Self-Denial

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio. My name is Mike Ebendroth. And some people say, well, why is it called a radio when it's a podcast?

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Well, we started off on the radio probably 16, 17 years ago.

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I forgot when it started. There's a local station here, WVNE 760

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AM. Your AM dial. Remember when they had dials? And I filled in for a guy who had a live radio show for two hours a day.

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And I did that for 10 days, two solid work weeks. And then the station said, we'd love to have you on every day.

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Translation, could you pay us, the station, to put you on? And so we did, somebody at the church paid for that.

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And I think it was 12 grand a year in those days. And then they increased it a couple of years later to 15 or 16 grand or something.

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And so I talked to the station manager and I said, are you increasing the price because of costs or because you don't really want me on and it's worth $3 ,000 extra to put up with the complaints that you get from my show?

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He told me it was operating costs, but I still think it was like, he was gonna price me out of the whole thing. It's kind of like down the street, there's a building we were interested in buying because we're out of room here at this church.

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And we knew that it was, I don't know, $10 ,000 a month or something for leasing this one area because we knew the price that they charge another company.

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And then they told us it was 20 ,000 a month. And so we got the special church tax because I'm sure they didn't want the church there.

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They can't say no church, but they could say, here's the elevated price. What does that have to do with anything? I don't know.

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We just catch up and talk, no compromise radio. We're now on podcast. Of course, now on YouTube that you're watching.

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Thankful for Mario and his help. And, you know, if I never, if I forget a Bible verse or something,

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I just ask Mario fashion tips. I ask him for a hair gel.

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What's he use? When did you start going bald? Okay, but you started shaving your head about 10 years ago.

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Okay, all right. So see, we're friends. Hey, you know what? With No Compromise, I've never had a sponsor.

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So maybe we could have a sponsor, razor blades, the specialist. What do you use to shave your head?

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Just a razor. Okay, all right. First time I did that, I was in Germany and I had some bad razors.

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I was cutting my head, blood everywhere. The kids are wondering what's going on. Today on No Compromise Radio, I wanna talk about holy living.

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I want to talk about self -denial, picking up your cross daily and following Jesus. I want to talk about obedience.

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And I know what you're saying. I thought No Compromise Radio, I thought Mike Ebendroth was an antinomian.

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I thought he just said grace all the time, it'll all work out. Remember, dear friends, we're not antinomians.

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We're not neonomians. We are trying to say, and thread the needle biblically, that grace motivates,

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Titus chapter two, the law for Christians is no longer condemning.

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It guides us, third use of the law. And so we love God's law. Just like the psalmist says, oh, how

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I love your law. But it's not a law that condemns, it's a law that guides. If Christians want to think about what we call the first use of the law, mirror condemning,

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I think it's perfectly appropriate for you to say, you know what, let me remember back to when

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I was an unbeliever and how the law showed me my need for a savior. And I'm sure glad God saved me because he showed me in his law who

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I was. And I'm very thankful for that. Of course you could do that, but I just want you to know there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

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And because of our great guilt, but of Christ's great grace, we want to respond and obey out of gratitude.

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That's the motivating factor. Law doesn't animate, law doesn't give you any power. It just tells you guilty, not guilty.

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It's just like the GPS. I think I learned that from John Fonville. The law is like a GPS and the engine to do things is the gospel, is

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God incarnate Jesus Christ sent by the father, et cetera. But when you're a

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Christian, I want you to realize that you're to be holy, that you are to obey, that you are to love your wives as Christ loved the church, that you are to encourage one another, that you are to be thankful.

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There's all kinds of laws in the Bible. I mean, summarized by love God and love neighbors, certainly you look at the 10 commandments, you can see all the imperatives in the

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New Testament. Don't be bitter, right? Forgive all kinds of laws. And here

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Jesus wants the men to know and wants us to know what are the demands of following Jesus?

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What are the demands of discipleship? He has said earlier that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

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This is Luke chapter nine, verse 22. I'm going to suffer, Jesus says, and you men are going to suffer.

