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[0:00] There is a story so unkind in the holy book we find, and it tells how Jesus stood along one day, fostered his American den, yet they found no fault with him.

[0:17] The man who wore the scarlet purple robe, purple robe, my savior wore, over the shame for him made him more, as he stood along forsaken on that day.

[0:33] And they clasped upon his head, hercenthal and red-stained him. His raiment was a scarlet purple robe.

[0:44] In the common judgment hall, he was mountains cornbound, and the tear of sorrow he fell upon his cheek.

[0:55] Soldiers of the wicked man, he smoldered him with her evil hand, the man who wore the scarlet purple robe.

[1:06] Words of truth that they were playing, from the lips of violent came, and his man, I find, no reason he should die.

[1:17] But the multitude replied, that him now be crucified. The man who wore the scarlet purple robe, purple robe, my savior wore, over the shame for him made him more, as he stood along forsaken on that day.

[1:39] And they clasped upon his head, hercenthal and red-stained him. His raiment was a scarlet purple robe.

[1:50] Thank you. Thank you, my nails. Have a sound, my testicle. It's not with a scratch.

[2:10] Good morning, my lord. I'll be in the New Testament this morning to book a loop. Gospel of Luke chapter 9, on the root tip for nine.

[2:26] Jesus well into his ministry here. Chapter 8, several things happen. Probably the most famous account in chapter 8 is the woman with the issue of blood, who touched the hem of Jesus's garment, and was healed.

[2:48] And I said, that's in chapter 8. Jesus also raises a young lady from the dead. In chapter 8, all these things lead up to chapter 9.

[3:00] Chapter 9, Jesus sends 12, his 12 disciples out to preach. He sends them out to preach. He gives them power to heal. He imparts them all sorts of power and commissions.

[3:16] Then go out and preach. Preach the kingdom. Preach the kingdom of God and the people, and they do this. Then we have the feeding of the 5,000. In Luke chapter 9, this is slightly different than Matthew's account.

[3:29] You can see this stuff in the book of Matthew, starting Matthew 15, going on through Matthew 16. Luke's account is just slightly different. I've explained to you all before. These are accounts of what the author did.

[3:42] They don't have to mesh absolutely perfectly. However, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, being part of the synoptic gospel, means that they do mesh, although different things, different accounts, will give different information.

[3:57] But it all points to the same man, Jesus Christ. In Luke 9, we have the disciples preaching, healing. We have the 5,000 being fed.

[4:08] That leaves us up to where we'll be preaching from this morning. A very simple message, but folks, the gospel is simple. There's no reason to complicate it. Man has complicated the gospel.

[4:21] Man has done a fine job of complicating the gospel. Do this and do that, and you can be saved. No, folks, it's already been done. Jesus Christ has done, done it.

[4:32] Plain and simple. There's nothing we can do to be saved. Jesus Christ accomplished all that we could be saved. So, you know, we can throw that out the window.

[4:44] Faith, it's been by faith from the beginning. It was by faith that Abraham done the things that he did. It was by faith Moses did the things that he did. These men were 1,500 and 2,000 years before Jesus Christ was ever born and walked this earth.

[5:00] And if it was by faith for them, I can assure you it is by faith for us. But the 5,000 are fed here in Luke chapter 9. And Jesus asked the disciples a question.

[5:12] He says, who do men say that I am? Now, Herod had already heard of Jesus. He had already heard of the miracles that were being performed.

[5:23] Already heard of the healings that have been taken place. Of the messages that were being preached and taught by Jesus Christ. And he had already heard that this could have been John the Baptist that had come back to life.

[5:36] Herod had had him beheaded. But he said this could be John the Baptist, come to home him more or less. He said it could be one of the spirits. It could be Elijah. It could be any of these people.

[5:48] Jesus asked the disciples a question. Whom say men that I am? And they told him these very same things that Herod had already heard. But Jesus asked him specifically Peter.

[5:59] He says, but whom say ye that I am? Peter says, in Matthew's account, not like his account better, he says, thou art the cross, the son of the living God. Luke shortens that just a little bit.

[6:10] But it's basically the same response. He says, thou art the cross. You're the promised one. You're the Messiah is what Peter was saying. Jesus tells them, you tell no one that this is the case.

[6:21] Don't go out and tell anybody this. He had already told them the same chapter. You go out, you preach the kingdom of God. And he tells them here toward the end of this discourse.

