Take Up Your Cross — Michael L. Brown

Living God, our Father, our King, I pray, Lord, for your spirit to be here in power. We don't take for granted the open heavens. We don't take for granted, Father, the working of your spirit here day in and day out.

Look upon the hearts of your people. Look at the hunger. Look at the thirst. Look at the desire. Look at the need and speak to us, I pray, God. May the eyes of our understanding be open. Lord, if there's any sin, any barrier, any obstacle, any hindrance that stands in the way of any of us receiving, we ask you, God, right now to cleanse us and to wash us and to purify us.

May the sword of your spirit cut to the very depth of our being. May it reveal the motives of the heart and the mind. May it be a tree of life to those that take hold in Jesus' name. Amen. Men, you can be seated.

I want you to turn with me to Matthew, the 16th chapter. Take up your cross. What does it mean to take up the cross? One time while ministering in Korea at lunch, that was the main meal we'd have every day.

After the morning sessions, which went all morning, we'd have a lunch break and then we'd have two afternoon sessions and then a dinner break and then go all night in the night session. But for dinner break, I just wanted to rest a little and pray.

So the main meal we'd have would be lunchtime. And every day someone would want to take you out. They'd say, so-and-so is the host for the luncheon today. And I'm a very simple person when it comes down to diet.

I like to eat the same thing every day. I'm happy to do it. All through elementary school, basically first grade through sixth grade, I had a peanut butter sandwich with no jelly for lunch every single day.

And I took the crust off. I didn't like the crust in those days. Then in junior high, virtually every day I had a hamburger and french fries for lunch. I know it's a health food fanatic kind of diet. I understand that.

But when I go to Korea, I found one Korean meal that I really liked called bulgogi, this marinated beef with other things and rice. And I really like it. And it's an inexpensive meal. And I was happy to have that every single day.

Happy to go to a Korean restaurant. We'd sit on the floor and I was happy to have that every day. In fact, it's the only Korean meal I've ever had in Korea. And I've been there half a dozen times. But often they'd want to take us to a different restaurant.

American restaurant in Seoul, you know, with the Olympics and everything in 88. There's a lot of American enterprise there. You'll see 7-Elevens there. You'll see Kentucky fried chicken. And there was TGI Fridays.

We'd go to these different places. Well, this one particular day, a wealthy woman, very well-dressed. You could see she'd been a woman of the world in terms of style and fashion, well-educated. She wanted to take us out for lunch.

God had been dealing with her heart. I don't know how recently she had been saved, but she was fairly new in terms of seriously following God. She'd begun to go to the Missions Bible College where I was teaching in the daytime.

And she took us to this expensive steak restaurant, 9 of us. In fact, some of the workers that were there, some of the Korean helpers, were just in jeans and weren't dressed well and felt very embarrassed going into this place.

Candles on the table. This was lunchtime. I looked at the menu. I couldn't believe it. It was going to be like $30 for each of us. And she insisted that we all got, you know, a nice expensive meal. And it bothered me that she was spending so much money.

We didn't need to spend that money. It's fine to go out and have a nice meal. But I was just thinking, she doesn't need to do this. But I wanted to honor her because I knew she wanted to bless us. She was doing this to show her love and to show her appreciation.

And it was a gesture on her heart, from her heart to us. And we sat in this restaurant and there, you know, candle lit. And, you know, I'm always trying to think, make sure you use the right fork for the right thing and put it all down the right, you know, when you're in these kind of restaurants.

And we're all sitting and talking about the things of the Lord. And they told me, you know, that she's really serious about going after God. And I looked at her across the table and I said, I want to thank you so much.

This is through a translator. I want to thank you so much for your generosity and for blessing us with such a fine meal. Thank you. I appreciate it very much. And I want to do something special for you.

You'll be back in the classes this afternoon. You'll be in the meeting tonight. I, as a token of my appreciation, want to do something special for you. She looked at me. I said, I want to help you to die.

