, and I embrace that. I can boast in that now because what I want, talking about in the natural, the things that I perceive, aren't the things that will bring spiritual honor and glory to God. I have no agenda. I've come to that place of trying consciously to guard my heart from goal setting, ambition, to always approach the situation from, "Not my will, Your will be done."

The world that we're living in today, the spirit of this thing (just about finished for this evening), the spirit of the world at this time, beloved, we're being destroyed through our prosperity and our self-indulgence, and the indulgence we're putting upon our children. They have too much. Even as much as we guard ourselves, the flesh lusts, it's insatiable. The more you get, the more you want. The more you have, the less you appreciate what you have until you can come to the cross.

Now, remember, it's not the stuff. It's not the abundance it's the attitude; as we're looking at our own lives and our children here and some of our youth, especially. When is the last time you saw your young people delight in denying themselves, boasting in it? I'm not--talking about pride, boasting, "Yes, I did without that; praise God. See how spiritual [I am]." I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about saying, "Man, that's dead! It's good to be free; praise God. I'm not under the bondage of having to dress like that guy, look like that guy, drive this, and go play that. I'm free." There is no greater place. There is no greater rest. There is no greater testimony than saying, "It's no longer I that liveth. You can't find me; it's Christ that liveth in me." That's what we're striving for. That's what this cross is all about.

As we're going to continue in this study, it's about warring with everything that the world's trying to put on us as to what's going to make you happy. These are the things that as the Spirit speaks toward us in Philippians again, let's look at verse 8, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." Now, he said, "I've suffered the loss." But you've got to remember what Paul was talking about; it was a self-induced loss. Paul was coming to grips with the fact that he could either trust in his education, his own tenacity. He was in a position of prominence in persecuting the church. He was being groomed for the Sanhedrin, instructed by Gamaliel, prestige, power, and then he ran into the light and the voice. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" "Who art thou, Lord?" "I'm Jesus of Nazareth whom you persecutest. It's a hard thing to kick against the pricks."

For every one of us, there's going to be a "Road to Damascus" experience. It will evidence itself in different ways. In that particular juncture is when you make the decision, "Do I identify with the cross, the Christ that the world's system hates? Crucified, the world is crucified to me" (Galatians 6:14). Have you taken the world (we're talking about the cross), have you taken the world and put its wisdom, its glamour, glory, glitter, on the cross of self-will and counted it dung, the enemy, dangerous, destructive, the enemy of my Christlikeness? Or is it the casual perspective, "Well, we're in the world, but we're not of it"? Really? We hear the clichés, "Well, we're in the world; just don't let the world be in you." It's true, that cliché. "I'm going to make the tough decision, man, when it's time to be sawed asunder for Jesus, I know I can do it; praise God! When it's time, and my family walks out on me, I'm just going to rejoice in it, praise God. If my wife is going to apostatize and leave, as for me and my house, we're serving God." You can't even deny yourself to spend five minutes in prayer? You can't deny yourself to come and serve others? You can't deny yourself the absence of whatever comfort zone it is to move about in obedience? You can't deny yourself that little trinket, that little time to self, that little... I'm talking about when He asks you for it. "Well, I'll get to that later. I intend to... When it's really important I will."

Where are we in the realizing of--when we're talking about the world (and I'll end with this), when we're talking about the world, don't think about all the stuff. The world's system, all of the world is self-ness; that's all it is. The original sin, when Adam and Eve sinned, it became a self-life, self-sufficiency; and everything that we have is the byproduct of that; government, monetary systems. All of these different aspects are just the fruit of the consequence of self-ness, self-sufficiency, self-realization; eyes opened we've become as gods. The self realization emphasis of our generation, self-potential, all of that emphasis, and everything that the Spirit of God is trying to do is to bring you back to that place of being a babe, of being totally reliant, without agenda, without any perceived ability. "Without Him, I can do nothing." Is that the evaluation that you have of yourself this evening? If it is, then you've been to the cross. If it is, you're in a healthy place. Now, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. There's no limit to what I can do by Him, for Him, but I have no desire to accomplish anything by myself." That's the gateway to the cross.

Father, we thank you for your Word tonight. We just live in a sick society, so offensive to your holiness. So busy and so noisy that we can't hear that still small voice unless you call on a cell phone. We'll spend thousands of dollars to go to Africa but can't walk across the street to our neighbor. "If any man will come after me..." "Come and follow me" was the admonition. What would you do if He walked up to you right now and said, "Follow me"? "Where are we going?" "This direction." "Yes, but I have an elderly father, and I'm the executor; and let me bury my father. Let me go back until, he's going to pass any day now, and I want to make sure that things are in order." "Let the dead bury their dead." "You see, if I work two more years, the percentage of my retirement will be..." What has that got to do with anything? "I would like to come, but the children are too small. When they get older and stronger." "I have to prove my oxen. I've taken a wife. I've just bought some land I need to go check out." "Divest control of everything you have, and come and follow me." Our head drops, and we walk away sorrowfully because we've got to be in charge, we've got to be in control. "I'll serve you, Lord. I'll give you everything I have as long as I'm in charge of it and in control of it."

Some of you are going to Africa because you can't trust God to watch over your kids, you've got to go. Some would be horrified if your children go to Africa and say, "I want to stay here." "You've got to, hey, after college, after, there's a plan; there's a sequence. There's a right way. There's wisdom," which is synonymous with my will, my perception. Can you say, "I have nothing to add to the wisdom of God or the will of God. Speak and I'll obey"? Then we become candidates to be His disciples.

Let's stand before the Lord, and as Gary plays for us this evening, this is part of what we want to meditate on in these next sessions that are ahead. Can you boast in the cross? "God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross." When I can embrace that cross, all the fears will go away, all the ambition will go away, the pride will die. The self-will will become subordinate; not "No will," His will. I count it loss to know the gain of obedience. I embrace the death, the crucifixion, that I might know the power and the glory of the resurrection. Beloved, this world's going to turn on us at any moment. I just want to see us ready. Not through self-determination, "Yes, I'll go. I'll burn on the cross. I'll be eaten by lions. I'll be sawed asunder." You can't do it in your own strength! You can't die for Him until you've chosen to die to self.

Let's sing it together, and just worship Him this evening. "I will praise you all my life..." Hallelujah! Hallelujah! So, Father, we just ask that, that faithfulness would be imbibed by us that we would be stewards found faithful. This life isn't ours; we're just stewards of it now. We don't possess it any longer; it's yours. There's nothing to boast in, just unprofitable servants, just doing what we've been privileged to do, to serve, the privilege of obedience, the privilege of identifying with you. Be all in all, Father. It's our heart's desire in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you, say, "I choose the cross!" Praise God!" Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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