[6:33] He says, don't tell anyone right now that I am Messiah, that I am the cross. He didn't tell Peter that he was wrong in saying so. All he did was say, you tell no one that this is the case.

[6:45] And he goes on to tell the disciples. And Matthew's account and Luke's account both. He tells them of how he must go on to Jerusalem. And he must be given over into the hands of sinful men.

[6:57] He must be handed over to the Gentiles and to the priests and the scribes. And they must torture him. They must scourge him. They must mock him. He says, and I must be killed. But he prays God, he doesn't leave it right there.

[7:10] He says, and I must raise again the third day. And that brings us up to where we're going to be preaching from. Just a few short verses here. Matthew chapter nine starting at verse 23.

[7:22] He says, and he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it.

[7:35] But whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away?

[7:48] For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his fathers and of the holy angels.

[8:01] But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. That's all I order me right now. That one small passage of Scripture.

[8:15] Back to verse 23, he says, and he said to them all, meaning the twelve disciples, they were the only ones according to the Scriptural account, that would have been present at this time. But he says that he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

[8:35] He says to the disciples, if any man, I speak to the disciples, that the twelve which Jesus crossed himself handpicked to follow him. He handpicked them to be his disciples, picked them to follow along with him, picked him to stay up, stay out and preach the gospel, preach the kingdom to teach them the things that they needed to know.

[9:00] He handpicked these twelve, but he tells them, if any man, if any man wants to follow me, this is a call of Jesus Christ. That's going out to an entire world, via these twelve men that were going out and preaching on his behalf, preaching this kingdom of God, that have been promised from the Old Testament times, that it was going to come.

[9:21] He was saying, if any man follows after me, if any man comes after me, let him deny himself but not just deny himself one time in an altar when he's five or ten or fifteen years old.

[9:35] Let him deny himself, let him do it daily, let him take up his cross daily, and let him follow me daily. That word daily applies to everything that Jesus Christ was speaking about here.

[9:49] He says, let him deny himself both the church world is full of people now that refuse to deny themselves, they refuse to deny their pride, refuse to deny worldly pleasure, they refuse to deny self, they refuse to deny all of these things that Jesus Christ is telling them that you must deny both.

[10:14] I'm not preaching a works-based salvation. I'm saying that if you do not deny yourself, you do not take up the cross and follow Jesus, it's because you are not saved.

[10:29] Jesus Christ says, you'll do these things because you are. You'll do these things because you are saved, not to be saved. Jesus Christ saves us.

[10:41] God comes to where you are at. He sees you in your sin. He sees you down there in that filth. He sees your dead spiritual, lifeless body laying at the bottom of that cesspool and he reaches down and he picks you up and he breathes the breath of life into you.

[10:58] You can do nothing to save yourself. You can do nothing to bring you up out of that cesspool. The Bible says we are dead in our trespasses and in our sin and a dead person can do nothing for themselves.

[11:14] It took God to save you. It took God to keep you. It'll take God to get you home one of these days after a while. Hallelujah. Jesus says, if any man follows after me, let him deny himself.

[11:29] Let him take up his cross daily and let him follow me. Folks, these things must come after salvation happens. I'll give you a prime example.

[11:40] He was speaking to the twelve here, only eleven of them that I know of ever fell through with that, ever went all the way through with that. Judas Iscariot did not deny himself. Judas Iscariot had a real problem loving money.

[11:53] Judas Iscariot was the keeper of the bag. As far as the disciples went, he's the one that dispersed the money out. He's the one whenever they went somewhere, he had the bag to buy the things that they would need.

[12:07] But Judas Iscariot never lost his life with that money. Judas Iscariot never denied himself. He never took up his cross. He never fell across. And because of that, the Bible says when Judas Iscariot died, he went under his own place and that own place that he went to is a place that we know of called Hell.

[12:30] Judas Iscariot is there right now. He is there right now. People that do not deny themselves. People that do not take up the cross and follow him daily. People that do not follow him period.

[12:42] They don't do so because they are not saved. I follow Jesus Christ because I am saved. I can assure you from personal experience, I had no desire to follow Jesus Christ before I was saved.

[12:56] I had no desire for the things of God. I had no desire for the Word of God. But since I've been saved, that desire came inside. Since I've been saved, I've desired to know God deeper, to know God more intimately, to know God my Savior.

[13:12] I've desired to know these things. I've desired to take up my cross. I've desired to follow him and I had none of that desire before I was saved.

[13:24] And you didn't either. None of us had that desire. Folks, there are several things here we can picture in this short little passage of scripture. First we can picture Jesus Christ saying, take up your cross daily.