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I'm going to be killed. And many of you men, according to tradition, were killed.

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And so there's suffering, then glory. There's the cross and then there's a crown.

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And that is hard for people to believe. That's one of the reasons why Jewish people are like, wait, people, even the

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Jews back in those days, we thought the Messiah was going to come in great glory and victory and liberate us from the

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Romans and all kinds of other things they didn't know. Well, they should have known because you could read

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Isaiah chapter 53. You could read all the suffering that are in the servant songs in Isaiah, but it's suffering first and then glory.

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And so when you follow the suffering servant, there's going to be difficulty.

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There's going to be self -denial. And so here we have in Luke chapter nine, verse 23,

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Jesus was saying to them over and over and over, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily.

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It's one of the reasons we know it is not for unbelievers we give this charge, but to believers, pick up his cross daily and follow me.

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Of course, if you want to believe in Jesus, you don't have to stop sinning in order to do that.

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You don't have to deny yourself. You believe, and then after you do these things.

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So today on the show, I want to talk about Christian living that includes, I mean, there are many other things in terms of joy and prayer and other things, but it includes self -denial, picking up cross daily and following Jesus.

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So I don't know how far we'll get, but I want to talk about those three things. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross daily and follow me.

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Let's talk about the first one, self -denial. Deny himself. Now I just looked online and found all kinds of self -words, self -love, self -seeking, self -centered, self -satisfaction, self -importance, selfish, self -will, self -assured, self -reliant, self -righteous, self -expression, self -fease, everything self, self, self.

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And of course that's just perfect for us because we love ourselves so much.

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And I probably could add another word that starts with self and it's all self -deception.

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And so Jesus tells us not to promote self and not to love self, but to deny self.

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We'll also talk about dying to self, but the world is really warped when it comes to this.

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I think of the Lord Jesus sent by the Father to do His will.

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I think about the Lord Jesus who always did what was pleasing to the Father. I think about Jesus who says not my will, but your will be done.

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I think about Jesus who said my food is to do my Father's will. And so when God saves you, when you believe, you have a whole different constitution.

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We talked last week about regeneration and renewal. And so you have different appetites and different directions and different hopes and aspirations and dreams and everything else.

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And here, while Jesus' self -denial is not exactly like ours, there's a relationship.

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And for us, we are to deny self. Did you know Matthew Henry? Do you have

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Matthew Henry commentaries? Probably most everybody does, but they don't read them. And probably you have an abridged version.

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By the way, you can go online. I think Bible Hub or Crosswalk or something like that, they have them online.

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Matthew Henry said, self -denial is the first lesson in Christ's school.

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That's the first lesson. Why don't you become a Christian? What's the first lesson? Like this is first grade.

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This is 101, self -denial. Calvin said, self -denial is the sum of Christian life.

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Wow. Denying yourself. That's the summary of the Christian life. What does it mean?

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To say no to certain foods, to certain fun, to certain pleasures, to say no to alcohol, to say no to who knows what, no fish on Fridays.

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Is it like Lent where you're not supposed to have certain things? No, no, it's to deny yourself. Not to deny things, but you.

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I'm to deny myself, me, the idol that I am. It is saying no to me.

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And then of course, yes to the Lord. I deny myself so I can do what pleases the Lord, to do what the

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Lord wants. He's telling me what to do. And I say, no. R .C.

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Sproul said, self -denial is not self -hatred. It is saying no to the old man. It is the ongoing mortification, death of sin.

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I think that's right. Sinclair Ferguson said, to deny self means to say no to the me first impulse in every sphere of life.

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Me first. I mean, I can think about little kids and stuff. Who wants this? You know, me and all that stuff.

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In our family, what I always did to help Luke out, as I said, the girls always get to go first.

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Unless it's your birthday, then you get to go first. But girls always go first. And the girls always get the first piece of whatever we have.

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They get the first ice cream served. They get, and this has nothing to do with anything, but I remember, you know, you're a kid and you think you want the biggest piece, right?