You know, the candles there on the table and all the other Koreans sitting there smiling because they were on fire. And she tried to smile, but I think she knew that death would not be pleasant. I want to read to you from Matthew chapter 16, verse 21.

From that time on. What time? After Peter publicly confessed you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Now understand this. Everything in our lives in terms of our faith in Jesus goes back to the cross that he had to die for our sins. The Messiah came into this world and died a criminal's death. But it was not the expectation of the Jewish people in that day that the Messiah would come and die a criminal's death.

There were varied expectations about what he would do when he came, and there were some traditions having to do with some suffering on his part, but no one was expecting the king of Israel to come and be turned over to wicked men and crucified and die.

That was absolutely not their expectation any more than it's our expectation that when he comes in the of heaven, someone will pull him off the horse and shoot him. You understand it was totally foreign to their thinking.

So Peter, when he hears this, don't forget Peter has just confessed him as the Messiah, the son of the living God. Remember when he came into Jerusalem, what's called Palm Sunday, when he made his triumphal entry into the city.

The crowds are hailing him, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Those were words of welcoming the messianic king taken from Psalm 118 that were understood to be welcoming the king, the Messiah.

They thought this is exciting. I mean, they must have had in the back of their minds, the disciples, these prophecies about his death and all that. And he had been talking about it a lot, but they must have been thinking, well, whatever that means, we don't really know what that means.

He's the Messiah. Yes, all Jerusalem's welcome. Oh, it's happening. Yes. They'd seen all the miracles. They'd seen people raised from the dead. They'd seen the religious hypocrites confounded. They'd seen they'd seen the hand of God outstretched in ways they had prayed for and wept for for generations.

They weren't expecting him to die, especially a shameful criminal's death. This is Peter. Jesus has just commended Peter. Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven, Peter, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him.

Isn't that awesome? We do the same, but not in as many words. Never, Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you. Don't you remember moments ago? I told you who you were. Have you forgotten so soon?

Remember flesh and blood didn't reveal your father in heaven showed me who you were. That's not going to happen to you. You're the Messiah. Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. Have you ever gone from the heights to the depths in a moment of time?

From I can't believe God has blessed me. I can't believe he's used. I can't believe he's opened this door of ministry to me. One hour later, I can't believe I blew it. Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me.

You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Anything that seeks to have the blessing of God and bypasses the cross is satanic in its thinking. Get behind me, Satan. You're not looking at it from God's point of view.

You don't see this from the heavenly point of view. Your position is a stumbling block to me. You don't have in mind the things of God. You have in mind the things of men. Now, I don't know what was going through Peter's mind.

I don't know if it was the next second that Jesus immediately turned to his disciples or if he waited a couple of seconds. I don't know. Seems that he just continued talking, but I like to think of it like this.

Just in my own mind, may not be true, but I like to just think of it like this. Maybe Peter says to himself, boy, I blow it. All right, I don't understand. And sometimes you can think in a split second.

If you're in ministry, you know you can be preaching a message and having a dialogue with God in your mind about a total other subject, and the Lord's dealing with you about something while you're preaching other people.

Sometimes you can review your options in a split second when you're presented with a difficult decision. Maybe Peter in that split second thinks, okay, I had it wrong. I don't understand it. He's the Messiah.

I know he's going to rule and reign, establish the kingdom here, destroy the wicked out of the earth, and bring peace. I understand he's going to do all of that. I don't understand this death on the cross stuff and being beaten, and I don't understand that.

But if he has to die on the cross, who am I to get in his way? I'm wrong. It's just stupid me. If he has to die, if he has to suffer, so be it. Let him go to the cross. Let him die. I was wrong. Maybe that's what Peter was thinking.

But look at what Jesus says. Then Jesus says to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, it's not just me, Peter. Remember I said follow me? But Jesus didn't mean like follow you and watch all the miracles, and follow you and hear all your great teaching, and follow you and be like one of the inner circle.

Isn't that what you really meant, Jesus? You didn't really mean follow me when I go to the cross. You didn't really mean that, Jesus, did you? And follow me the way of rejection and scorn, and you didn't really mean that, did you, Jesus?