[13:39] This wouldn't have been a foreign notion to these Jews that he was speaking to. A lot of people think that crucifixion was a Jewish punishment. No, it was developed by the Romans. It was developed by a bunch of Gentiles.

[13:50] It was developed mainly for insurrectionists, but it was also used for thieves. It was also used for murderers. It was used for a whole number of people, but it was something that was developed by the Roman citizens.

[14:02] And they spent centuries perfecting this gruesome act that we call the crucifixion. When Jesus Christ told them to take up their cross and follow him, he was giving them a hint of how exactly he was going to die.

[14:17] He said, you'll take up your cross and you'll follow me. Folks, they had seen, hey, when Jesus Christ went out there on Golgotha's hill, the day that he was crucified, that hillside would have been littered with crosses.

[14:30] It would have been littered with dead bodies. It would have been littered with Roman soldiers, manning the crosses, manning the people that were hanging on him. He wasn't the only one crucified, but I can assure you that he was the only one crucified for your sin and for my sin.

[14:47] Anyone else could have hung out there on any of those crosses, and it wouldn't have meant anything. But Jesus Christ hung there, took your sin, took my sin because he loved us and because it was the Father's will that he knew so.

[15:04] This would not have been forward to these Jews. When he said, take up your cross, all these Jews, I guarantee you there are all 12 of these men, had seen men going through the streets.

[15:15] It was common, it was common that they would bear their own cross on their own shoulders, just like Christ did, just like Jesus Christ did. It wasn't just a one-time thing for Jesus Christ.

[15:26] Everybody that was crucified would bear their own cross to whatever hill, to whatever place it was going to, the Roman soldiers would have them carry their own cross. That was just a spit in their face that they had to carry their own piece of wood that they were going to be hung on to die.

[15:44] Jesus Christ was no different. He bore his own cross. Yes, he may have fell under the weight of it. Yes, it was a great load for him to bear. And yes, there was a man named Simon the Serenian that the Roman guards, you know, then had him take your cross the rest of the way for Jesus Christ, but beside all that, this notion was not foreign to these Jews.

[16:05] They would have recognized exactly what Jesus Christ was saying when he told them to bear your cross. Your cross will be different from mine, and my cross will be different from yours.

[16:17] But needless to say, every one of us born again will have a cross to bear. And it'll happen daily. You'll bear a cross daily.

[16:28] If you don't have something strong, you need to check up. If you don't have a cross of some kind to bear, you need to do some checking up. Folks, this would have pictured to these Jews something they had seen over and over again, but they would have pictured themselves.

[16:43] They would have pictured themselves. Let him take up his own cross. Let him, anyone who wanted to follow Jesus, Jesus was giving them warning here. Jesus saves, and only Jesus saves.

[16:56] I cannot and you cannot. I had the power to save myself. You had the power to save yourself. Jesus saves. But Jesus says that salvation, that Christian walk, that religion that we subscribe to, it does come with a price after salvation.

[17:15] I ain't saying to keep your salvation. God will keep you saved. God will keep me saved. We cannot keep ourselves saved. Only God can do that. Salvation is of the Lord, and the Lord is salvation.

[17:28] I'm telling you when you're born again, though, there is a load placed on you. I understand that we have rest in Jesus Christ, but I also still understand that Hebrews chapter 4 tells me there is a rest that the people of God have not partaken in yet.

[17:47] That rest is yet to come. We have work to do after we're saved, not for salvation, but because we have received salvation. Not to be saved, but because we have been saved.

[18:00] We cannot work our way into heaven, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it. Shall save it.

[18:11] Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it. What's Jesus saying there? He's saying all the things of this world. Roger brought it up and opened it up this morning. I heard my confirmation.

[18:24] All the things of this world will amount to a hill of beans. They will not amount to a hill of beans. Folks, this tells us the value of a soul.

[18:35] The value of a single soul is worth more than all the riches, all the money, all the gold, all the silver, all the precious metal, and all the precious stones that this world has to offer.

[18:47] Those are things that man has put a price on. But my God says the place where I am at, the place that I am going, the streets are paved with this.

[18:58] It is nothing more than asphalt. That's my heaven that I am promised. That's my God that promises it to me.

[19:09] The things of this world do not compare with the value of one single soul. One single soul. No wonder Jesus said the angels in heaven will rejoice over one soul, over one repenting sinner.