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I had a brother and sister, still do. And, you know, if there's three pieces, I want the big piece. So, you know, the way to get around this, and I'm sure you already know this as a parent, if kids fight about what piece is bigger and who gets what, so have one child cut and then the other children, they get to pick first.

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So you, as the cutter, you have to do one of two things. Be perfectly fair or use your imagination to cut in an optical illusion way to get your sister or brother to pick the smaller piece, but it looks bigger.

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So that's my free advice. To deny self. I mean, aren't we bought with a price?

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Therefore glorify God with your body. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians.

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When I got saved, I said to the Lord, I am so thankful to be saved.

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I don't have to go to hell. I'm forgiven. I'll do anything for you.

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I'll go anywhere for you. I wanna serve you. Now, I'm not bragging.

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You've probably done the same thing. I'm just saying, okay, whatever my hopes and dreams and aspirations were, my five -year plan, my 10 -year plan, my business plan, desires to be millionaires and all these other kinds of things that we want, big houses and cars or whatever,

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I'm willing to say no to that. And you probably did too. But no, we need to keep doing that.

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Wherever you want me to go. I mean, I had no idea I would be a pastor. I don't like to talk in front of people, at least back in those days.

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I don't wanna get up. I don't wanna do this, that, and the other. I'd like to know the Bible. So that's why I went to seminary. I was gonna quit seminary and not take the final two classes, the two preaching classes, because I'm petrified to get up in front of people.

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And I don't wanna do that. But the Lord wanted me to be a pastor. And eventually it popped in my mind that while I might not be able to preach that well,

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I mean, I hope I can do an adequate job now after 30 years. But back in the day, I was not very good.

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But I did say this, Lord, wherever you send me, I'll go. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do. And there are some people in certain places that don't have any preaching.

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They don't have any verse by verse preaching. And so I'll go. I'll go to one of those places. And what do you know,

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West Boylston, Massachusetts, 7 ,000 people. I mean, if you would have told me that I would be moving to New England, I would be thinking, what?

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Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, these guys, I mean, these are my arch enemies. I mean, they're great basketball players, that's for sure.

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But moving to New England? So I'm sure you did the same thing. I'm sure Mario did the same thing. When you get saved,

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Lord, I'm yours. And whatever you want me to do, I'll do. I think that's a good summary of self -denial.

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Well, that's not all, Jesus says. And these are related. Deny self and take up his cross daily.

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So as Christians, we don't become saved or anything by picking up a cross or something like that.

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But now that we're Christians, we respond in lots of ways to the Lord here. He says, deny self and now take up cross daily.

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Not wear a cross. You can wear one if you want, but picking one up.

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In the sanctification category, this is pretty amazing because crosses meant death.

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You would take that bar that you were crucified on, that the beam, the central beam, and you would have to walk to your place of execution.

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And it would be humiliating. And then they would crucify you. Most of the time, you're naked.

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And if you just think about the person that would die on the cross and the smells, smell of a dead body, the sights probably make you throw up if you saw somebody who was crucified.

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And it means death. Crucifixion meant death, a sure death, a painful death, an awful death.

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And so Jesus says, of course, there's glory to follow. We'll talk about that at the transfiguration.

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I mean, is it worth doing all these things? The answer is going to be yes, but we're to deny self and pick up cross daily.

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It's death, a sure death. I'm willing to die for Jesus. I hope I'd have enough bravery to do that, but that's the idea, willing to die or experience any other hardship less than death because we don't believe in a theology of glory.

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We believe in the theology of the cross. It is cross, then crown. It is suffering, then glory. This is a fallen world.

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And so Jesus, a suffering servant, has servants who suffer. We don't all have to die literally for Jesus as martyrs, but we have to be willing.

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We have to be willing. At that time, one man wrote, these words of Jesus might've been rendered thus.

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If anyone wishes to come after me, let him be prepared to be led out to public execution following my example.

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And so whether that's real death or trouble, we have to be willing to do that.

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I found the traditions of the deaths of the disciples. John dies of old age at Ephesus.