It's kind of like follow me and this is great exciting things, sure better than catching fish, right? Isn't that what you meant, Jesus? Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, anyone, doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter whether you believe this or not, doesn't matter whether you accept it or not, doesn't matter what your religious background is, doesn't matter what your church teaches or what your religion teaches, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

He must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

Or what can a man give in exchange for soul? For the son of man is going to come in his father's glory with his angels and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. The only thing that's going to matter is the verdict of eternity.

The only thing that's going to matter is when Jesus comes back, what is his view on the subject. The only thing that's going to matter is not all the praise of man and all the opinions of people. The only thing that's going to matter is when he comes and sets up his kingdom, who's in the right with him and who's in the wrong with him.

Who's commended by him and who's condemned by him. That's all that's going to matter. I want you to see before I go any further how foundational this truth is to the New Testament. That if you want to follow Jesus, you must die.

That if you want to follow Jesus, you must take up your cross. Let me remind you before we look at other scripture that the cross meant death. That the cross meant the end of this life. I wrote a chapter in the book, How Saved Are We called It's Time to Die.

And after I wrote that chapter, I came across one of the most famous messages that A .W. Tozer had ever written. It was often distributed in tract form called the old cross and the new. I couldn't believe how many of the same things I had written that he had written.

Same themes, same thoughts, except what he did was so much more powerful and deep. But he made the comment that the old cross killed the sinner. The new cross redirects him. Any cross that doesn't mean death is not a cross.

If someone receives a death sentence, they may have three choices. Death by hanging, death by electrocution, or death by lethal injection. But they don't have a fourth choice. Death by being imprisoned for five years.

That's not a death sentence. That's a punishment sentence. But if you're fed, that's not a death sentence. The cross does not just mean some type of Christianity or some type of religious exercise or some type of spiritual expression.

The cross means death. When that person picked up the beam, took up their cross, and headed to the place of crucifixion, they were saying goodbye to this world. Whatever they were doing, they would do no more.

If that person had been a murderer, they would murder no more. If they had been a thief, they would steal no more. If they had been a rebel, they would rebel no more. They were coming to the end of this world, they would never see their family again in this world.

The only exception would be if they rose from the dead. Otherwise, it was over. When I say the exception would be if they rose from the dead, I mean that's the way that we live. As having died, we now live in newness of life.

This same truth is repeated in Mark the 8th chapter and in Luke the 9th chapter. But I want you to go to Luke the 9th chapter where you have the parallel passage. Look at what Jesus says in verse 23. One key word is added that is not found in Matthew or Mark.

Then he said to them all, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. There is a once for all crucifixion. When you are born again, you die to the old way of life and you begin to live in newness of life.

There is a daily taking up of the cross where you say no to the things of this world, no to the pull of this world, and afresh say, Lord, I am yours. The old man no longer lives, I live to do your will.

Go to John's gospel, the 12th chapter. When I preach, my messages are normally one-point messages. In these day sessions, I will preach slash teach, which means it'll be a one-point message said three different ways, approximately.

You've gotten the point, you will get the point. John 12, some Greeks or Greek-speaking Jews come up to the feast Passover. They want to see Jesus. They've heard a lot about him. They want to see him.

The disciples tell Jesus, and in verse 23, he says, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Man, that's cool. The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Maybe it's going to be like fireworks.

Oh, maybe he's going to go like that, like he did on the Mount of Transfiguration and like the earth will quake and the mountains will shake and he'll glow and be true. And then all people will come and bow down.

Whoa, he's going to be glorified. Maybe these people from a distance hearing it say, boy, did we come at the right time. Perfect to hear Jesus is about to be glorified. This is going to be big. I tell you the truth.

Why does he have to do this? Why does he always have to burst our bubble? You know, whenever the big crowds came, that's when Jesus sifted them out. Did you ever see that in the Gospels? Huge crowds would follow him.