[19:28] They'll rejoice over that. The angels in heaven do. Why don't we do it down here when we hear of someone receiving salvation? We hear of someone gaining Jesus Christ as their Savior. Not of their own works, but of his own works, because Christ came to where they were, showed them they were the sinner, showed them they were on their way to hell, and saved their unworthy souls.

[19:48] Folks, if you think you're worthy or not, hey, if you think you deserve it, you don't. I don't deserve it. You don't deserve it. We deserve nothing more than hell.

[19:59] But Jesus Christ made a way that we wouldn't have to go there. Jesus Christ made that way that we don't have to go. He made that way on this cross at Calvary, or on A cross at Calvary.

[20:11] But He says, any man that would save his own life, save his own soul, he shall lose it. But any man that would lose his own soul or lose his own life, but that verse continues, For my sake, for my sake, he shall gain it, he shall save it.

[20:29] He says, in other words, we could lose everything we got here on this planet. I could lose my house, I could lose my car, I could lose my wife, I could lose my boys, I could lose my money, my bank account, my job, my insurance, everything.

[20:41] Everything that I know I could lose it. But if I got Jesus Christ, and if I lost it, for His name's sake, hey folks, I would gain it right back. I'll gain it back ten billion fold in the world that's to come.

[20:54] I'll gain it back in them some in that land that's promised me over there in Bula Land that we sung about not too long ago. I will gain it back as a promise straight from the lips of Jesus Christ that whatever I lose here in this world, hey, if I lose it in the name of Jesus Christ or for the sake of Jesus Christ, all is still well because I have promised much better things to come. Hallelujah.

[21:21] Oh, this is the price of a soul. It's the price of a soul. It's worth more that everything on this world, everything in this world, the price or the value of one human soul.

[21:36] It is worth more than all of this. For us, a man advantaged if he gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away. What are we advantaged if we gain the whole world? So many people out there, men, women, children, everyone, everyone.

[21:52] Y'all hear me talk a lot about conditioning. We've been conditioned to think that the more we have, the better off we are or the better off we will be.

[22:03] There are celebrities every year that kill ourselves. I'm talking about people with five homes, multimillion dollar homes, people with multimillion dollar bank accounts.

[22:15] People with all the money and all the possessions, all the men, all the women that you could dream of. They kill themselves. Why is that? Because they have no joy.

[22:26] Because they don't have a cross to take up. Because they don't follow him. Because they don't have Jesus Christ the Savior. That's why they don't have any reason to live. But they thought that they could find that happiness.

[22:39] They thought that they could find that joy in the world, in the drugs, in the alcohol, in the men and the women, in the money. Folks, the happiness is not there. It seems like the more money we get, the more miserable we are.

[22:52] Me and Roger and Orville was talking about that. And Dan was talking about back in the vestibule before the service, the smart and how the Israelites, when they were coming through the wilderness and they wanded about the manna, they wanded about what it tasted like and what it felt like and the texture of it.

[23:09] They wanded about everything about that manna. They said, sure, we've got this bread, but we'd like to have some flesh too, Lord. And the Lord said, I'll give you so much flesh. I'll give you so much quail that it will come out your nose.

[23:21] You will never want this meat again. And that's exactly what he did. Don't believe me? Read the book of Numbers. Then turn over to Psalms and read it.

[23:32] They made an impression with folks. The book of Numbers was 1500 years before Jesus. Most of the Psalms were written about a thousand years before Jesus. 500 years later, they were still talking about how God gave so much quail that it made the Israelites sick.

[23:49] Do you know why he did that? Because they wind and they mung and they murmured and they were not content with what God had blessed them with. He had blessed them with angels food. It was angels food according to the scripture.

[24:04] That's what the scripture calls it. It calls it the bread of angels. Angels food. He had blessed a bunch of human beings with something that was meant for the divine.

[24:16] He had blessed them with that and they wind about it. How often do we wind about what we have? How often do we wind about what we don't have? That's what brought up that whole conversation this morning.

[24:27] I'm not going to be preaching this morning. It was all just kind of falling together. Praise God, that was my confirmation. This is what I was supposed to preach. But, folks, we wind about so many different things.

[24:39] What is a man? What is a man advantaged if he gained the whole world and lose himself? Or be cast away? What does it mean to be cast away? We're talking about being cast away from God.

[24:52] The same way that Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, they were cast out of a perfect place that God had created for them. Now, listen, He had created a perfect world. The entire earth was perfect.