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Remember he was exiled at Patmos for a while. Peter crucified upside down. Andrew dies on a cross.

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Bartholomew skinned alive. James, the elder son of Zebedee, beheaded at Jerusalem.

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Thomas run through with a lance. Philip hanged against a pillar. Thaddeus shot to death with arrows.

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I talked about the Nicene Council last show, 318. Why do

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I always mess that up? There are 318 delegates and it was at 325. Of those 318 delegates who are working on this creed, fewer it says than 12 had not lost an eye or lost a hand or did not limp on a leg, lame by torture for the

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Christian faith. Now, even if that's only half true, can you imagine?

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The broad sense, whatever I have to suffer, I suffer. And the narrow sense is up to death.

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Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, far be it from you, Lord, this should never happen to you, talking about death and the cross.

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Peter turned and said, Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. Wow, because Satan, remember back in Luke chapter four,

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Jesus, just have the kingdom now, no suffering, glory now. And of course, for the

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Christian, we know it's suffering than the glory. Listen to what

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Colossians says. Does this sound like deny self and pick up the cross daily? Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.

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Death to self, pick up the cross and follow me. We're not talking about how to become a Christian. We're talking about what

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Christians do. My court, we're not saved by taking up the cross, but we're saved unto a life that includes it.

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The reformation rightly taught that while good works are not the cause of salvation, they are its necessary consequence.

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You should put that in your brain. Works are necessary consequences. They're consequences to life as a

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Christian. Jesus says, die to self. Jesus says, be willing even up to the cross, crucifying the old man.

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Charles Spurgeon said, there are no crown wearers in heaven who are not cross bearers here below. And then now, what's the third thing?

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Deny self, pick up cross daily. And Jesus says, and follow me, follow me.

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Now, this is gonna be like picky. This is going to be nitpicky.

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This is going to be, ah, you know, your discernment ministry, and you know, you always go off on people and everything else.

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I don't really like it when people say I'm a Christ follower. I know what they mean,

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I don't correct them. I see that people say that all the time now. Are you a Christ follower? Are you a

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Christ follower? Well, yeah, I guess. And you know, follow me. And in the old days, the rabbis would have students and they would literally follow them, right?

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The teacher would walk and you would walk right behind the teacher, literally following. I get that.

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But maybe it's because I'm a bad follower. Maybe because I don't want people to say the way to get to heaven is by following Jesus.

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The way to get to heaven is believing in Jesus. Are you a believer? I'd much rather say, I'm a believer.

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I mean, we could go back to, are you a Christian? People would say, yes. Why are you a

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Christian? How do you know you're a Christian? Well, I read my Bible. I listen to No Compromise Radio. I'm a member.

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I try to evangelize when I can. I pray, I don't pray as much as I want, but I try to pray and I get convicted when

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I do things that aren't right, or if I'm selfish or rude to my wife and I feel bad and I see the spirit working in my life.

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And that's why I'm a Christian. What did I just get done saying? What did I get done saying about works as necessary consequences?

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Those are good and right and wonderful way to go. I'm happy. Praise the

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Lord. He's working in your life. But if I say, why are you a Christian? I don't think you should start with things in the category of faithfulness, works, evidences, consequences, fruits, faithfulness.

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Why don't you just say, if I ask you the question, are you a Christian? Yes. How do you know you're a

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Christian? Because I'm believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen savior who promised that if I look to him,

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I'll be forgiven. That's why you're a Christian. Why do we default so much to the religious side?

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Are you a religious person? Yes, I do these religious things. But if I say to you, are you a Christian? You should first say, yes,

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I am, because God saved me by sovereign grace and even gave me the faith to believe. Is there evidence in your life that shows you're a

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Christian? Is there fruit? Yes, let me tell you about it. So when people say, I'm a Christ follower, I just,

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I don't know. You can write me. You can write me at pinkslipatnocompromisedradio .com.

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I'm a Christ follower. No, no, I'm a believer. Because even then I say to myself, I don't follow like I want to.