See, when God's moving in power, crowds are not a problem. What I mean is it's not hard to draw a crowd. John Wesley was asked how he drew the crowds. He said, I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn.

It's been said you don't have to advertise a fire. You know, when God's moving, when miracles are taking place, when sick are being healed, when demonized are being set free, crowds will come from all over the place.

Then you got to sift him and you got to find out who's serious with God and who's not. Jesus had no trouble drawing the crowds. In fact, the trouble was to get away from the crowds, to just try and get alone and pray, to just try and get alone and have a meal.

Sometimes he couldn't even eat. When he'd go to eat, sometimes the crowds would come breaking in there. The son-in-law of John G. Lake. Lake died in 1935. His son-in-law died some years ago, Wilford Wright.

But he told us back in the 80s when we had met him, that sometimes Lake, who had a phenomenal healing ministry in South Africa for a five-year period, the early part of this century, he said that sometimes Lake would go away to an isolated village where a friend had a place where he could stay, kind of the middle of nowhere, and he'd go away just to rest.

And within an hour, crowds would be forming outside. Word would be everywhere. Within a few hours, they'd be coming from all over with the sick. Jesus would sift the crowds because he was not interested in all the numbers.

He wanted to know what was really in people's hearts. He wanted to know those that would be in it for the long haul. He wanted to know when he died and rose from the dead and sent his spirit down. And now it was up to his disciples to take this message out.

Who would stand against the opposition? Who would be strong in the face of threats and death and persecution? Who would live a holy and pure life in the face of temptation? Who can be entrusted with the message?

Luke 14, the crowds follow him. Maybe the disciples are excited at last. Wonderful. Awesome. The crowds are here. This is tremendous. This is wonderful. Great crowds follow him. You know what he does?

He gets up and teaches. I'm still in John 12. I'm just getting to what he says in John 12. Great crowds follow him in Luke 14. You know what he does? He gets up and says, if anyone doesn't hate his father and mother, brother and sister, his own life, he can't be my disciple.

You think his disciples saying, oh no. Not now. We got the crowds. Bigger crowds we've ever had. Word's gotten out. Now he's got to give the hate your father, hate your mother message. I can see him going.

He really does. You got to know what he means. We're close and we know what he really means. He doesn't mean hate. Would he say hate? He taught all your father and mother, didn't he? Stay around. Please don't leave.

But he knew what he was doing. He gave something that sounded very radical in the ears of the people. And those that had ears to hear would understand what he was really saying. Others would get turned off and leave.

Those that were sincere. I'm amazed with people even in terms of revival. Those that want to hear the truth will stick around and find out the truth. Those that come, and it could be with your church, it could be with your ministry, those that want to come to destroy, they'll find everything they want.

I don't care how perfect your church is running, how wonderful your service is, if someone comes to tear down and destroy, they'll find everything that they want. Someone wants to find out what you're really about, if you're right with God, they'll find out that you're right with God.

Jesus finishes that teaching in Luke 14. He says, here's the way it is. Unless you forsake everything you have, you can't be my disciple. He didn't need to make deals. He didn't just say, tell you what, here's what I'm going to do for you.

He didn't need to do that. He was the Son of God, manifesting the glory of the Father, opening blind eyes, raising the dead, setting the captives free. He himself was the way, the truth, and the life.

He doesn't need to come down to our level. He says, now if you want me, you've got to leave everything. Because we've had so little of the moving of God in our midst for years, and so little of the glorification of Jesus in our services, we've had to rely on other things to try and draw people in, and try to make deals.

You know, it's kind of like, let's make a deal, and if you'll ask him in today, in addition to eternal life, you will get this. Oh, really? And if you'll order now, if you'll put your salvation on credit card, you can even get this bonus.

I was trying to make a point. I know I've never quite heard that done, although it's probably done somewhere. John, the sixth chapter, the great crowds follow him after he feeds the multitudes, and what does he say?

He keeps talking spiritually, they keep thinking naturally. They come because their bellies were full. He starts talking about he's the bread of life. They want the bread. They want to eat the bread. They want to do the work.