[25:03] Hey, God, God at the end of the creation, He looked down and said that everything was good. There wasn't one single thing on this planet that God did not name as good. So therefore, if it came from God, God designed it, God wanted it that way.

[25:17] It was from God. I can assure you that it was a perfect world. And it was a perfect garden that He had placed Adam and Eve in, and Adam and Eve were perfect people. Because they were created exactly in the image of an Almighty God.

[25:31] They had to have been perfect, but sin creeped in. Sin came in on the scene and ruined it not only for Adam and Eve, but ruined it for the rest of us, ruined it for every child and grandchild and great-grandchild and great-great-grandchild.

[25:45] Hone down the line from Adam and Eve, ruined it for all those but folks, we cannot point a finger back to Adam and Eve. And the Bible says that the scripture has concluded all under sin.

[25:56] That includes you, that includes me. Hey, even if Adam and Eve hadn't of sinned, hey, it would have found its way. It would have worked its way into the human race one way or another. You are simple by nature just as I am simple by nature.

[26:10] But both when we get saved, hey, the nature, it changes. Yes, we keep our sin nature, but there's a new man that moves in. He moves in on the inside.

[26:21] He teaches us. He guides us. He shows us the things and the will of God. So what is it gained? What is it advantaged?

[26:32] If a man gains the whole world, loses his own soul, or is cast out, it gains nothing. It gains nothing. Folks, listen to the things in this world are temporal.

[26:44] The things in this world will not last. My Bible says they're going to burn up in a fervent heat one day. This entire world, everything that you possess, your home, your possessions, your car, your money, everything that you own, your debit card that you carry around with you, your credit card that you carry around with you, everything that we have will burn up in this day one day after a while.

[27:08] It's basically the young creation of the creation. God is going to burn this world up one of these days. And the Bible backs it up throughout the Scriptures. It backs it up that He will burn up this world.

[27:20] But hey, that's not the end of everything. The Bible also talks about, hey, there's a new Jerusalem that's going to descend out of the heavens. And in that new Jerusalem, hey, my King Jesus Christ is going to be there.

[27:32] He's going to be the glory of that city. There will be no need of the sun there. There will be no need of the moon there. There will be no need of any other source of light because His glory will be the light thereof.

[27:46] That's my kingdom that God has promised. That's my Jesus that made that promise possible for me to obtain it. Not that I obtained it by myself. Jesus obtained it for me.

[27:57] So in other words, it will gain you nothing. It will profit you nothing. It will advantage you nothing to gain this world and lose your own soul.

[28:08] Or to be cast out when we are cast out. We are cast out into our outer darkness. We are cast out into hell. We are cast out into a bottomless pit where there is weeping, where there is wailing, where there is gnashing of teeth.

[28:20] We are cast out. Hey, that's not even the worst part of it. That's not the worst part of hell. The other is going to be flamed. Hey, the Bible says that hell is cast into the lake of fire. You think it was bad before? Wait till it's cast into the lake of fire.

[28:33] It says that the sea gave up their dead and depth in hell. They were brought up and they were both cast into the lake of fire. Most of you think hell is bad right now. Wait until that day when God cast hell itself into the lake of fire.

[28:46] But that is not even the worst part of hell or the lake of fire. The worst part is that it is a crossless place. It is a hopeless place. We will never get out of it if we descend into it.

[29:01] You can't be prayed out. You can't be wished out. You can't be bawled out. None of those things. It is forever. It is eternal. It is the second death according to the Scriptures.

[29:14] And there is no escape from the second death. There is no escape from the second death. I don't care what they taught you in what churches or in what commentaries or in what study Bibles you might have.

[29:27] There is no such thing as a purgatory. There is no such thing as a midtown and an uptown and a downtown. You go to one of two places. You go to heaven or you go to hell.

[29:38] The Bible says that rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Hey, don't give any kind of in-between place there. It doesn't give a bit of in-between place.

[29:49] Look at the account of the rich man who Lazarus. It doesn't say that the rich man went somewhere for a pit stop before he reached hell. It says that the rich man died and in hell he lifted his eyes being in torment.

[30:01] There was no pit stop. There was no break. There was no second chance that rich man is burning in hell this very day. That's what it is to be cast out. No hope. No hope once we are cast out.

[30:19] No hope for any kind of resurrection to life. There will be a resurrection unto death. The Bible backs it up. That death is everlasting.

[30:30] You will die forever and never truly die. You will be in a perpetual state of dying and torment if we go to hell.