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So back to the text. Jesus did say we're to follow him. And so if you want to say,

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I, because of this passage and many others, I want to let people know I follow

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Jesus, fine. Okay, you can. But just don't say it around me. I'm just kidding. My point is simple.

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I'm not going to correct people when they say I'm a follower of Christ. I mean, you could go to 1

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Corinthians 1. Who do you follow? I'm of this, I'm of that, et cetera. Okay, I understand. My point is,

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I'm just trying to get you to think. Faith and faithfulness, two different categories. I'm trying to get you to think you're a

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Christian faith alone, sola fide. That's what I'm trying to do. The normal Christian life, basically,

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Jesus says is self -denial, pick up cross daily and following him. And I say to myself, daily?

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I mean, looking back at that passage now, what do we know about people who were crucified?

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They're never coming back. They're facing one way. You're never going back.

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It's just, you're all in. It's amazing. 30 ,000

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Jews, they said, were crucified by the Romans. And a lot more, possibly, than that.

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But only one person that was crucified experienced the wrath of God. That's why when you see a movie and somehow, even if they don't show

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Jesus's face and the suffering of the cross, was the cross awful? Of course. But what made it so awful for our

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Lord is because he was not only suffering at the hands of men with the nails, et cetera, and the piercing with the lance, it's the wrath of God was on him.

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And he's the one that did it all. So on No Compromise Radio today, how could you, how could

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I say, okay, I just need to die to self more. I just need to say no to self more.

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I just need to not seek my own glory more. How do I do that? And the answer is, well, we can't really do it on our own.

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Can we? Of course not. So we say, Lord, my life, even as a

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Christian, is tending toward the default of self, loving myself.

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And I need to be other oriented. I need to be looking to the Lord, you, and I need to be facing one direction, a man who has said his final goodbyes to himself and a man who has no further plans of his own.

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And I need to keep denying myself. Would you help me? Do you think the Lord would honor that prayer? Lord, help me to deny myself more.

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Do you think the Lord would honor this prayer? Lord, I promote myself too much.

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I'm too selfish. And I think I need to pick up my cross more and follow you because you've done all these things for me.

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You're so wonderful, so gracious. I need to learn to do this more. Would you help me in the school of self -denial, of suffering, of cross, then crown, of suffering, then glory?

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Do you think the Lord would be honored to do that in your life? I mean, would you, do you think that would honor the

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Lord by saying that? Of course. Well, then why don't you say it right now?

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Why don't you say, Lord, help me to say no to self and yes to you. Help me to deny my, help me when

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I get home today to love my family like I should. Mario is getting convicted. What's your question?

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Yeah, ask it, come on. This is live radio. How do you do that in a practical sense?

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Like as a business owner, how do I apply that in a practical sense?

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Okay, he said - When business is cutthroat, it's like - Yeah. You gotta outshine the competition, so forth.

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Yeah, Mario said, how do I do that in a business sense? Well, I don't know every answer to that, but I just know that at the baseline,

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Mario, it should be integrity as a Christian. And so you probably won't go as far as you could if you say to yourself,

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I'm gonna be honest. And my yes is going to be yes, and my no is going to be no. There's nothing wrong with promoting a business.

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This is not a Mario production. This is a promoting a business for your family to survive on.

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And so marketing and exposure and buying ads on Facebook and all that stuff, that's not a promoting self.

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But once you get the business or try to get the business, it is integrity, honesty, thinking about the customer and trying to say, you know what, what's best for them.

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And so you could almost probably look at every other business and say, and I don't wanna do those things, right?

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Because here's what the world's doing. And then you say, what are my motives for the business? Why am

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I trying to expand this? And if the motive is I wanna be rich and famous, then that's a bad motive.

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If it's, I'd like to provide for my family and have a future for my family, I'd be more financially stable.

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That's a good thing. God honors hard work. And so if you wanna have Facebook on, promote, what in the world is that?

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Mario's got more business calls coming in. Just kidding. So on No Compromise Radio today, we're talking about Christians and the

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Christian response to the Lord's great work of grace, is to deny self, pick up cross daily, and follow him.