What do we have to do to do it? He said, believe. They're talking work. He's talking faith. They keep getting more and more natural. He keeps getting more and more spiritual until he says, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Picture the disciples. Look at their faces. Eat the flesh of the son of man. You have no life in you. Jesus, the people will understand you. They're going to think you're actually talking about eating your flesh and blood.

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. Picture him saying, it'd be one thing if he said it's not so bad to eat pig every so often. Bacon and eggs won't damn your soul to hell. That'd be pretty radical for a Jewish preacher of the first century, but maybe, maybe they could have taken that.

But my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink. And I have a chapter in my booklet, No One Deceive You, called Was Jesus a False Prophet? And what I do is I send out a band of critics to follow Jesus around to determine whether he really is who he says he is, using the same methods by which revival is attacked today.

And you can come to the end of the story pretty quick. They've exposed him. He isn't real. See, we're used to these things. We read them in our Bible. It's God's word. This is Jesus speaking truth to us.

But you put yourself back in the first century and you hear some of these things, even if you're one of his. His disciples didn't understand it also. They said, this is a hard saying. He said, are you going to leave also?

They said, well, where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life, and we know who you are. We know you're the one sent by God. We know you're the only Savior, the only way. We know all that.

We know you're the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. We know that. We don't have a clue what you're talking about, Jesus. Now, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, John 12, 24.

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Now remember, out of the disciples that heard Jesus speak what he spoke, out of the 12 apostles, Judas was a traitor.

So out of those 11 that heard Jesus say, you've got to take up your cross and follow me. You've got to lose your life. 10 out of 11, according to church tradition, were killed for the faith. Their skin peeled off, thrust through with spears, crucified, or according to tradition about Peter, crucified upside down because he didn't feel he was worthy to be crucified the way his master was.

Paul, the foremost among the apostles, beheaded. Think of that, friends. They literally died in the course of following their master. But I want you to see this theme again in scripture. I've been opening up scripture and just expanding on simple truths.

I'm going to apply them to our lives in a minute. Let's keep going, though. We can find this in Matthew. We can find this in Mark. We find this in Luke. We find this in John. Let's go over and look in some of the epistles.

Let's look in Romans, the sixth chapter, as Paul teaches about baptism. Romans chapter six, as he's taught about God's overwhelming grace and the free gift of God that makes many righteous through faith in Jesus.

He then asks, well, should we keep on sinning that grace may abound if grace was given because sin abounded? Should we sin more so there'll be more grace? He says in Romans 6, too, by no means. We died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with or rendered powerless that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Let's look at another epistle. We know that Paul told the Corinthians that he died daily. Could be different levels of meaning to that. Let's look at a direct application, Colossians, the third chapter.

Really, when you look at it, although there are some difficult passages in the Bible and some things that may not be totally clear to us in terms of how we apply them, how we benefit from the genealogies, how we grow by reading about some of the Old Testament laws that don't seem particularly relevant.

There may be certain passages in Revelation, you know, we don't quite follow all the meaning of some of the visions and symbols. The bottom line is the word is pretty clear. The bottom line is the word is pretty simple, black and white.

I remember talking to a rabbi when I was first saved. It's a Jewish believer. My dad wanted me to talk to the local rabbi. My father was glad I was off drugs, but now wanted me to to, you know, go back to tradition, although we weren't a really religious family at all.

But I've been Jewish enough to to not believe in Jesus and to go through some of the religious rituals, you know, when I became 13 and so on. I remember talking to this rabbi. We became good friends. And he said to me, you just have such a way of being just so black and white, simplistic about everything.

And he was saying that in a negative way to me. I was talking to a friend of mine, bass player in our band that had gotten saved right before I did help lead me to the Lord. This friend said to me in response to what the rabbi said, the Bible has a way of being black and white.

You know, you read in Scripture, you read about obedience and disobedience. You read about blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. You read about the wise and the fool. You read about the wicked and the righteous.