[30:41] I ain't doing praise, God. Praise God. God done made a way. God done given me that way. For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory. And pay attention to this.

[30:56] He mentions three glories right here. He shall come in his own glory, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, and of the fathers, and of the holy angels.

[31:07] Three different glories that he's mentioning there. But what does he say right before that? Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, Jesus Christ, of the Son of Man, and of my word.

[31:20] How often are we ashamed of Jesus Christ? How often do we know we should have witnessed? How often somebody badmouthed us and we should have just told them in the name of Jesus Christ, I love you, and we didn't do it?

[31:34] That's being ashamed of Jesus. That's being ashamed of his words. He said to love thy neighbor, did he not? The father said in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ reiterated in the New Testament, there ain't no getting away from it. How often do we not do that?

[31:49] How often do we say, well, I know what I should say, but they might get offended. They might get offended. I might hurt their feelings. So be it. Folks, listen to me. The gospel hurts your feelings. It hurts my feelings.

[32:03] It still hurts my feelings, and I'm a born-again child of God. It gets on my toes sometimes. It will. It'll get inside there. It'll dig around. Sometimes it'll land its heel right on top of my toes, and it'll ground them in.

[32:17] But folks, it is there for my benefit. It is there to do that because that's what Almighty God intended for it to do at that particular time in my life.

[32:28] How often are we ashamed of the word of Jesus Christ? How often are we ashamed of Jesus Christ himself? How often do we say, no, I ain't gonna say nothing about the Bible. I ain't gonna say nothing about praying for this person.

[32:39] I'm gonna go tell them that I'm praying for them because it might get on their nerves. Because I know how they're gonna react. That is being ashamed of Jesus Christ. Praise God, Paul said, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[32:53] For it is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. He wasn't ashamed. Why would we be? I'll tell you why.

[33:04] Because Paul got his head chopped off. Isaiah, a Old Testament prophet, he was sold in half. He was laid in the log and sold in half lengthwise. Not this way, but this way.

[33:21] Every one of the disciples, saved Judas Iscariot, were murdered. Stephen was the first murderer for Jesus Christ. He was stoned to death. We read stories like that and we get afraid.

[33:33] And folks, listen, I ain't even talking about people stoning you or stoning me. I'm talking about people making fun of us, mocking us. Well, God forbid. God forbid that happened. Good thing they didn't mock my Savior.

[33:46] Good thing he didn't take my shame upon him as the Bible says that it did. Shame on us for having that attitude. Shame on us. He took my shame. He took my guilt. He took my sin.

[33:59] He took every bad, filthy, rotten thing about me on that cross with him. He bore that cross up Calvary Hill and he had himself hung upon that cross.

[34:10] He wasn't murdered. He gave himself over. He gave himself over to be a sacrifice. We can call it murder all we want to. We can say the Romans killed him all we want to. And we can scream that the Jews yelled for him to be killed all we want to.

[34:25] Listen, all those things are true in their own respect, but when it all boils down inside one small, neat, little compact nutshell, Jesus Christ gave himself. He could have called down legions of angels to put an end to it at any time that he wanted.

[34:42] He could have put an end to it himself, but he didn't. He suffered once. He suffered for all one time that he could go to the holy of holies into the Father, present the blood of his sacrifice as an atonement for me and for you.

[34:58] What is the value of his soul? That's what it is. It's the cost of the blood of my Savior Jesus Christ. It was the cost of his suffering.

[35:09] That's the value of his soul. That's the value of my soul. That's why I can praise him for saving me. One, I couldn't do it myself. Two, he didn't have to do it. He did it because he wanted to.

[35:22] He did it because that was the will of the Father, was that me being cast out, being cast off, being cast away, I could be reconciled back to the Father. I was cast out just as much as Adam and Eve were cast out.

[35:34] You were cast out just as much as they were cast out, but Christ made a way that we could be reconciled back to our maker. Why do we have need to be reconciled? Because those that aren't are the enemies of God.

[35:49] Friendship with the world is enmity with God. James says that. James chapter four says, No, you're not. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Those that be a friend of the world are the enemies of God.

[36:03] Folks, there ain't no wiggle room there. There ain't no ifs, ands, or buts. If we're either a friend of the world or like Abraham, we're a friend of God. I'd much rather be a friend of God as being a friend of the world and have God as my enemy. I was once God's enemy and he was once my enemy.

[36:19] I praise God. I'm on his side now. Once again, not because of anything I did, but because of everything that he done. Whosoever should be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his fathers and of the holy angels. If I tell you the truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God.

[36:44] This was 2,000 years ago that Jesus Christ spoke these words you ever take. There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God.

[36:57] And they'll see it coming in its glory. Who's 2,000 years old right now? Nobody. What was he speaking about? This is more teaching time. What was he speaking about? He was speaking about what Peter saw it.

[37:16] Peter, James, and John saw it. You go on to the next chapter here in Luke. You just continue with the account in the book of Matthew and you'll see who saw it. No, you continue with the account in Luke. I'm sorry, you continue to the next chapter in Matthew.

[37:30] You'll see who saw it. Peter, James, and John, the Mount of Transfiguration, it's called in the Scripture. It's a very next account. Matthew says it was six days later. Luke says it was eight days later. Who cares how many days later it was?

[37:46] Luke was a Gentile when all this stuff was going on. He could have cared less about Jesus Christ or anything. He was a converted Gentile. He wrote it years after Jesus Christ had done, been killed, buried, resurrected, and ascended to the Father.

[37:59] He could have cared less about any of this as it was going on. He wrote it many years after. But you read about this place called the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus Christ goes up, he goes to pray.

[38:11] He takes Peter, James, and John with him and God and His mercy, called it a heavy sleep to follow Peter, James, and John. They're basically comatose to do what? To protect Him, to hide Him from the glory of Jesus Christ.

[38:26] Jesus Christ met with Moses there, met with Elijah there, and they spoke about His decease, the Bible says. They spoke about the death that Jesus Christ was going to accomplish there.

[38:38] Moses representing the law, Elijah representing the prophets. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of that. He was speaking about His decease, His death with the man that represented the law and the man that represented the prophets, meaning that the law and the prophets and everything that pertained to it was going to die right along with it.

[39:02] There was going to be new life resurrected in what we call the gospel of Jesus Christ. I ain't saying ignore your Old Testament. I ain't saying ignore Exodus chapter 20, where the Ten Commandments are given.

[39:14] I'm not saying ignore all the prophets and Psalms and all these other things. I'm not saying that at all. But the Bible says Jesus Christ was the end of the law, under salvation.

[39:26] That's what Paul wrote in the New Testament, and I can promise you, I'll take Paul's word for it, being inspired by the Holy Ghost of God. Christ is the end of the law, under salvation. He's the end of it.

[39:40] So when he says there'll be some standing here, you turn over to 2 Peter chapter 1. I believe it's, I ain't even going to venture to say which verse it is right now, but I know it's in the first chapter of 2 Peter.

[39:53] He says, he says, I saw it. I saw the glory of God. I saw Jesus Christ in His glory. He says, we saw Him, we saw Him on the holy mount, meaning the mount of transfiguration, which is brought up directly after this.

[40:06] That's what the folks, I have heard some of the most garbage theological things of what Jesus Christ meant when he said there'll be some standing here. It shall not taste of death before you see the kingdom of God.

[40:17] Some people will say, well, that meant that the people that were to be converted, they needed to be converted so that they could see the kingdom of God come forth. That ain't the case. That didn't happen with me when I got converted. It didn't happen with you when you got converted.

[40:30] I didn't see anything. You know what I saw right before I got converted? Me, sinful, black, filthy in front of God Almighty.

[40:43] That's what I saw. That's what you saw too. You know what I saw after I got converted? I really couldn't tell you. I just know I'd come up with something I didn't have before. I knew I'd come up a new man. I knew I'd come up a new creature cleaning the blood of Jesus Christ.

[40:58] I knew I'd come up with salvation. I was saved. I was born again at that point, but I did not see any angels. I didn't see the glory of God. I didn't see any of those things. So that argument does not hold water either.

[41:13] Let the Bible explain itself. Peter explains it. Second Peter chapter one, read it for yourself sometime. He explains what Jesus Christ meant when he said there'll be some standing here. It shall not taste of death.

[41:26] Those some standing there was Peter, James and John. They would have been standing there. The twelve were there. Unfortunately, there was one other disciple there, Judas Iscariot. He heard the same message.

[41:39] He heard the same message, heard the same words, and heard that he had to deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Jesus Christ.

[41:50] He heard the message that Jesus Christ preached before this when Jesus was preaching repentance. He heard the other disciples preaching repentance because Christ sent them out to preach repentance.

[42:02] Judas Iscariot preached it himself because he was sent to do so, but he never denied himself. He never took up his cross and he never followed Jesus. Folks, if you ain't doing that, it's not because you're tired.