You read about heaven and hell. It's amazing how it's either or throughout the word. And death is one of those definite kinds of things. You know, I realize that sometimes checking out of a grocery store, you might see National Enquirer telling you Elvis is not dead, but friends, he's dead.

You know, it's not one of these debatable kinds of things. When someone's dead and they're buried, it's over as far as this world is concerned. When the Bible talks about death, it's not just talking about a kind of a spiritual lofty concept.

It's talking about something concrete, real, definite. Colossians 3, since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

By earthly things, by the way, he doesn't mean enjoying the beauty of the ocean or providing for your family. By earthly things, he means primarily worldly things, things of the flesh, the things of this world.

Now, if you're consumed with the beauty of the ocean and not the beauty of the creator of the ocean, then obviously you're worldly and you're earthly. But the earthly things he mentions in the following verses, but he says, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Why? For you died. Ah, there it is again. You died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. And because you died, therefore, verse 5, put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

Because of these, the wrath of God is coming, coming on those who are disobedient. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge and the image of its creator. For you died. I'll just read you something that Hudson Taylor said about the cross, about the universality of the cross.

Hudson Taylor said, an easy, non-self-denying life will never be one of power. Fruit bearing involves cross bearing. Are you willing to abide in him and thus bear much fruit? Hudson Taylor also made it plain, saying that there are not two different kinds of crosses, you know, one for the super saint and another for the superficial saint.

No, we follow the example and pattern of Jesus. He said, we know the Lord Jesus became fruitful not by bearing the cross merely, but by dying on it. One more quote from Hudson Taylor. I'll find it later.

Better yet, buy the book and find it yourself. What does it mean to take up the cross? What does it mean to die? Most of us understand what Paul wrote in Romans 6, that it means death to sin. Death to sin.

Did you ever hear the story about the funeral? Maybe you just lost a loved one and were just at a funeral and even to make light of a funeral offends you and I don't mean to offend anyone. I'm sensitive to the fact that there's some things that you ought not to joke about.

But I heard this and there's some truth to it and that's why I'll share it. There was a man who died. He'd been a drunkard all his life, beaten his wife, abused the kids, ungodly man. And at the funeral, the minister got up and began to speak about Bob, what a wonderful family man he had been.

What a hard-working man he had been. How in spite of some of his flaws, he was a good man. The wife turned to her son and she said, could you go look in there and see who they're talking about? Let me tell you how death does change someone.

Doesn't change the inner person. That inner person will either go into the presence of God and be blessed or that person, that spiritual being, will be separated from God forever and cursed. But when someone dies, listen, if there had been a murder spree and that murderer dies, he's not going to murder anymore.

If that person had been an alcoholic for years, they're going to have another drink. When they die, they die to sin, don't they? They're not going to speak another angry word. They're not going to terrorize anybody anymore.

They're not going to break into another home. When they die, they die. When you get saved, one of the fundamental things you understand is you're being saved from sin. One of the fundamental things that you understand is that you die to sin.

In other words, sin is no longer an option in your life. That is an entry requirement. Not that you free yourself from sin in order to get saved, but you are saved in order to free yourself from sin. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.

As I taught on grace last week, one of the things I emphasize, as we often do, is Jesus saves us from our sins, not in our sins. If you say, Jesus is my Lord, remember what he said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven.

He said, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do the things that I say? When we say, Lord, Jesus, we are saying, I am yours. We are saying, I am your servant. I am your son. I am your daughter.

I am devoted to you, God. I do not live for the flesh any longer. It's not your option to go out and get drunk if you have a bad day. It's not your option to put on some steamy movie if you're a relationship with your spouse.

It's not an option. I can think back sometimes, just having a disagreement with my wife. Actually, it was one time that it happened. I remember now. It's one time, but I remember it well. I remember it so well, it feels as if it happened several times.

Now, contrary to Steve, who said that, of course, Jerry always figures out after a while. It takes a while to figure out that he was right. He was joking about that with a big smile. Somehow, I haven't had that privilege.