[42:18] It's not because you're lazy. It's because you are not saved. Jesus is describing safe people here. He's describing people that were born again, that were born again, those disciples he was speaking to.

[42:37] Hey, listen, they hadn't even been converted at this point. He told Peter later on in the Scriptures. He told Peter, he said, when thou art converted, strengthen the brethren.

[42:49] That was very far before his crucifixion. Peter had been walking around with them for over three years at that point. He told Peter, he said, Satan hath desired to have you, to sift you as wheat.

[43:05] He said, but I prayed for you, Peter. I prayed for you and when thou art converted, strengthen the brethren. He prayed for Peter. Folks, he prayed for me. If you're born again, he prayed for you.

[43:19] Read John 17, if you don't believe me. That entire prayer was for you if you're born again. It was for me being born again. He's talking to the Father in John 17.

[43:30] He's talking about those that the Father has given him. Hey, the Father didn't give him the lost. He didn't give him those that were astray or what have those have yet to come to him.

[43:41] He was talking about those that are born again, those that have been sanctified, those that have been set aside, those that have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. That's who he was talking about. And praise God, I'm one of them. If you're not, you can't deny yourself.

[43:57] If you're not, you can't take up your cross. If you can't, if you're not, you cannot follow him. You might try. Judas done it. Judas followed him around, preached, done all kinds of things.

[44:12] But he was not one of Christ. He was not one. Even though he was handpicked by Jesus Christ, the Bible says he was handpicked, the scripture might be fulfilled.

[44:23] That don't sit well with some people. I'll be honest with you, really and truly, sometimes it don't sit well with me when I really get to thinking about it. But the Bible says what it says. And God is who he is, and he don't need my permission to do anything that he does.

[44:40] He is completely sovereign. Folks, deny yourself. Pick up your cross daily. If you're born again, do this. If you're not born again, you can do that to your blood.

[44:53] And the face of the dead will get you to heaven. You deny yourself all day long. But the price of your soul, the price of your soul is worth more than this entire world.

[45:04] In all the metals, in all the money, in all the dirt, all the materials, all the people, it is worth more than that. The price of our soul was worth more than all that.

[45:15] We can't comprehend that. We can't comprehend that because we know the value that man has placed on the goods of this world. It's placed on the oars and the stones and everything else that we find in this world.

[45:29] What makes something considered to be precious? It's rarity. That's what makes it precious. Pure gold is much more valuable than raw gold is.

[45:46] Why? Because raw gold has impurities in it. But once you refine it down, once you bring it up to a certain temperature, you melt it down, you take out a little ladle, that little screen, you run it across the top of it, you get that dross off of it.

[46:00] The more you do that, the more impurities you're getting out of it. The more impurities you get out naturally, the more impurity is. Our lives are the same way. God's got to turn the heat up on us. He's got to turn the heat up. He's got to run that ladle or a stage or whatever you want to call it across the top of it.

[46:21] Get them impurities off. Why does he do that? Not because he hates us. He don't do it because he likes to watch us suffer. He does it because we're impure. And the whole point of being a Christian is to walk cross-lock. The whole point of having the Spirit is that we can walk in the Spirit.

[46:36] And if we're walking in the Spirit, you better believe God doesn't expect us to have any more impurities about us than we could possibly have. So he'll scrape them off his cell. Sometimes he'll turn the heat up. Sometimes it's like a scab. He'll just scrape it off.

[46:52] Either way, he'll get them impurities off of you. Again, folks, now reiterate it. If you didn't do these things, it's because you ain't saved. No way Sandra but about it. That's what the Bible teaches. That's what Christ taught. That's what taught in the Old Testament.

[47:10] That's what taught in the New Testament. And it goes on. I didn't write it. And I'm not interpreting it for you. I'm telling you what the Bible says. And I'm teaching you what the Bible says. And hopefully I preach just a little bit on what the Bible says.

[47:24] Godly people will act in a godly manner. We can't be surprised when we see murder, when we see suicide, when we see drug use, when we see alcoholism. We can't be surprised when we see these things. Why? Because heathens have always acted like heathens and they will always act like heathens.

[47:41] They will always act like pagans. They will do what pagans do. But godly people don't act in that manner. They do not act in that manner. That's the difference between light and dark. That's the difference between saved and lost. That's the difference between sheep and goats.

[47:57] We've met through 25. That's the difference between those that will be on the left and those that will be on the right. If you ain't acting like that, it's because you don't have it.